rollmo:movie reviews

Hiroshima, Mon Amour

2012-02-09T12:27:00.001+11:00

This is a highly acclaimed 1959 drama from French director Alain Resnais. Its the story of a French woman, Elle (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese man, Lui (Eiji Okada), who meet and have a brief love affair in Hiroshima. It left me a bit cold. The back story of the two characters is told through flashbacks to World War II. First of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, where Lui lost his family, and then in the small town of Nevers in France, where Elle had an affair with a young German soldier. The horrors of Hiroshima are brought to vivid life through old newsreel footage and we have great sympathy for the terrible suffering caused by this unprovoked American aggression (Oh no, wait a minute – who started the war again? Wasn’t it the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbour? Hmmm.. ). Then the film turns its attention to poor Elle, whose young German boyfriend is mercilessly gunned down by the ruthless invading Allied forces and we weep great big soggy tears for her as her hair is shorn off and she is humiliated.... (Wait a minute, a crew cut seems like a fairly mild punishment for sleeping with a Nazi invader who would have happily machine gunned the entirely population of Nevers, had he been ordered to do so). So, you see, it’s a bit hard to work up a great deal of sympathy for these two characters , who now are indulging in an affair despite both being, by their own admission, happily married. However, a lack of sympathy with the main characters is not the main thing wrong with this movie. Its biggest fault is that it is trying far too hard to be “arty” and is steadily crushed under the weight of its own self-importance. The endless, circling and repetitive dialogue, becomes tiresome to the point where it becomes funny and elicits titters and at least one loud laugh from the audience. I’m sure the film is a meticulous construct of hidden meanings and dense symbolism, but frankly it is not worth the effort to unravel.

The Artist

2012-02-08T10:01:00.002+11:00

One of the most unusual and entertaining films in many a year. The Artist is essentially a silent movie. Yes, no dialogue, no sound effects, only (very beautiful) music. Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that. The Artist knows it’s a silent movie in 2012 and plays with the audience, introducing snippets of sound, in a dream sequence and right at the end, to great effect. The story seems quite well known, that of a silent movie star found to be on the out when sound is first introduced. It’s a similar theme, of course, to the wonderful Singing In The Rain. This time the luckless star is male, George Valentin, played by French actor Jean Dujardin. Both he, and the lead female character, Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) are delightful, so full of presence that you cannot take your eyes off them. The lack of colour (the film is, of course, in black and white) and dialogue, does nothing to stop them bringing the characters to full blooming life. In a world where there is such a dire lack of original ideas that we are about to grind our way through yet another Spiderman movie soon, The Artist is a very rare gem indeed. Its top of the pops in the current award season with six Oscar nominations. My money is on it taking Best Picture. I loved it. In that it’s another homage to the movies it makes a great companion piece to Hugo. Oh, and it made me seriously consider going out to get a Jack Russell pup.

The Iron Lady

2012-01-30T09:22:00.002+11:00

What a waste! The makers of the Iron Lady had a perfect gem of a performance from Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher to work with. One of the greatest actresses of all time providing a flawless impersonation of one of the greatest and most interesting women of all time, and they did not have a clue as to what to do with it. The focus of the movie seems to be that an aged and disoriented Mrs Thatcher suffers from delusions that her deceased husband is still with her. Is that really the most fascinating element of her life? Is the fact that she has grown old and frail really the most interesting thing about the life of the first female Western leader, the first female Prime Minister of Britain, the woman who transformed the UK economy, one of the most loved, hated and controversial characters of our age, the most important British Prime Minister since Churchill? The film makers had a matchless treasure trove of story material to work from. They have done nothing with it. The telling of historic events is done in a listless, lazy manner, cobbled together with grainy news footage. The present day story of the aged Mrs Thatcher is dull and irrelevant. The mechanism of using conversations with Dennis to move along the story of past events is amateurish. It brings to mind the sort of hastily assembled biopic you might see on the weaker moments of the History Channel. This is a shameful waste. We can only hope that we will see a future, better attempt at telling Mrs Thatcher’s story. Sadly, that would have to be without the wonderful performance by Meryl Streep. Her Oscar nomination is deserved and I’m confident she will walk off with the prize. The writers and directors of this weak effort should apologise to her and realise that they are forever in her debt for rescuing their pathetic effort from complete obscurity.

The Descendants

2012-01-24T14:35:00.001+11:00

We are only hours away from the announcement of the 2012 Oscar nominations. I’m sure there will be a few surprises as usual, but one certainty is that George Clooney will be nominated for his lead role in The Descendants. Deservedly so. The Golden Globe is already in the bag. This would be Clooney’s first Oscar for a leading role. He won for best supporting role in Syriana in 2006 and had nominations for Up In The Air (2010) and Michael Clayton (2007). In The Descendants he plays Matt King, a middle-aged man whose life is suddenly turned upside down by his wife being involved in a boating accident. As a result of the accident he learns that she had been having an affair. He is forced into closer contact with his two children, Alexandra and Scottie, two young girls brilliantly played by Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller. He confronts the man with whom his wife had the affair. At the same time he has to make an important decision about the disposal of some prime real estate. The Kings are descendants of an old, established Hawaiian family of landowners who go all the way back to King Kamehameha. Hawaii is one of the stars of this movie. It is set mostly on Oahu and Kauai. The scenery is stunning and you get a real sense of the value of preserving what little of the land remains unspoilt. The Descendants is directed by Alexander Payne, whose previous works include Sideways and About Schmidt. The theme here is similar to those movies, i.e. a man stuck in a rut and then driven through changed circumstance to confront and bring forth his better nature. It’s a deeply engaging and wonderfully crafted film. A career best (so far) for Clooney. Here’s holding thumbs for that Oscar.

Hugo

2012-01-20T13:05:00.001+11:00

Surely a new landmark in Cinema. A touching family story, at its heart a love letter to the movies, by one of the greatest directors of all time, Martin Scorsese. It’s not often he has made a movie that the kids can see, but this one they will love, as long as they come with a keen sense of wonderment and adventure. It has a stellar cast, including Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Christopher Lee and Jude Law, but even so, the two young leads (Asa Butterfield and the fantastic, Chloe Grace Moretz) are not overshadowed, but are luminous in the roles of Hugo Cabret and Isabelle. Hugo is, at least in part, the story of Georges Méliès, a pioneer of the moving image. Méliès lived in France between 1861 and 1938. He was an illusionist and filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. He was a prolific innovator in the use of special effects and accidentally discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896. One of his most famous films is A Trip To The Moon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYRemE9Oeso&ob=av1e). The 3D in Hugo is superb, it is visually breathtakingly beautiful.

A Few Best Men

2012-01-20T12:14:00.001+11:00

A frothy bit of fun, perfect for the Outdoor Cinema. Set mainly in the gorgeous scenery of Sydney’s Blue Mountains, it’s the story of a wedding that goes horribly wrong mainly thanks to the bumbling friends of the groom. Slapstick and mayhem abound, helped along by a prize sheep in drag, a gun, cocaine, loads of alcohol, a gimp mask and a crazed drug dealer. It lacks the sophistication of similar Hollywood romcoms, and comes nowhere near Death At A Funeral (written and produced by the same team), but is still very funny in parts.

I Vitelloni

2012-01-19T14:04:00.001+11:00

A real charmer from Fellini. The story of five young men who have grown up, and seem to be stuck in, a small seaside town. Fausto, having seduced the sister of his friend Moraldo, is forced to marry her. He takes a job at a small shop selling religious artefacts, but the couple, with a baby on the way, have to stay with Sandra’s parents until they can afford a place of their own. Marriage does not change Fausto’s womanising ways and he is still forever chasing women, including his boss’s wife, which gets him fired. His friends are of similar temperament, content to be idle, chase women and leave the job hunting to others. The film is funny, the story told with great humanity. Some early beginnings of the imagery that would come to feature so strongly in Fellini’s later movies (life as a circus, humans as performers) is present in the carnival scenes. The film is said to be partly autobiographical of Fellini’s early life in Rimini. A lovely movie, genuinely touching in parts and a joy to watch. I saw this as part of the Art Gallery of NSW’s current Picasso Goes To The Movies series, an excellent program to coincide with a major Picasso exhibition. Next week: La Strada!

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (again)

2012-01-18T16:23:00.002+11:00

Ah, the remake. I’m afraid I have never been one for the remake. I just don’t see the point. Oh sure, I see the commercial sense. Many more people, including those unable to read quickly enough to keep up with subtitles, will now see this story. Writer Stieg Larrson’s heirs will have more royalties to tussle over, but from my point of view once was enough. It was done, and done well, in Swedish with Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist. Repeating the same story blow-by-blow with new actors, speaking English in Sweden, is just unnecessary. I’m not saying Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara have made a bad job of it. On the contrary, they are very good and it’s a good, very well made film, but it adds nothing new to Mr Larrson’s novel. In fact, apart from the language, the only new element that stood out was the somewhat overblown graphics behind the opening titles. Very foreboding, abstractly dark and dramatic, backed by some noise from Trent Reznor. I would say that as an introduction it actually detracts from the experience. The Swedish version started out very low key and quiet, making the sudden violence all the more unexpected and impactful. You also don’t need a man of Craig’s physicality to play Mikael Blomkvist. I kept expecting him to whip out some Bond moves.

Tree of Life

2012-01-05T10:09:00.007+11:00

Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, one of the stand out movies of 2011, is the type of film that will continue to generate reams of discussion for years to come. Already the web is sagging under the weight of words written about this film. The most commonly used phrase to describe it is that it is a hugely ambitious undertaking. So it is. It is also magnificently ambiguous, wide open to interpretation. It demands many repeat viewings, if only I could afford the time. So many movies, so little time. After one viewing I can only say two things for certain about Tree of Life. One, it will stay with you. It will rattle around your head for days to come. You will find yourself thinking about it at the strangest moments. Two, it is visually beautiful in every respect. From the grand scale visualization of the Big Bang, to the scenes involving dinosaurs, to the seemingly mundane scenes of family life, every shot is lovely. As far as deeper interpretation goes, we will all have our personal views. This is indeed what makes a great work of art. I’ll leave that to other, deeper thinkers to write about, or perhaps to Malick himself. This is an extract from an early version of his script: Is nature mere weather, doing and undoing without end? What does it work toward? What purpose does it have in view? [...] The first fishes with amphibian traits gain the shore. Swamp and marshland have replaced the wide, windy plains of the preceding agers. The forms of vegetation are simple, few. There are no reeds or grasses. No flower breaks the gloom. The earth is a vast, wet Eden. Except near the poles, there are no seasons. Each year is like the last. Reptiles emerge from the amphibians, and dinosaurs in turn from the reptiles. Among the dinosaurs we discover the first signs of maternal love, as the creatures learn to care for each other. Is not love, too, a work of the creation? What should we have been without it? How had things been then? Silent as a shadow, consciousness has slipped into the world.

Moneyball

2011-11-15T13:06:00.001+11:00

Moneyball is movie that is entirely about baseball, but is so well-made and gripping that it can be enjoyed even if you have no interest in the sport. It’s the story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the General Manager of the Oaklands Athletics and how he takes the team through a record-breaking season despite having a budget for players that is a fraction of that of major teams such as the Yankees or Red Sox. He does this by employing a rational, results-based approach to the selection of players called Sabermetrics, propagated in the film by a Yale Economics graduate, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), whom Billy hires as his assistant GM. It’s a bit like applying the principles of value investing to baseball. It’s a true story, based on the book by Michael Lewis, who also wrote the financial exposés, Liars’ Poker and The Big Short. It also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as the team’s manager. Great performances all ‘round and great storytelling form director Bennett Milller.

Midnight In Paris

2011-10-26T16:40:00.002+11:00

This is Woody Allen’s love letter to Paris. A wonderful film, one of his very best, which is saying a lot, because Woody is a cinematic treasure. Owen Wilson plays Gil, the Woody-esque character in this film. To Owen’s credit he speaks the lines that Woody Allen would have said, but without completely surrendering his own take on the character. Gil is a successful Hollywood screenwriter with literary ambitions. He wants to write a proper novel and he wants to live in Paris. He feels a nostalgic connection to the Paris of the twenties, when the city was home to great American writers such as Hemmingway and Fitzgerald. Gil is on holiday in Paris with his soon to be bride and her parents, people from whom he should run as far away as possible. Through some unexplained magic Gil is transported back to the twenties, where he meets his literary heroes and also other artists such as Picasso and the film-maker Louis Bunuel. There are many in-jokes involving the famous literary and artistic characters. Often we feel a sense of nostalgia that is probably false for a by-gone era, particularly for one that we have not lived through ourselves. We see it as a golden age, far more satisfactory than the time we are living in, with all its banality. The Paris for which Gil longs is long gone and can never be regained. Nonetheless, there is much left to love about the Paris of 2011. The film opens with a long series of present day street scenes, breathtaking in their beauty. No matter where you live or whether you ever go there, we can take great comfort from knowing that a place like Paris still exists in the world.

