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Friday 21 June 2013

Film Roundup: Enjoying yourself is a serious matter. Sometimes. (Behind the Candelabra, The Stone Roses: Made of Stone, After Earth)

Like the star of its story, Behind the Candelabra revels in its ability to entertain its audience but also uses its glamour to hide dark and personal demons. Swinging between comedy and drama with speed and ease, the film explores the glitzy and bizarre world of Liberace (Michael Douglas), the flamboyant piano player and entertainer who hid his sexuality in plain sight. The story is told through the eyes of Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), who finds himself employed as his companion. Michael Douglas is an obvious standout as the character demands attention anyway. While Douglas shines as Liberache the entertainer, he proves to be just as skillful in displaying his manipulative manner and desperation. As we peel back the layers on the man (at times quite literally), he becomes increasingly complex and almost unnerving; he is a man who is unafraid to do as he pleases and damn the consequences.

This effect would be significantly less powerful were Douglas not equalled, and at times surpassed, in performance by Matt Damon as Scott. He is arguably the main character here as it is very much his story (the film is based on Thorson's autobiography) and much of the film explores Scott's repulsed attraction to Liberache's personality. We learn far more about Scott than we do Liberache, and is arguably more sympathetic. Damon has never been better and convincingly portrays how Scott's life revolves around Liberache. However, while Damon and Douglas are extraordinary, every scene they share with Rob Lowe's hilarious plastic surgeon is stolen from them. While his face displays almost no expression at all, Lowe is absolutely wonderful and utterly memorable despite his little screen time.

In contrast to the awkward switch of genres in Side Effects (director Steven Soderburgh's previous film, which he claimed to be his last), Soderburgh is much more sleek here with sudden cuts and transitions rarely awkward and creating an impact, whether they be comic or dramatic. One of my favourite films this year, but I wish I knew less about it before I went in. Knowing the basic story from the trailer, the foreshadowing early on of Damon's plight was obvious and subsequently didn't have the full effect it should of had. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this film on every level - dramatic, funny, stylish. I couldn't of asked for more.


Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy Shane Meadows' latest film and first documentary The Stone Roses: Made of Stone as much as I wanted to. Don't get me wrong, it is a very enjoyable film. Meadows very easily fits into documentary filmmaking as you'd expect from the skilled director of This is England. He's clearly enjoying himself and it is striking how even the real life people he interviews seem to resemble the characters of his films.

Indeed, it is clearly a film for these fans although it doesn't completely alienate those who are unfamiliar with the Stone Roses, such as myself. I did enjoy the songs and you get plenty of them - about half the running time is essentially concert footage. Meadows uses the standard documentary technique of going back and forth in history to track the history of the Stone Roses but also really builds up the impact of their return as a historical event and also shows how they haven't seemed to have really changed much over 20 years.

However, just enjoying the music isn't enough, I feel, to truly appreciate this film. It does remarkably capture the joy of being a fan and the rush you get when seeing live music - lots of great memories came flooding back to me of wonderful concerts I've been to.  But while it is charming, I agree with one of the fans when he tells Meadows why he loves the Stone Roses: "You know, I know, but you can't put it into words". I can appreciate the film and the fandom at the heart of it, but since I can't relate to it, I'm always at a distance.

After Earth on the other hand is just underwhelming completely. While Meadows remains superb when experimenting with genre, M. Night Shaymalan seems to be on a downward trend although he hasn't lost all the innovation he showed in The Sixth Sense. The film is visually attractive and it is not without interesting ideas - the father/son relationship in the film goes on an interesting arc and the Will Smith character's conflict between appearing strong and wanting to express emotion has potential to be really powerful. But as you might notice, I don't even know the characters name and I really can't be bothered to recount the plot (bad reviewing I know, but I also struggle to remember it and I only saw it last week). Basically, Jayden Smith has to fight for survival on a devastated Earth and is less exciting than that sounds. (And it doesn't even sound that exciting). As much as there is interesting stuff in there somewhere, it's so dully executed it is not worth trying to pay attention to them since the film clearly doesn't either.

What's annoying is that it is not awful, it is just very, very average. There is no tension or scares beyond annoying jump scares. While it is a serious drama, it takes itself far too seriously and doesn't allow the survival action scenes to be exciting or thrilling, just gruelling. It seems Shaymalan is so desperate to express deep ideas through imagery, he ignores any sense of fun. The few moments Will Smith is not spouting exposition are deathly dull with only one line allowing him to express any human emotion. His son doesn't fare much better, who struggles to get anything interesting out of his character. The interesting character background is incredibly disjointed to his present self who is just scared all the time. In the end, it's just a very dull film which is arguably the worst thing a film can be.

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