ANOTHER Bigger Spash !

Now that the Oscar-bait movies are all released and on show, its good to see some interesting new international movies appearing here in London. I am very intrigued by the new A BIGGER SPLASH - no, not another Hockney - but Luca Guadagnino's new film which - intriguing for me - seems a remake of Jacque Deray's stylish French thriller LA PISCINE from 1969 which re-teamed Alain Delon and Romy Schneider with Maurice Ronet whose daughter was played by Jane Birkin - a very stylish murder story around that swimming pool.

This time around its Ralph Fiennes in it seems towering form (as he has been since Wes Anderson's THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL), with Tilda Swinton as a Bowie-esque rock star on holiday, who it seems stays silent after throat surgery, and with hunk de jour Matthias Schoenaerts as her lover. The daughter is Dakota Johnson (the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffiths, and granddaughter of Tippi Hedren). I loved Guadargnino's operatic melodrama I AM LOVE in 2009 - a modern Italian classic, where Tilda was amazing again (see Tilda label), so we are looking forward to this one -  Fiennes and Swinton are never less than compelling and both seem on top form here; we will be rushing to it when it opens here on Feb 12.
Guadagnino came out as gay in a recent interview, and one can definitely see a 'gay sensibility' in his work ... 

Another modern Italian classic I loved was Paolo Sorrentino's THE GREAT BEAUTY in 2013, so his new one, in English, YOUTH also has to be a must-see. I don't rush to Michael Caine films but will have to make an exception here, it also has a good role for Harvey Kietel and it should at least be interesting to see Caine and Jane Fonda (if they have scenes together) 50 years after their teaming in Otto's HURRY SUNDOWN back in 1966 ... what a lulu that was (Fonda label). This poster is not the one being used here in the UK.

Hilarious reading the reviews on DIRTY GRANDPA - maybe the worst film Robert De Niro has churned out in recent years? He is entitled to do as he pleases of course in his 70s, but hard to picture Travis Bickle of TAXI DRIVER or Jimmy Doyle of NEW YORK NEW YORK or his RAGING BULL or GOODFELLAS appearing in drivel like this ... surely he could have said no this time ? I suppose we will be laughing at it in due course ...... 

Bad Neighbours

"Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne's marrieds are exhausted in their new home with their newborn baby and their weariness is exacerbated by their rowdy new fraternity neighbours, led by cocky Zac Efron (who doesn't appear to have a comic bone in his buff body) and Dave Franco (funnier). A war of attrition ensues in another peurile comedy from the absurdly unfunny Rogen."

No, that is not me being snarky, but what one of the quality weekend papers said about this new dvd release. In my previous post on it, when the film opened here a few months ago, I quoted from the Sunday Times critic, a lady who does not mince her words - to recap: "BAD NEIGHBOURS is such an appallingly moronic comedy that will make anyone with a working pair of ears and eyes never want to see a film again. Rogen plays exactly the same character he’s ever played: a stupid, lubricious, fat loser paired with a woman who wouldn’t look at him twice in real life (because of course all schlubby guys in these kind of movies deserve hot girls) … this is a horrifyingly dumb mess that makes ANIMAL HOUSE look like Antonioni."

Well I would not have put it like that, but maybe we just don't get frat boy humour here in the UK, and of course this kind of movie is not made for my generation, but one has to feel sorry for today's kids if they really think this is funny. Zac was fine in THE PAPERBOY but is on autopilot here, and I saw Seth recently in THE GUILT TRIP, because it was a Streisand film, and the disk was a gift from a pal, who saw it and did not need to keep it. (See Seth, Zac labels for reviews).

I had actually been looking forward to this, but I barely laughed once - the De Niro party was a good idea but nothing was made of it, and its a grim plod towards the ending where Zac now works shirtless for Abercrombie, and Seth goes topless too. Rose Byrne comes off  best here - though she also gets her own gross-out moment. Perhaps she needs more quality control over her scripts though ... Lisa Kudrow amused too as the Dean. The IMDb comments on the film make some funny reading ... but you will forget it all immediately after seeing it. 

Sunday with Seth and Zac, The Beatles and Here's Grace ... and Kathleen !

Frat-boy fun: I got some criticism recently for reviewing Seth Rogen’s THE GUILT TRIP when I have no interest or appreciation of what passes for modern comedy these days, but I was only interested in THE GUILT TRIP (a friend passed me on his dvd, I wouldn’t have bothered with it otherwise) as it was a Barbra Streisand film, and I had been obsessed with Barbra from a long time, since my teens in the early 60s to about the time of her A STAR IS BORN in 1976. It amuses me that people like Seth Rogen are movie stars now, part of our dumbed-down culture no doubt. At least Zac Efron, Seth’s co-star in BAD NEIGHBOURS, is easy on the eye (as Seth says "its like a gay man created him in a laboratory") – as he was in THE PAPERBOY, but if he persists in making movies like this his screen stardom may suddenly start to decline - Taylor Lautner anyone? (I was wrong here - the film is a huge hit!). Here in the UK though we do not get SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE so this new breed of comedians and writers are mainly unknown to us, until their movies arrive here – I hadn’t heard of Kristen Wiig or Melissa McCarthy for instance until BRIDESMAIDS, more gross-out comedy. 

