Category: Political

Cairo Conspiracy

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★ Cario Conspiracy

Directed by: Tarik Saleh

Written by: Tarik Saleh

Produced by: Kristina Åberg and Fredrik Zander

Starring: Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares, Mohammad Bakri, Makram J. Khoury, Sherwan Haji, Mehdi Dehbi.

WINNER – BEST SCREENPLAY
Cannes Film Festival 2022

‘Don’t forget where you’re from.’

When Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) is granted a scholarship to study at the Al-Azhar in Cairo, he’s worried his father won’t approve.

But his father, a fisherman who is a strict disciplinarian, says not even a father can stand in the way of God’s will.

Al-Azhar is the centre of power in Sunni Islam, and it is here that Adam arrives to open his world to the teachings of the Qur’an.  Instead the fisherman’s son becomes the centre of a power struggle between the State and religious leaders when the Grand Imam passes away.

Director and writer Tarik Saleh (The Nile Hilton Incident (2017)) states, ‘One of the Egyptian revolutions, the one that brought Field Marshal Sisi to power, was seen as a military coup, although it was actually supported by the people. Once he became President, Sisi, who has ruled Egypt for eight years, decided to confront the Al-Azhar institution directly. His first decision was to visit the University on the Prophet’s birthday. His speech said in essence: “Either you contribute to the problem or you contribute to the solution. We need to fight terrorism, which you have not done so far. There are even books in your institution that promote terrorism and this must stop.”’

What surprised Tarik Saleh as he was writing the script for, Conspiracy in Cairo is that what he had written started to happen in reality.

The conflict between state and religion is the driving narrative of the film when the State decides it will do anything in their power for the replacement of the Grand Imam to be on the side of the president.

Enter State Security Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares).

At the behest of his boss, Ibrahim uses the students as informants within the Al-Azhar, known as Angels, to pass back information to influence the decision making in favour of the State’s priorities.

Echoing the implied statement of President Sisi in real-life Egypt, “I am the new leader of Egypt, you had better fall in line”.

And the then Grand Imam, Sheikh el-Tayeb: “I am only the Grand Imam, my only privilege is to give recommendations from the Qur’an. You, Sissi, make the law and I do not interfere with that.” The President wanted the Qur’an to support his proposed laws. The Grand Imam replied that he could not because it is impossible to change the Qur’an.”

What we see in the film is how Adam, once recruited as an Angel, navigates the power struggle while staying hidden from those he’s informing on and also keeping alive by passing information to State Security that, as his predecessor and fellow student, Zizo (Mehdi Dehbi) found out – being a loose end is just as dangerous.

Weaved through-out the delicate yet deadly politics are the teachings of the Qur’an, where, ‘right is right, sin is sin.  God will guide you.’

It’s a quietly menacing film about ‘books that scare tyrants and kings,’ and scholars who quote the words of the Qur’an to find their way to a Truth.

This is a political intrigue set in the modern-day world of Islam in Egypt so the tone is unique as the familiar politics of State seek to control the power of religion, where Adam has to decide if the obstacles put in front of him come from God, or fate or man.

‘This life is but a game.’

It’s a struggle, finding that balance of power between, ‘Two Pharaoh’s in the land,’ because one false step detected by the people of Egypt could very likely lead to civil war.

Conspiracy in Cairo is an absorbing story (there’s a reason the film won Best Screenplay at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival), quietly told, from the cold but honest work of a fisherman working from a small boat on the sea, to panning to a flock of birds drifting between the spires of the Al-Azhar, to the weave of Brothers snaking their way to find and punish any against them.

Thought-provoking, intriguing with moments of beauty – this is a balanced film that gets you thinking.

 

Dune

Part OneDune

Rated: M

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve

Based on the novel written by: Frank Herbert

Screenplay written by: Denis Villeneuve, Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts

Produced by: Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Joe Caracciolo and Villeneuve

Executive Producers: Tanya Lapointe, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, Thomas Tull, Jon Spaihts, Richard P. Rubinstein, John Harrison and Herbert W. Gains

Director of Photography: Greig Fraser

Costume Designer: Jacqueline West

Composer: Hans Zimmer

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Stephen Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, with Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem.

The film opens with, “Dreams are messages from the deep,” written across the screen.  A thread that flows through-out the film lending that magical touch to a film that at its foundation, is political intrigue.

