Movies in 2010!

2010 is very nearly upon us, and it looks good. First we have the Awards season contenders, and a series of fun, but hopefully not too dumb studio fare to follow as the rest of the year goes on...

January
8
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Ian Dury biopic. Andy Serkis is the lead Blockhead.

The Road
Post-apoc drama with Viggo Mortenson doing his thing. Possible awards contender.

Micmacs
The new Jeunet, fresh from starring at the LFF.

15
Up In The Air
Clooney's LFF hit!

The Book Of Eli
More post-apoc drama, this time with Denzel Washington. Directed by the Hughes Brothers.

22
Brothers
Award-worthy perfs from Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman in this Jim Sheridan-directed post-Afghan drama. Maguire is presumed dead, so his brother gets involved with the widowed Portman, only for Maguire to return…

A Prophet
LFF Best Film winner. Prison drama. Nuff said.

The Boys Are Back
Awards-worthy perf by Clive Owen is at the centre of this drama as a fresh widower comes to terms with bringing up his son without the boy’s mother.

29
The Lovely Bones
Not well-received adaptation by Peter Jackson.

The Edge of Darkness
Martin Campbell remakes his 80s BBC classic, with Mel Gibson taking the lead, and Ray Winstone as Darius Jedburgh. Bizarrely still set in UK…

February
5
Solomon Kane
Adaptation of the Robert E Howard character.

Invictus
Morgan Freeman is Nelson Mandela. Clint Eastwood directs. Oscar awaits?

12
Ponyo
The new Miyzaki.

The Wolfman
Benecio del Toro is etc.

Valentine’s Day
I’m not suggesting this is worth seeing, but the cast is worth noting for its looks: for the boys – Jessicas Biel and Alba, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner; for the girls – Taylor Lautner, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Jaime Foxx, and Topher Grace. WTF??? How much eye candy can you squeeze into 1 film?

19
Shutter Island
The new Scorsese.

March
5
Alice In Wonderland
Tim Burton. Johnny Depp. 3D. Nuff said.

12
Green Zone
The new Paul Greengrass is a war drama with Matt Damon.

26
The Clash of the Titans
The first of Liam Neeson’s iconic roles this year as Zeus. But Sam Worthington who lifted Terminator 4 higher than it deserved is Perseus. Big, very dumb fun!

April
2
Psycho
Re-release to mark the 50th anniversary.

9
Lebanon
The tank movie from the LFF. Recommended by me.

The Losers
Ahead of Iron Man is an adaptation of Andy Diggle’s comic about a CIA black ops team trying to find out who betrayed them. Good cast.

Also this month:
Kick-Ass
Matthew Vaughn directs Mark Millar’s ace, super violent comic. Quite possibly the super hero movie to end all super hero movies.

May
1st or 2nd weekend
Iron Man II
I simply can't wait!

14
Robin Hood
Ridley Scott directs Russell Crowe. La Blanchett is Marian.

28
Prince Of Persia
Jake Gyllenhaal is the buffed up prince and Gemma Arterton the somewhat under-dressed heroine in what might be the next Pirates.

July
23
Toy Story 3D
COME. ON.

30
The A-Team
Liam Neeson’s second iconic role: this time, he’s Hannibal, who loves it when a plan comes together.

August
13
Inception
The new Chris Nolan.

20
Salt
Phillip Noyce directs Angelina in this CIA thriller.

September
1
American: The Bill Hicks Story
This great documentary about the American comedian who might have saved the world is very highly recommended.
Premiered at the LFF.

Release date to be confirmed...
Air Doll
LFF starrer.

Balibo
LFF starrer about East Timor and the Australian journalists who died there in the 70s.

Centurion
Roman Britain epic directed by Neil Marshall.

The Conspirator
Robert Redford directs the story of Anna Surratt, played by Evan Rachel Wood; Surratt was part of the Lincoln assassination trial.

The Disappearace of Alice Creed
Cracking British thriller that debuted at the LFF. See it!

The Double Hour
Brilliant thriller/romance/horror/whodunit from the LFF.

The Eagle of the Ninth
After State Of Play and The Last King of Scotland, Kevin Macdonald directs this Roman epic.

Leaves Of Grass
Tim Blake Nelson directs Ed Norton playing identical twins. Black comedy.

Women In Trouble
A US indie that looks very Almodovar-esque as the poster (right) suggests...

Best of the fest part 2

Some more reviews of the films I saw during the London Film Festival fortnight...

The Men Who Stare At Goats is a distinctly Coens-esque offbeat, leftfield comedy that suffers from one essential problem: the casting of Ewan McGregor. Quite simply he can’t carry off a believable American accent; one might even speculate that he can’t carry off any role – he’s so unconvincing!
However, setting that to one side first-time director Grant Heslov (one of George Clooney’s gang – he co-produced the brilliant Good Night And Good Luck) has delivered an eclectic movie that mixes genres with abandon. Clooney, Jeff Bridges (clearly channelling the ghost of The Dude) and Kevin Spacey make the most of their almost cartoon characters, mugging and fooling around as if their lives are at stake. Their roles as the US military’s warrior monks (trained to stare at goats until their hearts stop and to run through walls) are uncovered by McGregor’s useless journalist, who then finds himself in an adventure with Clooney that he terms ‘the silence of the goats’.
Enjoyable, but it could have been better. It’s simply not satirical enough.
Score: 7/10

