eatfirst Reviews

Chronicle (2012)

Smart and sprightly indie take on the superhero genre

[6/10 · 30 December 2013]

A smart, indie-spirited superhero movie that asks the question (admittedly not for the first time), what would really happen if ordinary people developed superpowers, but handles the result with more wit and emotional punch than the premise might suggest.

Three teenagers, after an unexplained encounter with something...well, something, find themselves in possession of some form of telekinetic ability which manifests mildly at first, and is the cause of much entertaining japery, but soon develops into something with far more alarming strength.

The three leads all perform extremely well with what are largely archetypes; the bullied loner and the popular cool kid for example, and build an engaging relatable friendship that goes beyond high school movie cliché, even while the movie indulges in some of that genres most well-worn tropes (school hall bullies, problem fathers, trying to get laid at parties). What feels at first to be rather over-familiar works as an effective piece of audience wrong-footing, as the movie then makes a lurch into darker, more dramatic, and genuinely original territory.

The conceit of all this playing out through selfie home video footage is a somewhat peculiar choice, becoming an unnecessary millstone to the production as the third act requires every police officer and bystander alike to be blessed with Roger Deakins levels of camera control. But this oddity aside, Chronicle is a breeze. Moving from charming hi-jinx to an efficiently devastating finale in less running time than it takes for Bilbo to get all those dwarfs out of the kitchen.

A Hijacking (2012)

A powerful fictional drama with a documentary-like feel.

[8/10 · 30 December 2013]

A Hijacking presents an entirely fictional, but highly convincing siege scenario, and concentrates heavily on the emotional stresses for those involved. Eschewing any temptations to sensationalism we aren't even shown the moments of the hijackers getting on board; learning of it instead, as one of the central characters in the movie does, by a hurriedly whispered message in a prosaic office setting thousands of miles away from the action. This character, Peter Ludvigsen, an executive on the board of the company that owns the hijacked vessel, is introduced to us in a scene that sets him up as a shrewd and hard-nosed businessman and tough negotiator. We believe we can see how this is going to pan out, but writer / director Tobias Lindholm is playing a canny game here, and rather than a cliché who will drive the plot along, we soon become deeply invested in this man's struggle to control and cope with the terrible responsibility he takes on as he chooses, against advice, to handle the negotiations himself.

Peter is one part of a superb three-hander. The other two are the ships' cook, Mikkel, who, as the film's principle lead at sea, becomes our entry point to the drama taking place there, and the mysterious Omar, who claims to be simply a translator and under as much threat as anyone else, but may perhaps be a whole lot more.

The occupation and negotiations drag on, weeks turn into months. The mental and physical state of those involved deteriorate, while an occasional sense of edgy truce possibly allows some tentative alliances to form or perhaps merely some more complex manipulation to take place.

Meanwhile, Tobais cuts back and forth between the wretched conditions in the bowels of the ship, and the stuffy, claustrophobic atmosphere of secretive meetings in closed rooms in the company HQ. Scenes are performed and shot with docu-drama verisimilitude, and the tension is effectively sustained throughout. A smart, believable and quietly powerful tale.

Captain Phillips (2013)

Gripping, raw and vital. Exactly what you'd expect from Greengrass.

[8/10 · 30 December 2013]

Paul Greengrass takes much the same approach with this true life drama as he did with the stunning United 93, introducing us at the outset to two entirely alien groups of people who are preparing for journeys which will soon see their lives and fates thrown together. We are shown just enough background of the antagonists to draw us into their harsh lives without seeking to either excuse or condemn. Meanwhile we get a brief home-life snapshot of the insular, somewhat dour Phillips, a capable captain maybe, but not an easy man to get to know or like.

From the ramshackle group of hijackers soon emerges a de-facto leader, Muse, a tragically young skeleton of a man, played with stunning authority by total newcomer Barkhad Abdi. Once he bursts into the bridge and announces with focused intent "I'm the captain now" to a stunned Hanks (who he has literally just met, Greengrass intentionally keeping the actors apart during the production till the day of filming this pivotal scene) the movie plays out largely as a two-hander between this young first-timer and the highly seasoned star. To say that Abdi easily holds his own in such illustrious company is even more of a compliment than it would already sound because this may well also be the finest performance Tom Hanks has ever delivered.

By now we are perhaps all too familiar with the easy, natural charm that Hanks exudes on and off screen, and it can perhaps be tempting to underestimate the skill of his craft. He is a past master of essaying likable, capable, motivational leaders of men at all levels: From commanding Apollo 13, to leading a small company of soldiers in Saving Private Ryan, to simply getting the packages moved on time in Castaway. But, presumably on the basis of true accounts of the man himself and those around him. Phillips is not that sort of charismatic leader, and Hanks dials it right back. Distant, insular, sometimes a touch aggressive. Effective yes, but hardly engaging or inspiring. He does the right thing when he can, but this is no heroic portrait. Phillips is a man under phenomenal stress, terrified and just trying to cling on to self-control long enough to make it out alive. Hanks keeps an iron grip on his performance, and when, finally, the moment comes for the emotions to show, it's a desperate, almost wordless, and absolutely heartrending scene, somewhat reminiscent of the masterful sustained final shot on Bob Hoskins at the end of The Long Good Friday. Yes: That good.

Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013)

Young love, lust, passion, insecurity, loss, regret. Three hours of it. In French.

[8/10 · 30 December 2013]

Abdellatif Kechiche adapts from a graphic novel, telling of the passionate first love affair of young teenage student Adèle for another woman. While this film has generated much interest for being a lesbian drama with some extremely frank and sustained sex scenes, it is rather, a supremely universal tale of that intense, uncontrollable first true love that will be achingly familiar to many.

When critics talk about a "brave" performance in relation to a female role, what they usually really mean is that the actress spends a lot of time naked. Yet, in a film featuring some of the most honest sex scenes in mainstream cinema (by which I mean, sweaty, grindy, lengthy, noisy sex that doesn't come with an orchestral soundtrack and a degree in Eisenstein montage theory), relative newcomer Adèle Exarchopoulos really delivers on the meaning of the word. For almost the entire (substantial) running time, Adèle has the camera thrust about three inches from her face, searching her for every slightest flinch, every furtive glance, every strained muscle, as the young actress has to conjure a lifetime of an emotional journey. It's a stunning and utterly compelling performance that forms the true narrative heart of the movie, and that powers forward this otherwise occasionally meandering tale.

What I can't let pass without comment though is the absolutely gratuitous, endless and utterly explicit scenes of... smoking. Whether eating, drinking, laughing, crying, fighting, shagging, or reclining on a chaise longue whilst being sketched by Jack, sorry, Emma; Adèle is seemingly never without a fag hanging out of the corner of her mouth. I enjoyed this movie in the company of two good friends who also happen to be a lesbian couple. When the credits began to roll I glanced over to find, not that they were making all gooey-eyed at each other, but that they were both frantically constructing roll-ups for the dash outside to light up. Ah... Vive l'Amour.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Solid and well-performed, but suffering from repetition and middle-film difficulties.

[6/10 · 30 December 2013]

Picking up some months after the events of the first movie; Catching Fire finds our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, back in her home district and re-kindling, perhaps, her nascent romance with Gale (who was somewhat pushed to the sidelines of the first instalment) while struggling to walk a fine line of conformity and performance in her new, dangerously high-profile existence.

Incoming helmer Francis Lawrence, with relatively little big-budget movie experience, directs with a steady hand, keeping the look and tone consistent with the first movie. The opening act here is particularly strong, laced with political manoeuvring, surreptitiously tightening the screws and gently deepening even some of the more seemingly garish characters (the delirious Effie Trinket is particularly well-served this time round). This slow-burning first-half also allows Jennifer Lawrence, once again, to remind us all why she is one of the finest upcoming young actors of her generation, delivering duct-troubling eulogies from even the most threadbare material.

Things do however take a minor turn for the ho-hum once the new games get underway. Co-champion Peeta gets less to do this time and mostly just follows in Katniss's footsteps, which is a shame after his stronger showing the first time around and further undermines the love-triangle backdrop theoretically still being toyed with. More problematic though is the amount of repetition and familiarity, with many of the same beats being played as we experienced in the previous competition. For a near two-and-a-half hour movie, Catching Fire rather struggles to do what it says on the tin, taking rather too long to find its way out of the pitfalls of having to play out another set of games with a more-or-less matching dramatic arc to the first. Until, when finally the first really startling new development hits.... the credits role.

Reputation has it that the third and final book (being adapted, a-la Harry Potter, into two upcoming movies) is the weakest of the three, and so, while this central episode is a mostly solid outing that doesn't significantly squander the good work done by the first, it is nonetheless something of a concern then that it does have a touch of a holding pattern about it, teasing us that all the real fireworks are being held back till next year.

The Crazies (2010)

Insufficient scares are also grounds for divorce.

[3/10 · 30 December 2013]

Immediate full disclosure: I have not seen the 1973 version, considered, I understand, to be something of a cult classic. But this remake, co-written and exec. produced by the originals' director, and zombie supremo, George A. Romero, is a bland and lacklustre b-movie which is unlikely to be remembered by anyone for long.

In one of those friendly neighbourhood mid-west hicksville towns, locals start acting all strange and a bit zombie-like. Some people mutter something about mysterious military activity, good sheriff Timothy Olyphant does a fine Clint Eastwood pose on a deserted main street, and the local dodgy mayor gives a speech about water supplies that simply exchanges "Ogden Marsh" for "Amity" and "crops" for "summer dollars".

At best, a just barely competent, run-of-the-mill chiller, The Crazies is wholly underwhelming. Clichéd, derivative, dumb, and most damningly, NOT even slightly scary.

47 Ronin (2013)

A flawed but still partially entertaining attempt to marry historical drama to epic fantasy.

[5/10 · 30 December 2013]

A dopey but passably diverting fantasy take on a genuine event in Japanese feudal history. The story of the 47 Ronin who avenge the honour-induced suicide of their former lord is widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent examples of Bushido (the samurai code of chivalric values) in Japanese history and has passed, somewhat embellished, into a wide range of literature and arts, having been filmed at least six times before. But I'll wager none of those versions included a shape-shifting witch-dragon lady.

