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Friday 24 February 2012

What We Watched: 18th - 24th

Well it's that time of the week again where you are able to see exactly how we wasted our time this week. Joe and I have taken two different paths this week, whereas Joe has watched a lot of obscure "out there" films including one "gay, surrealist art house biopic" I've done a lot of re watching and have seen at least two "ridiculously smeh" films. So, let us begin with Joe's filmic adventures:


JOE'S WEEK.


Chronicle (2012)
Not since the first  Spider-Man movie has a super hero film felt this fresh and original. It's a bit naff in parts and I don't want to ruin the film but they shoot themselves in the foot at least twice but I can't say I didn't really enjoy it. 4 stars me thinks.

Le Quattro Volte (2010)
It's a film about life, nature and spirituality. As pompous as that sounds this film is just plain beautiful and really does make you see things in an interesting way. It's also surprisingly funny and compassionate. I really really recommend it. 4 stars.





MY FILM OF THE WEEK
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Paul Thomas Anderson is quite simply the boss. He's not just a director with no bad films, he's a director with no just good films, they're all simply awesome. Magnolia, ace, Sydney, great, Boogie Nights, freakin' A and There Will Be Blood. Look at that list, what a career. And on top of that he made Adam Sandler's comedy bit into something quite astounding. This film is weird, true, but when I reached the end I quickly realised that I loved every second. The music, aces. 5 Stars.

Looking For Langston (1989)
There is some real beauty in this poetic biopic but it just can't help itself from occasionally turning into a tacky mess of stereotypes and some average voice acting. If you just read the script and looked at some of the beautiful black and white photography, it'd be great. 3 Stars. 

BASEketball (1998)
Every single Zucker film post-Airplane! is just a really sad sight. The Naked Gun is alright but everything else just reeks of a guy who struck lucky trying to recapture his glory days over and over again. In most cases he even uses the same jokes. This is no exception the only thing that makes it slightly less painful is the rare sight of  Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame, acting in the flesh. Randy....is that you? "Stan....Staaaaaan." 2 Stars I'm afraid. 

The Lives of Others (2006)
What hasn't already been said about this Oscar winning thriller? Very little I imagine. It's reasonably smart and it's lead character is stunning. The one thing I really dig about it is that it never tries to vilify the Stasi, it shows them as flawed people in a terrible regime. It would have been so easy to give one a nasty scar and have him beat women all the time but this film lets it play out naturally and somewhat realistic. 4 Stars.

Food, Inc. (2008)
A documentary about the industrialization of the food industry. It covers all sorts of horrific topics like kids dying from E.coli and families living off burgers cause they're cheaper than lettuce. It's well made and as entertaining as it is shocking. 4 Stars.

Videodrome (1983)
Do you remember when David Cronenberg made really cool twisted sci-fi movies about mind control and mysterious conspiracies. Well technically I don't actually as I'm far to young but posthumously do you recall? This has to be my favourite though (After The Fly) it's bizarre and yet the story is deeply interesting. Also James Woods is awesome. What I really like about this film though is that it never really explains itself but if you look all the information is there. Very almost 4 stars




The Thin Blue Line (1988)
This documentary about a wrongly convicted drifter, accused of killing a policeman is an incredibly interesting recreation. It's a bit tacky though in some regards, there are many moments where someone will be saying "He ate an apple" and the camera will zoom in on this apple as if to say "hey.........that's an apple like what that dudes talking about". 3 stars pushing a 4.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008)
Warlords and rape and explosions and men acting horrifically. This Documentary tells the tale of a enormous woman's peace movement that freed Liberia from some ridiculously horrific tyranny. As a film it's all facts and little beauty but it really gets into the root of the story and what a story it is. Like The Thin Blue Line, 3 pushing on 4 stars.

The Garden (2008)
The forth of my documentary binge and this one is really really one sided. It centers around a public garden (allotments to us normal folk) where many low income families grow crops to feed their families. They are evicted and are told to leave in two weeks. It then follows the group of farmers as they fight for the right to keep the land. It vilifies everyone who doesn't support the gardeners cause. Was Horowitz denying an interview? To me not having some talks with him seems like an oversight. Having said that it's an amazing story and the gardeners are probably in the right. It's incredibly interesting and pretty moving to boot. I just wish I could be more certain that I know all the facts and that I'd seen all the angles. 4 stars. 



