David R. Walker

Archive for November 14th, 2022

Emily

Director: Frances O’Connor

Cast: Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Gemma Jones, Fionn Whitehead, Adrian Dunbar, Alexandra Dowling, Amelia Gething, Harry Anton, Elijah Wolf

Running Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Mansfield Park actress Frances O’Connor makes her directorial debut with the new period drama Emily based on the brief but vivid life of British novelist Emily Bronte who penned the classic novel Wuthering Heights.

Anglo-French actress Emma Mackey takes on the title role capping off a succession of period films in 2022 from Death on the Nile to Eiffel and fortunately Mackey is brilliant as the headstrong Emily Bronte.

Set in the decade before the publication of Wuthering Heights in 1847, Emily focuses on the inspiration behind such an astounding novel and her complex relationship with equally famous sister Charlotte Bronte played by Alexandra  Dowling. Between the sibling relationships, Emily has to contend with a passionate love affair with the dashing curate Weightman played by rising British star Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Lost Daughter).

While unable to escape the influence of her father played by Adrian Dunbar, Emily gets entangled in a bad sibling relationship with her undesirable brother Branwell Bronte, a regular at the local pub and a frequent consumer of opium. Branwell, superbly played by Dunkirk star Fionn Whitehead influences Emily into a range of undesirable activities mostly radical from voyeurism to drug taking, while chanting the mantra Freedom of Thought.

Whilst the sensible Charlotte Bronte has no time for her brother’s antics, Emily is entirely susceptible until eventually their father Patrick Bronte separates the siblings.

Emily discovers how complicated love can be, especially with a devoted man of God. The doomed love affair between Emily and Weightman is expertly captured in the seduction scene on a Yorkshire moor beautifully played by Emma Mackey and Oliver Jackson-Cohen as both actors struggle to untangle themselves from their restrictive Victorian clothing, a cinematic metaphor for the pervading morality which frowned upon acted out on one’s sexual desires.

Actress turned director Frances O’Connor does a relatively good job of directing Emily, keeping it extremely historically accurate while balancing the focus of the friction filled relationship between the two gifted Bronte sisters, both of whom would make a massive contribution to English Literature with the publication of their novels Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. However, the director could have got some editing tips as Emily does linger too long and occasionally loses focus.

Emily gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is saved by a superb cast that does justice to the legacy of the Bronte sisters. This film is recommended for those that enjoy a literary period film set in Victorian England.

Triangle of Sadness

Director: Ruben Ostlund

Cast: Harris Dickinson, Woody Harrelson, Charlbi Dean, Zlatko Buric, Dolly De Leon, Hanna Oldenburg, Vicki Berlin, Alicia Eriksson, Sunnyi Melles

Running time: 2 hours and 27 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

From vacuous fashion models to the super wealthy stranded on a luxury yacht when things go awry, Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s savage satire on the selfie generation, the extreme fascination fueled by social media with affluence, luxury and beauty is fully explored with cynicism in his award winning film Triangle of Sadness which won the coveted Palme D’Or (Best Picture Prize) at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

British actor Harris Dickinson (The King’s Man, Where the Crawdads Sing) stars as Karl, a male fashion model whose beautiful looks and gorgeous body ensures that he does get out of any situation relatively unscathed. Karl is accompanied by the beautiful Yaya played by the late fashion model turned actress Charlbi Dean who came from Cape Town, South Africa who tragically passed away in New York City at the age of 32 in August just three months after the Triangle of Sadness’s electrifying premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022.

The first section of the film focuses on the shifting gender dynamics in the complex relationship between Karl and Yaya as they argue who is going to pay for the bill at an expensive European restaurant. The real grit of the film starts in the second section of the film whereby Karl and Yaya have won passage aboard a luxury superyacht as influences whereby they meet an array of extremely wealthy people all of whom have gained their affluence through dubious means from manufacturing hand grenades to cornering the Eastern European market on fertiliser.

Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson (The People vs Larry Flynt, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri) appears briefly as the reckless ship’s captain as he is mostly drunk when things literally go pear-shaped at the Captain’s dinner, from the first hint of chaos to the absolute carnage as glamourous guests are puking after eating caviar and the ship starts getting wrecked in a massive storm before being attacked by Mediterranean pirates. All this is occurring while the cleaning staff wait patiently below deck for the dinner to be completed. The cleaning staff are headed up by chief toilet manager, Abigail played by Dolly De Leon, whose performance deserves some recognition at the 2023 Oscars for Best Supporting Actress.

As the third section of the film arrives, some of the surviving guests are stranded on a supposedly uninhabited island in the Mediterranean, whereby Abigail takes charge and soon uses the beautiful Karl for much more than just fire building. As the gender and class dynamics shift again, Abigail and Yaya go in search of what is happening on the other side of the island only to find some form of an illustrious civilization, which proves tantalizing to both.

Director Ruben Ostlund’s brilliant three part satire on the super rich is repulsively fascinating, brilliantly cast and perfectly orchestrated featuring some memorable scenes, deadpan Scandinavian film aesthetic and deserves to be seen especially the superb ending.

Triangle of Sadness gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and features more cynicism than optimism. Highly recommended viewing as it’s a beast of a film.