Posted on January 16, 2012 by Darren
Never Let Me Go is a mess of a film. Adapted from the highly-praised novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro (who also wrote the novel that inspired The Remains of the Day), the movie is never really sure what it is talking about, or how it’s talking about it, or even what the point of it all is. There are two superb performances at the middle of the movie, but there’s not nearly enough constructed around them to really make it interesting. Director Mark Romanek cannot decide whether he’s telling a conventional love story in an unconventional setting (with the clear moral that “there’s never enough time”) or if he’s exploring the issue of bio-ethics through the prism of human nature. Ultimately, the film tries to both at the same time, which becomes impossible with Romanek’s cold and efficient direction, which left me feeling quite unsatisfied.
Stumbling out of the gate...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Hailsham, Kazuo Ishiguro, M. Night Shyamalan, Mark Romanek, michael bay, never let me go, non-review review, Remains of the Day, review, Romanek, Sex & The City | 6 Comments »
Posted on January 13, 2012 by Darren
War Horse is a fairly solid prestige picture. Spielberg is on fine form, reminding viewers of just how he became an audience favourite. He displays a warm confidence with the material, as if getting comfortable once again with this sort of crowd-pleasing fare. The film has some fairly significant flaws, stemming mostly from a disjointed and disorganised screenplay, but it’s the director’s charm that manages to carry the film through. Ironically, for a film focusing on an equine, it feels like one of the most warmly human films that Spielberg has produced in quite a while.
No horse play!
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Albert, Benedict Cumberbatch, film, horse, horses, Joey, Movies, non-review review, oscar bait, Oscars, review, Saving Private Ryan, spielberg, steven spielberg, tom hiddleston, war horse, World War, World War I | 5 Comments »
Posted on January 11, 2012 by Darren
Green Hornet is an interesting film, if only because it’s hard to figure out the potential audience. It adopts a brutally cynical approach to the types of superhero films that have been released over the past few years, while remaining steeped in their trappings. It’s a comedy, but it doesn’t venture too far into slapstick or laugh-out-loud moments (though there are more than a couple). Instead, it seems to smirk its way through the movie, deconstructing the sort of plots, characters and dialogue that superhero films give us, but never completely tilting its hand. It’s hard to tell if this is a parody of a standard superhero film, or a straight-forward example of one – the movie fluctuates between the two extremes, but never really picks one and engages full throttle.
A bomb...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Britt, bruce wayne, comedy, Comics, david gordon green, deconstruction, edward furlong, Edward James Olmos, Gondry, green hornet, Kato, Michel Gondry, non-review review, review, Seth Rogen, Swiss Army Knife | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 10, 2012 by Darren
Shame is a masterpiece, a master class in cinema, and the perfect example of a director and lead actor working synchronously and seamlessly. The movie wouldn’t work without director Steve McQueen willing to push it as far as possible, knowing when to pull back and when to dive in, matched by Michael Fassbender’s fearlessness, throwing himself into a naked performance. (This is where I make a cheap joke about it being “in more ways than one.”) Shame is pretty much the perfect note on which to start 2012.
Stands out from the crowd...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Carey Mulligan, Fassbender, film, McQueen, Michael Fassbender, Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, Movie, new york, New York City, non-review review, review, Sexual addiction, steve mcqueen, subway, youtube | 10 Comments »
Posted on January 9, 2012 by Darren
It’s interesting that Hammer chose to package Dracula: Prince of Darkness in the “best of” collection I picked up for my gran over Christmas. It isn’t that it’s hardly the strongest entry in Hammer’s canon, but it’s also not the strongest instalment in their Dracula franchise. It’s the third release in the series chronologically (and, arguably, in terms of quality), following The Horror of Dracula and The Brides of Dracula). It’s not a bad film, if you’re a fan of these sorts of sixties gothic horrors, but it’s not necessarily a good one either. It’s functional, if not efficient, and never really finds anything particularly compelling about any of its characters or its set up.
You can Count on me!
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrew Keir, Christopher Lee, Darcula: prince of Darkness, dracula, DRACULA PRINCE A DARKNESS, film, Hammer Film Productions, hammer horror, Jimmy Sangster, Lee, Movie, non-review review, Peter Cushing, review | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 7, 2012 by Darren
Margaret Thatcher is a complex character. She’s certainly a divisive political figure, but I think that her detractors and her supporters would both admit that the woman isn’t a two-dimensional pop psychology case. The biggest problem with The Iron Ladyis the way that it attempts to offer a simplistic analysis of Thatcher, presenting her as a failure of a wife and a mother who compensated by running her cabinet and her country like a stern matriarch. While Streep gives a solid performance, and director Phyllida Lloyd tries her best to make the movie visually engaging, it feels a bit cheap and shallow. It doesn’t help that the movie trots out the familiar Oscar-baiting bio-pic clichés as if it were assembling an IKEA cabinet. Whatever you may think of Thatcher, she deserved more nuance and complexity than The Iron Lady affords her.
The Broad(bent) strokes...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Falklands War, film, Iron Lady, John Major, margaret thatcher, Movie, non-review review, oliver stone, Phyllida Lloyd, review, Richard E. Grant, thatcher, The Iron lady | 4 Comments »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Posted on December 20, 2011 by Darren
Goon is a movie that works surprisingly well. It’s hilarious, brutal, and yet surprisingly sweet. It’s the quintessential sports movie, featuring a plucky young protagonist trying to find his place in the world, while developing his one sporting talent, but it never feels as coy or manipulative as other movies of that type. A large portion of the credit for that charm has to go to Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg for their witty and incredibly quotable script, but I think that most of the movie’s success rests on Seann William Scott as Doug Glatt, the eponymous goon.
He's a blood mess...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alison Pill, Doug, Doug Glatt, Eugene Levy, Evan Goldberg, film, Goon, Jay Baruchel, liev schreiber, Michael Dowse, Movie, non-review review, review, Seann William Scott | 1 Comment »
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