Showing posts with label Barry Levinson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barry Levinson. Show all posts
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Happy Australia Day!
This week's movie has a slight Australian connection with a cameo by our country's most memorable villain John Jarratt... that's all I got. Oh, and got distracted by the Australian Open women's final so that's why it's late. What a game that turned out to be.
And PS: I couldn't get over how much I loved the coat Christoph Waltz is wearing in the pic. Spent a decent part of the movie with it on my mind - I want a cool coat like that! It's amazing!
Django Unchained (MA 15+)
QUENTIN Tarantino can’t help but get his hands dirty, and
throughout his career the thought that a little blood can’t hurt anyone has
largely worked in his favour. As the years go on his filmmaking has
outlandishly caught critics and fans off guard but managed to remain somewhat
mindful. Tarantino’s not one to lay it all out for his audience, as
keeping viewers guessing is, for most directors, their ultimate goal.
Spaghetti westerns of the 1960s are a huge influence of many
filmmakers for their style, choosing to focus more on one character than the
story at hand. Although Tarantino calls this offering a ‘Southern’ for its
setting, it is unmistakeably a tribute to those films of old.
In 1858 Texas, Django (Jamie Foxx) is travelling with his new owners and fellow slaves when dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) finds and buys him as part of a mission to slay the wanted Brittle brothers. It’s pretty obvious you’re going to go with this kooky guy anyway if he’s offering you the chance to help him kill those who separated you and your wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington).
In 1858 Texas, Django (Jamie Foxx) is travelling with his new owners and fellow slaves when dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) finds and buys him as part of a mission to slay the wanted Brittle brothers. It’s pretty obvious you’re going to go with this kooky guy anyway if he’s offering you the chance to help him kill those who separated you and your wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington).
Django and Schultz become a tag team offing the bad guys, as
Schultz offers Django his freedom and assists him in the search for Broomhilda.
Tarantino uses the first half to squarely focus on the duo, establishing a
growing friendship as Schultz, a German who does not understand the need for
slavery, teaches Django about life and takes him under his wing. It’s a
mentor-mentee relationship that turns into more of a brotherhood than is really
let on.
The latter half takes a different turn as Django and Schultz get closer to finding Broomhilda. Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) and butler Stephen (Samuel L Jackson) stand in their way as it becomes a case of business and smooth talking for the duo to get what they want.
Christoph Waltz is excellent as the schmoozer from afar,
Tarantino getting the best out of him once again after his Oscar-winning turn
in Inglourious Basterds. Schultz oozes confidence when getting out of sticky
situations, an impressive free man in a world of slaves, and Waltz is
effortless in his portrayal as a friend and mentor. It should come as no
surprise that Tarantino is so accommodating of the man.The latter half takes a different turn as Django and Schultz get closer to finding Broomhilda. Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) and butler Stephen (Samuel L Jackson) stand in their way as it becomes a case of business and smooth talking for the duo to get what they want.
Not so accommodating for some will be the language. Tarantino refused to let down on his use of the n-word and true to the violent nature of the film, it sticks around unrelentingly. But in a setting two years before the Civil War, you can’t question its accuracy.
Tarantino succeeds stylistically as with his previous films, with flashbacks representing the low-budget quality of the films of his inspiration and engrossing montages to a varied soundtrack.
The ending is the letdown if any, which seems to peter out into something Australians in particular will render bizarre. With Tarantino though, it would be a crime to not expect the unexpected.
Rating: 4/5
*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 26/1/2013
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Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
THE WAR nobody won is still a
touchy subject in the scheme of global issues, devastating a world superpower
as well as millions of innocent Vietnamese. It’s perhaps been the conflict most
documented in terms of the relief brought to troops at the time, with The Sapphires most recently.
Most memorable to international
audiences would undoubtedly be this film, where Robin Williams was pushed past
his role on TV’s Mork and Mindy to an
Oscar nomination and audiences received a heartfelt story about the pressures
of wartime Saigon.
Loosely based on radio DJ Adrian
Cronauer’s real story, Williams plays the man sent to Saigon to relieve the
soldiers of their woes through a segment on Armed Forces radio. On discovering
the extreme control over what’s broadcast, Cronauer begins to make his own
rules and creates a noticeable difference to the soldiers’ morale.
