Inside Llewyn Davis – a dull place to be

I didn’t get this film. I really wanted to but this just did not work for me. A Coen Brother’s fan I eagerly watched an excellent opening segment, but by half way through it took a dull and boring turn and meandered to a dissatisfying closure. Maybe it was my lack of knowledge of folk music, maybe something that registered with other critics didn’t register with me, but Inside Llewyn Davis is a beautiful looking bore.

Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer in New York, hopping from couch to couch with barely a jacket to keep him warm. Previously part of a duo, Davis is full of sadness and anger, failing to communicate with anyone bar a very entertaining cat. He may have knocked up Jean (Carey Mulligan) and no one’s showing any interest in his album. He loses a cat, takes a road-trip to Chicago and sulks a lot. And that’s it.

Hopefully I watch this again and see something I failed to this time, we’ll see. Inside Llewyn Davis is extremely dull. It starts off strongly with the image of Llewyn carrying a cat around the New York subway an entertaining one, but then Carey Mulligan shows up with some awful acting and it all goes downhill from there. John Goodman appears and confuses, things are muttered, and it all ends.

I’m giving it an extra star for Oscar Isaac who does a decent job with a character we never properly get to know. Misses the mark and just comes off as pretentious.

2 out of 5

Review of 2013

After a SHOCKING year of films in 2012, I am delighted to say that 2013 was a massive improvement. Yes the anti-christs of cinema are still going strong with Marvel dominating the box office again with lazy rehashes of the same story, pathetic scripts like Man of Steel and Pacific Rim still got money thrown at them, but there was a lot to celebrate this year.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire proved franchise films could be intelligent, well-crafted and make a tonne of money. Even The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug proved me wrong and got a seemingly lost franchise back on track. The Lone Ranger and Star Trek Into Darkness were how Summer blockbusters should be, full of stunts, special effects and thrilling to audiences. Unfortunately The Lone Ranger was criminally ignored by audiences so let’s hope this revival in blockbuster quality isn’t dead already.

Blue Jasmine and Nebraska were absolute gems of films that are sure to become classics. Cloud Atlas and Elysium were great sci-fi. Spring Breakers, Filth and Stoker were deliciously dark and twisted. Even comedy sequels were decent with Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues proving Will Ferrell has still got it.

Here’s my top 5; remember this is only films released in Ireland in 2013, so January releases like The Wolf of Wall Street will have to wait and see if they’re good enough for next year’s list.

5. Stoker

Crafted by a cinematic master Stoker was as entertaining and twisted as Oldboy, with some acting veterans like Nicole Kidman proving they can surprise us in new ways with the right script and director.

4. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I underrated this on my initial review, but with time it grew on me more and more. I’ve read the books and can say the films are doing a much better job of telling the story of a society fed up with those in charge.

3. Cloud Atlas

A film I’ve re-watched and will re-watch again and again. It has its flaws but when its good is just so good you forgive the rest. An absolute feast for the eyes and imagination.

2. Nebraska

So much heart and so little cheese, Nebraska is as close to perfect as a film can be. A lovely story with a lovely ending full of the most colourful people ever seen in black and white.

1. Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen makes a perfect film with a relevancy previously unseen in his work. Criminally ignored by this year’s Oscars, if you haven’t seen it make a note to do so.

Honourable mentions: Spring Breakers, Filth, The Way Way Back, Elysium, All is Lost, Prisoners, Gravity, Captain Phillips, Blue is the Warmest Colour

Guilty Pleasure of the year: The Lone Ranger

The worst: Man of Steel, Iron Man 3, Oblivion, This is the End, The World’s End

The most overrated: American Hustle

Bring on 2014!

American Hustle – conning good films out of awards

This really should have been something. Director David O. Russell with a wealth of great actors, telling the story of smoke, mirrors and the United States Congress. Unfortunately what could have amounted to so much is left rather limp and lazy; which bar some nice acting flourishes, is a very forgettable Oscar nominated (???) film.

Conman Irving (Christian Bale) meets and falls in love with Sydney (Amy Adams), a former stripper and soon to be accomplice. Eddie’s great at what he does, but has a wife who refuses to divorce him and affection for her son preventing him from leaving. After cop Richie (Bradley Cooper) busts one of Eddie and Amy’s scams, they find themselves working for him to avoid jail time. Unfortunately Richie is too desperate for a big bust, and uses Irving and Sydney as bait to catch Mayor of Jersey Carmine (Jeremy Renner), who despite knowing some corrupt people is a genuine nice guy and wants what’s best for his city.

Again, this could have been great. Christian Bale with a belly, Bradley Cooper in curls, a madcap caper with a Sheikh and Jennifer Lawrence as Eddie’s bizzare wife. All the ingredients were there but it just never works. The opening passage of time as Irving and Sydney meet isn’t as good as it needs to be to make us care about them for the rest of the film. For such a long film it is rushes into a poor montage. Their plan to foil the Mayor is never that complicated, amusing or interesting to sustain the middle of the film. Bradley Cooper’s Richie is too ridiculously pathetic to ever see as a real threat to Irving and Syndey. The list goes on and on.

Yes it’s not all bad. The acting is great, particularly Renner who I usually hate, and Lawrence as always is nothing short of amazing. The idea of them on top form with O. Russell directing has so much potential, but instead is wasted on a poor film that never really takes off.

