Tag: Jack Lowden

Fighting With My Family

Rated: MFighting With My Family

Directed and Written by: Stephen Merchant

Produced by: Kevin Misher, Michael J. Luisi

Starring: Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Florence Pugh, Jack Lowden, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Vince Vaughn.

Based on the 2012 documentary, The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family (directed by: Max Fisher), Fighting with My Family is a dramatization about WWE professional wrestling diva, Paige and her rise to fame.

From Norwich (the mustard capital of England) to the sunny shores of Florida, we follow the wrestling obsessed Bevis family as siblings Zak (Zodiac) and Saraya (AKA Paige, named after her favourite Charmed character) try-out for training for a SmackDown at The O2 Arena.

There’s the tough as nuts Brit humour – ‘dick me til I’m dead and bury me pregnant’ – from the wrestling-mad family; the mum Julia (Lena Headey) coming out with lines like, ‘his legs bend both ways – you should see his dick’.  And Nick Frost cast as Rick the dad (who spent eight years in prison, ‘mostly for violence’) is brilliantly cast.

It’s the sibling rivalry that adds drama to the film, with brother Zac (Jack Lowden) wanting to make it to the WWE arena just as bad as his sister, Saraya (Florence Pugh).

Or, as it goes, Saraya has to prove she wants it just as much as him; and well, anybody.

It’s a cheering the underdog kinda movie – dog included – that goes hard on the humour to start, including some gems from The Rock himself (Dwayne Johnson).

Seeing Dwayne circle back to his origins here, showing that, fight until you win, drama gave me an appreciation of the sport.

It’s not fake; it’s fixed.

Trainer Hutch Morgan (Vince Vaughn – always good in a trainer role!) has to harden the want-to-be professional wrestlers so they can take the pain and winding and 60 quid if you’ll take a bowling-ball-to-the-balls action.

Then there are those dramatic moments like the advice of: Be the First You; the timing of these moments well-placed, well-stated, and really, very sweet.

The sport is shown as escapism, making sense of the outsiders who embrace it.

And I related, feeling warm and fuzzy because the characters are so down-to-earth.  I like escaping too.

Paige went on to open-up the sport – being the youngest female wrestler to succeed.  Because of Paige, the sport now shows more coverage of female wrestlers.

And the fun of the story made a surprisingly entertaining film.

I kept bursting with laughter at the obvious crude humour, but there’s also the ticklish like a literal hammer on the end of a long pole made by kids because they’re bored: hilarious.

Not a wrestling fan, I did not expect to enjoy this film as much as I did.  But Fighting With My Family is well worth a watch.

Mary, Queen of Scots

Rated: MA15+Mary Queen of Scots

Directed by: Josie Rourke

Written by: Beau Willimon

Based on the Book, “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart” by John Guy

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, Gemma Chan, Martin Compston, Ismael Cordova, Brendan Coyle, Ian Hart, Adrian Lester, James McArdle, with David Tennant, and Guy Pearce.

In the same vein of Elizabeth (1998) staring Golden Globe winner for Best Actress, Cate Blanchett, Mary, Queen of Scots is an intricate film of politics, love, betrayal, stupidity and power.

This is Josie Rouke’s directional debut, her success here, the ability to show the rivalry and complicated relationship between the two half-sisters: Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.

Mary returns home from France, married at 16 only to become a widow at 18, to return as Queen of Scotland with rightful claim to England, the power in her blood as a Stuart.  A power she has to continually fight for against the male dominated world of 1587.  Where women are condemned as evil, especially returning as Catholic in a land whose foundations rest on the Church of Scotland.

Elizabeth also struggles in a male dominated world.

As a Protestant, Queen Elizabeth has forsaken the ties of the Catholic Church, renouncing the Papas, yet, she struggles to renounce her sister.

And the careful confrontation and manoeuvring for power between the two fiery sisters is fascinating to watch.

We get the intrigue of House of Cards but set in the ‘resplendent’ (as Queen Elizabeth is described by her constant companion and lover Robert Dudley (Joe Alwyn)) rolling lands of Scotland and England to jewels sparkling in candle-lit rooms filled with gentle women and plotting aristocracy, where Elizabeth acknowledges the treachery of men and her necessity to become one in order to remain on the throne.

There’s a lot to unpack, being one of those epic films; but the way the film is shown with Mary speaking to the audience, watching herself at times, telling her tale.  And the symbolism of Elizabeth burning an intricate quilled portrait of red poppies, her obsessive creating of red flowers flowing across the floor like blood from her empty womb hold the attention, to be absorbed into the tragedy and intrigue of the story.

There’s so much attention to detail here, portraying Mary in a different light to the general condemnation of history; the tragedy of being sentenced to death by beheading, ordered by her half-sister, Elizabeth – her reputation, based on unfounded rumours and lies spread by her own Council of sexual depravity and betrayal.  A reputation that has followed Mary into the ages.

The film, based on the detailed historical book, “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart” written by John Guy shows there’s so much more to be told about this powerful woman.

‘There’s a time for wisdom, love.  And there’s a time for strength,’ Mary tells her half-brother, a statement backed by a cold, icy stare shown so well by Saoirse Ronan.

And Margot Robbie shows a continued depth and maturity as an actress in her role of Queen Elizabeth.

Not quite capturing the embodiment of the steal and soft that Cate Blanchett managed to bring to Queen Elizabeth, there’s strong performances here, the success of the film not only an interesting story, but the careful balance between the two powerful protagonists of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth: where only a queen could understand the burden of ruling a kingdom while remaining each other’s greatest threat.

Dunkirk

Rated: MDunkirk

Written and Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Music by: Hans Zimmer

Cinematography: Hoyte Van Hoytema

Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy.

I’m still trying to figure out the feeling, that swell in the chest I felt while watching Dunkirk.  Whether it was pride or love of humanity or patriotism, Dunkirk was an emotive intersection of timelines during Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of troops from, Dunkirk, France, during World War II.

The film focuses on three different Fronts from:

1. The mole: Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) the soldier who’s been on the ground for a week;

2. To the steadfast Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) for a day;

3. To Farrier (Tom Hardy) the pilot of a Spitfire in the air for an hour.

All of these men are fighting the same war and all of these men are either trying to escape or save the men surrounded by the Sickle Cut (war strategy) the German forces have maneuvered on French soil; the Allied forces stranded on the beach where they desperately wait for ships to take them back to Britain, just across the channel:

Commander Bolton: You can practically see it from here. 
Captain Winnant: What? 
Commander Bolton: Home.

With leaflets falling from the sky depicting the hopelessness of their effort to escape – an arrow pointing: ‘You are here’, surrounded by the enemy and literally being pushed into the sea only to be picked off by fighter pilots dropping bombs, the soldiers watch battleships sink, one after the other to then watch the tide bring in the dead.

But this film isn’t about blood and guts, Dunkirk is about celebrating the small victories and how all those victories eventually add up.

Hence that swell in the chest because there’s this overriding feeling of people doing the best they can and somehow the everyday civilian can make all the difference: Sometimes doing right, wins.

Take that notion and add the suspense of the desperation to escape, full credit going to Hans Zimmer and his soundtrack creating tension with music like a ticking time-bomb.  Director and writer, Christopher Nolan uses little dialogue, instead it’s about the words unspoken, just a nod here and the audience knowing the music is building.

There’s a simplicity to each scene combining the different threads of storyline in real time like a formula pulled together by sound: the low thud of bombs, the droning of jets, the running of boots on sand and bullets popping through the hull of a ship like copper coins hitting tin.  There’s much to be said about the soundtrack, but watching the film on IMAX with that big square screen?  Can I say it didn’t really need it?  But what am I saying, go see that expanse of beach and ocean on IMAX – why not?

Dunkirk

The effort to film the movie on 65mm film (transferred to 70mm for projection) brings the story to life all the more, leaving little room for error.  Dunkirk is such a solid film, with such beautifully orchestrated performances (was also a win to see Harry Styles finally get a haircut!) to see the views from air to the beach to under the water on such a large screen just added more to an already impressive project.

Lastly, I just want to say I usually struggle with war films.  The reality of the violence of war makes my blood boil. I love the fact that there’s no unnecessary violence here.  We all know what happens when a bomb goes off.  We don’t need to see or imagine our ancestors or grandparents getting blown apart.

Nolan has used his talent to bring the true story of Dunkirk to the screen without over-dramatising, allowing us to admire the courage and valour of the civilians of Britain who saved more than 330, 000 soldiers’ lives.

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