Film Review - La La Land (2016)

La La Land is written and directed by Damien Chazelle and stars Emma Stone as Mia a young actress working on a studio lot in LA and trying to get her big break into the business one night at a bar she meets Seb (Ryan Gosling) a jazz enthusiast hoping to find his big break as well and the two fall in love though both may come to realise their dreams could come at a price.

La La Land for me feels very much like Arrival for me in that I am of 2 minds on it I think that Chazelle is a very talented man having also written the script for 10 Cloverfield Lane this year as well and he directs this film very well in terms of the production, the performances and the musical sequences even though his script does feel a little patchy at times.

But apart from that the film as a whole didn't really do that much for me though I can totally understand why it has woven such a spell over so many that have seen it it is a very romantic film, a very sweet film, a very nice film and it is very loving about Hollywood and the history it has in terms of its eras as well as the city of Los Angeles itself and Stone and Gosling are two very loveable leads but I don't really like nice and sweet films all that much I like the darker films the "blood in the water" you could say.

And one film that did that as well as look at that city was 1992's The Player directed by Robert Altman which was a much more cynical look at the industry and a film I consider a big favourite of mine and this movie as well made as it is (and it is a very handsome production) I just don't think is as good as that film is in the sense that it was much more in my tastes film wise than La La Land is.

And so that was La La Land, a film I have mixed feelings about even though I can see why it has won over so many, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Split (2017)

Split is written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and stars James McAvoy as Kevin a man with Multiple Personality Disorder who kidnaps 3 young girls (Anya Taylor-Joy, Hayley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula) but the man who is holding them prisoner has multiple personalities some more dangerous than others.

Split is a hell of a lot of fun, dark and twisted yes but I like those kind of films and I had a big grin on my face throughout most of it, Taylor-Joy, Richardson and Sula all equip themselves very well as the young girls being held captive and while some of their scenes especially towards the end were a little uncomfortable for me to watch I never found myself bored when they were on screen.

But this is truly McAvoy's movie and I loved him as Professor Xavier in the recent X-Men trilogy but his performance here is nothing short of remarkable the way he changes his voice, his body posture, his body language, his physical presence it is amazing to see all of these different personalities come to life and whenever he was on screen I was just sitting there with this huge smile on my face and eating up every scene he has.

But this isn't also his movie it was also great to see M. Night Shyamalan enjoy making movies again like he did when he made the Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and Signs in the late 90s and early 2000s and while this film has the best and worst of him as a writer and director this feels like the most energetic and passionate work from him in what seems like a very long time.

And so that was Spilt and like Edge of 17 it really kicks off 2017 as a film year in a very nice fashion, hopefully this continues as the year goes on, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Lion (2017)

Lion is based off of the true story of Saroo played as a child by Sunny Pawar and as an adult by Dev Patel who lives in India and through sleeping on a train finds himself in Calcutta where he is later adopted by an Australian couple Sue and John (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham) but he begins to have nightmares of the night he got lost in India and vows to find his true home.

Lion is a film of two halves for me and overall was not one that did much for me personally the first half of the film is actually pretty good showing Saroo's life in India and Pawar is very very good and for someone so young to just hold your attention in the way that he does is quite astounding.

Which is a lot more than I can say for the 2nd half of the film where once again like in the Light Between Oceans your forced to see world class actors sitting around crying, staring at monitor screens, looking out windows, treating loved ones like shit and drinking wine and this part of the film got so bloody boring and tedious I just kept wanting to look at my watch and wait for the damn thing to end.

Patel does do a good job with the Australian accent but I actually found it to hinder his performance it's one thing to get it right it's another to convincingly act with it as well something Kate Winslet did very well in the Dressmaker and can we PLEASE stop wasting Rooney Mara in movies she's a wonderful actress so so good in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Carol but here she just plays the concerned girlfriend and "Oh my darling man please don't leave me now" UGH GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK and to quote Marvin the Martian "OOOOO this makes me very angry."

And so that was Lion a good first half and an awful second half, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - The Edge of 17 (2017)

The Edge of 17 is written and directed by Kelly Craig and stars Hallee Steinfeld as Nadine a high school student who is going through the pains of turning 17 and the adolescent changes that come with that but they only get worse when her best friend Krista (Hayley Lu Richardson) starts dating her older brother Darian (Blake Jenner.)

Edge of 17 is a terrific high school film as good as any that have been made in the last 30 years and the ones from the 80s are tough to top but this deserves to sit on that same shelf with them first off Steinfeld is wonderful in this movie and she has really began to emerge as a fine young actress to watch, Woody Harrelson is also good as the high school history teacher while Jenner looks a lot like a young James Spader.

But this is Kelly's movie through and through and she does such a good job here that I really REALLY want her to make a Spider-Man movie because what she does so well is really capture what it's like to be at that age where your body is going through puberty and your emotions can very quickly go into overdrive and some handle that very well like Darian does but others don't handle it very well at all and watching this film I did think of when I was 17 and well I didn't like it at all.

But coming back to the Spider-Man feeling one thing that drives Peter Parker is guilt, guilt that he did not do the right thing and stop the killer of his uncle when he had the chance to do so but he does remember his line to him before he dies "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility" and in Nadine's character there is a certain level of guilt about some events in her life and that attention to character is what a great Spider-Man film could do with and Kelly would make a great one.

