Foxcatcher

I feel as though the latest run of biopic films has culminated with this film. And although Foxcatcher is a biopic that chronicles the relationship between Olympic wrestler Mark Shultz and billionaire industrialist John du Pont, I feel it also is a snapshot into the wrestling world of the late 1980s.

Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is trying to make ends meet speaking at schools across America, but still lives in the shadow of his older brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo). One day, Mark gets a phone call from the estate of John du Pont (Steve Carrell), the heir to the du Pont family fortune, to come and discuss leading a wrestling team that John wants to set up. Mark agrees and is hoping to win gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. As time progresses, du Pont's behaviour starts to display signs of madness.

This film is a marvel of direction. Bennett Miller knows how to use his actors properly and is amazing at making beautiful and evocative shots. Many times throughout the film when there is great stress happening on screen, the sound drops away to emphasise the powerful images that are being presented to us, a technique which I have always loved.

Like American Sniper, Foxcatcher is a patriotic film. This patriotism, however, is laced with a certain cynicism, with du Pont manipulating other people's sense of nationalism to his own ends. The film also gives a more detailed look into competitive wrestling than I have witnessed before. Since I only learn about the world through movies, my only real exposure had been through scenes in The World According to Garp or Born On the Fourth of July, but here I was exposed to the raw physicality of the sport. There is a jaw dropping scene at the beginning of the film where Tatum and Ruffalo are training together and you can sense the unspoken power struggle between the two. 

This film has some truly transformative performances. Channing Tatum's Mark Schultz isn't the brightest human around and Tatum somehow makes the guy endearing, despite the fact that the character can be slightly one-dimensional at times. Carrell is engaging as du Pont and the movie really shows how charming he was. I was a bit disappointed that Miller didn't make it as clear that he was a paranoid schizophrenic, but Carrell does portray the creepiness to his character well. Mark Ruffalo gives probably my favourite performance of the whole movie as Dave and he really does show how versatile an actor he is here.

Overall, Foxcatcher is a superb movie that despite having some minor problems, I felt that Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller's characters could have been used and explored more and the ending is a tiny bit historically inaccurate, but that's okay given the run time of the film, it is definitely a movie people should watch.

The Theory of Everything

With the Oscars fast approaching, we've seen plenty of biopics attempt to grasp the attention of the Academy. The latest to be released, James Marsh's The Theory of Everything, is up for Best Picture and depicts the life of Professor Stephen Hawking from his time in college, his struggles with his debilitating disease, and his relationship with his supportive first wife Jane.

At a Cambridge party in 1963, astrophysics student Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) meets Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), an Arts student studying the Romance languages, with the two hitting it off straight away. Hawking is shy yet highly intelligent and witty, Jane is also somewhat introverted but sensitive to Stephen's intricacies. Hawking is still unsure what to complete his thesis on, which is worrying his Professor, Dennis Sciama (David Thewlis). After showing an interest in black holes and the creation of the universe, Stephen decides on his topic: time. 

Hawking is making great strides with his academia and his relationship with Jane, but soon he realises that he is having difficulty walking. After visiting a doctor, it's discovered that Stephen is suffering from motor neurone disease, which will slowly paralyse him. He's given approximately two years to live. Stephen tries to hide from Jane but she won't give up on him, resulting in one of the most emotional games of croquet ever played on screen. Jane wants to have as much time as they can together, no matter how difficult that may be.

One worry I had about The Theory of Everything was that it would focus entirely on the relationship between Jane and Stephen, and turn the film into too much of a Hollywood romance. However, this is not at all the case. Marsh has managed to strike a perfect balance between their relationship, Hawking's work and how his disease would affect both. Based on Jane Wilde Hawking's book Travelling to Infinity – My Life with Stephen, the film provides what seems to be an honest depiction of the support that Jane gave him and how it broke her down in many ways. Time is used thematically throughout as reference to Hawking's field and research, however its woven through very subtly and is much more effective that way. My only criticism of the script is that it drags in a few places and at points it creates too many divisions between different eras to flow well. However those concerns seem minute amongst the many captivating moments that The Theory of Everything has to offer.

Eddie Redmayne's performance absolutely dominates the screen, and is testament to his incredible abilities as an actor. Early on, he forms the image of a shy yet passionate student whose intelligence towers over all his colleagues. Then as the motor neurone disease starts to take its toll, Redmayne transforms his body to match Hawking's. The devil is in the details here, with his loss of dexterity, slurring of voice, curling of lips and eventual paralysis all handled sensitively. Felicity Jones embodies a sensitive, yet at times frustrated Jane and a refreshingly strong female character. Whilst some of the supporting actors are underused, such as Emily Watson, others provide magnificent performances, with David Thewlis a standout as always.

After the recent rush of biopics, I thought that I wouldn't be able to stand another, but The Theory of Everything proved me wrong. Marsh has formed a well-constructed appreciation of both Hawking and the woman who supported him, with an astounding performance from Redmayne.

Chris Pratt could be Indiana Jones, maybe?

I don't know if it's the big amount of coffee that I've had, but this news has tickled me the right way. While this is only a rumour started by the Latino Review, a reputable source that throws out wild accusations about castings in big budget movies, usually those made by Disney, I am liking the idea of Chris Pratt stepping into the role of Indy. The franchise definitely needs a reboot after the highly disappointing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Previous reports by Variety journalist Justin Kroll had speculated that the likes of Bradley Cooper and Chris Hemsworth being up for the role, being action stars these are obvious choices. Then again, Disney might see Pratt as a bankable star, especially after the success of Guardians of the Galaxy. By the look of the trailers for Jurassic World, he may be able to make the jump from comedy to being an action star.

Tell us what you think of Chris Pratt playing Indiana Jones? He definitely would be able to play up some of the lighter parts of the character.

Classic Movie Review: American Beauty (1999)

"Look Closer" - The tag line for Sam Mendes' directorial debut American Beauty, is a perfect descriptor for a film that gazes beyond the materialism of American suburbia, to present a portrait of love, confusion, obsession, voyeurism and a cynical man that will have you in stitches on every viewing.

 Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a middle-aged, middle-class American, sedated by the state of his life. He describes his morning masturbatory session as the highlight of his day, "It's all downhill from here". Lester's wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening) is an ambitious real-estate agent who seems to have little time for Lester, or their daughter Jane (Thora Birch), a self-conscious teenager who distances herself from her parents.  

 One evening, at a high school basketball game, Jane and her friend Angela (Mena Suvari), a self-obsessed girl, driven by popularity, participate in a cheer-leading routine. Lester, who's in the audience, suddenly becomes fixated on Angela, fantasizing about a sexual encounter with her. Lester's crush on Angela rejuvenates his drive, and sees him quit his job, get fit, and trade his Toyota Camry for his favorite sports car. A new family moves in next to the Burnham household, a disciplinarian, Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper) with a subdued son, Ricky (Wes Bentley). Ricky takes an interest in Jane, filming her in a perverse manner, though this is perhaps the first time that anybody has taken an interest in Jane.

Like another film of its era, David Fincher's Fight Club, American Beauty is pessimistic about the effects of consumerism and the emasculation of men in such a society, but instead of presenting this viewpoint through an obsessively dark world, Mendes creates an overly-bright neighborhood, almost like a model-town in its repetitive, flawless construction. The Burnham family house is white with shades of blue and red, a recurring colour palette in the film. The petals that fall in Lester's fantasies are as impeccably red as Carolyn's "eggshells and Miracle Gro" roses. Lester remarks in his opening monologue about how the handles of his wife's pruning shears perfectly match her gardening clogs. "That's not an accident". He's a man trapped in a clichéd suburbia and suppressed by his shallow yet ambitious wife. The brand of dark humour that inhabits Lester's dialogue is a crucial, binding element that runs through the film. Without the snide comments that Lester jovially commentates to the audience, the film would lose its central personality, something which is specifically lacking in Lester's world.

American Beauty is the first of two collaborations between Mendes and prolific cinematographer Conrad Hall (the other being Road to Perdition), both films have similar artistic concerns, but they function best here, in a script full of personal fantasies and stylised realities. Hall utilises fluid camera movements, with extreme closeups and clever angles to bring Lester’s feelings of suppression to the forefront. The fantasy scenes are composed of bright, often angelic lighting and repetitive cuts, all of which form the unique style of Hall’s composition. The  film is accompanied by a memorable and very percussive score by Thomas Newman, another frequent collaborator of Mendes. The framing denotes Mendes’ theatre background, with long static shots, such as the ones at the Burnham’s dinner table, used to create distance between the characters. Mendes also put the actors through weeks of practice (typical of the theatre), which helped them to bond with each other and their characters.

Kevin Spacey is the core reason that I love this film. His portrayal of Lester's transformation from docile to driven is among the best on-screen rebirths, and his asides never fail to amuse me. Annette Benning takes an almost unlikable character and manages to draw a huge amount of empathy from the audience. You genuinely feel sorry for her by the end, for many different reasons. Birch provides a very mature performance for her age and forms Jane into a difficult-to-read but complex person. All the other supporting roles are very good, especially Allison Janney, who conveys the tragic nature of Barbara in the few words that she utters.

Whenever I discuss American Beauty with someone, it tends to be a polarised conversation. This seems to be a movie that you either love or you hate. It could certainly be argued that it's too steeped in its own symbolism, that it metaphorises everything to death. But its denouncement of a consumerist society through what is, in many ways, a lighthearted and almost mocking style, has always been endearing to me. The tongue in cheek humour, unique look, memorable characters and fantastic delivery from Spacey has left American Beauty perched atop my favourite movies for many years now, and it’ll take a lot to dethrone it.

Trailers Week 29: 25/01/15

The Rewrite

Hugh Grant stars in another movie about a fading (insert occupation here) who must regain his confidence in whatever it is he does to feel better about his life. This time he plays a once great screenwriter who has faded into obscurity and has to get a job teaching writing at a college to makes ends meet. Also starring Marisa Tomei, Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2

The first movie was a real guilty pleasure for me so I know I'll like this one too. This time the guys (John Cusack replaced with Adam Scott) journey to the future and then find the point in time where they changed everything, Back to the Future Part II style. Also starring Rob Corddry, Craig Anderson and Clark Duke.

She's Funny That Way

This comedy is about an actress who moonlights as an escort who's been sleeping with a Broadway director who casts her in his latest show by accident. Things get even more sketchy when she starts going out with the writer of the show with whom she shares a therapist. Starring Imogen Poots, Owen Wilson, Will Forte, Kathryn Hahn and Jennifer Aniston.

Everly

Salma Hayek stars as a badass former hitwoman who gets surrounded in her apartment by cops, cartels, former colleagues and Yakuza who all want to kill her. Talk about strong female characters.

Good Kill

I can't really say that I live in fear of drones attacking at any moment. It's something that no one should live in fear of. This aspect of modern warfare hasn't been explored in too much depth in film, so this should be a good one. Starring Ethan Hawke, Zoë Kravitz and Bruce Greenwood.

All The Wilderness

Kodi Smit-McPhee stars in this coming of age flick about a kid who struggles to find meaning in life. Also starring Danny DeVito, Isabelle Fuhrman and Virginia Madsen.

Wild

Last year I reviewed the Aussie film Tracks, a film about a girl with a rough background walking across the desert. This week I watched Wild, a film about a girl with a rough background walking the Pacific Crest Trail, a hike that goes from Mexico to Canada. Like with Tracks, Jean-Marc Vallée's latest film didn't really inspire me the way these films are supposed to.

Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) is a wreck after the death of her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern) and divorces her husband Paul (Thomas Sadoski) after he finds that she's cheated on him. To get her life back on track, Cheryl decides to walk the Pacific Crest Trail. Along the way she meets a fair few people who she relates to, as well as some unsavoury characters who just want to use her.

