Film Review: Anna

"It’s Quite The Fairytale You Got Going On Here. From Top Flight Model In Moscow To Rubbing Shoulders With The Elite..."

After successfully managing to hit the grand old age of sixty, French filmmaker, Luc Besson, seems to have become slightly nostalgic in his old age as he returns to the type of feminine-led action flick which made him renowned across the world at the beginning of his career during the early 1990's. With Besson sort of losing the plot in recent years with the simply awful, Lucy, and the woefully titled, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a film which begins equally as bad but then grew into some sort of guilty pleasure come the final credits, the Frenchman returns to the subject matter he knows best in the form of Anna, a clear modern-day incarnation of Besson's own 1990 action piece, Nikita, and a movie which sees the relatively unknown Sasha Luss as the titular beauty who shifts from street-living junkie to globe-trotting deadly assassin within the confines of a screenplay which is as aggravating as it is enjoyably ludicrous.  

With a narrative structure which jumps back and forth through different time zones more often than Back to the Future, Besson's movie does begin in interesting fashion, with the opening hour utilising a particularly glossy sheen of smoke and mirrors as it introduces Luss' titular leading heroine, a top KGB assassin working under the wing of Helen Mirren's creaky, nicotine loving Olga, as she works her way through a number of high profile assassinations. As the movie soldiers on in a semi-effective, genre-literate fashion, the introduction of both the dodgy accented Luke Evans and cheekbone enthusiast, Cillian Murphy, as opposing geographical ends of a conflicted love triangle is where the film ultimately shows its' rather annoying hand, utilising flashback after flashback in order to highlight just how clever Besson thinks he is. On the contrary, such diversions from what should be a generic, B-movie storyline ultimately makes it more aggravating the more it goes on, and even with an abundance of decent, John Wick inspired action set pieces, Anna is at least better than similar movies of recent years including Red Sparrow and Atomic Blonde, but too a movie which lacks that sense of cult-heavy wackiness which the early Besson movies stored in abundance. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Dunkirk

"There's No Hiding From This Son, We Have A Job To Do..."

The release of a new Christopher Nolan movie is always the time for utmost rejoice, a filmmaker who fundamentally adores the classic ways and means of cinema, and more impressively, a director who, like a modern incarnation of Steven Spielberg, is a guaranteed win for both box office and critical success, something of which each and every one of his films have achieved since his early work all the way back in 2000 with Memento. After the brilliance of Interstellar, a film which although may have been slightly divisive with critics, undoubtedly remains up there with the best work Nolan has offered up so far in terms of spectacle, the London-born filmmaker returns this week with Dunkirk, a live-action blockbuster focusing on the infamous titular evacuation which took place during the early stages of the Second World War and a movie which holds extra levels of kudos for being filmed in the heart of my very own hometown in sunny, sunny Dorset. Whilst you can expect nothing less than a movie with many different levels of wonder from a director such as Nolan, Dunkirk still manages to exceed the already vertigo-esque levels of anticipation which preceded it, and to put the experience of watching Dunkirk into words is a staggering undertaking in itself but what Nolan has ultimately accomplished can only be regarded as a masterpiece of spectacle, sound and sumptuous levels of tension, resulting in the best film to be released so far this year. 

Avoiding completely the notion of a stereotypical, singular, character-driven wartime epic in the vein of Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan and Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, Nolan's determined decision to focus on the triage of land, sea and air narrative threads means that although we are in the company of many different characters throughout each of them, their really isn't time to discover backstory for any of the respective characters before the real power of the movie starts to come to fruition. From the first opening shot, screeching bullets and the tick-tock of Hans Zimmer's unbelievably stunning soundtrack grip you in a contortion of spellbinding unrelenting tension, with the face of Fionn Whitehead's youth-inflicted Tommy at the heart and centre of peril for most, if not all, of the time you share his particular journey of death and destruction, all caused by the unseen entity of the enemy soldier. Whilst Zimmer is renowned for being the brains behind classic musical soundtracks of the past, Dunkirk is undeniably up there with his best work to date, using Nolan's own personal fob-watch at the heart of the metronome-esque piece of music which fuels the rising anxiety which encompasses the main thrust of the narrative, and by utilising his work hand in hand with the simply stupendous sound design, Dunkirk is the type of movie which is crying out to only be watched on the biggest screen possible in order to truly experience the craft at the heart of it.

With the film's cinematography being left in the hands of Hoyte van Hoytema, whose previous works includes Her, Spectre and Nolan's own science fiction epic, Interstellar, it comes as no surprise that Dunkirk is absolutely beautiful to behold, and although the particular screening in which I was in was the normalised digital approach to projection, if you are lucky enough to get the chance to witness Dunkirk in IMAX 35mm or 70mm, take it, with scenes of tantalising air to air battles and sweeping camera shots of soldier infested beaches showcasing an artist at the top of his respective game. Whilst pretenders such as the likes of Michael Bay believe the best use of IMAX cameras is to showcase how endless amounts of pointless explosions look within the format, thank god for the likes of Christopher Nolan, a filmmaker who is grounded completely in the epic grittiness of practicality and more importantly, a director who believes wholeheartedly in the importance of film. Dunkirk isn't simply just a movie, it is a masterstroke of spectacle and a work of artistic tendency, and a film which not only results in the best blockbuster of the year and perhaps, even the past decade, but is the finest of examples of why cinema is so darn integral and important to those who truly love to witness a filmmaker at the peak of his powers. Nolan is just that, and in spades. 

Overall Score: 10/10

Film Review: Free Fire

"I Forgot Whose Side I'm On..!"

With the release of High Rise last year, director Ben Wheatley has seemingly finally shot into the limelight of the widespread cinematic spotlight after years of being at the helm of some truly superb movies such as Sightseers and Kill List without breaking away from the eyes of the critical minorities and into the mindset of the average cinema-going mortal. Alongside taking the time to tackle the first two episodes of Peter Capaldi's reign as the Twelfth Doctor, Wheatley's contribution to the medium of escapist entertainment is a modern-day necessity, with his successful partnership with wife and screenwriter Amy Jump resulting in Wheatley arguably being the most interesting and dependable British director at this moment in time. With his latest release, Free Fire, Wheatley takes full advantage of his rising reputation with a superbly managed cast, including District 9 star Sharlto Copley, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson and constant Wheatley contributor, Michael Smiley, all of whom are squeezed within the confines of a narrative which nods at a wide range of movies from Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs to the jet-black violence of Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers, resulting in a laugh-out-loud and highly quotable piece of cinema from a director who clearly knows what it takes to have a good time at the cinema. 

Revolving wholly around a weapons deal gone south, Free Fire relies primarily on the black-hole comedic tropes fans of Ben Wheatley have come to learn of and love ever since his early days with Down Terrace and continuing throughout into Sightseers and last year's High Rise, with the blunt of the jokes seeped in B-Movie splatter alongside the embarrassing feeling of laughing at the levels of pain and suffering our on-screen criminals are put through throughout the course of a delightful 90 minute runtime. With a cast as vast as Free Fire's, the inevitably of feeling a utter lacking in terms of character development was indeed strictly adhered to, with Wheatley determined to throw in as many bullets and bruises as possible in order to keep the constant flow of enjoyment from ever dipping below the level the majority of the film sticks to from start to finish. Whilst this isn't strictly the case, with the movie's appeal starting to fade come just over the hour mark, Free Fire is one of the most enjoyable times I've had at the cinema so far this year, solidifying the notion that whether it's horror, socialite dramas or action, Ben Wheatley has the ability to do it all. On to the next one. 

Overall Score: 8/10