by
Julien Faddoul
*** (3 stars)
d – George Miller
w – George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris
ph – John Seale
pd – Colin Gibson
m – Junkie XL
ed – Margaret Sixel
cos – Jenny Beaven
p – George Miller, Doug Mitchell, P.J. Voeten
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh
Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz, Riley Keough, Nathan
Jones, Adelaide Clemens, Richard Norton, Courtney Eaton, Abbey Lee
"What a day! What a lovely day"! To call Mad Max: Fury Road a miracle is a pretty miserable
statement. When a rugged action film that costs $150 million, a sequel made 30
years after it’s previous installment, and is released during the summer isn’t
altogether embarrassing or inept, is, in the current cinema, a
miracle…well…count your blessings. What’s so illuminating about George Miller’s
film is that it isn’t magic at all, but a meticulously constructed piece of
cinema made by a group of (intelligent) people, a fact that, when rooted in the
film’s presence, seems inconceivable.
“Overwhelming” is
really the optimum word here. Mad Max: Fury Road is a film so filled with
strabismus ticks and seeded ideology that its difficult to take in at first.
Many people who were alive when the first Mad Max films came out (not me) speak
of them with similar rhetoric. In truth, this film is really a step beyond
those.
To attempt a synopsis for this film seems quixotic to me, as
after a brief prologue reminding those who don’t remember the previous films
who exactly Mad Max is (a former Australian policeman turned Road Warrior after
the murder of his wife and child in the year 2060), Mr Miller assembles his
dystopia with a series of striking images and a mild vernacular lesson. From
then, the film progresses into what feels like one gigantic action
extravaganza. Nevertheless…
After Max (Tom Hardy) is apprehended and tortured by a band
of albino zealots, he is brought to a citadel ruled by King Immortan Joe (Hugh
Keays-Byrne), a gas mask-wearing dictator. There his application is to be a human
blood bag for a sick member of Joe’s army, Nux (Nicholas Hoult). Immortan Joe
controls the region’s water, milk and gasoline supply and therefore, controls
those who need them.
Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a high ranking officer
of the citadel, steals Joe’s slave wives (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Abbey Lee,
Riley Keough, Zoe Kravitz, and Courtney Eaton) and endeavors to convey them to
a paradise known as The Green Place.
The whole plot is at its best, goofy and at its worse,
labored. But, yeah, who cares? It’s the film’s themes that radiate through the
screen, as apposed to its story. Many critics will articulate – and they should
– that the film depicts a world where possession and oppression of women will
become man’s undoing. Frankly, this is really the women’s picture: it’s Furiosa
and the wives who provide not only the film’s true arc but enable most of the
action.
Ms Theron’s casting here is perfect; not since Sigourney Weaver has an
American actress possessed such command on screen. Mr Hardy equals her, playing
Max madder than Mel Gibson ever did (though those used to the Gibson charisma will
miss it here – he doesn’t look or sound like him). Surprisingly, it’s Mr Hoult
who almost steals the film as Nux, with a remarkable mix of derangement and
vulnerability. Though really, no actor here clearly had it easy.
The film’s cinematographic and design elements (provided by
John Seale, Colin Gibson and Jenny Beaven) are difficult to describe. If you
can picture a combination of John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) and Katsuhiro Otomo’s
Akria (1988). What is ultimately rather obvious here is that after making a detour
into animation with the films Happy Feet (2006) and Happy Feet 2 (2011), Mr Miller as
acquired the fastidious temperament that is compulsory for animation and has
beautifully infused it into this film. His backgrounds are brimming with glittering
details; the effects have sufficient weight to them.
But it’s the film’s action sequences that are going to
bewitch audiences everywhere. Believe me, dear reader, when I say that for most
of the film I could feel my heart pounding in my ears. The choreography that is
implemented here, whether it is trucks blowing-up, faces being stabbed or sand
storms obliterating everything in its path, is done with a razor sharp
cinematic eye for grounded geometry and impactful backbone. The magnitude of
every punch is felt.
Funnily enough, one the film’s best set-pieces is a mere
hand-to-hand combat scene in the middle of the desert. Mr Miller provides us
with the variables: 2 men, 6 women, a chain, 2 guns, a bolt cutter and a broken
car door. With those variables, what Mr Miller composes is more riveting that
what most other modern day filmmakers can do with the destruction of entire cities.
Mr Miller claims that the film was shot with 80% practical
stunts. It's understandable if you choose not to believe that, further proving
just how distrustful we as cinematic audiences have become. The starvation for this
level of technique in mainstream Hollywood cinema is going to have critics
shouting its praises to the point of unwanted inflation. Believe it or not, Mad
Max: Fury Road, which despite my gushing here, is actually not the second
coming of the messiah. It’s merely a skillfully crafted plunge into dark, unadulterated
psychedelic action-cinema; a plunge Hollywood should take more often.
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