While I appreciate the film's overall message (despite it not doing anything to me), I feel like Vallée's filmmaking is all over the place here. The structure and editing don't do much help make sense of the story. Non-linear films can be fun to watch and sometimes they can give backstory to characters, as is the intention with this film. However, the flashbacks that we do see are very fragmented and brief, giving only a cursory insight to Cheryl's motivations and thus not making her a very endearing character.

The film suffers from an overabundance of narration. Scenes where we should read into Witherspoon's performance are interrupted by obvious narration of what's going on in her mind. The film's epilogue is also rushed along with a solid minute monologue at the end of the film, felt like something a teenager would write at the end of a story to let the reader know that everything would be okay. This could have been cut out entirely and given time for the audience to breathe and come to their own conclusions on whether Cheryl achieved her redemption.

Thematically the film is very much on the nose, holding hands with the audience the entire time. Such is the nature of a poorly done CGI fox who represents the soul of her mother and you know this from the moment you see it. Also, whilst I am not one of those hideous men's rights people and I fully support feminist films (and this is a great example of one, up there perhaps with Jackie Brown), every man, bar her brother and ex-husband, comes across like they wish to take advantage of Cheryl and I truly was scared for her at times. I don't feel like this needed to happen every time to remind the audience that there is that fear that Cheryl carries with her.

With this being a film with a lone main character, I had expected to see Witherspoon for the entire film. She gives a superb performance, something I haven't seen her do since Pleasantville. The fact that there are too little supporting roles, or if there are, they aren't in it for long, that irked me a little. Laura Dern comes back time and time again in the flashbacks, but I didn't feel a strong connection to her. Thomas Sadoski and Gaby Hoffman, who plays Cheryl's friend, both get a pitiful amount of screen time and I would have loved to see a lot more of W. Earl Brown.

Jean-Marc Vallée is capable of making better movies as we saw with Dallas Buyers Club and I know that all the actors can do better than this and despite this movie having some Oscar nominations based on it's strong female characters, it isn't a too exciting movie.

American Sniper

You can almost hear the chorale of chanters reacting to Clint Eastwood's latest film American Sniper with "Oorah! USA! USA! USA!". The project, co-produced by, and starring Bradley Cooper, serves as a biographical depiction of Chris Kyle, known as "the most lethal sniper in U.S history".

Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is a Texan that aspires to be a famous rodeo cowboy, but following the 1998 attacks on U.S embassies in Africa, Kyle enlists in the Navy, where he trains to become a SEAL. A competent marksman, Kyle becomes a sniper and after 9/11 is sent into Iraq on his first tour of duty. Before he leaves, Chris marries Taya (Sienna Miller), and after serving his duty, returns home in time for the birth of their son.

After making a name for himself as a deadly sniper, and motivated to serve his country and protect his family, Kyle returns for second, third and fourth tours, racking up over 160 confirmed kills. But each time that Kyle returns home, he seems dislocated and different from how his family remember him, which puts his life on the home-front in jeopardy.

Clint Eastwood has often been described as politically conservative in his direction, yet some of his more recent films such as Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino have not only focused their attention on underdogs, or long-forgotten veterans, but have managed to depict a variety of perspectives that motivate the audience to reflect. However, in American Sniper, the view is all too clear, Chris Kyle is a hero, serving in a war against evil. There's barely a single Iraqi who's not portrayed as an extremist, or associated with one, and any effects of the war are only seen on Kyle or the U.S soldiers, mainly on the homefront after their return. The elderly woman sitting next to me in the cinema repeatedly mumbled "shoot them" and "boom! yeah" as Kyle knocked them back on-screen, which was not only distracting, but proves that this film is aligned to a one-sided audience. The film is based on Kyle's autobiography and it's clear that Jason Hall's script is paying tribute to Kyle's service through his own eyes, but I would have hoped that Eastwood could have broadened its ideological scope.

Hall's dialogue, which I'm sure is a reflection of Kyle's book, is clever, well-written and delivered through an astounding performance from Bradley Cooper. Sienna Miller perfectly conveys the anguish and frustration that Taya Kyle would have been going through, and a solid supporting cast portray the numerous soldiers and veterans. The film is well shot by Eastwood's go-to cinematographer Tom Stern, and aside from a few dodgy CGI explosions, I was totally immersed in the action. It's perhaps not as engaging as Kathryn Bigelow's two similar features The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, but nonetheless, American Sniper places the audience right in the middle of a war zone and to great effect.

This is a well made, but very one-sided war film that manages to be affecting in many ways, as long as your patriotic, American sensitivities are highly-tuned. It pays tribute to a man that was undoubtedly worthy of recognition, but ultimately I was left a little disappointed by Eastwood's efforts.

Classic Movie Review: Flash Gordon (1980)

                                     "Flash! Ah-ahhhhh! He'll save every one of us!"

Flash Gordon is a reboot adapted from the long-running comic strip and successful series of adventure films from the 1930's that bear the same name. It's unashamedly camp, with vibrant special effects, a deluge of laser-fire, ridiculous costumes and one of the most straight-forward, All-American heroes to ever grace the big screen. The comic and 30's Flash Gordon's had a remarkable effect on George Lucas, who originally planned to adapt the series into a new film, but upon learning that genre-film producer Dino De Laurentis (producer of Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, Manhunter, Death Wish, Serpico, Conan the Barbarian, Dune, Hannibal) held the rights, Lucas instead adapted his ideas into a mixture of Flash Gordon and Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, with the result becoming the mega-hit Star Wars. Flash Gordon shares a remarkable amount of similarities to both Dune and Star Wars, most notably the fantastical take on science fiction, emphasis on flamboyant production design, the effects and scope of Dune, with Star Wars' melodramatic adventure tone. But Flash Gordon is a film and a character who completely stands alone as a figure of endearing purity, power and prestige, a hero of the classic age, brought to life in the video age.

            "Flash! I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!"

