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12 Years a Slave (2013)
Brutally honest film which tells a story of slavery from a unique perspective.
By Jonathan L Hermitt
Another courageous effort made by Steve McQueen and John Ridley as they take the true and painful story of Solomon Northup to the big screen. Hollywood is carefully pulling the curtains aside- revealing the dark anecdotes built by their four fathers but also the western culture as a whole. Finally! More bold moves are being taken in mainstream feature film- and McQueen and Ridley are contributing.
Based on a true story and extracted from the book written by Solomon Northup himself- tells the emotionally harsh tale of a free black man who lives with his wife and children in Saratoga, New York and is deceived, kidnapped and sold as a slave in Washington D.C. There begins to tell and show the suffering, fear, cruelty of the slave trade, the cold, malice actions of the slavers but also the struggle of hope for Solomon's return home.
The honesty of the narrative was so strong it elevated the emotive response and the connection with the characters. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Solomon Northup) offered a riveting and grasping performance in each stage of his development; accompanied by the dramatic irony of the entire story, the audience remains empathetic to his betrayal. Sarah Paulson and Michael Fassbender outstanding work also have to be recognised due to not shying away from their character's persona but furthermore, understanding them- creating a tense ambiance by only entering the scene.
This may appear surprising or outlandish although I think that it could have been more honest in terms of the brutality of the violence.
In such harsh scenes Tarantino would have been well suited. Exploring more into the "slave-making" and punishment techniques apart from the cracking of the whip and bat would have truly opened our eyes in the struggle of the Africans. As I feel as a generation we are becoming desensitised by the generic whipping of slaves to a point where we've almost forgetting what these people actually went through and the monumental, ongoing fight to get where we are today. I mention this because the arc of the story felt a little rushed, and missed some substance that one might have received from the actual book.
Nonetheless, the only way this film can be described is honest, hurtful but necessary. It tells the story of slavery from different perspective which to some extent is refreshing. I think this film deserves a lot of credit and criticism and it would be anticipated to be an Oscar nominee or winning film.
Vinyl (2012)
Quirky, cheeky, off-comedy that didn't completely waste my time.
Vinyl- Director Sara Sugarman/ Written Jim Cooper, Sara Sugarman
3/5
By Jonathan L Hermitt
Independent films are somewhat risky where they can either be a cinema gem or confusingly banal.
I took the plunge with an indie comedy and discovered that my precious time hadn't completely been drained, staring into my laptop screen.
In a peculiar genre emerges a small, low budgeted British off-comedy, Vinyl, lead by veteran actors such as Keith Allen (Minto) and Phil Daniels (Johnny Jones) and fresh, upcoming pretty boy Jamie Blackley (Drainpipe). Filmed in land of the Welsh, tells the true story of a 1980s band that ignites a media phenomenon by casting a group of young children to masquerade the hit single of the ageing eighties band. Raising awareness upon the issue of image, capitalising obsessed music labels and the ignorance of consumerism; projecting an almost satire objective.
A cheeky little tale that manages to maintain one's attention throughout; alongside relevant subplots that plays large contributions to the main plot. Occasionally forced the odd chuckle and included spots of crude humour (the best kind) to give it that British edge. A deeper character development wouldn't have hurt the film, although there wasn't much complexity in the characters unless we dug...dug deep.
The acting performances overall were mediocre, however Phil Daniels and Jamie Blackley did stand out from the rest of the group- this could be due to being scripted more speech, but the penultimate scene when both had to dig deep and find those tears was rather indicative of skill. The presence of tears weren't the indication but more the timing and control of the quantity were reflective of the characters and the respected reputation of Phil Daniels and potential of Blackley.
Could it better? Of course.
Regardless, sometimes that is the sacrifice of a low-budget film- needless to say, the film hasn't won the rights to boast although I wouldn't discard it completely.
Baggage Claim (2013)
A weak story resting heavily on weak humour
By Jonathan L Hermitt
After watching this movie, the only thing that should be "claimed" is a refund.
Director-writer David E Talbert provided a creatively idle rom-com starring Paula Patton (Montana Moore); as a flight attendant who under the pressure of her mother (Jennifer Lawrence) and the wedding engagement of her younger sister (Lauren London) somehow finds herself in a position where she has to locate and bring a fiancé to her sister's rehearsal dinner in thirty days. In doing so, she uses her friends to set up an arguably illegal "spy network" to find out which of her ex- boyfriends are taking which flights- so she can manipulate herself aboard and hopefully start again with these men.
She wears the long, straight rom-com hair of ignorance with the smile of innocence which I like to call a ritual of rom-com. The story was naturally predictable adhering to every single rom-com textbook story model and so heavily resting on weak humour. Alongside the contemporary traditional female friend and gay male friend duo (similar to Devil's Wear Prada) it's one large equation for mediocre...if that.
I'm not particularly familiar with Talbert and this is the first film I've seen of his, regardless, in this film it's strongly indicative that he's chosen quantity over quality.
Only God Forgives (2013)
Very artistic, may be boring and uncomfortable for many
You know when a film is going to be special when it's booed at the Cannes festival. But it isn't all due to Refn's work; he just forgets to offer a decoder along with it. The self-claimed pornographer has created a film that indulges itself in violence, sexual intensity and ambiguity, catering only to the selected few that are either actually artistically cultured or are pretending to be artistically cultured.
