In the House

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

François Ozon's latest is a very intriguing little drama/thiller based on a stage play. Films about writers can be tricky but this one navigates it quite well. There's a great unreliable narrator aspect going on. There also a subplot with Kristin Scott Thomas and her art studio that, while it adds thematically, isn't as interesting as when we follow this student into the house of his classmate. And when things start getting big, they can always hang a lampshade on it. Great fun.

Maniac

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Well I haven't seen the original but I'd be interested to check it out. Taking Peeping Tom style serial killer POV to the next level pretty much the entire film is first person perspective, occasionally sliding out during killing sequences. I thought there'd be longer takes but they jump cut frequently making sequences easier to set up but a little less impressive to watch for me.

there's something strangely distancing about hardly ever seeing our main character. I thought the opposite would be true considering the audience is in his head the whole film. I did enjoy some of the kills, the make up effects were well executed. But the main character isn't that compelling and neither is the film on the whole.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Another teen fantasy romance series? This one is more gothy than Twilight but not as hopelessly relationship drama based, with a bit more Harry Potter style magical fantasy but none of the great character work or intriguing plot, and like Beautiful Creatures, it has a great cast of British supporting actors but with none of its charm.

What the film has going for it is (and I hate to use this word, so apologies,) edginess. I found the film pretty stock standard, but there were elements that made it stand out from the usual fare. Whoever designed the demons in the film must have been a fan of John Carpenter's The Thing. Some unexpectedly gory horror moments perked my interest. Also new to me in a teen fantasy romance was a homosexual character and the possibility of an incestuous relationship. Those combinations make for some interesting love triangles.

Everyone here seems to be sleepwalking through the film. Not nearly as bad as Twilight, but Robert Sheehan from Misfits was the only one that really made any kind of impression. I saw the film in a cinema filled with teen fangirls, the kind that stood up and cheered when the new Hunger Games teaser played before the film. I've never heard such a vocal reaction of sympathy when he gets put in the friend closet by the heroine.

The film moved through the beats so fast that even for someone who hasn't read the book, it felt very abridged. Huge leaps are constantly made and revelations aren't dwelt on at all. It all feels so surface. And then there's the central romance, which really doesn't work. Perhaps I just don't go for Jamie Campbell Bower. Not that Lily Collins was doing much better. There's some particularly laughable dialogue they have to deliver, scenes that come out of nowhere.

A real mixed bag. But somehow this one already has a sequel on the way. I'd rather a Beautiful Creatures sequel than this but then, I'm hardly the target audience.

Blue Jasmine

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

Woody Allen's latest is hard to nail down, it has many elements of his comedic films and his dramas. The amazing cast sink their teeth into these great characters and the results are both funny and tragic. Often at the same time.

Some unexpected faces pop up in supporting roles and it was a joy to watch them interact. And of course, Cate Blanchett is amazing, quite theatrical and I can see why all the comparisons to Blanche Dubois. She's a little unhinged... I loved Sally Hawkins and Bobby Cannavale together too.

The structure jumps back and forth as we get exposition through flashbacks, or perhaps they are more than than. They always hit and very specific moments, like we are following Jasmine's stream of consciousness. And yet the filmmaking is still very observational.

It's more than just a character study, but the great tragic character at the heart of the story grows more interesting as the film progresses. very enjoyable.

Grave Encounters

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

This one came out a few years back, never got around to it. Pretty standard found footage ghost stuff. There are some big scale gags here that seem a little outrageous.

I always watched the paranormal activity films wondering why they never showed more. Well now I know, when you show as much of your monsters as they do in this film they lose their edge.

I didn't really get into this one but under the right circumstances I can see how it could be fun.

Elysium

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

Write Up. Went to see it at IMAX. Image didn't hold up as well as I'd thought, maybe because we were sitting closer to the front that usual, but you could see the individual pixels blocking up the whole way through. 2K just didn't cut it that close. Fun movie though, if a little obvious.

I Declare War

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

What fun. Kids playing war in the woods, only we see it from their perspective, so all the weapons they imagine are real. And these kids mean business. The film plays out like any serious war film, with a rag tag band of heros, a love interest, dirty double crossings and revenge.

The young cast perform admirably to varying degrees but most importantly they and the film treat every moment as life or death which makes it easy to get caught up but also hilarious. Very enjoyable.

Killing Season

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

This is a very pretty looking film. Basically two guys in the forest trying to shoot each other and they play up the emotional turmoil. John Travolta has a crazy accent. It's okay.

Emperor

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

An alright drama and an interesting historical period to explore, occupied Japan right after WW2. The film is basically a procedural where Matthew Fox is tasked by Tommy Lee Jones to uncover who ordered the attach on Pearl Harbour and if the Emperor needs to be tried for war crimes. It's made difficult by the fact that the Emperor is basically a god to the Japanese and due to ceremony and tradition, barley anyone ever sees him and removing him from the head of government could lead the country into revolt.

I enjoyed the film, if not emotionally just for the story. It's technically well put together too, the period recreation and cinematography is great. Worth a look if you're interested in the period.

Primer

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

Shane Carruth made a heck of a debut with this time travel drama. The logistics of the plot can be overwhelming and more so the engineering technobabble the characters speak in. But when you get down to it, this is a somewhat sad story about how two friends with insatiable curiosity invent something they don't understand, and as their lives spiral out of control their trust is put to the test.

This is a very dialogue heavy film, there are layers of it all overlapping and the majority of it is like a foreign language spoken only by extreme engineers. But you learn to let it wash over you and filter out the key points that drive character and story. The way it's acted out makes the characters and language feel very authentic. It's probably the most believable time travel film I've seen.

The 16mm film is sometimes out of focus a little but the shots and nice and the colour grading has an interesting palette too. As well as writing, directing and acting, Carruth also made a nice little score for his film.

Now the time travel is paradoxical, I generally don't go for that but the way it screws up peoples comprehension of the film is kinda funny. Not even I would claim to understand every event that happens in the film, but I have a very good idea and some theories.

But after all the fun ideas of time travel and causality are explored, in the end it's the two central characters that keep you invested. And the mess they make for themselves is, for me, as fascinating as it is confusing.

This is a real gem. One of those great small realistic sci-fi films that I love. Be sure to check it out if you've never seen it before and see how well you go. I look forward to giving Carruth's next film another look soon too.

Red 2

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

Hmm, well this film was even more average than the first one. Although the guy sitting behind us lapped it up like he'd never seen a film before in his life, so what do I know. Sure there's a few fun bits and the action is okay at times but there's so much rehashing that the second time through it just felt uninspired.

Except for maybe some of the Byung-hun Lee stuff. He was neat. Death by oragami.

Yeah, it's a good fun time but I barly remember anything about the plot. I just remember thinking Mary-Louise Parker was hamming it up too much.

The Canyons

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

What a strange combination of people. Paul Schrader directing from a script by Bret Easton Ellis, starring Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen.

Even if I could ignore the terrible acting I'm left with a bland story about assholes told in an amateur way. I get this was a really really low budget film but it was just terrible. Ellis loves his yuppie narcissistic characters but it gets old real quick and you need more charming people to be playing them.

This was a curiosity but ultimately not worth the effort.

The We and the I

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Michel Gondry made a new film? How did I not know this? Well it's a very low budget film, almost fly on the wall documentary style, using all non-actors and a little experimental. It pretty much all takes place on a bus ride home from a Brooklyn school and we see various characters and interactions. Some of the sequences are amusing, many or them fall short due to varying degrees of acting skill. I found the whole thing mildly interesting.

The Iceman

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Some more Michael Shannon, always a good thing. But somehow they've managed to make the true story of a notorious hitman very uninteresting. The whole films felt like just a bunch of scenes of things that happened. Everything was very surface.

Despite the impressive cast assembled, they don't leave much of an impact.

I guess I just couldn't get into this one. There's nothing particularly wrong with it technically. I did love the period recreation. But, if you'll pardon the pun, it left me a little cold.

Executive Decision

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

Another title I knew by name only. But I do love that there are 90's action films I can still see for the first time. And a Joel Silver produced action film at that.

So this probably read very differently in a Post 9/11 world. I'm not sure you'd make this movie today, or if you did it would not be so flippant with its fun adventurish tone. I mean it's not an adventure film but it has that 90's action surrealism.

There's just a lot here that feels implausable. But you have to ignore that and treat it as the standard entertainment it is. I love the 90's effects, the way you shoot 90's action, the 90's supporting actors you recognise from other films of the era.

I didn't think the film was that great. Perhaps I'd be more enamoured if I had seen it on its release. The style is still nostalgic though even if the treatment of terrorism seems a little naive today.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

An old Frank Oz farce that I've never seen before and knew only by name. Actually there are very few  Steve Martin films I've seen now I come to think of it. Maybe I should look into that.

Michael Caine is the classy one, Steve Martin is his crass foil and Glenne Headly is the sweet innocent dame. Good casting and a fun watch. Seem a little old fashioned now, almost quaint, but there's a certain charm that comes with that too.

Cloverfield

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

I love Cloverfield. I rated it my number 2 film of 2008. I ticked a number of boxes for me and the fact that it opened on my birthday was awesome too. I followed all the viral marketing for it obsessively, back when viral marketing was relatively new. It was a fascinating campaign to be party to. I got the slusho T-shirt and everything. The way they made the film in secret, and how that teaser trailer just came out of nowhere was great. We even made our own version.

But in the end only the film matters. And I found it very effective as well as being entertaining. America's own Godzilla. Before Godzilla became fun children's adventure movies he was a symbol of Japan's reaction to the bomb. He is the embodiment of the idea that tampering with mother nature will lead to destruction, the consequences are unforeseen and we have no way of really controlling that power. Likewise, Cloverfield is the embodiment of America's reactions to modern terrorism, specifically the day of 9/11 and the chaos and questioning that took place immediately after. The whole film builds up to a final quiet moment where a surviver simply asks "Why is the happening?" a mantra that can be seen in footage all over youtube from the day. And that is what the film ultimately leaves you to ponder. We get no answers or explanations, there is no bigger picture here. Something just hits without warning and the character do their best to survive, document and get to their loved ones.

That is coupled with the striking imagery of destruction from candid amateur photography. At the time the film came out the found footage gimmick was around but not as over-saturated as it is now. And it had certainly never been done on a scale such as this. When I was much younger, I had an idea for a large scale alien invasion film, filmed by a boy who just received a video camera for his birthday. I had always wanted to try and make it and when this project was announced I was pissed of because I figured J.J. Abrams had stolen my thunder, but it was only a matter of time before someone did it and I'm glad it turned out as well as this. Lots of people complain about the shaky-cam filming style, probably not a problem at home, but I saw the film 4 times at the cinema and the only time I felt sick was a 3am screening as part of an Easter movie marathon where I was super tired, had eaten nothing but chocolate all day and was sitting 2 rows from the front of the screen, so not ideal.

In amongst the verite action, Drew Goddard's script has slipped in a pretty solid survival horror film structure and characters. No wonder he went on to make his directorial debut with Cabin in the Woods. It also has some of his typical humor slipped in. The cast of (at the time) largely unknowns have a tricky job to do here and I think they succeed admirably. There are great sequences of suspense and action, a few quiet emotional moments and some good left turns. Director Matt Reeves manages to pack the film with everything you'd expect from a full scale disaster film but always keeps the fantastic just on the edge of frame, saved for a few key moments. There's a real feeling of danger and dread that just increases as the footage rolls on.

And then there's the effects. And for a relatively low budget film, there's a lot more effects than you might think. Ever since I had the idea to make my own found footage film I've been teaching myself the techniques of 3d tracking and compositing to figure out how to get effects elements to sit comfortably inside erratic shaky footage. Believe me when I said it is an art form and involves a huge amount of work. The shots that I see in this film, I just don't know how they managed to get them to work so well.  Even shots without explosions creatures have set extensions and background replacements. Very impressive work. 

Also, while there's no score in the film, the end credits has a beautiful theme track composed by Michael Giacchino that harkens back to Akira Ifukube iconic Godzilla music.

Watching it now, without the hype, on a small TV and with someone watching for the first time that has no expectations, the film is still very effective. It's been so long since I last saw the film that I've actually been to New York since then. Perhaps my memories of that trip helped make it a little more visceral or perhaps I had just forgotten how effective it was but it was great to watch again and be reminded of tis little gem.