REVIEW: Shutter Island

Shutter Island (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2010) *****

reviewed by David Sugarman

There’s a twist towards the end of Shutter Island that I won’t spoil for you, but which seems to have spoiled the movie for some critics. To deride the twist as either nonsensical or predictable misses the point entirely; Shutter Island is a masterful film because it tells its story (twist and all) with such sureness, such aplomb, it’d be a shame to let something like that ruin one’s enjoyment and admiration of it.

Scorsese’s latest picture is a hybrid noir-horror B-movie homage that transcends its genre implications with a virtuosity of technique it is impossible not to enthuse over. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels, investigating the disappearance of a patient from the Ashecliff hospital for the criminally insane on the titular island, along with his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) in the early 1950s. It quickly becomes apparent that the disappearance is a set up – this isn’t the twist – but the reason for such a conspiracy is unclear. What is clear is that Teddy has issues. Big ones: he is constantly haunted by dreams of his murdered wife (Michelle Williams) and memories of his part in the liberation of Dachau.

The film is full of notable performances – not least from DiCaprio himself as the troubled protagonist – including those Ruffalo’s blank-faced newbie, and Sir Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow as the chief psychiatrists of Ashecliff, but the film is very nearly stolen from under Leo’s nose by an electric one-scene cameo by Jackie Earle Haley (having previously stolen Watchmen as the psychopathic Rorschach) as one of the patients at Ashecliff.

Shutter Island may not be to everybody’s taste, but its visual power is undeniable, and the more thought I give to it, the more confident I am in calling it my favourite film by Scorsese. The film’s dramatic construction is flawless, and if the twist is predictable, that is to your credit, rather than the film’s detriment: the clues are there from the very start, and it’s up to you – as it is with Teddy – to work out what the hell is happening on Shutter Island.

REVIEW: Where The Wild Things Are

Where The Wild Things Are (dir. Spike Jonze, 2009) ****

reviewed by David Sugarman

When rumours began to surface last year that all was not well between Warner Bros. and Spike Jonze, regarding his long-planned and highly-anticipated adaptation of a classic children’s book, I worried. It was reported that Jonze and his co-writer, Dave Eggers, had written a dark, subversive take on the story, and that the studio were demanding reshoots.

Thankfully, the film that has finally hit release here in the UK today is the film that Jonze wanted us all to see. Previously award-nominated for directing the Charlie Kaufman scripts Being John Malkovich and Adaptation., Jonze may on the surface seem an odd choice to direct a “family movie” like Where The Wild Things Are– but both Malkovich and Adaptation. reveal Jonzes innate grasp of magical realism and fantasy. And boy, does that pay off wonderfully in Wild Things.

Lonely child Max (Max Records) throws a tantrum, biting his stressed mother (Catherine Keener) and running out of the house into the dark, while his mother’s boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) watches lamely on. Max find himself in a strange world populated by the huge Jim Henson-created “Wild Things” of the title.

While the film is often piecemeal, and certain ideas are followed up vague blind paths or simply left unfulfilled entirely, I certainly left the cinema feeling there was more to it than I had been able to grasp from a single viewing. Young Max Records delivers a great performance, full of pathos; almost the opposite of Haley Joel Osment in A.I. Artificial Intelligence at the start of the decade, though equal in terms of adorable melancholy. However, whereas David in A.I. was a robot incapable of really understanding the emotions he has been programmed to feel, Max develops an intuition and a self-aware sadness. Visually the film is gorgeous, with wonderful photography by Lance Acord and the excellent Henson puppets giving a properly magical feel to the fantasy. The final touch is Karen O’s soundtrack, all ramshackle acoustics and a capella vocals.

I need to see this film again to do it full judgment, but initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive.

The Brothers Bloom

Finally! A confirmed UK release! Probably in May. Which is ages away. And the DVD is already out in America. I’ll wait. Because I want to see it on a big screen first time.

The Brothers Bloom is the second film from writer/director Rian Johnson, the creator of Brick, my favourite film in the whole wide world. It is a con-man/heist film starring Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Rinko Kikuchi and Robbie Coltrane.

Wait, what? Why has this only just been confirmed for a UK release, you ask? Why has a film with a bankable mainstream star like Mark Ruffalo that cost a decent amount not been pushed here? A film that stars two Oscar winners in Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz, plus another (Maximillian Schell) and a recent nominee (Rinko Kikuchi), from a critically acclaimed writer/director, whose first film made more money in the UK than it did in the US?

What the hell, Summit?! Too busy with your little vampires to spare a thought for the rest of us and find a UK distributor?

This really has me puzzled. Is this merely an issue of UK audiences, or the producers focussing on the Twilight movies, or what?

In other news, Johnson has also created a tumblr for his next film, a sci-fi/gangster flick called Looper. There’s some interesting bits and pieces about Looper floating around, not least the little quotations and images on the tumblr account. I’m excited already!

David