Booksmart

There’s been a long tradition of American films set in and around High Schools, from Rebel Without A Cause to Grease, the Breakfast Club, Clueless and Superbad and beyond. The cadre is now joined by Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, 2019) the story of two girls about to graduate who have set themselves apart from their classmates. In the leading roles we have Beanie Feldstein, sister of Jonah Hill, and Kaitlyn Dever playing Amy and Molly; two Booksmart girls who’s heroes include RBG and Michelle, they also have a Warren 2020 bumper sticker. Molly is the class president and reminds her colleagues of this at any given opportunity. She and Amy have shied away from parties to get into their college of choice, they discover though that all the party animals are still getting into their college of choice as well. The rest of the film is of course all about the consequences of this discovery. It features over bearing parents, supportive teachers, an unusual use for a stuffed panda and lessons in what friendship is. The film basically follows a rom-com formula and is not too demanding really, it’s less than annoying as well. It’s actually more of what we need, lower budget films, with a decent script and engaging performances.

Swimming With Men

Swimming With Men (Oliver Parker, 2018) may not be the most groundbreaking of films. It’s story follows a well trodden path, but of course does not tread water (boom-boom). Our hero is Eric (Rob Bryson) who we see from the beginning is an accountant that takes solace from his swim in the pool at the end of the working day. It seems that life has little meaning, his wife (Jane Horrocks)  is moving in different circles as she’s a newly elected councillor and seems to have more purpose in her life than he does, along with different priorities.

Being an accountant, Eric is course good with numbers and calculation. It’s this prowess that introduces him to a group of male synchronised swimmers that he meets at the pool. They are having problems with a routine and Eric point out that there is a mathematical solution in that they need an even number of swimmers to succeed, so they should lose a man from the group. The swimmers discover that Eric’s personal circumstances have taken a turn for the worse. This leads to them eventually deciding that they need to increase their number for the routine to succeed. The group then recruits Eric so that they can save the routine and save him at the same time

There then follows a charming film about group dynamics, striving for a common goal and navigating your way through life. Eric finds that there is a Fight Club style element to the group. The first rule, he finds, is not to talk about swim club. It’s more than that though, it’s about brotherhood and moving away from mid life drift and ennui. The film therefore gives us an equation as to how one might stave off a lonely death, do stuff. Find something to do, preferably with other people, there’s possible longevity in common purpose. There’s charm in this story and this film and an emotional maturity as well, it’s worth taking the initial dip and immersing yourself in this.

The Day I Lost My Shadow

The Day I Lost My Shadow (Soudade Kaadan, 2018) The story of Sana and her son and what they do to survive in today’s Damascus, torn apart by the never ending civil war. In the normal course of events in their day; the electricity is switched off, they glory in having running water, Sana clears up broken glass at work and they live with the fear that the war might come ever closer and into their apartment.

Events spiral out of all proportion after they run out of  bottled gas in the apartment and Sana goes off in search for this with a friend and her brother. They survive an incident with a taxi driver evading a checkpoint and then face further misfortunes. This leads the intrepid trio almost spiral down a rabbit hole where they maybe don’t end up in wonderland but in the middle of and environment where they meet a number of characters who offer a number of different challenges and opportunities, with varying degrees of good and poor fortune.

Maybe this is the experience of living in a war zone, especially when the war in question is a civil war. Maybe you don’t always know which way up and down is, and who is on which side as they may have changed since yesterday. The film highlights that the victims of these wars are ordinary working people, it’s their lives that are turned upside down, it’s they that become collateral damage, when all they are trying to do is to live their life.

It’s these people that live in the shadows and as the title suggest it’s death that takes these shadows away. The distinction is made with Hiroshima, where all that was left of the dead was their shadow. This is a fine film that reminds us what happens when a nation falls in on itself and maybe it’s the act of these people living, or attempting to live a normal life, that will eventually lead a country lie Syria out of darkness.

You Were Never Really Here

Utterly bizarre and marvellous film. It’s about a hitman called Joe who lives with his mother, he’s engagingly played by Joaquin Phoenix. Thing is that his past is always with him, as is normal, but this seems to skew his world view somewhat. We have then this mix of violence and the surreal as Joe travels through his waking dreams. Lynne Ramsay as ever weaves a delicate and beautifully balanced film, she and the novelist Jonathan Ames are such a wonderful storytellers, this is sublime. Even though I’m not sure of what I’ve maybe seen.

