Kim Jee-woon directs Song Kang-Ho, Lee Byung-hun and Gong Yoo in this Korean period espionage thriller where a group of anti -Japanese occupation resistance fighters attempt to convert the cop investigating them into being an ally in their cause.
Plot wise this is way too murky to follow for the first hour. I confess to pausing it and reading the Wikipedia synopsis when I realised I had fully lost track of what was going on and who was who. As a visual experience though it is sumptuous and the set pieces have a real threat to them. Just wished I cared about the characters and machinations a little more from the get go.
Chris Rock directs himself, Kerry Washington and Gina Torres in this unromantic comedy where a bored husband considers an affair with the blast from the past who keeps turning up at his office needing things and wanting him.
Chris Rock and Louis CK rewrite this remake of a French arthouse classic: Chloe In the Afternoon. You can see their stand-up personalities in a lot of the funnier moments. You can also see it as the work of a pair of men whose real life marriages will soon end in divorce. Borderline misogynistic at times but considering how unlikeable ALL the characters are, maybe it is more appropriate to say the work of at least one and half misanthropes. Still there are some chuckles and a few off the wall moments that herald CK’s later talent for hard whimsy.
Richard Linklater directs Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman in this filmed play where two friends reunite in an out-of-town motel room, one of them with an agenda to record the truth about a night back in high school.
Linklater’s attempt to do a Dogme. His usually unobtrusive visual compositions are abandoned. He puts his pixel-y digital handheld everywhere and anywhere. And considering this is a movie about shifting and a-skewed perspectives… that’s kinda apt. The acting is serviceable, with only Ethan Hawke finding nuance in what seems like quite a stagey mode of performance. A claustrophobic think piece that probably should only be a ‘one-watcher’ once experienced.
Nagisa Oshima directs David Bowie, Beat Takeshi and Tom Conti in this WWII prisoner of war movie where the officers of both sides struggle with their desires for each other.
The Bridge of River Kwai but bubbling with gay lust, mainly unspoken. The film wobbles in a boarding school flashback sequence that gobbles up too much of the third act. Otherwise it is quite strange and beautiful, much like Ryuichi Sakamoto now iconic score. Possibly Bowie’s best onscreen performance.
Takashi Miike directs Ko Shibasaki, Shinichi Tsutsumi and Kazue Fukiishi in this Japanesehorror movie where an answerphone message from the future fortells your exact time of death.
Stale J horror with one stand-out sequence. The live TV event based around the countdown to one girl’s cursed end is pretty sweet and sustained. Everything else seems like Ringu scraps.
David Wain directs Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd and Christopher Mintz-Plasse in this comedy where two losers become court appointed “big brothers” to a pair of wayward kids.
Easily one of the funniest Hollywood comedies of this century. Punch, punch, punch. Every performance lands. “You white, then you Ben Affleck.” Bobb’e J. Thompson is a particular find. Beyond the proven and very likeable leads this is teeming with comedy THAT GUY turns that are spot on; Jane Lynch, Ken Jeong, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio. So we spend 10 minutes too many LARPing and then another 10 on sentiment at the end. When a comedy makes you laugh this much, this often, you can forgive it the excesses of its era.
Abraham Polonsky directs John Garfield, Beatrice Pearson and Marie Windsor in this film noir where a corrupt lawyer loses what little is left of his soul when he encourages his gangster client to consolidate the numbers racket.
One of my favourite film noirs. The tropes are slightly moved back to the middle ground and the little people caught in organised crime’s merciless grind are focussed on more prominently. The violence is shocking, the pessimism unrelenting. Beatrice Pearson, the good girl trying to escape the bad situation, gives a glorious performance. Shame she only made two movies. What happened there? The on-location New York shoot adds a little incongruous day light to the normally midnight set genre… the city looks fantastic, towering over the players like they are rats trapped in a maze with no escape.
Reinaldo Marcus Green directs Will Smith, Demi Singleton and Saniyya Sidney in this biopic of Venus and Serena’s ambitious, committed and mercurial father.
How you approach this will define how much you appreciate it. A Will Smith vehicle that stretches him with both eyes clearly on Awards season? Or an inspirational biopic of the Williams sisters – the biggest names in tennis for the entirety of this century? I came for both, so was mightily satisfied, but if you just come for the latter you’ll need to be a tad patient as this is a movie far more focussed on the parenting than the match points. The somewhat extreme parenting. Richard Williams is clearly a fascinating figure. The Fresh Prince tries to dial back his natural likability and try to play him as Denzel might. Now Smith might not have to acting talent of Mister Washington but he certainly tries hard here and dominates the movie, battling to master the drama as much as the jokes. He’s certainly a Best Actor Oscar contender based on the psychologically complex portrait that is achieved. The second hour Venus’ agency and talent start to come to the fore. She starts pushing against her father’s protection of her talent, making her own decisions, playing for her self. We get there, to her story rather than his story, but it takes a lotta of movie for it to feel like that. This possibly spins its wheels a little too long before we get to “the big match”. If I was guessing why there is so much air and repetition here I’d wager it is a project that maybe has one overly invested executive producer too many. Yet there is tons of good stuff and fine stuff, nothing included is bloat. I’d certainly watch it again.
7
Perfect Double Bill: The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Jason Reitman directs Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon and McKenna Grace in this legacy sequel where Egon Spengler’s estranged grandchildren inherit the mantle of Ghostbusters.
A fascinating attempt to appease the fans and trap a new generation to boot. The first hour was pretty magical… littered with Easter eggs and moments of genuine reverence to the beloved 1984 smash (don’t expect many references to Vigo, the Master of Evil). Then you realise it doesn’t really have much more in the tank but a replay of the plot of the first movie with a younger cast. And that’s fine. That’s OK. Strange to watch something that was so hip and urbane thirty five years ago be so smoothed out though. We end on a Marvel-esque big CGI swirl finale. The jokes are pretty soft. This is more Ghostbusters by way of Spielberg or Lucas rather than Ivan Reitman or SNL. The always welcome Paul Rudd gets a little left behind in the ultimate narrative but Grace and Logan Kim make for nice Muppet Baby substitutes for Ramis and Aykroyd respectively. The FX in the first half are wonderful. Would I have wanted a smidge more from the original cast? Yes. Should there have been at least one more Ghostbusting set piece? Definitely. As lovely as the reprises from Elmer Bernstein’s score are… why not a bit of sexy funk too? Really what I want is more of that original flavour! This is trying to be its own thing without alienating the fans. Mission accomplished and accomplished pretty safely. A fun afternoon at the movies that I hope the tween market it is also made for love quite as much as I do the originals.
Peter Weir directs Harrison Ford, River Phoenix and Helen Mirren in this adventure drama where an obsessed inventor breaks from civilisation and transplants his family to the tropical wilds.
Any movie starring Harrison Ford was a pretty big deal when I was a kid. I certainly watched this too young and impressionable in the Eighties with no idea it was meant to be taken as serious drama rather than a Han Solo in the jungle adventure movie. I found stuff to enjoy in it then and I find plenty to appreciate in it now. Ford is working double hard to not just rely on his natural charisma, and while he shows his effort a little too obviously, it probably is his best piece of screen acting. Brave for him to play such morally dubious character at that point in his career. Someone so reckless with their family’s well being is such a rarity on screen… not quite villain but certainly not the all American hero we are used to. Phoenix is great as our point of view for all the madness that unfolds as paradise turns to hellscape. Peter Weir leans into his on location shoot and this proves a pretty classy psychological attack on Western values. The Witness team of composer Maurice Jarre and cinematographer John Seale guarantee this sounds and looks superb. An underrated gem.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 