2012. Dir: David Cronenberg. Starring: Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon, Kevin Durand, Emily Hampshire and Paul Giamatti. ●●●●○
In interviews David Cronenberg has repeatedly admitted that Robert Pattinson (or R.Pattz if you're down with the YA lingo) was not his first choice for the role of Eric Packer, investment banking billionaire and master of the universe. If memory serves me correctly Colin Farrell was originally linked to the role before the Twilight alumni got the role. It's an unlikely casting choice Cronenberg passes off as being for the investment Pattinson brings or for the right age and yet the baggage that he brings, the undead persona serve him well reminding us that Pattinson has significant promise as an actor as well as a star. Perhaps I'm being unfair starting a review of Cosmopolis adapted from Don DeLillo's 2003 novel on the merits of casting Pattinson, but on the other hand the 108 minute film comprises of duologue's with Pattinson usually in the confined space of the back of his stretch limousine so if the central casting had failed the whole film would have failed with it.
Normally I would now make a stab at summarising the plot, but this opaque curiosity barely has one, the limo crawls across New York to where Packer wants to have a haircut and as this odyssey progresses acquaintances, employees and lovers all provide prospective to the journey and what the future holds for our mysterious hero. All the while the Yuan is collapsing, Packer's marriage is disintegrating and society itself seems to be imploding. We see few of the supporting players arrive in Packer's bubble and none of them leave and only a tiny minority even consider the existence of each other, yet they all have a unique perspective on Packer's future and his character.
So if Cosmopolis (universal city Greek fans) isn't about the plot what is driving it? It's about mood, a foreboding atmospheric intensity that clings to Pattinson and it's about intellectual ideas some characters talk but many more pronounce - Samantha Morton especially spews out a collection of statements rather - and it's about the cult of money, the nameless celebrities who criss-cross Manhattan and London in their Prousted vehicles - isolating themselves from the populace around them, but when invited into their gleaming cars we see individuals as emotionless and vapid as the imposing exteriors.
Packer has lost the ability to feel. His vast portfolio, incomprehensible to the audience, has eaten away at his soul so sex, art, politics, family and even violence no longer elicit a response. And so Pattinson is perfect for the role, there's an emptiness in the eyes, so exploited in his casting as Edward Cullen, that invites us to believe this playboy desperate for any high. Finally his alt-Twilight career is paying off and I very much hope to see him stretch himself, working for other auteurs that play with his image.
The rest of the cast do a great job, however many of them are simple ciphers, they appear for single conversations and almost represent emotional states. Morton is detached, Juliet Binoche slutty, Jay Baruchel nervy, Paul Giamatti angry. Only Emily Hampshire as his assistant, called in on her day off and clearly in awe of his talents and sexuality (even during a prostate exam), gets the chance to show any range, something she grabs with both hands becoming a beacon of characterisation in the centre of the movie.
Cronenberg does a fantastic job of boiling down DeLillo's novel and capturing the relevance of the anti-capitalist sentiment. Whilst this is another film that fits in his later canon of movies that shoot for the audience's intellectual reactions rather than their physical ones - there's a gunshot wound at one point that stays remarkably un-Cronenbergian - there is a glimmer of his earlier work in the otherworldliness of it's leading character and the acceptance that society is balanced on a knife-edge and one slight tilt either way will inevitable lead to anarchy.
Overall Cosmopolis is divisive and dense, but although many viewers will want to escape from it's bleak ramblings a few will find it's black heart is worth the ticket price.
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Cosmopolis
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Prometheus
2012. Dir: Ridley Scott. Starring: Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba and Logan Marshall-Green. ●●●○○
The levels of anticipation for Ridley Scott's Prometheus have been extraordinary, which does make it very difficult to review. I suppose I should start by saying that if want to see Ridley returning the "Alien" universe, albeit with a film that isn't a sequel or a direct prequel, then you should do so without reading any reviews and without - if at all possible - watching the trailers. That is not to say you should be wary of spoilers (I'm always wary of people who over concern themselves with spoilers, it's an Alien movie people will go to space and most of them will die is the basic plot). I say it because I feel you as an audience member need to have the opportunity to make your own mind up about the film and about the points it's trying to make.
