Of Horses and Men

Benedikt Erlingsson debut film reinforces my belief that there is no point to any beast unless they serve a legitimate purpose.  Written as well as directed by Erlingsson this Icelandic black comedy is, to say the least, a strange affair, not an unenjoyably one, just strange! Of Horses and Men (201,3) is beautifully shoot in the bleak rural Icelandic countryside by Bergsteinn Bjorulfsson, it’s the story of an isolated community who are smallholders and horse breeders that have a weird kinship with the Icelandic ponies that seem to inhabit their part of the country in great numbers. There is an underlying sexuality, a constant threat of death or injury and where its community imbibe very large quantities of alcohol seemingly to null the pain of their lives.

Strange goings on in Iceland!

We first meet Kolbeinn (Ingvar Eggert Sigurossen who played the police officer in the wonderful Jar City in 2006) who after saddling up a small white pony, that he’s obviously a little too fond of, is seen riding across the valley to court the passionate widow Solveig (Charlotte Boving).  Joined by her mother and young son - tea and cake are served. On leaving to return home Solveig’s frisky black mare rises to the occasion and mounts the wee white mare with Kolbeinn still astride!  The valley looks on with the aid of binoculars and Kolbeinn’s embarrassment is resolved when he tearfully shoots his pony - dead. Another of the local male population is seen riding a horse into the ice-cold sea to intercept a Russian trawler to allow him to collect some very strong alcohol, ignoring the warning the crewmembers give him - tragedy follows. A dispute over a barbwire boundary fence also ends in disaster producing a second widow and another man loosing the sight in one eye. This incident is followed by a Spanish visitor getting stranded at night in below zero temperatures with one of the ponies and is forced to take an action that I promise you will make you look away.

 

Tragedy is never far away....

....nor is alcohol!

As you can see a film that’s somewhat different, but none the less enthralling with an excellent soundtrack by David Thor Jonsson that consists of choral sounds and primal drumming underscoring the power of its deadpan humour. And just remember that if you take off your rain pants it’s bound to rain!

Lucy.

Luc Besson rarely lets the viewer down, a French director, producer and writer who is best known for thrillers and action films like Nikita (1990) through Leon (1994) to Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) and the badly received The Family (2013) - which I thoroughly enjoyed.  His latest directorial outing, of which he also wrote the screenplay and produced, is Lucy (2014) a movie that is in a class of its very own and defines what entertainment should really be about. But if Besson ‘is the man’ then Scarlett Johansson ‘is the woman’, how I love a women with a gun!

 

I love a women with a gun!

Johansson is Lucy a young American living in Taipei, Taiwan who is conned by her boyfriend Richard (Danish actor Pilou Asbaek whom you may have seen in A Hijacking 2012) into delivering a briefcase to Mr Jang (Choi Min-sik, the star of two classic S Korean movies 2005’s Lady Vengeance and 2003’s Old Boy) who turns out to be a notorious South Korean gangster. He kidnaps Lucy and forces her, and three other men, to become drug mules, operating on them and inserting bags of CPH4 into their stomachs. While waiting her turn to deliver the drugs she gets beaten, kicked in the stomach, which in turn releases the drug into her system with very dire circumstances. The drug is a synthetic version of the chemical that stimulates brain growth in foetuses, but in the large dose that Lucy imbibes in to her body it can escalate the use of the human brain from the 10% we generally use to a level unknown to Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) who specialises in brainpower. Our heroine gradually develops psychokinetic abilities that according to Mr Besson result in supernatural powers. With the help of Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked - Winter of Discontent 2012) of the French police force Lucy set’s out to track down the remaining drug mules with Mr Jang and his gangsters in hot pursuit.

 

Lucy passes on the secret of life to Professor Norman.

Another visually rich film, head and shoulders above many other action thrillers, a film without a single dull moment, of course it’s a exaggerated load of hocus pocus but to get the best from this exciting film just ignore the nonsensical plot, sit back and enjoy 90 minutes of complete escapism – and Scarlett Johansson!

http://youtu.be/MVt32qoyhi0

Labor Day.

Jason Reitman is a 36-year-old Canadian Film Director, screenwriter and producer who is best known for three award-winning movies, Thank You for Not Smoking (2005), Juno (2007) and 2009’s Up in the Air. His latest movie to be released in the UK is a complex drama that Reitman directed and wrote. Based on a novel by Joyce Maynard, Labor Day (2013) stars Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin and 15-year-old Gattlin Tadd Griffith who played Walter Collins in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling (2008).

 

Mother and son.

