Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Chamonix, Clint Eastwood, Matt Damon, Peter Morgan
After a near-death experience during a tsunami, French TV journalist reassesses her life. After a car kills his twin-brother, a London boy is desperate to keep the close connection they had. And in San Francisco, lonely George (Matt Damon) is trying to find a way to live with his ‘gift,’ which is the ability to talk with those who have died. Their lives will intersect and each will be forever changed by what they believe does, or doesn’t, exist in the hereafter.
It’s interesting, and a bit frightening for those of us who are devotees of Director Clint Eastwood’s work, that at 81 years old, he should tackle the question of what happens to us after we die. Scriptwriter Peter Morgan is a master dramatist of major true-life political events and figures as seen in his films “The Queen”, “The Last King of Scotland” and “Frost/Nixon,” but this is a more subdued script that culminates in a gentle film full of warmth.
Eastwood is a man who offers a poetic grace to all that he does and ultimately, it’s the fact that he directed, and did the musical score, that are the reasons one should see this film.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Alan Rickman, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Grint
Part 1 of 2, the ultimate battle between light and darkness draws near. Voldemort and his Death Eaters hatch a plot to kill Harry Potter who not only finds himself on the run, but also with a long list of magical objects to track down.
The cosy trimmings of previous Harry Potter films – trains to school, lessons, quidditch matches – are not evident in this film, which is darker than the rest of the movies. However, there’s too much detail in this films plot making it drag a bit throughout: there’s the main quest to destroy several ‘horcruxes’, objects containing Voldemort’s soul, as well as a sub-quest to find three ‘deathly hollows’, objects that give their owner power over death.
Even as it doesn’t rate as one of the best Harry Potter films, the lead actors are fine and it’s another adventure in the popular series with the familiar characters and there’s enough magic and tension to make you want to see it and to look forward to Part 2.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Amy Ryan, Bob Glaudini, Daphne Rubin-Vega, John Ortiz, Philip Seymour Hoffman
A limo driver’s blind date ignites a humorous and poignant tale of love, friendship and betrayal focused around two working-class New York City couples.
Jack (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a limo driver with vague hopes of getting a job with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). He has an obsession for reggae that’s inspired him to attempt to grow his hair into dreadlocks, and he spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend and fellow driver Clyde and Clyde’s wife Lucy. Clyde and Lucy introduce him to Connie and they like each other. Being with Connie inspires Jack to learn to cook, to take swimming lessons in order to take Connie on a romantic boat ride, and to pursue a new career. Meanwhile, Lucy and Clyde’s marriage begins to disintegrate.
Hoffman’s directorial debut is a very independently spirited and produced film. Hoffman has made a career doing interesting, indie films such as Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Capote, and The Boat That Rocked among many others. During this career, he’s also been the Artistic Director for an off-Broadway theatre company in NYC for ten years, which is where this play originates. In putting together this film, he has gathered around him some wonderful talent, both on-screen and off-screen, from both theatrical backgrounds and film backgrounds, both indie and studio financed. This film is a small, gently paced, gem.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Harvey Keitel, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro
Ex-CIA agent Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) is still concerned that his son-in-law Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) isn’t good enough for his daughter (Teri Polo) and suspects he’s cheating on her with a sales rep (Jessica Alba), even as he’s finally ready to trust Gaylord and bestow the position of ‘Godfocker’ on him.
However, like the previous two films, Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers, as a crowded supporting cast pop in for their cameos, the family begins to have a meltdown. And the cast and cameos in this film are impressive: Harvey Keitel, Dustin Hoffman, Blythe Danner, Barbra Streisand, Laura Dern…one remembers when Keitel, Hoffman, Streisand and De Niro were making amazing films that would go down in the Modern Classics realm.
There will inevitably be some laughs with a cast like this. And if you find the joke about the last name sounding rude, humorous, or an innocent flirtation taken for an affair, or children throwing up on grownups, or a four-year-old surprising his father by giving his grandpa a penile injection to counter the effects of an unwisely-taken erectile dysfunction medication and then drawing a picture of the incident while auditioning for a posh kindergarten, then this is the film for you.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Coiin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham Carter, King George
Prince George (Colin Firth) has been afflicted by a debilitating stammer since childhood. When his brother abdicates the throne, and war is looming, he hesitantly turns to Aussie Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), who is a speech therapist with unconventional methods, in order to be able to soothe a frightened nation.
Despite its decent cast and nice costumes, this film was initially low on the radar for greatness. However, after a sneak-peak at a film festival in America, bloggers and Tweeters announced it to be an Oscar favourite and the world opened its eyes to it. But this is not a pretentious film – this is a crowd pleaser. The script transforms history into an approachable form, and it’s dramatic, witty and enlightening. It focuses on the unlikely friendship between the outspoken Aussie and the reluctant-speaking aristocrat. This is a story less about fixing a voice than fixing a mind that has been bullied by his father since boyhood and has not had a childhood in the face of the responsibilities for the throne.
Even as Firth doesn’t have many words to say, he doesn’t stop communicating sadness, yearning, and pain; intelligence and humour demanding an escape; and the self-possession of a man born to privilege. Rush as Logue, is in equally fine form, a brash man with a huge heart. Helena Bonham Carter is a lively Queen Elizabeth, portraying both a teasing wit and a devoted wife. The script, the actors and the loving shots of London make this a film worth watching.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Barbara Hershey, Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder
Dancer Nina (Natalie Portman) lives a sheltered, ballet-obsessed life with her over-protective, slightly mad, ex-ballerina mother (Barbara Hershey). When Nina is promoted to prima for a new production of Swan Lake, her director (Vincent Cassel) encourages her to explore her dark side so that she can epitomize the dual role of the Swan Queen and the Black Swan. This exploration, and the claustrophobic life with her mother, combined with her insecurities over the ambitions of a new arrival at the company, pushes Nina towards the snapping point.
Director Darren Aronofsky intends for Black Swan to be the companion piece to his 2008 film The Wrestler. Despite the difference in subject matter, both display a fascination with specialist professions; both have cringe-inducing moments as a result of the potentially crippling physical challenges of these professions; both subtly examine the tension between age and ambition; and both are shot using mostly handheld cameras in order to invade the personal space of the actors/characters.
Black Swan won’t be to everyone’s taste – it’s disturbing and sometimes confusing – but it’s an impressive offering from one of America’s most exciting directing talents.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Chris Morris, Controversial film, Funny British films
A radical British Muslim named Omar has formed a terrorist cell with his dim-witted brother Waj, a nervous bomb maker, Fessal, and an angry white convert named Barry who later recruits wannabe-rapper Hassan. After going to Pakistan in a misguided attempt to train in a Mujahedeen training camp, Omar returns to Britain with the plan for a suicide attack on a Western target – any Western target will do.
This sounds like a pretty serious and controversial plot – it’s certainly relevant. However, these terrorists are bumbling, squabbling and inept. That said, Director Chris Morris doesn’t undermine the danger that these types present to themselves and to any civilians who wander into their range. This film doesn’t attempt to answer large questions of why young men who seem to have benefited from living in a multicultural Western nation would want to hurt themselves and random strangers for some mutant notion of Islam. It’s full of silly humour that will cause some to laugh a lot, and did prompt this reviewer to chuckle a few times even as I found the characters and the circumstances and events of their lives tedious and looked at my watch several times throughout the film. Given the concept and its relevance, it could have been a very good film if it’d actually been well-written and incorporated some of the great British humour that’s clever and dry.
What is appreciated about this film is that its not politically correct. It’s likely to offend quite a few people across the political and belief spectrum and in a climate of watered-down opinions and lip-service in the public forum by us all, this is great.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Chateau Marmont, Elle Fanning, Sofia Coppola, Stephen Dorff, Virgin Suicides
SOMEWHERE
Actor Johnny Marco is convalescing after a minor injury at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont hotel. He leads an empty life of watching pole dancers, picking up women, and sleepwalking through press conferences. But his listless state is interrupted when Cleo, his daughter from a broken-down relationship, comes to stay with him.
Like Director (and Screenwriter) Sofia Coppola’s previous films (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation), there is a daddy-daughter, young-girls-trying-to-find-their-place in the world, theme to this story. And like these previous films, this is a well-made, gently paced and slyly witty film whose direction makes it original and truthful. This film evokes in us the feeling of ennui, with every frame, conversation, setting and its sound, which is the intent. Stephen Dorff as Johnny Marco, fills this inherently lazy man with a sad charm. Elle Fanning as his daughter is equally able – she’s upbeat without being irritating.
The only thing I would have changed in this film is the ending. However, ultimately it’s worth watching. Like Coppola’s other films, this is an understated, languid film that if you give into its pace, charms, and soundtrack, you’ll find yourself happily rewarded.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: English film, Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Mike Leigh, Ruth Sheen
Gerri, a therapist, and Tom, a geologist, are happily married, but mildly concerned that their lawyer son is single. They don’t quite realise, either, how Mary, a fragile work colleague of Gerri’s, has come to depend on the couples’ friendship, and over the course of a year and Sunday gatherings, Mary makes a faux pas that puts a strain on the relationship.
The concept of Sunday afternoons in different seasons, focusing on a happy, middle-aged couple and their friends and relations, does not seem to suggest that there’s much happening. Watching a twee film about ‘cuppas’ in the garden after sessions at the allotment, with surface dialogue that’s all about trivia, seems more like TV fodder, but this film is good, even as its also as quintessentially English as it gets. Director Mike Leigh’s method here, as with most of his films, is that it’s a sitcom set-up in a drably realistic world, using trivial dialogue and embarrassment to dig deep into the psyche: that is to say, every tiny incident, spoken line, or look, registers. Lee also always uses very good English actors, who look like the English folks you see living next door to you in the UK – real people.
This film’s theme of loneliness, isolation and regret are all profound, as is its warmth.
Filed under: Published film reviews | Tags: Planes, road movie, Robert Downey Jr, Trains and Automobiles, Zach Galifianakis
Peter (Robert Downey Jr.) is trying to get home to his expectant wife. However, his efforts to get back are pitched into chaos when he crosses paths with wannabe actor Ethan (Zach Galifianakis).
The circumstances and events in this road movie are bizarre encounters, complete tribulations, and vehicular mayhem. DUE DATE aspires to be an edgier, darker, more of an odd-couple-on-a-road-trip film than the very similar PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES, however one can’t help but to remember how great this earlier film and its actors (John Candy, Steve Martin) really were in the face of this comparison. DUE DATE achieves it’s ‘darker’ side and edgier side in this reviewers opinion, only because it is crueller and meaner, not because its funnier or politically incorrect.
For every funny moment, and there are a few, there are some downright unsettling ones, too, such as when Peter punches a small child, spits in Sonny’s face, or mocks a disabled veteran. Most of the humour is rude and silly, such as when Ethan and his bulldog Sonny simultaneously masturbate.
One can’t help but think that Downey Jr. was after a bit of ‘dosh’ in order to make this film or he wouldn’t have touched it with a ten-foot barge pole. That said, this is a film that won’t make you lament the two hours and price of a cinema ticket you’ve spent if you watch it on DVD, or, best yet, on TV at some point…
Victoria Jelinek 