Rev Stan's film blog

Review: Marion Cotillard shines in sluggish Two Days One Night

Synopsis: Sandra (Cotillard) is a young mother who has been suffering from depression. Ready to return to work she discovers that her colleagues have been told that if she is dismissed the company can afford to give her a bonus. She has a weekend to convince them to vote to keep her on.

Stan's thoughts: Marion Cotillard I could watch all day. Her performance in this is incredible in its understatement but, and I feel I have to apologise, I just found the film a bit dull. It is pretty much as described: a depressed woman travelling from door to door asking her colleagues to chose her over a bonus. The conversations go pretty much the same with each one and I just wanted to fast forward to the vote.

Be warned that right at the beginning, when the film certificate is displayed, it does give you a spoiler and that particular event, I think is unsatisfactorily glossed over. It feels like 90% of the film is at one pace then the final 10% is a resolution at another.

Sorry Marion you were fab but the film wasn't, for me, and I normally love this sort of subtle, quiet, human drama. Everyone else seems to have adored it though so probably best to just ignore me.

Ratings

• Stan’s 50%
• IMDB 75%
• Metascore 94%
• Rotten Tomatoes 94%
• RT Audience Rating* 82%

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* Based on number of people who rated the film 3.5/5 and higher

 

Review: Gerard Depardieu bares all and nothing in Welcome to New York

Synopsis: Any resemblance to the Dominique Strauss Kahn New York hotel sex attack allegation are completely coincidental. Apparently. Essentially Deveraux, played by Depardieu, is a rich and powerful man who is something to do with economics and a potential candidate for the French presidency. He is into orgies with prostitutes but doesn't stop at that when it comes to satisfying his lust.

Stan's thoughts: The first 20 minutes of this film sets up the character of Deveraux as a powerful man, a man who has people who will ensure there are bevvy of high class prostitutes waiting to great him in his New York hotel room. A man without any conscience or moral touch stone about his behaviour and attitude towards women and sex. He's a modern day immoral Bacchus.

Not much is left to the imagination in those opening scenes and it was on the verge of becoming gratuitous when we get the hotel incident. The film doesn't leave you in any doubt that he assaulted the maid and then what follows is the aftermath, his arrest, brief stint in prison and the court case.

Gerard Depardieu does bare all but other than his debauched behaviour there is little else to work with about his personality and motives. He openly asks his daughter about sex with her new boyfriend in front of him at lunch and infuriates his wife (Jacqueline Bisset) by his lack of concern about the turn of events. She doesn't seem in any doubt about his behaviour:

"A real man doesn't follow his dick into every dark alley and prostitute."

What is most revealing is his lack of remorse. The legal process seems like a minor irritation that he almost sleepwalks through. He never seems worried about the possible outcome. His power and wealth has made him supremely arrogant.

It is a damning tale for all in Deveraux's sphere. His wife seems concerned only with his and her reputation and how it might affect their careers and as a result is depressing in its conclusions. In revealing so little about Deveraux outside of his world of sex obsession it does feel unbalanced, one dimensional and perhaps a trial by film other than any thing else.

Ratings

• Stan’s 58%
• IMDB 52%
• Metascore 71%
• Rotten Tomatoes 79%
• RT Audience Rating* 27%

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* Based on number of people who rated the film 3.5/5 and higher

Review: Daniel Radcliffe does rom-com in What If (aka The F-Word)

Synopsis: Wallace (Radcliffe) is still moping after chucking his two-timing girlfriend and doesn't go out much. Then he meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) who is in a long term relationship. Men and women can just be friends right?

Stan's thoughts: First I must just say that Radcliffe is playing his natural English accent in a film set in Toronto implying that he hasn't long been in the country ie was brought up in the UK but he's called Wallace. Nobody in England is called Wallace other than Gromit's friend.

The other thing to push to one side is the very obvious attempts at humour. You know the sort of stuff that's been done a zillion times that just isn't funny any more. Some of it is slapstick - someone standing behind a closed door and in front of an open window...for example. Some of it just silly - the drunken phone call to the other half who is in an important meeting.

Oh and one other thing I'm trying to ignore is the line from a female character about a 'brazilian' being a waste of time when she didn't manage to cop off. Got a bit of feminist rage at that moment.

Right, now that is all out of the way what you are left with is actually quite witty and warm if a little predictable. Laughed out loud a few times and was definitely rooting for Wallace and Chantry which is important. There are some quirky little animated sequences which were a nice touch particularly over the end credits and definitely worth sitting through.

It's not as quirky as it thinks it is but it is good to see the likes of Jemima Rooper and Rafe Spall on the big screen in supporting roles.

Don't want this to sound overly negative because on the whole I enjoyed it and had a warm fuzzy glow when I walked out of the cinema, it just take a while to get into its stride and decide what it wants to be.

