I have so much I really want to say about this film but I'm also concious that I really don't want to spoil the impact of watching it would have on someone. I doubt a title has ever been so apt for a film as I genuinely can't get it out my head, it's literally one of the most mind-bogglingly amazing films I've ever seen. I highly doubted cinema could shock me any more but I stand firmly corrected.
What makes this film so beyond any expectation is just how confident and aloof it presents itself, much like it's protagonist. It's has elements of serious sci-fi to it but then a lot of it is shot in real life Glasgow almost candidly with real life members of the public making up the majority of the faces in the film. It has reality to it which is so familiar but then it plunges us into horrifying yet visually mesmerising unknown. I am genuinely beyond impressed by the presentation of the film. Even the candid scenes with members of the public have a filmic quality to them, it seems like a cheap film to have made but everything feels and looks much more, the music and sound effects enhance it all, sure the soundtrack may come off a bit heavy on the retro sci-fi sounds but it all works so well.
I am anxious to go into detail about this but I'll start with the most magnetic element. Scarlett Johansson, her performance has been cited as iconic, I think that pretty much sums it up. If you go in knowing the basic premise of the film like I did, I think it might have lost some of it's sheen but knowing and understanding where this character is coming from feels important. Scarlett is trussed up in a black wig, cheap fur and red lipstick, she still manages to look otherworldly attractive with a core aspect of this film, she is meant to appear this way even in her tacky ensemble, she still looks devastatingly attractive. This beauty combined with the candid shots of her driving around Glasgow in a white van asking men for directions gives the film a strange anchor in reality.
I really feel somewhat protective of this film, like I don't want to ruin it's alluring mystique... An aspect I adored, was the fact the film has zero exposition, it never stops to explain why and yet it covers all the burning questions I have in my mind. This is all hinged upon Scarlett's performance which is, as I've mentioned greatly helped by her alien-like beauty, but also her ability to convey emotions without even the capability of expressing herself, learning as she goes. She is simply magnetic.
It's probably worth saying now, the core plot of the film, obviously look away if you want to enter the film with zero knowledge of the plot.
The plot of the film is that Scarlett is an alien, as far as I can tell, she seduces men, whilst driving around Glasgow in her white van, and takes them to be essentially farmed for their meat. At a certain point in the film (a heartbreaking part among several...) she breaks away from her role and tries to discover her humanity, if she has any. This is all set in Scotland, which is experiencing it's own identity crisis at the minute which the film light touches on by having a brief radio report mention the referendum taking place this year, I thought it was a nice touch. The film shows us the realities and beauty of modern Scotland, it feels so much like my back-yard it's unnerving... Then Scarlett has a guy on a motorcycle who I'm assuming is her guard/watcher who's purpose is to bring her to being and make sure her job is done properly and unimpeded. There's so much that is left unsaid but it feels like a completely coherent and chilling. There were points in the film where I genuinely was scared, I don't get that nowadays. Funnily enough the film was based on a book written by a 14 year old boy, when it's based it seems so loose because from what I heard of the book I doubt it could ever match the visceral intensity of this film.
This film is simply amazing, iconic, unforgettable.
Sunday 16 March 2014
Thursday 13 March 2014
Philomena
Oh man this was a strange one, it's the most middle-class film I've seen in the longest time but it stirred some strange emotions within me, worryingly not all of them were good, not in a, 'Oh that's sad.' sensation as I do like that, but it was more indignant, anger, it kind of curdled what was a pleasant film.
First and first most, I have endless respect for Steve Coogan, I think he's an excellent talented man and I love this film for many reasons, but there are some aspects I understand that were emphasised for dramatic purposes; it's based off the real life story of Philomena Lee and her search for her son with the help of Henry Sixsmith. I get it, lord do I get the importance of making a movie of real life more enthralling than the rigours of reality, the joy of Philomena is that it does quite wonderfully with broad strokes even if some of them feel a little bit cheap.
I highly doubt anyone else in the whole world could have brought as much warmth and joy to a character as Judi Dench, the film essentially hinges on her being wholly sympathetic and she manages it so well even whilst she is clearly grappling with some difficult emotions. But hell, you can't just go about giving Judi Dench all the awards all the time, it just wouldn't be fair on anyone else. In my head though I just kept thinking of her most recent high profile role, M in the James Bond series, it was boggling my mind, 'It's the same woman!' That badass who wouldn't take non of Bond's shit is now reciting the plot to what I can only assume is the latest Mills & Boon, I can't say I wouldn't love to listen to her doing that all day, it's strangely pleasant, plus she sounds so thrilled by the formulaic twists. Now some would say that they are simply using Philomena's naivete at her expense but I think it was just a neat way of depicting how she still finds joy in the world even at her age, and it's there to be a stark comparison to Sixsmith who is essentially a dick-head throughout most of the film with flashes of humanity; I'll let him off, after all he is the catalyst for all this. Speaking of which, it's probably unpopular opinion but this is my favourite of Coogan's performances in a long time (yup that includes Alan Partride) mostly because he manages to make me feel sympathetic for his character, only slightly but it's there, he has good intentions, he just has a few bad habits which middle-aged upper middle class British men seem to all have imbued within them - this doesn't make him a stereotype, it makes him familiar. Plus the film makes a great attempt at putting the two at odds with eachother teasing the best out of them and acknowledging their wholly human frailties. It's a lovely character piece to say the least and it moves along at a healthy clip managing to be both time efficient and heart warming, what more could you want?
