Another Year - Review

Finally got to see this.

It's a pity I was so tired, because it is heavy on dialogue, low on plot and, although it's slow and quiet, you really don't want to miss a moment.

Mike Leigh's writing is as excellent as ever - observing complex truths about choices, consequences and happiness, but always letting the observations serve the characters, not the other way around.

Every character is complexly written and every single member of the cast performs miraculously - this group of friends feels so real and the quietly shifting emotions, tensions, loyalties and perspectives in their conversations are beautifully observed.

Jim Broadbent & Ruth Sheen anchor the film with spot on performances as Tom & Gerri, the stable, happy couple to whom a series of desperate, messy friends flock. Oliver Maltman brings wit and goofish charm as their son and Karina Fernandez is a mad blast as his perfectly matched girlfriend.

But it is Lesley Manville (Cannes & National Board of Review Best Actress winner) & Imelda Staunton that steal the film as two very different, bitter and chronically unhappy women that Gerri tries to get through to but possibly can't. The finale centers around Manville's Mary, and her performance is so fearless and glamourless, that it is at times difficult to watch - a manically energetic, skittish woman who never stops talking, cannot get over the hurts love and life have dealt her, will fall for (almost) any man who gives her attention, thinks she is successfully masking her unhappiness, cannot buy a decent second-hand car or take care of her garden and deeply wants to be someone her friends can confide in. She is as hilarious as she is heartbreaking, and at times downright poisonous and pathetic. It's a brave and bruising performance.

The film quietly poses questions about why some people are happy while others never seem be; why some people simply seem to make better choices; how to make someone see their own folly; whether it's selfish to enjoy the happiness of your own successful life while others can't seem to get theirs together & what can actually be done to help them? It poses no answers, but provides much richly detailed food for thought.

A tour-de-force of great ensemble acting & writing (it is ensemble writing, as Mike Leigh develops his scripts together with his cast).

God of Love (Live Action Short Film) Trailer

Oscar Winner for Best Live Action Short - God of Love:


Trailer:





Short clip after the cut:

The Lost Thing (Animated Short) Trailer

Best Animated Short Film winner at this year's Oscars, here is the Trailer for, & a clip from, The Lost Thing.

Haven't found the full short film online yet.

Trailer:




Short clip after the cut:

A Better Life Trailer - the year's first Oscar contender?

Borrowing Gustavo Santaolalla's stirring Motorcycle Diaries score, Summit Entertainment announces what they intend to push as the year's first Oscar contender, following their Hurt Locker success.

A change of pace for director Chris Weitz (About a Boy, The Golden Compass, New Moon), it looks promising enough, but Oscar? We shall see.

Red Riding Hood - Review

Friends made me watch this on Human Rights Day because I made them watch Tron: Legacy (how is that fair?).

It is a pile of poo. I can only assume that once-promising director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) enjoyed making some money with Twilight, and was eager to repeat her success. She should be eager to get back to her legitimate career.

Red Riding Hood borrows heavily from Twilight to appeal to the pre-teen-but-think-they're-teen girl audience:

• Soulful, life-changing voiceovers - check
• Involuntary attraction to a sensitive bad boy - check
• Forests - check
• Lots of heavy breathing - check
• Pretty girl with family issues torn between two pretty boys - check
• Werewolf - check
• Billy Burke as 'dad' - check
• Terrible romantic dialogue ('I know you feel it too - like you're burning inside...' '...I want to eat you up...') - check

I guess its entertaining enough, and it holds some surprises, but mostly its a good unintentional laugh (and I wasn't the only one in the cinema chuckling). Gary Oldman does his worst work in a while, and the great Julie Christie embarrasses herself for what must be a much-needed paycheck.

It's pretty much a stinker.

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

2 Oscars & 8 marriages later, Elizabeth Taylor has passed away at the age of 79.

Oscar nominated for Raintree Country (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly Last Summer (1959), Butterfield 8 (1960) (win) & Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) (win), and a screen icon since she was 11

Liz Taylor - National Velvet (age 13):


Liz Taylor - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (age 26):


Liz Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Age 34):


More after the cut:

Johnny Depp is back in the new Pirates & the new Hunter S Thompson adaptation

Johnny Depp sure has been quite prolific the last few years. Last year his performances in Alice in Wonderland and The Tourist were decent but disappointing, and started feeling like perhaps he should be a bit more picky.

This year, he sinks his teeth into another Hunter S Thompson adaptation (last time was Terry Gilliam's take on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, this time it's Bruce Robinson's The Rum Diary). The plot (according to rum-diary-movie-trailer.blogspot.com) hints at quite a role for Depp:

"The Rum Diary follows Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp), a divorced alcoholic and struggling novelist who decides to kick around in San Juan until his ship comes in, working as a journalist for a newspaper that’s on its last legs, drinking gallons of rum and experimenting with LSD. With his new friend Bob Sala by his side, Kemp becomes entangled in a corrupt hotel development scheme with a slick PR consultant named Sanderson."

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - more after the cut:

Cave of Forgotten Dreams Trailer

Somehow Werner Hertzog / the french can get away with saying nonsense like 'Quiet please, we are going to listen to the cave... and perhaps hear our own heartbeats'.

Hertzog's Grizzly Man was quite a documentary, and he always has a refreshingly left field view of things. He always attracts ecstatic reviews, but judge for yourself.

Che Guevera for Human Rights Day

For Human Rights Day, I wanted to tried to find a scene from one of  my favourite movies, Walter Salles' The Motorcycle Diaries. I couldn't find the leper colony scene, so I settled for the night-time conversation with communist couple. Amazing movie.

Traveling Just to Travel
The Motorcycle Diaries at MOVIECLIPS.com

What Natalie did next

While we're on the topic of Natalie Portman, here's what else we'll see her in this year:

Your Highness:


and

Thor:


Not quite what you expected? Clearly she is not taking herself too seriously, and power to her. Everyone is entitled to cash in a paycheck or three, and taking on laughs and battle scenes might be a very wise move after throwing herself into the dark and disturbing Black Swan.


Thor, being directed by multiple-Shakespeare-adaptation-veteran Kenneth Branagh, is certainly on my to-see list.

The stars of Black Swan bring you... the same romantic comedy

Natalie Portman & Ashton Kutcher - No Strings Attached:




Mila Kunis & Justin Timberlake - Friends with Benefits:



Hollywood oozing original ideas.
I could pay to see No Strings Attached. Looks sweeter. 

Sharlto Copley, Matt Damon & Jodi Foster in Neill Blomkamp's Elysium

Neill Blomkamp has put (rumoured) District 10 on hold & roped in Sharlto Copley, Matt Damon & Jodie Foster (impressive) to star in his new sci-fi mystery, Elysium. All we know is that it is set in the distant future, on a foreign planet, with - of course - socio-political undertones. But apparently that's wrong, cause IMDB describes it as follows: "Aliens come to earth to do battle with man kind so they find peace on earth and live like human beings."

So basically we know nothing, except it probably has aliens. And the less we know, the better. Probably. After District 9, anything Blomkamp does next is news. He only has to not screw it up to become huge.

I searched the web for a trailer and found this:

Elysium Trailer - Watch more amazing videos here

Yeah... I don't think that has anything to do with the Blomkamp film... Thankfully.


THIS, however, apparently does:



Interesting... The initial promotional trailers for District 9 were clever in that they hinted at the film's content while including very little footage from the actual film. This is likely along the same lines, and certainly piques my interest as much as the high profile cast.

The Making of Todd Haynes' Mildred Pierce

With I'm Not There, Far From Heaven & Safe on his CV, Todd Haynes is some kind of legend.

Fascinating 'making of' doc for his upcoming HBO mini-series adaptation of Mildred Pierce.

Daniel Craig & Judi Dench for International Women's Day

Scary

Wandering Fever Trailer

Nice local production from The African Attachment.