Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Paper Heart

This is a film that not too many of you will have heard about. It stars Charlyne Yi a comedian/musician who makes a documentary about love. She goes on a journey around America interviewing various people about love, all while trying to have a relationship with Michael Cera.
I had not heard of Charlyne before this film but judging from some of her famous friends she has had some success. We also get to see a little bit of her shows and they look to be very quirky and funny. This is also a good way to describe the film. Most of the film is a documentary but her realionship with Michael Cera is fictional. I suppose in some ways they had to include this to show how she can fall in love with someone even if she may not entirely believe in the concept. But if they tried to do it properly they may have waited a while for her to find 'real' love. The problem with that though is that because she chose an 'actor' like Michael you get the feeling it may not be real. Maybe if they had chosen an unknown actor they might have been able to make it seem more real and maybe pull of that better. Thats not to say it wasn't good, cause it is quite a charming likeable movie. The one aspect I quite enjoyed was the way they depicted peoples love stories using paper models. They were really well done.
A lot of the charm of the film comes from it star Charlyne Yi. She has a cute nerdy quality to her that is very sweet. I'm sure she will find a nice guy to fall in love with her. Michael Cera is also very good. Both however are not all tha convincing in making us think their love affair is real. They are both great actors but I don't think can quite pull off the believablity that their love is real.
The film is showing in a very limited number of cinemas now so you may have to hurry to see it. However if you get the chance to see it on DVD you should check it out. Especially if you like things a little quirky.

The Young Victoria

The British Royal Family has always provided some great stories for film makers to explore. This is the latest and looks at the early life of Queen Victoria.
There is a quote at the beginning of the film that Victoria makes (I'm not sure of the exact words) about how a lot of young girls dream of becoming a Princess but in reality it is not as wonderful as the fairy tales make it. This film should be shown to young girls to show what being a princess is really like. One thing they may not like are the strange protocols Victoria has to go through. Some of which look very silly. What I liked about this film and others like it is all the political mechinations that go on. How one set of people try to influence another and get the best deal done for themselves. I find it all very fascinating. I will admit that some could find it boring as there is very little by way of 'thrills' or 'action'. It is all mostly scenes of people sitting around talking and trying to exert their influence over others. I did also enjoy the romantic aspect of the film and Victoria's love of Prince Albert. The interesting thing being that it is very rare to get a couple whose relationship is pre-arranged actually falling in love. As you expect with these films the sets and costumes are very opulant and look brilliant.
Emily Blunt is certainly proving herself to be an actress that can give an excellent performance in what ever she does. What I liked about her performance here is that she can convey the regalness of being Queen but also how Victoria had a playful side to her as well. Rupert Friend is also emerging as an excellent actor. I quite liked him in this film as a man struggling to give his love and support to Victoria but also show some independence. The rest of the supporting cast are excellent as well. In particular two of my favourite British actors Miranda Richardson and Jim Broadbent. I find it interesting that Jim played Prince Albert in an episode of the TV series 'Black Adder'.
A visually stunnig film about the life of one of the Royal Families most interesting women. It might be for those with a more refined taste or an interest in history.

$9.99

The parade of quality Aussie films continues with this stop-motion animated film, which is a co-production with Israel.
It is interesting how in one year we get two stop-motion animated films coming out of Australia. As you know my favourite film of all time is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' so this form of animation is my favourite. I know there is probably similar effort put into other forms of animation but for me being able to do Stop-motion animation just looks like it would take a lot more patients. Thats why I have a great deal of respect and admiration for those who do it. I don't know what it is but I just liked the whole look ofit too and how they can bring these models to life. For those who don't know this is an ensemble film about the lives of various people living in an apartment building based on the short stories by Etgar Keret. Director Tatia Rosenthal has been able to weave these interesting stories about life very well. In some ways they are very philosophical looks at how people live their lives, look for meaning and deal with love. The thing I most liked was the quality of the models. They had a very interesting look where they looked like 3D paintings. It looked quite beautiful. My favourite story involved a young boy saving up to buy a toy. It was really cute and touching. Be prepared though as the ending is quite weird and shows why they needed to make the film animated.
Tatia has assembled quite an impressive voice cast of famous Aussies for the film. They all do an excellent job and give naturalistic performances. If I had to single one out it would be Samuel Johnson. I really liked his performance.
It is disappointing that animation in films as opposed to TV has mainly focused on making films that are aimed at children. This film proves that excellent animated films can be made for adults.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Balibo

