Chabrolfan Reviews

Saltburn (2023)

Tedious bilge; boring but not shocking

[1/10 · 23 March 2024]

Firstly, I should say that I agree with many of my fellow low-rating reviewers but not for the same reasons. I disagree with reviewers who found this disgusting. I have no problem with "controversial" but I have a huge problem with crap films.

You will, know doubt, have heard of the handful of notorious scenes in this film, before you ever watch it. Regrettably, there isn't much more to the film than that handful of scenes and most viewers will quickly realise that they were a desperate attempt to gain notoriety, in the absence of anything interesting to say.

The very idea that there is anything dark or challenging about "Saltburn" is nonsense. It's essence is utter silliness. The description "comedy thriller", is a huge overstatement on both counts. Unfortunately, I sense the director has delusions of this being "arthouse"; a description of which it also falls far short. This feels very much like a poor-mans version of the sort of thing Peter Greenaway was doing 30+ years ago.

Despite its obvious attempts to shock, the most shocking thing is that the director and editors thought there was enough here to justify its 131 minute runtime. A good editor would have knocked 50 minutes of this, but even that would have struggled to hold my interest.

Junkyard Dog (2023)

An understated joy

[9/10 · 28 January 2024]

So, I have to say this film seems, on paper, to be the sort of thing that would bore the life out of me. The theme of young people drawn into dissolute lifestyles and criminal activity are two-a-penny and usually rely on hyperbole and desperate attempts to make "this film" more hard-hitting than the (almost identical) previous film on the same subject.

On that basis, I approached "Junkyard Dog" with a degree of scepticism. I WAS WRONG.

This is a small gem which, despite it's size, scintillates. The characters are unlike anything I've seen before in this genre. They are rounded, intelligent and engaging characters; entirely unlike the characters from more cliched films (I'm looking at you, the UK's abysmal and self-regarding "Ill Manors", "Kidulthood" and "My Brother the Devil").

The story revolves around the intense relationship of a taciturn (voluntary mute?) young man waiting to join the armed forces and his best friend - a garrulous bully who treats his friend with the same level of respect as he treats his dog. Gaslighting is the gobby friend's stock-in-trade. Into this arrives a young woman, who becomes involved with the quiet half of the friendship. What follows is more about the dynamics of disenfranchised young people and their hidden depths, than about choreographed scenes of irate youths waving knives about (when they aren't in a recording studio rapping).

This is a total surprise of a film that combines social commentary with affectionate insights into its three protagonists.

I'm delighted to have had the opportunity of seeing this film (on MUBI in the UK at the time of writing). It would be a real pity if this film disappeared from MUBI in a month or two and never found a wider UK audience. Just saying.

It Snows in Benidorm (2020)

Trying... in every sense

[2/10 · 11 December 2023]

I feel a bit mean posting a poor review of this film. It is clear that the director is trying hard to create a visual language that is charming and menacing at the same time. The story, predicated on a man whose joyless life is upended when he tries to visit his brother in Spain only to find him missing and tied up in shady goings-on. Scenes are bathed in light and garish colour strongly reminiscent of Almodovar and which reflect the main character's escape from the drudgery of his routine life.

At times, the camera lingers on the bacchanalia of Benidorm's nightlife and presents an alienating, decadent and surreal world. All of this seems to be intended to to make us uncomfortable. Regrettably, the scenes are so stylised that they feel pretentious rather than disturbing. The film is trying way too hard to create a disconcerting atmosphere with it's blend of innocence and depravity and its focus on the bizarre details of Benidorm life.

The dialogue is stagey. Attempts at elliptical and thought-provoking conversation are grating and make the film feel longer than it's (already too-long) 2 hours. The police officer spouting Sylvia Plath, for example, is utter nonsense.

Going back to my original comment, the reason I'm uncomfortable leaving this film a poor is that I think the director has real creativity and visual flare. I just think she needs to rein it in and concentrate more on the plot, dialogue and editing, which is what makes this such a mess. It's also a real shame to see Spall, one of this country's finest, involved in this half-baked project.

Bread and Salt (2022)

Brilliant in parts, but not as a whole

[7/10 · 3 December 2023]

This is a respectable attempt to deal with the issue of anti-immigrant sentiment in modern Poland but, whilst its main point is made forcefully, I'm not so sure that the film is successful as a whole.

