The Fantasy Issue April 2016 issue 243
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Incoming fantasy epics on-set exclusive
the winter’s war Hemsworth and Chastain play it cool
Game Of Thrones Unseen pictures!
Alice Through The Looking Glass
Will Wonderland wow?
Luke Evans Bard to Beast Michael Shannon TF kneels before zod
buzz Welcome to the movies!
On hand: Strange’s origin story will be thoroughly explored.
10 | Total Film | April 2016
new films! edited by matt maytum
‘It’s not going to be like any of the other Marvel films’
rachel mcadams
first look!
Strange fascination Doctor Strange | Marvel tries its hand at casting a new type of movie spell. It’s a kind of magic... As someone once said, what doesn’t kill you simply makes you… stranger. Lately, chinks in Marvel’s geek-plated front have included Ant-Man’s undeservedly diminished box-office haul and faint grumbles about Age Of Ultron’s tight-squeezed plot. But worry not: after Civil War’s screen-packing ruck, a Doctor will be here to help. Building on sci-fi and Quantum Realm detours, Marvel will extend itself again with Doctor Strange, the mighty magician with the arrogance/ability to reshape the MCU. And the word is that the perfectly cast Benedict Cumberbatch will have plenty of multidimensional, universe-bending tricks (and sparklers, going by the profile pic) up those capacious cloak sleeves. Much ambiguity surrounds how this portrait of the Sorcerer Supreme (aka Stephen)
will unfold, but this much we know. Strange is a surgeon who, having wrecked his hands in a car crash, embraces the mystical healing tuition of the Yoda-esque Ancient One (Tilda Swinton, pleasingly gender-swapped from the comics). Also involved is another Ms Ancient pupil. Baron Karl Mordo will be played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who’s keeping mum on whether he becomes Strange’s nemesis in this origin story. “Oh, he’s a very complex character that, really, I don’t think can be nailed down either way, you know,” Ejiofor says. “I guess it’s something to experience, is what I’d say.” Overseeing that experience is sci-fi/horror helmer Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Day The Earth Stood Still), who isn’t giving his tricks away, this Inception-ish promise aside: “What you can expect… Is a mind-trip action film.” You can also expect Hannibal’s Mads Mikkelsen as a stillunnamed villain (Nightmare?), Rachel McAdams as a still-unnamed medic/audience PoV (Night Nurse?), and more evidence that Marvel knows better than to buckle to formula. “It’s definitely not going to be like any of the other films,” McAdams has teased. Could it be… magic? KH
April 2016 | Total Film | 11
buzz Welcome to the movies!
The Prize Is Right
With awards season in full swing it’s time to roll out the red rug, pop the cork on a bottle of Prosecco and recognise the year’s underappreciated “greats” in the alternative Total Film Awards 2016.
Best Scene-Stealer Nominees
Most Uncomfortable Sex Scene Nominees
Widow seduction – Daniel Craig/Monica BellucCi (Spectre) Secret nightie – Eddie Redmayne/Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl) Everything. The whole movie. All of it – Dakota Johnson/Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades Of Grey)
And the winner is... Fifty Shades Of Grey!
It couldn’t really be anything else, could it? Bond would win any other year for his breathy make-out session with Bellucci... on the night of her husband’s funeral... whom he killed. And Redmayne’s bedroom reveal would surely make his wife think twice about letting him undress further. But Fifty Shades has the perfect formula for awkwardness: heavy-handed spanking alongside lines like “I don’t make love, I fuck hard”, a business discussion about anal fisting and Dakota Johnson biting her lips more times than a hungry cannibal all make the sex uncomfortable in every sense.
16 | Total Film | April 2016
And the winner is... THe Doof Warrior!
It’s quite the achievement to stand out as the coolest thing in a film as awesome and chaotic as Mad Max: Fury Road, but the guitar-shredding, flame-throwing Doof Warrior manages it with barely a word. Jason Statham’s impossibly ridiculous spy and Star Wars’ new badass bit-player TR-8R stood out, but there is no contest against a truck loaded with a stack of amps blasting out riffs; the Doof Warrior is pure metal. We’ll forgive him for wearing a mask made from his dead mother’s face.
