Well folks here we are, the 1st annual Sim W Awards where I look back on the films of 2015 and cast my vote (mine my own) as to who will win the Sim W Awards (an Award that means absolutely zippo but matters to me anyway.)
But why are you doing this, what drove you to do this well dear readers I am sick to death of the fucking awards season and time and time again and it all just feeling more and more like an election campaign where studios pile a lot of their more adult oriented films into a 3 to 4 month period, they bombard the voting members in the various awards shows be they the Oscars or the Guild Awards and they put out heaps of ads advertising that film "for their consideration."
Well I'm not a part of that for a start and also I see the films I tell people what I think, I review them I talk about them on air every 3 to 4 weeks.
Now the rules are fairly simple there are 7 categories a film can win for and they are:
- Best Film
- Best Director
- Best Lead Performance
- Best Supporting Performance
- Best Screenplay
- Best Sound
- Best Technical Achievement
And in each of the categories bar best film can have up to 3 winners while Best Film can have up to 5 winners in it, it's my way of sharing the love a little I like to think.
With that out of the way let's get it done:
Best Technical Achievement:
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
When it comes to technical prowess this year in films I have to give to Chris McQuarrie's Mission Impossible Rogue Nation the fifth in the series, the technical work here was just amazing as unlike a lot of action pictures there seemed to be very little digital effects work used here, it all felt real and life threatening then again when your lead actor straps himself to a plane as its taking off well your going to follow his example.
Best Sound:
Straight Outta Compton
Mad Max Fury Road
And my Best Sound for 2015 was Mad Max Fury Road and Straight Outta Compton, both had really good and immersive sound work in particular the Hip Hop performances in SOC and the sound of the vehicle engines in Fury Road were great just to listen to outside of the films themselves.
Best Screenplay:
Drew Goddard (The Martian)
The Coen Brothers and Matt Charman (Bride of Spies)
Of all the categories this was the trickiest to pull off but I have 2 great scripts here that outside of the filmmaking qualities would be great novels you would want to own and read hell one of them is based off of a book and Drew Goddard did a stellar job writing the Martian which leapt off the screen and had me wishing Ridley had assigned him to do Alien Covenant but alas that didn't happen.
The Coens meanwhile wrote a superb screenplay for Bridge of Spies and while I wasn't a huge fan of the film I did love their scripting and it really felt like a nice blend of their serious work like Blood Simple and their more light hearted fare like Raising Arizona.
Best Supporting Performance:
Benicio Del Toro (Sicario)
Sylvester Stallone (Creed)
Rebecca Hall (The Gift)
When it comes to supporting performances to me those are the side characters that make a very strong impression and there were 3 here Benicio Del Toro for Sicario, Sly for Creed and Rebecca Hall for the Gift.
All 3 were terrific in their roles but I want to single out Hall in particular who gets very little love for the great work she does and in the Gift she really shown.
Best Lead Performance:
Matt Damon (The Martian)
Ice Cube Jr, Corey Mitchell and Jason Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton)
Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)
This was the easiest category to deal with and for me Joy and the Martian are NOTHING without those 2 central performances at the centre of them and both actors delivered very top notch work especially Lawrence who proved along with Mockingjay Part 2 what a good actress she really is.
Also doing great work was the trio of Ice Cube Jr, Jason Mitchell and Corey Hawkins from Straight Outta Compton which was very hard for me to leave off despite being a trio but their work was so good I just couldn't bear to leave them out.
Best Director:
Denis Vilenuve (Sicario)
Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman the Secret Service)
Dr George Miller (Mad Max Fury Road)
And now we come to the home straight and that is best director and all 3 of these people did a brilliant job with those films particularly Dr Miller and again I wasn't the world's biggest fan of Fury Road but there is no denying what he crafted in that chair and sadly I fear that he will be foiled at the Academy Awards for Inniartu and that would be a very sad occurance.
Best Film:
Inside Out
Kingsman the Secret Service
A Most Violent Year
And so we come to Best Film and for me there were 3 clear winners in this field and they were Kingsman, Inside Out and a Most Violent Year, all 3 as films when all were said and done were brilliantly put together and rarely put a foot wrong.
