Eddie The Eagle

For F*** Magazine 

EDDIE THE EAGLE 

Director : Dexter Fletcher
Cast : Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Jo Hartley, Keith Allen, Christopher Walken, Tim McInnerny, Jim Broadbent
Genre : Biography/Sports
Run Time : 106 mins
Opens : 31 March 2016
Rating : PG13 (Some Sexual References)

Michael “Eddie” Edwards (Egerton) always dreamed of being an Olympian. Since childhood, he’s been repeatedly told by many, including his father Terry (Allen), that he’s just not cut out for sports. And it all went downhill from there, so to speak. Against the wishes of his father but with the support of his mother Janette (Hartley), Eddie sets out to a ski jumping camp in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany to train. He is mocked by the other more experienced jumpers at the facility, but catches the eye of drunken snowplough driver Bronson Peary (Jackman). Bronson was once a member of the U.S. ski jumping Olympics team under the renowned coach Warren Sharp (Walken), but was later seen as a disgrace to the sport and became an alcoholic. Eddie convinces Bronson to coach him so Eddie can qualify for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. Dubbed “Eddie the Eagle” by the media, Eddie has to prove to the world that he’s a serious contender and not merely the silly underdog.

            If the term “feel-good movie” makes you roll your eyes, you’d be better off giving this a wide berth. Eddie the Eagle is a film that revels in its cornball sensibilities and adheres to all the sports movie clichés in existence. The jaded might scoff at it, but there’s definitely something very appealing here, you’ll just have to wade through the schmaltz to get to it. Most of us know what it’s like to be rejected or told we’re not good enough at some point or another, and Eddie’s irresistible combination of perseverance, chutzpah and endearing goofiness make him exceedingly easy to root for.

This is based on a true story, but the real-life Eddie Edwards has publicly stated that the film is only “about 5%” accurate. We completely understand the concept of dramatic license, but the liberties taken with the facts do make Eddie the Eagle feel inauthentic. There are many moments when the film comes off as cartoony, particularly in how all of Eddie’s fellow skiers, even those on the British Olympic team, are depicted as exceedingly stereotypical bullies. There’s no doubt that the real Eddie faced considerable obstacles in pursuit of his dream, but the underdog-ness is dialled up to the point where he might as well have to fend off an actual dragon on the way to the 70 metre jump.

The biggest fabrication is Jackman’s Bronson Peary, a character created from whole cloth by screenwriters Simon Kelton and Sean Macaulay. Edwards was actually coached by Americans John Viscome and Chuck Berghorn at Lake Placid; turns out they weren’t quite colourful enough for the filmmakers’ tastes. The swaggering Bronson’s glory days are behind him and he has the chance to make up for his fall from grace by taking on a protégé - yet more familiar tropes. That said, Jackman is extremely watchable in the role. He simply radiates charisma and reminds audiences yet again why he’s a bona fide movie star. He also excels at the several moments of physical comedy the character is given.

Egerton is poised to hit the big time after starring in last year’s Kingsman: The Secret Service; that film’s director Matthew Vaughn is a producer on this project. He piles on the “aw shucks” factor as Eddie and looks to be having fun playing the earnest, dorky, very unlikely national hero. Unfortunately, Egerton is prone to over-acting, though this can probably be pinned on director Dexter Fletcher too. There is so much squinting and lopsided grinning going on to emphasise the character’s awkwardness that it often feels like Egerton is merely mugging to the camera. This is yet another movie about a wide-eyed dreamer in which the mum is supportive and the dad completely isn’t, but we suppose that’s how it is in real life a lot of the time too. Walken’s barely in this; like Bronson, his character Warren Sharp is fictional too.

Famed second unit director Vic Armstrong stages some spectacular stunts, with professional ski jumpers re-creating some heart-stopping leaps off the ramp. The 80s atmosphere is suitably evocative, amplified by Matthew Margeson’s synth-heavy score. Eddie the Eagle is spirited, entertaining and even genuinely thrilling in parts, but it’s hard to shake the niggling sense that everything’s been packaged a little too neatly and tweaked for maximum crowd pleasing effect.

