Mubi Monday: The Dreamers (2003)

I don’t know how I could have ever forgotten that Bernardo Bertolucci once directed a movie that starred Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, and Eva Green, but I did. Rummaging around in the depths of my own memory banks, I vaguely remember it being released before I was more aware of Bertolucci’s films (aside from his most notorious title), and it was certainly before I would have been won over by the cast. So it came and it went without making any lasting impression on me.

Set in a turbulent Paris of the 1960s, this is the tale of a young American (Matthew, played by Pitt) who ends up befriending a pair of intriguing, but also potentially dangerous, twin siblings (Isabelle and Theo, played by Green and Garrel). They are safe, and largely sheltered, when spending time indoors sharing a love of cinema, indulging in games that lead to erotic forfeits, or engaging in philosophical discussions, but the outside world cannot be avoided forever.

While I have enjoyed, and loved, some of his work, I have never been as big a fan of Bertolucci as some people. Last Tango In Paris is a cold and clumsy movie that remains notorious for one horrible scene, and it was a mistake to start with that major touchstone when I started broadening my cinematic horizons. But for anyone else who feels the same way, I highly recommend checking out The Sheltering Sky and, his masterpiece, The Last Emperor. And this. Yes, this is an erotically-charged look at human connection and development that works far better than the film that many others view as the standout from his filmography.

Adapted from his own novel into screenplay for my Gilbert Adair, there’s a constant feeling of worlds pressing against one another here, be they worlds of flesh and bone or worlds of political and philosophical division. While one character is shown to be an outsider, it could be argued that all three of our leads remains outsiders for the majority of the runtime, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing when viewers are reminded of the environments that they are keeping themselves away from.

The direction from Bertolucci is superb, allowing us to move around, and in between, the three leads as they spend their time playing, fighting, and generally intertwining themselves into one big mix of limbs and genitalia.

As for the performances, everyone is impressively fearless when it comes to delivering the material. I couldn’t pick any one over the other, and am happy to say that this remains a highlight in the film careers of all three main players (which is a particular compliment to both Green and Garrel, who have gone on to display their talents in numerous other projects, while Pitt seems to have been intent on scuppering his own progress throughout the past couple of decades). There are also a couple of scenes that allow Anna Chancellor and Robin Renucci to play the parents of our hedonistic twins, and those moments show a nice understanding between different generations, even with the obvious division still there.

With a selection of great songs on the soundtrack, as well as numerous film references and clips interspersed throughout, there is plenty of sugar coated around the bitterness at the heart of it, and I appreciate both Adair and Bertolucci avoiding the many very dark paths this could have taken. It is called The Dreamers, after all, so a sudden nightmare wouldn’t be out of place, but the real horrors are outside the bubble of irresponsibility that our leads reside in. Even if we know that they will have to fully wake up and leave that bubble one day.

8/10

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Prime Time: Nativity Rocks! (2018)

How? How do we now have four of these bloody things? Especially when they keep getting worse. Well, that's not strictly true. The series seems to have bottomed out with the third instalment, making anything else released both as awful and slapdash as anyone still watching deserves. Which includes me, masochist that I am.

After his small part in the previous movie, Simon Lipkin gets to move front and centre here. He is the new Mr. Poppy, Jerry, cousin of the old Mr. Poppy (yes, Marc Wootton finally decided to move on from the series). Turning up at a school, Jerry is allowed to just immediately get himself involved with the Christmas musical that is being planned, a rock opera. Because schools are absolutely able to do that, as has been shown in every previous Nativity! movie. The rock opera needs to be done right, and there are a couple of main sub-plots, one involving a small boy who has parents too busy to take much notice of him, and one involving a child refugee separated from his father.

Okay, I will begrudgingly admit that, despite my harsh words opening this review, this fourth Nativity! movie feels ever so slightly better than the third one. If there was someone better in the lead role, it could have been an actual decent movie. But we get Lipkin in the lead role, a man who decides to perform his role as a cross between Wootton and Jack Black, with the skill of neither.

Writer-director Debbie Isitt seems to have made this her main focus over the past few years (I noticed there is a stage show version now, and I am assuming she will have at least some credit for that). None of these films have been very well-received, critically, but I know that the first two did great business. I can even see the appeal in the first one. And the second, which tries to repeat the main trick while adding in some David Tennant. But I am surprised that enough people saw, and enjoyed, the third to warrant a fourth. Will there be a fifth? Knowing my luck, probably.

I've already complained enough about Lipkin, spending any more time criticising him would feel too much like tripping up a small puppy, but there's a decent supporting cast here to at least partially make up for his central awfulness. Craig Revel Horwood may not be one of the better players, but he has a bit of fun with his role, giving us the main villain this time around. Daniel Boys, Helen George, and Celia Imrie all do well as the main adults caring for the children, Hugh Dennis and Anna Chancellor are good as the parents not paying their child much attention, and Ruth Jones brightens up the second half of the movie with her presence. Brian Bartle (Doru, the refugee) and Rupert Turnbull (Barnaby, the child with "absent" parents) aren't the best in their roles, but they don't do a terrible job, and I've sat through much worse child performances. You also get small roles for Meera Syal and Jessica Hynes, with the latter bursting in near the end with just the right amount of energy and humour to perk things up.

Not the worst, but that's a very low bar set by the previous movie, Nativity Rocks! feels like a return trip to a well that dried out some years ago. I really hope that they don't make another one. But I know I'll end up watching it IF it happens.

3/10

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