Wes Anderson i finally understand you

Ok so i've seen two quite different Wes Anderson films this week and i really enjoyed them both , this I think is a bit of a personal / emotional achievement for me because i think only very happy people can enjoy the weird off beat humor of a Wes Anderson film , in the past i have not. However, this week i laughed along with everyone watching the Fantastic Mr Fox and was very moved a tickled by his first major feature The Royal Tenanbaums. previously i have been board to sleep by Life Aquatic and turned of The Darjeeling Limited half way through!! i cant wait to watch them again , with a happier disposition.

to begin with The Fantastic Mr fox was very very funny, this is what you would hope from a children's Roald Dahl story! not usually into this kinda of animation i went into the film with very low hopes and no expectation's for it to be a good film, however i was very much impressed , the animation gave it a quirky edge and an almost vintage and organic feel compared to the big Pixar movies like UP! which was refreshing and the feeling worked really well with the dry wit of the script.

So Anderson brings along some of the old favorites including a small part for his bessie Owen Wilson. the fimiliar voices for me worked well with the script, even though it was commented that George Clooney's voice is emotionless it seemed very appropriate for this sleek fox.

The plot which stayed very true to the book with little embellishment ( like it needed any ! )

follows the main character Mr Fox and his family Mrs Fox and son Ash and visiting nephew Kristopherson , along with a host of animal friends who all find themselves facing termination from the horrible farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean! they are determined to capture mr fox whatever the cost and are driven quite mad by it.

its not the plot that really made me enjoy it although the film clearly needs a skeleton to hold it together :)

it was the script and the dry humor!! " you made a bad song " when Jarvis Cocker is singing round the camp fire , really epitomizes the jokes in the film , unexpected , sarcastic and just really funny :)

i felt a little gutted that the film was mainly aimed at children because i feel a more adult audience would really appreciate the film as well . i left the cinema feeling a little lighter and possibly a little nostalgic to the childhood joy of laughing at a film for all the right reasons.

Ok so moving onto The Royal Tenanbaums which i decided to watch after the success of Fantastic Mr fox, nominated for an oscar for the best writing screen play you would expect something a little special and thats what you get :)

the film is based around the family Tenanbaum, it opens with a book cover and the chapters of the book create the structure of the film. each time a new chapter/turning point occurs there is a shot of a page of a book including chapter header and a writing which says a bit about setting.

this really works because the film does have a child like story telling sort of feel, from the beginning with the exaggerated ideas of the Tenanbaum's genius this is followed through as an idea in the film with the narrator pointing out things that are obvious to the audience .

Another thing which shows the idea of a simple story telling prospectus is the characters in the film being introduced all at the beginning so the audience no who everyone is going to be . i found that really cute and even though it is done allot in children's films and books it really worked well here , and this fearlessness to be simple but yet sort of ingenious is probably why the screen play and writing won so much critical appreciation.

the story follows the lives of the family when they are grown up, their father who has become estranged from them decided when he heres of his wife's plans to re-marry to tell the family he is dying and as a outcome of that news their adult children and he move back into there childhood home which the mother still lives.

so with that you get a great ensamble peice with the wacky control/saftey obssesed eldest son and the deppresive adopted child, owen wilson plays the big shot writer who was a very close childhood friend and his brother plays the youngest Tenanbaum who was a Tennis pro until a slight mental colapse - this being one of the laugh out loud moments of the film for me, when he goes for the ball and just throws his bat away i was pretty much on the floor!

ok so the unexplainable twisty script just works so well with the mix of odd characters, the colours and brights but never shiny , so like Tim Burton but never artificial looking always natural textures like bright pink cotton and wood ect . this works well with the almost pop art look of the cinematography. Because of the beight colours it adds to the comedy, i think if it was a gothic looking film the whole ideas would be far to melancoly to work but the bright colours manage to keep it on the farcial side of things rather than deppressing. especially when the tennis pro decides enough is enough and tries to kill himself by slitting his wrists the red blood looks so bright that what could have been a very sad scene becomes quite beautiful .

hope this diddnt get to un-organised in thought , just my thoughts seem to be allover the place with this film, overall i think - "WOW" "this looks good and im laughing out loud!"

