Jonah Hill's character is lured into babysitting, just like the audience is lured into thinking this is a laugh-out-loud comedy
A David Gordon Green comedy that ranks nowhere near the comedic or storytelling strengths of his Pineapple Express - The Sitter is a dull, jumbled mess of a movie with a few laughs courtesy of Jonah Hill and Sam Rockwell.
The story is centred around an irresponsible young adult, named Noah (Jonah Hill), who babysits three children by taking them on a wild adventure through New York City. The crazy adventures are not only over the top, ridiculous and at times, funny, but they help Noah learn a lot about himself and helps all three children gain an understanding of who they are as people as well.
The story does have some creative and entertaining plot twists and does shows off several scenes of (attempted) emotional depth and character development. But in the end, it all falls short because of a poor screenplay and a very messy and rushed denouement.
The Sitter is good for a couple of laughs, but really nothing more.
FUN FACT: This is my first poorly rated film on my blog. I should make some sort of award!
Ross brings The Hunger Games to the big-screen and doesn't disappoint, delivering an action-packed thriller in which Jennifer Lawrence shines
All book differences aside, Ross does an incredible job with the pacing of the film and stays relatively true to the book itself. Some differences had me cringing, but others had me amazed, really understanding the struggles with the authoritarian government.
Looking at it from an entirely film point of view, the story is intense, the action scenes remarkable and Lawrence as the leading lady is nothing short of spectacular. The screenplay, co-written by the author herself is smartly written and the supporting characters really do immerse you in their roles. Would have loved to see more of the romance portrayed in the book, but perhaps that's all for the balancing act in Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Overall, The Hunger Games is a very impressive beginning to what looks to be a very, very promising trilogy.
Ryan Gosling shows off his uncanny flexibility as an actor and Nicolas Winding Refn directs a masterful piece of art, proving that countless action sequences and hundreds of millions of dollars aren't necessary to create a pulse-pounding, edge-of-your-seat action movie
The opening dialogue is simple and fresh, yet serious and intimidating.
"You give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window," are quietly but sternly spoken from Ryan Gosling's mouth, as his character known as Driver, nothing else. The camera pans, calmly moving across his gloomy, dark-lit apartment to a medium shot of Driver on the phone, overlooking the dazzling city lights that engulf the Los Angeles night through his window.
"Anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you're on your own... I drive." Driver hangs up the phone and soon after the mood is set. Immediately, you are filled with anxiety, which ultimately and forcefully catches up and clings on to the viewer for dear life as the film progresses.
Adapted from the 2005 novel written by James Sallis, Drive is a 2011, super violent, action-crime-drama film brought to life by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. By day, Driver is a Hollywood stunt driver and garage worker and by night, works as a getaway driver in the world of crime. The movie pays homage and adopts it's style from art house films, the most obvious being the neo-noir style, dominantly incorporating dark, violent and non-archetypal type characters. Morally conflicted and emotional anti-heros are usually the premise of neo-noir films and Driver (Ryan Gosling) is just that.
Aside from knowing the main character is a criminal, you really don't know much about Driver. His past is a mystery and that mystery follows him for most of the film. Driver is a recluse, keeps to himself and rarely associates with anyone other than with his garage boss, Shannon (Bryan Cranston). All of that changes one day when Driver finds himself attached to a beautiful young woman named Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio (Kaden Leos). Suddenly Driver's life has changed and he finds himself falling into unfamiliar territory and starts to care for others. Just as Driver begins to gather new perspectives on himself and others, the world of crime that he is involved with catches up to him and throws himself, Irene and Benicio into a world of extreme danger and intense violence involving the west-coast mob.
One of these mob members was Bernie, portrayed by Albert Brooks, who arguably put together the best performance of the film. Brooks played the head of the west-coast mob and his character exuded a very nice, emotional and at times caring personality for a cold-blooded killing gangster. Brooks was able to create a very likeable "bad guy" character which is completely left field of the types of roles he's usually cast for. Unlike other characters, Brooks had a lot of dialogue to work with to help make his character his own, which definitely added to the depth of his performance. What really made this performance great was that he was a believable gangster. The goal of every actor is to make you believe.
And then of course, there's the ever popular Mr. Gosling and the gorgeous Carey Mulligan. Although Refn opted to have his two main characters have as little dialogue as possible - and there is very little - it completely works in favour of the film and their characters, showing off the immense and growing talent of both the stars. Of course great writing and dialogue can propel any given performance to greatness, but Gosling and Mulligan share such beautiful chemistry together and each pull off great performances. Obviously not through their dialogue delivery, but in their body language and chemistry. The relationship the two shared was not one of words, but rather looks. The looks and actions the two shared wrote their story better than any script could have. Great camera work caught the emotion in both of the stars' eyes as they would gaze at one another.
