Latest screening: An Education

To those of us who have been steadily tracking Carey Mulligan’s career for several years from her small but key, eye-catching supporting role in the BBC’s Bleak House, to a star-making turn in a one-off episode of Doctor Who title Blink (the best Who episode of the modern series) to a blink-and-you’d miss her scene in And When Did You Last See Your Father? right up to a small role in this summer’s Public Enemies as John Dillinger’s wife it comes as no surprise that in her first lead film role she delivers a stunning, assured performance.

For all the good qualities of Lone Scherfig’s An Education, and there are many, it would be nothing without the luminous, brilliant Mulligan at its centre. If her revelatory guest role in Doctor Who was key in catching eyes in Britain then this is her calling card for Hollywood, and given her upcoming projects is surely already proving so. Mulligan is simply sensational here in the role of 16/17 year old Jenny, a high-flying school-girl and Oxford hopeful who gets swept up by the charm and high-living lifestyle of an older man, who her parents are equally taken with, in the early 1960s.

Her performance is so real that you don’t see a false edge. The character doesn’t feel acted but lived, she so embodies the role. You never doubt the character and that is impressive as this is a character that could so easily have come off false. Jenny is at once, incredibly intelligent, self-assured and seemingly wise, yet insecure and unknowingly naïve. She is too young to be an adult but too smart to be seen as a child. As a girl teetering on the brink of womanhood it is simply one of the best and most believable portrayals I’ve seen. She is assured of a BAFTA nomination for actress and should bag an Oscar one too unless there’s a fix going on.

She is ably supported by Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour as her parents. The three have such a genuine rapport together that they feel like a real family. Molina is excellent and deserves supporting attention come awards season. As a conflicted man living in a time on the verge of great change, but from a generation set to be slightly behind the times he is utterly convincing. Molina is a consummate actor but I’m not sure he has ever been as good as here.

Peter Sarsgaard has the tricky role of having to appear both slightly sinister and yet charming and likeable, and manages to pull it off. He can feel a little stilted at times, and I wondered if it he having to get to grips with the accent, but it could easily be read as part of the period setting. That said, it doesn’t play as well alongside the naturalism of Mulligan and Molina.

Cara Seymour compliments Mulligan and Molina as the third point in their failial triangle, and merely on a visual level is smart casting for Mulligan’s mother. Dominic Cooper seems a little unsure of his role in early stages but finds his footing, while the Oxford educated Rosamund Pike enjoys sending up Oxford students and playing an archetypal ditzy blonde – vacant looks abound to great comic effect.

Nick Hornby’s script is as funny, heartfelt and knowing as you would expect from the man responsible for books like High Fidelity, How To Be Good and About A Boy. Here he has found genuine voices for his characters and created a completely convincing world, whether at school, at home or out on the town. The film rushes a little at the end but on the whole the measure of how the script handles each incident and plot point is well paced and smartly thought out.

Scherfig of course deserves praise for realizing these elements on the big screen as well, though I suspect Mulligan and Hornby’s script will be the focus of awards season attention for this film, though a lot depends on the year’s other offerings.

An Education is superbly crafted on every level and as a complete film stands with A Single Man this year as leagues ahead of anything English-language that was on offer in the last awards season.

Smart, funny and genuine a movie as you’ll find this year replete with awards worthy performances, including a star-making turn from Carey Mulligan, you’d be a fool to pass up An Education.

Latest screening: Up In The Air

It’s starting to seem like every other George Clooney film brings with it a tag of George’s best performance yet. Intermixed with fun, goofy roles like in Burn After Reading and, from the looks of it, the upcoming Men Who Stare At Goats, we’ve had Syriana, Michael Clayton and now Up In The Air.

Up In The Air is not as serious as those other two but it is not goofy either. It is funny, very funny, but perhaps is Clooney’s most human performance.

Much of this can, no doubt, be credited to writer/director Jason Reitman. With Thank You For Smoking, Juno and now this he has shown a trend for mixing humour, both subtle and caustic, with heart and emotion without sentimentalising his character and descending into schmaltz. It is a fine line to tread and if anything Reitman is only getting better at it.

Up In The Air is a well judged look at the relationships in the life a guy who thinks he needs none. His relationship to his job, his “hobby”, his colleagues, his potential nemesis, his family, his lover, all come into the mix as we follow him as he flies around the US building up his air miles toward a dream goal and doing his day job – firing people for companies who don’t want to do their on dirty work.