 Our SUNDAY TIMES film critic, Camilla Long, does not mince her words – here’s some of what she says about BAD NEIGHBOURS!. Every so often a film comes along that feels more like an elaborate aversion experiment than an actual film. BAD NEIGHBOURS is such an appallingly moronic comedy that will make anyone with a working pair of ears and eyes never want to see a film again. Rogen plays exactly the same character he’s ever played: a stupid, lubricious, fat loser paired with a woman who wouldn’t look at him twice in real life (because of course all schlubby guys in these kind of movies deserve hot girls) … this is a horrifyingly dumb mess that makes ANIMAL HOUSE look like Antonioni.  Way to go, Camilla!. 

It was Nostalgia Time with that tv show celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles "conquering" America in 1964 when they first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. This was THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED AMERICA, first broadcast in the States in February - it finally turned up here in the UK this May weekend! Cue a schmaltzfest of the great and good (thats you, Jeff Bridges) as, to our eyes here in Europe, a show of overkill re-worked those Beatles classics, with the two surviving Beatles, happily nodding along, along with Yoko and assorted Beatles wives and offspring. For me, Maroon 5 stole the show with a cracking "Ticket to Ride", and Ed Sheeran practically reduced one to tears with that simple and effective "In My Life" - what a lyric that is! particularly now after all these years. 
Steve Wonder did a neat "We Can Work It Out" while Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart over-egged the simple "Fool On The Hill", and Alicia Keys and John Legend tried to outsing each other on "Let It Be". It all finished with a predictable singalong to "Hey Jude". Good though to see Ringo celebrated along with Paul. Was it a good idea though for McCartney to finish with "I Saw Her Standing There"? Those opening lines "Well she was just seventeen, you know what I mean" could sound rather creepy sung by someone in his 70s with dyed hair!. Its a swaggering young man's song indelibly sung by John Lennon, the first track on their first album. Maroon 5 would have been perfect for it. 
 
And the paper's "must have reissue" in their music section. A welcome nod to Grace Jones' NIGHTCLUBBING, which I loved on vinyl and is now on the iPod. This though is a new double CD pack with booklet, which I have ordered and will arrive tomorrow, with lots of remixes of those classics like "Pull Up To The Bumper". My late disk jockey friend Rory would have loved it. As The Times says: "The biggest seller of Grace Jones' career is reissued in multiple formats, its chief surprise being her previously unheard take on Gary Numan's "Me! I Disconnect From You". It remains one of pop's most prophetic albums, the crack band assembled by Sly and Robbie creating mongrel music whose diversity was, in 1981, years ahead of its time, and Jones herself, on a sequence of covers and originals, taking vocal detachment and androgyny to a whole new level". 
I finally got to see Grace live over a decade ago in 2002 to be exact, at al all day festival in South London. She was topping the bill, after Yoko Ono, and finally came on as dusk fell, after keeping us happy clubbers waiting for over 40 minutes - and then blew us all away. The most astounding performer I had seen live apart from Nina Simone! 
Good to see the albums like ISLAND LIFE, SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM and those COMPASS POINT SESSIONS and her recent new album HURRICANE of a few years ago still out there. I like INSIDE STORY from 1986 with "I'm not perfect, but I'm perfect for you", and every track on LIVING MY LIFE is sublime, from "My Jamaican Guy" to "The Apple Stretching" to "Cry Now, Laugh Later" and "Unlimited Capacity for Love".Grace still rules in her sixties - as she did with her hula-hoop at The Queen's Jubilee Concert a couple of years ago! I am amazed that I can like Grace as much as I do Joni or Aretha or Dusty or any of the great divas. Perhaps Grace is the uber-Diva. 

Kathleen Turner gives great interview, either in print or on TV. She is in town again for another play here - one I do not know, THE BAKERSFIELD MIST as a trailer park woman who buys a painting cheap and it may turn out to be a Jackson Pollock. Kathleen was wonderful on the Paul O'Grady Show, and in some press interviews. Her voice is so amazingly deep now, and she has great attitude and humour, after coping with health problems. 
I was blown away a year or two ago when finally catching her stunning debut in BODY HEAT from 1981. What a stunner that is. I could watch it over and over, as per my review, at Turner label. 

Pedro is so excited, Francois is in the house, and where is the paperboy ?

A roundup of 3 recent treats:

DANS LE MAISON (IN THE HOUSE), 2012: Starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Fabrice Luchini. and from acclaimed director Francois Ozon, IN THE HOUSE is an unforgettable, blackly comic thriller. A sixteen year old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class, and writes about it in essays for his teacher - "to be continued". Faced with his gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, and finds himself strangely compelled as the boy becomes more dangerously involved with his classmate's attractive but bored mother. However, as the line between reality and fiction become blurred, the boy's intrustion unleashes a series of uncontrollable events.

