Ennio Morricone In Concert At The O2 - Review

The O2, London


*****

Maestro Ennio Morricone

(Last year Turkish TV channel TRT World broadcast this 6 minute tribute to Morricone - At 2:12 into the clip, I am interviewed about the Maestro)

Ennio Morricone played London for the last time this week, his farewell visit to the capital heralding the gifted composer’s imminent retirement.

But what a spectacular farewell. In an evening that largely revisited the programme of his 60 Years in Music concert  from early 2016, (my review to that gig below) and again with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, with whom the Maestro recorded his Oscar winning score for The Hateful Eight, for the best part of three hours Morricone conducted a heavenly symphony of instrument and voice. Enchantingly sprinkled with l’italianità, the concert was a unique fusion of cinema, music and passion.

And enchantment is no understatement as to witness this musical genius conducting  the music that he has created is to see a summoning up of spiritual wonder. With more than 200 souls breathing life into his work within the sold-out O2, the Maestro wielded his baton as a sorcerer might wave a wand, delivering an evening of sheer magic and displaying an energy that belied his advanced years.

Hearing Morricone conduct his work live offered a chance, not just to re-enter the ethereal cocoon of his music, but also to observe some of the finer details woven into his compositions: the harp melody incorporated into The Good, The Bad And The Ugly; the fusion of baroque, tribal and sacred that make up On Earth As It Is In Heaven from (what should have been an Oscar winning score) The Mission. The detail that underlies his melodies and orchestrations is breathtaking.

The evening’s programming was inspired too, with the staccato Tarantella seamlessly segueing into Susanna Rigacci’s sublime soprano take on Nostromo. Morricone could almost have written for Rigacci’s voice – her delivery of the the vocal line in The Ecstasy Of Gold proving almost literally, an ecstatic, spine-tingling flourish to what is possibly the Maestro’s signature tune. Dulce Pontes offered a second wave of vocal delight – with no number sung more verve-infused than the lesser known, samba-esque Aboliçao from the 1969 movie Burn!.

The choral background to the evening came from the Crouch End Festival Chorus who, when called upon, were magnificent – with none finer than their own exquisite soprano Rosemary Zolynski who more than deserved her handful of solo moments.

Rigacci and Pontes both returned to the stage for powerful, passionate encores but perhaps the sweetest moment of the encore'd movements came from the delicate beauty of the Cinema Paradiso themes - reducing many in the packed arena to tears.

Now in his tenth decade, while there may have been an aura of mortality to the occasion, there was not a jot of frailty in Morricone’s presence. We may never witness the Maestro perform live in London again - but he has gifted to the world a musical legacy that will live forever.


My review of Ennio Morricone's 2016 Concert  at the O2

The Senator - Review

****

Written by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan

Directed by John Curran

106 minutes
Certificate - 12

John Curran’s film The Senator is released to DVD and download this week. The fact that in the USA last year it was released under the title Chappaquiddick should tell anyone with a reasonable knowledge of 20th-century American history that the movie’s titular Senator is Edward (Ted) Kennedy.

The youngest of the four Kennedy brothers, America’s dynasty of Democrats, Ted'sthree siblings pre-deceased him. Joseph, the eldest, killed in action during World War Two and John (JFK) and Bobby both brutally assassinated. There might have been every chance that Ted could have followed both John and Bobby on his own path to the White House, until a fateful night on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts in July 1969. There, with Mary Jo Kopechne alongside him in his car, Kennedy's car crashed off a bridge and into a shallow stream below. Although Kennedy managed to free himself from the submerged and upturned vehicle, Kopechne died, her body being recovered from the car the next day. 

History has blurred the events of that terrible night into both fact and folklore - What is known is that Kennedy left the scene of the crash and then took 10 hours to report the incident to the police. What has never been confirmed are the circumstances surrounding why Kopechne, a young single woman who had worked on Bobby Kennedy’s Presidential campaign was alongside the (married) Senator in his car, nor whether there was any foul play surrounding her death. Kennedy was tried and found guilty, by his own admission, of “leaving the scene of a crash causing personal injury”, for which he was sentenced to a suspended two months jail term. The greater consequence of Chappaquiddick however was that his prospects of becoming President were effectively shattered.

Researched from the court transcripts and such information as was accessible, Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan have written a tight and convincing screenplay. Jason Clarke plays Kennedy, bringing an uncanny resemblance between the actor and his subject. The nuances of corruption and abuse of power are strong throughout the movie and there is well fleshed out work from Ed Helms and Jim Gaffigan as Edward’s friends and confidantes Joseph Gargan (Kennedy’s first cousin) and Paul Markham. In a punchy, almost throwaway comment from Bob McNamara (Clancy Brown) a heavyweight fixer in the Kennedy campaign, he observes that the furore around Kopechne’s death has created a bigger political storm than 1961’s Bay of Pigs fiasco.