Summary: Eddie the Eagle will be too treacly for some and the staggering liberties it takes with the true story undermine it somewhat, but stars Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman ensure it makes that landing.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong  

Truth

For F*** Magazine

TRUTH

Director : James Vanderbilt
Cast : Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Elizabeth Moss, Bruce Greenwood, Stacy Keach
Genre : Biography/Drama
Run Time : 126 mins
Opens : 17 March 2016
Rating : M18 (Some Nudity And Coarse Language)

The Bible tells us that “the truth shall set you free”, but there are times when it can feel like the truth can hold you prisoner, as Cate Blanchett finds out in this drama. Blanchett plays Mary Mapes, the producer of CBS’ primetime news program 60 Minutes Wednesday. In the months leading up to the 2004 presidential election, 60 Minutes airs a story about President George W. Bush receiving preferential treatment from his superiors at the Texas Air National Guard, with memos allegedly authored by Bush’s commander Lt. Col. Jerry Killian as proof. Mapes, her team and veteran news anchor and 60 Minutes presenter Dan Rather (Redford) come under fire after the program is aired, with multiple viewers calling the veracity of the documents procured by 60 Minutes into question. Rather, hitherto a widely respected figure in broadcast news, finds his reputation threatened as Mapes scrambles to defend herself and prove that 60 Minutes did not lie to the American public.

            Truth is based on Mapes’ 2005 memoir entitled “Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power.” Writer/director James Vanderbilt adapted the book for the screen and he makes his directorial debut with this film. Because Mapes’ account of events is the primary source, it cannot be expected that Truth is an objective depiction of the Killian Documents controversy, which came to be colloquially known as “Memogate” and “Rathergate”. The 60 Minutes story was one of the first pieces of investigative broadcast journalism to be dissected and torn apart online by bloggers and CBS was blasted for apparently exhibiting a liberal bias by running the anti-Bush story without thoroughly verifying these documents. Somewhere in there, there’s a gripping tale of the profound responsibility that journalists must uphold and Truth did get this reviewer invested in Mapes’ journey, but the film is pervaded with a sense of heavy-handed portentousness and turns out to be far less incisive than it thinks it is.

            Contrary to its title, Truth can’t help but feel phony at times. While this is a slicker, better-made film than many directorial debuts, Vanderbilt’s attempts to drum up the excitement and establish grave stakes feel slightly overblown. One of the culprits is Brian Tyler’s musical score, which heaves with bombast and sounds like something out of Air Force One. Quaid plays Col. Roger Charles, a member of Mapes’ investigative team, and it seems his primary function is to dispense exposition. There is a cringe-worthy scene set in a plane in which Charles explains to freelance reporter Mike Smith (Grace) that Mapes’ father physically abused her and that Mapes sees Rather as a father figure. There are also so many “what have I done?” moments in which realization dawns on Mapes that the scandal has taken another terrible turn, that it borders on self-parody.

            Vanderbilt’s trump card is his cast, especially lead performers Blanchett and Redford who are expectedly excellent. In spite of how many times the story trips over itself, the duo carries it to the finish line in tandem. Blanchett’s Mapes is doggedly persistent and suffers no fools, someone who is dedicated to her job and witnesses her life’s work crumbling around her. Truth would very much obviously like us to take Mapes’ side, and Blanchett’s portrayal of her ensures that we do – at least up until the movie ends and we start reflecting on the proceedings in-depth. Redford bears little physical resemblance to the famous newsman, and when playing someone so recognisable, perhaps physical resemblance should count for something. However, he has no trouble at all creating a warm, trustworthy and respectable figure and the interaction between Redford and Blanchett does possess a degree of heart.

            The rest of the characters are disappointingly two-dimensional; propping up the story as it progresses – Grace is the comic relief, lying on the couch, tossing a baseball in the air and asking the rest of the people in the room “you guys feel like pizza?” Quaid, as mentioned earlier, recaps things “as you know”-style for the audience. Moss, as associate producer Lucy Scott, has precious little to do. The various CBS higher-ups grumble/yell at Mapes and her team, occasionally flinging objects across the room in frustration. It turns out that securing Blanchett and Redford is a casting coup not just because they’re talented actors but because there’s little else to recommend in the film beyond them.

            Truth is made with polish but lacks finesse, an indignant cry that is far from altogether convincing in making us re-evaluate the events of over 10 years ago. The film desperately wants viewers to see Mapes and Rather as righteous martyrs laying their careers on the line and going down with their ship, a point of view that CBS has slammed. It’s not a case of “here are the facts; draw your own conclusions” because of the side the film takes, but the look behind the scenes at the politics of journalistic ethics, however flawed, is nonetheless fascinating. Perhaps Vanderbilt did as a good a job as possible with the stipulation that Mapes and Rather must be portrayed as the good guys, but then again, it feels like the title “Truth?” would be a better fit.

Summary: Truth is clumsy, preachy and Oscar-baity, not entirely successful in convincing viewers that its protagonists’ lapses in judgement were justifiable and forgivable. However, it’s impossible to overlook Blanchett and Redford’s stellar performances.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Race

For F*** Magazine

RACE 

Director : Stephen Hopkins
Cast : Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, Carice Van Houten, Barnaby Metschurat, William Hurt
Genre : Biography/Drama/Sport
Run Time : 135 mins
Opens : 3 March 2016
Rating : PG

            Rousing tales of athletes overcoming all odds in pursuit of ultimate triumph: audiences have seen them a hundred times, but we keep coming back for more. There certainly is competition for the title of “most powerful and inspiring” true story in sporting history, but that of Jesse Owens arguably leads the pack.

