Hello Everyone :-)
Cast your minds back to the Oscars (seems like an awfully long time ago doesn’t
it?). You may have read various articles on various film-ey websites about
reactions to the nominees. If you did it’s highly likely they mentioned the
film I am writing about today, many said Michael Fassbender should have
received a best actor nomination if not the award itself. Here’s what I thought
of ‘Shame’.
Michael Fassbender plays Brandon, a 30 something has a high-powered job
(possibly in advertising although it’s never really clarified) and is suffering
with sex addiction. Brandon hires prostitutes, has many one-night stands, uses
online sex chats and utilises many other outlets for his addiction until one
day his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) needs somewhere to live and decides to
crash in his flat. The film follows his life and the tragedy of being afflicted
with an addiction.
One of the things I like about ‘Shame’ (and there are
many) is that it portrays sex addiction as a ‘proper illness’. Whilst drug
addiction has (to some extent) been accepted as something that needs medical
treatment, sex addiction has not been afforded the same level of understanding.
I’ve seen it emblazoned across the T-shirts of lads heading to 18-30’s holiday
destinations and whenever some poor celebrity gets checked into rehab on
account of sex addiction, it’s always commented on as if it’s not as deserving
of sympathy as, say, an addiction to heroin. What ‘Shame’ does is show sex
addiction as something that isn’t exciting or enjoyable; it’s something that is
debilitating, all-consuming and deeply sad.
This is the second collaboration between Fassbender and Artist turned
Director, Steve McQueen. I’ve never seen any of McQueen’s art-work so I can’t
comment on it but I think filmmaking is his calling. What surprised me about ‘Shame’
was how tense it is. Throughout you’re sat praying that Brandon will get
better, that he’ll have some kind of redemption in a way that had my heart in
my mouth for a great deal of the film.
It’s such a wonderful looking film. Forgive me while I get a bit geeky
but a lot of ‘Shame’ is comprised of long takes where the camera doesn’t cut
away, it moves with the characters, most memorably a shot where camera tracks
alongside Brandon as he runs across the blocks of Manhattan. In anyone else’s
hands that scene would be boring but with McQueen it becomes so much more. I can’t
put my finger on what makes these long takes so special but McQueen injects so
much emotion into these simple shots you’d be forgiven for thinking he was a
magician.
Unsurprisingly
for a film about sex addiction there is a lot of nudity and some very graphic
sex scenes. This may put some people off but I was ok with it and I’m not a
lover of gratuitous nakedness. The sex scenes serve to illustrate the
overwhelming bleakness of Brandon’s addiction; they’re never sexy or hot, they
don’t even seem particularly fun.
McQueen has his skills as a filmmaker
reflected in the two lead actors. I very much doubt that Mulligan and
Fassbender would have been able to give such stripped down (in every sense of
the phrase) performances without his support.
Mulligan plays against her usual type of ‘shy,
English rose’ and instead makes Sissy a brash, loud, fractured individual.
She’s heartbreaking.
Fassbender turns out another tour de force. I
think if an actor gives one performance of this level during his career, he’s
done well, for Fassbender to have films like ‘Shame’ and ‘Hunger’ under his
belt already…it’s nothing short of
extraordinary. He is consistently on the money and gives the same amount of
passion and conviction whether he’s playing an Irish republican Prisioner, a
Mutant with a bucket on his head, a Swiss psychiatrist
or the Byronic hero of a Brontë novel. I adore him and in ‘Shame’ he is an
absolute revelation.
I had been waiting to see ‘Shame’ for months before it
was finally shown at the brilliant Warwick Arts Centre. It was everything I
could have hoped; absorbing, tragic, mesmeric and searingly honest. Be under no
illusions, it’s not an easy watch, but sometimes you need to see something like
this to remind yourself of how powerful cinema can be.
That’s enough seriousness for one day. I think we need
some…
Reasons to be cheerful :-)
1. New Dark knight rises trailer (there are some pretty
awesome photos in that link too!). I have been
rather neglectful of the Caped Crusader’s latest cinematic outing, for this I can
only apologise, I’ve been terribly distracted by other Superhero shaped
offerings (more of which next time), but this certainly made me pay attention
to the final instalment of Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy :-)
2. New 'The Amazing Spider-Man' trailer! Lots of superhero
trailers today isn’t it? Not that I’m complaining! Why would I when I have
Andrew Garfield’s lovely visage to look at! This makes me a bit more
comfortable with the idea of a reboot so soon after the Sam Raimi trilogy. The
initial trailers were a bit dark and gloomy but this one has more of a sense of
humour which is what Spiderman should be about. I approve!
3. It's been revealed (WARNING – THIS LINK CONTAINS SPOILERS) who Benedict Cumberbatch will be playing in J.J
Abrams follow up to 'Star Trek'. I won’t write it on here just in case you
don’t want to know but all I will say is that I am VERY excited :-)
That’ll do for
today. Hold on to your hats people because next time… Avengers will Assemble!