SAM'S WEEK.


Ichi The Killer (2001)
This film is mental, absolutely crazy amazing OTT Japanese martial arts epic gross out uber revenge film, with kills taken straight out of a Mortal Kombat finishing move. The plot is at times super confusing and decidedly hard to follow but to be honest you don't really need to follow the intricacies of the story when you can see a Japanese man rip a man in twain with a blade he has secreted in his shoe. 3 going on 4 stars.



Blades of Glory (2007)
I first watched Blades of Glory quite a few years ago when I was going through a "madly in love with Will Ferrell" phase (a phase I still occasionally slip into) and I massively enjoyed it, laughing like a mad man and entertaining the prospect that Jon Heder would definitely be able to make a career for himself post Napoleon Dynamite. I am happy to say that all those old feeling bubbled once again to the surface, sure it's dumb but that's the fun of it, it's about two blokes doing figure skating for pete's sake. Loopy, but gloriously so. "We're gonna skate to one song and one song only." 4 stars.

The Deep End (2001)
Tilda Swinton is in this film. I love Tilda Swinton, Tilda Swinton is amazing and her performance as Margaret Hall as she tries to keep her head above water as her life spirals out of control in The Deep End is captivating, engaging and excellent. If the supporting cast of this blackmail thriller were a third of a talented as Tilda Swinton this film would be unbearably amazing, alas the supporting cast are pants, bobbins and occasionaly more stilted and hackneyed than the performance of a b-movie star. Great potential but sadly only Tilda Swinton makes it worthwhile. 3ish stars.

The Woman in the Fifth (2011)
Smeh, Smeh and thrice Smeh. Please see review for more details as to its Smehness.

MY FILM OF THE WEEK
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
I went into this film fully expecting to like it. It looks funny, is about heartbreak, Hawaii and romance, has man crush of the moment Jason Segel in it and is the sort-of prequel to filmienjoyedwaymorethanexpected Get Him to the Greek. I however wasn't prepared for quite how much I loved it, absolutely phenomenal film, funny, clever, kind, heartwarming, funny, involves puppets and Jason Segel gets his wang out. As soon as it had finished I really wanted to watch it again, that's how much I damn enjoyed this. 4.5 stars.



Get Him to the Greek (2010)
But rather than watch FSM again I decided to pop in the continuing adventures of Aldous Snow and see him try and get to the Greek. Fun fact: I got my copy of this film free on DVD when a letter I'd written about not being as attractive as Ryan Reynolds was printed in Total Film. It may be down to the bizarre but brilliant chemistry between Jonah Hill and Russel Brand or it may be down to the unbearably glorious scene stealing brilliance of P.Diddy ("You can't outrun me, I'M BLACK!") or it might be because the DVD was free either way I love this film. Such a glorious guilty pleasure. 4 stars.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
I'm not sure if there's anything new to be said about this heartwarming tale of friendship, corruption and triumph over adversity suffice to say that every piece of praise and accolade that has been heaped upon it is well deserved. There's some fine acting, brilliant storytelling and is one of the few film instances of use of narration without it being too cheesy or annoying. And that ending, my word that ending leaves you feeling more warm and fuzzy inside than any film about prison should do. 4.5 Stars.

Vanishing Point (1971)
Barry Newman plays Kowalski, an ex-race driver who is tasked with delivering a 1970 Dodge Challenger to San Francisco, he takes a bet  with a friend that he can get it to it's destination in less than 15 hours. Shortly after speeding away a passing police officer pulls him over, he doesn't oblige and a chase across the USA commences. It's an achingly cool chase that follows with some smashing driving and amazing music. With echoes of films like Drive and  Easy Rider it is a cracking Bonnie and Clyde tale that is nearly as thrilling as Kowalski's driving. 4 stars.


Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
OK, first things first; Borat is amazing. It manages to be amazingly silly and wonderfully clever in one fell swoop and it never stops being fascinating quite how brave Sacha Baron Cohen is in putting himself on the line creating this incredible comedy creation. However, this is the fourth time I've watched Borat in about six months and on this viewing I couldn't shake a feeling of pity for the people he manipulates. Some, like the redneck who wants murder of gays, are just gonks who fully get their just desserts whereas others, like the southern dinner party folk, i feel are somewhat pushed and manipulated into giving an extreme reaction. That being said it's still very funny and furiously quotable, right now someone somewhere will be doing a cack-handed Borat impression and contemplating getting a mankini. 4 stars. 

