Films watched in September 2012

Lawless - 3 stars
Celeste and Jesse Forever - 4 stars
Raiders Of The Lost Ark - 5 stars
Premium Rush - 3 stars
Liberal Arts - 4 stars
Vertigo - 4 stars
Paranorman - 4 stars
Dredd - 3 stars
The Sweeney - 2 stars
To Rome With Love - 1 star
Berberian Sound Studio - 5 stars
Anna Karenina - 2 stars
The House At The End Of The Street - 2 stars
Killing Them Softly - 3 stars
Looper - 4 stars
Perks Of Being A Wallflower - 4 stars
Resident Evil: Retribution - 1 star

Films watched in September - 17
Total number of films watched in 2012 - 152
Total number of unique films watched in 2012 - 132

Take This Waltz - review

Seth instantly regretted that "waking up at the crack of Dawson" joke."

The old saying "two's company but three's a crowd" rears it's head in Take The Waltz.
Margot, a struggling writer (is there any other type in the movies?), finds the temptation to act on an attraction to neighbour Daniel (Luke Kirby) brings her marriage to Lou (Seth Rogen) into question.
This film has been heralded by some critics as the best movie about relationships starring Michelle Williams since, well, the last great movie about relationships starring Michelle Williams Blue Valentine.
The secret to any great dance, like a waltz, is having trust and chemistry with your partner. Many may have a viewing that Craig Revel-Horwood would describe as "Fab-U-Lous" but unfortunately some will find the experience more akin to trying to tango with a partner with two left feet.
The main stumbling block is rather surprisingly Michelle Williams and her character of Margot. Perhaps it is the overly-cutesy babyish way she says "I wuv you" or apparent immaturity of the character (witness the "gaylord" putdown she uses to try and win an argument) made it impossible to like the character and therefore develop any empathy with her and care about the outcome of her relationship crisis.
Which is a shame because the film does have some really beautiful moments.
A scene on a fairground Waltzer (see what they're doing there) set to The Buggles' Video Killed The Radio Star is a highlight where the growing attraction threatens to boil over until an abrupt end to the ride interrupts the moment and a silent shot of the two looking at each other tells the audience everything about their relationship. The best moments do come when they, as Ronan Keating eloquently put, "say nothing at all". Writer/director Sarah Polley should have possibly heeded this rule when writing the sequence where Daniel describes what he would do to Margot in bed as it comes across like he's reading from a chapter of Fifty Shades Of Grey.
However the biggest misstep in the film comes with a stylistic montage sequence that, after Watchmen, offers further proof that Leonard Cohen songs should not be used to soundtrack sex scenes in the movies.
The end result is unlikely to provoke a Last Tango In Paris instead create the desire for Murder On The Dancefloor.

2 stars

The "Greatest Films Ever Made"?

Last week film critics and bloggers got themselves worked up into a frenzy following the publication of Sight And Sound's latest Greatest Films Ever Made list.
It began in 1952 and compiled every ten years from a poll of film critics who submit their own personal top ten, it had previously always produced the same result - Citizen Kane being proclaimed "The Greatest Of All Time"... until this year when Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo grabbed the top spot.
This then sparked off a mass debate on Twitter with everyone putting in their two cents worth on why this result was correct/incorrect/a conspiracy due to the fact the BFI are currently running a Hitchcock retrospective*. * - Delete as applicable.
The main things that everyone could agree on is that lists of this nature are incredibly subjective, "greatest" or "best" can mean "favourite" in this context but above all else, the lists are very effective at prompting hours of arguments down the pub.
In response to the Sight And Sound Critics Top 50 list, which can come across as a list of film's that you should have seen, Adam Lowes of Hey U Guys blog set about putting together an Alternative Top Ten compiled by online bloggers.
As you can see below, the results are rather varied with only Citizen Kane and 2001 appearing on both lists.