What has also been forgotten by many is that the death of Mary Jo Kopechne was to coincide, almost to the day, with the Apollo 11 moon landing. Curran has his movie play to this, with the scheming and machination of the Kennedy team as they strive to bury the news of the Senator’s crisis amidst the jubilation of Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk proving to be a timelessly recognisable trait of our political class.

Kate Mara is the doomed Kopechne, immaculately capturing a complex role. The movie suggests neither sexual contact between Kopechne and Kennedy, nor that she was murdered. Rather, it leaves all avenues open to question, with Mara’s masterful performance proving critical to the intrigue. A neat cameo from the veteran Bruce Dern as the Kennedy boys’ father Joe Snr, defines the old man, wheelchair bound and with only months to live, as controlling and compelling. With minimal dialogue, Dern defines the dominating and profoundly disappointed paterfamilias.

As an observation, Hollywood’s allegiance to the Democrat cause is well established. While Tinseltown barely hesitated in picking over the political corpse of Richard Nixon (it only took 4 years for Watergate to be committed to celluloid in All The President’s Men) it has taken nigh on 50 years for producers to back Curran and offer up this take on Chappaquiddick. Moving to more recent times and it is nearly 18 years since Bill Clinton left the White House, making it all the more remarkable that there has yet to be a movie about the (unquestionably sensational) Lewinsky scandal and Clinton's subsequent impeachment. Clearly America's tentacles of power and influence continue to reach from sea to shining sea and against that backdrop, The Senator is indeed a brave and well crafted movie.

Available in DVD format and for digital download from the usual sources.

Swimming With Men - Review

****

Screenplayby Aschlin Ditta

Directed by Oliver Parker

97 minutes

In what must surely be the feel-good movie of the summer, Swimming With Men mixes up a quirky storywith a sprinkling of fairy-tale fantasy, but bases its charm on a rock solid core of friendship and camaraderie.

Rob Brydon is Eric is a disillusioned 40-something accountant, convinced that his newly elected Councillor wife Heather (great supporting work from Jane Horrocks) is cheating on him, and struggling to communicate with his teenage son. Eric’s escape is to the local swimming pool where quite by chance he stumbles across a suburban, aquatic and quintessentially British take on Fight Club (to use a cinematic analogy). Half a dozen men from a range of ages and backgrounds meet once a week as an amateur synchronised swimming group - and it all goes swimmingly from there

The storyline may be delightfully improbable - but what slices through this movie’s choppy waves of incredulity are the back-stories that the six pals bring to the pool. There’s Tom played by the young Thomas Turgoose, a chancer who’s forever dodging the local cops, Rupert Graves is is the once-suave Luke, now divorced and missing his daughters, while the venerable and always excellent Jim Carter is Ted, the elder statesman of the group and perhaps the wisest too. Each man has his own personal tragedy that for one blissful hour each week, is left in the changing room with their clothes.

When Susan (Charlotte Riley), a swimming instructor at the pool engineers an encounter with a member of the Swedish Men’s Synchronised Swimming team, the plucky Brits are spurred on, trained by Susan, to enter the international amateur synchro-swimming finals in Milan. The story’s ability to upend common sense is matched only by its all consuming charm, sensational acting, and ingenious photography. And in a world thats increasingly dominated by CGI and special effects, see this movie if only to marvel at Jim Carter, aged nigh on 70, performing real underwater loops in the synchro-swimming routines!

With a gorgeous score from Charlie Mole that occasionally doffs its (swimming) cap at Ennio Morricone and David Raedeker’s stunning underwater photography, Swimming With Men is British film-making at its eccentrically beautiful best.

At cinemas across the country

The Wizard of Oz - Review

London Palladium, London



*****


Conducted by Anthony Gabriele

Nearly 80 years after its release, there is not a lot left to say about the wonderful The Wizard Of Oz. A classic movie, beautifully crafted from script through to performance, design, photography, choreography and a legendary score.

Until, that is, one has the privilege of watching the movie on the big screen with the score played live by a 64 strong orchestra under the baton of Anthony Gabriele and Leader Susan Bowran in a screening produced by Ollie Rosenblatt for Senbla, in association with IMG.

We all know the story with its strongly fabled morality and lyrics that are literally enchanting. Gabriele has studied the film meticulously and his conducting his spot on to the frame. A skilled Musical Director will be able to harness live musicians to live actors with a seamless fluidity. But where the action is on screen however, the scope for fluid flexibility and the odd filler-bar here or there is not an option. For 2 hours and 400 pages, Gabriele has to hit his mark with pinpoint precision. And he does. Connecting us with our pasts and our heritage and offering a timeless link to a beautiful history.

Judy Garland et al may be captured, beautifully, in that flickering light beam and one may know the movie thoroughly, but Gabriele truly takes this score over the rainbow. If the gig comes around again, don’t miss it!

Born Free - Review

Certificate U, 1966


****

Based on the book by Joy Adamson
Screenplay by Lester Cole
Directed by James Hill

Born Free, one of the most successful British films of the 1960s has just been released on Blu-Ray. Acclaimed for capturing the true stories of Joy and George Adamson, Kenya-based naturalists from the UK who raised a lioness from cub to fully grown maturity before eventually managing to release her back to the wild, the story is a passionate tale of belief and commitment.

