Given that I gave Bradley Cooper the benefit of the doubt last week I should really be as generous to Jake Gyllenhaal and select his film as movie of the week, especially as it's directed by genius Moon director, Duncan Jones. However I just couldn't resist a little French farce to celebrate April Fool's Day, so film of the week is Louise Michel.
Louise Michel
Delightful looking black comedy where a group of disgruntled employees, led by the indomitable eponymous heroine, take a hit out on their boss. Then it all starts to go wrong with surreal and unexpected results.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Passenger Side
Canadian Indie following two brothers, one a failed writer the other a recovering junkie, on a road trip around their adoptive Los Angeles. Slow and sedate it looks like a fine attempt at getting under the skin of the central fraternal relationship.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Source Code
By rights this superior time-travel thriller, like a mash-up of 12 Monkeys, Deja Vu and Groundhog Day, should be the film of the week. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stephens, a mixed up soldier trying to save the past, with Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga supporting and directed by Duncan [Zowie B...] Jones this will probably do very well at the box office.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Essential Killing
A virtually wordless acting tour de force from Vincent Gallo drives this Eastern European set prison break drama with Gallo playing the Islamist convert escaping waterboarding.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Oranges and Sunshine
Based on the true cases of British children being lured away to Australia by an inefficient and corrupt social services in post-war England, many whilst their family were still alive. Emily Watson plays the social worker trying to uncover the conspiracy, David Wenham and Hugo Weaving among the cases she uncovers. Worthy and tear-jerking but probably not much more than that.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Blooded
Interesting independent British movie, which takes the central conceit of The Most Dangerous Game with an extreme Animal Liberation hunting down a group of bloodsports enthusiasts. Intercut with alternative actors explaining what happened.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Game
Our Bollywood release of the week revolves around a murder mystery with four very different suspects (drug-dealer, actor, journalist and politician) who may have killed a young woman and now face their lives falling apart until the real killer can be found.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Killing Bono
Unfortunately the story of making this slightly inaccurate Neil McCormick biopic is more interesting than the film itself given that Bono himself suggested the title. Ben Barnes plays the lead singer of Dublin's second best band, Martin McCann does a spot-on impersonation of 70's era Bono and Pete Postlethwaite will always have this as his lasting legacy.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Sucker Punch
Suddenly the same fans who were applauding Zack Snyder to direct the new Superman were disgusted at the thought after his latest creative nadir crashed and burned at the US box office. It's all to do with an innocent young woman fending off evil men by retreating into her subconscious - but feminism it ain't.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Hatchet 2
I suspect if I said I didn't even know there'd been a Hatchet 1 I guess I'd be missing the point of this grisly American horror. Expect small axes to fall on all the sympathetic characters - if indeed there are any.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Hop
We get the cinema we deserve really, or so you will if you watch this appalling looking kids comedy about the Easter Bunny (voiced by Russell Brand) and his attempts to avoid work whilst excreting jelly beans.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Young Hearts Run Free
First feature from Andy Mark Simpson looking at the relationship between a art student in Northumbria and a girl from London against the backdrop of the Miners strikes. Probably would've felt like an old-story in 1974 (when it's set).
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Saturday, 2 April 2011
A recogniseable fantasy (Out this week - 01/04/11)
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Love and Other Drugs
2010. Dir: Ed Zwick. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria and Josh Gad. ●●●○○
If the thought of seeing lots of Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in the buff was what attracted to you to Love and Other Drugs then I have to say you won't be totally disappointed, there are boobs and bums all over the place, but not once does the flesh on screen seem gratuitous, indeed it's a film focussing on a relationship that (initially anyway) is based purely on the sexual connection and - forgive me if I'm unnatural - generally you're naked when you're having sex. The fact that I'm talking about the nudity at this point is rather odd, the film has been marketed heavily on the premise that Jake and Anne are naked a lot and this may well have clouded what this story is all about.
Here is where I agree with the marketing team, you can't isolate one strand that the film is about because it tries to be so many things it ens up falling over trying to please itself. It's a sex comedy, an expose of the pharmaceutical industry and Love Story rehash all in one; and that simply doesn't all gel together.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jamie Randall, master salesman and legendary lover, who meets bohemian waitress Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway) and whilst he's climbing up the greasy pole of pharmaceutical sales just around the introduction of Viagra she's coping with early onset Parkinson's disease (not that you can tell apart from the odd finger wiggle). They both start off not wanting a fully fledged relationship because they're both terrible afraid of bing abandoned but of course one develops and then they must learn to cope with the way things are.