Gosling however showed more depth in his performance through several incredibly intense and stressful scenes. When Irene and her son were in danger, Gosling's character set out to protect them and in several scenes - including shotguns, bullets, cars and hammers - the "badass" came out to play. Although it wasn't much dialogue, Gosling worked it masterfully. The seriousness and emotion on Gosling's face was visibly obvious and mesmerizing and completely sold his performance. Simple but powerful dialogue and very serious scenes propelled Gosling's performance into near perfection.
Under any other director, the film could have just come across as another hokey Hollywood action, chase, car movie like The Fast and the Furious.But Refn's neo-noir style added a huge punch and specific feel to this movie that specific, niche audiences will fall in love with.
Refn and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel did a masterful job at creating amazing shots that really put the audience in the action and made them part of the movie's world. Simple, yet original camera positioning like within the interior of the car, up close and personal during fight scenes, or even just the simple close-ups on Driver's and Irene's faces when together, beautifully framed the story and delivered the visuals very neatly for the audience to digest.
Drive is a great art-film and a great alternative to the cliche, over-the-top Hollywood films produced today. A very simple story was able to create inventive, immersive and completely suspenseful action sequences through impressive cinematography, perfect directing and great acting performances. Although many may find Drive to be too "alternative" for their liking, Drive is a beautifully shot film with a simple story produced to greatness.
Abrams creates an emotionally deep story to accompany his fun, edge-of-your-seat science-fiction thrill ride
Super 8 is an incredibly fun, thrilling and moving piece of cinema - an ode to the summer sci-fi classics of Steven Spielberg - that J.J. Abrams has created to near perfection.
Super 8 is unlike many other sci-fi flicks because of many different reasons, most notably, the fact that our heroes are 13-year-old kids. The fresh faces of Joel Courtney (as Joe Lamb) and the incredibly talented Elle Fanning (as Alice Dainard) not only give off impressive performances but instantly sucker you into falling in love with them.
The movie is about a group of young kids, filming a super 8 movie about zombies (which is later shown in its entirety at the end credits). But everything falls apart when a train derails and crashes - not only ruining the kids' shot, but unleashing a terrible danger onto the town, which leads to many mysterious and unsettling happenings.
Abrams wrote and directed a sci-fi movie that boasts not only great effects (a la train derailment), but powerful and heart-warming underlying story lines that truly grasp the audience and makes them care about the story's protagonists. Themes about loss, heartbreak, love and forgiveness all come together to truly create a beautiful and meaningful story.
The intense violence and mayhem is executed well and is not overdone, nor does it try to be overly aggressive. Instead, Abrams understands that all the chaos within the film can only work when the audience cares about the people within it, and the writer/director does that beautifully.
Super 8 is a heart-pounding thrill ride accompanied by honest, emotionally deep themes, sure to get you completely immersed in Abrams storytelling.
Super 8 was one of my favourite films of 2011 so I definitely plan on writing a full-length review on this film in the near future! Stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled for when it's published!
Woody Allen gives us a funny but thought-provoking film on Paris, art and appreciating our time
Hello fellow movie buffs! This is my first instalment of "Jump Cut!" Sometimes, I won't be able to write full-length and in-depth reviews, so I will post shorter more "to-the-point" blogs to give you more reading material more often! Yes! So here's my "Jump Cut!" on Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Enjoy!
I have never hated a character in any film as much as I hated Inez, played by Rachel McAdams, but never have I loved the idea of time-travel as much as I did in Midnight in Paris.
The film is a funny, but tastefully enlightening story about a Hollywood script-writer (Owen Wilson as Gil) struggling to finish his novel while visiting Paris with his fiancee's family. The couple share completely different beliefs and passions which ultimately leads to Gil's confusion surrounding not only their engagement but himself as a person.
Wilson gives a solid performance and really gets you excited about meeting the incredibly influential artists of the roaring twenties. The story is the perfect balance of exemplifying a beautiful city, the secrets of becoming an artist and the belief that people could lead better lives in other places.
Woody Allen's, Midnight in Paris takes you on a life quest; an artistic journey through time and brings you back to the present with a little more appreciation for life and maybe, even art and of Paris.
Amazing acting, musical score and directing comes together to portray love and its fragility
Sundance Film Festival's big winner, Like Crazy encompasses everything a typical love story should encompass; happiness, sadness, love, conflict and heart ache. All of love's little cliches can be found in this film, but it manages to get away with it because it's not glittered or decorated with predictable and "cheesy" script or dialogue. Instead, the film gets away with it through modest storytelling and keeping a real-life approach to its denouement. Writer-director, Drake Doremus created an honest and realistic romantic-drama, illustrating just how fragile love can be.