Hurricane

Hurricane (David Blair, 2018) tells the story of the RAF’s 303 Squadron, the majority of which was Polish pilots fighting the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain in World War II. They were prodigiously successful in shooting down German planes, doing more than their fair share of the damage to Hitler’s plans to invade Britain.

The film, we are told at the beginning, is based on actual events, which makes some of what you see quite shocking. That is the way that these pilots were treated by some British pilots and the authorities in Poland after the war. The general consensus seemed to be that they, over time went from escaping the Nazis and then suffering the Soviets.

It was a well told story with decent performances from Iwan Rheon and Stefanie Martini. Ms Martini did well to show some of the experiences of women serving in the armed forces in WWII. It seems that, depressingly, women could play their part but some men would only let them do this on their terms.

I did worry some times, watching this, as it looked to as if it was a film that was filmed as economically as possible. There were lots of CGI used in the dog fight scenes, but the filmmakers just about got away with that. There were a few scenes with some interesting prosthetics for characters that had suffered from fire in the cockpit. At least they were shown in this film, Christopher Plummer’s character suffered burns damage in The Battle Of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969) but was not shown with his injuries, a chance missed.

What also can’t be ignored is how the film discusses the role of Poles, and foreigners in general, in Britain. The film was of course set in 1940, but context is provided by it being a a film made in 2018. It’s not unreasonable to draw parallels with the experience of foreign personnel in Britain during and after WWII and after Brexit. 56% of Britons wanted foreign personnel repatriated after WWII, such gratitude.

On the whole I enjoyed the film and I was caught up in the story. It was well told and was a fitting tribute to the brave personnel that took their part in winning freedom for us all.

Billy Liar

Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963) is the engaging tale of Billy Fisher, wonderfully portrayed by Tom Courtenay. The film was produced by that triumvirate of British talent; Keith Waterhouse, John Schlesinger and Richard Rodney Bennett. Billy is a clerk at an Undertakers but dreams of being much more. We see his daydreams of being a victorious leader in the country in his mind, Ambrosia. He also has pretentions of writing for a comedian in London and leaving his Bradford home. He’s living with his long suffering mum and dad, and his grandmother. He has a dark secret in his wardrobe of 200 calendars that he was supposed to have posted for his employer last Christmas. He also has a very complicated love life. All of this is further complicated by him being economical with the truth. 

The film catches England in that crux of change when World War Two bomb sites were being built upon and those buildings that had survived the war were being demolished for progress. It was also the cusp of that time when teenagers and young people were being invented; going to coffee houses, dances, riding motorbikes and talking back to their parents.

The film as well is like a celebration of British acting talent with not only Tom Courtenay nay, but also Julie Christie, Wilfred Pickles, Rodney Bewes, Leonard Rossiter, Mona Washbourn and Helen Fraser. In that as well it links the past with the future, wonderful stuff.

BlacKKKlansman

BlacKKKlansman (Spike Lee, 2018)

I can’t say if it’s the film of the year but it’s one of them. This is the story of how a black police officer, Ron Stallworth, from Colorado Springs infiltrated the KKK, or the organisation, as they call it, in the early 1970s. What Spike Lee does though is makes it relevant to today’s America. The shame of course is that it’s relevant to today’s America. The shame is that it’s the President that has made this relevant to today’s America. The wonderful thing is that Spike Lee can concoct a wonderful narrative, he can build drama, he can get great performances from his actors. It’s not just a wake up call for us all, it’s a great film as well.

The beauty of this film, as should happen with good fiction, is variety of potential conflict and the uneasy interaction between a number of characters. So it’s not just about Ron’s interaction with the KKK. It’s also about his interaction with the black students organisations at the local college. His burgeoning relationship with Patrice, the organiser of one of the organisations. His interaction with other officers in the Colorado Sprngs Police Department. Here, there’s one officer Philip who is Jewish and the film explores his conflicts that arise from this story.

It would be easy to portray the KKK as buffoons and leave it there. But what happens is that we see what a menace they can be and what their intent is as well. Chillingly we hear and see the efforts the Grand Wizard, David Duke, made so that the Klan would become a main stream political organisation. A pressure group that would exert influence on main stream America. All of this at the same time as being a deeply racist and prejudicial organisation.