Biggest Nostalgia Trip Nominees
The Millennium Falcon takes flight (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) The T-Rex returns! (Jurassic World) ’80s arcade characters come to life (Pixels)
And the winner is... Star Wars: The Force Awakens!
From the moment Rey points off-screen to a “garbage” ship, we know we’re gearing up for another trip in the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy for the first time in 32 years. Jurassic World paid perfect homage to Spielberg’s classic and, yes, Adam Sandler had some fun with Donkey Kong, Pac-Man et al, but there was just something heart-swelling about seeing the Millennium Falcon take to the skies again. And when Han arrives on the deck of his old Kessel Runner and says “Chewie, we’re home”, we can’t help but agree with him. Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
getty
The Doof Warrior (Mad Max: Fury Road) Rick Ford (Spy) FN-2199 aka TR-8R (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
new films! Best A.I. Character
Best Dance Scene
Nominees
Nominees
Ultron (Avengers: Age Of Ultron) Ava (Ex Machina) BB-8 (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
Get Down Saturday Night (Ex Machina) I Want It That Way (Magic Mike XXL) Cry To Me (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.)
And the winner is… BB-8!
This was a close call. Ultron proved to be a creepy, formidable foe, but not even James Spader’s tremendous voice can make up for those weird CGI lips. No, this was a battle fought between BB-8 and Ava. While Ava transcended the limitations of her own creation and became at once an icon for both feminism and existentialism, well… BB-8 is just so cute, isn’t he? And you can own him in your own home. Here’s a little blowtorch thumb up just for you, little guy.
And the winner is… Ex Machina!
Not content with being the best freaking pilot in the galaxy, Oscar Isaac reigns supreme here as the best mover and shaker of 2015 as well. Joe Manganiello’s cheese-raunchy convenience store routine is a close second, while Alicia Vikander’s drunken groove-stylings get an honourable mention for putting her ahead of both her male co-stars as the real charm factor in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. But Isaac’s reclusive geni-arse Nathan suddenly going full disco funk with a completely synchronised sex robot is just one of the greatest scenes – let alone dance scenes – of the year.
Most Impressive Use Of Digital De-Aging Nominees
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator: Genisys) Michael Douglas (Ant-Man) Hugh Laurie (Tomorrowland)
And the winner is… Michael Douglas!
Most Impressive Explosion Nominees
Tanker destruction (Mad Max: Fury Road) Blowing up the lair (Spectre) Bombing Dom (Furious 7)
And the winner is... SpectrE!
There’s only one criteria by which this category can be judged: the bigger the better. The detonation of the SPECTRE lair not only stands as an impressive fiery feat, but is officially the largest film stunt explosion ever. So while Mad Max’s tanker eruption and the bombing of the Toretto home in Furious 7 were spectacular, you can’t argue with the Guinness Book Of World Records.
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Digital de-aging has come a long way since the terrifying re-skinning of Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy. Arnie’s own younger self in Terminator Genisys proved this all by himself, already looking much more realistic than when the same trick was pulled in Terminator Salvation. And yet nothing compares with the computerised fountain of youth poured all over Michael Douglas in Ant-Man. For all of the many lead Avengers and supporting superheroes in Marvel’s intricate network of movie crossover potential, the one appearance that no one could have possibly guessed was a cameo from Gordon Gekko.
Scenery-Chewer Of The Year Nominees
Eddie Redmayne (Jupiter Ascending) Tom Hardy (Legend) Christoph Waltz (Spectre)
And the winner is… Eddie Redmayne! While his Oscar attention for The Danish Girl is richly deserved, Redmayne’s performance in the Wachowski’s nonsense sci-fi epic will go down in history as sheer ridiculous pantomiming. Hardy’s mumbling psycho turn as Ronnie Kray is a force to behold, and Christoph Waltz upping his already natural levels of Bond villainy is a worthy contender, but Redmayne here is something else. Combining the foppish style of a New Romantic, the petulant malevolence of a fairytale witch and the raspy voice of Danger Mouse’s Baron Greenback, his Balem Abrasax is a name that would always be remembered throughout movie history if it wasn’t so absurdly forgettable.
