Tag: Armando Iannucci

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD – Review

As the temps show little signs of cooling (and Fall’s less than four weeks away), another way to pass the hours in the “great indoors” (a very familiar locale for the last five months or so) is to scoop up a beloved literary classic, blow the dust off, and dive right in to revisit another faraway time. Or, for those more adventurous folk, head down to the just reopened movie theatres for the latest big-screen adaptation. Yes, this work has inspired countless artists over its 170 plus years’ history. One such writer/filmmaker, who’s been quite the award magnet in televised media over the last couple of decades, has decided to put his “spin” on this classic to both honor the original tome and breathe “new life” into it for today’s movie audiences. That may account for his “addition” to the title (which had been just the main character’s moniker in most editions), THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD.

This “history” actually starts with the adult David (Dev Patel) using a slide projector to take an appreciative theatre audience back to the time of his birth. Recent widow Clara Copperfield (Morfydd Clark) is briefly distracted from excruciating labor by the whirlwind arrival of her dotty aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton), who just as quickly departs upon learning of the infant’s gender (she was counting on a girl). Fortunately, mother and her servant Pegotty (Daisy May Cooper) dote on the infant. Things get much more complicated when Clara marries the humorless Mr. Murdstone (Darren Boyd) who brings along his equally unpleasant sister Jane (Gwendoline Christie). Luckily little David (Ranveer Jaiswal) is taken on a holiday with Pegotty to visit her brother Daniel (Paul Whitehouse) who works the docks with his adopted kids Ham (Anthony Welsh) and sweet Emily (Aimee Kelly). A big plus, they all live in an old beached boat. Life isn’t as fun when David returns home to the teaching and vicious punishments of Murdstone, who promptly sends him off to London to toil as a wine-bottler. Here too, he gets a taste of happy home life when he is sent to live with the poor, but fun Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi) and his raucous large clan. It all comes to an end when the Murdochs arrive to inform David (now Patel) of his mother’s passing. Distraught with rage he somehow walks to his Aunt Betsey’s estate. She welcomes him and he soon becomes good friends with their distant relative, the eccentric but sensible Mr. Dick (Hugh Laurie). But he must continue his education, so Betsey enrolls him in a boys prep school run by the tipsy Mr. Wickfield (Benedict Wong) and his good-hearted daughter Agnes (Rosalind Eleazar). There David makes friends with both the rich, cocky Steerforth (Aneurin Barnard), and the school’s strange, self-deprecating custodian Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw). As David matures he falls in love with Dora (Ms. Clark again), thwarts a financial crime, and pursues his dream of writing a great novel.

As you see, the film follows HAMILTON with its “color-blind” casting, using actors of many different ethnicities and races to interpret the classic roles. With that, we’re treated to a most passionate performance by Patel as the lead. He utilizes his superb comic skills along with a lanky physicality, often recalling the great silent film clowns. And when he falls in love, Patel does a full-on deep dive. Ditto for his “mini-me”, the endearing Jaiswall who behaves as though every place is a new part of “Wonderland”. The rest of Dickens’ classic characters are an actor’s dream, and this extraordinary cast makes them feel fresh and new. Swinton is a zany whirlwind as Betsey, from chasing away the dreaded donkeys from her land (she knocks riders to the ground) to distracting Wickfield away from her well-stocked globe full of booze. She’s got a great “dancing partner’ in the deliciously loopy Laurie who rambles about Charles the First while toting a big cumbersome kite (his work is reminiscent of his many roles on the various incarnation of TV’s “Blackadder”). Perhaps the most endearing Dickens creation may be Micawber who is played with charm to spare by the buoyant Capaldi (the last of the male Who doctors) as a doting dad and lovable rascal always short of cash but towering with heart. On the subject of great comic turns, kudos to Clark who steals so many scenes as the completely daffy Dora (talking through her pup Jip), after pulling on our heartstrings as the loving but doomed Clara. The film’s most subtle but compelling standout might be Whishaw whose bowing manner and Moe Howard hairstyle hide a truly devilishly devious mastermind. Whishaw’s odd demeanor and swirling beady eyes inject an off-kilter menace to even a friendly snack of “heavy” cake.