Sight & Sound Top Ten

1. Vertigo
2. Citizen Kane
3. Tokyo Story
4. La Regle Du Jeu
5. Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. The Searchers
8. Man With A Movie Camera
9. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
10. 8&1/2

Hey U Guys Alternative Top Ten

1. Jaws
2. Back To The Future
3= The Dark Knight
3= Blade Runner
5= 2001: A Space Odyssey
5= There Will Be Blood
5= Psycho
5= Citizen Kane
9. Pulp Fiction
10= The Thing
10= Alien

So what can we read into the alternative top ten? Lots I'm sure.
Initially it does appear more mainstream.The Dark Knight is at number 3, but franchises like Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings are conspicuous by their absence.
One interesting aspect of both polls which isn't known, but I'm sure influences the films that are picked, is the average age of the critics and bloggers voting.
With the alternative top ten featuring a number of film's from the late seventies and eighties, I would assume that most of the bloggers are in their late twenties/thirties and films like Jaws and Back To The Future played a huge part of their childhood and what led them to fall in love with cinema in the first place.
That's probably enough analysis from me. You can read the whole list here and exclaim "I'm glad that is there"/"I can't believe that is missing" to your heart's content.

"But Dallas...", I don't hear you cry, "what were your top ten films?".

Well of course I'm going to tell you, but first I will explain that in selecting my top ten, my decisions were based on the impact that these films have had on my moviegoing life. And of course it goes without saying that I rate each film very highly.
So what follows is my own personal top ten in chronological order.

Citizen Kane
A pivotal moment for me. I saw this film in a Film Studies class at University and it was the first time I really understood about the language of film. Over seventy years on after it's release it really does remain one of the greatest films ever made.

Casablanca
My favourite film of all time. I wholeheartedly agree with Robert McKee that Casablanca has the "greatest screenplay ever written". Harry Burns is right to claim that "Louis, I believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" is the best last line of a movie ever. So many classic quotable lines and in Claude Rains, the greatest supporting performance of all time.

Psycho
Contains the most famous death scene of all time. My pick for Hitchcock's best film (sorry Vertigo) and one of those films that you can never see it for the first time again. There is the shock and awe of the first viewing as the twists an turns are revealed, followed by a completely different experience second time round. Pure genius.

Star Wars
I do prefer Empire Strikes Back but in terms of influence, nothing beats Star Wars: A New Hope for introducing me to film and completely blowing my tiny little mind as a kid seeing the star destroyer coming over the screen and being transported to a galaxy far, far away. A life changing experience and the film I would watch every weekend between the ages of 6-13.

Alien
If Star Wars was the sci-fi of my childhood, Alien is the science fiction film for my grown up life. It has slowly creeped up my list as I appreciate it more and more with each viewing. Hell, I'm even named after the captain of the Nostromo... well that is my reason anyway!

Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Back To The Future
Both films are perennial favourites from my childhood, classics of their genres and very rare examples of what I believe are perfect films, in that I would not alter a single frame of them.

When Harry Met Sally
The best romantic comedy of all time thanks to one of the sharpest, wittiest scripts ever written, it succeeds at being equally romantic and funny when most rom-coms fail to find that delicate balance. It also acted as a gateway film into Casablanca, then Play It Again Sam and finally a deep love and appreciation for Woody Allen with the likes of Annie Hall and Manhattan. Both of those film's were close to making the list but they wouldn't have been on my radar if not for that fake orgasm.

In The Mood For Love
One of the first foreign language films that I watched, and it still remains one of the best. The acting superb, the story heartbreaking and the score is sublime. It proved to me that film is universal and you can tell a great story regardless of whether it needs subtitles or not. Also it was one of the first films that I saw at The Belmont Picturehouse where I ended up working for eight years.

Black Swan
Upon it's release I described it as "if Polanski had directed a hybrid of The Red Shoes and Suspiria", and it was the first film to move me to the brink of tears thanks to an emotional sucker punch to the gut. Like a prima ballerina, it was flawless in it's execution, plus it is the only film on the list to feature a love scene between Queen Amidala and Meg from Family Guy!

So do you agree or disagree with my list? Feel free to let me know where I have gone right/wrong...

