Crash

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself


Not the baffling 2004 oscar winner from Paul Haggis but the steamy and disturbing David Cronenberg film from 1996.

I'll be honest this one always confused me a little, having not read the J.G. Ballard novel. Cronenberg keeps the characters and actions very vague and poetic, it's very open to interpretation. Either that or I'm just not smart enough to pick up on everything. What I do know is there is a lot of sex and some strange car crash thrill seeking fetish stuff.

Howard shore music is unmistakable, with his long drones and increasing chord clusters but this time it's done with electric guitar, which is always jarring to my ears, I'm so used to it coming from the string ensemble in his music.

Deborah Kara Unger and James Spader, although they do great stuff here, they, along with most other characters are so closed off and subtle I find it hard to get a grip with their emotional states. Which is of course entirely the point, they are all so stunted emotionally they need to seek out more and more exotic and dangerous perverse thrills to get a rise, to feel anything. But this observational style also makes it hard to connect to anyone.

Elias Koteas is a stand out here, I find his the most fascinating character and one of the most enjoyable to watch.

As perverse and outrageous as a lot of the film is I actually find it overall to be very sad. It's a very dark look at obsession, addiction and an emotionally stunted and slightly masochistic mainframe. It's also very slow paced which is not a good thing for a film I have trouble connecting to.

Not my favourite Cronenberg film an certainly not for everybody. But seriously who, after being in a horrible car crash, wouldn't want to wake up with James Spader. He is awesome.

Never Let Me Go

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

So this film finally gets release in Australia today. I've had the bluray for a month but held off watching until I could see it in the cinema first. I'm glad I did because some of the photography is gorgeous even if a lot of it is gloomy.

This is a soft and very sad film. For the subject matter it's dealing with it could have been more sensational but instead Mark Romanek keeps things quiet and melancholic. In the same way, the science fiction aspects are played down to a point they are barley noticeable. I think this is a character relationship piece first and foremost.

And the three leeds are just super. As are their younger counterparts that have the slightly more daunting task of setting everything up. I really loved the young Keira Knightley, she made such a good match with the older version of the character too. And of course Carey Mulligan is great and I can't not love Andrew Garfield.

This is a pretty bleak film. A much smaller and subtler version of The Island, as Jordan would say. The only thing that really grated me about it was the voice over narration at the end. It spells out a few things I think could have done another way, it felt superfluous. I think it popped up a few times in the middle and didn't bother me but something about the opening and closing of the film with the narration felt a little awkward.

A minor grievance. The rest of the film is top notch. I love me my thought provoking sci-fi and as depressing as it is it's also lovely in a way and well worth having a look.

The Lincoln Lawyer

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

A good ol' fashioned courtroom drama thriller. The kind they seemed to make a lot in the early 90s but then they all turned into television shows.

This one starts out with some playful character building stuff, there are a lot of good supporting characters and little side cases we see snippets of and they lay the ground work for the main focus of the story the charges laid against Ryan Phillippe's character. The main plot takes it's time being set up and I wasn't really that interested until about halfway through when a few twists and turns made me sit up and start paying attention and really getting into what Matthew McConaughey was doing. His character is faced with a big moral dilemma and a bit of a Catch 22. And from there the best part of the film is watching him figure out how to get out of this mess.

That's not to say the first half is boring, but with the all the great acting and and little shifts in character to enjoy in the second half I was surprised how engaging Brad Furman managed to keep the proceedings. Not that the whole film takes place in the court room, but there is a significant chunk in the latter half followed by a little finale piece that felt a little sensational but nevertheless did add a little bang to finish off the proceedings.

Great cast and a good plot kept me engaged with this one. Hopefully more courtroom dramas can play out like this one.

Biutiful

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

The second of two films I saw tonight that I had the pleasure of only seeing a small clip from their oscar nomination during the ceremony and apart from that knew next to nothing about them. That helped this film greatly, I think you can tell from that trailer they don't give away too much of what it's about. It's nice to let the film and its surprises unfold and be surprised by them.

Alejandro Iñárritu only uses his usual non-linier storytelling device once in this film, as a little bookend. It makes a pleasant change. I don't think that story telling device would have really helped this film much anyway considering it's pretty much a one man character study unlike his other films with multiple narratives and main characters. Javier Bardem is front and centre here and he's good.

