Tag: Judi Dench

Belfast

Post author By Mark
Post date December 15, 2021

There’s something to be said for the power of a good crowd-pleaser. Those films that know exactly what they’re doing to give you an enjoyable time, even if there are some hardships along the way. Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast is exactly that type of film; an intensely personal and equally uplifting look into the writer-director’s upbringing amidst the Troubles during the late 60’s in Ireland and what happens when the unbridled imagination of a young child is forced to contend with the harrowing real world events transpiring around him. With a stellar debut from the incredibly endearing young Jude Hill and an outstanding supporting cast, Belfast is one of the most satisfying films of the year, guaranteed to leave you with a huge grin plastered across your face.

When his street is unceremoniously torn asunder by a riot instigated by Protestants to scare Catholics out of Belfast, young Buddy (Hill) begins to worry about the safety of his family within their small community. With his mind set at ease by his Ma (Caitríona Balfe) and Pa (Jamie Dornan), Buddy can go back to focussing on his everyday life: working up the courage to admit his feelings for his school crush, spending time with his Granny (Judi Dench) and Pop (Ciarán Hinds) and deciding what film to watch next at the cinema. But he soon begins to realise that things might not be as rosy as his parents suggest, as mounting financial and safety concerns force them to consider the prospect of leaving Ireland for England, whilst his grandparents are forced to confront their own medical issues. Meanwhile the threat of violence looms increasingly large over the small family as local gangster Billy Clanton (Colin Morgan) looks to take advantage of Pa and the riots become more frequent.

Kenneth Branagh has done a lot in his career but Belfast might just be his best, most intimate work to date. There isn’t a single beat that doesn’t feel completely necessary to telling the heartwarming story of Buddy and his family, whether that be the terrifying riot scenes that feel colossal in scale to the youngster or the fairly innocuous shoplifting that Buddy hilariously finds himself embroiled in. As a slice-of-life examination of this time period and the ground level struggles of the people living in it, Belfast feels incredibly well realised, striking a careful balancing act in tone between the childlike wonder Buddy views the world through – idolising the adults around him and their seemingly perfect life within the close-knit community – and the sad reality that these same adults are constantly struggling to get ahead in life.

While it may seem to be light on a driving narrative force – and the black and white gimmick doesn’t do much other than highlight a few especially beautiful shots – the rollercoaster ride of emotions the audience experiences following this family that can never seem to win is never not affecting, equally devastating and elating when it needs to be. That’s helped a great deal by the Van Morrison songs that soundtrack the film – himself from Belfast – which add another layer of authenticity and heart to the affair, joyously triumphant when Buddy is and quietly solemn when the moment calls for it.

Newcomer Jude Hill is the perfect vessel to explore this distinct viewpoint of a childhood robbed of its innocence, forced to contend with matters beyond his years. He brings such a youthful exuberance to the role that it is impossible not to get enraptured in Buddy’s day-to-day activities; feeling just as devastated as he does when he misses out on a chance to talk to his crush or terrified when he finds himself caught in trouble. There’s also a significant amount of comedy Hill brings to the role through what seems at times like ad-lib; hilarious off-the-cuff remarks that more often than not will have you in stitches at the strange, often alarmingly truthful ways children view the world around them.

Surrounding Hill is a bevy of Irish talent (and the great Judi Dench) who all deliver powerful, moving performances as adults in various degrees of trouble trying to present a united and calm front to this impressionable child in their midst. Ciarán Hinds is particularly effective in his role as Buddy’s grandfather, always with a potent life lesson on hand and a cheery demeanour despite his troubles; a role model for Buddy to lean on as the fate of his own future becomes unsure.

