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Film: Broken Embraces
Release date: 1st February 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 124 mins
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Rubén Ochandiano
Genre: Drama/Romance/Thriller
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: Spain
Acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodόvar reunites with his long-time collaborator Penélope Cruz for his 17th full-length feature in a tale that explores themes of vision, identity and betrayal. Released to great acclaim, Broken Embraces was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and garnered various other international awards, including a number of BAFTA nominations.
Set in 2008, the story focuses on the life of the blind writer and director Mateo Blanco (played by Lluís Homar) who lost his sight in an accident fourteen years previously. Discarding his original name following the accident, and the subsequent end of his directing career, he adopts the name of Harry Caine – possibly a subtle reference to the hurricane of events that led to this change of name – and spends his days writing scripts and stories. His closest friends are his agent and former production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo) and her teenage son Diego (played by Tamar Novas).
Upon learning of the death of infamous businessman Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez), Caine is visited by a young aspiring filmmaker called Ray X, who asks him to write a screenplay about a man who can only rebuild his life after the death of his detested father. Caine, with the encouragement of Judit, turns him down, quickly sussing out Ray X’s identity as Martel’s son.
Ray X’s appearance re-awakens the memories of the events that changed Caine’s life in 1994. When Diego suffers an accidental drug overdose, Caine takes him under his wing while Judit is away, and tells Diego of his previous life as a film director on a film titled Girls And Suitcases. In a series of flashbacks, we learn how Caine gave the lead role to the beautiful Lena (Penélope Cruz), with whom he was having a love affair, and who happened to be the Ernesto Martel’s mistress. Devastated by Lena’s betrayal, Martel plots his revenge, and sets into motion a series of events that can only end in tragedy...
Broken Embraces does not mark new terrain for Almodόvar. The film explores similar themes to some of his previous work, and the director’s shift towards the stylistic reference points of film noir, in particular, was evident in Bad Education. However, Broken Embraces boasts magnificent central performances by Cruz as the doomed Lena and Homar as the remorseful Caine/Blanco that prevents the narrative from feeling tired or repetitive. Cruz’s on-screen charisma is central to the film, and allows the love triangle between Lena, Harry Caine and Ernesto Martel to be both believable and intriguing. José Luis Gómez also puts in a strong performance as Ernesto Martel, carefully treading the line between odious and pathetic in his lust for Lena.
Whereas Broken Embraces is imbued with many of Almodόvar’s typical stylistic touches – primary colours, snappy dialogue, and oddball characters – what sets it apart is the manner in which it makes reference to cinema as a medium. Reprising the film-in-film technique established in the aforementioned Bad Education, Almodόvar spends a significant portion of Broken Embraces showing us people being filmed, filming others, or watching their loved ones betray them on film. Some of the most entertaining moments in the film involve Caine directing a movie that is essentially Almόdovar-lite (the fictional Girls And Suitcases is clearly a nod to his earlier work such as Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown and Pepi Luci Bom), while trying to shake off the young Ray X who is simultaneously shooting a documentary on the making of Girls And Suitcases. Almόdovar presents cinema as the purveyor of truth and fiction throughout Broken Embraces, with the medium being used to destroy one moment (as in the case of the released cut of Girls And Suitcases) and reveal truths the next. In one telling scene, a distraught Martel is watching Lena confess her infidelity on-screen as she enters the room. As she stands behind him repeating her confession, Martel sits transfixed by her on-screen image, never once turning to face her.
Disappointingly, the film’s final third fails to live up to the fascinating premise. Lena’s departure robs the film of one of its most interesting characters, and the film does not succeed in carrying the momentum it held through to its conclusion. A number of revelations towards the end of the film fall flat and do not have the emotional impact one would hope for. Furthermore, various plot strands are tied up in increasingly implausible manners, and Harry Caine’s final transformation appears more of a casual afterthought than the exorcising of demons Almόdovar hopes it to be. The web of intrigue that the film has built up throughout its opening ninety minutes is never unravelled in a satisfying manner and leaves the viewer with a sense of dismay. “Films have to be finished, even if you do it blindly,” observes Caine during the film’s closing scene. Unfortunately, it feels as though Almόdovar heeds that advice too closely.
