Film Review - Paddington 2

Paddington (Ben Whishaw) is hurtling down Peruvian jungle rapids when spotted by Lucy (Imelda Staunton) and Pastuzo (Michael Gambon) who are perched comfortably above the water eating Marmalade sandwiches. Lucy shimmies down to pluck the cub out of the water sensing immediately that he will become family as the rescuee immediately munches happily on a marmalade sandwich. The scene shifts ahead to Windsor Gardens, London where older Paddington resides with the Brown family. He is the link that makes his neighbourhood go searching for the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday. He finds it in Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent) antique store a rare and thought lost pop up book of London which fits the bill as Aunt Lucy has always wanted to come to London.

The Browns take Paddington to Madame Koziova's circus where Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant) a washed up one-man show performer has opening duties. He calls on Paddington to assist learning of the pop-up book that he knows is worth more than the price Paddington is expected to pay. Paddington takes a job in his neighbourhood washing windows in a unique manner to raise the funds to meet the price that Mr. Gruber has put on the book.

The CGI team lead by the CGI artists from Rodeo FX is key in bringing Paddington to life. He interacts fluidly with the live actors not looking even a little bit out of step. The Art department shows their prominence early as Paddington flips open the pop-up book dropping into it as its pieces begin to move ushering Aunt Lucy into London harbour on an ocean liner. The also craft the Brown neighbourhood along with another unexpected local where Paddington unexpectantly spends a lot of time during the piece. Director Paul King puts all of the elements together spinning a yarn that is very much in the Wes Anderson realm especially in the venue of Paddington's unexpected pit stop.

Sally Hawkins leads the human cast as Mary Brown. She is the family matriarch very welcoming to Paddington and a key figure in helping the bear out when he gets in a serious jam. It's also intriguing to see her character tied closely to water for her second outing in a row following her turn in Shape of Water. Julie Waters is effective as Mrs. Bird the sage family housekeeper that is the first to sniff out the true nature Phoenix Buchanan. As Phoenix Buchanan Hugh Grant continues a recent run of impact full smaller roles. Look for Brendan Gleeson as a key player and ally of Paddington when he hands in a spot where he never thought he would end up.

Paddington 2 has solid lessons for kids and adults alike. The narrative speaks to the strength of family, being true and locally to friends and that kindness triumphs over cruelness. The storyline is straightforward but engaging featuring strong work from the below the line departments mixed with a strong ensemble cast making it a film that I can highly recommend.

*** 1/2 Out of 4.

Paddington 2 | Paul King | UK/ France /USA | 2018 | 104 Minutes.

Tags: London, Window Washing, Barbershop, Pop Up Book, Master of Disguise, Prison Sentence,  Marmalade.

Film Review - Darkest Hour

Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) became Prime Minister of Britain in May 1940. World War II was raging with the Germans about to take Belgium and France. The British troops were being pushed back to Calais and Dunkirk. Other Parliamentarians led by his likely successor Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) and the recently deposed Neville Chamberlain ( Ronald Pickup) want Britain to sue for peace. Churchill has to decide whether to fight on or enter a brokered deal with Italy to get the best deal possible for Britain.

Director Joe Wright focuses on those few days in May in the film. On the home front, his wife Clemmie (Kristen Scott Thomas) supports him when he has doubts but is quick to challenge when he is getting out of line especially when dealing with his personal secretary Elisabeth Layton (Lily James) whose appearance is historically inaccurate but the role effective to the plot. Wright alongside writer Anthony McCarten push the thread of Churchill being out on a limb wanting to wage war to the end opposing the appeasers who felt that fascist Mussolini and Hitler would give Britain a fair deal.

This is Gary Oldman's film with the great support of the make up department who worked on Oldman long before anyone else reached set each day meaning that the rest of the cast only saw him in full Churchill persona. Oldman's dialogue, mannerisms, walk and diction are dead on. He is particularly effective when dallying in one of Churchill's two extremes mumbling inaudibly or bellowing at the top of his lungs. Ben Mendelsohn continues a run of strong performances as King George VI. It's notable to see pictures of the current Queen as a kid in his quarters. Bertie goes from seeing Churchill as reckless, dangerous and scary to the only person that can make it possible for him to stay in Britain and see the view from his balcony at Buckingham Palace.