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene

I saw this film a good couple of weeks ago. From that night to now I've been trying to figure out how to write about what I saw and how I felt about what happened. The truth is I'm not sure either way. I only know three things for sure;
1. It reminded me of Winter's Bone (a good thing)
2. It's a hell of a debut feature for Sean Durkin
3. I loved it. 


The human mind makes no clear sense. Or at least it is similar to the deepest parts of the ocean, we can guess what goes on and in some cases know for sure but there is an ever present air of uncertainty and turbulence. We as a race are still trying to figure out our minds and what they spend their time doing. When you try and distill that uncertain world of the mind onto film it can turn into many things, disappointingly simplified cliches, awesome Lynchian levels of stylized madness or like this. What is this then? We start with Martha running off into the woods, away from a building with several sleeping bodies. She's then picked up by her sister who hasn't seen her for a very long time. Martha is damaged and her sister takes it slow letting her get comfortable as she waits for her baby sister to open up to her so there can be some sisterly love all around. But she has had an interesting past that is slowly unraveled as Martha tries to untangle the mess that is now her head. At times it seems that even Martha isn't sure what happened as new elements of her past pop up in her mind and she gradually gets more and more unstable. 

There is nothing but stunning performances is in this film. From the increasingly desperate sister to the vulnerable Bambi-like Sarah they all pull their weight and no one is left behind. I feel like their's is some magnificent untold story behind every character. Hugh Dancy is surprisingly good as the white collar middle-class man (I say surprising mainly because I know him from Confessions of a Shopaholic). John Hawkes is brilliant as always, his character manages to be horrifically sinister and yet calm and controlling. The scene in which he sings 'Marcy's Song' is both mesmerizing and beautiful, yet deeply disturbing. But wait, there's more, Elizabeth Olsen is sublime. You can't help but be completely captivated by her.


The film is blue all over. The color is thoroughly embedded in the film and it give it a hazy dream-like quality. It's also snappily put together. Sounds and actions throw Martha back and forth between memory and current events at the drop of a hat making us feel as vulnerable as Martha is to her disturbing history. I was feeling paranoid at the end of the film and I'm not now, or have I ever been, involved in such questionable activities as these.

For me this film was close to faultless and when we get to the end of this year I'll be surprised if this isn't at least in my top five. You should really give it a go. Having said that it definitely isn't a film for all. It's ending is very open and to some it may just seem that they ran out of film and had to just stop making the picture. Their are many questions left unanswered. Martha is not an open book and there is never a scene where the sister hears all of Martha's internal turmoil. If that sounds fine by you and you fancy trying to get into the mind of a truly interesting group of people, I promise you that this film is truly stunning. If not it may make you feel just plain uncomfortable. 


JO

Monday 20 February 2012

Review: The Woman in the Fifth

If it wasn’t so damn annoying it’d be vaguely impressive that a film with a scant running time of barely 90 minutes could feel so long, laborious and drawn out. Adapted from, and therefore sounding exactly like, the cheap thrillers advertised in train stations The Woman in the fifth is a somewhat pointless film leaving its audience feeling decidedly smeh about the whole affair.



TWITF tells the story of an aggravatingly underdeveloped estranged father who decamps to Paris in order to reconnect with his frosty ex wife and six year old daughter. We start off knowing hardly anything about Ethan Hawke’s Tom and it stays that way right to the very end leaving us with annoying niggling questions. For instance when his wife calls the police worried about Tom’s “violent reaction” we have no idea if it’s just posturing or a valid fear. Ethan Hawke is solid as Tom delivering a text book estranged father who’s also a writer and might be a bit mental performance but due to underdeveloped story and stilted dialogue we don’t really know whether we should be rooting for Tom or worrying about his next move. This ambiguity could be a big draw to those who enjoy paint your own style of storytelling but I just found it maddeningly frustrating. There are some pretty nifty nature shots of bugs and decay that may be there to suggest some kind of inner degradation but seeing as the visual metaphor is never fully explained we’re essentially left with some arty shots of flies and spiders.

