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Thursday 28 May 2015

"American Beauty," Sam Mendes, Film Review



"American Beauty," Sam Mendes, Film Review

A series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer.  The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.

WARNING:  CONTAINS SPOILERS

In 1999, Thora Birch was still a rising star and American Beauty, as the first feature film directed by Sam Mendes, appeared to be the beginning of a career by an exciting new director.  God, it was good to be alive in those days...

Let's face it, American Beauty is a likeable and memorable film.  But it is also flawed in various ways that you might or might not choose to overlook.  Things start well, with that evocative piano theme tune.  And there are a bunch of great lines and images that stick with you.  Some of my favourites include:

'Look Closer' (The sign on Spacey's desk)
'I will sell this house today'
'Fuck me, your majesty' – these last two from the Annette Bening character.
'Have you got a minute?'  'For you, Brad, I've got five'
'I wanted to show my girlfriend your Nazi plate, sir'



The cinematography is great throughout.  And the theatrical lighting works really well, such as when the Nazi dad approaches Spacey for a kiss, is rebuffed and then fades perfectly into the darkness outside the garage.

On the negative side, it's impossible to believe much of the plot.  For example, the scene where Spacey blags a year's severance pay and gets a job flipping burgers.  What happens after the year?  Plus in real life, the exit interview would have had an HR suit present so that Spacey's trick simply wouldn't have worked.  This scene echoes the similarly flawed job dismissal scene in Fight Club.

And the neighbour is the world's most unconvincing drug dealer.

And Mena Suvari's character could surely only have been written by a middle-aged man.

A strength of the film is that every character is seen sympathetically, even when they have vastly different world views.

But the downside is that those sympathetic views are often vilely sentimental and unrealistic.  The neighbour's saintly mentally ill mother is particularly unpleasant.



Somehow we have to balance the sympathetic portrayal of Spacey's urge to return to the uncomplicated joys of childhood – getting the car he always wanted and a remote controlled toy, smoking dope and listening to Dad rock – with the hard-to-argue-with assessment of him from his daughter as a 'lame-O,' a 'horny geek-boy who's gonna spray his shorts whenever I bring a girlfriend home from school'.  This particular contradiction is quite enlightening, but overall there is a slightly preachy message of fighting the system, throwing off the shackles of middle class professional life and regaining the joys of childhood – and when that message isn't backed up by realistic characterisation or events, it descends into sentimentality.

The shots of suburban windowpanes made to look like prison bars, the floating plastic bag, the petals, the creepy neighbour with a camcorder – these are all iconic shots.

It's one of those strange films that combine wonderful and awful elements.  Mendes' subsequent films could have gone either way based on the evidence of American Beauty.  Sadly, in my view, as with Birch's later career, it was all downhill after this one.

Personal Score: 6/10

Thursday 21 May 2015

"Gravity," Alfonso Cuaron, Film Review



"Gravity," Alfonso Cuaron, Film Review

A series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer.  The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.

WARNING:  CONTAINS SPOILERS

A tough one to score.  I've erred on the side of generosity.  It has two standout plus points – 1) the use of existing technology and 2) the bizarre scene of a random cross-language communication between space and Earth.  Overall it's more thoughtful than it strictly needs to be.

The film sets its technology within current day boundaries and this is a strength and refreshing after countless space films with AI computers, ray guns, space ships like souped-up cars, Earth destroyed by nuclear bombs etc etc.  Okay, the Chinese space station doesn't exist yet, but the technology is all based on the current International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope, which do exist.  The scenes showing the tiny space pod hurtling back to Earth does a great job of demonstrating the physical reality of that process.

Another effective and unusual scene is when the Bullock character has all but given up hope, then receives a random radio signal from Greenland in a language she doesn't understand.  Instead of making her give up completely (as it could have done, a final nail in the coffin) it makes her relate on a primal human level, working purely on names, sounds of dogs and babies.  She starts howling herself in response.

The development of character in empty space is all the more necessary.  Clooney's with his rambling and repetitious stories, but he suddenly snaps to "That's an order," commanding Bulluck's character to stop work when the mission is aborted.

Plot is driven by the idea of chain reactions of space debris collisions causing millions more particles to be created in an explosive escalation of trouble.

The remaining plot drivers or one problem after another is standard Star Trek stuff.  And the chain reaction taking out all the satellites is a suitably spacey equivalent to the teens lost in woods finding their mobile signal has gone.

Bullock's character's loss of her one child in an arbitrary playground accident leads her to reflect on the purpose of life from the rare perspective of seeing Earth in all its glory in space  and her final decision that, yes, it is worth carrying on with seems convincingly hard-won.

Visuals are great, of course, with moon in background, huge Earth and iconic shots of Clooney and Bullock's faces in their space helmets.  Both characters talk about blue eyes, both turn out to have brown eyes, and the subsequent close-ups of, say, Bullock's brown eyes, along with her slender and vulnerable body when out of the clunky spacesuit give a good visual and physical sense of frail humanity in space.


Personal Score: 7/10

Thursday 14 May 2015

"V For Vendetta," James McTeigue, Film Review




V For Vendetta, James McTeigue, Film Review




A series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer.  The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on another work of art), see my introductory post here.

WARNING:  CONTAINS SPOILERS

The combination of comic book adaption and Britishness is a disaster.  Awful risk-free nonsense from terrorist, V.  Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why I hate comic books.  The stakes seem lower because there are too many easy get-outs, total fantasy masquerading as semi-reality.

Lots of people saying 'Bloody Hell,' in an English accent, and about four people at a bar standing in for an entire population.



I'm incapable of giving a 1/10 score to anything staring the divine Natalie Portman – but in a film where everyone's dialogue sounds weirdly recorded and under-rehearsed, hers is no exception most of the time.

Film seems particularly ridiculous when seen after Battle Of Algiers where you get what real 'righteous' terrorism looks like.

Stephen Fry is unspeakably bad, a disgusting vanity role.



The Nigel Farage-like presenter spouting hate on the TV had some potential to be memorable, but even this wasn’t properly realized, with his transition from TV character to real person too sketchy to be convincing.


A ridiculous film to be in anyone's Top 250 list.

Personal Score 2/10

Thursday 7 May 2015

"The Battle of Algiers," Gillo Pontecorvo, Film Review




The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo, Film Review

A series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer.  The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on another work of art), see my introductory post here.

WARNING:  CONTAINS SPOILERS


Effect of location and use of untrained actors is superb.  Looks like a city holiday location but filled with soldiers.

Effectively, the director replaces the acting skill of trained actors with careful planning – lighting, takes, script.

Spectacular crowd scenes.

Lots of motion – people walking or travelling through the city.

Right-wing general who brings ruthless interrogation torture to expose the pyramid structure of the terrorists has an awful lot of resonance with today's world.



All the resistance fighters' sly tricks – passing things around from person to person, guns left for young men to pick out of wastebins and shoot policemen, sneaky hideouts behind tiled walls – all have the ring of truth about them.  It's the most seemingly truthful film I can remember seeing.

The moral ambiguities and dilemmas are carefully drawn out.
--> Use of women and children to carry bombs
--> Each of the three women bombers look around at the civilians including children that they will kill.  The politeness or flirtatiousness of men to them at the future bomb site.

The propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, stating, X is dead, Y is captured.



The workers' strike, showing the spread of the ideas away from terrorists and into the whole population.

The awareness of the futility of the exposure of the Algerians' problems to the U.N., but they go ahead anyway.


You can win the war but lose the hearts and minds of the people you rely on to stay on-side.

Personal Score:  9/10