Darkest Hour chronicles key moments in the last century that if things went differently the world would not be as we know it today. Gary Oldman delivers the best portrayal of a historical figure since Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln. The scrip has some inaccuracies and a bit pedestrian at times but a worthy  study of a person that stuck by his minority opinion buoyed by his decision to consult ordinary parliamentarians and the people themselves.

*** Out of 4.

Darkest Hour | Joe Wright | UK | 2017 | 125 Minutes.

Tags: World War II, Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement, Winston Churchill, Boer War, Gallipoli, Adolf Hitler, Calais, Dunkirk, Operation Dynamo.

levelFilm Review - Badsville

An unidentified time in the near past is the setting for April Mullen's latest film Badsville. The film is a tribute to 50's greaser gang culture where the worst fate a gang member would likely face is a severe beating.  Wink (Ian McLaren) is the leader of the Badsville Kings who are on top for the moment in their never-ending battle with the Ace's. He has a goal of making it out of the deadened town succeeding where no other gang member has done before. He discusses it with old-timer Lucky Lou (Emilio Rivera) who remarked that no one got out from his era. He is the last one left of his crew, all of the others are dead inducing Wink's dad. Wink also has a soft spot for pre-teen Sammy (Gregory Kasyan) who has a junkie mom fed by Wink's unstable right-hand man Benny (Benjamin Barrett).

The story starts out down familiar territory that the viewer has seen before in other gangland member stories. But writers McLaren and Barrett who play the two King's leads shift course first with the powerful first appearance of Mr. Gavin (Robert Knepper) a Lucky Lou era Acer disciplining his son who was on the wrong end of a beating from Wink. The film explores difficult family, friendship and economic issues for a group of people in a space seeming destined to repeat the same rivalries, living and loving patterns one generation after the other.

Wink finds a solid reason to get out after meeting Suzy (Tamara Duarte) who makes him feel better when she's around for the first time since forever. Suzy is in town visiting her cousin Helen (Chelsea Rendon) escaping a serious situation of her own back home. But he has to balance his wishes with his loyalty to the Kings which is put to the ultimate test by a situation engineered by Benny.

AJ Gallardo's original music fills the spaces between the dialogue giving a dusty tinge to the town's settings as the Kings drink whiskey in between fights or drags of a cigarette. McLaren's and Barrett's complicated relationship as Wink and Benny is at the centre of the piece. They have known each other forever but are very different especially in their approach to Winks' mentee Little Cat / Sammy. Robert Knepper puts forth another world wind bad guy performance as Mr. Gavin while Tamara Duarte turns the head of every young male in the place as Helen's mysterious cousin Suzy.

Badsville is a dark violent, story of people from the wrong side of the tracks. Wink literally walks along train tracks heading to his job as a dishwasher. ballads give the piece flavour supporting a narrative that builds as it progresses. McLaren and Barrett offer a different interpretation of a familiar subject that is well worth a look.

*** out of 4.

Badsville | April Mullen | USA / Canada | 2017 | 97 Minutes.

Tags: Gang, Crew, Family, 50's Era, Greaser, Rumble, Smack, Wife-Beater T, Cigarettes, Pick Up Truck, Legacy, Escape.

Film Review - The Post

The relationship between the media and politicians is an every changing dance that has a particularly high position in the American experience. The first amendment to the document that set the country finding principals was to ensure the freedom of the press. In the time before the setting of the film editors and publishers dined with Presidents, Cabinet Secretaries, and congressmen both sides knowing  that they would likely not print anything to hurt their friends. All this changed during the Vietnam War and into the early seventies as the country was bogged down in a foreign war halfway around the world with no sitting President wanting to be the one to concede defeat for the first time in American history.

The Pentagon Papers were the result of a study commissioned by Defense Secretary McNamara on the history of the U.S. role in Indochina. When the report came back unfavourable McNamara who was former counsel for the Washington Post continued to portray that the war was winnable and going as planned. Academic Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) objected to McNamara's position taking the copy of the study from his employers office at Rand Corporation leaking it to New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan. The Times decision to print the documents turned the paper into an enemy of the Nixon White House singling out specific journalists for vitriol in the Oval Office. An Attorney General cease and desist order shut the Times down sparking the tracing of a source by Post reporter Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk) landing the Post with 4000 pages of the papers with 12 hours to sort, vet, write, proof and decide if they should publish.

