Film Reviews warmer

Coco
We find ourselves in Mexico, where Miguel lives in
a small town with his extended family, including his
ancient great-grandmother Coco, who is poignantly
on the verge of succumbing to dementia. Miguel
dreams of being a musician such as the mega-celebrity
singer Ernesto De La Cruz who became a screen star
and recording legend before being crushed to death by a falling bell in 1942. But Miguel is
all set to join the family’s trade: making shoes. The reason is that his folks have their own
deeply internalised betrayal myth: Coco’s father was a vagabond musician who ran out
on a young wife and infant daughter to chase his musical dreams. The family has sworn
never to have anything to do with music. Miguel makes what he thinks is a sensational
discovery: this disgraced ancestor was in fact the legendary Ernesto de la Cruz, and when
a quirk of fate puts Miguel in the Land of the Dead, his mission is to make contact with
De la Cruz and get his all-important blessing to return to the living world and pursue his
musical destiny. Coco is conceived on classic lines, certainly, but has that rarest of things
in movies of any sort – a real third act and an interesting ending.

The Final Year

There is an unintentional sadness to this film from Greg Barker. It’s
a respectful documentary about Barack Obama’s final year in the
US presidency, and everyone in front of and behind the camera
clearly assumes that the baton is about to be euphorically passed
on to Hillary Clinton. The mood here is not complacency exactly,
but with hindsight we can see a kind of innocence, or even naivety,
as everyone earnestly goes about their legacy-defining projects as
the hour of Hillary’s coronation draws near. When we witness Donald
Trump’s victory in the final 10 minutes, the film itself seems to go into
shock, to become numb, like the people whose unassailable political superiority it had been
quietly celebrating. Watched now, after 12 months of the current incumbent, this film has its
fascinations and frustrations. Obama is as dignified and stylish as ever, but it is a flaw that he is
in the film so little, and so unrevealingly.

early man
It might be set in the stone age but the latest claymation epic
from Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman touches on two of
the timeliest issues of the coming year. First, the 2018 World
Cup: this is squarely a story about football, and therefore likely
to find a global audience even if its sense of humour remains
lovably, colloquially English. Second, this is a story concerned
with Britain’s sense of history and identity. By accident or design, Aardman have made a Brexit
movie! Early Man focuses on an insular, small-minded tribe who live in a giant crater, cut off
from the outside world. Then the world comes crashing into their hunter-gatherer idyll, in
the form of a more advanced civilisation. These people have invented bronze, not to mention
wheels, machines and sliced bread. With their technological edge, they easily appropriate the
village and consign the tribe to work in the mines. Defiant they challenge their oppressors
to a football match to win back their village. For younger viewers especially, Early Man’s
straightforward storytelling and gentle humour work a treat.

1/2
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The Commuter
There’s no stopping this action thriller, which pulls out of
New York’s Grand Central at a sedate pace and steadily
accelerates through the suburbs, almost in real time.
It’s another white-knuckle ride from Spanish director
Jaume Collet-Serra and his regular leading man, Liam
Neeson, who is now as dependable as a Swiss watch in
this type of senior action-hero role. Neeson plays Michael MacCauley, insurance broker
and family man. He’s caught the same Hudson line commuter train for 10 years; except
this time Vera Farmiga elegantly plonks herself into the seat opposite and makes Neeson
an offer he could refuse but doesn’t: find one person on the train based on their destination
and nickname, plant a tracking device on their bag, and she’ll give him $100,000. As an
added incentive, Farmiga tells him they’ll kill his wife and son if he refuses or fails. What
keeps The Commuter on the rails is Neeson himself. In terms of actorly presence, he’s
still got it. You can’t ask too much from a modest, mid-range crowd-pleaser like this, but
the experience ends up something like a commuter service itself: you know where it’s
going and it gets you there perfectly well, but in a few years’ time you’d be hard pressed to
distinguish it from dozens of similar journeys.

All the Money in the World

Ridley Scott’s plodding biographical drama tells the story of
the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III (Charlie
Plummer), and his attempts by his mother, Gail (Michelle
Williams), to get his billionaire grandfather, J Paul Getty
(Christopher Plummer, no relation), to pay the ransom. Based
on John Pearson’s 1995 book Painfully Rich: The Outrageous
Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J Paul Getty, the film is obsessed with the concept of
wealth and its accumulation. It doesn’t make for particularly thrilling viewing until the film’s
final third, which sees the kidnappers beginning to get as annoyed as the audience is about
the dragged-out ransom plotline. Distractingly, the film was originally shot with Kevin Spacey
as Getty, who was replaced by Plummer after facing allegations of sexual misconduct in late
2017. It’s impossible to watch without imagining Spacey in the role, or at least looking for the
joins in the film.

Molly's Game
America’s so-called Poker Princess, Molly Bloom, is the
enigmatically glamorous woman, in this very enjoyable
true-life story, who ran the hottest private card game in
LA and then New York, before finally being led away in
handcuffs in 2013 on illegal gambling charges. Models
were hired to serve drinks. Scented candles masked the
reek of testosterone and rage. And Molly presided over it all, monitoring the bets on her
laptop in the corner and accepting huge tips at the end of the night. She is played with exotic
queenliness by Jessica Chastain. And who are the men in Molly’s life? That’s a mystery. Her
lawyer, played by Idris Elba, is a gallant, smart guy who seems to be a demanding dad to his
adorable pre-teen daughter, so maybe he’s more of a quasi-father figure to Molly, although
her actual dad has a huge redemptive scene with Molly at the very end. Molly’s Game is
another big winner for Aaron Sorkin.

2/2
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week of 22.01.18
Teacher’s notes 1 student pages 2 intermediate+ (B1+)

Ask the students these questions:

Have you seen any films lately?
If so, which ones did you like?
What films are currently being shown at cinemas where you live?
Do you plan to see any of them?

Then get each student to read a different review and report back to the rest of the class.
Finally, as a group, discuss which of the films the students would like to see.