And so that was the first Sim W Awards and yes some will miss not having more women getting nods or people of colour but these awards are young and there will be plenty of chances for both to make their mark and earn some wins in the years ahead.
One thing that will definitely be changing after this first awards show is the number of winners, from here on it will be restricted to either 1 or 2 winners as having up to 3 whilst a nice intention simply proved unwieldy and this came about as a result of doing the 1st awards for the Radio show, I know I hadn't originally intended on this happening but that's what became clear to me when doing it there as it felt to me that it was becoming too unwieldy to have up to 3 victors but that's the process with these things, you go with your plans and if they don't work you change them as I intend to do with next year's awards.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Film Review - How to be Single (2016)
How to be Single tells the tale of Alice (Dakota Johnson) who feels stuck in a rut whilst in a relationship so she tells her partner Josh that she's breaking up with him and she moves to NYC and lives with her sister (Leslie Mann) and goes out partying with her best friend (Rebel Wilson) but being Single in New York isn't always easy.
This was a little bit of a misfire for me I'm afraid and part of me wanted to see it primarily due to my desire to see Johnson act in a proper film that was not 50 Shades of Grey where she did her awful best to elevate that material to something a little worthwhile and I'd missed her in Black Mass late last year so I was determined to get to this one and again I think she is good here as well as Mann who has a very nice screen presence all her own.
Unfortunately both of them are let down by a messy script that constantly cuts away from them to either Wilson having a gag (and by the way she is really annoying in this film) or to another sub plot featuring Alison Brie and her character and she's okay here but that character I felt could've been removed from the script entirely as again it felt like a distraction from the main storyline and Wilson's antics also didn't help as Johnson and Mann are a great pair and I just wanted to watch scenes of them just talking to each other.
And so that was How to be Single, a film that was okay but whose script needed a tightening and more focus on the 2 sisters Johnson and Mann played, 2 out of 5.
This was a little bit of a misfire for me I'm afraid and part of me wanted to see it primarily due to my desire to see Johnson act in a proper film that was not 50 Shades of Grey where she did her awful best to elevate that material to something a little worthwhile and I'd missed her in Black Mass late last year so I was determined to get to this one and again I think she is good here as well as Mann who has a very nice screen presence all her own.
Unfortunately both of them are let down by a messy script that constantly cuts away from them to either Wilson having a gag (and by the way she is really annoying in this film) or to another sub plot featuring Alison Brie and her character and she's okay here but that character I felt could've been removed from the script entirely as again it felt like a distraction from the main storyline and Wilson's antics also didn't help as Johnson and Mann are a great pair and I just wanted to watch scenes of them just talking to each other.
And so that was How to be Single, a film that was okay but whose script needed a tightening and more focus on the 2 sisters Johnson and Mann played, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - Spotlight (2016)
Spotlight tells a fairly straightforward tale of the Spotlight division of the Boston Globe being tasked by their new editor (Liev Schreiber) into investigating possible Child Abuse by Clergy inside the Catholic Church which is said to have been going on for decades.
Spotlight plays out very much like an old fashioned film and whilst watching it I felt like I was watching the kind of film Oliver Stone used to make like Wall Street or Platoon or JFK or Born on the Fourth of July and the story it tells very much makes you think, the film also has a very strong ensemble cast consisting of Shreiber, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Tony Slattery, Stanley Tucci and Brian d'Arcy James and all of them play off each other very well.
If I do have a fault here is that this didn't really feel like a film to me it felt more like a recorded stage play and Oliver Stone's films as well as having compelling storytelling like this film does they also felt like movies to me and I wish that Tom McCarthy had made this film feel a little more cinematic as watching this in the cinema didn't quite feel right at times.
Another thing I thought of very strongly when I came out of the film was a line Apocalypse says in the teaser for X-Men and it is "You are all my Children but your lost Because you Follow Blind Leaders" and whilst thinking about this movie some more I did come to the conclusion that perhaps he was right now I know this is a VERY frivolous and silly comparison to make but doesn't one of the hymns also say "I once was Blind but now I see" and yet could we as peoples with all the knowledge of the world at our very fingertips did we not see through the darkness and perhaps question these people more regarding their motives to help these young kids, it really makes you think.
