The Observer - 25.08.2019

The Observer

25.08.19 33

become (in bullfi ghting parlance)
“a diffi cult ring”.
It’s signifi cant that we fi rst meet
Salvador underwater, submerged
in a swimming pool, his thoughts
fl oating toward a vision of his
mother (played in her younger
years by Penélope Cruz ) washing
clothes in the river – a pastoral idyll.
When Salvador recalls his discovery
of cinema as a gushing font of life,
it’s buoyant images of lakes and
waterfalls that leap to mind, forever
entwined with the smell of “piss,
jasmine and a summer breeze”.
Music is a time machine too, from
the communal singing of Jacinta
and her friends, through the piano
tune that takes Salvador back to
his seminary choir days (“I like the
Beatles and cinema!” he burbles,
before being directed toward “less
pagan subjects”).
For all the darkness in Salvador’s
life, Pain and Glory surrounds
him with the blocks of highly
choreographed colour that have
become Almodóvar’s trademark,
accentuating his sense of greying
isolation. When estranged lovers
meet, Almodóvar stages their
embrace as a kaleidoscopic tango of
red and blue intertwined, signifying
internal fervour amid a scene of
dramatic restraint.
Never before has Banderas
seemed so vulnerable, his eyes
darting back and forth in fear
and wonder, shining through a
mask of deadpan melancholia
and regret. Like the usually burly
Russell Crowe’s portrayal of Jeffrey
Wigand in The Insider, Banderas
here seems to shrink and grow
simultaneously, perfectly capturing
both the strengths and weaknesses
of his character.
In the supporting roles, special
mention is due to Julieta Serrano
as Jacinta in her 80s, a fl intier
rendering of previous maternal
fi gures (Almodóvar’s fi lms are,
arguably, all about his mother)
who tells Salvador offhandedly
that he was never a good son, a
moment of pin-sharp, bittersweet
perfection. Alberto Iglesias ’s lovely
score perfectly matches the shifting
tones of the drama: the warmth
of the early childhood scenes, the
poignancy of Jacinta’s last days, the
tensions and anxieties of Salvador’s
suspended life.
It all adds up to a richly satisfying
work from a fi lm-maker whose love
of cinema, in all its pain and glory,
shines through every frame.

Never before has

Banderas seemed

so vulnerable, his

eyes darting back

and forth in fear

and wonder

Penny Lane’s ‘impish’

documentary Hail

Satan? (top); Kaya

Scodelario,

up to her neck in

‘slender disaster

horror’ Crawl;

and the ‘chaste’

teenage protagonists

of Scary Stories to

Tell in the Dark.

Allstar; Paramount

Hail Satan?

(94 mins, 15) Directed by Penny Lane

“Isn’t this a hoax?” asks a news

reporter. This is the question at the

heart of Penny Lane ’s ( Nuts! , Our

Nixon ) impish documentary about

the Satanic Temple. Founded in

2013 , the group claim to “refi ne”

satanism “as a weapon in the

ongoing culture wars”, positioning

themselves as a counterbalancing

force against evangelical Christianity

and the pernicious confl ation of

church and state.

“I used to be a zesty little atheist,”

smirks a new believer. But being an

atheist is boring, he insists. There’s

no community, no code of ethics.

Indeed, the community Lane zeroes

in on is one of charming, articulate

oddballs; with his glass eye and

reasonable baritone, co-founder

Lucien Greaves , in particular, is a

charismatic antihero.

Though she takes her subjects

seriously, Lane allows herself to

be led by her sense of humour.

A statue of a 10ft goat-headed

demon – a monument to Satan,

set to reside next to the Ten

Commandments monument

in Little Rock, Arkansas – is a

provocative middle fi nger to the

widespread acceptance of religious

iconography. An anti-anti-abortion

rally that sees the satanists dress as

fetish-inspired adult babies is even

funnier. “The meaning is a bit lost

on us,” says an innocent passer-by.

It’s no accident that Lane titles her

fi lm Hail Satan?, opting for a curious

question mark rather than an

ecstatic exclamation point. Though

the fi lm mostly makes a persuasive

case for the Temple’s legitimacy and

its leftist values of science, tolerance

and pluralism, you suspect she

remains unconverted.

