Very Brief Slice of Wristcutter

It's been a while since my last entry and therefore I have a wealth of material to write about. Almost too much as I really have no idea where to start. I guess the best place to pick up is after the last movie night.

So, movie night number 4 came around and the movie of choice was Wristcutters, Goran Dukic's 2006 feature debut. I was once again going in blind as I had never heard of the movie. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised.

I wasn't on the edge of my seat, but I bought in enough to stay tuned in. The characters were likeable. The story, once the rules of this world had been set up, was plausible. The desolate world we were immersed in was believable. There were some flaws, but I can easily forgive them as the overall offering was strong enough to make up for the misgivings.

The protagonist was played by Patrick Fugit, who you may recall from the sublime Almost Famous. I couldn't help but imagine this as a continuation of his characters story from that movie. Maybe he never got the dream life he wanted at Rolling Stone and this is how he ended up. Maybe not!

As always, I don't want to give away too much plot so I'll cut here. If you haven't seen it, you should. It's not going to blow you away, but you will get a lot from it. For me, movies tend to fall in to three main catagories(for the most part). They either entertain, educate or challenge. This movie definitely ticks two of the three boxes.

Moving back in time 20 or so years, I also watched Bill Murray's What About Bob. A somewhat throwaway comedy from 1991. Murray plays an obsessive-compulsive pain in the rear, making life difficult for his new shrink played by Richard Dreyfuss. Again, this is something you should check out.

As much as What About Bob is great, I actually wanted to touch more on Murray than this movie specifically. An actor that, if you're anywhere near my age, you've grown up with. Films like Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Scrooged, Caddyshack etc. He always plays the good guy, even if he's a bad guy(if that makes sense). So we like him in movies. A pretty accepted view I feel.

The point I guess I'm getting to is, if we hadn't developed this subconscious trust for Murray, would his character in Lost In Translation, seem like a sleazeball. I mean, ultimately he's a married guy hanging out with a very attractive young woman. I didn't question this the first time I watch the movie. I guess because I know I can trust this guy. After all, he saved us from the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man didn't he.

Similar thoughts go out to Broken Flowers, where he seemingly plays an ex-womaniser. Surely if this was a generic unknown I wouldn't care for the guy. "It's his own fault he's lonely" I'd say. But Murray brings his likeability and familiarity to the movie. And it works. I care.

I don't think I'm saying anything revolutionary here. I'm certain the respective directors knew he'd bring this to the roles when they cast him. I'm also certain that this same rule applies to many other actors in roles where we shouldn't really like them as much as we do.

Ok, so before I wrap up, just a couple more notes. I tried watching Syriana and couldn't make it though the first 15 minutes. Terrible. I finally watched We Own The Night and enjoyed it much more than I expected to. Especially the opening scene with Eva Mendes(check it out guys).

Another Year is a must see as we all need somebody like Lesley Manville's Mary in our lives, if we don't have one already. Lastly, the 25th hour. A story we're probably more than familiar with but with Ed Norton and Philip Seymour-Hoffman at the helm, it doesn't fail to entertain.

Ciao!

Failure to launch

I've given a slightly misleading title to this entry. No I didn't watch the Sarah Jessica Parker rom-com, Failure To Launch. But as average as that film was, I kind of wish I had.

The movie I did watch last night was Brick. As mentioned in my last post, this was McNinja's choice for movie night. A solid pick. Recommended by critics. Reasonable cast and crew. So why didn't it work for me?

Personally, I don't feel this movie ever got off the ground. Joseph Gordon-levitt plays our protagonist and quite frankly, I didn't care for him one bit. He finds the body of a girl. His girlfriend. Of how long? I don't know. And that just where the problems begin. There wasn't enough emotional reasoning behind his potentially fatal journey for me to care why he was on it. This happens in the first few minutes of the film too, so a total failure to launch.

Because I didn't buy in at the beginning, I struggled for the rest of the film. The dialogue was forced and contrived and the film tried way too hard with it's style over substance attitude. I mean, I got it. At least I got what it was trying to do. But it didn't work for me on any level.

The style was reminiscent of a Hitchcock murder mystery. I have nothing against paying homage to the classics, but this was way over the top. It wasn't just a nod to Hitchcock. It was an annoying nodding dog on the dashboard of Hitchcock's car.

I'm glad, as always, that I watched this film, but unless you're a die hard movie buff, I wouldn't recommend it. A try hard, let down.

In two weeks time, it's Woody's turn to choose a movie for us and I'm hoping it's gonna be good. Following on from The City of Lost Children, I guess the only way is up.

Woody, in the words of White Men Can't Jump's immortal Sydney Deane, "Don't put up no brick"

The Girlfriend Experience

There's nothing I like more than going into town on a Saturday, grabbing a Starbucks and spending a couple of hours in HMV. I start at the A shelf, and systematically work my way through to Z. Then I check out World cinema and Westerns, then maybe TV. If you love films, it's quite a relaxing way to spend an afternoon. I recommend it highly.

