Elysium - Review

In this futuristic sci-fi directed by Neill Blomkamp, the earth has become diseased and over-populated, leading to the rich boarding shuttles to a man-made space station orbiting earth named Elysium, where diseases can be cured in a heartbeat and a life of luxury is lived by all inhabitant, whilst the poor have to live in poverty and diseased on Earth. Max (Matt Damon) is a factory line worker who hasn't had the best past, trouble with the police has made him a target for both the security guard robots on Earth and also his boss. When one day, Max is directly exposed to radiation in the factory, he is told he has five days to live. In his mind, he has five days to get to Elysium, and this film follows his journey to do just that.

With a plot that features space ships, space stations and robots as recurring characters, Elysium shows off our ability to create truly believable environments through CGI and watching the film excited me regarding the potential of both our current films and also the future of cinema. Earth in the film sees endless tall buildings and crowds of people in a dusty and unclean environment, a chilling reminder of our current population problems and rich/poor divides and an exaggerated portrayal of them being our ruin as a race. Humorous at parts and full of action, the film is just as exciting and enjoyable as it is eerily creepy, with parts reminiscent of a video game, the fight scenes are amazing, Blomkamp presents us with unique angles and ways of showing the action, capturing the audiences attention and making the experience a thrilling one, as opposed to one that gets lost among all the other fight scenes we've ever watched.

The character of Kruger (Sharlto Copley) is presented as a genuinely scary, psychopathic villain. His introduction as a hooded man working undercover on Earth gives him a veiled background and allows our imagination to create our own dark beginnings for the character. His face being destroyed and rebuilt by the technology on Elysium makes him seem almost invincible, that behind all of this technology that is causing disruption and unfairness, there are also terrible humans. Matching Max's strengthened outfit, we feel that Kruger is a genuine threat to our hero's journey and the fight scene between the two near the end of the film was one of my favourite moments. Whilst on the topic of the bad guys, Jodie Foster plays an awful member of the Elysium council, allowing death to happen all around her without her batting an eyelid. Blomkamp has villains sussed out in this film, with the combination of robots and humans, the threat is ever present, seaming the film together with an overwhelming sense of tension throughout.

Outside of the obvious themes, questions are raised regarding our quick technological advancements. The idea that if we were able to simple cure diseases, there would be an injustice, is raised, surely the rich would be entitled to a better service, widening the gap between the poor and the well off and resulting in injustice towards those with little money. A lot of political thoughts came to me after watching this film, it's portrayal of a society gone corrupt enabled me to question for myself the direction in which our world is heading. The scariest part of watching sci-fi films is that elements of truth may be involved, this film is well thought out, beautifully written and oh, so thought provoking. The acclaimed director of District 9 does not disappoint with this wonderful follow up.

Frankenweenie - Review

In Tim Burton's 2012 adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel, Frankenstein, Frankenweenie tells of a young boy, Victor, who, after his dog dies, finds a way to bring him back to life, when his classmates find out of his endeavours, they plan to discover how he did it, steal his idea and win the science fair. All does not go to plan and chaos is let loose on the town of New Holland, it's up to Victor and his dog, Sparky, to save the day.

German expressionism is a clear influence for a lot of the scenes in this film, being highly stylised and released in black and white, the film incorporates features of the 1920s movement so effortlessly giving it a dated feel although it is 3D stop motion animation which uses highly advanced technology. The constant use of shadows for dramatic effect and characters looking extremely pale with dark eyes portrays beautifully the gothic roots of the story, with Shelley being one of the most prominent authors of gothic literature, and also cements it stylistically as a 'Tim Burton film', with dark visuals and peculiar creatures becoming common features of the auteur's work.

The characters of this animated feature are brought to life with as much realism as any non-animated feature achieves, the movement of the animals in particular is something which struck me as masterfully done. The characterisation is brilliant meaning that the ending is emotionally engaging, for a moment we forget we are watching a digitally created image and connect with the story and characters of this fictional town, even when we are looking at stitched up dogs, cats combined with bats and giant sea monkeys, the film never strikes you as something false, instead it instantly makes use of the your imagination, suspending your disbelief almost without you realising it. The visuals and narrative combined make for a whimsical nightmare that you don't want to wake up from.

Tim Burton's extensive knowledge on film is shown in many subtle references throughout Frankenweenie, be it the creation of a giant lizard destroying the town reminding us of Godzilla, Sparky's love interest poodle donning the hairstyle of Valerie Hobson in The Bride of Frankenstein or even a direct reconstruction of Nosferatu's shadow climbing up the stairs. The references add an element of fun to a crazy plot, allowing audience members a moment to appreciate the influences that these iconic films have on modern cinema.
Frankenweenie is dark, dangerous and decadent, Tim Burton shows his experience in the animation field and lets his competition know he isn't about to step down any time soon. Frankenweenie contains everything you could want in an animated film, the excitement never stops. With quirky characters and an idea that only Tim Burton could write, this Oscar nominated feature is truly wonderful.

