Green Book

Dir: Peter Farrelly

2018

****

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I was put off Green Book by the fact it was heavily criticized for advancing a white savior narrative that so often perpetuates stereotypes in typically Oscar-nominated dramas. I love Driving Miss Daisy but I just couldn’t be bothered in getting into the discussion for the hundredth time. On the face of it I thought it probably was a white savior film and I avoided it. Shame on me. Shame on me for my lack of research but shame on me for avoiding what is an important discussion. As it happens I feel that it has been unfairly accused, and even if it wasn’t, what is wrong about the story of a bigot's redemption? Green Book is a tale of friendship, a friendship that was true, during a transitional time in modern history. At any rate, Peter Farrelly was open that he was aware of the white savior trope before filming and sought to avoid it. He said he had long discussions with the actors and producers on the point, and believes that it was not advanced by the film, saying it is "about two guys who were complete opposites and found a common ground, and it's not one guy saving the other. It's both saving each other and pulling each other into some place where they could bond and form a lifetime friendship.” I believe him and I don’t think that is studio speak to appease anyone. I have to admit I also misjudged the film based on Peter Farrelly’s involvement. I liked Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary when they came out but I wasn’t so keen about seeing a film made by one half of a pair responsible for such travesties as Me, Myself & Irene, Shallow Hal, Movie 43 and Dumb and Dumber. Yes, I said Dumb and Dumber, it is not the classic comedy people say it is, I respect people’s opinions but not when it comes to this film, it is horrible and you’re wrong if you disagree. Peter Farrelly might be only the fourth director to have not been nominated for the best director Oscar when the film itself had been nominated for best picture, but he did good. The highlight of the film however, is in the performances and relationship between Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. Set in 1962, the film is inspired by the true story of a tour of the Deep South by African American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and Italian American bouncer Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) who served as Shirley's driver and bodyguard. All of the events featured actually happened but not necessarily in the order or the period they are shown. The film was written by Vallelonga's son, Nick Vallelonga, based on interviews with his father and Shirley, as well as letters his father wrote to his mother. The title of the film is named after The Negro Motorist Green Book, a mid-20th century guidebook for African-American travelers written by Victor Hugo Green that informed readers of which hotels and restaurants accepted Black visitors. It is explained in the film that Shirley chose to play in Southern states where a Black man wouldn’t be welcome to change opinion and because everyone told him he shouldn’t, hence the need for the Green Book. A dramatization is a dramatization, not a documentary. The facts should always be respected but certain liberties can be taken as long as they don’t represent a person in a totally different light then what was true. You have to take a pinch of salt with these films but unlike many a historical epic, this is essentially a true, true story. That said, Shirley's relatives condemned the film, stating that they were not contacted by studio representatives until after development, and that it misrepresented Shirley's relationship with his family. Don's brother Maurice Shirley said, "My brother never considered Tony to be his 'friend'; he was an employee, his chauffeur (who resented wearing a uniform and cap). This is why context and nuance are so important. The fact that a successful, well-to-do black artist would employ domestics that did NOT look like him, should not be lost in translation." However, in interview recordings of Don Shirley and Tony Vallelonga, the former stated "I trusted him implicitly. You see, Tony got to be, not only was he my driver. We never had an employer/employee relationship.". The interviews also support many other events depicted by the film. Peter Farrelly said that he was under the impression that there weren't a lot of family members still alive, that they did not take major liberties with the story, and that relatives of whom he was aware had been invited to a private screening for friends and family. Nick Vallelonga, the film's co-writer and Tony Vallelonga's son, acknowledged that members of the Shirley family were hurt that he did not speak to them and that he was sorry they were offended. He said that "Don Shirley himself told me not to speak to anyone" and that Shirley "approved what I put in and didn't put in." To me it sounds as if the family quite rightly wanted involvement but the story is still true. With all that to one side, I thought the film was strong. Visually it was nice but nothing special but there is something unformulaic about it that makes me think it was a good thing that Peter Farrelly was involved and not your usual Oscar-baiting director. That said, it really is all about the performances and the music, both of which are superb.

