Weekend Watch: Cyrano, Studio 666

Heartfelt love and heart-stopping horror

Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Peter Dinklage is a hopeful romantic and the Foo Fighters are just trying to stay alive. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite

Joe Wright has had some very high peaks in his directorial career – Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Darkest Hour, for example. But he’s also had some low valleys: Pan and The Woman In The Window spring to mind there. I’m pleased to report, then, that Cyrano finds him back at the very top of his game.

Though Edmond Rostand’s play has been adapted various times before, this film draws more from Erica Schmidt’s musical version, which for at least one run starred Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennett. Dinklage is married to Schmidt, and Bennett is Wright’s partner, so when he came to see the show, he was inspired to turn it into a movie.

Cyrano follows some familiar beats – Dinklage’s title character is a soldier with a poet’s heart who is madly in love with Roxanne (Bennett, who also reprises her role for the movie). But, concerned that his short stature means she’ll never return his affections, he’s hidden his feelings away. And when handsome fellow trooper Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) attempts to woo Roxanne, Cyrano offers to help the less-than-literary colleague.

The fresh take here is ditching the usual giant nose for the much more impactful and emotional factor of Dinklage’s own size, which makes this work on a level that few other adaptations can reach. And the actor finds real heart and soul in the character, making him a witty, bold warrior one moment and a pining romantic the next while keeping the character whole. It’s a real shock he wasn’t nominated for more awards – he deserves all the praise, and he’s not a bad singer to boot.

Bennett and Harrison Jr. are solid as the other two sides of the love triangle and there’s a pleasingly smarmy Ben Mendelson hanging around as Roxanne’s other suitor, who gets at least one big rock and roll number to explain his bombast.

The music, from Aaron Dessner, Carin Dessner and Bryce Dessner of The National, is uniformly excellent – soaring when it needs to, intimate at other times. Every Letter is a lovely three-way song from the main characters, while Wherever I Fall is a heart-breaking tune sung by soldiers on the eve of battle.

Cyrano is a triumph; a musical movie where you believe in the love story and want it to work out for everyone involved, even when you know it can’t.

Cyrano is in UK and US cinemas now.

Image Credit: Open Road Films

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters are known for their inventive, funny music videos. So it follows that their first full attempt at a feature film should play to their strengths. Studio 666 won’t be winning any Oscars (unless the Academy, in its desperation to win new audiences, creates a Best Spooky Raccoon category), but it certainly provides fans of the band and lo-fi horror movies with some entertainment.

While Grohl carries much of the movie (the boys are perfectly fine playing versions of themselves, but the acting ability runs the gamut), Studio 666 offers up goofy, gory chills.

The story finds the Foos about to record their latest album. And, tired of the usual recording studios, they instead rock up at a creepy old mansion. While learning that brutal, potentially satanic murders occurred between band members on the property back in the 1990s would prompt most normal people to run screaming, Grohl decides that the spooky vibe and weird, discordant sounds produced within the place are the perfect sound for their new record. Soon, there is more mysterious – and then not-so-mysterious – death as Grohl becomes possessed by unknown demonic forces.

It's more of an excuse to run around and pay homage to the likes of John Carpenter (who clearly got the vibe, since he contributed the main theme to the movie), with blood-splattered slayings and weird, ghostly creatures popping up. And it’s a chance for the Foos to spoof themselves; relishing the chance to hurl insults at each other, and for Grohl to go on an inventive murder spree.

Possibly my favourite moment happens early, though, as the Foos poke a little fun at fellow established rockers Pearl Jam with a special high give. Jeremy spoke, indeed.

It’s cheap, cheerful and the spirit is infectious, though don’t go if you’ve had a barbecue lunch beforehand.

Studio 666 is in cinemas in the US and UK now.