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Tuesday 31 December 2013
Oh Captain My Captain
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My Top Five Feature Documentaries Of 2013
There were a lot of great feature-length documentary releases this year, so much so, that I've decided to indulge them their own top five.
5: Side By Side: Basically a series of one-on-one interviews in which host Keanu Reeves, yes, KEANU REEVES, discusses with a range of directors, cinematographers, editors and archivists, the digital revolution sweeping cinema, and its effect on the past, present, and future of film-making. Genuinely engrossing stuff if you are interested in cinema, probably not otherwise, but then, why are you reading this again?
4: How To Survive A Plague: Charting, mostly through archive amateur footage, the fight undertaken by the gay community in America through the 1980s and 1990s to have AIDS research, funding and medicine approval taken more seriously and more swiftly, in the face of apathy, confusion and downright hate from the establishment. It should be (and at times is) heartbreaking, but more often, it is utterly uplifting and transcendent. A paean to human dignity and solidarity.
3: Blackfish: Starting out from one particular case but soon unfolding into a litany of poor practice, dreadful incidents and shady cover-ups, this is a shocking exploration of the appalling conditions suffered by, and danger from, killer whales kept in captivity for our amusement. If you see one documentary about our hideous mistreatment of marine Cetaceans, well to be honest, see The Cove. Whereas if you see one documentary about deluded humans thinking they have some sort of intellectual-spiritual bond with deadly predators then, well ok, see Grizzly Man. But if you can stretch to two of either category, and you should, then Blackfish is a worthy companion piece to either. I guarantee you will never set foot inside a SeaWorld again.
2: Fire In The Night: The story, or rather the experience, of the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster of 1988. An unfussy documentary told from the personal recollections of the survivors. Mostly talking heads intercut with the terrifying real footage captured of the event. Simply devastating.
1: The Act Of Killing: A documentary maker travels to Indonesia to meet a group of elderly gangsters who tortured and murdered hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people during the death-squad anti-communist purges in the 1960s. He then invites them to go beyond telling the stories of their atrocities, but to actually re-enact them for the cameras as movies in the style of their choosing. Grim, dumbfounding, and at times surreal almost beyond comprehension.
5: Side By Side: Basically a series of one-on-one interviews in which host Keanu Reeves, yes, KEANU REEVES, discusses with a range of directors, cinematographers, editors and archivists, the digital revolution sweeping cinema, and its effect on the past, present, and future of film-making. Genuinely engrossing stuff if you are interested in cinema, probably not otherwise, but then, why are you reading this again?
4: How To Survive A Plague: Charting, mostly through archive amateur footage, the fight undertaken by the gay community in America through the 1980s and 1990s to have AIDS research, funding and medicine approval taken more seriously and more swiftly, in the face of apathy, confusion and downright hate from the establishment. It should be (and at times is) heartbreaking, but more often, it is utterly uplifting and transcendent. A paean to human dignity and solidarity.
3: Blackfish: Starting out from one particular case but soon unfolding into a litany of poor practice, dreadful incidents and shady cover-ups, this is a shocking exploration of the appalling conditions suffered by, and danger from, killer whales kept in captivity for our amusement. If you see one documentary about our hideous mistreatment of marine Cetaceans, well to be honest, see The Cove. Whereas if you see one documentary about deluded humans thinking they have some sort of intellectual-spiritual bond with deadly predators then, well ok, see Grizzly Man. But if you can stretch to two of either category, and you should, then Blackfish is a worthy companion piece to either. I guarantee you will never set foot inside a SeaWorld again.
2: Fire In The Night: The story, or rather the experience, of the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster of 1988. An unfussy documentary told from the personal recollections of the survivors. Mostly talking heads intercut with the terrifying real footage captured of the event. Simply devastating.
1: The Act Of Killing: A documentary maker travels to Indonesia to meet a group of elderly gangsters who tortured and murdered hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people during the death-squad anti-communist purges in the 1960s. He then invites them to go beyond telling the stories of their atrocities, but to actually re-enact them for the cameras as movies in the style of their choosing. Grim, dumbfounding, and at times surreal almost beyond comprehension.
My Top Ten Feature Films Of 2013
At first glance, 2013 didn't seem like much of a vintage year of quality cinema for me, with quite a few disappointments in the event movie calendar. But on reflection there have been some hidden gems and a couple of guilty pleasures along with the few really high achievers. So, never one to knowingly leave a bunch of random thoughts unlisted, here's my personal top ten movies of 2013.*
10: Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa: Excruciating, absurd and eye-wateringly hysterical. The Roachford mime-along is a thing of sublime beauty.
9: Pacific Rim: Is this the dumbest awesome movie ever made, or the awesomest dumb movie ever made? And if a hundred meter tall robot beats the shit out of a three-thousand ton monster using a ship as a club and there is no-one there to hear it, does it make a sound? YES. A FUCKING LOUD ONE!
8: All Is Lost: Absolutely the year's best lone-survivor-marooned-thousands-of-miles-from-help-with-ship-disintegrating-around-them drama.... that didn't star Sandra Bullock.
7: Zero Dark Thirty: NOT a defence of torture or America's foreign policy, but simply a rigorous, nail-biting and thrilling retelling of the shit that went down in the USA's hunt for its most-wanted, and a portrait of the tough and resourceful woman at the eye of that particular storm.
6: The Kings Of Summer: 2013's breakout hit that never was. Great early whispers and then... nothing. Three boys take off and build a home in the woods to live as they please... for a while. An inspired mix of Lord Of The Flies, Stand By Me and even Son Of Rambow, this is a breezy, raw and refreshing tale of friendship and all that growing-up stuff. Seek it out.
5: A Hijacking (Kapringen): The year's OTHER hijacking movie, and a fictional tale that plays even more documentary-like than the true-story of Captain Phillips. Alternating between a long drawn-out siege on board ship, and the strained, claustrophobic negotiations on land. This Danish drama takes its time, and carefully underplays the melodrama, to eventually devastating effect.
4: Blue Is The Warmest Colour (La vie d'Adèle): Yes, it's that briefly notorious Cannes winner. You know, the three-hour French drama with all the explicit lesbian nookie? Well, it's beautiful, heartfelt, totally consuming and propelled by a staggeringly open and mature emotional performance from its young, brilliant lead actress. Spellbinding.
3: Captain Phillips: Back to sea for the third time in this top ten. A massive ship, some pirates, immense tension, brilliantly orchestrated action, and two leads, one a total newcomer, one absolute Hollywood royalty, who push each other to remarkable performances. The final scene from Hanks might be the best acting moment of the year (apart from the whole of Lincoln, which I'm discounting as it was clearly, actually Lincoln).
2: The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug: Bigger, Faster, Funnier, Scarier. It may still be a bloated behemoth, groaning under the weight of all the myriad ideas that Jackson and his team can throw at it. But this time, directed, or perhaps more confidently edited, with a bravura, joyous, kinetic abandon. Almost as good as Lord Of The Rings, more fun than almost anything else all year.
1: Gravity: A simple, lone-survival adventure, pared to the barest bones for maximum edge-of-the-seat thrills, and then wrapped up in a quantum-leap of visual FX, sound-design and 3D perfection for ninety minutes of jaw-on-the-floor astoundment.
(*NB: based on 2013 UK general releases as best as I can ascertain, and not including feature documentaries, which I suspect I may tackle separately, in fact, I just have done)
Special Achievement (or Underachievement) Awards:
1: Funniest Scene Of The Year: Iron Man Three - Questioning The Mandarin: This movie was pushed a little outside my top ten as I found the final act rather uninspired. But for all the time that Tony Stark was kept out of the suit, Shane Black's wisecracking script, married to RDJ's hyperactive motor-mouth was a joy to behold, and nowhere more so than in this scene where Sir Ben's agenda is revealed.
2: Worst Geography: Thor: The Dark World: Yes, fine, I can buy a couple of jet fighters over London being sucked through a wormhole into Svartálfaheimr, the underworld realm of the dark elves, that's just dandy. But you CAN NOT get from Charing Cross to Greenwich in three stops on the underground, NO NO NO. back to school the lot of you.
3: Most Honourable Failure: Cloud Atlas: (sigh) Multi-stranded, epoch straddling metaphysical ambition. A magnificent, touching performance from Ben Wishaw, beguiling otherworldly sweetness from Doona Bae, stunning future-Seoul visuals and the best orchestral score of the year by a mile. But then there's Tom Hanks geezering up a role that Danny Dyer could actually have played better! Tons of absurd makeup, Hugo Weaving cross-dressing (and not in a Priscilla Queen Of The Desert good way), the least convincing Scottish bar in film history, and The Mighty Boosh seemingly called in to act out all the post apocalyptic stuff. Honestly, I suspect I will go to my grave TRYING to love this film.
4: Biggest Disappointment Of The Year: Man Of Steel: Let me be clear, I am not saying that this is the worst film of the year. Far from it. But when it comes to hope vs. reality, nothing let me down this year more than Man Of Steel. It breaks down like this. Act One: Magnificent. All the stuff on Krypton is beautiful, mythic, and set up Superman's origin and back-story better than any previous iteration. So far, very impressive. Act Two: Perfectly solid. The young Clark Kent growing up and learning life-lessons in his blue-jean middle-America adoptive life is gently paced and decently acted. However it just isn't as rich and heartfelt as the exact same take on the story delivered in 1978. Act Three: Awful. An endless, repetitive destructathon that sorely undermines Superman's essential charm and character by having him utterly ignore the thousands that must be dying as half a city is flattened, and it just keeps pummelling away till numbness takes over. This might have been mitigated if the movie had any sense of fun about it, but, save for one solitary visual gag, Man Of Steel is quite the most dour Superhero movie I have ever seen. The Dark Knight is a natural fit for conflicted sour-faced moodiness, Kal-El however is not, and I just needed him, and the writers to lighten up once in a while. Pacific Rim is probably a dumber movie, but it's ten times more fun.
