Woman In Gold

Films about the Holocaust come out every year, so when a film about the modern impact that dark time in history is made, you would get quite excited to see how this event still affects so many people to this day. And while I'm not at all adverse to seeing an intense legal drama (both To Kill a Mockingbird and A Time to Kill are great legal dramas), that backdrop may not work as well here.

Woman In Gold takes place in 1998, when young, struggling lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) is introduced to his mother's Austrian friend Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren). Maria's sister has recently died and she has found some letters that her sister sent to the Austrian government asking about the restitution of her family's paintings that were stolen from her family by the Nazis, namely the famous Gustav Klimt portrait of her aunt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Maria enlists Randy's help in the legal case and while at first he is reluctant, he soon decides to help. The pair travel to Vienna, where a symbolic conference is being held on the restitution of these types of artworks and they begin their case. Whilst in Austria, they meet investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin (Daniel Brühl) who helps them with their research.

This movie staggers along at an odd pace. At times you are being swept up in the progress that Randy is making with the case and at other times it slows right down, as Maria and Randy share a tender moment of understanding and while that sounds completely normal of a drama, it happens at odd and inopportune times. Randy's wife Pam also shows up, but only at times when Randy is having a crisis of faith and needs some outside direction. The film makes a big effort to not have to use subtitles the whole time as Maria does not wish to speak German whilst in Austria, but then this extends to the other non-American characters speaking to each other in English, even on Austrian TV. I feel like this was a bit lazy and could have been changed.

The film also features flashbacks to Maria's youth in Vienna, both before and during the Nazi occupation. Here she is played by Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany and her husband Frederick is portrayed by Max Irons. These sequences show how serene her home life was before the Nazis, but are also quite open in showing the brutality of the Nazis. Also when the couple are fleeing Austria, the tension and fear they felt comes through.

Ryan Reynolds carries most of the acting in this film and has really been showing his dramatic range in the past few years (presumably to drop the stigma attached with The Green Lantern). Even in shots that aren't particularly focused on his character, he shines with his subtle performance. Helen Mirren on the other hand, plays the character similarly to the ones she has over the last couple of years, especially her role in The Hundred Foot Journey. Tatiana Maslany does a much better job playing the younger version of Maria and is full of emotion. Daniel Brühl brings incredible emotion to the role of Hubertus and Katie Holmes supports the main cast well.

Woman In Gold offers enjoyable viewing, but doesn't try too hard to make a splash. There are some emotional scenes, but not enough to make the entire film one that you will cry the whole way through. Just like in Dumb and Dumber there is a joke about the confusion between Austria and Australia.

Trailers Week 46: 24/05/15

Cooties

Yeah remember that thing that you thought girls had when you were a kid, well apparently it was a virus that turns kids into violent, aggressive little zombies, confirming every fear I have about little kids. This movie looks like it takes a similar approach to Zombieland when looking at the zombie genre. Starring Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Nasim Pedrad and Leigh Whannell.

Steve Jobs

We get our first tiny look at Danny Boyle's attempt at making a biopic about the founder of Apple. It's written Aaron Sorkin, so expect some of that high class dialogue we all have come to love. Michael Fassbender dons the black turtleneck with Seth Rogen playing Steve Wozniak. Also starring Kate Winslet, Sarah Snook, Jeff Daniels and Katherine Waterston.

Set Fire to the Stars

This jazzy trailer is the second one this week to star Elijah Wood. He stars as American poet John Malcolm Brinnin, who attempts to save his hero, famed Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. On the surface it looks like fun, but I'm sure it will have plenty of darker moments. Also starring Celyn Jones, Kelly Reilly, Steven Mackintosh and Shirley Henderson.

We Are Your Friends

A young DJ and his friends have an idealised vision of what their lives should become, but soon some of them give up on their dreams while he stays committed. This looks like a great portrayal of what it is like to be growing up as a part of Generation Y, as you grow up with the frustration that you will never be able to achieve your hopes and dreams. Starring Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski, Wes Bentley and Jon Bernthal.

The Gallows
This week's found footage horror movie is about a group of kids who break into their school with the sole purpose of vandalising the props for the school play that is about to debut. But instead they get haunted by a malevolent teen ghost.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
So apparently the maze in the first movie was just an initial test for god knows what. Now the teens face a new test; surviving the "Scorch", the wasteland remnants of our old destroyed world. Starring Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Nathalie Emmanuel, Katherine MacNamara, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Aidan Gillen.