Where the film inevitably falls down is it's handling of religion. Oh yes, that hot topic, the one that most people as far I'm aware, in our civilised clued up land of post-modernity, acknowledge as archaic and unimportant in the world, the vestige of a world of thought long extinct. Yet of course religion is the driving force behind some of the worst sins in this world, the hypocrisy of the Catholic church and it's clergy, the assumption that Muslims are all suicide bombers, fanatics who use the Qu'ran to legitimise their violence, the use of the Christian Bibles to prevent women from civil rights such as abortion and birth control, people thanking God for their good fortune and blaming the same power for destruction and pain in this world. Atheism is as much a religion as anything else if you are to believe Dawkins and his ilk. Most people day to day that I spend my time with disregard religion, it's something that's not spoken of, just derided above all. It's probably indecent of me to even mention this, but my belief or search for God is a long story, not particularly exciting or unique. As with most people, when all hope is lost, I turned to religion to try and fill a hole in my life that had been there since being educated in a Roman Catholic environment, I was indoctrinated from a young age. I know my New Testament, I know the hymns and believe me when I say this, there is a feeling unparalleled when singing along to words written by long dead believers citing historical fables as the key to salvation, it has a kind of fervour to it but it feels like it's mining a seam of something deeper, some feeling that is often forgotten, spirituality.
Oh, I sound all hokey, next I'll believe in homoeopathy and witchcraft. Nope, I'm a rational human being I like to think, I don't disregard science, I accept it and the necessities of evil in this world along with all that happens by chance, particles randomly ramming into each other etc. In my mind the Bible can be summed up in a simple statement, in fact all of the core religions in this world, the big six, have one unifying rule I believe we should all follow, the golden rule: 'Do unto others as you have them do unto you.' If people just did that and ignored the rest, well I reckon the world would be much easier, and that's a rule religion has long since the dawn of time championed, among other more specific stuff at the time they were written... But many scholars over the years have spent years reading and writing and thinking and writing and reading and meditating on biblical texts and have written reams on the core meaning of it all, and that's what a lot of them decided upon. Here's where I stand on my soap box and declare something even more inappropriate, I think there is a God, at least in some way. I stand by the belief that may seem quite atheistic but it nonetheless accurate, 'God made man and man made God.' That was a necessity in the past, people were plugging gaps in their knowledge, creating myths to follow to give reason to a world of chaos, making rituals to follow to maintain order. I think deep down, all humans, whether it's biological or evolution, have something inside them, something that's not necessarily seen with the eye, as much as they have the ability to acknowledge their existence, their propensity to live and die, they also have the ability to question the existence of a soul, deep deep down there is something inside them that makes them believe in the possibility of the divine. Is this even making sense? I'm not saying everyone is born deep down with a religious fervour, although it could be that, it could be the willingness to believe in the unknown, to feel something more is out there. I'll grant a lot of us have the knowledge that we are mounds of dust on a rock hanging in endless ether, not that most people let that bother them, some might not have a deep down spiritual sensation, perhaps that too is becoming extinct, perhaps it'll be bred out of us as less and less of us believe, or maybe young children are forced to believe from a young age and know no better (I'm aware that's the most likely option)... But I think that ability to believe in God, in the unknown, the breast beating sensation I experience when singing hymns and look at high vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows, I think that in itself is God. Sure that doesn't sound very convincing, a quirk of the brain, an unsubstantiated belief in the divine, or something implanted into our subconscious from a young age, that's God? That's just stupid. Well you never asked for my opinion, and I never asked for you to read it, it just is what it is; another one of those things in this world that exists, my belief in something somewhere in this world that is more than a sum of it's parts. It means something to me. I spent years looking for an answer trying to puzzle out that sensation of God and maybe that's my wound to cauterise but it's something I will most likely never stop searching for or at least believing in on some level, a mostly hidden unspoken of belief.
Which brings me to Philomena's somewhat guileless handling of the nunnery Philomena's son was taken from. I don't know the whole story so I don't pretend to know what it was that happened but the way the story pretty much flat out depicted the nuns as straight up 'evil' just seemed really unnecessary. I understand the film is poking fun at the fact that a story, a good one that grabs people's interest at least, has good and evil. The film needs a villain and it finds that in the Catholic church, big surprise; it was horrific what they did but sometimes in life, things just happen, life just trundles along and there are no reasons or explanations, life is just cruel like that. It works thematically for the film to have Philomena and Sixsmith to have their big emotional moment with something to put them at odds and present a comparison of their characters, it couldn't just be life being it usual intransigent self... I just didn't like the way they handled the nuns.
So after my big rambling intercourse on my own feelings behind God and the divine, what have I taken from this movie apart from my soap box? Uhmmm. I really liked how truly unparalleled Judi Dench is an actress and how Steve Coogan continues to impress me in his less comedic roles. Also the writing was good and it worked it just didn't need evil nuns, it could have done anything but had evil nuns; it's too easy to have evil religious types in this day and age, think outside the box chaps. It essentially ruined what could have been a heart warming interesting 'human interest' tale.
First and first most, I have endless respect for Steve Coogan, I think he's an excellent talented man and I love this film for many reasons, but there are some aspects I understand that were emphasised for dramatic purposes; it's based off the real life story of Philomena Lee and her search for her son with the help of Henry Sixsmith. I get it, lord do I get the importance of making a movie of real life more enthralling than the rigours of reality, the joy of Philomena is that it does quite wonderfully with broad strokes even if some of them feel a little bit cheap.
I highly doubt anyone else in the whole world could have brought as much warmth and joy to a character as Judi Dench, the film essentially hinges on her being wholly sympathetic and she manages it so well even whilst she is clearly grappling with some difficult emotions. But hell, you can't just go about giving Judi Dench all the awards all the time, it just wouldn't be fair on anyone else. In my head though I just kept thinking of her most recent high profile role, M in the James Bond series, it was boggling my mind, 'It's the same woman!' That badass who wouldn't take non of Bond's shit is now reciting the plot to what I can only assume is the latest Mills & Boon, I can't say I wouldn't love to listen to her doing that all day, it's strangely pleasant, plus she sounds so thrilled by the formulaic twists. Now some would say that they are simply using Philomena's naivete at her expense but I think it was just a neat way of depicting how she still finds joy in the world even at her age, and it's there to be a stark comparison to Sixsmith who is essentially a dick-head throughout most of the film with flashes of humanity; I'll let him off, after all he is the catalyst for all this. Speaking of which, it's probably unpopular opinion but this is my favourite of Coogan's performances in a long time (yup that includes Alan Partride) mostly because he manages to make me feel sympathetic for his character, only slightly but it's there, he has good intentions, he just has a few bad habits which middle-aged upper middle class British men seem to all have imbued within them - this doesn't make him a stereotype, it makes him familiar. Plus the film makes a great attempt at putting the two at odds with eachother teasing the best out of them and acknowledging their wholly human frailties. It's a lovely character piece to say the least and it moves along at a healthy clip managing to be both time efficient and heart warming, what more could you want?