James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens is a promising track and field star enrolled in Ohio State University, where coach Lawrence Snyder (Sudeikis), a former Olympic hopeful, takes Owens under his wing. Training religiously in between his studies and working a part-time job, Owens goes on to break three world records at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is poised to be part of the U.S. Olympic team. International Amateur Athletic Federation chairman Avery Brundage (Irons) fights a boycott of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as Jeremiah Mahoney (Hurt), president of the Amateur Athletic Union, believes that American participation will indicate an endorsement of Nazi ideology. In the face of bigotry at home and the stoking of the fires of World War II in Europe, Owens must chase his dreams and bring home the gold.

While Owens was the subject of a 1984 made-for-TV movie starring Dorian Harewood, it’s somewhat puzzling that there hasn’t been a theatrically-released biopic made about him until now. All the ingredients for a supremely compelling story are right there, and it seems like a natural awards contender project, so it’s also somewhat puzzling that it’s being released in March, right after the Oscars actually take place. The film’s title, Race, tells you most of what you need to know about its approach. While Owens’ identity as a black man in the 30s definitely figured heavily into his career, the movie seems more concerned with being a political statement than actually shedding light on the person himself. Instead of the racial politics of the era being a backdrop to the biographical drama, it’s the other way around.

For a film about one of the most famous runners of all time, Race is often flat-footed, its handling of the talking-point big issues earnest but clumsy. There’s a predictable formula to Owens’ journey but then again, this is a sports movie and said formula exists for a reason after all. While general audiences might be fuzzy on the minutiae of Owens’ life and times, they should have a rough idea of the basics: he represents the U.S. in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, clinches four gold medals and leaves Hitler and the Nazi regime with egg on its face, discrediting the notion of non-Aryan inferiority. At 135 minutes, Race is definitely too long. Excessive time is dedicated to the subplot of whether or not the U.S. will boycott the Olympics, and the question of Owens’ participation in the Games is played for suspense, when we all know he did end up on the team. The establishing shots of Berlin are accompanied by almost-comically ominous music and there’s a lot of effort taken to demonstrate that the Nazis were evil. Well, duh.  

Young Canadian actor James, who replaces the initially-cast John Boyega, ably carries the film with a steadfast portrayal of Owens. Owens is gifted but also disciplined, yet far from superhuman and infallible. There’s a nervous energy and a welcome lack of cockiness, since star athletes are often portrayed as hybrid underdog divas. While the film surrounding him can come off as rote, there is a freshness and honesty that James brings to the table. Unfortunately, as is often the case with films of this type, the romantic subplot with Ruth (Shanice Banton), the mother to Owens’ daughter, feels largely extraneous.

The role of coach Snyder is the first major dramatic part for Saturday Night Live alum Sudeikis, and it’s always a gamble when a comedic actor wants to convince audiences that he’s got range too. As characterised here, Snyder is like any number of coaches in inspirational sports flicks past: his glory days are behind him, he’s haunted by previous failures, he sees the potential in a young person and takes it upon himself to guide said young person towards success, and of course, he’s strict but ultimately well-meaning. It’s a competent performance but one that sometimes calls attention to itself, Sudeikis occasionally giving off “look at me, I’m a serious actor now!” vibes.

Irons is reliable as usual; the subplot of Brundage’s dealings with the Nazis in the lead-up to the Olympic games might seem off to the side of Owens’ personal journey and is sometimes boring, but Irons himself isn’t. German actor David Kross is supremely sympathetic as German long-jumper Luz Long, who defies the Nazis he represents by befriending Owens.

To this reviewer, the most interesting character by a long shot is Leni Riefenstahl (Van Houten), the director tasked with filming the Games for posterity. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (Metschurat) looks down on her, but Riefenstahl is undeterred by him and resolute in her artistic vision. Even though she has a relatively small role in this story, it’s fascinating to see how Riefenstahl presented Owens’ victories to the world against the wishes of her superiors. This is a pioneering filmmaker whose reputation was forever tarnished because of her close association with the Nazis and seeing her depicted in Race made this reviewer want to watch a full biopic centring on Riefenstahl. There have been several attempts at such a project but none have come to fruition.

Race did bring this reviewer to tears, but the heart of this remarkable true story about a real American hero does often get lost in the shuffle of racial politics, historical procedure and established sports drama tropes. Hopkins helmed the far more unconventional biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, but his credits also include Predator 2, Lost in Space and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. There’s the sense that he’s going through the motions with Race, and while a Jesse Owens biopic that is less preachy yet more passionate is easier said than done, that’s the treatment the historical figure deserves.