Crawl

( 87 mins, 15 ) Directed by Alexandre

Aja ; starring Kaya Scodelario ,

Barry Pepper

A category 5 hurricane is brewing

and daddy Dave (Barry Pepper) isn’t

picking up his phone. En route to

retrieve him before it hits, University

of Florida swimmer Haley Keller

( Kaya Scodelario) drives past an

alligator farm; a foreshadowing of

trouble in Alexandre Aja’s slender

disaster horror.

Aja smartly limits most of the

action to the family’s dank, fast-

fl ooding basement – a “crawlspace”,

if you will – where Dave is trapped.

A congregation of killer gators have

made their way in through a drain

and are keeping him company. If

they are CGI, they don’t look it. Each

opportunity for rescue is swiftly

scuppered but, as former swimming

Scary Stories to Tell

in the Dark

(107 mins, 15) Directed by André

Øvredal; starring Zoe Colletti, Michael

Garza, Austin Zajur, Gabriel Rush

Producer and co-writer Guillermo

del Toro brings Alvin Schwartz ’s

much-loved children’s book series

to the big screen, but this uneven

fi lm can’t decide who it’s trying

to scare. Schwartz’s anthology of

self-contained spooky short stories

was popular in the 1980s, drawing

on folklore and urban myths; here,

the stories are stitched together as a

collection of creepy prophecies.

In the fi ctional town of Mill

Valley, Pennsylvania, a gaggle of

nerdy teens led by aspiring writer

Stella ( Zoe Colletti ) break into a

dilapidated mansion. Local legend

has it that the Bellows family kept

their daughter Sarah locked up;

in an act of vengeance, she’d tell

scary stories to children through

the wall. When Stella steals Sarah’s

book of stories, her aggrieved spirit

is reanimated.

In a departure from the books,

the fi lm adopts a period setting,

taking place in the weeks leading

up to Nixon’s election in 1968. The

spectre of the Vietnam w ar hangs

over the grisly proceedings, adding

interesting atmospheric texture

but little narrative detail. The fi lm’s

teen protagonists, meanwhile, are

Angel Has Fallen

(120 mins, 15) Directed by Ric Roman

Waugh; starring Gerard Butler,

Morgan Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith,

Nick Nolte

In 2013 ’s Olympus Has Fallen ,

North Korea was America’s enemy;

its Islam ophobic 2016 follow-up,

London Has Fallen, took umbrage

with Muslim terrorists via Pakistan.

This time, the tasteless franchise

targets Russia. Or rather, it is

targeted by Russia, who have framed

Gerard Butler’s Secret Service agent

Mike Banning for an assassination

attempt on President Trumbull

(Morgan Freeman ). On a fi shing trip

with Trumball, a swarm of drones

equipped with facial recognition

software wipes out all of the agents

b ar Banning. And when the FBI

discover $10m in an offshore

account under his name, he’s forced

to go on the run.

The fi lm imagines Banning and

his wife, Leah (Piper Perabo ), as

victims, which is to say that the

values they represent – valour,

honesty, traditional gender roles –

are portrayed as under threat. Butler

is convincingly sturdy as Banning,

but the fi lm’s politics are shaky.

Banning’s estranged father, Clay

(Nick Nolte ), is a damaged Vietnam

veteran who teaches his son about

the futility of war before set ting off

a wall of home-rigged explosions.

There is something odd about the

way the fi lm condemns bloodshed

while revelling in violence.

Simran

Hans

And the rest

coach Dave tells his daughter, their

escape is mind over matter (“I t’s not

your body that’s stopping you”).

The scenes of family bonding are

tiresome but the action is mostly

tense and cheerfully bloody. French

fi lm-maker Aja directed remakes

of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and

Piranha (2010); clearly, he has an

appreciation for trashy B-movies.

Crawl benefi ts from its economical

87-minute runtime, but as a genre

piece it’s more skin than muscle.

chaste children’s book heroes, but

the horror, based on illustrator

Stephen Gammell ’s drawings, has

a gruesome quality that feels too

full-on for youngsters. A red pimple

is infested with spiders, a human

toe fl oats to the top of a vomit-like

stew, and a lumpy, pale woman who

smiles and shuffl es ominously down

a hospital corridor is truly terrifying.