Fresh critical film reviews by young Australian journalist Morgan Bell. A bight-sized opinionated analysis of popular movies and indie/art-house feature films. Explores plot, themes, characters, performances, soundtracks and film technique. Morgan Bell assesses movies in the context of what makes a successful cinema or DVD experience.
Directed: Sean Penn (The Pledge, The Crossing Guard)
Written: Sean Penn (screenplay) - based on the book by Jon Krakauer
Starring: Emile Hirsch (Imaginary Heroes, The Emporers Club), Hal Holbrook (The Bachelor, The Client), Catherine Keener (Friends With Money, Capote, Being Johnn Malkovich),...
Directed: Frank Oz (The Stepford Wives, In & Out, Housesitter, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Written: Dean Craig (Caffeine)
Starring: Matthew Macfadyen (Pride & Prejudice, Enigma, Maybe Baby), Rupert Graves (Mrs Dalloway, TV mini-series Charles II: The Power & the Passion, TV mini-serie...
Gays, lesbians, drag queens . . . "queer" films explore gender and sexuality and as requested by a fellow film reviewer i have strained my brain and come up with my personal favourite TOP TEN Queer Films . . . there are so many great queer films to choose from, and many more films with great gay cha...
Directed: Tony Scott (Domino, Enemy of the State, The Fan)
Written: Terry Rossio (Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Bill Marsilii
Starring: Denzel Washington (Training Day, Fallen, The Bone Collector, The Pelican Brief, John Q), Paula Patton (Hitch), Val Kilmer (The Saint, The Doors, Tombst...
In response to Cibbuanos "Why I Hate Atonement"
Cibbuanos challenge:
"If you've got a conflicting opinion, or would like to point something out, feel free to do so in the comments below! My memory of "Atonement" is, thankfully, fading, and I'll never sit through it again, so remind me of key s...
I was recently watching Francis Ford Coppolas 1984 film "The Cotton Club", which is set in a 1930s Harlem jazz club . . . i wasnt hugely impressed with the film but i was completely captivated by Diane Lanes eyebrows . . . fabulous!
The all-star cast of The Cotton Club:
Richard Gere as...
Directed: Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, Dangerous Liasons)
Written: Peter Morgan
Starring: Helen Mirren (Gosford Park, Teaching Mrs Tingle, The Mosquito Coast, Prime Suspect), Micheal Sheen (Blood Diamond, Kingdom of Heaven, Wilde, Othello), James Cromwell (The Longest Yard, Angels In Americ...
No not the obnoxious american reality tv show about unfaithful defactos but the feature film from 2000 inspired by real events about a group of inner-city slum kids conspiring with their teacher to cheat in an academic competition.
Directed & Written: John Stockwell (Crazy Beautiful, Into The...
Directed & Written: Jason Reitman; adapted from novel by Christopher Buckley
Starring: Aaron Eckhart (Erin Brokovich, No Reservations), Cameron Bright (Birth, Butterfly Effect), William H. Macy (Fargo, Pleasantville, Bobby), Katie Holmes (Batman Begins, Wonderboys), Rob Lowe (Waynes World, Au...
Directed: David Cronenberg (A History Of Violence, The Dead Zone, The Fly)
Written: Steven Knight (Amazing Grace, Dirty Pretty Things)
Starring: Viggo Mortenson (A History Of Violence, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Murder, Lord Of The Rings), Naomi Watts (King Kong, The Ring, Mulholland Drive), Vincent...
They are as outrageous as they are diabolical . . . they make being evil oh so fun . . . they are the film villains i wish i could be . . . because they just have so much fun!
1. Labyrinth (1986) with David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King
. . . hes so uncompromising sitting back in his goblin c...
Directed & Written: Omar Naim
Starring: Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society, The Birdcage), Mira Sorvino (Romy & Michelle, At First Sight, Quiz Show), Jim Caviezel (Frequency, Pay It Forward, Dj Vu)
This is a very interesting sci-fi concept which made me think a gre...
