‘Tel Aviv On Fire’

In spite of a potential political minefield, director Sameh Zoabi along with co-writer Dan Kleinman navigates a narrative between provocation and playfulness.

Something of a drifter, Salam Abbass (Kais Nashif) works as a general dogsbody on the popular 1967-set Palestinian soap opera Tel Aviv on Fire produced in Ramallah by his uncle. Living in Jerusalem, he passes through the Israeli checkpoint each day. With the tacky espionage soap opera as popular with Israelis as Arabs, the checkpoint commanding officer Captain Assi Tzur (Yaniv Biton) looks to influence the plot – with Salam the willing pawn.

It’s a grower of a film with serious intent underlying the parody and lightheartedness that teeters on the edge of trivialising the politics of the region. But with its focus on the individuals involved, Tel Aviv on Fire is a genial, occasionally funny, non-confrontational allegory.

Rating: 64%

Director: Sameh Zoabi (Under the Same Sun, Man Without a Cell Phone)

Writer: Sameh Zoabi (The Idol, Man Without a Cell Phone), Dan Kleinman (Rage, Ultra Warrior) – based on the Mexican film by Ricardo Hernández Anzola

Main cast: Kais Nashif (Paradise Now, Body of Lies), Yaniv Biton (TV’s Alumim, Shabas), Lubna Azabal (Incendies, Simone: Woman of the Century)

‘Sparrows’

A quiet, nuanced tale as teenage Ari (Atli Óskar Fjalarsson) is sent from Reykjavik to live with his alcoholic father (Ingvar Sigurdsson) in the remote fishing village of his early childhood. Remarried, his mother is leaving Iceland for Africa.

Atmospheric in its raw beauty, Iceland’s stunning landscape plays an important role in the everyday of Ari, now working in the fish processing factory. Seen as the outsider, the teenager struggles as parental conflict, boredom and schoolday baggage come to a head in a graphically harrowing scene in the insular town.

An adolescent rights of passage, Sparrows (written and directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson) is a poignant tale of abandonment, need, acceptance and love.

Rating: 69%

Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson (Echo, Volcano)

Writer: Rúnar Rúnarsson (Echo, Volcano)

Main cast: Atli Óskar Fjalarsson (The Midnight Sky, Jitters), Ingvar Sigurdsson (Everest, TV’s Katla), Rade Serbedzija (Mission: Impossible II, Sun Li & the Poet)

‘Tehran’

International Emmy award-winning Tehran sees Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan) on her first assignment risk her life (and others) to gain access to the Iranian mainframe.

An Iranian Jew by birth, Rabinyan slips into Tehran via a Jordanian Air passenger plane forced to land with a technical fault. But her arrival does not go unnoticed.

Unexpected complications into the hacking of the cyber network to allow Israeli jets to destroy nuclear reactors result in the young agent going rogue. Hooking up with a dissident student group – and Milan (Shervin Alanabi) in particular – she becomes of concern to both Iranian intelligence, headed by Faraz Kamali (Shaun Toub), and her own agency.

A cat and mouse game ensues as Tamar looks to complete her mission, stay alive and keep an unsuspecting Milan safe. It’s a suspenseful and well-paced eight part series with lots of twists and dirty tricks by both sides. Innocents inevitably suffer with such high stakes at play but Tehran also highlights the grey where personal conflicts and uncertainities impact idealised, political decision-making. Plot lines and Tamar’s decision-making are certainly, at times, questionable, but with its intrinisic humanity, Tehran is not a simple black and white, good versus bad espionage thriller.

Rating: 72%

‘Hypnotic’

Pedestrian and predictable it may be but there’s something about the feature from directing duo Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote that makes it strangely enjoyable – dare I say even hypnotic….

Depressed following the break-up of a relationship, Jenn Thompson (Kate Siegel) meets renowned hypnotherapist Dr Collin Meade (Jason O’Mara) at a party. Reluctant at first, Jenn is encouraged to attend sessions with Meade – only to discover strange things begin to happen around her. Yet no-one except Detective Wade Rollins (Dulé Hill) believes her.

It’s all pretty dumb – but enjoyably dumb in its immediacy.

