War’s horror meets movie extravagance
1917 ★★★★✩
(Cert 15, 119 minutes)
Director: Sam Mendes
Stars: George Mackay, Dean-charles Chapman, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch
UNCUT GEMS
★★★★✩
(Cert 15, 135 minutes)
Directors: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie Stars: Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield, Judd Hirsch
SEBERG
★★★✩✩
(Cert 15, 102 minutes)
Director: Benedict Andrews
Stars: Kristen Stewart, Jack O’connell, Vince Vaughn, Anthony Mackie
FILM criticism, as I’m regularly forced to point out, shouldn’t be taken too seriously. My opinions are more worthwhile than yours (obviously), but even I must admit that my personal tastes and nasty prejudices are involved in the bestowing of my highly coveted stars.
So I’m always fascinated to hear what my fellow film lovers think are the best movies of the year.this year, I even found myself taking a passing interest in what free “awards DVDS” the “entertainment industry” bigwigs who can afford a £450 annual Bafta membership enjoyed checking out over the festive period.
Outrageously, there were no black faces in the acting nominations (Eddie Murphy probably deserved a shout for Dolemite Is My Name) but I can see why Sam Mendes’s 1917 kept them watching through turkey and booze-fuelled fugues.
The film, which won a Golden Globe last week, is a pretty relentless affair that grabs you from its opening shot.what really gets you is how long it goes on for. Mendes’s gimmick is to shoot the entire shebang as if it’s one uninterrupted shot, a trick he developed in the four-minute prologue to Bond movie Spectre.
There is only one obvious cut between the recently knighted director’s impossibly long takes (the rest are cleverly hidden), but it’s such an immersive experience we give up looking for the joins.
We begin the film elbowing our way through the trenches of the Firstworldwar with corporals Schofield (George Mackay) and Blake (Dean-charles Chapman).
They have been summoned to a meeting where Colin Firth’s General Erinmore tasks them with what sounds like a suicide mission.the Hun, he assures them, fled their trenches overnight to prepare to ambush another British unit.as all communication lines have been cut, Schofield and Blake must cross No Man’s Land to deliver a message to Benedict Cumberbatch’s colonel, ordering him to call off a doomed attack.
The early scenes are gruesome but compelling, as our two heroes clamber over blasted corpses, tangle with booby traps and, in an astonishing sequence, are nearly blown to pieces as a burning German bomber falls out of the sky.
But as the set-pieces begin to pile up, the emotional impact starts to tail off. By the final act, the thrills are beginning to feel a little superficial – the camerawork serving the spectacle rather than the characters.and as Mendes’s thoughts on the conflict don’t extend beyond the usual “war is hell”, it doesn’t work the brain much either.
But technically, this is an astonishing achievement. Pay to watch it on the big screen and it will be a truly transportive experience. You’ll appreciate the sacrifices of a generation and give thanks you weren’t alive to experience them for yourself.
Despite the best efforts of Netflix, Uncut Gems didn’t impress the highflying and, allegedly, virulently racist Bafta voters. Perhaps they shouldn’t have put Adam Sandler on the awards DVD.
But this isn’t a lazy comedy; it’s an actor’s movie which forces fart gag specialist Sandler to step out of his comfort zone to play motor-mouthed New York jeweller Howard Ratner.
The action takes place over two heart-pounding days as Howard takes a series of increasingly reckless gambles in a bid to pay off a loan shark.
As in Good Time, the previous film directed by the Safdie brothers, this involves a series of bizarre adventures that raise the tension to almost unbearable levels. Howard is immoral, dishonest and his own worst enemy. But somehow Sandler makes us root for him. It’s a hard film to enjoy, but Sandler keeps us watching with a nuanced performance that has earned him nominations for several Critics Circleawards.then again, what do they know?
Kristen Stewart is another fine actor but she doesn’t convince in Seberg. I’m guessing not enough of us remember
Jean Seberg, the tragic US actress who became an icon of the French Newwave thanks to Jean-luc Godard’s Breathless.
But we don’t need any prior knowledge to watch Benedict Andrews’s film which plays more like an espionage drama than a standard Hollywood biopic.
It’s 1968 and the half-remembered movie star (Stewart) arrives home to star in a musicalwestern.the trouble starts on the runway as Jean decides to give a
Black Panther salute to the press with a group of civil rights activists she met on the plane.this immediately attracts the attention of J Edgar Hoover’s FBI.
When she starts an affair with Malcolm X acolyte Hakim Jamal (Anthony
Mackie) she moves to the top of his hit list with the two agents played byvince Vaughn (ruthless) and Jack O’connell (conflicted) tasked with bugging her house and smearing her reputation.
The cinematography and costumes are eyecatching but Stewart can’t quite sell her naivety.
Giving O’connell’s agent so much screen time feels like a mistake too.
If Andrews had kept the FBI in the shadows, he could have powered this tragic true story with paranoia.