Anyhow, one particular film that kept jumping out at me was The Girlfriend Experience. It looked interesting. After digging a little deeper, I found it was directed by Steven Soderbergh. If you aren't familiar (I'm guessing as you're reading a movie blog that you probably are) he directed the the 2 part Che, the Oceans Trilogy, Out Of Sight, Traffic, Erin Brockovich, and Sex lies and Videotape, to name just a few. Promising right?

The only thing that deterred me from buying this movie on Blu Ray was the price tag. HMV were kicking this out at twice the price of a normal DVD. Baffling! Why could this be? Ok, I don't know the answer to that so lets move on.

A little tip I have, if you're not fussy, is to pick up some 2nd hand Blu Rays on ebay. Search for "Blu Ray", then refine the results to show "ending soonest" and select your price range. I normally go for under £5. You'd be surprised at the amount of Blu Rays that go on ebay and receive no bids at all. Anyhow, long story short, I picked up a pristine copy of The Girlfriend Experience for £4. A saving of £21.

So I decided to watch it last night. I turned on the sounds system, fired up the good ol' 1080p and enjoyed a visual treat.

The movie is shot very well. The camera angles are interesting, but they work. On the extras, the star Sasha Grey details how Soderbergh evaluates each location in great detail before shooting. It pays off because I felt the style of the movie, complimented by the choice of shots, was extremely stylish and atmospheric. The soundtrack adds another layer to this, highlighting the stylish mood.

In terms of actually story and plot, I'm not sure there was quite enough there for me. I didn't flag at any point, which was a good sign. Nevertheless, I wasn't on the edge of my seat at any point. The main character was intriguing enough to keep me interested, but I didn't really like her. I don't think the audience is meant to in fairness.

The film kind of feels like a documentary. It's partly narrated, as the subject, a "high class" hooker, is being interviewed for a potential book. Now when I say documentary, I don't mean the rawness that documentaries tend to have, and nobody talks to the camera, but if you watch it, I'm sure you'll agree it has that feel. Another similarity it drew, surprisingly to me, was Lost In Translation. Now Lost in Translation is one of my favourite all time movies, and in no way am I putting this up there, but the mood aspect really brought them movies into a similar realm for me.

Would I recommend this movie? Absolutely. Is it revolutionary? No, but definitely worth 77 minutes of your time.

Lastly, I do have to make an apology to Mainstream Ross. It seems I may have been a little harsh with the Mainstream label. This was mainly in reference to the comic book movie obsession he has. Watchmen, Superman, X Men, and so on. In actuality, he does watch many foreign language films. Mostly involving Ninja's. So I was going to re-brand him as McNinja. This probably wouldn't sit well either so let's go for Ross. All jokes aside, he's hosting movie night on Thursday and I believe the film of choice is Rian Johnson's 2005 indie flick, Brick. Looking forward to that.

Ciao, for now.

Movie Round Up

I've detailed in this blog the 'big films' I've watched over the past couple of weeks, but the has been a host of other that aren't as 'flavour of the month'. So I thought it would be an idea to breeze over a few of them.

Last weekend I decided to go out and buy Spielberg's E.T. Mainly for the benefit of my daughter but also because it's been years since I watched it. So we settled down. Drinks, popcorn and all.

My daughter is only 5 years old and spent the first 20 mins asking questions. She still needs to grasp how a story unfolds. After a while I could see she was really into the story. I think initially she has reservations as to whether or not ET was really a good guy. Half expecting him to eat the whole family and fly away in his spaceship. Once she'd decided to accept he was a goodie, she really bought into his story.

I have to say, I'm not sure who got more emotional when ET died. Me or her! Truly an experience for both of us though. I actually got a bit teary eyed at a few points in the film. I put a lot of this down to the fantastic score by Williams. So iconic but still holds up. The scene where ET enables all of the kids bikes to fly was especially powerful, just as you think they're busted by the men in suits, Williams' amazing string rise and we take off. Truly magical cinema.

I attempted to watch Tamara Drewe a few days ago. I'm a big fan of Gemma Arterton so though I'd give it a go. She looks fantastic, as always. But even my school boy lust couldn't keeping me watching this. Almost every character annoyed me. Even Arterton. Big thumbs down from me.

Blue Valentine is another that I caught recently. I enjoyed Ryan Gosling in The Notebook and Half Nelson. Even in Lars and the Real Girl. I'd also heard good things about it and it received a ratifying 8.0 on IMDb.

