Tag: Judi Dench

Review: Cats

Before anything else, we must agree that Cats has always been seriously weird. Despite that, it’s one of the biggest musicals of all time, with the original West End run lasting for a then record-breaking 21 years. It was a Jellicle choice and the public made it repeatedly.

Tom Hooper, who previously helmed Les Misérables in 2012, is not the first to attempt to bring Andrew Llyod Webber’s megamusical to the screen. David Mallet’s 1998 direct-to-video production is pretty much an edited recreation of the stage play, whereas Hooper and co-writer Lee Hall (Rocketman) set their cats loose in a digital playground of a neon-coloured fever dream.

Loosely based on the poems of T.S. Elliot, even those familiar with the musical will probably acknowledge that the narrative doesn’t make a lick of sense. After a young cat named Victoria (ballet dancer Francesca Hayward) is thrown sack-first into an alley, she gets drawn into the world of the Jellicle Cats on the night of the Jellicle Ball where they must make the Jellicle Choice of which of them will ascend to a new life on the Heaviside Layer.

Got it? You’d be forgiven for exclaiming, “What the hell is a jellicle?” before hearing the word (a bastardisation of “dear little”) several hundred more times. Based on a series of nonsense poems for children, the film follows the musical by essentially showcasing each of the characters in turn as they sing their stories for Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench). Presented in this way in a film, it’s a swirling morass of ideas and songs that don’t necessarily connect in a logical fashion. It’s either an artistic collage or the most messed-up variety show you’ll see this year.

On a pure technical level, this is arguably the most digitally assisted musical since Moulin Rouge. From the opening shots, Hooper’s London is a surreal explosion of ideas glimpsed from cat height. At the moment the first cat person appears on screen, our brains don’t quite connect the human faces with the ‘digital fur technology’ and ears that make up the rest of their bodies. The overall effect is quite jarring, a kind of “uncatty valley” if you will.

While oversized props are used to maintain the cat eye view of the city, at other times the technology being used to shrink people just looks out of place. At its most benign its some dodgy green screen work. At its most disturbing, Rebel Wilson peels off her fur suit to reveal another suit underneath, orchestrating a troupe of computer-generated mice and cockroaches with human faces. That’s just two songs in. That sensation you feel in your throat is the urge to scream in sheer terror after glimpsing the abyss.

The hero songs range from the silly (Wilson on “The Old Gumbie Cat”), to the reworked (Jason Derulo as “The Rum Tum Tugger”) to the sheer fun (Danny Collins, Naoimh Morgan and Hayward on “Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer”). “Beautiful Ghosts,” a new song co-written by Weber and Taylor Swift (who appears briefly on “Macavity” opposite the eponymous villain Idris Elba) is quietly emotional and fits in nicely with the familiar numbers.

If anything detracts from its impact then it’s only the proximity to “Memories,” delivered multiple times by the powerful voice of Jennifer Hudson. While the character feels like a side-story for much of the film, when Hudson steps into the spotlight it’s pure theatre. On the flip side, a finale (“The Addressing of Cats”) sung by Judi Dench seems to go on forever.

The thing about CATS is that if you’re in, then you’re all in. Nonsensical ear-candy is kind of the name of the game, and the faithful will have already bought the tickets to the next session. Yet the rest of us may find ourselves pinned against our seats, eyes wide and jaws open for 110 minutes wondering what the hell we just saw.

2019 | UK/US | DIRECTOR: Tom Hooper | WRITERS: Lee Hall, Tom Hooper| CAST: Francesca Hayward, James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 26 December 2019 (AUS)

December 19, 2019
Review: Red Joan

Melita Norwood may not be a household name, but her backstory is the stuff that spy fiction is made of. Which probably explains why director and theatre veteran Trevor Nunn (Lady Jane) has turned it into a film. The arrival of the British media on the Bexleyheath doorstep of the then 87-year-old Norwood in 1999 brought the former civil servant to the world’s attention, so it’s a shame that the telling of that tale isn’t as gripping as its inspiration.

