Blind Spot Series 2013

When you're a cinephile one of the worst experiences you face is being in the company of fellow cineasts and letting it slip that you've never seen a certain classic film and then feel your integrity fall around you as they all point and jeer. Of course, they've probably never seen Breathless or The Breakfast Club, although they'll never admit it. Everyone has gaps on their film cannon, which is why James McNally of Toronto Screen Shots created the Blind Spot Series in 2012. How it works is that film bloggers pick 12 "essential" films that they haven't seen but feel they must and then post a review after they've seen it.

Below are the twelve movies I've picked that I aim to see before January 1st 2014. Unlike most, I'm not going to tackle these in any particular order or work to a schedule (I believe most are posting the last Tuesday of every month), I'm just going to watch and review as and when I see them.

Projects like this are always more fun when you're not working alone, so feel motivated to make your own list and try and see them all before 2013 is out. Even if you don't blog it's a great way of ticking some titles off the list and watching some great films in the process. I'd love to know what's on your list so make sure to comment below.

Without any further ado, my guilt list:


1. Dog Day Afternoon. (1975)

Often grouped in with The Godfather and The French Connection when people talk of the great crime movies of the '70s. Directed by the late Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino at the peak of his career.

2. A Streetcar Named Desire. (1951)

After Clark Gable made the vest highly unfashionable in 1934 after badmouthing it in It Happened One Night, it was Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire that made it cool again in 1951. 

3. Ivan's Childhood. (1962)

A major confession here, I've seen very little of Tarkovskiy's work and the fact he only made 11 films is little consolation. Having only seen Solaris I had many films to chose from; Stalker, Andrei Rublev, The Sacrifice... but in the end I decided on 1962's Ivan's Childhood.

4. The Apartment. (1960)

I've not meet anyone yet who's seen Billy Wilder's classic comedy, starring Jack Lemmon, and feels anything other than love and admiration for it. I hope I feel the same way when I eventually get around to seeing it in 2013.

5. Chungking Express. (1994)

Director Wong Kar Wai is widely considered one of the contemporary giants and poster boy for the new wave of South Korean cinema. I for one consider his turn of the century masterpiece, In The Mood For Love, to be one the greatest films of recent years.

6. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. (1991)

A feature length documentary chronicling the traumatic principle photography of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. The documentary premiered at the '91 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, some critics and film-goers even claim it to be a superior film to Apocalypse Now itself.

7. Life Is Beautiful. (1997)

Let me be honest, I've had plenty of opportunities to see this, I've physically held it in my hands in HMV many a time, but always put it back because nothing about it appeals to me. But in 2013 I'm finally going to bite the bullet and see if I can figure out for myself what it is everyone else loves about this film.

8. Stray Dog. (1949)

I've seen plenty of Kurosawa's Samurai films (although Ran and Hidden Fortress could have made this list) but I haven't seem any of his crime films, which is why I've added his film Stray Dog, starting Toshirô Mifune, to the list. 

9. Hiroshima, mon amour. (1959)

French director Alain Resnais turned 90 this year and he's still going strong making movies. But still the film he's most famous for is his Franco-Japanese love affair, Hiroshima, mon amour.

10. Whiskey Galore! (1949)

In trying to make sure I had a varied list of films, I almost forgot to include a gem from my native isles. The Ealing-comedy, Whiskey Galore! will be representing Great Britain.

Completed on 05/02/2013

11. Mulholland Drive. (2001)

I've not had a great relationship with David Lynch in the past, I consider Blue Velvet a work of art and I really like The Elephant Man, but I've found everything else (yes, even Eraserhead) cold and unengaging. But I'm more than willing to give Mulholland Drive a fair shot.

12. The Last Picture Show. (1971)

Film critic turned film maker Peter Bogdanovich's small masterpiece that flung Jeff Bridges out of obscurity, The Last Picture Show, is generally considered an American classic. It was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.  

  

By The Light of the Sun

By The Light of the Sun 

Director: Andy Harrison

Written By: Andy Harrison and Lewis Simpson 

Starring: Nigel Moran, Lewis Simpson, Ryan Murphy 

Country: UK

Year: 2012

 By The Light of the Sun is the début feature from young film-maker Andy Harrison, aged just seventeen. Harrison co-wrote the screenplay with friend and actor, Lewis Simpson.     

