Favorite Films #10: Trainspotting

A Lust for the Dangerous Life in the Shithole of the World that is Scotland

“Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life...

But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?”

These opening lines in the monologue of the film’s protagonist Mark Renton set against the music of Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life where he and his friend Spud are running from the cops after a botched theft which then cuts to the many exploits of Renton, Spud, and Sick Boy all getting high on heroin with a few junkies and their supplier Swanney. It’s also shown in a montage in a small scene where Renton’s father berates his son for wasting his life away with that shit as the end of that opening sequence has Renton telling Swanney he’s off the junk in an attempt to get clean. Yet, why does he say those words in that monologue about not choosing life? Is it to defy the expectations of society or just give in the idea that there is no future in a place like Edinburgh, Scotland?

It’s among the many aspects into why Danny Boyle’s 1996 sophomore film Trainspotting is often cited as one of the best films from Great Britain. It’s a film that refuses to define itself into any genre as it’s a black-comedy with a bit of fantasy, horror, drama, and all sorts of things. Instead, it’s just a film about a group of guys living in Edinburgh where most of them are heroin addicts trying to cause trouble while one of their friends is a sociopath who isn’t addicted to drugs but rather addicted to violence. All of it is told from the perspective of Renton who is played by Ewan McGregor who lost 26 pounds and shaved his head for the part as he had previously appeared in Boyle’s debut film Shallow Grave two years earlier.

It was a film that came out in a very crucial period in Britain just as the age of British conservative rule was on its way out and would pave the way for the era of Tony Blair. It was also the same time that the world of British music was taking over through bands like Oasis, Blur, Supergrass, Pulp, and several others as there was this sense of nationalism that was emerging. Though the film represented a world that was disconnected from that new sense of excitement and still mired in a world where there hasn’t been much progress and are living off the scraps in the world of post-Thatcher conservatism. One notable scene that seems to represent that is where Kevin McKidd’s Tommy character is dragging Renton, Spud, and Sick Boy to the Scottish mountains after a bad moment with his girlfriend. Tommy tries to get everyone in a good mood by showing them the beauty of the landscape and asks, “isn’t it great to be Scottish?”

It is in that moment where Renton has this great monologue about the fallacies of being Scottish by saying, “It's SHITE being Scottish! We're the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization. Some hate the English. I don't. They're just wankers. We, on the other hand, are COLONIZED by wankers. Can't even find a decent culture to be colonized BY. We're ruled by effete arseholes. It's a SHITE state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and ALL the fresh air in the world won't make any fucking difference!”

It plays to that sense of hopelessness into why Renton, Spud, and Sick Boy go into heroin addiction and Tommy would eventually join them after his relationship with Lizzie falls apart due to the fact that Renton stole a sex tape featuring Tommy and Lizzie and switched it with a football video which Tommy never knew about. While some of the elements of the film early on are comical in a dark way, it does play into the fact that Renton is wasting his life away as he and his mates are high on heroin. Yet, that opening sequence ends with Renton telling Swanney that he’s going to make an attempt to be clean which then leads to a sequence through his narration of how he attempts to be clean in all sorts of ways. Of course, it leads to moments where Renton’s attempt to be clean doesn’t go well as he calls a guy named Mikey Forrester for one more hit only to be given suppositories.

It then would follow into one of the most disgusting moments in the film to show how desperate Renton is eager to get clean where he finds himself in the worst toilet in all of Scotland. Covered in shit and is unable to flush, Renton has no choice to use it as he is no longer constipated and then has to go through the toilet to retrieve the suppositories as it then plays into a very strange scene of him swimming underwater with background music from Brian Eno.

The man who played Mikey Forrester is Irvine Welsh who wrote the novel for Trainspotting which was published in 1993. The book was set in the late 1980s where Forrester explored the world of heroin addiction in the era of Margaret Thatcher as young men do destructive things to feed their addictions as it had a narrative that wasn’t very straightforward though it was mostly told from Renton’s perspective while it was also told through other characters. The book was discovered by producer Andrew MacDonald who showed the story to Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge in early 1994 during post-production for Boyle’s first film Shallow Grave. Eventually, the trio would approach Welsh to do a film adaptation of his novel as the film would be very different from Welsh’s book as Welsh would also get a chance to play a small role for the film.

By making the film be about Renton and his struggles with heroin, screenwriter John Hodge would create a story that had similarities to some of the great films of the past like Stanley Kubrick’s controversial 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. Particularly as Renton’s voice-over narration was filled with great detail into Renton’s struggles with heroin addiction as well as what goes in the mind of a heroin addict where they breaking the law is just a small thing. Particularly in a montage where Renton and his gang do whatever to get money to feed their addiction whether it’s trading medications with old people and other patients suffering from various diseases or to steal which includes a scene where Begbie assaults an American tourist for a festival in Edinburgh.

While the story was about Renton, Boyle and Hodge chose to make the story be more than just one man’s struggle as the film took the time to focus on Renton’s other mates in Sick Boy, Spud, Tommy, and Begbie. Jonny Lee Miller’s portrayal as the very sly yet distrusting Sick Boy is full of charm where Miller exudes a man’s determination to make Renton feel like shit in their attempts to be clean just to show how degrading it is. One aspect of Miller’s role as Sick Boy that is fun is the way he spouts out theories on everything from Sean Connery to those who had it and lost it for good where he cites people like David Bowie and Lou Reed as examples.

Ewen Bremner’s performance as Spud is definitely just as interesting where even though he’s sort of a criminal that likes to steal. There’s an element of innocence in his character as a man that wants to do well in life as he blows a job interview as he’s on speed while there’s a very disgusting moment where he wakes up in his girlfriend’s bed all hungover and realized that he shit all over the bed. Bremner’s performance is definitely full of humor as a well-meaning individual but there’s also a sadness considering what happens to him in the opening moments of the film where it’s replayed again to showcase that he is sent to prison for a while adding to Renton’s guilt much later on in the film’s second act.

Kevin McKidd’s role as Tommy is another individual who would also play into the guilt that Renton would face in the film’s second act and later in the third as his character suffers a tragic fate. McKidd’s performance as Tommy is someone that has a unique development as a man that loves the music of Iggy Pop, works out a lot, and has a steady girlfriend. All of that changes when he loses a sex tape as his girlfriend dumps him as he goes to Renton to give him heroin to drown his sorrows. When Renton later visits him as Tommy is all alone and has succumbed to his addiction as he is also stricken with AIDS. It’s a moment that is sobering to see where Renton has cleaned up his act but is carrying the weight of guilt for his action as he starts to see his friend descend further where he would eventually die but not from AIDS nor heroin addiction but in a way that is strange but also disturbing.