The movie is remarkable, even more so viewed from the prism of 2017, some 50 years after its release. James Hill’s photography of lions in the Serengeti is, for the most part, breathtaking in its un-retouched honesty. There's no CGI here and neither is the treatment Disney-fied. The film’s opening shot is of lions feeding on the carcass of a freshly killed zebra.

While the film's sexual and racial politics were very much of their time and aside from the excellent if dated performances from Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as the Adamsons and Hill’s gorgeous imagery, it was Born Free's double Oscar-winning title-song and score that were to seal its place in the pantheon.

It was Don Black who penned the winning lyrics and he recently spoke to me about the number.

"Before the movie was released, Carl Foreman [credited as a "presenter" but in truth one of Born Free's producers] wasn’t impressed with John Barry's writing, describing it as too syrupy. Foreman also had little love for my lyrics that had been recorded for the film by Matt Monroe and demanded that the song be cut from the final print before the movie’s release.

However.... over in the States Roger Williams had released Born Free as a single where it topped the Billboard charts for 6 weeks. The song’s popularity prompted Foreman and co. to re-instate Monroe's version over the end credits, allowing the song (in addition to the already qualifying score) to be considered by the Academy. After I'd received the Oscar from Dean Martin, later that evening at the after-party, Foreman begrudgingly admitted that the song "grows on you"."

The rest, as they say, is history, with 1966 proving to be a very good year for Black and Barry (and incidentally for Frank Sinatra too, whose song It Was A Very Good Year also reached #1 that February)

Born Free is a beautiful piece of musical and cinematic history and if you haven’t already seen it, go grab the Blu-Ray and enjoy.

To view the trailer click here

To order from Amazon click here

DUAL FORMAT SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Stunning High-Definition presentation
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Isolated score track
• Audio Commentary with Film Historians Jon Burlingame, Julie Kirgo, and Nick Redman
• Spirit of Elsa – a featurette on the Born Free Foundation's work in Kenya
• Elsa the Lioness 60th Anniversary – a short featurette about Elsa, the lioness whose story is the basis for Born Free
• Promotional featurette, generously provided by the Born Free Foundation
• Original Theatrical Trailers

Movie Classics For Valentine's - Review

Barbican Hall, London


****


London Concert Orchestra
Conducted by Anthony Gabriele

I have written before of conductor Anthony Gabriele’s love affair with the movies. The Italian has an innate understanding of matching the nuance and tempo of a score to performances played out both on stage and screen. So to turn up to the Barbican Hall on February 14th and see Gabriele conduct the London Concert Orchestra in a Valentine’s Evening concert of Movie Classics, was quite the romantic treat.

Gabriele’s programme spanned most of the 20th Century. A nod to the pre-war great movie composers saw the evening open with Tara’s Theme from Max Steiner’s Gone with the Wind and what was to become immediately evident was that opening up these legendary scores to the full acoustic treatment of a live symphony orchestra, imbued them with a passion and a texture that only enhances their music. 

The evening’s pieces were segued with carefully researched introductory comments from the Maestro, telling us for example that Steiner along with Erich Korngold and Alfred Newman were the three composers responsible for establishing the cultural bedrock of movie scores. The programme referenced them both with Korngold’s Love Scene from the 1938 Errol Flynn classic The Adventures of Robin Hood and Newman’s timeless Cathy’s Theme from the Laurence Olivier starring Wuthering Heights (1939).

The first half closed with Mei Yi Foo performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor. Gabriele had previously explained that the “Rach” has been used in scoring no less than 8 feature films to date – however his evening of Valentine’s romance chose David Lean’s take on Noel Coward’s timeless and quintessentially English romance from 1945, Brief Encounter. It’s a movie that is well worth the (re-)viewing – Celia Howard and Trevor Johnson capturing the essence of love through masterful acting. Though a further revelatory (even if culturally mundane) moment in the Barbican Hall came half way through the concerto’s second movement, when I realised that the Adagio sostenuto was in fact the inspiration for Eric Carmen’s All By Myself, covered by Jamie O’Neal and then, briefly, on screen by Renee Zellweger, in the multi-franchised Bridget Jones’s Diary.

The concert would not have been complete without a nod to Italian influences and hence the inclusion of Ennio Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso. The movie’s melody is exquisite and one can only long for the day when Gabriele and his friends at Raymond Gubbay assemble a night of film music dedicated to l’italianità.

Amongst other romantic gems on offer, were a double header of John Barry, truly one of the UK’s greatest film scorers with Gabriele conducting Somewhere In Time and Out Of Africa and Henry Mancini’s mellifluously mellow Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s – with marvellous alto-saxophone work from Chris Caldwell. Similarly, Philippe Schartz trumpet work in Francis Lai’s Love Story was hauntingly wonderful, while Nigel Bates’ non stop work on the snare drum for 15 minutes (yes, 15!) was a feat that was as much a display of stamina as of musical excellence and proved a stunning climax to the evening’s programme – before the thunderous applause demanded a much deserved encore of Craig Armstrong’s theme from Love Actually.

