Free State Of Jones, Tanna, and American Honey: Your Week In Film (February 20-26)

Break Free: Matthew McConaughey is Civil War deserter Newt Knight

Movie picks for the next seven days on TV, DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, and in cinemas...

Why did Free State Of Jones (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WWW bomb at the box office and get nary a look-in during awards season? Well, for a start, it carries the undeniable whiff of Oscar bait and, at two hours 19 minutes, goes on a bit. But I suspect the main reason for its failure lies elsewhere. Maybe following 2016's #oscarssowhite controversy there was little appetite for a film about the Civil War and slavery with a white lead. Now, while that's certainly a sentiment I understand, it's also a shame because Free State is, more often than not, powerful, worthwhile stuff.

Based on a true story, Gary Ross's film sees disillusioned Confederate army deserter Newt Knight (Matthew McConaughey) flee to Mississippi, where he hides out in a swamp with fellow deserters and runaway slaves. It isn't long before he's organising this raggle-taggle band into an effective fighting unit and inspiring an uprising against the corrupt local Confederate government. Told over several decades, Free State is perhaps at its best during an uplifting but heart-breaking final third in which Ross explores slavery's corrosive legacy; the continued rise of the Ku Klux Klan and how plantation owners could bend the law to keep African-Americans under their control (something also recently put under the microscope in Ava DuVernay's bravura documentary, 13th).

The problem is that despite the film's subject matter, McConaughey is front and centre at all times, while black actors such as Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle) and Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) are relegated to the sidelines a little too much. As has surely become apparent since the 'McConaissance' started in earnest, you don't cast the Dallas Buyers Club actor in your movie if you intend to allow anyone else to get a word in edgeways. And so it goes here. Still, Free State's heart is clearly in the right place, even if its execution is imperfect.

The State we're in: More than just another Civil War drama

Surprisingly nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar over the likes of Elle and Julieta, Tanna (in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema) WWW is set on the eponymous South Pacific island and depicts the true story of a young couple who defied the strict 'arranged marriage' traditions of their tribe and planned to wed for love. It's a Romeo And Juliet affair shot entirely on location, but what makes Aussie duo Martin Butler and Bentley Dean's film interesting is that all the actors are from the tribal village itself. Not only had none of them acted before but, until their contact with Butler and Dean, they'd never seen a film either.

As it turns out, the tribespeople are absolute naturals, especially young Marceline Rofit, who plays Selin, the sister of bride-to-be Wawa (Marie Wawa). A loveable scamp, the camera clearly adores her and, given half a chance, I suspect Hollywood casting agents would be queued up outside her door.

Tanna is smartly told, compelling and possessed of charm in abundance, while the island's sumptuous fauna (including an active volcano) offers Dean the opportunity to really flex his muscles as a cinematographer. In truth, though, it lacked a bit of emotional heft and, at times, felt like the characters were playing second fiddle to the demands of the plot rather too much.

Treasure island: Tanna boasts sumptuous visuals

Despite being a fan of writer/director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, Red Road), American Honey (DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD) WW½ left me a little cold on the big screen. A sprawling, interminable road movie, filmed in the old-fashioned square academy format, it sees down-on-her-luck Star (newcomer Sasha Lane) abandoning her old life to set off across the American Midwest in a van with Shia LaBeouf and his gang. Are they an out-of-control rock band on tour? A criminal gang plotting a big score? No, they're off to sell magazine subscriptions door-to-door, silly!

Apart from its punishing length (just 17 minutes shy of three hours), my biggest bugbear is that pretty much everyone in American Honey is profoundly annoying and unsympathetic. The kids with whom Star shares her great subscription-selling adventure are just awful - a gibbering, braying, squealing, drugging, boozing, boring collection of unmitigated gits you'd leave the country to avoid. It does, however, have something interesting to say about America's directionless youth and boasts a very fine soundtrack (Rihanna, Mazzy Star and a bunch of great hip-hop), while Riley Keough is superb as Krystal, the gang's flint-hearted boss. Maybe I'll warm to it on a second viewing...

Taste of Honey: Sasha Lane impresses as Star

Since Sky Movies rebranded as Sky Cinema last year, there has been a definite uptick in the number of interesting, under-the-radar movies showcased on its various channels. This week is very much a case in point. The Goob (from today, 10pm, Sky Cinema/NOW TV) WW½ is a gloomy coming-of-age drama set in the Norfolk Fens. It focuses on the titular Goob (Liam Walpole), a teenage boy struggling to come to terms with not only impending adulthood but also the behaviour of his step-dad, a deeply unpleasant bully played to evil-eyed perfection by Sean Harris. Writer/director Guy Myhill conjures a potent but dispiriting vision of what it is to be young and trapped by poverty and circumstance.