Summary: The Jesse Owens story is too compelling to mess up entirely and Race does attempt to do its subject justice, but Stephan James’ excellent lead performance gets crowded out by heavy-handed preachiness; a certain spark missing in the storytelling.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

The Danish Girl

For F*** Magazine

THE DANISH GIRL

Director : Tom Hooper
Cast : Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ben Whishaw, Amber Heard, Sebastian Koch
Genre : Drama
Run Time : 120 mins
Opens : 7 January 2016
Rating : R21 (Mature Theme)

An adaptation of David Ebershoff’s 2000 novel of the same name, The Danish Girl tells the story of Lili Elbe, one of the first known people to undergo gender reassignment surgery. It is 1926 and Lili, born Einar Wegener (Redmayne), is a landscape painter married to portrait artist Gerda (Vikander). When a model is late, Gerda has Einar stand in for her, wearing the model’s stockings and shoes. This unlocks Einar’s lifelong identification as female, and he begins to cultivate the persona of “Lili”. Gerda’s portraits of Lili attract the attention of the art world and she is invited to stage an exhibition in Paris, and Gerda tracks down art dealer Hans Axgil (Schoenaerts), a childhood friend of Einar’s. Hans’ attraction to Gerda establishes a complicated love triangle as Gerda struggles in supporting Einar’s transition into a woman. Eventually, Lili and Gerda seek the help of Dr. Wanerkos (Koch), who performs a two-part sexual reassignment surgery that is unprecedented and risky but is Lili’s only hope.

            Playwright Lucinda Coxon adapted The Danish Girl and the screenplay made the rounds for a decade before the film finally got made. The subject matter made it something of a hard sell, with Charlize Theron, then Gwyneth Paltrow attached to the role of Gerda opposite Nicole Kidman as Einar/Lili. Tomas Alfredson was initially set to direct, then was replaced with Lasse Hallström before that incarnation fell through. Director Tom Hooper of The King’s Speech and Les Misérables brings an awards contender pedigree to the project – it’s a bonus that star Redmayne is fresh off his Oscar win for The Theory of Everything. The film may be called “The Danish Girl”, but just as there was nary a French accent in earshot in Les Misérables, everyone in this movie sounds very English indeed. It can be seen as pandering to Academy voters, who seem to equate Englishness with prestige.

            While first stepping out in public as Lili, Einar worriedly asks his wife “am I pretty enough?” The Danish Girl is a film that does seem to be worried it isn’t pretty enough in a self-conscious manner, but cinematographer Danny Cohen, costume designer Paco Delgado and production designer Eve Stewart, all Hooper’s collaborators from Les Mis, ensure it is quite the pretty movie to look at. Any way one slices it, there was always going to be controversy surrounding the film, and it is incredibly difficult to appease everyone where the hot-button issue of gender identity is concerned. In a way, the period setting is a costume that lends a non-traditional story a more familiar guise, all of this prestige picture classiness a way in for audiences who might otherwise be clutching their pearls at the thought of a movie about a transgender woman.

            This brings us to the elephant in the room: the casting of a cisgender man to play a transgender woman. Transgendered actors are slowly gaining more visibility via projects like Orange is the New Black, but it seems we’re still some ways off from having a trans woman headline a mainstream awards contender film. There’s also the matter of drawing attention and scrutiny, plus the danger of typecasting. More cynically, the Academy loves physical transformations, and Redmayne has already bagged one Oscar after undergoing a physical transformation to play a real person. It’s difficult to talk about but it’s a conversation worth having and we’re trying to take a balanced view. Redmayne put a great deal of thought into the portrayal and spent time with trans women including activist Paris Lees, who gave Redmayne her blessing. “As a trans woman, I don’t think that if and when they make a biopic of my life I would want a cisgender man playing me,” Lees told Out Magazine. “Politically, it makes me groan. But if anybody’s going to do this justice, then I’m happy it’s Eddie. We had a good chat about everything.”

            The hype surrounding Redmayne’s portrayal is worth buying into, because this is an excellent, soul-baring performance. Lili’s emotional journey in coming to terms with her gender identity is eloquently conveyed by Redmayne. When the film is in danger of getting swallowed up by the larger issues at play, his portrayal pulls it back to a remarkably humane sensitivity. Vikander is just as worthy of praise and there is a good deal for her to sink her teeth into with the role of Gerda. This is a woman who sees the man she fell in love with slowly vanish, but her selfless love for him makes her want to see her husband arrive at a place where he is happy and comfortable with himself. Vikander’s performance is at once raw and measured, and if there was any doubt that she is 2015’s biggest breakout star, The Danish Girl erases said doubt once and for all.

