Your week in film (Monday, January 25 - Sunday, January 31)

MONDAY: "A shootout, right, is a fucking shootout... like a western!" Legend - starring Tom Hardy as both Kray Twins (pictured above) - is out today on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD. In truth, the film is underwhelming but Hardy's extraordinary double performance makes it well worth checking out. The best of the rest include Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon starring in financial crisis drama 99 Homes (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD - trailer below); martial arts masterpiece A Touch Of Zen (Dual Format); 1970s Boston crime thriller The Friends Of Eddie Coyle (Dual Format); and pacifist war drama Tangerines (DVD and Blu-ray). TV-wise, Aria (Sky Arts, 01:40) is an obscure British movie from the 1980s in which a clutch of great directors - including Julien Temple, Nic Roeg, Derek Jarman, Robert Altman and Ken Russell - got to visually reinterpret segments from 10 famous operas. The results are every bit as strange and arresting as you'd hope.

TUESDAY: Ahead of Youth's debut in cinemas on Friday, check out Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's previous film The Great Beauty (Film 4, 23:25). It's a visually stunning and poetic meditation on ageing and a life well lived, but also an unabashed love letter to Rome. Trailer below

WEDNESDAY: Netflix boasts an unusually impressive trio of new releases from today: Oliver Stone's controversial but underrated Natural Born Killers (script by Quentin Tarantino); Sergio Leone's sprawling but brilliant Once Upon A Time In America; and whip-smart comedy Play It Again, Sam (trailer below), in which Woody Allen gets lessons in life and love from Humphrey Bogart (sort of). Claudia Winkleman presents Film 2016 (BBC1, 23:45), aided and abetted by resident critic Danny Leigh. Not only is the show on even later this week, but the objectionable Camilla Long is guest reviewer. Maybe I'll just fast-forward through her bits.

THURSDAY: In The Film Programme (BBC Radio Four, 16:00), Francine Stock talks to veteran actress/muse Anna Karina about her life and work with Jean-Luc Godard. If that puts you in the mood to check out some of the legendary French director's work, why not sign up with MUBI? The subscription-only service is currently showing three of the great man's films: Band Of Outsiders, Joy Of Learning and Weekend. On the subject of all things Gallic, Curzon Home Cinema is screening a season of new French films and I can definitely recommend French Blood, the bruising tale of a Parisian neo-Nazi. Trailer below 

FRIDAY: Spotlight (trailer below) arrives in cinemas today and Mark Ruffalo talks about the Oscar frontrunner on Kermode & Mayo's Film Review (BBC Radio Five, 14:00). If you're staying in, check out Keanu Reeves in face-punching, bone-breaking action flick John Wick (Sky Movies Premiere, 16:15 and 20:00), or stay up late for Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in infamous '80s thriller Fatal Attraction (Channel 4, 00:55). Unlike its stars, I suspect it hasn't aged well.

SATURDAY: It's the usual Saturday night smorgasbord of middling delights, this week featuring middling thriller Now You See Me (Channel 4, 21:00), middling historical serial killer yarn Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (BBC2, 22:20), and middling horror The Hole (Channel 4, 23:15). The Lost World: Jurassic Park (ITV, 22:30) features a T-Rex stomping around night-time San Diego and is therefore in no way middling. That said, your best bet today might just be Ralph Thomas' 1959 remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic spy thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps (More4, 11:40). Kenneth Moore is in-over-his-head hero Richard Hannay. Trailer below

SUNDAY: I could write a book about how much I love Pam Grier as the titular lead in Quentin Tarantino's wonderful Jackie Brown (ITV4, 23:00), but I'm just going to recommend you watch it instead. Based on Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch, QT altered quite a bit of the original novel for his screenplay, including Jackie's name and race (it was Jackie Burke and she was white). And whilst the director can't help but nod to the Blaxploitation flicks in which Grier made her name, he keeps his usual excesses in check to deliver a gripping crime drama that is really about ageing, last chances and missed opportunities. Not only is it his best film but his most mature, too. Trailer below

UK box office top 10
1. The Revenant
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
3. Creed R
4. Daddy's Home
5. The Hateful Eight R
6. The Danish Girl
7. Room
8. Snoopy And Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie
9. Joy R
10. The Good Dinosaur

R = Recommended

The Kray twins go Hollywood in Brian Helgeland's shallow biopic... but Tom Hardy's magnetic double performance makes it a must-see

LEGEND

Director: Brian Helgeland

Starring: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Christopher Eccleston

Running time: 131mins

Getting on for 50 years since their arrest and incarceration, the Kray twins still exert a grip on the popular imagination every bit as vice-like as the one they had on London’s criminal underworld in the 1960s. It’s embarrassing to admit it but we Brits, in the words of Danny Dyer, love a “proper naughty geezer”. It’s therefore unsurprising that Legend is one of three Kray-related movies out at the moment. The other two – Rise Of The Krays and the documentary Kray Twins: Kill Order – are straight-to-DVD/VOD affairs but reveal an appetite for twins-related mayhem that never seems quite sated.