This one is very depressing. It's a world you don't want to spend too much time in, which is unfortunate because the film is almost 3 hours long and man it drags out. Bardem's character is trying to sort his life out before he dies from cancer, his wife is an unfit mother and his job getting illegal immigrants work and trying to stay out of trouble with the law doesn't pay enough to keep his 2 kids set up. Oh and there is a little bit about him talking to dead people too.

The film lays on tragedy after tragedy, and not in the hilarious way like A Serious Man. It's pretty bleak but just engaging enough to get you through most of it. There are a few cool turns here and there but ultimately it doesn't all tie up for me. I think it could have done with a but more script editing.

Barney's Version

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

I saw two films tonight that I had the pleasure of only seeing a small clip from their oscar nomination during the ceremony and apart from that knew next to nothing about them. Always a pleasant surprise.

This one was nominated for best make-up but Paul Giamatti also won a golden globe for his efforts. The cast is what makes this film so great for me. Everyone was just so damn good. Minnie Driver surprised me the most, I guess I've only seen her play the love interest or friend in most films, but here she has one of the more memorable and very gratingly funny characters.

The first half of the film is very funny, and I saw it with a good crowd that were really getting into it. The film easily had us invested in the characters to see it through the slightly darker and more dramatic second half. The laughs get you hooked and the drama then gives you something to think about. Good plan.

There's quite a bit going on here. They are telling a life story over a long amount of time (hence the make up, which was great, especially on Rosamund Pike at the end, where you can tell she is older but still looks gorgeous,) and the film feels a little long in places. The non-chronological story telling allows for some mystery and suspense, which of his three wives is he fighting with at the start? Or what really happened to his best friend. But ultimately those are less important next to the grander arc of the title character, who is not always the most likeable guy.

But always likeable to watch. And did I see David Cronenberg playing one of the tv show directors? Hilarious cameo. So if you are in the mood for a bit of a saga, check this one out.

Griff the Invisible

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

A neat little flick. It's the kind of quirky impossible love story that can only be found in independent films. It' not very believable but it's so gosh darn sweet you'll do your best to go along with it.

A huge part of that is thanks to Ryan Kwanten and Maeve Dermody. They are both great. And so fuzzy wuzzy adorable. Also unlike the last few Australian films I've seen they keep the cliche Hollywood dialogue to a minimum and only use it in the superhero fantasy segments where it belongs.

My biggest problem with the film was that it felt like it could have ended after the 2nd act. The lead in to the conflict in the last third was hugely contrived and felt very forced. It put a dampener over the whole end of the film for me, which then felt like it was just going through the motions to have some bigger dramatic revelations.

Structural problems aside the rest of the film worked best when it was just doing its own thing, when Griff is dealing with handling every day reality. There are some great douchey characters that have a particular vocal cadence that will ensure you want them to suffer. It's a very simple little film and enjoyable for what it is.

Tideland

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan, Amberly, Bree

One of Terry Gilliams most divisive films. Some people think it's his best work and some people think it is unimaginable garbage. I'm in the former category. I think the film makes a great litmus test. I can maybe see how this film upset people but not to the degree I read about when the film was released.

First of, I think Jodelle Ferland is remarkable. She's also great at playing evil demonic children in every other film but here she is the lead and carries the audience into the world as viewed through her eyes. I think it's one of the best examples of a childlike sense of wonder and imagination every captured on screen. Gilliam manages to create such a frenzy of chaos but also an excitement of wild joy at the same time. This film always just sucks me in to that mind state.

The other brilliant thing I love about the film is the position the audience are put in. We are watching the film's events play out through her point of view but tat the same time can look at the situations objectively and be completely horrified by the things she does not understand or chooses to ignore. Drug use, abuse, mental illness, death, sex, all the good stuff is there but she is blissfully ignorant and so while she ignores it and continues to play happily the audience can either cower in fear or go on the journey with her.

Being a Gilliam film you know it's going to have some great visuals. There is his usual use of the ultra wide angle throughout and some nice dream sequence trippyness. The music is great too and helps set tone in a lot of places that would have been really ambiguous otherwise. With a different score this could have been a flat out child abuse horror film but instead it is a strange dream like melancholy.

Jeff Bridges!

This one kinda slipped out under the raider a few years back, which is a shame because I think it is a monumental work from Gilliam and shows such a more mature restraint with theme and character at the forefront. I really love this film. Please see it now.