Unjustifiably ignored, The Soloist is top-notch adult entertainment from Joe Wright. The fundamental emotional detachment that killed Atonement for me actually helps The Soloist hit the heights, Wright’s English reserve creating more emotional impact than the more obviously heart-tugging approach the average US director would take with this Oscar bait script.
Robert Downey Jnr is a newspaper columnist who stumbles upon a mad homeless musical genius, Jamie Fox. Both broken in their own ways, the film charts the peaks and troughs of the pair’s relationship, and the impact that relationship has on them.
Neither are cured by the end, but have they made progress.
Downey and Fox both underplay their roles, just as Wright underplays the potential histrionics of the script, allowing the real emotions to gradually shine through, aided by a beautiful score.
Score: 8.5/10

Cold Souls is not ‘The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Soul’. While it shares some essential plot points with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Cold Souls does not share the former’s beautiful love story.
Paul Giamatti plays a well-known US actor called, er, Paul Giamatti, who’s struggling with the preparation for the role of Uncle Vanya. He spots an ad for a soul storage facility – effectively your soul is removed and securely stored until you want to have it back.
Finding that the lack of a soul doesn’t improve his performance, he elects to try someone else’s soul… Inevitably he decides he wants his soul back – but it’s been sold on as there’s a burgeoning trade in soul trafficking…
This is a gentle, existential, downbeat comedy/drama – and will not be to everybody’s tastes. While ably supported by Emily Watson and David Strathairn, Giamatti is the brilliant hangdog lynchpin of the movie. If you like Giamatti, then you must see this.
Score: 7.5/10

Balibo is a village in East Timor; in October 1975 five Australian journalists were killed by the invading Indonesian forces. Respected Aussie hack Roger East investigates their deaths as the Australian government shows no interest, making the trip to East Timor even as the invasion is continuing.
From the first frame this screams ‘this is an IMPORTANT movie’ and the emphasis is on its message. Not that the message is unworthy: society needs reminding of the crucial role a free press can play – and how better informed we are by the work of brave, ethical journalists.
Anthony La Paglia is suitably stirring as East, delivering a memorable performance – although the manner of his exit from the movie just screams ‘Oscar’…
The supporting cast flesh out the Balibo five well, so we care about them and are shocked by the deaths.
Nevertheless, writer/director Robert Connolly hits the audience over the head repeatedly – I found myself curiously detached. A less politically pointed approach would have served the film better.
Score: 7/10

American: The Bill Hicks Story charts the laughs, life and times and eventual death of America’s greatest stand-up at the age of 32.
This documentary uses the photo animation technique first used in The Kid Stays In The Picture to illustrate hours of interviews with Hicks’ family and friends.
If you don’t know his work, you should: go to his website.
What you need to know is that he was a crusading comic who saw it as his job to hold Church and state to account – his years as a professional comedian were, after all, governed by Reagan and Bush Snr, and the Moral Majority. Indeed, it’s fair to say that his late-career renaissance in the UK saw him moving swiftly away from ‘pure’ stand-up, taking an overtly ‘political’, campaigning approach, attempting and mostly succeeding in converting his huge audiences to his cause.
He dared to ask the questions the media wouldn’t, he was an optimist, he was as committed a stage performer as there has ever been – and he simply was bloody funny.
Given the state of the world, this film’s extolling of his dream of world peace could not be more timely.
Score: 8.5/10

More reviews are below - and more will follow!

London Film Festival 2009: the best - and the worst

Between 15 and 27 October, I saw 29 films, of which 24 were screened as part of the London Film Festival.
Undoubted highlights of the Festival were (in order in which I saw them): Up In The Air, Micmacs, The Double Hour, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Air Doll, The Informant!, and Lebanon.

Up In The Air will doubtless receive some bad reviews because of its central conceit: this hero’s journey concerns the soul of frequent flyer Ryan Bingham, a man whose business is firing people – and with the economy in the shit, his business is good. George Clooney revels in the role of his Satan in a suit, mercilessly dolling out redundancy packages and platitudes to the soon-to-be-jobless. Bingham’s professional and personal lives are put in a spin by two women: fellow frequent flyer Vera Farmiga (it’s fair to say Clooney hasn’t generated this much chemistry with an actress since Jennifer Lopez in Out Of Sight) and new redundancy hotshot Anna Kendrick.
Directed and co-scripted by Jason Reitman (Juno and Thank You For Smoking), this is genuinely funny throughout, and not always blackly so, takes a few expected and unexpected turns, and has a pleasing 70s feel that leads to an appropriate conclusion. Plus it has the funniest emotional breakdown by an actress ever committed to celluloid.
Score: 9/10

Micmacs is the latest effort from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Alien 4, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement) and for my money is his best yet. It focuses on Danny Boon, a gunshot victim who last his father in WWII, who along with his eccentric band of brothers decides to cut the two local arms manufacturers down to size. Effectively this is a heist movie, but shot through with Jeunet’s inventive visuals, mad production design, crazy characters, love of life, and lightness of touch. Consistently funny, Micmacs should prove to be endlessly watchable.
Score: 8.5/10

