Filth (August 22nd and 23rd at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[FILTH screens Friday August 22nd at 9:15 pm and Saturday August 23rd at 9:15 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Milan Paurich

If Alex from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE had grown up to become a Scottish police detective, he might have been James McAvoy’s bad news cop Bruce Robertson in FILTH. As seemingly berserk, unhinged and out of control as its drug-and-alcohol-fueled protagonist, Jon S. Baird’s cinematic translation of Irvine Welsh’s novel lacks the formal and stylistic rigor director Danny Boyle brought to TRAINSPOTTING, a 1996 Welsh adaptation. The influence of fabulist extraordinaire Terry Gilliam is so pronounced, Baird could have titled his movie, “Fear and Loathing in Edinburgh.”

What little plot there is revolves around Bruce’s bid for a promotion to chief inspector. Because he’s unethical and underhanded as well as clinically bipolar, Bruce’s campaign of terror involves slandering and sabotaging his colleagues at every turn. (Jamie Bell, Gary Lewis, Emun Elliott and a shockingly good Imogen Poots play fellow cops.)

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Review by Bob Ignizio

With X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, filmmaker Bryan Singer reminds us that before Marvel started taking cinematic matters into their own hands, he had already shown that super hero movies that treat their source material with respect can be successful with fanboys, general audiences, and critics alike. The X franchise is where the modern super hero film truly began, and while the series lost its way when Singer left to pursue other projects, the situation for the team of mutant heroes improved considerably with his return (in the capactiy of producer) for 2011's X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. That film was a step in the right direction, and things have only gotten better now that Singer is back in the director's chair.

X-Men: First Class

Review by Bob Ignizio

The focus of X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is primarily on exploring the past of 3 characters we know from the other X-MEN films: Professor Charles Xavier (James MacAvoy), Erik “Magneto” Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) and Raven aka “Mystique” (Jeniffer Lawrence). Only this time around, they're all on the same side, more or less.

As depicted in 2000's X-MEN, Erik discovered his powers as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp in 1944. FIRST CLASS restages that scene and then expands on it, introducing us to Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a powerful mutant working with the Nazis as an expedient way of discovering other similarly powered individuals. Despite extolling a philosophy of mutant superiority and brotherhood, Shaw is perfectly willing to kill Erik's mother to get him angry enough to use his powers, turning the boy into a self-proclaimed “Frankenstein's monster” in the process.