hydemike

Having never come across the name Anthony Bourdain before, I was surprised at the almost god-like status given to him by the culinary world primarily because he told the honest truth about the food that he had eaten - so strange to find the word "honest" (and its Thesaurus equivalents) used about cooking where a misstep can lead to death. So, given that this is about his early life as a late teenager and follows the cliché development of a "coming-of-age" storyline, it is extremely hard to empathise with the lying,self-opinionated, delusional, unlovable character portrayed so carefully by the actor Dominic Sessa. If this is how Matt Johnson told Sessa to play him, he succeeds in spades. I often found myself wondering why so much critical attention was being paid to what effectively could be one of those bleak Channel 4 biopics that would start off on an "out-of-season" Blackpool beach. Well here, the DP, Michael Bauman gives that same washed-up desolation to Provincetown, USA so no wonder bad things happen to the main characters. So many things just did not seem feasible - the chase and capture of the beautiful and clever fellow student Nancy; the adoption of Tony by a local , kind-hearted but unnamed chef /restaurant - owner (perhaps the original couldn't believe how Disney-fied he'd become and didn't want his name associated with the film) after said Tony had been left battered in the gutter after slagging off the wrong local; the not-totally unexpected meeting and adoption by the local bad boy that introduced him to the Provincetown world of drugs and easily-available female tourists but for me, the greatest implausibility was seeing this callow, clueless , pathetic individual move from being the kitchen hand washing dirty dishes to the assistant chef to the owner and knowing how to cook lobster thermidors in the space of one summer vacation. Even feelgood fantasists would have a hard time believing this. So why no 1* review you may ask? Primarily because of four star performances - Sessa has been mentioned already; Antonio Banderas in another mature-character role showing "gravitas" with a twinkle in the eye; Emilia Jones as Nancy, the object of his desire, playing really hard- to - get but growing to like Tony's irascibility and self-belief (you feel as crushed as she does when she offers herself as a bed partner and he refuses !!!) and finally in a role with few lines but a real, punchy presence - Dagmara Dominczyk as Tony's mother Gladys who recognises Tony's self delusion and pomposity and punctures it with almost vicious verbal barbs of her own. In the end the film made me look to Wikipedia to find out more about Bourdain and it was no wonder that I had never heard of him. His celebrity was based on television cookery and travel shows made in the USA where his "bad boy" opinions got him noticed. Being put off such shows made by his UK equivalents, its no wonder his fame passed me by. The other thing that really surprised me was that the "Nancy" in the film became his first wife of TWENTY years. On the evidence of the film that would NEVER have happened.

Would have given it a 10 but in the very early moments, the broad Irish brogue of the band members wasn't easy to understand but got better as you tuned into them. I'm not a big fan of Paul Rudd as I suspect that there's a picture in an attic somewhere that really reflects his aged look but this film finds him in an ideal role that should make this a summer feel-good film to watch if you want something other that animated films or superhero movies. It opens the window on the music industry in a realistic and often unflattering way which shows how cutthroat it can. We meet Rudd as the front man in a rock band that does weddings in Ireland and you know a little about his history when he gets chastised by the band's leader for singing one of his old standards. This man had some big stadium dreams, nicely recreated, but fell in love with a local Irish girl and stayed put and now has a daughter. After this wedding he gets to jam with a boy band member who wants to be taken seriously and they play a song together that Rudd wrote but the other bloke steals it and has a humongous hit with it. The rest of the film shows him trying to get acknowledged as the song's original writer . This involves him leaving Dublin and confronting the other singer on his own turf in L.A. When you see the singer's home and fast cars you realise that there is a lot to play for. He drags his fellow band member, Sandy, played very nicely by Peter McDonald (just watch the ace way that he deals with a Hollywood "hottie"), who shared his dream of rock star celebrity but never quite made it. What sets the film apart from the usual "feel-good" corniness is the clever way it deals with what he wants from the boy band member, while acknowledging that he cannot prove, legally speaking, how the song originated with him. In the end, if you don't come out humming the song in question, it's time to get your ears checked at "Specsavers".