Of the supporting characters that appear in the film, it’s Robert Carlyle’s Begbie that makes the biggest impression of the film. Begbie is a complete psychopath who doesn’t do drugs at all as his addiction is simply hurting people. A man who will pretty much hurt anyone if someone crosses him or annoys him in some little way. There’s an intensity in Carlyle’s performance as someone who is full of swagger and is definitely a guy where if he was in a battle royal. He’d be one of the last 10 men in that battle royal where he fights for survival as he brings fear to people including his own mates.

These people in Renton’s life would play into his decision in an attempt to try and kick his drug habit but various circumstances into the hopelessness that encounters Renton and his mates would eventually come with some dark moments. Notably the moment where one of their fellow addicts has found her baby dead as the one that was most affected by it was Sick Boy. After a botched theft that led to Renton and Spud’s arrest as the latter is sent to jail while the former goes to rehab. Renton is already consumed by guilt for his actions as he returns to Swanney, played with such charisma and care by Peter Mullan, for a fix that nearly becomes fatal as it’s accompanied by Lou Reed’s Perfect Day.

It’s a moment in the film where Danny Boyle creates this very mesmerizing moment where Renton’s near-death experience is presented from Renton’s point of view as if he’s nearly close to death. With the help of renowned cinematographer Brian Tufano and editor Masahiro Hirabuko, the scene has this feeling of death where it plays into that unique visual style that Boyle creates. Yet, he would top that scene with one of the scariest sequences involving Renton’s attempt to withdraw from heroin as all of his guilt comes to ahead in this disturbing dream sequence. With the music of Underworld throbbing in the background, Renton sees those like Tommy and Spud being put into their own fates while Begbie appears to warn him about using again while Sick Boy is sipping tea. Renton’s parents appear in a TV show yet it is the image of the dead baby crawling from the ceiling that is the most shocking moment.

In the lowest of lows where Renton has realized the damage he’s done with his addiction as well as the guilt he’s carrying over his actions. There would be one person that would steer him away into a new world in the form of an underage schoolgirl named Diane whom Renton met at a nightclub and later had sex with her only to realize the next morning that she’s underage. Played by Kelly McDonald in her film debut, Diane represents the sense of youth and newness that Renton needed. Though she’s only in a few scenes, she would be the one person in the film that finally told Renton that it’s time for a change as there’s a life outside of Scotland that is very different.

Taking Diane’s advice, the film’s third act is about Renton going to London where he reinvents himself as a man selling flats to people all over London. The tone of the film sort of changes but it is to emphasize this world where London is filled with a sense of excitement that is completely alien to the dreariness of Edinburgh. With a new home and a sense of purpose, Renton starts to enjoy this new life as well as the electronic music that is there as he feels like he’s part of something that is exciting. The only person he contacts from Scotland is Diane as she is happy about his new life as she also tells him about some of the changes that is happening at home where Spud has been released while Sick Boy has reinvented himself as a pimp and a drug pusher. Yet, the most startling news involves Begbie who had stolen jewels at a diamond store and is now a fugitive where Renton realizes that his past is coming back in all of the wrong ways.

Begbie’s arrival to London would trouble Renton as he is forced to get things for his mate like cigarettes and make bets for him as Sick Boy would also arrive to London taking advantage of Renton’s new life. It’s a moment in the film that is played for laughs but also to showcase that these two men in Renton’s life are trying to drag him down back to the pit of despair. Renton makes the decision to sell them an apartment just so he can have his home back but it’s only brief as he and his mates have to return to Scotland for Tommy’s funeral. Once again, that sense of dreariness occurs where Renton has already accepted his responsibility for what he’s done to Tommy yet Tommy’s death ended up being far more complicated and troubling as it involved toxoplasmosis from kitten shit. It is added with this brief moment of humor when the man telling Renton of Tommy’s death by telling “oh, the kitten is OK” as it plays to that warped sense of humor in the film.

Renton’s return to Scotland was only to attend Tommy’s funeral but Begbie and Sick Boy rope Renton back into the dark world of crime involving heroin that the two plan to sell in London but they need the money to buy it from Russian sailors. Renton wants no involvement but Begbie knows about Renton’s bank statement as Spud wants to be part of it only for the money as Renton reluctantly has to take heroin again to test its purity. It’s a moment in the film where that sense of darkness returns as the four travel back to London to make the biggest deal of their lives where they did succeed in getting 16,000 pounds for the sale of pure heroin.

Yet, greed would eventually come to play as it becomes a worse drug than anything else these characters have consumed as Renton knows that he can’t trust Begbie nor Sick Boy with the money as the former would kill all for that money while the latter would steal it for himself. The moment where Renton realizes that he can’t trust neither of them at all is at a pub where the four are celebrating where Begbie gets into a fight with a patron and accidentally cuts Spud’s hand as he demands Renton to give him the money. It’s a very chilling moment that is told in a great visual manner where the light blurs Begbie’s face a bit as he smokes a cigarette.

It would play into this ending where all four men are sleeping in a hotel room where they did the transaction as Renton steals the money as all of them but Spud are awake. Of course, Begbie’s reaction is unsurprising as he destroys the hotel room and is arrested while Spud and Sick Boy walk away and evade the police. For Renton, it’s a moment where he leaves behind the old life that he has. Though he says that he’s going to be like everyone else, is what he’s saying is true? Or is he going to be part of the new world in his own terms? At least someone in Renton’s old life will get something from Renton’s theft as Spud finds 2,000 pounds in Renton’s locker.

The film would make its premiere at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival where not only would it steal the show despite not playing in competition for the Palme d’Or. Yet, it’s approach to promoting the film with its stylish posters was definitely off-the-wall considering the dark subject matter that it carried while its after party still remains legendary as far as many Cannes after parties are concerned. The film’s appearance at the festival wasn’t just a big deal for Danny Boyle and his collaborators but also for PolyGram Films as the film would give them another big international hit as the year sort of represented a peak for the company.

Though Danny Boyle would go on to make a wide range of films from the zombie-horror film 28 Days Later, the family drama Millions, the sci-fi film Sunshine, his 2008 Oscar-award winning film Slumdog Millionaire, the drama 127 Hours, and his most recent film in 2013’s noir-inspired film Trance. Trainspotting remains his crowning achievement where Total Film magazine named the film the fourth best film from Britain in 2004 as it would continue to pop up lists in best British films ever.

Helping the film cement its legacy is it’s music soundtrack that ranged from the 70s rock of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed to the Brit-Pop music of the times from acts like Pulp, Elastica, Blur, and Sleeper. It’s a soundtrack that captures the energy and the dark vibe of the film as it featured the art rock of Primal Scream, the ambient music of Brian Eno and Leftfield, and the pulsating electronic music of Bedrock and Underworld. It was the soundtrack that didn’t capture all of the complexities of the film but it resonated with what was happening in British music as it was OK to like indie and electronic music where it became common to see Ewan McGregor hanging out with Oasis’ Noel Gallagher where McGregor would sing an Oasis B-side in Boyle’s next film in the underrated romantic comedy A Life Less Ordinary.