Beautiful Boy

Dir: Felix van Groeningen

2018

*****

Felix Van Groeningen’s 2018 film Beautiful Boy is remarkable on several levels. It’s a touching and brutally honest depiction of drug addiction and the effect it has on relationships but shown from two different angles. The screenplay is based on the memoirs Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by his son Nic Sheff and its surprisingly low on schmaltz. Luke Davies’ screenplay successfully avoids showing the two different angles as contrasting films or differing points of view and concentrates mostly on the events both memoirs cross over on. While David Sheff clearly researched drug addiction, the film doesn’t attempt to belittle addicts and suggest why anyone would become one, but rather deals with the Sheff family itself. Paramount Pictures and Plan B Entertainment acquired the film rights to both memoirs back in 2008 but seemingly didn’t know how to approach it. It was announced in 2011 that writer and director Cameron Crowe had written a script based on the books and that he was looking to direct the film after he had wrapped his romantic film Aloha, with New Regency getting involved in this project after Paramount dropped out. In December 2013, it was reported that Mark Wahlberg was circling the project to play the role of the father. However, in 2015 it was announced that Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen had taken over as director with a new script written by Australian writer Luke Davies. I think this was a vital move. Cameron Crowe has his own unique style of American cinema but I don’t think Beautiful Boy would have suited it. There are many other American directors I can think of who could come close to what the film should have looked like but I can’t think of any who would have been better than Van Groeningen. His 2012 film The Broken Circle Breakdown is one of the greatest non-American American films of modern times and the mood and his observational style are perfectly suited to such a story. It is also important that Luke Davies was attached as screenwriter, Davies being a former heroin addict himself. Both men gave the film the authenticity it deserved. Steve Carell played the father like no other actor could – the father anybody would want and the father everyone could see themselves as. Will Poulter was initially attached to play the son but I’m glad that the role eventually went to Timothée Chalamet. I’m not hating on Poulter, he’s proved his worth time and time again when no one thought he was right for the role but I genuinely don’t think he would have been right here, where Chalamet was in his element. Chalamet is fast becoming an actor to watch, indeed, if he’s in it, I’m interested. His style of acting, which I suppose you could could call method in the classical sense, is lending itself well to the young actor. His passion is met by his ability and it’s quite a relief to see such an important subject and a real-life character being respected and played with such enthusiasm. Watching Chalamet and Carell together felt authentic and I believed they were father and son. Maybe it’s because I’d recently become a father to a beautiful boy myself just before watching, but I found their relationship to be tender, heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Again, I found this all to be suitably authentic. I was surprised to learn that the editing of the film took seven months in total, meaning that the movie was completely re-cut, multiple times. Initially Nico Leunen, Van Groeningen's long-time collaborator, was not involved in the project but when Van Groeningen became dissatisfied with the editing process he brought Leunen to Los Angeles to reconstruct the film. That’s a lot of time in the movie making business, so it’s good to see a bit of leniency given by the studio for the sake of art and the story’s integrity. It’s great when a complex story and an important subject are given the best treatment and Beautiful Boy is the perfect example of passion and integrity in action to produce a respectful and compelling adaptation.

