Film Reviews
DRAMA ADORATION (15) 101min ●●●●● THRILLER SHUTTER ISLAND (15) 138min ●●●●●
Just as he followed his gangland classic Goodfellas with his pulpy remake of Cape Fear, so Martin Scorsese’s first feature film proper since The Departed is thriller Shutter Island. Based on the 1954-set novel by Dennis Lehane, like Cape Fear, it’s expertly cast and executed – and way over the top. Marking his fourth collaboration with Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio plays US Marshall Teddy Daniels, who arrives on the storm- drenched rock off the coast of Boston with his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a mental institution run by Sir Ben Kingsley’s suspicious shrink. While the less said (or indeed
thought) about the twist-dependant plot the better, where Shutter Island scores is its supporting cast – with welcome appearances from some of America’s finest character actors (Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine and Patricia Clarkson). Technically, as you might expect for a film shot by Robert Richardson (Inglourious Basterds, The Aviator) and designed by Dante Ferretti (Sweeney Todd, Gangs of New York), it’s top-notch, and with the director embedding the fabric of the film with references to everything from The Red Shoes to Vertigo, it’s a cineaste’s delight. But its success or failure all depends on how you’ll feel about the turn-everything-on-its-head ending, one that even the most casual of viewers will see coming a mile off. (James Mottram). ■ General release from Fri 12 March.
DOCUMENTARY EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (15) 85min ●●●●●
Over the past decade one of the big mysteries of the art world has been the identity of Banksy. Now, in his first foray into filmmaking, the mystery man places the issue of identity at the centre of his pseudo documentary on street art.
The first image is classic Banksy. It’s purportedly the artist himself sitting in front of camera with his face blacked out by backlighting and a hoodie and his voice scrambled to sound like Stephen Hawking. For all we know, it could be Darth Vader sitting in frame, nonetheless this silhouette figure starts to recount the hilarious tale of how he came to direct a movie.
Enter Rhys Ifans’ voiceover and the tale of Thierry Guetta, aka Mr
Brainwash, an LA-based vintage store owner who falls in love with street art when on a vacation to his native France, where he discovers that his cousin is the mysterious artist known as Space Invader. From this moment on, Guetta spends every moment he can following artists holding spray cans. Back home in LA he befriends Shepard Fairey, who eventually introduces him to Banksy. Fairey is currently being sued for copyright infringement over his multicoloured Obama Hope election poster that was ubiquitous during the US election: is it any wonder Banksy keeps his real identity a secret? Guetta himself is a mystery. He’s so French, it’s a wonder he’s doesn’t go
on strike while filming. He also came out of nowhere in 2008 to put on a show in LA under the guise of Mr Brainwash and this transformation from filmmaker to street artist is a major sideshow in the movie. But it’s his footage of Banksy at work that is most intriguing especially when he shown into what is apparently the artist studio and the filming of the Disney Guantanamo stunt.
It’s to Banksy’s immense credit that he gives a potted history of the art form in an interesting and funny way that never feels like a lecture. Most impressively the questions about identity, society and life that the filmmaker posits over the course of this anarchically intelligent documentary feature mirror those found in his artwork. (Kaleem Aftab) ■ Cameo, Edinburgh and selected release from Fri 5 Mar.
With its stilted dialogue and contrived plot revelations, this 2008 film by French Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan (the first of two films by Egoyan released in Scotland this fortnight) would seem to indicate a filmmaker who has lost his form. Yet Egoyan (Calendar, Exotica) has always been a great ideas man, utilising story to investigate theme, with the story sitting on top of a sense of enquiry often more fascinating than any plot twist or story turn. In Adoration a high school kid in Canada claims that before he was born his Middle-Eastern father put his pregnant mum on a plane to Israel with explosives in her luggage, but they were luckily found by customs. Is Simon (Devon Bostick) telling the truth, or is this the boy running with an idea of his own, creating a fiction around his parents’ actual death? And how much is his teacher (Arsinee Khanjian) behind this, a mysterious Muslim who we also find out is the same woman, veiled, going to Simon and his uncle’s house asking questions about bigotry and forgiveness?
Egoyan gives us plenty food for thought. This is thematic protein over narrative carbohydrate; and consequently a film that lingers nicely, no matter the occasional weaknesses along the way. (Tony McKibbin) ■ GFT, Glasgow on Mon 15 and Tue 16 Mar and selected release.
FANTASY/ADVENTURE ALICE IN WONDERLAND (PG) 108min ●●●●●
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is as dark and visually arresting as we’ve come to expect from the director, yet not quite as involving as his very best work.
A sequel of sorts that takes in elements of both Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, it finds Alice as a teenager returning to Underland, which has long since fallen into the tyrannical grip of the Red Queen. In order to restore the White Queen to the throne, Alice must defeat the fearsome Jabberwocky. Burton’s film has plenty to recommend it, including a fine central performance
from young Mia Wasikowska, that channels teenage angst, insecurity and petulance very well. She’s clearly a big star in the making.
Johnny Depp is suitably loony as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter excels as the Red Queen, and there’s strong vocal support from the likes of Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman and Stephen Fry in several iconic roles. The 3D visuals, meanwhile, help to create a lavish Underland that younger
viewers especially, will enjoy immersing themselves in.
Yet the effects also contribute to the film’s biggest failing, occasionally feeling unnecessary and at the expense of some characters. It means that Burton’s film falls some way short of achieving the lasting emotional connection that made Carroll’s text so enduring. (Rob Carnevale) ■ General release from Fri 5 March.
44 THE LIST 4–18 Mar 2010