July 2018 film review

24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (2002) D- Michael Winterbottom
Being the life and crazy times of Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan), Godfather (or would ‘midwife’ be a better word?) to the Manchester music scene from the 1970s to the Millennium. See how he discovers Joy Division, then following their lead singer, Ian Curtis’s suicide, he engineers their transformation into New Order. Marvel how he spots the ‘Shakespeare-like’ talent lurking inside the outwardly repellent Sean Ryder and creates the mega-successful band Happy Mondays.

These bands were all showcased at the Hacienda night club, which became the coolest club in Britain, never mind Manchester, though it never made a cent. For this was the age of ecstasy, and as Tony points out: “When you’re E’d up you don’t spend money at the bar. The only people who made money out of the Hacienda were the drug dealers”. Not that he cared. It was never about the money for Tony Wilson, but the music, and for once, it wasn’t bullshit.

Michael Winterbottom took a chance by putting ‘Alan Partridge’ in the lead, and one has to work hard at first to put this out of mind. But you soon do, as you are swept along in a manic ride, speeding down memory lane at 100mph. A really extraordinary movie, and one of the best British films of the last 20 years.

TO DIE FOR (1995) D- Gus van Sant
Gorgeous Suzanne Stone (Nicole Kidman) is the weather girl at the local news channel but aspires to be a national news anchor. But she feels her husband is holding her back. Enter two teenagers (Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck) who lust after her, and are willing to do anything to gain her favour.

Based on the real case of American Pamela Smart, on whose story this film is based, director Gus van Sant, whose work I have long admired, brings out the best in his young stars to produce a gripping and tremendously effective piece of cinema. Kidman should have won an Oscar for her portrayal, while the kids never looked back in their careers. Superior.

THE HAPPY PRINCE (2018) D- Rupert Everett
An ageing and damaged Oscar Wilde emerges from Reading gaol, to find his once adoring public have neither forgotten nor forgiven him. He seeks refuge in France, but it isn’t far enough from England, and he is rooted out. He is made happy for a while when former lover Lord Alfred Douglas visits, but he is the same selfish bastard he always was, and he soon buggers off. From there it’s a one way trip to oblivion...

Rupert Everett, who risked a not Di similar fate when he came out in the 1980s, spent over ten years getting his vision to be realised on the screen, but my God, was it ever worth the effort. Beautifully acted by all the players, and directed with supreme subtlety and flair, Everett has pulled together a magnificent movie, funny, moving, and deeply insightful. Will there be better film this year? I doubt it.

DEAD CALM (1989) D- Philip Noyce
A couple (Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman, yes, I’m in a Kidman phase right now) are guiding a yacht across the ocean when they come across a young man (Billy Zane) escaping a sinking ship. Following the rules of the sea, they rescue him, but boy, was that a bad decision. Turns out the guy’s some kind of psycho who killed the crew on the other ship and is now intent on taking this one for himself. But not before he has some fun with the delectable Kidman...

This was an early example of using the trope of ‘the villain who refuses to die’, perhaps most famously exemplified in Fatal Attraction, though it’s now almost passé. Back in 1989, however, it was new and  genuinely terrifying.

Dead Calm was Nicole’s breakthrough film, and she has never looked back since her fine performance as the feisty lady who won’t be intimidated. It wasn’t all good though. It is said Tom Cruise saw her in Dead Calm and decided he had to have her. The rest, as they say, from Nicole’s POV at least, is not very pleasant history...