The lights are on but nobody's home

Thank god Cillian Murphy is a good actor or Red Lights would have been an altogether unbearable experience. The story of a team of academic debunkers who work in exposing frauds of the physic variety starring Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro and the aforementioned Mr.Murphy has all the makings of a great psychological thriller but falls flat about half way through its running time.

 

 

The subject matter of this film, that maybe there is no thing as physic ability, is a thought provoking concept. The controversial topic is interesting but the director Rodrigo Cortés, on top form with recent Buried, seems to not want to take a decisive stand point on the subject. Leaving the film with no real direction and seemingly no sense of purpose, it over stays it’s welcome.

The first half of Red Lights burns with anticipation as to its inevitable outcome but with a twist in the last five minutes like the ones that put M. Night Shyamalan’s career in its decline, leaves the viewer reeling with the crassness of it all.  De Niro and Weaver get barely enough screen time to work with the dire script and Murphy is left manning the helm of this sinking ship of a movie. He holds it together just about but the main thought after viewing is why did all these top notch actors sign up to such drivel?  A promising premise, a wealth of talent and a subject matter full of exploration and debate gets fed into the food processor of Hollywood and comes out looking like straight to T.V. unintelligent mush. Red Lights indicate stop

 

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La piel que habito

Pedro Almodóvar has some talent. Anyone else who tried to make a film like The Skin I Live In(2011)would have treaded heavily, fumbled and fallen with the oddness of it all. Antonio Banderas plays a brilliant plastic surgeon, with about as much baggage as Lady Gaga on a world tour, who invents and prefects an artificial skin with the aid of his human test subject.  This is really as much of the plot that can be given away without ruining a fine piece of cinema. The mystery to the story that opens up around the audience is a stroke of genius.

 

Almodovar has been quoted as saying that The Skin I Live In is “a horror story without screams or frights”. And my did he get it right. Maybe a little slow to start but once it gets going, it really gets going. Banderas is the linchpin in this tale, drawing the viewer in with a superb turn as the manic, once loving, surgeon. It could have easily all gone so wrong, a story verging on wacky and distasteful, it is beautifully played out with Almodovar at the helm.  A true horror story that will linger in your subconscious for quite some time after viewing. If you missed it in the cinema first time round, get it on D.V.D now. You won’t be disappointed.

 

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Chef's recommended dish of the month: October

Gus Van Sant, film marmite. Apart from Good Will Hunting the majority of his films polarise people’s opinions. His work is trademarked with lots of slow organic shots, minimal dialogue and a pace akin to the trudging of an auld wan on her way to the shops. Personally I think this month’s dish is a great piece of filmmaking but if that’s not your bag than stop reading right here. No really, just stop, I mean it. You’ll get angry at me if you watch it.

 

 

Severed up this month is Last Days (2005) the story of a musician dealing with depression, isolation and suicidal thoughts. And once I tell you that the plot is based on Kurt Cobain  you don’t need to be a genius to figure out how it all ends. Due to Courtney Love’s tight grasp on all things Nirvana the copyright and green light was never given so we have changed names and no nirvana music but it’s pretty blatant as to where Gus Van Sant has gotten his inspiration from.

Last Days works beautifully in the sense that it captures the feeling of voyeurism quite well. A fan of Nirvana will know that that was always an issue with Kurt, the fame that the band brought, the feeling of always being watched. Michael Pitt does a stellar job as the infamous frontman, even belting out a not too bad singing impression of the late musician. He has got the forlorn, disconnected thing down pat and his traipsing’s seem to come quite naturally. Some may argue that he spends the most part of the film hiding behind his hair and mumbling quite a bit but that strikes me as a familiar practice amongst angst ridden musicians anyways.

Michael Pitt has picked quite interesting roles in his career (see Funny Games, The Dreamers) after his dire turn on Dawson’s Creek. Looking like Leonardo DiCaprio’s weird younger brother that never leaves his room and spends all his time filming plastic bags floating in the wind he could have fizzled off to nothing but give this man time. With his recent exit from Boardwalk Empire I think he could be one to watch. At least one to entertain and shock.

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Just a little up the road, on the right...

We all have guilty pleasures. Maybe it’s a penchant for Taylor Swift, a love for Party of Five or even an unhealthy obsession with A.C Slater. Lying under the surface of every good movie fan is a much watched D.V.D that they would rather you didn’t know about.  Me, I’ve got too many to count. Growing up on a diet of a dime a dozen trashy teen slashers, I sure as hell love a good horror/thriller.  Oh and when I mean a “good” horror/thriller, I mean a BAD one.  Case in point, The House at the End of the Street.

 

 

 Jennifer Lawrence stars in this tawdry horror ( could you even call it a horror, when I’ve gotten more scared looking in the mirror in the mornings? ) about her next door neighbours mysterious house, where, lets just say a lot of bad things happened. Sounds familiar? Well it probably is. The plot reads like the back of every Point Horror book you read growing up.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you it’s a good movie because it isn’t. There are more movie cliché’s in say ten minutes of it’s running time than you could shake a stick at. Jennifer Lawrence is much better than this fodder, the acting is woeful and the dialogue even worse.  Not to mention the “twists” that are telegraphed worse than smoke signals. But I just can’t help but love it. Its tacky, trashy and thoroughly entertaining.  You have be warned though. Its bad, REAL bad.

