STACK #169 Nov 2018

CINEMA REVIEWS

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FIRST MAN

RELEASED: Oct 11 DIRECTOR: Damien Chazelle CAST: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Lukas Haas RATING: M Some films you watch, others you experience. Damien Chazelle’s biopic on the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, is one of the latter. This incredibly immersive account of the Apollo 11 mission puts the audience in the co-pilot’s seat for a claustrophobic and exhilarating trip into the stratosphere and beyond. It's also an intimate look at the man whose one small step made history on July 20, 1969 – played with stoic intensity by Ryan Gosling. First Man is all about the man. Rarely leaving Armstrong’s orbit, it’s an insightful and respectful portrait of an individual poised to make history, or die trying. Covering the nine-year period that culminated in him stepping onto the grey lunar surface (spoiler alert!), the film gets off to a sobering start with the loss of Armstrong’s two-year-old daughter to cancer, which will continue to haunt him throughout a journey that involves strenuous flight simulations and docking manoeuvres, further tragedy and triumph. This is a film of staggering verisimilitude, with handheld camerawork creating the sense of watching found-footage during the vertigo-inducing spaceflight sequences, while adding a voyeuristic quality to the more personal moments within the Armstrong home. Moreover, the production design is outstanding, from the authentic-looking 1960s aesthetic and vintage tech, to the lo-fi look of the visual effects. First Man is as far from the glossy and sentimental Hollywood blockbuster it could have been as the Earth is from the moon, thanks to a filmmaker with the right stuff to deliver a definitive account of Armstrong’s story . Scott Hocking BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE RELEASED: Oct 11 DIRECTOR: Drew Goddard CAST: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Chris Hemsworth RATING: MA15+ Writer-director Drew Goddard’s ambitious piece of ’60s pulp crime fiction takes a long and meandering road to tell a short and simple tale. A priest (Jeff Bridges), a salesman (Jon Hamm), a singer (Cynthia Erivo) and a femme fatale (Dakota Johnson) walk into a hotel, but what follows is no joke. The El Royale is a Lake Tahoe hotel straddling the California/Nevada border, and strangely deserted when these four guests arrive. A former mecca for gamblers and power players, it’s full of secret nooks that hint at a seedier side, not least an observation corridor (fitted with two- way mirrors and wired for sound) running behind the rooms. It’s through this hidden passageway that the guests’ backstories are gradually revealed, and a prologue in which a bag of cash is hidden beneath the floorboards may be the reason they’ve checked in. You’ll have probably figured out what’s going on by the halfway mark, but then Chris Hemsworth’s ripped cult leader shows up to raise the stakes anew. Goddard turned the horror genre on its head with the clever Cabin in the Woods , but instead of doing similar for the crime-thriller, he simply gives his interpretation of a Tarantino film. Although boasting a terrific cast and retro set design, there’s just not enough substance to justify (or sustain) a 141-minute film. It’s certainly not a bad time at the movies, just an unnecessarily long one. Scott Hocking

RELEASED: Nov 8 DIRECTOR: Luca Guadagnino CAST: Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz RATING: MA15+

SUSPIRIA

One of the best remakes of a classic horror film.

D ario Argento's 1977 film Suspiria is a high water mark in Italian horror and a revered cult classic, so a remake is naturally a contentious issue. Fortunately, director Luca Guadagnino ( Call Me by Your Name ) isn't interested in simply restaging the original's best moments (there's no rain of maggots or killer guide dog here), but rather taking its central concept – a prestigious German dance academy run by witches – and digging deep into the black of heart of the coven and it's process of choosing a new leader. Argento's film is horror as art – a stylish Technicolor nightmare that assaults the eyes and ears. Guadagnino's Suspiria is a stately arthouse horror that runs an icy talon slowly down your spine. Set in a divided Berlin, 1977, where the terrorist actions of the Red Army are rocking the city, American

convincing prosthetics) is investigating the disappearance of former Markos dancer Patricia (Chloë Grace Moretz), who vanished after babbling stories of witchery to him. Eschewing the original's vibrant colours and jangling Goblin score, the new Suspiria is an incredibly bleak and seriously sinister experience, with melancholic compositions by Radiohead's ThomYorke accentuating the horrors that crawl out of the dark. (The more dedicated Euro-horror buffs out there will be reminded of Andrzej Zulawski's Possession ). However, it wouldn't be Suspiria without a number of memorably violent set pieces. In one bone-crunching sequence, a victim is contorted into a human pretzel in synch with ritualised dance movements, and the grotesque and blood-soaked final act comes close to matching the aesthetic and tone of Argento's film.

RATING KEY: Wow! Good Not bad Meh Woof!

If your idea of a great horror film is the Conjuring Universe, you're going to hate Suspiria . This is a heavy and heady brew that requires total immersion in its wickedly weird world, and definitely not for all tastes. Malevolent, mesmerising and

student Susie Bannion (Dakota Fanning) arrives at the Markos Dance Company to begin her training under the austere Madame Blanc (a perfectly cast Tilda Swinton), who begins grooming Susie for a sinister purpose. Meanwhile, Dr. Josef Klemperer (credited as Lutz Ebersdorf but actually Swinton buried beneath

magnificent, Suspiria is not only the best horror film of the year, but also one of the best remakes of a genre classic. Scott Hocking

NOVEMBER 2018

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