Review: Senna (2010)

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2010, Alain Prost, Asif Kapadia, Ayrton Senna, Frank Williams, Senna

Director: Asif Kapadia
Stars: Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Frank Williams
Plot: The career of Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna is traced to his untimely death in 1994 at the age of 34.

“Live fast and die young” as the saying goes. Arguably the life of Ayrton Senna is summed up both perfectly yet tragically by this apparent ideal of those who wish to remain ‘immortal’ (which in itself is dreadfully ironic). Senna’s career as a racing driver was cut short during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, where his car left the track on his seventh lap with devastating consequences. Senna charts the politics, egos and media frenzy that surrounded the sport (and still largely do) during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when intensely fierce rivalries were not only confined between teams, but also team-mates.

The documentary begins with the dawning of Senna’s career in the go-kart competitions of his native Brazil. His parents are shown to be financially comfortable enough to be able to afford for him to enter Formula Three and subsequently Formula One, where he tested cars for British-based Williams, McLaren, Toleman and Brabham teams. He makes his debut with Toleman during the 1984 season, before moving onto Lotus. Having built up a reputation for having a great deal of potential due to his intelligent and daring racing style, Senna is signed up by McLaren who, with the approval of then-double world champion and number one driver Alain Prost, is installed as the team’s number two and so starts the most tempestuous and successful part of his career.

Ayrton Senna’s arrival at McLaren hailed a period of almost complete domination of motor racing. However, this also meant that Senna and Prost were now vying for the World Championship as team-mates and rivals, consequently having a number of run-ins on the track which led to relations between the two to become increasingly fractious. Senna’s fame, especially back home, became stratospheric and he had the pressure of an entire nation willing him to overcome his ‘nemesis’ Prost and be the best driver in the world. Various incidents cause Senna and Prost to gradually fall out, such as Monaco in 1988 and in the same year in Portugal. The following year Prost won the championship in controversial circumstances after colliding with Senna during the deciding race of the season at Suzuka in Japan. Senna eventually becomes the triple-champion before leaving for Williams, in whose car he would suffer a fatal crash in 1994.

Senna goes against the grain of the standard documentary formula. We expect footage and voiceovers but more often than not, talking heads interrupt the story and they tend to ruin the momentum of the fascinating world which is being portrayed. Here there are absolutely no cuts to anyone – this works extremely well, as the footage makes up the entire running time and therefore the immersion in the story is total. Such a vast amount of archive material has been assembled, that it is a racing fan’s dream, with not only just Ayrton Senna being featured, but also some of the greats, including Alain Prost. Everything is placed together chronologically, but there is never a dull moment as this incredibly gripping documentary details the various aspects of Senna’s rise to fame. Also featured are the troubles he encountered with not only the politics of the-then governing body Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) and its president Jean-Marie Balestre who is shows a similar managerial style to FIFAs Sepp Blatter, but also the pit lane pain suffered with his McLaren team-mate Prost.

If there’s one major criticism you would level at director Kapadia, it would be that the story is very much one-sided, placing Ayrton Senna upon some kind of Messiah-like pedestal. Despite the fact that Senna’s ego slips out on a couple of occasions, showing him to be a petulant child when pushed too far (much like his fellow drivers then and now), there is a recurring theme that Senna believes he is somehow anointed by God and has a destiny to win the World Championship – something that grates after a while. Senna himself plays down this suggestion later on, but there is still a sense that the film is essentially geared towards his exultation. The depiction of Alain Prost as some kind of pantomime villain is also difficult to take – we don’t even get a glimpse of the pressures facing Prost as the expectation on his shoulders had catapulted him into a similar stratosphere that Senna experienced later. Prost himself denounced Senna for this portrayal, saying that it did not address the fact that he and his great rival actually reconciled with one another and became firm friends in the last year or so of Senna’s life. An end credit note does say that Prost is a trustee of the Ayrton Senna Foundation, which begs the question why Kapadia has left this gaping fact out completely.

Senna has been said to be the kind of film that you don’t need any prior interest in the subject matter to enjoy it – this is inaccurate, as much of the archive footage goes very deep into the world of Formula One for much of its running time. Most likely those with even a passing interest in the sport from the most common participating countries such as Brazil, Great Britain, France and Spain will find this a rewarding experience and a largely inspiring look at a short life of a remarkable, ambitious man, filled with success but ultimate tragedy.