RED JOAN opens in May 2000 with the arrest and interrogation of Joan Stanley (Judi Dench), a character very loosely based on Norwood. The elderly Joan recounts her past as a young physics student at Cambridge (depicted by Sophie Cookson) where she is drawn into Communism and radical left politics by friends Sonya (Tereza Srbova) and sometimes lover Leo (Tom Hughes). As her psychics knowledge gets her into top secret projects under the brilliant Max (Stephen Campbell Moore), her allegiances are tested.

When you hire Dame Judith Olivia Dench for a motion picture, you should make damn sure you use every inch of her talents. While the acclaimed actress is only used for the narrative framing device, most of her appearances are Nunn cutting to Dench looking tired in an interrogation room. Cookson, who is most recognisable from her supporting role in the Kingsman series, carries most the film.

While the trappings are a spy thriller, the core of the story is a love triangle between Joan, Leo, and Max. While one can’t begrudge screenwriter Lindsay Shapero for this narrative shortcut, it is disappointing that a promising story of a young woman caught between science and country is represented by the two men in her life. It robs her of significant accomplishments, not least of which was a young female scientist being involved in one of the most classified projects of the Second World War.

RED JOAN is ultimate a portrait of someone who had a misguided sense of moral correctness. When caught, Joan Stanley argues that she only wanted Russia to be on an equal scientific footing with the West to avert further atrocities like the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet it’s a drably told tale, one that misuses its otherwise excellent cast, and rarely gives us a reason to pin our allegiances one way or the other.

2019 | UK | DIR: Trevor Nunn | WRITER: Lindsay Shapero | CAST: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes | DISTRIBUTOR: Transmission (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 5 June 2019 (AUS)

June 7, 2019
Review: Murder on the Orient Express

What more can be said about what is arguably one of the quintessential whodunnits of the 20th century? In his 10th outing for Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot came fully formed for the definitive “locked room” mystery. Yet with Kenneth Branagh’s take on MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, the delicate control of Christie is abandoned in favour of something more chaotic.

Michael Green’s script marks its point of difference early on, opening with Poirot (Branagh) fussing about over some boiled eggs in Jerusalem before rapidly solving a case involving a priest, a rabbi, and an imam. Crafted to show his almost inhuman abilities to solve crimes, the rest of the narrative follows Christie’s text relatively closely. On a break between cases, Poirot boards the titular train, unseasonably filled with an eclectic group of travellers. When the sleazy industrialist Ratchett (Johnny Depp) is murdered, everyone is under Poirot’s carefully executed suspicions.

Perhaps inspired by Guy Ritchie’s hyperkinetic take on Sherlock Holmes, the bumbling, CG-fueled mashup of influences is a period piece with a thoroughly ultra-modern sensibility. Make no mistake: for all of its acclaim, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS was always a silly story. Even Christie tired of Poirot after a time, but still wrote him as an irresistibly compelling detective. As Poirot awakens from his slumber wearing an ornate mustache protector, it’s clear fidelity wasn’t necessarily on Branagh’s mind.

What this modern take does give us for the first time is a glorious set of frozen 70mm landscape shots from Haris Zambarloukos (Denial), juxtaposed as they are with unnecessary computer generated images. It might allow for more period detail, but this is more or less a single-setting thriller. Everything else feels more than a little bit extraneous, including the dashing chase sequences and fisticuffs.

Branagh is delightfully over the top as Poirot, although once you’re affixed on his magnificent mo it’s impossible to take in anything else on the screen. Perhaps this is the greatest bit of distraction in cinema history. In fact, everybody finds the scenery delicious, from Michelle Pfeiffer practically purring her way down the aisles, to Willem Dafoe’s proto-Nazi. Only Derek Jacobi, as a long-suffering valet, manages to bring any sense of subtlety to his performance.

Repeated references to Poirot’s lost love “Catherine,” a rare bit of backstory that perhaps alludes to Christie’s Countess Vera Rossakoff, indicates that the studio has bigger plans for the character. Indeed, a winking nod to another Poirot tale bookends the mystery, hinting that the story isn’t quite over yet. However, this mostly soulless outing might just mean that the train has run out of steam before it even leaves the station, and it will take a fair bit of coal to stoke the fires for future films.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIRECTORS: Kenneth Branagh | WRITERS: Michael Green | CAST: Kenneth Branagh, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley | DISTRIBUTOR: Fox (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 9 November 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]

November 9, 2017
Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

There’s a fine line between having a cinematic style and constant retreads, and it’s one that Tim Burton has been walking for decades. In fact, he’s smashed through it on a number of occasions. While the last half-decade has produced the financially successful, but critically questionable, Alice in Wonderland, it’s also shown that Burton is a filmmaker that often gets mired in the same Gothic sameness of Dark Shadows. He’s even reworked his own material with Frankenweenie, a remake of one of his earliest shorts. Despite a brief foray into biography with Big Eyes, Burton’s latest falls back on familiar aesthetic trappings, forcing the source material’s innate charms to find their own way into the light.

