Film 2016

[murphy's law]

I feel like people have very low expectations these days, making excuses for poor films, usually blockbusters, by saying it's a good 'popcorn film' or whatever. This has been encapsulated by two recent films for me, Star Trek Beyond & Suicide Squad.

I've seen lots of positive reviews for Star Trek, but I think at best it is a 6/10 movie. Likewise for Suicide Squad, not necessarily critic reviews, but the fan reaction has been positive. I find this unfathomable. It's a truly shambolic film for start to finish, it's basically one big long trailer, with unfunny quips, messy cuts & overuse of music segments. It's an incomprehensible mess, there is little to no character development & the plot is non existent. The antagonist is laughable & I was frankly embarrassed for Cara Delevingne. It makes BvS, which I thought was decent (the extended version anyway), look like a work of cinematic genius. I say all this as a sci-fi/super hero film fan.

 

[The Clamp]

Saw Jason Bourne last week. Hmm. It was a passable couple of hours in the cinema but the film doesn't touch the original Matt Damon ones. It doesn't have the same vibe. The car chases are no longer gritty but more Bruckheimer, one scene in Vegas with a SWAT van sending cars flying one after another is particularly annoying.
The concept that Bourne would stay out in the open purely for revenge is at odds with the other film's motivations. Bourne simply doesn't need to be doing what he's doing.
TLJ is passable but phones in a performance he can do in his sleep.
The editing is too quick cut even for a Bourne film, making it unpleasant to watch in some of the more hectic moments and they've remixed Moby's Extreme Ways end theme so it doesn't have much impact.
I would say they just about got away with this one but only just.

 

[RandyWanger]

I re watched Jack Reacher over the weekend as the trailers for the new one look amazing, really looking forward to that.

 

[looney]

You do realise that the use of the word "original" changes depending on the context, right? Strictly speaking, the original Bourne narrative comes from a book, if you wish to use its truest definition. But "original" can be used to imply a fresh take on something by a particular person or artist - in this case, the original Matt Damon Jason Bourne trilogy.

Who knew I was going to have to be quite so explicit with such a simple concept.

I took Original to mean first, it was meant to add information to your post not lambaste you.

 

[Meade's Ball]

So, it's been a while. And during that while I've been to see, in the cinema, like, 3 films. The difficulty, of course, is in remembering precisely what went on. So, in chronological order it was:

The Shallows - what I recall of it was an annoyance at that American style of family that appears in films bathed in a glowing financial comfort that can only produce excessively beautiful children who will grow to be doctors and kindly world leaders. Blake Lively is this offspring and, for being this pristine sickeningly admirable go-getting type, I did root for the shark that was out to get her to come out on top now and then. I also hoped the injured gull that kept her company was secretly sending messages to the killer fish about her plans and how best to get her. Sadly, of course neither happened. Long spells were spent in slow-motion shots of her body to die for, so it was a flick for excitable young males, but when the thrills came it became a half-decent film for what it was. Some of the graphics weren't great, but the scariness of the emergence of a fin from the surf will always provide a sense of true dread. Not bad. I found her annoying though.

Childhood of a Leader - this film I saw instead of that David Brent one. I was in the mood for an afternoon off of work, and to see some quality. This only partly fulfilled that wish. The music within the film was great. A pounding sense of evil to it. Tis the tale of a young boy in France with his mother and father in 1914, his father working on the Versaille Treaty that would reshape Europe. The boy is to become the leader mentioned in the title, of the most rotten sort, so we see future despot is formed as he learns about politics and negotiation and the crookedness of power and mercilessness, all the while being this seemingly unloved child. It wasn't quite as gripping as I'd hoped, but weren't bad and the music powered it along.

Weiner-Dog - now, I like Todd Solondz. Or certainly did with Happiness all that time ago, and Welcome to the Dollhouse beforehand. He hasn't seemed to be able to develop out of simply what he enjoys doing with film, which is to create the blackest most depressing deadpan comedy and making people wince and squirm whilst watching and evilly giggling. This time around it is 4 stories, connected by a wee dog and its owners. The first episode was moderately amusing here and there, with Julie Delpy in the unhappiest marriage only kept together by their young son who is recovering from a near-terminal illness, and her telling the tale of a rapist dog from her youth called Mohammed. And the last episode had some funny moments. But the middle two were pretty flat. Overall, it were ok, but I wonder if he can do anything else, Solondz, and rather hope he does. His photo on IMDB is very apt, and quite funny in itself in how it captures the mood to all of his fare.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Grey Gardens on YouTube. Now that is a film!