I admire Spotlight very much mainly due to its strong storytelling but as a film it's not one I love I'm afraid but still it's worth a watch, 3 out of 5.
Spotlight plays out very much like an old fashioned film and whilst watching it I felt like I was watching the kind of film Oliver Stone used to make like Wall Street or Platoon or JFK or Born on the Fourth of July and the story it tells very much makes you think, the film also has a very strong ensemble cast consisting of Shreiber, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Tony Slattery, Stanley Tucci and Brian d'Arcy James and all of them play off each other very well.
If I do have a fault here is that this didn't really feel like a film to me it felt more like a recorded stage play and Oliver Stone's films as well as having compelling storytelling like this film does they also felt like movies to me and I wish that Tom McCarthy had made this film feel a little more cinematic as watching this in the cinema didn't quite feel right at times.
Another thing I thought of very strongly when I came out of the film was a line Apocalypse says in the teaser for X-Men and it is "You are all my Children but your lost Because you Follow Blind Leaders" and whilst thinking about this movie some more I did come to the conclusion that perhaps he was right now I know this is a VERY frivolous and silly comparison to make but doesn't one of the hymns also say "I once was Blind but now I see" and yet could we as peoples with all the knowledge of the world at our very fingertips did we not see through the darkness and perhaps question these people more regarding their motives to help these young kids, it really makes you think.
I admire Spotlight very much mainly due to its strong storytelling but as a film it's not one I love I'm afraid but still it's worth a watch, 3 out of 5.
Film Review - Hail Caesar (2016)
Hail Caesar is the new film from the Coen Brothers and concerns the star of Capitol Pictures new Roman epic "Hail Caesar" Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) who whilst filming for the movie is kidnapped from the set and a ransom is set for $100,000 which then sets the studios fixer Mr Mannix (Josh Brolin) onto the case.
Hail Caesar is unfortunately not the Coen Brothers finest hour in fact it's a bit of a mess but before I delve into that in more detail I want to talk about what I did like about this movie and the first of those is Brolin himself, he is excellent in this role and his Gumshoe esque character and firm jaw line has him fit the period really really well in fact whilst I was watching him I was reminded of my desire to see him headline a new Dick Tracy movie as he would've done a great job as that character and he has the firm jaw line the character had in the comic strip as compared to Warren Beatty's soft jaw from his 1990 film.
The other was a particular cameo which I won't spoil here but it did make me go "OMG is that who I think it is EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" and yes I literally did squeal out loud in the cinema as a result.
But despite those like I mentioned this script is a mess and the main reason for that is the central story regarding Clooney's character just really comes across as an excuse to have a boatload of cameos and references to Old Hollywood pictures and some of those are well done but whilst watching them I just felt like I was being distracted and wanted to get back to the main story plus some of the humour really doesn't work here and given the Coens have gone silly in the past with such films as Raising Arizona and the Big Lebowski here the silliness stretches credibility at times especially one part towards the end of the film.
And so that was Hail Caesar a film that is unfortunately not very good, if you want a good Hollywood satire rent the Player instead, 1.5 out of 5.
Hail Caesar is unfortunately not the Coen Brothers finest hour in fact it's a bit of a mess but before I delve into that in more detail I want to talk about what I did like about this movie and the first of those is Brolin himself, he is excellent in this role and his Gumshoe esque character and firm jaw line has him fit the period really really well in fact whilst I was watching him I was reminded of my desire to see him headline a new Dick Tracy movie as he would've done a great job as that character and he has the firm jaw line the character had in the comic strip as compared to Warren Beatty's soft jaw from his 1990 film.
The other was a particular cameo which I won't spoil here but it did make me go "OMG is that who I think it is EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" and yes I literally did squeal out loud in the cinema as a result.
