The Month In Films: April 2015

The month of Easter is now upon us – and along with all the chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and lazy lie-ins – there are also more great DVDs and Blu-Rays heading your way. No April Fools about it! Over the coming month, you’ll be treated to epic tales of bravery and survival, interesting independent films – ranging from the comical to the documentary – and of course, the final segment of Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth Saga.

Electricity

There’s always a fair amount of apprehension whenever a model or musician is given the opportunity to try their hand at acting, especially when they’ve had little to no professional training. However, now with a modest résumé to her name, one would expect Agyness Deyn to at least hold her own in the potentially daunting starring role here as Lily O’Connor – a young woman that suffers from epilepsy, and is tasked with finding her estranged brother after their mother passes away and leaves them both an inheritance. Depending on your chosen definition of ‘holding your own’, Deyn both succeeds and marginally falls. Her empathy for the role and the hard work she evidently put into the portrayal are clear to see. Unfortunately, with this bold tenacity, came a fair few glimpses of her inexperience. Moreover, the script – adapted from Ray Robinson’s novel – is not without its faults either. Most prominently in it’s lack of realism in terms of timescale when it comes to the matter of probate. Not that the odd simplicity of that will remotely deplete your enjoyment of the story, unless of course you’re a lawyer (-in training).

Where Electricity truly shines, is in its visual representation of Lily’s condition. Through the lens-flaring and lighting contortion of point-of-view shots, the viewer is given a glimpse into what sufferers of epilepsy may go through on a regular basis. Which not only builds an intense understanding with the character, but possibly triggers an impulse in the viewer to further investigate outside the film’s world. Screen Daily described it as “an off-kilter spin on the classic Alice In Wonderland story”, and I can definitely see where they’re coming from.

Electricity is available to buy from 6th April 2015* | Words: AG

What We Do In The Shadows

Based on a 2006 short by Taika Waititi and Flight of the Conchords star, Jemaine Clement, What We Do In The Shadows is a comedy with a twist. Developing on the mockumentary style made infamous by the likes of The Office, a camera crew follows the day to day lives of four men living together in a Wellington apartment in New Zealand. Well, I say” living”. They are in fact vampires. Viago (Waititi), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) and Vladislav (Clement), are all just regular guys – despite their lust for blood and their aversion to crucifixes and sunlight. Along with their Nosferatu-like flatmate, Petyr (Ben Fransham), the group regularly go out into the town looking for victims in nightclubs. But when they accidentally turn potential victim Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) into a vampire, their lives get even more interesting, as they show him the ropes and delve further into the inner sanctum of the undead community.

If it sounds bizarre, it’s because it is. The film plays on the classic tropes of Vampire legend and cinema, and using the mockumentary format, tries to normalise it – which is, undeniably funny. Watching the group attempt to have a ‘flat meeting’ in which they discuss regular chores like cleaning up the blood of victims and doing the washing up is both peculiar and amusing. It’s hard not to admire the creativity put into taking this ever-popular and seemingly monotonous comedy structure and applying it to something as gothic and out-there as a tale about vampires and werewolves. That said, not everyone will appreciate the slow building, anti-climactic humour displayed – it’s not a laugh a minute kind of comedy. Instead the humour is very dry, and subtly ironic, but for fans of Flight of the Conchords, it’ll work nicely.

What We Do In The Shadows is available to buy from 13th April 2015* | Words: AH

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

So this is it. With the home release of The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies, comes a sad and poignant end to an era of extraordinary filmmaking by Peter Jackson. In this final installment of his take on JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth saga, everything comes together as the story of Bilbo Baggins’s most unexpected journey comes to a close – and in doing so, paves the way for the already told and beloved quest of his nephew, Frodo. Beginning where The Desolation of Smaug left off, Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Thorin (Richard Armitage) and the company of dwarves have reclaimed the Mountain of Erebor – but at a price. The dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) has flown to Lake Town, intent on taking his rage out on all the innocents who live there, including an imprisoned Bard (Luke Evans). Meanwhile, others look to the Mountain – from Men of Dale, to elves, dwarves and Goblins – and so begins the great battle.

Of course, the great battle doesn’t begin just like that. Spanning 144 minutes, Jackson is sure to savour every moment of this last chapter to attention-testing limits. It’s length, as in the previous two installments, therefore can be somewhat problematic in certain areas. For one thing, there is too much emphasis on Jackson’s self-invented character archs, rather than the canon that Tolkien created in his novel – the most irritating (to me, certainly) being the cynically romantic relationship between Elven beauty Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and the dwarf, Kili (Aidan Turner). The involvement of Orlando Bloom’s Legolas is also overstated and not enough screen time is given to our titular Hobbit. That said, the exploration and development of Thorin is very interesting to watch and there are some truly badass moments courtesy of Lee Pace’s Elven King Thranduil and Cate Blanchett’s Lady Galadriel. Ultimately, though The Hobbit trilogy isn’t quite as satisfying as The Lord of The Rings in terms of cohesive action and development, it is comforting to think that a full Middle-Earth DVD marathon will soon – finally – be possible.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is available to buy from 20th April 2015* | Words: AH | Read the full review here.

