Film
"A miserable lying shit." That's how Peter Sellers' first wife described him. And he was, there's no escaping that. Funnily enough, it's possible that Sellers would be rather chuffed with being remembered as such. The tragic truth that this poignant film reveals is that this Goon would be happy just to be remembered.
Director Stephen Hoskins and Geoffrey Rush, who pulls off the role of Peter Sellers faultlessly, have created a masterful biopic, reflecting how Sellers' life itself was a show. Like a Russian doll, inside The Life and Death there are Sellers' most famous roles and his most infamous private moments. Rush plays Sellers playing some of the key figures in his life - family, directors, himself - making asides to the camera, painful insights into the 'empty vessel'. This was not just a gimmick, trying to squeeze the most from Rush's magnificent talents: Sellers never believed in himself, or believed there was a self to believe in, so he played other people to be someone, someone else.
By blurring the line between Sellers the actor and the roles he played, Rush resonates with class. To play Bluebottle, Clouseau, and Strangelove in one film is a magnificent achievement; to play them so brilliantly is a delight to watch. On top of all that, Rush's recreation of Sellers as Sellers is nothing short of astounding. In anger as in love, suicidal depression as in passing contentedness (the empty man could never be truly happy) Rush is spot on. He flails like Sellers the clown on stage with the Goons; he bounds like Sellers the romantic with Eckland; he boils like Sellers the monster when faced with failure.
Around Rush's sparkle Theron in particular resists being eclipsed, simply by playing the naïve, beautiful Eckland. But while such gorgeous women passed through Sellers' unsatisfied heart, Peg, Sellers' mum (Margoyles), is relentless in her presence. Portrayed as pushy, proud, and repulsively ambitious for her son, you hate her, yet know that without her Peter would never have been such a star
There's no escaping the delusion the actor suffered and enjoyed, trying to be someone, to have someone, to please his mother. This film lives those delusions. Enjoy them.
When tough-broad journo Polly Perkins (Paltrow) notices that the world's top scientists are mysteriously disappearing she smells a scoop.
Armed with her trusty camera and arm-candy - the roguish schoolboy-cum-superhero Sky Captain (Law) - both make the grim discovery that a certain Dr Totemkopf is behind these kidnappings and is bizarrely enough responsible for the distortion of the animal kingdom - shrinking elephants and whatnot. In the face of such heinous acts the dynamic duo journey to the darkest depths of Nepal - where all evil seemingly resides - to seek out Totemkopf and put an end to all this bother.
Set in 1939, it must be said that Sky Captain is beautifully filmed, drawing from its comic book influence with grainy stills and great film-noir lighting techniques.
The visual experience however does not compensate for the tedium one endures at the hands of bland Jude and Gwyneth. Indeed, this film is loyal to its comic book roots, maintaining two-dimensionality in all the characters. Look out for the particularly painful cameo from Jolie, who resurrects her standard Lara Croft frigidity as eye-patch-wearing Freddy Cook - the love competition for the weakly sky captain - in a failed attempt at a sub-plot. Plus, if you're not overwhelmed enough by the fantasy cast list of Jude, Gwyneth and Angelina, a perfectly incongruous appearance is made by freshly exhumed archive footage of Laurence Olivier - why not include him anyway, it's not as though the film has any illusions of making sense.
Furthermore, if it wasn't enough that one is expected to marvel over the recurring film motifs and genre allusions (wacky German scientists, fidgety Brits and the like) one is told repeatedly at every juncture that it is ironic: Sky Captain talks at length on how he reads a lot of comic books - do you see what he's doing there? - and Polly Perkins quips at the beginning 'its only a movie.' Bravo. We get the point, love.
With a backdrop of grey stone houses and green wet fields you could be fooled into thinking that you are in the heart of Last of the Summer Wine territory. Yet there is something very nasty lurking in the stone shed. More High Plains Drifter than Postman Pat, Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes is heart-stopping stuff; a chilling study in retribution set in the director's own stomping ground, the Midlands.
A lone gunman (a brilliant Paddy Considine, who co-wrote the screenplay) strides across the peaks, returning to his hometown hell-bent on vengeance. A bearded army hardman, he has the local small time crooks scurrying to shelter with little more than a full on eyeball stare. Which is fortunate, as they are the intended objects of his one-man mission to avenge their cruel treatment of his dim-witted brother. The opening narration makes this crystal clear: "God will forgive them - I can't live with that."
At first, justice is meted out by some cunning face painting, executed whilst this inept crew of would be bandits are sleeping off a hangover. Quickly this progresses to what Withnail fans will understand as "drugging their onions." Sent into space by surreptitious LSD in the teapot all hell breaks loose whilst our anti-hero barely breaks into a sweat: there is worse to come.
Not for the faint of heart Dead Man's Shoes deftly combines razor edge tension, high drama with hilarity: the sight of six of these so-called gangsters setting off to 'see to' the situation in a green 2CV is brilliant. The achingly apt soundtrack from Warp Records captures the claustrophobia of the wide-open spaces fantastically, and a truly reptilian performance is given by ex-boxer Gary Stretch. One to watch.
DVD of the week
Monster
Critics have universally praised Charlize Theron's performance in Monster and the praise, for once, is astonishingly deserved.
The star of The Cider House Rules vanishes into the mangy-faced serial killer Aileen Wournos, a real-life serial killer who murdered at least seven men in Florida. Monster traces her relationship with a young woman named Selby (Christina Ricci) but also finds the time to elicit considerable compassion for Wuornos while never detracting from the brutality of her crimes. Theron expresses this woman's horrific life history without softening her bug-eyed stare, jerky mannerisms and nervous, toothy grin. Like De Niro's performance in Raging Bull this is a gripping, devastating performance.
Soundbite of the Week
"Like Crouching Tiger but with a plot".
Mark Davies on Hero
6th Oct 2004