Cidade de Deus (2002)

 

Alexandre Rodrigues

Watch the Cidade de Dues (English: City of God) trailer

Writer: Paulo Lins (novel), Bráulio Mantovani (screenplay)

Director: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund

Notable Actors: Douglas Silva, Alexandre Rodrigues

This is the sort of film which stays in your mind for days afterwards. Not just the story, but the setting, the performances – every single one. I keep a close mind upon the actors in any given shot, and I’ve never before had to sit there and try to work out who I’d single out as being ‘notable’ with this cast. The couple complete standouts are obvious, but perhaps subtly does its best here? Or maybe it’s merely to do with what stands out to me, to a person with my history?

Alright, back to basics: I’ve not seen a majority of films. Of course, neither have you, even if you doth protest. Think about all those movies, in all those years and in all those languages. Alright? The advantage you’ll have over me, of course, is that you’ll likely have seen all the famous crime-genre flicks this is often compared to. What I’m trying to tell you is that my experience may be undermined by the fact that this is all new to me.

Similarly, I understand there is a truthfulness behind this I am blind to, even having now seen the film. Where this extends to I do not know, only that Knockout Ned was real. Attempts to find things out have proven fruitless, due to my inability to understand anything other than English and a smattering of German and French.

What I do know is that this film is incredible. That every single performance, even for those on screen for no more than a few minutes, will stay with you. The landscape and storylines will stay with you. The relationships, the personalities, the deaths...every last one will stay with you.

At just 130 minutes, this film goes on forever in the most wonderful way. The method used to weave its tale is perfect, and at no moment do you sit there wishing there was something better to do. Indeed, as the credits role there is a hunger for more but a needing knowing that there is no more you can take.

I need to go get this on DVD so I can re-appreciate every single minute. I also need City of Men – both the series and movie. Quick.

Biutiful (2010)

Javier Bardem
Watch the Biutiful trailer

Writer: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Armando Bo
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Notable Actors: Javier Bardem, Guillermo Estrella, Maricel Álvarez

Seven separate people walked out of this film. Seven separate people didn’t even give it a chance. Three fuckers I was unfortunate enough to be sitting near loudly proclaimed ‘this is crap!’ several times before turning their pathetic, mainstream-led tails and heading off in search of the next following in the Jackass vein.

Believe me. Seven morons couldn’t be more wrong. Biutiful had me on the edge of my seat even when I was bored with it, dragging as it does in all the right places. It has been said, by comically challenged middle age folk, that the film is ‘eh’ but Bardem’s performance is beautiful. (My aren’t they hilarious)

So Bardem’s performance is Oscar-worthy and no more need said. I don’t know about that. I found it pretty compelling when the rest of the dwindling audience allowed me to become absorbed, my eyeballs flickering to-and-fro in a desperate attempt not to miss anything out. Whereas the majority found Biutiful too taxing, too slow, too irritatingly in-your-face with tidbits that never become plot points, I found all these things made the utter charm of it.

Very early on in the film – within five minutes – it is hinted Bardem’s Uxbal was/is a heroin addict, and then never mentioned again. The film is peppered with such glimpses into character. I love things like this far too much to possibly state; I fell in love with this director in the exact opposite of the way I loathed Conviction’s director. Random realisations at the brilliance of the direction drew me out of the plot as much as the philistines did. In this case, however, I’ll forgive it.

Alright, it’s a far-from flawless film, and the penultimate scene may produce eye-rolling at its predictability, but the ending will slay you. It’s so tasty I hunger to never be sated as that would ruin the brilliance. Still a bastard though, Mister Iñárritu. Still a biutiful bastard. (My aren't I hilarious)

The Naked Gun (1988)

Leslie Nielsen and Jeannette Charles

Watch The Naked Gun: From The Files of Police Sqaud trailer

Writer: Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Pat Proft

Director: David Zucker

Notable Actors: Leslie Nielsen, Ricardo Montalban

I’ve always been reluctant to watch this, due to its similar vein to Airplane!, which I was utterly unimpressed with. With the exception of Johnny, who I could happily quote forever.

Usually if it’s taking me awhile to catch up with reviews I have no problem recalling those special moments I filed away to comment upon. With The Naked Gun I’ve a problem, because there weren’t any. Bam-bam-bam smack me in the stomach with laughter, sure, but nothing that really stood out. At least Airplane! had Johnny.

Perhaps I’m being unfair, after all the underused O.J. Simpson’s Nordberg was a masterpiece. I feel I should point out I had intended to use the phrase ‘criminally underused’ until I realised who the actor was.

Maybe I should’ve made myself familiar with Police Squad before attempting this, as perhaps things would’ve been easier to sink into then. Not that it wasn’t fun. I just wish I’d been arrested (ok, I’ll stop).

