SON OF RAMBOW
SON OF RAMBOW is the kind of film the British seem to have an uncanny expertise in making: cheeky, manic, and a little twisted, but nevertheless spirited, fun and heartwarming without ever becoming cloying or trite. In addition to being a charming tale of brotherhood and friendship, it’s also a sweet little ode to the power of films – whether in watching them or making them. One of the more buzzed about films at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, it’s certainly one of the better films of this year, and worth a look if only for the performances of the two boys, Bill Milner and Will Poulter.
Overall rating: B+
REPRISE
Joachim Trier’s French New Wave inspired coming-of-age story is remarkable not only for its deft handling of switching tones from whimsical to contemplative but also for how real and palpable it feels. Though it never hides its fictional aspirations, its insights are at times so dead-on you might very well feel you’re watching a documentary. It captures the natural complexities of friendship, love, and dreams of youth, but most of all the often laborious, difficult, and obligatory call to grow up and find a compromise youthful idolism and adult pragmatism. Most certainly one of the best films of the year.
Overall rating: A
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CAMP ROCK
With CAMP ROCK, Ainsleigh and I were in agreement in several areas. We were both impressed by lead actress Demi Lovato. Though her vocals were – of course – impressive, most notably we liked the fact that she was normal and accessible looking – especially for a Disney bred star (that’s my editorial, not hers). By that we mean that all the people in HIGH SCHOOL ACTRESS are celebrity pretty, while Lovato is more relatable, “real life” pretty. She conveyed an image of being natural, of being herself. The funny thing is the film’s message about people needing to “be themselves” was one that didn’t work at all. Both of us felt that it was too Disney, too much of a lesson formed around contrived and forced situations. I would say it was too on the nose and preachy, while Ainsleigh put it much more endearingly: “It was too sticky outy.” It’s in stark contrast to HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL where a similar message is much more subtly integrated, but much more effective.
It’s because of the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL comparison that CAMP ROCK brings about the one disagreement Ainsleigh and I have about the film. Though my niece enjoyed all the songs and the dancing in the film (and even wanted a bit more of it), I found it a bit dull and uninspired. It seemed to suffer from my own internal comparisons to HSM, and the fact that at times CAMP ROCK seems to be trying too hard to emulate HSM, yet without any of the charm. Largely perhaps because it forgoes more traditional musical structure, and instead finds a more “natural” way of integrating musical numbers into the story (it is a music camp after all).
In the end both of found minor positives within it, but were left a little underwhelmed.
Ainsleigh’s Overall Rating: B-
theREELaddict’s Overall Rating: C
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S.P.L.: KILLZONE
If you need anything more than the promise of an awesome Donnie Yen vs. Sammo Hung climactic fight as an enticement to see this film, then this may not be the movie for you to begin with. Thankfully what comes before the fight is pretty good too. Continuing a prevalent trend in recent Asian cinema (epitomized in INFERNAL AFFAIRS, the inspiration for Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED), towards dark, gritty, sometimes nihilistic cop dramas, S.P.L.: KILLZONE is a solid police flick that wrangles with the moral grayness of police officers testing the limits of what should and shouldn’t be don’t to make sure justice is served. It works well enough that you don’t really mind that even though the film stars Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung (a surprisingly effective heavy) there isn’t really any fighting to the very end. On that note, damn is it a hell of an ending. Not just because of the wicked fight between the two pros, but because … well, you’ll see.
Overall rating: B+
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By: Kelvin King
Martin Scorsese and The Rolling Stones. They are two Iconic household names known both for their ability to entertain an audience and for their longevity and energy. What then is the result of their latest collaboration? We get a thrilling and engrossing event that pays tribute to the Stones and their music while achieving “a balance between preparation and spontaneity” that Scorsese believes is crucial of movies and music.