In this first (and probably last) Hollywood stab at the tale, Keanu Reeves comes billed as the star of the piece playing an outcast half-breed which is one of the many inventions added to this version of the tale and most likely intended as a familiarisation waypoint for western audiences. Stoic and ultra-serious he's not actually too bad, but neither the role as written, nor the screen time really allow him to make much of an impact. Thank goodness then for Hiroyuki Sanada as the ronin leader Oishi. One of the just about every well-known English-speaking Japanese actors that have been harvested for this production, he shoulders the bulk of the drama with capable authority, and along with Rinko Kikuchi's deliriously absurd wicked witch, ensures that at least a few engaging characters emerge from the CGI hailstorm.

Relatively unknown director Carl Rinsch struggles to marry the serious tone of the human drama to the Tolkien-esque fantasy romping, and as such the film lurches around, uncertain of what it wants to be. That said, some individual scenes are impressive, he and his DP have clearly spent a productive afternoon watching late-period Kurosawa and the courtly and battlefield scenes have a beautiful, symmetrical formality to them.

Not the disaster that the initial critical drubbing might suggest, this is no worse than most of the Narnia movies, or second-tier Wuxia fantasy such as Reign of Assassins, but then outside of Japan it doesn't have the franchise brand selling power of the former, and the latter sure didn't cost 175 million dollars to make. Ouch.

The Act of Killing (2012)

Staggering, jaw-dropping and quite surreal. You will never have seen a documentary quite like it.

[8/10 · 30 December 2013]

A documentary maker travels to Indonesia to meet a group of elderly men who led some of the notorious death-squad anti-communist purges in the 1960s. They were once small-time gangsters, who took advantage of the corrupt regime following a failed coup and became terrifying warlords; extorting from, raping or brutally murdering thousands. They have never been held accountable, and what is more, as the documentary progresses it becomes clear that they are minor celebrities still, admired seemingly by some, evidently feared by many others, and utterly brazen in their boasting of what they did.

Co-director Joshua Oppenheimer invites them to go beyond telling the stories of their atrocities, but to actually re-enact them for the cameras as mini-movies in the style of their choosing. An idea to which these elderly monsters, deluded by their own distorted egos and immunity from prosecution for their crimes, eagerly take. What then follows is simultaneously terrifying and absurd beyond belief as they rally locals as extras, and get into the mechanics of script meetings, location scouting, and marshaling the required production forces, while practicing their best strangulation and torture techniques on each other. One later proudly shows off the raw footage to his young grandchildren. Another, perhaps gradually and dimly comprehending the horrors he perpetrated for the first time, cuts a pathetic, tragic figure, literally chocking on the evil that is consuming him from within. I doubt there was a more astonishing image in cinema all year than that of a vile, bloated, real-life mass-murderer, cross-dressed in a gaudy pink ball-gown, swaying in front of a waterfall as he serenades a chorus-line of his departed victims spirits into the afterlife.

The fear and repression that infests the country still is no better illustrated than when the credits roll. The mostly Danish production team are naturally listed openly, while practically all the locally recruited crew simply scroll by as "anonymous", "anonymous", "anonymous"....

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

[8/10 · 30 December 2013]

This year's biggest (literally) pleasant surprise. After the long, slow start to chapter one had dampened the ardour of many a Middle Earth fan, I had more modest hopes for what could be achieved eking out yet another three hour behemoth from the middle chapters of Tolkien's modest children's tale and Peter Jackson has exceeded every one magnificently. Bold, energetic, funny, frightening, tense, and immensely spectacular. The clear aim now is to take The Hobbit as a skeleton structure that will be fleshed with all the immense back-story, parallel tales and grim foreshadowing of what is to come that it can withstand. It's a brave, and somewhat indulgent move, but it's coming together here with a bravura confidence that was sometimes lacking from part one. This is now just a dwarf's whisker from Lord Of The Rings greatness.

Side by Side (2012)

A fascinating dissertation on a quiet revolution in cinema

[7/10 · 15 September 2013]

This feature length documentary tackling the subject of the move from film to digital in the movie world has been made with supremely auspicious timing, arriving at what may well prove to have been the pivotal moment in cinema history when the momentum of change tipped the balance away from essentially a century old format and into a digital world new and uncharted. Made even a year earlier or a year later, this may have been a very different beast.

Presented largely as a talking heads style debate with some of cinema's leading directors and cinematographers, Side By Side gathers the thoughts and feelings of those, old and new to the industry, who are living and working inside the guts of the machine and seeing their world changing irrevocably with every passing day. It's a dry and somewhat specialised topic to be sure, but for anyone interested in the history, future, technology and aesthetics of cinema, I highly recommend it.

Rush (I) (2013)

A broad-stroked, but thrilling tale of sporting rivalry.

[7/10 · 15 September 2013]

Ron Howard delivers another broad slice of muscular, high-tension biographical melodrama (see previous CV entries: Apollo 13, and Frost/Nixon, both of which are touchstones for some of the thematic elements here), with the retelling of the professional rivalry between 1970s Formula One racing legends, Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

Chris Hemsworth tackles the more showy, but actually rather tricky task of essaying Hunt: A cocky, risk-taking, rock-star playboy, who could have been frankly repugnant in less skilled hands, but is handsomely (in every sense of the word) fleshed out by the God of Thunder. Meanwhile Daniel Brühl quietly stamps his authority over the drama with a disciplined take on Lauda's acerbic, neurotic Austrian. The script trowels on the stereotypes a tad thick at times, but both leads deliver, pulling off the not inconsiderable feat of making the audience root for both sides in during their battles.

