Rev Stan's film blog

The last two reviews of 2011: Another Earth and Moneyball

Slight cheat, two reviews in one but I'm eager to get my 2011 best of/worst of compiled as well as decide on my StOscars which I can't do until these are written, so here goes.

Another Earth

Low budget sci-fi movie about a high school student Rhoda (Brit Marling) who in a tragic car accident kills composer John Burrough's wife and child (William Mapother). On the same night a duplicate earth is discovered. When Rhoda comes out of prison, haunted by the consequences of her actions she sets about trying make amends while wondering if the other her, on the second earth, has made the same mistakes - something she might soon find out.

Like the low budget sci-fi movies I've enjoyed over the last 18 months it is more of a character piece than about the science and as such it works really well although I do wonder if the film wouldn't work just as well without the second earth.

Rhoda doesn't say much leaving the audience to fill the gaps which I like. She is at time a difficult character to like and I also liked that ambiguity, the humanness of her. 

It doesn't have a conclusive ending and raises a lot of questions that are unanswerable which some might find unsatisfying but I didn't. It's certainly a film that stays with you afterwards.

A nicely gentle, thought provoking film I'm going to give it 63%. On IMDb it's got 70% with a Metacritic scores of 66%. On Rotten Tomatoes there is no consensus from critics but 71% of visitors to have rated it 3.5 stars or higher.

Moneyball

Only the fact that Aaron Sorkin co-wrote the screenplay got me in front of this baseball movie that and the fact that critic Mark Kermode said it wasn't really about baseball but about statistics.

I know nothing and care nothing for baseball and yes it is more about statistics, money and the politics behind the game. And there is nothing wrong with it but I just can't muster much enthusiasm for it. The script, as you can imagine, is excellent, it was well acted and engaging enough for the duration but ultimately I didn't really care enough. 

I'm going to give it 55%, on IMDb it's got 78% and a Metacritic score of 87%. On Rotten Tomatoes it's got a critics rating of 95% and 88% of visitors gave it 3.5 stars or more. Just not one for me then.

 

And so that concludes my film reviews for 2011, now for the best and worst of's....

 

Stan's 2012 Guardian 50 film challenge begins...with The Iron Lady

It doesn't feel quite right starting on 2012's films while there are a couple of outstanding reviews plus my best of for 2011 still to post but I've had an idea and I'm impatient.

The Guardian has drawn up a list of what it sees as the 'biggest' films of 2012. Not sure what the criteria is for being the 'biggest' - the closest to an explanation is to describe it as it's film experts 'top picks', 50 in fact. 

Flicking through the list and probably 80% are either already on my list or have pique my interest. So what if I was to try and see them all during the year and then keep a tally on how the Guardian rates in their reviews compared to my own? I'm aware it is slightly nerdy but what the heck, I'm going to give it a go and see what happens.

So first on their list is The Iron Lady described by critic Xan Brooks in the list: 

Director Phyllida Lloyd gives us Thatcher without the Thatcherism in a perky biopic that amounts to a greatest hits package, bookended by scenes of the legend in her dotage, dancing with the ghost of Dennis and getting lost as she totters out in search of milk. What The Iron Lady has in its favour, though, is an electrifying bit of mimicry from Meryl Streep. The best actress Oscar looks all but guaranteed. 

Now I'm not a fan of Maggie, having harshly felt the effects of her Poll Tax as a student and taken part in the demonstrations but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in her as a woman who fought sexism and the establishment to become the first female British Prime Minister.

Her story is told through aging, widowed Maggie's eyes as a series of flashbacks and hallucinations in which her husband Dennis is still alive and converses with her.

There are some fantastic performances. I had reservations about Meryl Streep taking on the role but she is very, very good. Olivia Colman is a favourite of mine and can't do anything wrong so naturally I loved her Carol Thatcher. I was also particularly touched by little Harry Lloyd's young Dennis. 

However, my problem with the Iron Lady is that it doesn't feel political enough to be a film about politics, neither does it give enough insight into Thatcher to make if feel like a true biopic. Probably the area in which is was the most satisfying is the love story between Margaret and Dennis which was warmly portrayed.

Doing the Devil's Double

It was Dominic Cooper that drew me to this film. He's got very good at playing confident and slightly arrogant characters but this film about Uday Hussein's (Saddam's son) body double affords him the chance to play two very different people.