Can be found labelled “Guilty Pleasure”, filed beside Dawson’s Creek boxset and Channing Tatum back catalogue.

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Moonshine madness

 

Prohibition is a hot topic in Hollywood these days. Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few years you will have undoubtedly heard about the smash HBO show Boardwalk Empire, set in Atlantic City in the early years of prohibition. Running with the popularity of the show, Matt Bondurant’s 2008 novel The Wettest County in the World has been adapted by musician Nick Cave for the big screen. Lawless, as it’s called, stars Shia La Boeuf, Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce to name but a few. Set mostly in 1931 it tells the tale of three country brothers who run a moonshine business. 

And well, that about sums it up.  The casting is strong and the main performers make this film an enjoyable watch but somewhere along the way you can’t help but feel it could have been something more. Guy Pearce has an excellent turn as an old fashioned baddie and Tom Hardy (cardigan and all) puts in another great performance to add to the list but Shia La Boeuf gets lost in a muddle of mumbling lines and unlikability.

 Fans of the HBO show will have an altogether too familiar feeling watching Lawless, we have been there and seen it all before. Not that that’s a bad thing but it lacks the bright lights big city feeling that Boardwalk Empire is so good at capturing. Lawless is perfectly good entertainment, well shot and beautifully made but it’s a bit on the throwaway side of things. Nothing new is brought to the table and certain facets of the story aren’t as well explored as they should be. But if it’s a good old-fashioned story you’re after then Lawless is your man. 

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All Killer No Filler

A film starring Matthew Mc Conaughey AND Emilie Hirsch slipping under my radar is not something that happens all too often but it did when it came to Killer Joe. Maybe it had something to do with Mr. Mc Conaughey’s other film that hit theatres on the same week, Magic Mike. And lets face it strippers sell a little better than graphic scenes of violence. Killer Joe having the latter in abundance.

Telling the story of a father and son’s plot to hire someone to kill their mother for insurance money, Killer Joe is a refreshing and darkly entertaining return to form for William Freidkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection). Hugely shocking in parts and not for your average film goer but if you have the stomach to stick this one out, it’s a rewarding work of cinema.

Mc Conaughey’s Joe is magnetic to watch. Having spent the most part of the last ten years of his career taking his top off its great to see him step up to the plate and bat a curve ball. Showing flickers of Bale’s Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Mc Conaughey gives this film a central character that is a triumph worthy of some awards attention.

But be warned this film won’t please everyone, I’m nearly sure most of the audience at my screening left shaking their heads or had to pick their jaws up off the floor after the lights came on. Its shocking, brilliant, disturbing and funny. Not many films can thread that line so easily. Tightly paced, filled with top notch acting and its sleazily entertaining, they need to make more films like this. Oh and you will definitely never ever look at fried chicken the same way again…you have been told….

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Hungry for more?

So its beaten a lot of records, big ones to be precise. Gaining $155 million in the box office in a very short time, its debut only having been beaten by Harry Potter and The Dark Knight.  Many people, apart from the teen audience, are scratching their heads wondering what the Hunger Games is really all about and why has there been such a fuss made over it.

Set in a future America called Panem, it tells the story of how each year 24 “tributes” (boys and girls aged between 12 and 18) are picked to duke it out in a hellish arena until only one of them survives. Pretty morbid right?

It would have been easy for the studio to get someone to make a play by play retelling of the book but they haven’t. Fair enough it doesn’t stray too far away from its original source material but this is a film with style, substance and heart unlike the Twilight franchise which has the feel of a T.V. movie.
Gary Ross uses hand held excellently during the gorier parts to keep the suspense going,  craftily helping it escape a 15 rating making it more accessible to a younger audience. 

But the real star of the show is Jennifer Lawrence. I would hate to think what this film would be like with a different actress playing the title role. Her portrayal of the hardened hunter girl Katniss Everdeen is spot on. You can see the reflections of her character in Winters Bone which she gained an Oscar Nod for.  She pulls the film together brilliantly helped with great performances from Woody Harrelson as her drunken mentor and Donald Sutherland as the wise and deadly President Snow.

What resonates most about this film is the fact that it plays with the idea of the reality show culture that is so strong in today’s society.  From the overly vapid and colourful people of the Capitol (a futuristic L.A.) to the Game makers ( Directors of  the televised Hunger Games “show” )  it makes the idea of this future seem realistic and altogether frightening.  This film will linger in your mind long after viewing. It might not be the perfect movie, those are hard to find, but the main concept behind it is original and thought provoking.  Don’t get fooled into thinking this is one for the teens,  everyone would enjoy The Hunger Games. Well maybe not your 85 year old Grandmother, maybe best not to bring her to it.

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