Elsinore (c) Focus Features
Film: Elsinore
In Cinemas on November 20
Scottish actor Ian Charleson was made famous for playing a deeply religious runner in 1981’s Chariots of Fire, which surprisingly won the Best Picture Oscar over bigger films like Reds and On Golden Pond. As the new film Elsinore begins, it is eight years later, and Charleson (Andrew Scott) is still acting, auditioning for small film parts in London, with people recognizing him in Chariots, but specifically the Oscar-winning score by Vangelis. Although he wished he was a bigger film actor by now, his heart has always been on the stage, which is why he is sort of jealous of a hot young actor named Daniel Day-Lewis playing Hamlet at the Royal National Theatre. If you know theater lore, Daniel Day-Lewis famously walked off stage during a performance of Hamlet and quit. Hamlet director Richard Eyre (Johnny Flynn looking surprisingly like the real man) then approaches Charleson to replace him. The only hesitation the actor has to saying yes right away to performing his dream role at his favorite theater is that he has HIV, and doing any role, let alone one of the most grueling and energy-draining roles that is Hamlet, would put a strain on his body. He tells Eyre, who agrees to take the risk, but this doesn’t sit well with his no-nonsense doctor (the steely Olivia Colman), who just wants to keep Charleston alive.
Elsinore (c) Focus Features
AIDS will always be a big part of gay history, and there have certainly been many heartbreaking films set from the early 80s to the end of the 20th Century during the height of the epidemic, including Longtime Companion, BPM, Angels in America and Pride (which also starred Scott, and was written by Elsinore screenwriter Stephen Beresford). The filmmakers here do not shy away from the horrors of AIDS, which is still unbearably emotional, although the ocular proof of Karposi’s sarcomas throughout the movie feels overly symbolic. And the fact that, spoiler alert, Hamlet dies from poison in his blood is an irony most tragic for Charleson. Scott, of course, is just heartbreaking as a man who must muster the strength of Hercules to play Hamlet just as his body is shutting down. The actor, who should have received an Oscar nomination for All of Us Strangers last year, is sure to be nominated here as he leaves all his vanity off camera and makes the audience both deride Charleson’s ego while also applauding his devotion. Colman, who is also getting much praise for playing a woman in love with a man made of Wicker, is powerful here as a woman who has seen too many young men die, tring to be emotionally detached, but always failing. There are also nice small turns by Joe Locke (Heartbreaker) as a young actor and David Dawson as filmmaker Derek Jarman. But, if you think this is a complete downer, just know there’s an uplifting, joyful musical moment that involves—of all things—Ethel Merman’s Disco Album. While the Elsinore, named for the King’s castle in Hamlet, doesn’t reinvent the “biopic with illness” genre, it’s Scott’s fearless performance that’s worth the watch.
Coward (c) MUBI
Film: Coward
In Cinemas on December 25
Lukas Dhont‘s latest film follows in his résumé of one-word titled films with queer themes: Girl was about a transgendered girl with dreams of being a ballerina, while Close told the story of a friendship between young boys destroyed by societal prejudice. Now comes Coward, his most overtly gay film in which two WWI Belgian soldiers stationed at the brutal Western Front defy all logic and fall in love among all the death and horror. Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia) is the quiet guy everyone knows because of his stature, but not much for anything else. He has just arrived with this trope, all filled with the “rah, rah, rah” fight the enemy nationalism, but reality quickly sets in as he and his fellow newbies are tasked with retrieving the bodies of the dead and wounded during the short ceasefire between bloodsheds. Dhont and his cinematographer Frank van den Eeden do not sugarcoat any of these scenes, which sometimes rival the body destruction horror of the recent All Quiet on the Western Front and the reason is that it is balanced by the other part of the story that involves a group of soldiers who perform for their troop to keep the spirits up. The artistic leader is Francis (Valentin Campagne), who uses his feminine features to play women who sing songs of patriotism, which in an environment lacking in females is just taken for granted as a necessity, and not, say a preference on Francis’ part. When Pierre agrees to help build the stage and set for the performance, he and Francis have an immediate attraction, although neither would have ever considered themselves gay.
