Okay, I actually have plenty of notes and observations from watching Adam McKay's The Big Short, but it occurs to me that they're all largely redundant for one reason: it's pretty difficult to effectively critique a film that you didn't really understand. And please believe me, I'm not being cooly self-deprecating when I tell you that I went to watch a movie about the 2008 financial collapse*1, and came out knowing pretty much the same amount as when I went in. Which isn't that much. And it's not like the mechanics of the central conceit aren't explained to the audience, directly and on several occasions. The main problem with this movie was sitting in seat E5…
Y'see, for all its no-nonsense, straight-talking style, there's still a layer of smugness lightly draped over the whole thing, as you're assured by a character that it's supposed to be bafflingly complex while he metaphorically winks at you and whispers "…but you get it, right?". Even half the characters still didn't understand it by the end of the film, and they'd been party to the same information as the audience had. And they work in finance, so I had no chance. As (intentionally) erratic as the performances are, it felt a little like watching an episode of Hustle, but where you know how it's going to end, there's no 'reveal' and you can't bring yourself to like anyone.
And then at one point, Christian Bale's character is explaining that he's got a glass-eye while moving both of his eyes, so then I'm sat thinking 'is that even possible?' and a bit of Googling later tells me that in some cases where the surrounding muscles haven't been damaged, yes it is possible, but I had enough on my bloody plate without throwing that into the mix, as well. But I was able to instantly name the Metallica tracks he listened to, so that made me feel good about myself for a few, brief seconds. I imagine that was the point.
But yeah, The Big Short probably quite good, I guess?
Don't ask me, I wouldn't know.
The documentary-style camerawork and fast-cuts mean that you'll probably end up with a headache if you watch the film on a cinema-sized screen.
I HAVE NO IDEA.
Even accounting for my density, probably not.
I can't imagine so.
There isn't.
Level 2: The film features a brief appearance by Margot Robbie, who starred in About Time alongside Domhnall 'Hux' Gleeson.
*1 A collapse whose effects saw the company I worked for at the time effectively dissolve leaving me unemployed, so it's not like I have no interest in the subject.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Youth Cert: 15 / 124 mins / Dir. Paolo Sorrentino / Trailer
Oh, Michael. That an actor could appear in The Last Witch Hunter and Youth within the same career is odd enough, but do so within the same six months? Of course, it was our own Mr Caine who famously said of his appearance in 'Jaws: The Revenge': "I have never seen it, … however, I have seen the house that it built". You have to admire the man's honesty, even if you can't always trust his judgement.
Youth is a hypnotically rambling, and sometimes borderline psychedelic, film in which Caine portrays Fred Ballinger, a retired composer and conductor who is holidaying in a health resort in the Swiss Alps at the same time as his screenwriter friend Mick Boyle (played by Harvey Keitel). The two banter and reminisce as Boyle struggles to finish a script and Ballinger struggles to remain retired, tasks made no easier by the breakup of the relationship between their children (Rachel Weisz and Ed Stoppard).
The film sees Caine on probably his best form since Harry Brown, and Keitel at least makes some move towards redressing the thespic balance of those dignity/credibility-shredding insurance adverts he appeared in. Paul Dano and Rachel Weisz are nicely understated in their supporting roles, and it's all looking quietly restrained until Jane Fonda turns up in the third act to munch all available scenery like the Chewits monster (albeit entirely intentionally).
As a sort of lethargic musing on creativity and meditation, Youth is utterly intriguing. Director Paolo Sorrentino and cinematographer Luca Bigazzi bring us a film with the photography of The Grand Budapest Hotel but the pacing of Inside Llewyn Davis. And much like those two, after seeing Youth for the first time, I have pretty much no idea what it's actually about; only that I enjoyed it. Part of me thinks that the film's resort-setting and the accompanying character-arcs could be a metaphor for purgatory, but that seems too obvious in a movie as wilfully obscure as this one. That said, I also believe the film's natural ending point is about ten minutes before the one we get; that's why it's not my film. I don't think that it'll become one of my favourites, but the film definitely calls for another viewing or two.
However, the film loses a point for featuring Paloma Faith in a speaking role as Paloma Faith*1, somehow combining one of the most irritating things in the world with itself to create something much worse…
From an acting point of view, probably not.
Although that's a credit to the cast's previous work, not a criticism of it here.