Rating: 54%

Director: Matt Angel (The Open House), Suzanne Coote (The Open House)

Writer: Richard D’Ovidio (The Call, Exit Wounds)

Main cast: Kate Siegel (The Haunting of Hill House, TV’s Midnight Mass), Jason O’Mara (TV’s The Man in the High Castle, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Dulé Hill (TV’s Suits, Ballers)

‘Chariots of Fire’

A surprising and unexpected best film Oscar winner, Chariots of Fire is the loosely true story of two British athletes and the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.

In a world of privilege and hallowed amateur sporting prowess, Cambridge undergraduate Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) looks to the fastest man alive accolade at the 100 metres sprint. But he faces serious competition from another British runner – Scottish missionary Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson). Abrahams looks to his coach, Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm); Liddell battles with his faith.

As English tradition of the ruling classes is confronted by the rise of the working class and a new world order of professionalism in sport, so the two men must find a way to overcome their differences and represent their country – even if, as a Scot, Liddell finds the British Olympic Committee less than supportive of his religious concerns.

Episodic and predictable, director Hugh Hudson tells the tale effectively with a memorable score from Vangelis. It’s all very polite, occasionally stuffy but still unashamedly rousing.

Nominated for 7 Oscars in 1982 including best director and supporting actor (Holm), won 4 – best film, original screenplay, soundtrack and costume (Milena Canonero).

Rating: 69%

Director: Hugh Hudson (Greystoke, Revolution)

Writer: Colin Welland (War of the Buttons, A Dry White Season)

Main cast: Ben Cross (First Knight, Star Trek), Ian Charleson (Gandhi, Greystoke), Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings, The Aviator)

‘Foundation’ (Season 1)

The much-anticipated ten part Foundation, based on Isaac Asimov’s series of short stories and novels, is a sumptuous sci-fi of a narrative that is, sadly, inconsistent in delivery and clarity. A confusion of time, place and character, humanity is widely spread across the galaxy living under the rule of the Galactic Empire. But, like all empires, from Ancient Rome to 19th century colonialism, from Star Wars to Game of Thrones, there’s an air of inevitably to their demise.

With psycho-historian Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) using math to forecast the end of current empire within 500 years followed by 30,000 years of chaos, steps need to be taken to prove him wrong. Insurrection across the universe follows as Empire: Day (Lee Pace), one of the four genetically cloned descendants of the orginal emperor, destroys planets in an attempt to stamp out dissidents. Both the brilliant young mathematician Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) and destined Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) set out separately from their respective planets not wholly certain where their futures lie.

In telling it now, Foundation appears to be a derivative science-fiction narrative. Yet, originally published in the late 1940s/ early 50s, it precedes the likes of Star Wars (1979). But it’s a clunky telling with inconsitencies of scale and acting. As Empire: Day, Pace struts like early Chris Hemsworth as Thor, overly pro-noun-cing lines whilst puffing his chest like a peacock: Llobell is a mature young adult one moment, spoilt brat the next. But it’s her story that, in the first two episodes, is the most engaging (and beautiful to look at), only to be replaced by the more adventure-laden and derivative Salvor Hardin tale. But why invading armies from different planets seem to be evenly spread with 20 or 30 troops apiece is an oddity not fully explained!

Lavish in places, Foundation‘s pulp fiction surprisingly lacks suspense or significant sense of wonder.

Rating: 58%

‘The Catcher Was a Spy’

Paul Rudd in a less irreverent, more dramatic role than usual as he takes on Moe Berg, a former Major League Baseball player who goes undercover in World War II Europe.

Based on true events, Berg, an enigma in life who lived in the shadows due to his hidden sexuality, is sent on a mission to assassinate physicist Werner Heisenberg (Mark Strong), head of the Nazi nuclear program. A man of many languages, Berg is to attend a conference in Zurich.

A low-key espionage thriller from director Ben Lewin with a strong supporting cast (Tom Wilkinson, Sienna Miller, Paul Giamatti, Jeff Daniels et al), The Catcher Was a Spy is unchallenging and somewhat lifeless in spite of the best intentions from the ever likeable Rudd. The film passes the time but offers little else.

Rating: 56%

Director: Ben Lewin (The Sessions, Please Stand By)

Writer: Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot) – based on the book by Nicholas Dawidoff

Main cast: Paul Rudd (Ant-Man, The Fundamentals of Caring), Mark Strong (1917, Syriana), Tom Wilkinson (The Full Monty, In the Bedroom)

‘Aloys’

No – not the Swiss German spelling for alloys (a mixed element of metals). Aloys (Alois) is the name of the lonely, recently bereaved central character in writer/director Tobias Nölle’s strange 2016 feature debut.