Based on the novel written by Frank Herbert, Dune (Part One) is a story of the desert, greed, vengeance, witches and blood.

I was reminded at times of the previous adaptation directed by David Lynch, Dune (1984), immediately taken back with the spit scene, the device used so well then and used again here like a nod of respect to the previous film.  There’s also John Harrison’s 2000 miniseries, “Frank Herbert’s Dune.” And the 2003 sequel miniseries titled “Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune,” starring James McAvoy. However, I’m reviewing Dune (2021) without comparison, preferring to take the film as it stands.

It’s 10191.  The House of Harkonnen has been mining spice from the desert sands of Arrakis for the last 80 years getting obscenely rich, while the people of Arrakis are given nothing by the Outsiders but violence and pain in return.

It’s a system that has worked well.  So why does the Emperor decide to give The House of Atreides the right to move into the desert city and take over the mining?

House of Atreides is powerful.  Too powerful.

‘When is a gift not a gift?’

The Duke’s son, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) has to learn about the politics of the Empire quickly.  He’s been trained to fight by Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin), he’s been counselled by his father, The Duke (Oscar Isaac), he has been shown The Path by his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).

So he trains, he listens to his father.  And he dreams.

I liked the serious tone of, Dune, offset by the warmth of Paul’s friend, Duncan (Jason Momoa) and his father.

‘What do they say of Arrakis?’

‘To shower, you scrub your arse with sand.’

But mostly, Dune is a dark film.  The waking life of Paul sometimes the stuff of nightmares with giant worms shifting the sand from beneath like the waves of an ocean, their massive mouths filled with teeth to suck anything that makes sound into their abyss; and the cruelty as the innocent are beheaded without actually seeing the gore – you don’t need to see the dead to know the deed is being done.

This is more about the foreboding build of tension that Denis Villeneuve does so well.

The film begins with the sound of a thudding heartbeat.

And here, Villeneuve’s trademark usage of the soundtrack is layered with the sound of different languages spoken and the silence of hands moving in sign language like the thread of the story pulled together into this web of intrigue from the Emperor and his games, the brutal Harkonnen made rich from mining spice, the mystery of the people of Arrakis and the dangerous power passed from Paul’s mother, Lady Jessica to her son.

What threw me was the introduction of hope into the film.

I enjoyed the desert aesthetic and tribal feel of the Arrakis people, but the hope of the people was pushed into dramatic territory and the build of tension began to fade.

But wow, I was awed by this film, with mouth dropping open at the scenery, the use of light, the pattern of rock, the flowing yellow fabric of Lady Jessica’s dress in the desert wind, the explosive bombs dropping from spaceships, desecrating the landscape below and the story of betrayal, political play and intrigue.

Definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

Official Secrets

Rated: MA15+Official Secrets

Directed by: Gavin Hood

Script Written by: Gregory Bernstein, Sara Bernstein and Gavin Hood

Based on the Book Written by, Marcia Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell: ‘The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion’

Produced by: Ged Doherty, Sarada McDermott

Starring: Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Adam Bakri, Ralph Fiennes, Conleth Hill.

Described as the untold true story of Katharine Gun, this is a film of a GCHQ translator and spy who took a stand against a war that, in the end, was never backed by any hard evidence.

I remember that first Iraqi war in 1991 – the green lights of warfare on the news like a computer game.  And I remember watching the Twin Towers burn and the silence while watching with work colleagues. Jets flew over the city on that first day of the second invasion (2003).  In Australia the war was felt.  And fought.  And protested against.

Yet, I can’t recall hearing about the leaked documents of Gun.

So the story here is gripping.

Weapons of Mass Destruction.

That was the line.

We went to war because of imminent threat.

Without hard evidence of this imminent threat, the declaration of war was needed to be pushed through the UN.

The Americans desperate to push the vote through send an email to the British GCHQ requesting agents to dig into the UN delegates to find information to turn votes in favour of going to war.

Concern about the legalities of the request, Katharine Gun investigates:

Who sent this email?

Who is Frank Koza?

And because MI6 don’t like the idea of this war;

And when journalist from The Observer, Martin Bright (Matt Smith) is told there won’t be a D-1 sanction against leaking the email;

Suddenly, who is Frank Koza?  Becomes a someone.

Instead of the propaganda feed to the media, here, the film shows the other side, the attempt to stop the machine.

