Weekend Watch: Eternal Beauty And Save Yourselves!
Sally Hawkins questions reality and hipsters face an alien invasion
Image Credit: Samuel Goldwyn
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, Craig Roberts delivers the quietly powerful Eternal Beauty and indie sci-fi Save Yourselves! has hipsters disconnecting from technology just as Earth comes under attack.
In just his second production as a director, Craig Roberts is developing into quite the filmmaker. Eternal Beauty shows him maturing again after his debut effort, Just Jim. It’s the story of Jane (Sally Hawkins) who, after she is dumped at the altar, has a breakdown and spirals into a chaotic world, where love (both real and imagined) and family relationships collide with both touching and humorous consequences. She’s suffered years of jagged, unhappy interactions with those around her: her family are self-centred, manipulative and tired of dealing with her unconventional ways (such as buying her own Christmas presents then handing them the receipts), and others are just put off by her mannerisms, the latter not realising the deep well of pain that fuels them. When she finds something to cling to in an unusual connection with Mike (David Thewlis), an aspiring musician dealing with his own issues.
Of course, it helps when you have actors of the calibre of Hawkins, Thewlis and Penelope Wilton (among others) in front of the camera. This is very much Hawkins’ film and, from the moment we meet her, she grabs our attention and doesn’t let go. Even as Jane’s reality continues to unravel, Hawkins keeps her grounded and human. Likewise, Thewlis brings a scruffy charm to Mike. And you get the sense that Roberts and Hawkins developed a collaborative partnership having shared the screen playing mother and son in 2010’s Submarine.
Treating mental health issues with sensitivity is a tough job when you’re also using it to power visuals, and Eternal Beauty could have spiralled into a self-indulgent fantasyland of quirk and mental health issues. Roberts, though, keeps the film in balance and lets the dark, comic romance shine.
Eternal Beauty will be in cinemas and on demand in the UK and US from 2 October.
Image Credit: Bleecker Street
Save Yourselves! is also in a way about disconnection, but utilised for more straight-forwardly comedic effect. The story here is that of Jack (John Reynolds) and Su (Sunita Mani), a hip Brooklyn couple who, like many of their friends, find themselves dependent on technology and unable to put down their phones. Fearing their mindless scrolling may impact their connection with each other, they seize the chance to head to an isolated cabin in the woods, vowing to unplug from the outside world for a week. Sheltered from texts and push notifications, they are blissfully unaware that the planet is under attack.
For a chunk of its running time, our focus is on the couple, who teeter on the edge of truly annoying hipster levels, feeling like they’re going to stay as basic caricatures. The time alone allows for some shading and by the time the sci-fi madness truly hits them, they’ve developed somewhat. Though perhaps not completely to the point where you’re totally invested in them surviving the furry alien apocalypse that has befallen the Earth.
Reynolds and Mani have to anchor the movie and do so well. And while the film pinches its pennies on the alien front (at least until towards the end), there’s a cheesy ease to the whole affair, filmmakers Alex Huston Fisher and Eleanor Wilson targeting modern attitudes to communication and social media along with silly jokes about the apocalypse.
The concept of feeling isolated takes on fresh meaning in these pandemic times, and Save Yourselves! tackles that too, albeit on a more surface level. But there’s fun to be had here, especially as things take a science fiction turn for the dangerous.
Save Yourselves! is out on 2 October in the US. A UK release has yet to be confirmed.