Arrival Review

Starship Bloopers

Released : November 10th 2016

Certificate : 12

Director : Denis Villeneuve

Cast : Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg

Plot : After 12 UFO’s land across the globe, the US army recruits linguist  Louise Banks (Adams) and mathematician Ian Donnelly (Renner) to help communicate with the aliens.

From the screenwriter of the 5th Final Destination film and The Nightmare on Elm Street, ironically comes one of the smartest films of the year. Of course the aspect of the crew that got all cinema goers excited was that of the director. A director renowned for his dark thrillers which drip with brilliant cinematography and calculating presentation. Also ironically, the year the most iconic alien film has a sequel, this film takes the genre in a whole new direction and tone. As we enter the end of the year, this continues the early oscar buzz excitement as the good reviews poor in for the film.

From the screenwriter of the 5th Final Destination film and The Nightmare on Elm Street, ironically comes one of the smartest films of the year. Of course the aspect of the crew that got all cinema goers excited was that of the director. A director renowned for his dark thrillers which drip with brilliant cinematography and calculating presentation. Also ironically, there year the most iconic alien film has a sequel, this film takes the genre in a whole new direction and tone. As we enter the end of the year, this continues the early Oscar buzz excitement as the good reviews poor in for the film.

The story of the film is a brilliant one, and a very new approach to the alien genre, arcing back to Close Encounters territory. Granted only so much credit can be given to the film maker for this aspect, as it is an attempted screenplay. What was really needed to make such a story work was the hand of Villeneuve. A director who was willing to take the time with the story, its complex themes and to avoid as many conventions and clichés in order to realize such a unique approach. Fortunately, these are all features that Villeneuve has displayed throughout his whole work and performs brilliantly here. One feature that Villeneuve is so good at, is building and maintaining an atmosphere that suits the film perfectly throughout his film. The overriding themes that he conveys through the shots in this are that of tremendous spectral, and innocence. All the shot surrounding the aliens are beautiful enough and well thought out enough to make up (mostly) for the lack of ‘action’ that occurs on screen.

Aspects of the film that felt slightly disappointing was the execution of some narrative point. The film centre’s around a single question for the aliens, and thanks to Villeneuve shot that instil and sense of awe, there is the anticipation of a great poignant reveal to this question. The reveal and execution felt slightly rushed, which was surprising, since all other aspects of the film were given such good time to mature. The use of an exposition dump was slightly off. As well as this, the answer wasn’t quiet as smart as the rest of the film annoyingly, such a sense of awe that was built up played off for a rather simple concept. But these issues will be mostly overlooked for many critics and audience members as it is wrapped up in such a brilliant complex and unpredictable plot overall, that a few issues with the climatic acts won’t be much of an issue. The one narrative flaw that some audience might not forgive is that of the pacing, but for most the intellectual drama will be a good enough counterpart for the bullets.

The acting of course as always from Adams is of a very high quality, and she dealt very well under Villeneuve style of heavy reliance of close up of characters. Although it is almost accepted these days, it is worth remembering the skill require to act to nothing, as this film went through probable its share of green screen. One general consensus from many reviews is grips with the character of Jeremy Renner, and a useless of this. While this character doesn’t develop the plot particular, it brings a great level of humanity delivered very well by Renner which was need in the balancing of the tone. The tone of which is unlike any other film that has dealt with aliens, in a film that is overall one of the most unique of the year. While it contains a few flaws, and not quite as much white knuckle excitement as Villeneuve other films, Arrival and very well executed new addition to a genre and will be remembered.

Verdict : Not quite as fulfilling as his other works, due to some small issues. But Villeneuve has brought another very well acted, stunning well shot, thought-provoking film to our screens.

Verdict : 4/5

Quote : “Now that’s a proper introduction.”

Re-Animator DVD Review

The Evil Undead

Released : May 24th 1985

Certificate : 18

Director : Stuart Gordon

Cast : Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbott

Plot : A medical student (Abbott) takes in a new room mate who has just moved to study medicine alongside him, and continue his secret work on his death defying serum.

In the 80’s, there were milestones of horror films made, and the genre in itself evolving. With the new practical effects available, there was the ability to make some hilariously violent films, on a shoe string budget. Re-animator, was alike The Evil Dead movies, one of these stand outs of the 80’s. For all manner of reasons you have some of most iconic horror films ever made, such as The Shinning, Poltergeist, The Thing and An American Werewolf in London. Stuart Gordon, made his one hit wonder film here based loosely on the writings of infamous early literature writer H.P Lovecraft.

As with some of the horror films that were made during this time, they became famous for their practical effects and gore, rather than for their craft of cinema. The first Evil Dead film introduced this style to the decade, and Re-animator raised the bar. So as with many gory horrors of the time, the makeup department surpass the importance of the writing and acting of the film by many a mile. With acting that would rival Halloween in its infamous quality, Re-animator is able to bring laughs even without the gore. As the acting alone, with the leading performance of Jeffrey Combs, bring the film well into the realm of so bad its brilliant. And this quality is head across the board, with all but one stars being aptly awful. Whether the acting choices of the film are intentional or not doesn’t really matter, as the spectacle is still as entertaining whichever is true.

