keep track of the films I watch

that I still had this goal on my list, and it’s quite nice to look back on things, so I might try to use it a bit more.

Last night I watched “Tropic Thunder” which is a comedy about the making of a film about Vietnam. Things go horribly wrong and the actors are left to fend for themselves in the jungle, while some of them are under the impression they are still filming, reality-style.

The lead is Ben Stiller but the main reason I wanted to see it was because Peter Bradshaw gave it 4 stars and because Robert Downey Jr is in it. However, I think I laughed about twice, which isn’t a great result, and frequently I thought about getting up to turn it off, but then I was half way through so thought I’d see it to the end. Hmmm. Not absolutely terrible, but not good either – 2/5.

to Water Lilies. This is a French film based in the world of teenage synchronised swimming. It’s mainly about the relationship between two girls – Floriane who is the captain of the swimming team and has a reputation to live up to as the class slut, and Marie who is shy and intense, and develops a huge obsession with Floriane. The third main character is Anne who is Marie’s best friend, and very keen on Francois who is the boy Floriane is allegedly going out with. So basically it’s a coming of age story about unrequited love and friendship.

It’s a very atmospheric film, without much dialogue, and unfolds at quite a slow pace. There are a lot of shots in the changing room and in the swimming pool and reading the film reviews written by middle-aged men, it’s clear that some of them felt uncomfortable because of this. I had no idea that synchronised swimming was so difficult – the film really conveys the amount of training and strength required, and also the dreadful conventions involved e.g. the body hair inspection, and the requirement to have a fake smile on your face at all times during a display.

The acting is very, very good – the girl playing Marie really has to show us how she’s feeling, at no point is it ever actually stated in words. There’s one particularly ghastly scene where she and Floriane go to a nightclub so Floriane can pick up an older man – Marie ends up sitting outside curled up into a ball as all her hopes have been dashed.

There are very few adults in the film; it’s told entirely from Marie’s point of view and you almost get the impression she and her friends all live by themselves as nobody else ever seems to be home. Also, there are boys in the film but none of them gets any major dialogue so it’s very much about the three girls themselves, which I found very refreshing.

All in all, although quite poignant, this is definitely one of my films of the year. It’s Celine Sciamma’s first film as a director and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

Thumbs up!

Directed by Paul Haggis, this is about a man’s search for his son who has gone missing on his return from Iraq. Tommy Lee Jones gives an excellent performance as usual.

It emerges that his son has been murdered and at that point the film turns into a murder mystery, with Charlize Theron as a local police officer who helps TLJ find the killer.

There are lots of flashbacks to combat situations in Iraq and TLJ learns some fairly nasty things about what his son got up to over there. The main theme is about how war brutalises people. Quite serious and sad, but good.

Thumbs up!

This was exactly how I was expecting it to be – I enjoyed the TV series mainly for the dialogue and cocktails as I’m not exactly into clothes, and there were some good bits in the film. The story was utterly predictable, with highs and lows and lots of excited screaming and a happy ending. Trashy but fun.

Thumbs down, unfortunately. This is directed by Ben Affleck and stars Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. It’s about the search for a missing child and is quite bleak. There are several twists and turns and false endings.

I didn’t like it for two main reasons: first, I could hardly make out a word Casey Affleck said (my friend said she managed to “tune in” to him as time went on) but more importantly, it is an incredibly pompous film with lots of Struggle about Big Moral Issues and I was exhausted by the end. Maybe I’m just shallow ;)

for Stardust. This is a fantasy, fairy-tale story based on a book by Neil Gaiman. It reminded me at times of Lord of the Rings with a spot of Pirates of the Caribbean. Lots of princes, princesses, a star who falls to earth, witches and people being turned into goats etc.

It has a great cast with cameos from several big names. Good performances all round and I particularly liked the bits where Clare Danes was bickering with the hero, played by Charlie Cox. All in all, excellent “family entertainment”.

for Into the Wild which I watched last night. This is based on a true story about a young man, Chris, who becomes disillusioned with society partly because of the sham of his parents’ marriage, gives all his money to Oxfam and goes off to become a tramp – even going so far as to rename himself Alexander Supertramp. The story begins with his culminating grand trip to Alaska where he goes to live off the land, and then there are lots of flashbacks explaining how this came about.

The scenery and cinematography are wonderful, and the story unfolds at a stately pace – this is no action thriller. At one point Chris meets an old man, Mr Franz, who lost his wife and son many years earlier, and tries to make him realise that he needs to get out more. I see Hal Holbrook was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for the role of Mr Franz which surprises me because he was only in the film for about 10 minutes, but it was a marvellous, affecting performance.

I won’t give away the ending – it is sad, but in a strangely uplifting way. A beautiful film.

to Eastern Promises. First up I should say that it was seriously violent – I had to shield my eyes during three scenes in particular, so not one for the parents – but very gripping. It’s set in the murky underworld of Russian gangsters in London and there is a lot of throat-cutting and girl-trafficking and vodka-drinking.

Viggo Mortensen plays the driver for the gang, and I enjoyed not being quite sure if he was a good guy or not until fairly near the end. I thought he was brilliant, but then I always do.

Naomi Watts plays a midwife somehow caught up in it all, and delivered a girl-next-door performance. I’ll still keep watching films with her in just on the offchance that we might get something like that moment in Mulholland Drive when she showed she could really act.

I also enjoyed recognising the London locations – there’s a bit where she goes over Southwark Bridge on her motorbike that was pretty cool.

After all the fun and games with Russians poisoning each other in London a couple of years ago, the plot doesn’t seem as crazy at it might appear at first sight. Which is a disturbing thought. I’ll steer well clear of men with lots of tattoos in future.

which I believe is called Live Free or Die Hard in the US… another thumbs up! Of course it’s completely mad, with lots of car crashes, explosions and what-have-you, but one can’t watch highbrow films all the time, and I was just in the mood for that last night. It did exactly what it said on the tin.

_{and the baddy reminded me of Jose Mourinho which is no bad thing either ;)}

C and I went to see this on Thursday night. It’s based on a novel by Philippa Gregory about Anne Boleyn and her sister Mary who was also involved with Henry VIII. This is the story of the sisterly rivalry, with Natalie Portman playing Anne as a feisty type, Scarlett Johanssen playing Mary as a rather more sweet-and-docile type, and Eric Bana as Henry VIII, bearing little resemblance to the famous portrait.

It’s a modest “thumbs up!” – I did enjoy it, but wouldn’t advise you to rush to the cinema, it could wait for DVD. I can’t beat Peter Bradshaw’s review here. His comment about Kristin Scott Thomas looking as though she was frowning out of the middle of a geometry problem was devastatingly accurate and distracted me throughout the film ;)

For the most part this was a jolly period romp and the costumes were amazing. David Morrissey, playing the arch-villainous Duke of Norfolk, looked straight out of a Holbein painting. I could possibly have done without the childbirth scenes – both Scarlett and Natalie got a chance to have go! And there was some unpleasantness at the end with a couple of people getting their heads chopped off. _{hope that’s not a spoiler ;)}