Frank – an odd and hilarious joy

Weird, wonderful and a joy to watch, Frank is the year’s best film so far. A director (Lenny Abrahamson) at the top of his game, an inspired script by Jon Ronson and one of Michael Fassbender’s best performances yet all combine to make Frank a joyful pit of humour, darkness and creativity.

Young Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), a determined but untalented musician, finds himself replacing the suicidal keyboard player of the Soronprfbs, an unpronounceable, unsigned and unknown band inspired by odd sounds and lyrics. Led by the very charismatic Frank (Fassbender), an alternative creative genius who wears a large papier-mâché head he has never been seen without, the band take Jon into the woods of Ireland to record an album. Realising the true potential of Frank, Jon tries to bring the band’s sound out of the alternatively obscure and towards an audience, much to the anger of some of the band members, including the aggressive Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

Full of odd moments of humour and darkness, as well as some inspired visuals, Frank is a very complex and odd film that entertains thanks to the talent that is director Abrahamson. This could easily have just been odd; instead it is incredibly likeable and fun, without detracting from the serious themes. After proving his worth over and over again hopefully this slightly more Hollywood film will show a larger audience the talent of the director.

As always Fassbender is excellent, even without his own face. His tone and emotion is always evident using subtle body language and speech, a fantastic performance and one that is his funniest yet. All the cast are great with particular praise for Scoot McNairy, manager of the band with some darkness to him.

All around excellent with fantastically weird music and performances, as well as a script and direction to match. A cult classic.

5 out of 5

X-Men: Days of Future Past – the future past is fun

Time-travel saves the day for both our heroes and filmmakers alike, in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Allowing the original story and prequel to co-exist and tie up loose ends, original X-Men director Bryan Singer returns to add some style to their universe. Bar time-travel their might not be a lot new going on here, but for pure enjoyment what could be better than Wolverine in the 70s.

In an apocalyptic future X-Men are being hunted down and killed by Sentinels, giant robots able to replicate their mutant powers. Devoid of all possibilities Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) devises a plan to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to the 70s, to prevent the creation of the Sentinels. When he arrives though things aren’t all that simple, with a hopeless young Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) bickering over Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), all while scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) pursues the development of the original Sentinels.

This is mainly a sequel to the prequel, with added Wolverine. That’s not a complaint though, as Wolverine is a joy to watch alongside the young Xavier and Magneto, constantly caught in between their bickering. The cast all have great fun, including new addition Quicksilver (Evan Peters). Once the time-travel is taken away though, this is just another standard story of someone in power wanting to destroy the mutant gene. For a series so many films in its makers should really be more ambitious in their storytelling.

All its faults are forgiven though as this is colourful fun, and a perfect indulgence for fans of the series. Singer directs some great action scenes and gives the fans what they want.

3 out of 5

Godzilla – Godawful

What a disappointment. A giant monster destroying cities, a fantastic cast and a director with some serious potential, surely this should have been the most fun cinema could be this summer. Disaster. One big massive disaster. Godzilla is an absolute turkey, somehow managing to get what should be an always fun concept and making it an absolute unenjoyable mess, leaving the 1998 version looking like a masterpiece.

Don’t believe the trailers; the film is full of cameos, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the only real main-role. Taylor-Johnson plays all good navy officer Ford, happy to be home with his wife and kids after a tour overseas. He is soon called to Japan, where his father (Bryan Cranston) has been arrested thanks to his obsession with a nuclear conspiracy. Conspiracy soon turns to truth, as giant monsters feeding off nuclear power emerge from the ground to wreak havoc on the world’s major cities. Luckily for us there’s an even bigger giant monster ready to jump to our defence.

Imagine Transformers, with even more needless military intervention, and even worse, and you’ve got Godzilla. The characters are bland and needless, the transition of the plot as awkward as a kick in the face, and direction that’s barely TV quality. Maybe it was studio interference, but director Gareth Edwards has failed to live up to the hype delivered by his debut Monsters. There’s a brief moment in a Hawaiian airport and a set-piece on a railroad that satisfy in the action stakes, but other than that there is not a single moment of this film worth your money.

I will say no more cause you’ll go see this anyway, and I don’t blame you as it looks fun. As someone who was really looking forward to this I regret to say it sucks.

1 out of 5

 

Calvary – dark comedy without the comedy

Opening with a stellar opening scene and some beautiful but harsh looking shots of the Sligo coast, Calvary looks like a more professional beast than John Michael McDonagh’s debut The Guard. The shoddiness of that enjoyable but ultimately amateurish looking production is replaced by a better eye for the frame and a much evener pace. To call it a dark comedy would be wrong, this is just dark. McDonagh is still jumbling around too many unnecessary plot threads, but this is a promising work from an emerging writer and director.

Father James Lavelle (Brendan Gleeson) is a priest in a small town in the west of Ireland. While hearing confession he is told by a victim of abuse that he is to be murdered, and given a week to get his ‘house and that’ organised. Who the future-murderer is may or may not be known to Father Lavelle, but the audience is kept guessing as he encounters a town full of misfits as well as his own unstable daughter.

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Gleeson is terrific and deserves every bit of praise he gets for his performance. His Father Lavelle is constantly the punching bag for the townsfolk’s less than flattering opinions of the Catholic Church. He’s a good man but knows the faults of his organisation and often lets them get to him. This is a masterful character and performance that would simply be too tough for a lesser actor, but Gleeson’s skills ensure we barely notice the complexities. His son Domhnall Gleeson also has one short but impressive scene as a convicted murderer, along with Aiden Gillen as a sadistic doctor getting some of the films best lines. The rest of the cast are fine but the film really does belong to these three.

The films tone and demise are delivered excellently by McDonagh, with some great dialogue to accompany a powerful cast. It’s very bleak, and definitely not a light-hearted film, but always exciting as the whodunit lingers. It’s let down by sub-plots that don’t go anywhere or seem to matter, and one or two character that wouldn’t look out of place in a David Lynch film, but in Calvary are just confusing.

A step-up from The Guard and definitely proof that McDonagh has potential. Worth a watch for Gleeson alone.

3 out of 5