BEGINNERS: love, life and the whole damn thing beautifully explored

This offbeat 2010 drama-comedy-romance is something of a hidden gem. Not quite an Elizabeth Taylor sized diamond but not a worthless chunk of diamonique either.
BEGINNERS delivered more than I was expecting and with more wit and style than I'd anticipated. The end result is it's stuck with me for the last couple of days, long after I'm struggling to remember the title of some other films I've seen recently.

Ewan McGregor stars as Oliver, a thirtysomething illustrator whose world is rocked by the news that his 75 year old recently widowed father Hal (played by Christopher Plummer) is gay and has a much younger boyfriend. The revelation brings the formerly rather distant father and son closer together as Hal reveals the truth behind the facade of his 44 year marriage to Oliver's mother, and the joy he's experiencing at finally being able to be himself.
Simultaneously the film explores Oliver's unexpected and burgeoning relationship with Anna (Melanie Laurent), a vivacious young French woman he meets at a fancy dress party. Oliver's always had commitment issues so this is something new for him - a woman he wants to stay with and share his life with.
While the two relationships are developing side by side on screen they're actually occupying different spaces in time. Oliver first meets Anna a couple of months after his father's death from cancer and although director Mike Mills makes no effort to confuse the issue it's easy to sink into the feeling that everything's happening at the same time. What is clear is that Oliver's increasingly close relationship with his father and the support he gives him during his final illness is helping him to develop a consciousness about himself and why he's the way he is, although it's not so easy to apply the lessons to his relationship with Anna.
I've never been a big fan of McGregor but he is note perfect here and more than complements Plummer's beautiful, Oscar nomination worthy performance as an old man discovering himself and facing up to death. The two interact with an ease that suggests a lifetime of familiarity with one another and a deep rooted affection which, although unspoken for too long, has always been there.
A strong sense of warm understated tenderness and affection permeates the entire film and everyone in it. From Hal to Oliver and Anna to Hal's adorable, scene-stealing dog Arthur (he'll make you want to go straight out and adopt a Jack Russell) these are characters and situations we want to care about and Mills achieves this without resorting to cheap sentimentality or stock scenarios. 
There's not too many films where I've longed to know what happens to the characters after we take our leave of them, but BEGINNERS definitely belongs in that select group.

THE CHANGE-UP: the institution of marriage and how to ecape it - or not

Having seen 'Bridesmaids', 'Crazy Stupid Love' 'The Hangover 2' and now THE CHANGE-UP in recent weeks I'm sensing a new trend in Hollywood comedies.
Perhaps trend is too strong a word, but there's definitely a new angle of approach to the Judd Apatow-led comedy genre ('Knocked Up', 'The 40 Year Old Virgin', 'Superbad', 'Pineapple Express' etc etc) revolving around overgrown men child, their equally immature best buddies, and the trials and tribulations of graduating to fully qualified grown-up.

To be sure the 4 films referred to at the start of the previous paragraph involve - to varying degrees - issues of growing up and casting off youthful irresponsibilities, but they are more directly concerned with the challenge of negotiating the institution of marriage, either entering into it ('Hangover 2', 'Bridesmaids') or sustaining it once inside ('Crazy Stupid Love,).
THE CHANGE-UP encompasses both scenarios by dint of having one of its main characters being a feckless, commitment-phobe, bed-hopping bachelor (Ryan Reynolds) and the other (Jason Bateman) living the traditional American Dream of a wife, 3 kids, a nice house, good salary and successful career. Then by means of the less than original device of having the two friends switch bodies via a magical fountain, the film explores the plus and minus points of both lifestyle choices with rather predictable results. Both men start out loudly proclaiming that they want the other's life but soon discover that the view from the inside is not as rosy as it appears from a distance.
What makes this rehashing of familiar themes more than tolerable are the performances of Reynolds and Bateman. Both are immensely likeable screen presences with a talent for light comedy and an ability to make the most of the material they're given to work with. The good news is that here they don't have to work too hard. Much of the script sits comfortably in the smile to laugh out loud range of funniness and that, in large part, is down to having both actors play parts with which they're not normally associated. Reynolds is already a star and Bateman is fast ascending to the same status after his thoroughly entertaining turn in 'Horrible Bosses' earlier this year.
THE CHANGE-UP is not a sophisticated comedy. It's stock in trade is scatological, sexual perversions and profanity, and those of a tender disposition may find it all a bit too near the knuckle. For everyone else this film offers two hours of entertainment which while never scaling the heights of 'Horrible Bosses' or 'Crazy Stupid Love' will leave you feeling you definitely got your money's worth.

