The Beaver

No this is not some sort of pun (though I bet lots of guys chuckled when coming up with the idea), it is a comedy that shows just how crazy Mel Gibson can be…the characters he plays that is. ‘The Beaver’ seems to follow a man unorthodox method to battle his depression. Leave a comment and let me know what you think of it. It will be out in the UK on February 11th.

The American

George Clooney is one of the most recognisable faces in American cinema, with good reason; as director Anton Corbijn has said ‘he can say a lot without a script’ so it comes as no surprise that he was the first choice to play the only American character in this European style film ‘The American’.  It is a shame that Clooney’s magic touch, which has gained many award nominations in the past (Michael Clayton, Up In The Air), cannot give more ‘je ne sais quoi’ to this beautiful, but empty film.

The story is very basic with Clooney playing an unnamed gun mechanic who customises weapons for assassins until he is forced to hide after he becomes a target. He stays in Castel De Monte, working away on another assignment, whilst avoiding the locals, all except the prostitute Clara (Violante Placido); he first visits her out of loneliness, but then falls in love with her.  With such a basic plotline you hope that there are some extra story arcs, but this is not the case; the pace of the film drags out everything mentioned to happen over 103 minutes. When something unexpected does happen, Corbijin handles it with quick, precise expertise, which is a nice change from other Hollywood films where the guns battles and chase scenes last over 20 minutes. Saying that it would also have been nice for the action sequences to have had a bit more to them as they would have broken up the film’s laboured pace.

Consequently, without the distraction of too many action sequences, there is plenty of time for detailed characterisation, but Corbijn neglects to do this choosing instead to keep the character a mystery. We are not told anything about his past, so he is completely unrelatable and uninvolving. What is worse is that the protagonist is asking for forgiveness for his past, from both the audience and those around him, but he does nothing that can be considered redeeming. We are never really supporting him and because of this we lose interest in him and also the film.

With all this in mind there are some good things in this film that go some way to make up for the long rant above. Corbijn has used his photographic eye to create some absolutely beautiful shots; the countryside of Italy has never looked this idyllic. Using plenty of wide landscape footage and fantastic shots of the architecture creates a sense of openness and emptiness that reflects the loneliness of Clooney’s character. Both Clooney and his co-star Placido have a real chemistry that can be felt on screen. The sex scene is especially intense, with Clooney revealing more usual (this might be reason itself to see the film for some viewers) and there is tangible passion between the stars. When asked about that scene in a chat we had with him, director said that he tried to film ‘… it in a way that you feel sexuality rather than seeing it, which was important because a lot of sex scenes usually don’t feel sexual, you see everything, but it is not sexual.’

Corbijn also uses atmospheric techniques to great effect making many scenes, even ones with Clooney alone in a room, incredibly tense as he ‘can carry that [tension] and keep you interested, his body language was really good.’ We never know when someone will jump out to attack him and this keeps the audience wary of the silences. Although the music helps add to the tension, it is the silences that really make you sit up in your seat. Corbijn plays around with the sound very effectively, knowing exactly when to have a huge crescendo and when it is more appropriate to have nothing at all.

Saying all this the looks and the tension are not enough to hold ones interest throughout the entire film.  It is sad, but it seems that Corbijn hasn’t quite been able to get away from his photographic origins and create something that stood up to his last film ‘Control’. This will likely come as no surprise to him since he admitted to us ‘I know that I can’t top Control in the critical sense, the recognition was so immense it is just something you can’t aim for.’ What made  ‘Control’ was that Corbijn effectively balanced both aesthetics and story; sadly this time around he only seems to have concentrated on the former. Though it is highly doubtful this criticism will phase him since his philosophy is ‘If people hate the film I am sure for anyone that is hard to take because you work so long on the project… [but] you make a movie that you want to make and you have to let it go and see how people react.’

Degree- 3rd

A film that looks beautiful, but lacks any real substance,

characterisation or story telling.