Based on the books by Ransom Riggs, we follow 16-year-old Jacob “Jake” Portman (Asa Butterfield) following the mysterious death of his grandfather Abe (Terrence Stamp). Convinced that the stories Abe told him about monsters and special children were real, he and his father (Chris O’Dowd) travel to an island off the coast of Wales to find the remnants of Miss Peregrine’s (Eva Green) Home for Peculiar Children. Transported to a loop in time where the 3 September 1943 plays out like Groundhog Day, Miss Peregrine protects for her “peculiar” children, who each possess various abilities through a genetic mutation, from Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) and his evil Hollows.

Despite the Burton frippery, MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN is a very conventional film in terms of its overall narrative. That’s not to say that there isn’t an imaginative series of set-pieces. After all, this is a film that has a child with a mouth in the back of her head, another with a beehive in his stomach, and yet another who can resurrect the dead with a seemingly infinite supply of hearts he carries around. In particular, the scenes surrounding the aerokinetic Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell) creating pockets of air inside a sunken ship are quite spectacular. Yet Jane Goldman’s script feels tethered to convention, just as the light-as-air Emma is grounded by lead shoes and rope. The film almost ambles through its first two acts before reaching the inevitable confrontation, knowing that it had to tick off certain touchstones and just making the check-boxes a little larger.

The cast is a mixed bag, or a peculiar lot if you prefer, with Butterfield and the usually reliable O’Dowd presenting some of the more distracting performances. Both UK-born actors give “American” accents that are not only geographically inconsistent, but ones that regularly slip throughout the film. Of the children, only the seasoned Purnell (Maleficent, Kick-Ass 2, Never Let Me Go) manages to warrant any emotional investment. Green is outstanding, and possibly the best thing in the film as she slips effortlessly back into Burton’s world, conclusively proving that she is the master of throwing shade on screen.

Burton’s film will undoubtedly remind you of other adapted franchises, not least of which are the X-Men and Harry Potter films. This is to be expected when you are dealing with homes for children born with special abilities, and a young man who suddenly finds out that he belongs to that world. That said, while it may be derivative, at least in a way that all stories share some commonality, there’s an indefinable charm that compels you to stay a while longer.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2016 | US | DIR: Tim Burton | WRITERS: Jane Goldman | CAST: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O’Dowd, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp, Ella Purnell, Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson | DISTRIBUTOR: 20 Century Fox (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 127 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 29 September 2016 (AUS), 30 September 2016 (US) [/stextbox]

September 28, 2016
Review: Skyfall

A measured and stylish Bond film that takes us back to the very roots of the character and the franchise.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Skyfall (2012)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Sam Mendes

Writer: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan

Runtime: 143 minutes

Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Ben Whishaw, Albert Finney

Distributor: Sony

Country: UK/US

Rating (?): Highly Recommended (★★★★)

More info

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In the first four decades of James Bond films, the various filmmakers have taken us on a journey from the sublime to the ridiculous, increasingly upping the ante on explosive mayhem and gadgetry. Indeed, it was at the point where the films had become a parody of themselves that 007 got a post-Bourne refresh and were brought back down to some semblance of reality with Casino Royale (2006) with the introduction of Daniel Craig to the role of Bond. Having now successfully carved out a niche for the series as serious action dramas once again, Skyfall aims it take it up a notch with Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes injecting unexpectedly dark drama into the twenty-third outing of the world’s most famous spy on his fiftieth anniversary.

