The Basterds Are Inglouriously Back

image

Quentin Tarantino is back and he is taking on the Nazis. With his unique vision he has reinvented 1978 warsploitation film, Inglorious Bastards (the original is spelt correctly - Tarantino’s takes certain liberties with the English language). Tarantino is known for finding inspiration in 70s genre movies; a massive film buff he is constantly bringing lost work back into the public conscious (the original Inglorious Bastards has just been released on Blu Ray). Anyone who has seen the documentary, Not Quite Hollywood will be familiar with the joy Tarantino has for this era of filmmaking, and the excitement he finds in violence-packed -ploitation films of all descriptions.

Click here to read my full review at Trespass

image

Coraline

image

Coraline is a fairytale with a modern twist. Utilising a well-known plot of neglectful parents, inquisitive girl and magical world, Coraline follows in the mode of stories like Alice in Wonderland and Pan’s Labyrinth. Based on the novel of the same name by Neil Gaimen, Coraline has been interpreted for film by Henry Selick. His animated style, as seen in The Nightmare before Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach, gives Coraline a distinctive and strong aesthetic. Engaging the younger audience with an interesting story that is both creepy and exciting, shows that the author and director are both focused on good storytelling, not merchandising opportunities.

Click here to read my full review at Trespass

The Cove

image

The opening of the film is more like a modern spy thriller than the animal planet type documentaries we are used to seeing. Filming with a heat-seeking, military-issued camera, the opening sequence establishes a sinister tone that permeates the whole documentary. This isn’t going to be a ‘look at the dolphins aren’t they pretty, aren’t they clever’ sort of film - be prepared for something completely different.

image

The Cove is a superb documentary, deserving of its festival accolades. It is inspiring to see what people can do if they are really passionate about a cause. The documentary follows, perhaps the most committed of them all, dolphin activist, Richard O’Barry. O’Barry was the dolphin trainer on the TV series, Flipper and feels a heavy responsibility for the commercialisation of the mammal-‘10 years building the industry up, 35 years trying to tear it down’. This is a man whose personal guilt oozes off the screen. Now a well-known and seemingly much despised protector of the cetacean species, he travels the globe answering the call of dolphins in peril.
Click here to read my full article at Trespass

My Sister's Keeper-The Tearfest

image

The plot for My Sister’s Keeper is very promising. Anna (Abigail Breslin) was born, with scientific help, to be a genetic match for her severely ill sister. Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who has been battling leukaemia since she was a toddler, has survived due the blood and bone marrow she has received from Anna. Now fifteen, Kate is slowly dying from renal failure. Expected to donate her kidney, eleven year old Anna, decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation.

Author of the highly successful novel, Jodi Picoult, has picked up on a very real concern people have over body ownership. It is a hot topic, which people are both terrified of and fascinated by. The problem is - this is not a film about child rights or medical ownership, it is a family drama, not so much concerned with the big issues as hitting the emotional buttons. click here to read my full review at Trespass.

image

I like to think that Alec Baldwin's pained expression in this photo is down to the guilt-trip that Abigail Breslin is giving him over convincing her to sign up to the film.

Chéri- Aging Gracefully

image

Chéri is a beautiful film, the sumptuous settings, the exquisite costumes and the attractive cast all make the finished product very pleasing to the eye. The storyline of the older woman and the younger man is refreshingly different from the usual male/female dynamic. Michelle Pfeiffer is extraordinarily beautiful playing the retired courtesan, Léa who falls in love with Chéri (Rupert Friend), the 19 yr old son of a former professional rival, Mme Peloux (Kathy Bates).

image

The questions the film raises about money and happiness are intriguing. Both Léa and Mme Peloux have invested their money wisely and have amassed an impressive wealth, but they seem unable to fully enjoy this independence. Their freedom comes at a cost, they are separated from polite society because of their profession. There is a sense of tragedy to the film, with each character so intent on self-preservation they can't see that they are the cause of their own unhappiness.

image

Chéri was not the stock-standard period drama I was expecting. The film poses some nice questions about the hypocrisies of power, money and sex, all displayed in lovely packaging that made the film very engaging.

Click here to read my review at Trespass

Bronson- Style without Substance

image

Winner of the Sydney Film Festival 2009, Bronson has been labelled as the 21st Century's A Clockwork Orange. Director, Nicholas Winding Refn has definitely been heavily influenced by Kubrick, creating a highly stylised film. Visually spectacular, the film is full of menace making it both engaging and unpleasant to watch. Tom Hardy is fantastic playing real life prisoner, Charles Bronson. He completely transformed for the part and really invokes the spirit of a lunatic. British comedians, Matt King and James Lance are also very good in their roles, with King ad libbing some of the funniest lines in the film.

Unfortunately though visually arresting, the ultra cool, uber-violent scenes become a little repetitive as the film progresses. The film fails to tackle the more challenging sides of Bronson's personality. Presented as a man who thrives in prison, the question of Bronson being institutionalised is never raised; and the concept of the unreliable narrator is left unexplored.

image

Screenwriter Brock Norman Brock was out during the SFF, channelling the Bronson aesthetic, wearing a snug-fit tweed waistcoat and an impressively large handle-bar moustache. Listening to him speak, you got the impressive that what was on the page and what was on screen were not one-in the same. Brock alluded to some changes in direction for instance. the use of the vaudeville concept, was written in the script as a more intimate nightclub setting. He also spoke about having an interactive audience on screen, questioning Bronson's veracity as narrator.

The film adds layer upon layer of masks and disguises onto Charles Bronson, making it impossible to see even a glimpse of the man, Michael Peterson, who is underneath it all. After years of imprisonment, it now seems Peterson is keen to be released. You have to wonder if this film is going to do him any favours, it paints a less than sympathetic view of him.

Click here to read my review at Trespass

Spending time with Che

image

I have written my first film review for Trespass, looking at Soderbergh's Che films. I was lucky enough to be able to see both films back-to-back at the Sydney Film Festival in June. I enjoyed both and thought Benicio Del Toro played the part of Guevara well. I was more intrigued by the second film, The Guerrilla, which focused on Guevara's unsuccessful attempt to bring about a revolt in Bolivia, than the first film's look at the Cuban revolution. Showing his success and failure was clever, but I felt the films' vision of 'Che' was highly romanticised, forcing the marginalisation of many of the interesting characters in his life.

Click here to read my review at Trespass