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Review: Fast Girls (2012)

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2012, Bradley James, Fast Girls, Noel Clarke, Regan Hall, Rupert Graves

Director: Regan Hall
Stars: Bradley James, Rupert Graves, Noel Clarke
Plot: Rivalries come to the fore between a group of British runners who have to work as a team at the World Championships.

The sports film template dictates that a challenge lies ahead with a possible victory (or at least a moral one – see Escape to Victory), but the protagonist(s) in question must overcome a barrier of some kind to achieve the ultimate accolade which they seek. Rocky is perhaps the most famous of the classic triumph-over-adversity films, which transcends sport by giving us a human story at its centre. Without this crucial theme and a whole load of clichés, it is difficult for us to empathise with the featured hero/heroine – Fast Girls is no exception to this rule, but there’s more than just girl power on show here.

Shania Andrews (Lenora Crichlow) is a young sprinter who dreams of representing Great Britain at the World Championships. She only has limited training facilities and part-time coach Brian (Phil Davis) at her disposal, but through sheer determination, she manages to post a personal best under 23 seconds and enter the trials. There Shania meets her rival Lisa Temple (Lily James), whom she beats in the final race and they are both put through for the championships. As Lisa’s father David (Graves) is one of the primary coaches, he has a great deal of influence within the team and expects her daughter to succeed. Due to the fact that Lisa appears to have an unfair advantage, friction between her and Shania quickly escalates and a bitter rivalry ensues.

Shania gets to know her teammates Belle (Lashana Lynch), Sarah (Dominique Tipper) and Trix (Lorraine Burroughs) and she also takes a shine to physio Carl (Bradley James), who insists that relationships are not allowed between runners and staff, despite their flirtations. After a poor showing in the 4×100 metre relay during an exhibition event in London, the sprint team go to Barcelona for the main event. Shania’s and Lisa’s relationship deteriorates further as David increases pressure on Lisa and Shania struggles to understand how the team selection can be fair considering the obvious presence of nepotism. When veteran runner Trix suffers a catastrophic injury during a race, it comes down to whether Shania can step in and put her differences with Lisa aside for the good of the team.

You could say that the producers of Fast Girls were being rather opportunistic in releasing it about a month before the London 2012 Olympics, but why not? With so many films being churned out featuring death, destruction and found-footage (it’s hard to say which is worse) over the summer, it makes a nice change to enjoy something light-hearted and feel-good. True, the plot is riddled with clichés and predictable twists which you can sense from afar, but we’re not talking about Oscar bait here – in the run-up to the most famous show on Earth, this would have been a welcome tonic – and still is. Using the classic sports film blueprint, we have a likeable protagonist in Shania who we follow throughout. She is most importantly believable and instantly relatable even if, in deliberate contrast, her nemesis Lisa is a little too stereotypically bitchy just for the sake of it. Starting out from humble beginnings (of course), Shania grows in stature both as an athlete and as a person – this particular character arc is obligatory in this kind of film and without it, there would be something severely lacking.

Lenora Crichlow’s Shania is very watchable, although the scenes where her home life is explained all feels rather forced and obvious, she shines on the track and in her duels with Lily James’ Lisa. James scowls almost throughout the entire film, rarely cracking a smile in her role as the pantomime villain. Having said that, she does make a worthy opponent for Shania because, quite bewilderingly, girls can be that horrible to each other. There is a convincing chemistry between the two and also with the other members of the sprint team with Lynch, Tipper and Burroughs delivering their lines with ease. Phil Davis appears in a very understated role as Shania’s coach, but he is excellent despite a lack of screen time. Bradley James (and his Hair) makes an appearance as the mandatory love-interest. He doesn’t have much to do except swish his Hair around, but it’s good to see he is capable of doing more than King Arthur in Merlin. Regan Hall’s direction is bright and breezy, especially the finale in which the grandstand slo-mo finish is intercut with Matt Cardle’s song Starlight, for the audience-pleasing win.

Fast Girls doesn’t stretch the cinematic imagination, but if it inspires a future athlete or two, then the job has been done. It’s essentially a sports film with small elements of romance and drama that hits the same buttons as Wimbledon, but thankfully without the cringe worthy sappiness at the end.