The Double Hour is an Italian thriller/chiller/noir that constantly plays with the audience’s expectations of the genres. Briefly ex-cop (Filippo Timi, who has a Javier Bardem-esque brooding screen presence) meets a hotel maid while speed-dating, and then pretty much all hell ensues. The film’s subterfuge is almost immediately apparent, ensuring that you never know who you can trust (although this doesn’t prevent the audience establishing empathy with the two excellent leads). Brilliantly directed by first-timer Giuseppe Capotondi, The Double Hour comes highly recommended.
Score: 8.5/10

The Disappearance of Alice Creed will undoubtedly be marketed as the new Shallow Grave – and it stands fair comparison, unleashing a new British writer/director upon the world in the shape of J Blakeson just as Shallow Grave gave us Danny Boyle. Indeed, like Boyle, Blakeson may have to go some to ever better this tight, riveting kidnap thriller. The opening sequence is brilliantly edited, describing the logistics needed to pull off the successful kidnap of Alice Creed by two cons. As we learn more about the three characters, so the seat of power shifts between them. There are so many twists and turns taken by the script that this is all I can say without revealing spoilers! But do not think this is simply high quality schlock – it isn’t. It is gripping, scary, will have you on the edge of your seat for its entire running time, and is finely acted by its three players (particularly Gemma Arterton, who I really didn’t think could act until now). And frankly a British film hasn’t looked this good since Layer Cake.
Score: 9/10

On the face of it, Air Doll might have the maddest script of the Festival and yet its emotions and its own peculiar world are as real anything I saw this year. It concerns an inflatable sex-doll who one day gains a heart; we follow her on a journey through life and the world’s wonders. Possessed of a young child’s lack of knowledge and the ensuing curiosity, the doll interacts with half a dozen other characters, acquiring a job, friends and a boyfriend. She finds joy in the smallest things, and wants nothing more than to help everyone she meets (after all that is her purpose, to provide pleasure…), although that help is not always wanted or well-conceived. Korean star Bae Doo-Na is charming as the doll, and is surrounded by an excellent supporting cast. The film is a tad too long, but if you want an offbeat gem, you probably won’t find better this year. It is also possessed of an erotic edge simply missing from many other efforts at this year’s Festival that purported to be erotic.
Score: 8.5/10

The Informant! Sees Steven Soderbergh mixing his more arthouse leanings with the high class production sheen of Ocean’s 11. Matt Damon plays an ‘apparent’ corporate whistleblower, caught up in a web of lies, some of his own making. Not properly supported by two not-entirely capable FBI agents, Damon’s Marc Whitacre suffers as the pressure of the investigation and subsequent court case take their toll on his fragile grip on reality. Played largely for laughs (backed by a humorous score), though not at the expense of tension, The Informant! is offbeat, leftfield, etc – and for some audiences may not succeed. However, I clearly enjoyed it and was left frequently slack-jawed at the ever-increasing lies. That the script is in part true makes watching the movie an even more incredulous experience.
Score: 8/10

Media shorthand dictates that Lebanon will be labelled ‘Das Boot in a tank’ – and that’s an entirely fair comparison. But even more than the acclaimed U-boat drama, this is truly experiential cinema.
All we ever see is the interior of the tank and the four Israeli soldiers manning it – and what they can see out of it and hear on the radio – as they do their bit for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
Writer/director Samuel Maoz has created this unsettling masterpiece from his own recollections of serving as a tank gunner in that war. The authenticity of the production is stunning, both the look and the sound (you really must see this in a good cinema), but not at the expense of characterisation. These are not four men, but four squabbling boys, ill-fitting with each other, ill-fit for war – but old enough to die for their country.
The stress they are put under is immense, and the audience shares in it: we feel both the nerves of the gunner, unable to shoot at a living target, and the tank commander’s anger at the gunner’s inaction.
Quite brilliant, but Lebanon is such a disturbing experience, I’m not sure I want to see it again!
Score: 9/10

However, almost certainly the best film I saw out of those 29 was Up. I thought Wall*E was going to be Pixar’s high, but this trumps it. The first seven minutes will be held up as long as film exists and is celebrated as one of the high points of cinematic achievement: a brilliant combination of near-silent storytelling, aided by great characterisation, a moving score and judicious editing. That’s not to say the film falls into a trough as Up surfs a relative tsunami of emotions in the ensuing 80 minutes, delivering great gags and raw emotional scenes, often on top of each other. To hell with the Best Animated Film Oscar, Up should be in the running for the Best Film Oscar, full stop. Its message that you should chase your dreams – and if given the chance you must grab it in honour of all those who never did – and that life is there to be lived is as important a lesson as has ever been imparted by film.
Score: 9.5/10

The Cone of Shame
This award, named after the cone that the dogs in Up fear the most, recognises the year’s most shockingly bad film. The inaugural recipient is a film so bad, so hellbent in its own madness that you can’t even laugh at it; indeed, in hindsight I would far rather have been deprived of every sense for 90 minutes! The film is Valhalla Rising. I’m not even going to attempt to explain the film’s virtually non-existent plot, nor waste time on discussing the dehumanising effect of its drone-core soundtrack, I’m just going to tell you that you need never see it, no matter how interested in Vikings or Mads Mikaelsen you are.
Valhalla Rising: you wear this year’s Cone of Shame. Wear it with dishonour!

Review: Let The Right One In

This is an outstanding contribution to cinema's long fascination with the vampyr, and brings some new spin to the subject matter. In short, boy meets girl, boy and girl fall for each other, but girl is a vampyr...

