Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God; This is 40; Movie 43; F*ck for Forest; Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters; Broken City
In the wake of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, film-maker Alex Gibney told the Hollywood Reporter that the unorthodox move (the first such resignation in six centuries) "seems to me inextricably linked to the sex-abuse crisis". Certainly, Gibney's harrowing documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012, Element, Exempt) cannot have made life in the Vatican comfortable, particularly since the investigation of the Catholic church's failure to act over a priest's abuse of young boys at St John's School for the Deaf in Milwaukee leads directly to the door of Cardinal Ratzinger.
Gibney's central accusation is that, as prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, Ratzinger knew much but did little, a pattern that seems to have existed for centuries within the Vatican, wherein detailed records of priestly abuse are alleged to date back to the 4th century. Among the more belief-defying information uncovered in this searing indictment of self-protection is evidence of a down payment placed by the church on a private island in the Caribbean whereupon paedophile priests were to be housed, away from the scrutiny of the press. Most moving, however, are the herculean efforts of the signing community to have their story heard despite the Vatican's determination to turn a deaf ear. Gibney's may be a film-making voice, but it is the strength, fortitude and unbreakable spirit of these survivors which rings through loud and clear.
The temptation to add the words "minutes too long" to the title of Judd Apatow's midlife crisis rom(non)com This is 40 (2012, Universal, 15) is overwhelming; of its many shortcomings, length is sadly not one. Described as a "sort of sequel" to Knocked Up and a "very personal" project for writer/director Apatow, this follows second stringers Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann) as they encounter what pass for "universal problems" in a particularly rarefied world. That the film is nothing like as funny as it needs to be would be less problematic were it filled with acutely observed insights into ageing and marriage, yet I struggled to recognise or connect with the conflicts or the conversations of anyone (male, female, old, young) on screen. More worryingly, I started having nostalgic thoughts about the "early funny ones" – which I never found that funny the first time round.
They were all, however, works of Wilderesque genius compared with Movie 43 (2013, Momentum, 15), about which I hesitate to use the word "abominable" for fear that they may use it in the publicity. Picture Richard Gere inserting his fingers into the vagina of a life-size doll, only to have them snicked by a swiftly rotating fan; or an animated cat watching Josh Duhamel and Elizabeth Banks having sex while sodomising itself with a hairbrush; or Hugh Jackman spilling creamy soup on to the pendulous testicles that hang from his chin while Kate Winslet stifles vomit; or ... I could go on, but you'd only become morbidly fascinated and I wouldn't want that on my conscience.
For all its grotesquery, the only interesting thing about Movie 43 is the thought that producer Peter Farrelly must have pictures of each of the film's galaxy of stars doing really unspeakable things – how else do you explain their presence here? Completists will be delighted to know that the DVD comes with the alternate Dennis Quaid/Greg Kinnear pitch wraparound which UK cinemagoers were spared.
The main problem with the straight-faced F*ck for Forest (2012, Dogwoof, 18) is that the story of eco-hippies producing leafy porn to save trees is much better suited to a raucous five-minute segment on Eurotrash than a slightly depressing feature-length documentary. Things start jovially enough in bohemian Berlin, where everyone appears to be living in a reality TV show anyway, but by the time our heroic trash humpers start heading upriver in the Amazon to liberate the rainforests with new age erotica, the tribespeople aren't the only ones wanting to send them away with a flea in their ear.
After the mash-up history of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the revisionist fairytales of Mirror Mirror, Red Riding Hood and Snow White and the Huntsman, along comes Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013, Paramount, 15) to put an end to whatever fun we may have been having so far. Charismatic Gemma Arterton and bit-dull-really Jeremy Renner play the now adult titular pair who escaped from the gingerbread house of legend to wage steampunk war on witches for evermore. It's clunky, clod-hopping fare, utterly bereft of wit and inspiration,settling instead for CGI gore and anachronistic cussing. Boo.
A well-worn tale of power, corruption and lies, Broken City (2013, StudioCanal, 15) finds talented director Allen Hughes turning in a respectable if unremarkable thriller in which ex-cop Mark Wahlberg gets dragged into an all too apparent web of mayoral deceit. Russell Crowe chews the scenery as the bullish king of New York, Catherine Zeta-Jones bristles as the wife with more than a divorce case on her hands, and everyone keeps waiting for someone to say: "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown." That no one does is just about the only surprise.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jun/23/mea-maxima-culpa-dvds-kermode
No comments:
Post a Comment