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Issue 48, 2013 - New

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FILM Issue 48 / 2013 www.guestlist.net WARM BODIES The audaciousness with which Warm Bodies declares itself to be a "zomromcom" – a label that the superior Shaun of the Dead had originally been anointed with back in 2004 – translates quite comfortably to the main feature. Despite being rather neatly aimed at the Twilight and The Hunger Games crowd – with Lionsgate going so far as to allow its spunky trailer the honor of preceding Breaking Dawn: Part II – Jonathan Levine's fourth feature is of a different mould altogether. Okay, so while no self-respecting director would wish to adopt the former's poker-faced stabs at atmosphere, Levine doesn't merely attempt to mimic the jittery compassion of the latter, either. What we have here is a surprisingly ballsy love story that owes as much to Romeo & Juliet as it does to the aforementioned Pegg/Frost classic. As post-apocalyptic zombies go, R (Nicholas Hoult) is a relatively lively chap, although his kind faces an eventual devolution into vicious, skeletal predators called Bonies. On the human side of things we have Julie (Teresa Palmer), who resides with her survivalist father (John Malkovich) and what remains of the local living population in a 15 7 COMING SOON heavily barricaded part of the city. The two fall in love, but only after R has consumed the brains of Julie's boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco, brother of James). The "star-crossed lovers" angle eventually gives way to a battle between the humans and those pesky Bonies, who are far more terrifying than they have any right to be. The film operates in a predictably bleak cinematic world, so when the central romance gets going, it really makes an impact. Hoult and Palmer share a gentle chemistry, and even if the formers American accent wasn't so note-perfect, those concaved cheekbones ensure he is perfectly cast as an impossibly beautiful zombie. If anything, it is the films strange inclusion of humour that holds it back, as if the whole project's existence was dependent on the studio being able to squeeze "com" into the press release. Still, flaws aside, Warm Bodies is an effective little oddity – one that boasts brains and brawn. But mostly brains. TRANCE March 27th OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL THE HOST March 29th March 8th James McAvoy stars in Danny Boyle's latest as an art auctioneer forced to see a hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) in order to retrieve a lost painting A prequel to The Wizard of Oz, directed by Sam The Evil Dead Raimi? Oh, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore… An adaptation of a Stephanie Meyers novel could go either way but with a body-snatching plot and a quality director, hopes are high for The Host.

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