Probably not.
There isn't.
Level 2: Youth stars that Harvey Keitel who was in that Pulp Fiction alongside that Sam 'Windu' Jackson.
*1 Paloma Faith plays Paloma Faith for reasons which are not explained or even suggested. Not withstanding the fact that she annoys me, there is no narrative reason for a 'real' person to be included in this fictional narrative. There is even less logical reason for that person to be Paloma Faith.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Because if an Oscar-winning actress like Jennifer Lawrence can cash cheques from YA cine-franchises, then there's no harm or shame in a talent like Chloë Grace Moretz following suit, right? An alien invasion (in the form of effects-budget-friendly body-inhabiters) sees Chloë star as Cassie, a normal teenage girl in a crisis situation, trying to be reunited with her younger brother as society collapses around them and Earth's last line of defence against a series of quasi-biblical plagues designed to wipe out humanity. She gets to watch a hot guy washing down his chest in a river, too, which I think is meant to represent hormones, or something.
Credit where it's due, The 5th Wave is a far better teen-adventure flick than it is a survival thriller (that's right Evan, if you're ever on the run, just start an open fire in unlit woodland at night, that won't give away your position in about a second). Because yeah, seasoned veterans of The Walking Dead (*raises hand*) will take issue with some of the strategic techniques used, and the story's "twists" are telegraphed from the first fifteen minutes of the film. All you can do after that is at least enjoy the movie for what it is.
It's an entertaining enough ride and certainly earnestly acted (although too much so, in the case of Maika Monroe) but there's no real depth to any of what we see (y'know, the extinction of humanity) and any message or subtext which manages to slip through the net of one author and three screenwriters is neither new nor unique, sadly. The 15 certificate certainly helps the tone of the film, but at its heart, this is a 12A (not that there's anything wrong with that at all).
You know Cassie's going to be alright in the end though, since the first act shows the 16yr old girl firing a Colt .45 for the first time using only one hand, and absorbing all signs of recoil effortlessly. That's survival skills, right there. And of course, no Sony movie would be complete without the obligatory product placement (this time for a cell-phone which the screenplay has already told us won't work again for the rest of the film), but we also get a couple of separate Spider-Man references, too. Y'know, in case you thought the studio had lost the web-slinger.
All things considered, human civilisation in The 5th Wave seems to be taking the unannounced arrival of an alien spacecraft and subsequent genocide of their species quite pragmatically; in any other invasion flick, it'd be absolute bedlam from day one. Although we only really see it affecting Ohio, so maybe they're all a bit more relaxed about the whole thing.
But hey, grumbles aside The 5th Wave is still better than Independence Day. And it's better than Skyline.
Although being stabbed repeatedly in the shins with a rusty cake-fork is better than Skyline…
Being shoved out at the end of January into not many cinemas, you might be lucky if you can find it (I only caught the film because I was in London).
Oh, probably.
It isn't.
I won't.
I didn't hear one.
Level 2: The 5th Wave stars that Liev Schreiber, who appeared in The Butler, as did David 'Kallus' Oyelowo.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Sure, a true-story drama about the institutionalised cover-up of repeated and sustained child abuse was never going to be an easy watch, but having already sat through Ride Along 2 this week, I already knew which of the two was likely to be the more harrowing*1.
Spotlight is the story of a quartet of journalists at the Boston Globe newspaper in 2001, who uncovered systematic historical abuse complicity in the Catholic church. The subject is something that the cynical may almost take for granted now, but this is the point where it went from being rumour and conjecture to verifiable criminal activity. And yet curiously, the film is nowhere near as bleak as that sounds.
For such a sensitive subject, Spotlight is a surprisingly measured take, perhaps too much at times. The film is never mawkish or hand-wringing, but at the same time it also foregoes the righteous outrage you'd expect to fill the narrative gaps. In fact, it's not unfair to say (even if it sounds like an insult) that it's basically a made-for-TV afternoon drama movie which happens to have an A-list cast.
The extended timespan which the film covers also means there's a fair bit of skipping-over going on here, and as a result the team's painstaking investigation often appears to rely more on luck and assumption than on judgement and consideration. Although to be fair, the 'gut instinct' is probably just the difference between investigative journalism and a criminal investigation, and the film is certainly more about bureaucracy than it is conspiracy-theories; a slant which works both for and against it. But at its heart, Spotlight is a well-constructed film full of fantastic performances at every level. And the title-cards which close out the movie will chill you more than anything you've just watched.
