Film REVIEWS
DRAMA DAMSELS IN DISTRESS (15) 99MIN ●●●●●
Following a 13-year break from filmmaking, American writer- director Whit Stillman returns to the big screen with another highly idiosyncratic comedy, one that audiences are likely to find either delightfully urbane or else utterly excruciating. Despite the lengthy hiatus, Stillman’s distinctive style, wordy and droll (traits that have prompted favourable comparisons with one-time contemporary Hal Hartley and antecedent Woody Allen), remains very much intact. Stillman’s 1990 Oscar-contender debut Metropolitan was
populated by Manhattan preppy types, his 1994 follow-up Barcelona by European filmmakers and 1998’s The Last Days of Disco by Studio 54-era clubbers. In each case the cast of characters was talkative, intellectual and pretentious. Ditto Stillman’s fourth film, which focuses on a group of prim female undergrads lead by the hygiene-fixated, obsessive- compulsive Violet (nicely played by rising star Greta Gerwig) who take it upon themselves to rescue their fellow students from depression, hedonism and other perceived ills.
Where Damsels in Distress differs from Stillman’s earlier films is in the replacement of pointed wit with studied silliness. Conversations are frequently inane and punctuated with slapstick, physical comedy and outbreaks of song and dance (the climactic show-stopper underlines the title riff on the 1937 Fred Astaire musical A Damsel in Distress). It’s this relentless stupidity that’s likely to divide audiences into two camps: those who find the proceedings ‘clever stupid’ and those for whom it’s simply ‘stoopid stupid’.
It doesn’t help that Damsels in Distress suffers from direction that’s often uninspired and inept, but then Stillman was always a better wordsmith than visual stylist. All that said, it’s good to see such a filmmaker with such a genuinely unique sensibility making movies again. (Miles Fielder) ■ Selected release from Fri 27 April.
DOCUMENTARY BEING ELMO (TBC) 80min ●●●●●
COMEDY OUTSIDE BET (12A) 101mins ●●●●● ACTION THE RAID (18) 101min ●●●●●
The recent Muppet movie and attendant hype has reaffirmed the peculiar genius of Jim Henson’s life’s work: that is to say, even when we can see the wires, even when we know we’re looking at manipulated felt and hearing actors’ disembodied voices, Muppets inescapably seem like sentient beings. It’s difficult to accept that Kermit isn’t an actual individual and possible future friend; and millions of children worldwide feel the same way about a later-minted Muppet, Sesame Street’s almost-too-adorable scarlet baby fuzzball Elmo.
This documentary lifts the curtain on the creator of this little phenomenon: Kevin Clash, a likable, self- taught puppeteer who made his way into Henson’s kingdom by sheer talent and force of will. It’s not a deep work, and it has some sloppy elements (Whoopi Goldberg’s off-hand narration being one), but it’s a charming celebration of a devoted, talented creator getting the love he deserves. It’s also a revealing insight into the Henson universe, and a winning study of the hard work that goes into turning fake fur and plastic eyeballs into an international craze. (Hannah McGill) ■ Selected release from Fri 27 Apr.
64 THE LIST 26 Apr–24 May 2012
The cinematic equivalent of the clumps of horse dung that characters repeatedly step into for the cheapest of laughs, Outside Bet is strictly a non- runner in terms of light entertainment.
In this painfully naïve British comedy, Bob Hoskins overplays his ‘geezer’ card as Percy ‘Smudge’ Smith, the head of a band of Fleet Street hacks who unwisely pass their redundancy money to wide-boy Bax (Calum MacNab), who invests it on a racehorse called the Mumper. The stakes rise when Bax’s father Threads (Philip Davis) is diagnosed with cancer, leading to a predictable climax in which British stars including Rita Tushingham, Jenny Agutter and Adam Deacon, cheer on the Mumper in the hope of getting their money back.
Writer/director Sacha Bennett sets his story against the privatisation of the British press in the mid-80s, but his ham-fisted treatment of the politics amounts to nothing more than sub-Full Monty posturing. Low production values are matched with dated misogynist comedy, bargain-basement sentimentality and glib moralising, ensuring Outside Bet falls at the first hurdle. (Eddie Harrison) ■ Selected release from Fri 27 April.
‘One ruthless crime lord. Twenty elite cops. Eighty floors of chaos.’ The advertising sets exactly the right tone; crunching the numbers as well as bones, The Raid features policemen taking on criminals until there’s barely anyone left to claim the spoils. About as good a film as you can make about men punching each other, Gareth Evans’ low-budget, high-impact Indonesian martial arts thriller piles on hard-boiled fight-scenes to bruising effect. Rama (Iko Uwais),a young SWAT team member,
looks forward to storming a Jakarta tower block and taking down crime lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy). But once inside, it’s apparent the mission has been compromised. The Raid resembles the ferocious corridor melee from Old Boy expanded to feature length, an ingenious celebration of physical violence. For Uwais, an action-movie career beckons, but it’s the unlimited gusto of the direction that deserves the plaudits; this is a fan-boy film, reflecting intense choreography as well as Evans’ obvious devotion to action cinema. The Raid is short, tough, and offers exactly the kind of pumped-up kicks that die-hard action-fans adore. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 18 May.