But despite those like I mentioned this script is a mess and the main reason for that is the central story regarding Clooney's character just really comes across as an excuse to have a boatload of cameos and references to Old Hollywood pictures and some of those are well done but whilst watching them I just felt like I was being distracted and wanted to get back to the main story plus some of the humour really doesn't work here and given the Coens have gone silly in the past with such films as Raising Arizona and the Big Lebowski here the silliness stretches credibility at times especially one part towards the end of the film.
And so that was Hail Caesar a film that is unfortunately not very good, if you want a good Hollywood satire rent the Player instead, 1.5 out of 5.
Monday, February 22, 2016
Film Review - Steve Jobs (2016)
Steve Jobs is written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle and concerns 3 launches of products the late Apple co-founder devised: The Macintosh in 1984, the Next in 1988 and the iMac in 1998, Michael Fassbender plays Steve Jobs and it shows him dealing with his assistant (Kate Winslet), his co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) as well as his estranged wife and daughter Lisa.
Hmmm, yeah I was not a big fan of this one and the reason I feel this way is Sorkin's script, it just constantly gets dour and limp and almost every scene has its characters fighting or arguing or shouting at each other and after a while it just becomes tiresome and that wasn't the case in Sorkin's earlier script The Social Network, in that film you saw Mark Zuckerburg be the genius that some people see him has and here you don't get to see that with Steve and given that so many people own Macs, iPhones, iPads and the iWatch I wanted to see more of that visionary figure that some paint him has.
It also doesn't help having a director like Boyle whose style of filmmaking is very different to David Finchers (who directed the Social Network and was in line to direct this film before the fallout at Sony happened) and Fincher and Sorkin as a pair went together like Mash and Peas do but here it feels like Fish and Mash going together and they just don't fit and as a result your seeing this almost larger than life directing butting heads with a cold and stoic screenplay/writer and as a result I just found myself unengaged by it all.
It also doesn't help that the performances felt very limp at times as well, Fassbender is one of the best actors working today but this is not one of his best performances, don't get me wrong he's good but he's been so much better in other films (Prometheus was saved because of him), Winslet does the whole thing in a European accent and she wasn't as good as she was in the Dressmaker while Rogen and Jeff Daniels barely register in their roles and this again makes the film watching feel worse for you as these people are talented and they've proven that to you in the past but here they all feel wasted in their roles.
So that was Steve Jobs, a film that saddens me to say is a genuine turkey and I just cannot recommend it, watch the Social Network instead, 1 out of 5.
Hmmm, yeah I was not a big fan of this one and the reason I feel this way is Sorkin's script, it just constantly gets dour and limp and almost every scene has its characters fighting or arguing or shouting at each other and after a while it just becomes tiresome and that wasn't the case in Sorkin's earlier script The Social Network, in that film you saw Mark Zuckerburg be the genius that some people see him has and here you don't get to see that with Steve and given that so many people own Macs, iPhones, iPads and the iWatch I wanted to see more of that visionary figure that some paint him has.
It also doesn't help having a director like Boyle whose style of filmmaking is very different to David Finchers (who directed the Social Network and was in line to direct this film before the fallout at Sony happened) and Fincher and Sorkin as a pair went together like Mash and Peas do but here it feels like Fish and Mash going together and they just don't fit and as a result your seeing this almost larger than life directing butting heads with a cold and stoic screenplay/writer and as a result I just found myself unengaged by it all.
It also doesn't help that the performances felt very limp at times as well, Fassbender is one of the best actors working today but this is not one of his best performances, don't get me wrong he's good but he's been so much better in other films (Prometheus was saved because of him), Winslet does the whole thing in a European accent and she wasn't as good as she was in the Dressmaker while Rogen and Jeff Daniels barely register in their roles and this again makes the film watching feel worse for you as these people are talented and they've proven that to you in the past but here they all feel wasted in their roles.
So that was Steve Jobs, a film that saddens me to say is a genuine turkey and I just cannot recommend it, watch the Social Network instead, 1 out of 5.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
On the Air Season 3 Episode 3: The Awarding of Dark Pools
Well here we are folks,
Another new Radio episode where I talked about the following:
- Deadpool
- Sicario
As well as handing out the 1st Annual Sim W Awards, this is the audio version of those and the written one will be up closer to the Academy Awards.