5: The What-The-Hell-Did-I-Just-Watch? Mindfuck Of The Year Award: A Field In England: A film I actually really liked, but I will never, ever, be able to explain why.
10: Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa: Excruciating, absurd and eye-wateringly hysterical. The Roachford mime-along is a thing of sublime beauty.
9: Pacific Rim: Is this the dumbest awesome movie ever made, or the awesomest dumb movie ever made? And if a hundred meter tall robot beats the shit out of a three-thousand ton monster using a ship as a club and there is no-one there to hear it, does it make a sound? YES. A FUCKING LOUD ONE!
8: All Is Lost: Absolutely the year's best lone-survivor-marooned-thousands-of-miles-from-help-with-ship-disintegrating-around-them drama.... that didn't star Sandra Bullock.
7: Zero Dark Thirty: NOT a defence of torture or America's foreign policy, but simply a rigorous, nail-biting and thrilling retelling of the shit that went down in the USA's hunt for its most-wanted, and a portrait of the tough and resourceful woman at the eye of that particular storm.
6: The Kings Of Summer: 2013's breakout hit that never was. Great early whispers and then... nothing. Three boys take off and build a home in the woods to live as they please... for a while. An inspired mix of Lord Of The Flies, Stand By Me and even Son Of Rambow, this is a breezy, raw and refreshing tale of friendship and all that growing-up stuff. Seek it out.
5: A Hijacking (Kapringen): The year's OTHER hijacking movie, and a fictional tale that plays even more documentary-like than the true-story of Captain Phillips. Alternating between a long drawn-out siege on board ship, and the strained, claustrophobic negotiations on land. This Danish drama takes its time, and carefully underplays the melodrama, to eventually devastating effect.
4: Blue Is The Warmest Colour (La vie d'Adèle): Yes, it's that briefly notorious Cannes winner. You know, the three-hour French drama with all the explicit lesbian nookie? Well, it's beautiful, heartfelt, totally consuming and propelled by a staggeringly open and mature emotional performance from its young, brilliant lead actress. Spellbinding.
3: Captain Phillips: Back to sea for the third time in this top ten. A massive ship, some pirates, immense tension, brilliantly orchestrated action, and two leads, one a total newcomer, one absolute Hollywood royalty, who push each other to remarkable performances. The final scene from Hanks might be the best acting moment of the year (apart from the whole of Lincoln, which I'm discounting as it was clearly, actually Lincoln).
2: The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug: Bigger, Faster, Funnier, Scarier. It may still be a bloated behemoth, groaning under the weight of all the myriad ideas that Jackson and his team can throw at it. But this time, directed, or perhaps more confidently edited, with a bravura, joyous, kinetic abandon. Almost as good as Lord Of The Rings, more fun than almost anything else all year.
1: Gravity: A simple, lone-survival adventure, pared to the barest bones for maximum edge-of-the-seat thrills, and then wrapped up in a quantum-leap of visual FX, sound-design and 3D perfection for ninety minutes of jaw-on-the-floor astoundment.
(*NB: based on 2013 UK general releases as best as I can ascertain, and not including feature documentaries, which I suspect I may tackle separately, in fact, I just have done)
Special Achievement (or Underachievement) Awards:
1: Funniest Scene Of The Year: Iron Man Three - Questioning The Mandarin: This movie was pushed a little outside my top ten as I found the final act rather uninspired. But for all the time that Tony Stark was kept out of the suit, Shane Black's wisecracking script, married to RDJ's hyperactive motor-mouth was a joy to behold, and nowhere more so than in this scene where Sir Ben's agenda is revealed.
2: Worst Geography: Thor: The Dark World: Yes, fine, I can buy a couple of jet fighters over London being sucked through a wormhole into Svartálfaheimr, the underworld realm of the dark elves, that's just dandy. But you CAN NOT get from Charing Cross to Greenwich in three stops on the underground, NO NO NO. back to school the lot of you.
3: Most Honourable Failure: Cloud Atlas: (sigh) Multi-stranded, epoch straddling metaphysical ambition. A magnificent, touching performance from Ben Wishaw, beguiling otherworldly sweetness from Doona Bae, stunning future-Seoul visuals and the best orchestral score of the year by a mile. But then there's Tom Hanks geezering up a role that Danny Dyer could actually have played better! Tons of absurd makeup, Hugo Weaving cross-dressing (and not in a Priscilla Queen Of The Desert good way), the least convincing Scottish bar in film history, and The Mighty Boosh seemingly called in to act out all the post apocalyptic stuff. Honestly, I suspect I will go to my grave TRYING to love this film.
4: Biggest Disappointment Of The Year: Man Of Steel: Let me be clear, I am not saying that this is the worst film of the year. Far from it. But when it comes to hope vs. reality, nothing let me down this year more than Man Of Steel. It breaks down like this. Act One: Magnificent. All the stuff on Krypton is beautiful, mythic, and set up Superman's origin and back-story better than any previous iteration. So far, very impressive. Act Two: Perfectly solid. The young Clark Kent growing up and learning life-lessons in his blue-jean middle-America adoptive life is gently paced and decently acted. However it just isn't as rich and heartfelt as the exact same take on the story delivered in 1978. Act Three: Awful. An endless, repetitive destructathon that sorely undermines Superman's essential charm and character by having him utterly ignore the thousands that must be dying as half a city is flattened, and it just keeps pummelling away till numbness takes over. This might have been mitigated if the movie had any sense of fun about it, but, save for one solitary visual gag, Man Of Steel is quite the most dour Superhero movie I have ever seen. The Dark Knight is a natural fit for conflicted sour-faced moodiness, Kal-El however is not, and I just needed him, and the writers to lighten up once in a while. Pacific Rim is probably a dumber movie, but it's ten times more fun.
5: The What-The-Hell-Did-I-Just-Watch? Mindfuck Of The Year Award: A Field In England: A film I actually really liked, but I will never, ever, be able to explain why.
Monday 30 December 2013
47 Ronin (2013)
A dopey but passably diverting fantasy take on a genuine event in Japanese feudal history. The story of the 47 Ronin who avenge the honour-induced suicide of their former lord is widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent examples of Bushido (the samurai code of chivalric values) in Japanese history and has passed, somewhat embellished, into a wide range of literature and arts, having been filmed at least six times before. But I'll wager none of those versions included a shape-shifting witch-dragon lady.
In this first (and probably last) Hollywood stab at the tale, Keanu Reeves comes billed as the star of the piece playing an outcast half-breed which is one of the many inventions added to this version of the tale and most likely intended as a familiarisation waypoint for western audiences. Stoic and ultra-serious he's not actually too bad, but neither the role as written, nor the screen time really allow him to make much of an impact. Thank goodness then for Hiroyuki Sanada as the ronin leader Oishi. One of the just about every well-known English-speaking Japanese actors that have been harvested for this production, he shoulders the bulk of the drama with capable authority, and along with Rinko Kikuchi's deliriously absurd wicked witch, ensures that at least a few engaging characters emerge from the CGI hailstorm.
Relatively unknown director Carl Rinsch struggles to marry the serious tone of the human drama to the Tolkien-esque fantasy romping, and as such the film lurches around, uncertain of what it wants to be. That said, some individual scenes are impressive, he and his DP have clearly spent a productive afternoon watching late-period Kurosawa and the courtly and battlefield scenes have a beautiful, symmetrical formality to them.
Not the disaster that the initial critical drubbing might suggest, this is no worse than most of the Narnia movies, or second-tier Wuxia fantasy such as Reign of Assassins, but then outside of Japan it doesn't have the franchise brand selling power of the former, and the latter sure didn't cost 175 million dollars to make. Ouch.
Rating: 3/5
In this first (and probably last) Hollywood stab at the tale, Keanu Reeves comes billed as the star of the piece playing an outcast half-breed which is one of the many inventions added to this version of the tale and most likely intended as a familiarisation waypoint for western audiences. Stoic and ultra-serious he's not actually too bad, but neither the role as written, nor the screen time really allow him to make much of an impact. Thank goodness then for Hiroyuki Sanada as the ronin leader Oishi. One of the just about every well-known English-speaking Japanese actors that have been harvested for this production, he shoulders the bulk of the drama with capable authority, and along with Rinko Kikuchi's deliriously absurd wicked witch, ensures that at least a few engaging characters emerge from the CGI hailstorm.
Relatively unknown director Carl Rinsch struggles to marry the serious tone of the human drama to the Tolkien-esque fantasy romping, and as such the film lurches around, uncertain of what it wants to be. That said, some individual scenes are impressive, he and his DP have clearly spent a productive afternoon watching late-period Kurosawa and the courtly and battlefield scenes have a beautiful, symmetrical formality to them.
Not the disaster that the initial critical drubbing might suggest, this is no worse than most of the Narnia movies, or second-tier Wuxia fantasy such as Reign of Assassins, but then outside of Japan it doesn't have the franchise brand selling power of the former, and the latter sure didn't cost 175 million dollars to make. Ouch.
Rating: 3/5
Sunday 29 December 2013
The Act Of Killing (2013)
A documentary maker travels to Indonesia to meet a group of elderly men who led some of the notorious death-squad anti-communist purges in the 1960s. They were once small-time gangsters, who took advantage of the corrupt regime following a failed coup and became terrifying warlords; extorting from, raping or brutally murdering thousands. They have never been held accountable, and what is more, as the documentary progresses it becomes clear that they are minor celebrities still, admired seemingly by some, evidently feared by many others, and utterly brazen in their boasting of what they did.
