Showing posts with label dvd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dvd. Show all posts
Monday, 23 April 2012
Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy ★★★★☆
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Jitters ★★★☆☆
For all intensive purposes, Baldvin Zophoníasson's Jitters (Órói, 2010) seems like little more than an Icelandic interpretations of Channel 4's Skins - a coming of age drama full of rambunctious adolescent misbehaviour. However, whilst easy to pigeon-hole as a piece of teenage cultural trash, if you give Zophoníasson's nuanced film an opportunity you’ll discover a powerfully emotive and honest insight to the harrowing journey adolescence can be.
Upon returning home from a summer language school in Manchester, Gabriel (Atli Oskar Fjalarsson) discovers not much has changed in his sleepy hometown, however, the same could not be said for this newly liberated young man who now carries a heavy secret around his neck. It weighs on his conscious whilst become infuriatingly noticeable to his over controlling mother - an overbearingly smothering matriarch who it appears is prepared to go to great and often embarrassing lengths to reveal the origins of her son’s new found fondness for solitude and privacy.
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The Portuguese Nun ★★★★☆
Leonor Baldaque stars in Eugene Green's The Portuguese Nun (2009), an unconventional adaptation of the 17th century text Letters of a Portuguese Nun - a collection of love notes which begin passionately before slowly filtering through varying conflicts of faith, feelings of despair and eventually tragedy.
French actress Julie (Baldaque) arrives in Lisbon to film a costume drama based on the aforementioned novel. She plays the titular nun, with her only other co-star playing the French naval officer who whisks her off her feet. She's already recorded the dialogue back home in Paris and all that remains is to shoot the visuals which will accompany her monologue, giving her plenty of down time to become acquainted with the city - leading to a series of bizarre, yet eye-opening encounters with various similarly lost souls.
Using the same epistolary format of its source material, The Portuguese Nun successfully feels like a collection of various episodes gentle sewn together to create one whole. It's remarkable to observe the film's protagonist slowly evolve into the character she's there to become, and thanks to this fractured approach Green is allowed to explore the novel's numerous themes without ever escaping the film's frame narrative of an isolated actress on a journey of self discovery
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Las Acacias ★★★★☆
Winner of the Sutherland award at this year’s London Film Festival as well as the prestigious Camera D’or at Cannes, Pablo Giorgelli’s slow burning road movie, Las Acacias is an inventive, yet low key affair which whilst lacking in engaging dialogue is bustling with intriguing character development.
Truck driver Ruben’s (German de Silva) life is an isolated one, working long solitary shifts transporting timber from Paraguay to Argentina. He has agreed to carry a passenger across the border with him, a middle aged woman by the name of Jainta (Hebe Duarte) who’s searching for work in Buenos Aries. However, when she arrives to meet him at the rendezvous she’s accompanied by her five month old baby – something Ruben wasn’t expecting. Despite his reluctance to transport this screaming infant he agrees to take them both anyway – maybe out of a sense of decency or just to ensure he doesn’t spend another long haul trip alone.
Both characters begin as incredibly secretive individuals, sharing little in the way of conversation within the claustrophobic confines of Ruben’s truck’s cabin. However, despite the sparse dialogue, as the scenery passes them by and the miles on the clock increase they slowly start to open up to one another. This slow peeling away of these densely layered individuals builds a palpable degree of intrigue that’s seems foreign compared to the film languid pace and calculated approach.
Surprisingly its not the relationship between Ruben and Jainta that drives the film forward but rather the Baby (Anahi) who is the primary narrative device here. Her adorable youthful charms – especially how she begins to mimic Ruben’s expressions and actions – are what break this solemn lorry driver’s rigid fixation with the job at hand and slowly distracts from the mundane rituals of his life – a striking metaphor for how consumed our society is by working and how little time we take to enjoy the world around us.
Certainly not to everyone’s tastes, the tension which builds between the film’s two central characters fails to ignite in away that will reward those who can’t see past the tedium of being a backseat passenger to this monotonous journey through South America, however Las Acacias is a pensive character study which demands your patience if it’s to be truly enjoyed. Whilst the audience is given little in the way of details, it’s clear that these two lost souls share a connection and whilst there’s no Hollywood test of their budding relationship through some hyperbolic sentimental lesson at the end of their journey, what your left with is a deeply personal and effecting tale that resonates which much more gravitas.
Las Acacias is a leisurely paced, yet densely layered character piece that belies its simplistic facade – a beautifully constructed and naturally evolving tale that has a heart of gold behind its gritty exterior.
