It's a cracking week for film choices here in the UK, especially if by and large you don't like people. In fact there's glorious amounts of bile and wrath inviting us to our local multiplex and art-house venue, whether it's caustic writers, poisonous cults or twisted superheroes you're bound to come across some first class sociopaths. I am so happy for that.
I got my box office predictions wrong again last weekend as War Horse kept the number 1 spot whilst The Descendants galloped up to the second place, knocking my bet Monster in Paris down to fourth. This week I'm thinking that whilst Chronicle isn't in as many screens as a couple of other releases the two days previews and decent reviews will give it the top spot.
As for my top pick, I'm was torn between the more arthouse choices, however Roman Polanski has pulled together a terrific cast for Carnage and I'm going to have to reward that alone and make it film of the week.
Carnage
Yasmina Reza's caustic four hander gets the big screen treatment from one of cinema's most notorious auteurs, trapping bourgeois Manhattanites Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly in an apartment and watching the veneer of respectability peel away. Delightful.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●●○
Young Adult
Charlize Theron bristles as the teenage fiction writer returning to her home town to snare her former beau Patrick Wilson. It also marks the return of Jason Reitman and Juno scribe Diablo Cody. Expect spot-on dialogue and great performances throughout.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Sean Durkin's highly original first feature received massive praise at last years Sundance and was heavily buzzed throughout the year for his stylistic choices and Elizabeth Olson's breakout performance. Somehow it's never caught on with audiences and didn't receive a single Oscar nod. Saying that I think we can expect fantastic things from both of them in the future.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
Chronicle
Leading the rest of the pack, and by far the most compelling feature on wide release, we have this found footage superhero horror hybrid as three friends are bestowed with extraordinary powers only to discover the darker sides of their personalities. Will probably be remembered for a long time.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
If you don't like your children I suggest taking them to see this horrid looking sequel to the 2008 semi-flop Brendan Fraser kids adventure. Note that Fraser been replaced by eyebrow raise Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - not sure if that gets explained in the script - and Michael Caine gets a new house on the back of his role.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Man on a Ledge
After it's disappointing debut at US cinemas last weekend I doubt Sam Worthington's latest attempt to display leading man status will fare much better on this side of the pond, regardless of supporting Jamie Bell's bigger draw here. Ed Harris and Elizabeth banks are among the other cast you'll recognise in this plot so simple they named the pic after it actioner.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Best Laid Plans
British boxing movie that sort of uses the central relationship structure of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" although I question whether it allows itself to have the bleak ending of that masterpiece. Steven Graham plans the chancer in debt to a Nottingham crimepin, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje his mentally challenged friend forced to fight for him.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○
Jack and Jill
Finally, in the why bother to see this crap category, we have Adam Sandler's latest "comedy" where he plays annoying titular non-identical twins, no doubt learning some life lessons whilst farting and fighting in an irritating sub-slapstick way. In the trailers best (only) joke Al Pacino (along with Johnny Depp cameoing as himself) has his Oscar smashed by Jill. I suspect the Academy will want it back anyway after this dross.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Saturday, 4 February 2012
I hate to hate you, baby (Out this week - 03/02/12)
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Contagion
2011. Dir: Steven Soderbergh. Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Ehle, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Jude Law. ●●●○○
Contagion does a great job of changing the way you think. For a few hours after leaving the cinema I was afraid to touch door handles, hand driers, bar snacks, nervous of using public transport and definitely avoiding coughing in peoples faces. All of these apparently harmless activities now seem to invite painful inevitable death. One minute you could be throwing dice in Macau, gleefully planning to shag your ex, and the next your cranium will be cut in half by nervous pathologists. Steven Soderbergh's clinical thriller, analysing the likely response to a global pandemic, certainly ratchets up the tension but objective approach and multiple storylines prevents the audience from empathising with the characters and ultimately we left with the impression of a heavy handed Government Information broadcast.
