The Mission: Impossible franchise has had a very interesting development over the years. Unlike most other successful film series, instead of nourishing the familiar and sticking to a popular recipe, Tom Cruise and his accomplices try to start fresh every time around. One of the keys to this is hiring a new director for each film. For its fifth installment – Rogue Nation – they’ve put Chris McQuarrie at the helm, who first rose to fame with his Oscar-winning script for The Usual Suspects (1996). This is just his third directorial outing, after his debut The Way of the Gun in 2000 and Jack Reacher (also carried by Cruise) in 2012. McQuarrie brings a great degree of charm and old school action to the table, and despite set pieces in this type of film often have a familiar taste to them, they come off as fresh and stylish – much thanks to Cruise and his supporting players, where special mention has to go to Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson who completely dominate every scene she’s in.
Despite the fact that he’s turning eighty later this year, Woody Allen still remains admirably active as a filmmaker. He has kept the same pace throughout his career, which means turning out a new film pretty much every year. Considering his debut is now close to fifty years old itself, that’s quite an achievement. His newest Irrational Man lands in familiar Allen territory. A murder mystery (without the mystery) camouflaged in a modern comedy, light on its feet and with a sharp tongue. Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone lead the way in a brilliant cast, with Phoenix in particular having a field day in one of his most laid back and amusing roles to date. It may lose itself a bit in the third act, despite a tremendously satisfying ending, but for the first hour or so this is one of the most enjoyable films you’ll see this year, as long as you allow for it to take its time and lead you a bit in its desired direction. Which of course you will, it is Woody Allen after all.
One should be careful to entitle any film “the best of the year” in any way or genre as long as we’re still just at the back end of summer, but this writer is confident that Amy deserves the title of best documentary of the year. Director Asif Kapadia has taken the legacy of the iconic Amy Winehouse to a completely different place with this moving, fascinating and deeply heartbreaking film about the British singer and songwriter. Like with his BAFTA-winning Senna (2010) Kapadia makes his film entirely out of archival footage, with the voiceovers of key players as a backdrop. The amount of previously undisclosed footage is astonishing, particularly considering that its subject was a person that spent much of her life in the public’s eye. At times it is almost too much to take, when you know the inevitable outcome, but Kapadia makes sure that this is not just a sob story of tragic fate. Amid its heartbreak is a sober and carefully crafted story about family, addiction and talent, where the end result still allows for the ladder to be celebrated, despite having come to an end far too soon.
ESSENTIAL LISTENING THIS MONTH:
This year marks the 20th anniversary for A.M., the debut album from Wilco. This month they release their ninth studio album Star Wars (this writer still has not decided what to make of this title). Regardless, it is another terrific collection of rock tunes in the genre they’ve so comfortably managed to keep calling “Alternative”. Led by front man Jeff Tweedy who still handles the songwriting job in the band, it comes across as a safe release, but not in a negative sense. They still fare within their Americana grounds, but with a little more edge around their guitars and rough touches throughout the production of the album. The band from Illinois have through their latest releases seemed more interested in keeping their existing fans happy, rather than experiment in order to gain new ones. This in today’s industry is actually something of a relief. The band even let fans download the album for free for a limited time when first announcing the title. If that does not encourage further support from your loyal fans, what does?
After six studio albums in English, Norwegian singer / songwriter Vidar Vang has turned a corner to make his seventh outing the first in his native tongue. Vårres egen lille krig (roughly translates into Our Own Little War) is probably the thirty-eight year old’s most interesting one to date, and not just because of his switch in language. Despite being a more than qualified writer of songs in English, the lyrics feel more honest and intimate in Vang’s own language. This would perhaps be natural, but not necessarily beneficiary. However, there seems to be more going on, more emotion at stake and more frustration on the loose from Vang’s book of lyrics this time around. The lyrics do their lifting, but they don’t carry the album on their own. It also sounds terrific and moves at a very enjoyable pace. Produced by Vang himself, alongside Cato Thomassen (their fourth collaboration), it serves up both low key ballads delivered by acoustic guitars, as well as heavy and almost grandiose anthem like rock tunes, like its opening track Ingenmannsland which sets the record off to a flying start.
Anna Bulbrook first came to this writer’s attention as part of the Los Angeles based alternative rock band The Airborne Toxic Event (mentioned before on this site), where she mainly handles the viola and keyboards, as well as backing vocals. From these there has never been a doubt that her voice would have no problem carrying a band on her own, which she now does as The Bulls release their debut EP Small Problems this month. The band is mainly a duo, where Bulbrook is joined by Mark Sallis, most known for handling the bass in the London rock band The Duke Spirit. Together they have created a terrific outfit that produce melodic and modern pop tunes, with hints of both electronica and alternative rock. The record is only a modest four tracks, but it carries itself with confidence and ambition which will make it even more exciting to see what they can pull off with a full-length studio album, which hopefully isn’t too far away. The single Come Unwound gives you an idea of their sound, and it also comes with a rather beautiful music video directed by Evan Mathis.
