2015 movies

Movie Review: THE LADY IN THE VAN (2015)

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the_lady_in_the_van_poster.jpgTHE LADY IN THE VAN (UK 2015) ***1/2
Directed by Nicholas Hytner

Review by Gilbert Seah

There are several reasons to watch the new Maggie Smith, Nicholas Hytner and Alan Bennette collaboration of THE LADY IN THE VAN. For one, it is based mostly on a true story – the words that appear on the screen at the film’s start, signifying a modest comedy on life. And with an equally number of pleasures as well to be derived from the film.

Adapted from the based-on-fact hit West End play by Bennett (best known for THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE), the film’s title referring to a high-born homeless woman, known as Miss Shepherd (Dame Maggie Smith) fallen on hard times who finds temporary shelter parking her van in Bennett’s driveway — for fifteen years. It is a chronicle of the unlikely friendship between the writer (played by Alex Jennings) and the elderly eccentric who takes over his driveway.

The play and script is smart enough to have two protagonists – Miss Shepherd and Bennett. Bennett is seen as a double in the film. As explained – there is the man that writes and the one that lives. They speak to one another, the equivalent of the man talking to himself. He gives himself a perspective of his life, humorously as well as dramatically. He is a timid fellow, kind enough to look after his ailing mother as well as Miss Shepherd. In contrast, Miss Shepherd is ornery, impolite, and bullying Not all there, she claims to take advice from the Virgin Mary. And she smells bad. There is a mystery about the woman that is kept from Bennett and the audience but all is revealed by the end of the film. But Bennett, despite his very private nature, takes pity on her and says she can stay there for three months.
Miss Shepherd is seen to be one that hates music. She screams and scares away children that play music outside her van. But she has studied music in Paris and plays the piano. The reason for her current behaviour is an intriguing one, and one that Hytner uses to full effect.

But besides being a film about friendship and old age, it is mostly a film about life. The film depicts the bit seedy yet very respectable London neighbourhood of Camden Town (on the Northern Tube line). (I am proud to say I have lived there – though as a tourist and guest for 15 days and the film brings a good effective feel in of neighbourhood chivalry and friendliness.) The message about life in the film is an obvious one, though one mostly ignored. It is stated clearly at the end – to love life is to start living. It is, put subtly, in the writing of Bennett’s character – that he is not to put himself in the writing but to find himself in the writing.

Maggie Smith bares all in the film and she is not afraid of looking old, haggard and ugly for the role. It is a completely different role from her Oscar winning THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE. She would get my vote for her second Oscar.

THE LADY IN A VAN is a tale of life, playfully funny and authentically set in Camden Town, London. Great performances in a film relatively well directed from a clever script full of ripe dialogue.

the_lady_in_the_van_yellow_van

Movie Review: JOY (2015)

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

joy_poster.jpg
JOY (USA 2015) ***** TOP 10
Directed by David O. Russell
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Bradley Cooper, Donna Mills, Elisabeth Röhm, Virginia Madsen, Diane Ladd

Writer/director David O. Russell has been known to made films with strong family content like SPANKING THE MONKEY, THE FIGHTER and. His last movie AMERICAN HUSTLE shows him successful in a completely different genre – business. JOY, a film about a housewife named Joy Mongano (Jennifer Lawrence), a struggling single mother who with the help of family and friends succeeds in inventing and marking her miracle mop invention combines the best of the two genres.

Joy has not the typical family. Her grandmother (Dianne West) who narrates the story, her TV-addicted mother, Terry (Virginian Madsen), two children live with her in her house together with her divorced husband (Edgar Ramirez) who lives in her basement. Her dad (Robert de Niro) suddenly moves in, and causes some havoc. But to survive, Joy decides to manufacture and sell her magical mop, going all out – to make it or go completely broke. This is a film about mending broken dreams and making them finally come true. JOY is a true joy to watch, a feel-good Christmas film with all the peers and quirkiness found in a Russell movie. The film moves at a manic pace, especially in the beginning, capturing the spirit of AMERICAN HUSTLE.

Jennifer Lawrence (MOCKINGJAY) delivers another knock-out performance capable of winning her another Oscar nomination for Best actress. Her two memorable segments especially the one where she freaks out in front of her daughters is enough to make one cry. The other has her telling her stepsister in words that will eventually go into movie history: “Never ever speak on behalf about my business … again!” Bradley Cooper has a smaller supporting role but one cannot get enough of his character on screen. Ramirez as the divorced husband is surprisingly good and truly as in the words of the film, they make ‘the most awesome couple in America”, despite not being married.

There is also some neat words in the script. In one scene, Joy’s father tells Joy that it is to possible to have the same dream, to which she replies she has had the same dream twice. If one has the same dream, that means having that dream twice, so how may times is the dream dreamt if one has the same dream twice. Funnier still, is the fact that what that dream is, is never revealed in the film. Also, Joy’s business financier and father’s girlfriend, Trudy’s (Isabella Rossellini) four rules of business success is a real hoot.

The trailer has a scene with Joy blasting off a rifle. In the film, she is upset and blasts the file taken in a rifle range next to the father’s shop. The trailer leads the audience to think Joy has shot someone, especially with anther scene with two cops handcuffing her and taking her away. But tis is not really what transpires in the film. It is a clever editing of the film to form a trailer to look more exciting with events imagined by the audience. Thought his to be a brilliant touch.

JOY has got mixed reviews so far from critics. I have read a few but am unconvinced of the reasons that JOY is faulted with. JOY to me, is a smart fell-good movie, appropriate for Christmas
and shows director Russell in top form.