Similar to Drive, it stars Ryan Gosling as Julian the emotionally scarred older brother of Billy (Tom Burke) who's murdered by the father of the 12 year old girl, who he brutally raped and killed. Julian then sets out to avenge his brother but spares Billy's killer when he discovers what Billy had done and that judgement day's advocate, a policeman named Chang was involved. However, the domineering mother and empress of a drug empire isn't so empathetic and condones the actions of Billy and demands the killers head "on a f?*@ing platter". Although soon to come, her actions will be judged and Chang and his merciless blade will be at the ready.
The story has a melodramatic style in a sense that the tempo is slow at first and then there's action...then it's slow... then the action etc and to be fair for some reason it worked well in Drive, but it didn't have the same stimulating effect in this film but was actually draining. Refn has created more of "art noir" film and to some extent this has made it difficult to follow; along with the sensitive topics he's chosen to explore, to no surprise has alienated the mass consumer and forced them, no "us" to experience an awkward encounter of strange, domineering sexual fetishes and inevitable violence.
The only aspects of the film that were appreciated and convinced me that it had potential were the contrasted colouring of the tinted of red and black (representing blood, darkness or something else only Refn knows) and the daring one- liners like "do you wanna fight?" Perhaps I'm one of the few that aren't artistically cultured enough to appreciate this particular film, which is probably the basis of my response at the end of the film being equivalent to at the beginning...bemused.
Man of Tai Chi (2013)
Keanu Reeves shouldn't be allowed behind a video camera...
Keanu Reeves's success as actor in The Devil's Advocate, Speed and of The Matrix, has caused to find himself behind both the camera as well as in front of it in his new film Man of Tai Chi. But success an actor isn't always an indication of the quality of the art and this film is not only a strong confirmation of that, but also that Reeves's quality of acting is not antithetical to his directing...dire.
Reeves continues to offer us his signature stilted performance when playing Donako Mark, a sadistic, powerful head of China's largest security firms who organises a lucrative underground fight club, where wealthy clients pay a considerable amount to watch martial artist fight to the death.
Thirsty for fresh blood, Donako searches and discovers an ambitious martial artist Tiger Chen (played by himself) on a commercial, televised competition. After a failed attempt at convincing Tiger Chen to participate in the underground fight club, Donako then goes on to manipulate him to join. Followed by a gradual transformation of Chen's character, as his ego leads him to embark along a dark path of martial arts.
Lacking substance, but abundant in superficiality the entire depth of the story and characters is weak and lazy. Reeves was obviously trying to relive the glory days of The Matrix era as he purely focused on the one-to-one combats, (making up to 90% of the film) but unfortunately ignored the development of both characters, Chen and Donako. By exploring deeper into the Chen relationships with his master (Yu Hai) and perhaps even the with the female lawyer, Qingsha (Qing Ye) it may of brought some authenticity to Chen's character. Simplicity. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. In this case, it didn't.
The story is ever so basic and most certainly doesn't take a film connoisseur to predict the outcomes. It takes on the generic narrative structure and to be fair has been used in some great films, but you don't have to be so blatant!
This film is very rich in action, so one needn't worry about not seeing flying kicks, perilous punches accompanied with special effects. But that's as entertaining it gets. Glamorised and glorified violence that's acceptable for children. Along with the banal script and cliché tag-lines it closely resembles a video game. However Tekken has a better story.
Keanu Reeves, you will always be seen as Neo, a human-like alien but most importantly an actor...A stilted actor. And in the future, we don't want to see you behind the camera. You should be embarrassed my friend!
World War Z (2013)
Had the potential to be much worse...
Not bad for a glamorous zombie flick considering the monstrous budget. Riding on waves of tension opposed to gore and squeamish nightmares (to the disappointment of sadistic degenerates), World War Z is an intelligent, thrilling, and scary zombie apocalypse movie and has become a strong reminder to never to be too hasty when writing off pop- commercial films.
"Really?" you say?
Really. Along with Pitt's glossy blonde bangs and the floating re-shoots and re-writes rumours, it didn't look promising. But when Foster is handed $200 million budget, instantly one assumes that the film is going to be mediocre; simply because no film should cost $200 million to produce unless it somehow allows the audience to experience it in a brand new dimension. Instead what this audacious capital investment did bring, were zombies that don't stroll like their under the influence, but sprint, jump and climb to a point where they swarm across the landscape like a plague of insects, creating surreal imagery.
An ageing Brad Pitt stars as Gerry Lane, a father, husband and a former United Nations investigator whose life seems content until the world is struck by an infectious pandemic, ironically turning humans into energetic, mindless zombies. After scarcely escaping from the anarchy with his family and a newly orphaned boy to a safe zone on a government harbour of an aircraft carrier, Lane is left with no choice but to leave his family and is sent on a mission to investigate the disease. What follows is the treacherous worldwide journey where Lane's bravery and hope for the human race is brutally tested.
The story and character development was flaccid and linear, and at times becomes disconnected with the background of the characters (to which is almost non-existence); so I recommend reading the novel An Oral History of Zombie War to get a deeper insight of lost sections of the film's story which has clearly been done for the purpose of entertainment and Hollywood conventions.
Don't be expecting too much because it most definitely, won't deliver. Although World War Z had the potential to be a total disaster, solely Brad Pitt's name saved this film from being eaten alive. Nevertheless it's worth a watch. The suspense will get you.