February 2012
25 posts
2 tags
#041: Sleeping Beauty (2011)
Y’know, this movie has been sitting on my computer unwatched for ages because the idea of watching it, liking it and having to admit as much on here made me feel a bit creepy. But the truth is I did like it. Sure, there’s a small element of arty porn to it, but for the most part I just found it oddly compelling. Everything about it is still and quiet, yet it somehow avoids feeling...
2 tags
#040: We Need to Talk About Kevin
I have to say I thought this was pretty excellent. As I was actually watching it - for the first hour or so, say - I’m not sure I felt the same way, but now it’s finished it has left me feeling kind of sick and shaken and I can only commend it for that. I mean, the Kevin character is into archery and the movie plays with a similar tension to that of a bow as it’s drawn. It...
2 tags
#039: 50/50
Yeah, I really liked this again. Everything said here still applies.
Grade: ****
1 tag
Oscars 2012
Next to spending New Year’s Eve recording my Last.fm charts at midnight to see exactly what I listened to in the calendar year, I think watching the Oscars alone and live-“tweeting” into a .txt file to post here is my second most pathetic tradition. And what’s worse is I wouldn’t have it any other way, lunatic that I am. So yeah, here are a few thoughts on the Oscars...
2 tags
#038: A Better Life
It plays off Bicycle Thieves pretty damn directly and it’s a bit of a sadness spiral, but I thought this was pretty decent. It actually resonated me with strongly for a movie that’s so detached from my life too. I mean, it’s delusional and self-aggrandising, I know, but anything that features a lead who tries to conduct himself with honour even in the face of serious negative...
2 tags
#037: Martha Marcy May Marlene
I thought this was good - compelling, well shot, excellently performed - but honestly it reminded me a little of Melancholia in that when you centre a movie on someone who’s so completely disconnected, it’s hard to really invest yourself in it. So I thought it made for really interesting viewing, but I couldn’t love it. I did think Elizabeth Olsen was fantastic though.
...
2 tags
#036: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
I wish I could have left more time before watching this after the original, but I think Fincher did an unsurprisingly good job. For a start, I thought a lot of the changes in the screenplay worked really well. I mean, I have no idea which is more faithful to the book - I’m going to guess the original - but I liked Daniel Craig’s Blomkvist more and the way the mystery was handled...
2 tags
#035: The Muppets
There was a fairly big part of me that feared disappointment with this one, but nah… it’s really everything most of the reviews have said. It maybe sags a little toward the end, but on the whole it’s super fun, super joyful and everything you could hope for from The Muppets. A lot of the music reeks of Flight of the Conchords, too, so that can only be a good thing.
...
2 tags
#034: Margin Call
I thought this was pretty great. For all I’ve learned from reading about it, watching Inside Job and listening to loads of This American Life episodes devoted to the matter, this was the first time I’ve seen the financial crisis presented with such spark and drama.
The screenplay is just fantastic. It’s tight, it’s tense, it’s full of character and dynamism,...
2 tags
#033: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
I think this was okay. The knock on it seems to be that it’s too schmaltzy and sweet for what it is but, to be honest, they were probably the qualities I liked most about it. The movie basically seems split between wanting to be an emotionally manipulative, heavy-handed crowd-pleaser and something more poetic and worthy, and the constant shift is where it struggles. The big emotional...
2 tags
#032: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
I thought this was very good. Even after all the talk about how it was a more mature, considered thriller I was still taken aback by how slow it was, but it does work in its favour. Everything is really deliberate, the pace allows the performances to shine and it makes a nice change from other spy dramas you’ll see. I can’t say I was too emotionally invested in it, which is fairly...
2 tags
#031: Arthur Christmas
It probably doesn’t help that I was really tired and not exactly in the Christmas spirit when I watched this, but I didn’t really enjoy it very much. One of the things I remember hearing about it was how unique it was for not having a villain, but I didn’t think it had many likeable characters either. Usually good children’s movies make up for being predictable and...
2 tags
#030: Albert Nobbs
Considering “period drama in which Glenn Close disguises herself as a man to keep employment in 19th century Ireland” sounds as dull as it gets, I guess this was alright. It starts out nicely enough, much breezier than expected, but eventually the sadness of the story drowns everything else out and by the end I was kind of happy for it to be over. Not great, but elevated slightly by...
