Best of Black Sheep: DRIVE

DRIVE
Written by Hossein Amini
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks and Albert Brooks


Irene: What do you do?
Driver: I drive.

Every now and again, a movie comes along and takes you for a ride you don’t soon forget. It straps you in with its fresh cinematic voice and doesn’t let you go until it has raced through your mind, taken some crazy turns and pulled back into the garage again.  When you step out, your legs might even feel a little weak from the constant barrage of thrills and brilliance. DRIVE is that movie. This year’s breakout director, and the winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes, Nicolas Winding Refn, delivers a smooth ride that will catch you off guard at almost every turn and announces the arrival of a new force to be reckoned with on the road.

While Refn may be the man behind the wheel off-screen, the man in the driver’s seat on screen is none other than Ryan Gosling. Known only throughout the film as the driver, Gosling exudes an eerie calm no matter how fast his life is moving. There are cars everywhere he turns. He works for a mechanic (Bryan Cranston) and drives stunt cars for the movies. He even moonlights as a getaway car driver for petty robberies and might soon start actually racing his own ride on an actual track. Gosling’s driver needs to be in that seat and subsequently in control of his own destiny. He lives a modest life and never gives anything away on his face, that is until he meets his neighbour, Irene (the always understated, Carey Mulligan). Once their hands touch, on the stick shift of his car no less, his engine starts making noises he’s never heard before.

DRIVE is an intense trip and once Refn kicks it into high gear, you can practically feel the rev of the engine emanating from the screen and reverberating through your entire core. It embodies a modern sense of extreme cool, from its pounding soundtrack to its excellent cast (including a deliciously funny, Albert Brooks and a just plain delicious, Christina Hendricks). DRIVE is a rebellious film, a night creature, a total badass of a movie. When it gets rough, it goes places I’ve never even imagined, let alone seen on film. And even though Refn pushes the movie into skids of reckless abandon, he is always clearly and confidently in control of the vehicle. By the time DRIVE screeches to a complete halt, you will instantly want to take it for another spin.

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Black Sheep interviews Michael Fassbender

AIN'T NO SHAME
An interview with SHAME star, Michael Fassbender.

It can be a bit jarring to go from watching an actor on screen one minute to seeing them sitting directly in front of you the next. It can even be somewhat awkward when you’ve just watched said actor engage in a multitude of sexually explicit encounters on film. When the actor you’re speaking with though is as effortlessly talented as Michael Fassbender is, you quickly realize there is no shame in it at all.

In SHAME, British filmmaker, Steve McQueen’s sophomore effort, Fassbender is naked within minutes of the film starting, so it seems only fitting to begin our conversation there as well. “It’s kinda embarrassing,” says the actor who has nothing at all to be embarrassed about. At this point, I laugh out loud and when Fassbender realizes I’m shocked that he was the least bit shy given how good he looks, he jokes, “Oh I see. You were having a gay old time then.” On that note, the Irish-German actor is quite the charmer, even when fully clothed.

The 34-year-old Fassbender plays Brandon in SHAME, a sex addict living in New York City. It would seem to me that if you’re going to tell a sex addict’s story on film, you’re going to need to see a little sex happen but some people, let’s call them the more conservative film critics out there, have argued that Shame not only goes too far but that it relishes in its boundary pushing. “It’s ludicrous to me,” Fassbender explains, with only a hint of outrage. “You can take someone’s head off with a cheese cutter but heaven forbid should you show a penis.”

As much as it is about sex, SHAME isn’t really about sex at all; it’s about a person with an addiction. Brandon isn’t the easiest character to like either. He uses women whenever required and he is horribly unsupportive to his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), but Fassbender was never concerned people wouldn’t come around to him. “I knew people were going to like him because I liked him, because he was a guy that knew he was ill. He is a product of our time.”

Despite Brandon’s timeliness, the Motion Picture Association of America has slapped an NC-17 rating on the film, which prohibits anyone under 18 years of age from seeing it, regardless of whether they are accompanied by an adult or not. Ordinarily, this rating means box office death but SHAME wears its badge proudly and is doing well in limited release despite it. “It can be a good thing,” Fassbender says of the rating. “The most important thing is to get people talking about it. That creates curiosity and it only seems to put more bums in the seats in the end.”