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Review: Moneyball (2011)

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2011, Bennett Miller, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Moneyball, Robin Wright

Director: Bennett Miller
Stars: Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill
Plot: A biography of Billy Beane’s trials and tribulations, as he puts together an Oakland A’s team based on mathematical principles.

Sports films are a particularly tricky genre to take on. Not only does the idea need to appeal in some way to non-sports fans, but also to those who follow their chosen sport with such fervour that they can roll off statistics from a famous game played years ago. This is why taking real-life stories or setting them against the backdrop of a famous event appears to do the trick. Escape to Victory (1981), set during World War II and features a stellar cast of actors and real-life sportsmen. In recent years however, there has been more of a focus on straightforward triumph-over-adversity stories, such as We Are Marshall (2006) and The Blind Side (2009), which both centred on loss and sacrifice, but ultimately the glory of defying the odds. Moneyball follows this path, but on a much more subtle level – the battles here are mostly behind the scenes, rather than out on the baseball field.

Oakland Athletics baseball team’s general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) is frustrated at his player’s loss to the New York Yankees during the 2001 postseason. With three of his star players – Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Jason Isringhausen – set to leave to free agency, Beane consults with his advisers on how to improve for the follow season, bearing in mind their significant lack of funds. Whilst visiting the Cleveland Indians, Beane encounters Peter Brand (Hill), a Yale economics graduate who has a brand new take on how to assess the value of players. Beane checks Brand’s theory by asking him if he would have drafted him – Beane was regarded as potentially a very gifted player, but turned down a scholarship to Stanford University,  instead choosing to play in the Major League but to little acclaim. When Brand admits he wouldn’t have drafted him until the ninth round, Beane employs him as his assistant.

Oakland’s scouts are initially dismissive of Brand’s non-traditional sabermetric methods, believing that their years of experience are being undermined by someone who knows little about the game. Instead of relying on the scouts’ experience and know-how, Beane chooses players based on their on base percentage (OBP), also looking for characteristics and manages to put together a team which is seemingly undervalued. Tensions between Beane and his more traditional staff are raised, as he and Brand identify and recruit players such as unorthodox submarine pitcher Chad Bradford (Casey Bond). Beane also finds himself at loggerheads with Athletics’ manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), when he trades away the team’s lone traditional star player Carlos Peña, in order to make Howe play the team in the style he desires. With plenty of criticism and cynicism about his methods, Beane goes to task in trying to make the Oakland A’s a competitive team despite their lack of financial clout.

On the face of it, Moneyball appears to be essentially about sport statistics, but beneath this belies the fact that Brad Pitt gives one of his career-best performances. What could have been a dull film aimed at baseball diehards not only transcends sports in general, but also gives weight and meaning way beyond your common all garden, triumph-over-adversity formulaic schmaltz. There is little sentimentality in Pitt’s subtle portrayal of Billy Beane’s struggle in bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots, thoroughly deserving his Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in this year’s Oscars. Even to those who are far from well-versed in the intricacies of baseball will be able to identify with Beane’s frustration on, but especially off, the pitch.

Jonah Hill, usually typecast as the token-fat-guy-to-laugh-at-for-being-fat, takes on the role of Peter Brand which looks completely out of his comfort zone, but here looks anything but uncomfortable. Hill is a superb foil for Pitt’s Beane, despite the fact that he doesn’t have an awful lot to do, there is at last a glimpse that he can improve on the same old Superbad-style comedy. Screenwriters Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin place a great deal of emphasis on the behind-the-scenes action, rather than the on-field shenanigans which tend to overwhelm film where sport is the predominant element. This reflects the true notion that the game itself is only a very small part of the bigger picture – sports clubs are first and foremost businesses and here the Oakland A’s are shown as such. Much credit must go to scribes Zaillian and Sorkin for creating a script that is wonderfully nuanced, in perfect keeping with Bennett Miller’s direction and Brad Pitt’s central character.

Moneyball doesn’t spark into life immediately but once Beane and Brand team up, the world of economics never looked so fascinating. If you have a passion for any sport or just love a great story, then sit back and enjoy a film that is a fine example of how a simple plot and a fine lead performance can go a long way.

