No. 258 : The Fence (2022)

 

The Fence at the IMDb

This one popped up on my trawl through Amazon Prime and I was surprised that it was so low profile. The film doesn’t have a Wikipedia page and just over 1000 ratings on IMDb. I gave it a go, and it was a decent slice of life. I doubt it will live long in the memory, but it was an engaging 90 minutes with plenty to like.

The film is set on a Bristol council estate in the 1980’s. You are never in doubt of when the film is set as the soundtrack is an 80s jukebox with Nik Kershaw and Adam Ant getting an airing alongside Kim Wilde and virtually every other act with big hair that you can think of.

We open with a young lad poaching fish and easily evading a Keystone Cops style policeman. He sells his catch for £2 so we know this isn’t exactly going to high end criminal antics. The lad, Steven, works at a butcher and gets a quick lesson in dipping the till from a colleague. Steven is happy to comply as he’s saving for a motorbike and is keen to slip a few quid to his Mum, Sally Phillips, despite a stereotypical deadbeat Dad trying to grab some cash for the pub.

Steven gets the cash for his motorbike and shows it off to friends and some impressed girls for about two minutes before it gets nicked. The remainder of the film is reminiscent of ‘Bicycle Thieves’ as Steven tries to get back his property.

In his quest he enlists the help of his older brother, who is on probation, and a friendly black man who gets some racial abuse but is the man to know for weapons and guns.

The trail soon leads to a dodgy family who supply drugs and motor parts – will Steven exact revenge for the theft of his motorbike or will he choose another path away from the endless cycle of beatings, retribution and time in jail?

I quite enjoyed this film, but it was certainly Shane Meadows-lite. The council scheme looked a bit polished, and all the players had immaculate 70’s clothes – the type that has the viewers saying, ‘I had that jacket’! The cars also were too pristine – everyone was driving a showroom quality 80’s classic. No doubt these were borrowed from some enthusiasts, but none of them looked appropriate for our mostly grubby cast.

David Perkins did OK in the lead, but I wasn’t really buying his moral quandaries, his outrage or his eventual decision when it was time to choose a path. Of the cast only Sally Phillips was a known face, with the rest probably recent stage school graduates where they honed their perfect, if unconvincing estate accents.

The setting were good and I liked how the film played over a few days in an idyllic summer, almost like the main character was recounting events from a rosier future.

The stakes were pretty low throughout and despite drugs, guns and beatings being the seeming norm, I never really felt the presence of a lot of threat or danger. It was an enjoyable film, but I wanted to like it more and it’s a pity that it fell short of its possibilities.

I would also say that the title ‘The Fence’ is poor and clearly a successful attempt to get on this blog. The fence in question is a receiver of stolen goods, but that player has a very small part in the overall dynamic of the film. The focus of the film is Steven and how the choices he makes will affect his future. The title should have been ‘Steven and the Cloneasaurus’.

THE Tag Line : Estate Mismanagement - 62%

No. 257 : The Vanishing (2018)

 

The Vanishing at the IMDb

No, not the 1998 Dutch film of the same name or even the Jeff Bridges remake of that from 1993, this one is a bunch of Scotsmen on a lighthouse shouting a lot in a 2018 flick that had passed me by.

I found this in a charity shop for 10p and although it was probably worth that I’m glad that I didn’t invest more – apart from my precious time!

The film is based on the real-life disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Isle lighthouse in 1900. The official report concluded that the men were most likely swept out to sea, but that would be somewhat prosaic for a movie – so let’s have some gold and murder to spice things up!

I’m no puritan, but I have to say if these men were my relatives I’d be a bit upset at seeing them portrayed as a bunch of murdering psychos who swear for Scotland and have a Gollum type fascination for the shiny stuff.

The film opens with the three men taking over a remote lighthouse for a few weeks. We have Peter Mullen and Gerard Butler (Trinity House should be investigated if that casting is an accurate depiction of the men involved!) along with a young lad, there on his first stint. We get a brief idea of what’s involved with the light being cleaned and the foghorn tested before the action proper begins.

The men find a washed-up lifeboat with a body nearby. The body, in what becomes a recurring theme, doesn’t stay dead for long as the seaman wakes up and starts to fight the younger keeper. Our man manages to bash the salty tar’s head in with a rock, before the body and a mysterious box are recovered to the lighthouse station.

Mullen decrees that the box remain locked but within five minutes he’s opened it up and found it to be full of gold bars. He initially tries to keep the hoard to himself but soon the other two get wind of the treasure and the three plot to keep the loot. Butler suggests someone will come looking for the gold and he’s proven right within another five minutes.

 

The crew show themselves up to be inept liars, as the owners of the gold aren’t convinced with the lads’ tall tale that the box has already been handed over to the authorities. After a brief stramash our lads have another two bodies on their hands – wait, three as Butler carelessly whacks a young lad causing Paisley's finest no end of trauma and bad acting.

The three men now have a quandary – what to do with the loot and with each other as tensions and suspicions multiply.

This was an OK kind of film but it’s easy to see why it sank without trace. Mullen and a rather portly Butler play to form with a lot of shouting and swearing. Butler’s trip into mania and back again isn’t believable nor is Mullen’s relative indifference to the horrors unfolding in front of him. There are a lot of long pauses and drawn-out scenes that appear to be an attempt to show the malaise and isolation of the situation but it just looks like so much constipation.

The settings were good, but I didn’t buy into the tension or that these three men would turn to murder over a pile of metal – this is no ‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre’. It was a passable 100 minutes, but one that offered no insight into the true events of Flannan Isle nor a compelling narrative for a standalone feature.

