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12 Movie Moments of 2012: Running (Shame)

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Darren

As well as counting down the top twelve films, I’m also going to count down my top twelve movie related “moments” of 2012. The term “moment” is elastic, so expect some crazy nonsense here. And, as usual, I accept that my taste is completely absurd, so I fully expect you to disagree. With that in mind, this is #8…

It is quite common to see New York presented in an unpleasant light. After all, Martin Scorsese’s films capture the metropolis at its very best and its very worst, and there are countless gangster films devoted to exploring the dark underbelly of a city that is easily one of the most recognisable in the world. I have never been to New York, and yet I feel like – through years of film-watching – I have come to know the city almost as if I have lived there.

As such, I was surprised when Shame managed to offer me a somewhat novel take on New York itself. The city is as much a character in the film as any of Steve McQueen’s supporting cast. (Indeed, Carey Mulligan even gets to perform an extended version of “New York, New York” in tribute to her co-star.) McQueen manages to craft a distinctly unpleasant and uncomfortable exploration of the city without resorting to any of the trite clichés that one associates with the horrors of urban living.

Indeed, one long single-take shot of Brandon running within the confines of the city offered a more powerful sense of urban anomie and isolation than I have ever seen before, presenting a cold blue city completely indifferent and unaware of the millions of people living within the city limits.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, avengers, Brandon, Carey Mulligan, christmas, Dark Knight Rises, film, gangs of new york, Hobbit, Jack Reacher, martin scorsese, McQueen, Michael Fassbender, Movie, Movies, new york, New York City, NewYork, Sean Bobbitt, Shame, steve mcqueen, United States | Leave a comment »

My 12 for ’12: Moonrise Kingdom & The Virtues of Eternal Childhood

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Darren

I’m counting down my top twelve films of the year between now and January, starting at #12 and heading to #1. I expect the list to be a little bit predictable, a little bit surprising, a little bit of everything. All films released in the UK and Ireland in 2012 qualify. Sound off below, and let me know if I’m on the money, or if I’m completely off the radar. And let me know your own picks or recommendations.

This is #8…

I’ll freely confess that I am not a huge Wes Anderson fan. I admire the fact that he has managed to maintain a distinct and consistent aesthetic, one quite different from that found elsewhere, but I’m not necessarily fond of his entire body of work. I harbour a fondness for Rushmore, The Fantastic Mr. Fox and – now – Moonrise Kingdom. They are, in theory at least, three very different films – one of them is a stop-motion animated adaptation of a classic Roald Dahl story, for instance. However, the linking theme among (what I perceive to be) Anderson’s strongest work is a romantic sense of childhood. Anderson’s characters are often children, no matter their actual age or how far they’ve travelled, and I think that Anderson’s work is at its very best when it embraces that sense of perpetual childhood.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Anderson, arts, avengers, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, British Isles, Darjeeling Limited, fantastic mr. fox, Fantastic Mr. Fox (film), film, Fox, Ireland, January, Lykke Li, Moonrise Kingdom, Movie, New England, Royal Tenenbaum, Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Sam, Suzy, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, wes anderson | 2 Comments »

My 12 for ’12: Jeff Who Lives at Home & Living in Hope

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Darren

This is #9…

The eponymous Jeff, from Jeff Who Lives at Home, feels like something of a cousin to the Judd Atapow “manchild” that we’ve seen popularised in films like Knocked Up of The 40 Year Old Virgin. He’s unreliable, lazy and smokes a not inconsiderable amount of pot. His mother can’t even count on him to fix a shutter door on her birthday, although he is quick to offer seemingly vacuous philosophical insights garnered from Star Wars and Signs. His brother Pat is hardly a run-away success, trapped in a failing marriage and prone to sit around Hooters all day, but at least he has thrived when compared to Jeff. Jeff is, by all accounts, a fool whose own naivety leads him to get beaten and mugged within the first half-hour of the film.

