Sadly BAFTA is over for another year; and what a show it was. Every
year this commemoration of film serves to reignite my passion and appreciation
for this great art form and reminds me of the importance of stories,
imagination, creation. We need individuals to be inspired to pursue their
fantastical visions, to become the actors, directors and writers of tomorrow.
Actors who reflect and project others as believably as if it were actually
them. Directors who envisage a concept and pin it down for the world to view.
Writers who speak to us with words that generate compassion, that educate and
entertain. I love every aspect of this industry, from the initial thought, all
the way through to celebrations like last night. Here's hoping to another incredible
year of film...
Best Film 12 Years A Slave
Leading Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave
Supporting Actor Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Leading Actress Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Supporting Actress Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Outstanding British Film Gravity
Director Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Original Screenplay American Hustle
Original Music Gravity
Cinematography Gravity
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer Kieran Evans (Writer/Director), Kelly + Victor
Special Visual EffectsGravity
Film Not in the English Language The Great Beauty
EE Rising Star Award Will Poulter
Adapted Screenplay Philomena
Editing Rush
The Fellowship award went to Dame Helen Mirren who ended the evening on a fitting verse from Shakespeare's The Tempest: Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
2. Great Gatsby Back To Black Beyonce and Andre 3000 This was one of my most listened to CDs of the summer so I was torn between a great many of the tracks. The hip hop edge of the sound track is to our ears what jazz was to Gatsby and co. in the 1920's. Genius from Baz. And as a side note, my second favourite would be Together by The XX.
3. The Vow England The National Yet another track by The National makes it onto one of my favourite lists (About Today from Warrior being the other). This is the instrumental version which ends the movie, however the original with lyrics is beautiful also.
4. Flight Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones Now I know that this song features in so many films other than Flight, but this is the most recent use of it that I am aware of therefore I decided to pick Flight as the soundtrack from which it's from. The intro of this song is summer personified in a song.
5. Social Network In Motion Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Incredible Oscar worthy soundtrack, the movie would not be what it is without it. I also particularly enjoyed the choral cover of Creep by Radiohead which accompanied the trailer too though is not part of the score.
6. Inglourious Basterds Cat People David Bowie Great song to accompany an even greater tracking shot by Quentin Tarantino.
7. Romeo + Juliet Talk Show Host Radiohead Another inspired Baz Luhrman soundtrack. The modern music in the modern take of Romeo and Juliet keeps the movie feeling fresh and relevant nearly 20 years on. Impressive film making.
8. Requiem For A Dream Lux Aeterna This song is used in so many other contexts nowadays that I sometimes forget that it is from this movie by Darren Aronofsky. I believe it was used for a Lord of The Rings Trailer? Either way it is a cracking piece of soundtrack to a cracking movie.
9. There Will Be Blood Convergence Johnny Greenwood I actually struggle to listen to this. It is not something that you'd put on for a bit of easy listening, or at a party for that matter. But I included it in the post just for the sheer fact that it encapsulates the urgency and unease of the movie ridiculously well. There Will Be Blood is truly brilliant but an undeniably hard watch; this soundtrack contributes to quality.
10. Silver Linings Play Book Buffalo Alt-J Feat. Mountain Man And finally to round off the list... Alt-J is one of my favourite bands so when I heard their distinctive sound on the Silver Linings OST I was very happy indeed.
So that rounds off Part III. There will probably be a Part IV as I have always got my ears trained on the songs that come from some of my favourite films. Until then you can by all means check out Part I and Part II via the links below if it takes your fancy (or perhaps not if you hate my music/film taste!) Part I Part II
Starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Joel Edgerton and Carey Mulligan
I had expected this film to either be mind blowing or awful.
After watching it, I feel somewhat underwhelmed as The Great Gatsby is neither
impressive nor disappointing; it's somewhere inbetween. Baz Luhrmann's vision
brings Gatsby alive for the 6th time and has certainly stamped his creative
visualisations all over it. However the razzmatazz feels like it's getting in
the way of the story, even though said razzmatazz is the most enjoyable bit.
