MovieGeek is Back!

April 24, 2014 3 Comments

Dear friends,  neighbours, strangers, lovers and haters,

many of you may have been wondering “what the hell has happened to Moviegeek?”, “Has he decided he hates writing for this blog!?!”, “Has he had enough with movies?”, “Did he fall asleep during a screening of  The Tree Of Life and never woke up again?”.

Well, the truth is much simple.

Yes, you’re right: I haven’t been updating these pages for quite a while (The last entry goes back to a year and a half ago). Those who are lucky (or unlucky) enough to have an insight into my life, know the real reason: I now have a son!

For many people this simple sentence is probably enough to understand everything.

And yet, despite the sleepless nights, the countless nappy-changes and all the rest that comes with having a new baby (don’t take me wrong: it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me! And yes, before you ask, even better than watching E.T. in the cinema for the first time), I still manage to find some time to catch up with the latest releases and I’m pretty much up-to-date with everything out at the moment.

I just haven’t had any time all to write about a whole year of cinema releases. And it’s a shame because I really wanted to tell you how blown aways I was by Gravity, how delightful I found Saving Mr. Banks, how much I laughed during The Wolf of Wall Street and how I didn’t care it was so long. And then how I thought The Kings of Summer was a little gem that people should really try to seek, how pleased I was to re-discover Woody Allen with his Blue Jasmine, how I found Prisoners absolutely terrifying, how I thought Matthew McConaughey‘s turn in Dallas Buyers Club was truly Oscar worthy (… and guess what? he actually won one!), how scarred I was by The Act of Killing and I thought they should have given Tom Hanks a special Oscar just for that last moment in Captain Phillips, possibly the best acting he’s ever done, and finally how I cried and cried and cried from beginning to end during Like Father, Like Son, a film which I will find some time to talk about in more depth within the next few days, but that for I’ll just say: I loved!

You’ll be able to find a quick list of some of my favourite films of last year (2013) here.

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Zero Dark Thirty – Review

January 12, 2013 1 Comment

Zero-Dark-Thirty-Trailer

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) rating 6.5/10

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Starring Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, Mark Strong.

The film opens in darkness: almost two minutes of black screen as a sound montage made of screams, 911 calls and that all-too-familiar crying. There is no need for pictures, somehow those bits of sound are just as recognisable… And we get it straight away. It’s an effective, un-exploitive and subtle way to take us back to 9/11 without having to resort to the abused images of the collapsing towers… Also by using actual archive sound, talking about real about events, real dates, real names and victims, the film establishes certain boundaries of reality which makes it feel pretty much like a documentary… A dangerous and a rather questionable game to play… But more on that later.

Zero Dark Thirty essentially tries to do three things at once: to give us an account of the Osama Bin Laden manhunt “based on firsthand accounts of the events” leading up to his killing, but it’s also a look at black ops‘s modus operandi and their way of obtaining information by means of torture, and finally it paints a portrait of a woman who seems to have no other purpose in life than finding the Al Qaeda leader: unfortunately her character is really paper-thin (kudos for  Jessica Chastain for actually making something out of it and for that getting Oscar nominated too) and this ends up being the weakest part of the film, in my view.

There is no denying that Kathryne Bigelow is a skilled director who knows how to tell a complicated story in the clearest of terms, while at the same time cranking up the tension but without falling into the obvious Hollywood clichés. There are certainly interesting, riveting and compelling sequences throughout this handsomely made film, while a lot of serious, important and controversial issues are touched upon… But to me that’s the key problem: they’re just touched upon. Not only the film never really seems to ask any real question, but even when it looks like it does, it never actually gives any answer. Of course, a good movie doesn’t necessarily have to ask questions, nor give answers, but when the subject matter is something as serious as this (including the showing of graphic depictions of Americans torturing their prisoners in order to obtain information) and when you’re doing it in such a manner that the audience assumes this is all real, then you’re beginning to have certain responsibility too.

There are glimpses of an interesting and challenging film here and there, (including an extract from a news report showing Obama stating “America condemns torture”, which happens to be just after a torture sequence), but to me it was all too a bit too little and spare.

This is not meant to be a real documentary, in fact the end credits tell you that this is to be taken as a dramatisation… Well, if that’s the case, the characterisation of every single person in the film is pretty weak (including the already mentioned “super-woman” protagonist).

So if you take it as a drama, it’s all pretty standard fare and rather flat and superficial film. As a piece of documentary and a critique to the “American System”, it’s just too diluted in among all those bad lines of dialogue (“who are you?” -“I’m the motherfucker who found this place”, or “I believe I was spared so I could finish the job”) which in the end diminish the impact that such a subject could have had.