Where the film inevitably falls down is it's handling of religion. Oh yes, that hot topic, the one that most people as far I'm aware, in our civilised clued up land of post-modernity, acknowledge as archaic and unimportant in the world, the vestige of a world of thought long extinct. Yet of course religion is the driving force behind some of the worst sins in this world, the hypocrisy of the Catholic church and it's clergy, the assumption that Muslims are all suicide bombers, fanatics who use the Qu'ran to legitimise their violence, the use of the Christian Bibles to prevent women from civil rights such as abortion and birth control, people thanking God for their good fortune and blaming the same power for destruction and pain in this world. Atheism is as much a religion as anything else if you are to believe Dawkins and his ilk. Most people day to day that I spend my time with disregard religion, it's something that's not spoken of, just derided above all. It's probably indecent of me to even mention this, but my belief or search for God is a long story, not particularly exciting or unique. As with most people, when all hope is lost, I turned to religion to try and fill a hole in my life that had been there since being educated in a Roman Catholic environment, I was indoctrinated from a young age. I know my New Testament, I know the hymns and believe me when I say this, there is a feeling unparalleled when singing along to words written by long dead believers citing historical fables as the key to salvation, it has a kind of fervour to it but it feels like it's mining a seam of something deeper, some feeling that is often forgotten, spirituality.
Oh, I sound all hokey, next I'll believe in homoeopathy and witchcraft. Nope, I'm a rational human being I like to think, I don't disregard science, I accept it and the necessities of evil in this world along with all that happens by chance, particles randomly ramming into each other etc. In my mind the Bible can be summed up in a simple statement, in fact all of the core religions in this world, the big six, have one unifying rule I believe we should all follow, the golden rule: 'Do unto others as you have them do unto you.' If people just did that and ignored the rest, well I reckon the world would be much easier, and that's a rule religion has long since the dawn of time championed, among other more specific stuff at the time they were written... But many scholars over the years have spent years reading and writing and thinking and writing and reading and meditating on biblical texts and have written reams on the core meaning of it all, and that's what a lot of them decided upon. Here's where I stand on my soap box and declare something even more inappropriate, I think there is a God, at least in some way. I stand by the belief that may seem quite atheistic but it nonetheless accurate, 'God made man and man made God.' That was a necessity in the past, people were plugging gaps in their knowledge, creating myths to follow to give reason to a world of chaos, making rituals to follow to maintain order. I think deep down, all humans, whether it's biological or evolution, have something inside them, something that's not necessarily seen with the eye, as much as they have the ability to acknowledge their existence, their propensity to live and die, they also have the ability to question the existence of a soul, deep deep down there is something inside them that makes them believe in the possibility of the divine. Is this even making sense? I'm not saying everyone is born deep down with a religious fervour, although it could be that, it could be the willingness to believe in the unknown, to feel something more is out there. I'll grant a lot of us have the knowledge that we are mounds of dust on a rock hanging in endless ether, not that most people let that bother them, some might not have a deep down spiritual sensation, perhaps that too is becoming extinct, perhaps it'll be bred out of us as less and less of us believe, or maybe young children are forced to believe from a young age and know no better (I'm aware that's the most likely option)... But I think that ability to believe in God, in the unknown, the breast beating sensation I experience when singing hymns and look at high vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows, I think that in itself is God. Sure that doesn't sound very convincing, a quirk of the brain, an unsubstantiated belief in the divine, or something implanted into our subconscious from a young age, that's God? That's just stupid. Well you never asked for my opinion, and I never asked for you to read it, it just is what it is; another one of those things in this world that exists, my belief in something somewhere in this world that is more than a sum of it's parts. It means something to me. I spent years looking for an answer trying to puzzle out that sensation of God and maybe that's my wound to cauterise but it's something I will most likely never stop searching for or at least believing in on some level, a mostly hidden unspoken of belief.
Which brings me to Philomena's somewhat guileless handling of the nunnery Philomena's son was taken from. I don't know the whole story so I don't pretend to know what it was that happened but the way the story pretty much flat out depicted the nuns as straight up 'evil' just seemed really unnecessary. I understand the film is poking fun at the fact that a story, a good one that grabs people's interest at least, has good and evil. The film needs a villain and it finds that in the Catholic church, big surprise; it was horrific what they did but sometimes in life, things just happen, life just trundles along and there are no reasons or explanations, life is just cruel like that. It works thematically for the film to have Philomena and Sixsmith to have their big emotional moment with something to put them at odds and present a comparison of their characters, it couldn't just be life being it usual intransigent self... I just didn't like the way they handled the nuns.
So after my big rambling intercourse on my own feelings behind God and the divine, what have I taken from this movie apart from my soap box? Uhmmm. I really liked how truly unparalleled Judi Dench is an actress and how Steve Coogan continues to impress me in his less comedic roles. Also the writing was good and it worked it just didn't need evil nuns, it could have done anything but had evil nuns; it's too easy to have evil religious types in this day and age, think outside the box chaps. It essentially ruined what could have been a heart warming interesting 'human interest' tale.
Saturday 8 March 2014
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson films always provide me with an unparalleled sense of joy. Not just because they are meticulously crafted, visually stunning, heart-warming and quirky, but because without a doubt they are always damn good films. I know I was late to see Moonrise Kingdom and for my sins that was rectified by multiple viewings... But I have to say, out of Anderson's work The Grand Budapest Hotel seems to have eked out all that have come before it just by being flat out dazzling the time round. Rushmore is my favourite Anderson film (mostly because Bill Murray is pretty much perfect in it I could write essays about why) but that took a long time to appreciate, multiple viewings to truly understand the depth and attention to detail imbued within the film. Where the underlying aspects of TGBH might take more viewings, at this moment, for sheer entertainment, it is joyful.
