This month, as the nights draw in the cinema offer is pretty damn good for us South Coasters. I look at just three top releases
Pride
Bookended by the London Pride parades of 1984 and 1985, “Pride” dramatizes the real-life Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign to raise funds for the Neath, Dulais and Swansea Valleys’ Miners Support Group in Wales during a yearlong strike.
The strike gave a cause to rebel Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer), who immediately empathized with the miners’ plight, recognizing that the police brutality he had seen visited on queers was now being directed at the miners. So he assembles a ragtag group of misfits out of an LGBT bookstore and mobilized them to collect donations.
This well-meaning film periodically succumbs to manipulative schmaltz and cliché, like Bronwen Lewis breaking into an impromptu “Bread and Roses” following Mark’s motivational speech and the rest of the audience gradually joining her — in harmony, no less.
In due time, the sexual orientation of still-live-at-home Joe (George MacKay) is uncovered by his parents; the stuttering union point man Cliff (Bill Nighy) comes out; Gethin (Andrew Scott) receives a bashing and also visits his estranged mother; and union rep Hefina (Imelda Staunton) cuts loose in a leather bar and gets her hands on a dildo while visiting London. Yet none of these distract from the significance of the film, which captures the gay identity and activism of the era.
Director Warchus – the man who, with Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin, gave us Matilda a musical has done well here and delivered a moving, funny and engaging story.
3.5/5 from me and open from 5th September
Night Moves
Jessie Eisenberg’s Josh, Dakota Fanning’s Dena, and Peter Sarsgaard’s Harmon have banded together to blow up an Oregon dam, because doing so might “send a message” about the possibility of enacting change.
This stubbornly unromantic film shows them, on occasion, succumbing to the belief that they are about to save the planet. Then, since they’re all shifty characters who don’t quite trust each other, they swallow that belief back and concentrate on the job.
I’ll not say anything about whether these true believers succeed. The bombing attempt, brilliantly staged by director Reichardt, occurs with quite a bit of the movie left to run so I won’t spoil it.
Dakota Fanning dominates the film in the first half, as a smart young woman given to prickly know-it all outbursts. But brooding Eisenberg commands the final third; his hooded eyes and bony jaw now that of a man’s.
He’s always played uneasiness well; now, he shows us the anger and petulance that distinguished his Mark Zuckerberg clenching into something truly threatening.
4/5 from me and open from the start of the month.
Sex Tape
When Jay and Annie first got together, their romantic connection was intense – but ten years and two kids later, the flame of their love needs a spark.
To kick things up a notch, they decide to make a video of themselves trying out every position in The Joy of Sex in one marathon three-hour session. It seems like a great idea – until they discover that their most private video is no longer private.
With their reputations on the line, they know they’re just one click away from being laid bare to the world, but as their race to reclaim their video leads to a night they’ll never forget, they’ll find that their video will expose even more than they bargained for. Cameron Diaz stars with Jason Segel in a reasonably entertaining comedy drama that tamely confronts a controversial subject.
3/5 from me – more mild than wild!!