Hunger- Film Review

Tonight I watched 'Hunger' on Film4. The film started at 11oClock and finished at 1am and I can safely say that it was worth staying up for. 'Hunger' is Steve McQueen's (not 'The Great Escape' star) debut directorial work. The film was made in 2008 and is about the 1981 hunger strike in Irish Prisons supporting the IRA or the INLA.

The first thing to say about this film is that it isn't for the light hearted. It's very violent and towards the end, very troubling. The majority of the film follows Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the leader of The Strikes as he starves himself until the very end of the film. The film is quite strange as Fassbender's character doesn't even appear until about halfway through the film. No one character is presented as a lead character, alot of the narrative just revolves around the horrific treatment of the prisoners before The Hunger Strike started.

*Bobby Sands & Father Dominic in the most famous shot.

The start of the film doesn't revolve around dialogue at all. Occasionally there may be a line said but not responded too, but other than this the film is just almost silent at the start. What I noticed from the film is that McQueen seems to have a certain goal for every scene, something he may want to highlight. One of the most significant scenes is that of Bobby Sands telling 'Father Dominic' (Liam Cunningham) about his plans to carry out a hunger strike. The whole conversation is about 20 minutes long known notably for an unbroken 17 minute shot*. The lack of cuts between shots forces the audience to concentrate on the conversation and take note of what the characters are saying. This is just an example of McQueen's technique. He may want to highlight a particular aspect of a scene so alot of the time dialogue or cuts aren't necessary but at other times they are heavily relied on. McQueen's style of filmaking is very unique and in my opinion brilliant.

Fassbender's characterisation is brilliant to say the least. Although his acting abilities are only really spread out in the second half of the film, he is a stand out character. Towards the end of the film the scenes start to get very harrowing with Fassbender's body being dangerously small. I'm pretty sure (and I hope) that he didnt method act this one because by the end of the film he was pretty much flat from the side. The scenes in which he's starving himself are very hard to watch. One in particular that really gripped me is a frantic moving camera over Sands lying in a prison ward bed. Superimposed over this shot are flocks of birds flying and the crackles of there wings makes it sound like Bobby Sand's bones are crumbling and his body is falling apart.

Steve McQueen & Michael Fassbender.

This film is really powerful and a fantastic debut and it makes me excited to see McQueen's next film 'Shame' which is out very very soon and also stars Fassbender.

Rating 8/10

Top Tip-The film is fantastic but extremely hard to watch. It may not be everyone's cup of tea.

The Ides Of March- Film Review

'The Ides of March' is George Clooney's 4th directed film.It was produced and the screenplay was written by him too. The films revolves around Ryan Gosling's character Stephen Meyers who's a Junior Campaign Manager for Mike Morris (Clooney)as he is running for the leader of the Democrats & Presidential Candidate. He is soon offered a job by the Campaign Manager of the other Democratic candidates. Also finding out dark secrets about his boss (Clooney) he starts to doubt where he belongs as he has always said he works for what he believes in.

I like George Clooney. 'Up In The Air' is one of my favourite comedies and I've always seen him as a pretty great actor. I thought it would be interesting to see if i had a similar reaction to his directing. I didn't. Maybe politics just isn't my thing but still I must have found it at least a bit interesting. Paul Giamatti & Phillip Seymour Hoffman are both actors I really like and for me they didn't make me enjoy the film any more than It would have done without them. The trailer really set up the film as an exciting pacey political thriller but all the main plot points were placed so far apart that it felt like it was going on for hours. If Clooney had so much control over this film then George Clooney has really gone down on my lists.


I haven't seen alot of what Ryan Gosling does but apparently he has tendencies to be a bit dull and lifeless and this being the only major role I've seen him do, my expectations were met. My general boredom of the characters just got me hoping that someone would die or something so it could all come to a finish.



I always think if there's nothing positive to say then say nothing so I'll finish here. I didn't like it. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea, but i wouldn't watch it again.



4/10 Top Tip- Have a nice little sleep while you're watching. Chances are you won't miss much.

Super 8- Film Review

CHILDREN OF ENGLAND!!!