Musical movie magic throughout!

I Am Not A Serial Killer - Review

****

Certificate 15

Written by Billy O'Brien & Chris Hyde

Directed by Billy O'Brien

Christopher Lloyd

An impressive tale from Billy O'Brien, filmed on location in the small town Midwest during a bleak midwinter.

Seventeen year old Max Records plays John Wayne Cleaver a diagnosed sociopath who is in therapy and who is struggling with issues around death and mortality. His troubles are only fuelled by the fact that his family's business is as the town's undertakers. At his mother's knee, John Wayne has learnt the intricacies of the cadaver and the chemical complexities of embalming.

A spate of disemboweling murders sparks the young man's morbid curiosity, with his quest to uncover what exactly is happening around him that makes for a finely crafted horror-thriller with just a twist of ironic humour.

There's a supernatural thread here too and it's driven in a stand out turn from veteran Christopher Lloyd as Crowley, an old man with a distinctive if somewhat ghastly secret. Lloyd doesn't so much steal his scenes, as imbue them with an excellence that feeds into his co-performers. His work is as chilling as it is intriguing and as the pieces of the jigsaw slot into place, the denouement (albeit with slightly creaky CGI) is an unexpected delight. 

Robbie Ryan's tight cinematography keeps Minnesota's wintry icy intimacy perfectly claustrophobic, making I Am Not A Serial Killer a bloody treat that is as raw as it is rare.

Available on download, Blu-Ray and DVD from February 20th

Fences - Review

*****

Certificate 12A

Screenplay by August Wilson

Directed by Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington and Viola Davies

A cinematic powerhouse which is as refreshing as it is honest, August Wilson’s work is transformed into an understated masterpiece in its adaptation for the big screen. 

Set in the 1950s, Denzel Washington is Troy, a father battling his inner demons against a backdrop of a nation divided by race issues and a society where change is not only in the air but tantalisingly just around a corner too. A former baseball virtuoso who was born “too early” and who now his son wants to pursue his talents in college sport, brings to the surface in Troy, conflictions and qualms about doing right by his son which set in motion some deeply human narratives  about the challenges faced by African Americans at the time.

Raw and intense but not judgmental, Fences makes clear that Troy is a deeply flawed man. But what is also clear is his unwavering love for the things he holds dear in his life even if, tragically, he may not be able to understand or come to terms with the good inside him. August Wilson’s script is a solid piece of masterful writing and this film showcases the raw talent of the on-screen actors that bring the work to life. Viola Davies’ performance is terrific, providing an emotional core to the story yet remaining the bedrock of strength in the family.

Award nominations are raining down on this picture and where sometimes such such hype and admiration can be exaggerated, in Fences they are all throughly deserved. Every scene evidences that the movie is a labour of love, with the cast displaying an ease and naturalness about their roles that almost suggests that they had been previously acquainted with their characters. Indeed, speaking to me a few weeks ago, Washington emphasised that when the opportunity to translate the play into a movie arose, he was insistent that his fellow actors were cast from the Broadway production, a decision that has clearly paid off.

Denzel Washington’s Fences could well be looked upon in future years as something much more than a mere great adaptation, but as a cinematic classic in its own right.

Fences is now screened at cinemas nationwide

Reviewed by Josh Kemp

Photo credit: David Lee

La La Land - Review

*****

Certificate 12


Written and directed by Damien Chazelle

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling

Opening in the UK with a haul of Golden Globes, La La Land deserves every one of its awards and possibly one or two more too. Damian Chazelle's movie, all about hopes and dreams in Los Angeles is a delightful look back to the days when movies literally brought the word "fantasy" into "fantastic". It has an extravagance of song and dance in movie musicals that hasn't been seen since the days of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but which with Chazelle's script, is brought bang up to date.

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling play Mia and Sebastian. She’s a frustrated actress working as a barista on the Warner Studios backlot, while he is a jazz pianist reduced to playing cheesy Xmas background tunes as the only way of earning a living. The two meet, fall in love and through the most romantic yet credible of circumstances, inspire each other to go on and achieve their dreams. If the ending isn't exactly the happiest, the film's journey is nothing less than two hours of sheer, delightful cinematic whimsy.

The opening number sets the tone - even before the titles have rolled we have seen a line of Los Angeles traffic, stuck in a jam (remember this is LA, where traffic never moves) where the drivers leap from their cars to sing and dance the most ingeniously choreographed Another Day Of Sun. This is a movie where the mundanity of a traffic jam becomes a thing of dancing beauty - and what a refreshing joy it is to see a musical that’s prepared to see its characters fantastically burst from speech into song and dance and to erupt into numbers that are new and fresh, a world apart from the all too common juke-box regurgitations of a famous bands' or artist's greatest hits.