A galactic tyrant toys with the Earth, instigating "natural" disasters across the planet. Meanwhile a star football player and a travel agent are flying in a light-plane back to New York from a rural holiday, but their plane crashes into the laboratory of the crazed Dr. Hans Zarkov. Zarkov kidnaps the pair, holding them at gunpoint as his rocket-ship blasts away from Earth in an attempt to discover the source of a mysterious power that's pushing the Moon onto a collision-course with the Earth. They land on the strange planet Mongo, and are captured by the minions of the tyrant terrorising both Mongo and Earth. This despot is the merciless Emperor Ming (Max Von Sydow), who promptly orders the captives to identify themselves before his royal court after publicly murdering a would-be assassin. Ming is enamoured with Dale Arden (Melody Anderson), the travel agent, but is immediately taken aback by the sudden proclamation from the other captive. The tall, muscular blonde man steps forward, his own name emblazoned on his chest, and he defiantly states that he is "Flash Gordon. Quarterback, New York Jets."

A product of a different time, Flash Gordon stands defiantly against modern trends in sci-fi and fantasy, and even apart from it's contemporaries in Star Wars and Dune. Flash is ridiculous in every regard, the universe ill-defined, the characters wearing cumbersome costumes, the dialogue often cringe-inducing in its corniness. Of course this is the absolute heart and soul of the film, as any film that can make veteran character actors such as Max Von Sydow, Brian Blessed and Timothy Dalton dress up in bright red leather, or as a viking-esque Hawk-man, or even in the Peter Pan/Robin Hood-like green tights of an Arborian prince, should be nothing but camp as all get-out. There are no "grey-liens", no dark origin stories, in fact there's very little inner-conflict or darkness in Flash. He's simply a stand-up guy, the American Dreamboat. Sexy enough, smart enough, strong enough, good enough, and even with this lack of real emotive depth, it's easy to get lost in the thrall of Flash. In fact, Flash is an entirely forgiving figure in the face of cowardice, betrayal and hostilities by almost all except for Ming. In the face of each conflict, act of hostility or manipulation, whether it's Ming, Princess Aura, Vultan or Barin, Flash is insistent on the need for a collective movement to defy and overthrow Ming, constantly imploring the warring tribes of Mongo to "Team up!" and topple Ming. Having such a pure protagonist is arguably the part of the film that dates it the most, but with Flash's inherent goofiness and propensity for brazen behaviour, it's hard not to fall under his spell. Flash wearing a bright-white shirt with his own name emblazoned across the chest is as iconic and heroic as Snake Plissken's eye-patch, Ben Kenobi's robes, Max Rockatansky's leather jacket, or Indiana Jones' hat. 

At the polar opposite of this spectrum lies Ming and his main henchmen, Klytus and Kala, are all of one singular malicious evil intent, joyously indulging in their evil hubris, and of course this is their downfall. Von Sydow as the head of this triumvirate, employs his evil will through manipulation, dark magic, violence, capital punishment, mind-control and a vicious army, and is gratifyingly hammy and iconic, with each appearance being drenched in the air of glory. The majority of the depth and doubt of rounded heroic characters sits on the capable shoulders of Dalton and Blessed as the warring leaders of the Arborians and the Hawkmen, respectively. Dalton is jealous, proud and lustful, Blessed arrogant, violent and bellowing. As they are courted by the charms and daring deeds of Flash, they constantly challenge their own ideals and prejudices, but their allegiance never comes easy, and this provides the meat of the Flash's second act. Arguably, these moments are the best in the film  outside of Flash, Dale and Zarkov first arriving on Mongo. Dale Arden herself suffers from an outdated mode of female character development as despite proving herself to be cunning and capable against Ming's forces, she's often reduced to a mere object for Flash and Ming to duel over. Though Dale and Flash's romance is remarkably and lovably shallow, for it begins at mutual attraction and ignites somewhere in the vicinity of Flash being the Last Man on Earth. 

The universe of Flash Gordon is visually resplendent, with costumes, sets and backgrounds that are gorgeous and outrageous in equal measure. Art director John Graysmark (The Man with the Golden Gun, The Big Sleep) and costume designer Danilo Donati (Satyricon, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom) have created something vibrant, heaving, and constantly amazing with their prominent use of leather, reds and golds, and a lava-lamp-like sky-scene. Everything is silly and very, very awesome. Battles certainly fit within the classical formulas, whether that be of the Hero fighting hapless a small squad of hapless henchmen, or swinging through a strange forest with natives in pursuit, or a deadly duel on a precipice, Flash Gordon pays full homage to these staples of danger. Flash Gordon lacks the raw appeal of Star Wars, or the convoluted lore of Dune, but it is a thrilling and gorgeous throwback to an earlier class of hero. With an excellent supporting cast, amazing production and art design, and enviable colour pallette, Flash Gordon is truly a forgotten jewel of a film. It's truly a shame that the film bombed internationally, and the ham-fisted sequel bait inserted just before the end credits add insult to injury that we cannot indulge in more Sam J Jones-led Flash films.

Classic Movie Review: Kids (1995)

I have always been a big fan of movies that give brutally honest depictions to parts of society that I am unfamiliar with. Larry Clark's Kids is definitely one of them, but it also has an added bonus of being twenty years old at the time of viewing, so it also gives an insight to a world that I can barely remember.

Taking place in Manhattan over the course of a day, the film follows 17 year old Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick), who has an unsavoury habit of only sleeping with virgins. He spends most of his time with his pal Casper (Justin Pierce) as they wander aimlessly around town, looking to get high or laid. Meanwhile, Jennie (Chloë Sevigny) and Ruby (Rosario Dawson) both go to get tested for STD's. Jennie admits to only having sex once, with Telly, and finds out that she has contracted HIV.

After telling a friend that I had seen this movie and fallen in love with it, he told me how this film was very controversial upon release. This apparently had to do with the very frank depiction of the lives that the people in the film led and that no one (read: middle class white people) could believe that the youth of the early 90s would talk or behave in this manner. However, writer Harmony Korine has openly stated he had based this movie on a lot of what he had seen growing up in Manhattan. Indeed, the scene in which Casper brutally beats up a fellow youth with a skateboard was reportedly filmed only twenty feet from where Korine witnessed the bashing on which it was based.

