Sideshow

When two inept criminals break into the home of a washed-up psychic in search of hidden loot, they get a lot more than they bargained for. In UK Cinemas from 11th March & available on Digital Download from 21st March. Pre-order here.

Written and directed by Adam Oldroyd who has put together a British comedy caper starring 80’s TV entertainer Les Dennis as Stuart Pendrick ‘the All Seeing Stupendo’. He’s an ageing mystic stage performer whose magical heyday is now a distant memory. Now performing to practically empty theatres with his tired old routine of mind tricks and contacting the spirit world, he’s become a twisted cynic passing on crude sexual messages from the afterlife to his diminishing audiences.

There’s a mysterious subplot where all his fellow mystics are being bumped off one by one (with the mystic’s gag being that these deaths are all the stranger because none of them saw it coming). Gerald (Anthony Head) is Pendrick’s slightly less beleaguered show business agent who is trying to keep both of their career’s going, as he deals with the complaints coming from the theatre manager and the general public over his client’s performances, as well as dealing with his client’s own scathing comments.

When Pendrick finishes his show and returns home one evening he is followed by two people in a car, Eva (April Pearson) and Dom (Nathan Clarke), two youthful looking cat burglars who we find out are intent on stealing his hidden fortune. April is the bossy female instigator of the break-in, sleekly dressed in a black leather jacket and jeans, who hides an ulterior motive, whilst Dom is her juvenile delinquent accomplice, who speaks in a funny street slang patter and has some mind problems of his own.

Of course their break-in doesn’t go totally to plan and the duo find themselves trying to persuade their kidnapped victim to tell them where the loot is whilst Pendrick tries to convince them of his mystic powers.

It doesn’t really justify its 15 rating except for a few risqué sexual references and Les Dennis’ character’s attempts at some British toilet humour, it would be far better suited for children. Dennis is much more in his comfort zone sending himself up as a performer in the twilight of his career rather than shocking with any adult humour but there is the occasional good comedic exchange like when Gerald finds Dom wearing a tiara and imagines him to be an intimate friend of his client’s.

Some other notable touches include the music score which has an Eastern European orchestration full of mystery and intrigue fitting of a mystery caper and there are some intriguing chapter headings throughout of words associated with the entertainment industry, which although lacking any obvious connection, have their literal and metaphoric meanings explained.

Comedies are never likely to win Academy awards and this one is no different. As a low budget British comedy it tries hard to blend the old with the new and is more farce than mystical that even 80s TV favourite Les Dennis could have foreseen would be hard to pull off.

Film: Sideshow

Director: Adam Oldroyd

Genre: Comedy, Crime

Stars: Les Dennis, Anthony Head, April Pearson, Nathan Clarke

Runtime: 1hr 34min

Rating: 15

Rated: 3/5

February Worksheet

In The Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand

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Jules et Jim (1962)

Part of the François Truffaut: For the Love of Films season at the BFI, Jules et Jim is a black and white French classic from one of the most influential directors of the French New Wave that brings a fascinating mélange of love, romance and friendship to the screen.

Set around 1912 before the outbreak of war it follows the friendship of Jules (Oscar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) bohemian writers who strike up a friendship living in Paris. Jules is a fair haired Austrian who has adopted France as his homeland whilst Jim is his newly found friend, taller and slightly more refined, who introduces Jules into the Parisian society. They very much enjoy each others company sharing similar interests in language and literature and most notably the pursuit of female affections.

Their various dating experiments lead them to Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) who they become completely captivated by with her looks and her charismatic behaviour. Jules ends up marrying her but it’s not before too long that the three of them move in together and it’s clear Jules and Jim have shared more than just friendship.

The third feature film from François Truffaut it’s a fascinating observation of love’s relationships and the affairs of the heart shown through the free spirited love adventures of Jules and Jim. Truffaut whilst showing a good command of classic film storytelling technique, expertly put together by cinematographer Raoul Coutard using cinescope, also experiments with the occasional break from convention making unusual edits like freezing the frame and there are further eccentricities throughout like the parodying of action films for their over use of guns and violence, even back then in 1962.

