Living

Based on the storyline of a 1952 Kurosawa film, the setting has been transposed to London, in the drab postwar days of 1953.  Widower Mr Williams (Bill Nighy) works in County Hall, head of a small department.  He leads an utterly predictable, buttoned up and closed in existence, his work the primary focus of his life.  His staff are not his friends, but respect his consistency and dedication.  All this we learn in the opening couple of minutes from a couple of simple scenes.

Williams surprises his colleagues by leaving early one day, without giving reason. He is off to his doctor, who confirms the news he'd most feared - the cancer inside him leaves him only a few more months of life.  But what sort of life?

The colleagues are even more surprised when their boss doesn't show up the next day.  Or the next.  But Mr Williams is thinking about living, and what that means to him.

He tries the traditional approach to havingfun, of the 'wine, women and song' variety, aided by a louche playwright (Tom Burke) he meets in a seaside cafe.  But if that's not the answer then what is?  Finding the solution takes time, and he works it out from the unexpected source of Miss Harris (Aimee Lou Wood), the most junior member of his team, now working in a cafe.  Which in turn takes him back to work, a man on a mission...

From the off we know what the eventual outcome for our central character will be, but not what he can do before that ending comes.  It could so easily become a maudlin tale, slow and sad and predictable (and some people might see it that way).  But a superb script from Kazuro Ishiguro, and Nighy's portrayal of a man determined to dig deep to find who he really is, make for something totally uplifting.  There's constant humour from the inability of the characters to communicate, and the scene at the dinner table where Williams wants to tell son Michael one thing, Michael wants to say another, and his wife wants someone to say something, is a masterpiece of the comedy of awkwardness.  Sparely shot and cleverly structured, with a careful eye for human detail and the grotesqueries of paper shuffling in '50s local government, it's a world in which the small things dominate, where the red tape seems impenetrable and real people count for little.  Out of such unpromising beginnings Williams offers the hopefulness of the human spirit.

Living may well go down as Nighy's finest ever film performance.  He certainly moved this viewer.  Wonderful.

The Manfreds, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh

Golden oldies.  The stars, the songs and pretty much the entire audience fitted the epithet, which was to be expected.  This is very much a nostalgia gig.

The show was tagged "hits, jazz and blues", and the six man line up included a couple of musicians from the original 60s band Manfred Mann.  Pete Riley on drums, Marcus Cliffe on bass, keyboards from Mike Gorman, and sax and flute courtesy of Simon Currie.  Plus the two veterans that most people had really come to see.  Tom McGuiness on guitar and mandolin, and vocalist, harmonicist and radio celebrity Paul Jones.  

Plenty of 60s hits, with three number one's, including Pretty Flamingo and 5-4-3-2-1, and the forgotten classic When I'm Dead and Gone from McGuiness, from his band McGuiness Flint.  A solo number from Cliffe, and a gorgeous instrumental from Currie and Gorman.  Blues numbers, including a stunning Howlin' Wolf song, some jazz, even a long jazz-funk number that showed off everyone's solo abilities.  They're a solid pro band, with no weak links and plenty of talent.  Currie's sax and flute work stood out for it's excellence.

But the front man can make or break a show like this, and Jones is still very much a star.  The vocals are starting to sound a little strained at times, but the tone is as distinctive as every and he can bring forth an impressive falsetto.  He is still a superb blues harmonica player though, that talent still undimmed.  The boyish good looks are still evident, even at 80, and he clearly keeps himself trim and fit.  But his biggest asset is the charisma that oozes from him the moment he steps on stage.  Jones knows exactly how to win over and control his audience, and had everyone joining in on the weel kent choruses.

So much for the show itself.  What should have been an enjoyable evening of nostalgic entertainment was marred by the inadequacies of the Brunton's sound system in the bass ranges.  I've been having a few hearing problems of late, and thought that might be the reason things didn't sound quite right.  But Cliffe's solo confirmed that the real issues weren't with me.  As he layered bass line upon bass line, via his pedal board, the sound distorted more and more.  Yet the superb sax and keyboard number came across much more clearly.  To be fair things were better in the second set than the first, so something must have been done, but it's a shame whatever it was hadn't been picked up at sound check.  

But otherwise this was a bit of fun, and confirms that the old men have still got it in them!

