Catch-up mini review: The Soloist

You kind of know what you're going to get from this film going in and you're right. Here is one of those films that seems to have been put together in the sole design of getting its lead an Oscar nomination and as such, and as usual, it fails - falling flat on its face.

The Soloist is a story of so-so interest that we are told we should be interested in because this is a true story. Yes, but is it one that needed to be told? At least in cinemas? This story is cable movie-of-the-week standard in both writing and direction for the most part with a cynical, calculated performance from Jamie Foxx that seems like he signed up thinking "well better get my acceptance speech ready"! This is Sean Penn in I Am Sam, this is Halle Berry in Things We Lost In The Fire - an example of an actor believing there own press and thinking yeah, i'm good, show me the gold.

As so often (think Benicio Del Toro in Things We Lost) there is another actor genuinely acting his ass off - the ever reliable Robert Downey Jr - but it isn't enough because the director really is only interested in Foxx's central character - it is after all his story despite the fact it comes entirely from Downey's point-of-view - and also because the story just isn't that interesting.

Worthy and a perfectly reasonable time-passer but nothing special.

Catch-up mini review: Sunshine Cleaning

A better concept than it is a movie Sunshine Cleaning is aided immensely by two wonderful, charming and likeable stars and strong supporting players.

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are still in career ascent (especially Blunt) and so much of what is to like here is the chance to watch these two. A great fit together as chalk-and-cheese sisters Blunt (who has consistently impressed since the brilliant My Summer Of Love) and Adams (likewise since Junebug) dominate the film - rightly. But the concept could have been mined better. Here we have two loving but conbative sisters thrown together in work as clean-up crew at crime scenes. It is a high concept that could have been milked but we are too often stuck in the fairly hum-drum life of Adams (affairs with married men, a problem child, an obsession with how old friends might judge her). Elements of this are fine, and necessary. But it becomes the core of the film and wastes a lot of dramatic and comedic potential in the key set-up.

It also often sidelines Blunt as a result and the film would have benefitted greatly from putting the sisters relationship truly front and center instead of pretending too while really only being interested in Adams. Of course Blunt is as reliable as ever, as is Alan Arkin in his, type-cast, wacky, bad influence, ascerbic father role, but both are a little wasted. This is Adams show and she is also good as usual but the film needed to make the sisters equal not have one as just one part of the other's bigger story.

Clifton Collins Jr shines though in the best written supporting role in the film.

Catch-up mini review: Johnny Mad Dog

Immediately after watching this film i couldn't have told you if i thought it was a good film. A month of so on that hasn't changed.

I do know i hated watching it. Johnny Mad Dog is one of those gruelling, deeply unpleasant viewing experiences that i wouldn't wish on anyone and have almost noone i can recommend it to. But does that make it a bad film - no not necessarily.

It is perhaps a brutally realistic look at guerilla warfare, the futility of both such situations but also of trying to stand in there way or talk round the participants. The film at times seems in love with its murderous, uncompassionate, angry, rapist youth characters, but at others casts an almost condemning eye. Played like a documentary with the kind of footage that would never actually be possible the film is undeniably visceral. The impact on your senses while watching and state of mind after is powerful.

Certainly there is a place for such film. It is no doubt important they are made and that people see them. If they affect one person the way the filmmakers intended then perhaps that's enough. It is horribly stark film to watch though. No character has any redeeming features nor any charisma. And so i won't say it is a bad film, that would be for better people than me to assess no doubt, but i will say i hated watching it (and i'm not one that has a problem with non-entertaining subject matter - Tony Kaye's Lake Of Fire, about abortion, is the best documentary i have ever seen and i would gladly rewatch it). This one is for limited viewing but will likely have its champions.

Latest screening: Moon

Film of the year? Has to be a major contender.

Moon is a brilliant film, not just “considering the budget…” (it cost $5m), “for a British film” but for once I can be proud of a British film that isn’t a doom-and-gloomer (yes Red Road, London To Brighton, My Summer Of Love, a lot of Mike Leigh, all Ken Loach I’m looking at you – you’re great and I love ya but damn!). Moon it worthy of being talked about in the same breath as the films that inspired it, like Silent Running and Alien (ok more Silent Running than Alien, but nearly).

