Top Five Review

It’s a high-five for Top Five, Chris Rock’s self-referential, day-in-the-life account of former alcoholic comic, Andre Allen, who cannot catch a break in being taken seriously. Rock writes, directs and stars as Allen, whose pursuit to be a respected and relevant actor has put some stand-up talent to bed.

In 2001, Chris Rock was labelled by Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, as ‘the funniest man in America’. Since then he has gone on to film projects that have hardly been critical darlings, the likes of Grown Ups and Head of State spring to mind. One might say then that Top Five’s protagonist mirrors Rock himself, someone who has never quite had the prolificacy in film as he has had in comedy. With this entry into his filmography however, he produces an authentic and, at times, hilarious depiction of the deformed, dysfunctional, deranged world of celebrity. Rock integrates his trademark gusto and high-pitched delivery, peppered with profanity, into the performance. Oh, and he jettisons in the N-word wherever possible, a predominant feature of his stand-up routines. Rosario Dawson, as a New York Times reporter who interviews Andre Allen for the entirety of the feature, grabs herself some good-ish material. Rock also over-indulges us with an array of cameos, including Adam Sandler, Whoopi Goldberg and Jerry Seinfeld, who bring the funny late on.

Certain critics might be repelled by some gross-out sequences, yet these will appeal to a broader audience, graduates of such films like American Pie and There’s Something About Mary. Also, there may be a sprinkling of the derogatory, but the substance and satire of Top Five will engage with the cultured crowd too. The wondering around the city and sporadically intelligent musings reminisce Linklater’s ‘Before’ movies, as well as Rock’s own picture with Julie Delpy, Two Days in New York. Although not all the jokes induce a laugh-out-loud reaction, some are quite middling in fact, this is Rock’s best cinematic outing to date. And like I said, it merges intellect with the, well, disgusting stuff. Think French New Wave meets the Farrelly brothers.

Far From The Madding Crowd Review

This irresistible love story, which follows Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan), an attractive and independent young woman who is courted by a triumvirate of imperfect men, has charmed many for generations. The novel has been adapted before of course, most famously in 1967 by John Schlesinger, with Julie Christie in the lead role. That particular version is known to be one of the great literary adaptations of British cinema or to put it another way, difficult to surpass.

Nonetheless, Thomas Vinterberg’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s fourth novel is a luscious revival that sweeps across the Dorset country side, with each frame indulging us in such bucolic beauty. His magisterially directed update resembles a finely acted and sharply paced period romance. It shaves fifty minutes off of the running time of Schlesinger’s classic, and the film feels sufficient in substance, not at all flabby. David Nichols screenplay, the novelist behind Starter For 10 and One Day, laces authentic characters into the boot of the narrative, rightly shunning the melodrama that exists in the original source material.

 

Carey Mulligan is excellent as Bathsheba Everdene; the character’s resilience and integrity are effortlessly distributed through Mulligan’s steely gaze and confident poise. She exhibits flourishes of playfulness too, offering the role a fresh and fun dynamic.

In regarding the somewhat unsuitable suitors, both Matthias Schoenaerts, as the stolid Gabriel Oak, and Michael Sheen, as the lonely William Baldwood, give terrific performances. Schoenaerts echoes Brando with his quiet, rumbling intensity, and Sheen rallies audience empathy for his tremulous tone and unshakable longing for Bathsheba. Tom Sturridge succeeds in being unlikeable as the supercilious Captain Francis Troy, though stumbles in being anywhere near as captivating as Terrence Stamp was in Schlesinger’s picture.

This in no way harms the film, which is, as I have mentioned, a luscious revival. Many will say it lacks an earthiness to it, but what we have here is a tonal palette of nature and class. Far From the Madding Crowd does not abscond from its roots, but it does extend its reach out into the modern world, where it conveys a plucky and grounded heroine atop of the hierarchy, not adverse to getting dirt under her fingernails. This is the best British period piece since Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice. Seek it out.