Locke (2014)

Yep, it is that good…
(Image via Wikipedia)

In a word: fraught.

Movie Pieces Rating: 4/5

Over the course of one night the mighty Tom Hardy tries to deal with one almighty cluster f*ck. Of his own making.

This film takes Tom Hardy, alone in his car with only the M6 motorway*, and the incessant calls he makes on his mobile phone to share the screen time and turns them into a bleakly tragic tour de force. Tom plays Locke. An ordinary man who’s spent his life trying to do the right thing. Trying to be the good man, husband and parent that his own father could never be.

And we watch as job, marriage, relationships all start unraveling over the course of one night.

This taut, tense, film should be hard work – we’re thrown right into the thick of it – with one drama kicking off after another in almost real time. This could feel unbearably claustrophobic but stays compelling due to a master class in acting from Hardy and off-screen phone cameos from some of Britain’s most interesting acting talent. Olivia Colman is a particular standout but listen out for other familiar voices. Only Hardy’s accent – meant to be Welsh (why exactly?) but skipping the length and breadth of the British Isles – strikes a slightly duff note.

To have spent your life doing the right thing and to keep on trying even though the one mistake you’ve made is turning your life into house of cards…it’s sad, nail-biting and thoroughly engrossing.

Notes:

– That motorway, that you grow to hate, is for the most part, shot in London’s Docklands.

– Locke was filmed in just under 2 weeks.  During one of Hardy’s rare breaks.

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Image via incredibru

In a word: pragmatic

Movie Pieces rating: 4/5

This is a sweet film that tries very hard to escape the restrictions of the “teen-with-a-disease” genre conventions and, for the most part, succeeds. The (admittedly photogenic) pair at the heart of the film are refreshingly down-to-earth, cheery, brusque and unsentimental.  And this attitude runs through the film, acting as a counterbalance to the potentially mawkish storyline.

Hazel (an engagingly naturalistic performance from Shailene Woodley) and Gus (the cute but not saccharine Ansel Elgort) meet at a rather earnest support group for cancer patients and discover they share the same sarcastic sense of humour and refusal to be defined by their illness.  They strike up an easy friendship; Gus’s natural exuberance helping to draw Hazel out from her sheltered existence and Hazel’s love for literature (one book in particular) widening both their horizons.  They talk, they sing, they trade banter and they fall in love.  Slowly, sweetly and heart-breakingly.  Because by this stage, in this type of film there’s no getting around the fact that, this.is.not.going.to.end.well.  Still, apart from an odd, slightly jarring episode in Amsterdam, the slow decline towards the inevitable plays out more meditatively than manipulatively.

The Fault in Our Stars provides a fresh, albeit not ground-breaking, take on what it means to be a teen suffering / recovering from a life-threatening illness – the limitations on your ability to live what’s left of your life and the impact on those around you – and the delight of finding a like-minded ally to help lighten the load.

Notes:

– Adapted from the novel, of the same name, by John Green

– Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort played brother and sister in Diivergent – their previous film together

– Great soundtracks make a film and this one is no exception: Charli XCX’s Boom Clap and Ed Sheeran’s All of the Stars are perfect matches for this film.

Reviews I rate: The Fault in Our Stars

IndieWire: Kimber Myer’s The Fault in Our Stars review

Time: Richard Corliss’s The Fault in Our Stars review

I Know Where I’m Going (1945)

Joan comes face to face with the fly in her ointment (image: jon rubin FlickrCC)

In a word: stoic
Movie Pieces rating: 4/5

Upper lips are stiff and conversations are hearty in Powell and Pressburger’s atmospheric wartime romance I Know Where I’m Going set in the Scottish Highlands.

Joan Webster (Wendy Hillier) is stubborn, ambitious and always focussed (she knows where she’s going) and after doing a stint as a London working girl has landed herself a very rich, rather old, Scottish laird as a fiancé. Heading up to the Isle of Kiloran to be married it looks as though life will continue to bend to her will…but the wild magic of the Scottish highlands, and the eccentric bunch of characters she meets, offer a tantalising alternative.

Funny, fast-paced and as bracing as a breath of island air, this film is as fresh as if it were made yesterday.

Notes
Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Writers: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Cinematographer: Erwin Hiller

Funny Girl (1968) – 4*

Dir: William Wyler/ Writer: Isobel Lennart/ Cinematography: Harry Stradling

Babs ponders her next move (image: JCT FlickrCC)

Don’t tell me not to fly, I’ve simply got to.
If someone takes a spill, it’s me and not you.
Who told you you’re allowed to rain on my parade?

