EMPIRE AUG 2021

Left: With THE MOMENT
Patrick Swayze
Utah unloads
in Point Break
(1991). Right: Point Break (1991)

Street life:
starring in My

Own Private
Idaho with River
Phoenix in 1991.

Below: Hit the
road, Jack: in

Speed with
co-star Sandra
Bullock (1994).

Where Die Hard’s John McClane was casting him in 1995’s A Walk In The Clouds It’s hard to imagine it in 2021, but Kathryn
wisecracking and confident, Jack Traven is Bigelow took a huge risk in casting Reeves
all earnestness and concern for others. And and 1996’s Chain Reaction. But Reeves for Point Break. The 1980s — the era of the
this was by Reeves’ design: he pushed for his testosterone beefcake — was barely over,
character to be less like McClane and more turned down Fox’s Speed 2: Cruise Control and Reeves was more a loveable goofball.
like a polite, conscientious man sincerely
concerned with keeping people alive. for a cool $12 million, partly because of an Certainly not an action hero. Point Break
Producer and Guardian critic Lizzie Francke changed that.
wrote that his persona “redefines our ideas injury, but also because he predicted the
of masculinity, his physical presence a The sequence that sealed the deal was the
beguiling mix of sweat and sensitivity”. His film would be catastrophically bad. (He has, incredible foot chase in which Reeves’ FBI
persona also helped redefine our ideas of an agent Johnny Utah pursues Patrick Swayze’s
action star. of course, been vindicated.) As Reeves once bank robber Bodhi through houses, gardens,
traffic and some flung-in-the-air towels. The
Speed director Jan de Bont had recalled, he told William Mechanic, the head of pair fight in some fire before vaulting over
already worked with the likes of Willis and fences and scaling walls. Utah flings himself
Stallone, but he wanted a new face, someone Fox Filmed Entertainment at the time, “If I do through a plate-glass door and has a dog
both strong and sensitive, more like “a real thrown at him. Finally, jumping off a huge
person”. De Bont told W Magazine, “What
makes [Reeves] stand out is that he dares aqueduct wall and landing badly, he
to let emotions show. He has a vulnerable collapses, deciding at the last second that he
quality — if you had a daughter, you’d
let him take her out. A little old-fashioned, can’t bring himself to shoot Bodhi, instead
chivalrous. We’ve had enough cartoony firing off a few angry rounds into the sky,
type action heroes.”
yelling all to hell. It’s an exhilarating
20th Century Fox knew they had a star, sequence, with Reeves really bloody going for
it, selling it, owning it. Now he was an action

hero, paving the way for Speed, for The
Matrix, for John Wick.

A couple of years ago we asked Reeves if
his move into action was an organic

development. “No,” he said. “I would say,
‘Thank you, Kathryn Bigelow.’” God bless her
instincts. And God bless Johnny Utah. Vaya

con dios. ALEX GODFREY

this film, I will not come back up. You guys

will send me to the bottom of the ocean and

I will not make it back up again.” Reeves felt

like he was fighting for his life. Around the

same time, he would also blow off Cutthroat

Island (like most of the other leading men

in Hollywood) and Heat (he would have played

the Val Kilmer role).

Instead, Reeves went to Canada, where he

played Hamlet at the Royal Manitoba Theatre

Centre for less than $2,000 a week. Reeves made

the fatal mistake of doing what served him as

an actor, and what interested him as a human

being. So 20th Century Fox put Reeves on ice,

not working with him again until 2008’s U
The Day the Earth Stood Still. “Sometimes

I call that ‘The Day My Career Stood Still’,” philosopher, kung-fu master. It may have been haunting performances.
Reeves told Esquire in 2017. “I kind of what finally opened him up to roles that played While not exactly a formative moment for
went to Studio Movie Jail.” with, subverted, or otherwise complicated
his innocence, like John Constantine in the action genre, 47 Ronin serves as connective
Ultimately, Keanu Reeves didn’t need 20th Constantine and Bob Arctor in A Scanner Darkly. tissue between The Matrix and Reeves’ 2013
Century Fox after all, because in 1999 he starred Both films are portraits of fractured characters directorial debut, the vastly underrated Man
in The Matrix. It was a role turned down by battling existential lostness, alienation, and Of Tai Chi, wherein he ingeniously cast himself
Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, demons both literal and figurative. One man is as villain Donaka Mark and cast Tiger Chen,
even Sandra Bullock, but it’s impossible now torn between two identities, the other between martial artist, stuntman, and Reeves’ personal
to imagine anyone else as Neo. The movie heaven and hell. trainer from The Matrix, as his leading man.
changed everything — not just action films, but The 21st century had ushered in a new era for
filmmaking in general. Alongside the Wachowski In Constantine, Reeves plays a detective, Keanu Reeves as he began playing darker
sisters and legendary action choreographer Yuen a kind of damned Philip Marlowe seeking characters, even outright villains. The shift
Woo-ping, Reeves helped revolutionise and salvation. His heartbreaking turn as Bob Arctor first came when he played a serial killer and
transform American action cinema. As Chad in Richard Linklater’s adaptation of A Scanner an abusive husband in The Watcher and The
Stahelski explained about the era to Vulture, Darkly came a year later. Philip K. Dick’s work Gift respectively. Street Kings’ dirty cop Tom
“Just look at the martial-arts genre. It had never perfectly complements Reeves, its dystopia Ludlow was a far cry from Speed’s Jack Traven.
breached the mainstream before. You would representing the kind of other world that the Donaka Mark feels like a role Reeves was born
not see a Stallone movie, or a Schwarzenegger actor so perfectly inhabits. “What does a scanner to play: vampiric and over-the-top, the former
movie, or a Bruce Willis movie where martial see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does Jonathan Harker now doing a pitch-perfect
arts were prominent... Our action heroes didn’t it see into me? Into us? Clearly or darkly? I hope portrayal of Dracula.
do it.” Action films used to centre chase scenes; it sees clearly because I can’t any longer see
in a post-Matrix world, though, big action into myself,” Reeves’ Arctor wonders in his At the heart of Man Of Tai Chi is a story
sequences are now designed around their fights. smoke-deepened voice, meditating on the about a man’s struggle between light and dark.
surveillance equipment that fills his home. Discussing the film, Reeves said he used the
The Matrix was smart, elegant, prescient. Arctor is an undercover cop so addicted to ideas of tai chi to explore story and character:
It altered the perception that Keanu Reeves the mysterious drug Substance D that he’s “the yin and the yang, the masculine and
himself was the innocent he’d played so well — losing his identity. In luminous, rotoscoped feminine, the inclusive, the exclusive, the
Neo begins naive, but transforms into saviour, close-ups, he articulates his confusion to us in physical side of it, the spiritual side of it”, all
monologue. With both Arctor and Constantine, of which offered “conflicts, contradictions”.
Keanu Reeves gives two of his best, most He could have been describing himself and his
work. Keanu Reeves plays characters who are

100 AUGUST 2021

Clockwise from MIA
left: Warping
The Reeves roles
reality as Neo in
The Matrix that never were

(1999); As the
puppy-avenging

John Wick in
2015; Playing the

titular role in
Constantine
(2005); A Scanner
Darkly (2006).

bereavements, and within the role, he expresses PLATOON
suffering both elemental and elegant. For Reeves,
action films are not about spectacle, but emotion. As Oliver Stone pursued Charlie Sheen for the
When asked by The Sydney Morning Herald role of Chris Taylor, he was asked to consider
what makes a good cinematic assassin, Keanu Reeves instead. But Stone says the actor told
answered, “They tend to have a vulnerability to his agent he “hated the violence in the script”.
them, even the Mifunes, the samurai. You need
to give them some loneliness, some tragedy.” BATMAN FOREVER
And he imbues John Wick with exactly this.
“I always wanted to play The Dark Knight,”
As widower John, he is sympathetic and Reeves said in 2014. “But I didn’t get that
relatable, an Everyman. As John Wick, he is one.” It’s perhaps just as well: the film was
otherworldly and enigmatic, a Byronic hero. He is the Joel Schumacher one that opens with
Toshiro Mifune with a touch of Gene Kelly. In her
essay ‘The Grace Of Keanu Reeves’, critic Angelica a close-up of Batman’s Bat-crotch.
Jade Bastién says, “John Wick synthesises Keanu’s
greatness – his central, thematic loneliness; his HEAT
command of physicality and stillness; and his
peculiarly vulnerable masculinity.” Yes, Reeves lost two parts in 1995 to Val Kilmer.
Although this one he turned down, unable to
John Wick is, in truth, the culmination of play Chris Shiherlis because he was playing
Reeves’ career, its apotheosis, a true showcase Hamlet on stage in Canada. It was... not to be.
of his talents as an actor and a collaborator and
Alamy, Allstar, Shutterstock at peace with — or at odds with — this duality, an action star. It’s Reeves as warrior, terse poet, WATCHMEN
a truth that becomes even more evident in mythic figure, and perfect straight man. (The
2014’s John Wick. film’s seriousness is balanced out with a pulpy The role of Doctor Manhattan was, for a while,
sense of humour, a wink at the camera.) In John, envisioned with Reeves in mind. It didn’t work
John Wick was an underdog of a film, a surprise there’s even a touch of the truehearted love
success about an ex-hitman who comes out of interest he plays so well in movies like The Lake out, but the actor did pop over to the
retirement after his wife passes to avenge the House and Something’s Gotta Give. It’s the Vancouver set, enthusing, “It’s going to be
death of the puppy she gave him as a final gift. perfect illustration of his duality: Reeves can be
Reeves thought of it more as a story about grief both soft and hard, vulnerable and menacing, so killer, man!” NICK DE SEMLYEN
than revenge, relating it to his own personal innocent and world-weary, open and unknowable.
For John Wick, Reeves brings it all together.

Through the lens of John Wick, we can now
view Keanu Reeves’ body of work in sharpened
focus. We see an unconventional, versatile leading
man who makes eclectic and unexpected choices
based on passion, not pay cheques. A cipher, an
outsider, a matinée idol, a mystery. A creative
force and extraordinarily dedicated performer
who’s transformed the landscape of film. Reeves
recently reprised his role as Ted in Bill & Ted Face
The Music, and with a fourth Matrix and at least
two more instalments of John Wick on the way,
this means he will have revisited all three sagas he
helped launch in the span of just a few years —
further proof of his abiding appeal.

He once joked that he worried “He Played
Ted” would be etched on his tombstone. But
throughout his enduring career, the actor has
experimented, evolved, and shown us once and
for all that Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan is just one of
the many faces of Keanu.

AUGUST 2021 101

! The
SPOILER Accidental
WARNING Icon

I N D I S P E N S A B L E H O M E E N T E R T A I N M E N [T E D I T E D B Y C H R I S H E W I T T ] TILDA SWINTON “never wanted to be an actor”. But 1987’s
Friendship’s Death set her on the road to becoming an Oscar-
winning star. We talk to her about her glittering career

EMPIRE IS LOOKING through a laptop screen at a cameo-filled conversation, we will talk about
Tilda Swinton’s empty sofa. Just out of the frame, that illustrious career, when Swinton isn’t off
a small army of spaniels doze peacefully as a few buying fish, but we begin with a film from her
minutes pass by. Swinton is nowhere to be seen. formative acting years; Peter Wollen’s war-set
sci-fi Friendship’s Death, in which Swinton plays
Then the 60-year-old actor/fashion icon/ an alien, sent down to earth on a peace mission
all-round legend returns hastily, clambering into during the Jordanian Civil War in 1970.
sight over the sleeping dogs. “I’m so sorry, that
was the fish lady,” she says, momentarily out of Who have we got on the video call with
breath. “I had to buy some fish because my son’s us today?
coming home and I have to make him a fish pie.” We are accompanied by [counts aloud] I think
five spaniels.
Fresh fish home deliveries aside, Swinton
is one of Britain’s most acclaimed actors, with A few of them appeared with you in The
an Oscar win for 2007’s Michael Clayton under Souvenir, is that right?
her belt, and rolling collaborations with some Yes, they’ve all had their moment except for
of the world’s most prestigious and decorated
filmmakers. Today, in what will turn out to be

REVIEW

one because she’s a little random. She’s not it was absolutely miniscule in terms of You’ve had a complicated relationship
to be relied upon. budget, and I think we shot it in ten days. with acting over your career. Is this still
I remember that we spent a lot of time the case?
When you look back, what role would rehearsing it in this room off Tottenham I came to film as a fan, and I’m still there. I have
you say Friendship’s Death played in Court Road. a limited interest in performance; I never
your career? wanted to be an actor, and I still don’t want
This was the second film I ever made. I knew It’s set against the Jordanian-Palestinian to be an actor. Having said that, as someone
of Peter Wollen’s work because I was kind of conflict. How does it feel to revisit the who has been passionate about film from
a cine-nerd, so I knew about his book Signs film today? a very, very young age, I know the value of it.
And Meaning In The Cinema and about his In the last 35 years, it’s never felt like there I know that the performance by a donkey in
work with [filmmaker] Laura Mulvey. When was a wrong time to bring this film to wider Au Hasard Balthazar is of more use to me
I got to know him, we had all sorts of wonderful attention. I’m horrified to say that it gets even than some theatrical folderol. As a performer,
times together figuring out how we were going more pertinent as time goes on. Wouldn’t it be this all feels like an elaborate joke. After every
to make the film because it was tiny, and I mean wonderful if one day one could look at it as film I think, “Well, that’s enough of that.
in every way. Not only was it just a two-hander an arcane, historical artefact? But I’m afraid That was a detour, let’s leave that to one side
with Bill [Paterson], but it was set in two rooms, it’s just as alive. and get on with what I really need to do with U

AUGUST 2021 103

REVIEW Below, top to bottom: As an
alien peace envoy in Friendship’s
my life.” And that’s what I’ve been doing Death (1987); Lena in Derek
now for 36 years. Jarman’s Caravaggio (1986);
Playing the title role in Sally
Your first collaborator in film was Derek Potter’s Orlando (1992);
Jarman. How did your relationship with Oscar-winning in Michael Clayton
him begin? (2007), alongside George Clooney.
When I left university at Cambridge, I slipped
into working in the theatre for a bit, and I learned Michael Clayton was a milestone from
really early that I was not into it. I was on the this phase in your career. How did you
verge of telling my very nice agent to just take me come on board?
off their books. That’s when I was sent to meet I was sent this script, which is still one of the
Derek, and he asked me to be in Caravaggio, and finest scripts that I’ve ever read. It was like
then this whole thing opened up. He said, “Come a Rubik’s Cube. [Director] Tony Gilroy writes
and let’s make cinema together, and not just one people with different voices to each other.
professional film that you get paid for. Come and Michael Clayton and [Swinton’s character]
be a part of the mix.” I was fortunate enough to Karen Crowder, they speak differently, and
be part of the mix until he died. they’re coming from completely different
histories, and that was exhilarating to me.
How would you describe his approach to
making films? Denzel Washington turned down the role
It was literally a work in progress. The films because he was nervous about working
themselves weren’t really the thing, and I know with a first-time director. Did you have
that’s a very coy thing to say. But Derek was any similar anxiety?
asking you to bring everything with you. He I’ve heard people talk about the nerves of
wasn’t casting you because you’ve got the working with first-time directors. It’s dreamy,
right-shaped nose or whatever. He cast you working with first-time directors, because
because he wanted you around, and he wanted they have a beginner’s mind. They just throw
you to do everything. He wanted you to hold themselves off the parapet, and that’s a very
the lights, or come to Italy after the film was exciting place to be. I mean, look at David
finished and source the soundtrack. Mackenzie on Young Adam. Michael Clayton
was just another adventure.
There are moments in Sally Potter’s Orlando
and earlier in Caravaggio when you look What was the experience of shooting like?
directly into the camera. Was this your idea? It was thrilling. I think it’s George Clooney’s
I was 24 when we made Caravaggio, and greatest performance of his life. What I will
I remember feeling shy, and being aware that say about playing my character is that I loved
you can’t be shy in front of a camera. So I said to the opportunity to play a baddy who genuinely
Derek, “Can I look back?” He said yes, which was thinks that she’s doing the right thing. One of
good because I don’t know what I would’ve done my favourite scenes, in fact one of my favourite
if he had said no. So for years, I always looked
into the camera. The Deep End was probably the
first film when I didn’t.

It was around that time you moved into more
mainstream films. What fuelled that choice?
When Derek died in 1994 I was a bit high and dry,
because he was literally my day job. I had to ask
myself a question: “Are you going to be an actor
now?” I realised I didn’t want to be and so for
a while, I thought, “Well, that was an adventure.”
Then, as it happens, when you get your name on
a couple of film posters, people ask you to do
things. You don’t even have to be particularly
lucky for that to happen. The good thing about
working for a certain length of time is that
people get to know what you’re interested in,
and if they’re into that, then that’s like an in.
So I started to have these really quite vibrant
relationships with American filmmakers like
Spike Jonze and Francis Lawrence.

Is that why you were cast in Constantine?
Yes, that was the first proper studio film that
I made. The fact that Francis was making a big
studio film with Keanu Reeves was all the more
exciting, because he was a truly inspired and
independent and radical filmmaker.

104 AUGUST 2021

REVIEW

Left: Playing the Is there a particular role that you’re often
angel Gabriel in recognised for?
If I go through an X-ray machine at an
Constantine (2005). airport and I’m ever recognised by the people
Below, top to working it, there’s only one movie that they
ever mention: Constantine. People working the
bottom: With director X-ray machines in all of the airports around
Boon Joon-Ho on the the planet have seen Constantine, and love
set of Okja (2017); It’s [my character] the Angel Gabriel. Then if
a family affair — with I’m in, say, a back street in Rome, people
will mention Caravaggio.[Pauses] Oh look,
her daughter Honor the star of The Souvenir is bringing me a
and long-time friend, cup of tea.

director Joanna [Swinton’s daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne,
Hogg, on the set of holding a mug, is beckoned into the frame to be
The Souvenir (2019); introduced. She waves and chats briefly before
carrying on with her day.]
Getting jiggy with
Ralph Fiennes in Your collaboration with Joanna Hogg is
A Bigger Splash perhaps your most intimate. How would
you describe your relationship now?
(2015). I don’t know if you know this, but the third film
that we have coming out next year [The Eternal
Karen Knorr/BFI, Alamy, BFi, Curzon, Shutterstock moments in screenwriting, is when Karen is on Daughter] ties in to the other two films that
the street with a bag man and she’s trying to find we’ve made together [The Souvenir and The
a way of silencing Tom Wilkinson’s character Souvenir: Part II]. If you’d asked me about this
without saying the lines from The Godfather. five years ago, I would’ve told you that this was
Psychologically, it’s extraordinary. all crazy. The only people that I’ve known longer
than Joanna are my brothers. I’ve known her
Your work’s always been peppered since I was ten, and for us to be able to work
with comedy, but more so now through together in this way… I couldn’t even have
collaborations with Wes Anderson and imagined it. Then if you mix that in with my
Bong Joon-Ho. Was it comedy or the ongoing relationship with Wes Anderson or
collaborators that you pursued? Bong Joon-Ho, and now with Apichatpong
There was a little moment, and I’m happy to say Weerasethakul, because we’re preparing
it’s quite a long time ago now, when people in another film together, it feels like I’m in
your position would say, “Have you ever thought honey right now.
of being funny?” And I would say, “But I thought
I was always funny?” For example, Orlando is A Bigger Splash opens with your rockstar
extremely funny, but people somehow thought persona Marianne Lane addressing a full
it was serious because it was all in costume. stadium of fans. People often see you
I’ve been in this glorious position of people as a rockstar in real life. What is your
getting to know me, and then they write these take on that?
opportunities for me because they know that I’ve never thought about it before, but that was
I like a laugh. For example with the Coens, really like a watershed moment for me. From
I was very honoured that they had seen that that moment onwards, the whole Marianne
I was up for that kind of malarkey. Then Bong Lane trajectory was the beginning of this new
Joon-Ho and I became incredibly good friends direction for me into more personal and more
before we started working together, and now autobiographical work, and driving away from
he’s literally making things for me. So I’m this big stadium. That moment in the stadium,
happy to say those days are kind of over, that’s been a surprise and a delight. I was
when people say, “Are you ever going to do never going to do A Bigger Splash because
something funny?” We might get to the point my mother had just died and I really didn’t
now when they say, “Are you ever gonna do want to do anything. I certainly didn’t want to
anything serious?” talk, so we customised the portrait of Marianne
to suit my situation at the time. In doing this,
we introduced into my filmography this
autobiographical note, which I’ve been
following for the last few years. So that moment
of her on the stage, that was a crossroads, not
only for her, but in terms of how I’m seen.
It’s been a party that I’ve been invited to
rather than one that I’ve thrown myself.

BETH WEBB

FRIENDSHIP’S DEATH IS OUT NOW ON DVD AND BLU-RAY

AUGUST 2021 105

REVIEW

“A trip of a lifetime”: Anatoliy
Solonitsyn (as the Writer) and
Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy (the titular
Stalker) journey through the ‘Zone’
in Tarkovsky’s 1979 sci-fi epic.

THE been a nightmare, the director’s own Apocalypse In today’s landscape of shattered attention spans Shutterstock
MASTERPIECE Now. A full half the film had had to be reshot after and cinema-brains trained by films that commence
development errors at the lab ruined all the costly with the dial at 11 and only head skywards,
We reassess the greatest location footage; two directors of photography, watching Stalker, giving it the time and attention
films of all time, one not to mention furious actress-spouses, had been it demands, before finally surrendering and
film at a time fired; the locations, a pair of wrecked hydro-electric abandoning yourself to it, is even more of
power stations near Tallinn in Estonia, had been a challenge. But for those who are willing to
Stalker some of the most hostile and unforgiving the engage with the film on its own terms, the
director had ever worked in. Later, it would reward is the trip of a lifetime: an unforgettable
IN 1979, JUST before Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker emerge, shooting in this poisoned hellhole might journey into an enveloping, enduring mystery.
was about to be released, the director, whose actually have contributed to his early death.
name was by then a byword for unapologetically Very loosely adapted from the novel
intimidating cinema, received a letter from the He was, suffice it to say, in no mood for notes. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky,
State Committee For Cinematography, the “In reality, the film needs to be slower and Stalker’s premise is deceptively simple. In the
contents of which would, ironically, be familiar to duller,” Tarkovsky barked at the committee, “so near future a catastrophe of some kind — maybe
almost any director in Hollywood. The film, the that viewers who have wandered into the wrong an asteroid collision — has rendered a large
committee said, was unbearably slow. Would he theatre have time to leave.” When the hapless portion of the countryside uninhabitable. It is
consider making a few snips, turning down the apparatchik replied that he was only trying to a place of unspecified dangers, one which seems
talk, picking up the pace? represent the audience, Tarkovsky’s irritation to reconfigure itself constantly, and from where
boiled over. “There are only two people whose people rarely return. The ‘Zone’, as it has become
For Tarkovsky, the uninvited criticism might views I am interested in,” he snapped. “One is known, has been sealed off by the authorities,
well have been the last straw. Shooting Stalker had called Bresson, the other is called Bergman.” but illegal guides, the ‘Stalkers’ of the title, will,
for a price, take visitors there. The point of the
And so, when Stalker arrived in cinemas, trip: to make it to the ‘Room’ where, it is said,
it arrived in the shape that the director had one’s truest desires will be made real.
intended: a (polite word) languid, near-three-
hour epic — the first hour of which consists We join one such unnamed guide (played
almost entirely of three men talking against with affecting, nervy desperation by Aleksandr
a murky cityscape, the second two of three men Kaydanovskiy) as he takes a writer (Anatoliy
talking against a post-apocalyptic countryside. Solonitsyn) and a professor (Nikolay Grinko) out

106 AUGUST 2021

THE TARKOVSKY
FILES

YOUR NEED TO KNOW ON THE
GREAT RUSSIAN DIRECTOR

↓

Left, top to 4/4/32
bottom: A dog
encounters born in Zavrazhye, Russia
an exhausted
Stalker in the HE WAS JUST 54 WHEN HE DIED
‘Zone’; The men FROM LUNG CANCER
make their way
towards the HIS LAST DIARY ENTRY WAS,
‘Room’, where
one’s deepest “BUT NOW I HAVE NO STRENGTH LEFT
desires — THAT IS THE PROBLEM”
supposedly
come true.

of the dismal cityscape where they live, and which detritus of the place pre-catastrophe — a rusting HE WAS HIS LAST FILM,
Tarkovsky shoots in a washed-out, colour-drained syringe, a gun. The electronic sound design
sepia, into the Zone itself. Here greenery is delivers amplified crashes and unidentifiable NEVER THE SACRIFICE,
everywhere: moss and plant-life surges out of the squeals which are halfway between sound effects
abandoned cars and wrecked military hardware; and atonal music. Slowly it becomes evident that NOMINATED WON THE BAFTA
water gushes and trickles; birdsong punctuates Stalker is a film not to be watched so much as FOR AN FOR BEST FOREIGN
the air (though birds are never seen and, as one experienced. You are invited to join these three, LANGUAGE FILM
character remarks, the flowers are, mysteriously, to be with them in this strange space. OSCAR IN 1988
without scent). The three slowly make their way
through the Zone, which the Stalker insists is Stalker’s central ambiguity is the wellspring IVAN’S CHILDHOOD WON HIM
potentially deadly, talking and squabbling about, of its longevity. Like the Zone, it is endlessly
among other topics, their motives for being fertile and constantly reconfiguring itself, giving THE GOLDEN LION AT
there, and what a true desire might even be. its cinematic visitors what they want, or need, to THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
take away from it. In the days after Chernobyl
To say much more about the plot is not so and then Fukushima, environmental concerns HE MADE HIS FIRST FIVE MOVIES
much unhelpful as impossible. The three talk, were pushed to the forefront. Was Stalker a
talk, and talk some more as they make their way doomy prediction of a world rendered desolately IVAN’S CHILDHOOD (1962),
through the strange landscape. The writer is beautiful by human technological folly? The ANDREI RUBLEV (1966), SOLARIS (1972),
a cynical critic, unconvinced by the value of the critic Geoff Dyer has suggested that the film is an
Zone or the Room and contemptuous of human analogy for the thankless role of art itself, the MIRROR (1975), STALKER (1979)
aspirations and achievement, including his Stalker being the visionary leading the people to
own. He mocks the professor (who has his own wisdom, but having it thrown back in his face. IN THE SOVIET UNION,
motives for the trip, which only become clear (More recently another intriguing interpretation ALTHOUGH ANDREI RUBLEV
in the film’s final act) and what he sees as his has emerged from documentarian Adam Curtis WAS BANNED THERE UNTIL 1971.
worthless scientific worldview. The Stalker who, having no doubt found that the clips were
is a kind of holy fool, convinced of the power available, proposed in HyperNormalisation (2016) HIS FINAL TWO MOVIES
of the Zone to improve humanity, to release an idea of the Zone prophesying a world where
its potential, to relieve our endless suffering. facts are up for endless negotiation, where “reality NOSTALGHIA (1983), THE SACRIFICE (1986)
changes minute-by-minute”. Sound familiar?)
But the beguiling power of Stalker has its WERE MADE IN ITALY AND
source not in the talk, nor in what little action But all this chatter might miss the point. SWEDEN AFTER HE LEFT
there is. It is in its overwhelming sense of It’s difficult not to read the voluminous THE SOVIET UNION IN 1982.
environment and place, in its textures, sounds interpretations of Stalker and not think of its
and enveloping moods. Stalker is usually central characters, bickering and arguing, and STEVEN A CLIP FROM
described as a science-fiction film, probably to conclude the critics are about as much help SODERBERGH STALKER PLAYS
because of the source material. But in truth, as these chatterboxes in finally ‘understanding’ REMADE SOLARIS IN A KEY SCENE
if it hews to any genre at all, it’s closer to a kind it. Whatever its hidden truths, if any, Stalker
of existential horror movie. The landscape is an experience to be had, and then re-had. IN 2002 IN DAVID
is ominous, as well as strangely beautiful: It entrances, seduces, snares the imagination LEITCH’S
a waterfall thunders, terrifyingly, through the and refuses to let it go. Boring films really don’t THIRTY YEARS
rotting industrial wreckage of a power plant; come much more fascinating. ADAM SMITH ATOMIC
Tarkovsky’s camera drifts across the glistening AFTER THE BLONDE
surface of pools of water, revealing the storied STALKER IS OUT NOW ON DVD, BLU-RAY AND DIGITAL (2017)
ORIGINAL

HAD A MINOR PLANET

3345 TARKOVSKIJ

NAMED AFTER HIM IN 1982

AUGUST 2021 107

REVIEW

Keeping up with
the Jones

Actor TOBY JONES on the standout roles of his career

TRUMAN CAPOTE INFAMOUS (2006) having a blast as one of the first actors to set foot Alamy, Shutterstock
inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not that
Now widely regarded as one of our finest character the MCU was quite what it is now back then. “I
actors, Toby Jones was initially largely confined to remember one of the producers explaining what
supporting roles on the small and big screens (yes, the masterplan was and thinking, ‘Well, that’ll
he is the voice of Dobby the House-elf from Harry never happen!’” he laughs. Yet Marvel was the
Potter). Then he got the chance to audition for biggest show in town by the time he returned as
a role that changed his career: that of Truman Zola for The Winter Soldier, this time playing him
Capote, the famous writer, in Douglas McGrath’s as an intellect trapped inside a super-computer.
version of the events that led to his non-fiction Now that’s range. “The idea, in this montage of
novel, In Cold Blood. “It was the first lead part I’d history, that he’s behind the course of history,
played on film or television,” says Jones. “It was was so great. It wasn’t the most challenging thing
the first time I’d filmed in America, the first time in the world,” he admits of his experience on a
I’d played a real character. I remember a strong soundstage, piping lines through to Chris Evans
feeling of melancholy about halfway through the and Scarlett Johansson, “but it was great fun.”
script as I read. I thought, ‘There’s no way they’re
ever going to give me this part.’” But they did, GILDEROY BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (2012)
and Jones is mesmerising in the role, capturing
Capote’s manner of speaking and inner turmoil “The great miracle of cinema, as I think Hugh
in a way that absolutely stands up to Philip Grant said, is that the camera will see you having
Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning performance the right thought in your head,” says Jones of his
in Capote. “Both hold up, both are important approach to playing Gilderoy, a sound engineer
films, and both have stood the test of time, even who goes increasingly insane as he works on
if people take years to discover them.” an Italian giallo in Peter Strickland’s surreal
psychological horror. “That was something
OLLIE WEEKS THE MIST (2007) I grabbed hold of. It’s not always clear what
Gilderoy is thinking, but I had to come up with
Infamous led almost immediately to a rare my own, very real, very boring story of what was
heroic role for Jones, as a supermarket worker going on, a story that no-one will ever hear.
who comes to the fore during an apocalyptic Because although the film itself loops and
assault by all manner of awful beasties in repeats and cross-cuts and goes in and out of
Frank Darabont’s Stephen King adaptation. a dream, I had to have some sense of linear time.
“I remember going to the premiere, and when So I had a chart on the wall in my dressing room,
I shot [one of the film’s major villains], the which was my journey through the film.”
whooping and cheering that went on in the
cinema!” recalls Jones. The most unlikely MR EVERSOLLJURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN
character turns out to be the gunman.” Not that KINGDOM (2018)
he’s condoning gun violence, or the idolisation
of Ollie just because he’s handy with a weapon. Jones is only briefly in J.A. Bayona’s dino-sequel.
“That’s why the film is smart,” he adds. “It’s But his avaricious auctioneer certainly makes
asking all those questions precisely.” an impact, not least in the film’s single funniest
shot, which sees Mr Eversoll staring right into
ARNIM ZOLACAPTAINAMERICA:THE FIRST the face of his doom, an enraged and very hungry
AVENGER (2011)/THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014) Indoraptor. Which proceeds to roar in his face,
leaving Eversoll’s, erm, augmented hair flapping
As the evil Swiss scientist who aids and abets the about in the breeze. “Around that time there were
Red Skull and later is responsible for turning some great shots of Trump with his extraordinary
Bucky Barnes into the Winter Soldier, Jones is

108 AUGUST 2021

Clockwise from top left: Toby Jones MARK
in Berberian Sound Studio; Jurassic KERMODE’S
World; The Mist; Captain America: The
First Avenger; Infamous; Uncle Vanya. MOVIE

hair being pulled in different directions by the PLAYLIST
wind, and to a certain extent exposed,” laughs
Jones. “We decided, not to make him Trump, but THE CRITIC AND SCALA RADIO
to give a bit of a nod to that kind of tycoon.” The PRESENTER CHOOSES HIS
final effect was achieved with the help of a wind ULTIMATE CINEMATIC
machine plonked right in front of Jones’ face. SOUNDTRACKS

CHIEF FACTOR FIRST COW (2019) THIS MONTH

As a pompous, arrogant Englishman who has no ELECTRONIC SCORES
idea that the delicious oily cakes he buys from
two local entrepreneurs are made from milk 1. EIGHTH GRADE
stolen from his own cow, Jones is hilarious and
haughty in Kelly Reichardt’s beautifully shot Anna Meredith breathes
period drama. “It was one of those things when digital life into Bo Burnham’s
you get a phone call and you just say yes, you
don’t even really need to read the script because Gen-Z gem.
Kelly is so inimitable,” he says. “This evocation
of early America is so exciting to be part of, and 2. UNDERPLAYED
the idea of this Englishman slightly stranded out
there, trying to preserve the tea-making ritual, A recent Scala fave; Kate
is both comic and a great statement about the Simko-scored doc about
ludicrousness of the imperial spirit, in a way.”
women in EDM.
UNCLE VANYA UNCLE VANYA (2020)
3. MIDNIGHTEXPRESS
Jones was deep into a West End run of the
legendary Chekhov play, playing the title Giorgio Moroder’s electro score
character, when Covid bit deep. And that, he struck Oscar gold.
thought, was that. But an idea was struck to
mount a filmed adaptation of the play, in front of 4. ACLOCKWORK ORANGE
an eerily empty theatre. “It was an amazing and
emotional thing,” he says. “It wasn’t the play — Wendy Carlos reimagines the
the play’s in four acts, and we shot an act a day. classics; “real horrorshow”.
I think everyone had enough experience of film
to be able to scale the performances for the 5. SORCERER
camera.” Jones has had his eye on playing Vanya,
a beleaguered manager of an isolated Russian Tangerine Dream’s best album!
estate who begins to sense that he’s wasted his
life, for some time. “I don’t have a long list of 6. CLAVADISTA
those roles,” he says. “But the play itself is so
perfectly constructed, and the extraordinary Short film OST offering
thing Chekhov manages to achieve is this sense a superb intro to the music
of time eating away at our opportunities or
illusions about what we’ll achieve.” CHRIS HEWITT of Aska Matsumiya.

UNCLE VANYA IS OUT NOW ON DVD AND BLU-RAY. FIRST COW IS 7. HALLOWEEN
ON MUBI FROM 9 JULY
John Carpenter scored
his chiller classic — with

two fingers!

8. BLADE RUNNER

Vangelis hears things you
people wouldn’t believe...

9. SUSPIRIA

Squishy Moog-assisted
giallo-prog-rock from Goblin.

10. EX MACHINA

Nothing artificial about Ben
Salisbury and Geoff Barrow’s

sounds-of-AI score.

MARK KERMODE’S FILM
MUSIC SHOW, IN ASSOCIATION
WITH EMPIRE, IS ON SCALA
RADIO ON SATURDAYS FROM
1-3PM (SCALARADIO.CO.UK)

AUGUST 2021 109

REVIEW

THE

RANKING

Four Empire writers.
Ten movies.
Ordered
definitively.

The Best Friends
Episodes

Chris: We’ve been talking are perhaps ill-considered romantic drama happening in OUR CRITICS
about doing a TV show in The when viewed through a modern the front room. I think it does
Ranking for a while. We could lens. But by and large, for me drama as well as it does comedy. CHRIS HEWITT
have gone for a highfalutin one it’s still one of the greatest The way the show evolved is Has never stopped
like Breaking Bad or The West sitcoms of all time. the way our lives evolve. looking for his identical
Wing, but we’ve gone for Friends. Helen: It’s a comfort-watch for Olly: It’s weird to me that David hand twin.
The recent reunion reminded me. It was an era in our lives Schwimmer was cast first.
me how much I loved this show. when we were still young and Chris: They wrote Ross for him. HELEN O’HARA
Terri: However my life has things didn’t go sproing when Helen: I think Ross is often Secretly prefers all
changed in the last decade, we stood up too fast. a whiny little git, but David The Ones With
Friends is the constant, which Olly: I can’t think of any other Schwimmer’s physical comedy Paul Rudd.
is both worrying and alarming. sitcom where any of them is off the charts. His face during
Chris: So, when no-one told could be the lead. There is no ‘The Routine’ is a thing of beauty. OLLY RICHARDS
you life was gonna be okay, weak link. I don’t think, still, Olly: Towards the end, he went Has never been trapped
when your job was a joke, you that any of them get the credit super-weird and it worked. in an ATM vestibule with
were broke and your love life was they deserve for how good they Terri: I almost put ‘The One Jill Goodacre.
DOA, Friends was there for you? are at comedy performing. With All The Resolutions’ in
Helen: When the rain starts Terri: I think it’s underrated just for the leather pants. He TERRI WHITE
to fall? for its dramatic chops. ‘The commits to that physical gag in Has watched an episode
Terri: Yes. Even though One With The Morning After’, every single way. of Friends every day for
Friends hasn’t necessarily the episode where Ross… well, Helen: I have to say, I was a bit the past decade.
always aged that well, I think he cheated. of a Ross and Rachel shipper.
we can agree. Chris: They were on a break! I never bought them with
Chris: That is true. Now and Terri: That episode, you’ve anybody else.
again I’ll rewatch an episode got comedy going on in the Chris: You weren’t on board
and there are some jokes that bedroom, and this amazing with Rachel and Joey?

110 AUGUST 2021

THE TOP TEN

Illustration: Jacey Helen: No! be something more in this.” It decent batting average. I love ‘THE ONE
Chris: Every time I watch an grew organically and out of ‘The One Where The Stripper WITH THE
episode that has Rachel and their chemistry. Cries’ — it has Joey on the PROM VIDEO’
Joey in it, every fibre of my Helen: They also have this game show Pyramid, which is
being screams, “No! Wrong!” huge arc, and real drama to one of the greatest pieces of 1 (S2, E14)
But they are kind of better their relationship. sustained Joey stupidity. Terri: “The only
suited than Ross and Rachel. Chris: I’m all in on Monica and Olly: For me, it never properly possible winner. Rachel’s nose! Monica’s
Terri: They had no chemistry. Chandler. When I was putting went off the boil. It was still bathing suit! Roy saw Star Wars 317 times!
The first time they kiss, at Ross’ my top ten together, I could appointment viewing at the end. He’s her lobster! Frankly, I can’t believe I’m
conference, I felt uncomfortable. legitimately have gone for ten Helen: The structure of the even having to justify this.”
They are beautiful, brilliant Season 5 episodes. I think that’s show, having six friends, makes
friends, and I think that show is when the show is at its best, it really easy to have an A, B and ‘THE ONE WITH THE EMBRYOS’ (S4, E12)
all about prizing the relationship when they’ve started getting C plot every time. The writing
you have with your friends over together and are trying to hide was kind of miraculous, to keep 2 Chris: “An endlessly quotable quiz.
most romantic relationships. it. The moment when Joey it that good for that long, and Transponster. Miss Chanandler Bong.
Chris: Why did Monica finds out is one of the greatest find new things for them all to Monica’s cry of despair.”
and Chandler work when pieces of comic acting I’ve ever do without being repetitive.
they didn’t? seen. Matt LeBlanc smashes it. Chris: Having said that, my ‘THE ONE WHERE NO ONE’S READY’
Terri: That storyline grew from Olly: There’s almost nothing favourite episode is one where
the initial thing which was I don’t like about Friends. But they jammed most of them into 3 (S3, E2) Olly: “Constructed like a one-act play,
meant to be a hook-up. But I can’t watch any episode where a room together. It’s ‘The One as Ross tries to get his pals to an event, it’s
when Monica popped up from Chandler gets emotional. It’s With The Embryos’, which impeccably scripted.”
under Chandler’s covers, the uncomfortable to watch when I always think of in my head as
reaction from the studio he’s being sincere. ‘The One With The Quiz’, when ‘THE ONE WHERE EVERYBODYFINDS
audience was so insane that the Chris: What about ‘The One the girls battle the boys for
writers thought, “There might With The Proposal’? Monica’s apartment. 4 OUT’ (S5, E14) Helen: “Chandler and Monica’s
Olly: Oh God, no! Olly: When you talk about how secret slips out; cue minds lost in different
Terri: When he got with good Monica can be, I don’t but perfectly pitched ways. It’s inspired farce.”
Monica, he suddenly had to think she’s ever been better
become a grown-up and more than in that quiz. ‘THE ONE WITHALLTHE
of an emotionally genuine and Helen: I went for another
robust human being. I’m with bottle episode, ‘The One Where 5 RESOLUTIONS’ (S5, E11) Chris: “From Ross’
Olly. I don’t want that side No One’s Ready’, where Ross is leather pants to Rachel finding out Monica
of Chandler. trying to hustle them all to an and Chandler are together, this is glorious.”
Chris: I don’t know how this is important work dinner and
received these days, but there everybody is pissing about. It’s ‘THEONEWHEREROSSGOTHIGH’ (S6, E9)
are few things in sitcoms more absolutely brilliant.
joyful than Courteney Cox Terri: You get, “Can I be 6 Terri: “Thanksgiving episodes always had an
playing Monica in a fat suit. wearing any more clothes?” extra magic and the one where Rachel made an
That version of that character You get Monica having a ‘English trifle’ with beef was among the best.”
is glorious. massive breakdown, you have,
Helen: Those flashback episodes “Drink the fat.” ‘THE ONE WITHTHE PROPOSAL’
are pretty hilarious. You have Olly: I use that a weird amount.
Rachel’s old nose, Ross’ various Chris: I’m pretty sure 99 per 7 (S6, E24/E25) Helen: “Few Friends moments
hairstyles, Chandler’s Flock Of cent of things I say have been are as tear-jerking as Monica and Chandler’s
Seagulls hair… on episodes of Friends. What attempts to propose to one another.”
Terri: And that’s partly why did I do before Friends — just
‘The One With The Prom grunt at people? But when I was ‘THE ONE WITHTHETWO PARTIES’
Video’ is the best episode. considering my list, I started
That’s just a statement of fact. to think of the moments that 8 (S2, E22) Olly: “The two apartments both
You have that moment when almost transcend the show. So stage birthday parties for Rachel, which
Rachel kisses Ross by the door, I went with ‘The One With The leads to a brilliantly choreographed farce.”
which is so romantic, you get Cop’. It’s a decent episode. But
to see these characters as it has, “PIVOT!”, which may be ‘THE ONE WITHTHE MORNINGAFTER’
teenagers, which is really hard the single funniest moment in
to do, and it gave us, “He’s your all of Friends. 9 (S3, E22) Terri: “Proof that Friends can do
lobster,” which is now on Terri: I took the opposite gut-wrenching drama as well as anyone and
greeting cards and T-shirts. It’s approach. I had to take out the yes, they were on a breakkkkk.”
become part of culture. episodes I put on there literally
Chris: There’s a general for a moment. “Pivot!” The ‘THE ONE WITH THE BLACKOUT’ (S1, E7)
assumption that the show leather pants. “My sandwich!”
peaked around Seasons 5 and 6, I had to go, “Okay, what is the 10 Olly: “A great Ross and Rachel episode, but it
and by the end it was treading best episode?” Not just, “What belongs to Chandler, who is perfection while
water. But I found that Season is the best Ross moment?” trapped with a Victoria’s Secret Model.”
10, perhaps because they knew Chris: Right, enough
it was the last one, has a fairly squabbling. Let’s vote! AGREE? DISAGREE? WRITE IN AND TELL US AT:
LETTERS@EMPIREMAGAZINE.COM / @EMPIREMAGAZINE

AUGUST 2021 111

REVIEW

Building
Billie

Lee Daniels, director of
THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE
HOLIDAY, on crafting an icon

WHEN LEE DANIELS embarked upon directing He had the screenplay streamlined, focusing she had what it took to make it work. “She
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday, he was more on the relationship between Holiday and genuinely did not want to do this woman
under no illusions about the task he faced in Black FBI agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante a disservice. And I was intrigued by that. So
bringing its central character to life. Here, he Rhodes), but also, he wanted to see more of I found myself talking her into the auditioning
tells Empire how he created his version of one of himself in it. As a former addict, and being a process, and we then began a journey together
the most iconic singers of all time: Billie Holiday. queer Black man in the entertainment industry, that became more about the spirit of Billie
he related. “It needed a little bit more of me,” he Holiday than the craft of acting.”
THE STORY says of the script. “Billie’s realness had affected
me in an unconscious way.” This would be a For her audition, Day displayed a confidence
As a 13-year-old, Daniels had been blown hugely personal film, that intense connection and vulnerability that sealed the deal. “She
away by 1972’s Holiday biopic Lady Sings The influencing every part of the production. shocked me,” remembers Daniels. “She stripped,
Blues, starring Diana Ross, as well as the she got naked. And I felt very protective of her in
autobiography it was based on. So when he was THE CASTING that moment. We were in a hotel room, a bunch
sent a screenplay by Suzan-Lori Parks, he of men, the cameraman and the audio guy, and it
jumped on it. The story followed Holiday’s battle Daniels’ manager and agent had been telling was so unexpected. She surrendered her soul to
with the authorities, who’d taken issue with Daniels to audition singer Andra Day, but me, she committed to me. It was a no-brainer.”
her anti-lynching song ‘Strange Fruit’, intent he wasn’t interested: she wasn’t an actor, and he
on arresting her for drug offences. “Part of the just “didn’t see it. But then I went out to dinner THE VOICE
reason I did this was to make sure that Billie’s with her and was really smitten. By her shyness.
truth was finally told, that we exposed what the She didn’t really want to do it either.” Day Day could master Holiday’s raspy quality but
American government did to her,” says Daniels. was in thrall to Holiday, and wasn’t convinced neither she nor Daniels wanted a straight
impersonation. To help hone it, he hired vocal

112 AUGUST 2021

REVIEW

Clockwise coach Thom Jones, who had worked with
from main: Nicole Kidman on her southern accent for
Andra Day as Daniels’ 2012 drama The Paperboy.
Billie Holiday:
Director Lee “Thom is a genius,” says Daniels. “With
Daniels on set; Andra, we calibrated until we got it. At
Roslyn (Da’Vine some point she sent me something on the
Joy Randolph, sly, on a voice note, she texted it to me, and
left) and Miss again, it was the spirit of Billie. And as a vocalist
Lawrence (Miss she understood how to hit the bottom of
Freddy) get Billie where Billie lived and breathed and spoke.
ready; Owning I get chills even thinking about it today, how
the stage; Lady we were all able to capture that. Sometimes
Day sings it was a little too much Andra, or too much
the blues. Billie, and we kept calibrating it. It was really
a magical experience.”

THE MUSIC

Daniels had Day pre-record the soundtrack
before shooting, but things changed when
the film’s financing fell through, seeing it
delayed by a year. “Which was a blessing for
Andra, for her vocal and for her performance.
Because she really dug deep into another level,
and became who you saw on the screen. And
when we went back to the music that we’d
recorded, it wasn’t on par with where she was.”

As such, he decided to have her sing
most of the songs live on set. “Which drives
the producers crazy, because it’s scary,
production-wise. But she was in the moment.”
Also, acting out some scenes affected her so
much that she’d now sing them markedly
differently to how she did on the pre-records,
particularly in the flashback lynching sequence
that explains why ‘Strange Fruit’ was so
personal to Holiday. “Andra experienced it
so viscerally, a woman hanging from the tree
and the kids crying. ‘Strange Fruit’ now meant
something different. And she was able to sing
it more powerfully.”

THE LOOK

For Daniels, the film’s fashion ran much
deeper than getting the looks right. This wasn’t
just about a famous jazz singer, but about his
own family.

“All of the characters are people that
I know,” he explains. “Billie Holiday is not
just Billie Holiday. She is my grandmother,
who was an alcoholic, and stylish and beautiful
and fabulous. She is my cousin, a heroin addict
who was vomiting but still also stylish and
beautiful and fabulous. So many strong
Black women that have been demeaned,
debased. Been through it. Through the
injustices that America has thrown at them.
That is my family there on screen. I know
the socks that they’re wearing. I know the
shoelaces that are in their shoes. I know their
hair. I can smell the grease that’s in their hair.
I know the cologne. I know everything about
the palette that you can see. It lives in a very
real place for me. Everything.”

ALEX GODFREY

THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY IS OUT NOW ON DVD

AND BLU-RAY

AUGUST 2021 113

REVIEW

THE
CULT

OF

The critic and novelist on ↑ want to see each other again Illustration: Neil Edwards. James Swanton © Jack Sain
this month’s weirdest voluntarily assemble to whine,
straight-to-video picks CULT HERO OF THE MONTH bitch, moan and reminisce so
much that the killings might
LOW-BUDGET BRITISH JAMES SWANTON come as a blessed relief. Its
genre cinema is currently saving grace is that the cast are
thriving. There are even Horror fans recognise the credits if not the enthusiastic, committed and
tribute acts to tentpoles of the faces of Doug Jones (The Shape Of Water) funny — with especially strong
form — Savvas D. Michael’s and Javier Botet (Mama) — performers who work from Natasha Killip
Righteous Villains is a riff on as a thoroughly horrible
Ben Wheatley circa The Kill give vivid performances under layers of Instagram star and Aoife
List and Steven M. Smith’s effects make-up. A British equivalent is Smyth as a stoner who takes
Dead Again is a mash-up of all James Swanton, at his scariest as the spook all her life lessons from the
three Edgar Wright Cornetto in Host. He plays monsters, mangled victims Fast & Furious series.
films. In Righteous Villains, and spectres in Double Date, A Werewolf In
wideboy con man Jamie Crew and gun-toting England, Vampire Virus, The Banishing and Perhaps the first horror
widow Lois Brabin-Platt undertake a heavily Broadcast Signal Intrusion. Sam Ashurst’s movie to come out of Ipswich,
symbolic journey to an island where the Frankenstein’s Creature, based on Swanton’s The Haunted Hotel is
Devil (Adam Deacon) presides over orgiastic one-man stage show, delves deep into Mary a multi-director omnibus
decadence. Dead Again has Frost-and-Pegg Shelley’s text, and the actor is disguised less with a range of styles and
knock-off village coppers Tony Fadil and than usual, incarnating the piteous wretch via approaches but a single setting
Elliot Cable cope with a zombie apocalypse bodily, facial and vocal contortions. He plays — the Great White Horse
that’s also an alien attack while bantering about a flamboyantly horrible filmmaker in Ashurst’s Hotel. Said hotel is the setting
pop culture. A Little More Flesh, a #MeToo ghost story in for supernatural events
the form of a pastiche 1970s horror film encountered by various folk
Simon Kay’s Shadowland also covers augmented by a contemporary director’s over the years, including a
familiar ground, but has nice, widescreen Scots commentary that teases out offscreen cruelty young Charles Dickens (Reece Ritchie) getting
landscapes, and solid work from Amelia Eve as inspiration for The Pickwick Papers in the hotel’s
an action heroine who steps up when a bungled and builds up to a gory punchline. early days, and an ageing hard man (Paul
bunch of mercs and VIPs are trapped in a disused Moriarty) holing up after a heist when the place
barracks where a superweapon experiment is near derelict in the present. The anecdotes
has produced a murderous, vaguely defined range from sentimental or comical (with more
monster. It has too much shouting in lieu of than a hint of Inside No. 9) to more openly
characterisation, but it runs to an air of general horrific. All are solid, and a couple are standouts:
creepiness and springs a couple of okay shocks. a 1970s tale about a horror writer (Geir
Madland) cracking up, and a 1990s sketch about
Darren Berry’s West Country-shot Paintball a maid (Rocio Rodriguez-Inniss) struggling with
Massacre has a school reunion/paintball a room that refuses to stay cleaned.
session turn nasty as a bunch of thirtyish types Chris Bell’s The Heiress fits in with
are killed off one by one as they traipse through a recent strain of horror that’s dealt with
the countryside, stalked by a masked murderer intergenerational troubles in female-dominated
whose identity they try and work out between families (Hereditary, Relic). After the death
the impalements and landmines. It’s one of those of her devoted but sinister grandmother, fragile
movies where people who act as if they never Clare (Candis Nergaard) starts ‘seeing things’
in the house she shares with her less
otherworldly sister Anna (Jayne Wisener).
Gradually, it emerges that whatever’s going
on in Clare’s head is spilling into the waking
world. The plot is filled in with flashbacks
— it’s seldom a good thing in folk-horror
films if your family matriarch is called Lilith
— but the story is overshadowed by Nergaard’s
outstanding performance.

114 AUGUST 2021

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REVIEW

!
SPOILER
WARNING

THE
VIEWING

GUIDE
A deep dive into the
must-see moments from
the month’s big release

The Mitchells speed into battle, before rewinding to establish CONNECTION FAILED
Vs The their domestic life. “The movie totally broke unless
we started with robots,” says Rianda. “When you While Katie connects to the world through her
Machines start with the promise of the movie, you can relax phone and laptop, Luddite dad Rick (Danny
during the part where you’re getting to know the McBride) sees it all as a distraction. The film’s
OUT OF NOWHERE, The Mitchells Vs The family.” The tone is established immediately with themes of family relationships and technology
Machines dropped on Netflix and became one the first ‘Katie-Vision’ cartoon scrawl across the collide as Rick accidentally smashes Katie’s
of the year’s must-see movies — a dazzlingly screen: “WORST FAMILY OF ALL TIME”. “It’s like a laptop in the heat of an argument. “The audience
animated, riotously funny, sci-fi-infused adventure stock ‘cold-open’, so we tried to make it as inventive don’t gasp when a guy’s taken away by robots,
about a family facing an A.I. uprising, from and wild within those boundaries as we could.” but they gasp when the laptop breaks,” says
writer-director Mike Rianda and the team behind Rianda on its impact. “The movie has to function
Into The Spider-Verse. The filmmaker talks us THE KATIE-RION COLLECTION like a romantic comedy. If the audience isn’t
through its most glorious moments. actively rooting for these two to come together at
Budding filmmaker Katie (Abbi Jacobson) has killer the end, then the whole movie doesn’t work.”
MEETTHE MITCHELLS taste in movies (“I have a Katie Mitchell Letterboxd
account that I keep putting off,” Rianda admits) RELATIONSHIP GOALS
The film begins with the robo-pocalypse in full and spins them into her own DIY shorts — from
flow, introducing the chaotic Mitchell clan as they ‘Dial B For Burger’ to ‘Portrait Of An Idiot On Fire’. The opposite of the Mitchells? Insta-friendly
“As a teenager, that’s the type of thing I would do aspirational family The Poseys, with real-life
all the time — take something real fancy and then celeb couple John Legend and Chrissy Teigen
just, you know, ‘Portrait Of An Artist As A Young voicing parents Jim and Hailey. “I was expecting
Dog Fart’ or whatever,” he laughs. “I love Lady their entourage to come in, sweep the room,
Bird and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire. Those, ‘Don’t look at Mr Legend, eyes on the ground!’
I think, to the current generation are like what But they were so nice, and so game to do
the Coen Brothers were to my generation.” a bunch of dumb improv,” Rianda recalls.
“We were trying to play on the fact that they

116 AUGUST 2021

REVIEW

seem so wonderful on Instagram and you’re spine and his pelvis,” explains Rianda. “For the an action sequence of pure joy. “One reason
like, ‘I wish my family was like them!’” Furby, we just handed [the artists] a Furby like, it feels so joyous is that the world has been
‘Make this, please!’” Between Mitchells and Uncut oppressively Tron-like for the previous 15 minutes.
SYSTEM ERROR Gems, the Furby cinematic renaissance has truly All of a sudden it’s nature again, blue skies and
begun. “Any time we can be in a sentence with clouds and sunlight,” says Rianda, also noting the
While nearly every PAL-chipped robot hunts for the Safdie Brothers is all I want.” needle-drop of the pair’s favourite song, T.I. and
the Mitchells, two malfunctioning androids join Rihanna’s ‘Numa Numa’-sampling ‘Live Your Life’.
them under the ‘human’ aliases ‘Eric’ (Beck BEAST-MODE LINDA “They’re saying, ‘I’m sorry and I love you,’ without
Bennett) and ‘Deborahbot 5000’ (Fred Armisen). saying, ‘I’m sorry and I love you.’ Instead, they’re
They were a key part of Rianda’s first brainstorm In the final fight against the PAL uprising, mum singing this ridiculous Romanian song that I love.”
on a five-hour drive from LA to Salinas. “The Linda (Maya Rudolph) becomes a slicing, dicing
dumb robots were day one,” he confirms. warrior, gleefully ripping robo-hearts out of MEETTHE (REAL) MITCHELLS
“Initially we had this bananas idea where robo-chests. “Storyboard artists don’t get enough
the family had to kidnap the President. But credit,” says Rianda of the sequence’s serious As the credits roll, the filmmakers and stars share
one, things got bad in US politics, and more action chops. “If you look at Guillermo Martinez’s their own family photos in a sweet closing touch.
importantly, people just loved the robots storyboards and the movie, it’s one-to-one — “I wanted to make something that was about a real
and could give an eff about the President. I was obsessive about it: ‘It needs to be exactly family, so I used my own as inspiration,” says
Immediately the movie worked 100 times better.” like the boards!’” The results immediately popped. Rianda. “Once I did it, I felt insane to just be like,
“We were all screaming when we saw the ‘This is about my family, not anybody else! Screw
FAST& FURBY-OUS animated dailies: ‘Ahhhhh! Power-sliiiiide!’” you, Jeff [Rowe, co-writer]!’ To me, all of the
people on the movie are superheroes, and I want
The film’s centrepiece sees the Mitchells battle MID-FLIGHT FIGHT to see their names in flashing lights. How could
a kaiju-sized Furby — realistically rendered from I not have them and their families?” BEN TRAVIS
furry head to fuzzy toe, with Hasbro’s blessing. Katie and Rick reunite to battle the PAL robots,
“For every character like Rick, we did these soaring through a sky packed with pastel THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES IS ON NETFLIX NOW
intense schematics with calisthenic poses, his explosions and Katie-Vision rainbow streaks —

AUGUST 2021 117

REVIEW

118 AUGUST 2021

Not everyone REVIEW
can handle

sriracha... Louis
Del Grande loses

his head.

How iconic
images came

to life

Scanners

Photofest INSTANT It’s not too much of a stretch Then the fake blood went in.”
TRIVIA to say that the moment Location filming at
actor Louis Del Grande’s
↓ head explodes in David Concordia University,
Cronenberg’s Scanners is the Montreal, where the bulk of the
1 moment that the director’s Scanning demonstration was
‘body horror’ — a unique fusion shot, was postponed through
Scanners was a reworking of of blood and beauty — really hit concern for the bloody mess
two earlier Cronenberg the mainstream. Cronenberg the effect was going to make.
once described the scene. “The “As we started to set up for the
scripts called ‘The Sensitives’ face turns inside out,” he said. shot, I asked where all the
and ‘Telepathy 2000’. “It sort of swings under the plastic tarps were to protect
neck. Then the body slumps everything,” says Walas.
2 down under the table. It’s “Somehow sticky fake blood
gruesome, but also quite flying through this expensive
Del Grande’s actual noggin beautiful. It’s surreal that it’s auditorium didn’t seem like
not only remained intact; he so lovely in its own way.” a problem to them. I convinced
used it to co-create and star them it would be an impossible
The gruesome, surreal clean-up, so they postponed.
in long-running Canadian loveliness takes place when It was done later in a small
crime show Seeing Things, Del Grande’s First Scanner (as facility with proper prep. Gary
which also debuted in 1981. he’s billed) mounts a public Zeller fired a shotgun from
demonstration of his uncanny behind and below. Firing from
3 telekinetic powers, only to fall that angle popped the head
foul of Michael Ironside’s much great, but it also flipped the
Stephen Lack, who stars as more powerful Darryl Revok, gelatin skin inside out,
Cameron Vale, is now an a Scanner who, in the space of magnifying the horrific aspect.”
accomplished painter. a minute, gives him a headache
from which he’ll never recover. The moment is as potent
4 Designing the explosion fell to today as when it was being
effects artists Stephan Dupuis, relentlessly paused by teenage
The film’s funding was made Gary Zeller and Chris Walas. VHS jockeys of the 1980s.
possible by a tax shield “Gary basically said, ‘Build me Heads aplenty have exploded
a head full of blood and I’ll since, but Walas has a theory
passed by then-Canadian blow it up,’” Walas tells Empire. about why Scanners remains
PM Pierre Trudeau... father “For me, it was a matter of the undisputed champ. “The
of current Canadian Prime making it visually interesting head explodes from invisible
and not just an exploding forces so I think there’s a
Minister, Justin Trudeau. bucket of blood. We took an psychological aspect to it,” he
alginate mould of Louis’ head. says. “I mean, we all feel like
After we poured a plaster our heads are about to explode
positive, we took a silicone at some point or another. And
mould of that. We painted in most exploding heads are
a layer of gelatin as a flexible completely demolished, there’s
skin, because I wanted nothing left. This is more of an
something flopping rather explosion/eruption. There’s an
than just a shattered look. outpouring of yuck that gives
Then a plaster layer hopefully it a bit more believability. We
for ‘skull-looking’ pieces. Then were just lucky it’s as startling
we stuffed it with whatever was as it is.” ADAM SMITH
lying around the shop — bits of
latex and foam, wax, whatever. SCANNERS IS OUT NOW ON DVD, BLU-RAY

AND DIGITAL

AUGUST 2021 119

REVIEW

PICK OF Team Empire on the month’s essential movies
THE MONTH

BLOW OUT PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN BRINGING UP BABY

OUT 2 AUGUST / CERT 18 / 113 MINS OUT 2 AUGUST / CERT TBC / 114 MINS OUT 26 JULY / CERT PG / 102 MINS

At last, Brian De Palma’s cracking thriller gets the What did we do to deserve Emerald Fennell? The Comedies don’t get more screwball than Howard
Criterion treatment. Heavily inspired by Antonioni’s multi-hyphenate’s feature debut works on many Hawks’ delightful farce, which pits Cary Grant’s
Blow-Up, this tale of a sound recordist (John levels, Promising Young Woman playing out both hapless paleontologist David against motormouth
Travolta) who accidentally bears witness to a as biblical fable and with shocking realism. Cassie’s heiress Susan (Katharine Hepburn). David just
murder and then gets caught up in a conspiracy (Carey Mulligan) vengeful quest against predatory wants to take delivery of the last bone needed for
as he tries to save Nancy Allen’s escort is one of ‘nice guys’ takes a cocktail of romcom and thriller his brontosaurus skeleton and marry his stern
De Palma’s best, and most focused, films. Because tropes, heightening them while grounding them in fiancée, but a chance meeting with Susan derails
De Palma can never stop being De Palma, there’s blunt truths. It’s darkly funny, surprisingly sweet his entire life. Hepburn barely stops babbling, and
style aplenty here — check out that famous split (at times), supremely entertaining and beautifully soon David’s covered in feathers and trying to
diopter shot of an owl sharing the frame with designed, plus it sounds great too — from that wrangle two leopards, occasionally in a maribou
Travolta — but it never gets in the way of the opening Charli XCX needle-drop to its genius use dressing gown. A flop on its initial release, this is
narrative, allowing De Palma to smoosh together of Paris Hilton’s ‘Stars Are Blind’. Its denouement, now (rightly) considered a classic, barely pausing
some of his favourite preoccupations (voyeurism! though, is one of the most shocking in recent for breath as the objectively awful but somehow
Obsession! Doomed women! John Lithgow being memory — a howl of rage that dares to play out as irresistible Susan wins David over. Love or lunacy,
weird!) into a satisfying whole. CHRIS HEWITT pitch-black comedy. Promise fulfilled. BEN TRAVIS it’s delightful and still hilarious. HELEN O’HARA

WEREWOLVES WITHIN THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T TRUE ROMANCE

OUT 19 JULY / CERT TBC / 100 MINS OUT 19 JULY / CERT U / 89 MINS OUT 19 JULY / CERT 18 / 118 MINS

Where the hell did Werewolves Within winsomely In 1953, long before animatronic and CGI grinches There are so many scene-stealers in True Romance, Shutterstock
wander in from? Seemingly out of nowhere, and Hortons, Columbia Pictures let the actual Dr. it’s a marvel there’s anything left to watch. Almost
director Josh Ruben and screenwriter/nominative- Seuss envision this utterly strange, beguilingly 30 years on, the performances have lost none of
determinism-hero Mishna Wolff have arguably subversive musical fantasy. A little boy (Tommy their flavour: Gary Oldman’s Drexl cackling at
made the horror-comedy of the year: a terrifically Rettig) who doesn’t want to do his piano practice “breastses” on TV, Brad Pitt’s Floyd drowsily
entertaining spin on the monster movie mould, dreams his tyrannical teacher, Dr. Terwilliker — an parlaying with mobsters, Christopher Walken and
drenched in a genuinely enigmatic murder mystery. extraordinarily demented Hans Conried — rules a Dennis Hopper’s duelling toughs, James
Among its achievements, it is perhaps the only truly high-tech castle where he has the kid’s mom (Mary Gandolfini’s smirking goon. In another movie, all
good video-game adaptation in living memory, Healy) under his sway, and intends to enslave 500 these masterclasses might unbalance the whole
turning the relatively obscure VR game of the same little boys to the largest piano in the world. With the thing. Here, though, with Patricia Arquette and
name into a sharply funny genre mash-up. As nerdy aid of a dancing plumber/surrogate dad (Peter Lind Christian Slater perfect as the two dazed heroes
forest ranger Finn, Sam Richardson is the standout Hayes), the brat foments a revolution. Astonishing navigating a Tony Scott and Tarantino-designed
of an outstanding ensemble, while the final-act expressionist sets are a backdrop for wild dance netherworld, pure-of-heart even as they lug around
reveal is as surprising as it is satisfying. Trust us: numbers, while Seuss’ word-play sparkles in a suitcase of cocaine, it still plays as gangbusters
this deserves to be howled about. JOHN NUGENT intricately rhymed songs. Unique. KIM NEWMAN as a Sonny Chiba triple bill. NICK DE SEMLYEN

120 AUGUST 2021

CROSSWORD AND COMPETITION

SUMMER AUDIO BUNDLE

ACROSS DOWN We all love checking out a new release
at the cinema, or holing up on the
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a Mean Girl and half of Fire Saga (7) 5 Who’s home in a Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg enjoy excellent audio and comfort —
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13 Sci-fi action movie with Matt Damon (7) 7/8 Magical movie that featured the Four control, customisable EQ settings
14 X-Men hero or the sort of nation that takes on and memory foam ear tips, they offer
Horsemen (3,3,3,2) high-quality audio and a super snug
Ethan Hunt (5) 12 Ridley Scott’s only romcom (1,4,4) fit. We also have the Cambridge Audio
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AUGUST 2021 121

CLASSIC

SCENE
Standout sequences
from the
great movies

Raiders Of The Lost Ark ChosenbyDAVIDSCHWIMMER

DAVID SCHWIMMER: “This scene with EXT. BAZAAR — DAY And suddenly, the crowd of off his skills, passing his sword
Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, people milling around part like back and forth from one hand
which is one of the greatest action-adventure Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is the Red Sea, revealing… to the next at dizzying speed.
movies and one of the greatest characters searching frantically for Marion He twirls it in one hand and
that he ever played. It’s the moment when (Karen Allen), from whom he A giant of a man (Terry then two.
he’s fought his way through this whole army has become separated during Richardson), standing several
of people. He’s dirty, sweaty, exhausted. a melee in an Egyptian bazaar. feet away from Indy. He is Indy, wearied, sighs at this
And he runs into this huge guy who takes dressed almost entirely in black, display. Nonchalantly, he
out his sword and does this whole thing He runs through a small square. save for a giant red belt. He is takes his gun out of its holster
as a warm-up. And Harrison Ford just takes Can’t see anything. He climbs holding a sword. and shoots the swordsman.
out his gun and shoots him. It’s one of those onto a cart for a better view. By the time the swordsman has
moments where you felt so connected to He laughs, sinisterly. He raises fallen to the ground, as the
the character. I don’t know if it was scripted, INDY: Marion! his sword. Indy wipes his brow watching crowd cheers, Indy has
or if he did it because he was so exhausted, with his left arm. already turned away, holstered
but it was a perfect, perfect thing to do in Seeing nothing, he runs back his gun, and is focused on
that moment.” into the square… The swordsman begins to show looking for Marion.

122 AUGUST 2021