Broken Embraces is a touching, romantic and entertaining film for the most part, which stumbles just when it should be hitting its stride. The excellent central performances and interesting premise manage to save it from a clumsy and convoluted final third, yet it does not succeed in reaching the heights of Almόdovar’s previous work. NBO
Film: Love Me If You Dare
Release date: 29th May 2008
Certificate: 15
Running time: 94 mins
Director: Yann Samuell
Starring: Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard, Thibault Verhaeghe, Joséphine Lebas-Joly, Emmanuelle Grönvold
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: France/Belgium
The directorial debut of French screen writer Yann Samuel that famously bought together two of France’s biggest screen stars of today, Love Me If You Dare could’ve set sail towards the dangerous territory of tabloid fodder. However, with its bold originality and somewhat brutal heart, the film is worlds away from being just another love story.
Boisterous yet imaginative Julien is unable to cope with his mother’s terminal illness, whilst distraught outsider Sophie can’t cope with endless taunts about her heritage. As children on the school bus tease Sophie and throw her books in the street, Julien offers her a small tin box shaped like a carousel.
A prized possession gifted to him by his mother, Julien regrets his moment of kindness, and asks if Sophie will return it soon. Sophie is heartbroken, and demands Julien to prove how much he wants the carousel with a goading dare.
With the absent bus driver picking up Sophie’s tattered books, Julien seizes the moment and takes the break off the bus causing it – along with the school bullies aboard – to roll down the hill. Thus begins the game that will alter their lives.
With only Sophie and Julien playing their game of dares, the world is their oyster. Like a child of divorced parents, the custody of the box alternates between the pair after one dare is completed. What begins as playful and childish – swearing at teachers, urinating in front of the principle – soon metamorphoses in to acts of humiliation and hurt as they mature. As their love for one another increases alongside their escalating dares, the distinction between the game and real life is blurred. Who will dare to quit the game - and will they dare to admit their true feelings…
Love Me If You Dare is the type of romantic comedy that is rare in mainstream cinema because it has dark elements surrounding it.
The main characters are not the typical blonde-haired blue-eyed boy/girl that hail from dynastical families of great wealth, and neither are they churning out fluffy dialogue, with the occasional “I love you” thrown in for good measure. Both Sophie and Julien are unlikable characters that commit horrible acts, yet, as an audience, we invest so much emotionally into their story because we’ve seen just how far they are willing to go for one another.
As children they retreat into a world of fantasy where life is just a game, but when it is time to grow up and face life, it is our narrator Julien that finds this impossible to accept. For Sophie, he is willing to fulfil any dare she desires him to do and vice versa. However, the toughest dare of all is for Sophie and Julien to love one another.
Yann Samuel has crafted such an array of complex characters that even supporting roles - notably Julien’s father, played by Gerard Watkins, whose portrayal of a man losing wife and dealing with single fatherhood is heartbreaking and infuriating to watch – could have propelled the script to being a potential ensemble piece similarly to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie.
Much has been said about the film’s comparisons with Amelie (there’s even a shared Facebook page for fans of both films). On the surface, it is easy to see why critics are so quick to make this assumption. Both films have strong aesthetic tastes, predominantly towards a colour scheme of green and red, that have inspired American television to adapt a similar strong chrome style (Pushing Daisies and, to a certain extent, Ugly Betty). Even Love Me If You Dare’s narrator as a child adopts a penchant for listing his likes and dislikes a la Amelie, possibly as homage.
Unlike Amelie, Love Me If You Dare showcases the cruelty and complexities of love. What began as all fun and games is now target practise to see who can hurt the other most. The painful fragility masked with a bitter nonchalance experienced by Sophie and Julien is exquisitely illustrated by Marion Cotillard and Guillame Canet. Like a silent film actress, Cotillard uses her eyes to reveal the soul of Sophie in contrast to the arrogant swagger that Canet affects to reveal Julien as a boy pretending to be a man.
Set to a soundtrack consisting of a single song, one would think it would become irritating after a while. However, when the song in question is ‘La Vie En Rose’, the result is nothing short of magical. Using versions by artists such as Donna Summer, Louis Armstrong and French chanteuse Edith Piaf (ironically, Cotillard went on to win an Oscar for portraying the singer), the soundtrack becomes a melting pot of varying cultures and eras united by the theme of love.