It may not push the coming-of-age genre into any unexplored directions but Belfast is still the best film of Kenneth Branagh’s career; an extremely well directed, triumphant celebration of Belfast and its people that is impossible not to fall in love with. Jude Hill is the perfect protagonist to explore this difficult time in Irish history, approaching the conflict with an innocence that is slowly eaten away as the reality of the situation dawns upon him and Branagh strikes the perfect balance in tone, never lingering on these heavy moments for too long before returning to the fun and folly of Buddy’s youth. After the bomb that was Branagh’s last film Artemis Fowl, this is a huge leap in the right direction, hopefully towards the top of many awards podiums.

Belfast stars Jude Hill, Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Morgan, Lewis McAskie & Judi Dench – In American cinemas now and Australian cinemas February 3rd.

10/10

Tags Belfast, Caitriona Balfe, Ciarán Hinds, Jamie Dornan, Jude Hill, Judi Dench, Kenneth Branagh, Lewis McAskie

Ranked

RANKED – Daniel Craig Bond Films

Post author By Mark
Post date November 15, 2021

The seventh actor to play the iconic 007, Daniel Craig has cemented himself as one of the greatest over the course of 5 films. Borne of a post-Bourne era of action films, Craig’s contributions to the franchise feel completely different from what has come before; less focused on the gadgetry and gaudy cars and more so on no-holds-barred action and a deconstruction of what makes James Bond tick as a person, rather than the mythical, infallible spy of decades prior. With his final turn as the super spy No Time to Die hitting cinemas, we’ve assembled the definitive ranking of Craig’s Bond films, as well as a little something about each film’s theme song, arguably as important to the franchise as a shaken, not stirred martini. Let’s get into it.

5. Quantum of Solace (2008)

Quantum of Solace is a perfect example of why you don’t make a movie without a script. Notoriously rewritten as shooting was underway, Craig’s second outing as 007 is for the most part a confusing mess. Picking up straight after Casino Royale and following Bond as he attempts to unearth the organisation responsible for Vesper’s (Eva Green) death – Quantum – the film struggles to find a story worth telling; constantly referencing Vesper and Bond’s attachment to her but never furthering that exploration of character.

There’s a vaguely investing storyline involving Olga Kurylenko’s Camille exacting revenge on a corrupt colonel that wronged her family and the film sets the board effectively for Quantum to eventually morph into the iconic Bond organisation Spectre, but nothing that invests you in Craig’s portrayal of Bond any more than the phenomenal groundwork laid by Casino Royale. Still that opening fifteen minutes is something else; a visceral, pulse-pounding spectacle that the film never manages to top.

Theme Song: Another Way to Die – Jack White and Alicia Keys is a pairing almost as confusing as the film’s script, but somehow the warring sounds of White’s grungy guitar and Key’s silky piano come together to form a theme song that is incredibly rousing and energetic, even if it isn’t the most memorable.

4. Spectre (2015)

Sam Mendes’ second Bond outing, Spectre marked a shift in the Craig films, embracing the franchises storied history where it had previously been largely ignored in favour of a gritty realism. That meant more gadgets, a more cocksure, smarmier Bond than ever and the introduction of Christoph Waltz’ Blofeld, leader of Spectre. When it works it works well, but more often than not Spectre crumbles under the weight of everything it is trying to accomplish, unsure of the tone it is trying to establish and resulting in the rare Bond film that feels strangely anaemic and bereft of excitement, even during huge set-pieces.

The way Mendes ties Spectre into Bond’s history – all 3 previous film’s villains were on his payroll – is interesting and certainly adds instant weight to the threat of Blofeld, but doesn’t do much to change the fact that Bond is still carving his way through an endless supply of henchmen, none of whom feel particularly more dangerous thanks to the Spectre moniker. The exception here is Dave Bautista’s Hinx; a physically imposing mountain of a man that is easily the best right-hand man of any of Craig era villain and who makes for some downright brutal hand-to-hand fight scenes.

Theme: Writing’s on the Wall – The sweeping orchestral hook in Sam Smith’s Bond contribution is incredible, rightly forming a major backbone of the rest of the film’s score. The rest of the song is an appropriately smokey, hazy trip through elements of Bond’s character that hint at the spectre (see what I did there?) of death looming large in the form of Blofeld.

