Tag: romcom

Benjamin

Posted on by victorfraga

The side effect of watching too many films is that you develop a thick skin and become desensitised to the trivial joys of cinema. That’s a much bigger problem if you are a film critic. Thankfully, there are simple and effective gems like Benjamin that catch you off-guard, enabling you to reclaim these little pleasures. Simon Amstel’s charming new feature will appeal to LGBT romcom fans and the less romantic alike.

The titular protagonist (Colin Morgan) struggles with the post-production of his second feature when he lays eyes on a French heartthrob (Phénix Brossard) at a party. Both hit it off quite quickly and romance blooms. Benjamin finds out that the ultimate obstacle in his quest for love might be himself. The people around him, including his freewheeling publicist Bille (Jessica Reine), his ambitious screen partner Harry (Jack Rowan) and the struggling comedian bestie Stephen (Joel Fry) demonstrate that straight people too are grappling with such issues.

Benjamin is quite straightforward. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel. The plot consists of boy 1 meets boy 2, and boy 1 must sort his own personal mess before deep-diving into the romance. The characters are complex and fully fledged. The film offers a relatable version of London, which is also a love letter to the British capital per se.

In fact, Benjamin feels so real that it’s almost palpable. Anyone in the creative industry knows many Benjamins, Billies and Harries. Their insecurities and their awkwardness will ring a lot of bells. There is abundant cringe humour. So much that at times it feels almost like a tragedy.

Despite the gay love story at its centre, Amstell wants to talk to people of all sexualities about about the general apathy of contemporary relationships. The script was penned by the director himself, and it manages to reach the entire human spectrum in a seemingly effortless fashion and a confident display of strength.

The relatability of Benjamin makes it rise above other romcoms. In its quirks and off-beat punchlines, it reminds us as that, despite the confusion and the pain, it’s ok to laugh and at our perpetual search for love and our failures along the way. That’s complicity. That’s a comforting feeling. At the end of the day, that’s what romcoms are for.

Benjamin is out in cinemas across the UK on Friday, March 15th. On VoD Monday, May 13th.

Been So Long

Posted on by victorfraga

London itself is one of the main characters in this simple yet deep love story that bursts with life and celebration of a city community that we can identify with. The audience at the screening I attended in East London whooped and called out with recognition as they saw people on screen who they felt as if they knew, telling a story of two ordinary Londoners falling in love.

Simone (played with punch and passion by Michaela Cole) has chosen to let go of her personal desires and needs, ij order to become the best parent she can to her daughter Mandy. This intention is thrown up in the air after she is persuaded on a night out by best friend Yvonne (Ronke Adekoluejo) and meets, newly released from prison charmer, Raymond (Arinze Kene). We follow their journey of romcom misunderstandings and missteps in parallel with Mandy’s search for a relationship with a father she doesn’t know. This sounds formulaic, but this is not how it plays out.

It is a breath of fresh air to see characters who have been in prison (Raymond) and addicted to drugs, Kestrel (Joe Dempsie) given life in a way which allows us to see that misfortune and regret can creep into anyone’s life given the wrong circumstances. Families in different shapes and forms are portrayed honestly, with recognition of their normality and place within a twenty first century city.

Love and life’s happenings occur in all the places everyday Londoners go, the market, the kebab shop, small cafe’s and pool halls. It is a thrill to see Mandy, a young wheelchair user living her life as any child does, challenging her parent with a desire for adventure and boundary pushing. Seeing Artemis (Genevieve Barr) signing her conversation in the party scene as just another element of this rich narrative tapestry that signifies progress in casting (Julie Harkin).

The film is billed as a musical, but this is not like any musical I have ever seen. Songs blend into the dialogue and sit organically within the story telling structure. A deliberate choice to have a rehearsal period prior to shooting benefits the final piece enormously. The actors were able to not only develop character and relationship but also to learn the choreography that would form part of the narrative. The dance and movement elements are used in a naturalistic way at times, and in other moments to dig deep into the inner life of the characters. This is especially true for the character of Gil (George Mackay) who haunts the action with martial arts style movement and a long held grudge against Raymond.