From the viewpoint of Gun (Keira Knightley), this is more a drama than spy thriller.  This is the story about a relatable woman with no political ambitions or motivations, just an impulse to do the right thing, ‘Just because you’re the Prime Minister doesn’t mean you get to make up your own facts.’

I’m not always a fan of Knightley, but the weight of the film rests heavily on her ability to hold a relatable view of the injustice of what Gun sees is an illegal war pushed through by any means; to show and understand the impulse to do the right thing, to be a whistle blower, without coming across as being over-zealous.

And she’s great in this role: To make a stand, then realise what’s she done, to standing by her stance, Gun risks everything: her relationship with Kurdish husband, Yasar (Matthew Goode) seeking asylum, her job and her freedom.

It’s a cloak and dagger with a wry British humour.  There’s the underground carpark scene, but really this is an exchange of information while playing tennis.  This is a story from the newsroom and from the viewpoint of a woman trying to live an everyday life.

Who would have thought spell-check took part in allowing a war?!

But in the end, Gun’s continued freedom after admitting the leak speaks to the lengths of coverup and denial about the significance of unfounded evidence of imminent threat.

The Realm (El Reino)

Rated: MThe Realm

Directed by: Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Written by: Isabel Peña, Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Produced by: Gerardo Herrero, Mikel Lejarza, Mercedes Gamero

Starring: Antonio De La Torre, Mónica López, José María Pou, Nacho Fresneda, Ana Wagener, Bárbara Lennie, Luis Zahera, Francisco Reyes, María De Nati, Paco Revilla, Sonia Almarcha, David Lorente, Andrés Lima and Oscar De La Fuente.

Spanish with English subtitles

A fast-paced political thriller, The Realm follows Manuel López Vidal (Antonio De La Torre), a Party member who’s just been given the nod to become the next Party leader.

But when a fellow member becomes embroiled in allegations of corruption, the stain spreads as ‘Operation Amadeus’ uncovers the depth of corruption, including Manuel.  Not only is his position under threat but his freedom and even his life.

There’s a lot going on in this film: the layers of character, relationships and Spanish politics.

The dialogue is non-stop with a soundtrack of techno beats as we follow the Party members with hand-held cameras to keep the pace sprinting.  We follow behind Manuel, we follow him into the backseat of a car as the door closes, we see footage from an iPhone showing the Party members living The Life on the sunny deck of a boat as it speeds along the blue waters of their obvious success.

We see Manuel as he fights for his life, using everything he’s got.

The film slows down momentarily when Manuel meets with political journalist, Amaia Marín (Bárbara Lennie), making yet another deal, asking for her patience – they clink their glasses, ‘To patience’.

And there’s the patriarchal figure of the Party and regional head, José Luis Frías (José María Pou) who tries to give pause to the madness of politician trying to out-smart the other: when there’s silence, when a look is not returned, there’s a reason more important than one’s curiosity.

There are many characters, all trying to survive – the film washes over the depth of the many, focussing more on the individual, Manuel, on his intelligence, his family, his cunning.

The Realm shows the underbelly of Spanish politics, shining the light on those entrenched in back-hand dealings made in a government where corruption is the norm; where power protects power.

It took me a while to get absorbed into the pace of the film, to figure out exactly what was going on in the story or where the film was headed.  But the confusion and complication are all part of the intrigue – there’s more to this film than a cerebral political thriller, like there’s more to politics than the game-playing of corrupt politicians.

Fahrenheit 11/9

Rated: MFahrenheit 11/9

Directed by: Michael Moore

Written by: Michael Moore

Produced by: Carl Deal, Meghan O’Hara, Michael Moore

Starring: Michael Moore and a host of sympathisers and suspects.

No one is safe and nothing is sacred, at least nothing that the big end of town wants to sweep under the carpet when Michael Moore throws back the rug to expose the outrageous chicanery that gets them what they want.

With a Michael Moore documentary you can expect to be appalled by the issues at stake and riveted by the oblique angles from which they are viewed. In this instance, Moore’s thought provoking compilation of theatre, confrontation and shenanigans charts the alternative history of Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency, and beyond. If anyone in America could be described as Trump’s arch-nemesis, it would most likely be Moore. Where the one with extravagant comb-over and the unusually long necktie famously evades questions, his shaggy nemesis in the baseball cap is equally invested in finding the answers. Even if those findings might not be the ones you expect.

