the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Hugo

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Darren

I’m of two minds about Hugo. My inner cinephile loves it, soaking in Scorsese’s pure and unadulterated enthusiasm for cinema, finding a way to engage his audience with an adventure that literally branches through the history of cinema. On the other hand, it seems more than a bit disjointed, as if Scorsese knew the start point and the end point, but had a bit of difficulty synching it all up and getting it flowing organically. While I think Scorsese’s unbridled enthusiasm and passion edge out any concerns about the rather uneven feel of the finished project, I do wonder how the movie will play to younger audiences, or families who don’t have a long love affair with cinema.

Like clockwork...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: ben kingsley, Christopher Lee, emily mortimer, film, Hugo, Hugo (film), martin scorsese, Michael Stuhlbarg, Movie, non-review review, review, sacha baron cohen, scorsese | 8 Comments »

My Best of 2011: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy & the Upstanding Britishness of it all…

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Darren

It’s that time of the year. To celebrate 2011, and the countdown to 2012, I’m going to count down my own twelve favourite films of the year, one a day until New Year’s Eve. I’m also going to talk a bit about how or why I chose them, and perhaps what makes this list “my” best of 2011, rather than any list claiming to be objective.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is number two. Check out my original review here.

I can understand why some people were a bit disappointed by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. After all, the trailer did try to sell the film as a bit of a high-tension action movie with a deft touch of British class, sort of like Jason Bourne meets To The Manor Borne. It’s easy to see why some people might have got the wrong impression of a movie that sold itself as an “espionage thriller”, the type of film that typically features moments on incredible suspense, nice outfits, exotic locales and the fate of the entire world in the balance. Obviously, nobody was expecting anything quite as showy as James Bond, but perhaps they anticipated a more sophisticated version of that type of adventure – without the gadgets and the supervillains and outlandish stunts, of course. However, instead of the “sophisticated James Bond”, la Carré writes what might be best classified as the “anti-James Bond.”

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Alec Guinness, best films of 2011, best of 20911, favourite films of 2011, gary oldman, George Smiley, james bond, jason bourne, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, Smiley, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Dreams of a Life

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Darren

From Irish director Carol Morley, Dreams of a Life is a fascinating and occasionally heartbreaking exploration of the death of Joyce Vincent, the young lady found dead in her flat above a London Shopping Centre. Joyce had been dead for three years before anybody noticed, her body only recovered when her landlord secured a repossession order for the small, sparsely decorated flat where she had been living. The most surreal detail of all, and one of the lingering questions at the end of the document, concerns the Christmas presents found wrapped beside her body. Who were they for? And how did their intended recipients never notice that Joyce was missing.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Carol Morley, christmas, Dreams of a Life, Human League, IFI, Isaac Hayes, Joyce, Joyce Vincent, London, Morley, nelson mandela, non-review review, review | Leave a comment »

My Best of 2011: The Artist, Tempering Nostalgia & Truly Accessible “True Art”…

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Darren

The Artist is number three. Check out my original review here.

Spend a bit of time discussing film with people, and you’ll discover that a lot of prejudices exist about certain types of films and their audiences. For example, you’ll discover that some people cling to the believe that any film made on a budget of over six figures and released in the middle of summer is a brain-dead offense to the senses. On the other end of the scale, you’ll find those who protest that any narratively challenging or otherwise unconventional film is “pretentious” or “inaccessible.” These views don’t represent the majority opinion, but you’ll stumble across them if you converse about film enough. Thankfully, at least, The Artist puts paid to the idea that a black-and-white silent film is inherently “inaccessible.”

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Bérénice Bejo, Christopher Nolan, Citizen Kane, dark knight, Filmmaking, hollywood, Jean Dujardin, martin scorsese, Michel Hazanavicius, silent film, Woody Allen | 6 Comments »

Grant Morrison’s Run on Batman & Robin – Batman Reborn, Batman vs. Robin & Batman Must Die! (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Darren

December is “Grant Morrison month” here at the m0vie blog, as we take the month to consider and reflect on one of the most critically acclaimed (and polarising) authors working in the medium. Every Wednesday this month, we’ll have a Grant Morrison related review or retrospective.

I am going to be honest. I didn’t love Grant Morrison’s tenure on Batman. It felt a bit awkward and continuity-heavy – don’t get me wrong, I appreciated his attempt to tie together just about every aspect and iteration of Batman ever, but it just felt a bit too much. Yes, Batman can be the grim avenger or the charming ladies’ man or the camp crusader or the superhero or the urban vigilante or the world’s greatest detective or a swinging icon, but – in reading Morrison’s run – it felt too awkward to make Batman all of these at the same time. Perhaps, then, it’s because Batman & Robin sets itself a more modest goal (in that it doesn’t attempt to reconcile every aspect of the character’s seventy-year history) or just because Morrison appears to be enjoying himself far more, but this second act in Grant Morrison’s epic Batman saga is a much more engaging read.

The run gets off to an explosive start…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: andy clarke, batman, batman & robin, batman & robin must die, Batman and Robin, batman and robin must die!, batman forever, batman must die, batman reborn, batman vs. robin, blackest knight, bruce wayne, cameron stewart, Christopher Nolan, damian wayne, dick grayson, doctor hurt, frank quitely, frazer irving, gotham, grant morrison, Grantmorrison, philip tan, professor pyg, Red Hood, revenge of the red hood, robin, the flamingo, the jokre, the revenge of the red hood, thomas wayne, tim burton | 2 Comments »

My Best of 2011: Midnight in Paris & “Diet” Woody Allen…

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Darren

Midnight in Paris is number four. Check out my original review here.

I’ve been mulling this over since I had the chance to see the film back in August. I think that Midnight in Paris might (just might) be my own favourite Woody Allen film, without any of the usual qualifiers attached. It is my favourite Woody Allen film of the decade, and my favourite one set in Europe, but I’m growing increasingly comfortable just stating that as an absolute. I, personally, prefer it to Manhattan or Annie Hall. I can’t explain it. As I noted in my piece covering True Grit as my eighth favourite film of year, perhaps it’s just that my internal “quality Woody Allen film detector” is broken. After all, I liked – rather than loved – Vicky Christina Barcelona, so what do I know of Woody Allen?

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Allen, best films of 2011, best of 2011, F. Scott Fitzgerald, favourite films of 2011, Gil, Midnight in Paris, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, Owen Wilson, paris, wilson, Woody Allen | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Surviving Life (Theory and Practice)

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Darren

Surviving Life, from director Jan Svankmajer, is a strange beast. It opens with an introduction from the director, in which – using an animation style that looks like a bizarre and strangely compelling blend of Terry Gilliam’s work on Monty Python and South Park – he apologises to the audience for the presentation. I can’t tell if he’s being serious or not, and if his somewhat bitter complaints about his inability to find proper financing are a post-modern twist on the cliché of the misunderstood arthouse director, or a straight example of it. “Sadly, our civilisation has no time for dreams,” he claims with dour seriousness, and an uncomfortable confidence. “There’s no money in them.” Stating that he intended to produce the film as a live-action piece of cinema, he repeatedly states that this is not how he imagined the film. “So this is not a formal experiment,” he tells us, “just a poor imperfect substitute for a live action film.”It’s a shame, because the animation is the best thing about the film.

The direct approach...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Jan Švankmajer, monty python, non-review review, Oedipus complex, review, South Park, Surviving Life, Surviving Life (Theory and Practice), Svankmajer, terry gilliam | Leave a comment »

My Best of 2011: Thor, Daddy Issues & The Triumph of Optimism…

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Darren

Thor is number five. Check out my original review here.

This is perhaps one of my “what the…?” picks, one of my choices that will seem especially random, and a blockbuster highly unlikely to show up in any other critic or commentator’s “best of 2011” of “end of year” countdown lists. However, I think there’s a lot to like about Branagh’s adaptation of Marvel’s faux-Shakespearean hammer-wielding Norse God, and I think it works so well because Branagh seems to acknowledge the same sentiment that Stan Lee tapped into when creating The Mighty Thor: the idea that superheroes are a modern American mythology, a vehicle with which to explore the hopes and fears of the modern world through a fantastical prism, something that can be traced back to the pantheon of old. While the best superhero films explore this sense of relevance, I admired the way that Thor managed to embrace it in the most abstract manner, tracing it back to that earliest and most basic type of story: the story of fathers and sons.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: anthony hopkins, best of 2011, Christopher Nolan, film, kenneth branagh, marlon brando, Martha Wayne, Movie, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, stan lee, thomas wayne, thor | 2 Comments »

The Art of Compromise: Picking the Family Christmas Movie…

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Darren

Christmas is a fun time in my household. We pack in the entire extended family for a day of fun and celebration, a nice dinner, some drinks. They stay over for a night or two and we do all the usual family activities. Christmas night, we watch a movie. St. Stephen’s night, we play a game of Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. As you can imagine, finding a movie that thirteen-odd people will sit down and enjoy in a crowded sitting room by the fire, glasses of wine and popcorn handy, is no mean feat. And, I admit with some measure of pride, the task is assigned to me: I’m the one asked to come up with a suitable movie for the Christmas evening. And, as much as it’s a fun task, it’s also a daunting one.

Ghosts of Christmas past...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: christmas, Edward Scissorhands, film, Hangover, holiday, hollywood, indiana jones, Nightmare Before Christmas, Terrence Malick, tim burton | Leave a comment »

My Best of 2011: Black Swan & The Elevation of Schlock…

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Darren

Black Swan is number six. Check out my original review here.

It’s interesting, how one can end up loving the same films, for very different reasons. I suspect that a great many critics and commentators lavish praise on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan for its elegance and sophistication, which I appreciate and admire. There’s a lot to love about the film. However, my own appreciation of the movie seems to be for a very different reason. I think that what makes Black Swan so utterly compelling is the fact that it’s essentially a classic horror movie elevated to the status of fine art.