TWITF continually drops a series of red herrings: What is Tom’s mystery job? Who is this Margit character? Is Tom a few sandwiches short of a picnic? Why is that buzzer so loud? But the answer to these questions is 90% horrifically dull, unexplained or just plain ignored. Kristen Scott Thomas is compelling as object of Tom’s infatuation Margit but despite second billing she has a pitiful amount of screen time and when she does appear she does very little to justify us continuing to care about who exactly she is. One scene, that in the trailer looked to be full of unspoken lust and romance, was reduced to a laughable bout of off screen fumbling entirely devoid of lust, romance or any purpose.

TWITF is not a terrible film, despite all I have said. It does however commit a sin which to my mind is far worse than 6 Indiana Jones 4’s strung together. It is smeh, middling, dull and leaves you thinking more about what you’re going to have for tea than what you just saw. It could be so much more but it decidedly very much isn’t, when Tom steps out onto the Parisian streets and screams, much to the shock of a passerby, chances are you’ll want to do the same.

Friday 17 February 2012

What We Watched 10th - 17th

We brothers are, in case you hadn’t guessed, firm film fans. Our brains are always debating what film best describes the situation we’re in at that moment, our Love Film accounts are always buzzing with new, exciting films, whenever we meet up we find ourselves spending 85% of our time discussing all matters film. We are, as a drunk man in Wetherspoons once pointed out, geeks, massive film geeks. Now as you can imagine being fans of film we spend a great deal of our time watching film after film after film after film, so we decided to begin a section covering what we have watched this week (I suggested the name “Our Week in Film” but Joe’s nose was firmly turned up at this suggestion) so welcome to this new Cinemazov section. Covering Joe and I’s film watching lives this week. That’s the 10th to the 17th by the way.

ENJOY!

SAM

Fanny and Alexander (1982)
This film is one of the last films renowned Swedish director Ingmar Bergman ever made and it covers all of the themes and motifs Bergman loved and utilised throughout his illustrious career. It tells the tale of the theatrical Ekdahl family and how they cope with life, love, death, theatre and religion. It’s time frame is epic and it sometimes feels as long as his entire back catalogue put together. Covering 4 episodes and clocking in at over 5 hours long F&A occasionally feels like a bit of an endurance test however it is worth sticking with, Bergman’s finger prints are littered all over this sumptuous saga and a must for any fan of Ingmar’s.

Carnage (2011)
Absolutely sublime anarchic fun. It was such a joy to see 4 brilliant actors quite clearly having such a fun time and generally arsing around in splendid style. Thoroughly enjoyable and the perfect antidote to the heavy going nature of F&A.

Team America: World Police (2004)
It may sound a bit melodramatic for a film of this nature but it is a truly admirable feat that creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to abandon longevity and instead opt to make a film that serves to parody such a specific time and place. Aping perfectly America’s reaction to 9/11 it is a sublime mockery of a time and place we all remember so well, and done with puppets. That being said it totally stands up and is as funny and enjoyable as it was back in the day.

Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Talladega Nights starts out so strong. The excellent , hilarious and frigging awesome origin story from little lad with a need for speed to America’s greatest Nascar driver ever of Ricky Bobby is consistently hilarious, clever and a damn joy to watch. The dinner table scene alone with the ruminations of the looks of Jesus Christ to how Bobby’s kids are going to teach Chip a lesson is a lesson in awesome contemporary comedy. Then however I feel it slips off, the middle is a bit of a dud I feel it tails off and whilst it has moments of humour it never picks back up to the levels it begins with. Alas. That being said Joe says its well better than Anchorman as does my housemate so…

The Muppets (2011)
Amazing Amazing Lemon Amazing. Read my review for specificities on its amazingness. The montage Rowlfe joke still makes me giggle just thinking about it.  

Harold and Maude (1971)
I’ve heard a lot said about this film and was a touch concerned that it wouldn’t live up to these high expectations I had. However I need not have worried it is an absolutely brilliant film, a bona fide cult classic. The faux suicide attempts are so damn funny it hurts me, for an idea so dark and potentially tasteless to be handled with such humour and levity is a testament to this film’s greatness in of itself. Brilliant. So good in fact, as soon as I finished watching it I added it to my Amazon wish list. That’s a sign of a good film.