Directed: Robert Ben Garrant
Written: Robert Ben Garrant & Thomas Lennon (Night At The Museum, Herbie Fully Loaded)
Starring: Dan Fogler (Good Luck Chuck), Christopher Walken, Jason Scott Lee (Soldier, The Jungle Book, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), James Hong (Big Trouble In Little China, ...
Directed & Written: Nancy Meyers (The Holiday, Father Of The Bride)
Starring: Diane Keaton (The Family Stone, First Wives Club, Father Of The Bride), Jack Nicholson (The Departed, The Pledge, A Few Good Men), Keanu Reeves (Constantine, The Matrix, The Devils Advocate), Amanda Peet (Identity, ...
Directed: Sean Penn (The Pledge, The Crossing Guard)
Written: Sean Penn (screenplay) - based on the book by Jon Krakauer
Starring: Emile Hirsch (Imaginary Heroes, The Emporers Club), Hal Holbrook (The Bachelor, The Client), Catherine Keener (Friends With Money, Capote, Being Johnn Malkovich), Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers, The Cell, Psycho), Jena Malone (Cheaters, Donnie Darko), William Hurt (The Village, The Big Chill), Marcia Gay Harden (American Dreamz, Mona Lisa Smile)
This film is based on the true story of Christpher McCandless (Hirsch), a middle class young man who graduates Emory University as a top student and athlete in 1992, abandons all his possessions and hitchhikes across the USA to the wilderness of Alaska. McCandless donates his life savings to charity, becomes estranged from his parents (Hurt and Harden) and his sister (Malone), and embarks on a journey of self-discovery away from the trappings of the modern materialistic world . . . he is searching for happiness by being alone and self-reliant and emmerced in nature . . . he is searching for happiness by discarding all he has ever known and plunging deep into the wild. McCandless changes his name to "Alexander Supertramp" and tries to escape the mental trauma of his manipulative and domineering parents . . . he is essentially running away and searching for his own identity in isolation from his over-bearing family . . . but the journey to Alaska takes a couple of years and along the way he encounters a series of dynamic characters (including Keener, Vaughn, and Holbrook) who shape his life, philosophies and the way he relates to other people. The soundtrack was mostly composed and performed by Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam and the film was one of the most critically acclaimed indie flicks of 2007 earning Hal Holbrook an Oscar nomination. This is a very contemplative film that examines through dialogue how different people prioritise relationships and material possessions. The film makes you question what the point of life is, and how can we can ultimately achieve happiness. McCandless first appears as an ungrateful spoilt brat who could never truly understand what poverty or hardship is but as the film progresses you begin to admire his quest for knowledge and truth . . . he soaks up knowledge like a sponge yet can never feel satisfied because he cant locate what he is missing no matter how remote his travels become . . . the resounding message being "happiness is only real when shared" . . . a sweet tragic story with excellent performances.
Eddie Vedder music video "Hard Sun" featuring footage from Into The Wild
Directed: Frank Oz (The Stepford Wives, In & Out, Housesitter, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Written: Dean Craig (Caffeine)
Starring: Matthew Macfadyen (Pride & Prejudice, Enigma, Maybe Baby), Rupert Graves (Mrs Dalloway, TV mini-series Charles II: The Power & the Passion, TV mini-series The Forsyte Saga), Alan Tudyk (A Knights Tale, Serenity, Knocked Up), Kris Marshall (Love Actually, TVs My Family), Ewen Bremner (Trainspotting, Black Hawk Down)
This film claims to be the funniest British comedy since Four Weddings & A Funeral . . . it is funny, but its not THAT funny! The essential difference is that the story does not focus on just one person primarily, we are looking at a HUGE cast of characters who are all trying to be crammed in with equal time . . . Matthew Macfadyen is dull as dishwater (as usual) but luckily the rest of the cast bounce off each other really well . . . im a devoted fan of Rupert Graves and he does not disappoint, i only wish he had a bit more screen time and his character was a bit more developed . . . Tudyk, Marshall, and Bremner are hilarious and provide all the laughs with their characters, they are of course all the no-hopers of the family, but it works well. This film is a black comedy which relies fairly heavily on visual gags, it is basically the same kind of humour employed in TVs Fawlty Towers but without the dynamic character of Basil Fawlty to drive it home. The whole film is set the day of a fathers funeral, his adult sons (Macfadyen and Graves) are blackmailed about a secret from the fathers past, Marshall is a college pharmacy student (ie drug dealer) cousin and Tudyk is the adorable unliked fiance of the daughter who becomes the unfortunate victim of some mis-labelled pills (ahh acid - fun premise) when trying to make a good impression . . . these two catastophes combined with the meddling of every other eccentric family member lead to some very strange scenarios and a wholesome resolution that should satisfy most audiences.