While Fassbender does see the controversy as a roundabout marketing push, he does not agree with the scrutiny itself. “Whatever rating people want to slap on it is kinda irrelevant. The fact is that I felt comfortable doing the scenes with Steve because I knew that it wouldn’t be exploitative. It’s real. It’s part of the story. It’s part of getting inside this guy’s head and where he’s coming from.”

A few cuts to the film could have brought the rating down to an R, to which Fassbender responds, “Good luck trying to convince Steve McQueen on that!” Fassbender and McQueen had previously worked together on McQueen’s debut feature, HUNGER, a 2008 film about the 1981 Irish Republican Army hunger strike, as led by Bobby Sands, whom Fassbender portrays in the film. (Incidentally, the two are scheduled to work together again on McQueen’s third feature, TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE, expected in 2014.) “He’s the only person I could have asked to do this,” McQueen tells me about casting Fassbender in SHAME. “I don’t believe he’s an actor. He doesn’t act. What he does is a different thing altogether.”

Whatever it is he does, Fassbender will be doing it for quite some time if he keeps up this pace. Upcoming projects for the Best Actor Oscar frontrunner include work with some of today’s most famed directors, from David Cronenberg (A DANGEROUS METHOD) to Steven Soderbergh (HAYWIRE) to Ridley Scott (PROMETHEUS), which is exactly where Fassbender wants his career to be. “The way it is at the moment is pretty perfect for me. I get to work with great filmmakers and that’s as simple as it gets. I just want to mix it up and keep myself guessing.”

And it would be an awful shame if he weren't allowed to continue doing just that.

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TIFF Review: SHAME

Written by Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen

Directed by Steve McQueen

Starring Michael Fassbaender and Carey Mulligan

Brandon: Some people fuck up all the time.

Steve McQueen’s sophomore film, SHAME, begins with his returning star, Michael Fassbender, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling or into some far off space. He doesn’t move; he just lies there half covered by the blankets for some time. Something in his eyes suggests he can’t move just yet. He is trapped in those precious morning moments, where you become aware again of everything sleep managed to erase temporarily the night before. To get up, means having to face it all again and once you see what it is this particular man is trying to avoid, it becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly why he would rather stay in bed.

Fassbender, who owes a great deal of his notoriety to McQueen after the two worked together on  McQueen’s first feature, the brilliant HUNGER, plays Brandon, a New Yorker with a fancy job and an even fancier apartment. He presents perfectly in every fashion but he is hiding a secret, one so big that it could threaten everything he has in his life. Brandon is a sex addict. Some scoff at the whole idea that someone can actually be addicted to sex, as if it is some sort of made up excuse people use to get off the hook for indiscretions. The way McQueen writes the affliction though, it becomes painfully obvious that sex addiction is in fact very real and likely pretty rampant. I wouldn’t call it a disease but it is certainly a learned behaviour that triggers the same pleasure and comfort responses in the brain that any addiction would. Brandon needs sex in his life and he gets more than a little antsy when he doesn’t get his fix.

SHAME does not judge nor does it invite us to judge Brandon. That said, we are not asked to sympathize either. We are simply given the opportunity to observe a man in some of his weaker, more vulnerable moments. Brandon is able to manage his needs fairly well when he has routine in his life but when his sister (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay with him, he is no longer able to keep his habits in the closet. Subsequently, we are witness to them all, in all their naked and sordid glory - this is a movie about sex addiction, after all; you should expect a fair amount of sex. Fassbender is brilliant and fearless as Brandon. As he processes what he’s doing and how it is affecting those around him and his self, Fassbender carries this weight in his entire body. (And I do mean, his entire body.) With SHAME, McQueen and Fassbender prove they aren’t afraid of anything and that HUNGER wasn’t a fluke. The only real shame would be if no one saw this film.

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TIFF Review: DRIVE

Written by Hossein Amini

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks and Albert Brooks

Irene: What do you do?

Driver: I drive.

Every now and again, a movie comes along and takes you for a ride you don’t soon forget. It straps you in with its fresh cinematic voice and doesn’t let you go until it has raced through your mind, taken some crazy turns and pulled back into the garage again.  When you step out, your legs might even feel a little weak from the constant barrage of thrills and brilliance. DRIVE is that movie. This year’s breakout director, and the winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes, Nicolas Winding Refn, delivers a smooth ride that will catch you off guard at almost every turn and announces the arrival of a new force to be reckoned with on the road.

