Rev Stan's film blog

The Descendants - as good as the poster makes out?

Must confess that the trailer for The Descendants did nothing for me so I was curious as to why a) George Clooney has been shortlisted for an Oscar and b) the poster was full of superlatives and high praise.

So it's the story of Matt King (Clooney) who lives in Hawaii with his wife and two daughters who tells us from the outset that there is a misconception that it is paradise. Cue bad things happening. 

The bad things are his wife is in a coma after a speed boat accident leaving him parenting his daughters - something his not used to doing. The second bad thing (it's all in the trailer so I'm not spoiling it) is that he finds out that his wife is having an affair.

There is also a parallel storyline about the sale of some family land he's involved with hence the title.

So did Clooney give an Oscar worthy performance? Well he gave a very good performance in something that isn't his usual fare and he made me cry a few times but I've seen more interesting performances with more depth elsewhere and from people that haven't been short-listed (coughs: Michael Fassbender).

The land sale plot line feels a little extraneous. It's obviously there to show the journey that Matt goes on as a person - he learns to appreciate the importance of family and his heritage - but otherwise just gets in the way.

Its strength lies in the dynamics of the close family and how the mother's absence exposes its strengths and weaknesses, the resentments and failings. But is it enough?

Again it's one of those films that is nicely done, well constructed with a nice balance of lighter moments and emotional moments but will it stand out from the crowd in a few months time? The answer to that is probably 'no'.

It's getting a Stan rating of 60% from me. On IMDb it has a rating of 77% with a Metacritic score of 84% while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 90% with 82% of audience members giving it 3.5 stars or more. So what do I know. Perhaps I'm just getting a hard person to please?

 

In A Better World - worthy of the foreign film Oscar?

The Best Foreign Film winner at this year's Oscars - In A Better World - is definitely a film to mull over. At its heart is the question of justice versus revenge and follows the story of two Danish families who become linked through the friendship of two of their sons.

Christian has just lost his mother to cancer and has a strained relationship with his father. He's just moved back to Denmark to live with his Grandmother as his father frequently travels for work. Elias's parents are getting a divorce. His father Anton also works abroad for spells as a doctor in an African refugee camp.

Elias is bullied at school but Christian, the new kid, steps in to help giving the ring leader a savage beating and threatening him with a knife. A firm friendship forms between the two. Elias's dad remonstrates the two boys saying that if you respond to violence with violence it solves nothing. While Christian continues in the belief that perpetrators of violence need to be taught a harsh lesson.

Rev Stan's Oscar post

Someone asked me recently if I'll be staying up to watch the Oscar's. Er, no. Awards ceremonies are generally dull and lack any surprise because they are invariably tied up with political voting. And, quite simply, I'm not a late night person.

The King's Speech will no doubt do well although there is bound to be one category which upsets the apple cart. It would be far more interesting if they chose the top three and revealed them in reverse order, particulary as the best film category now has 10 on the shortlist.

This is how it would look based on my choices:

3rd place: The Social Network

2nd place: Winter's Bone

1st place: King's Speech

 

Last* of the Oscar best film contenders: True Grit and why it needs subtitles

Can True Grit knock The King's Speech off the top perch of the films short-listed for this year's best film gong?

Well there is a slim chance the Academy might still decide 'yes' but in my humble opinion the answer is, sadly, 'no'.

Its trailer pretty much gives you the story: 14-year old  Mattie hires a grizzly, whiskey drinking Marshall to help her track down her father's murderer.

And the main problem is that it feels slow to get going. It takes a long time for Mattie played very well by newcomer Hailee Steinfield and Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to hit the trail of the murderer Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin).

There is an indulgently long court room scene to establish that Rooster is indeed a grizzly, whiskey-drinking Marshall who has no qualms about shooting those he pursues. Then a long time for Mattie, albeit with a skill beyond her years, to negotiate a deal firstly to sell back some horses her father had bought and then to secure the services of Rooster having rejected those of the more clean-living, by-the-book Marshall LaBeouf (Matt Damon).

And all this isn't helped by the fact that Bridges as Rooster speaks with a gravelly, southern American drawl - the sort of delivery that is achieved by barely opening the mouth - and is therefore only partially intelligable.