A band of idiosyncratic characters lead this surprisingly funny film that seems to span every genre. 

The film begins with Mark Lester (Nigel Moran), an adviser at Alcoholics Anonymous, being fired by his boss, played brilliantly and energetically in a small role from Peter Ravenscroft. He struggles to put his frustration behind him as he makes his way to a stag party with his possibly psychopathic best friend, Jakey-O (Lewis Simpson). Along the way they meet an animalistic cult, a backpacker whose really good at making tea and the well groomed detective, Sean Connery. 

There also a very memorable performance from Ryan Murphy as a drug addicted investigator (who doesn't seem to do much investigating). A performance that channels both Christopher Walken and Al Pacino. 

The direction in By The Light of the Sun is outstanding, including a masterful use of stedicam. Surprise and jealously are two of the emotions one might feel when you see that someone of such a young age has such blatant talent.           

In some technical aspects the film stands above it's station, bordering on professional.  But at the same time it's still just an amateur movie about people being chased by a knife wielding chicken in the woods, something that's abundant on the YouTube. This makes for an interesting combination.  There's something refreshing and joyful about seeing a film that is both well made and made just for fun. 

I do have my reservations, I'm not sure some of the song choices worked in the scenes they were placed over. The film also requires complete audience attention, if you're not taking note of all the characters' names you might find yourself confused by the ending. And I'm also still not sure how all the stories place together.  

If you're lucky enough to get the opportunity to see By The Light of the Sun, I highly recommend you take it, for the sake of ninety minutes of pure entertainment if nothing else. 

To all involved, Bravo.   

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook

Director: David O'Russel
Written By: David O'Russel 
Photography: Masanobu Takayanagi 
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro.
Year: 2012
Country: USA 


    
 Picture the scene: I've just half heartedly purchased a ticket for Silver Linings Playbook, I've being forced to listen to the Aladdin OST while the screen fills up, I'm getting funny looks and laughs of people for being on my own and I know already that for two hours I'm going to have to sit through the most cynical piece of Oscar bait since Extremely Load and Incredibly Close.

 But something happened to me during Silver Linings Playbook where my reservations were overturned and I was completely won over by the film.

 Pat, played by Bradley Cooper, is diagnosed a with bipolar disorder and has spent time in a mental facility. Upon release he delusionally believes that is ex-lover is waiting for him to get better before they'll restart their relationship, despite a restraining order. Partly in an attempt to gain a link with his Ex-Wife, Pat strikes a friendship with an old acquaintance, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), now suffering from depression after the death of her husband.

 On paper the film seems very 'Hey let me tug at your heart strings.' And if it was directed by say... Cameron Crowe, it probably would be. But David O'Russel tones the film in an honest and sincere way that when you are effected by it's charm (and you will be) it's all natural.

 I personally see it as wrong to call Silver Linings Playbook a comedy about mental illness. What it is is a human drama, with comic moments where several of the characters are affected by mental illness. One of my concerns while sitting listing to A Whole New World was that the film wouldn't differentiate between being ill and just being quirky, but it was quite the contrary . What I really appreciate is that mental illness isn't the catalyst or the but of any joke. Take any of the jokes delivered by Bradley Cooper and give them to one of the many characters in the film not affected by illness and it would remain just as funny.

 The film is propelled by two central powerhouse performances from Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence plus two brilliant mediating roles from Jacki Weaver and  Robert De Niro. Even Chris Tucker manages to be oddly engaging.    

  This good hearted winter-warmer makes the perfect film for a Christmas trip to the cinema. And make sure to see it now, because it will be the film everybody's talking about come February.    

The Master

The Master

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson 

Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson 

Photography: Mihai Malaimare Jr. 

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams. 

County: USA 

Year: 2012   

 It's been five years since Paul Thomas Anderson released his irrefutable masterpiece, There Will Be Blood, which was a surprising commercial success, although it was duly robbed at the Academy Awards by the Coen's No County For Old Men (Also a good film, but not as good.)  

 Freddie Quell is lost. An aggressive drunk who hasn't been able to hold on to a job or a woman since his departure from the navy at the end of the war. His paths cross Lancaster Dodd, know by some as The Master.  

