Review No.22: Shame

So last week I reviewed A Dangerous Method a film in which Michael Fassbender goes through a lot of moral dilemmas having rough sex along the way. The film I saw last night, again at the brilliant Light House in Wolverhampton, was Shame a film in which Michael Fassbender goes through a lot of moral dilemmas having a multitude of sex along the way. Fassbender plays Brandon who is a sex addict although that word is never uttered we can see it from the very start due to his frequent use of internet porn and his hiring of hookers. Into his life comes his sister Sissy an equally troubled character who we are led to believe tried to harm herself several times and who gets into unfulfilling relationships with inappropriate men. The majority of the film looks at Brandon's compulsive disorder, his disjointed relationship with his sister and his brief fling with co-worker Marianne through these encounters we see Brandon learn how others see him and also why he needs to act in the way he does.

I have to say I loved almost everything about Shame and a lot of that has to do with the teaming of Fassbender and director Steve McQueen who worked together before on Hunger. As McQueen is a former artist he has a different eye for things than a standard director and the way Brandon's apartment looks is as important as what the characters say. In fact there aren't many words uttered in the first ten minutes just far too many shots of Fassbender's penis, but ladies might disagree, as he wanders through the streets of New York looking for his next lay. Fassbender is a powerful screen presence and for me this is his best performance since Hunger here his brooding eyes and quiet confidence reminded me a lot of Christian Bale in American Psycho. He is able to convey Brandon's personality without saying anything with his eyes doing most of the talking but I'm not discounting the script by McQueen and Abi Morgan the latter making up for The Iron Lady. Also worth a mention is Carey Mulligan who with this and Drive is turning into a very interesting actress and her and Fassbender make for a good duo as they make you believe the siblings may have had some sort of other relationship in the past. Mulligan also reveals her brilliant singing voice in a rendition of New York New York which is just heart-breaking and Fassbender's reaction is equally as powerful. Though not a perfect film, Shame isn't far off with every scene perfectly crafted and every shot thought about in the right way with two top notch performances this is going to take a lot of beating to knock it off my current Film of the Year perch.

Verdict: My favourite film of the year so far and it proves that McQueen and Fassbender are the perfect actor/director duo 9/10

Review No.14: The Iron Lady

At the beginning of The Iron Lady you're guessing that this film is about a woman who is struggling to cope with old age as she is befuddled by the price of milk, has to have someone to cook her meals and still talks to her dead husband. Though this subject has been covered many times before if it does in an interesting way it makes for good subject matter for a film but unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months you'll know this film is about our only female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The majority of The Iron Lady is set in the present day as Thatcher's staff and family are worried that she still hasn't cleared out Dennis' belongings even though he died eight years previous. Thatcher is seemingly frustrated by most elements of her life apart from regular visits from Dennis' ghost something that she is comforted by and worried of in equal measure. These scenes are then combined with flashbacks of Thatcher's political career from her early story is told with the use of young actress Alexandra Roach as we see her change from a humble grocer's daughter to the MP for Finchley. When Meryl Streep takes over the role and Thatcher becomes prime minister we get a potted history, almost a highlight reel, of the major events of Thatcher's reign as our PM. So we get a little bit about the IRA bombings, small bit of the recession, some of the miner's strike with The Falklands conflict being awarded the most amount of time and still it gets less than a quarter of an hour. In fact there are about six years of her reign that simply get a six minute montage in which she is seen dancing with various world leaders. Obviously the end comes when her time as PM comes to an end and in the present day she finally learns to let go of Dennis' ghost.

It is interesting that the majority of time given to a story about one of Britain's most prolific figures is of a story that is somewhat imagined by screenwriter Abi Morgan and director Phyllida Lloyd rather than based on Maggie's time in charge of the country. It seems that Morgan, Lloyd and Streep want to tell the story of a once strong woman declining in her old age and trying to cling on to her memories as she looks at old photos and watches DVDs of family outings. Even though the film portrays Thatcher as a role model for other women, in one of the present days scenes an acquaitance describes her as an inspiration, the film shows that men are at the forefront of most of her decisions. It is made out that it is only through her marriage to Dennis that she is able to get her role as an MP, her advisers are the ones who think she'd make a good Prime Minister and even in her old age it is Dennis and son Mark she wants to see more than her daughter and female staff. I have to say The Iron Lady succeeds in telling a story of a woman in mourning for her husband and one who is out of step with modern da society but not so much  a story of a political leader who strongly divided public opinion. There are many more interesting biopics of Thatcher that have been made for TV such as Margaret starring Lindsay Duncan and The Long Road to Finchley with Andrea Riseborough in the lead role. The Iron Lady's strongest element is in its casting and I have to say, after being initially cynical of Meryl Streep taking the role, the lead actress does hell of a job. The biggest compliment I can give to her performance is that I never thought I was watching Streep giving an impression of Thatcher but rather I was watching an actress portray this lady in her own way. Olivia Colman is also fantastic as Carol Thatcher getting the body language and speech dead on while Jim Broadbent is also great as Dennis. I just felt The Iron Lady was quite muddled part social commentary, part biopic and even part ghost story this should've been a film that evoked strong emotions and instead was a gentle story about love, loss and getting on with things.

Verdict: Streep is great in the lead role and there are some good scenes in there but with such a heavy subject matter to work with this is an awfully light film that I can only award 6.5/10