Mubi Monday: Phantom Boy (2015)

On the surface, Phantom Boy is a very familiar tale, and maybe the kind of tale that people suffering from superhero-fatigue might choose to avoid at the moment. There's a young boy who finds that he has a special power, allowing him to move quickly, and unseen, around a city that is being threatened by a wannabe-supervillain named The Face. There's more to it than that though, and I would recommend this to people who don't mind trying something a bit different, even if it mixes in many familiar elements.

Leo (Gaspard Gagnol) is the lead character, the titular "phantom boy". Leo has to go into hospital to be treated for cancer, with the one silver lining to that cloud being a new-found ability to astrally project himself around the city. He cannot stay away from his physical body for too long though, otherwise his spirit will begin to disappear. When he ends up sharing some space with a wounded police officer, Alex (Edouard Baer), Leo explains his new super-power, and gives an effective demonstration. This leads to him helping Alex, who is in turn helping an investigative journalist named Mary (Audrey Tautou), who is trying to expose The Face (Jean-Pierre Marielle).

The big attraction here is the lovely animation style. It's clean and detailed, and has a great retro feel, a modern-day adventure with the vibe of something from the 1940s or '50s. From the opening credit sequence to the old-fashioned methodology of the criminal gang, this keeps finding effective ways to round off the corners of what could otherwise have been a more difficult film to enjoy (considering the one-two punch of cancer and child endangerment at the heart of it).

Co-directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, working from a script written by Gagnol, this is a film that manages to feel both refreshing and comfortingly familiar. Take away the fantastical element and you could easily imagine this being a Tintin adventure. The fantastical elements adds so much though, and it's more than whatever is overtly depicted onscreen. Leo has the constant worry revolving around being able to return to his physical body, and he there is an upside and downside to being able to view others who are unaware of his presence (not unlike those who are ill in a hospital bed, but able to hear the concerned conversations of the loved ones sitting around them). The stakes feel high when it comes to the lives of others being affected, but it's certainly not world-ending stuff, and the desperate need for Leo to help out seems to show his need to stay distracted, and to engage in a battle with an enemy that he can see in front of him.

The voice cast all do very well, a great fit for their roles (n.b. I did watch the original version of this, a dubbed version is also available . . . and Vincent D'Onofrio in the role of The Face seems like an excellent choice there), and the script does enough to make their interactions and character development believable, despite the main premise.

I haven't seen the previous feature from Felicioli and Gagnol, the celebrated A Cat In Paris, but I can assure you that it's been bumped up my list of "ones to watch" after finding so much to appreciate in this. Sweet, tense, and constructed with real care and tenderness, this is highly recommended, especially to those who may have dismissed it based purely on the title.

9/10

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Micmacs (2009)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is the French king of quirkiness. Some, like myself, love that quality of his movies. Others absolutely hate it and will never be converted. Micmacs is perhaps his quirkiest movie yet so if you give it a viewing and you're not the biggest fan of Jeunet then don't say that you weren't warned.

Dany Boon stars as Bazil, a man who has suffered through his life thanks to arms dealers. When Bazil was a young boy his father was killed by a landmine. As an adult, he suffers even more directly when he's shot in the head. The bullet doesn't kill him but it does change his entire life. Because an operation might actually put him into a vegetative state, he is left with the bullet lodged in his brain. He's also left with no job and no home, both lost while he recovered in hospital. Thankfully, someone spots Bazil trying to struggle by on the streets and invites him along to meet a bunch of people who live in the depths of a junkyard. This band of eccentrics - including a female controtionist (Julie Ferrer), a woman who can calculate measurements instantly (Marie-Julie Baup) and a man who was once in the book of world records for his feat as a human cannonball (Dominique Pinon) - welcomes Bazil  with open arms. When Bazil is out walking one day and finds himself standing directly in between the buildings of both the company responsible for the landmine that killed his father and the company that made the bullet now lodged in his head he decides that he wants to get revenge. He thinks that he will somehow manage on his own but his new friends soon correct him and insist on helping out. They then set out to show that revenge isn't always a dish best served cold. It's sometimes very enjoyable when it's served with imagination, a selection of unique skills anda dollop of humour.

