Written by Luc Besson, and produced and fronted by Kiefer Sutherland, Father Joe is exactly the sort of nostalgic ’90s throwback you might expect it to be. It wears its daft heart on its vestment sleeve and makes no apology for being the kind of movie you might have picked up from Blockbuster in yester years. A quasi-Western via mobster movie tropes, it follows the titular Catholic priest (Sutherland) as he attempts to clean up his ’90s Manhattan neighbourhood of drug dealers and organ thieves via murder, violence and a series of one-liners. Plus, it features Al Pacino dressed in furs and sashaying through mass as a Godfather-esque score swells.
EuropaCorp
If you’re still with us after that first paragraph, the catalyst for Joe’s vigilantism goes back to his experiences as a special forces soldier and the death of his family as a consequence of illegal drugs flooding NY. Now he runs a church that is an orphanage/soup kitchen/arms den, where his faithful second-in-command is an ace with nunchucks, his orphan choirboys can service a semi automatic and Joe ventures out on an evening armed to the gills and rocking a wide-brim hat, leather waistcoat, billowing trench and massive crucifix (which doubles as a dagger). He calls victims ‘my son’ and quotes the Bible as he destroys drugs labs, maims and murders, injects goons with poison and rescues overdosed teens. His mission is to stop dealers selling to anyone under the age of 21 (‘you can’t save everyone’) and he must be ok cos the local Jewish and Muslim leaders are down with a bit of gunplay too.
Things come to a bullet-spraying head when mobster Giu Falcone (Pacino) puts down his latest book (100 Years Of Solitude, which he gives a review of to his sunglasses-wearing henchmen) and decides to stop the holy father from wreaking any more havoc. Bazookas are used on pulpits, there’s slow-mo walks from explosions and a teenage drug user (played by Milla Jovovich’s daughter, Ever Anderson) becomes a surrogate daughter to emotionally wounded Joe…
But all of this is played with such earnestness and lack of snark that the result is something nostalgically comforting. Ignore the moral seesawing and accept the creed, and Father Joe is a bombastic popcorn movie that promises tasty elevator and toy shop dust-ups, Sutherland looking undeniably cool and the possibility of a sequel teased with a nod to Pacino’s most famous movie. Go in peace – and you may have a silly time at the movies.
Words by JANE CROWTHER Images courtesy of EUROPACORP Father Joe premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
Luke Lorentzen’s meditative year-long study of a Brooklin boat yard in Maine is nautical nirvana for any sailor, but you don’t need to know your port from starboard to appreciate the craftsmanship and community that goes into building a bespoke $4.5million 56-foot sailing yacht. Following the team of 60 builders at Brooklin Boat Yard – from felling the wood to polishing the deck, and through the New England seasons – Coretzen’s gorgeous tone poem is as much about a niche industry as it is about masculinity and the lure of salt water for sustenance and sport.
Spark Features/MetFilm
Beginning with the launch of a newly completed vessel, we’re introduced to the men who will create a made-to-measure ship of dreams for a giggly financial advisor to sail around the world in. As the team watch their work slip into the water over beers and a cookout, the graft begins anew with the hull of a new boat taking shape in the dockyard on the edge of Jericho Bay. Project managing the build is Trent, a zen new father who is told in his gentle appraisal to be more forceful with his staff. From an outsider’s POV it doesn’t seem he needs to be as the gang turns up at 7am each morning with their particular set of skills; planing, dovetailing, sanding, gluing and carving the local wood into a feat of engineering and artisan achievement. We watch as planks are pressed together like a jigsaw, the ship’s wheel is clamped incrementally into a circle, the sanding team sway in synchronised silence, a beautifully carved cabin is wheeled down the hill and lowered into precision-drilled holes… it’s hypnotic to watch, especially when given regional and cultural context.
Spark Features/MetFilm
Coretzen is as interested in the world and lives around the endeavour, the bucolic that seems to be poured into the very fabric of the boat. He charts the beauty enveloping Brooklin; a blue bay dotted with the fluttering white triangles of sails during a regatta, a duckling floating on purple water at dusk, lobster potters hauling their glistening catch, the drilling of an ice-fishing hole, the doleful clang of a red harbour bell, children shaking apples from a tree, a peachy sunset, the mowing of an emerald lawn. This little corner of Maine is painted as hardy, idyllic – the only sour notes coming when management very reluctantly dismisses a worker for repeatedly not taking direction or when Trent complains about the cost of his car payments. There is little exploration of hard-scrabble lives or the fragility of this livelihood – and on that level, the film may be considered slight for some. But if you’re looking for a contemplative 90 minute foray into a quiet world where you can practically smell the wood and taste the sea spray, Boatbuilders provides a shipshape escape.