 

[LamieRobertson]

Went to watch Anthropoid tonight £4 at the Connaught Worthing...bargain

 

[Meade's Ball]

It's been a troublesome few days. This doesn't greatly relate to film, although some of the thoughts that went through my mind were partly engineered by the innocent thrust into madness that so many flicks have told of. All that happened was the moving into a new flat. We didn't want to leave the last one, but the owner pretended to want to sell, and elsewhere we needed to find. The place we discovered was rather far away, but in a new district that in itself was nice and different with a feel that was quietly welcoming. The issue was the house itself, and those upstairs and downstairs from us. We stayed for the first time there on Monday night. Until 3am a variety of screams and hollers were unleashed by those within earshot. Haunting sounds. Unnatural ones from this dimension. The scrapes and scratches of a chalkboard from Hell. I sought to keep the girlfriend calm, but inside, and probably out, I was cacking it.

Night 2 was little better, but where the noises came from narrowed to upstairs, where lived and out of breath bloater who liked to stomp the night away, moving furniture until dawn, and seemingly crying about it all. After that night, we were awoken at around 6am by the rapey howl of 4 unfriendly foxes, who feasted at that time on the loaves of bread left out by the downstairs neighbour, a most elderly and scrawny chap. Now, I like foxes, in general, but, around 10 minutes after their first sighting, I thought I would check to see if they were still there. There was just 1. It glanced up at me, and hypnotised me with its stare, before forcing out a turd on the bit of the garden labelled ours. I've never seen a creature take an immediate dislike for me before, and plant a steaming parcel to let me know about it, whilst continuing to simply stare me out. I found it a touch horrifying.

Night 3, just last night, introduced us more to the activities of the scrawny chap downstairs, way nearer to death than the chance of another 2 years on earth. Prior to this, we'd popped to a new nearby cinema, which was actually in an art school, and saw Hell or High Water, which had its moments and a good grasp of widescreen western grandness. It had a bit of trouble with consistency of tone, and wanting to be Coen-brothers-esque, and having Ben Foster as one of the out there, wound-up guys who has an insatiable appetite for something he shouldn't he always plays, but it built, and toward the end was quite gripping. So we finished the film and walked gently home, as if a night was normal. But then the downstairs chap, who we had seen on our way in and said a warm hello to, began his actions. I looked out of the window after hearing the front door open and slam around 3 times, and saw him twaddle down the road with 2 big bags of pilfered rubbish. He skipped and grinned at this find and went back and forth with the garbage to bring into his home. Odd, I thought, but he seems to be a hoarder of sorts. What followed, though, was the night of screams we'll never grow used to, and the realisation that it was him downstairs who made most of the noise, whilst the fat attic shuffler sleeplessly trampled and wept. We were the unholy meat in this bocadillo de locos. And I don't feel we deserved to be.

Then, today. Midday arrives and I call the girlfriend to find out how she is getting along. She whispers, tearfully, that one of the unsettled ones, alright they do have mental difficulties of one type or another but it doesn't make for a picture of comforting neighbours when you are just looking for somewhere quiet, has gone berserk, and is charging around the property claiming to wish to kill a landlord. She's afraid to leave the property, so I tell the landlord we are out, to which he agrees, and I uber it home, whilst the police were called by the girlfriend. Things are ok, and the police tell us they are limited in what they can do, but can lead us safely out and a heavy bag of our main goods are dragged out and up to somewhere safe to lay low until we know what to do next. To relax, we go to see Little Men, in a nearby Picturehouse. The girlfriend, suddenly hungry, buys a chilli salami, a strange snack to take in. This was a sign that the world wasn't right, but that this could be the last irregularity we suffer today. The film, Little Men, wanted music to do more for it than it could muster. Ok the thoughts of worry and uproar were still spinning around in me a bit, but I wasn't believing that these 2 kids had anything of a bond, for all the growing conflict of the parents of each. They were just a bit annoying too. I'd read that the director had an eye for finding the heart of children. Maybe that is so, but he had to make them more likeable or complex, I felt. Anywho, that's that. And I have to go to work tomorrow and be normal, which is fine.

 

[Meade's Ball]

I seem to be making the same, slightly joyous yet painful, mistake every year. I've over-bought for the film festival. It's only the morning of day 3 and my brain says NO MORE.
Still, some good things seen thus far.