However, at the heart of Jeff Who Lives at Home, is a surprisingly romantic idea. There’s the notion that the universe is somehow a far more compassionate and understanding place than we might suspect. Jeff’s logic and reasoning might be far from convincing, and it’s easy to be cynical. However, Jay and Mark Duplass craft a story that suggests sometimes things work out just right.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 40 Year Old Virgin, arts, British Isles, christmas, Christmas music, Father, film, Filmmaking, Hooters, Ireland, Jeff, Jeff Who Lives at Home, Knocked Up, Lykke Li, Mark Duplass, Movies, Oh God!, Pat, Sharon, Short film, star wars, twitter | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Quartet

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Darren

Quartet is an entertaining light comedy, and a solid directorial début from Dustin Hoffman. The film itself isn’t too surprising or demanding, but – as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel demonstrated earlier in the year – there is something to be said for putting a bunch of older actors together in a room and letting them remind you what they can do. Quartet is a fairly standard “life doesn’t end at retirment” film, and one that makes smart use of a talented ensemble cast. Indeed, as the credits roll, we’re reminded of just how talented as Hoffman introduces us to each of the performers – many of whom have long and impressive careers in theatre or music.

There’s nothing here that will surprise anybody, but it is occasionally nice to be reminded just how superb some of the older generation of actors can be.

… in with the old…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Billy Connolly, dustinhoffman, film, Hoffman, Maggie Smith, michael gambon, Movie, non-review review, Pauline Collins, Quartet, r eview, review, Tom Courtenay, Tom Courtney | Leave a comment »

My 12 for ’12: The Raid (Redemption) & An Action Aesthetic…

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Darren

This is #12…

It’s a bit of a stereotype that critics don’t like action movies. It’s one of those handy clichés that gets trotted around whenever some mega-blockbuster brings in a ridiculously large number at the box office after a thrashing from the pundits. I can’t speak for the critics, of course, but I can tell you that the reason I disliked The Bourne Legacy or Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon had nothing to do with an innate dislike of action movies as a genre. I’m a big fan of action movies. However, like any other genre, an action movie needs to be done right.

The Raid does an action movie right.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Action film, arts, casino royale, crouching tiger hidden dragon, Evans, film, Film Festivals, games, Gareth Evans, Hobbit, Hunger Games, Iko Uwais, jameson dublin international film festival, Lykke Li, martial arts, Movie, Raid, Sports, SWAT, the simpsons, tomorrow never dies, United States | 9 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Jack Reacher

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Darren

Much like its eponymous leading man, Jack Reacher is efficient. That’s probably the best thing that can be said about this adaptation of Lee Child’s One Shot. Coming in at two hours, the movie manages to keep everything relatively under control. Any fuzzy logic is masked by the smart decision to keep things moving at a quick enough pace, distracting from the fact we’ve seen it all before, or that the characters seem especially paper-thin. At times, Jack Reacher suffers from being a little too shallow, a little too safe, a little too predictable. While Christopher McQuarrie can be an excellent writer, he seems to be only developing as a director. He handles movement reasonably well, but the direction amps up the melodrama to almost unbearable levels at certain points in the film.

It’s not terrible, and it’s certainly not an out-and-out failure, but I’d struggle to argue that it’s a successful franchise launch. For most of its runtime, Jack Reacher succeeds at merely being inoffensive and trying not to weigh too heavily on our patience. It’s not the most convincing of victories, but it could have been a lot worse.

Gearing up for a franchise…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: christopher mcquarrie, film, Fuzzy logic, jack bauer, Jack Reacher, kiefer sutherland, Lee Child, London, Movie, non-review review, One Shot, Reacher, review, robert duvall, Rosamund Pike, tom cruise, United States, Werner Herzog | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Django Unchained

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Darren

“They’ll call you the quickest gun in the South,” bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz remarks to the freed slave Django Freeman. The cliché would suggest that he meant to say “West”, but Django Unchained has its mind firmly on the Southern United States. Producing the film, writer-director Quentin Tarantino argued that he wanted to produce a “Southern” rather than a “Western”, and he has done an admirable job. However, what’s really remarkable about Django Unchained is the way that it balances Tarantino’s trademark grindhouse aesthetic with considerable mature nuance. Django Unchained is the story about two bounty hunters tracking down wanted men dead or alive, but it that doesn’t mean that it is afraid to tackle more substantive and challenging aspects of American history.

If you’d asked me whether I thought that Tarantino could produce a powerful and insightful exploration of slavery in the Deep South before I saw Inglourious Basterds, I would have hesitated before answering. Django Unchained is smart, sophisticated and thoughtful, but never pretentious, never pandering, never dull. In a rather unlikely way, it is the most mature film Tarantino has ever produced.

An ice cold killer…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Candie, christoph waltz, Django, django unchained, film, German language, inglourious basterds, jamie foxx, Leonardo diCaprio, Movie, non-review review, quentin tarantino, review, samuel l. jackson, Schultz, Southern United States, Stephen, tarantino, United States | 10 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Life of Pi

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Darren

Life of Pi is visually stunning. It is an amazing accomplishment. I’ll be the first to admit that I am skeptical of 3D, but in the hands of the right director – Martin Scorsese, James Cameron and, now, Ang Lee – it is a fascinating storytelling tool. The computer-generated imagery is magical, as are the compositions and scene transitions. There’s no doubt that Ang Lee is a superb craftsman. Indeed, the visual majesty of the film is enough to make you dismiss some of the lighter narrative elements, accepting some of the incongruities as expressions of “magical realism” or simply a function of allegorical storytelling. It’s not the densest, or the most insightful, story you will see, but it’s well-told.

Unfortunately, then you reach the end, and Life of Pi tries to get considerably smarter than it actually is. It pulls a clumsy narrative trick that leaves the audience feeling a bit disoriented and more than a little manipulated. Life of Pi finds itself torn between trying to be a beautiful allegorical story of survival and a deeper commentary on the stories that we tell. Forcing one undermines the other. While Life of Pi might convince you that a boy and a tiger can share a lifeboat, the two competing aspects of Life of Pi sink the story.

Not quite a glowing recommendation…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: ang lee, Bengal tiger, Computer-generated imagery, film, james cameron, Life of Pi, martin scorsese, Math, Movie, non-review review, Pacific Ocean, Recreations, review, Richard Parker, Yann Martel | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Darren

I always feel a little embarrassed to admit that I prefer The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings. Don’t worry, I know that by any objective measure of craft The Lord of the Rings is a far more impressive literary accomplishment, but I never really connected with the characters at the heart of that sprawling epic in the way that I empathised with Bilbo Baggins. As such, it’s a massive relief to me that Peter Jackson turns in an endearing and enjoyable, if padded and indulgent, first instalment in his Hobbit trilogy. The technical advances and the somewhat cynical structuring of the film tend to garner a great deal of discussion and debate, but the heart of Tolkien’s introduction to Middle Earth is still here. The only problem is that absolutely everything else is as well.

And that’s just the script to Part I…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins, film, Gandalf, Hobbit, ian mckellen, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jackson, lord of the rings, Martin Freeman, Middle-earth, Movie, non-review review, peter jackson, review, Sylvester McCoy | 8 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Oranges

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Darren

There’s an interesting film in here, somewhere. The Oranges teases the possibility of brutally exposing the seedy underside of suburban life, as we follow an affair between a married man and his best friend’s daughter, but The Oranges is far too shallow to land anything resembling a killing stroke. The adult cast is composed of talented veterans, but the script doesn’t give them much to do – instead The Oranges treats their children as the focal point, misjudging the talent of young actresses Leighton Meester and Alia Shawkat. It all feels too light, too cosy, and too willing to pick the low-hanging fruit to really create an interesting study of life in the ‘burbs.