It’s been more than fifteen years since the release of Trainspotting yet it’s a film that still holds up in terms of shock value, it’s off-kilter humor, drama, and energy. Part of the reason it appeals to an audience isn’t just because of its dark subject matter. It’s a film about friends rebelling against the status quo. It’s about having a good time no matter how dangerous it is. It’s about listening to Iggy Pop and playing football (not American football). It’s about life no matter how fucked up or how horrific it can be. While there’s rumors that Boyle could be making a sequel with the cast of the original which will be loosely based on Irvine Welsh’s sequel Porno. It’s obvious that it will never match the brilliance of Trainspotting but maybe Danny Boyle can do something with it. After all, choose Trainspotting. It’s a drug that is still worth taking and always manages to hold up.

Trainspotting - Trainspotting OST - T2 Trainspotting

© thevoid99 2013

Favorite Films #9: Morvern Callar

This is Dedicated to the One I Love…

A woman finds her boyfriend dead as she lies next to his body as Christmas lights start blinking around. Yet, the camera is more interested in this woman rather than this man who is now dead. Who is Morvern Callar and why does she decide to go on this adventure where she takes her boyfriend’s manuscript under her name? That is what Lynne Ramsay is trying to figure out in her second feature film based on Alan Warner’s 1995 novel called Morvern Callar. While it’s a film that could be about a woman’s grief taking her in this long-lost adventure with no sense of direction. It’s also a film where Ramsay follows this extraordinary woman who is trying to find herself through loss as she tries to figure out who she is.

Death is nothing new to the works of Lynne Ramsay where by the early 2000s, she was already becoming one of the most unique filmmakers of her generation. She began her career in the mid-1990s with a trio of shorts that each explored different ideas of loss that often centered around children in shorts like Small Deaths and Gasman. Those two shorts would play part into Ramsay’s first feature film in 1999’s Ratcatcher that followed a boy dealing with the death of another boy that he feels responsible for set in early 1970s Scotland. The film would reveal Ramsay’s talents as a filmmaker for finding beauty in something as ugly as a garbage strike set in 1973 Scotland where everything looked dreary.

If the trio of shorts and Ratcatcher were films that showed what Ramsay was able to do with exploring the idea of loss. Morvern Callar would up the ante even further in Ramsay’s fascination with death by following this young woman who is probably more lost in her grief than James Gillespie in Ratcatcher. Largely because the film opens with Morvern finding her boyfriend (who is also named James Gillespie) dead on the floor from a suicide as she has no idea how to cope with this or the instructions he’s given her in his suicide note. What she does is go to the train station to process the news, answer a phone call, and then return home to open her Christmas presents in the form of a leather jacket, a lighter, a cassette mix-tape, and cassette walkman.

Driving the film to help Ramsay explore this character’s grief is Samantha Morton who plays the titular character. Prior to this film, Morton was just an actress on the rise who had gained international attention for her work as a mute in Woody Allen’s 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown. The performance would give her an Oscar nomination as she was appearing in numerous project ranging from indies like Alison Maclean’s Jesus’ Son, art house fare like Jim Sheridan’s family drama In America, and big mainstream blockbusters for Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report with Tom Cruise.

While those films and the other projects she would do following Morvern Callar would confirm Morton as one of the best actresses of the 2000s. Her performance as Morvern Callar is the film that would finally confirm Morton as an actress who is willing to go far into playing characters most actresses wouldn’t play. There’s a risk to playing a character who is seemingly unlikable for her actions but also for the way she tries to channel her grief through doing things that brings more questions than answers to an audience. Especially a character who is quite aloof in her actions and why she seems to be running away from the fact that her boyfriend just killed himself.

Ramsay and co-screenwriter Liana Dognini chose to create a film where if one was to create a conventional story about grief. There would be a lot of melodramatic plot devices where the protagonist would cry a lot and such. Do things that seems over the top and give out answers. That is not what Ramsay does where if she and Dognini (who died in the mid-2000s) were able to create Ramsay’s version of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones if it wasn’t for Steven Spielberg to be involved for Peter Jackson to make his 2008 film version of the film that turned out to be absolute dog shit.

Instead, Ramsay and Dognini create a script where it’s not about plot devices but rather a character who could be in a state of grief and has no idea what she’s doing as she’s just this ordinary woman who works at a supermarket. She goes out to parties with her best friend Lanna, played wonderfully by then-newcomer Kathleen McDermott, who would join her on this trip to Spain where things eventually go crazy. Though Lanna might not be as developed as Morvern as a character as all she likes to do is go out and have fun. She is the one person who is trying to understand what is up with Morvern who remains lost through all of these parties and things that is happening around her.

Ramsay refuses to give answers into why Morvern is acting this way because even Morvern herself is clueless to her actions. She is probably processing everything she is dealing with while unsure about what to do. Even as she has to work at the supermarket with Lanna and then do things that a lot of people do while there’s also time to go out to a pub, have some beers, go to a club, and party. For Morvern, it doesn’t seem enough as she is still trying to sort things out where she would eventually rid of her boyfriend by cutting up his dead body and bury it somewhere in a field as if she was to erase him for good.

Still, it wouldn’t be enough as she would delve into her uncontrolled behavior where she is lost as guiding her in this lost journey is the mix-tape her boyfriend made. Compiled by Maggie Bazin and Andrew Cannon, the soundtrack is a wide mix of music ranging from country, ambient, dub reggae, alternative rock, post-rock, and pop that plays up to Morvern’s dizzying state of mind. Whether’s it’s the use of music by Can and Aphex Twin at the New Year’s party scene to capture the craziness of the party where Morvern would flash a passing sea merchant or the off-kilter insanity of scenes of Almeria, Spain with all of this percussion-driven music that is part of the rave culture. 

One notable moment of Ramsay’s brilliance in mixing offbeat music in a gruesome scene is where a half-naked Morvern chops up her boyfriend’s body with an outtake of the Velvet Underground’s I’m Sticking With You playing in the background as she’s listening to the song. One of the film’s most memorable moments is where Ramsay’s camera slowly plays to the rhythm of Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra’s Some Velvet Morning as Morvern is listening to the song as she walks around the supermarket.

It is among one of Ramsay’s gifts as a filmmaker for the way she can meld music with images in a very understated fashion. Not a lot needed to be told in a scene like that as the music also doesn’t have to say anything. It’s that kind of unconventional approach to storytelling that makes Ramsay so revered by many as she was considered one of the 40 best working filmmakers by the Guardian in 2007. Yet, it would be four more years where Ramsay would ultimately return with her chilling adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin that was hailed as a comeback. 

 If there’s one contemporary filmmaker Ramsay seems to have similarities with in terms of minimalist filmmaking, writing unconventional stories, create entrancing images, and can use music to capture the mood of a scene. It would in American filmmaker Sofia Coppola. Though both come from very different backgrounds as well as the fact that Coppola is a third-generation filmmaker. Coppola and Ramsay seem to have the same idea about how to tell a story through images rather than lots of dialogue or any kind of exposition that sets them apart from other filmmakers including more well-known Hollywood female filmmakers like a Nora Ephron or a Nancy Meyers. 

