Crisp Criticism - "Warcraft", "Me Before You", "Miles Ahead", "Sunset Song"

by

Julien Faddoul

Warcraft

The backstory of a video game.

Atrocious, laughable, dumbfounding piece of pulp fiction based on a video game that makes the catastrophic choice to treat everything with the utmost seriousness. The result is a riotous exercise in ridicule, from the characters’ appearance to the juvenile narrative.

d – Duncan Jones

w – Duncan Jones, Charles Leavitt   (Based on the Characters by Chris Metzen)

ph – Simon Duggan

pd – Gavin Bocquet

m – Ramin Djawadi

ed – Paul Hirsch

cos – Mayes C. Rubeo

p – Stuart Fenegan, Alex Gartner, Jon Jashni, Charles Roven, Thomas Tull

Cast: Paula Patton, Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster, Robert Kazinsky, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Daniel Wu, Clancy Brown, Ruth Negga, Daniel Cudmore, Callum Keith Rennie, Ryan Robbins, Burkley Duffield, Donnie MacNeil

Me Before You

A girl in a small town forms an unlikely bond with a recently paralyzed man she's taking care of.

Another sentimental piece of nonsense based on romantic fiction in which logic need not apply.

d – Thea Sharrock

w – Jojo Moyes   (Based on the Novel by Jojo Moyes)

ph – Remi Adefarasin

pd – Andrew McAlpine

m – Craig Armstrong

ed – John Wilson

cos – Jill Taylor

p – Alison Owen, Karen Rosenfelt

Cast: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer, Charles Dance, Brendan Coyle, Steve Peacocke, Matthew Lewis

Miles Ahead *

An exploration of the life and music of Miles Davis.

A film that unabashedly fabricates most of the events that occur – its director’s intention clearly being to encapsulate the idea of its subject rather than demonstrating biographical highlights. In practice, however, it falls flat due to a deficient directorial stronghold.

d – Don Cheadle

w – Steven Baigelman, Don Cheadle, Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson

ph – Roberto Schaefer

pd – Hannah Beachler

m – Robert Glasper

ed – John Axelrad, Kayla Emter

cos – Gersha Phillips

p – Darryl Porter, Vince Wilburn, Daniel Wagner, Robert Ogden Barnum, Don Cheadle, Pamela Hirsch, Lenore Zerman

Cast: Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Michael Stuhlbarg, Keith Stanfield, Austin Lyon

Sunset Song **

The daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.

The most conventional film to date from this majestic director, in which he basically constructs the simple story that the source material depicts. Although it’s certainly as rhythmically resplendent as is his previous work, it is marred by awkward political insertions, some corny romanticism and a weak lead performance.

wd – Terence Davies   (Based on the Novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon)

ph – Michael McDonough

pd – Andy Harris

m – Gast Waltzing

ed – David Charap, Ruy Diaz

cos – Uli Simon

p – Sol Papadopolous, Roy Boulter, Nicolas Steil

Cast: Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan, Kevin Guthrie, Hugh Ross, Douglas Rankine, Ian Pirie, Niall Greig Fulton, Jim Sweeney, Jack Greenless, Julian Nest, Trish Mullin