Oh, the award-winning creative force behind this? None other than Armando Iannucci, who we’ve not seen on the big screen since 2017’s THE DEATH OF STALIN, though he’s been very busy at HBO finishing up the political satire “Veep” and starting up the sci-fi spoof “Avenue 5”. With this adaptation he’s shaken up the story a bit, trimming some characters while fiddling with the plot mechanics in order to bring things to a most satisfying conclusion in just two hours’ time. Aside from starting with a flash-forward Iannucci has incorporated several startling cinematic devices, changing scenes using some CGI trickery, often bulldozing the “fourth wall” to have David address us and his own child- self, and tossing in some narrative bits right from Broadway (at one point the actors’ backdrop is replaced by a projected sequence). As with his past works, Ianucci relies on rapid-fire dialogue (he co-wrote the script with Simon Blackwell) dropping gags with precision accuracy, but he also displays a terrific knack for choreographing wild bits of slapstick chaos, highlighted as Micawber’s home is under siege from creditors, their hands reaching through windows as they literally try to re-take the carpet right under his feet. And all the while he doesn’t short-change the drama and pathos of this man’s “history”. Add a sweeping score from Christopher Willis, dazzling cinematography from Zac Nicholson, plus costumes, art direction, and sets from artists and craftspeople at the “top of their game”, well, you’ve got a story from nearly two centuries ago that feels vibrant and alive, putting you right in the “moment”. THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD is an exceptional cinematic experience.


Three and a Half Out of Four

THE DEATH OF STALIN – Review

(left to right) Dermot Crowley as Kaganovich, Paul Whitehouse as Mikoyan, Steve Buscemi as Krushchev, Jeffrey Tambor as Malenkov, and Paul Chahidi as Bulganin. Photo by Nicola Dove. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.

Tragedy plus time equals comedy, the old saying goes. THE DEATH OF STALIN, oddly, is a comedy, a mix of political satire and farce built around the days before and after the death of Josef Stalin. Anything about Stalin, the Soviet Union’s brutal longtime strongman ruler, hardly seems like fodder for comedy yet director Armando Iannucci manages to replace Karl Marx with the Marx Brothers in THE DEATH OF STALIN. Iannucci is no stranger to political satire, having helmed television’s VEEP, and assembles a splendid cast of mostly British and American actors, many skilled in comedy, for this often hilarious English-language dark comedy.

That strong cast includes Steve Buscemi, Jeffery Tambor, Michael Palin, Paddy Considine and Jason Isaacs, as well as Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Friend and Olga Kurylenko. The fearsome Soviet Union dictator was known for his purges and gulags but this film plays the fear and paranoia of the era for laughs. Many of the events, absurd as they are, really happened although everything is re-framed as farce comedy, with just enough chill of reality underneath.

A France/British/Belgian production based on the graphic novels of Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, this droll, dark comedy follows the jockeying for power among Stalin’s inner circle after the death of the long-time leader. Steve Buscemi plays Nikita Khrushchev, a talkative schemer who nimbly keeps his footing with a constant string of jokes to distract moody Josef Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin). Stalin’s daily list of executions and detentions are carried out by Lavrenti Beria (Simon Russell Beale), the blood-thirsty head of the security force NKVD. Jeffrey Tambor plays Stalin’s hand-picked successor Georgy Malenkov, a dour, dithering man seemingly chosen for his lack of any threat to “the boss.” The rest of the inner circle, the Central Committee, includes old revolutionary Molotov (Michael Palin), Kaganovich (Dermot Crowley), Mikoyan (Paul Whitehouse), and Bulganin (Paul Chahidi).

Under Stalin’s rule, people at the top have honed staying alive to a fine art. The insanity and paranoia of life under “Uncle Joe” is illustrated in a little prologue based on a real event. In this crazy bit, Stalin requests a recording of a Radio Moscow classical music broadcast. The head of the radio station, played hilariously by Paddy Considine, does not dare tell Stalin that the live performance was not recorded. Instead, they hold the audience and musicians and, after some difficulty with the piano soloist Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko), they repeat the performance to record it.

