Patti Cake$

This review was first published by The Student Pocket Guide

Back in January, a bidding war broke out at the Sundance Film Festival for the distribution rights to a small film with a relatively unknown cast and an unusual story. Fox Searchlight eventually won, and paid $9.5 million for the privilege to distribute Patti Cake$, a story of an overweight white girl from New Jersey whose dream it is to make it as a rapper. It proved to be something of a crowd-pleaser but, ultimately, it relies too heavily on formula to become a real classic.

Directed by Geremy Jasper (who cut his teeth making music videos), Patti Cake$ is strangely engaging in terms of its full-on style, unafraid as it is to perform (explicit) verbal gymnastics as its characters rap-battle their way to respect and money. And money is a big problem for Patricia “Dumbo” Dombrowski (played by Australian Danielle Macdonald), who lives with her dysfunctional mother (Bridget Everett) and ill grandmother (Cathy Moriarty, perhaps best known as Vickie La Motta in Raging Bull). Fending off calls from health providers threatening legal action for unpaid healthcare bills, Patti is sent out by her mother to work hospitality jobs in order to finance her grandmother’s care. Of course, she’d rather be in the studio recording some sick beats with her friend Jheri (Siddharth Dhananjay) and trying to hit the big time as a rapper.

Patti’s story is told with a visual flair which matches the frenetic rhythm of her music. In an early scene, she puts on headphones and literally flies into the air whilst listening to her musical idol O-Z (and a later scene proves that you should never meet your idols). Indeed, there’s something Shakespearian about the rapping, and Danielle Macdonald is to be commended for her performance – restrained and explosive in equal measure. The problem is that the film’s themes, especially set within the disordered context of her home-life, are never allowed to take centre stage. Instead, the underdog narrative spills over into formulaic cliché and lessens any really interesting social commentary on growing up with little money or prospects in North East America. 

Despite the great performance from Macdonald and the likeability of her character, Patti’s choices seem a little outmoded, as if written into the screenplay to further push the film towards crowd-pleasing territory, rather than for any sense of realism. For instance, Patti produces a mix tape on CD (I mean, when was the last time you burnt a CD?!) with her newly formed group which features her wheelchair-bound grandmother on vocals. A touch of comedy, perhaps, but it jars slightly.

That said, you can’t fault the enthusiasm or energy with which the film approaches its musical sequences, whether an impromptu rap battle in a car park or an organised talent competition complete with pulsing lights and roaring crowds. It is in these moments that Patti Cake$ is perhaps at its strongest, and you can’t help but feel a little uplifted by the whole white female rap star thing, especially as Patti attempts to lose the cruel nickname she was given in high school in favour of her stage name “Killa P”. Some have drawn analogies with the 2009 Gabourey Sidibe film Precious (indeed, it even features in a rapper’s lyrics directed at the overweight Patti), but the two are polls apart. Whereas Precious is a hard-hitting and sometimes brutal drama, Patti Cake$ is a much lighter affair and not a very useful comparison.

Patti’s narrative trajectory is a fairly obvious one but – and I will always maintain this – just because you know where a plot is headed, doesn’t necessarily mean that your enjoyment will be lessened. This is true in the case of Patti Cake$, and seeing Patti chasing a dream is as rewarding as finding out that Waitrose have just half-priced everything in the bakery section. The core of the story, however, needs to remain believable and, as Patti barges her way into a self-styled anarchist’s woodland recording studio with her grandmother asleep in her wheelchair outside, it just doesn’t ring true. As anarchists go, however, Mamoudou Athie’s is really rather mainstream, and on revealing to Patti that he is the anti-Christ, an unfazed Patti responds with the great line “cool, I think I’m Episcopalian”. 

There’s an emotional core to Patti Cake$ which overrides some of the less believable elements of the plot, and the narrative of Patti escaping her dead-end jobs and wanting to make something of herself does make the heart warm. The music fizzes with energy and Danielle Macdonald, in particular, is a great screen presence. In the end though, we’ve seen much of it before and, much like the lyrical hooks in Patti’s raps, the immediate effect soon wears off as you leave the cinema.

