The wedding film has a long history, often somewhat in the romantic vein. Frequently it's focussed either on the groom or the bride and whether or not they will actually go through with the ceremony (although in the case of "The Philadelphia story" or its musical variation "High Society", the groom is pretty much an afterthought - the bride gets two far more impressive options).
In the case of "Table 19", though, it's the mob who are invited almost as an obligation, who maybe shouldn't have accepted - the table furthest from the wedding party. In this case, it's made up of a bunch of misfits - disclaimed cousins, distant children of friends, a long-ago nanny, vague business associates and, in one case, the former matron of honour, also the recently-dumped girlfriend of the best man and bride's brother. This mismatched bunch end up supporting each other somewhat as various trials start to make the occasion that is happy for someone else very much not okay for them...
As a way into an ensenble comedy, this is an interesting way to do it, though, as with a lot of ensemble comedies, the subplots don't quite balance. Anna Kendrick's subplot is sorta the prime mover as the aforementioned discarded matron of honour, and she has a suitable melencholy and mild bitterness, but Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson have to do a hell of a lot of work with their own charm as there isn't much in the scripting to support them as a pair of business associates whose marriage is in trouble. Stephen Merchant and Tony Revelori both manage to steal scenes as two of the goofier characters, and June Squibb brings a nice heart to the proceedings as the ex-nanny.
This detours into darker territory as we get a sense how these discarded people view themselves, but there is a little too much of a push to get a tidy ending to round things off. But for a gentle film with a few twists and turns and a couple of giggles, this does have a certain sweetness.
Wednesday 26 April 2017
Monday 24 April 2017
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Sequelising is a tricky business, particularly when you know (or at least intend) to have further sequels further down the line. How much does the individual film standalone, how much should it, how much should be deferred for later?
In the case of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2" it feels slightly like a couple of key boxes are being ticked. Mysteries established in the previous film are paid off (in particular, Peter's father is indeed introduced). Former enemies are brought into the fold (in the form of Karen Gillan's Nebula and Michael Rooker's Yondu). And of course there's whole new threats, worlds and impossible situations for our heroes to get themselves out of.
For all that, this is a tad more intimate than the original galaxy spanner. The team is split up and, perhaps surprisingly, Chris Pratt's ever-charming leading man is slightly more of a plot device than a central character here - the supporting cast get a lot more to play with. The film certainly enjoys every moment it can give us of Baby Groot, scene-stealing as always. But there are things that don't quite sit right - Rocket Racoon is ragey and impulsive, but one or two things he does early on feel more like plot stupidity to get things rolling. And it feels like Peter and Gamora's relationship is stalled in the same holding patter as it was in the last film more because the film doesn't want to pay off the tension between the two of them until a later film, and the jam between the two of them feels more like empty dynamics than something that really comes from the characters themselves.
Still, this is a gorgeous, silly interplanetary adventure with all kinds of surprises in it, and it's not an unenjoyable film, with at least one moment that provoked a gasp from my screening. So ... yeah, it's enjoyable. Maybe not quite the magic we were hoping for. More like "a good time".
In the case of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2" it feels slightly like a couple of key boxes are being ticked. Mysteries established in the previous film are paid off (in particular, Peter's father is indeed introduced). Former enemies are brought into the fold (in the form of Karen Gillan's Nebula and Michael Rooker's Yondu). And of course there's whole new threats, worlds and impossible situations for our heroes to get themselves out of.
For all that, this is a tad more intimate than the original galaxy spanner. The team is split up and, perhaps surprisingly, Chris Pratt's ever-charming leading man is slightly more of a plot device than a central character here - the supporting cast get a lot more to play with. The film certainly enjoys every moment it can give us of Baby Groot, scene-stealing as always. But there are things that don't quite sit right - Rocket Racoon is ragey and impulsive, but one or two things he does early on feel more like plot stupidity to get things rolling. And it feels like Peter and Gamora's relationship is stalled in the same holding patter as it was in the last film more because the film doesn't want to pay off the tension between the two of them until a later film, and the jam between the two of them feels more like empty dynamics than something that really comes from the characters themselves.
Still, this is a gorgeous, silly interplanetary adventure with all kinds of surprises in it, and it's not an unenjoyable film, with at least one moment that provoked a gasp from my screening. So ... yeah, it's enjoyable. Maybe not quite the magic we were hoping for. More like "a good time".