Goodbye till
next time :-)
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Hello Everyone :-)
Last week I had what I've christened a ‘cinematic binge’. Basically I went to the pictures three nights on the bounce.
When they released the first images of this I was VERY interested, it looked bright, colourful and fun which is right up my street. Then they released this ridiculous trailer which put me right off. However, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and went to go see it.
‘Mirror Mirror’is a twist on the universally known story of Snow White. After the tragic death of his wife, the King is left to raise their only child, a girl called Snow White (Lily Collins). After a few years the King re-marries and mysteriously disappears leaving his Queen (Julia Roberts) to rule. It is only after he has gone that the Queen’s true colours are revealed, she rules with no regard for her people, taxing them into poverty. The Evil Queen keeps Snow shut in the palace to prevent her from taking her rightful place on the throne.
I know you won’t believe me when I say this, but I really try not to judge things before I’ve seen them and it’s for films like this that I bear that rule in mind. That god awful trailer does this film a disservice, the film itself is infinitely better than the trailer would have you believe. I mean if you’re not a fan of camp things, don’t waste your time or money but if you’re after a super fun fairy-tale romp ‘Mirror Mirror’ could be just the ticket.
The writing isn’t naff as you might expect, it’s light and breezy. Some of the more comedic scenes trail off rather than hitting the punchlines but for the most part it’s nice and family friendly.
I think one of the things that makes it so entertaining is that all of the cast seem to be having a hoot.
Lily Collins is suitably fresh faced and adorable as our heroine Snow White. She’s very sweet, likable and is absolutely beautiful. She also embraces the‘this princess saves herself’ vibe that her character has. I really like that, I mean she’ no Katniss Everdeen but she kicks a decent amount of fairy-tale ass.
Julia Roberts is a bit hit and miss. Most of her over the top-ness villany goes down quite well but her attempts at comedy fall a bit flat, verging on cringe-ey. That said, it’s hard to criticise someone that seems to be having such a good time :-)
The Seven Dwarves are brilliant. Their characters aren’t really delved into that deeply on an individual level(which I would have liked) rather they act as a unit which is quite nice.
However, performance wise, Armie Hammer steals it as the dashing Prince Alcott. They play him as a classic Prince Charming which suits his drop dead, matinee idol good looks down to the ground. I enjoyed him in ‘The Social Network’ but in this he gets to stretch his comedic muscles to great effect. The humour is unashamedly aimed at a children but it raised several chuckles from me (read into that what you will…).
There is a rather large Disney shaped Elephant in the room whenever ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ is adapted. Thankfully, Tarsem Singh has not made a frame by frame re-hash of the 1939 seminal classic, I think he’s made something that’s original enough to stand on it’s own, out of the shadow of the house of mouse.
It looks beautiful; fantastically fairy-tale and fun, however there are some things that feel like they’ve been done for the sake of it just to be a bit fancy. Like the idea of the titular Mirror (the face in the Mirror is a reflection of the Evil Queen but with magic powers and without any flaws), but is it really necessary to have her go through the weird water mirror and into a random straw hut? No, I don’t think it is.
This is a really accessible family film. It’s by no means a Tomboy adventure but it’s not as girly girl-ish as it could have been. I don’t think it’s had the good fortune it deserves, possibly because of that god awful trailer and the fact that it came out a week after ‘The Hunger Games (under which EVERYTHING was trampled for about a month after its release).
I really liked‘Mirror Mirror’; it’s charming, colourful and has a lovely, independent role model for young girls (who are this film’s target audience) which is really refreshing in an age when cinema bends over backwards to accommodate a male audience. All that’s left to say is, it’s your move Kristen Stewart…
Now, if that dose of fairy-tale lovliness wasn’t enough to make your day how about some…
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. The‘Prometheus’promotional train is running down the track. A video of David the android (played by Michael ‘I want his Babies’ Fassbender) and poster were released on 17th and 18th April as part of the ongoing ‘Prometheus’ viral ad campaign.
The video is unnerving to say the least (I've watched it at LEAST 15 times). There’s something about the accent he’s using. I think it’s the bit where he says“distressing… or unethical”. That pause is properly sinister. And I mean, I think he’s lush, but Fassbender in a bag… WEIRD!!!
I must commend the marketing team for all of the promo they’ve been doing, it’s inspired. The super-slow eeking out of information since July last year, the pictures, the trailers, the viral 2023 TED conference (which was hosted on the TED site as well as Youtube boosting awareness of the conference, which is great), the‘David’ teaser and now this. It’s brilliant. 1st June can’t come soon enough!
2. ‘The Avengers’ had the biggest worldwide opening of any superhero film ever. I’ve seen it. I will be writing about it soon. Watch this space :-)
3. New Trailer for ‘Brave’! I know that we’ve all been burnt after ‘Cars 2’ but I think it looks really good. It’s Pixar’s first foray into full on fairy-tale and I like the look of it!
That’s all for now. In the coming days I’ll be posting about ‘Shame’, ‘The Avengers’ and ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ so stay tuned!
Goodbye till next time :-)
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