Bill Cunningham New York

2011-07-15T12:26:00.001+10:00

Bill Cunningham takes photographs of the clothes that people are wearing on the streets of New York. He does this every day, getting around on his bicycle, wearing his trade-mark blue jacket. In the evenings he rides his bicycle to New York’s leading social events, where he takes photos of what the celebrities are wearing. His photos are published in the New York Times (http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/style/on-the-street/1247463985977/index.html). He is 83 years old and he has been doing this since 1978. Richard Press and Philip Gefter have made this documentary about Bill, his photos and daily life. It is extraordinary, one of the most moving and inspiring films I will very see. Since seeing this film at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago about a month ago I have thought about it almost every single day. What makes it extraordinary is Bill’s singular dedication to, and passion for, what he does. Following his passion with this much dedication has done two exceptional things. One, it has made Bill one of the most important people in the world of fashion, although he does not even consider himself a “fashion photographer”. There is a wonderful scene, where after struggling to gain access to a Paris fashion show, Bill is recognised and ushered in by someone who describes him as “the most important man in the world”. Two, it has made him one of the happiest people you are ever likely to see. His happiness is so obvious and palpable that you cannot help but be moved and inspired. Here truly is a man who is doing what he loves and as a result needs very little else. His needs could not be simpler. For most of the last 30 years he has lived in a rented studio in Carnegie Hall, which is filled with filing cabinets of his photos. His bed is a thin mattress spread on top of some of the cabinets. He buys his blue jackets in Paris. From a high-end boutique designer store? No, they are the jackets worn by French garbage collectors. He buys them in bulk because they tend to wear out from rubbing against his camera, which is as much a permanent part of his wardrobe as anything else. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. It should be compulsory viewing in schools so that kids can see the type of happiness that can only be gained from pursuing your true passion in life.

Crimes & Misdemeanors

2011-04-24T14:34:00.001+10:00

Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors is two stories that run in parallel and intersect only in the very last scene. One is centered around Judah (Martin Landau) who is at the end of a two year affair with a younger woman. She is not content to fade away without a fight and threatens to expose their affair to his wife and also bring to light his dubious financial practices. Judah decides to take action through his brother who appears to be well connected to the underworld. The other story is of Cliff Stern (Allen), a not very successful documentary film maker, who is commissioned to make a biopic on his famous brother-in-law, played by Alan Alda. In the process of making the film Cliff meets and falls for Jenny, one of the production assistants. Its all classic Allen with much pondering on relationships, life, death and morality. There are some hilarious quotes, my favorite being "Where I grew up in Brooklyn no one committed suicide, we were all too unhappy".

Paul

2011-04-18T15:06:00.002+10:00

Here is a priceless bit of school holiday fun. Paul stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the pair responsible for such gems as Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead. Paul is not as violent as those two and is their first US outing. It is a HUGE amount of fun from start to finish. Some may think the swearing and occasional adult humour is a bit much for kids, but I can’t remember when last my three boys (12, 10 and 8) enjoyed a movie as much. They were literally squealing with delight. Paul is an alien with attitude, who crashed to earth in 1947 after having a bit of trouble with his spaceship around Roswell. Its established early on that he really isn’t a very good driver. Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost), English tourists, come across Paul after he has another spectacular car crash in the dessert. He convinces them to give him a ride to a destination where he can meet up with his mother ship and so a hilarious road trip ensues. I love every bit of this movie, but in particular the fun poked at fundamentalist christians. At one point Paul heals the eye of Ruth Buggs, the daughter of just such a fanatic. When she asks him how he did it, he replies: “evolution, baby….evolution!”. The movie contains many references to previous alien movies and includes a brief cameo from Steven Spielberg.

Never Let Me Go

2011-04-13T14:59:00.001+10:00

Kazuo Ishiguro has long been one of my favourite authors. The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go and particularly, The Unconsoled, rank among my best loved books. I was therefore very excited by the prospect of this film and I was not disappointed. Never Let Me Go is a beautiful, well-considered interpretation of an unusual and unsettling novel. The story involves the imagining of an alternative reality, where medical science has enabled the growing of human clones that are used as organ donors. The donors are isolated from society, raised in special boarding schools where they are taught about what they are and what the purpose of their lives is. The story focuses on the lives of three clones, Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightly). We see them grow up together at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham College, then live as young adults at “the Cottages” a residential centre where they begin to make limited contact with the outside world. Finally, we see them “complete” their short lives as they donate first one, then two and, if they survive, perhaps three or four, vital organs. As you might imagine, it’s a desperately sad story, but it is told without undue sentimentality or melodrama. The donors calmly accept their fate and I wondered whether that would happen in real life. I expect it would in the absence of outside agitation. If you are taught from birth that your purpose in life is to be a donor, it’s likely that you would accept that, unless someone made a strong argument to the contrary. No such argument occurs here. Society has accepted the role of donors and will not be swayed to return to the dark days of premature death from lung cancer, heart failure or kidney disease. The film is beautiful to look at and the cast are excellent, particularly Carey Mulligan who is perfectly cast. Personally, I would spend a few hours watching her read from the phone book. She has one of the most attractive, kind and expressive faces to grace our screens in recent years. Here she is perfect in the role of the “carer”, a donor herself, who has the task of helping others through their completions. The love triangle between Kathy, Ruth and Tommy forms one of the movie’s central themes. Naturally, the film raises big moral questions, but does so through dispassionate observation, rather than heavy-handed moralising. Clearly it is wrong to clone and use humans as donors in this way. The real question is: why is it wrong? How you answer this may tell you a lot about yourself.

Brighton Rock

2011-04-12T14:02:00.001+10:00

The good people at the Orpheum treated me to a preview screening of Rowan Joffe’s new version of Brighton Rock last night. Here’s a story with a rich tradition of its telling. First the book by Graham Greene, then the 1947 film version with Richard Attenborough. Now Joffe has updated the setting to Brighton in 1964. The backdrop is therefore the violent clashes between the Mods and Rockers, a peculiar bit of British senselessness. The film is visually stunning. The period setting recreated to great effect. There are many themes at play in the story. There is a strong sense of order being displaced by chaos as the genteel amusements of the Brighton Pier and the glamour of the old tea rooms and hotels give way to the loutishness and violence of the youthful gangs. Brighton is a central character in this story. I understand the 1947 film is fronted with a disclaimer to the effect that the Brighton depicted as a dark world of alleys and knife wielding gangsters no longer exists. Clearly inserted so as to not irreparably damage Brighton’s always shaky tourism industry. Fact is, the 1964 version of Brighton is also so far removed from what it is today as to seem like the landscape of an alien world. Sam Riley as the rotten Pinkie may not be quite as menacing as Richard Attenborough, but he still does an excellent job and is supported by a great cast including Helen Mirren and John Hurt. Not a happy movie to be honest, although Joffe has kept the 1947 film ending intact, rather than defaulting to the grimmer version in the book, so there is a bit of light at the end.

Black Swan

2011-04-11T12:38:00.001+10:00

I have finally caught up with the film that won Natalie Portman this year’s Best Actress Oscar. Anyone who may have read my review on June 4, 2008 of The Red Shoes could guess that I am not a great ballet aficionado. I can appreciate the artistry and hard work that goes into it and its aesthetic beauty, but I doubt I will ever be moved by dance. I cannot imagine fighting back tears watching Swan Lake. Call me a Philistine, but there it is. Fortunately you need no affinity for the ballet to enjoy and appreciate Black Swan. It is a very well made and unnerving study of a dancer’s descent into madness. Natalie Portman deserves every bit of her Oscar for a very brave and wholly committed performance. There has been much debate about how much of the dancing is her own, but that is mostly irrelevant. All of the acting is hers and she embodies the role. The film is directed by Darren Aronofsky and it has a surprising amount in common with his previous film, The Wrestler. Both films show the physical impact of a chosen profession on the bodies of its practitioners. Both deal with the pain of no longer being able to perform at one’s peak and having to pass the crown to the next generation. The avian imagery in Black Swan is truly unsettling and brings to mind Hitchcock’s The Birds, although here the threat is all from within. It’s a very powerful film and will stay with you for days, whether or not you care one jot about the ballet.

Biutiful

2011-03-06T17:14:00.002+11:00

I’m the first to say that cinema can’t be all popcorn and pratfalls, but on the other hand it’s hard to view Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful as any form of entertainment. It’s the opposite of escapism. You want to escape from it. We all have our problems, but I could not wait for this to end so that I could get back to mine, which are positively cheery compared with the poor saps in this movie. Inarritu must have stated off with a checklist of sorrows. This movie has it all: cancer, child abuse, alcoholism, clinical depression, the abuse of illegal immigrant workers, poverty and oodles of death, all set amongst a backdrop of fetid squalor. Lovely. Then the clincher. If you are disposed to believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden and other elements of the supernatural, you may find the conclusion, which implies that after death we all get together in a pristine snowy forest for a good catch up with our loved ones, uplifting. On the other hand you may just find this further delusion another reason to be depressed by this film. Undeniably, Javier Bardem gives a masterful performance and it’s true that thoughts of the film will stay with you (or perhaps I should say haunt you) for days. But for me it was just all a bit much. I was not that engaged to the extent that I wanted to go on this tough journey with these characters.

The Way Back

2011-02-18T10:21:00.001+11:00

We saw this at the Orpheum last night followed by a Q&A with Peter Weir and the Cinematographer Russell Boyd, another Australian who has collaborated with Peter on a number of films, including Hanging Rock and Gallipoli.

The Way Back is an epic tale of escape and survival. It is inspired by Slavomir Rawicz’s book The Long Walk, the story of a group of prisoners that escape a Soviet gulag and walk for more than 4,000 miles from Siberia to freedom in India. The walk takes place during the second world war, over some of the most remote and inhospitable terrain on earth.

A story this remarkable should be worthy of our attention in its own right and Weir has quite rightly resisted the temptation to up the suspense by adding the type of artificial element that you may have seen in a lesser film. There is no real pursuit of the escapees, there is very little tension between them and apart from the obviously horrific deprivations of such a long and remote trek, they encounter very few obstacles or dangers along the way. For this reason, the film may be seen as overly long and dull by many and will probably not enjoy the critical or public acclaim that it deserves.

Those that have the patience for it will be rewarded by magnificent scenery, expertly captured by Mr Boyd and fine performances from Ed Harris, Dragoc Bucur and particularly Colin Farrell as the animalistic Valka, the only real criminal in the group – all the other were political prisoners. Another excellent feature is the haunting and dramatic score by Melbourne composer Burkhard Dallwitz. Disappointingly the film’s only Oscar nomination is for make-up, which did a great job of portraying the ravaging effects of the elements on the faces of the walkers.

The stories of the gulag survivors, and indeed of the horrors of the Communist era, have not had a great deal of exposure in main stream cinema. In that regard this is a very welcome and original addition. Ultimately the film is a metaphor of the long way back to freedom and normality for Russia and the former Soviet States.

Last night’s screening was attended by a number of gulag survivors and their families, mostly from Poland.

Somewhere

2010-12-28T23:06:00.002+11:00

Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation is one of my favourite films. Somewhere has a similar theme and almost identical style. I like it immensely, but it does not resonate quite on the same level with me as LIT. At least not yet. LIT definitely grew on me over time and Somewhere may yet. I feel a bit less direct sympathy with the Stephen Dorff character, than with the Bill Murray one. We are of a different age for one thing. For another, I somehow feel that Dorff’s Johnny’s predicament may be more of his own making. This is not necessarily a fair appraisal. Regardless, this is an excellent film. Coppola’s style of the calm, coolly observing camera is wonderfully effective. Elle Fanning (Dakota’s younger sister) is magnificent as Cleo. At 12 she already has 32 film credits and we will be seeing much more of her.

The King's Speech

2010-12-28T22:42:00.001+11:00

A masterpiece. This is the spellbinding story of King George VI’s battle with a debilitating stammer and of Lionel Logue, his speech therapist, who helps him through all of the speeches that he delivered during the course of WW2. If you think this sounds like a recipe for dull fare, you could not be more wrong. This film is so well made that you will be on the edge of your seat, literally mouthing the words along with Bertie, as Lionel Logue insists on calling the King, as he painfully, but bravely, battles through his speeches. The performances of Colin Firth as King George and Geoffrey Rush as Logue are at the very height of the craft. Both will get Academy nominations, and both may win. You can see every nuance of humiliation and frustration suffered by the King on the face of Colin Firth. Rush brilliantly underplays the eccentricity of the unqualified Australian therapist, who must walk a fine line to be able to help the King. This may be the best picture of 2010. It has already cleaned up at the BFIs and the Golden Globe nominations are in the bag.