Spy

Dir: Paul Feig

2015

***

2015’s Spy is probably the only Paul Feig film I don’t hate because it is the only Paul Feig film that wasn’t hyped to hell. It features way too many in-jokes and people who believe they are funnier than they really are but to give it due credit, it is at times, more inventive than the spy films it attempts to parody. It might have ruined Jude Law’s chances of being the next James Bond but that ship had probably sailed anyway. I’m not the world’s biggest Melissa McCarthy fan but she’s best when she isn’t playing a confident character, her strengths are always when she’s vulnerable and here for the first time in her career she’s sort of both. She has used the balance since to great effect. It’s a madcap spy movie/James Bond send up and Feig clearly understands that the best such films are the ones that don’t stop to breathe. McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a 40-year-old, single, desk-bound CIA employee who remotely assists her partner, field agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law), while harbouring secret romantic feelings for him. We follow them both on a typical mission as Fine gets himself into a troublesome situation which Cooper inevitably gets him out of while the office around her falls to pieces after being infested with vermin (a shameless, and rather pointless nod to an episode of the Office which Feig directed). During their latest mission, Fine accidentally kills arms dealer Tihomir Boyanov as he sneezes during a confrontation before extracting the location of a nuke in a suitcase from him. Susan uncovers evidence that Rayna (Rose Byrne), Boyanov's daughter, has contacted Sergio De Luca (Bobby Cannavale), a suspected broker with ties to various terrorist groups, so Fine infiltrates her home. However, Rayna shoots Fine dead, while Susan watches helplessly online. She then reveals that she knows the identities of the agency's top agents, knowing that a remote agent would be watching. Susan, who is almost certainly unknown to Rayna, volunteers to track her (she was a top trainee agent, albeit over ten years ago). When her boss, Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney), reluctantly agrees, the ultra macho Rick Ford (Jason Statham) quits in disgust. With her best friend Nancy (Miranda Hart – in a role said to have been written especially for her) providing intelligence, Susan goes to Paris undercover. Ford continually shows up to tell Susan she will fail because of her inexperience. The next morning, Susan discovers that De Luca's office has burned down. She finds a photo of a man standing next to the fire and eventually finds him and follows him before seeing him switch his backpack with Ford’s, the switched bag containing a bomb. Susan warns Ford in time during a concert and then pursues the man into an abandoned building. During the ensuing fight, he falls to his death. When she checks the man's video camera, Susan learns that De Luca is going to Rome. In Rome, Susan meets her contact Aldo (an over the top Italian stereotype played by Peter Serafinowicz). She follows Sergio into a casino, where she ends up saving Rayna's life. Rayna brings Susan into her inner circle and takes Susan on her private plane to Budapest. In mid-flight, the steward kills Rayna's bodyguard and pilots, but Susan subdues him. Rayna believes Susan to be a CIA agent, but Susan convinces her that she was hired by her father to protect her. In Budapest, Susan meets Nancy, who was sent by Crocker. After being shot at, Susan pursues and catches up with the would-be assassin who turns out to be CIA spy Karen (Morena Baccarin), who sold Rayna the names of the other agents. She tries to shoot Susan, but an unknown sniper kills her instead. Susan, Nancy and