Blood Diamond

"Archer although not the villain he becomes increasingly dislikeable throughout"

On this trip down blog memory lane like the blog posts themselves we go back in time to 2006 to watch political thriller Blood Diamond. The film sold on the real life Sierra Leone Civil War in 1996-2001 the horrific tale captures the emotional audience that embraced such films as Hotel Rwanda and Shooting Dogs. Before giving away little to no spoilers I urge anyway that slipped into a film comma in 2006 to see this, but if you are like me remember to bring a box of tissues. 

The film centres on Leonardo DiCaprio as Daniel "Danny" Archer and his quest to track the huge diamond found in the diamond mines by Solomon Vandy played by Djimon Hounsou. Archer although not the villain he becomes increasingly dislikeable throughout as his greed submerges Vandy's seeking of his family and the love for his son. Jennifer Connelly fills in the love interest role as she falls for Archer and helps them find their way through a barrage of fire from the rebels. Connelly playing journalist Maddy Bowen is a refreshing change compared to the love drowned characters Hollywood pushes on to us, her and Archer bond through diversity and fear of their circumstances. 

Blood Diamond isn't the shortest film in the world but I forget at some point at its two hour plus running time, at key scenes it was difficult not to feel the pull of emotions. The love Solomon shows for his son is moving and his central to the whole film. 

You have to see this. 

Mr. Nobody

"is it a compliment that Mr.Nobody could arguably sit alongside Terrance Malick's Tree Of Life with everything its trying to say?"

During the run up to the Reading Festival this year Kerrang magazine promoted the dvd release of Jared Leto's new film Mr. Nobody (although had a limited release as far back as September 2009) giving his acting career as much emphasis as his band 30 Seconds to Mars. While Leto's band played the main stage at Reading and Leeds this year his acting career in recent years has been infrequent yet aroused much recognition. Personally I always see Leto either singing heavy repetitive rock or next to Edward Norton and Brad Pitt in Fight Club - surely everyone's favourite film.

Mr. Nobody is a surreal sci-fi dram which centres on Leto's character Nemo Nobody, Leto plays both the 34 and 118 year old version of Nemo - It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it weirdly does. Nemo finds himself in the strange new world of 2092 where he is the last living mortal human alive, (for reasons that are far too boring and complicated to elaborate on) Nemo recounts his life to a a young journalist played by British actor Daniel Mays. Nemo tells the story of key events in his life, such as the moment when his parents split up and Nemo's complicated love life, however as Nemo faces tough decision like which parents to stay with, we see the consequences of both. Like the journalist interviewing Nemo years later we're left wondering "so which one did you pick your Mother or your Father?" Nemo answers "...Both"


Director Jaco Van Dormael has made a quirky film about life and fate and the choices we make, is it a compliment that Mr.Nobody could arguably sit alongside Terrance Malick's Tree Of Life with everything its trying to say? I'm certainly not one to demand a linear narrative and I enjoyed the way this one came together. Some people may have disliked them, but the moments when Nemo has monologues in front of a green screen about the meaning and the strangeness of life I found to be both insightful and  a welcome break from the story which seemed to drag on . Nemo in one of these monologues asks such rhetorial question as "Why does smoke leave the cigarette? Why do bacteria cells multiple away from each other?". Mr. Nobody will have been off the radar for most people but it's certainly worth checking out, although I know a slice of you with dislike it and may review it words such as "meaningless" and "preachy". 

Los ojos de Julia/Julia's Eyes

"It took its time but I think that's why I loved it so much, when it finally came good it packed one of the best punches of the year."

 Following on from the well liked blog of Spanish film The Skin I Live In here are my thoughts on Julia's Eyes. The film is another collaboration between Guillermo del Toro (Producer) and actress Belén Rueda, following on from The Orphanage.  Unlike the last few reviews I have posted on here I can not soak Julia's Eyes with enough praise. 


Julia's Eyes starts with a very iconic scene when Julia's sister that has become blind mounts a stall to commit suicide and has the stall knocked away from a mystery invisible man (this features heavily in the trailers).  Julia then takes on the mystery and tackles what she believes to be a murder and not the suicide the police and her husband are convinced it is. It may have been my knowledge of del Toro's involvement but it seemed to have his stamp all over it. I started to worry that as the film progressed and the suspension of horror built it would never deliver the killer punch.


