Review: You, The Living (4/5); Nim's Island (3/5); Joy Division (3/5)

You, The Living
(Roy Andersson):
Jessica Lundberg, Elisabet Helander, Bhorn Englund, Leif Larsson, Ollie Olson.
Running time: 92 minutes

Here’s a film they could blast into space for the consideration of alien civilisation – a wonderful, bizarre portrait of the human race (or the Swedish at least) in all its nutty varieties. It is directed by Roy Andersson, a Swede who comes out of hibernation every 10 years or so to make a film (this is his fourth film since 1975).
This is a collection of vignettes, small moments from ordinary lives that look extraordinary. It is meticulously framed in deep-focus static tableaux. But what leaps out is Andersson’s magic ability to mingle poignancy and humour. It is often hilarious: surreal, comic, droll, absurd; each sequence is playful, teasing. Moments from other scenes spill unexpectedly into the next. We get a tuba player destroying the peace; a brass band drummer playing along to a quiet cassette; an alcoholic woman who sounds like something from a Bergman movie and a wonderful dream sequence of a married couple in a living room that is in fact on a train.
It sounds strange but it is best to give yourself over to its playful idiosyncrasies. All of human life is here.

Nim’s Island
(Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett):
Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler, Maddison Joyce.
Running time: 95 minutes

Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin has a head like a giant lightbulb. Cameras all over the world are flying like demented moths into her orbit. She is given free rein here and the camera lovingly soaks up every moment of her.
She plays Nim, a young girl who lives on a treasure island in the Pacific with scientist dad (Gerard Butler). It is an idyllic existence: she has a klatch of exotic pet animals, travels on ropes and pulleys, and spends her time reading adventure books written by Alexandra Rover – an obsessive compulsive neurotic in the shape of Jodie Foster (unusually over-the-top).
When dad doesn’t return from an expedition trip at sea, Nim is forced not just to look after herself but to protect the island from an Aussie cruise party and deal with the hapless Alexandra. The story blends Dr Doolittle, Home Alone and Robinson Crusoe – solid fare for children who will identify with the bright young Breslin, though it is a little over-sweetened.

Joy Division
(Grant Gee):
Ian Wilson, Annik Honore, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner.
Running time: 94 minutes

Anton Corbijn’s 2007 film Control opened the sluice gates of nostalgia for Manchester innovators Joy Division – a band who used punk to express more complex emotions only to become immortalised in tragedy when their frontman Ian Curtis killed himself on the eve of a US tour.
Grant Gee’s documentary will be a treasure trove to fans. It is a collection of talking heads, intercut with scratchy original footage, most of which seems to have been the basis for Control. Gathered here are all the main figures in the story and they seem fairly candid: bandmates Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Peter Hook; recently deceased Factory boss Ian Wilson; and Curtis’s girlfriend Annik Honore. Curtis’s wife Deborah is absent.
It is a testament to the quality of Control that most of the major dramatic episodes discussed here seem to have been captured perfectly by that film. But the early footage of Joy Division is a delight: Curtis is a pulsating dynamo of arm movement with a thousand-yard stare. It is an engaging watch, even for a non-fan, though less convincing are Gee’s attempts at merging Manchester’s spiritual history into the mix.