Take this Waltz

Take this Waltz

Directed by Sarah Polley

Canada, 2011

Cornerhouse, 27 August 2012

It’s a chick flick – which is to say that there are elements of wish fulfilment, whimsy and unreality, and the male characters are little more than innocuous teddy bears – but one that’s stylishly made.

Our heroine Margot (Michelle Williams) meets a cute guy while working away on a copywriting assignment.  They travel back together, flirting a little, and it transpires that he lives a few doors down from her on the same street.  Trouble is, she is married, has been so for a fair number of years, so any romance is stymied from the get-go.  The relationship with her husband is fine – a few niggles and blindspots, as with any relationship, but fine overall.

With that, you have the bare bones of the movie: will Margot turn in her slightly rusty but still serviceable hubby for a new model that has caught her eye?  For some, this will be an intensely engaging and involving moral dilemma.  Others will view it as a question on the order of: should the girl get a new pair of shoes or shouldn’t she bother?  (And indeed, some may view this as a moral dilemma; I concede that point.)

While Margot considers her choice, an introspective song will occasionally play on the soundtrack.  As mentioned, it is a stylishly crafted film.

Shadow Dancer

Shadow Dancer

Directed by James Marsh

UK, 2012

Cornerhouse, 26 August 2012

Right until the final devastating act of violence – an act at once just and cruel and meaningless – this highly cinematic thriller grabs you fast and doesn’t loosen its grip.

She is mesmerising, Andrea Riseborough in the lead role, playing Colette, a conflicted IRA volunteer; and Clive Owen as Mac, her MI5 controller, is as good.  In fact, all the actors pull their weight – Aidan Gillen is another high calibre cast member – and the claustrophobic ambience of early ‘90s Northern Ireland – cobblestone streets with the houses piled on top of one another, densely smoky pubs, paranoid security precautions – is well conveyed.

For Colette and Mac, and pretty much everyone else, every choice has a cost and involves a betrayal of some kind.  The weight of history is an intolerable burden.  Colette’s survival eventually yields a terrible price and excluded from the political shenanigans for a negotiated peace, she strikes out in revenge.

After the dust settles, you realise that the moral choices have been as complex and compromised as the Northern Ireland situation itself.  That is most likely the main reason why it is such a satisfying film.

The Imposter

The Imposter

Directed by Bart Layton

UK, 2011

Cornerhouse, 25 August 2012

The Talented Mr. Ripley blended with Texas by the Tail would yield something of the flavour of this true crime documentary.

It is about a youth found in Spain who claims to be a boy who had been abducted in San Antonio some years before.  Although the Texas family accept him as their own (and aren’t they best placed to know their own son and brother?), doubts and objections about his identity are raised in due course.

However you cut it, it is a perplexing story and an inconclusive one in the end.  This despite the involvement of a real life, honest to goodness, belt-and-braces PI, a character James Crumley could have come up with.

Leaving the ‘mystery’ aspect to one side, the moral here could well be: ‘Beware of answered prayers.’  Sometimes it may be best not to have a family, to escape from their clutches or to place them to one side.  Give them a miss, pass on it.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Directed by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell

UK, 1943

Cornerhouse, 19 August 2012

There is no denying the brilliance of Pressburger and Powell’s film, evident right from the opening scene: the speeding motorcycles moving to a syncopated jazz rhythm.

We are in a modern, forever-on-the-move world; old customs and outmoded forms of thinking no longer apply.  That’s the implication.  The scene mirrors the main propaganda message of the film, released when Britain was still at war.  That message can be put like this: Britain had fought fair in wars in the past, but cannot now afford that luxury.  Now, against the Nazis, any means – fair or foul - must be used.  The risks otherwise are too great.

Now, one can question the accuracy of the claim that Britain had always fought fair.  In the First World War, the British had (contra Roger Livesey’s character Clive Candy) used gas warfare; and in fact Adolf Hitler was a casualty of one such attack, carried out on the night of 13 October 1918.  Of course, the Germans had, some three years before, introduced chlorine gas into the conflict.  On 22 April 1915, at Ypres, they launched the first such gas attack against French Canadian troops.

Anyway, the propaganda doesn’t unduly overwhelm the film, and these countervailing facts don’t severely undermine it.  It remains a marvelous film, beautiful and immersive, impossible to improve.

And, as for Candy (aka Colonel Blimp), you’ve got to admire a man who keeps a portrait of his wife on the same wall as his hunting trophies.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is showing again on Wednesday as part of the Matinee Classics season, further details can be found here.

Jackpot

Jackpot

Directed by Magnus Martens

Norway, 2011

Cornerhouse, 18 August 2012

 

This crazy crime caper holds one’s attention right to the end.

There is blood and gore aplenty, but no fear, it is all slapstick.  Just innocent, harmless fun.

The performances are terrific, with Henrik Mestad being particularly effective.  He plays a steely, unnerving and rather twisted police detective.  Many moments of quirky, black humour add spice to the film.

The plot is undoubtedly derivative – an amalgam of A Simple Plan and The Usual Suspects, that would be an approximate and apt summary – but it is infinitely entertaining.  And there are more twists and turns than you find in an authentic pretzel.

A big thumbs-up.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Directed by Alison Klayman

USA, 2012

Cornerhouse, 16 August 2012

One of the most intriguing and important artists at work today, Ai Weiwei has also been a persistent thorn in the side of the Chinese government.

As an artist, his conceptions are grand in scale, at once delightful and a challenge to encounter: witness the ‘sunflower seeds’ installation at the Tate Modern a couple of years back.  His political activism, also a large part of what he’s about, makes full use of social media; and he has become a focal point for political protest in China

This documentary gives a full-bodied and largely sympathetic portrait of the big man.  He could have had a comfortable life but he has chosen a path that places him in danger; and he’s travelled along it so far he can’t turn around.  Stopping by the wayside isn’t an option either; it would be more perilous than moving forward.  His eventual fate will be a telling sign of China’s future, a presentiment of the kind of superpower it will become.

Searching for Sugar Man

Searching for Sugar Man

Directed by Malik Bendjelloul

Sweden, 2011

Cornerhouse, 15 August 2012

If you’ve ever listened to an obscure Northern Soul record and wondered what became of the person singing on it, then this is the film for you.

It tells the story of Rodriguez, a singer/songwriter who was wildly and widely popular in South Africa, yet a flop in his native America.  He released a couple of albums with a Detroit label then faded from the scene.

There’s something in the film about Rodriguez’s music and its impact in South Africa, and about the quest to discover his fate, to track him down.  If he’s still alive, that is.  Rumours of a spectacular suicide on stage persist.

At the end, the documentary feels rather slight: the trick has all been in the telling, the way it has been set up.  Rodriguez comes across as a good man, mind, resilient and steadfast and indomitable.  And a fine singer and musician too.