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Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? - Berlin 2014: first look review
2 hours ago
Michel Gondry tries to get to grips with Noam Chomsky's philosophical and linguistic theories in this entertaining, part-animated interview
Here is an intriguing proposition: a filmed encounter between scatterbrained film director Michel Gondry and the distinguished linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky. With its subtitle "an animated conversation", you know that Gondry won't be restricting himself to the traditional head-shot interview format, and that proves to be the case: much of Chomsky's musing is illustrated with squiggly, hand-drawn graphics that do a nice job at elucidating some of the more rarified concepts that are aired. Moreover, Gondry occasionally interjects with amusing voiceovers: apologising for his poor English, his difficulties with the animation, and the like.
The conversation itself sticks largely to Chomsky's work in linguistics and philosophy – we don't get Chomsky-the-fashionable-political-activist, but rather we dip a toe in his real achievements in academia. The title, it turns out, refers »
- Andrew Pulver
Dallas Buyers Club – review | Mark Kermode
2 hours ago
Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto deliver Oscar-worthy performances in the unlikely story of a redneck with Aids and a transgender activist
Terrific performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto elevate this socio-medical drama out of the realms of the ordinary into something quietly remarkable. While McConaughey's dramatic weight loss may make attention-grabbing headlines, there's much more to his performance than the mere shedding of 30-odd pounds. Continuing the reinvention (dubbed the "McConaissance") which has seen him lay the ghost of grizzly romcoms such as Failure to Launch with harder-edged roles in Magic Mike and Killer Joe, McConaughey is utterly convincing as the ravaged rodeo redneck who is given 30 days to live after being diagnosed with Aids, but who stubbornly refuses to lie down and die. Despite very strong competition from Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave, odds are that McConaughey will take the Oscar for best actor next month, with »
- Mark Kermode
Between labelling Woody Allen a child molester or his daughter a liar, I feel utterly stuck | Victoria Coren
4 hours ago
Dylan Farrow's accusations of sexual abuse leave me in a miserable moral conundrum
Let us assume – because it might be true, even in these daunting internet days where columnists find themselves answerable to an impossible audience of potential millions – that you are a typical Observer reader. Like me.
If so, you're probably a Woody Allen fan. You love his wordy, nerdy artistry; you think he's gone off a bit in recent years but hope Blue Jasmine signals a return to form.
You are also facing a horrible conundrum, thrown up by the open letter published by Allen's adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, repeating allegations of childhood sexual abuse – allegations that Allen again denied yesterday.
You don't need to be Alec Baldwin or Cate Blanchett (specifically named by Farrow as collaborators in Hollywood's failure to reject her alleged abuser) to feel that you should take a view. Farrow challenges Woody Allen's audience, »
- Victoria Coren Mitchell
Rupert Evans: 'I'm obsessed with digital radios'
4 hours ago
The actor, who appears in the new Ian Fleming biopic, is a big fan of technology but does not think it makes him happier
How has technology changed the life of an actor?
Our work, particularly in film and television, has become more and more last minute, so technology is vital. It has made us much more flexible. I've reduced my paper output massively by reading scripts on iPad. Researching roles, especially historical ones, is a lot easier online. I've just done Lucan on ITV, so spent a lot of time surfing the web, reading up on my character, painter Dominick Elwes. Auditioning over Skype is becoming a lot more common too. My latest job was Rogue, an American cop drama with Thandie Newton, and I had to do a Skype meeting with the showrunner for that.
Are there any apps to help you learn your lines?
Yes, there's one called Line Learner, »
- Michael Hogan
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty – review | Mark Kermode
12 hours ago
A bewildering tale of a love foretold mixes animation, Q&As and stop-motion footage to humorous effect
Where to start in describing Terence Nance's wildly ambitious multimedia chronicle of a love foretold? Mixing (what looks like) authentic home movie footage with psychedelic animation, on-screen text (redacted and scratched), public Q&As, bookish chapter headings, interrogative narration and an entire short film (How Would You Feel?), which is wound, rewound, screened, discussed, reinvented and dismissed within the course of the main feature, this is mind-boggling fare indeed.