April 2016 | Total Film | 17
Deadpool HHHHH Out now
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Worth the Wade…
ver seen the good guy take a bullet up the bum? What about teabag a villain? Or sing ‘Careless Whisper’? Have a Liam Neeson nightmare? Wear a Hugh Jackman mask? All these treats – and more – come courtesy of Deadpool, the latest rubber-suited superhero to make it to the big screen. Actually, back up: “I may be super, but I’m no hero,” he tells us, amid a blur of irreverent, foul-mouthed fourth-wall-breaking. Even the opening credits rip the piss. No names – just “A British villain”, “A moody teen”, “A CGI character”, “A gratuitous cameo” (all of which are true, by the way), 44 | Total Film | April 2016
“Directed by an overpaid tool.” The “tool” in question, Tim Miller, has created one hell of a sick and twisted superhero film (sorry, Deadpool, but that’s what it is), along with Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and producer/star Ryan Reynolds. Take a bow, gents. We begin near the end, with Reynolds’ Deadpool riding in a taxi on his way to find Francis – or Ajax (Ed Skrein) as he prefers to be called. Cue one major pile-up on the freeway, as the acrobatic avenger takes out numerous Uzi-wielding minions with just a dozen bullets and a pair of knives. About to skewer Francis, he gets interrupted by two X-Men, metal mountain Colossus (voiced by Stefan
Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). Confused? Don’t worry. Deadpool loves to narrate his own story, flashing back and forth until we’re all caught up. Rewinding to just over a year earlier, we meet his former self, ex-Special Forces deadbeat Wade Wilson, “a bad guy who gets paid to fuck up worse guys”. But then he meets Vanessa (Firefly/Homeland/Gotham star Morena Baccarin), a prostitute he falls in love with and proposes to. She accepts – but soon it turns out he has late-stage cancer.
Losing face
Then a creepy guy in a suit makes Wade a proposition: give us your body for Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
reviews see this if you liked... ZOMBIELAND 2009 Deadpool’s writers warm up with this comedy-horror, gratuitous cameo and all. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE 2009 Reynolds’ first Deadpool turn, albeit with mouth sewn shut. WTF? KICK-ASS 2010 The only superhero movie to come close to matching Deadpool for swears and violence. For full reviews of these films visit totalfilm.com/ reviews
Deadpool’s lax personal hygiene necessitated keeping a safe distance.
experimentation and we’ll cure you and turn Thrilled you into a superhero. What’s he got to lose? Entertained As it turns out, only his liberty and his looks. Nodding Off Doing the experimenting is Ajax, ably assisted by Zzzzzzzzz... the super-strong Angel running Time Dust (Gina Carano), both veterans of this DNA-mutating program that seems to involve round-the-clock torture (ice baths, beatings, electrocution). Turns out, these two want to create a race of super-slaves to sell off to the highest bidder. Losing patience, Ajax then deprives Wade of oxygen to the brain, frying his DNA and turning him into one ugly S.O.B. Looking “like an avocado fucked an gamesradar.com/totalfilm
predicted interest curve™ “Zip it, Sinead”
“What’s my name?”
Baby-hand
Transformer Taxi!
F.R.A.N.C.I.S.
Strap-on
0 20 40 60 80 106
older avocado”, as Wade’s bartender friend Weasel (T.J. Miller) later puts it, his face is “the stuff of nightmares”. So no wonder he can’t return to Vanessa, even after he escapes from Ajax’s facility. Advised to get a mask, Wade becomes Deadpool – so named because the bar where Weasel works is running a sweepstake on who of their regulars is going to die first.
‘ This pricks the super-egos of comic-book blockbusters’ Out for revenge, Deadpool has to find Ajax, who may just be the only person who can reverse his scarred face. But this isn’t really a film where plot matters too much. It’s the quips and asides that really drive this baby, ripping up the superhero rulebook with everything from gags about Star Wars and The Matrix to nods to Marvel’s arch-nemesis DC.
