Film reviews for Godzilla, The Two Faces Of January and Sabotage for BR3AKTHRU Magazine
Here is the link for my reviews of Godzilla, The Two Faces Of January and Sabotage: all in cinemas now. Reviews for X-Men: Days Of Future Past, Grace Of Monaco, Edge Of Tomorrow and A Million Ways To Die In The West will also be published on the BR3AKTHRU website soon.
Wes Anderson is my favourite director, so I was most passionately anticipating the release of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Unfortunately due to my frustratingly poor health, I was in hospital throughout the entirety of its release, so to my delight I was recently able to book tickets to see a re-showing at my local cinema. 
‘Don’t you dare post this on Facebook.’
The film is about an author (Jude Law) discussing, with the owner of the hotel he is staying at (F. Murray Abraham), the circumstances upon which the ownership of such a magnificent establishment came about. This sends us back in time about to fifty years prior: an age on the brink of the second world war that our nations would have to face. This is the age when eccentric hotel concierge, M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes), takes on young lobby boy, Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori), as his protégé. The pair become close very quickly, and dive into a world of murder, thievery, deceit, and adventure that became a book, written by the author from the beginning of the film.
As always in Wes Anderson’s films, the camerawork is magical with vibrant colours and a devotion to central characters and symmetry. The chemistry between the characters of Gustave and Moustafa is heartwarming and lovely, sucking us into their friendship. Fiennes is hilarious; this is possibly his best role in cinema yet due to his elegant eccentricity and charismatic consistency. Revolori makes a fantastic debut for his first major role; his charming innocence ejaculates onto the faces of everyone sitting/standing/slurping/rustling/eating in the audience.
With a hugely varied cast, I have seem some criticism that the cameos distract us from the film, as we are diverted from such a compelling storyline into thinking ‘ooh look, Owen Wilson‘, but this is a ridiculous claim. The film is compelling enough that the cameos rooted into the film are rooted into the story as well. Having such an extensive cast should be celebrated, not booed or hissed at.
Willem Dafoe is horrible in this. Great acting, but a horrible character. He personally reminded me of an SS thug: the kind Peter Stormare could play. He certainly dresses for it. Adrien Brody is also a disgusting piece of scum: something I am not used to seeing him play, but I am glad to see him return to the big screen.
The relationship shown to develop between the characters Agatha and Zero is an attractive depiction of young romance, honestly showing a couple actually falling in love with each other, facing real problems and real danger in such a tense time throughout Europe in the 20th century. Saoirse Ronan is touching as Agatha, and Zero’s concern for his lady makes your heart melt a bit.
As always with Anderson: the film boasts a beautiful soundtrack, showing both the eccentricity and passionate emotion behind his art. The kind of comic motive in this film, reminds me of cartoons; the way Gustav and Moustafa run away from danger also reminds me of a kind of slapstick comedy, although it’s not. Having such slick themes and motives in the script greatly benefits the film, and the script work of all Wes’ films always reminds me of the literary genre of books. They all make me want to write. They make me fall in love with human nature again and again, while reminding me that the only monsters out there are humans themselves. They bring me love for my personal eccentricity, as I feel like I am one of those beautiful, cracked yet charming charicatures of society: one of those people that are never really forgotten.
The only flaw of it really is that it took a while for me to actually get into it. I was actually quite concerned at the beginning that this would turn into the first Wes Anderson film I’d struggle to enjoy. It quickly made up for it, and as soon as I was in: I was in, and completely entranced by The Grand Budapest’s hypnotism.
★★★★– a film to add to your cinematic bucket list
Funny, charming, brilliant, clever, interesting, compelling, witty, eccentric. My kind of film.
This trailer sends chills down my spine. Awesome.
It comes out on 17th July, 2014 in the UK.
Here are my reviews for The Other Woman and Bad Neighbours that I have written for BR3AKTHRU Magazine. My exclusive review for Made in America will be up sometime next week.
