Why The Handmaid's Tale Is So Timely

In a dystopian near future, war and infertility have turned America into a totalitarian police state. The few fertile women are bought and sold as breeders for rich families, and are forbidden from working, handling money or even reading. The themes of gender equality, sexual freedom and religious persecution are, worringly, even more relevant in 2017's Hulu adaptation that in Margaret Atwood's original 1985 novel.

Indeed, many conservatives are already vilifying the days-old series as a reaction against the Trump presidency and the subsequent threat to women's rights. But the issues raised within the show go far beyond the United States. The first episode alone features children being torn from the arms of desperate refugees, homosexuals tortured and hanged, and religious despots railing against the evils of birth control and abortion.

The everyday sexism in the show is far more subtle, yet equally chilling. Two women are called 'sluts' by a strange man for no reason, their bank accounts are assigned to male relatives, and even their jobs are given away to less qualified men. It's not just the evil perpetrators who are at fault here; it's the ordinary men, who stand aside and enjoy their privilege, even as the women around them are rounded up and disappear. The truly chilling thing about the story is that there is no one women can trust, from men in power to the ones in their own homes. This is an aspect of life that many women around the world can relate to, and something that will only worsen unless drastic, global changes are made.

The Derivative Pastiche of La La Land

It will come as no surprise to many that there is a formula to winning the coveted prizes of the Academy Awards. Powered simultaneously by nostalgia and a desire to escape these troubling, unsettled times, the Oscars have long been known to honour most the films which flatter and promote the carefully curated history of Hollywood's Golden Age. This year, it is the turn of La La Land, Damien Chazelle's musical romantic drama, to garner a considerable 14 nominations for its colourful dance numbers telling the story of two plucky, aspiring stars.

With more than just echoes of classics from An American in Paris to Singin' In the Rain, there is hardly anything original about La La Land. Like fellow best picture nominee (and winner) The Artist, La La Land borrows its best scenes and ideas from earlier films. The tale it spins is predictable and comforting, coasting on the easy chemistry of leads Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Their reality show-quality singing and dancing is an unintentionally depressing reminder of just how far stardom can get someone with mediocre talent.

The racial politics of the film are also hard to ignore. Here we see a white man claiming, several times, that he will save jazz music, even as the African American musicians play the music they invented behind him, out of focus and ignored. In a film which is so much about jazz music, it is hard to watch so many white characters claim it as their own. Even John Legend's shoehorned cameo as Gosling's only black friend stinks of the 'Oscars so white' controversy of last year, in which an all-white roster of acting nominees was clumsily offset by a host of diverse last-minute presenters.

In a year which has seen so many celebrities make pointed political statements at the awards podium, the draw of the simplicity and escapism provided by La La Land may be stronger than the challenge presented by films such as Moonlight, which tells the story of a black gay man as he grows from an abusive childhood to a drug dealing adulthood. Once again, Hollywood is rewarding a film about itself - specifically, the white, wealthy, creative, joyous version it has created for the world to see.

My Ten Favourite Films of 2016

1. Arrival

Over time I have discovered that Hollywood releases one great science-fiction film every year. Last year, it was Arrival, Dennis Villenueve's moving and contemplative meditation on the nature of time and love, framed by an alien "invasion" that turns out to be much more than it seems.

2. The VVitch

There is no film quite like The VVitch. A menacing, feminist parable, this self described "New England folktale" uses historically accurate costuming and speech to portray the challenges of faith and patriarchy experienced by a banished colonial family. Look out for the devil; he was there all along.

3. The Wave

As the first blockbuster-style disaster film to come out of Scandinavia, this Norwegian epic is as crowd-pleasing as any Roland Emmerich film, and will hopefully lead to increased funding and international recognition for Scandinavian films and filmmakers. See my August review for more.

4. Room

Abduction, isolation and childhood collide in Lenny Abrahamson's powerful drama. Room's modest success at last year's Oscars doesn't quite do justice to the film's wonderful performances and deep emotional core.

5. High-Rise

While Tom Hiddleston's role in The Night Manager has been deemed his most successful of the past year, it is High-Rise which stands as one the most inventive and unusual films of the year. Portraying the strange breakdown of order in a London apartment building, this allegorical vision has a host of famous faces, but will leave you wondering more about yourself.