Coward (c) MUBI
It’s unfortunate that “Coward” is coming out the same year as La Bola Negra, which appears to be more of the kind of poetic, dreamy approach to gay men in wartime that Dhont is comfortable with. Instead, the filmmaker has opted for a more realistic approach here, with the historical realities of war used not only as the backdrop of a budding love affair, but also the unfortunate fact that there is no future in the relationship once the war is over. The seriousness of the title is different for each man. Pierre is so haunted by what he sees on the battlefield and the inevitability of getting killed that he is left only with thoughts of desertion. Francis, on the other hand, realizes the odds he would find reciprocal love from Pierre are close to nil, but still can’t imagine a life in society that would ever be accepted. The concept of cowardice in each man sets up the most likely tragic fate for both, but Dhont takes an unexpected turn, with an ending that is unexpectedly poignant. The two actors shared the Best Actor prize at Cannes this year since each performance is completely intertwined with the other, to give us one of the most romantic and heartbreaking love stories of the year.
I Play Rocky (c) Amazon MGM Studios
Film: I Play Rocky
In Limited Release This Friday, Nationwide on November 20
With the release of Elsinore, I Play Rocky is the second film this year to focus on the lives of actors in Academy Award Best Picture winners about sports with a memorable film score. Elsinore focused on Chariots of Fire, in which its star, Ian Charleson (Andrew Scott), says the score is the only thing people remember about the film. I Play Rocky, based on the making of 1976’s Rocky, is also most remembered for its music, especially the song “Gonna Fly Now” by Bill Conti, which is discussed and heard in the film. I Play Rocky takes place during the filming of Rocky in Philadelphia, and how Slyvester Stallone wrote the part for him and him alone. The film, directed by Peter Farrelly (Green Book), starts in the early 1970s in New York with struggling actor “Tom” Stallone (Anthony Ippolito) auditioning for a thug in a film with the casting people in the dark giggling about Stallone’s diction. At one point, in order to make money, he sells his tape recorder and even does softcore porn. At his day job as a ticket-taker at a movie theater, he meets and falls in love with Sasha (AnnaSophia Robb), an aspiring photographer, who doubles as his typist when she convinces him to write a film for himself (as well as going back to his real name, Sylvester) when they relocate to Los Angeles. After a few non-starters, Stallone (literally) pens his boxing script with the producing team of Robert Chartoff (Tony Kebbell) and Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne), convinced the film will be a hit with a big star attached, until Stallone insists, “I play Rocky.” Despite the protestation of the studio head (Tracy Letts, playing the same gatekeeper-type character he played in Little Women), the film gets greenlit with a much smaller budget, which necessitate changing the setting from NYC to Philadelphia to avoid the unions (not a good look for studio Amazon MGM to celebrate its derision of unions). The film ends at the premiere of Rocky, which ends up being nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning two, including Best Picture.
I Play Rocky (c) Amazon MGM
If you are a Rocky fan, it’s a no-brainer that you will have a fun time at this film. Not only do they recreate a lot of the iconic scenes, including the running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum (Stallone, we find out, bruised his leg after that shoot), but they also create moments in I Play Rocky that call back the film. There’s a moment in one of the last scenes where Sly and Sasha walk away from the camera that replicates the famous photo pose of them from the film. For the rest of us non-Rocky acolytes, most of the pleasure comes from the acting, especially Ippolito, whose impersonation of Stallone is so good you soon believe it’s actually Stallone on screen. I won’t be surprised if he gets some award nominations for the role (Golden Globe for sure and the Actor, if SAG-AFTRA can overlook the union-slander). The other actors all have their moments, with Matt Dillion as Sly’s father making the most of his truncated part, especially since the film makes it obvious that it was his abusive father that made the actor laser focused on his career. But the screenplay by Peter Gamble is so corny and basic that I got tired of the actual plot quick. The whole back and forth between the studio and Sly about starring in the film is drawn out and at least 20 minutes of the runtime alone. Stay for a post-credit scene that gives I Play Rocky a chance to pat itself on the back.
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