Film of the month: Raging Grace
There are good debuts – ones that reassure you there’s a fresh wave of quality film-makers rolling in – then there are those that make you button-hole anyone in the vicinity, yelling, “You've got to see this!” British-Filipino Paris Zarcilla’s twisty-turny, gothic social horror Raging Grace is close to the latter and is maybe half a star shy of the full five.
Joy (Max Eigenmann) and Grace (Jaeden Boadilla) appear to be living the domestic idyll; the young daughter springing mischievous tricks while her mother tidies up, like putting gravy granules in the coffee jar (a talent employed to skin-crawling effect when the action gets down to business). However, an unexpected knock at the door followed by a frantic dash through the back garden reveals Joy is a “domestic”, an undocumented migrant playing cuckoo in wealthy Londoner’s homes.
Respite arrives when Joy receives an offer as housekeeper to a comatose old man in a gigantic (and creepy, obvs) country pile. There’s bags of space to hide Grace, as Joy wouldn’t be allowed to live in with a child. But then there’s also Katherine (Leanne Best, perfectly unhinged), the school ma’amish cousin running the house…
From the memorable, other-worldy percussion score to the whimsical jump scares, this has you on your uppers from the outset. Try as I could, I found it impossible to second-guess what happens next. And, the reveals just get darker and juicier.
If you thought this is simply a freaky shocker, at its core is a fearsome cry from the heart about the dismal treatment of Filipino domestic workers. Ambitious Zarcilla isn’t stopping either; he’s already planned the next two films in the Rage trilogy.
In cinemas December 29
The movies you should see this month
First up, three Christmas crackers to read about in my full reviews for the Standard. For five-star erotic genre mash-up thriller action, don’t miss Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway in Eileen (out December 1). If you want the queer male version, Femme (out December 1) is almost as superb.
And then there’s the festive biggie, Timothée Chalamet going bonkers in Wonka (out December 8, review arriving very soon…). Here are all the others, some of them just as explosively good.
In the hands of the grandmaster of Japanese animators, Hayao Miyazaki, grief has never been such fun. And we are lucky to have The Boy and the Heron (out December 26), as the director of My Neighbor Totoro was meant to have retired 10 years ago. This will likely be his last though.
A few years after a young boy loses his mother in a hospital blaze in wartime Tokyo, he relocates to the countryside where his father has remarried (strangely to his former sister-in-law). Rightly addled at this turn of events, the boy turns inwards before spotting a better place to retreat to: a handy old tower (very Miyazaki).
From then on it’s the expected odyssey through a parade of anthropomorphic creatures, all of course gorgeously animated, including the puckish heron. It’s a masterpiece-ish. I say this because stumbling through portal after portal into never-ending magical realms doth not a proper story make. However, it’s still an inventive barrel of joy.
It's all guns blazing from Japan this month, as the gargantuan atomic lizard stomps out of the ocean once again for its hard-to-fathom 37th screen appearance in Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One (out December 15). And it’s the Godzilla triumph that Hollywood can’t quite pull off. Toyko-munchingly spectacular, the monster has a nuclear death ray from hell and if you’re in a cinema with decent sound when this beast roars, you better hold on to your seat.
For decades, Finnish veteran Aki Kaurismäki’s schtick has basically been this: place a couple of misfits at a table in a dreary (and preferably anachronistically retro) bar; make them stare into the middle distance and (very) occasionally utter something deadpan into the ether. It’s an acquired taste and doesn’t always work. But Fallen Leaves (out December 1) is one of his minor treasures, a "sort of" romance between a drunk and a supermarket cashier. Besides the deliciously sly and wry cinematic references, this slowly but steadily made my lips curl upwards as the sardonic humour and joy seeped to the surface. My friend Simon, however, did one of those emoji faces with the wiggly lips and wonky eyes. As I said, an acquired taste.