What sets Ramsay apart from Coppola and her other female contemporaries is that she is willing to go the extra mile to explore death at its ugliest form and is not afraid to make the images seem un-pretty thanks in part to the grimy camera work of her cinematographer Alwin H. Kuchler. Another attribute of what would Ramsay apart from other female contemporaries of her time are the cinematic influences she has like Britain’s Ken Loach where both seem to aim for realism in their work. The kind of work Ramsay would do in her first two films and shorts would pave the way for new filmmakers to arrive like Britain’s Andrea Arnold who definitely shares some of the realism that Ramsay and Loach provided.

Morvern Callar however, is more of a surrealistic film due to its story as Ramsay would up the ante in the film’s second half where Morvern and Lanna travel to Spain for more fun where it’s followed by these dizzying scenes of parties. One of which has Morvern having sex with a guy she doesn’t know and then comes this very colorful yet chaotic scene partying with people in a small Spanish village near Almeria. Through Lucia Zuchetti’s frenetic editing, Ramsay would create a moment that acts as a catalyst for Morvern’s growing sense of isolation where she would part with Lanna in the middle of the desert and meet the publisher who wants the book that her boyfriend wrote but under her name.

What would happen is Morvern facing an uncertain future where she is going to receive the deal of a lifetime but is still haunted by the specter of death. Death looms all over Morvern as Ramsay creates startling images that are beautiful in its ugliness. Images such as a rotting vegetable, ants and worms on a ground, a ceremony with skeletons that Morvern and Lanna encounter, and walking into a huge cemetery in the middle of Spain. The film ends with an earlier scene in Spain where Morvern is in the middle of a club where hundreds of people are dancing to break-beating techno music. Morvern however, isn’t listening to that as she is listening to a different piece of music on her headphones.

It’s a moment in the film where Morvern is breaking away from everyone and everything she had known. She receives a very hefty check for the book that’s to be published as she decides to leave for good taking a bunch of records and things into a suitcase and leaves everything behind. Even her best friend Lanna whom she offers a chance to go away again but Lanna however, is content at where she is leaving Morvern all alone.

For Ramsay to end the film like that is true to all fates for those who don’t have a sense of direction. Where will Morvern go in the end? Will she write a book about everything she just experienced or just wander her way around everything else that’s happened to her? That doesn’t matter as Ramsay and Samantha Morton allow Morvern to just be who she is now matter how fucked up she is at the moment.

While Lynne Ramsay would finally set her place as one of the world’s best filmmakers with We Need to Talk About Kevin in 2011, it would be Morvern Callar that would set the course of where Ramsay was headed. It’s a film that isn’t like anything that’s out there as it is a story of a woman that is lost in her grief and the actions that she causes in her journey into the unknown. It’s also a film where it delves into the unknown where it defies convention by just letting the camera go to see what will happen. Even if it’s for something that is unsettling and strange. Only a filmmaker like Lynne Ramsay could make something as daring and uncompromising in a film like Morvern Callar.

Morvern Callar

© thevoid99 2012

Favorite Films #8: 24 Hour Party People

This is Manchester… The Home of a Genius, a Poet, & a Twat Named Tony Wilson

Tony Wilson raves about the place he calls home that is Manchester as he cites it as the place where the Industrial Revolution was born. While commenting about the city’s historical importance inside the Hacienda nightclub that he co-founded. He also says it’s where the white man has finally learned how to dance as this unique character is dancing with the young people to the rave music of A Guy Called Gerald’s Voodoo Ray. All of this told by Steve Coogan in the role of late Factory Records co-founder Tony Wilson in a smarmy yet whimsical portrayal.

24 Hour Party People, named after the Happy Mondays song, is the story about the rise and fall of Factory Records starting from the days of mid-70s punk rock to the end of the Madchester rave culture in 1992. While a film like this could’ve been told in a traditional rise-and-fall formula that is often typical with most music bio-pics before and since this film’s release. In the hands of British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce. Conventional doesn’t exist with this film in order to make it standout from the many films about music scenes and artists that is often told in a formulaic fashion.

The film would mark the fifth collaboration between Winterbottom and Boyce as they began collaborating in 1990 for Winterbottom’s second TV film Forget About Me. The collaboration would span through various genres such as the serial-killer road drama Butterfly Kiss, the Bosnian-war drama Welcome to Sarajevo, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge in the snowy period Western The Claim, the dream-like sci-fi romance of Code 46, and culminating it with 2005’s Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story about the making of an un-filmable book. Winterbottom’s collaboration with Bryce would help him become of Britain’s most adventurous filmmakers as he would delve from one genre to another not making the same film twice.

In 24 Hour Party People, Winterbottom tackles the world of a music scene set in different periods that ranges from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s while shooting in on location in Manchester. Though the famed Hacienda nightclub had been closed in 1997 and has become an apartment complex after its 2002 demolishing. It was one of the few parts of the film where sets had to be built in order to recreate a lost period in time. Re-creating a period is one thing but to tell a story about a period in time with many famous artists like Joy Division/New Order and the Happy Mondays is another things. Particularly as they were very popular in Britain while New Order had a few major hits in the U.S. and the Mondays only experiencing minor in the U.S.

There’s a certain formula on how to tell a bio-pic about an artist, a band, or a particular music scene. It’s a formula that’s been told in numerous movies about an artist or a band. Often to the point that it becomes parody like the very underrated 2007 comedy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story by Jake Kasdan that starred John C. Reilly. There’s a lot of problems with making films that are based on facts and real people where if it was told in a documentary. It would get facts straights as well as differing opinions about what really happened. If it’s interesting and doesn’t try to reveal too much, that would be successful. In a dramatic form, it’s the trickiest thing to do where it’s not just that certain facts had to be told along with what song to highlight. It’s also about how to tell a story in a dramatic fashion to make it seem appealing to the audience. One of the problems with this approach is that there’s certain dramatic liberties that is needed to make the story more dramatic.

It’s that formula that often ruins these bio-pics because someone who knew about that scene or that artist would say “wait a minute, that didn’t happen” while an artist, if they’re alive, would say “that didn’t happen”. It’s often the downside of these dramatic bio-pics where other aspects include the stories about individuals where they want to know more about this instead of that. What Michael Winterbottom and Frank Cottrell Boyce did was to throw away the rule book and just create a story that is off the wall. Not basing it entirely on facts but legends that makes the story much more interesting.

One such scene is at the first Factory Records concert with Joy Division and Vini Reilly, in his Durutti Column moniker, are performing where Tony Wilson and club owner Don Tonay are cavorting with prostitutes in the back of a van. Tony’s then wife Lindsay (played with great enthusiasm by Shirley Henderson) catches her husband getting a blow-job as she leaves in amusement as she would later have sex with the Buzzcocks’ Howard Devoto in a bathroom. Tony catches her and leaves in disgust where he bumps into a janitor who then says, “I don’t remember any of this happening”. It is revealed to the real Howard Devoto where Tony Wilson, via voice-over commentary, states that he and Howard agree that this didn’t happen but he quotes John Ford on sticking with the legend instead of the real story.

