'Cafe de Flore'. Love, its dizzying highs and lows, and everything else in between, in this brave, stunning, deeply affecting film.
I am still reeling from this thing, three hours later. What starts as two seemingly separate, simple stories about love, takes a very dark, spiritual turn, and in the process, explores "love" in its many forms.
I say two simple stories in relation to where the story goes, but they aren't simple by any means.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. An IMAX marvel of breathtaking, beautifully constructed action sequences and ingenious use of field tech!
Tom Cruise is so meant for this role that it's ridiculous. His physique, intensity and willingness to put his own body at risk are only magnified by the IMAX screen and Brad Bird's wonderful direction. You've all seen the scene in the trailer with the craning shots atop the Burj Khalifa, but they don't prepare you for half the beauty and thrill you'll experience.
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The Shawshank Redemption. A fascinating look into the psyche of men and their perceived notion of safety, freedom and self-worth, if the only life they are familiar with is that inside a prison.
I'd heard a LOT about this film, and all things considered, it doesn't live up to the unbelievable reputation it has. For all I'd heard about it though, I'd never read the plot, and my expectations of the main character—Andy Dufresne, played extremely competently by Tim Robbins—were way off the mark, and I was pleasantly surprised by the direction the film took, turning into a clever prison break, and me realising how much the TV series Prison Break borrowed from this film.
The highly resourceful Andy Dufresne remains the same man through it all, not letting prison get the better of him, and bettering the life of other inmates, but this film is about Morgan Freeman's Red and the change he goes through in his mindset, and he puts in a damn fine performance! Honourable mentions to a crazy William Sadler and scumbag warden Bob Gunton.
Uplifting and filled with hope as it may have been, with the reunion at the end sending definite chills, I'm still not 100% sure Andy didn't commit the crime he was in jail for. Knowing this was written and directed by Darabont, and the twisted ending to The Mist I absolutely adored, I really thought Freeman would find a murder weapon or something that incriminated Andy. Alas.
UPDATE:
Had a discussion about this on Reddit, increasing my understanding of why people did like it so much, and someone made the very good point that my proposed ending would have gone against everything the film stood for.
Darabont is an extremely intelligent fellow. He knew much better than to incriminate Andy. That would have worked against everything else in the film. Andy wasn't a great man, but he was honest to his word, that was what Darabont built his entire character around.
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Green Lantern. Fuck you, Hollywood. What disgustingly impressive willpower you've used to destroy my favourite superhero.
The first theatrical trailer made me nervous. One TV spot after that completely changed the tone, and there was hope. After the first set of mixed reviews and universally bad consensus, all hope was gone, and I'd been contemplating whether I wanted to put myself through this. The first fifteen to twenty minutes held my attention, and I thought maybe my incredibly low expectations may have saved me. No, no they didn't.
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Hanna. Thrillingly shot action and chase sequences, with a perfect accompanying score [of the year for me] from The Chemical Brothers!
Saoirse Ronan turns in another stellar performance, leading the cast in fine style, and putting the action heroes of recent times to shame. Fierce and frightened, coming to grips with the [and her] world at large, Ronan demands your attention, even when the script loses some of its focus and runs astray. Eric Bana proved solid, Olivia Williams you can never go wrong with, and Cate Blanchett's villainous, caricaturey turn was most entertaining, along with her oddly dressed, whistling minions.
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Senna. Thrilling. Tragic. The most emotionally resounding story of the year.
I tried to recollect what I knew about Ayrton Senna the morning I watched the film, and all that came to mind were two things; he raced in Formula 1, and more faintly than that, he died while racing.
I now know that he was a family man, a man of Brasil, not one bit interested in the politics that ruined racing, unbelievably determined, and most importantly, a man of God. I say most importantly a man of God in a selfish way, as a viewer of this film, because hearing Senna talk repeatedly about what God had given him broke my heart little by little, knowing what would eventually happen.
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Take Shelter. Tense, unsettling, playing on the fears of today, and deeply rewarding. A brilliantly paranoid and fearful Michael Shannon!
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Super 8. A fantastic throwback to those kids movies from the 80s we all loved, with the best ensemble cast of the year.
Maybe I've just seen a lot of films lately, but I can't last remember when I've so genuinely cared for a bunch of characters, and all credit to Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, the rest of the ragtag bunch, and J.J. Abrams, for so expertly bringing out the emotion in these kids with his writing and direction. If it's been a long time since I've cared so much for a cast, it's been even longer since the ensemble cast has largely been kids, and no, I can't call it unique, but it's something that has been sorely missing from cinema as of late.
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X-Men: First Class. The best comic book to screen origin story I've seen, and a more than adequate potion to help erase the farce that was X-Men 3: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
I had my doubts after the last two failures, and taking it back to the 60s, telling the story of a young Magneto and Charles Xavier and intertwining the story with the Cuban Missile Crisis seemed like an extremely ambitious undertaking by Matthew Vaughn, but all in all, he's made it work, and then some!
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Nine days from now will be the one year anniversary of LOST ending. I wrote about how that void will never be filled, and how there will never be another show as great as LOST, for OH SO MANY reasons, but today, just temporarily, a little bit of Amber in the form of the Fringe season 3 finale filled that void.
I tweeted about it the instant it finished, I rewatched that ending, had about ten tabs open, started looking at the Fringe subreddit, read an out-there, theorising post by Doc Jensen, and well, it felt like LOST all over again!
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Boy I love being surprised by films. The Beaver is not the film I expected it to be.
Jodie Foster introduced the film, and with a wry smile on her face, she warned the audience that this would not be a lighthearted, uplifting story, and well, she was right. Thank god she made the movie she did.
The Beaver tells four stories. A clinically depressed man that has tried all he can and is on the verge of suicide, stuck in a box that he cannot break out of. A wife at the crossroads of a broken relationship, a son desperately trying not to be his father, and a girl struggling to truly express herself.
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Go watch it. Really avoid watching the trailer [I have no idea why it's been cut the way it has, because it's almost doing it a disservice] if you can, but I implore you to go watch it! If Inception blew my mind and left me in awe of Nolan's imagination and film making prowess, this blew my mind in equal parts in telling a story, a TRUE story, that will leave you shaking your head long after you walk out of the cinema. If it's a mockumentary, then I tip my hat to a bunch of amazing writers for scripting a story so rich and running me through the emotional spectrum like I haven't been in a long time; I would be very annoyed if it was. Damn you, cynical nature.
As if the story itself wasn't amazing enough, I really loved the way it was told. From the montage towards the beginning told solely through emails, Facebook updates and online photos, to the way Google Maps and Street View are used to chart their travels, the use of these popular social services that are so familiar to us now was very clever!
With all the recent Facebook privacy hoo-hah and ongoing concerns with online identity, Catfish is a film for the times, and a staggering example of the power of Facebook, and the basic level of trust millions of people put in it. Angela's messed up, but creative mind, coupled with a basic understanding of social media services, allowed her to create a complex, but completely fake network of family and friends to live out a life and romance that was a far cry from her pretty sorry existence. It was just unfortunate that this escape came at the expense of Nev.
Thank you for screening it, Melbourne International Film Festival, but next time, maybe try not screwing up the projection for a good half of the movie?
Oh, and check out Catfish's site, with Nev's "desktop"!
Go watch it.
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A year's worth of hype EXCEEDED. This will NEVER happen again. You just blew my mind, Christopher Nolan. Did I just RT myself in a blog post? Yes, yes I did, but I've honestly sat here trying to express my sentiment in some other way, and I really can't. Something else not possible is doing this movie justice, but screw it, it's my blog, and there are thoughts swimming around in my mind.
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Can you say "mythology overload"? Then, add one, multiply it by infinity and square it. Good. Lord.
Thoughts:
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