Bio-pic with more than a catch or two
REBEL IN THE RYE
(12, 109 mins)
Danny Strong
Nicholas Hoult, Kevin Spacey, Zoey Deutch
On Video on Demand
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
★★★★✩
(15, 101 mins)
Eliza Hittman
Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder Streaming on digital platforms
THE SHED
★★★✩✩
(15, 94 mins)
Frank Sabatella
Jay Jay Warren, Cody Kostro Streaming on digital platforms
H★★✩✩✩
OW LONG is too soon for a Kevin Spacey comeback? Judging by the very understated marketing campaign for
I suspect this one is still very much up for debate.
This clumsily titled biopic of Catcher In The Rye writer JD Salinger was released in US cinemas back in September 2017, shortly before the actor became the subject of a series of sexual assault allegations (all of which he denies).
Now Spacey’s old films are returning to TV, it is quietly surfacing over here on Video On Demand.
If you can put those allegations to one side, there is much to admire in his portrayal as Whit Burnett, Salinger’s mentor, teacher, and first publisher.
The film begins in 1939 as a young Salinger (Nicholas Hoult) begins studying creative writing under Burnett at Columbia University in New York.
It goes on to cover his life-changing experiences fighting in the Secondworld War, his romance with socialite Oona O’neill (Zoey Deutch), his struggles to get the novel published and the events leading to decades living as a recluse. But the heart of the story involves his relationship with Burnett.
It’s his idea for Salinger to give Holden Caulfield, the anti-hero from his early short stories, his own novel.
Burnett, who never realised his own literary ambitions, also provides Salinger with the emotional support JD was never going to get from his bitter father.
But when he fails to secure a publishing deal for a collection of Salinger’s stories, he cruelly abandons him.
The film’s best shot arrives late. Salinger, now a world famous writer and the voice of disaffected youth, watches the old man walk into the distance after a brief, very awkward reunion. He’s about to shout after him, but checks himself, unable or perhaps unwilling to give their story a “phony” Hollywood ending.
In a better film this could have been heart-breaking. Here it barely registers.
Writer-director Danny Strong, working off Kenneth Slawenski’s biography, definitely struggles with the age-old problem of writing being a singularly uncinematic profession.
While there are definitely too many shots of Hoult hunched over a typewriter, the script’s greatest problem is its failure to get under Salinger’s skin.
Hoult, who went on to play JRR Tolkien in another literary biopic, gives his all but his hero is very hard to relate to. He just comes across as selfish, conceited and wilfully cruel.
If we got a sense of his genius, we may have been able to cut him some slack, but we never hear any of his writing or see any of it dramatised. As Salinger and his estate have always refused to sell the film rights to Catcher In The Rye, this could be a legal reason. Strong, who assumes prior knowledge of the novel, instead focuses on similarities between the author and Caulfield.
I, like millions others, enjoyed Caulfield tremendously as a teenager but he has faded from my memory over the decades. This film hasn’t inspired a reunion. Scenes where a screenwriter is forced to explain a film’s title are always painful and is the exception that proves the rule. Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), a 17-yearold supermarket cashier from rural Pennsylvania, is in an abortion clinic in New York where a health worker is asking her questions about her relationship with the baby’s father.to avoid yes and no answers, she can only reply with never, rarely, sometimes or always.
Until now, we have no idea why Autumn is so troubled, but her replies and, more importantly, the way she replies, are heart-breaking.writer-director Eliza Hittman makes us care by making us believe in her.
For most of the film, she is with her cousin and best friend Skylar (Talia Ryder) who, as abortion is illegal in their state, accompanies her to New York.
When the operation turns out to be more expensive than they expected, they are forced to hustle their bus fares home on the streets of Manhattan.
This is one of those hyper-realistic dramas where people rarely say what they are feeling.to work them out, we have to make do with mournful gazes, pregnant pauses and, in one scene, a very telling song choice at karaoke.
If you like high school movies and love vampires, dive into
In this US comedy horror, bullied teenager Stan (Jay Jaywarren) has a secret weapon – a ravenous bloodsucker who has holed up in his garden shed. “If anything kinda jumps out at you, let me know,” says Siobhan Fallon Hogan’s sheriff, quizzing Stan about the disappearance of his abusive grandfather.
I would have liked one more plot twist before the blood-splattered finale, but I appreciated writer-director Frank Sabatella’s knack for balancing gore with comedy.