Co-director Joshua Oppenheimer invites them to go beyond telling the stories of their atrocities, but to actually re-enact them for the cameras as mini-movies in the style of their choosing. An idea to which these elderly monsters, deluded by their own distorted egos and immunity from prosecution for their crimes, eagerly take. What then follows is simultaneously terrifying and absurd beyond belief as they rally locals as extras, and get into the mechanics of script meetings, location scouting, and marshaling the required production forces, while practicing their best strangulation and torture techniques on each other. One later proudly shows off the raw footage to his young grandchildren. Another, perhaps gradually and dimly comprehending the horrors he perpetrated for the first time, cuts a pathetic, tragic figure, literally chocking on the evil that is consuming him from within. I doubt there was a more astonishing image in cinema all year than that of a vile, bloated, real-life mass-murderer, cross-dressed in a gaudy pink ball-gown, swaying in front of a waterfall as he serenades a chorus-line of his departed victims spirits into the afterlife.
The fear and repression that infests the country still is no better illustrated than when the credits roll. The mostly Danish production team are naturally listed openly, while practically all the locally recruited crew simply scroll by as "anonymous", "anonymous", "anonymous"....
Rating: 5/5
Co-director Joshua Oppenheimer invites them to go beyond telling the stories of their atrocities, but to actually re-enact them for the cameras as mini-movies in the style of their choosing. An idea to which these elderly monsters, deluded by their own distorted egos and immunity from prosecution for their crimes, eagerly take. What then follows is simultaneously terrifying and absurd beyond belief as they rally locals as extras, and get into the mechanics of script meetings, location scouting, and marshaling the required production forces, while practicing their best strangulation and torture techniques on each other. One later proudly shows off the raw footage to his young grandchildren. Another, perhaps gradually and dimly comprehending the horrors he perpetrated for the first time, cuts a pathetic, tragic figure, literally chocking on the evil that is consuming him from within. I doubt there was a more astonishing image in cinema all year than that of a vile, bloated, real-life mass-murderer, cross-dressed in a gaudy pink ball-gown, swaying in front of a waterfall as he serenades a chorus-line of his departed victims spirits into the afterlife.
The fear and repression that infests the country still is no better illustrated than when the credits roll. The mostly Danish production team are naturally listed openly, while practically all the locally recruited crew simply scroll by as "anonymous", "anonymous", "anonymous"....
Rating: 5/5
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug (2013)
This year's biggest (literally) pleasant surprise. After the long, slow start to chapter one had dampened the ardour of many a Middle Earth fan, I had more modest hopes for what could be achieved eking out yet another three hour behemoth from the middle chapters of Tolkien's modest children's tale and Peter Jackson has exceeded every one magnificently. Bold, energetic, funny, frightening, tense, and immensely spectacular. The clear aim now is to take The Hobbit as a skeleton structure that will be fleshed with all the immense back-story, parallel tales and grim foreshadowing of what is to come that it can withstand. It's a brave, and somewhat indulgent move, but it's coming together here with a bravura confidence that was sometimes lacking from part one. This is now just a dwarf's whisker from Lord Of The Rings greatness.
Rating: 5/5
Rating: 5/5
Friday 27 December 2013
All Is Lost (2013)
A lot like Gravity, but wetter, cheaper, and pretty much dialogue free. Robert Redford battles the ocean and delivers one of the great performances of his long and fascinating career. Simple and stunning.
Rating: 4/5
Rating: 4/5
Saturday 21 December 2013
Missing a Mega-Trick.
Dear Asylum Studios: Where is your Christmas movie huh? I want Mega-Santa vs. Giant-Snowman and I want it now. Come on guys, it's 4 days till Christmas, that's at least a 200% increase over the production schedule lavished on any of your previous output so this should present no problems. Oh and Debbie Gibson can play the elves... All of them.
Saturday 14 December 2013
On the matter of The Middle Earth Taxi Service
Time and again the main "plot hole" flaw that I have heard levelled against, first The Lord Of The Rings, and now also The Hobbit, is why the Eagles, those fierce and inscrutable creatures of Middle Earth, didn't conveniently take Gandalf and his Company to exactly where they wanted to go? Meanwhile in real life, thousands of people every day board Ryanair flights...
Wednesday 11 December 2013
Blue Is The Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2) (2013)
Young love, lust, passion, insecurity, loss, regret. Three hours of it. In French.
Abdellatif Kechiche adapts from a graphic novel, telling of the passionate first love affair of young teenage student Adèle for another woman. While this film has generated much interest for being a lesbian drama with some extremely frank and sustained sex scenes, it is rather, a supremely universal tale of that intense, uncontrollable first true love that will be achingly familiar to many.
When critics talk about a "brave" performance in relation to a female role, what they usually really mean is that the actress spends a lot of time naked. Yet, in a film featuring some of the most honest sex scenes in mainstream cinema (by which I mean, sweaty, grindy, lengthy, noisy sex that doesn't come with an orchestral soundtrack and a degree in Eisenstein montage theory), relative newcomer Adèle Exarchopoulos really delivers on the meaning of the word. For almost the entire (substantial) running time, Adèle has the camera thrust about three inches from her face, searching her for every slightest flinch, every furtive glance, every strained muscle, as the young actress has to conjure a lifetime of an emotional journey. It's a stunning and utterly compelling performance that forms the true narrative heart of the movie, and that powers forward this otherwise occasionally meandering tale.
What I can't let pass without comment though is the absolutely gratuitous, endless and utterly explicit scenes of... smoking. Whether eating, drinking, laughing, crying, fighting, fucking, or reclining on a chaise longue whilst being sketched by Jack, sorry, Emma; Adèle is seemingly never without a fag hanging out of the corner of her mouth. I enjoyed this movie in the company of two good friends who also happen to be a lesbian couple. When the credits began to roll I glanced over to find, not that they were making all gooey-eyed at each other, but that they were both frantically constructing roll-ups for the dash outside to light up. Ah... Vive l'Amour.
Rating: 4/5
Abdellatif Kechiche adapts from a graphic novel, telling of the passionate first love affair of young teenage student Adèle for another woman. While this film has generated much interest for being a lesbian drama with some extremely frank and sustained sex scenes, it is rather, a supremely universal tale of that intense, uncontrollable first true love that will be achingly familiar to many.
When critics talk about a "brave" performance in relation to a female role, what they usually really mean is that the actress spends a lot of time naked. Yet, in a film featuring some of the most honest sex scenes in mainstream cinema (by which I mean, sweaty, grindy, lengthy, noisy sex that doesn't come with an orchestral soundtrack and a degree in Eisenstein montage theory), relative newcomer Adèle Exarchopoulos really delivers on the meaning of the word. For almost the entire (substantial) running time, Adèle has the camera thrust about three inches from her face, searching her for every slightest flinch, every furtive glance, every strained muscle, as the young actress has to conjure a lifetime of an emotional journey. It's a stunning and utterly compelling performance that forms the true narrative heart of the movie, and that powers forward this otherwise occasionally meandering tale.
What I can't let pass without comment though is the absolutely gratuitous, endless and utterly explicit scenes of... smoking. Whether eating, drinking, laughing, crying, fighting, fucking, or reclining on a chaise longue whilst being sketched by Jack, sorry, Emma; Adèle is seemingly never without a fag hanging out of the corner of her mouth. I enjoyed this movie in the company of two good friends who also happen to be a lesbian couple. When the credits began to roll I glanced over to find, not that they were making all gooey-eyed at each other, but that they were both frantically constructing roll-ups for the dash outside to light up. Ah... Vive l'Amour.
Rating: 4/5
Saturday 7 December 2013
A Field In England (2013)
Having just watched the rather excellent A Field In England. I was going to attempt to muster some sort of review, until I realised that it would not be possible to better the description offered by the first five "plot keywords" of its IMDB entry: "Deafened By Explosion; Hairless Scrotum; Hit With A Spade; Tug Of War; Vomiting Stones". Yes, I think that will do nicely.
Rating: 4/5
Rating: 4/5
Monday 25 November 2013
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Picking up some months after the events of the first movie; Catching Fire finds our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, back in her home district and re-kindling, perhaps, her nascent romance with Gale (who was somewhat pushed to the sidelines of the first instalment) while struggling to walk a fine line of conformity and performance in her new, dangerously high-profile existence.
Incoming helmer Francis Lawrence, with relatively little big-budget movie experience, directs with a steady hand, keeping the look and tone consistent with the first movie. The opening act here is particularly strong, laced with political manoeuvring, surreptitiously tightening the screws and gently deepening even some of the more seemingly garish characters (the delirious Effie Trinket is particularly well-served this time round). This slow-burning first-half also allows Jennifer Lawrence, once again, to remind us all why she is one of the finest upcoming young actors of her generation, delivering duct-troubling eulogies from even the most threadbare material.
Things do however take a minor turn for the ho-hum once the new games get underway. Co-champion Peeta gets less to do this time and mostly just follows in Katniss's footsteps, which is a shame after his stronger showing the first time around and further undermines the love-triangle backdrop theoretically still being toyed with. More problematic though is the amount of repetition and familiarity, with many of the same beats being played as we experienced in the previous competition. For a near two-and-a-half hour movie, Catching Fire rather struggles to do what it says on the tin, taking rather too long to find its way out of the pitfalls of having to play out another set of games with a more-or-less matching dramatic arc to the first. Until, when finally the first really startling new development hits.... the credits role.
Reputation has it that the third and final book (being adapted, a-la Harry Potter, into two upcoming movies) is the weakest of the three, and so, while this central episode is a mostly solid outing that doesn't significantly squander the good work done by the first, it is nonetheless something of a concern then that it does have a touch of a holding pattern about it, teasing us that all the real fireworks are being held back till next year.
Rating: 3/5
Incoming helmer Francis Lawrence, with relatively little big-budget movie experience, directs with a steady hand, keeping the look and tone consistent with the first movie. The opening act here is particularly strong, laced with political manoeuvring, surreptitiously tightening the screws and gently deepening even some of the more seemingly garish characters (the delirious Effie Trinket is particularly well-served this time round). This slow-burning first-half also allows Jennifer Lawrence, once again, to remind us all why she is one of the finest upcoming young actors of her generation, delivering duct-troubling eulogies from even the most threadbare material.
