chriscarney36 Reviews

Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006)

Spirit Crushingly Dull

[1/10 · 28 October 2012]

Maybe it's the same reason why I don't find Catherine Tate in the least bit funny that I found this movie (by a Catherine Tate writer) so utterly mundane. Seeing the ratings and reviews on here and indeed hearing people speak so highly of the Tate show, it's clear that I'm missing some vital cog in this machine.

I mildly respect the 'equity minimum'/profit share approach and that the director re-mortgaged his house to make it happen but that's where my respect for this picture ends. It is spirit crushingly dull, trite, unimaginative, clichéd and in parts offensive.

Every movie should contain a lesson and the lesson this film gave me was that life is way too short, fragile and precious to waste an hour and a half of it watching crap.

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

The Future of Film

[10/10 · 8 February 2005]

Lars Von Trier, the antithesis of the Wachowski's and Emmerich. He takes it all away, all you are left with is the bare truth and that is where the best drama lies. The 'fly on the wall' style is nothing new but Dancer in the Dark is still unique in its approach to my favourite style of movie making, you could be watching a nature program studying human subjects. The switch in style during the musical sections aside for a moment, the reality presented in this masterpiece is truly without doubt the most harrowing I ever seen, yet so warm in its portrayal of what REAL selfless unconditional love is. I cannot describe with enough passion the depth of my empathy for Bjork's character, she is astounding in her role. I love the switch in style that takes you into her imagination, every time a beautiful musical piece fuelled by the rhythm of the noises she hears around her. Bjorks voice and composition is as haunting as ever. As with Dogville, Von Trier explores the most base of human instincts, the lowest one will stoop, but here is where we find the deepest emotion and the strongest empathy. Ironically a return to something which is closer to theatre than it is to any Hollywood blockbuster. With more and more films substituting a mediocre script with dazzling special effects, this the only way left to go if we are to continue to be inspired by movies, this is the future of film and I embrace it.