‘The Midnight Sky’ review: George Clooney fails to save humanity from lockdown boredom

Jack Denison on 21 January 2021

Netflix’s latest big-budget project, The Midnight Sky, is a sci-fi drama directed by and starring George Clooney. The film focuses on Augustine (Clooney), a modern-day mad scientist isolated with a young, mute girl at a research facility in the Artic, who must warn the crew of a spaceship about a recent global catastrophe.

The apocalypse that acts as the hotplate under the character’s motivations, is executed with delicacy. Instead of an all guns blazing, disaster cinematic spectacle, where the skies might as well be falling on the audience too, as seen in 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, it’s charged by a subtle, lurking, eerie menace. It’s holstered in the unknown, its wrath left to the imagination of the audience, like a silent blanket slowly being drawn over the world. This allows Clooney to hit some chords pretty well, asking; if the world were to stop spinning and fall silent, entombed by darkness, how far would you go to make contact with your family?

The film flexes some stunning cinematography infused with strong post-production colour work, creating some vibrant stills of the world’s last twilight from the Artic, making us feel like we’re watching a planetarium show. Clooney’s acting reflects the deafening stillness of his environment skilfully and his narrative’s midpoint will certainly leave you with clammy hands.

Credit: Variety

However, this is the furthest the film goes in earning merit and is fully eclipsed by its strong flaws, particularly in its script. With dystopian space films being rife in today’s cinema catalogue, the ‘isolated astronaut/scientist’ trope has also been tackled several times and Midnight Sky falls last in the race by a long way. 

Typically, films, especially one of this calibre, need a threat or a force that not only drives the characters through their narrative but also keeps the audience engaged. This nexus to any project that wants a shot at being successful is ignored for ninety-five percent of the film. The finale’s twist, albeit rather bittersweet and tragically endearing, finally sprinkling motivation and meaning on the characters and the film, does not excuse the two hours of boredom and confusion. The film up to this point never finds its feet, never telling us what journey it’s going to take us on, what it’s about and sadly, why we should keep watching. The film in a way explores two narratives, an insight into Augustine’s lonely existence and also the tension and diplomacy of the crew of astronauts. By structuring the script like this, it exasperates the restless need to find out what the point of the film is. Consequently, we have two separate midpoints that don’t have any real significance, especially not one concerning the development of the overall, overarching narrative.

Screenwriter, Mark Smith (The Revenant), tries to capitalise on Augustine’s dynamic with the enigmatic young girl, Iris (Caoilinn Springall) in order to fabricate the film’s force and drive. Cross-generational pairs can perform very well in films, often pursuing the route of an entertaining dichotomy that symbiotically helps construct each other’s character and narrative arch. Here, their relationship doesn’t even come close to this very basic canon, but instead goes the other way and is quite frustrating and tedious, considering how Iris might as well have just as much screen time as Clooney, but doesn’t say a single word. Rather, this notion would’ve computed better if it had taken a step back as a sub-plot device, or if Iris’ character was embraced more.

The Midnight Sky’s disappointing reception was not helped by the drought of new content audiences are receiving, or with the entire country being in lockdown fighting our very own global crisis for that matter. Sadly, circumstantial or not, Clooney’s big white, bushy beard brought more Christmas entertainment to the season than the film itself.

Header image credit: NBC News

Review: Dash and Lily

Anushka Searle on 4 December 2020

Dash & Lily is an American Christmas-based rom-com Netflix show based in New York City. The show is based on the young adult book series by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan, with the first book being Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares. Unsurprisingly, the story surrounds the protagonists Dash (Austin Abrams) and Lily (Midori Francis). Lily, encouraged by her brother, creates a book of dares that she hides in a bookshop next to her favourite book, in the hope that it will be discovered by her perfect match. Of course, Dash discovers the book and so the show follows the protagonists as they travel around New York while trading dares, dreams and desires.

If you are a fan of a good cheesy Christmas movie, then you will absolutely love these 8 episodes of pure Christmas fun. Dash & Lily gives you those soppy feel-good feelings that make your heart heavy – think a combination of The Holiday, Love Actually and A Christmas Prince. Whether it’s a crush, a partner, or a long-lost love, this series will immediately make you dream of that special someone. This series brings forth those warm, fuzzy feelings of love, and isn’t that what we all want to feel this year… love.

Of course, like most cheesy Christmas films, or rom-coms in general, some things are a tad far-fetched and unrealistic. It is unlikely that 17-year olds (where the drinking age is 21) would be able to get in a club hassle-free and with no ID checks. It also seems very far-fetched that these teenagers, Lily in particular, would have so many connections in New York to help them plan all their great dares. However, if the story were to follow a more realistic route than we would have a very boring story, where the notebook would never have been found and our protagonists would barely leave the house, spending most of their days sleeping until 2pm. So, bring on the unrealistic relationships for us all to idealise this Christmas!

Even if you don’t usually enjoy Christmas, this show will still be enjoyable, as it is not all Christmas joy and tackles the seasonal blues too and Dash himself doesn’t even like Christmas! Let’s be honest, after such a rough year I think some cheesy comfort watches are in order, we all need a little escapism. So, make yourself a deluxe hot chocolate, pop on Dash & Lily, and enjoy this love letter to New York.

Oh, and if that wasn’t enough the Jonas Brothers also make a cameo appearance!

Todd Phillips’ Joker is a conflation of ‘Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupnick’: What David Fincher’s comments on Joker reveal about the film industry today

Roxanna Zoughi on 21 November 2020

Director of 1999 cult classic Fight Club unapologetically shared his views on Todd Phillips’ 21st-century adaptation of one of the most recognised villains in fiction in his 2019 film, Joker.

As part of promotion for his newest film Mank, Fincher reflects on the massive success Joker enjoyed at the box office followed by a generally warm critical reception, in an interview with The Telegraph. Had it not been for Nolan’s massive success in adapting Ledger’s compelling performance to The Dark Knight, Fincher finds it hard to believe that the 2019 film Joker would have been received as well as it was. “Nobody would have thought they had a shot at a giant hit with Joker had The Dark Knight not been as massive as it was”. He goes on “I don’t think anyone would have looked at that material and thought, ‘Yeah, let’s take [Taxi Driver’s] Travis Bickle and [The King of Comedy’s] Rupert Pupkin and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars.’”

Fincher highlights the film’s undeniable allusions to 1970s and 1980s classics Taxi Driver, which follows the disorientated quest for redemption of unbalanced New York taxi driver, and The King of Comedy, a black comedy film centered around the delusions of aspiring stand-up comedian whose eccentric mannerisms and even attire, are noticeably emulated in Joker. Both films were directed by Martin Scorsese and star Robert De Niro as lead role, who has also appeared alongside Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. With the emulation and re-emulation of previously successful and popular tropes in film, it is perhaps not unreasonable to consider that some directors may be tempted to recycle aspects of older films which, at some level, secure a degree of success, or at the least, attention for their ‘new’ projects.

The King of Comedy / Medium

Whilst Phillip’s direction of colour and camerawork alongside Phoenix’s stunning performance hold up as a remarkable piece of art, the adaption of the comic book villain was not a challenging or revolutionary one; it’s success was at least partly owed to the legacy of Ledger’s performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008), which had already developed and established the Joker as one of the most alluring villains in fiction. However, that is not to suggest that Phillips did not offer an alternative, enlightening perspective to his adaptation of the character; revealing a developed backstory is what developed the Joker in a way other films had not. But at the same time, constructing a history for the Joker defeats the significance of the obscure meaning behind his actions, which is what made his character both elusive and compelling in previous performances.

Fincher highlights the lack of challenging new material in the film industry today, whose studios “don’t want to make anything that can’t make them a billion dollars”. The reproduction of a character whose success had already been established, no doubt assured film studios of its success; Joker profited over $1 billion at the box office.  

However, before criticising filmmakers for the lack of challenging and new material, we should be considerate of their restriction of free movement in actualising their ideas. Whilst some “challenging content” does manage to make it to the big screen Fincher says, directors still face many obstacles to achieving this, which is something he has experienced first-hand; after a 30-year long struggle, Fincher was only recently able to bring his father’s script for Mank to the big screen. So, can we legitimately chastise directors for failing to present viewers with challenging material, when they are compelled to produce films centered around subjects which have already proven to be commercially lucrative? Nonetheless, conceptualizing an idea and adapting an idea for commercial production are evidently two very different things in the film industry.

Fincher’s newest film, Mank, has already received outstanding reviews from critics and will be available for viewing on Netflix from December 4, 2020.

Photo: nofilmschool.com

Movies losing momentum – is the end near in sight?

Owen Frost on 21 October 2020

Writer and Arts and Culture print editor Owen Frost investigates the recent decision from Cineworld to temporarily close their cinemas, after the postponement of No Time To Die’s date of release. The decision to close has affected over 37,000 globally.

Da 5 Bloods Review: Spike Lee does not quite strike gold

Owen Frost on 22 July 2020

The latest Spike Lee “Joint” arrived on Netflix on June 12th, off the back of Lee’s 2018 critical success with BlacKkKlansman. Da 5 Bloods is Lee’s return to satirical form with focus on African American GI experience in the reprehensible Vietnam War. Da 5 Bloods unflinchingly portrays the African American experience, challenging the traditional representation of the Black ‘buddy’ characters in war films – showcasing a diverse range of antagonistic African American characters. It stars Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Isiah Whitlock Jr. and Norm Lewis as the four African American veterans on a pilgrimage to search for fellow GI Stormin’ Norman’s (Chadwick Boseman) remains along with their ulterior motive: searching for the gold he helped them bury. Most of the action sequences take place in the traditionally inhospitably depicted jungle and despite a promising start, Da 5 Bloods contains some questionable Vietnamese portrayals.

History is a powerful tool to provoke modern day action. This has never been truer than recently, with Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol and many other contentious commemorations being symbolically torn down across the globe. Significantly, Lee repeats his auteur technique of peppering Da 5 Bloods with historic documentary footage and does not falter in educating audiences on famous historic Black Americans including Milton L. Olive III – the first African American to receive the Medal of Honour for his sacrifice in Vietnam. As the aspect ratio alterations cleverly shift from the twentieth century to the modern era, the beginning of Da 5 Bloods morphs from the volatile sixties to the equally troublesome contemporary climate. 

The Hanoi Hannah (Ngo Thanh Van) character also advances Lee’s cultural critique of American history’s disregard of the African American GI experience. Her northern Vietnamese propaganda targets the Black American GIs, speaking to their exploitation during the war. Lee also digs at Hollywood’s whitewashing of the Vietnam experience in films such as propagandic The Green Berets, while also dedicating homage to select Vietnam war films such as Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and Oliver Stone’s Platoon. The Marvin Gaye soundtrack along with the ironically heroic orchestral score makes audiences question the role whitewashed war movies have on the movie-going public.

Da 5 Bloods bubbles up violently in places with the four antiheroes either being shot at, blown up or chased in equal measure. It also features Lee’s iconic trope of the impassioned fourth wall breaking monologue, rampant with racially charged rhetoric about injustice symbolically relevant in the modern context. Paul’s speech parallels Mookie’s monologue in Lee’s seminal Do The Right Thing. 

Chadwick Boseman in Da 5 Bloods, (Image Credit: Insider)

The flashbacks to the war through Newton Thomas Sigel’s 16mm lens are enticing, despite Lee’s inability to de-age his main stars next to the youthful Chadwick Boseman. This was a feat that Scorsese’s enormous Netflix debut The Irishman, with its whopping $160 million budget, capitalised on. 

However, despite these praiseworthy moments of Lee excitement, the Vietnamese characterisation is underwhelming in this venture. Otis’ Vietnamese ex-lover that fathered his daughter is underexplored and the Vietcong soldiers are often simplistically portrayed as cannon fodder to be peppered by bullets. 

I found myself longing for a film that belonged more tonally to the first half than the second half’s caper which felt more like a version of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. After the initially promising start which represented America’s entrenched geopolitical misconduct in Vietnam, this all felt disappointing.  

While Lee touches well upon the racist experience that the disproportionate number of African American GIs in Vietnam experienced, and his use of historical documentary and iconic tropes resonate with today’s “Black Lives Matter” debate, the film’s two separate parts felt disjointed. This paired with the questionable depiction of the Vietnamese population detracts from the film’s appeal. 

Da 5 Bloods is available to stream on Netflix now.

Rating: 3/5 

Image Credit: David Lee, Netflix

European Film Institutions call for the Freedom of Incarcerated Iranian Dissident Mohammad Rasoulof

Owen Frost on 9 April 2020

Mohammad Rasoulof, director of the recent There Is No Evil, who was recently incarcerated in Iran, has gained international attention from many filmmakers and institutions since his Iranian jail sentence. Institutions such as European Film Academy (EFA), the Deutsche Filmakademie, Accademia del cinema Italiano-Premi David di Donatello, the Cannes Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and many others have all issued statements expressing their deepest concerns.

Rasoulof was recently imprisoned for one-year according to his lawyer, for allegedly “attacking the security of the state” following the “propaganda” content in There Is No Evil. The sentence also demanded he stop making films for two years. However, it is time for more filmmakers and directors to stand up against the Iranian government’s blatant censorship and punishment of dissident art. 

Rasoulof was unable to attend the February Berlin International Film Festival ceremony to collect his prize for There Is No Evil, a film connecting four stories about involvement in the death penalty in Iran. Executive producer Kaveh Farnam claims that the wave of political executions in 1988 was what ultimately inspired the film. Rasoulof’s own experience of lack of freedom of expression has also been noted in the film’s message of freedom and humanity under despotic regimes. 

Indeed, There Is No Evil is openly critical of the Iranian justice system and its use of the death penalty. Iran has been described by international human rights scholar Javaid Rehman in his 2018 UN General Assembly address as having “one of the highest death penalty rates in the world”. According to Amnesty International, it is still behind China as the world’s leading state executioner and leads the way in terms of the execution of minors. Homosexuality is still considered an offence punishable by death in Iran. 

The stakes were extremely high for Mohammad Rasoulof and crew, and all involved knew the risk that they were taking in defying the authoritarian regime. The film was made under complete secrecy and producer Farzad Pak thanked “the amazing cast and crew who put their lives in danger to be on this film”. The creative ways in which Rasoulof clandestinely defied the regime are astounding: with Rasoulof giving direction to scenes shot in an airport through an assistant, not having his name appear on any official documentation and shooting many scenes in remote regions of Iran. 

However, in a recent statement, Rasoulof wanted the outcry to not only affect successful directors such as himself and Panahi but also to extend to the younger independent filmmaking generation who have not got the same resources to circumvent Iran’s intrusive activities. Farnam claims that many independent filmmakers have even turned to work on the Iranian government’s own film projects due to the lack of funds at their disposal. The resourcing gap is evident: the Iranian government have the helicopters and unlimited logistical and financial systems to shut down a whole street, as opposed to independent filmmakers where this is purely “impossible”.  

This is not the first time that Iran has used its authoritarian powers to ban film directors from creating dissident films. In November 2019, action from over 200 Iranian film industry members came when Kianoush Ayari’s film The Paternal House was banned a week after its opening weekend in Iran. Well known Iranian director Jafar Panahi back in 2011 was also convicted of making “propaganda films” and sentenced to 20 years film-free.  

Rasoulof and other Iranian directors continue to make films under increasingly unfair sanctions. In his powerful Berlinale Skype speech broadcasted to the world from his daughter’s phone, he highlights that everyone “can actually say no, and that’s their strength.” It is imperative not to forget about Rasoulof’s and others’ crucial films which lobby unfair regimes across the world. We must join the outspoken film institutions in support of these oppressed directors who rightfully express their freedom of expression through art.

Image Credit: Screen Daily