In a sense, Julien and Sophie’s game of dares was once La Vie En Rose, translated as life through rose coloured glasses. This is particularly poignant during the film’s alternating endings that let the audience decide the central character’s fates. Whilst this tool is becoming popular throughout modern cinema to satisfy all audience’s tastes, Samuel strongly suggests with the opening shots of the film which ending he would most like viewers to walk away with.
Viewers expecting a ‘boy meets girl and they fall happily in love’ scenario will be disappointed but shouldn’t shy away from viewing Love Me If You Dare. Its quirky take on childhood sweethearts and forbidden love laced with black humour is a refreshing departure from the hoards of formulaic romantic comedies that have graced the box office. SRI
Film: Love Me If You Dare
Release date: 29th May 2008
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Yann Samuell
Starring: Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard, Élodie Navarre, Thibault Verhaeghe, Joséphine Lebas-Joly
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: France/Belgium
One of Marion Cotillard’s stunning earlier performances, Love Me If You Dare is a fantastically witty romantic drama; a love story which spans from childhood into adult life. With its playful yet ultimately dark content, it became a sleeper hit in Europe, and helped push Cottillard into the limelight as one of France’s most promising talents.
Love Me If You Dare tells the tale of two children: a boy, Julien, from a middle class Belgian family, and a girl, Sophie, from a poorer, Polish background. They become friends when Sophie, the object of much bullying at school stemming from her family’s status, is pushed around by other children at the bus stop. Julien realises that he should be kind to her, and so shares a decorated tin box with her, a gift from his fatally ill mother, but asks that she give it back from time to time. Angered by his quick change of heart, she insists that he must prove to her that he wants it, and without hesitating, Julien takes the hand-break off the stationary bus and their game of dares begins.
Throughout their childhood, they play this game, challenging each other to win the box back, and it continues well into their teens. But their relationship becomes more troubled as they grow older - they can no longer tell when the other is being serious and feelings start to get hurt. Reminiscent of When Harry Met Sally, it seems to imply that a man and woman can’t be best friends without romantic feelings developing. However, without knowing when to draw the line, the two have a bitter argument and stop being friends. Although they move on, and in attempts to hurt each other marry other people, neither of them forgets the other or the thrills of their games that nothing else in their lives can live up to.
Around twenty years on from when they met, the two come back round to play one final game of dares…
The film follows their shared childhood closely, with a fuzzy, dream-like hue to the proceedings reflecting their perceptions of the world. Particularly the zooming camera work, a kind of photogrammetry, when we are linked with Julien’s point of view and his obsession with wanting to believe humans can fly. Scenes jump around as does their concentration, but it comes across as more charming than confusing. There are many amusing fantasy sequences, including a fantastic interpretation of the Garden of Eden, with their teacher as the tempting snake and their principal playing God. To punish them, he not only curses Sophie with the pain of childbirth but with the pain of dieting, high heels, face lifts and cooking. Whereas Julien, he punishes with Godzilla, the A-Bomb and Hitler.
As the narrative moves out of their childhood, things stop looking so rosy, and start becoming more realistic in appearance. Their games progress from silly to cruel, and the visual representation of this shift is clear and extremely effective. The hallucinatory and fantasy sequences become less frequent, and the visual style seems to grow up as they do. As their dares become more dangerous and bitter, a harsher view of the world is needed. This progression is key to what makes this film so enjoyable to watch - you are completely absorbed into the world as they experience it.
‘La Vie En Rose’ is a musical motif throughout the film, with different versions being played other than the original by Edith Piaf, including Louis Armstrong, Donna Summer and French pop artist Zazie. Marion Cotillard seems to be inextricably linked with Piaf, as she went on to win an Oscar for her portrayal of her in La Vie En Rose. The song punctuates throughout the narrative, always memorable. There is some decretive piano during the more romantic/heart-wrenching scenes, but it doesn’t standout so much as just add a little something to the mood.
