For It Is Man's Number: gwilym lee

Showing posts with label gwilym lee. Show all posts

Thursday, 29 August 2024

Oddity (2024)

Writer-director Damian Mc Carthy made a very impressive impact on horror fans with his first feature, Caveat, and now, there's no reason for me to keep my cards close to my chest here, he is two for two. Oddity is arguably a slight improvement, although it's a very close call, and I will be very happy indeed if Mc Carthy continues to make movies of this quality, and with this level of creepiness.

Things begin with a tense sequence that ends in murder, the victim being Dani (Carolyn Bracken), the wife of a psychiatrist named Ted (Gwilym Lee). The main suspect appears to be a former patient of Ted, but there may be more to it. Anyway, we then jump forward to find Ted in a new relationship (with Yana, played by Caroline Menton) and apparently trying to maintain a cordial relationship with Dani's twin sister, Darcy (Caroline Bracken again). Darcy is blind, but also claims to be clairvoyant and able to glean knowledge from objects that have an interesting history to them. Darcy still seeks closure on what happened to her sister, disbelieving the official explanation, and she eventually turns up to visit Ted and Yana at the house where the murder happened. She's not alone though, having previously sent a strange wooden mannequin to the address ahead of her arrival. Will that humanoid structure help her in any way, or is it just designed to unnerve her hosts as she tries to get at the truth of what happened to her sister?

A fantastic mix of spookiness and intermittent jump scares (and there's nothing wrong with a jump scare if it is a well-executed jump scare), Oddity may put some viewers off with the way in which everything seems slightly off-kilter and precisely staged, but that all adds to the unease as the plot starts to wind together on the way to a satisfying and beautifully dark finale. Colm Hogan deserves praise for cinematography that keeps things dark and unsettling without ever being impenetrably gloomy, and the score by Richard G. Mitchell is another element that works to keep viewers on edge. Mc Carthy has made something that could have easily been focused more on the mystery than the horror of the situation, but he uses every tool at his disposal to ensure that this is a claustrophobic and disturbing nightmare scenario that closes in on viewers right up until the very last scene.

Bracken is excellent in her main role (she's also very good as the ill-fated Dani, but it's Darcy who has much more screentime, for obvious reasons), and the other highlight is Tadhg Murphy, used to such great effect in the opening sequence. Menton also does well, and is the one person who seems able to see how strange and crazy the whole situation is, but she's disappointingly moved out of the way during some key sequences. As for Lee and Steve Wall (playing a colleague named Ivan), there's a rigidity and artifice there that works better for the atmosphere of the film than it does for the performers. Those performances are based on the idea of maintaining a polite smile on your face while mentally calculating the quickest way to get rid of someone who is proving to be a constant bother.

Absolutely in line with Caveat, in terms of atmosphere and visual style, this essentially plays out like a few "Tales Of The Unexpected" bolted together and smoothly shaped into one feature, and that's not meant as any kind of criticism. I loved it, and I hope many others love it, but I can see why some may find it too low-key and uneven in tone (considering those mannered performances, and the fact that there's very dark humour running under some of the bleakest scenes).

8/10

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Friday, 27 September 2019

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Okay, I cannot really formulate my thoughts on this film in a way that makes sense, but I'm going to try my best to explain myself. A lot of Bohemian Rhapsody is quite rubbish. It is laughable that the film won an Academy Award for best editing, especially when you can highlight some key sequences that wouldn't look out of place in a Paul W. S. Anderson movie. It is a "greatest hits" version of the history of Queen, and the life of charismatic frontman Freddie Mercury. It's a family-friendly rock opera, in a way, with the mix of humour, tragedy, and elation you can expect from such a thing. And yet . . . that doesn't stop it from being a bloody good time. The highlights are absolutely goosebump-inducing, and easily impressive enough to make up for the weaker aspects.

Rami Malek is Freddie, in a performance absolutely deserving of all the praise heaped upon him, as well as his win at the 2019 Oscars. He becomes the lynchpin of Queen, with the talent of Brian May (Gwilym Lee), Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy), and John Deacon (Joe Mazzello). He also develops a life-long relationship with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), constantly astounds the band manager (Aidan Gillen) with his vision, and his ability to make that vision into a fan-pleasing reality, and enjoys gently mocking the lawyer that they have in their corner, Jim 'Miami' Beach (Tom Hollander). And, as the start of the film makes abundantly clear (as does the advertising imagery and any trailers you may have seen), it all leads to a legendary live performance at Live Aid in 1985.

Directed by Bryan Singer (but with the whole thing finished in the last few weeks by Dexter Fletcher after Singer had gone AWOL for a while), Bohemian Rhapsody is almost exactly what you want it to be. As long as you want it to be a fun time in the company of Queen. The screenplay, written by Anthony McCarten, is more concerned with keeping viewers entertained and in high spirits than it is with providing a story that feels grounded in the truth. Even the moments that really happened just feel so unreal, so apocryphal, that it never allows the film to feel like anything more than a rocking fairytale.

It's a good job that Malek is uncannily good in the main role, and that you have Gillen and Hollander to look out for, because none of the other main cast members do anything worthwhile. Well, none of the cast members portraying members of Queen anyway. Lee, Hardy, and Mazzello are poorly treated in a storyline that serves as nothing more than a testament to someone they obviously loved. The sad thing is that you get the feeling that everyone deserved something a bit better, even if that meant showing more of the low points and exploring just what would drive the band, individually and together. Boynton is the other person who actually manages to make an impact, thanks to both her performance and the fact that she is the only character in the film given any hint of depth.

Please believe me when I say that I am not being snobbish (and people who know the wide variety of films I watch will know I am no film snob) by saying that this is quite rubbish, and quite rubbish in oh so many ways. Yet, despite the myriad flaws, it's easy to see why it's a crowd-pleaser. You get all of those familiar Queen songs, you get a number of great moments, and you get a finale that is up there with the best I can think of, in terms of making you want to stamp your feet, throw your fist in the air, and vicariously join in with one of the greatest live performances of all time.

6/10