Indivisible - Italian conjoined twin drama, in which the parent have used their "deformity" by having them as a sort of freakshow act, singing at weddings and birthdays. They discover that surgery can have them separated after all and the trip they go on, with that unbreakable bond and the wish to be independent, was quite moving, and the setting in southern Italy was one of destitution and making ends meet. A good opener. The weird thing was at the end the girls, who are twins but not conjoined, appeared, singing for us. They should remember how squirmy us lower middle class people feel.

After the Storm - Japanese film by Koreeda Hirokazu. I love his tone. So gentle and familial and warm, yet laced with an incurable sadness. His films gently thunder. This one has a typhoon approaching, and a broken family bonding in their own way. Lovely stuff.

Wild - um, this was a strange one. A socially awkward woman going through a crisis from her grandfather being so ill, sees a wolf and becomes obsessed with it. She ends up looking to become the wolf, marking her territory by dropping a coiled black turd on her manager's desk, and drinking water from a dirty pool with the wolf she's captured and befriended. Wasn't awful, but didn't work wonderfully. And just a bit yucky.

Ma Rosa - a gripping shaky-cameraed trip to the Philippines and the little run down area which has Ma Rosa and her kin selling drugs and crisps in er little store. Tis all much of a muchness and not greatly illicit, when the police raid, take her and her husband in, and demand a pay off to have them released. You're right in there with them. No one is fully decent, but it is at is, and you hope to the hilt that she'll get out. Really good film.

Moonlight - top film. Beautifully told coming of age drama in Miami, with a bullied black kid coming to terms with his homosexuality. Told in 3 chapters over 20 years, the music is excellent, and the subtlety of the macho environment suppressing any possibility of coming out ripples beneath the surface. The almost said emotion of it all is so powerful and the performances were great.

Off now. Ouch.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Ok, i've begun to fall asleep here and there in one or two of the 7 films i've seen over the last 2 days. It's not their fault, really. It's the damn subtitles. I've realised that's what does me in, reading for 8 hours, and i should've known before. Anywho, the tickets have been bought and i simply have to enjoy it and accept nodding off in mid-read. IN chronological order:

Heal the Living - not one for me this. A rather corny saga of a trio of adventurous youngsters heading out on a surfing trip. In the van home, disaster strikes, and the handsomeest of the fake blonde lads is brain dead. Time for his parents to mournfully have his organs donated. In charge of the transfer is Tahir Raheem, an actor i simply couldn't believe for a second as a medical professional. I don't automatically see him as a prison-mate, but there is no way in this universe that he's a doctor. It was a maudlin and had slow-motion nostalgic bits. nah. not great. French, it was, and the French output for a while hasn't been spectacular.

Sieranevada - now, for this one i had trouble staying awake. It was close to 3 hours, Romania, and a chamber piece. It was good and funny, but i had to read like the wind, and that wore me out completely. One character in this memorial of the father of this family, laughed increasingly at the ludicrous things being argued over, and he was us for most of the time. Family feuds and class divides and entertaining banter. Shame i was concentrating in the last hour too much on fighting an oncoming snooze.

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki - a black and white boxing flick set in the early 1960s, in Finland. Looked good and rich in the glittering white light of the film, but the character didn't greatly come through in this true story. He's a regular Joe and doesn't want to be thrust into the world of potential world champion and the hype of it all. He just wants to fight, shake hands in a gentlemanly style, and gambol around with his true love, who doesn't fit the boxer with wife stereotype they were looking to sell. Was alright, but it didn't fire up the emotions as i'd hoped.

Tower - a rotoscopic animation of the memories of those involved in the University of Austin sniper shootings of the early 60s. Was quite emotional, and deftly told of how those still living remembered it, deeply and graphically. The true heroes of the day, Artly in particular, a young man who finally dared sprint into the open spaces of open fire to rescue a pregnant women shot and burning on the heating pavement, recalled how they didn't act soon enough. Strange how those we bow to remember laced with so much guilt. One cop was also in tears for not being brave soon enough. We seem to remember what we did, but the fault of it rather than the splendour. A good documentary. A good q&a with the director too. A nice way to finish off Friday night.

