Cinemexperience: part deux., Some more filums you saw. Options

[Sostie]

don't forget cynthia rothrock, michelle yeoh and cynthia khan...

Rothrock can have the Arnie role. She'll probably look as ridiculous running about as Sly does now.

[dandan]

Atonement[/b]
Stunning film. Beautifully shot and paced with some pitch-perfect performances. Director Joe Wright excels himself here. There are a few flaws - but I didn't mind overall. The complex narrative is handled with great care (by Christopher Hampton) and the atmosphere of the first section (and clearly best) of the film is astounding. Basically Briony (Saiorse Ronan - amazing) is a fanciful young lady, full of ideas and notions. She observes her world around her and tries to make sense - particularly, the messy world of adulthood and love - during a pre-war English summer. This leads to some foolish and selfish actions that result in immense tragedy. A tragedy for which she must atone.

In contrast to the above mess of a film, Keira and McAvoy have immense chemistry. I can't imagine anyone else playing the roles - and Keira in her emerald dress is iconic. No wonder Chanel gave her a contract. McAvoy's sky-blue eyes are put to great effect - he is Robbie. No question. Cecilia is an unsympathetic person capable of self-pity and huge snobbishness - but Knightly nails this without detracting from her character's passion and resolve. The entire cast was superb - from Daniel Mays as the Cockney soldier Nettle to Juno Temple as the precocious Lola and Brenda Blethyn as Robbie's housekeeper mother. The seamless transition between the 3 actresses playing Briony adds more power to the film - each actress presents a new face and it works. And I must mention Sherlock himself as the creepy bore and the ultimate villain , Marshall. The scene were he chats-up the wee ginger lass Lola is immense for it's tension and astounding performances - "top marks". That boy will go far.

Highly recommended.

loved the first section and agree with everything you say about it. keira is great in period drama, but i find her much less watchable in a contemporary setting, she's like the caucasian zhang ziyi. anyhoo, i though each act of the film was handled less well and, by the end, i thought it was poor...

my 'atonement' waffle... longer than i remembered...

[dandan]

just catching up on my film festival reviews...



elling - there are more ways?

elling (per christian ellefsen) is moved into a state institution after his mother, who he had lived with in near isolation for forty years, dies: there he meets and shares a room with the good hearted, but oafish, kjell bjarne (sven nordin). it isn't too long before the pair strike up a friendship and then find themselves being moved out of the safety and security of the institute, into a flat in oslo, where they must learn to cope with life by themselves...

a thoroughly enjoyable and utterly charming little movie, which bubbles along very nicely. great performances from the two leads and a solid script too, adapted from the novel and since adapted for the stage. another fine example of slightly off-kilter, comic norwegian cinema. oh, and there's a special appearance by the cafe which would later crop up in bent hamer's 'o horten'...

really good.



zonad - in your face...

liam (simon delaney) and francis (david pearse) are middle-aged alcoholics who have just escaped from a rehab programme. whilst francis falls and sprains his ankle, liam manages to escape to the safety of a small village; oh, i should say that liam is in a fancy dress outfit and arrives, claiming to be a visitor from space. impressed by this, and his alleged heroism, the village adopts 'zonad' as their own spaceman, something which laim is more than happy to exploit, until francis catches up with him...

i did expect this to be awful, but it is actually a rather enjoyable watch, as long as you don't focus on the fact it's actually a film about alcoholic, middle-aged men, dressing as aliens in order to get free booze and sleep with under-age girls. there's nothing new here, but there's a few very funny moments and some very nicely executed comic performances.

a bit of fun...



the robber - you gotta run, run, run, run, run, take a drag or two...

johann (andreas lust) was imprisoned for robbing banks. still, despite this, he was allowed a running machine in his prison cell and encouraged to keep training while incarcerated as he was such a promising talent. freed from prison, he continues to run and finds success, but still he continues to rob banks. something's got to give...

an enjoyable, understated film, simply telling this story in a very straight fashion: based on a true story, it simply plays out, following johan from the moment he leaves prison. there's no commentary, just a telling of the story. for this reason i like it. a nice, simple bit of film making, which just kinda works. it really made me want to do some hardcore exercise after having spent most of the past two weeks sitting in cinemas...

pretty good.



i will not be your friend / i am not your friend - blow your nose...

'i will not be your friend' is a fifteen minute documentary focussing on a bunch of four year old children and how they interact with each other in a kindergarten.

'i am not your friend' is, according to the director "a film of improvisations - not only from the part of the nine amateur actors, but from the d.o.p., the director and the scriptwriters as well. the story unfolded itself instantly by the reactions and ideas of actors during the 20 days of shooting and developed into what is presented to the audience. but the story perhaps is less important than the world which opens up in front of us, a taste of budapest in january 2008."

the narrative result is a series of meetings between characters who are, in some way, connected together; a shoplifting teenager with kidney trouble, the shop manager and his sales assistant who he's having sex with, his partner who has phone sex with his accountant, whose partner knocks over the teenager... and so on...

this is a really enjoyable film to watch; and, like gyorgy palfi says, 'the story perhaps is less important than the world which opens up in front of us'. watching interconnected vignettes certainly makes the film seem extremely fast paced, the short scenes drift from one character to the next and then to another character, there is a cut to an unrelated scene, which suddenly becomes related, whether situations are resolved is not important: life goes on.

the cast a crew do a great job and i can only imagine how satisfying it was to see it all come together at the final edit. a nice little experiment, made all the more enjoyable, by being very watchable even if you are unaware of the process.

good stuff.



moloch tropical - i bet your little pussy is just as refreshing...

the tale of jean de dieu theogene (zinedine soualem), a fictional president of haiti; once the champion of the people, elected into office and then corrupted absolutely by it, as the country crumbles around him...

yup, i really liked this. an extremely dark comedy, full of satire and some biting commentary: "'downfall' meets 'the thick of it'", is what i would stick on the poster, if i was attempting to market it. directed by raoul peck, himself a former minister for culture of haiti, the film presents a man who has simply gone insane with the power he has; isolated in his hilltop citadel, torturing the man who once championed him, but now recognises that that man no longer exists, ignorant to all sense and determined to hold on to what he has no matter what he has to do in order to do so...

the beautiful location, sharp script, interesting (if, at times, slightly cliched) characters and strong performances make this a great watch. an especially fantastic performance from zinedine soualem.

great stuff...



erratum - you're a weird man...

michal (tomasz kot) is forced to return to his home town when his boss requests that he collects his new car. after bumping into a friend he'd lost touch with, zbyszek (tomasz radawiec), and having an equally awkward meeting with his father (ryszard kotys) who he never sees, michal leaves town but, getting distracted by his telephone, he hits and kills a drunken vagrant who walks out into the road.

and so, waiting for his bosses car to get repaired, michal finds himself stuck in a town he desperately wants to leave. still, after some aimless wandering, his own sense of distance between him and his father, draws him to search for relatives and friends of the old man he ran over, whilst he attempts to re-connect with his father and zbyszek...

this is a film which i was initially quite indifferent to, but found myself liking more and more as it progressed. there's a nice mixture of comedy and drama, nothing too light or too heavy, just a pretty solid little film, that's nicely put together and plays out well. oh, and there's a repeated shot of water at the bottom of a weir, which is absolutely glorious. could've watched that for quite a while...

good stuff...



the invisible eye - watch and learn...

buenos aires, 1982, people are starting to challenge the military dictatorship which governs the country. marita (julieta zylberberg) is a junior member of staff at a strict and decidedly formal school; it's thick walls creating an enclave away from such disturbances. wanting to make a career for herself, marita tries to get herself into the good books of mr biasutto (omar nunez), the over bearing head of non-academic staff at the school. however, biasutto seems to want something a little different from marita and the misguided approach which marita adopts in order to try and garner favour - hiding in the boy's toilets to attempt to catch secret smokers - soon becomes corrupted by her getting distracted by one of the male students...

despite it being an awful print - it looked like a vhs or telecine transfer - it was a very watchable film. a comedic drama, focussing on marita's life in the humourless environment of the school and at home with her mother and grandmother, which is a complete contrast in terms of atmosphere. there's great central performance from zylberberg, who is rather wonderful: she seems to effortlessly and convincingly drift between a doe like innocence and naivety, whilst one can see the stirring of her sexual awakening manifesting. and, it is the film's almost light hearted approach, which guarantees that when moments of tension arise in the film, they are all the more jarring and shocking as a result.

good stuff...



hiroshima - a silent musical...

a day in the life of juan (juan stoll), from finishing work n the early hours of the morning, to singing with his band at the end of the night. the film, directed by jan's brother, pablo stoll, contains no audible dialogue; inter-titles replace what we hear from the mouths of characters, whilst the ambient sounds and what juan listens to on his portable cd player provide a backdrop to his day.

err... much less pretentious than it sounds. and, even though i'm pretty sure the pablo is trying to use this stylisation to illustrate juan's seeming reluctance to express himself vocally, apart from saying "yeah" or "sure", and how his life primarily revolves around music; getting this point is by no means integral to one's enjoyment of the film...

a nice thing to watch.

[dandan]

Rothrock can have the Arnie role. She'll probably look as ridiculous running about as Sly does now.

err... cynthia is in great shape for 53... and she's still a big draw on the live martial arts demo circuit...

[Sostie]

err... cynthia is in great shape for 53... and she's still a big draw on the live martial arts demo circuit...

I defer to your better knowledge. I admit I don't think I've ever seen any of her films all the way through and have heard little about her since the early 90's

[logger]

She looks better now than she did in her heyday.

[dandan]

I defer to your better knowledge. I admit I don't think I've ever seen any of her films all the way through and have heard little about her since the early 90's

'yes, madam', 'righting wrongs' and 'magic crystal' should all be watched...

[Serafina_Pekkala]

don't forget cynthia rothrock, michelle yeoh and cynthia khan...

Hell yes.

And Brigitte Nielsen. Your Red Sonja omission is forgiven, gentleman. She is obviously 'The Dolph'.

And ExpendaGALS - shurly.

elling - there are more ways?

I don't know but this sounds like a cup of Sefi tea.

she's like the caucasian zhang ziyi

In a nutshell.

[widowspider]

Atonement[/b]
Stunning film.

We have this on DVD but I've been avoiding it as Knightley can often really grate on me. I may have to give this a go now.

[logger]

The Runaways

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, and not just because it's about an all girl, jailbait rock band. It's very enjoyable, with the characters being so young the film has just the right blend of innocence and cynicism making the whole thing a lot of silly fun, kind of like Spiceworld meets Beneath the Valley of the Dolls. In fact, it reminded me quite a bit of Boogie Nights. And whilst there's nothing revelatory about seeing a band descend into a world of sex and drugs there is something rock and roll about seeing Dakota Fanning go through it, especially when off her tits and dressed in corset and suspenders singing Cherry Bomb. Fanning is a talent and should go on to do well, she seems to be fairly grounded in real life, and Kristen Stewart gives good Joan Jett in the supporting role.

Enjoyable fun.

[Serafina_Pekkala]

We have this on DVD but I've been avoiding it as Knightley can often really grate on me. I may have to give this a go now.

It put me off for a while too but she is great.

[Kick in the Head]

Atonement was on telly on Sunday, so watched it then. And it's a pretty good watch - inevitably brought Crank to mind "Have I got CUNT written on my fore'ead?!".

Not quite as good as Hard Ticket to Hawaii, a tits and guns flick featuring scantily clad federal agents uncovering a bizarrely convoluted drugs/diamond smuggling trade in, you guessed it, Hawaii, leading to REALLY bizarre action sequences with OTT deaths, 'splosions and a toxic mutant mega-snake. Natch. Despite it's Playboy bunny cast and unapologetic excesses, I found the lead female characters somewhat refreshing. Yes, they get their norks out all the time, but at least they're not super-cool sex-assassins devoid of character, nor are they just playing 'the girlfriend' or 'the wife' to the male lead. Whatever, it has this scene, so it's a pass anyway!

[Everlong]

And ExpendaGALS - shurly.

Expendabelles?

[logger]

this scene

Is it sad that as soon as I read the title I thought of that scene?

[mcraigclark]

Is it sad that as soon as I read the title I thought of that scene?

I did too. How did a film that bad get made?