I doubt Anderson has ever been so outright funny, which is tempered by the melancholy of the fact the core story is set in the past and the outcome is presented to us from the very start. A Wes Anderson film is never just one thing, I could describe it as a caper, but it could also be a mystery (although it's kind of obvious who has done what...) it could also be the closest Wes Anderson may ever get to a 'thriller', it's ostensibly a comedy but it's so many things all rolled into one with homages I probably couldn't even begin to recognise because as is usual, they are all so elegant.
If we were to stand by the assumption the film is first and foremost a comedy then most of the humour comes from Ralph Fiennes unbelievably outstanding performance as M. Gustave, essentially the main and most important character. As an actor his most famous roles are Voldemort, Amon Goeth and M in the latest Bond film as well as his Shakespeare roles for which he has earned heaps of praise. Why has this man not done more comedy? He is sublime in this role, it works so well for him? Sure I spent half the film laughing every time he said 'fuck' or any other swear word, or mentioned his sexual exploits or basically said anything, even his poetry is deliciously demented; I'll grant the film may almost over-abuse the hilarity of having Ralph Fiennes breaking his upper-crust exterior and swearing like a posh sailor a little too often but it just works so delightfully well and it just never gets old.
I wouldn't want to go into how much I love this film through fear of basically recounting every scene, and I must stress every single shot of this film is beautifully thought out and symmetrical, and perfect to observe. Every colour, every second has had so much thought and care lavished upon it and it's just so lovely to watch.
There is a distinct lack of innocence in the film and it's the most overtly sexual/violent of Anderson's work which makes it all the more shocking and unpredictable as events spiral out of control. There is murder, intrigue, a slew of familiar faces turning up - all of the usual suspects from Anderson's world, but also a few new faces who fit seamlessly into this universe, such as the young Zero, Gustave's protege and the beating heart of the story, special shout out to Lea Seydoux as the anxious French maid with a mincing little run, I hope she turns up again in a bigger role, she seems to be a perfect fit in Anderson's world. Then there is also the prison break (which was ridiculously elaborate and hilarious throughout) which was incredibly brilliant, not least because the brains behind the operation was a particularly intimidating inmate who was also a master artist who drew a perfect map but his prison tattoos (which covered his bare chest) looked like they'd been doodled by a thirteen year old girl; I don't know why but it's small unspoken flourishes like that which make Wes Anderson's world that much more fun to be in than reality... Whether the characters are breaking into poetry or insulting one another or stating the most dubious things or just flirting, it's all just so delightful.
With The Grand Budapest Hotel, if you can't find humour, warmth, excitement or a familiar melancholy, then you clearly aren't looking hard enough. This is film as is as close to perfection any form of entertainment could ever be; it transports you to a fictional beautiful world that is so like our own but just so much better, you won't ever want to leave.
I doubt Anderson has ever been so outright funny, which is tempered by the melancholy of the fact the core story is set in the past and the outcome is presented to us from the very start. A Wes Anderson film is never just one thing, I could describe it as a caper, but it could also be a mystery (although it's kind of obvious who has done what...) it could also be the closest Wes Anderson may ever get to a 'thriller', it's ostensibly a comedy but it's so many things all rolled into one with homages I probably couldn't even begin to recognise because as is usual, they are all so elegant.
If we were to stand by the assumption the film is first and foremost a comedy then most of the humour comes from Ralph Fiennes unbelievably outstanding performance as M. Gustave, essentially the main and most important character. As an actor his most famous roles are Voldemort, Amon Goeth and M in the latest Bond film as well as his Shakespeare roles for which he has earned heaps of praise. Why has this man not done more comedy? He is sublime in this role, it works so well for him? Sure I spent half the film laughing every time he said 'fuck' or any other swear word, or mentioned his sexual exploits or basically said anything, even his poetry is deliciously demented; I'll grant the film may almost over-abuse the hilarity of having Ralph Fiennes breaking his upper-crust exterior and swearing like a posh sailor a little too often but it just works so delightfully well and it just never gets old.
I wouldn't want to go into how much I love this film through fear of basically recounting every scene, and I must stress every single shot of this film is beautifully thought out and symmetrical, and perfect to observe. Every colour, every second has had so much thought and care lavished upon it and it's just so lovely to watch.
There is a distinct lack of innocence in the film and it's the most overtly sexual/violent of Anderson's work which makes it all the more shocking and unpredictable as events spiral out of control. There is murder, intrigue, a slew of familiar faces turning up - all of the usual suspects from Anderson's world, but also a few new faces who fit seamlessly into this universe, such as the young Zero, Gustave's protege and the beating heart of the story, special shout out to Lea Seydoux as the anxious French maid with a mincing little run, I hope she turns up again in a bigger role, she seems to be a perfect fit in Anderson's world. Then there is also the prison break (which was ridiculously elaborate and hilarious throughout) which was incredibly brilliant, not least because the brains behind the operation was a particularly intimidating inmate who was also a master artist who drew a perfect map but his prison tattoos (which covered his bare chest) looked like they'd been doodled by a thirteen year old girl; I don't know why but it's small unspoken flourishes like that which make Wes Anderson's world that much more fun to be in than reality... Whether the characters are breaking into poetry or insulting one another or stating the most dubious things or just flirting, it's all just so delightful.
With The Grand Budapest Hotel, if you can't find humour, warmth, excitement or a familiar melancholy, then you clearly aren't looking hard enough. This is film as is as close to perfection any form of entertainment could ever be; it transports you to a fictional beautiful world that is so like our own but just so much better, you won't ever want to leave.
Sunday 2 March 2014
Her
Disappointed. I can't even begin to describe the depths of such a let down like this but I figured I may as well try, who knows, it could be therapeutic in some way.