Most of the satirical parts work well, Gyllenhaal and Oliver Platt as his supervisor, have a wonderfully crass on-screen chemistry and you they are scenes when you truly wonder how far these companies will go to ensure their product is prescribed. Enter Hank Azaria as a horndog doctor whose medical ethics extend to lying to patients, accepting bribes and prescribed whichever drug that the company will guarantee him getting laid. He has a nice speech about integrity later in the flm, utterly wasted in the background of a pajama party. In fact these sections come across as a medical Thank you for Smoking and perhaps had director Ed Zwick, who's TV experience with comedies such as "thirtysomething" and "My so-called life" has proved very useful.
The other sections don't work nearly as well. Hathaway simply doesn't convince as a Parkinson's patient, as a reluctant lover or even as a waitress. There's also a scene with real sufferer's talking about their illness which frankly belongs in another movie.
You wonder if the whole thing would have worked better if Maggie was just a girl disgusted by the industry who slowly taught Randall the error of his ways? (And yes I know it's based on a true story but surely they could have ignored that part for the sake of dramatic cohesion).
Overall I would say this is part of a good movie, interesting to get an insight into drug culture and miles above any other romantic comedy I've seen this year, but messy unfocused and stretched too far to work.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Jake Gyllenhaal
Happy Birthday to
Jake Gyllenhaal
30 today
Yes, I have put today's birthday picture a bit lower in the post in order to let it be bigger, and I fully believe looking at it tha I'm fully justified in doing so. The good news is tat Jake is only 10% younger than me, so I'm feeling less of a perv for drooling as I have in the past. Coming up (obviously) is Love and Other Drugs and his also rumoured to b in Garry Marshall's New Years Eve. 
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
2010. Dir: Mike Newell. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina and Steve Toussaint. ●●●●○
Last week I went to see a film that I was really looking forward to and ended up being really disappointed, largely because in spite of it's historical pagentry it ended up throwing away all the fun in the concept. This week my low expectations of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time were unjustified as it went the other way (not a care in the world about historical context and) filling the film with layer after layer of fun. I really liked it for that.
It's also a film where describing the plot seems a litle superfluous, not only because it's just a load of macguffin in order to push the action along, but also because Gemma Arterton's Tamina spends the best part of the movie explaining it to us. Essentially Jake Gyllenhaal and his brothers are busy sacking cities in the Middle East searching for smuggled weapons (can't think what that reminds me of) when Jake stumbles across a magical dagger with sand in it's hilt.
Jake's (adoptive) dad is promptly killed, suspicion falls on him, he runs off with Arterton and many twisty turny adventures happen as our leads identify the real killer and try to prevent the bad guys taking the throne.
It really is that simple, and in spite of the plot's collection of minor double crosses we can pretty much guess who's on which side and who's going to be toast before the end credits. Although the last five minutes were a bit of a surprise to me, especially as they seemed to contradict with large tracts of Gemma's expositionary dialogue.
Jake does a grand job in the lead role, wearing a British accent like a glove to avoid seeming odd when compared to the rest of the English cast. He also looks incredibly hot with the new found muscles (a few more gratuitous shirtless scenes would have been appreciated) and there were a couple of sly Brokeback references I picked up - our first sight of Jake involves some man on man wrestling and his first kiss with Gemma almost takes place in a tent... Gemma does her best in a thankless role and Ben Kingsley goes on autopilot as the devoted uncle of Gyllenhaals Prince Dastan - I'll let you guess how devoted he is.
Alfred Molina is probably the stand out cast member though, leering his way through the film as Sheik Amar, part Hugh Griffith in Ben Hur, part John Rhys-Davies in Raiders of the Lost Ark, part Oliver Reed in Gladiator and all Ostrich fancier.
The production design and costume elements are fantastically detailed, and whils I doubt they are even remotely accurate to the period they create a visually interesting movie with a very clear homage to the films computer game heritage. As are the action sequences which make appropriate use of running, jumping and going up and down levels. It sounds silly, but as the genesis of the film is a platform game it's good to see that exhibited in the finished product.
One of the minor points that let the film down was the CGI, with all the money that must have been spent on the movie it was disappointing that when the sands of time things actually happens a Scorpion King quality picture of Jake's face is attached to a bunch of lit blobs until the effects over - was that really the best they could do?
