Thriller
Backrooms (15)
Review: YouTube is changing the way we consume TV and film content so it’s inevitable that big personalities, who have amassed millions of followers on the video sharing platform, should want to cross the rubicon and make movies for the big screen. The Philippou Brothers aka RackaRacka tingled spines with supernatural horrors Talk To Me and Bring Her Back, Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier recently self-released the breakout horror hit Iron Lung and Curry Barker, one half of sketch comedy duo that’s a bad idea, is one of this year’s breakout stars with his diabolically bad romance Obsession.
Expanded from popular YouTuber Kane Parsons’ viral web series, Backrooms is a hypnotic and visually jaw-dropping descent into mind-bending madness in the company of Oscar nominees Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Even when the storytelling becomes wilfully abstract to the point of obfuscation, a pervading sense of discomfort is undeniable like an delicious itch you can’t quite scratch.
Failed architect Clark (Ejiofor) runs a cheap, pirate-themed furniture warehouse and showroom, Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, on a soulless plot in Santa Clara Valley. He has no passing custom and one employee Kat (Lukita Maxwell), whose boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett) acts as cameraman for the store’s low-rent TV ads to compete with their wild west-themed rival, Big Wayne’s Furniture Barn. Electricity supply to the store is patchy and Clark stays late on the premises to determine the source of the fault. During one of these night-time sorties, he stumbles upon an invisible portal in the store’s sublevel to an endless maze of unsettling office spaces bathed in fluorescent yellow lights.
Clark confides this outlandish discovery to his therapist, Dr Mary Kline (Reinsve), who is and sceptical about the existence of an alternate dimension. “I’m going to come back here with proof and you’re going to owe me a serious apology,” he barks, storming out of her office. Soon after, Clark leaves a cryptic message on Mary’s answering machine – “I opened the window. I won’t be coming back!”- and she heads to Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire in search of answers. She is unprepared for the disorienting labyrinth of impossibly constructed rooms and corridors that lurks on the other side of a wall.
Backrooms opens with a tour-de-force sequence shot on old school handheld video camera that tees up a satisfying jump scare and teases the staggering production design of Danny Vermette, who evokes a weirdly off-kilter world with nods to MC Escher’s optical illusions. Reinsve and Ejiofor submit completely to the filmmaker’s diabolical distortions and the 110-minute running time passes surprisingly quickly once Clark makes his initial foray through the portal. Successive visits to the fluorescent fantasia are filled with heart-stopping surprises. Even when I didn’t understand Parsons’ intentions, and the film’s final stretch is bewildering, I was riveted.
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Comedy
My Mother’s Wedding (15)
Review: Oscar-nominated actor Kristin Scott Thomas enjoyed one of her biggest successes on screen with a romantic comedy promising four weddings. It’s fitting that her directorial debut should deliver one set of nuptials and reunite her with co-star James Fleet. Written with John Micklethwait, My Mother’s Wedding is a haphazard celebration of love lost and found that feels like a bottle of champagne that popped its cork days ago and now lacks most of the tongue-tingling fizz.
After losing two husbands in the space of a few years, best friends named John and Jonathan on military manoeuvres in the Falklands and Bosnia respectively, Diana (Scott Thomas) is ready to walk down the aisle for a third time with birdwatching beau Jeff Loveglove (Fleet). She gathers her family for hen and stag dos followed by a simple service at the local church and marquee reception in her back garden. Her three daughters assemble with their emotional baggage. Eldest child Katherine (Scarlett Johansson), a decorated naval officer who will take command of an aircraft carrier after the nuptials, is emotionally distant from her son Marcus (Fflyn Edwards) and relies on partner Jack (Freida Pinta) to raise the boy while she is at sea.
Fresh from promoting her latest film, The Dame Of Darkness IV, middle child Victoria (Sienna Miller) continues to pine for childhood sweetheart Charlie (Mark Stanley), while acknowledging that she is destined to end up with unsuitable men. “The nice ones are too busy being nice, they’re not interested in going out with famous actresses,” she informs stepsister Georgina (Emily Beecham). The youngest child is an NHS nurse with two daughters, who recently found incriminating texts on a phone belonging to her husband Jeremy (Joshua McGuire). A private detective named Steve (Samson Kayo) gathers secret video footage of his betrayal. The big reveal is timed for straight after the nuptials.
My Mother’s Wedding is a familiar snapshot of sibling rivalry and sisterly solidarity, which touches lightly on how children idealise parents. Johansson wrestles gamely with a British accent and consequently seems removed from her co-stars. A bride is supposed to earn good luck by incorporating something old, new, borrowed and blue into the ceremony. Scott Thomas obliges with a contrived explosion of family secrets at roughly the hour mark; flashbacks rendered as monochrome animations hand-painted by Iranian artist Reza Riahi; a classic three-act structure with climactic reconciliations; and salty comic relief from Jack’s mother (Sindhu Vee).
One heartfelt monologue is impeccably constructed by highlights shortfalls elsewhere in the writing and character development. Subplots with the bumbling private detective and Victoria’s rich admirer, nicknamed Le Grand Fromage (Thibault de Montalembert), who helicopters in for roughly 15 minutes, are unnecessary diversions.