 

(If you are confused about the rating system please click on the ‘About This Blog Page’ which will explain it all)

The Kids Are All Right

The film plays out like a sperm donor’s worst nightmare: he tries to make a quick $60 and 18 years later he gets a child knocking on his door saying they share the same DNA. Surely this can’t be allowed? If this is what leaves you pondering when you leave the cinema than you will have missed the entire point of the film. ‘The Kids Are All Right’ is as much about the laws of sperm donorship as ‘Juno’ is about teen pregnancy or ‘The Social Network’ is about Facebook, they are all just surface plot devices that allow characterisation to occur. In fact ‘The Kids Are All Right’ is not about sperm donors or LGBT rights to parenthood, but simply about family dynamics and all kinds of people’s relationships with each other.

The film follows one summer in the life of this unconventional family where Joni (Mia Waskikowska) has just finished high school and will be heading off to college, much to the delight of her two mums Nic and Jules (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore).  While all this is going on Joni’s half brother (same sperm donor different mother) Laser (Josh Hutcherson) is hanging out with the wrong crowd since he lacks a suitable male role model. Laser craves this older male company: you’d be right in thinking that sounds pretty gay since his mothers also incorrectly think so.  Nevertheless, he convinces Joni to get in contact with their sperm donor father who turns out to be the organic restaurateur and playboy Paul (Mark Ruffalo), an embodiment of male energy with his rugged beard and pristine motorbike.

The first meeting between sperm donor and offspring is painfully awkward and that is the true charm of the film; this incredibly uncomfortable chemistry is to be expected from this incredibly unusual situation and none of the characters have any idea what is meant to be happening. This feel of realism is in every scene, from the interrupted ‘relations’ in the bedroom to the singing at the table and talking about the inauthentic feel of lesbian porn; these scenes feel as if they are only slightly enhanced versions of real family conversations (or is my family just very weird?). On top of this no character is flawless or likable all the time and each one adds to the drama that goes on that summer, drama that pushes everyone to his or her limits.  Again, the film perfectly reflects normal human relationships very accurately. The original script is rumoured to have been a lot darker, with the Paul character being portrayed as a manipulative, scheming guy who wanted to break up the family on purpose rather than doing it by accident. In the final version he is as out of his depth with the situation as any of them, and he turns out to be very sweet on some occasions as he tries to bond with the tight nit family. For me the change to a lighter feel was a good move by Cholodenko (the director) as diffusing the blame means many characters are at fault and this adds depth and reality to the story. It goes to show the difficulty of romance and staying madly in love when life and hardship gets in the way. It is also a nice to change to have flawed protagonists, no matter what their gender or sexuality might be.

In between all the drama there are some very sweet and touching moments where Nic and Jules are very sweet together and are like any straight married couple. They fight with both each other and their kids, but underneath it all there is love and this creates the crucial family chemistry.  Since the story is meant to be just one short part of the family’s long time together there are a lot of story arcs that are left unresolved when the credits start rolling and this personally annoyed me and will also annoy some other members of the audience. I understand that it also makes it seem as if the life is continuing after the film has ended, but to me it felt as if they had created lots of story arcs and never got round to finishing them. This is, however a very light criticism that does not at all mar the rest of the film, which is light, interesting, and overall real.

 

2:1 Nothing ground breaking here, but an enjoyable depiction of a new type of modern family.

(If you are confused about the rating system please click on the ‘About This Blog Page’ which will explain it all)

 

 

Flipped

I am really excited about a new movie out this November (12th November to be precise) called ‘Flipped’

Set in the idyllic culdesac America the film looks like it will be cute, twee coming of age story with cute characters and some clever writing,and is the latest project  by ‘Stand By Me’ director Rob Reiner. It is also a love story with a his & hers perspective style of story telling which I think will give an extra bit of depth and chance for comedy.

The American

Here is a film I just went to see yesterday. Nothing can be put up till closer to the release date, but here is something to get interested in.

