Recent Entries in Film
-
Hallowe'en Special: Blog Of Blood!
At the end of Mark Gatiss' excellent three-part A History of Horror series, which ends, appropriately, with a review of the power and impact of John Carpenter's first Hallowe'en film, released in 1978, Mark explains his decision to stop the series in the late seventies. He says that whilst he feels there have been 'standout single films', too much modern horror seems like 'more of the same fare, spiced up with pointless torture'. Mark ends...
-
-
A short post that has absolutely nothing to do with football
Having provoked the eloquent tribalist ire of my fellow blogger, I think it's time to leave posts about the kicking of a many-panelled spherical object to one side, at least until the World Cup begins (and I find that Stef is actually Dutch, or something). As a salve for the still-bitter sting of the Robins' defeat on Saturday, last night I went to see the film Bad Lieutenant, starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes and...
-
-
Equality matters
Two issues of equality to cover today. 1. Kathryn Bigelow has become the first female director to win the Best Director Oscar. For all you men out there who think women don't face any sort of institutional or societal barriers, I'll just re-emphasize that Bigelow is the first female director ever to win, in nearly 80 years of the awards. 2. The Vatican has been hit by a gay sex scandal, with a chorister there...
-
What About Bob? (1991)
Note: this review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You The question from which this witty, manic 1990s comedy takes its title — "what about Bob?" — can be interpreted in several different though essentially similar ways, the theme being: how will Bob — a highly phobic, potty, frenetic, obsessive-compulsive loser — get by in the real world? That the doyen of potty, frenetic loserdom known as Bill Murray plays Bob...
-
Radiohead credits
Radiohead have written a closing track for a film before. "Exit Music (For A Film)" was the track; Romeo and Juliet was the film. Fight Club is a great film adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel with an amazing track over the closing credits: Where Is My Mind, by the Pixies. Now comes the news that a Radhioead track is to close the latest film adaptation of a Palahniuk novel. What could be better?...
-
Film(ing) in London
The London Film Festival will be starting on 17 October, which I'm looking forward to and hope to be able to get along to on at least a couple of occasions (and especially for Mataharis). London is one of the major film cities in the world, and it is great to live here and be able to be involved in the "scene". Some facts and figures about film in London, from, erm, Film London, show...
-
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Note: This is an old review of The Manchurian Candidate, written at the time of the 2005 US presidential election, which is being posted here after recently seeing the remake. Some thoughts on that remake will follow soon. Jonathan Demme's current remake of The Manchurian Candidate was released the day after the Democractic convention finished in Boston, a coincidence that could happily be attributed to clever marketing and a prescient analysis of the sort of...
-
Spider-man 3 (2007)
Three things about this film, none of which are actually in the film itself, will tell you all you need to know about it. The first is that this is Spider-man 3. Studios only make sequels when they make money, and the quality of the scripts is often in inverse proportion to which number sequel a film series is up to. For example, I don't know about you, but Halloween 7 isn’t in danger of...
-
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
The Bourne series has been, so far, a good one and is likely to continue to be. Whilst the Bourne Supremacy was good, I couldn't help but feel it suffered from the opposite problem to a novel I've read recently: whilst there was plenty of action, it didn't really amount to anything — the thrill was in the chase alone. Directed by Paul Greengrass • imdb and amazon...
-
Touching the Void (2003)
The film-maker Kevin Macdonald has had some olympic success of his own, but not through his participation as an athlete: his documentary-film, One Day In September, which told the story of the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics at the hands of Palestinian terrorists, won the 1996 Oscar for Best Documentary. This tragedy was ostensibly a very public one, played out as it was on television screens in countries around the world,...
-
Glastonbury (2006)
I think you had to have been there to get any enjoyment out of this. Furthermore, whilst you were there, you either had to be (a) a hippy; (b) drunk; or (c) off your head (and indeed the rest of your body) on drugs. When I say "directed" below, I mean that, insofar as this film had any direction whatsoever, Julien Temple did it. I could be kind and say that the film's editing and...
-
Love Actually (2003)
Trite, actually. Directed by Richard Curtis • imdb and amazon...
-
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Note: this review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You An utterly stylish and compelling runaround heist movie, the original version of The Thomas Crown Affair finds Steve McQueen nonchalantly living up to his epithet as the “King of Cool.” McQueen plays a bored tycoon for whom careering about in a dune buggy, hand-gliding above an adoring female companion and riding horseback for a speedy game of polo are not enough....
-
The Station Agent (2003)
Note: this review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You A fine example of an independent film which deserves as much attention as its film festival success suggests, The Station Agent is an absorbing, simple film that brings three misfit individuals together whose sum is greater than the parts they separately provide. The story centres around Finn, a 4’5” dwarf who inherits a disused railway depot from his friend and boss...
-
Spellbound (2003)
It could hardly have escaped anyone's attention that there has been an explosion in the popularity of accurate spelling and the correct use of punctuation. If you were lucky enough to receive a christmas present last year, the odds are that it was probably Lynne Truss's million-copy seller "Eats, Shoots and Leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation". Publishers looking to repeat the Truss phenomenon are busy promoting Vivian Cook's new book, entitled "Accomodating Brocolli...
-
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
I don't want to harp on about this (see here, here and here) but Jim Carrey is underrated, and the Grinch goes some way to proving it. As I caught this film on the television, I couldn't initially recall whether it was Carrey or Mike Myers in the lead role; within 5 seconds of the seeing the Grinch, I knew it was Carrey, and that proves how remarkable his (physical) ability is. Directed by Ron...
-
The Shining (1980)
To think of Stanley Kubrick is to think of floating in space to the overtures of Wagner; it is to think of buffoon-like generals flailing about in wheelchairs; it is to think of milk and violence and of lofted questions about the nature of man's morals and ethics. Yet all of these praised pictures actually tell us very little about the director behind them. Instead, it is through The Shining that we see what sort...
-
Down With Love (2003)
Ewan McGregor, aside from Big Fish, has never made a bad film; this said, Down With Love does run his record pretty close. Renee Zelwegger, aside from Cold Mountain, has never made a good film; Down With Love tends to confirm this record rather than deny it. Directed by Peyton Reed • imdb and amazon...
-
Red Dragon (2002)
Edward Norton has made a very successful career of appearing in "schizophrenic" roles — see, for example, Primal Fear, The Score and, of course, Fight Club — and makes the most of this ability in Red Dragon. Norton, though, does tend to become the focus of films he appears in because of this characteristic and that doesn't sit very well here due to the natural focus on Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal. When you add an excellent...
-
Stormbreaker (2006)
Having not read them, I couldn't tell you whether the Alex Rider books are worth reading or not. I can say, though, that the first Alex Rider film is worth a look. Nothing too pretentious, a few jokes for the adults and some pretty good action scenes make this a very enjoyable hour and half to pass. Three things to note: first, film (picture) editing is not something you'd normally notice, but do look out...
-
Bruce Almighty (2003)
It may seem ridiculous calling into question a film's plot device when the film in question revolves around the idea of a man being endowed with God's powers for a couple of weeks, but call the plot device into question I will never the less do. If God, in the supreme body of Morgan Freeman, says there are two ground rules to being God, of which one is not abusing / controlling the free will...
-
Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal, 1956)
Probably the most parodied film of all time, [The Seventh Seal] nevertheless contains some of the most extraordinary images ever committed to celluloid. Whether they are able to carry the metaphysical and allegorical weight with which they have been loaded is open to question. So reads the summary of Time Out's reading of Det Sjunde Inseglet — or The Seventh Seal — Ingmar Bergman's best-known and most widely-cited film, justifiably questioning the weight of the...
-
Russian Ark (Russkiy kovcheg, 2002)
Russian Ark (Russkiy kovcheg) is a remarkable, meditative wander through 300 years of Russian history, filmed by one solitary Steadicam which continually follows hundreds of actors through the halls, corridors and ballrooms of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. History mingles with the present and everything in between during one continuous shot as we are introduced to various characters from Russia's past and asked to observe a symbolic relationship between an unseen Russian and...
-
Rushmore (1998)
With just three feature pictures completed so far, Wes Anderson has shown that he is a thoughtful, imaginative film-maker, with a refreshing approach to scriptwriting and directing that has promoted geek-chic to a level of sophistication. Whereas The Royal Tenenbaums (2003) takes a large cast and explores each character within the context of the dysfunctional family, Rushmore returns to the approach of Bottle Rocket (1996) and is much more single-minded in its observation of three...
-
La Règle Du Jeu (1937)
Set at a time when Europe was preparing for war, La Règle Du Jeu remains Jean Renoir's lasting gift to the history of cinema. The events at Le Chateau de Coliniere reveal members from all classes of society ignoring their responsibilities at a time of grave danger, instead frolicking amongst themselves and their lovers, participating in social traditions that long ago lost their purpose. Initially, we seem to be watching a wry comedy of the...
-
Punch Drunk Love (2002)
Adam Sandler is not exactly known for his roles in films rated as excellent. Indeed, for the most part, his work generates nothing more than the occasional laugh, a bit of slapstick, a fair take at the box-office and a feeling of "well — that's what I expected" as you leave the cinema. Mr Deeds, is a prime example of this and, following on from Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, Little Nicky and The Water Boy,...
-
Backdraft (1991)
More like Backwash than Backdraft. Ron Howard's drippy, sentimental Americanism is in full flow here — arguably, Howard and not Oliver Stone should have made the recent World Trade Center so cringeworthy is his fawning over American heroes. Directed by Ron Howard • imdb and amazon...
-
Capote (2005)
There is no doubting that Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance as Truman Capote is a mesmerising display of character acting. Those who are familiar with Hoffman's drawl and cumbersome physical presence, which would be most film watchers, can only be impressed by his transformation into the relatively slight (certainly camp), squeeky voiced writer. And that Hoffman won the Best Actor award at the Oscars is a rightful celebration of this demonstration of his art. Yet Capote...
-
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Perhaps not as accurate a reflection of the real life of John Nash as it could have been, A Beautiful Mind is still a good invocation of the mentality of a remarkably gifted and able mathematician. Of films dealing with similar subjects, it nicely straddles the ground between smug-academic films like Good Will Hunting and weird-academic films like Pi. Russel Crowe's performance as Nash is quite remarkable and was one of a quite incredible series...
-
Legally Blonde 2 (2003)
I wonder if there are any countries in which it is illegal to be blonde? Directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld • imdb and amazon...
-
The Weather Man (2005)
If you want to see a film about a mid-life crisis, watch Sideways. If you want to see a film with Nic Cage in it, watch Leaving Las Vegas. But under no circumstances should you watch Nic Cage having a mid-life crisis in The Weather Man, even if you think you might enjoy the highlight of Michael Caine's droll performance as Cage's dad. Directed by Gore Verbinski • imdb and amazon...
-
The Full Monty (1997)
Margaret Thatcher might not have done much for the traditional British industries in the 1980s, but her actions have led directly to some well made and successful British films from the late 1990s onwards. Where Billy Elliot covered the plight of a young dancing lad belonging to a mining family during the strikes of 1984, The Full Monty uses dance in the lightest sense of the term as men now redundant from the once bustling...
-
Finding Neverland (2004)
Note: this review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You The context of current entertainment affairs made these a very uncomfortable two hours for these eyes to endure. A successful, male artist with porcelain features enjoys the company of a group of young boys, introducing them to his fantasy world — called "Neverland" — in which they can all escape the responsibilities and difficulties of the 'real world' and courts some...
-
Holiday (1938)
Note: this review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You To be seen, perhaps, as an aperitif to The Philadelphia Story, Holiday is a wittily entertaining illustration of the restrictions of privilege. It stars the sublime Cary Grant as Johnny Case – an unpretentious and unguarded young businessman engaged to the eldest daughter of a wealthy, establishment family. By placing the lower-class Case in the grandest of environments, Holiday carefully challenges...
-
The Truman Show (1998)
It is my contention that Jim Carrey — in The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — showed himself to be one of the best actors of the 1990s and 2000s (Batman Forever aside). I may even get around to justifying that claim some time soon. Directed by Peter Weir • imdb and amazon...
-
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
At the time of the Academy Awards, I wrote that I was surprised Crash was awarded the Best Film Oscar but that I couldn't really comment since I'd not seen Brokeback Mountain. With this viewing, that situation has been addressed and it is now clear why Crash won the award: it is a Hollywood and not an American film. Where Crash addresses tensions and problems arising from multi-ethnic societies — pressures that are explicit —...
-
Syriana (2005)
Utter tosh. I'm not even going to dignify it with a review. Directed by Stephen Gaghan • imdb and amazon...
-
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
It was my misfortune to see the modern version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (and, alas, not the original version) on a recent flight. So far as I can tell, Mr. & Mrs. Smith is good for only two people: David Matalon, as the ceo of Regency Films (the studio behind it); and Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, who wouldn't exist were it not for her parents meeting during filming. Directed by Doug Liman • imdb and amazon...
-
Man With a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kino-apparatom, 1929)
A rare masterpiece whose recent dvd release should hopefully ensure its exposure to a wider audience, Man with A Movie Camera delights viewers as director Dziga Vertov explores the new medium of cinema with humour and insight. Listen out for a masterful musical accompaniment and be prepared for a wonderful exploration of both cinematography, its relationship to its still-life couterpart of photography and the evocation of life in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Directed...
-
The Constant Gardener (2005)
This critically acclaimed film is excellent for one reason, poor for another and both excellent and poor in equal measure for a third. The first point, for which The Constant Gardener is excellent, is its photography. Typically, it is easy to show Africa as no more than a dusty mass of poverty. Although poverty is still present in The Constant Gardener, the depiction of African life is as much a celebration of that life as...
-
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
It has been said that the Coen brothers are on a downward slope, hardly trying to keep a hold on the independence, wit, quirkiness and downright ability that has prevented them from becoming Hollywood slaves. Such talents had up to a point resisted the charms of the major film producers because their films appealed not to popcorn-munching, easy-watching cinema-goers but instead those that enjoyed something to get their teeth into whilst admiring the technical know-how...
-
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
There is no doubting the fact that Tarantino — a director already iconic enough even now to be both referenced freely by other films and thought of only as a surname — has secured himself a reputation. By itself, his Sundance Festival hit Reservoir Dogs way back in 1992 would have ensured that his flame didn't die out early but then when consideration is given to Pulp Fiction as a follow-up to that "notoriously" violent...
-
Ikiru (Living/To Live, 1952)
Everybody works too hard. Instead of the day being split into three eight-hour segments of work, rest and play, people spend more and more time slaving away at their desks, working increasing hours for faceless organisations whose profits they shall never see. Their bosses tell them what work to do and what priorities to prioritise, and — as the cliche of their lives reaches the end of its day — what do the worker bees...
-
Goldfinger (1964)
Note: this review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You as part of its James Bond special The name Goldfinger arose as a caricature of the combative, self-assured, domineering Hungarian Ernö Goldfinger, a renowned architect who came to be demonised for his part in the high-rise architectural attack on London. No sooner had this opposable man achieved some architectural fame in the 1950s had he been caricatured, at least in name,...
-
Goodbye, Lenin! (2003)
With the talk of penalty shootouts and European constitution referendums this summer, it was difficult not to let the mind wonder beyond the Channel and onto the soil of Germany. A seemingly familiar country, what is easily forgotten is that it was West Germany that won the fateful penalty shootout during Italia '90 to knock England out of the World Cup — not the unified country we know today. With the fall of the Berlin...
-
Goldeneye (1995)
Note: this review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You as part of its James Bond special Six years have elapsed since Timothy Dalton’s last outing as James Bond and in that time the world has become a very different place. The Berlin Wall has gone, communism in the Soviet Union has collapsed, bringing with it the end of the Cold War, and with everyone sensitive to the vagaries of political...
-
Gerry (2002)
At its most basic, Gus Van Sant's Gerry follows two young men as they foray into the desert on a wilderness trail and get lost. They run a bit; they walk a bit; they rest a bit. The two men — whose names we don't even really know — don't talk much and very little of any note happens. In fact, there seems little merit in suggesting a creation like this as "at its most...
-
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Note: this review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You as part of its James Bond special Following the near science-fiction posturing of Moonraker, Roger Moore's fifth outing as James Bond brings 007 back down to earth with a bump. Stripped of his gadgets and reliant upon his ingenuity and wit alone, Bond battles against a ruthless tycoon looking to get his hands on the ATAC machine which controls Britain's nuclear...
-
Coffee consumption
I didn't expect to read in the newspaper this morning that Orson Welles was admitted to hospital during the filming of Citizen Kane because of too much coffee consumption. This is especially the case given that the newspaper I happened to be reading was the Daily Star! In light of this revelation, I still won't read the Daily Star on anything approaching a daily basis (though I may continue to look at the pictures)....
-
Alternative ensembles
Like Jack, I too am shocked that Crash has won the Academy Award for Best Picture. My shock itself is somewhat shocking since I have not seen the main contender to Crash, Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. As such, I am not in a position to say whether Crash should have been awarded the Oscar or not. Indeed, of the five films nominated it could well have been the best. My shock, then, emanates from my...
-
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
The more Michael Moore has put himself about in the liberal press, the more people have called into question the motives of the man behind the overtly-sympathetic, prompting, suggestive voice that leads interviewees in his documentaries. A recent article in the Observer newspaper revealed a very different hero to the one Moore himself likes to portray: a stuffy man whose private life seems to oppose the very ideologies he advocates and whose home town of...
-
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
A cross between Top Gun, Full Metal Jacket and 8 Mile, everybody in this one ends up kung-fu fighting. Out of interest, just how honourable is fighting? Directed by Taylor Hackford • imdb and amazon...
-
Two Weeks Notice (2003)
I'm almost embarrassed to say that I saw this. I can't even say that it was an involuntary viewing, caught by accident whilst flicking through the television channels: the film was on video. To defend myself, I'll merely note that the punctuation of the film's title is indefensible and that Hugh Grant, quite aside from his foppishness, is a twerp. Directed by Mark Lawrence • imdb and amazon...
-
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Sinister stuff, this, with Robert Mitchum affecting a voice that would put off many viewers today. Mitchum plays a man who prays on children under the auspices of being a religious man in order to get his hands on a widow's fortune. Eventually, though, the battle of good versus evil resolves itself for the better. The sequence in which the children float down the river is exemplary photography: depth, light and detail all combining to...
-
Blade II (2002)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro • imdb and amazon...
-
The Family Man (2000)
A reasonable film to sit down and watch during the Christmas holidays, The Family Man is interesting because it does not pass judgement on the lavish lifestyle led by Nic Cage's character before his "glimpse" of his alternative life. It is successful enough, though, for the viewer to want Cage to succeed in persuading the wife of his dream — who is a stranger in his real world — to have a coffee with him....
-
Batman Begins (2005)
Many thought that American Psycho (Mary Hannon, 2000) would be the last film Christian Bale would ever make. Personally, I thought the dystopic, Orwellian Equilibrium (Kurt Wimmer, 2002) would be his last. Bale's talent has shone through, though, and cluminated in his landing the lead role in Christopher Nolan's take on Batman. Batman Begins is a class piece of work and has provided its director with the critical and box office success it needed to...
-
The Mummy Returns (2001)
Rachel Weisz may have won a Golden Globe recently, but that doesn't mean we should forget she's made trash like this. Directed by Stephen Sommers • imdb and amazon...
-
Successful documentaries
My previous post wondered what would happen to the success of documentaries in 2004 and beyond. The list below shows that seven of the top ten grossing documentaries were released in the last three years:Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) - $119.2m March of the Penguins (2005) - $77.4m (to April 2005) Bowling for Columbine (2002) - $21.6m Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) - $15m Winged Migration (2003) - $11.7m Super Size Me (2004) - $11.5m Mad Hot...
-
Être et Avoir (To Be and To Have, 2003)
Far from remaining the play things of the arts channels, documentary films became the quirky box-office hits of the last year. The most successful — and probably well-known — of all was Michael Moore's expose of gun culture in America, Bowling For Columbine, which to date has taken some $60m world-wide. Alongside Moore's slightly pessimistic film are those sorts of subjects normally associated with the typical documentary: Cool and Crazy studied a Norwegian male choir;...
-
Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Compassion is not a word you would normally associate with the subject of illegal immigration, particularly in today's politically-minded culture where it is seen as a positive to be "tough" on asylum seekers. Yet, beyond the newspaper reports and vote-winning politick, the world of immigration remains a hidden one whose realities are as foreign to us as the so-called illegals that experience them. The most recent work of director Stephen Frears, Dirty Pretty Things, brings...
-
Boudu Sauvé des Eaux (Boudu Saved From Drowning, 1932)
Jean Renoir's 1932 farce begins the experiment with playfulness and theatre that we see repeated and perfected in La Règle Du Jeu (1939). Through the scrofulous tramp Boudu we are admitted to the bourgeoisie of big-town France and shown how superficial the keeping up of appearances can be. Alongside this, we also begin to see the liberating camerawork that would come to form its later perfect realisation in La Règle... Boudu is also a perfect...
-
25th Hour (2002)
Following the release of Malcolm X — the epic film detailing the life of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader — Spike Lee found himself occupying a position he had no doubt coveted since starting out as a film-maker: a man who hits the nail right on the head dealing with social position, moral injustice and the confrontation of prejudice, particularly relating to the black population of that great symbol of America, New York....
-
21 Grams (2003)
21 Grams is the extraordinary second film of director Alejandro González Iñárritu, the man that put Mexican film on the map with his first feature, the tough Amores Perros in 2000. Where Amores Perros was a triptych with one common event of a jarring car crash, 21 Grams is more of a cryptic offering, taking another car crash as the focal point that brings three otherwise unrelated lives together. It is a challenging, unrelenting epoch...
-
American Splendor (2003)
Note: This review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You American Splendor is a meta-reality film, by which I mean to suggest that it is neither fiction, reality nor anything identifiably in between. The real world—with real people and real places—meets the world of comic books—with representations of real people and real places—and takes it out for dinner in a fictional, make-believe world—where actors portray real people and sets recreate real...
-
The Interpreter (2005)
Note: This review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You It has always been of some intrigue to me, the relationship between an actor’s celebrity and their ability to convincingly execute their craft. A recent example (on this side of the pond, at least) were the tabloid revelations concerning Nicole Kidman and Jude Law during the filming of Cold Mountain. Upon watching that film, I couldn’t help but wonder what real...
-
Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
Note: This review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You I have spent a considerable amount of time in and around university departments. In observing the individuals that frequent such environments, not once have I seen a professor or otherwise do anything that might require their pulse to rise above 60 beats per minute. Quite who thought that a devilishly handsome and clearly unstable archaeologist/academic would make for an all-out action...
-
Point Break (1991)
Note: This review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You Keanu Reeves has always sucked — but it’s never really mattered because there have always been plenty of other things on-screen to make up for it. In this case, the job is done by the delightfully subversive and humourous sight of a bank robber wearing a Richard Nixon mask shouting “I’m not a crook” as he runs out of his latest...
-
Secret Window (2004)
Note: This review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You Such utter guff as this, whose plot is so threadbare as to leave Johnny Depp standing naked, does nothing but line Steven King’s pockets with more money — the film being based on his short story of the same title. Truth is, I find the local train timetables less predictable than this rubbish — and when a film relies on one...
-
The Idiots (Dogma #2: Idioterne, 1998)
Note: This review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You There is a central conceit within Lars von Trier’s second film subscribing to the ‘Dogma 95’ manifesto, and it’s little to do with the production values of the movie. The group of individuals pretending to act like “spasses” (that is, retards) are only able to challenge and reject the bourgeois, middle-classes they despise because they themselves are bourgeois and middle-class. “The...
-
The Ring Two (2005)
Note: This review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You The sequel to the remake of the Japanese original, and the remake of the sequel to the Japanese original too, for that matter, The Ring Two sees director Hideo Nakata suffer in his Hollywood surroundings. Although responsible for both the Japanese originals, Nakata here loses the essence of Ringu’s horror in favour of hand-holding the audience through the relatively simple back-story....
-
Suspicion (1941)
Note: This review was first published at Not Coming To A Theater Near You It would be nice to think that I could get away with asking a female stranger to help pay my train fare, crash a posh party without an invite and repeatedly call a woman I desired “monkey face”. Furthermore, it would be very useful if I could seduce said woman by saying: “I think I’m falling in love with you and...
-
Jude (1996)
Arranged into the six segments of the book, Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure" is a necessarily tragic offering, tracking the life of Jude Fawley as he tries to lift himself from the working classes through life and love. From the saturated black and white opening, in which the young Jude attempts to attract crows to a farmer's field, it is clear Winterbottom will offer nothing but the obvious interpretation of Hardy's...
-
Kalifornia (1993)
Starring Brad Pitt as the white, trailer-trash serial killer Early King, Kailfornia would play well as a B-movie to one of Pitt's later films, say Se7en or Fight Club. Whilst excessively violent in places, in Kalifornia can be found several characteristics of the (then young) actor's trade which were explored further in the later roles. Take, for example, the seventh deadly sin: wrath. Pitt looks good wielding a gun, finding innovative angles at which to...
-
Hidden Fortress (Kakushi toride no san akunin, 1958)
Using the two lowliest characters as his main focus, Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress tells the tale of a princess's hazardous passage from her threatened homeland to safety under the watchful eye of a loyal bodyguard. Although appealing to watch in terms of its photography, the leading difficulty with Hidden Fortress is its main protagonists: buffoons obsessed with gold, the focus on Tahei and Matakishi through which to tell the tale annoys rather than ingratiates, leaving...
-
Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjûrô, 1962)
A follow-up to Yojimbo, Sanjuro is an amusing walk in the park for Kurosawa and his leading man Toshiro Mifune, right up until the incredible finale — involving perhaps the most intense piece of motion to be committed to film and tens of litres of spraying chocolate sauce. Those seemingly endless twenty seconds alone make the preceding 90 minutes worthwhile. Directed by Akira Kurosawa • imdb and amazon...
-
Yojimbo (The Bodyguard, 1961)
The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's love of Westerns is well documented, and his fandom of John Ford is well known. Kurosawa's films are also well known for for their grounding in the Western genre, and in Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai, 1954) and Yojimbo have provided the raw material for the Western adaptations, The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960) and A Fistful Of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari, Sergio Leone, 1964) respectively. Yojimbo...
-
The Servant (1963)
Adapted for the screen by acerbic English playwright Harold Pinter and directed by Joseph Losey, Robert Maugham's novel makes for a disappointing, vacuous film. Dirk Bogarde plays the servant whose manipulative deeds are designed to undermine his upper-class employee's position and credentials, until the tables are finally turned and the working class, servile individual has the upper hand. The empty, unfurnished house in which the two leading men meet at the beginning of The Servant...
-
Big Fish (2003)
Tim Burton is revered for the fantastic, mystical worlds he creates as the backdrop to his often eerie films: Beetle Juice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Sleepy Hollow (1999) — and not forgetting 1989's Batman — are all testament to his visual talent. Who better, then, to direct the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971) than this visual impresario? A question, however, has always loomed concerning his ability as a story-teller and...
-
54 (1998)
A discotheque romp charting the rise and fall of the infamous nightspot in New York, 54 is an uninspiring, poorly characterised hotchpotch of drug-fueled nonsense, with pretty-boy Ryan Phillipe revealing how shallow his acting ability is and Mike Myers uncharacteristically uncharismatic as the Studio 54 cocaine-addict owner, Steve Rubell. Comprehensively miss-able. Directed by Mark Christopher • imdb and amazon...
-
Sense & Sensibility (1995)
Ang Lee (yes, he of Hulk (2003) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) fame) has created in Sense & Sensibility an excellent demonstration of two terribly English inflictions. The first is their seeming affinity for film adaptations of classic novels, Jane Austen's 1811 novel forming the basis for Emma Thompson's quite wonderful screenplay, for which she won the 1996 Best Screenplay Academy Award. The second infliction, by far the worse of the two, is the...
-
Keeping The Faith (2000)
Heralding Edward Norton's directorial debut, Keeping The Faith is a slightly amusing tale of two childhood friends — a Catholic Priest and a Rabbi — who find themselves fighting over their female muse, a girl they haven't seen since the 8th grade. Consideration of its direction reveals Keeping The Faith to be an unremarkable film, suggesting that Norton has been allowed to indulge himself in an activity he is not well-suited to. Recall that the...
-
Le Déclin de l'Empire Américain (The Decline of the American Empire, 1986)
When people become more concerned with the gratification of their own appetites than with their responsibilities to society, the days of that civilization are numbered.The viewer is treated to this quote very early on in Denys Arcand's remarkable film charting the self-important talk of four intellectual couples over the course of that great symbol of middle-class chatter: the dinner party. Each couple is comprised of at least one member from a university's history department and...
-
Ocean's 12 (2004)
The pointless follow-up to 2001's Ocean's 11, Steven Soderbergh's second effort controlling a star-studded cast is as much an exercise in in-jokes as it is film-making. Clearly, Soderbergh is a master craftsmen in control of the camera, reflected in his responsibility for the sole performance that stands head and shoulders above all others — that of the photography. Indeed, Peter Andrews — who is credited as cinematographer for Ocean's 12 (and indeed Ocean's 11, Solaris...
-
The Bone Collector (1999)
Given that Denzel Washington plays a paraplegic forensics expert confined to bed, it would be inappropriate to say that The Bone Collector is nothing other than a vehicle for the well-regarded actor to see if he can convincingly portray his character, Lincoln Rhyme, through face movements alone. It is undoubtedly a vehicle for Angelina Jolie, starring in one of her first main roles and thus heralding her seemingly distant arrival in Hollywood (ahead of 2001's...
-
Stage Beauty (2004)
Richard Eyre is perhaps better known for his theatre work, so it is no surprise that Stage Beuaty is set in the world of theatre, in this case whilst under the rule of Charles II during the Restoration circa. 1660. Stage Beauty takes as its premise the admittance of women to the realm of stage acting, their presence thus removing the need for those men that specialise in playing female roles. It is, in turn,...
-
Bridget Jones 2: The Edge of Reason (2004)
The original Bridget Jones's Diary, based on Helen Fielding's whackily accurate portrayal of a mid-30s spinster, achieved a surprising effect, in that it made both the men and women of the audience happy they had seen it. For the women, Renee Zelwegger's portrayal of Bridget personified everything they hoped the heroine of their book/bible would be like, this heroine in turn representing the challenges and difficulties they face in every day of their everyday lives....
-
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
The script for The Long Kiss Goodnight is reputed to have cost director Renny Harlin some $4m dollars. Given that amount of money, Harlin was probably expecting one of two things: either the script would be the best he has ever seen or it would contain enough action to fill four movies. For anyone that confuses this offering with Kiss the Girls (confuses because both films involve Samuel L. Jackson), the reality of Harlin's expectation...
-
Rio Bravo (1959)
Sight and Sound — the premiere film magazine in Britain — did not review Rio Bravo. Is that to suggest that it was not worth reviewing, that it was an oversight or that there was a deliberate overlapping of these two positions in which the worth of the film was implied by a 'may or may not have been intended' oversight? In no position to answer accurately we can only be left to wonder at...
-
Shark Tale (2004)
It seems that if you are going to make an animated film of late, you have to pay homage to as many proper films during your alloted 90 minutes as you can. Not only this, but given your fantasy setting — in the case of Shark Tale some 20,000 leagues under the sea — you also have to try and incorporate as many visual and aural gags as you can. If all of this can...
-
Mr and Mrs Smith (1941)
There is a remake currently in progress of Hitchcock's 1941 comedy, with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the roles of Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard respectively. Which suggests a curious quandary that must have presented itself to the film-makers hoping to cash in on the name of Hitchcock: do they create a serious remake of a comic film in order to respect the memory of what many perceive to be a serious director? do...
-
Confidential Report / Mr. Arkadin (1959)
Who Arkadin really was no one could tell me.So says Gus van Stratten, the quick-talking bluffer who is hired by Gregory Arkadin, a rich and powerful megalomaniac, to research the life of his employer. As he progresses through the murky maze that is Arkadin's past, van Stratton finds all sorts of "truths" about the secretive, seemingly omnipotent oligarchical Arkadin that he uses to produce his confidential report, unaware of the danger in which such an...
-
Miss Congeniality (2000)
In this light-hearted, silly and endearing fish-out-of-water offering, Sandra Bullock resumes normal service with her turn as a tomboy FBI agent at the Miss United States beauty pageant, working undercover in an attempt to stop a criminal known as The Citizen from disrupting the event. The plot, of course, is nothing to write home about, amounting to little more than a Scooby-Doo episode as far as the identity of the "bad guy" is concerned. A...
-
Citizen Kane (1941)
What could possibly be said about this film that hasn't been said before? Perhaps the only comment that can be made is one concerning the question of reputation versus first impressions. When approaching what many critics — and members of the public — consider to be the greatest film ever made, it is difficult for the viewer's expectations to ever be met, or at least satisfied. For this reason, David Thomson once suggested that all...
-
Rush Hour (1998)
Lumping together the good-cop/bad-cop, east/west, black/white, serious/light-hearted and silent/talkative stereotypes of police genre films, the first Rush Hour film is an enjoyable hour and a half that entertains you in precisely the way you would hope it to. When the daughter of the Chinese consul is kidnapped in America by a far-east warlord, Juntao, Hong Kong detective Lee (played by Jackie Chan) is invited by the consul to assist the FBI with their investigations. Since...
-
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
The original film adaptation of James M. Cain's noir novel, director Tay Garnett's version of The Postman Always Rings Twice is a studied presentation in the power of suggestion, not only in terms of the limited sexual appeal that the anti-heroine (Lana Turner) could portray but also in the influence the black widow wields over the condemned handyman Frank (played by the equally condemned, in later life at least, John Garfield). Recalling Franks's final position...
-
Vertigo (1958)
Arguably the critically adored director's greatest work, Vertigo remains a swirling warning of obsession, compulsion and manipulation — a bleak offering that salvages little hope from the paralysed characters that are made to bare their all before us. So far as the vehicle of film is concerned, the film has everything: rich symbolism, extraordinarily descriptive use of colour, unsurpassed camera movement, striking performances etc. — it is said that Vertigo was not only Hitchcock's most...
-
Gladiator (2000)
Viewed from the vantage point of 2004 — some four years after its initial theatrical release — it seems easy to appear blase about Ridley Scott's skirt and sword epic. After all, we're getting used to historical epics (as Hollywood sees history) on the grandest of scales thanks to Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella, 2003), Troy (Wolfgang Peterson, 2004), The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, 2003), the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson) and the upcoming...
-
Gangs Of New York (2002)
The reputation of Martin Scorsese is secured as one of the best directors of his generation and, arguably, one of the best directors to have turned his hand to direction. Gangs of New York is undoubtedly his equivalent of Kubrick's Napoleon project, the only difference being that after many years in hibernation and plenty of stops and starts along the way, the project has finally seen the light of the silver screen. In its current...
-
La Cité des Enfants Perdus (The City of Lost Children, 1995)
In the mould of Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985), directing partnership Jeunet and Caro have created a fantasy city in which the strangest of characters live and the oddest of circumstances are common-place. This city is one in which many of their films have been set, including Delicatessen (1991) before La Cité... and Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poutin — or Amelie (2001) for short — afterwards. Making things even more familiar is the common cast of...
-
What Women Want (2000)
Mel Gibson wasn't always so serious. Before The Passion Of The Christ (2004) and in the wake of Braveheart (1995) and The Patriot (2000) came this light-hearted comedy that centred on an unlikely premise which allows Gibson to hear all women's thoughts after a freak accident involving a hair-dryer and some scented beads. Using this "gift" to his advantage, he listens carefully to the thoughts of Helen Hunt, a woman appointed to the marketing job...
-
Solaris (1972)
When Steven Soderbergh remade Tarkovsky's 1972 older brother of 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968), little was said about its merits as a film: the majority of the coverage it received orbited around George Clooney's bottom. That seemed to be a fair reflection on the film as a whole, since George's arse was the highlight of an otherwise laborious, seat-shuffling, over-long directorial indulgence. I mention this only because on the basis of those qualities...
-
Das Experiment (The Experiment, 2001)
Based on the infamous psychology prison experiment of 1972, this occasionally shocking film becomes a world in which even those that observe proceedings become embroiled in the events that unfold, serving as a reminder of the rampant nationalism that spread through Germany in the 1930s, going as far as to include an Aryan-esque leader. It is an unreservedly German film full of dark corridors, jarring light and plenty of naked men, whilst its testing of...
-
Wag The Dog (1997)
Why does a dog wag its tail? Because the dog is cleverer than the tail. If the tail were cleverer than the dog then it would Wag the Dog.So reads the epigraph to the political satire that less than a year after its release came true when Bill Clinton "did not have sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky. Robert de Niro plays a political fixer who is called in to try and suppress reports that the...
-
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
Swapping their good guy/bad guy roles from their previous outing in Starsky and Hutch (Todd Phillips, 2004), Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn star in this stupendously funny, raucous sports spoof that pulls no punches in any of its politically incorrect targets. Vaughn plays regular guy Peter Le Fleur, owner of Average Joe's Gym. His gym is about to be taken over by Globogym, a hideous temple of bronzed gods run by the horrendously mustachioed 80s...
-
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
The swinging, arachnid super hero returns in this entertaining and ambitious continuation of the Marvel comic book adaptation that looks like turning into one of the most successful franchises in modern cinema. Still under the direction of Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire returns as Peter Parker and his secret identity whilst Kirsten Dunst retains her role as love interest and damsel who is generally in distress Mary Jane Watson. Joining them is Alfred Molina as "Doc...
-
The Fifth Element (1997)
Luc Besson's futuristic tale, complete with costumes from Jean-Paul Gaultier and highly sexy performance from his then-wife Milla Jovovich, proves to be too much for the senses to handle as the overload of gaudy design, malevolent extra-terrestrials and fundamentally weird hair-cuts saps the ability to concentrate out of anyone watching this colourful concoction. Bruce Willis, reassuringly sarcastic and put-upon as taxi driving ex-soldier Gorbon Dallas, picks up Looloo (Jovovich), the "fifth element" that will provide...
-
Whale Rider (2002)
The tale of a young girl's battle against the traditional, ritualistic tribesmanship symbolised by her unrepenting grandfather, Whale Rider rightly drew attention to a young New Zealand star, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was nominated for the Best Actress Award at the 2004 Academy Awards. Whilst the subject matter to younger eyes would embody the eternal struggle between age and youth, those that lived through the feminist developments of the 1960s will see in Paikea (Castle-Hughes) a...
-
Mystic River (2003)
Continuing where he left off in Blood Work (2002), Clint Eastwood's multi-Oscar winning epic charts the impact of a 'police'-incident on the lives of three young boys who are drawn together in later life as one investigates the murder of the other's daughter, in which the third stands as the accused. Ostensibly a masculine film about the relationships between these three men — powerful performances from Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn in particular...
-
Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind (2002)
Adapted from the autobiography of the same name, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind is not so much one man revealing the targeted killings that he has perpetrated as a CIA agent throughout his secret past, but more a sad tale of the same man's battle coming to terms with the successes and failures of his career. The individual in question is Chuck Barris, an infamous prime time celebrity in America responsible for shows such as...
-
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
Stephen Frears's most recent film, Dirty Pretty Things (2003), revisited ground that he had already explored in My Beautiful Launderette — a wry, sardonic look at life as an Indian entrepreneur in the mid-1980s of Thatcher's Disunited Kingdom. Both films are concerned with a foreigner's view of this Small Island, mainly exploring this theme through a single protagonist as he confronts the barriers that allow him to succeed in his chosen profession. Both conclude with...
-
Shichinin No Samurai (The Seven Samurai, 1954)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • imdb and amazon...
-
The Ladykillers (1955)
Following the release of the Coen brothers latest film, an update of The Ladykillers set in the southern states of the United States, Channel 4 take the opportunity to remind viewers of the original Ealing comedy classic, starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers amongst others. The local busy-body Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) asks the local shopkeeper whether anyone has answered her advertisement for a lodger. Soon afterwards, Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) enquires after a room...
-
Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003)
Scarlett Johannsen continues to pout her way through leading roles whilst Colin Firth broods as 17th century Dutch painter Johann Vermeer in this adaptation of Tracey Chevalier's imagined story behind the creation of the famous painting. It has been impossible to avoid Scarlett Johannsen of late, the best actress nominations in both the Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes for her two most recent performances ensuring everyone sees the 19-year old on magazine covers the western...
-
The Day After Tomorrow (2003)
Not content with having destroyed those bits of the world most folks would recognise in Independence Day (1998) and Godzilla (2001), director Roland Emmerich turns the temperature down with a tale of global warming and resulting disaster, continuing the drift of blockbusters that prefer CGI-effects ahead of any substance in the script. A group of climatologists including Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) narrowly escape death when a shelf of ice breaks away from the continent. At...
-
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2003)
Give the general public a bit of postmodernism and the intellectually inclined amongst them will lap it up: Eternal Sunshine... writer Charlie Kaufman has been heralded from shore to shore as the most imaginative writer Hollywood has produced since, well, Charlie Kaufman circa Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002). But then again, Kaufman is exactly what it says on the tin — an imaginative writer in Hollywood; given the soulless, characterless tripe that Hollywood is wont to...
-
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Life starts to get more difficult for the boy wizard and his two little sidekicks in the third installment of the Harry Potter franchise as Alfonso Cuaron, director of Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002), takes over the handling of things from previous director Chris Columbus. There is no doubt that the appointment of Cuaron as director for the latest Harry Potter film has resulted in a darker, more intense picture than the previous family-aware affairs,...
-
Troy (2005)
Based loosely on the 'greatest story ever told', a notion hinted at by the phrase "inspired by Homer's The Iliad" in the credits, Troy takes all sorts of liberties with the classic tale of greed, deception and war whilst allowing the modern-day gods of the silver screen to further their quest for fame and glory under the auspicious claim of credibility. Paris (Orlando Bloom) steals the Spartan king's wife, Helen (the plainly beautiful Diane Kruger)...
-
Self-illuminated — LRB (7) vol. 26
An article on the veteran and influential film-maker and critic, Jean-Luc Godard, and his enduring appeal at the age of 70. The article discusses extensively Godard's exploration of film as an artifice:While cultivating the documentary quality of the image, Godard tells stories discordantly, so that they seem out of place in reality, fictions declaring their artifice.The relationship between artifice and reality is an important one at the heart of film, as in the paradox that...
-
Dogville (2003)
Part of the Odeon's projection season, it goes without saying that there were a grand total of twenty people there to watch the film, of which only 8 made it through to the end. Perhaps this is partly due to the length of it all - 3 hours is at least half an hour too long and the division into 9 chapters and a prologue lets you know how slowly things are progressing. Enjoyable, challenging,...
-
The cost of making a film
News on the BBC today says that the cost of making a Hollywood film broken the $100m barrier. Of the $100m (£55m) spent, some $63.8m was spent on actually making the film and $39m to market it. Doesn't that just say everything about making a movie in Hollywood? Is what a movie has to say to its audience roughly proportional to twice the means by which it tells audiences that the message is so potentially...
« Equality
Friends in e-places »
