The Week UK - 03.08.2019

ARTS 29

3August 2019 THE WEEK

Film

This star-laden period drama,aWeinstein Company

film which features Benedict Cumberbatch as the

inventor Thomas Edison, has hadatroubled history,

said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph. It was meant

to be released two years ago, but got kicked into the

long grass after the Harvey Weinstein scandal. And

now it has finally reached our screens, it doesn’t feel

worth the wait. The plot centres on the battle between

Edison and his rival George Westinghouse (Michael

Shannon) to get their respective electrical systems

accepted as the national standard, said Olly Richards

in Time Out. That might be interesting inabook, but

it hardly makes for compelling cinema. We are told that the original cut was clumsily edited by

Weinstein himself, and that director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon then struggled to reshape it, said Clarisse

Loughrey in The Independent. He does so by presenting almost every scene from multiple camera

angles–but this proves exhausting to watch. The two leads lend their rolesacertain “wounded

nobility”, but the talented supporting cast is given little to do. The whole thing, alas, feels “ungainly”.

The Current War

Dir: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

1hr 48mins (12A)

Underpowered drama with
Benedict Cumberbatch

★★

This Mexican arthouse film by first-time film-maker

Lila Avilés isa“poignant, disquieting movie about

21st century luxury and the invisible servant class

required to maintain it”, said Peter Bradshaw in The

Guardian. It depicts the life ofahard-working maid

in aluxury hotel in Mexico City who finds herself

surrounded by “the kind of sumptuousness she could

never dream of in her own life”. It may sound bleak,

said Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph, but it isn’t

bleak to watch. And it’s far more psychologically

convincing than the much-laudedRoma,which it

resembles. The protagonist’s quirks of character–her

obsessive determination to get her hands onabeautiful red dress in lost property, for example –

render hera“real” person, rather thanamere artistic statement. Gabriela Cartol bringsa“luminous

impassivity” to the lead role, said Nigel Andrews in the FT. In this “symphony of textured silences”

agreat deal is said by someone who says almost nothing. The result is “a fabulous piece of cinema”.

The

Chambermaid

Dir: Lila Avilés

1hr 42mins (15)

Poignant Mexican

arthouse drama

★★★★

While living on the Greek island of Hydra in the

1960s, celebrated poet and songwriter Leonard

Cohen had an affair withabeautiful Norwegian

named Marianne Ihlen (see page 52). She was the

inspiration forSo Long, Marianneand other classic

Cohen songs, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times,

and this “quietly bewitching” documentary explores

that romance, as well as the womanising by Cohen

that brought it to an end. “It hurts so much,” says

Marianne at one point. “It destroyed me.” You could

weep over Cohen, it seems, “but you could not keep

him”. Well, “I wept likeachild” by the end of this

“sad balm ofafilm”, said Kevin Maher in The Times. Early on, in “a delicious twist”, its director,

Nick Broomfield, tells us that he too was once Marianne’s lover, and this “immensely personal

angle” brings depth to the portrait. On the contrary, by pushing himself into the story, Broomfield

“takes the focus away fromawoman who spentalifetime in the shadows” and almost sinks the

film, said Wendy Ide in The Guardian. But he still manages to leave us with “an intriguing glimpse

of abohemian community onaGreek island” and an affecting portrait “of two linked lives”.

Marianne

&Leonard:

Words of Love

Dir: Nick Broomfield

1hr 42mins (12A)

So long, Marianne

★★★

The whoops and cheers when Marvel Studios

unveiled its roster of forthcoming blockbusters at

last week’s Comic-Con convention in San Diego

were absolutely deafening, said Neil Smith on BBC

News. Everyone was hailing it asagreat “step

forward for diversity”. InThor: Love and Thunder,

Tessa Thompson will play Valkyrie, Thor’s right-

hand woman and Marvel’s first openly gay

superhero. Valkyrie’s “first order of business”,

Thompson told the convention, will be “to find her

queen”. Then comesThe Eternals,aboutagroup of

superheroes which includesadeaf member (to be

played by the deaf actress Lauren Ridloff), another

played by Pakistani-American actor Kumail Nanjiani,

and athird by Mexican actress Salma Hayek.Hayek

told the audience she was proud to be “part of a

movie that is going to allow people who never felt represented

in superheroes”. And it didn’t end there. Another film,Shang-Chi

and the Legend of the Ten Rings,is to have

aChinese-Canadian actor as its superhero.

Still, Marvel has taken its time to make its

superheroes more diverse, said Anna Smith in The

Guardian. It’s 11 years since the studio launched its

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and since then

it has grossed $17bn with more than 20 superhero

movies. What’s more, it likely took Marvel’s recent

success withBlack Panther,with its largely black

cast, to realise that diversity pays its way. But it can

cause problems too, said Jane Li in Quartz. Chinese

critics are already complaining thatShang-Chiis

based onastory that originally included the evil

Chinaman stereotype, Fu Manchu. And they’re

deeply unimpressed that it’saChinese actor (Tony

Leung) who has been cast as the villain, while an

ethnically Chinese actor withaWestern heritage–Simu Liu–gets

to play the hero. Lesson for Marvel: you can’t please everyone.

Marvel’s super-diverse new superheroes

Ridloff: donningacape

©AVIVA LAYTON