 Lancaster Dodd is the leader of a philosophical movement, or to be more frank, a cult, known as The Cause. There are many parallels between Lancaster Dodd and his Cause with L. Ron Hubbard and his church of Scientology. This is purely subjective, but for me, The Master extended a representation of Cults but also of all organized religion. Religion not being something Paul Thomas Anderson has shyed away from in the past, it's one of the prominent themes in There Will Be Blood.    

 It's hard to know what I think of The Master. I do know that I definitely liked it, but it's such a heavy film, with all the subtext and everything, I feel like I've only seen half the film. I imagine it'll be much like my experience with David Croenberg's Videodrome; I liked it from first viewing, but it wasn't until my second or third viewing that I realized what a masterpiece it is.  

 Paul Thomas Anderson has already proved himself as a really special film-maker. I would go as far as to say he's best director working today. There are great directors like Godard and Scorsese who are stilling making films regularly, but their hayday is gone, as of right now, nobody's making better films than PTA is.  

 The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, who seemed to drop of the radar for a bit, but is back now with a career best performance with a character, reportedly, loosely based on the American author John Steinbeck. 

 You might be fooled early on into believing that Philip Seymour Hoffman is downplaying his performance is this film, but in a subtle and enigmatic way, it's possibly his most towering role. 

Question time. When did you realise how brilliant Amy Adams is? Because she's been around for a while now and it's only just clicked with me this year through The Master and The Fighter, which I caught up on this year and really enjoyed. 

 The film looks stunning, Anderson's direction is masterful as is Mihai Malaimare Jr.'s cinematography. The composition in every shot is inspired and lovingly crafted. 

 The major flaw in The Master is that it didn't so much end as stop. It seems like an recurring problem with Paul Thomas Anderson that he doesn't know how to end films; Boogie Nights had the same problem as did Magnolia and even There Will Be Blood, but that somehow got away with it. 

 The Master is a cinema at a raw level, which will make it unsavoury for many palates . But for cineasts and the likes, you'll probably find it just short of a masterpiece.           

Skyfall

 Skyfall

Director: Sam Mendes  
Written By: Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Photography: Roger Deakins 
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem 
Year: 2012
Country: UK, USA 


Let me start by saying that this is a spoiler free review, however, if you want to go into Bond Number 23 completely fresh, stop reading now. But come back later, ok?

 The James Bond movie franchise reaches it's 50th anniversary this years, going from when Dr. No was realised back in 1962. Although, Skyfall wasn't intended to be an anniversary special, the original release date was 2010, but due to financial troubles at MGM, production was held back for a couple of years. 

 Since '62 we've had a Scottish Bond, an Australian Bond, a How the Hell Does He Do That Thing With His Eyebrow Bond, a Time Lord Bond and a Former Thief Turned Private Detective Bond. Now we have Daniel Craig playing the agent with the licence to kill. Skyfall is Craig's third outing as Bond, after Casino Royale  (which was really good) and Quantum of Solace (which sucked). Craig is the Bond who everyone wants to say is the best Bond, but feel it's too early to say. The emotional, sentimental Bond which was started by Lazenby and expanded by Dalton is perfected by Daniel Craig.

 It's hard to talk about the plot of Skyfall without divulging a plethora of spoilers, big and small. But what Skyfall is about, on a non-superficial level, is the co-existence of new and old. Bond and M are dinosaurs in an MI6 and a world that's changing at a speed they can't keep up with.             

 Skyfall is a Bond first, never before has bond had an Oscar winning director at the helm. Sam Mendes, who's directed American Beauty, Road to Perdition and Revolutionary Road among others gave Skyfall his  love, care and attention. Mendes creates something that is both pensive and stylish, but for all intents and purposes, a Bond film.    

 Not to worry if you're more a fan of corny jokes, sex and expensive set pieces, Skyfall has more than enough of all of those.   

 The real star of Skyfall is cinematographer, Roger Deakins, who has been the DP on nearly all the Coen Brothers' movies post Barton Fink. I long thought Deakins to one of the greatest living cinematographers, now Skyfall has confirmed it. Through stunning lighting and composition Deakins creates something where every frame is a money-shot. Deakins has been nominated for an Oscar nine times but never won, hopefully this time.