Legend – directed and co-written by Brian Helgeland, an American who penned the screenplays for LA Confidential and Mystic River so knows his way around the crime genre – is a thoroughly Hollywood version of their story. It’s big, bright, bold and fast, full of instantly memorable set-pieces and has probably the strongest ‘hook’ of any movie released this year – Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) playing both Ronnie and Reggie in a double performance that the word ‘extraordinary’ doesn’t quite do justice.

Unlike Rise Of The Krays, Legend starts with Ron and Reg already in situ as crime kings of the capital’s east end. The latter owns Esmeralda’s Barn, a swanky nightclub full of celebrities and villains, and soon starts dating the pretty but fragile Frances (Emily Browning). Wealthy, respected and feared, it’s all going swimmingly, but there are storm clouds on the horizon. Brother Ron – a paranoid schizophrenic – is a loose-cannon with the common sense and social graces of a Gila monster, while vicious south London rival Charlie Richardson (Paul Bettany) and indefatigable copper Nipper Read (Christopher Eccleston) are circling the brothers’ operation like blood-thirsty hammerheads.

Frances – who is supposed to be the viewers’ eyes and ears in this glamorous but brutal world – narrates the Krays’ story but Browning’s much-mocked – and flatly delivered – voiceover is the weakest part of the whole enterprise and full of cack-handed lines even EastEnders would have rejected. Helgeland’s film is rather more sure-footed in its costumes and sets (perfectly evocative of mid-sixties swinging London) while I'm guessing the title itself – Legend – is meant as both celebration and condemnation. On the one hand, it is clearly in cahoots with the myth makers who have sought to turn the twins into sympathetic antiheroes. On the other, it's surely ironic; there's really nothing 'legendary' about a pair of cold-blooded killers. I think it’s what they call having your cake and eating it.

Of course, the big cockney elephant in the room banging out Knees Up Mother Brown on the old Joanna is Peter Medak’s 1990 film, The Krays, starring Spandau Ballet brothers Gary and Martin Kemp. The pop stars aren’t always convincing as Ronnie and Reggie, some of the symbolism (two-headed children, snakes, crocodiles) is clumsy and the almost complete absence of the police is bizarre, but in many ways it’s a substantially better film than Legend. The supporting characters are stronger for a start, especially Jimmy Jewel’s boozy old charmer Cannonball Lee and Steven Berkoff’s seethingly homophobic George Cornell. Perhaps because of its proximity to the actual events and people – both Krays were still alive in 1990 – it has an authenticity Helgeland’s film can’t hope to match.

Oddly enough, The Krays belongs not to the brothers Kemp but to Billie Whitelaw as the twins’ mum, Violet. Medak entertains an interesting notion – that the Krays were the product of embittered East End matriarchs (Violet, her mum and sister), who’d lived through the privations of war, had had their fill of feckless, emasculated men and simply weren’t going to swallow any more shit from authority figures either. At times it almost plays out like a feminist revenge fantasy, which is astounding considering the macho subject matter.

Legend has no truck with anything as highfalutin as subtext and, to be honest, would only be worth a WW rating if not for Hardy. He eschews the reptilian swagger of the Kemps for something far bigger and broader, filling every frame of every scene. Neither his Ronnie or Reggie are at all subtle or nuanced but they are both utterly magnetic (one critic suggested Hardy deserved a Razzie for his portrayal but that’s an opinion every bit as deranged as any act the twins ever committed). As Reg he’s the handsome, cocksure lad about town, as Ron he’s a tragicomic grotesque, like something out of the League of Gentlemen’s Royston Vasey. Many of his scenes are played for laughs but there’s always a frisson of menace lurking just below the surface. The sheer malevolence etched across Ron’s face at an identity parade as he stares out a witness who saw him commit murder is truly the stuff of nightmares.

Hardy’s double-performance is a real crowd pleaser (you can easily imagine gangs of lairy lads shouting Ron’s line “A shoot-out is a shoot-out… like a Western” at each other after one too many on a Saturday night), but it’s enhanced immeasurably by the seamless way Helgeland and his team combine the two characters on screen. If you look hard enough you can just about spot when a stand-in is being used – odd back-of-head shots and other slightly unorthodox angles – but for the most part the combination of Hardy as Reg and Hardy as Ron is a technical marvel. This is never truer than during a brutal fight between the two which is the film’s centrepiece. A glorious bollock-crunching, face-slapping, nose-thumping punch-up, it’ll make you laugh as much as it’ll make you wince. It’s almost slapstick, and therefore perfectly in keeping with the rest of Helgeland’s riotously enjoyable but ultimately rather shallow film.