Picking up the story from day 2 and the first anonymous victim stumbling under a lorry in his Hong Kong Soderbergh has deliberately avoided the usual disaster movie conventions, instead he's trying to understand the likely battle against a rogue flu. So we follow Laurence Fishburne's head of the Centre for Disease Control, with his field operative Kate Winslet trying to contain the virus and his top scientist Jennifer Ehle finding a way to beat it. All the while Matt Damon's everyman and Jude Law's harbinger of doom blogger are caught up and carried along by the collapse of society as fear and desperation become even more viral than the initial bug.
Soderbergh is trying to replicate his success with Traffic, weaving a multi-character arc around an issue we will all face from time to time, however the storylines don't provide enough of a variation to create a satisfying whole. In his 2000 masterpiece each of the major plot informed reactions to the others, here they feel tacked on, even when Fishburne and Law debate their point on TV news or when Marion Cotillard surveys Gwynneth Paltrow's last steps these seem ultimately disconnected events. Some sections manage to make an interesting case to have seen more of - ultimately the CDC sections are the most compelling - however others seem unnecessarily sparse (Cotillard is especially hard done by) and Matt Damon's personal travails come across as petty and small - and he loses his wife and stepson in the first 10 minutes of the film!
The messiness also seems to detract from the central thesis, the status quo for mankind isn't panic and disorder but trust and sacrifice. The scientist that tests a drug on herself, the reasercher who gives up a coat, the man in a queue picking up a passport, the importance of a handshake. These are the minor moments that define us as human beings.
We do see some nice performances, Jennifer Ehle's resourcefulness is a highlight, as is Elliott Gould's proud academic (a character I really wanted to see more of), indeed none of the cast are doing a bad job it's just a shame so many of them have very little to do.
Steven's work as a cinematography also throwbacks back to his earlier experiments with colour filters, here a sickly green hue permeates through the action, queasily altering our general perception. There are also some nice touches with out-of-focus shooting, even if we have seen all these before. The script also provides some belters, "Blogging isn't writing, it's graffiti with punctuation." easily winning plaudits as the most quotable line. So naturally I repeat here - spraypainting my thoughts on the wall of the internet.
Overall I would say this is a competent movie and would recommend it (if only to make everyone think twice about going to work when they have a cold) but I couldn't help thinking probably had something better inside of it, maybe a much longer miniseries or jettisoning the other stories and focusing on the work of the CDC could've have kept the film sharper.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
John Hawkes
Happy Birthday to
John Hawkes
52 today
Last year character actor Hawkes came out of nowhere with a devastating and brutal performance in Indie Winter's Bone earnign his first Oscar nomination - don't be surprised if he gets a second for religious cult drama Martha Marcy May Marlene - as well as turning up in higher profile pics Contagion and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. Which goes to show what a great performance can do to your career.
Sunday, 30 January 2011
20 for 2011: 1 - Contagion
Finally we reach my top pick for 2011, the film I'm most looking forward to seeing is...
Steven Soderbergh's Contagion.
Steven Soderbergh, that former darling of the American indie scene, is a cinematic chameleon, his back catalogue encompasses the full gamut of genres from biopics (Che) to star laden comedy (The Ocean's trilogy) to experimental art (Bubble). Even his misfires are generally considered to be worth watching, as they exhibit an understanding of form and content almost unparallelled in modern cinema.
For Contagion he reunites with The Informant writer Scott Z. Burns for what is described on imdb as "An action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak." That's just the tip of the iceberg, as the hyperlink movie will take in a variety of stories including familial sacrifice, panic-stirring bloggers, the collapse of Governments as well as the race to find a cure.
Originally planned to be shot in 3D, the latest I've heard is that has been quietly dropped as Soderbergh wasn't happy with the results, proof that he is serious about this multi-character drama. Indeed it seems to indicate the sort of serious mind he brought to Traffic, his superb take on the war on drugs.
Like that previous picture the cast is huge, and hugely talented, including Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne, Elliott Gould, Jude Law, Gwynneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet and John Hawkes (recent Academy Award nominee for Winter's Bone). In case you weren't aware that little lot have 3 acting Oscars and a further 12 nominations between them, it's the sort of cast list you didn't think you'd see anymore and the sort of cast that wouldn't just sign on to anything.
In short this is a fascinating prospect, a director whosework I trust and have a long time affection for, working within a curious and underused genre with a castlist out of this world. How could anyone not be excited by this.