SHINE A LIGHT comprises footage filmed over two performances (at the famed New York’s Beacon Theatre) from the band’s much touted A Bigger Bang tour. Before we are treated to the nineteen songs in the concert that showcase various everything from country, rock and roll, and blues, we are treated to the initial concert preparation, especially the treat of seeing usually self assured Martin Scorsese nervously fussing over the setlist (during the concert preparations) and positioning of the principals onstage.
Needless to say, he didn’t really need to worry. The Stones do not disappoint with their selection of tunes, and have duly included their crowd-pleasing classics like “Brown Sugar”, “Shattered”, “Sympathy for the Devil”, “Start Me Up” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. They also performed other hits like “Just My Imagination”, “She Was Hot”, “As Tears Go By” and “Faraway Eyes”. The highlights of the set though were the unique duets performed with music stars like Christina Aguilera (”Live with Me”), Jack White from The White Stripes (”Loving Cup”) and Buddy Guy (“Champagne & Reefer”). It is a good mix overall that would please fans and casual admirers alike. The quality of the music, sound and the performances are top notch, placing the viewer right in the thick of the proceedings. It brings back fond memories of a live Stones show – you feel like you are actually there.
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ROGUE
Proof that not all those cheap-looking creature horror films sitting around unrented on your local Blockbuster shelves are crap, this solid entry in the killer-croc genre from WOLF CREEK director Greg McLean is well worth picking up. Even though it perhaps stretches certain scenarios out for too long, thanks to a JAWS approach to the monster, good characters one doesn’t want to die (for the most part), and a refreshing avoidance of too much stupidity, the film ratchets up plenty of well-earned tension. ROGUE provides exactly what you want from a film about a man-eating crocodile without making you feel stupid for enjoying it.
Overall rating: B-
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TURN THE RIVER
Aided by a stellar minimalistic performance by Famke Janssen, Chris Eigeman’s accomplished first feature film is a powerful yet quiet little character study of a pool player (Janssen) trapped in her day-by-day circumstances, trying to make good and do right by her son by removing him from her semi-abusive ex-husband, but struggling to pull herself afloat. There’s an effective tragedy in how spartanly understated the film follows those struggles. Nothing is glamorized here, it’s all gritty, grim, and lacking any cloying drama. That’s why it’s unfortunate when the film awkwardly (and curiously) decides to completely shift its tone at the very end, and go down an excessively dramatic, darker, and much more thriller like road that seems schizophrenically incongruous with everything that’s come before. It left me disappointed because it keeps the film from being a much better well-rounded work. But as it is, it’s still definitely worth recommending (if anything for Janssen’s performance), and an impressive debut from Mr. Eigeman.
Overall rating: B
CHAOS THEORY
For something fixating itself on something as inconsistent as chaos, CHAOS THEORY is a pretty paint-by-numbers affair following your typical uptight middle-class yuppie busting loose from the monotony of his life and learning lessons along the way. Despite the familiarity, the film fare well with its comfortable territory, and thanks to an interesting twist and a charming performance from the always great Ryan Reynolds, it manages to largely off-set the film’s sense of déjà vu and some of its more peculiar histrionics.
Overall rating: B-
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HAROLD & KUMAR: ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY
What made the first HAROLD & KUMAR so charming was the simplicity of its story, its unapologetic silliness, as well as the way it subverted traditional expectations of Hollywood protagonists (i.e. Harold and Kumar are not white) while never actually making a big deal out of it. The sequel strays from that amusing, basic charm by making Harold and Kumar’s voyage far more extreme, without that thread of relatability that pervaded the first film. It’s too ambitious for its own good. As a result, things get perhaps a little too wacky and out there, and at the same time the forced romantic subplots become that much more awkward. That being said, the film’s politics are amusing, not only because of the movies’ gleeful political incorrectness, but also its clever way of repeatedly flipping our expectations involving the stereotypes the movie presents. The joke though - like the rest of the film - eventually gets old. You’ll get a few laughs along the way, but in the end you’re probably better off getting high and watching the film, or just sticking to the first one.
