LFF Film reviews: Emilia Perez, The Apprentice, Twiggy
Emilia Perez
Emilia Perez has an outlandish plot. It’s often predictable and it’s a musical in which the cast burst into song in the most bizarre situations. In less assured hands than that of French master Jacques Audiard it could have been a schlocky mess.
Instead, the film is on course for awards nominations, including Best Picture.
This is primarily due to Audiard and the presence of trans actor Karla Sofia Garçon in the title role. The film has the Internet hype this year (not always a good thing) but it also has more credible traction, notably from Cannes this year where Garçon (controversially) won best actress. Zoe Saldana will campaign hard, I expect, for Best Supporting Actress and may well take it. She grabs her role as a hard working but poorly remunerated lawyer who gets a mysterious call from the boss of a drugs cartel, with gusto. Although her story arc is unconvincing-lawyer seeking justice for the downtrodden turns into a gun toting crime boss understudy/replacement – she handles it very well. And don’t rule out a hard run for best supporting actress by Selena Gomez. Her 423 million followers on social media are not going to go quietly.
The friends I saw the film with at LFF were not particularly enamoured of it but I enjoyed it immensely. It’s audacious, entertaining, fast paced with bold visuals and has a heart despite being, at times, a bit ludicrous. It’s a sort of Mrs Doubtfire with drugs cartels!
The Apprentice
Before he ran for President, the media loved Donald Trump. In the flash, brash, go getting 1980s, the decade of conspicuous consumption, the manic pursuit of wealth and power, he and then wife Ivana were the perfect face of the era. They flaunted their wealth, had garish taste and were great for quotable sound bites. Sure, old money looked down on them but many people openly aspired to be like them. Listen to a number of rap songs of the time and you’ll hear young black men dreaming of being a billionaire, like Donald Trump. He made cameos in films and appeared on chat shows where the hosts urged him to run for President, one day. He was the host of a big tv show, The Apprentice.
The Apprentice, the film about the business rise of the young Trump, captures that energy, that aspiration, the zeitgeist. Sebastian Stan and Maria Bakalova are fantastic as Donald and Ivana but it’s Jeremy Strong’s blistering turn as Ray Kohn, Trump’s lawyer and mentor, who steals the film. He is on incredible form and on fire as the politically incorrect, foul mouthed, corrupt but very effective Kohn who repeatedly tells the ambitious but green Trump that America must come first in his dealings, America must be made great again, to never give up, to never admit defeat. Kohn could have been consistently awful but Strong imbues him with much more and towards the end of the film, he is the bruised heart of the story. In a just awards world, he’d win Best Supporting Actor. I hope he gets nominated, at least.
President Trump has decried the film as a classless, cheap hatchet job in an election year.
It isn’t. It’s actually a pretty well rounded portrait of the man and the era. The film ranks high in my best films list at the LFF.
Twiggy
Increasingly, at film festivals, I’m more impressed by documentaries than the feature films.
Director Sadie Frost seems to be cornering the market in films about iconic women of the 60s and she’s done a tremendous job with this informative and inspiring look at the life of a working class girl from Neasden who did her eye makeup to look like a rag doll she owned. That look became the defining image of 60s modelling, paving the way for the likes of Kate Moss and Erin O’Connor.
It’s hard to downplay the impact of Twiggy (born Lesley Hornsby) on popular culture in the 60s. The film shows us that she was an icon of the era, in the true sense of the word. Her image was everywhere. Girls wanted to look like her. And unlike many popstars who tried, she also broke America.
The film follows her through the decades and change of careers into her contented life now as a lady (formally a Dame) in her country home with her second husband, actor Leigh Lawson. The couple were brought together by Jesus (actor Robert Powell who famously played the role) and some element of divine intervention must have been involved because they are described by friends as soulmates.
The documentary would have worked with any similar rags to riches story but what makes it special is the central figure. Twiggy was adorable as a young 16-year-old when she first came to the attention of the public and she remains adorable now as the grande dame of supermodels. Proudly working class, she was a natural before the camera but what is striking watching the film is how knowing and intelligent her eyes were, even in those early days.
Although she giggled and spoke like the young girl she was, there was always a maturity in her eyes which shone through. Never is it more notable than when, as a teenager, she was interviewed by a patronising and rather bullying young Woody Allen. He asks her who her favourite philosophers are. She doesn’t know of any. But then she asks him a simple question in turn – who are your favourite philosophers? Seeing the pompous Allen flounder trying to answer is a joy.
Twiggy is a joy. I highly recommend it. It’s vying with Conclave as my favourite film of the festival.