Aldo accompany Rayna to a party to meet Rayna's contact. That turns out to be Lia, the woman who distracted Ford in Paris. Nancy creates a diversion (by pretending to be a crazed fan of guest performer 50 Cent) so that Susan can try to apprehend Lia unnoticed. Because of Ford's inopportune intervention, however, Lia runs off. Susan chases after her. After a brutal fight, as Susan is about to arrest Lia, she is instead killed by Fine, who earlier faked his death and is now Rayna's lover and associate. Rayna imprisons Susan and Aldo in a bunker. Later, Fine reveals to Susan that he is trying to gain Rayna's trust to locate the nuke, and he was the one who killed Karen. Susan and Aldo escape. At De Luca's mansion, Fine, Rayna and Sergio wait for Solsa Dudaev, head of an al-Qaeda-funded terrorist group. Susan convinces Rayna and De Luca that, even though she works for the CIA, she will do anything to protect Fine, admitting that she loves him. Dudaev gives De Luca a suitcase full of diamonds, and Rayna produces the device. De Luca has Dudaev and his men killed, then reveals his plan to sell the device to another buyer (though they also intend to bomb New York City), before pointing his gun at Rayna. Ford distracts him, allowing Susan to kill his men. Sergio escapes to his helicopter with the device and the diamonds, but Susan grabs onto the landing gear. In the ensuing struggle, Susan throws the diamonds and the device into a lake below. De Luca attempts to shoot Susan, but Nancy, following in another helicopter provided by 50 Cent, shoots him in the back before he can. He grabs on to Susan's necklace (a gift from Fine), but she releases the catch and De Luca falls out of the helicopter to the lake, presumably dead. The nuke is retrieved by the CIA, and Rayna is arrested, but she makes peace with Susan - accepting her as a friend. Ford, realising that he had underestimated Susan's skills, compliments her on her job. Crocker tells Susan that she will remain a field agent, and that her next assignment will take her to Prague to infiltrate a drug smuggling ring. Fine invites Susan to dinner, but she instead opts for a night out with Nancy. The next morning, Susan wakes up in bed next to Ford and screams, while Ford claims she "loved it". During the credits, it is revealed that Rayna is imprisoned; De Luca is lost after falling to the lake; and Susan is tasked with different missions (including one where Ford is captured by mafia). The credits sequence suggests that Feig hoped there would be a sequel but I believe the chances of that were always thin. The remote assistance aspect of the film is very clever and I wonder whether they should have stuck to a film that concentrates on only using that dynamic. I even think a sit-com, ala The American Office, could suit the format well. I knew Jude Law was going to be still alive because he was both the most expensive actor cast and was the best character of the film. That said, I was happy to see Miranda Hart in a big budget Hollywood movie as I was Peter Serafinowicz but it was Rose Byrne’s transformation into villain that impressed me the most. Its not perfect though, far from it. I hate films that feature concerts for no good reason and why they featured a Verka Serduchka concert is anyone’s guess. I don’t care for pointless cameos either, although seeing 50 Cent and Miranda Hart together shooting a machine gun out of a helicopter isn’t something I thought I’d ever see in a film. So while I’m relieved and surprised that a Paul Feig film didn’t bore me to death, it is still a below-par Spy spoof. Michel Hazanavicius and Jean Dujardin’s OSS-117 films are still yet to be bettered in this respect and I’d even watch Naked Gun ​33 1⁄3: The Final Insult over this any day of the week.