7.5/10

love xxx

district 9

Ok so this isn't the last film i went to see but it has made an impression on me and a good one at that so i thought i would blog about it and tell you all what i think .....

i hadn't really heard allot about this film before i went to see it so i had no expectations other than it was a film about aliens and a big ship, because the poster showed this. what i got was totally different, and thank god!!

the film is basically a movie which looks at the issue of apartheid, it also delves into the physiology of loyalty on several levels and from different view points which i liked allot.

( father/son wife/husband ) i loved that it wasn't set in the places you would think an alien movie would be , like new york or la for example it was set in Johannesburg which was weird because it turned the race issue on its head as well because it is in south africa .

the film worked so well because the graphics were amazing by the end you just saw the aliens as characters and personally i didn't really notice the physical differences as being important by the end which I'm sure is what they wanted.

there is allot of character development and improvement this is always a good thing for a strong plot. So from the beginning the script and plot was interesting developing and convincing even thought it is high concept which is key to this film working on all the different levels and still working as a whole . on-top of that there's some pretty impressive graphics work which at the moment i cannot even comprehend how they did ! the directing is amazing , even if the director is somewhat overlooked by publicity peter jackson the producer brought to the film . the violence is quite shocking and the bloody gore is almost reminiscent of Jackson's brain-dead days as it is in some parts a little over done blood splatering wise :)

i was very impressed with this film and went twice to see it the second time being able to appreciate the emotional side allot more :) i would give it 7/10

love xx

triangle ...... triangle......triangle.......

!!!!!! this was scary !!!!!!!

not in that cut you up and spit you out kinda scary it got you hooked from the start and had you sitting on the edge of seat your bitting your nails till the end!!

with two of the most disturbing scenes i could probably imagine this film really went above and beyond the horror movie genre.

stylish a bit sexy and very intense this film really ticked allot of boxes for me, it follows the character of jess who from the start seems a little weird and distant, she is on a day out a a small yacht with her friends , they come across a freak storm and are stranded on the upturned yacht.

help seemingly is at hand when a large ocean liner comes into view but this is when the real horror and chills become apparent as the boat is completely deserted and very very creepy and eery.

this film gets you on so many levels there is the shocking moments which are purely horrible to see and then there a moments of sheer physiological scariness which leave you contemplating all night, you really are wanting jess to survive and be ok, but at the end you realize that she in herself is not a good person ..... ( hope thats not to much of a spoiler )

which opens the floor to the question is this a punishment for her ?

you leave brain buzzing with questions, still in a state of shock and for me admiration that a horror has gone above and beyond the call of duty in delivering to the audience.

admiration and maybe a bit of patriotism as the director is british.

this was a very well thought out plot even where it has flaws because the story is so complex and uncertain it can allow for things that don't quite make sense.

best horror film iv seen since the shining :)

8.5/10

the soloist :) good job

well i didn't think i would love this film but i was pleasantly surprised!

some of the scenes especially the one were foxx punches R>D>J are really moving .

the idea of the film is only enhanced by its truth.

the film is about a man who is a writer for the la times a big news paper. he is a popular writer but his life has had a downward turn and he appears all though it is never 100% clear to have lost his son and is getting divorced from his wife.

one day after falling of his bike and really badly hurting himself he finds himself listening to a charming yet very weird character playing a two string violin.

He befriends the man and the story follows the ups and downs of him trying to help the man , it also as a sub story tells the tale of how the man came to be on the streets.

there is a scene very reminiscent of 'punch drunk love' were you see music through colours i LOVED that scene!!! it was just a little different and quirky in a good way i think it was quite brave as well to put that in the middle of a big budget type, were the audience might have been momentarily confused i think it worked really well and everyone got into it by the end of the short 'sequence' .

it was a very slow paced film , driven more by the character emotions than events.

the whole cast worked really well, the wife who doesn't come in allot worked really well to show the audience sides of R.D.J character, there moments together were subtle and it even told you a bit about her character and her emotions through the strength of her acting and probably very good direction, i liked that allot because you could see how the actions of the main characters were effecting everyone and it didn't skimp n the information it just integrated it nicely!

i think thats the basis of why i liked the film so much , the characters are really well developed and brought in slowly but in depth and with a certain preciseness which i could really appreciate.

above all else this film was beautiful to watch , my senses were visually stimulated the whole way through by long shots of city scape and wide shots looking down onto the city it was creative , art and still fitted nicely into the film .

really good job/ this film was a good mix of artiness and big budget Hollywood'ness.

not loving 500 days of summer

well , i think this movie was trying way to hard to be cool and unique!

for the most part i thought that it was predictable and boring.

my reasons for this are : the character depth was extremely lacking

the cinematography was poor and uninspiring.

it was hyped up to be different and it really wasn't.

so basically there's a guy who really likes a girl who we don't ever find much out about apart from she had in the past bad experiences through home life connected to love and relationships so she couldn't really 'love' easily. any way ... they have a 'quirky' relationship with ups and downs and eventually brake up.

if we focus of the female lead; i know it is a comedy but the costume department were way way of , the outfits she wares are soft and feminine and really old fashioned they could be from a 60's period movie. they don't reflect her character or help us understand her at all . as a character she holds no depth and you really don't get to see or understand her character at all, she isn't very likable and not very believable either . I'm not sure if that is down to bad script and or acting or directing.

As for the main male lead he is such a wet rag of a character that i felt no emotional connection to him and i didn't really care by the end of the film what happened to him.

At least his acting was a little more restrained and his friends did add a good dry comedy aspect into the film .

i think for me this film fell from a high expectation i had for it .

maybe it was the hype that made it seem so bad for me but i think overall it was a film for people to watch and feel cool and indy when in-fact for me AWAY WE GO should have had much more praise and hype .

feel free to disagree with me on this one i no my opinion probably wont be that popular but ... heh :)

over and out

THE GRADUATE by Mike Nichols- immediate response

WOW i love this little 60's gem :)

the film is so funny and very 'of the period'

after seeing toy story today in 3D which hurt my head this was very refreshing and entertaining and much more to my taste.

the thing which struck me first about the film is how timeless it is, the costume is very 'now' and the use of music throughout the film is very subtle even though it is a very important factor in the film you never feel the music over shadows the acting even thought it almost takes a character form itself ! you would hope that would be the case as simon and garfunkle were especially commissioned to write the music for this film .

i enjoyed the fact that it didn't take its self seriously and there were moments which made me genuinely laugh out loud.

:) what a lovely film 7.5/10

response to JE T'AIME JOHN WAYNE by Toby Macdonald

so as a treat last night i watched this short film by Toby Macdonald.

one of my all time favorite shorts .

even if you cant tell by the title it is a very british film , that is the genies of the thing because its for the most part in french!

the film is about ten minuets long and filmed on black and white film which gives it a really authentic old fashioned feel . ( the only thing that gives it away to be modern is the use of a young Kris Marshal - my families Nick. )

the thing that i love most about this film is the comedy in it, the music is reminiscent of the new wave film scene of the 1960's as is the cinematography, its a funny film at heart making fun of the cinema gower who think himself very sophisticated for seeing arty films ect ect.

it is very short and follows a london wannabe 'arty artist type' he only speaks in french and chain smokes through his morning routine which is comic gold :)

his mother calls reminding him to take his little sister to the cinema, they go to see a french film and there he meets the girl of his dreams with nothing more than a 'goodbye baybie!' to his little sister he chases after his dream girl and in another smoking related chain of events we follow very quickly the events after him meeting the girl. him telling her a joke, them playing table football , all whilst smoking ... of course...

WATCH THIS FILM

its really good:)

yay i managed to steel this of my old blog :) AWAY WE GO :)

SATURDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2009

Away we GO

the film was beautifully shot the camera work was very fluent which was great because you felt like you were watching there lives apposed to watching a movie about there lives.

there were moments were the cinematography blew me away and was very breath taking in its utter simplicity and ordinariness :)

the film seemed to have been made very intricately, the very smallest of details perfect and nothing seemed rushed or left suffering for the more important scenes. every shot seemed very beautifully composed and thought out.

the actors gave solid believable performances and were only excelled by the excellent script which was full of tender moments mixed in with comic moments. saying this the acting was never forced onto the audience , it was very understated and very very believable.

another thing i thought added to the film greatly was its well chosen sound track.

after watching it i was straight onto itunes downloading albums f=from the artist's who performed in the film.

over all i loved the fact that the audience were fully able to feel the emotion the characters were feeling and we got engrossed in there struggles and took joy from there's.

there was nothing cold or contrived about the direction or script and i would give this little work of art 8 out of 10!!!

getting started ....again

oh my god this thing is driving me crazy all ready!!!!!!!!!!

i'v done three blogs and what happens it all changes and i have to make another blog :(

grrrr

anyway im not going to let it hinder me.....

roll on blogging ....as long as it works!!!!

over and out :) Xx