Cutting edge
A game Reynolds is a particular target for the in-jokes. “Please don’t make the super suit green,” he says, before his Deadpool transformation, a deliberate wink at his risible Green Lantern. Better still, Reese and Wernick’s politically incorrect zingers (“Today was about as much fun as a sandpaper dildo”) dovetail with former FX whizz Miller’s penchant for excessive/ stylish violence and creepy horror (see Deadpool cutting his own hand off and it growing back). Cut to an eclectic mix of hip-hop, soft rock and ’80s classics, the action is fast and the narrative faster, all building to a riotous junkyard-set showdown. Largely covered in either a mask or prosthetics, Reynolds is terrific, relishing the filthy, frantic nature of it all. Baccarin makes her potentially cliched hooker-with-a-heart feel real, while Carano and Skrein are both more than capable of fulfilling their action duties. As for the shaven-haired Hildebrand (or “Ripley from Alien³”, as Deadpool calls her), she manages the sullen-teen act well. Oh, and Stan Lee’s “gratuitous cameo” is an X-rated gem. Only Colossus is a little disappointing, the CGI almost as cumbersome as he is. But that’s nit-picking, given how well Deadpool fulfils its primary mission – pricking the super-egos of Hollywood’s comic-book blockbusters. It won’t be to all tastes – which is kind of the point – but it puts its money where its merc with a mouth is. James Mottram
THE VERDICT Loud, lewd, inventive and outrageous, Deadpool is a delight. All credit to Reynolds and co. for having the steel balls to go this far. › Certificate TBC Director Tim Miller Starring Ryan Reynolds, Gina Carano, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Morena Baccarin Screenplay Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick Distributor 20th Century Fox Running time 106 mins April 2016 | Total Film | 45
The Total Film home entertainment bible
Mission accomplished The stars align for Scott and Damon…
THE MARTIAN 12
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idley Scott has madE SO many films, in so many different genres, that it’s easy to assume there’s no through-line in his career beyond that famously fastidious attention to design. One of the delights of The Martian is the way it reveals the design behind the design. As stranded astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) begins his arduous quest to survive, he grows food and sources water from the inhospitable surface of Mars. It is world-building in the most literal sense, and practically autobiographical for a director who has made world-building his career-long mission. 126 | Total Film | April 2016
Sure, on paper, the story of The Martian is pretty thin: astronaut gets stranded; figures out how to survive while NASA tries to reach him. Indeed, had the title not already been taken by a cult 1960s sci-fi flick, this might have been called Robinson Crusoe On Mars. Yet Andy Weir’s novel made a virtue of nerd-level detail in explaining the hows and whys of Watney’s survival. If The Martian is a lesson in how to “science the shit out of it” – as Watney’s instant-classic quote puts it – then Scott is also teaching us how to “cinema the shit out of it”. After all, what else is making a movie but problem-solving on a massive scale? Key to the film’s success, against all Hollywood logic, is that it doesn’t dumb down. Here’s a sci-fi
film that delights in the science, placing the audience as willing pupils of Watney’s casually exhilarating lessons. Unlike Interstellar – and comparisons are unavoidable given the presence of a marooned Damon, let alone Jessica Chastain taking a key supporting role – the mysteries of the universe are never treated as awe-inspiring impossibilities. Here, the film walks us through every obstacle and solution, and it’s a matter of tenacity, patience, trial and error and (literally) getting your hands dirty. While we doubt Scott has ever grown potatoes out of poo, otherwise it feels exactly how you’d imagine a film set to be.
Keeping it together
Crucially, Sir Ridley is having fun – enough to bag him Best Musical Or Comedy at the Golden Globes. Prometheus might have been billed as the return to classic sci-fi territory but its darkness jarred slightly, given that the director had long since abandoned the pessimism of Alien and Blade Runner in favour of more hopeful narratives. Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
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Light and shade: the crew of the Hermes explores a dark Martian surface and (left) Mark Watney (Matt Damon) laments his situation.