I KNOW LIFE IS BORING! BUT THERE IS NO NEED TO PROTEST FOR NO REASON!!! 

INSTEAD HEAD DOWN TO YOUR LOCAL CINEMA (independent one preferably) GET YOURSELF A LARGE POPCORN COMBO WITH A LARGE PEPSI MAX AND GO AND SEE SUPER 8! 

ONE OF THE ONLY FILMS OUT AT THE MOMENT THAT I WOULD RATHER SEE THAN HAVE MY EYES RIPPED OUT OF MY SOCKETS!!! (ahem Mr Poppers Penguins ahem).

JJ Abram's (The Director of The Newest Star Trek film) new 70's set Sci Fi coming of age film doesn't fail to disappoint. Set in the fictional town of Lillian, Ohio; the film follows 13 year old Joel Lamb (who's recently lost his mother to an accident at a Lumber Mill) as he helps his friend Charles (my favourite character XD ) and his other friends as they try and create a Zombie film for a film festival (With Super 8 film hence the name) as they film a scene at a train station they witness a car purposely drive onto the tracks to hit an Air Force train. Releasing a dark secret upon the town (I apologize for the cheesy line).

The film has the potential to be awful. If the group of kids playing the main characters had no acting ability then the film itself would fall apart. But the kids act with the perfect mix of humour and drama. My friends and myself ended our day by shouting out the funniest lines of the film at each other. So part of the reason that the kids performances blew me away can be owed to the writer of the film (JJ Abrams again). The character's personalities rely on each other well, from the chubby film director with an obsession with production value to the long haired, bracefaced, loud pyromaniac. The Characters are brilliantly played and very well formed and my favourite element of the film.

The special effects in the film are great. Unfortunately I can't go into detail on the extent of them as the whole set up of the film was brought about shrouded in secrecy. The first teaser trailer of the the film is one of the most Maxium charged trailers with almost minimal point to it. The only thing that the film introduced is that there is a train crash and reveals the title. But to be honest this approach made it the film that most excited me. All I can say is look out for the special effects cos they will rock ur sox.

The film acts as a homage to the Steven Speilberg movies of their time (Close Encounters & E.T predominantly). I think as a film it has the potential to have the same effect as these films by capturing the audiences mind's and going down in film history. I hope it does as i loved it.

8.5/10

Tip- Stay in your seats at the end as the kid's film within a film is shown over the credits

Attack The Block- Film Review

Before starting I just want to say sorry that I haven't done a review recently. I've been a bit preoccupied with exams recently and haven't watched many films. So thanks for sticking with me.

Attack The Block is the New Debut Sci Fi, Horror film directed by Joe Cornish (of Radio 6's Adam & Joe). It follows a gang of youths as they try to take one a army of massive scary aliens as they take on their council estate. All of the main characters are unknown actors playing the youths which is probably good as I don't think many professional actors would have been able to pull off as good a characterization as Cornish's leads did.

The film had a perfect mix of comedy & horror. With scenes being very tense to hilarious scenes featuring 2 nine year olds &  trying to fight the aliens with toy guns & water pistols. One problem for the film may be that a lot of the language may not be understood by international audiences and if they have to be subtitled in it may lose some of the biggest laughs of the films. But all in all for a British audience (more so for a younger one) the language can be understood and the brilliant script helped it flourish.

Cornish talks about how he was inspired by the 80's Sci Fi film's like E.T in which is mix of social realism & Sci Fi, with E.T being as much about divorce as it is about a little alien. As he believes The British are great at Social Realism & quite good at Sci Fi no where near as good at combining them as Americans are. So with the setting of The Council Estate which he quotes as being a very "futuristic & science fictional."this mix of genres works very well.

The Aliens themselves are fantastic and simple with the majority of the shots being non CGI as Cornish wanted the character's reactions to be as natural as possible. The cast members say they felt very scared as there are massive black monsters running at full pelt towards them. The size & sound of them works very well and I don't know about the rest of the audience but I felt them very menacing. I won't give away to much but I thought the monsters are fab and If a well crafted monster is a essential for you, you won't be disappointed.

All In all in my opinion it that this film is a fantastic well crafted debut by Cornish and lives up to such great British films as Hot Fuzz & Shaun of The Dead. I Want To Watch It Again!

