July Film Events Plenty of opportunity to sample cinema in the outdoors this month, with Picnic Cinema kicking off and Screenfields back after its Wimbledon break Words: Simon Bland I Am Divine
Finding Vivian Maier
How to Train Your Dragon 2
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Director: John Maloof, Charlie Siskel Starring: Vivian Maier, John Maloof Released: 18 Jul Certificate: 12A
Director: Dean DeBlois Starring: Jay Baruchel, Kristen Wiig, America Ferrera Released: 11 Jul Certificate: U
In 2007 John Maloof, while researching for a book on Chicago, happened upon a collection of 30,000 prints and negatives by one Vivian Maier. Googling her name he found nothing. Over the next few years he bought everything of hers he could find, uncovering more about her life as he went. It turned out that she was an eccentric and intensely private nanny who spent her time both on and off the job walking the streets surreptitiously taking thousands of photographs with a neck-hung Rolleiflex. She showed her life’s work to no one. “I find the mystery of it more interesting than her work itself,” says one of the many interviewees (consisting mainly of her employers, their children, or people who knew her only briefly), and this is unfortunately the documentary’s focus. The enigma’s all well and good, but it’s the work we really care about. If only Maloof and Siskel had focused less on gossipy psychological guesswork, and more on Maier’s art, this could’ve been a documentary worthy of its towering subject. [Kristian Doyle]
Following the smash success of How to Train Your Dragon, this sequel – part coming-of-age tale, part family drama, part aerial war movie – fast-forwards a few years. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is now a stubbly-faced young adult, and the dragons and humans now live in harmony together. Soon, however, this peaceful co-existence is threatened by villainous Drago (Djimon Hounsou), who plans to dominate with a dragon army, while Hiccup’s long-lost mother (Cate Blanchett) reappears to further confuse matters. Despite largely irrelevant 3D, the visuals are impressive, particularly during the numerous flying sequences but, as before, the dragons are the film’s main draw. Toothless remains adorably feline – early scenes of mundane exposition and human drama are upstaged by the playful interactions of the characters’ dragon counterparts – but the plot is weak, with the film lacking clear focus and direction. Hiccup’s mum is quickly sidelined – even worse, towards the end so is Toothless. Perfectly adequate as light entertainment, nevertheless it fails to excite or surprise the way its predecessor did. [Becky Bartlett]
Norte, the End of History
Joe
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Director: Lav Diaz Starring: Sid Lucero, Angeli Bayani, Archie Alemania Released: 18 Jul Certificate: 18
Director: David Gordon Green Starring: Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Ronnie Gene Blevins Released: 25 Jul Certificate: 15
Filipino director Lav Diaz has been working consistently since the late 1990s but, with most of his films running for anything up to nine hours, the relatively accessible Norte, the End of History will act as an introduction to his work for most UK viewers. What they will find in this slow-burning fourhour drama is a filmmaker in total command of his art. The film unfolds in long, measured takes and every sequence is a masterclass in visual and aural composition. It is a film that gives us time for contemplation and ample space to fully immerse ourselves in his story. Whether or not that story entirely works is open to debate; what begins as a loose adaptation of Crime and Punishment takes some surprising and troubling turns, particularly in the climactic hour. But Norte, the End of History is a film worth grappling with. Patient and inquisitive viewers will surely find it a very rewarding experience, and one hopes it’s not the last Lav Diaz film to make its way to these shores. [Philip Concannon]
With Joe, director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Prince Avalanche) returns to his roots, examining the grim reality of society’s underclass with great sympathy and unflinching honesty and humanity. The result is his best film in years – post-screening, you can very nearly shake the grit from your shoes as you leave the cinema. As the titular grizzled antihero, a subdued, marble-mouthed Cage fights his violence-prone nature as he attempts to lead a ‘respectable’ existence (poisoning perfectly healthy trees so a developer can cut them down) until a homeless teenager (Mud’s Sheridan) arrives on the scene with his abusive drunk of a father in tow. With its Southern Gothic milieu and moody, noir-ish tone of understated menace, at times Joe feels as pulpy as its poisoned trees. But Green brings a delicate, richly detailed touch to a story that could have felt pat. Instead, it’s potently ambivalent. Joe may be a rabid cur at heart, but at least he has heart enough to have a dog in the fight. [Michelle Devereaux]
