Mubi Monday: An Angel At My Table (1990)

It is time for me to change my opinion on Jane Campion. Having always known of her as a celebrated director (mainly due to this film and The Piano), I couldn’t see what everyone else saw. Sadly, I was basing my opinion on the one film I had seen from her, In The Cut. Although many can argue otherwise, In The Cut is a poor film. The Power Of The Dog, on the other hand, is quite superb. As is this film. And, yes, I can already hear many film fans rolling their eyes at me and saying “duh”.

Based on the autobiographies of Janet Frame, a talented writer from New Zealand who was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age, An Angel At My Table is a dramatic retelling and celebration of a quite extraordinary life. Frame is played by three different actresses showing her at different ages - Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson, and Kerry Fox - and one of the best things about the film is a sense of consistency throughout. All three actresses feel as if they are showing us moments in the life of the same person. That may sound easy, obvious even, but the narrative flows so well in between major life events that I didn’t always notice when the central performer had changed. 

With such apparently rich source material to work from (and it is material I have now added to my reading list), writer Laura Jones allows viewers to watch someone unique go through a life that often comes perilously close to sniffing out their talent. Whether she is being blissfully ignorant of just how much danger she is in or whether she is shown to have learned enough about her own life to start righting some major wrongs, Frame is a fascinating character who wins people over without ever changing her slightly peculiar ways. Indeed, it’s the fact that she arguably cannot change a lot of what makes her what she is that adds to the fascination about her.

Campion directs with a delicate touch, taking great care to show pain and troubles defining a life without turning the whole thing into a bleak wallow in complete misery. Frame may often deserve better treatment from those around her, but her optimism and unique view on the world allows everything to be framed (no pun intended) in a different, more heartening, way than viewers might expect.

Although everyone is very good here, whether they are playing Frame or one of the many people she encounters on her road to becoming an acclaimed writer, the shining star is Fox, delivering the kind of performance that would stand out from anyone’s filmography like a grand monolith. Everyone gets to deliver some pitch-perfect work, with Campion and Jones maintaining a wonderful balance of tone throughout, but Fox benefits from having the most screentime, and arguably going through the biggest changes.

I know that I am once again way behind the curve on this, telling people something that they already know, but An Angel At My Table is a beautiful (or maybe ugly beautiful is the best descriptor, considering the visual style) testament to a talented woman who absolutely warrants the admiration shown to her. 

9/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Netflix And Chill: The Power Of The Dog (2021)

I often think that I dislike the films of director Jane Campion, but that's not true. I really disliked In The Cut, and I have yet to watch The Piano (despite owning it for a number of years), but I always forget that I saw, and really liked, The Portrait Of A Lady. Campion has, according to many, been creating superb art for a number of years now and it is up to me to see more of her filmography.

The year is 1925. The place is a ranch in Montana. Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a difficult and unfriendly owner of the ranch, alongside his much more pleasant brother, George (Jesse Plemons). When George marries Rose (Kirsten Dunst), bringing both her and her son (Peter, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) to live at the ranch, things take a major turn for the worse. Phil becomes more and more nasty to those around him, Rose starts to assuage her pain with alcohol, and Peter looks like he may not do well in an environment full of men quick to point and laugh at his perceived weak character. But things take an unexpected turn, which means some characters may be saved from their impending fates.

Based on a novel by Thomas Savage, this is a film that you would think of as, well, typical Oscar fare (which was proven by the love it received in the shape of Oscar nominations). It moves at quite a slow pace, it's beautifully crafted, and the central performances are uniformly superb. There's also a dark and intriguing third act that will make some viewers have to think back to details that were interspersed throughout the rest of the movie. I would, for some reason, see this pairing up nicely with Phantom Thread, and I hope others who see both movies can see why I would make a connection between the two.

Campion puts everything in place, from character details to important, but small, plot details, and trusts viewers to put things together as things play out. It's subtle throughout, in many ways, but also not subtle if you know what Campion is trying to make you notice. Even the start of the potential friendship between Phil and Peter, as the unpleasant man starts to make an effort to bond with a boy he realises maybe shouldn't be faulted for the choices made by his mother, feels entirely plausible, despite seeming highly unlikely during the earlier scenes.

