Join Luke McWilliams as he reviews new to cinema releases; Special Guests: Marisa Martin from Enemies of Reality Media shares what is happening in Canberra film-wise for this month of March!
Special Guest: Marisa Martin from Enemies of Reality Media takes us to Film School to discuss the role of the Producer!
Join Luke McWilliams as he reviews new to cinema releases:
- Anna Karenina; and
- Lincoln
Special Guest: Marisa Martin of Enemies of Reality Media takes us to Film-School: This week's topic: Editing!
Silver Linings Playbook is a romantic comedy-drama directed its screenplay writer David O. Russell of Three Kings , and is adapted from the novel by Matthew Quick.
It received eight Academy Award nominations:
- • Best Picture,
- • Best Actor
- • Best Actress
- • Best Supporting Actor
- • Best Supporting Actress
- • Best Director
- • Best Adapted Screenplay; and
- • Best Film Editing
Plot
We meet Patrizio Solitano Jr. (played by the world’s most sexiest man Bradley Cooper), as he is being picked up from a mental health facility by his mother (played by Animal Kingdom’s Jackie Weaver, along with recently released pal played by Chris Tucker, once the highest paid actor in Hollywood). We learn that Pat has been in care for 8 month’s and is released as per an agreement with the court to be placed in his parent’s care in regard to an altercation involving his now estranged wife.
We come home and meet Pat’s Dad, Pat Sr. (played by a fantastic Robert De Niro), who is now out of work and is now a bookmaker, looking to earn money to start a restaurant. With vigor, Pat expresses that he is determined to get his life back in order without medication, and reconcile with his wife Nikki, despite the fact that she has obtained a restraining order against him.
At a dinner at Pat’s friend’s Ronnie’s house, Pat is introduced to Ronnie's sister-in-law, Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence of The Hunger Games fame). Recently widowed, unemployed and depressed, Tiffany impulsively leaves the dinner inviting Pat to walk her home, where wackiness ensues!
Review
I emphasised with this movie completely. After a surprising health shock, I was sent back to live at home to recuperate, staying with my parents back in my home-town. Feeling slightly embarrassed and an inconvenience, I focused fully on getting everything back on track again, not being able to see past my former path. In tandem, I spent a lot of my time with a happy, colourful and neurotic individual who challenged my thoughts on my plan and what my future path should actually be.
Playbook is brilliant. The movie is less straight comedic and breezy as the trailer suggests, with challenging scenes of Pat’s and Tiffany’s intensity and their effect on themselves, each other and of those around them caught with an independent cinema camera look.
Robert De-niro as Pat’s loving, but cautious father has not been this good in years. Here, Robert plays a sincere, genuine character straight: a father who loves his son, and has nothing but his happiness and health as a concern, while also looking after his wife, playing the harder character to his softer and more physically vulnerable wife played by Australia’s Jackie Weaver.
Jackie is slightly heart-breaking: a mother who loves her son painfully, and must put up with his horrible mood-swings and broken thinking, wishing for nothing else but for her family to be back together and happy again.
Bradley Cooper has given his finest performance as well; comedic, but dedicated and intense. We feel as if we are treading on egg-shells around the mentally ill Pat, as he is dedicated in getting physically and mentally healthy again without the use of medication, visiting his court ordered therapist, and reading his estranged wife’s teaching curriculum, absolutely sure that by doing so, he will be able to find and grab the silver lining that may show itself, and assist him in reuniting with his estranged wife.
Things are running to Brad’s slightly dubious plan, until he is introduced to the recently widowed and depressed Tiffany (played by a fantastic Jennifer Lawerence) where things get interesting.
Whereas the Pilot is mirrored in Flight with a heroin-addicted character that could just have easily been written out of the production altogether with little to no difference in thematic point, Pat and Tiffany are mirrors of each other who both recognise that they do have health issues, but we go deeper into their understanding of their own predicaments and the status variance they perceive in each other, amongst their obvious attraction to each other, positive or negative.
The plot develops into the two entering into a dance competition in line with Brad’s father’s interest in football gambling; his own type of obsessive compulsive disorder. The fragile balance of the entire family is dependent on Brad’s mental and emotional stability, the one character who only now speaks the truth to the amazement to those around him.
Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic. A beautiful, but scary presence at times, Jennifer is allowed the ability to stretch herself here: dominate, confrontational but also vulnerable. A young woman dealing with the horrid death of her husband, surrounded by people who do love her, but wanting her to return to normal, not realising or recognising that she cannot, and never will be normal again. Forever changed and unable to relate to those around her, Tiffany finds a kindred spirit in Pat who, unfortunately, has his sights fixed on only on becoming ‘normal’ once again, gaining back everything which he has lost. There is a lot here for Jennifer to chew on, having seen her only in blockbusters such as X-Men: First Class and The Hunger Games, I should really now go back to the movie that unearthed her; Winter’s Bone.
There are many plot and character threads that are subtlety flowing at the same time. Although the dance plot may have derailed the film as being one advancement too many, and quite a hockey one at that with obvious comparisons of Dirty Dancing and various run-of-the-mill rom-coms, here it is very welcomed, serving as tool that both characters can find great strength in, their jogging evolving into an activity that serves them both. Tiffany because she used to be a dancer, and Brad, as it still is a physical release, allowing him to become closer to someone who is more on his page, who is at least more interested in him, and perhaps better for him, than his wife.
4 .5 out of 5 footballs
Luke McWilliams, 2013
Zero Dark Thirty is a historical, drama, political thriller written by Mark Boal and directed by Kathryn Bigelow of The Hurt Locker fame, a movie about a grossly irresponsible, reckless, rogue sociopathic leader of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit who, in reality, would never have been allowed in the military in the first place.
The movie has been nominated for 5 Academy Awards:
- Best Picture
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Best Writing – Original Screenplay,
- Best Sound Editing; and
- Best Film Editing.
Plot
We are reminded of the events of Sept 11, 2001, as we are greeted with a black screen with accompanying sound effects of the disaster and phone-calls made from people within and surrounding the twin towers to emergency services. Flash forward to 2003, and we are introduced to CIA operative ‘Dan’ at a black site in Pakistan, as he goes about his job, routinely performing intimidation and humiliation tactics, including ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods such as torture, on a detainee who is suspected to have links to several Saudi terrorists.
Going outside for a break, one of Dan’s teammates removes their balaclava and reveals themselves to us as Maya (played by Jessica Chastain of Lawless fame) a young and very beautiful CIA officer specialising in intelligence related to Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda. Maya has recently been reassigned to the U.S. embassy in Pakistan to work with Dan.
Soon, thanks to interrogation methods such as water torture and positive reinforcement, the pair trick the detainee into sharing details of an old acquaintance who works as a personal courier for the world’s most dangerous and wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, where wackiness ensues!
Review
The war on terror is a nebulous one, battling against an ideology rather than a known and quantifiable threat. Terrorist cells and their activities are extremely difficult to engage and calculate. The enemy is unidentifiable and, should one bring a Terrorist Leader to Justice, what guarantee is there that that would deal a blow to a long held and religiously based belief?
Osama Bin Laden was promoted as Public Enemy Number One 2 or 3 days after September 11. His eventual death by a US Navy Seal’s Team during a night raid of the compound was publicised as necessary: at the time of his death he was living in seclusion within a compound with several children, and was reportedly wielding a weapon while at the same time hiding behind two women, who were also armed, treating them as human shields.
After being shot dead, an image of the dead body, captured by a digital camera, was thrown around the world. Very quickly his body was apparently adhered to by Osama’s custom and was buried at sea. It was only relatively recently that we found out that Osama was shot as he appeared around a bedroom door within a compound. Once the army personal opened the door did they find two women, with only one rifle present in the room, which was attached to an opposing wall.
A similar story was attempted to be spun at the end of hunt for Suddam Hussein: Once Saddam was revealed to be hiding in a crude dug-out, we were told that his long, shaggy greying hair and beard were fake, a deliberate spin to dissolve any sympathy we may have felt for such a character. Saddam was handed over to his former people for ‘justice’, and, after a trial for the atrocities that he was responsible for during the time of his dictatorship, Suddam was found guilty and hung.
We assumed that the search for Osama Bin Laden was to take him to justice, to humanely try him in a court of law, having him answer to the many charges of acts of terrorism ordered and executed by him. In a bid to capture Osama, it seemed that he was killed in self-defence: wielding a weapon while hiding behind a pair of gun-toting women. Where the new official story presents an order to kill Osama Bin Laden, the movie Zero Dark Thirty makes no bones about it.
