FILM REVIEW: ANOTHER YEAR

Mary (Lesley Manville) in Another Year.

Leigh light

By John Esther

In the latest film by esteemed British writer-director Mike Leigh (Naked; Vera Drake; Happy-Go-Lucky), the family unit is tight but woe to those surrounding it.

Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and Tom (Jim Broadbent) make for a happily married couple of many years. They have a son, Joe (Oliver Martman), who comes to visit mum and dad on occasion. He is not married and neither are Gerri and Tom's unstable friends, Mary (Lesley Manville) and Ken (Peter Wright), whose chronic imbibing only makes them less charming than when they are sober. Unmarried Mary and bachelor Ken are rather envious of Gerri and Tom, though Mary is far more obvious about it. She is so desperate to be a part of the family she flirts hard with Joe and when he brings an adorable girlfriend, Katie (Karina Fernandez), one autumn day – to the surprise of his parents -- Mary is rude to Katie. Fortunately, Katie can hold her own, which makes Mary look even stupider.

Broken into seasons, Another Year is marked by typical traits of a Mike Leigh film: solid direction, snappy dialogue, solid acting from many Leigh regulars, and characters who never know when to shut up. Unfortunately, this is nowhere as good as his other films. It might be Leigh's worst film. That is not the worst thing you can ever say about a film by a filmmaker as efficient and prolific as Leigh, but it is disappointing. Some of the dialogue is contrived, especially an exchange between Mary and Tom's brother, Ronnie (David Bradley), which is downright exasperating. And Manville's performance as ditzy, disheveled drunk is way over the top.

However, in a season full of films with distressed couples (Little Rose; Rabbit Hole; Blue Valentine; The Tourist)) and lonely people (Aftershock; Black Swan; Somewhere; Biutiful; True Grit) filmgoers searching for a happy family in a film – beyond those Hollywood Little Fockers films – do not need to wait another year.

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FILM REVIEW: FOUR LIONS

Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) in Four Lions.

Roaring with laughter

By John Esther

If you can appreciate farce through annihilation and death a la Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb or Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, then Four Lions is probably a very good movie for you.

A multiple winner at various prestigious film festivals, co-writer/director Chris Morris' film focuses on a group we do not usually associate with anything remotely funny: jihadists. Set in a contemporary, heavily surveillance city in England, Omar (Riz Ahmed) is disgusted by the treatment of Muslims around the world and western vulgar materialistic consumption. So the only logical response is to blow him self up into heaven – and he is the brains of the organization.

Omar's puppet, Waj (Kayvan Novak), is a tea party-like dupe unable to decipher reality from the falsehoods and inherent contradictions his master tells him. Dumber than Waj – if you can believe that is possible -- is Faisal (Adeel Akhtar), a bearded man who poses as a woman and tries to train birds to carry bombs to specific targets (poor birdie). That this idiot can make a bomb is scary, but he is nowhere as crazy as Barry (Nigel Linday), a Caucasian who thinks it would be a good idea to blow up a mosque because…well, you have to hear him explain it. It is the sort of convoluted logic only a rightwing extremist can concoct.

While two of them unsuccessfully -- to put it mildly -- train in Central Asia, Barry recruits Hassan (Arsher Ali), a wannabe renegade rapper with a few financial resources, into the group.

From the opening moments, Four Lions gets off to a hilarious start. The actors have great timing and the script by Morris, Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain rips a laughter hole into a type of mentality that wishes most of us dead. "Joking is a sign of weakness."

Yet as the movie propels itself forward, the farce takes on a sense of tragedy as these five men become seriously violent threats. Laughter becomes a little more difficult when you start feeling a pit in your gut. Sure you can laugh it off, but there is something far more human about this movie than just making fun of fanatics. Extremists are funny, but by god-less, they are far more dangerous. Their stupidity is a grave threat, but that stupidity is probably the only thing really protecting us from them, but for how long?

To be clear, this movie is not an attack on Muslims (We can rely on an extremist "news" network headquartered in the U.S. for that.). Four Lions is an attack on violent extremists who happen to be Muslim (these five guys seem to know nothing about the Koran). And they are not the only ones who take a hit in the film. Everybody, from crusader to cop, negotiator to next door nut (Julia Davis), takes a licking while the time is ticking off.

Hilarious, smart, touching and brave, Four Lions is a highly likely selection for my Top Ten Films of the Year list.