A Bay of Blood (1971)
Why? Why oh why? WHY!? Why is it that the video nasty horror films with the best gruesome names always the ones that are so pants? Driller Killer, Cannibal Holocaust and now A Bay of Blood, all promise so much but deliver so little. Boring, poorly shot, overlong (despite being consistently less than 90 minutes) and with utter pants violence and gore. A Bay of Blood’s story is confusing and hard to follow, poorly acted and cram full of naff horror, no tension and crap acting. What I needed to lift me out of this crap horror funk was a really good horror film…

KILL LIST (2011)
That’s right. My favourite film of 2011 and easily one of the best horror films produced in years. It’s tense, scary, funny, gloriously gory and frigging awesome. Admittedly transposing it from the intense setting of a dark, full, loud cinema to the small, light, quiet, slightly naff setting off my living room did remove some of its original impact but not much. It was still brilliant. Utterly top drawer.

Bombay Beach (2011)
Half way through Alma Har’el’s debut feature documentary Bombay Beach I had a moment of bizarre clarity, without really realising it it dawned on me that this film was absolutely amazing. Review Forthcoming

JOE

Ratcatcher
Lynne Ramsey's first film is exactly like her short films; bleak, Scottish and sad. It's interesting but really does feel like a collection of short films (it was originally intended as 20 short films that all would tie together). It all pays off in the end though and it's always referring back to the pivotal moment to inspire some thought. It also looks pretty awesome. 3.5 Stars.

Morvern Callar

Ramsey's second film is awesome. The story and lead character are incredibly interesting and occasionally challenging. Movern is a confusing lead that's not exactly a likable person but at the same time we tend to sympathize with her. She's very interesting to watch and as we try to figure out whats going on in her head we want her to do stranger and stranger things so we get an even greater understanding. Character pieces tend to be the kind of films that aren't very good but star Meryl Streep or Morgan Freeman giving a stellar performance. This is instead a great actress showing off what a great director Ramsey is and what a brilliant screenwriter she is too. 4 and a bit stars.

The Devil's Backbone
It’s a great film sure, and a billion and twelve times better than your average ghost story but I think I still prefer Cronos. Very almost 4 stars.

Gnomeo & Juliet
It’s a little bit better than I thought it would be but essentially it’s unrelentingly naff. The Elton John music was so dumb though, I mean most of it made no sense at all. 2 and a half.

Sleeping Beauty (2011)
It was so cold and numb that it never feels graphic just terribly depressing. I also loved that it was the male side of this creepy sex industry, you even end up feeling bad for the bald creepy guy. Beautiful. 4 Stars.

Alien
If you haven’t seen the original classic then now is the time, Prometheus is right around the corner and this film is only ever brilliant.  4 Stars.

Hausu
I can’t say anything about this film other than you really need to see it to understand why it’s so awesome. For best results see it with some like minded comedy horror films, I watched it on Valentine’s day with my girlfriend.....winner. 5 Stars.

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (Music by Air)
Not a feature just a short film but I wanted to mention it for the brilliant music. Buy the amazon download with the film attached. 

Captain America: The First Avenger
It’s fine and in no way diminished my excitement for the upcoming Avengers movie but it’s just a generic action film with a terribly bland villain. A bit less than 3 stars.

Tyrannosaur
Three great performances and some great writing but beyond that it’s not as compelling as it’d like to think, if it were not for the ending this film would forecast a promising future for Paddy Considine with it however it manages to save itself from being a generic Ken Loach spin off and become somewhat interesting. 3 and a bit stars.

Origins: Spirits of the Past
As I’m yet to see Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind I can’t say whether this adds anything to the formula, I’ll get back to you on that, other than that it looks awesome and it’s hella cool for the most part. 3 Stars going on 4.

Attack The Block
The monster design gets a billion thumbs up and the conversations between the kids is actually believable rather than that usual mixture of obvious jokes from a writer that’s never seen a mid teen in the flesh. But it sticks to it’s plot line as rigidly as you can imagine and when they say “Inner city vs outer space” that’s exactly what it is, nothing more, nothing less. 3 stars easily.