In 2001 director Robert Connolly made the film ‘The Bank’, which I think should be mandatory viewing for all Australians. Now in 2009 he has done it again.
Australia’s relationship with East Timor has been a precarious one. The events of this film depict a very dark time in Australian history and one in which we turned our back on a brave group of men who were trying to highlight an atrocity involving one of our neighbours. I did not know much about these events and the politics involved, but it made me want to read more about it. The story is pretty simple and for those who don’t know is about 5 Australian journalists killed in East Timor during the Indonesian invasion. The film is seen through the eyes of a sixth journalist, Robert East, who is trying to find out what happened to the other 5. The film feels very authentic in its depiction of a nation in turmoil as they await their invaders. No one knowing when they will strike. There are some quite powerful scenes that left me quite emotional.
Anthony LaPaglia is an actor I have a great deal of respect for. Not only because he is a brilliant performer but I like the fact that despite his success in Hollywood he will come home occasionally to make an Aussie film. Anthony once again proves his brilliance with this film. I had not heard of Oscar Isaac before this film but if this is anything to go by he is certainly an actor to watch. The 5 actors who play the reporters that are killed are familiar from TV shows and give excellent performances. I was quite impressed with Nathan Philips who until now has played mainly goofy comedy roles.

The Aussie films this year have been mostly brilliant. This is one of the brilliant ones and should be seen by all Australians to highlight a sad, shameful moment in our history.

Funny People

Judd Apatow is the king of comedy in America at the moment. He has had a huge amount of success, with films he has produced, written and directed. This is his third film as director.
I just don’t get it. Judging by the success he has had I think I’m one of the few people who don’t like Judd Apatow. I think he is highly over rated. I don’t want to say he is a bad director, I just think he is undisciplined. The man just doesn’t know when to say stop. Too many of his films and not just the ones he has directed, are far too long. I didn’t mind it so much in ‘The 40 Year-Old Virgin’ as that managed to come in under 2 hours, but ‘Knocked Up’ and this film were ruined for me because they go on for too long. As a rule in general comedies should go for the shortest time possible, mostly 90 minutes. I will admit that there are exceptions to that rule, but you have to have a story or content worthy of going the extra time. So going into this film I was not expecting to like it and the film did not do anything to make me like it. I will admit there are some funny moments and some of the attempt at drama work well but as a whole the film needed better editing. Especially in the second half of the film which really dragged for me. Judd likes to have his actors improvise scenes but in some instances, like in this film, it makes the story seem aimless.
I always admire actors who are mostly known for comedy who branch out into drama. Adam Sandler is one who has done it on a few occasions, I think, successfully. This film is one that bridges the gap where he is asked to be funny and dramatic and I think he does a good job. There are some very touching moments in the film that Adam handles well. Seth Rogan is another comedian who handles the drama really well. He does not have too many funny moments, except when doing stand-up but he is quite good. Leslie Mann is an actress I have mixed feelings about. In most films she can be quite funny but not in an overwhelming way. Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman make a great comedic duo. The real highlight though was Eric Bana. I’ve been very disappointed that Eric has forgotten his Aussie comedy roots and only chosen to do drama in America. He has denied the Yanks his great comedic abilities. I mentioned before that the second half of the film really dragged, but is was helped made bearable by the brilliant performance of Eric. I hope this chance to do comedy will show him that he should do more of it.
In typical Apatow fashion this is a very long and mostly boring comedy with a hint of drama. I wish there was someone out there who could reign him in a bit and tell him to cut his films down as they could be quite great.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Charlie & Boots

