Labor Day – LFF Film Review

Jason Reitman made his name making high quality comedy dramas and Labor Day marks something of a departure for him as not only is it his first period film but also, in my opinion at least, is his first out-and-out drama. It is 1987 and an escaped convict (Josh Brolin) takes refuge in the house of a single mother (Kate Winslet) and her only son (Gattlin Griffith). He initially is holding mother and son against their will but as the long weekend passes he becomes less of a kidnapper and more of a refugee as he takes on the role of husband and father that both are missing from their lives.

Reitman is clearly trying to make something a little different to his normal fare here but is doing so in such a self-conscious way that I think he gets a little lost. Scenes within the house are so po-faced it is hard to take them seriously. Josh Brolin may be playing an escaped convict but he plays him as such a gentle giant, such a caring and considerate man, that it is hard to see why he would have escaped from jail in the first place rather than continue to serve his time. Winslet’s sad divorcee is a fragile creature and it is not hard to see why she might start to develop feelings for her kidnapper but the combination of her need for a saviour and his deliberate saviour-like qualities seems a little forced. Clark Gregg plays the ex-husband and father as a sweet and caring man who is perhaps a little bland thanks to limited characterisation. Again it is not obvious why we should see him as being so inadequate in the role of father for an escaped criminal to seem like a viable option. It is as though a particular outcome for the film was sought and so characters were written to suit.

The real star of the film is Gattlin Griffith as the son Henry. It is through his eyes we see this whole ordeal and maybe this is why some of the characters come across as caricatures. Griffith is very much viewing the film along with the audience as I don’t think either of us could ever quite decide if we wanted Brolin to get caught or not.

Jason Reitman has made a quality film with plenty of beautiful images and a raft of strong performances. The film is almost a tactile experience and has such a fully realised setting I felt like I could reach out and feel the roughness of the furniture or taste the peach pie. Where the films struggles is how seriously it takes itself considering its slightly implausible plot. At various times in the film I was incredulous when I realised that only two days had passed when the amount of change in the characters’ relationships would have requited much, much longer. It was a relief when the few scenes set outside the house brought with them laughter and I could take a breath as the story within the house wasn’t going to allow for any smiles unless you were considering how wondering Josh Brolin’s convict was as a family man.

Labor Day (Labour Day?) is a good film if a little too laboured (HA!) to be believable.

Labor Day screens at the festival on the 15th and 19th October and is in UK cinemas on 7th February 2014.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – TV Review

Over the past few years it has been impossible to go to the cinema without bumping into a superhero as they fight a great evil seemingly oblivious to the fact that dozens of other superheroes are having very similar issues just around the corner. The worlds coexisted but remained very much apart until last year when Samuel L. Jackson, under the guise of SHIELD agent Nick Fury, united a group of superchaps and called them The Avengers. Jackson had been popping up in the superhero films for years and was consistently overshadowed by another SHIELD agent played by relatively unknown actor Clark Gregg. Gregg’s role in proceedings got bigger and bigger before climaxing in The Avengers with his death. Now Gregg’s Agent Coulson is heading up the Agents of SHIELD TV series and is very much alive and well thanks to a mystery resuscitation by executive producer/big boss Joss Whedon.

In the first episode of the series we see Coulson return to work after the events of Marvel’s Avengers Assemble and assemble a crack team to help him hunt down and manage new superheroes and unusual phenomenon. The team he assembles is pretty, peppy, and overwhelmingly brunette. Everyone talks with the standard witty Whedonesque dialogue we have come to know and love through Buffy, Angel, and Firefly (I am pretending Dollhouse never happened) which gives the show a lot more humour than you might expect and makes the whole affair that bit more enjoyable. Fans of either Marvel films or Whedon’s canon will see a few familiar faces apiece to help them settle in with the newbies.

I hit superhero fatigue last year and failed to watch Iron Man 3 in April but thankfully SHIELD is Lycra free and focusses more on the team than anyone who can fly. Their first mission is to track down a man who was seen saving a woman from a burning building, investigate an explosion, and put an end to a mysterious group called Rising Tide. In the course of the episode we are treated to lots of fun gadgets, impressive explosions, and effects that lean towards the cinematic rather than the televisual.

It seems the show will follow the format of having a weekly problem to solve while exploring an overarching big bad and slowly revealing the mystery of just why Coulson is so chatty for a dead man. On the whole I found the episode a lot of fun, and will be watching the rest of the series for more than just my undying allegiance to Joss Whedon, but it wasn’t hugely gripping and isn’t the sort of show I will be cancelling my plans to watch nor compare theories with co-workers about.

It is quite telling that I can’t remember a single non-Coulson character’s name, and the plot of the episode itself isn’t what will have you coming back next week. Agents of SHIELD is a fun bit of popcorn TV, something to record then watch when you have an hour free to enjoy a bit of action and some amusing quips.

Agents of SHIELD hits UK TV this Friday 27th September at 8pm on Channel 4.