Getting the obvious out of the way, Being John Malkovich is one of the greatest films ever made, because it's so deliciously insane but so effortlessly done it is essentially cinematic perfection. Spike Jonze, without the pen of Charlie Kaufman (who is my favourite in the world.) guiding you things just don't seem to work as well. Where the Wild Things are was a beautiful film but it wasn't perfect, it took a simplistic children's tale and added layers to it (some would say were unnecessary) but I'm more than willing to let it off for being ambitious and wider in it's scope, I think it worked adequately, it just wasn't mind-blowing.
Turning the tables Her is the opposite of Jonze's last endeavour, this time around it's a complicated idea with a much wider scope, it doesn't have the same structure, the same train tracks guiding things along, like an excellent screenplay or a book. The idea was borne from Jonze interest in creating a love story around the ever growing and present Artificial Intelligence, in short, 'Let's fall in love with Siri.' It's a simple idea but it ruminates on the realities of relationships and the feelings of love and inevitable decline. I think they were shooting for bittersweet but somewhat missed the mark.
The essential thing that anchors a love story is the two people involved, learning about them, getting an idea of what makes them tick, why they belong together, what makes them good, their weaknesses, how this could come between them, how they would overcome this; you know really exploring what makes a relationship between two people work, so you know we can invest in them and believe in them.
Her feels like a failure for completely failing on every level to make me sympathise with the main character. Olivia Wilde pops up for five minutes and declares he's really creepy, from that moment onwards I couldn't get that out of my head, he actually is genuinely creepy. I would say I try my hardest not to judge people, and I was willing to let this whole 'falling in love with my computer' thing not completely throw me off, if they could convince me it could work then I would be impressed! But they just didn't.
The thing that drives me insane about hearing about love is how selfish people are when it comes to finding that special person they wish to spend their life with. 'I want this, I want that, my perfect person has to be this that... They are great but they just aren't perfect. The spark isn't there!' Why do people do this to each other? Whittle each other down, demanding those fireworks, demanding each other be the ideal version of who they want them to be. If love at first sight is falling in love with the way someone looks alone, do you see what you want in someone and then spend the time you have with them trying to manifest that image of them you first saw? Are you simply trying to make something out of someone that doesn't exist? Most importantly, why... why... are people so adamant that no one is good enough for them. Everyone has their fears, their faults, they anxieties, issues, baggage so to speak, and yet if you're with someone don't you have to share all that including the great stuff? I know, I know it's easier said than done but still, it's part and parcel of life.
This brings me to Joaquin Phoenix's character once again. A guy who manufactures other people's feelings because people just get to the point in the future where they don't even bother trying to express themselves any more and get some sad sack in chinos with a moustache to do it for them. The irony of course is that this guy, with all his eloquent expression can't even fathom how he feels. The guy is just a mess, and coincidentally there are alarmingly few redeeming qualities that I can parse out of his character. Why does he fall in love with his computer? Because she's free of human weakness, no issues, no past, no problems, just a funny, warm, witty, and interesting sexily voiced lady (Scarlett Johansson essentially knocking it out of the park) and this damp squib of a human being manages to drag her into the mire with his human weakness. Silly humans, they are given something pure and they mess it up with their personalities.
The film brims with Jonze's typical visual flair, it's set in a world where everyone dresses out of the Uniqlo catalogue and walk around in world dipped in a bright cream/beige hue. The music is particularly low key and it's got Arcade Fire and Karen O; it's so pretty and laid back and by far the coolest soundtrack I've heard in a while. Special shout out for Owen Pallet nominated for an Oscar for his Original Score who presided over the music in the film, I have his Final Fantasy albums on my computer (I accidentally downloaded an album called He Poos Clouds one day, it was pretty good and my musical education began) and to be honest, I think the soundtrack is lovely. But a good soundtrack, a good does not make. All style and no substance is an error in my eyes.
It's a shame too because Her tries it's best to grapple with the future of how we interact with each other, how we perceive love and how it could grow. It asks big questions and explores a world that we should be really intrigued in. It just doesn't have the skill to pull all these big ideas in any particularly convincing way. What should feel authentic and real, instead feels manufactured and limp, and it's a shame because I've never wanted something to work more.
What is this film trying to do? Well, I think it's trying to answer a simple question. What is love? It's having someone there to catch you when you fall, and that's hard if they don't have arms.
Getting the obvious out of the way, Being John Malkovich is one of the greatest films ever made, because it's so deliciously insane but so effortlessly done it is essentially cinematic perfection. Spike Jonze, without the pen of Charlie Kaufman (who is my favourite in the world.) guiding you things just don't seem to work as well. Where the Wild Things are was a beautiful film but it wasn't perfect, it took a simplistic children's tale and added layers to it (some would say were unnecessary) but I'm more than willing to let it off for being ambitious and wider in it's scope, I think it worked adequately, it just wasn't mind-blowing.
Turning the tables Her is the opposite of Jonze's last endeavour, this time around it's a complicated idea with a much wider scope, it doesn't have the same structure, the same train tracks guiding things along, like an excellent screenplay or a book. The idea was borne from Jonze interest in creating a love story around the ever growing and present Artificial Intelligence, in short, 'Let's fall in love with Siri.' It's a simple idea but it ruminates on the realities of relationships and the feelings of love and inevitable decline. I think they were shooting for bittersweet but somewhat missed the mark.
The essential thing that anchors a love story is the two people involved, learning about them, getting an idea of what makes them tick, why they belong together, what makes them good, their weaknesses, how this could come between them, how they would overcome this; you know really exploring what makes a relationship between two people work, so you know we can invest in them and believe in them.
Her feels like a failure for completely failing on every level to make me sympathise with the main character. Olivia Wilde pops up for five minutes and declares he's really creepy, from that moment onwards I couldn't get that out of my head, he actually is genuinely creepy. I would say I try my hardest not to judge people, and I was willing to let this whole 'falling in love with my computer' thing not completely throw me off, if they could convince me it could work then I would be impressed! But they just didn't.