9.5/10

Top Tip- GO SEE It AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!

Submarine- Film Review

Submarine is the latest stab at conquering British comedy Heights topped by Hot Fuzz & The Full Monty. Its A Debut feature film from Richard Ayode (Moss from the I.T Crowd as he is probably sick of  being known as) follows socially awkward teenager Oliver Tate as he tries to solve all of his problems including stopping his parents from divorcing, getting a girlfriend and losing his virginity.

My favourite aspect of this film is that I could picture exactly what Ayode was trying to present and represent from every aspect of the filmmaking elements like cinematography and mise en scene. At points the camera work was beautifully done to represent characters emotions or at other times to increase the overall awkwardness of the film (Look out for main character oliver looking straght into the camera a lot, Made me chuckle a lot)

The characters are fully crafted and work very well together. The odd extremely socially awkward main character, The polar opposite confident sassy girlfriend, the quietly boring parents, and the new age hippie loser antagonist. All of these characters work very well with the socially awkward Oliver who would in real life be the social outcast in all situations.

I was particularly looking forward to the original songs recorded especially by Alex Turner (Arctic Monkey’s frontman) but as nice as it is to hear a normally mainstream rocky sound to be replaced with a quiet simple guitar music, I did get a bit annoyed that I probably wouldn’t be able to distinguish any of the songs from each other making them utterly boring.

Loads of the aspects of the film were very different and quirky e.g. every time a letter is read by the character not only is the author’s letter being read out by the author himself but there’s a long slow zooming shot of the character reading it in a dark room. These kinds of things made me chuckle.

Although the film was overall a bit odd and I ideally may need Richard Ayode’s assistance to fully understand the film; As a film it shows real promise that Ayode could become known as ‘That really funny British comedy director,’ rather than ‘Moss from The I.T Crowd.‘

And It's bloody funny!

8/10 Top Tip- Don’t go expecting to laugh at every sentence, only chuckle when it feels natural.

Battle Los Angeles- Film Review

Yesterday I watched Battle Los Angeles. The Film follows follows a platoon of U.S. Marines during a global alien invasion, who are joined by an Airman and some Army infantry. The events of the film are inspired by the Battle of Los Angeles, a supposed World War II air raid of the city which turned out to be a false alarm caused by several unidentified objects. The film itself didn't receive the best reviews in the world as its said that the action in the film is relentless. Personally I enjoy a good bit of action, and saying this film doesn't lack any is an understatement so this could already be a problem for some people. From about 20 minutes in the action started and didn't stop until the credits started. I blabbered about being in the mood for films in my last review and I was right as I was totally in the zone and loved all this action.

Its important for anybody considering watching this that it isn't purely a Sci Fi film. Its a War Film that just so happens to have aliens. The aliens don't play a vital role in the story as in my opinion the film could be easily modified so Humans were the enemies. The aliens had spaceships- use Jets. The aliens had big rocket launchers- rockets can be fired by humans. The aliens could only die shot in a certain part of the body- The heart or Head? Keeping this in mind I'm not a big fan of war films and probably wouldn't have gone to see it and as alien based films come. I defiantly preferred it to Paul.

The film took time to introduce all of the marine characters and introduced all of them so they were all likeable characters that could be empathized with. I also liked this because there are alot of Action or War films in which the audience can pretty much tell who and in what order the characters will die in, but I had no idea, so this was a plus for me.

The pacing was a bit irritating to say the least. At times everything was going quite slowly with the platoon being stuck in a confined space for ages but at other times the action was quickly sprung onto the audience like a fly swat on a bluebottle. Take for example just before the finale the surviving soldiers jump out the chopper in the space of 60 secs and kept the action going for another 20 minutes. It seemed like the director said "oh crap, we've got a bout 2 days of shooting time to finish this finale, Just cut it down completely."

The ultimate conclusion annoyed me on 2 levels (which i don't really want to spoil) It just so happens that while L.A is saved that means that any of the 50 odd other cities stand a chance while the final thing the platoon do before the credits is very unrealistic. Watch it to find out what I mean.