The film score is charmingly composed by George Delerue that brings together the emotional highs and lows amongst the conviviality, joie de vivre and passionate rivalry. There’s a cameo appearance from famous French crooner Boris Bassiak who also plays another love interest of Catherine’s in a film that openly subscribes to the bed hopping promiscuity of relationships.


Truffaut’s depiction of this ménage à trois is inspired by the semi-autobiographical novel from Henri-Pierre Roché, which compelled him to attempt to make such a film. Packing a lifetime of romance and passion into a story that is a curious ode to friendship and the fleeting changes of the heart.

Film: Jules et Jim

Director: François Truffaut

Genre: Drama, Romance

Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Oscar Werner, Henri Serre

Run time: 1hr 36min

Rated: 15

Rating: 4/5

In The Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand 

In The Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand is an award winning Greek roadtrip comedy about two guys and their obsession with a 90s porn star, available across all major digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon and Google.

Antonis and Christos are two down on their luck friends, who are both infatuated by 90s porn star Laura Durand who disappeared in mysterious circumstances. They’re unemployed and their only escape is performing with their ageing synth rock band, playing to a similarly ageing crowd. Antonis has discovered he has a serious health condition after having an MRI scan so when their obsession leads them to look through the memorabilia of their favourite porn star they discover, amongst the newspaper clippings and magazines, an old VHS tape with a secret message they are compelled to act upon.

Realising they don’t have much to lose, except for Christos’ collection of old vinyl, which he is rather emotionally attached to, they decide to pack up everything and hit the road in their little camper van on a mission to find their favourite porn star as they stumble across and follow more mysterious messages.

Their desktop research online to find some clues leads them to a meeting with the head of Laura’s film production company. The boys have two very different approaches to the meeting but they eventually get the result they are looking for as they are handed a map of all the sites Laura was last seen at. So with their cryptic map they get back on the road in search of her.

Filmed in Greek with questionable English subtitles, the sound track is a nice eclectic mix of tracks from 70s disco porn, synth rock to traditional Greek folk guitar woven into the sound design. The places and the escapades get wackier and wackier from desert discos, to hippie retreats and haunted houses and there is a steady flow of gags that maintain a light hearted feel throughout like the confusion over the pronunciation and purpose of a photometer and when they spike the old lady’s soup with a pill they found at the hippy commune and think they’ve killed her, which is much in the style of 21 Jump Street but for grannies.

It’s a feel good comedy with lots of goofy gags that raises a smile and even the occasional belly laugh. There are some old film cliches put to good use like the horror film organ sound and lightning, which is all very tongue in cheek but there is also a heartfelt message and call to action amongst all its silliness and stupidity.

Film: In The Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand

Director: Dimitris Bavellas

Stars: Makis Papadimitriou, Michalis Sarantis, Anna Kalaitzidou

Genre: Comedy, action

Run time: 1hr 38min

Rated: 15

Rating: 3/5

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Home

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South (1919)

SOUTH is screening at BFI Southbank and in selected cinemas from 28 January and out on Blu-ray/DVD on South and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration on Film, released by the BFI on 28 February.

A black and white silent documentary with music showing unprecedented footage from one of the very first Antarctic expeditions during ‘the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration’. This is the story of the ship “Endurance’s” fateful mission led by the intrepid explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, a colleague of “Scott of the Antarctica”,  and a man of similar standing in the field of Antarctic exploration, filmed by the ship’s very own cinematographer, Frank Hurley. 