Zero Dark Thirty presents the use of torture, especially water-boarding as a necessary, if not essential method for gaining the crucial information that lead to the capture and death of Osama Bin Laden, with the beautiful red-haired Jessica Chastain bought in to spear-head the mission to make absolutely sure that we buy it.
Jessica Chastain, last seen as the damsel in distress in Lawless, which attempted to have us empathise with a family of moonshine bootleggers, selling their wares to mobsters in Chicago, is used here to gain the audience’s empathy as she introduces us to the various torture methods that led to finding Osama Bin Laden. At first quietly affected by the depictions of torture in front of her, and us, we witness her arc from quiet, studious but dedicated researcher, warming up to the idea of using torture as an essential technique to find the one who is responsible not only for the atrocities of September 11 and countless other acts of terror, but out-of personal revenge for the killing of her close professional college. All this amongst the ‘irritating’ Obama administration banning the detainee program, allowing untapped detainees to become ‘lawyered up’ and annoyingly exercising their human-rights.
Jessica’s Maya is progressively shown to be a lone character of common-sense and great intelligence amongst a sea of incompetent, indecisive middle-aged bureaucratic men. Thank god for James Gandolfini’s character who flatly recognises and states to a college that “we are all smart”. Lines delivered by a frustrated Maya include stating in a high level meeting that “I’m the Mother F-er who found him”, and then proclaiming that she is “100% confident. Oh hell, I know how terrified you are of absolutes, 95% confident”. Such lines are a betrayal of any type of authenticity the movie had attempted at this point to have built.
Zero Dark Thirty would have worked adequately as a procedural thriller, a la Fair Game, which brought us the world of political meetings with shaky cam to liven everything up. Like Snowtown, the characters would have worked had they operated as their functions, representing the unfolding of actual, factual events, leaving it up to us to project their motivations and characters onto the dry slates, serving as our filmic cyphers: how would I feel in that situation? What would I be thinking if this happened to me? This may have been quite ‘dry’ when compared to traditional drama-actioners, however the political machinations themselves, if handled correctly, would have been quite fascinating to watch.
Zero however attempts to go further and attempts to flippantly inject unnecessary personality, vague backgrounds and characterisations to characters which up until a point, had served as functions as representative of the known facts. Now trying to have characters relationships suddenly intertwine to deliver emotional connections to cash-in-on later for the movie to also serve as a dramatic thriller, at this stage it is too late, and it doesn’t go deep enough. It is enough that Jessica Chastain’s character is motivated to find OBL after Sept 11, and to adequately fulfil her employment specifications rather than making it personal and henceforth, making ‘stuff get real’.
The finale however, which is used extensively in the movie’s trailer, is filmed brilliantly, and sticks pretty close to the new, official report – think a real-time war-zone Blair Witch Project.
After the events of September 11 a few films were released dramatizing the factual situations of those on-board the hi-jacked planes bound for the Twin Towers (United 93), the efforts of emergency crews in helping survivors (World Trade Centre) and even a controversial, arguably gratuitous cheap dramatisation involving Robert Pattinson (Remember Me). Whereas Jamie Foxx’s The Kingdom delved into the morality, motivation and circular vengeance in fighting the war on terror, none have so far really delved into the raw political context.
Reportedly, the director and screenwriter worked very closely with the CIA in regards to the ‘facts’ of the investigation, justifying the use of torture during the war on terror as a reliable method of extracting reliable data. A serious subject that should not have been given as much creative licence with the facts as allowed here, regardless if it is faithfully re-telling the story as told by the very self-interested CIA.
1 out of 5 buckets
Luke McWilliams, 2013
- Hitchcock,
- This is 40; and
-
The Last Tycoon 'like' The Movie Club on facebook!
- Jack Reacher
- The Hobbit; and
- Les Miserables
- Liberal Arts
- Paris Manhattan; and
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Rise of the Guardians! 'like' The Movie Club on facebook!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Join Luke McWilliams and Marisa Martin as they review some of their favourite Christmas movies;
- A Christmas Carol 1984 (Full Movie Here); and
- Gremlins!
Have a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year's Eve!