While I have been continually gobsmacked by the audacious commentary aimed at the Trump administration, so much has already been said and written that I had wondered whether I might be in line for a lengthy rehash. Not so. From the opening scenes, the little voice in my mind kept asking in a stunned whisper, ‘Can he really say that?’ And that was before one word had even been uttered. The choice of music implied something that words could not say (at least, not without being sued or locked up).

Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know about Trump’s ascendancy—social media, Russian interference, the ill-timed FBI investigation—there was one factor that we had all overlooked. According to Moore’s deep investigative research, Gwen Stefanie was responsible for the Trump phenomenon.

Even so, Trump’s Stefani inspired tilt for office was merely the prelude, with Moore zeroing in on Trump’s plan to run the country as a business. In 2010, Rick Snyder, former chairman of Gateway Computers, had already delivered a full-dress rehearsal in the state of Michigan when he was elected governor. Invoking a state of emergency, Snyder privatised the public services in the city of Flint. With capitalism and unbridled greed running amok, the result was a water crisis that has decimated the city’s economy and poisoned its citizens. As Moore notes, ‘No terrorist organisation has figured out how to poison an entire American city’.

Flint alone would be a resounding indictment on the state of things in America today, but Moore takes aim at a constellation of culprits. Democrats, Republicans, the United States Electoral College, even the general public are implicated. Moore spares no one when he asks:

How the #*!@*# did it happen?

America has long proclaimed itself to be the champion of democracy, but Moore’s wide-ranging think piece reveals an America sleepwalking toward the destruction of the American dream (not the one with the house and two cars), but the dream of a ‘one person one vote’ democracy. For many Americans it is still only an aspiration and whatever freedoms they have won are in imminent peril.

Donbass

Rated: MDonbass

Directed by: Sergei Loznitsa

Script by: Sergei Loznitsa

Produced by: Heino Deckert

Starring: Tamara Yatsenko, Liudmila Smorodina, Olesya Zhurakovskaya, Boris Kamorzin, Sergei Russkin, Petro Panchuk, Irina Plesnyaeva, Zhanna Lubgane, Vadim Dobuvsky, Alexander Zamurayev, Gerogy Deliev, Valeriu, Andriuta, Konstantin Itunin, Valery Antoniuk, Nina Antonova, Natalia Buzko, Sergei Kolesov, Svetlana Kolesova, Sergei Smeyan.

Donbass, named because of the region in Eastern Ukraine where the film begins and ends, isn’t a typical war film.

This is a confusing and absurd film of moments during a war between the Ukraine regular army made up of volunteers and the separatist gangs supported by Russian troops.

The focus is on the ground amongst the people living their everyday lives in a world of chaos with chapters showing bombs dropped while laughing on the phone, waiting in the car in line at yet another check point.  And a raucous wedding filled with congratulatory soldiers with code-names like Lumber Jack and Coupon.

It’s a disturbing mix of footage shot in freezing weather and underground bunkers where civilians are forced to live without water, heat and a working toilet – like people from the ‘stone age’.

This is director and scriptwriter, Sergei Loznitsa’s fourth feature film.  He describes Donbass as a fiction based on true events, quoting Varlam Shalamov in his short story, PAIN: it’s a film that’s, ‘a distorted reflection in a curved mirror of the underground world’.

And it’s a cold world with a constant undercurrent of threat.

One chapter shows a German journalist who’s pulled from a vehicle at a check point for questioning – the soldiers happy to have found a ‘fascist’: even if you don’t think of yourself as a fascist, your grandfather certainly was.

Only for them to all get bombed anyway.

I wouldn’t say the film was overly violent, but the violence shown is disturbing because it all seems so senseless.

I spent a lot of the time watching the film in confusion, trying to figure out who was on what side.

The civilians shown to be just as confused, one scene showing a middle-aged woman talking to a volunteer captured and tied to a pole with, ‘Extermination Squad Volunteer’ taped to his chest, asking when the bus will arrive… and how she can’t walk as far as she used to…

Then to see the man inevitably get almost based to death isn’t really my style of entertainment.

I get the statement made here – the degradation of people living amongst the senselessness of war; but I found the viewing extremely dry, confusing and absurd.

Which was the point, I grant, but it was just so depressing l was left with a sense of incongruity and bitterness.

