29 days, 7 films: it’s the February 2008 Film Fight.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is an interesting character piece. It follows two brothers who botch a fairly terrible crime, and the effect this has on their lives and everyone else involved, the perspective cutting and changing constantly. Through a fairly odd progression of action, back to motivation and then consequence, we’re made to dislike, sympathise with and then despise the characters; the changes in time toying with our perception. This has the unfortunate side-effect of making quite an interesting film, with some great acting from Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman, far too long. Some of the strands are extraneous, and with a little more editing a great film could’ve become a classic.
The months of mystery around Cloverfield came to an end in February, with the monster film finally crashing down. It totally reinvents and sets a new high bar for both monster movies and action mysteries. From the fairly slow set-up, through the initial panic and confusion, into the determined end game, Cloverfield proves itself to be confident and perfectly shot. The single handy-cam filming technique forces you to sit and watch, helplessly, through dozens of near misses, hopelessly glued to the action. Although at times uncomfortable, you cannot look away. A well-written, well-executed script. Solid all-round.
Surprise indie-hit Juno, by now, is no longer that much of a surprise. The story is that of a teenage girl who gets pregnant, and gives the child up for adoption. It’s a relatively sweet and somewhat twee story, focussed on the titular character: a smart-mouthed but likeable teen who guides us through her strange little world. It’s a romantic comedy, without being saccharine or schmaltzy, with enough intelligent laughs to keep away from teen comedy hell. Definitely worth seeing.
Although the concept shows a lot of promise, Jumper fails to deliver. From the initial dead-of-life narration into the clumsy back story, you know that Hayden Christensen will, once again, fail to act; why he still gets offered roles is beyond me. It’s not all his fault, of course, as the film heads into dumb special-effects territory pretty quickly, and backs itself up with terrible dialogue (”Like a Marvel comics team up?”) and a horrendously tacked-on love interest. A real shame because, with better writers and lead actor, the idea of the war could’ve been a lot of fun.
It would take more space than I tend to devote to any given film here to truly do justice to There Will be Blood, the story of an uncomprising, self-made, turn-of-the-century oil man. The opening sequences are perfect, with not a word uttered for minutes as we’re shown the quality of Daniel Plainview’s character, rather than being clumsily talked through it. The cinematography and story are great throughout, showing his empire building and growing madness in solid progressions. Of course, the finest aspect of the movie is Daniel Day Lewis’ Oscar winning performance as the lead. Every line and look is rife with a calibre of acting you simply will not find elsewhere, a brilliant portrayal of a complex man. Fantastic.
Finally, Michel Gondry’s latest, Be Kind Rewind, slightly disappoints. Through some fairly silly circumstances, a video store clerk and his friend find themselves making cheap remakes of classic films. While these “sweded” films are very funny and show Gondry’s imaginative cinematography, the rest of the film is simply a place-holder. The character progression all but falls flat. A shame that Gondry couldn’t find a better container for the excellent sweded remakes.
UPDATE: Seems I missed out Rambo. Someone obviously misses the classic eighties action films, when the screens were awash with Van Damme, Schwarzenegger and, pertinently, Stallone. The plot here is minimal, and the exposition is perfunctory: the bad guys are very bad, some good guys try to do some good things, and the tough guys need to go save the good guys from the bad guys. Carnage ensues. I do mean that. This is one of the bloodiest films I’ve ever seen, the body count hits high numbers, and the whole thing brings back the type of action film we just don’t see any more. It won’t win any awards, but it is some good silly fun.
The obvious winner this month is There Will be Blood. The incredible lead performance makes this an early tip for film of the year.