Told you it was a lot.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Review: The Muppets


Feelin’ bad? Had a rough few days? Need a bit of a pick me up? Then my friend look no further than the excellent Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller penned The Muppets. Obviously if, like me, you have a very strong emotional and nostalgic connection to the Muppets then chances are it won’t be a hard sell getting you to go and see this. That being said even if you are indifferent to the Muppets this is well worth seeing. It is quite literally everything you could want from a good old fashioned fun family film.    

The Muppets must’ve been quite a hard sell. It’s been 12 years since we last saw Jim Henson’s beloved creations grace the silver screen in Muppets in Space. Aside from repeat viewings of their finest work (The Muppet Movie, the Muppet’s Christmas Carol, the Muppet’s Treasure Island. (that was an entirely unnecessary list wasn’t it?)) and certain Muppet alumni’s continual appearance in pop culture they’re not exactly relevant anymore. Or at least that's how a studio like Disney would see it. It would be an easy nostalgic pitch but would a new Muppets venture be able to appeal to its target audience, a youth more used to crisp Pixar animations, fat suits and loud noises. Luckily the studio’s trust in Jason Segel and James Bobin pays off as we are left with a truly enjoyable, glorious, fun filled romp that more than appeals to Muppet aficionados and newcomers alike. The film tells the tale of two brothers, Gary and Walter. They're are as alike as two peas in a pod, best friends for life, they do everything together even to the point that they wear matching pyjamas and attend the same scout troupe. It’d be hard to tell them apart if one wasn’t a 6 foot plus human and the other an insecure 2 foot high Muppet. On a special anniversary trip to Los Angeles  Walter stumbles across the awful fate of the beloved Muppet’s studio, its ground are to be sold to an evil Texan oil baron and tore down destroying the memory of those once adored Muppets. Cue the desperate pleas of a reunion, the road trip and good feelings aplenty. Oh and Kermit’s 80’s robot.

The film toys gloriously with its genre conventions just as the Muppets have done so brilliantly since their inception be it the decision to cut out a long journey by travelling by map or the time saving decision to pick up the rest of the gang using montage, the film plays with its own silliness throughout never feeling the need to be anything other than what it is, a Muppet’s movie. Everything is in place, Fozzie’s bad jokes, Miss Piggy’s pomposity, Animal’s animalistic nature "In control", Gonzo’s chickens and suits and all the rest. This however leads me to my main/only criticism of this fine film. Where the frig was Rizzo? I love that rat; he is amazing yet was barely given a second of screen time. I don’t know if Segel has a problem with rats or couldn’t think of any jokes for Rizzo that would beat the excellent jelly beans gag in Christmas Carol but he was sorely missed, by me at least.

The musical numbers, penned by Flight of the Conchords’ star Bret Mackenzie, are brilliant. Yes they are noticeably absent in the film’s second half but it’s at that point that there is a concerned focus on story meaning that songs aren’t needed. Sure a typical musical has songs all the damn time but what this film does so gloriously is say to hell with these conventions and utilise music, song and dancing when it serves a purpose and aids the story. And I for one really like that. The songs tread a glorious line between the hilarious, the sad and the catchy. Even songs that have undertones of sadness and heartache are handled with humour and levity. That being said, songs like Man or Muppet and Is there more I could’ve done show a depth of feeling and emotion that are so oft lacking in contemporary family flicks.

The Muppets is a finely tuned balance act. It is a classic example of just how good a family film can be, funny, sad, clever, heart-warming, nostalgic but not too pandering and a truly enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes. Plus Camilla the Chicken’s final musical number is a thing of true beauty. 

Joe Thinks: All in all I'd agree completely, what I would say is that I found the start with Segal and Adams kinda creepy, It's unsettling to see people that happy. I suppose that says a whole lot more about me than it does about this film! I would say that you should see this with as many like minded people as possible so afterwards you can text them with such classic quotes as "Not now 80s robot" and "*Maniacal laugh" (Also well worth the price of addmission just for the glorious new Toy Story short Small Fry, Tae Kwon Do fo' life. Four Stars.

