philerritty Reviews

The Roommate (I) (2011)

Bad film, bad message

[2/10 · 21 March 2012]

There are the usual criticisms that can be levelled at The Roommate that are typical of modern throw-away Hollywood teen thrillers - shallow, lack of depth, and, boring. But this one had an immediately more damaging message, which came through in the way the writers portrayed Rebecca as someone suffering from schizophrenia.

It's simply the case that people with schizophrenia do not behave like that, the pathology was totally inaccurate; it would have been much more acceptable if they had just left the aetiology of her deranged character to the audience's imagination (or considered a personality disorder), but instead they disastrously create a link with schizophrenia. It just perpetuates the stereotype that people with schizophrenia are like characters out of a horror movie.

Oh, and having worked with lots of patients who take Olanzapine (Rebecca's medication), significant weight gain is a huge side-effect.......... yet Leighton Meester looked pretty fine!

It sounds boring to complain about such technicalities, and maybe to be too politically correct, but it is a potentially damaging stereotype. And most importantly it's a lazy inaccuracy, and any film that contains lazy mistakes is just plain irritating.

The One Show (2006– )

Master of survival?

[9 November 2009]

Whilst I agree the One (and only) show is a jack-of-all-trades, I would argue that it is a master one thing: Survival. Great shows - good shows - OK, tolerable shows always land on their feet in times of adversity.

What am I referring to? We all remember Carol Thatcher's disgraceful backstage antics. we can all remember the embarrassing headlines: "Thatcher banished from The'Wog'Show", "once a Thatcher, always a Thatcher". Yet despite her shocking onslaught, the One show kept it's head up, dealt with the situation and now is as healthy as ever. "The One show must go on" springs to mind.

The One show survived Carol Thatcher, it survived Hardeep Singh. Any show that can survive as many assassination attempts as Fidel Castro deserves a place in the hearts and minds of the British viewing public.

The Godfather (1972)

not the godfather of all movies

[9/10 · 21 April 2004]

As much as i did enjoy this film, and was intrigued throughout, I still don't like to see it gain the repetitive status of 'the greatest movie of all time'. I feel a movie has to have a more relevant context than the glamourised lifestyle and crooked dealings of Italian-American mafia to gain such a grand title. However, admittedly, unlike 'The Goodfellas' for instance, 'The godfather' is not glamourised that much, and I'm thankful for Coppolla turning what was at times a tedious book into a 3 hour long gripping tale. I did enjoy the book, but it's lucky that Coppolla was the man who got his hands on it. He turned some of 'The Godfather''s sections into the most mind-bendingly gripping scenes ever.

In a film genre that is incredibly overrated, 'The Godfather' certainly stands head and shoulders above the rest, however, i feel it's genre should forever hold it back from being THE greatest movie of all time.

The Shining (1980)

Read the book aswell!

[9/10 · 18 April 2004]

Being a fan of Jack Nicholson, Stephen King and the art of great horror movies, The Shining was just destined to be one of my favorite movies of all time. If you've read the book, you'll know how complex the story of The Shining really is, with it's intricate emotions and sensitive relationships, that come together to give the full picture that the story really should be viewed as, and ultimately, the film is somewhat forced to ignore. What we fail to see from the film is the real sense of a family tie between the three, and most obviously, the affection Jack Torrence really feels for his son. What we see is just a naturally spaced out sense of madness from Jack Nicholson right from the start! And a real feeling of detachment. His performance, in actual fact is colossal no doubt, it's actually fascinating how well he can strike such a sense of madness into the character.

My favourite scenes,easily, are firstly when he lets rip at his wife Wendy when she innocently interrupts him while he's working, and then of course the scene with Lloyd in the ballroom. If there's one thing that Jack Nicholson is the absolute master of, it's the solo performance. That scene in the ballroom (before Lloyd appears) is just an absolute master class! As well as the eerie encounter with Grady, the ghostly butler.

The main disadvantage of the film is the exclusion of the detailed gradual spiralling of Jack Torrence's mental state. the book is not only an epic horror, but also a heart-wrenching story of the mental decline of a loving father who'd battled alcoholism and re-defined himself and his life, to better his family. But Kubrick clearly had to decide where he was gonna go with the movie, wether it was to follow the book and be a story of tragedy, or just be a flat-out horror. The result is a flat-out horror, but a bloody good one. He decides to remove the substance the book holds, and just create an eerie, psychological masterclass of madness. Jack Nicholson is immense, with Shelley Duvall setting the un-toppable standard of looking absolutely terror-stricken.

I'm no expert in directing, but it is clear to see that Kubrick is brilliant with this movie. He knows he can't, for time reasons, afford to show the delicate delcine in Jack Torrence, however, he chooses his scenes so effectively! Each one is absolutely memorable, with Nicholson appearing increasingly detached, along with the brilliant inclusion of his crazed stare as a filler between two scenes. Also to his credit, Kubrick invloves his own creations to the story, such as the two terrifying little girls, the waterfalls of blood and of course, the dead woman in the bath. These help to just pile on the fear factor that the book in parts lacks. Although in truth, i found that it wasn't a particularly scary movie, Jack Nicholson's performance is so 'larger-than-life' and over the top (in a good way), that it almost became too great to watch and over shadowed the real underlying fear of the situation. However, the sight of those two little girls sends shivers down your spine and makes you weary walking down hotel corridors at night!

For anybody who has seen the film, but not read the book, i strongly recommend you to do so. It provides a greater outlook, and helps to explain some of the messages that were quickly placed by Kubrick, but were not properly explained due to the restrictions in duration forced on the production.