When David's father dies, his mother remarries. It’s there where Ruben learns sign language, sheds his initial fear, and starts to live a new life, until his old one threatens to send him back to mental square one. “Copperfield” is a grand, long novel, and in reducing it to 120 minute scale, Iannucci has hewn it to something almost anecdotal. A modern take on Charles Dickens's classic tale of a young orphan who … Marder doesn’t didactically explore the issue, but neatly incorporates it into Ruben’s naiveté surrounding his addiction. The film’s general pointlessness would be less irritating if Meyers or Moverman included any superficial pleasures, but even the generally competent performances can’t really be appreciated on their own because they’re so hamstrung to an idiotic script. And he’s placed these vulgar, coarse monsters and demi-monsters in the corridors of power, where they can inflict damage not only on each other but on the world at large. In Memoriam 1942-2013. As directed by Armando Iannucci, who adapted the screenplay with Simon Blackwell, the movie finds Copperfield (Ranveer Jaiswal and Jairaj Varsani as a boy, Dev Patel as a man) facing life's … TIFF 2019: The Personal History of David Copperfield, Sound of Metal, Human Capital Vikram Murthi September 08, 2019 Thoughts on three films from TIFF, including the latest from Armando Iannucci. Some in the Deaf community believe that cochlear implants are an affront to their culture, which hinges on the belief that deafness isn’t something to be fixed or cured. You almost miss the scene for being dazzled by such clothes. All I want to say about it is: why not? It stars Dev Patel as the title character, and Aneurin Barnard, Peter Capaldi, Morfydd Clark, Daisy May Cooper, Rosalind Eleazar, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton, Ben Whishaw and Paul Whitehouse. Truth be told, “David Copperfield” will live or die based on a person’s interest in Dickens and a faithful rendering of his work to the screen. 4 out of 5 Stars. The plot concerns the hit-and-run of a waiter, with the perpetrator’s identity concealed until the final act. Ruben and Lou need each other because they saved each other. Some might call Iannucci a cynic, but one need merely look about the world today to see he’s more of a realist with an edge. Moverman re-stages events from three different perspectives so that the audience can get the fuller picture of the events leading up to the accident, a choice that makes less and less sense as “Human Capital” progresses. An amiably dotty aunt, a distracted cousin, the eternal optimist Mr. Micawber, and more. All fiction is circumscribed by its creator, or in this case by its adaptor, and why shouldn’t persons of color be able to see themselves portrayed as central characters in a fictionalized mid-19th-century England? Subsequently, the actors must constantly play selfish or stupid not because specific characterizations require them to do so, but rather the design of Oren Moverman’s screenplay demands it. Tweet. Even in our current cultural hellscape, there still needs to be a place for comical examinations of narcissism and avarice, a clear-eyed view of mankind’s failure to responsibly retain power. It works a treat for the most part—and in no small part due to the contributions of cinematographer Zac Nicholson, costume designers Suzie Harman and Robert Worley, and a large production design/art direction team featuring Charlotte Dirickx. ... "Roger Ebert loved movies." The Personal History of David Copperfield review: Dev Patel shines in Iannucci's charmer The satirist proves to be a perfect match for the ups and … On Monday, we released the RogerEbert.com consensus Top Ten Films of 2020, led by Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe: Lovers Rock.”Today, we dig deeper, presenting you with all submitted lists from our brilliant critics and independent contributors. Iannucci never panders to topicality beyond his colorblind cast, which works wonders in updating the class struggles and exclusionary practices of the novel to the present day. As a longtime Iannucci fan, I got nervous when he introduced the film at its TIFF world premiere by saying he hoped “the themes of love and friendship” would resonate. Club, and Vulture. The 2009 movie “In the Loop,” spun off of “Thick of It,” brought the hammer down on U.S. and U.K. leaders unleashing the dogs of war mainly to satisfy their own vanity. The narrative offers up two major villains, one David’s cruel stepfather, the other the sniveling cheat Uriah Heep. It is funny, with the humor mostly arriving in the form of sight gags, physical setpieces, and broad deliveries. Detailing every thread would take up too much space and exhaust precious energy on both myself and the reader, but here’s a condensed, still-too-long version: middle-class real estate agent Drew (Liev Schreiber) impulsively decides to invest in the high-risk, high-reward hedge fund of wealthy asshole Quint Manning (Peter Sarsgaard), the father of his daughter’s closeted sort-of-boyfriend (Fred Hechinger). Dev Patel as David Copperfield. It’s a movie flowing with fresh air, which isn’t something normally said of adaptations of 700-something-page books. Though this isn’t exactly what I personally want from someone who birthed the profound, profane Malcolm Tucker, Iannucci’s demonstrable understanding and appreciation of the source material goes a long way to making the film an enjoyable watch. critics consensus The Personal History of David Copperfield puts a fresh, funny, and utterly charming spin on Dickens' classic, proving some stories truly are