There are 3 main elements to its genius:

1 – Sam Rockwell. Always great, consistently undervalued Rockwell has been showing time and again since Lawn Dogs that he is one of the best actors around while seemingly only getting indie film-makers to notice! Here he arguably gives his best performance to date (although Lawn Dogs and Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind are tough calls) in multiple roles. The nuances he gives to each character, making them subtly different while essentially similar (which is key) is superb. A tour de force that given the size, nationality and genre of the movie will no doubt be entirely ignored by every awards body when the end of the year roles around – but is hard to imagine anyone matching this year. Impressive is not the word. This should be the movie to finally make people sit up and take proper notice of Rockwell but we been here several times before so it probably won’t be – particularly given the size of release it’s had.

2 – The consistently confounding storyline. No, don’t be scared off by that. It isn’t confusing, but it is stunningly brilliant. It leads you along, giving you just enough information to be ahead of the characters in the film and to make you think “ah ha! I know where this is going”… and then it doesn’t! Then you think you know what it’ll do now that things have changed, and again it goes somewhere else. And it’s never frustrating. It is smart but not smug. And it manages to avoid the trap so many sci-fi films fall into – having a great idea but not knowing how to end it satisfactorily – as this film has it’s cake and eats it and then goes back for seconds!

3 – The effects. Partly budgetary, partly homage to the films it aspires (and succeeds) to be the effects are mostly model miniatures and they are glorious. Touched with minimal well-used and never noticeable CG the movie’s effects are superb. There is an undeniably old school feel to them but they not only feel right for the movie they feel so much more believable than the shoddy CG you see in half the Hollywood movies out there. I love old school practical approaches to special effects (The Fountain effects for instance were inspired and cheap as chips). The effects here both look excellent and enhance the feel of the film.

Forget all the clap-trap blockbusters out there at the moment, if opportunity is there go see Moon. Superb.

New trailers: Book of Eli, Bright Star

Why am i posting these two, they do nothing for me?! Well, this is intended to primarily be awards thinking and thus i can hardly ignore Jane Campion can I? Wish I could. As for Book Of Eli, well someone might be interested.

Book Of Eli (http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thebookofeli/large.html)

To be honest this looks like it was intended to be a Wesley Snipes movie and they got Denzel instead! Yet another bleak post-apocalyptic movie and none can match the majesty of the literary world created in Cormac McCarthy's The Road (i doubt even the film version of it - which i'm refusing to watch - could) so i'm kinda done with these films. That said love Gary Oldman, especiallt in "show me the money" cheesy villain mode so maybe.

Bright Star (http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810011941/video/14655888)

Jane Campion. What more needs to be said? I've found every film she ever made completely tedious. Some people love her. You know which side of the line you stand on likely this will fit whatever preconceptions you have. Looks like another pile of tedious dreck to me!

Latest screening: Inglourious Basterds

It just goes to show how wrong you can be. I had not expected to like this film. I was disappointed by both the Kill Bill films (although i preferred the second) and Death Proof (although it was better in the shorter cut of the double-bill release). I love Reservoir Dogs, admire Pulp Fiction and think that Jackie Brown is Tarantino's most mature piece of filmmaking - technically his most superior - including the last great performance elicited from Robert De Niro. Since then it seems to me while his films have been okay (i haven't hated them) he has been treading water in referential, reverential, self-indulgent juvenilia.

Then i read the script last year for Inglourious Basterds - and i hated it! Sure it had some typical QT flouishes and the opening scene was undeniably powerful. There were a couple of great characters. But on page it was more juvenile rubbish, largely ruined by the largesse of the uninteresting Basterds of the title. It made me seriously contemplate not seeing the film. The trailers did nothing to convince me. I only changed by mind when i had the opportunity to see the film with a Tarantino Q&A following in London. I figured it would be worth enduring to hear him in Q&A as i know from interviews how entertaining he can be in person.

So little was i prepared for the sheer exuberant fun and brilliance of Inglourious Basterds.

Easily QT's best work since Jackie Brown it is a triumph.

Yes the references are there but they do not interfere with the story, they are not the driving force. Yes Eli Roth is stunt casting but he works fine, with little to do but look aggressive, and does nothing to hurt the film as i had feared. While i admired QT for using stuntwoman Zoe Bell as herself in Death Proof in order to amp-up the exhilaration of the major stunt scene her lack of any acting ability in a key role was a problem for the film. The same could be said of Tarantino's own appearances in several films, especially From Dusk Till Dawn.

What really makes this work is how BIG it is. The spaghetti western vibe to much of the style, dialogue and performances is wonderfully over the top without descending too far into the cartoon quality of Kill Bill. The violence is so big. The audacity so big. Brad Pitt is so big!