6. The Lobster

A Divergent-style dystopian romance for adults, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos's English-language debut sees a host of nameless characters navigate a blackly-comic landscape in which it is illegal to be single, saying volumes about our real world, in which sometimes being single seems just that.

7. Moonlight

Golden Globe winner and Oscar favourite Moonlight is a searing exploration of identity, family and masculinity among African-Americans. It's a deeply-felt story, and one which will likely come to have increasing importance with the beginning of the Trump presidency.

8. Train to Busan

Korean cinema is becoming more and more popular with western audiences, and deservedly so. Yeong Sang-ho's film draws inspiration from modern zombie classics, but manages to deliver something new and profound - a philosophy that, rather than fear our fellow man, we should look to each other for help and support.

9. The Birth of a Nation

This historical drama has arrived at a crucial juncture in American history, in which the racist narratives of pre-civil war USA are rearing their ugly heads once again. Nate Parker's much-hyped biopic of Nat Turner and the slave rebellion he led was considered too simplistic by some, but remains an essential film for this era.

10. The Neon Demon

A psychedelic fantasy parable about the perils and rewards of a cutthroat fashion industry, The Neon Demon is full of beauty, though sometimes gets too bogged down in its own philosophising. It is nonetheless a powerful work from Nicholas Winding Refn.

Will Hacksaw Ridge be Enough to Redeem Mel Gibson?

A complete list of the offensive and controversial remarks made by actor and director Mel Gibson would undoubtedly take up several posts, not to mention containing more censor stars than the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Racist, anti-Semitic and downright nasty comments have been captured on film and tape, creating an inescapable offensive against any apologies or reconciliations the star may try to make.

From a stable family life and successful career which included the Mad Max trilogy and Oscar-winning Braveheart, Gibson's downfall took several years of substance abuse and religious tirades to deteriorate both his personal life and film career. Disgraced, and with the abuse of his partner caught on tape, not even the success of The Passion of the Christ could redeem him. A four-year break and the lacklustre reception of thriller Edge of Darkness did little to raise his stature, despite journalist Alison Weiner calling for the end of his "blacklisting" by Hollywood execs.

However, a new film, directed by Gibson, has been quietly gaining strong reviews and plenty of interest, raising the question of whether Gibson can finally be redeemed. Hollywood second chances have been popular in the last few years, with the flagging reputations of Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Affleck both enjoying astronomical comebacks with the help of rehabilitation and superhero blockbusters. Hacksaw Ridge, as well as being tipped for an excellent awards season, is also predicted to do the same for its director. Grisly and harrowing, it tells the story of a World War II Pacifist who attempts to navigate the conflict without harming anyone. While perhaps not suggesting that Gibson is a reformed man apologetic for his past actions, it certainly proves that he is still a striking director or performance, capable of that difficult feat of making films which will please both audiences, critics and Hollywood bosses alike. That will certainly be enough for the money-driven, business minds of the film industry. But will it enough for disillusioned fans and cynical critics? Only time will tell.

The Origins of Conflict in Game of Thrones

For those who are familiar with Game of Thrones or its book series, it would appear that war, strife and conflict is the default setting for those unfortunate enough to live in Westeros. In fact, if you said it was part of their DNA, you might not be far off.

The past, and specifically one's personal and family history, is a constant preoccupation for the characters of Game of Thrones. Every person of note is preceded by their father's or grandfather's name and reputation, and immediately judged upon it. A single act earns a nickname or curse which remains for the individual's whole life, regardless of what happens for the rest of it. The people of Westeros have long memories. This creates a suffocating bubble of retrospective guilt, inescapable prejudice and mistakes handed down through the generations. This is exacerbated in the series by the lack of flashbacks - everyone is obsessed with the past, but we may never experience it in the present, so never achieve closure or a sense of what really happened. Subsequently, the many traumatic and hideous actions experienced by the characters constantly remain to haunt them, creating tensions and fear in the present.

These feelings of difference and alienation also stem from a far more ancient source; the evolutionary ancestors of the families. Though only mentioned occasionally within the series, there are distinct ancestral peoples from which the current inhabitants of Westeros are descended.