As always you can listen here on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-february-19
Another new Radio episode where I talked about the following:
- Deadpool
- Sicario
As well as handing out the 1st Annual Sim W Awards, this is the audio version of those and the written one will be up closer to the Academy Awards.
As always you can listen here on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-february-19
Friday, February 19, 2016
Film Review - Brooklyn (2016)
Brooklyn is set in the 1950s and concerns a young girl named Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) who goes to America in the hope of finding a better life for herself away from Ireland thanks to a local priest (Jim Broadbent) but when she has to return home for family matters she finds herself conflicted between the new life she's built there and the attraction of a home grown man named Jim (Domnhall Gleeson.)
Brooklyn is a nice film, a very lovely and charming film and is also very nicely performed but it's not one that has really stood out for me very much in my mind since I saw it, that doesn't make it a bad film far from it but that was just the feeling I got in thinking about it since I saw the film, Ronan is a great talent and here she does not disappoint being able to give a fully emotional performance as well as delivering an Irish accent, Gleeson is another bright young talent despite his pretty bad performance in Star Wars (sorry mate but you let me down here) and he gives a nice performance as well and he and Ronan have very good chemistry.
The film also has good performances from Broadbent (Frank Butterman) and Julie Walters who plays the head of the boarding house Eilis stays in and she also has some nice moments that made me laugh, Emory Cohen is also pretty good as Tony and I liked the scenery of both Ireland the United States as presented in the film.
And so that was Brooklyn, I wish I had more to say but that's just how I felt about it, I liked it it was nice, lovely and well done but it wasn't one that has resonated with me very much, 2 out of 5.
Brooklyn is a nice film, a very lovely and charming film and is also very nicely performed but it's not one that has really stood out for me very much in my mind since I saw it, that doesn't make it a bad film far from it but that was just the feeling I got in thinking about it since I saw the film, Ronan is a great talent and here she does not disappoint being able to give a fully emotional performance as well as delivering an Irish accent, Gleeson is another bright young talent despite his pretty bad performance in Star Wars (sorry mate but you let me down here) and he gives a nice performance as well and he and Ronan have very good chemistry.
The film also has good performances from Broadbent (Frank Butterman) and Julie Walters who plays the head of the boarding house Eilis stays in and she also has some nice moments that made me laugh, Emory Cohen is also pretty good as Tony and I liked the scenery of both Ireland the United States as presented in the film.
And so that was Brooklyn, I wish I had more to say but that's just how I felt about it, I liked it it was nice, lovely and well done but it wasn't one that has resonated with me very much, 2 out of 5.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Film Review - Deadpool (2016)
Deadpool is based off of the Marvel Comic and stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson a former Special Forces officer turned mercenary who learns he has terminal cancer but he is given the opportunity to be cured of his illness and inherit abilities that could make him a mutant superhero but this could come at a price.
Deadpool is good fun for these key reasons:
- First of all the script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick is terrific, expertly adapting the comic to life in a way that feels like a comic book on screen as well as tipping its hat to the larger X-Men Universe the character exists in without hitting you over the head with doing so not to mention packing the film with many great one liners and a sweet love story at the centre of it all, watching this film reminded me a lot of the original Robocop that Paul Verhoeven made in 1987 and I mean that in a good way.
- Secondly the performances here are great, not once watching Reynolds on screen here did I think I was watching him I felt like I was watching the character on screen and he gives it everything he has in the role and has a very nice chemistry with Morena Barracin who plays Vanessa and she's also good as are Stefan Kapicic as Collossus, TJ Miller as Weasel, Gina Carano as Angel Dust and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
- And lastly the action scenes are fantastic to watch, very fast paced, very exciting and full of great one liners as well as numerous amounts of blood but it's not excessive as it was in the Hateful Eight recently, my favourite has to be the opening action set piece on the highway that was a real treat.
Sadly there is one big negative to this movie and its Ajax the lead villain and frankly he feels very very bland when he should feel like the Stryker to the Deadpool character much like he does to Wolverine and both Josh Helman and Brian Cox made very strong impressions as Stryker in X-Men 2 and Days of Future Past but here Ed Skrein feels like a villain from a Jason Statham movie.
