Rev Stan's film blog

Fifteen minute review: The Guard

Was drawn to this for the comparisons with In Bruges which I loved for its dark humour.

The Guard also stars Brendan Gleeson as Sargent Gerry Boyle, a policeman in rural Ireland who really can't be arsed with all that. So when the FBI role into town led by Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) because they've had a tip off that drug smugglers are going to be docking nearby Boyle couldn't be less interested.

Brendan Gleeson does an excellent job as Boyle who is ultimately bored by the banality of his work and life. He's a man with a penchant for prostitutes and secretly well read which is key to his character. If he was just stupid bumpkin policemen the humour would only half work but there is a hint that Boyle is far cleverer than all that and is being provocative for his own amusement.

And it is laugh out loud funny at times and a little bit obvious at times.  It doesn't quite plunge to the dark depth of In Bruges but it does have a satisfactory ending and did put a smile on my face. Good friday night DVD fodder I'd say and I'm going to give it 60%.

On IMDb it's got a rating of 79% with the Metacritic score listed as 78%. While on Rotten Tomatoes it has an audience rating of 86% and a critics rating of 96% although that figure isn't classed as a consensus yet.

  

Troll Hunter at Fright Fest

I do hope the people behind Norwegian film The Troll Hunter had their tongues firmly in their cheeks when they were making it.

Bought a ticket on a complete whim when I found myself at a lose end in Leicester Sq at 10.45 this morning (head into town to get day seats for a play and end up seeing a film at the Film 4 Fright Festival). I had vague recollection of a trailer  with people running around in dark woods in a Blair Witch-style but other than that knew nothing about the film.

Now I scare easily but fortunately having spent a chunk of my life going to rock and heavy metal gigs, the presence of a predominantly male audience mostly wearing black didn't worry me. What did were the trailers - some french horror torture flick had looking into my lap almost immediately. The Woman in Black trailer seemed positively Disney after that but a worrying thought did start dancing through my mind: 'What the hell have you booked to see?'.

With visions of having to be enticed out from under my seat with a bag of marshmallows at the end I gritted my teeth and prepared to be scared.

But despite the fact that a large part of the film is set in woods at night - one of my biggest nightmare scenarios - I quickly started to wonder what nature of film I was actually watching.

It's mockumenatry style about a group of student film makers who stumble on national cover up, that there are trolls living in them there hills and there is one man, the troll hunter, who is employed to keep them under control, killing them if they get too close to civilisation.

They persuade the troll hunter to let them accompany him mainly because he's got fed up with the long, unsociable hours of troll hunting. Do you see where this is going?

Was Bridesmaids more Bridezilla?

The last film of director Paul Feig's I saw, Knocked Up, I thought was flawed in such a way as not to be a glowing recommendation for seeing a new film. But there has been so much media attention given to his new flick, Bridesmaids, and it being my week off with more time on my hands thought I'd go and see if the hype was justified.

Annie (Kristen Wiig who co-wrote) is nearly at rock bottom in her life. Her cake shop business has gone under in the recession,  her boyfriend left her, her fuck-buddy doesn't like her sleeping over and debts are mounting.

She is asked by her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) to be her maid of honour. Lillian has a rag-tag group of bridesmaids all with their own ideas of how things should be organised but the group is dominated by Lillian's new friend, the beautiful, charming and rich Helen (Rose Byrne).

The Potiche 15 minute film review

Must admit that French comedy normally leaves me feeling a bit 'meh' but I was drawn to this Catherine Deneuve/Gerard Depardieu vehicle because underneath the humour and the very kitsch 70s setting there was an interesting history lesson.

Deneuve is the 'potiche' or trophy wife of the title - Suzanne Pujol - although this being the 70s it doesn't mean spoilt in the way it does today, it means stay at home wife who's husband views her as nothing more than a home-maker.

The husband in question, Robert (Fabrice Luchini), owns the local umbrella factory and runs it with an iron fist and disregard to the workers conditions, and as a result strikes are frequent. He's also having an affair with his secretary.