The Artist is the second silent film I have ever since my short life started 5662 days ago. The first one was The Battle of the Somme, featuring actual (and staged) footage of the action on the Western Front. Unlike the film I lost my silent film virginity to, The Artist is a fictional piece of cinema.
Ironically and amusingly the film is about the silent movie star, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), becoming accustomed to a world of cinematic sound in Hollywood, and how he reacts to the deterioration of both his marriage and his livelihood. He also becomes quite in love with a beautiful young dancer, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), who with the collapse of silent films, becomes universally loved as a sound-enriched Hollywood superstar.
The quirkiness of the film is very flattering of Hollywood’s origins, seeming to be such a happy place to be a part of. With all the success, the booming economy, the opportunities, the love: the characterisation of the American Dream is artistically stunning. With joyous bounding from scene to scene, both Valentin and Miller becoming major parts of each other’s lives as their true affection greatly begins to show.
But alas! The introduction of sound to movies is catastrophic for Valentin. He refuses to speak a word of voice into the booming culture of the movie industry, and as the studio that he has brought fame to for years begins to wipe out the existence of silent movies, Valentin’s life begins to take a downward spiral because he refuses to speak. His wife asks him ‘Why don’t you speak George?’ as their marriage also begins to crash, until she can’t take any more of his silence (hilariously ironic in such a film as this) and ends up leaving him.
He loses everything apart from his dog. And he even almost loses himself with a suicide attempt, foiled by his loyal, talented, four-legged friend. This truly is a heartbreaking moment in the film, as many men can relate with the stereotype of a man’s pride being so controlling to progression excellently performed by Dujardin. Valentin just can’t leave behind his vow of silence, and Miller (who has subsequently been made famous by the boom of oral popularity, yet always kept a close eye on her real love of Valentin, dismissing all other men as ‘toys’) decides to look after him as an attempt to do her best to stop him from dangerously hitting rock bottom again.
An hilarious scene of a climatic nightmare Valentin suffers involving the introduction of sound is brilliant. Although we don’t hear words, the onomatopoeic nature of the sounds taking place here is very, very funny yet also made terrifying by Michel Hazanavicius‘ genius skill at filmmaking. The black and white view of the film is absolutely gorgeous throughout, and shows Bejo’s natural beauty as Peppy Miller and Dujardin’s charm as George Valentin.
the anguish of love
My heart ached so much through this film. It is just so, so perfect. I was gripped throughout, and I could not take my eyes off the gorgeous Peppy Miller or just at how cute and talented the dog was. This monochrome beauty is something I find so exciting; something I love using in my own photography, and always enjoy seeing in modern films. The silent aspect of the film is really refreshing too; it was nice to enjoy watching something so different to something I have ever seen before and will certainly be something that I will enjoy watching on numerous occasions into the future.
I know for a fact that many people are put off by films they view to be in black and white, let alone without oral presence (not in the sense of 1972’s Deep Throat starring Linda Lovelace), but The Artist is just so stunning visually, so warmingly sincere and heartfelt, such a genuine modern masterpiece that it would be such a shame for anyone to miss out on its magic because they’re put off by the bloody colour. I mean it won five Oscars for fuck’s sake.
✮✮✮✮✮ – CLASSIC STATUS – Successfully made its way into my heart as one of my favourite films.
Add this to your film bucket list or you’ll spend your entire afterlife in a limbo of eternal regret. And look forward to director Michel Hazanavicius‘ The Search coming out later this year, also featuring the gorgeous Bérénice Bejo.
Stuart: A Life Backwards is based on the biography by Alexander Masters of Stuart Shorter – a relatively unknown man who had a horrendous life of homelessness, madness, psychosis, and abuse.
