Displaying items by tag: Stephen Graham

ADOLESCENCE

UK, 2025, 4x55 minutes, Colour.

Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, Faye Marsay, Christine Tremarco, Amelie Pease, Erin Doherty, Joe Hartley.

Directed by Philip Barantini.

A television series that received immediate worldwide acclaim. It is particularly well cast in the major roles and in so many of the supporting roles, including the children at school. The screenplay has been written by veteran writer, Jack Thorne (Wonder, Radioactive, the Enola Holmes films) who was working on a new version of Golding’s Lord of the Flies at this time. He worked with Stephen Graham who brought the idea to him. The direction is by former actor, Philip Barantini, who worked with Stephen Graham in the striking film, Boiling Point, as well as the television series based on the film.

A striking aspect of the series is that each of the episodes, four, was filmed in a single take. Which gives each episode in extraordinary sense of continuity.

The idea for the series came from actor Stephen Graham, concerned about crimes committed by the young, a serious attempt to probe families, children, school and pressures, situations that lead to anger and violent crime. Each chapter provides a different perspective.

The film opens with the police, strong performance from Ashley Walters as the investigator, the police arriving, bashing their way into a house, alarming the family, arresting a 13-year-old, Jamie Miller. There has been universal acclaim for the performance, first time on screen, by Owen Cooper (who then went on to be young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s version of Wuthering Heights). There is general alarm, the boy protesting that he has done nothing wrong, the upset of the family, Stephen Graham is the father, tensions, Jamie being taken to the police station, the details of classifying him, the cell, the arrival of the sympathetic legal adviser, the decision that his father would be the responsible adult to be present in all interrogations and situations. There is the fingerprinting, the taking of blood, the offer of a meal. Then there is the interrogation by the two police officers, Jamie and some questions but, on the advice of the solicitor, offering “No Comment” about the episode. The hour-long narrative is filmed in real time, the gradual revelation of the case, the death of a fellow student by stabbing in a car park at night, the protest of Jamie, the support of his father, the audience ready to take a step further.

The second episode takes place three days later, the opportunity for the police to go to the school to question various students. There are various rumours at the school, students upset. In fact, the episode shows the difficulties in contemporary schools, some students wanting to learn, other students providing all kinds of upsets and answering back to the teachers, some of the teachers effective, others exasperated by their experiences in the classroom. And, in the middle of the interrogations, the fire alarm goes off, the scene of everybody going out to the open area, the murdered girl’s best friend having a tantrum and attacking one of Jamie’s friends, her having to be counselled by one of the teachers but her angry reaction. The police interrogate Ryan, one of Jamie’s friends, the boy was attacked by the girl in the yard. Later, when he is interrogated again, he makes for a run for it, the police pursuing him and catching him, and admitting that the knife in the killing was his. The officers son is also at the school, tension between them but his explaining to his father various aspects of  Instagram and online bullying, especially for teenagers and issues of celibacy, herself bullying Jamie. These discussions and the effect of photos and texting may be unfamiliar to many of the parent audiences watching the series.

The third episode takes place in real time, a psychologist coming for a second visit or talked with Jamie. It is seven months later. Erin Dougherty gives a very effective performance as the visiting psychologist and Owen Cooper shows even better his abilities as an actor, the verbal interaction between the two, the issues raised, especially about masculinity, sexuality, teenage understandings and lack of understanding, and an opportunity to see Jamie and an eruption of anger. This is a valuable hour in the understanding of a contemporary 13-year-old boy.

There is explicit reference to Andrew Tate and his large social media following, the “manosphere” and the implications of “toxic masculinity”, its being taken up by so many boys and young men, feeling oppressed, finding ways of asserting themselves, even brutally.

The last episode takes place 13 months after the crime. Surprisingly for the audience, the focus is once again on the Miller family whom the audience saw in the first episode. It is the father’s birthday, his wife preparing breakfast, the daughter alarming them with the news that the father’s van, he is a plumber, has been spray-painted with an insult. This changes the dynamic of the day which had meant to be happy, breakfast, going to the pictures, a Chinese meal. The point of this episode is to show the father’s anger, Jamie having mentioned to the counsellor an example of his father erupting. So much of the early part of the episode has the three in the van going to buy paint to respray over the insult, there is a huge revelation of the family dynamic. Some of those who work at the store recognise the father and gossip. He also sees the two young men who spray-painted and angrily attacks them, throwing paint over the side of his van, in a rage. On the return home, there is a wonderfully intimate scene between husband and wife, especially when Jamie rings and announces that he is changing his plea to guilty. Audiences will appreciate the father’s awareness of the cruelty of his own father towards him, his decision to be the opposite, but his own rage influencing his son who has put his father on a pedestal. The guilt of the father in trying to make his son into the stereotype, sports, tough, while his abilities were in art and drawing.

The series does not go back to the police or to the prison. It stays with the father and mother, acknowledging the past, having to live with it, and to build on it.