Gays, lesbians, drag queens . . . "queer" films explore gender and sexuality and as requested by a fellow film reviewer i have strained my brain and come up with my personal favourite TOP TEN Queer Films . . . there are so many great queer films to choose from, and many more films with great gay characters, but the criteria i used to select the films on this list were:
a) films with queer character(s) who are central to the plot and are good role models
b) films with overall positive messages about the queer community
c) films containing educational dialogue which attempts to explain the experience of being queer
1. Hedwig & The Angry Inch (2001) Starring: John Cameron Mitchell, Michael Pitt
Girlie boy Hansel Schmidt (Mitchell) undergoes a botched sex change operation to escape communist East Berlin and comes to America as Hedwig Robinson. Quickly divorced by her military husband and betrayed by her musical prodigy (Pitt) Hedwig spends the film examining whether she is male or female and attempting to find success in life and love. This is a film about discovering your identity, surviving when life hands you a raw deal, and accepting yourself despite the obstacles of gender.
2. Flawless (1999) Starring: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Robert DeNiro
When homophobic police hero (DeNiro) has a stroke he turns to his drag queen neighbour (Hoffman) for cheap singing lessons to help his vocal rehabilitation. Both characters are forced to reassess themselves, their relationships and their prejudices. This film is about facing your demons and the personal growth that happens with acceptance.
3. The Birdcage (1996) Starring: Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria
A gay couple (Williams and Lane) have raised a son who declares he wishes to marry the daughter (Flockhart) of a conservative politician (Hackman). Their home is above a gay drag nightclub that they own, manage and perform in and for the marriage to go ahead they believe they have to host their future in-laws whilst pretending to be straight. This film is a very funny comedy which deals with the hurt of being forced in the closet.
4. Stage Beauty (2004) Starring: Billy Cruddup, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Hugh Bonneville, Tom Wilkinson
Set in the days where women were not allowed to act on stage and all the parts were played by men, this is based on the real life story of Kynaston (Cruddup) a gay man who has made a career from convincingly playing a woman in Shakespearian plays. The tables are turned when men are banned from playing womens parts and Kynaston discovers he does not know how to be a man in real life or on stage.
5. Kinky Boots (2005) Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Joel Edgerton
To stop the family shoe manufacturing business from going broke a naive young man (Edgerton) enlists the help of a flamboyant drag queen to design shoes for men who dress as women to tap into a niche market. This film promotes thinking outside the square and giving ideas (and people) who are different a chance.
6. Imagine Me & You (2005) Starring: Piper Perabo, Lena Headey
This is the cutest lesbian film you will ever see! When the bride at a wedding (Perabo) meets the florist who delivers her bridal bouquets (Headley) it is love at first sight. There is much dancing around the feelings and flirting with temptation as the bride tries to come to terms with her sexuality despite loving her new husband as a best friend.
7. Bound (1996) Starring: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano
And this is the coolest lesbian film you will ever see! A closet lipstick lesbian (Tilly) and a butch jailbird lesbian (Gershon) are neighbours who flirt and experiment while trying to outsmart the mobster boyfriend (Pantoliano). This film compares the credability of the two women according to whether they are out and shows how a lesbian relationship can go largely unnoticed.
8. Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) Starring: Jennifer Westfeldt, Heather Juergensen, Tovah Feldshuh
When a highly strung young jewish hetero woman (Westfeldt) places an advertisement in a personals column a free-spirited bi-curious female (Juergensen) answers and they unexpectedly have a meeting of the minds and attempt a relationship. This film examines the difference between emotional and sexual connections and exposes how women short-change themselves searching for "perfection" rather than appreciating what they have.
