Aretha Franklin tribute; censorship as violence; revolution in Mexico; Sparks’ grand opera; Nic Cage tones it down
QUANTRELLD.COLBERT©2020METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURES INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
R
ESPECT You expect biopics of musical legends to be awestruck, but this fictionalised life of Aretha Franklin suffers from reverence rather than respect. Starring Jennifer Hudson as the late soul legend, it depicts a woman struggling to find her true voice, and then, once she’s found it, to free herself from the oppressive men in her life – her authoritarian preacher father (Forest Whitaker) and abusive husband and manager Ted White (Marlon Wayans). Narratively, it comes across as melodrama, punctuated by earnest confrontations and scenes in which Aretha’s mentors impart sound advice (“Find the songs that move you”). Along the way, it has its share of ‘eureka it’s a hit’ moments: Aretha and her sisters perfecting “Respect” at the piano, “I Never Loved A Man” suddenly taking miraculous shape at Muscle Shoals. It’s in those recreations of great musical moments that it comes alive, from those Alabama sessions, through 1968’s Paris Olympia concert, to the culminating 1972 gospel recording captured in the 2018 documentary Amazing Grace, which is presented here as the triumphant redemptive moment of a profoundly troubled life. Jennifer Hudson comes across as a touch too glamorous from the start, never quite capturing Franklin’s distinctive combination of gaucheness and grandeur, but she’s nevertheless a winning presence, the expertise and exuberance with which she recreates the great songs at least distinguishing Respect as a superior jukebox tribute. Whitaker is imposing as her very imperfect idol of a father, Mary J Blige has a regally tempestuous moment as Aretha’s adored Dinah Washington, and Marc Maron imparts a welcome splash of humour as an exuberantly wiseacre Jerry Wexler.
A touch too much glamour?: Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin
CENSOR Long before Saw and The Human Centipede became routine multiplex fodder, Britain’s authorities worried up a
storm over a wave of extreme horror that was reaching the nation’s cinemas – and, with the video boom, its homes. The ‘video nasties’ moral panic of the 1980s serves as background for Censor, the debut from UK writer-director Prano Bailey-Bond. Set in a densely atmospheric recreation of ’80s Britain, Censor is about Enid (Niahm Algar), a young woman working in a thinly disguised version of UK classification board the BBFC. Her job is to monitor, analyse and sometimes to trim – or even ban – violent films, a task she performs with a stern sense of responsibility. Buttoned up, eminently sensible and, it seems, emotionally impervious to the horrors she analyses, Enid is obsessively haunted by the disappearance of her younger sister years earlier. Then her fixation is triggered by a cut-price British chiller… Censor is a film of playful craft, but also considerable seriousness – and it somewhat suffers from presenting itself so manifestly as a debate on the effects and values of horror and the dangers of repression. A committed genre devotee, Bailey-Bond suggests that the censor’s characteristic activity – cutting – is itself a form of violence and that true
madness lies in denying life’s darker dimensions. She and co-writer Anthony Fletcher pursue these themes with considerable wit – “I’ve only trimmed the tiniest bit off the end of the genitals,” says Enid of one film – while Censor immerses us visually in a world ranging from airlessly drab to nightmarishly lurid. The film’s elusive but magnetic centre is Algar’s Enid, her cool containment gradually revealing inner turmoil; while co-starring as a sleazy producer is Michael Smiley, sublimely slimy. Censor is a canny, teasing provocation, although the predictably splashy pay-off somewhat blows the credit of a clever, well-paced build-up. NEW ORDER Mexican director Michel Franco has previously specialised in lowkey, almost militantly undemonstrative art films. But New Order sees him in a different gear entirely. This is an aggressively hardnosed piece of speculative realism, offering a pitiless vision of revolution and its aftermath. The initial setting is a wedding party in the pampered bubble world of Mexico City’s super-wealthy – who show their contempt for have-nots when a former employee arrives in
REVIEWED THIS MONTH RESPECT
Directedby Liesl Tommy Starring Jennifer Hudson Opens September 10 CertTo be confirmed
6/10
106 • UNCUT • OCTOBER 2021
CENSOR
Directedby Prano BaileyBond Starring Niamh Algar, Michael Smiley Opens August 20 Cert 15
7/10
NEW ORDER
Directedby Michel Franco Starring Naian González Norvind, Diego Boneta Opens August 13 Cert 18
8/10
ANNETTE
Directedby Leos Carax Starring Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard Opens September 3 Cert To be confirmed
6/10
PIG
Directed by Michael Sarnoski Starring Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff Opens August 20 Cert 15
6/10
