Review #1,436: 'Loving Vincent' (2017)

There have been many attempts over the years to comprehend the genius of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, from 1956's Lust for Life, to 1990's ambitious Vincent & Theo. While some of these movies are unquestionably good - perhaps none more masterful than Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh - the man himself remains an enigma, so filmmakers have now been forced to take more experimental measures when attempting to understand the painter who, while now regarded as one of art's most influential figures, only managed to sell one painting out of a rumoured 900 during his lifetime. Much focus is placed on the infamous ear-slicing incident, and this is where we began in Loving Vincent, a joint Polish and UK film that employed 125 painters to painstakingly recreate van Gogh's style over footage shot with actors in front of a green screen.

A year after van Gogh's suicide, postmaster and close friend of the troubled artist Joseph Roulin (Chris O'Dowd) tasks his street-fighting son Armand (Douglas Booth) with delivering van Gogh's final letter to his brother Theo. With questions surrounding the suicide still up in the air, Joseph finds van Gogh's sudden demise as suspicious, especially since the painter was in high spirits in the days leading up to the tragedy. It's a feeling that will eventually be shared by Joseph as he embarks on his journey, meeting faces familiar to us from van Gogh's portraits, including the likes of art dealer Pere Tanguy (John Sessions), cafe owner Adeline Ravoux (Eleanor Tomlinson) and close friend Doctor Gachet (Jerome Flynn). As Joseph learns of van Gogh's day-to-day life and his rocky relationship with Gachet and his daughter Marguerite (Saoirse Ronan), this may not be a cut-and-dry suicide carried out by an ear-chopping madman as previously thought.

By turning the subject of van Gogh into a dime-store detective story, Loving Vincent frequently runs the risk of tipping over into TV movie territory. What ultimately prevents this from happening is the time, care and love etched into every frame by directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman and the tireless artists, who took approximately 6 years to recreate the likes of Starry Night, At Eternity's Gate and Bank of the Oise at Auvers, and weave these scenes into a convincing narrative. There's also great work by the ensemble cast, each bringing to life the portraits they're based on without feeling staged, and each character offering a unique viewpoint of van Gogh himself, and how he was treated by those around him. It's a fresh take on van Gogh's life, mixing traditional narrative with flashbacks and interpretations in the hope of understanding this mysterious figure or seeing him from a different angle. The man himself is here also, played by Robert Gulaczyk, but his actions and behaviours still remain a mystery. While the true crime slant is somewhat pulpy, Loving Vincent is a treat for fans of van Gogh's work, and undeniably crafted with tenderness and a genuine love of its subject.


Directed by: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
Starring: Douglas Booth, Jerome Flynn, Saoirse Ronan, Helen McCrory, Chris O'Dowd, John Sessions, Eleanor Tomlinson, Aidan Turner
Country: Poland/UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,330: 'Lady Bird' (2017)

At first glance, this second feature from actor-turned-writer/director Greta Gerwig appears to be yet another quirky and twee little indie feature which made the cut as the obligatory low-budget entry into the Best Picture category at this year's Academy Awards. Yet Gerwig wasn't brought in by Noah Baumbach to co-write Frances Ha and Mistress America for nothing. She has a unique voice, and a keen eye for the smaller moments in life that most people didn't realise they had forgotten or missed. Lady Bird is riotously funny, incredibly relatable (for both sexes), and features two incredible lead performances. It's also profoundly authentic, and will have many female viewers (and some male) squirming in their seats as their own awkward memories of adolescence come pouring back.

It's 2002, and Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is an artistically-inclined teenager on the verge of leaving her Catholic high school and fleeing her home of Sacramento to attend college. She longs to be different and stand out from the crowd, opting to go by the nickname of 'Lady Bird' and dressing in a grungy, non-conformist way. She shares a relaxed relationship with her depressed father Larry (Tracy Letts), but struggles to communicate with her ball-busting but well-meaning mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf). The film covers her final days of school and her struggles to find her identity. Best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein) is always there for her, but Lady Bird is more interested in pursuing her burgeoning sexuality and trying to fit in with the cool, richer kids. All the disappointments of teenage life await her, but she firmly believes that life will only truly start once she escapes her childhood home.

The focus is primarily on Lady Bird's concerns, but this is also a story of a young girl struggling to communicate with her mother. Marion does all she can to help her daughter find the best life for herself, such as working long shifts at the hospital and maintaining a steady routine at home, but she is also burdened with unrealistic expectations and emotionally scarred by her own abusive childhood. Their relationship is summed up in the opening scene, as Lady Bird opts to jump out of a moving vehicle and break her arm rather than listening to her mother voice an opinion. The dynamic forms the film's backbone, and their quick-tempered back-and-forths will be familiar to many. Both Ronan and Metcalf are outstanding in their roles, finding sympathy for their characters when they are at their most flawed and unreasonable. Gerwig finds the perfect balance between light and dark, taking the edge off when events get a little too familiar with some beautifully-timed comedy. Lady Bird will no doubt launch Gerwig onto bigger and better things.


Directed by: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #763: 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' (2014)

Those who turn their nose up at the thought of another fussily-filmed, wildly colourful journey into the world and mind of Wes Anderson, will no doubt detest his latest, and arguably most perfect work, The Grand Budapest Hotel. His work is criticised by his haters for being too meticulously structured, his camera limited to sideways and occasionally upwards movements, festooned with bold colours, always leading to that dreaded, overused word - 'quirky'. Yet this is a world a sly wit, of characters so ridiculous and charming that you could wish they would replace the monotonous bores that litter our reality, and one in which Bill Murray is omnipresent.

