The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Films of the week The sound of silence after the shooting stops
HEAT
Film 4, Sunday, 11.25pm
MICHAEL Mann’s sprawling, Los Angeles-set crime flick deserves its reputation as a classic, though only just: its glossy, of-its-time feel was perfect for 1995 but a quarter of a century on it’s hard not to fix it with a wouldn’t-getaway-with-that-now label.
It barely passes the so-called Bechdel test – named after its instigator, cartoonist Alison Bechdel, it asks the question: does any work have two women talking to each other about something other than a man? – which is ironic given the acting talent lined up on the distaff side.
Ashley Judd, Amy Brenneman, noted Shakespearean actress Diane Venora and a 14-year-old Natalie Portman all feature. What do they do? Not much.
Mostly they hang on the arm and the every word of stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Val Kilmer, except for Portman, who plays a troubled schoolgirl.
That aside, Heat is nothing if not slick and its long running time and pleasingly complex plot certainly gives it the feel and shape of an epic. And of course there’s that historic on-screen meeting between De Niro and Pacino to enjoy, the first time they had shared a scene together.
De Niro is Neil McCauley, a dapper man-about-town who also happens to be an armed robber. Chris Sheherlis (Kilmer) is his trusty lieutenant. Nate (Tom Sizemore) and Trejo (iconic jailbird turned actor Danny Trejo) make up the rest of the tight, four-man crew.
When a temporary (and triggerhappy) fifth temporary guns down a guard during a heist, McCauley comes to the attention of wired and obsessive detective Vincent Hanna (Pacino), who sets out to take him down.
What follows is an intricate game of cat and mouse based on a weird sort of mutual respect, with McCauley admiring Hanna’s doggedness and
Hanna appreciating his rival’s precision and, to an extent, his ruthlessness.
Each is able to view the other from a distance and take his measure, and it’s that which builds suspense for the critical scene when they finally sit down together.
SOUND OF METAL Amazon Prime
Now streaming
FOR his role as a rock drummer
struggling with hearing loss, Riz Ahmed has been rewarded with a nomination for best actor at the Academy Awards.
Whether he can turn that accolade into Oscar gold at tomorrow night’s ceremony remains to be seen – the competition is stiff this year – but it’s a powerful performance nonetheless and it will be a surprise if Darius Marder’s film doesn’t take at least one of the six gongs it’s up for.
Starring alongside another British actor, Olivia Cooke, Ahmed plays Ruben Stone, a heavily tattooed drummer in a two-piece noise rock band called Blackgammon. Think psychedelic drone monsters Wooden Shjips crossed with The White Stripes. Only louder.
Cooke is Lou, Ruben’s girlfriend and the band’s guitarist and singer. Operating on the unglamorous DIY circuit – a world of tiny venues where you share a bill with other hopefuls and man your own merchandise stall – they travel from gig to gig in a well appointed RV, or recreational vehicle.
Then one day – bang! –
Ruben’s hearing goes and so begins the slow reveal about the couple’s troubled past: he’s a recovering heroin addict currently four years clean, she has had issues in the past with self-harming.
After consulting a doctor, Ruben becomes set on cochlear implants. Before he can take that step he finds himself dragooned into a stay at a rural residential centre for deaf recovering addicts overseen by Vietnam vet Joe (Paul Raci), a recovering alcoholic.
Anger at his predicament matched only by his determination to beat it, Ruben reluctantly gives in to life at the centre – but it’s only when he leaves and rejoins Lou, now living with her wealthy French father in Paris, that the extent of his changed circumstances becomes apparent.
Given the subject, Children of a Lesser God seems an obvious touchstone, although Sound of Metal’s uncompromising edginess also recalls Belgian black comedy Ex Drummer, about the world’s least marketable punk band.
But if audiences also sense a flavour of what made Derek Cianfrance’s Ryan Gosling vehicle The Place Beyond the Pines so special, it’s no surprise: he and Marder are friends and co-wrote both that script and this one.