SO

Sunday 5 February 2012

Review: Carnage

Who is the victim? Is anybody truly guilt free? Are any of us capable of being selfless? Do we live in a civil world or are we just putting up a front to hide our animal nature? Director Roman Polanski and Playwright Yasmina Reza ask us these questions and more in their latest filmic endeavor Carnage. An 80 minute conversation/argument between four acting powerhouses with some vomit and pharmaceutical undertones thrown in for good measure. It's mean and raw and diabolically intriguing. 

I have a soft spot for films that take place in one room and are based entirely around a conversation (Check out 'Rope', 'The Sunset Limited' and the classic 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'. If the writings good and your cast interesting you don't really need much more than that. It's a very simple form of film that interests (I think) everyone. We all talk don't we, and strive to be interesting with it. This film is certainly interesting. After the son of Christoph Waltz (aka terrifying conservationist Nazi in Inglorious Basterds) and Kate Winslet (aka troubled wife in Revolutionary Road) attacks the son of John C. Reilly (aka my favorite actor/ oblivious Father in We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Jodie Foster (a cannibal's best friend in Silence of the Lambs) they decide to talk it out and patch over the hole formed by the fighting sons. It starts of amicably with both parental duos agreeing and complementing each other but before long they are being outed as murders and ignorant Fathers, drinking fine 18-year-old whiskey and chomping (but not smoking) cigars. It's lives up to it's name, it really is social carnage.

The whole thing is simply smart. It paces itself well making the gradient of their descent feel true to life and each character fully formed. By the end you have a really great sense of the life each has lead and how they got to where they are now. It's also shot so that we see everything that is said, the whole film is the whole conversation meaning you never feel left out of the debate. This means that when you can't decide which person you believe is right at the end of the movie you feel just as confused and socially violated as the characters in the film itself. I went in strongly agreeing with one side and tutting whenever the other would say one thing. By the end I wasn't even sure if I wanted to think about it anymore because I'd end up realizing I wasn't as nice a person as maybe I like to think. 



Then of course you have the four people themselves. Foster thinks she is some form of saint. She plays it with a large amount of martyrdom and a small amount of intense nastiness. Winslet is consistently concerned and visibly nervous until she gets liquored up. Reilly is the one who really changes the most. For a good portion he is one thing then he has the most apparent break down deciding to show his true self, to hell with the consequences. Waltz keeps it cool throughout. He seems like the only one who knows why he is here and what he thinks, certainly something to do with his sketchy line of work where morals and ethics aren't really meant to be valued. All these parts play off each other beautifully, each balancing the other and each representing a different view-point. It's when the spouses turn against each other and the light bickering turns into fully blown anger explosions that Carnage gets interesting.

One issue with adaptations of this kind of play is the simple question of "Why see the film when you could see it live of a stage?". In most cases it's valid. A lot of films struggle to make what would be a static set in a theatre into a lively set that can keep us interested. The house in the film feels incredibly lived in. To the extent that at times I was convinced they had just invaded a real house and started filming. Another concern is believability. When we visit the theatre we can suspend dis-belief because we are aware we entered a room and the players in front of us are restricted to the 3 walls around them. The artistic and suggested are more accepted so for these 4 to stay in this house after all the vomit and such has occurred we accept rather than question. We know after all that they can't leave the stage, the play isn't over. A film is kind of like distilled life. We want it to feel completely real because it has the power to be. How do I feel they handled this then? Competently. They come up with plenty of ways to keep them in the room that end up feeling like little extra jokes. For the most part it doesn't even really matter. The real reason you should see this over a live performance is the cast. They are irresistibly brilliant.     

People watching reveals a lot about the people you watch and yourself. In this case it will thoroughly entertain and then quickly concern you in some surprising ways. It's a dark film with dark humor that's hard not to enjoy. It is pure, simple and clean (in a way) and when you do something like that right it's cinematic gold. 

JO

Review: Young Adult


My exact thoughts prior to seeing Young Adult: “From the Director of Up In the Air…” Oh my flip, that film was amazing. It was totally my 3rd favourite film of 2010, man I dug that film. “…and the writer of Juno.” My word, talk about a dream team duo, I loved Juno it was the film that made me fall in love with Ellen Page. Its official, Young Adult is going to be totally amazing, expectations are high. This is going to be great.
It wasn’t. Man, I was so disappointed.

