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Reviews
Mamma Mia! (2008)
At least half the population will ADORE this film.
Well... for a start there is no gun crime, sci-fi, zombies, foul mouthery, retribution, death, all action heroes, no football, coming of age buddyism or car chases...of which personally I have had up to here.
...JUST fantasy romance at any age, handsome older guys, lovely locations, full-on hyper intense colour and light, dancing to infectious tunes, joie de vivre, faces that are smiling, beautiful Swedish textiles, girl fun singalongs, and nostalgia in multi-coloured spades.
One for the girls night out together at long bloody last!. How long we have waited. Years and Years and Years. I suspect the explosive success of this film is strongly related to a cry of relief from more than half the population.
Stellet Licht (2007)
Surrender to the veracity and have your vitals pulped.
I am officially senior this year and I have seen a lot of movies, but I doubt if I will ever see a better one than this. I find it hard to analyse why it is so amazingly magic and captivating. I'll try not to bore you, as I have done to all my friends who haven't seen it. I think the ambient sound-designed soundtrack and the restrained, poignant and profound dialogue are the most revelatory aspects of the films construction. Indeed I can't think of another film comparable for emotional clout using such economic material. Although I share the filmmakers disappointment that his film is not embraced by a larger audience, I was lucky enough to see this movie in an all but empty cinema in London and joyfully, tearfully and emotionally sucked in every molecule off the screen and surrendered to its visceral magic. It could be twice as long, I don't care it was utterly beautiful. It felt totally authentic, real and relevant to me. There were admittedly, a lot of personal resonances for me in there. I had just been on a mature gap to a rural part of Australia visually similar to Mexico and most of the time I was driving around in my ute in torrential rain or baking sun. No telly, no adverts, no phones and no urban pressure....bloody delicious. Some of my ancestors were Mennonites so I am very sympathico to their lifestyle ethos. Anyone who has been in such a love-triangle will recognise the veracity of the plot. I was totally blown away back in my own time during it and revisited Stellar Licht for weeks and weeks after wards. I would love to watch again but I think it needs the big screen.
Don Juan DeMarco (1994)
Gender-tourism Lite
First-off, I did find this film entertaining in a chick-flicky kinda way, which is a shame because it could have been lot less lightweight and still have been very funny. The screenplay is a quite subtle chapter in the gender wars encyclopedia and thus deserves a subtler approach, I think. The odd thing is that the romantic approach posited by 'the patient' is nearer the normal woman's perspective. The films message appears to be 'think like a woman'. But the women in the film didn't enjoy any individuality and are just served up as units of female simulacrum for the heroes consumption... just a catalogue of centrefolds in fact. Perhaps that was the point. Guffaw! However it looks like Mssrs. Depp and Brando had a lot of fun hamming it up and competing with each other for meaningful facial expressions and it was fun to watch. I just wish the director had kept them under restraint and cranked the movie up a couple of pegs.
Familia rodante (2004)
Don't ever use a casting agency Mr Trapero!
There are certainly some wonderful interesting roads in this movie and they certainly do engender the desire to get in a car and drive from Buenos Aires to Misiones; but really at core, this film is about interpersonal family dynamics. This movie is so beautifully observed and dare I say it, made with 'a love of family' perspective probably impossible in the UK. I found it utterly spellbinding. Call me an old soppy but just the opening shot of the great grandma sitting on her bed looking through her box of family photos had me sobbing tenderly. OK there was drama and incident along the route, but the way the family accepted each others foibles and gave each other space, seemed totally magical to me. I know they probably did know each other well in non-film reality, but the way it has been captured on screen is almost visceral. Hey man it was like you were there! I hope Mr Trapero goes on to make more Cool-Greatgrandma pictures and never hands over the casting of his films to an agency.
Ladies in Lavender (2004)
Cornwall Rocks!
I live in Cornwall so bear that in mind. Its quite interesting how knowing the Cornish locations/Cornwall well, made a difference to my enjoyment of the movie. Things that are 'wrong' nag at one so.(No need to reiterate them here.) I am not proud of the fact that as the opening shot came on screen, I shouted out "Prussia Cove" for the benefit ofthe rest of the cinema. I recognised a rock I had in fact drawn once. I thought after that: there would be no way I could suspend disbelief but Ladies in Lavender is seductive. What a clever title too!. It was quite a 'mauve' film emotionally and I was smelling mental lavender the whole way through. So the whole thing is about as Cornish as a Whitby Bloater but it doesn't matter because it was based on a story I could really relate to and it truly had resonated for me. I wish it had finished when she threw the lock of hair away, but what Hey! Cleaned out the tear ducts a treat.
