weekend of 23rd, quick list

Akira.  Finally saw beginning to end.  Everybody as spectacular as every says, but we do get sore over long destruction sequences.

Midnight in Paris.  A nice idea,  but at times feels just like name dropping  celebs, and working too hard on its point.  Still,  beautiful Paris in the rain. 

How green is my valley.   I liked it,  very bleak coal mining period piece.  A bit surreal seeing malibu stand in for the Rhondda, and Roddy Macdowell age 13 filming less than a mile from the planet of the apes locations.

Ministry of Fear.   Fritz Lang noirish thriller with 5th columnists and Nazi sympathising Austrians in London. 

The French Dispatch

After seeing Clooney and Swinton in Michael Clayton yesterday,  I decided today I'd watch them in something else (I've recently seen Hail Ceasar, and was thinking Burn After Reading), but I spotted Swinton was in the new Wes Anderson.   Having recently had my third viewing of Grand Budapest Hotel, I figured I'd enjoy this one. 

Oh my goodness,  did I ever make the right move.   A few great laugh out loud scenes. But fantastic stories.  It's an anthology movie, each chapter another article from the magazine "The French Dispatch".  The visuals are just stunning, the humour is quirky and fun. The cast is great.

Not afraid to step into animation when needed. The sets move in and out of the wings like in a lavish stage play.  The 1.33:1 aspect ratio frees up space in screen for visuals outside the main narrative. The use of colour,  when used,  is delightful,  and the use of monochrome keeps the visuals clean and moody required.

I wish is bought,  not rented it as there's too much to get it all in the first half dozen viewings. 

O Brother, where art thou

As a re-watch I don't have much to add, but the soundtrack is a fun collection of songs. 

Great film

a quick list

Friday I finally got to see Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter.  Bitter sweet tale of a young woman's descent into depression,  and an escapist Treasure hunt against the backdrop of a claustrophobic Tokyo, and the frigid beauty of the welcoming but alien Minessota winter.

Saturday was Michael Clayton,  Tom Wilkinson and George Clooney in a nice little legal, chemical corporation cover up law case with hitmen and car bombs.

I also finally got to see Delicatessen. Probably the only Jeunet I hadn't seen up to this point.   Very similar in bleakness and style to Bigbug and Cite des enfants  perdu, maybe also Micmacs.  Absurdist farce, this time post apocalyptic. As opposed to the more light hearted Amélie and TSSpivet.

Argo

Bio pic about the rescue of American diplomats stuck in Iran in 1980.

Though a real story,  this plays like a Tom Clancy thriller.

Ben Afflek directed an starred.  I can see why everyone lives this movie when it came out. 

Wreckers

A kinda slow unravelling of a marriage.   It looks very much like a British independent film of the 70s, but is from 2011, making the camera work seem clumsy, not engaging.

Thr audio levels were all over the place on the stream,  I don't know if that was the directors intent,  but took away from the film. 

All I can say was Clare Foy's wardrobe was very British and very rural.

Skip it

Girl With Green Eyes (1964)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058142/

Rita Tushingham in another fun coming of age movie. It's not as bold as A Taste of Honey, nor as polished in script or camera work. One thing that worked very well for me was the editing. I loved how a dialog would start, and every line was delivered in a different location with a different wardrobe, conveying how the story of a love develops over time as one long conversation.  It could have easily come off as clumsy continuity, but seemed like a nice way of taking a stage play, and adding a realistic timeline in the movie.

Resuming my old film blog, because I'm watching films again.

 So I'm going to rapidly list the last 10 days of films before I forget, and then go back to maintaining this page on a regular basis.

1. Murder on the Orient Express - Brannagh
2. Nowhere in Africa
3. Cleopatra
4. Death on the Nile - Brannagh
5. Death on the Nile - Ustinov
6. Blade Runner 2049
7. A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood.
8. Mr Harvey Lights A Candle
9. A Good Day to Die Hard.