Remember Bane from The Dark Knight Rises? Remember how bulked and massive he was? Well the Bane you know, fear (and perhaps idolise) is the skinny stick of Stuart Shorter who suffers with muscular dystrophy is this film. Tom Hardy is a bloody versatile actor. Hardy puts everything into the character of Stuart that I imagined him to be throughout reading the book. Funnily enough, Master’s flat looked just how I imagined in the book as well. Good screen adaptation there, Mr Attwood. Stuart was a man haunted by his inner bestial violence, yet ever so gentle in touch. A man who believes in politeness and good manners, yet who says ‘fucking’ to an MP in a meeting. Stuart’s dysmorphic walk is entirely believable, along with his slurred words as an incredible sense of déjà vu overcomes you with recollection of the many homeless you’ve scoffed at in disgust whenever you’ve walked through town.
Alexander Masters, played by Benedict Cumberbatch (the real Alexander wrote the screenplay), opens your eyes to truly see who the homeless really are: generally drunk, hopeless junkies. Maybe not so much of a surprise, but that’s exactly the point. People don’t realise that they’re people. They’re people with problems, people who are haunted, people who are scared, people plagued by boredom, people who have lives so dark and bleak that suicide appears to be their best option. These are people that would stay on the streets through the winter and end up dying because they refuse to give up their animal companion whose ‘fault’ it is when refused entry to a hostel.
As always, Cumberbatch’s performance is brutally honest. Originally scoffing at and disgusted by Stuart’s slurred arguments and ideas for how to move on with a campaign they are both working for, he behaves as the majority of us would, which makes it easier to relate to him and Stuart. Their relationship develops as Masters decides to write a biography about Stuart, not only to make his own name in the world of literary appraisal, but to make Stuart’s too. A true friendship blossoms between the two men, with Stuart stating ‘You’re alright, Alexander.’ while sipping on a beer can on the side of the street as his new friend and biographer makes his way to the bus home.
There are some truly funny moments too; after making convict curry for Alexander and himself, Stuart walks into the lounge with his eyes fixated on the telly. Without even glancing at Alexander he passes him his plate, and then removes one of the forks dangling from his mouth and passes it to Masters. Patently disgusted, Masters wipes the fork numerous times before using it to shovel the orange splodge of the curry into his own mouth. This did break a smile across my stern, hardened face. True friendship, eh.
As with the book, this film is heartbreaking. Managing to get the right amount of humour into such a tragic story is vital, and the book and film pass this exam with flying colours. With Stuart’s uncontrollable ‘black mist’, bad things follow. BAD things follow. The film portrays these brutally, but also delicately, sticking very closely to the book by showing some of the horrific moments of Stuart’s past, whilst also maintaining the audience’s love and respect for the character.
One of Stuart’s black mists
To be honest, I was close to tears by the end of this film, which shows how good Hardy’s and Cumberbatch’s perfomances really were. Being a TV movie, I did not have high expectations for this film, but I was truly blown away. Not bored once throughout, I was totally engrossed from start to finish; it may have helped that I had read the book first, but I don’t think it will matter if you haven’t as the performances are really that good. Coming before either of the actors really made it big, Stuart: A Life Backwards is really worth a watch for any Tom Hardy or Benedict Cumberbatch fan.
✮✮✮✮✮ – CLASSIC STATUS
I’ll be keeping an eye out for director David Attwood‘s prior works to Stuart in the future: very impressed. I’m sure Stuart would be proud.
My return to the cinema after four months of neglect has been most highly anticipated. I am a huge Spider-Man fan (I own a mug), so I thought The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would be a good film to start with.
Despite getting mixed reviews, I did enjoy the first one. Compared to Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy starring Tobey Maguire and James Franco, The Amazing Spider-Man films seem to stick to the original stories in the comics with much more loyalty. Which I, being the comic book geek I am, very much prefer and admire. Especially as the stories in the comics are generally brilliant, intelligent, interesting, and genuinely would make good film adaptations.