Fresh Dressed
This is the first of our documentary trailers this week and probably the only one not to make you cry. Fresh Dressed chronicles the evolution of hip-hop clothing from the 80s to today. Features big names such as Nas, P-Diddy, Pharrell, Pusha T, Damon Dash and Kanye.

Amy
This documentary about singer Amy Whinehouse uses archive footage that was taken while she was still alive and in a way tells her story the way she wanted to tell it.

Batkid Begins
This heart-wrenching documentary is about a kid with leukaemia who makes the wish that he could be the real Batman for a day and the work that the whole city puts in to make this dream a very real reality. It looks like an amazing story.

Ed's Thoughts - Mad Max: Fury Road

Jack made some compelling arguments against the latest Mad Max film in his full review. As I enjoyed it a fair bit more, I thought I'd give some of my opinions.

A harsh desert landscape, a worn-out interceptor and a familiar man with a different face. The fourth instalment in the Mad Max series, Fury Road, has taken thirty years to get here, and it doesn't mess about. This barren and hostile world is unfettered, ferocious; fuelled by blood and a metric butt-tonne of petrol. The plot is simple, just like the first two, and every single frame is utterly beautiful. I've struggled through many modern action flicks, and I despise the Michael Bay 'splosion-fest model of filmmaking so everything here should be wrong. But it's oh so right.

Fury Road has everything that I look for in contemporary action: isolated settings, eccentric characters and a unique style of filmmaking that only comes around once in a blue moon. Miller harks back to a sorely missed era of filmmaking by utilising primarily practical effects, composited together with minimal CGI to create some visually incredible stunts. Take a look at this glorious B-Roll footage to see what I mean. Yes some of the explosions and crashes are ridiculous, and that definitely changes the level of realism that may be expected from the previous films, but at the same time this is still very much a Mad Max film. Other old-school effects like speed ramping to create the illusion of extreme motion, really do make this feel like a good old 80s action flick.

I do find it a bit sad that Max takes a step back in this film, but I actually thought that Imperator Furiosa was a well fleshed-out, very likable character and really didn't mind that she took the centre stage, along with her equally badass War Rig. The minimal plot was easy enough to follow, without too much exposition, and the blend of the rolling story with impeccably choreographed visual sequences make Fury Road almost operatic in design. It's a highly visual story and when done well, that is an undeniably powerful form of movie making.

Mad Max: Fury Road gave me a slap in the face more powerful than the strongest caffeinated drink (or other...substances...) and I was fixated from beginning to end. It's action-meets-arthouse and everything in between, and easily the best film of the year thus far. I want to hug George Miller for giving this series another shot...but I'd probably get arrested.

Classic Movie Review: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is the second instalment and at the time of its release it was seen as a very poor sequel to the original film. And while it does live up to comparisons with the original film, it is a very fun movie in its own right and has a cast of great characters and all new dinosaurs to hold up even eighteen years later.

Set roughly four years after the events of the first film, Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) is summoned to the home of John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) where he is asked to lead a team of experts to the second island that contains dinosaurs in Costa Rica. However when Malcolm discovers that his girlfriend, palaeontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) has been sent in advance, the team leaves a little early. However, once the team gets to the island, they discover two things; Malcolm's daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester) has stowed away in one of the trucks, and that a team of InGen scientists led by Hammond's nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), the current InGen CEO has led a team to the island to extract a number of dinosaurs for a theme park in San Diego.

The Lost World takes no time in getting to the action. This movie relies on none of the suspense in getting to the dinosaurs that the first film did and as a result we can get a lot more fun. Within thirty minutes we are in the middle of a chase of the InGen team and a whole herd of dinosaurs. From this point on it is all action, right up to the thrilling climax which involves a T-Rex rampaging through the streets of San Diego. While this sequence may seem out of place to some, it is a perfect place to show off how big dinosaurs were in comparison to our modern buildings.

This movie has some pretty cheesy, but memorable quotes that are delivered quite well by Jeff Goldblum. The line "Where you're going is the only place on Earth where the geese chase you" is but one of the many wonderful lines. The character of Dr. Burke has some absurd long explanations about different dinosaurs that are fun to sit through as they are quite complex and scientific, but are one of the details that make this film well rounded, but at the same time it isn't taking itself too seriously. The film also has a surprising amount of characterisation for a film of this budget and genre. The leader of InGen's safari team Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) is a well built character and his relationship with others, especially his second-in-command Dieter (Peter Stormare), is something to write about.