The Man of the Year

So I would like to tell you about this grim and amusing film.  Full of reprobates and ne'er do wells, I'm not sure there was a likable person in the whole film.  We do get to feel sorry for the lead character who, after an initial murder, gets coerced into becoming a vigilante for hire and he builds an empire of hit men around him.  Such a precarious foundation for his success rightfully causes his world  to come tumbling down around his ears.

There many interesting characters in this film, and a lot of double standards on display.  There is a dark sense of humor behind this, not as dark as "Man Bites Dog", not as playful as say Trainspotting or Snatch.  Not everyone's cup of tea, that's for sure.

John Carter

This is the completed filming of the ever popular Edgar Rice Burroughs novel which started the John Carter of Mars franchise many years ago.  The first screen rendition was a direct to DVD production in 2009.  I didn't see that other version, but a direct to disc, well one has to wonder.

This film, Disney, of course took out all the nudity that ERB put in his novels.  They did manage to keep a lot of blood and brutality though, but on a par with Star Wars.  They also managed to de-villanize the Apaches who were brutal savages in the novel.

The overall look was kinda how I expected, though I have never actually read any ERB cover to cover.  By keeping a turn of the century scientifiction look it almost seems steampunk at times.

So, yes lots of fighting, lots of rebellious hero, lots of scantily clad maidens, lots of pulp SF in glitzy 3-D CGI where you just totally go with the flow.

One thing that irked me was the subtitles when Martian is spoken.  I was also tricked into seeing the 3-D version, but this one was very watchable.  I'm learning to not try to focus on the characters who are out of focus.

The Secret Life of Arrietty

So I first heard about this one a year ago.  I just missed seeing it in Taiwan, not that I had time to see films that week, but I did get the book.

I kinda knew what to expect of the story, just a simple tale, no big bug eyed monsters, no fast chase scenes, but it had it's moments of action.  The things  I really liked were the back drops and the music.  I'm not sure if the art in this is better than other Miyazaki films, because despite my best intentions I never got to see any of the others on the big screen.

I'd really recommend this one for big screen as it's visually impressive.

The Cracksman

So I'm a sucker for a heist movie, but since the hero was Charlie Drake I kinda knew what I was letting myself in for.  Charlie Drake is one of the legendary comics of the 60's, and this film met every expectation as such, heavy handed farce with an everyday working man becoming first an unwitting master thief and a then an unwitting hero, and he got the girl.

Being a Saint fan I wanted to see what an aging George Sanders was up to, and having enjoyed The Protectors, I wanted to see what a young Nyree Dawn Porter was like, and as I said, a heist.

You have to be ready for this vintage of comedy, loud and brash, like a Norman Wisdom or George Formby film.  The writing was pretty good, able to reach all ages, from kids with slapstick, and some delicate double entendres for us old uns.  Throw in some dancing girls, fisticuffs and social commentary and you have a well rounded, if old fashioned film.

Oh, and look out for a young Ronnie Barker too.

Animal Kingdom.

I really liked this.  It's one of those working class gangster movies.  The villains are not your Hans Gruber super villains, not your DeNiro/Mann studious master thief.  These guys are like you'd see in The Bill, The Sweeney, Hill Street Blues.  They are led be a brutal matriarch who Neighbours fans will probably recognize.

I am learning a new respect for Australian films, I've always known they are out there, but for some reason it's easier to find foreign language films than down under movies.  Sure with films like Heavenly Creatures, Muriels Wedding and Prescilla Queen of the Desert we know they are capable of top quality output, but a lot of it is forgotten or hidden.

So I won't go into plot details, just let you know that this is more than about a boy becoming a man, it's a good solid study of malevolent behaviour in an action (but not explosions every two minutes) flick.

True Grit (John Wayne)

I guess it was his turn to get an oscar, and he didn't have many chances after this.  I was very dissapointed, probably because I was fresh from the Coen Bros version.  The DVD kept skipping, but is didn't seem like we were missing much.  This late Western seemed to be packed with every cliche, except the strong sassy girl was younger than before.