Things do however take a minor turn for the ho-hum once the new games get underway. Co-champion Peeta gets less to do this time and mostly just follows in Katniss's footsteps, which is a shame after his stronger showing the first time around and further undermines the love-triangle backdrop theoretically still being toyed with. More problematic though is the amount of repetition and familiarity, with many of the same beats being played as we experienced in the previous competition. For a near two-and-a-half hour movie, Catching Fire rather struggles to do what it says on the tin, taking rather too long to find its way out of the pitfalls of having to play out another set of games with a more-or-less matching dramatic arc to the first. Until, when finally the first really startling new development hits.... the credits role.
Reputation has it that the third and final book (being adapted, a-la Harry Potter, into two upcoming movies) is the weakest of the three, and so, while this central episode is a mostly solid outing that doesn't significantly squander the good work done by the first, it is nonetheless something of a concern then that it does have a touch of a holding pattern about it, teasing us that all the real fireworks are being held back till next year.
Rating: 3/5
Tuesday 19 November 2013
The Crazies (2010)
Immediate full disclosure: I have not seen the 1973 version, considered, I understand, to be something of a cult classic. But this remake, co-written and exec. produced by the originals' director, and zombie supremo, George A. Romero, is a bland and lacklustre b-movie which is unlikely to be remembered by anyone for long.
In one of those friendly neighbourhood mid-west hicksville towns, locals start acting all strange and a bit zombie-like. Some people mutter something about mysterious military activity, good sheriff Timothy Olyphant does a fine Clint Eastwood pose on a deserted main street, and the local dodgy mayor gives a speech about water supplies that simply exchanges "Ogden Marsh" for "Amity" and "crops" for "summer dollars".
At best, a just barely competent, run-of-the-mill chiller, The Crazies is wholly underwhelming. Clichéd, derivative, dumb, and most damningly, NOT even slightly scary.
Rating: 2/5
In one of those friendly neighbourhood mid-west hicksville towns, locals start acting all strange and a bit zombie-like. Some people mutter something about mysterious military activity, good sheriff Timothy Olyphant does a fine Clint Eastwood pose on a deserted main street, and the local dodgy mayor gives a speech about water supplies that simply exchanges "Ogden Marsh" for "Amity" and "crops" for "summer dollars".
At best, a just barely competent, run-of-the-mill chiller, The Crazies is wholly underwhelming. Clichéd, derivative, dumb, and most damningly, NOT even slightly scary.
Rating: 2/5
Monday 18 November 2013
Chronicle (2012)
A smart, indie-spirited superhero movie that asks the question (admittedly not for the first time), what would really happen if ordinary people developed superpowers, but handles the result with more wit and emotional punch than the premise might suggest.
Three teenagers, after an unexplained encounter with something...well, something, find themselves in possession of some form of telekinetic ability which manifests mildly at first, and is the cause of much entertaining japery, but soon develops into something with far more alarming strength.
The three leads all perform extremely well with what are largely archetypes; the bullied loner and the popular cool kid for example, and build an engaging relatable friendship that goes beyond high school movie cliché, even while the movie indulges in some of that genres most well-worn tropes (school hall bullies, problem fathers, trying to get laid at parties). What feels at first to be rather over-familiar works as an effective piece of audience wrong-footing, as the movie then makes a lurch into darker, more dramatic, and genuinely original territory.
The conceit of all this playing out through selfie home video footage is a somewhat peculiar choice, becoming an unnecessary millstone to the production as the third act requires every police officer and bystander alike to be blessed with Roger Deakins levels of camera control. But this oddity aside, Chronicle is a breeze. Moving from charming hijinx to an efficiently devastating finale in less running time than it takes for Bilbo to get all those dwarfs out of the kitchen.
Rating: 4/5
Three teenagers, after an unexplained encounter with something...well, something, find themselves in possession of some form of telekinetic ability which manifests mildly at first, and is the cause of much entertaining japery, but soon develops into something with far more alarming strength.
The three leads all perform extremely well with what are largely archetypes; the bullied loner and the popular cool kid for example, and build an engaging relatable friendship that goes beyond high school movie cliché, even while the movie indulges in some of that genres most well-worn tropes (school hall bullies, problem fathers, trying to get laid at parties). What feels at first to be rather over-familiar works as an effective piece of audience wrong-footing, as the movie then makes a lurch into darker, more dramatic, and genuinely original territory.
The conceit of all this playing out through selfie home video footage is a somewhat peculiar choice, becoming an unnecessary millstone to the production as the third act requires every police officer and bystander alike to be blessed with Roger Deakins levels of camera control. But this oddity aside, Chronicle is a breeze. Moving from charming hijinx to an efficiently devastating finale in less running time than it takes for Bilbo to get all those dwarfs out of the kitchen.
Rating: 4/5
Saturday 16 November 2013
Gravity (2013)
A masterful, lean, and utterly gripping action-thriller. Alfonso Cuarón further proves himself to be one of the most exciting and innovative directors working today. Sandra Bullock knocks it out of the park with a long-overdue starring role worthy of her talents, and 3D reaches a new zenith in a totally mesmerising, immersive and staggeringly beautiful FX tour-de-force. It is, ultimately, popcorn. But it's Michelin three-star popcorn.
Rating: 5/5
Rating: 5/5
Wednesday 6 November 2013
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Well, one saw Thor. Or rather one saw Thor Two. I don't mean one saw Thor too, as one was one for Thor Two, not two. But one once saw Thor One, so one sure saw Thor Two too... Phew.
Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3/5
Sunday 3 November 2013
Hijacking Double-Bill: A Hijacking (Kapringen) (2012) and Captain Phillips (2013)
Pirates. Everyone loves a pirate, and 2013 has given us a generous double helping of the romantic swashbuckling... oh wait.
The first out of the gates (technically a 2012 film but making its UK debut in early 2013) was Kapringen. I missed this Danish drama on its limited theatrical release, but with Captain Phillips now in the cinemas this seemed an opportune moment to catch up and see how the two compare.
A Hijacking presents an entirely fictional, but highly convincing siege scenario, and concentrates heavily on the emotional stresses for those involved. Eschewing any temptations to sensationalism we aren't even shown the moments of the hijackers getting on board; learning of it instead, as one of the central characters in the movie does, by a hurriedly whispered message in a prosaic office setting thousands of miles away from the action. This character, Peter Ludvigsen, an executive on the board of the company that owns the hijacked vessel, is introduced to us in a scene that sets him up as a shrewd and hard-nosed businessman and tough negotiator. We believe we can see how this is going to pan out, but writer / director Tobias Lindholm is playing a canny game here, and rather than a cliché who will drive the plot along, we soon become deeply invested in this man's struggle to control and cope with the terrible responsibility he takes on as he chooses, against advice, to handle the negotiations himself.
Peter is one part of a superb three-hander. The other two are the ships' cook, Mikkel, who, as the film's principle lead at sea, becomes our entry point to the drama taking place there, and the mysterious Omar, who claims to be simply a translator and under as much threat as anyone else, but may perhaps be a whole lot more.
The occupation and negotiations drag on, weeks turn into months. The mental and physical state of those involved deteriorate, while an occasional sense of edgy truce possibly allows some tentative alliances to form or perhaps merely some more complex manipulation to take place.
Meanwhile, Tobais cuts back and forth between the wretched conditions in the bowels of the ship, and the stuffy, claustrophobic atmosphere of secretive meetings in closed rooms in the company HQ. Scenes are performed and shot with docu-drama verisimilitude, and the tension is effectively sustained throughout. A smart, believable and quietly powerful tale.
Captain Phillips arrived some months later, with all the fanfare one would expect of a Tom Hanks starring movie, based on a recent and remarkable true story that was major news in the USA. It soon becomes apparent that this movie will be a much more visceral affair, with a thrilling sequence of the hijackers boarding the gigantic container ship under Phillips' command, and later seat-gripping standoffs with the US military just two of the stand-out sequences. However, this is a Paul Greengrass joint, and by stating the above I do not mean to suggest by any means that this is an attempt to sensationalise or trivialise the truth of the events that took place off the coast of Somalia in 2009.
In the opening scenes, Greengrass takes much the same approach as he did with the stunning United 93, introducing us at the outset to two entirely alien groups of people who are preparing for journeys which will soon see their lives and fates thrown together. We are shown just enough background of the antagonists to draw us into their harsh lives without seeking to either excuse or condemn. Meanwhile we get a brief home-life snapshot of the insular, somewhat dour Phillips, a capable captain maybe, but not an easy man to get to know or like.
From the ramshackle group of hijackers soon emerges a de-facto leader, Muse, a tragically young skeleton of a man, played with stunning authority by total newcomer Barkhad Abdi. Once he bursts into the bridge and announces with focussed intent "I'm the captain now" to a stunned Hanks (who he has literally just met, Greengrass intentionally keeping the actors apart during the production till the day of filming this pivotal scene) the movie plays out largely as a two-hander between this young first-timer and the highly seasoned star. To say that Abdi easily holds his own in such illustrious company is even more of a compliment than it would already sound because this may well also be the finest performance Tom Hanks has ever delivered.
By now we are perhaps all too familiar with the easy, natural charm that Hanks exudes on and off screen, and it can perhaps be tempting to underestimate the skill of his craft. He is a past master of essaying likeable, capable, motivational leaders of men at all levels: From commanding Apollo 13, to leading a small company of soldiers in Saving Private Ryan, to simply getting the packages moved on time in Castaway. But, presumably on the basis of true accounts of the man himself and those around him. Phillips is not that sort of charismatic leader, and Hanks dials it right back. Distant, insular, sometimes a touch aggressive. Effective yes, but hardly engaging or inspiring. He does the right thing when he can, but this is no heroic portrait. Phillips is a man under phenomenal stress, terrified and just trying to cling on to self-control long enough to make it out alive. Hanks keeps an iron grip on his performance, and when, finally, the moment comes for the emotions to show, it's a desperate, almost wordless, and absolutely heartrending scene, somewhat reminiscent of the masterful sustained final shot on Bob Hoskins at the end of The Long Good Friday. Yes: That good.
