The Help Review

Tate Taylor’s adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s novel ‘The Help’ is a big puddle of emotion elegantly crafted into a very watchable film. I have to admit it wasn’t a film that necessarily appealed to me at first, however it’s a very accessible and no frills experience. 

The story comes from Stockett’s 2009 novel about a budding reporter, Skeeter who finds her first story in the lives of the hired ‘help’. The story is set in the early 1960’s where all the hired help were black woman who were oppressed and treated no more than slaves. Skeeter follows the lives of two woman she knows; Aibileen and Minny who struggle daily against segregation and the wrath of their white female masters. 

The film goes for the heartstrings and it makes no bones about it. Director Tate Taylor builds us up with loveable characters and takes his time to gently knock us down with their tragedy. 

Emma Stone plays a convincing Skeeter whose character makes an interesting journey from naive graduate to an employable writer. Her affection and hope for Aibileen and Minny is subtle and touching. There’s plenty of comedy provided from Octavia Spencer’s sassy Minny, who only just avoids falling into caricature and cliche. 

However it’s Jessica Chastain’s unstable Celia Foote that captured my heart. Foote is a troubled woman who finds herself alienated from her new found social class but finds friendship in her hired help Minny. Chastain’s portrayal is authentic and heart-warmingly funny. 

This film is a great story that gives a warm fuzzy feeling inside...

However for me it raises questions about the nature of emotion in film and why as an audience member we become so involved. Is it the story or the film that creates the emotion? I would argue that in this case it’s the story that creates the emotion and the film is a medium and support for it. Does this mean it’s a good film then? I would argue that it’s doing it’s job well as being a medium for storytelling but in terms of looking at film making as a craft and art form it comes across as being very middle of the road. 

The Rum Diary

Johnny Depp likes Hunter S. Thompson, he’s previously starred in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and he enjoys talking about the writer at any given opportunity. So it’s not really a surprise that he’s starred in another film version of Thompson’s work as well as taking on producing duties. For some reason the American actor creates buzz around what ever he does even when it’s not very good. Take 2010’s The Tourist where he starred alongside siren, Angelina Jolie; a sure hit? Probably one of the worst films I’ve encountered with some of the stiffest acting ever seen on screen.  

The Rum Diary is boringly predictable, achingly slow at times and smug in a way that makes any attempt at comedy cringingly awful. 

I wanted to see this as the collaboration between Depp, Bruce Robinson ( dir. Withnail and I 1986) and Thompson’s text enticed me. The film had such potential but it just seemed to fall flat right from the off. Depp plays Paul Kemp an alcoholic journalist  who gets posted in Puerto Rico. Cue Depp pulling Captain Jack faces as he enjoys the local liquor. I stifled a yawn as a love interest is introduced in the form of Chenault (Amber Heard) a stunning blonde wiggling around in a bikini.

But oh no wait....she’s married to Aaron Eckhart’s Sanderson a shady businessman etc etc. 

My main issue with this film is why should I care? As a viewer I just felt like an outsider, there was nothing inviting about the film it just trudges along. You get the feeling neither Depp nor Robinson was particularly bothered about whether anyone watched it or not.  A sort of Thompson appreciation society. 

The latest pictures to emerge of Depp see him dressed as Tonto in the forthcoming film The Lone Ranger. I can see Jerry Bruckheimer now, shouting from behind the camera ‘Can you do that one again Johnny, but make it more ‘Captain Jack’ . Say something about rum.’ 

Let’s hope a new Tim Burton film sees a return to form. 

Review of Drive

The thing about this film is, I just couldn’t get it out of my head for the next two hours. Usually that’s something we equate with music not film, but in the case of Drive that is the effect it had on me. It got under my skin and infiltrated me in a way music does and it was all down to the atmosphere it created. Watching Drive is like a long summer evening after a barbeque, when your still a little tipsy and then suddenly out of nowhere a thunderstorm erupts. 

Nicolas Winding Refn’s film is so aesthetically pleasing that he really could have got away with anything in it. The music by Kavinsky and the use of the colour purple gives the film an eighties quality that is very Prince circa Red Corvette era. It’s these choices by Refn that give the opening of the film an exciting feel, as a viewer you immediately become attached to Ryan Gosling’s ‘Driver’. You don’t really understand who he is but when he meets Carey Mulligan’s ‘Irene’, you sense the beginnings of a love story and that everything will be all right. 

Refn said eloquently on BBC breakfast ‘Violence is like fucking...it’s all about the build up’. As the film progresses it emerges that this opening with it’s cool eighties soundtrack, cars and edgy protagonist has all been one massive tease, suddenly the film kicks off into a violent orgy of shootings and beatings. Yet Refn continues to titillate his audience with that soundtrack and all the things we were turned on by at the beginning of the film.  ‘Driver’s’ varsity-style jacket remains on him throughout, gradually getting more and more soaked in blood. 

What Refn does is give us something stylish and sexy to entice us and then he sabotages it right in front of our eyes. We see our hero do things we could never of imagined he was capable of. I have to admit that at this point in the film I got slightly frustrated with it, it reminded me of the Cohen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men where things just get a little confusing and dragged out. But NCFOM didn’t have the atmosphere that Drive has, so it didn’t stay with me as long. 