Ratings

• Stan’s 60%
• IMDB 73%
• Metascore 59%
• Rotten Tomatoes 70%
• RT Audience Rating* 78%

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* Based on number of people who rated the film 3.5/5 and higher

Review: Scarlett Johansson puts a smile on the face in Lucy

Synopsis: Lucy is forced into acting as a drugs mule for a violent Taiwanese drugs baron but when the bag bursts in her stomach the drug has an unusual effect, increasing her brain capacity far beyond what normal humans use.

Stan's thoughts: Lucy is a wonderfully bonkers mix of sci-fi, violent gangster thriller and girl power. It is short and imperfectly formed - ironically, given the context, some of the science is best not thought about too much - but it somehow works.

Scarlett Johansson has really turned around my opinion of her as an actress since Under The Skin and it's great to see her in a film like this where she gets to explore two very different characters: the Lucy before and after the drugs.

The way Lucy's increasing brain capacity manifests itself and is depicted is imaginatively done with echo's of The Matrix.

I walked out of the empty cinema - love being the only person in the screen - with a big smile on my face.

Ratings

• Stan’s 78%
• IMDB 66%
• Metascore 61%
• Rotten Tomatoes 65%
• RT Audience Rating* 48%

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* Based on number of people who rated the film 3.5/5 and higher

 

Review: Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson in The Rover

Synopsis: The straightforward narrative, if you are going to describe it that way, is Eric (Pearce) is determined to track down his stolen car and ends up using the injured brother of one of the thieves - Rey (Pattinson) - to help him.

Stan's thoughts: Have always admired Guy Pearce for his eclectic choice of work. He is a versatile actor. And if Robert Pattinson's post Twilight project choices are anything to go by then he seems determined to take a similar path. He's admitted in interviews that he is learning his craft on each new project and I have to admire him for that.

It makes for an exciting combination particularly teamed with director David Michod who directed the tense and grungy Animal Kingdom. The Rover takes tense and grungy in completely different direction. It is a slow burn that, refreshingly, gives very little detail up front.

For example, the story is set after some sort of economic or social collapse that is never explained. It is important in that those living in the remote Australian outback, where it is set, have retreated into a society that is simplistic in its desire to fulfil basic human need and feral in its pursuit of it. There also  a languorous and almost depressing lack of purpose. Even the cars seem to move slowly in the vastness of the landscape. The only speed is the occasional deathly outburst of gunshot. 

And we don't learn much about about Eric either; what we do learn is a gradual drip feed. Essentially The Rover is about someone clinging onto to a final shred of humanity - or perhaps he has already lost it? There are scant clues to Eric's determination to complete his task but they are there if you look. What you do get without any doubt is a sense of how dangerous it makes him.

Rey, who has a developmental disability, is the connection to the world Eric didn't bargain on and that in itself has him in a quiet inner turmoil.

The Rover is slow and gradual and quietly haunting. A week later I'm still thinking about it. Pearce and Pattinson both give intelligent and nuanced performances and it bodes well for the latter and his developing acting talent.

 

Ratings

• Stan’s 79%
• IMDB 73%
• Metascore 64%
• Rotten Tomatoes 66%
• RT Audience Rating* 64%

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* Based on number of people who rated the film 3.5/5 and higher

 

 

Review: More Marvel fun in Guardian's of the Galaxy

Synopsis: An unlikely group find themselves thrown together and in trying to save their own skins end up reluctantly trying to save the galaxy from the baddies.

Stan's thoughts: Went into this Jon Snow and just wanting something mindless and entertaining for a couple of hours.

It does stretch my interest in comic book movies with the absurdity of some of its characters - a talking raccoon and talking, walking tree tree. There are also characters with ridiculous names like Drax, Denarian Saal and Yondu Undonta but it is witty and a occasionally wry and doesn't take itself too seriously which helped me warm to it.

I'm not sure I understood the intricacies of the relationship between the different peoples,  something about parents sending their children to be brought up by baddies and fragile peace accords. There's an powerful orb too that no-one really understands but everyone wants. But none of that mattered too much as the primary plot points are pretty ABC.

Stan points too for having some kick-ass female characters on both sides of the goodie/baddie fence. Great to see the likes of Karen Gillen breaking into Hollywood and completely unrecognisable as the bald, blue-skinned Nebula - she actually shaved her head for the part. And Glenn Close was channelling intergalactic air hostess in her look as leader of something or other. And Chris Pratt as the films hero Quill is quite cute.

So all in all, it ticked all the mindless fun boxes.

Ratings

• Stan’s 70%
• IMDB 88%
• Metascore 76%
• Rotten Tomatoes 92%
• RT Audience Rating* 96%

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* Based on number of people who rated the film 3.5/5 and higher