Frances Ha

Frances Ha invites us into the life of the titular protagonist, Frances (Greta Gerwig) as she struggles to make ends meet in New York. When her friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner) announces that she is moving out of the flat they share together, we begin to follow Frances as she moves from one temporary place of residence to another around the Big Apple. She makes a few friends along the way, makes many more mistakes and embarrasses herself plenty of times.

At the heart of Frances Ha, I found an unconventional love story a million times more real than anything I would hope for in a standard romance. That is the love story between Frances and Sophie. Frances is constantly telling everybody how her and Sophie are, “…basically the same person, but with different hair”. What she doesn’t realise though is that they’ve drifted apart somewhat, and it is when she finally makes that discovery that the film really becomes interesting.

Dinoshark

Having recently lent the atrociously bad Dinocroc vs Supergator to a couple of friends at work, they responded by purchasing me Dinoshark as a birthday present. That’s right, this film was given to me as a gift. An actual offering for an event usually considered worthy of celebration.

Briefly then, Dinoshark is about a monstrous, predatory sea beast that appears to be some kind of Dinosaur – Shark hybrid (that’s where they got the name from. Clever, eh?) Having been a dormant species for 150 million years, the baby Dinoshark is awoken by a broken chunk of Arctic glacier that fell away due to global warming, or something like that. He swims off to Mexico. The why’s and wherefores aren’t too important. Anyway, three years later the beast is killing humans left, right and centre. The protagonist, Trace (Eric Balfour) takes it upon himself to hunt the killer.

Dead Man’s Shoes

Dead Man’s Shoes becomes one of those rare films on this blog of mine that I review with the benefit of a second watch. I first saw this movie in early 2012 and I’ve been meaning to give it a re-watch for a good while now. As it has just been my 25^th birthday, my girlfriend very astutely bought me the film as a gift, and I can tell you it was one that was gratefully received. As one person told me on Twitter, “If she’s buys you that as a birthday present, she’s a keeper”.

The story is thus; A former soldier, Richard (Paddy Considine) returns home to England in a bid to hunt down a group of men who bullied and brutalized his mentally impaired brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell) years earlier. Richard’s plans for the group quickly become apparent; he wants to kill them for the suffering they cruelly inflicted upon his brother.

I was delighted to find that this film held up well on a second watch. It is always a concern that a film I loved first time round will reveal some flaws on a repeat viewing but Dead Man’s Shoes was pretty much exactly as I remembered it.

Killing Them Softly

When I first saw the trailers for Killing Them Softly in 2012, I got pretty excited about it. It whet my appetite brilliantly and I couldn’t wait to see it. Then a few friends saw it and reported back that it was something of a disappointment, as seemed to be the gist of the critical response. Though I never let reviews sway my opinion of a film, they did dampen my excitement and it has taken until now for me to finally get to see it.

When three not-so-great would be crooks rob a mob-protected card game, a hitman/enforcer by the name of Jackie (Brad Pitt) is hired to sort things out, so to speak. He quickly sets about establishing who the thieves are, whilst also plotting the demise of Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta). Markie runs the games and has previous form for robbing from them, so Jackie see’s killing him as the only way to inspire the players to come back to the games.

My Left Foot

As anybody who has read my Lincoln review will know, I am a big fan of Daniel Day-Lewis. That said, I did have to make a shameful confession in that review; that that film was actually the first I had seen this actor in. I have since set about making my way through his back catalogue, so far taking in Gangs of New York and There Will Be Blood. In each of these films, especially the latter, I have been blown away by the performances of Day-Lewis. When I became the grateful recipient of My Left Foot as a birthday gift, I wasted little time ripping it out of it’s cellophane wrapper and inserting it into the blu-ray player for an immediate watch. Needless to say, Day-Lewis makes it four out of four for performances I’ve been in awe of.

My Left Foot is the true story of Christy Brown (Day-Lewis), a boy born with severe cerebral palsy, a condition that resulted in him having only one controllable limb – his left leg – and for a long time rendered him unable to speak. However, Brown strives to overcome those barriers through his incredible paintings and his writing.

The Kid

Before I start my review of Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 film The Kid, I feel it’s worth telling you the story of how I came to watch it. Any readers of the excellent At The Back Films blog, or followers of our respective Twitter feeds, may by now have noticed that Tom, the owner of that blog, and I are colleagues and friends. We have been so for a year, and in that time we have regularly discussed films (and his envy-inspiring beard, but that’s not really why we’re here). We often recommend and lend each other movies, and we have a decent success rate in picking out what the other may enjoy. Now, one of the things I have learned about Tom in the last 12 months is that he is an extremely polite, placid and all round nice guy.

Got that? Right, well imagine my surprise then when, upon arriving at work one day, Tom bounded over to me and with a look of uncharacteristic, and frankly quite intimating aggression in his well groomed face, blurted out “I’m going to lend you a film” with such force I nearly fell out my chair. Once I had regained my composure and assured everybody else there was nothing to worry about (including consoling one girl who was so frightened she burst into tears*), I asked him what film he would be entrusting me with. Tom explained it was The Kid, as made by one of his film heroes, Mr. Chaplin and he made it clear that our continuing friendship would more than likely depend on my enjoyment of this movie. Shaking slightly, I accepted the DVD off him, hoping that I would like it so as not to feel forced to say nice things like “Well, I know where you’re coming from, but…” when discussing it with Tom. Despite the fearsome nature in which this movie was given to me, I did very much welcome the chance to further widen my film-watching horizons.

Before Midnight

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for Before Sunrise and Before Sunset – do not read on if you don’t want to know what happens up to this point.

It’s been nine years since Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) last ripped out viewer’s hearts, before leaving us on an incredible, did-they/didn’t-they? finish, in which it was insinuated Jesse would miss his flight back home, before the screen went dark. Now, in Before Midnight, the third movie of Richard Linklater’s magnificent Before trilogy, we get to peak into their lives for another one hour and fifty minutes.

The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring is the latest directorial work from Sofia Coppola. The film tells the story of a group of teenagers in America who have a taste for money, designer clothes and partying. Their obsession with fame and celebrity leads them to burglarising the homes of the rich and famous, getting greedier and more daring as time goes on.

A massive part of the intrigue in this story is the fact that it’s based on true events. The movie itself is actually based on a Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales called The Suspects Wore Louboutins. Another key part of my interest here was Emma Watson, and not just because of my little crush on her. I’ve enjoyed seeing her post teen-witch development, establishing herself in movies such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Her performance here is one of the more interesting elements of the movie, but more on that later.

The Purple Rose of Cairo

Written and directed by Woody Allen, The Purple Rose of Cairo tells the tale of a movie character who bursts out of the screen and falls in love with cinema goer Cecilia (Mia Farrow).

Set in depression era New Jersey, the film initially shows Cecilia working at a diner where she is disliked by the manager as she isn’t particularly good at her job. After we see her being jeered at work, we then discover she is in an abusive relationship with her husband Monk (Danny Aiello).

This Is The End

When comedy movie stars, pop singers and many other celebrities attend a house party at James Franco’s new house, they end up getting an experience none of them could have expected. For, whilst they drink and dance and take drugs, the world starts falling to pieces. It has all the signs of the apocalypse; will the stars survive or is this the end for them?