I also kept thinking of this as the recent passing of Alan Rickman has been on my mind a fair bit as his villain roles in both Die Hard and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves were so very memorable and thinking about that is making me miss him an awful lot but maybe this is the differnce between Tim Miller who is directing his first film here and Bryan Singer who has made his X-Men villains sing like Hummingbirds be they Magneto, Stryker and the Sentinels and I feel that he will do the same again with Apocalypse later this year (look he's done 3 and each has been excellent so I trust him okay.)
And so that was Deadpool and its good fun but the lack of a strong and memorable villain holds it back from being a highlight of the genre which this would have become for me had that element fallen into place as well as the script, the action, the jokes and the performances all do, 3 out of 5.
Deadpool is good fun for these key reasons:
- First of all the script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick is terrific, expertly adapting the comic to life in a way that feels like a comic book on screen as well as tipping its hat to the larger X-Men Universe the character exists in without hitting you over the head with doing so not to mention packing the film with many great one liners and a sweet love story at the centre of it all, watching this film reminded me a lot of the original Robocop that Paul Verhoeven made in 1987 and I mean that in a good way.
- Secondly the performances here are great, not once watching Reynolds on screen here did I think I was watching him I felt like I was watching the character on screen and he gives it everything he has in the role and has a very nice chemistry with Morena Barracin who plays Vanessa and she's also good as are Stefan Kapicic as Collossus, TJ Miller as Weasel, Gina Carano as Angel Dust and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
- And lastly the action scenes are fantastic to watch, very fast paced, very exciting and full of great one liners as well as numerous amounts of blood but it's not excessive as it was in the Hateful Eight recently, my favourite has to be the opening action set piece on the highway that was a real treat.
Sadly there is one big negative to this movie and its Ajax the lead villain and frankly he feels very very bland when he should feel like the Stryker to the Deadpool character much like he does to Wolverine and both Josh Helman and Brian Cox made very strong impressions as Stryker in X-Men 2 and Days of Future Past but here Ed Skrein feels like a villain from a Jason Statham movie.
I also kept thinking of this as the recent passing of Alan Rickman has been on my mind a fair bit as his villain roles in both Die Hard and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves were so very memorable and thinking about that is making me miss him an awful lot but maybe this is the differnce between Tim Miller who is directing his first film here and Bryan Singer who has made his X-Men villains sing like Hummingbirds be they Magneto, Stryker and the Sentinels and I feel that he will do the same again with Apocalypse later this year (look he's done 3 and each has been excellent so I trust him okay.)
And so that was Deadpool and its good fun but the lack of a strong and memorable villain holds it back from being a highlight of the genre which this would have become for me had that element fallen into place as well as the script, the action, the jokes and the performances all do, 3 out of 5.
Saturday, February 6, 2016
The Hateful Way We Write Filmmakers Off When We Shouldn't
The film year for me has now started with vim and verve and my mindset now turns to the weekly schedule of new releases to prep for Radio each month.
One of the first I saw this year was Quentin Tarantino's new film the Hateful Eight which I have to confess I was not all that keen about as I have rarely enjoyed QT's work in the past (Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill would be the exceptions) so it was with some level of hesitation that I went into the film.
When I came out of it I said to the girls at the foyer desk "It's a Tarantino film" and in my written review I gave it a 2.5 out of 5 score feeling that while there were many things that I liked about it (the R18+ tone, the super wide screen, the dialogue, the performances and the musical score) I did also feel that it ran a little too long and the blood and swearing and abuse also got a little too much after a while.
But as the days and weeks have rolled on the film has surprisingly grown a fair amount in my mind and the negatives I felt about the film when I first saw it have faded somewhat, hell its even gotten to the point where I want to see the film again in the cinema which is always a sign that happens when I love a film.
What it has also shown me is that no matter how much you desperately want to and sometimes there can be good reasons to do such a thing you can just never ever write a filmmaker off and indeed part of me had written off Tarantino mainly because his last couple of pictures either didn't interest me very much or I was not a huge fan of.
