FILM ... with Tim Milfull
I am Love (MA15+)
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Pippo Delbono, Flavio Parenti, Diana Fleri
Rating: 4.5/5
120-minutes, screening from 24 June
The opening of Luca Guadagnino’s lo sono l’amore heralds a film replete with all the hallmarks of classic post-war Italian cinema, so much so that I found myself wondering what this film might have looked like in black and white.
But then, as the film progressed, I realised that Guadagnino surely is a fan of the likes of Luchino Visconti, whose 1963 film Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), is renowned for its lush palette and sumptuous costuming. Complemented with several glorious location shots in northern Italy, and some wonderful scenes in Milan, I am Love is set mostly in the magnificent family home of the Recchis, who have built a world-class fortune in the textiles industry.
The mansion is all soaring ceilings, dark wood panelling, and genuine art, and the family living there are just as perfect, tended to by a retinue of servants who serve their masters like clockwork. Emma (Tilda Swinton) is wife to Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), who, we are promptly told will share the administration of the Recchi fortune with his eldest son, Edoardo (Flavio Parenti), an adventurous young man with controversial ideas about corporate ethics and the loyalty of family and friends.
After rocking the family with the announcement that he will soon marry a commoner, Eva Ugolini (Diane Fleri), Edo compounds the shock with the news that he and best friend, Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini) plan to open a restaurant in the wilds of Milan’s hill country.
While there’s a fair bit of drama in the previous paragraph, I am Love moves at a deliciously lethargic, almost glacial pace, with the occasional calving of massive chunks of ice rocking the narrative. Guadagnino and Swinton – who collaborated on the story together – craft a memorable tale of lies and betrayal, and the familial compromises one sometimes takes to retain or regain a sense of self.
Blitz hits target with a rocket
Rocket Science (M)
Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Stars: Reece Thompson, Anna Kendrick
Rating: 3.5/5
98-minutes, now screening
Filmmaker Jeffrey Blitz obviously nurtures a healthy fascination for kids and the rigors of life at school, as his first film was the highly regarded documentary Spellbound that examined the trials and tribulations of national spelling bees.
In his debut feature film, Rocket Science, Blitz returns to the angst of adolescence, and surprisingly, we don’t spend too much of our screen time in the classroom.
The unfortunately named Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson) is a quiet fifteen-year-old who has most of the answers when the teacher calls, but is always too nervous to raise his hand. Hal has a speech impediment that leads to interminably cruel, stilted conversations, and despite all the best intentions of his counsellor – who could help if the problem was Attention Deficit Disorder – still cannot string a coherent sentence together.
At home, Reece’s psychotic elder brother taunts him, and his mother has just embarked on an open affair with their pathologically cheerful neighbour. When Ginny Riyerson (an elfin Anna Kendrick) marches into Reece’s life and declares that he will soon be co-helming the school debating team, the young man is both appalled and intrigued. Soon the pair is practicing their debating tactics; Ginny seems satisfied with her new protégée, and Reece has a newfound confidence.
Of course, there are bound to be ulterior motives at play, and when Ginny drops a devastating bombshell, Reece feels sure that he’ll never recover.
Rocket Science is the kind of charming coming-of-age film that doesn’t lapse into twee observation or stark masochism, and there are some very amusing and touching moments for those who like to see how one innovative young man plays with the cards that have been dealt to him.
THE BINGE
Suicide Club (R)
The French Kissers (MA15+)
Endgame (M)
Camino (M)
All now available from Madman
Shion Sono’s Suicide Club (above) taps into some of the strange obsessions of Japanese culture. Detective Toshiharu Kuroda (Ryo Ishibashi) isn’t as convinced as his commander that a recent mass suicide of 50 schoolgirls in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station was an example of group hysteria.
As more and more school kids and young adults choose increasingly grisly ends, Kuroda realises that someone is behind this latest obsession. There’s a different kind of obsession involving rampant hormones in The French Kissers by debut feature director Riad Sattouf, as a group of sixteen-year-olds struggle with various biological imperatives.
This is a very funny, occasionally cringeworthy coming-of-age film.
Lovers of real-life political intrigue will enjoy Endgame, a subtle thriller about the behind-the-scenes machinations that rattled South Africa in the lead-up to the end of Apartheid. Jonny Lee Miller plays a young mining executive charged with organising secret negotiations between representatives of the African National Congress – Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Thabo Mbeki – and the white minority government – William Hurt’s Professor Will Esterhuyse.
And finally, something not my cup of tea in Camino, which initially promised to be an expose of the ruthless personal costs that can be exerted by the secretive Catholic organisation, Opus Dei.
The eponymous Camino (Nerea Camacho) is a devout young Catholic adored by her father and harangued by her deeply religious mother. When she is diagnosed with a particularly aggressive terminal cancer, Camino is encouraged by her mother to embrace the illness as a sign of God. This one is only for the pious.
