Enemy

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

Just completed my double double. This film is also based on a book called The Double but a different one than the movie The Double was based on. However they are both about doppelgängers, they both have a similar colour palette and they both have a mysterious awkward tone.

But they are very different films. Denis Villeneuve's film is far more esoteric and understated. It has an amazing soundtrack and some interesting stylised edits. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the two characters. He doesn't have to play off himself that much though but this time, the two characters seem to be more interesting because of that they have in common rather than what's different about them. Yet once again, it all seems to boil down to a relationship with a woman.

It's a slow paced character study film with a few very unexpected moments. Giant spiders.

The Double

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

Richard Ayoade's latest is a very dark and humorous take on Dostoevsky's doppelgänger novella of the same name. Set in a dark retro-futuristic dystopia, with a very controlled pallet and noirish lighting. I really love the look and style of the film. The noise sound design and the score, even the odd retro foreign music tracks in the soundtrack create an interesting flavour for the world. 

Jesse Eisenberg plays the two characters and it's great fun watching him play off himself. The rest of the supporting cast are good and it's amazing to see so many interesting faces pop up for bit parts. Especially the amazing sic-fi television show within the film. 

The tone is very odd but consistent. It's got a very awkward and abrupt energy that flows through the pacing of the writing, the performances and the editing. It has the ability to make you really anxious coupled with much nervier laughter at the absurdity of it all. It's equally frustrating and funny. I really loved that. Definitely one to check out.

The Babadook

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler, Kate, Michael, Jordan

It's so nice to see another Australian horror film, and one that's done well overseas. This one has a great sense of atmosphere, helped a great deal by the lighting, sound and production design. The editing and the music, just the tech stuff in general is all fantastic. And I really loved the design of the Babadook too.

The two leads have a huge task here to pull off. There's some very big stuff they have to play and I'd say for the most part I think they pull it off effectively. Especially considering one of them is only 6.

The story itself is very simple and perhaps a little bit too on the nose. It's an obvious metaphor and one we've seen before. I think the climax was a little overly extended too but there were some really great sequences and build up of tension.

It's almost humorous how literally they take this concept of being possessed by grief and play it out a conclusion that almost seemed like the start of a 80's fantastic realism sitcom. However before that, things are surreal and creepy. And there's an uncertainty at the end of how much was real or not. I had fun with this one.

Fireflies in the Garden

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

An intergenerational drama from a few years back I never got around to watching, despite the impressive cast list. A damaged father son relationship is at the centre of the film. Willem Dafoe's character is a pretty unredeemable dick but he plays it well. It was a little hard to buy into that though, just because of how hard they seemed to be trying to make him a dick.

The whole film felt like it was building to some confrontation or climax that never quite came. There's resolution there but it's restrained and quiet, probably more interesting but not nearly as emotionally satisfying. Still it was alright.

The Trip to Italy

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

The sequel to The Trip. It's much the same sort of stuff, amusing dinner table conversations, this time with beautiful Italian scenery as the backdrop and some general life drama that takes us through and gives a sort of arc to the scenes. This time however the roles a slightly reversed, with Steve Coogan being slightly more responsible and settled down and Rob Brydon at a crossroads with his relationships and work.

It's very enjoyable, if a little slight. There's a bit more plot elements this time through but the conversations and style of humour is largely the same as the first film. The leads posses a quiet natural wit that's always fun to watch. And the food and landscapes are great as a sort of travelogue if you're into that kind of thing. Good stuff.

Arthur Newman

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

A character relationship drama with a failed con job attempt in the mix, two characters running from their lives trying to be someone else find each other and help each other grow up enough to face their problems. Pretty simple stuff. I enjoy watching Colin Firth and Emily Blunt. It's ok.

The Trip

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

Thought I should finally check this one out before the sequel. Michael Winterbottom loves mixing reality with is work. Here he lets Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have free reign to just talk as old mates and they come up with some very amusing stuff. They do work in a narrative too and whilst they are playing themselves it does seem to be a fictionalised version, because there are a few dream sequences and the characters have enough of an arc to make some sort of satisfying character study.

It's a cut down of a tv series which I haven't seen and i'm sure that's just more of the same, but as a stand alone film it works well. It's a whole film of dinner table digressions. It could be horrible but the two leads are immensely watchable which is why it works.

Ms. 45

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

An old grind house film. Recently rereleased. A deaf girl goes rape revenge with a pistol. Not outrageous enough to be that memorable and only a little so bad it's good. It's right in the middle for me.

Sunshine on Leith

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

I still have my mother's copy of The Proclaimers self titled album on vinyl. I never imagined a Juke Box style musical from their songs. The story they wove around it is pretty much 3 love stories. a couple either in love or falling in love, going through some kind of trouble and then the majority get back together.

Directed by the guy that played the american in Press Gang, it's a bright and happy film. It's budget shows a little but that wouldn't matter as much if the story was a little more engaging. It's so light it's vulnerable to just waft away at any moment.

The Proclaimers music doesn't really lend itself to dramatics. Besides the title song, they are pretty much just rollicking pub songs. And while they change up the tempo to a few the orchestrations seem to all be just a strumming guitar and some rhythm.