Clapperboard Rating: * * * 

Atomic Blonde

If you look up Atomic Blonde on IMDb, the top trivia fact is that Charlize Theron cracked two teeth whilst playing the role of MI6 field agent Lorraine Broughton. It’s a wonder she didn’t crack her skull during filming, as Atomic Blonde is a visceral and confident neo-noir, with bone-crunching fight sequences and an equally-arresting visual flair. Yet, despite the pumped-up action and neon aesthetic, it is a film which lacks a narrative of comparable quality or energy.

Fresh from her success in Mad Max: Fury Road, Charlize Theron is back in the thick of the action, following a spy trail in 1989 Berlin, shortly before the fall of the Wall. Despatched by MI6 to uncover a double agent and recover the List – a microfilm containing the names of active Soviet field agents – Agent Broughton soon discovers that there are plenty of people in East Berlin who want to see her dead. 

As location names are displayed as if spray painted onto the screen during the opening sequences, and a 1980s synth-pop soundtrack blares out, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Atomic Blonde is going to be a pulpy and slightly off-the-wall thriller. Whilst it’s true that these early scenes have a definite zany edge to them, dominated by a soft-purple colour palate as Theron emerges battered and bruised from an ice bath, this bold tone soon gives way to more conventional action film tropes. 

James McAvoy plays an eccentric MI6 station chief and is, at first, Broughton’s main contact in Berlin. Like the rest of the cast (which includes Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan and John Goodman in supporting roles) McAvoy’s is a competent and watchable performance, and sits well with the film’s slightly grungy style. It is Theron, however, who really shines, and is as magnetic an actress as they come. In a variety of striking outfits and bleach-blonde hairstyles, Theron struts around Berlin with a sense of purpose and into colourfully-lit bars and clubs with magnetism. 

Even when she is covered in blood and clutching a cigarette in bruised hands, Theron shimmers with both beauty and menace. By all accounts, she did many of her own stunts – no small task given the film’s approach to the fight sequences. There’s no denying the high level of violence in the film or the skill with which the action sequences are filmed. 

This is down to the director, David Leitch, who is a former stunt co-ordinator and second unit director, and his effective sense of pacing and fight choreography is evident in an brilliant one-shot fight sequence in a stairwell. Although, in reality, composed of 40 separate shots stitched together, it is no less gripping or affecting as Theron shoots, stabs and punches her way out of danger. Indeed, the sequence is made all the more effective by Leitch allowing the actors moments to catch their breath in amongst the chaos and violence, their characters gasping for air as well as survival. 

Whilst the spy world is invariably dominated by men, Atomic Blonde is very much driven by the women. Aside from Theron’s detachment and commitment to her violent necessities (literally anything becomes a weapon in her hands), Sofia Boutella plays a French agent, with whom Broughton gets in touch, quite literally, as an explicit sex scene between the pair seemingly comes from nowhere. Little does Toby Jones’ MI6 officer know when he asks Broughton if she made contact with the French agent. Like Theron, Boutella is dressed to kill, as they say, and the sense of female agency here – where the guys don’t get a look-in – is refreshing.

All this sensuality, style and violence can only take you so far, however, as the plotting of the film is pretty poor. It’s a real shame that the tension in the fight scenes isn’t mirrored by the narrative, which meanders all over the place, proving to be difficult to follow and, at times, rather lacklustre. There’s no sense that these grand spy games actually matter, little emotional engagement with the characters, and a general feeling that, to quote an over-used phrase, it’s a case of style over substance. 

As spy films go, Atomic Blonde is a cut-above in terms of its action and its leading performance. Charlize Theron is beguiling and fierce in equal measure, and the whole look of the film is something to be enjoyed. The lack of tension in the narrative is, unfortunately, a fatal mistake which renders proceedings rather unconvincing. Theron may have gone through pain during the making of this film, but one can’t help asking: after the neon colours fade from the screen and your mind, was it really worth it?