 Skyfall's other Oscar possibility lies in Judi Dench reprising her role as Head of MI6, M. Skyfall takes a longer look at the character of M than any Bond film has in the past, in a way the film is more about M than it is about Bond. The legendary thespian isn't someone you expect to surprise you, you go in with high expectations in the first place, but Dench goes above and beyond with this one. And hey, if she can win an Oscar for 5 minutes of screen time in Shakespeare in Love, I don't see why she can't win one for this.    

 The Villain, Silva is played by Spanish actor, Javier Bardem. Although it's not a bad performance, quite good in fact, I would rank it as his worst. Bardem is post famous for his murderous role in the Coens' No Country For Old Men. I find his best performances lie in films in his native language, Spanish and Mexican films like Biutiful and The Sea Inside. 

 It's also nice to see Q get a bigger role than usual, because we all know he's the best character. Ben Whishaw is the new Q, I'm not sure about the whole geek-chic thing, but he's a very good actor. 

 The film is not without fault, I could have done with learning about Bond's childhood, the third act feels more Home Alone than James Bond and the film is overflowing with overt product placement. There's also the confusing bearing of whether it's a sequel, prequel or reboot. At the beginning of Casino Royale it implies that we're seeing Bond from the very beginning of his double-o career, yet Skyfall keeps making light of Bond being old and referencing past films. 

 As an intelligent, well made blockbuster Skyfall gives The Dark Knight Rises an run for it's money. Go watch it, it'll probably be the best film to play in ever theatre this year. 

Looper

Looper

Director: Rian Johnson 

Written By: Rian Johnson 

Photography: Steve Yedlin 

Starring: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt

Year: 2012 

Country: USA, China. 

The third film from writer/director Rian Johnson (whether that's pronounced Rain or Ryan is one of cinema's great mysteries).

Looper, which was selected as the opening film for the Toronto International Film Festival, takes place in two futures: 2044 and 2074. In 2074 surveillance is so advanced that it's literally impossible to dispose of a body. The only way criminal organisations can kill someone with safely is to use recently invented and outlawed time travel to send the target, cuffed and bagged, back to the year 2044 where a Looper will be waiting to blow them away.

Joe Simmons (Jospeh Gordon-Levvit) is a Kansas based Looper, he's selfish, a junkie and a bit of a badass; he's like Han Solo before he was ruined by Lucas is '97 by making Gredo shoot first; anyway, I digress. Waiting in a cornfield for his next hit to show up, (this is all in the trailer, no spoilers!) a few seconds late they show up but with no headbag. Joe makes the mistake of looking into his eyes and recognises immediately that it's himself, thirty years in the future (Bruce Willis). In the shock of seeing himself, he lets the taget escape. So now he's both running away and after himself while the looper orginazation, lead by Jeff Daniels, is after him for letting his target go. Confused?

Loopers remnicent of a lot of past Sci-Fi classics. Clearly Rian Johnson is big fan of James Cameron's Terminator films (it's safe to assume not of the other two) and Terry Gilliam's, brilliant, 12 Monkeys. The only modern Sci-Fi classic it's nothing like is The Matrix which seems to be the film most people are comparing it to.

Looper has a great cast, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I'm a big fan of does a brilliant job as always. The script was a bit more Bruce Willis lite than I was hoping for, but it's great to see him back at his best. Emily Blunt was good, if slightly miscast. The story goes she accepted the role before her character even showed up in the screenplay she liked the story so much. And Jeff Daniels (who was either Dumb or Dumber, I can never remember) who was the surprise delight of the film.

Rian Johnson directs with such vitality, he really is one of the more intresting film-makers working in the mainstream today.

The only major problem with Looper is that the film changes half way through and it stops being an Sci-Fi action film about time travel, and starts being a pedophobic horror film in the tone The Omen.

I don't think this is quite as brilliant as Johnson's first feature, Brick, but it's a solid, well directed, well acted and interesting film. It's no Twelve Monkeys but it's not far off. Time will tell if Looper becomes a classic.