Sure the visuals are all you could want from a good Western, Wayne did an adequate job, but compared with other roles?  The gal was a let down, she lacked the strength and the hidden frailty we saw in the Coen version.

Fans will hate me for saying the above, but not a wonderful film.

Requiem For a Dream

I was attracted to this film by the soundtrack, and a strong recommendation from a friend I trust.  I was not dissappointed on either count.

This film is bleak, from the get go to the conclusion, don't look for a happy ending, unless you count a merciful release as happy.  Having said that, getting through the darkness is a fantastic journey, and one you can appreciate for it dark humour, and wonderful visuals, especially the mothers bad trip.  This is a junkie/druggie movie, but I don't feel compelled to pitch it against Trainspotting or scenes from Pulp Fiction, Refer Madness or lawks too many I can't remember.

I saw this after Black Swan, and think that it is as compelling a film, Aronofsky has a grim eye that stays on the sane side of Gilliamesque, making very full, rich films.

Not for the feint of heart,
K rated.

Panic

This is a fun little black comedy.  The usual overbearing grandfather wants his grandson to carry on the family business, but the father wants his son to have a better career than hired killer.

A few brutal scenes, but overall a decent, not too sappy comedy.  I enjoyed it and would recommend it with an M rating.

Chocolat

Well, this is not the Chocolat I was thinking of watching, with Juliet Binoche et al, this one was, found here on IMDb was an earlier war time drama set in French controlled Africa.  It's a typical coming of age movie with looks across cultures and social norms.  It has much the same flavour as "Walkabout", but a very different story line.

It's been a few months since I saw it, and remember little of the film apart from broad desolate landscapes, people getting caught on differing sides of social gaps, with several relationships falling afoul of this situation.

Worth seeing, but a bit ponderous and lethargic at times.  Photography was okay.

The Bed Sitting Room

"The Bed Sitting Room" has to be one of the most bizarre post apocalyptic films of the 60's, but that is not surprising since it was written by Spike Milligan.  The cast is just an amazing list of big names from British film, radio and TV.  Spike is not the only Goon present, Harry Seacombe also makes an appearance, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore appear together,  the most surprising to me is Ralph Richardson taking the title role.

The film is set in the shambles that was once London.  The few head of state has been identified, Mrs. Ethyl Shroake, as she is closest living relation to the pre-war monarchy.  All we encounter either totally lost their marbles in the war (which only lasted 2 minute 28 seconds) or are acting very British about everything.  The atmosphere is one of optimism, that Bulldog Spirit will see us through.

I think Goons fans will get more out of this than the rest of us.  Check in your sense of reality before you tune in to this surreal, but ultimately human film.

Apologies for my absence

New work, new worries, and joining the project when it's late just takes from my time.  I've still been watching, but not blogging of late.  I really need to remember what I saw, luckily Netflix does that for me.

Chocolat
Panic
Requiem For a Dream
True Grit (both versions)
Animal Kingdom
The Assasination of Jesse James
Dead Man
The Petrified Forest
Inspector Bellamy
Luck
Dial M for Murder
Mrs Brown
The Bed Sitting Room
Happenstance
The Big Lebowski
The Asphalt Jungle

I'll get the reviews here some day, I promise.

A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop

Well, the Coen Bros. are making remakes of classics, so why not someone remake their movies.

Taking the same story line and transposing it to China of old, this tale of betrayal, use and abuse is faithfully retold.  The whole film is packed with fascinating visuals, with interesting set dressing, locations, great colours and wonderful compositions.  The very look of the actors is excellent too.  I am now interested in seeing other films by Zhang Yimou, who also directed "House of the Flying Daggers" and "The Road Home".

I know, a short review, but all I can say is watch this great film, relax and enjoy.

I guess I should mention the original was "Blood Simple", the very first Coen Bros. movie.