The Boss

Dir: Ben Falcone

2016

*

I disliked Ben Falcone’s The Boss for many different reasons but overall I hated it because it was only half an idea. It’s as if they decided to have a basic premise and then chose to wing the rest. It’s quite an arrogant stance really. It is true that Melissa McCarthy has somehow still got an audience and can pull a crowd but where is the humour? I will always appreciate humour that doesn’t necessarily make me laugh and isn’t my type, but what was so funny here that makes the film deserved of the description comedy? Of course you don’t need to constantly tells jokes to make a film a comedy and neither do you always need to rely on slap-stick. There are many performers who are just funny, it’s in they’re bones, just a gesture can raise a smile but McCarthy ain’t one of those performers. It’s got to a point now where film makers are telling audiences that their film is funny and the audiences are believing them without question. We are living in particularly brain-dead times when a film such as The Boss isn’t totally rejected and ridiculed. Some people love it. End of days my friends. The shoddy premise sees McCarthy play a rich industry boss who is sent to prison for insider trading. The film is based on a character McCarthy created for the comedy troupe Groundlings which I can only imagine made more sense. The character doesn’t seem to be a parody of anyone in particular and is a cross between a high-flying business person and a mafia boss, without really being like either. The story begins properly as McCarthy’s character, Michelle Darnell, leaves prison having served her sentence. She’s ready to rebrand herself as America's latest sweetheart, but not everyone she worked with is so quick to forgive and forget. With nowhere to go and no one to scam, Michelle is forced to move in with former assistant Claire (Kristen Bell) and her young daughter, Rachel (Ella Anderson). Now at her lowest point, Michelle wastes no time in devising a winner-take-all plan to rebuild her empire which abuses the trust and kindness of Claire and Rachel. Things are made tougher for Michelle by the fact her former mentor (Kathy Bates – who plays a slightly older version of her) and former lover Renault, who still holds a heavy grudge towards her for their breakup. Universal was at first unable to decide on the gender of Michelle’s ex-lover. Before Peter Dinklage was finally cast, the studio also considered Oprah Winfrey, Jon Hamm and Sandra Bullock as possibilities. Again, the total lack of direction is mind-numbing. I’m guessing they went with Peter Dinklage because he is small and therefore funny, because small is funny. I don’t know what is more puzzling though: the fact that the film was green-lit and given a $29 million budget or that it ended up making $78.8 million at the box office. Although Kristen Bell, Kathy Bates and Peter Dinklage should have known better, they all escape the film relatively unharmed. Ben Falcone is clearly blinded by love, his wife (McCarthy) is everything in his eyes and in his mind her very presences is enough for a film to click/be funny/make money. He is of course wrong. Putting whether you find McCarthy funny or not (not in my case), there is never an excuse for not writing a script. That said, McCarthy did co-write the script, so one has to ask who loves her more, her husband or herself. It’s dreadful. I have nothing more to say about it.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Dir: Mike Mitchell