Score: 4.5/5

ParaNorman

ParaNorman 

Director: Chris Butler and Sam Fell

Written By: Chris Butler 

Photography: Tristan Oliver

Staring: Kodi Smit McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick

Year: 2012

Country: USA

 From Laika Entertainment, the people who brought you stop-animated features such as Corpse Bride and Caroline, comes ParaNorman; a big-hearted adventure-horror for the Family. 

 Norman Babcock, who lives in the town of Blithe Hollow, is an outcast; called 'Abnorman' in his school because of his unique gift to see and speak to the dead. When a Witch's curse is put over the town and zombies rise from the ground, only Norman can help to restore things to the equilibrium.

    

 It would have a made a brilliant movie for Halloween, it's strange then that it came out at the end of summer. I guess it didn't feel it could compete with the other two animated horror-themed children's movies coming out in October, Tim Burton's Frankenweenie and Hotel Transylvania. 

 It nice to see in a world full of CGI animation movies the likes of  Shrek, that stop-motion animation that still hold strong. The Gothic and exaggerated look of the film has been compared to the work of Tim Burton, which is fair, but I can assure you that ParaNorman is better than anything Tim Burton has made in nearly 10 years.   

 The character's are all rounded and interesting and the voice work fits each one perfectly. Casey Affleck plays dim jock, Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays the school bully. Leslie Mann  and Jeff Garlin play Norman's parents and  Anna Kendrick  plays the sister all to great effect.  

 The controversial inclusion of a gay character was a brave one and a progressive one, but there's a part of me that thinks it may have just been added for comic relief.   

 ParaNorman gives genuine laughs throughout and, possibly, for some of the younger viewers, genuine scars. 

Score: 3/5       

Father of my Children

Father of my Children 

Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Written By: Mia Hansen-Løve
Photography: Pascal Auffray 
Starring: Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Chiara Caselli, Alice de Lencquesaing
Year: 2009
Country: France, Germany 

 Humbert Balsan may not be a name you know; he was French film producer with a passion for cinema, producing films such as Lars von Trier's Manderlay and many of the later films of Merchant and Ivory. Humbert was also a sufferer of depression and tragically in 2005 was found one afternoon hanging in his office in Paris.

 Four years later film-maker Mia Hansen-Løve created Father of my Children, a fictionalized drama based on the life of Humbert Balsan. Although  I should strictly state that Father of my Children is not a biopic of Humbert Balsan, it's merely inspired by his story. 

 Grégoire Canvel is the name character played by Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, the first half of the movie intersects between Grégoire's business life and his family life he shares with his wife and three children. In these different worlds we see two different Grégoires; In his business life we see a man who is intelligent and passionate, whereas in his family life he see the caring and nurturing side of his nature. We kindle a strong affection for Grégoire right before shocking occurrence that flips the film fifty minutes in. The second half of the picture is how the people around him, especially his family, cope with his death. 

 The thirty-one year old director,  Mia Hansen-Løve, she has great eye and feel for pace. Fortunately, for her more than anyone else, she doesn't have any relation the the British gangster film-maker, Nick Love. 

 Father of my Children is both a touching and engaging drama, and an insightful and look at the film industry.   

Score: 4/5. 
    

True Romance

True Romance

Director: Tony Scott
Written by: Quentin Tarantino 
Photography: Jeffrey L. Kimball 
Starring: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper. 
Year: 1993
Country: USA, France.   

 We all know by now, I'm sure, that last month director Tony Scott died tragically.  It dawned me as the initial shock and sadness faded that I hadn't seen one of the late Mr. Scott's most critically acclaimed films, True Romance. Browsing in a cheap second-hand DVD and Games store, I saw a copy of True Romance and decided to pick it up. 

  For clearance, this is the original cut of the film, not the  later Tarantino Cut (Sometimes known as the Director's Cut) which I understand has a darker ending and has a non-liner narrative. 

 Tarantino gets the right to get his own cut because he wrote the screenplay (long before he made Reservoir Dogs,  and it's apparent from scene one that it's a QT screenplay. True Romance is much more a Quentin Tarantino film than it is a Tony Scott film, sorry auteur theory. Any time the male lead, Clarence, is talking about cinema or music, it's just Quentin talking vicariously through Christian Slater. 

