The Movie Club

Plot

Career criminals Doug MacRay ( played by Ben Affleck), James "Jem" Coughlin (played by the Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner), Albert and Desmond "Dez" Elden are life-long friends from Charlestown,  Boston Massachusetts. We are introduced to the foursome, seeing them do what they do best as they successfully rob a Cambridge bank. Breaking tradition, Jem decides to kidnap the bank manager (played by Rebecca Hall), which leads to a possible loose end. With the FBI hot on their tail, led by the relentless Agent Adamn Frawley (played by Mad Men’s Jon Hamm), Doug soon plans to lead a life with the kidnap victim that he is falling for, away from his friends and the town that is so much a part of him, and wackiness ensues.

Review

Ben Affleck seems to be in a career revival. Ben received an Oscar for his writing on Good Will Hunting, and gained rave reviews for his first directorial effort Gone Baby Gone.  Now it seems he is lending his talents at creating a meaty role for himself to really show his acting chops. It is as if Ben has reassessed his career after a few years of box-office bombs ( although he was the bomb in Phantoms) and, like Heath Ledger before him, has deconstructed his acting image back down to its bare bones, starting from scratch from the place it all began, this time under his complete control.

Once again in Boston, Ben builds up his fan base, appealing to the fans that got him started in the first place. Like J-Lo trying to convince us that she is just Jenny-From The Block, Affleck is showing that he is a part of the town that did so much for him. Like Good Will Hunting and  Gone Baby Gone, Ben demonstrates that he understands the culture, history and the relationships bred out of Massachusetts, and that he is proud of them.

Critics are unfairly comparing the Town to Michael Mann’s crime caper Heat, when in fact, the plot elements and characters of both movies are staples of the Crime heist gangster film which has helped form Michael’s career thus far..

During the years between the 1920’s – 1934, movie content was restricted by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee and the major studios, and obviously popular opinion. Gangsters in movies during this period like The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Scarface were presented in a much more heroic way. Morally corrupt characters often profited from their deeds, in some cases without any consequence to their actions and drug use was a topic of several films.

In the wake of increasing crime in Hollywood, the American Catholics launched a campaign against what they deemed the immorality of American cinema, which led to The Motion Picture Production Code: a set of industry censorship guidelines that governed the production of US pictures from 1930 to 1968.

The code stipulated that crimes against law shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation. This gave way to movies that demonstrated that ‘Crime Does not Pay’.

The Town goes a long way to establish sympathy for the lead criminal, explaining where he came from and his ties to his past and therefore current geography. He was born into a criminal family and is expected to carry on the mantle left behind by his jailbird father. We understand the repercussions if he chooses to leave, but share his enthusiasm at a chance to leave it all behind.

Ben Affleck and Jon Hamm are perfectly cast in their roles. Both are similar types: tall, good looking, well mannered and well spoken. Like the perfect comic book rivals (both have had a brief flirt with being casted as Superman), they share many similarities but find themselves on opposite sides of the law, each other’s fate intertwined with the other’s. Like Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in Public Enemies and Al Pacino, Robert De Niro in Heat however, the law enforcer receives little pity or empathy from the audience, being played as one-dimensional and dogged . This is perhaps due to such a character being a staple of the genre, the inability of the actors playing the law enforcer characters or maybe its from an inbuilt stance of anti-authoritarianism that resides in us all, and the movie is trying to tap into.

Like Robin Hood, stealing back the villagers’ taxes from a corrupt kingdom, Ben and his merry men knock off banks, telling its employers not to worry as they are insured against it. The Boston setting uses its Irish roots to bolster the underdog that we ultimately cheer for, even against the almost unbearable weight of fatalistic doom that follows the movie throughout as we all know that this cannot end well.

Rating

The Town is a very enjoyable, entertaining experience. The genre is well trodden but this movie hits its beats. The action is intense and surprisingly realistic, set around a story that holds all of its characters in a delicate house of cards. The ending does seem overlong, going too far to completely wrap up the story and its various characters, including the neighbourhood itself. That being said, The Town is another feather in Ben’s renaissance hat, and I look forward to what he does next: 4 banks out of 5

See what Rotten Tomatoes have to say, and check out the trailer.

 

Luke McWilliams November 2010

 

Cult Movie Review

Suspiria  is a 1977 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento, and co-written by Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi who reportedly claims the plot was inspired by an experience of her grandmother's.

Plot

We follow an American ballet student, Suzy Bannion ( played by Jessica Harper), who is attending a dance academy in Freiburg, Germany. Upon her arrival, Suzy is introduced to Madame Blanc ( played by Joan Bennett) and Miss Tanner (Alida Valli ). As Suzy settles into her new surroundings, she becomes aware of many strange goings on in relation to the staff, narcolepsy and murder murder murder!

