Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story

Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story 1/2

On a normal day (let alone a week-end) I would never have chosen to watch anything on Savile to be completely honest. Just the sight of the man alone creeps me out beyond belief.

But it just happens that I’m currently working on a TV series which is all about the moments in history when the BBC became the news, instead of broadcasting it, so I guess this two-part documentary (nearly 3 hours which I’ll never get back) however bleak and unwelcome, felt like homework that I had to do.

I’m finding it quite hard to talk about it mostly because I strongly believe it feels wrong to use such a national tragedy for what’s essentially just “Netflix entertainment”, without any real lessons to learn.

The series is of course handsomely crafted and meticulously researched, but to me the biggest problem was the actual concept of documentary itself and what it choose to focus on.

It’s clearly aimed at people outside the UK, possibly Americans, who have very little (if not zero) knowledge about Savile himself. But even with that in min, I found very problematic how it spent the best part of the first two hours pretty much going through the honours and glories or the man, without hearing a single testimony from any of the victims.

In fact the first episode could almost be mistaken for one of those obituary pieces they usually release when a “standard” celebrity dies. Of course today we are watching it with the “privilege” (so to speak) of hindsight. The knowledge of what we know, even if just the headlines, helped by gloomy music, horror-like sound effects and creepy freeze frames, film burns and other visual tricks, put us in a position to juxtapose the celebratory images we see on the screen. with the bleak reality.

Unfortunately much too often the documentary makes no effort to break that spell, to stop the charade and to shout “hold on a second, while this man is being so revered by everyone, he’s also abusing around 400 hundreds victims, some as young as 5!”.

We all know that’s where we are heading to, but unbelievably the revelations (the “horror” from the title) are relegated to the second half of the last episode.

Before we get there we have to sit slow successions of examples over examples of how enraptured the nation was by this monster (all preeented in a slightly confused cronology): his close friendship with Margaret Thatcher and Prince Charles, his many appearances with all possible celebrities from the Beatles to the Pope, his 40+ years on television from “Jim’ll Fix it” to “Top of the Pox”, to the countless guest appearances, as well as his charities work, his MBE and so on. The film is full of repetitions and after a while one story of his successes looks like the next one.

I could have done with a quick 5 minutes montage at the front to do all the work that the first 2 hours did.

In fact if you look at the trailer for the series, it does a great job at conveying all that in just a couple of minutes. That man doesn’t really deserve such detailed analysis of his work. Also, what about his life before his all that fame?

Once the revelations finally do come, the documentary feels rushed, avoiding any psychological analysis or any specifics, not so much on his crimes, but on how we was able to get away with it beyond the fact that he was basically too huge.

The documentary fails to answer crucial questions, like the BBC mishandling for a start, and to acknowledge the danger of the silence from all those people who suspected something, those who brushed it under the carpet and those who pretended they didn’t see anything.

This is an important story, but only if we use it to learn from it. Learning about Savile’s accolades is pretty pointless at this stage.

I think there is a better documentary to be made, not so much about Savile and his crimes, but about how we can prevent this shameful history to repeat itself again.

On Netflix

The Invisible Thread

The Invisible Thread

Director: Marco Simon Puccioni. Cast: Filippo Timi, Francesco Scianna, Francesco Gheghi Jodhi May

Hidden away somewhere inside the never-ending well that is the Netflix catalogue, is the first feature-length “dramedy” by Italian documentary-maker Marco Simon Puccioni, a semi-autobiographical coming of age that explores that “invisible thread” from the title (il Filo Invisibile in Italian) that binds us together, whether genetically connected or not.

The story centres around Leone, a teenage son of two fathers, played by Francesco Gheghi, an Italian version of Timothèe Chamalet, the only type of young actor independent film-makers seem to go for these days.

Leone making a documentary for a school project about what he calls “My Colorful Family”. It is through this device that, earlier on in the film, we learn how an American woman helped his two dads to bring him into the world.

We also have a peek into the apparent idyllic daily life of this family, seen as an example of unity, openness and complicity, despite the many legal and social struggles gay families have to go through in Italy, a country still steep in prejudice, confusion, misunderstandings and rhetoric when it comes to any LGBTQ+ issues.

