Complete contrasts:
- Sergio, Greg Barker’s documentary on Sergio De Mello, the high-profile UN envoy who died in a Iraqi suicide bombing in 2003, is a work of consummate filmmaking. The close-up interviews of the participants who tried to save Sergio’s life (as the movie points out, this man was always known by his first man) remind me of Errol Morris. As a loving portrait of a genuinely good man, Sergio is inspirational but not cloying. 4½ stars.
- Bulgarian Kamen Kalev’s existentially driven drama Eastern Plays about a self-destructive skinhead and his older brother, a recovering addict and artist, is full of conceptual and character promise. But, reminiscent of Samson & Delilah, the plot is all over the place and the ending limps into place. 1½ stars.
- I didn’t read David Peace’s kinetic Red Riding quartet, based on the Yorkshire Ripper murders, more fool me. Of course that means I shouldn’t see the three movies released this year, directed by three different filmmakers, until I do the required reading (always read the book first!), but I couldn’t resist. Red Riding: 1974, made by Julian Jarrold, is a fine start: moody, savage, blessed with plot elements that clink into place with natural ease. I was amused to find subtitles. 3½ stars.