Good news for those hoping for a sighting of the lesser-spotted (these days) Ben Kingsley. The one-time Gandhi has resurfaced in, of all places, smalltown America. In Jules (out December 29), he plays Milton, a pensioner whose memory isn’t quite what it was. And along with his ageing peers, the world seems to beforgetting him too. Until, you know, an alien crashes in Milton’s back yard... Far from a classic, but if you have older parents (as opposed to kids) to entertain over Christmas, you really should treat them to this likeable charmer that puts their generation centre stage. Also contains the funniest exploding cat’s head scene of the year.
The best film about dance ever made. No question mark needed; no discussion. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (out December 8) gets a glorious 75th birthday re-release in a spanking new 35mm print. The story of an aspiring ballet dancer’s rise and spectacular fall at the hands of a ruthless impresario is perfect enough, but the central dance sequence is the stuff of saturated Technicolor dreams. They might all talk in funny old plum-cockney-faux-Russian accents, but do yourself a favour and go and see by far the best thing on the big screen this month.
The films you might want to see this month
Another title for There’s Something in the Barn (out December 1) could have been National Lampoon’s Norwegian Christmas Vacation Meets the Killer Trolls. That pretty much sums it up. It’s silly, bloody fun (in a vaguely family-friendly way) and even has a doofus Chevy Chase-type dad. Death by snowmobile? Throw me under.
You might expect a tale of gay love set in a young offenders institution to be a bruising experience. However, Belgian production The Lost Boys (out December 15) is a tender affair. Delicately acted, intelligent film-making and heart-fluttering (and breaking) moments… but also a little too slight.
Animation The Inseparables (out December 8) is surprisingly enjoyable. If you have little 'uns who need a festive escape, they’ll adore this while you won’t be sitting there insufferably. It’s a charming buddy tale of a discarded toy bear and a dejected puppet with heroic Don Quixote fantasies who end up on an epic quest across Central Park. It also delivers a sweet message about giving the finger to the pigeonholes society allots you.
The Peasants (out December 8) is another feature using an “advanced oil painting” animation technique from the Polish creators of Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent. You’ll either be beguiled or bothered by the constantly eddying brushstrokes (the latter for me). An adaptation of the book by 1924 Nobel prize-winner WÅadysÅaw Reymont, it’s an old-fashioned, well-worn tale: the only red-blooded woman in the village is simultaneously lusted after and branded a harlot. Cruelly. The end.
Earth Mama (out December 8), Savanah Leaf’s debut about a young black single mother struggling for custody of her children was, for me at least, a little underwhelming. Although rapper Tia Nomore is superb as the lead, and you will be crying with her in the closing scenes.
Top of the docs
December's hottest documentary
One of my favourite directors is Wim Wenders. Paris Texas, top 20 of all time, no argument. Fellow German Anselm Kiefer is my favourite living artist, so Wenders’ doc Anselm (out December 8) is the proverbial catnip. With added 3D? Well, hmmm… Kiefer’s work is truly monumental in scale, often prodding at the open wound of Germany’s 20th-century history. We see him in his “atelier” (so vast he needs a bicycle to get around it) pouring vats of molten metal on his canvases, scorching them with industrial flame-throwers and… also silently thinking intensely like the genius he is. It’s a Wenders film, so elegant, contemplative and smart; avoiding the novelty pitfalls, the 3D is gently evocative too. There haven’t been many better documentaries about artists than this.
What we’re looking forward to watching this month
I haven’t had a chance to catch these yet, but (in order of possible brilliance) at least some of them should be worth checking out. With Michael Mann in the director’schair and Adam Driver as the great Enzo – not to mention Shailene Woodley – Ferrari (out December 26) ought to be a full-throttle winner.
Eva Green and Vincent Cassel are quite the quality pairing in The Three Musketeers: Milady (out December 15), while Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell square up as a mutually repellent odd couple in romcom Anyone But You (out December 26).
Want more romantic laughs? Meg Ryan directs herself and David Duchovny in What Happens Later (out December 15). And Taika Waititi bends it like Fassbender, directing said Michael in Next Goal Wins (out December 26) about the American Samoan football team that lost 31-0. Last but not least (in terms of pure beef) is the return of Jason Momoa in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (out December 21). There you go, 21 films for the festive season (almost a whole Advent calendar). Merry Christmas, see you the other side…