MOONRISE: classic film noir with a fascinating twist

Lurking behind the deceptively soft and lyrical title is a dark, disturbing, violent and surprising film noir which has much to offer to aficionados of the genre.

What's perhaps most surprising is that it was produced by Republic Pictures. a film production corporation comprised of half a dozen of Hollywood's poverty row studios, and best known for churning out low budget westerns, serials and B movies. With the exception of Orson Welles 'MacBeth' and a couple of John Ford-John Wayne projects almost nothing released under Republic's name could be considered art or possessing of any significant depth. 1948's MOONRISE is certainly not art house but it boasts a thoughtfully constructed story which functions on several levels.
"The poor man's John Garfield" Dane Clark proves there's more to his talent than this slightly demeaning tag would suggest, playing Danny Hawkins, a troubled young man haunted by his inheritance as the son of a man hanged for murder. In a stylish and creative opening sequence director Frank Borzage illustrates the literal dark shadow that his father's execution has cast across Danny's life, from his earliest years through growing up to the present day. Danny is a perpetual outsider tormented by his peers for being the son of a murderer, and looked on with mistrust by the residents of his small, rural hometown. It's a suspicion that appears justified when Danny kills a man in an argument over a girl (Gail Russell as local schoolteacher Gilly Johnson) at a Saturday dance and hides the body hoping that he can continue with life as normal as long as it remains undiscovered.

In truth Hawkins is a part tailor-made for Garfield. The character fits his screen persona to a tee yet Clark succeeds in stepping out from the shadow of his more successful look-alike, making it his own and imbuing Danny with a vulnerability that evokes compassion despite his tendency to lash out wildly and his aggressive manhandling of the girl he loves but doesn't believe he's worthy of. Danny is doomed to his fate within the first few minutes of the story yet battles on like a fighter who believes that he can punch his way out of an unwinnable situation just as long as he remains standing.
Through Danny's struggle the film poses the nature or nurture question. Was Danny's fate determined by the 'bad blood' he believes he was born with or by the method of his raising? - losing both of his parents as an infant, and shuttling between his grandmother (Ethel Barrymore as a not entirely convincing hillbilly) and his aunt neither of whom can give him the love he so desperately needs. Danny believes it's the former yet undermines his own thesis with the compassion he shows towards follow bullying victim Billy Scripture, a mentally retarded deaf mute (played by a very young Harry Morgan), and his ultimate embrace of redemption with the encouragement of Gilly and the surprisingly compassionate local sheriff.
In his last important movie, veteran director Borzage creates a film that defies easy categorisation. It's a film noir yet it's also a drama, a romance and an intriguing exploration of love and hate, and guilt and redemption, played out against a backdrop of smalltown life that feels almost melodramatic in its intensity. The obvious stage-bound settings merely add to the sense of a man trapped by his own fears and the pressures brought to bear by a judgmental society. The film's implicit plea for tolerance encompasses more than just Danny however. The casting of veteran African American actor Rex Ingram in the role of Mose is loaded with meaning. This wise old man not only embodies the story's moral authority, he is also presented as equal to the white characters even though he is not entirely integrated into their world. This was a big step for a mainstream studio in 1940s Hollywood and it undoubtedly contributes to the impact of the story.
I've seen and studied hundreds of Hollywood movies from the 1940s of all genres and styles so it's rare anymore for a film from that era to strike me as something different or unusual but MOONRISE definitely did. You may think you know film noir but chances are you've not seen anything quite like this.

NIGHT MONSTER: it's got all the parts but they don't come together

This 1942 B-movie from Universal Studios is definitely not the best horror film ever made but it does contain all the elements essential to any self-respecting horror movie released during Hollywood's golden age.