This approach to telling the story of Factory Records’ rise and fall would lead to a series of strange cameos, offbeat jokes, and other unconventional ideas that would lead to the creating a film that doesn’t bother getting the facts right. Yet, it doesn’t need to because it is a film that is aware that not everything is true. For the audience that knows about this scene and the music, it gives them a chance to relax because they don’t have to worry about the facts. Especially since it’s told by a character who is this pseudo-intellectual twat who comments throughout the entirety of the film though he claims to be a supporting character in this film.

Still, it’s an exaggerated of Tony Wilson as the real TV journalist for Granada television that would co-found Factory Records makes a cameo late in the film directing a British version of Wheel of Fortune. It’s part of what makes the film unique as Coogan’s very cool performance points him out as he knows he’s just playing this off-the-wall version of Tony Wilson. Nothing in the film is quite realistic yet it is an engaging one because it plays up to the craziness of a music scene that started out from this local phenomenon to something that would capture the world of popular culture in Britain.

Boyce’s screenplay does have a traditional structure in the way the film sets up its rise and fall angle. Even as its narrator would point out the structure of the story as the first act of the film is about the founding of Factory Records, the legendary TV show So It Goes, the rise and fall of Joy Division, and the gig that would change everything not just for Manchester but would become a key moment in the history of British popular music. This event would be the Sex Pistols’ show at the Lesser Free Trade Hall on June 4, 1976. This scene is presented with a mixture of re-enactments and actual footage of this performance.

Why is this performance considered to be a legendary touchstone for the history of British popular music? Well, as it is explained by Tony Wilson as he narrates everything while he’s at the show. It was because this was one of the few gigs the Sex Pistols were playing outside of London at the time when they were just on the rise. What was more important about this event was who showed at the gig. Wilson, Factory Records co-founder Alan Erasmus (played by Lennie James), members of the Buzzcocks, Joy Division/New Order, Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, and future Smiths vocalist Steven Morrissey. In the film, Wilson compares this event to all sorts of Biblical events as if history was happening. Particularly for the city of Manchester were before this event, there wasn’t much of a local scene as bands who were from Manchester moved to London and became big stars.

Because of this event and the show that Tony Wilson spawned So It Goes that would introduce Britain to these new bands that would bring rock music back down to Earth. It would lead to a very humorous moment where Wilson starts a series of shows for local bands that would include an intense performance from the actors playing the members of Joy Division performing Digital with a mix of black-and-white cinematography and color to give it a home-movie feel courtesy of cinematographer Robby Mueller. Mueller’s digital photography was truly one-of-a-kind for the way it plays with style and it would evolve throughout the different periods of the story.

The mixture of grainy camera footage of color and black-and-white played up to the differing style as it was evident in the film’s first act that included a haunting performance from Sean Harris as Joy Division vocalist Ian Curtis and Andy Serkis as the brash music producer Martin Hannett. It’s part of the film’s emphasis on its rise but Curtis’ 1980 suicide that led to Joy Division’s dissolution would later foretell everything else that would happen late in the film. It is also where the second act starts as Wilson talks to the camera where his first wife has left him and he just lost a great band only to remind the audience that this film is not about him but about Manchester.

What Tony Wilson says that the film isn’t about him is sort of right. It is about people like Ian Curtis of Joy Division who was this troubled genius with epilepsy that would lead one of the most influential bands in the history of popular music. Yet, his suicide would end one era while the remaining members of Joy Division would reinvent themselves as the electronic group New Order. One of the film’s highlights in the first act, though it’s a very chilling scene, is the way Winterbottom recreates Curtis’ suicide where he just shows legs dangling above the floor while Werner Herzog’s Strozek is playing on the TV. It’s one of the rare moments of the film where Winterbottom and Boyce go into great detail to get Curtis’ final moments right exactly as it was described for so many years since his death.

Other characters that are present in this first act of the film are a series of colorful individuals like Factory Records co-founder Alan Erasmus and Joy Division/New Order manager Rob Gretton, played by Paddy Considine, who would often have scene-stealing moments of the film due to his short-temper. Considine’s performance as the late Gretton is often stated to be the most accurate performance of any of these personalities.

Andy Serkis’ performance of Martin Hannett is also a highlight of the film in every way and form as Serkis brings a lot of dark charm into this very troubled character. Notably in the scene where Tony asks him to produce Joy Division as Tony asks what he’s doing. Martin replies, “Recording… silence”. Tony says, “you’re recording silence?” as Martin replies, “no, I’m recording Tony fookin’ Wilson”. Yet, Hannett would prove to be this larger-than-life persona who often spars with Tony and later try to kill him as he would appear in part of the film’s second act as the producer for the Happy Mondays.

Characters like Gretton, Erasmus, and Hannett are among the many personalities that is explored in this film while smaller ones like Factory Records art designer Peter Saville, played by Winterbottom regular Enzo Clienti, is also presented. Yet, he is a character with quirks where he would often bring his works of art like posters and tickets late in the game while the sleeve he would design for New Order’s Blue Monday single would prove to be an expensive one. This expensive sleeve would foretell the financial misfortunes that Factory Records would experience late in the film.

It is among the many quirks presented in that film as lesser-known acts like A Certain Ratio and Vini Reilly do get a chance to shown. Though it’s the latter who is played as a joke where he’s this brilliant artist that is misunderstood and overlooked as Tony Wilson often states that his music is great music to chill out to. The real Vini Reilly does make a brief cameo in a montage where Tony lists out all of the real people who make cameos though Reilly’s cameo is only a second to emphasize how obscure he is. Tony would later claim that he’s from a longer scene that he believes will be on the film’s DVD release (it wasn’t).

While the film’s second act about the opening of the Hacienda, the success of Blue Monday, and the discovery of The Happy Mondays that led to this massive new wave of British pop culture known as Madchester. It’s a much looser portion of the film where there’s a lot of uncertainty as Tony tries to find the next big thing while there’s a lot of silly mayhem that occurs to introduce the Ryder brothers who would form the Happy Mondays. Notably this very strange scene where Shaun and Paul Ryder (played respectively by Danny Cunningham and Paul Popplewell) are throwing bread at pigeons where the bread is filled with rat poison thousands of them fall to their death as Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries is playing. It’s among one of the film’s surreal moments as Shaun Ryder would later encounter a UFO in the air as it brought down a unique individual name Bez (Chris Coghill) who would be the percussionist/mascot of the Happy Mondays.