9. Victor Victoria (1982) Starring: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren
A female singer (Andrews) finds herself out of work and out of money. She moves in with a gay friend (Preston) who convinces her to impersonate a drag queen - a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman - and the charade becomes a huge success in the local club. When a male love interest (Garner) enters the picture he is attracted to the drag queen, not realising she is a genuine woman, and is uncomfortable with people thinking he is gay. This film is an incredibly clever excercise in putting yourself in someone elses shoes to understand the prejudices they endure.
10. Torch Song Trilogy (1988) Starring: Harvey Fierstein, Matthew Broderick, Anne Bancroft
This is the autobiographical tale of Harvey Fierstein as a young gay man looking for love and acceptance. The film chronicles the domestic relationships he has with his lovers (including Broderick) and his mother (Bancroft) in an honest and endearing way and is a MUST SEE for every gay man!
Directed: Tony Scott (Domino, Enemy of the State, The Fan)
Written: Terry Rossio (Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Bill Marsilii
Starring: Denzel Washington (Training Day, Fallen, The Bone Collector, The Pelican Brief, John Q), Paula Patton (Hitch), Val Kilmer (The Saint, The Doors, Tombstone), James Caviezel (Pay It Forward, Frequency, The Passion of the Christ)
Doug Carlin (Washington) is an american ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms department) special agent travelling back in time to try and prevent a terrorist attack and save a woman called Claire (Patton) from being murdered in the process. This movie has nothing to do with the actual sensation of déjà vu except to suggest that perhaps travelling back to a time where your younger self exists may (unexplainably) produce some shared consciousness of the two versions of yourself that may give the younger one a sense of familiarity with events about to occur . . . *sigh* . . . I always have problems with these time travel movies, the concept of time travel is not logical and im yet to see a film director yet who can either explain the concept satisfactorily or at the very least glaze over it neatly enough so that we are not distracted from the other elements of the film . . . maybe Terminator . . . but regardless this whole movie is pretty poor, the bad guy/terrorist (Caviezel) has unbelievably flimsy motives, the terrorist target is a cruise boat full of smiling navy officers and their innocent families so it is revoltingly patriotic, the technology and how they stumbled upon it and how only a small team of misfits is aware of it or entrusted to run it is nothing short of ridiculous . . . but if you want to see Denzel Washington flirt with a pretty girl with his shirt off and vacantly observe a few cool explosions than this is your movie . . . id put it in the same basket as Armageddon, Pearl Harbour and Independence Day . . . maximum enjoyment can only be gained by not thinking about it at all!
"If you've got a conflicting opinion, or would like to point something out, feel free to do so in the comments below! My memory of "Atonement" is, thankfully, fading, and I'll never sit through it again, so remind me of key scenes that I missed!"
Im going to do a full review of this film anyway so i thought i would also try and give another perspective on some of the particular aspects of the film Cibbuano mentions.
Directed: Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice)
Written: Christopher Hampton (The Quiet American, Mary Reily) - screenplay adapted from the novel by Ian McEwan
Starring: Keira Knightly (Domino, Pride & Prejudice, King Arthur, Love Actually), James McAvoy (Narnia, The Last King of Scotland), Saoirse Ronan (Death Defying Acts), Harriet Walter (Sense & Sensibility), Gina McKee (Notting Hill, The Forsyte Saga), Brenda Blethan (Pride & Prejudice, Secrets & Lies, Little Voice), Vanessa Redgrave (The Pledge, Girl Interupted)
** WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS **
Atonement is a film like The Usual Suspect or The Sixth Sense in that its final scene reveals a truth that makes the viewer re-assess all the scenes before it. In this regard i would classify Atonement as a "two-watch-film" better suited to dvd than as a single viewing at a cinema . . . you really need to rewind it and watch it a second time . . . and thats where the beauty of the film lies, in being able to compare the first watch with the second watch.
I find it really annoying that every film is always marketed as a "romance" even when the romantic element is more of a sub-plot or a catalyst for the real message of the film-maker. Atonement is not a romance, it is a film with romantic elements . . . maybe 90% of people who enjoy Atonement will enjoy it because it appeals to their romantic sensibilities . . . but if you require more out of a film than just romance i suggest you still give Atonement a chance.
