By Ashley Clark
The best – or at least most purely enjoyable – film of the year to date comes to the Ritzy this week in the form of Gareth Evans’ The Raid. It’s an Indonesia-set martial arts thriller with a brilliantly simple premise – police squad raid a tower block to eliminate evil drug kingpin who lives at the top – and it rips by in dazzling fashion. The (numerous, hyper-violent) fight scenes are breathtaking; the narrative is sharp and twisty; the choreography, editing and scoring are first rate; and there is even room for a sprinkling of sociopolitical context. Do not miss.
Also new is Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in New York, her sequel to the Paris-set original. Having split with her partner from the first film, Marion (Delpy) now lives in New York with her son Lulu (!), hipster DJ boyfriend Mingus (Chris Rock), and his daughter from a previous relationship. They’re snowed under with work, but their relatively happy union is put under the most pressure by the arrival of Marion’s family of egregious French stereotypes. Do you think maybe there will be jokes about sex, cheese and garlic? Yeah it’s that kind of film. Rock is unexpectedly great in a straight man role as Mingus, and the film’s heart is totally in the right place, but it just ain’t that funny.
Last week, I pontificated as to whether Sacha Baron Cohen’s new film The Dictator would signal a proper return to form after the patchy, passable (and frankly misanthropic) Brüno. Sadly, the answer is a big, swinging no. This patchy tale of a pompous despot stranded in New York is flabby despite a slim running time, wildly unfocused in its satirical targets, horribly mean-spirited, and most criminally of all, terminally unamusing. This melange of shock tactic and designer satire might have felt cutting edge five years ago, but the comedy world has moved on. Oh, and Team America skewered the silliness of dictators with far greater wit, style and daring.
On Wednesday, the Ritzy are getting involved in the one-day-only stunt screening of Nazis-on-the-moon fiasco Iron Sky. Though described by Little White Lies’ David Jenkins as “beyond crud”, it does feature a ripe turn from cult legend (and shaved George Galloway lookalike – trust me) Udo Kier, so might be worth a shot. Just make liberal use of the bar first.
For a Saturday afternoon screening, the Ritzy staff have chosen Nic Roeg’s utterly chilling Don’t Look Now, a 1973 adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier story starring a magnificently coiffured Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as grieving parents in Venice. It features sex, death, blind twin sisters, and it’s bloody upsetting. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
To cheer yourself up, why not bring your baked beans along to Sunday’s fart-along screening of classic 70s comedy Blazing Saddles (it might not actually be a fart-along screening, but it’s worth trying to see if the ushers tell you to be quiet). And that’s not all. It’s followed by a rare big screen outing for the anarchic Airplane aka the daddy of spoof movies. Though it’s influenced the likes of Scary Movie 5, Vampires Suck or Not Another Date Movie, it’s very much the Nirvana to their Puddle of Mudd, and should be seen at all costs. I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
There’s other stuff on, like The Source, Dark Shadows, and even 1968 Olympics Black Power saltuer John Carlos speaking in person, but I’m out of time here. Click the link below for more listings info.
All films showing at the Ritzy Cinema, Brixton Oval. Book tickets here.
Ashley Clark runs the film blog Permanent Plastic Helmet. You can follow it on Twitter @PPlasticHelmet and/or him @_ash_clark.