I turned the film off feeling a little unsatisfied, yet the mood of the film remained within me, so whether I enjoyed the film or not seems irrelevant as it certainly seemed to have had an affect on me. After hearing interviews with Refn it is clear he knew what it was he was making and so I find it hard to simply dismiss this film as violent. 

If you like Tarantino then you’ll love this film and probably not worry about the violence. For those of you who are little more squeamish or have issues with cinematic violence, I’d still say give it a go as this isn’t violence for violence sake. 

The Ides of March Review

Let’s not beat around the bush here, American politics and the hype around it’s inhabitants could be likened to a circus. It’s the whole Campaign trail thing that being British we don’t get or understand. It makes sense in America because it’s such a big country and divided by state lines but from the outside it just comes across a bit creepy, ‘Roll up, roll up come and see the latest god loving, silver haired pillock with unnatural white dentures.’ 

So as a British viewer of George Clooney’s ‘The Ides of March’ I’m intrigued to go behind the scenes of one of these campaigns, to see into the world of the consultants pulling the strings. What this film does is very clever! It takes it’s audience into the heart of the circus and although it’s showing us something that we’re all guessing is going on anyway (cover ups blackmail etc.), the film gives us something human. That’s the thing these campaigns always miss, they go for the spin and the staged photos, but the rawness of what it takes to be a politician is tidily tucked away, just off to the side of the stage. That’s where this film takes place, at the side of the stage with the political consultants puppeteering the whole operation. Steven is one of Governor Morris’ consultants and he becomes caught up in the fast moving and unforgiving world of the ‘campaign’. Ryan Gosling’s Steven is smart and suave yet his unshakable faith in Morris reveals a hidden naivety to this character.  He is warned by a reporter that his boss Morris (Clooney) will ‘let him down eventually’ because he’s a politician and ‘they all do sooner or later’. 

There’s some first rate acting from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as they become embroiled in an odd political triangle with Steven stuck in the middle. However it’s the influence of a seductive intern that acts as the trigger for the drama in the film. Her after hours shenanigans leads to all sorts of trouble. The result of this produces a hefty dichotomy for poor old Steven. Will faith alone get Morris to the White House?

If you’re into political thrillers and have enjoyed any of Borgen lately then this one is for you. 

Chronicle Review

Science Fiction has long been obsessed with normal people becoming overnight superheroes after gaining superpowers through a freak accident. Radioactive spiders, fallen space ships and genetic experiments gone wrong have been the catalyst for many a graphic novel turned blockbuster. So what can Josh Trank’s new film Chronicle bring to this big and well used table?

Well for a start a beguiling film that features hand-held cameras, no scientific spiel and a serendipitous absensce of a soundtrack. 

Chronicle is shot on hand-held cameras, which gives the film a gritty naturalism usually absent in Sci-Fi thrillers. Think Cloverfield bumping into X-Men in a cinema playing a US Teen comedy. The main protagonist Andrew films much of the action on his new camera, capturing his mother’s terminal illness, father’s abuse and high school drama. However the footage gets interesting when he stumbles across a mysterious object in the ground while at a party with his older and cooler cousin Matt and high school jock Steve. The find has a profound effect on the three characters when they discover they have developed incredible powers including flight, telekinesis and supernatural speed. 

The POV style plus superb acting from Dane Dehaan and co make this discovery believable and watchable for the audience. You get a sense of this being a natural response from teenagers suddenly finding out they have new superpowers. The plot darkens as they learn to control and strengthen their powers. Andrew’s dysfunctional home life begins to affect the way he uses and manipulates his new found kudos. 

This film is clever and unpredictable right up until the last twenty minutes when unfortunately it loses some of it’s maturity. The intelligent progression of character and plot suddenly end in a drawn out hollywood style smash em up up fight and things get a bit boring. 

Obstensibly if you’re a Sci-Fi fan this film will probably impress you, however if you’re yet to be convinced, you might want to wait for the next Trank film. 

The Descendants

We’re used to seeing George Clooney as an affable rogue in films like Ocean’s Eleven. The Descendants sees him toning down his charisma in order to play Matt King, a Honolua lawyer and land land owner whose world is turned upside down after the revelation of his wife’s infidelities. As if that wasn’t hard enough the news emerges while she’s in a coma after a boating accident. 

This is one of those films where many people will come away going ‘but nothing happens...’ These are the kind of films I love because they’re atmospheric and the story is subtle. Throughout the duration of this film the complexities of family relationships are woven alongside cultural and historical responsibilities within a community. 

Heavy stuff...

Well yes... but the script is full of humour, and life affirming character interaction. It’s beautifully shot and there’s a great soundtrack as well. 

This is one of those films that really is a must see. 

However it’s not really doing anything new or exciting, so part of me asks the question would I see it again? Well er maybe...I don’t know, it reminds me of Revolutionary Road in that respect. It was a great film but I’m not convinced it’s a classic.