Prometheus itself, named after the mythological anti-hero who stole fire from the Gods, is the exploratory space ship looking for life forms on planet LV-223. Headed by archaeology professors Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green their aim is to identify whether a collection of cave drawings and hieroglyphs that indicate ancient civilisations worshipping at the feet of intergalactic beings point to the creators, the engineers who created mankind. Meanwhile corporate bigwig Charlize Theron is there to keep the expedition under control on behalf of the Weyland Corporation with the able yet sinister support of android Michael Fassbender and oddly laid back ships captain Idris Alba. There's even an extended cameo from Weyland himself, a holographic Guy Pearce with shit on his face (apparently the 80+ actors like Kirk Douglas or Max von Sydow we'd have love to see in this weren't available) pulling strings from the other side of the universe.
There are other crew members - the on-screen exposition tells us of a crew of 17 - but only 6 others have names and not all of those have any sort of character depth. It's like over half of the crew have been plucked from the Star Trek list of doomed minor characters. Not that cannon fodder is a bad thing but it's indicative of the change of tone between Scott initial explorations into space and the much larger canvas he utilises here. In 1979 the major topic of conversation - even after the star beast started to chew on the crew - was the rate of pay and the improvised devices used to stop it. In spite of the occasional nods to it's origins here we have more concern over the bigger picture, and the number of philosophical questions thrown at us is astounding:
If we were created by aliens can there be a God?
Who, then, created them?
What is it to be human?
Do genetics or shared ideas matter more to creating family?
Why do we die?
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I like a good philosophical point to a film as much as anyone, long term readers will know how I like to think deeply about certain mattters, but here the reeling off of questions dulled the senses, preventing me from choosing one to fix on and actually engage with. (For the record if anyone wants to discuss those points in the comments I would be delighted to do so)
The intrepid scientists head off to a possible settlement to search for further clues and stumble upon the chamber with the giant head and collection of egg like cylinders as seen in the poster above. In exposing the chamber to the atmosphere a chain reaction is set off and one by one our crew begin to meet their makers either singularly or in larger numbers where expedient for the plot. We get a glimpse of Alien like creatures, parasitic worms and sapphic organisms as well as discovering the identity of the macguffin space jockey from the initial movie.
Noomi Rapace does an excellent job in the lead role, proving there's more to her than a dragon tattoo, with her character's faith and emotional well-being tested through ecstatic pleasure, grief, betrayal and panic. There is one scene in particular where where has to deal with the death of another character then perform an medical procedure on herself to prevent her own death which is both grotesque and a surprisingly well performed set-piece.
Elsewhere the performances are fine, if a little one note, Theron is a bitch with daddy issues, Elba is salty and pragmatic. Many reviewers have praised Fassbender's performance as the android David and whilst technically virtuoso with it's influences of Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence, elements of fey valets and a keen physicality, but personally I was shocked by his emotion which felt inappropriate. There are moments where other characters discuss whether David is more than machine and you can tell he is taking on board what they think and responding to it - taking it on board to use it later. Unlike Ian Holm's malevolent programming Fassbender appears to be choosing his own destiny - he is capable of decision making in a way none of his android counterparts in the franchise were able to do.
Ridley is in his element here, planet building on a massive scale. It was filmed predominantly in Iceland and sound-stages but you buy LV-226's geographical set-up and the organic superstructures that house the chambers. He does a fine job of wringing the tension out of the screenplay, deftly allowing the grand themes to carry us along, although it's worth noting this has none of the sense of impending doom we felt in the original Alien movie. Although I would point out my theory that Scott is only as good a director as the script he's given is not challenged here.
Damon Lindehof is probably responsible for the weakest element with much of the dialogue feeling false and unnecessarily expositionary, far from the naturalism of Dan O'Bannon.
The design of Premtheus is fascinating, more sleek and apparently hi-tech than the Nostromo it shows the importance Weyland industries places on the mission's success.