Words by JANE CROWTHER Images courtesy of SPARK FEATURES/METFILM Boatbuilders premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
VENICE DISPATCH Photographs GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER
Kate Mara tells Hollywood Authentic how she wants to feel fear in her work and why Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard gave her and the most important girl in her life – her sister, Rooney – the greatest artistic gift of her career so far.
When writer-director Werner Herzog wrote to Kate Mara, and her sister Rooney, proposing that they play synchronised siblings desperately in love with the same man, and romance itself, Kate Mara knew this was the project for the duo to make their onscreen debut. ‘It became two dreams in one, because it was the dream of working with my sister and working with him. So it was double the excitement to do it,’ Kate says when Hollywood Authentic catches up with her after the film has bowed at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. Mara is a fan of Herzog’s work, citing Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man as two movies that have inspired her artistically. ‘All of his films are so clearly his, but also so different, you know?’
Bucking Fastard is another pivot for Herzog, a female-centre whimsical drama about two intensely-connected sisters on an odyssey to find meaning and love, and the script was something that spoke to Rooney and Kate. ‘We’ve always wanted to work together, but we’ve never been offered something that was an obvious ‘yes’. We’ve been sent a few things that either didn’t make sense for both of us as actors, or didn’t make sense based on the filmmaker or the script. This one was just obvious. I do think the two most important things when you’re deciding on a job is the role and the director. Maybe even the director before the role. So for us, Werner was an obvious ‘yes’. But then you want the script to be as interesting as the filmmaker, and you want the roles to be equally interesting. This was just a hysterical opportunity to play two different people but as one.’
The task for Mara and her sister was to play a role as a singular entity: speaking and moving in tandem to hypnotic effect. ‘We were both nervous,’ Mara admits of tackling the project. ‘That challenge of having to speak and do everything in unison, was probably the thing that was intriguing about it – it was very much a puzzle that we had to figure out together in the work. But it’s not really interesting to do roles that aren’t scary. I’m only really interested in playing roles that are challenging in some way.’ Though the physical act of speaking and acting like a two-person Greek chorus might have taken work, Mara rejoiced in the mental and creative place it put her. ‘To live in that head-space was only joyous. It wasn’t going home with some sort of loneliness. I got to play with my sister for five weeks, or longer if you include the prep time. We were sad when we knew it was coming to an end because it was such a lovely experience.’
The only nerves while filming were in working at night in the Postojna Caves in Slovenia – a fairytale space in the characters’ perception, but a daunting set for Mara. ‘We were nervous to film in the cave. That was something that when me and Rooney read the script, we were both worried about that experience of it because Werner is an absolute adventurer. We were worried we were going to get claustrophobic. It takes about 20 minutes to get into the cave, and then once you’re in there, you can’t go back out, because it takes too long. We had to be there all night and it’s cold. And then when we actually experienced it, it was so expansive and massive. It was really magical.’
The whole experience was bewitching, Mara says. ‘As long as I’ve been acting, I think I’ve always wanted to do films that are different from anything I’ve done before; challenging and expansive in the artistry of it, where you can really grow. Growth can come in so many different ways. You don’t always know what that means when you’re in it, or necessarily when it’s over. Sometimes you realise it years down the line. But for this, it changed my relationship with my sister in that I feel closer to her now than I ever have because it was such a bonding experience. This film means more to me than almost any other, because of the long-lasting effect it has on my life with the most important girl in my life – my little sister. It will be special to me forever for that reason. And it did make us want to do every movie together. We cannot wait for the next opportunity. It just needs to come along.’
Mara’s solo work will be taking centre stage in the immediate future. She has new TV show, Roman, upcoming which charts the drama at a fictional Las Vegas casino. ‘It’s an ensemble I just couldn’t say no to including Betty Gilpin and Oscar Isaac. Scorsese is producing it. I play a madam, and it’s different to anything I’ve done.’ She’s also just wrapped on Will Graham’s military drama Trust The Man playing the wife of Jonathan Groff. ‘Such a beautiful experience,’ she enthuses. ‘I said yes before I even read a script, because, besides my actual husband [Jamie Bell], he is my dream husband. And he knows it!’