timeless. The Personal History of David Copperfield review – Iannucci makes Dickens his own ‘Divine pathos’: Dev Patel, right, as David Copperfield, with Aneurin Barnard as James Steerforth. (I’m not one for representation discourse, which I find reductive and frustrating on a good day, but I’ll admit it was nice to see a young Indian boy play Copperfield in his street urchin days, if only because India’s history of poverty makes the image an evergreen concern.). No big deal—more period filmmakers should do likewise. So the fact that Iannucci’s “The Personal History of David Copperfield” is a surpassingly lively and acutely observant flight of fancy doesn’t come as a shock. TIFF 2019: The Personal History of David Copperfield, Sound of Metal, Human Capital Vikram Murthi | 2019-09-08 Thoughts on three films from TIFF, including the latest from Armando Iannucci. The film technically examines class, though its shallow understanding of the subject, let alone the human beings engaged with it, all but renders it irrelevant. The Personal History of David Copperfield is one of the more lively, colorful and whimsical Victorian costume dramas you’re likely to see. The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) July 3, 2020. The Personal History of David Copperfield. Moreover, he and Blackwell’s admirable commitment to bringing Dickensian language to life deserves much praise, and though the film’s quality varies on a scene-by-scene basis, the entire ensemble handles the verbiage quite well. “Copperfield” necessarily rushes everything in the homestretch, given it’s a two-hour adaptation of a 600+ page book, but the speed tends to blunt the emotional effect of some arcs. And “Copperfield” counters its malefactors with some of Dickens’ most delightfully eccentric characters. With Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton, Peter Capaldi. Peter Capaldi plays Micawber, and though his performance tends to unproductively err on the broad side, seeing him in an Iannucci project again after ten years away from the fold did bring a tear to my eye. In Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” Riz Ahmed plays Ruben, a metal drummer and recovering addict whose highly structured life with his girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) is thrown asunder when he suddenly loses eighty percent of his hearing. Many will take special notice of the multi-ethnic casting, starting with Dev Patel in the title role. His British series “The Thick of It” was a dizzying treatment of the spin doctors around Downing Street; the HBO series “Veep” took its horrific pleasure in the swamps of D.C. Love and friendship shouldn’t have to be everyone’s raison d'être. Peter Gray. Marder subtitles the entire film for the benefit of the deaf community and to properly communicate Ruben’s muffled hearing, a creative choice that pays off dividends in the back half of the film. ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ Review: A Boy’s Story Armando Iannucci’s souped-up, trimmed-down adaptation of the Dickens novel is … Reviews The Personal History of David Copperfield Glenn Kenny August 28, 2020. NEW YORK (CNS) -- Of the numerous film adaptations of Charles Dickens' autobiographical 1850 novel, "The Personal History of David Copperfield" (Fox Searchlight) may rank as the happiest. Ahmed and Cooke believably sell the sadness of people naturally outgrowing true love, learning how to be themselves apart when all they’ve known are each other. TIFF 2019: The Personal History of David Copperfield, Sound of Metal, Human Capital, Universal Cinematic Language: Ben Sharrock on Limbo, The Girlfriend Experience Exists at the Intersection of Sex, Commerce, and Technology, MLB The Show 21 Continues Field Dominance. Toronto Film Review: ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 5, 2019. Ebert Digital LLC “The Personal History of David Copperfield” Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. What it all builds up to is a boisterous hymn to the creative impulse—David does grow up to be a great writer, after all—and a celebration of memory and imagination. Moving camera, onscreen texts, drawings that almost come to life, slapstick that drags Dickens into Charlie Chapin territory—there’s a bit when Micawber’s creditors come to repossess his furniture, involving a long rug pulled from behind a door, dragging chairs and tables and dinner along with it—it’s all in there. Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. His new stepfather Murdstone has a mean and cruel view on how to raise a child. Universal Cinematic Language: Ben Sharrock on Limbo, The Girlfriend Experience Exists at the Intersection of Sex, Commerce, and Technology, MLB The Show 21 Continues Field Dominance. Once they’ve come up with an activity to alleviate Mr. Dick’s obsession, they go downstairs; the yellow fabric in front of the house’s two front windows almost upstages Betsey Trotwood, who’s played by Tilda Swinton—someone we all know is hard to upstage. The Personal History Of David Copperfield: The BRWC Review. Rep programming: the second-act métier of the miserable, bored rich! David Copperfield (its full title is considerably longer than even the film’s) is a book about a writer, and is often called Dickens’ most autobiographical novel.. David has a gift for mimicry, and picking out those sayings that most define a character. Read full review No Comments. In fact, Iannucci hosted the 2012 BBC television special “Armando’s Tale of Charles Dickens," in which he actively argues for Dickens’ relevancy as an engaging avenue into the modern world instead of a tired institution. Iannucci introduces Copperfield, wonderfully played by Dev Patel, at the lectern in front of a rapt crowd as he reads from his autobiography. A fresh and distinctive take on Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical masterpiece, The Personal History of David Copperfield, set in the 1840s, chronicles the life of its iconic title character as he navigates a chaotic world to find his elusive place within it. The Personal History of David Copperfield has been part of a parade of ‘oh-wow-are-they-making-a-movie-of-that-again?’ literary classic film adaptations to roll through the theaters (or, perhaps, our at-home-theaters) in the last 12 months. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. We follow Copperfield from his humble origins as a precocious child, to when his evil stepfather shipped him off to work at a London bottle factory, to his tenure at boarding school, to his time working as a proctor, etc. Neither of these figures, bad as they are, approach the near-gothic characteristics of the likes of Fagin and Bill Sykes of Oliver Twist, however. When David escapes to his aunt Betsey his life starts to get better. Though I’m in no position to speak on behalf of the Deaf community in regards to accuracy of portrayal or plight, I found it notable that Marder integrates the controversy surrounding cochlear implant surgery into his film. As Copperfield is the narrator of his own story—the first scene shows Patel’s adult David delivering his story in a theater, as a monologist of sorts—so Patel’s David can turn up looking on as his mother gives birth to him. Up until now, the Scottish writer/director Armando Iannucci has shown a deft, almost feral facility in depicting characters who act with both casual and calculated cruelty. David wears a deep aqua-blue vest and trousers of a particularly wide gray-and-tan check; Mr. Dick has a neckerchief striped pink, and so on. And then there was 2017’s “The Death of Stalin,” perhaps his most mordant burlesque. In a scene where David works with Hugh Laurie’s Mr. Dick to try and get him over his obsession with the beheading of Charles the Second, which interferes egregiously with Dick’s memoir-writing. Review. The Personal History of David Copperfield is a film about how the young man at its center becomes a writer — and what use is authorship if not to pick the ending you want? More Movie Reviews The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020) Rated PG 119 minutes Cast. I’m sure that everyone has come across David Copperfield at some point in their lives. “Sound of Metal” plays with a lot of dramatically simplistic ideas whose potency needs time to organically develop. Plus, Iannucci overdoes it with the sentimentality in the film’s homestretch, ending the film on a really saccharine moment that could have easily been avoided. He’s always writing, scribbling down notes about the people around him who make up his own life story. So one of the things that’s most surprising about his new picture, which he co-wrote with Simon Blackwell—is its life-affirming sunniness. When David's mother dies from grief, Murdstone sends David to London to work for a living. Iannucci and Simon Blackwell’s script replicates Dickens’ episodic style well; each sequence sports a unique location and a new set of characters. “Sound of Metal” perceptively understands an addict’s drive to replace his illicit addiction with a more socially respectable one. It should come as no surprise that Armando Iannucci, being an Oxford graduate in English literature of a certain age, has something invested in the work of Charles Dickens. “Sound of Metal” might be working from an old playbook, but it finds new ways to liven it up. The Personal History of David Copperfield review: A wonderful retort to Hollywood’s obsessive whitewashing of history A vivacious adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, this is … Given that it’s both an addiction and disability film, “Sound of Metal” goes through a variety of standard story beats, but Ahmed’s frustrated, funny performance breathes life into a tired structure. Marc Meyers’ “Human Capital” is the type of middling, middlebrow mediocrity that strives to be about capital-I Ideas but approaches them with the savoir-faire of a toddler. Of the place in the heart where, as David notes near the end, “loss and love live, forever side by side.”. ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ Review: Timelessness Made Tired Dev Patel stars in Armando Iannucci’s adaptation of the Dickens classic. Why do we need a fuller picture when both the culprit’s identity and the clashing-of-desires climax are so broadly telegraphed? He writes about film and television for RogerEbert.com, The A.V. You can follow him on Twitter @fauxbeatpoet. Vikram Murthi is a freelance writer and critic currently based out of Chicago, IL. As an indirect indictment of the war in Iraq it was in the end more heartbreaking than hilarious. Marder employs a measured pace to render Ruben’s struggle believable, and it mostly works in his favor. Iannucci’s conception feels breathtakingly original, until about an hour in, when he breaks out silent-movie style fast motion, and you realize, yes, he definitely looked at Tony Richardson’s “Tom Jones” before embarking on this project. (And that his realism has been lapped by reality.). The conventional infrastructure of “Sound of Metal” belies its many pleasures, most notably a stellar performance from Ahmed and a unique sound design. Dev Patel brings to life the work of Charles Dickens like never before. 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