After watching Fair Game and blogging about it here, I was on a history kick. Next, I watched Rebellion, an RTE TV series from 2016, released to mark the hundred years since the Easter Rising. One of the Gleeson boys stars, along with a group of talented Irish and English actors. It makes a clear effort to be even-handed in its portrayal, though as always, the creators necessarily made artistic revisions. The sets, costumes and period details are good, and it’s well shot, but sadly it was a leaden, flat-footed telling of one of the most important and dramatic moments in Irish history.
For a start, there were too many characters. I was struggling with the affair between the English Under-Secretary and his Irish secretary. I’m assuming it was there as a metaphor, but when his ghastly wife showed up and the secretary had to live with her, I lost interest. That’s one of several plot strands that doesn’t add much to the narrative, and the whole thing could have done with a tighter focus, and more clarity on the events leading to the rebellion, the first major one in over a century. Irish history is complex and deserves to be better understood, especially in Britain, where ignorance of it at the highest levels has contributed once more to a dangerous time for citizens across the 32 counties. It’s a shame that this wasn’t more compelling. It’s unlikely to draw many in.
Having said that, it was an absolute frigging masterpiece compared to Don’t Breathe (2016).
When I started this blog, I said everything I watched was ‘good entertainment’. In truth, writing this review was more entertaining than watching Don’t ‘bloody’ Breathe. I realise I’m swimming upstream here (it made a fortune and was very well-reviewed. A sequel is en route), but Mother of God, this was execrable bilge. The plot is, as wiser people than me have spotted, a straight flip of the Sixties Audrey Hepburn movie Wait Until Dark, wherein the world’s most beautiful blind lady fights off crooks in her home. Here, we have three (and I use the word after careful consideration) assholes who routinely break into people’s homes. They do this because one of them has a father who runs an alarm company, which for some reason means he has keys to all his client’s homes, as well as the ability to override their alarm systems with remote control. Yeah, I wouldn’t buy an alarm from this dude, either. We first join them in a burglary, during which one of them pisses on the floor. He’s supposed to be the most criminal of the three, because he deals with the fence and supplies gas (uh-huh, gas) and drugs to help with the break-ins. Also, he’s black.
The two white assholes are more complicated though. The rich kid (you know, the one with all the advantages in life because his dad, though clearly incompetent, runs a successful business) is conflicted. Well, I say that, but what I mean is he hesitates for around 30 seconds of screen time before going ahead with the next burglary. Also, he’s in love with the final asshole, a girl. We’re supposed to empathise with her because her mother is abusive, and she has a kid sister. Well, y’know, that describes a lot of people. They don’t all rip people off though.
But wait… the house that they break into belongs to a blind guy. A blind guy who we see dragging a woman down the street by her hair in the opening shot. Soooo… the plot of this movie is that three assholes break into the house of a blind asshole. A blind asshole who you later find out raped the woman with a turkey baster. I’m not making this up. Someone did. God help us.
Much more fun was The Climb (2019) written, produced by, and starring Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin as Mike and Kyle, two lifelong friends. It’s marketed as a comedy-drama. I found it hilarious from start to finish. None of the drama is heavy or laboured, but it still has something interesting and worthwhile to say, even if what that amounts to is ‘people are complicated, and relationships are hard’.
It starts with a revelation on a biking holiday in France, and we revisit the pair at various big events in their lives afterwards. To say Mike is a difficult person is… well, remember Simon Pegg’s character from The World’s End? Your getting close. There are no androids or aliens in this though, it’s a very grounded, real film. But it’s hysterically funny in places. There’s a gag involving a certain piece of British culture that had me roaring.
And that’s it for now, folks.
My Line of Duty blog will go live at the same time as this today and will also be at Live for Film.
Until then … !
If you want to watch any of the films and the TV series reviewed:
Rebellion series one – Netflix
Don’t Breathe – Amazon Prime
The Climb – Amazon Prime (paid, but on special offer for £1.99 when I watched it)
