BRIAN VINER Reviews Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga

[/tvshowbiz/eurovision/index.html Eurovision] Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga ([/sciencetech/netflix/index.html Netflix])
Rating:
Verdict: One for Ferrell fans 
Irresistible (Amazon Prime Video, Apple and other digital platforms)
Rating:
Verdict: Uneven political satire
For those still feeling bereft after the cancellation of this year's Eurovision Song Contest — and there must be one or even two of you out there — here's something to plug the gap, a Will Ferrell comedy that, just like Eurovision night itself, shamelessly outstays its welcome.
Its sporadic laughs would just about sustain a 95-minute film, but director David Dobkin gets nul points for stretching them over two hours.

Even at that indulgent running time, however, he never wholly solves the problem of how to parody an event that has long since become a parody of itself.
For those still feeling bereft after the cancellation of this year's Eurovision Song Contest here's something to plug the gap
Ferrell plays Lars Erickssong, an Icelandic version of his familiar man-child character.

Lars has been nuts about Eurovision since boyhood, when Abba's performance of Waterloo dragged him out of his gloom over the death of his mother.
With his elf-obsessed best friend Sigrit Ericksdottir (Rachel McAdams), he forms a pop duo, Fire Saga.
They yearn to represent Iceland in the forthcoming contest, which is being held in Edinburgh. When all the other contenders mysteriously die in a huge explosion, they get their chance.
If they win, Iceland will have to host the show the following year — which is why the country's finance minister wants them to fail, as the cost would sink the beleaguered economy.
Lars's fisherman father Erick (Pierce Brosnan, but don't worry, he doesn't sing) fully expects them to fail, on the basis that Lars has been a loser all his life.

Heck, the lad doesn't even like the smell of fish.
Can Lars confound his father's low expectations? Will he ever realise that Sigrit is in love with him? Might they even be brother and sister, given that Erick is Iceland's most handsome man and a renowned womaniser?
In Edinburgh, these and other questions are resolved.
There are some genuine laughs in all this — and the added bonus of Graham Norton gamely playing himself. Dan Stevens has a hoot locating his inner George Michael as the oily Russian entrant Alexander Lemtov, who tries to seduce Sigrit — ‘If it helps I can throw in Faberge egg, personal submersible, pet tiger' — and Dobkin throws what can only be called the kitschen sink into the look of the show.
Sadly, neither the premise nor the script (co-written by Ferrell) can cope with the film's inordinate length.

On which subject, there are puerile gags about penis size that would cheapen a sixth-form revue. But if you love Ferrell's well-honed emotionally stunted act — and in fairness, plenty do — maybe this comedy will sing to you.
I liked Irresistible more, but it too is not without flaws.
It's a sometimes sharp, sometimes laboured political satire written and directed by the U.S. comedian and former talk-show host Jon Stewart.
Steve Carell plays Gary Zimmer, a celebrated Washington DC spin doctor who heads for rural Deerlaken, Wisconsin, after seeing a video of local farmer Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper), who is also a retired Marines colonel, making an impassioned town hall speech about citizens' rights.
Steve Carell plays Gary Zimmer, kynghidongduong.vn a celebrated Washington DC spin doctor who heads for rural Deerlaken, Wisconsin
Gary wants the colonel to run for election as the Democratic Party's candidate for mayor, and cynically plans to use Jack's obvious integrity as a boost for the Democrats on a national level.
The Republicans won't take this lying down. They fly in his long-time rival Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne) to play him at his own game.

Both are fish out of water in the folksy town. There's a twist I mustn't divulge, but it should come sooner. By the time it arrives, much of the fun, at the expense of a U.S. electioneering system far more reliant on dollars than on decency, has run out of poke.
Irresistible is never less than watchable and often enjoyable, but Frank Capra covered similar territory more adeptly 80 years ago in Mr Smith Goes To Washington.
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  Dylan's on Top of the Docs
Here's another small batch of my all-time favourite documentaries, all available to buy, rent or stream.
I've had lots of feedback so far at filmclassics@dailymail.co.uk and will reply to you all in due course.

Meanwhile, in no particular order …
I love the way director Martin Scorsese tells the story of Bob Dylan's 1975 U.S.

tour, with fantastic archive clips
Senna (2010)
Asif Kapadia's masterful film broadly covers the ten years that charismatic Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna spent in Formula 1, and his rivalry with Frenchman Alain Prost, before he died on the track in 1994.

Thrilling even if you don't like motor racing.
Shoah (1985)
In truth, I'm not sure I can call this a favourite, exactly. But Claude Lanzmann's epic history of the Holocaust, using dozens of eyewitness accounts, is such a mighty and important accomplishment that it simply can't be left out.
Rolling Thunder Revue (2019)
I love the way director Martin Scorsese tells the story of Bob Dylan's 1975 U.S.

tour bali giá rẻ, with fantastic archive clips; incredible access to some of the main players, such as Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and, of course, Dylan (pictured) himself; and a discordant little twang of dramatic licence.
  Strewth, what a winning tale 
Ride Like A Girl (Sky Store, Amazon Prime Video)
Rating:
Verdict: Heartwarming
The Booksellers (Curzon Home Cinema)
Rating:
Verdict: A great cover story
Actress Rachel Griffiths gets out of the stalls as a director with her debut feature Ride Like A Girl, the true story of jockey Michelle Payne (Teresa Palmer).
Five years ago, Michelle had to overcome numerous challenges — sexism, misogyny, a fall that left her in a coma with bleeding on the brain, that sort of stuff — to fulfil what she had always believed was her destiny: to win Australia's premier horse race, the Melbourne Cup.
The ever-reliable Sam Neill (left) plays her father, and her real-life brother Stevie, who has Down's syndrome, plays himself
The ever-reliable Sam Neill plays her father, and her real-life brother Stevie, who has Down's syndrome, plays himself, in a family film that, for all its triumph-over-adversity cliches, is warm-hearted enough to warrant a place in this week's winner's enclosure.
The Booksellers is a winning film, too; a pleasing documentary about dusty old antiquarian bookshops in New York City, run by obsessive bibliophiles who lament how the internet has made it easy to find rare volumes.
The fun, says one, was always in the hunt, not the object.

Now the fun has gone. Still, tour bali giá rẻ many of them refuse to shut up shop, and their stubborn staying-power is one of the treats of this film.
We also learn that a dustjacket in good nick can increase the value of a book — in the case of a first edition of Ian Fleming's James Bond story Casino Royale, by more than $100,000.
What a great cover story.