This too is well handled. Reitman could have brought the more cynical and satirical edges he did particularly in Thank You For Smoking (and they do occasionally pop up, George one-liner following the revelation of how a boyfriend broke up with another character is the zinger of the year and evoked a massive audience reaction) but in a time when job loss and economic misery are effecting so many Reitman uses real people, mixed with an occasional actor (such as the ever reliable JK Simmons) to make you feel what they are going through. While doing this he also manages to make a likeable character out of the completely self-absorbed Ryan Bingham (Clooney) despite his job description. This alone would be an impressive feat.

This is almost a Frank Capra movie. Except this is a Frank Capra movie with edge. Ryan Bingham is no Mr Deeds or Mr Smith, an instantly sympathetic, loveable character. Bingham is kind of an ass but this is his story and you’ll be routing for him.

Clooney, as said, has rarely been better and Vera Farmiga gives sterling support as his literally fly-by-night lover. Danny McBride, Amy Morton and Melanie Lynskey are all solid in small roles, and Jason Bateman likewise has little to do. The real stand-out in support though is Anna Kendrick. It’s a tricky role that could easily come off whiny and irritating, or calculating and bitchy, etc but Kendrick takes an again not wholly likeable character and invests her with such vulnerability and well-meaning naivety that she wins you over. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a supporting actress nomination headed her way amongst several possible nods for this highly enjoyable and well judged film.

Latest screening: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr Fox may not quite be fantastic but I’d happily say terrific. A fun stop-motion animation the world works here. Some people may have issue in a CG animation world with the stop-motion, which especially due to the fur look compared with smooth plasticine takes a little more getting used to than say Corpse Bride or Coraline, but then you can judge that from the trailer.

The voice-cast is well chosen. George Clooney (especially busy at the moment) has the exact mix of charm, intelligence and brio for Mr Fox; Meryl Streep (is there anything this woman can’t do?) is perfect for the exasperated, but still in love, Mrs Fox; Jason Schwartzman is the best here as the unsure of himself and always taken for granted son of the Foxes; Eric Anderson (Wes’ brother) fits the bill for the perfect-at-everything cousin Kristofferson, that gets on Schwartzman’s nerves; Bill Murray is a nice fit for the sometimes over-eager Badger; and Wally Wolodarsky is superb as the well-meaning Kiley (sic) who just wants to do whatever he can to help.

The story moves along at a cracking swift pace, never letting up. It slows a little about half way through but is just gearing up for the dynamite finale. Crazy world interludes of the characters taking dance breaks in key locations after outfoxing their opponents add a nicely surreal touch.

Anderson very much creates a world here. How much you enjoy the film will basically depend on how much you buy into and enjoy the world. If you embrace it whole-heartedly it has much to offer. It is constantly funny, often exciting, occasionally bizarre and never less than entertaining.

The puppets look great, especially Badger and Mole to my eye and the film is full of small details that will no doubt multiply the more you watch the film. Inconsequential details are often some of the best touches. Badger’s son for instance is seen wearing a skeleton Halloween costume which, of course, blends in brilliantly with his natural colours, complete with mask over one ear. These little touches add so much to the world to really absorb you and take you on this adventure.

It’s over so fast (87 minutes) you’ll want to go again, like the best amusement park rides. A welcome all-round success after the so-so Darjeeling Limited. A great alternative for this year’s animation category, I hope it makes it. Although with film’s like Up and Coraline there’s stiff competition.

Latest screening: Away We Go

Sam Mendes' latest is a change in size, scope and style for the filmmaker but not a wholly successful one. You can see his thinking here. After the detailed, complex characters, settings and worlds of Road To Perdition, Jarhead and Revolutionary Road he would get back to a smaller, easier world - a contemporary story of two thirtysomethings trying to find their place in the world. Smaller than any film Mendes has done, including American Beauty, it is his "indie" film after the large scale studio films he's been making in the past decade.

Unfortunately it feels as if his approach was "let's make an indie film". It is as if he watched a whole series of recent, successful and/or popular independent American movies (like Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, About Schmidt, Sideways, Me & You & Everyone We Know, etc) and made notes. He took from these films that he needed slightly offbeat central characters, lost in a giant world but making their way; he needed a supporting cast if infinitely quirkier characters to make our offbeat leads seem more normal and closer to ourselves, while providing outrageous comedy; preferably he needed a road trip! You get the sense a wrote a list if US indie film plot points (cliches?) and ticked them all off as he went along.

The film is not wholly unsuccessful. The central characters, played by Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski, and indeed charming and largely likeable. Any scene with the two of them alone together works, and this, naturally, helps a great deal. Many of the supporting actors are also good, whether their characters work or not. Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara are great as Krasinski's self-absorbed parents; Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey are solid as the most normal and believable of the couple's old friends/acquaintances met along the way; Maggie Gyllenhaal truly inhabits her character, even if the character does the film a disservice.