So, two excellent dramas that complement each other very well without treading on each other's toes. Both are serious, believable, and very tense. But, rather like Jeff Goldblum explaining chaos theory to Laura Dern by running drops of water off the back of her hand, they take initially near identical starting points, and then follow very different paths.
A Hijacking: Rating: 4/5
Captain Phillips: Rating 4/5
The first out of the gates (technically a 2012 film but making its UK debut in early 2013) was Kapringen. I missed this Danish drama on its limited theatrical release, but with Captain Phillips now in the cinemas this seemed an opportune moment to catch up and see how the two compare.
A Hijacking presents an entirely fictional, but highly convincing siege scenario, and concentrates heavily on the emotional stresses for those involved. Eschewing any temptations to sensationalism we aren't even shown the moments of the hijackers getting on board; learning of it instead, as one of the central characters in the movie does, by a hurriedly whispered message in a prosaic office setting thousands of miles away from the action. This character, Peter Ludvigsen, an executive on the board of the company that owns the hijacked vessel, is introduced to us in a scene that sets him up as a shrewd and hard-nosed businessman and tough negotiator. We believe we can see how this is going to pan out, but writer / director Tobias Lindholm is playing a canny game here, and rather than a cliché who will drive the plot along, we soon become deeply invested in this man's struggle to control and cope with the terrible responsibility he takes on as he chooses, against advice, to handle the negotiations himself.
Peter is one part of a superb three-hander. The other two are the ships' cook, Mikkel, who, as the film's principle lead at sea, becomes our entry point to the drama taking place there, and the mysterious Omar, who claims to be simply a translator and under as much threat as anyone else, but may perhaps be a whole lot more.
The occupation and negotiations drag on, weeks turn into months. The mental and physical state of those involved deteriorate, while an occasional sense of edgy truce possibly allows some tentative alliances to form or perhaps merely some more complex manipulation to take place.
Meanwhile, Tobais cuts back and forth between the wretched conditions in the bowels of the ship, and the stuffy, claustrophobic atmosphere of secretive meetings in closed rooms in the company HQ. Scenes are performed and shot with docu-drama verisimilitude, and the tension is effectively sustained throughout. A smart, believable and quietly powerful tale.
Captain Phillips arrived some months later, with all the fanfare one would expect of a Tom Hanks starring movie, based on a recent and remarkable true story that was major news in the USA. It soon becomes apparent that this movie will be a much more visceral affair, with a thrilling sequence of the hijackers boarding the gigantic container ship under Phillips' command, and later seat-gripping standoffs with the US military just two of the stand-out sequences. However, this is a Paul Greengrass joint, and by stating the above I do not mean to suggest by any means that this is an attempt to sensationalise or trivialise the truth of the events that took place off the coast of Somalia in 2009.
In the opening scenes, Greengrass takes much the same approach as he did with the stunning United 93, introducing us at the outset to two entirely alien groups of people who are preparing for journeys which will soon see their lives and fates thrown together. We are shown just enough background of the antagonists to draw us into their harsh lives without seeking to either excuse or condemn. Meanwhile we get a brief home-life snapshot of the insular, somewhat dour Phillips, a capable captain maybe, but not an easy man to get to know or like.
From the ramshackle group of hijackers soon emerges a de-facto leader, Muse, a tragically young skeleton of a man, played with stunning authority by total newcomer Barkhad Abdi. Once he bursts into the bridge and announces with focussed intent "I'm the captain now" to a stunned Hanks (who he has literally just met, Greengrass intentionally keeping the actors apart during the production till the day of filming this pivotal scene) the movie plays out largely as a two-hander between this young first-timer and the highly seasoned star. To say that Abdi easily holds his own in such illustrious company is even more of a compliment than it would already sound because this may well also be the finest performance Tom Hanks has ever delivered.
By now we are perhaps all too familiar with the easy, natural charm that Hanks exudes on and off screen, and it can perhaps be tempting to underestimate the skill of his craft. He is a past master of essaying likeable, capable, motivational leaders of men at all levels: From commanding Apollo 13, to leading a small company of soldiers in Saving Private Ryan, to simply getting the packages moved on time in Castaway. But, presumably on the basis of true accounts of the man himself and those around him. Phillips is not that sort of charismatic leader, and Hanks dials it right back. Distant, insular, sometimes a touch aggressive. Effective yes, but hardly engaging or inspiring. He does the right thing when he can, but this is no heroic portrait. Phillips is a man under phenomenal stress, terrified and just trying to cling on to self-control long enough to make it out alive. Hanks keeps an iron grip on his performance, and when, finally, the moment comes for the emotions to show, it's a desperate, almost wordless, and absolutely heartrending scene, somewhat reminiscent of the masterful sustained final shot on Bob Hoskins at the end of The Long Good Friday. Yes: That good.
So, two excellent dramas that complement each other very well without treading on each other's toes. Both are serious, believable, and very tense. But, rather like Jeff Goldblum explaining chaos theory to Laura Dern by running drops of water off the back of her hand, they take initially near identical starting points, and then follow very different paths.
A Hijacking: Rating: 4/5
Captain Phillips: Rating 4/5
Saturday 21 September 2013
Norwegian Wood (2010)
A fine example of how a film can portray everything that happens in the book, without portraying anything that happens in the book.
Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3/5
Sunday 15 September 2013
Rush (2013)
Ron Howard delivers another broad slice of muscular, high-tension biographical melodrama (see previous CV entries: Apollo 13, and Frost/Nixon, both of which are touchstones for some of the thematic elements here), with the retelling of the professional rivalry between 1970s Formula One racing legends, Niki Lauda and James Hunt.
Chris Hemsworth tackles the more showy, but actually rather tricky task of essaying Hunt: A cocky, risk-taking, rock-star playboy, who could have been frankly repugnant in less skilled hands, but is handsomely (in every sense of the word) fleshed out by the God of Thunder. Meanwhile Daniel Brühl quietly stamps his authority over the drama with a disciplined take on Lauda's acerbic, neurotic Austrian. The script trowels on the stereotypes a tad thick at times, but both leads deliver, pulling off the not inconsiderable feat of making the audience root for both sides in during their battles.
Meanwhile Howard, and his DOP, the brilliant Anthony Dod Mantle, find all manner of extraordinary places to stick their cameras, wedging us into the cockpit in ways that give each race a distinct personality, as well as a tremendous vitality and urgency, and then matching this with a glorious, cacophonous sound design that places one deep inside the action.
It ain't subtle. True or not, Hunt's team of amateur Hooray-Henrys appear to have been culled from the Four Weddings understudies list, and the leads' almost comically contrary character traits are perhaps spelled out rather too frequently. But nonetheless, this tale grips like a Brabham, convincingly delivering the thrills and excitement of an era when Formula One was a perilous and free-spirited enterprise.
Rating: 4/5
Chris Hemsworth tackles the more showy, but actually rather tricky task of essaying Hunt: A cocky, risk-taking, rock-star playboy, who could have been frankly repugnant in less skilled hands, but is handsomely (in every sense of the word) fleshed out by the God of Thunder. Meanwhile Daniel Brühl quietly stamps his authority over the drama with a disciplined take on Lauda's acerbic, neurotic Austrian. The script trowels on the stereotypes a tad thick at times, but both leads deliver, pulling off the not inconsiderable feat of making the audience root for both sides in during their battles.
Meanwhile Howard, and his DOP, the brilliant Anthony Dod Mantle, find all manner of extraordinary places to stick their cameras, wedging us into the cockpit in ways that give each race a distinct personality, as well as a tremendous vitality and urgency, and then matching this with a glorious, cacophonous sound design that places one deep inside the action.
It ain't subtle. True or not, Hunt's team of amateur Hooray-Henrys appear to have been culled from the Four Weddings understudies list, and the leads' almost comically contrary character traits are perhaps spelled out rather too frequently. But nonetheless, this tale grips like a Brabham, convincingly delivering the thrills and excitement of an era when Formula One was a perilous and free-spirited enterprise.
Rating: 4/5
Friday 23 August 2013
Elysium (2013)
Kinda like District 9, only kinda like not quite as good. Neill Blomkamp STOP WAVING THE FUCKING CAMERA AROUND!
Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3/5
Friday 16 August 2013
Side By Side (2012)
This feature length documentary tackling the subject of
the move from film to digital in the movie world has been made with supremely
auspicious timing, arriving at what may well prove to have been the pivotal
moment in cinema history when the momentum of change tipped the balance away from
essentially a century old format and into a digital world new and uncharted.
Made even a year earlier or a year later, this may have been a very different
beast.
Presented largely as a talking heads style debate with
some of cinema's leading directors and cinematographers, Side By Side gathers
the thoughts and feelings of those, old and new to the industry, who are living
and working inside the guts of the machine and seeing their world changing irrevocably
with every passing day. It's a dry and somewhat specialised topic to be sure,
but for anyone interested in the history, future, technology and aesthetics of
cinema, I highly recommend it.
Also features host Keanu Reeves essentially sitting in a
chair and listening. I could be tempted to say it's his finest performance...
but that would be childish.
Rating: 3/5
Wednesday 31 July 2013
The Wolverine (2013)
Hugh Jackman and Walk The Line director James Mangold make a modest... ahem... stab at rescuing The Wolverine from bloated too-many-mutants boredom with this stand-alone adventure that owes more to Clint Eastwood's man with no name than it does to the Stan Lee back-catalogue.
Logan, once again alone and wandering the wilderness, is summoned to Japan by a man from his distant past and becomes caught up in a power struggle between the dynastic family of a powerful corporation, Yakuza gangsters, and some shadowy ninjas (are there any other type?).
On the plus side, for at least two thirds of the movie this keeps The Wolverine grounded amongst real people; vulnerable, disorientated, and in grimly emotional turmoil. Hugh Jackman doesn't have to work very hard to pull this off, his powerful presence and comfortable familiarity with the role playing to the strengths of a tale that commendably cuts free of mutant hi-jinks for most of its running time, and indulges in some fairly obvious, but pleasingly underplayed culture-clash elements inherent in this setting.
