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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 19 April 2015

A lot of great movies have covered the late 20^th Century conflict in Northern Ireland that is widely regarded as “The Troubles”.  The list includes The Crying Game, In The Name Of The Father, Bloody Sunday and Hunger.  The latest entry is the oddly titled ’71. 

Directed by first-timer Yann Demange, the film focuses its attention on a young, inexperienced British solider named Gary Hook – played by rising star Jack O’Connell who also had the lead role in Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken.  Hook recently joined the British Army and has been sent to Belfast to help deal with the growing unrest between the Catholic Nationalists and Protestant Loyalists.

It’s a volatile situation that is escalating further out of control.  Hook and his fellow soldiers have been ordered to search all homes in a Catholic neighbourhood and look for illegal weapons.  They may think they’re helping… but their rough approach is only further upsetting the radical sections of the population who see the military as doing the government’s dirty work.

When a protest involving the Catholic Nationalists turns violent, those commanding the British Army make the decision to retreat.  Unfortunately, an injured Hook is left behind in the mayhem and he takes refuge in a small outhouse to avoid being captured.  He’s about to become the key piece in a critical game.  Some want him dead.  Some want him alive.  Trapped in a city he doesn’t know, Hook must somehow find a way home.

Part historical drama and part action thriller, ’71 makes for gripping viewing.  The story of Gary Hook is fictional but the time and setting is realistic.  Writer Gregory Burke highlights the complexity of the situation by showing the many parties that were involved in the conflict.  It’s hard for Hook to work out who to trust.  We’re also treated to some suspenseful chase sequences where Hook must outrun his enemies down narrow laneways and through multi-storey apartment buildings.

Yann Demange had doubts when he first head of the project.  Given the power of both Bloody Sunday and Hunger, he wasn’t sure if he could make something of equal brilliance.  That changed when he read the script and realised it contained a few intriguing twists and turns.  Demange also had to change the timing of the shoot so as to secure the service of Jack O’Connell (who had just finished another film).  I can’t fault his decision because O’Connell’s passionate performance is to be admired.

’71 is receiving a very small release here in Australia but it’s not to be ignored.  It was nominated for best British film at this year’s BAFTAs alongside the likes of The Imitation Game, The Theory Of Everything and Pride.  That’s a strong and worthy endorsement.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 08 April 2015

While I’ve enjoyed some Nicholas Sparks adaptations, the majority have been a too clichéd and schmaltzy for my tastes.  The last three films have been particularly poor – The Lucky One, Safe Haven and The Best Of Me.  With The Longest Ride boasting a running time of 139 minutes, you can see why I wasn’t rushing into the cinema with high expectations.

The early scenes didn’t do much to change those preconceptions.  Sophia (Robertson) is an art history student in her final year at college in North Carolina.  She’d rather be hitting the books but her good friend has convinced her to attend a rodeo competition by promising “the hottest guys you’ve ever seen.”  It’s therefore no surprise that she meets a well-groomed cowboy named Luke (Eastwood) who jumps off a bull and offers his black cowboy hat.

Luke is a sweet, old-fashioned guy.  He’s the one who asks her out, he’s the one who buys her drinks, and he’s the one who turns up on her doorstep with a bunch of flowers for their first date.  There’s a clear connection between the pair but Sophia is hesitant.  She’s accepted an internship at an art gallery and will be moving to New York in less than two months.  The last thing she’s looking for is a relationship.

It may sound like an up-and-down, seen-it-all-before romance but there’s an additional storyline that is far more interesting.  Driving home one night, they come across the scene of a car accident and rescue an old man named Ira (Alda) from his burning vehicle.  Sophia is also able to save a small basket on the front seat which was packed with old letters.

Over the next few weeks, Ira and Sophia become good friends.  It turns out the letters were written by his wife back in the 1940s but Ira hadn’t been able to read them in years due to his failing eyesight.  Sophia helps him out and in the process, we are treated to flashbacks of the younger Ira (Huston) and the time he met the love of his life, Ruth (Chaplin).

It’s the sentimentality of this second storyline that won me over.  Ira, realising that he doesn’t have long left to live, is sharing his life’s story for the final time.  It includes a moving subplot where Ira is injured while fighting in World War II and rendered impotent.  The dreams they had a big family are now not possible.  As Ira tells these tales, Sophia soaks it all in and tries to apply the learnings to her relationship with Luke.