If you're looking for something a little more peculiar, there's Men & Chicken (from Wednesday, 9.50pm, Sky Cinema/NOW TV) WWW, a Danish black comedy which stars Mads Mikkelsen and David Dencik as brothers who, following their father's death, seek out and attempt to connect with the family they never knew they had. Bizarre, hilarious and disturbing in equal measure, it's Monty Python meets The Island Of Doctor Moreau. Just as bonkers is bizarro comic-horror The Greasy Strangler (from Thursday, 10pm, Sky Cinema/NOW TV) WWW. Chock-a-block with catchphrases ("Bullshit artist!") and lines of dialogue you can imagine boozy students bellowing at midnight screenings, Jim Hosking's film - an unholy marriage between Troma and Harmony Korine - clearly fancies itself a future cult classic. This story of a serial killer who is, quite literally, covered head to toe in a thick layer of grease, would all seem a bit contrived and cynical if it wasn't genuinely funny, gratifyingly repulsive (even the soundtrack made me queasy) and riotously entertaining. 

Grease monkeys: No one is safe from the strangler (NSFW)

Finally, don't forget that Sunday night is the Oscars or, if we're being formal, The 89th Annual Academy Awards. Sky have a dedicated channel for the event (Sky Cinema Oscars) with coverage from 11.10pm (the ceremony itself commences at around 01.30am on Monday morning). Will I be staying awake for it? Hell, no, but I'll be dreaming of acting gongs for Isabelle Huppert and Casey Affleck all the same...

What I shall be watching this week: Looking forward to seeing Jeff Nichols' Loving (Blu-ray), and I may well drag myself out for John Wick: Chapter 2 at the cinema.

I keep forgetting to mention that this blog has its own page on Facebook. For extra content of varying quality, be sure to visit us here: https://www.facebook.com/ashumanasrest

Ratings

WWWW - Wonderful

WWW - Worthwhile

WW - Watchable

W - Woeful

Review overload!

A dozen short reviews of films I've seen in the last couple of weeks - ranked from best to worst (although there isn't a single stinker among them). I've seen 116 of the many hundreds of movies released in UK cinemas in 2015 and am hoping to reach 150 by the end of the year... 

Love & Mercy

(director: Bill Pohlad)

Bravura biopic of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, concentrating on two crucial periods of his life. Paul Dano plays the songwriter as a young man at the height of his musical powers (Pet Sounds, Good Vibrations) but teetering on the brink of mental illness, while John Cusack is the older Wilson, under the perfidious spell of Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), a quack psychologist who took his money and cut him off from his family. Love & Mercy boasts superb performances (Dano has to get an Oscar nod), smart storytelling (the two strands are beautifully weaved together) while the music is, of course, simply gorgeous.

Rating: WWWW

Released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 16

A Syrian Love Story

(director: Sean Armitage)

Bruising but timely documentary from British filmmaker Armitage chronicling the lives of a Syrian family - Amer, Ragdha and their three sons - as they flee to France after suffering under the oppressive Assad regime. The film is both uplifting and heartbreaking, as elation at Ragdha's release from prison (she had written a book critical of the regime) soon gives way to pain and disillusion as her marriage to Amer starts to unravel. Refusing to offer any easy answers to Syria's myriad problems, Armitage's film shows how oppression seeps into every single area of a person's life - even a seemingly rock-solid marriage isn't safe from it.

Rating: WWWW

In cinemas and on BFI player now

Catch Me Daddy

(director: Matthew Wolfe)

Atmospheric and brutal British 'honour killing' drama about a young couple on the run on the Yorkshire Moors from the girl's vengeful father. First-time director Wolfe blends elements of social realism, thriller and the western (The Searchers has been mentioned as an influence) to great effect while newcomer Sameena Jabeen Ahmed is a revelation as Laila. Be warned, though, this is anything but an easy watch.

Rating: WWWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

The Martian

(director: Ridley Scott)

Sci-fi blockbuster starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars when a manned mission to the planet goes tits up. It's MacGyver in space, it's Cast Away meets Apollo 13, and although the final 20 minutes strain credulity and Damon's character never seems bothered enough by his predicament, I enjoyed it a lot more than other recent SF blockbusters such as Gravity or Interstellar.