But for all the outlandish invention and formal obfuscation, there's an overriding sense of honesty as Nance investigates an on/off relationship that he may or may not be having with his on-screen co-star, while simultaneously deconstructing his own film-making process. It's funny, too, both in its observations about the lovelorn mania of human behaviour and its deadpan poking at Nance's tortured soul. »
- Mark Kermode
Mr Peabody & Sherman – review | Mark Kermode
12 hours ago
This DreamWorks' tale of a boy and clever dog's time-travelling adventures is endearingly shambolic
Based on a recurrent segment from the late 1950s/early 60s TV series The Bullwinkle Show, this heavily trailed animation looks like a very wobbly idea indeed; a young boy, adopted by a super-intelligent dog, embarking on adventures through history with the aid of a homemade time-travelling machine. Images of the dismal Free Birds leap to mind.
Pleasant to report, then, that DreamWorks' latest offers a fairly consistent stream of sight gags and vocal slapstick, even as the plot veers wildly down a wormhole in the time-space continuum. At its best, it has a shambolic Bill and Ted charm, with assorted archaic icons (Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, the Trojan horse) being tossed around amid the colourful chaos by Lion King co-director Rob Minkoff.
Rating: 3/5
AnimationMark Kermode
theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. »
- Mark Kermode
The Patrol – review | Mark Kermode
12 hours ago
A former soldier's award-winning film about disillusioned troops in Afghanistan is impressive
Writer-director Tom Petch picked up film of the festival prize at last year's Raindance bash with this gritty and downbeat account of British soldiers serving soul-destroying time in Afghanistan. Drawing on his own experiences of life in the army, Petch paints a convincing picture of demoralised troops; bitching about the shabby state of their weaponry, losing faith in the judgments of their superiors, generally disenchanted with risking life and limb in a war that is not their own.
Cinematographer Stuart Bentley shoots the Moroccan locations with enough grit to sand over the sometimes uncertain performances, and the wearing tedium of conflict is effectively evoked, broken occasionally by bursts of violence that are rightly harrowing.
Rating: 3/5
DramaMark Kermode
theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to »
- Mark Kermode
RoboCop – review | Mark Kermode
12 hours ago
RoboCop is reborn as a latter-day Tin Man in José Padilha's effective remake of the 80s cult classic
After the dunderheaded remake of Total Recall (lift shafts through the centre of the Earth? Wtf?), genre fans had every right to be trepidatious about a retooling of RoboCop. The departure of Darren Aronofsky, who was confirmed to direct back in 2008, along with troubling reports about new incumbent José Padilha's fights with the producers, added to the air of doom and despondency. Yet against the odds, this emerges as far less depressing fare than one might have expected, retaining the key elements of political satire (fascist law enforcement) and philosophical musings (man v machine) that powered Verhoeven's original.
Stepping into Peter Weller's shoes, Joel Kinnaman provides the fleshy body parts, which are duly encased within a cybernetic suit – a cynical ploy to get round regulations outlawing robot "weapons" on American soil. »
- Mark Kermode
The Invisible Woman – review | Mark Kermode
12 hours ago
Felicity Jones is mesmerising as a young actress whose affair with Charles Dickens is told in flashback in Ralph Fiennes's adaptation of Claire Tomalin's book
Ralph Fiennes may be the director and star of this handsomely mounted tale of the private life of Charles Dickens, but it's Felicity Jones who makes it fly. She plays Nelly Ternan, a young actress of indeterminate talent who captures the author's eye and heart, but wrestles (philosophically, morally, practically) with the idea of becoming his mistress.
Seen in flashback from the perspective of the now married Nelly, tormented by the memories of her affair, the story unfolds in chilly but engaging fashion, with Abi Morgan's typically insightful script taking its lead from Claire Tomalin's book.
At the heart of Nelly's dilemma is a gender inequality that Morgan's screenplay lays bare; the progressive "freedom" from marriage that Dickens and cohort Wilkie Collins »
- Mark Kermode
Bertie Carvel interview: 'I overthink everything'
12 hours ago
After 650 show-stealing turns as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical, Bertie Carvel is about to star in Channel 4's new comedy drama Babylon. Though some of the Trunch's truculence remains…
I'm standing on Bertie Carvel's doorstep in Leeds. He is perched in the city temporarily while filming the BBC's new drama, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an adaptation of Susanna Clarke's novel. He shows the way to the lift, apologising for "living like a bachelor". He points out the canal view, volunteering that when playing Miss Trunchbull in the RSC musical of Roald Dahl's Matilda – the role for which he was nominated for a Tony and won an Olivier – he lived on a houseboat.