The Kids Are Allright

2010-12-01T12:07:00.003+11:00

Here´s one about an unusual Los Angeles family dealing with some unusual family issues. Jules and Nic are a lesbian couple who have had two children,one each - a boy and a girl, using the same sperm donor. The boy, 15, is curious about his biological father and asks his sister, who has just come of age, to help track him down. They do so, and he turns out to be Paul (Mark Ruffalo), a pleasant, earthy LA restauranteer who grows much of his own supplies locally at a small organic community farm. He is brought home to meet the Moms and complications ensue. Great performances all round. Julianne Moore is as always breathtakingly sexy and just seems to get more so as she gets older.

Love and Other Drugs

2010-12-01T11:41:00.003+11:00

Needing to kill a few hours before a Sunday evening flight from JFK, I went to see this at a huge cineplex on 42nd street near Times Square. I like going to the movies in New York, the quality of the screening and sound always seems a step ahead of anywhere else. It may just be my imagination.

Love and other drugs turned out to be a couple of hours well spent. Great performances from Jake Gyllenhaal (as Jamie) and Anne Hathaway (as Maggie). On one level its the story of the introduction of the drug Viagra in the 1990´s. On another its the rather sad and thought provoking tale of a young woman with early onset Parkinsons. Jamie and Maggie like each other very much and are keen to embark on a relationship, but both realise the implications of her having a degenarative disease. Its billed as a comedy and indeed parts are very funny, but once the reality of Maggie´s condition sinks in, the laughs are thin on the ground. Its well made though and sensitively handled by the hugely talented director Edward Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, to name but a few).

Wall Street

2010-10-26T14:08:00.002+11:00

I watched the original 1987 Oliver Stone movie just before going to see the sequel, Money Never Sleeps. Both are excellent movies, although the second cannot match the first for classic scenes like the sunrise on Long Island (remember Gekko on the beach with the brick-like mobile phone) or Gekko's speech at the shareholder meeting where he immortalised the phrase "Greed is good". Wall Street was the definitive movie of Eighties financial excess. I don't think Money Never Sleeps will be the definitive movie of the Global Financial Crises. That movie may yet come and is likely to be a dramatisation of a book such as Michael Lewis's The Big Short. Nonetheless, Money Never Sleeps is an entertaining and well made movie in its own right. Michael Douglas reprises the iconic character for which he won his well deserved Oscar and gives him greater depth. His daughter Winnie is played by the lovely and hugely talented Carey Mulligan. I can only hope we see much more of her. Shia LaBeouf is the equivalent of the Charlie Sheen character. I've yet to fully understand the excitement around Shia, but he does a very capable job here. Watch for Charlie Sheen's short cameo. In the film, Gekko explains the original market bubble, Tulip Mania, which occurred in Amsterdam around 1637 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_bubble) and there is lots of coy soap bubble imagery. What will the next bubble be? MNS seems to suggest it will be a green bubble, but I think that one may already be deflating.

The Seven Year Itch

2010-10-24T11:37:00.001+11:00

This is the 1955 Billy Wilder comedy where Marilyn Monroe famously gets the breeze from the New York subway up her skirt. It's amusing, though seldom laugh-out-loud funny, and anyone expecting something on a par with Wilder's Some Like It Hot will be disappointed. This was originally a stage play so the action is more or less confined to a couple of rooms. Marilyn is of course delightful.

Skin

2010-09-08T14:38:00.002+10:00

Skin is a movie set in South Africa in the heart of the Apartheid era. It is the true story of Sandra Laing, a girl born to white Afrikaner parents, whose life is made a living hell because of her dark complexion and curly hair. One of the legal pillars that propped up the Apartheid regime was the Population Registration Act, under which every person in South Africa was classified by race, as white, black, coloured, Indian and so forth. Under the Act persons could be reclassified from one group to the other. Pieter Dirk-Uys, is a well-loved South African satirist who used to mercilessly lampoon the Apartheid regime. Part of his act would be to simply read from the Government Gazette where recent race reclassifications were minuted. It would immediately expose how ridiculous the Law was and cause us to shake our heads in disbelief.

It may be hard for an international audience to appreciate the gravity of the situation in which Sandra Laing found herself. How can we expect people on the outside to understand that under Apartheid being reclassified from white to coloured was as unthinkable as being reclassified as something not quite human, and to which the normal rules of human decency would no longer apply.

Moreover, from the perspective of a free South Africa, Sandra's plight may now seem less serious. In the new South Africa no one cares whether you are white or black. Can we still imagine what it was like in those dark days?

This is what Skin asks its audience to do and, on the whole, it is successful. It is well made and there is no part of it that does not ring true. It boasts a very capable international cast, the English, Sophie Okonedo as Sandra, New Zealand's Sam Neil and South Africa's own, Alice Krige and Tony Kgoroge. It's a tale with a reasonably happy ending, if not so much for Sandra, for whom the changes came a bit too late, then at least for all the other Sandras who came after her and those yet to be born.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

2010-08-24T14:17:00.001+10:00

I saw the first instalment of Stieg Larrson's phenomenal Millennium trilogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, at the old Paramount Cinema in Wellington a few months ago. Any trip to the Paramount is a pleasure. It's testimony to how the more relaxed New Zealand approach can triumph over the inflexible rigidity we seem to need to insist on in Australia. There is nothing particularly special about the physical infrastructure of the Paramount. Its very comfortable, but the state of its furnishings may bring to mind the words "flea" and "pit". By comparison, my local cinema, the Hayden Orpheum in Cremorne, Sydney is a shining, immaculately restored art-deco palace. But its much more fun going to the Paramount. For one thing you can buy a good Pinot at the snack bar and take it in with you. Last night I saw the next Millennium instalment, The Girl Who Played With Fire, at the Orpheum where the evening began with the traditional barring of entry by the door Nazi to patrons that had been so foolish as to buy glasses of the expensive plonk on offer.

Both movies have been gripping, intelligent and very well made. Having not read Larrson's books, I believe I am at an advantage, as I really had no idea what to expect. Every twist and turn came as a complete surprise. The lead actors are completely convincing, Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist. I have seen Nyqvist before in the excellent As It Is In Heaven. The films are gritty and very real, which makes the violence shocking and the suspense sometimes hard to bear.

The real-life story behind the author, Stieg Larrson, is as fascinating as his books. He died in 2004 shortly after handing the books over for publication and so had no knowledge of their huge, world-wide success (27 million copies in 40 countries). There are sinister rumours surrounding his death. In real life he was, much like his Blomkvist character, an editor of a controversial magazine, investigating corruption in the Swedish secret police.

From Russia With Love

2010-08-15T22:31:00.001+10:00

The second Bond movie. From 1963 this one features the frightening Rosa Klebb, her with the shoe blade and the famous fight on the Orient Express. Tatiana Romanova is the cypher clerk at the Soviet embassy in Istanbul who is duped into service by SPECTRE to seduce Bond and......well to be honest I'm not sure what the evil plan was exactly. It seemed to involve some sort of deciphering machine. Of course, it is soundly foiled, young Tatiana falls head over heels for Bond, many fine Vodka martinis are enjoyed and we are promised at the end that Bond will be back in Goldfinger.

Inception

2010-08-14T21:13:00.002+10:00

I can well believe that many people will not be able or willing to concentrate hard enough to completely understand the plot of Inception. A film about dreams, about invading the dreams of others, and about dreams within dreams, where movement and events in one dream can effect the very physics of the others. It's brilliant. It's said to have taken Christopher Nolan ten years to write and I can well believe that. Especially as Mr Nolan has not exactly been bereft of other projects during the last ten years. He reinvented Batman, gave us the masterpiece The Dark Knight and the excellent mind bending Memento.

Inception is another quality film for Leonardo Dicaprio who just cannot put a foot wrong. It's a good turn also for Ellen Page who is an excellent actress deserving of good roles. It also features a small part for Michael Caine. It's visually stunning, the action is well done and the plot brilliant, but it will take a bit of effort to keep up.

Dr No

2010-07-26T17:42:00.002+10:00

I have started a collection of the Bond series on Blueray. Being a stickler for that sort of thing I am buying and watching them in strict chronology. Dr No was the first, released in 1962, starring the then 32 year old Sean Connery. It must have had quite an impact. Few movies at the time could match its production values. My Dad can remember seeing his first Bond movie From Russia With Love at the old Playhouse cinema in Durban. He remembers the impact of the vividly colourful locations and the action scenes. Dr No has one of the most fondly remembered Bond girls, Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder. Who can forget that scene where she emerges from the water as Bond watched from the beach? The villain of the title, Dr No, played by Joseph Wiseman has very little screen time and is only around long enough to be unceremoniously dumped by Bond into the boiling water surrounding his nuclear reactor. His clumsy artificial hands claw helplessly at the metal structure as he tries in vain to escape, his somewhat vague plan of spoiling American rocket launches foiled. It’s a pleasure watching these old Bonds. They look stunning on Blueray – impossibly crisp and clear for a nearly 50 year old film.

Greenberg

2010-07-24T13:46:00.002+10:00

Greenberg is a slightly tedious movie about an extremely tedious man, played with frightening conviction by Ben Stiller. Greenberg is man who hates the world only a little bit less than he hates himself. Having just checked out of a mental institution following a nervous breakdown, he is coming from New York, where he lives and works as a carpenter, to LA to live in his brother's large house for six weeks. His brother and family will be away, leaving Greenberg with Florence, the family's personal assistant. Apparently families have personal assistants in LA. Florence is as warm and likeable as Greenberg is not. Inexplicably, she seems to like him and the two start a sort of halting affair. The compelling part (the only compelling part) of this movie is watching Greenberg try to get beyond himself to reach out and be decent to Florence, who would be the best thing that ever happened to him, if he would just give her a chance. By the end there are tentative signs that he may manage, but by then we have ceased to care, even if Florence hasn't. This movie has a theme reminiscent of the far superior As Good As It Gets. That movie is always a pleasure to watch. The Nicholson character, while being as self centred as they come, was someone you could imagine caring about. Greenberg is not. The movie is not hugely enjoyable and a tad pointless. Great performances from Stiller and Greta Gerwig as Florence.

Has anyone seen Marty?

2010-07-06T15:47:00.000+10:00

Today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future after hitting 88mph in a pimped out Delorean in 1985.

Ellie Parker

2010-07-05T14:43:00.000+10:00

If your daughter, or your son for that matter, tell you that he or she wants to be an actor and make it big in the movies, force them to watch Ellie Parker. It is a very bleak comedy of a few days in the life of an aspiring young actress as she charges around Los Angeles auditioning for minor roles in crappy movies. The grimness of her so called professional life, is perfectly matched by a hopeless and empty private life. She lives with her boyfriend who is introduced to us is a brilliant wordless scene that cries "LOSER!" more eloquently than a thousand words could. Ellie bemoans her relationship with him in a hilarious scene with her therapist. In parts this movie is excruciating to watch, no more so than the auditions and in particular the last one where the director and producers are all falling-down drunk. There are some very funny moments too. My favourite being when Ellie and her friend pause for a rest during a walk in the Hollywood hills. Her friend looks out at the view and says "My God, that is so beautiful". The camera swivels on to a hazy, colourless view of LA, the buildings barely visible through the smog. A great parody on the Hollywood movie industry and I suspect very close to the truth. Naomi Watts is excellent.

Toy Story 3

2010-07-02T10:49:00.001+10:00

Isn't it wonderful (and so rare) when a franchise gets better with each sequel? Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were excellent. Ground breaking work for Pixar and literally a new frontier in animation. Toy Story 3 does not push the envelope in term of technical prowess. We have now grown accustomed to breathtaking, razor sharp, images in 3D. What Toy Story 3 does is use the technology so well that we forget about it. The story is engaging, suspenseful (sometimes quite scary), moving and in a sense miraculous, in that you end up really caring about these toy characters. They have had many adventures and faced great uncertainty together. We admire their courage and determination to stick together no matter what. When Andy says that the most important thing about Woody is that "he will never, ever give up on you, no matter what", we nod in agreement. Woody has demonstrated his loyalty throughout the series. I suspect that sadly this may be the last we see of these toys. The story reaches a natural and very satisfying ending. The Toy Story franchise is immensely enjoyable cinema of the highest quality. More than any of the other excellent movies they have made, it has cemented Pixar's reputation as the leaders in the now hugely important animation genre. It deserves its status as a classic and will stand up to many repeat viewings in the years to come. I'm off to get the Bluerays.