The crime might be one of an adolescent. But, the adolescent has grown up in a family.

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE

US, 2024, 109 minutes, Colour.

Tom Hardy,  Chiwitel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Clark Backo, Alana Ubach.

Directed by Kelly Marcel.

It seems that diehard Venom fans are quite pleased with this third film, the story of journalist Eddie Brock, Tom Hardy,, his being associated, Simbiotically is the word, with a parasite that lives inside him, Venom, transforming into a fearsome creature, helmet head and face, strong gnashing teeth, beyond pterodactyl wings… But, quite a conversational style voiced also by Tom Hardy, as an immigrant to the US, eager to see the Statue of Liberty and enjoy the American lifestyle, a gambling spree  in Las Vegas!

However, this is an episode which may not use many converts. In many ways, the film is frequently quite grotesque, not only Venom and his dark visuals as it takes over Eddie, but a grim opening, way beyond the extremities of the universe, a sinister Xenolphage who exhorts even more fearsome and ugly creatures to destroy a codex (actually inside Eddie and Venom) and annihilate the world.

Tom Hardy, who  contributed to the story with the writer of all three Venom films, Kelly Marcel, who now directs, tends to be fairly weary of it all while Venom is excited! And the film is very episodic, a kind of Roswell site about to be demolished, Chiwiltel Ejiofor is the military commander, Juno Temple an ambitious scientist, the exploits in the underground laboratories exploring parasites and Symbiotes. Eddie and Venom are in Mexico, board a plane (on the outside) for New York are involved in a sky high confrontation with monsters, falling to earth, and continually pursued by the military.

Then, cheerfully, there is a rather hippie family, led by Rhys Ifans, believing in aliens and eager to see them, giving Eddie a lift who befriends the family. But, Venom is eager for a Las Vegas experience, Sally playing the machines and losing.

But, everyone comes together at the site to be abandoned, all kinds of special effects, explosions, pursuits, mayhem… But, of course, the ending (for most if not all). A distraction came while watching the film, and a felt need for distractions for the reviewer, wondering what would God’s response be as God sat down to watch Venom, thinking about the wonders of creation and realising that it might be beyond divine powers to imagine such a grimly contorted scenario as this one!)

1. Venom in the Marvel Universe? Preceding films? The continuity? This film is a climax?
2. The theory of Symbiotes? Origins, appearance, creatures and monsters, helmet heads, teeth, tongues, wings, transformations? Linking with humans? Two personalities in one? With Eddie, his history, previous crises, the death of Patrick?
3. The opening, the extremes of the universe, grim and dark, the Xenophage, bound, voice, the other creatures, the mission, the target, the Codex? The mission to Earth?
4. Eddie, his personality, his link with Venom, Tom Hardy using both voices? In the bar, drunk, the drinks, the bartenders, the manifestations? The future, to leave Mexico, to go to New York, the Statue of Liberty?
5. Introduction to Teddy Paine, the dream, with her twin brother, to be an astronaut, the storm, his death, her waking, call to work, her work with the Symbiotes, Sadie as her assistant? Her interactions with Strickland? The laboratory, below the Earth, elaborate? The work, the samples? Investigations? Reviving Patrick, the interrogations, his information?
6. The situation with the plant, extensive, to be decommissioned, three days, the remnants?
7. The targeting of Eddie, the mechanisms for surveillance, tracking him? The squads available to Strickland, the pursuit, the fight on the plane, the helicopter and the military, dropping into the water, confrontation with them, their deaths? The consequences for Strickland? His return to the plant?
8. The encounter with the family, Martin, his background, preoccupation with aliens, gathering the family, travelling in the van, his wife’s support, the delight of the little boy, the questionings of the daughter? The encounter with Eddie, his friendliness, Eddie trying to keep Venom under control? The singing of the David Bowie song? The bonding, dropping Eddie in Las Vegas, giving him the $20?
9. The Las Vegas episode, Venom wanting to gamble, the lack of money, hitting the poker machines, the people observing? Eddie looking drab, the encounter with the man in the suit, Eddie looking respectable? The encounter with the friend, up to the apartment, Venom enjoying the dance?
10. Eddie, to the plant, with Teddy Paine, with Strickland, the encounter with Patrick and the explanations?
11. Martin, the family, arriving at the site, under the fence, on the tower, able to observe everything, the collapsing tower? The final disillusionment with aliens!
12. The buildup to the confrontation, the special effects, the creatures arriving, the commands of Xenophage, the staff, the destruction of the underground laboratory, on the surface, the Symbiotes escaping, making contact with Teddy Paine, the pursuit of Sadie?
13. The buildup to the final drama, Strickland being wounded, on the platform, his code and eyes, setting the destruction in process? The explosion and destruction?
14. The aftermath, Eddie, the hospital, separation from Venom? And the views of the Statue of Liberty?
15. The final credits, possibility for future Venom stories?