Cotillard and Canet couldn’t be more suited to the characters they play, and they perform wonderfully together. Their acting is genuine and acute, with such fantastic chemistry, it’s no wonder the two have been dating since working together, and she is currently expecting her first child by him. They manage to pull off the complexities of the character’s childish attitudes to reveal their tender feelings for one another underneath, which save the characters from appearing completely obnoxious and self centred.
The two leads are enchanting, and the storyline is great fun with a little black comedy mixed in. Approach it with the right attitude and you will be richly awarded.
Film: Night Watch
Release date: 24th April 2006
Certificate: 15
Running time: 114 mins
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin, Mariya Poroshina, Galina Tyunina
Genre: Action/Fantasy/Thriller
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: Russia
'Russian' and 'blockbuster' are two words you rarely see next to each other. Night Watch had a modest budget but promises an abundance of spell-binding special effects, explosions and an emphasis on action. Costing around £4 million to make, it went on to triple this in its homeland alone, and become Russia’s first and most loved blockbuster fantasy movie. With an ambitious trilogy lined up, just what has captured our comrade’s imaginations so much?
The forces of light and dark go to war in medieval Russia. The battle rages as two armies of warriors, known as ‘others’, fight for superiority. Gesar, Lord of the Light, realises that the battle is too evenly fought and will result in both sides’ annihilation. Along with Zabulon, Lord of the Dark, a shaky truce is formed between the two mega powers to forever hold a balance. This truce is to be policed by guardians of each side: Night Watch are ‘others’ on the side of light and Day Watch on the side of dark. A prophecy tells that one day a ‘great one’ will come and bring the battle to a head once more.
Moscow in 1992, Anton Gorodetsky seeks to win his girlfriend back through the practice of dark forces. He visits Daria who offers to kill the girlfriend’s unborn child, the son of another man, to send her back to him. Daria performs a ritual to miscarry the child, as the room shakes and the spell is nearly in effect, Night Watch arrive to arrest Daria. Anton realises that he too is an ‘other’, as he is able to witnesses the supernatural scene in front of him.
Twelve years pass, and Anton is now working with the forces of light on Night Watch. When a vampire and his girlfriend conspire to entrance and feed on a young boy, Anton is sent to his rescue - and to arrest the vampires who are directly disobeying the truce. On this job, he crosses paths with a cursed woman who could cause major problems to the balance; the truce is becoming more and more vulnerable. Anton rescues the young boy, Yegar, unaware of the boy’s significance to the prophecy - and to his own past...
Despite the film’s blockbuster status, it has a distinctly Russian flavour. This is felt especially with the film’s lead, Konstantin Khabenskiy. His slackeresque appearance, vodka swigging and lack of fighting prowess make him hard to imagine in any other big movie scenario. The themes of the occult and epic nature of the story’s battle call out for warriors, but here we are treated to a very unlikely bevy of oddball Russians. The Night Watch team could be easily mistaken for proprietors of a lesser cause with their boiler suits, bushy beards and garbage style truck. When we see said truck flying down a Moscow city street kicking flames out the exhausts, it is made all the cooler by the teams rag tag image.
Bekmambetov squeezes every last drop out of a budget that would otherwise not accommodate the picture’s scale. The special effects suck you in with dizzying effect, as they come thick and fast - a particularly memorable image is that of the Night Watch’s truck flying through the air with a perfect forward flip, only to land on back on all four wheels. There are also some very appealing stylistics, too, with the animation of the cursed virgin, and some very sleek animal imagery in the shape of an owl and tiger. All these things and more cause an amazing spectacle but simultaneously are the cause of the film’s biggest problem.
Unfortunately, an emphasis on visceral stimulation gets in the way of clear storytelling. Based loosely on a novel by Sergei Lukyanenko the film is overly busy, and this jeopardises any coherence in the narrative. There is simply too much going on, and watching the film is not just a commitment but very frustrating. Somewhere in the midst of prophecies, vampires, morphing and curses you realise the film has lost its way. The complexities in the story such as ‘the gloom’ and ‘the twilight’ present rules similar to the Matrix but are in serious need of elaboration.