Atonement is a film about regret . . . deep-set, sickening, maddening, guilt-ridden regret . . . the kind of regret that eats away at a person and takes over their life, occupying their every thought . . . regret for things they cannot change and cannot forget.
Atonement is about a 13 year old girl called Briony (Saorise Ronan) who made a mistake which led to consequences she could never fully understand the weight of. As an adult aged 18 she realises the gravity of her childhood actions, the years of growing up gave her the perspective to understand the things she saw as a child, she reassesses the situation and realises she was wrong . . . the problem being that because her childhood mistake coincided with war time and the people she needed to seek redemption from are dead . . . she is wracked with guilt as she cannot undo what had been done and she can not seek forgiveness . . . she spends her whole life desperately seeking atonement.
In the final scene of Atonement, Vanessa Redgave plays Briony as an old woman, a successful writer who has found out she is dying from dementia. In an interview promoting her latest and last book "Atonement" she reveals that it is a biography, but with an alternate ending to real life where she allows the characters to meet up again and live happily ever after in love. We realise the whole movie we have been watching so far was the "version" of the story that Briony wished had happened . . . in reality Robbie (James McAvoy) died of septicemia (blood poisoning) in the war before he ever got back to Cecilia (Keira Knightly) who died in bombings at home the same year . . . we realise what we have been watching up until this point is the fantasy of a little girl, a little girl in an old body who can never forgive herself.
The ending with Vanessa Redgrave is a relatively short scene but i didnt think it felt rushed at all. Redgrave embodied the guilt of a child beautifully, hanging her head and slumping and pausing in shame and distress . . . she desperately wants someone to hold her accountable for her actions, she wants to confess . . . the fantasy we saw earlier of her confessing to Robbie and Celcelia as an 18 year old is for her own benefit, not theirs, as the lack of closure has tormented her for her whole life.
This film essentially does follow a linear time-line. What is does is use a "double-take" where a scene is shown from the point of view of Briony as a 13 year old and then re-told from her enlightened position of understanding as an adult. Briony sees Robbie and Cecilia at the fountain and it seems like he orders her to take her clothes off and then pushes her in the water to gawk at her naked body through her see-through slip, the childs mind sees a sex-crazed pervert. The "double-take" shows Robbie and Cecilia as equals talking, a vase smashes and she jumps in the fountain to retrieve the handle, Robbie cautions her not to step on the broken shards. It is amazing watching the scenes from different perspectives back to back. This happens again with the sex scene in the library. We are asked to compare the two points of view: the mind of the child and the mind of the adult.
I think the typewriter sound serves a couple of purposes. One is to represent the dramatic imagination of a child where everything seems more interesting than what it really is and can be translated into a fantastic (typed) story. We see Briony typing away a script for a play on her typewriter, she is a dramatic kid and her mind takes in all the melodrama of the household like clicks on the typewriter. The scenes where Briony is not directly involved or observing do not have the typewriter noise (eg the war scenes and imagined reunion) but as soon as Briony steps back into the picture as an adult nurse the typewriter resumes. Another use of the sound effect is to punctuate the importance of the typed letter Robbie wrote to Cecilia with particular reference to the word "cunt" as though the typing of those four seemingly innocent letters were the action the altered the course of his fate. The word is displayed as the camera is zoomed in tight to the page and we see the keys hit the page and the ink mark out each letter, each letter is like a nail in his coffin, the typing of that particular word is repaeated four times throughout the film to remind us how dire the consequences of typing it were.