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
The Yellow Sea ★★★★☆
Director Na Hong-jin's 2009 debut The Chaser, along with the works of Joon-ho Bong, Park Chan-wook and Kim Ji-woon helped thrust the South Korean movie industry into the consciousness of Western audiences. However, a recent spate of mediocre and uninspired genre films has started to flood the market, threatening to stunt this Eastern revolution. Thankfully Hong-jin's The Yellow Sea (2010) is an original and intense revenge thriller that looks set to breathe new life into a stagnant industry.
Kim Gu-nam (Ha Jung-woo) is a taxi driver struggling to make a living in the Yanbian - a Korean populated region which borders Russia, China and North Korea. Those who live in the area are known as 'Joseonjoks' - a derogatory term given by those in South Korean as many of these Yanbian natives end up fleeing the region to find work in the south. Gu-nam's wife is one of these illegal immigrants; however he’s failed to hear from her since her departure - lumbered with the 60000 Yuan debt acquired for her visa and seemingly unable to pay it back to the vicious loan sharks who follow his every move.
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Thursday, 23 February 2012
The Student Comedies (BFI Ozu Collection) ★★★★☆
The Student Comedies consist of four incredibly rare films by the acclaimed Japanese director Yasujirô Ozu. This lovingly restored collection is part of the BFI's ongoing venture to release all 32 of the surviving films he made for the Shochiku Studio. This 2-disc box set finally brings Ozu's student-themed silent comedies to DVD for the first time - including a newly commissioned score by composer Ed Hughes.
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Monday, 6 February 2012
Midnight in Paris ★★★★☆
Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams play Gil and Inez, an engaged couple who couldn’t be any more different. They’re in Paris to enjoy a holiday of sightseeing and shopping before their impending wedding – but the underlying romance of the city soon begins to magnify their dramatically different life perspectives.
Gil is a self confessed ‘Hollywood Hack’ who dreams of breaking away from writing formulaic blockbuster screenplays and finish his novel, Inez, on the other hand is a materialistic women, brought up by status obsessed parents and unable to understand Gil’s new found obsession with the idealistic Parisian lifestyle he’s rapidly become besotted with.
The cracks of their relationship begin to rapidly reveal themselves when Gil – on a midnight stroll through Paris whilst Inez goes dancing with her unbearably pretentious friend Paul (Michael Sheen) – discovers a old 1920′s car which seamlessly transports him back in time and into a series of choice encounters with some of histories most renowned literary and artistic legends – including Scot Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Picasso.
It’s these deliciously nostalgic vignettes of 20′s Paris which transform Midnight in Paris from a wry anti-romantic comedy into a shamelessly enjoyable experience. Whilst it may all be undeniably outlandish, self-absorbed and clearly milking its romanticised vision of the past, Midnight in Paris never feels overly contrived – with Allen’s well harnessed ‘tongue-in-cheek’ approach successfully pulling us in to Gil’s magical excursions.
Whilst Midnight in Paris is by far Allen’s best work of the last ten years it still suffers from the usual problems which generally accompany this much loved director. Despite some eye catching performances by Marion Coltiard and McAdams, Allen’s women are all very thinly drawn, appearing as either obstacles or muses and little else. However, in his decision to cast Owen Wilson as his main protagonist he has successfully found someone to take over his usual preference to star in front of, as well as behind the camera. Wilson’s idiosyncratic demeanour is wonderfully reminiscent of seventies
Woody Allen making him the perfect actor to replicate this director’s distinctive style.
Midnight in Paris is a wonderful piece of escapist drama, that through it’s deluded protagonist leads us on a fascinating journey of self discovery – and whilst we the audience may choice to position ourselves as far away as possible from Allen’s incredibly self-obsessed characters, it becomes difficult not to become completely fascinated with their whimsical encounters and activities
Saturday, 4 February 2012
One Day ★★★☆☆
Based on David Nicholls’ eponymous novel and directed by An Education’s Lone Scherfig, One Day is a heartbreaking romance that spans over twenty years and stars Christopher Nolan’s future Catwoman, Anne Hathaway alongside Jim Sturgess (Heartless, Upside Down).