            The Danish Girl is based on a fictionalised account of Lili’s life, with most of the characters besides Lili and Gerda created from whole cloth by Ebershoff. As such, both Whishaw and Schoenaerts can sometimes feel like hangers-on in the proceedings, but in addition to Gerda, their characters reinforce just how vital the support of a loved one is in undergoing a transition.

            The Danish Girl does over-romanticise and simplify Lili’s story a fair bit, side-stepping Gerda’s possible bisexuality and the eventual dissolution of Lili and Gerda’s relationship. The final scene also contains a visual metaphor that is heavy-handed in quite the cringe-worthy manner. However, Lili’s story is an important one to tell and there is considerable talent behind this biopic. The more jaded might dismiss this out of hand as shameless awards bait and it does possess those elements, but above and beyond all that, the genuine emotional resonance of the story rings true.

Summary: While not as challenging and in-depth an exploration of Lili Elbe’s life and times as it could have been, powerful performances and technical polish make this a worthwhile telling of a moving story.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Pawn Sacrifice

For F*** Magazine

PAWN SACRIFICE

Director : Edward Zwick

Cast : Tobey Maguire, Peter Sarsgaard, Liev Schreiber, Lily Rabe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Robin Weigert

Genre : Drama/Biography

Run Time : 114 mins

Opens : 1 October 2015

Rating : PG13 (Brief Coarse Language)

Awards movie season has officially begun with this prestige biopic focusing on chess champion Bobby Fischer, often considered the greatest player of all time. Fischer (Aiden Lovecamp as a child, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as a teen and Maguire as an adult) is a chess prodigy from Brooklyn, developing a love for the game at an early at age. At 15, Fischer becomes the youngest player to earn the title of grandmaster. In the meantime, the Cold War heats up and Fischer is adamant on taking on and beating the Russians, considered the best players in the world. Represented by manager and attorney Paul Marshall (Stuhlbarg) and backed up by fellow grandmaster William Lombardy (Sarsgaard), Fischer works his way up to the 1972 world championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland. His opponent: world no. 1 Borris Spassky (Schreiber) of the USSR. As Fischer’s fame and ambition grows, so does his mental instability and paranoia, leaving his sister Joan (Rabe) worried for his well-being as the eyes of the world are fixed upon him, his opponent Spassky, and the chessboard.

            Bobby Fischer has been a magnet for fascination both within and outside the world of chess and has been the basis for several documentaries and narrative films. Pawn Sacrifice combines two subgenres that have proven popular with Academy voters – the “tormented genius” biopic and the historical sports drama. The screenplay by Steven Knight landed on the 2009 Black List of best-liked scripts making the rounds in Hollywood. Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, who have a “story by” credit, also penned the biopics Ali and Nixon.  

Director Edward Zwick knows audiences in general might walk into this with the preconceived notion that chess is boring and inaccessible. As such, he drums up the stakes and the thrills, establishing the background political intrigue. “We’re at war – only it’s not being fought with guns and missiles, not yet – it’s a war of perception: the poor kid from Brooklyn taking on the whole of the Soviet Union,” Marshall tells Fischer. Quite the opposite of “this is not the start of World War Three/ No political ploys,” as the lyric in the musical Chess goes. Pawn Sacrifice has inevitably drawn comparisons to the likes of A Beautiful Mind and The Imitation Game and it is certainly in that mould. There is the feeling that the events have been embellished for dramatic purposes, but then again, what biopic hasn’t done that?

            Thanks to the production design by Isabelle Guay, the costume design by Renée April and art direction by Lisa Clark and Jean-Pierre Paquet, Pawn Sacrifice authentically captures the feel of the era in which it is set; all of it bathed in cinematographer Bradford Young’s warm hues. Zwick is gunning for mass appeal and seems determined for the film not to get stuck in the “arthouse” pigeonhole, even as it clearly primed to compete at the Oscars. To establish the period, flashes of news footage showing John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon are spliced into the montage of Fischer climbing the ranks. It can come off as clumsy and on-the-nose, but it’s not egregious enough to pull one out of the movie entirely.

            This is squarely star and co-producer Maguire’s film to carry, and a role like Bobby Fischer is one many actors would kill to sink their teeth into. Fischer is portrayed as petulant, arrogant and socially inept; Maguire gamely tackling the challenge of playing a protagonist who is inherently difficult to sympathise with, but whom we have to root for. Maguire puts a great deal of effort into capturing the real-life Fischer’s mannerisms and Brooklyn accent, resulting in a performance that is good but not transcendent. Maguire is sometimes too hysterical, Fischer’s paranoia and instability manifesting on the surface level without enough nods at what’s festering deeper within his mind. Fischer’s involvement with the Worldwide Church of God sect is given passing attention – exploring his religious affiliation would have made for rich if risky material. Fischer’s anti-Semitic rants, in spite of his own Jewish roots, are touched on – a crucial element that makes his fall from grace all the more tragic.