Speaking of husbands, Mara is keen to build on her resume with projects that keep it in the family. ‘I’d love to work with my husband at some point, we both hope that. I’d also love to do Broadway. I moved back to New York a year ago and that’s something that I’ve been trying to figure out as well. I just hope that I keep getting the opportunity to work with great filmmakers and great actors…’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Interview by JANE CROWTHER Hair by JERROD ROBERTS Makeup by RUTH FERNANDEZ Kate wears Armani Prive Jewels by Cartier Bucking Fastard premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival Read our reviewhere
VENICE DISPATCH Photographs GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER
The Irish actor jumps on a boat with Greg Williams at the Venice Film Festival and tells Hollywood Authentic about working with Werner Herzog and finding empathy in his new film Bucking Fastard.
Domhnall Gleeson is one of a company of Irish actors who appear in Werner Herzog’s latest quirky film, Bucking Fastard, the story of two sisters (Rooney and Kate Mara) who are so close they exhibit sibling synchronicity – even to the point of falling in love with the same man (Orlando Bloom). When their romance leads to court proceedings Gleeson is the kindly social worker assigned to them to help them integrate more fully into the world. ‘If a chance comes up to work with a great director, you just say yes,’ the actor tells Hollywood Authentic over an iced coffee in one of the villas that sits on the beach of the Venice Lido where the film premiered at the film festival this year. The previous evening he’s attended the Cartier/Vanity Fair dinner at the Gritti Palace, bobbing across the Venice lagoon in a water taxi with Greg Williams. ‘When the first thing you’re told is it’s Werner Herzog, then you definitely say yes. The part was pretty small, but I thought it was cool and the other actors are amazing. Just getting to work with Kate and Rooney. And the script was wonderful. So actually it ticks all the boxes.’
Though he looks hardly older than his appearances in the Harry Potter movies, Gleeson is now 43 and has a stacked resume of roles and projects with great directors. Herzog comes with an expectation of possible wildness based the legendary stories from some of his previous shoots. ‘He was very clear when we talked that what he wants is a harmonious set,’ Gleeson says. ‘What he wants is a quiet, diligent, exciting place to go to work. The madness doesn’t interest him, unless the madness is in the film. It really was the empathy of the man that was the thing that came shining through for me. And actually, it’s my favourite part of the film; the empathy I ended up with for these characters.’
Herzog based his script on a meeting he had with two real-life sisters who spoke and acted in unison, and were the subject of an ’80s documentary. But Gleeson is quick to insist that his role as Timothy isn’t a proxy for Herzog himself, even if some of the incidents in the film are inspired by some of the director’s interactions with the sisters. ‘He was really clear that this is not based specifically on any other thing, or on those people. He was like, ‘No, the sisters who are in front of you – this is new’. But I like the way he looks at people when he’s talking to them. I like the way he listens. And in that way I do think there’s some of him in my character.’
Gleeson’s Timothy is incredibly patient and sweet with the sisters who are blinkered to the outside world, such is their focus on each other and their interior experience. The Mara sisters work together on screen for the first time and Gleeson says it was fascinating to watch. ‘There’s been loads of performances where one person has played two people, but not where two people have played some weird version of the same person. You know when you’re talking to somebody, and sometimes you switch between the eyes that you’re looking at? It felt like that to watch Rooney and Kate.’ The lure of the cast wasn’t the only thing that engendered the project to him. ‘The fact that I rolled out of bed, and walked to set, that was an added bonus, as opposed to a reason to do it,’ he chuckles of working in Ireland.
The son of Irish acting legend Brendan, Gleeson is pleased to see Martin McDonagh on the Lido too, where he’s presenting Wild Horse Nine. The writer/director has worked with his father on The Banshees of Inisherin and also gave Gleeson one of his earliest roles in the stage play, The Lieutenant of Inishmore back in 2001. ‘I was incredibly lucky to get to work with Martin that early on because I saw how good the work can be. It can be extraordinary,’ he says of starting out. ‘But then the work can’t always be extraordinary, because Martin is special. So I’ve had lots of ups and downs over the course of my career. But the point is to keep trying to do the good stuff. I’ve played a couple of pretty empathetic characters now in a row. So it’d be nice to come in with a bit more malevolent intent on a job. It’d be nice to come in and fuck shit up!’ When Hollywood Authentic suggests that the new Bond reboot could be looking for a baddie, he laughs. ‘Listen, I’m available to work…’
In the meantime, he’s finished work on season two of The Paper playing a US regional journalist on a local newspaper. ‘The second season is funnier than the first. I love doing comedy. But it’s just as heartfelt. And it still cares about journalism. That’s still in its bones.’ He enjoys switching acting disciplines he says, juggling film with TV and stage work. ‘Being front and centre of a film is very different to being front and centre on TV, to me – and it makes me greedy to do both. Theatre is like doing a movie every night because you tell the whole story every night, and to keep it fresh, and to keep it new for this new audience. You’re editing live, which is a completely different skill. I’m looking to do more theatre, it’s just about scheduling.’