When Robert is taken hostage by the workers Suzanne is forced to call on the help of her former lover and now left-wing politician Maurice Babin (Depardieu). The shock of the kidnap sends Robert to his sick bed and Suzanne to the head of the table in the boardroom. With the help of Babin, she succeeds in winning over the workers and everything begins to runs smoothly.

And it is a real joy to watch. Deneuve proves at 67 that she has still got charm and sex-appeal by the bagful and for all the kitsch, frothiness there are plenty of nods to the real issues of the day. The way the men behave and talk to the woman serves as a stark reminder of what has changed and what hasn't. 

It put a real smile on my face and I'm giving it 79%. IMDb has given it 6.8/10 and Rotten Tomatoes UK doesn't have a consensus yet.

 

 

 

The Win Win 15 minute review*

The day before I saw Win Win it was described to me as well directed, had a few laughs and made you leave the cinema with a smile on your face. And that probably best sums it up.

Paul Giamatti plays a small town lawyer Mike Flaherty whose practice is edging closer to financial collapse. He persuades a judge to make him guardian of an old client with dementia so he can claim the $10,000 dollars a month allowance. He promptly puts the client in a home and pockets the cash each month. Until his client's grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer) turns up having run away from his drug addicted mother, that is.

Mike coaches a local wrestling team and Kyle used to wrestle and through this mutual love the two bond. Ironically Mike gradually takes on the guardian role for Kyle that he had promised to give his grandfather. Things go awry when Kyle's mother turns up looking for a piece of the $10,000 a month action.

And yes I did laugh out loud a few times - not sure it gets the Mark Kermode comedy qualification of having five or more laughs though. It has a nicely satisfying conclusion and certainly put a smile on my face.

It's not an amazing 'oh wow' film but it has stayed with me longer than most do so I'm going to give it 63%. IMDb gives is 7.8/10 and Rotten Tomatoes UK gives it 94% from the critics and 90% from cinema-goers.

No trailer because Warner Bros say 'no' to embedding. Meanies. Go find it on YouTube.

* to see if I can and because I'm behind...and in case you are wondering 18 mins. Next time....

 

Diving to the depths of teen memories with Submarine

From Mark Kermode's interview with Submarine writer/director Richard Ayoade on BBC Five Live I get the impression that he doesn't like protagonist Oliver Tate a great deal. 

To me he is the quintessential awkward teen and all the more charming for it. Perhaps Kermode recognises too much of his own teen self in the character. I certainly do. The flights of fancy, the feeling of self importance, bad judgement born out immaturity and a misplaced sense of what matters. But it is all that which makes for such an amusing film about first love.

Duffle-coat wearing Oliver is trying to fit in at school, trying to impress and sustain a relationship with his first girlfriend the pyromaniac Jordana and trying to stop his mum running off with an old-flame.

Craig Roberts who plays Oliver has been a jobbing child actor since the age of nine and last year was listed as a face of the future by Nylon magazine, as was Yasmin Paige who plays Jordana. The two hold their own against some acting heavy weights, never allowing themselves to get over shadowed despite superb performances by Sally Hawkins playing Oliver's blouse buttoned-up-to the neck mum and Paddy Considine's leather trousers-wearing old-flame Graham.

#LFF The Kids Are Alright

This is a nice film. After the tensions of Brighton Rock, the emotion of Blue Valentine and the sheer Colin Firthness of The King's Speech it made a lovely contrast and great end to my first London Film Festival.

It's a comedy about a lesbian couple who've got two teenage kids, conceived using the same sperm donor.

Nic (Annette Bening) is a doctor, the bread winner and a bit of a control freak while Jules (Julianne Moore) bumbles from one business idea to the next now that the kids don't need a stay-at-home mum but they compliment each other and their partnership is strong.

That is of course until the apple cart is upset. Fifteen-year-old son Laser (Josh Hutcherson) wants to meet his biological father but is too young to arrange it. Sister Joni (Mia Waskowska) is eighteen and persuaded to make the call for him, her own curiousity sparked.

