Because Everybody Else Has One

Along with the Grand Budapest Hotel, this was my personal favourite of this year's very solid Oscar lineup. I'm still kind of astounded by this fact. Whiplash is, in no uncertain terms, a brilliant piece of work. It is also, however, a seriously odd duck. It's a music film with a nasty heart; a tense, edge of your seat thriller where most of the action happens behind a drumset and, most unbelievably, an emotionally riveting and thoroughly enjoyable piece of storytelling that is lacking in anything even remotely resembling a single likeable lead character. It's also a film that approaches music not as art but as a grueling, almost martial sport; as something that isn't a mode of expression but as something that's all about mathematical precision and superhuman technical abilities. Most audaciously, it presents a nine-minute long jazz-drum solo as the height of dramatic tension. It's a film of contradictions, paradoxes even, that refuses to adhere to fo...

With the Oscars having just been, now's a pretty good time to take a look at a movie that clearly really, really, really wanted one.  Doesn't mean it deserved one though. Sorry, Ms Anderson. This review is also up at Channel 24 . What it's about After a young woman in her grief-counselling group commits suicide, Claire Bennett finds herself becoming obsessed with the woman's life and suicide, all the while dealing with her own tragedy. What we thought Coming hot on the heels of Still Alice and soon to be followed by The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby and Wild, Cake is – and not to be too flippant about this – yet another story about a woman coming to terms with her own tragic circumstances. Unfortunately, it's also by far the weakest of this current crop of tragi-dramas. As the film itself is weirdly very reluctant to reveal the nature of the tragedy at the centre of its story, I won't reveal it here, but suffice it to say that what...

Sorry it's a bit late but a new Matthew Vaughn film is always worth talking about. Also, there has been a weird bit of controversy to do with the ending of the film, which is something I'll address in the post-script of the actual review. Based on the original comic book series by Mark Millar (Kick Ass, The Ultimates) and Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), Kingsman: The Secret Service is the first major comic book movie of the year. It also sets the bar quite high for for what's to follow it. Director Matthew Vaughn is hardly a stranger to comic book adaptations, as he directed X-Men: First Class and, more pertinently, Kick Ass and, in spite of the existence of a Kick Ass 2 film, Kingsman feels like the real followup to that superhero-deconstructing cult hit. Again teaming up with Kick Ass screenwriter Jane Goldman and working closely with Millar and Gibbons, Kingsman: The Secret Service does for spy films what Kick Ass did for superheroes. It's not simply a deconstruc...

The movie everyone should be talking about this week. This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about Alice Howland is a world-renowned linguistics professor and a loving wife and mother of three grown children but when she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, her familial bonds are tested as she is forced to confront losing everything that makes her who she is. What we thought There are many genuinely exceptional things about Still Alice but perhaps its greatest triumph is that it manages to present a no-bars-held account of a a life being ripped apart by an awful and inescapably debilitating illness that, as a film and as a piece of storytelling, engrosses, rather than repulses the viewer. Compare it to the upcoming Jennifer Aniston vehicle, Cake, for example, whose similarly tough subject matter makes for a truly unpleasant viewing experience. Still Alice, on the other hand, may not be what anyone would call a “fun” film – even ...

The movie that everyone's talking about. 'Nuff said. This review (along with a million-and-one comments) is also up at Channel 24 . What it's about Based on the mega-selling “literary” sensation by E.L. James, Anastasia Steele is a shy university student who becomes sexually and romantically involved with the coldly controlling Christian Grey, an elusive billionaire bachelor whose many dark and kinky secrets threaten to torpedo their blossoming relationship before it even begins. What we thought Cards on the table time: I have not read the vast, vast majority of the Fifty Shades trilogy, nor do I plan on doing so, but I have read a chapter or two out of morbid curiosity and have heard enough about this huge phenomenon (not least of all through hilarious celebrity readings of the sex scenes by the likes of Gilbert Godfrey and George Takei) that I really shouldn't have been surprised by just how uncomfortably wrong-headed its story turned out to be w...

The movie that almost started World War III. Well, not really but it's still funny to think that a silly Seth Rogen flick caused this much of a ruckus. Especially after seeing the thing. This should also be up at Channel 24 at some point and I'l post a link if and when that happens. What it's about Dave Skylark, the charismatic but not too bright anchor of an entertainment news show, is invited for a once-in-a-lifetime interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Before he and his best friend/ producer, Aaron Rapaport, head off for their rendezvous with the infamous “Supreme Leader” in his home country, however, they are enlisted by the CIA to use their almost unheard of close proximity to Jong-un to discreetly assassinate him. What we thought At this point, the Interview is far more famous for the bizarre circumstances in which it was released than anything within the film itself – and, honestly, that's probably for the best. It's no...

Oops, forgot to post this here. Check out the original review at Channel 24 for some tasty hate-comments. I honestly don't know why I reply to these people... Oh yeah I played around with my usual reviewing format, maybe that had something to do with it. What it's about Jupiter Jones, a young woman, who divides her life between her obnoxious immigrant family and her job cleaning toilets, suddenly finds herself the centre of an intergalactic family feud. What we thought My dear, dear Wachowski siblings, what ever are we going do with you? We all know that the Matrix was never as original or (maybe, just maybe) as good as its reputation suggests, but it was still a major event in the history of science fiction cinema that took bits of everything from Grant Morrison's comic books to Philip K Dick's novels to oodles and oodles of Asian cinema (both animated or otherwise) and turned out a product that at least felt like something genuinely new ...

As always, I still have a few films to look at from the past month that I haven't covered in full yet. I should point out that I haven't quite seen everything but only Map to the Stars seems to be a particularly major omission. I hope to catch up with that soon. The Imitation Game. I do almost feel that I should give this film the proper respect it deserves with a full review but, honestly, it actually doesn't really need one. It's neither particularly deep, nor particularly dazzling on a technical level so I don't have too much to say about it. What I can say though, is this: it's a spectacular story, told really, really well with a terrific lead performance from Benedict Cumberbatch and is, in equal measure, heartbreaking and profoundly inspiring. Oh yeah, and quite funny too. This largely true (some liberties have been taken but the main points are true) story of the guy who both created computers as we know them and helped to end the second World War is...