It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004)
stinging humour in surprising places
There are some priceless scorching forefrontal one-liners in this movie. The record number of dialogue f***s in a film is so Old School and the writers have forged new boundaries to compete over! HA HA HA...I watched it a couple of days ago on my own and I'm still chuckling... I suppose its easy to target a lifestyle cult and take the mick, but its done really well honestly. There is also a catalogue of reference to past Brit Humour (although I believe the director is in fact Canadian)...that I think some viewers might be finding a bit difficult judging by the message boards. I particularly loved the "Austrian Friends" and I think there is quite a bit of homage to Old School in there too with the swimming pool scene. There is wonderful attention to detail in the props. For example The Aardvark Lipreading school advert in the Yellow Pages. Classic. Worth further study. I shall watch again. I love watching movies where its obvious the makers had a rollicking time making it. Don't YOU?
Last Days (2005)
I don't smoke...but I needed a cigarette after this.
Sadly not many of my co-reviewer seem to share my view. But hey. Well! I was just absolutely UTTERLY utterly blown away by Last Days. By the end I felt my guts just twisting up with sadness and I just couldn't stop sobbing for hours. I wanted a cigarette so badly and I haven't smoked for bloody ages. Two things about it that impressed most..... ONE The art direction was simply spot-on. The hyper-reality engendered by the place and the kids themselves, the way they talked and dressed and moved about.... all totally superb. Every last detail reminded me of some house I've been to in some respects my own house. The actors reminded me of my friends kids and kids of my friends and yes my own kids. I didn't know anything about the film before I saw it. I have never listened to Nirvana. Wrong generation. My first inkling/clue that it was about Kurt Cobain was his striped jumper. TWO Mr van Sant is a genius at pacing and getting the right shot for the mood. I especially love the bits where the sound is disjointed in time and the very long looks at the landscape and the way the camera is always twelve feet behind the man...but not in a predictable schmaltzy way but goddamn edgy and intense. Brilliant..now firmly lodged in my top twenty best-evers.
Guy X (2005)
How could it be worse???
The advertising for this movie is totally misleading. There is nothing remotely comic about it, dark or otherwise! In fact it plumbs new depths in banal humourless mediocrity. This film is SO bad that I cant actually think of anything that would make it worse. The so-called plot is risible and the acting performances are tentative, spongy and lifeless. The cinematographer managed to make some stunning landscape look really dull. There was no texture, no visual diversity, no nothing to grasp last straw-wise. The make up on bedridden man must have taken a long time, but SO What? Some of the audience walked out in the middle but I stayed until the end before deciding that it was utter utter utter.....I really resented paying the admission cost. thats how bad it is. Don't go.
Old School (2003)
Where 'the child within' remains buoyant into middle age and beyond
Look I don't know if anyone else does this? When I rent movies, what I like to do is choose two or three films to watch back to back, in a sort of film-binge. I take quite a bit of care to choose films that will 'work' together in a symbiotic resonance with each and my particular mood. It might be mono-genre fest, a world cinema whammy, old film/new remake combo or a mix and match melange. Whatever! When I'm watching with anyone else I prefer to do a quirky pairing that will promote a full on post-pleasure chin-wag. This explains why I watched OLD SCHOOL and SIDEWAYS at the same sitting. What an interesting pairing! They are both Men Behaving Badly/ Buddy Rites de Passage vehicles. They are both variants of very funny, they are both cast with known and admired funny-men, they both have comparatively young new directors, they both feature weddings and boys downtime antics.etc.etc. I love sniffing out blossoming social trend in movies (used to be in fashion forecasting). For me watching from a female perspective, the most notable thing was how both scripts constructed a scenario that allows the juvenile phase of manhood to be extended way into middle age and far beyond. the thirties are new forties and I don't think it is entirely because the bestest funny guys are that age and need continuity of work! I maybe wrong here but the film industry doesn't seem to be providing the same comedic opportunities to female actors. There have been offerings in the grey spinster/old girls genre, but they are usually serious emotional dramas. It seems so unfair that the chaps are allowed to keep their child within buoyant for ever and us women are doomed to a bitter croneship getting continually cosmetically upgraded to deny our age.I do realise films are not real life but I think you will agree there is an audience/ film interaction going on that informs society?. Old bags have a sense of lightweight fun as well, so where are all the youthful girly directors prepared to have a laugh at their own expense??? Well while we are waiting for this to happen OLD SCHOOL is superb entertainment that fills the void.
Ma vie en rose (1997)
Watch out if you have a raw unexposed emotional inner place
Not just a 'weepie' but a heaving-shoulder sobfest. I watched this at The Swiss House near Leicester Square, which is quite a small intimate cinema. I was there on my own, admittedly being a sad git and the house was packed; a fair proportion of whom were gay couples. I go to the cinema a helluva lot and on the Audience Reaction Richter scale this film was a force ten with warnings. It wasn't just the whole gender identity thing which was palpable and heart-wrenching but the powerful evocations of all childhood miseries that choked me up... Like the first day at my new school realising I was the only person wearing a homemade uniform (sorry mum but this has scarred me for life). At the Swiss House, the audience have to take a lift down to the exit and strangers were literally hugging each other because we all knew we had been crying our bloody eyes out unashamedly. I completely ruined my favourite scarf blowing my nose and wiping my mascara off my sodden face. This film just touches a raw emotional inner place so bloody beautifully..Formidable!!