Films watched in August 2012

Brave - 3 stars
The Expendables 2 - 1 star
Take This Waltz - 1 star
The Bourne Legacy - 1 star
The Imposter + Q&A - 4 stars
Keith Lemon - The Film - 1 star
The Dark Knight Rises - 5 stars
Shadow Dancer - 3 stars
Total Recall - 2 stars
The Watch - 2 stars

Films watched in August - 10
Total number of films watched in 2012 - 135
Total number of unique films watched in 2012 - 115

Brave - review

Despite sharing the same hairdresser as Rebekah Brooks, Pixar heroine Merida has much more in common with a Disney Princess than a Wicked Witch... albeit a Princess who has a poster of Katniss Everdeen on her bedroom wall.
Merida is as bold and fiery as her beautifully rendered hair and rallies for her independence against her overly protective mother as hard as Scotland is currently fighting for it's own.
Fed up of being prepared for an arranged marriage with one of the potential suitors from the three surrounding clans, Merida attempts to win her freedom in an archery contest but a blazing row with her mother and a chance encounter with a witch gives her a spell and a chance to change her fate. But change must come from within, yadda yadda yadda, etc, etc and the audience will have seen enough Disney film's to know where the plot is heading and it is slightly disappointing given Pixar's great history of producing such unique stories (rat becomes culinary master chef in Paris, nearly mute love story of robot meets robot, grumpy octogenarian realises dying wife's dream of travel by tying 1000 balloons to his house) that the end result feels so pedestrian.
So while the story might not be up to Pixar's usual high standards, the same cannot be said for the vocal casting and visuals in particular which are arguably the finest this animation team have ever produced.
One of Pixar's strengths has always been their talent for matching the voice to the character. Unlike studios such as Dreamworks that tend to go for "stunt casting" in getting A-List names for the posters, Pixar have found success in choosing lesser known actors such as Craig T. Nelson as Mr. Incredible or Patton Oswalt as Reme and Brave is no different.
There were rumours that Reese Witherspoon was initially approached for the role of Merida but thankfully it went to Kelly McDonald (Trainspotting, Boardwalk Empire) who gives her a steeliness thanks to her actually being made in Scotland from girders. Yes that is an Irn Bru reference but it's valid since Merida's hair is the same colour.
The rest of the cast is rounded out with fellow Scots Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane, Craig Ferguson and Kevin McKidd (whose Doric tongue got a huge reaction from the Aberdeen audience where the dialect originated) with fine support from Emma Thompson (sporting an affa good accent) and Pixar lucky charm John Ratzenberger.
Having a predominantly Scottish cast helps to add to the authenticity of the film when combined with stunningly realised visuals that really show off the real beauty of the land that inspired the tale.
For what it may lack in originality, Brave makes up for in heart... Get it?
Ah whatever, if the audiences like the film more than my jokes perhaps, given Pixar's current streak for green lighting sequels, we can look forward to a cameo from Benedict Cumberbatch next time round.

image courtesy of Ethan Runt

3 stars

The Dark Knight Rises - review

"Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't."

Forget the threat of Bane breaking the Bat, the real damage to the Caped Crusader was done in 1997 when Joel Schumacher's critical and commercial flop Batman & Robin crippled the franchise and the superhero genre.
When your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man gave the comic book movie a radioactive bite to the arm, Warner Brothers gave the preverbial keys to the batmobile to Christopher Nolan, a director of critical hits Memento and Insomnia but unproven on a big studio blockbuster.
Nolan set out to prove that Batman could exist in the real world and for the first time with the character, explore exactly how an ordinary man, albeit a billionaire playboy, goes about dressing up as a bat to fight crime.
Batman Begins was intelligent filmmaking on a blockbuster scale and it would be fair to say that the end result was akin to Nolan pulling a bat-shaped rabbit out of his hat.

"The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled."

Ironically for a film called The Dark Knight, the sequel kicked off with a scene set during the harsh light of day. Nolan was giving us a Gotham we had never really seen before and the thrilling bank heist proved to be worthy of comparisons to Michael Mann's Heat and as a terrific introduction to a new take on one of Batman's most iconic characters, the clown prince of crime in Gotham, The Joker. Nolan had received a lot of criticism prior to the film's release for casting Heath Ledger in the role but his faith was rewarded in what turned out to be one of the all-time great screen performances, which won Ledger a posthumous Oscar.
Nolan truly achieved something extraordinary with TDK by not only creating a sequel that was superior to the original (a case that can be argued for most superhero sequels) but he had crafted something that transcended its comic origins to simply become a fantastic film.