Clapperboard Rating: * * *

Dunkirk

The first thing that hits you about Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan’s latest and, perhaps, greatest film – is just how startling it looks. A result of Nolan’s decision to film with IMAX 70mm and Super Panavision cameras for the highest possible image quality and scale, the aesthetic detail and tone is breath-taking and overwhelming. But this is only one element in a film which, on every level, is a tour de force of cinema, swooping from the expansive beaches of Northern France to the claustrophobic intensity of a Spitfire cockpit in a heartbeat and with an unsettling force which only really hits you when the credits role.

Dunkirk is, of course, based on the real events of 1940 which saw over 338,000 Allied soldiers being rescued from Dunkirk as the Germans encircled them. It was something of a miracle evacuation in which civilian boats, as well as Royal Navy vessels, made the journey across the English Channel to bring soldiers back to Britain to regroup. Nolan has never made an historical movie before, and has managed to create a film which is both immersive and realistic, but retains the directorial hallmarks for which he has become famous.

The most recognisable of these is Nolan’s fascination with how time can affect storytelling, and his scripts have always placed great emphasis on temporal and chronological gymnastics. Dunkirk is no different, recounting the evacuation from those on land, at sea, and in the air, with each story taking place over three time-scales: one week, one day and one hour respectively. Such time weaving may sound confusing but, in actual fact, the effect is rather brilliant, offering a compelling account of one of WWII’s most famous events.

A vivid and very loud sound design couples with the narrative to submerge the audience into the chaos and threat, as bullets strafe vulnerable men on the beaches and slam through the side of boats turning them into little more than tin coffins. Such bold sound effects are enhanced by the relative lack of dialogue in the film, which serves to make the lines which are spoken resonate that little bit more and reinforce the scale of the action which dwarfs any one single man. Hans Zimmer scores the film with his unmistakable style, building tension with a clinical clock tick and an unrelenting crescendo to something which is less a musical score and more an elemental experience.

In the beginning of the film, the camera lurks over the lines of British troops (who are indulging in the national stereotype of queueing) waiting for boats on the sands of Dunkirk, like thin lines of dark paint trembling across a leaden canvas. What is disturbing is just how young these soldiers are, barely out of their teens and thrust into the most unimaginable of situations by world events.

The cinematography from Hoyte Van Hoytema is simultaneously beautiful and terrifying, and captures the beaches of Dunkirk as if they were a landscape from another planet. For the men trapped so close but yet so far from home, they may as well have been. Organising the naval evacuation is Commander Bolton – played by Kenneth Branagh with both stoic determination and emotional apprehension – and who looks out to sea in search of, as Winston Churchill termed it, deliverance.

Amongst the young, traumatised faces of countless soldiers is that of Fionn Whitehead giving a perfectly-pitched performance as the typical British soldier: indeed, this emblematic character is called Tommy. He is thrown together with another soldier (Aneurin Barnard) and Alex (played by Harry Styles who is remarkably good on-screen) in a land and sea quest to make it back to Britain.
The trio’s efforts lead them across the path of pleasure vessel “Moondance”, captained by Mark Rylance who is on top form, giving a subtle and beautifully sensitive performance, as it makes its way from South West England to the shores of war-torn France. Nolan’s long-term collaborator Cillian Murphy (credited only as “Shivering Soldier”) is also rescued by the boat and the voyage of the small cruiser becomes all the more dramatic.

Underscoring all of these stories is the air campaign, featuring Tom Hardy and Jack Lowden as Spitfire pilots, screeching across the sky in search of enemy bombers and mosquito-like Messerschmitt. It is these scenes in the skies which are some of the most awe-inspiring in the whole film, and Nolan throws the camera around with an ingenuity and power akin to Inception.

