The Cavalry is just over the Horizon: Manchester United

Please note: I have no inside information.

Let’s be honest, so far it hasn’t been the best of seasons for Manchester United. There was always going to be a lot of attention on the club in the first season since Alex Ferguson left. Which players would leave? Which ones would come in? Would tactics change? The answer to three of those have been disappointing, ranging from a shrug of the shoulders that no one left to flat out disbelief at who came in.

The summer transfer window was, to put it lightly, a god awful mess. The only first team squad player that came in was Marouane Fellaini and that was on deadline, after a number of failed attempts and “something” that happened with Athletico Bilbao and Ander Herrera.

With it looking like Juan Mata will join the club and add to the attacking options at the club, specifically centrally, questions will be raised about who could be on their way out, but also who will joining next. As at the very least, this kind of signing shows that Moyes is capable of bringing in world class players, even if the stars did align somewhat beneficially.

Future signings will be more of a challenge, but have to be made if this team is going to dragged, kicking and screaming back into top four contention and the hope of winning the Champions League.

So let’s speculate, or dream about who we could (hopefully) see pulling on the red shirt. Just before we start, I’m not saying all should be signed, just that a few of these could certainly help.

Arturo Vidal:

Long rumoured to a be a target of Moyes, but even without knowing that, this is kind of player that the midfield has needed for the best few years. A strong powerful box to box midfielder, equally capable of breaking up attacks as he is at scoring, as proved by his recent hat trick at Copenhagen in the Champions League.

Self proclaiming himself as the best player in the world in his position, it is hard to argue with his statement, there aren’t many who offer so much and dominate games with such regularity as Vidal. The biggest problem with United’s midfield is the lack of forward runs and goals, they are capable of stifling attacks, but when it comes to surging attacks and driving forward, that is very often left to the forwards or the wingers. Killing attacks, should the ball break free on the edge of the box.

Marco Reus:

Rated by Bloomberg as the fourth best footballer in the world, he would bring United a player comfortable playing anywhere across the attacking midfield line. Has two feet, close control, technique, confidence and is a pretty handy dead ball specialist.

United have long struggled with the quality and effectiveness of their wingers (Januzaj being the exception this year), but still rely mainly on advancing and attacking mainly from the wings. Each one often has one particular strength and will stick to it, Valencia being a prime example (head down, get to touchline, smash the ball across the box).

Reus would change this, capable of swapping wings and even playing capably in the congested middle. He would help to vary the attacks, often someone like Kagawa or Rooney have the ball about 25 yards and are practically begging for a run, an intelligent run that will open up the defence. This is another strength Reus has, the speed and intelligence to get into those situations and the ability to finish those chances.

This season he has scored a similar number of goals to the entirety of United’s midfield.

Luke Shaw:

Please, please forget about Leighton Baines, he is clearly happy at Everton and is 29. So you have to ask, just how many seasons are you going to get out of him at his current level.

Shaw offers a younger option, he isn’t as capable from a dead ball situation, but offers a more direct replacement for Evra, someone who can do the job of a winger and overlap or offer that outside run if the build up play becomes quite narrow.

Shaw, for a young full back is more competent than a lot of his contemporaries and the reserve left backs that United currently have. Financially, the money Everton want for Baines, and what Southampton may accept for Shaw wouldn’t too far apart. Especially if The Saints change their manager in the summer and players decide to move on.

But as mentioned before, the biggest advantage would be the fluid transition it would offer should Evra decide to move on. The main obstacle could be Shaw wanting to hold for a move to Chelsea, the team he is a fan of.

Luka Modric:

Maybe a bit of a stretch considering how prominent he is at Madrid, but as an all round midfielder, he is someone that could fit into the 4-2-3-1 formation that Moyes looks like he is adopting, playing as one of the central two.

There isn’t much to really to say about the man who was one of the best midfielders in the Premier League in each of the seasons he played for Tottenham. The easiest way to describe him would be if you took the qualities of Carrick and Fletcher, put them into one person and doubled it.

His age would be somewhat of a factor, but right now immediate quality is more important and critical.

Toni Kroos

The first thing I need to point out is that this would be the new Kroos, who plays in a slighter deeper role as more of an orchestrator, albeit attacking and mobile. In the recent friendly against England, Kroos dominated the game, playing the game at his pace and dictating the flow of his teams play.

Kroos would need a fairly, although not too much, disciplined central midfield partner, or at least a player clever enough to realise when is the right time for one of them to make that forward run.

Are all these going happy? Definitely not.

Could some of these come through? I hope so.

As long as David Moyes and the club have a clear plan, then it will be hard to argue if he goes out and gets the people that he thinks will improve the club.

 

The Wolf of Wall Street

It’s not that often that too big award seasons films come out in the same year that are so similar, but  this year it happened with American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street, both heavily feature the American Dream, although both taken from the criminal side of that dream. While there were significant differences between the two films, nothing was so significantly different as to the gulf in quality between those two films.

