Wes Anderson and Todd Solondz are among the film-makers going under the microscope in this week’s DVD round-up.
16 years after winning plaudits from the likes of Martin Scorsese for his debut feature Bottle Rocket, Texan director Wes Anderson is still going strong, even if his later movies have largely failed to recapture the acclaim of his earlier work. Moonrise Kingdom (Universal) sees Anderson inject some fresh blood into his tried ‘n’ tested talent pool, but is it the return to form his fans crave?
Set in the 1960s on New Penzance, an idyllic island off the coast of New England, the film follows the tentative romance between twelve-year-old orphan Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman), who is attending a summer camp, Camp Ivanhoe, led by Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton), and his pen-pal Suzy Bishop, who lives on the island with her uptight attorney parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand). When the love-struck youngsters run away together, ostensibly to reach a secluded cove which they name ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, various factions of the town mobilise to search for them, causing all kinds of trouble in the process. As a search party, led by local cop Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), attempts to track them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore, promising to wreak even more havoc.
The dreamy, oddball mood that pervades all of Anderson’s work is present and correct in Moonrise Kingdom, and the film arguably boasts bags of charm, without ever lapsing into insufferable whimsy. Newcomers Bruce Willis and Edward Norton acquit themselves particularly well, with two of the funnier roles, and it would be a shame if Anderson opted not to work with either of them again. However, despite a surplus of pitch-perfect performances, the storyline falls slightly flat, meandering aimlessly rather than surging purposefully.
When the dust settles, Moonrise Kingdom is a good movie rather than a great movie, and as someone who thinks that Anderson hit his peak with The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom has done little to change my mind. While die-hard fans are unlikely to want Anderson to probe new ground, Moonrise Kingdom feels regrettably anticlimactic. Entertaining, but slight.
Dark Horse (Axiom Films) is the latest ‘comedy’ from taboo-trampling writer/director Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness). In his mid-30s, Abe (Jordan Gelber, who briefly starred in Boardwalk Empire) clings to the trappings of his adolescence, including the extensive collection of action figures that clog up his boyhood bedroom. Still living with his parents Jackie (Christopher Walken, True Romance) and Phyllis (Mia Farrow, Rosemary’s Baby), Abe works for his increasingly disappointed Dad, stewing in resentment at the success of his older brother Richard (Justin Bartha, The Hangover). When Abe meets Miranda (Selma Blair, Hellboy), a woman whose personal failures have prompted her to retreat to the safety of her parents’ suburban home, he believes that he has found a kindred spirit, and attempts to persuade his overmedicated love object to marry him.
Dark Horse is arguably Solondz’s gentlest film yet, but its lack of bite also means that it is his least memorable. The sub-conscious fantasy sequences involving Abe bantering with the voices in his head offer a glimpse of originality, but the stunted plot mirrors Abe’s stunted development, and goes nowhere fast. Abe himself is a singularly unlikable protagonist, and although the narrative drags him through an array of typically pitiful Solondz-esque scenarios, the film’s lighter tone doesn’t prompt enough good jokes. Solondz will never be mistaken for a man with a sunny disposition, but on this evidence, his move towards more accessible territory may yet backfire
Recent years have seen Dutch photographer/music video director Anton Corbijn branch out into feature films, with the stylish one-two punch of Control (2007) and The American (2010). Anton Corbijn -Inside Out (Momentum) sees Dutch documentary-maker Klaartje Quirijns attempt to unpick the man’s mystique and work out what makes him tick. Since 1983 Corbijn’s prolific work has quite literally shaped the identities of artists such as Joy Division, U2, Nirvana and Metallica, to name but a few. Featuring interviews with everyone from Bono to George Clooney (leading man in The American), not to mention Corbijn himself, Inside Out attempts to explore his motivations and personal conflict -with mixed success
Despite impressive credentials, and a solid roll-call of guests, big chunks of Inside Out come across like half-baked psychoanalysis, and the endless parade of Corbijn’s celebrity friends takes on a slightly wearying quality as the documentary progresses. Corbijn himself comes across as something of a gloomy loner, rather than a provocative enigma, and his reluctance to be drawn on his background has an increasingly uncomfortable edge. The spot-on soundtrack and reliably arresting imagery suggests something slightly more interesting, but in truth workaholic Corbijn doesn’t offer enough of a spark to carry a whole documentary. As an unofficial companion piece, why not try Palm Pictures’ Volume 7: The Work of Director Anton Corbijn, from its peerless ‘Director’s Label’ series, which compiles the bulk of the music videos that he honed his reputation with. That way you can judge the man on his work, rather than his murky back-story -a notion he would seemingly agree with.
Directed by Adam ‘Hairspray’ Shankman, Rock of Ages (Warner Home Video) is a star-studded re-tread of the hit Broadway musical of the same name. The film is ostensibly the story of naïve small town girl Sherrie (Julianne Hough, Burlesque) and wannabe rock star city boy Drew (Diego Boneta, 90210), who works as a barman at The Bourbon Room, a popular nightclub on the Sunset Strip. Meanwhile, the club’s owner, Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock), and his right-hand man, Lonny Barnett (Russell Brand), are struggling to find a way to deal with unpaid taxes that are threatening the club’s future, and view their former associate turned mega-star Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) as their ticket to financial security. However, the whole city’s rock ‘n’ roll future hangs in the balance, thanks to the actions of corrupt Mayor Mike Whitmore (Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad) and his religious zealot wife Patricia (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Entrapment).
Thanks to a cringe-worthy opening scene -which features a bus-load of extras joining in with Sherrie’s opening song -Rock of Ages gets off on the wrong foot, and the film takes slightly too long to recover. Shankman’s leaden plotting -which stumbles between clichéd tracks in a giddy, over-indulgent daze -heightens the film’s flaws, and the film is arguably at its best when it plumbs more surreal depths, often with Cruise as the focal point. With an exhausting two-hour run-time, which seems designed to shoehorn in as many soft-rock anthems as possible, no one can accuse Shankman of short-changing his viewers, but the repetitive nature of the songs arguably takes its toll.
It may be an utterly shameless exercise in guilty-pleasure nostalgia, but Rock of Ages isn’t without its charms. Cruise is good value as the egotistical sex-fiend Stacee Jaxx, while the likes Paul Giamatti (as Jaxx’s oil-slick manager) and Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston add kudos to the proceedings. Baldwin and Brand are less successful, although their on-screen chemistry does take an eye-opening turn halfway through the film! All in all, Rock of Ages isn’t as bad as its ‘box office bomb’ status suggests, but it is far too predictable to be truly interesting.
- 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