La La Land - well, the q&a with this film was with none other than Ryan Gosling. People stood and snapped and screeched at the sight of him. Not moi. I Like him, but he's just an actor. Not Chuck D, for instance. Anyway, the film is an ode to musicals and will be rightly popular. The opening is great and some of the music is excellent, and Gosling and Emma Stone give it their all in bits of dance and song, but it flattened out quite a bit halfway through and onwards. They wanted it to mix the magical of the musicals and Hollywood, with a more real-life edge and the two's deep romance. The romance was told in the music and dance though, so once it goes away from it, i was less entertained. The director was the one who did the excellent Whiplash, which got a standing ovation just a year ago. This did too, but not by me. Good and great in parts, but couldn't match The Artist of a few years ago as ode to older films and styles.

New Kind of Kick - this was a collection of shorts. I left in mid-Gosling q&a to get there, as i don't like being late. Really, i don't like being seen being late, but who cares. The pick of the shorts was a SPanish one that won at Cannes. Timecode, it's called, and was a cool and heartfelt little tale of two security guards. The main one we see comes in in the morning for her shift, asks the guy she's taking over from whether there was any trouble during the night, to which he replies with a simple no, and bids farewell. A phonecall comes in to say that a car was damaged during the night, so our guard checks the video of one time in the night to find her colleague perform experimental interpretive dance routines throughout the carpark. He's quite a funny dancer. Amused and bemused, she then leaves him a small note to check camera 7 at 16.42, in which she is seen doing one of his dances. They leave a note for each other in each shift and the dance grows, never to be talked about. It was quite lovely.

Wulu - i tried to get away from the main and big films today, after La La Land, and this was a Malian drug thriller. I took a big coffee with me, but finished it too soon. I was sure i was doing ok, but then sort of came around to see someone blown up by a tanker, and the film finished. I had no idea how that happened, and still don't. There was a q&a afterwards, which i hoped would fill me in, but all the questions were about the Malian drugs crisis. For all i saw of it, it was alright. Scarface-ish, but less about entire greed and power.

Have another 4 tomorrow, and need a healthy snooze.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Ok, i've begun to fall asleep here and there in one or two of the 7 films i've seen over the last 2 days. It's not their fault, really. It's the damn subtitles. I've realised that's what does me in, reading for 8 hours, and i should've known before. Anywho, the tickets have been bought and i simply have to enjoy it and accept nodding off in mid-read. IN chronological order:

Heal the Living - not one for me this. A rather corny saga of a trio of adventurous youngsters heading out on a surfing trip. In the van home, disaster strikes, and the handsomeest of the fake blonde lads is brain dead. Time for his parents to mournfully have his organs donated. In charge of the transfer is Tahir Raheem, an actor i simply couldn't believe for a second as a medical professional. I don't automatically see him as a prison-mate, but there is no way in this universe that he's a doctor. It was a maudlin and had slow-motion nostalgic bits. nah. not great. French, it was, and the French output for a while hasn't been spectacular.

Sieranevada - now, for this one i had trouble staying awake. It was close to 3 hours, Romania, and a chamber piece. It was good and funny, but i had to read like the wind, and that wore me out completely. One character in this memorial of the father of this family, laughed increasingly at the ludicrous things being argued over, and he was us for most of the time. Family feuds and class divides and entertaining banter. Shame i was concentrating in the last hour too much on fighting an oncoming snooze.

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki - a black and white boxing flick set in the early 1960s, in Finland. Looked good and rich in the glittering white light of the film, but the character didn't greatly come through in this true story. He's a regular Joe and doesn't want to be thrust into the world of potential world champion and the hype of it all. He just wants to fight, shake hands in a gentlemanly style, and gambol around with his true love, who doesn't fit the boxer with wife stereotype they were looking to sell. Was alright, but it didn't fire up the emotions as i'd hoped.

Tower - a rotoscopic animation of the memories of those involved in the University of Austin sniper shootings of the early 60s. Was quite emotional, and deftly told of how those still living remembered it, deeply and graphically. The true heroes of the day, Artly in particular, a young man who finally dared sprint into the open spaces of open fire to rescue a pregnant women shot and burning on the heating pavement, recalled how they didn't act soon enough. Strange how those we bow to remember laced with so much guilt. One cop was also in tears for not being brave soon enough. We seem to remember what we did, but the fault of it rather than the splendour. A good documentary. A good q&a with the director too. A nice way to finish off Friday night.