Barbra Streisand is feisty, New Yorker, and would-be music hall singer, Fanny Brice. Omar Sharif plays sexy, sultry, gambling playboy Nick Arnstein.  The Funny Girl roller-coaster ride whips through the trials and tribulations of Fanny’s life, stopping only for one infectious show tune after another.

Despite the long running time (155 mins) and the fact Omar really can’t sing (he’s so charismatic he carries it off), I was hooked. An unexpected delight that stays with you long after the decidedly non-fairy tale ending. Fab-u-lous!

* Adapted from the play by Isobel Lennart

Movie Pieces review rating for Funny Girl: 4/5
IMDb entry for Funny Girl

The Ugly Truth (2009) – 1*

Dir: Robert Luketic/ Writer: Nicole Eastman and Karen McCullah Lutz/ Cinematography: Russell Carpenter

Gerard’s joke about the Englishman and the Irishman was going down badly…(image: PerryMarco FlickrCC)

The clue’s in the title
Forget the relaxing benefits of entertainment, this is the kind of tosh that takes years off your life. Attempting to redo Shakespearean comedy The Taming of the Shrew for the billionth time, The Ugly Truth sees tightly-wound spinster TV producer Abby (Katherine Heigl) get patronising lessons in seduction from alpha male, TV sexpert Mike (Gerard Butler).

Heigl should be ashamed. Gerard Butler…well, it’s about par for the course for him in his new role as Hollywood’s ‘favourite sleazy lead’ – now that Colin Farrell’s wised up and moved on.

This has been done with far more charm and almost the same plot line in countless films (a personal favourite being Someone like You with Ashley Judd and the delicious Hugh Jackman) any of which make a far better way to pass the time.

Unfunny, misogynistic bobbins.

Movie Pieces review rating for The Ugly Truth: 1/5
IMDb entry for The Ugly Truth

Cloverfield (2008) – 4*

Dir: Matt Reeves / Writer: Drew Goddard / Cinematography: Michael Bonvillain

What indeed? image: MarcinWichary FlickrCC

It’s alive!!!

This is such a clever little movie. A monster flick shot on shaky handicam with a small cast of unknowns, in what appears to be real-time. It’s just like your friend’s home movie…if (of course) they happened to be caught up in a dino-disaster of terrifying proportions.

A going-away party in downtown Manhattan is rudely interrupted by the mother of all earthquakes, bright lights and the small matter of the US Army telling everyone to run for their lives… which really adds a bit of narrative “kick” to any movie.  Director Matt Reeves cleverly drives the home movie conceit through from start to finish. The audience only sees, hears or knows what the person carrying the camera sees, hears or knows (and cleverly that person changes throughout the film) but, like them, we imagine a whole lot more.

These people are normal twenty-something partygoers; they’re scared, drunk, unprepared and utterly unheroic. And, when the climax comes – a thrilling, blisteringly fast 85 minutes later – we’re totally unprepared too.

Cloverfield is the rarest of beasts; an enthralling action flick that sets the mind racing. What would you do in their situation? A truly chilling prospect.

Review rating for Cloverfield : 4/5
IMDb entry

Frozen River (2008) – 4*

Dir: Courtney Hunt / Writer: Courtney Hunt/ Cinematography: Reed Morano

It's bleak up north (image: Criana FlickrCC)

When Ray’s husband skips town 3 days before Christmas taking their life savings with him there’s little time for pining – her concern is for her two sons and, more immediately, what she’s going to do now there’s no money for their new trailer home due to arrive later that day.

Life in Massena, New York – a Mohawk reservation town on the border with Canada – is a hand-to-mouth existence for most but with no savings, two boys, a home that’s falling to bits  and only a waitressing job to bring in funds, Ray faces an extremely grim new year.

A chance encounter brings her into contact with Lila Littlewolf, an outcast member of the local  Mohawk tribe, and the highly dangerous smuggling trade that the Indians operate. Using the frozen St. Lawrence river as an artery all manner of contraband brought into the US from Canada. Illegal, dangerous – this kind of work comes with a fat pay packet but you need a car and you need contacts.  Ray has the car and Lila has the contacts – neither likes or trusts the other but it’s a partnership of necessity as the single mums try to hold their lives together.

Sparsely, but beautifully, shot this is a thought-provoking and nail-biting film where you’re rooting for the women to finally, hopefully, make it through against the ever growing odds.