 Clarence Worley is a Elvis Presley and Sonny Chiba obsessed, law-abiding, 20-something guy who works in comic-book store and seems to repel members of the opposite sex, until he meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette), a sweet talking call-girl who shares many of his interests. While freshening up in the bathroom, he's visited my his mentor (who only Clarence can see) played by Val Kilmer. He's never referred to by name and is credited only as Mentor, but he is clearly meant to be Elvis. He couldn't be credited as such because of legal reasons. Elvi-The Mentor persuades Clarence to kill Alabama's pimp, Drexl. After he kills him, Clarence finds a suitcase full of cocaine. Clarence and Alabama drive down to L.A to try and sell on the cocaine to a movie producer and use to money to start a new life together. 

 True Romance has a fantastic supporting cast; Dennis Hooper play's Clarence's Dad, Gary Oldman is like he often is, unrecognisable, as Drexl the pimp, Brad Pitt in an early role for him playing a stoner, Saul Rubinek playing a movie producer supposedly based on both Joel Silver and Oliver Stone. And Christopher Walken who, like in Pulp Fiction, is only in one scene but it's the most memorable scene in the film.      

 The film, being from '93, is in Scott's original recognizable style (long lenses and smoke diffusion), before he radically changed it, for the worse in my opinion, in the last decade with Man on Fire and Domino, where he drained a lot of the colour and overused used fast zooms in and out and other camera techniques.   

 Who'd have thought that one of the best romance movies ever made would be full of drugs, violence and black comedy? Ok, so maybe True Romance isn't one of the best romance films ever made, it certainly doesn't stand with movies like Casablanca, Brief Encounter or Before Sunrise, but it certainly a lot fun and packs a pretty big punch. Thank you Tony, you will be missed. 

 Score: 3.5/5   

 

Youth in Revolt

Youth in Revolt 

Director: Miguel Arteta.

Written By: Gustin Nash. 

Photography: Chuy Chávez.

Starring: Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Ray Liotta. 
Year: 2009.
Country: USA.

 After becoming a household name from the perfect but short lived FOX comedy, Arrested Development, and two of 2007's biggest films, Juno and Superbad, Canadian teen actor Michael Cera became typecast before you could even say Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. 

 When it was discovered that Chuy Chávez was releasing an adaptation of the C. D. Payne novel, Youth in Revolt, about a sixteen year old who creates a separate, evil, personality to impress a girl (Portia Doubleday), it seemed we where finally going to see another side of Michael Cera.   

 Nick Twisp (Cera) is sixteen, a geek and a virgin. Though not the traditional geek that's into Magic the Gathering and Superman, but a more new age geek that's into Jean-Luc Godard and Frank Sinatra, sometimes referred to as "Hipster Geeks" which I object to, liking foreign language movies for their artistic value does not make you a hipster. But I digress. When Nick discovers the charming francophile, Sheeni Saunders, he thinks that Nick Twisp isn't enough to win her heart, so he invents himself an evil alter-ego called François Dillinger. The evil François Dillinger isn't much different from the feeble and awkward Nick Twisp, he just has a pencil moustache and a cigarette. Which is fine, it adds comic value and I like Michael Cera so it's okay, it just doesn't do any favours for his career. 

There are some laugh out loud moments in Youth in Revolt, but it falls short of passing the six laugh test for comedies. Youth in Revolt had the potential to be a film for a generation, but instead it will become forgotten in time. It's inspired me to read the book but I can't see me myself ever watching the film again.     
           
 Score: 3/5 

The Town

The Town

Director: Ben Affleck.

Written By: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard.

Photography: Robert Elswit. 

Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner and Rebecca Hall. 

Year: 2010.

Country: USA.

  After directing his younger brother Casey in the superb Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck places himself in front of the Camera for his next directing venture, The Town. 

 The Town is a modern day bank heist movie with it's heart in bank heist movies of the past. It owes a debt to movies like Michael Mann's Heat. 

 The Town, which is Charlestown, Boston, a place infamous for it's history of Irish Mobs and high crime rates. Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) leads a team of four which includes his amoral best friend, James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner). While robbing a bank Coughlin decided to kidnap the manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall), and leave her blindfolded on a beach. When MacRay runs into her in a laundromat,  he ultimately falls for her. Unaware that her new boyfriend is one of the men that robbed her bank, Claire is helping an FBI team, led by Mad Men's Jon Hamm hunt them down.