The movie introduces some new dinosaurs into the mix. Every kid's favourite spiky tailed herbivore Stegosaurus gets a lengthy action sequence early on, as well as a new small dino called a Compy that terrified me when I was a kid. The Velociraptors also play a much bigger part in the film and their intelligence is fleshed out a little more (although not to same extent as in the third film. The CGI dinosaur design had developed a lot further than what they were at the first time and as a result the dinosaurs are a lot more mobile. Spielberg however still uses a lot of animatronics that work seamlessly with the CGI and is something that you won't find in movies made today.

Jeff Goldblum really does steal the show in this movie. He is well practiced with his character of Ian Malcolm and his own idiosyncrasies just add to his character. Julianne Moore is superb and was having a couple of good years around this time with both Boogie Nights (1997) and The Big Lebowski (1998). Arliss Howard (of Full Metal Jacket fame) is great as the greedy villain Ludlow. My only criticism is that Vince Vaughn should have stuck around for longer as he disappears two-thirds of the way into the film. Keep an eye out early on for a twenty-five year old Eli Roth playing Subway Man (you'll know the character when you see him).

While this is far from being Steven Spielberg's magnum opus (I think he's still searching for that himself), it is an amazing film to re-watch and rediscover as a fun part of the Jurassic Park series. I know for a fact that I enjoy it time after time.

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Mad Max franchise has been a wholly Australian series of films. Yeah, Tina Turner was in Beyond Thunderdome, but we try to forget that. The movies focus on Australian's love of cars and our harsh, unforgiving outback. But Fury Road doesn't quite live up to the sleek vision created by Dr George Miller all those years ago and instead drowns in unbelievable landscapes and physical violence that seems out of place.

In the harsh post-apocalyptic world that has come, Max (Tom Hardy) has been captured by the followers of the cult leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Joe's top lieutenant Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) has been sent out to get oil from the nearby Gastown. It is soon revealed that Furiosa has stolen away Joe's harem and he sends out his armies to get them back. Max is sent along with Nux (Nicholas Hoult), who needs Max's blood to survive, but Max soon joins up with Furiosa to help her on her quest.

Now before I get started with any of my thoughts on the movie, I want you to know that I understand that this is supposed to be a mindless bit of entertainment. But that's the thing. Both Mad Max and Mad Max 2 were fun, but they were also better than this. They had simple story-lines with not too much in depth backgrounds going on. Here you are constantly confused by who characters are and what relationship they have to others (let alone figuring out what some of them are).

Miller attempts to capture the brilliance of the second film and leave all that Thunderdome business behind him. And it works to a certain point. Max has minimal dialogue in this movie, just like in that film, and the plot kind of revolves around oil. It takes a lot of time to figure out what exactly is happening in this movie and when you do figure it out, it seems a little disappointing.

Another big thing that I found in this movie is the violence. No, not that I was expecting it to be a peaceful film, but that it is the wrong kind of violence. These movies rely very heavily on car crashes and bashing into each other at high speeds with the occasional gun being shot (careful, you don't want to waste that ammo), but there is an inordinate amount of physical violence taking place. If I want to see hand-to-hand combat, I will watch literally any other action movie. I don't need to see Max get into fisticuffs with anyone, because the mere threat of him punching you will make anyone back down. And what about those car explosions? These are way too over the top. The appeal of the original films was seeing car accidents that were realistic because they were based on Miller's experiences in the Emergency ward of a hospital. Now it just seems like you throw a whole bunch of kerosene in there and that will appeal to audiences.

The acting in the film is pretty minimal. Tom Hardy does his best Mel Gibson impersonation and only gets an Aussie accent half the time. Charlize Theron does play a tough bitch, which is cool, but there isn't great characterisation on her part. Hugh Keays-Byrne is shouty enough, but fails to either scare or excite. Nicholas Hoult's character is a little weasel that is neither here nor there. Joe's harem gets screen time, but no time to properly act because look out, there's a truck exploding.

This is one that you either watch or you don't. It is littered with references to the original films (but don't worry, assumed knowledge isn't needed), as well as references to other classic Australian films, which you will get if you have seen them. Definitely a movie that you watch to chill out to or be revved up by. Your choice.

Ex Machina

In his directorial debut, writer Alex Garland mixes simple storytelling with high concepts such as artificial intelligence, sexuality and data retention to make a powerful beautiful film. The combination of beautiful images and insanely good acting and you make a definite impact with your first film.

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is a programmer for a popular search engine known as Bluebook. One day Caleb wins a prize of going to stay with his elusive boss Nathan (Oscar Isaac) for a week. Once he gets there, Caleb discovers that his true purpose is to conduct a Turing test on Ava (Alicia Vikander), a female robot created by Nathan that will change artificial intelligence forever. It is when Caleb discovers that Nathan brought him there for darker reasons than he thought, Caleb starts to question what exactly is going on.