The film is about an American (obviously), played by George Clooney, who makes guns on request from assassins. After becoming a target himself he goes to hide in a small Italian village until it all blows here. While he meets a variety of locals including a priest (Paolo Bonacelli) and a prostitute (Violante Placido). The is directer by photographer turned director Anton Corbijn and is out 26th November.

How To Make A Classic…Psycho-drama-The Taxi Driver Tangent

Martin Scorsese’s psycho thriller ‘Taxi Driver’ received four academy award nominations, including one for best movie, but why is a film about an unstable veteran turned taxi driver such a success? Why did it inspire John Hinckley, Jr to try and assassinate President Regan in 1981?  The answer lies at the feet of two men: Robert De Niro and his excellent character Travis Bickle, and Scorsese himself with his excellent directing.

Never before or since has there been a protagonist like De Niro’s Travis Bickle. After not being able to sleep at night  Bickle starts taking graveyard taxi shifts to cope with his insomnia. It is during his taxi work that Bickle shows us the darker side of human nature. From the extracts from his diary that he narrates we see Travis’ darker feelings as he points out what he calls ‘the scum of New York’;  prostitutes, murders and drug dealers, all of which disgust and frustrate him. His observations about these people are surprisingly perceptive for someone so unstable and illuminate what many of us choose to ignore around us. What is strange (and yet compelling) about Travis is that even though he despises the petty crime he does not interfere with it since he sees it as part of life. When a customer in the back of his taxi tells Travis he plans to shoot his wife and her lover Travis does nothing to stop him or help his wife, but instead simply drives away.  This disconnection is quite terrifying, but not nearly as terrifying as when Travis tries to help which always seems to end in violence and blood.  Through this creepy behaviour he does command respect and even manages to get interest from Cybill Shepherd’s Betsy who works for a senator and Jodie Foster’s Iris who is a 12-year-old hooker he wishes to save. All these aspects create a fascinating character that is impossible not to watch to see what he does or thinks of next.

Along with De Niro’s great character Scorsese also puts his own mark on this classic psycho-drama. He puts a great sound track in the film that conveys a huge volume of emotion in every scene. The chilling soundtrack was written by ‘Psycho’ composer Bernard Herrmann and was his last project before he died. Every time the terrifying signature song was played my blood went cold, and if you don’t believe me just take a listen the it down below. Scorsese, since he is a great director, tried to make all the characters as real as possible. This is no ‘Pretty Woman’; these prostitutes are young, scared and abused while being a taxi driver is not made to look like a glamorous profession. There is nothing attractive about the fact that Travis must wipe vomit and semen off the back seat of his cab every night. By including this realism the audience are hit a lot harder and given a better understanding of what Travis is seeing when he goes out to work each night.

Overall the film expertly delves into the psychology and mind of its complex lead character. Both Scorsese and De Niro take the audience into Travis’ mind and don’t sugar coat the horrors we find in it. This journey is unforgettable and is what makes ‘Taxi Driver’ one of the best psycho-dramas ever made.

The Kids Are All Right

The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi and transgender) life-style is becoming more main stream and more accepted across the world and so is becoming more prominent in our media culture. More gay based story lines are popping up in soaps like Neighbours, Eastenders and Hollyoaks while gay characters in films are playing more interesting, less two dimensional parts. Saying all this ‘The Kids Are All Right’ is the first movie to fully look at the new age nuclear family, which in this case has Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as lesbian couple with two teenage children, one from each mum and a sperm donor father. When the kids get curious about where they come from they track down their biological father (Mark Ruffalo) and form a relationship with him. What I think looks great about this movie is for one thing it seems to show the complications and difficulties that arise in this new family dynamic, but at the same time it is not just another gay movie and looks at families in general, relationships in general and life in general. I think this will be a great film for everyone to see it and it comes to the UK 29th October 2010.

