A Field in England

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Ben Wheatley's latest feels a throwback to 70's expressionism. At least it's what I imagine European arthouse films were like then. There's probably much more to it that Im' picking up but I just found it utterly bizarre. There's a lot of mushroom eating, so perhaps that accounts for some of the trippyness. There's also a sinister supernatural undertone. It didn't help that I was having trouble staying awake whilst watching and already completely surreal dream like film.

That line between pretentious and meaningful is going to be different for everyone. I'm straddling a bit but leaning more to the former. I do appreciate many of the sequences are effective though. Wheatley has crafted a great sound design and plays around with his editing a lot. The film is interspersed with tableaux and song.

The actors all do great with what they're asked. It's often very funny, perhaps sometimes unintentionally. I'm not sure, it's hard to tell.

It's not a film I can easily recommend but it will have its fans.

The Deep

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Not to be confused with The Deep. Another Revelation Film Festival title, the true story of an Icelandic fisherman who survived for many hours and a long swim back to shore after his boat capsized and all his colleagues drowned. It's not just a survival story, it's a survivors story and the film continues on after  the harrowing event to show the aftermath of such an incident and what effect it has on him and his town.

What was great was I didn't know any of that going into the film. The beauty of festival films. The scenes out on the ocean are superbly put together. It's an inhospitable landscape and you really feel the ice cold temperatures. Perhaps surprisingly the most tense moment for me was our hero, poor Gulli, having made it to shore, just trying to get out of the water without being pummelled into the sharp rocks.

The drama in the second half is understated and much of the mystery of what happened is left unexplained but poses some interesting questions. My tastes prefer the survival story of the first half but overall it was a pretty neat experience. I think this is the first Icelandic film I've seen too, so that was fun.

Cheap Thrills

IMDB

First time viewed: Yes

Current Release: Yes

Watched With: Tyler

This kind of dark humour appeals to me greatly. A late night screening as part of the Revelation Film Festival and one I've been greatly anticipating since its debut at other festivals overseas. It didn't disappoint either. Hilarious and sick. It's a simple set up, a 4 hander moralistic play and it escalates beautifully. 

I really really loved this one, I wish more people had turned out to see it but hopefully it will get a release later in the year. The small crowd that was there were very enthusiastic though, a thoroughly entertaining evening. Can't wait to unleash its brilliance on unsuspecting friends!

Sparkle

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Elizabeth, Maria, Richard

This one was watched in a bit of a haze at a party but the story gets across. For a film called sparkle there's not much glitz or glamour on display, it's more of a gritty 70's indie film. Low budget and the filmmaking's a little clunky. It ain't Dreamgirls.

I recognised Joel Schumacher as a producer and one of the writers. He does like The only other person I recognised was Mary Alice, who played the Oracle in the last Matrix film. All the original songs are on a pretty even tempo and I gotta be honest, all kinda sounded the same to me.

Sparkle has a sister and her name is Sister. Amazing.

The film was picked up cheaply on bluray and watched on a whim, mainly out of curiosity. It's rough around the edges, very rough, but the basic structure is there and you might get a kick out of the Motown songs.

The Look of Love

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Michael Winterbottom has a new film out, which means you go and see it even if it's just to discover what he's done this time. It's a biopic on British entrepreneur Paul Raymond, who became the richest man in the country with his property dealings and perhaps more interestingly, through his clubs and peddling softcore porn magazines. 

Winterbottom regular Steve Coogan is in fine form and Imogen Poots, who plays his daughter, is on equal footing. The film focuses mainly on their relationship and it's an interesting dynamic. Anna Friel also stands out as his first wife. 

The film spans a few decades and as the narrative shifts, so to does the style of filmmaking. Black and white for the 50's, and pop colour for the 60's and 70's. Although in a refreshing change they don't bother to load on excessive film grain filters so the image looks great and the sense of time and place is still conveyed through the costumes and production design, as well as the great pop montages and swinging soundtrack.

A very enjoyable watch, it has the usual rise and fall biopic arc but the the script and the actors really make the drama play and Winterbottom captures it in veritē style.

Before Midnight

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

I really love this series. I saw Before Sunrise many many years ago when I went through a Richard Linklater phase and was just fascinated that a film where there's pretty much just two characters talking could be so engaging. When they announced a sequel, Before Sunset, years later I was sceptical because the first film had such a nice open ending that could just be ruined. But the team really came through and again made something pretty special.

They are the great love affair of independent cinema. And now we have a third, and possibly final, chapter in their story. This film feels like it has a much more definitive end than the last two. It's wonderful to spend time with these characters again and see what the last 9 years have dealt them. For purists, pretty much any imagery is considered spoiler, but there were still surprises for me even after having read other reviews and seeing the trailer.