And let's just take a moment to recognise that this collection of real-life superheroes fought crime and injustice with the aid of spreadsheets. Okay, I didn't see much in the way of rigorous data-analysis going on, never mind VBA routines or even conditional formatting, but they're on the right page. Or worksheet, if you prefer.
Although I still think that my version of the poster would have attracted a larger audience…
There isn't. It's really not that sort of film, y'know?
Level 2: That Michael Keaton starred in 1989's Batman as did Billy Dee 'Calrissian' Williams, William 'Porkins' Hootkins and Mac 'Rebel Pilot' McDonald.
Honestly, though. Who plays an un-named pilot in a Star Wars film? Everyone in those movies has a name, even if a lot of them are now 'Legends'.
How come Mac doesn't (seem to) have one, hmm?
*1 Yeah, I opened with a joke. Let me have that, at least. Although I'll be closing with one, too…
*2 And yeah, before you mention it, I did take Rachel McAdams out of the poster and replace her with Billy Crudup, yes. And I assure you it's purely because she hasn't been in any superhero flicks I could use the character from, but Crudup has. She's appearing in Marvel's Doctor Strange later this year, but there are no pics of her in that yet. So, to be clear, it wasn't sexism, it was practicality. That's all. Wow, you lot are sensitive…
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Why has this movie taken so long to come out in the UK? It debuted in October in the US, and it's now out on DVD while the UK still hasn't had the full opening yet. It's that sort of lacklustre marketing and staggered release which makes it appear that the studio is noncommittal about what they've created, which is a real shame because Goosebumps is quite marvellous in its own way. Damn, that sounds noncommittal. Right, let me try again...
This big-screen adaptation of what can only be described as a literary phenomenon sometimes feels a little overshadowed by the presence of Jack Black and saunters in on the heels of some rather unimpressive trailers. Black over-eggs the pudding of course, but that's why you hire Jack Black. In a comedy/adventure environment, he's value for money if nothing else.
The film takes a good twenty minutes of its run-time to get warmed up (or rather, to become more than the sum of its parts), and the early backstory/exposition can feel a little heavy-handed, even making allowances for the target demographic. But after the initial scene-setting, the script is far more comfortable in itself as Goosebumps becomes a family-friendly horror adventure, with slapstick and dry humour in equal measure.
The books which inspired the film may be a product of the 1990s, but the movie itself is an almost Spielbergian homage to adolescent adventure movies of the 80s, like a feel-good version of The Lost Boys. For obvious reasons, it's packed to the rafters with Goosebumps references and in-jokes, but there are also Easter-eggs and nods to all manner of horror flicks from the last fifty-or-so years, too (including an above-average number of jibes in Stephen King's direction).
On a graphical front (and the film is proudly flagged as a Sony Animation production, so nit-picking is fair game), it's got to be said that a few of the creatures look a little 'plasticky' and almost unfinished, although those moments are outnumbered by the ones which pass the bar set by most studio movies in the 21st century. While it's not the best or worst CGI you've seen recently, Sony's trumpeting certainly suggests it's their A-game. The 3D, on the other hand, skips between average and ineffectual. It's not that it's badly rendered, it just isn't used to the potential that a film like this carries.
But Goosebumps is very much a movie for the youngsters, and is very much proud of that without being patronising to its audience. It's perhaps a little throwaway, but any film which demonstrates the power of books and imagination to a new audience is a great thing, indeed (even if it does so in quite a self-serving and brand-aware sort of way). I'd have gotten even more out of the film if it had just slowed down and done fewer things more thoroughly, but then it wasn't really made for me.
Enormous fun for the right audience, if a PG-rated Jack Black comedy can win over a cynic like me, you might just enjoy it too…
That's debatable, to be fair, although it's certainly going to look its best on a big screen.
I think it does.
Hmmm…
Probably not.
I didn't hear one, although the film's about 70% shrieking, so it wouldn't surprise me if a Wilhelm slipped through in one of the crowd scenes.
Level 2: Goosebumps stars Odeya Rush, who appeared in 2012's The Odd Life Of Timothy Green alongside Joel 'Uncle Owen' Edgerton.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
*2