The film still comes with the cheesy trademarks that you’d expect with a romantic drama such as this.  There’s a moment where Sophia accidentally falls into a small lake at Luke’s farm house.  They go inside, she removes her wet clothes, their eyes lock, he takes off his shirt, and, well, I think you know what happens next.  There were a mix of laughs and groans coming from the audience.

Unlike other Nicholas Sparks adaptations, The Longest Ride features a largely unknown cast.  That said, two of the actors come with interesting backstories.  The first is Scott Eastwood, the 29-year-old son of Clint Eastwood.  The second is Oona Chaplin, the 28-year-old granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin.  It’ll be interesting to see where their careers head over the next few years.

It’s too long, the rodeo scenes are repetitive, and the ending doesn’t really stack up… but The Longest Ride will warm the hearts of many with its honourable characters and fairy tale romance.  

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 April 2015

How old are you friends?  I’m not talking about your family but rather the people you hang out with socially on a regular basis.  Are they younger, older or the same age?  Is there any particular reason why?  These questions are contemplate by writer-director Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale, Frances Ha) is his latest effort, While We’re Young.

Josh (Stiller) and Cornelia (Watts) are a married couple with similar interests.  He’s a documentary filmmaker trying to finish his latest pet project.  She’s a film producer who works for her successful father.  Their lives haven’t changed much over the past decade.  They never had kids (Cornelia had several miscarriages) and they’re still career-focused people trying to find success in a tough industry.

What has changed are the lives of their close friends.  They’ve become more family based and so they talk about their own children constantly.  There’s a humorous scene where one of them drags Cornelia along to a Wiggles-like concert in an effort to catch up.  She couldn’t be more uncomfortable and so she flees the venue before it’s all over.

Josh and Cornelia find their friendship group shift when they latch onto a couple in the mid-20s.  The Oxford Dictionary defines “hipsters” as those who “follow the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.”  That pretty much sums them up.  Jamie (Driver) is a film student trying to put together a documentary that highlights our over reliance on Facebook.  Darby (Seyfried) attends hip-hop classes and is being guided by a shaman in search of spiritual awakening.

A few of the jokes in While We’re Young aren’t particularly adventurous.  There’s a part where Josh goes bike riding with Jamie only to injure his knee.  It’s a simple reminder of his “old age” which is further confirmed by his doctor who tells him that he’s suffering from arthritis.  I also wasn’t convinced by Jamie and his Facebook doco.  He’s just a little too goofy.

That’s not to say the film doesn’t have something to say.  There are some great conversations between Josh and Cornelia as they start analysing their lives.  Is their friendship with Jamie and Darby just a quick, passing fad?  Or is helping them realise who they are and what they’re looking for in life?  It reminds me a little of Woody Allen in that it’s using comedy to make insightful comments about relationships and society.

Considering this week’s other major comedy release is Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (not previewed for critics), I should be grateful for While We’re Young.  It’s far from perfect but it will leave you with a lot more to reflect upon.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 06 April 2015

In 2007, director Morgan Matthews put together a documentary that followed a group of British high school students preparing themselves for the International Mathematical Olympiad.  Entitled Beautiful Young Minds, the film highlighted that while these kids were brilliant at maths, some displayed signs of autism that made it difficult for them to connect with their parents and their regular classmates.

Matthews earned a BAFTA nomination for its efforts and it’s clearly a subject matter that he’s drawn to.  The aptly titled X+Y is a fictionalised version of the same story.  When we first meet Nathan (Butterfield), we see he’s a shy, introverted kid with a rather unusual thought process.  When his mother (Hawkins) goes to the local Chinese restaurant to pick up a take-away dinner, she has to specifically request seven prawn balls.  That’s because Nathan won’t be happy unless he’s eating a prime number.

Doctors have confirmed that Nathan is showing “traits of autism combined with synaesthesia to a change in light and pattern.”  He’s brilliant when it comes to maths but he struggles when it comes to social interaction.  One person who seems to understand is Martin (Spall) – a middle-aged high school teacher who competed in the International Mathematical Olympiad himself as a teenager.  He’s agreed to take Nathan under his wing and set him on a path to success.