Considering the hype, this is a disappointment. This film does have some big ideas but fails to create a piece of fantasy that is easily subscribed to. Although it is pretty on the eye, with enough action in one film to pack out an entire trilogy, it won’t stay long in your memory. It does however set up a lot of possibilities for the sequel; hopefully this will do the opposite to The Matrix and get better as it goes on. LW
Film: My Name Is Khan
Release date: 28th June 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 161 mins
Director: Karan Johar
Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Kajol Devgan, Christopher Duncan, Tanay Chhecla
Genre: Drama/Romance/Bollywood
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: India
Indian super-star Sharukh Khan takes the lead in this sprawling American/Indian epic, chronicling the effects of Bush’s “war-on-terror’” on the Islamic community.
My Name is Khan follows the life of Rizwan Khan, a young man who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome.
After the death of his mother, Khan moves from India to America and is given a job selling cosmetics to hair-saloons. It is here that he meets the love of his life Mandira, played by the beautiful Kajol.
Soon Khan and Mandira are living an idyllic married life. However, this serenity is short-lived as Mandira’s child from another marriage is brutally beaten to death by a group of blood-thirsty youths. Mandira is driven to a mission of justice and, with the understanding that, post 9-11, it is Khan’s Islamic beliefs that got their son killed, throws Khan out onto the street.
With this, Khan begins an epic journey across America to meet George Bush with his message “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.”
Not a single scene in this film goes by where Shibani Bathija’s script does not know exactly what it is trying to express. Post 9-11, the Islamic community have been persecuted, and unfairly blamed by a domineering culture in desperate need of a scapegoat. In My Name Is Khan, we have a film that is brave enough to step up and defend the persecuted minority, which is something to admire. Sadly, the film is burdened by its own self-importance, and forsakes intelligent discussion for shameless emotional blackmail. Shibani Bathija’s script makes no attempt to penetrate further than the surface, and reduces this morally complex issue to the level of preachy rhetoric, lazy slogans and vacant, near mechanical cliché.
My Name Is Khan has a disturbing and offensive reliance on moral dualism and simplistic caricature. White America is portrayed as a seething mass of ignorance and stupidity. A populous so idiotic that even the mention of the word ‘terrorist’ is enough to incite a full-blown riot. In more than one scene, the American people somehow manage to take time out of their busy schedule of yanking Burkas, and assaulting young children, to become a blood-thirsty Frankenstein-esque angry mob. Which would be fine if taken in the context of satire or comedic social commentary; but here it is nothing more than faulty and overly simplistic representation.
With the character Mama Jenny, the film stoops to new lows creating a creature so steeped in stereotype that she resembles a cartoon character more than an actual human being. A jive-talking, over-weight, gospel singing nightmare. Perhaps more bafflingly given the film’s main narrative arc, the portrayal of Muslims who aren’t the lovable and comfortingly impotent protagonist are either ashamed of their faith or actually the Jihad wielding fanatics of so much Murdoch fantasy. For a film supposedly about tolerance, it is, at times, outrageously racist.
Karan Johar’s direction relies on a certain brand of Bollywood emotionalism to try and carry his audience through the long running time. At times, it stylistically resembles the works of Milos Forman in its opulent colour, massive scale and character-based humanitarianism. But Karan Johar is playing with fire here, and in light of its subject matter, this cheesy and over-romanticised version of current affairs appears bad-taste, even dangerous.
But most of the anticipation for this film was because of Shahrukh Khan. A huge star in India, many were betting that this would be his breakthrough performance, and for the most part he does create a very likeable, and convincing main character. But they are times where his performance becomes mocking, both he and the film don’t seem to mind occasionally playing the main character’s Aspergers Syndrome for laughs. Ultimately, even if his portrayal was the thing of Oscar winners, it would still be surrounded by a glossy, patronising and offensive melodrama, and Shahrukh’s undeniable talent does little to change this.
An exploitative exercise in sentimentalism that reduces complex issues to the level of Hollywood weepy. AC
Film: The Dreamers
Release date: 11th October 2004
Certificate: 18
Running time: 110 mins
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, Eva Green, Robin Renucci, Anna Chancellor
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: France/Italy/UK
This is an English-language release.