The basic plot follows Jordan Belfort (Leonardo Di Caprio) when he joins a stockbrockers a short period before the wall street crash that occurred in the mid 1980’s. Following that he sets up his own firm, selling penny shares to regular people. Needless to say some of the firms actions aren’t legal, something that attracts the eagle eyes attention of the FBI.

The film revolves around Di Caprio’s Belfort, a man who is self admittedly obsessed with money and classes it as his biggest addiction, when you see just how badly he is addicted to other substances you realise just how big of statement this is. How much he changes or evolves throughout the film is hard to say, as he is driven by greed mainly and is much more interested in having as good a time as is physically possible. There are points that stand out as some of Di Caprio’s best work, more often than not, these are comic moments. The highlight being the quaalude scene toward the end of the film, which combines great physical comedy and perfectly delivered voice over. It’s hard to make cerebral palsy funny, but they pull it off here.

Belfort is never played sympathetically, as he has numerous chances to do the right thing, but instead decides to continue his course of money, sex and drugs. Di Caprio, Scorcese and Terence Winter deserve credit for trying to make him interesting and charismatic as opposed to immediately likeable, as a result the film benefits from this.

The film is excessive, a hard eighteen, which had to be cut to make that rating. With a film this explicit, you have to ask if it’s justified and needed. While they could have done without some of the shots, it would have lessened the world and the characters, as we wouldn’t see them acting how they truly are, no matter how crazed and out of control they are. More out of control than the actions, is the language, which ranges from mildly offensive to machine gun like speed of four letter word insults. The line that demonstrates this is when one of the brokers sees an attractive woman and comments, “I’d let her give me AIDS”. I think that sums up the kind of language you should expect.

The film is three hours long, but unlike recent films that clock up that kind of run time, this one doesn’t feels its length. The final half hour slows down as the severity of the situation begins to tell on Belfort and the rest of the characters. But by then you are so engrossed and involved in these people that another hour would have flown past.

Scorcese and Winter here have combined to create a truly great film and possibly Scorcese’s best in the last decade. It takes a very serious subject and makes it different to what it would have been in  the hands of a lesser calibre of writer/director team. To put it into context, this film could easily form a loose kind of trilogy with Casino and Goodfellas, albeit with different enterpretations of the American dream and organized crime, with The Wolf of Wall Street using Wall Street as the criminals instead of mobsters.

Don’t be put off by the length or the apparent seriousness of the subject matter. Go and experience one of the funniest (albeit darkly comic) and best made films of the year.

Director: Martin Scorcese

Writer(s): Terence Winter (screenplay) and Jordan Belfort (book).

Twelve Years A Slave

As I right this, Twelve Years A Slave has this past week won the Golden Globe for the Best Picture in the drama category. This will no doubt be the first of many awards that are bestowed upon this film. Some said before it came out, that this was a clear case of Oscar bait, based on a true story, a difficult subject and one that is constantly a hot topic whenever it comes up.

Like last years Django Unchained, which looked at slavery and racism a well but through Tarantino’s stylistic sensibilities, it too raised a discussion and pushed it to the front of people’s minds.

Twelve Years A Slave is Steve McQueen’s third film, following Hunger and Shame, two films about the suffering, although in those two it was mainly about the suffering of men. But here, the suffering is spread out equally, both men and woman suffer and at the hands of fellow human beings.

The film follows the story of Solomon Northup, a free man in New York, who is tricked and then sold into slavery. Taken to an auction and then to two very different plantations and two very different owners/masters. The plot is relatively straight forward, but gives us enough to keep the plot going, as Solomon tries to free himself. This film is more interested on the characters and rightly so.

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup is a powerhouse of righteousness and strength, his battle to get back to his family is one of the key focuses of the film, but the real central story, that Ejiofor gets spot on, is the internal battle to never give up, but to survive and then live again. He is regularly beaten and humiliated, but it is his unflinching need to be free that keeps him going. For all the role could have been, it is played very subtly, never becoming over the top or too loud. His pain and suffering is internal and kept to himself, something we see when hope appears out of reach or is lost.

Steve McQueen’s direction gives the film a very classical, almost western like to the film. Giving us long shots of the world the characters live in, mixed with the brutality of the lives of those trapped. One particular scene, probably the scene that will stay with you long after the film ends, is a botched lynching.

John Ridley’s script, based on the book of the same name by Northup himself is a real triumph and gives everyone plenty to do. Expertly filling out the supporting cast and bringing them to life, while the world and time of the film would disagree, in the script, everyone is important.

A slave is hung from a tree, but can still just touch the floor with his feet and is forced to keep himself elevated for hours. The shot is well over a minute, but it isn’t the lynching that is the worse part of the shot. More it is the reaction to the other slaves, who simply go on with their lives. It is something that has happened before and will happen again. Its just part of the world they are in now. That could be said to be the true horror of the film.

It is a horrible subject and features some truly terrible scenes of what people were and still are capable of doing to each other. But it is made with such skill and restraint that it is hard to look away and miss a second of this great film.

Director: Steve McQueen.

Writer: John Ridley (screenplay), Solomon Horthup (book).