Things would get crazier once the Happy Mondays become the focus since they were a very notorious band that did drugs, notably Ecstasy, as they would help start this new wave of rhythmic dance music with indie-rock guitars that would become part of the Madchester wave. Through surreal images where the Mondays and its backing singer Rowetta (who is played by herself) are in a bus while Tony gets caught up in this world of excess that is played in this surreal montage. Notably as it would set up everything that is to happen in the third act where Tony Wilson talks to Rob Gretton about this crazy day where he was supposed to interview someone and had to travel all over Britain in a crazed haze of cocaine.

Drugs are often the catalyst for the downfall of an artist of a music scene but this film is not one of those bio-pics. In fact, drugs do play part in this story about the rise and fall of Factory Records but things become more complicated. In early scene in the film, Tony Wilson talks to various local musicians about his ideas for Factory Records. Since the recording industry is a very seedy industry that his a long history of screwing the artist over money and recording ownership. What Tony Wilson offered to his artists that would sign with Factory Records should’ve been a great idea. The artists don’t want to get screwed over while the label heads don’t want to be screwed. Tony says that the artists had the freedom to fuck off, do whatever they want, and they split whatever profits are made evenly. All of which was presented in a contract that was written in Tony Wilson’s blood in another comical yet fun scene.

It’s a great concept for what a record label should do but the financial mishandling over the sleeve design for the Blue Monday 12-inch single and the little profit that came into the investment of the Hacienda would eventually cause trouble. Drugs, money, and mismanagement would play to the fall of Factory Records as one small but very comical scene involved Rob Gretton trying to kill Tony Wilson over an expensive table in the meeting room of the record company. Though the Hacienda was a popular club and the epicenter of the rave culture in the early 90s, Wilson stated that it never made money because people were buying Ecstasy instead of alcohol and there were more Ecstasy dealers who weren’t working at the Hacienda that did lead to some violent problems with the club.

The film’s third act does dwell into the label’s fall that included Martin Hannett’s death and the financial mismanagement of the label. Notably in the latter as New Order spent 400,000 pounds to make their 1993 album Republic in Ibiza that was quite costly at the time. Meanwhile, the Happy Mondays also made an expensive album in Barbados where things were bad as it was presented in a comical fashion as Shaun Ryder, whom Wilson claimed to be the best poet since Yates, had trouble riding lyrics. The trouble that the Mondays created would serve as the moment the label started to fall apart where Wilson ended up buying the master tapes of Yes Please! for 50 pounds only to hear the album with the people in the label with no vocals.

The timing could’ve been worse for Factory Records, who were losing lots of money and influence, as the music pendulum was now shifting back towards the U.S. as grunge started to take over. The film’s tense scene where Tony Wilson, the Mondays, and members of the Factory Records meet with London Records label head Roger Ames (played by comedian Keith Allen) where it would feature the notorious comment of Shaun Ryder saying he’s going out for some Kentucky Fried Chicken (slang for heroin). Though that comment would be followed by the band actually holding buckets of KFC, it’s inter-cut with this very dramatic moment where Tony Wilson decides to give in to Ames’ demands but reveal that he wants to be known for not selling out. Yet, it’s Rob Gretton who would have the last word as he reflects on everything that just happened.

It’s a grim ending to any scene or label that rose high and then fall big. Yet, it’s the big failures that people will remember as the film does choose to end it with one final rave that features the ghosts of Martin Hannett and Ian Curtis along all of the characters in the film leading to a very comical ending on the rooftop of the Hacienda. There, Tony Wilson is smoking grass with Alan Erasmus, Rob Gretton, and Shaun Ryder where he sees God. God, in the form of Steve Coogan, tells Tony Wilson that Shaun Ryder is indeed the greatest poet since Yates and suggests to create a compilation for Vini Reilly. It’s a funny ending where Tony tells his mates what he sees as in a very appropriate manner, Rob Gretton has the final word.

It’s a very strange way to end the film just after all that has happened to Factory Records. Still, it’s an appropriate one considering that it’s Tony Wilson’s story despite his claims to be a supporting character. Why would anyone want to end the film on a down note? After all, if you’re going to fail. Fail big. Nobody remembers failure unless it’s big. Big failures will give anyone notoriety no matter how bad it is. Sure, it will be unpleasantly but if one does it in a colorful manner. At least there’s praise for that effort to fail spectacularly.

It’s among the many reasons for why 24 Hour Party People is a such a unique film because it refuses to play by the rules of the conventional music bio-pic. Most of all, it’s carried by music that is truly unique ranging from all sorts of styles. The punk rock of the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Buzzcocks to the post-punk music of Joy Division and A Certain Ratio. Then it evolves into the early electronic music of New Order and then through more rhythmic rave-type of stuff like A Guy Called Gerald, 808 State, Marshall Jefferson, and the Madchester indie-dance of the Happy Mondays. Of course, there’s also Durutti Column in which Tony Wilson is right about. It’s good music to chill out to.

If it wasn’t for that film, people might’ve not known more about a lot of these groups. They probably realize that there’s more to New Order than just Blue Monday, True Faith, and Bizarre Love Triangle. Particularly for the fact that there’s not a lot of people that knew that New Order were Joy Division as the latter was a more acclaimed band that really should have equal stature with acts like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin before them. Then there’s the Happy Mondays who only had minor success in the American modern rock charts of the early 90s though they were very huge in Britain until they fell very hard with 1992’s Yes, Please and immediately broke up.

Then there’s the late Tony Wilson who sadly passed away in August of 2007. Despite all of the chaos he created in the fall of Factory Records and how he mismanaged everything, there is no denying of the impact he made for British music. Notably for the city of Manchester that would later open up a lot more regional scenes in the U.K. rather than having bands to go to London to make it big. This would force music executives from London to go to these cities instead of the other way around. If it wasn’t for the music scene of Manchester, there wouldn’t be the Brit-pop revolution of the mid-1990s that finally kicked out all of the established acts like Tina Turner, Phil Collins, and Bryan Adams from the radio airwaves. Kids wanted to listen to something different as that music scene left a very important legacy.

As for the film itself, 24 Hour Party People is a film that proves that a music bio-pic doesn’t have to follow the rules. If it wasn’t for that film, Todd Haynes probably wouldn’t have made 2007’s Bob Dylan bio-pic I’m Not There which was a more radical film in terms of its unconventionality and subject matter. Plus, it also proves that it’s OK to exaggerate things by telling everyone this is an exaggeration. 24 Hour Party People is that kind of film where Michael Winterbottom and Frank Cottrell Boyce just went out there and tell all the rules of the conventional bio-pic to simply fuck-off!

24 Hour Party People

© thevoid99 2012

Favorite Films #7: The Wrestler

Wrestling with Aging & Death in Darren Aronofsky’s Tale of Redemption

A man with long blonde hair that wears worn-out spandex pants is on the top rope in a wrestling ring as he is about to finish his opponent with a diving head butt called “Ram Jam”. Fans cheer as they watch this aging behemoth named Randy “The Ram” Robinson finish off an opponent to great adulation. It’s a moment that Randy lives for which is the cheers and love from a crowd that has stood by him even though his glory days back in the 1980s is long gone. With blood and sweat dripping from his head, he returns to the locker room being praised with a smaller applause by younger wrestlers who adore this revered but washed-up veteran.