            Schreiber is a commanding presence as Boris Spassky. We don’t get to spend a great deal of time with the Soviet chess team, but there is an effort made to characterise them beyond being Ivan Drago-esque “I must break you” types. Schreiber’s Russian line delivery is convincing and his equally-driven but more composed Spassky is a pitch-perfect dramatic counterpoint to the zealous Fischer. Sarsgaard, as the level-headed priest/semi-retired player who becomes Fischer’s coach, is subtly comic while being the reserved straight man. Michael Stuhlbarg has a tendency to play up the stereotype of the harried manager seen in many a rock star biopic, closer to a caricature of someone from the era rather than an authentic portrayal, but given Fischer’s varied antics, it is very easy to empathize with the man who had to keep everything under control.

            While it isn’t the deep portrait of all-consuming obsession and the thin line between genius and madness it is pitched as being, Pawn Sacrifice is a gripping and entertaining biopic. For those unfamiliar with the Bobby Fischer story, it is a straightforward, coherent account of the events and serves up an intriguing slice of history. And yes, it’s Spider-Man taking on Sabretooth in chess, a game that is typically the domain of Professor Xavier and Magneto. So much for getting through the review without making that joke.

Summary: Pawn Sacrifice falls shy of greatness, but there’s no faulting Zwick’s play of couching the biopic as a thrilling high-stakes historical tale.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Big Eyes

For F*** Magazine

BIG EYES

Director : Tim Burton

Cast : Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp

Genre : Drama

Run Time : 106 mins

Opens : 29 January 2015

It was the 1960s and Margaret Keane’s hypnotic paintings of the doe-eyed waifs captured the imagination of the world, but for a long time, nobody knew the dark truth behind these depictions of innocence. After separating from her husband Frank, Margaret (Adams) takes her young daughter Jane (Delaney Raye) to San Francisco. There, she meets and quickly falls hard for Walter Keane (Waltz), seemingly also a passionate painter. Margaret and Walter marry and after Margaret’s unique “Big Eye” paintings garner attention, Walter begins to take credit for them. Soon, the paintings are everywhere, mass-reproduced and sold in supermarkets and gas stations, with Walter making television appearances and hobnobbing with celebrities, everyone believing him to be the true artist. As Walter grows more domineering, making Margaret fear for her own safety, she finally tells the world the truth as the couple battles it out in court to determine proper credit.

            Big Eyes marks director Tim Burton’s first biopic since 1994’s Ed Wood, re-teaming him with that film’s writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. It’s been repeatedly noted that this is Burton’s first live-action film since 1996’s Mars Attacks! without either Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter.  A project like Big Eyes is exactly what Burton needs and it is perhaps not entirely coincidental that this film about artistic integrity comes from a director once lauded as a fresh, unique voice but who has become something of a parody of himself. The film still bears many of Burton’s signature touches and the heightened stylisation proves to be a double-edged sword even when it’s consciously scaled down. While the saturated colour palette and the Stepford Wives-style depiction of a suburban idyll that becomes a personal prison add panache to the proceedings, they also hamper the authenticity of the true story.

            We’ve all heard stories of artists being taken advantage of and the Margaret and Walter Keane case is one of an artist being taken advantage of in the extreme. Burton establishes a sense of unease throughout and writers Alexander and Karaszewski manage to play on the audience’s knowledge of how things went down in a general, such that we know where it’s all headed but anticipate and dread it in equal measure as Walter’s lie snowballs. Production designer Rick Heinrichs and Burton’s usual costume designer Colleen Atwood create an immersive period-accurate milieu tinged with that kitschy Burton flair. The music video for Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun comes to mind. While the film’s tone is not as uneven as it could’ve been, one still gets the feeling that characters such as Margaret’s friend DeAnn (Ritter) and snobbish gallery owner Ruben (Schwartzman) have been written in only to provide requisite comic relief in what really is an emotionally-heavy film, though it has been described as a “comedy-drama”.

            Amy Adams’ name has popped up on various “Oscar snubs” lists and it’s easy to see why. Adams ably embodies the quiet dignity of the character, shying away from showy bursts of emotion, her performance all the more affecting for it. An artist’s personal attachment to his or her work is a difficult sentiment to convey, but the way Adams plays it, one really feels that when credit for the Big Eye paintings is snatched from Margaret, it’s as if one of her own children has been taken from her. The film makes no bones about being a feminist statement and Adams’ Margaret is very sympathetic and easy to root for.

