TD 1
FILM Hannah McKennett Jack O’Higgins Shane O’Reil
ly Michael McDermott illustration Karen Harte Happy As Lazzaro Director: Alice Rohrwacher Talent: Adriano Tardiolo, Nicoletta Braschi, Tommaso Ragno, Luca Chikovani Released: 5 April Human beings are like animals. Set them free and they realize they are slaves locked in their own misery. – Nicoletta Braschi plays Marquise Alfonsina de la Luna, a monarch overseeing an undocumented tobacco plantation, from which Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) seeks magic realist escapism. Set in the Italian hills of Inviolata in the late ‘70s, young Lazzaro (Tardiolo) is just one of 54 farmhands working an illegal tobacco plantation. This tightly run ship is watched over by landowner Marquise Alfonsina de Luna (Braschi) and her slick rick henchman Nicola who makes sure the workers stay in debt and never see a wage. Lazzaro’s existence is that of worker and simpleton, told what to do and when to do it. He’s as obedient and charming as any dog by your side. It becomes very clear that the title is probably alluding to his spacey rather zen like nature rather than actual happiness. It’s not evident if he is accepted as merely the town fool or as an appreciated worker. The layers of exploitation peter downward ending at Lazzaro who is first overworked by his family, used by the Marquise and finally by her son Tancredi (Chikovani) – the bored rich boy in need of drama and excitement who drums up a kidnap plot as he hides in a cave with Lazzaro as company, only to be completely ignored by a mother familiar with his quirks. Others are not as convinced by such tomfoolery and concerned, the police are called to investigate. Lazzaro has an accident that knocks him unconscious and in his absence, his family have been carted off to the police station for registration. There they are being brought up to speed on the modern world; mandatory schooling, fair wages and the illegality of the tobacco plantation. The revelation of this mistreatment of the town’s people becomes known as The Great Swindle in the newspapers. Throughout the film, the symbolic nature of the wolf is used as something to be feared but it also acts as a saviour of sorts for Lazzaro, as Wild Rose Director: Tom Harper Talent: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo Released: 12 April In Glasgow, Scotland, the American Dream is still alive and well. Especially for burgeoning country music singer, Rose-Lynn Harlan, the fringe-clad titular character of Tom Harper’s drama, Wild Rose. The first time we meet Rose-Lynn, played by the fiery Jessie Buckley, she is being released from prison, where her fellow inmates affectionately call her “the next Dolly Parton.” She is quick to belt out a tune, as well as start a fight. Her white cowboy boots function both to cover her ankle monitor (which enforces a strict curfew of 7pm) and embody her lifelong dream of moving to Nashville, Tennessee and making it big. The only thing standing in her way is the life she has created in Glasgow — namely, two young children, who have spent the last 12 months in the custody of their grandmother (played by a strong and stoic Julie Walters). When a job as a house cleaner for a well-off woman named Susannah (played by a dynamic Sophie Okonedo) opens up opportunities for a new life, Rose-Lynn is forced to choose: motherhood and responsibility, or independence and her dream. What at first seems like the age-old story of an artist finding her way, and her stardom, against all odds turns out to be a soulful contemplation on dreams, family and good ol’ country music. Rose-Lynn is rarely a likeable character, but it’s impossible not to root for her. Director Tom Harper and screenwriter Nicole Taylor have managed to pull off a story about a quiet life in small Glasgow that will leave you starstruck. By the end of Wild Rose, you’ll be teary-eyed, homesick and desperate to go download some Dolly Parton. HMK Eighth Grade Director: Bo Burnham Talent: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton Released: 26 April Young people are under siege, their private information harvested, their attention constantly hijacked. Never before have there been more insidious forces vying for their distraction. Burnham proves himself to be a director of considerable insight, as well as panache. In many ways, a pure product of internet culture himself, having risen to prominence through viral videos, he knows better than to decry it. This is what makes the first half of the film so suffocatingly immersive: its filmmaker understands the self-broadcasting mindset. The film all but inhabits the world of giddy technological bombardment that assails its 13-year-old protagonist – new-feeds, instant messaging, make-up and blow-job tutorials overwhelming the frame, as well as the characters. What’s more, Burnham understands anxiety. As Kayla approaches a bitchy queen bee’s pool party, there’s a ratcheting up of tension via the score, cunningly effective, as, rationally, we know nothing too dramatic can happen here, yet we still feel every bit of the catastrophising tension. Though the film sometimes bears the flashy hallmarks of a debut overeager to impress, Burnham’s writing is admirably restrained. Scenes are kept on a tight rein. Kayla isn’t a total outcast bullied in a humiliatingly public fashion; instead, she is subjected to a low-level shunning that we feel in every scene. Any gripes? Later on, Burnham can’t resist giving his likeable protagonist a few too many moments of personal triumph, realism giving way to reassurance. Another trick I feel Burnham missed is that smartphone addiction is by no means confined to adolescents; our need for validation has never been more stark in an age when every so often we paw at a glowing rectangle for any developments regarding our social standing. Nevertheless, a 13-year-old girl abides in all of us, so this is a film that is, like, totally worth our ever-decreasing attention. RK his spirit animal. With the introduction of the wolf’s presence and Lazzaro’s awakening half way through the movie, there comes a tonal shift away from naturalism and into the realm of magic realism. This shift is not easy to adjust to, at first, but eventually it slips into place quite comfortably. Physically speaking, Lazarro hasn’t aged a day once he regains consciousness but when he meets old friend Antonia (Rohrwacher) and her family, a relocated rag tag band of merry gypsies, they have all aged a decade or more. Because he never seems to eat, the elderly family members are convinced the man before them is a ghost; are we as sure? Before long he meets his now bloated, ponytailed friend Tancredi, who has been reduced to a pauper amidst the ruin of his family and their business after the corruption scandal. Can this introduction of Lazzaro back into their lives make a difference? There’s a touch of Terry Gilliam playfulness to this odd duality between fantasy and reality. Once it settles, Happy as Lazzaro works, thanks to its careful direction and sharp script, but it’s still hard to see why there’s so much critical fawning. It seems a tad unwarranted. Still, there’s nothing to dislike here, and despite a rather questionable final scene, at the very least this is a strangely enjoyable and bemusing spectacle. SOR 76