It's kind of a shame then that the film takes a jarring turn into the third act, feeling duty bound to deliver some big FX silliness. The tonal wrench feels deeply uncomfortable and also leaves great gaping holes in the arcs of previously intriguing characters.
Not the disaster of his previous solo outing. There is good work in the brooding western-influenced tale and for the most part things coast along nicely on Jackman's effortless charisma. If only they could have held their storytelling nerve through to the end.
Rating: 3/5
Logan, once again alone and wandering the wilderness, is summoned to Japan by a man from his distant past and becomes caught up in a power struggle between the dynastic family of a powerful corporation, Yakuza gangsters, and some shadowy ninjas (are there any other type?).
On the plus side, for at least two thirds of the movie this keeps The Wolverine grounded amongst real people; vulnerable, disorientated, and in grimly emotional turmoil. Hugh Jackman doesn't have to work very hard to pull this off, his powerful presence and comfortable familiarity with the role playing to the strengths of a tale that commendably cuts free of mutant hi-jinks for most of its running time, and indulges in some fairly obvious, but pleasingly underplayed culture-clash elements inherent in this setting.
It's kind of a shame then that the film takes a jarring turn into the third act, feeling duty bound to deliver some big FX silliness. The tonal wrench feels deeply uncomfortable and also leaves great gaping holes in the arcs of previously intriguing characters.
Not the disaster of his previous solo outing. There is good work in the brooding western-influenced tale and for the most part things coast along nicely on Jackman's effortless charisma. If only they could have held their storytelling nerve through to the end.
Rating: 3/5
Wednesday 24 July 2013
13 Assassins (Jûsan-nin no shikaku) (2010)
The prolific and protean Takashi Miike, having already amassed a vast and varied back-catalogue of contemporary thrillers, romance, comedy, gore, action, drama and musicals in less than two decades, sucks it up and takes on Kurosawa with this period samurai epic.
Japan, 1840s. It is an era of peace. A time of waning power and relevance of the samurai order, and the decaying final years of the ancient feudal Shogunate regime.
Lord Naritsugu, the preening and sadistic younger brother of the current shogun, carves out a swathe of terror and suffering, seemingly out of mere listless petulance. But with higher political office likely to come his way soon, and following the protest of ritual seppuku committed by a wronged clan leader; Sir Doi, a senior official in the current political order, covertly seeks out an experienced samurai to help rid the land of this cruel and dangerous presence.
From this set up, you can probably guess the rough structure of what follows. Our de-facto master samurai must assemble a small group of warriors to ensnare and take down the evil overlord, protected as he is by a small army of his own. This will involve the recruitment of some grizzled old fighters who have seen better days, some over-idealistic young students who have yet to fight a real battle, and of course, an unruly, somewhat comedic outsider who will be grudgingly admitted into the ranks against better judgement to make some unlikely but crucial contribution.
Whether it's Seven Samurai, The Dirty Dozen, or Ocean's Eleven, this is a movie in that grand tradition of the numbered, but outnumbered team of good guys taking on a big bad against the odds. What matters here is not that we can't see what's coming, but that this is a movie that takes such care and pleasure in the unfolding of the story.
Naritsugu is a truly appalling creation, grotesque in the casual disinterest he shows in the terrible violence he inflicts, like a child half-heartedly pulling wings of insects in boredom. He's a man out of time, no longer of use to a Japan at peace and soon to join the modern world. He only seems to engage with anything when the heat of battle is up, but even then, not to care over the win or loss that he and his men might achieve or suffer, but merely to have, briefly, any consequence at all.
The samurai , we gradually comprehend, are in a similar situation. The long unfolding of the first act explores the archaic ritual and routine of their antiquated order, the rich and complex intertwining of codes of honour, and conflicting loyalties, but also of nostalgic wistfulness for glory days long passed. It's a powerful and telling moment when the leader Shimada is shown (in an effort to sway his heart in horror and pity to the mission being proposed), a woman tortured to a gut-wrenching, nightmarish vision of Dantean hell, and rather than displaying anger or grief, his mouth twitches into a wry smile. He's just been shown a reason and purpose for his continued existence.
After that, it's men on a mission greatness. Plans, maps, subterfuge and misdirection, treks lost in the wilderness, and the "let's make our stand here" turn, with all the classic war movie / western / A-Team tension-ratcheting preparation that this entails. The third act battle is coming, and it's going to be something special.
A smartly constructed, character-rich adventure that segues into an object lesson in clear, dynamic battle staging that takes up at least a third of this lengthy movie and never bogs down or loses focus. Takeshi Miike, the enfant terrible of Japanese gore, and crazed seven-films-a-year auteur of chaotic zombie-musical-comedy spoofs has pooled all his considerable talents here to craft an altogether more mature work. And, if he hasn't quite equalled the perfection of Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece, he's come majestically close.
Rating: 5/5
Japan, 1840s. It is an era of peace. A time of waning power and relevance of the samurai order, and the decaying final years of the ancient feudal Shogunate regime.
Lord Naritsugu, the preening and sadistic younger brother of the current shogun, carves out a swathe of terror and suffering, seemingly out of mere listless petulance. But with higher political office likely to come his way soon, and following the protest of ritual seppuku committed by a wronged clan leader; Sir Doi, a senior official in the current political order, covertly seeks out an experienced samurai to help rid the land of this cruel and dangerous presence.
From this set up, you can probably guess the rough structure of what follows. Our de-facto master samurai must assemble a small group of warriors to ensnare and take down the evil overlord, protected as he is by a small army of his own. This will involve the recruitment of some grizzled old fighters who have seen better days, some over-idealistic young students who have yet to fight a real battle, and of course, an unruly, somewhat comedic outsider who will be grudgingly admitted into the ranks against better judgement to make some unlikely but crucial contribution.
Whether it's Seven Samurai, The Dirty Dozen, or Ocean's Eleven, this is a movie in that grand tradition of the numbered, but outnumbered team of good guys taking on a big bad against the odds. What matters here is not that we can't see what's coming, but that this is a movie that takes such care and pleasure in the unfolding of the story.
Naritsugu is a truly appalling creation, grotesque in the casual disinterest he shows in the terrible violence he inflicts, like a child half-heartedly pulling wings of insects in boredom. He's a man out of time, no longer of use to a Japan at peace and soon to join the modern world. He only seems to engage with anything when the heat of battle is up, but even then, not to care over the win or loss that he and his men might achieve or suffer, but merely to have, briefly, any consequence at all.
The samurai , we gradually comprehend, are in a similar situation. The long unfolding of the first act explores the archaic ritual and routine of their antiquated order, the rich and complex intertwining of codes of honour, and conflicting loyalties, but also of nostalgic wistfulness for glory days long passed. It's a powerful and telling moment when the leader Shimada is shown (in an effort to sway his heart in horror and pity to the mission being proposed), a woman tortured to a gut-wrenching, nightmarish vision of Dantean hell, and rather than displaying anger or grief, his mouth twitches into a wry smile. He's just been shown a reason and purpose for his continued existence.
After that, it's men on a mission greatness. Plans, maps, subterfuge and misdirection, treks lost in the wilderness, and the "let's make our stand here" turn, with all the classic war movie / western / A-Team tension-ratcheting preparation that this entails. The third act battle is coming, and it's going to be something special.
A smartly constructed, character-rich adventure that segues into an object lesson in clear, dynamic battle staging that takes up at least a third of this lengthy movie and never bogs down or loses focus. Takeshi Miike, the enfant terrible of Japanese gore, and crazed seven-films-a-year auteur of chaotic zombie-musical-comedy spoofs has pooled all his considerable talents here to craft an altogether more mature work. And, if he hasn't quite equalled the perfection of Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece, he's come majestically close.
Rating: 5/5
Thursday 18 July 2013
Pacific Rim (2013)
Pacific Rim: a review: GIANT MONSTERS FIGHTING GIANT ROBOTS! MORE GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING MORE GIANT MONSTERS!!!!! EVEN MORE GIANT MONSTERS, EVEN MORE GIANT ROBOTS, EVEN MORE FIGHTING!!!!!!! (something something rubbish dialogue and cheesy characters) SORRY I DIDN'T CATCH THAT, IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE FUCK-OFF GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING THE FUCK-OFF GIANT MONSTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and that concludes my detailed academic analysis of Pacific Rim.
Rating: 4/5
Rating: 4/5
Thursday 11 July 2013
Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi) (2008)
A young boy named Yu, after the passing of his mother, dreams of finding his perfect "Virgin Mary". But years later, and racked with the displaced guilt being piled upon him by his failing priest father, he becomes, naturally, the leader of a martial-arts panty-shot photography gang, and his antics bring him to the attention of both a cult-leading psychotic with an abusive past, and the kick-ass girl of his dreams who falls in love with his cross-dressing alter-ego.
At this point we are about fifty minutes into the set-up of Sion Sono's epic Japanese misfit soap opera, and now the opening titles roll. This is not your traditional romance. It's overlong, undisciplined, funny - both ha-ha, and peculiar. But, almost sneaking it in under the radar, unexpectedly affecting.
As Geoffrey Rush once sagely observed of his punters' entertainment needs in Shakespeare In Love, "You see - comedy, love, and a bit with a dog", and he was nearly right. Just add Catholic guilt, cult brainwashing, terrorism, madness, bobbitting, upskirt-fu, blood-soaked chopsocky vengeance and a lot of awkward erections. Oh but leave out the dog. At four hours running time there's only so much you can fit in.
Rating: 3/5
At this point we are about fifty minutes into the set-up of Sion Sono's epic Japanese misfit soap opera, and now the opening titles roll. This is not your traditional romance. It's overlong, undisciplined, funny - both ha-ha, and peculiar. But, almost sneaking it in under the radar, unexpectedly affecting.