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Dredd is a sci-fi action thriller directed by Pete Travis of Vantage Point fame, written and produced by Alex Garland of Never Let Me Go, The Beach and 28 Days Later fame, and based on the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra).
Plot
We learn that, in the future, the earth becomes an irradiated waste-land and is now known as the Cursed Earth. Amongst this ruin is a dystopian metropolis called Mega-City One, home to 800 million residents and where 17,000 crimes are reported daily. Gone are conventional police, replaced by lawmen who have the authority to act as judge, jury, and executioner: The Judges.
In this future we learn that a dangerous new drug, "Slo-Mo" has been introduced to the sprawling populous: the drug bends the perception of the user, so time seems to have slowed to 1% of its normally perceived rate.
Enter Judge Dredd (played by Karl Urban), who has been tasked with evaluating rookie Judge Anderson (played by Olivia Thirlby), a psychic who has recently failed her tests to become a full Judge. Soon the duo are called to Peach Trees; a 200-story project tower block where three skinned bodies have been thrown from the top tower. Dredd and Anderson respond and are promptly locked within the tower, vulnerable to the drug runners lead by Ma-Ma (Lena Headey of 300 and Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles), and every single tenant of the Peach Trees, where wackiness ensues!
Review
Judge Dredd was first designed based on the image of David Carradine heading the poster of Death Race 2000, a movie set in a dystopian future with a very sardonic sense of humor. Very dangerous racing matches were conducted, where racers earned extra points for any resulting human-road-kill. Coming up with a dystopian future America soaking in social satire, a somewhat fascist character was envisaged to handle the over-populace. Street-cops capable of representing the entire judicial system and expending on-the-spot justice represented by one man named Dredd.
The entire concept was more than an influence on the extremely successful Robocop, from design, humor and social satire. A bigger-than life comic-book creation, drawing parallels with the death and resurrection of Christ, while serving as a metaphorical cautionary tale of capitalism gone crazy. A police officer devoid of humanity but armed to the teeth seemed to be the perfect type of hero, relatively speaking.
The 1995 Judge Dredd starring Sylvestor Stallone movie then seemed like a good idea. Casting none-other than the actor in the movie that originally inspired Dredd in the first place, and having close to a decade on top of Robocop, one would have thought it would have at least stood a chance. Perhaps the popularity of Robocop, and an American audience not familiar with the British Dredd character hurt its chances, especially among an audience not attuned to the satirical nature of Robocop.
95’s Judge Dredd celebrates its comic-strip origins right from the title sequence, littering the screen with Judge Dredd 2000 AD comic-covers, to have the title appear in its original font, albeit a bright yellow. The design is pure pop-corn: a crowded, cramped, colourful Mega-City 1, like a brighter 1989 Gotham City, with comic-book criminals with very big guns. The costume design of the Judges by Gianni Versace have them being heroic and colourful, riding on ridiculously huge, golden motorcycles, dispensing judgement with their high-tech lawgivers. Everything here is glossy in pure 90’s fashion.
The story itself is quite great: delving straight into the social-hierarchy of Mega-City One, into its judicial system and then straight into the heart of Judge Dredd himself, stripping Dredd away from his armour and, most controversially, his ever attached helmet. Getting straight down to his very origin and then versing him against his evil doppelganger, unfortunately the movie loses track somewhere within the second act after a fantastic first, with a third act hurried and unfortunately fizzling out. Not helping matters is giving Dredd a comedy sidekick from Deauce Bigalow’s Rob Shneider. This is however understandable, as a grumbling, silent character going about his business, especially once confined to the wastelands of the Cursed Earth may have halted the movie to a stand-still, but perhaps further thought could have been put into coming up with a compromise, aiding the narrative while maintaining a sense of integrity to the character. That being said, Judge Dredd did have a robot side-kick in his early days which was as irritating as Rob Shneider so perhaps this was quite authentic?
In any case, the original Judge Dredd movie failed to capture audiences. Pure fans were angry that Dredd appeared in a movie sans helmet where in the comic, his face was either obscured by the helmet and, where the helmet was removed, his face was often lost in shadow or comically, a black censorship bar was placed across it. I didn’t mind seeing Dredd’s face however. The purpose of the movie was to strip the character bare and explore him in terms of an origin story. However, perhaps the point of Judge Dredd is not his character at all, but the function the Judges serve in Mega City One. Judge Dredd is simply a stereotype of the model judge: if you need to know what a Judge is about, look no further than Judge Dredd.
The latest movie incarnation began in 2006, eventually shooting in 2010 in the budget-friendly South African cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg with a modest $45 million dollar budget. Whereas the first draft of Garland’s script reportedly dealt with the supernatural foe, Judge Death, it was decided to instead look at the day-in-the-life of Dredd and his function within the city instead, to reel in costs and also to lessen the assumed knowledge needed to fully understand the story. Think an episode of Cops….on slo-mo….
The narrative at the movie’s begging is just enough to entertain, but not to bore us. We learn of this Dystopian Future America, the losing battle the Judges face each day with their war on crime, and of a new drug threat Slo-Mo, a drug that, once taken, slows the user’s perception of time down to 1%. Gone are the comic-book influences. This time around we have a very lived-in, sparse city, with gungey looking vehicles, horrible living conditions, drug-crazed criminals living in slums, and Judges that are encased in well-worn battle-damaged rubber and leather.
Countering this, the effect of Slo-Mo is absolutely beautiful, and should look fantastic in 3D: mundane activities such as smoking become fascinating as the screen brightens and sparkles, and any movement is slowed down to a smooth, organic state. Given the environment that the residents of the Peach Tree live their lives, its no wonder that Drug Lord Ma MA has found quite a market for her drug.
With no further introduction other than he is the one Judge tasked with taking a rookie under his wing, Judge Dredd is introduced into the goings-on, on top of his heavily-modified, but still oversized, law motorcycle to answer a call to duty. From here on, it is pure action akin to a multilevel videogame, shot like a first-and-third person shooter, darting around darkened corridors with danger lurking everywhere, where, once the hero makes it to the top of the structure, he can encounter the Donkey Kong-like super-boss and perhaps the End Game.
New Zealand born actor Karl Urban is better known for his role as Bones in the reboot of Star Trek a few years ago. Here, he is non-descript as Dredd, wearing his helmet and his scowl throughout. Whereas Stallone’s Dredd seemed to be a super-Judge, dressed by Versace, complete with solid, golden shoulder pads and eagle, well respected by law abiding folk and otherwise alike, Urban’s take is an every man’s Dredd, just a pick of the litter dressed as a fully-functional street cop, ready for action in rubber and leathers, face forever hidden by a visage. Perhaps this is a conscious choice, building his legend, and personality, as the film and possible television series continues.
Here and now however, we see a Judge going about his day any other day, strictly adhering to the law without any regard to personal feelings, relationships or personality. Dredd is the model of a Judge in this environment; less an identifiable individual and more of an ideal.
Countering this grim visage is the young and beautiful relative newcomer Olivia Thirlby as psychic cop Anderson. Sans helmet as it interferes with her super-cognitive abilities, Anderson is a Judge in training, an Ethan Hawk to Dredd’s Densel Washingon a la Training Day. As Dredd is a relative absolute with only an inch of a character arch come the movie’s close, we witness the loss of innocence of Anderson as she accompanies Dredd on her worst day ever which equates to his another-day-in-the-office, raising\sinking to the level of a street Judge.
Olivia does a great job at being both cunning, street-wise, intelligent and vulnerable. Although at times a damsel in distress, Olivia’s Anderson still has a few choice scenes that show that Anderson does in fact cut the mustard in this hell.
Lena Headey from 300 and Terminator the Sarah Conn0r Chronicles plays Ma Ma, a violent, dangerous and rabid ex-madam drug lord, reigning supreme and at the top level of the project slums tower. Headey gives a level, detached performance which may suit one doped up on illicit substances and detached from the world around her, given her horrendous history of sex and violence. However I would have liked to have seen a little more energy from her ‘evil’ big boss. Where 95’s Judge Dredd was big in spectacle and over-dramatic emotion (thank you Armand Assante) this Dredd reigns it back in. Perhaps again this was a conscious choice to bring the universe crashing back to the ground, akin to Batman Begins after the extravagance of the Schumacher turns; re-establishing the basics to build it all back up again. This time out here are no wise-cracks, there are no fun-action set-pieces, there are no character studies there is only the atmosphere of….dread.
Having loved the original, I still really enjoyed this new interpretation.
4 double-whammy’s out of 5.
Luke McWilliams-November, 2012