It’s a scene from Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 film The Wrestler that emphasizes a man who is still doing the things he’s done more than 20 years. Now, he’s working the independent pro wrestling circuits in New Jersey as well as part-time work at a supermarket just trying to get by while living in a trailer park and drives a beat-up van. It’s a lot told early in the film as Aronofsky only reveals glimpses of Randy’s hey-day through flyers and posters in the opening credits as Quiet Riot’s Bang Your Head blares through. Then, the film cuts to this man that was a big star in the 1980s suddenly looking battered as Aronofsky wisely doesn’t show his face for about the first five to ten minutes of the film.

It is followed by a moment where Randy returns to his home in a trailer park as it’s locked because he couldn’t pay his rent. He has to sleep in his van as it’s an indication of the life that he’s living. Whereas other wrestlers from his hey-day sort of have it together whether it’s finding a life outside of wrestling where they’ve become profitable or have managed to save their money wisely and remain legends. Unfortunately for Randy, he is not one of those old men that would often pop up on a World Wrestling Entertainment TV program to be celebrated and revered by fans. He is among those who continually abuses his body by performing for a bunch of people as it would eventually lead to health problems.

The harrowing scenes of men on wheelchairs, some with lost body parts, or having to carry something as they along with Randy do meet-and-greet for wrestling fans as the numbers of these fans start to dwindle. It’s part of the harsh reality that Aronofsky creates as he wisely doesn’t linger on these other men as he sees what Randy is seeing. It’s an indication of what might happen to Randy if he wasn’t facing certain death. What is more startling is how realistic Aronofsky chose to portray the film as he is often know for creating films that were far more complex with elements of surrealism.

While earlier films like Pi, Requiem for a Dream, and The Fountain were films that had ambitions with their storylines as well as Aronofsky’s fascination with the human struggle for acceptance and reach something that is impossible. The Wrestler would mark a creative turning point for Aronofsky after the disappointing reception he received for his 2006 sci-fi drama The Fountain that was notorious for its troubled production. Wanting to aim for something that was simpler and didn’t rely a lot on visual effects or any visual tricks. It would be in a script written by Robert D. Smigel, a former editor of the news satire publication called The Onion, that would give Aronofsky a chance to go back to his early film roots as well as reach back to his love for professional wrestling.

The 1980s wrestling boom period, in which saw the end of the regional territories that defined the 1960s and 1970s, was definitely a brief period in which professional wrestling entered the world of popular culture. On one spectrum, there was Vince McMahon Jr.’s World Wrestling Entertainment (then World Wrestling Federation) that was more about entertainment than wrestling. Yet, it would feature such major stars as Hulk Hogan, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka, and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat that defined these larger than life figures.

On the other spectrum in the American South was Jim Crockett’s Promotion for the National Wrestling Alliance that featured a much more stripped down yet hard knocks approach to pro wrestling. Figures such as “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair with his Four Horsemen, Magnum TA, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, The Fabulous Freebirds, and the Road Warriors were guys that talked the talk and could also kick some ass along the way. While there were other promotions like the American Wrestling Association, it was a really great time for pro wrestling fans were competition between the companies were fierce leading to the more intense Monday Night War period between WWE and Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling (that came from Jim Crockett Promotions and the NWA) of 1995-2001.

While the film didn’t feature any of Randy’s hey-day of that period except through posters shown in the opening credits. It is clear he is trying to hold on to that claim to fame but those days are far long and gone. Having to spend money on painkillers, tans, and other things to keep up the battered physique. He would also blow his money on off-days by going to a local strip club to have a few beers and converse with a stripper named Cassidy while she gives him lap dances. Like Randy, Cassidy is a woman on her way out because of her age as she is also a single mother where the two share a bond over their age as well as their love for 80s hard rock bands in a very fun scene later in the film.

That love of the 1980s and disdain of the 1990s is a truly shared reflection of everything that had happened to the career of the man who plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson in Mickey Rourke. Rourke was definitely one of the hottest actors of the 80s who had appeared in numerous films like Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat, Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish, Barry Levinson’s Diner, Stuart Rosenberg’s The Pope of Greenwich Village, Adrian Lyne’s 9 ½ Weeks, Alan Parker’s Angel Heart, and appearing in a trio of films by Michael Cimino such as the notorious flop Heaven’s Gate, Year of the Dragon, and a remake of William Wyler’s 1955 film Desperate Hours. Despite being loved by critics, actors, and film buffs, Rourke also maintained a difficult persona as his acting career faded in the early 1990s with a series of flop that culminated with a big-budgeted Hollywood blockbuster bomb in Simon Wincer’s Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man with Don Johnson playing the latter.

Rourke would take a break from acting to forge a boxing career where he maintained a decent record of six wins and two draws though he would eventually return to acting. Despite being loved by younger actors, Rourke’s career in the 1990s wasn’t going anywhere despite notable appearances in Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of John Grisham’s The Rainmaker and Vincent Gallo’s directorial debut in Buffalo ‘66 along with work in Terrence Malick’s 1998 masterpiece The Thin Red Line though Rourke’s performance, like Jason Patric among others, was cut out of the final film. The unexpected happen in the 2000s were Rourke was slowly making a comeback in films like Steve Buscemi’s Animal Factory, Jonas Akerlund’s Spun (that saw him reunite in a scene with Pope co-star Eric Roberts), and appear in two Robert Rodriguez films in Once Upon a Time in Mexico and an adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City. 

While he would get attention for these roles, notably Sin City, it would take a lot more for Rourke to really get himself back in the good graces of the film industry. It would be Aronofsky that would come in to show his support for Rourke as he wanted him to play the part. Though Nicolas Cage was set for that part, Cage was also a fan of Rourke as he stepped aside in order to support Rourke. It would also be Aronofsky who would have the balls to tell Rourke about this role as he would make fuckin’ sure that Rourke would give the performance of a lifetime.

Helping Rourke to prepare for the role of a pro wrestler would be Afa Anoa’i of the Wild Samoans tag team that also had their hey-day in the 1980s working for the WWE. Though there would be a stuntman to do some scenes for the film, Rourke’s work with Anoa’i would pay off as he would actually wrestle in front of wrestling fans for various wrestling organizations with real wrestlers. Notably the brutal hardcore match with Necro Butcher that is one of the film’s most gruesome moments. While it’s a very key scene that’s inter-cut with Randy exhausted and getting stitches and other things cleaned up. It’s a scene that emphasize the kind of punishment that Rourke would do to play this battered character who shouldn’t be in a match that is very brutal.