The relationship has changed greatly, this is a very different situation this time. It's a little more tense but even through it all you can easily see how much these two mean to each other. It's funny and a little sad and so wonderfully naturalistic. I loved it. I need to go back and watch the other two, it's been far too long.

Man Of Steel

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler, Belinda, Paul

Write Up.

Back in Perth for this screening that I got tickets to months ago. The film didn't change my mind about any of my feelings the second time through.

World War Z

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

Write Up.

Whilst in Sydney I took the oppertunity to FINALLY see something on a REAL IMAX screen. The biggest screen in the world no less! I made sure to see a proper IMAX formatted film earlier in the day, the Hubble space telescope documentary. Crazy awesome seeing 3d projected from duel 70mm film. Especially when there's hairs or specs on the old prints that show up in one eye but not the other. I want to see more IMAX!

This film was screened digitally and even though it only took up a small portion in the centre of the screen, you could still see the 2k resolution wasn't standing up very well to that size. Fascinating though.

Man of Steel

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

Preface, my local cinema gifted me plane tickets and hotel accommodation to fly to Sydney to the red carpet Australian premiere of the film where Russell Crowe, Henry Cavill and Zack Snyder introduced the film, all for being "one of their most valued customers." Not too shabby.

As for the film itself, well I'm a little conflicted about it but overall I think I liked it? I've never liked superman, I never watched the older films as a kid. He character always seemed a bit bland. In this retelling of the origin story they do their best to make him a conflicted character with internal struggles, but he still seems a bit bland to me.

There are some very nice design elements and the fx are suitably awesome. It's an impressive looking film but I don't think anyone was going to fault the film technically. (Aesthetically, I'm a little tired of Snyder's high contrast desaturated colour palettes but I won't hold it against the film.)

The final action sequence is a big spectacle. It's almost numbing though, it seems to never end and the flippant disregard for the horrific collateral damage caused by two superhumans having a punch-out is kind of alarming. If it is something that is part of the sequel, well then that's fine. But as a stand alone it feels irresponsible.

That brings me to another niggling point, I feel like we all know the origin story of Superman and while this is slightly revisionist it's another example of a hero not becoming the character the public know and love until the final minutes of the film. So In that sense I guess Man of Steel is an appropriate title as this is not yet a Superman film.

Michael Shannon as Zod just made me giggle. I love him and hearing him deliver ridiculous comic book lines with all the intensity he can muster was delightful, if not a little silly.

There was a Tornado! Points for.

Henry Cavill looks great with his shirt off. Points for.

I liked they got rid of Lois Lane not knowing Superman's secret identity upfront. She wouldn't be a believable investigative reporter if she couldn't recognise someone with glasses. However I really don't think they should have tried to cram in any kind of romantic relationship between them, it was so forced and did not work at all, save it for later guys, one story at a time. 2 hours and 20minutes is long enough.

There's plenty of nit-picking to be done, (why is their display technology based on shifting geometric metal when they can quite clearly generate a photorealistic holographic Jor-El? Why was there a genesis chamber on the buried ship at the Earth outpost when they clearly state that they abandoned searching the stars before they started growing Kryptonions?) but none of that really matters. It comes down to this: I enjoyed the visuals and the spectacle but I was never emotionally engaged. 

Epic

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

The world this film created was just gorgeous. The detail in the textures and lifelike animation is stunning, the lighting is sumptuous and the camera movement and use of 3D in impeccable. I'm running out of adjectives. But really it is the most beautiful and well shot 3D animated movie I've seen since Rango.

Now if only the story was a little more interesting. They have an impressive voice cast of some very well known and distinct voices, that often precluded me from seeing the character rather than just the actor doing line readings in a voice booth. Neither of these two issues should be a problem for the younger generation though, so I expect them to eat it up. They'll probably even like Aziz Ansari as an extremely annoying comedic relief slug.

The action sequences are very well choreographed and feel appropriately epic, however with an all encompassing title like that I don't think any scale the film was conceived at would be appropriate. (They of course mean epic in the David Lean sense, not the traditional Bertolt Brecht, although imagining that is hilarious.)

There is a musical number in the middle of the film. I was worried for a second there but they cut out of it pretty quickly and hilariously.

This looks like a very expensive production. And they even make a note in the credits of how many jobs the film created and put money back into the economy... Okay. Good for them. The result is admittedly a very entertaining and beautiful looking riff on Fern Gully for the new generation. Worth a look.

Monsters University

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

Ok, so first off, the short film that plays before this, The Blue Umbrella, is just gorgeous. It's pretty much photo real and looks like a 70's new york indie film. The story is pretty standard boy-meets-girl, etc. etc. But it's just soooo preeettttyyy.

Monster's Inc. is great. You can't give it a sequel because the end to the original is so perfect. It doesn't need a prequel, but it has one now so you're just gonna have to deal with that. It seems like a very odd proposition to make a college movie that's targeted towards kids. Especially here in Australia where the majority of the audience have absolutely no idea what a frat house is or how the whole college lifestyle works.

So it's a good thing they made the film funny. Because besides that, and the prospect of spending some more time with old favourites, the film doesn't have much more going for it. I did laugh a couple of times and it's perfectly enjoyable. The story is pretty straightforward, not many thrills there.

I do have to give them credit for the major theme they tackle that goes counter to almost all hollywood children's movies. We all know from years of movie-going that if we work super hard and follow our dreams we can achieve them. This film shits all over that and rather, prepares us to deal with the inevitable failure that comes from such wistful thinking.

I also got very excited when I thought they were going to go all Friday the 13th in their third act, but they didn't utilise that opportunity to its full potential. (Come on, it's no more outlandish that doing a college movie for kids, they're the same generation.)

As with all prequels they are inherently anti-climactic, because we all know where the characters eventually end up. It's a fun ride to get there but won't leave a lasting impression.

Generation Um...

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

I dunno, I felt like this was trying to be Sex, Lies and Videotape but the characters just weren't as developed or interesting. It's a cool little indie drama but it never really grabbed me so I never bothered to figure out what the point of it was.

Upstream Color

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

Shane Carruth finally got another project off the ground after his impressive debut with Primer, a film I really love. Here with have another big sci-fi premise that is very grounded in the real world and doesn't ever worry about if the audience knows exactly what is going on or not. While this can be confusing at times it seems to be more important that you feel your way through rather than figure out exactly what's going on in the plot, which is most likely going to be different for each viewer.

Now I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as Primer, but despite the extremely esoteric nature of filmmaking on display, there was still much to enjoy. This film has some beautiful moments and a hypnotic dream-like tone. The actors equip themselves well, the film is gorgeously photographed. There's certainly enough to keep you interested and the relationship drama that unfolds is certainly unique. Despite its distancing style I latched onto that.

After a long stall with an ambitious project that fell through I'm glad to see Carruth back in the game and hope he continues his output more frequently.

Rounders

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

A friend told me to watch this one after having discovered I'd never seen it. I'd never even heard of it. I don't even know what a rounder is. I still don't really, but it has something to do with gambling. The films is about guys that play poker. I still don't know the first thing about poker. But that doesn't really matter you still get all the beats of the drama and it was fun to just watch the awesome cast do their stuff. Good ol' Mirimax.

World War Z

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

I read Max Brooks' Zombie Survival guide but I've only managed to head some of the audio book of World War Z. (Awesome cast they got for that btw.) Suffice to say this film does not resemble what little I know of the book and nor do I think you could make a straight adaptation of it into a 2 hour film. It is a very globe trotting zombie adventure, which makes a nice change from the usual zombie fare. And the spectacle of this new breed of zombies, that swarm like ants high on red bull rather than shambling around looking for brains, is visually thrilling.

What doesn't work as well is creating any tension or empathy for characters. The episodic nature of the structure means we aren't with any one group for very long and our only guide is Brad Pitt, so you just assume he'll always get out fine. In that sense it does seem very observational, rather than emotional.

It's also hard to separate expectations from the widely reported production troubles and high profile writers that came onboard to re-write the end, extensive re-shoots and many many delays on the release date. I wonder what the original ending was supposed to be. What we are left with now for a resolution is a small first step towards recovery, but very much an open ending which makes room for sequels.

Now there are some really cool set pieces in each location. I loved the idea of a plane outbreak and also that idea that all the people that prayed to god caused the downfall of Jerusalem. Delicious. There's also an attempt to create suspense at the end with a sequence set in a hospital, but it doesn't really work, for reasons stated above.

I saw the film in 3D. It didn't really add that much. It's a pretty shaky-cam film too. There were one or two moments where, looking down a long corridor they add a lot of depth only to have a biter jump out right up close. But I think that works just as well in 2D. It's a pity they had to keep the rating PG, there is no blood associated with these guys. Gore hounds will be very disappointed.

I think this comes of as overly negative, but I did enjoy the film. It has some great visuals, a few nice new ideas but at the same time it just felt a little empty.