Change Your Image
schpalding
Reviews
Alfie (2004)
What's he all about Hollywood?
Jude Law... What is it about Jude Law I don't like? I think it might be that only women find him attractive and all men thinks he looks like the kid you'd happily ignore at school. We accept that Pitt, Clooney et al have that sex appeal that make women swoon, but LAW? He's just a....boy, right? And that's where this film fails. Whereas Michael Caine strutted those dark 60's rain-soaked streets in the original with the air of a MAN who really did have every woman in the palm of his hand only to see them all slip though his fingers, Law just doesn't have that gravitas. We don't believe that the womanly Marisa Tommei would sink into deep depression about his ambivalence. Or that Susan Sarandon would have anything more than a one-night with the cheeky young scamp. But hey, what do I know, after all Law is currently dating the pretty Sienna Miller who is one of his conquests in the film. And Law keeps nailing this big Hollywood roles like in 'I Heart Huckabees'... What's it all about indeed.
Married/Unmarried (2001)
Unsettling alternative to relationship drama
This unsettling film has as its central theme that monogamy is somewhat cancerous, though not as cancerous as the deeply unpleasant characters who share this view. Set within color-coded interiors, very striking if a little garish, the film unfolds to reveal each character more deviant than the last and the whole married/unmarried combo-interaction between the four friends seems to fuse into one giant amoral heap that leaves the viewer numb and about as unromantic as one can feel! However, there is something extremely gripping about the whole experience, the brutality of the language, the bravery of the performance and possibly the sheer bravado of the director to make such a hateful film. A previous reviewer hailed the film misogynistic - which one character certainly is - but then proceeds not to comment on the actresses performances in the film but indeed praise their 'nipples' instead. And he calls the FILM misogynistic!!! Idiot! Not for everyone, clearly, but an unsettling alternative to the relationship drama.
Bang Bang You're Dead (2002)
more chilling than Elephant
Having only just seen this film, my comments are a little late in comparison to others, but it deserves the recommendation. An outstanding central performance by Ben Foster as the troubled teenager who favors pyro-vengeance on his aggressors, this film dissects the causes for the violent wrath that occurred so tragically in high-schools such as Columbine. The extremely effective use of video-diary as explanation to both the tutors of the school and the audience leaves a chilling scar that has a greater impact than that used in Gus Van Sant's 'Elephant', though this film is of not of equal standing to Van Sant's eloquent jigsaw. Powerful however.