Review

During my uni days in Adelaide, I had some artistic pursuits in relation to graphic design and of course film-making. Along with those interests and passions comes with it a certain beatnik, anti-authoritarian lifestyle and, of course, fellow beatniks. My roommate at the time and I would lay around the apartment talking endlessly about what was wrong with film today and how we would make the best film ever by scouring lost classics and coming up with the best script since Citizen Kane. Together we would shop at 24 hour supermarkets, usually at 1 in the morning, wake for lunch the next day to have yum-cha, endless amounts of coffee and talk talk talk about film.

 

One such particular time I awoke at 1.30 in the morning with a craving for salt and pepper squid and white wine. Calling my trusted side-kick into line, we ventured down Gouger Street to my favourite Chinese restaurant East Taste Cafe, where the crap house white wine served as the perfect catalyst against their amazing salt-and-pepper squid. Over our hard-earned supper, we again started discussing the ways in which to come up with a fantastic horror film never before pulled together. We had had the self-referential slashers of the Scream trilogy, which sparked a new wave of MTV friendly teen movies such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and the Urban Legend series, complete with American teenaged television actors and digital blood. What we needed, we thought, scratching our facial hair, is a slasher done with today’s technology but with yesteryear’s gumption for scares, horror and blood!

 

We got up from our restaurant table with renewed enthusiasm, jumped into our Batmobile and went straight home for our research! Once home, we went through a huge selection of weekly videos rented a day or two before and unleashed Suspiria, the cult Italian slasher classic! What better way to learn how to do the next masterpiece if not for studying the classics before us! Settling down for an early morning of study, we watched the movie with its soft focus, its chunky, orange looking blood, its difficult to follow plot and its ludicrously elaborate death scenes.

 

The movie’s strengths are in its cinematography, ambience, subtext and elaborate death scenes. We are witness early on to the first murder in the movie: a student, fleeing from the school in terror is shown to be stabbed several times, has a cord wrapped around her neck and is finally hung. As she crashes through a stained-glass ceiling, the smashed glass kills the victim’s friend who is standing beneath!

The movie uses menacing depictions of images of objects and architecture. The director uses rich colours, odd camera angles, shadows, and bright light to invoke a surreal, dreamlike ambience, a bit like a dark version of Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Reviewers have commented on the fascist subtext of the film, such as the limitation of personal freedoms.  In this sense, and with the films use of a possible coven of witches, the movie is akin to Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy which deals with the horrors of modern-day living (powerlessness, suspicion, isolation and madness), the most famous of these of course being Rosemary’s Baby.

 

Whereas Psycho was the first slasher film, taking its audiences into uncharted territory, Suspiria could be argued to be the first art-house slasher film, taking you into a nightmarish world. Where Psycho’s influence still emanates in modern day slasher’s in the need for us to know the slasher’s identity and motive, Suspiria’s  elaborate death scenes may be the reason for the genres evolution above the need for an actual slasher. For example the Final Destination series simply has death itself as the ultimate culprit, with screen time dedicated to increasingly elaborate death scenes over the period of 4 (and counting) movies.

 

Towards the end of watching Suspiria slowly but surely the mix of salt-and-pepper squid, shared carafe of crap house white wine, being up until 3.30 in the morning and watching an elaborate surrealist horror movie combined into the perfect storm and, looking at each other over growling upset stomaches, my house-mate and I went to our respective rooms to slumber, only to wake the next afternoon to again discuss our plans for the best horror movie ever made over yum-cha, whilst curiously not mentioning Suspiria again. Actually, ever again..................

 

Rating

All in all I give Suspiria 2.5 out of 5 salt-and-pepper squids. I am not a fan of unfounded surrealism a la David Lynch (an oxymoron to be sure). As the Watchowski brothers did with their Superman story (The Matrix) and Christopher Nolan with Inception, I like surrealist imagery and themes to be firmly grounded in reality. For my surrealist horror, I will go to the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series which, I suspect was probably influenced by Suspiria  in the first place.

Check out the film at IMDB, and check out the trailer.

 

Luke McWilliams October 2010

La Dolce Vita (Italian for “the sweet / good life) is a 1960 Italian movie by Federico Fellini. A fun fact is that the gossip-photographer named Papparazzo is responsible for the term paparazzi.

Plot

We follow journalist Marcello Rubini’s ( played by Marcello Mastroianni) life in Rome for 7 days, prowling its night-life in various nightclubs and bars. Marcello has numerous encounters with starlets (including the jaw-dropping Sylvia played by Anita Ekberg), models and with his upper class intellectual socialite friends as they all indulge in the excesses of their privileged ‘good’ lives. The group are however paradoxically aware of the shallowness of their materialistic natures. In his quest to find youth, true beauty and true love amongst the ‘new’ Rome, will Marcello lose his soul in the process?

Review

Perhaps it is my love of formula and usual appetite of Hollywood fanfare, but I was waiting to see where this movie was going, where it was taking me. The sum-of-its -parts are very enjoyable, though – like Baaria, despite its length, it does not let up – there are scenes of decadent, indulgent parties, magnificent fashion, very cool cafes accompanied with cigarette smoking, cool suits and people wearing shades, even at night. Once you decide to trust the film, relax, and sit back to watch it, it is a very rewarding experience.

 

The movie has been interpreted as being divided up into 7 parts, starting with a prologue and ending with an epilogue. I viewed it as being 7 consecutive days and nights, although towards the final act some time may have passed during segments.

 

The picture looks fantastic, with great camera angles and pans, sucking in the urban beauty of Rome at night contrasting against the gaudy high-class party scenes. Technically, the script is deceptively tight, with the bookends really adding a fantastic punch. There are a lot of self-referential points in regards to the correlation between intellect and happiness, the search for beauty and love amongst a town that could be viewed as a ‘jungle’ or hell. Each section has these themes, and they are mirrored throughout, almost as if this is a collection of short stories a la Paris Je Taime. Each chapter however adds to the overall narrative which becomes increasingly darker while spiralling to its relatively tragic climax.

 

Whilst Fellini’s usual surrealism is thankfully restrained here, there is a lot of symbolism throughout the film, commenting on the contrast between the ‘modern’ 60’s life being built on the slums of Rome, and its societies’ changing morality faced with a new decadent lifestyle. Also on play are the differing statuses of the sexes. Such themes are mirrored and visited frequently in the television series Mad Men: set in the era after the Second World War, where a whole society is expected to be grateful for the materialistic possessions that they have accrued at war’s end, but who face an existential crisis as a result.

Rating  - 4.5 starlets out of 5. A great morality tale with beautiful imagery.

Check out the film at IMDB, and check out the trailer.

Luke McWilliams October 2010

Baaria   is an 2009 Sicilian- Italian autobiographical film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, screening throughout Australia with the Lavazza Italian Film Festival.

Plot

We are introduced to a young Peppino (played as an adult by Francesco Scianna ) and his friend Nino (played as an adult by Ficarra), in the small Sicilian town of Baarìa (Sicilian slang for Bagheria). Here, we are privy to the life, loves and struggles of the town throughout three generations: starting from the 1920s stretching all the way to the 1980s. We follow the community during the Fascist period, World War II and its political falling out; the clash of Socialism and Communism all against a backdrop of the lives of Barria’s occupants.

Review

The movie looks absolutely lush with its golden earthy hues within the towns architecture and beautiful Sicilian countryside landscape, and obviously has a great budget behind it. A lot of cinematic techniques are employed throughout: from epic looking camera sweeps to the use of CGI from grand architecture, natural landscapes down to very small objects.

The rustic town looks beautiful, however, as one review mentioned, perhaps a little too perfect, as if the film was made with tourism in mind; selling Sicily overseas like a product. This of course is quite unfair: the directors’ choice of presenting an idealic setting as a character within itself, reaches us in a way that we believe and understand that this place and its community is worth fighting for, similarly what Baz Luhraman did with Australia, which of course did have a tie in with Tourism Australia ( a far cry from Lara Bingle to be sure).

It is fascinating to watch the political changes stretching through such a long time in one location, and to also witness the effects such changes have on a relatively small scale, such as the communities’ lives. One needn’t have a grasp on the political ideals however to appreciate the ramifications felt throughout the community.

Like many ‘epics’ there is a lot happening: there are many characters and there are many sub-plots. It is confusing at times keeping track with all the characters, especially as they age and morph into different actors.

Contrary to its long running time, the film does go at a cracking pace. It is as if it is a Martin Scorsese film being edited by Chrisopher Nolan’s editor, Lee Smith. A lot of ground is covered very swiftly, with multiple story threads going on, but too tight editing keeps us a little confused as to what exactly is happening.

It was very amusing to have spotted Monica Belluci’s ‘guest starring role’, and have to wonder if it wasn’t for her past collaborations with the director, such as in Malena, if she would have agreed to such a small, but very impressionable part.

Rating

The viewing experience was marred as, whilst watching the movie, I had two ladies behind me speaking in Italian throughout. However, as it was a Sunday afternoon with a beautiful day outside, I obviously was the intruder in this particular movie viewing period. Anyway, the Italian language may have added to it.

Baaria is a solid piece of filmmaking and a very satisfying experience. 3.5 out of 5 buns

Check the movie out at IMDB, see what Margaret and David had to say, and watch the trailer.

 

Luke McWilliams October 2010

New York I Love You is a 2009 collection of 11 short romantic films from the producer of Paris, je t’aime, Emmanuel Benbihy, and is the second film in the Cities of Love franchise.

The movie stars Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Anton Yelchin, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Irrfan Khan, Rachel Bilson, Chris Cooper, Andy García, Christina Ricci, Uğur Yücel, Robin Wright Penn, Julie Christie, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke and James Caan.

Plot

New York I Love You  is a collection of 11 stories, each of which takes place within one of New York's five boroughs. The films are presented together, interweaving in parts until finally tying into a common theme of finding love in the Big Apple. Aawwwww.

Review

Unfortunately, comparisons with the superior omnibus Paris, je t’aime are unavoidable. Paris had an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities including American, British and French. The collection included eighteen short films set in different quadrants of Paris. The 22 directors include Gurinder Chadha, Sylvain Chomet, Joel and Ethan Coen, Gerard Depardieu, Wes Craven, Alfonso Cuarón, and Gus Van Sant.

Whereas Paris  had quite specific, unique and memorable short films, New York’s are all similar and rather forgettable. This may be due to the choice to try and have a narrative through all of the films in an attempt to join them all together (for instance, the transitions between the shorts are directed by the same director; Randy Balsmeyer). This is an unfortunate choice as with a ‘mixed-bag’ as an omnibus should be, there is more of a chance to strike a gem. Ensemble, omnibuses are like a choose your favourite story, however, you have to sit through plenty of other people’s tastes to get to yours.

If it was the aim of the producer to tie all of these short films into a similar narrative however, why not just make a feature? The movie 4 Rooms had four short films from four different directors played out in a hotel, with each short simiarliy linked by a bell-hop character played very off-beat and kooky by Tim Roth. This worked in this construct as each ‘room’ was a different world: different characters, different stories directed by different directors. Once the door to the room was closed, we were again drawn back into the narrative of the bell-hop who kept us grounded throughout the 4 confined stories (I highly recommend watching 4 Rooms if only to watch Quentin Tarantino’s hysterical reimagining of an Alfred Hitchcock Presents short film which was originally written by Roald Dahl).  New York confuses this style, introducing characters and then letting them interweave throughout, melding looks and themes together throughout with an attempt to bring everything at films conclusion. The Three Colours Trilogy did this with a fantastic final crescendo. Here, the producer is overreaching. If the product is a feature, keep it to a director and second unit director. If the product is a collection of short films, keep them separate, and let us enjoy the differences.

New York seems to show that Paris caught the eye of commercial stars wanting to prove their ‘Indie’ acting and directing chops. This, of course, comes across as forced and fake: the cinematic equivalent of a halfway crook – you either are or not an independent  actor / director.

The sliding scale of subjective quality can be set here, choosing the worst and best short, and then sticking everything else in between. The worst short here would have to be Shia Le Belouf’s turn as a crippled, European bell-hop, acting his little heart out, followed by anything with Hayden Christenson where he is trying to act with a French accent starring again across from his Jumper co-star Rachel Bilson. Where Paris introduced international actors to play foreign characters, New York keeps the talent in-house. I know Hayden Christenson is from Vancouver, but a French actor for a French part would have made the section more authentic. It is also odd to see that, for a collection of short stories set in and around New York, none of the stories included involved black characters, actors and / directors.

The best short would be the flirtatious interplay between Orlando Bloom’s score-writer against an unseen female’s voice. Friendly flirting builds up genuine anticipation to the  discovery of who the voice belongs to. Another director may have chosen to cut at this crucial moment, making a point that love is blind, and that it is irrelevant to see the face of the person that you have already fallen for, or, the face is one that is unexpected, playing with themes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Unfortunately the reveal is oval faced,  wide eyed Christina Rikki. This is akin to Disney studios taking over a Hans Christian Anderson story ( best served in the metaphor that inspired the original Shrek movie- Lord Farquaad sending all the fairy-tale creatures away from his fortress-like-castle), sucking out all the culture, and slapping in populist, standard wide-eyed commercial entertainment.

Of course, like all movies, there is a link to Kevin Bacon here, albeit in a cut short directed by Scarlett Johansson to be found in the DVD extras. Compared to the quality of the other films, I can’t see any reason why this was cut, apart from perhaps the time allowed for the overall film.

Rating

French pretension at least comes off as being quite honest and natural. It seems New Yorkers have to work at it. 2.5 bagels out of  5

Check out the film at IMDB, see what Margaret and David have to say, and check out the trailer.

Luke McWilliams October 2010