Sunday 16 April 2017
Personal Shopper
Every so often you get a film that plays its cards very close to its chest. So much of the film remains open to interpretation, and what you are left with is more mood and sensation than a rounded story with beginning middle and end that all logically holds together. Such a film is "Personal Shopper". It's a kind of a ghost story, and a kind of an obsessive stalker story... but it's also a story of grief and of wanting to be anything but who you are.
At the centre of the film is Kirsten Stewart, who plays an American in France whose brother has recently died. As they both believed in spiritualism, Stewart is looking for a sign that he's still around in some kind of afterlife - but her quest for him leads her to find something entirely different. Meanwhile her day job of being, as the title suggests, a personal shopper for a fashionista becomes entangled as she tries to resist the urge to enjoy the outfits she's buying for someone else.
I don't know that I entirely love this but I do appreciate the attempt to do something different with the ghost-movie genre. I do find Oliver Assayas' script and direction ultimately falls a bit short on committing firmly to a set of events that have actually happened and, particularly in the first twenty minutes or so, the pacing gets awfully slack, but the events towards the finale make this a not unrewarding watch.
At the centre of the film is Kirsten Stewart, who plays an American in France whose brother has recently died. As they both believed in spiritualism, Stewart is looking for a sign that he's still around in some kind of afterlife - but her quest for him leads her to find something entirely different. Meanwhile her day job of being, as the title suggests, a personal shopper for a fashionista becomes entangled as she tries to resist the urge to enjoy the outfits she's buying for someone else.
I don't know that I entirely love this but I do appreciate the attempt to do something different with the ghost-movie genre. I do find Oliver Assayas' script and direction ultimately falls a bit short on committing firmly to a set of events that have actually happened and, particularly in the first twenty minutes or so, the pacing gets awfully slack, but the events towards the finale make this a not unrewarding watch.
Colossal
This is a really interesting clever movie, and most of the reasons why it's interesting and clever are things I can't talk about without blowing the surprises in the film. So let's see if I can write around them and still come up with something vaguely readable.
This is very much the first-person story of Gloria, a somewhat failed writer who's taken to drinking to avoid the lack of success in her career - to the point where, as the film begins, she's being kicked out of the apartment she shared with her handsome British boyfriend. She heads back to her hometown to stay at her parent's old house, now largely unfurnished. Meeting up with an old friend who owns a bar, she finds herself working there and hanging out after hours, wandering home through the nearby playground in the early hours of the morning. Only she discovers that as she moves through the playground, a giant monster is simultaneously mimicking her movements in downtown Seoul....
From such quirky beginnings springs a film with surprising depth - Anne Hathaway is the central woman, bothered by her sudden monster-sized responsibilities but determined to take them seriously and act responsibly. Jason Sudekis is the former school friend who re-enters her life, in a performance that goes a number of different places. While this is clearly low budget stuff (if you're looking for a lot of monster-destroying-Seoul-footage, this is not your movie), it's also clear the thought is going into the script and into making the people real.
For people who are willing to take a leap into the unexpected.
This is very much the first-person story of Gloria, a somewhat failed writer who's taken to drinking to avoid the lack of success in her career - to the point where, as the film begins, she's being kicked out of the apartment she shared with her handsome British boyfriend. She heads back to her hometown to stay at her parent's old house, now largely unfurnished. Meeting up with an old friend who owns a bar, she finds herself working there and hanging out after hours, wandering home through the nearby playground in the early hours of the morning. Only she discovers that as she moves through the playground, a giant monster is simultaneously mimicking her movements in downtown Seoul....
From such quirky beginnings springs a film with surprising depth - Anne Hathaway is the central woman, bothered by her sudden monster-sized responsibilities but determined to take them seriously and act responsibly. Jason Sudekis is the former school friend who re-enters her life, in a performance that goes a number of different places. While this is clearly low budget stuff (if you're looking for a lot of monster-destroying-Seoul-footage, this is not your movie), it's also clear the thought is going into the script and into making the people real.
For people who are willing to take a leap into the unexpected.
Friday 14 April 2017
The Fate of the Furious
The "Fast and the Furious" franchise has been inflating ever since "Fast Five" mixed up the formula a little by importing a big star nemesis with Dwayne Johnson and inflating the action setpieces into something bigger-scale - essentially, creating a modern multi-racial super-team to go on globe-hopping adventures. And as the scale has increased, so has the box office.