Jinnistan (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse

Compelled to return to his native village to care for his dying mother, Malik (Taqi Nazeer) and his family find themselves still living and working there a year after the ailing parent's death.  While his wife Layla (Avita Jay) has buckled down and settled into their new life, daughter Asiya (Iman Akhtar) is not trying to fit in.  But what teenager is going to be happy being transplanted from her urban home in Scotland to a rural existence in Pakistan?  She's made no friends, hates everything and everybody.  A proper teenager.

But all is not as it seems.  Malik wants the two women to return home.  Layla won't leave without him.  And he won't explain his reasons.  Except that he will have to, as events spiral beyond his control and the couple risk losing their daughter.  Malik comes from a family with close links to the Jinns, the spirit world, and they will have their say.

A fast paced comedy horror, Jinnistan does scary, but not too scary, and delivers plenty of laughs.  What struck me most was the similarity between paranormal stories across cultures.  In one scene Nazeer could easily imagined as Cushing's Van Helsing, warding off Lee's toothsome Dracula.  There's a terrorised village, savage dogs, demonic possession and the traditional satanic laughter.  All so familiar.  And that only helps to make it funnier.

Written by Nazeer, Jinnistan is great cross cultural fun, and very enjoyable.  Mwahahaha...

Alföld (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse

 On a train across Hungary Virag (Francesca Hess) and Jake (Benjamin Osugo) sit and bicker.  Two years married and on their way to see Virag's parents.  Nervous to see if, this time, they'll accept their daughter's choice.  A black man from Scotland.  

Enter a stranger.  Bela (Sam Stopford) is stranger than most, and probing their defences, engaging in the fake reality they construct for him, and bringing forth a strange proposal.  What is he really after?  Why is he so dismissive of Jake, and so ready to split the couple apart?  

As the dialogue starts and stutters along, as the triangle keeps altering shape, we see the realities of how misogyny and racism are normalised in Orban's far right Hungary.  And that sometimes Glasgow isn't as different as we like to think, a society that still commoditises women and makes black men live up to their own stereotypes.

In a world of make believe and unfinished sentences the truth is in there, a strong reminder of how easily the far right use othering to spread division and hatred, on the path of the dissolving of human rights and civil liberties.  Exactly what Braverman and co are doing with migrants right now.

 A clever script with a depth that would make a second visit rewarding, and strong performances, notably from Stopford as the unsettling, creepy Bela.  Fascinating.

The Banshees of Insherin

 "Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."  (Harvey, 1951)

The opening shots are a strong reminder of Craggy Island, all small enclosures and open seas.  And the equally fictional isle of Insherin has a range of characters just as bizarre as Father Ted has to contend with.  A busybody shopkeeper, a bullying policeman, a strange old woman making strange new prophecies, an echoing double act in the pub and a fine example of the village idiot.  It's early 1923, and over on the mainland men are killing one another in the civil war.  There's no shooting and explosions on Insherin, but that doesn't mean there isn't conflict.

Pádraig (Colin Farrell) turns up at the house of his friend Colm (Brendan Gleeson), as he does every day, so they can off to the pub together, as they do every day.  But not today.  Colm isn't coming, and his old pal has no idea why.  Have they been rowing?  He doesn't think so.  When the explanation comes it's simple enough.  Colm doesn't like Pádraig any more, doesn't want to listen to his endless babbling.  Life is short and he wants to do the things he'll be remembered for, like writing good fiddle tunes.  But that isn't so simple for Pádraig to accept.  His friendship with Colm was the best thing in his life and he won't let if go so easily.

It's a ridiculous situation, and the resulting comedy throws out plenty of funny lines that would have sat well on Craggy.  But the laughing is replaced by something much more sinister and, despite the efforts of Pádraig's smart sister Siobhan (Kerry Conlon), spirals out of control into tragedy.  The switch from drollness to darkness makes this very much a game of two halves. 

This is a story about much more than a battle of will between two men feeling pushed to their limits.  The intense nature of closed communities, the fragility of male friendship, existential mid life crises, the origins of feuds.  And the eternal question posed in that opening quotation - is it better to be clever or to be kind?  What's better for one may be worse for the other, but it's lack of compromise that destroys.

Strong performance from all the leads, Farrell especially impressive as a simple man struggling to understand bigger questions.  Good soundtrack too.  Laughter, sadness and meaning.  What more could you want from a movie?