Meanwhile Howard, and his DOP, the brilliant Anthony Dod Mantle, find all manner of extraordinary places to stick their cameras, wedging us into the cockpit in ways that give each race a distinct personality, as well as a tremendous vitality and urgency, and then matching this with a glorious, cacophonous sound design that places one deep inside the action.

It ain't subtle. True or not, Hunt's team of amateur Hooray-Henrys appear to have been culled from the Four Weddings understudies list, and the leads' almost comically contrary character traits are perhaps spelled out rather too frequently. But nonetheless, this tale grips like a Brabham, convincingly delivering the thrills and excitement of an era when Formula One was a perilous and free-spirited enterprise.

The Wolverine (2013)

Western genre meets Eastern setting for a fresh take on a familiar hero.

[6/10 · 31 July 2013]

Hugh Jackman and Walk The Line director James Mangold make a modest... ahem... stab at rescuing The Wolverine from bloated too-many-mutants boredom with this stand-alone adventure that owes more to Clint Eastwood's man with no name than it does to the Stan Lee back-catalogue.

Logan, once again alone and wandering the wilderness, is summoned to Japan by a man from his distant past and becomes caught up in a power struggle between the dynastic family of a powerful corporation, Yakuza gangsters, and some shadowy ninjas (are there any other type?).

On the plus side, for at least two thirds of the movie this keeps The Wolverine grounded amongst real people; vulnerable, disorientated, and in grimly emotional turmoil. Hugh Jackman doesn't have to work very hard to pull this off, his powerful presence and comfortable familiarity with the role playing to the strengths of a tale that commendably cuts free of mutant hi-jinks for most of its running time, and indulges in some fairly obvious, but pleasingly underplayed culture-clash elements inherent in this setting.

It's kind of a shame then that the film takes a jarring turn into the third act, feeling duty bound to deliver some big FX silliness. The tonal wrench feels deeply uncomfortable and also leaves great gaping holes in the arcs of previously intriguing characters.

Not the disaster of his previous solo outing. There is good work in the brooding western-influenced tale and for the most part things coast along nicely on Jackman's effortless charisma. If only they could have held their storytelling nerve through to the end.

13 Assassins (2010)

7 Samurai - 2 stars = 13 Assassins.

[9/10 · 24 July 2013]

The prolific and protean Takashi Miike, having already amassed a vast and varied back-catalogue of contemporary thrillers, romance, comedy, gore, action, drama and musicals in less than two decades, sucks it up and takes on Kurosawa with this period samurai epic.

Japan, 1840s. It is an era of peace. A time of waning power and relevance of the samurai order, and the decaying final years of the ancient feudal Shogunate regime.

Lord Naritsugu, the preening and sadistic younger brother of the current shogun, carves out a swathe of terror and suffering, seemingly out of mere listless petulance. But with higher political office likely to come his way soon, and following the protest of ritual seppuku committed by a wronged clan leader; Sir Doi, a senior official in the current political order, covertly seeks out an experienced samurai to help rid the land of this cruel and dangerous presence.

From this set up, you can probably guess the rough structure of what follows. Our de-facto master samurai must assemble a small group of warriors to ensnare and take down the evil overlord, protected as he is by a small army of his own. This will involve the recruitment of some grizzled old fighters who have seen better days, some over-idealistic young students who have yet to fight a real battle, and of course, an unruly, somewhat comedic outsider who will be grudgingly admitted into the ranks against better judgement to make some unlikely but crucial contribution.

Whether it's Seven Samurai, The Dirty Dozen, or Ocean's Eleven, this is a movie in that grand tradition of the numbered, but outnumbered team of good guys taking on a big bad against the odds. What matters here is not that we can't see what's coming, but that this is a movie that takes such care and pleasure in the unfolding of the story.

Naritsugu is a truly appalling creation, grotesque in the casual disinterest he shows in the terrible violence he inflicts, like a child half-heartedly pulling wings of insects in boredom. He's a man out of time, no longer of use to a Japan at peace and soon to join the modern world. He only seems to engage with anything when the heat of battle is up, but even then, not to care over the win or loss that he and his men might achieve or suffer, but merely to have, briefly, any consequence at all.

The samurai , we gradually comprehend, are in a similar situation. The long unfolding of the first act explores the archaic ritual and routine of their antiquated order, the rich and complex intertwining of codes of honour, and conflicting loyalties, but also of nostalgic wistfulness for glory days long passed. It's a powerful and telling moment when the leader Shimada is shown (in an effort to sway his heart in horror and pity to the mission being proposed), a woman tortured to a gut- wrenching, nightmarish vision of Dantean hell, and rather than displaying anger or grief, his mouth twitches into a wry smile. He's just been shown a reason and purpose for his continued existence.

After that, it's men on a mission greatness. Plans, maps, subterfuge and misdirection, treks lost in the wilderness, and the "let's make our stand here" turn, with all the classic war movie / western / A-Team tension-ratcheting preparation that this entails. The third act battle is coming, and it's going to be something special.