The first think that struck me with the new film is that we saw much more of Spider-Man’s normal life. This hadn’t really been done before in previous films, as the only bad guys you really saw the friendly neighbourhood hero fight are normally the big bad guys, such as The Lizard. I really liked seeing Spidey’s regular routine being placed into the movie; it was much easier to relate to the character of Peter Parker, and bring his personality far closer to our reality. The on-body shots were frankly stunning, and very enjoyable visually. The cinematography of the film was very impressive, with CGI appearing realistic and not at all cheap.
Parker’s home life was approached with emotional and humourous chemistry, which I enjoyed, albeit the screening I went to did not hear as many laughs at some of these points as I would have expected. Only the echo of my own. The relationship between Parker and Gwen Stacy was approached with beautiful delicacy, which seemed both realistic and sincere. A few heart strings were definitely pulled in their scenes together.
The villains were pretty badass. Jamie Foxx as Electro was pretty cool, both visually and aurally, although at times his persona of Max Dillon did seem a bit too hopeless, which was at times annoying. Maybe that’s just me being picky, but Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn and Paul Giamatti in his brief cameo of The Rhino seemed far more solid as supervillains, despite the fact that Giamatti had at the beginning of the film a slightly ridiculous evil laugh that I picked up on. The film ended by setting up nicely for the Sinister Six spinoff film that Sony have recently announced, as well as The Amazing Spider-Man 3 that will be released sometime in spring 2016.
Director Marc Webb should be proud of what he has produced with both films in the series.
✮✮✮✮ for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – A fun, anticipated, and greatly successful Spider-Man sequel. Perhaps even favourable to the first one in the series, if not for being a little long. Jam-packed with clever wit, sinister villains, and spandex suits, and featuring solid performances from the likes of Dane DeHaan, Andrew Garfield, and Emma Stone, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is definitely worth a trip to the cinema for Spidey, comic book, Marvel fans, and even regular citizens, alike.
When watching Nicole Kassell’s The Woodsman, the amount of care you begin to feel for such an enemy of our modernist society is incredibly striking.
The film stars Kevin Bacon as convicted child molester, Walter, who has just served twelve years in prison and is attempting to return to ‘normality’. But as Walter so painfully expresses to his therapist, played by Michael Shannon, “what is normal” for a paedophile?
The thing that hit me the most about this film, is the pain Walter feels throughout his ordeal. Walter never raped or ‘hurt’ any of his victims (note the irony), but was still subject to the same prejudice as any other convicted ‘dirtbag’. Now is this morally right? Probably. I am in no way condoning such actions; one of the most powerful effects of The Woodsman is its portrayal of Walter’s anguished struggle with his illness. He absolutely despises the fact that he has such thoughts about girls so young, and the film is an hour and twenty-five minutes of an entirely haunting spiral of a man’s self-loathing. The film is shot beautifully, capturing Bacon‘s hellish performance of such a despicable, yet tortured character. This portrayal is so sincere that it is the first time I have seen paedophilia as an illness, and not just a sadistic/psychopathic fantasy. I know see that the molested aren’t the only victims to paedophilia, which makes the whole concept even more disturbing.
✮✮✮✮✮ for The Woodsman – A haunting portrayal of a man’s self-loathing, with brutally honest snapshots of a minority of humanity’s indisposed sickness.
Here is a list-in-progress of my favourite film trailers. I will keep adding more as they enter my viewing history, so for now enjoy!
Only God Forgives (2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2014)
Godzilla (2014)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – A nice surprise!
I adore films; they are one of my passions that has remained consistent over the past few years, possibly aided by the addition of Netflix to the family when it first came to the UK, and I simply can’t get enough of cinema.
Therefore I decided that I should probably put up a list of my films of the year, and spread the word to those who haven’t seen these films yet that they are severely missing out. Severely. Although this year had a few disappointments (namely Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, which I personally thought would be better, and Grown Ups 2 which I found to be very disappointing, in great contrast to my devoted love to the original), it also had many successes and this award season is definitely going to be very competitive. With relatable successes such as Philomena, Gravity, Rush, Blue Jasmine (Cate Blanchett), and many more titles up for Golden Globes, it appears that this year for film, has overall been a success. By relatable, I mean that both the public and critics seem to generally agree about the quality of the film.