Barry Levinson’s look at the
Vietnam War is a juxtaposition of poignancy and comedy, Williams’ improvised
on-air rambles next to his affection for Trinh (Chintara Sukapatana) and
friendship with her brother Tuan (Tung Thanh Tran). The story of the man who
too often crosses the line of authority is immersive for likeable characters
and flowing imagery.
MISSED LAST WEEK'S CLASSIC REVIEW? See what I thought of Raising Arizona.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Hitchcock (M)
AS anyone in the film industry could tell you, when films
are made about someone’s personal story on any level is when they are truly
revered by peers and fans alike. That, or there’s some morbid curiosity the
public has with them. For Englishman Alfred Hitchcock it’s a mix of both, as
the man known for his difficult nature and unrelenting persistence remains the
master of suspense to this very day.
What many didn’t know for a long time was the extent of influence
from the great director’s wife on his features. Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony
Hopkins) and Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) were a duo connected by a great love
of intelligence, direction and a good story. When he looked for a project she
would bring up suggestions, and when he went against the grain of everyone
banking on the success of his work she was right by his side.
Psycho was the
risk of Hitchcock’s career. His desire to adapt a book so violent horrified
Paramount Pictures, but his standing in the industry made for worthy persuasion.
What became most important to him during the process is rightfully highlighted
as the most intriguing element and would arguably become cinema’s greatest
scene.
Finding Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) was a triumph, but
to Alma it was something of a case she couldn’t win; another Hitchcock blonde
she saw her husband lust after. But what audiences wouldn’t know is that Alma
had her own episode of potential adultery with friend and former colleague
Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston). It is these circumstances that threw Hitchcock
into a state beyond any previous form of frustration professionally and
personally.
John J McLaughlin’s screenplay, based on Stephen Rebello book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of 'Psycho', plays out like a Hitchcock film by pushing the boundaries. Gervasi goes with an unconventional use of breaking the fourth wall at the film’s bookends to not question the gravitas of the legend and the man, but to acknowledge he was in fact achingly real.
Scenes showing Hitchcock observing and interacting with
criminal Ed Gein, on which Psycho was
based, suggests the director himself wasn’t
so sure of his own reality. His imagination would take him to a troubled place
as he immersed himself onto the project; a self-financed one at that. It was
more than just his reputation that could fall.
Director Sacha Gervasi’s first feature film comes four years
after brilliant 2008 music documentary Anvil:
The Story of Anvil. He films Hopkins and Mirren with ease although the two
are strained in their relationship as hidden secrets are kept from one another.
With a cast also including Jessica Biel and Toni Collette,
there is another reflection of Hitchcock’s desire for the best and nothing
less. But the focus on the film shoot
remains largely in the shadow of the personal story at hand, which for fans of
Hitchcock’s work will come as a slight disappointment.
Hitchcock was a man not only driven by work, but also by
love and rediscovering what that meant during Psycho. The morbid fascination Hollywood still has with this man
continues with good reason – in life and death he kept us guessing.
Rating: 3/5
*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 12/1/2013
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Diner (1982)
PROGRESSION from young adulthood to the kind with real responsibility (you know, marriage and babies) is a fact of life, but not all see it that way. Many choose to stay in their own worlds, staunchly of the opinion married life means all hope is gone for a youthful existence.
That idea scares the hell out of six guys in 1959 that reunite in Baltimore for a New Year’s Eve wedding. Eddie (Steve Guttenberg) is unsure of his coming nuptials, but can’t really seek advice from Shrevie (Daniel Stern) - the only one married so far. Shrevie has his own problems with wife Beth (Ellen Barkin), something to come to the attention of gambler student Boogie (Mickey Rourke). Then there’s funnyman Modell (Paul Reiser), likely alcoholic Fenwick (Kevin Bacon) and confused Billy (Timothy Daly).
As the film that launched many of the cast’s careers, its wisecracks are the backbone of the film. They play out through a series of vignettes, disjointed so as to chronicle only the important elements of the week they spend together. The diner at the centre is critical to their wellbeing where they can speak freely and attempt to stay within their bubble.
Eddie’s fiancé is a notable absentee from the story, but for Barry Levinson it works to leave the focus solely on the guys. That makes for some immaturity from them as they get up to laughable antics, but also for memorable comedy in this nostalgic look at the turn of a decade.
*Published in the Mailbox Shopper (Dubbo) on Wednesday 9/1/2013.
MISSED LAST WEEK'S REVIEW? See what I thought of Jack Reacher.
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