Monday, October 27, 2014

Nightcrawler

SF: Jake Gyllnelhaal is nothing short of creepy brilliant. This film manages to be darkly entertaining, twisted and strangely captivating. The trailer implies that this film this is nothing more than a standard thriller, mandatory twists and all, however the reality is much better. It never reduces it self to cheap thrills and predictability. The characters are complex, well portrayed and never dissolved to stock figures and while there are no traditional twists there are more than enough disturbing plot moves to keep you enthralled. Well worth a watch and one of the better films of this year so far. 8/10

50Eggs: N/A

DonkeyB: So this is where all the good films have gone! The poster (left) isn't a particularly good advert for the film, although you do spend a good portion of the film staring at Gyllenhaal's face, the striking thing are his eyes and in reality the star of the film (or at least co-star) is Los Angeles, in this way it reminded me of James Elroy and Michael Connelly novels (both set most of their books in LA), its dark and ambiguous and seems to inhabit the characters as much as they inhabit it. 8.5/10

Overall: 8.25/10

The bozos behind us on the way out "loved the mise en scène"

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Pride

SF: I never thought there would be a film about a Gay and Lesbian support group for Miners on strike and therefore was more baffled than anything else when this can along. I'm happy to say this was a delight to watch. Both entertaining and factually interesting. I left the cinema with that cliched phrase "Who knew" but genuinely happy that I'd seen the film and did have a look at the Wikipedia page on the way home. The acting is so good it appears effortless, the characters endearing and the entire story heartwarming. Well work a watch. 8/10

50Eggs: N/A

DonkeyB: Its practically perfect. I cried at least three times and laughed many many more. As my Facebook friends know, my kitchen scales made a cameo appearance, I can confirm they are older than me and therefore definitely period, props to the props dept. Paddy Considine needs some award recognition, and Bill Nighy gives a speech about the seam of coal running from Spain to Pennsylvania via south Wales which is word for word perfect to one it felt like i heard hundreds of times when I lived in Wales. 10/10

Overall: 9/10

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Gone Girl

SF: When I left the cinema I wasn't sure if I liked this film or not. I've enjoyed most of Fincher's movies and with the author writing the script, I'd have thought this would be amazing. There were plenty of things I enjoyed about this film, good bursts of excellent entertainment and thrilling plot developments but overall this felt like a great excuse for one twist after another. At some point the impact is reduced because you left waiting for the next big twist. The film does well to keep you watching two thoroughly unlikeable characters. I can't help but compare it to things like The Prestige or Memento which take a similar style but are executed in a far more intelligent manner. I'd be in no rush to see this again and the more I think about the more I dislike. However I can see this being a thriller genre fan's ideal cinematic experience, so for that audience it certainly delivers. 6.5/10

50Eggs: My partner wanted to see this one, so I went along to do my duty of seeing what I assumed would be a 'pink' film. Wrong. This is a a really tense and intriguing film. Not knowing anything about it beforehand was a boon as I couldn't figure out where it was going, and thus it kept me gripped for the duration (and its pretty long). Recommended. 8.5/10

DonkeyB: I felt like the film ended up being less than the sum of its parts [cliché, see if you can count the rest]. Rosamund Pike gives a stunning performance, but it turned into too much of a Paul Verhoeven bunny boiler for my liking and it was definitely too twisty for its own good too. My least favourite Fincher, going to watch Zodiac again because it will eventually be considered his masterpiece. 5.5/10

Overall: 6.5/10