On July 1914 a crew of 28 men left the UK shores to attempt to cross the yet unconquered seas of the great Antarctic Continent. On board were not only a cinematographer and a banjo player (a “vital mental tonic” for the sailors) but also an incredible 70 husky dogs required to pull sledges. The boat finds the going not unsurprisingly difficult through the ice floes before it finally gets stuck and despite their best efforts to free it the boat is eventually pushed up out of the sea like a toy ship by the shifting icecaps, and is marooned on the ice with the crew and dogs having to abandon ship.

Having to camp on the moving icebergs, remarkably the crew seem quite jovial throughout their predicament stuck in the polar regions with what must have been limited resources in freezing conditions. There were no signs of panic and no doubt this was down to a highly experienced crew led by Sir Ernest and supported not least by what must have been a formidable banjo player. In the process of filming seals were killed, allegedly for dog food, which may not placate any animal rights activists but survival here was clearly a priority at a time when the world’s view on such things was evidently different.

It’s a true story of great British exploration where even the ability to film in freezing conditions over two years is an incredible feat in itself (although they do manage to bring along a new petrol powered sledge invention. Crudely sponsored by Shell – a sponsorship scoop not to be missed even back then).

Commemorating the centenary since Sir Ernest’s death the documentary, despite its antiquated black and white imagery, is an incredible account of the expedition with some striking pictures of the old sailing boat, the frozen landscapes and wildlife. How different it is now to think this once impenetrable landscape is now rapidly disappearing before our eyes.

The wildlife is captured to such a degree that three quarters of the way through, the film becomes a fully dedicated natural world programme with the stars of the film switching from the husky dogs to the penguins. Compared to today’s Ultra High Definition cameras the footage may seem some what pedestrian without the thrills and spills of “The Blue Planet” style of series but that would take away from what is an invaluable piece of archiving, that still burns brightly with a sense of wonder and discovery. 

Film: South (1919)

Director: Frank Hurley

Genre: Documentary

Run time: 1hr 21min

Rated: U

Rating: 3/5

Home

Available on Apple TV from 24th January, a man returns home after spending almost 20 years in jail to face up to his past in a small Californian town where not everyone is happy to see his return. From first time female director Franka Potente, starring Jake McLaughlin (Warrior) and Kathy Bates (Misery) it is a bittersweet tale dealing with bereavement.

It’s been almost 20 years for 40 year old Marvin (Jake McLaughlin) who is returning home to his mother’s after a long stretch in prison. Within the first 5 minutes he’s skateboarded across half of California, turned down a quickie with a waitress, waited the longest time possible for a supermarket coffee and wrestled his mother’s home help to the floor. It seems a peculiar backwater part of the world and Marvin is no different. A tall athletic looking guy who looks physically intimidating in his sports tracksuit with tattoos on his arms, hands and neck, and his hair slicked back and shaved at the sides. Having spent so long away things must be pretty strange for him as he discovers what he’s missed in the world and reminisces with his old druggie loser friend Wade (Derek Richardson), hanging out at a few of their old haunts like the skate park.

He catches up with his mother (Kathy Bates) and when he finds out she is terminally ill their time becomes especially poignant as they play cards at home, drinking and smoking together despite her being on an oxygen tank. Not everyone is pleased to see him though. The brother and sister who lost their grandmother are holding major grudges and are not going to make life easy for him insisting, “We can’t do nothing…I want to let him know he’s not welcome here.” This much they do but perhaps surprisingly the sister becomes close to Marvin and they begin to build a relationship despite their differences.

Written and directed by Franka Potente known for her acting in Run Lola Run and the Bourne series she achieves the small town feel of an arid part of California using some good local locations like the diners, the backyards and the alleyway. The camera shots are quite simply put together that can drift in and out of focus on occasions but with a mix of close up shots and some quick editing, especially for the alley scene, the slightly dirty framing is easy to follow.

Well cast, Jake McLaughlin plays the man child anti-hero who’s straight out of prison probably still wearing the same shiny tracksuit he went in with and bearing the burden of his guilt. Kathy Bates plays the mother with plenty of vim in spite of her condition and is seen sat on the porch with shotgun in hand and collapsing on the porch with equal grace delivering some beautifully droll lines along the way in her languid Tennessee accent, “Prison ain’t supposed to be fun anyway.”