Justin Gurvitz scores the picture, with lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The duo’s reputation precedes them with their 5* Dogfight a few years ago and yet again they pitch their lyrics spot-on, adding just the right amount of saccharine-infused schmaltz to bittersweet scenarios. The movie’s written wit is as sharp as it is sensitive, while Gurvitz's tunes prove to be perpetually hummable - City Of Stars and Mia & Sebastian's Theme proving to be gems.

Gosling and Stone's footwork is spectacular. Sure, Stone has a Broadway track record but who knew Gosling could either dance or play piano? Mandy Moore's choreography deserving its own award alongside Linus Sandgren's breathtaking cinematography with its wondrous, never-ending tracking shots. 

La La Land represents new musical writing that all composers and librettists should be aspiring too. Its numbers are a delirious cocktail of balladry, ballroom and brash braggadocio, all framed around a story that’s nothing more than an exploration of the highs and lows of the human condition. An unashamed delight that has to be enjoyed on the big screen. Go!

Now screening at all major cinema chains

Assault On Precinct 13 - Review

****

Certificate 15 - 1976

Written and directed by John Carpenter

Darwin Joston and Laurie Zimmer 

Released on Blu-Ray this week, John Carpenter's seminal 1976 action thriller is a finely crafted movie that is well worth either re-visiting or catching up with for the first time if it’s escaped you so far.

In a district of Los Angeles rife with organised gun violence, the police station of Precinct 13 is being closed down, with Lieutenant Bishop (Austin Stoker) assigned responsibility for the station's last few hours. The movie's narrative has already opened earlier that day with cops killing six gang members, so revenge is in the air. Adding to the tension, there's a prison bus in the area transiting to a city jail, but when a prisoner is taken ill on board the bus has to make an unscheduled stop at the police station.

Completing an incendiary cocktail of plot lines, Lawson (Martin West) who's just a regular guy, has witnessed his young daughter being shot dead in a gangland shooting while buying an ice-cream. Grabbing a gun, Lawson shoots and kills the gang warlord who killed his daughter but when the dead man’s fellow gang members start hunting him down, Lawson too arrives at Precinct 13 seeking sanctuary. Sworn to avenge their dead, the gang lays siege to the soon-to-be-mothballed station house. (Interestingly, Carpenter has since gone on to regret the bloody slaughter of the ice-cream girl, but for most the killing only adds to the yarn’s grim verité.)

It's not just Carpenter's richly-fruited story that makes the movie quite so mouthwatering, it’s also the detail he imbues in his characters. Who'd have expected that convict Wilson (sublime work from Darwin Joston) on-board the prison bus and heading towards death row, would emerge a hero. Or that a finely crafted even if unconsummated love between Wilson and police secretary Leigh (Laurie Zimmer) could add a level of pathos to the bloody violence that surrounds them.

Very much an exploitation movie of its day and with more than a nod to George A. Romero's Night Of The Living Dead, the craft in the director's suspense, photography, script and action offers a fine reminder of those halcyon pre-CGI days when filmmakers like Carpenter, Spielberg and Lucas laboured over the analog perfection of their imagery.

Assault On Precinct 13 is a classic and in this 1080p release which captures the 1970s Technicolor perfectly, it's a glorious trip back in time.

Available to purchase from Amazon and all usual distributors

A Patch Of Fog - Review

****

Written by John Cairns and Michael McCartney 

Directed by Michael Lennox

A Patch of Fog from Michael Lennox marks one of the UK’s more intriguing thrillers of recent years.

Conleth Hill is Sandy, a professor and TV personality. He is also a compulsive shoplifter whose life unravels when he’s caught on camera by security guard Robert (Stephen Graham) . A pathological loner, Robert projects a whole unwanted friendship onto the trapped academic as a profoundly unnerving tale evolves.

What makes Lennox’s story so compelling is that both protagonists are flawed and, to different degrees, unsympathetic characters.  The apparently decent Sandy is a thief, (who can't even resist stealing the cigarette lighter belonging to a late-night petrol station cashier), while Robert is evidently disturbed as he sets about his own path of criminality, stalking, blackmailing and threatening the hapless professor. There’s fine work too from Lara Pulver as single mum Lucy and Sandy’s girlfriend, who is also cunningly preyed upon by Robert.

As a psychological thriller it’s a beautifully crafted picture. The script is tight, edgy and suspenseful, with performances to match. Different time, location and style for sure, but there’s a hint of Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty For Me to the tense narrative. A Northern Irish movie, it's a neat touch that sees Gary Lightbody and Johnny McDaid from the province’s acclaimed Snow Patrol score a perfectly pitched soundtrack in accompaniment.

A classy picture, well worth catching.