Mile 22

Rated: MA15+Mile 22

Directed by: Peter Berg

Screenplay by: Lea Carpenter

Story by: Lea Carpenter and Graham Roland

Produced by: Mark Wahlberg, p.g.a. Stephen Levinson, p.g.a, Peter Berg, p.g.a

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, John Malkovich, Ronda Rousey, Carlo Albán, Natasha Goubskaya, Chae Rin Lee, Sam Medina, Keith Arthur Bolden, Jenique Hendrix, Billy Smith, Myke Holmes, Emily Skeggs, Terry Kinney, Brandon Scales, Poorna Jagannathan, Peter Berg, Elle Graham and Nikolai Nikolaeff.

There’s no holding back in this action packed, political spy-thriller.

With blood and high-tech computer-based espionage shown through images captured by drones circling the sky and hand-held cam shots up close to see the visceral, at times, cringe worthy throat-cutting on gagged windows action (yeah, ouch!) – I was completely enthralled with this intelligent and believable military operation.

Based on the paramilitary unit within the CIA’s Special Activity Division, Ground Branch, James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) is team leader of Overwatch, a quick reaction force activated by ranking officer, Bishop (John Malkovich) when radioactive powder disks used to make dirty bombs go missing.

When a double agent forces his way to the American Embassy in South East Asia (fictional country of Indocarr) claiming to have intel on where the powder is located, the team must get Li Noor (Iko Uwais) to the airstrip for safe evacuation before he’ll give up the codes to access the intel, all while enemies stop at nothing to take the team down.

Although an action movie, there’s a lot of focus on character.

Opening on with Jimmy’s, (James Silva) background as an orphaned gifted-child, the film paces through his history like flicking through a deck of playing cards.

And the whole movie flies, each scene getting more bloody as the plot adds layer upon layer while Child 1, AKA Silva throws out statements like, ‘No birthday cake!’ while constantly flicking an elastic band on his wrist, the shock of pain supposed to keep his temper in check, but mostly adding a disturbing smack to his words – an indication of explosive violence barely held in check: brilliant.

Director Peter Berg loves his action thrillers his last three based on true stories (think: Patriots Day, Lone Survivor, Deepwater).  Here he returns once again collaborating with Wahlberg, this time making a film from fiction from first time screenwriter, Lea Carpenter.

I’d love to see more writing from Carpenter.  And seeing Wahlberg as an arse hole was gold: he’s so nasty it’s funny.

All the characters here were bad-arse, with Alice (Lauren Cohan) as a mother dealing with her ‘fuck wit’ ex as tough as the rest, the threat of I’ll go get, ‘a sledgehammer and ice axe and fuck you up’, a believable statement.

Violent, hard-arsed characters in action flicks can feel try-hard but not here.

And Indonesian actor Iko Uwais as the double agent on the road to betray his country was a pleasure to watch as his martial art fighting style erupts in stark contrast to his finger tapping meditation technique used to keep calm and get the job done.

There’s biometrics, drones, shots from car windshields, explosions – Doug Fox, who pulls double duty as both prop master and lead armorer says, “For this movie, we’re in the neighborhood of 50 weapons […]. That includes machine guns, M-4’s, AK’s, and Uzis; we also have to ship 40,000 rounds of blank ammo.” Just to give an idea of the amount of carnage.

And there’re flash forwards with Jimmy explaining in post-operation interview the unravelling of events as the four operatives transfer the Asset, 22 Miles in 38 minutes.

A simple concept, with many layers, so believable and so very violent – loved it.

Midnight Oil 1984

Rated: MMidnight Oil 1984

Writer, Director:  Ray Argall

Producers:  Rachel Argall, Ray Argall

Starring :  Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie, Andrew James, Martin Rotsey, and Peter Gifford.

 

In 1984 as Australia faced the turmoil and uncertainty of political conflicts, systemic poverty, mega powers flexing their nuclear muscle, and the home-grown unwashable stain of a nation’s refusal to acknowledge the legacy of racism towards its indigenous culture – Midnight Oil embarked on a national tour of their album Red Sails in the Sunset and unified a nationwide voice of protest with their music.