As Geoffrey Rush once sagely observed of his punters' entertainment needs in Shakespeare In Love, "You see - comedy, love, and a bit with a dog", and he was nearly right. Just add Catholic guilt, cult brainwashing, terrorism, madness, bobbitting, upskirt-fu, blood-soaked chopsocky vengeance and a lot of awkward erections. Oh but leave out the dog. At four hours running time there's only so much you can fit in.
Rating: 3/5
Friday 5 July 2013
XXY (2007)
Alex is a fifteen-year old intersex teenager, living with "her" family on the remote coast of Uruguay, and dealing with the tribulations of growing up living on medication to control her sexual development, and the difficulties of forming relationships with her peers. Now, her mother has invited a friend's family to visit with an agenda involving possible sex reassignment surgery, but the surgeon friend also brings his introverted teenage son, who strikes up a bond of sorts with Alex.
Lucía Puenzo's sensitive and intelligent drama successfully holds a steady line between what could have tipped into lurid sensationalism or mawkish melodrama with understated grace. She elicits a clutch of fine and naturalistic performances from her largely inexperienced cast, most impressively from young Inés Efron in the central role of Alex, who convinces in an obviously tricky role with a totally believable and rounded character who contains elements of sullen teenager and aggressive tomboy without allowing either to define her.
From a seemingly rather esoteric set-up, Lucia's tale engages instead with the universal experiences of coming-of-age: Bullying, rejection, first love (of a sort), and the pain of feeling like an outsider, of being different... and that this is OK.
Rating: 4/5
Lucía Puenzo's sensitive and intelligent drama successfully holds a steady line between what could have tipped into lurid sensationalism or mawkish melodrama with understated grace. She elicits a clutch of fine and naturalistic performances from her largely inexperienced cast, most impressively from young Inés Efron in the central role of Alex, who convinces in an obviously tricky role with a totally believable and rounded character who contains elements of sullen teenager and aggressive tomboy without allowing either to define her.
From a seemingly rather esoteric set-up, Lucia's tale engages instead with the universal experiences of coming-of-age: Bullying, rejection, first love (of a sort), and the pain of feeling like an outsider, of being different... and that this is OK.
Rating: 4/5
Thursday 20 June 2013
Man Of Steel (2013)
The writing and producing team behind the impressively gritty and twisted Dark Knight trilogy here tackle the long touted reboot of DC's premier be-caped hero, and then hand their dour-toned opus to the director of the daft but enjoyable "300" and barely watchable mess "Sucker Punch". About 50% of a great movie emerges somewhat dazed from the collision.
While Batman was a natural fit for a grimy, shadowy approach, Superman has always been a hero painted, literally and emotionally, in primary colours. How to give this icon some dramatic depth was always going to be a problem, a problem that the classic 1978 movie solved by the miraculously fortuitous casting of Christopher Reeve. The most likeable, heartfelt, honest-to-goodness heroic lunk that ever graced the screen. In the midst of cartoon silliness he gave his every last ounce of charm, wit and stoic integrity to the role. Making it his own for a generation to come. So much so that poor old Brandon Routh in "Superman Returns" was reduced to having to deliver a very creditable but rather distracting facsimile of Reeve's performance. Man Of Steel does not make this mistake. Gone are the bumbling doltish mannerisms of Clark Kent. Henry Cavill plays it straight and moody. Not always entirely memorably perhaps, but certainly free of unhelpful associations.
Act one is where this latest version scores most highly. Krypton is a stunningly realised world, full of beautiful organic technology. A triumph of design, and, admirably, Zach Snyder slows his frenetic camera down a touch to let us luxuriate in its majestic scale. The set-up of Kal-El's birth, and the circumstances of his departure, along with his home-world's fate and Zod's pursuit are all given a thorough reworking and feel far more effectively integrated into this origin story than in previous iterations. Top marks so far.
The quieter middle act is where this new work had perhaps the toughest act to follow. I'll make no bones about it, I consider Richard Donner's "Superman" to be about as near perfect a true comic book movie as we've ever seen. and its finest, most richly satisfying elements are those tied to Clark's childhood mid-west upbringing. The quiet moments that he shares with his adoptive parents (supported of course by John Williams' most heart-wrenching strings) and the understated loss of Glenn Ford's "Pa" bringing the realisation of the limits of his powers in the face of human frailty. Kevin Costner does fine work in the same role, and all these scenes are well handled, emotive and restrained. But somehow it still doesn't quite match up.
So, finally it's on to the inevitable smack-down. Michael Shannon's Zod is white-knuckle intense, and the action is certainly immense, but boy-oh-boy does it drag on. About twenty minutes of excess noisy destruction could have been trimmed and all of it is far, far too serious. "Man Of Steel" may be the most humourless superhero movie to date. There is but one (superb) visual gag at about the half-way mark, and by two-hours plus, my brain was aching for a wisecrack to leaven the tone.
Nonetheless, it's a mostly impressive and creditable whack at a surprisingly tough nut. Cavill acquits himself well and hopefully sets up a role to grow into. But a lighter touch next time would go a long way.
Rating: 3/5
While Batman was a natural fit for a grimy, shadowy approach, Superman has always been a hero painted, literally and emotionally, in primary colours. How to give this icon some dramatic depth was always going to be a problem, a problem that the classic 1978 movie solved by the miraculously fortuitous casting of Christopher Reeve. The most likeable, heartfelt, honest-to-goodness heroic lunk that ever graced the screen. In the midst of cartoon silliness he gave his every last ounce of charm, wit and stoic integrity to the role. Making it his own for a generation to come. So much so that poor old Brandon Routh in "Superman Returns" was reduced to having to deliver a very creditable but rather distracting facsimile of Reeve's performance. Man Of Steel does not make this mistake. Gone are the bumbling doltish mannerisms of Clark Kent. Henry Cavill plays it straight and moody. Not always entirely memorably perhaps, but certainly free of unhelpful associations.
Act one is where this latest version scores most highly. Krypton is a stunningly realised world, full of beautiful organic technology. A triumph of design, and, admirably, Zach Snyder slows his frenetic camera down a touch to let us luxuriate in its majestic scale. The set-up of Kal-El's birth, and the circumstances of his departure, along with his home-world's fate and Zod's pursuit are all given a thorough reworking and feel far more effectively integrated into this origin story than in previous iterations. Top marks so far.
The quieter middle act is where this new work had perhaps the toughest act to follow. I'll make no bones about it, I consider Richard Donner's "Superman" to be about as near perfect a true comic book movie as we've ever seen. and its finest, most richly satisfying elements are those tied to Clark's childhood mid-west upbringing. The quiet moments that he shares with his adoptive parents (supported of course by John Williams' most heart-wrenching strings) and the understated loss of Glenn Ford's "Pa" bringing the realisation of the limits of his powers in the face of human frailty. Kevin Costner does fine work in the same role, and all these scenes are well handled, emotive and restrained. But somehow it still doesn't quite match up.
So, finally it's on to the inevitable smack-down. Michael Shannon's Zod is white-knuckle intense, and the action is certainly immense, but boy-oh-boy does it drag on. About twenty minutes of excess noisy destruction could have been trimmed and all of it is far, far too serious. "Man Of Steel" may be the most humourless superhero movie to date. There is but one (superb) visual gag at about the half-way mark, and by two-hours plus, my brain was aching for a wisecrack to leaven the tone.
Nonetheless, it's a mostly impressive and creditable whack at a surprisingly tough nut. Cavill acquits himself well and hopefully sets up a role to grow into. But a lighter touch next time would go a long way.
Rating: 3/5
Monday 27 May 2013
Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika) (1984)
Take one from anime legend Hayao Miyazaki in laying out his trademark spiritual fantasies and captivating ecological fables. Nausicaa has plenty of charm and a beautiful design to delight the senses. However it does feel somewhat a dry run for higher achievements to come. Thematically he covered the same ground again, with greater richness and depth in Princess Mononoke. The ideas are here, and, it must be commended, were somewhat ahead of the game, cropping up again and again in later western films such as Ferngully and Avatar, as well as much of Miyazaki's subsequent work. However the storytelling and character development is clunky. Heroes are po-faced and humourless, and even though the plot is simple, I frequently had to remind myself who was doing what to who and why, as motivations are not well defined. Worth seeking out, especially for fans of studio Ghibli. But not quite the early masterpiece sometimes claimed.
Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3/5
Wednesday 1 May 2013
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Solidly enjoyable fluff. A meaty middle act of top level banter with Robert Downey Jr. out in the cold doing the full sassy-grump and just about the most stunningly unexpected bad guy awesomeness from Sir Ben that I've seen in a comic book movie; bookended by two fairly forgettable CGI bloated animations of stuff blowing up and merchandise opportunities hitting each other. It's entirely possible that I'm missing the point here, but I think I'd truly love an Iron Man movie without any Iron Men in it. (nb: contains the second-best throwaway reference to Croydon in recent movie history).
Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3/5
Friday 1 March 2013
The Happiness of the Katakuris (Katakuri-ke no kôfuku ) (2001)
An extended family move out to the country to run a B&B, only to find that each rare and sorely-needed guest winds up dead on their property. Naturally this prompts a series of frantic musical sing-along productions before the shovels come out.
One of Seven films made in 2001 alone by the absurdly prolific Takashi Miike (best known in the west for his more intense horror works such as the magnificent "Audition" and "Ichi The Killer"), this loose remake of Korean film "The Quiet Family" has all the rough edges and scattershot structure you'd expect of a film presumably made over a quiet weekend between projects. But for all that, it's frequently very funny, admirably off-kilter, and features quite the finest claymation soup-sprite that I've seen this year.
Should you find that "Les Miserables" simply doesn't have the epic scope and emotional punch you want in a musical, then this combination of "The Sound Of Music", "Saturday Night Fever", "Shallow Grave" and "Shaun Of The Dead" is absolutely what you've been looking for.