It is also ironic that the letter Robbie intended to give to Cecilia is handwriten and he mistakenly puts the typed letter which contains the profanity into the envelope . . . the typed word represents danger in this film
The long Dunkirk scene makes more sense when we realise who is telling the story and how and why they are telling it. Briony compiled first hand accounts of what happened at Dunkirk and transformed them into one huge winding picture in her mind. The picture she creates is extremely stylised and condenses many horrific and absurd things into one scene of dystopia. Briony herself has not actually been to war, she has just seen the results and heard the stories from the injured soldiers. She imagines the horrors and torments of war going on and on and tiring Robbie out, she is essentially trying to put herself into Robbies shoes and recreate the "madness" of war. The scene has a surreal feel to it with people randomly shooting horses and smashing radiators while soldiers do gymnastics, sing in a choir, have fist fights and ride on carnival rides. The Robbie she imagines is disoriented and delirious (remember she knows he really had blood poisoning) and staggering about trying to find some water. The torments of this war scene also mirror Brionys inner torment . . . both go on and on, seemingly endless.
Telling stories from the perspective of an overly imaginative mind was something that was examined more blatantly in the 2003 Tim Burton fantasy flick Big Fish.
This also explains the continued use of romantic cliches like running after the car/bus/train as it pulls away from the station/side of the road with your lover aboard . . . these are all the imagined scenes that Briony wishes had happened, that she thought Cecilia and Robbie deserved.
There is symmetry between the imagined Robbie at war and the remembered Robbie from childhood . . . there is a scene where Robbie saves 13 year old Briony from drowning and chastises her that they both could have died, that is placed along-side a scene where he happens across a field of slaughtered school girls (about Brionys age) lying on the ground that he is hopeless to save . . . this shows that as an old lady, who was an experienced nurse, Briony can put her own childish troubles in perspective.
There is also symmetry between Briony the 18 year old nurse and the imagined Robbie so we can see that they are one and the same . . . he is a figment of her imagination while he is a soldier at war . . . they both enter cinema screenings at different times, she nurses a soldier who dreams of love on his death bed and she imagines that is what Robbie would have done too.
James McAvoy takes my breath away as the long-suffering Robbie in this film, his portrait of a man in pain is nothing short of exceptional, you can see it in his eyes, you can hear it in his voice . . . in the scene where Robbie meets Cecilia for a cup of tea for the first time in 3 years he is just the shell of a man tetering on the edge of breaking point . . . i found his performance genuine and heartbreaking as we see him deteriorate from and gentle fun-loving simple boy to a sad tense broken-spirited man . . . the implication being that he died because he had lost all hope.
I hope anyone who didnt like this film because it was a "romance" with alot of cliches looks at it again as the reconstruction of events by the mind of an idealistic child trapped in the body of a tormented old lady . . . it is the "romanticism" which is truly sad and moving when it is revealed it is the exact opposite of the truth . . . the atmosphere has all the intrigue of Gosford Park and the irony of Life Is Beautiful.
special thanks to Cibbuano for inspiring this indepth analysis - it was a bit long to put in your comments
Really Long Link
embedding is disabled but this is the link to the youtube video of the "cup of tea" scene where James McAvoy breaks my heart
I was recently watching Francis Ford Coppolas 1984 film "The Cotton Club", which is set in a 1930s Harlem jazz club . . . i wasnt hugely impressed with the film but i was completely captivated by Diane Lanes eyebrows . . . fabulous!
The all-star cast of The Cotton Club:
Richard Gere as Dixie Dwyer Gregory Hines as Sandman Williams Diane Lane as Vera Cicero Lonette McKee as Lila Rose Oliver Bob Hoskins as Owney Madden James Remar as Dutch Schultz Nicholas Cage as Vincent Dwyer Laurence Fishburne as Bumpy Rhodes Tom Waits as Irving Stock Jennifer Grey as Patsy Dwyer
This rekindled my obsession with the eyebrows of 1930s actress Carole Lombard . . . she was the wife of Clark Gable . . . she had daring and bold eyebrows which i very much admire and envy!
so who do you think has the best eyebrows in film?