And this film captures perfectly the outlook of society at this time. HIV was still a very worrying thing and there was a stigma attached to anyone who had contracted it, due to the heavily homophobic culture that existed. Many times in the movie, the characters come across some homosexual people and condemn them for just being themselves. But of course as we learn through the movie, anyone can contract HIV regardless of sexuality.

All the performances in this movie are amazing, especially considering it was many of the actors first movie. Leo Fitzpatrick's Telly is a reprehensible character who you come to realise isn't supposed to be likeable. Chloë Sevigny shot to fame after her performance in this movie and it was well deserved. Jennie is vulnerable in a world of guys who are out for her. Rosario Dawson made her debut as a fifteen year old and plays an amazing part and this movie would have benefitted from having a lot more of her in it.

Verdict: A great movie to have watched outside the time it came out, as it offers a brutally honest window into the time that it came out during.

Trailers Week 28: 18/01/15

Spy:

In what looks to be a female American version of Johnny English, Melissa McCarthy stars as CIA analyst turned spy in this star-studded film from Paul Feig: 

Out of the Dark:
Out of the Dark is a haunted-house horror film set in Columbia and starring Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman, judging by this trailer, it'll rely heavily on jump-scares, which is good I suppose, if you like that sort of horror:

1971:
Johanna Hamilton directs 1971, a documentary detailing the events surrounding a theft of documents from the FBI in 1971 and the citizens that perpetrated the theft. Judging by this trailer it'll use the regular mix of interviews and overlays, with some dramatised re-creations:

Anarchy:

Ed Harris, Ethan Hawke and Dakota Johnson headline this crime thriller about a war between bikers and dirty cops, based on the play Cymbeline. It has everything you could possibly want, bikers, drugs, Ed Harris in a bad-ass leather jacket, and Shakespeare:

Song of the Sea:
Academy-Award Nominated, Irish animated feature Song of the Sea is the second feature from Tomm Moore. With a similar style to his first film The Secret of Kells, this is based on a Celtic myth and stars David Rawle and Brendan Gleeson:

Unfriended:

In an era when our lives are dominated by social media, and I need an extra trailer to post, comes this horrifically bad looking horror movie about a ghost using Facebook and Skype...or some crap like that. But hey, at least it's not the same as all the other horror movies:

Avengers: Age of Ultron:
As alluded to a couple of weeks ago with a teaser, Marvel has released a second trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is basically just an extended teaser, full of city fight scene action that totally doesn't look similar to the end of the first film:

Unbroken

Angelina Jolie aims to impress with her second stint at directing (the first being the 2011 film In the Land of Blood and Honey), Unbroken, a biographical film about U.S Olympic athlete and WWII veteran Luis Zamperini. Zamperini's story is certainly epic in scope, but Jolie's talent behind the camera is yet to be seen.

Louis "Louie" Zamperini (Jack O'Connell) grew up a rebellious troublemaker. His brother Peter (Alex Russell) saw that Louie had a talent for running and helped to train him as an athlete. Zamperini eventually makes it to the 1939 Olympic games in Berlin, where his success highlights his strong potential. However when war breaks out, Louie becomes a bombardier in the U.S Air Force where his plane is eventually shot down.

After surviving at sea for months on end with his crew mates, Russell (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Wittrock), they are captured by the Japanese and sent to a prisoner of war camp, where Zamperini encounters a vicious guard, Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe (Miyavi).

I'll be honest, I had a lot of issues with this film, and was left a little disappointed. For a script that was, in part, written by the Coen Brothers, it's decidedly underwhelming. The dialogue is at points clichéd, and often dull, for instance, one of the most evocative lines is literally Zamperini recounting a recipe. There's also its timing. At a little over two hours, it's certainly not long compared to other war features, yet it felt quite drawn out. Split into three parts, it moves along smoothly enough but at a slow rate, and some times almost carbon-copying whole sequences from similar movies such as Life of Pi and The Bridge on the River Kwai. It may be telling a true story but it should be able to differentiate itself in the presentation of that story. Though that's not to say that some scenes don't work quite well, there are certainly some powerful moments throughout, but they stand out like a sore thumb.

None of this is helped by the fact that O'Connell's performance as Zamperini feels somewhat forced. He's by no means terrible, but he wasn't particularly convincing, and this made it difficult for me to understand or relate with the character, and subsequently the story started to lose my attention. Japanese singer Miyavi is decent as the brutal Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe, a POW guard that abuses Zamperini, though he doesn't have the same screen presence as his filmic equivalent, the ruthless Colonel Saito in Bridge on the River Kwai, although that was a fictional character. Both Fin Wittrock and Domhnall Gleeson are great as Zamperini's lost companions.

Considering that epic DP Roger Deakins, long-term collaborator with the Coen Bros, was involved with Unbroken, it's visually quite ordinary. Much of the film has been colourised to the bland "Summer Blockbuster" look that favours oranges and subsequently makes most people appear like Oompa Loompas. The plane sequences in the first act are very obviously CGI, which wouldn't normally bother me but for fairly straightforward shots, it would seem like some practical effects/model work would be much more effective here. There are also some weird issues throughout, such as the fact that Zamperini appears to have styled a goatee in his months at sea. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't think that grooming would be their primary concern in that situation.

I always admire the drive to make a biopic, especially one as ambitious as this, but unfortunately many of the issues here are indicative of textbook directing from Jolie, not terrible, just nothing special. The musical score did impress me and there were a few standout scenes, but generally this just fell flat. I have no doubt that Zamperini's story is one that should be told, but this film doesn't do it justice.

David Fincher and Ben Affleck do Hitchcock

Ben Affleck and David Fincher are teaming up again (yay!) to remake an Alfred Hitchcock movie (um, boo...). The movie in question is the 1951 classic Strangers on a Train, in which a famous tennis player meets a wealthy man on a train and they decide to kill each other's problem person and hopefully get away with it scott free.

Of course remaking Hitchcock is dangerous territory. In 1998, Gus Van Sant released a horrendous remake of Psycho with manchild Vince Vaughn playing Norman Bates. This version made a farce of what I think is one of the most genuinely terrifying movies ever made.