‘This gives Ridley Scott an exceptional blueprint to pursue his crowd-pleasing instincts’ The Martian recaptures the vital jeu d’esprit of Thelma & Louise, of Matchstick Men’s con men, even of Russell Crowe’s attempts to conquer the French property market in A Good Year – and then adds spaceships. It’s an irresistible combination and deservedly Ridley’s biggest hit since Gladiator – his highest-grosser of all time, in fact. The Martian buzzes with bonhomie, not least for its music; like Guardians Of The Galaxy, here’s a film that savours the vintage appeal of ’70s pop, including a mighty montage set to the late, great David Bowie’s ‘Starman’. A film about a guy stuck on his own might seem a paradoxical crowd-pleaser, yet as much as the premise favours Watney’s individual ingenuity, it’s also a joyous ode to teamwork. Noticeably,
the crew of the Hermes are equals, thrilled to be travelling in space; a utopian riposte to the unions-vs-suits bitchiness aboard the Nostromo. Even if Scott is the guvnor, he still needs help – as anybody who has grappled with the wayward narratives of much of his CV will testify. Fortunately, here he has an exceptional blueprint to pursue his crowd-pleasing instincts in screenwriter Drew Goddard’s fast, funny adaptation. And an enviable supporting cast provides pleasures beyond Damon’s one-man show, even if this marks the latter’s finest work since Jason Bourne went swimming.
Dream Glover
The film is propelled by Damon’s cheeky charm, a conspiratorial guide via extensive video log address – a conceit that would quickly pall as expository overdrive were it not for the
star’s twinkling, Globe-winning delivery. This is a rare old-school star vehicle and suits Damon to a T, locating a sweet spot between jock(ularity) and geek, as if your cool older brother were put in charge of the Christmas science lectures. (It helps that it plays like Damon’s greatest hits: you could call it ‘Saving Will Hunting’.) Ironically, with Damon at his disposal Scott doesn’t really need to wow visually; for all the fascinating detail in the production design, this is the director in low-key, actor-led mode. Faced with the challenge of how to make the sequences away from Mars as interesting as Damon’s, Ridley does the math: one A-lister equals an army of character actors. The strength in depth is simply ridiculous, with Chastain (as the commander of the Hermes) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (leading the efforts on Earth) marshalling some of the most reliable players out there. Both are typically strong but the real pleasures lie further down the cast list, be it a warm, gruff Sean Bean or a typically sparky Michael Pena (confirming after Ant-Man that he’s the go-to guy for blockbuster comic relief). The stand-out, though, is Community regular Donald Glover, high on being slingshotted into the orbit of this amazing cast, who comes closest to stealing the show from Damon. Extras disappoint: the two Blu featurettes (on adaptation and casting) feel like the intro to a larger Making Of that’s gone AWOL, while five of the six ‘in-world’ shorts (the gang doing mission prep etc.) are already online. Nice big production gallery, but this is one Blu-ray they haven’t bonus-featured the shit out of. Simon Kinnear Extras › Featurettes (BD) › In-world pieces › Gag reel › Production gallery (BD) April 2016 | Total Film | 127
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Bond ambition
Post-Skyfall, Mendes and Craig aim for the bigger picture…
SPECTRE12
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ollowing Skyfall was always going to be a Herculean ask for Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes. So much worked in the favour of Bond 23, from the very fact it wasn’t Quantum Of Solace to its arrival coinciding with the 50th anniversary of 007 on screen. And that’s even before you consider a cast-iron plot boasting the best villain in years and a significant death every bit as moving as Diana Rigg’s demise in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. If SPECTRE never quite lives up to expectations, it’s not for want of trying. From the far-reaching narrative to the scope and scale of the locations and stunts, this 24th Bond outing is arguably the 128 | Total Film | April 2016
most ambitious of the Craig era. Like its predecessor, there are nods to 007 history – though, as the title suggests, SPECTRE’s callbacks amount to more than just an Aston Martin stored in a lock-up garage. This is the return of Bond’s oldest foe, the Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Our first glimpse of the shadowy cell comes in the film’s pre-credits sequence in Mexico City – a ring inscribed with the organisation’s ominous octopus insignia, wrenched from an operative’s finger by Craig’s James Bond as the two battle it out in a spinning helicopter over the Zócalo square. Beginning with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema’s superb tracking shot as 007 stalks his target through revellers at the
Day Of The Dead festival, via assassination, demolition and aerial mayhem, it’s a classic Bond opener, up there with the best. Ditto Daniel Kleinmann’s wonderfully inventive titles, which set the scene for the SPECTRE organisation’s reach, suggesting its tentacled grip around Bond goes back to Casino Royale. Even Sam Smith’s shrill-sounding Golden Globe winner ‘Writing’s On The Wall’ plays far better in context than it does without the visuals (still, it’s not quite up there with Adele’s thunderous Skyfall – and after Radiohead released their own aborted theme, one can’t help but wish they’d been given the go-ahead).