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FILM REVIEW: DOWN TERRACE

Bill (Robert Hill) and Karl (Robin Hill) in Down Terrace.

Paranoia will destroy ya
 

By Don Simpson

Karl’s (Robin Hill) mother, Maggie (Julia Deakin), and father, Bill (Robert Hill), run a crime syndicate in Brighton, England. Bill is a middleman of sorts between the big wigs in London and the small time crooks in Brighton. This not-so-average middle-class family has issues on a normal day -- Karl has severe anger management issues and throws tantrums that would make a 2-year-old blush, Bill is overtly patronizing and condescending, and Maggie is the queen of passive-aggressiveness -- so when the additional stresses of a possible snitch and an unplanned baby are added to the mix, their already fiery personalities begin to combust.

Down Terrace commences as Karl and Bill return home after a frustrating court case involving Karl. We are never given any specifics about the trial but Karl and Bill seem certain that one of their cronies must have ratted Karl out. Before any additional information can be leaked, the usual suspects are called to their house in the guise of celebrating Karl’s release. Over the course of two weeks, the parade of visitors partake in mass quantities of booze, marijuana, Alka-Seltzer and tea...lots and lots of tea. Apparently this family cannot do anything without a warm cuppa tea in their hand. (The Kinks’ “Have a Cuppa Tea” kept popping into my mind.) All the while, Karl and his parents’ paranoia festers uncontrollably.

Karl’s 27-year-old  girlfriend Valda (Kerry Peacock) shows up at their house pregnant with -- at least according to Valda -- Karl’s baby. Bill and Maggie do not trust Valda, but Karl does. This creates a tremendous rift between the 34-year-old son and his parents.

The relentless domestic bickering during the first half of the film quickly switches gears in the second half; the mood darkens and things turn brutally violent. As the body count skyrockets an absurdest humor takes control -- like when Bill’s trusted hit-man, Pringle (Michael Smiley), brings his toddler (Kitty Blue) along for a job. Things spiral so far out of control that it is very easy to assume that the film will conclude with no survivors.

Down Terrace's heavily improvised script (penned by Ben Wheatley and Robin Hill) is delivered quite naturally -- almost to a fault (the actors’ propensity for mumbling and swallowing their lines may prompt many Americans to cry for subtitles) -- and is chock-full of ultra-dry humor. Laurie Rose's manic pseudo-documentary handheld cinematography, filmed almost entirely in Robin Hill's childhood family home, adds to the brutally hyper-realistic kitchen sink milieu. (Also note that Bill is played by Robin Hill's real-life father and Valda is played by Robin Hill's wife.)

This ultra-low-budget film -- shot in a mere eight days -- is like a Martin Scorsese crime flick injected with the Coen Brothers’ dark humor as directed by Mike Leigh. Cast primarily with non-actors, director Wheatley’s cinematic debut does suffer at times from some inconsistent characterizations; but otherwise Down Terrace is a refreshingly novel take on the British crime movie.

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ANAHEIM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: SKELETONS

Bennett (Andrew Buckley) and Davis (Ed Gaughan) in Skeletons.

Bones about it

By Don Simpson

Bennett (Andrew Buckley) and Davis (Ed Gaughan) are two British guys in suits who are trained to exorcise the proverbial skeletons from people’s closets. The duo traverse the lush rolling green hills of the British countryside until they find a home that matches a hand-sketched picture.

Once they find their destination, they interview their clients and acquire the required signatures and waivers. Then, it’s on with the business at hand. They use a device resembling a Geiger counter to detect the closet (or wardrobe) where the skeletons are hiding; then with magic rocks and fire extinguisher in hands and goggles strapped on, they dive into the surreal worlds where only the deepest darkest secrets reside. It is important to note that this is a task that must be done in pairs as going solo into the dark recesses of people’s memories (especially one’s own memories) has been proven to cause mental problems, even turning one’s brain to mush.

Written and directed by Nick Whitfield, Skeletons is a brain teasing comedy with highly intelligent dialog brimming with deadpan humor and a plot that requires some mental gymnastics on the part of the viewer. (I sense a strong affinity for Monty Python and Terry Gilliam…maybe even some David Lynch.) Whitfield’s cinematic eye is as squeaky clean as his knack for dialogue.

(Skeletons screens Oct. 15, 7 p.m., Oct. 16, 10 p.m. at UltraStar Cinemas at Anaheim GardenWalk. For more information: http://anaheimfilm.org/index.html)

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