Emma (Hathaway) and Dexter (Sturgess) meet in Edinburgh during the early hours of St Swithin’s Days. They’re celebrating their graduation with friends and get left together once their acquaintances begin pairing off for the night. Dexter kindly offers to walk Emma home, leading to a drunken get together which looks set to explode into a physical relationship. However, their sexual encounter is aborted when Dexter- tired of waiting for Emma to ‘prepare’ herself – is caught trying to sneak out. After an awkward conversation Dexter stays but the two decide to become ‘just friends’ – resulting in a complex friendship based on the foundations of an unconsummated attraction and hindered by a sense of ‘What could have been’.
What follows is two separate, yet interweaving narratives which tell the stories of Emma and Dexter’s lives. As the pair gets older their lives take very different paths, however, Emma’s letters and poems to Dexter keep them in touch, whilst his late night drunken phone calls are evidence that he still holds her very close to his heart. As the years go by the two meet at key moments of their lives, slowly dismantling the self imposed obstacles which separate them and quickly realising that they belong together.
One Day’s most endearing feature is how brilliantly it depicts the constantly changing dynamic of Emma and Dexter’s relationship. When one is up, inevitably the other is down, whether it be Dexter enjoying his hedonistic lifestyle as a late night TV presenter whilst Emma toils away in one of London’s grimiest Mexican restaurants, or when She finally becomes a published writer whilst Dexter struggles to cope with his slump into depression – caused by his crumbling career, dependency on drugs and his failed marriage. Whilst admittedly they’re all very ’1st world problems’ and unlikely to evoke much sympathy from many viewers, it’s how Emma and Dexter fight past these unavoidable obstacles to eventually find each other which makes the film’s final act so harrowing.
Another remarkable element of Scherfig’s One Day is its delightfully accurate setting. Using pre-millennium London as the backdrop for the majority of the film’s action, One Day takes us through a nostalgic step back into the horrors of the nineties – complete with all its detestable florescent clothing and quintessentially English humour.
Where One Day does show signs of inadequacy is with the casting of it two lead roles. Sturgess manages to depict the loveable rogue characteristics of Dexter very well – yet whilst it’s admirable that we remain hopeful his destitute years will swiftly pass, Sturgess is far more successful at making Dexter seem vile and detestable than he is in convincing us that he has a heart of gold hidden behind his hideous late night TV presenter facade.
Hathaway’s performance is however a much more complex facet to critique. Whilst appearing warm and incredibly loveable – dealing with the emotional core of her role admirably well, her accent does need to be addressed. Aiming to portray a Yorkshire accent, she all too often fails to hit the right notes – making it all too apparent when she does and thus amplifying her previous failed attempts. It’s a shame that so much hard work is undone by one miniscule, yet incredibly noticeable flaw, however, anything which so starkly removes the audience from the film’s narrative deserves to be mentioned.
All in all, One Day is an incredibly accomplished romance which successfully manages to tell its wide ranging story without ever losing its audience’s attention. Adapting a love story which crosses numerous years is no mean feat and whilst nowhere near perfect, One Day remains a stunningly assured attempt at a monumental challenge.
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Eliminate: Archie Cookson ★★★☆☆
Archie Cookson (Rhys) is a clumsy and naive government linguistic spy whose penchant for red wine has steadily resulted in a decrease in the quality and content of his work. Estranged from his aristocratic wife and their incredibly intelligent son, Archie's life is a far cry from the adventure and excitement of most movie spies. One fateful day he's handed two mysterious tapes that just so happen to contain some highly incriminating information. His procession of these incredibly secretive tapes leaves him in a precarious position and totally out of his depth, resulting in Archie becoming a wanted man and fleeing from his one time friend, Ennis (Ritter) whilst also attempting to reconcile the numerous issues with his wife and son.
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Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Melancholia ★★★★☆
Lars von Trier's most accomplished movie since 2003's Dogville was sadly overshadowed by the controversy this constantly provocative director evoked at last year's Cannes Film Festival, with the praise it deserved sadly diluted by his remarkably thoughtless remarks. This is a huge shame, as not only does Melancholia (2011) boast an award-winning star turn by Kirsten Dunst (in a career best performance), but was also one of last year's most aesthetically pleasing films.
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Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Whisper of the Heart ★★★★☆
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki's former protege Yoshifumi Kondo (who sadly died before he could succeed Miyazaki), 1995 film Whisper of the Heart, much like Isao Takahata's masterpiece Only Yesterday, is a lovingly crafted and well observed story about adolescent self discovery - and to this day remains one of the most remarkable films produced by Studio Ghibli.