Dan In Real Life

2010-07-01T22:37:00.000+10:00

A lovely, comforting, sweet comedy with Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche. Dan is a widower raising three daughters on his own. He is a newspaper columnist writing a column about parenting. Ironically he is a bit clingy in his own parenting. Most of the story takes place at his parent's beach house on Rhode Island. He meets and connects with Marie, who turns out to be his brother's new girlfriend and off we go. There are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments and some very touching moments. I enjoyed seeing John Mahoney (Marty Crane in Frasier) again who plays Dan's dad.

Alice in Wonderland

2010-03-22T12:02:00.001+11:00

I still can't help but wonder why we keep rehashing the same stories. Is it that executives feel comfortable with the known and familiar and assume that if film goers have flocked to see previous versions of a story then surely they will flock to see another? Is it that each generation of new directors cannot resist putting their individual stamp on the classics? Or is it that we have just run out of good new and original stories? Whatever the reason, here we go down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass once more. This time with Tim Burton at the helm, which means that Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter (Tim's wife) cannot be far behind. Now, all three of these people are geniuses. You would expect them to do an excellent job of interpreting Lewis Carroll's classic and you will not be disappointed. Tim's visuals are always at the cutting edge and his interpretations of the Wonderland characters are dark, creepy and fascinating. Closer than ever to the original illustrations by John Tenniel. Who could imagine an actor better suited to playing the Mad Hatter than Depp? He adds a large dollop of sadness to the madness, channelling a bit of the genuine tragedy of 18th century hatters losing their minds from the mercury poisoning which was a hazard of their trade. Mercury was used in the manufacture of felt. Helena is truly funny and quite menacing as the Red Queen. In this version Alice is a young adult facing the prospect of marriage. It has therefore a more adult theme and should appeal to a wide audience. A delight for the eyes, entertaining performances, including Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, but ultimately somewhat lacking in anything truly new and remarkable.

Syd Mead

2010-03-19T12:35:00.001+11:00

Last night I joined a few hundred nerds at the Orpheum to see saw The Visual Futurist, a documentary on the work of Syd Mead, followed by a Q&A with the man himself. Syd is responsible for some of the most pioneering design work in science fiction film, including on Blade Runner and Aliens. He is an incredibly clever man with an old fashioned work ethic. While he clearly respects the talented people working in CGI, his work remains old-school. Paint applied to paper with animal hairs, as he put it. His work is extraordinary and he really should have greater recognition as a major artist. He shows off an abstract work that he had made as a bit of fun for his house in Orange County. He used some of the left over paint from decorating and a few junk items he found around the house. I could easily imagine the finished article on display at the Moma. Syd is contemptuous, and rightly so, of artists that work only in the abstract and regards much of this type of art as a massive con (which of course it is). While most of last night's audience probably think The Big Bang Theory is reality TV, I enjoyed the evening and found Syd inspiring.

We have a bingo!

2010-03-08T13:25:00.000+11:00

The Academy Awards have started in style, with the first category announced being best supporting actor. As expected, Christoph Waltz won for his role in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds.

Colonel Landa

2010-03-03T09:35:00.001+11:00

The Oscar pick I feel strongest about this year is Christoph Waltz for supporting actor. Having watched the basterds on blue ray again I was fascinated anew by his compelling turn as Colonel Hans Landa. More so than on the first viewing. Waltz creates here a character that is entertaining and fascinating in the way a brightly coloured, but deadly venomous tropical fish may be. Impossible to look away from. He combines deadly menace, with smooth and genuinely likeable charm, with the enthusiasm of a game show host. I'm holding thumbs for him to win.

Invictus

2010-01-25T10:50:00.001+11:00

Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, is probably the best biopic of Nelson Mandela that we are going to get. Like many good biographical films Invictus does not attempt to portray the full scope and breadth of Mandela's life, but rather reveals key aspects of his character by tracking him closely through a critical event or time. Stephen Frear's The Queen is another excellent example of this approach, where Queen Elizabeth II's reaction at the time of Princess Diana's death is closely examined. Invictus focuses on events in South Africa in 1995 when Nelson Mandela was the newly elected President and the Springbok rugby team won the world cup. It is a truly inspiring and moving account. Morgan Freeman was born to play the role of Mandela. He goes beyond performance to completely embody the character. It is extraordinary that a character as well known as Mandela can be portrayed that convincingly. Matt Damon is also excellent as Francois Pienaar, hitting the right note with that tricky accent and even doing well with a few sentences of Afrikaans. If fact, he does a better job of the Afrikaans bits than Morgan.

I know that as an South African expat I am too close to these events to be completely objective, but I loved every minute of this movie and it will become one of my firm favourites. I was moved to embarrassing snuffling on several occasions. I remember watching the final of the 1995 World Cup in a bar in Singapore. Even in this far flung corner of the world, there was great excitement over the Springbok win and the tension of the close game was almost unbearable.

The title Invictis is from a poem by William Ernest Henley in 1875.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

In the movie, Mandela gives a hand-written copy of the poem to Francois Pienaar as inspiration before the World Cup. In reality, I understand he actually gave him a copy of the famous "Man in the Arena" speech made by Teddy Rooseveldt at the Sorbonne in 1910. This is the key extract:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Invictus may not be the best film ever made, it may not even be the best that Clint Eastwood has made, but it is, beyond doubt and by far, the best film ever made about South Africa.

The Lovely Bones

2010-01-20T14:31:00.000+11:00

Usually I like to write a little review as soon after seeing a movie as possible. If I don't, its likely to get crowded out by other things. However, with The Lovely Bones, I'm glad I have waited a week or so. Some movies grow on you over time and are all the better after some reflection. With The Lovely Bones, it has been quite the reverse. Just after seeing it I felt inclined to give Peter Jackson the benefit of the doubt. After all this is the man who brought us The Lord Of The Rings. Sadly though, The Lovely Bones is anything but lovely. Its a mess. It doesn't work as a thriller. Is it a serious drama? Really? Is it a feel good movie about serial rape and murder? I have not read the book, but if this is an accurate adaptation I cannot begin to imagine how confusing that must be. Saoirse Ronan does a good job of playing the role expected of her, but no amount of convincing acting could save this. I should have know that the presence of the hapless Mark Wahlberg was a bad sign. This poor bloke is not a bad actor, he just makes the most horrible choices, starting with that awful remake of The Planet Of The Apes. A deeply unsatisfying film.

Up In The Air

2010-01-20T12:44:00.000+11:00

Jason Reitman is only 32 and has made three of the best movies of the last ten years: Thank You For Smoking, the magnificent Juno and now Up In The Air, which has already won him the Golden Globe for his screenplay. Its a highly enjoyable, engaging and entertaining movie. To me it was particularly engaging because of the amount of travelling I do (some of it in the US) for business. Although, I am nowhere near Ryan Bingham's 10 million miles. I loved the bits where he moves through airport security with military precision and sympathised with his impatience with less capable travellers. I identified with the feeling that comes with solo travel of being connected, having the comfort of being surrounded by people and yet the independence and freedom of being alone. Its a wonderful and detailed performance from George Clooney. His two female supports, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, are no less effective. But the bulk of the credit here goes to Reitman, who is shaping up to be one of the masters of our time. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Scrooged

2009-12-23T15:58:00.000+11:00

One of my all time favourite Christmas movies. We watch it every year. The final scene always brings tears to my eyes. Bill Murray is fantastic as the ridiculously mean Frank Cross, the TV executive who schedules a live production of A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. The story uses all the essential elements of the Dickens novel, updated and set in 1980s New York. I love Carol Kane as the wacky Ghost of Christmas Present. The bit where she belts Frank with the toaster never fails to make me laugh. Bill’s real-life brother James Murray plays his brother in the movie. The Murrays are a large family of 9 kids, 5 of whom are actors (well - of sorts – one sister is a Dominican Sister who travels around the US portraying St Catherine of Siena). It was nominated for an Oscar for best makeup. The work on the Ghost of Christmas Future and the very funny ghost of Frank’s old, dead, boss was pretty much state of the art at the time. Bill got a Saturn (Academy of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror Films) nomination for best actor. I think he deserved much more for this role, particularly the over-the-top, but seemingly completely sincere, speech that he delivers at the end. You can’t go wrong with settling down to watch Scrooged at any point of your Christmas celebrations.

Dracula

2009-12-22T21:04:00.000+11:00

This is the classic 1931 version with Bela Legosi in the title role. He had the perfect accent and demeanour for Dracula. His take on the character set the benchmark for so many screen vampires to come. Those exaggerated claw-like hand movement and swishing cape. Of course, this version of Dracula has long since ceased to be frightening and is now of mainly historical interest – there is a not a drop of blood or even a nasty set of elongated incisors to be seen in the whole movie. The sets are fascinating, particularly the interiors of the Transylvanian castle, the massive fireplace reminded me of Citizen Kane. Dwight Frye is an excellently demented Renfield and Edward van Sloan is good as Van Helsing (I wonder what he would make of the Hugh Jackman’s version in 2004). There are some classic lines that have slipped into movie folklore: “Children of the night, the music they make”, so lovingly parodied by Robert Kaufman in 1979’s Love at First Bite (a movie I would quite like to see again).

Avatar

2009-12-20T10:45:00.001+11:00

I must admit that when I first read about Avatar I thought that James Cameron was going to have a huge flop on his hands. It just sounds like a recipe for disaster. A love story between a man in a genetically fabricated alien body and a female alien set on an entirely made-up world, featuring a heavily green and anti-war message...hmmm..I can just see how that synopsis would make a veteran Hollywood producer’s eyes roll. But amazingly, Cameron pulls it off. At almost three hours, it was in danger of making my bum a little numb, but the action in the last act is so spectacular that in the end it didn’t seem overly long. Its visually stunning. Cameron is at heart a technician and here again he advances what is technically possible on the screen as he did with Titanic. Avatar is not officially an animation, but it relies so heavily on CGI that it might as well be. The blurring of the boundaries between live action and animation continues to gain pace. I was reading The Envelope, the LA Times supplement which precedes the start of the award season, and seven or eight of the top movies of the past year have been animations. I don’t know whether this is good or bad. Time will tell. One interesting side effect may be that we get film actors who do not necessarily look like movie stars. What does it matter what you look like in real life when you can be portrayed in any form by your screen Avatar?

A Christmas Carol

2009-12-19T13:54:00.001+11:00

A truly magnificent piece of work from Disney. A Christmas Carol is breathtakingly beautiful. Its rendering of a snowy, Dickensian London has to be seen to be believed. In 3D in feels as though you are there. I’m sure I could feel the snowflakes! This is not a modernised version, but stays true to the language and story of Dickens. As a result, it is quite surprisingly scary in parts and will almost certainly be a bit too much for some younger children. But for those that can tough it out past the frightening door knob (this was the bit that scared me most as a kid) and the bony fingers of the Ghost of Christmas Future, this will be a very rewarding film. Destined to be a seasonal classic. Visually, a masterpiece.

Fall of the House of Usher

2009-12-19T13:27:00.001+11:00

An infamous horror movie in its day, Fall of the House of Usher is by today’s horror standards incredibly mild. Modern day audiences will be more amused than frightened by the horror clichés that House of Ushers and its contempories pioneered. And all the clichés are present and correct here. The vast, bleak old house on the moors, the creepy butler, creaking and suddenly slamming doors, coffins and skeletons galore, a bit of fake blood and, of course, the climax played out in a deafening thunder storm. Vincent Price is at his mysterious and creepy best. The hero (Mark Damon) can only helplessly stumble around the great mansion, narrowly escaping a horrible death at every turn and occasionally looking so comically shocked that one can only laugh. Myrna Fahey makes for a beautiful damsel in distress, until she is buried alive and comes back as a red-eyed demon with super human strength. Amusing enough, but really only worth seeking out for its historical value.

Up

2009-09-25T15:30:00.001+10:00

I have seen quite a few movies lately, most of which I have not yet had time to write about. Up is by far the pick of the bunch. It is a wonderful and highly enjoyable animation from the ever reliable Pixar. It features some great voice actors, including Ed Asner, John Ratzenberger (Cliff from Cheers) and Christopher Plummer. The art work is gorgeous and it looks a treat in 3D, a technology which is now pretty much perfected and will become the standard for animation. It is very funny. There is plenty of humour that will appeal to kids and adults alike. But what makes Up really special and makes it stand out from the crowd is the story. The story is complex, magical, entertaining, heart-warming and yet believable and not at all sentimental. Its an extreme rarity to see a new and original story this good. Up is destined to become a Walt Disney classic. Pure brilliance.

The Corporation

2009-09-23T15:23:00.000+10:00

Any film that features as talking heads the unbearable lefty likes of Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and, worst of all by far, the Jabba-the-hut role model for the self righteous and self promoting, the sloth-like and always disgusting Michael Moore, is not likely to gain a sympathetic viewing from me. Just as I was getting over my initial revulsion for these three and starting to think that the movie made a fairly good case for the need for corporate ethics, it descended into complete, gibbering nonsense. By the end it was holding corporate America responsible for everything from global warming to Nazi death camps. It would be entertaining for taking itself so seriously and for some of the more inane comments if it was not so overly long and repetitive. In the end it is merely dross.

District 9

2009-08-30T22:21:00.001+10:00

Compared with the rest of the CGI inflated dross that has been dished up this year (see Transformers 2 and GI Joe as prime examples) this rough-hewn and gritty parable is a masterpiece. It’s a parable (an allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson) because of the obvious connections between its South African setting and the story of displaced aliens being separated from the human population in the cordoned-off District 9. The title itself is an reference to District 6, the area of Cape Town where for a while all races lived in harmony only to be forcibly displaced under Apartheid rule. The grittiness of the South African location also lends authenticity to the story, which is at least partly filmed in a mockumentary style. There is much to like here. It is original and unexpected. The cast of relative unknowns are terrific, particularly Sharlto Copley as the hapless Wikus van der Merwe, the officious bureaucrat out of his depth. That you end up rooting for him is testament to the effectiveness of the story telling. This is Copley’s first feature credit. He does not even have a profile photo on IMDB. But he is great, playing a character with some real depth. Incredibly, I understand that he ad-libbed all his lines. At times he is quite funny and its particularly funny (for me) to hear him swear in Afrikaans. Generally, it’s very unusual to see a South African film with this kind of blockbuster status. Although its credited as a USA/NZ production (because of Producer Peter Jackson), its South African roots are undeniable, with Director Neill Blomkamp and the unmistakable (at least to me) Johannesburg location. This is also Blomkamp’s first feature. The film is perfectly set up for a sequel and I’m sure the Kaspers (a South African brand of armoured car) will be rolling into District Ten soon. By the way, my first comment is not meant to deride CGI. All the aliens in District 9 are created with CGI. The point is that here it is being used in support of a worthwhile and entertaining movie, not propping up a no-brain spin-off based on a child’s toy.

Double Indemnity

2009-08-08T22:18:00.000+10:00

One of the early Noirs, this one by Billy Wilder, from whom one can always expect a quality product. It’s hard to fathom the real motivation of the pair of murderers, played by Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. They kill her husband, ostensibly to collect a $100,000 “double indemnity” life insurance payment and because they are “crazy about each other”, but their passion is never very convincing and soon completely fades after the killing. Neither even seem particularly interested in the money. Nonetheless, it’s an effective and suspenseful tale. An interesting twist is the relationship between the Fred MacMurray character and the claims manager at the insurance company played by Edward G. Robinson. Fascinating too are the manners and technology of the day (the 1930’s, although the movie was only made in 1944). The voice-over is spoken into what must have been one of the first Dictaphones and the boss of the insurance company seems put out by one of his staff not wearing a jacket to come and see him.

El Norte

2009-07-26T13:00:00.001+10:00

A lovely, sad and simple tale told by director Gregory Nava about a brother and sister who escape the persecution of the indigenous population by the junta in Guatemala in the early eighties. After their father is murdered and mother taken prisoner, they travel across Mexico to "the North" (El Norte) - the USA. They enter the country by taking a harrowing journey through a disused sewage pipe. They eventually reach Los Angeles where they become part of the large number of illegal workers and find that they have escaped one form of suppression just to become trapped in another. Its a sad and ultimately not very hopeful tale, particularly from the current perspective where almost thirty years later not all that much has changed. Immigrants continue to enter the US illegally in the hope of finding a better life and general find life pretty tough even if they manage to avoid being sent back. True, conditions in Guatemala appear to have improved to the extent that it seems to be a well-functioning democracy, but it still suffers from a great deal of crime, fuelled by the drug trade. Nonetheless, El Norte is well-made and its sad theme is lifted by some beautiful cinematography using the broad palette of Mexico and Central America.

Bruno

2009-07-20T16:55:00.001+10:00

Bruno is very, very funny, but not as funny as Borat and therefore a little bit of a disappointment. I watched Borat again to try to figure out why. I think the answer is twofold. One, Borat is a funnier character in his own right. You laugh at him even before he begins to draw out funny reactions from his hapless victims. Two, the satire in Borat is more shotgun than laser. He baits religious nuts with as much enthusiasm as red-neck college students. Bruno is focussed primarily on trying to elicit reactions to his gayness. He is looking for homophobia and the bad news (from the standpoint of wanting to make a funny film) is that, on the whole he doesn't find very much of it. The funniest Bruno victims are the parents who will agree to anything to get their babies a film role and the crowd at the climatic bare-knuckle fight. The least successful are the reactions of Ron Paul and the self defence expert. You feel sorry for them in their efforts to politely deal with this weirdo. Even the anti-gay protesters just seem to want to get away from him. Nonetheless, this is another expansion of the boundaries of what can be shown in main-stream cinema and what people will laugh at. Sacha Baron Cohen remains a comic genius and a very brave one. I can't wait for his next incarnation.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2009-07-20T14:17:00.001+10:00

Episode 6 of the continuing Harry Potter saga. It's amazing to look back at the DVDs of the previous episodes and see these children grow up to young adulthood before our eyes. I enjoyed this one, its long at 153 minutes, but manages to fit a lot in. The series has grown increasingly darker and more suspenseful with each episode and for this first time this one has some real adult scares. The first romantic inklings that cropped up in Goblet of Fire are of course expanded further as the older Hogwarts students, including Harry, become interested in a bit of snogging (or snoggling as Ebert calls it). If anything, I miss some of the enchantment of the earlier movies that revolved more around the "routine" of school days at Hogwarts (if there can be anything routine about a school for wizards) and less around the battle with Voldemort. I remember reading Enid Blighton's Famous Five novels growing up (which by the way I am rereading to my young sons now) and liking the opening chapters that set the scene, usually of some idyllic English summer holiday, more than the later chapters when the focus would shift to some adventure or other. By the way, Harry Potter owes a real debt to Blighton and other novelists who wrote so prosaically about English school day adventures.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2009-07-12T17:45:00.000+10:00

I discovered Douglas Adams at around the end of high school. Probably the perfect time to read his highly imaginative and wildly funny Hitchhiker “trilogy”, which actually consists of five novels starting with the Hitchhiker’s Guide in 1979 and ending with Mostly Harmless is 1992. I loved, absolutely loved, the books. When I saw Douglas speak in Sydney just before the Millennium (he was here to promote his excellent PC game Starship Titanic) he spoke about the forthcoming movie and I remember being a little doubtful about how well the books would translate to film.

Fortunately, thanks to CGI nothing is unfilmable and the movie is by no means a disappointment. It is very well cast. Martin Freeman is perfect as the bemused Arthur Dent, whose house is bulldozed to build a bypass just minutes before his entire planet is demolished to make way for an intergalactic express way. The delightfully cute and quirky Zooey Deschanel is great as Trillion and no one could have done the Guide voiceover as much justice as Stephen Fry. Some of the visuals are quite strikingly beautiful and awe inspiring such as the scenes in the planet factory with Slartibartfast, well played by Bill Nighy. It’s such a shame that Douglas Adams died before this movie was released. I think he would have liked it.

Fanny & Alexander

2009-06-30T14:48:00.000+10:00

Considered by many to be Ingmar Bergman's crowning achievement, this is an epic tale of a Swedish family set at the beginning of the twentieth century. It begins with festive family Christmas celebrations at the home of the Ekdahl family, a well to do and cultured bunch. Oscar Ekdahl runs the local theatre, where he occasionally plays a small role in one of the shows. He is clearly not well and seems to be aware that he is not long of this world. He makes an impassioned speech at the theatre's Christmas party. He dies soon after and the widow, Emilie Ekdahl, the lovely Ewa Froling, is left alone with her two young children Fanny and Alexander. The film more or less comes from Alexander's point of view. The widow unwisely marries the local Bishop, a pompous villain, excellently portrayed by Jan Malmsjo. He does a very good job and I guarantee that you will despise his character long before the end of the film and take secret delight when he dies in a gruesomely painful way. After a long, dark spell the children and their mother are reunited with the wider family and all is well. Alexander is at least partially biographical of Bergman, who himself had a domineering minister as a father. I watched the abridged 3 hour version. I understand the full version runs to five hours and is best watched as a mini-series in episodes. Its a full, intelligent and delightful film. It makes interesting comments on life and religion, but does so through an examination of the details of the characters' lives.

El Topo

2009-06-15T22:44:00.001+10:00

Alejandro Jodorowsky must have gone through humongous amounts of dodgy substances to come up with this one. One of the most far out and flat out weird movies I have seen. Apparently a favourite of John Lennon's when it was on the underground midnight circuit in New York. It probably seemed pretty special after a night of splitting a stash with Yoko. Its still quite fun to watch and at times downright hilarious, if you can stomach the blood, gore and cruelty.

Disgrace

2009-06-15T15:15:00.001+10:00

As someone who grew up in South Africa, I left in 1990 when I was 26, I expect my experience of both JM Coetzee's novel Disgrace and this excellent movie adaptation is far more personal and subjective than that of an independent outsider. I realised, on reading the book a few years ago, that it is an allegory of post-apartheid South Africa. At first the characters seem to represent simply different components of the population, but on closer inspection they actually represent different attitudes to the changes that have come about. At the same time Disgrace is a very real story that sadly could have been taken from the daily headlines in South Africa. The violent events portrayed are very real and indeed quite likely to occur.

Setting aside the allegorical aspects of the novel, the characters are satisfying and well-developed as real, believable people. John Malkovich is well suited to the role of David Lurie, the seedy professor who embroils himself it a scandal at the University of Cape Town by sleeping with one of his students and flees to his daughter's remote small holding. David's dissatisfaction with his life sits on him like a unfashionable and ill fitting suit. There is not a single scene where he seems at ease, either alone or with the other characters, including his daughter, to whom he cannot relate. Some critics have remarked that Malkovich's clinical approach to the character robs us of sympathy for him and lessens the tragedy of his character. I did not feel this, but felt great sympathy and even empathy for David Lurie, but perhaps that is a result of my background.

Jessica Haines is excellent as Lurie's lesbian daughter Lucy. She represents the viewpoint of that part of "white" South Africa that has completely accepted the transition to "black" rule. They consider themselves African. The notion of standing apart or leaving does not occur to them. They must accept whatever the future holds for South Africa, even if that means living in fear and humiliation.

David Lurie, on the other hand, seems to represent that part of South Africa that can never accept the change. The power of Disgrace lies in its setting out of the complexity of the conflict facing people like Lurie. It is not simply a case of being a bigot who needs to become more accepting. Lurie's daughter is repeatedly raped and he is asked to accept that she will bear the rapist's child. Is that an easy proposition for anyone to accept? Does the fact that someone does not want to live in fear and wants to protect himself and his family make him a racist?

Disgrace provides a smorgasbord of food for thought. It is a most skillful and successful conversion of a very complex work of literature to the screen. Most pleasingly it is an Australian production from the husband and wife team of Steve Jacobs (Director) and Anna Maria Monticelli (Screenwriter). The author JM Coetzee is also an Australian resident now, living in Adelaide. He holds the Nobel prize for literature and Disgrace won him his second Booker prize.

The American Friend

2009-06-15T12:43:00.000+10:00

I finally found a DVD of this 1977 Wim Wenders movie over the weekend. Anyone who has read this blog will know that I am a committed Wenders fan. I love all his movies, even the ones that are generally and routinely panned by the critics. Very few people seem to get that Wim is not about the plot, he is about the look, feel and atmosphere of the story, the characters and the places. There is no other director who can capture the atmosphere of a place as effectively or as quickly. Earlier this year I found myself in Houston where I sought out the site of the drive-through bank where a famous scene in Paris, Texas was filmed (see one of my own photos above). I was struck by how precisely that movie captured the somewhat dehumanising atmosphere of Houston, a fairly bleak urban landscape of vast modern architecture.

In The American Friend Wenders again concentrates on atmosphere and image. He cleverly contrasts the cosy, but somewhat claustrophobic workshop of the picture framer, Zimmermann, with the expansive lifestyle of Ripley, who lives in a huge house overlooking the port and travels often. The odd colours generated by the Canada Dry neon sign over Ripley's pool table accentuate his inner struggle with identity and madness, particularly in the scene where he lies on the pool table, repeatedly taking Polaroid self portraits.

Its fascinating to see how Wenders' approach to this story, which is from the Patricia Highsmith novel, Ripley's Game, differs from the far more conventional treatment in the 2002 thriller of the same name. In fact I can understand that the plot of the Wenders' version would not make sense without knowledge of the book or other film versions. He leaves too much out.

Its a compelling film, the images and atmosphere of which will stay with you long after. Many regard it as Wenders' best, but again I am out of alignment. I enjoyed it, but it does not hold a candle to his later work.

The Exterminating Angel

2009-05-29T11:49:00.000+10:00

Made by Luis Buñuel effectively in exile in Mexico in 1962, The Exterminating Angel is generally considered a sharp satire on the rites and mores of the bourgeoisie. I think it can also be taken as having quite a political message. It made me think of situations where generally decent people find themselves trapped in situations that they know are wrong. They want to change things or get away, but can't quite bring themselves to. Think of Nazi Germany, Apartheid South-Africa or New South Wales under the Labor Party. The story revolves around a formal dinner party at the home of Señor Edmundo Nobile and his wife, Lucia. The servants unaccountably leave their posts before the dinner starts. After dinner the guests adjourn to the music room, where one of the women, Blanca, plays a piano sonata. Later, instead of leaving, the guests remove their jackets, loosen their gowns, and settle down for the night. By morning it is apparent that, for some inexplicable reason, they are trapped in the room. Fascinating, ground-breaking for its time, and even now, quite thought provoking.

Grave of the Fireflies

2009-05-23T15:39:00.001+10:00

A massive emotional punch to the gut, Grave of the Fireflies is one of the saddest films you will ever see. Set during the final days of WWII in Japan, it tracks what are also the last days of Seita and his little sister Setsuka. Their family home in the port city of Kobe is firebombed. Their mother, already sick, is badly burnt and does not survive, leaving them to fend for themselves. They try living with their aunt, but she is resentful of having to feed and look after them, so they end up living in some caves by the side of a lake. Food becomes increasingly scarce and soon they are living on dried frogs that they catch in the lake. Setsuka dies of hunger and her brother soon after. It is one of the most successful “serious” animations. The lack of realism in the drawing of the characters, done in classic Anime style, does not distract at all from the emotional impact of the film. If anything it makes it easier to identify with their plight. Not a fun movie to watch, although many of the scenes, even those of the bombings, are quite beautiful. It belongs in any top ten list of anti-war movies.

Theme Park Movies

2009-05-11T14:00:00.000+10:00

Having recently returned from a trip that included visits to Disneyland and number of other Californian theme parks, I thought I'd make a list of what I'd call the main "Theme Park Movies". These are movies that have either had theme park rides based on them, or in the case of Pirates of the Caribbean are based on rides. They also have in common that watching is a bit like a theme park ride, loads of action with twists and turns.

Pirates of the Caribbean
The Terminator
Back to the Future
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Jurassic Park
The Mummy
Star Wars
Transformers
Superman
Bat Man
Wild Wild West
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

I'm sure I've left out many and would welcome additions.

M. Hulot's Holiday

2009-05-06T16:11:00.001+10:00

I recently revisited this movie on DVD while on holiday in Fiji. While my surroundings were quite different from the French seaside holiday town of Saint-Marc-sur-Mer where Tati filmed Les Vacances I could nonetheless relate to the slightly soporific feeling that a relaxed holiday creates. Becoming accustomed to the little daily routines that are different from your work-a-day routines and therefore novel and enjoyable. Becoming used to the faces of your fellow holiday makers at the breakfast table. Filling your hours with pleasant and diverting, but not too taxing, activities. Its a lovely film, more enjoyable than laugh-out-loud funny. Like the books of PG Wodehouse its like a warm blanket to wrap yourself in and escape from reality for a little while in a world of nostalgia and gentle humour. I understand that a bronze statue of M. Hulot was later erected overlooking the beach where the film was made.

The Boat That Rocked

2009-05-06T11:23:00.001+10:00

I have never before in this blog anticipated the release of a movie until The Boat That Rocked (see my review of Yes Man). I knew that I would love this movie, I wanted to to love this movie and I LOVED this movie.

Richard Curtis is the undisputed King of the feel good British comedy and he delivers again in spades here. He assembled a terrific cast, including big names like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh and the lesser names, but huge talents, of Rhys Ivans, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost and Rhys Darby (how many movies can there be with two actors named Rhys). It has a killer soundtrack with songs from The Who, Leonard Cohen, The Rolling Stones and many others. Its the story of a pirate radio station broadcasting from a boat in the North Sea during the early sixties when the BBC played a maximum of 45 minutes of popular music a day on radio. It had my wanting to leap out of my seat and cheer even before the end of the opening titles. By the end I was utterly satisfied. Its like getting stuck into a great gooey sweet baked pudding. There can be few things more fun that you can do on your own in the dark. It even looked like the actors were having fun making this. Excellent work and real entertainment. Rock & Roll!

The Great Dictator

2009-05-05T14:05:00.001+10:00

A Chaplin masterpiece. Made in 1938, when in some quarters Hitler was not yet recognised as the embodiment of evil. Chaplin takes aim firmly at the rising Fuhrer and mocks him mercilessly, taking full advantage of the similarities in appearance with his own moustachioed little clown. This was to be the last outing for Chaplin as a small man with a moustache. It is clear that Chaplin wanted to use this film to make a point. If the preceding comedy was too subtle to get this point across, then it could not be missed in the three minute oration that he delivers at the end of the film. He has often been criticized for this, but I'm happy to cut him some slack. We get two hours of some of the best comedy the world has ever seen, in exchange for sitting through three minutes of Chaplin holding forth on values that most of us would hold dear in any case. A pretty good deal.

Inherit The Wind

2009-04-09T14:13:00.001+10:00

Inherit the Wind is about the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, which pitted Darwin's theory of evolution against creationism in court. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March play Henry Drummond and Matthew Harrison Brady, characters based on the real-life court opponents Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. It is unbelievable that almost 50 years later (the movie was made in 1960), and more than 80 years after the Scopes trial, this debate is still waged in some sectors of society. I understand that according to a recent poll more than 35% of Americans believe that "God created man more or less in his current form some time in the last 10,000 years" and more than 50% doubt that man evolved from other species. Now you may think that this type of belief is only possible in the realm of the slack-jawed yokel, but 50% of Americans is quite a lot of yokels. The film really gets going in the impassioned court room arguments between the two men. Its a fascinating examination of how religion stacks up against scientific fact and the emotion evoked by the debate. Excellent performances all round.

Black Sheep

2009-04-08T14:52:00.001+10:00

Here's a bit of good clean, but bloody, fun from NZ. Best described as slapstick horror, it tells the cautionary tale of what could happen if genetically modified, mutant sheep were let loose on the world. Shot in the green and bucolic pastures of NZ sheep country. It includes some excellent lines, such as when a sheep farmer is discussing the illustrious sheep breeds.....Merino, Dromney, Drysdale the names that "young men in the land recite as they take themselves off at night." Its unsettlingly gory at times and probably not one for the kiddies or the squeamish, but generally good fun. The Kiwis have a unique sense of humour which is definitely worth checking out as we have seen with the excellent Flight of the Conchords.

Burn After Reading

2009-04-07T15:14:00.000+10:00

A very funny movie from the Coen brothers. Brad Pitt reveals a goofy side that we seldom get to see. George Clooney completes his "idiot trilogy" for the Coens, which started with O Brother Where Art Thou. Frances McDormant is again excellent and shows some of the same determination in her character as we saw in Fargo. She plays a gym instructor, looking for love on the internet and determined to raise the money to have some extensive plastic surgery done. The plot loops around itself and pops up in unsuspected places. The real joy is in the dialogue and the characters. There is one scene with Pitt and Clooney that only one character survives that is truly screamingly funny. Clooney is building something very interesting in his basement and John Malkovich is a nasty ex-CIA drunk who comes to a sticky end. Great fun.

After Hours

2009-04-03T14:04:00.000+11:00

I can vividly remember the first time I saw After Hours at the cinema on its release in the Eighties. I remember feeling completely exhausted at the end. The level of tension created in this nightmare tale is almost unbearable. Its a story that plays out over one late night in NYC about a young man who stumbles from one accidental incident or encounter to the next and gets more and more deeply into trouble. Its directed by Martin Scorsese, although its seldom remembered in lists of his great films. Its said to be at least partly autobiographical reflecting the time of his life when he was trying to get The Last Temptation of Christ made, reflecting the series of problems that cropped up on the way to getting that film made. In any event, its an absolute cracker of a movie. I was delighted to rediscover it on DVD. It still has the power to completely draw you in.

Five Easy Pieces

2009-04-03T11:58:00.000+11:00

This was the film that made Jack Nicholson into a superstar. Jack plays Robert Eroica Dupea (Bobby), a former piano protégé who is estranged from his artistic upper class family. We find Bobby working on oil rigs in California. He lives with his waitress girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black) and spends his free time bowling or drinking with his mate Elton. One day at the rigs Elton tells Bobby that Rayette is pregnant and shortly afterwards he is arrested. Bobby takes off and visits his sister (also a pianist) at a recording studio in LA. She informs him that their father has suffered two debilitating strokes. The second half of the film is about Booby visiting his father and family where they live on a remote island off Washington State. It is a simply sensational performance from Nicholson, who is playing a complex and deeply conflicted character. He does not fit anywhere. He has rejected his background and yet can never be at home in the blue collar world of his new life. There is the famous and much quoted "Chicken Salad Scene" where Bobby tells a diner waitress to "hold the chicken between her knees". The film was perfect for its time, capturing the disaffection and weariness at the end of the Sixties. Even now it is effective and enjoyable, mostly for the realism and honesty of the characters. The title "Five Easy Pieces" comes from an apparently fictitious book of piano music for childre

Cul-de-sac

2009-03-31T16:27:00.001+11:00

Here's what can only be described as a bit of dark fun from Roman Polanski (1967). Its the story of an unlikely couple being held captive by an even more unlikely invader in the form of Lionel Stander's bumbling gangster, Dickie. He and his doomed partner are on the run from some misdeed that has evidently gone horribly wrong. His partner, a completely surreal looking Jack MacGowran, dies from a "belly full of holes" shortly after arriving at the gloomy and inhospitable Rob Roy castle. Donald Pleasence, with a shaved head, plays George, the utterly emasculated husband of the delicious and very young Teresa (Francoise Dorleac). George has sold up his factory and moved with his new young wife to this forbidding and remote castle, where they are subsisting on a diet of eggs from the chicken house and where George is slipping slowly into madness. Teresa is so bored that she takes to drinking her home made vodka with Dickie and helps him to bury his partner in crime. As can be expected it all ends rather badly. Despite a rather bleak premise, Cul-de-sac is quite funny in parts and certainly sustains your interest. The cinematography is clever and some scenes are head-spinningly surreal.

Knowing

2009-03-30T14:41:00.001+11:00

Knowing is one of the best, most gripping, suspenseful and unusual films I have seen. The pace and style with which the story unfolds reminded me of Hitchcock at his best. Very few critics agree with me on this - notably the ones that do agree are the real veterans of the industry whom I most admire, such as Ebert and Stratton. I believe the negative criticism that we are seeing for this movie says not so much about the merits of Knowing, but of the dross that we have come to expect and accept at the box office. Sure, the story is preposterous but the whole point of this type of movie is to get us to suspend belief and convince us, at least for the duration of the movie, that what we are seeing, however far fetched, could actually happen. Knowing does this in spades. It takes its time to tell a story, build suspense and does not just careen from one action sequence to the next. I suspect that this is what the negative critics are missing. We have become accustomed to the thriller as virtual funpark ride - all action and no time for contemplation. Others are down on Nicolas Cage's performance. Sure he's morose, but that is what the character calls for. Is there any suggestion that he is unconvincing? - no. Those who claim that he has limited range have short memories and have clearly forgotten Wild At Heart, Leaving Las Vegas and Con Air. Never mind, I'm here to remind them. I understand that many of the Sci-Fi classics were poorly received when they first appeared, including 2001 and Bladerunner. So I believe it will be with Knowing - destined to become a classic.

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-02-24T14:12:00.000+11:00

It would take a brave man to be negative about Slumdog Millionaire after it won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, last night. I am not that brave and, in any case, I loved Slumdog. It was tough going at times as it pulls no punches in its portrayal of the hardships and cruelty of life in the Mumbai slums. But in the end its vibrancy and optimism cannot be held down. It’s a frenetic thrill ride through the life of Jamel, contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. It tells his story in retrospect by showing how he comes to know the answers to the specific questions posed on the show. The cinematography, editing and driving Bollywood musical score (all of which won Oscars last night) add up to drive the story along at a reckless pace. A rage-to-riches story in the true sense, it will leave an indelible impression, much like a first trip to India.