Set in a Stockholm suburb in the early 80s during a typically snowbound winter, the film focuses on Oskar, as 12-year-old boy, verging on being an albino, the only son of divorced parents, and very definitely an outcast by any measure. In between being bullied at school and being ignored by his mother, by night he befriends Eli, the new girl on the block who lives next door. Apparently unaffected by the freezing cold during their night-time meets, Eli gradually lets her hefty guard slip and slowly the two outcasts become an item of sorts.

The film glories not in gore (although as a vampyr movie inevitably there must be some blood-letting), but in the realistic mundanities of how to survive as a 12-year-old vampire. In a declaration of love and friendship, Oskar takes her to the sweetshop of buys her mixed candy: she tries it and suffers an allergic reaction (for want of a better word). Hakan, the old man she lives with, clearly both loves and fears her, while she treats him with a mixture of respect and disdain; he has the task of providing her with fresh blood - which can of course only be achieved through murder...

There's a pleasing lack of special effects or displays of vampyr powers: she says she can fly, but we only hear off-screen fluttering; and we only see the results of her final attack.

There's also a pleasing lack of info about Eli's past: while made a vampyr at the age of 12, we don't know how long she's been the undead; and we don't find out much about her relationship with Hakan,

The sense of unease, the feeling that nothing good can come of this prevails, aided by the downbeat setting, precise direction, a score that swirls from comforting to unsettling with ease, and deeply troubling sound design (ever wanted to know what a vampyr's stomach sounds like when it grumbles, now's your chance).

The principal cast are excellent, especially the two child leads, although internet scuttlebutt suggests Eli's voice is provided by another actor. Particularly fine is the scene where Oskar decides they should become blood brothers, ill-advisedly slitting his palm and offering Eli the opportunity to do the same: Eli's desire for the blood is offset by her own self-loathing and fear of revealing her true nature to him - it's exquisite.

In the end though, this is a romance (in both the original and more modern, accepted definition of the word) and love, even between the living and the undead, must triumph. This is very much the darker alternative to Twilight. See it.
Score: 8.5/10

Review: The Damned United

The Damned United is a rip-roaring Boys’ Own dream-turned-nightmare with a peach of a turn by Michael Sheen at its centre.
This is the story of Brian Clough’s 44 days in charge of Leeds United, of his overwhelming desire to beat Don Revie, the super-successful manager in whose footsteps he chose to follow.

While fully fleshing Cloughie out, he is nevertheless very much the hero of the piece (you’ll be cheering him on through every outburst, you’ll feel his hurt when scorned by Revie, by the Leeds players and most painfully by his assistant manager Timothy Spall’s Peter Taylor) – and Colm Meaney’s Revie very much the villain of the piece (the coda makes a wry and vengeful comparison between Cloughie’s subsequent success and Revie’s ensuing failure).

Slighted by Revie upon his first visit to Derby County, Clough becomes consumed by the need to beat him and his mighty Leeds. Half of Cloughie’s outbursts are on the money – he’s the only sane man in the room – and the other half are at best almost wilfully misjudged.

The feel and the look of the 60s and 70s is effortlessly created, but not slavishly so such that the production design becomes a performer in its own right (step forward Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes). That footballing era is also wonderfully conjured, in some ways casting Cloughie as man well before his time.

The film takes a sideways glance at what was to come for football - hooliganism on and off the pitch, a sport both elevated and corrupted by growing mountains of money – without ever fully addressing them.

The film begs the question (and not unreasonably leaves it unanswered): did Clough set out to fail at Leeds? Was his hatred of Revie and his boys so great, all he wanted to do was tear the team down and erase the memory of its triumphs? Better they should be remembered for losing under him than winning – because if they won, everyone would say he had just inherited a great team from Revie…

Sheen is at his crowd-pleasing height, playing Clough with all the pomp the viewer could possibly expect. He also reveals the emotional cripple, the failed player behind all that front and mouth. If there’s a criticism of the film’s take on Clough, it’s that we learn little of the qualities that made him a great manager and gave him the title of best manager never to manage England.
By comparison with Sheen, Spall is hardly stretched, and yet no other British actor could so comfortably play Taylor happily stuck in Clough’s shadow.

Of course, die-hard, life-long Leeds fans need not see this: they didn’t warm to Cloughie then and they won’t now.

Set aside concerns about factual accuracies, or indeed changes from the book (god knows it has got its own doubters) or the Clough family’s disavowal, and just enjoy a great British film with the greatest British actor of his generation. It's a spry 97 minutes long and makes fantastic use of Fleetwood Mac's Man of the World (one of my all time faves) in a key scene that ultimately suggests those 97 minutes are about that most curious of things: male friendships.
Score: 8/10

Review: Watchmen

Watchmen is by far the most faithful adaptation of an Alan Moore comic yet to hit cinema screens – but does it trump The Dark Knight? Read on! Visually, this is the comic brought vividly and realistically to life, aided by fully realised sets and props rather than 90% blue screen and CGI.

It retains the essential structure of Moore’s work, telling the story in the order he set – meaning cross-cutting past, present and future narratives. The history of the Minutemen (the super hero team that predates the Watchmen) is superbly explained in the opening credit sequence after the death of The Comedian.

There are some nice additions by Snyder and the script adapters: a certain photograph in The Comedian’s apartment, the nods to Strangelove and Apocalypse Now, and some unexpected musical choices.