I did enjoy this film, the content was good but the way it was put together was a bit naff.

7/10
Tip- Remember its a War film with Aliens not the other way round.

Cave Of Forgotten Dreams- Film Review

On Friday night i went to (in my opinion) The Best Cinema in the world, The Duke of York's Cinema in Brighton and watched German director Werner Herzog's latest documentary 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams'. Which shows his venture into Chauvet Cave in Southern France which in 1994 was discovered to have the oldest art ever discovered in the world. The film is shot in 3D as Herzog wanted to prove that 3D films don't need to be a monotonous chain of drivel from Dreamwork or Disney. Alot of cinemas have been said to be screening the film in 2D because they felt it didn't make a difference to the film. This (in my opinion again) is a bad choice. I believe that this completely enhanced the film.

Personally I found this film fascinating. It started with Herzog entering the cave with a team of scientists. Although this sequence was very jittery and this could be very disconcerting It was a very simple and well made intro. The film is set out by starting to look at the cave and introduce the paintings. They showed the techniques used to discover more such as Carbon Dating and how they examined the red dots that one of the ancient artists made with his hand on the rocks and how they were examined to show that this person was a 6 foot tall man (or woman) with a bent pinky finger.


Herzog's narration of the film is very relaxing. Relaxing to the point in which I was the only person in our party of 5 who watched the film from start to finish without my eyes shutting for an extended period of time. As I learnt by the fascinated reactions of my family and friends. To start off I was a bit annoyed at them for not connecting with this film with the same level that I did, but I came o understand that  it wasn't at all to do with how much they appreciated the film but the mood they were in. I can understand that people can be in the mood for anything. I was in a particularly intellectual mood and happy to listen intently to the narration and facts and found it extremely interesting but looking back I can really appreciate how good a snooze in a dark room with calming music playing and a quiet German accent inform the audience.


I enjoyed the film, the cinematography was stunning at times, and the topics were incredibly interesting but the film isn't for everyone and even for those who's cup of tea it is sometimes there's something that you would much rather be doing than sitting in a dark room listening to interesting facts about geology and ancient art. 

8/10
Tip- Watch the film when you feel like watching it. If you don't then it won't be the nicest experience.

Burn After Reading- Film Review

"The Best Comedy of 2008," is how The Coen Brother's film 'Burn After Reading' has been described as. It follows the antics of incompetent gym workers  Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) who find some government documents and try to blackmail higher government workers without realizing they are way over their heads. With help from the story and directing by Joel & Ethan Coen the film triumphs in being a very smart, quirky comedy.

The Story is of Osbourne Cox (who is portrayed brilliantly by John Malkovich) who after quitting his job in the CIA decides to start write a memoir. When his wife begins to seek a divorce as she is having an affair with Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) and copies his personal files on a CD and giving it to her lawyer who ends up giving it to his assistant. Chad & Linda end up finding the CD and attempt to blackmail Osbourne. At the meeting Osbourne realizes its just his memoirs and punches Chad in the nose (See above). Their antics after this continue including attempting to sell the memoirs to the Russian embassy. Linda starts to date Harry which completes the circle and connects almost all the characters leading to a hilarious conclusion in the film.

Every character is perfectly formed to each be hilarious in their own way. Brad Pitt plays the most obviously funny and comical character always dancing with his headphones in and arriving to a potentially fatal meeting in a suit on his bicycle. It comes across very well that whil Pitt filmed this he didn't take himself seriously. Some people may think that Frances McDormand as one of the stars of the film may be unfair as she's married to half of the directing team. But she does incredibly well at playing a very a self obsessed  Linda. Her character dreams of a perfect life with a perfect man and totally believes that the way to get this is to have multiple plastic surgeries. This becomes an ongoing theme throughout the film and ends up being the motive for her attempted blackmail. Malkovich plays his perfect part as well as he usually does as the shouty angry powerful man who looks down on others. He has some great bits of dialogue including a very funny talk on the phone with Chad & Linda acting as the moment when they realise they are in over their head.


The story and charcters work in tandem very well to make this a very clever film full of laughs. I suggest this to anyone who loves a laugh but not something to obvious. 