Aussie comedy legend Paul Hogan teams up with a comedy icon from today for a comedy (?) about and estranged father and son trying to reconnect.
You may notice the question mark I put after ‘comedy’ above in describing this film. That’s because in some ways it could be considered a comedy but the problem is that it is all set up with no punch line. You have two great comedic actors in a film but you don’t make it funny. All the potentially funny moments in the film are set up to be funny but didn’t go anywhere. Instead they cut to the next scene. That’s what made the film so frustrating for me is that you get all excited for a funny moment but then goes no where. There are also characters that come into the film that you expect to bring something to it but don’t. An example is a young hitchhiker the guys pick up. You expect her to do something for the story but doesn’t. She even has an interesting back story that’s not used to its full potential. There is only one truly funny moment which comes after the end credits.
I’ve always been a fan of Paul Hogan. His TV show in the 70’s and ‘Crocodile Dundee’ are some of the funniest things this country has produced. However of late I think he has lost his touch. I don’t know if it is the script, as mentioned above, it is just not very funny but Hogan seems to be on auto-pilot in this film. It might just be his character too. But Shane Jacobson seems to look as if he is trying harder to rise above the mediocre nature of the script and give a great performance. There are a couple of great dramatic moments in the film which I think the two of them handle really well. Its just a shame that in what you expect to be a comedy the best moments are dramatic ones.
I think if you go into this film with low expectations and expecting a drama instead of a comedy you might enjoy it more. After a year of great Aussie films its a shame that the years major mainstream release is such a dud.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Soloist

At the end of last year there was buzz for this new film ‘The Solist’. It was supposed to be released in time for the Oscars as it was expected that the two leads would no doubt get nominated. Then at the last minute the film’s released date was changed to early this year. Most felt that the studio had lost faith in the film and I can kind of see why.
I’m not sure if the reason was because it had an almost similar theme to another film released last year, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Both films depict the sad side of humanity in their depiction of poor people. The differences being that ‘Slumdog’ is set in far off India and not on Hollywood’s door step as shown in ‘Soloist’. Also ‘Slumdog’ has a much happier ending (sorry if this is a spoiler).
Personally I have mixed feelings about the film. One the on hand there are some great moments in the film and it has an excellent performance from one of the leads (which I’ll mention later), but as whole the film did not work for me. I understand that Steve was trying to help Nathanial but there was nothing new to the story to make it stand out from all the other films we have seen about people trying to help someone down on their luck. Yes Nathanial’s mental illness is a point of difference but it was not enough for me to make the film interesting. I know the point of the film was to show how the friendship of these two men changed their lives but it was not done in a very interesting way. This is especially disappointing considering the director. Joe Wright did a wonderful job with his last two films, especially ‘Atonement’, but this film is very plain and ordinary compared to that. As mentioned above the film is quite graphic in its depiction of the homeless in Los Angeles. The film becomes a bit too preachy when we get endless shots of homeless people on the street and how bad things are for them.
Jamie Foxx is a brilliant actor and this film proves it once again. I thought he was amazing in this film. I also find it really ironic that after his ‘retard’ speech in ‘Tropic Thunder’ last year that Robert Downey Jnr. did this film. Maybe that had something to do with the studio’s decision to shift the film’s release, so as to distance it from people’s memory of what Robert said. Robert is great in everything he does but I didn’t find hi performance here anything all that great. Jamie had the real meaty work here and kind of over shadowed Robert.The story for me was not cinematic enough to make it worth seeing at the cinema. Maybe wait to see it on DVD. It is worth seeing for Jamie Foxx’s performance but not much else.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

(500) Days Of Summer

One of my favourite genres is the romantic comedy. Because I am writing one myself I try to go and see as many as I can in order to study the conventions of the genre and hopefully make mine a better film. I especially like romantic comedies that are a little different and don’t follow the usual routines and clichés. This is one of them.
This film resonated particularly strongly with me because I’ve gone through a similar situation. I fell in love with a guy but he did not feel the same way about me and only wanted to be friends. He sent me signals that indicated he wanted more but I misinterpreted them as being more than what they were. So I know how Tom feels in this film. You want to do all you can to be with this person and know it can’t be anymore but hope that it can. I enjoyed how the film played around with the chronology of the story. That’s the other aspect that makes this an unconventional movie. I admire how the writers jump around with the story but still make it coherent and understandable. The other highlight of the film for me is the musical number. I like it when they are put in romantic comedies but it feels natural. P.J. Hogan did it brilliantly in ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’. It is done as wonderfully here. I only had one problem with this film and that was the narration. I only had one small problem with the film. One thing you learn in script writing class is that narration is a lazy form of writing. Some films do it well but other can’t. I just felt that here there was a little too much of it in this film.
Ever since he first appeared in the TV series ‘3rd Rock From The Sun’ I’ve been following the career of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I think he is a brilliant actor and I’ve loved him in everything he’s done. This film is no exception. He is excellent at conveying both the extreme joy and the heartbreak of being in love. Zooey Deschanel is another person I’ve admired for a while. She is able to make Summer loveable but not make you want to hate her.