In the pink, mountainous haven of the picturesque, fictitious European country of Zubrowka, sits the Grand Budapest Hotel. In it's heyday, the hotel was meticulously managed by Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), a charismatic, perfume-wearing horndog, who knew all about what his guests wanted before they even knew they wanted it. On the day that one of his elderly conquests, Madame D. (Tilda Swinton), leaves the hotel, he meets new lobby boy Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori), and immediately begins to groom him as his possible successor. When he hears of Madame D's death, Gustave and Zero travel to her mansion to hear the reading of her will.

She leaves Gustave a piece of priceless art, something heavily resented by Madame's two evil, leather-jacketed sons, Dmitri (Adrien Brody) and Jopling (Willem Dafoe), who don't wish to see this lecherous lothario receive a dime. Sensing trouble, Gustave and Zero steal the painting, replace it with some kind of grotesque lesbian erotica, and flee. This sets in motion a series of farcical events involving a prison escape, an apologetic police officer named Henckels (Edward Norton), a missing butler, and the rise of fascism. All of this is told by an ageing Zero (F. Murray Abraham) to a curious writer credited only as 'The Author' (Jude Law).

What it all about, you ask? Possibly nothing. This could all be just a splurge of the director's imagination, or a hark back to the grand eccentrics of the olden days. It could be about the state of Europe between the two World Wars, with the Grand Budapest Hotel a multi-national asylum for all of the continent's misfits. But the setting simply seems too fitting for it's comedic approach for it to be labelled with any kind of 'war' or 'period' label, with bursts of slapstick and comedy-of-manners worthy of Lubitsch, punctured by ridiculous exclamations from it's hyperactive concierge. When he hears about an enemy's dastardly plan, he responds "the fuckers!".

So, I don't quite know what it's all about. What I do know is that I loved every second of watching it's ludicrous story play out, anchored by an outstanding performance by Fiennes. He may seem an odd choice for an Anderson film, whose films are usually littered with the likes of Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, and Bill Murray (all of whom appear here), but his Gustave is Anderson's greatest creation, brought fearlessly and completely to life by Fiennes. He's certainly no spring chicken, but he's a strange delight to spend 100 minutes with. And that's really how I felt about the entire experience, it was certainly strange, but utterly delightful.


Directed by: Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Mathieu Amalric, Harvey Keitel
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #238: 'Hanna' (2011)

11 year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) lives in the wilderness with her father Erik (Eric Bana). He teaches her to hunt, fight, and basically fend for herself. As Hanna grows restless in isolation, she puts in motion a plan that the two have seemingly been planning for years. She pushes a button, alerting CIA agent Marissa (Cate Blanchett) to their whereabouts. While Erik leaves, Hanna waits and is captured. After being questioned, Hanna kills who she believes to be Marissa and escapes her prison. She finds herself in Saudi Arabia where she befriends a hippy-ish English family, where is pursued by Marissa and her hired goons.

If the story of a young, jail-bait assassin kicking the arse of anyone in her path sounds familiar, it would be easy to make comparisons to Chloe Moretz's Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass (2010). But this is a very different animal. Where Kick-Ass was cartoonish and over-the-top in its (very enjoyable) gory action scenes, Hanna takes more of a dramatic route, combined with characteristics of a modern-day fairytale. This approach works both for and against the film, as although its approach is individual and quite refreshing, it is also confused and often slapdash in its execution.

I'll start with the good, which there is plenty of. The cast is splendid - Bana and Blanchett are long established solid actors with an impressive backlog of films so they do what is expected of them. Blanchett hams it up with a ridiculous Southern American accent, and she manages to out-sexy her performance in the recent Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Ronan, who so impressed in director Joe Wright's excellent Atonement (2007), strides confidently through another great performance, mixing steely coldness with a wide-eyed innocence as she struggles with this brave new world full of televisions, lights and kettles. And Tom Hollander, a seemingly strange choice for a heavy, is amazingly horrific as a crowbar-wielding, transsexual strip-club owner with a liking for terrible tracksuits.

While I was expecting an all-out action film before pressing play, I was pleased with the way the film told Hanna's story. Instead of filling it with action scenes, it takes it's time to show Hanna's discovery of the world, and sweet friendship with Sophie (Jessica Barden). When she joins Sophie's parents Rachel (Olivia Williams) and Sebastian (Jason Flemyng), she discovers boys, dancing, and what she has longed for the most - music. Her father regularly read from an encyclopaedia so she can learn the things of the world, but music cannot be truly described in words, and this is one of the main reasons she initially chooses to leave her sheltered life.

Joe Wright, traditionally more at home with period pieces such as Atonement and Pride & Prejudice (2005), struggles with the action scenes. While they are accompanied by a thumping score by The Chemical Brothers, he never really finds a certain style. Sometimes it is fast hand-to-hand to combat filmed on shaky-cam like the Bourne (2002-2007) films; sometimes the camera will be swirling all over the place; one time it is filmed in ultra slo-mo like an operatic tragedy. Wright even attempts something similar to his one-shot Dunkirk scene in Atonement, tracking Bana from a train station into the underground where he disposes of a gang of agents. While it may sound good to differ the style, it does unsteady the tone of the film, especially when played against the quieter, more tender moments.

Hanna is certainly interesting and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different from the usual action film, but ultimately it becomes nothing more than an appealing oddity. Ronan is certainly an actress to watch, and Joe Wright will have done no damage to his growing reputation here, and will undoubtedly go from strength to strength.


Directed by: Joe Wright
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Jessica Barden, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng
Country: USA/UK/Germany

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie