The Herald - The Herald Magazine
PICK OF THIS WEEK’S FILMS
SLAUGHTERHOUSE RULEZ (15) PETERLOO (12A)
There are few tricks and no treats in writerdirector Crispian Mills’s painfully outdated horror comedy set at an elite seat of learning for future prime pinisters in leafy Gloucestershire. From the moment Michael Sheen wafts into view as the school’s moneygrabbing headmaster, who forgets that girls have been permitted into the hallowed halls, Slaughterhouse Rulez goes into special measures. The script grinds through two gears - pedestrian and frenetic - and signposts deaths by positioning cast in front of a door or window so they can be torn limb from limb by carnivorous beasts, which emerge from a fracking sinkhole.
In an early scene of Mike Leigh’s historical drama, an exhausted mother (Maxine Peake) presides over her brood in Manchester with stoic resolve as the bitter cup of oppression overflows in the corridors of Westminster. “Times is too hard to lose hope. Hope is all we’ve got,” professes the matriarch as neighbours prepare to take to the streets for a pro-democracy rally in defiance of the ruling Tory government. Her simple, heartfelt words reverberate throughout Peterloo, an impassioned call to arms across the class divide which builds with sickening inevitability to the 1819 massacre of protesters at St Peter’s Field in Manchester, which Leigh recreates with all of the sound and fury he can muster.
JULIET, NAKED (15)
Based on a novel by Nick Hornby, Juliet, Naked is a sweet, reserved romantic comedy set in a sleepy English coastal town, which revels in the power of music to anchor our emotions to a specific person or time. Jesse Peretz’s film is powered by an appealingly scruffy performance from Ethan Hawke as a reclusive singer-songwriter, who walked out of a gig 30 years ago and hasn’t been seen since. He reeks of regret in gently paced scenes of bad parenting and sparks pleasing on-screen chemistry with Rose Byrne as the dissatisfied 30-something, who forges an unexpected bond with her boyfriend’s musical idol.
MIRAI (PG)
A four-year-old boy learns touching lessons about sharing his parents’ love with a newly arrived baby sister in Japanese writer-director Hosoda Mamoru’s poignant animated drama. Mirai is an enchanting portrait of modern family life rooted in universal truths about the jealousy which bubbles beneath the surface of almost every sibling bond. Hosoda navigates choppy emotional waters with a deft touch, unearthing compassion and flecks of gentle humour in characters’ confusion and distress. His script introduces fantastical flourishes to shepherd the inquisitive infant protagonist on a journey of self-realisation, enriched with gorgeous hand-drawn animation. The narrative is slight, even for a sprightly 98 minutes, but the film doesn’t outstay its welcome or exhaust its delicate charm.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (12A)
Who wants to live forever? Freddie Mercury does in Bryan Singer’s crowd-pleasing musical biopic, a greatest hits tribute blessed with a heartbreaking performance from Rami Malek as the charismatic frontman. Bohemian Rhapsody covers the 15 years between guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) welcoming Freddie as lead singer of their band Smile and Queen’s triumphant 20-minute set at Live Aid. Singer’s film is bookended with an adrenaline-pumping recreation of the Wembley Stadium charity concert, where Queen stole the show with a barnstorming medley including Radio Ga Ga and We Are the Champions. It’s a thunderbolts and lightning moment, electrified with slick digital effects and Malek’s gesture-perfect showboating.
THE HATE U GIVE (12A)
Taking its title from the cautionary message inked into rapper Tupac Shakur’s Thug Life tattoo, George Tillman Jr’s emotionally charged drama rages against racial division and police violence in 21st-century America. The Hate U Give is sensitively adapted for the screen by Audrey Wells from the young adult novel by Angie Thomas, which chronicles the anguished rites of passage of a teenager, who finds her voice in the most desperate and tragic circumstances. Amandla Stenberg delivers a gut-wrenching lead performance as a 16-year-old who zigzags uncomfortably between the worlds of white privilege and black fury. Wells’ script confidently walks a tightrope between tear-stained cries from the heart and boisterous humour as it sketches the dynamics between members of a family living in a predominantly black district, which has been in the chokehold of gang warfare and drugs for years. Tillman Jr’s film ripples with indignation and despair but there is an undercurrent of hope that courses through every frame.