Rightly or wrongly, Rorschach (played with conviction by Jackie Earle Haley) is very much the crowd favourite of the piece – but much more so than in the comic. In choosing to excise some of his less charming traits and beliefs, Rorschach becomes a pint-sized Dirty Harry – with all the best lines.

Doc Manhattan is well-realised, cock and all, with Billy Crudup successfully conveying what little humanity is left within Big Blue.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan hints at the cynicism within The Comedian, but in so much that the character is seen only ever as someone else’s memory, there is little room for him to make an impact.

Matthew Goode brings an appropriately emotionless arrogance to Ozymandias, the most intelligent man in the world who also happens to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl’s impotence, sense of failure and lack of confidence is almost caught perfectly by Patrick Wilson – but I sensed something lacking in his performance, as if he didn’t believe in the material at all times.

Indeed, there’s a sense that everyone’s trying so hard to be faithful to the source that they bring none of themselves to the project and so it lacks the spark of life. This is not helped by the best actors being in the most unfeeling/darkest roles; while Rorschach is the work’s black heart, Laurie/Silk Spectre – and her relationships with Doc Manhattan and Dan – should be the emotional core of the work (often her reactions lead the audience in the comic) and I’m afraid while Malin Ackerman carries off the look (boy does she!), she fails to give weight to the character’s emotions (notwithstanding that the decision seems to have been taken to make Laurie less hysterical than in the comic).

The decision to re-work some elements of the original story are right, and the streamlining of the story to an acceptable run-time is hard to fault, but the question remains: would the story have more relevance, re-positioned in time to more or less the current day (like, say, The Dark Knight)?

The heavy weight of expectation on this movie was such that the end result could never live up to it. Ultimately the greatest adaptation of Watchmen is the one each and every reader, comic in hand, envisions in their own mind.

Nevertheless, Snyder and his team have tried – and if they have fallen short of glory, it’s not for lack of trying.

There are so many great scenes from the comic that are realised so well, I was compelled to punch the air at least once – which is more than can be said for the likes of From Hell or LXG.

Like Dark Knight, this is muscular, tough stuff (the comic’s gorier elements transferred intact), but Watchmen doesn’t quite scale the same heights.
Score: 7.5/10

Review: Gran Torino

Gran Torino is quite a different beast to Clint Eastwood’s riveting Oscar-bait Changeling, but is as enjoyable, challenging and relevant – and marks the Man With No Name out as simply the best US director currently working, his ability to move between genres unmatched.

Critical shorthand dictates that GT is Dirty Harry redeemed – and breaking the story down to its pure basics, that’s true, but it’s so much more than that. That summary doesn’t reveal the humour, the love of life, the tragedy that Clint allows the film to revel in.

Briefly, Clint is Walt Kowalski, a recently widowed Korean war vet, having to come to terms, Victor Meldrew-style, with a world changing so fast around him that he simply can’t comprehend, can’t make the imaginative leap that good prevails over change; his first and last resort is bitter retrenchment.

And from that, again Victor Meldrew-style, comes the comedy, which no doubt has helped the film’s word of mouth in the US. Every time you think Clint’s verging on ham, the script turns and forces him to default to his game face: he may be 78, but when he’s aiming an M1 rifle at you, you know he knows how to use it.

You see, Walt is old school – he is as racist as that relation you don’t like talking to at family gatherings because of their outdated views. Making things worse for him are his neighbours: Hmongs, the Koreans who helped the US in the war it should be noted, but to Walt they are just the old enemy.

Of course, the inevitable culture clash is bridged by the common enemy – the local gang. Which is not to say that the film demonises gang culture – it’s comedic unravelling of older male relationships clearly draws parallels between the bravado of the gangs (whatever their colour or creed) and the unspoken bond between vets and their own coded language.

The tragedy of the collected bravado sets in relatively late in the piece – and if it strikes a discordant note, I’m tempted to say that Clint’s just being realistic. And the hints are there that the key change, the shift in tone is coming.

Much of the symbolism is hard to discuss without giving away the story, but suffice to say it’s not overplayed.

The supporting cast are uniformly excellent – and the Gran Torino itself is gorgeous.

Tom Stern, who performed such a beautiful job lensing Changeling, does another knock-out job here, while Kyle Eastwood reveals a talent for haunting scores very much in his father’s style.

Ultimately what sets GT apart is simply how enjoyable and spry it is – one suspects its lightness of touch will render it endlessly watchable. It was Stanley Kubrick who mused that the most effective easy to get a serious message across to an audience is through comedy – when you’re laughing, you’re guard is down and, QED, your mind is more receptive.

If this does turn out to be Clint’s final hurrah in front of the camera, then a more fitting epitaph I can’t imagine. Hey, it even includes him singing…
Score: 9/10

Review: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

It’s easy to see how Button lost the fight against Slumdog in the end of year reviews and awards ceremonies – alongside Danny Boyle’s bravura flash and feelgood punch, this stately, contemplative storytelling reminds viewers of the past rather than the speed of change in the developing world and what that means for the future and has a slow burn effect that takes longer to sink in.

And that’s what impressed me – this is David Fincher all grown up, as strongly hinted at in his previous effort Zodiac. The flash, the look-what-I-can-do with-the-camera trick shots are entirely absent in Button, Hitchcock references are kept to the bare minimum.