Now in cinemas and available in VOD online

It's All Going Wonderfully Well - Growing up with Bob Hoskins - Review

****

Written by Rosa Hoskins

Bob Hoskins with baby daughter Rosa

Bob Hoskins, one of this country's best loved actors and who tragically died in 2014, never wrote an autobiography - in fact one can actually imagine his scorning the pomposity of such a suggestion. And in the absence of such a memoir, It's All Going Wonderfully Well - Growing up with Bob Hoskins written by his daughter Rosa proves to be an enlightening and reflective read.

To many around the world, Bob Hoskins was probably most famous for playing private eye Eddie Valiant in Robert Zemeckis' Oscar winning live action / animation mash up, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? But it was before Hollywood studios were to summons him from North London, back in the early 1980's, that Hoskins achieved British stardom on screen and stage with two remarkably different and yet towering performances.

In John Mackenzie's 1981 release The Long Good Friday, Hoskins played Harold Shand, an old-school London gangster. Colossus-like, Shand bestrode his empire, oblivious to the forces of political crime and terrorism that were eroding his firm from within and which would ultimately destroy his traditional East End villainy. Barrie Keefe's script for that movie was as brilliantly funny as it was brutal (only Tarantino has since combined violence with wry wit to similar effect) and much of the film's success (it is frequently nominated in the top ten of British films and at #1 in British gangster flicks) is credited to Hoskins' performance.

And then a year later Richard Eyre, in one of the bravest and most visionary casting decisions ever, chose Hoskins to play Frank Loesser's low-life Nathan Detroit in what was to be the National Theatre's groundbreaking and first ever musical production, Guys and Dolls. The production scooped countless awards and nominations and is still talked about to this day. With his three fellow leads and a faultless company of actors and creatives, Hoskins learned to tap-dance, polished up his singing and proved that his indomitable Cockney charm could work as well on Broadway as in Bethnal Green. Born in 1983, some months after her dad had moved on from the show's cast, one of Rosa Hoskins' fondly spoken regrets is that she had never seen her dad's take on Nathan Detroit.

Her book however is more than a biography of Bob Hoskins' career. Rather, it is a deeply personal and incredibly poignant look back and appreciation of a young woman's love for her father. There is an unpretentious and at times unflinching honesty to this woman’s writing. She speaks with radiant warmth of her dad, but also and without self-pity, talks of her own struggles, both personal and professional and how her father tried at all times to support her. There are also some wonderful glimpses into her father's private life. In the latter part of his career, when the film parts offered were not quite so glamorous he described the "cameo role" in a movie as "....the governor....you're paid a lot of money, everybody treats you like the Crown Jewels, you're in and out and, if the film's a load of shit, nobody blames you". If Harold Shand had ever given up crime for acting, those words could so easily have been spoken by him!

The book is meticulously and beautifully researched, with Zemeckis, Dame Judi Dench and Ray Winstone amongst many of the industry greats and not-so-greats sharing their memories of Hoskins with his daughter. Perhaps the only omission is Helen Mirren, whose portrayal of Victoria, Harold’s moll in The Long Good Friday, came close to matching the complex depths of Hoskins' performance.

As an impressionable sixth former and then student both The Long Good Friday and then Guys and Dolls burned themselves into my appreciative psyche and to this day many of Harold Shand's phrases, as delivered by Hoskins, can aptly sum up so many of life's moments. And it is a mark of crafted talent in Rosa Hoskins' writing that the man she writes of so fondly as her father, is also so recognisable as the man that millions loved on screen. Like myself, one may have never met the man or his daughter personally and yet this book suggests that what we saw on stage and screen was, at all times, the very essence of the man himself - irreverent, witty and above all caring and decent. Rosa Hoskins’ words paint a rich picture and her sentiments will touch the hearts not only of those who admired her father's work, but quite possibly of anyone who mourns the loss of someone deeply loved.

It's All Going Wonderfully Well, is a rather wonderful read, hard to put down and keep the tissues close at hand. I never knew Bob Hoskins personally - but after reading Rosa's book, it turns out I did.

My reflections on The Long Good Friday can be found here.

And my reflections on the National Theatre's 1982 production of Guys and Dolls can be found here.

It's All Going Wonderfully Well - Growing up with Bob Hoskins - Can be purchased in bookshops and online through all good distributors.

Fresh Dressed - Review

****

Directed by Sacha Jenkins

The inimitable and intertwined relationship between fashion and hip hop is explored in Fresh Dressed, the fascinating new documentary from Sacha Jenkins.

Hip-hop fashion began on the streets of New York and its journey continued from there. Fresh Dressed uses insights from some of the biggest figures in the field including Kanye West, Sean “Puffy” Combs, Swizz Beatz, Damon Dash, Pusha T, Nas and former Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley to narrate the story of how and why street fashion became so prevalent in today’s culture. 

It is this evolution of hip-hop and urban fashion that is conveyed to great success.

The film is packed with nuggets of information – such as how the origins of customisation began within New York gang warfare – and interviews with heavy hitting tastemakers – such as Dapper Dan, who spent eight years designing cutting-edge pieces based on high fashion, that were worn by global superstars such as LL Cool J.