8/10

Tips- If you want something fun for a party or gathering etc. get something else.

Never Let Me Go- Film Review

Never Let Me Go is a harrowing romantic drama following the love triangle of scientfic specimins grown up and produced to provide their organs for severely ill paitients. It's based on the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. The film follows Kathy, Tommy & Ruth played by up and coming actors & actresses Carey Mulligan (Kathy), Andrew Garfield (Tommy) & Keira Knightley (Ruth) and is directed by Mark Romanek.

The film is played in 3 parts 'Hailsham', 'Cottages' & 'Completion' which each follow the characters at diferent times in there lives. In Hailsham the film follows introduces the characters as 12-14 year olds in a private school in Hailsham and follows them as they bond and become better friends. The younger Kathy start to approach loner Tommy and they together form a strong lifelong connection. Hailsham also introduces the plot to the audience in an incredibly moving scene in which a teacher (Sally Hawkins) breaks the rules and tells the children about how they're lives are planned out for them and that they will become adults and that "sometime after your 3rd donation, your short life will be complete." The film continues to follow the characters as they grow up and progress. At the start of 'Cottages' the child actors are changed into their adult alter ego's and whoever did a casting job should pat themself on the back as the children looked and acted perfectly to match their counterparts, this happened to the extent that my weeping mum turned to me when the film had finished and asked me "is it the same girl playing herself as a child."


The acting in the film is amazing, Mulligan's performance is quiet and sincere but showed real emotion at good times making her the perfect character to sympathise with. While Andrew Garfield's performance lived up to his amazing performance in The Social Network reaching its peak in a fit of rage that the character has go's through in the middle of a country road which I will admit brought me to tears. Knightley's performance of Ruth is very malicious and angry which creates a contrast for the audience from Kathy of a character to dislike. The three main characters in the film work exceptionally well together to make the audience Smile, Laugh and Cry as a unit.

The Symbolism is very important in the film, every now and then moments from the film click in my head and alters my perception of the film, In a Hailsham scene while the children play bat & ball and it lands outside of the school's fences. Tommy runs after until he realises its over the fence. Miss Lucy's reaction to this strange action prompts a horror story told by the young Ruth and when questioned about whether she thinks these stories are true or not she replies  "Who'd make up stories as horrible as that?" Later on I realised that this is ironic seeing as they have to take the same stance when they find out there own future fate. When eventually the children do find out there fate a shot of Tommy's Ball in the grass is shown which may symbolise that as they revcieve all of this news there's nothing they can so about this. Which mirrors the facts that nothing can be done for the ball.

Overall I feel incredibly moved and touched by this film, the idea of the film is so atrocious to comprehend that I think people could have some completely different stances on the film and some may fault its differences from the novel. I think as well as this no person can doubt that this film is very emotional and touch and maybe people will feel this to different extents but I personally believe that the beauty of the mise en Scene and the sheer emotion that the actors conjour up in the film lead to the creation of a brilliant almost faultless film.


9.5/10 
Tips- If you're the kind of person who watches a film in the moment then i suggest preparing yourself for a film that could well rattle your bones.


(Thankyou for reading, this is my first review, If you have any time please email me at harveyraoul@hotmail.co.uk and share your thoughts and give me some hints as I would very much like to improve)

Announcement

About half a month ago or so I had a parents evening, and honestly it was rather traumatic to say the least. I guess you could say that I should be doing better. In hinesight its what i need and overall a real eye opener. It also got me thinking alot about what i want to do with my life as i have speant most of my college career running in multible directions and getting my head stuck. I eventually started to think about going into filmaking whether that is Editing or Directing. I looked up university courses and they say that a good thing to have is a portfolio and i thought that a good way to do this may be to review films. I watch atleast 2 films a week whether i've seen them already or nt doesnt matter but I can write about them!!!

So I thought that maybe this blog will not just be me ranting about stuff but may also be a chance to put my views on films forwards and maybe give you a good honest opinion.

SO FROM NOW ON THIS MAY NOT JUST BE THE SMALL IRRITATED COMPLAINING GUY BUT "THE SMALL IRRITATED FILM REVIEWING COMPLAINING GUY!!!!"