Rating: WWW

Ratings

WWWW = Wonderful
WWW = Worthwhile
WW = Watchable
W = Woeful

5 for Friday (September 4): Trailers, new releases and box office

1. Legend (from Wednesday)

What is it? The latest biopic of '60s London gangsters the Kray twins. No members of Spandau Ballet involved this time, only the brilliant Tom Hardy playing both Ronnie and Reggie. 

Where can I see it in the UK? Everywhere, you slag. Are you looking at me? Don't make me fetch my shooter.

Critical consensus? It's early days yet but three out of the four critics featured on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a thumbs up.

My take: You'd think the British obsession with the twins would have petered out long ago but Legend is the second Krays-related film to pop up in the last month. It looks rather more promising than Rise of the Krays, though, mainly because it boasts a name director in Brian Helgeland (42, A Knight's Tale) and a terrific cast that also includes Emily Browning, Christopher Eccleston, David Thewlis and Chazz Palminteri. As evidenced in Bronson (re-released this week), Hardy does unhinged criminal better than anybody, and if the film is as good as the trailer it won't go far wrong.

2. Dope

What is it? 'John Hughes-in-the-hood' teen comedy starring Shameik Moore as Malcolm, a geeky black kid with plans to go to Harvard despite growing up in a tough area of Los Angeles. After being invited to a local drug dealer's birthday party, he and his equally nerdy friends end up with a backpack full of narcotics and a gun. Adventure, danger and romance ensue. 

Where can I see it in the UK? Dope is on wide release so most cinemas should be screening it.

Critical consensus? A healthy 87 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: A big hit at the Sundance Film Festival, Rick Famuyiwa's movie has been favourably compared to classic coming-of-age comedies such as Mean Girls, Clueless and Hughes' Sixteen Candles. Those are big boots to fill but the trailer certainly boasts enough laughs, as well as charm, to suggest Dope could well live up to the hype. 

3. Cartel Land

What is it? Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) is executive producer on this chilling and intense documentary about two modern-day vigilante gangs - one in Mexico, the other in the States - battling the murderous Mexican drug cartels. 

Where can I see it in the UK? Key cities only.

Critical consensus? A totally fresh 92 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: Matthew Heineman's film received both the the Directing Award and Special Jury Award for Cinematography in the US Documentary competition at this year's Sundance. As I've said before, 2015 is shaping up to be a vintage year for documentaries and this looks set to continue that welcome trend.

4. American Ultra

What is it? Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart reunite for the first time since 2009's Adventureland in what can only be described as a stoner/secret-agent action-comedy. Eisenberg's character Mike spends most of his time high and is completely unaware that, in reality, he's a CIA-trained killing machine. His latent abilities are unleashed when the agency targets him for elimination and kidnaps his girlfriend (Stewart). 

Where can I see it in the UK? This is getting a big saturation release so will be all over cinemas everywhere.

Critical consensus? A mediocre 48 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: Probably more famous for writer Max Landis's comments on Twitter after it flopped in the States, American Ultra nevertheless looks pretty entertaining. Stewart and Eisenberg have real on-screen chemistry and can both do comedy in their sleep. Leaving her much-derided Twilight days behind her, Stewart is one of Hollywood's finest young actresses, as evidenced in Still Alice and her award-winning turn in Clouds of Sils Maria, alongside Juliette Binoche. 

5. Buttercup Bill 

What is it? A disturbing slice of southern gothic centred on 'soul-mates' Patrick and Pernilla who reunite after the suicide of an old school friend. Sexual tension and a terrible secret bubble to the surface, threatening to consume the pair.

Where can I see it in the UK? Cinema-wise, it's key cities only but it is available from today on Curzon Home Cinema's View on Demand service.

Critical consensus? Reviewers are really split on this one so it is only rated 57 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

My take: "Deathly dull" and "tiresome act of self-indulgence" are two of the unkinder comments critics have aimed at this Louisiana-set US indie. Still, the fact it's being compared to the work of David Lynch and Harmony Korine (albeit unfavourably) suggests it might be right up my street.

Also in cinemas this week

Bait

Bronson (reissue)

Closed Curtain

Draw On Sweet Night 

How To Change The World (from Wednesday)

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials (from Thursday)

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl

Miss Julie

No Escape 

Paayum Pali

Ricki And The Flash 

The Second Mother

The Transporter Refuelled

Welcome Back

UK box office top 10

1. Straight Outta Compton
2. Inside Out
3. Hitman: Agent 47
4. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
5. Pixels
6. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
7. Sinister 2
8. Paper Towns
9. Minions
10. 45 Years 

US box office top 10

1. Straight Outta Compton
2. War Room
3. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
4. No Escape
5. Sinister 2
6. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
7. Hitman: Agent 47
8. Ant-Man

9. Jurassic World
10. The Gift