Rating: WWW

In cinemas now

The Goob

(director: Guy Myhill)

Gloomy coming-of-age drama set in the Norfolk Fens and focused on the titular Goob (Liam Walpole), a teenage boy struggling to come to terms with not only impending adulthood but also the behaviour of his step-dad, a deeply unpleasant bully played to evil-eyed perfection by Sean Harris. Writer/director Myhill conjures a potent but dispiriting vision of what it is to be young and trapped by poverty and circumstance.

Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

The Reunion

(director: Anna Odell)

Clever film-within-a-film from provocative Swedish artist Odell. In real life, the director (who also writes and stars) wasn't invited to her high school reunion so the first half is a fictionalised account of what might have happened if she had attended (short answer: nothing good). In the second half, she recreates interviews she conducted with former class-mates - many of whom had tormented her - after showing them the film and recording their reactions. Beneath the art-project posturing, there's a powerful film with plenty to say about bullying, betrayal and the horrors of high school.

Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD

Pasolini

(director: Abel Ferrara)

Ferrara (Driller Killer) dials back the histrionics after last year's gloriously over-the-top Welcome To New York with this sober, elegaic sort-of-biopic of late Italian filmmaker, writer and intellectual, Pier Paolo Pasolini (Willem Dafoe). It focuses on the last day of the Salo director's life (it isn't a spoiler to say he was murdered in 1975) as he writes, eats with friends and family, is interviewed for a newspaper article, discusses a new film project and, ultimately, is led to his doom after picking up a rentboy. Ferrara also visualises scenes from both Pasolini's novel in progress and what would have been his next movie in a film that sidesteps hagiography to reveal a complicated man full of contradictions but with a huge cultural contribution still to make. Dafoe - despite his American accent - is terrific.

Rating: WWW

In cinemas and on VOD now, and released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26

Macbeth

(director: Justin Kurzel)

The last 20 minutes are probably the most visually stunning of any film I've seen all year as Birnam Wood does indeed come to Dunsinane and Michael Fassbender's Macbeth (pictured at the top of the page) faces off against his nemesis Macduff. Elsewhere, Snowtown director Kurzel's adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' is a broodingly gothic, brutal and nightmarish affair, buoyed by suitably intense performances from Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. Kurzel has an interesting take on the central character - he isn't just an ambitious monster spurred on by a pushy wife - but a battle-weary warrior unhinged by the death of his young son. It's a nice twist but one that fails to humanise the character as much as the director would clearly like it to. 

Rating: WWW

In cinemas now

The Emperor's New Clothes

(director: Michael Winterbottom)

Comedian-turned-activist Russell Brand shines a light on the 2008 financial crisis and asks, not unreasonably, why the bankers who caused the crash got away with it scot-free. It's enjoyable, rabble-rousing stuff for the most part, and Brand is an articulate, passionate narrator who clearly loves people, but I couldn't shake the feeling Michael Moore and Mark Thomas not only did this stuff first but did it rather better. 

Rating: WWW

Available on DVD and Amazon Prime Video

Samba

(director: Olivier Nakache)

Likeable drama chronicling the travails of the titular Senegalese immigrant (Omar Sy) as he battles to stay in France while slowly but surely falling for Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the charity worker helping him with his case. Some of the plotting is a bit clunky and at two hours Samba goes on a bit, but the film nevertheless boasts some fine moments, especially when shining a light on the hand-to-mouth experience of immigrants in France. Both leads (Gainsbourg is a criminally underrated actress), as well as the film's supporting cast, are excellent.
Rating: WWW

Available now on DVD and VOD

Results

(director: Andrew Bujalski)

Off-beat and deceptively clever romantic comedy starring Guy Pearce (The Rover) and Cobie Smulders (Avengers: Age Of Ultron) as Trevor and Kat, personal trainers and former 'fuck buddies' whose relationship is put back under the spotlight with the arrival of wealthy depressive Danny (Kevin Corrigan). In truth, Corrigan - a perfect storm of self-loathing and emasculated manhood - steals the show while the two leads - for all their skills as actors and comic performers - never quite convince as a couple. It's a shame because writer/director Bujalski's film is, for the most part, charming and funny while offering an interesting spin on a tired genre.

Rating: WW

Available now on DVD and VOD

Mia Madre

(director: Nanni Morretti)

Nanni Moretti might be one of Italy's most celebrated directors but this semi-autobiographical drama about a filmmaker emotionally unraveling as her mother's health deteriorates is a bit of a slog. Mia Madre (My Mother) has some perceptive things to say about grief and mortality, and John Turturro works overtime to lighten the mood, but overall this is a ponderous piece of work that is easy to admire but difficult to like.

Rating: WW

In cinemas and on VOD now

Ratings

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