Miss Trunchbull, in case you missed her, was a hammer-throwing schoolmarm, a despot with a colossal bosom, hunchback and steel-grey chignon who lived by the motto: Bambinatum est maggitum (children are maggots). Carvel's »
- Kate Kellaway
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
12 hours ago
(Jacques Demy, 1964, StudioCanal)
One of the enduring attractions of the French New Wave is what is now thought of as Jacques Demy's seaside trilogy – three bittersweet musical films on the themes of love, loss and life not turning out the way you expect it to, all with recurring characters and taking place in ports on the Atlantic coast. All three are designed by Demy's school friend Bernard Evein with music by Michel Legrand.
The first, Lola (1961), Demy's directorial debut, is a cleverly patterned fairytale set in his native Nantes and stars Anouk Aimée as a golden-hearted nightclub prostitute reunited with her former love and is stunningly shot in black and white by key nouvelle vague cameraman Raoul Coutard.
The other two, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), are both in imaginatively used colour and pay homage to the Hollywood musical, most especially the films of Vincente Minnelli and Stanley Donen, »
- Philip French
Babylon: How Brian Paddick helped Danny Boyle put the Met on TV
12 hours ago
As C4's controversial police drama airs tonight, a former senior officer at the Met talks about his role as adviser
by Maggie Brown and Vanessa Thorpe
Brian Paddick, once at the heart of the Metropolitan police during some of the most contentious and high-profile operations of recent years, is now helping to steer a radical new TV treatment of the force, directed by the Oscar-winning Danny Boyle.
Paddick, now a peer, is a key adviser on Babylon, which goes out tonight on Channel 4. The drama, starring James Nesbitt, comes at a time of renewed scrutiny of London's police, following the conviction last week of the officer involved in the Plebgate scandal and continuing investigations into police relations with the tabloid press.
Boyle, the film and theatre director who masterminded the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, has chosen the Met as the subject for his first major venture in TV. Babylon »
- Maggie Brown, Vanessa Thorpe
Woody Allen denies Dylan Farrow's bitter sex abuse allegations
14 hours ago
Daughers public renewal of child abuse claims has brought a detailed answer from the director, but no sign of resolution
The 20-year rift between Woody Allen and his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, has deepened into a sordid and painful battle of words this weekend following the film director's unprecedented personal statement carried in the New York Times on Saturday.
Allen made a lengthy denial of fresh, direct allegations that he was guilty of child abuse in the early 1990s, arguing that his estranged daughter had been coached into making the claims by her mother, his ex-partner Mia Farrow.
In turn, Dylan Farrow, now 28, told the Hollywood Reporter on Saturday: "I have never wavered in describing what he did to me. I will carry the memories of surviving these experiences for the rest of my life."
Although the 78-year-old director said his statement would be his last word on the subject, »
- Vanessa Thorpe
On my radar: Claire Tomalin's cultural highlights
14 hours ago
The award-winning biographer on the best thing she's read this year, the superior pleasures of radio, and a treat to come at the National
Claire Tomalin began her career as a journalist, working as literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times before making her name as a biographer. Her first book, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, won the Whitbread first book award in 1974, while The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, and Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man are among her other award-winning biographies. Tomalin's 1991 play, The Winter Wife, was based on her biography of Katherine Mansfield and performed at the Lyric Hammersmith. She also edited and wrote an introduction for Mary Shelley's children's book, Maurice, published in 1998. The Invisible Woman, directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes and based on Tomalin's book, is in cinemas now. »
- Leah Harper
Guy Lodge's DVDs and downloads
14 hours ago
Superb performances from Tom Hanks as a hijacked skipper and the late James Gandolfini as a disillusioned divorcee are among this week's DVD highlights
For an ostensible Everyman, Tom Hanks has a performer's hunger to please that has shone through some of his most stoic roles. That eagerness, however, is suspended to marvellous effect in Paul Greengrass's titanium-tough tension exercise Captain Phillips (Sony, 12), in which Hanks plays the real-life skipper of an American cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates with nothing to lose. Emotionally bare and physically distressed, Hanks looks palpably out of his depth, and the result is his best performance – unlucky not to receive one of the film's six Oscar nominations. (Riveting newcomer Barkhad Abdi, playing the invading captain, was more fortunate.) It's a formidable fist of a film, yet not even the best Somali pirate thriller of 2013 – happily, its remarkable Danish twin A Hijacking is available on Blinkbox, »
- Guy Lodge
The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq
15 hours ago
This playful account of the French author's 'abduction' purports to show what happened during Houellebecq's 2011 disappearance
Michel Houellebecq, the award-winning French novelist who has left a trail of outrage in his wake over his views on sex, Islam, and western civilisation, here steps confidently in front of the camera for what can only be described as a hybrid fictionalised self-portrait. Written and directed by Guillaume Nicloux, and perhaps taking its cue from Houellebecq's recent novel The Map and the Territory, in which the writer ends up getting murdered, the film entertainingly elaborates on Houellebecq's brief vanishing act in 2011 while on a promotional tour for that very book.