"But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"."

And so eight years after Batman, literally, took the fall for Harvey Dent's crimes (and his murder) we return to Gotham City. A Gotham City free of organised crime and thanks to the Dent Act and without the "Batman", or Bruce Wayne for that matter. He spends his days locked away in Wayne Manor as a Howard Hughes-esque recluse "with eight inch nails and peeing into mason jars".
Yet the arrival of a few new faces to Gotham will see Wayne forced bring back his various masks.
The theft of his late mother's pearls by slinky cat burglar Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) and his rapidly disappearing fortune, thanks to a failed clean energy project with Marion Cotillard's Miranda Tate, see the return of the public face of eccentric billionaire Bruce Wayne.
However "a fire rises" in the form of Bane, a villainous masked brute excommunicated from the League of Shadows, who comes to turn Gotham to ashes and in order to stop him, as Commisioner Gordon confesses, "the Batman has to come back, he must, he must...".
But Batman is not the same man he was eight years ago. The physical and emotional scars of his battle against the criminal underworld have taken their toll and Alfred is keen to point out that going up against Bane could complete what he fears to be Bruce's journey towards self-destruction.
Indeed with this being the final part in Nolan's take on the Batman mythology, all the taglines for the film have stated "The Legend Ends", and as Bane's vice like grip over Gotham (and Batman) increases, there is a genuine feeling that things will not end well for the Caped Crusader.
It is not hard to see why either, as Bane has a tremendous physicality to him and anyone who saw Tom Hardy's terrific turn in Warrior will know,he is extremely capable of delivering on Bane's promise to break the bat. Between his imposing and the raspy wheeze and bassy tones of his voice through the mask, there are similarities to another great screen villain Darth Vader, especially when he demonstrates his displeasure at a henchman's mistake.
Whilst it is an incredibly physical role, much of Hardy's amazing performance comes from his eyes. The majority of his face is covered by the mask yet he is able to convey so much range, story and emotion with his eyes, particulary in one scene towards the end of the film.
As one might expect from a Christopher Nolan film, he has yet again assembled a terrific ensemble cast.
Joining Hardy as newcomers to Gotham are fellow Inception actors Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Cotillard brings warmth to proceedings as Miranda Tate, the woman who may be able to provide Wayne with a future beyond the bat and Gordon-Levitt has plenty of heart and integrity as Blake, an idealistic cop and strong supporter of the Batman.
Franchise stalwarts Freeman, Oldman and Caine once again bring their A game, as one would expect with actors of their calibre. Caine provides several heart wrenching moments with Bale, who himself delivers his best and most moving performance of the series.
However the real ace up Nolan's sleeve is the casting of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. Her casting, like Ledger's, was the subject of much debate but once again "In Nolan We Trust". From the moment that playful smile creeps across her face and she utters "Oops", Hathaway relishes in the sultry, slinky role like a cat that got the cream and is just as capable stealing scenes as well as pearls.
The pearls in question were the ones worn by Wayne's mother on the night his parents died, the event in Batman Begins that sowed the seeds for Wayne's transformation into "a silent guardian, a watchful protector, the dark knight". TDKR really is the concluding part of the trilogy as it revisits and ties into plot elements from the first two films. Bane seeks to fulfill the plans of Ra's Al Ghul and destroy Gotham, a city that has now eradicated organised crime thanks to laws built upon the lie that Harvey Dent died a hero at the end of TDK. A lie that will have severe repurcussions when exposed, both for Gotham and Batman. For the events in this film will force Bruce Wayne to examine whether the city truly needs a Batman to survive but also whether he needs him too.
Each part of the trilogy has had one central theme running through the film. Batman Begins could be summed up in one word - "fear": Bruce .
With The Dark Knight it was "chaos" as The Joker seeked to terrorise Gotham through anarchy. The Dark Knight Rises however focuses on two words - "hope and despair".