And I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. It is an interesting and at times brutal story about a Latif Yahia who is forced into becoming a lookey-likey for the cocaine-snorting, sex-obsessed, sadistic son of the former Iraqi leader.

The hedonistic, volatile Uday is the opposite of everything that Latif stands for but he quickly realises that not only does he look like Saddam's son but his life is his also.

And Dominic Cooper does such a great job at the two roles, a couple of times I did squint at the screen questioning whether it was indeed him playing both parts. Okay so there is some cliched dialogue but it is compelling viewing with the ever present threat of violence and death making for a tense hour and 50 minutes viewing.

The film is based on a true story although the ending has the most obvious dose of filmic license and isn't an easy watch at times, certainly earning its 18 certificate, but definitely worth enduring the hands over the eyes moments.

I'm going to give The Devil's Double 78%. On IMDb it has got 68% and on Rotten Tomatoes it has got 72% from audiences but no consensus from critics.

 

 

Daniel Day Lewis or Ben Whishaw: Who should play Charles Dickens?

Keen-eyed Ben Whishaw fans, among whom I count myself, will have seen a story circulating this week that Daniel Day Lewis and the man himself are both being considered to play literary giant Charles Dickens in a biopic about his secret affair with a young woman, Nelly Ternan, called The Invisible Woman.

Naturally I'm excited about any potential new project for Mr W and this one has the makings of a corker not only because it has the expert hands of Abi Morgan writing but also thesp Ralph Fiennes directing.

But I'm curious as to why our Ben would be up against Daniel Day Lewis. While similar in their approaches to acting - Day Lewis is very picky about projects - they are both very different in age: 30 and 54.

According to the fount of all knowledge that is Wikipedia, Charles Dickens was 45 when he met the 18-year-old Nelly so neither is a perfect fit age-wise and either choice is going to bring a very different dynamic to the story.

Dickens was a fascinating man, extraordinarily talented, hard-working and successful. He was also intensely romantic but got frustrated with his marriage and wasn't particularly nice to his wife, with whom he had 10 children. His relationship with Nelly only came to light after his death.

Fiennes has apparently met with Imogen Poot, Felicity Jones and Abbie Cornish as potential Nelly's. Mr W has of course worked with the latter two (The Tempest and Bright Star), he has also worked with Abi Morgan too (The Hour). So there is already a bit of chemistry there which might put him in a good position.

Angels of Evil: The Italian Mesrine?

This film has been marketed as the Italian answer to the French ganster films Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy No 1. I really enjoyed the brace of Mesrine films - Vincent Cassel had such charisma on screen in the title role he made for a compelling gangster.

So would Angels of Evil, like Mesrine based on a real person, live up to the comparison?

For a gangster film to work for me, there needs to be some depth to the baddie's characters or a least charm to win me over to their side. If I don't care whether they get caught or not - which is, in essence what most of these films boil down to - then they don't work.

Angels of Evil's lead crim is Renato, played by the almost giggle-inducingly handsome Kim Rossi Stuart. Renato was a Milanese mobster, famous in the 1970s for a spate of robberies, kidnapping and murder.

Renato is not so much drawn into but drawn to a life crime as a child, stealing and selling on the swag with a gang of friends. He doesn't see himself doing anything else.

The film follows his rise to notoriety and power battles with a rival mob. He is a charmer, audacious in his crimes and escapes, sometimes recording interviews with local radio stations while on the run. Part of the charm, and ultimately his weakness, is an intense loyalty towards his gang for whom he will take the fall when mistakes are made.

Still standing for The King's Speech

I was blown away by The King's Speech when I saw it at the London Film Festival back in October, so much so I wanted to see it again.

Now my first attempt at a second viewing didn't go so well. I'd book to see a preview with a director's Q&A at the Curzon, only I went to the wrong cinema. It was an diary accident waiting to happen (my combined film and theatre viewing totalled more than 150 last year) but hopefully won't happen again for at least a year.

Anyway, my second attempt was more successful and even though I have already posted my thoughts it is technically a 2011 release, so I wanted to mark it as such with a few words and an official Rev Stan score.

So what can I say about it? Well, it more than lived up to my first review. It is a warm, moving and funny film that succeeds in showing the human side of royalty. As I was leaving the cinema I could have quite happily bought a ticket for the next screening and gone straight back in.

Colin Firth has already got 14 best actor awards for it and I hope the supporting cast gets the recognition it deserves too, particularly Geoffrey Rush.

