The Class (Entre les Murs) May 12, 2009
Posted by gem in Older movies, REVIEWS.Tags: Cannes, cinema, Film, french film, movies, Palme D'or, The Class
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The Stub has been sorely lacking movie reviews these past few months, so a major catch-up begins with ‘The Class’…Comment at your will!
Director: Laurent Cantet
Starring: François Bégaudeau, a whole bunch of teenage schoolkids..
What’s it About? This documentary style film focuses on a particular class in a French secondary school where the kids are mostly smart asses or troublemakers from a rough suburb of Paris. It’s aim is to show us how one teacher deals with these pupils and the situations that arise between them in the classroom.
Bégaudeau takes on his class.
Although this movie may seem like a fly-on-the-wall peek at the traumas of teaching, it is not a real life doc, and knowing this will actually allow you to enjoy the film more. I myself came upon this film quite by accident when a few of us bought tickets for ‘Two Lovers’ only to find ourselves sitting in front of ‘The Class’ (note: always always check your ticket..imagine if we had landed in front of ‘Observe and Report’ or something). Anyhow it was our own doing so ‘The Class’ was what we had to see., and I was quite glad, it being the first French film in 21 years to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes and all.. (more…)
Revolutionary Road March 11, 2009
Posted by gem in Older movies, REVIEWS.Tags: 3 stars, America, American Beauty, cinema, Film, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Leonardo DiCaprio, movies, review of, Revolutionary Road, Sam Mendes, suburban life
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Director: Sam Mendes
Starring: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates
What’s it about? The Wheelers, Frank and April, are a young couple living in clean cut ’50s suburbia who decide to move to Paris in search of a more exciting life, but unfortunately not everything goes to plan.
Jack and Rose, oops...Frank and April in happier times
This is another tale of suburban secrets, masked by the oh-so-perfect image which American suburbia displays, a topic much exploited in recent years but certainly brought to prominence in Mendes’ American Beauty. Mendes’ films since then have not gained the same level of admiration so it’s no surprise really that he chose to return to Beauty’s general theme in Revolutionary Road. He also had the ability to team Winslet with DiCaprio, a pairing that seemed to guarantee audience numbers. (more…)
Slumdog Millionaire February 12, 2009
Posted by gem in Older movies, REVIEWS.Tags: cinema, Film, New Releases, rating=4, review of, REVIEWS, Slumdog Millionaire
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Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto
What’s it about? Jamal Malik, a street kid from Mumbai, grows up and somehow ends up on ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’, playing for top money. For the authorities to understand his predicament, Jamal must tell them his story from the beginning
Jamal really set the bar this Valentines
Slumdog Millionaire is the favourite at many an awards ceremony this year, and has created quite a stir among the public; it’s a while since there had been this much discussion about a film. Perhaps it’s because Slumdog is such a feel-good movie, a refreshing change from the usual Oscar hopefuls which tend toward the more melodramatic, such as Revolutionary Road.
Slumdog does have its traumatic moments but even when the camera is whizzing through the Indian streets, overflowing with rubbish and dirt, it’s a fun journey for the viewers. This, of course, created the argument among some that Boyle has belittled India’s problems for the sake of entertainment, but there’s not really any obvious exploitation of poverty, rather a representation of the innocence of young Jamal who manages to enjoy himself even in the rubbish strewn streets. It seems that Boyle was eager to show us this view of a city, which for the majority of western viewers, is rarely seen in this light.
This is a fast paced movie and the intermittent questions on ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” add to the tension, keeping the audience hooked. At times, the film jumps a little too suddenly so that Jamal leaps from age seven to about twelve in seconds. The one consistency in Jamal’s life is, of course, his love for Latika, his third musketeer in times of trouble, and this ‘true love’ story remains pure and innocent even among the gangsters and scum of Mumbai. This is an age old tale of the endurance of love, so while not highly original, it is also unlike anything else we have seen in a long time, particularly as it is also influenced by the Bollywood style. If you were to nitpick, you could point out how unlikely the scenarios are, and no doubt find numerous plotholes, but it’s best to just sit back and enjoy it all, especially the wonderful performances by the younger actors, who actually outshine their elders.
Slumdog may suffer from the hype and media buzz it is creating; as with any film, it is best to go see it without preconceptions of how great it could be, but it’s mixture of romance, drama, and comedy topped off with a great soundtrack will please most people.