I really don't trust the biology of the film. I struggle with understanding how certain creatures can grow at such incredible rates without taking in any food (this always struck me as the weak link in the Alien life cycle) and if we are created from the DNA of alien lifeforms how come our DNA strands is so similar to other creatures on Earth, evolution is given a brief mention but batted aside by the faithful. There are also many more questions than answers in this episode, what is the effect of the infection on the brain, how does the space jockey breath, what is David motivation and whilst I agree a good film leaves you with questions there seem to be too many here. I am also reminded of the old joke about a man ran over by a train who was asked why he didn't run up the embankment to escape and replied "If I couldn't outrun it on the flat how could I outrun it going uphill?" You will have to watch until the end to get that.
Overall I can recommend the spectacle of Prometheus and would even go as far as saying it should be seen in cinemas, but I won't pretend it's a great film and I expect they're be much better sci-fi's and blockbusters in the coming months.
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Dark Shadows
2012. Dir: Tim Burton. Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green and Bella Heathcote. ●●○○○
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the film-making process and I don't begrudge others for enjoying it, but just because there's lots of fun being had on screen doesn't mean the audience will have fun, in fact it's often the case that the more fun the cast and crew appear to be having the less fun the audience have. And there's a lot of fun being had on screen in Dark Shadows.
The film opens with a pointless scene setting flashback narrated by Johnny Depp's Barnabas Collins detailing the history of his relationship with witchcraft practising Angelique Bouchard, played by Eva Green. There's opulent architecture, triple murder and Collins transformed into a multi-knuckled blood-sucking vampire. Tedious and irrelevant the passage only seems to exist to attempt to cover over the gaping plot holes yet to come.
Fast forward 200 years to the mid 1970's and a mysterious stranger is heading to Collinsport, Maine, a young girl answering an newspaper notice for a Governess in the
dilapidated manor, a young girl with a surprising similarity to the ghostly ex-fiancee drifting around the cobwebbed corridors. Not least because both are played by Bella Heathcote. She meets the stern matriarch, Michelle Pfeiffer who remains far more dignified than this trash deserves, and is soon assisting alcoholic psychologist Helen Bonham Carter in the education of the youngest heir to the Collins dynasty.
But wait, where is the unsubtle presence of arch over-actor Depp? Never fear, he is soon to be released from his subterranean prison by an unwitting assortment of building engineers - although quite why they're digging the foundations for a MacDonalds so late at night isn't really answered - and before long he has returned to the family home and vows to restore the fortunes and dignity of the Collins estate.
What follows is approximately 90 minutes of repetitive fish out of water jokes - many of which were in the trailer - oodles of sexual chemistry between Depp and Green (although oddly none between Depp and Heathcote) and a final showdown between witches, vampires, ghosts and most preposterously werewolves. Note I am not saying werewolves are more preposterous than the other assorted monstrous characters however when a character comes on just to admit their Lycanthropic tendencies minutes before the end of the film when there's been no hint of it before smacks of writerly indulgence.
Depp adds another oddball character to his repertoire, neither good nor bad in the scheme of his past work, it is most definitely not in any way original. Whilst the supporting cast relish the opportunity to go for one-dimensional turns reflective of the soapy source material, wasting such diverse talents as Chloe Grace Moretz and Jackie Earle Haley. Only Green, displaying the sultry, slutty, animalism of the slighted femme fatale gives anything close to a performance worth remembering.
Regular Burton collaborators Rick Heinrichs (returning as Production designer after a 11 year absence) and Colleen Atwood (costuming for Tim for the 9th time) have done excellent work hear, mercilessly revealing the 1970's as the most garish an unappealing design decade of the 20th century, whilst staying true to the gothic roots you would expect for this haunted house melee. The design motifs are the stars here with the intricate Collinsport Mansion with it's nooks, crannies and secret passages as much a character as most of the performers. Unfortunately I can't help but wonder whether they've missed a trick here - if the aim of the movie was to replicate the cheap shonkiness of the original series which would explain the drab characterisations and left-field plotting - then why not play around with deliberately crass production design, the sort of wobbly walls and rubber effects that made Ed Wood so memorable.