The Reef

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Man I had to travel to seek this one out. It only appears to be playing at one cinema in Western Australia.

First thing I will say. Awesomely realistic looking shark attack x 2. Some good real footage and some cleaver compositing and it feels very real and pretty scary. There are quite a few moments of really good suspense.

If only the characters kept their mouths shut at the start. The relationshipy drama stuff felt pretty forced. I didn't like the dialogue or the delivery. But once they are in the water it picks up a bit.

The logistical problems of shooting on the water really show themselves here. Water surface and cloud and sky continuity are the biggest culprits. The ocean and clouds can change very quickly, I'll give you that, but not from shot to shot. It must have been a bitch of a shoot. The sound came out great though.

I think a lot of the problems with the sky colour should have been fixed in the colour grading, they hardly ever match up from shot to shot. Also, and I don't know it this was because of a dim projector bulb or not, but the hi-lights were very dull looking, to a distracting point for me. It just made it look very digital. I'll have to check it out on disc to compare.

There are two good shark attack scenes but is it worth sitting through the rest of the film to get to them? Hmm, that's a tough one. Maybe. If you like that kind of thing defiantly check it out. But it doesn't offer much more than that.

Red Riding Hood

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Catherine Hardwicke's screw you to Summit Entertainment for being booted from the Twilight franchise. Her Werewolf is actually pretty badass. Unexpected. The rest was pretty much what I thought though.

The film is basically a whodunnit. Anyone could be the werewolf and everyone is suspicious. There is a really hopeless teen love triangle in there that may make you want to claw your eyes out Event Horizon style. Gary Oldman is on hand playing the priest and werewolf hunter. He's doing one of his big characters again but it's not too over the top.

One thing I will say, Hardwicke's sense of visual style seems to have matured greatly. I think that's in large part due to some fantastic production design and great huge sets. Shooting indoors with lighting rather than her previous more grungy doco style shot on the fly on location she produces a slick looking film. The snow looks a little fake and they overdose on the old smoke and fog, but still, it's a nice look. But you can tell they were indoors because almost every shot is a mid or a close up. There are only 2 or 3 wide shots that have been extended with digital mattes and as few sequences that looked shot out doors. It's not really a problem though, it does add to a claustrophobic feeling of being locked up inside a small village with as werewolf on the loose.

Despite the setting there are a lot of modern teen idiosyncrasies that squish there way into the film. I actually like the digital grading even though it's a very modern looks but the biggest culprit it the score. It stands out like a sore thumb, opting to use an indie guitar sound throughout. Especially over the "romantic" scenes which are very awkwardly handled but no where near as annoying as Twilight.

Lukas Haas, Julie Christie and Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh!!) are wasted. There were some girls behind me that seemed scared in some of the attack scenes but it didn't do much for me. If you want a good Red Riding Hood film I'd suggest checking out Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves. Or the awesomely exploitative Freeway, my personal favourite.

The Mechanic

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Never saw the original with Charles Bronson. In fact looking over his credit list I don't think I've ever seen him in anything. (That's right, I've never seen Once Upon A Time in the West, The Dirty Dozen, The Magnificent Seven or the Great Escape. I'm not good with Old Westerns and War movies and it takes a great effort on my behalf to get me to watch them... Shame on me I know, but I just can't get excited about them.) So I don't know how it compares in story or action. I just know Jason Statham does not have a moustache.

I've said it before, I love Ben Foster and that may have hindered my view of this one, because I felt far too much sympathy for him and was thus really let down by the ending. I like Jason Statham fine in certain roles, this is one of the good ones thankfully. But Ben Foster is far more interesting. The scene of his first job is my favourite part of the film. He's so good pretending to lead on another guy in order to kill him.

I saw this with an older crowd that all gave a little humm of delight when Donald Sutherland popped up. Despite his character being in a wheelchair he still gets a little old person actiony scene at the start of the film. I liked that. There should be more wheelchair action scenes.

Simon West handles the action just fine and there are some pretty explosions to look at in the latter half. Some good shoot outs too. All in all a good action film but the end was a little disappointing if your sympathies lie in the wrong place.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Zack Snyder's kick-ass owl movie. Visually stunning and richly detailed in animation and texture, lighting and sound. It's got some great tense moments and scary bits to freak out little kids too. Unfortunately what could have been an awesome action adventure film is ruined with the placement of the most horridly jarring pop song, smack bam in the middle of the film and at the end credits. Curse you Owl City. Curse you.

This film was great in 3d but looks just as amazing on bluray, there is so much detail to chew over. And of course the film is filled with the Snyder speed ramps so you get time to look at them. Unfortunately there is no commentary on the disc but there is one of those funky multimedia in-movie viewing modes that he has on all his films. They are teh funky.

There is some great action in this. It's pretty epic. It's a strange tone, some of the characters are very "kiddy" while a lot of the scenes, especially the stuff with any of the antagonists are pretty intense. I think this unevenness causes it some trouble. It also suffers from that horrible children's book series adaptation syndrome where things are left unfinished in the hopes of possible sequels that usually never come. It's nowhere near as bad as some more recent films, the main arc is completed, but there's definitely stuff there that is left hanging.

But don't dismiss this one, there's a lot here to enjoy and it's definitely worth a watch. The guys over at Animal Logic have done some great work.

Cyrus

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Mum, Dad

Another neat little film from the Duplass brothers, champions of the "mumblecore" movement. This is their first studio funded picture but aside from some name actors and higher resolution video they've kept to their same idiosyncratic improvised style.

I really like this one, I think Jonah Hill is exceptional. Hilarious and really creepy at times. There are moments through where you just have no idea where it's going to go and there are a lot of cringe inducing awkwardness which I always love. It's another film where it's hard to believe someone like Marisa Tomei could fall for someone like John C. Reilly, but apparently only unattractive people are funny in these comedies.

It ends up being pretty standard plot structure but it's natural enough that nothing ever really feels forced, which I guess is the key to all their films.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Thought I would check out the one of the commentaries on the new Bluray I picked up the other day. By the sounds of it these guys barely knew how to keep film exposed properly and yet their film has stood the test of time.

It's very gritty, very grainy and makes you want a shower. I find it's less of a scary film and more of a repulsive one. Also a lot of people overlook the wonderful dark humour in this twisted family dynamic of the second half. Very funny.

I find the title a bit misleading, only one person gets killed with a chainsaw. Far more people are bludgeoned.

The last 40 minutes of the film are the most effective to me. It's like the worst family dinner scene ever created. What makes it so unbearable is the constant screaming from the female lead, really starts to give you a headache after a while. And then there's all the extreme close ups of her eyeballs which is just kinda gross. The grandpa is hilarious though.

Nice film to revisit. It's so cheap and nasty and raw, it's never been one I watch often but it's still good to refresh the memory on this iconic horror classic.

Steamboy

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Naomi, Rebecca, Kyla, Alex, Ichina

Again a wonderfully rich and detailed animation from a few years back.The size and scope of this film is just massive. And Like his previous film Akira, features some of the most incredibly detailed large scale epic destruction ever animated.

I guess you can call this Steampunk although it is set in 1866. We watched it with the English dub with some great cast, all let down by Anna Paquin as the lead, Ray Steam, who unfortunately can't hold the accent.

This film is action packed. Great steam powered gadgets and gizmos. There is a lot about the power of science being used for good or evil and that is mirrored in a 3 generational family struggle with the invention of this super powered steamball. SCIENCE!

It's an incredibly drawn world, It's grimy and desaturated. Everything is covered in soot. I do love industrial revolution London.

The main problem I have with the film is it is an embarrassment of riches. The scope of the story and the action gets more and more grandiose and doesn't let up but it just goes on and on. It feels like there is an extra act in there that doesn't really need to be. It's a little exhausting and tends to slowly disengage me from the film right before the climax. The very end is great though.

You can tell Otomo loves this world, it feels like he never wants to leave it. Hell he even tell an entire sequel in the end credits. It's truly something to behold on the big screen and I wish they had it out on Bluray, but for now the dvd will do.

The Secret of Kells

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Naomi

This is a beautiful Irish animated film from a few years back. I love the style of the animations which mimics the look of the designs in the Book. No perspective in the backgrounds can take a little bit of getting used to.

It's a simple little story filled with wonder and gorgeous imagery. There's also some great evil bits in it mainly to do with a dark monster that lives in the forest and the invading vikings that kill everyone. I love their design too. There are also some great funny bits, most of the m at the start before things become darker.

The music and sound is great, the voices a good, all in all it's a great film with a mythical quality of an old folk tale. It's sweet, simple and effective. One of my favourite pieces of animation from the last few years.