Kisses December 10, 2008
Posted by gem in IRISH CINEMA, Older movies, REVIEWS.Tags: cinema, dublin, Film, Ireland, Irish film., Kisses, Lance Daly, movies, rating=3, review of
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Dylan and Kylie in Kisses
(Potential Spoilers!!)
Kisses, directed by Lance Daly (The Halo Effect, Last Days in Dublin), and featuring newcomers Kelly O’Neill (Kylie) and Shane Curry (Dylan), is the story of two children, Kylie and Dylan, who run away from home in a bid to escape their problematic families, but find themselves in even more trouble on the streets of inner city Dublin. One of the most striking visual aspects of Daly’s film is the use (or non-use) of colour: the film actually begins as a black and white piece, gradually blossoming into colour as the children leave behind the drab surroundings of their estate and escape to the bright lights of the city. The colour here is not just representative of the city itself, of course, but of the temporary happiness and excitement which freedom brings, and the kindness displayed by both characters for each other. The colourful escapades which these children experience is a stark reminder of their youth and naivety which, we realise, has been too often extinguished by troubling issues on the home front: Dylan’s Dad is an aggressive drunk, responsible for Dylan’s older brother’s disappearance from home some years earlier, while Kylie has her own demons to face in the form of an abusive uncle. As disturbing as these revelations are, Daly has managed to infuse the film with enough warmth and integrity to keep our hopes alive and avoid depressing the viewers. This is largely due to wonderful performances by the two young actors, who, having been randomly plucked from their schoolyards, bring a natural charisma to their roles. In the face of the many dangers which they encounter on the streets of Dublin, they are resilient and determined to stick by one another, yet for all their self-sufficiency, their innocence is still plain to see. While some moments in the film may seem implausible, such as the children’s journey downstream on a canal boat used for dredging rubbish, Daly does not wait too long to give the magical trip a dose of reality. It is this mixture of wonder and innocence encased within the cold actuality of the adult world that results in such a memorable film. Watch out too for a cameo by Stephen Rea as a Dylan impersonator!
Quantum of Solace November 7, 2008
Posted by gem in Older movies, REVIEWS.Tags: Bond, cinema, Daniel Craig, Film, James Bond, Mark Forster, movies, quantum of solace, rating=3, review of, REVIEWS
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Director: Mark Forster
Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Mathieu Almaric
What’s it about? Bond’s need to get closure for the death of his lover Vesper (see Casino Royale), sees him on a rampage to uncover the truth of what really happened to her. Along the way, he must put a stop to Dominic Greene, a tycoon who has formed a deal with the equally evil General Medrano, in a bid to take over the world’s water supply.
Getting down and dusty in Quantum of Solace
This time round, Bond, both the man and the movie, are presented quite differently, incorporating many different ideas, but ultimately losing touch with what Bond is all about. The action scenes have been compared by many to those of the Bourne movies, particularly an early sequence which shows Bond jumping across rooftops. The fast-paced editing gives us the illusion that such action scenes are highly impressive but truth be told, it’s difficult to see what’s going on and whether any of it makes sense! When it’s not fast and Bourne-ish, it has a distinctly melodramatic feel; fights are intercepted with falling bowls of fruit or dashing horses, and we are even treated to a silent kitchen killing spree, none of which is too surprising when you consider that the director, Mark Forster, is responsible for ‘The Kite Runner‘, itself a moving drama, and the imaginative ‘Finding Neverland‘. (more…)
Burn After Reading October 29, 2008
Posted by gem in Older movies, REVIEWS.Tags: Brad Pitt, Burn after Reading, Burn after Reading review, cinema, Coen Brothers, comedy, Film, film reviews, Frances McDormand, Goerge Clooney, humour, John Malkovich, movies, rating=3, review
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Divorces, Gyms and the CIA
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand
What’s it About? Osborne Cox (Malkovich) walks out on his job just as his wife is planning to divorce him. In a bid to make sense of his unemployment Cox begins to write his memoirs…which then end up in the hands of Chad (Pitt) and Linda (McDormand), two gym employees who believe they have stumbled upon top secret government files.