He’s just finished shooting Bad Bridgets for Kneecap’s Rich Peppiatt which follows 19th century Irish immigrant sisters in New York and is hoping Night Boat To Tangier with Michael Fassbender will come to fruition, reteaming them after their work in Frank. ‘I haven’t worked with Michael in a long time, and I’d love it if it happened.’ But he’s aware that the film business is a capricious mistress. ‘I mean, if I held my breath, I’d be dead by now,’ he says. ‘Let’s see how that goes…’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Interview by JANE CROWTHER Grooming by JERROD ROBERTS Styling by WARREN ALFIE BAKER Domhnall wears Zegna Watch by Cartier Bucking Fastard premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival Read our reviewhere
VENICE DISPATCH Photographs GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER
As his latest film, Ink, debuts in Venice to rave reviews the British actor talks to Hollywood Authentic about awards chatter and how acting expands his heart.
Having worked with Danny Boyle on both 28 Years Later films, Jack O’Connell considered the offer of playing ‘’60s editor of The Sun newspaper, Larry Lamb, in Ink for the director a ‘no-brainer’. ‘But it was quite early on in terms of the journey of the film being made, because Danny didn’t have the money yet,’ O’Connell tells us as the film opens the 83rd Venice Film Festival. ‘So then it became a case of: ‘Right, OK. We need to convince some financiers that this is worth parting with their cash’. He brought me and Guy Pearce in and we did some stuff on camera so that Danny could go and try and raise the funds. It took two-thirds of a year just to get the green light.’
That scrappy, entrepreneurial spirit is a match for the film itself; the story of Rupert Murdoch (Pearce) inviting Lamb (O’Connell) to reinvent a newspaper and tear up all the Fleet Street rules. ‘Yeah, a lot of parallels,’ O’Connell laughs. ‘But also I really value the importance of a free press, and its role within any proper democracy. I have a respect for it and I do like to read newspapers.’ For O’Connell, his perception of the hugely popular newspaper was negatively coloured by a ‘post-Hillsborough perspective’ [when the newspaper falsely reported Liverpool football fans behaviour at the fatal 1989 overcrowding disaster at Hillsborough] so his approach to the role and Lamb’s enthusiasm for it required a research deep dive. ‘I had to undo all of that pre-existing knowledge, and just consider this in its infancy, and who Larry Lamb is, who’s been appointed to grow it. I took myself off to the British Library. I went into their archives. I pulled out some microfiche of editions of The Sun when Larry first took over, and I looked at some prior to him being there. They’re unrecognisable. It was about honing in on that period and getting into Larry’s headspace. There’s a great line in Larry’s book where he said that he felt like he was cooking up the perfect newspaper in his head way before he met Rupert Murdoch. That was a real driver to me.’
West Yorkshire Lamb and Australian Murdoch were also working against a London-centric establishment and an ‘old boys network’, trying to get a foothold in an industry with a drawbridge mentality. ‘I do relate to it very personally, yes,’ O’Connell, who hails from Derby, admits. ‘Any class-based society is going to have that, you know? And we live in a class-based society. But Larry Lamb was given a knighthood, and he accepted it so I do think he was very seduced by that establishment. The same thing that he was tearing down to begin with, he leaps into bed with eventually. There was this underlying contradiction within him. And I love those roles. I think as an artist, you are fascinated with where people contradict themselves and inconsistencies.’
Lamb’s obsession with circulation numbers – always trying to best market leader, The Mirror – also had parallels with acting for O’Connell with film often being viewed through the lens of box office takings. ‘It’s figures, isn’t it? Ink feels like a real vehicle for exploring hyper-capitalism. All the journalists that we spoke to that worked there during that time were saying that these were times of plenty, and there was so much spare cash just floating around – which is impossible to imagine for us these days. But they were just rolling in it, and had all these resources. It was hyper capitalism, and they were obsessed with sales and the competition within that. I think that was a huge catalyst in perhaps where they allowed themselves to get carried away.’
O’Connell is currently experiencing a time of plenty himself, with a recent flurry of high-profile and critically acclaimed roles including award-winning Sinners, 28 Years Later parts 1 and 2, and his upcoming films Godzilla X Kong: Supernova, as well as A Quiet Place Part 3 which has just wrapped. For some audience members it might feel like O’Connell has finally arrived. For him, it’s part of a journey that’s been developing for years. ‘I got into this 20 years ago, and you grow. You get better with every job, and you get to learn by working with people you meet. And I love that about this job. You’re constantly developing, and you’re having your ideas challenged. You never stop evolving for every role. You’re expanding your heart. You’re exploring emotion. It’s such a joy and a pleasure to allow that to inform you.’