The thing that drives me insane about hearing about love is how selfish people are when it comes to finding that special person they wish to spend their life with. 'I want this, I want that, my perfect person has to be this that... They are great but they just aren't perfect. The spark isn't there!' Why do people do this to each other? Whittle each other down, demanding those fireworks, demanding each other be the ideal version of who they want them to be. If love at first sight is falling in love with the way someone looks alone, do you see what you want in someone and then spend the time you have with them trying to manifest that image of them you first saw? Are you simply trying to make something out of someone that doesn't exist? Most importantly, why... why... are people so adamant that no one is good enough for them. Everyone has their fears, their faults, they anxieties, issues, baggage so to speak, and yet if you're with someone don't you have to share all that including the great stuff? I know, I know it's easier said than done but still, it's part and parcel of life.
This brings me to Joaquin Phoenix's character once again. A guy who manufactures other people's feelings because people just get to the point in the future where they don't even bother trying to express themselves any more and get some sad sack in chinos with a moustache to do it for them. The irony of course is that this guy, with all his eloquent expression can't even fathom how he feels. The guy is just a mess, and coincidentally there are alarmingly few redeeming qualities that I can parse out of his character. Why does he fall in love with his computer? Because she's free of human weakness, no issues, no past, no problems, just a funny, warm, witty, and interesting sexily voiced lady (Scarlett Johansson essentially knocking it out of the park) and this damp squib of a human being manages to drag her into the mire with his human weakness. Silly humans, they are given something pure and they mess it up with their personalities.
The film brims with Jonze's typical visual flair, it's set in a world where everyone dresses out of the Uniqlo catalogue and walk around in world dipped in a bright cream/beige hue. The music is particularly low key and it's got Arcade Fire and Karen O; it's so pretty and laid back and by far the coolest soundtrack I've heard in a while. Special shout out for Owen Pallet nominated for an Oscar for his Original Score who presided over the music in the film, I have his Final Fantasy albums on my computer (I accidentally downloaded an album called He Poos Clouds one day, it was pretty good and my musical education began) and to be honest, I think the soundtrack is lovely. But a good soundtrack, a good does not make. All style and no substance is an error in my eyes.
It's a shame too because Her tries it's best to grapple with the future of how we interact with each other, how we perceive love and how it could grow. It asks big questions and explores a world that we should be really intrigued in. It just doesn't have the skill to pull all these big ideas in any particularly convincing way. What should feel authentic and real, instead feels manufactured and limp, and it's a shame because I've never wanted something to work more.
What is this film trying to do? Well, I think it's trying to answer a simple question. What is love? It's having someone there to catch you when you fall, and that's hard if they don't have arms.
Oscars 2014
I do this every year, expect on some mystical level that the Oscars might mean something... something more than a commercial gathering of film makers essentially lauding the types of films that mostly created for the sole purpose of plaudits. Don't tell me they aren't, it's not about the best films of the year, it's about the most shrewdly marketed and the correct people with the correct positioning. Of course I'm not a complete cynic as I continue to partake religiously in watching the award nominated films and usually they are pretty good! But I just wish the Academy would surprise me with their choices sometimes... It's all so predictable! So in light of that, here we go:
Best Actor
So, blatantly obvious but Matthew McConaughey is going to moonwalk that one. Lost a load of weight, played someone with a terminal illness in a true life story about redemption? All those boxes are ticked and accounted for - insta-win, and as it stands it's been working pretty well for him so far scooping most of the big awards. I know he deserves it, MM has been gradually building up a portfolio of 'serious' more 'difficult' roles making him a 'real' actor, all I can say at this point is it's his to lose.
Chiwetel Ejiofor on the other hand scooped the BAFTA so perhaps that might tick the odds in his favour, I highly doubt it though. Ejiofor's performance was soulful and heartbreaking but wasn't nearly bombastic enough to garner more votes.
What really hurts is the lack of attention James McAvoy has received for what I do declare, was the best male performance of the year in Filth. The fact that he hasn't picked up more plaudits genuinely astounds me, even the BAFTAs completely snubbed him. Absolute travesty.
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, without a doubt.
Sorely inexplicably overlooked, Julie Delply. How could that woman not being showered with praise and glory for Before Midnight and why in the hell has that film not been nominated for every award going?
Supporting Actor
Jared Leto starring alongside McConaughey as a HIV transgender lady. Well that would do it...
I know I probably say this every year but Michael Fassbender is in spitting distance of the Oscar he so desperately deserves, if wasn't for Shame it had to be for his conflicted powerful disturbing portrayal of a plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave. It's easy to play the evil characters they say, but how about playing them as wrecked human shells? How about playing someone who blatantly goes against what we in modern society would call right and justifying it through the power of ACTING. Fassbender is the only man I will shout 'ACTING' at and truly mean it, because I don't think there are many who are better than him.
Supporting Actress
It's probably an unpopular opinion but I really want Sally Hawkins to get this (no chance whatsoever...) because she was simply wonderful standing toe to toe with Cate Blanchett. Obviously this is a two horse race between Lupita N'yongo, a lady who's name I see in print so often now I've memorised it, she is humble and witty and incredibly sweet and her performance is truly heartbreaking in 12 Years a Slave, every cry she emits was torture for me... But then Jennifer Lawrence was charisma through and through playing the bored psychotic housewife in American Hustle, clearly she was having the time of her life being ridiculous over the top insane, it suited her so well, plus her rendition of Live and Let Die with the marigolds was worth the ticket price alone...
Damn it's a tough category...
Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron. I wouldn't dare argue with that undeniable fact.
Best Film
Inevitably it'll go to Gravity for giving me the most bizarre sense of sea-sickness in a cinema, or at least the closest you can get to it whilst floating in space. At the time I wasn't wildly impressed with the story-telling devices that were used to frame the beautiful panoramic tracking shots of space and to best honest that hasn't changed. It was innovative in it's visuals but the things I see a film for was not really all there with Gravity, I passionately love films that evoke a strong emotional response, hence most of my blogs are about how I personally feel about films... Gravity was a shrug and a shower and gone. 12 Years a Slave was also... Not as powerful as I had anticipated and left me cold in a way I did not expect.
