Have you ever decided to go to the cinema and just pick a film that you know nothing about? That’s what I did with Green Room, all I knew was that it was a horror (not my favourite genre), it was about a punk band and Patrick Stewart was in it. If nothing else, it was going to be interesting. And it was an engaging, if gory, ride. Continue reading
The Piano Teacher (2001)
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Holy moly, this was a cracker of a film. Not to be watched by anyone who wants an easy ride – take this as a warning. Directed by Michael Haneke, who makes challenging films like The White Ribbon and Caché, The Piano Teacher also has powerhouse performances, themes that make you decidedly uncomfortable and no neat resolution. With all of the Haneke films I have seen so far, as the end credits roll there is a moment of incredulity and exasperation but then the characters and subtext worm their way into your brain and refuse to leave. Continue reading
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
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Meryl Streep plays real-life New York socialite Florence Foster Jenkins who was a long-time supporter of music and an amateur soprano. What makes her story remarkable is that she occasionally performed, usually to supportive groups of friends, and was recorded several times even though she was not very good. Directed by Stephen Frears and also starring Hugh Grant as Florence’s husband and manager, St. Clair Bayfield, this is the same story that is the basis of the French film Marguerite, also currently in release.
Midnight Special (2016)
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I had a really interesting conversation yesterday with a friend about the subjectivity of film reviewing and how the baggage you carry with you influences your judgement of a film. I’m not sure he totally agreed with me but we then watched Midnight Special and, for me, my bias was clear. My sister asked me to see this film as she wanted to talk to me about it’s metaphor and metaphorical it certainly is. At least it has to be otherwise it doesn’t really make sense. Continue reading
Thelma and Louise (1991)
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This year marks twenty five years since the release of Thelma and Louise so what better way to mark it than to watch it with my three daughters. I was twenty six when I first watched this, so that’s half my lifetime ago. I remember at the time loving it because it put women at the centre of the action, it was funny, the two stars were engaging, the cinematography was beautiful and there was a thrill in identifying with characters who didn’t do what they were told. Now, at 51, I can see that this film is even more than that. Continue reading
Zootopia (2016)
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Disney’s feminist polemic. I know right? What does Disney think it’s doing serving up this thinly veiled feminist propaganda? What are they trying to do, influence the minds of our courageous young boys and tractable young girls? I know what kind of barrow you’re trying to push Disney, you’re trying to tell us that girls can do boy jobs. In fact sometimes they can do boy jobs better than boys because girls are essentially moral and they always try and do the right thing. And if only those aggressive boys would just listen to those good girls they might learn something. Just as long as the girls don’t get too emotional. Or try to tell the boys what to do. And need saving when the going gets really tough. Continue reading
Burnt (2015)
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Bradley Cooper is a CHEF. He’s had a TROUBLED PAST. He wants to prove that he’s the BEST. But he can’t do it ALONE. And I can tell all of this just from the poster. I laughed when I saw the poster at the cinema a few months ago. It seems like such a formulaic premise for a movie, something that movie execs cook up thinking that it can’t possibly fail because it has all the right ingredients. And it’s not a terrible movie, but it’s like dining at McDonald’s, you know exactly what you’re going to get when you walk in and no amount of artisan presentation will change the fact that it’s the same burger you’ve eaten many times before. Continue reading
Eddie the Eagle (2016)
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The trailer for this film sucked me in. It looked like a warm, quirky British biopic in the vein of Billy Elliot or Chariots of Fire. It’s based on the true story of Michael ‘Eddie’ Edwards, the irrepressible everyman who managed to represent Great Britain in ski jumping at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, despite being a relative newcomer to the sport and not on a par with other competitors. Unfortunately this film has more in common with Cool Runnings, the largely fictionalised Disney film of the Jamaican bobsled team that competed at the same Olympics, than I hoped. Continue reading
Rams (Hrutar) (2015)
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I want to go to Iceland. I blame Björk for sparking my interest. There is something about her discordant eccentricity, the kookiness of Icelandic names and the brutality of the landscape that makes me think this would be a country worth knowing. It’s possible that Rams is the first Icelandic film I have ever seen and it didn’t disappoint. Continue reading
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
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I’d forgotten this film from 2004. Joel (Jim Carrey) wakes to find that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had all memory of him erased so that she can move on. In anger, he chooses to do the same and we follow him back through their relationship as the fragments of his memory of her disappear. Directed by Michel Gondry with inventive camerawork and very few post-production special effects, you are kept off-kilter as you navigate your way through the real and the surreal that is Joel’s mind. Continue reading