Rating: 3/5
One of Seven films made in 2001 alone by the absurdly prolific Takashi Miike (best known in the west for his more intense horror works such as the magnificent "Audition" and "Ichi The Killer"), this loose remake of Korean film "The Quiet Family" has all the rough edges and scattershot structure you'd expect of a film presumably made over a quiet weekend between projects. But for all that, it's frequently very funny, admirably off-kilter, and features quite the finest claymation soup-sprite that I've seen this year.
Should you find that "Les Miserables" simply doesn't have the epic scope and emotional punch you want in a musical, then this combination of "The Sound Of Music", "Saturday Night Fever", "Shallow Grave" and "Shaun Of The Dead" is absolutely what you've been looking for.
Rating: 3/5
Tuesday 26 February 2013
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis' ambitious joint-undertaking to bring to the screen David Mitchell's multi-stranded, epoch-straddling tale, has produced a striking but unwieldy behemoth of a movie. Long on invention, melodrama and scale... Perhaps shorter on discipline and a clear through-line of narrative purpose.
Pulling apart the symmetrical structure of the source novel and re-integrating its six storylines in a complex but still clearly delineated collage of characters and events is one of the project's more successful elements. There is a singularity of vision at work here that belies the portmanteau directorial approach, with the Wachowskis surprisingly tackling the quietly mannered tale of a 19th century sea voyage alongside the more obvious home turf of the two future-set sci-fi sections. Meanwhile the more art-house predisposed Tom Tykwer makes a solid stab at a dirty '70s thiller as well as the more restrained tones of his delicate inter-war period love story.
The film's major talking point has been the many multi-role performances by nearly all the principle cast. It is at once one of its strongest, and yet most flawed features. Let's get one non-issue out of the way: The minor controversy stirred up around a predominantly white cast playing other races is entirely bogus. There is a clear, one might even say vital, thematic purpose (even if narratively a tad obscure) to this decision, and it should also be noted that this is equal opportunities trans-ethnicity, with Black playing Asian and Asian playing Caucasian in the mix, before we even get started on the gender and age switching. It's a logical and often entertaining device that ties the disparate threads together. However, it is also highly distracting. Some of the more extreme make-over's are frankly just not very good. Fake, stiff and sometimes am-dram silly. Surprisingly poorly executed for a film with a substantial budget and directors experienced in period work and fantasy. This, coupled with some very shoddy accents results in the viewer frequently being pulled out of the drama for a few minutes of "oh its him again, you know, what's-his-face from that other chapter". Hugo Weaving gets a particularly short stick, bouncing from pantomime Nurse Ratched, via Mr Spock eyebrows to a painted, top-hatted shamanistic apparition that will incite guffaws of disbelief from anyone familiar with The Mighty Boosh. Possibly the first time in history that a film has sequelled its own spoof.
Not surprisingly then the most affecting segments are those that allow the actors to work largely free of such novelty. Halle Berry's intrepid San Francisco reporter, Doona Bae's tragic future-world slave replicant, and perhaps most touching and subtly played, the distant, clandestine affair of a young composer and his physicist lover provide the movie with at least some of the emotional centre of gravity it needs to hold the wilder elements in place.
The joy and frustration of Cloud Atlas is that when it is good, such as in those segments above, it has to abandon the threads too swiftly, leaving you craving to be immersed more in those characters and stories. When it is bad, (Tom Hanks' geyserish gangster and buck-toothed surgeon, Post apocalyptic Mad Max juju speak, Last Of The Summer Wine antics in a Scottish bar), it just leaves one bewildered at the point of it all.
In spite of all this. There is something both endearing and admirable about the scale, bravery and vaulting ambition of Cloud Atlas. It's as entertaining as it is awkward, and as breathtaking as it is daft.
A Magnificent folly.
Rating: 3/5
Pulling apart the symmetrical structure of the source novel and re-integrating its six storylines in a complex but still clearly delineated collage of characters and events is one of the project's more successful elements. There is a singularity of vision at work here that belies the portmanteau directorial approach, with the Wachowskis surprisingly tackling the quietly mannered tale of a 19th century sea voyage alongside the more obvious home turf of the two future-set sci-fi sections. Meanwhile the more art-house predisposed Tom Tykwer makes a solid stab at a dirty '70s thiller as well as the more restrained tones of his delicate inter-war period love story.
The film's major talking point has been the many multi-role performances by nearly all the principle cast. It is at once one of its strongest, and yet most flawed features. Let's get one non-issue out of the way: The minor controversy stirred up around a predominantly white cast playing other races is entirely bogus. There is a clear, one might even say vital, thematic purpose (even if narratively a tad obscure) to this decision, and it should also be noted that this is equal opportunities trans-ethnicity, with Black playing Asian and Asian playing Caucasian in the mix, before we even get started on the gender and age switching. It's a logical and often entertaining device that ties the disparate threads together. However, it is also highly distracting. Some of the more extreme make-over's are frankly just not very good. Fake, stiff and sometimes am-dram silly. Surprisingly poorly executed for a film with a substantial budget and directors experienced in period work and fantasy. This, coupled with some very shoddy accents results in the viewer frequently being pulled out of the drama for a few minutes of "oh its him again, you know, what's-his-face from that other chapter". Hugo Weaving gets a particularly short stick, bouncing from pantomime Nurse Ratched, via Mr Spock eyebrows to a painted, top-hatted shamanistic apparition that will incite guffaws of disbelief from anyone familiar with The Mighty Boosh. Possibly the first time in history that a film has sequelled its own spoof.
Not surprisingly then the most affecting segments are those that allow the actors to work largely free of such novelty. Halle Berry's intrepid San Francisco reporter, Doona Bae's tragic future-world slave replicant, and perhaps most touching and subtly played, the distant, clandestine affair of a young composer and his physicist lover provide the movie with at least some of the emotional centre of gravity it needs to hold the wilder elements in place.
The joy and frustration of Cloud Atlas is that when it is good, such as in those segments above, it has to abandon the threads too swiftly, leaving you craving to be immersed more in those characters and stories. When it is bad, (Tom Hanks' geyserish gangster and buck-toothed surgeon, Post apocalyptic Mad Max juju speak, Last Of The Summer Wine antics in a Scottish bar), it just leaves one bewildered at the point of it all.
In spite of all this. There is something both endearing and admirable about the scale, bravery and vaulting ambition of Cloud Atlas. It's as entertaining as it is awkward, and as breathtaking as it is daft.
A Magnificent folly.
Rating: 3/5
Friday 4 January 2013
Top Ten Of 2012
On balance then, it was a pretty good year for sitting in a darkened room I reckon. Here's my personal top ten films of 2012.
10: The Raid
Bruising Indonesian martial arts genre-flick. Minimal story, jaw-dropping moves. Just edged ahead of "Dredd" in the best cops-v-drugs-baron-run-tower-block-siege-battle movie of the year competition.
9: The Grey
"Liam Neeson: Wolf Puncher". Much more fun than "Liam Neeson: Kill Everyone In Europe part 2".
8: The Dark Knight Rises
The epic final instalment of Nolan's superior and sophisticated comic book odyssey. Complex, spectacular, just a little uninvolving.
7: Argo
Unfussy but deftly crafted thriller of CIA shenanigans during the 1980 Iranian revolution. Wisecracking script and edge-of-seat tension beautifully balanced.
6: Beasts Of The Southern Wild
A stunning, unique and uplifting tale of childhood coming-of-age in a twisted, run-down world. Bolstered by remarkable flights of fancy and an astonishing central performance from its six year old star.
5: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Overlong opening, but otherwise highly engaging first chapter in Jackson's epic Hobbit adaptation. Bags of charm, spectacle and adventure, if not yet high drama. Against all the odds it still ended sooner than I wanted or expected.
4: The Cabin In The Woods
Enormously fun meta-horror, made for film-geeks, by film-geeks. Kind of like The Truman Show... with added Zombie Redneck Torture.
3: Looper
Time travelling who's-your-daddy paradoxes ahoy. Old Bruce Willis vs. young Bruce Willis. The maths doesn't bare too much close analysis, but you'll be too entertained to care.
2: Life Of Pi
Staggeringly beautiful fable and a simple but profound meditation on the nature of faith. Will stay with you.
1: The Artist
A perfectly formed, perfectly joyous piece of sheer entertainment. A film in love with film and in love with love.
10: The Raid
Bruising Indonesian martial arts genre-flick. Minimal story, jaw-dropping moves. Just edged ahead of "Dredd" in the best cops-v-drugs-baron-run-tower-block-siege-battle movie of the year competition.
9: The Grey
"Liam Neeson: Wolf Puncher". Much more fun than "Liam Neeson: Kill Everyone In Europe part 2".
8: The Dark Knight Rises
The epic final instalment of Nolan's superior and sophisticated comic book odyssey. Complex, spectacular, just a little uninvolving.
7: Argo
Unfussy but deftly crafted thriller of CIA shenanigans during the 1980 Iranian revolution. Wisecracking script and edge-of-seat tension beautifully balanced.
6: Beasts Of The Southern Wild
A stunning, unique and uplifting tale of childhood coming-of-age in a twisted, run-down world. Bolstered by remarkable flights of fancy and an astonishing central performance from its six year old star.
5: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Overlong opening, but otherwise highly engaging first chapter in Jackson's epic Hobbit adaptation. Bags of charm, spectacle and adventure, if not yet high drama. Against all the odds it still ended sooner than I wanted or expected.
4: The Cabin In The Woods
Enormously fun meta-horror, made for film-geeks, by film-geeks. Kind of like The Truman Show... with added Zombie Redneck Torture.
3: Looper
Time travelling who's-your-daddy paradoxes ahoy. Old Bruce Willis vs. young Bruce Willis. The maths doesn't bare too much close analysis, but you'll be too entertained to care.
2: Life Of Pi
Staggeringly beautiful fable and a simple but profound meditation on the nature of faith. Will stay with you.
1: The Artist
A perfectly formed, perfectly joyous piece of sheer entertainment. A film in love with film and in love with love.
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