Unbroken

Intended to be Angelina Jolie’s first blockbuster success as a director, Unbroken tells the turbulent and inspiring true story of US Olympic athlete turned WWII bombardier Louie Zamperini. With a screenplay adapted from Laura Hillenbrand’s biography of the aforementioned valiant, and penned by the Coen Brothers, you wouldn’t be blamed for assuming it had the potential to transpire into an encapsulating war-drama with the right person at the helm. However, before we even get into Jolie’s influence, the portrayal of events throughout the second half of the film – after ‘Zamp’ and his surviving comrades have been taken prisoner – are almost verging on the side of character assassination when it comes to the Japanese. Of course, that is to be expected considering the core subject, but still, it did seem rather unnecessary to demonise their people as a whole from a base blueprint of Mutsuhiro Watanabe. Furthermore, despite a variety of audiences expressing considerable surprise at Jolie’s supposed ‘snubbing’ by both The Academy and BAFTA for their respective Best Director award nominations, if the work displayed here is the best she currently has to offer, then she’s got a long road ahead of her before rightfully deserving one. Quite frankly, if there hadn’t been one of the best cinematographers on the planet helping her along (Roger Deakins) it could’ve been far more disjointed than it turned out.

With all of that said, the performances made by the lead actors are decidedly one of the more redeeming features of the film. Jack O’Connell delivers a top-of-the-range portrayal of America’s recently departed paragon of determination, whilst Japanese rock star Miyavi’s callously vivid embodiment of ‘The Bird’ combines with the former to bring forth the film’s biggest triumph. So overall, the acting on show as well as Deakins visuals might just make the film worth seeing if you haven’t already. Just don’t get you hopes up.

Unbroken is available to buy from 27th April 2015* | Words: AG | Read the full review here.

Exodus: Gods and Kings 

In typical Ridley Scott fashion, Exodus: Gods and Kings is nothing short of epic. Scott’s retelling of the story of Moses is one that received a large amount of critical abuse, mainly due to his use of an all-white cast. However, this classic Bible adaption goes further than just the cast, including the ever remarkable Christian Bale as Moses, with an excellent array of supporting talent, such as Joel Edgerton (Ramses), Sigourney Weaver (Tuya), Ben Kingsley (Nun) and Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul (Joshua). There is no denying the complexity of adapting a Bible story to fit the big screen, such as Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, but Scott certainly adapted the trials and tribulations of Moses and the Hebrews to create a very moving picture, despite the lack of critical acclaim. Moses isn’t originally portrayed as the hero he becomes. But through much struggle and pain, he discovers his heritage, and Bale elegantly begins to mould him into a great leader, summed up best in his speech to the Hebrew people: “Follow me and you will be free! Stay and you will perish.”

Being the epic it is, what’s surprising is the lack of real war. Though not accurate, it is not uncommon for directors to add a lot of fighting to create a more entertaining film, yet here this was not necessary, and perhaps made the film more powerful. Though there is a moderate amount of violence – such as the hangings of the Hebrews or the brutal scene in which the crocodiles ravage one another until they all die – this is actually true to the Bible, which makes it more effective. Exodus is a visually stunning film, with the cities very beautifully made, as well as the Red Sea scenes creating an overwhelming sense of awe. The lack of critical acclaim is truly a shame, as it certainly feels that if the film wasn’t inspired by the Bible, it would have been more widely regarded. Ridley Scott has created another excellent, epic and emotive picture told excellently through the stellar cast – with Bale and Edgerton standing out especially due to their commanding presence and powerful on-screen chemistry. Exodus: Gods and Kings is an under-appreciated epic that is certainly a must-see for any fan of large-scale, well told stories with an inspiring edge.

Exodus: Gods And Kings is available to buy from 27th April 2015* | Words: EJ

Cobain: Montage of Heck

Sundance Film Festival is a haven for all things independent, and is especially great with debuting rock documentaries. Dave Grohl’s rockumentary Sound City premiered there back in 2013, and in early 2015 it saw the debut of Montage of Heck, a film documenting the tumultuous life of rock musician and Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain. Director Brett Morgen is no stranger to documentary filmmaking, after partly directing the film adaptation of film producer Robert Evans’ autobiography, The Kids Stay in the Picture, alongside Nanette Burstein in 2002. He also directed The Rolling Stones 2012 documentary film Crossfire Hurricane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IBWbpJdRMQ

Through recent interviews and the debut trailer for Montage of Heck, it seems as though Morgan is taking his directing to another level. He’s telling history from a new perspective, through both archive footage (as he did in Crossfire Hurricane and The Kids Stay in the Picture)  and also by taking the artistic aspect of Cobain himself and incorporating that into the storytelling. This technique seems seamless in retelling events Cobain has either mentioned in interviews, written his journals or is being told by family members. The film has already been met with an overwhelming response of positivity, mainly due to Morgan’s humanizing of Cobain and focusing on how he came to be the man he was, rather than dauntingly focusing on his suicide and the mystery surrounding it. As well as that, It’s already being described as ‘the definitive Cobain documentary’ – which is quite a feat in itself.

Cobain: Montage of Heck is available to buy from 27th April 2015* | Words: SM

Also out on DVD and Blu-ray this month*: The Grandmaster (6th), Night At The Museum 3: The Secret of the Tomb (13th), Black Sea (13th), Still Life (13th), Dumb and Dumber To (20th), Big Eyes (20th) and Annie (27th)

*Please note that all release dates referenced are UK only. International release dates may differ.

Words by Alex Graham, Annie Honeyball, Elliott Jones and Sophie McEvoy

Compiled by Annie Honeyball