list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
COMEDY THANKS FOR SHARING (15) 112min ●●●●● DOCUMENTARY HAWKING (PG) 86min ●●●●●
COMEDY GIRL MOST LIKELY (12A) 103min ●●●●●
Sex addiction: it’s a tough nut to crack. That, in a manner of speaking, is the theme of this ensemble comedy drama. Adam (Mark Ruffalo) and Mike (Tim Robbins) are in a 12-step sex addiction group, each at different stages of ‘sobriety’ but both successfully holding their demons at bay. Fellow grouper Neil (Josh Gad) claims to be equally in control but is actually drowning at the mercy of his base urges, a fact that he can’t hide for long. The film follows these three men in key relationships: Adam with new girlfriend Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow), Mike with his son (Patrick Fugit) and Neil with another grouper, Dede (a decent turn from the singer Pink). There are thematic similarities to Steve McQueen’s
critical darling Shame, but where that film kept the main character’s struggle internal and solitary, this movie is the exact opposite; every character has someone to talk to about their issues, hence the title. At its worst this makes the film feel more like a self-help video than a piece of drama, an effect compounded by the unstylish direction. This is a flawed debut for director Stuart Blumberg, but one of admirable honesty, kept afloat by some very fine performances. (Paul Gallagher) ■ General release from Fri 4 Oct.
There’s no denying that Stephen Hawking’s astounding scientific discoveries have made him the world’s most famous scientist and that his life-long struggle with motor neurone disease made him one of the most remarkable and inspiring people on the planet. This documentary about Hawking’s life, told in the man’s own words ought, then, to be both fascinating and stirring. Oddly, however, it manages to be neither. Director
Stephen Finnigan has secured contributions from many of Hawking’s family members, friends and colleagues, but the film fails to engage either the mind or the heart. What it does is deliver a dull account of Hawking’s life from childhood through university and the onset of illness to old age, along the way sketching in his scientific accomplishments.
The problem here is not the material, it’s what Finnigan does – or doesn’t – do with it. Much better was the 2004 BBC drama of the same name starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Hawking, and a far more exciting prospect is the forthcoming film, Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne and directed by James Man on Wire Marsh. (Miles Fielder) ■ Limited release from Fri 20 Sep.
'There’s no place like home’ spits young Imogene as she snaps her ruby slippers together. She’s acting in a school production of The Wizard of Oz, a story she dismisses as ‘provincial’. Imogene’s big- city ambition might be evident from childhood, yet when we meet her as an adult (played by Kristen Wiig) it’s obvious things haven’t gone as planned. Girl Most Likely is a film about embracing who you really are, from directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and screenwriter Michelle Morgan. When Imogene’s relationship and career crumble,
a staged suicide attempt sees her returned to the care of her mother Zelda (Annette Bening), a woman with impulse control problems and a boyfriend (Matt Dillon) who claims to be a government agent. Girl Most Likely is occasionally funny but it’s a more formulaic film than you might expect from former documentarians. Wiig and Bening don’t share enough screen-time and, while it invites comparisons to Bridesmaids, it fails to match that film for laughs or looseness. Like Imogene, Girl Most Likely is at its best when it embraces the crazy. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 27 Sep.
DRAMA FILTH (18) 97min ●●●●●
Imagine Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant with a Scottish swagger and a blistering sense of sarcasm and you just about have the measure of Filth. Easily the best film adaptation of an Irvine Welsh novel since Trainspotting, it features a terrific central performance from James McAvoy as Bruce Robertson. This manipulative, drug-fuelled, sex-crazed policeman is careering off the rails as he attempts to secure the promotion he believes will restore order to his wayward life.
The sheer energy and ferocity of McAvoy’s performance make Robertson a positively Shakespearean figure, pitched somewhere between Richard III and Iago as he plots and taunts, deceives and flatters, all the better to exploit the weaknesses and insecurities of anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path. He undermines rival Ray Lennox (Jamie Bell), inflames the jealousy of Dougie (Brian McCardie) and takes particular delight in exploiting the friendship of meek chartered accountant Bladesey (Eddie Marsan), who seems to regard Robertson with something akin to hero worship.
Jon S Baird’s film is set in an Edinburgh that feels more
like the 1990s than the 21st century but that may all be part of the film’s demented, hallucinatory sensibility. The thin line between reality and grotesque fantasy is increasingly smeared for the monstrous, unhinged Robertson and it’s to the credit of McAvoy’s performance that we still believe in the possibility of redemption even as he sinks further and further into the mire. For all its outrageous humour and exuberant embrace of the politically incorrect, Filth is still a modern morality tale with some unexpected sentimentality lurking beneath its thick, scrofulous skin. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 27 Sep. See feature, page 60.
19 Sep–17 Oct 2013 THE LIST 63