Category / Cinema

by hutchwp

Film review – Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford, 2016)

Whilst Nocturnal Animals may be one of the most stylish and effecting pieces of cinematic art released in 2016, it may also suffer from being the second biggest Amy Adams film released in the month of November (Arrival is set to hit cinemas later this month). The films are targeted at a completely different audience, and if you’re interested in seeing Tom Ford’s latest then you need to know what you’re getting yourself in for. It’s a veritable misery-fest. And it’s absolutely breathtaking.

The film stars Adams as Susan Morrow, a hugely successful art gallery curator married to a handsome but unrelatable husband (Armie Hammer). Feeling like her life is unfulfilled, she unexpectedly receives a manuscript for a novel through the post from her ex-husband Eddie Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal). The book, titled ‘Nocturnal Animals’, is dedicated to her. As she delves deeper into the grippingly horrific story – which plays out for the viewers with fabulous turns from Gyllenhaal, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Michael Shannon – we come to discover the history between Susan and Eddie and the inspiration for the story.

There were long periods of the film where I was so absolutely gripped by the fictional tale Gyllenhaal’s character was spinning – the film within a film – that I almost dated to forget that we were reading it with Adams’s Susan as she struggles with her insomnia. The meta-tale is brutally horrific, with the male central character experiencing the some of the worst experiences imaginable in life. It takes until quite near the end of the film to realise why he has written this story, and at this point we also remember the times Susan has thrown the book down in disgust. It’s easy enough to play out a story and leave a reveal until the very end. It’s quite something else to leave the audience so gripped in the journey.

Tom Ford executes every moment of the film with an unrivalled stylishness that was evident in his debut feature ‘A Single Man’. It is in the L.A. art scene that we see the characters inhabit the sort of regal living spaces most people can only dream of, despite their thin veneers here only acting as a cover for a desperately hollow existence.

The resoundingly successful final scene is an absolutely devestating act by Eddie. Susan is left emotionally drained following the reading of the manuscript that finally reveals his potential as a brilliant writer. It is also laced with accusations at Susan. She is left with no resolution. This is a clearly a reflection of how he felt after their relationship originally broke down. The answer is never clearly spelled out, with the audience left as smartly frustrated as Susan. This is a really intelligent move that epitomises the ability of Ford to sit the viewers firmly in the position of the people on the screen and ask themselves how they really feel.

It is a wonderful piece of cinema that I’ll be recommending to anyone who will listen.

by hutchwp

Film review – Sour Grapes (Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas, 2016)

Sour Grapes is a brilliant documentary film that makes it extremely difficult to think anything but support for its main star: Rudy Kurniawan.

Kurniawan is an Indonesian man currently serving a ten-year prison sentence for selling fraudulent wine to the aforementioned win enthusiasts at auction. To be precise, $35.3m of wine over two auctions.

All Kurniawan had was an expert memory for taste and a likeable personality, but this meant he was able to penetrate what was ostensibly an old boys’ club. This is a club that would meet on a regular basis to share wine with values totalling over $100,000 in a single night. It’s easy to not feel too much sympathy for the individuals that were hoodwinked by him.

Stop wining

There’s something ultimately deplorable about anyone that regularly spends so much on wine. Forking out what for many would be a life-changing amount of money on a drink, especially when the ultimate purpose is to prove your own status amongst a small and very exclusive group of peers, is never going to endear you to the masses.

The film builds up a balanced picture of Kurniawan and the people he had been associating with in these wine tasting circles. It follows him as he befriends the self-professed ‘Angry Men’ group in LA over a period of several years, buying up key vintage wines, developing his palette to unrivalled levels and becoming a key player in the wine buying and selling scene. The results are nothing short of fascinating.

The people he has ripped off have mixed memories of their time with Kurniawan, with some hating being duped and others in denial that he could be capable of any wrongdoing. The fact that he had the printing facilities in his house to mass-produce wine labels, several unmarked wine bottles and rudimentary formulae to recreate the most sought-after wine ever produced didn’t seem to budge their opinion on him either. That is testimant to his charm.

The only thing that lets the film down is a lack of a revealing interview with Rudy himself. It instead relies on old home videos and undercover camera work. He’s the centrepiece of the film but I suppose a man in prison is a tricky interview to land.

This a film worthy of a watch if you happen to find it.

by hutchwp

New La La Land trailer released – Watch below!

I was buzzing for days after seeing La La Land at the London Film Festival last month. It’s a truly spectacular film and one I can’t wait to watch again.

Whilst I’m gutted the UK release date has been pushed back to January, I’m thrilled to see a new trailer has been released.

Watch it here:

It’s going to make you very happy.

by hutchwp

Film review – American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016)

British-born Andrea Arnold may have created a cutting piece of social commentary in ‘American Honey’, delivered with a refreshingly natural voice, but with a running time of 163 minutes it does feel like there was scope to say the same thing in about half the time.

It follows troubled 18-year-old Star (Sasha Lane), a free-spirited girl looking after two young children for ambiguous purposes (they’re not her children and the connection she has to them is never clearly stated). A chance encounter with Jake (Shia LeBeouf) leads to an opportunity with a random group of youngsters selling magazines from town-to-town, led by Krystal (Riley Keough), and she opts to run away from an inevitable life of  domestic imprisonment and abuse.

