The Elephant Man Movie Review

The Elephant Man (1980)

Director: David Lynch

The Elephant Man is the 3^rd David Lynch film I've seen since been inspired to explore his filmography after seeing Blue Velvet at my local cinema. It tells the story of a Victorian Doctor called Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) who rescues a 'freak' known as The Elephant Man from a travelling side-show and discovers the man behind the disfigured face and body, a man called John Merrick (John Hurt)

I would first like to mention John Hurt's brilliant portrayal of the tortured soul that is John Merrick, he doesn't say a word for a big chunk of the film but by subtle gestures and through his eyes makes us sympathise with this seemingly child-like, gentle man.

Watching this movie was a quite challenging thing, it is heartbreaking. Merrick has been exploited and punished all of his life due to his deformities which has left him fearful to the point of being mute and to see the intelligent, shy and well-mannered man come out of his shell as the film goes on is a beautiful thing to watch.

The way Lynch has approached the direction of this film is outstanding, they're are elements of surrealism that we see in films like Eraserhead and his early short films but that doesn't take away from the emotional poignancy that this film leaves you with. I was really trying to think of a director that would have done a better job and I just couldn't. He does a stellar job from start to finish.

This is a brilliant film, I don't have a bad word to say about it. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get into David Lynch's work, from what I've seen this is Lynch doing what he does best.

9/10

22/11/2015

Shadows and Fog Movie Review

Shadows and Fog (1991)

Director: Woody Allen

I have been a big fan of Woody Allen for a long time now and have watched a decent percentage of his movies, I hadn't heard much about Shadows and Fog but the premise sounded interesting, especially for a Allen film so I thought I'd give it a go.

The narrative cross cuts between Kleinman played by Woody himself at an almost caricature level of neuroticism and Mia Farrow's character Irmy who works at a travelling circus as a sword swallower, these stories eventually cross with the link of a serial strangler that's on the loose on the foggy streets.

If you are familiar with Woody Allen's work I can imagine that the plot summary I just described would seem odd, the setting is a definite departure from his usual contemporary New York setting, not to say he hasn't done period pieces before but for him to do something that on the surface looks like an old German expressionist film is kind of unusual.

All I can really say about this film is that it didn't leave me thinking it was especially good or bad which is almost worse than being terrible, it was just forgettable. This was Allen's highest budget movie with the elaborate set design and period features and not to say that this film doesn't look very impressive because it does, it nails the atmosphere it's going for but in terms of story and leaving you with something to think about, it is lacking.

There are some serious underlying themes but they never really gets past Woody's fears of a godless universe and death, these are themes that he explores repeatedly and to be honest if the film isn't doing it for me, I just find it annoying.

Overall, I think it's cool for a film like this to be in his filmography but it just feels wishy washy and would be immediately forgettable if it wasn't for the setting. I would only recommend this if you'd be interested in seeing how Allen's mind would translate to Jack The Ripper kind of setting but if not, I wouldn't bother.  

5/10

22/10/2015

Paths of Glory Movie Review

Paths of Glory (1959)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

The narrative structure of Paths of Glory centres around a near impossible mission given to Col. Dax (Kirk Douglas) and his men to storm a German base known as 'the anthill'. Even though pretty much everyone involved in the mission knows it's an impossible task, it goes ahead due to the corrupt officials in a higher ranking as they are just carrying out tasks to gain promotion and don't care how many men they lose along the way.

This is considered an anti-war film, so much so that it was banned in some countries due to it's portrayal of the corrput, power hungry nature of the military. The anti-war message does come across strong from the behaviour and conversations that the high ranking officers have to the way Kubrick shoots battle scenes, everything is put together to give a real attitude of disdain towards this kind of warfare.

Kubrick directs the scenes where the French attempt to take the anthill in such a way that gives the audience a very real intensity, by that I mean he doesn't rely on a soaring score to give the intensity, from what I remember there is no music at all, just the sound of explosions and Col. Dax whistle, it gives the audience a grim reality of what it might have actually been like instead of relying on cinematic cliché's to do the work for him.

I also feel that this is when Kubrick really started to develop his style more and more, there are some shots, particularly in the firing squad scene where I can see shots that wouldn't look out of place in some of his later work.

This is a great film, I loved it from start to finish, especially the last scene with the soon to be Mrs Kubrick singing to the French soldiers, it was a very unique and perfectly fitting tone to end this kind of film.

8/10

21/11/2015

Grave of The Fireflies Movie Review

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Director: Isao Takahata 

I thought I would mix things up a bit and go for an animated film next but instead of going for a Pixar or Dreamworks film I opted to go for a film made by the hugely respected Japanese studio; Studio Ghibli. The minds behind Studio Ghibli have made films such as My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle and more recently Ponyo.