And so donor dad Paul (Mark Ruffalo) comes into their lives. He's a laid back restaurant owner who grows his own vegetables and rides a motorbike. He proves a hit with daughter Joni and soon wins over Laser too. Nic hates the interloper into her happy family and the influence he has over her children but tolerates him for their sake.

And Jules, well, Paul's arrival brings to a head some hidden tensions in her and Nic's relationship.

Sunday film dilemma

Time for one film but there are three I want to see:

Gasper Noe's Enter the Void

Loved the trailer but the synopsis sounds like it could turn into something, well, for want of a better word, a bit wanky. A friend has just sent me Irreversible to watch on DVD which he described as 'the most disturbing film' he'd seen. Which kind of makes me want to watch Enter the Void as I like to be shocked. Does that make me weird?

Buried

Despite trying not to be influenced by reviews I saw that this is rating very highly on Rotten Tomatoes. Problem is being buried alive is one of my ultimate fears. My hands are starting to sweat just thinking about it. Will it be just too uncomfortable viewing?

Made in Dagenham

Saw a rough cut of this in a test screening about a year ago so I'm curious to see the final product. At the time I think I was quite harsh in my comments on the post screening questionnaire but I was tired and had got drenched on the way to the cinema so that may have influenced things.

Going the rom-com Distance

There were 30 minutes between my seeing this Drew Barrymore/Justin Hill rom-com and Kristin Stewart vehicle The Runaways. Purely a timing thing, Going the Distance started earlier and that was it, but I'm glad I did because I'm not sure The Runaways would have been as enjoyable as a Sunday afternoon film.

I'm not saying that Going the Distance is an amazing film just a light, entertaining, at times nicely-scripted romantic comedy that has just enough edge to make it stand out from the usual banal fodder.

As the name suggests it's about a couple trying to make a long distance relationship work. Erin is a summer intern at the New York Sentinel and meets and falls in love with Garrett but at the end of the summer  she has to return home to California. 

Yes there are some moments that seem to be straight out of 'Rom-Com 101' but what I liked is there is plenty of potty humour between Garrett and his flat-mates, indeed I laughed out loud several times. It also has the appropriate amount of tear-jerking 'rom'. So I laughed, I cried and I'll certainly watch it again on a Sunday night when it's on Sky.

Aggregated review ratings:

Metacritic: 51% from the professionals, 4.5/10 from the readers 

Rotten Tomatoes UK: 52%

Is Cyrus the 'must-see indie comedy?

I'm always dubious when films are described as must-see but there is still a part of me that is quietly hopeful that it actually does live up to the label. So does Cyrus deserve such enthusiastic recommendations?

Well, it is definitely a slight step apart from the usual comedy fodder. For a start the premise is a little twisted.

John (John C Reilly) has been divorced for seven years but hasn't moved on. His ex is getting remarried and invites him to a party to try and get him to socialise. He meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) and they immediately hit it off.

All is going well until John meets Molly's 22 year-old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill) who still lives at home. Cyrus is all charm and accepting of his mum's new boyfriend. But the mother-son relationship is not conventional and John quickly begins to suspect that Cyrus is actually manipulating the situation.

Cyrus is definitely a dark comedy with plenty of unconventional fodder to laugh at and a few suitably uncomfortable moments. Jonah Hill surprised me, he was almost unrecognisable putting in a subtle performance as the slyly duplicitous Cyrus and Reilly does a great job as the depressed but trying and increasingly paranoid John.

And Tomei seems to be carving out a nice and refreshing little niche playing against the typical hollywood actress roles.

The premise works well, it is well acted, funny and awkward to watch as a dark comedy should be but must-see? Not quite. Very good but not that good.

Aggregated review scores:

Metacritic: 74% from the professional reviews and 6.3/10 from visitors to the site

Rotten Tomatoes UK: 81%