Black Sea: Salvage this Film

It should have been a routine, but highly profitable salvage job. Thanks to Russian military adventurism in Georgia and Crimea, Ukraine, the whole rights and permissions thing is now considerably trickier. As a result, a disgruntled submarine captain will lead an off-the-books mission in Kevin Macdonald’s Black Sea (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Cap. Robinson has just been down-sized (or as the city of Detroit says, “right-sized”) by his buttoned-down corporate marine salvage firm. Finding little work for a disgruntled submarine skipper, Robinson is up for a caper and one of his former colleagues has one. It turns out, while the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was still observed by both sides, Stalin agreed to loan Hitler millions in gold (as one socialist to another). However, the German U-boat carrying it home was sunk and Germany invaded Russia shortly thereafter. For decades, it lay forgotten at the bottom of the Black Sea. Eventually, the company struck a deal with the Georgian government to salvage it, but the operation was put on hold when the Russians starting paddling around like they owned the place.

With the help of a mysterious funder, Robinson will recruit a crew to sneak down there and get it. To make things unnecessarily complicated, half the crew must be Russian—so they can talk to any Russian torpedoes that might be launched at them? Acquiring an old Russian sub that is more like a barnacle with a periscope, Robinson’s team heads out to sea, but tensions quickly rise. Daniels, the transparently villainous financial go-between, is particularly alarmed when Robinson announces each man gets an equal share once their backer gets his forty percent. Wouldn’t they be tempted to bump each other off to get a bigger slice of the pie? Still, you might think they would need a minimum contingent of crewmembers to keep the sub seaworthy. It turns out that number is nine.

Frustratingly, Black Sea has a very intriguing backstory, but screenwriter Dennis Kelly jettisons it almost immediately. (Nevertheless, the new reels playing underneath the opening credits make it look like Stalin will be played by Ben Mendelsohn.) Instead, he channels B. Traven, cranking up the class warfare and seafaring naturalism. Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a worthy film to emulate, but he leaves way to many holes in the narrative.

Mendelsohn’s Fraser, the diving specialist is a case in point. Half the time he is a reckless psychopath, but he serves as the ostensive voice of reason nearly just as often. Similarly, if he were really primarily concerned with saving his own skin, would he really let loose a bunch of mutinous chaos while they are navigating a shallow canyon? That just seems like needlessly perverse timing.

It is a shame Kelly’s narrative clunks and clangs along, because Jude Law is terrific as the salty Robinson. It is rather remarkable how convincingly he shows Robinson’s class resentments metastasizing into paranoid psychosis, nearly deconstructing the entire film in the process. Even though his character makes no sense, Mendelsohn is always enjoyable to watch chewing the scenery, as is Ben Wheatley regular Michael Smiley, who is reliably flinty and acerbic as Robinson’s crony, Reynolds. However, fans of Jodie Whittaker should not expect much, because she only fleetingly appears in flashbacks as Robinson’s ex-wife.

Partially shot on a vintage 1967 Foxtrot Soviet sub (one of only four such surviving vessels), Black Sea looks great and feels appropriately claustrophobic. Unfortunately, the narrative repeatedly undercuts everyone’s best efforts. There is just little too much message-making and not enough attention to action-details. An ambitious disappointment, Black Sea opens this Friday (1/23) in New York.

Broadchurch: David Tennant Investigates

It is the drama that made Twitter explode in the UK.  Fox has plans for an Americanized version for the 2014-15 season, but intrigued viewers only have to wait eight weeks to find out who did it.  The ensuing investigation might just cost the investigating detective a sizable chunk of his soul.  Nevertheless, all will eventually be revealed when the eight week Broadchurch (promo here) airs on BBC America, beginning this Wednesday.

Young Danny Latimer has been murdered. His body was found dumped at the beach, but the Socos (CSI) quickly determine this is not the original crime scene.  Beth and Mark Latimer did not realize their son is missing until it was too late, merely assuming he was off on his morning paper route.  Dogged Detective Inspector Alec Hardy soon discovers other family secrets that kept certain Latimers preoccupied.

Hardy is either the best or the worst DI for this investigation.  In his last posting, the detective worked an eerily similar case.  Precise details will emerge over time, but it clearly ended badly.  Hardy had come to the small Jurassic Coastal town of Broadchurch to escape the media spotlight and recuperate his ailing body and psyche.  While fraught with career perils, the Latimer case represents possible redemption for the controversial copper.  However, he will have to work it with the distinctly resentful Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller, who came back from her vacation to find Hardy in place of her anticipated promotion.