As you well know by now, this is the story of a man born old who dies young – experience is wasted on the young, youth is wasted on the experienced, etc. While it is framed as a conventional tragic romance, the subtext chills this writer to the bone, fearful to a ridiculous degree as I am of physical and mental infirmity: Button of course rather than experience both together at the end of his life experiences them separately at the start and at the end of his life respectively.

Born ironically on the wave of euphoria at the end of the Great War, from the beginning we know we are watching Button’s slow, agonising march to death. The story – and Fincher’s stately pacing – draws out the pain and joy of Button’s life and experiences like a long blade on a sharpening stone. The emotional pull is strong, but reigned in – this is Fincher after all – the emotional jolts are not served up as jabs or punches but aching, slow, burning cuts that require longer recovery.

Brad Pitt, effects n all, is effortlessly subtle, achieving a level previously unhinted at, while Cate Blanchett, cruelly overlooked in the gongs, is of course pure class (and, my lord, those legs!) as the love, quite literally of Button’s life.

Supporting turns are top-notch performances from the likes of Tilda Swinton, who seemingly can’t put a foot wrong these days, and Julia Ormond, who continues her stunning comeback.

Oh, there are criticisms – it is slow throughout, no doubt. And both the symbolism of the humming bird and the hokey effect that produces it are not what one would expect from Fincher. But neither is the assured, confident, adult touch behind the camera, his desire to show off absent as he simply serves the story.

Some have the made the assumption that this is another Forrest Gump – and that’s understandable given that it’s written by the same author and features a similar high concept. With Gump, Button shares an innocent simplicity, an unwavering faith that people will reveal the best in themselves (there’s no cynicism here) – but here the hero is no simpleton, he fully grasps the tragedy of life around him, he has desires, and he realises there are burdens that he cannot carry due to the nature of his condition, forcing upon him unexpected extra emotional crosses to bear.

This is a work of some emotional weight (there’s a genuine rawness to the scenes between Ormond and the ageing Blanchett) and therefore it will live longer in the memory than Slumdog. The greatest compliment that I can pay this movie – and Fincher – is that it feels like a Frank Darabont movie.
Score: 8.5/10

And the Oscars went to...

Slumdog beats Button 8-3. And Mickey Rourke doesn't win!

Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor
Sean Penn - Milk

Best Actress
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Best Foreign Film
Departures

Best Animated Feature Film
Wall-E

Best Adapted Screenplay
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Screenplay
Milk

Best Original Score
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Song
Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire

Art Direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Cinematography
Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design
The Duchess

Film Editing
Slumdog Millionaire

Make-up
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Sound Editing
The Dark Knight

Sound Mixing
Slumdog Millionaire

Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Review: Rachel Getting Married

The second half of my Valentine’s double bill was Rachel Getting Married, which I found more affecting and less acidic than I’d imagined. To date most discussion of this movie has focused on the performance of Anne Hathaway – and understandably so, but that does diminish some excellent work from the other key players.

Hathaway is great as Kym Buckman, all nerves and bile, the recovering junkie, fresh out of rehab returning to the family home in time for her titular sister’s wedding. Weddings are emotionally-charged affairs at the best of times, but especially this one as it takes place at the parental home. Throw in Hathaway’s dynamite Kym, and opening of wounds and heated debate of the family’s dysfunction – and the shocking cause of Kym’s need for rehab – surely follows.

Of course she particularly puts her sister Rachel (played understatedly by Rosemarie DeWitt) and her well-meaning but long-suffering father Paul (Bill Irwin) through the mill. The biggest shock of all is the confrontation between Kym and her mother, (Debra Winger, characteristically assured as the distant and estranged Abby).

Kym is by far the most fleshed out character, our understanding and sympathy towards her helped by seeing her at AA meetings.

While this is dark cinema (shot handheld from an improvised script, quite Dogme-style), the characters do wear all their emotions (good and bad) on their sleeves, making the movie something of an emotional rollercoaster. Nevertheless, the final scene is not as downbeat as might have been expected.

If it turns out that this is director Jonathan Demme’s final fictional movie, it will serve as a fine testimony to his eclectic, indie tastes.
Score: 8/10

And the BAFTAs went to...

BAFTA kept the Slumdog steamroller moving, leaving Benjamin Button to pick up the scraps. Slumdog picked up seven gongs, mostly in categories it was heavily tipped to win.

Button walked away with just three, none major. Righteous wins on the night include In Bruges (Original Screenplay) and Wall-E (Animated Film). Strong 'British' wins also came for Man On Wire and Hunger.

The two surprises of the night were I Loved You So Long scooping Best Foreign Film, and Penelope Cruz, winning Best Supporting Actress for VCB.

The really big loser on the night was Frost/Nixon: no wins.

Best Film
Slumdog Millionaire

Best British Film
Man On Wire

Director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Milllionaire

Leading Actor
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Leading Actress
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Original screenplay
In Bruges

Adapted Screenplay
Slumdog Millionaire

The Carl Foreman award for special achievement by a British director, writer or producer for their first feature film
Steve McQueen (director/writer) - Hunger

Film not in the English language
I've Loved You So Long

Animated Film
Wall-E

Music
Slumdog Millionaire

Cinematography
Anthony Dod Mantle - Slumdog Millionaire

Editing
Slumdog Millionaire

Production design
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Costume design
The Duchess

Sound
Slumdog Millionaire

Special visual effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Make-up and hair
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Oscar noms throw some curveballs

It's Button v Slumdog at the Oscars - and Revolutionary Road and Clint Eastwood have been snubbed. Benjamin Button leads the race with 13 nominations, ahead of Slumdog on 10. The only surprise among the top two is Cate Blanchett missing out for Supporting Actress.

The next-best is Milk with a surprise 8: Oscar’s not known for being this gay-friendly, but it’s a biopic, which always goes down well. Among its noms is a surprise Best Supporting Actor nod for Josh Brolin.

The Dark Knight collected 7 nods, mostly technical, but inevitably Heath Ledger is recognised. Wall*E follows on 6.

Frost/Nixon only picked up 5 nominations – but still no recognition for Michael Sheen. Also on 5 is The Reader – with Kate Winslet recognised in Best Actress rather than Supporting (the Golden Globe category she was slotted into and won) – and Doubt, with 4 of its cast being rewarded with noms.

Changeling garnered just 3 nods (including Best Actress for Angelina Jolie), while The Wrestler got 2 for Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei.

The big losers were Revolutionary Road, scoring just 3 noms (2 of which are in crafts), and Clint Eastwood, who’s work behind the camera on Changeling, and in front of the camera as well as behind it in Gran Torino, failed to chime with voters.

Predictions? Tough: Ledger for Best Supporting Actor and Jolie for Actress – everything else is wide open!

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant - Milk

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

Best Foreign Film
Revanche
The Class
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Departures
Waltz With Bashir

Best Animated Feature Film
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Screenplay
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Wall-E
In Bruges
Frozen River

Best Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

Best Original Song
Down To Earth - Wall-E
Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire
O Saya - Slumdog Millionaire

Art Direction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Changeling
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Cinematography
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Changeling
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
The Reader

Costume Design
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Australia
Milk
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Make-up
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Sound Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Iron Man
Wanted
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Wanted
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

BAFTA noms: Slumdog rollercoaster continues

BAFTA continued its mild eccentricity and desire to buck the trend with eclectic nominations. Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Button lead with 11 noms each - but some of those noms are surprising. For instance, Dev Patel and Freida Pinto have been recognised by the Academy in Slumdog, but Cate Blanchett in Button has not. At the moment, Slumdog must be the hot favourite for Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography.

Next most-nominated is The Dark Knight with 9 nods - but only one major, inevitably for the late Heath Ledger. Changeling picked up 8, including Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Leading Actress for Angelina Jolie and JMS's script, plus a slew of technical and craft nods; however, it was not nominated for Best Film, effectively losing out to Milk, which is otherwise recognised only for Sean Penn (Leading Actor) and the script.

Frost/Nixon picked up 6 nods - but Michael Sheen failed to secure a nod. The Reader followed on 5. Doubt's powerhouse cast all secured nods, while Brit-flicks In Bruges (4) and Hunger (2) both did well. Burn After Reading secured a surprise 3.

The Wrestler only garnered 2 noms (for Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei). Thankfully Woody Allen's awful VCB only got 1 nod.

The Kate Winslet steamroller continued - but she can't win 2 BAFTAs as she's up against herself in the Leading Actress category (whereas at the Globes she was in two different categories). Brad Pitt also picked up 2 nods for Button and Burn After Reading.

Aside from the Slumdog-favoured categories, look to In Bruges of Hunger taking British Film, Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler, a Heath Ledger v Philip Seymour Hoffman battle for Supporting Actor, and Tilda Swinton to take Supporting Actress. Leading Actress is tough to call: Kate could cancel herself out, leaving the way open...

The BAFTAs are announced on 8 February. For the record, the Oscar noms are Thursday 22 January.

Best Film
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best British Film
Hunger
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Man On Wire
Slumdog Millionaire

Director
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Milllionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
Clint Eastwood - Changeling
David Fincher - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon

Leading Actor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Dev Patel - Slumdog Millionaire
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Leading Actress
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Kristen Scott Thomas - I've Loved You So Long
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Supporting Actor
Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder
Brendan Gleeson - In Bruges
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Brad Pitt - Burn After Reading
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt

Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Freida Pinto - Slumdog Millionaire
Tilda Swinton - Burn After Reading
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Original screenplay
Burn After Reading
In Bruges
I've Loved You So Long
Milk
Changeling

Adapted Screenplay
The Curious case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

The Carl Foreman award for special achievement by a British director, writer or producer for their first feature film
Simon Chinn (producer) - Man On Wire
Judy Craymer (producer) - Mamma Mia!
Garth Jennings (writer) - Son of Rambow
Steve McQueen (director/writer) - Hunger
Solon Papadopoulos, Roy Boulter (producers) - Of Time And The City

Film not in the English language
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Gomorrah
I've Loved You So Long
Persepolis
Waltz With Bashir

Animated Film
Persepolis
Wall-E
Waltz With Bashir

Music
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Mamma Mia!
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

Cinematography
Tom Stern - Changeling
Claudio Miranda = The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Wally Pfister - The Dark Knight
Chris Menges, Roger Deakins - The Reader
Anthony Dod Mantle - Slumdog Millionaire

Editing
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixo
In Bruges
Slumdog Millionaire

Production design
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Costume design
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Sound
Changeling
The Dark Knight
Quantum Of Solace
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall E

Special visual effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Quantum Of Solace

Make-up and hair
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Frost/Nixon
Milk

Golden Globe winners

And the Golden Globe winners are Slumdog Millionaire ( Picture, Director, Screenplay and Score) and Kate Winslet (Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress).
Surprises: Colin Farrell winning for In Bruges, Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky, and VCB winning Best Comedy (whoops...)

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE


BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
KATE WINSLET – REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
MICKEY ROURKE – THE WRESTLER

BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
SALLY HAWKINS – HAPPY-GO-LUCKY


BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
COLIN FARRELL – IN BRUGES


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
WALL-E

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
WALTZ WITH BASHIR

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
KATE WINSLET – THE READER

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
HEATH LEDGER – THE DARK KNIGHT

BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
DANNY BOYLE – SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE


BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
SIMON BEAUFOY – SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE


Review: The Reader

The Reader is full of cracking performances from its star-filled cast, its plot – complete with twist – raises questions about morality and the law, and the direction is assured, but there’s some magic ingredient missing somewhere.

Ralph Fiennes is Michael Berg, a German lawyer; being played by the king of the stiff upper lip – any emotion tightly reined in – clearly indicates he must have been scarred in the past to make him the way he is. The film charts his encounter, at the age of 15, with Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) in the late 50s.

Setting aside any qualms the audience might have of a 30-something woman to all intents and purposes seducing a 15-year old boy and any questions of credibility (it’s easy to see what he sees in her, but what on earth does she see in him?), Berg and Schmitz are fleshed out well by David Kross and Winslet, building audience empathy, but we know it can’t last. In between the sex, she asks him to read her to her – and essentially that’s their relationship: sex and him reading aloud to her.

Inevitably she leaves him (although the reasons are not entirely clear) and the city. A decade later, as a law student, Berg finally sees her again – in court, on trial for war crimes, accused of being an SS guard who death-marched 300 women out of Auschwitz.

Berg must wrestle with his feelings for her, the resentment he still carries, and, as the case heads towards its conclusion, the knowledge that he can save her. But does he want to save her? Does she deserve saving? If he withholds what he knows, does it matter that she’ll be punished for the wrong reasons?

30 years later he still wrestles with the same questions and sets out to find some catharsis.

Ultimately, Bernhard Schlink’s book, on which David Hare based this adaptation, is clearly concerned with Germany’s national guilt over the horrors of WWII. Apparently, director Stephen Daldry and his producers the late Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella were concerned that the universal themes of the novel not be confined to the time and place of the book’s setting – and they decided the only way to resolve this was to go with an English-speaking cast.

And that’s a mistake, I feel. It’s the same as if Scorsese had made Schindler’s List: it wasn’t his movie to make. This is a story about Germany’s past – and it should have been made by a German. Indeed two of the cream of the crop of German acting talent (Bruno Ganz and Alexandria Maria Lara) are in the movie, playing telling supporting roles, lending authenticity.

Everything about the movie is of the very highest quality and there are many outstanding scenes – Fiennes, as ever, suffers exquisitely and slightly perversely he commands the two or three most emotional scenes in the movie – and yet, like I said at the start, there’s something missing.
Score: 7.5/10

2008 box office review

2008 was the year of the Bat and Abba: between them The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! took $1.5bn worldwide.
Dark Knight ended up a few dollars short of the $1bn mark, its take split $530m/$466m in favour of the US. It was No.1 in the US by a $212m margin, but was beaten by Indy Jones 4 by just a few dollars in the international marketplace.

Mamma Mia! made most of its money in the international marketplace, ending in third place ahead of Kung Fu Panda. The top four films grossed more than $400m each internationally. Passing the $300m barrier were Hancock (just shy of $400m) and Quantum of Solace (which in most major markets failed to match the success of Casino Royale).

Aside from Mamma Mia!, other box office surprises were Iron Man and Sex And The City, both taking $260m or more internationally. Box office under-performers were The Mummy 3 and Prince Caspian, the second part in the Narnia franchise, falling 44% short of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

In the UK, Mamma Mia! is now the most successful film ever (at least in terms of box office receipts), with Bond in second place, and Batman, bloodied and bruised in third. High School Musical 3 did surprisingly well in seventh.

Worldwide Top 10
The Dark Knight $996.9m
Indy Jones 4 $786m
Kung Fu Panda $631.6m
Hancock $624m
Iron Man $581.6m
Mamma Mia! $570.5m
Quantum of Solace $531.3m
Wall*E $500.6m
Prince Caspian $419.6m
Sex And The City $412.6m

US Top 10
The Dark Knight $530.9m
Iron Man $318.3m
Indy Jones $317m
Hancock $227.9m
Wall*E $223.8m
Kung Fu Panda $215.4m
Madagascar 2 $174m
Quantum of Solace $164m
Sex And The City $152.6m
Mamma Mia! $143.8m

UK Top 10
Mamma Mia! £69.1m
Quantum of Solace £50m
The Dark Knight £48.6m
Indy Jones 4 £40m
Sex And The City £26.1m
Hancock £24.5m
High School Musical 3 £22.6m
Wall*E £22.3m
Kung Fu Panda £20m
Iron Man £17.1m

International Top 10
Indy Jones 4 $469m
The Dark Knight $466m
Mamma Mia! $426.7m
Kung Fu Panda $416.2m
Hancock $396.1m
Quantum of Solace $367m
The Mummy 3 $289.8m
Prince Caspian $278m
Wall*E $276.8m
Iron Man $263.3m