La La Land - well, the q&a with this film was with none other than Ryan Gosling. People stood and snapped and screeched at the sight of him. Not moi. I Like him, but he's just an actor. Not Chuck D, for instance. Anyway, the film is an ode to musicals and will be rightly popular. The opening is great and some of the music is excellent, and Gosling and Emma Stone give it their all in bits of dance and song, but it flattened out quite a bit halfway through and onwards. They wanted it to mix the magical of the musicals and Hollywood, with a more real-life edge and the two's deep romance. The romance was told in the music and dance though, so once it goes away from it, i was less entertained. The director was the one who did the excellent Whiplash, which got a standing ovation just a year ago. This did too, but not by me. Good and great in parts, but couldn't match The Artist of a few years ago as ode to older films and styles.

New Kind of Kick - this was a collection of shorts. I left in mid-Gosling q&a to get there, as i don't like being late. Really, i don't like being seen being late, but who cares. The pick of the shorts was a SPanish one that won at Cannes. Timecode, it's called, and was a cool and heartfelt little tale of two security guards. The main one we see comes in in the morning for her shift, asks the guy she's taking over from whether there was any trouble during the night, to which he replies with a simple no, and bids farewell. A phonecall comes in to say that a car was damaged during the night, so our guard checks the video of one time in the night to find her colleague perform experimental interpretive dance routines throughout the carpark. He's quite a funny dancer. Amused and bemused, she then leaves him a small note to check camera 7 at 16.42, in which she is seen doing one of his dances. They leave a note for each other in each shift and the dance grows, never to be talked about. It was quite lovely.

Wulu - i tried to get away from the main and big films today, after La La Land, and this was a Malian drug thriller. I took a big coffee with me, but finished it too soon. I was sure i was doing ok, but then sort of came around to see someone blown up by a tanker, and the film finished. I had no idea how that happened, and still don't. There was a q&a afterwards, which i hoped would fill me in, but all the questions were about the Malian drugs crisis. For all i saw of it, it was alright. Scarface-ish, but less about entire greed and power.

Have another 4 tomorrow, and need a healthy snooze.

Bit worried you're getting lonely in here, hope it doesn't take you ages to bang out your stream of consciousness. But you do have a lovely turn of phrase.

Anyway, caught The Girl With All The Gifts today and thoroughly enjoyed it. Imo best not to know too much about it. But it appears to be British (unless they deliberately chose a near all-Brit cast) and, on a presumably low budget, it had a great look and feel. Zombies/the infected (or Hungries as they're called here) have, historically, looked a bit shit in many a film but I thought they carried them off pretty well here. A solid entry to the genre and a 8.5 from me, definitely recommended.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Bit worried you're getting lonely in here, hope it doesn't take you ages to bang out your stream of consciousness. But you do have a lovely turn of phrase.

Anyway, caught The Girl With All The Gifts today and thoroughly enjoyed it. Imo best not to know too much about it. But it appears to be British (unless they deliberately chose a near all-Brit cast) and, on a presumably low budget, it had a great look and feel. Zombies/the infected (or Hungries as they're called here) have, historically, looked a bit shit in many a film but I thought they carried them off pretty well here. A solid entry to the genre and a 8.5 from me, definitely recommended.

Thank you. I did feel a bit on my lonesome here.

Today, I saw three films. Not the three I wanted to though. I am flying off very early tomorrow morning, so I thought it a tad foolish to watch a Romanian film until close to midnight when the alarm is going off at 5.30am. Annoying, as I very much wanted to. So, instead, I bought another film in the gap I had. Here's what I saw in order:

Toni Erdmann - a German comedy almost 3 hours long. Doesn't sound attractive eh. What a cracker though. Intensely moving, about family and connections and drifting apart and being impossibly similar much to our chagrin, whilst having very funny moments. A really good film that. And it sort of flew by.

Kills on Wheels - this, at long last, is a Hungarian disabled hit man black comedy. Was funny and thrilling here and there, but didn't go much above the alright bar. It ventured between reality and the comic book fantasy drawn by the two disabled friends who are in both dimensions. It's more lighthearted gruesome fantasy than reality, but does the job it sets out to do. Alright.

The Fury of a Patient Man - a Spanish film that is an ode to Sam Peckinpah, really, and the Clint Eastwood revenge westerns. It was watchable, in a gritty way with a couple of standout violent moments, but one actor had some shocking scenes - he couldn't muster a look of horrified surprise, and instead look oddly gormless - and that lessened the quality, along with an unrealistic bond formed between two characters. Still, not bad overall.