For me, films of the year are all my five star films. These are the type of films that I am utterly engrossed in from start to finish, with fantastic, if not flawless, cinematography and direction. I’ll stop rambling on about my sadistic lust for the film industry now, and begin with my list:
Stoker – Directed by Chan-wook Park, and featuring disturbingly brilliant performances from Matthew Goode, Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman. This is a psychological, atmospheric thriller about India(Wasikowska), who’s father has recently died. Her uncle Charlie(Goode) whom she never never knew existed before then moves in with her and her unstable mother(Kidman); she then realises that her uncle may have ulterior motives and becomes fascinated by him and his darkly mysterious secrets. I watched this film on a plan to Dubai, and I was absolutely infatuated with it. I unfortunately couldn’t see it when it was released at the cinema, therefore as soon as I saw the film was on the Emirates playlist I immediately grasped the opportunity; I was certainly not disappointed.
Philomena – Directed by Stephen Frears, featuring passionate and emotional performances from Steve Coogan and Judi Dench. Based on a true story, where a disgraced journalist picks up a human interest story on Philomena, an Irish Catholic who is looking for her son who was taken from her by nuns in a convent, and sold to an American family decades ago. This film was very powerful, and Dench’s realistic attitude towards the Catholic Church and faith in general, as Philomena, is very inspiring. Philomena is nominated for three Golden Globes. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if Coogan won an Oscar for his role as Martin Sixsmith.
Blue Jasmine – Directed by Woody Allen, featuring incredibly strong and emotional performances from Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins and Bobby Cannavale. A troubled and traumatised New York socialite visits San Francisco, in order to impose upon her sister. Yet she seems to cause more trouble than good, during her ‘brief’ visit. I love this film. The soundtrack. The camera shots. Blanchett. Just wow. I’m not going to piss off Mark Kermode by calling the film a ‘return to form’ for Allen, but Blue Jasmine really is a masterpiece of modern cinema.
Captain Phillips – Directed by Paul Greengrass, featuring very strong performances from Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi. Also based on a true story: that of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama. This truly powerful biopic shows both the lives of the Americans on the ship, and the Somali pirates that hijacked it, representing an entire view of the events of 2009. The final scene is an incredible representation of humanity.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Directed by Ben Stiller, who also stars as the protagonist of the film. Kristen Wiig also stars as Mitty’s love interest in the film, Cheryl. Click here to go straight to my review of this film. This film is inspirational, uplifting and beautiful: go and see it as soon as possible.
Gravity – Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. An accident leaves an astronaut and a medical engineer struggling for survival as they begin to drift through space. This film is slightly different to the others: I only gave Gravity a rating of ✮✮✮✮. This is because of a B-movie script that I found excruciatingly frustrating to endure. However the stunning visuals and cinematography are what made it onto this list; I am not going to emit it because I know that, along with many, Gravity is truly the first 3D classic, and therefore it is fully deserving to be on this list.
All is Lost – Directed by J.C. Chandor, and starring Robert Redford. Click here to go straight to my review of the film. Stormy solitude at sea.
So what is my favourite film this year? That’s a tough one. I’m infatuated by emotion, and films such as Philomena and Blue Jasmine really do have an impact on me, yet I’m also obsessed with thrillers, such as Stoker. I find them incredibly interesting and captivating. But of course, I have to choose one overall.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, due to the motivational impact the film had on me. I’m sure Iceland will have a boost in tourism this year, thanks to Ben Stiller and the film’s writer Steve Conrad and James Thurber, who wrote the original story that the film was based on.
Bring on 2014’s 300+ scheduled film releases.
poetic rage 