The last 25 minutes of the film follow the actual mission to capture and kill Bin Laden (sidelining even our main character, who completely disappears from the film). It is pretty much shown in real time, without any music (mercifully, because for the rest of the film the score is as obvious and bland as they come). It is a sequence which is meticulously executed and wisely stirs well away from easy heroism or American triumphalism and yet, because of course we all know how it ended, it felt to me not only a bit anticlimactic, slightly voyeuristic, but also a bit pointless, which in a way sums up my thoughts about the whole film.

Certainly a lot of people will talk about the issues raised, but mainly because of the issues themselves, not  because the film.

Of course we’ll never know the truth (In fact recently some criticism has been raised about the actual veracity of the facts), but as it often happens with these sort of real-case stories (whether it’s about the birth of Facebook with “the Social Network”, or a terrorist attack with “United 93” or simply Che Guevara’s road trip in the “Motorcycle Diaries”…), this film will eventually become THE VERSION of the truth we’ll all believe, which in this case might be a bit troubling and very questionable.

6.5/10

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The Impossible – Review

December 29, 2012 Leave a comment

the-impossible06

The Impossible (2012) rating 6.0/10

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. Starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland.

The Impossible tells the true story of an American family (mother, father and three kids) caught up in the terrible Tsunami that in 2004 claimed the lives of an estimated 250000 people, residents and tourists alike, across 14 countries in South-East Asia: is was one of the largest natural disaster ever witnessed in human memory.

Of course the idea of using (or exploiting ssomebody may say) real-life horrors, natural (and non-natural) disasters and human tragedies to tell a story is at least as old as cinema itself. I could quote hundreds of movies that did it, some more successful than others… And if Titanic and its $1.8 billion at the box office on its release, is to be taken as proof, there is clearly an appetite for this kind of stuff. Whether it’s the holocaust, slavery, wars, shootings in schools, terrorist attacks: nothing seems to be sacred these days in Hollywood. No tragedy is off-limits anymore, not even a recent one like this. “United 93”  did it for the terrorist attack to America only 5 years after the event. Raise your hand if you thought it was a good idea at the time…. And yet, surprisingly, it ended up being a fairly balanced film, incredibly powerful and on the whole quite an accomplished success. I’m not sure whether anyone actually needed it, but hey… that’s the subject for another discussion.

To cut to the chase, I don’t necessarily argue against the actual idea of telling such stories. After all, isn’t that what every single war movie does? Sometimes it can work. It can raise awareness for a certain tragedy or even serve as a tribute or a simple educational tool, it can give us a different prospective to a known event or it can help us to remember such a tragedy, never forget what our ancestors had to go through. Even seemingly simplistic films like Titanic, once again, beyond the silly love story, can be seen as a look into social classes at the beginning of 1900s.

Sadly “The Impossible” not only does none of that, but also has absolutely nothing to say. It exploits the tragedy to tell us an unbalanced and slightly distorted view of what actually happened in Thailand in 2004 following an American family who just happen to survive against all the odds: you may ask yourself “what’s the point?”. Well, there isn’t one… or if there is it’s probably “life is about luck… and whether you have a medical insurance or not”. Never mind the  insane amount of people who died, most of which locals anyway (which in this film are largely ignored), never mind the ecological and economic impact of such tragedy: as long as the loving American family can reunite itself once again we are all happy. An absolute travesty, if you ask me. Simplistic, cheap, superficial, with an underlying uneasy complacency, and some troubling sentimentality throughout(including an over-played soundtrack, with twinkling piano and soaring strings).

And apparently the horrors of the real events were not enough for the film-makers so they even decided to add a series of manipulative clichés to enhance the drama (slow-motion – sound drops, and an incredibly misjudged sequence, which should really belong to a Black Edwards comedy, where father and son keep on missing each other among the multitude of people in a hospital).

It doesn’t matter whether the story is true of not, this is just not the way it should have been told.

It is a great shame because aside from that, the film technically is really impressive: the actual scene where the Tsunami hits the cost is truly terrifying and what I assume must be CGI is seamless (beating the one in Clint Eastwood’s dog of a film Hereafter) If you can somehow switch your brain off (a next-to-impossible task) and take this as just another  silly disaster movie, a sort of Towering Inferno, or Dante’s peak, there is no denying that the film is quite gripping and emotionally draining. I just wish it could have been a lot more than that.

I long for the day Naomi Watts will finally choose a film which will give her a well deserved Oscar… Sadly this is not such film. Ewan McGregor once again confirms himself as a great charismatic leading actor and his absorbing performance is nothing short of perfect. And finally the little Tom Holland, whose name is deservedly bantered about these days within several industry magazines and papers next to those 3 words “For Your Consideration”. He’s really very good, bringing to the role the fragility of a kid of that age, the strength of a teenager but also depth and emotions reminiscent of some of the best child actors in movies. I can’t wait to see him in something not just half decent.