Young Adult tells the tale of Mavis Gray (Theron) a former prom queen who has found her true calling as the ghost writer of a fading popular series of tween novels about an awesomely popular girl and her adventures in High School. Whilst all of Gray’s high school peers have moved on and grown up she has stayed in perma-youth, hanging out in joggers, watching trashy TV, getting loaded and reliving the glory days through her ghost written novels. One day she receives an email notification from her old high school flame Buddy, announcing the birth of his daughter. Gray decides to travel down to her old home town and sets in motion her master plan to get Buddy back.


With a plan and a protagonist as duplicitous and nefarious as that it’s no wonder that Mavis is a bit of a dick, a very one dimensional cliché I found it near impossible to find any redeeming features in. Any time she displays even the merest glimmer of a warm heart beneath that bitchy ice queen exterior it is swiftly dispatched by a wry put down, a withering glance or a blank stare. There are inklings throughout that Mavis is a few sandwiches short of a picnic but due to her sheer incessant nastiness I found it very hard to care. There are many moments laid before you that all but scream “YOU SHOULD SYMPATHISE WITH HER!”, throughout it is achingly clear to see that she has a drinking problem, the first time we see her she is passed out on her bed surrounded in the detritus of a heavy night, and her drinking is used to “comic” effect throughout the film hammering home the alcoholism point with all the subtlety of a fluorescent donkey.  There are attempts to humanise Gray later in the film but it’s a severe case of too little too late, and it seems that as soon as those lessons have presented themselves to her she swiftly ignores them and reverts to old habits. Mavis’ sheer nastiness is all the more irksome because to director Jason Reitman this should be his bread and butter. From Aaron Eckhart in Thank you for Smoking to the sublime George Clooney in Up in the air Reitman has done a stellar job in taking fundamentally unlikeable characters and making you root and care for them. Clooney plays a man who fires people for a living yet he is charming, loveable and a fellow who by the end you thoroughly care for. I think the problem lies in the writing, Up in the Air and Thank you for smoking were both directed and written by Reitman giving him greater control over his characters, here writer duties are given over to Diablo Cody, who whilst being an undeniable talent in quirky teen dialogue doesn’t exactly have a reign on depth and development (Just look at Jason Bateman’s character in Juno who’s character arc, not being fully formed, left us questioning the legitimacy of his departure.) 




The humble townspeople of her “hick hometown” are very nice though, thoroughly pleasant apple pie Americans that portray Young Adult’s only flicker of warmth and heart albeit in a somewhat two dimensional manner. They provide the polar opposite to Gray, giving Theron chance to bounce off their hometown wide eyed awe with her icy bitchiness and granted, on more than one occasion there are some very good jokes, quality lines and killer exchanges of dialogue, but alas, that is not enough to save this film. The loveable home town folk are reduced to nothing more than fat, stupid hicks by Mavis and that idea is one that barely budges and at one point is all but yelled directly at us. Patton Oswalt deserves a special mention, delivering easily the film’s best performance as self confessed fat geek, Matt Freehauf. His performance is funny, touching and handled with a levity and deft hand that make him intensely likeable and pityable, two qualities that Theron’s Mavis is hugely lacking. The most irritating thing about Freehauf however is the way we leave him, I don’t want to spoil anything but I think such a lovely and important character deserves more than what he gets, send off wise. The big problem with Young Adult comes from it being thoroughly muddled, it’s not funny enough to be an out and out comedy and it’s not clever or well constructed enough to be something smarter. Annoyingly there are snatches in Young Adult of a far better film, more than once I could see it heading somewhere better, somewhere with more of a Juno/Up in the Air vibe but it always crash landed back to where it had been before. It was a decent enough film but the sheer dislike I had for Mavis Gray and utter desire I had for it to be something better really soured it for me. 


Young Adult has some very interesting themes to explore. It examines prolonged adolescence and what it means to live with some defining moment for the whole of your life. It tries to dissect what youth is and how it affects people, especially those who can’t quite get over their past. On paper this looks to be a really interesting character study but Young Adult never really gets going, it annoyingly skirts over all these topics leaving us somewhat in the lurch. For a film with such potential it is very slight on actual delivery. 


Also one last thing, the message at the end, the way the film ends generally. Not good. Not good


SO