Part of the process has been the mentorship of other artists. ‘Look, to be able to collaborate in this job is the most wonderful thing – just meeting people from all over the world. Even being here promoting films, and getting to meet your heroes. When I was getting into it I was able to look up to these amazing figures. The people that I worked with on my first job – they were generous enough to share what they were good at. And I think there’s a slight responsibility there for me to do the same with people coming into the industry now.’
His busy upcoming slate is as a result of hard graft but there’s no masterplan, he says. ‘You’re trying to pull rabbits out of hats, you know?’ he laughs. ‘In order to excite yourself, and in order to excite others, it’s best to just keep challenging yourself. I like range. My last jobs, they’re all quite distinct. Moving forward, that’s the ethos, that’s exciting to me.’
Ink’s debut at Venice has kicked off the awards conversation. Is this an important part of the process too? ‘Of course, man. More so from an industry perspective – where it takes you, and the places you get to go, and the people you get to meet. But when you’re working it’s not what you’re thinking about. You know, you end up on set at five in the morning in a fucking disused quarry, up to your ears in shite – it’s a long way away from a gondola in Venice, you know? They’re worlds apart. They’re very, very separate experiences. But it’s a joy. It’s amazing that we get to do it.’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Interview by JANE CROWTHER Ink premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival Read our review here
For someone who admits he talks a lot of crap, Liam Gallagher, lairy frontman of Oasis, makes a lot of sense. Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s documentary charts the 2025 reformation world tour of warring brothers, Liam and Noel, might as well be called The Gospel According To Saint Liam such is the almost religious experience captured on film, the message of forgiveness, and redemption that runs throughout it – and the unwittingly profound nature of Liam’s typically blunt life advice. As music docs go it’s a proper supernova – frequently moving, uplifting and promising to send fans and non-acolytes alike out of cinemas on a post-gig high.
Harriet Bols/Disney
For those not up to speed on the Oasis story, Southern and Lovelace (along with creator Steven Knight) whip through the rise and fall of ‘Britain’s biggest band since the Beatles’ via grainy archive footage of the Gallaghers tearing up the music scene before tearing strips from each other. A quick skim through to 2009’s implosion in Paris leaves us 15 years later when the brothers are planning their global reunion tour and Noel is rehearsing the band alone with no sign of his singer. Liam is a spectre in this initial grounding back into the Gallagher world. Noel calls him a ‘fucking pain in the arse’ and waits for him to turn up, a drum thuds a steady beat and a door flies open. Liam struts in with barely a nod, puts his hands behind his back and begins to sing in a manner he describes as exorcism. Swearing off the cigarette and alcohol for the tour, he sucks on a straw and performs ‘like he did years ago’ according to his impressed brother. When he’s done singing, Liam stalks back out.
Noel admits to having a newfound respect for his younger sibling and it’s this new humility, nostalgia for the past and the mileage between them that shapes the rest of the documentary as we watch the band make their nervous debut in Cardiff to an audience of multigeneration fans, before tracking their greatest hits via gigs around the globe. Though the trick is repeated at every new stop, the cultural, sociological, political and socio-economic impact of Oasis is explored via the booming tunes and the emotive reactions of the fans to their resurrection. One man kneels as though in prayer, a young boy weeps in ecstasy, a local vicar uses his sermon to describe the thronging of people to the stadium as pilgrimage and a shared longing for healing. One doesn’t have to be an Oasis fan to understand the feeling of community and communion felt during an electrifying gig with fellow fans, and Southern and Lovelace capture that magic via fond concert camerawork and by building individual portraits that humanise the sea of faces.
The Gallaghers get some scrutiny as people rather than artists, with Noel chatting for most of the first half before spiky Liam comes around. By the time the tour is in full flow and the film has crescendoed in its set list to the biggies, the brothers are bantering together, calling themselves a ‘shower of cunts’ and admitting to being delighted by each other, their once-strangers children now boozy besties who get ‘spangled’ while their Dad’s go to bed. If the Gallaghers have mellowed their music hasn’t, with rhythm guitarist Bonehead back in the fold and the anthemic bangers now firmly part of the cultural landscape. That makes hearing ‘Wonderwall’ or close-out tune ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ feel resonant to any cinemagoer and might bring a nostalgic tear to the eye whether you own a bucket hat or not.
