Harry Brown (2009) dir: Daniel Barber

Almost unbelievable that Sir Michael Caine is still a movie star at the age of 76, and it’s great to see him continue to put his star power behind smallish British films such as ‘Is Anyone There?’ (2008) (which I also liked) and now ‘Harry Brown’ – the debut feature film from director Daniel Barber (who was nominated for an Oscar for a short – which I’ll have to check out).

Michael Caine is Harry Brown, a man who lives alone on a London council estate where youth gangs intimidate and kill without fear of any consequences for their actions, but a sequence of events pushes Harry into obtaining a gun…

There is pretty much one word that describes this film: grim. But it’s a grim good movie and Michael Caine shines in the role, and unlike some Hollywood treatments of vigilantism, the whole thing is horribly believable. Harry doesn’t have super fighting prowess – he’s an old man who can barely run down the street. The story is simply and effectively told and the whole cast is uniformly good, especially Ben Drew as the gang leader, and it’s always great to see Iain Glen on the screen. For those Americans out there used to the Hugh Grant/Notting Hill style of London, this will be a bit of a shock.

Filed under: action, drama, film , Ben Drew, Daniel Barber, Emily Mortimer, Iain Glen, Michael Caine

Nowhere Boy (2009) dir: Sam Taylor Wood

Sam Taylor Wood’s latest music themed film is an account of the relationship between a young John Lennon (Aaron Johnson) and the two influential women of his early life Julia (Ann-Marie Duff) and Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas).  I had no particular expectations for the film and I had to get up at the crack of dawn (for me) to see it – especially as I was feeling guilty about not having yet seen a single film at the London Film Festival (too busy working on my own film). And today is the last day! Anyway it was worth it.

I was momentarily thrown by Aaron Johnson as he was clearly a lot older than the character he was playing at the start of the story (a couple of years is an eternity for a growing teenager) so I couldn’t orientate myself to when the story was set. However, once  the film began to move through the story I got over it – he gives a cracking performance that has an essence of the public persona of John Lennon. Aaron Johnson is going to be huge when Kick-Ass opens next year.  I don’t know how accurate the film is with regard to John Lennon’s life but without these two women it implies that John Lennon songwriter, musician and Beatle may never have existed. I also have to say that I was genuinely moved by the story and characters. Call me soppy but it was weirdly emotional.

Almost forgot. The score by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory was really interesting too – it was kind of traditional but with hidden ‘Beatlesque’ elements – I liked it.

Filed under: drama, film, movies, music , Aaron Johnson, Alison Goldfrap, John Lennon, Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor Wood, Will Gregory

Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee (2009) dir: Shane Meadows

Any movie from the Shane Meadows/Paddy Considine team-up is always welcome and here they go back to their roots and the character of ‘Le Donk’ who has been around for about 10 years.

Self funded (with help from Warp) and shot in 5 days with no script and no idea how it would turn out, this mockumentary features Shane Meadows playing a ‘Martin di Bergi’ version of himself as he follows Le Donk (Paddy Considine),  a music industry loser and abuser who you kind of like and his new 20 stone rapper protégé Scor-zay-zee (played by himself) going up to Manchester to roadie for, in Le Donk’s words: ‘The Arctical Monkies’.

I watched this all the way through with a smile on my face – I was pleasantly surprised at how well it all worked – it could easily have been awful.  Enjoyable stuff. The whole audience left happy. Can’t say fairer than that.

Oh – don’t leave as the end credits start – you’ll miss a very funny monologue from Le Donk.

Filed under: mockumentary, music , martin de bergi, Paddy Considine, Shane Meadows, Spinal Tap

Mesrine: Part 1 & 2 (2008) dir: Jean-François Richet

Never heard of the guy, Jacques Mesrine, France’s Public Enemy No.1 during the 1970s, but it turns out that he (in the film anyway) has a certain amount in common with John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. Robbing banks, getting imprisoned, escaping (four times!), courting the press, being a celebrity and seeing himself as an honest villain and a friend of ‘the people’.

This film though is a lot grittier and works better in my opinion. Here Mesrine is also, quite frankly, a violent and brutal monster (jamming a gun into his innocent wife’s mouth as he tells her his friends are more important to him than her) yet Vincent Cassel’s terrific performance makes you like him, even when he’s smashing a glass into another thug’s face.

Split into two films ‘Mesrine – Part 1 – Death Instinct’ and ‘Mesrine – Part 2 – Public Enemy No 1′. This is a big budget two part movie and it shows. There’s a huge amount going on as the story moves chronologically through a series of events in the gangster’s life. There’s a thoughtful, interesting story with depth, tons of interesting characters, interspersed with action and a lot of violence. The whole shebang is skilfully executed by director Jean-François Richet who brings an element of authenticity and realism to it rather than Hollywood gloss.

Tiny spoiler alert: skip the next paragraph if you want to know nothing about what happens in the films.

I’m not really giving anything away in mentioning that the two movies are bookended by Mesrine’s death. What’s clever is although we know that he dies and how it happens during the opening titles of Part 1, when it’s played out again at the end of Part 2 it’s told from a different perspective with all that we now know about the man – and it still manages to rack up the suspense – even though you already know the outcome.

This is quality stuff, great film making and was a deserved mammoth hit in France. Don’t let the subtitles put you off. If you can see one film after the other – with a short break between the two to let you recover and get your breath back.

Filed under: action, cinema, drama, entertainment, film, movies, thriller , Elena Anaya, Gérard Depardieu, Jacques Mesrine, Jean-François Richet, Ludivine Sagnier, Vincent Cassel