Nicloux's "revelation" is that Houellebecq failed to show up for his readings because he had been abducted by three brothers - on the orders of a mysterious third party - and held for ransom in a small house in the country. Well, it's a theory, »
- Andrew Pulver
The Monuments Men – review
16 hours ago
George Clooney's second world war art-recovery thriller falls well short of the required levels of action or excitement
• George Clooney's Nazi art theft film attacked for ignoring real-life British war hero
George Clooney's latest directorial endeavour â€" a putative second world war thriller about a special Us army unit dedicated to rescuing art works looted by the Nazis â€" has landed with a thud and a splutter at the Berlin film festival. You might expect audiences here to be a tad sensitive about films portraying their compatriots as irredeemable civilisation-destroyers, but that's actually the least of The Monuments Men's problems. Filled with unearned patriotic sentiment, sketchy to the point of inanity, and interrupted every few minutes with neurotic self-justification, this displays none of the nimble-witted sleight of hand, nor indeed old-fashioned suspense, of Argo, the last historical caper movie with which Clooney was involved.
Part of »
- Andrew Pulver
How to get ahead in film-making
8 February 2014 5:45 AM, PST
A new short film competition, Vivid Digital, offers entrants the chance to get their work noticed – not least when it is screened on a 15m video wall in the heart of the City
Do you miss Screen Test and its young film-makers' competition? Discovering a talented director without the guiding hands of Messrs Rodd, Trueman and latterly Curry is like panning for gold in YouTube's river of piano-playing cats. What's more, funding films – never mind getting potential film investors to look at your work – can be a trial for aspiring directors and writers.
Enter, then, Vivid Digital. Aside from putting prize money and a commission up for grabs, this new short film competition has the wider aim of showcasing work by up-and-coming film-makers in a location where they could conceivably attract investment for future projects – namely, the heart of the City.
Curated by consultancy Art Acumen, the year-long art programme has three categories – film, »
- Celine Bijleveld
Matthew McConaughey: from prince of the romcom to Oscar contender
8 February 2014 12:58 AM, PST
Actor known for swashbuckling, wisecracking roles has muscled in on Hollywood's top table with role in Dallas Buyers Club
With the Academy Awards taking place on 2 March, a once almost unthinkable name has edged to the front of the best actor pack: Matthew McConaughey, once the bronzed clown prince of the romcom. His film Dallas Buyers Club, which hits British cinemas this weekend, has already won him top prizes at the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards. The Oscar narrative, for what it's worth, has his name pencilled in.
He plays Ron Woodroof, a roguish character with Aids who starts importing drug treatments, and generated many faux-concerned tabloid headlines for his gaunt appearance. His performance is far more than mere body shock, however.
"It's such a compelling, grand performance, that it bursts out of the seams of the film," says Danny Leigh, of the BBC's Film 2014. "It's »
- Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Joaquin Phoenix on heartbreak, rejuvenation and Siri
8 February 2014 12:48 AM, PST
There's a four-year hole on the actor's IMDb page after Walk The Line. But rather than playing games, he's given himself the freedom to make more interesting movies
Around halfway through I'm Still Here, the 2010 documentary chronicling Joaquin Phoenix's short-lived rap career and apparent retirement from acting, he undertakes a shambolic press junket, snapping when a journalist asks if it's all a hoax. "It's hard not to get offended, because you're talking about my life," barks Phoenix. "As if my life's a fuckin' joke to you."
It's moderately disconcerting, having recently watched that sequence, to be here in a hotel suite with Phoenix, another journalist talking about his life. When I enter the room, though, he's standing. His hair long from filming Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, he's seemingly ego-free, loose and engaged, joking around from the off. Throughout the interview there's never a sense that he's humouring me, »
- Alex Godfrey
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