Centred on the relationship of two gifted piano-student brothers with their aimless peers, the film explores how easily people can be drawn into racist behaviour. In principle, the juxtapostion of callous racist behaviour with classical piano music seems like a great idea; the one highlighting the other. Unfortunately, for me though this doesn't work. The relationship of the classical music students with their racist thug friends feels unrealistic rather than thought-provoking. The transition of one of the characters from open-minded to bigoted, laughing heartily at the discomfort of tormented immigrants, is far too sudden and extreme to feel believable.

There are segments of this film which are quite brilliant, especially when the camera observes the characters in their mundane lives, but the structure of the film as a whole is less successful. 100 minutes should be long enough to create a real feeling of mounting tension, but instead the main plotline is dealt with in too cursory a fashion and heavily loaded into the final stages of the film.

All in all, really not bad but not great. I would definitely be interested to see what this director does next.

Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone (2022)

Absolute quality

[10/10 · 24 May 2023]

This series is a perfect illustration of the value of editing in film and television. Now, I have to admit that I will watch almost anything about the Soviet Union and Russia, and this is pretty much the happiest 7 hours I could spend in front of the box, but the series is objectively quite brilliant in conception and execution. As well as the authorial brilliance Adam Curtis, the end-credits make clear how indebted the director is to the people who captured the extraordinary footage throughout the 1990s. Heartbreaking, poignant and frequently hilarious, this is a mesmerising slice of life from a country in meltdown and full of little known insights. Perfect for anybody who has enjoyed any of Sergei Loznitsa's edited documentary footage or the superb "Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu".

Rain Dogs (2023– )

Dark and British but absolutely no humour and precious little drama

[1/10 · 15 April 2023]

I'm afraid that the opportunity for the BBC to show something dark and humorous has been utterly wasted here. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that the writer of this series has a theatrical background, because most comments I've heard from people seem to reference some of this country's greatest modern playwrights, directors and screenwriters (Pinter, Leigh, Loach), but never in a positive comparison. It is, of course, possible to balance comedy with tragedy, but, in this case, the social realism is laughable and the comedy is non-existent. (Really, very poor sixth-form college creative-writing course standard.) It is particularly heart-breaking to see Daisy May Cooper involved in this project, especially when her own series "Am I Being Unreasonable?" was such a triumph. One further criticism would be about the ludicrous depiction of a gay man; as one myself, I'd rather the writer stuck to something she knows something about... perhaps a third-rate writer, for example.

Bad Seeds (2018)

Enough charm to pull it off

[7/10 · 13 February 2023]

I will pretty much watch Catherine Deneuve in anything. I'm not sure this is the sharpest screenplay I've ever seen and there are cliches a-plenty, but there is enough charm to kick some life into it. The three main characters are played to perfection and the plot is genuinely heartwarming. I'd never heard of Kheiron before, but I don't think this is the last I will see of him. Credit also to some great performances from the young cast playing a group of pupils on the verge of throwing their lives away. I would definitely say to anybody, give it a try, it makes for an enjoyable enough hour and three-quarters.

Operation Finale (2018)

Glib cliches for the easily pleased

[2/10 · 22 April 2022]

This is quite appallingly poor quality. In fairness to the actors, there's probably very little you can do with such a trite script. The film is horribly reminiscent of all those awful tv mini-series from the 1980s; full of glib homespun philosophy, laboured moments of jeopardy, over-the-top theatrical lighting and condescending exposition of the plot.

Probably also worth noting that all the good guys have American accents and the Nazis and their hangers-on all have English accents. I really do wonder if they are taught which side the Brits were on in the Second World War, in US schools.

Netflix really ought to be ashamed of this tawdry crowd-pleasing treatment of such a serious subject. A far cry from the perfectly-judged "The Eichmann Show".

Get In (2019)

Feeble

[1/10 · 13 February 2022]

I'm amazed so many reviewers found this thrilling or shocking, unless they've spent their whole lives in a nunnery. At the outset, the film offers so much potential but there is little build up of character or suspense and by the time things really kick off, about half-way through, you will no longer give a toss what happens to anybody. Not shocking, not harrowing, not intelligent. Less thrilling than the local weather update on TV.