It is a rather messy film which can never quite get its tone right, sometimes broad comedy, other times insightful and even rather touching. As I was watching I was constantly pulled in all sorts of directions, often laughing at some of the film’s over-the-top (and very Italian) portrayal of family dynamics, rolling my eyes at some really cheesy lines in the scripts and stumbling through gaping holes in some of the characters’ motivations (Leone’s girlfriend, for example, is probably being the worst offender). But I was also occasionally pleasantly surprised by some very smart choices, genuinely funny moments and acute observations about society today and people’s feelings in general.

It is clear that the material is very close to the director’s heart and despite the overall messiness, the many subplots and some slightly heavy-handed sentimentality (and over-acting by some of the players), I have to confess that by the end I was actually won over and even moved by its warmth and well-intentioned honesty.

This sort of melodrama probably plays better to an Italian like me, but the feelings the film talks about are pretty universal and will certainly make it likeable to anyone else too.

On Netflix

The Bad Guys

The Bad Guys 1/2

Director: Pierre Perifel. Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina Craig Robinson Richard Ayoade Anthony Ramos

Not every animated film needs to be a life affirming experience, nor does it necessarily need to have any deep, profound or meaningful metaphor underneath. And of course it doesn’t have to break any ground with new technical achievement. In other words, not every animated film can be made by Pixar or Miyazaki.

Sometimes it’s OK to have something that is just mindless fun, pure entertainment and… with lots of fart gags!

Based on children’s book series by Australian author Aaron Blabey and riffing on the heist-movie genre, “The Bad Guys” follows a band of bank robbers, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake, Mr. Shark, and Ms. Tarantula, all of whom look like they could be straight out of one of the Ocean’s films.

After a heist gone wrong, they’re sent to prison. In an effort to avoid doing time behind bars, they’re forced to turn good … or at least pretend to, until the next con.

French animator director Pierre Perifel, channels a 70s vibe both in the soundtrack and the visuals, arcing back to the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons and taking inspiration from those classic car chases from films like “Bullit” or “Gone in 60 seconds” and even “The Blues Brothers”.

It is an incredibly fast-paced film, with never a dull moment. Occasionally it risks to drift into complete chaos (the final chase, for example, is a bit “over-the-top”), but it’s beautifully constructed, never confusing and often even surprisingly clever.

The film might not that emotional layer we’ve grown to appreciate in the post Pixar-era and in some of the most recent animated films, but what lacks in depth and subtlety, certainly gets compensated by the kinetic frenzy and the exuberant sense of fun.

It’ll also keep you guessing thorough a series of (mostly) unexpected twists and turns right to the end credits (In fact, make sure you stick around for epilogue).

All of that is then topped up by a great voice cast, with names like Marc Maron, Anthony Ramos, Craig Robinson, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade and led by lead by Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, who oozes coolness and swagger to shame even George Clooney’s Ocean character. They may be voicing “bad guys”, but there’s certainly not a bad performance among them.

I went in, taking my son and his friends, expecting the worse, and we all left the packed Chiswick Cinema with a big smile on our faces.

A pleasant surprise!

Ron’s Gone Wrong

Ron’s Gone Wrong

Directors: Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine, Octavio E. Rodriguez. Cast: Jack Dylan Grazer, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms Olivia Colman Rob Delaney Justice Smith Ruby Wax

This animated film came in and out in the blink of an eye and nobody really noticed it. It’s now on having a second life on Disney+, like most things today.

The basic plot of the lonely boy who’s befriending a Robot, who’s hunted by a big corporation is clearly nothing new: this is essentially “E.T.” for a new generation (though, they should probably watch Spielberg’s masterpiece first!).

Set in a future world where technology rules and pretty much every child has a B-Bot, which are essentially walking smartphone-like oval-shaped robots which help kids cross roads make connections with “friends” without the burden of social interaction.

It’s obviously a cautionary tale, not just for our children but for most of us grown-ups too (says a man who spends pretty much 16 hours a day in front a screen) about what it means to live online.

It’s not by chance that the B-Bots of this film seem to be designed by Apple.

The film has definitely high moral standards and ideals, but ultimately it doesn’t have the edge, nor the inspired comedic timing of “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” (one of the most pleasant surprise in animation from last year), nor the poignant and emotional weight of Wall-E, or the heart of E.T.

Eventually the film chooses an easier and just colourful route. It ticks all the “entertainment” boxes, all rather predictable and eventually muddles up and dilutes the central message, abandoning and pretence to explore the emotional fragility of children, preferring instead a route which is just fun and loud (My Goodness this film is is NOISY!)

I don’t want to sound too down on this. It’s a perfectly good film and definitely above the average, but with so much potential, I really wanted it to be better.