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| The Guardian - Culture: Film | | | | Old Henry review – a rootin' tootin' barrel of wild-west cliches | | by Xan Brooks Sep 7, 2021 | | Tim Blake Nelson has a blast as a pig farmer with something to hide, but this low-aiming western is as familiar as refried beans Old Henry premieres at the Sala Grande here at Venice, with the sea at its front and the gondolas at its back and it’s hard to imagine a less appropriate setting. Potsy Ponciroli’s film is a rootin’ tootin’ barrel of wild-west cliches, complete with bank robbers, a scared kid and a dastardly villain who wears a black hat. The programmers could at least have played ball and put some saloon doors at the entrance, sawdust on the floor, maybe a spittoon by each seat. Tim Blake Nelson grabs a rare and deserved title role as Henry, an ornery old pig farmer who may (slight spoiler) be a stone-cold cowboy killer in flight from a past he’d rather not talk about, dagnammit. Even so, Henry’s currently doing fine. He has a meek teenage son, Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) and a mess of hogs out the back. “Don’t it ever bother you sometimes that they eat their own?” asks Wyatt, but this doesn’t worry Henry, who surely saw far worse things occur during the bad old life that he may or may not have lived in the past. Continue reading... | | | | | Hollywood struggles with accents in Branagh's Belfast | | by Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent Sep 7, 2021 | | US reviewers have lauded the film, but complain it is too difficult to understand and needs subtitles Kenneth Branagh’s new autobiographical film, Belfast, is tipped for Oscar glory, but his home town will not be happy if it’s in the foreign language category. Hollywood reviewers who have lauded the film’s storytelling and acting complain the Northern Ireland accents are difficult to understand and require subtitles. Continue reading... | | | | | The Collini Case review – Nazi courtroom drama bogged down in cliches | | by Cath Clarke Sep 7, 2021 | | This adaptation of Ferdinand von Schirach’s thriller about a grandfather with a murky past is let down by conventional storytelling and clunky acting “We need to know about the evil,” said the German lawyer-turned-bestselling-novelist Ferdinand von Schirach. “That’s the only way we can live with it.” His grandfather was head of the Hitler Youth and his grandmother served as Hitler’s secretary. Now, Von Schirach’s thriller about the legacy of Nazism featuring a grandfather with a murky past has been adapted into a watchable if sluggish and dated courtroom drama – let down by cliched storytelling and clunky acting that drains the movie of tension. Elyas M’Barek plays newly qualified public defender Caspar Leinen, who is constantly being reminded that his Turkish heritage puts him on the outside of the establishment. Three months into the new job, he lands the case of his career, representing an Italian man accused of murdering a well-known business tycoon. The evidence leaves no doubt as to what happened: Fabrizio Collini (Franco Nero) shot Hans Meyer (Manfred Zapatka) in the head three times and stamped on his face with such force that brain matter was found on his shoe. But Collini isn’t talking and the central mystery of the movie is his motive, which has it roots in wartime events revealed in sepia flashback so conventional they sometimes feel close to parody. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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