It's hard to see what Burton is really trying to achieve with this homage to TV mediocrity. Is he celebrating it's joyous unprofessionalism or slyly satirising horror tropes? Either way this film fails to achieve those aims and I really can't recommend it for anyone.
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
2011. Dir: John Madden. Starring: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson and Maggie Smith. ●●●○○
I can highly recommend watching the trailer for John Madden's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, it's a delightful piece of advertising with a distinctive palette, easily definable characters and the odd laugh out loud line delivery. Unfortunately I cannot recommend the movie as a whole which somehow drags that trailer over two hours without further developing the characters, providing tension or even giving the audience many more laughs.
In the pre-credits sequences we are introduced to the great and good of British acting talent through a series of short vignettes designed to develop an understanding of back-story and hint at the personalities. There's everything from Judi Dench as the resilient widow to Tom Wilkinson's down-to-earth judge stopping off at Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton as a bickering pair of retirees choosing how to spend their later years with reduced incomes. One by one they are seduced by the tempting offer of the best exotic marigold hotel, a palce converted into a residential home for senior citizens looking for adventure and not quite requiring care.
As our dysfunctional septet make their journey to Jaipur, mixing for the first time on the plane out you rather hope their stories will intertwine, however oddly right until the end it feels like separate tales. Even as one pair find a common cause whilst another share the beginnings of an illicit romance there's never a feeling of cohesion within the group. Each day the characters go off alone to face or hide away from the world, each night they return to the culinary challenges placed on them by the hotel's love starved owner Dev Patel.
This literary convention of presenting a collection of characters all of whom must have an arc in which to travel probably works very well in Deborah Moggach's novel but I find it irritating beyond belief. In two hours it's simply too much to ask from an audience to make them care about so many personalities, so their storylines either feel irrelevant or hopelessly shortened. It's not helped by most of cast who seem content to take the money and run. Judi Dench reprises her "As Time Goes By" performance only with less one liners, whilst Tom Wilkinson reveals a secret he's kept hidden, tearing away at his soul for over 30 years, with all the gravitas of someone admitting to eating marmite with a spoon.
Maggie Smith does the best she can with an underwritten role, effectively playing a threatened working class racist bigot at the beginning and a entrepreneur with purpose at the end; it's not her fault that the scene where she undergo's her transformation makes no sense. Does she really embrace Indian culture just because an untouchable lets her rant about her life in service? By the way how old is she?
Only Celia Imrie as a glamorous granny looking for husband number 4 and Dev's over the tops pride inject any life into the film, and the scene they share just past the halfway mark is a moment of delightful farce. And no, I'm not going to tell you what happens, other than it involves a chain of misunderstanding starting with the wrong people getting in bed together.
I suppose one of the reasons that scene shines is because there were laughs to be had that hadn't already been shown in the trailer. Make no mistakes this isn't a comedy, it's a series of life lessons with comedic elements, and I rather believe that amping up the comedy may have helped the film. There were moments in the trailer that made me chortle out loud, but stretched out across the running time it felt awfully thin, just the odd joke at the expense of the more extreme characters surrounded by the self-satisfied blog posts of Judi's silver surfer. When she tapped out "With so many old people together it was inevitable one of us would die..." I nearly screamed at the screen in disgust. The average age of the 7 actors is barely 65 and none of them - bar Maggie Smith and her plot developing broken hip - look remotely like age is slowing them down, even the character that does die simply slips away during an afternoon slumber once their storyline has been resolved. It's nothing like the pain and torment and inherent boredom most of us will experience in old age.
There's not even much given to the Indian actors either. Sure Patel along with his girlfriend and mother, played by Tena Desae and Lillete Dubey respectively, have a soap opera level storyline along the lines of following your heart over tradition and family expectations, but aside from them no other Indian gets a look in. There's even two moments when Dench and Wilkinson refer to long conversations they have had independently with a husband and wife whose connection to the group has rocked their relationship to it's core, yet all we hear is a precis from the mouths of our middle class heroes.
All this sounds like I'm ragging on the film, but to be honest I did like it when I was watching. It was nice, the location work was fabulous, as Wilkinson says in the trailer "[I see the] light, colours, smiles. All life is here.", and he's right India is stunning, if nothing else this is a brilliant tourist video for the sub-continent.