Bruce Wayne had hoped for a normal life beyond Batman. A life with his childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes, but her death has left him in a permanent state of mourning and despair. Batman was meant to be a symbol of hope for the city but instead vilified in order to fulfil the false hope created by Harvey Dent's fight against crime, yet there are still those who hope the Dark Knight will return to save the day.
Bane speaks of the hope and despair he felt during his time in a prison that could be described as a Lazarus pit, looking up at the light and imagining the climb to freedom only to fall again and again, increasing the sense of despair. He plans to torture the souls of Gotham by giving them hope of surviving his dastardly plot, only to tear it down when Gotham's reckoning is finally unleashed.
Nolan's trilogy has always had a layer of social commentary bubbling away under the surface. In TDK for example looked at how society deals with terrorism but with TDKR it would be fair to say that the social commentary is a little more on the nose given its relevance to today's society.
Bane's presents his occupation of Gotham in the form of an insurrection, calling on the masses to break free from the shackles of society and rise up against the bureaucracy and corrupt officials that have kept them down for so long. Angry uprising mobs provoke uneasy memories of the recent Hackney riots. There is a literal attack on the stock market with key characters becoming victims of a financial crisis. At one point Selina Kyle says "there is a storm coming Mr Wayne... You and your friends will wonder how you ever managed to live so large and leave so little for the rest of us" furthering the 99%/1% rationale that fuelled the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.
But beyond the political allusions and themes it may try to explore, given the shocking events this past weekend, it is important to remember that it is just a film and a film's primary function is to provide entertainment and escapism for a couple of hours.
At nearly three hours long, this is a truly epic conclusion to the story. Not just in terms of length but also in scope and action, once again showcased beautifully by Wally Pfister's cinematography and Hans Zimmer's rousing score. Nolan immediately outdoes the thrilling bank heist and truck flip featured in TDK by beginning the film with an audacious mid air skyjack that, as is Nolan's style, was practically achieved in camera as much as humanly possible, allowing little reliance on CGI. So when seen on an IMAX screen (over an hour's worth of footage was filmed in the format), the audience are almost overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the action whether it be a shot of hundreds of Gotham's police battling Blackgate prisoners outside City Hall or the visceral brutality of the first fight between Batman and Bane where you can feel every single punch.
That particular fight closes the first act of the film, which has a definite three act structure (comic book fans might label the acts Knightfall, No Man's Land and The Dark Knight Returns). Yet while there are some that have criticised the film for being too long or too heavily plotted, the first two acts really reinforce the emotional investment in the character of Bruce Wayne that had been built up over the saga so when the final act takes hold, the audience is taken on a roller coaster ride of excitement and emotion that has a such an overwhelmingly satisfying conclusion (both in terms of narrative for the film and for fans of the comics) that it was a surprise to find that tears were being shed. These tears are likely to be a mixture of joy and sadness. Joy at seeing such a perfect end to a wonderful story but also sadness at knowing that the comic book genre is never likely to see anything as good as this again.
With The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan has achieved the near impossible and not only produced the first great superhero trilogy but also arguably the greatest film trilogy of all-time.

Films watched in July 2012

The Amazing Spider-Man 3D - 3 stars
Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D - 3 stars
Friends With Kids - 3 stars
The Hunter - 4 stars
Magic Mike - 4 stars
Searching For Sugar Man - 4 stars
Batman Begins - 4 stars
The Dark Knight - 5 stars
Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World - 3 stars
The Dark Knight Rises IMAX - 5 stars
The Dark Knight Rises - 5 stars
The Dark Knight Rises - 5 stars
The Dark Knight Rises - 5 stars
The Lorax - 1 star
The Dark Knight Rises - 5 stars
The Dark Knight Rises - 5 stars
The Dark Knight Rises - 5 stars
The Dark Knight Rises - 5 stars
Ted - 2 stars

Films watched in July - 19
Total number of films watched in 2012 - 125
Total number of unique films watched in 2012 - 106