Stick the boot into Fergie? They wouldn’t dare!
YOU don’t need to support Manchester United — and I very much don’t — to stand in awe of the astounding career of Sir Alex Ferguson. Had he been in the dugout, instead of watching rheumy-eyed from the stands, then United would surely not have lost their European final on Wednesday night.
Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In (★★★★I) is an admiring documentary directed by the great man’s son, Jason. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t ever stick the boot in, as Fergie sometimes did to his players. Literally so, in one notorious episode involving David Beckham.
But for all that, it’s a hugely watchable and moving film, which uses Ferguson’s recent recovery from a brain haemorrhage and terror of losing his memory as the stem of the narrative, around which colourful reminiscences from him and others are entwined.
It’s easily forgotten that had Fergie’s career ended before he joined United, he would still belong to the pantheon of high-achieving British managers, having broken the Rangers-Celtic duopoly when guiding unfashionable Aberdeen to Scottish and European glory.
So this film is a useful reminder, to the extent that United doesn’t even enter the story until 53 minutes in, by which time we have also learnt how his firebrand socialism, ferocious temper and will to win were all forged in the Clyde
shipyards, long before he managed the Red Devils.
Speaking of which, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (★★★★✩) is a slick and scary addition to the Conjuring franchise, again starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. It’s based on an actual case — a 1981 murder trial in which the defendant claimed satanic possession as a defence — and it does everything that a good horror film should. In fact I’ll come clean; at screenings I always sit at the back because I don’t want my fellow film critics to see me jump.
Surge (★★★✩✩) is a sad, intense drama about a meek airport security man, Joseph, brilliantly played by Ben Whishaw, who has a nervous breakdown and goes on a mad crime spree in London.
It’s the feature-length debut of director Aneil Karia, who uses jumpy, restless camerawork to convey Joseph’s mental turmoil. It’s well done, with typically strong support from Ellie Haddington as Joseph’s anguished mother, but it’s not an easy watch. Nor is it meant to be.
■ All films in cinemas, but Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In for today only.