I can't say I recommend it. But if you're seeing it for free don't say no. And do try out the trailer.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Happy New Year (Top 10 2011 and 20 films I'm most looking forward to in 2012)
Happy New Year!
Well, I'm back. My break has been good for the soul, although I must confess I've missed this only occasionally. So going forward the number of posts will be severely limited - I'm sticking to the weekly round-up of releases and my film reviews (I may also be tempted to write about running and auditions, but that's by the by). Saying that I feel it would be inappropriate to start 2012 without my top ten for 2011 and my most anticipated films for 2012.
Top Ten Films in 2011
Over the year I saw 60 movies, out of 495 releases (12.1%), which on one hand is pathetic but on the other shows now busy UK cinemas are. The majority of films released are American (45%) but there are also good showings from UK, India, France and Germany, personally I also saw films part funded from Canada, Spain, Denmark, Australia, Mexico, UAE, Sweden and New Zealand. A surprising number of the films I saw were really quite good, so making a top ten has been very tough. I really wanted to include The Ides of March, Margaret, The Skin I Live In, Hugo and Midnight in Paris, all of which are very well made movies but they ultimately failed to make enough of an impression on me.
1. Black Swan
Everything in Darren Aronofsky's balletic drama is cranked up to 11, but it's commitment to the themes of artistic sacrifice ensure there's substance under the style. See my review here.
2. The Messenger
I saw it in 2010, but it only got released in the UK this year. That's an incredible shame as Oren Moverman has crafted the definitive Iraq war movie, without actually visiting the front line. See my review here.
3. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
I was late in the game getting interested in Tomas Alfredson's English language debut, but I was very glad to have succumbed. Leisurely paced and intensively intelligent TTSS was the perfect antidote to the over-stuffed holiday pictures. See my review here.
4. Hanna
It was a great year for female protagonists, with Bridesmaids and The Help both making extraordinary box office takings, but it's Joe Wright's fairy tale actioner led by Saoirse Ronan's super-hero teenager and Cate Blanchett's wicked witch of the deep south which showed what can be done in feminist cinema. See my Review here.
5. Animal Kingdom
On one level David Michod's Aussie crime drama is an extended episode of "Neighbours", complete with Guy Pearce in dodgy moustache, but the creeping menace and almost Shakespearean levels of inter-family violence make this unforgettable, and has reminded the world of the quality filmmaking from down under. See my Review here.
6. Melancholia
No-one destroys the world quite like Lars von Trier, with a unique two act structure delving into the effects of depression and anxiety, a majestic opening and superb performances from Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg you won't stare into the sky in the same way again. See my review here.
7. Rango
As a rule I don't watch comedies or animations, but this year I set myself a challenge of trying new things and I was very glad given that it gave me the opportunity to see this wonderfully funny pastiche, lampooning everything from Sergio leone to Chinatown and with outrageously creative design work. See my review here.
8. True Grit
I confess the Coen brother's glorious Western remake almost didn't make my list, but I rewatched it over the last week and remembered how detailed and evocative of a dying culture the movie was, indeed of this years top ten it is probably the one that I will return to more than any other. See my review here.
9. Moneyball
The only film that made the cut that has a good shot of getting an Oscar nomination for Best Picture this year, mind you I haven't seen many of the favourites. It's a sports movie that virtually excludes the actual sport and underlines the importance of commitment to an ideal over spectacular display. No review as it came out during my sabbatical.
10. Warrior
There had to be one bad movie in the mix, and even I have to confess Gavin O'Conner Mixed Martial Arts family drama is a bad movie, but it worked so well for me that it fully deserves its place here in the top ten. I may have predicted every beat of the plot but I also winced in the fights scenes and wept like a baby at the conclusion. See my review here.
For those of you interested the top performances of the year are as follows:
Lead Actor: Ben Foster - The Messenger (runner up Hunter McCraken - The Tree of Life).
Lead Actress: Natalie Portman - Black Swan (runner up Saoirse Ronan - Hanna).