George thought he was downright hilarious in this movie
I’m not too sure how good the Coens are at comedy: Ever since The Big Lebowski proved a hit, the Coens’ comedies seem to have gone steadily downhill. ‘O Brother Where Art Thou?’ received mixed reactions, then there was the horror that was ‘Intolerable Cruelty’ followed by the flop that was ‘The Ladykillers’ and now we have ‘Burn After Reading’, which, although a par above the latter two is still only an average Coens’ movie. There are some truly comic moments: you cannot help but laugh at Pitt’s portrayal of a dumb gym instructor, even if he does overplay the part at times. Chad is a good match for Frances McDormand’s Linda, with both characters completely wrapped up in their own world of fake conspiracies and imagined intrigue. Unfortunately, the other characters do not impress in the same way. It’s not the fault of the actors who are all more than comfortable in their roles, but it’s just that the characters themselves feel underwritten; John Malkovich is particularly wasted once the opening scenes are left behind. With so many characters and too little time, ‘Burn After Reading’ feels like a sketch show and most of the time I was waiting for it to revert back to Linda/Chad and Linda’s admirer Ted (Richard Jenkins). Overall ‘Burn after Reading’ feels rushed and while some scenarios do initially seem daring, in retrospect you begin to wonder if such plot twists and turns were simply used to hurry the story along. It’s as if the Coens wrote this in a moment of light relief after the heavy going No Country for Old Men and the result is a couple of amusing scenes strung together by an unlikely plot.
Is it worth the price of a cinema ticket? Yes, if only because there’s so little to choose from at the moment.
Cork Film Festival Closing Gala Events October 22, 2008
Posted by gem in IRISH CINEMA, Older movies, REBEL FILM: film in Cork..Tags: Cannes Film Festival, cinema, Cork film festival, festival awards, Film, Irish film., Irish short films, Made in cork award, Palme D'or, polls, short films, the Dardenne Brothers, The Silence of Lorna
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Below is a quick recap of the Closing Gala including a mini-review of The Silence of Lorna, a Cannes Film Festival award winner…
Twas no Cilla Black show: Lorna with husband number one, Claudy.
‘The Silence of Lorna’, directed by the Dardenne brothers (Jean-Pierre and Luc) was the film selected for this year’s Closing Gala. I’m surprised that such a bleak movie was chosen to end the festival; although a tale of redemption in some ways, it doesn’t offer much hope and leaves you feeling a bit pessimistic. Lorna, the main protagonist, is a young Albanian woman who earns herself Belgian citizenship by marrying Claudy, a junkie trying his best to clean up his act. The marriage is a sham, naturally, and Lorna plans to move on to a second husband as soon as possible so that he too can gain citizenship. The money she will earn for such deeds should provide capital for her and her true lover to set up a snack shop in the city. It’s a messy situation and it’s not long before Lorna is out of her depth, the only female in a male dominated set up. ‘The Silence of Lorna’ was nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes and also won a Screenwriting award there. The plot is fairly straightforward, almost too straightforward at times: First this happens, then that happens; I was left with the impression the writers did not exactly enjoy writing this story! Of course, this only adds to the realism which the Dardenne bros wanted to achieve; there’s no Hollywood endings here.
Before the main event, the various short film awards were handed out: Best Irish Short went to Cecilia McAllister for ‘Féileachán’/'Driving Lesson’ and the Best Made in Cork went to Ed Godsell for ‘Matty Kiely’s Last Day’, a spur of the moment documentary about the closure of the popular fish n’ chip shop on Maylor Street. You can watch the winning short here on the purecork blip tv site, along with a few other shorts about various old-fashioned sweet shops around the county. Ed Godsell also won the Audience Award at the Cork Film Festival a few years ago for his comical short, ‘Mullet’, in which he questioned the people of Cork about the mullet fish that reside in the River Lee during the summer. A full list of the winners can be found here on the official festival site.
The closing gala heralded the end of yet another film festival..but was it a good festival? I’m milking this polldaddy device and offering ye yet another chance to vote! And as for the last poll, well the screenings which most people wanted to see at the Cork Film Fest were the Cork shorts 
Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps September 10, 2008
Posted by gem in Older movies, REVIEWS.Tags: cinema, classic movies, Film, Hitchcock, Madeleine Carroll, movies, Naomi Watts, old movies, Psycho, Robert Donat, the 39 steps, the birds, Tippi Hedren
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(and new polls..!)
Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll are thrown together in The 39 Steps
After all the blockbuster hype this year, I thought I should take time to look back on a good classic movie. Well, I got ‘The 39 Steps’ free with the newspaper the other day so it seemed like a good place to start. It’s a great movie and well worth a watch, so if you also received a copy, do take a look. It’s an early Hitchcock (it was made in 1935), although he already had some 23 films under his belt at that stage. The basic premise here is that a man named Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) is wrongfully accused of murder and has to go on the run from the police. Typical Hitchcock fodder you might think, but this suspense thriller is mixed with plenty screwball comedy as Hannay finds himself (literally) tied to Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) in his escape across the Scottish moors, when she too gets caught up in the whole affair. Given this, it’s surprisingly lighthearted in comparison to other Hitchcock films. It’s very well paced too and has enough to twists and turns to keep you glued to your seat. It’s impressive really how much Hitchcock could say within just one frame. The final scene is relatively dialogue free but tells us all we need to know. This is also worth a look if only to familiarise yourself with the work of Robert Donat who, unfortunately, seems to have been forgotton by the world at large. He picked up a Best Actor oscar back in 1939 for ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips’, a year when ‘Gone with the Wind’ ran away with everything else. It probably took Clarke Gable quite a while to get over that one!
Hitchcock movies are never out of the limelight for long. After the remake of Psycho in 1998, it seemed like nobody would ever try anything so ridiculous again, but 2009 will see the release of ‘The Birds’ with Naomi Watts in the Tippi Hedren role. Check this IMDB page if you don’t believe me! I seriously hope that it doesn’t turn into an SFX filled popcorn movie. The original, which used real birds, was a feat of film-making.
Anyway, as Hitchcock is the flavour of the month again, I thought I’d pop up a poll so you can vote for your favourite Hitchcock flick, if you have one. And if you don’t, well you should! On another note, I’m using a Polldaddy poll widget. It’s a little oversized and completely scrambles this blog on IE 6, so if any other bloggers have better poll tips, feel free to comment below!
Hellboy II: The Golden Army August 31, 2008
Posted by gem in Older movies, REVIEWS.Tags: comic book movies, comics, golden army, Guillermo Del Toro, Hellboy, Hellboy 2, Hellboy II, ironman, pan's labyrinth, rating=3, review, review of, Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, superheroes
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Plenty style but little substance…
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman as Hellboy, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss
What’s it about? Hellboy, a boy from..hell, wouldn’t you know, is now all grown up and working for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence with his girlfriend, Liz (Selma Blair). When some creatures, namely Prince Nuada, decide to start a rebellion against the human race, it’s up to Hellboy and co to step in and sort things out…and they go to Antrim in Ireland (seriously!).
He could get very defensive when it came to his horns.
It’s been a summer of superheroes, but while many of this year’s releases have shared common ground, with the Marvel movies even overlapping and sharing cameos, Hellboy is in a world of his own. Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro captures this world with lavish sets that boast the most amazing colour schemes. Anyone who has seen Pan’s Labyrinth will know what to expect. Del Toro is making his mark by adapting a certain style that he will no doubt apply to the upcoming Hobbit movie. There’s something refreshing about Hellboy too thanks to the old school costume design: no CGI heroes or batsuits; just lots of facepaint and elaborate outfits. (more…)
The X Files: I Want to Believe. August 6, 2008
Posted by gem in Older movies.Tags: blockbusters, Chris Cater, cinema, crime, DAvid Duchovny, drama, fbi, films, Gillian Anderson, I want to Believe, movies, Mulder and Scully, rating=2, review, summer, The X Files, TV Series, x files
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Mulder and Scully’s return only serves to remind us that the best is long over.
Directed by: Chris Carter
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Xzibit
What’s it About: Mulder and Scully, no longer working for the FBI, are roped back into a case when an FBI agent goes missing and one time priest, Father Joe (Connolly) claims to have had psychic revelations about the case.
Mulder looked on in terror as a hoard of angry X Files fans came towards them.
I had always imagined that the second X Files movie would deal with the ‘truth’ which was revealed in the very last episode of the TV series: that the aliens were coming in 2012 and that, most likely, we were all doomed. Instead we are presented with a story which could be easily matched by anything you would catch on TV today, a crime thriller that has some gruesome, nail-biting moments but nothing that you wouldn’t forget ten minutes after leaving the cinema. It’s not that all movies should have the spectacles of say, The Dark Knight, but this slow boiled detective drama lacks anything that would set it aside from a far fetched CSI episode. One wonders why the X Files team would bother to make a movie at all if they do not wish to take advantage of the longer running time or the scope that a film offers the writers, who, up until now, mostly had one hour segments with which to play. (more…)