HUNTER KILLER (12A)
When mankind stands forlornly on the brink of annihilation, Paisley-born action hero Gerard Butler proudly steps forward to shepherd every man, woman and child back from the abyss. In the underwater thriller Hunter Killer, a rogue Russian admiral prepares to push the button on a third world war and Butler sails to our rescue as a renegade submarine captain, who repeatedly risks a court martial to perform outlandish manoeuvres hundreds of feet beneath the waves. Director Donovan Marsh charts a familiar course through breathless action sequences and threats of mutiny. Butler is steadfast as chaos unfolds around him and Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist makes one of his final appearances before his death from as a stoic Russian submarine captain.
HALLOWEEN (18)
The bogeyman does exist and for decades he has taken the towering form of masked maniac Michael Myers in a series of gory thrillers, which began with John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 slasher Halloween. Director David Gordon Green and co-writers Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride casually disregard the nine films that followed for a comfortingly old-fashioned return to the scene of the original crime: the sleepy community of Haddonfield. Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprise their roles as ultimate survivor Laurie Strode and Myers for a climactic showdown that will appease fans of the series, set to the chilling strains of Carpenter’s repetitive synthesiser score. “What are we gonna do? Cancel Halloween?” despairs a sheriff (Omar Dorsey), who is on the trail of the knife-wielding maniac. Thankfully not, otherwise audiences would be denied one of the stronger instalments of the series.
GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN (PG)
Terror creeps up when you least expect it. I felt its icy fingers slither down my back and tingle my spine about 20 minutes into Goosebumps 2: the action-packed sequel to the 2015 family-friendly horror comedy based on the book series by RL Stine. Blood slowly drained from my face, my heart skipped a beat as a rasping voice echoed in the darkness of the cinema: “This film has been raised from the dead solely with box office takings in mind.”
The first Goosebumps was laden with wicked tricks and treats including tour-de-force comic performances from Jack Black as author Stine and the voice of a demented puppet called Slappy, who unleashes monsters from one of Stine’s books on the unsuspecting pupils of Madison High School. Alas, Black is largely absent from Ari Sandel’s laboured follow-up, which unravels quicker than a mummy’s bandages in the fictional town of Wardenclyffe, where inventor Nikola Tesla once conducted his daring experiments with electricity.
FIRST MAN (12A)
Award-winning director Damien Chazelle takes one giant leap for immersive, nail-biting filmmaking in a thrilling dramatisation of the space race between America and the Soviet Union. Based on James R Hansen’s biography of Neil Armstrong, First Man shoots for the moon and touches down beautifully by placing us alongside astronauts in their claustrophobic modules or next to nervous Nasa staff as they propel mankind into the great unknown. Handheld camerawork, unobtrusive special effects and dazzling sound design leave us stranded thousands of miles above terra firma in a similar fashion to Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, at the mercy of newfangled technology and Lady Luck. The tension is almost unbearable. Chazelle masterfully encourages us to hold our breath and bite our nails down to the cuticle with bold visual flourishes and unshowy, powerhouse performances from Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy as the husband and wife at the epicentre of the 1969 landing.
A STAR IS BORN (15)
A star is reborn in the third remake of the rags-to-riches fairytale. The 21st-century twinkling doesn’t emanate from pop chameleon turned award-winning actor Lady Gaga, who is undeniably luminous as a naive and vulnerable ingenue rocketing into the musical firmament. No, the film’s retina-searing ball of light is Bradley Cooper as her grizzled mentor and lover. The leading man nestles confidently into the director’s chair for his debut feature but he truly dazzles in front of the camera, drenched in the sweat and self-loathing of a booze-soaked showman who is staggering towards the precipice of oblivion.