It took its time but I think that's why I loved it so much, when it finally came good it packed one of the best punches of the year. Julia's Eyes started to remind me of The Shining, especially as I began to shout at the screen maybe it was because I  just saw people running after each other with crazed looks and knives. Julia's Eyes made me fall in love with world cinema all over again and further ignite my passion for Spanish language films. I concede that del Toro may have now found his perfect range but if it provokes films such as Julia's Eyes bring them on thick and fast. Julia's Eyes is without question one of my films of 2011. 

Insidious

"the first half the film jabs you in the face with the freakishness of the house and the child yet as it moved onto the second half it lacked a knock-out punch"

 I'm back from a working weekend, with another on the horizon I've been struggling to both watch films and upload reviews. I've been a bit fixated on The Killing series one after watching the first four episodes in one afternoon, should upload a review?

Anyway, new dvd release Insidious is meant to be the main attraction here and it's definitely worth letting it give you a scare. Insidious is basically a hunted house horror film with a twist, the twist being that its in fact the child that is hunted. In the first half the film jabs you in the face with the freakishness of the house and the child yet as it moved onto the second half it lacked a knock-out punch and left me wanting them to re-do certain parts.

In my opinion the horror genre is the most difficult to get right and so many have fallen short, I recommend Last House on the Left, The Silent House and Creep. Insidious is a very attempt and I can see why many people have expressed how much they liked it to me although the critics had a mixed opinion. I most enjoyed such highlights as the possibility the child was going to go on a crazy hunted rampage and felt let down when this did not happen.

Point of interest - Tiny Tim and the song Tip Toe through the Tulips - This song is heard a lot in the film and is probably one of the spookiest things in the film.

Sucker Punch

"It's less high brow and more Xbox"

Following the recent trend of my reviews, Sucker Punch is another new DVD release, yet the problem with reviewing it is that the critics have said it all, really. Sucker Punch is a mess of a film that director Zack Snyder should not list on his CV next time he is pitching a film. I ended up checking the plot of the film on Wikipedia as it never seemed sure what it was doing and only acted as the background to predictable and repetitive action sequences

The story starts with a 20 year old nicknamed "Babydoll" (Emily Browning) who is sent to a mental institution after her mother and sister are killed by her sexually abusive stepfather (Gerard Plunkett). The institution and her stepfather convince the authorities to have Babydoll lobotomised, and upon waiting for this to happen Babydoll spirals into different fantasies which consume almost the entirety of the film. Babydoll fantasies she is in brothel run by a mobster character called Blue, where she befriends other girls and plans an escape. On being forced to dance Babydoll fantasies she is fighting a variety of characters from wartime Nazis to futuristic robots.

When the action scenes come to a climatic end everyone is impressed by the apparent standard of Babydoll's dancing although Snyder never lets us see the presumed highly sexual dance. I refuse to waste any more time describing the plot. The action/fight scenes play like video games and the constant use of music during these adds to the overall nauseous feeling you get from watching them. Although Snyder clearly knows his way around a green screen, his previous films 300 and Watchmen prove his idea of a film is to place CGI above script and any intention In his first original screenplay it is apparent that Snyder has a vivid imagination, yet after a while this seems to come to an abrupt halt. Only when the film remembers it must have a script somewhere does the the story hold any interest, but there is a feeling it is too little too late.

Snyder may have had some intention to make a film led by a young woman that kicks ass, but instead he just objectifies all the female characters. I have to agree with St. Petersburg Times critic Steve Persall who made a very accurate assertion about the film that it "suggests that all this objectification of women makes them stronger. It is supposed to be reassuring that men who beat, berate, molest and kill these women will get what is coming to them. Just wait, Snyder says, but in the meantime here is another femininity insult to keep you occupied."
All in all, I want to say this film is awful and what it says about its female characters should make Snyder ashamed, yet unfortunately there are many even worse films. It is less high brow and more Xbox. Give it a miss.


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The Skin I Live In

Introducing Mireia Nicolas the first guest blogger to the Films blah blah blah world, hopefully she'll provide many more. A great review for a film I recently had a lot to say about in Small Films For Big Cinemas

La piel que habito / The skin I live in (Pedro Almodóvar, 2011)

Almodóvar has always been a love-him-or-hate-him kind of director, especially in his (and my) home country, Spain. I must admit that, even though I loved Volver with all my heart (he always manages to get the best out of Penélope Cruz) I was on the hate-him side. I always thought he gave an awful image of Spain – I was worried the irony in his colourful films, so outrageous and crazy and stereotypical, so evident for the Spanish audiences, would be lost on others and make them think Spaniards were actually like this, and quite frankly, in a world where people think Mexican hats are Spanish and that Spain is somewhere between Venezuela and Brazil, it was kind of thanks but no, thanks. Anyway, I am digressing.

One of my best friends found a job in Montreal and before leaving, he suggested we go see The skin I live in and for tapas (don’t judge us, we are Spanish). I was slightly wary, but I am not going to see my friend for a very, very long time so I accepted. Boy, were we in for a ride! The skin I live in can’t be described easily, nor can I talk about its plot freely. It tells the story of plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Lergard, (played by Banderas) who is obsessed with his mysterious patient Vera, (played by Elena Anaya). Vera/Anaya wears a full-body cat suit and spends her days doing yoga and creating art. She is secluded in a room in a big, beautiful estate near Toledo (Spain), where Banderas lives with his housekeeper, Marilia (played by Marisa Paredes, another constant actress in Almodóvar’s world) and the service. Soon we learn Lergard/Banderas has been experimenting with genetically modified human skin, in humans. The film goes back and forth in time, showing moments that explain us who Lergard, Vera and Marilia are.

Formally outstanding, the film offers some moments that are truly uncomfortable, so much that rumour has it during its premiere in Cannes some people started giggling nervously, the kind of giggle you can’t supress when you feel so awfully uncomfortable you either start giggling or just go away. The characters are tortured, crazy, deranged, their actions only comprehensible to them. The music is tortured, crazy, deranged – the soundtrack is excellent, sharp violins that go hand in hand with the images and keep the viewer on the edge of the seat. Banderas’ acting is outstanding, although his accent is a bit off at times, an Andalusian trying to speak in a normal Spanish accent – something anyway that only a very picky Spanish speaker like me would notice. However, it is not a film where he speaks a lot, a trait which is awfully unsettling – every time he is about to speak you worry he will do something terrible. Dr Ledgard is truly scary. Elena Anaya’s Vera is mysterious, alluring: her eyes tell a thousand stories in every single close up, her skin glows and glistens, her face wonderfully perfect, wonderfully crazy. She is the key to Bandera’s obsession, and it is only in the very end that we understand why. Marisa Paredes once again proves why she is one of the great actresses in the Spanish-speaking world, her character nurturing but at the same time unfriendly.

All in all, The skin I live in is an unsettling, impressive film that will leave you without words. Go and watch it. 8/10.

Little White Lies

After my last post about the newly released dvd Submarine I thought I'd give you lot another one, this time its French comedy-drama Little White Lies. Like most of the films I rent I knew little about this foreign language film except that it had received praise and there had been a lot of talk about actress Marion Cotillard. The film centres on a group of friends that go ahead with their holiday despite the recent scooter accident which has left their nonfriend in hospital fighting for his life. The rest of the gang head for the holiday home but of course cut their holiday down to only two weeks in what we're lead to believe is a justifiable tribute.

What follows is a two and a half hour lacklustre adventure through the groups lives, the highlight is early on, when Vincent confesses his attraction for Max.

"I love your hands"

The problem I find with foreign language films is when they attempt comedy like Little White Lies flirts with from the onset it seems to get lost in the subtitles. When Vincent tells Max his true feelings there is a sense this should provoke a big laugh, I could only manage a giggle chuckle.

The rest of the film is taken up with contrived dramatic moments for each and every character, with each one that follows becoming more obvious than the last. Marion Cotillard's character is by far the most appealing character as it seems to have more depth, while the rest of the characters battle with a mixture of relationship breakdowns, sexuality and weasels. Each dramatic moment seems to be accompanied by a song posing the question when does a soundtrack become utterly pointless and forced?

The most annoying thing about the film apart from its unnecessary length is that its most annoying quality is even mentioned in the script. Spoiler alert Max's boat house friend (sub -character) finally break the news that Ludo has died of his injuries. With the climatic emotional scene in full swing they are all told how their selfish lives and lies have meant they have ignored their friend when he most needs them. The most annoying example of their selfishness is the holiday in the first place and then when one of the friends goes to ask advice about his love life while Ludo lays in hospital near death - Ludo even looks away and thus seems to suggest he's wondering how on earth he became friends with these people in the first place.

Verdict Little White Lies has its funny moments and the development of the characters will keep anyone half interested but the film is let down because of its length and thus by the end I did not care about the lives of these people. The film seemed like Guillaume Canet had read the "directing a comedy drama for dummies", it ticked all the boxes but it didn't do much else.