2019

**

I think the fact that Warner Animation Group and Warner Bros. Pictures had confirmed that The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part would be the fourth and final film in The Lego Movie franchise ( following the release of the first film's two spin-offs, The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie) is a clear indicator that this was an idea that had run its course. This was a refreshing move considering the films make a ton of money, and it was a rare but welcome bit of integrity in the world of franchise/big business etc. ‘Go out in style’ and ‘Quit while you’re ahead’ are two solid ideas, the only problem here being that the film isn’t very good. In fact, it’s actually rather dull. The magic of the first film was in its charm. It understood how kids played with LEGO and ignored how LEGO wanted kids to play with it. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is just a mindless tirade of blurred action scenes and convoluted sub-plots that stumble through ideas of childhood, empathy, regret and much of what people had forgotten about the first film. I found Emmet to be fun, funny and charming in the first film, here he is as annoying as the other characters found him in the original. The songs are dreadfully lethargic and depend largely on the popular tunes of the first film. The contrast between this and the original are much like the difference between The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie, that is, one is for everyone and the other is for the brain-dead and children who will literally watch anything. The film grossed over $191 million worldwide against a budget of $99 million, somehow making it a box office failure, something I still don’t quite understand, but those numbers should have been way higher. I think people enjoyed the first but the novelty of such an idea was always going to have a limited shelf-life. I do believe The Lego Ninjago Movie helped kill off the enthusiasm. I think what confused me most about the film is how it tells its audience the basis of the story and then tries to reveal it as a surprise twist at the end. Following the events of the first film, Finn's sister Bianca has been invited to share their father's LEGO collection. In the LEGO universe, this is represented by the arrival of Duplo aliens. Emmet builds the aliens a heart as a token of friendship but one eats it and playfully demands more. Lucy and the Master Builders interprets this as an attack and retaliates, and the ensuing battle destroys Bricksburg. Despite all this, Emmet tries to assure Lucy that "Everything can still be awesome." Five years later, Bianca has taken more of Finn's LEGO creations and other toys to play with. In the LEGO universe, the Duplo army's invasions have turned Bricksburg into the post-apocalyptic wasteland Apocalypseburg, hardening its citizens. However, Emmet remains upbeat and wants to move into a dream home with Lucy, who tells Emmet he needs to adapt to their new harsher world. Emmet himself is also troubled by visions of an impending cataclysm dubbed as "Armamageddon". Soon, a LEGO mini-doll named General Mayhem arrives and proclaims that Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi of the Systar (sister) System wants to marry Apocalypseburg’s leader. Mayhem's forces capture Batman, Lucy, Benny, MetalBeard, and Unikitty after they argued who was the leader. They are taken to the Systar System, where Batman eventually agrees to marry Wa'Nabi, while the others are being tempted to remain, which only Lucy resists. In pursuit, Emmet converts his house into a spaceship and travels through "the Stairgate" – out of the basement – and is saved from an asteroid field by rugged adventurer Rex Dangervest. Emmet begins to toughen up by mimicking Rex, hoping to impress Lucy. Meanwhile Lucy and her friends are taken to a spa and while seeing them being "brainwashed", she escapes to find Emmet. Meanwhile, Rex and Emmet evade Wa'Nabi's forces and find Lucy. Deducing that the wedding is a front for Armamageddon, Emmet devises a rescue plan where Lucy will switch off the music defending the Space Temple where the wedding will take place, and Emmet will destroy the reception cake, encased in a temple, to stop the wedding. As Lucy fights Mayhem, she learns the Systar System never meant to antagonize Apocalypseburg, but merely failed to communicate their desire to coexist in peace – in the real world, Bianca simply wants her older brother Finn to play with her. They also hope that the wedding to bring about peace. She also discovers that Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi's original form is the heart Emmet gave the aliens. Realizing Rex has sinister motives, Lucy tries to stop Emmet and show who she really is, but Emmet doesn’t believe her and destroys the temple. In the real world, Emmet's destruction is carried out by Finn angrily destroying Bianca's LEGO temple wedding cake. Emmet realises his mistake but is seized by Rex, knocking Lucy onto a shelf. Aboard his ship, Rex reveals that he is an embittered version of Emmet from the future; abandoned for years underneath a nearby clothes dryer after crashing in the asteroid field, he became Rex – "Radical Emmet Xtreme" – and built a remote time machine to save Emmet/himself. As revenge for being neglected while the other toys were played with, Rex has tricked his past self into bringing about Armamageddon. When asked what Armamageddon really is, Rex explains what is happening in the real world right now, that is that Bianca and Finn’s mother has halted their bickering and has asked them to put away their LEGO sets, representing Armamageddon (as in just wait until "Our momma gets in"). Rex then throws Emmet under the dryer where he had been abandoned to make him become himself after Emmet refuses to give up on his friends. Everything in the LEGO universe begins to crumble and fall into the dark hole of the Bin of Storajj, represented by Finn and Bianca taking their creations apart and putting them in storage bins. Being unable to accept that this is the end, Lucy urges everyone to sing "Everything's Not Awesome", which Finn hears and then rebuilds the heart for Bianca, thus reviving Wa-Nabi and inadvertently restores the LEGO universe, allowing Lucy to rally the others into escaping from the storage bin in various spacecraft to save Emmet and stop Rex. Emmet and Lucy overpower Rex and sabotage his time machine with a heart bomb. Rex redeems himself as he and his timeline fade from existence when Emmet refuses to be like him, and Emmet and Lucy reconcile. In the real world, Finn and Bianca's mom has a change of heart upon seeing them reconciled and watches them play with their LEGO creations together. The LEGO universe is transformed into a mishmash of the restored Bricksburg and the Systar System called the peaceful "Syspocalypstar". Emmet's dream house is rebuilt and gets an original album of "Everything Is Awesome", revealing Lucy on the album, much to his surprise. Now, as nice as the story is of a young pair of siblings playing nicely together, I can’t help but think that many of the ‘toy’ themes have been covered, and covered better, by the Toy Story films. It’s clever, but far too confused for the heart of the story to be appreciated fully. It gave me a bloody headache. I look forward to not watching another LEGO film and not watching another Chris Pratt film for a while.

