Film Review: Gravity

Words: Charles Hay

To get straight to the point: this film ought to change Science Fiction in cinema and television. It left me breathless. It left me in awe, and in deep thought. It gave me a sense of physicality and reality regarding space and the operations there that no film has ever given me. It gave me a buzz about the possibilities of storytelling in the future.

The conceit is relatively simple. An astronaut has a truly, utterly dreadful few hours. The Russians blat one of their own satellites, causing a cloud of disastrously speedy shrapnel to career towards said astronaut's shuttle. This could have led to a regular disaster-flick, albeit a particularly interesting one, but for a few important points.

The visuals of this film are utterly breathtaking. Space has genuinely never been presented with such aplomb as this. The Earth is almost overwhelming in its enormity, solidity and beauty. The stars and the black veil of space are an endless vertiginous infinity, as anxiety inducing as the inexorable Earth. The space-stations, orbiters, capsules etc are real. There is no other way to describe them. They are there. In space. At no point do you question this. All this is lent even greater depth (deep deep deep oh god my stomach) with revelatory 3D treatment. No film has so far used 3D as effectively as this. Some of you are grimacing slightly. Don't. This is the proof of concept that will blow the endless gulch of CG blockbusters into obsolescence.

The soundscape of this film, too, is exceptional. The musical score keeps nerves jangling whilst the authenticity of the muffled sounds almost felt through space suits or the roaring of formless freefall fires gave me goosebumps. Interestingly, I definitely felt that the lack of sound in space added to, rather than detracted from the tension and adrenaline when the proverbial hit the extractor, and makes the gradual inclusion during one particlarly mind-melting sequence all the more effective.

This film could be summed up, accurately, if reductively, as 'humans battling physics'. This leads me to my next point. The action in this film is almost entirely based around the struggle to be human in a weightless, airless environment, and simply would not have worked so well if it wasn't for the utterly exhaustive attitude the film-makers have taken to detail. Many action films focus around the hero shrugging off reality and awesome-ing their way to justice. Gravity focuses on the hero entirely understanding reality and using guile and tenacity to survive it. I cannot quite fully express how refreshing this is. The environment is solid and unyielding, impervious to deus ex machina. Physics (odd to have to mention this, but given the track record of film, it seems necessary) is consistent throughout. Take note, uh, everyone.

Finally, I will say something very seldom said of films like Gravity. The characterisation here is wonderful. Sandra Bullock portrays humanity here with more subtlety, grace and panache than so many tumultuous dramas or navel gazing indie character sessions. There is earnestness and universality to this performance which should inform not just Science Fiction, not just Action or Thriller films, but all films. This is how you make people connect, right here. Not overwrought arguments or Shakespearean soliloquising. Not Ancient Greek vengeance fantasy or world changing righteousness. You do it through honest appraisal of humanity under pressure. You do it by acknowledging characters not as a chess piece moving through peril, but as an entire chess board, playing against itself, endlessly battling its own configurations.

Gravity deserves acclaim as a triumph of vision and creation. It is a tantalising glimpse of what could be produced through hi-tech storytelling once Hollywood finally calms down from its multibillion dollar onanising OTT CG mission.

Put simply: Gravity is a classic.

Oxford Road Rating: ★★★★★

Film Review: Alan Partridge - Alpha Papa

Words: Graeme Roberts

A-ha!  Crash, bang, wallop - what a movie!  Norwich-based radio broadcaster Alan Partridge is the latest British comedy character to attempt the leap from the small screen to the silver screen, and he pulls it off in some style. Jurassic Park!

Packed full of hilarious lines (“Which is the worst monger - iron, fish, rumour or war?”), cringe-worthy moments of social awkwardness and the occasional piece of well-judged slapstick humour, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa is the funniest British comedy since Borat.  Back of the net!

Unlike many contemporary films, the trailer for Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa does not cram all the best bits in and leave nothing for the cinema.  This is mainly because the jokes in the film are free-flowing and consistently very, very funny.

The trailer for Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Indeed, as Alan himself might say, I found myself laughing approximately once every 45 seconds during the film, which is a cracking ratio by any standards.  If you want a reliable method of gauging for the effectiveness of comedy, laughs-per-minute is a ruddy good barometer.

The plot is straight-forward yet sufficiently flexible to yield enough interest and laughs to last the full 90 minutes.  A trendy company called Shape takes over North Norfolk Digital and aims revamp the radio station’s image, meaning either Alan or Irish dullard Pat Farrell will lose his job.  After some indulgent brown-nosing, Alan escapes the axe and continues his Mid-Morning Matters show with sidekick Simon.  However, Pat does not take the news of his sacking too well.  That’s something of an understatement, as Pat arms himself with a shotgun, gate-crashes the re-launch party and takes several of the station’s staff hostage.  Pat then selects his presumed ally Alan to act as mediator between himself and the police camped outside the building.

Naturally, Alan is as hopeless a negotiator as he is a DJ, with his vanity and lack of self-awareness leading to a series of rib-tickling gaffes.  Therein lies the brilliance of the Partridge character: pompous and relentlessly selfish, Alan continues to try to curry favour with his bosses even during the most sensitive of gun-point situations.  Ultimately, Partridge is a sad, middle-aged man whose ego comes first, with everything else trailing in its disastrous wake.  Yet he is likeable, because his quips are oddly witty and his flaws are eerily recognisable - there is something of the Partridge in all of us.

