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My 12 for ’13: Blue Jasmine & The Power of a Lead Performance

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Darren

This is my annual countdown of the 12 movies that really stuck with me this year. It only counts the movies released in Ireland in 2013, so quite a few of this year’s Oscar contenders aren’t eligible, though some of last year’s are.

This is number 12…

There are a lot of reasons to like Blue Jasmine. Woody Allen adapting Tennessee Williams for the Great Recession was always going to be worth a look. The film’s elegant jazz-style narrative style, one that’s free-form but still hits the key notes. The brilliant supporting cast that even hints at a possible rehabilitation for Andrew Dice Clay.

However, there’s one reason above all others to love Blue Jasmine: Cate Blanchett.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Andrew Dice Clay, Blanche DuBois, Blue Jasmine, cate blanchett, Great Recession, Tennessee Williams, Vivien Leigh, Woody Allen | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Blue Jasmine

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Darren

Blue Jasmine is Woody Allen’s irreverent modernised take on A Streetcar Name Desire. Sure, some of the finer details have been changed to protect the not-quite-innocent. The story is relocated from New Orleans to San Diego. (“This is such a European city,” our lead notes, as if to suggest it isn’t such a significant change.) The character of Stanley Kowalski has been divided across several different supporting characters – the Polish Augie and the car mechanic Chili. (“He’s just another version of Augie,” Jasmine suggests of her sister’s later boyfriend, drawing attention to the fact that they are both other versions of another character.)

Allen plays of the structure and the beats of Tennessee Williams’ hugely iconic play, even playfully branding his Blanche Dubois stand-in as the movie’s “blue” Jasmine French. The result is enjoyable and intriguing, anchored on a fantastic central performance from Cate Blanchett as the Southern belle who might not be quite the victim that she claims to be. As with so many Allen films, there’s a rich ensemble at work here, but Blue Jasmine works beautifully by riffing cleverly on a classic of American theatre.

“… the kindness of strangers…”

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alec baldwin, Allen, Blue Jasmine, cate blanchett, Jasmine, New Orleans, Sally Hawkins, San Diego, san francisco, Stanley Kowalski, Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams, Woody Allen | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Raging Bull

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Darren

I might disagree with the critical consensus that Raging Bull stands as Martin Scorsese’s crowning accomplishment, or even that it’s probably the best film of the eighties, but there’s no denying that it’s a shockingly powerful piece of cinema. The fact that Scorsese was originally reluctant to direct what had become a passion project for Robert DeNiro just makes the movie’s status as a masterpiece of modern cinema all the more ironic, as the film seems to play like a pitch perfect symphony, each of its many separate elements feeding perfectly into one another to create a whole that is far greater than its incredibly brilliant constituent elements.