The Nice Guys Shane Black Interview

Lethal Weapon legend Shane Black sits down in London to talk about his latest 70′s set buddy film The Nice Guys, pairing Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling

So let’s start with how the film came to being made?

For me the sort of bone-deep kind of DNA of this thing started when I raided my father’s bookshelf when I was a kid. I had a friend, Anthony Bagarozzi my writing partner, and together the two of us decided there weren’t enough private eye movies, not enough old-school, tough guy sorts. So we set out to write this movie, sharing characters – which isn’t how you can write a film – and we came up with something over the years that in various variations managed to fall upward, got the right actors and 13 years later you have The Nice Guys. We are actually quite happy with the result.

A lot of the films you’ve made are set at Christmas, The Nice Guys it is set in October, any reason it isn’t set at Christmas?

The idea is, I had various reasons for setting things at Christmas but the one thing I didn’t want to do is keep doing it once people noticed, because it was my little delicious secret and had meaning for me. Then questions like this one…

There are some brilliant surreal moments within the film, specifically the bees. How do you have that first sketch meeting and introduce such a surreal, brilliant concept?

Here is the good news where that is concerned. The pitch consists of a man, Joel Silver, if I can convince him (laughter). He would look at me sometimes and be like, what? But he gets on board and we have a similar sensibility that goes back 30 years. Even after I had done a very successful film, Iron Man 3, afforded an opportunity to do something with it I went back to Joel. Joel who I have enjoyed my best financial, no that’s not true (laughter)…

What was it like to work with the younger cast?

We can’t say enough about this little girl, I confess I have read a few reviews and they mention her. I went to her and said “are you aware of the press you are getting, you stole the movie”, and she said “I haven’t really read…really?” She doesn’t even know she is good, she is just this wonderful, guileless little girl and God bless us we found her when we did.

You have alluded to the fact that if this film is as fantastically successful as we know it should and will be, you have some quite specific ideas for where you might like to take the characters forward?

All I can say, as I have a bit of canoodling to do on that actually, I love this idea of a sort of time-locked franchise, which means it will never catch up to us. So the sequel will be something in the 80s on an issue of that era, so we can throw these guys up against that wall and see what sticks. I think a fun idea is a timeless private eye who proceeds through a series of historical in incidents but will never get to the present day.

Matt Bomer On The Nice Guys Bad Guy

Smoldering star Matt Bomer adds some menacing fun to Shane Black’s 70s era buddy film The Nice Guys, starring alongside Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. He sat down in London shortly before the film’s European Premiere and revealed how he felt about the role and one of the more shocking moments of his performance.

John Boy is terrifying without saying anything, just in his demeanour. Was that great to bring to life?

Oh yeah, I mean it is always fun to paint with different colours and play these kind of roles you aren’t typically thin-sliced as, and to do it with these people. I am essentially a fan boy who is lucky to be along for the ride. Shane and Joel are a huge part of my cinematic upbringing: to watch two of my favourite actors create this incredible symbiotic comedic performance where one doesn’t work without the other and every take is different, it was just an incredible education for me.

 What was it like, to throw a 13 year old girl through a window?

Angorie is such a consummate professional that, you know, it was the first thing I filmed and I had to throw a young girl through a window and I immediately felt the need to ingratiate myself to these young girls, and that I was a parent and it was just pretend and they just stared at me blankly and were like, so? Throw me through the window, what you got? That’s it? I want another take! So yeah, they took me to school.

X-Men: Apocalypse Review

The Plot

With the emergence of the world’s first mutant, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), the X-Men must unite to defeat his plans for the extinction of humanity.

The Good

Since 2011’s X-Men: First Class, Fox studios have been working towards, and succeeded in rebooting the mutant comic book franchise with a younger cast and period settings while still very much keeping it all slightly tied in with the original trilogy that arguably kicked off the super hero genre at the turn of the century. With X-Men: Apocalypse, the action is at it’s highest since perhaps The Last Stand. The titular villain, an all powerful mutant who has existed for tens of thousands of years comes out of essentially a really long nap in order to destroy everything around him with the help of his four horsemen, Magneto (Michael Fassbender - returning for the third time) Angel (Ben Hardy), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Psylocke (Olivia Munn).

Meanwhile, battling Apocalypse, we get the return of Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Professor X (James McAvoy) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) as well as some new members including Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan as Jean Grey and Cyclops respectively. While the old familiars bring another impressive performance – Evan Peters again gets a scene stealing moment much like the one that won fans over in Days of Future Past – Turner and Sheridan bounce off each other in such a small but powerful way as their on-screen romance begins to present itself. Turner in particular gives one of her greatest performances as the young Jean Grey, even outshining Famke Janssen’s incarnation from the original trilogy.

And with Hugh Jackman’s final turn as Wolverine upcoming, returning writer Simon Kinberg and director Bryan Singer manage to fit in a brilliant tease to whet our appetites for the recently announced R-rated version of Wolverine. It’s a shame his appearance was already given away in the final trailer and not saved for a surprise cameo as First Class managed to do.

The Bad

Unfortunately, Apocalypse manages to slip too easily into the traditional over-use of destruction which is especially disappointing given that the biggest strengths in the two previous films came from the intricate and entertaining storylines. Here however, the plot feels somewhat missing. Apocalypse’s plan doesn’t get enough focus and his intentions are less fleshed out, making him feel like X-Men’s version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ultron but worse. Apocalypse is presented as an all powerful mutant yet he still needs four accomplices to help him and spends most of the film dragging us along with him as he collects them.

