Review
DULCIE PEARCE AT THE MOVIES
The Midnight Sky is a frustrating film with ropey CGI and an often-annoying score
The Midnight Sky
12 (121mins)
IMAGINE two script-writers running down a corridor towards a film producer’s office.
One has in their hand the story of a dying man who is having an existential crisis while stuck alone in the Arctic.
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The other is clutching a Star Trek-style sci-fi tale, based inside a spaceship with all the gadgets and spacesuits to boot.
As the pair race to the office, they crash into each other and the papers mix up.
In their haste, they accidentally take sections of each other’s scripts and present them to the producer.
That is how, I assume, The Midnight Sky came to our screens.
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This confused and frustrating film, directed by and starring George Clooney, is a clunky mixture of two stories and several characters, none of which you truly get to know or understand.
On Earth in 2049, heavily bearded astronomer Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney) is living alone in an abandoned observatory station in the Arctic after a mysterious global catastrophe.
He needs daily blood transfusions, or he will die, and appears to be a raging alcoholic.
He is soon joined by mute, creepy-but-cute little girl Iris (Caoilinn Springall) who has been accidentally left there.
FREEZING COLD MADNESS
Meanwhile, there is a spaceship that has been checking out another planet to see if it is habitable for humans.
On the ship are the annoyingly squeaky-clean crew of Commander Tom (David Oyelowo), Sully (Felicity Jones), Maya (Tiffany Boone), Sanchez (Demian Bichir) and Mitchell (Kyle Chandler).
And they meet all the clichés of spaceship characters.
We have the serious couple, the one with nothing to lose, the naive boffin and the family man.
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You expect to hear Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing — the theme to Armageddon — the moment you see them.
Each of them has a back story that is touched on, but none of them is explored enough for the viewer to feel any warmth towards them.
The selfless spaceship idiots have no idea what is going on in the world, and it is Lofthouse’s job to warn them not to return to Earth as it is now uninhabitable.
To do this, he and his silent sidekick have to embark on a gruelling journey through the snow to make radio contact.
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Luckily Lofthouse’s drink addiction magically disappears (not exactly how alcoholism works) but he does spiral into freezing cold madness, replicating Jack Nicholson in the maze in The Shining.
While Clooney, who is always very watchable, gives a decent enough performance, it’s nowhere near his best.
The rest of the cast struggle with clunky lines, ropey CGI and an often-annoying score.
So, overall, this movie certainly won’t make the Earth move.
★★☆☆☆
Dreamland
(15) 98mins
WITH Margot Robbie as fugitive bank robber Allison and Peaky Blinders’ Finn Cole as young bounty hunter Eugene who falls under her seductive spell, this Great Depression drama certainly sounds dreamy.
Sadly it’s more likely to send you to sleep.
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Among 1930s Texan farming communities ravaged by dust storms and drought, Eugene is a restless teen obsessed with pulp detective magazines and his absent father who left for Mexico.
When he discovers beautiful “Wanted” poster bandit Allison hiding out in the family barn, the die is cast for the dullest Bonnie and Clyde tribute act of recent times to hit the road.
Well, eventually that is . . .
Director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte gets sidetracked delivering endless over-indulgent shots of moody skies, barren landscapes and blustering sand storms.
After an hour of frustratingly slow build-up, things do eventually perk up a little.
But despite Robbie and Cole giving it all they can, their characters lack chemistry and have a relationship that never feels believable.
It’s not clear if this wants to be a coming-of-age movie, a love story or a traditional outlaw tale with a twist. Less Dreamland, more snoozefest.
★★☆☆☆
Movie news
- ALFRED Molina will reprise his role as scientist villain Doctor Octopus in the as-yet-untitled third Spider-Man film
- Director Giles Borg has cast Rupert Everett, Derek Jacobi and Tom Felton in his film Lead Heads
- Ridley Scott is making a film based around the murder of fashion-house head Maurizio Gucci, starring Al Pacino, pictured, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons and Lady Gaga.
Don't Let The Devil Take Another Day
(15) 101mins
YOU don’t have to be a Stereophonics fan to enjoy this look at frontman Kelly Jones. But it probably helps.
Director Ben Lowe follows Jones on his solo tour, which shares the film’s title, from songwriting to rehearsing and backstage at gigs.
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After several performances and studio sessions, the pace picks up.
We look at Jones’s time in Stereophonics and chart his recovery from throat surgery, including learning to speak and sing again.
Having had a growth removed from his vocal cords, his rehabilitation was so lengthy that Jones had to move back in with his parents in Wales, relying on a notepad to communicate.
His painful vocal lessons are shown here too.
There are clips of him as a precocious rock ’n’ roll wannabe, juxtaposed with the 46-year-old stoic of today, who has clearly been bruised by some of the blows life has dealt him.
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Notably, that includes the loss ten years ago of his friend and original Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable after a drinking session.
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Jones performs a touching tribute to Cable and there is some delightful personal footage of the pair fooling around on tour.
While this certainly isn’t a No1 hit, it makes for a catchy enough ditty.
★★★☆☆
Margot Robbie sets pulses racing stripping naked for steamy sex scene in trailer for new film Dreamland
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