This strange but true incident is one of several peppered throughout this clever, smart, and funny film.

When Stalin suffers a stroke in his room at night and falls to the floor with a loud thud, the guards at his door are too afraid to investigate so he is not found until the next morning. The members of the Central Committee gather but are more concerned with who is in charge than Stalin’s health. Finding a doctor is a challenge, since Stalin’s purges have exiled the best doctors in Moscow to Siberia or worse. As the unconscious Stalin lingers, power shifts back and forth among the politicians, creating panic among them when he momentarily regains consciousness. Once he dies, the serious maneuvering for control gets underway, with plotting and shifting alliances. The committee sends for Stalin’s children, emotional Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough) and drunken, crazy son Vasily (Rupert Friend), as they prepare for the state funeral. The funeral also brings in the leader of the Soviet army, Field Marshall Zhukov (Jason Isaacs), whose power struggles with Beria’s NKVD interjects a new level of crazy.

The humor is mostly played straight, which heightens the comedy. Steve Buscemi is particularly good, and is often the center of the action. Other standouts are Beale’s devious Beria, Tambor’s silly, clueless Malenkov, Jason Isaacs’ imperious, blunt general, and Andrea Riseborough’s appealing, crazed Svetlana. Svetlana teeters between mourning her father and the paranoia left by her weird, restricted life.

Really, this whole cast is terrific, and especially good in deliciously funny ensemble scenes. The squabbling over titles and assignments are hilarious, as are the continual plotting and scheming when any pair of them are out of the others’ earshot. The film is often very funny and has some moments of real brilliance, but there are also moments when grim reality seeps through, chilling the humor.

THE DEATH OF STALIN is a clever, intelligent bit of political comedy, history played for laughs, that is a refreshingly change from the usual low humor comedies of recent years. It opens in St. Louis on Friday, March 23, at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

CineVegas 2009 Preview: ‘In The Loop’

cinevegas_intheloop

CineVegas 2009 is right around the corner (next week to be precise), and We Are Movie Geeks are going to be there in full force. Throughout the festival, which runs from June 10th through the 15th, we are going to be bringing you all the coverage you need including reviews, interviews, party breakdowns, and red carpet premiere coverage.

This week, we are going to break down some of the more anticipated films of the fest. One of the early film’s to screen at CineVegas is from the UK called ‘In the Loop.’ It’s a satirical political comedy about the events and dialogue leading up to war, with the unpredictable flair of ‘The Office’.

Here is the film’s official synopsis:

If Armando Iannucci’s political farce about the road to war through the corridors of power weren’t so funny, it would be utterly terrifying. When a British cabinet minister, Simon Foster, comments publicly that he thinks war is “unforeseeable,” the result is an immediate bollocking from Malcolm Tucker, the prime minister’s testy bulldog pushing for war. Unable to clarify his position, Simon is sent to Washington, where, trying desperately to be important, he meets Karen Clark, a U.S. State Department official, and General Miller, who see him as a transatlantic partner in building a consensus against war. They search for a secret war committee, led by Karen’s hawkish colleague, Linton Barwick. And as farce demands, all parties eventually converge for a climactic shuffle between rooms, in this case at the United Nations. Wickedly sardonic and filled with secrets, lies, leaks, plugs, and faulty intelligence and walls, IN THE LOOP leads us behind closed doors to reveal bungling bureaucrats entangled in petty rivalries, obsequious aides jockeying for favor, and the Keystone Cops of government, including a minister who hopes there’s no war because it’s bad enough coping with the Olympics.

The movie looks to be both a revealing and terrifying interpretation of the behind-the-scenes goings on leading to war as well as a comedic farce that will have us laughing out loud while trembling on the inside. One thing for sure, I can already picture James Gandolfini as a General… good times!

‘In the Loop’ will screen on Thursday, June 11 at 11:30 am.