It's a crowd pleaser but everything about it just felt flat to me. They just abandon one couple on two separate continents whilst another gets two lots of split ups and get back togethers. They are the ones that get to sing the hit 500 miles, when they had a perfectly good couple that could have used a get back together that were literally miles apart. Didn't make much sense to me, if they are really going for that sort of bland everyone gets together at the end happy time musical. And if they aren't, don't have the other couple break up and get back together twice.

The story was never going to make much sense, some of the songs barely fit in with the plot they've created. But I think they are hoping you'll just enjoy tapping along to the songs. It helps a great deal that I remembered and had some connection with most of them. But I doubt there's much here if you aren't a fan.

Audition

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

I've had the bluray for a while now but only just got around to checking it out. The film that broke out Takashi Miike to an international audience. It certainly makes an impression.

The film begins so unassumingly. In fact it's pretty boring. Very slow paced drama. But then the set up of the titular audition happens and things become a bit more fun. More like a 90's romantic comedy. Alas this change is short lived, because the film very slowly turns to mystery to thriller to... well it certainly ends in an unexpected place. And it's not just the tone that changes, the storytelling, the editing, the characters become more erratic and surreal and at the end leaves you dazed. I find it a fascinating journey every time.

If you've never seen it before, the less you know about it the better. Don't even watch the trailer. But it's not hard to see why it became a cult classic and ruffled so many feathers on its initial release. Love it!

The Bridges of Madison County

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

This just came out on Bluray. And also happened to come up in conversation recently. So I thought I'd give it a look, although it didn't really look like my sort of thing. Clint Eastwood films have the uncanny ability to never interest me in the slightest.

This is a very very simple romance story. Two characters looking for something more find it in each other, but are unable to stay together and go on yearning for each other until they die. There's some nice scenery. Constantly interrupted by a terribly written wrap around story with some of the worst 90's character performances I've ever seen.

Yeah, not my thing.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

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

Bryan Singer returns to the director seat for the franchise he started off over a decade ago. They use this opportunity to bridge the casts of two different timelines and at the same time reboot the whole endeavour and erase everything bad (and good) about the other films sans the high calibre cast.

The movie starts off wit a bang and rockets through to the finale. There's a lot to get through and a billion characters to showcase. Most amount to nothing more than a cameo (they managed to just squeeze Rogue in after all) but Mystique, Wolverine and Charles Xavier carry us through the film. 

Out of the new character introduced only Quicksilver gets more than one line. Evan Peters does well with the role and his sequence is probably the most fun in the film. The first time a single character will be played across competing franchises, it will be interesting to compare Aaron Taylor-Johnson's take in the next Avenger film after his brief post credit introduction in the last Captain America film. 

And then we have Peter Dinklage playing the main villain, but really, young Magneto is just the biggest dick. Either way the both don't get that much servicing from the script. And I think that's the biggest problem I had with the film. So many characters and so much plot, there's no time to really invest in any relationship, or any one character for that matter. At least not as much as I did in First Class. But that's never been this series' strong suit. 

While its nice that they reset the continuity and all, it's a little annoying that it makes the other films superfluous. And it's also a little annoying how they just ignore what happened to Xavier at the end of the 3rd film.

But it's a perfectly entertaining film, there's some cool fx, The Sentinels in the future are really neat. Actually the retro ones and neat too. And the fights with them are really great, it feels like the most action we've seen from a mutant team all using their powers together and there all great sequences. And seeing Blink in action is the closest we might get to a live action Portal film. 

And perhaps it's just my imagination but the 3D image seems much crisper than recent films. Perhaps that's just because they went to the effort of shooting the whole film in 3D instead of post-converting or maybe it's just the cameras they used, but it sure looks nice. 

So I don't think I liked it as much as First Class, I just seemed to be more invested in the character and story in that film, but i certainly had a great time with this one. 

Extraterrestrial

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

Write Up.

Wonderful stuff. Can't wait to see his next film too!

Death of a Cheerleader aka A Friend to Die For

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

Really had to dig to turn this one up. A made for TV movie from the early 90's. Apparently based on some article about a real incident. So they take it very seriously and make a pretty boring movie. Perhaps a little funny but not in the intended way. I think there's a much more fun film to be made out of the title Death of a Cheerleader, which was why the film was chosen for viewing in the first place. Ah well.

Nurse

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes

That's a somewhat misleading trailer. The film's not exactly a slasher or anything. Out protagonist is pretty upfront about her male revenge killings from the start of the film and we see quite a few. Unfortunately I didn't get to see them in 3D as intended.

I can't quite get my head around Paz de la Huerta in this film. Is it terrible acting or just really bad a being stylised and/or sexy. It's certainly not natural but the film is hardly going for that in the first place.

You'll get some gore and maybe a thrill or two but not much more. It's handsomely photographed though. Wish I could have seen it in 3D.

Revenge of the Nerds

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No

Another title I've heard of a lot but never bothered to check out. Well it seems kind of dated now, these nerd stereotypes are all sort of cool now. So who knows, maybe this film helped make that a reality. Somehow I doubt it though.

I can see why people from the 80's might have fond memories of it. But apart from being wonderfully politically incorrect it's also very dated. Not just because of the fashion or the technology the nerds are into but the humour and writing. Pixar have made a children's film about the exact same story that's somehow more sophisticated.

The scene where they were spying on the sorority house was really off-putting. Seems like they needed an excuse to get an R rating, but it just makes all the main characters really creepy and gross.

Anyway. I've seen it now. It doesn't play very well today.