“I was one of the insatiables. The ones you'd always find sitting closest to the screen. Why do we sit so close? Maybe it was because we wanted to receive the images first.” (Michael Pitt as Matthew)
The Dreamers follows the relationship of three cinephiles – the French/English twins Theo and Isabelle, and an American student named Matthew – as they find their temple, the Cinémathèque Française, destroyed, and exile themselves into their parent-free apartment for a few weeks of insular hedonism, as the events of May 1968 rage around the Paris outside their windows…
The Dreamers was criticised on its release by those bemoaning Bernardo Bertolucci’s preoccupation with sex, cinema and teenage kicks, as opposed to the political events of May ’68, which they argued would have made for a more substantial film. But the point is that these four disparate concerns were what fused to the reaction of those radical times. After all, it was the complete lack of social activity for a young post-war generation that found the initial revolts kick off at the Nanterre university campus. In this sense, Bertolucci, working from a clever script by Gilbert Adair (adapted from his novel), captures the heart of the matter, beginning his movie with the closure of Henri Langlois’ film institute (a pivotal event in the protests), and then honing in on the sexual politics of this first generation born without memory of World War II - a generation inspired by the freedoms apparent in the US pop culture that paints their walls with posters, and their floors with the records of Janis, Hendrix and the Doors.
That most of the action takes place within this apartment built of Coca-Cola and cinema gives insight into the often forgotten – or revised – intentions of the initial youth revolt, where getting a handjob was as important as Mao’s red book (read ‘Power And Protest’ by J. Suri). And with the conclusion that finds the riots – literally – smashing through their window, the film ultimately offers a critique of the insular nature of the motivations that originally drove the rebellion – which was as much against adults and their traditions, as it was against capitalism. As Theo rants, all mock theatrical, about his parents, or parents in general: “They should all be arrested, put on trial, confess their crimes, sent to the country for self-criticism and re-education!”
The symbiotic relationship between Theo, Isabelle and Matthew, an experiment soon encroaching upon each of their comfort zones, recalls that of Jules et Jim (et Catherine), which finds betrayal and calculation cutting at a familial (if not incestuous) level. And amongst these subtle, or at least thematic, nods to the cinema of the New Wave, and the films that inspired them, Bertolucci intercuts the action with actual clips from the classic movies that had driven him as a filmmaker, and these three restless kids into increasingly outlandish play-games - re-creating scenes from their favourite flicks, we find the three beating the record run through the Louvre depicted in Godard’s Bande A Part, and consolidating their friendship with the chant from Freaks.
In a sense, it’s surprising that while Nicholas Ray is cited in the dialogue, Bertolucci didn’t outright cut to a scene from Rebel Without A Cause, considering the American kid at the centre of this story is a foreigner’s vision of West Coast boyhood torn out of a reel of film. Michael Pitt is as physical in his approach to the character of Matthew as James Dean was to Stark, though less in an outward writhing of angst but instead in his feline slinking, often from mattress to carpet, a voyeur in a house of open doors and unfurled bed covers.
A young, pre-Bond, Eva Green is as subtly intense as ever, at turns presenting Isabelle as a bonafide starlet – smoking cigarettes in a misty cinema, feigning a chaining to its front gates when we first meet her – at other times a seductress of prohibited deeds, and, ultimately, as a child lost in games she can no longer differentiate from reality. “I was acting, Matthew,” she says, the words unfolding languidly, exposing herself more at that moment than any amount of lingering offered by the camera over her naked body. Louis Garrel meanwhile presents Theo with the man-child beauty that has become something of his trademark, his outrageously good looks never subduing the violence of his acts. Theo is played with a remarkable knowingness that is concealed behind his every action.
And as implied by the beauty of the three leads, and the circumstances of the narrative, the film steams with the tantalising ambiguity of the relationship between the twins – whether they have actually ever engaged in sexual acts, beyond mutual masturbation, is left undisclosed – and the innocence of Matthew first corrupted, then corrupting. But to class this merely as eroticism would be a disservice. As argued earlier, the sexual urgency is as much a call of arms against the (then) established morality as a petrol bomb flung at a cop.
A confusion of sex, politics, cinema and youth; and each of these concerns has something to say about the other. Chances are you too will get a kick out of the hip rendering of film geeks as wild, sexual and young at heart. JGZ
