The Full Monty review

 Surprisingly, this British comedy isn't on the top 1000 films of all time, but it is one of my favourites, so here's my review.

Gary Schofield (Robert Carlyle) is an unemployed former steel-worker in Sheffield. He is behind on his child support payments. If he doesn't pay £700 soon, he will lose custody of his son Nathan (William Snape.) Desperate for the cash, Gary and his best friend Dave (Mark Addy) recruit four other former steel workers to form a striptease act. The four others include the suicidally-depressed Lomper (Steve Huison,) Gaz and Dave's former foreman Gerald (Tom Wilkinson,) the ageing Horse (Paul Barber) and the well-endowed Guy (Hugo Speer.)

Like I say, I was surprised to find that this classic British-comedy doesn't feature on the top 1000 list. it was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, it won the Best Picture Bafta and it was voted twenty-five on the Best 100 British films. But beyond that it is a phenomenal film full of humour and heartbreak. It is one of those rare films that will have you crying tears of laughter and sorrow.

To fully understand the Full Monty, you have to understand the social context. It is set in Sheffield - the home of Britain's steel industry. Once a thriving city, it was absolutely destroyed by deindustrialisation. Whole generations of male steelworkers found themselves unemployed overnight. Struggling to find other work, many of them lose all hope for the future, just like Gary and Dave.

The Full Monty brilliantly captured the alienation that this generation must have experienced. In a mere ninety minutes, we received a stark picture of how badly these men have fallen. Once heroes of their community, they were reduced to mere shells of their former selves. I visited Sheffield a few years ago and I don't think that even twenty years on it has fully recovered from deindustrialisation.

The cast were magnificent without any weak links. Robert Carlyle, one of Scotland's best actors, was utterly magnetic as the roguish Gary. Yes, he is a petty criminal, Jack-the-Lad type, who isn't the best father to Nathan, but he is still incredibly endearing to the viewer. Like many of us, he isn't perfect, but despite his flaws, he still wants the best for his son. Carlyle quite rightly won the Best Actor Bafta for his performance.

But he can't take all the credit. Mark Addy was also brilliant as Dave. To some extent, Addy provided a lot of the film's comic relief, but he also proves a lot of heart. For Dave is a character with a lot of self-loathing. He is a fat man - an aspect of himself that he absolutely denies. His efforts to accept himself provided one of the film's best subplots. And his final reconciliation with his wife Jean (Lesley Sharp) still makes me cry even all these years on. Dave's character is definitely one of the best depictions of male body image that I have seen on-screen.

Coming in next is the terrific Tom Wilkinson (RIP) who played Gary and Dave's former foreman Gerald. Being their old boss, he is of a higher social standing and has some of the most to lose out of being given the sack. Or at leas the will do if he ever tells his wife about what had happened. Instead, he decides to keep it a secret for six months. One of his best scenes is his fiery confrontation with Gary and Dave after they sabotage his interview.

Despite being a comedy it tackles a number of difficult subjects like body image, masculinity, suicide - through the character of Lomper - homosexuality and fatherhood. And it tackles all these themes with the necessary gravitas and humility. Our six strippers go through so much trial and tribulation that you are really rooting for them. Director Andrew Johnson did well to pack all this into ninety minutes.

Lastly, we need to talk about the soundtrack. It was a mixture of original score and some of the best disco hits of the seventies and eighties. Minus the Gary Glitter hit, every song fitted each scene perfectly. As for the original score, it netted composer Anne Dudley a well-deserved Oscar.

I loved the Full Monty. Even though, IMDB didn't rate it, I would definitely count it among my top ten films of all time. The setting, the characters and the music all came together to make a film that I could watch over and over again.

Crimes and Misdemeanours review

 Number 278 on the top 1000 films of all time is Woody Allen's 1989 comedy-drama Crimes and Misdemeanours.

Crimes and Misdemeanours follows two characters. The first is the ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) whose marriage is threatened when his mistress Dolores (Angelica Huston) threatens to tell his wife about their affair. The second character is the married TV producer Clifford Stern (Woody Allen) who falls in love with his fellow producer Halley Reed (Mia Farrow),

If it bends, it’s funny.

If it breaks, it is not.”

 

This film must have been broken, because I didn’t find it funny in the slightest. I can’t think of one occasion where I even cracked a smile. It wasn’t like there were jokes that fell flat, there was barely any jokes at all. Just annoying characters and faux-philosophy.

I’ve never hidden the fact that I don’t like Woody Allen, as a writer, director or actor. He always plays the same character of the middle-aged Jewish, neurotic writer going through a midlife crisis. That would be fine if his characters were likeable, but they’re not. They’re whiny and irritating. Clifford was no exception.

He was absolutely insufferable, as the pathetic film writer trying to rationalise having an affair on his affair. Note how I said pathetic, not pititful – he deserved no pity whatsoever.

He was a bland, unengaging character. I felt no reason to care or root for his romance with Halley Reed at all. I can say the same for Judah. He was similarly pathetic in his desperate attempts to keep his mistress away from his wife. If anything, he was worse than Clifford, because at least the latter had some gumption. Judah was very much ready to roll over and die.

Clifford spends a lot of his time taking his niece to see classic Hollywood films in the cinema – we would often see these films play on the screen too. I found this a peculiar choice. It was like I was watching more of these films than I was Crimes and Misdemeanours. And those films were highly more interesting.

Would it be going too far to say that even making this film was a crime and misdemeanour? Perhaps. But it was a tiresome film with two of the most annoying protagonists ever.

Harvey (1950) review

 Number 254 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1950 comedy-drama 'Harvey.'

Elwood Dowd (James Stewart) is a peculiar young man who lives with his aunt Veta Louise Simmons (Josephine Hull). What's so peculiar about him? He believes in a 6 foot tall white rabbit called Harvey. Harvey is his best friend, but he's imaginary. Considered a quack by his queers, it is possible that Elwood is wiser than us all.

In my last review, I reviewed the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder starring James Stewart as the charming and whimsical lawyer Paul Biegler. However, Harvey, made a mere nine years earlier, lacked a lot oft he same charm and whimsy. Far from being a heart-warming, comedy drama, it was a soulless affair.

James Stewart lacked a lot of the charisma I saw him display in Anatomy of a Murder and the Philadelphia Story. Rather, with Elwood, he seemed to be in a mindless daze for the entire film. if anything, he was just a vessel for the imaginary Harvey. It wasn't the most compelling of characters or performances. I'm not really sure why he was nominated for an Oscar.

While Jimmy Stewart was nominated for an Oscar, Josephine Hull won for Best Supporting Actress. I was confused as to why Stewart was nominated, but I was shocked at how Hull won. Her performance was fine, but it was hardly Oscar-worthy. For one thing, she disappears halfway through the film only to reappear later. I know this was only a Supporting Oscar, but her screentime didn't seem to warrant such a prestigious award.

Going into this film, I was expecting this to be something similar to It's a Wonderful Life, where a character, in this case, Harvey, has an unexpected/unrealised effect on those around him. Yet, I saw little evidence of this. Dr Sanderson (Charles Drake) and Nurse Kelly (Peggy Dow) are a couple working at the sanitorium that Veta wants to commit Elwood to; it is also implied they are having marital problems. The head of the sanitorium Dr Charles (Cecil Kedaway) is lamentful that he never had a chance to holiday in Akron with a beautiful woman. However, after a supposed encounter with Harvey, the couple sort out their problems and Dr Chumley resolves to carry out his wish. Rubbish. There wasn't enough foundation for these emotional beats to land.

And I could very well say the same for the film Harvey. What should have been a fun feel-good affair left me feeling indifferent.