I can no recommend this film enough. A real breathe of fresh air in the romantic comedy genre. This is for those who like their things a little different.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Push

Ever since ‘X-Men’ became a huge hit a few years ago not only has there been an influx of films featuring superheroes but there have been films featuring people with mutant abilities. This film is the latest.
I had pretty low expectations for this film and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The film has an interesting premise and a very exciting plot. I found the twists and turns really good. There are only a couple of problems I had. A few people have commented that they found the film confusing. I don’t entirely agree with this. The problem I have is that there are a lot of different types of people with special powers in the film and so not all are given enough space. It would have been nice to maybe have less ‘types’ of people with special powers or have some of them explained better. You know what’s going on; it’s just that there are not enough details given. However in saying that another problem I had was the film runs a bit too long. There were some scenes that seemed to drag a little bit too long. It could have done better loosing about 10 – 15 mins.
Chris Evans does not really do many note-worthy films, but he is usually the best thing in them. I think he’s quite good at being the cocky hero and he does it well again here. Dakota Fanning is really proving herself as an excellent actress and choosing a diverse range of roles. She has mainly stuck to drama so it would be nice if she did a comedy. This film really shows her growing up. One other disappointment I had was Djimon Hounsou. I think he is a brilliant actor and love him in everything he does but here he is not given all that much to do and so the role is not very worthy of his talents.

An excellent sci-fi thriller that is far better than you might expect. A lot of run to watch but you may get lost in some of the details.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Taking Woodstock

Ang Lee is such a diverse director that he never makes the same type of film twice. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for directors who can do this. I was, however, disappointed with his latest film.
While there were a few interesting elements to the film, as a whole it did not quite work for me. I think it was mainly due to the tone of the film. It looks like it would have worked better as an all out comedy rather than a drama with comedic elements. There are many situations which are set up to be played more for laughs but they chose not to. I’m not all that familiar with the Woodstock festival itself. But the one thing I did like about was the perspective they took to the event. Most would have focused on the artists that played and showed the concert itself but there was a lot going on behind the scenes that was just as interesting. I’m really amazed at how, despite the number of people that turned up, there was very little trouble. At modern concert events you hear of more trouble going on. Maybe the drugs back then made you more mellow compared to the ones taken today.
Performances in the film are mixed. Demitri Martin for me is the weakest considering he is the lead. His character is rather bland. Demitri is supposed to be a comedian and I would have thought they would use his comedic potential considering some of the situations his character gets into. He does though have some wonderful moments with Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman who play his parents. Imelda is her usual brilliant self and Henry is excellent along side her. The other great performance comes from Liev Schreiber. I think he does some of his best work when he is in drag.

Like many reviews I’ve read of this film I think because it was Ang Lee we have very high expectations for this film that are just not met. I suppose every director can not be perfect all the time.

The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3

The hostage drama is a very popular genre in film. We have seen so many of them there kind of needs to be something special about it to make it stand out and be good. Sadly this film does not have it.
To compare it to the last hostage drama to feature Denzel, this film does not have any interesting twists or characters to make it great. It is just very ordinary with the same sort of characters you see in these films. Plus you add to that Tony Scott’s boring directing style and you get a very ordinary film. Tony is using the same quick cut, swinging camera moves for all his films lately and it’s getting old. Sadly I did not get to see the original before I saw this one but I really want to so I can compare them. The story does not look like much has changed except some crazy camera moves.
The other problem I had with the film is the casting. I’m not a fan of Denzel Washington. I don’t think he is as great an actor as everyone says he is, and this film proves it. His character is supposed to be a really ordinary, average guy caught up in a tough situation. But I did not feel that of Denzel. He still came across as the tough hero type he does in all his other films. John Travolta was OK but came across more like he was trying to toughen himself up to make people forget he dressed in drag. I did however like James Gandolfini. He was the only one that made you forget his previous roles and make you believe he could be the mayor of New York.