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Romance
Power Ballad (15)
Review: Music is the heartbeat of writer-director John Carney’s films. Oscar-winning song Falling Slowly beautifully soundtracked the romance of a Dublin busker and Czech cleaner in his micro-budget 2007 picture Once, Keira Knightley facilitated father-daughter bonding between Mark Ruffalo and Hailee Steinfeld on a New York rooftop in Begin Again to the summery anthem Tell Me If You Wanna Go Home, and Drive It Like You Stole It became an empowerment anthem for a 15-year-old boy in Carney’s feelgood coming-of-age story Sing Street. In Power Ballad, the Dublin-born filmmaker chooses the pitch-perfect pairing of Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas to create sweet disharmony in a life-affirming comedy drama that proves it’s never too late to chase your dreams.
Singer-songwriter Rick Power (Rudd) surrendered fantasies of playing Madison Square Garden 15 years ago while touring Ireland with his band Octagon. He took a year off from music to compose a real-life love story with Rachel (Marcella Plunkett) and raise their daughter, Aja (Beth Fallon). In the interim, his record label moved on without him. Now, Rick fronts wedding band Bride & Groove, performing rousing cover versions flanked by best friend Sandy (Peter McDonald) on guitar. During a paid gig, Rick meets former Impossible boyband member Danny Wilson (Jonas), who is taking “the scenic route” to a successful solo career. The pair instantly click.
Danny is desperately searching for a hit to impress his manager Mac (Jack Reynor) so when Rick plays him an unfinished original composition entitled How To Write A Song (Without You) in the wee small hours of the morning, his creative juices flow again. Danny’s girlfriend Marcia (Havana Rose Liu) subsequently hears her beau playing around with the song and urges him to record it. The track becomes a chart-topping global smash hit and Danny neglects to credit Rick so when the wedding singer seeks recognition that’s rightfully owed, Danny denies the claim and Mac threatens legal action in the absence of proof that the song ever originated with Rick.
Power Ballad sings to a familiar hymn sheet, following Rick’s journey from embittered could-have-been (“We’re not rock stars, we’re human jukeboxes,” a wedding bandmate reminds him) to helpless victim of creative highway robbery. Rudd is charmingly dishevelled, weathering every body blow aimed at his character, while Jonas faces a tougher test retaining relatability as his fame-hungry star leverages power to squash an inconvenient truth. McDonald’s roguish comic relief is welcome but occasionally too brash and broad.
Like a great verse that is missing a killer chorus, Carney’s new film ultimately lacks that pulse-quickening spark that elevated his other pictures. That said, the centrepiece song is irritatingly catchy and refuses to dislodge from my brain. Power to the Power.
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Thriller
Tuner (15)
Review: Be still for 30 seconds and listen. What do you hear? A barking dog? A car alarm? Overlapping conversations? Background chatter from a television? A slamming door? Emergency services sirens? The brain filters out some of the ambient noise but imagine if your hearing was so sensitive that everyday sounds were painfully and debilitatingly loud. This is the reality of the unassuming hero of Daniel Roher’s nifty crime thriller, which takes a few (music) cues from Sound Of Metal and creates an immersive sound design that deliberately muffles or dials up the volume to allow us to experience – albeit briefly – the central character’s auditory discomfort.
Music prodigy Niki White (Leo Woodall) gave up playing piano because of his hyperacusis. After two years of exposure therapy, he can function in the hubbub of New York by wearing noise-dampening ear protection and taking necessary precautions. “You’d be surprised how loud the world is,” he tells a clueless new acquaintance. Niki puts his hypersensitivity to good use by training alongside revered piano tuner Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), who was a good friend of Niki’s late father. During a solo late-night visit to a wealthy client’s home, Niki interrupts a robbery masterminded by security company owner Uri (Lior Raz) and silences the incessant drilling by coolly opening the homeowner’s safe using the combination dials.
Uri offers Niki a job in his larcenous crew, comprising Yoni (Gil Cohen) and Benny (Nissan Sakira) but the piano tuner is not interested until Harry suffers a heart attack and wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh) reveals they are 36,000 dollars in debt before they attempt to settle any hospital bills. To protect the man he considers a second father, Niki becomes a willing accomplice to Uri’s crimes, earning 10,000 dollars for each job. Gifted music student Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), who has feelings for Niki, becomes potential collateral damage when two worlds collide.
Tuner is a solidly composed thriller of triumph against adversity that strongly leverages Woodall’s undimmable star quality. He spent months learning to play the piano from scratch to convincingly portray a once-in-a-generation talent thwarted by a rare auditory disorder. Delightful rapport with Hoffman’s gruff mentor creates a brisk tempo for the opening 30 minutes. Screen chemistry between Woodall and Liu feels like a gentle tinkle of the ivories.
Co-writers Roher and Robert Ramsey fling satisfyingly large obstacles in Niki’s path, like staging one robbery in a home situated beneath a flight path so he must crack open the safe in short bursts between planes coming in to land. However, for the crescendo, the scriptwriters rely on a coincidence so outlandish they have one character draw attention to their preposterousness on screen. It is a rare bum note but one that lingers.
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