The Hunt

Films about adults molesting children are rarely the easiest sell, or the most appealing to audiences. It’s the kind of subject matter for a film that we are happy to see them pass us by and to be honest, few would argue against it. Some people would rank it up there with torture porn or mid-nineties romantic comedies as far as a genre or central plot point that will keep them from sitting down for two hours and risk being shocked and offended. However, every now and then, a film with a nasty and potentially controversial topic comes along that is handled delicately and with such intelligence that you are compelled to give it your time and attention.

The Hunt tells the story of a teacher, Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), who works in a kindergarten and is accused of exposing himself to a young girl, his best friends daughter. This isn’t a spoiler, as this occurs very early on and is the basis for the whole flilm. I will avoid any form of spoiler, as while this film is more character based than plot, the story deserves to be preserved for your own judgment.

This film has two great strengths, the first is its cast, led by the previously mentioned Mikkelsen and secondly, the thoughts it leaves with you long after the credits have rolled.

Lets start with Mikkelsen, who appears in almost every scene of the film, he perfectly captures the fall of a man who was well liked and respected in a town, to being cast out and abandoned by everyone he knows. Only his family show him any real support, leaving him isolated and broken down. Lesser actors would have over played the pain and suffering, but Mikkelsen mixes the pain and anger with a sense of disbelief, a sense of confusion. As if he can’t really believe or comprehend what is unfolding before him.

How we would react to these accusations would all be very different, but in The Hunt, it is the reaction of the other citizens that is the most shocking, but arguably the most accurate, considering what is reported to happen to the homes of people on the sex offenders list (I am not 100% sure on the official name of this list).

Some of the questions this film asks the viewer would illicit very different responses, were they put in the position of the people of the town, or the parents of the young girl. How much stock would you put in the words of your child? How much you believe the protestations of your best friend? How much proof is enough? And, what would you do?

Put forward as Denmark’s entry for this years Oscars in the Foreign Film category, an award I hope it wins, as not only is it the best foreign film I have seen this year, but it is so far, one of the best films I have seen this year.

Yes, the subject matter is grim, but if you are willing to go with the film and follow Lucas, you are in for one the best stories you will experience this year.

American Hustle

Sometimes we build up films, books or music in our heads before it gets released. Heaping more and more pressure on to whatever it is we are waiting for. Anticipation is not a bad thing most of the time, however, if it goes unchecked or is increased by outside influences, then it can lead to severe disappointments. Something that can make even a passable or good piece of art, look like a load of rubbish.

American Hustle loosely, and I mean loosely, tells the story of the Abscam scandal in the late seventies in America, in which a number of politicians were arrested in a sting operation by the FBI. That however, is more of a backdrop for what is, essentially a character piece. Our main characters are two con artists and an FBI agent looking to make a name for himself.

As it is a character piece, it‘s driven and interested more on the characters and performances than anything else and top of the list is Christian Bale. This is, to put it out there right now, one of Bale’s best performances ever, as Irving Rosenfeld the experienced con man who is forced into the FBI operation for reasons I won’t go into here.

Where other performances verge on parody or awards baiting, Bale keeps it understated, realising that with the already substantial amount of hair and make up he has on, that he too could become nothing more than a joke. Not only are his big scenes quite often the films strongest moments, he also manages to lift the smaller scenes, even when he may not have anything to say, with nothing more than a look.  This performance is the stand out reason for seeing this film.

With such a rich story and setting, it is a sad aspect of the film that the plot is pushed to the side. Yes, the performances are good, but they hardly drive the film forward. You could easily divide the films scenes up into two categories. Character and Plot quite easily. Despite the clear preference for character scenes, if is more often that not the more plot based scenes that are the best. Which makes it a shame that the ratio is heavily favoured the other way.

A quick note on the music, something that is often a strength of David O Russell’s films, he uses it to build the world and period, but also matches them perfectly to the scenes or sequences we are watching. The club scene between Adams and Cooper is made to feel even more intense and euphoric with the O Russell’s perfect choice of song. The deliberately cheesy early montage of Bale and Adams rise to prominence is a cheesy delight.

Some have argued that American Hustle is all style and no substance, that to me is an unfair and quite frankly inaccurate criticism to lay at this films feet. As it is a period piece, it will naturally attract comments on how it looks and if that attention to detail was at the expense of other parts of the film. With the characters it certainly wasn’t a detriment to them. But as mentioned, the lack of plot hurts the film and doesn’t leave you thinking about the film once the film has ended, which The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook did for me.

The easiest way for me to sum up this film is Scorsese light, it definitely takes inspiration from Casino and Goodfellas in particular, as far as films to have as an influence, these two are arguably the best to take ideas or visuals from.

Come awards time, I am sure we will see American Hustle dominate in all categories, but it will be acting categories where its greatest chance lies, in particular Christian Bale. Next to better-plotted films, such as Captain Phillips, it will be interesting to see how it fairs in the screenplay award, to see if the preference is character or plot.

By no means a bad film, more a victim of its own hype.