Lionsgate
Director: Steven Knight
Cast: Tom Hardy, Olivis Colman, Ruth Wilson
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Country of Origin: UK, USA 2013 85 mins.
Rating: *****
Structural engineer Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) speciality is concrete and he's built a reputation as one of the best. On the eve of the biggest job of his career when he should be overseeing the concrete pour for a city skyscraper, he's left to go to the bedside of his lover who's giving birth to Locke's child. One mistake has caused his normally focused and controlled life to fall apart. The camera relentlessly follows Ivan's journey driving from Wales to London.
Lionsgate
It doesn't sound much of a plot but 'Locke' is amazing buzzing cinema. Shot in eight days on a limited budget it shows what can be done with an original and imaginative idea, a tight script and the nerve to go for it. For 85 minutes Harris Zambarloukos's camera never leaves Tom Hardy's face as his BMW races through the neon hallucinogenic plethora of lights and noise that dazzle and bombard the motorway. No other actors appear but the hands-free brings voices into the solitary confines of the car - his wife (Ruth Wilson), his boss (Ben Daniels), Donal (Andrew Scott) his colleague who'll have to oversee the pour and his lover Bethan (Olivia Colman) in a race against time as Ivan struggles to get his life back on line.
It's a brilliant performance and an extraordinary, audacious and skilled piece of film making.
Released by LIONSGATE 18th April 2014
Metrodome
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Cast: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liu LeMoyne
Genre: Drama
Language: Swedish with English subtitles
Country of Origin: Sweden 2013 102 mins.
Rating: ****
Lukas Moodysson wanted to make a happy little movie that winked and glistened and told us that life isn't entirely impossible. He's succeeded with a big bang. It's Stockholm 1982. A film about Bobo (Mira Barkhammar), Klara (Mira Grosin) and Hedvig (Liu LeMoyne), three 13 year old girls who roam the streets, who are strong and weak, confused and weird, who have to take care of themselves and discover punk rock when everyone says punk is dead and form a band.
Metrodome
Based on Coco Moodysson's graphic novel 'Never goodnight' (Aldrig godnatt) 'We Are The Best' is a cheerful film, warm and nostalgic, moody and vibrant with terrific naturalistic performances from all three lead players. They'll form their band and Hedvig, the born-again Christian imposes some order on the two scatterbrains Klara and Bobo. Lukas Moodysson captures the relationship between the three would be punks and the older generation with some wonderful moments of just how 'off the edge' adults can be.
There are memorable scenes that set the tone of this film but perhaps one of the best is when Bobo cuts Hedvig's hair to give her a punk style and as her flowing golden locks fall she glances at her - 'Look at it this way, it'll grow back.'
'It's wonderful to have a friend, wonderful to play an instrument without knowing how, wonderful to set fire to an old statue, wonderful to have the most annoying parents in the world, wonderful to throw up on someone's records, wonderful to be booed and mocked, wonderful to be the best.' Lukas Moodysson
Released by METRODOME 18th April 2014 in selected UK cinemas.
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