Ray Argall’s documentary, Midnight Oil 1984 gives candid unseen angles and film footage of Midnight Oil at the height of galvanising social change through their music that hit the top of Australian and International music charts. Argall’s lens muscles into the action of sardine packed audiences – the audiences packed because of entrepreneurial self-promotion – in sweaty pub venues with no air conditioning and walls and ceilings dripping with honey thick sweat.

Argyll’s lens dips into the wide mouthed stares of audiences, witnessing social change at the windmill circling arms of a 6’4 gyrating maniac lead singer, as he unifies them together in songs of protest.

I too stood like a stunned possum in headlights the first time I saw Peter Garrett live in the 80’s with Midnight Oil, at New Zealand’s, Sweetwater’s Music Festival – where they played alongside UB40, Psychedelic Furs, Toots and the Maytals and others – I too gaped, at what I thought was a gyrating maniac.

He looked like someone had rented his body for the weekend, an alien perhaps or a rogue angel on a vacay down under in New Zealand, an alien or angel, who in their haste to jump in the body, had lost the manual and now had no clue how to steer the 6’4 convulsing kinetic frame that was Midnight Oil’s charismatic and out-of-this-world, lead singer, Peter Garrett.

Director Ray Argall’s, Midnight Oil 1984, delivers up a powerful moving snapshot, of a time when one of Australia’s greatest rock bands, collided with Australian politics and delivered the voice of the common people to a world stage.

Intimate backstage scenes permissible through Argyll’s lens reveal a very unrock and roll off stage lifestyle – hot tea beverages are sipped between sets, yogic stretching by Garrett on the floor of a minimalist and functional dressing room – not a band rider in site; kilometer-upon-kilometer-long jogging tracks for Drummer Rob Hirst, as he gets body ready for his marathon on stage drumming performances. His drum kit nailed to the floor at every performance.

The band’s reputation was built on intense live performances, where they leapt on to stage and tore the places apart with their energy and the political rage of their lyrics.

Newspaper archives and recent band member interviews offer welcome backstory and give insights to the meteoric and controversial ascension of Peter Garrett into the political arena.

The legacy of Midnight Oil with their fight songs, social conscience and their unique stage presence chiseled the landscape of Australian rock history and changed a nation with what they bought to the stage.

Enigmatic and indefinable, for me Garrett vibrates with the stage presence of a rogue angel, and once seen he changes you for having looked and stared. Fellow band member, Drummer Rob Hirst, and Garrett’s friend of 45-years agrees, that whatever it is that Garrett does on stage, it cannot be called dancing, but whatever it is, it works.

The Party

Rated: MA15+The Party

Written and Directed by: Sally Potter

Produced by: Christopher Sheppard, Kurban Kassam

Cinematographer: Alexey Rodionov

Starring: Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Cillian Murphy, Kristin Scott Thomas and Timothy Spall.

The Party is a film filled with cynical wit as newly appointed Shadow Minister of Health, Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) celebrates her new post by hosting a party.

Bill (Timothy Spall), husband and long-time supporter sits in a daze with a glass in hand as each guest arrives: best friend April (Patricia Clarkson) and her New Age partner, Gottfried (Bruno Ganz), lesbian couple Martha (Cherry Jones) and Jinny (Emily Mortimer), newly pregnant, and the handsome financier, Tom (Cillian Murphy) – all sitting on their own agenda as a constant barrage of political and social standpoints are thrown around the room building to their very own announcements.

A film of contrasts, and not just because the entirety is shot in black and white, but because of the contrast of ideals and personalities.  Even the music played on the turntable by Bill is a bizarre backdrop and soundtrack to the emotive tension in the lounge room; tragedy and trauma played out to the rumba and reggae creating the ridiculous and send-up to all the seriousness discussed from life expectancy related to economics and class rather than diet and exercise – a statistic Janet and husband Bill have always agreed upon – to the question of life after death.

The setting of the film is the house of Janet and Bill – there’s no hiding as each character is forced to face the crisis looming in each relationship: the dying academic, the cheating wife; each person intellectualising their emotion into a rational argument all to the sound of Bill’s insistence of playing record after record, his need for music a compulsion to express.

This is a film driven by dialogue, and the set was created and shot on stage like a play where each character slowly unravels as each reveals the next revelation – the story’s interest in the layers of rationale used as self-protection being pealed away to show the raw human hiding underneath; argument and ideals and political stances made as an adult only to show the child still hiding underneath.  Except for April.  Now a cynic.  Janet asks her best friend, ‘Have I been emotionally unavailable?’