The Gyllenhaal character, a new age mum who believes you shouldn't put a child in a stroller because of the negative energy given off by the act of pushing them away, and various such mildly humourous clap-trap, is a typical US indie film cliche of a character. She's never believeable as a character because you know she exists solely for the comedic possibility of mocking her extreme views. It does lead to the film's funniest scene, involving the stroller liberation of Gyllenhaal's boy, ut is it worth it. Not least because Krasinski's character may be appalled by her views but in taking the action he does he seeks not to protect himself and his family from these views and rebuff them he actively attempts to sabotage the relationship (however kooky it seems) between his supposed best friend and her child. It may be funny but it doesn't fit his character. It might have fit Rudolph's but as Gyllenhaal is Krasinski's friend the moment is given to him. Funny in the moment, but on reflection it hurts the film - and it all stems for the original decision to make Gyllanhaal's character to extreme and unbelievable.

And Gyllanhaal isn't the only one. Allison Janney is awfully contrived here. I love Janney. I loved her in The West Wing, but i already loved her in a plethora of pre-West Wing roles such as the English teacher in 10 Things I Hate About You. Her over-the-top character here is very very similar to that of 10 Things but whereas in 10 Things it fit in the Shakespearean world of extreme action it just doesn't feel organic here.

Away We Go is not without its laughs and certainly the central characters journey is enjoyable enough to follow them on, but you never become invested, you never really care!

Ultimately this is a xerox of so many other films that as with all copies the quality lessens. A solidly average, Sunday afternoon type of film but not one worth prioritising over so many other, more worthy films this awards season.

Latest screening: A Single Man

Well, we have an early contender – certainly for Best Actor (Colin Firth) and Best Supporting Actress (Julianne Moore – who was robbed in the Best Actress category for Far From Heaven in 2002) – but arguably also for Film and Director.

A Single Man is one of the most assured debuts I can recall.

A beautiful film in every sense there are a few moments early on when the fact it is a film by fashion designer Tom Ford leave your mind getting in the way. One or two moments elicit an expectancy for a product logo to appear, but these are quickly thrown aside as you get drawn into the story.

The screenplay, co-written by Ford, is timed to perfection. The pace is quick yet allows for easy entry. Nothing about the world is covert and hidden yet neither is it in-your-face and confrontational. Each of the three leads, Firth, Moore and About A Boy’s Nicholas Hoult is given a fully rounded character regardless of screen time, because you can feel the unsaid underneath and each gets their own arc, without the story ever feeling like there is too much going on in its fairly short (99mins) running time.

The direction is highly stylised but it never gets in the way, always serving the story. It will be interesting to see if Ford can change the style down a gear when tackling other stories in future but here he has the balance right. It is easy to focus on the style in the early stages because of fore-knowledge but this is a film that just gets better as you watch.

It helps that is served by a faultless cast. It is interesting that Ford has chosen Brits Hoult, Matthew Goode and Lee Pace to play Americans and American Moore to play a Brit but it works and as most people won’t know (except for Moore) the nationalities of the cast the illusion will never be broken – you wouldn’t suspect.

Firth has simply never been so good. If every actor has one perfect, flawless role for them out there then Firth has found his here.

After a few years of noble efforts and oddities Moore reminds us that she really is one of the best American actresses working. This rivals Far From Heaven, while perhaps not quite matching it only because it is very much a supporting role. But if this isn’t the role that finally bags Moore a long overdue Oscar then there’s a phenomenal performance hiding out there somewhere because Moore ought to be a shoe-in.

There best summary is simply that A Single Man is a beautiful film – beautiful in tone; in intention; in acting; in realisation. If Ford can repeat the quality of this debut in future film projects people will be wishing he’d been doing this all along.

Latest screening: Up

Some day Pixar will make a terrible, terrible film and it will signal Armageddon but with Up the most consistently excellent studio has turned out another masterpiece. And masterpiece is the only word. Pixar have their lesser films, most notably the resolutely 3-star or 7/10 ish Cars and A Bug’s Life, but most of the time they bat out of the park. And that’s what they’ve done here. A 10/10, 5-star movie Up continues another superb run from the studio which follows Ratatouille and WALL-E.

I have now seen Up 3 times (all, appropriately, in 3D) and it just gets better each time. At various moments hilarious, touching, delightful, heart-breaking and beautiful it is a triumph for director Pete Docter and his team.

The film opens with a beautifully realised prologue that charts the life of our grumpy old man lead character Carl. One film on from WALL-E Pixar again proves the power of a dialogue free story. This segment takes you through emotional, funny highs and sad lows in a way that in itself would have made an Oscar-winning short film with ease. Ten minutes in you are already drained but Up won’t let you wallow as it is then immediately into a great visual gag involving a stair-lift.

