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I Think We're Alone Now 2008
Sean Donnelly’s study of two infatuated fans isn’t enlightening or endearing, it’s just plain mean-spirited.
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Total Recall 2012
A surprisingly slavish remake of a film I enjoyed but never mustered any long-term fondness for. This, like its predecessor, fails to do anything useful with the “am I dreaming or is this reality” dilemma that befalls the central Farrell/Schwarzenegger character, arguably wringing even less from it than Verhoeven did. At least his tongue was in his cheek.
The production team admirably apes Blade Runner by way of Minority Report, and there’s plenty of big dumb action set pieces to…
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Dredd 2012
Not even the great Avon Barksdale can elevate this beyond a gritty, humourless and mostly pretty ordinary shoot-’em-up. Visually it veers from inconsistently graded to shoddily composited, and its gimmicky slow-mo effects seem a gratuitous excuse to incorporate the latest high-speed gadget in saturated technicolor.
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Zero Dark Thirty 2012
Kathryn Bigelow’s fictionalised account of the CIA’s decade-long hunt for America’s most-wanted aggressor trades factual accuracy for cinematic play-by-plays, but does so with minimal posturing and an even-handed approach to depictions of the US government’s less-appetising foreign policies.
The second act lags, and the plaudits for Jessica Chastain’s showy heroine might be unfounded, but as the final thirty minutes unfolds — a gripping tour de force without fanfare or exploitation — these blemishes soon fade. It’s a flawless, respectful conclusion; Bin Laden’s slain figure depicted only as a blurred background or fleeting digital camera preview.
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The Master 2012
PTA’s long-awaited and uncompromising chronicle of cultdom, the elusive nature of power, and the deep need for acceptance in the wake of debilitating post-war angst is as over-stuffed with on-screen talent as it is lacking in coherent engagement. Hoffman and Phoenix lay themselves bare, but are hampered by a failure to fulfil a basic tenet of the medium: there isn’t a soltitary developed character for which to feel an ounce of identification or sympathy.
Phoenix is a marvel as he…
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Holy Motors 2012
An inscrutable premise that takes the viewer’s initial intrigue and slowly strangles it to death.
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The Loneliest Planet 2012
A masterclass in observational cinema that will try your patience even as you’re glued to watching almost nothing happen. For me, half an hour shorter and it might have been something quite special.
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Argo 2012
An austere thriller that occasionally recalls Roger Donaldson’s No Way Out, in impeccably authentic brown and biege. Affleck helms admirably, but can’t avoid favouring his own character’s sentimental backstory over those of the foreign diplomats central to his plot. Draws some amusing parallels between the CIA and Hollywood (Arkin and Goodman are superb representing the latter), two hegemonies in the business of playing make believe.
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Life of Pi 2012
Ang Lee delivers to the screen Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning parable about the nature of faith and the art of storytelling with an assured hand and an inspired eye. The tone and palette are established in the opening titles, where names slide playfully between the flora and fauna of a Pondicherry zoo, and over the next two hours this essentially unfilmable tale unfolds into life.
One minor highlight: a bird’s-eye shot in which the edges of the frame pull in…
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Beasts of the Southern Wild 2012
I’m not sure I understand the criticisms of this film; it’s as if we can no longer tell stories about marginalised characters without somehow being accused of clumsy symbolism or of misrepresenting an entire people by recounting the turbulent tale of a father and daughter.
For a first-timer, directing two stars with no prior acting experience, this is an assured debut. The post-Katrina Louisiana bayou — dubbed “The Bathtub” and captured in lush 16mm — is bleak and beautiful, the relationships real and reactive, and the spiritual elements perfectly weighted. In Dirk’s words, I too was unprepared for this and I loved it.
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Indie Game: The Movie 2012
Any film about makers, particularly one that depicts the highs and lows of crafting projects out of nothing more than pixels and imagination, is likely to be an endeavour close to my heart.
But while Indie Game can be applauded for bringing an artist’s eye to what might otherwise have been pedestrian material, its odd quartet of interview subjects (selected by the film’s directors following several hundred hours of filming in and around GDC) provides somewhat of a mixed bag…
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Spirited Away 2002
Miyazaki at his supreme best, all full of beautifully realised little details: levitating frogs, sparks flicking from a furnace, discombobulated heads, the shape water makes as it arcs off a character’s head. Chihiro’s story of personal development is expertly entwined with a wider economic and environmental message, but it’s the fantastical visuals and melancholy score that entirely steal the show.