But back on this new movie. This time the story is going to be slightly different and fit more in the modern world. Affleck will play a movie star travelling around in his private jet, campaigning for an upcoming awards season when his plane breaks down and is forced to land. He is then given a ride to LA in a wealthy strangers plane. Rather than go for the catchy title Strangers on a Plane (which I think would be golden), the film will go by the slim-lined version Strangers.

Now I'm not too sure how this will pan out. Yes, Gone Girl was filled with suspense, so we are well aware that Fincher is capable of doing it, but no one can beat the Master of Suspense at his own game. Although Gillian Flynn is returning to write the script on this one, so maybe that will clinch it. Let us know what you think of this remake.

Saul's Top 5 of 2014

Why Don't You Play in Hell? (Jigoku de naze warui) dir. Sion Sono

                                                    "This movie exists only to impress you."

A maniacal mastubatory love-letter to film-making made by acclaimed cult director Sion Sono involving a quartet of film-maker wannabes, two warring yakuza gangs and their bosses, the wife and daughter of one of the bosses, the daughters toothpaste commericial and a local loser in love with the daughter. It all explodes into a bloody orgy of limbs, laughs, frantic editing, slapstick humour, and brilliantly captured action. A goddamned masterpiece of action, editing, style and comedy.  Both times I saw it at two different festivals in 2014 I was utterly surrendered to this film, with its blistering pace, ridiculous characters and buckets of bloodletting.

WDYPiH has become an important film to me in very short time for a number of reasons. In many ways, it also feels like the Japanese equivalent of the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg/Nick Frost Three Colours Cornetto trilogy, which are some of my absolute favourite films. All blend action and comedy together with incredible attention to detail, often involving moments of real and engaging drama and tragedy, and of course a flair for the fantastic. Both Wright and Sono (in WDYPiH) often employ inspired means of camera-work and editing, with pace and tone painstakingly monitored. Both contain action and specific shots that are not only well shot, but impressive and hilarious to watch.  Sono's meta-film concept within WDYPiH is also an inspired comic and narrative device, because when is watching a traditionally-garbed yakuza behead an enemy with his katana, then watching the enemy yakuza as the production crew quickly run up to him, light him and give him a heroic camera shot as he grins and gives a peace symbol into their camera not the fucking best thing ever.  And the character of Hirata, with his endless empassioned monologues about his dreams of creating a masterpiece, is not just a hilarious and excellent character with his inexhaustible enthusiasm, but also a true inspiration for me. His direction at the beginning of the finale stands as my favourite moment in film for a long, long time, and that is saying a hell of a lot. And his gleeful/maniacal laughter is beyond enviable.

                                                             

Trailer below:

Calvary dir. John Michael McDonagh

                   
                                "Killin' a priest on a Sunday. That'll be a good one."

John Michael McDonagh's small-town based bleak drama is both hilarious and moving, with Gleeson giving one of the best performances of the year. The script and supporting cast are strong, the narrative themes topical and brilliantly delivered, and gorgeous, almost poetic cinematography. A film that lived up to my lofty expectations. My initial review of Calvary from the screening at the Sydney International Film Festival can be found here. Brendan Gleeson is bloody incredible in his performance as Father James Lavelle, a man who became a priest in his middle-age following the death of his wife and his alcoholism. In the film's memorable opening scene during confession, an unknown parishioner confesses that he will kill Lavelle on the following Sunday not because he is a bad priest, but because he is a good one. For the next week Lavelle meets with the varied members of his small parish and attempts to reconcile with his somewhat estranged daughter Fiona (Kelly Reilly), who is visiting from England.

                               
                        "I think there's too much talk about sins and not enough about virtues."
                        "What would be your number one?"
                        "I think forgiveness has been highly underrated."

This diverse cast really challenge Gleeson's Lavelle, pushing him to his emotional limits and emphasising McDonagh's social and cultural commentary of modern Ireland and it's attitudes towards the church. Additional themes such as detachment, guilt and forgiveness are also thoroughly explored, though the film leaves many character arcs open, which I personally really enjoyed, saving McDonagh from having to conjure solutions to these myriad social problems. And not enough praise can be heaped upon Gleeson's excellent performance as this good priest with a checkered past, who is constantly tested by his parish through attempts at seduction, mocking, physical confrontation and political discussions. And the moments where he does falter are always treated by actor and director with appropriate depth and care. Frankly, this is a spectacular film.

                                   "You're not interesting enough to be gay."


Nightcrawler dir. Dan Gilroy

"Friends don't pressure friends to sleep with them."
"Actually, that's not true because as you know, Nina, a friend is a gift you give yourself."

Again, I have to let my previous review say a lot about what makes Nightcrawler great. But if for one second you're not thinking it's because of Gyllenhaal, you're fucking wrong.

Just look at that. The dude is fucking scary.But really, Rene Russo also puts in an excellent portrayal, as does Riz Ahmed, who as the conscience of Gyllenhaal's Lou Bloom is both touching and doomed. For a first-time director, Dan Gilroy's depiction of a neo-noir, night-time L.A. is magnificent and horrifying in the best way possible, as we are dragged kicking and screaming through the depths of morality and disassociation. An excellent debut, a career defining performance, and a soundtrack that veers wildly against tone at times.

Gone Girl dir. David Fincher

"When I think of my wife, I always think of the back of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brain, trying to get answers. The primal questions of a marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?"

David Finchers latest is a result of a clear evolution from Zodiac through to now, and Gillian Flynn's captivating adaptation of her 2012 bestseller lends itself to an excellent merger. Rosamund Pike is fucking outstanding as Amy Dunne, no matter what anyone else says, to me this film belongs to her.

Ben Affleck is actually good as her dickish husband, and Tyler Perry is shockingly brilliant as the smart and opportunistic lawyer. Fincher's slow careful style always drags me in, and over the Reznor/Ross soundtrack and a great script, it's hard not to be lost in this domestic drama. As I said on my Letterboxd review, "I look forward to the endless essays this'll inspire on gender, marriage and sex. I look forward to choking on bile on every comments section of those essays."