So. My best film, because it's in the category and I simply adored it will be Nebraska. But! If we were picking films that were not nominated and sorely overlooked my best film of last year without a doubt was Before Midnight.
Best Actor
So, blatantly obvious but Matthew McConaughey is going to moonwalk that one. Lost a load of weight, played someone with a terminal illness in a true life story about redemption? All those boxes are ticked and accounted for - insta-win, and as it stands it's been working pretty well for him so far scooping most of the big awards. I know he deserves it, MM has been gradually building up a portfolio of 'serious' more 'difficult' roles making him a 'real' actor, all I can say at this point is it's his to lose.
Chiwetel Ejiofor on the other hand scooped the BAFTA so perhaps that might tick the odds in his favour, I highly doubt it though. Ejiofor's performance was soulful and heartbreaking but wasn't nearly bombastic enough to garner more votes.
What really hurts is the lack of attention James McAvoy has received for what I do declare, was the best male performance of the year in Filth. The fact that he hasn't picked up more plaudits genuinely astounds me, even the BAFTAs completely snubbed him. Absolute travesty.
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, without a doubt.
Sorely inexplicably overlooked, Julie Delply. How could that woman not being showered with praise and glory for Before Midnight and why in the hell has that film not been nominated for every award going?
Supporting Actor
Jared Leto starring alongside McConaughey as a HIV transgender lady. Well that would do it...
I know I probably say this every year but Michael Fassbender is in spitting distance of the Oscar he so desperately deserves, if wasn't for Shame it had to be for his conflicted powerful disturbing portrayal of a plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave. It's easy to play the evil characters they say, but how about playing them as wrecked human shells? How about playing someone who blatantly goes against what we in modern society would call right and justifying it through the power of ACTING. Fassbender is the only man I will shout 'ACTING' at and truly mean it, because I don't think there are many who are better than him.
Supporting Actress
It's probably an unpopular opinion but I really want Sally Hawkins to get this (no chance whatsoever...) because she was simply wonderful standing toe to toe with Cate Blanchett. Obviously this is a two horse race between Lupita N'yongo, a lady who's name I see in print so often now I've memorised it, she is humble and witty and incredibly sweet and her performance is truly heartbreaking in 12 Years a Slave, every cry she emits was torture for me... But then Jennifer Lawrence was charisma through and through playing the bored psychotic housewife in American Hustle, clearly she was having the time of her life being ridiculous over the top insane, it suited her so well, plus her rendition of Live and Let Die with the marigolds was worth the ticket price alone...
Damn it's a tough category...
Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron. I wouldn't dare argue with that undeniable fact.
Best Film
Inevitably it'll go to Gravity for giving me the most bizarre sense of sea-sickness in a cinema, or at least the closest you can get to it whilst floating in space. At the time I wasn't wildly impressed with the story-telling devices that were used to frame the beautiful panoramic tracking shots of space and to best honest that hasn't changed. It was innovative in it's visuals but the things I see a film for was not really all there with Gravity, I passionately love films that evoke a strong emotional response, hence most of my blogs are about how I personally feel about films... Gravity was a shrug and a shower and gone. 12 Years a Slave was also... Not as powerful as I had anticipated and left me cold in a way I did not expect.
So. My best film, because it's in the category and I simply adored it will be Nebraska. But! If we were picking films that were not nominated and sorely overlooked my best film of last year without a doubt was Before Midnight.
Saturday 1 March 2014
Nebraska
I had a bumper special of Oscar-bait viewing today, I watched Her and Nebraska, out of the two, unsurprisingly for my delectation for sobbing over the ageing population meant that the latter had the deeper affect on me. We've probably been over this before, but there is a litany of things that make me cry in this world, ranging from emotional trauma to a slight breeze on my face, I just seem to have an over-active set of tear-ducts. I made my peace with my penchant for sobbing long ago. There are few films on this planet that make me cry like a baby, obviously Titanic but that was because everyone else was and it the shot of the old couple lying on their together as the room filled with water that truly set me off without fail.
I could say that it was most likely my grandmother's habit of sitting down me on the couch when I stayed over and describing her funeral to me, what jewellery she would be leaving for me, how it's inevitable that she would die, it got to a point where I was terrified of her dying at any given moment, she was frail and indescribably sad, something which was odd for me as a child because she never explicitly said it but I could feel it and I couldn't understand what would make her feel better. Then there was the fact I grew into an ignorant teenager and saw less and less of her and felt guilt and shame when she passed away for not making my unwavering love and affection for her more known. Old people always me feel so sad; not so much because of their proximity to death, although that definitely hurts, it's because they have lived for so long, gathered so much experience and memories, and then they begin to lose everything. I feel like I'm generalising but with the older, more wrinkled generation, they are largely overlooked, forgotten, they gradually lose their functions, things aren't as easy as they used to be, people don't notice them, don't care about them, ignore them, they are no longer important. I just hate that along with your ability to hear, walk and remember, you lose the respect of others, perhaps not in the most obvious of ways but younger people look at you and say 'Awww, look at the little old dear.' This little old dear has more life experience in her thumb than you have in your whole body, don't talk down to her!
Nebraska is a film about a man who has sunk into old age and is grappling with the prospect of his demise by clinging to some bizarre belief that he has won one million dollars. Straight off the bat, it's clearly a scam, but his belief and his unwavering desire to obtain his winnings make the core of the film. As the film unfurls around you, you find, he's either forgotten or he never really cared about much to start with, it would seem odd that he was so obsessed with getting this money; particularly as his main concerns are simply buying a new truck and an air condenser (no idea....) As it goes the whole film is about his journey to get the money which means stopping off at his home town after a minor accident to recuperate and see his past paraded in front of him and everyone wanting a piece of his non-existent winnings.
