Another Earth - Review

A young girl crashes her car head-on into a family of 3 and a half after a drunken night of celebrating being accepted into college. The crash kills both the mother and her son in the car, as well as the unborn child in the woman's body, leaving John (William Mapother), a composer and lecturer at Yale and Rhoda (Brit Marling), the young girl, as the sole survivors of the accident. After four years in a prison, and the uncovering of a planet identical to Earth in that time, Rhoda is released, and finds out who the other survivor of the crash is, with the intention of confessing her crime to him and apologising. When her courage defies her and she struggles to articulate her confession, an unlikely bond forms between the pair.

Another Earth is an extremely strong debut from director Mike Cahill, focusing on the character of Rhoda, and the effects that the one mistake she made as a teenager has permanently on her life, the film deals with extremely dark and thought provoking themes, giving the impression that it was made under the control of an experienced director, not a virgin to the feature film. The discovery and uncovering of the second planet in the film serves beautifully as a metaphor for the journey of self exploration that Rhoda is undergoing, the mirrored actions of the two worlds force characters to accept the fact that they may possibly have to come into contact with.. themselves. The awakening of this idea regarding the type of person the characters would like to see in comparison to, perhaps, the version of themselves in which they currently are is one of the most important aspects of the film and definitely the most transcending, for me. Solidified by (spoiler alert) Rhoda meeting her mirrored self at the end of the film, the last image we see being the two versions of her looking at each other, Cahill definitely chose to highlight the importance of this idea both inside the diegesis and outside.

A story of deceit, regret, love and tragedy, the film is an exciting example of the wonders that are capable from debut directors and a true credit to modern independent cinema. The film has received critical acclaim, winning the Special Jury prize at the 2011 Sundance film festival, and quite rightly so, the film boasts a thematically strong script, and complemented by the raw acting talent of Brit Marling, the film is flies by. I was strongly engaged in the relationship between Rhoda and John, the characters were both so obviously scarred from the incident four years ago, and the tense conversations were so naturally performed that I forgot about the science fiction element going on outside the house and was engulfed in the realism that the relationship was presenting.
Brilliantly tugging all of my emotional strings simultaneously, this film presents the viewer with a journey that doesn't end with the closing credits, beautifully written and beautifully shot, the film shows a lot of potential for the young director and stars involved.

Annie Hall Review

Annie Hall is often considered to be Woodie Allen's best work. It revolves around the rocky relationship between Alvy Hall, played by Allen, and Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton. We see the couple live their day to day life in New York, take a trip to Los Angeles and... not much else, really.

It appears to me that the film was missing a plot. The film feels like a collection of home videos thrown together in chronological order, and although interesting to watch, there is a sense of emptiness about the whole film, especially once the ending is revealed. This lack of story is almost mimicked in Annie Hall's lack of ability to connect with Alvy on an intellectual level. It appears that as we are watching the film, and realising that a good plot is vital in sustaining an audience's attention, Alvy is realising that intellect in a partner is vital in sustaining a relationship and understanding a pessimist such as himself. Perhaps the intellect is in the script of a film, and if so, Allen chose a beautiful way to get across his message, however, as the film was originally intended to be a murder mystery but the idea got dropped last minute, it seems to me that this is not the case.

Don't get me wrong, the film was enjoyable to watch, perhaps due to the fact that it only runs for an hour and a half, and the quirky character of Alvy is hilariously easy to relate to. His exaggerated misanthropist opinions make for great comedy, and nobody I can think of would fit the role of Alvy more than Woody Allen himself. We listen to him and relate to what he is saying, be it through his bluntly honest opinions on Sylvia Plath, and the 'college generation' readers of her poetry, his opinions of the two states of being, the miserable and the horrible,  or his flashback to his school days.

The most interesting feature of the film is the way it shows its awareness of the differences between the film world and the real world. Alvy actually states "If only this was real life" to the camera, and frequently turns, breaking the fourth wall, and showing us his feelings, he is aware that he is only a character in a film, it appears. We see him visit his school class back in the days when he was a student, with him, a fully grown man, sitting at his desk and arguing with the teacher, and also taking Annie and Rob back to his childhood home, in a time where his parents are arguing and there is a party going on. Allen is aware of the possibilities of the film form and uses them interestingly and engagingly.

The camerawork of the film is remniscent of indie cinema. The use of natural lighting, off-screen space and sometimes handheld camerawork allows us to feel that New York is not the concrete jungle that sits thousands of miles away, but a reachable place that contains people just like those from our own towns and cities. Split screens are used for comparisons and superimposition is used to represent Annie's lack of mental interest in sex, the technicalities of the film are done very straight forwardly, which works, I don't think it was Allen's goal to achieve any groundbreaking technical work on this film, he wanted to create memorable characters, and that he did.

I did really like this film, the performances were brilliant and a definite highlight for me. The film collected awards upon awards at the Oscars and the BAFTAs back in 1977, and for a reason, an extremely quirky romantic comedy with laugh out loud scenes, this film is hilarious and a pleasure to watch.