Arthur (2011)

Movies like this make me look crazy because It turns out that despite all the signs saying I should hate it, it seduces me and i really like it. I'll tell people and they'll give me the 'you're so full of shit' look and swot me away. But really despite the damning facts- it's a remake, it's been relatively sanitized and it features Jennifer Garner, think people are forgetting 2 things. One - Russell Brand. I will concede that the dude is a bit played out and marriage to Katy Perry is not great for your street-cred and he's gone a bit Hollywood but i think, lots are quick to remember that he has certainly paid his dues- he did a lot of tv and radio for a long time and he did stand up for even longer. I saw him in 2005 and he's the funniest stand up i've ever seen. He's no overnight success but he's no hack either. He's actually funny and he's the only guy in recent times to make stand up sexy since Eddie Murphy.
Two- Peter Baynham. Now I'll concede Brand has never been consistent in all his endeavours but Peter Baynham is like a comedy King Midas. Alan Partridge, The Day Today, Brass Eye, Borat. He's like a Welsh dynamo, integral in revitalising British comedy and now he's spreading his magic to Hollywood for Sacha Baron Cohen and now Brand. I'll say if Arthur had turned out shit, i would have blamed anyone but Baynham but this is not the angry comedy you might expect from him, this is all quite light and airy. Now since this is an American studio comedy, it's extremely unlikely that he wrote every line- it's directed by Jason Winer, behind the successful tv comedy 'Modern Family' (never seen it) and Brand will probably adlib but my boy must have wrote some of it right? I actually think Winer must be responsible for a lot what works with the tone of the film. There must have been a lot of pressure to make a dirtier comedy because they're in vogue but this is didn't feel like this was sanitized; more that the original was unnecessarily salubrious- I mean, Liza Minelli as a hooker? Who wants that?
To my detractors - I will give you that Helen Mirren is no John Gielgud and no amount of dry spiteful barbs will redress the lack of that great Sir but as my much as that part was about a very subtle English way of care and affection via scalding irony, i wouldn't discount the comic effect of a old Shakespearean-don talking about winkies and pricks but Mirren is very good at the straight-faced warmth and affection.
I just don't think this movie is guilty of that many missteps. I think Brand does an unnecessary impression of Dud at certain points but I found his romance of Greta Gerwig actually heartwarming and not forced or false, that they felt like people who had genuine respect for each other built on a basis of trying to support the other person not simply a sexual attraction. But what do I know...

I watched Arthur (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Le Dolce Vita (2011)...

Brighton Rock (2010)

Brighton Rock is just all kinds of satisfaction to me. It seems that some of the critical press seem to think it's boring or something. 
I don't read reviews any more so it doesn't influence my opinions and I know we were not in the same cinema but surely we watched the same film? At the very least, you can not knock the hustle of Rowan Joffe, a debut (or as close to) director and writer. I'd say he's already a big name in modern British auteurs simply based on the focus he shows here. It's as well written as it is well directed. It's a pulpy script with a suitably stylish vision. I don't quite know how he convinced Studio Canal/Optimum to let him this make a big broad likely-expensive-cos-it's-period gangster movie but i'm so glad he did. It concerting to think British film has another 'steady-hand' so early in his career. So what if he's moved the story from Graham Green's original setting of the 40's to the mods'n'rocker riots of the 60's- it works. Green's novel was about Britain getting back to business as usual, after the war. Joffe's 1960's is are a world where colour is just beginning to turn up. Brighton Rock isn't black and white anymore... It's kinda navy- moody and dark.
Which brings me to Pinky Brown, the epitome of moody and dark. God Sam Riley is good. Richard Attenbourgh's Pinky was pure malevolence. Now Pinky is far more human; for all his badman stink-eye snarling, we know he's a chancer and a coward too.
But it's not just the Sam Riley show- Joffe's rounded out the cast with first string team. I've seen Andrea Riseborough in a few things before, playing very big characters and considering that she's amazing as Rose here. The character of Rose is as her name suggests- she is character that's developing from wallflower to a woman in bloom (hey, if Graham Green can write character names with CapsLock subtext, I can write clumsy delineations too!) Just great acting from them both as a couple who for their own reasons feel like they almost don't deserve affection and are surprised that anyone could find love for them- the raison d'etre of being in love.
Helen Mirren generally does her wounded-yet-strong older woman thing and it's great as per usual but I'm more excited about great British actors like Phil Davis, Andy Serkis and others getting to do this sorta thing- British period gangster movies don't come along very often-more's the shame.
And Craig Parkinson too. He's not a 'name' actor yet but he's been in the best British films of the last few years- Tony Wilson in Control, Omar's white friend in Four Lions. Currently the social worker on Misfits too. I'm not saying he's the best thing in whatever he's in but he's a good luck charm. I think this is going to be the best worthwhile watch at your cinema until True Grit. I'm just so surprised at the British critics perception of this Brighton Rock. I suppose they have a chip-on-their-shoulder about the great-and-Crazy-Cody-won't-say otherwise Boulting Bros. classic but like a parent remarrying; not allowing themselves to like it but it's unfair to grade it on a curve like that. It's a great example of adaptation- it's not scene-for-scene or page-for-page- it just uses the book and previous film as the jump off. I 'm not sweating the differences- Rowan Joffe certainly isn't...


I watched Brighton Rock (2010) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Beat My Heart Skipped (2005)...