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PICK OF THIS WEEK’S FILMS
THE INVISIBLE MAN (15)
What you can’t see might kill you in an ingeniously executed horror thriller from writerdirector Leigh Whannell, inspired by the 1897 HG Wells novel of the same title. Reset to present-day San Francisco in the shadow of Silicon Valley, The Invisible Man is a two-hour masterclass in sustained nerve-jangling tension, which cleverly frames each shot so characters hover in the corner of the frame and our eyes are drawn to open spaces where an unseen predator could be lurking.
DARK WATERS (12A)
A legal battle lasting more than 20 years exposes shady business practices and corporate greed in Dark Waters. Director
Todd Haynes’s slow-burning thriller details the ripple effect of a cover-up in 1970s West Virginia, which impacts almost every living creature on the planet. Screenwriters Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan infuse a conventional David versus Goliath tussle resulting in the inevitable courtroom showdown to a stress-ravaged, crusading defence attorney (Mark Ruffalo), who careens at sickening speed towards a physical breakdown in his pursuit of justice.
DOWNHILL (15)
In 2014, Ruben Ostlund directed the Swedish comedy drama Force Majeure about a picture-perfect family of four whose lives are torn apart by a near brush with death during a skiing holiday. Writer-directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash oversee an unnecessary English language remake, which jettisons most of the discomfort and subtlety of the original in favour of broad humour and a powerhouse performance from Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a doting wife who cannot stomach her husband’s refusal to acknowledge his cowardice.
GREED (15)
Michael Winterbottom sharpens claws to scratch out the eyes of modern-day capitalism in a glossy satire of bloated, bullying haves and much abused have-nots. Greed is a swingeing work of gallowshumoured fiction – any similarity to a real-life titan of retail is unintentional – that doesn’t always draw blood. Steve Coogan chews scenery with a maniacal glint in his eye as the arrogant billionaire, who vaunts profits ahead of personal relationships and eventually reaps the acrid fruit he sows under the impossibly blue skies of a sun-baked Greek island.
THE CALL OF THE WILD (PG)
Jack London’s 1903 short story The Call Of The Wild reframes the author’s experiences of the 1896 Klondike Gold Rush through the eyes of a St Bernard-Scotch Collie mix named Buck. Director Chris Sanders and screenwriter Michael Green domesticate the unflinching brutality of the novella for family audiences, house-training a rollicking outdoor odyssey which bares its fangs but seldom bites. Harrison Ford casts a warm, avuncular glow and forges an endearing partnership with his photo-realistic computer-generated co-star. Sanders’s picture pans for its own riches and extracts small gleaming nuggets of heart-warming drama.
PARASITE (15)
Writer-director Bong Joon-ho mines a mother lode of deliciously cruel intentions in his wickedly entertaining, genre-bending satire, which won Best Picture at the Oscars – the first foreign film to do so. Careening wildly from slapstick and scabrous social commentary to full-blooded horror, Parasite gleefully inhabits the cavernous divide between South Korea’s haves and have-nots. The script lulls us into a false sense of security with a gently paced yet engrossing opening hour before Joon-ho tightens the screws on his desperate characters, setting in motion a jaw-dropping second act that leaves our nerves in tatters. The film-maker dissipates tension with staccato bursts of ghoulish humour but belly laughs are soaked with bile.