Tagged: review

Spring – review #sydfilmfest

This film very successfully blends romance, drama, comedy and the supernatural. It has something for everyone! The acting is good, the script is tight and contains some witty dialogue and it is very well shot in some spectacular locations.

My only minor complaint, and it is just a personal preference, is that the monster could have been defined a bit better and behaved more neatly. I prefer my monsters to be more predictable and reasonably good looking like most vampires or werewolves. The monster in this film is particularly messy.

A good night out. 3.5/5

The Tribe – review #sydfilmfest

So I decided to provide my review in a manner similar to the way the film was presented, with no dialogue, nor any subtitles for the Russian sign language.

The first paragraph is presented in the form of my written impression of the Russian sign language:                                                                                  .                                                                      .                                 !                                                                                    .                                                                  ;                                                                            ?

The second paragraph was going to be a long winded and repetitive set of points on exactly the same subject that would be really annoying and pointless to read, but I decided not to put you through that after all. (Unlike the film.)

The following 27 paragraphs are just more of the same. Work it and try to stay awake as this will take some time.

There is no concluding paragraph. I just could not be bothered.

Don’t read the critical self-indulgent reviews. In my opinion it isn’t radically new and pure expression, this film is a dud. 1/5

600 Miles – review #sydfilmfest

600 Miles does a number of things pretty well. It very effectively explores the absurd gun culture of North America. In this film I think you do get a sense of just how threatening and alarming hand guns and “hunting” rifles are. Even without ammunition. Every time we see someone handling a weapon you are aware of its weight, its mechanism and its potential lethality. The absurdity of gun laws in the US is also demonstrated when a youth buys some cartons of ammunition at a sports store, but is then asked for proof of age to purchase some cigarettes.

The plot is about illegal arms smuggling, and a law man (played well by Tim Roth) who tracks and investigates this, from the US to Mexico. Kristyan Ferrer as one of the young gun runners, captures the law man and then takes him across the border, where both need to rely on each other just to survive.

In Mexico we learn that almost nobody can be trusted, even members of your own family. This made me wonder why the film makers, who seemed mostly Mexican themselves, made all the Mexican roles seem so dark and sinister. Then I remembered that in the early scenes set back in Arizona, whilst the Americans were not all so obviously violent and corrupt, they were complicit in this whole problem and perhaps most at fault. Maybe we were meant to think that the whole world is black. There wasn’t much optimism in this film. Actually, I cannot recall any, even in the disjointed final scene during the credits.

The film only runs for 85 minutes, but the first hour is still pretty slow going and the plot is probably too thin to carry it well. There is a lot of gun violence in the last 25 minutes and then what I thought was a messy and weak ending. I realise that life isn’t always neatly concluded, but we go to the cinema to be entertained, educated, inspired and to escape reality, so I’d really prefer it if more film makers would question the vogue to leave so many loose threads or even the whole story up in the air before the credits start to roll. Sometimes it is as if they got bored with the production and just couldn’t be bothered.

Disturbing and depressing. 3/5

99 Homes – review #sydfilmfest

Wow. Billed as an intelligent thriller, 99 Homes is more of a true-to-life horror story. It focuses on the home property foreclosures by banks in the US in 2008 during the GFC. It is powerfully disturbing for its duration. I think I just sat there with my mouth open in disbelief, whilst knowing that all this actually happened. As far as I’m concerned director Ramin Bahrani deserves all the plaudits being showered upon him. The writing is just so brilliant and Ramin worked with Amir Naderi and Bahareh Azimi on this as well.

The film’s hero Dennis Nash is very well played by Andrew Garfield (who I noticed is also an executive producer for the film) and he is left with the dilemma of either looking after his family or doing what might be morally more correct. We learn, however, that this may not simply be a clear decision between the good side and the dark side. The dark side is represented by Michael Shannon’s brilliant portrayal of real estate agent Rick Nash. We are set up from the start to hate him, but this situation is soon complicated because he seems to be doing the right thing by Nash. And he delivers a couple of brilliant monologues that convincingly explain his motivation and his actions.

Ramin was present at this screening and mentioned the score that was composed by Antony Partos and Matteo Zingales. That too is great and helps set up some chilling moments of the film.

Go and see it! 4/5

Vincent – review #sydfilmfest

This film from France moves along at a gentle pace and effectively holds a fair bit back. There is very little dialogue, and the director, screen writer and lead actor Thomas Salvador pulls this off really well. Set in the French country side, some of the visuals are stunning. Our hero Vincent is blessed with super powers when he is wet, so there are several scenes of him doing amazing things in lakes. I have no idea how they pulled off the special effects. Maybe Thomas Salvador actually has super powers?

