Starting this week with Netflix who continue to provide mostly ropey content with the occasional gem, such as my film of the week, The Dig. With the war looming in 1939, widow Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) employs Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate mounds in her Sutton Hoo estate. He unearths the most important archaeological find event in this country.
That might sound both dry and lacking substance for a feature length film, but that is far from the case. With the war preparations, museums competing for the treasures unearthed, Edith’s serious medical issues and her son’s coping with the loss of his father, there is a lot to chew on. Moira Buffini marshals all of that in a sharp script, though a sub plot involving a romance between Edith’s cousin (Johnny Flynn) and a worker on the dig (Lily James) felt a bit unnecessary as I wanted to spend more time with the central pair.
Cinematographer Mike Eley captures the Suffolk landscapes and skies beautifully and Stefan Gregory’s score is delightful. I was also really impressed with Jon Harris’ editing. Overlapping dialogue from one scene with pictures from another is not a new technique, but I have never seen it better. Ultimately though it is the performances that catch the eye the most. The understated leads are both superb with great support from James, Monica Dolan as Basil’s patient wife and Ken Stott as a slippery British Museum employee.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
The rest of the offerings on Netflix pale in comparison. Italian rural drama set in the 1950s, The Last Paradiso, is a tedious slog. Director Rocco Ricciardulli wears his neo realist influences on his sleeve, but this is very dull with a laboured script.
Documentary Strip Down, Rise Up is about women using pole dancing to improve their fitness and self esteem. Good luck to them, but I am not sure why I am meant to be interested. A passable 20 minute short stretched out to feature length with endless psychobabble.
All My Friends are Dead is a messy film from Polish writer/director Jan Belcl. A New Year’s Eve party leads to horrific events. Billed as a black comedy, the cliched characters and situations did not seem particularly dark or amusing to me.
Best of this crop is Black Beach. Spanish businessman Carlos (Raul Arevalo) tries to intervene in a kidnapping of an oil company executive in a fictitious African country. You might find this a struggle to start with with the exposition heavy first half. In the latter parts, your patience will be rewarded as the action ramps up. Nothing original but solidly entertaining.
The Last Paradiso: 3 out of 10
Strip Down, Rise Up: 4.5 out of 10
All My Friends are Dead: 3.5 out of 10
Black Beach: 6 out of 10
Onto Sky now with the much trailed Twist that can be found on their movie channels. This modern day take on the classic Dickens book is an embarrassment. It feels like a bad Children’s Film Foundation movie with added swearing and the 1990’s second tier Britpop soundtrack seems absurd as the director Martin Owen desperately tries to deliver a contemporary story. The performances are pretty much universally dreadful with Rafferty Law (son of Jude) and Rita Ora particularly terrible. Michael Caine looks ashamed to be involved. At least people can stop saying, wrongly, that Jaws 4 is his worst film. Have they not seen Bullshot … and now this!
Rating: 2 out of 10
Much better, on Sky Arts is King Rocker. A Stewart Lee fronted documentary about Robert Lloyd, lead singer of The Nightingales, a band that emerged from the punk scene of the Midlands. We have been spoilt with great music documentaries over the last few years, this is another to add to that list. Lee’s passion for the music shines through and Lloyd is a funny and engaging interviewee. The choice of other talking heads was well made, giving a real insight to the impact that this little known but vital band had, and in fact, still has. Not afraid to go off on a tangent – I particularly enjoyed Robin Askwith telling us who he has showered with – but also providing us with a comprehensive history of the group, this is fascinating stuff.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Finally, two films I rented from Amazon but will be available elsewhere too.
The Doorman is a low budget but reasonably effective Die Hard rip off. Ali, an ex-soldier, naturally, gets a job as a doorman at a plush apartment building in New York. On the Easter weekend, whilst renovation works are taking place and only two apartments are occupied, a gang attempt an art heist. It is down to Ali to thwart them and save the husband and kids of her deceased sister who are in the building. Looking at the slight Ruby Rose who plays Ali, you would think she is miscast, but she comes across as tough enough. The hand to hand combat scenes are well handled by director Ryuhei Kitamura though there is one moment where two combatants run directly at each other, firing their guns and missing, that is shockingly bad. There is nothing new here and Jean Reno phones it in as the chief villain but I found myself enjoying it anyway!
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
I am conflicted about The Exception. In this Danish drama, four women in Copenhagen working at a non-governmental organisation looking into genocide. When three of them receive threatening emails suspicion initially falls on a Serbian war criminal but then shifts to the fourth employee. On the one hand this is a nifty thriller with nicely mounting tension and impressive performances from Danica Curcic and Sidse Babett Knudsen in particular. On the other, the four women are variously duplicitous, damaged and psychotic, whereas all the men in the film are rational and reasonable. With male only writers and director credited, that does come across as a little bit misogynous.
Rating: 7 out of 10