STACK February 2017 Issue 148

ALSO SCREENING

FEBRUARY

"Choose looking up old friends.... Choose

watching history repeat itself..." It's been too

long – 20 years in fact – since we last hung

out with Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begby in

Danny Boyle's Brit-classic. Choose your seats

Feb 23

, but for now, turn to page 14 for our

interview with star Jonny Lee Miller.

T2: TRAINSPOTTING

And hopefully fifty shades sexier. After a

surprisingly tame introduction to Christian Grey

and Anastasia Steele in the first film, a

Fatal

Attraction

-like sub-plot promises to turn up the

heat. Opens

Feb 9

in time for Valentine's Day.

FIFTY SHADES DARKER

Set thirteen years after the films starring

Naomi Watts, the curse of Samara is updated

for the internet age as a viral video. But will

it still be as scary as that terrifying tape? Find

out, if you dare, on

Feb 23

RINGS

Matt Damon and the guy from

Game of

Thrones

are recruited to defend the Great Wall

of China from a monstrous invasion force that

threatens the historical site on

Feb 16

THE GREAT WALL

M. Night Shyamalan might be cinema's greatest one

trick pony. After making an auspicious debut in 1999

with

The Sixth Sense

and an Oscar nomination for

Best Director, it's been all downhill ever since with

a series of films predicated on twist endings (

Signs,

The Village, The Lady in the Water, The Happening

)

that became progressively more preposterous.

Nothing has changed – his latest film,

Split

, is

quintessential Shyamalan and the twist here is

that he hasn't learned from past mistakes. James

McAvoy plays a guy named Kevin, and Dennis, and

Barry, as well as a prim woman named Patricia

and a lisping child called Hedwig. These are just

five of the 23 personalities inhabiting this sufferer

of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple

Personality Disorder), who has abducted a trio of

students (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson and

Jessica Sula) and imprisoned them in a basement for

some sinister purpose.

Split

resembles a bad Dean

Koontz novel or a rejected

X-Files

script, with the

narrative alternating between the girls' encounters

with Kevin's different personas – appealing to the

benevolent ones, inciting the wrath of the more

malicious – and the revelation uncovered by his

elderly psychiatrist (Betty Buckley) concerning

the nature of his disorder and the possibility that

a 24th personality is struggling to emerge. Then

there are the flashbacks to Taylor-Joy's childhood

involving a hunting trip with her father and

uncle, that may have some significance to her

present predicament. And who or what is the

mysterious 'Beast' that's so ominously name-

dropped throughout, and will it actually show up?

Assembling Shyamalan's enigmatic jigsaw of a

plot and attempting to pre-empt the inevitable

climactic reveal is ultimately an exercise in futility

–

Split

is all set-up with little payoff, and the coda

smacks of conceit. McAvoy, however, is enormous

fun and his blatantly showy performance is almost

worth the price of admission.

Scott Hocking

Night falls.

SPLIT

RELEASED:

Now Showing

DIRECTOR:

M. Night Shyamalan

CAST:

James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy

RATING:

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain's portrait of

iconic First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is less a

biopic than an intensely intimate character study.

There's a lot of life to cover so

Jackie

narrows its

focus to the week following the assassination of

JFK and its devastating impact upon his widow.

Noah Oppenheim's exquisitely layered screenplay

is informed by an interview conducted by

LIFE

journalist Theodore H. White (played by Billy

Crudup but unnamed in the film), and begins with

an initially frosty reception between the two as

Jackie lays out her terms, which includes a final

edit of the piece. The story is unconventionally

structured, jumping between Jackie's distress

following the shooting in Dallas, her confiding in

a priest (John Hurt), and a recreation of the 1962

documentary on the White House refurbishment

that showcases her public persona. It's the

scenes aboard Air Force One in the wake of the

tragedy and Jackie's subsequent return home

that resonate most strongly – wandering shell-

shocked through an empty White House with

her husband's blood still splashed across her

pink outfit, her grief is palpable. With her striking

physical resemblance and distinctive diction,

Natalie Portman nails it, personifying a woman

both fragile and strong, and fiercely resolute

in her desire to preserve the Kennedy legacy.

Frequently shot in extreme close-up,

Jackie

keeps us in the immediate sphere of its subject

and the result is an extremely melancholic

experience that runs contrary to expectations

for a film of this type. There's a scene in the

aforementioned White House doco where John

F. Kennedy states its purpose is to offer a more

intimate look at the people behind the legends,

and that's exactly what Larrain's remarkable film

does.

Scott Hocking

Portrait of a First Lady.

JACKIE

RELEASED:

Now Showing

DIRECTOR:

Pablo Larraín

CAST:

Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard

RATING:

MA15+

visit

stack.net.au

CINEMA

REVIEWS

jbhifi.com.au

FEBRUARY

2017