Of which April replies, ‘It’s not a productive line of thought’.

There are so many subtle moments that got me giggling.  Small details like Bill sitting confused, a glass of red in one hand and the celebratory glass of champagne in the other.

It’s sad, it’s tragic.  And the understanding of what we cling to, to keep our ego’s intact, is examined and oh so very funny.

Writer and director Sally Potter (Orlando (1992)), states she wrote the script with an awareness of the absurdity of human suffering; the highlight for me April as she cuts through any emotion with her scathing, but not to be taken personally, remarks aimed at revealing the true and rational perspective with her unblinking eye, ‘You’re a first-rate lesbian and a second-rate thinker.’

To which Martha, Professor of Women’s Studies replies ‘April, Really.  I am a professor. Specializing in domestic labour gender differentiation in American utopianism.’

‘Exactly,’ says April.

Left with nothing unnecessary for the story to come full-circle in 71 minutes, The Party is a clever film that takes you into the claustrophobic world of relationships in crisis viewed through the lens of a political satire; the most selfless of the group the coke snorting soulless financier, Tom – now that’s cynical.

 

Miss Sloane

Rated: MMiss Sloane

Directed by: John Madden

Written By: Jonathan Perera

Produced by: Ben Browning, Kris Thykier

Executive Producers: Claude Leger, Jonathan Vanger, Patrick Chu

Starring: Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Lacy, Sam Waterston and John Lithgow.

A perfectly layered political drama/thriller that plays out like an intricate game of chess.

As the character, Miss Sloane (Jessica Chastain, two-time Academy Award nominee) says, ‘Lobbying is about foresight, about anticipating your opponent’s moves and devising countermeasures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition. It’s about making sure you surprise them and they don’t surprise you’.

Miss Sloane

Miss Sloane is a fast-paced film as the audience is taken along with the calculating mind of Sloane. And what an amazing complicated character to watch: her ambition, misdirection, suspicion, lack of moral code; she’s portrayed as a sociopath and to watch this brilliant relentless mind at work is fascinating.

The film opens as Sloane’s held to account in front of a congressional hearing regarding her code of conduct and ethical standards.  Then flashes back to what led her to the ultimate confrontation: pushing to pass a Bill requiring the background check of those wanting to buy firearms.  Translating to: Miss Sloane versus the Gun Lobbyists.

In the supporting cast, there’s the well-known faces of Mark Strong as the CEO of the boutique firm she joins to fight for the Bill, and Sam Waterston as George Dupont: head of an old-school lobbying firm where she earned her name as one of the most cutthroat lobbyists around, willing to do anything to win.Miss Sloane

It’s hard not to think back to Law & Order when seeing Sam Waterston.  He plays the lobbyist so well but as a twist, he’s the bad guy here.

Screenwriter Jonathan Perera has had his first script translated to the big screen by director John Madden.  And what a pleasure it must have been pulling so many layers together into the glorious satisfying end.  When I say layers, there’s a lot going on here but the delicate touch of Madden let the story keep its own pace, with each move a further step towards a reveal you don’t see coming.

Perera was a U.K.-educated attorney who left his practice to write, his background adding an authenticity and edge to those cat-and-mouse games shown so well in this film.  But there’s also the revelation of how the whole lobbying business works in American politics.  And what it means to take on the power that is the gun lobby group, self-portrayed as the protectors of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. 

Madden and Perera went to great lengths to ensure the accuracy of how lobbying works, consulting a lobbying firm: Glover Park Group. 

I admit I was a little lost at the beginning of the film.  The character, Miss Sloane’s mind works fast and the audience is expected to keep up with the jargon.  My advice is if you don’t follow, let it go.  It’s worth keeping up with the film as it runs, and well worth the journey.

What makes the film truly successful is the complicated nature of the character that is Miss Sloane.  She’s certainly not the most empathetic woman, but the obsession to win at any cost was somehow relatable: I wanted to be as smart and sophisticated as her.  But the film also shows the cost of her success making Miss Sloane strangely likeable.

This is a thoroughly absorbing film because its cleverness is combined with an undercurrent of emotion that’s felt without needing explanation.

Classy and smart all the way – brilliant.

Subscribe to GoMovieReviews
Enter your email address for notification of new reviews - it's free!

 

Subscribe!