Their impressive performances ultimately lift the film and give it enough depth and gravitas to avoid being a complete failure and just an insult to so many of the real victims.

6.0/10 

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Jack Reacher – Review

December 22, 2012 1 Comment

Jack reacher

Jack Reacher (2012) Rating 5.0

Written & Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Cast: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, Werner Herzog, Jai Courtney.

Jack Reacher is a strange hybrid of film that tries (key word: tries) to combine comedy, violence, and that slightly cheesy sensibility to action from the 80s. Clearly it’s a film in search of a franchise, but , given the cold reaction from the audience I watched it with, I do wonder whether it’ll actually ever go beyond this rather average and lazy exercise.

The film is written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the same man behind the script of The Usual Suspect: that was enough to set the bar of my expectations pretty high. Also, Tom Cruise‘s name attached to anything of this caliber, may not be a guarantee of a perfect product, but,  whether you like him or not, is usually a mark of at least high standards, and, in worse case scenario, it will at least be good fun and entertaining (see the various Mission Impossible). Unfortunately this time my expectations were about to be crashed.

The film starts off with what was probably the best scene in the whole movie: an incredibly tense and prolonged shot seen though a sniper’s viewfinder. Slowly and mercilessly the unseen killer starts shooting at his victims by picking what looks like  innocent people walking by in park. It’s a brutal, agonising and very effective opening, that had me on the edge of my seat from the word go. Sadly the film never reached those heights and eventually, nor McQuarrie or Cruise could save it from ending up being a rather forgettable affair: an average, pretty generic and ultimately pretty silly experience.

The film struggles to decide what it wants to be and looses its way several times before it reaches the rather predictable and underwhelming finale. Its biggest problem is that it never seems to get the tone right: the violence is sometimes disturbing, other times just feels like a parody of a Schwarzenegger film (which by itself wouldn’t be a bad thing, but here the film actually takes itself quite seriously). The most misjudged moment, in terms of its violence is a scene where a girl is beaten up, which sits very uncomfortably with the rest of the film.

As far as Cruise is concerned (and here I should probably confess, I usually like the guy), he seems to me totally miscast. Never mind the fact in the book the character of Jack Reacher is described as blonde, ugly, 6’5” and 250 lbs), but here in the film, he feels like he’s been written with somebody else in mind, possibly even one of those guys from Stallone’s “Expendables”. It almost feels as if Cruise was called in at the last moment and on the top of that, was even allowed to do what he usually does best. The result is a character that never quite rings true. Reacher is supposed to be this brutal, tough, rough, mysterious, cool, always on the run character… Cruise brings too much with his for this part, he’s too charismatic, if you like, too cocky, and ultimately I was never convinced about his character, I couldn’t really get into him, understand him and by the time the movie ended I was left knowing as little about him as when the film started… and most crucially I didn’t really care.

It wasn’t all Cruise’s fault. The script was pretty weak too. Generally speaking the dialogue was dreadful,  full of clichés and simply idiotic: lines like “You can’t protect me. No one can”, or “I had to eat my own fingers” are just at the extreme of the spectrum

The film also makes a crucial mistake right from the beginning when it shows the audience who the killer is a good hour before Reacher himself finds out. It is a Hitchcockian trick I suppose, the difference between suspense and mystery. It is supposed to be putting the audience ahead of the main character, thus adding an extra edge to the journey, except that in this case, it makes the whole first half of the film rather dull to watch and plays against it and makes it all a lot interesting.

Not even the arguably hilarious appearance of Werner Herzog as the ultimate baddie can save the film, in fact I actually thought it dragged it even further down into total ludicrousness. His character, may be quite enjoyable to watch, but he is so over the top that it undermines all that gritty and violent realism seen in the intro. Once again it’s another example of the film pulling in too many different directions and not being able to decide what it wants to be: a comedy or a hard-hitting violent crime movie? Trying to do both did not work for me at all.

Obviously, somebody may argue that we are not meant to be taking any of that too seriously… Well, if that was the case I’d go along with it, but then you get scenes like a weird melancholic montage sequence showing you the lives of the victims who have been killed in the beginning, and how their next-of-kins are reacting to their death. By itself that is quite a beautiful sequence (if rather manipulative), but again, does it really belong in a movie with so many borderline-absurd one-liners and Herzog playing the ultimate 007-type villain?

This is all just plain stupid, grass and rather ordinary: not even an apparent slick direction and an A-star cast can save it.

5/10

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Life of Pi – Review

December 19, 2012 4 Comments

life of pi

Life of Pi (2012) 8.5stars

Director: Ang Lee. Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Tandon, Gautam Belur, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu 

Having read the original book several years ago (in fact, to be precise, I remember listening to its unabridged audiobook version) when I learnt that a movie adaptation was going to be made, my instant (and rather predictable) reaction was “How on earth are they going to pull that off?”.  If you, like me, have read the Pulitzer Prize winning story, you’ll understanding my doubts and share my initial skepticism: it wasn’t just the way it was written, through a continuous series of sketchy flashbacks and very internal (and sometimes rather abstract) dialogues, but mainly because, for the greater part, it featured a boy and a tiger stuck on a raft in the middle of the sea.

But as you can tell from my 8 and 1/2 star rating at the top of this review, the answer is right there on the screen: they did pull it off! In fact I liked the film so much that it’s become one of my favourite of the year and possibly my best bet for the forthcoming Oscars.

Yes, of course there were a few annoying little things here and there which prevented it from being a true masterpiece, but whist these things in any other film would have caused me to hate it, in Life of Pi the good stuff is actually SO GOOD that I am willing to forgive any other possible weakness.

Let’s start from the beginning, in fact from the very-long-beginning: yes, the film does take its time to get started and even though the first 30/40 minutes are still perfectly watchable, entertaining, charming and beautifully shot, I couldn’t help feeling that it was all a bit too loose in. The film heavily relies on voice over joining a series of slightly patchy sequences, alternating each other as the several subplots unravel (including a rather redundant – at least in the movie – love story). Interestingly the character of the cook played by Gerard Depardieu, who should have been more developed, is reduced a nothing more than a little 2-dimentional caricature…

Let’s face it, Life of Pi really starts with the sinking of the ship, which happens about 40 minutes into the film. I wonder how many people in telling their friends what the film is about, will actually mention anything that happens before this sequence.

Now I must confess, after James Cameron‘s Titanic I never thought I would ever be amazed at the sight of any ship sinking in any movie. Well, I was obviously wrong!

This scene is absolutely gripping, beautifully executed and visually stunning: in fact generally speaking the film is a constant feast for the eye throughout, but it’s from the moment Pi Patel finds himself shipwrecked that the real magic begins! Yes, Magical is the only word that comes to mind in describing the film. A succession of one amazing sequence after another showcasing some of the most advanced special effect ever seen. The cinematography is a true work of wonder with its striking palette of colours, its magical painterly feel and of course the most astonishing CGI work seen since Avatar, which makes the crouching tiger in the film (sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun) not just a real visual wonder but a totally convincing character. So much so that I wasn’t even sure it was actually computer-generated until I saw a documentary afterwards.

The use of the 3D technology is also some of the best I’ve ever seen, in fact possibly THE best 3D of any movie I’ve seen. It’s clear that director Ang Lee and his cinematographer Claudio Miranda really understand how to use this new technology and have great fun not just at playing with it (changing the aspect ratio of the screen and throwing things at the audience), but also using that extra 3rd dimension to add something to the story: the sequence taking the audience into Pi’s diary is just one of the many beautiful examples of how 3D is used to add a feel that normal 2D wouldn’t be able to convey.

As you’re watching Pi’s adventures, his struggle to survive and his relationship with the tiger, you know you are watching an instant classic. This is one of those films which will work on different people in many different ways: kids will get something out of it, adults something different, religious people will find enlightenment, non-believers will still find quite a lot to enjoy (However be prepared if you’re taking your kid along for some fairly strong scenes involving animals eating each others). I’m sure in years to come people will still watch this movie.

The core of the film is framed by a “let-me-tell-you-a-story” type of device, in which an older Pi recounts his memories to a writer. This is probably the clunkiest part of the film and ultimately it’s what lets it down. For a start knowing that Pi has survived his odyssey works slightly against the tension the film is trying to build throughout the perilous journey: it’s  as if Cast Away had started from the end. It also spells out aloud the message of the film killing all those subtleties from the book (the worst offender is a scene towards the end where the true nature of the journey is revealed through some nasty explanatory dialogue). It’s really nothing to do with the actors playing older Pi and the writer: Irrfan Khan is as always impeccable and brings a gravitas and sweetness to the part (reminiscent of his wonderful character in the stellar third season of “In Treatment”). The writer himself is a bit of a bland character, a proof of the fact that he’s a functional character and nothing more than that: he’s supposed to bring nothing to the table aside from asking the right questions, tell us the meaning of what we’ve just heard  and give a reason to older Pi to tell his story. It’s interesting to know that Toby Maguire had been cast for this part and was later replaced because he was allegedly stealing the scene.

When the twist finally comes at the end, it is delivered by an astonishing Suraj Sharma (a kid with no acting experience who would truly deserve an Oscar): it is spectacularly moving monologue that leaves the audience slightly bewildered, possibly disappointed at first but with hindsight, looking back at it, there is no denying, it is a powerful story, beautifully gratifying, meaningful and profound… and of course an incredible technical achievement.

I can’t wait for my kid to grow up a bit so that one day I could show it to him.

8.5/10

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