Missing two films now before I return, one of which is Elle, the new Paul Verhoeven film, which is meant to be good. Pah. Needs must though, and two films will be seen come Tuesday eve.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Last week I saw Deepwater Horizon which i thought was a strange movie.

Casting someone like Marky Mark as an eventual hero in such a real life disaster movie removes any impartiality the viewer has with the film. You don't him to survive but you know he has to, but then you are in the situation where you are actually making calls on those in reality, who did perish, and that's awkward. The guys who played the BP workers were uncomfortbly played, even John Malkovich who stumbled around, covered in oil, like some kind of evil villain at one point, which he may have been, but not in this context.

The film did not touch enough on the levels of corporate responsibility at play, a missed opportunity to make a proper film about the whole mess.

Basically, it's bad.

4/10

 

[Meade's Ball]

A day and a bit off of the festival, missing out on two likely crackers, but sometimes you just have to do something. And it was right to.
Anywhy, I got back into it this evening with two films.
The Unknown Girl - I had high expectations for this one. The Dardenne brothers have made some high quality fare, but this was rather drab. Was a detective film, with the main character coupled with guilt and wanting to solve a crime that she may well have been able to stop. Her performance was so flat though that interest was difficult to maintain. Disappointing.

Manchester By the Sea - just out of this one, and it was good. Had me thinking of Five Easy Pieces in its morbid yet enthralling tone, and the comedy of the Descendants. The far better of the Afflecks leads in his return home, to sad news, but that's not new to him. His every performance is a lethargic and emotionally mute one, but it works perfectly here. The story is weaved in 3 different times, flashing between each expertly. A really good tragi-comedy with an excellent script.

 

[Meade's Ball]

So, t'day before yesterday, I was a tad annoyed with some removal men. My devious plan was to have them there in time for me to then leave for London's centre and catch a film at midday. A call was received to tell me they were running late. Gee willakers, I thought, you spoiler of cinematic binges, and merely uttered: I'm really rather disappointed. The job ended up being done and from a hellish home we moved, but not in time for me to get to film 1 of the day: Birth of a Nation. Ah well. So, it was only film 2 that I went to. I had been looking forward to it, as it is a British comedy which was about a former 1980s tv detective who had a robotic eye that could read the truth of people. It stars Julian Barratt and is called Mindhorn. Maybe with all the dour and emotional fare on offer it seemed more funny than it really was, but some scenes were certainly tickle some. It had a bit of Partridge to it, and even had Coogan in one role. All in all, quite funny.

So, yesterday I saw:

Personal Shopper - I had higher hopes for this one. I am not a Kristen Stewart fan, but talk was of this being a mighty performance by her, as a medium who also works buying expensive clothes for a famed model. Personally, I found her to be the same moody gothic baggy-eyed character I've seen her carry out before. It was just dull for the most part.

The Girl on the Train - I had some hours to kill and decided to use a Cineworld in Fulham Road to sleep during what was likely to be a bad film. annoyingly, I stayed awake through all of it. Damn. I was write to think it bad though. It was like the 90s again, in part because one actress was just like Rebecca Demornay, and a little bit worse than her as an actress, if that was greatly possible. It was just poor and the direction was perhaps worst of all, as it took a successful novel and turned it in to this to movie style bobbins.

After Love - not bad this one. A French film about the time between a married couple of the verge of divorce. The battles are within earshot of their twin daughters, and are emotional and financial. There have been better films in their take on this situation, but the acting was good and it was all gripping enough.

 

[Normski1989]

The Girl on the Train - I had some hours to kill and decided to use a Cineworld in Fulham Road to sleep during what was likely to be a bad film. annoyingly, I stayed awake through all of it. Damn. I was write to think it bad though. It was like the 90s again, in part because one actress was just like Rebecca Demornay, and a little bit worse than her as an actress, if that was greatly possible. It was just poor and the direction was perhaps worst of all, as it took a successful novel and turned it in to this to movie style bobbins.

I saw The Girl on the Train last week and completely agree. I haven't read the book, but came away from the film thinking it was a good storyline but poorly executed. It just felt like nothing happened for 90% of the film. I went to see it in the middle of the day and can honestly say that I almost fell asleep.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

So, t'day before yesterday, I was a tad annoyed with some removal men. My devious plan was to have them there in time for me to then leave for London's centre and catch a film at midday. A call was received to tell me they were running late. Gee willakers, I thought, you spoiler of cinematic binges, and merely uttered: I'm really rather disappointed. The job ended up being done and from a hellish home we moved, but not in time for me to get to film 1 of the day: Birth of a Nation. Ah well. So, it was only film 2 that I went to. I had been looking forward to it, as it is a British comedy which was about a former 1980s tv detective who had a robotic eye that could read the truth of people. It stars Julian Barratt and is called Mindhorn. Maybe with all the dour and emotional fare on offer it seemed more funny than it really was, but some scenes were certainly tickle some. It had a bit of Partridge to it, and even had Coogan in one role. All in all, quite funny.

So, yesterday I saw:

Personal Shopper - I had higher hopes for this one. I am not a Kristen Stewart fan, but talk was of this being a mighty performance by her, as a medium who also works buying expensive clothes for a famed model. Personally, I found her to be the same moody gothic baggy-eyed character I've seen her carry out before. It was just dull for the most part.

The Girl on the Train - I had some hours to kill and decided to use a Cineworld in Fulham Road to sleep during what was likely to be a bad film. annoyingly, I stayed awake through all of it. Damn. I was write to think it bad though. It was like the 90s again, in part because one actress was just like Rebecca Demornay, and a little bit worse than her as an actress, if that was greatly possible. It was just poor and the direction was perhaps worst of all, as it took a successful novel and turned it in to this to movie style bobbins.

After Love - not bad this one. A French film about the time between a married couple of the verge of divorce. The battles are within earshot of their twin daughters, and are emotional and financial. There have been better films in their take on this situation, but the acting was good and it was all gripping enough.

You will not be surprised to know I really liked the girl on the train as does everyone else who I know that saw it and Emily Blunt was superb but what do I know ? I don't think we have ever liked the same film, and I know if you review a hollywood film what your opinion will be, it is trash, predictable as day is day and night is night

 

[Big_Unit]

Bit worried you're getting lonely in here, hope it doesn't take you ages to bang out your stream of consciousness. But you do have a lovely turn of phrase.

Anyway, caught The Girl With All The Gifts today and thoroughly enjoyed it.... A solid entry to the genre and a 8.5 from me, definitely recommended.

I really liked it too. Some of the sequences owed a huge debt to The Walking Dead, but there's more than enough originality in it (and a strong central idea). The end, however, can get out and walk... it made me cross!

 

[Meade's Ball]

I remember having a look on a list of your favourite films some time back, and thinking that you had some rather good ones on there, so we're not as opposite as you hope.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World - this is a documentary by Werner Herzog about the horrors of and uncontrollable growth of the Internet. He came out before the screening and told us that he is not an Internet user, yet knows a lot of what is going on. The documentary spoke in the style of someone who was more the former. Some snippets were saddening, but it didn't have a fascinating drive to it or clear narrative. His appearance and 5 minutes of talk were more interesting to watch than the documentary. The man is a legend.

Captain Fantastic - again, a timekiller. I hadn't much of a preconception of this one, only knowing it to be about a family and that the head of the folk was Viggo Mortensen, who I quite like. What unfolded was a mixed bag, with some hamminess from his eldest son/warrior-against-capitalism and strange change of character by Viggo. Bits were alright, but it had the wrong tone to what could have been a bolder and more striking tale.

Callback - as waiting for a 9pm film, so went for a suitable one for time more than anything, and I was glad I did. It was a grubby and disturbing 90 minutes of psychopathic black comedy. A wannabe actor in New York, with a face that will never make it and a voice that is one adopted and absorbed from advert voiceovers, goes about failing in auditions and angrily being a removals man - the first time we see him re-enter a flat of a couple he moved, trying on their clothes and eating their fine meats, and leaving a turd on their front room floor. He's a wrong un, but the comedy of it helps it move along. Cheap, Abel Ferrera style larks of sudden violence and moral murk. Glad to see it.

Neruda - I loved Pablo Larrain's "No", and have high hopes for what he makes. This didn't have me happily involved though. It's about poet and politician Neruda of Chile in the late 1940s, and is shot as an ode to 40s noirs at times, and the rest as a mockery of the leftist elite that Neruda was a part of, as greedy for fame and disinterested in the needs of the common man as the fiendish right were for wealth and control. It didn't mix the message and camp mirth in the right way for me, and Gael Garcia Bernal as the detective chasing him was just annoying as the narrator. Larrain was playing with styles, ending it in a western style, and they didn't blend for me. Sad that it wasn't as I'd hoped.