One of the principal achievements by Andrea Arnold is creating a truly realistic world for the cast to inhabit. She was involved in the principal photography and had essentially completed the entire road trip before they started filming, finding locations to realise her vision. 

The cast was mainly taken from the streets with no experience, supplemented by more familiar faces. With no history of being in USA at that time of her life (she was busy doing children’s TV show No. 73 with Sandi Toksvig and Neil Buchanan) she has done wonders with a reflection of an oft-ignored part of society.

The cast are also tremendous and natural in front of the camera, usually feeling like they are simply being captured rather than working from a script. Indeed, many scenes were shot without a script so there’s an element of reality about that statement. The result is that each segment feels absolutely real, partially due to the fact that nothing is rushed. Unfortunately the lack of focus belies this, with pacing being the true victim.

Lane and LeBeouf have real chemistry

Arguably, LeBeouf does need to remind everyone that he is a pretty decent actor, especially after that dreadful performance in Nymohomaniac. He does a solid job here, with his real-life fame adding to the gravitas afforded to him by his fellow cast members (which reflects his character’s position in the group’s pecking order). He has always been a good actor, though the rest of the world may never realise it.

The plaudits must go to Sasha Lane, a complete newcomer to acting who was picked up on a beach in Florida whilst on spring break. She’s a complete natural on camera. When she gets angry, you believe her. When she feels lust towards Jake, you believe her. Star is a girl being given the chance to be her own woman for the first time, still having to demean herself due to her vulnerability, still dogged by feelings of maternal responsibility to the children that, in all likelihood, weren’t hers to feel responsible about. A truly thought-provoking performance.

The ambiguous ending, however, cemented the feeling that the story was overlong. To take so long to build up to a suggestion that Star was probably going to leave the group just seemed like a disappointment when it had taken so long to get there.

A great story has been sabotaged here by a lack of ruthlessness in the edit. Perhaps it’s an indication that Arnold had grown too close to the material and couldn’t bear to cut any of it out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – plenty of directors don’t care enough of their final product – but it was a lot to ask of this audience member.

by hutchwp

Halloween Quiz – Answers!

In case you missed it, I posted a quick just-for-fun Halloween quiz earlier today. 

The answers are below. Look away if you don’t want to have it spoiled for you!

Picture Round

1. The Shining

2. Don’t Breathe

3. A Clockwork Orange

4. It

5. Final Destination 

6. Halloween

7. The Human Centipede 

8. The Birds

9. 10 Cloverfield Lane

10. The Babadook

11. A Nightmare on Elm Street

12. What We Do In The Shadows

13. Carrie

14. The Woman In Black

15. Dracula 

16. It Follows

17. Scream

18. Aliens

Hitchcock’s Missing Letters

1. North By Northwest

2. Rear Window

3. The Birds

4. Vertigo

5. Topaz

6. Rebecca

7. Rope 

8. Psycho

9. To Catch A Thief

10. Dial M For Murder

Trivia Answers

1. Lucille

2. Jennifer Aniston

3. Pennywise 

4. Tales From The Crypt

5. Night of the Living Dead

6. Resident Evil

7. They’ve all portrayed movie ghosts

8. Goosebumps 

9. Barbara Streisand

10. Vincent Price

Tie Breaker

207

by hutchwp

The story behind Shag Kava, the castle band in The Force Awakens 

For a brief moment in The Force Awakens, there was a huge shot of nostalgia when Rey, Han, Chewbacca and Finn walk into Maz’s Castle and we see a groovy band playing in the corner. It harked back to the same moment in the original Star Wars when the famed Mos Eisley Cantina Band were rocking out on stage to a couple of tunes, serving as the perfect backing music for one of the greatest scenes of the original trilogy as Han showed his cool nature and shaped his character for a generation by shooting Greedo before he had the chance to shoot first. The space opera had its cowboy, a real hero that audiences could relate to on a different level to the guy practicing his hokey religions.

The Force Awakens had another such defining scene, this time as Finn determined his future at a fork in the road. He could either choose a simple, anonymous life with some strange space creatures, or fight for the greater good with Rey on a much riskier path. Fortunately, for our sake he chose to the life of a “Big Deal”. More importantly, Rey makes a revealing discovery in the basement, with implications for the truth behind her mysterious past that will undoubtedly play out over the course of the planned trilogy.

The strange bunch of creatures and humans jamming out some reggae-inspired tunes on the stage was known initially as Maz’s Castle Band, though we have now learned that they are actually called Shag Kava.

Shag Kava was the brainchild of The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams and Hamilton writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, birthed out of a quick meeting in an intermission of the Broadway show. Half jokingly, Miranda told Abrams that he was keen to do the new cantina music, completely blind to the fact that there was already a planned equivalent scene.

They hooked up and created a couple of tunes: “Jabba Flow” and “Dobra Doompa”. It’s a nice Easter Egg for the film that won’t have been too obvious to those watching the film the first time around.

“Jabba Flow” is actually now available to buy from iTunes. It’s well worth checking out.