 Ben Affleck does a pretty good job of directing, there are the occasional and rare out-of-place arty moments where you think 'Ben, if you wanted to make an art film...' His acting was on-par, too; A lot of people claim to hate Ben Affleck's acting, which I've always found ridiculous. Affleck's nether a particularly good or bad actor, if you "Hate" him you must be really easily offended. 

 The rest of the cast includes Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite (in the last role of his released before his death in early 2011).  Most the acting in the Town is good despite the dialogue sounding unnatural. The actors didn't make the words their own; I think Ben Affleck may have been a bit too protective of his script. The only bad performance was Blake Lively's, whose unbelievable and OTT performance shouldn't come as a surprise as she's awful in everything. 

 If, like me, you thought the coolest thing about Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break was the novelty masks of former presidents they used during the robberies, then you will enjoy the array of diverse masks they use in The Town. Given that when you strip The Town naked it is at most a romance film, it has more than a fair share of on the edge of your seat set species and action sequences. 

 The Town makes for a fairly entertaining watch. A cut above most films of it's type and has potential for repeat viewings; it will make a good double bill with Spike Lee's Inside Man.

   

Before Sunrise

Before Sunrise

Director: Richard Linklater.

Written By: Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan.

Photography: Lee Daniel.

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Andrea Eckert.

Year: 1995

Country: USA, Austria, Switzerland.

 Richard Linklater, a figure whose impact on American cinema is often understated, stunned everyone in 1995 with his simplistic and charming romance of two strangers finding love in Europe. 

 Jesse, played by Ethan Hawke, is an moneyless American travelling from Budapest to Vienna by train when he encounters a French beauty named Céline (Julie Delpy) making her way back to Paris. The two engage in discourse and strike an instant affinity for one another. When the train pulls up in Vienna, Jesse takes his chance and ask her to get off with him. Although they both know that he needs to make his flight back to the US in  the morning so they only have the one night together. 

 In their exploration through late night Austria they meet an assorted array of idiosyncratic characters, including avant-garde actors, fortune tellers and poetic bums. Raising similarities  to the film that made Linklater famous, Slacker. It's essentially the same film only giving it a story and changing the location from Austin to Vienna.    

 The film is written with a great deal of intelligence but not in a contrived way; it's apparent that the writers of the film (Linklater and Krizan) are both smart and it comes through naturally in the screenplay. The two characters, Jesse and Céline are likeable and well acted, unlike the unbearably cocky characters you get in most contemporary romances like the horrible The Notebook. 

 Before Sunset has one of the strongest female voices in cinema, developed from Kim Krizan and Julie Delpy's involvement in the film. Yet there is only one named female character in the whole film, so it's helps prove how little weight the The Bechdel Test holds.

 Guaranteed to make you laugh and likely to make you cry, Before Sunrise isn't another unrealistic and ostentatious romance film; it's a slice of real life and a showcase of real love. 

 Score: 5/5

   

Where The Wild Things Are

Where The Wild Things Are

Director: Spike Jonze 
Written By: Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers 
Photography: Lance Acord
Starring: Max Records, James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker.
Year: 2009
Country: USA, Australia, Germany.


 Beastie Boys music video director and Charlie Kauffman collaborator, Spike Jonze, creates an autearistic adaptation of the beloved Maurice Sendak children's book.

 Max is an eight year old with more anger and imagination than he has friends. One night he gets so frustrated with his home life after an argument over frozen corn and learning that his Mum is banging Mark Ruffalo, he runs away and charters a sail-boat to a mysterious island, where the wild things are. The wild things don't take long to crown Max their king and he takes even less time to being the wild rumpus.  

 I did read the book, not in my childhood but, possibly ironically, in my mid-teens. I don't really remember it so I can't say how dedicated the film is to its source material. I would imagine not very

 In the lead up to this film, Spike Jonze was quoted as saying  "I'm not making a film for children, I'm making a film about childhood". As you would expect from the auteur director behind Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, the film takes a melancholic artistic approach, raising questions about its suitability for junior audiences.  If you ask me I think it is, it's not like Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, which was trying so hard to be a kids' film it had George Clooney contemplating out loud philosophical theories that would go over most adults' heads. 