The critics seem to love it too:

Rotten Tomatoes UK gives it 95% from 174 reviews and it has an average user rating of 8.6/10

Metacritic gives it 88% from 41 reviews with an average user rating of 8.7/10.

And Rev Stan gives it 95% - it loses 5% because of the odd choice of Guy Pearce playing Colin Firth's older brother or am I the only one who finds that odd?

First film of 2011: 127 Hours

When I came out of the cinema I tweeted how 127 Hours had made me feel sick. A friend responded:

It is a fair point. The film is based on a true story and few will sit down to watch without knowing that it's about adrenalin junkie Aron Ralston who falls into a canyon becoming trapped by the arm which he ends up amputating in a desperate attempt to free himself. Well if you didn't you do now.

But what made we want to see it, despite getting sweaty palms and feeling a bit squeamish just watching the trailer, was how he got to that point emotionally and physically. And that is what is interesting and engaging about the film.

Trapped and facing a slow, lonely and almost certain death gives Ralston time to reflect. Now that in itself might put some people off with visions of the film being series of flashbacks. It isn't. Ralston is an engineer and an experienced canyoner, albeit one who makes a near fatal mistake, so the story also follows his journey working through the 'problem' and potential solutions.

It is also a film about human physical and mental survival. He was in the canyon for five days having taken with him enough food and water for the weekend. (Yes, he drinks his own wee).

With Danny Boyle at the helm there are some imaginative devices used to move the story along, show the passing of time and his nutrition and fluid denied brain's inner workings. I'm not sure all of them work quite smoothly and delusion/fantasy scenes are always tricky to pull off without merely resorting to foggy edges.

Extreme rambling: The Way Back

Peter Weir doesn't shy away from making films of epic content and scale. This one sees him tackle the true story of a group of prisoners who escaped from a Siberian gulag in 1940, walking their way to freedom across 3,000 miles of the harshes environments.

The rag-tag group is made up in principle by Russian thief Valka (Colin Farrell), Pole Janusz (Jim Sturgess) convicted for anti-Stalinist behaviour on the basis of his wife's forced testamony and American Mr Smith (Ed Harris) who travelled to Moscow to find work during he US depression and is imprisoned for being a foreigner. They are joined en route by orphan Irena (Saoirse Ronan).

The Way Back isn't so much a road movie as a hiking movie - extreme rambling if you like. The problem is that once you've stripped out the very few encounters they have en route (the trailer does make it look a bit more action packed than it actually is, I'm afraid) and some character banter it is essentially about endurance and survival.

Nothing necessarily wrong with that. Weir does well to make the two hours stride along relatively confidentally although there were a couple of times when the pace did nearly slow to a blister-induced hobble. But I couldn't help feeling that it lacked the emotional depth of some of his other work.

The group spend so much time together in isolation and yet I never really felt like I got to know them. Yes there are some moving moments demonstrating the bond that forms but it nonetheless feels a little light on emotional engagement.

Acting against blizzards, baking desert heat and vast mountain ranges* is a feat in itself and there were some notable performances from Sturgess and Ronan in particular. Indeed the latter is carving out quite an illustrious career path for herself if she carries on developing her craft in such a way.

#LFF all stand for the King's Speech

Colin, Colin, Colin will you just stop it. After spending years in the rom-com wasteland you follow up the superb A Single Man with the fabulous King's Speech.

OK so its not heart-wrencher like A Single Man and a costume drama about a member of the royal family overcoming a terrible stammer isn't making a massive political statement but it is just done so well.

Firth does an excellent job of conveying King George VI's fear of public speaking and the humiliation he feels from his inability to adequately express himself.*

Indeed there is one particular scene when, shortly after becoming King, Edward VIII snidely teases his brother's stammer and George or Bertie as he was known by his family, can't verbally fight back, paralised by his speech impediment the pain is written all over his face.

It can't be easy getting an audience to empathise with someone who's had a very privileged life but he does by showing that if you strip away the pomp and ceremony and stiff upper lip there is just a scared man underneath.

Bright Star and Skeletons video interviews

You wait days for a decent interview to come along, blah

First up is a Q&A in Bristol with the director and some cast of Skeletons, the fab little indy Brit Flick that I saw earlier in the year (it's still doing a bit of a cinema tour around the UK so keep and eye out for it).

And secondly is the full version of the interview Jane Campion and Ben Whishaw gave at the Toronto Film Festival last year about Bright Star. Have only seen little segments up until discovering this.