2 Days in New York; Moonrise Kingdom; Snow White and the Huntsman
"Vincent Gallo ate my soul!" Following up on the success of 2 Days in Paris, Julie Delpy once again proves herself a sly, witty and eccentric talent both behind and in front of the camera with the Allen-esque quirks and existential angst of 2 Days in New York (2012, Network, 15). Ensconced in the Big Apple with her radio DJ partner Mingus (Chris Rock, never better), Delpy's avant-garde artist Marion is attempting to mount a photographic exhibition while entertaining her troublesome French family abroad. With her man-eating sister and wastrel ex-boyfriend in tow, our somewhat highly-strung heroine negotiates a tumultuous 48 hours of paternal bonding (her real-life father Albert playing close to home), sibling rivalry and Faustian artistic pacts.
Despite the narrative potential for overbearing cross-cultural wackiness, Delpy's direction keeps things wisely on the side of downplayed domesticity, meaning that even the most exotically contrived gags have their feet in recognisable reality. The midlife crisis observations are cute, the characters sharply drawn and the laughs more consistent than almost any comedy I've seen this year. The result plays like Nora Ephron with a surreal European twist â€" very warm, very funny and occasionally a bit weird. Lovely!
After the self-conscious smugness of Fantastic Mr Fox and the cod travelogue philosophy of The Darjeeling Limited, smart-cinema darling Wes Anderson partially redeems himself with his best film since The Royal Tenenbaums. While Moonrise Kingdom (2012, Universal, 12) may boast the kind of over-orchestrated clockwork visuals and hyper-stylised airs for which Anderson has become renowned, this nostalgic tale of two young misfit lovers on the run in a New England island-idyll has at its centre a tangibly beating heart that ultimately triumphs over ironic detachment.
Presented as a strange storybook escapade replete with resourceful Khaki Scouts, wicked social services witches (a true blue Tilda Swinton as Scary Mary Poppins) and biblical storm clouds gathering, Anderson's 60s-set caper juxtaposes the incongruous maturity of its young leads (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, both excellent) with the emotional insecurities of a stellar grown-up cast including Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand and a super-starchy trousered-and-toggled Ed Norton. It all adds up to an oddly enchanting fable pitched somewhere between Lord of the Flies and The Blue Lagoon (Anderson cites Ken Loach's Black Jack as an influence) and delivered with a deadpan face which all but hides its underlying tenderness.
With the glassy-eyed Mirror Mirror already little more than a memory, the fairytale revisionism continues apace with the troubled saga of Snow White and the Huntsman (2012, Universal, 12). On a visual level there's much to admire (or perhaps be distracted by) in this gothic romp, not least the spectacle of Charlize Theron's evil Ravenna emerging porcelain-like from the milky depths to chew the handsome scenery anew. The forest sets are eye-catching too, and the various physical confrontations fairly full-blooded. A shame, then, that beneath the surface there's no subtextual apple into which to sink one's teeth; The Company of Wolves this ain't.
Unfortunate also that the project was dogged by controversies, from the Little People of America organisation criticising the electronic diminution of "average height" stars to play the dwarves, to negative press about leading lady Kristen Stewart apparently scuppering sequels. In the light of which it's worth remembering what a horlicks Tarsem Singh made of Snow White in Mirror Mirror, and how much better (for all its many faults) director Rupert Sanders's effort remains.
DVD and video reviewsDramaComedyJulie DelpyKristen StewartWes AndersonMark Kermodeguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/sep/30/2-days-new-york-moonrise-kingdom
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