At Home: The King of Comedy

“Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime”

Scorsese, like Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola and the rest of the so called “Movie Brats” from the seventies have become recognised for a small collection of their titles rather than their sprawling body of work. Spielberg has E.T, and Indiana Jones, Lucas has Star Wars and Coppola The Godfather trilogy (actually let’s just count the first two) and in all cases it does the director a disservice.

Narrowing Scorsese to his gangster movies is reductive and simplistic, not taking into account that his attempts in different genres with emphatic (and sometimes not so emphatic) results. The King of Comedy is a film that if viewed through the prism of Scorsese’s work would look and feel distinctly unlike him. There’s little of the whirlwind-like energy he’s known for or a look at fragile family relationships (a feature in more than a few of his films). Take a peak beneath the surface and it does feel more like the director on a filmic and personal level.

The King of Comedy is about Robert De Niro’s Rupert Pubkin, an aspiring comedian who wishes to get into the game by gaining the support of talk-show host Jerry Langford (played by Jerry Lewis). At first what appears out to a series of amicable meetings soon devolves into a morass of obsession, ambition and fanaticism that takes both characters to strange places.

The title implies a comedic tone but it obscures the more disturbing content just beneath it. De Niro’s Pubkin is a desperate man, walking the New York streets in his smart suit and with his briefcase, constantly on the lookout for Langford. From early on in it’s apparent that there’s something not quite right with him, whether it’s his insistence on meeting Langford or that he appears to be living in his mother’s basement (was he cinema’s first fanboy?). The film reveals his delusion, a man with little in the way of social skills and who’s never shown in his workplace (if he has a job). De Niro brings a fanaticism to the role, a character with the blinkers on who can’t see beyond his narrow vision of what the world is and what he should receive from it.

And it’s perhaps in the final reel that will provide further discussion as to the film’s intent, playing with reality and fantasy and ending on an ambiguous note as to whether he achieved his ambitions. It’s a fascinating end that could be viewed as some sort of modern parable; the ordinary person’s wish-fulfilment fantasy combined with a lack of talent that makes you wonder if Scorsese was damming society’s relentless need to consume every detail about those who entertain us for a living.

8/10

Cinema Review:Limitless

“Your powers are a gift from God or whoever the hell wrote your life script.”

‘What if a pill could make you rich and powerful?’ is the tagline to Neil Burger’s (The Illusionist) new film Limitless and the morality of the situation it poses is interesting even if the answer is a recognizable one. If given the opportunity we would throw ethics out the window and do whatever the hell we wanted.

It is a question that has been asked before and one that will be asked again but Limitless brings with it a style and assuredness that helps lift its potentially trashy sci-fi (ish) premise into something that is a little more credible.

Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) is Eddie Mora, a struggling, scruffy looking writer (I know how he feels) suffering from writer’s block as well as coming out of a breakup with his ex Lindy (Abbie Cornish, Candy). He runs into his former brother-in-law from another failed relationship who introduces Mora to a new wonder drug called NZT-48 under the pretence that it will help him unlock 100% of his brain rather than 10%. Mora takes it and starts his meteoric rise to the top; the problem is others have begun to take notice.

Perhaps the hardest thing to believe in Limitless is not that the fictional drug could exist but accepting that Cooper could look so unkempt and messy.

Cooper is too good looking and has too much charm to convincingly pull off the dishevelled writer act but demonstrates he has the acting chops to draw an audience in regardless. If his previous roles painted him as helpless (Alias), an obnoxious jock (Wedding Crashers) or a stud (The Hangover) this film gives him more to play with and his exuberance seems a natural match for Mora’s excess. Limitless plays out as a Scarface-like rise to the top omitting the 80’s music and clothes. Once we ditch the rags to riches first act and accelerate into the hedonism of Mora’s Alpha Male lifestyle, the film entertains without becoming too smug; toying with the idea of power and responsibility and finding a way of communicating the dangers of Mora’s drug abuse without becoming too preachy.

Robert De Niro (Little Fockers) finally remembers he has acting ability more deserving than films like Little Focker’s and is memorable as a prominent Wall Street banker who holds all the cards/pulls the strings in the background. In one monologue he delightfully conveys to Cooper’s Mora how the world works, reminding him of his place in this world and who has the power. Much of what ensues in Limitless is a power struggle, characters wanting the world only to find obstacles placed in their way. Placing it in the cutthroat world of business mergers and stock valuation may appear unexciting but you soon realise that with the money and influence at stake people are willing to do absolutely anything.

While the film is conventional and you sense that it could be even more adventurous in how it tells its story, it is nonetheless an exciting ride. Sometimes it veers on the ridiculous, one scene that involves NZT in the bloodstream is ludicrous but the heightened sense of reality seems to forgo any nitpicks about whether any of this could happen. Replete with its wry voiceover from Cooper, its hallucinatory sequences (zooms through the city that go on forever) and its (at times) fractured narrative, taken seriously Limitless would not be half the fun it is. Consistently entertaining Limitless cements Cooper’s place as a leading man and hopefully unlike Mora, he won’t let that go to his head.

Review: Machete disappoints

Disappointing. That’s all that was going through my head after watching this film. I feel as if it’s a good piece of entertainment (or at least barely functions as one) but at the same time it feels all so ineffective. I expect crazy and stupid shit to happen and yet when it does I’m disappointed by how lacklustre it all feels, as if Rodriguez has developed a style for these kinds of films and hasn’t deviated. Not one single bit. I like a film which has a sole purpose of just entertaining its audience. I was barely entertained by this film.