The story comes across incredibly twee considering its dark nature but this is probably as much to do with its likeable cast. Don’t expect any major surprises as the only real surprise is that we don’t fully understand the reasons behind Marvin going into prison and without knowing any of his backstory we are left unsure whether he deserves any kind of redemption at all.

Film: Home

Director: Franka Potente

Stars: Jake McLaughlin, Kathy Bates, Aisling Franciosi

Genre: Drama

Run time: 1hr 40min

Rating: 3/5

The Last Thing Mary Saw

The Last Thing Mary Saw is available on horror channel Shudder, it’s a supernatural horror that goes easy on the horror whilst still managing to provide a chilling account of a young girl’s interrogation after the sudden disappearance of her grandmother from a repressively religious household.

Set in the puritan town of Southold, New York in 1843 the film begins with the interrogation of the young farm girl Mary (Steffanie Scott) who is sat with blood trickling from behind her blindfolded. She is under suspicion regarding her grandmother’s disappearance and the hostile manner in which she is made to read the Lord’s Prayer by her interrogators is a clear indication of her guilt, certainly for the town’s law enforcement. The interrogating constable (Daniel Pearce) has a somewhat incongruously sympathetic ear for her story in comparison to the other bible wielding figures in the baying community, as he intriguingly clutches a book which plays a central role in Mary’s interrogation. 

We flashback into the events leading up to the disappearance, beginning with Mary’s relationship with the maid (Isabelle Fuhrman), which has come to the worrying attention of her parents who are in religious hysterics and despair over their daughter’s carrying ons with the maid, “They long for one another’s touch and they do so in bright sunlight,” her mother cries. As a result the parents have turned to the wisdom of the household’s matriarch, the grandmother (Judith Roberts) for guidance, who cuts a foreboding figure. 

Because the family’s relatives refuse to take the maid on themselves the matriarch decides “correction” is the only way forward before the girl can be moved. The grandmother administers a painful punishment to the ‘sinful’ girls who have to kneel on dried rice whilst reciting prayers for prolonged periods. This proves to be just one of the callous measures used to intimidate the inhabitants into conforming behaviour and to understand there is no escape. 

From first time feature film director Edoardo Vitaletti this is a well-crafted film that atmospherically captures the period. Set on location at an imposing wooden farmhouse the candle lit scenes by night and the overcast shots by day give a sense of a harsh puritanical time assisted by the remarkably dour costumes and funny looking chin strap beards. The cast convincingly draw you further into this world with the angelic looking girls wishing to explore their feelings for each other but their secret liaisons are never far from prying eyes. They are up against the might of the matriarchal grandmother played with a disturbing puritanical presence and each supporting actor brings an additional righteous or non righteous quirkiness to the proceedings.

What is impressive from the writing and direction is the way in which Vitaletti leads you to water without forcing any graphic detail upon you and still manages to maintain a gripping edge. There are one or two surprising moments which seem to have caught even the director by surprise. They may be there by design as a way of portraying the higher forces at work but there is also what seems to be a significantly large plot hole unreported but regardless of this the story still holds together carrying a claustrophobic menace throughout.

It’s an interesting period of American history for the story to indulge in playing with the religious and moral themes that must have been relevant at the time and adding its own supernatural twist. Horror fans may come away disappointed if they are expecting to be hiding behind their seats as this has a much slower insidious manner and has as much in common with a Romeo and Juliet tragedy for an LGBTQ audience than as an out and out horror.