And yet when I try to think about why that is in an exact sense in terms of having a clear and definitive answer I can't really think of one maybe it's just one of those sort of movies that comes along every once in a while that you probably don't think a lot of going in or even as your more immediate reaction when coming out of that film but it just becomes one that grows in your mind over time.
But if I'm going to say this for Tarantino then I had better say it for Michael Bay for as much as I LOATHE with every single fiber of my being his work on the Transformers films I have to say part of me is keen to see his upcoming 13 Hours film about Benghazi in 2012 it has had good reviews in the US but it hasn't clicked at the Box Office despite Paramount probably hoping like hell it would be their own American Sniper esque hit but as with all these things we wait and we see.
Cause After all I never thought another film in 2016 could give X-Men Apocalypse a run for its money but that was indeed the whole point of doing this column you just never know what can come around the corner movie wise nor can you write off filmmakers you may not have liked in the past because well folks stuff like this happens.
One of the first I saw this year was Quentin Tarantino's new film the Hateful Eight which I have to confess I was not all that keen about as I have rarely enjoyed QT's work in the past (Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill would be the exceptions) so it was with some level of hesitation that I went into the film.
When I came out of it I said to the girls at the foyer desk "It's a Tarantino film" and in my written review I gave it a 2.5 out of 5 score feeling that while there were many things that I liked about it (the R18+ tone, the super wide screen, the dialogue, the performances and the musical score) I did also feel that it ran a little too long and the blood and swearing and abuse also got a little too much after a while.
But as the days and weeks have rolled on the film has surprisingly grown a fair amount in my mind and the negatives I felt about the film when I first saw it have faded somewhat, hell its even gotten to the point where I want to see the film again in the cinema which is always a sign that happens when I love a film.
What it has also shown me is that no matter how much you desperately want to and sometimes there can be good reasons to do such a thing you can just never ever write a filmmaker off and indeed part of me had written off Tarantino mainly because his last couple of pictures either didn't interest me very much or I was not a huge fan of.
And yet when I try to think about why that is in an exact sense in terms of having a clear and definitive answer I can't really think of one maybe it's just one of those sort of movies that comes along every once in a while that you probably don't think a lot of going in or even as your more immediate reaction when coming out of that film but it just becomes one that grows in your mind over time.
But if I'm going to say this for Tarantino then I had better say it for Michael Bay for as much as I LOATHE with every single fiber of my being his work on the Transformers films I have to say part of me is keen to see his upcoming 13 Hours film about Benghazi in 2012 it has had good reviews in the US but it hasn't clicked at the Box Office despite Paramount probably hoping like hell it would be their own American Sniper esque hit but as with all these things we wait and we see.
Cause After all I never thought another film in 2016 could give X-Men Apocalypse a run for its money but that was indeed the whole point of doing this column you just never know what can come around the corner movie wise nor can you write off filmmakers you may not have liked in the past because well folks stuff like this happens.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
On the Air Season 3 Episodes 1 and 2: Remembering those Wonderful Bastards
Well folks here we are,
The first batch of Radio episodes for 2016 where in January I talked about the following:
- Star Wars the Force Awakens
- Joy
- The Good Dinosaur
As well as my selection of favorite Australian films for Australia Day.
In February I discussed the following:
- The Hateful Eight
- The Big Short
- The Revenant
- Goosebumps
You can listen to the shows now on Soundcloud here:
https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-february-2016
https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-australia-day-selection
https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-january-2016
The first batch of Radio episodes for 2016 where in January I talked about the following:
- Star Wars the Force Awakens
- Joy
- The Good Dinosaur
As well as my selection of favorite Australian films for Australia Day.
In February I discussed the following:
- The Hateful Eight
- The Big Short
- The Revenant
- Goosebumps
You can listen to the shows now on Soundcloud here:
https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-february-2016
https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-australia-day-selection
https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-january-2016
Film Review - Carol (2016)
Carol is directed by Todd Haynes and stars Cate Blanchett as Carol a woman living with an alcoholic husband (Kyle Chandler) who she is getting a divorce from but one day meets Therese (Rooney Mara) who works in a department store, the two become close but their closeness in 1950s America could cost both of them dearly.