Reviewing Recent Trailers

Every so often I like to make a post about upcoming films, sharing interesting trailers and discussing my opinion on how I think the film will be. This is one of those posts.

Film: Parkland

Directed by: Peter Landesman

UK release date: 8th November

Being Landesman directorial debut, Parkland looks like it could be one of the less hyped films to look out for in Hollywood this year. Based on the shooting of JFK, the film follows in the footsteps of some of the most talked about films of 2012, ones based on real life events, with films such as Argo, Zero Dark Thirty & Lincoln all basing their narratives on real events, and all getting Best Picture nominations at the Oscars, Parkland seems to be an interesting look at the effects of the shooting on a variety of people including a photographer and a doctor.

Film: Pompeii

Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson

UK release date: 28th February (2014)

Although the film is released a while away, the hype for it is huge. The trailer for this historical action film doesn't really give much away, but it tells of a young man's journey to save his lover and his friend in the days leading up to Mt. Vesuvius' eruption. With the eruption of the volcano being evident simply in the film's title, I think that Pompeii has the capacity for a huge build up of tension and excitement throughout, and with a lot of fans of Kit Harington due to his success on Game of Thrones already on board with the film, the film should see a lot of sell out cinemas over the opening weekend.

Film: The Book Thief

Directed by: Brian Percival

UK release date: 31st January (2014)

Based on a massively popular historical fiction novel, The Book Thief has amassed thousands upon thousands of fans over the years of it's publication, with it set to hit the big screen in a few months time, the adaption will be highly anticipated by many, and as all adaptations are, highly criticised by many. The trailer looks interesting and without giving too much of the story away, possibly to encourage book sales until the movie's release, looks like it is set to be a poignant and heartbreaking story of a young girl caught up in the destructiveness of World War 2 Germany. 

Film: Her

Directed by: Spike Jonze

UK release date: 31st January (2014)

Genuinely looking to be one of the most interesting films to come out in a long time, the trailer for Her is so capturing that I feel it is needed on this list. The plot looks to intriguing and saddening, the cast is filled with some of the most terrific actors and actresses around at the moment and the style seems so delicate and pure. If you go and see one film a year, go and see this film, I have really, really high hopes and I know that it will be brilliant.

Mister Lonely - Review

Ever since one of my favourite films of the year, Spring Breakers, came to my attention, I have been meaning to look into the history of films directed by Harmony Korine, watch them all and try and get acquainted with the roots of Korine's career in which elements of Spring Breakers style may have come from. Whilst watching films from his (extremely short) filmography (only 5 feature films long, including Spring Breakers), I encountered Mister Lonely and have been blown away ever since watching it by the amount I have been thinking into the themes and characters, relating to it and just reminiscing over how much fun I had watching it and couldn't think otherwise than to write about how much I enjoyed it.

Mister Lonely has two separate plots, the main one revolving around a Michael Jackson impersonator who meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator in Paris and travels to Scotland in order to live with her and her husband, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator, her daughter, a Shirley Temple impersonator and many other impersonators. The group are striving to build a stage on their land and perform in the greatest show the world has ever seen. This characters of this portion of the plot are living their life through the image of their chosen celebrity and in isolation from the general public for most of their screen time, meaning their lack of awareness of the outside world is uncomfortable to watch for viewers. We feel as if we are intruding on a group of mentally unstable people's lives and that isn't something that is easy to watch, but as the running time of the film moves along, there is almost a beauty in the delusion of these people, choosing to live their own non conformist lives. These people choosing to live in their own bubble are perhaps a throwback to Korine's troubles with a heroin addiction prior to the production of this film, the lack of responsibilities that a heroin user feels when he is on the drug are personified into these outrageous characters and plot.

The subplot of the film shows a group of nuns working with people in a poor country. When, in a freak accident, one of the nuns falls out of an aeroplane without a parachute and survives, she tells the other nuns that it must be God's plan for them and a way of him testing their faith. Whilst the film only cuts to this subplot a few times, we see the final result of the nuns all boarding a plane to the Vatican and it crashing into the ocean. It appears that Korine is showing extreme contempt for the idea of everyone having their own destiny, and someone else being in control of their lives. The nuns, who do not even second guess that the one surviving nun must be telling the truth, are ridiculed in their comedic death, they are made to look like complete idiots, and perhaps I am looking into this film too much as autobiographical on behalf of Harmony Korine, but I read between the lines that in order to successfully live your life, you have to live the path that you decide for yourself and not think much more into it.

The film, shot in Korine's typically gritty framing, lighting and movement, shows just how brilliant a film can be when you do not insult the audience's intelligence and spoon feed them your messages. Art is subjective, and therefore so is every film, and whether people take Mister Lonely as a fictional piece of work with interesting characters and a quirky plot or as a film very closely linked to the life of the director is up to them, the fact of the matter is that what Korine produced is an interesting and thought provoking piece of film with beautifully written monologues contrasting with an anti-Hollywood style of production. Harmony Korine is the king of independent dramas and Mister Lonely is the crown jewels.

