Some Like It Hot (dir. Billy Wilder, 1959) Marilyn Monroe really was the perfect star; they don’t make them like this anymore. I get it now. Funnier than I was expecting.
United 93 (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2006) From the British director of two Bourne films is a dramatisation of the United 93 flight, the only hijacked 9/11 plane which didn’t reach it’s destination. It’s rare I get that moved by a film. Horrors, while being my favourite genre, largely unaffect me. It’s “real” dramas like this that turn my stomach. I believe it was the director’s desire to make the take-off-crash duration as close to real time as possible, and after a certain point of the film you don’t actually leave the flight. Just small things like this make it so much closer to a reality it’s almost painful to watch.
Mostly filmed handheld, I couldn’t imagine seeing this at the cinema – much like The Blair Witch Project, I’m sure it would be enough to make people very sick. But just the idea of this happening, and knowing that it did. Really intense.
Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella, dir. Roberto Benigni, 1997) After watching, I researched this film to find it had won many Academy Awards and been highly successful at Cannes in the 90s. I had never heard of it, only coming across it on Sky Modern Greats. Life is Beautiful is based on life for Jews in a Nazi occupied Italy and split into two clear parts – a slapstick, romantic comedy –esque first sequence which to me was a fairly typical Italian comedy affair, and a dramatic, sad but weirdly upbeat second half. The second half, set inside a concentration camp, I found most interesting, as you wouldn’t think it would be easy to make a comedy out of it. At times it is really heart wrenching, as you watch the main protagonist Guido, keep the horrible truth about their place in “camp” from his small son. He turns it into a game, one that most don’t win. It’s so delicately done.
And of course, as per usual, the Americans roll in right at the end to save the day.
The Green Mile (dir. Frank Darabont, 1999) Another classic I’ve felt compelled to watch for some time. At 188 minutes, it’s one of those films that becomes an intense effort to pull yourself through, especially considering the grim subject matter, but it never slows down enough for you to become bored. The photographic direction wasn’t of much interest to me, but the score was – it was so Thomas Newman. Anyone who’s seen American Beauty can tell the composer a heartbeat away. Honestly, I think Sam Rockwell quite frankly stole the show with this.
Cemetery Junction (dir. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, 2010) Anything by Gervais and Merchant I am going to watch, and their unrelenting cynical humour is so, beautifully clear. Cemetery Junction is another 1970s coming-of-age drama that reminded me a bit of Nowhere Boy, the Sam Taylor-Wood film on John Lennon's early life. But there was something missing, I can’t quite place it, but I’d only really recommend this if you’ve 1. Not seen enough coming-of-age-dramas or 2. You are very loyal to Gervais/Merchant. Not bad, just not anywhere near la crème de la crème.
Less Than Zero (dir. Marek Kanievska, 1987) Based on a book by the author of American Psycho, and myself loving American Psycho in film format, I thought this would be up my street. Baby Robert Downey Jr. is great. But a largely unmoving and slow film.
The Experiment (dir. Paul Scheuring, 2010) I’m just going to start out by say, America, you really need to stop taking brilliantly made European film and slaughtering it, all for the sake of removing subtitles. If you have any interest in the Stanford Prison Experiment alluded to in this film, watch Das Experiment (2001), which was so intense I nearly cried, and I’ve already explained how largely unmoved I am by most film, so this should tell you everything you need to know. I mean, even Adrien Brody and Forest bloody Whitaker couldn’t make this remake any more tolerable. It lacks the intensity, art direction and passionate performances and decent screenplay of its original.
Harold and Maude (dir. Hal Ashby, 1971) Another one it’s taken me too long to see. Unconventional relationship between a young boy and an older lady, two detached outsiders who constantly attend stranger’s funerals. The first scene shows Harold faking his own hanging, and his mother nonchalantly ignoring him, just another day. With a smooth, tinkering Cat Stevens soundtrack layered over the top, it’s a perfect 91 minutes.
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (dir. Marc Rothemund, 2005) The Germans are frequently showing themselves at masters of dramas based heavily in reality – Das Baader-Meinhof Complex, Goodbye Lenin…. And this certainly deserves to be seen alongside those modern classics. It’s also compelling to see a German interpretation and confrontation with their own past.
Changeling (dir. Clint Eastwood, 2008) Interesting but I felt it far too long and drawn out. Maybe that was intentional. The feminist undertones were the one thing that kept me watching, so much so I found myself shouting at the screen. Women have come a long way from the 1920’s chauvinism, but we’ve still a lengthy road ahead. John Malkovich stole this for me, sorry Angelina.
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (dir. John Rawlins, 1942) & Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman (dir. Roy William Neill, 1944) Two Conan-Doyle installments with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, what isn’t to like.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (dir. Edgar Wright, 2010) As much as I feel disloyal to lodge my dislike against a British director making it stateside, Scott Pilgrim perfectly encapsulates everything I’ve grown to repel in the MTV generation. This film IS the MTV generation.
So called ‘awkward’ main protagonist? Check.
Action plot? Check. ‘Alternative’ romance subplot? Check.
Annoying ‘alternative’ love interest, who is ‘alternative’ because she was in a band and changes her hair colour? Check.
Constant need for me to use quotation marks to emphasis how cool this film wants to be by being awkward and alternative? Check.
The flashy, self-conscious onscreen graphics every time a phone rang became tiresome after the first go. You have seven plus lengthy fight sequences, all the same, all with the same onscreen graphics, to sit through. If you’ve seen one Michael Cera film then you know what to expect from him – just ‘that’ face. The entire film was so conscious of being COOL, of being GRAPHIC, of being LOOK-IT’S-MEANT-TO-LOOK-LIKE-A-VIDEO-GAME!!!!!!!! Utterly annoying. I may be biased but if you want a decent, unpretentious film based on a comic book that doesn't constantly scream I'M A COMIC BOOK AND I'M VINTAGE ALTERNATIVE, look at Ghost World for ideas. But I like Keiran Culkin. The Culkins always win.
In The Loop (dir. Armando Iannucci, 2007) British comedy at it's best, directed by co-creator of Alan Partridge, based on The Thick of It, savagely satirical with an angry, rude, arrogant, downright disgusting Scottish man played by Peter Capaldi who comes out with lines such as “Well, it is out there, it’s out there now, lurking like a big hairy rapist at a coach station”. My poor descriptors don’t do any justice, just, see it. Laugh. Enjoy. Love being British for so shamelessly having this caustic sense of humour.
London Boulevard (dir. William Monahan, 2010) Better than I thought. Better than the critics had insisted. A sexy Keira Knightley, with every other line usually revolving around the phrase “fuck off you cunt”.
Devil (dir. John Erick Dowdle, 2010) Right from the beginning I was shouting at the screen “THAT OLD WOMAN IS AN ANNOYING BITCH.” And I was right. There, I’ve ruined it for you; you don’t even need to watch it. It was almost okay, until the very last line – “it’s ok. If the devil is real, then God must be real, too.” OH, fuck off. Did this really need to take THAT turn?
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (dir. Nicolas Stoller, 2008) One of those rom-coms you only really need to watch once. Some good lines, usually about Russell Brand being British. Mediocre at best.
Get Him To The Greek (dir. Nicolas Stoller, 2010) See Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
