007: Road to a Million, on Prime

Brian Cox actually resembles French thesp Michael Lonsdale, who played Hugo Drax (in Moonraker), the only Bond villain who always looked bored with his own villainy. Perhaps fittingly, Cox now sort of plays a Bond villain, but he seems much more amused by his role. This is not a Bond movie, it is a reality TV, in which “The Controller” gives nine pairs of contestants a series of Bond-related challenges that could possibly win them a million Pounds. Of course, Cox is not going to make it easy for them in the eight-episode reality series, 007: Road to a Million, which premieres today on Prime Video.

The music is clearly adapted from the classic Bond theme and Barbara Broccoli is on board as an executive producer, so everything is legit. The cast is also entirely British, but the locations are suitably exotic. Throughout the series, the contestants visit Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio, Venice, Jamaica, the Alps, and the Atacama Desert in Chile. At each stop, they must retrieve a nuclear-football-looking briefcase, through which the Controller will ask them a trivia question, worth escalating sums of money. During the initial rounds, the questions are pretty easier, but they get trickier as the money increases.

Do you remember Bond’s connection to Atacama? That is where the Quantum of Solace villain had his lair. The glaringly obvious lost opportunity in Road to a Million is it never takes the time to establish the connections to the Bond movies and how their stunts inspired each challenge. It might have cost a bit more in licensing, but since Broccoli is on-board, she would just be paying herself, right?

Of course, the Sugarloaf challenge is an homage to Moonraker and maybe so are the Venice excursions. The live crocodiles of another challenge presumably refer to Live and Let Die. However, when you cannot immediately guess the connection, Road to a Million feels more like The Amazing Race than James Bond-related programming.

Nevertheless, Cox is quite amusing as the Controller. In fact, he seems to quite enjoy tormenting the players. Cox is not necessarily their antagonist, but when some contestants struggle with easy questions, he looks like he would call in a drone strike on them, if he could. A lot of viewers would feel that way too.

Van der Oest’s The Bay of Silence

An artistic, jet-setting childhood sounds like fun, but it messed up art-photographer Rosalind Pallisher pretty deeply. Unfortunately, Will Walsh did not realize that until after the birth of their infant son. Tragedy will stretch their marriage to the breaking point in Paula van der Oest’s The Bay of Sillence, which releases on VOD this Friday.

It was a whirlwind romance that culminates in the titular Italian body of water. Both are happy when pregnancy quickly follows, but a freak accident precipitates a premature delivery and a persistent case of postpartum depression. Milton Hunter, her gallerist and former step-father, assures Walsh everything is fine until Pallisher suddenly disappears with their infant son and her twin daughters from a previous relationship.

Sadly, when Walsh finally tracks down Pallisher, he finds their son is dead. She is the obvious suspect, but he also harbors suspicions regarding the missing nanny. He also learns his wife had a history of depression and schizophrenia from her mother, who suddenly reappears back in her life.

Presumably, Lisa St. Aubin de Teran’s source novel derives Du Maurier-esque suspense from the family angst and melodrama, but it just doesn’t translate to the screen here. Screenwriter Caroline Goodall and van der Oest spend a full thirty minutes on exposition and set-up, building towards the death of an infant, which they then keeping rubbing in the audience’s nose. Seriously, there is no finesse when it comes to that awkward plot turn.

In fact, Bay holds very few surprises as a thriller, because the supposedly mystery villain practically looks directly into the camera and tells the audience not to trust him. Frankly, there is so much telegraphing in this movie, it should be sponsored by Western Union.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe: Forensics Get Macabre

The tradition of using “John” and “Jane Doe” as anonymous monikers dates back to late Fourteenth Century English estate law. Typically, “Does” are either identified or forgotten, but the one that lands on the slab at the Tilden family-run mortuary and morgue is about to get Medieval on her examiners. The father and son are in for a frightful night when they start incising her body in André Øvredal’s aptly titled The Autopsy of Jane Doe (trailer here)—a Wednesday opener in New York, just in time for Christmas.

Upstairs, a seemingly normal family has fallen victim to an apparent triple homicide. In the basement, an otherwise pristine naked corpse lies half buried, with no obvious cause of death. The sheriff wants answers, so he asks crusty old Tommy Tilden to put a rush on the mysterious woman’s autopsy. To help meet the deadline, his lab technician son Austin will postpone a hot date with his girlfriend Emma.  In retrospect, that will definitely be a mistake.

As the Tildens start cutting into the Jane Doe, their findings only raise more questions. Her wrists and ankles were savagely broken and her organs were singed, but there are no outward signs of trauma. Around the time they start finding foreign objects in the mystery corpse, things start going bump in the night at the Tilden morgue.