For a war film, there is remarkably little focus on the personal backstories of the characters. Instead, they have all come to be defined by the need to survive Dunkirk, each man reduced to a single goal. To be sure, there are heroics and the latter half of the film does edge towards patriotic sentimentalism and rhetoric, but even here Nolan has a sting in his tail. The two final shots are arresting and poetic in equal measure.

Dunkirk is a true example of event cinema – a film which deserves to be seen on as big a screen as possible. The actors are universally brilliant, and have an understated approach to their performances which makes them all the more powerful. In Dunkirk, Nolan has created stark images which will linger both in your mind and in cinema history. It really is that good.

Clapperboard Rating: * * * * *

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge

This review was first published by The Student Pocket Guide

The question on many people’s lips will be: is it time to take the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to the shipbreaker’s yard? For an equal number of people, the film series arrived there a long time ago, and the need for a fifth outing on the high seas might appear to be a purely financial exercise. In reality, Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge is a much better film than its most recent predecessors and returns to the playful tone which characterised the first film.

One of the major problems with the Pirates franchise has always been its convoluted and overly-complicated plots, all of which revolve around someone going out to find something, break a curse, avoid the other guy who’s searching for the same thing, whilst another guy is trying to kill the first guy to get revenge for the…well, you get the idea. In Salazar’s Revenge, directed by Norwegian duo Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, we are reunited with everyone’s favourite slurring pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). 

Sparrow teams up with Henry Turner (the son of Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner, and played by Brenton Thwaites) who is searching for the Trident of Poseidon, the only thing which can break the curse which is trapping his father in the deep seas. Young Henry Turner meets Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), a feisty and intelligent woman of science who offers to help him discover the location of the Trident.

This being a Pirates film, however, things are a little more complicated than that. An enemy from Captain Jack’s past – an undead Spanish Captain called Salazar (played with great exoticism by Javier Bardem) – is seeking revenge, and Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa is also thrown back into the piratey mix for good measure. Broadly speaking, this action sails along at a decent pace, providing a couple of entertaining set pieces, the best of which sees Captain Jack experience the guillotine in the style of a fairground ride. Execution setting aside, this is when the tone of the film is closest to the original: tongue-in-cheek, adventurous and anchored by Depp’s performance. 

Johnny Depp’s Keith Richards impersonation is love it or loathe it, and in Salazar’s Revenge it feels remarkably fresh, mannerism and eye-liner included (and let us not forget that he earnt an Oscar nomination for the original film). Talking of performances, Kaya Scodelario does a good job of being the new Keira Knightley, especially when trying to explain to the pirates that her being a horologist is not what they think it is… Double-entendre is the name of the game for the script and, this being a Disney film, may well raise a few eyebrows. Brenton Thwaites ticks the good-looking but rather inert non-pirate male lead, and Geoffrey Rush growls his way through a character which he clearly enjoys playing.

Javier Bardem’s performance, too, is pitched nicely, and he does a good job of cutting through all the CGI which renders him as the undead Captain Salazar. The effects for the film are well-realised, if a little overblown in the film’s denouement which serves as a warning that throwing a load of money at something (or rather, into the salaries of an army of computer special effects guys) doesn’t necessarily translate into gripping viewing. That said, the overall production design does well to create a Caribbean world full of colonies, treasure islands and seas rippling with zombie sharks and ghostly galleons. 

The cinematography does a nice job with the action sequences and, coupled with the iconic soundtrack, helps to create a world which fans will be pleased to rediscover. Oh and, of course, there’s a cameo which could only exist in a Pirates film. Paul McCartney as Captain Jack’s scouse uncle. Really. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge will do nothing to convert the haters. But for everyone else, it ticks along nicely, has one or two fun action scenes, and returns to the playful tone which characterised the first film. Reading this review back, I’m conscious of the number of times I’ve talked about “this being a Pirates film”. That, I think, is testament to the franchise’s successes as a recognisable brand and its blend of comedy, adventure, history, magic, and absurdity. This ship hasn’t quite sunk. Yet. 

Clapperboard Rating: * * *