Garland's story is very slow-burning, but at the same time your attention is being held completely. The simple narrative of two men and a robot is engaging, as Ava plays Nathan and Caleb off of one another. Indeed the changing relationship and power balance the two men go through is a remarkable thing to watch. Caleb enters this world vulnerable, but once he thinks he learns everything there is to know, his perceived power in his relationship with Nathan is fundamentally changed.

The very topical subject of mass surveillance is being looked at here, as Ava's programming allows her to get her intelligence from looking at what everyone is searching for on the internet. This multiplies the idea of people looking at what we are doing in the digital world by having a single all knowing machine looking at our digital footprints. Garland also examines the idea of programmed sexuality in humans via a scene between Caleb and Nathan. They discuss the idea of sexuality being inherently programmed into humans, so it doesn't matter if you are hetero- or homosexual, this is something that you are born with. This arises when Caleb confronts Nathan and asks whether he programmed Ava to be attracted to Caleb.

This film looks incredible. Cinematographer Rob Hardy has crafted some exceptional shots both of interiors and exteriors. Everything from forests to mountaintops looks so enticing and clear, but it is Hardy's use of lighting and colour in Nathan's underground facility that truly standout. The colour scheme draws heavily from the RGB scale and the predominant colours in each location are red, green and blue. In scenes where the facility goes into lockdown, the interior is bathed in foreboding red light that mutes out every other colour. In certain pivotal scenes, Hardy also employs a fisheye lens to great effect. The bending of the image adds a certain surreal feeling to these scenes.

The three central performances in this film are just so superb, each feeding into the other to make this film entirely collaborative. Domhnall Gleeson's Caleb is just so naïve of the situation that he is in and thinks he has complete control the entire time, but should really be trusting no one. His confused looks throughout the film are completely warranted as the unique situation he is in would be a new one for anybody. Oscar Isaac makes his character deep and intriguing whilst, not giving away any of his inner feelings. I feel as though Nathan has a complex past but I am happy not knowing what it is at all. Alicia Vikander ties it all together with her nuanced performance of Ava. She moves fluidly, but there are still some subtle movements she makes that are not entirely human. Sonoya Mizuno adds a great supporting character as a mute robot.

All up Alex Garland's first feature is a massive success. It offers a look at the near future the same way Spike Jonze did with Her, one that is not entirely implausible. I think the take away message from this film is that there may already be robots living among us.

Trailers Week 45: 17/05/15

Youth

This trailer is so similar to that of the fantastic Italian film The Great Beauty, that I thought the film was an American remake of it. This trailer even has the same piece of music that is in the former, which can viewed here. But upon discovering that Youth is the follow up film from director Paolo Sorrentino, I immediately understood the connection. Starring Michael Caine, Paul Dano, Jane Fonda, Rachel Weisz and Harvey Keitel.

Crimson Peak
Director Guillermo Del Toro returns to the horror genre with this 19th century haunted house movie. It has all the trademarks of a Del Toro horror; ghouls, shadowy characters and amazingly unique set design. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain and Charlie Hunnam.

The Intern

From writer & director Nancy Meyers comes this not particularly inspiring comedy. This seems like it could go either way, but for now I'll pass off judgement. It has a surprisingly strong cast, Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway, Rene Russo and...uh....Snoop Dogg apparently?

Manglehorn

Al Pacino breaks away from his typecast mould in Manglehorn where he seems to be playing a Southern family man? Directed by David Gordon Green and starring Al Pacino, Holly Hunter and Chris Messina

American Heist

This crime feature/heist film from director Sarik Andreasyan looks very action packed but doesn't seem to have much of a story. Perhaps Adrien Brody really needs a pay-check. Starring Hayden Christensen, Adrien Brody, Jordana Brewster and Akon.

Jem and the Holograms
This film seems to be inspired by Justin Bieber and how he got picked up by a record label through youtube videos. However the characters in this seem a little more masculine than Justin. Based on an 80s animated series, Jem and the Holograms is directed by Jon M. Chu and stars Juliette Lewis, Molly Ringwald and Aubrey Peeples.

Unexpected

Cobie Smulders stars as a pregnant high-school teacher who develops a friendship with one of her students, who also happens to be pregnant. Directed by Kris Swanberg and starring Cobie Smulders, Anders Holm, Gail Bean and Elizabeth McGovern.