Directed: Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, Dangerous Liasons)
Written: Peter Morgan
Starring: Helen Mirren (Gosford Park, Teaching Mrs Tingle, The Mosquito Coast, Prime Suspect), Micheal Sheen (Blood Diamond, Kingdom of Heaven, Wilde, Othello), James Cromwell (The Longest Yard, Angels In America, The Green Mile, The Bachelor)
This film succeeds in providing the Queen of England with a real human face, someone you can relate to, respect, and want to know more about. The film is set in the period of time around Princess Dianas death showing how royal protocol caused the public to despise the Queen believing her reaction to be cold. We see the Queen prioritise the well-being of her grandchildren and learn to appreciate her conservative war-time upbringing as a factor in upholding tradition and treating Dianas funeral as a "private family matter" not to be publicized or turned into a media circus. This is an intimate portrait of a woman largely misrepresented for acting with dignity and decorum as she was taught. This film highlights the higher importance that the war-time generation put of honour and duty in much the same way as "Remains Of The Day" and the placement of the Queen largely in the natural outdoors environment of Balmoral is very effective in revealing her compassionate human side. Mirren is perfectly cast given the Queen a youthful vibrance and beauty we do not usually associate with the monarch, and Sheen as Tony Blair is earnest and adorable "smiling like a chesire cat"! I highly recommend it!
No not the obnoxious american reality tv show about unfaithful defactos but the feature film from 2000 inspired by real events about a group of inner-city slum kids conspiring with their teacher to cheat in an academic competition.
Directed & Written: John Stockwell (Crazy Beautiful, Into The Blue, Rock Star, Breast Men)
Starring: Jeff Daniels (The Hours, Pleasantville, Dumb & Dumber). Jena Malone (Donnie Darko, Life As A House, Stepmom, Hitler: The Rise of Evil)
This is a well-written little social commentary film about winning, success, and competition. Based on a true story it examines how and why people on the bottom rung of life feel they have to cheat and bend their morals to get to the top of the heap . . . well not even the top, but just a couple of rungs up so they dont get walked all over by absolutely everyone . . . i enjoyed this film as much a other similar based-on-real-life tales of dubious ethics like Shattered Glass (Hayden Christensen as the fabricating journalist for New Republic) or Catch Me If You Can (Leonardo DiCaprio as the con artist and cheque fraud expert Abagnale) or Blow (Johnny Depp as major 70s cocaine dealer George Jung) . . . but this story looks at the ethics of highschool teacher Dr Plecki (Daniels) a poor son of an immigrant who as a middle-aged man still lives at home with mum, his dad was cheated out of health insurance, he felt cheated when his business fails, and as a teacher he feels cheated by all the "smart" public school kids being funnelled into a rival school (Whitney Young Magney High School) in the region through a selective process . . . Dr Plecki basically feels that only people who cheat in life get ahead, so when an opportunity arises to instill his students with some pride and boost the morale of the underclass in a twisted way it seems like the only fair thing to do . . . Jena Malone is a standout as the witty little nymph of a student egging Plecki and the rest of the class on . . . this is an interesting film with great characters and a consistant pace, you will be drawn in to see how the ragtag bunch of misfits from Steinmetz High School use their smarts to pull off the most finely executed fraud the United States Academic Decathlon has ever seen!
Directed & Written: Jason Reitman; adapted from novel by Christopher Buckley
Starring: Aaron Eckhart (Erin Brokovich, No Reservations), Cameron Bright (Birth, Butterfly Effect), William H. Macy (Fargo, Pleasantville, Bobby), Katie Holmes (Batman Begins, Wonderboys), Rob Lowe (Waynes World, Austin Powers), Adam Brody (Mr & Mrs Smith, TV's The OC)
This film is a very clever satire following the life of Nick Naylor (Eckhart) who is a tobacco industry lobbyist. Naylor has a son Joey (Bright) who he is trying to be a good role model for while defending Big Tobacco. This is a black comedy that matches the wit of satirical classics like Election, Drop Dead Gorgeous or The Truman Show and Eckhart is truly charming as the man who can argue anything. Naylor introduces himself with the line "You know the guy who can pick up any girl? I'm him. On crack." Naylor basically justifies working as the poster boy for cigarette smoking in the same way that lawyers argue that every criminal is entitled to be represented by a fair defense, and that taking up smoking is about the right to choose, and that hes good at defending indefensible positions and enjoys the challenge, and when all else fails there the "Yuppie Nuremberg defense" that he has to do something to pay the mortgage. This film is set in the period of time just before cigarettes were legally proven to be addictive and before the landmark law suits affording victim of smoking
Morgan Bell
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