The odd thing here is all the performances, barring the (perhaps intentional) manikin of Priscillia Presley’s Jane, are incredible. Ricardo Montalban’s villain is, oddly, truly fearful while being utterly comical…and hey! It’s the granddad from Spy Kids! Awesome.

The Naked Gun still rubbed me in all the wrong ways. I finished the film extremely unsatisfied and wondering why I watched it on TV rather than pay for it.

Home For The Holidays (1995)

(L-R) Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr

Watch the Home For The Holidays trailer

Writer: Pamela Gray

Director: Tony Goldwyn

Notable Actors: Robert Downey Jr, Holly Hunter, Geraldine Chaplin

Before I saw this the only thing I knew about it was that Robert Downey Jr was off his head on black tar heroin throughout filming. Which shows. Or not. Depends on both his interpretation of his character and yours.

But anyway. This is so American it hurts. Anything set over thanksgiving makes me feel uncomfortable, seeing as I don’t even do birthdays. The importance of this holiday only acts as a slap in the face to any non-Americans: ha-ha, this is important and lovingly familial and you don’t have this. Of course there’s always the argument that if the family doesn’t get on they shouldn’t meet simply because society dictates, but whatever…

Home for the Holidays is described as a rom-com. It’s not. It’s a black comedy surrounding a family’s interaction, with the relationship between siblings Downey and Hunter at its heart.

That side of Home for the Holidays is wonderful – all the family stuff is superb. Downey’s ADHD portrayal of the normal one (who just happens to be gay and only truly accepted by Hunter) is perfectly complex, balanced out wonderfully by the other members of the family – especially Anne Bancroft’s thoroughly unlikable matriarch. Downey (or, arguable, Hunter’s battle-crying vocal arrangement) is undoubtedly the star of this film.

Except that the audience is stupid, and no matter how wonderfully and oddly English this is there’s this extremely strange half hour tacked on at the end in order to justify the romance of the genre. This could’ve been so much more, one feels, if that had been left out completely. Failing that perhaps a little more ambiguity, or a few more hints – although the fact that it came from nowhere was fucking enjoyable in a way rare in modern cinema – would’ve saved the uncomfortable ending.

Home for the Holidays is a good film. Certainly good enough to deserve more of a reputation than ‘that film Downey was dancing with smack in’. But it all falls apart at the end as it attempts to be something else. Similarly, the tangent featuring Hunter’s daughter feels contrived to the point of boring. This film could've been so much better if they'd cut so much more, but I suppose that loses the essence. Fucked no matter what, eh?

Conviction (2010)

Sam Rockwell

Watch the Conviction trailer

Writer: Pamela Gray

Director: Tony Goldwyn

Notable Actors: Sam Rockwell, Hilary Swank

I’ve been looking forward to Conviction for the longest time with no real expectation of how it would turn out; the film’s brilliance was expected from the story alone. You could’ve made it a Disney pastiche as it would’ve still been one of the best films of the year. I’m not quite sure when or in what context I stumbled across the incredible tale of the - - - - siblings, who together demonstrate love in a way Shakespeare himself could only dream of emulating but it’s certainly something I knew of before I knew love.

On paper Conviction is breathtaking. The story married with that cast? Can’t go wrong. I’ve never seen either of the leads give a bad performance, and things don’t change here. Sam Rockwell is intensely impressive in his multi-dimentional portrayal, and both he, Swank, and Driver do their best with a somehow lacklustre script which attempts to shove every element of real life and yet somehow still makes the majority of this thing feel like a drag on an unlit cigarette. Disapointing, pointless, and slightly embarrassing.

So why does the cinematic telling of a story more made of cinema than a majority of the fictional screenplays out there fall so bleeding flat? I’m gonna raise my hands up here and remind you that I know very little about film or the varying aptitudes needed to produce it. This blog documents my learning curve out of the classroom as I learn to see films in a brand new way, so perhaps I’m talking a load of bullshit when I say this, but fuck me is this director crap.

I’ve never in my life loathed a film for its direction before. The direction here made me Hulk angry. Conviction should have it in the bag, marrying this tale with often overlooked but immense acting talent. But the pace of the screenplay mirrored with the consistently terrible choices of the director make a once far-more-than-heart-warming story into a fucking farce.

I was annoyed from the opening shot and the irritation lasted me until the final moments. There’s so many fuck ups in the direction that there’s literally far too many to mention; the same is true of the production, and to a lesser but still important sense, the screenplay. I’m just so damn disappointed. So damn pissed off there is no other reaction than the disappointment a father has in a naughty son.

This could have been so fucking good. There’s really no way to explain it. You’d get so much more from this story if you knew the true facts alone, ignoring this hideous mess of a movie. So please. Read this instead. It gives you so much more, and doesn’t put you in danger of a stroke brought on by undirected anger (pun intentional).

The Red Balloon (1956)

Pascal Lamorisse

Watch the The Red Balloon trailer

NOTE ON THE TRAILER: This is a trailer for the remastered DVD containing Red Balloon and another Lamorisse film, White Mane. RB is in colour, WM in b&w. However, I strongly reccomend simply seeking out the DVD so not to spoil the magic brought by the unexpected in RB. 

Writer: Albert Lamorisse
Director: Albert Lamorisse
Notable Actors: Pascal Lamorisse (Albert's son)

Remember childhood? Not yours exactly, but childhood in general. The wonder. The lack of inhibition. The ability to believe anything while scrutinising every last detail. We all think fondly of such simple times, knowing we can never revisit them.

What can we do, then? Engross ourselves in Nostalgia – Watch With Mother, The Goodies, Doctor Who; with the latter there’s even new episodes. Something I’ve personally loved from childhood is Top Gear, however I’ve found the more recent new episodes grating. It’s got nothing to do with Stig-gate, and all to do with that gradual loss of wonder slipping away.

I have, my friends, found the holiest of grails. I’ve discovered a way to recapture it.

The Red Balloon allows a suspended sense of childhood to resurface for thirty-four minutes. Sure, you start of cynical (‘I wonder where they got the idea for Up from, eh?’), but suddenly something leads you straight into a state of rapture, and for once in your recent life you’re not looking for the trickery involved. You can appreciate that the film process is aged, but not enough to give any clues to its time of production beyond the recent twenty-thirty years, so it’s dismissed.

And you’re a child. This is so wonderful there really are no words. You really do need to experience it yourself. What I will say, is I had no idea when this was made. When the end title card came up to reveal the year had been 1956, I was impressed on a level far beyond both childhood and adulthood. That lovely little boy was eight years older than my own mother. That’s if he’s still alive today.

When my youngest sister, now eight, was a toddler she used to cry out asking for Norman. She loved her Norman. I was a child myself then, but watching her riveted made me jealous because I was already past that stage of wonder with Norman Wisdom, never-endingly brilliant though he may be. We watched The Red Balloon together, and I paid her absolutely no mind.

Hopefully that says it all; if not, I don’t care that I don’t know how to express it. I’m just settling in for the wait to show this to my children when they reach the age I am now, to recapture childhoods as of yet a long way away.

It's A Kind Of Funny Story (2010)

(L-R) Zach Galifianakis and Keir Gilchrist

Watch the It's A Kind Of Funny Story trailer

Writer: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck (screenplay), Ned Vizzini (novel)

Director: Anna Boen, Ryan Fleck

Notable Actors: Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis

I was expecting, I’ll be honest, fuck all from this. The worst of every world – teen drama making fun of the serious business drama some teens have to deal with, some dude from The Hangover (not redeemed in any sense by being in the enjoyable Due Date, just to say), and Emma Roberts. That girl is one of a handful of banes of my life which include Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Miranda Cosgrove etcetera etcetera.

Course there’s also Amanda Bynes, official she-devil.

Truthfully I went to see this because I’d had a row and needed to stay out of the house. It was raining. It was cold. It was an hour til Conviction started. So what did I find? Predictability, both in plot and stereotypes? Boredom rejoiced with rolled eyes and a wonder why I didn’t enter the hour-into-it Potter 7A for the third time? Well, yes. But no too.

What Funny Story really has going for it is it’s direction. The rest? Emma Roberts is surprisingly good, until you realise there’s no reality to the role, and it's the part that holds your interest, not her interpretation of it. Zach Galifianakis is surprisingly average rather than completely unbearable, and Keir Gilchrist is possibly a talent to watch. Possibly.

But the direction, man. Take a paint-by-numbers-hipster-shit frame and alter it completely in strange little perfect sections which reveal how good a film this could have been if the primary aim wasn’t the teen market who act like pre-teens, rather than the teen market who laugh at how pathetically boring Skins parties are.

It’s strange, really. This film gave me everything I want in terms of altering irritating cinematic clichés (with the exception of EMOTIONAL MUSIC), yet it was nothing more than pleasant. It didn’t send me into the rage such subjected content often does (you should have heard child-me rage about Jacqueline Wilson).

I think – and I have no idea if this is true – that the differences is because, for once, perhaps the people behind this weren’t carbon copies of the target audience. Perhaps they, at least as teens, were more like I was. Perhaps they have to hide the truth behind the quirky-comedic-but-serious-business hipster genre.

Whatever the story is, the film is adequate. Considering I expected an utter shitstorm, this roughly translates that I enjoyed it, my surprise at this egging on this experience. Yeah, it’s throw-away-and-forget-about-it, but it’s one of the better ones out there.

P.S. Americans - Craig isn't spelt Creg. Maybe learn from that?