A partner with his father in a small, localised private investigator business, Aloys (Georg Friedrich) must come to terms with his father’s death. Meeting Vera (Tilde von Overbeck) introduces him to the bizarre world of ‘telephone walking’ resulting in an interweaving of the everyday with dreams, imagination and psychological desires.

Gloomy, off-kilter with Aloys obsessing over his work and connecting with people only through his camcorder, the film is a strange hybrid of drab reality and surreal fantasy. It’s fundamentally dull and unengaging.

(An addendum should be added that some think Aloys is a minor masterpiece and it collected the FIPRESCI prize at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival)).

Rating: 25%

Director: Tobias Nölle

Writer: Tobias Nölle

Main cast: Georg Friedrich (The Piano Teacher, Bright Nights), Tilde von Overbeck, Kamil Krejcí (Quantum of Solace, Jazz)

‘1971: the Year That Music Changed Everything’

Whilst the title may be something of a grandiose claim, there is no questioning that 1971 proved to be a major watershed for global culture – with music at the forefront of reflecting (and contributing to) change.

And what a year! Over eight one hour episodes, this docuseries places the music and politics of the day, using archival news footage, voiceovers, interviews and live gig footage to highlight the importance and impact of the year. As the social unrest of the ’60s continued to gain momentum, so a harder edged element came into play.

Protests against American involvement in Vietnam, the draft and senseless deaths of thousands turned violent with troops killing and injuring students on American soil. Marvin Gaye in What’s Goin’ On questioned the war and the racism within the military: with the Beatles having disbanded, John Lennon with Yoko Ono became the focus and conscience of the peace movement. Meanwhile, heroin had replaced dope as the drug of choice with the likes of a distracted The Rolling Stones holed up in the south of France taking months over the recording of the classic Exile on Main St. and an off-his-face Sly Stone unaware that Family Affair was a monster single waiting to happen on his There’s a Riot Goin’ On album.

Some of the biggest selling and most iconic albums of all-time were released in 1971 – the deeply personal Tapestry (Carole King) and Blue (Joni Mitchell) saw the breakout of female singer-songwriters whilst the year saw Elton John, Marc Bolan and David Bowie introduce a glam/androgenous aspect to live performance. Aretha Franklin aligned herself with imprisoned black activist Angela Davis whilst the film Shaft was released with Isaac Hayes providing the soundtrack. Franklin, Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers among others were at the forefront of black protest.

The list seems endless and it creates a fascinating insight into the music of a given year and culture around it. Whether the year lives up to the series’ claim is moot, but that aside Asif Kapadia’s (overall director and executive producer) exploration is totally engrossing and surprising. The only criticism is what’s not included: with its Anglo-American bias, the music of the Indian Sub-Continent is only mentioned in relation to George Harrison’s Madison Square Gardens’ Concert for Bangladesh; European music receives a few minutes in the final episode due to German pioneers Kraftwerk and electronic music and there is nothing about Africa. In 1971, Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti released Live!, an album which features on Rolling Stone’s list of the 50 greatest live albums of all time.

Rating: 78%

‘Quills’

Something of a mischievous oddity as the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) is imprisoned in Charenton, a prison for the mentally insane. His crimes (not that any charges were ever laid)? Lewd and blasphemous publications.

On the discovery that many of his writings were being smuggled out of Charenton, Napolean sends Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine) to replace the Abbé du Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix). A man famed for his torturous punishments, Royer-Collard initially deprives de Sade of his support, namely the young launderess, Madeleine (Kate Winslet), along with all luxuries in an attempt to stop the erotic and violent writings.

In an overly-sanitised setting, Rush is absorbing in his wit and madness, supported by a sparkling script. But Phoenix struggles with the emotional and cerebral depth of his role, creating an imbalance to the moral and ethical philisophies underscoring the narrative. Adapted from Doug Wright’s stageplay.

Nominated for 3 Oscars in 2001 (best actor, costume design, art design).

Rating: 62%

Director: Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff, The Wanderers)

Writer: Doug Wright – adapted from his own stage play

Main cast: Geoffrey Rush (Shine, The King’s Speech), Kate Winslet (The Dressmaker, The Reader), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line, Gladiator)