Film Reviews by GI

Excellent performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Jonah Hill lift this addiction drama and story of redemption but the pacing is random and some scenes are somewhat tedious and a bit lame although interspersed with some really impressive ones. This is the true story of John Callahan, who in his twenties is a drop out and alcoholic with few if any redeeming features. He's rather pathetic and early scenes of his desperation for an early morning drink show the depths to which he has sunk. A binge night with a guy (Jack Black) he meets at a party ends in a car accident and John paralysed and seriously injured. The film charts his recovery, his continued alcoholism and mistreatment under the guidance of Donny (Hill), a wealthy gay former alcoholic, who turns out to be rather kind and wise despite his challenging personality. Eventually John, struggling to stay sober, finds redemption in art, drawing funny cartoons that are adult and controversial but gain a following. Director Gus Van Sant tries various mechanisms to tell this story including some jarring flashbacks which are difficult to follow at times, indeed you have to watch Phoenix's hairstyle to ensure you know which period of his life you're watching. Once this is abandoned the film settles into an interesting story with some engaging scenes of Callahan's struggle exemplified with Phoenix' performance but there are long gaps where the film feels drawn out and a little dull. The romance with Rooney mara's character seems a little too contrived and unconvincing too. Overall though a drama worth checking out.

An interesting science fiction film from the 1970s that oozes originality but fails in pacing and has an anticlimactic conclusion. An anomaly in space results in ants beginning to communicate across their different species and gain advanced intelligence. This goes unnoticed except by a British scientist who, assisted by a communications expert, sets up a laboratory in the Arizona desert to study the ants who have built strange towering structures there. They are forced to rescue a local girl after her parents are killed and they are soon faced with subtle yet effective attacks as the ants infiltrate their supposedly secure unit. Nigel Davenport is the committed scientist, obsessive and prepared to take risks, Michael Murphy his assistant and Lynne Frederick as the beautiful girl who finds she has a role to play in the ants' plans. This has some exceptional cinematography in the insect sequences and all completed with real ants. To that extent this is an impressive idea but it fails to adequately fulfil a narrative story leaving you feeling underwhelmed but it's a film that has some good ideas so it's worth checking out if you've never seen it.

Director Wes Anderson's visual and storytelling style is so familiar from his previous films it hardly resonates when watching his latest which is contrived, elegant and and delightfully eccentric but seems a little lacklustre when compared with some of his previous films. This has some really funny moments and the stellar cast, many in one dimensional cameos, highlights the esteem in which Anderson is held as actors queue up to work with him. The likes of Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and others all make appearances here. But the heart of this film is Mia Threapleton who plays novice nun, Liesl. She is the daughter of über wealthy Zsa Zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), who has a nasty plan to control food and agriculture in fictitious country Phoenicia by using slave labour and he wants Liesl to be the heir to his empire. She's reluctant but seems destined to inherit this poison chalice. Behind the scenes there are attempts to assassinate Korda and sabotage his plans. There's a screwball vibe to this film and it pushes its absurdity throughout as it all rattles along amiably enough in it's rectilinear visual style with some funny performances including Michael Cera as a spy hopelessly in love with Liesl. Daft, strange, funny and yet vaguely less than some of Anderson's more celebrated films.

A compelling true story enhanced by a committed performance from Helena Bonham Carter aided by Hilary Swank. This tells the story of a landmark case in American medical law history involving Eleanor Reise (Bonham Carter), a woman who had suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life and spent various times in psychiatric hospitals. She decided to challenge the administration of antipsychotic drugs without her consent, drugs with significant side effects that sometimes caused more harm than good. She hires workaholic lawyer, and former psychiatric nurse, Colette (Swank) who aided by a colleague, takes on the powerhouse medical profession to fight the case. An interesting story but also one about dedication, love and friendship as Colette and Eleanor bond despite their profoundly different personalities. A moving film too and well worth checking out.

This adventure remake of the far superior 1972 original, The Poseidon Adventure, is visually exciting with impressive CGi, loads more explosions and it rattles along at a heck of a speed but lacks the character development that makes the first film so good. There was reputedly some major cuts to the film which may have enhanced this aspect and it would be interesting to see the film with those cuts reinserted. However here we have a luxury ocean liner hit by a huge 'rogue' wave and turned upside down during the New Year's Eve party. An intrepid group of passengers defy the staff and decide to try and get to the propeller shaft and hopefully outside. The journey is through a labyrinth of mangled corridors and rooms, flooded passageways littered with corpses and with random explosions. It has its exciting and tense moments and Josh Lucas and Kurt Russell are the leaders who take many risks to get the group through. Richard Dreyfuss costars too. It's all perfectly watchable but ultimately goes for effects to deliver it's story.