Thats the blurb in a nutshell, giving a flavour of this unusal comedy - as we start to be unsure of what is real or imagined. I had to stop the film about half way through and could not wait to get back to it later. What was about to happen next? Is Claude going to make a move on Esther, his pal Rapha's mother (Elizabeth Seigner), or maybe even the father? (they shower after sport) and then the son kisses him, as the duplicitious Claude (excellent Ernst Umhauer) pretends to be his only best friend. Does he in fact want to supplant the son and have them as his new family with him at the centre? - 
or is this another take on Pasolini's THEOREM as Germain the teacher speculates. We know Claude's own mother walked out on him and his ailing father some time ago, so naturally he wants this new family to be his - he has been watching them and their house for a long time, wondering how to get in to it. But how is is all going to end? - the teacher's wife (KST) is worried she is going to lose her Art Gallery job (the art on show is amusing too...), as do the ideal family coping with their Chinese clients ..... will the son realise what is going on between Claude and his mother? Will the teacher go too far in blurring teacher-pupil boundaries? Does Claude actually want Germain (the teacher) himself?- then he calls on Germain's wife, who is also making changes ...

This is all absolutely fascinating and plays out nicely. Do see the final moments, a neat nod to Hitch's REAR WINDOW with all those apartments and different things going on in them as our two protagonists - teacher and pupil - watch and speculate ... don't miss the son who comes in and shoots his parents!  I loved Ozon's last, the deliriously comic POTICHE (it was fun seeing it again too recently, I enjoyed its '70s parodies a lot more), this one is another change of pace after those intense dramas like TIME TO LEAVE or UNDER THE SAND. (see Ozon/French labels). Fabrice Luchini (Mr Nasty in POTICHE) scores again here too. It is all simply delicious.  Good extras too and deleted scenes. 

Pedro's new one I'M SO EXCITED has not attracted such good notices and did not hang around. It is a rather leaden farce, with some amusing moments though. We have to allow Almodovar the occasional misfire, there is a lot to amuse though in this satire on Spain's economic crisis as we take to the skies ...

The action takes place above the clouds as the pilots of a stricken airliner battle to make it to Mexico City. In the face of danger the crew decide to forget their own personal problems and await their fate with a smile. They devote themselves body and soul to the task of making the flight as enjoyable as possible for the passengers - in first class at any rate. The ones back in steerage are sedated and drugged and have no say in what is going on (a comment perhaps on the Spanish economic situation) . Life in the clouds is as complicated as it is at ground level, and for the same reasons: sex and death. 

A few familiar faces here: Banderas and Cruz at the start, and Cecilia Roth from ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER and Javier Camara from BAD EDUCATION as one of the camp (very) air stewards. It is a sendup of the AIPPORT and AIRPLANE type of movies set in Almodovar's particular universe where anything goes. The plane is in trouble, and in true Almodovar fashion, everyone tries to bare their soul, find some relief, and enjoy themselves - even the pilots - bring on the drink and drugs. It may be just a silly comedy - but hey, enjoy it, even if it falls rather flat in the middle - at over 80 minutes it is mercifully not too long. More serious Almodovar soon, as I go back to THE SKIN I LIVE IN ! 

THE PAPERBOY.  Directed by Oscar nominee Lee Daniels, THE PAPERBOY  is the story of two brothers: Ward (McConaughey) a successful reporter, and Jack (Efron) a college dropout. Ward returns to his hometown to investigate the case of a wrongly convicted, but deeply unsavoury, man - who has been sentenced to death for murdering a sheriff. As the brothers dig deeper, it becomes clear that they are on a journey filled with lust and betrayal. THE PAPERBOY features an extraordindary performance from Nicole Kidman as the convict's wayward fiancee, and it also stars John Cusack, David Oyelowo and Macy Gray as the lovable maid Anita - yes, that Macy Gray who was a singing sensation a decade or so ago (I nearly wore out her first cd). 

So, a colourful ramble with some unsavoury characters through a Deep South swamp trash landscape - rather like KILLER JOE? Matthew McConaughey, on a roll after MAGIC MIKE and JOE (both reviewed at 2000s label), scores again here and Zac Efron is maturing nicely (I hadn't actually seen him in anything before) - and they get him down to his underwear frequently. Kidman - I had not wanted to see any of her recent films for ages - is terrific here, as the story is told by Macy. Ward has his own secret life too, as we discover when Jack has to rescue him from a pickup that has turned nasty ... It is good lurid fun with the cast challenging themselves in some staggering sequences - Zac shedding his boy next door image, Nicole pushing the limits .... The backwoods swamp milieu is fascinating too, as we get to that grisly ending. Daniels' THE BUTLER should be interesting too ...