I Am Divine
Boyhood
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Director: Jeffrey Schwarz Starring: John Waters, Divine, Ricki Lake, Tab Hunter Released: 18 Jul Certificate: TBC When Glenn Milstead died from a heart condition in 1988, he was just hours away from shooting his first episode of Married... with Children, the hit Fox sitcom on which he’d been offered a recurring role. After two decades spent eating dog shit for midnight movie audiences, chewing the scenery in queer theatre productions and touring an aggressive strain of gay disco around the world, the star was tired and in search of something approaching mainstream acceptance. It’s tragic that he fell just short of this dream, but admirers can console themselves with the knowledge that Divine left behind an undiluted body of work. This documentary mostly looks back on its subject’s career as a notorious drag act, with consistently amusing input from the likes of John Waters, Tab Hunter and psychedelic theatre troupe The Cockettes. It’s the involvement of Milstead’s recently deceased mother that proves most illuminating, however, offering insight into his private battles and lending pathos to an otherwise profane story. [Lewis Porteous]
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Review
Director: Richard Linklater Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke Released: 11 Jul Certificate: 15 In Boyhood, Richard Linklater follows the same actors over 12 years, as they age with their characters. Ellar Coltrane plays Mason Jr, a six-year-old boy growing up in the America of the 2000s: the nervous years of Middle Eastern war, digital advances and eventual economic depression. Against the backdrop of a changing society we watch Mason’s parents (Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke) divorce, find new love, lose it and find it again. Meanwhile Mason grows up – he falls for a girl, tries to understand his wayward father, discovers art and goes to college. The film is at once of a piece with Linklater’s other pictures – as temporal as the Before/After series, as philosophical as Waking Life – and also more universal than anything else he’s done. The characters drift through life as we do: bemused, in turns sad and happy, wondrous at the mystery of time and how it passes. [Sam Lewis]
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till a bit gutted you missed Glastonbury? Don’t worry, you can dust off your camping gear and pitch your tent at Picnic Cinema instead. This immersive movie experience returns for another summer of outdoorsy fun, inviting happy campers to a handful of picturesque locations to catch a classic movie back on the big screen. An impromptu trip to Uncle Monty’s cabin (aka Cumbria’s Sleddale Hall) kicks off this year’s proceedings, with three screenings of Brit-comedy classic Withnail and I (3-5 Jul). A couple of creepy castles form the backdrop for the next two events, with Hammer Horror’s The Woman in Black appearing at Lowther (16 Jul) and The Shining taking over Muncaster two days later (18 Jul). It’s not all horror in the hills, though, as Grease (19 Jul) arrives just in time to bring some summer lovin’ to the Cumbrian countryside. Leather jackets and combs at the ready, people. In Liverpool, FACT revisit Jules and Vincent with Pulp Fiction (3 Jul), host a digitally restored Mad Max double bill (5 Jul) and run around with The Beatles for A Hard Day’s Night (7 Jul), all before getting a bit silly with (most of) the Monty Python crew at the end of the month. This special screening sees John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and the two Terrys (Jones and Gilliam) back together for the first time in three decades as the hugely anticipated Monty Python Live (mostly) is zapped via satellite from the O2 on to FACT (and Cornerhouse) screens (20 Jul). Expect lifeless parrots, funny walks and new gags. Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more...
Mad Max 2
Over in Manchester, the Dancehouse theatre closes out its John Carpenter season with paranoia body-shock flick The Thing (17 Jul). Here, you’ll be able to relive the slime-covered genius of special-effects pioneers Rob Bottin and Stan Winston, as scientist Kurt Russell finds out just how much he can trust his colleagues when a shape-shifting alien infiltrates their snowy compound. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Manchester’s Screenfields continues to offer some sunny cinema fun with three events scheduled for the last three Thursdays of the month. It all starts with musical epic Les Misérables on 17 Jul, followed by Rob Reiner’s coming-of-age classic Stand by Me on 24 Jul and Tim Burton’s emotacular Edward Scissorhands finishing things off on 31 Jul. So forget festivals, grab a beer, plonk yourself in a deckchair and relax. You’ve earned it... probably.
THE SKINNY