On a mission in Turkey to retrieve a stolen data packet containing the details of all of the undercover NATO agents in terrorist organisations, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is accidentally shot by fellow agent Eve (Naomie Harris) and goes missing, presumed dead. As a result of the leaks, MI6 head M (Judi Dench) comes under fire from the government, with Intelligence and Security Committee Chairman, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) urging her to retire. However, when former MI6 agent Silva (Javier Bardem) attacks the very heart of MI6 in London, Bond comes in from the cold to fight once more as a solider of the British Empire. Yet like M, he begins to struggle with his place within a modern world, wondering if he still has what it takes to hunt in the shadows.

Thoroughly and unapologetically British, Skyfall mostly takes place within the borders of the Queen’s domain, apart from three particularly spectacular sequences in Turkey, Shanghai and Macau. It’s part of a broader approach of stripping Bond back to his most basic elements, from his love of Empire to his old-fashioned nature in a world of modern espionage. It’s not the first time that Bond’s relevance in the 21st century has been questioned, but it may be the first time since On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) that somebody has asked what would happen if Bond was stripped elements at his core. More than this, it forcibly knocks out the rarefied air that the Bond films have breathed for the last fifty years, ensuring that not just Bond but the whole MI6 organisation has to become accountable to the real world. In the light of some very recent scandals in British and America spy politics, this firmly grounds Skyfall within reality, just as Casino Royale set out to do over half a decade ago. While the film skirts dangerously close to making it seem a little too procedural at times, screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan (two-thirds of whom co-wrote Craig’s first two Bond outings) keep the film above water by using this reality to heighten the dramatic tension.

On the opposite end of the scale is Bardem’s villain, delightfully scene-chewing and practically cat-stroking his way through one of the more outlandish Bond villains of the modern era, a deformed mix of Hannibal Lecter and allegedly Bond’s own historical villain Jaws (Richard Kiel). With a hairstyle only rivalled by his singular coif in No Country For Old Men (2007), his Silva gleefully tells Bond that “Mummy has been very bad” while making sexual advances on the captive 00 agent. Indeed, this is a well-rounded cast, where even the smallest of parts makes a significant contribution to the whole, and in some cases sets up future developments for the series. Fiennes’ minor antagonist makes several dramatic changes throughout the film, surprising. The new Q (Ben Whishaw) is ideally cast as a young tech-geek, making a clear break from the befuddled quartermasters before him. Bond girls come in the typically feisty (Harris) and fatale (Bérénice Marlohe) variety, and for once are there for the overall betterment of the narrative.

For long-time Bond fans, there are many rewards to be found in the deliberately delayed final act. In many ways, it is a distinct entity from the rest of the film, taking place almost entirely in Scotland and giving the film a clear line-of-sight to Sean Connery. The film characteristically lurches from high-concept to the slicker demands of suits and cocktail parties. Yet as Skyfall works its way to a DIY siege in the final reels, Mendes and his team prove that Bond still has a few surprises up his tuxedo sleeve after all these years.

Skyfall is released in Australia on 22 November 2012 from Sony.

November 17, 2012
Two New Trailers for Skyfall Arrive

Coming Soon and Sony have released new US and international (Australian) trailer respectively for the latest James Bond film, Skyfall. In them, we get our first look at a blonde Anton Chigurh…er…Javier Bardem as the new Bond villain Silva. Sony has also sent us a hi-res photo of Bardem in character.

Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. Daniel Craig returns as James Bond, and is joined by Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Helen McCrory, Ola Rapace and Tonia Sotiropoulou.

Skyfall will be released in Australia on 22 November 2012 from Sony.

[jwplayer config=”Custom Player” mediaid=”72123″]

Australian Trailer:

August 1, 2012
First Sam Mendes Video Blog and New Image for Skyfall

With all of the other big releases between now and the middle of the year, it’s easy to forget there’s a new James Bond film coming out at the end of the year, and it’s being directed by Sam Mendes.

007.com has released the first video blog for the film, along with a new photo of Judi Dench on set as M.

Daniel Craig is back as James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Skyfall will be released in the US on 9 November 2012 and in Australia on 22 November 2012 from Sony.

February 22, 2012
Review: My Week with Marilyn

Marilyn Monroe lives again as cinema continues to consume its own history in this brief and flirtatious peek behind the lenses of the Golden Era.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”My Week with Marilyn (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Simon Curtis

Writers(s): Adrian Hodges

Runtime: 101 minutes

Starring: Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Emma Watson, Judi Dench, Julia Ormond, Dougray Scott

Distributor: Roadshow

Country: UK

Rating: Worth A Look (?)