 Where The Wild Things Are adopts themes that some people may label as 'adult', but I don't think any of these themes will be completely lost on children. You underestimate them too much.   The only fear that you should have as a parent is that some of the scenes are legitimately scary. If I was to give a recommended age it would be upwards of six.  

 The film looks stunning both through Lance Acord's cinematography and these beautifully designed Wild Thing suits with what I imagine are CGI faces to sink up to the voice talents of James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O'Hara and Paul Dano.    

 Where The Wild Things Are is an aesthetically pleasing and sentimental tale of childhood that should tug at the heart strings of anyone, despite their age.   

Score: 3.5/5 

Johnny Mad Dog

Johnny Mad Dog

Director: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire

Written By: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire

Photography: Marc Koninckx

Starring: Christophe Minie, Maxwell Carter, Anthony King.

Year: 2008

Country: France, Belgium, Liberia

 I remember the night I first saw Boyz 'n the Hood I was left so traumatised by the film that I struggled to get to sleep that night. Not just from the tragedy of the film, but knowing also that the subjects and settings in which the film took place are in fact very real. 

 My experience of Johnny Mad Dog was not much different. Johnny Mad Dog follows a group child soldiers and their titled leader as they fight, rape and pillage their way to the capital of a deliberately unnamed West African state. Parallel to this it also follows Laokole, a teenage girl trying to protect her brother and disabled father. When the Johnny meets Laokole and witnesses her bravery and struggle, it might be enough to change him.


 Although the setting is undisclosed, the film was shot in Liberia and was the first ever feature film to be made there. The cast is made up of veteran child soldiers of the second Liberian War. The neorealism tone to the film sometimes makes you forgot you're watching a piece of fiction and not a unsettling piece of cinéma vérité. 

 Despite being anything but, stylistically the film feels a lot like modern day Hollywood war films, it's yet another movie to use the almost documentary style shaky-cam that we've been seeing in almost every war movie since Saving Private Ryan in 1998. 

 A difficult watch, but it rewards you for sticking it out through its insightfulness and an edifying tale of a human's ability to change despite the most extreme circumstances.  


Score: 4/5  

Paprika

Paprika

Director: Satoshi Kon

Written By: Satoshi Kon and Seishi Minakami 

Cinematography: Michiya Katou 

Starring: Megumi Hayashibara, Tôru Furuya and Kôichi Yamadera

Year: 2006

Country: Japan

 One of the most acclaimed animes of recent years and the film that inspired Inception, Paprika is the final film of Satoshi Kon before his untimely death in 2010. 

 Based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel, Paprika is set in the near future where a machine called the Mini DC allows dreams to be recorded and entered. But the story really starts when this machine is stolen. 

 If the plot synopsis triggers thoughts of Inception, that's because this film was the catalyst for it, which Chris Nolan openly admitted to. I knew this going in but I was still surprised by just how much Nolan took from it. It's not completely derivative, Inception had it's own themes and concepts and the stuff Nolan took he used constructively.  

 Not that I want to keep comparing it to Inception, but I know that one of the common criticisms of Inception was that the scenes set in dreamworlds felt too real world and lacking any imagination. This is definitely not the case with Paprika, the dreams in this are l lot more imaginative and surreal. I found it reminiscent of films by Federico Fellini. Obviously being anime Paprika can accomplish things that Inception, being live action, can't.   

 Paprika doesn't have the same exploitation feel that some anime does. It's not overly gory and all the female characters body parts are in realistic proportion. This partnered with with an intelligent and strong female protagonist means Paprika will appeal to larger female audience than a lot of other anime films will. 

 Where a lot of people had trouble understanding Inception, I didn't. I can't say the same for Paprika though which is for the most part insanely incoherent. For one It's hard to tell when and when they aren't in the dreamworld. 

 It features an outstanding original electropop soundtrack from Japanese composer, Susumu Hirasawa. Which works perfectly in the film and also works as stand alone music. 

 Paprika is an above average anime. It excels in imagination, even if does lack in coherence. I didn't completely understand it  but I did enjoy it, I think. 

Score: 4/5