Meryl Streep is firmly standing at the top of her craft in the role of Kay Graham. She finds herself at the head of the family paper built by her legendary father then handed over to her husband who met with an untimely end. Graham is often in a room full of men who placate but don't respect her often leaving her to take counsel that doesn't have the newspaper's best interest in mind. Bob Bradlee (Tom Hanks) knows that the paper can grow to national status but to do so its leaders can't put personal Washington relationships ahead of the paper's obligations to the public. It's the first time Streep and Hanks have shared the screen and from their first scene together for a breakfast meeting in a swanky Washington power room the audience can see that they are in for an acting masterclass. Bob Odenkirk continues his acting renaissance as Ben Bagdikian the reporter that follows the breadcrumbs of the Times source to the doorstep of his former Rand co-worker Daniel Ellsberg.

Director Steven Spielberg gets off the fence and takes a side with this film. Departing from his last couple of outings in the director's chair that played it pretty much down the middle. Here he's against the notation that the role of a paper is to protect government secrets instead it's to serve the interest of the American people. Spielberg often chose to go without music in the piece a choice that helps the viewer to focus on the monumental importance of the events as they unfold. The side that Spielberg plants his flag is that of the Supreme Court in their July 71 decision very timely today as the current occupant of the White House often sees the media as the enemy and like Nixon tries to bring the power of the Presidency to bear against those in the press that dare attempt to hold the government to account.

***1/2 Out of 4.

The Post | Steven Spielberg | U.S.A. | 2018 | 115 Minutes.

Tags: Vietnam, New York Times, Washington Post, Stock Offering, National Security, Espionage Act,  Supreme Court, Rand Corporation, Leaking, Lemonade.

Film Review - Phantom Thread

A deep dive into the world of high fashion houses in 1950's London is the setting for Director Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film Phantom Thread. In Thomas and actor Daniel Day-Lewis you have a paring unequaled in their ability to immerse themselves in a subject. Mix in little known to North American audiences Vicky Kripis the Luxembourgian actress whose previous work has mainly been in French and German cinema as the muse and British stage and screen Grand Dame Leslie Manville to complete the four sturdy pillars supporting the project. Day-Lewis is Reynolds Woodcock head dressmaker of a world famous design house clothier of the upper crust of England, Europe, America and the world at large. He even has groupies that approach in restaurants pleading to one day purchase one if his dresses then a desire to be buried in that dress. Reynolds does not pass up the chance to take a shot at his dismissive sister Cyril (Leslie Manville) remarking that she would be quick to dig up the dress to sell it again. Woodcock meets Alma (Krieps) on a winter weekend trip out of town while his sister Cyril dispatches the last muse that Reynolds had grown tired of.

Anderson noted that the idea for the film came to him after he was sick in bed and his wife cared for him in such a loving manner. He found Krieps by stumbling across a little known German film The Chambermaid and Day-Lewis, of course, he directed in his Oscar winning role of Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. Anderson scrip it detailed and particular lingering on every aspect of the dressmaking process including a lengthy scene in the first act of Reynolds taking Alma's measurements for the first time with Cyril writing over a dozen numbers down in a notebook. The film is also obsessed with tight spaces from Woodcock's two-seater sports car that he often drives too fast to attic type sets where Reynolds applies his craft bringing his drawings to life on Alma's frame while she boasts that no one can stand for longer.

There are some comedic moments in the piece especially when the dressmaker whines about distractions or seemingly minor occurrences or alterations to his routine. His quirks are challenged by both women with Cyril plainly announcing the peril he will face if choosing to pick a fight with her. The best of these moments occur at the breakfast table with Reynolds drawing in his sketchbook while in his mind Alma loudly butters her toast or pours hot water from a high altitude.

Phantom Thread is a study in how a person who needs no one comes to realize by the not too subtle act of another that he does at some points, he must slow down to do other things. The film is superbly acted backed by an absorbing script and visual eye of the director. The luscious score composed by Jonny Greenwood featuring the London Philharmonic sets the tone and mood of a time that is modern enough and recognizable to today's audience but does not have the early stages of any electronic devices that would look dated. It's a fitting last statement from Lewis if the rumors are true featuring a deathblow to the word "chic" that I highly recommend.

**** Out of 4

Phantom Thread | Paul Thomas Anderson | USA | 2018 | 130 Minutes.

Tags: Fashion House, Dress Maker, Brother-Sister, Muse, Taking Measurements, Dreams, Ghost, Wedding Dress, Belgium, Countess, Princess, New Year's Eve, Mushrooms, Chic.