It's hard to review a film that's based on a book
(especially one as highly regarded as this) because film should be reviewed
in its own right, it seems wrong to judge a film by unfavourable comparisons to a book. With that said, the plot of The Great Gatsby is almost incidental to
the success, and the same with the film. People love the twenties era, the
music, decadence, clothes. The film is beautiful, fun to look at and I wanted to be there
but it largely ignores the subtleties of the book (maybe because the themes can't
be translated well onto film...) The Great Gatsby as a book embodies the Jazz
Age of the twenties in such as way that makes it one of 'the great American
novels' and that's why people only started to really love the book when the
twenties had passed; because it is a great impression retrospectively of a lost
Age. In this sense, the film stands up very well in comparison to the book.
The film is remarkably decadent and fun to watch. The cars,
costumes and parties zing off the screen with a freshness and excitement that is
reminiscent of the originality and newness of the twenties. The hip-hop soundtrack was to us what Jazz was to
them, modern and innovative. Jay-Z does work well with the film, it is non
jarring and adds to the over all appreciation.
It is an interesting method of narrative to place Nick in
an asylum as a recovering alcoholic. It echoes Holden Caulfield's position in
The Catcher In The Rye; however in the film version of The Great Gatsby, it
doesn't work as well as it does in J.D Salinger's magnus opus. It seems that Tobey Maguire was either miscast of
misdirected possessing too much of a childlike demeanour, as there is nothing
wrong with him as an actor. Also, the prose that appeared as if written on the camera
was heavy handed and gimmicky and almost detracted from the themes that were
trying to be conveyed. The main ideas of the book however were
translated well. The Great Gatsby isn't a tragic love story, it speaks of the
elusive American Dream, aspirations and illusions of youth and brutal social
politics.
Carey Mulligan is notable as Daisy Buchanan - boring yet
intriguing, hollow and ethereal; it is easy to see why Gatsby fell for her but
equally easy to see her always being a weak and vacuous woman. Her husband,
Tom Buchanan is played remarkably well by Joel Edgerton. One of the few scenes
that is standout is the heated exchange between Tom and Gatsby in the Manhattan
hotel room. It showed that when the actors were allowed space to breath, unencumbered
by confetti cannons, they could truly enact the tension and apprehension as
contained in the book. Ultimately, Leonardo Dicaprio was made to play Gatsby. This has been his most impressive portrayal for a very long time and it was easy to find yourself lost in the
character and believing him to be someone real and not just Dicaprio putting on
an act. The direction of the core actors is Lurhmann's greatest achievement.
Been loving the coverage coming from the Cannes Film Festival this past week and have collated some of my favourite pictures from some of the events. There looks to be some amazing films premiering this year so keep it locked for discussion on some of the buzz films that reviewers are getting excited about!
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz
In 1858, bounty hunter Dr.
King Schultz frees a slave named Django to help him track down three outlaw
brothers. The pair partner up, then conspire to rescue Django’s wife Broomhilda
from a plantation owner.
What’s ironically refreshing about a Tarantino film is that
for all the time he is reprimanded for pushing boundaries in terms of his
subject matters, his filming style is oddly conservative. There are no special
effects, no IMAX and certainly no 3D. Django Unchained is another traditional
Tarantino classic.
The film straddles a variety of genres. What is shopped as a
Western appears to be not quite that, and the mythic quest itself is akin to a bloody fairytale; very sweet and
coy to a point. This is the classic heist to save the girl, and if you’re not a
fan of Tarantino’s usual chapters and non linear sequences, Django Unchained is
electrifying as it flows directly without being encumbered by multiple
perspectives.
One of the main draw backs is that our hero of the hour,
Django is bizarrely unmemorable and lacking in some character in comparison to the
beefy and gaudy roles we expect from Tarantino. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie, on the other hand, is the plantation owner who you will love-to-hate. He plays it to the ground; playful flamboyance with a sinister edge. It’s
rare to see DiCaprio play such a pompous and peculiar role and proves once
again that this man can act (contrary to what the Academy seems to think). His
presence is always accompanied by an ominous air of violence; most evident in
the dinner table standoff which is Django’s equivalent to that death trap rendezvous
in the basement of Inglourious Basterds. And that’s another thing, with
Christoph Waltz aboard the project, it’s hard not to compare this to
Inglourious, which quite frankly is better.
Django could have run a lot faster without damaging the end
product, because in truth, the story didn’t demand a screenplay that long. Nonetheless,
Django Unchained validates once more that Quentin Tarantino is a true visionary
and when he retires from film making, it will be a dark day for the world over because films as funny yet poignant as this will be missed.
Motion Picture, Drama: Argo Actor, Motion Picture Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln Actress, Motion Picture Drama: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Les Miserables Actor, Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables Director, Motion Picture: Ben Affleck, Argo Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement: Jodie Foster Actress, TV Musical or Comedy: Lena Dunham, Girls Animated Film: Brave Actress, TV Drama: Claire Danes, Homeland Foreign Language Film: Amour, from Austria Actor, TV Musical or Comedy: Don Cheadle, House of Lies Screenplay, Motion Picture: Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained Supporting Actress, Motion Picture: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or TV Movie: Ed Harris, Game Change Actress, Motion Picture Musical or Comedy: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook Actor, Miniseries or TV Movie: Kevin Costner, Hatfields & McCoys Original Song, Motion Picture: Skyfall (music & lyrics by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth), Skyfall Original Score, Motion Picture: Mychael Danna, Life of Pi Series, TV Drama: Homeland TV Series, Musical or Comedy: Girls Actor, TV Drama: Damian Lewis, Homeland Actress, Miniseries or TV Movie: Julianne Moore, Game Change Miniseries or TV Movie: Game Change Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or TV Movie: Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey Supporting Actor, Motion Picture: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
The next review in our modern classics series is Christopher Nolan's 2010 release Inception. Now it's no surprise that Amateur Reviews are a huge fan of this director's work so it seemed like high time to justify some of this immense adoration with a modern classics review. Pretty certain alot of you will have already watched this film so if you fancy leaving your opinion, it's very much appreciated. Here we go...
“True inspiration isimpossible to fake”. But what if that was not
the case? If we said “Don’t think about elephants” we’re fairly certain you
just thought of elephants. How could you claim that was your own idea when you
know you were given it? Well, imagine if, when you were fast asleep, someone could
delve far enough into your subconscious and plant a thought so deep that the
real origin of the idea is no longer detectable. Due to Nolan’s iron curtain of
secrecy, you probably knew as much about this film as you did astrophysics before going into see it, but
there lies the central feature of Christopher Nolan’s offering.
If there’s one thing ‘The Matrix’ did for us, apart
from bringing back leather, is that it gave way to a whole new genre of sci-fi.
The type that makes you question your very existence. And although Inception is similar in that sense – it’s
refreshingly original and completely unique. Take note Michael Bay: this is how you make a Hollywood
Blockbuster.
Ten
years ago, the idea began to germinate in Nolan’s mind, not as the sci-fi heist
you’ve grow to know, but as a horror film. A decade on, we
have a knotty thriller that surpasses The Prestige and even, Nolan’s successful release, Memento. Following on from his supremely victorious
second instalment in the Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight, Nolan is a director
well and truly at the top of his game. Naturally, there was a certain amount of
trepidation surrounding the film, but rest assured, Inception did not
disappoint.
Make
no mistake, this is a proper film. Nolan has rejected fashionable 3D (thank
God) which often makes films feel dark, gimmicky and lacking in detail. He has
shunted ostentatious tracking shots and constant reliance on green screen in
order to make a film based on dreams feel surprisingly real. Together with cinematographer
Wally Pfister, who used a variety of frames to capture breath-taking landscapes
and claustrophobic close-ups, they have achieved the extraordinary. Shot in
IMAX with superb editing, flawless visual effects and Hans Zimmer’s epically intense
score makes for a ridiculously immersive viewing experience.
Aesthetically stunning, the plot flitters
between four layers of a dream. From the grimy, industrial city
level which Nolan gave his signature tough Gotham-look, to the corporate hotel
layer with its warm colour palette and soft lighting – it is easy to
differentiate between them. One minute you’re in Paris, the next Mombasa and
the third act transpires in a snow fortress which strongly resembles the
architecture of the Geisel Library at UCSD. The difference between this film
and the Bourne Trilogy is that you don’t find yourself suspending disbelief as
they trot across continents. Dreams mean no boundaries, no laws of physics and
plenty of creative licence.
Beneath
the films complex exterior, the occasional car chase and expertly placed
explosion lies a love story laced with redemption, grief and the inability to
let go of those who have left us. The core of the piece is anchored by our
protagonist
Cobb (DiCaprio) as the serious and introverted “Extractor” burdened with the
seemingly impossible task of planting an idea in someone’s mind. His sincere performance is the glue that holds the ensemble together. As one of his finest portrayals, it's hard to imagine anyone managing to encapsulate the depth and hidden turmoil faced by Cobb as impressively as DisCaprio.
Mimicking
a classic heist movie, Cobb wastes no time in quickly assembling a skilled team
with characters that complement each other with chemistry and spirit to rival
any strong ensemble cast. Ariadne (Page) as the young, quirky student is given
the role of replacement “Architect”, but not in the traditional sense. Niftily
taken from Greek mythology, her namesake was responsible for leading Theseus
out of the Minotaur’s maze and her character arc shares some uncanny parallelism
to our plot. Dileep Rao plays “Chemist”, funny-man and designated driver Yusuf,
named after the Prophet, gifted with the ability to interpret dreams. Good luck
to all the sceptics who like to pick at loop holes and flaws, because, unlike
The Prestige, you won’t find any. This movie is watertight.
Cobb’s
“Pointman” and sidekick is played by the indie-film staple Joseph Gordon-Levitt
who is a far cry
from his usual hopeless romantic. He instead exhibits some mind-bending stunts
and brings an element of Bond-style panache to the film. Cillian Murphy, one of
Nolan’s go-to actors,
is back as Robert Fischer, the sleek heir to energy giants Fischer Morrow and
the subject of the nail-biting assignment. His vulnerable and helpless
representation of Fischer shows an impressive amount of versatility and proves
there’s more to him and his protuberant blue eyes than the crazed Scarecrow from
Batman Begins. Oscar-winning Marion Cotillard takes on Cobb’s wife and tortured
soul, Mal, and provides a remarkable amount of grace and elegance to a male
dominated cast. Her name translated means ‘bad’ in both French and Spanish, but
of course that’s a coincidence… A stand-out performance comes from future
leading man material Tom Hardy. Virtually unrecognisable from the 2008 biopic
‘Bronson’, Hardy is the actor most starved of screen time, his roguish charm
and sarcastic disposition of the clandestine “Forger” Eames lights up scenes
with playful wit and effortless timing.
With
the backing of an international, A-list cast and one of the
best directors of recent years at the helm, Inception is a dream come true for
any studio and good on Warner Brothers for not padding it out and diluting the
smartness with incessant shooting. The complexity of Inception is not the flaw
that some reviews
are jumped on; it’s what makes it successful. For a film so intricate, it is
not overambitious because it would be all too easy to feel lost and left out. Nolan’s
tremendous narrative skill and trademark slight of hand keeps viewers on the
inside and guides them along as a member of the team. So when you see
Inception, which let’s be honest, you all probably have, be prepared to debate the
ending for the rest of forever. What Christopher Nolan has succeeded in creating
is an immensely intelligent film that challenges the audience but isn’t self
indulgent and non-accessible. Inception is outstanding and quite frankly,
bloody genius. Just don’t fall asleep in the middle of it – or else you could
be waking up with some “radical notions”.
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