Like Crazy stars Anton Yelchin as Jacob and Felicity Jones as Anna - two young people, from different parts of the world, who fall in love while studying in their final year of university in Los Angeles. The opening minutes of the film show the awkward, yet adorable beginnings of the couple's relationship. Note-sharing, awkward coffee dates and long nights of drink-tasting and connection flourish into a promising love affair. Unfortunately, the happiness is short-lived, and eventually, Anna must face the reality of going back home to England.
For anyone who has fallen in love, being apart from that one special person can be the most difficult thing in the world. So, instead of leaving Jacob for two months to renew her visa, Anna decided to throw caution to the wind and stayed with her beloved Jacob, opting to leave at the end of the summer. Blinded by love and happiness, the couple made some poor decisions, which eventually led to the major problem surrounding the young couple.
After going back to England, Anna discovers that since she failed to meet the requirements of her visa, she could not visit Jacob or enter the US, commencing the onslaught of frustrating and heartbreaking chain of events surrounding the couples relationship.
With Jacob running a successful furniture business and Anna slowly writing her way to the top of a local magazine, the two begin to realize the struggles of balancing their responsibilities and keeping their fragile love together.
Doremus had Yelchin and Jones improvise a lot of their dialogue to create more natural performances. It was obvious because of the simple prose and everyday language that the two used. Their performances were amazing and they really defined their characters and made them their own. They were really unpolished and raw representations, true to form and it's authenticity was very enjoyable. It just moulded perfectly with the realistic style of storytelling Doremus presented throughout the film. Jones was rewarded by Sundance with a special jury prize for best actress, and after viewing her performance, it was clearly an award well earned.
This review would be amiss if the musical score by Dustin O'Halloran wasn't mentioned. The score complimented the story perfectly and really added to those already emotional and candid scenes. In many romantic-drama films, music can be overdone and overused, but each composition comes in at the most opportune moment and never more. The film itself has a very nice, natural-sound silence to it, which makes for a natural, life-like view, but the score adds to it's appreciation when O'Halloran's pieces do come up.
Like Crazy may not stack up to the likes of romance blockbusters like The Notebook, but it certainly defines just how fragile and vulnerable love can be. This story of first loves dives into everything a first love should be; nerve-racking, heart pounding, and uncertain. The uncertainty of this couple's fate is what really drives this film from beginning to end. With so much love between the two, it's almost impossible to think that it won't work out. But throw in 5,000 miles of distance and the undeniable variables that may present themselves, Like Crazy shows just how difficult it is to make love work, but at the same time, shows what any person is willing to do when blinded by love.
Montreal director, Lee Thorburn talks about his first full-length film, titled Juliet is the Sun
Within the first five minutes of meeting up with Lee Thorburn, It was really easy to tell that this guy had a huge passion for filmmaking.
"Dude, let me see your camera," the filmmaker said in an excited voice. "I actually recently sold mine that was pretty similar to this."
Before I could even decide what area of the studio to shoot the interview, Lee was holding my camera, examining it and saying things like "let me just check how good this camera's depth-of-field is." From that second on, not only did I know I would have a beautifully framed shot for my video package, but that this guy was a pro, that he knew what he was doing and that he had a huge love for the art-form.
Lee directed and wrote the script for his first ever full-length film called Juliet is the Sun; a love story between two, lost-in-the-world-and-trying-to-find-themselves, characters named Tristan and Michelle who unfortunately find themselves thrown into a world of drugs, prostitution and violence! Sounds like an awesome storyline, right? Well I wouldn't know, because other than being provided with little snippets of the film, I have yet to see it! A big bummer for a film fanatic wanting to review his film.
The Mississauga Independent Film Festival reviewed it however, and thought it was amazing. The crime/drama came out with an impressive second place finish in the feature-length category, furthering this critics thirst to watch it. Even though Juliet is the Sun didn't win, Mr. Lee Thorburn took home other, non-official victories from the Festival.
"We beat out Kevin Spacey's Casino Jack, so that was cool," Lee said laughing proudly. "Also, the festival director said that if he could've picked [a winner], 'cause he's not the judge, that he would have picked us, so I'll take that to heart."
The fact that Lee beat out a Hollywood picture is truly an amazing feat! It's almost more amazing when you take into account that the film was shot with under $5,000.
The film (supposedly, 'cause I haven't seen it) takes you on a wild ride through prostitution, drugs, gangster scenarios and a Romeo and Juliet like romance. With fight scenes and SWAT scenes and even the occasional scene with a gun (note the sarcasm), Lee Thorburn's Juliet is the Sun is sure to attract the crime and gangster movie fan. Perhaps he's a Martin Scorsese (my favourite director) in the making.
With that being said, what are your opinions on gangster and crime movies? And what do you guys think of the trailer (provided below)?
Be sure to be on the lookout for the DVD release of Juliet is the Sun sometime in early 2012.
** For a more in-depth look of Lee Thorburn, how he began and fun stories on set, check out the link below of my video interview with the filmmaker himself! **