Presumably, Autopsy was a simpler, more intimate production shoot than Øvredal’s Troll Hunter and perhaps even his dystopian short film The Tunnel, but it is devilishly clever “chamber” horror film. Just the concept of taking the terror to the morgue (presumably where most horror movie victims wind up) is a subversive twist. It is also rather amusingly ironic (in the right way) to see the original Hannibal Lecter, Brian Cox, playing a perfectly sane coroner. Frankly, the mounting unease of the first half is probably better than the supernatural woo-woo-ing of the concluding balance, but overall, it is a pretty nifty dark-and-stormy-night movie.

Cox might not sound like a Virginia country coroner, but it hardly matters. The sort of piercing intelligence he projects on-screen is more important. He also forges some appealingly comfortable chemistry with Emile Hirsch (as Austin). We immediately pick up on their years of shared family history and the sort of shorthand they developed from years of working together. They also look believable puttering about the autopsy lab. In unconventional support, Olwen Catherine Kelly is chillingly believable as the unblemished Jane Doe, thanks to extensive yoga and meditation training. Maybe she should tackle Beckett’s Not I next.

A lot of nice production design work went into the Tilden Morgue. However, the lighting sometime is too dark to properly show it off (at least via the medium in which we saw it). Regardless, Autopsy is a creepy film, with genuinely memorable, multidimensional co-leads, which is saying something for the genre. Highly recommended for horror fans, The Autopsy of Jane Doe opens Wednesday (12/21) in New York, at the IFC Center.

Fiennes’ Coriolanus

It has long been considered one of Shakespeare’s most divisive tragedies. Though academic appraisals remain quite mixed, Coriolanus always had its champions, including poet T.S. Eliot. As a result, there are few cinematic predecessors against which actor Ralph Fiennes directorial debut might be compared. In the Olivier-Branagh tradition, Fiennes also stars in his contemporary retelling of Coriolanus (trailer here), which begins a one week Oscar qualifying engagement in New York this Friday.

In a Balkan city that “calls itself Rome,” Caius Martius has earned the honorific title “Coriolanus” for his victory over the city-state’s bitter rival, the Volsces. At the behest of his proud mother Volumnia and her ally Senator Menenius, the general consents to campaign for the office of Consul. The approval of the Senate is assured, but Coriolanus’s candidacy must also be accepted by the masses. This is a taller order, especially given the officer’s refusal to pander to the lowest common denominator.

Nonetheless, with Menenius’s help, Coriolanus appears to win over the people. Yet, just as quickly, the deceitful senators Brutus and Sicinius turn the crowd against him, with the help of a cadre of professional activists. Venting his outrage, Corilanus’s contempt for the fickle masses leads to his banishment. It also drives him to Volsces, where he makes common cause with his old nemesis, Tullus Aufidius. Dead to everything except his rage, Coriolanus will have his revenge in a manner befitting Shakespearean tragedy.

Given his abruptly shifting loyalties and his un-Shakespearean lack of introspection, Coriolanus is a difficult figure for many to get their heads around. However, Fiennes’ portrayal really unlocks his character. We can understand how his rigid conception of honor compels each action he takes. Despite Corilanus’s reticence, it is a big, seething performance of great physicality that commands viewer attention. Clearly, this is a man of action, not given to soliloquizing.

This is definitely Shakespeare at his manliest (no tights or sonnets here, thank you very much). Indeed, Gerard Butler matches Fiennes’ testosterone as Aufidius, while Vanessa Redgrave nearly outdoes them both as Volumnia, the motherly Lady Macbeth. Yet, the real soul of the film comes from the great Brian Cox as Menenius, whose humanity leads inexorably to pathos. Though a relatively small part, it is also interesting to see South African actor John Kani, who projects a suitably stately presence as Coriolanus’s former superior officer, General Cominius.

Throughout Fiennes’ effectively streamlined film adaptation it is also obvious why the original play troubles so many critics, given its scathing depiction of the Roman masses as no more than a weapon to be wielded by the unscrupulous. Frankly, in Coriolanus, “the people” get what they deserve. Indeed, the film comes at a time when it rather inconveniently begs comparison to uninformed masses occupying Zucotti Park.

An impressive directorial debut, Fiennes stages some vivid scenes of warfighting. His resetting of the story works more often than not, though the cable news flashes in Shakespearean English can be a bit jarring. Strikingly cinematic, the Belgrade locales also add the weight of contemporary historical tragedy, heightening the on-screen drama. One of the better recent Shakespearean films (considerably more satisfying than Taymor’s Tempest, for example), the unexpectedly timely Coriolanus is definitely worth seeing. It begins a special one week New York run for Academy Award consideration at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square this Friday (12/2) and then opens more widely on January 20th.