A rich colour palette is used for each main character by DOP Catherine Derry and the costumes (Lisa Duncan) are also a vital element in revealing the individuals choices and motivations. Gentrification is a theme that interweaves the plot as the camera pans over the Camden streets, and in digs that come from the cialogue about places to eat and changing businesses. Bar owner Barney (Luke Norris) is having to close-up, his traditional pub atmosphere is a dwindling commodity in an upwardly mobile landscape.

To elaborate on the plot would deprive the viewer of a chance to take this trip with the characters. A brightly lit fair ground ride that will leave you with a feeling of warmth and optimism.

Been So Long is available on Netflix from October, 2018.

Dog Days

Posted on by victorfraga

Marketed as “an ensemble comedy with an eclectic cast of characters both human and canine”, Dog Days is in reality a patchwork of mediocre and unimaginative comedy sketches. It is some mixture of canine romcom and family movie with plenty of flavourless bite-size gags and treats. As effective as a yappy chihuahua taking on a rottweiler.

Dogs are cute and (almost) everyone loves them. But they are not a surefire recipe for a charming and moving film. Show Dogs (Raja Gosnell) failed tremendously earlier this year, and A Dog’s Purpose (Lasse Hallstrom) was only partly successful last year. Even Todd Solondz’s Wiener-Dog (2016) was a major disappointment to many cinemas lovers. Now Dog Days has joined the pantheon of doggy mainstream films that get theatrical distribution in the UK and simply lack a little bite.

The most important plot/comedy sketch revolves around Elizabeth (Nina Dobrev), a beautiful anchorwoman who suddenly has to share her TV show with a cocky and rude co-host called Jimmy. However, they do have a passion in common: their respective pets. Meanwhile, barista Tara encounters a stray chihuahua and becomes infatuated with a handsome vet. Garret runs a adopt-a-dog business and is in love with Tara, who does not seem to take him very seriously. Dax (Adam Paily) has to look after his sister’s pooch as she cares for her newborn twins. Grace (Eva Longoria) and Kurt (Rob Corddry) adopt a young girl, but are unable to bond with her. Walter (Ron Cephas Jones) is a lonely widower whose only companion is a fat dog called Mabel. And the list goes on.

What all characters have in common is that they have a dog or two in their lives. The pooches enable them to connect with each other, to overcome their problems and to find love. Romance is the final resolution to the predicament of several characters. The dog is the broker, the cupid or the catalyst of the rosy outcome. Dog Days is a highly formulaic and carefully crafted feelgood comedy. The problem is that the characters are so flat that they are hardly relatable. The jokes are mostly innocuous and stale (dog fart jokes are hardly witty). The various plots are simplistic and contrived. Less than halfway through the film, you will have guessed how all of the stories end. Dog Days is such an ineffective tearjerker that even the climactic moments (including a dog death) failed to move me. YouTube videos of dogs reunited with their owners are far more moving.

The action takes place in a very sunny LA. “Dog days” is an expression that refers to the hottest days of the year, when people lose their mind and do crazy things due to the excessive heat (a fact never referenced in the film). Of course this is not Ulrich Seidl’s homonymous Dog Days (2001), a very dirty film in which characters genuinely go barking mad during the oppressive Summer heat. Quite the opposite: this is the antithesis of the Austrian film. Ken Marino’s Dog Days is infested with clichés and platitudes. Dogs are the solution to all petty problems faced by mankind. An unimaginative narrative device to a mediocre comedy.

Dog Days is in cinemas on Friday, August 10th. But not all is lifeless and boring in the filmic canine world. For far more vivid doggy films try Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs (now available for digital streaming) or Matteo Garrone’s Dogman (which peremiered in Cannes earlier this year). Hankies mandatory in both cases. Out on VoD on December 3rd.

Three horrific short movies

Posted on by Jeremy Clarke

The first short film of this horror triptych by British filmmaker Neville Pierce is the psychological terror Lock In (2016, pictured above). It boasts a clever little script concerning a gangster Jimmy (Nicholas Pinnock) visiting a pub just after closing time ostensibly to ask Richard the landlord (Tim McInnerny) for protection money. Richard, meanwhile, is soon to be a granddad: his pregnant daughter Lucy (Sing Street’s Lucy Boynton) is working behind the bar and hits Jimmy over the head with a bottle, knocking him out. Unbeknownst to Lucy, Richard and James have a history as former school teacher and difficult pupil.