And so that was Edge of 17 a really great Teen flick that I really wish had done better at the box office as it's a little gem that deserves a big audience, 4 and a half out of 5.

Radio Days are Here Again

Well folks here they are my last 2 Radio episodes (there were problems with uploading shows late last year that have only now been resolved) covering:

- The Best and Worst of 2016

As well as:

- Star Wars: Rogue One
- Passengers
- Moana
- Red Dog True Blue

As always you can listen here:


https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/final-friday-flicks-part-1-final



https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/final-friday-flicks-part-2-final



https://soundcloud.com/abclocalradio_sa/friday-flicks-jan-20-final

Film Review - Passengers (2017)

Passengers is directed by Morten Tyldum who made the Imitation Game and stars Chris Pratt as Jim a mechanic who is accidentally woken up from hyper sleep 30 years into a 120 year journey to Homestead II a planet very much like Earth but the isolation considers him to wake up another Passenger Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) even though she too will die along the way.

I was very much looking forward to this movie mainly because it was a new Science Fiction film with 2 actors I really like in both Pratt and Lawrence would this become a new Sci Fi classic or just another misfire that sadly crashes not long after takeoff.

Unfortunately most unfortunately I have to say this is a case of the latter as Passengers is enormously disappointing for these reasons:

- Firstly the moral quandary presented in this movie is a fascinating one as unlike say Red Dwarf where the crew is wiped out by Radiation Leaks and one person survives all alone he has a chance to have some company even though he will ruin their life as well and if a connection fails to form then "What Have I Done?" can quickly come to mind.

Sadly both Tyldum and Pratt severely drop the ball in handling this murky story point and its execution comes off as very very badly so bad that it left a bad taste in my mind for the rest of the film and the casting of Pratt in this role really did not help as I just could not believe him in a role that requires an actor willing to go down this dark path simply to make a voyage through space better for him if it had been Arnold Rimmer for example it probably wouldn't have been a problem but with Pratt he feels miscast.

- And secondly the film completely goes off the rails and becomes Titanic in Space which is not as good as that sounds as the ship starts to go haywire and our lovers have to fix it and save themselves from dying in the process and it is super duper boring to sit through and it reeks of a film that just went off the rails.

I did however like both Lawrence and Michael Sheen in their parts Sheen in particular is the bright spark of the film reminding me a little of Mr. Data from Star Trek the Next Generation hopefully he will get to be in more roles in the future.

I wish I could say Passengers is a great film to kick off the new year but sadly I can't as it really disappointed me and I cannot recommend it, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Moana (2016)

Moana is the latest Disney Animation telling the tale of Maui (Dwayne Johnson) a Demigod who stole the heart of Te Fiti which then starts to condemn the nearby islands to darkness meanwhile a young Tribal Chief named Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) is determined to help her island people become plentiful again and she may very well need Maui's help to do it.

I liked this movie and primarily because I like the Moana character, she was headstrong, brave, willing to look for solutions and get things done and take nobody's crap from anyone you were either in her way or getting behind her in her quest and the latter was what happened to me watching the film even if Maui was constantly picking on her and getting in her way and speaking of him I did not like Dwayne Johnson as much in this movie mainly because at times I felt like he was a copy of the Genie from Aladdin and not that great of a one.

And also I feel the storytelling itself very much followed the typical Disney Princess formula:

- There's the young girl who wants more out of life
- The big songs
- The supporting comic relief
- The big villain
- And the fight at the 2 third mark which splits the hero apart only to fight back in the climax

And all of that after a while began to get on my nerves especially with a film like Zootopia from earlier this year which tried to do something different though thankfully this film steers away from the heavy handed messaging that film had in its climax but all that aside I did enjoy myself.

Is Moana a typical Disney Princess film? Yes Did I Enjoy It? Yes I Did and Would I Recommend It? Absolutely I would especially to young girls who would really get something from this character though kids under 6 I would caution taking them to this one as it might scare them a little, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Red Dog True Blue (2016)

Red Dog True Blue takes place before the events of the original Red Dog film from 2011 and tells of a Perth businessman (Jason Isaacs) who takes his kids to see the original film after it has an effect on him he tells his oldest son about the story that inspired the film which also leads into his time on a Kimberley farm with his grandfather (Bryan Brown.)

Red Dog True Blue is actually a pretty fun prequel and you certainly can't say that about most prequels especially these days and it's not hard to fall in love with that loveable Red Dog all over again and the station Bryan Brown's character runs is full of life and very nice characters ranging from an umbrella wielding Chinaman to a Helicopter Pilot and even some local Indigenous people who tell tales of magic.

Young Levi Miller who I didn't like in Pan from 2015 redeems himself here as the young boy at the heart of the story while Brown is his usual reliable self even if I kept thinking of him as Rollie Tyler from FX Murder by Illusion and when Jason Isaacs came on screen I thought to myself "Hello to Jason Isaacs."

I will also say however that this movie is not as good as the first film primarily because I felt that the story being told here just wasn't as appealing but it's good natured charm and likeable performances won me over by the time the film ended and I began to stew on it in my mind.

Red Dog True Blue is a fun and likeable time but not as good as the original which virtually saved the Australian Film Industry from oblivion, 2 and a half out of 5.