www.list.co.uk/film
COMEDY/l iOMANCl
(12A) 91 min 0
If ever there was an argument that the busin 2ss of popular filriimaking should be left to the professionals faint/ram is it. lhe result of an initiative by MySpace, Vertigo l ilms and Film/l to 'harness the collective creatrvrty of the world's largest onlirie corrirriunrty', laintlieart is a wrtless |()S(,‘f*(}()lll(}(ly that simply serves to reinforce Wilde's mantra that ‘demrx;racy means simply the bludgrx>ning of the people by the people for the people.’
Clearly written by people who believe British cinema is best exeriiplrfirxl by Richard I ove, Actually Curtis and Simon Shaun ol the Dead Pegg. laintlieart is set III the world of battle re enactments and follows the attempts of Viking Warrior eridmund the Just aka Richard (l-ddie Marsan) to wrn back his understandably disaffrxzted wrfe (Jessica llynes).
l uriny and heartwarming? Not for a moment, but there are a few decent scenes of geeky abandon (most of them featuring l wen Bremner as 'lrekkie' .Julian). No, the most interesting thing about li'i/ntlieart is its unusual production history and prrxjressive release pattern (more Information at www.rriyspacecr)m/farrithearttliemovre), if nothing else it's a laudable experiment which one day could create a decent film. (Paul Dale)
I Selrx:trxl release lroni lue ?/ Jan. Available to download at www.rnysp.'ice.coin/lairitliearttlieni()vie from lue 2/ Jan. Available on DVD lroni Mon 2 let).
BIOPIC MILK (15) 128min om
Gus Van Sant's fairly conventional biopic of the first openly gay elected politician in the United States succeeds in overcoming genre limitations to create a powerful, compassionate film that’s up there with the director’s best work.
We first meet Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) at the turn of the 19705, bemoaning his approaching 405. ‘I haven‘t done a thing I could be proud of,’ he tells his lover Scott Smith (James Franco). Our voyeurism is dealt with early on with a moving, matter-of-fact sex scene between the lovers before Harvey grows a beard and ponytail and heads west.
Arriving in San Francisco just as gay men are pouring into The Castro, the hitherto apolitical Milk becomes increasingly frustrated with the bigotry he encounters from the local police. With his camera shop as HQ he mounts three unsuccessful political campaigns before winning a seat on the San Francisco board of Supervisors.
Throughout the campaigning scenes, which culminate in Milk’s crusade against Proposition 6 (an attempt to ban gays and lesbians from teaching in California's schools), Van Sant weaves archive footage with drama so seamlessly that it requires several double takes to work out what you’ve just seen.
The film is at its weakest when sentimentality creeps in. A desperate phone call from a gay wheelchair-bound Midwestern teen feels shoehorned in to hammer home the importance of Milk’s mission, while Diego Luna reduces Harvey’s highly-strung later lover Jack Lira to irritating caricature.
Overall, though, Van Sant’s film is neither sentimental nor facile. We are never allowed to forget that the spectre of AIDS - a major setback for the gay community - is lurking just around the comer, and, while highlighting his charisma and humanity, the director acknowledges that Milk's career may not have ended in glory had he lived (he was assassinated in 1978).
Notable for chronicling a significant period in the history of gay rights, ultimately the film works best as an intimate portrayal of a man motivated to action by his own keen sense of injustice. And it’s Sean Penn's warm, relaxed performance in the title role that invests the film with much of its power. (Allan Radcliffe)
I General release from Fri 23 Jan.
(DOME l)Y/ll()MAN()l NICK AND NORA’S INFINITE PLAYLIST (12A) 90min 000
After key roles in Surxybad and Juno, Michael Cera has emerged as the leading geek for hire of US teen cinema. lle furthers his reputation in this slight but likable comedy.
lhe only straight member of a struggling gueercore band, nerdy Nick (Cera) is in the process of being painfully dumped by girlfriend lris (Alexis D/iena), who thoughtlessly disregards the mix (El) that Nick has painstakingly put together for her. Nick's esoteric taste in music finds a place in the heart of Norah (Kat Dennings), who tentatively teams up with Nick for a incident~pack<xl ride through Manhattan night life to track down a secret gig by their favourite obscure band, Where's Fluffy?
After an impressive debut with liaising Victor Vargas, director Peter Sollett and screenwriter lorene Scafaria have studiously adapted the cult novel by Rachel Cohn and David I evithan to fit a tirriefrariie similar to that in Martin Scorsese's After Hours and Richard linklater‘s Before Sunrise (overnight basically). Though never in danger of overshadowing these illustrious forerunners, there's enough acerbic and caustic dialogue to paper over the films many conceptual cracks. (Eddie Harrison)
I General release from Fri 30 Jan.
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Love and Honour (12A) 12min «0 Third and final installment of Yo“ Yamada's revrsionist samurai trilogy based on the novels of Shuhei Fujisawa which began wrth 2002 's The Twrli'glit Samurai and continued wrth 9004's lhe l lidden Blade. lhis one deals wrth the troubled times of a shogun's food taster. As with all 78 year old Yarriada's best work, I ove and Honour rrxlefines genre cliches in rare and humanistic ways. A poignant close to a great trilogy. Filmhouse, Edinburgh from [n 23 Wed 28 Jan
22 Jan->5 Feb 2009 THE LIST 43