THE Tag Line - Light's Out! 56%

No. 256 : The End (2024)

 

The End at the IMDb

Here’s another film that I watched for my companion Michael Shannon Blog, but I thought my reader here shouldn’t be left out. The film was overlong and dull, which was a pity as the premise of a family surviving 20 years in a bunker following an environmental disaster sounded interesting, but I have to say I had my doubts when I read it was a musical.

 

The film is set wholly within the wealthy family’s bunker, which was created within a salt mine. The specifics of the disaster are kept somewhat vague, but it’s made pretty clear that Michael Shannon’s character ’Father’ was one of the instigators, given he used to control an oil company. This led to more alarm bells going off – will this be a parable about looking after the environment and pointing fingers at likely polluters? Yes, it is!

 

The film sets its stall out early on with the ‘Son’ character starting a tuneless song in which he’s soon joined with Shannon and ‘Mother’ (Tilda Swinton) together with Captain Darling as the Butler as well as a friend and a doctor. The ‘song’, as it was, was basically just a string of narrative set to a forgettable tune, sung by people who are clearly better actors than they are singers.

 

The son has lived his whole life in the bunker and knows only of the outside world what he learns from his family and their archive of press cuttings and books. Mother claims she used to be a ballerina and curates a large number of classic artworks.

 

Things bump along for a while before a teenage black girl is found in one of the bunker’s tunnels. The group initially try to scare her off but soon she is welcomed into the fold with her wide-eyed interest being the filter through which we can see this world. The film drags on for an interminable two and a half hours as they group carry out safety drills, preform plays, make animal noises and discuss how best to fart.

 

From an interesting premise the film is so dull and fails to be enlivened by the most forgettable set of songs you’ll ever hear. There is no reason why this is a musical, and the plot and character development isn’t helped by people launching into yet another song every ten minutes or so.

 

We learn slightly more about the characters as the film lists along and there is no surprise when the Son and the incomer girl start to bond. They are clearly the last vestige of hope in a shattered world, and we can only hope that their future adventures are undocumented.

 

I tried hard to like this film and stayed stoically to the end. I wasn’t rewarded with anything memorable however, and felt it was just like ‘Fallout’ with all the good elements stripped away by so many scavengers.

 

 

THE Tag Line : Thank God – It’s The End!  35%

No. 255 : The Missionary (1982)

 

The Missionary at the IMDb

I’m currently working my way through the Michael Palin Diaries on Audible and in ‘Halfway to Hollywood’ he covers at length the gestation, filming, promotion and reaction to ‘The Missionary’. It is a fascinating listen and well worth the required 27 hours of your time.

 

When you learn about the many issues in play, it’s amazing that any film is ever made and a good one even more. At the time of production, Palin was fresh from the success of ‘Life of Brian’ and ‘Time Bandits’, both of which gave him a writing credit. He was given free reign for his first solo feature, following the TV success of ‘Ripping Yarns’. ‘The Missionary’ was the result, one of the fledging films of ‘Handmade Films’ largely bankrolled by ex-Beatle, George Harrison.

 

Having learned so much about the background of the film I felt guilty in not liking it more. It is a worthwhile production but seems somewhat insubstantial with a lot happening off camera and there not being much in the way of believable character development.

 

Palin stars as Charles Fortescue, the titular missionary. The film opens with his name being painted out from an honours board, so we know things don’t end well for him, at least as far as the establishment is concerned. We flashback to his time in Africa and there are some sumptuous scenes of Palin in the bush, no not like that, teaching kids and spreading the good word.

 

After ten years of service, he heads back to England for his next posting and to marry his patient fiancé, the annoying Deborah, who has the twin irritations of a nasally voice and a love of filing. Fortesque meets the bishop (Denholm Elliott) who asks that he set up a mission for fallen women in the slums of London. To add to his challenge, he is also to arrange the funding for this endeavour. He meets with the wealthy Lord Ames (Trevor Howard in fine batty form) but makes more of a connection with his wife, played by Maggie Smith.

 

Lady Ames is a frustrated housewife who wastes no time in telling Fortescue that if he takes care of her, she’ll take care of the funding. The deal is settled when following a late-night visit to his room, the good lady takes care of Fortescue under the covers.

 

Things move apace with a wonderfully realised London giving a fine backdrop to Fortescue’s research and then mission house. He goes to a hooker’s house to ask her some questions but soon succumbs to her questionable charms. I didn’t really buy his weakness here, but I guess the point is he’s sexually repressed and will take any offer he gets – and he does!

 

Soon the mission house is full and when Lady Ames finds Fortescue in the company of some scantily clad lovelies, she withdraws funding. This causes the girls to go back on the streets and the place is soon flourishing. Alas, the other mission houses aren’t getting their share and complaints to the bishop cause Fortescue to be given an ultimatum to leave or be defrocked. He doesn’t have his troubles to seek as he also gets wind of a plan of Lady Ames to kill her husband, and he must head to Scotland to intervene.

 

On the grouse fields will Fortescue save the day? and what will become of Lady Ames and the mission?

 

There is a lot to like here with some wonderful sets and some fine cinematography. Great care is taken over every shot and the cast is excellent, with Timothy Spall appearing in a small role and Michael Hordern as a scatty butler who does his getting lost bit too often for my liking.

 

The film does ask a lot of the viewer. It’s only 80 odd minutes and the character jumps are somewhat jarring. Fortescue is seemingly a devoted missionary and fiancée but is soon boffing anything that moves. Lady Ames is also poorly drawn with late revelations and an outcome that didn’t ring true at all.

 

In his diaries Palin bemoans poor test screenings and late edits and I’ve no doubt a longer and better film lies chopped up on the editor’s floor. For all it’s faults though there is plenty to like with a few laughs, a fine cast and some lovely sets, setting it apart from the standard period piece.

THE Tag Line : Let us pray - for a better film! 58%