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If You Risk Nothing, Then You Risk Everything
Our continued coverage of the British Film Institute's London Film Festival
_The Year of the Strong Woman_
has taken a bit of a breather since a rambunctious opening night that experienced a brief diversion from the programme (including a lie-down protest at
_Suffragette_
’s gala), the day before a talk by Geena Davis, now of the Institute on Gender in Media, an equality-for-Hollywood project that launched at this year's LFF. But the theme, at least for me the past couple days, has been one of the brotherly variety, starting with the Brothers Quay.
#### **_35mm: In Absentia_\*\*\* (2000), _The Comb_\*\*\* (1990), _Street of Crocodiles_\*\*\*\*\* (1986) (_The Brothers Quay_ shorts) and Christopher Nolan's _Quay_ (2015)**
Presenting fresh 35mm prints from the original Quay Brothers' negatives as well as his first short doc, Christopher Nolan reveals his inner fanboy for a rare front-of-camera meet-and-greet with the animation innovators. I'd have to plead ignorance to the Quays prior to this screening, but this three-set serves as a ready reckoner for their extensive body of work, including the Quays' still noticeably influential _Street of Crocodiles_. The Brothers' influence on animation, stop-motion or otherwise, is still keenly felt elsewhere in this year's impressive shorts programme—a fact I wouldn’t have realised without catching these. Nolan’s own footage, a quick peek behind the curtain, opens up the Quays' studio/lab to peer inside the surrealistic viscera of their life and art (and a whole lot of cut-up dolls). Add some Robert Walser and deft camera trickery to the mix for an irksome experience. Great fun, if brief.
#### **_Men and Chicken_ (2015), Anders Thomas Jensen**
Continuing the brotherhood theme is this self-consciously left-field knee-slapper from Denmark, _Men and Chicken_, an often bizarre but perennially surprising bestial comedy (yes, one now exists). From the makers of _Adam's Apples_ (writer-director Jensen's last outing at this festival), their latest may be heavy on slapstick but makes up for it in heart. Worth a quick poke.
#### **_Black Mass_ (2015), Scott Cooper**
Another tale of two brothers (have we had enough yet?), James 'Whitey' Bulger (Depp), once one of America's most dangerous gangsters (and FBI informants), terrorises the streets of Boston—in the near background is his Senator brother, Billy Bulger (a subdued Cumberbatch). _Black Mass_ chronicles their rise and fall, but unfortunately does so in pretty unspectacular fashion. Director Cooper (_Crazy Heart_, _Out of the Furnace_) lays on the violence pretty thick, but for all its efficiency and period detail, it’s a wayward, meandering piece. Depp channeling Christopher Walken in swagger and pout isn't as arresting as it feels it might have been. But it’s not since Gary Oldman's Dracula that a beehive hair-do has been this sinister. Cumberbatch's quiet US takeover continues, but it's rising star Joel Edgerton's turn as loyal childhood buddy-turned-FBI-operative that momentarily elevates this flick above a mass of genre trappings.
#### **_Bone Tomahawk_, S. Craig Zahler**
A special mention goes to first-time director Zahler, who (bragging UK funding for Hollywood aside) brings his ultraviolent horror Western to a simultaneously delighted and bewildered London audience. Replete with gougings, disembowellings and a tribe of petrifying inbreds to quiver even the hardiest horror fans’ bottom lips, _Bone Tomahawk_ is a largely satisfying rescue/revenge picture held together by a superb ensemble cast, including Lili Simmons, Patrick Wilson and Kurt Russell. Richard Jenkins (_Six Feet Under_) as comic relief Chicory is the standout in this river of blood—essentially a bloodier update of John Ford’s _The Searchers_. A convincing debut.
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