The Price of Liberty: Ironclad

The price of liberty has always been high, in both blood and treasure. It was true during the revolution we celebrate on the Fourth of July and it was true during the Baron’s Revolt against King John, which led to the Magna Charta, a flawed but important document that informed our founding fathers’ conception of constitutional rights. Preferring the divine right of kings to the rights of man, John tried to reassert his absolute rule and nullify the Magna Charta, but an intrepid band of warriors will defy him, to their last breathes, in Jonathan English’s rip-roaring Ironclad (trailer here), which ought to be playing Independence Day, but instead opens this Friday in New York.

Tired of his cruel and erratic rule, England’s barons rose up against John the First (and only), but for political reasons, they left the weakened despot on the throne after securing his signature on their revolutionary document. Unfortunately, many were lulled into a false sense of security. When John makes his play, assembling a mercenary army and securing Rome’s support, he catches most of his foes unawares. Only Rochester Castle stands between him and London. However, twenty men assembled by Baron Albany are determined to hold it at all costs, in hopes that the French will arrive to install a proper monarch.

One of those men is William Marshal, a Knight Templar recently returned from the Crusades. Like the Twelfth Century equivalent of the IDF, the Templars are well accustomed to facing numerically superior enemies. Granted twenty against one thousand is a tall order, but thanks to its construction, Rochester can be ably defended by a small force. Yes indeed, the siege is on.

Ironclad delivers plenty of old school hack-and-slash action for Game of Thrones fans jonesing for a fix. However, equally striking are its scenes of the aftermath of battle, conveying the pain and bone-weariness of the warriors. The film also presents the best depiction of Medieval siege techniques yet captured on film.

While the action is thoroughly satisfying, Ironclad proves to be a film of unexpected substance. The screenplay by English and co-writer Erick Kastel (based on a first go-round by Stephen McDool) takes notions of faith and freedom deadly seriously. Marshal explicitly states there is nothing noble about war, ever, yet some things are still worth fighting for—in nearly those exact words.

If not precisely Errol Flynn, James Purefoy is pretty good as Marshal. He broods convincingly and swings the broadsword with authority. Frankly, he comes closer to what many expected from Michael Fassbender in the middling Centurion. Still, the real heart of the film is supplied by Brian Cox’s profane but principled Albany. Perfectly cast, he chews the scenery with earthy charisma, while acquitting himself well in the battle scenes. Fortunately, Ironclad also has a strong counterbalancing villain in Paul Giamatti’s King John (of the Royal house of Brooklyn), who oozes an evil clamminess that intensifies viewer sympathy for the rebels.

Tightly helmed by English, Ironclad is old fashioned in the right way, but not shy about a severed limb here or there. It is a just a freedom-loving blast of a film. Enthusiastically recommended, Ironclad opens this Friday (7/8) in New York at the AMC Empire 25.

Grumpy Old School New York: The Good Heart

Jacques owns one of those seedy old man bars that you have probably been too intimidated to enter. Those instincts were not wrong. Jacques chases out “walk-in’s” with ill-concealed contempt. As a mean old curmudgeon, he does not have anyone to inherit his dive. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking for the irascible tavern-keeper in Icelandic director Dagur Kári’s English language indie drama, The Good Heart (trailer here), which opens in New York today.

On heart attack number five and counting, Jacques’s ticker is basically held together by duct tape and spite. While he is a misogynistic misanthrope, he takes an odd liking to the suicidal homeless man sharing his room. Before the gentle Lucas realizes it, he finds himself in Jacques’s eccentric management trainee program, learning how to be surly barkeep from the master. Then he breaks Jacques’s one cardinal rule, sheltering the deeply distressed April, a beautiful woman of vaguely European origins.

Despite the formulaic fusion of comedy and drama, Heart is one of the better indie films of recent vintage. Its dark, grimy atmosphere is quite evocative, perhaps reflecting the severe Nordic sensibilities of the director. In a way, it is a valentine to old school Old New York. Unfortunately the third act culminates in a bit of a groaner, but up until that point, Heart is a sharply drawn drama with some memorably pointed dialogue (the film’s best bit though is given away in the trailer).

Funny and infuriating in equal measure, Brian Cox always hits the perfect pitch as Jacques. Frankly, he is the movie. Watching him snarl and putter around the bar might not sound like ambitious filmmaking, but it is entertaining. While Paul Dano is a bit wooden as the meek Lucas, the luminous Isild Le Besco is quite haunting as the waifish April, adding an interesting dimension to the film.

Unlike so many indie films, Heart has a bit of an edge and a fresh protagonist. Ultimately, when
Kári finally lets it slide into sentimentality, it loses its way. Until that point, it has real merit as a tart-tongued character-driven comedy-drama. Modest but engaging, Heart opens today (4/30) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.