Vincent meets and falls in love with a local girl Lucie who has a big personality, and she played very well by Vimala Pons. Vincent and Lucie share some really beautiful scenes. The film also has an excellent and very imaginative chase scene, but I cannot give it away by saying more. If there is a fault, I think the ending is a little weak but perhaps the director is leaving something to our imagination. I enjoyed it. 3.5/5

Mr. Holmes – review #sydfilmfest

Mr. Holmes doesn’t disappoint. The pace isn’t fast, but the story telling is both elegant and interesting. An ancient Sherlock is well played by Ian McKellen, but I think the limelight is stolen by the child actor Milo Parker, who plays Sherlock’s house-keeper’s son. He is fantastic well beyond his years. Laura Linney plays the house keeper.

This is an entertaining film and it shows many others just what is possible with cinema and a team of film makers who are obviously good at all of it. This film transports you to its time, shortly after the Second World War and it is beautifully shot, mostly I think on the South East cost of England.

Really enjoyable. 4/5

Results – review #sydfilmfest

Results is a dud film. I wanted to see it. It seemed to have good reviews, but it is a shocker. Even actors with records like Guy Pearce and Giovanni Ribisi could not save it. I cannot think why they would have done this film, other than for the money. I think it attempts to be clever about personal trainers, gym culture and people in modern society, but it fails on all accounts. The screen play is both awkward and clumsy and the film contains too many pregnant moments that lead to nothing. It isn’t at all entertaining and the dialogue is terrible. It just fails at story telling. No. 1/5

We Are Still Here – Review

My first film for Sydney Film Festival 2015. It was billed as a “chiller”. Apart from the awful late 1970s clothing and serial killer glasses that one of the fathers wears, it isn’t that horrific. Maybe that’s a good thing. I think it is also a film that isn’t too proud to have a bit of a laugh at its genre, especially towards the, rather bloody, end.

Some of the actors were much stronger than others. I enjoyed the cute tie-in that closed the film.

It was an entertaining night out with friends, but nothing really out of the ordinary, so just 2.5/5 from me for this one.

Cold in July – Review

Cold in July was my final film of the 2014 Sydney Film Festival. It is a film full of violence and variously described as pulpy, dark, horror/thriller and funny. I didn’t find it very funny at all. It is a rather odd film that starts with the shooting death of an intruder or “home invader” who appeared to be robbing the owners of valuables as they slept. Then the story becomes much more complex and it touches on subjects like revenge, police corruption, gun violence, snuff-porn and the exploitation of “illegal immigrants”. It was another poor choice on my behalf.

Despite the presence of accomplished actors like Michael C. Hall, Don Johnson and Sam Shephard I could find little to like. There were several plot twists, but I don’t think they were dealt with very well at all. And I may be wrong, but it looked as though the film was shot in a way to show 1989 as a rather colourless time in history through the use of subdued, almost sepia tones in many shots. I visited parts of the US in 1989 and can remember them quite clearly, although maybe Texas is an exception? It certainly wasn’t that colourless or faded to me.

I wasn’t sure whether the film was trying to tell a deeper story about the proliferation of shootings in the US or just relate the story from the original Joe Lansdale novel. It really didn’t do either justice.

Ordinary. 2.5/5

Wish I Was Here – Review

And so we come to a film that I was not expecting to like, but I did. This is Zach Braff’s second film as director, as well as being this film’s screen writer and producer, and it was largely crowd funded via Kickstarter. It is really a very gentle comedy and a feel-good movie that deals with family relationships, the reality of life as an actor for most actors, love and the coming loss of a father and grandfather. After so much violence, grief and depression in most of the films I’ve seen this festival, Wish I Was Here came as a very welcome break.

I thought all the lead characters were great, including Mandy Patinkin, Kate Hudson, Josh Gad and of course Zach himself as the father of the two kids played by Joey King and Pierce Gagnon. Nobody is annoying or takes themselves too seriously.

The dialogue is cleverly humorous without trying to be too clever and there is also some very funny visual humour. The film is shot beautifully too. And about 10 years after Garden State, Zach Braff again uses some great music in the soundtrack including Bon Iver and Badly Drawn Boy. Zach and Kate even do a (thankfully short) version of James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James in their garage.

Enjoyed. 4/5