I had heard about Grave of the Fireflies from a few friends of mine who had seen it and reported of how emotionally scarring and bleak it is which intrigued me considering it was an animated film. They weren't wrong

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Grave of the Fireflies tells the story of a young brother and sister from a small Japanese village which is the victim of US air strikes during World War II. Early on in the film after a big air strike we find out that the young sibling’s mother has died and they are forced to move in with a family member who resents them for using precious food and not helping in the war effort. Things seem to get worse and worse when the brother and sister move out and live in an unused bomb shelter and have to deal with crippling hunger and constant fear of more bombing. I’ll leave the plot synopsis there to avoid spoilers but it isn’t hard to figure out what happens.

The film is truly tragic, I've seen quite a lot of war films in my time but none like this. It really shows you the horrors of war on the most human level I've ever witnessed, the irony is that the humans were connecting with and relating to are just drawings but it moved me more than any live action war film ever has. This doesn't break your heart in the same way the end of Toy Story 3 does, it breaks it on a Schindler’s List level.

The film also looks absolutely amazing, the design of the landscape these characters live in is at points, breath-taking. Both the design of the beautiful, natural landscape of Japan and the eventual war-zone that it becomes are equally as impressive and effective.

I really think everybody should see this film because it is a very rare thing in films involving warfare to handle the fragile emotions of the characters this well, Grave of the Fireflies is just perfection in that sense, you can really feel the grief radiating from every character. Overall, I think this film is brilliant and pulls everything off that it was trying to say. 

9/10

19/11/2015

Raiders of the Lost Ark Movie Review

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Director: Steven Spielberg 

I want to keep this review fairly short so let’s get going. I hadn't seen any Indiana Jones movies before, it’s just one of those films where everybody has seen it apart from me so I thought why not, at least I’ll be able to understand what’s going on when people talk about it.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the story of a full time professor of archaeology and part time action hero. Indy gets a mission to retrieve The Ark of Covenant that has supernatural powers before the dreaded Nazi’s get their hands on it.

The film is basically a bunch of huge action set pieces stitched together by small pieces of dialogue which explain what’s going on in the plot. That’s about it really. I will say that the action set pieces are really well done, the film really is an action packed adventure and would be great for anyone into that sort of thing but there’s only so many car chases and Nazi executions I can take in a film before getting a little bored.

I think if I had watched this film when I was younger then I would be a lot fonder of it now but all in all it was only mildly enjoyable and the novelty of it definitely wore off. That’s about all I have to say for this one, glad I watched it to kill the curiosity but not overly impressed.

4.5/10

19/11/2015

Hard Eight Movie Review

Hard Eight (1996)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Hard Eight begins with an elderly character by the name of Sydney spotting a young man called John, seemingly down on his luck and offers him a cup of coffee. As they begin talking it becomes clear that John has lost money gambling and Sydney sympathises with the young man and offers to take him back to Vegas to help him get his money back.

We then go 2 years down the line, Sydney and John have become partners of sorts and frequent casinos and make a good living gambling with the knowledge Sydney has shared. We then meet two characters called Clementine and Jimmy and this is when things start to go downhill. I won’t say any more.

Hard Eight is at its core a character study of Sydney, we find out that he no longer has contact with his children which explains why he has taken John under his wing the way he has and why he is very fatherly with Clementine when she comes into the story. We also find out about his somewhat corrupt past which I feel there is a great deal of guilt about. I have to say that Philip Baker Hall does a great job of juggling the complexities of his character, he is both wise and vulnerable at the same time.

Hard Eight is Paul Thomas Anderson’s directorial debut and it is impressive for a first film, I think it is shot really well, it’s intense when it needs to be but at the same time there is a real calmness to the film. You can really see him honing his skills that we would later see in full force in his next two films Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

I do think the film is flawed, the storytelling is clunky at points and it all seems to be stitched together unlike later PTA films that flow effortlessly. It is known that the screenplay was put together relatively fast and the director had little say when it came to final cut so maybe those factors are at play.

So to summarise, it is a great effort for a first feature length project and a great central performance by Philip Baker Hall, there is a nice energy in the camera movement throughout, although the storytelling is slightly slapdash and it is a shame PTA wasn't given more say in the final cut, I do feel needed more time to be perfected.

6.5/10

18/11/2015

Punch-Drunk Love Movie Review

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Punch-Drunk Love is Paul Thomas Anderson’s 4^th feature film and it is in an interesting place in his impressive filmography. This is the film he made after Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999) both of which were very ambitious projects both in length and subject matter so it seems like Punch-Drunk love was a chance for PTA to blow of some creative steam with a shorter and for lack of a better term, more artsy production starring Adam Sandler, who would have guessed it?

Punch-Drunk Love tells the story of Barry Egan, a troubled man who is both endearing and terrifying. Barry works as a plunger salesman who in the words of one of his 7 sisters “does nothing”. The narrative of this film is complex and intertwining, there is one side story of Sandler’s character collecting pudding for an airline deal, one of a phone-sex worker out to rip him off and then at its core a romantic relationship with a girl called Lena. It sounds like a lot to fit into 95 minutes but when PTA is in charge you can pretty much guarantee that it will never get messy.

One great thing about this movie is its style, this film looks beautiful. More or less every shot is bathed in red, white or blue in an almost artificial way which I absolutely love, you could look at any shot out of context and know it comes from this movie, it is so visually consistent and stunning. Lens flare is used a lot in this film too, probably in reference to the directors of the French New Wave which this film reminded me of a great deal, visually at least. It particularly reminded me of Jean-Luc Godard’s Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961).

I also can’t ignore Adam Sandler’s performance, it is outstanding. He really convinces you that behind his naïve, childlike state that there is a genuinely tough and frightening guy. His portrayal of Barry constantly on the verge of snapping amazed me from start to finish and makes me wonder why he hasn’t been given/opted to do more complex roles.

Punch-Drunk Love isn’t my favourite Paul Thomas Anderson movie but it is definitely one of his most interesting. The storytelling is complex, the visuals are outstanding and he always gets the best out of his actors. The film also flies by so I think I will be revisiting it soon. 

7/10

18/11/2015

After Hours Movie Review

After Hours (1985)

Director: Martin Scorsese 

After watching a couple Martin Scorsese movies recently including Raging Bull (1980) and Casino (1995) , I thought I would try and get a more rounded view of his filmography. After Hours caught my eye because A) it wasn't a gangster movie, don't get my wrong I love gangster movies, especially when Scorsese does them but I wanted to see how Scorsese's talents would translate to what has been described as a 'black comedy' and B) It was Scorsese's first film since Taxi Driver (1976) that didn't star Robert De Niro and of course, I don't have a problem with De Niro as an actor, he is remarkable but I wanted to see how Scorsese would work with other actors. 

I didn't know what to expect from After Hours, from my previous knowledge of Scorcese's work I wouldn't have expected this. 

After Hours tells the story of Paul Hackett, a word processor with a seemingly dull, routine driven existence until he meets a girl in a restaurant who unknowingly sends his evening into a downward spiral. The price he pays for an evening with a nice girl is one of stress, fear, bemusement and above all, exhaustion. 

The film soon goes from being a boy meets girl story to a series of events that get progressively intense and darkly amusing as the clock ticks by. Everything from suicide, punks, angry mobs and burglars are intricately woven together to conspire against our protagonist. The storytelling on show both by the writer Joseph Minion and director Martin Scorsese is second to none, the ability to link these seemingly unrelated events to give the audience a real impression that Paul really is stuck in this hellish environment and that the streets themselves are conspiring against him is truly amazing. 

The one thing I would say stood out to me about this film is it's sense of humour, I've seen flashes of great comedic moments in Scorsese films but the overall comedic tone of this film is something I've never seen before, the comedic moments in this film are predominantly very dark in tone which for some people would be off putting but I thought it was brilliant, to make something so funny but so intense and claustrophobic is not an easy task but it was pulled off excellently. 

Finally, I just want to mention the cinematography which at points was breathtaking, particularly in the exteriors where we see the neon drenched streets with smoke flooding the lens, it just suited the tone of the film perfectly. 

Overall, I think After Hours is a great movie and a real treat in Scorsese's filmography, for people that, like I did, think he was just the master of the gangster film, then I really encourage them to watch this because along with The King of Comedy (1982)  After Hours is one of the best Scorsese films I have seen in a long time. Turns out Scorsese is The King of Comedy, black comedy at least.

8/10

18/11/2015

the purpose of this blog

I start this blog at 2:09am on 18th November, 2015. The main purpose of this blog is for me to keep a track of the movies I have been watching and how my opinions and ways of watching films change over time. I have a hefty list to work through, everything from Hitchcock to Bergman.

I intend to do my best to get a good view of the whole picture of films both historically and geographically, I want to absorb the classics of the studio era as well as contemporary Japanese cinema for example. I love movies but I haven't been watching as many as  I would like, so to have a formalised recording and reviewing system will help me to really engross myself in many more directors, genres and eras. 

I should probably state the standard of my current film knowledge as a starting point. I would say my film knowledge is slightly above average but by no means exceptional, I have a decent general overview of a lot of the most influential directors historically and think my critical film watching mind is ok but this is all about training up my critiquing methods and really thinking about what makes a great movie.

On this Wednesday morning in 2015 my favourite movie of all time is Milos Forman's 1984 masterpiece Amadeus, who knows, maybe this time next year it will be something different. 

This blog is predominantly for my own enjoyment and interest but if anyone finds it somewhat interesting then that's great too.

That's all for now, my next entry should be my first review!

JR