More info

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Despite no more than a dozen starring roles in the 1950s and 1960s, the woman raised as Norma Jeane Baker still continues to capture the public’s imagination in her persona of the late, great Marilyn Monroe. Ranked as one of the greatest female screen performers of all time, she died young enough to forever be remembered as a goddess of the silver screen. Yet her personal life was just as glamorous and chaotic as the musical comedies she became famous for, and even in death she remains a mysterious and enigmatic figure. Based on two diary accounts by Colin Clark, The Prince, The Showgirl and Me and My Week with Marilyn, the film takes a small slice of Monroe’s life and views it from the inside-out.

It is the summer of 1956, and Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) is desperate to work on a film set. He gets his chance when Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond) convinces husband and director Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) to give him an assistant director position on The Prince and the Showgirl, a new film to star the director and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams). Arriving in England to great buzz with her new husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), the shoot is not exactly a smooth one. When Miller leaves, Marilyn takes comfort in the company of Colin.

The last year has seen the film industry look long and hard at itself, from the decline of silent film in The Artist to the rediscovery of it decades later in Hugo. My Week with Marilyn looks at the tail end of another system, one where new stars like Monroe threatened the old guard thesps and shook them out of their complacency. Much of the earlier part of the film concentrates on Clark and Olivier, with Monroe frequently referenced on seen in test footage. The tactic pays off, for the arrival of Michelle Williams both on screen and on the fictional set as Monroe is a moment to savour, with her performance being one of the things that makes the movie stand out from a sea of similarly plotted biopics.

Williams doesn’t simply look the part, but embodies the contradiction that was Monroe. She may not be quite as stunning, or as curvy, as the subject she is portraying, but she captures the era and the essence of the showgirl. Her speech patterns border on the caricature at times, but it is not long before we are seeing the starlet spring to life again, especially in the recreation of several famous sequences from the The Prince and the Showgirl. More impressive is Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, a perfect bit of casting if ever there was one. Branagh’s early career was offered compared to the man he plays here, but rarely has Olivier been seen with such heartfelt humility. Eddie Redmayne should also be praised for standing out in a group that is also made up of the likes of Judi Dench and Julia Ormond, rounding out the cast with sincerity and earnestness. It’s not all good news though, with Emma Watson still no closer to showing any talent after eight Harry Potter movies.

My Week with Marilyn is a picturesque snapshot of an era, filtered through the memoirs of an individual who lived through them. Whether that makes them unreliable is almost irrelevant, as the film is just as much about the end of an era as it is about the people in it. The narrative is sometimes a little uneven, and if we are reminded once we are reminded a dozen times by various characters that Marilyn was the “greatest actress” of her time, and it could just as easily be a television biopic as a big screen outing for all the melodrama.Yet Monroe’s story is undeniably compelling, and this small portion leaves us craving more of the authentic stuff.

[stextbox id=”custom”]The high-calibre of acting and superb cast makes this straightforward biopic of a period worth a look, but nothing beats the original classics.[/stextbox]

My Week with Marilyn is released in Australia on 16 February 2012 from Roadshow Films.

February 15, 2012
Review: J. Edgar

Following a few reflections on his own life and career, Clint Eastwood tackles the life of J. Edgar Hoover, once the most powerful man in the United States and still a figure of controversy.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”J. Edgar (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Clint Eastwood

Writer(s): Dustin Lance Black

Runtime: 137 minutes

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Noami Watts, Judi Dench, Josh Lucas

Distributor: Roadshow

Country: US

Rating: Better Than Average Bear (?)

More info

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Clint Eastwood’s career in front of the camera has only been matched by his successful transition to one of the most critically praised American directors of the last few decades. Although we don’t get to see him on screen as much these days, with the exception of the superior Gran Turino, his steady hand continues to impress as a filmmaker. However, with last year’s mortality-centric Hereafter, many started to wonder if the elder statesman was beginning to lose his touch. With J. Edgar, Eastwood is back on more familiar turf.