Disney
As a document of a band accepting love from each other as well as their audience (and actually rehearsing), Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger showcases a group at the top of their technical game. But where it really wins is in the optimistic and brotherly message it emits to a polarised, angry world. ‘Do your thing, do it well and try to move people, man’ is what Liam says his new vibe is. Mission accomplished, ‘our kid’. (Though the mercurial brothers did skip the press conference in Venice so, you know, it’s still some business as usual.)
Words by JANE CROWTHER Images courtesy of DISNEY Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
Like Danny Boyle’s opener at this year’s Venice film festival, Ink, Lance Oppenheim’s cautionary tale entrenches with tabloid fodder and the consequences of audience blood-lust for it. Sleazy, lurid and uncomfortable, Primetime asks us what sensation we feel when unfettered sensationalism featuring real people reaches its inevitable, sad and avoidable conclusion. And it’s another gonzo baddie performance from Robert Pattinson, who is cornering the market in bug-eyed damaged goods with flamboyant personas.
A24
Opening with Pattinson’s Chris Hansen repeating a mantra of ‘I will undress you, you will undress me’ with red-flag intensity as he preps to trap another potential paedophile on in 2006 Dateline NBC reality show, To Catch A Predator. While his team lures online creeps to an unassuming house before having them interact with a child decoy (Phoebe Bridger) to seal their fate, Hansen preps his big entrance. As the perps nibble at cookies in the kitchen, carrying their molestation paraphernalia, Hansen emerges like a sideshow magician, reading their grooming messages back to them. This is the gotcha moment, when power transfers – both to Hansen and his TV viewers – as the would-be molesters crumble in wailing shame. It’s exactly what the network wants and in Hansen’s fervor. As he towers over them asking ‘you see how this looks?’ in his idiosyncratic, practiced cadence, it’s clear it’s what he also lives for. He understands its potency, telling a fan on a plane that what he does is ‘a little bit worse’ than killing. Hansen is driven by jealousy for serious journalists at NBC, the chase for ratings and his need to preen. He demands numerous takes to find just the right superiority in his voiceovers and wakes his small children to make them watch his latest edit.
Arriving in this world with all the naivete of a child is Dan Plum (Skylar Gisondo), a fresh-faced struggling actor who is thrilled to get a gig, less so when his first day has him playing a teen boy honeytrap and confronting a man with whipped cream on his penis. Plum’s arc in getting over the shock of the depravity, his subsequent lean-in to the entrapment and, ultimately, the disillusionment is what drives the narrative. His experience of this particular section of TV is perhaps a wider comment on the craveness of the entertainment industry, as well an audiences invitation to check their own complicity. Through Dan’s eyes we watch as Hansen goes down the rabbit hole, his softly spoken, gum-chewing producer Andie (Merrit Weaver, excellent) manages up, and the biggest catchfish the show can land, their so-called ‘whale’, turns out to be newsworthy in all the worst ways.
Oppenheim isn’t subtle in his delivery, bathing everything in neon hues, holding unflattering close-ups and filming in Academy ratio to mimic the era’s TV screen dimensions. His casting is similarly on-the-nose with former child stars such as Jonathan Lipnicki and Alex Winter playing predators, recalling the way Patrick Swayze tapped into his cultural currency in Donnie Darko. And a flashback revealing Hansen’s Indian origin story as a media vigilante doesn’t quite work, but nevertheless adds layers of ick to the endeavour.
‘There used to be a pillory in every civilized town,’ Hansen prognosticates. ‘Now there’s a TV in every home’ and later he asks, ‘what would’ve happened if I wasn’t here?’ Yes, we get it. Reality TV without guardrails and an audiences’ inability to turn it off is a recipe for harm. So in that respect, Primetime has little new to say about our greed for ‘if-it-bleeds-it-leads’ journalism. But like Hansen’s hypnotic show, it’s almost impossible to turn away from. Especially when Pattinson is theatrically spitting out mouthwash and curling his tongue round the word ‘cock’ in a manner that feels destined for more memes. Dirty, undeniable entertainment.
Words by JANE CROWTHER Images courtesy of A24 Primetime premiered at the 83rd Venice film festival
Paul Schrader continues his ‘Man in a Room’ treatise with this examination of guilt, repression, legacy and the big questions of life: why do we exist? Is change possible? They are themes that have dominated his work for decades and so his latest, following a college professor (Jack Huston) who is hiding a past indiscretion, labouring under the pressure of a controlling father and punishing himself for his proclivities, stays reassuringly in his tried-and-tested lane for fans of his monastic oeuvre. Those looking for the much mused over change might find that the philosophical answer in Schrader’s case is a resounding no.