Fresh Dressed also explores a multitude of themes including race, class and identity, drawing out exactly why this genre of fashion evolved in the way it did. The social environment in which it thrived played a phenomenal role in its development and relationships between and within the urban community and commercial world had a huge impact too.

While the list of celebrities interviewed for the documentary is impressive, the most memorable conversations are with the individuals who have played a more active role, to lesser fame, in growing the movement. Their first-hand accounts of what they were seeing occur around them, and how they responded accordingly, adds some astute insight into the project.

Visually, Fresh Dressed is a delight to watch. Brightly coloured pieces, and clever illustrations that bring elements of the story to life, make it aesthetically pleasing.

Sonically, and not unexpectedly, the soundtrack is packed with some of hip-hop’s finest masterpieces, complementing the segment of the tale being told.

Through drawing upon different elements of African American culture, the New York that gave birth to hip hop and by speaking to individuals heavily involved in the movement, it finds its answer. 

Ultimately, Fresh Dressed seeks to explore what it means to be ‘fresh.’ It really is a must-see for anyone even mildly interested in fashion, music or even, more broadly, popular culture. It makes an understanding of the urban culture – which is embedded into the fabric of today’s society – accessible to the world.

Guest Reviewer: Bhakti Gajjar

North v South - Review

Certificate 18


****

Written and directed by Steven Nesbit

Freema Agyeman

North v South from Steven Nesbit is a British gangster movie that combines a sharp and witty script with some beautifully conceived violence, all performed by a cast that is to die for.

As John Claridge and Vic Clarke, crime bosses of England’s rival North and South regions meet to hammer out a partnership, Gary a psychopathic lieutenant from the South, kills the wrong man (who’s dressed up as a clown, don’t ask) and from then on it’s all, brutally, downhill. 

Both sides have traitors in the camp and for the most part Nesbit keeps the tale-telling tight. The story wobbles with a slightly implausible Romeo and Juliet theme  that centres around a smouldering Charlotte Hope, but overall the tale combines wit and grit in equal part. 

Much of the pleasure of North v South comes from its awesome line-up. Steven Berkoff’s Clarke proves once again that no-one does a bigger, better or balder Cockney bastard than this roughest of East End diamonds. That Keith Allen is his henchman only adds weight to the film’s sassy dialog, whilst Brad Moore as the treacherous Gary sets himself up for one of the most spectacular deaths in recent British cinema.

The Northerners are led by another screen giant, the weathered and wily Bernard Hill. Mixing menace with charm, Hill’s firm includes a shrewd Oliver Cotton as the brains behind the muscle, along with an ingenious casting choice that sees Freema Agyeman leap from some sensational TV performances to date, to play Penny, a sassy, educated and  multi lingual thug, as violent as she is stylish.

There is a sensational cameo from Dom Monot as transvestite assassin Gustave, whilst a novel touch sees an impressive performance from young Sydney Wade as Sam. Witnessing her clown-dad’s murder early on, her subsequent childish fumbling as she learns her way around a hi-velocity rifle gives rise to an on-screen killing that is as hilarious as it is brutal and with just a hint of Tarantino too. 

Beautifully photographed by Kyle Heslop, Neil Athale’s music also adds a dimension.

North v South is brutal, bloody and brilliant. One of the year’s classier Brit-flicks. 

Steven Berkoff and Charlotte Hope

In cinemas nationwide

Brash Young Turks - Review

***

Certificate 15


Written by Paul Danquah, Ash Mahmood and Naeem Mahmood
Directed by Naeem Mahmood and Ash Mahmood

Melissa Latouche and Paul Chiedozie

Brash Young Turks marks an impressive feature debut from brothers Naeem and Ash Mahmood. It’s a gritty gripping thriller that tells of a journey into adulthood, set against the cut throat worlds of London’s estate agents and rip-off salesmen.

We are introduced to Dave and Terrell as kids forging a powerful bond of loyalty – before the movie fast forwards the pair ten years where as young men Paul Chiedozie and Charlie MacGechan turn in performances that balance impeccable style, with just enough menace and swagger.

Visually the film is a blast, with locations including Sushi Samba’s glass elevator placing the yarn firmly in the London of today. If the action is occasionally a little far-fetched, the acting is classy. In a cleverly crafted role, Melissa Latouche (who along with Chiedozie also produces) plays Mia a damaged young girl in the care of social services, who is desperate to be loved. 

There is a scene where the mixed-race Mia (living, desperately, in a children’s home where she’s sexually abused by staff) is visited by her white mum. When the visit ends and her mum just ups and leaves we see Mia, distraught, as she watches her mother hug her white husband and kids who are waiting in a car outside. In that briefest of moments Mia’s pain and back-story are brilliantly relayed via minimal dialog and exceptional performance. Genius filmmaking from the Mahmoods. 