And the serial nature of the plot is to match. The film has gaping plot holes that you could walk through, cliches that match the dialogue, and due to the budget the film has about 6 settings for the entire film. The film is 1 hour and 44 mins long and is a combination of the over the top gory violence, poor acting and outright jaw dropping terrible features all around. The vibe of the film is perfectly captured by its original tag line, “He has a good head on his shoulders… and another one on the table”. As what this film is infamous for is that of its villain that carries his own head around for the majority of the film. As for flaws for the film that actually matter, they revolve around the highlight of the film, which is the special effects. For some audience it would be acceptable to gain very little pleasure from this film. For each year the practical effects become more and more dated, and there are plenty of other terrible horror films with a better level of gore. Hence the original shock factor that made the film famous disappears, so does maybe its laughability. For some might not find the dated nature of the practical effects as hilariously over the top as others.

Re-animator is a little know gem, as it deserves nothing else than that (it was lucky to snag a mention in the ‘stoned’ dialogue of American Beauty). But while of the majority of today’s horror film turn out quality just a low, unintentionally, with the promise of genuine scares, this film is a refreshing awful look at the early days of the genre. While it isn’t quiet on the level of Evil Dead 2, it did come before that film, and its style and structure may have well influenced ED2. A film that you watch for the lack of quality across the board and for the special effects, a brilliant comedy horror cult film.

Verdict : A key film in the genre of; it’s so bad and over the top, that its quiet brilliant.

Verdict : 4/5

Quote : “I was busy pushing bodies around as you well know and what would a note say, Dan? “Cat dead, details later”?”

Take Shelter DVD Review

Twister

Released : November 15th 2011

Certificate : 15

Director : Jeff Nichols

Cast : Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Tova Stewart

Plot : Haunted by apocalyptic dreams and paranoia, Curtis (Shannon), quiet family life is disturbed.

A small festival film that didn’t perform hugely at the box office. It gained great critical success and a few awards at minor festivals. Written and directed by film maker Jeff Nichols, who while isn’t well known has gone on to make more ‘small’ but critically acclaimed films after this one. He is the writer/director of Mud (one of MCConaughey’s break out roles), Midnight Special and this year Loving. Before this film he had little motion picture experience apart from one short. Shannon, the lead, would go on to collaborate on all of Nichols, as well as The Iceman and Man of Steel.

Nicholas style of storytelling, from what I have seen, is rather unusual. In the way that it has inventive and thought provoking story lines, but which are told and present very subtly and ‘non-Hollywoodised’. There good return to importance of character and a sombre tone throughout his films, these are some patterns which are established here and seem (from what I’ve seen) to continue throughout his work. Take Shelter takes its time with the development of its main plot, which is the mental state of our lead character Curtis, as he goes on a journey through these visions and the conclusions and actions that result from them. The effect of the style of presentation is hit and miss. Its ability to maintain tension and build the growing anxiety of the characters is done well, slowly and first and then at a developing pace it turns the screw on the tension. This isn’t done to such a degree that makes the film hugely memorable unfortunately, but keeps you hooked for the view time. This moderate level of success of the film, continues throughout the rest of the attributes, be it for some stand out aspects. Due to this, it is no wonder that Nichols has gone on to ‘better’ and more well-known projects, as there is definite promise here that isn’t quiet capitalized on.

For Nichols work here, there a pros and cons to both the writing and the directing. From the opening few shots of the film, you can see that Nicholas is a competent director, and is applying thought to the shot selection in order to actually develop the story. As with the poignant nature of all opening shots, we see Curtis in a wide shot, who is slightly off centre set. From this shot alone we can see that he isn’t quite sure of himself or of the world around him. Several other shots are of note, being that of his ability of knowing when to hold a shot wide stationary shot or when to pull in, executed well with the scenes of conflict and narrative progression. The writing however, isn’t quite as gripping. While it is serving the purpose very well of depicting our leads inability to describe his feelings, it doesn’t quiet garner the utopian family life or bound as well as it could to invest you with the characters.

Another solid feature of the film are the performances. Chastain as always is able to convey and depict the extremities of emotion in a striking hyperbole way, whether they are always grounded is down to personal taste. Shannon performance is slightly definitely the highlight of the film, with an ability to convey the characters conflicted nature throughout well, and deals with the extreme emotive cases with great intensity. But the film doesn’t quiet breach the barriers of good into great and make it a hugely memorable film experience. The entertainment and thrill that come from the inner conflict of our lead, doesn’t quiet carry over into the family dynamic of the film. While the direction mirrors the story’s meanings very well, the script doesn’t, with dialogue which while realistic doesn’t have the level of depth that is memorable.

Verdict : A film with a great concept, an excellent performance and directorial competence and promise, doesn’t quiet overcome issues of pacing and overall lack of grip of the film.

Verdict : 3/5

Quote : “I still take off my boots not to wake her.”