3. No Time to Die (2021)

Craig’s final outing as Bond might not send him out on as high a note as he deserves but it is nonetheless a thrilling, emotionally compelling ending to James’ story. After a failed attempt on his life leaves James questioning the loyalty of lover Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), he retreats from the world for 5 years, only reentering for a chance at eradicate Spectre once and for all. The pivot from Spectre – the be all and end all of Bond foes and throughout Spectre very much built up as the end of the road – to an underwhelming new villain, Rami Malek’s Safin, doesn’t exactly feel organic, but given the (at one time) finality of Spectre, you can’t give director Cary Joji Fukunaga too much trouble for the attempt.

Other than that and a few hiccups in the humour department, everything else about the film is peak Bond. Chunky, hard-hitting fist fights bring the action back to the intimate level of Casino Royale and the relationship between Swann and Bond gives the film an unexpectedly emotional core; one that allows Fukunaga to reflect on the character of Bond and just how much he has changed from machismo cliché to a flawed, fully formed person craving an exit from his life of loneliness under Craig’s guidance.

Theme: No Time to Die – Like Adele before her, Billie Eilish’s skyrocketing career perfectly intersected with Bond, and her talents are put to good use here with an ominous, sombre piece that feels appropriate to wind down Craig’s tenure as 007. Like the film, it isn’t the best song to come out of Craig’s run but it is a solid addition to the playlist nevertheless.

2. Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall is neck and neck for the number one spot here, a beautifully shot deconstruction of the character of Bond and the loyalty he holds for his country and M (Judi Dench). After a mission goes awry and Bond is presumed dead, MI6 is thrust into chaos when the identities of all undercover agents are threatened to be leaked by Silva (Javier Bardem), a former agent himself with close ties to M. Forced to reenter the fray, Bond more than meets his match in Silva – a spy of the same vintage from a different time – forcing him to confront his own demons in order to come out on top.

Sam Mendes brings such a rollicking pace to proceedings – beginning with a white-knuckle chase that moves from foot to motorcycle to train – and doesn’t stop until the credits roll; always beautifully shot (the Shanghai fight) and laser focused on Bond in a way that Spectre isn’t, favouring spectacle over how the action affects the character. And that character is a far cry from his youthful, energetic debut. This is a beaten down, ageing Bond that struggles to get back into the swing of things. The charming taste for vodka martini’s has turned into an almost crippling alcohol addiction and the swagger and bravado has turned to world-weariness. This is where Skyfall truly earns its place; in going beyond those surface level Bond tropes and looking at the man beneath, what is important to him and why he does what he does. The result is a touching, breakneck rollercoaster only narrowly beaten out by…

Theme: Skyfall – The undisputed best theme of Craig’s Bond filmography, Skyfall is a throwback to classic Bond songs; a grand, foreboding opus that slowly builds to a catchy, instantly recognisable hook that has yet to be passed since. It says a lot that the song also ranks among Adele’s best, a superstar performer who has an extensive body of fantastic work behind her.

1. Casino Royale (2006)

It’s hard to imagine a time when Daniel Craig wasn’t universally praised as 007, but back in 2006 he was anything but the favourite choice to take on the role. That might be that little extra push that nudges Casino Royale past Skyfall into the number one position: how massively it overcomes the hurdle of audience expectations. Within minutes you’re sucked into this grounded, post-Bourne retelling of Bond’s rise to 00 status. Gone are the shiny trinkets and cheesy ice cap melting plots of Pierce Brosnan’s heyday, replaced with brutal bare-knuckle brawls and a not confident, but cocky Bond, eager to prove himself and earn respect. It’s a refreshing lens through which to view a cinematic hero as storied as Bond, especially the fresh take on his romantic relationship with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), the result of which inches him that little bit further towards becoming the James Bond we know.

