Brilliant and electrifying British film, 71, set in Belfast during IRA-British army violence
by Sam Juliano
Still no reprieve from snow, ice and the coldest winter in many a year, though as I’ve noted before we on the East coast have nothing on the much maligned Bostonians and mid-westerners, who have been chosen as the prime targets in this ultimate demonstration of arctic rage. Some in the know are predicting a very cold March as well.
As mentioned on last week’s Monday Morning Diary, Allan Fish has returned after a lengthy health related absence, but he’s as good as new, and his latest writings have confirmed he has lost even a tenth of a stride.
For the very first time I am announcing the earliest stages of the ‘Best Films About Childhood’ project that we are projecting will commence sometime in May. Specific rules and propositions will be send out to the film blogger e mail network in the coming weeks, and each participant will be asked to choose their own Top 50 in numerical order. As was the case with all our previous countdowns, tabulation will be followed by review assignments. We are presently thinking that the countdown will be a 50 film affair, running ten weeks. But no firm decisions have yet been made.
Lucille and I saw two films in theaters this past week, both new releases:
71 ***** (Sunday) Angelika Film Center
Map to the Stars ** (Saturday) IFC Film Center
A young and disoriented British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the deadly streets of Belfast in 1971. Beaten by a mob, he is alternately helped by random kindness from various locals and pursued by killers from both the Provisional IRA and the British Army’s military reaction force. The film’s lead performance by Jack O’Connell is wholly riveting and 71 holds you in its tension suffused grip from start to finish. This pulsating British masterwork hence is offered up as the first five-star movie getting a 2015 USA release. As to MAP TO THE STARS, family dysfunction and nihilism reign supreme in David Cronenberg’s Hollywood drenched drama about unappealing people and a film with ludicrous over-the-top violence and a marked lack of originality. Julianne Moore is very fine in the lead.
