www.list.co.uk/film
REVIEWS Film
5 BEST
FILMS OF 2010 The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto Des Sus Ojos) Argentinean romantic modern thriller (pictured) starring the mighty Ricardo Darín that really works. Worthy winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
A Prophet Jacques Audiard’s stunning crime epic about one young Arab man’s trajectory from French prison no-mark to mafia kingpin. New star Tahar Rahim comes on like a young Pacino and is definitely a talent to watch.
Exit Through the Gift Shop Artist Banksy’s brilliant comic documentary about life, art, dissent and the commercial exploitation of street art. South of the Border It’s been a great year for Oliver Stone. His Wall Street sequel was very good but this documentary about Latin America’s gradual resurrection as a socialist continent was fantastic and full of hope.
Black Death Shades of The Wicker Man and Witchfider General haunted this thoroughly entertaining medieval thriller by hot Brit genre filmmaker Christopher Smith (Severance, Triangle). (Paul Dale)
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ADVENTURE/COMEDY GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (PG) 87min ●●●●●
In the ten years since his breakout performance as John Cusack’s slacker workmate in High Fidelity, Jack Black has become a big name movie star, but his CV is surprisingly short of hits. Only Richard Linklater’s family comedy School of Rock has managed to showcase Black’s wisecracking, music-loving personality in a way that both audiences and critics have warmed to. Gulliver’s Travels is an attempt by Black, who co-produced the film, to create a similarly successful vehicle for his talents, but it is a weak, forgettable comedy, bearing little resemblance to Swift’s classic satire. Black seems uninspired by his own movie, going through the motions, and while the film scrapes by as undemanding family entertainment, there is not much to recommend about it.
Black plays Gulliver, a mail clerk at the Washington Post who accepts a travel writing assignment from the editor he has a crush on (Amanda Peet), and ends up shipwrecked in Lilliput, land of tiny people. After being
captured by General Edward Edwardian (Chris O’Dowd) and the Lilliputian army, Gulliver earns the favour of the King and Queen (Billy Connolly and Catherine Tate) by saving Princess Mary (Emily Blunt) from a kidnap attempt. He becomes Lilliput’s official protector, but the General sets out to discover the truth about Gulliver and bring him down. The script’s endless pop culture references suggest
that the film was conceived as a satire on celebrity, but the whole thing is played with such winking self- awareness by all involved that subtlety doesn’t get a look in. Only Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) gives a straight performance as the humble everyman who loves the princess, and he seems to be the only comedian involved who really understood what this film needed to make it funny. Someone who clearly doesn’t understand comedy is the film’s director Rob Letterman, who brings no sense of comic unity to any part of the film: the overall impression is that Letterman left each actor to play their part however they felt best, while he paid more attention to the complex visual effects required to put it all together. (Paul Gallagher) ■ General release, Sun 26 Dec.
DOCUMENTARY CATFISH (12A) 87min ●●●●●
Fabulism flourishes in the unlikeliest of places in this intriguing documentary co- directed by young New York filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. It begins with Ariel’s photographer brother Nev receiving a painting of one his photographs from eight-year-old Amy Pierce, who lives in Michigan. Both flattered and curious, Manhattan-based Nev begins an online and phone friendship with Amy, her mother Angela, and also Amy’s older sister Megan. Soon Nev and Megan are caught up in a cyber-romance, until a troubling discovery leads to Nev and the film crew visiting the family in person. There has already been considerable debate in America as to the veracity of
Catfish – have we as viewers been subject to a skilful cinematic hoax? It’s difficult to give a definitive answer, but equally one can admire how Joost and Schulman have assembled their tale of deception. There are no voiceovers or traditional interviews; instead the directors draw on a range of devices, including Google Maps and Street Views, Facebook tags and profiles, and texts and emails to provide the necessary exposition and to immerse us in a virtual universe. And although the film leaves many questions unanswered, its gripping story succeeds in tapping into our universal desires for love, acceptance, and recognition. (Tom Dawson) ■ Selected release from Fri 17 Dec. See profile, in listings.
16 Dec 2010 – 6 Jan 2011 THE LIST 65