Shin Godzilla

Dir: Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi

2016

*****

Shin Godzilla, or Godzilla: Resurgence as it is also known, is the first Godzilla film (out of thirty or so films and counting) to really capture the essence and message of the original. It is easy for a viewer to have missed the message of the first film, especially thanks to its questionable (but lovable) sequels such as Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Son of Godzilla, stretching from the Shōwa period (1954 -1975), Heisei period (1984 - 1995) and Millennium period (1999 - 2004), not including 1976’s Italian Godzilla, the Japanese/America collaborations and the Hollywood versions. Shin Godzilla marks the beginning of the Reiwa period and a more mature direction. Whereas the original Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Shin Godzilla draws inspiration from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, as well as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Godzilla is essentially the collective fear of a tsunami, earthquake and failing nuclear reactor rolled into one. Indeed, the sight of the blue-jumpsuited government spokesmen convening emergency press conferences and scenes of people quietly regarding mountains of debris is something that could have been lifted straight out of television footage of both events. The original Godzilla was fear and paranoia in 1954 and Shin Godzilla is exactly the same, just updated for a 2016 audience. That said, as well as fear and paranoia, there is also a great big slice of satire. It acknowledges the ridiculousness of the original films by adding intense realisum and takes a swipe at Japanese politics. As author William Tsutsui said, Shin Godzilla leaves no doubt that the greatest threat to Japan comes not from without but from within, from a geriatric, fossilized government bureaucracy unable to act decisively or to stand up resolutely to foreign pressure. There is plenty of footage of Godzilla clumsily trashing the Tokyo suburbs but most of the film deals with the nonsensical bureaucracy that would occur if such a disaster were to ever happen. The majority of the film features board room meetings and political discussion. On paper it sounds like the most boring Godzilla film you could ever imagine but that couldn’t be further from the reality. The ultra-realisum makes the film all the more effective. The other aspect of the film that makes it stand out over the other films in the franchise is just how MANGA influenced it is. The initial scenes of Godzilla before he is fully developed are incredible and terrifying, which in turn acts as a great metaphor for the early stages of any major disaster. Toho announced plans for its new Godzilla film stating that it was good timing after the success of the American version of 2014. I can’t help but think they wanted Godzilla to go back to his roots, in story and geographically. Shin Godzilla has no ties to Legendary's MonsterVerse and is essentially a reboot to the Toho series. Toho additionally put together a project team, known as "Godzilla Conference" or "Godzi-con", to formulate future projects. Godzilla himself was modernised but still had the look of the original. Directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi stated that they intended to provide the most terrifying Godzilla that Japan's cutting-edge special-effects movie-making team can muster." A variety of techniques such as puppets, animatronics, and digital effects were initially considered and an upper-body animatronic was produced but went unused after Toho decided to create a completely CG Godzilla. On the whole Godzilla looks good and the effects are decent, but there are one or two scenes where Godzilla looks like he’s out of a 90s video game. However, these scenes are short and it doesn’t effect the overall enjoyment of the film in any way. It’s strange really, as Gareth Edwards made his debut Monsters back in 2010 and got the 2014 Godzilla job as a result. 2014’s American Godzilla was your typical big bad monster movie but Shin Godzilla is just like Monsters, and I’d be very surprised if Edwards’ film wasn’t Toho’s main inspiration. The title "Shin Gojira" was cleverly chosen due to the variety of meanings the syllable "shin" could convey, such as "new", "true", and "god". This is clearly Toho telling the world that this is the authentic Godzilla, everything else is a remake. It’s an incredibly bold move from Toho but it works brilliantly. Not only is it incredibly clever, it somehow takes a theme and a character that has appeared countless times and has had thirty odd films made about it, and creates something completely original. I loved everything about it. Never in a million year would I have thought that a Godzilla film set in a conference suite would be a good idea but here it is, standing tall as one of the best films of 2016.