                                      
                                    "We're so cute. I wanna punch us in the face."

The fascinating implications and sexual politics of this film aside, it's a great and tense drama where the pains of middle-class life exascerbate a crumbling marriage between sociopaths. A fairly straight-forward plot is delivered with Fincher's characteristic depth and ability. and the twists Amy experiences and her determination to get what she wants is disturbing in the best possible way. Who'd have thought that Tyler Perry would be one of the most enjoyable parts of this film? And I'll never forget my evil, gleeful laugh at the Amy turning to Nick, caressing his cheek and saying "Honey, I wouldn't hurt you. I'd never hurt you.", and him knowing that's not true and being genuinely frightened. 

Wolf Creek 2 dir. Greg Maclean

"You obviously don't know the first rule of the Outback, Hero. You never, ever stop!"

Speaking of evil, glee-filled laughter, Greg Maclean pulled Evil Dead 2 on us with Wolf Creek 2. From story, to character, to cinematography, to concept, in almost every way this film takes the original and ramps it up. It far outshines the previous offerings of Maclean and the references and homages to a smorgasbord of films and Aussie culture make this film hilarious, thrilling and highly entertaining. Mick Taylor is explored and worshiped, as is the gorgeous landscape this film takes place in.

Ryan Corr, Shannon Ashlyn and Phillipe Klaus all perform excellently against John Jarratt, who cackles and quips his way in pursuit of them in this long chase movie. This is a film that is far more fun and enjoyable than it deserves to be and certainly under-appreciated. The finale scene that's part torture and part-quiz show is among my favourite moments of the year, though the very ending is a bit of a let-down. Absolutely a favourite.

Honourable Mentions

Godzilla - way better than it deserves to be, excellently paced, the fights were amazing, excellently marketed and well-directed.
Locke - a perfect execution of a brilliant concept. Beautifully shot, edited and performed. Character was a little too perfect, but still I loved it.
300: Rise of an Empire - Well-shot video-gamey action. It was exactly what I wanted and I loved it, Eva Green absolutely stole the whole film. And it had the best sex scene ever.
Big Hero 6/Lego Movie - Movies made for kids that were excellent in their own ways. The design of BH6 and it's world, the technical methods of making Lego are both stand-outs this year.
Doc of the Dead - A big, lovely doco about zombies!
The Double - Richard Ayoade's second feature actually made me like Jesse Eisenberg as is so unique in design. A bloody joy to watch.
Pride - Not a well made film, but undeniably fun, lovely and hilarious. Filled with excellent characters and performances, you can only walk away smiling.
The Little Death - It might be about middle-class, white couples, but it's cute, funny and has an edge. The last segment is about as meet-cute as it can get.
Whiplash - Jazz-drumming, passion and determination in a thrilling film about going to music school. Fucking great.
Jodorowsky's Dune - A doco about an adorable and ambitious artist trying to make a movie.
What We Do in the Shadows - A hilarious mockumentary about NZ vampires entering the 21st century. Great special effects and writing. And who doesn't love Stu?
The Raid 2 - Over-ambition and a complex script ruin what could be one of the best action films ever made.
God Help the Girl - Lovely modern musical about young muso's in Glasgow. Excellent soundtrack.
John Wick - Surprisingly good action flick.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Shockingly good compared to the abysmal Rise. Good action and amazing apes outshine the bland human-side.
Live. Die. Repeat. - Perfect premise for another surprisingly great action film.
Advance Australian Film - Just a really great and important doco about Aussie film. Highly recommended.

Tak3n

Before properly reviewing Tak3n it's worth describing the screening conditions as they were out of the ordinary for my cinema experiences. As I walked towards the cinema some woman waiting for a bus yelled at me about not touching my penis in public, and I believe this is sound advice that deserves to be shared. Inside the cinema, things didn't improve as Event Cinemas on Tak3n's opening weekend were only screening the movie in Vmax (larger screen, better audio, better seats, higher ticket prices), but the version shown was the standard format resulting in giant black bars surrounding the screen and only two-channel audio. To add injury to insults, one bloke two rows behind me attempted to start a fist-fight with the bloke seated directly behind me twenty minutes into the film. An argument ensued, other punters yelling for the instigator to "Fuck right off!" and the instigator's girlfriend was presumably pronounced DOA on the way to hospital from the shame and embarrassment of a packed house angrily staring at her and her dickhead boyfriend. While these kinds of conditions could obviously poison my experience I've attempted to remain as objective as possible.

                                                 "She's going to the bathroom."
                                                           "Call for back-up!"

There is a moment in Tak3n where Liam Neeson as the gravelly-voiced, obsessive death-machine Bryan Mills escapes from police by hiding in the sewers of suburban Los Angeles. As he sits there, trapped within a literal river of shit, art imitates life as Neeson reflects on what his career has become. From Oscar Schindler to a 60-year old action-man who has penthouse shoot-outs with bland Russian villains in their underwear. In 2009, Pierre Morel (District B13: Ultimatum, From Paris With Love, The Gunman) directed Taken, a simple story of a retired CIA agent rescuing his teen-aged daughter from Albanian sex traffickers in Paris by murdering EVERYONE. It's popularity and success can be attributed to the one memorable moment of the film, the infamous phone call involving Liam Neeson's cold threat. Most everything outside of this moment is mis-remembered, the action is average at best, the conclusion passable but undeniably lackluster, and minimal character development resulting in a one-note slog of "American man kills foreigners in their own country because they're inherently evil.". Luc Besson (director of The Fifth Element, Leon the Professional and Lucy) co-wrote the script with Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote all of the Transporter movies, The Fifth Element, a lot of the Karate Kid movies, and the pair wrote Taken's two sequels. Taken is an okay film, but its sequel, helmed by Colombiana and Transporter 2 director Oliver Megaton is a power-play of lazy writing, seizure-inducing editing (1:02-1:09) and the "Sequel Cash-grab" (see Hangover 2), where the only difference between Taken and Taken 2 was the setting and the amount of people who were taken. Taken 2 is a steaming pile of shit, but the success of this franchise and Neeson's recent star-power as "angry, fighty, middle-aged man" proved to be a sure-fire path to decent box office earnings.