And though this latest instalment is set in the 1980’s after exploring the 60’s and 70’s in the last two, the setting is not captured as well as it has been before. While there are a couple of nice moments such as the previously mentioned Quicksilver sequence and a small scene which manages to sneak in a Star Wars reference (while also managing to make a knowing dig at the difficulties of third instalments), that’s about all we get for an 80’s feel.

The Ugly Truth

X-Men: Apocalypse reintroduces some fantastic new performances from Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey and Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops and teases the upcoming Wolverine sequel well, but stumbles on its over-use of action and fails to utilise its 80’s setting nor it’s all powerful villain.

Review by Johnny Ellis

Everybody Wants Some!! Review

The Plot

A group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.

 The Good

Writer/director Richard Linklater’s latest offering since 2014’s Boyhood is an impressive ensemble piece which harkens back to his early career. Everybody Wants Some!! is undoubtedly an inspired sequel to Dazed and Confused in every way but its story. Though there’s no surprise cameo from Matthew McConaughey  at any point, his appearance or indeed the addition of any of the Dazed and Confused cast wouldn’t have felt out of place.

Fortunately the cast we get brings a great ensemble piece to the screen, instantly settling you in as a part of this new year baseball team in the 4 days leading up to the start of term. As the freshmen begin to familiarise themselves with their new roommates, teammates and fellow college students with a delightful 80s soundtrack to bring the world of the 80s to life. Blondie, Pink Floyd, and of course Van Halen who are the inspiration for the film’s title, are just a selection of artists featured and are worth the price of admission alone.

But let’s not forget the actors. It can’t be stressed enough that the wonderful ensemble is perhaps the biggest part that makes this film a success. While none of them are particularly well known, they each have they’re moments. Blake Jenner’s Jake is a strong lead and gives a nuanced performance which works well as he tries to woo Zoey Deutch’s Beverly who is instantly loveable. Meanwhile the supporting actors include such stand out performances as Wyatt Russell’s kooky pothead Willoughby and J. Quinton Johnson as college mate Dale in his first on screen performance. Johnson in particular is one to look out for in the future.

The Bad

Anyone looking for a particularly rich storyline will be left feeling underwhelmed slightly. Spanning just 4 days, Linklaters script doesn’t bring anything particularly exciting to the screen, instead giving over to the feel and tone of this period piece. The meatiest storyline comes from the beginnings of a romance between Deutch and Jenner but don’t expect it to be of Before Trilogy standards. It’s still perfectly fine however. If you weren’t a fan of Dazed and Confused this one perhaps isn’t for you.

The Ugly Truth

Richard Linklaters latest gives us a great ensemble performance with a host of non-household names and a backdrop of great 80s hits to tap your foot along to. What it lacks in story it makes up for in tone. Steer clear if you weren’t a fan of Dazed and Confused however.

Review by Johnny Ellis

Sing Street Review

The Plot

 In 1980s Dublin, Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) escapes his strained family life by starting a band to impress the mysterious Raphina (Lucy Boynton)

 The Good

 Writer/director John Carney (Once, Begin Again) revisits Dublin in his third feature length film, with the music and madness of the eighties as the backdrop. Sing Street captures the essence of the music of the era perfectly while introducing a collection of original songs that fit in just as flawlessly. Slotting between excerpts from bands like Duran Duran, The Cure and The Jam we have songs with such captivating titles as ‘The Riddle of the Model’, ‘Brown Shoes’ and the toe tapping ‘Drive It Like You Stole It’ from the titular school band, Sing Street.

As with Carney’s previous films, the music is one of the most important aspects of Sing Street. While he doesn’t necessarily capture the same magic he found with Once, Sing Street’s music is a step up from the last attempt in Begin Again, and is amplified by the strong central performances. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Lucy Boynton have a wonderfully realistic and raw chemistry , bouncing off each other seamlessly. The same goes for Walsh-Peelo and Jack Reynor as his on-screen older brother and teacher of all things music, Brendan, while they lock themselves away from the constant fighting between parents Aiden Gillen and Maria Doyle Kennedy. One of the films best scenes comes from a small and intimate moment between the two siblings and their sister, Ann (Kelly Thornton) as they dance together in the confines of Brendan’s room.

The rest of the support cast, made up mostly of Conor’s school/band mates bring their own touches to the story with Ben Carolan’s Darren bringing some good laughs as the band producer/music video director while Mark McKenna’s Eamon giving off hints of John Lennon about him as Conor’s co-writer. Carney’s ability to bring together this list of relatively unknown young actors and pull off a joyous and at times moving story is more than enough to keep his name in your memory in future, if Once didn’t already do that for you.

The Bad

The only slight downside to Sing Street involves it’s thought provoking ending. Without giving too much away, it’s certainly a climax that will either work for you or not. Either way it will still hang in your memory long after the credits roll.

The Ugly Truth

John Carney brings another selection of catchy music and adds a genuinely heartwarming story with the help of cast of relatively unknown names. Sing Street will burrow itself into your head and will undoubtedly make you pleased it has.

Review by Johnny Ellis