Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

[numbersix]

CitizenFour: 6/10
A tough one to rate. It's a little like Selma, where your respect for MLK overshadows your thoughts on the way in which the film was executed. This documentary suffers from a similar tension. It's a fascinating, engaging doc because it captures one of the biggest news stories of the decade as it happens, from the mouths of the people involved. It's like having cameras in the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis, or in the offices of the Washington Post when Watergate was happening. The way the journalists interact with Snowden, a complete unknown at the time. Their paranoia as the hotel fire alarm goes off, and so on. This is an important documentary, for if you didn't follow the horrifying revelations his leak brought, this doc will surely make you aware and very concerned about how governments keeps tabs on us through their relationships with internet companies.

Unfortunately, certain aspects of the doc don't quite work. A great documentary should challenge its own beliefs (and every doc has them, don't believe the objective observer fallacy), and in this instance there is a massive moral question that is sidestepped: Snowden may be revealing a huge infringement on privacy,but in doing so he may have compromised dozens of potential terrorist attacks, and may do so going forward. I know where I stand personally (I'm with Snowden on this one), but it is not an easy issue. You could argue the documentary is not trying to be a statement on the topic of whistleblowing, and instead the maker is merely following her subjects, but I don't think that's enough. There need to be more questions. The best the director does is linger on Snowden as he prepares himself for the public sphere, obsessed with getting his hair right - an intimation that he may be harbouring a Jesus Complex after all. Also, I felt after the release of the information the doc drags a little. The media and government backlash is interesting but did we need to see Glenn Greenwald's trip to Brazil,for example? He just seems to say what we've already been told,and the reveal that his boyfriend was detained isn't enough to justify it.

Still, despite the flaws it's an important and often quite tense documentary. Deserved of its Oscar, and certainly worth watching.

[silversurfer19]

Caught a preview of Home - 3/10 over the weekend. It's such a shame that the quality control of Dreamworks is all over the place. While they can deliver some really decent animations in How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, they are also quite capable of crafting absolute dross. Home definitely sits alongside the likes of Shark Tale, The Wild and Monsters Vs Aliens as utterly forgettable and serves as nothing more than a vehicle to promote whichever pop icon is en vogue at the moment. This time it's Rhianna, and it doesn't help matters that she's just as poor as a voice artist as she is an actual actor. But that's the least of the movie's problems, as most notably it's biggest issue is the story, following an alienated young girl who meets an alienated alien and they must work together to overcome their problems. It's very juvenile, but more so the whole thing is so utterly mundane and something we've seen so many, many times before. It also isn't helped by Jim Parsons giving possibly the most annoying character on screen since Jar Jar Binks, with his broken English language grating more than charming. The animation also feels cheap and lacklustre, and like the story just feels a little too familiar. Let's hope Dreamworks can return to the type of movie that wins them Oscars rather than this tripe next time out.

[Buscemi]

The Wild was actually a Canadian-produced film that Disney distributed.

I did wonder why Steve Martin agreed to do Home. Maybe he just wanted a quick paycheck while he was busy with his musical work.

But with the recent slate cutting DreamWorks has been doing (turning a Puss in Boots sequel into a Netflix series, possibly doing the same with Madagascar 4 and shelving several films, including the mostly-completed B.O.O.), you may get your wish of better quality control. However, Boss Baby sounds like the kind of bad children's film that would have been made in the 90's.

[numbersix]

Wild Tales: 5/10
I suppose this is partly due to my dissatisfaction with "compilation" films. They're just never more than the sum of their parts, like a great feature film is. As the stories are completely separate and only linked generally through the theme of revenge, I may as well comment on them separately:

1. A sort of intro where two people on a plane realise they know the same person. Amusing, but the reveal was obvious. At least it was brief.
2. A waitress serves the politician who ruined her family. My least favourite of the bunch. Neither funny nor surprising.
3. A moment of road rage causes two men to assault each other. This was like a funny version of Changing Lanes. Loved the last scene.
4. A father loses his family when his car is towed. Made instantly better by the presence of Ricardo Darin. Sadly, I didn't buy the ending.
5. A family try to cover up the son's hit-and-run. This wasn't bad, and focused on corruption. Could have almost been developed into a feature.
6. A bride at her wedding discovers a secret about her husband. Again, not bad, and it went for a more outrageous tone. A little too long, though.

Overall, the variety in quality made for an overall unappealing experience. This certainly didn't deserve the Oscar nomination, especially ahead of Force Majeure.

[Chienfantome]

Yep, I agree with you Six, this is a clearly overestimated film. I don't get how it could sneak into competition at Cannes and end up with an Oscar nom ahead of so many great films. Some sketches are amusing, and some interesting, and never truly completely. Disappointing.

[Buscemi]

Unbroken */****

Basically, it's Oscar Bait torture porn. Angelina Jolie's second film is a boring, cliche-ridden movie about Louis Zamperini's fight to survive when his plane is shot down and is eventually captured by the Japanese during World War II. The characters are uninteresting and badly developed, the sports elements are glossed over (after so much of the early advertising focused on his track career, there's only about 20 minutes of that and it's all in flashback) and there's just nothing to care about. The worst part is the script, which was somehow co-written by The Coen Brothers. There are long stretches were nothing happens except people on lifeboats or people being beaten. I understand that POW camps were like that but they could have had something interesting to say other than nothing.

In short, just watch Rescue Dawn or The Railway Man if you want a prisoner of war movie, All is Lost if you want a marooned at sea movie or see McFarland, U.S.A. if you want a running movie.