Selected as part of a British squad, Nathan travels to Taiwan with a number of other gifted maths students to help train for the upcoming Olympiad.  It’s his first trip away from home and while he’s a little hesitant at first, Nathan slowly starts to come out of his shell as he meets others with similar interests and similar obstacles.  He is paired up in the pre-competition trials with a Chinese girl (Yang) and the two become quite close.

We don’t see a lot of films that deal with the subject of autism and so X+Y is important in that regard.  Thanks to a great leading performance from Asa Butterfield, we’re able to get inside Nathan’s head and understand what he’s thinking.  Butterfield is a terrific young actor on the rise having starred in The Boy In Striped Pyjamas, Hugo and Ender’s Game.  Matthews also does a great job illustrating Nathan’s view of the world through the use of colour and flashbacks.

There are several subplots within the main narrative and screenwriter James Graham struggles to devote enough time to each.  Jake Davies plays Luke – a kid who is part of the British Olympiad squad but who is ostracised by others in the group because of his severe autism.  He’s an intriguing character but the screenplay is very unsympathetic towards his condition (evidenced by the way he slips out of view in the later stages).

Another individual we don’t really get to know in enough depth is Nathan’s teacher.  Battling the early stages of multiple sclerosis, Martin has difficulty walking and is developing an addiction to prescription medication.  He’s lonely, depressed, and too afraid to reach out for help.  The film tries to construct a relationship between Martin and Nathan’s mother to help remedy his problems but it feels a little too simplistic.

As we saw with last week’s The DUFF, there’s a strong audience for teen-orientated comedies that provide a lighter look at the issues facing today’s teenagers.  X+Y is to be praised for offering something more dramatic, more realistic.  While the script stumbles a few times along the way, the film will be a valuable eye-opener for those new to the world of autism.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 April 2015

He’s a two time Academy Award winning actor but we haven’t seen much of Sean Penn on screen of late.  He starred in Gangster Squad (released in January 2013) and then had a small role in The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (released in December 2013).  They’re his only on-screen credits in the past three years.  Penn hasn’t been lying on the couch at home though.  He’s been directing a film in South Africa (called The Last Face) with his current girlfriend, Charlize Theron.

In The Gunman, Penn plays Jim Terrier – a former soldier who is working for a private security company in Congo.  It may sound like a straight forward job but the reality is anything but.  Jim was ordered by his foreign employer to assassinate a high-profile minister within the Congo government.  This was in retaliation to a recent announcement that mining contracts with overseas entities would be reviewed due to suspected corruption.

Jim’s not the bad guy though.  Well, not any more.  These events took place 8 years ago and Jim has gone through a small transformation.  He never fessed up to the crime… but he’s now trying to make amends by performing humanitarian work in Congo.  He’s not going to be able to escape his past that easily though.  A group of unknown assailants are now trying to kill Jim to ensure he never reveals the truth.

Penn was attracted to the film for two reasons.  Firstly, it gave him the chance to take on a very different role for him – that of an action hero.  You can see he’s bulked up for the role and spent quite a few hours in the gym.  Secondly, it allowed him to promote a message that he believes in.  He wants audiences to think about Western companies that are exploiting natural resources in third world countries in pursuit of profit.

The Gunman was panned by most critics when released in the United States last month but it’s actually not too bad.  There are plenty of shootouts and punch-ups but the film’s most entertaining sequences revolve around Jim using his head as opposed to his fists.  A major highlight is a scene where he finds an explosive device in his apartment and then uses it to his own advantage.

The screenplay isn’t as strong as it could be.  There’s an odd subplot where he learn that Jim is periodically suffering from blurred vision and memory loss.  We even see him getting a cat scan and speaking with a doctor.  It’s clear the writers are trying to make the situation even more perilous but it feels unnecessary and detracts from the film’s credibility.

The supporting cast includes the likes of Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men), Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast) and Idris Elba (Pacific Rim).  Tony Award winning actor Mark Rylance also makes a rare appearance on the big screen (we’re used to seeing him on stage in New York).  The film tries to add a romantic angle by using Italian actress Jasmine Trinca (The Son’s Room) but her character’s actions don’t always make sense.

The film’s anti-capitalism messages get lost in the gunfire but this is still a satisfying action piece about one man trying to outsmart his many adversaries.