Monthly Archives: November 2010

Jarrod drags his girlfriend from NY to LA for his homie’s birthday bash, and they awake to weird blue War Of The Worlds lightning striking the city, the appearance of some spiky District 9 UFOs V-style on the skyline (get it? Not Nissans at all) and a few giant Cloverfield monsters rampaging downtown. The gang watches aghast as humans are harvested via a Wizard Of Oz updraft, and one-by-one are picked off themselves: Ray sucked into a bright light, Walt grabbed by a flying scaremeister, some random bloke brain-filched by a multi-armed Borg Queen, an unnamed woman slapped down with a Triffid-like whip, Denise stomped on in a Ferrari, Candice swallowed whole. As Independence Day foresees, the military’s ass is kicked, despite the stealth fighters, and eventually even Lainey and Alien-infested Jarrod give up, in Platoon slow-mo, covered in goo on the roof.

It’s very funny, which says it all.

Skyline . 2010 . Brothers Strause

reviewed by Sarah-Clare Conlon

Screen 1: Derivative

NB: To honour Clare, as the concept is her idea, I have used this review to feature the first ‘Screen 1’ postscript where the review, and indeed the film, is summarised in one word. Thanks Clare!

For a film that examines how the Stasi so deeply influenced everyday life in East Germany, The Lives of Others is surprisingly restrained. It refuses to deal in black and white and instead shows how everyone to some extent became a victim of the behemoth of distrustful bureaucracy that swallowed the country’s moral core in the nineteen-eighties. This is a film about understanding, not judgement.

This desire to avoid having heroes and villains makes the characters more real. Both funny and tragic, the story (which I am purposefully trying to avoid spoiling) is, like life, never as straightforward as it appears. You are drawn in, hoping futilely that this will all work out for the best for everyone. The understated ending is incredibly powerful.

The Lives of Others is a must see. It may portray a time passed in a country that no longer exists but its concerns are universal.

The Lives of Others . 2006 . Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Reviewed by Benjamin Judge

Ever since Hitchcock killed Marion in the shower and offered Norman Bates as the replacement protagonist, the psychosis of the hero is often under scrutiny. Filter through Fight Club, American Psycho, Donnie Darko and the like and we are now well rehearsed in pop-psychology to know from very early on where Leo is taking us in Shutter Island. The twist, therefore, is no surprise. At times the direction and editing are deft and strong at conveying the central themes but it does not touch the heights that Scorcese has scaled many times before. The entrance to the island is blasted laughably loud and it is half an hour too long, but the cast (especially Kingsley) are always a pleasure and some scenes have genuine grip, if a weak pay-off. The Nazi subtext was layered quite well, but the family story was hammered too hard. Watchable, but three stars at best.

Shutter Island . 2010 . Martin Scorsese

reviewed by Screen150

Scorsese presses up hard against sweating faces, both in and out of the ring, as if the camera were a fist perpetually in the process of punching those that deserve and, in some cases, enjoy it. The boxing scenes themselves are brutal and exquisitely placed and paced, so that this biopic never suffers from inadequate time shoe-horning that others of the genre fall down on. The black and white choice can, sometimes, be the marker of pretentiousness, but Scorsese gets away with it because colour has no place in the realism of this bleak story, whereas the blood-red and taxi-yellow were vital for Travis Bickle’s hyper-real New York. And, once again, De Niro wins the championship belt for the vacant-yet-paranoid stare; every muscle, every grimace, loading more and more upon the decay of a once-great sportsman. My only drawback? The mumbling Method-acting dialogue had me reaching for the subtitles button…

Raging Bull . 1980 . Martin Scorsese

reviewed by Screen150

“This is not a love story,” proclaims the omnipotent narrator at the beginning of the film. His voice is deep and fatherly, so you’ll probably believe him. However, he is not entirely correct and perhaps “You’ll wish you were this cool” may have been more apt introduction to this tale.

The film stars mumblecore royalty Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel , a pair of kooky 20 year olds who meet, go on weekend trips to IKEA and then suddenly break up.

The tale isn’t told in any particular chronological order, although there is a cute illustration at the start of each scene to show us how far we are down the relationship road. It’s that sort of film; kind of what Memento would have been if Guy Pearce had owned a corduroy satchel, black-frame glasses. And a MacBook. Which had stickers of obscure bands on the lid.

500 Days of Summer . 2009 . Marc Webb

Reviewed by Tom Mason

Watching some old films in high definition really brings something out of it. Zulu, for example, looks amazing with its African sets and cast of thousands of Zulu. Ghostbusters falls into a different category – parts looks made for the extra definition, such as Sigourney Weaver. The rest, such as Bill Murray’s complexion, Slimer, Dana Barrett’s apartment building, Mr Stay Puft and all the drawn scenes, were made for a time when there was no expectation of people ever watching the film in a higher quality.

The writing still oozes quality though. I’ve been quoting lines from Ghostbusters since it was released and I’ve been saying them so long that I’d forgotten where it was I heard them first.

The cinematography, the yellow cab drivers, and the receptionists make 80’s New York a badass place to live in. I guess the final word has to be: “Who you gonna call?”

Ghostbusters . 1984 . Ivan Reitman

reviewed by Aaron Gow

The final Lord of the Rings film takes viewers on an epic journey, following two Hobbits as they attempt to rid Middle Earth of an evil lighthouse.

It’s not a prompt process as the movie decides our time would be best spent watching the pint-sized heroes walk across every field on the continent. This wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t like a pair of incompetent ramblers.

Every so often, the fat one will remark, ‘I think we’re lost, Mr. Frodo’. And Frodo cries a bit before turning to the Google Map he printed earlier.

This is what happens when you’re too cheap to pay for the Toll. Stupid, fat Hobbits.

While Gollum, their CGI London black cab, takes them around the back streets of Middle Earth, use the map above to phone a friend, fetch a beer or take a nap without missing any of the bits with swords.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King . 2008 . Peter Jackson

Reviewed by Tom Mason of 330 Words

Is Austria’s Michael Haneke the best European director at the moment? This Palme D’Or winner is masterful cinema, dripping with creeping suspense and unsettling monotony. The fictional German village of Eichwald is beset by a series of disturbing violent occurrences that are not easily explained. But Haneke is not in the business of giving out answers (see Funny Games) but rather seeking hints and here he plunders all manner of people’s secrets to find the roots of the hidden terrorism. He sets religious oppression, sexual practices and inhibitions in his sights, but also draws upon class conflicts in a carefully constructed, multifaceted cast of characters who filter through the village hierarchy. This is rural Germany at a crucial time in its history, on the brink of change for the worse. Haneke reminds us that the problems were there long before the fatal bullet was fired but no-one chose to notice.

The White Ribbon . 2009 . Michael Haneke

reviewed by Screen150

Sexual opportunism has been the focus of many a high school movie; but it is rarely depicted as disturbing and violently sickening as here. Two high school boys, introduced to us as stereotypical outsiders early on in the film, make a frightening discovery in the basement of an abandoned mental asylum. The naked woman they believe to be dead, chained to a bed and wrapped up in plastic sheets, turns out to be rather alive – for some value of “alive”. What follows is a nauseating descend into a world of rape, necrophilia and obsession as the boys hold the undead as a sex slave and sell her out to classmates. “Deadgirl” could easily be classified as sick and distasteful horror trash; paired with the underlying subtextual teenage angst however, it makes for an unsettling portrait of desperation and anxiety, summarised in the line “That’s the best we can ever get”.

Deadgirl . 2008 . Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel

Reviewed by Samantha Bail

It’s been a short held desire of mine to be able to tow all my life’s belongings behind me in a used, but empty, coffin. To be so devoid of possessions that they’ll fit in a box that is a similar size and shape to yourself seems like a nice footprint with which to live on. However, I feel life may be too modern for me to achieve this. I can’t imagine hurrying across a busy road dodging the traffic; dragging a large wooden container down avenues would slow your speed considerably. Also, negotiating speed bumps would be a pain, cattle grids a nuisance and cobbled side streets don’t bear thinking about. I guess Django had it about right. The Wild West lacked tarmac roads so the mud made a perfect surface on which to slide a casket along and with your trusty steed could take over when you tired.

Django . 1966 . Sergio Corbucci

reviewed by Aaron Gow