Noora Films
Dr. John Jorrison (Jack Huston) is writing a book on philosopher Spinoza, keeping his romance with colleague Becca (Sofia Boutella) at arms length and dodging the overtures of students who insist that ‘everyone is guilty of something’. When his ailing dad dies (Bill Pullman) the wake sets off a chain of events that uncover an incident of child molestation from John’s past, the pressure from his father to conform to a particular idea of a good and noble life, and sends the prof down a rabbithole of suicide ideation, gay cruising and what forgiveness might look like.
While Schrader may specialise in ‘God’s lonely men’ it seems his expertise does not extend to recognisable gay bars and interactions, or convincing flashback scenes – and his decision to have Spinoza himself (Karl Glusman) visit his protagonist seems hokey and cheap. Fortunately, he has Bill Pullman onboard to deliver authenticity as a prescriptive father who values ‘correctness’, Richard Gere popping up in a cameo to remind us of the genius of American Gigolo and Jack Huston bringing the weight of his own family legacy to the idea of living up to one’s forebears.
Schrader constantly threatens that each picture he creates is his last, but one has to hope that this is not the one the scribe of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and First Reformed bows out on. While it fits neatly into his canon it might be more engaging to see the filmmaker adhere to Heraclitus’ theory of everything being in constant flux and toy with some change himself.
Words by JANE CROWTHER Images courtesy of NOORA FILMS The Basics of Philosophy premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
VENICE DISPATCH Photographs GREG WILLIAMS As told to JANE CROWTHER
The Australian actor takes on Rupert Murdoch in Danny Boyle’s tabloid tale Ink, opening the Venice Film Festival. He tells Hollywood Authentic about reigning in the profanities and experiencing tabloid hounding with Jason and Kylie…
When Danny Boyle came to Guy Pearce to ask him to play media baron Rupert Murdoch in his adaptation of James Graham’s award winning play, the actor felt that he could understand some of the mentality of the notorious newspaper and studio magnate. ‘Obviously, look, I’m Australian,’ he tells Hollywood Authentic as he prepares to walk the red carpet for the film’s premiere in the Lido. ‘I’ve been brought up in a world that’s been aware of Rupert Murdoch for many, many years. He’s a fascinating character for me. I’ve never met him, and prior to doing the film I couldn’t really tell you that I understood who he is. I still probably couldn’t really say that I understand completely who he is. But him trying to crack the UK market… that, I get to a degree. As an Aussie actor, and having known lots of Aussie actors who all go to England and try to break there, it’s something I can relate to.’
Pearce could also relate to the product Murdoch created in 1969 in collaboration with editor Larry Lamb (Jack O’Connell); The Sun newspaper and the tabloid culture and circulation wars that followed. Having broken out in the ’80s while on Australian soap Neighbours he had witnessed first-hand some of the press hounding that came with fame. ‘I remember back in the ‘80s in London with Jason [Donovan] and Kylie [Minogue], and the journalists chasing us down the street. But I was really low down on the food chain, you know? I was one of a gang of 20 Neighbours cast where the Terry Wogans of the world would have us on their show, and go, ‘What is it about you Australians that make you think you can act?’ – where you really felt a bit reviled. But I was never a personal target. I never really felt the full force of a tabloid paper at my door, and after me.’
What Pearce felt was more relevant to building the characterisation of Murdoch was talking to former journalists and printers who had worked on Fleet Street during its evolution from failing broadsheet to bombastic ‘red top’. ‘Danny brought people in to talk to us during rehearsals, lots of journalists, ex-editors and ex-printers who would sit with us for two hours and go, ‘Wow, let me tell you about the floor in 1969: the drinking, the smoking, the shagging and the late nights and oh my God….’ Though he didn’t meet Murdoch as he prepped to play him, Pearce did chat to his daughter, Elizabeth, to suss out whether his instincts about the man were correct. ‘I felt that there was probably too much swearing from Rupert [in the script]. It’s a fairly common thing to just make Australian characters swear all the time. But when you look at interviews of Rupert from the era he’s a shy, fairly humble, slightly awkward character who has an irreverence about him, and is quite sharp and brilliant. But he’s not a typical Aussie yobbo who’s out there swearing, drinking. throwing things and rooting and fighting. I said to James, ‘I feel like I could play this character without relying on swearing’. And the beauty was that I got to talk to Rupert’s daughter and ask about her dad’s swearing. She said, ‘I don’t think I heard him swear once’. So I took out all the ‘fucks’ and added a ‘fair dinkum’.’