The Big Picture ★★★☆☆
The Big Picture (2010) sees director Eric Lartigau attempt to adapt Douglas Kennedy's US-based novel of the same name within a French setting. Considering the wealth of well-made thrillers to emerge from the French film industry, it seems like the perfect environment in which to tackle Kennedy's prose. Starring current French heartthrob Romain Duris, The Big Picture is a film built around its multi-layered protagonist, which likes to ask many questions - but which answers very few.Monday, 9 January 2012
In a Better World ★★★★☆
Ever since capturing last year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, In a Better World (2010) has found its painterly presented tale of morality come under a lot of scrutiny. However, Susanne Bier's strikingly beautiful film deserves to be viewed separately from the buzz surrounding its prestigious award and be observed for what it is - a powerful domestic drama played out on a epic scale, with two of the most assured child performances of the year courtesy of Markus Rygaard and William Jøhnk Nielsen.
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Sunday, 8 January 2012
Cell 211 ★★★★☆
Deservedly joining the ranks of other such fascinating penal system dramas as; Hunger, A Prophet and The Escapist, (which also chose to use the judicial incarceration of criminals as the basis of their powerful character studies), Daniel Monzon’s eight time Goya winner Cell 211 is a fraught and exhilarating prison thriller which stars Alberto Ammann and Luis Tosar.
Cell 211 tells the story of two very different men thrust into an unconventional union during a fierce prison riot. Juan (Ammann) is a newly recruited prison guard who admirably comes into work a day early to get a head start on his upcoming duties. His pregnant wife believes he’s being too diligent, yet so desperate to impress is Juan that he ignores her and heads to the maximum security prison that’ll soon become his workplace. During his induction a skirmish breaks out, resulting in Juan becoming injured and left in an empty cell by his future co-workers so that they can selfishly flee for safety. A full blown riot follows, organised by renowned inmate Malamadre (Tosar), a man of intimidating physical strength whose known history as a psychopathic killer has made him the natural leader of this group of dangerous reprobates. Once he regains consciousness Juan quickly realises that if he’s to survive he must endeavour to appear to be one of these felons, resulting in a tense and absorbing series of events which soon escalate past the point of no return –creating a fascinating game of false identities and survival against a suffocating atmosphere of fear and anxiety
Monzon has successfully created a pulse racing, angry piece of genre cinema, complete with a frantic pace and the right balance of twists and turns to keep its audience engrossed throughout. Despite its shallow and misguided attempt to add a dark political edge to the proceedings (which feels like it’s done out of necessity rather than an intended pieces of satire), the intoxicating degree of black humour and adrenaline fuelled action keeps things’ captivating – from the moment the first punch is pulled, to its gun slinging finale, Cell 211 is anything but boring.
Cell 211’s prison setting feels both claustrophobic and gruesome, yet remains incredibly intriguing, like a secretive world we can’t pull our eyes away from. Creating a superb microcosm of a society built on raw immoral human behaviour, Cell 211 presents a horrifying insight into the flexibility of our self imposed ethics, and the devastating potential of mankind. This is only amplified by Monzon’s decision to compromise the film’s hero, pushing Juan to perform the most heinous of actions and in turn adding gravitas to the film’s sense of unease – slowly leaving us (like most of these inmates), unsure of whom we can trust.
There are some narrative flaws which prevent Cell 211 from becoming the necessary pieces of social drama many have claimed it to be. On reflection the film’s numerous incomprehensible scenes (many of which defy the laws of logic), grate slightly, whilst the film’s blossoming relationship between Malamadre and Juan is completely implausible, yet thanks to some assured direction Monzon prevents the film from becoming completely derailed into the ridiculous. Cell 211 feels like a film constantly about to boil over into the absurd; however, Monzon never gives the audience time to contemplate the feasibility of the onscreen action thanks to some stylish camera work and an over reliance on sharp, frantic cuts.
Cell 211 is a gripping and wholeheartedly enjoyable thriller which never lets its electrifying pace drop for a second. Stuffed fuller than a plump Christmas Turkey with tension and excitement Monzon’s testosterone fuelled prison drama is a perfect piece of high octane, escapist viewing that whilst not the socially important drama it intends to be, makes for a riveting piece of entertainment.
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
A Lonely Place to Die ★★★☆☆
Combining the adrenaline-fuelled pursuits of abseiling and mountain climbing with the heart-pounding tension of a horror flavoured thriller, director Julian Gilbey's A Lonely Place to Die (2011) attempts to meld these exhilarating aspects into an exciting survival drama. Starring Melissa George, Ed Speleers and Sean Harris, A Lonely Place to Die was distinguished enough to be chosen as the closing night film for this year's Film4 FrightFest - an impressive honour to be bestowed upon any home-grown horror film.