There will be no shortage of suspects in Broadchurch, including Danny’s father; his friend and colleague Nigel Carter; Jack Marshall, the local newsagent; the insomniac vicar Rev. Paul Coates, and a nasty late middle-aged woman living in mobile home not far from the crime scene.  DS Miller’s own son Tom also acts rather oddly upon learning of his friend’s murder.  Series creator Chris Chibnall will focus suspicion on just about everyone before the big finale, but Broadchurch is just as much about the grief and guilt resulting from the Latimer murder as it is a mystery procedural.

Broadchurch will be of particular interest to Doctor Who fans, starring former Doctor David Tennant as DI Hardy, former companion Arthur Darville as Rev. Coates, and guest star Olivia Colman as DS Miller.  Frankly, Broadchurch might just eclipse the Doctor as Tennant’s career defining role.  Again, he makes a convincingly intelligence screen presence, but where the dashing figure he supposedly cut in Spies of Warsaw was a bit of a stretch, he is darkly compelling as the haggard, sullen, world-weary, angst-ridden Hardy.  Yet, Colman also holds her own in their scenes together quite well as the increasingly disillusioned DS Miller.

To their credit, both Darville the actor and Chibnall the writer make Rev. Coates a legitimate suspect, while still avoiding all the easy clergy clichés.  They even allow him some surprisingly powerful sermons that essentially function as the conscience of the series.  Yet, it is Jodie Whittaker who really personifies Broadchurch’s emotional devastation as the distraught Beth Latimer.

Broadchurch is grabby right from the start, but it is written with greater depth and psychological insight than conventional mystery series.  Doctor Who alumni James Strong and Euros Lyn helm their installments with admirable sensitivity and the music of hardcore drummer-turned contemporary classical composer Ólafur Arnalds sets an unusually elegiac tone.  Quality television in every way, Broadchurch is highly recommended for fans of ambitious mystery series, like The Killing, Twin Peaks, and Top of the Lake.  It commences its American premiere this Wednesday (8/7) on BBC America.

Invasion Brixton: Attack the Block

These kids from South London do not have much of a sense of wonder. That’s okay, the aliens they stumble across are not exactly cuddly E.T.’s. A juvie street gang and a marauding pack of aliens take it to each other real good in writer-director John Cornish’s sci-fi invasion mash-up Attack the Block (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Council estates (a.k.a. the projects) are not a fun place to live. Just ask Sam. The over-worked under-paid nurse is mugged by Moses and his cronies on her way home from work. Much to everyone’s surprise, a crash-landing alien distracts the delinquents, allowing her to give them the slip. After a few tussles with the critter, Moses draws first blood, but there are plenty more on the way from who knows where. Before long, the kids will need the services of a nurse, even if she did finger them to the coppers. It is a reluctant alliance, but the screaming balls of teeth are a strong motivation.

As a mere fifteen year-old, Moses is the oldest amongst his mates. Though poised to become a junior drug dealer for High Hatz, the estate’s top dog, he still has limited access to weaponry. Fortunately, they have well developed survival instincts and killer attitude. Some might see it all as an allegory for the inner city’s ever-repeating cycle of violence, but it is definitely game on regardless.

Cornish has a great ear for dialogue (when Yankee audiences can discern it), keeping the super cool banter flying fast and furious. Frankly, Block has the sort of the knowing genre edge overly broad spoofs like Black Dynamite sorely lack. Yet, the film works rather well as an invading horde movie in its own right, capitalizing on the specifics of the council estate environment, like the notoriously slow elevators and winding hallways, for some cleverly staged thrills.

Sam the nurse is also a refreshing surprise, showing some backbone rather than merely assuming the role of passive victim. Indeed, Jodie Whittaker clearly plays her smart rather than dumb, which helps keep viewers rooted in the story. The young cast also bounces off her rather well in their scenes together, particularly the intense John Boyega, who is Block’s real find as Moses. He convincingly portrays the young tough growing up and coming to terms with his life choices, which is almost as hard to do in character as it is for real.

Wisely, Block largely eschews explicit politics, trusting those inclined to find class-consciousness in the council estate setting will duly find it. What is on the celluloid is an energetic, consistently inventive space alien smack-down. Definitely recommended as a high-end summer roller coaster, Block opens this Friday (7/29) in New York at the AMC Empire and Regal Union Square 14.