Posts Tagged reviews
The Messenger: jmag review
Here’s my apologetic review of The Messenger from the latest issue of triple j magazine. I somehow missed this entirely when it was playing in cinemas, and it turned out to be much more interesting than expected. (Also – just in case it kills you like it did me – hey, that’s Eli from Freaks and Geeks!)
THE MESSENGER
Director: Oren Moverman
Starring: Ben Foster, Samantha Morton, Woody Harrelson
Do you hate your job? Well, suck it up. In The Messenger, injured soldier Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) is assigned to one of the worst jobs on earth: the Casualty Notification Team that informs the next of kin that a loved one has died in combat. They’re tough, tattooed soldiers who stick expressionlessly to a script. (Rule #1: no hugging.)
Will is taught the ropes by an eccentric mentor, played by Woody Harrelson as 50% laid-back charmer, 50% snorting bull. He’s good, but I was more amazed by Ben Foster’s jittery performance as Ben. Even when he sweetly connects with a new widow (Samantha Morton), he never seems less than dangerous. Director Oren Moverman was a writer first (including penning the Bob Dylan kinda-but-not-really biopic I’m Not There) and he doesn’t rely on battle flashbacks for instant drama. He just lets the characters tell their stories in long, painful takes.
If you skipped The Messenger because you were expecting another preachy anti-war weepy – it’s not. It’s unpredictable, moving, often mesmerising.
Other reviews this month: a rave for Aronofsky’s Black Swan, a boo for Romero’s Survival of the Dead, and a suspicious ‘huh?’ for Catfish.
Issue #47 on sale now.
Blue Valentine: jmag review
Here’s my review of Blue Valentine from the latest issue of triple j magazine. You want to know how shattered I was by this film? I didn’t cry while I was watching it. That’d be too easy. Almost any film can make me cry if the music swells just right. After Blue Valentine, though, I only started crying afterwards. In public.
BLUE VALENTINE
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams
Be warned: Blue Valentine will make you want set fire to the concept of love and bury its ashes where they’ll never be found.
Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) are a young married couple struggling to keep their relationship from falling apart. These painful sequences are intercut with scenes of them first falling in love, six years earlier.
It sounds sappy, I know, but Blue Valentine makes magic by picking the exact perfect moments to cut back and forth. It also has some of the best sex scenes in years. I don’t mean the most arousing – jeez, settle down, perverts! I mean sex scenes that show you things about who the characters really are and what they really feel.
It’s a testament to Gosling and Williams’ acting that I believed every second they’re on screen. It’s always weird to praise actors for ‘honest’ performances. They’re acting! They’re pretending to be people they’re not! Blue Valentine felt true enough, though, to successfully break my heart.
Other reviews this month: Rare Exports and Somewhere in cinemas; Me and Orson Welles and Breaking Bad season three on DVD.
Issue #46 on sale now.
The American: jmag review
Here’s my review of Anton Corbijn’s new film, The American, from the latest triple j magazine. Sorry, Joy Division fans: I liked this a whole lot more than Control.
THE AMERICAN
Director: Anton Corbijn
Starring: George Clooney, Irina Björklund, Paolo Bonacelli
They say that that history repeats first as tragedy, then as farce. The American has it backwards. After an attempt on his life, hitman Jack (George Clooney) goes into hiding in a remote Italian village. Sound familiar? It’s almost a mirror of the black comedy In Bruges, but this time it’s deadly serious.
Anton Corbijn’s first feature was the Joy Division biopic Control and while it was very, very pretty, it was emotionally cold. This time, the iciness suits The American’s brutal antihero. He drinks wine with a local priest, prepares for an upcoming assassination, grows attached to a local prostitute – and, slowly, remembers he has a soul. Playing a man who’s almost entirely unreadable means Clooney has to fight down his usual sparkly-eyed charm, but he shines when his hitman’s shell starts to crack.
The American isn’t much of a thriller. It’s slow, thoughtful, and happily pretentious. If you pretend it’s a foreign film from the 1960s, though, you’ll be primed to enjoy its excellent slow-burn drama.
Other reviews this month: the Australian drama Summer Coda in cinemas, and Fringe season two and the baby-horror Grace on DVD.
Issue #45 on sale now.
Repo Men: jmag review
Here’s my review of the odd sci-fi Repo Men, just in time for its DVD release, from this month’s triple j magazine. (It’s our horror-themed issue, which happened to give me the perfect excuse to pester Joe Dante about my favourite ever zombie film, Homecoming. Check it out.) But anyway…
REPO MEN
Directed by: Miguel Sapochnik
Starring: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga
Country: USA
In the near future, you’ll be able to extend your life by buying artificial organs. If you can’t make the massive repayments, a repo man – like Jude Law’s Remy – will break into your home, cut you open, and take them back.
That’s the premise of the sci-fi Repo Men, from first-time feature director Miguel Sapochnik. And while it’s great to see Jude Law embracing his receding hairline, his performance is pretty dull at first. His snarky voiceover is unnecessary, and every scene with his family is dead weight.
As Remy has a crisis of conscience, though, the movie develops its black sense of humour. Remy’s co-worker (Forest Whitaker) leaves a BBQ to “get more meat”, for example, and later there’s a bloody sort-of-sex scene that’ll make your jaw drop.
Repo Men borrows its future noir aesthetics from Blade Runner, and its big fight scene from Old Boy. It’s so indebted to other films that it’s like its own characters: mostly transplanted parts, but still capable of pumping blood.
Other reviews this month: The Girl Who Played With Fire, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and the doco Food, Inc.
Issue #44 on sale now.