Exam You’Ve Never Had a Job Interview As Tough As This
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0123456789 >INCINEMAS Over 14,000 reviews on empireonline.com exam You’ve never had a job interview as tough as this... >reLeased January 8 Justin Timberlake’s new and conflict. And just when you’re wondering certificate TBC video was well bum. what the hell they can do next, another director/screenwriter surprise is waiting in the wings. Stuart Hazeldine A story like this works with an all or cast Luke Mably, Jimi Mistry, Colin no-star cast and it has, almost, the latter. Salmon, Pollyanna McIntosh, Nathalie Only Jimi Mistry is well-known and he Cox, Adar Beck, Chuk Iwuji running time 97 mins. doesn’t unbalance things, thanks to his >pLot In a windowless room, under smart, see-sawing character. There are armed guard, eight candidates gather a few creaky turns elsewhere, compensated for an exam to see who can secure for by the emotional centre provided by a job at a mysterious corporation. Pollyanna McIntosh, as ‘Brunette’, and They turn over their papers and... there the charismatic Luke Mably, as ‘White’. As is no question. They have 80 minutes to figure it out... and find the answer. the wideboy who gives the candidates their pseudonyms, Mably somehow provides a sense of soul beneath the swagger, making getting a job can often be are desperate for work. But what about keeps the budget down, it saves on petrol. this bully both abhorrent yet somehow a bastard. The forms, the interviews, the next year, next decade? If it came down But it’s also incredibly difficult to grip an empathetic. Quite how he does it is, well, questions, the ruthless socio-psychological to it, what would you do for a job — say, audience with such a situation and attempts another question entirely. test where you’re pitted against other if someone put a gun to your head? often become, at best, performance pieces nev pierce contenders in a clinical Kubrickian room It is, appropriately enough, a question better suited to the stage (hello, 44 Inch under the beady eyes of a scarily blank- with no simple answer. And there are no Chest). It’s to Hazeldine’s credit, then, that VERDICT faced, gun-wielding guard. You know the simple answers in Exam, though there’s though Exam doesn’t leave these four walls, An assured debut feature with sort of thing... Perhaps this is the future. a message if you care to look for it. This is it never feels theatrical. Claustrophobic but a superb performance from Luke It is certainly a version of it, with writer/ a modern morality tale in the sleek guise agile, its pulsing, pristine visuals pound up Mably — it makes The Apprentice director Stuart Hazeldine setting his story of a sci-fi-tinged thriller. The setting is the pressure. Once Colin Salmon’s invigilator look like Blue Peter. “soon”, as an opening subtitle tells us. Right modest, the ambition is big. Of course, it’s sets the task, what follows is a fascinating now, in these credit-crunched times, people simple to stick eight characters in a room: it battle of wits, as the candidates collaborate HHHH alvin and the mugabe and the pLanet 51 bLur: no distance chipmunks: white african Left to run the squeakweL >DETAILs U/ 90 mins./Out now >DETAILs TBC/90 mins./January 8 directors Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad, >DETAILs TBC/90 mins./January 22 >DETAILs U/88 mins./Out now directors Lucy Bailey, Marcos Martinez directors Dylan Southern, director Betty Thomas Andrew Thompson cast (Voices) Dwayne Johnson, Will Lovelace cast Justin Long, Jason Lee, Zachary Levi cast Mike Campbell, Ben Freeth Jessica Biel, Gary Oldman cast Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, Dave Rowntree the cgi singing rodents Long-Listed for the 2010 astronaut chuck baker return in this disposable kidflick. Jason Lee Best Documentary Oscar, this exposé of (Dwayne Johnson) lands on a planet aLthough ostensibLy the gets crippled early, and mostly sits out the Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is nerve-shattering, populated by little green people whose tale of Blur’s rise, fall and rebirth, this is the film, entrusting his chipmunk pals to cousin tremendously moving cinema. Shot covertly culture parallels Earth circa 1959. They’ve story of four friends who found themselves Zachary Levi who sends them to school, due to a blanket media ban, it tells the story seen so many films about human invaders in extraordinary circumstances. No Distance where Alvin (Justin Long) becomes a jock of Mike Campbell, a white farmer trying to they want to blast Chuck before he eats follows their reformation after a seven-year and turns his tail on his meeker siblings. hold on to his land in the face of Mugabe’s their brains. Teen Lem (Justin Long) tries to hiatus, trailing them from rehearsals to Meanwhile, the band’s evil ex-manager Land Reform Act, a nexus of intimidation and help Chuck get back to his ship before he’s back into the public eye. The live footage is promotes rivals The Chipettes (voiced by Amy violence. Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey’s taken for dissection... This Anglo-Spanish CG stunning, but most compelling are the frank Poehler, Christina Applegate and Anna Faris), film never forgets the people within the cartoon isn’t quite as slick as the likes of interviews and admission that even the who are no more computer-augmented than politics as Campbell’s plight becomes part Monsters Vs Aliens, but compensates with a brightest musicians can stumble over every many other girl groups. Alvin must be the thriller, part courtroom drama, part agonising wider range of humour: the platitudes about rock ’n’ roll cliché there is: heroin, alcoholism, most unsympathetic lead in any kiddie weepie. Even if the end is too neat, this shows seizing the day slide past conventionally, stunted by their own success... They came franchise, and having him do squeaked-up the tenacity of the human spirit better than but a lot of neat, funny, downright inspired back though, reforming not for the cash, but De Niro impersonations doesn’t help. kn 99.9 per cent of Oscar-baiting dramas. if little elements are sneaked in. kn because they missed their best friends. pw HH HHHH HHH HHHH [[1L]] february 2010 empire www.empireonline.com.