The film itself is anchored by Will Forte (who is simply wonderful) playing the part of doting son who can't really say no to his old dad, and Bruce Dern anchoring the film as Woody, an ageing man who's 'easily confused' convincing himself and pretty much everyone around him that he's a newly minted millionaire. Bob Odenkirk also turns up having a brief breather before Saul Goodman goes back in time and back in business. June Squibb essentially walks in and steals the show for me playing Woody's beleaguered wife Kate, she just feels so familiar but so much like her own cutting cold but brilliant character, plus she'll rant forever about how useless her husband is and how he'll outlive them all but I swear there is some affection there even after everything he's put her through, it was a beautiful performance.
Tellingly it's shot entirely in black and white, could be an homage to older simpler times, which are alluded to frequently as we learn more about Woody's past, but then again things aren't ever that simple. The music is typically old style movie music, it has that indie-vibe about it but it never feels out of place as the film trundles along. The whole middle-America, small town everyone knowing eachothers business, nothing having changed much since the 70s, it had a distinct style and definitely one of Alexander Payne's best films since Sideways, if not infinitely better in my humblest of opinions; probably because of the weepy emotional reaction it got from me...
Speaking of which it was the last sequence of scenes that set me off on my blubbering frenzy, if you're not up for spoilers look away now.
When Woody asks his son if the prize people got back to them I literally began bawling as his son shows him his new truck. Then he lets his Dad drive down the main street through town in his new truck, his Dad makes him hide as he goes, the characters we met through the film see Woody driving triumphantly through the town in his new truck, independent and capable, with something to show for his journey, a winner. I was literally wailing at this point as I realised that's how Woody wanted it, after all, this was, in his eyes the last time he'd be in that old town of his, that's the last time those people would see him and he wanted it to be on his terms with his triumph; and hey there's his son beaming up at him from his crouching position having given his father this moment of pride. Well shit man, I was a mess.
I genuinely couldn't care less what anyone else thought of this film, I simply thought it was excellent, because it told me a story that I felt invested in, it evoked a strong emotional reaction from me and hey, that's what art is supposed to do. What more can I say?
I could say that it was most likely my grandmother's habit of sitting down me on the couch when I stayed over and describing her funeral to me, what jewellery she would be leaving for me, how it's inevitable that she would die, it got to a point where I was terrified of her dying at any given moment, she was frail and indescribably sad, something which was odd for me as a child because she never explicitly said it but I could feel it and I couldn't understand what would make her feel better. Then there was the fact I grew into an ignorant teenager and saw less and less of her and felt guilt and shame when she passed away for not making my unwavering love and affection for her more known. Old people always me feel so sad; not so much because of their proximity to death, although that definitely hurts, it's because they have lived for so long, gathered so much experience and memories, and then they begin to lose everything. I feel like I'm generalising but with the older, more wrinkled generation, they are largely overlooked, forgotten, they gradually lose their functions, things aren't as easy as they used to be, people don't notice them, don't care about them, ignore them, they are no longer important. I just hate that along with your ability to hear, walk and remember, you lose the respect of others, perhaps not in the most obvious of ways but younger people look at you and say 'Awww, look at the little old dear.' This little old dear has more life experience in her thumb than you have in your whole body, don't talk down to her!
Nebraska is a film about a man who has sunk into old age and is grappling with the prospect of his demise by clinging to some bizarre belief that he has won one million dollars. Straight off the bat, it's clearly a scam, but his belief and his unwavering desire to obtain his winnings make the core of the film. As the film unfurls around you, you find, he's either forgotten or he never really cared about much to start with, it would seem odd that he was so obsessed with getting this money; particularly as his main concerns are simply buying a new truck and an air condenser (no idea....) As it goes the whole film is about his journey to get the money which means stopping off at his home town after a minor accident to recuperate and see his past paraded in front of him and everyone wanting a piece of his non-existent winnings.
The film itself is anchored by Will Forte (who is simply wonderful) playing the part of doting son who can't really say no to his old dad, and Bruce Dern anchoring the film as Woody, an ageing man who's 'easily confused' convincing himself and pretty much everyone around him that he's a newly minted millionaire. Bob Odenkirk also turns up having a brief breather before Saul Goodman goes back in time and back in business. June Squibb essentially walks in and steals the show for me playing Woody's beleaguered wife Kate, she just feels so familiar but so much like her own cutting cold but brilliant character, plus she'll rant forever about how useless her husband is and how he'll outlive them all but I swear there is some affection there even after everything he's put her through, it was a beautiful performance.
Tellingly it's shot entirely in black and white, could be an homage to older simpler times, which are alluded to frequently as we learn more about Woody's past, but then again things aren't ever that simple. The music is typically old style movie music, it has that indie-vibe about it but it never feels out of place as the film trundles along. The whole middle-America, small town everyone knowing eachothers business, nothing having changed much since the 70s, it had a distinct style and definitely one of Alexander Payne's best films since Sideways, if not infinitely better in my humblest of opinions; probably because of the weepy emotional reaction it got from me...
Speaking of which it was the last sequence of scenes that set me off on my blubbering frenzy, if you're not up for spoilers look away now.
When Woody asks his son if the prize people got back to them I literally began bawling as his son shows him his new truck. Then he lets his Dad drive down the main street through town in his new truck, his Dad makes him hide as he goes, the characters we met through the film see Woody driving triumphantly through the town in his new truck, independent and capable, with something to show for his journey, a winner. I was literally wailing at this point as I realised that's how Woody wanted it, after all, this was, in his eyes the last time he'd be in that old town of his, that's the last time those people would see him and he wanted it to be on his terms with his triumph; and hey there's his son beaming up at him from his crouching position having given his father this moment of pride. Well shit man, I was a mess.
I genuinely couldn't care less what anyone else thought of this film, I simply thought it was excellent, because it told me a story that I felt invested in, it evoked a strong emotional reaction from me and hey, that's what art is supposed to do. What more can I say?
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