Mister Film

Trailer of the week

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:06:28 -0500

New trailer from the russian director of Wanted and the Nightwatch series, Abe Lincoln fighting vampires looks like a great premise lets hope it can live up to the idea.

Top 5 films of 2011

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:37:00 -0500

5. Blue Valentine

The first of two Films in my top five featuring Ryan Gosling, this film is on the list just because of the strength of the two central performances by the aforementioned Gosling and Michelle Williams. The film tells the story of the unwinding of a marriage from the romatic start to the tragic end. The film is painful to watch because of the honesty of showing a crumbling relationship but so well made and peformed that it makes you want to rewatch it even though it hurts you, it’s the ultimate masochists movie. It’s a film where you forget there is even acting involved, both characters are at fault but the blame doesn’t matter when both are so unhappy which is the tragedy. The film even makes a comment on how our memory works as the main characters remember really the only things you remember about a relationship once it ends. The giddy start and the heartbreaking end, the film also has the most lovely end titles i’ve probably seen at the end of a movie.

4. We need to talk about Kevin

Sometimes a film can get under your skin, you know the sort of film i’m talking about one that you just can’t shake off and rolls around your mind for days afterwards, Kevin is one of those films which disturbs you profoundly. Lynne Ramsey showed she was a visual magician with her first film Ratcatcher and also her flawed film Morvern Callar but the visual way she paints this story is masterful. We start the film seeing Tilda Swintons character hated in her community and struggling to go outside her house. We also see her scraping off red paint daubed all over the outside of her house a glimpse of the horror that has been. Through flashbacks we slowly work out that her child Kevin has done something unspeakable. Kevin is really about nature or nurture, the child from very early on shows signs of unnease but the small acts of a mother who never wanted him ripples down into the boys teens. Make no mistake this is a horror story but not blood and guts fantasy where the hot cheerleader gets a knife to the chest this is something much more frightening, the chilling notion that you could not only spawn evil but also be complicit in it’s creation. By the end of the film we have no easy answers just as in life.

3. 13 Assassins

I not a massive fan of the filmaker Miike Takeshi but with 13 Assassins he nailed the epic Samarui film so much so that he is currently in production with another one (oh lordy!). This for me is his second best film behind Audition. It is visceral exciting filmaking with a 45 minute fight scene at the end of the film which pushes it to the top of all time samurai films. It slashed and diced it’s way into my heart.

see my review here!
http://misterfilm.tumblr.com/post/13743704455/film-of-the-week

2. Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy

An antidote to the violent, visceral spy films that have come out in the last 5 years including the Bourne’s and Bonds this was back to the cerebal spy film which was more interested in the mechanications of people then fighting and car chases. The film looks into the lives of the people controlling the country in the backrooms of government in the cold war and the tense situation that there is a mole right at the top. The lead character George Smiley is pulled out of forced retirement to find the culprit. Smiley is played by the always impressive Gary Oldman and he plays him as the man in the background, the man you never notice but he is many steps ahead of everyone and dogmatically will complete his mission. The film has the best esemble cast i’ve seen for a long time and they are all on the top of there game, noticably brilliant performances come from Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch. I like to compare the film to a beautiful symphony where from the conductor to the percussionists they all work in perfect harmony. It’s a film where the raising of a characters voice is more thrilling then a fist fight with a newspaper.

see my review here!

http://misterfilm.tumblr.com/post/13741710389/tinker-tailer-soldier-spy-review

1. Drive

As instantly iconic as a zippo lighter, it’s a dark brooding film powered by Goslings performance. It is sleek and stylish but always has an intensity under the surface that makes it exciting. Our main character starts the film as the quiet lone gunman, the hero who wants to save the girl, but as the film goes on we realise that the cold stare and impassive stance is hiding a sociopath, someone who would stamp you to death if you got in the way of what he wants. The main character is a shark in a emblazoned jacket and driving gloves, if he’s not driving forward he will wither. I can’t wait to see what Golsing and Refn do next.

read my review here!
http://misterfilm.tumblr.com/post/11825691174/drive-review

Film Wisdom of the week

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:37:41 -0500

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”
Verbal Kint Usual Suspects

Trailer of the week Well here it is the next batman - Dark...

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:48:00 -0500

Trailer of the week
Well here it is the next batman - Dark knight Rises. Bane looks suitably scary…catwoman not so much but early indication is that Nolan has delivered again.

Film Wisdom of the week

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:39:00 -0500

“Do you want your sister to lose weight? Tell her to get off the couch, stop eating twinkies and maybe go out for field hockey. You know what? No one ever knows what they want to be when they grow up. You know it takes a little, little while to find that out, right, Jim? And you… yeah, you. Sick of some jerk shoving your head down the toilet? Well, you know what? Maybe… you should lift some weights, or uh, take a karate lesson and the next time he’s tries to do it, you kick him in the balls. “
- Donnie Donnie Darko

Film of the Week

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:56:00 -0500

13 Assassins

Miike Takeshi has always revelled in making extreme and odd films that turn me cold but I think he has been best when he tones down his direction to serve the story rather then his own warped ideas. His first breakout hit Audition did this beautifully slowly reavealing the horror within the tale rather then hammering it into your skull with a nail gun (believe me watch his films and you’ll understand). 13 Assassins builds slowly while we learn about the characters who are recruited and there motivations. the first part of the film plays very much like Seven Samurai, we have a mad sadistic ruler (Lord Naritsugu) who needs to be killed for peace to reign in his country (shogun era Japan) so 13 Samarai are found to kill him. What makes this film stand along the classic samurai films is the end 45 minute sequence where the 13 assassins fight Lord Naritsugus army. It’s mad, visceral, Bloody and relentless. It also contains a stampede of bulls on fire. Check the trailer below.

Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy Review

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:16:00 -0500

In the last couple of years the spy film has evolved into a brutal, fast and streamlined animal with The Bourne films and Daniel Craigs James Bond moving at breakneck speed and crunching realism. So it’s a relief to have a film that takes the spy genre back to the intricate cloak and daggers that made being a spy so fascinating. So instead of young killing machines running around the world, we have plump middle aged men sitting in hidden rooms trying to work out the state of government. The predicament in the film, adapted from John Le Carres novel is as tense and thrilling as all the Bourne car chases - Set in the cold war, there is a mole in M16 and he is right at the top of the circus. He’s been giving Englands secrets to the russians and it is the job of George Smiley (Gary Oldman) to flush him out armed with the code names of the suspects - tinker, tailor, soldier, poor man and smiley himself who is assigned beggar.

From this we get a film that ticks down like a coiled wristwatch tightening and tightening as we get to the final reveal. Like a wound wrist watch it’s all about the cogs in the machine, and what cogs! the film is a shoo in for cast of the year - Tom hardy (playing the closest to the classic James Bond Spy), Ciaran Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Toby Jones and Mark Strong one of the performances of the year comes from Gary Oldman who is known for playing unstable characters but has recently impressed with more understated roles in the new Batman series. Here Oldmans Smiley is quiet and unassuming, blending into the shadows never drawing attention to himself, he is a character who says more about what he is thinking with flicker of his eyes then with long monologues. The other person who impresses is behind the camera, Swedish Director Thomas Alfredson brings his chilly atmosphere he used in Let the Right One and applies it to the chilly paranoia of 70’s England, his direction is measured, assured and it works perfectly, it is all about the details, a telling look from Smiley, the striking wallpaper behind our characters in their secret office or a character pulling on gloves. This is a film that thrills without gun fights or car chases, a film where the electrifying best scene, which involves our main character unexpectedly raising his voice, sends a shiver up your spine like the best Bourne stunt.

TV Film Of the Week

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:27:00 -0400

Half Nelson

BBC1 12:00am

Ryan Gosling has been Quietly impressing for the last 5 or 6 years (see my cinema review of Drive) and this was the first time I saw how talented and likable he could be as a character. In this film he plays a difficult role but makes the person sympathetic and us completely root for him. Definitely worth staying up and being late for work! Check out the trailer

Film of the Week

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:51:00 -0400

The Prestige

Christopher Nolan has an impressive filmography containing the Batman films and Memento but for me The Prestige is the one film in his cannon that I have a great love for and which gets better with each viewing. It’s a dark tale of two magicians locked in a bitter battle of wills in Victorian London. It is full of Magic, punk science and sacrifices on both sides. The film slowly twists and surprises during the running time, the two leads Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale can be proud of having this film on there CV and there performances like the film are subtle and memerising. Check out the trailer below.

Trailer of the week Dark, brooding and deeply unsettling....

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:31:39 -0400

Trailer of the week
Dark, brooding and deeply unsettling. Directed by scottish directer Lynne Ramsey I can’t wait for the film.

Drive review

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:55:00 -0400

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan.

When hearing the story for Drive you would think it was a sequel to the Jason Statham Transporter films or the ever expanding roster of Fast and furious films. What we actually get is an intense ultra violent cult classic of a movie with not that much driving but plenty of thrills. Directed by the Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn whos last two films were Bronson and Valhalla Rising two films similarly about male characters who have violence permeate their lives. The story is a simple one: a part time Hollywood stunt driver played by Ryan Gosling moonlights as a bank robber his demands are too the point - If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours no matter what. I don’t sit in while you’re running it down; I don’t carry a gun… I drive. Next door to him lives a single mum (played by Carey Mulligan) who he befriends. Shortly after meeting her, her jailed husband is released and finding himself blackmailed by local criminals turns to driver for help in completing a last job for them. As you can expect not everything goes to plan and our “driver” ends up in trouble with dangerous mobsters. But this film is less about story and more about characters and tone. The first scene of the movie sets up the atmosphere of the film straight away opening with pounding 80’s synth and the neon lighting of LA. The film starts with a car chase but it’s not the classic speeding car chase were used too, it’s edited so tightly it looks like the film was cut with a razor blade, much like our main character the chase is full of slow building tension bordering on almost inactivity followed by sudden bursts of action as the driver uses the winding LA side streets to hide and evade capture from the police, it is a tense, exciting and very clever scene. What also makes this film a delight is the characters, there is solid support by Carey Mulligan as well as Bryan Canston as our main characters mentor and also scary turns as violent mobsters by Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman but this film belongs to Gosling, Ryan Goslings unnamed “driver” is effortlessly cool, a man who says few words but can convey a million thoughts to the audience through a sideways smile and a bite of a toothpick, like the scorpion that emblazons the silver jacket he wears through the whole film (even when covered in splatters of blood) he is still and quiet until jumping into acts of violence to get himself out of a corner. Goslings character is a sociopathic mystery, cool and collected but flawed and with a hidden back story never explained but written in his detached personality. His character brings back memories of great leading men like steve Mcqueen and Clint eastwood.
Goslings performance as well as the film is pure unadulterated cinema. Every year I wait for the film that will define the year, this year belongs to drive.