There's the sprawling mansion located in the middle of nowhere, prone to fog, and surrounded by uninhabited countryside that could be England, somewhere in middle Europe or - more likely - some scrubland just east of Los Angeles. There's the owner of said mansion (Ralph Morgan), a crippled, slightly foreign accented, wealthy recluse who may or may not be the harmless old man he appears to be. There's the sinister housekeeper - a mean-spirited, pale skinned hard faced spinster in a severe black dress. There's the equally malevolent butler (Bela Lugosi), creepy and heavily accented who may or may not be the killer. There's the female ingenue Lynn (Irene Hervey), innocent, helpless, pretty, and all too willing to yield her independence to the young, eager, enthusiastic all-American  leading man Dick (Don Porter) who gets drawn into the murder mystery and solves it while simultaneously romancing the ingenue by putting moves on her that would these days be classified as sexual harassment.
But wait that's not all!
Just to spice things up a little there's also the exotic, mysterious and strangely accented foreigner Agor Singh (played by Swedish actor Nils Asther) who dabbles in Eastern mysticism and also may or may not be the killer. And there's the menacing, hulking, lecherous chauffeur (a very young Leif Erikson) who has his own designs on the ingenue and consequently develops an instantly, possibly murderous, dislike of Dick. The killer - the titular NIGHT MONSTER - of course remains unseen except by those about to meet their doom and too terrified to cry out. This allows him/her to bump off residents of the mansion with a speed and deftness that would leave serial killers breathless with admiration.
All this plays out in just 73 short minutes - and I haven't even mentioned the ethically challenged, self important medical doctors (the wonderful Lionel Atwill among them) lured to the mansion under false pretenses.
So why don't all the ingredients gel to form a satisfying whole?
To put it bluntly, there's too much Dick and not enough Bela and Lionel. Lugosi is top billed but the butler is very much a supporting part and there's nothing in the character for the former 'Dracula' star to sink his teeth into. Atwill, as the most pompous of the three medics, is similarly underwritten and thirty minutes in he simply walks out of a scene never to be seen or referred to again. Which leaves us with the bland smarmy Dick and the tiresome Lynn running around the house, always one step behind the killer.

It's the film's nonchalant attitude to multiple homicides that I found its most fascinating aspect. As the bodies pile up Dick and the clueless local sheriff, Constable Capp Beggs, become increasingly blase. By body number three Beggs is diagnosing cause of death simply by looking at the corpse from several feet away, and makes not the slightest effort to search for clues or preserve the crime scene. 
These frequent murders are no substitute for genuine suspense, and that's what NIGHT MONSTER is lacking. Without suspense there's no real sense of fear and without fear the film's not scary. Universal churned out so many of these cheap and quickly made horror movies in the early 1940s that it would have been impossible to get the mix just right every time. This was not one of those times but there's still just enough to hold the attention and provoke thoughts of what might have been with a little more creativity.

CRAZY STUPID LOVE: genuinely funny offbeat comedy

I liked CRAZY STUPID LOVE loads more than I expected to, and there's two reasons for that - Ryan Gosling and Steve Carrell. They're very different kinds of actors but they work surprisingly well together.

Gosling plays Jacob Palmer, super-cool ladies man who only has to look at a young woman to seduce her, while Carrell is nerdy, middle-aged Cal Weaver, who's been married so long he's forgotten how to relate to the opposite sex. Their paths cross in a trendy bar one night where Cal is getting drunk and complaining loudly about his wife (Julianne Moore) cheating on him with co-worker Kevin Bacon. For reasons that are never fully explained Jacob takes pity on this pathetic wretch and makes it his mission to return Cal to the land of the living and the world of available single women.
Gosling's success is in making Jacob a likeable character despite his womanising ways. There's nothing sleazy about this guy because he plays it almost for laughs, practically acknowledging to his prey that he can't believe she's falling for his undeniably cheesy pick-up lines, without making her feel cheap or used. Gosling is effortlessly smooth in the part with a sharp sense of humour and a knack for saying only what's necessary and nothing more.
Impressed as I was by his performance I was practically blown away by Carrell. I've not been a big fan of his work in 'The Office' or his efforts in 'Dinner for Schmucks', 'Get Smart' and 'Evan Almighty.' The comedy is too broad and blunt and it just seems like he's trying too hard. CRAZY STUPID LOVE reveals his real talent is for much more subtle humour. Cal is not a comedy character but rather a character who happens to be funny. The humour here arises from the situation rather than the situation existing solely to be funny. Carell is not trying to be funny here, he just is. This is the most impressive piece of work he's done since 'Dan in Real Life' with the advantage that this time he's in a film that's as good as he is.
Yes this is a romantic comedy but it's not a cookie-cutter by-the-numbers Jennifer Aniston-type rom-com. Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have created that rarest of cinematic beasts - a mainstream comedy that's just off-beat enough in its humour and pacing to give it a fresh, smart, almost indie feel without alienating multiplex audiences.