All in all I'm glad I watched the movie. I definitely had some strong opinions on it. Michelle Williams character had some very deep underlying issues. She was extremely cold toward Goslings character. The movie tried to justify it be having him be a drunk. It didn't wash with me. I'm not condoning alcoholism, but quite frankly, his character didn't act like a drunk. Yes, he overreacted when she left him at the hotel. But not because he was drunk. He was acting like a man trying to save his marriage. A man that had booked a night away with his wife, only to have this evening turn into some crazy, disturbed sex fantasy for his wife.

I truly felt Gosling's pain. Williams' character wasn't even that likable in the flashback where we were perhaps intended to like her. The ending, without giving anything away, was flat. It just ended. Fin!!!

Definitely worth a look but don't expect anything revolutionary.

I decided I'm going to end with another top 5. This time, inspired by my viewing of ET, I'm gonna go for my Top 5 'Movies from when I was a kid'.

At number 5. Wax on, wax off, it has to be The Karate Kid. Daniel was such a hero for boys my age, taking down the bad guy with the legendary crane. Classic.

At number 4, dancing that magic dance, The Labyrinth. I loved this but was secretly petrified by it. After watching it I would swear there were Goblins poking out from under my bed when I wasn't looking. At the age I watched this, the whole world they were in was truly believable. And what were those crazy red fox like things that had floating heads? Creepy!

I had to include this film, because as you know, 'Nobody puts baby in the corner'. Dirty Dancing at 3. A strange choice you may think. Well I blame my two older female cousins. They babysat for me a lot and as my Mum had this on VHS, I was put through it almost every weekend. It's kind of shocking that I don't hate it for the same reasons really.

My number 2, brought to you with echoes of school holidays gone by. The Neverending Story. Many a rainy day off school has this film kept me on the edge of my seat. Atreyu was a personal childhood hero. A boy, fearless on a mission to stop The Nothing. How I wanted a ride on Falcor too. Weird and wonderful creatures galore. This is a film I definitely have to show my daughter.

Topping my list, with a big, resounding 'HEY YOU GUUUUUYS', The Goonies. What child of the 80's didn't love this film. There's plenty of diverse characters in this film, giving everybody someone to relate to. More prevalent though, is the adventure. How cool would it be to go underground, following a legend looking for treasure? With boobie-traps, treasure maps, crazy old women, one eyed willie and an accidental first kiss with the older girl, I think I'll always want to be a Goonie.

That's all for now. Catch you all soon.

The Fighter

I had the privilege of watching the Fighter this week and have to say, I loved this movie.

I'm a long time fan of Christian Bale and his accurate portrayal of likable junky"Dickie" is a method acting master class.

We've seen Bale's metamorphosis in films such as The Machinist and Rescue Dawn. Notably the physical appearance, but also his willingness to fully submerge in these characters. The Fighter sits firmly alongside these performance. I kind of feel that, had the character had been played by almost anybody else, I wouldn't have bought in as much as I did.

Now, Dickie has lots of flaws. But drilling down, you find that he's really just clinging on to the glory days. He's trying to relive his mediocre career through his brother but also taking the drugs to recapture a feeling of youth. The days where life was promising and happy and he had his whole career ahead of him.

Dickie isn't a bad person, just desperately flawed. I was rooting for him the whole way through this film. Wishing he'd find his way. Kind of strange considering he's a no good junky that consistently lets his brother down. All credit to Bale.

I found Mark Wahlberg to be solid in this film too. I couldn't fault his performance anywhere. His character was obviously driving the plot forward but he was massively overshadowed by Bale.

Melissa Leo received a lot a critical recognition for her role as the mother. I absolutely hated her character. As far as I could see, not a single redeeming quality. Again, a solid performance and the recognition was truly deserved.

The fight scenes were 100% believable. If they hadn't have been, the film may have lost the authentic feel that it upheld the whole way through. I was especially pleased at an artistic choice made during the last fight too. As the fight plays out and the victorious end approaches, all too many times have we seen a director go for the over the top soundtrack. Rising strings, triumphant tones - cue tears of joy. Director David O. Russell went for the authentic. No overdone soundtrack. And it worked for me. It played out, just as a real fight would. Credit to him too.

All in all a truly enjoyable film. Stay for the credits too as you get to see the real man behind Christian Bales stand out performance.

Funny People

In two days time Woody and Mainstream Ross will be coming over for my movie pick. I'm kind of torn. Do I go for something I'm pretty certain will impress or do I stick something random out there?

The front runner at the moment is Funny People. It's a movie I've already seen, but the other two haven't. Now, I could just say "you should check out Funny People" and hope they watch it independently, paving the way for us all to watch something new together. The problem with this is that Woody seems to have some sort of prejudice against Judd Apatow. Fair enough, his movies have a distinct feel and he isn't everybody's cup of tea. Ross may be more inclined to watch this, but still, I don't think he would.

The reason I'm keen for them both to see it, is that I'm pretty sure it isn't the movie they think it is. I mean, yeah it's got the "dick jokes" and plenty of toilet humour. It also has the Judd Apatow stamp all over it. The difference for me is the dark undertone to this movie, something that most of his stuff doesn't have.

