Civil War, Late Night with the Devil and The Tiger's Apprentice are in cinemas, Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces is streaming on AppleTV+
My personal interest in the world of war corresponding and photojournalism came about thanks to the late Austrian pop star Falco who wrote – along with the Bolland brothers who masterminded his work – a song in 1985 called “Kamikaze Capa”, about the photographer who died in Indochina in 1954.
Robert Capa famously (and pseudonymously) said, “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough” and that’s the motto of Kirsten Dunst’s character, Lee Smith, in Alex Garland’s Civil War. She’s a legend of the biz and tyro snapper Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) attaches herself to her hoping some of the magic will rub off. Smith, and her wordsmith partner Joel (Wagner Moura), have a plan to head to Washington D.C. where the régime of an embattled president (Nick Offerman) looks to be on its last legs.
Secessionist states, led by California and Texas, are closing in and this might be the last chance to interview the man, it is implied, who has caused all this destruction.
Also on the road trip is veteran journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), reluctantly engaging with what he is certain will be a suicide mission across the frontline to visit a White House that has no love for a free press.
Civil War is an enjoyable, well-made and often spectacular film that crumbles on closer examination.
The most interesting thing about it for an audience is the situation and the expert visual construction of it. But that’s the aspect of the film that Garland is least interested in.
He’s not terribly bothered about the sides, the grievances, the right or the wrong, or how it might be that the United States could get there from here. On the road, you can’t really tell the two sides apart, which I suppose is a part of Garland’s thesis. But really, the war is just a semi-plausible situation in which to drop his protagonists and to do some digital disaster porn.
He is concerned about what makes people want to chase wars, like the researchers in Twister chased storms. All four clearly have their different reasons for being in that car, on that dangerous journey, but then Garland fails to do anything insightful with them.
Are these war correspondents heroes for putting their lives on the line? Not especially. There are no self-important speeches about ‘the public’s right to know’.
Where these words and pictures will end up is never even mentioned. There may not be any traditional media left, for all we know. Young Jessie is even shooting her photos on analogue film, like a vinyl-loving hipster.
They’re not there for the public, they are there for themselves.
And the conclusion, when we arrive at it, feels like it has been contrived as the reason the film exists and that Garland has worked backwards from it, rather than something that happens organically from the characters he has created.
Still, you won’t see many better action set-pieces this year and there’s a gripping scene where (an uncredited) Jesse Plemons threatens to run away with the whole film.
It has been a good couple of years to be Australian brothers who make low budget horror films. Adelaide’s Philippou Brothers wowed everyone with Talk to Me last year and now we have Victoria’s Cameron and Colin Cairnes and their tour de force Late Night with the Devil.
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When you have a brilliant idea like this – a fading 70s talkshow host has one last stab at the big time by bringing a demon-possessed teenage girl on to his Halloween special – you give yourself every chance of success when you then cast a terrific character actor who elevates every project he is involved with.
David Dastmalchian anchors Late Night with the Devil in more ways than one, and his slow realisation that he has made a very big mistake but that he might still actually have a ratings winner, is a bit of a masterclass, frankly.
I really liked the subtle nod to the original owners of the land the film comes from, where Dastmalchian’s character (in a flashback to happier times) is wearing a tie with an indigenous Australian design. The whole thing is very classy and even modest horror fans should enjoy it.
The twelve creatures that form the Chinese zodiac are the stars of the animated adventure The Tiger’s Apprentice. Teenager Tom Lee (Brandon Soo Hoo) was brought to San Francisco from Hong Kong as a toddler by his over-protective grandmother and, when she is killed defending him and a mysterious pendant from an attack by glowing green monsters, he is taken under the wing of Mr Hu (Henry Golding), a tiger who is also a man (or a man who is also a tiger).
Tom must now become the guardian of the pendant which contains a Phoenix that must not fall into the wrong hands. Hu enlists the rest of the zodiac beasts (Frog, Pig, Dragon, Horse, etc.) to help with Tom’s training but before he is ready the threat returns and the climactic battle takes place atop the famous San Francisco building with the terf-triggering title of the Transamerica Pyramid.
I was modestly engaged by this story, but I found the constant bantering among all of the characters to be wearying after a while and the kids in my screening started walking around about half way through.
The book upon which the film is based is the first of a trilogy so I expect we’ll see some more of these if it does well, especially in the Asian markets it seems intended for.
Finally, subscriber MC of Mt Victoria recommended the documentary portrait of Steve Martin, Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces, which arrived last week on AppleTV+. Directed by Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom), the film is literally made up of two quite distinct episodes.
The first is the story of the famous comedian’s life up until he suddenly walked away from his standup career at the age of 35. He was at the time, and arguably still is, the most successful standup comedian who ever lived. His routines had become pop culture staples and he was performing to thousands of people in giant arenas, but he had never gotten over the crippling anxiety he felt believing that in reality he wasn’t very good.
His professional method at overcoming that was simply to practice harder, analyse better, and engineer (or intellectualise) himself through it.
That first film relies entirely on archive footage and photos, and the voices of several interviewees, including Martin himself.
The second film is where it gets really interesting. Steve Martin himself becomes fully present – at least as much as he has ever allowed himself to be in these sorts of things. The very first scene is him making breakfast in his New York apartment. All the voice interviews from the first film appear on camera in the second, including some good-natured roasting from colleagues like Jerry Seinfeld and Martin Short.
And over the next 90-or-so minutes, we get to understand how this very unhappy-at-35 funny man became an extremely happy 75-year-old (funny) man.
It’s probably not that much of a mystery. Prodigious amounts of therapy, the love of a good woman, choosing personally meaningful creative projects instead of excessive career management.
Anyway, it’s really nice to see someone so at ease with themselves after being riddled with imposter syndrome for so long. Steve! is a really good watch.
