Friday 16 October 2015

Freeview films of the day ; friday 16th of october

The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009 95min.) [BBC1 11.50pm]

Thriller starring Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan. Two men kidnap a young woman and demand £2 million from her wealthy father, but their meticulously planned scheme soon goes violently wrong.

"Thriller" is a bit of a misnomer : the film is essentially a three-handed character study with the upper hand constantly rotating among the protagonists.

The always reliable Eddie Marsan leads the cast through an intense, claustrophobic film which has (to all intents & purposes) only one set and three characters ; director J Blakeson makes great use of these limitations and the film looks stylish and moody.

There's a few early scenes which might put you off but, while it may start out looking like just another kidnap-of-a-female movie it soon turns into something quite different.


The Runaways (2010 96min.) [Ch4 1.00am saturday &+1]

Biographical music drama.
Five teenagers enjoy a steep ascent to fame as part of 1970s all-girl rock band the Runaways and form an intense bond that is tested by the glare of the spotlight and an incredibly demanding manager.

Rock-pop fans of a certain age may have fond memories of The Runaways, LA based all-girl group whose rock sound was a welcome antidote to the cocaine fuelled laid-back country rock that seemed to be California's stock in trade at the time.

This biopic is based on the memoir of lead singer Cherie Currie and, therefore, is a little biased towards her contribution to the group rather than that of the two principal songwriters.

However, it's a well made film and a well told rags to riches to rags story with three excellent performances : Twilight's Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, the superb Dakota Fanning as Currie herself and Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon as legendary LA music mogul Kim Fowley, who becomes their manager.

Throughly good fun.

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