It's quirky, it's almost constantly upbeat and it's full of larger than life characters, which means one thing. If you hate Amelie then you'll probably hate this, too. I love Amelie and I've loved pretty much everything that I've seen from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (okay, I didn't LOVE Alien: Resurrection but I did enjoy it more than most people). Micmacs doesn't change my opinion of him one bit, it's another warm (in terms of content and visual style) and off-kilter story populated by great actors having fun playing great characters.

Dany Boon does very well in the lead role but the movie is very much an ensemble piece with everyone getting their chance to shine. Ferrer, Baup and Pinon are great fun, as are Yolande Moreau and Omar Sy, playing the junkyard-dwelling misfits. Andre Dussollier and Nicolas Marie are also both very good as the warmongers who find themselves being, unwittingly, played off against one another.

If you scrutinise the movie too closely then you will see how flimsy it all is. It's lightweight, most of the delights onscreen are completely unnecessary and the implausibility of it all starts to build up from the first few scenes but it's not a movie that you should scrutinise too closely. It sets out to entertain from start to finish and succeeds.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Micmacs-Blu-ray-Andre-Dussollier/dp/B003FVBN48/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348657514&sr=8-2

Four Flies On Grey Velvet (1971)

Fans of Steve Martin, Woody Allen and Dario Argento all have one thing in common. They seem to spend a lot of their time wondering just when their favourites will return to the top form of their earlier efforts. Steve Martin has occasionally almost made audiences forget about the awful Bringing Down The House (okay, okay, I quite enjoyed that one, so sue me), Woody Allen has received apparently well-deserved praise for Midnight In Paris (which I have queued up and ready to watch at some point in the next few weeks) and Dario Argento has . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . well, let's be honest now, he's not really offered his loyal fans anything promising for quite some time. Or am I forgetting something major? If you could enjoy The Card Player, but not love it, then you're on a par with myself. I think his last excellent movie, from the few recent efforts I have seen, was Sleepless but even that one didn't please all of his fans. Not by a long shot.

Despite what some will tell you, not every earlier Argento movie was/is a bona fide classic. He certainly did his best work before the change of the century but giallo fans who have more than a passing knowledge of the subgenre will be able to provide you with a list of names of directors they feel have created a body of work superior to the Argento selection. That's not to take anything away from the man, it's just that perspective is needed when viewing and reviewing his work. I still love many of his movies and I still feel that his better films - Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebrae, Opera etc - rank up there with the best that the genre has to offer. But that still doesn't mean that there aren't people who can do better.

Four Flies On Grey Velvet is a perfect example of the best of Argento mixed in with a few negatives.

The story, with a screenplay by Argento based on the story that he wrote with Luigi Cozzi and Mario Foglietti,  is twisted and interesting enough - a young man (Roberto, played by Michael Brandon) confronts someone that he believes has been stalking him for a few days, a scuffle ensues and then the "stalker" is accidentally killed. This whole incident has been photographed and the photographer now blackmails Roberto and becomes more and more menacing, also causing some more deaths. Things build to a tense and revelatory finale.

The direction showcases fluid and stylish camerawork that would become, arguably, Argento's main trademark throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s with some amusing camera shots from such strange positions as the inside of a guitar, etc. There are also some enjoyable set-pieces, though nothing really on a par with his best work (with the exception of the very last moments of the film).

The acting is okay. Brandon does what is required, as do the likes of Mimsy Farmer, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Bud Spencer and the other cast members. But okay isn't good enough when the movie is full of too many moments that highlight the weaknesses in between the strengths. The script isn't all that great and a bit of editing could have really helped this whole film become a much more enjoyable, more streamlined thriller/horror. Just when you think things are getting better something comes along to undermine the tension, be it poor character choices or just banal dialogue exchanges.

I recommend this movie, especially to fans of Argento (of course), but it's not the best example of a movie of this type. It's not even in the top 5 Argento movies of this type, in my opinion. Nonetheless, this is a good film with an abundance of style and ingenuity. And some musical input from Ennio Morricone.

7/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Flies-Velvet-Uncut-remastered/dp/B005PM6M50/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1332972873&sr=1-2