Review rating for Frozen River: 4/5
IMDb entry for Frozen River

Easy A (2010) – 4*

Dir: Will Gluck / Writer: Bert V. Royal/ Cinematography: Michael Grady

Olive gets ready to rumble (image: Vince Viloria FlickrCC)

Emma Stone takes over the teen star crown in this witty coming-of-age teen comedy that borrows as much from indie flicks Juno and Superbad as it does from other genre-leading high-school movies like Clueless and Mean Girls.

Olive is brainy, eccentric and opinionated which puts her firmly into high school’s bargain bucket of undesirables so when she’s asked to help someone out by pretending she’s had sex with them she sees it as a win win situation. Do a favour, earn some street cred. But soon every dorky guy in school sees her as a way to raise their social capital and, while theirs is boosted by the supposed bedpost notch, her reputation goes through the floor. Deciding to own her battered rep, and act like the slut she’s been made out to be, Olive walks tall and dresses low. But the situation rapidly spirals out of control.

A clever, sparky, script – which hauls the themes from The Scarlet Letter into the 21^st century – is performed with verve and impeccable comic timing by the husky-voiced, star-in-waiting Ms Stone. Strong support comes from Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow as Olive’s amusingly self-absorbed, over-sharing and waaay too liberal parents with Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci and Malcolm McDowell rounding out the classy cast.  Penn Badgley and Amanda Bynes are the teen draw.

Great fun.

Review rating for Easy A: 4/5
IMDb entry for Easy A

In the Loop (2009)

Dir: Armando Iannucci / Writer: Jesse Armstrong and Simon Blackwell / Cinematography: Jamie Cairney

Armando's merry band (image: potatojunkie FlickrCC)

Malcolm Tucker, I salute you.
Peter Capaldi, reprises his role as the British Prime Minister’s deliciously foul-mouthed, ruthless communications director from BBC TV series, The Thick of It. And, although many of the TV cast have come along for the big-screen outing, no prior knowledge is required for full enjoyment of the Tucker experience.

Tom Hollander plays bumble-brained Foreign Secretary Simon Foster whose inane ‘off-message’ comments to an interviewer unintentionally spark an international military crisis.

Malcolm is called in to save the day in his own inimitable style – think sledgehammer cracking tiny, tiny nuts – trading violently vicious barbs with everyone who comes within 10 paces. Only Simon’s communications director, Judy Malloy, (a beautifully deadpan Gina McKee) holds her own against his verbal onslaught, refusing to see the whole political structure as anything more than a silly game played by silly boys.

And, as the British contingent head to the US for briefings and secret war committees, it soon becomes clear that all over the world silly boys (and girls) play silly games about deadly serious subjects.

As a political satire it is bitingly clever, showing the bullying, bargaining and machinations that are a fixed part of the political landscape. There’s no chance of truth or justice prevailing with this bunch of lying, cheating back-stabbers. And although its focus is the 2003 decision to go to war in Iraq, In the Loop’s focus on the corrupt lunatics running the asylum is just as relevant in a period where we’ve seen politicians and lobbyists lie, cheat and steal from the people they’re supposed to be representing. Good work Iannucci.

Rating: 4/5
IMDb entry for In the Loop

The Blind Side (2009)

Dir: John Lee Hancock / Writer: John Lee Hancock / Cinematography: Alar Kivilo

Staying on the right side (image: citytalk FlickrCC)

Cheesy and sentimental but The Blind Side has a good heart.
The story of an African-American boy from the wrong side of the tracks being taken in by a wealthy white family who help him to achieve his true potential on the football field feels like a simplistic, Disney-esque fairytale…and yet, it’s a true story.

Now no doubt there’s been some artistic licence taken on the way to the big screen but the story’s roots in truth are what gives The Blind Side its power.

Critics have denounced the message that lies at its heart – that a poor black boy needs white assistance to be saved – but that feels way too mean-spirited. Surely we should welcome an out-stretched hand, whatever colour it comes in as long as long as it comes without unbearable conditions? With that kind of attitude there’d be no welfare state, no charity and no philanthropy – what a bleak, “survival of the fittest” society that would be.

Fortunately for Michael, his outstretched hand comes from Leigh Anne Truby (Sandra Bullock in Southern, no-nonsense, Erin Brockovitch mode) and she’s not going to let anything – gang culture, race, slurs, innuendo or even her society friends’ distaste – stand in her way.

Bullock holds the movie together but she gets good solid, unshowy support from Quinton Aaron and country-singer Tim McGraw as her easy-going hubby. Great sporting moves too (even for those unfamiliar with American Football).

Rating:
IMDb entry for The Blind Side

* Based on the novel by Michael Lewis