Overall rating: C
DOOMSDAY
From the original review: “…given the film is perhaps really aiming to be nothing more than a silly, C-level genre piece that humorously ventures into campy excess (the character of Sol, especially), maybe bemoaning the lack of character and story development is like wishing GHANDI had more action in it. And as a campy post-apocalyptic action-horror film, DOOMSDAY does fare well.”
Overall rating: B-
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4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS & 2 DAYS
Further fueling the current Romanian film renaissance, 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS & 2 DAYS is a serious cinematic accomplishment (it even won the Golden Palm a the Cannes Film Festival last year). What makes it such a remarkable film is that on the surface its functional extremely well as a dramatically devastating abortion drama (propelled by the impressive performance of Anamaria Marinca) but if you burrow a little deeper you realize the film is simultaneously a critically impressionistic portrayal of Romania during Communist rule (the film takes place in 1986). It’s this subtlety, this representation that isn’t forced upon you so much as reveals itself, that makes the film so powerful, affecting - and at times gut-wrenching. Pay particular attention to a dinner sequence later in the film that is shot in a long-take, and though it seems to only be small-talk between people celebrating a birthday, is actually the thematic center of the film. 4 MONTHS…, ladies and gentleman, is filmmaking at its best.
Overall rating: A
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CITY OF MEN
The film that spun out of one of the best films of the last ten years (2002’s CITY OF GOD), emerges as one of the best films of this year. Narrowing the focus somewhat from its predecessor, CITY OF MEN is a heartfelt and humane coming of age story. The film follows two best friends (beautifully acted by Darlan Cunha and Douglas Silva) who struggle with growing up in the face of a violent gang war that breaks out. Inevitably their paths split, but in the end they come back together having learned to overcome their surroundings, their past, and their own limitations to face their responsibilities to themselves and each other. It’s the greatest trick the film pulls. You’re thinking you’re watching an intense, soap-opera like gangster film (and in a way you are), but in reality you’re watching one of the more mature, probing stories about young men growing up positively in spite of their circumstances to come along in a while.
Overall rating: A-
THE RUINS
Though not nearly as terrifying as Scott Smith’s novel (probably because of how much worse my imagination made things), THE RUINS is effective in that does capture what made Smith’s novel disturbingly enjoyable in the first place: it’s horrifying and frightening portrayal of the mental/emotional deterioration of people stuck in an increasingly dire survival situation. It’s what helps get one through the simple characters, the “villain” of the piece getting short thrifted (compared to the book), and the somewhat rushed and de-clawed ending. In that sense THE RUINS proves that with heightened dramatic intensions the trappings of the horror genre can be transcended, and an effective little film can emerge. Also, if nothing else, the film deserves credit for proving that killer plants can be scary. Take that, M. Night Shyamalan and THE HAPPENING.
Overall rating: B-
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THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES
THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES is something of a rare commodity in the family film genre: it is not only refreshingly mature, but also intensely exciting. I can’t think of many such flicks that on an emotional level so seriously and effectively wrestle with the effect of divorce on a child, nor on an entertainment level provide such a genuinely pervading sense of danger and tension. That’s all the more impressive given that in the end it all really comes down to something as ridiculously simple as keeping a book away from a bad guy. Nevertheless there were numerous sequences that had me glued to my screen, whether out of sheer wonder, or just good-old fashioned enthrallment with some of the film’s more intense moments (especially its climax).
The film’s (and by extension the book’s) imagination is also something behold. The film’s fantastical world is not only lovingly painted (all the more apparent in Blu-Ray), it seems to me welcomingly old-fashioned with its great cast of goblins, fairies, griffins, whether good or bad. It’s not just the cast though, it’s the word itself as the film revels in its sublime imagination. In that sense THE SPIDERWICK CHORNICLES’ greatest trick is not only that it appeals to a child’s sense of wonder, but that it can allow an adult like myself to recall my own.
Overall rating: B+
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