'A Man's Story' Review

Film Title: A Man’s Story

Starring: Ozwald Boateng

Directed by: Varon Bonicos

Certificate: 15

Our Rating: 2 Stars

After following menswear designer Ozwald Boateng around for twelve years, you'd think that at the very least Varon Bonicos might have a good bit of fashion gossip to share with us. Sadly not. A slightly stuffy, rose-tinted documentary about an evidently talented man; though its grounding is in clothing creation it never quite manages to cut to the chase.

A Man’s Story is the product of 12 years filming the life and times of successful fashion designer, Ozwald Boateng. The son of Ghanaian immigrants, self-taught menswear designer Boateng went on to become the youngest and the first black man to front a shop on Saville Row; the mecca for gentleman’s tailoring. Varon Bonicos, initially agreeing to film this man for 6 months with an end to making a movie about his successes, ended up filming him for 12 years. After doing a bit of maths we can confirm that that’s quite the upgrade.

Boateng: self-taught, youngest and first black man on Saville Row; there’s no denying that this a true success story. You’d think that with all that business savvy and slick suited style, they’d be able to come up with a film that’s at least half-watchable. Sadly though, flabby editing, an over-abundance of similar material and selective access to Baoteng’s experiences means that Bonicos film never feels quite authentic, instead ensuring a fairly one-note romp through a (admittedly bloody lovely) suit collection.

Considering the amount of time Bonicos spent with Boateng, you would assume that the director must have been present at some seminal events in the designer’s life. You would assume incorrectly. Well, to be fair we do get to see him meet the Queen and have his car clamped, but issues such as his troubled personal life (he’s been married twice and has three children) seem to be dealt with with hesitation, with Bonicos only ever willing to show us Boateng’s (invariably biased) point of view. Nothing negative in Boateng’s life seems to be his own fault – he openly discusses how he wishes he had more time to spend with his kids, before cheerfully rushing off to China to film some ninjas in a wet field. He could have done that in Wales. Admittedly the Welsh don’t look as good doing kung-fu, but hell, there’s nowhere like Cardiff for an impromptu family trip. Spending twelve years with anyone will distort how objectively you wish to portray them, and you can’t help but get the feeling that Boncio’s desire to stay ‘tight’ with Boateng far outweighs any desire to show him in a practical light.

It just gets rather annoying after a while. Boateng – glugging his 7th vodka shot and warbling about feeling inspired and about how tough it is being away from his gorgeous Russian wife – always seems to be pitched as the victim in this story; a good man being hard done by, constantly having to raise himself from the gutter again and again so that he can afford the goldslick silken materials to make his next ludicrously-priced suit.

And that brings us to the second rather difficult problem; it’s obvious that Bonicos had no idea what to do with the hours and hours (and hours) of raw footage he’d gathered over twelve years (did I mention he filmed this guy for twelve years?). What could have been an insightful, inspiring and unique documentary about an ordinary man’s life and his extraordinary successes (he has an OBE, for God’s sake) ends up being a wishy-washy homage that sacrifices genuine insight for entertaining celebration. That bit of twine that’s meant to run invisibly through the middle of a documentary to give it narrative and flow – it’s missing here. You find yourself waiting for that moment when it will all fit into place, but it doesn’t. Boateng is a watchable, interesting and intelligent character, but unfortunately post-production has let him and his story down. At the end of the day – and unlike subject and cameraman – this is one documentary that is anything but ‘tight’.

By Siobhan Burke

Monday 20th February 2012

Please comment if you have anything to add to this review of 'A Man's Story'.

Also appeared on Best For Film (http://bestforfilm.com/film-reviews/drama/a-mans-story-2/)

'Juno and the Paycock' review - charming, funny and bleakly tragic all in one

Juno and the Paycock

Written by Sean O'Casey

Lyttleton Theatre, the National Theatre (a coproduction with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin)

15th January 2012

Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock is a renowned and well-respected play looking at life in a crowded Dublin tenement in the early 1920s. First performed in 1924, it has since become a regular star of the Irish stage. Telling the tale of Jack Boyle, an Irishman determined to stay out of work, his wife Juno who battles unrelentingly to keep her family afloat, and their two children, Mary and Johnny, it is a comic but bleak portryal of Irish life during the harsh times of the civil war.

The staging, in my eyes, was this production's first great success. Having studied this play as part of my dissertation, I had always understood O'Casey's tenements to be loud and claustrophobic. Howard Davies' production however, with its high ceiling and vast spaces between sparse amounts of furniture, highlighted more poignently the material and financial emptiness that is the reality of this family's life. That said, footsteps and voices still rang out through the house as a reminder of the lack of privacy in this shared and poverty-stricken space.

Juno's feisty character was played with conviction by Sinead Cusack and her playful personality was married beautifully with the more serious and sombre moments in the script. It was this performance by Cusack that was responsible for the feelings of utter injustice and sympathy that the audience experience at the climax of the play. A true star was Clare Dunne who played the doomed Mary, a character that represents the very image of failed potential. An intelligent, hardworking girl led astray, she (and Juno) must bear the brunt of her mistake more harshly than either Johnny or his wayward father who rely on the women in their family to clear up the carnage that they constantly seem to leave in their wake. Johnny, a character scarred and impaired by his fights for the IRA, was played as a twitchy, nervous and psychologically-damaged boy by Ronan Raftery. His experience in the adult world seems to have permanently confined him to a life of bitter dependence on his mother, not made easier by the fact that he strugggles to walk and has even "lost an arm for Ireland".

Ciaran Hinds as Jack Boyle was a delight, if a little mumbly at times. A convincing drunk, funny but for the most part an ignorant and idiotic man, he is simultaneously a joy to watch and a man you'd like to slap. Though he marches around in his Captain's cap (having only actually been on a boat once, to Liverpool!) his sense of self-importance doesn't translate into any sense of responsibility for his family, his friends or his country. Unlike the noble Juno.

Ultimately, this was a great production, with barely a flaw at all - the only downside was that some lines were a little incomprehensible (which may be in part to O'Casey's beautiful use of the Irish working class language) and the youngsters Raftery and Dunne should be commended for their clarity and strength of character onstage. The wonderful comedy of the play was beautifully matched with the bleak image of a lonely Jack sat in an even emptier room at the play's climax, the tragi-comedy that O'Casey is so known and loved for. Having studied this play, it was fantastic to see it finally mapped out on stage and serves as a harsh reminder of the difficulties that most ordinary families will face in the aftermath of so many of the recent revolutions as they attempt to keep their homelives intact amidst an increasingly fractured world.

Please comment if you have anything to add to this review of 'Juno and the Paycock'.