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.    

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   

 

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

   

Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel

Director: Edmund Goulding

Written By: William A. Drake

Photography: William H. Daniels

Starring:  Edmund Goulding  and Joan Crawford

Year: 1931

Country: USA

 Something I've not reviewed on here yet is classic gem from the golden age of Hollywood. So to make up for this cinecrime I've committed, I'm reviewing MGM's best picture winner, Grand Hotel, directed by Edmund Goulding.


 The film is based on the stage play by the same name. And the play itself was inspired by the novel Menschen im Hotel by German writer, Vicki Baum.


 Grand Hotel stars two of Hollywood's biggest female stars; Greta Garbo, the meek Swedish actor that, in the words of the Kinks, turned her back on stardom, because she vanted to be alone. It also stars Joan Crawford and her impeccable eyebrows.


 Garbo gives one of her best performances in Grand Hotel and it's down in movie history as her movie. But for me, Joan Crawford is one of the best female actors of her time and she steals the show.


 The Grand Hotel is a prestigious institution in the centre of Berlin. Where, as one sharp guest dryly states "People come and go. Nothing ever happens"


 The film uses an intertwining narrative. It follows several stories of guest in the hotel and throughout these stories will cross.   


 As good as it is, you would be wrong to believe that Grand Hotel is anything more than a movie made to make money. The studios knew just as much then as they do today that stars bring in an audience, so it was filled with the five of the biggest names in 1931. Think of Grand Hotel as a 1930s equivalent of New Year's Eve    


The screenplay was adapted for the screen by its playwright, William A. Drake. The screenplay for Grand Hotel is fantastic, the dialogue is engaging and authentic. The line 'I want to be alone' delivered by Gerta Garbo came in at number thirty on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movie quotes. 


Score: 3.5/5

Say Anything

Say Anything...

Director: Cameron Crowe. 

Written By: Cameron Crowe. 

Photography: László Kovács.

Starring: John Cusack, Ione Skye and John Mahoney.  

Year: 1989.

County: USA.

 Almost Famous is one of my favourite movies, and with every Cameron Crowe movie I watch I'm hoping for something I can love as much I do Almost Famous. But unfortunately that movie doesn't seem to exist.

  Say Anything... is one of the last teen movies of the 1980s, staring John Cusack in a Jean-Peirre Melville style trench coat trying to gain the love of intelligent, beautiful enigma played by Ione Skye. 

  Say Anything... is at a disadvantage from the start, having to follow teen movies from the past nine years like Sixteen Candles and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. But unlike those movies, Say Anything... creates a more realistic world without any annoying stoner supporting characters or an overly cocky male lead. 

 This is Cameron Crowe's first film, but all his trademarks are already here; His love of music and his tendency to try and violate your emotions (which he does more successfully in this than he does in other films).   

 I was born in '94 and Say Anything... makes still me nostalgic for a time that I wasn't even alive. When you watch the iconic scene of John Cusack holding up the boom-box, you can't help but think how stupid that would look if he was holding an iPod or a Macbook.

 Say Anything... is funny and fresh, it won't give you that Breakfast Club feeling but it does have a lot to offer.

Score: 3.5/5

Punch-Drunk Love

Punch-Drunk Love

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson. 

Written By: Paul Thomas Anderson. 

Photography: Robert Elswit.

Starring: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

Year: 2002.  

County: USA.

 Punch-Drunk Love is the fourth film from my man-crush Paul Thomas Anderson. Or PT, as he lets me call him (in my mind).  

 Lets get this straight to star with: Adam Sandler movies suck, in general anyway. And nobody likeable likes Adam Sandler. But Punch-Drunk Love is an exception, as is Funny People and as I understand, although I haven't seen it, Reign Over Me. Surprisingly, he gives a good performance in this, too. Sandler does actually have the capability of being a good actor, but much like Nicolas Cage, has a tendency to overplay his characters.

 The rule of thumb for Adam Sandler movies: If he wrote/directed/produced - avoid. Just acted - probably terrible, small chance it might be good. 

 Philip Seymour Hoffman, who's one of my favourite actors, also stars, although one of my major disappointments with Punch-Drunk Love is that he's not in it nearly enough. I'm really exited to see him and PT Anderson working together again later this year in The Master. 

 As well Phillip Seymour Hoffman it also stars Emily Watson, who I don't always like, but do in this. 

 Paul Thomas Anderson's direction is masterful, he's often crowned as the new Kubrick or new Altman, which are defiantly fair statements. Every part of its direction is fantastic, from stage direction to sound design. 

 Anderson worked on the sound for the movie with composer Jon Brion from pre-production to post to created a fantastic track. There's a drum beat that plays continually for about 10+ minutes that makes you feel like you've been doing half an hour of a treadmill (I imagine, I've never exercised In my life). Near the end I was literally screaming at the screen for it to stop. 

 There's also a interesting use colour in the film. For example Adam Sandler's famous blue suit that he wears throughout represents sadness, red represents danger and white isolation.  

 Romantic-Comedy is a sub-genre that's been tarnished by many terrible rom-coms in a post-There's Something About Mary world. With the abundances of Katherine Heigl movies in cinemas it's sometimes hard to forget that romantic comedies have to potential to be When Harry Met Sally-great (Now is a good time to give thought to the late Nora Ephron). Punch-Drunk Love isn't great, but it's good, and worthy of many laughs and multiple viewings.   

   

Up In The Air

Up In The Air 

Director: Jason Reitman 
Written By: Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner
Photography: Eric Steelberg 
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. 
Year: 2009
Country: USA

 Up In The Air takes American Smart Cinema to a whole new level of class and sophistication. 

 The film starts with a soul/funk cover of Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land by Sharon Jones, which is a song I like, but in the contexts of the opening credits it felt really dreary, so I sat back in my seat expecting a dreadful flight. The first joke of the film is a stewardess saying to George Clooney's character, Jake "Can, Sir?" which he hears as 'Cancer'. 'Oh, God' I thought 'If all the jokes are this bad, I'm going to really hate this film' 

 Fortunately, all the bad jokes were declared at arrival and Up In The Air turns out to be a sweet, enjoyable treat with just that right measurements of comedy and romance. 

 Ryan Bingham is what's know as a Downsizer; he is someone hired by big companies to fire their employees. This profession requires him to fly all across the States and spends most of his life travelling first-class via plane and sleeping alone in five-star hotel rooms - A life he enjoys very much. As well as this he's also a motivational speaker of the Tony Robbins variety. His shtick is that in life you should keep moving, any attachments or possessions you acquire along the way only weigh you down. Ryan's ideal life is in trouble when his company wants to introduce a new GLOCAL strategy, doing the same job, but via webcam in their offices.   

 Jason Bateman plays Ryan's boss in the film. I always enjoy watching Bateman, he's not a great actor but I get some good Arrested Development nostalgia from seeing him. Anna Kendrick fits the role perfectly as a determined post-feminist newbie under Jake's wing. And Vera Farmiga is great too as the love interest, who's basically a female-jake.     

 Zach Galifianakis also makes a small memorable appearance. But the most minor role and possible best performance of the film comes from J.K. Simons. Really makes you question why there isn't an Oscar category for best minor role. 

 Based on a book by the same name by Walter Kim, Up In The Air was co-written and directed by Jason Reitman, son of Ghostbusters' director Ivan Reitman.  Up In The Air isn't as indie or pretentious as Reitman's previous film Juno (Which contrary to what i just said, I did enjoy) it's closer to his début feature, Thank You For Smoking. 

 The film loses its nihilistic persona about half way through the second act and starts to grow a heart, which may leave cynics feeling a little cheated.   

With most of the film taking place in Airports, the film looks stylish, clean and modern. Up In The Air is  timely piece that makes for a pleasant flight. Some occasional strong language and some explicit sexting may meet the disapproval of George Clooney  fan club members who have an mean age of 70, but Up In The Air should have something for everyone over the certificated age.    

  Score: 4/5