Carol is very good, really very good and it's for these reasons:
- The first is the visuals by Ed Lachman (who also was the cinematographer on Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985, Light Sleeper in 1992, 1980's Union City and Haynes's 2002 film Far From Heaven) because this is a gorgeous film to look at with its period setting and pastel colours be they pinks or whites or blues or reds not once did I feel bored looking at this film purely on a visual standpoint and it makes seeing this film in a cinema environment well worth it.
- The second is the music score by Carter Burwell again it is such a pleasure just to listen to this film with its combination of piano score and 50s music songs there were times where I found myself kind of wandering away from the action on screen just to get caught up in what was playing on the soundtrack and this isn't a bad thing not in the slightest.
- And lastly the performances are all superb, Blanchett is just wonderful in this role as not only does she fit the period so well but her outside appearance of being a proper 50s lady very poised very elegant and very much a servant of her husband combined with her inside vulnerability and anger and wanting so much more than ladies of her time were allowed hooks you into her work every time she's on screen.
But she's not alone, Chandler proves once again what an underrated actor he is as Carol's husband and the fact is that he's not a bad man just one who doesn't quite know how to handle a very delicate situation and wife while Sarah Paulson is very good as Abby Carol's lifelong friend who serves as her stable rock but the star of this show is Mara as she is fantastic and at long last after so many misfires she fulfils the promise she showed in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo one can only hope she gets an Oscar nomination for her work.
But despite all of this I have to say that I would have a personal preference for Blue is the Warmest Colour from 2014 as that film to me had not only a darker edge to its proceedings but also its same sex love story worked much better for me as that film takes place in a contemporary setting where these sort of love stories work much better as they are much more accepted as a part of everyday life whereas having one taking place in a period setting didn't quite gel as well for me and that's not in any way shape or form a slight on this movie not at all but because it was pretty much something that ruined your life back then I felt that it didn't work as well here.
And so that was Carol a film that is very very good and worth seeing absolutely but I prefer Blue is the Warmest Colour despite that films faults, 3 and a half out of 5.
Carol is very good, really very good and it's for these reasons:
- The first is the visuals by Ed Lachman (who also was the cinematographer on Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985, Light Sleeper in 1992, 1980's Union City and Haynes's 2002 film Far From Heaven) because this is a gorgeous film to look at with its period setting and pastel colours be they pinks or whites or blues or reds not once did I feel bored looking at this film purely on a visual standpoint and it makes seeing this film in a cinema environment well worth it.
- The second is the music score by Carter Burwell again it is such a pleasure just to listen to this film with its combination of piano score and 50s music songs there were times where I found myself kind of wandering away from the action on screen just to get caught up in what was playing on the soundtrack and this isn't a bad thing not in the slightest.
- And lastly the performances are all superb, Blanchett is just wonderful in this role as not only does she fit the period so well but her outside appearance of being a proper 50s lady very poised very elegant and very much a servant of her husband combined with her inside vulnerability and anger and wanting so much more than ladies of her time were allowed hooks you into her work every time she's on screen.
But she's not alone, Chandler proves once again what an underrated actor he is as Carol's husband and the fact is that he's not a bad man just one who doesn't quite know how to handle a very delicate situation and wife while Sarah Paulson is very good as Abby Carol's lifelong friend who serves as her stable rock but the star of this show is Mara as she is fantastic and at long last after so many misfires she fulfils the promise she showed in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo one can only hope she gets an Oscar nomination for her work.
But despite all of this I have to say that I would have a personal preference for Blue is the Warmest Colour from 2014 as that film to me had not only a darker edge to its proceedings but also its same sex love story worked much better for me as that film takes place in a contemporary setting where these sort of love stories work much better as they are much more accepted as a part of everyday life whereas having one taking place in a period setting didn't quite gel as well for me and that's not in any way shape or form a slight on this movie not at all but because it was pretty much something that ruined your life back then I felt that it didn't work as well here.
And so that was Carol a film that is very very good and worth seeing absolutely but I prefer Blue is the Warmest Colour despite that films faults, 3 and a half out of 5.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