A nothing special hostage drama that brings nothing new to the genre.

Monday, September 7, 2009

The September Issue

I really like films that show you something you did not know about. The best type of film that does this is documentaries. As long as they are entertaining as well. This film is both.
There have been a couple of TV series like ‘Just Shoot Me’ and ‘Ugly Betty’ which show you behind the scenes of a fashion magazine. But as you expect with that type of thing you don’t get to ‘learn’ much about what really goes on. So that’s what I really enjoyed about this film. You really learn about the goings on at a world famous fashion magazine and all the effort that goes into it. The September issue of Vogue is their biggest of the year so an extra amount of effort goes into it. As you will see from the huge amount of pages it has. I don’t really understand fashion. As those who know me know I don’t exactly dress in a fashionable way. My uniform is usually a movie and /or TV t-shirt and jeans with Timberland boots. I have no idea what looks good and what looks bad. After seeing this film I still don’t really know but I found it interesting to see how people decide on what is and what isn’t fashionable. It was also fascinating to see what goes into fashion shoots. It shows how much effort goes into it and how it all comes out as real wonderful works of art. There were some photos rejected from the issue that I thought looked brilliant.
As many will know Ann Wintour was the inspiration for Meryl Streep’s character in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. It was nice to see that Anna bears very little resemblance to her fictional counter part. Something that this film does that ‘Devil’ didn’t really do was to make Anna seem more human. We get to see Anna with her daughter which to me was one of my favourite parts of the film as you get a much better insight into Anna and who she really is. We learn she is not just a ruthless editor of a fashion magazine. The only similarity I saw Anna’s office looks almost identical to the one Meryl had in ‘Devil’. I also really enjoyed Anna’s second in command Grace Coddington. Grace is a really nice woman who has been in the fashion industry most of her life and despite Anna doing things she does not agree with, Grace still reacts with grace.

This is not a film just for people who are into fashion. You can learn why fashion is so important to a lot of people. An entertaining way to learn about an industry you may not know much about.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Inglourious Basterds

One of the directors I admire that I did not mention on the list above is Quentin Tarantino. Like most people I love ‘Pulp Fiction’ but I also like his other films as well. One of my weaknesses I have in my script writing is dialogue. I can’t seem to get the hang of writing distinctive dialogue and make each character sound different. This is what I love most about Quentin’s movies. Most of his films consist of people sitting around talking which I know most people can find boring but for me when Quentin is writing the dialogue its heaven. I could watch a whole film he’s written that is just two people talking.
‘Inglourious Basterds’ consists mostly of scenes of people sitting around talking but as I said this is what I love. There is a little bit of action but maybe not as much as you’d expect. The one thing you do expect from this action though is that it is quite grisly. Some of these were a bit tough to watch as well. But we all know that Quentin is not above showing us the gory details. The one thing that did surprise me about the film was that the story focuses more on the French and German characters of the film as opposed to the Americans. Considering the film is called ‘Inglourious Basterds’ you would expect to see them more. This was not a negative for me as I like surprises in movies. I can see how some might not like it as Quentin has made it more authentic and the French and German characters speak in their native language so there are quite a lot of subtitles. It always amazes me how these sorts of thing turns people off seeing a film because I see quite a lot of foreign films and have gotten used to reading real quick. The film is kind of a fantasy as well because Quentin has used real life characters from World War II but in a fictional story. This should not matter as it makes you wish the war actually ended this way.
As mentioned above the Inglourious Basterds do not feature as much as expected in this film. That means that although his name is above the title Brad Pitt is not in the film all that much. However when he is I thought he was excellent. I love his attitude in the film and his accent. Just the way he moves his mouth is a joy. I also liked seeing German actors Til Schweiger and Daniel Bruhl who I’ve seen in films before get some attention in A Hollywood film. One of my comedy heroes is Mike Myers. I was however severely disappointed with his last film so it was wonderful to see him do a cameo appearance in this film. I just hope he can do another great film soon. The biggest pleasure though was seeing the breakout performance by Christoph Waltz. I guarantee he will get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this role. Christoph has created a brilliantly evil character that you fall in love with despite the bad things he does. He has a silliness that kind of makes him endearing as he tries to ingratiate himself with the Americans. I also liked the vocal cameos from some of Quentin’s mates.
There have not been too many quality films released lately so it is pleasantly refreshing to see something so great. It’s great to see how well this film is doing and can’t wait to see what Quentin does next.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

An Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog.
My name is Brad and I’m obsessed with movies. When I’m not working at a place that shows them, I’m watching them or trying to write one. My home is decorated completely with movie stuff. One of the advantages of working at a cinema is I get some pretty cool stuff.

One other thing I love to do is talk about movies. I can spend hours talking to friends about movies and love it so much. I love to keep updated as much as I can with what’s going on in the movie world. I read Variety every day to get my confirmed movie news and visit Dark Horizons and Aint It Cool for all the rumours.

The purpose of this blog is to let the world know of my opinion. Many friends and family have said I should do this as I know quite a lot. While I do know quite a lot I don’t know everything. So in this blog I’m going to mostly write reviews on the films that I go see at the cinema. Now I don’t go see ‘everything’, there are simply not enough hours in the day and plus there are some films I’d prefer to avoid. For my international readers, I live in Australia so sometimes films do not get released here at the same time as the rest of the world so my reviews might not come out at the same time as your viewing.

As for my taste: I like to think that I have a wide ranging taste in movies. While I prefer comedies, I like other types of films as well. I will say that while my taste has matured over the years I can still go see something dumb and silly. I tend to go for darker stuff, my favourite type of comedies are the dark ones.

I’ve mentioned above that I’m also trying to write movies. I’ve written first drafts of two films, a treatment for a third, I’ve then got plans for another two (a book adaptation and an animated film). I love to write and hope to make a career out of it. I’ve had a short film of mine made which got entered into Tropfest 2009 but sadly did not make the finals. It did however mean I got my name into IMDB so I’m pretty proud of that. So if there are any producers out there reading this that need a writer please let contact me. Because of this I tend to analyse films more from the writing angle. I’ve done script writing courses so I know what to look for in a film’s writing that makes it good and bad. However in saying that I can appreciate the other elements of film making too. I’ve been able to work on a couple of film sets and while most people think it is all boring with the endless set ups and so forth I love watching how things all come together, I find it fascinating. This is another plea for work, if anyone reading this can give me work on a film set I’m willing to do ANYTHING! I’ve done work as a runner before and can send a resume to anyone who asks.

My favourite filmmakers tend to be writers but I do have some favourite directors and actors too. Some of my favourite writers are: Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Kaufman, Alan Ball, The Zucker Brothers, Joss Whedon, Richard Curtis, Mel Brooks and Monty Python. These are just a few of the ones I can think of right now. There are many more I love and will point them out in the reviews I write. My all time favourite director is Tim Burton. Others I admire are: David Zucker, Terry Gilliam, Henry Selick, Sam Mendes, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, The Coen Brothers and Stephen Soderbergh. Again there are many others I like but can’t think of right now.

Now for my Top 10. This is a list of my Top 10 favourite films of all time. These are the ones I love so much that I can’t stop watching them. They’ve not changed much over the years and I hope they don’t put you off reading my blog.
1. The Nightmare Before Christmas
2. Monty Python & The Holy Grail
3. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
4. The Naked Gun
5. American Beauty
6. Romeo + Juliet
7. The Iron Giant
8. Shaun Of The Dead
9. War Of The Roses
10. Death Becomes Her

Well that’s it for the introduction, I hope I’ve not put you off. This blog will mostly be reviews but I will post comments on movie news, trailers and opinions about things going on the world of movies. I hope you like it and please leave comments so I know what you think. Feel free to disagree with me. While I prefer everyone to like what I do it’s nice to see the other side of things.Let the fun begin.