Friday film reviews

This week features the rousing true story of ‘Pride’, stop-motion animated fantasy ‘The Box Trolls’ and Phillip Seymour Hoffman delivers one of his final performances in the thriller ‘A Most Wanted Man’.

Friday film reviews

Pride

Theatre director Matthew Warchus, who succeeds Kevin Spacey as artistic director of the Old Vic in London next year, will need to de-clutter his awards-laden mantelpiece.

His second feature film is a barnstorming culture-clash comedy drama based on the inspirational true story of a group of gays and lesbians, who supported the miners during the 1984 strike and raised thousands of pounds for beleaguered communities, which dared to stand up to the Thatcher government.

This uplifting story of solidarity in the face of adversity and police intimidation is an absolute joy; an unabashed, irresistible crowd-pleaser in the magnificent mould of The Full Monty and Billy Elliot that rouses the audience to bellowing laughter while choking back a deluge of hot, salty tears.

Pride embraces and subverts stereotypes, deftly weaving together stories of personal triumph and anguish as the spectre of Aids casts a long shadow over the gay community.

Pride is a life-affirming ode to tolerance, acceptance and self-belief that defiantly lives up to its title, waving a flag for stellar home-grown filmmaking.

Performances are exemplary, ignoring a few wobbles with the Welsh accents, including a fiery turn from Ben Schnetzer as a fresh-faced trailblazer and sobs aplenty from George Mackay as the catering student, who cannot conceal his sexuality forever.

Scriptwriter Stephen Beresford strikes a perfect balance between hilarity and heartbreak, sharing polished one-liners among the ensemble cast including Menna Trussler as a clucky old dear, who labours under the illusion that all lesbians are vegetarians.

Warchus’ film builds to a rousing crescendo that delivers a knock-out emotional wallop and opens the floodgates.

As Frankie Goes To Hollywood professed during that turbulent summer of 1984: “When two tribes go to war, a point is all you can score.”

The characters in Pride score their points with unbridled passion and wit.

Star Rating:

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 100%

The Boxtrolls

Based on the novel ‘Here Be Monsters!’ by Alan Snow, The Boxtrolls is a rollicking stop-motion animated romp from the makers of Coraline and ParaNorman that proves weird can be truly wonderful.

With faint echoes of Raymond Briggs’ Fungus The Bogeyman, Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi’s quirky fantasy imagines a race of subterranean creatures, who root through bins in search of spare parts for their mechanical creations.

Despite a hearty appetite for slimy bugs, these pungent, green-skinned denizens of the underworld are cute rather than scary, possessing relatable human traits such as a passion for music or a quivering fear of the unknown.

They spare troll blushes by wearing empty cardboard boxes and the former contents of these mouldering cartons provide each expressive character with a name such as Fish, Knickers, Sweets, Clocks and Fragile (ho ho!).

The meticulous detail of the moveable figures and miniature sets is impressive, and co-directors Annable and Stacchi corral a vast team of animators, who produce thrilling chases and quieter moments of ribald humour.

The Boxtrolls is a delight for the young and young at heart, hinging on the notion that families come in all shapes and sizes.

Irena Brignull and Adam Pava’s script is laden with verbal and visual gags, striking a gently mischievous tone throughout like when Winnie spots Eggs tugging at the crotch of his uncomfortable suit and whispers, “Don’t snatch them in public. That’s why they are called privates!”

Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade and Tracy Morgan provide the majority of the comic relief between action-packed set-pieces.

Remain seated during the end credits for a hilarious scene of existential angst, which succinctly reminds us how pain-staking and time-consuming the stop-motion animation process is.

Star Rating:

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 55%

A Most Wanted Man

Great actors don’t just play a role, they become the role, vanishing beneath the skin of a character so every word and gesture appears organic.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was one such rare talent.

On stage and screen, his emotional range and versatility were breathtaking including a bravura embodiment of Truman Capote that won him the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award.

Each physically and emotionally demanding role fitted him like a glove.

A Most Wanted Man is distinguished by Hoffman’s final performance in a leading role and it’s a typically understated yet riveting portrayal of a German intelligence agent, who lives on his nerves and occasional swigs of whisky or puffs of a cigarette.

Based on the 2008 novel of the same name by John Le Carre, Anton Corbijn’s slow-burning espionage thriller steadily cranks up the tension, building to a nerve-jangling finale that has us holding our breath.

Like the 2011 film adaptation of Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Most Wanted Man delights in the minutiae of the spy game. Expertly choreographed scenes of surveillance are punctuated by verbal fireworks and threats of violence.

Corbijn refuses to be rushed – even when he is orchestrating a chase by train and car, which is as close as the film comes to a conventional action sequence.

Hoffman’s nuanced, world-weary performance is complemented by a uniformly excellent international cast.

It’s a splendid swansong.

Star Rating: 4/5

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 90%

In selected cinemas…

The Wizard of Oz: An IMAZ 3D Experience

Judy Garland dons her iconic ruby slippers to magical effect in this definitive 1939 MGM musical based on the novel by L Frank Baum, which won two Oscars but lost the Best Picture statuette to Gone With The Wind.

She plays Dorothy, swept off to the land of Oz from her beloved Kansas, where she must seek the help of the wizard to return home with her trusty canine sidekick Toto.

The luminous leading lady sings Somewhere Over The Rainbow before her magical pals – The Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), The Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) and The Tin Man (Jack Haley) – follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City and their destiny.

This IMAX 3D version showcases Victor Fleming’s film on the largest screens in the country, demonstrating how well this lavish Technicolor fantasy has stood the test of time, unlike many modern blockbusters.

RottenTomatoes.com Rating: 99%

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