A smartly constructed, character-rich adventure that segues into an object lesson in clear, dynamic battle staging that takes up at least a third of this lengthy movie and never bogs down or loses focus. Takeshi Miike, the infant terrible of Japanese gore, and crazed seven-films-a- year auteur of chaotic zombie-musical-comedy spoofs has pooled all his considerable talents here to craft an altogether more mature work. And, if he hasn't quite equalled the perfection of Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece, he's come majestically close.

Love Exposure (2008)

Comedy, Love, Guilt, Sin, Madness.... No Dog.

[6/10 · 11 July 2013]

A young boy named Yu, after the passing of his mother, dreams of finding his perfect "Virgin Mary". But years later, and racked with the displaced guilt being piled upon him by his failing priest father, he becomes, naturally, the leader of a martial-arts panty-shot photography gang, and his antics bring him to the attention of both a cult-leading psychotic with an abusive past, and the kick-ass girl of his dreams who falls in love with his cross-dressing alter-ego.

At this point we are about fifty minutes into the set-up of Sion Sono's epic Japanese misfit soap opera, and now the opening titles roll. This is not your traditional romance. It's overlong, undisciplined, funny - both ha-ha, and peculiar. But, almost sneaking it in under the radar, unexpectedly affecting.

As Geoffrey Rush once sagely observed of his punters' entertainment needs in Shakespeare In Love, "You see - comedy, love, and a bit with a dog", and he was nearly right. Just add Catholic guilt, cult brainwashing, terrorism, madness, bobbitting, upskirt-fu, blood-soaked chopsocky vengeance and a lot of awkward erections. Oh but leave out the dog. At four hours running time there's only so much you can fit in.

Man of Steel (2013)

Moody and serious toned take on the icon. impressive if a touch dour.

[6/10 · 20 June 2013]

The writing and producing team behind the impressively gritty and twisted Dark Knight trilogy here tackle the long touted reboot of DC's premier be-caped hero, and then hand their dour-toned opus to the director of the daft but enjoyable "300" and barely watchable mess "Sucker Punch". About 50% of a great movie emerges somewhat dazed from the collision.

While Batman was a natural fit for a grimy, shadowy approach, Superman has always been a hero painted, literally and emotionally, in primary colours. How to give this icon some dramatic depth was always going to be a problem, a problem that the classic 1978 movie solved by the miraculously fortuitous casting of Christopher Reeve. The most likable, heartfelt, honest-to-goodness heroic lunk that ever graced the screen. In the midst of cartoon silliness he gave his every last ounce of charm, wit and stoic integrity to the role. Making it his own for a generation to come. So much so that poor old Brandon Routh in "Superman Returns" was reduced to having to deliver a very creditable but rather distracting facsimile of Reeve's performance. Man Of Steel does not make this mistake. Gone are the bumbling doltish mannerisms of Clark Kent. Henry Cavill plays is straight and moody. Not always entirely memorably perhaps, but certainly free of unhelpful associations.

Act one is where this latest version scores most highly. Krypton is a stunningly realised world, full of beautiful organic technology. A triumph of design, and, admirably, Zach Snyder slows his frenetic camera down a touch to let us luxuriate in its majestic scale. The set-up of Kal-El's birth, and the circumstances of his departure, along with his home-world's fate and Zod's pursuit are all given a thorough reworking and feel far more effectively integrated into this origin story than in previous iterations. Top marks so far.

The quieter middle act is where this new work had perhaps the toughest act to follow. I'll make no bones about it, I consider Richard Donner's "Superman" to be about as near perfect a true comic book movie as we've ever seen. and its finest, most richly satisfying elements are those tied to Clark's childhood mid-west upbringing. The quiet moments that he shares with his adoptive parents (supported of course by John Williams' most heart-wrenching strings) and the understated loss of Glenn Ford's "Pa" bringing the realisation of the limits of his powers in the face of human frailty. Kevin Costner does fine work in the same role, and all these scenes are well handled, emotive and restrained. But somehow it still doesn't quite match up.

So, finally it's on to the inevitable smack-down. Michael Shannon's Zod is white-knuckle intense, and the action is certainly immense, but boy- oh-boy does it drag on. About twenty minutes of excess noisy destruction could have been trimmed and all of it is far, far too serious. "Man Of Steel" may be the most humourless superhero movie to date. There is but one (superb) visual gag at about the half-way mark, and by two-hours plus, my brain was aching for a wisecrack to leaven the tone.

Nonetheless, it's a mostly impressive and creditable whack at a surprisingly tough nut. Cavill acquits himself well and hopefully sets up a role to grow into. But a lighter touch next time would go a long way.

The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)

Karaoke-Horror. It's the genre of the future.

[7/10 · 1 March 2013]

An extended family move out to the country to run a B&B, only to find that each rare and sorely-needed guest winds up dead on their property. Naturally this prompts a series of frantic musical sing-along productions before the shovels come out.

One of Seven films made in 2001 alone by the absurdly prolific Takashi Miike (best known in the west for his more intense horror works such as the magnificent "Audition" and "Ichi The Killer"), this loose remake of Korean film "The Quiet Family" has all the rough edges and scatter-shot structure you'd expect of a film presumably made over a quiet weekend between projects. But for all that, it's frequently very funny, admirably off-kilter, and features quite the finest claymation soup- sprite that I've seen this year.