Then we get to the real story which sees our hero Carl determined to avoid a fate forced on him by an evil politically-correct world with no heart or understanding by following his life-long dream to travel to ‘Paradise Falls’, an idealic lost-world in South America. As you’d have to have your head in the sand not to know he decides to achieve this by flying his house with the help of thousands of helium-filled balloons, which he used to sell at an adventure park.

He’s joined on his journey by surprise unintentional stow-away Russell, an idealistic wilderness explorer; and later Kevin, a giant bird of paradise; and Dug a “talking dog!” as they all come up against and get on the bad side of Christopher Plummer’s stir crazy villain and his pack of highly-trained dogs.

The genius of Pixar is evident at every turn. As a comedy it is the studio’s funniest since Docter’s debut Monsters, Inc. It has the heart and emotional impact of WALL-E. It works completely as an adventure story like The Incredibles, with genuine excitement and edge-of-your-seat thrills, always perfectly punctured by a well judged gag, whether visual or verbal.

The introductions to all three supporting characters are organic and expertly handled, whether Russell’s nervous excitement; Kevin’s mystery; or Dug’s easy joke. All 4 leads get to share the laughs and emotion equally.

Dug’s talking is well conceived and the insight into the canine mind seems spot on. Russell manages never to be irritating and Carl is never too cantankerous. All feel like real characters, and that makes it all the more intriguing, and yet right, that they’ve opted for a very cartoonish look. Up goes for no realism in the look, especially for Carl. After WALL-E’s beautiful imagery that belied its animated creation, Up is overtly cartoonish. Carl is basically square. His head is huge, his body short. One scene which sees Russell climb up Carl highlights this – Carl’s nose is the same size as Russell’s foot. Yet this is absolutely the right approach for Up. It is a film about an old man flying a house with balloons in search of a mythical land, realism is not what it’s about.

The 3D is also used better than any film has ever used it. Docter plays with the depth of the 3D, deepening it in moments of glorious joy and high excitement to add to the adrenaline; and then flattening it to the point of being able to take the glasses off and watch normally in moments of sadness and intimacy.

As usual Pixar shows the rest of the field how it should be done and if they don’t add a third consecutive Best Animated Feature Oscar to their mantle then the Oscars should simply be closed down for either corruption or stupidity.

As a last quick side note, the accompanying short Partly Cloudy is one of the most complementary put out with a Pixar feature. Again mixing humour with emotion in what is again basically a silent film. Bravo all round. If only all film’s could be Pixar films! (speaking of which check out the trailer for next summer’s Toy Story 3 on the trailer bar on the right).

Latest screening: Zombieland

Simply one of the most entertaining films I’ve seen this year Zombieland is a must-see. From the moment Woody Harrelson’s credit comes up (when was the last time Harrelson got above-the-title top-billing and the movie got a theatrical release?) to the end credits you’ll have a heap of fun.

The film is far better than it has any right to be, and is no doubt aided by a lack of expectations. I went in thinking it would be a US Shaun Of The Dead rip-off, likely missing the mark at least as often, if not more, than it hit.

But no this is a fast, funny, hugely entertaining romp.

Harrelson reminds you of the charisma and easy laid-back charm that made him a star in Cheers and early hit movies like White Men Can’t Jump. Since the mid-90s he has seemingly become a caricature of himself and rarely impressed. He’s tried to break his curse with different roles like in Paul Schrader’s under-seen but still ultimately unsatisfying The Walker and an occasionally genuinely good role – his brief turn in the Coens’ No Country For Old Men unfortunately lost amongst a glut of stunning lead performances. Here he shines, playing with the persona he’s now known. You simply can’t believe he’s not a bigger star.

Jesse Eisenberg delivers a likeable twitchy Michael Cera-type character but whereas Cera is always one-note and overly mannered Eisenberg strikes the right balance of geeky loser and struggling everyman, proving a great foil and companion for Harrelson’s testerone-fuelled meat-head with a heart.

Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin also make a great pair as sisters who come into contact with Harrelson and Eisenberg. The group has a fun dynamic, each bringing something very different to the table for an entertaining whole.

And the cameo in this is awesome, just freakin’ awesome. If you don’t know who it is I won’t give it away but every moment this person is on screen is gold. Hands down the best use of a cameo star in a movie in a decade, probably more. The star’s response to an “any regrets?” line is everything a fan could want. Kudos to the actor and the filmmakers for this one.

At 80 minutes the movie flies by and if you have a more consistently entertaining 80 minutes in the cinema this year then I suspect you’ll be ejected for lewd conduct!

Go see it!