Set in the remote Scottish Highlands, we join five mountaineers on what appears to be a well deserved break from their mundane domestic lives. It's unclear just how close these five strangers are but it soon becomes apparent they'll have to work together if their trip is to go ahead as planned. After a brief scare whilst attempting to ascend a rather tricky slope, the group decide that the next day they'll be less daring and travel across the countryside to a more manageable climb, where the visibility isn't hampered by the rolling Scottish mist.
Thursday, 22 December 2011
A Seperation ★★★★★
Earlier you'll have noticed I managed to get the remarkable How I Ended Last Summer into Subtitled Online's top 50 World cinema releases of 2011. Well the same happend again for A Seperation:
“Winner of this year’s BBC4 World Cinema Award, A Separation has everything you could wish for from a film – wonderful performances, remarkable direction and a thoroughly gripping narrative which drags you through a range of emotions.” (Patrick Gamble)
Read the full list here
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
How I Ended This Summer ★★★★★
I managed to get the incredible How I Ended This Summer into Subtitled Onlines top 50 World Cinema Releases of 2011. Without giving too much away, I can assure you it'll feature quite highly in my end of year list (coming later this month)
“A wonderfully tense and exhilarating exploration of solitude and isolation. The desolate Arctic landscape almost steals the spotlight from two of the most remarkable performances of the year.” (Patrick Gamble)
Read the article here
Monday, 5 December 2011
The Interrupters ★★★★☆
Last month saw the release of the longlist for the forthcoming Best Documentary Oscar at next year's Academy Awards. Controversy soon followed as it transpired that not only had Asif Kapadia's remarkable film Senna (2010) been excluded from the list, but so too had Steven James' critically acclaimed and fascinating 2011 documentary The Interrupters, an inspiring film which follows the turbulent activities of Chicago's 'violence interrupters' across the course of a year in the city's notorious Englewood borough.
Monday, 28 November 2011
Poetry ★★★★☆
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| " Poetry is a superbly well crafted story that flows as elegantly as its namesake" |
The intensity of language and the beauty it conveys are visually explored in Chang-dong Lee's Poetry (2010), a film which manages to fashion the vividly imaginative nature of a poem, against a narrative saturated with themes of human misery and which includes a breathtaking performance from one of South Korea's most revered actresses – Jeong-hie Yun.
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Saturday, 26 November 2011
Horrible Bosses ★★☆☆☆
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| "it’s ultimately a stupid, childish and completely forgettable film which entertains only mildly more than its irritates" |
Boasting a cast of American sitcom luminaries such as; Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Jenifer Aniston (Friends) and Jason Sudeikis (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live), Seth Gordon’s Horrible Bosses is yet another Hollywood foray into the realms of frat-comedy.
Nick (Bateman) is a financial trader who’s playing the long game. He’s spent his working life taking crap in order to slowly rise up the ranks, however, his life has become a miserable and degrading one, with the constant mockery of his vicious and manipulative boss, Mr Harken (Kevin Spacey), beginning to take its toll. Nick reaches boiling point when the promotion he was assured would be his falls through, with Harken enveloping the role and its lucrative salary.
Nick’s long time friends, Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) are also in similar predicaments. Kurt enjoyes an almost father-son relationship with his mentor and boss (Jack Pellit, played by Donald Sutherland) but when he suddenly dies from an unexpected heart attack, Kurt’s left working for Pellit’s son, a jealous, unbearably crude, cokehead (Colin Farrell) – a thoroughly detestable man with a horrendous comb-over and an unrelenting hunger for Asian prostitutes. Dale completes this disenfranchised trio, yet somehow his friends fail to see the problem behind his work issues. He’s a dental assistant plagued by the sexual advances of his dirty talking, nymphomaniac boss Dr Harris (Aniston), who seems intent on sullying his relationship with his fiancé.
Due to the current financial crisis they feel trapped within their jobs, with the only feasible escape route apparently the murder of their respective bosses. None of this naive troupe have any experience in this field, so decide to hunt down a hitman. Their trip across to the other side of the tracks leads them to a rather hapless ‘murder consultant’ (Jamie Foxx) who decides their best course of action would be to adopt a Strangers on a Train approach and kill each other’s bosses. However, things don’t go according to plan and a series of botched surveillance operations lead the film’s ill-fated protagonists into a spiraling web of criminal activity
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