The Town

For the next jewel in the crown of his new career, ‘Smoking Aces’ actor turned ‘Gone Baby Gone’ director Ben Affleck has gone for the holy trinity: co-writing, directing and acting in his latest film ‘The Town’. This is clearly no mean feat: there can only be so many Clint Eastwood’s in Holywood. It is certainly a risk for Affleck who recently lost a little of his credibility: has only recently got back a credible reputation and for that reason this reviewer squarely set his sights, possibly unfairly, on Affleck and what he brings to the movie.

As with ‘Gone Baby Gone’, ‘The Town’ is set in Boston, this time in the area of Charlestown, which we are told produces more bank robbers and criminals than anywhere else. It is difficult to see how Affleck feels about his home turf of Massachusetts; on the one hand it seems to inspire a lot of his films, but on the other hand he never shows a flattering side to it. In ‘The Town’ Affleck plays Doug MacRay, a local hero who, along with his best friend Jem, played by Jeremy Renner, and two other nameless crooks, robs banks and robs them very well. The opening scene shows the group skilfully and professionally steal from a bank in the heart of Boston. They wear frightening masks, wield heavy-duty artillery, microwave security tapes and bleach all traces of their DNA; these guys know what they are doing.  But when one of the bank workers pushes the silent alarm, the crew are forced to improvise and take bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) as a hostage. This leaves her as a loose end: Doug volunteers to execute some surveillance of her to see if she tells the cops anything. The watching soon turns into a conversation and then a relationship, which has Doug questioning whether he has to stay in Charlestown or try and break out again.

The cast of the film is excellent with each actor pulling their own weight. The two already well established actors, Affleck and Hall, give great performances; Hall does a great American accent while Affleck shows he suits the role of the rugged criminal more than the smooth faced romcom lead. New actors Jeremy Renner and Blake Lively hold their own with Renner expertly plays an unhinged thug while Livley goes through an especially great transformation in her move to the big screen. From the glamorous upper east sider Serena van der Woodsen in the hit American show ‘Gossip Girl’, Blake Lively is transformed into the cheap Krista Coughlin; a transformation that is complete in making her look thoroughly undesirable. There are of course bad guys in the film, and being a crime film they appear on both sides of the law. There is the sinister florist, Pete Postlethwaite, who runs the crime racket in Charlestown, and ‘Mad Men’s’ Jon Hamm playing FBI agent Andrew Fawley. Both men show little compassion, which instantly, and unsubtly, draws the audience into backing Doug.

As this is a crime movie there is enough excellently executed chase scenes and gun fights to break up the drama between Affleck and Hall. However, on top of this, what makes this film stand out is the intimate, almost insider knowledge, Affleck has for this area of Boston; he knows why these men do what they do and how they get roped into it. He understnads how these are the type of men whose fathers were also been criminals and toast to friends who are in prison. He also takes time to show why none of these men have any money after a $90 grand bank raid. Little was I aware of that of course this money can’t be saved or hidden away, but must instead be squandered quickly on gambling, drugs and girls so that the police can’t trace anything. It is true the story isn’t completely original, but having the heart and insight of Affleck puts the film above the crime dramas Guy Ritchie usually throws out there. The heart also shows Affleck’s true feelings to Boston, which is one of love and acceptance of both its good and bad qualities.

Saying all this there are some aspects of the film that some members of the audience may find difficult to swallow. The plot is frankly nothing we haven’t seen before and lacks a lot of character development for the more minor characters. Also some people might not feel that Doug MacKay was a character worthy of our forgiveness. Some of his actions could be seen as token gestures rather than ones of general remorse and for this reason Doug may not be a character they want to support.

Even if all these comments are true it did not ruin any of the film for me and I believe Affleck has shown that ‘Gone Baby Gone’ was not simply a fluke. However I still worry he could be a one trick pony so for his next film I would like to see him branch out into a different genre, or at least a different city.

2:1-Affleck’s career is rising like a phoenix out of the ashes of bad choices

and with more films like this one I am sure it will soar even higher

still with critical acclaim.