Of course, with inflation can come bloat, and unfortunately "Fate of the Furious" doesn't always avoid this. The idea of turning Vin Diesel's Dom against the rest of the team fiddles with the dynamics interestingly, but the withholding-then-revealling of his motivation to change sides is handled a bit messily, meaning the reveal feels a bit weak when it happens.
Director F. Gary Gray is a first-timer to this series although not entirely to rev-headed action (he did the 2000s remake of "Italian Job") and he doesn't have the effortless action-cool that Justin Lin (who did entries 3-6) or James Wan (who did 7) gave the series - instead it's a little bit plodding. It doesn't entirely help that the series has a reluctance to let women get involved in particularly physical action - of the three female leads, Charlize Theron as the baddie is basically a tech baddy stuck doing a lot of typing, Michelle Roduiguez gets to drive a car a bit but is never allowed to be the subsitute leader-of-the-gang when Vin Diesel turns rogue, and Nathalie Emmanuel's computer hacker is basically treated as argument fodder for the ever-quibbling support chaacters Roman and Tej.
There are compensations. A midfilm setpiece in the middle of New York doesn't exactly ring true (Manhattan is one big traffic jam, not made for free-flowing action) but there are some clever ideas, mostly at the villain end. And bringing back Jason Statham as an ally rather than a nemesis is quite enjoyable - in particular, there's amusing semi-homo-erotic tension between Statham and Johnson (substituting for previous tension between Johnson and Diesel). And there is a terrific mid-film cameo that does produce great giggles. And this will undoubtedly do enough box office to bring the team back again. But it is a lesser entry in the series.
Of course, with inflation can come bloat, and unfortunately "Fate of the Furious" doesn't always avoid this. The idea of turning Vin Diesel's Dom against the rest of the team fiddles with the dynamics interestingly, but the withholding-then-revealling of his motivation to change sides is handled a bit messily, meaning the reveal feels a bit weak when it happens.
Director F. Gary Gray is a first-timer to this series although not entirely to rev-headed action (he did the 2000s remake of "Italian Job") and he doesn't have the effortless action-cool that Justin Lin (who did entries 3-6) or James Wan (who did 7) gave the series - instead it's a little bit plodding. It doesn't entirely help that the series has a reluctance to let women get involved in particularly physical action - of the three female leads, Charlize Theron as the baddie is basically a tech baddy stuck doing a lot of typing, Michelle Roduiguez gets to drive a car a bit but is never allowed to be the subsitute leader-of-the-gang when Vin Diesel turns rogue, and Nathalie Emmanuel's computer hacker is basically treated as argument fodder for the ever-quibbling support chaacters Roman and Tej.
There are compensations. A midfilm setpiece in the middle of New York doesn't exactly ring true (Manhattan is one big traffic jam, not made for free-flowing action) but there are some clever ideas, mostly at the villain end. And bringing back Jason Statham as an ally rather than a nemesis is quite enjoyable - in particular, there's amusing semi-homo-erotic tension between Statham and Johnson (substituting for previous tension between Johnson and Diesel). And there is a terrific mid-film cameo that does produce great giggles. And this will undoubtedly do enough box office to bring the team back again. But it is a lesser entry in the series.
The Lego Batman Movie
This is a very silly piece of fluff, but never the less kinda enjoyable. The film does take the approach of "cram every possible joke into the film", many of which probably will go over then head of non-Bat-Fans, but enough of them hit that it makes this a fun, if somewhat frenetic, film. Taking the egocentric Lego Batman from supporting character to the centre of his own film is somewhat risky, as it does leave us with a protagonist who's more mockable than usual, but I kinda enjoyed his overgrown childishness. And if the basic plot progression (as he learns he can't be isolated all the time) is somewhat predictable and it's very difficult to take this as anything more than a 100-minute or so goof, it doesn't completely wear out its welcome by the end.
A Silent Voice
This is basically a teen-angst anime about the after-effects of a bullying incident, but it goes a bit deeper than after-school special levels. Dealing with the ebbs and flows of teen friendship as relationships are set up on shifting sands only to change in a second, this is heartfelt work with a strong emotional core. There's a couple of "would only work in animation" effects that externalise the character's inner-states effectively, and a gentle undertone that love and acceptance are possible but not always easy. While, yes, there are a couple of anime-cliches (the comic-relief fat kid in particular), there's also a strong range of characters in here.
A genuine charmer.
A genuine charmer.