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Review: Warrior (2011)

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2011, Gavin O'Connor, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Tom Hardy, Warrior

Director: Gavin O’Connor
Stars: Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Joel Edgerton
Plot: Two brothers end up going head-to-head in a martial arts tournament – a fight that challenges them both on a professional and personal level.

Sibling rivalry never fails to make a fascinating subject for a film. We expect the competition to be intensely fierce, yet there is always that elephant in the room which means the family bond between them remains unbreakable. This compelling contradiction has been explored in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), The Godfather (1972) and given a lighter treatment with In Her Shoes (2005). Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior tackles this theme by pitting two brothers in physical and emotional combat, in what is an unflinchingly powerful film.

Former U.S. Marine Tommy Conlon (Hardy) visits his father Paddy (Nolte), a recovering alcoholic, whose drinking led him to abuse his family and tear it apart. Tommy hasn’t forgiven Paddy for his behaviour and, after questioning him about the events that led to their estrangement, is not convinced by his fathers claim that he is now a reformed character. Tommy then goes to a gym where he is invited to take on Pete ‘Mad ‘Dog’ Grimes (Erik Apple) in a mixed martial arts fight – he renders Grimes unconscious after only a few seconds. The fight is filmed on a mobile phone camera, uploaded onto the internet and goes viral. Meanwhile, Tommy learns about an upcoming tournament called Sparta being held in Atlantic City, with a winner-takes-all prize of $5 million. He decides that he wants to enter and if he wins, donate the money to the family of a fallen friend in the army. Tommy asks Paddy to train him, but without the possibility that their father-son relationship doesn’t get in the way.

Paddy’s older son Brendan (Edgerton) is a high-school physics teacher and former UTC fighter, who lives with his wife Tess (Jennifer Morrison) and their two daughters. He is struggling to pay the mortgage so decides to fight on the side to make some extra money. After winning an event held in a parking lot, he turns up for work the next day, but his boss, Principal Zito (Kevin Dunn) hears rumours of his moonlighting and is forced to suspend Brendan without pay after seeing his bruises. Without much of a choice, Brendan decides to fight full-time with help from old friend Frank Campana (Frank Grillo) as his trainer. Initially entering small fights, he learns about Sparta and persuades Frank to let him enter, despite his lack of recent experience. As the Conlon brothers progress through the Sparta tournament at opposite ends of the draw, the impending emotional and physical collision course proves to have far-reaching ramifications much greater than a multi-million dollar jackpot.

Warrior combines touching family drama with brutal fight scenes in a visceral masterclass of acting and direction. Gavin O’Connor manages to ensure that the back stories of each brother are covered in a sympathetic way, even if it is Brendan’s story that is initially more affecting. Despite the fact that many of the Rocky franchise clichés are all present – triumph over adversity, the training montage, a baying crowd and a dazzling finale – without them this would actually be a much lesser film. Recent movies such as The Wrestler (2008) and The Fighter (2010) carve a similar path between family on the one side and success in the ring on the other. O’Connor and his fellow screenwriters Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorfman have used the same formula, but without wandering too far into predictable territory.

As audiences demand increasingly more from the so-called fighting genre than characters who just grunt, the expectation is for high-calibre acting and we get it. Rising stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton excel as the Conlon brothers, showing a convincing range of emotions during both the portrayal of their respective struggles to reconnect with their father and the blood, sweat and tears sacrificed during the tournament.  The terrific casting continues as Nick Nolte gives a cracking performance as Paddy Conlon, a man trying to repair the seemingly irreparable. His Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor was well-deserved and although he faced tough competition and lost out to Christopher Plummer for Beginners, this marks a return to form for Nolte. Jennifer Morrison proves that she isn’t there to make up the numbers with a fine performance as Brendan’s wife Tess, but it would’ve been great to see more of the underused Kevin Dunn, who once again displays his versatility. Arguably the biggest quibble would be that the plot is a little dubious in explaining how two hastily trained amateur fighters can enter an apparently international martial arts tournament and do so well, but the underdog story is always a winner.

Warrior is enjoyable, sad and literally painful to watch in equal amounts. The rather far-fetched aspect of the storyline aside, this is another superbly acted entry in the fighter genre cannon and definitely packs a great punch.

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