J. Edgar is told in a fractured narrative, one in which an idealistic but serious young John Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) yearns to prove himself as a figure of power. The film divides its time between the young man who managed to rise to the top of the fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation, driven by his stern mother (Judi Dench), and an aged Hoover (still DiCaprio under heavy prosthetics) who has lived his life amidst a sea of lies and obfuscation. It’s an unreliable memoir, told largely by the figure himself, but not one without a justifiable bit of sensationalism.

With J. Edgar, Eastwood continues his late career musings on the impermanence of life. While Hereafter focused on the collective human (melo)drama, J. Edgar‘s focus is the legacy one person can leave behind. One the one hand, Hoover was seen as a pioneer in streamlining procedure , and the central organisation, processing and forensic analysis of evidence. The origin of the modern CSI in many ways! Yet he also had dirt on everybody, a paranoid man who used his power for his own purposes. J. Edgar the film asks the big questions about what is left behind after a life is done. Given the trajectory of Eastwood’s films of late, one can’t help bunt feel that he may be reflecting somewhat on his own life and career.

J. Edgar does occasionally get mired in the sensationalism, with Dustin Lance Black‘s (Milk, Big Love) screenplay choosing to focus on the major events in Hoover’s life. It’s a whirlwind tour from the Bolshevik Bombings of 1919 and 1920, where Hoover’s crusade against communism began, his role in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case, the famous bakrobbers of the 1930s (including Dillinger) and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Pretty much everything in the 1940s and 1950s get skipped over, but this is necessity in a life-spanning saga such as this. In fact, Black’s script manages to get a career that spanned almost 50 years into just over two hours, and the highlights reel is a powerful one. Some knowledge of American history is perhaps necessary going in, and it more than occasionally comes off as self-important, but Eastwood’s vision of J. Edgar is a compelling one.

The central performances are mostly top-notch, with the simultaneously persuasive and paranoid Hoover shaped largely by his religious mother, who matter-of-factly states that she would rather have a dead son “than a daffodil”. DiCaprio’s performance is solid, overcoming the gimmick of the excellent prosthetics and delivering a vision of a troubled soul in a position of power. For the central vision of J. Edgar is about the man, and not simply the major events that made up that life. Much of the emotional core of the film comes from his relationships with his two most trusted companions, his lifelong secretary Helen Grady (Noami Watts) and protégé Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), with whom the closeted Hoover shares an unconsummated romance. It is their scenes that are often the strongest, filled with knowing glances and longing touches, although these too sare sometimes hampered by some clunky dialogue and Hammer’s age makeup on the verge of melting off his face in a few unfortunate Raiders of the Lost Ark moments.

As the film has the biased narrator of J.Edgar himself, via a motif that sees him writing his memoirs, it is up to the audience as to how much of the film is to be taken on face value. The ultimate test of a biopic is whether we have learned anything new about the protagonist by the time the lights come back up, and J.Edgar brings us a few steps closer to understanding what drives a young man who is interested in card cataloguing to become the most influential lawman of the twentieth-century.

[stextbox id=”custom”]Although this may be a self-important biopic, and doesn’t have quite the scope of an Oliver Stone equivalent, Eastwood’s reliable camera shoots Hoover in a new light, providing a view of the politics of fear and individual interest that still resonates in today’s climate.[/stextbox]

J. Edgar is released in Australia 26 January 2012 from Roadshow Films.

January 26, 2012
Sony reveals plot for James Bond’s Skyfall

Sony has unveiled the first bit of plot detail concerning the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall, released just in time for the film’s golden jubilee. It might be brief, but this is the first word we’ve had on the plot for the new 007 adventure, which has been tactically stingy with the details until now.

[stextbox id=”grey”]Daniel Craig is back as James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.[/stextbox]

Even with that, we don’t know too much, but it it is interested to see that this will be an M-focused adventure, giving the mighty Dame Judi Dench a chance to do a bit more than sit behind a desk.

The 23rd James Bond adventure will be produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and directed by Sam Mendes, Skyfall stars Daniel Craig as James Bond 007, Javier Bardem, Dame Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Helen McCrory, Ola Rapace and Ben Whishaw.

Skyfall will be released in the US on 9 November 2012 and in Australia on 22 November 2012 from Sony.

January 17, 2012