2 tags
#029: A Separation
I thought this was really good. I’d assumed it was going to be heavy tale about divorce in Iran but it’s actually a really fascinating, complex courtroom drama full of twists and moral quandaries. A part of me wonders whether the story would work as well were it an American or British film, whether it just seems better because it’s foreign and interesting, but I guess the...
2 tags
#028: Beginners
I guess this was okay. It’s obviously a very heartfelt movie about love and life and loss and overcoming obstacles, but it didn’t really manage to move me. There’s a quietness to it that evokes Sofia Coppola but it falls short in terms of emotional clarity and poignancy. It was interesting, yes, but not quite as affecting as I would have imagined.
Grade: ***
2 tags
#027: War Horse
It’s a tough one to judge, this. On one hand, it’s Spielberg and it comes with all the class you’d expect. The production is fantastic, from sets to score, and the story provides a palatable, enjoyable tapestry view of World War I. There’s an undeniable timeless quality to it. Having said that, however, on the other hand, it’s lead character is a bloody horse.
I...
2 tags
#026: A Dangerous Method
This was okay. There’s a lot of interesting talk for the psychoanalytically inclined - of which I am - and it’s all very well-performed and polished, but there’s not really much in way of story. It just kind of drifts along until the conversation abruptly stops with no real resolution or focus. And, y’know, that’s not necessarily the worst thing ever - I quite...
2 tags
#025: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1
I’m not going to say anything surprising about this. I stopped reading the first book shortly after starting because I couldn’t handle the writing and the movie dialogue doesn’t fare much better. Truly, some of it borders on self-parody and yet it’s completely lacking self-awareness. The only really fun part was seeing Kristen Stewart become an emaciated wreck. Those...
2 tags
#024: The Iron Lady
It’s pretty grim, this. A tale of tough times, reflecting today’s tough times, as told through the prism of a sad, haunted old woman. It’s not a bad movie or anything, and Streep is inevitably very good, but there’s not a lot in terms of new insight or entertainment. It’s a tidy little biopic, but it doesn’t manage to convey quite completely the weight of all...
2 tags
#023: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
Oh, I thought this was a bit of a damp squib, to be honest.
The first movie reminded me of Silence of the Lambs, the second one reminded me of a Prime Suspect and this one reminded me of an episode of Law & Order: UK or something. It’s actually kind of remarkable how, by this point in the trilogy, all the spark and atmosphere seems to be gone. Blomkvist spends the whole thing...
2 tags
#022: The Girl Who Played With Fire
Hmm. This was less good than the first movie. I still thought it was alright, but it kind of feels a bit less cinematic and a bit more like watching the first half of a Prime Suspect or some other TV crime miniseries. Also, because Lisbeth and Blomkvist are practically never on the screen together, everyone’s kind of isolated and it consequently becomes very plot-driven. A lot of the...
2 tags
#021: The Man From Earth
I thought this was alright. It’s the kind of movie I love in that it all takes place in one room and is completely dialogue driven, but I found it a little hard to get past the dodgy filmmaking. I mean, the idea and the discussion of it, on the whole, was really compelling and so I did enjoy the movie, but aesthetically it feels like it was made by someone who’s used to directing bad...
2 tags
#020: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
When everyone started raving about the original Danish version of The Killing, I decided I’d watch that before the American remake. What happened, though, was that before I’d gotten around to making the effort to get my hands on the Danish version, the American one started on TV and I thought, “oh, I’ll make do with this”. It was a big mistake. So although a big part of me was tempted to allow...
2 tags
#019: The Artist
Yeah, I thought this was pretty excellent. I did wonder whether the hype might hurt it, but where it surprised me was in how complete it all feels. It doesn’t feel like a novelty silent film at all. It has comedy, romance, drama and it’s all very emotionally potent as well as technically impressive.
It’s probably not my personal favourite of the year, but it’s probably...
2 tags
#018: Young Adult
I thought this was good - probably better than my grade suggests - but the thing is I just couldn’t enjoy it like the people around me seemed to. It was just too sad.
I remember calling Lars and the Real Girl “a modern age fairy tale for the damaged, not quite grown-up” and I love it for that. This is pretty much the opposite. Charlize Theron’s character is fucked up in...