While Refn may be the man behind the wheel off-screen, the man in the driver’s seat on screen is none other than Ryan Gosling. Known only throughout the film as the driver, Gosling exudes an eerie calm no matter how fast his life is moving. There are cars everywhere he turns. He works for a mechanic (Bryan Cranston) and drives stunt cars for the movies. He even moonlights as a getaway car driver for petty robberies and might soon start actually racing his own ride on an actual track. Gosling’s driver needs to be in that seat and subsequently in control of his own destiny. He lives a modest life and never gives anything away on his face, that is until he meets his neighbour, Irene (the always understated, Carey Mulligan). Once their hands touch, on the stick shift of his car no less, his engine starts making noises he’s never heard before.

DRIVE is an intense trip and once Refn kicks it into high gear, you can practically feel the rev of the engine emanating from the screen and reverberating through your entire core. It embodies a modern sense of extreme cool, from its pounding soundtrack to its excellent cast (including a deliciously funny, Albert Brooks and a just plain delicious, Christina Hendricks). DRIVE is a rebellious film, a night creature, a total badass of a movie. When it gets rough, it goes places I’ve never even imagined, let alone seen on film. And even though Refn pushes the movie into skids of reckless abandon, he is always clearly and confidently in control of the vehicle. By the time DRIVE screeches to a complete halt, you will instantly want to take it for another spin.

readmore »»  

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS

Written by Allan Loeb and Steven Schiff

Directed by Oliver Stone

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin and Michael Douglas

Gordon Gekko: A fisherman always sees another fisherman coming.

Oliver Stone is reputed to be a controversial film director but that isn’t entirely fair. To be controversial, one must make statements that rock the status quo and potentially encourage progress and change. Stone may have started out his career with more of a bite, but the two-time Oscar winner for directing, doesn’t actually have very much to say at this point. Instead, he attaches himself to projects that cannot help but be controversial in nature and allows our already preconceived notions of these subjects to do all the talking for him.

In WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS, Stone revisits one of his most successful films to supposedly reiterate to us what he did in the original WALL STREET, because clearly, we were not paying close enough attention then. In 1989, investment mogul, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) stepped over everyone he knew for the almighty dollar and ended up going to prison. He was famous for having said that “Greed is good,” but as it turns out, it was pretty bad. So bad that it inspired him to write a book about how greed was going to be the downfall of America. He got rich off that book of course and then Gordon Gekko went on to predict the 2008 economic crisis. If only Stone had made this movie before everything happened. Maybe all of this calamity could have been avoided.

Gordon was released from prison in 2001 to find that no one was waiting for him and the world had continued on without him. Then apparently nothing at all happened for seven years because the story picks back up in 2008. Gordon’s daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan) is now dating a Wall Street up and comer, Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf). Together they share a bright future full of possibility and fortune until their financial flooring falls out from underneath them. This new generation of money players is portrayed as reluctant but yet still able to enjoy their wealth and the lifestyle it affords them. Their ideals, nobility and honour, are still intact but this is just an illusion and lucky for all of us, Stone is here to show them that more money means more problems.

The greed that is bringing everyone down in WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS is exponentially bigger than it has ever been and Stone warns us that we will not survive another financial meltdown like the one that just forced the American government to fork over billions of bailout dollars. Solid performances and some impressive camera work on behalf of Rodrigo Pietro make the experience reasonably entertaining but Stone never lets us forget just how touchy everything is. He preaches of how moral hazard will continue to cripple the market but basically applies the same principals to his own filmmaking. As long as he hides behind the overbearing face of controversy, he will never have to risk anything of his own by actually saying something unpopular himself.

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TIFF Review: NEVER LET ME GO

Written by Alex Garland

Directed by Mark Romanek

Starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield

Famed music video director, Mark Romanek, takes on Kazuo Ishiguro’s much loved and heavily praised novel, NEVER LET ME GO, as his second venture into feature filmmaking. It is a daring challenge indeed given the underlying questions about the value of human life but Romanek takes the challenge head on. I have not read the novel but, from what I understand, he gets the tone just right. That said, if the tone is meant to be one of cold disassociation, than perhaps it was never meant to be a film to begin with.

