SYNOPSIS: In “Verity,” a new psychological erotic thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, and now playing in theatres, the line between fiction and reality blurs as a ghostwriter uncovers secrets about a famous author. “There is no light where we’re going.” Says Verity (Anne Hathaway). “Darkness ahead.”
CAST: Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Alex Cooper. Directed by Michael Showalter.
REVIEW: Although released in the fall, “Verity” is the equivalent of a summer beach read.
Based on Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, “Verity” sees Dakota Johnson as struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh. Broke and facing eviction, she is in bad need of a job.
The gig as a ghostwriter for Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), a bestselling author of thrillers who has been left immobilized and unresponsive after a terrible car accident, offers Lowen the chance to start anew at the author’s isolated Vermont estate.
At the house while sorting through Verity’s notes, Lowen uncovers what she thinks is an autobiography. The manuscript, however, is more than a straightforward look at Verity’s life. On the pages, in stark black and white, are what appear to be intimate details to the author’s culpability in her family’s tragedies. “A writer’s words should be honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying.”
In a quest for the truth, Lowen is drawn into a world of obsession where real life and fiction are tangled.
“Verity” breathes the same suburban Gothic air as “The Housemaid,” but has none of the delirious spirit that made the Amanda Seyfried/Sydney Sweeney movie a silly and steamy crowd pleaser.
There are twists and turns aplenty, but very few shocks in this talky, deliberately paced movie. Like Daphne du Maurier on quaaludes, it plods through the story of truth vs. fiction as though the set was filled with molasses. Fans of the novel may enjoy seeing Hoover’s famous “headboard sex scene” brought to life, (VERY MILD SPOILER AHEAD) but the core notion that a compelling narrative trumps facts feels forced and, by the time we get to it, morally ambiguous.
Of the top line cast only Hathaway dives in, providing a darkly theatrical turn. Seen mostly in flashbacks, she’s mean and menacing with a touch of camp.
When she is on screen, mouth bloodied after biting her lover or happily unplugging her children’s baby monitors, “Verity” comes alive, only then to be deadened by the surrounding turgid storytelling.
From 2paragraphs.com: “Author Richard Crouse, a Canadian film critic and culture vulture, smartly tells this tale of Costello’s beginnings — indeed he tells the tale of the invention of Elvis Costello the character. Another star of the book is Stiff Records, which was Dr. Frankenstein to Costello’s monster — and to his monster hits.”
My Aim Is True has the strongest single identity of any of the albums contained in the pantheon of Elvis Costello’s work. It is also the most iconic. So Richard Crouse’s look at both the record and the inchoate, pre-Attractions Costello is a welcome addition to any fan’s bookshelf.
Crouse followed his hero’s progress from afar – Liverpool, Nova Scotia, in fact – after identifying the bespectacled singer on the other side of the Atlantic as someone who was “making music that spoke to me”. Fortunately, his pocket-sized book (just 118 pages) is no hagiography and far more instructive than a song-by-song dissection of the record he got his older brother to bring home for him.
Costello’s early musical influences were as diverse as the records he would go on to make, from The Siamese Cat Song by Peggy Lee, which as a toddler he demanded that his mum play, through to The Beatles, The Supremes and Gram Parsons. He was only 16 when he got up to play in public for the first time in the crypt of a church in Richmond, and by all accounts it did not go well. However, a move from London to Liverpool saw him develop a taste for American country-flavoured rock and the kind of groups that were inspiring groups to venture out into pub back rooms. He and his friends followed suit.
This scene-setting is vital as it explains why, as punk was frothing at the mouth, an agitating young singer was recording a country-tinged album with a Californian bar band. At this point The Attractions hadn’t been hired, and it was with Clover that he recorded his debut at Pathway Studios.
There is, rightly, much emphasis on Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera’s maverick label Stiff Records, in whose scruffy offices the transformation from computer-operating geek to cool new waver began. It was Stiff’s keen understanding of promotion and marketing stunts that helped launch such a difficult-to-market artist. His arrest for busking outside the Hilton Hotel in London where CBS executives were holding a conference resulted to him being signed and MAIT being released in the US.
Fan or not, he doesn’t shy away from aspects of the Costello’s early career that some found off-putting. The labelling of some of Costello’s anti-romance songs as misogynist is, says Crouse, “a fair charge”, while the abrasiveness he cultivated on-stage and press interviews is chronicled in a chapter headed Prince Charmless. On stage he could be no less prickly. “I see we’ve got some cunts in the audience tonight,” he snarled during the Stiff tour of 1977 on which he deliberately played songs no one knew.
There are no original interviews with Costello or any of the musicians involved in MAIT, Crouse instead getting the thoughts of a host of other writers. Nor are there any images in this latest in the pop classics series. But fans will find plenty to feast on in a book that documents a seminal record and the arrival of one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation.
From Small Press Reviews: “Word on the street is that Elvis Costello has a memoir due in October. For those who can’t wait, there’s Richard Crouse’s Elvis Is King: Costello’s My Aim Is True, a meticulously researched account of Costello’s early years and the release of his first LP with independent label Stiff Records…” Read the whole thing HERE!
“Short and sweet. But, lots of info on one of the best debut albums of all time. A lively, quick read by gifted writer who appreciates the man, the music and the times.”
From The Bookend Family: “Mr. Crouse makes the details come alive, with stories about the size of the stories and the size of the performer’s egos. All in all it’s an intimate and scrappy love-note about how and when an artist found his voice and started his career. Elvis Is King makes the case that My Aim Is True was a truly rare phenomenon, and an album that was absolutely the right sound at the right time. This book is not that, but it’s pretty darn close…”
Richard spoke about his new book “Elvis is King: Costello’s My Aim is True” on NewsTalk 1010’s “In the Studio” on Saturday May 23, 2015 with hosts Bob redid and Blair Packham.
In The Studio airs every Saturday night at 8pm and Sunday night from 10pm with Bob Reid and Blair Packham (acclaimed singer-songwriter, producer, music educator and former leader of The Jitters), bringing you a wide variety of guests from all aspects of the world of music.
