Sight&Sound - 05.2020

REVIEWS

May 2020 | Sight&Sound | 77

musical about a gay kid conscripted for military
training during Apartheid, is a tonally lighter
exploration of similar territory. Levan Akin’s
splendid Georgian romance And Then We Danced
(2019) features a dancer battling with deep-rooted
prejudice and traditional views about what a
man should be. While Merab, the protagonist
of Akin’s film, refuses to compromise, Nick
follows the advice of a fellow gay recruit – “Do
what you can to stay invisible” – rather than risk
being sent to Ward 22, the camp’s nightmarish

mental health unit, a place we glimpse only

briefly. Hermanus’s last film to receive UK cinema

distribution, Beauty (2011), also explored queer

masculinity, focusing on a racist, homophobic

married man who becomes obsessed by the son

of one of his friends. Moffie is Hermanus’s best

film to date; his fierce attack on toxic values,

Braam du Toit’s excellent, permanently anxious

score, strong performances and a haunting final

shot combine to make Moffie a vital dissection

of shame and the damage it can cause.

Arms and the man: Moffie

South Africa, 1981. 18-year-old Nick leaves his family

to begin compulsory military service. His platoon

is led by the sadistic, homophobic Sergeant Brand,

who bullies the most sensitive recruits. Two recruits

caught having sex are publicly humiliated by Brand.

One bullied recruit kills himself. After a gruelling night

spent digging trenches, Nick has an intimate moment

with Dylan, a fellow soldier who has been the target

of Brand’s aggression. As Nick and the other recruits

go home on leave, Dylan, ordered to remain at camp,

kisses him. When Nick returns, Dylan has disappeared.

Eight months later, Nick’s platoon prepares for

combat on the Angolan border, to fight communism.

Before they leave, Nick finds out that Dylan has been

sent by Brand to Ward 22, the camp’s notorious

mental health unit, but is unable to visit him. At

the Angolan border, the South African soldiers

meet enemy fire and one of Nick’s friends is killed.

Nick himself kills an Angolan soldier. At the end of

his military service, Nick visits Dylan at his family

home. The two men go to the beach and swim in the

sea, but Dylan is guarded when the two men nearly

touch. Dylan leaves Nick on the beach, saying he

is going to the bathroom, but does not return.

Producers

Eric Abraham

Jack Sidey

Written by

Oliver Hermanus

Jack Sidey

Based on the

memoirs of André

Carl van der Merwe

Director of

Photography

Jamie D. Ramsay

Editors

Alain Dessauvage

George Hanmer

Production Designer

Franz Lewis

Music

Braam du Toit

Costume Designer

Reza Levy

Production

Companies

A Portobello film

in association with

Penzance Films

with the support of

The Department of

Trade and Industry

South Africa

Executive Producer

Philip Prettejohn

Cast

Kai Luke Brummer

Nicholas Van

der Swart

Ryan de Villiers

Dylan Stassen

Matthew Vey

Michael Sachs

Stefan Vermaak

Oscar Fourie

Hilton Pelser

Sergeant Brand

In Colour

[1.37:1]

Subtitles

Distributor

Curzon

Credits and Synopsis

Reviewed by Lou Thomas

Twenty-one films and 25 years

after Toy Story (1995), Pixar

continues to produce bright,

energetic entertainment

seemingly purpose-built to

provoke copious weeping. The Walt Disney

subsidiary may not always hit the mark, but

its best work can move audiences as deftly

as any live-action film. Onward is a typically

heartbreaking tale, a crowd-pleasing spin on some

old ideas – less revelatory than WALL-E (2008) or

Inside Out (2015), but an emotionally engaging

and compelling adventure of brotherly love.

Diffident teenage elf Ian (Tom Holland)

lives with his brash older brother Barley (Chris

Pratt) and widowed mother Laurel (Julia Louis-

Dreyfus) in a land not unlike suburban America,

albeit populated with magical fantasy beings.

At New Mushroomton High School, Ian tries to

invite some cool kids to his 16th birthday, but

is mortified with embarrassment when Barley

picks him up in Guinevere, a hard-rocking

version of the GMC Vandura cargo van (the

A-Team’s preferred mode of transport).

Back home, Barley gives Ian a magic staff left

by their late father that will bring papa elf back to

life for 24 hours. But Ian is less than savvy with the

spells and only manages to bring him back from

the waist down: to see dad fully in the flesh they

must snag a gem from a place called Ravenspoint

before sunrise. A rip-roaring adventure beckons

for the unsure Ian and the much keener Barley,

enthused by his love of ‘Quests of Yore’, a role-

playing adventure game that involves dragons

and knights. On the road in Guinevere, they meet

Corey (Octavia Spencer), a manticore – part lion,

part human, part scorpion – who owns a cheesy

family restaurant, while a pugnacious motorcycle

gang of tiny sprites are so much fun they arguably

deserve their own film. The blending of a fantasy

world of unusual, often hilarious magical creatures

with banal middle America is a great idea.

Disney has form in similar areas, most recently

with Zootopia (2016), in which a rabbit becomes

a cop in a big city of wild animals. Here, director

and co-writer Dan Scanlon has crafted something

more serious and stronger. The brothers’ quest

is undertaken to spend time with their

deceased dad but the film is really about

Onward

Director: Dan Scanlon

Certificate U 107m 24s

Brothers in arms: Onward

Available

on VOD

platforms

in the UK