FILM .... with Tim Milfull
Ted (MA15+)
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Mila Kunis
Rating: 3.5/5
106-minutes, now screening
Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy & American Dad among others) is something of an acquired taste, but few deny that his work has outpaced the edginess of the once ground-breaking The Simpsons. In his first feature Ted, MacFarlane probes new territory but tramples relatively safe ground.
Ted opens with the mellifluous voice of Patrick Stewart narrating how John Bennett (Brenton Manley) first meets his best friend, Ted, a two-foot-tall stuffed bear. The story involves a wish and a miracle, and MacFarlane leaves it at that, moving straight into an opening credits montage detailing Ted’s brief brush with global fame, and subsequent descent into mediocrity.
Twenty-seven years later, John (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted are still best friends. John is a clerk in a second-rate car-hire company, while Ted stays at home pulling on bongs and somehow paying for the company of a string of hookers. While Ted is more than happy with the status quo, John is reluctantly coming to realise that he needs to grow up, and soon, if he is to keep his gorgeous girlfriend, Lori (Mila Kunis).
With this scenario in place, MacFarlane – who voices many of the characters in his television series, and obviously relishes the opportunity to bring to life Ted – unfolds a series of very funny set pieces that illustrate John’s battle to maintain Lori’s interest.
Among the tools used are performances by MacFarlane’s television stalwarts like Patrick Wharburton, and some very funny cameos from the unusual – Ryan Reynolds and Tom Skerritt – to the bizarre – Norah Jones and Sam Jones, the star of the 80s adaptation of Flash Gordon.
Ted is an often confronting, but mostly safe comedy about relationships that will satisfy audiences looking for a laugh. However, those hoping for something more controversial a la MacFarlane’s television fare might be vaguely disappointed.
When the squirm turns
2012 Spanish Film Festival
Screening at Palace Centro
from 11-22 July
Jaume Balagueró’s thriller Sleep Tight is certain to have audiences squirming in their seats when they realise exactly what is going on in a quiet urban apartment house somewhere in Spain. If the setting sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because Balagueró shot to international fame with two terrifying films also set in an apartment building: Rec and Rec2.
There may not be any bloodthirsty zombies in Sleep Tight, but the nocturnal behavior of the building’s concierge, César (Luis Tosar) may leave some reconsidering their next snooze.
The Bad Intentions – set on the outskirts of the Peruvian capital, Lima in the early-1970s – tells the story of Cayetana (Fatima Buntinx) the highly imaginative, but slightly screwy product of a broken family. Living with her mother and her new boyfriend, Cayetana is appalled to discover that she will soon have a new baby brother, and through a twisted logic, decides that she is destined to die on the same day that her brother is born. Set beneath the grim shadow of urban guerilla terrorism, Rosario Garcia-Montero’s film is a subdued but viscerally challenging experience.
Ignacio Ferreras’s beautiful animated film Wrinkles (pictuired at right) reminds us of the perils of becoming old and infirm. This adaptation of Paco Roca’s acclaimed graphic novel follows the final years of the hapless Emilio (Tacho González) as he comes to terms with his senility and the various quirks and dysfunctions of his nursing home neighbours.
In Chinese Take-Away, hardware store proprietor, Roberto - played by Latin American legend, Ricardo DarÃn - cannot cope with the fact that living in urban society means that he must interact with people he would otherwise avoid. When a chance encounter leads to him offering reluctant shelter to the hapless Chinese tourist, Jun (Ignacio Huang), Roberto is forced to grit his teeth and endure living with someone who cannot speak his language.
• For more information about these and other films screening at the 15th Spanish Film Festival, please visit: http://www.spanishfilmfestival.com/
THE BINGE
Seyfried’s career is far from Gone
Gone (M) now available through Hopscotch
The Grey (MA15+) now available through Icon
The Artist (PG) now available through Roadshow
Le Quattro Volte (G) available from 7 July through Madman
Amanda Seyfried is one of Hollywood’s It-girls at the moment, recently completing work on the biopic of Linda Lovelace and starring as Cosette alongside Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables. In Gone, Seyfried plays Jill, the only victim who has ever escaped a mysterious serial killer; now she is convinced the same man has kidnapped her sister.
This quite tense thriller will have you guessing at whether Jill’s terror is all in her head.
There’s no doubt about the reality of the terror confronting Ottway, a wolf hunter in The Grey. Marooned in the icy wilds of Alaska, Ottway (Liam Neeson) is determined to shepherd his dwindling group of plane crash survivors to safety, despite the best efforts of a pack of wolves. This grim tale of man against nature doesn’t let up from the opening scenes.
Winner of five Oscars last year – including Best Film – Michael Hazanavicius’s The Artist is a delightful reflection of a bygone era. Filmed in monochrome, and mostly without dialogue – the final scene will enlighten audiences about the source of many of The Artist’s woes – this story about the decline of the silent movie works on so many levels, and will leave all but the meanest of viewers with a smile.
Also a silent film, but with a much more contemporary setting, Le Quattro Volte (pictured) is part observational docudrama, part exercise in philosophical reflection, as Italian writer-director, Michelangelo Frammartino cycles through four seasons in and around a Calabrian village. Focusing on a large variety of village life, and yet avoiding any voices or narration, this film is a sublime journey examining humanity and nature.
