The Observer - 04.08.2019

The Observer

04.08.19 33

with a boat in the nearby harbour.

Michael, however, is the kind of boy

who would rather break his toys

than share them.

There’s no question that Michael

views Sascha as one of his many

possessions, an object that can be

replaced if it no longer pleases.

A detail that is almost as chilling

as the sexual attack that follows

is the way he carefully removes

his expensive watch beforehand.

Priorities. What’s more complicated

is the question of how Sascha sees

herself. Is she complicit in her

own commodifi cation? Certainly

she’s canny enough to be tallying

a continual cost-benefi t analysis;

the unwitting Thomas is her

escape route if the price of her

lifestyle gets too high.

One of the strongest elements

of a fi lm that represents a fi ercely

uncompromising directorial vision

throughout is Eklöf’s choice of

locations. The airport arrivals hall,

the interior of Michael’s holiday pad,

the brash resort clubs: all have the

veneer of glossy luxury that evokes

the kind of boutique where the

ultra-wealthy fl ex their money.

Particularly effective is the fi lm’s

main backdrop: the hollow-eyed

villa, painted the ominous white

of a sun-bleached skull. It’s open

plan, the better to let the sounds out

of frame bleed through the space.

In one scene, Sascha sits with the

gangsters’ semi-feral kids watching

cartoons, barely registering the

howls from the basement where

Musse , a low-level thug, takes

punishment for a transgression.

Later, Musse, his teeth bared in a

craven grin of appeasement, offers

gifts to buy himself back into favour.

Head bowed, he proffers a bottle

of Turkish brandy to a man whose

knuckles are still scabbed from

beating him.

There’s a sickly inevitability in

the build of violent tension. But

what’s more unexpected is how,

having chosen her path in the most

savage way imaginable, Sascha’s

status within the gang subtly

shifts. She has clawed herself a

slice of power and found it every

bit as addictive as Michael’s drugs.

Meanwhile, Eklöf establishes

herself as a ferocious talent. I

await her next fi lm with as much

trepidation as anticipation.

Mark Kermode is away

Violence – sexual,

physical and

psychological –

is a fact of life in

this ecosystem

From top: Holliday

Grainger and Alia

Shawkat grow up

disgracefully in

Animals; The Angry

Birds Movie 2:

‘much funnier

than it needs to be’;

and Nawazuddin

Siddiqui fi nds

love on the streets

of Mumbai in the

‘chaste’ Photograph.

Allstar, Sony,

Amazon

Animals

( 109 mins, 15 ) Directed by Sophie

Hyde ; starring Holliday Grainger ,

Alia Shawkat

Writer Emma Jane Unsworth adapts

her 2014 novel, moving the action

from Manchester to Dublin. Party

animal Laura (Holliday Grainger)

has spent the past decade trying

to become a writer (she’s written

10 pages in 10 years). She lives in

decadent squalor with best friend,

Tyler (Alia Shawkat, coasting on the

strength of her natural charisma),

and like their well-rehearsed routine

of anarchic nights out and bleary

comedowns, the fi lm’s structure is

untidily elliptical.

When Laura falls in love with

classical pianist Jim (Fra Fee) , a man

with “the shoes of an undertaker

and the smile of a despot” according

to Tyler, a different life is presented

to her. Sooner or later, the party has

to end, insists Laura’s sensible sister

Jean (Amy Molloy).

The fi lm is preoccupied with the

theme of growing up, fi zzing with

the teenage energy of a coming-

of-age movie despite its characters

edging into their 30s. Laura

recognises and is vulnerable to the

seductiveness of white wine , MDMA

and pretentious poets with curly

hair. She asks questions about the

value of marriage and settling down

(“My feminism is about blazing a

way through old traditions,” she

barks, defending her engagement

to Jim). She’s also fearful of

commitment, in relationships and

writing, trapped by her propensity

for self-sabotage (Laura’s book

begins with a girl who tries to free a

spider from its own web).

“Tragedy plus time equals

comedy,” insists Tyler, but the fi lm is

more ambivalent. A scene in which

Laura spills wine on a baby is darkly

funny, but Grainger’s carefully

modulated performance skew s

more towards the tragic, especially

as she stares into the mirror at a

party, crestfallen at the realisation

she’s no longer having fun.