Chronicling his first mission with the infamous licence to kill, freshly instated 007 finds himself hot on the trail of Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) – a financier for terrorist cells around the world – leading him to a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro, where Bond must keep his wits sharp if he is to survive the game and its deadly outcome. Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre is the series’ best villain, a conniving, unscrupulous weasel of a man who plays the part of arch-villain well, but is really on the hook to those more frightening men financing his lifestyle. A Bond villain doesn’t get more menacing than a man who cries blood, yet Le Chiffre isn’t defined by this scary idiosyncrasy; a snivelling, scared man who has bitten off more than he can chew but must act the part if he hopes to survive his predicament.

The action similarly feels layered, only there where it furthers the story of Bond. Luckily for audiences, Bond is a particularly violent man and that means the action flows steadily throughout; a flurry of close-quarters encounters that Bond scrapes through by the skin of his teeth more often than not. That inexperience creates for some fascinating interactions between Bond and series staples like M (Judi Dench); unusually terse and tense scoldings that perfectly stage the adoptive mother-son relationship so brilliantly built upon in Skyfall. The poker scenes drip with tension; full of long, drawn out shots that have the audience looking for tells in the same way as Bond, before director Martin Campbell whips us away to a brutal staircase fight-scene and back to the table; exhausted and overstimulated in the same way as Bond. This is all after Campbell and Craig had silenced the doubters with the most thrilling action sequence of all 25 films: a frantic scramble through construction yards and up cranes that firmly established Daniel Craig as a new kind of Bond. James Bond.

Theme: You Know My Name – What better way to signal a shift in direction for the franchise than with the deafening guitar riffs from Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell. The veteran rocker goes all out, with a soaring orchestral support backing up an already exhilarating hook. The perfect introduction musically to a totally different kind of Bond.

Tags 007, Ben Whishaw, Casino Royale, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, James Bond, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Léa Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Naomie Harris, No Time to Die, Quantum of Solace, Ralph Fiennes, Rami Malek, Skyfall, Spectre

Movie Reviews

Artemis Fowl

Post author By Mark
Post date June 17, 2020

It’s a weird time to be a movie fan right now. With the closure of cinemas due to the current pandemic new films have become a rare thing, with Netflix reveling in its constant supply of original content, most of which seems to hit their target market quite nicely. Netflix is so far ahead of the pack in this regard and is totally dominating the streaming market during the pandemic, to the point where you would be forgiven for forgetting that Disney+ was even a thing, having seemingly not released anything worth mentioning since The Mandalorian. With a brand name like Disney it is hard to believe that their first big budget, highly publicised release on the platform in months is as bad as Artemis Fowl unfortunately is. Indeed the film, directed by long-time Disney collaborator Kenneth Branagh, is an almost incomprehensible mish-mash of genres and tones; in addition to being one of the most corniest things I’ve seen in years. People throw the word “cringeworthy” around a lot these days, but I can think of no better word to describe Artemis Fowl, a monumental misfire that almost has to be seen to be believed.

Based on the young adult novels of the same name by Irish author Eoin Colfer, the film centres around boy genius Artemis Fowl Jr (Ferdia Shaw), a charismatic young man seemingly burdened with great intelligence, spending his days arguing with schoolteachers about his attitude towards the work he considers beneath him. His nights, however are spent alongside his father (Colin Farrell), a renowned billionaire art dealer and entrepreneur who secretly schools his son in all manner of Irish fairytales and folklore. When his father mysteriously disappears, Artemis begins to realise that the world of goblins and sprites that his father has described is real and finds himself in a race against time to recover the Aculos, an ancient artefact whose powers are never really quantified and which simply cannot fall into the wrong hands as it will destroy the worlds, both fairy and human. You know, the usual stuff. Teaming up with bodyguard Domovoi (Nonso Anozie), fugitive dwarf and expert safe cracker Mulch Diggums (Josh Gad) and fairy police officer Holly Short (Lara McDonnell), Artemis must comb through his father’s studies in order to search for the Aculos and prevent certain doom.