Nobody in the cast disappoints, and Cumberbatch deserves extra praise for not fully mangling the accent that his character has. He also seems to enjoy playing someone who initially seems irredeemably bad. Plemons is a much calmer presence, but also ends up not getting as much screentime. Dunst has to act out some angst and emotional histrionics, but she feels right for her role. Then there's Smit-McPhee, playing the character who arguably goes through the biggest change in the movie. Smit-McPhee is excellent, and he's entrusted with carrying viewers through from start to finish, clarifying the main theme of the film, a thought-provoking and complex conundrum that will leave you weighing up your own moral stance on things long after the credits have rolled.

It feels like too long since I sat down to enjoy some full-on "worthy"drama, the kind of films I do normally try to check out in the run up to the Oscars. I'm glad I set aside some time for this one. I may have inadvertently started with one of the best from 2021.

9/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Mubi Monday: In The Cut (2003)

I remember being hugely disappointed when I first saw In The Cut, a film which was the first (and, sadly, still the only) I saw from Jane Campion. It was promoted as an adult erotic thriller. It was Meg Ryan moving away from her lovely, cute, roles. It seemed to be something that I would enjoy. The end result left me resenting a number of the people involved.

Here we are, almost two decades later, and this is the first time I have rewatched the movie since that initial disappointment. I don't know why I hoped that my response to it nowadays might be very different, all of the problems that I saw in it back in 2003/2004 (whenever it hit the home rental market) are still very much there).

Ryan is Frannie Avery, a woman who teaches writing. She is also working on her own project, which is why she meets up with student Cornelius Webb (Sharrieff Pugh) at a bar called The Red Turtle. And in that bar she ends up in a back room where she sees someone receiving oral sex. Although not seeing the face of the man, she spies a tattoo, which may be of some importance when the woman involved in the sex act turns up dead. Detective Giovanni A. Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) is investigating the murder, which brings him into contact with Frannie. The two have some chemistry together, and start having sex. But Detective Malloy also has a tattoo that looks identical to that which may belong to a killer.

Adapted by Susanna Moore and Campion, from the novel by Moore, In The Cut is a trashy erotic thriller that can't ever be comfortable as nothing more than a trashy erotic thriller. The sexual politics are interesting, to say the least, and a woman being in the director's chair doesn't make it any less strangely old-fashioned when it comes to dealing with what could have been an interesting look at what women can enjoy in their sex life while rejecting a number of those elements in any other context (the power shift, something dangerous, an abandonment of intelligence). Campion, and Moore, don't give more than a cursory nod to this complex subject, although there's a recurring narrative strand that shows Ryan's character exploring some of her thoughts with all the sense of a fumbling adolescent.

The weak screenplay and disappointing direction (meandering, unfocused, camerawork that is also trying to distract viewers from the kind of film Campion and Moore seem to want to deny making) would be less obvious is covered up by a decent cast, but In The Cut has a number of people giving far from their best performances. The worst of these, arguably, is Ryan, who just cannot convince in a role that sets her up as someone trying far too hard to shake off an image she crafted through years of successful rom-com work. Ruffalo may not be AS bad, but he seems to be bored throughout, perhaps knowing that the technical aspects won't mask the deficiencies in the material. Nick Damici is Ruffalo's partner, and he seems equally bored. Jennifer Jason Leigh is as good as ever, playing Pauline, a much more interesting character, Frannie's half-sister who seems less repressed, but also more troubled. Pugh is very good, and sorely underused, and Kevin Bacon appears just long enough to, well, I'm still not sure of the reason for his character being added to the plot (apart from, I guess, he was in the novel).

In The Cut is, essentially, an erotic thriller for people who just cannot sit comfortably with the idea of watching an erotic thriller. And it's made by people, both behind and in front of the camera, who all feel the same way. You may watch it and somehow appreciate it as a work of art. If so, feel free to call me an ignorant heathen. It wouldn't be the first time. Others should just go and watch Basic Instinct or  Poison Ivy again instead.

3/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews