Non-Review Reviews | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: The Zero Theorem

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

The Zero Theorem is a mess. Of course, this isn’t a surprise. Part of the charm of Terry Gilliam is the way that the director seems to wallow in chaos and disorder – dysfunction and mess are two of his calling cards as a director. However, The Zero Theorem often feels more like a scrapbook of half-composed ideas than a finished film, packed with some interesting ideas and wonderful visuals, blended to a story and script that lack any real subtlety or nuance or insight.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brazil, dystopia, Movie, non-review review, oppression, review, terry gilliam, the zero theorem | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: A Long Way From Home

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

A Long Way From Home is a fairly simple story about a mid-life crisis by a British and Irish couple who have retired to France. Elevated by a bunch of wonderful central performances from Brenda Fricker, James Fox and Natalie Dormer, along with director and writer Virginia Gilbert’s willingness to embrace the story’s simplicity, A Long Way From Home is a slow-moving character study and mood piece. Containing little in the way of surprises or twists, it’s an endearingly sweet glimpse at a marriage threatened by the fifty-year itch.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a long way from home, brenda fricker, france, james fox, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, Marriage, natalie dormer, non-review review, review, virginia gilbert | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Only Lovers Left Alive

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

The vampire genre has been around for a reasonably long time. The literary genre that was formalised by Bram Stoker’s Dracula at the dawn of the twentieth century, even if it drew on a rich selection of local beliefs and superstition. And yet, despite that, there really hasn’t been too much radical done with vampires in recent times. The last attempt to do something a bit provocative and game-changing with vampires occurred with Anne Rice’s discovery that you could easily shape vampire narratives into creepy romances – a technique refined by Stephanie Meyer to considerable commercial and popular success.

As such, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive is fascinating because it manages to push the archetype a little further. It builds off those sorts of vampire romances and vampire fantasy epics in order to tell a more novel sort of story. Only Lovers Left Alive is a wonderful piece of mood based around two powerful central performances, taking one of cinema’s oldest monsters and finding a way to make them interesting again.

Only Lovers Left Alive is the most original vampire movie in what feels like an eternity.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Detroit, horror, jim jarmusch, non-review review, only lovers left alive, review, romance, Tilda Swinton, tom hiddleston, undead, vampires | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Cas & Dylan

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

There are not too many surprises to be had in Cas & Dylan, and those surprises mostly come towards the end of the film. For most of its runtime, Cas and Dylan is a reliably constructed old-fashioned odd-couple roadtrip movie. The roadtrip movie is a cinematic staple, and it has attained that status for a reason; it’s a fairly standard format that adapts to fit the actors and characters slotted into the adventure.

In this case, first time feature director Jason Priestley is directing veteran performer Richard Dreyfuss and young up-and-comer Tatiana Maslany. The charming duo give Cas & Dylan a bit of an edge as far as road movie go. The pair play comfortably off one another in fairly stock roles, elevating material that might otherwise seem a little overly familiar or trite. Cas & Dylan succeeds primarily off the strength of its two lead performers.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cas & dylan, cas and dylan, film, jason priestley, Movie, non-review review, review, Richard Dreyfuss | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Under the Skin

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

Under the Skin exists as a gigantic flash backwards to the atmospheric and moody science-fiction horrors of the seventies. Despite a verbal reference to 2014 and some quick glimpses of posters for movies released in 2012, director Jonathan Glazer has constructed the movie as a throwback. Indeed, Under the Skin feels very much like an even lower key spiritual successor to Nicholas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, except this time it’s the Scarlett Johansson who fell to Scotland.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: aliens, film, jonathan glazer, Movie, nicholas roeg, non-review review, review, scarlett johansson, the man who fell to earth, under the skin | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Last Days on Mars

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

There’s very little original to be found in The Last Days on Mars. Ruarí Robinson has constructed a gigantic homage to science-fiction horror, taking great pride in setting up the familiar clichés and working through the obligatory tropes. There are any number of shout-outs and references built into The Last Days on Mars, so much so that the film seems to struggle to stand on its own two feet.

At the same time, there’s an undeniably trashy charm to The Last Days on Mars. There’s a sense of Robinson’s abiding affection and enthusiasm for the conventions he evokes, the movies he homages. Nobody watching the film will confuse it for a trailblazing or original piece of work; however, it works surprisingly well as a gigantic tribute to pulpy science-fiction B-movies.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, horror, Ireland, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, last days on mars, Movie, non-review review, review, science fiction, the last days on mars | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: A Long Way Down

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

A Long Way Down is never anywhere near as irreverent as it thinks it is. The story of four people who attempted suicide on “the most popular suicide spot on the most popular night for suicides” has a pretty effective basic premise. There’s a lot of material for a pitch black comedy here, particularly with Pierce Brosnan playing a former television presenter who has been convicted of having sex with a minor. (The BBC co-production credit makes this plot point feel particularly awkward.)

Instead, A Long Way Down pitches itself as a generic feel-good yearn about how people are nowhere near as cynical as they might initially claim to be. Ironically, this ends up making A Long Way Down feel particularly cynical.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a long way down, film, Imogen Poots, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, nick hornby, non-review, pierce brosnan, review | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

“His world departed long before he entered it,” one of the narrators from The Grand Budapest Hotel notes of the film’s lead character. “But he maintained an elaborate illusion.” This description is applied to the suave sophisticated concierge Gustav H, played wonderfully by Ralph Fiennes, but it could also apply to director Wes Anderson – a director whose cinematic style is built upon nostalgic nods to a past that may never have actually existed.

Framed as a story within a story within a story, jumping back from the eighties to the sixties to the late thirties, Anderson draws even more attention to his artifice than usual. Wrapping a framing story around a framing story seems almost cheeky, as Anderson brings the audience incrementally into the past – suggesting that one needs to wade in rather than diving. The story of a romantic living in a cynical era, The Grand Budapest Hotel seems – despite its scale and scope – one of Anderson’s more intimate efforts.

It is also among his very best.

Vault out to see it…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: europe, grand budapest hotel, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, non-review review, nostalgia, ralph fiennes, review, the grand budapest hotel, wes anderson | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Book Thief

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

Any film set in Germany between 1938 and 1945 narrated by death itself is going to feel a little… surreal. As wonderful as Roger Allam’s tones might be, there’s something decidedly unwholesome about the narration of the story told from the perspective of the Grim Reaper, particularly as he recounts a story from his “best of” collection.

The implication is that the life of the eponymous booklifter has touched the Death itself, which feels rather uncomfortable in the context of Nazi Germany. One would imagine that there would be quite a lot of moving and affecting stories to hold our narrator’s attention, without a need to single out one particular story as especially moving.

This is, in essence, the heart of the problem with The Book Thief, an efficient and well-produced – if condescending and tone-deaf – family film exploring the story of one family living in the shadow of Hitler’s Germany. It spends far too long telling us why these protagonists are unique, when the crux of the story seems to be that they are not.

She has no shelf-control…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: death, germany, jameson dublin international film festival, jdiff, literacy, national socialism, nazis, non-review review, reading, review, the book thief | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Calvary

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014.

Calvary takes itself just a little bit too seriously for its own good. John McDonagh’s second feature film has a sterling cast, a witty sense of humour and some absolutely breathtaking cinematography; but there’s a sense that it’s trying too hard to say something meaningful and profound. Unlike the biting social satire of The Guard, which was buried skilfully beneath a charming screenplay and lightness of touch, Calvary has difficulty figuring out what it wants to be at any given moment in time.

Is it a scathing examination of rural Irish life? An exploration of guilt and integrity, sin and virtue? A meditation on the role that the church has played and has yet to play in Irish life? A critique of “detachment” as a default mode of being? The movie frequently transitions between hilariously exaggerated philosophical exchanges and attempts at more grounded human interactions, often missing a step in between.

Calvary is still a rather clever and powerful piece of Irish cinema, featuring a phenomenal Irish cast and trying to deal with important social issues; it just feels a little to heavy-handed and self-important in its attempts to do so.