The biggest con this film pulls off is winning awards this season. You can do better O. Russell.

2 out of 5

The Wolf of Wall Street – Scrocese at his sinister best

Martin Scorsese is not letting age get in his way, delivering one of his most dynamic and joyously perverse film’s yet. The Wolf of Wall Street is slick, filthy, mean and very, very funny. In Leonardo DiCaprio Scrosese has found his muse, an actor who allows the director to create the films he wants knowing he has access to an actor that will match his direction skill pound for pound. The Wolf of Wall Street has it’s flaws; it loves itself a bit too much and could have done with fourty minutes of cuts, but this is as exciting and fun cinema you’ll see this year.

Set in the late eighties and adapted from his own biography, DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a Wall Street broker who starts off with good intentions but soon turns to the dark side. The dark side happens to be a lot of fun though, with Jordan and his associates making millions, buying boats and indulging in drugs and hookers galore. Is there a lesson to be learnt? Will karma come back and get Jordan? Or is recklessly living without caution or morale as fun as we imagined it to be?

DiCaprio is on fire, delivering an energetic and hilarious performance as Belfort. Terence Winter’s excellent script gives him plenty of opportunities to shine and he is always a joy to have on screen. The supporting cast don’t fare as well; dealing with tonal shifts a bit more difficultly, but luckily Scorsese’s direction is so spot on we barely notice. He throws everything at the screen and shows his age hasn’t affected his creativity.

Well worth a look, great to see Scorsese still has it.

4 out of 5

12 Years a Slave – McQueen does it again

The woman beside me kept throwing her palms over her face and gasping every time violence came on screen. What did she expect? It’s a film about slavery, one of the darkest hours in America’s recent history. To not be violent and uncomfortable would be to portray slavery without the horror it most certainly was. Some have accused director McQueen of making nothing but overlong torture porn, which is ridiculous. It is difficult to watch at times; though not as difficult as some would have you believe, but 12 Years a Slave deserves your attention.

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) resides in 1841 New York, making a successful career as a musician and raising a well off family. Promised a good payment he agrees to go on tour with two men, who quickly drug him, ship him to the south, and sell him into slavery. Advised the best way to survive is to keep his true identity a secret, Solomon puts his head down and works, despite the horrors going on around him.

Director Steve McQueen is deservedly becoming the man to work with in Hollywood. After the fantastic Shame he now proves he can handle himself with a much broader story with some major actors involved, not to mention the responsibility of doing justice to a very delicate subject. His trademark long shots are still here but so smoothly done they’re barely noticeable. His equally trademark Michael Fassbender is also here, delivering an excellent performance as a ruthless slave owner who uses them for his own pleasures, no matter how perverse.

The films strongest moments are with Benedict Cumberbatch’s seemingly sympathetic slave owner William Ford, who the audience initially root for as he tries not to separate a family on sale, but as the film progresses his sympathy is overshadowed by his ignorance and the advantages turning a blind eye to slavery gives him. The character is an excellent portrayal of a man aware of the horrors of slavery, but not concerned enough to not utilise it.

It weakens when Brad Pitt’s knight in shining armour comes and goes too quick to feel like anything other than Brad Pitt, and Paul Dano’s character is too simplistic given the attention others get. Overall though McQueen crafts a beautiful film with one of the most emotional ending’s cinema’s ever seen.

4 out of 5

All is Lost – All is excellent

Opening with a splash (literally) and continuing with scene after scene of turmoil for our nameless hero lost at sea, All Is Lost will suffer from comparisons to Gravity at sea, but unlike the Clooney–Bullock sci-fi, All Is Lost elects to leave nothing known of its protagonist, not even a beach ball named Wilson to bounce emotion off. It definitely keeps us in the moment and gives All Is Lost a layer of realism that Gravity lacked. Topped with a great performance from Robert Redford, All Is Lost is one of the year’s best.

Sailing solo in the Indian Ocean, our hero’s boat crashes into a loose shipping container, with the resulting rip in the hull flooding the inside of the boat. He repairs it with some bits and pieces, but when a storm hits the boat is destroyed, leaving our man floating in a life raft with minimum supplies. Battling more storms, dehydration and sharks, he desperately uses whatever skills he can muster to make his way to a shipping lane in the hope of rescue.

With only a few lines of dialogue and in almost every shot, Redford looks all 77 years old, haggard and grey but with still enough energy to be a believable survivalist. His age adds great weight to the role, with every slip and fall possibly his last. This isn’t Liam Neeson versus the ocean, this is an elderly man who adventured a bit too much and must now face the consequences. He hurts but he gets up again, weaker each time. Redford’s age, frame and acting make this film possible.

Director J.C. Chandor leaves the effects to a minimum and even when massive storms hit, leaves the camera on Reford. In the second half of the film, with Redford confined to an inflatable life raft, the film suffers a bit due to over emphasis on musical cues and needless cuts to underwater life. The filmmakers struggle to maintain the excellent tone of the first half and while still making some great cinema, it lags in comparison to the first half.

An excellent piece of cinema full of excitement with a great central performance. Goes on a scene too long but considering what comes before all is forgiven.

4 out of 5