It’s the moment in the film where everything is set to change where after getting some medical attention, Randy’s life would change with a heart attack as he passes out and wakes up to realize he’s in a hospital. It’s where the film has changed where Randy’s life is also about to change as the chance for a comeback in a rematch against an old rival is now unlikely to happen. Having to look at the scar on his heart and then trying to jog in order to prepare for this match. It becomes very clear that Randy won’t have a lot of time left as Aronofsky and Smigel set the tone for a very grim drama.

While it’s territory that Aronofsky had explored in his previous films, they were all presented in a stylized fashion. With this film, Aronofsky strips it all down by almost going for a very cinema verite style courtesy of cinematographer Maryse Alberti. Yet, he would also find a way to bring some very touching and light-hearted moments all thanks to Smigel’s screenplay. Notably in the relationship between Randy and Cassidy as they would bond together in and out of the strip club as both of them reveal to have very different real names. Though Cassidy would have issues of getting too close to Randy, probably due to her own tumultuous relationship with men, she would aid Randy in re-connecting with his estranged daughter Stephanie in the aftermath of his heart attack.

The character of Cassidy might seem like a play on the stripper with a heart of gold but Aronofsky and Smigel didn’t want the character to be another stereotype of characters that had been seen before. In getting Marisa Tomei, whom Aronofsky had known for some years, they would get someone who would add a new dimension to that character. Notably as Tomei went through a similar professional struggle that Rourke did after her Oscar-winning supporting performance in 1992’s My Cousin Vinny due to unusual film choices as well as trying to appease herself to Hollywood. Tomei was also embarking on a comeback thanks to films like Todd Field’s In the Bedroom and Sidney Lumet’s final film Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

Tomei’s performance is definitely entrancing to watch as this woman who goes through the same struggle of aging like Randy. Young men who go to strip clubs want lap dances from younger strippers even though she still has an incredible body. Yet, she has a child to support as there isn’t a lot that she can do as she’s performing to men that are just not interested in her with the exception of Randy. Tomei’s performance is one that is filled with a lot of charm, grit, and warmth as she plays a character that could’ve been a love interest. Instead, Tomei, with Smigel’s script and Aronofsky’s caring direction, allows the character to be a whole lot more than that as it’s a performance that would give Tomei another Oscar nomination as well as a major boost in her career.

Randy’s willingness to find solace in someone over his new reality would eventually have him to try and make amends with his estranged daughter Stephanie, played by Evan Rachel Wood. Yet, she wants nothing to do with him considering the fact that he abandoned her as he would later make a second visit with a present as the two for a moment would share a bond together. It is in Rourke’s very understated yet heartbreaking performance in which Randy reveals that he did mess up and he understands Stephanie’s anger but doesn’t want her to hate him. For a brief moment, it seems like a father-daughter reconciliation is going to happen.

Yet, this is an Aronofsky film where he doesn’t play by the rules. Since Randy has a hard time trying to fit in with the real world as he works in supermarkets. He has to be called by his real name Robin as a deli worker where it starts off fine at first. Still, the constant humiliation from his asshole boss and rude customers that culminates with one recognizing him has him quitting his job. Randy’s loneliness and his ability to fuck things up would eventually break whatever chance of reconciliation he would have with his daughter. It’s all part of what Aronofsky and Smigel do to emphasize Randy’s flaws as a man. Even though he means well and wants to do right, there’s an element in him that will destroy everything.

This of course would have him make the decision to go back in the ring despite all of the warnings about his health. Yet, what is there for him to do? He can’t go out there and do menial jobs that he’s either over-qualified or under-qualified for while being recognized for what he once was. He already lost his daughter who doesn’t want to see him again. He just ruined whatever closeness he has with a stripper he is friends with. All of that uncertainty would lead him back to the one thing he loved doing though it is clear that he might die in doing this match. The only person that would come to see him is Cassidy but under her real name which is Pam.

She would reluctantly watch him, briefly, as he goes back to the ring where he is accepted by the fans where he would give a great speech about the fact that he loves being a wrestler. Just as he would face his great nemesis in the Ayatollah (played by Ernest “The Cat” Miller) where things seemed fine. It is clear that Randy is hurting as he’s about to have a heart attack. Yet, he refuses to give in knowing that if he’s going to go out. He’s going to out his way as the last image shown in the film is Randy flying up in the air for his Ram Jam and that’s it as it cuts to the closing credits with Bruce Springsteen’s somber title song playing.

Aronofsky’s decision to end the film ambiguously was so that he wouldn’t play with audience’s expectations. There’s definitely an element of death that looms though the close-up that Aronofsky puts into Randy’s face represents everything that he’s about. He may be battered. He may be broken. He is probably seconds away from death. Yet, this is his idea of what Heaven is and what it should be. It’s a moment where Randy is grateful to have these last seconds as he’s in tears for what is about to happen. Still, it’s tears of joy that is in display as the fans are cheering for him to do the Ram Jam on the Ayatollah. These are the moments that life is worth living for. Even if it’s that man’s final seconds.

Of all the films that Aronofsky made, which includes 2010’s Black Swan, The Wrestler is definitely Aronofsky’s most accessible film. While it may not have been as harrowing and as complex as earlier films like Pi and Requiem for a Dream as well as the hypnotic-psychological drama of Black Swan. The reason The Wrestler seems to connect with an audience is because it’s about a form of entertainment that is still vibrant and still has fans despite the fact that many of those wrestlers in the 80s have either retired or are still punishing themselves in the ring. More importantly, it gave voice to those men and women who were stars in the 80s who were probably struggling after the limelight faded. Yet, it would also prove that their fans no matter how big or small have never forgotten them. Thanks to conventions like WrestleReunion and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies that precedes Wrestlemania. Fans can get a chance to see the old wrestlers and give thanks to them.

If the film was able to say thanks to the wrestling stars of the 80s, it also would revive the fortunes of Mickey Rourke. Despite winning various Best Actor honors and getting an Oscar nomination, he lost to Sean Penn for Gus Van Sant’s Milk though Penn has acknowledged Rourke as an influence. Still, it was Rourke that triumphed as he was given the role of his career and would even have his own Wrestlemania moment by knocking out Chris Jericho following a match that had Jericho mock older wrestlers including Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat to thunderous applause.

The Wrestler is the film that affirms Darren Aronofsky’s place as one of the best filmmakers working today. If it wasn’t for this film, its follow-up companion piece in Black Swan would have never been made though they’re both stylistically-different films. Still, it’s the film that proved that there’s a lot to Aronofsky than just stylized ideas. It also proves that Mickey Rourke is back and will show younger actors how it’s done. Yet, Rourke’s speech at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards says it all about how a young director was willing to take a chance on someone like him and have the balls to tell him to take this part as if it was his final role. Rourke took that chance and ultimately gave his most career-defining performance. That is why a film like The Wrestler connects not just for fans of Aronofsky, Rourke, and wrestling fans. It’s a film that connects because it has a story where everyone can root for one man doing what he loves in what could be his final moment.

The Wrestler

© thevoid99 2012