Wednesday 12 April 2017
Ghost in the Shell
The original "Ghost in the Shell" is one of the classics of the initial Anime Boom of the late 80s/early 90s. It takes cyberpunk staples like the fractured relationship between man and machine and the accompanying identity crises that loom when the body you live in may not be the person you really are. In all honesty, I'm not the biggest fan of the original - it looks great and has a striking soundtrack, but the script delves into a lot of abstract philosophising that I frankly don't find particularly compelling.
This remake has gathered controversy because of the non-asian casting of the lead role (although it should be noted that there are two chinese companies involved in this one (Shanghai Film Group Corporation and Huahua media), and Takeshi Kitano as the lead character's mentor speaks purely Japanese all the way through the film). But alas a lot of it is splashy-looking boredom - there's a lot of impressive design work, but the general plot, about an android policewoman who may be being lied to about her true identity, doesn't really compel. Rupert Sanders didn't exactly inspire a great deal of confidence in his ability to tell a story rather than just deliver pretty pictures with his previous film, "Snow WHite and the Huntsman", and this has identical flaws. So not recommended.
This remake has gathered controversy because of the non-asian casting of the lead role (although it should be noted that there are two chinese companies involved in this one (Shanghai Film Group Corporation and Huahua media), and Takeshi Kitano as the lead character's mentor speaks purely Japanese all the way through the film). But alas a lot of it is splashy-looking boredom - there's a lot of impressive design work, but the general plot, about an android policewoman who may be being lied to about her true identity, doesn't really compel. Rupert Sanders didn't exactly inspire a great deal of confidence in his ability to tell a story rather than just deliver pretty pictures with his previous film, "Snow WHite and the Huntsman", and this has identical flaws. So not recommended.
Life
A mixed crew of scientists and engineers are on the international space station, about to research what comes back from the latest Mars probe. But when a lifeform turns out to have survived in one of the martian soil samples, inspection of it quickly turns to terror as the creature gets wildly out of control and starts to threaten not just the station, but possibly all life as we know it...
This is very much a revisit of "Alien" with a few switches (contemporary timeline, more zero-g, alien is less "guy in a suit" and more "CGI blob"). The main problem is that very few of the characters are at all involving - only Ryan Reynolds, doing pretty much his standard quippy Ryan Reynolds stuff, gets to be particularly interesting. And while the very nature of this sorta plot is that the cast gets smaller and smaller as the creature works its way around the ship, it is worthwhile to know and like the people before they start becoming corpses. While the deaths in this are notably more gory than most I've seen later, it still isn't quite enough to make this a reasonable film. THere is a nice twist towards the end, but otherwise, this is generic fare done generically.
This is very much a revisit of "Alien" with a few switches (contemporary timeline, more zero-g, alien is less "guy in a suit" and more "CGI blob"). The main problem is that very few of the characters are at all involving - only Ryan Reynolds, doing pretty much his standard quippy Ryan Reynolds stuff, gets to be particularly interesting. And while the very nature of this sorta plot is that the cast gets smaller and smaller as the creature works its way around the ship, it is worthwhile to know and like the people before they start becoming corpses. While the deaths in this are notably more gory than most I've seen later, it still isn't quite enough to make this a reasonable film. THere is a nice twist towards the end, but otherwise, this is generic fare done generically.
Friday 7 April 2017
A Man Called Ove
I was in a fairly cranky mood before this film started. Work had not gone well, I had a lot going on, and things just generally were not making me happy.
And afterwards, I felt a hell of a lot better. This is one of those films that looks at an individual learning to integrate into his society again after a tragedy - in this case, a prototypical grumpy old man of the Swedish variety, whose wife has recently died. He is at the point of suicide, unable to cope with a world without her, until life in all its multitudinous forms keeps on intruding into his world and making him re-engage with the world.
Funny, moving and altogether quite human, this is a pleasantly rambling film. Okay, so there's probably one subplot too many that ends up left at a loose end, but all in all, this is a thoroughly satisfying piece of cinema.
And afterwards, I felt a hell of a lot better. This is one of those films that looks at an individual learning to integrate into his society again after a tragedy - in this case, a prototypical grumpy old man of the Swedish variety, whose wife has recently died. He is at the point of suicide, unable to cope with a world without her, until life in all its multitudinous forms keeps on intruding into his world and making him re-engage with the world.
Funny, moving and altogether quite human, this is a pleasantly rambling film. Okay, so there's probably one subplot too many that ends up left at a loose end, but all in all, this is a thoroughly satisfying piece of cinema.
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