Aside from some in car shots and a few exterior pub moments, the whole thing takes place inside the pub. The script packs in a lot in its 10 minutes and is a real gift for a director. Pierce responds with some fantastic casting: McInnerny, a prolific actor who deserves much wider recognition, plays a character who seems to change as revelations alter our perception of him. The catalytic Pinnock lends the whole thing an edge while Boynton is terrific as the daughter confronted with unpleasant home truths (or are they lies?) about her father. Pierce also has a striking feel for pace: the whole thing never lets up and moves along very nicely.

The second short Bricks (2015) adapts Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Cask Of Amontillado in which one nobleman lures another to his wine cellar to exact a cruel revenge. The Russell/Pierce adaptation shifts the tale to the present day and the two characters to stockbroker William (Blake Ritson), the owner of the wine cellar, and builder Clive (Jason Flemyng), his unsuspecting victim. Which means that the script has the virtue of consisting of just two characters on one set, which makes it reasonably easy to produce as a film. But that virtue could so easily be the film’s downfall: hard to imagine anything potentially more boring than two people in a room.

Fortunately for us viewers, as the two characters from their very different worlds talk, Russell avoids that pitfall and delivers a taut sparring, a game of cat and mouse. Pierce again demonstrates astute casting skills and elicits from both actors performances among the most memorable of their considerable careers. Flemyng claims this film is one of the few times a director has actually given him direction – and you can feel it as you watch. The short has also been championed by no less a director than David Fincher (who directed Flemyng in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008).

For this writer, however, the best of the three films here is the black and white photographed Ghosted (2016). Again, Russell’s script posits a deceptively simple idea. A widow in search of love and romance visits a restaurant on a series of five dates (the fifth is a man who happens to be at the next table when date number four goes wrong) accompanied by the ghost of her late husband whom she alone can see. It’s an excuse to explore male foibles – narcissism, personal baggage, obsession with tech, earnest intellectualism.

The five dates are beautifully cast, among them Jason Flemyng as a man unable to forget the woman who left him, a very different but arguably equally impressive performance to the one he gave in Bricks. Christien Anholt projects just the right amount of wry observation and world weariness as the dead husband, but the actor who really brings the tale to life is leading lady and comedienne Alice Lowe (Prevenge/2016, Sightseers/2012) who is as good here as she’s ever been (which is saying something). Pierce pulls his various elements together brilliantly: comedy is a notoriously difficult genre to do well, and this one is very funny indeed.

So, an intriguing horror story adaptation, a tense gangster genre outing underpinned by relationships and an hilarious romantic comedy with supernatural overtones. Quite an impressive range of material and all three well executed which makes me, for one, want to see more by this writer-director team. I have no idea what Russell and Pierce will do next (the latter has already made another short with a different writer, unseen at the time of writing) but if they can come up between them with a feature length piece as good as these shorts, we want to see them make it. Meanwhile, the three shorts just released are something of dirty treat.

The Three Neville Pierce Shorts are available to view on Vimeo from Monday, February 5th. Find them here.

The films will also screen on YouTube channel Tall Tales, the new online home for indie films. Lock In will play on Tall Tales from February 6th, Ghosted from February 13th and Bricks later in 2018.

Chubby Funny

Posted on by victorfraga

The street where I live in North London is quite ordinary and nondescript and except for the odd Japanese tourist taking pictures outside the building where Karl Marx lived and died in the 19th century. So it caught me by surprise to see it on Chubby Funny. In fact, the lead character lives just a few yards down from my doorstep. I could see the surrounding buildings, the children’s playground, a nice view from the top of a neighbouring block and – tah dah! – for a short moment I could even see my own flat! I was almost hoping I would see myself walking down the street.

This fact is not irrelevant, particularly because Chubby Funny is a very local and personal movie. Cinema is where the personal and the universal crossover, where reality and imagination meet, where past and future concur. Seeing your own street and dwelling on the silver screen adds an entire new dimension to a film; it literally transports you home. So you must excuse me for starting this review by sharing these thoughts and feelings.