NEVER LET ME GO is a hybrid of science fiction and romantic drama. The prologue to the film tells us that a medical breakthrough discovered in 1967 has increased the life expectancy of human beings to over 100 years but does not tell us how. We are then introduced to Kathy, Tommy and Ruth (Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley, respectively) in 1978 at a boarding school called Hailsham. There is clearly something special about this school and the children that go there and it is our job to piece that together bit by bit. While that is happening though, a love triangle develops between these friends that is meant to be this great affront to love. It seems secondary to the mystery awaiting us and therefore never feels meaningful even after the mystery is solved.

When a younger Kathy sits on her bed, listening to fictional singer, Judy Bridgewater, sing, “Never, never, never let me go,” she cries quietly to herself and yearns to know what that feels like. She looks human, she emotes like a human but she knows she isn’t like everyone else. Watching the film, NEVER LET ME GO, is perhaps best exemplified in this scene. Like the little girl, it too wants to be held and cherished, for its beautiful imagery and solid performances, but whether or not that is even possible is up for debate. Again, like the little girl, the film too might be lacking a soul.

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Shearing the Oscars: Best Actress

I'd best start by sharing some love on this, the day devoted to the subject. It would be necessary to do so simply because I will need the reminder after I get done with this piece.

This year's Best Actress Oscar race is not so much a puzzle to me as it an infuriating farce that exposes the emptiness of the Academy Awards. Sandra Bullock is the front runner for her work in THE BLIND SIDE. I don't mean to be hurtful. I saw the movie; I thought she was good in it but Oscar good? Please. Of course not, but she has had a really good year and has done so many great things for the box office over the years. Her top competition is Meryl Streep for her work in JULIE & JULIA. Streep has scored a record breaking 16 nominations with this last one but hasn't won since 1983. Naturally, we have to throw her something as some point. At least Streep's performance is Oscar worthy but what I don't understand is why the headlines don't read, "It's Down to Sidibe and Mulligan!"

Here are the nominees for Best Actress ...

SANDRA BULLOCK as Leigh Anne Tuohy in THE BLIND SIDE


I am not going to just denounce Bullock's nomination here. I didn't mind John Lee Hancock's THE BLIND SIDE. It was certainly designed to be satisfying but it accomplished its goals. Bullock carries the weight of the film on her shoulders and does it with strength and attitude to spare. She is also written in such a saintly manner that her character comes off as too perfect to be actually human. The fact is that Bullock has the nomination and the edge to win because she is well liked in Hollywood and Hollywood enjoys rewarding contribution over performance from time to time. Remember Julia Roberts in ERIN BROCKOVICH?

HELEN MIRREN as Countess Sofya in THE LAST STATION


At 64 years of age, this is Helen Mirren's fourth Oscar nomination. She won in this exact category in 2006 for her work in THE QUEEN. She returns now by portraying another famous historical figure, Countess Sofya, wife of Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, in Michael Hoffman's THE LAST STATION. Whereas her work in THE QUEEN had to be spot on given people's familiarity with the subject but, with little existing footage of Countess Sofya, Mirren had to create a character rather than recreate. This role is just not loud enough in a year like this one and I'm pretty sure Mirren knows it.

CAREY MULLIGAN as Jenny in AN EDUCATION


I am convinced that Carey Mulligan is going to be around for a long time and seen as one of the next generation's greatest actresses. In Lone Scherfig's brilliant, AN EDUCATION, she plays Jenny, a teenage girl of excessive intelligence and discipline who longs to let her passion run free. The range of Jenny's journey requires Mulligan to balance the many faces of this teenage girl - the good student, the perfect daughter, the virgin girlfriend to a man ten years her senior and of course the woman she so hurriedly wants to be. The National Board of Review and the Toronto Film Critics Association threw their support behind Mulligan but the film just never caught on like it should have.