Sounds like a lot of cliched exposition-heavy hooey doesn’t it? That’s because it is. Artemis Fowl’s chief problem is that it is so bogged down with exposition and needless world building that it forgets to give the story strong enough characters for the audience to latch onto. Everyone is so woefully underwritten that you never really get a grasp of who anyone really is. Sure, they all get a scene highlighting their defining attributes; Domovoi is the cranky butler who specialises in martial arts, Mulch is the wise-cracking bandit who can dig under buildings and Holly has a troubled past and wings. That’s about as far as it goes, depth-wise. Even Artemis himself, the so called “criminal mastermind” has been so toned down from the book, devoid of any personality, criminal or otherwise. He’s simply an annoyingly arrogant little twerp, who constantly corrects people and thinks he is outsmarting them only to get one-upped every time. Then there’s the story, or lack thereof. The pacing of it all is such that by the time the first proper action scene rolls around and you think you’re getting to the good stuff, the credits roll. I’m not kidding. The film literally has one scene that you could pass off as an action scene and even that is pretty poor by today’s standards. There are a few attempts to innovate by playing with time and warping characters around the joint and this is where Artemis Fowl is at its best, when nobody is speaking and the story isn’t being discussed. Outside of these small pieces however, the action is largely pretty terrible, lacking the CGI polish of similar Disney tentpoles.

It’s not even worth mentioning here that the film is set in Ireland, because the film needlessly beats you over the head with the fact so often that the phrase “Shut the four-leaf clover up” is actually uttered. Again, I’m not kidding. It’s a pity that the cast themselves didn’t get the Irish memo, as every character that attempts the accent invariably decides to abandon it in spots, particularly Fowl himself Ferdia Shaw. He is a young talent and still learning, so it can be forgiven but it is a jarring shift to go from an Irish accent to high class British as often as the shot changes, but that isn’t the worst offender. Josh Gad and Judi Dench, yes the esteemed Dame Judi Dench, have seemingly been given the direction to talk as if they have both a chest infection and a mouth full of marbles, as an excuse for gruff, world weary characters. The paycheck must have been good for Dench, who seems to despise every corny, nonsensical line she is forced to utter as the Head of Fairy Police and Holly Short’s mentor. Her presence brings a certain prestige to the picture, but it is clear that she is well past these CGI heavy roles and her tiredness shows in the performance. To his credit Josh Gad is the standout here, clearly going for something as the charmingly offbeat Mulch Diggums, a portly combination of Gimli from Lord of the Rings and Chris Pratt’s Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy. He is clearly having fun experimenting with the comedy here and whilst not all the choices pay off, his presence is a welcome distraction from the tedium of Artemis’ storyline.

What baffles me most about Artemis Fowl is the involvement of Kenneth Branagh in the directing duties. The film seemed robbed of all his sensibilities and style, an incredibly bland journey through a world begging to be a mash-up between Star Wars and Harry Potter and coming nowhere near the greatness of either of them. Branagh has said that he made numerous changes from the book and the finished product just doesn’t do anything to justify that decision, as we are forced to listen to huge chunks of exposition and fairy history at a time. He seems so preoccupied with the sheer scale and intricacies of the world that he has forgotten to actually adapt the book. Despite Josh Gad’s best efforts, Artemis Fowl is ultimately an incredibly boring and corny film that completely squanders the rich property it is based on and does nothing to bolster Disney+’s already scarce original content offerings. Do yourself a favour and avoid this one at all costs, unless you feel like a good 90 minute nap, of course.

Artemis Fowl stars Ferdia Shaw, Josh Gad, Judi Dench, Lara McDonnell, Nonso Anozie & Colin Farrell – Streaming on Disney+ now.

Tags Artemis Fowl, Colin Farrell, Disney, Disney+, Ferdia Shaw, Josh Gad, Judi Dench, Kenneth Branagh, Lara Mcdonnell, Nonso Anozie