[transformers2]

Insurgent 7.5/10
Solid continuation of the Divergent series. The pacing and action sequences are better than the first and Shailene Woodley is once again great in the leading role. This series is definitely leaps behind the Hunger Games, but it's a still respectable, well-crafted YA dystopian franchise.

[Chienfantome]

I think you're a bit harsh on Unbroken Boosch, even though I'm not a fan of the film myself. The problem clearly comes from the script, but at least I thought that the first half was rather good and seemed to be able to lead to something. The problem is when the film becomes a POW movie. Once Zamperini gets transferred to the camp, the film loses itself. As long as there were only a few characters to take care of, it was ok. Once in the camp, the narration gets dissolved into a wave of characters they (Jolie, the screenwriters) don't know what to do with, and thus you suddenly start to lose interet in the dramatic stakes and potential emotion of the story. That's too bad because you clearly see the potential of such a life story.

[Chienfantome]

Last night I went to a French preview of The Water Diviner, Russell Crowe's directorial debut. Crowe was present after the screening for a Q&A, alongside Olga Kurylenko.
The film had clear potential with a strong subject, but the result is... hum, a bit embarrassing sometimes. Well, not all of it.
The film takes place a few months after the end of WWI, 4 years after the battle of Gallipoli which was a defeat for the Allies against the Ottoman Empire. An Australian farmer lost his 3 sons in the battle, and his wife killed herself out of despair. So four years after the death of his sons, he travels across the world and arrives in a dismantled Ottoman Empire, hoping to reach the ruins of Gallipoli and find the bodies of his sons to bring them home and put them to ground with their mother.
Best part of the film is the military Turkish characters, the best written and despicted of the bunch. The script has the good idea to give time to both sides.
Unfortunately, when the Ottoman characters are left aside, the film is a melo full of clichés, directed with horrible slow motion shots, with romantic sequences full of candle lightings to set the mood, up to the point where I wanted to laugh.
I was amused, during the Q&A, how proud Crowe is of his work. The guy is really charming and eloquent, but you could sense the huge ego behind his answers, and it felt awkward because I wanted to laugh at the film while watching it a couple of times.
4/10

[Buscemi]

The Gunman ***/****

I think people expected a lot more with this one, with the political strife and PTSD elements. But you expect a movie like the Friday night "pizza and a video rental" type from the 90's, you won't be disappointed. And I certainly wasn't. Sean Penn actually isn't too bad in this action type role (and he's certainly got an okay body to go with the acting chops) while the rest of the (mostly) name cast does well in what little they get to do. But what mainly helps is that the film doesn't seem to take itself seriously (outside of Penn, maybe). It's purely a homage to the action films of the 90's, with the international settings, mixing of action with social commentary and over-the-top kills. And since I already have a soft spot for those kinds of movies, I probably appreciated it a bit more than I should have.

[numbersix]

99 Homes: 6/10
A pretty predictable drama. It's just like Wall Street, but for the Recession. Andrew Garfield plays a single father who loses his home, and has no job due to construction work drying up. He ends up working for cut-throat estate agent Michael Shannon, gradually becoming the person he used to despise. The film is carried by great performances, and it's pretty well written although there are a few moments I found hard to believe, particularly the ending.

Who Am I - No System is Safe: 5/10
A very disappointing film from the director behind the underrated The Silence. This is an attempt at a modern techo-thriller, where a young geek gets involved in a hacker group that find themselves in more danger than they ever imagined. A lot of odd scenes, mostly there for stylistic reasons, and when a twist comes along that kind of explains why they're so strange then we get another twists to suggest the opposite. Rather than being pleasingly complex this is all bluster and no brain.

A Pigeon Sat on A Branch Reflecting on Existence: 5/10
A very quirky, idiosyncratic film. It's basically a bunch of individual scenes very loosely linked together. Most are funny in a very dry way. Like the director's previous film, or like Aki Kaurismaki's humour, it's either something you get or don't. While there are some great scenes here, and some really odd ones too, overall it never really connects and comes across as too disparate.

[Buscemi]

99 Homes still has never gotten a date in the US (despite Broad Green apparently now being flush with money based on the number of films they've acquired). I find it bizarre that out of all the movies they have, only one (Eden) has a date.

I asked them on their Twitter feed if they would ever announce any new dates (I know, bad idea) but never got a response. Broad Green's website isn't the best at updates or user-friendliness either (compared to Bleecker Street, which has a well-updated feed on acquisitions and licensing agreements and is easy to navigate).

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Get Hard - C

Sigh. So cliche, so obvious at every turn. Usually, with these comedies, you know the plot before sitting down but the jokes make it bearable, like something like Neighbors or the Jump St's. Not here.

Ferrell and Hart have both been much, much better than anything here. Alison Brie distracted me enough that I didn't outright hate this movie.

[numbersix]

While Animals Dream: 5/10
A sort of attempt to recreate the atmosphere of Let the Right One In, but not quite making it. Here, a teenager living in a small Danish village finds rashes on her body that her father and doctor are very concerned by. It seems tied to her mother, who is pretty much comatose. As the film emerges we get a sense that the main character is gradually becoming a werewolf as she gives in to her base urges. I think the problem with the film is that the metaphor is obvious, and the plot too thin to be a feature.

Mommy: 6/10
My first Xavier Dolan film. And I was impressed. The kid can certainly direct. In this story a sorta reckless 40-something mother takes her ADHD teen son out of the institute he'd been staying in, and they move in together. We see the ups and downs of her trying to deal with his condition, her motherly love strained. There are some great moments throughout, and it's both a moving and intense film. Not anything particularly new or different (besides toying with aspect ratio), but pretty accomplished.

[Chienfantome]

It was time you put an eye on a Dolan film, Six
Mommy isn't my favorite of his, but it sure is an intense film.