GABOUREY SIDIBE as Clareece "Precious" Jones in PRECIOUS


I'm sure I've said this before but it bears repeating; I was completely floored when I met Gabourey Sidibe in person this past fall at a roundtable with her and PRECIOUS director, Lee Daniels. Ignorantly, I expected her to be much like the damaged, frightened, introvert she played in the film but she is the complete opposite. Beforehand, I did not think her performance was much of a stretch from who she had to be in reality. How could it be? Yet somehow, this bubbly, outspoken young lady found a pain so dark that everything she actually is is swallowed up by Precious. Sidibe was honoured by the National Board of Review but most of the film's award focus goes to co-star, Mo'Nique. Sidibe deserves this but will have to hope Streep and Bullock cancel each other out.

MERYL STREEP as Julia Child in JULIE & JULIA


When I mentioned that Streep broke a record this year with her 16th nomination for JULIE & JULIA, I neglected to mention that it was her own record of most career nods she broke. There is no question that Streep gives everything every time she goes out there (almost, anyway) and not having been rewarded by the Academy since 1983 seems unacceptable but why can't we remember that we should be honouring individual performances and not bodies of work. That said, I would much rather watch Streep take this than see Bullock get it for just putting in the time. Unfortunately, with the Screen Actors Guild in Bullock's camp, it might be tricky.

WHO WILL WIN? Sandra Bullock

WHO COULD STILL UPSET? Gabourey Sidibe

Next up in Black Sheep's Oscar coverage, we give you a guide to what nominated films are still playing in theatres out there and what you need to make sure you need covered before Oscar night.

Again, before I go, much love to all the Black Sheep readers!

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AN EDUCATION

Written by Nick Hornby
Directed by Lone Scherfig
Starring Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson


Jenny: All that poetry and all those songs for something that doesn’t last long at all.

For a young lady in the 1960’s, options were slim. Girls went to school to learn about Latin and literature but also, and perhaps more importantly, to learn about posture and poise. Educated or not, a lady must be proper first and foremost and able to provide for her man as he sees fit. And if one of these fine girls also happened to show academic promise, then she could push herself as hard as possible to go on to higher learning. Unfortunately, all that would be waiting for her on the other side would be marriage or maybe a teaching job. There is really nothing wrong with either of those options but it does seem an awful lot of work to get there and one wonders why go through all the trouble. The understated beauty of Lone Scherfig’s AN EDUCATION is how it allows for life to do what it will regardless of chosen paths, schooling its characters and subsequently enlightening its audience.


Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is but 16. She is the only girl in her classes who seems to get anything at all and it isn’t long before she starts to see through it all. One day, while she waits for a ride in the rain, a strange yet handsome man of nearly twice her age (Peter Sarsgaard) pulls up alongside her to offer her a lift. He is witty and charming and their chemistry is almost instantly perfect. When she accepts his offer, she essentially goes against the number one rule enforced by all parents – never get in a strange man’s car. Naturally, it feels terribly wrong. Given his age, what could he possibly want from this girl? Still, he is dapper and has a wonderful way about himself. Mulligan is boisterous and beautiful in this breakout performance, one that will certainly get her some well deserved notice. And of course, Sarsgaard is easily likable as her suitor, David. Together, they just click and before long, the initial hesitation is set aside so that their love can be given a shot.


Natural reticence is part of what makes AN EDUCATION such an engaging experience. Jenny is precious. She has great potential and parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) that, while strict, clearly hold her in the highest regard. And yet still, these educated people allow David to breeze into their home with his dashing good looks and pockets full of money and make them completely ignore his age and his intentions for their daughter. Her father will not allow her to enjoy anything on her own that doesn’t directly enhance her scholastic education but when a handsome man comes knocking, it would seem that marrying his daughter off, especially to someone so well to do, is a lot more affordable than sending her to Oxford. At the same time, Jenny is completely taken with the life of fancy that David offers and begins to see how being taken care of can be a lot easier than taking care of yourself.


Nick Hornby’s elegant screenplay poses a very familiar dilemma to the audience. What is more valuable – a formal and well rounded education in a class room or the kind of learning that only comes when experiencing life outside of the classroom? What makes this simple question so complex in AN EDUCATION is that it constantly forces you to reevaluate where you stand on the subject, subsequently reminding you that nothing is as simple as you think when love is involved. I learned a thing or two myself while I sat back and absorbed this masterful picture. The main lesson? AN EDUCATION, both the film and the arduous right of passage, are both well worth the time.

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