the times | Friday April 8 2022 7
Will Hodgkinson
hails the dynamic Jack White p9
James Marriott
is immune to Derren Brown p10
Carol Midgley
laps up an art odyssey p15
THE
CRITICS
Finally — a beast that’s truly fantastic
was filmed in the house where
the real-life murder victims (the
Clutter family) were slaughtered
— and because of Robert Blake’s
eerily watchable turn as the
deranged killer Perry Smith.
He’s vain (lots of mirror action),
self-obsessed and full of self-pity.
There’s a tragic backstory and,
at times, the film almost
sympathises with his lot. Almost.
Out on Blu-ray and streaming
on Apple TV+The Oscars had a banner year in
1968, with this definitive true-crime
drama nominated for four Academy
awards and up against era-defining
cinema such as Bonnie and Clyde,
The Graduate and In the Heat of
the Night.
It won nothing, and has largely
been relegated to the status of a
secondary Truman Capote adaptation
(overshadowed by Breakfast at
Tiffany’s). Yet it endures primarily
because of its chilly realism — itthe big film
classic
film
of the
we ek
In Cold Blood
(1967)
15, 135min
{{{{(Jude Law takes centre stage as a quietly commanding, if troubled, Albus Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of DumbledoreThe third in the
wizarding series is
the most stirring
and spectacular,
says Kevin Maher
A
t 56, JK Rowling has
proved that you’re
never too old, or too
successful, to learn
some movie-making
basics. With her
co-screenwriter
Steve Kloves, she
has taken an axe to her mediocre
Fantastic Beasts franchise and cut from
it all the excess nonsense that made
the last film, The Crimes of
Grindelwald, the least successful
Wizarding World film. What remains
is a muscular story with unexpected
soul, slickly directed by the Warner
Bros house elf David Yates (he did the
last four Potters and all the Beasts).
Gone is the deadweight Tina
Goldstein (Katherine Waterston),
relegated to a one-note cameo.
Sidelined are the tiresome beasties
(when you’ve seen one CGI
diricawl.. .), now playing significant but
minor roles. Even the nominal hero,
Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander —
who, let’s face it, is all twitch and little
going on inside — has been neatly
edged out of the narrative spotlight.
In his place we have Jude Law,
quietly commanding as Albus
Dumbledore, troubled by sadness and
complex feelings for his first great
love, the evil wizard Gellert
Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen).
Mikkelsen was parachuted into the
role after Johnny Depp lost his libel
case and became persona non grata
in Hollywood.
It’s a boon for the series, because
Mikkelsen’s simmering intensity adds
new menace but also suggests a
credibly torrid romantic history with
Dumbledore. The two have sizzling
chemistry, opening the film together
in a London restaurant in the early
1930s. Grindelwald does the old
“Do you come here often?” gag —
“Would this be one of your regular
haunts?” — and in seconds they’re
sparking, recriminating and
remonstrating about their past, failed
love. It’s proper drama.
Yet this is also a wizarding movie, so
Grindelwald must ping back to his
Austrian base and hijack a magical
election that might make him a
political powerhouse and strong
enough to exacerbate the “hatred and
bigotry” that’s rising in the muggle
world. A sequence of him driving
triumphantly through the crowded
1930s streets of the enchanted flipside
of Berlin brazenly steals from Leni
Riefenstahl’s Nazi iconography, as if
the magical and muggle realms are so
tightly bound that they mirror each
other’s geopolitical nightmares.
The plot that unfolds never actually
goes “there”, aware perhaps that themere mention of Goering or Hitler
would trigger an eruption of the real
that cannot be sustained by a
children’s fantasy film.
Equally the movie has been
criticised for not being gay enough (no
hot snogs) and for locating
Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s affair
in the past. It’s an argument that
wilfully ignores the radical nature of a
wildly expensive — the budget is
rumoured to be $200 million —
corporate behemoth that revolves
around the emotional lives of two
lovelorn gay men.
Meanwhile, the movie hits its
blockbuster beats with aplomb. There
are lots of action set pieces, effects,
chases and some thrilling wand-offs.
Supporting players are tip-top — even
the screen-chewer Ezra Miller has
dialled it down nicely as the deranged
Credence. The real surprise is the
American comedian Jessica Williamswho, as the kick-ass wizard Professor
Hicks, has whip-smart charisma and a
bizarre Mae West vocal cadence that
she nonetheless spins in her favour.
It’s not all jelly beans and
butterbeer. Callum Turner’s stiff and
pointless Theseus (Newt’s brother)
remains a distracting non-role, while
Dan Fogler’s Noo Yawk baker Jacob
Kowalski is always on the brink of
dispensable. Plus there are many
moments that betray the Covid-era
restrictions, with actors drifting
awkwardly through CGI environments
standing in for Bhutan or Berlin.
The third-act climax is a belter, all
revelation and slapstick action. It ends
with a potent image of the outsider
alone, and the suggestion that if the
franchise were to end here (and really
it should, even though two more
instalments are planned) it would be
an entirely satisfying conclusion.
In cinemasFantastic Beasts:
The Secrets of
Dumbledore
12A, 142min
{{{{(w
th
C — e d H s a s ORobert Blake, centre, stars o