I was surprised by the level of negativity of the "Metacritic" reviews, especially the american ones. Perhaps they are too jaded because of how the USA is viewed at the moment and just want to vent their spleen on one of their truly wonderful musical sons in their eagerness to trawl over his "feet of clay". Best to ignore them and go watch this brilliant biopic that traces Jackson's roots as the "frontman/boy" of the effervescent Jackson Five. Don't go and watch it on Cineworld's much-vaunted "4DX" version, you'll just end up with pain in your neck and back as your seat tries to replicate audience movement during the concert scenes !! As for the film, the critics make much of Colman Domingo's portrayal of Jackson Senior, making him out as a grotesque pantomime figure, too evil to be a true picture. I found it very believable that a grasping , money-orientated figure like him would behave the way he did to squeeze the last penny from the financial "cash cow" that was his son. Nia Long as Mother Jackson has the harder task of portraying a spineless mother , watching the intimidation of her siblings from the side, until the point comes when she has no option but to back the son against the father. The rest of the Jacksons are just effectively playing bit parts in the story because the film truly belongs to Jaafar Jackson's portrayal of Michael. Not only is his dancing as close to a perfect replica of his late uncle's moves as is possible but he captures Michael's innocence and good nature in a way that is believable and also gives a hint of the steel that was under it all as portrayed in the scene with the head of CBS Records when Michael pushes him into confronting MTV's despicable racism. For Jaafar this is a gift of a role that he does not squander. If there is to be a part two, it will be interesting to see if he manages to keep the audience on Michael's side during the downturn of his life. Otherwise the vultures of Metacritic will have their day.

I was intrigued by the acknowledgement to the legendary filmmaker Costa Gavras ( the director of such classics as "Z", "L'Aveu", "State of Siege" and "Missing") and noted that it must have been added by his son, Alexandre, one of the producers on this film. It's a shame that his name should be attached to this derivative, slowly-paced, crime "thriller". Given the source material - the novella "The Ax" by the late, great writer of crime fiction, Donald E. Westlake - it's amazing that a such a boring, yawn-inducing, lengthy, film has been made. Sadly there's no longer a Sidney Lumet or Don Siegal around, whose directorial skill would do justice to the story. As an attempt to push Korean cinema further into the global cinema marketplace, it has its points but they are more of the "emperor's new clothes variety". There's no doubt that the technical skill to make a film is high - the autumnal cinematography-is well done and you cannot fault the set design, make-up, costume, even the animal training - but is there anything "fresh" or "unique" about it. Not for me. If you want to watch a film about a man's murderous drive to achieve wealth and societal position, look no further than "Kind Hearts and Coronets" which has all of the above skills but has the added flourish of wit.

The previous day, I had approached the watching of Ceylan's 197-minute masterful "About Dry Grasses" with trepidation, wondering if it would be engaging for its unusual length for modern filmmaking. The appearance of the end credits took me completely by surprise, so involved was I by Ceylan's creation of the society in this part of his Turkish homeland. In complete contrast, Annie Baker's film was so static in nature that tedium set in after ten minutes and its 113 minutes length seemed interminable. Add to that, a truly poor quality sound "design" by Paul Hsu - do none of headline creative talent here sit through a performance of the film in a genuine cinema before releasing it on the paying public - made watching this film a cinematic equivalent of watching paint dry. And yet you look at the cast assembled - Julianne Nicholson, Sophie Okonedo, Will Patton, Elias Koteas, - and you wonder how they were convinced to join this project. Maybe they were seduced by the much- maligned award given to Annie Baker of a Pulitzer Prize for writing a play back in 2014. This proves once more that a prestigious prize given in one medium does not necessarily guarantee success in another. Still it was good of A24 and the good old BBC to give Baker the money to make what is essentially a home movie. If I was the editor, Lucian Johnston, I'd be wary of putting this on my cv if I wanted to progress in the world of filmmaking. Hsu's notoriety is already cast-iron.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

It's a genuine shame that this film is so dull. The main performances from West and Knightley are so "one-note" that after my tenth yawn I gave up being impressed by the set design and the costumes. Pity. You would have thought that the intrinsic nature of the off-beat relationship between these two literary figures would make for dynamic cinema but somehow the drama is just hinted at and not exposed in the raw. What would Burton and Taylor made of this scenario !! But they were legends and ,unfortunately West and Knightley are just actors. I look forward to Westmoreland's next film as I genuinely think he has found a way of curing chronic insomnia.

Film critics have made Yorgos Lanthimos out to be some sort of unique directorial talent and his "works" - "The Lobster","The Killing of a Sacred Deer" and now "The Favourite"- have made him the darling of the festival crowd and the movie critics. One can but applaud him for being able to entice finance from the supposed "hard-nosed" money men of Tinseltown and make films that are only comprehensible to a very select few. How to approach his latest, "The Favourite"? Some compare it to Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon", when in reality there are more than a few nods to the outlandish Ken Russell. Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Is it a comedy drama or a drama comedy? Who can tell? Hopefully the locations and the costume providers have got Yorgos on their Christmas card list. As for the actresses whose talents have been largely wasted,let's hope their careers can survive their participation here. There were moments when all three were on screen at the same time and the power struggles all three endured would have made a more memorable film. Unfortunately the music of the film's composer would then raise its ugly head or the "fish -eye" lens of the cameraman would interfere and kill any drama stone-dead. Hopefully "word-of-mouth" will kill this film off and at some point there will be a reality check amongst the critics who will finally realise that Yorgos has subjected them to an "Emperor's New Clothes" scenario yet again and they have been had not once, not twice but three times now.