Adam Sandler is playing a kind of caricature of himself. The opening scene is great too. As a long time fan of Sandler, it's great to get a peek into what drove his early humour. Rogen is great as the wannabe understudy and Jason Schwartzman is perfectly cast as the annoying hollywood asshole.

To be absolutely honest, I thought the cast was perfect. Leslie Mann did nothing for me as the love interest but I figure she wasn't supposed to really. She's slightly annoying and kind of gave e mixed feelings. Again, i feel this was intentional so job well done I guess.

Moving on, it feels like the second half of the movie takes us in a whole new direction. Once Eric Bana's character is introduced there's a new dimension to this. Personally, I love it. Any kind of betrayal, hurt, lies or other dark tones is right up my street. Not because I'm a bad person, but they induce such raw feelings. Feelings we may not experience in the day to day rat race.

So back to my point, I kind of want the to see the film and this seems like an opportune moment to do so. It's kind of a long film but well worth it.

My back up choices, should I waiver, are:

All The Real Girls

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (I can't believe I haven't seen this yet)

Anti Christ (Have no idea what this is other then it stars Willem Dafoe and goes 'way out there')

I'll be checking back in towards the end of the week with a snapshot of how it went.

Lastly, I want to do a little top 5 thing. I listen to some decent movie podcasts and it's something I enjoy listening to so though I'd jump on the bandwagon. As I'm British, I though I'd start with a Top 5 British Films. So here goes.

5. Trainspotting - What's not to like? Danny Boyle at his gritty best. Stunning performances from all. Shockingly truthful glimpse of a world I know all too well.

4. Notes On A Scandal - If you haven't seen this already it's an absolute must. Judy Dence at her absolute best. I never really understood the fuss about Dench until I saw this movie. It's raw, cringey and a ourney you have to go on.

3. Love Actually - Pretty mainstream but a good all rounder. It can be both happy and sad, cold and warm. An impressive soundtrack and an even more impressive cast. I'm sure you've all seen it anyway and will either agree or disagree with this being a great movie.

2. Shaun Of The Dead - A solid comedy. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at their comedic best. Edgar Wright directs and gets every joke just right. The way the comedy is layered keeps me coming back again and again.

1. Closer - What can I say, my all time fave. Slick, stylish, powerfully emotional and ticks every box I have for a great drama.

So that's it for now. Have a think about your own top 5's. It's fun and you may dig out some gems of movies you've forgotten about.

Bye Bye

Not So Dizzy Heights

When you watch as many films as I do, you have to go out there and look for what to watch next. I generally look around IMDb, check out directors, writers and actors I like, then follow the links the their other works. It can lead to watching some real random stuff. Some good, some bad.

Some of the really random stuff I've come across, stuff that probably wouldn't have found me, turned out to be some of the best movies I've seen. All The Real Girls springs to mind. A small town story, focusing on the relationships of the people that live there. Very simple, but done in a way that the viewer can relate to. Some of the scenes reminded me of late summer nights back in my own home town. I felt both happy and sad, but foremost, nostalgic. Zooey Deschanel stars alongside an outstanding Paul Schneider. Go check it out f you haven't already(and don't watch the trailer).

So getting back on track, I was scouring the net, looking for a new film. I came across this film, Heights. The cast seemed ok. Elizabeth Banks, Glenn Close and James Marsden, to name a few. Box ticked. The summary seemed ok. Box ticked. What hooked me though, was the statement on the cover. "The movie I wanted Closer to be".

As Closer is my favourite movie, I though I'd give it a go. I didn't really expect Heights to be better, but if it was in the same vein, I was certain I'd like it. And to be honest, I did.

It hit a lot of the same notes as Closer. There was love, lust, lies and betrayal. The were some good characters(Glenn Close in particular). The obvious comparison to draw is the city based location, one in London, one in New York.

Where the films vastly differ, for me, is the attachment to the characters. Bluntly, there wasn't much. Yes, James Marsden's character is confused, troubled, in love/lust. Do I care? Not at all. Glenn Close appears trapped in a marriage of convenience. She flirts as a form of release. She interferes with her daughter's life. Again, I couldn't make a connection, she just wasn't a nice person.

Now, I'll pretty much watch any film once. I even managed to sit through Guus Van Sant's "Gerry". My girlfriend on the other hand, will fall asleep if the films aren't good. Now we do have different taste, so this barometer doesn't always work. But if the film is aimed at a mainstream audience and she manages to stay awake, then it's a good sign. Unfortunately she did fall asleep about the 1 hour mark, so take from that what you will.

All in all, I would suggest seeing this film. Just don't expect a masterpiece. It's a reasonable story, with a few surprises along the way.

Ta ta for now