The Trouble With Man Dates

Reviewing "I Love You, Man" and more.

British video artist Steve McQueen’s quietly harrowing “Hunger,” his first feature, is at least two-thirds of a masterpiece. This fact-based prison drama, centered around the H-Blocks where convicts associated with the Irish Republican Army were housed in the ’70s and ’80s and beyond, is like no other fact-based prison drama you’ve ever seen. Its approach to narrative is remarkably oblique at first. A matter-of-fact series of shots takes the viewer through a morning in the life of a prison guard. The bacon and eggs he has for breakfast. The car he checks the undercarriage of before turning on the engine. The hand he soaks in the lavatory sink after delivering a routine beating. Then we’re put in the company of two prisoners whose form of rebelling against authority is to smear their own feces on the cell wall, and, like almost all the others in the block, dump their urine under the crack in the prison cell door and into the hallway. The viewer sees what’s smuggled in and out, and how. Eventually, the film focuses on one man, a recognizable historical figure, Bobby Sands. In a remarkable single shot of almost 20 minutes length, the already rail-thin Sands (Michael Fassbender) talks to a priest about his decision to stage a hunger strike — not the first he’s done. But the last, if need be. The film has been very nearly dialogue free up until this point. “There’s a war going on,” Sands says to the priest (Liam Cunningham). “I thought you’d understand. You’re talking like a foreigner.”

“You’re talking to me like a foreigner, the priest says. “You think I don’t know Northern Ireland. I live here, man.”

“Then support us.”

“I supported the first hunger strike on the basis that it was a protest. Not some pre-design to die and balk at negotiation other than complete surrender from Thatcher. That’s ridiculous, Bobby. It’s destructive.”

“What’s happening here for the last four years? The brutality, humiliation, our basic human rights taken away from us. All of this has to come to an end…”

The “troubles” of Northern Ireland have, alas, not fully died down, and the activities of the IRA still arouse fierce passions. Some have balked that this film makes a martyr out of Sands. One could argue Sands didn’t need a film for that — he was in fact elected to Parliament as he struck, and after his death, some of the concessions IRA prisoners had been asking for were tacitly granted — but the anger over Republican tactics is still quick to flare up. But “Hunger” is making a larger point; take the words “Northern Ireland” and “Thatcher” out of the above exchange and you discern an awful struggle of the sort that has been going on for centuries. And if Margaret Thatcher just happens to be the icy voice of authority or authoritarianism in this one, well, you know, no one forced her to be Prime Minister. “Universality” is usually a bromide tossed around by well-meaning liberals, but the universality of McQueen’s vision is a terrible, largely pessimistic one. The last third of the film compromises that a bit by trading in brutal objectivity for magical/lyrical touches that threaten to sentimentalize Sands. But the map of Hell that McQueen expertly paints for most of the film is what finally makes the biggest impression.

“The Great Buck Howard” is a slight, enjoyable comedy probably best appreciated by those whose itch for old-school showbiz kitsch feels like it’s been neglected. Written and directed by Sean McGinty, who reportedly based this coming-of-age tale on the time he himself spent as an intern to The Amazing Kreskin, the picture’s main asset is a typically brash and ticky John Malkovich, as an egomaniacal “mentalist” who’s dyspeptically unaware that his stardom, such as it was, crested and broke many, many years ago. The ever-likable Colin Hanks plays the McGinly surrogate, while the ever-appealing and sharp Emily Blunt shows up at the midway point as a publicist rather improbably sent to Ohio to interview Howard.

As such things go, “Buck Howard” is both more amiable and more toothless than such Tales of ShowBiz Post-Fame Ignominy tend to get. I imagine that’s partially due to the fact that it’s produced by Playtone, Colin Hanks’ dad Tom’s production company, whose house style was best defined by the gently nostalgic one-hit wonder tale “That Thing You Do!” While another picture might treat those Buck Howard fans as though they still existed as potentially pathological sorts, what’s presented here is a parade of mild American eccentrics (expertly portrayed by the likes of Steve Zahn, Ricky Jay, and other swell character actors) who just want to have some fun. And then there’s George Takei as himself…an old friend with whom Buck has been on the outs for years. The actor and the situation described somehow sum up the whole movie perfectly.

Glenn Kenny is our guest critic for the month of March.

“I Love You, Man” opens wide on March 20th. “Hunger” and “The Great Buck Howard” both open in limited release on March 20th.

[Additional photos: "I Love You, Man," DreamWorks, 2009; "The Great Buck Howard," Magnolia Pictures, 2008]

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