The Angry Birds Movie 2

(97 minutes, U) Directed by Thurop

Van Orman ; starring Jason Sudeikis,

Leslie Jones, Josh Gad, Danny McBride,

Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage

An animated sequel inspired by an

iPhone app isn’t, I’ll concede, the

most promising movie premise, but

the second instalment in the Angry

Birds series is much funnier and

fl appier than it needs to be. In 2016 ’s

The Angry Birds Movie , Red ( Jason

Sudeikis ), an irritable loner with a

permanently knitted brow became

Bird Island ’s unlikely hero, rescuing

the eggs of its fl ightless birds from

Fast and Furious:

Hobbs & Shaw

(13 6 mins, 12A) Directed by David

Leitch; starring Dwayne Johnson,

Jason Statham, Idris Elba

This spin-off of the Fast and the

Furious franchise reunites rivals

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Luke

Hobbs and Jason Statham’s Deckard

Shaw. A deadly virus carried by

Shaw’s sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby),

is coveted by the unimaginatively

named Brixton Lore (Idris Elba) ;

Hobbs and Shaw must work

together to extract it before it falls

into the wrong hands.

Photograph

(109 mins, 15) Directed by Ritesh

Batra; starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui,

Sanya Malhotra

This bland, sombre love story

from the director of The Lunchbox

(2013) lacks that fi lm’s fl avour.

Rafi ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui ) is a

struggling street photographer

at Mumbai’s Gateway of India

monument whose grandmother

Dadi (an extremely lively Farrukh

Jaffar ) is refusing to take her

medicine until he fi nd himself a

bride. At the Gateway, Rafi snaps

a photograph of a shy accounting

student called Miloni ( Sanya

Malhotra ), and then sends it to

Dadi to shut her up; naturally, Dadi

travels to Mumbai to see for herself.

A chaste romance blossoms

between Rafi and Miloni once he

tracks her down, but Malhotra’s

performance is too understated to

convince that she is more than a

blank slate for him to project his

fantasies on to.

Simran

Hans

And the rest

the predatory green pigs from

neighbouring Piggy Island.

The prankish rivalry between the

birds and the pigs is sustained, but

when icy cannonballs coming from

the mysterious Eagle Island hit both

communities, pig king Leonard ( Bill

Hader ) insists on a truce and a plan

of action. Red agrees, assembling

a crew of sidekicks including Josh

Gad ’s speed demon Chuck and his

smarty-pants sister, Silver ( Rachel

Bloom ). Except, as Red must learn,

they’re more than helpers and,

anyway, brutish male ego is simply a

hindrance when saving the world.

In this fi lm, the angriest bird

is a female: a pampered purple

ice queen named Zeta , fabulously

voiced by SNL ’s Leslie Jones. A

Dawson’s Creek-themed fl ashback

reveals that Zeta’s frostiness is the

result of heartbreak, leading her to

drown her sorrows with cocktails

in self-imposed exile (“Three

umbrellas in one drink? What

kind of extravagant lunatic are we

dealing with?” squawks Red).

Cameos from Awkwafi na , Nicki

Minaj and Pete Davidson , and a

subplot involving a trio of adorable

hatchlings, are amusing diversions,

but Jones’s dynamic voice work is

the highlight. An honorary mention,

though, to Tiffany Haddish as Zeta’s

minion, Debbie , whose quicksilver

timing has landed her parts in The

Lego Movie 2 , The Secret Life of Pets 2

and Netfl ix’s Tuca & Bertie.

The fi lm has fun setting up

Johnson and Statham as two

different but equally tasty fl avours

of traditional masculinity : Hobbs

is classic, rugged and philosophical

(he reads Nietzsche as well as

being a self-proclaimed “ice-cold

can of wh up-ass” ), while Shaw

is slickly refi ned, a “champagne

problem”. They volley insults at

one another but are united by their

shared family values.

This is set up in contrast to

Elba’s individualistic rogue

operative, who has been genetically

modifi ed and refers to himself as

“the black Superman”.

At nearly two-and-a-half hours,

the fi lm is overlong. The combat

montages, on the other hand,

are maniacally edited, cut at the

compressed speed of a trailer.

The thundering rock score only

adds to its YouTube-supercut feel.

Sometimes there is pleasure to be

found in brainless action, but the

extended video game-style fi nale

left me furious and fatigued.

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