A clip from the TV series. Alan tries to get the attention of his new friend Dan.

A couple of characters from the TV series transfer successfully, with Alan’s long-suffering assistant Lynn and kooky Geordie friend Michael both providing some majestic moments, but ultimately Alan is the greatest source of laughs.  Steve Coogan’s comic creation pre-dates, has outlived and is altogether more accomplished than his closest copy, David Brent in The Office (Michael Scott in the US version). 

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa is an outstanding example of wonderfully-written, expertly-performed comedy and must surely cement the status of Alan Partridge as one of the funniest fictional characters of all time.   

Oxford Road rating: ★★★★★ 

Find the film on IMDB: Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Film Review: The Cabin in the Woods

Words: Graeme Roberts

When you first spy the promotional poster, The Cabin in the Woods looks like a generic remote-location horror movie in the mould of Deliverance and Cabin Fever.  This is intentional, as the movie’s plot relies on the audience making this assumption.  Yet it is apparent from the first scene, which is set in a bunker resembling Dr Evil’s lair from the Austin Powers franchise, that this movie has an extra dimension.

Next we jump to another formulaic set-up, a group of American college students taking a road trip.  All of the clichéd characters are present: the flirtatious hot chick, her equally attractive but chaste female friend, the jock boyfriend, the marijuana-smoking layabout and the token darker-skinned guy.  It is so stereotypical it hurts, but that’s the point.  The Cabin in the Woods is no ordinary horror movie - it seeks to subtly parody the genre while still remaining true to it.

It almost works brilliantly, but is sadly flawed.  It becomes an ineffective self-parody at times, suffering an identity crisis by committing neither to genre adherence nor mockery.   The central premise of the movie, which reveals the purpose of the men in suits in the bunker, is so ambitious it borders on the absurd.  The movie asks a little too much in terms of suspension of disbelief from its viewers.

Cinematic trailer:

Despite these faults, there are many pleasing aspects to the film.  The CGI is sharp and impressive.  The plot is swift and the dialogue punchy.  Yet it’s not a classic and it’s not, as one mainstream review claims, a game-changer. 

If you are prepared to overlook the film’s shortcomings, it is a valiant attempt to challenge generic conventions.  More importantly, The Cabin in the Woods has enough humour and gore to make it an enjoyable way to spend 95 minutes. 

Oxford Road rating: ★★★ 

Find the film on IMDB: The Cabin in the Woods 

Film Review: Elysium

Words: Graeme Roberts

Set in the 22nd Century, Elysium imagines a divided human society in which the poor masses live on a grossly overpopulated, environmentally ruined earth while the wealthy few reside on a luxurious man-made habitat in space.  

South African director Neill Blomkamp won considerable acclaim for his previous sci-fi blockbuster District 9, which explores similar themes of apartheid and social injustice.  In that film, Blomkamp cast extra-terrestrials as the victims of an oppressive regime to provide a haunting, defamiliarising parallel with the historical reality for South Africa’s black population.

Elysium transports us to America and takes the further step of portraying its disenfranchised peoples as racially indistinguishable from their rich counterparts.  There are some key identifiers which allow distinctions to be made - American English and Spanish are the languages of earth, while British English and French are spoken (with unconvincing accents in Jodie Foster’s case) up on Elysium.  Linguistic identity replaces race as a shorthand indicator of economic class. 

This is problematic, as it relegates the issue of race where it ought to be promoted.  Arguably the film’s biggest problem is the protagonist Max (Matt Damon), a white male messiah-figure in a world ravaged largely by the sins of powerful white men.  The narrative is age-old and Blomkamp has shunned the ideal opportunity to offer a collective, more inclusive solution.

The reason for this is perhaps the need to sell a visually stunning movie to Hollywood and the cinema-going public.  Or perhaps Blomkamp is suggesting that issues of inequality can only be solved through the increased social mobility available to white males?

It is curious that the figurehead for Elysium is a white female, Delacourt (Jodie Foster), who comes to overrule a darker-skinned male President Patel.  Yet even Delacourt must harness the inherent potency of a white male in Kruger (Sharlto Copley), her enforcer/bounty hunter on earth.  Kruger’s name and thick South African accent exhibit him as a protector of apartheid, much like his nation’s pre-Mandela regime. 

The cinematic trailer for Elysium

Despite these problems, Elysium is a very slick movie with an uncomplicated plot and it deserves some praise for putting the issues of socio-economic inequality and immigration into the spotlight.  The inability of earth’s population to access proper medical treatment is a timely comment on the Obamacare debate, and it should also be interpreted as a reflection of the situation which befalls Africa and the rest of the developing world.  This is enhanced by the minimal exploration of life on Elysium, which presumably is emotionally vacuous.

As a sci-fi action movie, Elysium is a huge triumph.  The fight and chase sequences are a delight to the senses, the central characters are extremely strong and the film’s length and pace are both perfect.  With Matt Damon in the lead role it feels like Jason Bourne meets The Matrix, and though the concept does not work quite as well as those esteemed franchises, one cannot help but admire Elysium’s cinematic proficiency and whole-hearted ambition.

Oxford Road rating: ★★★★

Find the film on IMDB: Elysium