Should you find that "Les Miserables" simply doesn't have the epic scope and emotional punch you want in a musical, then this combination of "The Sound Of Music", "Saturday Night Fever", "Shallow Grave" and "Shaun Of The Dead" is absolutely what you've been looking for.

Cloud Atlas (2012)

A Magnificent folly of a movie

[6/10 · 26 February 2013]

Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis' ambitious joint-undertaking to bring to the screen David Mitchell's multi-stranded, epoch-straddling tale, has produced a striking but unwieldy behemoth of a movie. Long on invention, melodrama and scale... Perhaps shorter on discipline and a clear through-line of narrative purpose.

Pulling apart the symmetrical structure of the source novel and re- integrating its six story lines in a complex but still clearly delineated collage of characters and events is one of the project's more successful elements. There is a singularity of vision at work here that belies the portmanteau directorial approach, with the Wachowskis surprisingly tackling the quietly mannered tale of a 19th century sea voyage alongside the more obvious home turf of the two future-set sci-fi sections. Meanwhile the more art-house predisposed Tom Tykwer makes a solid stab at a dirty '70s thriller as well as the more restrained tones of his delicate inter-war period love story.

The film's major talking point has been the many multi-role performances by nearly all the principle cast. It is at once one of its strongest, and yet most flawed features. Let's get one non-issue out of the way: The minor controversy stirred up around a predominantly white cast playing other races is entirely bogus. There is a clear, one might even say vital, thematic purpose (even if narratively a tad obscure) to this decision, and it should also be noted that this is equal opportunities trans-ethnicity, with Black playing Asian and Asian playing Caucasian in the mix, before we even get started on the gender and age switching. It's a logical and often entertaining device that ties the disparate threads together. However, it is also highly distracting. Some of the more extreme make-over's are frankly just not very good. Fake, stiff and sometimes am-dram silly. Surprisingly poorly executed for a film with a substantial budget and directors experienced in period work and fantasy. This, coupled with some very shoddy accents results in the viewer frequently being pulled out of the drama for a few minutes of "oh its him again, you know, what's-his-face from that other chapter". Hugo Weaving gets a particularly short stick, bouncing from pantomime Nurse Ratched, via Mr Spock eyebrows to a painted, top-hatted shamanistic apparition that will incite guffaws of disbelief from anyone familiar with The Mighty Boosh. Possibly the first time in history that a film has sequelled its own spoof.

Not surprisingly then the most affecting segments are those that allow the actors to work largely free of such novelty. Halle Berry's intrepid San Francisco reporter, Doona Bae's tragic future-world slave replicant, and perhaps most touching and subtly played, the distant, clandestine affair of a young composer and his physicist lover provide the movie with at least some of the emotional centre of gravity it needs to hold the wilder elements in place.

The joy and frustration of Cloud Atlas is that when it is good, such as in those segments above, it has to abandon the threads too swiftly, leaving you craving to be immersed more in those characters and stories. When it is bad, (Tom Hanks' geyserish gangster and buck-toothed surgeon, Post apocalyptic Mad Max juju speak, Last Of The Summer Wine antics in a Scottish bar), it just leaves one bewildered at the point of it all.

In spite of all this. There is something both endearing and admirable about the scale, bravery and vaulting ambition of Cloud Atlas. It's as entertaining as it is awkward, and as breathtaking as it is daft.

A Magnificent folly.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

A slow and gentle start, but the promise of big things to come.

[7/10 · 31 December 2012]

Baggy, never-ending goings on, going on in Bag End, give way finally to a surprisingly sprightly adventure for such a behemoth of a movie. The tone (teetering between light kiddlesome adventure and LOTR darkness) takes a while to find its feet; the excellent cast however, hit the ground running. It's pleasing to see just how much care Jackson and team have put into giving the dwarfs a rounded and meaty set of personalities, there's nary a hint of Time Bandits silliness that could have derailed a less respectful adaptation (something that Gimli's overtly comedic turn in Return Of The King pointed worryingly to).

The Hobbit doesn't yet engage with the same depth of emotion that made the Fellowship such an astounding achievement from the off. With the shoehorning in of much peripheral material from the Tolkien archives there may be issues with getting the right balance of looming threat and moral imperative that LOTR had running through its heart; yet these are but early days, and it will undoubtedly take the telling of the entire saga to conclude if this trilogy can measure up to the extraordinary achievements of its predecessor.

I was deeply sceptical of the move to three lengthy films being wrought from such a slim source, and while I remain to be wholly convinced, this first episode has much to enjoy; and once the languorous opening act was dispensed with, felt far tighter and more event-filled than the running time would suggest.

A gentle tale, lovingly told, and with the grimmer and bad-assier stuff still to come, there is hope of greatness yet.

Life of Pi (2012)

The stunning visuals will hit you first, but the musings on faith will stay with you longest.

[8/10 · 31 December 2012]

Ang Lee is a capricious talent, capable of misfiring (Hulk), but when on top form there is almost no film-maker in the world today to touch him. His masterful adaptation of one of those supposedly unfilmable (pfft) novels has overcome the obvious technical challenges with possibly the best use of 3D and most realistic CGI animation yet put on screen. Such things will, in time, be surpassed; but what won't fade with the years is the virtuosic rendition in light and form of an apparently simple fable, but one shrouded in delicate layers of humanity and spirituality.