Set in 1987 Winslet plays Adele Wheeler a depressed single mum who lives in a large run down rural house with her 13 year old son Henry (Griffith). When mother and son make a rare trip to the local supermarket they are approached by a man who is not only limping quite badly but also bleeding from a stomach and head wound, he insists they give him a ‘ride’ to their home so that he can rest his injured leg. The pair discovers that he has escaped from police custody by jumping out of a second floor window - Frank Chambers (Brolin) was serving 18 years for murder! He appears a considerate man and does threaten neither Adele nor Henry. While he rests up over the weekend both of them feel drawn to the convict, each for their own reasons. Reitman’s direction develops a sensual feel between Frank and Adele from the start, which is partly explained by Adele’s loneliness and isolation, and from which a relationship grows. When Frank begins to teach Henry some everyday tasks along with the rudimental skills involved with baseball the boy realises how much he is missing a father figure.

 

Bonding over a peach pie!

It becomes quite a sentimental journey and I would question why any viewer would not empathise with all three, especially Winslet who has succeeded in bring out the venerability, beauty and sexuality of her character.  The soundtrack has been composed by Rolfe Kent who has worked with Reitman on three previous occasions. The house, were most of the movie is set, and the surrounding areas are brought to life by the cinematography of Eric Steelberg. It may not change your life but this modern day fairy tale is a most satisfying and enjoyable watch.

Gods Pocket.

Hands up time, I have never seen an episode of the critically acclaimed TV series Mad Men, there you are I’ve admitted it! But I do know that it’s set in the 1960’s and its about an advertising agency, and of course I’m aware of some of the actors that are involved including John Slattery and the rather attractive redhead Christina Hendricks.  The reason I mention this is twofold, firstly Slattery has now directed and adapted his first feature film, Gods Pocket (2013) with Hendricks taking the main female lead. It is based on a novel by Pete Dexter who was also responsible for writing and incidentally adapting, Paperboy (2012) for the big screen.

 

Mr and Mrs Scarpato.

Set in 1978 Gods Pocket is a run down district of Philadelphia. An area that seems to accommodate the very underside of humanity, if there not spending there time in the street corner bar there running wee crooked scams for the local ‘connected’ hood Sal Cappi. That is until Jeanie Scarpato (Hendricks) son Leon, gets killed in mysterious circumstances in the construction yard where he works. Jeanie is married to Mickey (the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman) who is Leon’s stepfather and who we first see highjacking a meat truck with Arthur Capezio known as Bird (John Turturro) and Sal. Mickey, who was not born in Gods Pocket and therefore will always be an incomer, will do anything to please his beautiful wife so when she asks him to find out how her rather nasty drug addicted racialist son died, she does not believe it was an accident, he sets out with the help of Bird and Sal to investigate the events leading up to her boys demise. When the journalist Richard Shellburn (the scene stealing Richard Jenkins) hears about Leon’s death he requests an interview with Jeanie for the local paper, on meeting her he immediately falls in love! Meanwhile Mickey is arranging a funeral, with the local undertaker Smilin’ Jack Moran (British actor Eddie Marsan) but is having problems raising the $5000 to keep Jeanie happy!   

 

Local reporter Richard Shellburn.

This is an absolutely cracking movie that should not be missed, if you have not seen it at the cinema then you will have to wait for the DVD release in December 2014. But believe me its well worth it and not just to see Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his last films but also to enjoy the clever casting, even in the smaller roles, that enables the portrayal of some terrific characters.  American movies always seem to succeed when they show realistic situations and include people that don’t subscribe to the American dream! A worthy debut from John Slattery.

Undercover Agent aka Counterspy

Husband and wife team Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court star in Vernon Sewell’s (The Man in the Back Seat) 1953 cold war drama Undercover Agent, which was wildly known as Counterspy. The drama begins when we witness papers stolen from a safe in a large country house. Dermot Walsh plays the accountant Manning who unwittingly becomes involved in a spy ring that are hell bent on passing the secret plans for a new jet engine, along with the details of a new material out of which it will be constructed, on to a foreign power. Hazel Court plays his anxious wife.

Dermot Walsh was a promising actor who like many stars of this period had more success in B-movies than he did in main features, his wife, who had spent the 40’s in ‘A’ films, also found more fame as the sophisticated lady of the B-movies in the 1950’s.  

 

Hazel Court and Dermot Walsh.

Well received by the critics with the general consensus being that it was “a typical thriller with an unusual impact” At times the ‘queer goings on’ can feel a little bit like amateur theatricals but it’s genuinely not a bad film. Hermione Braddeley as Del Mar and Alexander Guage as a Sydney Greenstreet type villain add to its authenticity. We also get treated to an exciting chase round the Fun Fair at the Festival Pleasure Gardens Battersea Park that would eventually become known as Battersea Fun Fair, which did not close until the mid 1970’s.

 

Things turn nasty!!

Guy Elmes and Gaston Lazare wrote the screenplay based on a short story Criss Cross Code by Julian Symons. The DOP was A T Dinsdale who also worked with Ken Hughes on Timeslip (1955) and the music was by Eric Spear, best known for composing the original theme tune for the British soap Coronation Street which it is alleged he was paid the princely sum of six pound. The quaintly named William H Williams produced it.