Tak3n takes places in L.A two years after the events in Istanbul. Brian Mills (Neeson) spends his days obsessing over his young daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) and slowly re-connecting with his ex-wife Lenore. That is until she is killed and he is framed for the murder. Lead FBI agent Frank Dotzler (Forest Whitaker) takes charge in the pursuit of Mills, but in the course of his investigation becomes aware of Mills' history and capabilities. This doesn't prevent Dotzler from keeping a close eye on Kim, who he knows is Mills' greatest priority and weakness, and Lenore's husband Stuart (Dougray Scott), a businessman who's relationship with Lenore was deteriorating before her death. Meanwhile, a group of mysterious and deadly mercenaries appear to be following Mills and his family.

In this scene, Brian Mills poisons his daughters yoghurt drink so she'll feel nauseous and leave her university lecture and go to the bathroom. When she enters the very women's toilet he is hiding in, he grabs her and forces her into a stall. Between this and her mum's murder for which he is the prime suspect, Kim is remarkably resilient and doesn't at all act like this is the creepiest fucking thing ever.

To borrow a phrase from BBC's The Thick of It, Tak3n is an omni-shambles, a complete fuck-up of purpose and execution from top to bottom, a movie almost offensively bad and artless. Taken 2 was one of the worst movies of 2012 with it's premise worthy of all the mockery it received, some of the shakiest and incoherent action ever recorded, and a clunky, worthless ending that contradicts itself. But there are moments where Neeson at least appears to give a damn, though as he says in the final scene "I am tired of it all." So when this new mess begins, Neeson grits his teeth and grunts his way through scenes, devoid of any personality or real emotion. It's amazing the world of difference between his performances in the Taken movies and other recent movies like The Grey or even a Walk Among the Tombstones, both films where he plays a comparably dark and grunty character, but with actual humanity and vulnerability. He's not alone in this endeavour, Famke Janssen just blunders her way through her lines, lacking any subtlety or depth as she desperately rushes to finish her lines and fuck off from the movie. Dougray Scott hams it up a bit in his bid to pretend that the audience will not realise he's replacing Xander Berekely and that he totally isn't the villain (SPOILER ALERT: he's Dougray Scott, of course he's the villain). Frankly, Scott was much better in the much more enjoyable Mission Impossible 2, a similarly shit sequel. Though some joy can be derived from his interactions with Neeson as he is much better at hiding his native Scottish accent than Neeson is with his Irish accent. Maggie Grace appears depressed she's still playing a 30-year old teenager and that's the only work she seems to be getting. Forest Whitaker does his best impersonation of Lawrence Fishburne's career recently, in just playing the fat, black guy who is in charge, though someone obviously told him his character needs a quirk so he carries around a chess piece for no conceivable reaosn, unless he thinks he's actually in Inception.

In typical Tak3n style, the action is fast and fucked-in-the-head. Most fights appear as a flurry of black leather before a cutaway of someone falling out of a car, a bottle hitting the ground or a gun sliding away. With the excellent staging of action scenes in films like The Raid, John Wick, The World's End, Why Don't You Play in Hell?, or even  A Walk Among the Tombstones, Tak3n blatantly and bizarrely exists on the side of The Expendables 3, which also lacks any talent or idea of how to present action well. Even outside of the fights, the filmmakers lack the basic ideology behind editing or cinematography as a foot-chase through suburban backyards devolves into the cinematic equivalent of being stuck in a tumble dryer as no less than a dozen cuts can convey Nesson vaulting onto and climbing over a chain-link fence. Comparable to the fucking mess that is the action cinematography is the script, which comes across as a translation from French by a deaf man who converts it into feudal Japanese and then finally into English. Lenore's dialogue is so painfully on the nose, and Stuart's methods and motivations are dismally at odds with the committed family-man he was portrayed as in the previous movies. Dialogue such as the convenience store cashier describing Kim Mills' habits to Dotzler ("She gets the same thing everyday, peach yoghurt drink. I feel bad for the girl. She drank it right there out of the refrigerator. She must've been thirsty.") or Dotzler getting a record of Kim's movements from the FBI agent trailing her (FBI "She's gone to the bathroom." Dotzler: "Call for backup! Now!") will  result in repeated and deserved mocking of the script of Besson and Kamen. There's even a moment where Mills' car is run off the road and over a cliff, and when he confronts the perpetrators five minutes later, he asks "You wanna know how I escaped the car crash" before a 3-second blur of cars crashing and a cutaway of him falling out and hiding next to a rock, because just putting the words "FUCK YOU, HE ESCAPED" in giant letters on-screen at this moment didn't test well.

Tak3n is a perfect example of franchise fatigue, an idea which should have died in 2009 limps on because the internet was stupid enough to immortalise one single moment, as it always does. Oliver Megaton is almost as bad a director as Besson is a writer, and the on-going trend of dark and gritty Neeson is absolutely past any acceptable limit. As a stand-alone movie, this isn't all that bad, but as one of 2015's first major releases, and the second sequel in an action franchise, it's fucking insulting. 2015 shouldn't start off with something like this taking money away from films like Birdman or the Imitation Game, but Tak3n absolutely reiterates the cineamtic creed of "Fuck you, it's January."

Better Call Saul + House Of Cards previews

In the last two days we have been treated to some trailers from the two most anticipated TV series of 2015. I am really excited to show these trailers and hear what you're thoughts on them are.

Better Call Saul

Vince Gilligan's spin-off to everyone's favourite drama Breaking Bad looks decidedly lighter than the terror of Walter White, but I can't say I'm expecting it to be non-stop hilarity from Bob Odenkirk. Knowing Gilligan, he'll probably blindside us with some darker material in unexpected places.

House Of Cards

Netflix's amazing drama series is just getting better and better. Why just today Kevin Spacey won best actor at the Golden Globes for his portrayal of Frank Underwood. It looks like the stakes are getting bigger in season 3.