Film Reviews
Life Itself is a superlatively crafted documentary that gives a compelling, poignant insight into Roger Ebert, while also delving into the subject of film criticism and its relationships with the film industry. When I want to see a film’s critical reception, I head for Rotten Tomatoes rather than IMDB, because the latter is saturated with fan-boys and uninformed opinion. Rotten Tomatoes introduced me to many different critics who wrote for reputable sources such as The Guardian, The New York Times and The Telegraph, but time and again I was drawn to the small thumbnail image of a white haired, bespectacled man who wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Suite Française is an adaptation of Irène Némirovsky’s novel of the same name. Prior to seeing the film I had no knowledge of its provenance, and will withhold this particular information for now lest it misinform how you read the rest of this review. As always, I will attempt to remain objective.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya tells the folklore of a Japanese princess born from a bamboo stalk in the heavens and raised as the child of an elderly agrarian couple. She lives and grows up rapidly right before our eyes, just like the bamboo from which she was bred. She was meant to live a more “normal” life, though, and is soon thrust into a lifestyle that contradicts her humble upbringings.
I have to admit, I was a little excited to see that a sequel had been made to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I had liked it and was curious as to what had happened to the characters. But what is more, I went to see the first film with my grandmother and I knew how much she and her friends liked it.
Unfinished Business was something of a surprise to hear about, but the combination of Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco was enough to convince me that it might be worth a shot. Coming across as a clichéd but entertaining story of down on their luck business men on a European jaunt, I expected some impressive improvisational comedy from Vaughn, some gravitas from Wilkinson, and maybe something worthy of note from Dave Franco (who was great in Now You See Me). But, as we all know, expectations are a dangerous thing.
At this year’s Oscars ceremony, five worthy films vied for the coveted Best Animated Feature award. Of course, we all know the winner, but there was one nominee in particular that no one seemed to have even heard of, let alone seen. It was the outlier.
Film Noir is not an easy genre to tackle nowadays, simply because trends in culture have changed. The hard-boiled detective of the black and white screen, the one with the alienated, tough exterior and a penchant for femme fatales – think Dana Andrews in Laura or Bogie in The Big Sleep – would cause no more than a snicker, so removed are they from the world we witness every passing day. Our post-modernist mindset asks for the type of heroes we find authentic, those we can relate to, this is why the grand days of Film Noir have passed – which is not to say some of its elements cannot be used for fine, fine cinema.
An animated film that is targeted towards young children should be colorful, with lots of movement and hopefully an outlandish character or two. Most importantly, though, it must have heart. It should tackle themes that are important to kids, and provide lessons that they can take away from the cinema and begin to apply to real life, not just in the way that they behave but also in the way that they understand the world around them.
Super Zero is a short by the filmmaker Mitchell L. Cohen. The story centres around Josh Hershberg, a young guy with not much to live for who discovers he has terminal cancer.
Neil Blomkamp is still a relatively new director in the game, though he has now done three movies. His first, District 9, is an intensely original feature, focusing on the subject of extraterrestrials who have come to Earth and suffer to live alongside the community of South Africa. It is at once both entertaining and politically charged, and was so well-received upon its release that it was even nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, a very rare accomplishment for a sci-fi.
From ideation to financing, distribution to production, the movie industry is just that, an industry. Let’s take a peek behind the projectors and movie screens at all facets of the films, and the people behind them, that we love. Let me direct your attention to these wonderful shorts.
Silo is a short film made by the filmmaker David Soll and starring Chris Green. Like many short films Silo is a silent piece (without dialogue but not without sound). But unlike many shorts, which like to take a brief and artistic approach to a story, Silo has been made with a clearly structured narrative.
One of the worst clichés that appears in an alarmingly large number of movies is the “two kinds of people in this world” speech. In Focus, Will Smith’s suave con artist Nicky Spurgeon tells his protégé/part-time lover Jess Barrett (Margot Robbie) his version of the done-to-death cliché: there are two types of people, hammers and nails.
In an article entitled “Why It’s Important to Make More Diverse LGBT Films,” fellow Film Inquiry writer Cherokee Seebalack lamented: “Where are all the LGBT romcoms at?” Where, indeed.
John Legend and Common’s powerful performance of Best Original Song nominee, “Glory,” and brave acceptance speech was one of the highlights of the Oscar ceremony last week. That song was a resonant soul/hip-hop combo that captured the atmosphere of its source film well: Ava DuVernay’s Selma, a historical drama about Martin Luther King and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.