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Non-Review Review: The Rover

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Darren

The Rover isn’t quite a post-apocalyptic road movie. A title card places the story “ten years after the collapse”, but it’s never clear what exactly “the collapse” is. Buildings still stand. Trains still run. Telegraph polls are still connected. Cars still drive. Military units still offer some small semblance of law and order. This isn’t a world that has collapsed, it is the decaying structure of a world still struggling to stand.

The Rover is a starkly beautiful and haunting film, one that says a lot with only a few scattered words. It’s unsettling not in its portrayal of a world that is dead, but instead in its attempt to capture a world struggling to keep breathing.

As the world burns…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: apocalypse, Australia, david michod, economic collapse, film, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton, non-review review, post-apocalyptic, review, Robert Pattinson, the collapse, the end of the world as we know it, the rover | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: What If?

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Darren

“Can men and women ever really be friends?” is so familiar that it’s practically a cliché. The line that exists between platonic male-female friendship and romantic entanglement was the engine that drove When Harry Met Sally, one of the best-loved romantic comedies ever produced. What If? covers familiar ground, charting the awkward friendship that develops between a young animator in a long-term relationship and a medical school drop-out working through his own issues.

To be fair, the tension between “romantic entanglement” and “platonic friendship” is somewhat undercut by the fact that What If? positions itself as a romantic comedy. The movie plots a familiar arc, hitting the expected plot points along the way. The structure is very clearly that of a romantic comedy, right down to the somewhat contrived (and inevitable) third act obstacles. Imposing the genre constraints of the “romantic comedy” upon a film like this cannot help but suggest an obvious answer to the driving question.

What If? works despite the familiarity. That is largely down to the charm of its two lead performers. Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan play well off one another, creating a wonderfully intimate dynamic that suggests genuine affection rather than simply superficial attraction. What If? is a light comedy, but one that is executed with sufficient charm and wit.

Why can’t we be friends?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: daniel radcliffe, film, Goon, Movie, non-review review, review, the f-word, what if, zoe kazan | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Darren

Constructing a satisfying sequel is an artform unto itself. It is something that requires a great deal of skill. As with any aspect of filmmaking, building off an earlier film is a very difficult thing to do. Producing a sequel comes with its own set of artistic risks and challenges, its own obstacles and hurdles. Navigating those potential problems and finding a way to meet (and even surpass) expectations without straying too far from the framework of the original film is difficult.

As with making any movie, there are existing frameworks and structures that do a little help make navigating those problems a little easier. Perhaps the structure of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is the most obvious example. Using the trust established by the first film, the ensemble are split up to carry different strands of the plot, revealing scattered pieces of a larger whole, before reuniting for an epic finalé. Bryan Singer used this approach for X-Men II and How to Train Your Dragon 2 also followed it.

Playing him for a chimp, eh?

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is in an interesting position. It is a sequel to a remake; a remake of a film franchise that was originally iconic and influential, before dying a slow and humiliating public death as the series diminished and collapsed. Not only does Dawn of the Planet of the Apes come with the expectations of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it comes with the revived expectations of the entire Planet of the Apes franchise; expectations restored by Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes chooses a very clever structure for this sequel, loosely following the sequel framework typified by Christopher Nolan’s work on The Dark Knight. This is a very clever approach, and it pays dividends. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is an ambitious and exciting sequel, a wonderful post-apocalyptic epic and an engaging moral parable.

Going ape for it…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: apes, apocalypse, chimps, collapse, dawn of the planet of the apes, decay, film, gary oldman, matt reeves, Michael Giacchino, monkeys, moral decay, Movie, non-review review, planet of the apes, review, rise of the planet of the apes, san francisco, simians, sixties | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Deliver Us From Evil

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Darren

Deliver Us From Evil is a film where ambition seems to outpace ability. A wonderfully surreal blend of cop action movie with exorcism horror, the movie manages to score a few clever juxtapositions – even if it never seems to decide whether it’s gloweringly serious or wryly ironic. While Deliver Us From Evil never finds the right balance of po-faced gravitas and witty self-awareness, it is a surprisingly enjoyable ride.

After all, it is very hard to hate a film where a demonic presence seeks to establish itself upon the world using the music of The Doors as a recurring motif.

The writing’s on the wall…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: church, cop film, deliver us from evil, demons, eric bana, exorcism, film, horror, joel mchale, Movie, non-review review, review, Scott Derrickson | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Transformers 4 – Age of Extinction

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Darren

Transformers: Age of Extinction is not a movie. It is a pneumatic drill. It is sustained bombardment. It is an attempt to force the audience into submission by bounding them. There isn’t a moment of the film where Michael Bay allows silence or mood. Even the establishing shots are offered through swooping camera shots – up, down, in, out. There’s no sense of place or time or character. It’s an extended music video, set to the percussion of cannon fire.

A Prime time?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, Hasbro, mark wahlberg, michael bay, non-review review, review, transformer, transformers | 16 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Begin Again

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Darren

Music is absolutely wonderful. It’s a method of communication that has the tremendous ability to bring people together, and to help set mood and tone. Of course, there’s all sorts of delightful complications to it – although songs may capture a particular moment in the life of the songwriter, as if trapping emotions in amber, they also capture particular moods and moments for the person listening to the music. A snippet of a song overhead faintly on a radio through an apartment wall can serve as a gateway back in time.

Although – speaking strictly scientifically – smell is the sense that leads most directly to memory, music has perhaps the strongest emotional resonance. Beloved songs provide a snapshot of something as transcendental as sensation and atmosphere. It is very hard to put these sentiments into words, to articulate through language. A guitar chord struck at the right time in the right rhythm, or a syllable stressed in one direction rather than any other, can say so much in such a small space.

Begin Again is a charming romantic ode to the power of music, beautifully and elegantly capturing the romance of song.

Playing along…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: begin again, film, john carney, Keira Knightley, mark ruffalo, Movie, music, non-review review, review | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Jersey Boys

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Darren

Jersey Boys looks and feels pretty much exactly how you might expect a musical directed by Clint Eastwood to look and feel.

Adapted from the Tony-Award winning hit musical, it is awash with nostalgia. Jersey Boys provides an account of the career of Frankie Valli from his early days in the local neighbourhood through to induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the nineties. The film is shockingly traditional in terms of construction, adhering rigidly to the formula for a successful musical bio-pic, from the early grifting to the eventual discord to the heart-felt reunion epilogue, complete with questionable old-age make-up for the cast.

Jersey Boys hits all the expected notes, but never quite brings the house down.

Sign of the times…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Clint Eastwood, film, four seasons, frankie valli, frankie valli and the four seasons, jersey boys, Movies, musical, non-review review, review, tonys | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Darren

The Fault in Our Stars is a wonderfully constructed teenage romance, featuring a fantastic central performance from Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old cancer patient dealing with her own mortality. She bumps into Augustus Waters at a support group meeting. Augustus is another survivor, and the two immediately hit it off. While The Fault in Our Stars is fairly predictable, and hits relentlessly on the expected emotional beats, Woodley’s performance is strong enough to elevate the film.

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber’s adaptation of John Green’s best-selling novel avoids wallowing too heavily in melodrama. Despite a few missteps, The Fault in Our Stars feels like a much more genuine and thoughtful exploration of loss and tragedy than films like My Sister’s Keeper or Death of a Superhero or Now is Good.

Getting into the swing of things…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cnacer, film, laura dern, Movie, non-review review, now is good, review, Shailene Woodley, the fault in our stars | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Oculus

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Darren

Oculus is torn between two extremes. On the one hand, it’s an ambitious horror film that engages with questions of perception and subtext, while throwing all manner of horror tropes together to form something of a horror movie stew. On the other hand, it rather quickly devolves into a fairly generic horror film that coasts on gore to unsettle the audience and always takes the easiest possible scare. Oculus is at its best during its muddled and exposition-filled opening acts.

While certainly flawed, these segments have an endearing substance to them. In contrast, Oculus is at its worst in the obligatory third act run-around.

All work and no play makes Rory Cochrane a dull boy…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cheap scares, film, gore, great concept, horror, Karen Gillan, meta, mirrors, Movie, non-review review, oculus, review, self-aware | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Fight Club

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Darren

Fight Club was released in 1999, and seems to perfectly capture a brief moment in the history of disemfranchised American masculinity.

Situated between the end of the Cold War and the start of the War on Terror, Fight Club is the story of disenfranchised middle-class masculinity, a cultural group gripped by sense of impotence and despair and lost amid an era of financial prosperity and material success. “We’re the middle children of history, man,” Tyler Durden informs his followers. “No purpose or place. We have no Great War… no Great Depression.” It’s a line that gets more bitterly ironic with each re-watch.

A film frequently misunderstood by a significant portion of its fans and its critics, Fight Club is perhaps the quintessential cult film of the nineties. A clever hook that encourages further viewings, a mean subversive streak and a bleak irreverence that is impossible to look away from, Fight Club manages to perfectly encapsulate a moment of shared cultural consciousness and insecurity.