September issue - Magazine - Page 27
Glenside
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ENTERTAINMENT
CINEMA & TV REVIEWS
By David Taylor
Relay (Cert 15)
is out in cinemas from Oct 31
Relay is a crackerjack 1970s-style paranoid thriller that
stars Riz Ahmed as a freelance intermediary operating in
a grey area of the New York corporate world, brokering
clandestine deals between whistleblowers and their
employers. To preserve his anonymity, he uses an oldschool telephone relay service designed for the hearingimpaired, whereby the negotiating parties type their
into performing one last hurrah in New Orleans, with
dozens of Easter eggs to find and amusing guest
appearances by Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth
Brooks, Questlove, Lars Ulrich et al, not to mention a
spectacular turn by percussionist extraordinaire Valerie
Franco as the band's over-eager new drummer. But don't
be under the misapprehension that co-creators Rob
Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry
Shearer have entirely run out of fresh targets to ridicule:
Chris Addison's supporting role as Simon Howler, a
music promoter with absolutely no interest in music, is a
dagger stuck in the back of Simon Cowell by a silent
assassin. But hey, enough of my reviewin'. Whaddya say?
Let's boogie!
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (Cert PG)
is out in cinemas
messages to be spoken by dispassionate operators. His
objectivity gets put to the test when he takes up the case
of a scientist (Lily James) who fears for her life after she
threatens to reveal that the CEO of a biogenetics company
is engaged in a major cover-up. It's a tribute to David
Mackenzie's fluid direction and Justin Piasecki's clever
script that you get so engrossed in the story that you
barely notice that almost 30 minutes have passed before
Ahmed's first spoken line of dialogue, nor that the two
main characters don't meet face to face until 80 minutes
into the movie.
The End Continues might also serve as a more
appropriate subtitle for Downton Abbey: The Grand
Finale, which piles ending upon ending until they're
stacked higher than the crenelated tower looming over the
Yorkshire estate. Even the late Maggie Smith gets a
lingering send-off, albeit only as one of those creepy
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (Cert 15)
is out in cinemas
Having pretty much already skewered the music industry
to perfection in the classic mockumentary This Is Spinal
Tap in 1984, one might well ask whether the world really
needs Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. While it's a more
melancholy and reflective comedy than the original and
unlikely to win over any new converts, diehard Tapheads
will be in heaven as the ageing headbangers are coerced
family portraits where the eyes follow you round the
room. The rest of the film constantly teeters on the edge
of parody, with much hand-wringing after the divorce of
Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) exiles the Crawley clan
from polite society – nothing that a witty ditty from Noël
Coward (Arty Froushan) can't sort – and Lord Grantham
(Hugh Bonneville) all but reaching for his service
revolver at the indignity of having to downscale into – oh,
the shame! The horror! – an apartment, after bumbling
Cousin Harry (Paul Giamatti) speculates away the family
fortune in the Americas. It's strange that the gilded
nostalgia that the film is peddling is for an era defined by
the very elitism, snobbery and hypocrisy it is
simultaneously condemning.
Honey Don't! (Cert 15)
is out in cinemas
Still professionally estranged from his brother Joel, Ethan
Coen's new film, co-scripted with his wife Tricia Cooke,
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