Director Boyle inspired Pearce to really explore the building of a surprising character instead of playing a trope we all think we know. ‘Danny’s a wonderfully buoyant, honest, creative and inspirational guy. It’s that energy that he brought to Trainspotting in making us look at a world that was seemingly gross and disgusting, and yet we all just leant forward and went, ‘I want more of this’. You can have a great script, and another director doesn’t quite give it the life that it felt on the page. And vice-versa; you can read a fairly dull script, and a director can bring it to life. But with this, when I watched the film I was jumping out of my chair by the end, going, ‘Wow! Yes! Oh my God! Wow!’ Danny’s energy will take you into that world, and make it exciting.’ And Pearce admits that having Bertie Carvel in the cast – who originated the role of Murdoch in the West End and Broadway – also kept him on his creative toes. ‘He’s such an exquisite actor. Of course, every day when he was there, and I’m playing Murdoch, I’m thinking, ‘Don’t watch what I’m doing. Don’t look. Oh, God’,’ he laughs.
As an actor who has taken on numerous roles that began life as books or plays, Pearce is clear that comparison of versions is futile as an artist. ‘Every time I thought about the play, or talked to one of the actors who was in the play, it felt a little bit like a distraction to me. When you do a film, and it’s based on source material it can be an absolute minefield to delve into that material. It can be wonderful, because you get all sorts of other nuances about a character that you might not fully get in a script, like with LA Confidential, for example. But I find the purity of a screenplay – and what it is I’m responding to in the first instance – is really vital to me.’
That vitality is what he thinks has made Ink such a barnstorming opener. ‘The kudos and attitude – it feels historic and full of integrity and credibility,’ he says of the festival. And the relevant themes of the piece exploring public appetite for scandal and the increasing tabloid-ification of politics are what will keep audiences talking about it. ‘The sense of responsibility… we’re seeing things being torn down left, right, and centre. But you look back at The Sun, and it seems almost small fry and quaint now. Social media, AI, governments involved with surveillance… you can see the connection. You could also ask the question: well, was it inevitable anyway? And it’s just that Rupert came along at a time? It’s such a big question, isn’t it, about where we are in the world today?’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Interview by JANE CROWTHER Guy wears Brunello Cucinelli Ink premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. Read our review here
Writer-director Martin McDonagh’s ability to give celebrated actors amusingly potty-mouthed and insulting things to spew in specific places has previously paid awards dividends. After sweeping up the gongs with Three Billboards and The Banshees of Inisherin his latest exploration of friendship via comedic violence and swears is sure to secure a place in the awards season stable – especially for John Malkovich, channelling Dangerous Liaisons waspish disdain and the befuddlement of his alt-persona in Being John Malkovich to delicious effect.
Diego Araya Corvalán/Searchlight Pictures
He plays a grizzled CIA agent, Chris, who is stationed in Chile in 1973 and a pain in the ass of bureau chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi). His longtime partner, Lee (Sam Rockwell) is used to his no-filter outbursts – with the duo constantly bickering like an old marriage couple – but as a coup looms the two are sent to Rapa Nui on a break. Chris has always wanted to see ‘the big heads’ and Lee is happy to get his loose-lipped friend away from the exasperated MJ. Looking like two CIA agents trying to blend in (Hawaiian shirts, quirky hats), the duo set off, with Lee cautioning his friend to keep a low profile. That proves difficult for Chris as he tells a pair of students (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) on the same flight that they are spooks and when they arrive at their hotel, shouts insults at a pair of British holidaymakers. Though they are ostensibly on vacation, it becomes apparent that both have secret, personal missions to complete…
Perhaps McDonagh’s fondest look at male relationships, Wild Horse Nine is not only the sort of buddy comedy with a screwball edge that provokes guffaws, it’s loaded with pathos and a reverence for the kind of brutal kindness only a true friend can serve. While it’s an absolute hoot to watch Malkovich go gonzo on anyone and everything – and Rockwell to masticate and placate his way through it – there’s also a genuine thriller at work here (who works for who?) as well as a treatise on euthenasia and what makes a person who they are. Kudos too to Parker Posey, stealing focus over the phone as Marge, Lee’s kaftan-wearing wife, who understands more than he knows; and Tom Waits as a gruff cameo with heart.
Diego Araya Corvalán/Searchlight Pictures
It’s probably McDonagh’s most accomplished work and it features a cast at the top of their game. Load onto that the stunning vistas of Rapa Nui – with this production being only the second film to ever film on the island – and Wild Horse Nine (yes, wild stallions do gallop beautifully across the landscape) is a retro, moving and funny piece of perfection. It recalls Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in both the tangible sense of a friendship and the sorrow for a moment passing, while also being a specifically McDonagh film. It’s entirely worthy of the awards buzz on the Venice Lido…
Words by JANE CROWTHER Images courtesy of SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES Wild Horse Nine premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival and is in cinemas now