In the trailers the Hitler moment and Pitt's performance bothered me but in the context of the film they are hilarious. Pitt is actually brilliant here, exactly what he needs to be. He is Mifune's blustering samurai in Yojimbo, he is Robards Cheyenne from Once Upon a Time in the West, there is a very James Coburn vibe to him, and of course a suitably Lee Marvin edge.

Christoph Waltz (who i did not previously known) and Melanie Laurent (who i first noticed in a brilliant French-language British short film by Sean Ellis) are sensational and i expect to see both used a lot more in the future. Tarantino has clearly not lost his eye for casting, which seemed to desert him in Death Proof. Waltz is equally large in his performance. Chilling, yet theatrical. He is Fonda from OUATITW, Van Cleef from Good, The Bad & the Ugly. And Laurent is suitably Cardinale innocence but tough, a fighter. They both dazzle here.

That every member of the cast gets the fun to be had from what they are doing while not indulging themselves in just having fun nand trying to get laughs helps tremendously. The laughs - and there are loads - come organically. Only Mike Myers comes close to tipping the wink and pushing it too far but his scene is reigned in just enough - with the help of a fantastic Michael Fassbender who seems pulled directly from the mold of Attenborough's Great Escape leader.

All the actors shine and Tarantino throws in wonderful flourishes, but ones that work with the story. The introduction of Schweiger's Hugo Stiglitz is a riot. After a sensational slow-burn opening and a glorious intro to those inglourious Basterds the pace never lets up and over two and half hours flies by.

It also looks beautiful, marking this as a return to real filmmaking rather than just self-indulgent silliness. The musical choices, as always, are inspired from Morricone on.

The film is audacious and hilarious. After a summer when nearly every film has disappointed me it came as a huge surprise that the real fun and entertaining, but also involving and impressive film should be this one, when i would never have believed it from script form. Welcome back QT. 8/10

New trailer: Alice In Wonderland

This is what it is. Personally i like the look of it, but simply put if you don't know what you're getting into with a Tim Burton take on Alice In Wonderland then you're madder than Depp's Hatter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09YdMstR1Kk

14, count 'em 14, new trailers!

Yes, i'm back. It's been over a month and work insanity has been keeping me away but i am determined that this week and next will see a sudden explosion of new posts on here.

There will be a new side-bar dedicated to spoof trailers making its debut.

A whole host of films seen over the past 6-7 weeks will finally get reviewed (in mini form).

I will be pondering the whole 10-film best picture category at next year's Oscars and throwing out my thoughts on what the 10 might be.

But first: new trailers.

I won't post all the links here but you will find a brand new set of 14 trailers in the trailers to catch side-panel. All the old ones have been swept away so everything there today is new on here today. I also hope to add the new 2012 trailer later this week when i track down the link for it - saw it today but now can't find it!

Anyway to those featured today. We have a very mixed bunch; something for everyone. The three that are getting me most excited are Ponyo, (500) Days Of Summer and The Informant.

Ponyo, as the new American title has it (Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea for those of us that track the every move of Japanese animation god Hayao Miyazaki), is the trailer for the English-language version of the film featuring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey and others but most obviously Liam Neeson.

(500) Days Of Summer features one of my favourite young actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and one of my uber-crushes Zooey Deschanel in what looks to be a "delightful" romantic comedy type. Sign me up my friends, sign me up!

The Informant is Soderbergh and Matt Damon in wacky mode. Think the Coen Brothers version of The Insider and might be just about there. This won't appeal to all but damn this trailer makes me chuckle and the idea of Scott "Quantum Leap" Bakula in a significant role is worth the price of admission alone!

Also new today we have:

Amelia - Hilary Swank looks for Oscar #3 in a bio-pic of Amelia Earhart which, despite being directed by Mira Nair, actually looks quite reasonable.

The Box - can Richard Kelly redeem himself? This thriller certainly looks like it could deliver.

Brothers - how it has taken this long for someone to cast Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire as siblings is beyond me. This looks a tad melodramatic but i like Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman and Sheridan's In America is one of my favourite films of the 2000s so i know i'll be seeing this one.

Couples Retreat - looks like it could bring the funny

Daybreakers - someone gave the Spierig brothers a budget. Hoping they deliver.

District 9 - new full trailer for this intriguing looking sci-fi

Fame - want to hate it but damn i think this trailer is kinda fun!

Funny People - red band trailer for the Apatow channels Brooks film looks slightly less Brooksian

Invention Of Lying - perfect Ricky Gervais subject. Could be fun.

Jennifer's Body - red band trailer for the Diablo Cody written horror

Old Boys - i shouldn't admit this made my laugh but it did so there, judge me!