An interesting study of the American machismo this tragicomedy written, directed and starring Jim Cummings is at times zany, cringy and tense. He plays Jim, a Texas police officer with a porn star moustache as if to advertise his macho image, he works out, does martial arts and has been decorated for bravery yet he's socially and emotionally inept. He thinks he's cool but his family and colleagues see the barely controlled rage lurking inside him. This all erupts when his mother dies with the films opening an unedited scene of Jim's eulogy at her funeral where he loses his thread and acts out an embarrassing dance when the CD player fails to work. With his wife divorcing him and seeing full custody of their daughter on whom he dotes his life gradually falls apart. It's a committed performance from Cummings who made this film on a shoestring budget although you wouldn't notice. It's a clever character study subverting the American idea of the male, it's flawed but certainly an interesting indie film.

Steven Spielberg's latest alien conspiracy thriller is entertaining although a little too earnest at times as it mixes deadly seriousness with a sort of twinkle of the eye mischief vibe. For the most part, once you get settled in, this leaps into a Hitchcockian style chase film, very North By Northwest (1959), as Josh O'Connor's Paul and his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) are being chased by some sinister Government agents over a bag of tapes and a strange artefact (the film's macguffin) that Paul has stolen from a secret Government laboratory, run by a snarly Colin Firth, where he once worked. These chases are quite relentless and Paul and Jane prove very adept at getting away. Meanwhile, TV weather presenter Margaret (Emily Blunt, on fine form) is at home when she becomes entranced after a bird flies into her apartment and suddenly appears to have mind reading capabilities and speaking various languages without realising she's doing it. All these characters eventually unite in the story where it's revealed that they have various forms of evidence of alien visits and cover ups led by Firth & Co who are desperate none of it gets out. Paul and Margaret are determined the world must know! For the most part this is all very Spielberg, extremely well executed set pieces mainly the chases, great special effects as you'd expect, but a story that feels a little laboured and it has the Spielberg themes surrounding childhood experience, a child's imagination and comments on religion. The message that the world will unite in some harmony over the revelations the narrative builds to is a little too saccharin for me as I doubt it would at all. This is a film that fans of Spielberg's earlier, and better, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) will recognise as similar in story. That's not to say it's a bad thing as here this director proves he is still front and centre of big, entertaining cinema and it's certainly a film that is enjoyable if a little underwhelming.

A moody, enigmatic drama that is very stylish and with it's elements of fantasy attached it is both bewildering and intriguing even though it's narrative ideas mask an horrendous crime and it's not until the final scenes that the shock of it hits you. Luna (Julia Jedlikowska) is a 12 year old girl besotted with her classmate Guiseppe (Gaetano Fernandez). They share a kind of young love nurtured by secret adventures in the nearby forest. But when Guiseppe inexplicably disappears Luna struggles with the wall of silence that is drawn over him by his family, the school and the authorities. In fact the film reveals that Guiseppe has been abducted by the mafia as his father has been informing on them to the police. Luna decides she will find him at all costs but her search is an emotional one as she fantasises about the Guiseppe she remembers but his real self is gradually withering under the confinement conditions. There's a sense of a supernatural connection that Luna is drawn to as she become increasingly obsessed by Guiseppe's location and the need to be with him. A strange film, almost a Sicilian Love Story, with a nice visual style and a sense of mystery that does dissipate as the film runs on a little too long. Interesting though.

An action science fiction that is shamelessly derivative of the Alien and Predator franchises and essentially ends up as a chase story through a labyrinthine alien spaceship. It's endless shooting, little character, plot holes galore and limited narratively. A group of Special Forces soldiers, all very gung-ho, are mid battle against some insurgents when they are suddenly whisked aboard an alien craft. Waking up with all their weapons and kit intact, including endless ammo, they soon find they're in some dark, industrial styled alien structure and have to face down some toothy aliens, the sort where men in a suit eases the budget! Along the way they find a couple of Russian women including Linda Hamilton and decide to take on the nasty creatures. It's a dull story really and I did smirk at the little drops of the Alien soundtrack that are sneaked in.

A heartfelt film from director Paul Greengrass that recreates the horrific attack that took place in 2011 in Oslo, Norway when a Nazi radical, Anders Breivik, exploded a car bomb in central Oslo and then, disguised as a policeman, went to a small island just outside the city where a teenage summer camp was in progress and indiscriminately shot as many of the campers and staff as he was able before being arrested. Filmed and presented in Greengrass's well known documentary style this is at times harrowing especially the scenes of the actual killings as the desperate kids try to hide and are routinely hunted down by Breivik, played here in a cold and frightening performance by Anders Danielsen Lie. Greengrass doesn't dwell long on the attack but then looks in some depth at the aftermath following several key characters including one boy who seriously wounded has to rebuild his life and later testify in the subsequent trial. Interestingly his brother survived physically unscathed although his mental health and the issue of 'survivor syndrome' is not explored thoroughly enough. Indeed this is a key failing of the film in that it spreads itself a bit too thin at times. The film also explores the dilemma of Breivik's lawyer, selected personally by the killer, and who morally does his duty to defend his client while wrestling with his personal feelings and contempt for him. There is also, again not explored deeply enough, the hatred that the lawyer receives just for doing his job. There is also a look at the political ramifications of the attack. Some aspects here are extremely moving and portrayed while others leave more questions than are answered and I've no doubt there are issues with truth, facts and omissions of what actually occurred on that horrific day. However, this is a gripping drama for the most part and very well acted by the cast. It's certainly worth checking out.