THESE ARE THE DAMNED: the deluded and the dull

THESE ARE THE DAMNED is a weird and unsatisfying mix of science fiction, drama, horror, exploitation and romance, but what's most surprising is that this 1961 concoction from British horror specialists Hammer is directed by Joseph Losey.
Yes, the American ex-pat best known today for films such as the 1951 classic 'The Prowler,' as well as 'Accident', 'The Go-Between' 'The Servant' and 'Modesty Blaise' was also responsible for this attempt to find a new spin on the fear of nuclear annihilation while also cashing in on early 60s British society's fear of Mods, Rockers and Teddy Boys. And all within the staid, respectable environs of Weymouth in Dorset!

Added to this awkward mish-mash of genres is a cast that's somewhat less than to-die-for. US B-movie star Macdonald Carey tops the bill supported by faded Swedish import Viveca Lindfors, stiff as a board Alexander Knox, cute but unconvincing Shirley Anne Field, and a young Oliver Reed as the world's least believable gang leader. Reed, though, is entertaining, playing the part for laughs and interpreting his character as a menacing buffoon with a disturbing hang-up about his sister's (Field) blatant sexuality. Carey is way too old and paternal to be anything else but creepy in his wooing of Field, and Lindfors, as a sculptress who happens to have her studio right next to a top secret government research facility just looks bored.
The facility is the setting for much of the drawn out, only tepidly exciting action, involving a group of children who are being raised in an underground bunker to become the saviours of the human race in the event of a nuclear holocaust. It's an appallingly shoddily constructed premise incapable of withstanding even the most cursory examination. The project is so closely guarded that Reed's gang of halfwitted Teddy Boys are able to climb over the fence to gain entry, while Carey and Field access the secret bunker through unmonitored caves in the cliff containing the bunker.
The only clue that director Losey is responsible for this second rate farrago is the dialogue. Much of it is ponderous, pseudo-philosophical navel-gazing, yawn-inducing nonsense spoken by characters in the deluded belief that they are appearing in an art house film. In retrospect THESE ARE THE DAMNED plays like a warm-up for the more high-brow, arty films that were to characterize the rest of Losey's career, and he is to be admired for succeeding in sneaking these chunks of pretentious wordsmithery past the considerably more low-brow bosses at Hammer.
What this film lacks in entertainment value it nearly makes up for in curiosity value. It's almost worth the investment of your time and attention to marvel at the bizarre mix of genres, actors and dialogue. Almost - but unless you're a Joseph Losey completist - probably not quite.

STAMBOUL QUEST: the puppy and the pulchritudinous

1934's STAMBOUL QUEST is not one of MGM's finest productions but it does have two things going for it, and one of them is the deliciously beautiful Myrna Loy.
Made immediately after she had completed the first 'Thin Man' movie and therefore before she had become etched into the public's consciousness as the witty, sophisticated, stylish and distinctly up-market Nora Charles, she plays a character who is brazenly sexual and not above showing a generous amount of skin if it'll advance her cause.

Set in Germany and Turkey in 1915 she plays legendary German counter espionage spy Fraulein Doktor. Recalled to Berlin she's handed her most important assignment - to uncover proof that the Turkish commander of the Dardanelles is passing vital military information to the British. Success could alter the whole course of the war, but her mission is complicated by an ardent American suitor who just won't take no for an answer.
A pre-Warner Brothers leading man George Brent plays the American lothario and does so to the detriment of the picture. He's everything that Loy isn't and not in a good way. Brent's medical student Douglas Beall is an over-excited puppy yapping at the heels of the alluring Fraulein, desperate to get her attention and show him some affection. About the only thing he doesn't do is pee on the carpet. It's very easy to understand what he sees in her but it's much more difficult to comprehend what a woman of her experience finds appealing in him. He doesn't even have the pencil mustache that was to become a Brent trademark at Warner! He's impetuous and immature, professing that he loves her within two hours of meeting her, and proposing marriage a couple of hours later. The Fraulein seduces men for a living and makes it a rule never to fall in love so what is it about Beall that makes her change her mind?
Both as characters and actors Loy and Brent are in different classes. Myrna is poised, self assured, confident and measured while George is all over the shop. Perhaps he was trying too hard because he knew he was too old for the part - he's thirty five attempting to pass for twenty. No wonder the Fraulein's boss, the wonderful Lionel Atwill, finds it hard to believe his most effective asset is losing her edge. Atwill by the way, is the second thing this film has going for it. He was one of that select group of character actors who enhanced any film they appeared in regardless of the script and direction, and both elements are founding wanting here.
Convoluted, clunky and implausible even by 1930s Hollywood standards STAMBOUL QUEST is still worth watching solely for the pleasure of spending 80 minutes in the company of the ravishing Miss Loy.

HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE: from London without a clue

Demonstrating that there was more to British cinema in the 1960s than Carry On comedies, kitchen sink dramas and anti-establishment angry young men, 1964's HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE is a frothy entertainment showcasing Dirk Bogarde's considerable talents for light comedy.
He plays Nicholas Whistler, an unemployed, unsuccessful writer who's hired by the British Secret Service to go behind the Iron Curtain and collect secret plans from an agent in Czechoslovakia.
The only problem is Whistler doesn't realise his new employer is MI6 and thinks he's going on a legitimate trade mission. His task is further complicated by the presence of Comrade Vlasta Simoneva (Sylva Koscina), the glamorous and seductive Czech secret service agent assigned to chauffeur him around - and keep an eye on him.
HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE was one of the first spy spoof movies to cash in on the success of James Bond (and there's a 007 joke early on in the proceedings) but unlike Dean Martin's 'Matt Helm' or James Coburn's 'Flint' director Ralph Thomas chooses to poke gentle fun at the general concept of gentleman spies working for Her Majesty's Government, rather than getting into the specifics of fanciful gadgets, fast cars and bikini-clad assassins. Bogarde's perfectly at home playing the well-spoken, slightly clueless and very proper English gent forced to rely on his wits when thrust into extremely unusual circumstances but still finding time to seduce the ladies.
His understated style is beautifully complemented by Robert Morley as his MI6 handler, and Leo McKern as Morley's opposite number in Prague. Morley plays Colonel Cunliffe as a relic of the British Empire, delightfully oblivious to ugly realities of late 20th century espionage, choosing instead to treat the whole thing like a wonderful game. McKern as Colonel Simoneva is as gruff as a Communist functionary is expected to be but there's a twinkle in his eye suggesting he's not entirely without a heart.
The film's communist stereotypes now seem terribly dated but that's part of the charm. HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE is silly, inconsequential nonsense graced by some fine talents whose comic timing and way with a phrase make this a thoroughly enjoyable viewing experience.

DRIVE: warning - contains scenes of extreme violence and coolness

DRIVE is so cool it hurts.

Everything about this production screams art house - from the stylized depiction of Los Angeles by night to Ryan Gosling's enigmatic driver to the lingering camera shots, DRIVE should be the antithesis to the 'Fast and Furious' franchise yet it isn't. This is a film that will appeal to the multiplex crowd if they'll just give it a chance.
Gosling plays the unnamed driver, a stunt driver for the movies, and garage mechanic who moonlights as a getaway driver for hire for criminals who don't have their own vehicle.He's a man of few words and is given to bouts of lengthy looking, sometimes at nothing in particular. It gives him an air of mystery which is perhaps not quite warranted.
The driver opens up a little when he befriends Irene (Carey Mulligan), a young woman with a young son who lives in the neighboring apartment. Her husband (the wonderfully named 'Standard') is in jail and she welcomes a man about the house who's willing to act as a father figure to her son. When Standard is released the driver's unwilling to give up his role as Irene's guardian angel and agrees to act as Standard's driver in a raid that will pay off a debt he owes some gangsters, but the raid goes wrong and the driver finds himself a hunted man with a price on his head.
All of this plays out at a pace that belies the tension in the story. The driver is a man surviving on his wits and his skill behind the wheel, putting himself into increasingly dangerous situations with an insouciance that borders on madness. Gosling is superb, oozing attitude and menace, and creating a character who is equally believable reading Irene's son a bedtime story, and stomping a man to death in an elevator.

Extreme violence is this film's other notable characteristic. It's unleashed suddenly and frequently with a graphicness usually reserved for those slasher movies where teenagers unwisely decide to split up to search for their missing friend. What's most surprising is that some of the most sadistic violence is at the hands of comedy actor Albert Brooks. He's almost unrecognisable here but very effective as an LA gangster boss who's thin veneer of charm barely conceals an utter ruthlessness.
The other star of DRIVE is Los Angeles itself. To the accompaniment of Cliff Martinez' 80s inspired electro-synth soundtrack, director Nicolas Winding Refn's camera glides along nocturnal streets and over the downtown skyscrapers creating a glamorous neon lit city of mystery and danger. Most impressively in an urban jungle of 9 million plus souls he finds empty spaces where the action can unfold unwitnessed by casual passers-by. It's a City of Angels that'll be all too familiar to watchers of 'Collateral' which is the blockbuster that DRIVE most closely resembles.
An impressive fusion of art house and multiplex, DRIVE also confirms Ryan Gosling's reputation as one of cinema's most interesting and adaptable leading men. Strap yourself in and prepare for one hell of a ride!