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.

The Fly - Review

David Cronenberg's 1986 gore filled horror film, The Fly, has gained cult status among movie fans throughout the years. With its comic book violence and graphic make up, the film embodies everything good about '80s horror. The plot is simple, a scientist (Jeff Goldblum) working on a teleportation device decides one drunken night to test it on himself, everything seemingly goes to plan until strange changes start to appear on the scientists body. It is revealed that a fly had got into the machine with the scientist and the computer responsible for teleporting the object fused the two, the man and the fly, together.

Choosing to look primarily on how the deformation of Brundle, the scientist, affects his once blossoming relationship with Veronica (Geena Davis), Cronenberg focuses heavily on characters in the film, ignoring the cheap scares and pointless horror that is featured in many other films of the same genre. Cronenberg uses the transformation of Brundle's physical appearance, from handsome man in a suit to a beast that the audience struggles to look at without wincing, as a representation of his connection with Veronica. The interest thereby comes in two forms, one, in the repulsive features of the changed Brundle, a physical display of horror, and two, the lack of humanity that is evident in the way he speaks, walks and thinks. We do not question Veronica's fear of the new Brundle as we have the exact same fear within ourselves when he comes on screen, Cronenberg masterfully puts viewers in the shoes of the female character, forcing them to forget the passionate, human, scientist we once watched and focusing on what can only be described as an animal. Using horror as a form of telling the story and allowing the audience to understand characters more, the film chooses narrative as a priority over scares, something that relates directly to the success of the film, in my opinion.

The script is written, with many quotable phrases featured, "Be afraid. Be very afraid.", and perfectly combining science fiction and horror, showing off the new technology of the '80s and also the advancements of prosthetics. This film attempts to hammer the final nail into the coffin of horror films made previously to The Fly, screaming "Welcome to the '80s" at the top of it's lungs, we see a huge contrast in this film to the popular horrors of the '70s, with The Exorsist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween appearing to be worlds away from a film such as this. Aside from the advancements in technology shown both in the film and through the camerawork, the lack of discretion regarding the graphicness of the attacks shown in the film also proves Cronenberg wanted to set this film apart from the rest. In mainstream cinema, people would have been, and perhaps still are, discomforted by bones sticking out of wrists and baboons being blown to bits, but Cronenberg was aware of the advancements of cinema and the new features that were available in regards to special effects and camera tricks. No rating was going to stop him from displaying the possibilities of the developing film form, and with the film going straight to an 18 rating in the UK and an R rating in the US, no rating did stop him. 'If we could now show bones breaking and baboons exploding, the people should be able to watch bones breaking and baboons exploding' seems to be the mentality he went for in regards to the more graphic side of the film.

This film is really, really important in regards to the development of the horror film as we know it. With a strong plot and a clever mind behind the whole project, the film is a lot of fun to watch, featuring 'cover your eye' moments and laugh out loud moments, the film is a staple in any horror fan's collection.

Half Nelson - Review

"One thing doesn't make a man."
Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a teacher at a high school in inner city New York. He is also a man struggling with a crack addiction. Half Nelson explores the two extremely separate lives this broken man lives, and the consequences of those lives meeting when one of his students finds out about his addiction and an unlikely friendship develops between the two characters.

The most immediate point of conversation regarding this film is Ryan Gosling's Academy Award nominated performance. From scenes where his character is teaching history to his class to ones of him lying on a bathroom floor after smoking too much crack, we never forget that the character we are following is fragile and in need of help. Living a predominantly solitary life, a lot of the acting comes not in the form of dialogue but in movements and subtle expressions, when watching Gosling's performance, one would never have guessed he was the same actor as the happy go lucky character we see in Crazy, Stupid, Love or the youthful and romantic portrayal he gave us in The Notebook. Dunne's choices and unawareness of the harm he is bringing to the children he cares so much about through his supporting of local drug dealers is infuriating to watch, the film presents drug addiction so poignantly as a character flaw, not as something that defines a character, and the anger that is stirred in the viewer regarding Dunne's lack of ability to look past the positive effects of his addiction is accompanied by a deep, most sincere sympathy. This film is without a doubt one of the most thought provoking and emotion-inducing independent films I have watched in a long time.

The film is a debut from director Ryan Fleck, and the haunting themes it deals with so effortlessly are moving to the point of tears at times. Fleck fired himself head-on into the independent film scene, proving himself to be a more than capable director and screenwriter and the combination of such well written characters with detailed backgrounds and the interesting shooting style (natural looking lighting, hand held shots - reminding me of Dog Day Afternoon), the film screams realism at the viewer, allowing a much deeper and more believable engagement with both the characters and the plot. The film was a roaring success when it circulated the 2006 film festivals and quite rightly so, showing that you don't need masses of experience in order to make a film that blows people away, Half Nelson is a treasure, one that will keep its sentimentality for years to come and should not be passed up on watching.