Vicky Christina Barcelona

2009-02-23T12:16:00.001+11:00

A wonderful, light, sexy, intelligent love-letter to Barcelona and the joys of being young and in love from Woody Allen. What a canon of work Woody has given us over the years. You can always feel sure that, regardless of the purpose of the journey or the destination, if you take the trip with Woody it will be an enjoyable one.

Many may find the ending of Barcelona unsatisfying, but most will enjoy the film and the company of these four delightful characters. All four of the main actors are excellent, interesting and engaging. The stand-out for me is Rebecca Hall as the straight laced Vicky, although the Oscar nomination has gone to Penelope Cruz for her portrayal of the passionate and somewhat unhinged Maria Elena. Javier Bardem is very engaging as the likeable Juan Antonio, a character that could not be more distant from his Chigurh in No Country for Old Men last year. A movie that will make you want to move to Spain and take up painting

Boiler Room

2009-01-15T13:32:00.000+11:00

A very well told story of greed in the mold of Wall Street. It’s about a young bloke called Seth who runs an illegal casino in his New York apartment. He does it well, keeps the punters happy and makes a lot of money, but his Dad, a judge, understandably has a problem with his choice of career. So in an attempt to find a more acceptable line of work Seth signs up at a Long Island stock brokerage called JT Marlin. Ironically JT Marlin is more crooked and does far more damage than his casino ever would. JT Marlin essentially pushes shares in worthless companies and dodgy IPO’s over the phone to well-off but generally financially clueless investors. Seth becomes very proficient at making sales over the phone. Ben Affleck plays the older broker who is already rich and a now recruits new blood to the firm. Vin Diesel is another senior broker at the firm. It’s an interesting and solid cast, including Ron Rifkin as Seth’s father.

Raise the Red Lantern

2009-01-15T11:28:00.001+11:00

Raise the Red Lantern, nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1992, is a film by Zhang Yimou about the lives of concubines in China. It follows the story of Songlian, the young and beautiful fourth wife of a wealthy older man. She lives, together with the other three wives, each in their own house set around a courtyard with the house of the “Master” at one end. The household has long established traditions that the concubines must follow to the letter. At a certain time each afternoon they stand outside their doorways awaiting the Master’s decision on which wife he will favour with his presence that evening. Once the decision is announced by the head housekeeper red lanterns are lit in and around the house of the chosen wife. It’s a beautifully shot film. Yimou uses the perfect symmetry of the house to great effect and the shots of the courtyard that reflect the changing seasons are beautiful and evoke a peaceful atmosphere of routine and stability that stands in contrast to the underlying conflicts between the wives. It’s a well told story. The DVD version that I watched had the worst English subtitles, but even this did not detract too much from my enjoyment.

Ripley's Game

2009-01-06T18:53:00.001+11:00

A Tom Ripley film, based on one of the five Ripley novels by Particia Highsmith. Ripley has featured in a number of films, notably Wim Wender’s American Friend and The Talented Mr Ripley where he is played by Matt Damon. Here John Malkovich takes a turn and the result is the best and most chilling Ripley of all. Ripley is a charming psychopath (perhaps also the model for Hannibal Lector), who consistently gets away with various crimes including murder. He is ruthless to the point of being amusing. There is a scene that borders on slapstick, at the end of which three bodies are piled up in a train lavatory. Ripley quips: “It never used to be so crowded in first class”.

Playtime

2009-01-06T18:23:00.001+11:00

I must admit (to my shame again) that until I saw Playtime I did not quite get Jacques Tati. I desperately wanted to like Ms. Hulot’s Holiday. The idea of a whimsical character encountering mild misadventures on an old fashioned seaside holiday sounds like just the ticket for someone like me who loves PG Wodehouse and endlessly revisits Fawlty Towers. But I’m sorry to say that I found it just a tad too slow. I found myself unable to sustain interest in Ms. Hulot’s escapades over the length of the film. So I am very happy to report that as far as appreciating Tati is concerned Playtime has changed all that. I loved every moment. Playtime can be many things to different people. I imagine there are those who may view it as quite a biting satire on modern life, on the relentless pursuit of progress, blind to the beauty all around us. The occasional glimpses of well-loved Paris landmarks reflected in the chrome and glass of Tati’s modern city suggests this. I see it though as a far subtler and gentler commentary. It makes us look anew at the man-made world around us and consider how often our interactions with this world are amusing and even ridiculous. I cannot walk into the first class Qantas lounge at Sydney airport without thinking about Playtime. It is a space that could have been taken straight from the giant set that Tati created for this movie. As a result I find it hard to watch people in the lounge with a straight face. Playtime is a magical film, worth watching again and again. Sadly I understand that its lack of financial success bankrupted Tati, a great shame.

House of Games

2009-01-05T12:23:00.000+11:00

A very clever film about con artists. Directly and partially written by David Mamet (The Untouchables, Glengarry Glen Ross) it stars his wife, Lindsay Crouse, as a psychiatrist who comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led my a smooth-talking grifter (Joe Mantegna) into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men. Once you understand the mentality and motivations of the people involved it’s quite easy to predict how it will all turn out. Nonetheless its fun watching it all unfold. It one of the relatively few movies shot in Seattle and the rainy city streets provide an apt setting.

Yes Man

2009-01-05T11:20:00.001+11:00

I always enjoy Jim Carrey, if only he could get a script that does full justice to his comedic talents. He is at his best when he can give full throat to the dangerously energetic slapstick of which he has proved himself the master. He needs a script that provides for powerful internal conflict – see Mask or Liar Liar for excellent examples. The premise of Yes Man seems promising, if rather close to that of Liar Liar. Jim plays a man (Carl) stuck in a deep rut who commits to a self-improvement routine which requires him to say yes to everything. Predictably this leads to some funny and, in the case of the sexual advances of a little old lady, rather disturbing, situations. Equally predictably Carl meets the girl of his dreams, Allison, played by Zooey Deschanel (the girl of everyone’s dreams). From here on its all a bit predictable and the movie loses it edge quite early, plodding on to a by-the-numbers resolution. Carl’s boss is played by Rhys Darbey (Murray from Flight of the Conchords) complete with Kiwi accent. Interestingly I see Rhys’s next role is in a forthcoming movie by Richard Curtis (Mr Bean, Four Weddings, Love Actually, etc), called The Boat that Rocked, about an illegal radio station in the North Sea in the 1960s and starring no less than Philip Seymour Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh! I can hardly wait.

Christmas Movies

2008-12-18T12:08:00.001+11:00

John Hughes is undisputedly, the King of Christmas movies. Out of my hastily assembled top ten below he has written five.

I’d welcome additions. These are not in any particular order, although I do believe the Home Alone series and Scrooged to be the pick of the bunch.

1. Home Alone (John Hughes)
2. Home Alone 2 (John Hughes)
3. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (John Hughes)
4. Scrooged
5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
6. The Nightmare Before Christmas
7. Elf
8. Miracle of 34th Street (John Hughes)
9. Four Holidays
10. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (John Hughes)

Other John Hughes movies that could just as easily make the list include Uncle Buck, The Great Outdoors and the rest of the Home Alone series.

The Lady Eve

2008-12-16T17:15:00.001+11:00

The Director of The Lady Eve, Preston Sturges', own life is almost as unlikely as the plot of The Lady Eve, which is a highly enjoyable screwball comedy with Peter Fonda and an absolute cracker of a performance from Barbara Stanwick. Sturges (pictured above with the stars of The Lady Eve) was born into a wealthy family and at various stages of his career he was an inventor (he invented a kissproof lipstick, Red-Red Rouge, in 1920), a stage-hand, a US Army signal officer, a screen writer (although he died in 1959 one of his works was filmed as recently as 1984 – Unfaithfully Yours, with Dudley Moore and Nasstasja Kinski) and, of course, a director. Stanwick plays a beautiful card sharp, at first intent on fleecing the boyishly naïve, Peter Fonda, but then falling in love with him. It has all the twists and turns of the inspired screwball and some well timed slapstick.

Jules et Jim

2008-12-10T18:16:00.001+11:00

Its certainly a fascinating film. Although I did not hugely enjoy watching it, it has stayed with me. I have thought back on these characters and their motivations and have replayed some of the scenes in my mind many times. I did not find Jeanne Moreau's character likable. She seemed to me self centred and not deserving of the love of these two friends, Jules and Jim, whose friendship and lives are ruined because of her. I found it hard to believe that two attractive, sophisticated men would bother with her. Still, there is much to like about Truffaut's famous new wave offering. There is undeniably a lightness about the way the story is told, which still seems fresh after almost fifty years. I can imagine it causing a stir in 1961. Its the perfect parable of the 6os. Starting off full of fun and adventure and ending in tragedy.

The Hustler

2008-12-10T13:52:00.001+11:00

Pool hustler Fast Eddie Felson is not only one of Paul Newman’s greatest roles but also one of the greatest and most vividly remembered roles in movie history. The credibility and integrity of his portrayal of the talented young pool player is beyond question. It’s a pitch-perfect movie. It tells of Felson’s internal struggle, failures and ultimate redemption through a series of brilliantly filmed episodes set mainly in dingy pool halls, hotel rooms and apartments. The pool hall scenes are wonderfully atmospheric. Shooting in Black & White was undoubtedly the right choice. Its testament to the quality of the supporting cast that they are not completely overshadowed by Newman’s performance. Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie and George C Scott are all excellent and bring their characters to vivid life. A top class movie. 25 years later Newman reprised the role of Fast Eddy in The Colour of Money with Tom Cruise. Ironically this second and inferior outing is where he won his only Oscar.

007: Quantum of Solace

2008-12-08T12:19:00.000+11:00

A great action movie, but not at all a Bond film. Let’s be clear, there is little to complain about with QoS as an entertainment. The action sequences are breathtaking, the acting is top-notch, it has a reasonable, if somewhat convoluted plot. But it has almost nothing that makes it a Bond film. Bond has been stripped of all the things that make him Bond. The wit, the style, the gadgets, the locations (the action takes place in some glamorous spots, but due to the close cropped filming of the action we get to see very little scenery), the martinis, the cars (ok - there is an Austin Martin at the beginning but its pretty much destroyed before we get a chance to look at it). The irony is that Daniel Craig is a great (perhaps the best ever) Bond. I don’t believe that the impact of his performance would be diminished by lightening up a little. Previous Bonds, particularly Roger Moore, appeared to be enjoying themselves. It’s a hard job being a secret agent, but there was time for some enjoyment. Craig is all work and no play. He can hardly go to the loo without killing someone. There are plenty of secret agent movies that cater to the desire for hard action, character development and other sophisticated characteristics that QoS has in spades. But Bond does not need these things. He is unique and must remain so. I know that many Bond fans share my view on the latest instalment. I really hope that the holders of the franchise will take note and that Bond really will be back.

Ghost Town

2008-12-08T12:00:00.000+11:00

As Rom-Coms go, you could not ask for a better cast than this. The incredibly talented and funny Rickie Gervais, here in a role that suits him down to the ground. He plays Bertram Pincus, a dentist who, to put it mildly, is not a people person. He sneaks out of the office rather than join in the birthday celebrations of his partner. Could there be a more unlikely romantic interest for the terminally cute Tea Leoni? She is always a delight to watch. The story is not terribly original and relies heavily on the now well established routine of someone who can see and communicate with dead people, while the rest of us can’t. The outcome is pretty much predictable from the get-go, but this is of no concern. The characters make this enjoyable. I thought that there wee some comedic opportunities lost in exploiting Pincus’s bizarre condition. So there are not that many big laughs, but overall it is consistently amusing.

M

2008-11-21T16:27:00.001+11:00

Fritz Langs’ M, made in 1931, is said to have spawned both the serial killer and police procedural genres. I suspect at heart it is in fact neither of these, but is more a commentary on the Germany where Lang lived at the time and clearly despised. The decadence of the period has often been portrayed in tawdry terms, such as in Cabaret, but these films seem positively glamorous compared with Lang’s vision of filth and depravity. The story is of a serial killer, magnificently portrayed by Peter Lorre, who eludes capture so successfully that the city’s underworld becomes involved in trying to secure his capture. This on the basis that the police are making their lives unbearable trying to catch the killer. This may be a bit of a long bow in plot logic as one might expect criminals to welcome the diversion of police attention. Nonetheless, it is a striking and powerful film. Lorre does not get a great deal of screen time but his speech, in which he describes the torment that drives him to commit the murders, is powerful stuff indeed.

