The Babadook (2014) Movie Review

The Babadook (2014)

Dir: Jennifer Kent

Here we have Jennifer Kent's feature length directorial debut, and what a debut it is. The Babadook tells the story of a grief ridden woman who lost her husband in a car accident and her child who are both grieving over the death of their husband/dad in completely different ways. The child is clearly psychologically complex to say the least, he is violent, clingy and overly dependent on his mother. The mother on the other hand compensates by treating the boy like a baby and doesn't know how to deal with the complexity of the situation. 

One night in one of the many sleepless nights had by both the mother and child, they read a book called 'The Babadook' which is clearly disturbing for both of them, the boy is hysteric and it his fear of the Babadook continues for days and weeks, he claims to see the Babadook which his mother puts down to an over active imagination but it may be that some of the boys claims actually hold some truth...

I thought this film was brilliant, just looking at scares alone it was so unsettling and the creature design was fantastic but it is hard to see this as a straight up boogeyman kind of film, it isn't that.

This is a film about grief and the family unit and to me The Babadook represents the father and the process of them overcoming the creature is a metaphor for the process of them getting over the death of the husband/dad and start to move on with their lives. 

It's hard to believe that this is Jennifer Kent's directorial debut but I will be keeping my eyes peeled for whatever she does next, I would recommend this film to anybody.
09/03/2016

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

.

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