FILM | Reviews
HORROR THE SECRET OF MARROWBONE (15) 110min ●●●●●
Sergio G Sánchez is best known for his script for JA Bayona’s celebrated 2007 horror, The Orphanage. With Bayona as executive producer this time around, Sánchez’s directorial debut presents a superior haunted house story, with a wealth of detail that makes up for a lack of scares. The superb cast will largely be familiar to genre fans. George
MacKay plays Jack, who arrives in the US with a missing father and an ailing mother. When his mother passes away, Jack falls short of the age to legally take care of his siblings (played by Mia Goth, Matthew Stagg and Charlie Heaton), so instead protects them by creating the illusion that she is still alive – a plan aided by local librarian Allie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Sánchez’s measured approach may try the audience’s
patience, yet the slow, stately build-up pays off in the second hour as the secrets of the Marrowbone family are agonisingly revealed. The script deals with issues of domestic abuse and violence, before things take a supernatural twist. Thrill-seekers are likely to be disappointed, but anyone searching for an improvement on the usual mechanical ghost-train high jinks will be rewarded by this sober, well-constructed riff on classic genre tropes. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 13 Jul.
DRAMA PIN CUSHION (15) 82min ●●●●●
Despite its title, the feature debut of award-winning short i lmmaker Deborah Haywood is determinedly hard to pin down. With a colour-clash aesthetic and cast of extreme characters it may look like a Wes Anderson i lm, but it plays more like Heathers meets Carrie. This wilful collision of tone and theme brings Pin Cushion unexpected power, as it expertly subverts expectation to deliver some brutal truths about the female experience.
Joanna Scanlan puts in a heartbreaking performance as Lyn, an eccentric and isolated middle-aged woman who moves to a new Midlands town with her teenage daughter Iona (the superb Lily Newmark). When Iona starts at a new school, her desire to make friends sends her running into the arms of a vicious school bully, whose true colours she’s far too naive to see.
At the centre of the emotional turmoil, the off-kilter mother- daughter bond is as strong as it is strange. She might be meek and apologetic, but Lyn is i ercely protective of her daughter, determined that she shouldn’t have to face the same ostracising attitudes that have followed her all her life. It’s a timely reminder of the power of genuine love and connection – a welcome beacon of hope in the dark. (Nikki Baughan) ■ Selected release from Fri 13 Jul.
BIOPIC BLACKKKLANSMAN (TBC) 128min ●●●●●
In 1972, Ron Stallworth was the i rst black man to join the Colorado Springs Police Department. By 1978 he was working in the intelligence team where he came across a newspaper advertisement seeking new members for the Ku Klux Klan. He dialled the number, left a message and received their reply a few weeks later. And so this stranger- than-i ction tale of an African-American man ini ltrating the KKK begins. Spike Lee applies poetic licence, turning Stallworth’s fascinating story into a funny ‘joint’,
fusing undercover buddy cop traditions with blaxploitation l avour and a dash of Coen brothers-style absurdity. It sees Ron (John David Washington exuding a seemingly effortless cool) on the phone to the KKK, including Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace), while his colleague, Jewish cop Flip (Adam Driver) goes undercover to attend Klan meetings.
Lee shows us casualties of the Civil War from Gone with the Wind and stages re- enactments of 1960s racist propaganda featuring Alec Baldwin as a white-power extremist. Throughout, Lee has digs at the lack of criticism of i lms and popular culture that feature toxic messages, suggesting they feed into the rise of bigoted rhetoric and allow it to become normalised. It ends with shocking real-life footage of modern-day white supremacist marches and terrorist acts.
Still, there’s some laughter in-between, joyful celebrations – including a gorgeous choreographed dance sequence – and powerful recollections of cruelty from Harry Belafonte as a veteran Civil Rights activist. Lee concludes by casting an angry eye over the calamitous state of Trump’s America. In these tumultuous days it could be said that if you don’t laugh you’ll cry, and by referencing phrases like ‘Make America Great Again’, Lee shows he knows that only too well. (Katherine McLaughlin) ■ General release from Fri 24 Aug.
COMEDY DRAMA SWIMMING WITH MEN (12A) 97min ●●●●●
A melancholy accountant in midlife crisis (Rob Brydon) meets a ragtag band of unlikely lads at his local pool and joins their synchronised swim team, braving mockery and personal dramas to compete in the men’s synchronised swimming world championship. Buddies bond, bare their cares and lift each other’s spirits in their watery retreat from the world and its disappointments. Lives are transformed, love happens and self-esteem is revived – yep, it’s The Full Monty with nose clips and goggles. That is no bad thing, although Oliver Parker’s latest
looks like it was made on a budget that would i t into Tom Daley’s Speedos; it could have comfortably worked as a nice undemanding telly dramedy instead. Where this makes a splash is in its casting. Brydon is both droll and sympathetic company as Eric, a man who is sad, mad and a tad unhinged about the way his life and marriage have gone stale (Jane Horrocks stars as his exasperated wife). He is joined by a cheeringly game ensemble of troupers, including Jim Carter, Rupert Graves, Daniel Mays, Adeel Akhtar and Thomas Turgoose, with Charlotte Riley as the team’s endearingly tough coach. Collectively they invest this with enough charm to keep it coni dently al oat. (Angie Errigo) ■ General release from Fri 6 Jul. 84 THE LIST 1 Jun–31 Aug 2018