The Last Picture Show

2008-11-21T12:15:00.001+11:00

Peter Bogdanovich’s Last Picture Show was made in 1971, but it looks in all respects, bar one, as if it were made in 1951, the year in which it’s set. The one exception is the directness of the sex scenes and the amount of nudity, which would never have been possible in 1951 and were even controversial in 1971. In particular Cybill Shepherd’s strip tease on the diving board must have raised a few eyebrows at the time. The film is set in a truly bleak Texas town, where the only distractions, a run down pool hall, all day diner and movie theatre, are all owned by one man, Sam the Lion, played by Ben Johnson. Sam is the only man in town who seems capable of rising above the grinding boredom and desperation of the place that has dragged the lives of all the other residents down to a stifling routine punctuated by uncomfortable and meaningless sexual encounters. The film works on many levels, as a simple story of small town mores, to a quite complex commentary on the changes that occurred in American society during the 1950s. Regardless of how you watch it, it’s interesting, worthwhile, if not very enjoyable, due to the depressing themes. Great performances all round.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

2008-10-05T18:09:00.001+11:00

A great big adventure romp, with one of my favourite adventure actors, Brendan Fraser. This one is meant to be seen in 3D and I’m sure that would make it even more fun. Nonetheless, we didn’t catch the 3D version and it was still very worthwhile. A good yarn, lots of being chased by dinosaurs, fighting off man eating plants and some very freaky flying fish. The boys loved it and Dad particularly appreciated Anita Briel as the female lead. Anita plays an Icelander and is the genuine article, as she was born there. I hope we see a lot more of her.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

2008-10-05T17:55:00.000+11:00

Colonel Blimp is originally a British cartoon character. The cartoonist David Low first drew Colonel Blimp for Lord Beaverbrook's London Evening Standard in the 1930s: pompous, irascible, jingoistic and stereotypically British. Low developed the character after overhearing two military men in a Turkish bath declare that cavalry officers should be entitled to wear their spurs inside tanks. The Blimp character in the movie is a far more loveable character. One Clive Wynne-Candy, played by Roger Livesey, he embodies all the virtues of the English soldier and gentleman. In fact, the movie is an ode to Englishness. Made at the height of the Nazi threat to England in 1942 it’s a convincing demonstration that the allies had a lot worth fighting for. Deborah Kerr plays three roles, that of the girl who marries Clive’s German dueling partner and later friend Theo, that of Clive’s own, younger wife, and later his WREN driver when he heads up the Home Guard during the Second World War. Her characters remain young while all those around her age. It’s quite a surprising film to make in the midst of war. It encountered strong resistance when first released from no less than Winston Churchill. When Churchill questioned the Austrian actor Anton Walbrook about the film he famously replied “'No people in the world other than the English would have had the courage, in the midst of war, to tell the people such unvarnished truth”. It’s a cracker of a film. Entertaining and at times quite moving. “The war starts at midnight!”

Kundun

2008-10-05T11:52:00.001+11:00

Martin Scorsese’s Kundun is about the early part of the life of the 14th Dalai Lama. It begins some years after the death of the 13th, when the new incarnation of Buddha is “discovered” by a travelling monk in the form of a four year old boy. The boy demonstrates an uncanny knack for identifying the previous Dalai Lama’s possessions, selecting them among other similar items and saying: “mine, mine”. The film is not hugely satisfactory as a narrative, but it is rewarding as an insight into Buddhism and the trials of Tibet. It is lovingly shot with incredible attention to detail. I was struck by the scene of monks creating a sand painting, a large and intricate design, painstakingly created from different coloured sand. The creating of the painting is weaved into key scenes at the beginning and end of the film and at the end it is swept away. The perfect art form for a religion which so strongly embraces that nothing is permanent.

Wall-E

2008-09-30T22:49:00.000+10:00

PIXAR studios can do no wrong and their latest offering is no exception. Wall-E is unquestionably a masterpiece of animation. It may also be a great science fiction movie. It is certainly a great children's movie and one that most adults will also enjoy. PIXAR's achievement here is to tell a story of quite complex ideas with almost no dialogue in an enjoyable and highly entertaining way. There is no question that it demands more of the viewer than the average animation, but a little thought and concentration will be richly rewarded. The miracle is that PIXAR has created two characters, Wall-E and Eva, that despite having no recognisably human features, are not only able to convey a huge range of emotions, but in fact have a terrific romantic chemistry. This is frankly astonishing. The set pieces are magnificent. The scenes on the devastated, garbage strewn Earth have a fascinating beauty and the space ship is a wondrous sight of bright, gleaming technology. I could go on praising this movie, but I think my eight year old son said it best: "It was funny, sad and very cool". Indeed.

In the PIXAR tradition Wall-E is accompanied by an excellent short cartoon, entitled Presto. Its about a battle of wits between a magician and his stage rabbit and hilarious.

Laura

2008-09-30T22:36:00.000+10:00

This is a strange little movie. made in 1944 by Otto Preminger, who both produces and directs. It stars a very young Vincent Price and a not so young Clifton Webb. They really are the stars despite top billing going to Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, whose characters seem mere foils to the camp Webb and country bumpkin, turned playboy, Price. The plot is highly unlikely. Its twists and turns seem contrived and yet this is great fun to watch. Its all very stylish, set in luxurious New York apartments and played with great drama.

The Leopard

2008-09-29T15:02:00.001+10:00

Unless you are a real lover of the period piece or perhaps a dedicated student of the Risorgimento period of Italian history I suspect you may find it a challenge to get all the way through this one. I made it about two thirds of the way through the ball scene at the end before hitting fast forward. I could hardly believe how much of it there was left. At just over three hours, The Leopard is a long film, but it’s not so much the length as the pace that is the problem. Nothing much happens, but it happens very slowly. Burt Lancaster was a controversial choice to play the Sicilian aristocrat who, realising that the nobles’ grip on power is slipping, encourages his nephew (Alain Delon) to marry the mayor’s daughter (Claudia Cardinale). The mayor is not of the nobles, he (horrors) made his money from property development and is not 100% au fait with dinner party etiquette. I’m sure there is much symbolism here and indeed by the end of the ball we feel acutely the weariness of the aristocratic revelers as they put themselves through yet another tortuous Mazurka. Better value elsewhere.

The Long Goodbye

2008-09-22T14:05:00.000+10:00

This is Robert Altman’s take on the private eye Philip Marlowe, the character featured in Raymond Chandler's crime novels. Marlowe is the ultimate film-noir private eye and has been played by a list of top drawer actors including Humphrey Bogart, James Caan, James Gardner, Robert Mitchum, Robert Montgommery and Dick Powel. Here it is Elliot Gould’s job and he does it very well. A softer, slightly bumbling Marlowe, who stands out in trippy 1973 Los Angeles as a very square man in a suit and narrow neck tie. Marlowe’s values, which include loyalty and generosity, are impeccably established in the opening scenes, where in the middle of the LA night he drives to a store to buy his cat food, famously goes through an elaborate routine into tricking the cat into believing its eating its favourite brand and then unquestioningly drives a friend to Mexico. It’s a cracking yarn, very funny in parts and with all the twists and turns you would expect. Mark Rydell is excellent as the evil and clearly unbalanced hood, Marty Augustine. One of my favourite parts is that the only song that you hear in the movie is The Long Goodbye, endlessly reprised in various forms.

The Bank Job

2008-09-19T15:02:00.001+10:00

The Bank Job is at least partially based on fact. It involves the theft of the contents of around 400 safety deposit boxes from a bank in Marylebone in 1971. Allegedly the contents included some rather naughty photos of Princess Margaret and a ledger which recorded details of bribery payments made to the police by a Soho sleaze baron. Princess Margaret's private life was for many years the subject of intense speculation by media and Royal-watchers. She owned a house on the Caribbean island of Mustique, where the photos appear to have been taken. There were plenty allegations of wild parties and drug taking. In the Bank Job both the government and the sleaze baron pursue the robbers. It seems many people are a little cagey about what they store in their bank boxes as out of the 400 odd victims, more than 100 would not reveal the contents. This is an enjoyable yarn with some very credible performances, a few twists and a bit of humour.

Double Bill

2008-09-18T14:46:00.000+10:00

Is this the ultimate “Grindhouse” double bill? Both Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! and Richard C Sarafian’s Vanishing Point are heavily referenced in Grindhouse, the manufactured double bill cooked up by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
These films are both Exploitation classics. Exploitation film is a type of film that eschews the expense of quality productions in favour of making films inexpensively, attracting viewers by exciting their more prurient interests. "Exploitation" is a term in the movie industry meaning promotion or advertising. Exploitation films rely heavily on the lurid advertising of their content rather than the intrinsic quality of the film.

Exploitation films may feature forbidden sex, wanton violence, drug use, nudity, freaks, gore, the bizarre, destruction, rebellion and mayhem. Such films have existed since the earliest days of moviemaking, but they were popularized in the 1960s with the general relaxing of cinematic taboos in the U.S. and Europe. (http://www.wikipedia.com/)

Made in 1965 Pussycat has around 6 years on Vanishing Point (1971) and is in black and white. Despite this, it is the more sophisticated of the two movies . Meyer’s take on the empowered woman and dominating female figure is fascinating. Its hard to imagine anyone finding the Tura Satana character, with her large but immovable breasts, sharp slashes of makeup and biker outfit attractive. Nonetheless, she represents a take on femininity, which had not been explored in the cinema before Russ Meyer and hardly as effectively since.

Vanishing Point is the story of a strange, obsessive odyssey by a man driven like a lemming by an inexplicable need to keep on going. Having just driven 1,500 miles non-stop from California to Colorado, Sarafian's sullenly uncommunicative anti-hero, Kowalski (Barry Newman), pauses just long enough to grab a supply of bennies, accept a bet that he won't make it back in 15 hours, and zooms off again. The memory flash backs are excruciating but the cinematography amongst the desert locations is magnificent. Barry Newman went on play the lead in the legal TV series Petrocelli. Vanishing Point is the source of the legendary white Dodge Challenger referenced in Tarantino’s Death Proof. It does look like a hell of a ride.

If...

2008-09-04T11:28:00.001+10:00

An anti-establishment satire based on a group of “crusaders” who rebel against the confines of middle class mores at an English boys’ boarding school. The film was controversial and divisive when released in 1968. Now it seems like a bit of harmless lunacy. It’s still funny and fun to watch, but I can imagine that it provoked quite strong feelings in its day. It stars Malcolm McDowell who went on to make A Clockwork Orange, a role which is almost a natural progression from the angry and disaffected young Mick Travis he plays here. The film is an odd combination of realism and fantasy. It’s hard to say exactly where it crosses over from one to the other. Do the scenes of rebellion actually occur or are they simply in the minds of the protagonists? In one of the strangest moments the Headmaster insists that three of the boys apologise to the Bishop for a prank. He then opens a large drawer in his office revealing the Bishop in repose. He sits up to accept the boys’ apology. The young female character (billed simply as “the girl”) seems to magically pop in and out of scenes, very much as though she is there only in the thoughts of the boys. McDowell and Director Lindsay Anderson revisit the Mick Travis character in a later movie, Britannia Hospital, which is now on my ‘must see’ list.

My Neighbour Totoro

2008-09-03T17:54:00.001+10:00

My three young sons (10, 8 and 6) are fairly sophisticated cinema goers. They are probably allowed an above average degree of freedom in what they watch. So they have seen all the recent block busters, including movies that some may consider too edgy, such as Lord of the Rings and the new Batman series. So it is testament to the excellence of My Neighbour Totoro that this simple animation impressed them more than most. It is quite simply one of the best children’s movies you will ever see. It contains no violence, no villains and no real conflict. Yet it is spellbinding. It tells the story of two young girls who move with their father to a house in the country. They encounter some strange, but completely benign, creatures in the nearby forest. These creatures come to their aid when the younger sister gets lost on route to visiting her mother in hospital. As far as plot goes, that’s pretty much it. The characters are drawn in the well-known style of Japanese anime and so are not at all realistic in appearance, but very realistic in their actions. The backgrounds and settings are very detailed and beautiful. Look at the clouds and sunsets that are rendered in a watercolour style. The scenes in the rain are particularly effective. This film is from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki and the equally legendary Ghibli Studios. They have brought us other gems like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.

Vivre Sa Vie

2008-09-01T21:31:00.000+10:00

Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Live) – the life of a Parisian prostitute told in twelve distinct episodes in Jean-Luc Godard’s distinctive style. The girl is played by his wife, Ana Karina, who reminds one a bit of Louise Brooks, with her helmet of hair, porcelain skin and fine features. She deserts her child and husband for a chance at making a living in the movies. Of course, this never works out and she slips into prostitution, which seems a relatively easy option. The rules of the profession are laid our matter of factly in a Q&A session with her pimp set to a tabloid of her daily encounters. It’s all totally unsentimental and somewhat cold. The film ends unexpectedly and brutally. I didn’t find a great deal of satisfaction here. I expect there are hidden truths lost in the translation of the dialogue and Godard’s camera work is very clever and lends an unusual perspective.