The central adventure and survival tale, ravishingly shot and stunningly acted by newcomer Suraj Sharma, is bookended by initially innocuous scene-setting and reminiscing sequences that gently, imperceptibly, shift the meaning from the story being told, to the meaning of the telling of the story. A sublime meditation on faith and the power of belief... with a stonking great tiger.

Argo (2012)

Quality old-school thriller from the man with the Serpico beard.

[7/10 · 26 November 2012]

The Ben Affleck career renaissance continues apace with this masterfully measured and understated piece of directing, which adapts the so-bizarre- it-can-only-be-true story of a fake movie used as cover for a CIA rescue operation, into an old-school '70s-style political thriller laced with shades of self-reflexive Hollywood satire. Argo successfully balances scenes of seat-gripping tension and joyously grouchy humour that feels effortless but takes a sure hand to pull off. Minor historical inaccuracies have to be swallowed along the way for the benefit of snappier pacing. But overall this remains a fascinating true story, delivered with great performances, pin-sharp dialogue and award-winning facial hair, and would make a fine double-bill with the underrated Charlie Wilson's War. The new Eastwood? ...maybe.

Frankenweenie (2012)

Tim Burton resurrects his pet project

[7/10 · 4 November 2012]

In 1984, Tim Burton, a young animator / director working at Disney, made a thirty minute short about a boy who brings his dead dog back to life. His employers took one look at his mutant creation and promptly showed him the door.

Nearly thirty years on, and "Disney Presents" his feature length stop- motion reworking of that nascent project, and, after the wobbles of Alice In Wonderland and Dark Shadows, it's the most charmingly Burtonesque feature he's made in some time. Featuring all the hallmarks of his instantly recognisable style (crazy angles, spindly-legged bug- eyed protagonists, chiaroscuro lighting, all set against a fat-bottomed, shock-haired variant of 50s suburban Americana) writ large in animated form, but at the service of a simple, sweet-natured slice of Gothic fantasy.

An amiable riff on the classic Frankenstein tale, the story of young Victor and his re-animated beloved pet doesn't really offer much meat to put on the bones of his short story. But it does deliver a sympathetic portrait of childhood out of whack with the mainstream and all the healthier for it (no doubt somewhat autobiographical, in feel at least if not in the corpse-meddling details). There's plenty of fun to be had soaking up the loving homages to the likes of Universal Studios 1930s back-catalogue, a classroom full of Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney lookalike kids chief among them, leading to a small-scale monster mash that takes much the same route as Wallace & Grommit's Curse Of The Were- Rabbit, and to similar grin-inducing effect. Ghoulish fun.

Skyfall (2012)

Successful blend of Bond old and new, and looking great.

[8/10 · 1 November 2012]

When, just a few years ago, Bond was stunningly re-invented with Casino Royale (new Bond, new grittier, leaner style, and starting over with his career chronology from year dot), there was but one element carried over from the bloated tail-end of the Brosnan era: Dame Judi Dench's powerful, acerbic, matriarchal "M". How Sam Mendes and his team behind this latest adventure must be thanking their lucky stars for that decision, for without her there could be no Skyfall. This is a story, more than any other Bond before in all its 50 years, that doesn't revolve around 007. He is the hurricane of action that revolves around her, the eye at the centre of the storm.

After the unmemorable and confusing mess that was Quantum Of Solace, it takes about two seconds to establish that we are back in safe, familiar Bond territory, with a blistering opening chase, leavened by touches of sly wit. What then follows is a confident, pacey, well handled thriller, that front- loads most of the big set-pieces and espionage shenanigans in the first hour, before stripping down in a surprising but effective change of mood to something simpler, starker and emotionally more engaged.

Worthy of high praise indeed is Roger Deakins' beautiful cinematography. This is almost certainly the most stunningly photographed of any Bond movie. Segments set in Shanghai (or sound-stages purporting to be Shanghai) are bathed in a rich, noirish black and orange glow and framed with gobsmacking detail and poise. One particular standout fight, brief and brutal, is viewed entirely in silhouette against a languorously drifting illuminated backdrop from a single near-motionless viewpoint. His camera moves with such effortless elegance it's almost mocking the post-Bourne shaky-cam intensity that all other action movies now feel they somehow have to ape.

Daniel Craig seems less of a revelation this time round, but this is no bad thing. He's utterly comfortable in the role now, and we are comfortable with him. It's astounding to remember now the controversy and vitriol that accompanied his casting in the role not so long ago. The supporting cast is about the strongest a Bond movie has ever been blessed with, so much so that it's occasionally a tad disappointing that some of these characters don't get more time to shine (The wonderful Naomie Harris in particular gets relegated to the background far too soon), but hopefully this sets up one or two for good use another day.

But performance wise, it is Dench's "M" that anchors Skyfall. She's central to the most significant scenes and gets the meatiest and most touching dialogue. Hard-edged, bold and feisty, but with subtly evinced layers of regret and vulnerability, she gives this movie its beating heart.

Less successful perhaps are the machinations of Javier Bardem's full-tilt baddie. He can of course play unhinged, disturbing full-on wrongness better than just about anyone alive, as No Country For Old Men easily attests, and is great fun in the role. But the motivations and logic behind the events leading to the third act feel unfocused and ill-conceived, making the stakes seem perhaps a touch less perilous than in the best Bonds of yore.

Overall though, none of these minor misgivings really surfaced until sometime after leaving the cinema. For a near two-and-a-half hour movie, Skyfall barrels along just fine, delivering thrills and cool in equal, well-balanced measure, and booting you out at the end with a big smile on your face. Job done.

Looper (2012)

Superior Time Travelling Thrills

[8/10 · 2 October 2012]

In the near future, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, suspiciously made up to resemble a young Bruce Willis, is living a grimy, hollow life as a low- grade hit man, offing mob targets pushed under his trigger from a further, time-travel enabled future, when who should show up at the wrong end of his cannon than... bugger me, it's Bruce Willis!

Take one dollop of Source Code, mix in some 12 Monkeys, add a dash of Terminator, and then serve with a somewhat unexpected side order of Stephen King-style paranormal chills, and you're some way towards concocting Rian Johnson's pacey and highly entertaining science-fiction adventure. JG-L is pretty impressive in the lead role, channelling a young John McClane in a leather jacket and ending up more than half-way James Dean, which is just about right for the noirish '50s undertones of the heavily narrated first act. What follows doesn't stand up to too much close analysis, but this really doesn't matter once the chase kicks off. Looper delivers solid thrills, without going overblown and losing focus on its engaging central characters. Not the smartest temporal tale out there, but terrific fun while it lasts. Note: Also features Jeff Daniels in beard.

City of Life and Death (2009)

Cinema as Testament. Harrowing, Profound, Utterly Moving.

[10/10 · 29 September 2012]

There are a rare few films that have found a way to tackle some of the greatest atrocities ever committed by and upon the human race with such searing, unflinching emotional honesty that they move beyond the categorisations of drama or war movie to something that can best be described as bearing witness. Come And See and Schindler's List belong to this exclusive group, and so too now must Lu Chuan's extraordinary and harrowing City Of Life And Death.

It is 1937 in Nanking, former Chinese capital and scene of what is about to unfold as one of the greatest war-crimes in history (a massacre verging on genocide and an event which continues to sour Sino-Japanese relations to this day), but writer/director Lu Chuan is not here to analyse wider military events or stratagems. We open with the briefest glimpse of the Japanese assault on the city walls, and then before the credits have even finished rolling his camera is already patrolling the post-conflict city streets; a blasted, ruined landscape. His film picks up where the likes of The Pianist or Saving Private Ryan leave off, in the midst of a destroyed world, with the invaders and the surviving remnants of the defeated population already pitched together in a dangerous and disorientating mix of sporadic resistance battles, vast wretched prisoner encampments and perilously tenuous civilian "safety" zones.

Events are told in a masterful inter-cutting of macro and micro drama. We are introduced to only a handful of identifiable characters. Amongst them a Chinese bureaucrat trying to use his position to save his family, a young boy caught up in the resistance fighting, a naive prostitute (euphemistically referred to as comfort girls), one of thousands shipped to the front-line with no idea of the horrors awaiting them, and a single Japanese soldier with some semblance of conscience amongst his savage comrades. Their desperate personal stories intertwine inside the maelstrom of chaos and horror surrounding them.

The stunning black-and-white photography veers from stark, hand-held and up-close, to vast and impressionistic sweeps that depict the large-scale massacres as nightmarish visions of some biblical apocalypse. The combined effect renders the feel of the movie as both something close to a rediscovered contemporary document and personal witness testimony, the small-scale drama illuminating the large-scale atrocity that might be beyond comprehension otherwise.

At times heart-stopping in its intensity and tragic almost beyond expressing. City Of Life And Death is a profoundly moving depiction of inhumanity at its most grievous. It simply should be seen.

Cane Toads: The Conquest (2010)

A charming and eccentric documentary

[7/10 · 14 September 2012]

A charming, oddball documentary that charts the progress of an invasive species of Central American toad across Northern Australia and the experiences of the townspeople it encounters along the way.

Introduced to Queensland in the 1930s in an attempt to alleviate the blight of the cane beetle which was ravaging the crops of the regions' sugar cane farmers; the cane toad, in a manner all too painfully predictable, manifestly failed to live up to its billing as miracle cure for the farmers' ills, but rapidly became a fast spreading pest in its own right.

Mark Lewis's film traces the history behind the original introduction, and then follows the invading force, mile by mile, and year by year, in its unstoppable march across the continent, whilst intercutting the stories of a cross-section of experts, officials, and shall we say... "locals" caught up in its path.

If all this sounds like a job for the David Attenborough, that's understandable, but you'd be missing the point. There is real environmental science to be learned here, to be sure, but Cane Toads: The Conquest treads this ground lightly, offering an easily digestible sprinkling of facts that could comfortably be crammed into a fifteen minute PowerPoint session. What it delivers in spades is an understated, blackly comic mix of horror parody and absurdist social docu-drama as we meet the wonderful parade of folks who paint them, stuff them, pet them, curse them with Old Testament wrath and launch them from home made rockets!

Sometimes fascinating, and frequently funny, this is less a film of amphibious analysis and more an affectionate portrait of Australians in all their eccentric glory.