Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Backstory: To help get my head around some of the Criminology theories I was studying, I started another re-watch of the Wire (more specifically season 3 for social disorganisation, chicago school, critical criminology etc.) and once I was finished, I needed more. So I hunted down Simon's latest production "Show Me A Hero" which starred Oscar Issac (and had an awesome Springsteen soundtrack, seriously was never a huge Boss fan, but I've been blasting his stuff of late). I really dug that which led me to Issac's other big piece of work, Inside Lleywn Davis. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the Coens, but I enjoy their work. In fact, I've been meaning to go through their filmography. For whatever reason, I've seen a lot of their lesser stuff (Blood Simple, A Good Man etc.) and yet to see their more well known pieces (Fargo, Millers Crossing etc.). I'll rectify that soon enough but for the time being, Llewyn Davis. This is a very Coen Brothers take on the music drama genre. Normally in these type of flicks, the struggling artist usually follows a cliche path where they prove everybody wrong and make it big, or come to their senses, fall in love and fix their strained relationships. Fortunately, the Coens have never been ones for cliche, so we get a fairly authentic story about a talented artist who is trying to live the life he chose for himself, despite society's objections. On the surface, there isn't much of a plot, but where the Coens shine is through their characters. The Coens truly have a knack of creating some really interesting characters who may flourish more in the realms of fiction, but feel far more human than what audiences are used to seeing. Llewyn is a frustrating character, because he's so close to greatness but his unwillingness to compromise prevents him from ever achieving stability. Those flaws are often mirrored in the characters he encounters through out the movie. My favourite would have to be John Goodman's character, a washed up jazz musician who was talented in his day, but is just a miserable drug addict who revels in the misery of others. It's a really rich movie but it isn't for everyone. If you're a fan of music movies or the Coens, check it out.
Happy screener season to you too Unbreakable. Hateful Eight Oh boy, this movie sucked me in. At first, I thought it was going to be three hours of scenery chewing featuring all of Tarantino's iconic actors. That in of itself would have been fine, but I'd struggle to call it a Movie of the Year contender. Fortunately for the next 90 minutes, the movie really picks up and as Tarantino puts it the movie goes boom, boom, boom, boom until you end up at this place that's completely different to how the movie started. Listening to Tarantino talk about the movie, it's interesting to hear him explain the development process. The movie actually started off as a Django Unchained novella until Tarantino realised the story he was creating couldn't have a moral centre. It's interesting because it really shows in his work, but also reveals how good Tarantino at gauging what a story requires. If the movie was just: Django Unchained: White Hell, it'd come across as an obvious cash grab and wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as it could be. While I'm handing out props, I thought the acting was really on point. Going in, I thought this was going to be Kurt Russell's and Samuel L's movie, but Walton Goggins and Jennifer Jason Leigh gave them a real run for their money.
Bridge of Spies finally available :) Nice. Tom Hanks is my favourite actor. Looks like I'm going to have another movie marathon tonight.
Recently I re-watched the original Punisher movie, starring Dolph Lundgren, from 1989. It might sound like the beer talking but I think it's an epic. Lundgren gives an incredible performance as Frank Castle and easily tops both Thomas Jane and Ray Stevenson in later attempts to revive the character in the ensuing decades. The script is surprisingly good and if it had a bigger budget they could've really amped up the action sequences. The plot is very solid beginning with several Mafia families joining forces only to confront a new threat in the form of the Yakuza looking to take over their territory. There's also a compelling sub-plot with the children of all the crime bosses being abducted forcing the Punisher to get involved. It's very tight storytelling and a real breath of fresh air from the ridiculously bloated Marvel movies and the like we get these days. Seriously, it can't be that hard to make a film under two hours. I think Louis Gossett Jr delivered a great turn as the Punisher's ex-partner. Another thing is the film was filmed in Melbourne which gives it a different feel to action movies from that era. I'm not sure how readily available it is but it's definitely worth checking out.
I got to say, I liked Steve Carell in The Big Short. It's been hard to watch him in serious roles after watching The Office, but I enjoyed him in this one. I thought he did great.
Steve Jobs If you enjoy Sorkin's dialogue and movies that don't felate the subjects they're based on, this movie is for you. Sorkin's writing is as sharp as ever and the actors (Fassbender, Winslet, Daniels & Rogen) did a great job with the material. I thought the narrative structure of the film was quite fascinating. Usually biographical movies like to space out the big moments in a person's life to show you the impact they had on the subject. In Steve Jobs, they let actual news reels fill that in for you. It was a really different approach, but I'm not sure if it was done as well as it could have been. It just seemed like each product launch hammered home the same points. Woz feels underappreciated, Daniels character has to deal with being Jobs' boss, Winslet has to make everything on point and Jobs has to be a dick who always has the last laugh. Throw in some father-daughter drama and that's your movie. It shouldn't win any awards, but it's a nice way to kill two hours.
Fassbender stopped that movie from being a complete flop. It was hard to stay focused on it, to be honest.. The only parts that really grabbed my attention were the scenes between Fassbender and Daniels.
Do the Right Thing (1989) - IMDb A Spike Lee film I watched on SBS on the weekend and really enjoyed it (though the acting was a bit dodgey at times). Hope you caught it @GCBRONCO. [HR][/HR] Spring (2014) - IMDb Really enjoyed this movie. Intriguing plot, mashup of genres (horror/romance/scifi). If your partner has a moderately strong stomach for a bit of scifi/horror, the romance part should keep her keen. Who knows, you may get lucky whilst actually enjoying a romance for once.
I had been really looking forward to seeing The Hateful Eight 70mm screening but from what I can tell this release will only be shown in Sydney and Melbourne. What a rip.
Watched Law Abiding Citizen last night as it came on after the cricket and managed to hold my attention. Just had a Google and it doesn't seem to have too many favourable reviews, although Ebert gave it 3 out of 4 stars. I really enjoyed it - a lot of it was quite absurd and unrealistic, but it's a damn movie, so I don't know why people get bothered by that. Worth a watch IMO. 7 out of 10 nings.