Chubby Funny is a highly autobiographical movie about a vaguely chubby gay (or maybe bisexual?) actor seeking his next role, and trying to reconcile his career ambitions with his personal life. Oscar (played by the film helmer Harry Michell) looks a little bit like a grown-up cherub, with English rose cheeks and curly hair. He has landed a gig playing a squirrel for a commercial, but he’s far from achieving his professional ambitions, and his financial woes often prevail. He’s got a (boy)friend who’s in the same industry, facing similar challenges, and this quickly takes a toll on their relationship (it’s not entirely clear how sexual their relation is). The movie feels so personal that you’d guess the lead and the director were the same person even if you didn’t know it (I certainly did).

There are plenty of jokes about body fascism in the film industry as well as in the gay scene. There’s also commentary on immigrants and our prejudices towards them. This is a film with its heart at the right place. And the performances are satisfactory enough.

This British independent movie is very lighthearted and unpretentious, but also non-audacious. The film starts out with a romcom feel, not dissimilar to Bridget Jones (minus the giant underpants, plus a shriveled up penis), but it then gradually veers into a career drama territory. It attempts to achieve emotional complexity and profundity, but it sometimes slips into the banal and trivial. The ending of the film is also a little abrupt, and it feels like some of the plots could be explored in a little more depth. The inevitable realisation of personal fallibility is a mostly predictable outcome. Overall, not bad for a first-time director, but we do hope Harry will get dirtier in his next films!

The movie also features Alice Lowe, best known for her recent performance and direction of Prevenge (2016).

Chubby Funny premiered at the LOCO London Comedy Film Festival (click here for more information about the event) in May. It’s out in selected cinemas across the UK on June 30th.

I Love You Both

Posted on by victorfraga

Labels are extremely double-edged. On one hand, they can provide much needed representation for marginalised minorities, groups and communiites, such as Blacks, LGBT or a specific nationality abroad. On the other hand, it can generate an expectation, and easily disappoint when certain criteria are not met. Such is the case with I Love you Both, which is being marketed as an LGBT film. The title itself – accompanied by the picture of two siblings – suggests that there is an ingenious homosexual romance. In reality, the LGBT topic is very secondary.

I Love you Both tells the story of Donnie (played by the director Doug Archibald himself) and his twin sister Krystal (played by his sibling Kristin Archibald, who is his twin in real life), who are smitten with the same man, the good-looking and bisexual Andy (Lucas Neff). But the focus of the film is not the romance, and there are no picante and risqué moments. Instead, the relationship between the two doting twins is the central pillar about the movie. This is a movie about fraternal love, which will come as a disappointment to LGBT fans hoping for sassy gay humour, antics, sex and aesthetics. But this does not make I Love You Both a bad movie. Quite the opposite: this a very warm, convincing and funny movie.

iloveyouboth
Krystal and the charming Andy are pictured here

The romcom genre has become very hackneyed and trite, and finding a new and effective angle can be very difficult. Yet the first-time director comes up with a refreshing twist: twins of different sexes in love with the same person. He uses the well-established formulas for the genre : a touch of screwball, silly jokes, flat characters, fun indie or pop music, mellow dialogues and subtle of twists of fate. The film is never cheap and vulgar, and it will keep you hooked and smiling throughout.

You will enter Donnie and Krystal’s private space, and work out how they maintain their warmth and respect towards each other at the face of adversity. Their caring and non-intrusive parents are present throughout, providing the occasional obtuse attempt at parental guidance. But it’s the director’s gentle hand at portraying every day hurdles that the twins have to overcome that makes this movie special. Don’t expect high-octane action, just settle in for the balmy and refreshing.

Ultimately, I Love You Both is a movie about fraternal love, and a touching tribute that the director pays to his very own sister. In fact, the film started off under the title Quarter-Life Crisis during its crowdfunding campaign, revealing indeed that a battle of sexes or sexualities was never intended to be the the centrepiece of the story.

I Love You Both is showing as part of the BFI Flare LGBT Film Festival – click here for more information about the event. The film has commercial potential, and DMovies hazards a guess that it could reach an independent cinema near you later in the year. Just follow us on Twitter or Facebook and we will keep you update. You can watch the film teaser below, where the director explains that this is a film about the relationship between two “co-dependent twins”: