FILMS

Film Reviews by Jordan Adcock

BOILING POINT

FILM OF THE MONTH - Star Rating: 4/5

Boiling Point, now available to buy and rent digitally, is less sensational than the average Kitchen Nightmares episode and yet has much more genuine drama packed into its ninety minutes, all very impressively filmed in one unbroken shot.

Stephen Graham plays Andy, a head chef reeling from divorce, debts and faltering attempts at fatherhood all while failing to properly manage the kitchen for an upmarket London restaurant. The evening starts with a pushy health inspector and only gets worse from there for him, his fellow chefs of varying experience and waiting staff. None of the main characters are strictly good or bad here, every character has their flaws or blind spots as they work and clash with one another to try and survive an overbooked night filled with barely-concealed racist diners, obnoxious Instagram influencers and (what else?) a prominent food critic.

Rather than the experience feeling unpleasant or claustrophobic as a result, the well-observed details and the direction moving seamlessly between believable interactions give the film its thrilling veritas. The one-shot technique helps connects these characters in a shared pressure cooker which also highlights their individual stories and struggles. Everyone gets their turn in the spotlight but it revolves around Andy and Stephen Graham’s magnificent performance. He avoids any obvious theatrics while leading every scene he’s in with equal confidence and doubt, even as his character struggles to lead his own kitchen. Like him and the other characters, you won’t have time or space to focus much on the food. It might leave you marvelling that any fairly busy restaurant functions at all. ✪

THE NORTHMAN THE LOST CITY THE GREEN KNIGHT

Star Rating: 2.5/5 Star Rating: 2.5/5 Star Rating: 2/5

The Northman’s story of the young Viking prince Amleth driven to exile and later revenge by his uncle’s betrayal and murder of his father, was based on Scandinavian legends which helped inspire Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Despite what that might suggest, The Northman, for all its extended scenes of brutal, bloody violence and pagan enchantment, is a very straightforward revenge story that rushes the foundation to get to scenes of gruesome swordfights, bloody slaughter and incantations which consequently feel more gratuitous. It’s rather familiar territory for director Robert Eggers, whose previous films The Witch and The Lighthouse were similarly haunted by dark magic and grisly gore. Yet those films had more genuine spooky atmosphere whereas here it’s more, admittedly impressive, gritty texture than anything else. ✪ Sandra Bullock is the adventure romance author, Channing Tatum her books’ dashing cover model, forced into ironically going on their own jungle adventure for treasure by evil Daniel Radcliffe. Whatever the terrible punchline for that setup is, the actual silly jokes in The Lost City are mostly better than that. Sure, it’s close enough to being the 1980s film Romancing the Stone that it includes an obligatory background reference. Still, there’s plenty of light action and romance, and its appeal is, strangely, being breezy and unpretentious in an era with films of all sizes trying to show off their worthiness. But while Bullock and Tatum are decent as an unlikely onscreen couple, it could stand to have more genuine charm and wit. ✪ Indie filmmaker David Lowery adapts possibly the single greatest medieval Arthurian romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by mostly eschewing its courtly intrigue, complex symbolism and memorable characters in favour of a nihilistic and frankly simplistic telling. The story’s made both vaguer and more obvious, adding its own characters while diminishing the original’s. Sir Gawain, who in the romance was flawed but certainly chivalric, is turned cowardly and pathetic here as he journeys from a decaying Round Table to face the enchanted Green Knight. Lowery’s thematic interests in nature overcoming human civilisation would be better served in a new story than in yet another example of King Arthur and his knights being cinematically mishandled. ✪

DOCTOR STRANGE 2

Star Rating: 1.5/5

With this latest entry in the ever less coherent Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it’s not so much Multiverse of Madness (per this film’s subtitle) as MCU of Maddening. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange is adrift in ostensibly his own film, that’s actually more interested in other characters like the bland America Chavez and the firmly wrong-headed “tragic” villain arc for Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch. There’s so many plot turns that would be laughable if they weren’t so wearyingly lame. There’s much visual chaos and expensive CGI shown off yet the lack of narrative imagination or overall point post-Avengers: Endgame is painfully clear. In that regard it’s no worse than other recent MCU entries but that’s no compliment either. ✪

Swift to prove its credentials

ADAM TUDOR-LANE reviews Suzuki Swift Sport Hybrid

I’ve always had a big, huge, soft spot for the Suzuki Swift Sport. A few years ago it went turbocharged and lost a little of its raw, thrummy hum, but it was still super light and a hoot around county lanes.

What’s new? Well, Suzuki is going hybrid across their whole range, even the Swift Sport.

So they’ve added a 48v (incredibly mild) hybrid system, turned down the power, added more weight and increased the 0-62 time by a whole second.

Oh, and the cost has gone up to a whopping £22,570.

Nothing has changed on the exterior; bar the simple addition of a ‘Hybrid’ moniker on the back.

From the off, you’d never know the Sport is down on power; that clever 15kg hybrid system torque fills like a supercar at lower revs.

Off the line feels pretty immediate, as if you have an EV type shove from a standstill.

‘Hooning’ it across town and the nimble nature still shines through, it’s a fun little hatch which you can drive at 100% of its abilities without the worry of killing yourself by flying backwards through a hedge on fire.

But one thing that’s kerbed the fun is how the hybrid system starts sapping away speed

Little has changed in the Swift interior apart from some extra menus on the LCD display

as soon as you let off the throttle. As the system is gearbox driven, you start slowing to charge the hybrid battery once you let off the go pedal.

Over nearly 300 miles, I never saw this battery fully charge; that was over long sections of A road, motorways and town driving; the most it ever got to was three bars, halfway. That’s just annoying.

One good thing about the system is that the little Swift managed 45 MPG over our time together; sadly, I don’t have any MPG numbers for the non-hybrid model, but judging by ‘HonestJohn’s real MPG figure’, 44.8 MPG is the average for the hybrid-less Swift Sport. Not quite the 6% improvement claimed by Suzuki, but this isn’t a scientific test.

Power has been decreased to 129 BHP from 138, no doubt due to emissions and the power that the new ISG 48v gearbox add-on can cope with. Torque is up a smidge by 5Nm over the non-hybrid Swift Sports 230 figure.

Inside is just the same as the non-hybrid version, apart from some extra menus in the

FACTS AT A GLANCE

Top Speed: 130 mph Performance: 0-62 in 9.1 secs Power: 139 BHP Economy: 50.1 MPG (Claimed)

LCD dash display to tell you the battery charge and energy flow.

That ‘hybrid’ tech sits under the front seats, so there’s no encroaching on boot space, but it does feel as though you sit a little higher because of it…that could be all in my head though.

Back in 2014, a Suzuki Swift Sport would set you back £13,999 – a bargain, right? 2018 that increased to £17,999, crikey…and now it’s £22,570.

A Ford Fiesta with the 1.0 litre EcoBoost mHEV (mild hybrid) will hit 62 in 9.4 seconds and set you back £22,015. Sorry Suzuki, but I know where my money would be going.