Kimberley Marren is Shaz, the long term “moll” of Dave and Terrell and she does well in a role that needed just a little bit more from the writers. Richard Shelton puts in a convincing bad-guy as millionaire property man/the young turks’ nemesis Holmes. Elsewhere the venerable Julian Glover gives a lovingly played turn (even if his dialog is as corny as hell) as a cynically ripped-off pensioner and listen out too for Julian’s missus, Isla Blair as a radio newsreader.

D Double E’s music gives the film a thrilling pulse and Inspire - Hackney's Education and Business Partnership also deserve a shout out for the vision they've shown in getting behind the production. A bold and ballsy movie, Brash Young Turks is much of what young London in 2015 is all about.

Zombie Fight Club - Review

***

Certificate 15

Heavily stylized, Joe Chien’s latest Far East zombie romp sees a collapsing Taipei slowly succumb to the zombie virus.

The twist to this movie is a gladiatorial fight for survival, as the un-infected city rulers wager each other as to how healthy mortals will survive mortal combat against the undead. That’s basically it, but to Chien’s credit, whilst the yarn may be only the latest variation in a long line of zombie flicks, his fight choreography is imaginative. Filmed in a jaundiced light, the black spurting sticky stuff and entrail-munching monsters hold our attention alongside inventive leading performances from leads Andy On and Jessica C. The battles are crazy with much CGI deployed, though the scene where one old guy tries to save the world armed only with a chainsaw, was a treat.

Shamelessly exploitative, Zombie Fight Club’s pace is so frenetic its hard at times to grasp or even care about the plot lines – but it is sure to tick all the boxes for genre fans. Amidst mayhem that’s not easy to follow, Zombie Fight Club is one for the collection and strictly for the genre fans.

Now available on DVD

Howl - Review

****
Certificate TBC

Directed by Paul Hyett

Tickets please!

Helming his second full length feature, Paul Hyett’s Howl is a movie whose title along with the poster’s full moon, give a clear hint at the story's lycanthropic pitch and proves to be one of the year’s best horror pictures so far.

Some of the best werewolf movies have been made in Britain and in one of the most imaginative takes on the genre since John Landis' groundbreaking An American Werewolf In London, Hyett's yarn (penned by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler) kicks off in the comfortingly familiar surroundings of Waterloo Station.

Train based terror has long fuelled the romance of ghost and horror tales and in a summer that has rail strikes gripping the nation, it’s refreshing to watch Alpha Trains' (a fictional company whose livery is only loosely based on South West Trains) evening express pull out of the London terminus, with its dozen or so souls on board heading towards far more than their usual Waterloo sunset.

There is an ever-so British budgetary constraint to the movie that suggests an air of Hammer Horror. The cast are far from household names, (though in a neat touch, Rosie Day and Sean Pertwee, both carryovers from Hyett's The Seasoning House make short-lived cameos) the purpose built railway carriage set wouldn't withstand the scrutiny of even a mildly obsessive train-geek and some of the matte work is cringeworthy. But no matter, for as a deer on the line brings driver Pertwee's train to a shuddering and unscheduled halt, it is only a matter of time before (nearly) all of the onboard souls succumb in turn to beautifully brutal slaughter.

In a sometimes creaking story, the director’s skill lies as much in the suspense he’s woven into the film as it does in the gruesomeness of his imagery. Having cut his teeth (sorry) designing special make up and effects for creature features such as The Descent movies, Hyett has a keen eye for what shocks. To be fair there's nothing here that quite matches Rick Baker's award winning genius in American Werewolf, but Hyett knows his craft.  

Also impressive is that amidst a script of occasional corniness, (The Seasoning House had a far superior text) Hyett coaxes performances from his cast that convince throughout. Ed Speleers leads as a bumbling train guard searching for the hero inside himself, whilst Elliot Cowan is Adrian, a handsomely chiselled bounder and a womanising cad who in a neat post-modern touch reveals that he won’t employ women at his City finance house because of their annoying tendency to fall pregnant. Back in the day it used to be that just being a bastard marked a character out to deserve a spectacular death - turns out in 2015 he has to be a sexist bastard too. 

For the cinephiles playing werewolf bingo, Howl trots out most of the tropes, (but not all mind, there are no silver bullets in this picture) with the occasional twist. We’ve been brought up to know that those bitten by the beast have to become werewolves themselves. Hyett however offers up a nod to the zombie genre by having his victims spew that particularly dark red blood, only ever found in those transitioning to the world of the un-dead. There is also a lovely touch as Ania Marson, Jenny an elderly female victim, finds herself vomiting out her dentures, only to then develop a far more useful set of incisors, infinitely superior to anything available on the NHS.

As Ellen the train's trolley stewardess, Holly Weston gives an assured performance that suggests a hint of sexual frisson and rivalry amongst the characters, whilst Calvin Dean’s Paul provides occasional moments of drunken slob comedy (and classy suspense) before his number's up.

Whilst Hyett's best may yet await us, Howl remains a ripping yarn, cleverly realised and yet again, only enhanced by Paul E. Francis’ intelligent score. Not just worth the ticket and popcorn, it's a great date-movie too.