A dark, perhaps a little too dark, tale focusing on two brothers in a small American town dominated by the steel works that one of them works in. Life is tough, and for the other brother who has returned from several tours of duty in the Middle East full of bile and hatred, the only thing he feels he can do now is fight for money. Cue the ‘just one last fight’ line and we know bad things are going to happen. It’s a brutal tale of violence, desperation, regret and revenge, very well acted by Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Woody Harrelson, Zoe Saldana and Forest Whitaker (Casey Affleck also appears but he really needs to take some diction lessons) and it’s a film that, although it hides nothing, it does throw an uneasiness at the audience, forcing them to ponder and consider it.
Tag Archives: 2013
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) 55/100
I feel somewhat duped by this film. My interpretation of all the marketing and advertising led me to believe that this was to be a life affirming, heart warming tale that would see the audience identify and sympathise with the ‘up against it’ struggling singer/songwriter Llewyn Davis in New York City 1961, and maybe spark a newfound romantic interest in the music of the era. Unfortunately, Llewyn is A TOTAL SHIT and his character is on a steady decline from start to finish ultimately leaving no room for redemption whatsoever (the cat he is so often advertised with most certainly will have wished it’d never crossed paths with him).
As a character study, this is ok. As an uplifting experience, you can forget it, and it has precious little to do with the music scene of the day, but rather we just watch the protagonist fail at everything and bemoan his chosen profession until, as things plummet even further for him, we see and hear a young Bob Dylan take to the stage behind him, the assumption being that it was his negative personality and amoral character that led to his continual mishaps rather than the industry which was about to propel Dylan into the stratosphere of international stardom.
Support from the likes of Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake and John Goodman is fleeting but fine, Garrett Hedlund appears as what seems to be a parody of his character in ‘On the Road’, which The Red Dragon appreciated, and Oscar Isaac is good in the central role of Davis. The rest of the production very much straddles a dangerous divide – the music is good, but verges on dull monotony, the cinematography is unique and distinctive, yet comes close to administering a soporific faded tinge to everything. It’s a gloomy film, and the attempts at humour dotted throughout do precious little to ameliorate the cheap and nasty feeling it ultimately delivers.
August : Osage County (2013) 74/100
Situated where the viewer is in the photo above, at the head of the Weston family table in Osage County Oklahoma, sits the acting powerhouse that is Meryl Streep – here embodying the pill popping, anarchic, virago matriarch of the family, who have all gathered to mourn the passing of her husband, and who all probably harbour secret suspicions that he committed suicide just to get away from his harpy of a wife. It’s from the Pulitzer winning play by Tracy Letts, who also wrote the screenplay, and despite the wealth of other acting talent present it is another film driven home by the sheer force and power of Streep, who torments everyone around her and drags all of their dirty laundry out into the open for debate, with the vast majority of the film taking place over a few days in her isolated and slightly decrepit home.
It’s depressing, but also compelling, with strong support all round and especially good turns from Julia Roberts and Benedict Cumberbatch. The film also sees Streep and Roberts up for best actress and best supporting actress respectively at the Oscars later this year.
Grudge Match (2013) 65/100
This starts off really badly, as we are introduced to Henry ‘Razor’ Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy ‘The Kid’ McDonnen (Robert De Niro), two men who once competed professionally against each other in the boxing ring and each won one match apiece, with Razor denying any chance of a deciding bout over personal reasons – leaving unresolved issues that neither man has ever managed to put behind them, until fate intervenes to spark up their old rivalry once more. Initially it’s all a little humdrum with flat jokes and predictable character development, and scenes generally lacking any pizazz. More or less half way through it does pick up though, the story gains a little momentum, the use of music gets better, the characters come to life a bit more, the training montages go up a gear – all leading to quite a satisfying finale.
The two leads of course are famous for playing boxing roles previously; real life boxing legend Jake La Motta in ‘Raging Bull’ (1980) in the case of De Niro (best actor and editing at the Oscars), and Rocky Balboa for Stallone in his Rocky franchise (The first of which won best film at the Oscars for 1976, as well as best director and best editing) and the expected allusions are there. Alan Arkin takes on the role of the sarcastic trainer for Razor, whilst Jon Bernthal has a strong turn as The Kid’s estranged son B.J. and Kim Basinger appears as Razor’s ex-girlfriend, who is more than familiar with their thirty year grudge …
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) 81/100
Martin Scorsese’s latest film once again features Leonardo DiCaprio (after very successful collaborations on ‘Gangs of New York’ 02, ‘The Aviator’ 04, The Departed’ 06 and ‘Shutter Island’ 10) and, as with The Aviator, it has garnered DiCaprio a very well deserved Academy Award nomination. He plays Jordan Belfort, who would later be heralded by the titular moniker after taking Wall Street by storm, starting out with vicious, remorseless and extremely successful penny stock profiteering. The film follows his exploits from his days as a mild mannered and slightly idealistic greenhorn in the industry under the tutelage of a, once more, very on form Matthew McConaughey, through starting a family and his ever surging success along with its associated excess, and I do mean excess.
The film has a very similar to feel to Oliver Stone’s ‘Wall Street’ (87), reason being that in real life Belfort was inspired by that very film, which probably makes DiCaprio the only person to be Oscar nominated for a role based on someone who was inspired by another Oscar winning role – namely Michael Douglas in Wall Street. It has caused lots of controversy by showing just how careless and ready to completely rip people off Belfort and his employees were – the argument being it sets a bad precedent when they seem to be having such a good time doing it, and given another high profile movie effectively inspired the whole thing it is a fair point. However, the film is simply retelling a true story and really all this venom should be directed at the failings in the justice system and the finance sector that it accurately highlights, and in terms of the filmmaking it is a sterling, engrossing, reflective and highly entertaining piece of work. It would not have been amiss to see more of the effects for the people losing all their savings, but the film is still a lot of fun and features good turns from all the cast, including Jonah Hill and a career launching performance from Margot Robbie (pictured above).
This is the first major feature film to be released to cinemas only in digital form, and currently it also holds the record for the most uses of the word ‘fuck’ in any non-documentary film, although the exact number used varies, perhaps due to the news that the DVD will include a longer and more explicit cut of the film. Unusually for Scorsese, The Rolling Stones cannot be heard playing at any point, though this does not detract from a very good and fitting soundtrack.
The Railway Man (2013) 65/100
This is based on the true story of Eric Lomax, a Scottish soldier who, after his unit were captured by the Japanese when they took Singapore (one of the biggest military defeats the British ever suffered, who were in charge of the eighty thousand or so allied troops seized that day – many of whom would perish at the hands of their captors), was forced to work on the Burma railway by the Japanese, wherein he experienced severe torture to the point that it all but ruined the rest of his life, one day compelling him to return to Japan with the aim of murdering one of his still living tormentors (this is a major departure from Lomax’s book, where he returned to Japan in order to face his demons and try and find peace, rather than setting out for cold blooded vengeance). Colin Firth plays Eric in his middle age, with Jeremy Irvine doing a good job of portraying him in the flashbacks of his youth (the picture above features Irvine on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, truly one of the few cities on the world where you can get a picture like that without the need for any digital alteration, as it looks just as historic, and just as beautiful, today).
The catalyst for this need for confrontation comes in the form of his marriage to Patricia Wallace (Nicole Kidman), as well as the intervention of his friend Finlay (Stellan Skaarsgard), when she comes to realise with some shock the mental scars that the various assaults have left him with. In terms of the film’s treatment of the war and the attempts by the Japanese to link Bangkok to Rangoon via the railway, there are much better versions out there – most notably David Lean’s ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ which won several Oscars for 1957. The historical context is only part of the story though, with the focus on Eric’s mental torment and his final one on one dance with the devil, as he returns to the scene of the crimes to find one of his captors, played by Hiroyuki Sanada (who also appeared in ‘The Wolverine‘ and ‘47 Ronin‘), now running guided tours of the facilities for profit.
The acting from all the leads is good throughout, though the film was deliberately taken out of the awards race for 2013 due to the heavy saturation of key categories. It’s good to see a treatment of the long term effects of abuse but the dramatic changes they’ve made to the original true story just feel very lazy, and somewhat misguided.
12 Years a Slave (2013) 75/100
Everyone knew about this film long before it ever went on general release. Partly due to its true story – that of Solomon Northup, a free man and a family man living in relative prosperity in New York state in 1841 who was betrayed and sold into slavery in Louisiana, and party due to the acclaim attached to its director Steve McQueen (whose two feature films to date so far, Hunger (08) and Shame (11), were both snubbed at the Oscars and yet commonly appear in ‘best films of the year’ lists) as well as the star studded cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup himself, Lupita Nyong’o as the female slave he tries to help, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano and Paul Giamatti as southern plantation owners, and Brad Pitt as the travelling voice of reason.
For me, the first forty or so minutes of the film don’t really work, they don’t feel genuine, more like a sort of enforced darkness as Northup is sent southward and first experiences the brutality of his situation, like the heavy handed deliberate stamp of the director even though it is indeed a very dark tale he is portraying. Then, after this period, as Paul Dano vents his hatred on the protagonist we see him fight back and release some of the tension that’s been built up, in him and the audience, and this feels very real indeed. It’s a powerful scene, and from that point onward the film becomes increasingly enthralling.
McQueen has given himself a difficult job – telling this story over the period of more than a decade and yet attempting to make it quite intimate, and he has largely succeeded even if we are missing a lot of the political backdrop with the differing laws of North and South responsible for much of what we see happening, as well as little mention of the repercussions of Northup’s particular experiences as this was once upon a time a very well known story, as it is about to become again. Really throwing fuel on the fire is the director’s weapon of choice, Michael Fassbender, who absolutely revels in playing a composite villain that brutally tortures and sexually abuses his slaves. He really ignites the film, and introduces one of the most tricky aspects – sexual fetishism. A palpable sense of this is created for a small section of the film, with the air of perpetual fear and the excitement and adrenaline that that must bring, as well as the infusion of power within the abuser, an abuser that comes to love his slaves – but love them as mere toys to be played with for entertainment and the associated thrill of control.
Thus this film, whilst it focuses on the story of Northup and does not delve into the wider issues, is of a standard high enough to ask the audience to probe deeper into the mindset at work and the historical context, and yet also be careful not to simply label it a relic of the past. It does make sacrifices which take it away from a deeper examination of the human condition in order to tell its story, but it is successful in its exploration of darkness, albeit a slightly self-aware darkness, nonetheless.
McQueen has said he considers slavery in the American south to be somewhat missing from cinema in general, like a dirty secret no one is willing to talk about. I don’t think that’s really fair, but he has certainly brought it to the forefront of everyone’s attention in a way that is not going to be forgotten in a hurry, and it deservedly sits as one of the leading contenders in this year’s Oscars race.
Delivery Man (2013) 70/100
I actually rate this as one of Vince Vaughn’s best films (I am very surprised by this, for all kinds of reasons, the trailer being just one of them). He plays the central character of David, who is a bit of a screw up and finds out his girlfriend is pregnant but that she would rather raise the child by herself than remain with him – about the same time he is confronted with the fact that he is additionally the father of many hundreds of other children due to a mix up at a sperm bank he donated to in his youth; hundreds and hundreds of times. Not quite sure how to deal with this, he decides to secretly spy on some of his now adult children and get to know them a little, and what ensues is actually a fairly touching and slightly redemptive story, despite the potential for a mass scale Greek tragedy, with little dashes of comedy thrown in here and there. It’s directed by Ken Scott and is a remake of his previous film ‘Starbuck’, which is also the name David went by when he performed his services for the sperm bank.
Mandela : Long Walk to Freedom (2013) 70/100
This is a very, very powerful and commanding turn from Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela, replete with a convincing accent, as we watch his life story unfold before us from lawyer to civil rights activist, then rebel, to the long imprisoned leader who would eventually become one of the most influential men of the 20th century and lead South Africa away from racial violence toward forgiveness and a way forward. There is a lot to fit in, and the film does a good job with both the pace and what to put emphasis on, and as well as Nelson in the limelight we also see the changes over time that his wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela goes through, played onscreen by Naomie Harris. Overall quite an emotive and important film, if perhaps a little straight forward – it doesn’t invite the audience to explore the issues at hand in quite the same way that ’12 Years a Slave’ does, for example.
This seems to be a very faithful adaptation of Mandela’s autobiography and sadly shortly after its release the man himself passed away, aged 95. Indeed, the news broke as the film was having its London premier, and a special announcement was made at the end of the film. Elba could very well have earned himself an Academy Award nomination for this, and probably the only reason he hasn’t is simply the large abundance of really great performances in the male lead category for 2013, but this role, and being able to say “Today, we are cancelling the apocalypse!” in ‘Pacific Rim’, as well as reprising his enigmatic part of Heimdall in ‘Thor : The Dark World’ marked an especially awesome year for him.
Last Vegas (2013) 66/100
The story is achingly lame, and yet the acting makes it not only palatable but also reasonably enjoyable. Billy, Paddy, Archie and Sam (Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline respectively) have been friends since they were kids, now Billy is finally tying the knot with a young hottie half his age and he wants his friends with him for his bachelor party in Vegas, only a seemingly impassable rift between he and Paddy will have to be crossed first – and so the other two simply trick Paddy into turning up.
Enter the very fine and sultry looking Diana (Mary Steenburgen) into the equation and old rivalries are renewed, and past secrets ousted, with Douglas and De Niro primarily signed up for the drama, and Kline and Freeman the comedy. One of the most striking things about the movie is just how tall Freeman is compared to Douglas and De Niro – he towers at least half a head over the pair of them. The fact that this is one of the most memorable things about the movie probably gives you some indication of the level of comedy involved, but it is nevertheless a likeable, decent film.
Look out for the involuntary leg shake from De Niro when the four of them get to rate a series of bikini clad nubile young girls. It’s good to see the ‘Method’ is still going strong …