The Hinx effect
Credits over, SPECTRE cracks along at a fair old pace, with the revelation that Bond was in Mexico following off-the-record orders to hunt and kill an assassin. Our hero’s trail of destruction leads him to be suspended from duty by the incoming M (Ralph Fiennes), who’s already engaged in a heavy power struggle with the cocksure C Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
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Dead serious: Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) reacts to a rough ride and (left) James Bond (Daniel Craig) scopes out Mexico’s Day Of The Dead.
‘This 24th Bond outing is arguably the most ambitious of the Craig era’ (Andrew Scott). Head of the newly formed Joint Intelligence Service, C is looking to dismantle the ‘00’ programme and sweep Britain into the ‘Nine Eyes’ global surveillance/intelligence initiative. Bond is soon secretly hot-footing it to Rome, which leads to his first proper encounter with SPECTRE, via a clandestine meeting that allows Bond to clap eyes on the film’s real villain, Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz). All shadows and slow burn, it’s a memorably moody scene. Shame that it also features the worst door security since Tom Cruise muttered “Fidelio” in Eyes Wide Shut – a lapse in logic that’s only the first of SPECTRE’s vexing flaws. The much-hyped car chase through the streets of Rome, as Bond is pursued by near-silent hulk Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) in his super-sexy Jaguar, never amounts to much (it doesn’t help that 007 is on the phone to Naomie Harris’ Moneypenny for most of the journey, hardly breaking a sweat). Likewise, Monica Bellucci’s blink-and-miss turn
as widow Lucia is a criminal waste; arguably, she’d have made a more interesting female lead than Léa Seydoux, who underwhelms in her role as a psychologist with a connection to Bond’s recent past. Then there’s the notion that Oberhauser – “the author of all your pain” as he memorably tells Bond – has been pulling strings since Casino Royale. It’s not the first time the franchise has dabbled in interconnected villainy (Bond’s first adversary Dr. No, an agent for the original SPECTRE, is mentioned in From Russia With Love), but the handling here is tenuous. As for Waltz, despite his best efforts, he never matches the thigh-rubbing menace of Skyfall’s Raoul Silva.
Boom at the top
Still, SPECTRE has its highs – Austrian mountaintops, an expanded role for Ben Whishaw’s gadgetmaster Q, a superb train fight and a torture scene to rival Goldfinger’s laser beam. Then there’s Craig, cuff-straighteningly sublime in a role that now fits him like a Savile Row tux. Mendes, too, deserves credit for having the cajones to come back and take a second crack, particularly with a complex story that further delves into Bond’s own backstory. By comparison, the extras feel disappointingly lightweight, suggesting that maybe a more deluxe version may follow later. Comprising several video blogs (music, action, cars, girls etc.) that debuted online during the making of the film, it hardly feels like an exclusive package – although Blu-ray comes with a pacey 20-minute featurette on the Day Of The Dead opener. Still, you can always revel in the moment where the Bond franchise enters the record books, courtesy of 8,140 litres of kerosene. As Mendes puts it, “All one shot, come up the stairs, line of dialogue, largest explosion in the history of movies, exit frame, cut.” Maybe this was the only way to top Skyfall. In James Bond’s world, size still matters. James Mottram EXTRAS › Featurette (BD) › Video blogs › Gallery (BD) April 2016 | Total Film | 129
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see this if you liked... Girls 2012Another unblinking look at relationships from HBO. Set in New York. Hello Ladies 2013-14 HBO again, as Stephen Merchant bumbles his way through the dating game in LA. Looking 2014-2015 A group of gay friends juggle love and work in San Francisco. HBO? You betcha.
Suburban jungle
His Louis Theroux outfit was the cause of much amusement.
The Duplass bros play the relationship game…
TOGETHERNESS season 1 15 Show HHHHH Extras HHHHH 2015 OUT NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL HD
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he Duplass brothers have it made, right? Pioneers of the mumblecore scene (The Puffy Chair), creators of emotionally satisfying mainstream cringe-coms (Cyrus, Jeff Who Lives At Home) and acclaimed purveyors of flavourful low-budget horrors (Baghead, Creep). And yet, in their late-30s, they found themselves struggling with the same issues as many others of their age group – trying to juggle spouses, babies, friends and work. Unlike most other thirtysomethings, though, they can pour any and all dilemmas into their work… And so it is that Togetherness, an eight-episode sitcom that premiered on HBO in January 2015, sees the Duplass’ first-world problems become our entertainment. Set, naturally, in LA, it focuses on married suburbanites Brett (Mark Duplass) and Michelle (Melanie Lynskey), he a sound designer 138 | Total Film | April 2016
working in schlock horror movies, she a sociology major who’s a stay-at-home mum to their two kids. Their sex life has no life at all, and their home lives are further complicated by two rooted house guests – Michelle’s attractive younger sister Tina (Amanda Peet) and Brett’s schlubby high-school buddy Alex (Steve Zissis, who co-created the show).
Sex life lessons
While Togetherness’ brand of self-aware, bittersweet fretting, both personal and professional, has become a genre unto itself since Annie Hall won the Best Picture Oscar in 1978, it’s rarely done with such honesty and acuity, the Duplass’ consistently wringing the greatest of joys and the most crushing of lows from the mundane minutiae of everyday life. Brett and Michelle want their marriage to work; realising that the hardest task in a 10-year marriage is having fun, they turn to
drugs, booze and even an experimental bout of S&M to buck the routine. And yet Michelle finds herself gravitating towards David (John Ortiz), who’s looking to bring a charter school to the area, while Brett escapes into the stress-free bubble occupied by free spirit Linda (Mary Steenburgen). Tina and Alex have their own issues – in work and in play and with each other, as the attention she pays to his failing acting career (encouraging him to lose weight and schmooze more) leads, inevitably, to Alex expressing gratitude of the moony-eyed variety. This level of detail in supporting characters would be enough for most shows, but Togetherness lives in the nitty-gritty: Tina isn’t interested in Alex romantically yet jealously cock-blocks him when he attracts interest from elsewhere; both are supportive of each other but their constant bickering sometimes turns toxic. Few will-theywon’t-they relationships invite such emotional investment from the viewer. With season two of Togetherness premiering on HBO around the time you read this, now is the time to catch up with – or revisit – some of last year’s best telly.
Jamie Graham
Extras › Featurettes › Deleted scenes Subscribe at www.totalfilm.com/subs
television
PEEP SHOW 15 Show HHHHH Extras HHHHH 2015 OUT NOW DVD After 13 years, the El Dude brothers finally say goodbye with their bleakest, darkest outing yet. What a bilious blast it’s been. Or as Jeremy (Robert Webb) says, with uncommon understatement, “We’ve lived together for shit-long, and it’s been alright.” Will Mark (David Mitchell) vanquish new love rival Angus? Can ex-wife Sophie (the peerless Olivia Colman) survive being buried alive in a children’s ball pit? And is it just coincidence that both Withnail & I and Peep Show’s last-ever episode climax with a bedraggled old wolf loitering in the background? Farewell boys. You were very moreish. Ali Catterall Extras › Gag reel › Deleted scenes
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride 15
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2015 OUT NOW DVD, BD “There’s nothing new under the sun,” smarms a familiar face. Perhaps so, but transporting Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman) back to their Victorian roots reaps dividends in this devilishly clever seasonal special. The plot conjures creepy Woman In Black-alike moments, the dialogue is doctorate-level, and there are in-jokes aplenty: Mycroft Holmes (series co-creator Mark Gatiss), in particular, suits his gouty new guise. Some clumsy scene-setting for the next series detracts from the story, but otherwise, fingers crossed this becomes a Christmas fixture. Matt Glasby
Extras › Featurettes › Production diary
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UNBREAKABLE KIMMy AND THEN THERE WERE NONE 15 SCHMIDT S1 12
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2015 Out 7 march DVD
2015 Out now DVD
Tina Fey’s first post-30 Rock TV project was deemed too weird for network TV (it ended up premiering on Netflix), but its subversive humour and whiplash-inducing one-liners made it one of 2015’s surprise highlights. Ellie Kemper (Bridesmaids) is the infectiously upbeat Kimmy, who attempts to make a life in New York after being held prisoner by a doomsday cult for 15 years. Fey produces and guest stars; her fingerprints are all over these 12 episodes. Kemper expertly skirts ‘manic pixie dream girl’ clichés, but it’s roomie Titus (Tituss Burgess) who steals the show. Altogether now: “Peeenoooo noir...” Josh Winning
Agatha Christie’s classic mystery novel has inspired over a dozen films since its publication in 1939, from a Mario Bava giallo to meat-headed Arnie actioner Sabotage. This three-part BBC adaptation is the most faithful yet, and one of the best. Charles Dance, Miranda Richardson, Toby Stephens and hot Hobbit dwarf Aidan Turner are among the “10 little soldier boys” invited to a remote island only to be bumped off one by one for the sins of their past. Christie’s story is indestructible, but the unsettling sound design and striking cinematography are what really impress. Jordan Farley
Halle Berry is a class act. She’s also pretty much the only reason to check out the second and final run of this Spielberg-produced sci-fi drama. All but rebooting the show after a highly mixed response to the first season, this kicks off with astronaut Berry and cop Jeffrey Dean Morgan in flight from the usual sinister feds as they search for the alien/human offspring she thought was dead. Morgan is welcome as usual, but the writing just isn’t there – lame dialogue, vague characterisation and a vision of the future that alternates between hackneyed and half-arsed mean Extant is unlikely to be missed. Andrew Lowry
DOCTOR WHO S9 12
STICK MAN U
The Returned S2 15
Show HHHHH Extras HHHHH
Show HHHHH Extras HHHHH
Show HHHHH Extras HHHHH
2015 Out 7 March DVD, BD, DIGITAL HD
2015 OUT NOW DVD, DIGITAL HD
2015 Out NOW DVD, BD, DIGITAL HD
As Peter Capaldi punches through a harder-than-diamond wall, the Doc’s divisive but daring ninth run punches out any accusations of stagnation. Writer Steven Moffat’s ‘hybrid’ arc lacks impact and a found-footage ep misfires, but highs outweigh hmmms as Capaldi warms to the role (and the guitar riffs) and Clara’s (Jenna Coleman) zest for danger reaches an elegant send-off. For emotional welly, see Maisie Williams’ arrival, Capaldi’s huge Zygon two-parter speech or Clara’s raven encounter. And for sheer balls, see Capaldi one-hander ‘Heaven Sent’: a startling show of fresh fire for a series in its 10th (or 52nd) year. Kevin Harley
For its fourth riff on Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s kiddie books, Magic Light serves a suitably sweet, light antidote to yuletide stodge. A love for the little people illuminates the potentially glum tale of a stick fella who, split from the folks, struggles to relocate his family tree: “A kid’s version of The Odyssey,” quips co-director Daniel Snaddon. Glowing animation makes fluent work of multiple settings, René Aubry’s score dances cheerfully and the voice cast engage lovingly. Likeable extras show Martin Freeman giving his everyman all on the mic: and lo, a thoroughly infectious Christmas keeper is born. Kevin Harley
The French hit about a town whose dead come back to life reaches that ‘difficult second album’ stage. Picking up six months after season one, it sees the baffled community still isolated while ‘les revenants’ face an influx of newer – and scarier – recruits. First time around, the series modelled itself as a Gallic Twin Peaks, its foreboding atmosphere fuelled by a spine-tingling Mogwai soundtrack. While it still looks and sounds great, the follow-up is closer to Lost with its increasing reliance on revealing an overarching backstory. Trouble is, the flawed attempts to provide answers inevitably neuter the mystery. Simon Kinnear
Extras › TBC
Extras › Commentaries › Deleted scenes › Prologues › Featurettes › Documentaries
Extras › Featurette
Extras › Live reading › Making Of › Gallery
2015 OUT NOW DVD, Digital HD
Extras › Featurettes › Deleted scenes
Extras › Featurettes › Recaps
April 2016 | Total Film | 139