Overall though I would say this is about as good as summer tentpoles get with fun characters, palpable chemistry and a sense of real excitement.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Brothers
2009. Dir: Jim Sheridan. Starring: Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, Sam Shepard and Bailee Madison. ●●●●○
The effects of war on the home front and familial relations of warriors has been a common dramatic device that can be traced back to the traditions of Greek theatre. As a narrative techinque is can be used as a shorthand for pro-war propaganda, for bold broad statements about the futility of conflict or for trying to treat the subjects as disconnected to the war, as men first not as an extension of the rights and wrongs of the particualr war and to remind the audience that the soldiers are only trained to fight and kill and not to deal with the psychological after-effects.
Brothers clearly fits into that third category. The legality or morality of the conflict in Afghanistan is therefore completely ignored, instead the film focusses on Marine Captain Tobey Maguire's deployment and how his family cope first with him being reported as missing in action and then the surprising aftermath.
Maguire is the elder of the films titular brothers with Jake Gyllenhaal as his lost younger brother. For every positive character trait exhibited by Maguire Gyllenhaal is able to show the opposite. Maguire is a family man, with an abiding love for wife Natalie Portman and a respect for his father Sam Shepard (following him into the military) whereas Gyllenhaal is a borderline alcoholic ex-con (just released at the start of the picture) with father issues and no long term relationship on the horizon.
I don't want to spoil what happens in the third act, but if you've seen Susanne Bier's original you will know that following capture and emotional torture by the Taliban Maguire's character returns to the family with deep scars and pathological jealousy of how Gyllenhaal has reformed himself in the wake of the tragedy and got closer to Portman. By the end the roles of the brothers, whilst not reversed, are certainly more blurred.
The story veers towards melodrama at many points, but the grounded and tender performances more than keep that in check - our leading trio are all superb with Maguire's wide eyed intensity adding to the characters histrionics as he processes the appalling indignities he has endured, whilst Portman's is torn between the man she loved but no longer recognises and his brother who is slowly emerging as a better man.
The realism of the family scenes are such that we fully believe in the shifting dynamics and Sheridan's sensitive handling is able to succesfully balance the themes of jealousy, redemption and how we are shaped by our parents.
There are problems though. There were a couple of scenes, which I felt didn't fit into the overall picture - Carey Mulligans house visit complete with heavy handed dream references and freaky eyed baby seemed unneccessary and the surprise visit of Gyllenhaal's pickup to a kids birthday party seemed to be unsurprising to either her of the family. On the other hand other aspects could have been extended. For instance the rebuilding of the relationship between Gyllenhaal and Shepard seemed rushed, like there was a scene missing and I would have liked to have seem more trust built between them.
Overall this is a great film that really understands and empathises with it's central protagonists without judging them. It deserves to be lauded and remembered as this conflicts Coming Home.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
20 for 2010 - Love and Other Drugs
Getting ever closer to the top spot with the 3rd place Love and Other Drugs.
One of the reasons, oh go on then it's the main reason, that I want to see Ed Zwick's latest film is residual love for Brokeback Mountain. Here we have Jack and Lureen Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway) reuniting; only this time they will actually fall in love - no beards necessary. Both of the two have proven themselves capable of a wide range of roles and I suspect both have fans who would be prepared to watch them sit and read the phone book.
There other reasons to get excited. For starters Ed Zwick may be best known for his bombastic historical dramas, but lets remember he cut his teeth producing television dramadies like "thirtysomething" and "My So-Called Life". This experience will be extremely helpful in adapting Jamie Reidy's bestselling memoir about his life as a drug salesman during the advent of Viagra.
Which leads nicely to the fact that this is a film about drugs and sex. With lots of viagra jokes. There must be some laughs to be had in there.
There's also a top notch supporting cast, with Hank Azaria, Judy Greer and Oliver Platt among many others.
Although saying that the main reason I'm anticipating this so much is still Jake and Anne. (Especially Jake)
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Coming Soon (maybe)
BAD NEWS - The Prince of Persia has ben pushed back until 2010 to complete post production.
Don't get me wrong. I'm under no illusions that PoP will be a good film. I don't rate Mike Newell as an action director, I mean really don't the producers look at his previous films? And Ben Kingsley has a supporting role so we can't guarantee any quality there.
In spite of all this, and my complete lack of knowledge about the source game, I am very keen. mainly because I have imagined the entire film involves Jake Gyllenhaal running around dressed like Aladdin in short trousers and an open waist coat.
Mmmmm, Jake.
More gratuitous Jake shots after the jump.
