ALSO SHOWING
1917 (15)
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Winner of best drama and best director at the Golden Globes and now nominated for 10 Oscars, Sam Mendes’ new film builds on a story his soldier grandfather told him about fighting on the Western Front and expands it into a race-againsttime action film about the fragility of human life.
Set in Northern France over the course of a few frantic hours, the film follows a pair of soldiers tasked with delivering an urgent message to a British battalion about to walk into a German trap and Mendes reinforces the urgency of the theme by shooting the movie in two simulated single takes divided by a midpoint blackout that allows the film to transition from daylight to pre-dawn the following day.
It’s a technique that was used brilliantly in Birdman a few years ago, though Mendes – who road-tested the single-take action sequence with the opening scene of Spectre – arguably sets himself, co-writer Krysty Wilsoncairns and genius cinematographer Roger Deakins a bigger challenge by having this story take place almost entirely outdoors with protagonists negotiating the ravaged landscape of war-torn France.
Appropriately enough, it wastes no time plunging us into the horrors of war – not with a big battle scene, but with its eerie aftermath as two lance corporals (Dean-charles Chapman and George Mackay) are ordered to travel across no-man’s land and behind enemy lines to deliver crucial intel to British forces who think they’ve got the enemy on the run. In lieu of a visible enemy, Mendes ratchets up the tension by having the valour-seeking Blake and the Somme-scarred Schofield learn quickly that barbed wire and rats might prove just as fatal as gunfire if they’re not careful. Though the second half ’s somewhat theatrical transition into more mythic territory isn’t quite as gripping, as the film pushes on towards its Gallipolilike climax, the tension returns and Mendes pitches the ending just right, capturing the shellshocked emotional toll of war on those all too familiar with its devastating impact. With Andrew Scott, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Uncut Gems (15)
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Outstripping 1917 for sheer nervejangling tension, this latest arthouse thriller from New York auteurs Josh and Bennie Safdie (Good Time) stars Adam Sandler as a diamond dealer on a chaotic downward spiral as he tries to pull off the deal of his life (it involves selling an uncut black opal he’s imported from an unregulated Ethiopian mine). A compulsive gambler who seemingly spends every waking second making deals to offset his debts, the film zeroes in on a few days of his life as he negotiates the imminent implosion of his marriage, the stress of his relationship with his much younger mistress, the debt collectors that are starting to demand payment in ever more violent ways, and his own inability to stop himself making crazy bets on the basketball play-offs. The end result is frantic but carefully constructed filmmaking, full of little details that have big payoffs later on and brilliant central performance from Sandler.
Seberg (15)
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Given that Jean Seberg’s life and tragic demise was bound up with a despicable campaign by the FBI to “neutralise” her for her affiliations with the Black Panthers, one might think that a movie about the systematic destruction of the woman who became the poster girl for the French New Wave would make for an intriguing exploration of the crossover between the entertainment industry and the political unrest of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Sadly, despite a fine performance from Kristen Stewart in the lead, this misses the mark by turning her story into a two-hander focusing both on her radical chic affiliations and the fictionalised FBI agent (Jack O’connell) whose conscience is awakened by the detrimental effect his surveillance work has on her. ■