The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is the original dark, yet feel-good film based on Stephen King’s famous short story. From the starting court scene to the phenomenal ending the film shows the audience every aspect of the human character, both good and bad; it’s an engaging and touching journey. It is unfortunate that this great was released in the same year as Tom Hank’s ‘Forest Gump’ and Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’. These big names stole the limelight at the box office so Shawshank only made $18 million and lost out on all seven of the academy awards it was nominated for. However it has since grossed a huge DVD and VHS following and been ranked deservedly higher in the list of greatest films of all time.

The film centres on former banker Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, who is on trial for the murder of his wife and her golf-pro lover. Although Dufresne protests his innocence, his icy manner fails to convince either the jury or the audience and he is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. He is sent to Shawshank Prison and behind these high stone walls are where almost all the film takes place. Robbins plays the intelligent and calculating Andy Dufresne perfectly; so much so that some critics have faulted him, claiming he never truly connects with the audience.  This distance however is simply as a powerful example of how Dufresne is distant from everyone around him. He is an island and Robbins plays him as such.

All the characters that Dufresne meets in Shawshank are richly filled out and layered: from the hypocritical warden Mr Norton, who is as flawed as the men he keeps locked up, to Brooks the institutionalised crook who will bring tears to your eyes. Each character grows organically during the film’s gentle unfolding. Within this great cast the stand out performance is easily Morgan Freeman. He plays Red, a man who can get you anything you need for a 20% mark up. Freeman’s portrayal of Red is raw, human and real; Freeman thoroughly deserved his Oscar nomination.  Freeman is also the film’s narrator; his silky voice is certainly music to the ears and gives a good insight into the emotions and psychology of a prisoner. It allows the audience to really understand what each character is going through.

When all is said and done, beneath Freeman’s silky voice and the country amble pace this is still a prison movie and like ‘Midnight Express’ before it, includes some horrible scenes that make you think twice about ending up there. From the guards’ verbal insults and physical assaults to the inmates deaths and the food they have to eat the film does not let up in showing us how truly awful people can be. The beating and rape of Dufresne by a group of prisoners called ‘The Sisters’ was particularly nasty and distressing to watch. But it is not these dark scenes that make ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ one of the 50 films Film4 say you must see before you die how these men rise above these obstacles is the true genius of the film. Throughout all he endures Dufresne never loses his creativity, generosity or integrity. The bond of companionship he forms with the other inmates is inspirational and the lengths he goes to in order to hang onto hope are incredible. The end of the film leaves you dumbstruck, in awe at what we are all capable of and determined to make sure you fulfil your own potential.

Degree: 1^st.

The film of a generation and one that has finally become recognised for the masterpiece it is.

Films since then, such as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, have clearly drawn inspiration from it.

Get busy living, get busy seeing this film.

Never Let Me Go

The film is based on the highly acclaimed novel ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kuzuo Ishiguro and is set in the english countryside, at a boarding school called  Hailsham. The children at the school are called ‘special’ and kept on a very strict routine. They are given all the food they need, clothes to wear and friends to play with, but they are forbidden to leave the grounds. This all strangely changes when they reach 18 and have given their ‘3rd donation’. This baffling ritual, as well as the feel that the kids are being bred for something, shows the film has more to it than originally meets the eye. The film has gotten great reviews from critics at many film festivals, including the one in Toronto.

The three central characters are Tommy, Ruth and Kathy who are played by Andrew Garfield, Kiera Knightley and Carey Mulligan. It is exciting to see the love triangle that will form between them and also to witness the rising of two new stars. Both Mulligan and Garfield have shown their acting talents in previous films and I can’t wait to see them sink their teeth into these ones. Is also great to see Knightley  doing what I think really shows off her talent by taking part in a gritty drama, such as she did in ‘Atonement’ and ‘The Hole’.  I am greatly anticipating the release of this film in January 2011.

Here is an extra feature; an interview with Keira Knightley on her character Ruth and her dynamic within the film.