USA / 2012 / 81 mins
Director: James Ponsoldt
Screenplay: James Ponsoldt and Susan Burke
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Octavia Spencer
Genre: Drama, comedy
Elementary school teacher Kate Hannah (Winstead) is married to writer Charlie (Paul). Their union is based on a mutual love of alcohol and not much else. After a very bad day and night, Kate finally realises that they are both definitely alcoholics and decides to get help, on the advice of her friend Dave (Offerman), himself a recovering alcoholic. Kate is serious about her attempts to stay sober, Charlie, however, has no intention of quitting the drink, stretching both their relationship and Kate's resolve, to breaking point.
This indie film is a little gem. Shot in a freewheeling hand held style, it tackles a serious issue without coming across as either preachy of flippant. Of course alcoholism is no laughing matter, and the film does not play it for laughs. The humour comes form the characters and the situations that they find themselves in, even if it at times the very darkest humour.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the film's standout. She goes to some very bleak places as Kate, but always makes her a warm, sympathetic character. Kate is never played as a victim, and Winstead gives her the steel necessary to deal with everything that is thrown at her.
Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Saturday, 28 February 2015
The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957 / UK / 161 minutes
Director: David Lean
Screenplay: Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, based on the novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Genre: Action, drama, war
This film is set in Thailand in 1943 and concerns a group of British Prisoners Of War led by principled dutiful gentleman officer Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Guinness) who are ordered by their Japanese captors, led by tough strict Colonel Saito (Hayakawa), to work on a rail bridge spanninjg the Kwai river. After a long battle of wills between Nicholson and Saito, primarily due to the latter's insistence that officers work alongside the men, the two reach a compromise, and Nicholson and his men co-operate on the construction of the bridge, partly to boost the prisoner's morale and partly out of pride in British engineering.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the prison camp however, a small group of Allied soldiers, led by cynical realist American naval officer Shears (Holden), who has some secrets of his own, and who managed to escape from the prison camp, are moving through the jungle on a dangerous mission to destroy the bridge by any means necessary.
Based on a novel by French author Pierre Boulle (whose work also inspired Planet of the Apes), this is an acknowledged cinema classic. Directed by David Lean, the master of widescreen spectacle, it is a hugely entertaining film. It's not an all-action shoot 'em up war film, although there are some exciting action set pieces, it's more of a character piece. Particularly interesting is the relationship between Nicholson, practically the epitome of the stiff upper lipped British officer, and Saito, his Japanese counterpart, initially antagonistic it becomes something more complex.
The film was the winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and there are elements of it that have become part of cinema history, such as the prisoners whistling the "Colonel Bogey March" while marching, and the exciting climax.
Director: David Lean
Screenplay: Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, based on the novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Genre: Action, drama, war
This film is set in Thailand in 1943 and concerns a group of British Prisoners Of War led by principled dutiful gentleman officer Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Guinness) who are ordered by their Japanese captors, led by tough strict Colonel Saito (Hayakawa), to work on a rail bridge spanninjg the Kwai river. After a long battle of wills between Nicholson and Saito, primarily due to the latter's insistence that officers work alongside the men, the two reach a compromise, and Nicholson and his men co-operate on the construction of the bridge, partly to boost the prisoner's morale and partly out of pride in British engineering.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the prison camp however, a small group of Allied soldiers, led by cynical realist American naval officer Shears (Holden), who has some secrets of his own, and who managed to escape from the prison camp, are moving through the jungle on a dangerous mission to destroy the bridge by any means necessary.
Based on a novel by French author Pierre Boulle (whose work also inspired Planet of the Apes), this is an acknowledged cinema classic. Directed by David Lean, the master of widescreen spectacle, it is a hugely entertaining film. It's not an all-action shoot 'em up war film, although there are some exciting action set pieces, it's more of a character piece. Particularly interesting is the relationship between Nicholson, practically the epitome of the stiff upper lipped British officer, and Saito, his Japanese counterpart, initially antagonistic it becomes something more complex.
The film was the winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and there are elements of it that have become part of cinema history, such as the prisoners whistling the "Colonel Bogey March" while marching, and the exciting climax.
Saturday, 21 February 2015
Raging Bull
1980 / USA / 129 minutes
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenplay: Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, based on the book Raging Bull: My Story by Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter and Peter Savage
Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci
Genre: Drama, sports
This film is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 1980s and one of the peaks of director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro's careers. The film tells the true story of champion boxer Jake LaMotta (De Niro) following his career from a hungry up and coming prize fighter in the early 1940s to to a bloated nightclub entertainer in the 1960s. It details how the violence and rage which made LaMotta such a feared and formidable opponent in the ring, affected his personal life and relationships, in particular with second wife Vicky (Moriarty) and his brother and manager Joey (Pesci), which were coloured by his obsessive rage, sexual jealousy, paranoia and self-destructive behaviour.
LaMotta is never a likeable individual, but he is fascinating and weirdly sympathetic thanks to the astonishing performance by De Niro, in which he attained peak physical form to play the young LaMotta (the real Jake LaMotta on whose autobiography the film is based and who served as an advisor for the film-makers commented that DeNiro was one of the twenty best middleweight boxers of all time). and then famously became hugely overweight to play the older LaMotta.
The film is shot in beautiful black and white with a brief colour sequence about halfway through the film. Most of the film is shot in the gritty low-key style familiar from earlier Scorsese films, but the boxing scenes are spectacular choreographed and edited and stylishly shot.
A bleak, savage and uncompromising film, it is also a masterpiece.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenplay: Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, based on the book Raging Bull: My Story by Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter and Peter Savage
Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci
Genre: Drama, sports
This film is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 1980s and one of the peaks of director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro's careers. The film tells the true story of champion boxer Jake LaMotta (De Niro) following his career from a hungry up and coming prize fighter in the early 1940s to to a bloated nightclub entertainer in the 1960s. It details how the violence and rage which made LaMotta such a feared and formidable opponent in the ring, affected his personal life and relationships, in particular with second wife Vicky (Moriarty) and his brother and manager Joey (Pesci), which were coloured by his obsessive rage, sexual jealousy, paranoia and self-destructive behaviour.
LaMotta is never a likeable individual, but he is fascinating and weirdly sympathetic thanks to the astonishing performance by De Niro, in which he attained peak physical form to play the young LaMotta (the real Jake LaMotta on whose autobiography the film is based and who served as an advisor for the film-makers commented that DeNiro was one of the twenty best middleweight boxers of all time). and then famously became hugely overweight to play the older LaMotta.
The film is shot in beautiful black and white with a brief colour sequence about halfway through the film. Most of the film is shot in the gritty low-key style familiar from earlier Scorsese films, but the boxing scenes are spectacular choreographed and edited and stylishly shot.
A bleak, savage and uncompromising film, it is also a masterpiece.
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