Posted on November 5, 2011 by Darren
We Need to Talk About Kevin is powerful, visceral cinema. It’s the kind of movie that makes you want to take a nice long, hot shower after coming home. It’s unsettling in a way that doesn’t rely on cheap shocks or gratuitous violence – it just makes you feel unclean. Truth be told, I think that any film taking this sort of subject should feel this uncomfortable – I’m not sure I could stomach a film about this sort of thing that wasn’t uncomfortable. However, while the disjointed structure of the film adds a wonderful complexity and sense of uncertainty, I can’t help but feel that certain aspects were a little tooambiguous – falling into the familiar trap that one must have read the book in order to fully grasp everything that’s going on. Still, it makes for a very unsettling viewing experience.
Baby trouble...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Eva, Ezra Miller, film, john c. reilly, Kevin, Lionel Shriver, Lynne Ramsay, Movie, non-review review, review, Rory Kinnear, Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin | 5 Comments »
Posted on November 4, 2011 by Darren
It’s tempting to look back at Old School in the wake of the massive success of The Hangover and claim “I saw Todd Phillips’ potential first!” After all, massive critical, commercial and audience hits don’t come out of nowhere, and the early work of a given director should probably give some indication of their hidden talent. However, I don’t really see too much of The Hangover in Old School, a film that I like, even if I don’t love it. There are a few similarities in content and structure, but I still can’t see anything in the film that would have led to me to “keep an eye” on Phillips. It’s a solid fratboy comedy, but it’s not anywhere near a classic.
Ferrell was on a hot streak when this came out...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 40 Year Old Virgin, Ellen Pompeo, film, Hangover, Jeremy Piven, Luke Wilson, Movie, non-review review, Old School, review, Todd Phillips, Vince Vaughn, will ferrell | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 3, 2011 by Darren
There’s a good movie to be found somewhere within Shrink. I’m just not sure exactly what it is. Ensemble dramas are a lot tougher to get right than they may initially seem: lining up a variety of interesting plot lines is only half the battle, as the movie has to balance these threads and ensure that all remain intriguing, while none dominate. Shrink doesn’t really do that. Using Kevin Spacey’s “self-medicating” Los Angeles psychologist as a jumping-off point, the film never really finds a compelling hook for us – and the performances aren’t strong enough to get us to invest in the characters colliding and intersecting like balls on a pool table.
Small problems...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: A Bug's Life, colin farrell, film, films, hollywood, kevin spacey, los angeles, Movies, non-review review, review, robin williams, Shrink | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 2, 2011 by Darren
Paranormal Activity 2 feels like a massive disappointment. While the original film left me tossing and turning in my bed, I can’t help but feel like I’ll have forgotten this by the time I rest my head against the pillow this evening. It almost feels like the on-screen hauntings were conducted by two very different poltergeists (or demons). If the original film was the work of a stone-cold profession with the world record in terror, just flexing his creative muscles, it almost feels like this film was the work of the office intern, clumsily trying to emulate what came before, but never really succeeding.
Watered down?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: al pacino, Christopher B. Landon, james bond, Katie Featherston, non-review review, Oren Peli, paranormal activity, paranormal activity 2, review, Sprague Grayden | 6 Comments »
Posted on November 1, 2011 by Darren
John Carpenter’s The Thing is almost the perfect late-night Halloween viewing experience. It’s one of those movies that is gloriously trashy entertainment, with any number of visceral thrills, but also more deeply unnerving. Updating the 1951 The Thing From Another World, and arguably remaining truer to the original story, Who Goes There?, John Carpenter’s adaptation perfectly captures the unnerving paranoia of a world where there’s no promise that anybody is exactly what they claim to be. In space, nobody can hear you scream, but your odds aren’t too much better in the white Antarctic tundra.
What sort of Thing could do that?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alien (film), Carpenter, film, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Movie, non-review review, review, ridley scott, the thing, The Thing (1982), Thing, Thing From Another World, William F. Nolan | 5 Comments »
Posted on October 27, 2011 by Darren
I think that, as a general trend, the quality of computer-animated films has increased significantly over the past number of years. I think there are a variety of reasons for this – the most obvious being that it seems to be easier to do, and so more companies are trying; but also because there’s an increasing body of work that offers hints on what to do and how to do it. While Pixar remain the undisputed champions of computer-generated animation, I think we’ve seen an increasing number of high-quality releases from all studios in the past few years. Despicable Mesees a new studio throwing their hat into the ring and it makes for an impressive debut. While there’s still room for improvement, Despicable Me is fast and fun, and remarkably uncynical for a children’s movie about super-villains.
Aiming for the moon...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: despicable me, film, Illumination Entertainment, IPod, jason segel, Megamind, Movie, non-review review, Pierre Coffin, review, Shark Tale, Steve Carell | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 26, 2011 by Darren
The American is a slow-moving introspective film. Director Anton Corbijn seems to be trying to evoke Sergio Leone, with the story of an American hired gun lying low in a small Italian village. Slow-moving and subtle, The American feels quite meditative for most of its runtime, although it does occasionally seem almost comatose. Still, George Clooney makes for a convincing leading man, adding a great deal of depth to an archetype we’ve seen countless times before. While it’s a little too slow for its own good, it’s never less than beautiful and often fascinating.
Beautifully shot...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Anton Corbijn, Coldplay, Corbijn, david fincher, george clooney, Ian Curtis, jack, Las Ventas, Music video, non-review review, review, sergio leone, Spaghetti Western, United States, Vevo, youtube | 4 Comments »
Posted on October 24, 2011 by Darren
It’s very hard to make a movie about politics without feeling a little bit forced – as if you’re shoehorning in a particular viewpoint or an ideology, setting up strawmen for the movie to bulldoze over on the way to the final scene. It’s to director (and actor) George Clooney’s credit that The Ides of March manages to avoid seeming too preachy or too staged, instead opting to comment on the nature of political integrity, rather than accusing specific ideologies of having it or lacking it. Set within a Democratic Presidential Primary, the movie shrewdly avoids focusing on an ideological or political gap, instead contemplating the harsh realities of any political maneuvering.
Are the gloves coming off?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bill clinton, Clooney, film, george clooney, Ides of March, Morris, Movie, non-review review, Ohio, politics, review, Ryan Gosling, The ides of March, United States | 6 Comments »
Posted on October 21, 2011 by Darren
Casino Jack boasts a superb performance from Kevin Spacey in the lead role of Jack Abramoff. Unfortunately, that’s about it. I don’t mean that Casino Jack is a bad film, by any means, it’s just a purely functional one. It manages to take a bunch of interesting elements – a timely political plot, a bunch of fascinating supporting performances, a compelling lead character – and do absolutely nothing with any of them. Despite the rather wonderful potential to tell a parable for our time, the script is formulaic and bland, with nothing by the way of insight.
Jacked up...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Abramoff, barry pepper, casino jack, ENRON, god, Ides of March, Jack Abramoff, Jon Lovitz, kevin spacey, lobbying, non-review review, politics, review, United States | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 20, 2011 by Darren
The first annual International Disability Film Festival is being hosted from the 20th through to the 23rd October, organised by Arts & Disability Ireland, in Dublin and Galway. I was honoured to be invited to the gala screening of the Oscar-winning HBO documentary Music by Prudence. You can read more information on the festival here.
Music by Prudence is an absolutely fascinating documentary from director Roger Ross Williams, looking at the band Liyana, fronted by Prudence Mabhena. The thirty-three minute documentary does a wonderfully effective job giving us a snapshot into the Zimbabwean band, composed of faculty and students from the King George VI Centre and School for Children with Physical Disabilities. The runtime is remarkably short, but Williams compensates by giving us a whirlwind introduction to the band’s lead singer, who has enough charm and wit to carry a far longer documentary. The band themselves provide a beautiful soundtrack, and there’s talk of them releasing two albums off the back of the film’s success.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Disability, Elinor Burkett, Film festival, George VI of the United Kingdom, hbo, Liyana, Music by Prudence, non-review review, Prudence, Prudence Mabhena, review, Roger Ross Williams, Zimbabwe | Leave a comment »
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