Supporting Actor: Nick Nolte - Warrior (runner up Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet - Princesse de Montpensier).
Supporting Actress: Evan Rachel Wood - Ides of March (runner up Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom).
Read on for the 20 films I'm most looking forward to seeing in 2012.
20 for 2012
Over the past couple of years I've had a countdown of the 20 films I'm most looking forward to in the year, but this year in keeping with the soft foot on the brakes I'm going to list them all in one go, without much commentary, and not even in order. Feel free to comment over what you're most looking forward to.
Anna Karenina - Joe Wright tackles Tolstoy and reunites with his muse Keira Knightley, might have us swooning over the tragedy of it all or just rushing to the nearest train station in agony.
Argo - Is Ben Affleck trying satire? With the same producing team as The Men who Stare at Goats and it's theme of CIA agents faking movie making it could certainly be a departure for the Bostonian.
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Holdover from last year, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith are looking lovely in the constant TV advertising on this side of the pond, expect a moderate hit.
Bourne Legacy - spies are all the rage this year, and Bourne without Bourne is only one of the two franchises I'll be queuing up for in the next 12 months.
Cogan's Trade - Andrew Dominik has proven himself a singular talent with just a couple of films, so reteaming with his Jesse James Brad Pitt is definitely a cause for celebration.
Company You Keep - There are a couple of franchise actors trying their hands at drama this year that I'd like to keep an eye on, first up is Shia LaBeouf who fits into an all-star oldie cast for Redford's stolen identity thriller.
Cosmopolis - meanwhile R.Pattz will be proving there's life after Twilight as he loses his fortune over one long torturous limo ride.
Dark Knight Rises - My only concession to comic book movies this year (the re-invented Spidey and superhero mash-up Avengers will need excellent reviews for me to change my mind) but Chris Nolan guarantees spectacle and social commentary. Worth the wait.
Dark Shadows / Frankenweenie A Tim Burton double bill, the later looks more fun, but both appear to be Burton doing what he likes rather than what the studios want him to do so should be worth catching up with.
Darling Companion - I'm a sucker for do movies, and the early pictures released of Diana Keaton and her perfectly groomed Border Collie look like this is one to still my heart - expect tears by the closing credits.
Flight - Denzel Washington hasn't enticed me into cinemas for several years, but hopefully his performance as a drug-addled pilot trying not to claim credit for crash landing his plane may be worth catching.
Gambit - Crime caper remake with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz working on a Coen brothers script, I'm confident even though the last time Joel and Ethan used British comedy as a template we had The Ladykillers.
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - When the trailer first appeared on the web a couple of weeks ago Peter Jackson managed to instantly bring us back to Middle Earth and boost up the anticipation for this simpler tale of a mythical quest.
Lincoln - It's going to be very late in the year so not to influence the US elections, however we will finally get a chance to see Spielberg's take on the iconic 16th President of the United States.
Nero Fiddled - Like a loyal puppy I keep returning to Woody Allen even when he lets me down, luckily Midnight in Paris was so delightful I actually look forward to his Rome project.
Prometheus - it's a year that looks to re-establish standalone sci-fi epics, and whilst Ridley Scott's sort of Alien prequel may not fit that template exactly there's little doubt it'll be one of the biggest hits of the summer.
Savages - stoners take on their shady underworld dealers in this kidnap revenge drama, could be worth a view.
Silver Linings Playbook / Nailed - OK, I don't believe for one minute that David O Russell's political satire will get released, but I am still looking forward to his relationship drama with Bradley Cooper coming out of prison and trying to reconnect with his family.
Skyfall - Bond is back in his starriest movie yet with Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem out to stop him expect Sam Mendes to bring a more refined look at the MI5 agent than we're used to seeing.
Summer of Monte Wildhorn - An unlikely trend for 2012 is writer's block with a number of films due to come out this year looking at the effects of such a slump, expect Rob Reiner's pairing with Morgan Freeman to be the most saccharine choice however it could well give him a chance to have fun with a irascible Western scribe role.
So those are the films I'd like to see. What about you? What movies are you most interested in catching, what would you pick for the best films of last year? Over to the comments.