            Christoph Waltz brings his trademark wildfire charisma to the role of Walter Keane, effortlessly essaying a smug, charming manipulator with flair to spare. While magnetic and watchable, Waltz does veer dangerously close to the cartoony side of things when Walter lashes out at Margaret, as if he’s practising for his upcoming Bond villain role. His portrayal of the abusive, controlling husband here is near-identical to the performance he delivered as the abusive, controlling husband in Water for Elephants. Journalist Dick Nolan (Danny Huston) observes “subtle doesn’t sell”, and Waltz seems to have taken that to heart. All that said though, he’s a much better fit for the part than Ryan Reynolds, who was attached to the film at one point, would’ve been.

             Big Eyes sets itself apart from the prestige biopic pack with a deliberately cloying aesthetic, director Burton expressing the idea that ugliness can lurk beneath the surface of beautiful things. In focusing on Margaret and Walter’s relationship, Big Eyes seems to side-step challenging discussions about the role art plays in society which, when viewed through the lens of a period film, could have been especially thought-provoking. While still impactful and moving, this approach strips the material of some of the rawness and honesty it requires and ultimately, Big Eyes doesn’t dig deep enough.

Summary: A domestic abuse drama tinged with queasy stylisation, Big Eyes has Tim Burton deviating from his now-tired formula and boasts Amy Adams in top form but suffers slightly from being too simplistic.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

            

Kill The Messenger

For F*** Magazine

KILL THE MESSENGER

Director : Michael Cuesta

Cast : Jeremy Renner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Platt, Paz Vega, Michael Sheen, Ray Liotta, Andy García

Genre : Biography/Crime/Drama

Rating : NC-16 (Some Drug Use And Coarse Language) 

Run time: 112 mins

The archetype of the “intrepid reporter” has always had its allure and while we’re gripped by thrilling stories of journalists who will chase a story at any cost, it’s easy to forget that in real life, situations like this don’t often end well. It is 1996 and Gary Webb (Renner) is a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News who uncovers a shocking connection between the CIA and drug-runners in Nicaragua. He writes “Dark Alliance”, a three-part exposé for the newspaper that grabs the nation’s attention. The African-American community in particular is angered by the possibility that the CIA intentionally introduced crack cocaine into their communities. Soon, the scrutiny that comes from life in the spotlight proves to be more than Webb, his wife Susan (DeWitt) and their three children can take as he feels his life is in danger.

            Kill the Messenger is adapted from Nick Schou’s book Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb as well as Webb’s own Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, an expansion of his articles. Like other conspiracy thrillers that examine the cost of uncovering the truth, Kill the Messenger is driven by a righteous indignation and has the David and Goliath aspect of a reporter from a small local newspaper going up against the CIA. Director Michael Cuesta has dealt with similar subject matter directing episodes of the TV series Homeland. There is a sense that he is striving not to over-sensationalise the actual events that took place but perhaps as result of this, the second half of the film lacks the propulsive urgency promised in the first half.

            The film places a fair amount of focus on Webb’s family life and how his pursuit of the truth behind the CIA’s alleged partnership with the Contras in Central America affected them. We see his exuberance slowly fade as he slides towards a meltdown as much of the journalism community turns against him and the big boys at the L.A. Times and the Washington Post become ravenously envious of his scoop. It feels as if a good chunk of what made the real-life case so compelling has been omitted from the film. Ideally, a thriller should pull one in deeper and deeper as it progresses, but Kill the Messenger hits a disappointing plateau midway through.

            Director Cuesta claims that in this film, Jeremy Renner delivers his best performance since The Hurt Locker and he’s pretty much right. Renner can’t quite seem to attain A-list action hero status despite appearing a number of popcorn movies over the last few years and perhaps projects in this vein are what he should be pursuing. There’s a charisma and hunger as well as a dash of idealism that Renner doesn’t overplay and it is truly crushing when we see things start to collapse before Webb’s eyes. The supporting cast is studded with semi-recognizable-to-pretty-famous faces including Oliver Platt, Ray Liotta, Tim Blake Nelson, Michael Sheen and Andy García. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Rosemarie DeWitt, as Webb’s editor and wife respectively, are especially convincing and their performances contribute to Kill the Messenger’s credibility as an account of actual events.

            Kill the Messenger brings an event and a personal story that has been largely forgotten by the public back to the forefront. Gary Webb died in 2004 from being shot twice in the head; this was ruled a suicide. There are still lessons to be learnt from Webb’s story, particularly for those interested in investigative journalism. While Kill the Messenger is admirable in how it doesn’t turn the whole thing into an overblown melodrama, it slides a little in the opposite direction, rendering its subject matter not quite as compellingly as it could have.

