Say When (2014)

Written for RAF News November 2014

Say When follows Megan (Keira Knightley) a 28 year-old suffering from a severe lack of motivation who realises that she is floating through life with the same friends from prom, the same high-school sweetheart (Mark Webber) and an unused college degree. All growing up around her and settling down, Megan has to find what she wants from life and where she belongs – landing strangely enough in a group of 16 year-old kids.

At her friend’s wedding, shortly following their first dance (a cringe-worthy piece of choreography set to some soft Daniel Bedingfield) Megan is proposed to herself. Feeling the pressure she makes her excuses and leaves the party, bumping into a group of teenagers who need someone to buy them alcohol, fronted by the strangely confident and level-headed Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz).

As strange as it would seem to have an adult female bonding with kids over skateboards and some illegally bought beers, the chemistry of these two actors make the interaction seem almost believable, or at least they make the believability irrelevant. Still fearing the decisions she has to make back home, Megan tells her now fiancé that she wants to take a week at a self-development centre before they elope, when in actual fact she crashes at Annika’s house. This would be simpler if it weren’t for Annika’s probing father, played by Sam Rockwell with a charm that dovetails perfectly with the strong female cast. While supporting cast Ellie Kemper and Kaitlyn Dever carry the majority of laughs through the film with their respective touches of prudishness and self-assurance.

Director Lynn Shelton has stressed the importance of believability in her films, and though Say When features some highly unlikely turns, which lead to a string of unlikely events, the central performances keep it grounded and charming.

November 5, 2014 0

guarantor (too many mikes not enough mcs)

I get hot-headed sometimes

usually when I’m wearing hats

I heat the roof to stave away the cats

apparently they’re not too fond of hot tin

I got some glaswegians to stop them coming in

but I can’t be sure they’ve clocked in

cas after all who watches the scotchmen?

kenny rogers just dropped in

says his lodgers are starting to cost him

I told him that before he calls the cops in

he should call michael myers first

voice of shrek and face of kirk

he might be a killer

but he married an axe murderer

I can’t say I know her

cas I’ve never even heard of her

but she must get lonely at the end of october

October 31, 2014 1

The Calling (2014)

Written for RAF News October 2014

The humble town of Port Dundas, Ontario sees its first murder in four years, which Detective Hazel Micallef (Susan Sarandon) supposes is the work of a serial killer. This is no mystery for the audience as we are soon introduced to the murderer (Christopher Heyerdahl): an intense yet softly spoken preacher of sorts. Now it is up to Hazel and her new partner (Topher Grace) to track him down before the spree continues.

With a strong headed female detective on the trail of a murderer in this snow-covered humdrum town, the film begins as Fargo, drained of its humour and left frighteningly austere. As the police start to work a religious angle that ties in local murders it becomes something more akin to Seven – just without the tension.

Hazel is painted a cold, pill-popping alcoholic toughened to the point of being allergic to flowers. Sarandon doesn’t seem the right fit, neither do the other big names of the cast, rather it is Gil Bellows whose performance stands out as Hazel’s combative partner. All other characters seem to fall flat or go to waste, including Donald Sutherland’s answer-providing priest who appears to explain the motive of the killer – the why – and considering we know the who from early on the slow pace seems unnecessary.

In the opening of the film when Sarandon stumbles upon the first victim, a family friend who is found with her throat cut to the point of near decapitation, it seems that that what is going to follow is a dark cat and mouse thriller – but we soon learn that this is an anomalous bit of action in a larger melodramatic film.

Shaken from their stupor it is hard to imagine how boring the town must have been before this advent, as even the pursuit of a murderer is somehow made dull and uninteresting.

October 14, 2014 0

20,000 Days on Earth (2014)

Written for RAF News September 2014

A conceptual music documentary that follows Nick Cave on the supposed 20,000^th day of his life as he reflects on the past and ponders the meaning that he finds in performance.

Through a number of constructed set-pieces, the film frees itself from the duty of capturing authenticity and presents instead something more fitting of the Melbourne-born, now Brighton-based performer. And though Cave has many strings to his bow by way of his music, poetry and writing, he says that he can’t act. Perhaps it is this quality that gives the film a sense of realism without the need of shaky hand-held cameras.

Interviewed by a psychoanalyst on a set, under lights too bright, Cave remembers his father and reveals his biggest fears, namely: losing his memory. This set-up – a staged performance – is fitting of Cave, managing however to capture an honesty, which also explains the purpose of this documentary. The film seems to be an attempt for Cave to capture the past, to reflect on his purpose in performance, or in life perhaps, all captured in this dreamlike construct that appears at once self-aggrandising and self-aware – a humorous angle on the inevitable pretension that usually follows an artist talking about their art.

The fictitious day in which Cave journeys into the past and has happenstance meetings with old friends (Ray Winstone, Kylie Minogue among them) whilst driving his black Jaguar XJ, is fitting of the performativity that Cave talks about so passionately. At one point he reads from an old diary that contains rants about the weather of bleary old Brighton. He says of these writings that they are based on truth but ultimately a lie; a dramatisation. Following this, it seems that the film too is fantasy. One which is personal enough to reveal his thoughts on the transformative power of performance, but without ridding of its potency or tarnishing the image that he has come to embody.

A little more arty and knowingly contrived, the film playfully subverts the typical fly-on-the-wall music documentary, managing to create something more self-aware and yet somehow more sincere.

September 24, 2014 2

Let’s Be Cops (2014)

Written for RAF News September 2014

A buddy cop bromance with two guys pretending to be cops but careful to clarify that they are manly and heterosexual at that.

Ryan (Jake Johnson) and Justin (Damon Wayans Jr.) are bickering thirty-year old friends, afraid of going nowhere until they find themselves in police costumes at what turns out to be a masquerade party. Turned out onto the streets they stumble upon the power that apparently comes with a uniform and enough self-belief. Ordering people to do as their told and with hordes of loose women throwing themselves at them, the allure of being policemen is hard to give up. Evidently: with great power comes no responsibility.

Ryan seems to find his purpose in life and so commits to the role buying a cop car and all the appropriate accessories from eBay. Adopting the role fully and dragging along his friend in order for him to man up and be more assertive, the two end up in easily avoidable trouble with some frighteningly typical Russian villains.

A lot of the story and the characters are cartoonish, a point which is restated with constant physical comedy. The cocksureness of Ryan is the catalyst for all the action in the film whilst Justin is relied on for comic relief: playing flamboyant for laughs with funny voices and effeminate tendencies until he is told to man up; or rather be less of a bitch. The homophobia underlying this central message makes the misogyny seem like an affectation of the film, and not simply the characters – which is worrying.

The film doesn’t ask to be taken seriously. That much is clear from the trailer or the title even. So if you can divorce yourself from seriousness and maybe a sense of morality, there are some laughs to be had. And a lot of two guys slapping each other.

September 10, 2014 0