Film: The Last Thing Mary Saw

Director: Edoardo Vitaletti

Stars: Rory Culkin,Isabelle Fuhrman,Judith Roberts,Stefanie Scott

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Run time: 1hr 28min

Rating: 3/5

December Worksheet

Drive My Car

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Drive My Car

Drive My Car is available to rent on the BFI Player and is part of the BFI Japanese season, based on the short story “Men Without Women” by Murakami Haruki it won the Best Screen Play at Cannes 2021. It’s about (spoiler alerts) a theatre actor / director and his sexually charged relationship with his screenwriter wife that abruptly ends after her sudden death and how his chauffeur becomes his companion and confidant in a story of interwoven and comparative lives.

It begins with a woman naked on top of a man, legs akimbo, as she tells an erotic story. The woman is screenwriter Oto (Reika Kirishima) who is married to the man, theatre director Yûsuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima). They continue the story in the car the next day remembering the sexual fantasy from the previous evening. It’s a ritual of theirs – she tells an erotic story during sex and he reminds her of it the following day fuelling her creative storytelling.

Another ritual of Yûsuke’s is learning his lines in the car with his wife’s recorded voice and he is currently learning Chekov’s Uncle Vanya whose lines become cleverly woven into the story’s narrative. He has to leave town for a show but when his plane is cancelled and he returns home unexpectedly he finds his wife in the throes of a sexual act with a young actor acquaintance Koji (Masaki Okada) but deciding not to intervene he keeps up the pretence of his not knowing by video calling her from a hotel in a somewhat muted tone.

The story takes a sudden turn when Oto is found dead after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, which is followed by the opening credits that appear after more than an hour after the film’s beginning! Moving into the second phase of the film Yûsuke takes a job as a play director for a production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima where he will be based for the next two months auditioning and rehearsing the play. But there is one unusual condition that he must abide by, he must have a young female chauffeur (Tôko Miura) to assist him – which for him is not necessarily an easy thing to agree to. As the auditions get under way we see Yûsuke is an expert in directing multilingual performances and here there is a mix of American, Japanese, Korean and also a deaf sign language user, and amongst them is the young actor, Koji, who had an affair with his wife.

Yûsuke chooses his cast and accepts their invitations for drinks and dinner to get to know them better and discover some of their idiosyncrasies. Koji asks him to join him for a drink and he goes knowing about Koji’s relationship with his wife but without letting on as they talk about sexual relationships. One of the producers asks him to dinner at his home with his wife and he discovers he is married to the deaf actor in the production but hadn’t wanted to tell him incase it biased his decision, meanwhile Yûsuke gives a gushing appraisal of his chauffeur that would normally be reserved for a leading starlet.

As the play’s opening evening draws nearer an inevitable major incident happens which results in Yûsuke and his driver, Misaki, taking time out together to visit her hometown becoming even closer as she shares her story about how she became a driver after her mother’s death and the loss of her home in a mudslide, and they are able to share in their grief together; but of course even with the play’s major disruption to its preparations the show must go.

Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Asako I & II) his play within the film adds an affirming solidity to the story that takes us on an emotional journey with conversations about love, infidelity, secrets, disclosure, grief and trauma showing a depth of emotions whilst seemingly cruising through, in stoic fashion, the 3 hours run time without ever feeling the need to stop.

The cinematography emphatically captures the urban sprawl of the everyday Japanese cityscapes and the mis en scene of the apartments, bars, homes and theatres are immaculately executed and accentuated by the POV shots for the conversations, immersing you in them, and of course there are plenty of driving shots: getting into the car, getting out of the car, starting the car, pulling away, reversing, parking, smoking and talking in the car; and in particular it’s the conversations in the car that bring a confessional type of intimacy as they drive along the highway with the engine purring in the background.

There’s a great deal to enjoy here from the peculiarities of the creative artists to the secrets and confessions people choose to hold and divulge all captured in a simplistic and yet engaging way encapsulated none more so than by the classic red Saab 900 on display.

Film: Drive My Car

Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Stars: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima

Genre: Drama

Run time: 2hr 59min

Rated: 15

Rating: 4/5