FILM OF THE WEEK
IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU
Rose Byrne delivers the performance of a lifetime in this compelling and deeply moving film written and directed by Mary Bronstein. Byrne plays Linda, a married woman with an absent husband and a young daughter suffering from a mysterious illness. She is dedicated mother and does her best to look after her child despite the fact that everything around her falls into pieces and turns into disaster. The bureaucratic system concerning her daughter’s medical care unsurprisingly becomes an endless nightmare and if that wasn’t enough she is forced one night to move into temporary accommodation when the apartment above her floods into her living room. Life in the unfriendly motel is difficult to say the least while Linda struggles to balance her work along with meetings with her increasingly hostile therapist (Conan O’Brien)…
Byrne almost singlehandedly carries this fine portrait of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown and is a frontrunner at this year’s Academy Awards for Best Actress. Bronstein directs her own multi layered screenplay with style and flair and highlights Byrne’s inner turmoil by photographing most of the action in gigantic close ups.
It is a remarkable achievement not only for Bronstein but also for Byrne who manages to mingle high emotion with subtle touches of comedy. Highly recommended!
THE SECRET AGENT
This brilliant film is one of the most acclaimed Brazilian movie in years from writer/director Kleber Mendonca Filho, the filmmaker behind BACURAU and AQUARIUS. It is an epic production set in 1977 against the backdrop of the horrific military dictatorship and follows the story of Armando (Wagner Moura), a university professor who travels from Sao Paulo to the seaside city of Recife hoping to be reunited with his son. But his mysterious past is soon catching up with him in a city where it is difficult to know whom to trust…
This gripping film boasts superb production values as well as one of the best performances of the year. Moura delivers a towering performance as the enigmatic protagonist and is well deserved for his Best Actor Nomination at the forthcoming Academy Awards.
This complex, intelligent film is assuredly directed with flair and imagination and provides big screen entertainment of the highest order. Not to be missed!
WASTEMAN
Every couple of years a new prison film arrives that redefines the genre – this year it is Cal McMau’s remarkable directorial debut. He tells the story of Taylor (David Jonsson) a man serving a long prison sentence and whose teenage son has grown up without him. He tries to make contact with his son now that his parole is approaching but just when he thought that there is light at the end of the tunnel a new cellmate called Dee (Tom Blyth) enters the scene. Dee is a fearless and extremely vicious man who entices Taylor into more violence which puts his chance for parole into jeopardy…
It is a gripping film superbly acted and directed. It is an assured and highly impressive debut from McMau, who elicits tremendous performances from his cast. He invests enough time in building Taylor’s character thus gaining the audience’s sympathy before the storm in the presence of Dee hits the fan.
It is original and unpredictable!
ASH
This sci-fi horror is directed by Flying Lotus, a composer and an actor who also plays crew member Davis. He sets the action on a distant planet and follows the story of Riya (Eiza Gonzalez), an astronaut who one day wakes up aboard a scientific research centre without having any memory in how she got there. The rest of the crew are all dead and through a series of hallucinatory dreams she struggles to put the jigsaw pieces together…
Lotus provides the score which is loud and heavy on atmosphere but his lack of directing experience and in building character and tension is evident from the very first scenes. Gonzalez struggles to make an impression while Aaron Paul is intense and wooden as the mysterious Brion who claims he has come to rescue her. (Prime Video)
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS
This eccentric dark comedy is directed by Ethan Coen, who co-wrote the screenplay along with his wife Tricia Cooke. They set the action in Philadelphia of 1999 and follow the story of Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), two young lesbian best friends, who embark on a road trip across America heading towards Tallahassee, Florida unaware that their rented car had already been booked by someone else…
It takes a while to get going but once the thugs begin to track down the two women the fun also begins to build up. It is hardly earth shattering but watchable! (Netflix)
WISHBONE
Penny Panagiotopoulou’s engaging Greek drama won the Audience Award and Best Debut Actor at Thessaloniki Film Festival a couple of years ago. She follows the story of Kostas (Giannis Karampampas), a 28-year-old hospital security guard who is still living with his mother and is forced by circumstances to become the guardian of his little niece Nikki following his older brother’s sudden death…
Panagiotopoulou creates a very believable but bleak, morbid world of a modern society surrounded by death and bureaucratic corruption. In Karampampas she has found the perfect protagonist – a moody but luminous presence that carries the film almost single-handedly.
Any feedback is welcome: georgesavvides@hotmail.co.uk