Families from the North of Westeros, such as the Starks, as well as wildlings, speak of themselves as having the blood of the First Men - the original human inhabitants of Westeros. Many Northerners and wildlings still retain the ancient traditions and religions of these people, and pride themselves thus on having a stronger connection to their roots and past. The Lannisters are known as descendants of the Andals, a race more advanced and Aryan-looking than the First Men, who they largely defeated. The Andals are credited with bringing medieval chivalry, iron tools and the present language to Westeros, and remain the dominant racial type on the continent. The third and final root civilisation are the Rhoynar, a small group of people from the south of Westeros, who give the Martells of Dorne their unique culture and typically more Mediterranean appearance. Finally the Targaryens, descended from the magical Valyrian people and the survivors of the mysterious Doom of Valyria. It is this ancestry which gives the Targaryens their unique appearance and ability to control magic and dragons.

It is in this way that, despite years of interbreeding, the people of Westeros still feel clear, deep boundaries between each other. Their ancestries, both familial and genetic, though hardly relevant, create inescapable cultural and religious differences which stand at the root of many of the conflicts within the story. Thus it would seem that rivalry and war is inevitable in Westeros, as long as the characters continue to live in the past and hold onto old grudges.

Film Review: Things to Come

From The Upcoming: http://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2016/09/01/things-to-come-movie-review/

In Mia Hansen-Løve’s thoughtful, detailed drama, Isabelle Huppert plays Nathalie, a philosophy professor whose comfortable home life is turned upside-down over the course of a summer, causing her to rethink both her own life and her longstanding philosophical convictions.

One day, Nathalie battles her way to her teaching post through a mob of angry students. The next, her pipe-smoking husband leaves her; the breakup scene is brief but realistic, made all the more powerful by Huppert’s performance. Nathalie admits she was prepared and does not seem upset, only tearing up when realising how much she will miss the family holiday home in Brittany. More tears are shed, however, as, one by one, things start to go wrong in her serene life.

Hansen-Løve perfectly captures Nathalie’s confusion as she drifts through a world in which everyone is younger, more adventurous and less cynical than she. Marketers want to give her classic textbook a trashy modern makeover; her students strike, riot and protest for a cause she cannot remember; her children begin having their own children. We only glimpse her husband’s new lover, but it goes unsaid that she is younger. Nathalie’s ageing mother exists as if to warn her daughter of what she may be in danger of becoming: a presumably unsuccessful actress suffering from frequent depressive episodes, she lives in the past and stays sequestered in her house in a state of faded glamour, like Edie Beale of Grey Gardens.

The film’s only misstep is involving the constant presence of a black cat, adopted by Nathalie from her mother. The subplot leads nowhere, and the clumsy symbolism belongs to a less-accomplished work. Nevertheless, Things to Come resonates with its simplicity and honesty, and Huppert creates a memorable character. Her sweeping remark, “after 40, women are fit for the trash,” is a bleak, cynical statement at odds with a practical and positive movie.

Film Review: The Wave

The majesty of Norway's unique fjords are a sight marvelled at by locals and travellers alike. However, these beautiful geographic formations hide a deadly secret: many are ticking time bombs. In 1934, a rockslide deposited almost two million cubic metres of rock into the Tafjorden, creating a local tsunami which, funnelled by the fjord's narrow cliffs, reached a height of 62 metres. The village of Tafjord was obliterated by the wave, killing 40 people in one of Norway's worst recent natural disasters. Last year, director Roar Uthaug imagined the event on a grander scale in the present day, creating The Wave, a blockbuster said to be "Scandinavia's first disaster movie."

With echoes of past great, if unsubtle disaster movies such as The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, Uthaug appears to be paving the way to becoming Norway's answer to Roland Emmerich, and has already signed his first Hollywood film deal. The film boasts a budget a fraction of its American counterparts, yet with special effects, performances and thrills to equal that of any veteran disaster director.

He nails the formula in the film's brisk 105-minute runtime: the slow buildup of tension, as the only man aware of the impending disaster is ignored, the event, a seat-rattling explosion of CGI water, and the climax, an intense slow-burn in which the scattered family must its way back together. Genre cliches, such as the child in peril and the last minutes dash before the disaster, are used cleverly so as to still seem original. A few subtle moments of wry self-awareness prevent the film from becoming too portentous. A clever pre-event scene involves an early-warning analyst watching a horror movie on his laptop. As the victim is unaware of the killer behind her, so too is he oblivious of the warning lights illuminating around him. The film's modest international success so far is a hopeful sign of an increasing interest in foreign, independent films by mainstream audiences. May it continue.