André the Giant

Dir: Jason Hehir

2018

****

At the very beginning of Jason Hehir’s documentary on the life and career of wrestling legend André the Giant, the audience is told that what you think you might know about the man might not true, and that there is a huge difference between the man and the myth. I confess, I went into the film expecting it to be an expose on all the wild shenanigans the giant Frenchman got up to in and out of the ring but it turns out there was a lot more to him than just being able to drink 12 bottles of wine a night. Besides, when you’re a giant, 12 bottles of wine is only a couple of glasses to us regular folk. He was born André Roussimoff in Molien, to the north-east of Paris in the canton of La Ferté-sous-Jouarre. He was the son of immigrants, his father was Bulgarian and his mother was Polish. His nickname growing up was "Dédé". As a child, he displayed symptoms of gigantism very early, reaching a height of 6.3 ft and a weight of 208 lb by the age of 12. André was a good student, particularly in mathematics, but he dropped out after the eighth grade since he did not think having a high school education was necessary for a farm labourer. He spent years working on his father's farm, where, according to his brother, he could perform the work of three men. He also completed an apprenticeship in woodworking, worked in a factory but none of these occupations brought him any satisfaction. At the age of 18, André moved to Paris and was taught professional wrestling by a local promoter who recognized the earning potential of his size. He trained at night and worked as a mover during the day to pay living expenses. He was billed as "Géant Ferré", a name based on the French folk hero Grand Ferré, and began wrestling in Paris and nearby areas. Canadian promoter and wrestler Frank Valois met André in 1966, becoming his business manager and adviser. He began making a name for himself wrestling in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa. He made his Japanese debut in 1970, billed as "Monster Roussimoff", wrestling for the International Wrestling Enterprise. Wrestling as both a singles and tag-team competitor, he quickly was made the company's tag-team champion alongside Michael Nador. During his time in Japan, doctors first informed Roussimoff that he suffered from acromegaly. Japan was big for André but he soon moved to Canada, where he became an immediate success, regularly selling out the Montreal Forum.  However, promoters eventually ran out of plausible opponents for him and, as the novelty of his size wore off, the less tickets he sold. He wrestled numerous times in 1972 for Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) as a special attraction until Valois appealed to Vince McMahon Sr., founder of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), for advice. McMahon suggested several changes. He felt André should be portrayed as a large, immovable monster, and to enhance the perception of his size, McMahon discouraged him from performing maneuvers such as dropkicks (although he was capable of performing such agile maneuvers before his health deteriorated in later life). He also began billing Roussimoff as "André the Giant" and set up a travel-intensive schedule, lending him to wrestling associations around the world, to keep him from becoming overexposed in any area. Promoters had to guarantee André a certain amount of money as well as pay McMahon's WWWF booking fee. It is safe to say André was at the cusp of a new beginning in wrestling but it is also safe to say he himself was a reason behind that change. On March 26, 1973, André debuted in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (later World Wrestling Federation) as a fan favorite, defeating Buddy Wolfe in New York's Madison Square Garden. André was one of professional wrestling's most beloved heroes throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1976, André fought professional boxer Chuck Wepner in an unscripted boxer-versus-wrestler fight. The wild fight was shown via telecast as part of the undercard of the Muhammad Ali versus Antonio Inoki fight and ended when he threw Wepner over the top rope and outside the ring and won via count out. In 1980, he feuded with Hulk Hogan, where unlike their more famous matches in the late 1980s, Hogan was the villain and André was the hero, wrestling him at Shea Stadium's Showdown at Shea and in Pennsylvania, where after Roussimoff pinned Hogan to win the match, Hogan bodyslammed him much like their legendary WrestleMania III match in 1987. The feud continued in Japan in 1982 and 1983 with their roles reversed and with Antonio Inoki also involved. In 1982, Vince McMahon, Sr. sold the World Wide Wrestling Federation to his son, Vince McMahon, Jr and everything changed. As McMahon began to expand his newly acquired promotion to the national level, he required his wrestlers to appear exclusively for him. McMahon signed André to these terms in 1984, although he still allowed him to work in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling. All of the smaller state run leagues died out and wrestling found a new, national audience on cable television. One of André’s feuds pitted him against the "Mongolian Giant" Killer Khan. According to the story line, Khan had snapped Roussimoff's ankle during a match in 1981 by leaping off the top rope and crashing down upon it with his knee-drop. In reality, he had broken his ankle getting out of bed the morning before the match. The injury and subsequent rehabilitation was worked into the existing André/Khan story line. After a stay at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, André returned with payback on his mind. The two battled on July 20, 1981, at Madison Square Garden in a match that resulted in a double disqualification. Their feud continued as fans filled arenas up and down the east coast to witness their matches. On November 14, 1981, at the Philadelphia Spectrum, he decisively defeated Khan in what was billed as a "Mongolian stretcher match", in which the loser must be taken to the dressing room on a stretcher. Another feud involved a man who considered himself to be the "true giant" of wrestling: Big John Studd. Throughout the early to mid-1980s, André and Studd fought all over the world, battling to try to determine who the real giant of wrestling was. In 1984, Studd took the feud to a new level when he and partner Ken Patera knocked out André during a televised tag-team match and proceeded to cut off his hair. The reality was that André got on very well with his arch rivals and behind the scenes the they all got on famously. André was at the centre of the wrestling world, in the documentary many wrestlers talk of how they looked up to him (literally as well as figuratively) and that he was the reason they got into the sport in the first place. People remember the latter half of his career because it was on television but he’d been doing the same gigs for over a decade all over the world. The interviews with his friends and colleagues are heartfelt and it is clear that twenty-five years after his death, he is still desperately missed. Wrestlers are bad actors, so when these guys begin sobbing in front of camera you can believe the tears are real. Hulk Hogan is especially upset when talking about their famous Wrestle Mania match of 1987 and, explaining that at this point André was in huge amounts of pain but went ahead not only because he needed the money, but because he knew it was what was best for his friend and for wrestling in general. Vince McMahon, Jr sheds a few tears also in a remarkably revealing interview. I don’t think he’s a great guy and he has pushed many a wrestler in the ring when their health really wasn’t up to it, but whether it was guilt or what, his tears were clearly meant. Along with many of André’s wrestling buddies, his cast-mates from The Princess Bride are interviewed as are family members. The interviews with his driver are perhaps the saddest and heartfelt, especially when he spoke of how André knew he was not long for the world. It’s a sad film for sure but also a great celebration of the man and his achievements. Whether you like wrestling or not, the guy is a legend and will clearly remain as such.