Little White Lies - 11.2019 - 12.2019

trip away all the celebrity tittle-tattle, gossip and innuendo, and

when we talk to artists we’re primarily interested in how they go

about making their art. What’s your inspiration? What’s your method?

What’s your secret? Kudos to singer-songwriter PJ Harvey for being at

the centre of a film which attempts to lay the creative process horrifyingly

bare. The desire to exhibit the unseen bedrock of her songs takes its most

literal form in a live installation at London’s Somerset House, where

Harvey and her musical collaborators record the album ‘The Hope Six

Demolition Project’ in a purpose-built, sound-proofed rock box where

onlookers can spy on the recording session through one-way mirrors and

monitor the evolution of each song.

Footage of the sessions only makes up half of Seamus Murphy’s

conceptual documentary A Dog Called Money, as we also follow Harvey

on a whistlestop tour of Syria, Afghanistan and Washington DC as she

searches for sociopolitical grist for the lyrical mill. At one point she’s

sat on the stoop with kids in DC’s predominantly black Anacostia

neighbourhood, looking a little bemused as they freestyle for the camera

and talk blithely of their many run-ins with gun violence.

In Kabul, the pair visit a music shop and watch an all-male choir in the

midst of an intense prayer chant. They see poverty and desolation, and

paraphrased versions of Harvey’s diary-like narration can later be heard

during the London recording. On one hand, Harvey’s creative generosity

is laudable, and she is self-critical enough for this entire endeavour not

to seem trite. Yet seeing the creative process writ large has the effect

of diminishing the impact of the music, divesting it of all mystique and

ambiguity. It’s the not knowing where these stories and ideas derived from

that causes the listener to paint pictures in their mind. This film is like a

fusty album explainer, and it’s really not that much fun. DAVID JENKINS

ANTICIPATION. PJ Harvey is a national

treasure. ‘Rid of Me’ is an all-time classic album.

ENJOYMENT. Is it possible to learn too

much about the provenance of an artwork?

IN RETROSPECT. The recording aspects are good,

but the travelogue material just doesn’t work.

rack star, debate champion, honours student: Luce Edgar (Kelvin

Harrison Jr) can seemingly do no wrong in the eyes of gushing

high school administrators and his wealthy adoptive parents, Peter

(Tim Roth) and Amy (Naomi Watts). The academic laurels and sporting

accomplishments are made all the more impressive considering Luce’s

traumatic past growing up in war-torn Eritrea as a child soldier. Most

of the adoring faces gazing at Luce are white. To them, this handsome,

smart young black man is the American Dream personified. But more

importantly, he’s a living validation of their liberal convictions about

social justice and racial equality.

Julius Onah’s Luce, a strikingly blunt Obama-era requiem,

confronts the self-serving underbelly of white privilege and minority

tokenism by complicating Luce’s seemingly unimpeachable persona.

Ironically, the first shot across the bow comes from a whip-smart

teacher of colour named Harriet Wilson (Octavia Spencer), who takes

an aggressive and ethically problematic approach to confronting Luce’s

potential dark side.

Adapted from JC Lee’s stage play of the same name, Onah’s drama

grows increasingly laborious as it revels in the plot mechanics of revenge

and betrayal. The best scenes apply pressures of uncertainty to social

interactions harbouring an organic connection to racial bias, gender

discrimination and school violence. But those moments become few

and far between as Luce’s manipulating mind games become more overt.

Still, Luce remains a convincing and confidant example of sustained

menace. The version of American idealism it skewers is one based

on denial. When Peter tells Amy that “everything ’s fine” after both

have nearly reached rock bottom, it’s hard not to chuckle, and see the

ultimate point of Luce’s funny games. GLENN HEATH JR

ANTICIPATION.

“From the director of The Cloverfield Paradox”

ENJOYMENT. This morally ambiguous

character study definitely leaves a mark.

IN RETROSPECT.

A blunt but effectively forceful Obama-era requiem.

Luce

Directed by JULIUS ONAH

Starring KELVIN HARRISON JR, OCTAVIA SPENCER,

NAOMI WATTS

Released 8 NOVEMBER

T

A Dog Called Money

Directed by SEAMUS MURPHY

Starring PJ HARVEY, SEAMUS MURPHY

Released 8 NOVEMBER

S

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