SUMMARY: While Jeremy Renner puts in an excellent performance, Kill the Messenger doesn’t dig deep enough into its subject matter and falls short of being a searing account of journalist Gary Webb’s ordeal.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Grace of Monaco

For F*** Magazine

GRACE OF MONACO

Director : Olivier Dahan

Cast : Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Milo Ventimiglia, Parker Posey, Paz Vega, Frank Langella, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Derek Jacobi

Genre : Biography, Drama

Opens : 22 May 2014

Rating : PG

In his song “Grace Kelly”, Mika proclaimed “I’ve gone identity mad!” Grace of Monaco attempts to portray the crisis of identity the real Grace Kelly (Kidman) underwent. In marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco (Roth), Kelly left her life as a Hollywood actress behind, but she was constantly reminded that the people of Monaco would not recognise the daughter of a Philadelphia bricklayer as one of their own. As France threatens to tax and possibly annex Monaco, resulting in a heated dispute between Rainier and France’s Charles de Gaulle (André Penvern), Kelly, now a wife, mother and princess, is tempted to return to acting.  Director Alfred Hitchcock (Ashton-Griffiths) comes calling with the script for his new film Marnie and with the whole world watching (and judging), the princess must decide what role she will play in the future of the principality.

            Many biopics have been criticised for taking a “cradle to the grave” approach, attempting to condense the entire lives of their subjects into two and half hours or so. Grace of Monaco instead focuses on a short, specific period in Grace Kelly’s life, which the actual royal family of Monaco claims has been highly fictionalised and is filled with factual inaccuracies. The film’s post-production process has also been turbulent, with director Olivier Dahan and distributor Harvey Weinstein feuding over the final cut and the release date being shuffled multiple times. The film ends up being overripe and uneven, hokey and melodramatic, if still watchable and somewhat palatable.

            Grace of Monaco is a pretty film to look at, cinematographer Eric Gautier dousing the movie in soft fill light. There are elegant costumes and sets galore, but one can’t help but feel a sense of artifice – at its worst, the movie evokes a movie-of-the-week affair, a pity given the marvellous La Vie En Rose, which Dahan also directed. The central conflict with its almost-intrigue and kinda-stakes just doesn’t feel as weighty as it needs to be, the film instead generating moments of overwrought emotion that despite Nicole Kidman’s best efforts, fail to ring altogether true. There’s even a montage that feels straight out of something like The Princess Diaries in which Grace Kelly takes elocution and history lessons in order to become a better princess.

            Nicole Kidman reportedly beat out the likes of Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain, Amy Adams, Gwyneth Paltrow and January Jones amongst others for the coveted title role. She’s certainly not a terrible Grace Kelly, mustering up all of her glamour and, well, grace to play the part but there isn’t a lot of depth to the portrayal beyond “being a princess isn’t the fantasy it’s cracked up to be.” One would think that given the narrower scope of the film compared to a conventional biopic, we’d get more room for meaningful characterisation and Kidman tries, but ultimately doesn’t deliver a well-rounded depiction of Grace Kelly. We hear many frustrated exclamations, including “why must everything be so complicated?” and “Ah! So difficult!” At no point does “Nicole Kidman the actor” disappear for “Grace Kelly the person” to take her place. She does have her moments though, that climactic speech she delivers at the end is sufficiently moving. She’s also a good deal taller than her onscreen husband; something Kidman is probably used to.

Tim Roth is careful not to turn Prince Rainier into a stiff, stern caricature and while he doesn’t have much chemistry with Kidman, he is believable as the Prince pushed into a tight spot. Frank Langella is the requisite kindly father figure as Father Francis Tucker, one of Rainier III’s closest friends and most trusted advisors, warm and wise even when saddled with platitudes such as “at some point, every fairy tale must end”. Roger Ashton-Griffiths is a decent, convincing Alfred Hitchcock, playing the legendary director as a gruff but well-meaning uncle.

            Grace of Monaco is far from subtle – we get an ominous car/driving motif (of course) and some clumsy, on the nose cues in the score. It’s difficult to take the film entirely seriously, but perhaps there’s a charm in the kitsch and the silliness – it’s unlikely that it was what director Olivier Dahan intended, but for what it’s worth, Grace of Monaco is far from detestable or brazenly divisive. Sensationalised? Sure. More than a little awards-baity? You bet. But is it trash? Nah.

Summary: At one point, Princess Grace tells her husband “Rai, it’s just a movie”. Go into Grace of Monaco with that mindset and perhaps you might enjoy yourself. As a dramatic, insightful exploration of the life of the screen legend though, it mostly misses the mark.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong