Friday 28 March 2014

Filmdog Weekly #10 (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)


Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Greenwich Picturehouse)
'Major Snoozefest...'

As a general rule of thumb I usually try not to read other critics' reviews before I have written my own in case it affects my opinion. It's very easy to think 'hmmm...I should have thought of that' and then pass it off as your own observation and that's not really the point. The good thing about movies and music, amongst other things, is that they are completely subjective. One man's masterpiece is another man's wallpaper. 

On Thursday, however, I found myself drawn to a review on The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw titled 'Marvel's dullest superhero' and couldn't help but sneak a peak. Having seen the film on Wednesday (at mid-day alongside several other lone males of a similar age) at my local Greenwich Picturehouse, my thoughts on the film had already been formed and so I was interested to see what Bradshaw thought of it. Unsurprisingly his views were not wildly dissimilar from mine.

In this second instalment of the super-soldier franchise, his third overall after his run out with The Avengers, our hero's character is firmly established. Steve Rogers, a man genetically modified to combat the Nazis in WWII, frozen in ice and time after battling the evil Red Skull, revived in modern day USA, enlisted as an agent of SHIELD and now resuming his duties as the all-American protector of his homeland and the wider world.

The first Captain America film, 'The First Avenger', was an enjoyable twist on the genre, which had until then been mostly set in the present day, giving us a retro superhero who despite possessing awesome strength and speed, still uses a gun to kill his enemies. He was the ultimate do-gooder and this was made fun of in Avengers Assemble where he was a fish-out-of-water, struggling to adapt to the generational changes in attitude and technology that took place during his 70-year freeze. The reason why that film works so well (and is ultimately the best Marvel film so far) is the badinage between Cap, Thor, Hulk and Iron Man, deftly guided by writer and director Joss Whedon.

In 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier', the fish is well and truly back in the water. No longer troubled by the gulf in his personal timeline, he's happy again. He's at home using the internet ("very useful"), he's making a small catch-up list of pop culture (which bizarrely included the 1966 World Cup final for UK audiences) and he's even managed to hook up with 100-year-old Agent Peggy Carter (Haley Atwell) to reminisce about the old days by her bedside.

He goes about his duty, leading missions alongside Avengers' Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson as former KGB agent Natasha Romanov), shoehorned into this film to give it some star quality and who's primary concern is trying to hook up Cap with a girlfriend.

So there's not much wrong really apart from a little internal conflict about whether he wants to continue being a soldier. Step up Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, with the ingenious idea of putting 3 super-bastard-sized-spaceships in the sky that can each target and wipe out a million people at the same time. Why? For our own protection of course. Cap's not happy with this idea, suspecting it might infringe on the peoples liberty just a little bit and uses his superhuman powers of perception to figure out that this might not be a Dragons Den-winning idea after all.

The rest is pretty formulaic. A host of new characters, including Robert Redford as scheming SHIELD executive Alexander Pierce, Anthony Mackie as Cap's new sidekick Falcon and mysterious new bad guy The Winter Soldier (who could he be? You've failed if you can't figure it out after 20 minutes), join established faces Nick Fury and Black Widow to make this as much as an ensemble as Avengers Assemble and unfortunately that's a damning indictment of Captain America's (and Chris Evans') power to pull an audience.

It's quite an enjoyable film despite the endless bursts of 'TAKATAKATAKATAK' machine gun fire that crops up throughout, and the sooner they get rid of those boring super-spaceships the better. A scene in which Cap takes an eventful ride down an elevator is a standout in terms of action, while Anthony Mackie gives some much needed camaraderie as fellow soldier Sam Wilson. 

However, the real fault of the film lies at its heart. What made Captain America fun in the first place was seeing a man struggling to adapt to his new surroundings and keeping hold of his morality while still reluctantly fulfilling his fighting duties, much like the Wolverine does. That's all gone now. Here, he's happy to chat with Agent Romanov about girls while letting a man (albeit a bad guy) fall to his death from the top of a tower block, the scene deliberately pointing to the fact that he's become more morally flexible. In trying to modernise him, the filmmakers have shed much of the pathos that made him appealing in the first place. An attempt to re-conjure those feelings of self-conflict, whereby he spends much of the film moping about because his best buddy died in The First Avenger, feels phoney, serving only as a plot device for the climax. And try as they might, there is no sexual chemistry between Scarlett Johansson and the impressively muscular Chris Evans, somewhat of a real-life Hulk.

Evans has said he may quit acting and move into directing after his six-film contract with Marvel is finished. That leaves another three outings at least for Captain America and you have to wonder if the man in the red, the white and the blue will come through after all. 

Captain Charisma he most certainly is not and I can't help but agree with Peter Bradshaw. He is Marvel's dullest character and Chris Evans struggles to impart any charm upon him, which is possibly the reason to include several other big stars to prop up the poster boy in this. Sadly it seems he's such a dull character that he can't even be trusted with the lead role in his own film.

* * *



Friday 21 March 2014

Filmdog Weekly #9 (Under the Skin, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)

Welcome again to Filmdog Weekly. In this edition we're taking a look at Jonathan Glazer's eerie science-fiction flick Under the Skin and reviewing Peter Weir's 2003 classic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which played at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich on Thursday...



Under the Skin (Greenwich Picturehouse)
'Hopefully it won't be under your radar...'

Scratchy violins picking short, stabbing notes out of the air. A human voice in the distance practising vowels. Black tar-like fluids rising up from a sheer white background. Cylindrical objects floating towards each other. 

Yes, this is the opening scene of Under the Skin and it's beautifully abstract and alien, setting the tone for the next 108 minutes of this wonderfully Kubrickian sci-fi.

Based on Michel Faber's 2000 novel, the film follows a nameless alien, inhabiting the body of a young, beautiful woman (Scarlett Johansson) as she drives around Glasgow and the west coast of Scotland looking for suitable young men to seduce.

After picking up young suitors in her van, she drives them back to her flat and it's only once they're inside that we begin to understand the terrifying purpose behind her predatory man-hunt.

We never truly find out the reasons behind this need for men, though it's alluded to in one horrifying scene and anyone who's read the book beforehand will know exactly why. Luckily I was unaware of the existence of the novel and I think this helped add to the tension. It's simultaneously erotic and terrifying as you watch Scarlett lead these young men through the door of her squalid flat into a pitch black, other-worldly landscape, clothes teasingly dropping to floor, and you wonder what will happen to these unfortunate guys walking towards their doom in full state of arousal.

The film benefits tremendously from having a Hollywood star playing the lead role and Scarlett Johansson is mesmerising in this. The stark contrast of seeing someone more accustomed to the red carpets of Los Angeles now driving through urban Glasgow, slowly navigating through the throng of Celtic supporters, allows the audience to tap into that foreignness, literally a world away from her comfort zone. Her English accent only serves to make her more convincing too, giving us the real sense that she's an impostor.

It's a very intelligent sci-fi film and I think it's probably one of the best I've seen. There are no lasers or space ships and only at the very end do we get a glimpse into the true nature of the aliens. She is seemingly the only female but there are others in the form of mute, obedient men who whizz around the country on motorcycles cleaning up her dirty work. There is an insect-style relationship it seems, like ants or bees with a solitary queen and an army of male soldiers to attend to her.

Like any foreigner living among a different culture for an extended amount of time, she begins to develop an understanding of the people and an emotional bond. There's a slow transformation from the woman we see at the beginning of the film, from a calculated and emotionless being intent on carrying out her duty, to a fragile and more sympathetic character. 

For most of the film she watches people going about their everyday lives and several scenes show the subtle shift in her thinking pattern. At first she focuses on single men, identifying suitable candidates, but then later on she turns her attention to women, as she starts to feel more at home in the skin she's in. Then she begins to understand the decency and kindness that humans can have for each other. One montage shows a dad giving his child a piggy-back and a young girl on a bench moving her legs out of the way for an elderly woman to pass by; small little acts of everyday kindness that give away exactly what it is to be human and this has a lasting effect on our alien protagonist.

The final third of the film shows a quiet rebellion against her own kind in favour of her adopted species and the end of the film is actually quite heartbreaking as she finds out that humans are also capable of evil as well as kindness. Unlike most movie-aliens, this species has a fragility about it. They don't possess super-human strength and the only supernatural ability seems to be for hypnosis and a little telepathy.

Under the Skin is beautiful, tense, erotic and very intelligent. Hopefully it won't slip under your radar. Go and see it.

* * * * *



Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Royal Naval Museum)
'There's not a moment to lose...'

On Thursday night I went to the Royal Naval Museum by Greenwich Park for a viewing of one of my favourite films. Before the film we were given a 20 minute talk around the true events behind the film and were lucky enough to handle a few historical artifacts, the most notable of which was the signal log from the USS Chesapeake , captured by the HMS Shannon in an 11-minute action in the battle of Boston Bay. The signal book is a key piece of coding for the entire US fleet and it was very heavy, weighted with lead shot so that it can be tossed overboard in the event of capture, however in this case it was taken by the Shannon's Captain Philip Broke. We also managed to look at Broke's diary and the ship's log. Very interesting stuff if you like naval history.

The film itself is based around a real-life action, only with the US frigate replaced by the French Acheron to give it a more Napoleonic feel. It's a mash-up of several book by Patrick O'Brian (very fine reading they are too) and follows Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin on their quest aboard HMS Surprise to intercept the Acheron, sink her or take her as a prize.

It's a brilliant chase, a cat and mouse hunt across the South Atlantic and South Pacific oceans, giving an accurate depiction of life on board a man of war during the Napoleonic battles. Russell Crowe gives a very heroic portrayal of 'Lucky Jack', not quite so buffoonish as he is in the books but excellent all the same. Paul Bettany is also outstanding as Maturin, surgeon and spy, the latter of which is only hinted at in the film.

I could spend a lot more time writing about this film but it's one you really must see for yourself. If you haven't already done so...there's not a moment to lose!

* * * * *









Saturday 15 March 2014

Filmdog Weekly #8 (The Great Beauty, The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Welcome once again to Filmdog Weekly. Hopefully you had a chance to read our Oscars Special in which we tipped up all the winners for Best Film and Best Acting categories. We also predicted a win for this week's feature The Great Beauty, which won Best Film in a Foreign Language. Here's why...


The Great Beauty (Prince Charles Cinema)
'When in Rome...'

The Great Beauty is a visual attack on the senses, a display of Rome in its various modern guises; Tranquil city of art, beauty and architecture by day; Hedonistic playground for the rich and famous by night.

It is in the latter of these landscapes, a rooftop birthday party that's more reminiscent of an Ibiza rave, that we meet Jeb Gambardella (Toni Servillo), a writer and social vampire who spends his nights drinking with Rome's elite and his days catching up on sleep. The film follows Jeb on a journey of soul-searching after learning of a former lover's death, contemplating the merits of his semi-chaotic lifestyle, along the way exploring the nooks of Rome and the many eccentrics and grotesques that inhabit the city.

It's a very beautiful film, full of colour and movement. The camera rarely stays still, gliding across the screen in vast, sweeping panning shots and it gives the film a fluid style, reflecting how Jeb is always on the move (his apartment is the only location that we pay repeated visits) in his search for life's 'great beauty'.

It's also a film full of melancholy. Every character seems to be flawed, using wealth to mask a deep fragility, desperate to keep up appearances. As Jeb passes his 65th birthday, the death of his childhood sweetheart brings his own mortality home to roost and the film is more of a study to the true meaning of life, underneath all the trivialities of everyday living, examining the things that matter most - love, beauty and family. 

The Great Beauty one of the most difficult films I've reviewed so far. There's no real story here, just a study of events surrounding one man during a period in his life. The 150 minute-long running time can be very testing too but ultimately I enjoyed this film. It's a piece of art rather than a form of entertainment and I found it quite inspiring, albeit in a very sombre kind of way. It's interesting and certainly worth a watch if you like art films.

* * * 


The Grand Budapest Hotel (Greenwich Picturehouse)
'Fantastic Mr Fiennes...'

Wes Anderson is one of those Marmite directors. I love the style of his films and he's definitely one of the most original filmmakers of my generation, but despite wanting to love every film he's made, I just can't seem to do it. I want to, but I just can't.

I'm a big fan of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Fantastic Mr Fox is one of my favourite films, however, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom left me a bit cold, so on sitting down to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel I really didn't know what to expect.

The true answer is that I can't quite make up my mind. It's a stunningly visual film, fantastically realised, giving life and colour to the fictional country of Zubrowska. I really enjoy the photography in Anderson's films with lots of still shots framing the scenes, a kind of 2D quality, almost like a comic-book, that works really well for me and this film is no exception. The way the hotel is shot gives it a magnificent scale, 'grand' in every sense of the word.

Ralph Fiennes is brilliant as the film's hero, Mr Gustav H, concierge of the Grand Budapest. He's completely charming, witty and often foul-mouthed, using his slippery charm to get him out of all sorts of trouble. He's accompanied by his lobby boy Zero (Tony Revolori) as they navigate their way through multiple perilous episodes, all plotted around the death of Madame D (Tilda Swinton) who has left a priceless masterpiece to Mr Gustav in her will, much to the ire of her villainous son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) and his henchman Jopling (Willem Defoe).

Like most of Wes Anderson films it will take a few viewings for me to ultimately decide whether I like it or not. Until then, let me just say this. It's definitely worth going to watch, based on Ralph Fiennes hilarious performance alone. Whether the story is good enough to entice you into repeat viewings is another matter. To quote another fantastic fox, 'It's different...but it's not a hen '.

* * *






Sunday 2 March 2014

The Filmdog Oscars Special


The Oscars circus rolls into Los Angeles for their annual schmooze-fest. Let's skip all the guff, trim away the fat about pretty clothes and cut straight to the bone of this corpulent beast...

Best Picture

American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

Here's what should happen...


12 Years a Slave should rightfully win Best Picture, though from what I've read in the press over recent weeks, the Academy members seem to have no appetite for this gritty slavery epic, which is a shame because it's hands-down the best film on this list (from those that I have seen. Apologies to Philomena and The Wolf of Wall Street).

The main challenges will come from Dallas Buyers Club and Gravity, both of which are very good but not quite up there with Slave in terms of story and cinematic gravitas. Matthew McConaughey's AIDS drama is surely going to get some recognition for it's acting performances, while Alfonso Cuaron's Sci-Fi is a masterpiece in terms of groundbreaking technological effects and direction but the story suffers from the restraints of being set in space. It did very well at the BAFTA's so it may well go home with its pockets stuffed with statuettes.

Her is a bit of a wet blanket. It's a nice premise but it's not going to be anyones favourite film of the past 12 months. Captain Phillips was very disappointing for me. Having caught it on Sky last week I'm shocked that Barkhad Abdi managed to stroll off with Best Supporting Actor award in London a few weeks ago. Maybe he held a room full of BAFTA fellows hostage while they cast their votes but he certainly pulled some wool over a few peoples eyes. He won't be winning a thing tonight I'm afraid.

American Hustle is my big grumble of this year. Christian Bale is excellent in it but I cannot for the life of me fathom what makes people rate this film so highly. It's just not very good and it seems to have won people over on the strength of it's A-list cast alone. Take away the big names and the outlandish costumes and what you're left with is a very poor heist (minus the heist) drama. I'll be annoyed if this wins anything outside of the costume/hair/makeup categories.

Nebraska is our token art film that almost nobody has seen. It's very good but it's incredibly slow, acting as a vehicle for some great performances without having a compelling enough story to make it a truly great film.

So there we have it. If 12 Years a Slave doesn't win Best Picture then it's a fucking travesty but I wouldn't rule out Gravity opening up it's airlock and sucking away Slave's chances into oblivion.

Best Actor

Christian Bale
Bruce Dern
Leonardo DiCaprio
Matthew McConaughey
Chiwetel Ejiofor

The Best Actor category is very strong this year. Once again, apologies to Leo for not watching his film but from the others, I'll be majorly surprised if Matthew McConaughey doesn't walk away with this, not just because of his brilliant performance in Dallas Buyers Club, but because he's probably due an award for the films he's made in the past couple of years. His turn here is no better than that of Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is also remarkable as Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave, but I reckon a black, British luvvie won't carry as much popularity as Southern charm-machine MaConaughey.

Bruce Dern is fantastic in Nebraska and I've had a small bet on him at 40/1. I don't think he'll win because of the film's low profile, but he gives a very nuanced performance as a senile alcoholic and it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he might receive a few outside votes from those who can't pick between the category's two big guns. That's also a bit unfair on Christian Bale who is by far and away the best thing in American Hustle.

The winner? I'm going to say McConaughey but I'll be rooting for Ejiofor.


Best Actress

Amy Adams
Cate Blanchett
Sandra Bullock
Judi Dench
Meryl Streep

This dull list is made up of the usual suspects. These ladies have 37 nominations and 6 statuettes between them and the strong favourite is Cate Blanchett who seems guaranteed to walk off with this. Again, I haven't seen Judi Dench or Meryl Streep, the latter's film isn't even out yet, suggesting she's thrown in here for old time's sake rather than for any great work she's done. Sandra Bullock did a really good job in Gravity considering she was in a huge space suit for the majority of it. As long as Amy Adams doesn't win I'll be happy. She's the true imposter here, utterly terrible in American Hustle, with her fake English accent, which she's required to do throughout the entire film, buckling like a giraffe giving a piggy back to an elephant.

Cate Blanchett will win.

Best Supporting Actor

Jared Leto
Michael Fassbender
Jonah Hill
Barhad Abdi
Bradley Cooper

I'll keep it brief. Jared Leto will probably win for his portrayal of transgender Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club. However, Michael Fassbender is the true diamond here. His turn as a tormented slave owner in 12 Years a Slave is chilling, brutal and awesome. Forget the others, they are simple cannon fodder, but I think Fassbender can pull off a surprise here by beating the well-fancied Leto to the Oscar. 

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Lawrence
Sally Hawkins
Lupita Nyong'o
June Squibb
Julia Roberts

I've had a bet on June Squibb at 33/1. Once again, she's very unlikely to win but I backed her on the strength that the rest of the runners in this field are not very strong. J-Law is the hot favourite, and she's quite good in American Hustle, but I can't help but think she's included because she's flavour of the month. Everyone's in love with her but that doesn't mean she'll win here. Squibb gives a subtle turn in Nebraska, providing most of the humour and is very watchable alongside Bruce Dern, injecting the film with plenty of heart and realism. Julia Roberts and Sally Hawkins may well have done some good work but the odds are against them.

Lupita Nyong'o was overlooked at the BAFTA's and I'd be surprised if the same happens here. She's got to win for her role in 12 Years a Slave. If she doesn't, expect a Twitter meltdown.


Filmdog Predictions

Here's who I think will win but not necessarily who I want to win...




Best Picture - 12 Years a Slave


Best Director - Steve Mcqueen 
Best Actor in a Leading Role - Matthew McConaughey


Best Actress in a Leading Role - Cate Blanchett


Best Supporting Actor - Michael Fassbender


Best Supporting Actress - Lupita Nyong'o


Best Original Screenplay - American Hustle


Best Adapted Screenplay - Philomena


Best Animated Feature - Frozen


Best Foreign Language Film - The Great Beauty


Best Cinematography - Gravity


Best Film Editing - Gravity


Best Production Design - The Great Gatsby


Best Costume Design - The Great Gatsby


Best Makeup and Hairstlying - Dallas Buyers Club


Best Original Score - Gravity


Best Original Song - Let It Go (Frozen)


Best Sound Editing - Gravity


Best Sound Mixing - Gravity


Best Visual Effects - Gravity


Best Documentary Feature - The Act of Killing


Best Documentary Short - The Lady in Number 6


Best Animated Short - Get a Horse!


Best Live Action Short - The Voorman Problem
Oscars Drinking Game 

If you are planning to stay up tonight, you may as well get drunk. Here's a game to get you through 3 hours of Ellen Degeneres.


Filmdog out.