A film about jigsaw puzzles may not sound very cinematic but here under the detailed direction of Marc Turtletaub and the warm, beautiful performance from Kelly Macdonald it's a real delight. A family drama that is gentle, heartwarming and elegant. Agnes (Macdonald) is a suburban housewife and mother to two teenage boys. She quietly tends the family and home without complaint and is clearly taken for granted by husband and sons. The clever opening of the film says it all as we watch her plan a birthday party, decorating the house, baking a cake and serving guests drinks only for the film to reveal it's actually her own birthday. One of the gifts she receives is a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and Agnes finds she has a real knack for them completing it very fast and then repeating it several times. Eventually she decides to buy another and discovers a shop in the city where she also sees an advertisement by Robert (Irrfan Khan) seeking a partner to enter the national jigsaw tournament. She decides to contact him and her horizons begin to broaden. The puzzles are a symbol of the door opening for Agnes as she discovers something just for her, a new zest for life which highlights the boredom she has at home. Her family start to see a change in her which causes her husband especially some considerable anxiety. This film has a warmth and magnetism that makes it rather pleasant and appealing. It's definitely one to check out.

Sam Peckinpah's last film is arguably his most disappointing. A conspiracy thriller with a convoluted plot and very under written character development making it a lacklustre affair. Even Peckinpah is reported to have hated the script but he hadn't made a film for five years and was in very poor health and so it's suspected he wanted to get back in the director's chair and so took the job. This is basically an espionage story with a political edge that Peckinpah would have liked as he was always keen on attacking the establishment. Here a disaffected CIA agent, Fassett (John Hurt), convinces a controversial TV presenter, Tanner (Rutger Hauer) that his three best friends are all Soviet agents. When they all gather with their wives for an annual get together at Tanner's house, Fassett's true agenda is gradually revealed. The cast are good and includes Dennis Hopper and Burt Lancaster but this is a thriller that leaves you baffled by who is actually trying to do what! It many ways this has stylistic flourishes that are pure Peckinpah, especially the action scenes, but it's a weak film and only of interest because of this director who in his heyday was a genius.

A confusingly edited science fiction thriller that appears to have had some strange editing decisions made leading to a film that has promise but ends up being rather frustrating. The premise is interesting though. Nine years after an alien invasion where humanity has had to surrender and is are now controlled by the superior alien species who hide underground. The narrative focuses on how the survivors are now coping with some part of the regime that runs the world and others part of a growing dissension. The plot set in Chicago, follows a young man, Gabriel (Ashton Sanders), who's brother led a group against the system, and Mulligan (John Goodman), a top cop who hunts down rebels and tries to lure Gabriel into giving him information partly as Mulligan and Gabriel's late father were friends. There's a growing conspiracy to commit violence on the establishment which eventually brings the invaders out to try and catch and kill the rebels. All this muddles through a film that is bizarrely put together with the nuggets of a great story and visuals trying to make this something better. If you stick with this and give it some focus there is a decent story to unravel it's just that this could have been some much better.

A gentle, unassuming, humorous relationship drama that's a little talky, avoids a neat conclusion yet is unpretentious and really quite heart warming. Zosia Mamet gives a delightful performance full of mixed emotion as Diana, a would be writer who purposefully breaks up with her boyfriend Ben (Matthew Shear) because she's off to London for a year and feels a long distance relationship would be a distraction. Three years later, having returned to New York, she is surprised and conflicted when she discovers Ben is the tenant of the apartment below hers. As the two tentatively reunite their relationship undergoes some very confusing emotions. The film could do with a few more laughs but as an example of a millennial love story it's perfectly watchable.

This is a fun heist thriller with a great cast and a rollicking good story all wrapped up with visually spectacular set pieces including car chases and a twist and turn plot. It's just one of those big budget Hollywood blockbuster type films that works well and appeals to all generations and ages. Four highly skilled illusionists are brought together by a mysterious benefactor as an act called The Four Horsemen. They soon achieve a huge fanbase but when they appear to have robbed a bank as part of their elaborate act the FBI and Interpol begin investigating them. It soon appears the four set up massively complex illusions to steal money from undeserving rich people and distribute it to their audience. The cops are assisted by an expert in debunking magic tricks but the Four Horsemen always seem one step ahead. There's some great magic tricks showcased during the story and the film has a fast paced narrative that keeps you entertained throughout. Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco and Woody Harrelson are the Four Horsemen with Mark Ruffalo and Mélanie Laurent as the cops aided by Morgan Freemen and Michael Caine in a cameo. A solid feel good thriller.