Author: Crossfire

www.brooklynsfinestthemovie.com
Millenium Films

First and foremost, this is a mean film. That’s not to say it’s a difficult watch, far from it; Antoine Fuqua’s return to the world of crooked cops after the Oscar-winning tour-de-force that was Training Day, is an extremely watchable, engaging, powerful, jagged and thoughtful thriller. I just wouldn’t advise going to see it at a 12:45 showing on a sunny Monday afternoon….it’ll put ya in a funny mood for the rest of the day let me tell you. The world will feel a hell of a lot more relentless, cruel and dark than it did wandering into the theatre; unless you just happen to exist in a murky twilight of drug trafficking, sex-trading and gang violence…in which case…you’ll feel right at home.

Anchored around three central characters, and set over seven days within the same area of Brooklyn, we follow Richard Gere’s dishevelled, almost alcoholic, potentially suicidal, cynical, beaten down cop Eddie. He’s seven days away from retirement and with a distinctly large hole where his soul might once have been after witnessing twenty two years of relentless crime on the streets. Don Cheadle’s undercover cop finds life becoming an increasingly arduous tug-o-war between the loyalties he has forged undercover amongst criminals, and the possibility of an easy life if he can put them away for good. Finally, Ethan Hawke’s complicated and craggy catholic Sal, faced with financial dire straights due to a constantly expanding family (clearly a firm believer in Monty Pythons ‘every sperm is sacred‘) and having to pursue an extremely risky, not-really-very-legal means of dealing with it.

It is a film that does not deal with right and wrong as black and white statements, but rather, things that must be taken into account depending on their context. As we watch each of these characters forced into some extremely dark corners as a result of the personal compromises ruling over their lives, it’s clear that this is a movie that exists in a murky grey world, where what may seem the correct course of moral action on paper, is just not logistical when dealing in a real world situation. It’s powerful stuff indeed, with turns from each of the actors mentioned that really, really, make you care for these characters. Right from the get go, you want them to succeed; to over come their problems; to be able to sit back safe in the knowledge that whatever gets thrown at them, they will overcome them.

However, this is not Richard fucking Curtis’s version of the world, as much as you want to make believe away the notion that the world is not this strikingly violent, it’s as clear as day that these stories will not unwind pleasantly…and sure enough, they don’t. Expect some real emotionally weighty material slung about before the credits role.

It does get a tad…much at points. The sheer amount of shit being heaped upon these people…people that really don’t seem to deserve any of the punishment that the beardy, satin-clad man in the sky is dishing out to them. It almost verges on becoming hard to take seriously. Though, saying that, it never tips into enough of a nihilistic hell that you stop caring. This is an engaging and powerful thriller that has taught me one thing in particular…

Never go to Brooklyn.

Jonathan Day

www.iamlovemovie.com
Magnolia Pictures

I have been hiding in a box, trying to ignore the crappy, tragic mess of production that gets farted out daily. If you too are bored by predictable, trite and dull cinema as I have been recently you will love this cinematic Italian family drama. Sure you will have to read some subtitles, but Christ, people can still read can’t they? I Am Love begins at the house of the Recchi’s, an important wealthy Milanese family, in which we discover Russian-born Emma, has married into. She plays the stylish, cold, intelligent housewife to her detached and distant husband Tancredi, who is always working away. The extravagant parties she throws leave her as a bystander, and she departs early or finds ways to slink off alone. That is until she meets her son Edo’s friend and business partner Antonio, a young and brilliant chef. In one of the most engaging and heady scenes Emma is taken to Antonio’s restaurant with her mother and law and ‘soon-to-be’ daughter in law. In a spectacular scene, Emma eats a dish Antonio has made, and it’s exciting, lush and incredibly sensual. She is engaged in an illicit affair with a prawn dish, while her mother and daughter in law discuss bland formalities. This obviously leads on to a deep, intense full blown physical affair. With Antonio, not the prawn.

Everything seems to change for Emma when she discovers her daughter Betta is not only gay, but also in a happy relationship. She lovingly accepts and sympathises with her grown children. There is a beautiful scene when Betta gives her grandfather a new piece of art she has done, (usually in the form of painting or drawing), only this time it’s a photograph, of which he doesn’t really enjoy or understand. Emma soothes and reassures Betta, they are affectionate and intimate, and it’s then Betta confides in her mother, requesting she doesn’t tell her father or grandfather, as they wouldn’t understand. Later Edo realises that his mother has been unfaithful to his father, and in turn, him and takes it a bit too far outside by the pool. The following events show Emma being released from her wealthy, respectable cage to the freedom she’s always given her children, in a touching and pulse racing crescendo. John Adams masterfully showers the film in a strange, operatic and eerie soundtrack, which perfectly complements the style of the film.

I Am Love is simple and elegant, rich and powerful but equally beautiful and delicate. It’s an incredibly arresting and almost theatrical portrayal of love, family, passion and the cocoon that wealth and desire bring. The story, technique and style are pleasing to watch, but it’s the acting and soundtrack that keep you drawn in throughout. Admittedly, if you’re not really in the right frame of mind for this it will appear trivial and maybe just too visually over-the-top. But even if this is the case, the luscious and picturesque surroundings, phenomenally stylised outfits (Jil Sander and Fendi), will not only make you want to go to Milan, but will leave you feeling lustful and cultured, even if you really, really hated reading the subtitles.

Emily Paget