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Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

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Movie Review: Concussion (2015)

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concussion_poster
CONCUSSION (USA 2015) **
Directed by Peter Landesman
Starring: Will Smith, Luke Wilson, Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks

Slated for a Christmas release opening on Christmas Day, CONCUSSION has been picked probably because the studios thought it would be a film that would make a difference. Concussion is thought do to professional football what cancer did to the tobacco companies. Michael Mann’s THE INSIDER was a superb film about whistleblower Wigand played by Russell Crowe.

Unfortunately, Peter Landesman film about Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith) is a sad disappointment.

It all starts in the film with huge praise for Dr. Omalu. He is cited as as an expert giving testimony in a murder case in court. He is questioned on his credentials, which he rattles on and on and on and on. For he is a very smart man. But the film is not.

The film for one is too formulaic. No surprises are in store – in any shape or form. Dr. Omalu is introduced in the film as the protagonist hero. As a forensic pathologist, he finds medical evidence of a common thread of suicides among former NHL football players. He discovers or rather names the disorder, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Before long, he comes head to head with the high rollers of the NHL who want him silenced. Dr. Omalu is offered a Washington job that he declines. And the script calls for him to romantically fall in love with his tenant, a nurse also from Nigeria and have a daughter. That is too much niceness for a Christmas movie.

The character of Dr. Omalu can do no wrong. He is already, deemed the most intelligent person in America, by the list of degrees the audience is informed at the start of the film. He is shown angry for all the right reasons. He is shy, kind, handsome and hardworking. He will go against the bad people. He talks to the bodies he performs autopsies on. He given choice dialogue like: “If you don’t speak for the dead, who will?” One would like to see a more believable human being – one who has faults and who makes mistakes in real life. The only scene he is shown with a slight fault is when he is accused of being a self-righteous bastard, but even then, he has a reason for being one. As Dr. Omalu comes from Nigeria, Smith plays him with an African accent, which many will assume is the accurate Nigerian accent.

The film is dotted at regular intervals of the deaths of various NFL players beginning with the longtime, Super Bowl-winning center for the Steelers, Mike Webster (David Morse). Dr. Omalu did his first autopsy on Webster. There are several other heroes in the film like Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin) and Omalu’s boss (Albert Brooks).

But despite the film being formulaic in dishing out a romance, confrontation scenes, feel good and feel bad segments, the film is a narrative mess. An example is the segment in which his girl Prema (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) speeds way in a car believing she is followed only to result in a miscarriage, one that serves no real purpose in the story.
The best thing about the film is the appearance of British actor Eddie Marsan as expert Dr. Steven Dekosky.

Unfortunately, the film does not have more of him. Marsan shows how acting can be done with the minimum of dialogue.
CONCUSSION’s potential as a film could be better tapped with a script doctor doing an autopsy on the original screenplay.

Movie Review: The Hateful Eight (2015)

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THE HATEFUL EIGHT (USA 2015) Top 10 *****
Directed by Quentin Tarrantino
Starring: Channing Tatum, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Zoe Bell, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern

Review by Gilbert Seah

Review now embargoed until Dec. 24th
 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnRbXn4-Yis

Movie Review: MacBeth (2015)

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MACBETH (USA/UK/France 2015) ***

Directed by Justin Kurzel

Stars: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jack Madigan

Review by Gilbert Seah

It does to seem that long ago (1971) that Roman Polanski, in top cinematic form directed his version of MACBETH with Jon Finch in the title role.  His was an unforgettable MacBeth complete with old nude witches brewing around a cauldron and ending with the MacBeth’s head paraded on a stick.

No such luck in Justin Kurzel’s MACBETH.  (Kurzel is the Australian director best known for THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS, shown at the Toronto International Film Festival years back but not released.)  The troubled King of Scotland does die at the end but his head is intact.  The witches look like normal human beings, more like Scots women, wearing normal garments.  But his version is a Shakespearean film concentrated more on poetry, both verbal and visual than on shock tactics.

Running just under 2 hours, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy is still a lengthy drama, spoken in Old English Shakespearean prose, which takes some minutes before the ear gets accustomed to.  The story that needs not be reiterated in detail, which almost everyone is familiar with, concerns MacBeth and his wife usurping the throne of Scotland from King Duncan (an excellent David Thewlis), after murdering him.  All this is foretold by three witches, and a child in the case of this film, to MacBeth who seems to believe all their predictions.  

It is clear right from the film’s beginning that director Kurzel wants to take the Scottish play out in the open.  The witches appear in the open countryside instead of a room with a cauldron.  The epic battle which MacBeth wins to gain favour with the King of Scotland is expensed in all its gory and bloodiness.  The battle scene looks something right out of 300.  Together with cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, Kurzel keeps most of the action outside thus displaying the ruggedness and stunning beauty of the Scottish terrain and mountains.

One disadvantage of pulling the camera back from the characters results in the audience feeling more distant from MacBeth and Lady MacBeth.  They seem less evil.  When the camera shows the surroundings of the execution of a mother and her kids, Kurzel opts to show sympathy in the face of Lady MacBeth, thus making her more sympathetic and less ambitious and evil, and taking away the main spirit of the MacBeth play.

Performances-wise, every actor dreams of playing the titular roles of MacBeth and Lady MacBeth.  Fassbender and Cotillard can do no harm but they are not exceptional.

Kurzel’s MACBETH works as another adaptation of the Bard’s work, still worth a look and a good film for those studying the play in school.  At least it is not a modern interpretation like the recent HAMLET with Benedict Cumberbatch wearing Jeans thus bastardizing the Hamlet play.  But Polanski’s 1971 adaptation remains my favourite MACBETH.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgH_OnrYlCk