Backwoods meth dealers, shifty stock-brokers and Welsh drug smugglers. The latest DVDs reviews
Backwoods meth dealers, shifty stock-brokers and notorious Welsh drug smugglers are all on the agenda as Paignton film critic Tom Leins puts this week’s top DVD releases through their paces.
Based on the striking novel of the same name by self-professed ‘Country Noir’ author Daniel Woodrell, Winter’s Bone (Artificial Eye) tells the story of Ree Dolly, a teenage girl from the Missouri Ozarks who is plunged into a murky world of backwoods intrigue when her crystal meth-dealing father disappears without a trace.
Jessup Dolly left the family home in lieu of his bail bond, and when he doesn’t show up for court, Ree is forced to track him down -dead or alive -so that the bailiffs don’t turf her mentally ill mother and two young siblings out of their home. Despite being surrounded by assorted relatives, Ree finds her persistent presence and probing questions unappreciated, and quickly uncovers a hornet’s nest of drug-induced mania.
An atmosphere of barely contained menace is palpable throughout, and director Debra Granik does an impressive job of recreating a dirt-poor rural environment, seething with violence and drug addiction. Jennifer Lawrence delivers a star-making performance as Ree Dolly, and she is joined by the similarly impressive John Hawkes, who stars as Ree’s Uncle Teardrop -a malevolent presence who begrudgingly joins his niece on her desperate quest. While Winter’s Bone isn’t quite as artful as Woodrell’s original novel, it’s still a vividly realised excursion into the author’s beautifully twisted head-space, and makes you hope that someone brings other Woodrell novels such as The Death of Sweet Mister and Tomato Red to the screen. Either way, Winter’s Bone is a bleak, powerful drama, that shines a spotlight on a sinister underbelly of America rarely seen on film.
Hullo...
Thank you for reading. We could do with your help to keep going. All our content is free... But if you can, you can support us to continue bringing you this coverage, these articles, interviews and reviews. This connection with real indie filmmakers.
It's here we encourage you to get out, watch indie films, support crowdfunders, go to your local venue.
And if you can, Pay What You Can to keep all this going. From £1 a week - £4 a month - a fiver, or whatever you can spare. Much appreciated.
If you’re touched by the issues raised in this film, remember withdrawal from meth can be dangerous.
Following a lengthy prison sentence for insider trading and securities fraud, disgraced stockbroker Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) finds himself back on the fringes of Wall Street, looking on helplessly as the money-grabbing atmosphere that he worked so hard to cultivate threatens to swallow itself whole. A sequel to Oliver Stone’s original 1987 movie, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (20th Century Fox) may be an unexpected return to Gekko’s old stomping ground, but it isn’t an entirely successful one. Desperate to repair his tattered relationship with estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan), Gekko strikes a deal with her ambitious fiancee Jacob Moore (Shia Labeouf) and promises to help him gain revenge against unscrupulous trader Bretton James (Josh Brolin), whose shady dealings destroyed Jake’s mentor Louis Zabel. But has Gekko learned his lesson behind bars, or is he still the most amoral man on Wall Street?
The movie displays a handful of neat touches -not least the opening scene with Gekko retrieving his hopelessly outdated 80s belongings as he checks out of prison -but Money Never Sleeps lacks cohesion, and feels slightly desperate at times. By shoe-horning so many characters into its cheesy storyline, and then lobbing the whole cocktail into the midst of 2008’s financial meltdown, Stone seems slightly baffled how to handle his abundance of riches. Inevitably, Money Never Sleeps feels like less than the sum of its illustrious parts. The ubiquitous Shia Labeouf acquits himself well as young upstart Jacob, and despite his smugness, he possesses enough charisma to glue the film together during its most disjointed moments. Despite his improbable character arc, it’s good to see Michael Douglas back in the big leagues. He looks positively reptilian as the sneaky Gekko, and dominates the screen every time he appears. In fact, it’s humorous to imagine him taking a leaf out of Sly Stallone’s book and resurrecting a slew of retro characters in his old age. Although, with D-FENS (Falling Down) and Nick Curran (Basic Instinct) already killed off, I dread to think who we’d end up with.
If Gordon Gekko’s exploits seem far-fetched, he’s got nothing on notorious Welsh drug smuggler Howard Marks, who sees his improbable life story brought to the big screen in Mr Nice (Entertainment One). Rhys Ifans brings his trademark wide-eyed enthusiasm to the role of Marks, and the ease with which he inhabits Marks’ laconic character suggests that he was in a more lucid frame of mind when he badgered real-life friend Marks for the role. Subtly directed by Bernard ‘The Candyman’ Rose -whose recent film projects have been a series of low-budget Tolstoy adaptations -Mr Nice is a surprisingly well-grounded biopic that eschews the eye-opening psychedelics of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the energetic myth-making of 24 Hour Party People, preferring to let Marks’ wacky adventures speak for themselves.
Ifans is undoubtedly the star of the show, but the well-judged cast is fleshed out by Chloe Sevigny (long-suffering wife Judy), David Thewlis (psychotic IRA gun-runner Jim McCann), Crispin Glover (eccentric West Coast marijuana dealer Ernie Combs) and Omid Djalili (drug connection Saleem Malik), all of whom add colour to the film’s strangely dour palette -albeit in insubstantial minor roles. Mr Nice is an entertaining curio, but despite Rhys Ifans’ uncanny performance, it doesn’t always click, and won’t rank as a classic biopic. That said, it should easily find favour with Howard Marks devotees, who will lap up its whimsical anecdotal tone and array of inadvertently comical set-pieces.
After kick-starting his career with crocodile-themed horror flick Black Water, Andrew Traucki wades into dangerous waters once more, with real-life shocker The Reef (Momentum). Charismatic Luke (Damian Walshe-Howling) treats three friends to a week sailing on the Great Barrier Reef. In time honoured fashion the dream trip quickly turns into a nightmare, and their boat gets wrecked on the jagged reef, leaving them at the mercy of the unforgiving ocean. Miles from land, the posse of bewildered sailors are faced with an unenviable decision: cling to a ruptured boat that may sink at any moment, or make a break for dry land, and run the gauntlet of whatever lurks beneath the surface
Inevitably, sharks patrol these waters and our intrepid swimmers soon find themselves as shark bait, and struggle to stay alive as their energy drains and their fear increases. Effectively a nail-biting mash-up of Jaws and Open Water, what The Reef lacks in originality it makes up for in brutal tension, and as with Open Water, the real-life inspiration gives the proceedings a queasy after-taste. It isn’t the most original monster movie on the block, but aside from a couple of unconvincing cast members, The Reef is hard to fault. Furthermore, the shark attack scenes boast an enjoyably visceral quality, thanks to the artful use of footage featuring real 14-foot Great White Sharks. Chilling stuff.
- Interview: Billy O’Brien and William Todd-Jones - March 2, 2017
- The Childhood of a Leader: the birth of a terrifying ego - February 10, 2017
- Hold your breath: Don’t Breathe, and more reviews - January 26, 2017
Discover more from D&CFilm
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
