Film Reviews by Adam Ray Palmer
This month is a Berlinale special. Mid-February I attended the Berlin Film Festival and saw 11 films in four days, and today I’ll share with you three of the best. In addition, I caught up with Christian Bale about his role as Dick Cheney in Vice. Let us begin!
Light of My Life
First up this month is Casey Affleck’s first feature behind the camera. Don’t get me wrong, he is also in front of it, but he thought he’d have a go at writing the movie too and directing it as well. Oh, and producing the dystopian drama also. Basically, it’s the Casey Affleck show! In fairness to him, it’s a very good show. Affleck plays ‘Dad’, a single father who needs to protect his daughter, Rag, from the world. What’s abnormal here is that Rag (Anna Pniowsky) must tell everyone she is a boy, as nearly all the female population has been wiped out by a virus. Now, yes you might say this is very Children of Men, but what Casey does here is focus on the parenting aspect. It’s surprisingly sensitive and this angle on a ‘disaster movie’ is a welcomed dimension. Make sure you catch this later in the year.
Release date: Late 2019
Mid90s
Here’s another movie that has been written and directed by another first-timer, the hilarious Jonah Hill. He brings the world Mid90s, a movie that follows a young boy named Stevie (Sunny Suljic) who searches for a place to belong. He’s having a tough time at home with his abusive brother (Lucas Hedges) and so hangs out with the local skateboarding crew in LA. This film is multi-layered, it’s a thought-provoker and very timely too. Jonah’s debut is a sublime start to his shot-calling career. It’s of course got witty quips throughout, but there’s also a deep and meaningful message behind the narrative too. I look forward to what he crafts next.
Release date: 12th April 2019
Mr Jones
My third and final film this month is Agnieszka Holland’s Mr Jones starring James Norton, Peter Sarsgaard and Vanessa Kirby. Mr Jones follows a Welsh journalist who breaks the news in the western media of the famine in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. This film is very important. It’s a story that, I’ll be honest, I knew very little about. Mr Jones is a difficult watch, especially the latter half of the film – it’s cold and brutal on the eyes. Perhaps it’s more the mental fact at how harrowing the events were, and it plays on your mind. Do not fear that this film is scarring, it’s just appalling to know it was real. With a run time of a cool two hours and a brilliant Norton performance, you really can’t miss this movie.
Release date: 2019
Chat with… Christian Bale
On my last day, I grabbed the former Batman for five minutes, and asked him a few questions.
How difficult was your change of appearance?
Well I obviously had to gain a lot of weight that’s for sure. Once I was offered the role, I did think I couldn’t see myself as Cheney, but Adam (McKay) had a vision and he saw it. Then after the research, it would be early set days at 2am for makeup for four hours.
You’re nominated for the Oscar for your role, how does this make you feel?
It’s great, it’s an important film and feels great to be recognised. Is there such thing as the best actor though? I think of it as a celebration of film.
What is it like acting as a real person as oppose to a fictional character? I imagine it is more difficult because maybe there’s an element of doing the person justice? Like for the audience to believe in it.
It’s true, when you do films like this it can go one of two ways. You either get the ‘impression’ bang on, or you mess it up and its rubbish. You do have to choose your roles because you become obsessed for several months.
And finally, you have worked with the writer/director Adam McKay multiple times now, what’s your working relationship like? Is it different to other directors?
All the directors I have worked with have given me great experiences. I enjoy working with Adam, we know each other and everything on set is always great. It’s long days on shoot, but great. We talked about this role in my back yard, we talked for several hours and then I went away and researched. He had a vision and I was it.
Thanks for reading again this month, people. Also, how did I do with the Oscar predictions? (They still haven’t happened yet at time of writing!)
Adam Ray Palmer
Creative Director of CineroomTwitter: @CineroomTweets
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