Movie Reviews: The Forever Purge defeats its own purpose - but it works
The Forever Purge: nails its colours to the mast
The idea of (18s) seems to defeat the original purpose, which allowed for America’s citizens to purge themselves of their violent impulses once a year, and for a specific 12-hour period. There’s an inevitable logic to the fifth instalment of the Purge franchise, however, as an unholy blend of gun violence, intolerance and political chicanery results in ‘the first real Purge’, in which the ultimate objective is ethnic cleansing.
Wealthy white Texas rancher Dylan Tucker (Josh Lucas) is a closet racist, but when the economic underclass – led by his disaffected employee Kirk (Will Brittain) – targets his family for execution, Dylan is forced to establish an uneasy detente with his immigrant Mexican cowhand Juan (Tenoch Huerta). Meanwhile, Juan’s wife, Adela (Ana de la Reguera) is a battle-hardened veteran of a war against the Mexican cartels, and is determined to face down the horde of paramilitary rednecks who want her and her kind out of America, or dead.
Written by James DeMonaco and directed by Everardo Gout, The Forever Purge (a direct sequel to The Purge: Election Year (2016) is a dystopian vision of ‘the United States of Hate’ that is depressingly plausible, with ethnic minorities – but especially Hispanic immigrants – the target of a nationwide pogrom perpetrated by self-styled ‘true patriots’.
The film rejoices in bitter ironies, such as when Mexico and Canada open their borders to allow the pogrom’s intended victims to flee to safety, or when the Native Americans of south Texas give the privileged whites shelter and sustenance on their reservation, but despite the crushing brutality on show, the movie offers a glimmer of hope – the guttering flame of freedom is kept alive by ‘true Americans’, those who understand that the country was built on the backs of the huddled immigrant masses yearning to breathe free. At least, that’s the Great American Myth, and The Forever Purge deserves credit for nailing its colours to the mast. (cinema release)
The animated sequel (PG) also offers a homily on how society functions best when we all accept one another’s differences, although it does so – thankfully – in a much lighter tone. Stone Age wanderer Guy (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) is experiencing the joys and wonders of teenage love with Eep (Emma Stone) as the movie opens; naturally, Eep’s father Grug (Nic Cage) frowns upon their plans to establish their own tribe (although, given his prominent brow, Grug tends to frown upon everything).
Matters take a radical twist when the tribe stumble across a paradise overseen by Hope (Leslie Mann) and Phil Betterman (Peter Dinklage), Stone Age hippies who preach love, peace and civilisation, and who immediately commence plotting to marry off Guy and their daughter Dawn (Kelly Ann Tran). What’s a Guy to do? Joel Crawford’s movie represents a clash of civilisations, in which Grug insists that ‘the pack’ must never change, although given that Hope and Phil argue for agriculture, toilets and hot showers, poor old Grug is fighting an uphill battle all the way.
Much of the humour, of course, is derived from grafting contemporary sensibilities onto a prehistorical world (the teenage Thunk’s (Clark Duke) discovery of the ‘window’ as a means by which he can observe the world anew is a running gag), and the animation is beautifully observed (witness the nuances in Eep’s facial quirks that superbly evoke the real-life Emma Stone), and particularly when it comes to the exotic hybrid creatures that inhabit the Croods’ landscape – spider-wolves, Punch Monkeys, et al.
Funny, warm-hearted and deliciously detailed, The Croods: A New Age is another impressive animation from the DreamWorks stable. (cinema release)
Dirt Music ****
Adapted from the novel by Tim Winton, (15A) stars Kelly McDonald as Georgie, an Australian nurse who has abandoned her vocation to become the partner of Jim (David Wenham), a cray fisherman on a remote Australian coast.
Dissatisfied with her lot, Georgie is intrigued when she encounters the loner Lu Fox (Garrett Hedlund), a former musician now ‘living like a ghost’ as he scrabbles for a living by poaching Jim’s cray. Soon Georgie and Lu have embarked on a torrid affair, both knowing that it can’t possibly end well... Gregor Jordan’s film is a muted, downbeat romantic drama entirely rooted in its stunning landscape, which cinematographer Sam Chiplin fairly ravishes with his cameras.
Hedlund puts in a strong turn as the complex Lu, who is haunted by the death of his beloved niece Bird (Ava Caryofyllis), but Kelly McDonald dominates proceedings with quietly brilliant performance as a woman who belatedly realises that happiness is finally within her grasp, and is prepared to go to any lengths to secure it. (streaming release)
