Twilight

Twilight does its best to forget about its fantastical premise of the 'cold one's' living amongst us, and focuses on what it really is: an old fashioned love story. That the two teenage leads can't touch each other (well, at least not to much) makes for an effective allegory of an American High School relationship - where eating your girlfriend takes the place of shagging her. She wants to be a vampire too, but he won't corrupt her. They are always in close proximity to each other, held apart and together with the threat of forbidden love. The first hour or so is a great period of sexual tension between the couple. Its at its strongest and most engrossing best - then the film suddenly (and unconvincingly) remembers its meant to be a fantasy film. This leads to a tiring and familiar second half that feels half hearted compared to the first hour. I suspect the second half was made for the men in the audience, but this is unmistakably a film for girls. 


Last week I bought a software plug-in that should allow me to re-create the bleached out look of the film. I thought the look suited the bleakness of the surroundings, especially when they made the vampires paler than the background. Some of the sweeping camera moves conveyed a sense of other-worldliness - these were particularly effective when cut with close-ups of the two standing together. The actors doing little, the camera and editing style conveying the characters exhilaration. 

A Prophet

In many ways A Prophet is a classically American film. It a rags to riches tale; a perverted version of the American Dream, or more aptly, a French version of the American Dream. 


At the end of The Godfather, the hero of the piece is in a morally terminal decline, and at the end of Scarface the hero's period at the top is ended in brutal fashion. Whereas in A Prophet, you can't help but feel pride in just how far the hero, your boy, has climbed in such adversity. I've never rooted for, and invested in, an anti-hero in the way that I did when i was immersed in this film. In some respects, and without revealing plot, Malik comes away unscathed from his 6 years in prison. 


I was recently at a story writing seminar as part of the Glasgow Film Festival, and the best thing I got from it is that character is everything and your film sprouts from strong character. Jacques Audiard's film has an unforgettable character in the soil of his film, and it makes for one of the best films of recent years simply for how it gripped and occupied me for its two and a half hours. 


I know it was shot handheld, in social realist mode, like so many other european films, but it completely transcended that, and showed what cinema is really capable of in terms of hitting you intellectually and emotionally. I can't wait to see it again and find out how Audiard achieved that. Its something that I want all my films to aspire to. Then again, I would love to have a similar reaction with a non-violent film. Its a rare thing. 

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are resembles the sort of trendy toy that is bought more for the parent than the child. I'm thinking of the beautifully crafted toy boxes with tasteful red soldiers that kids just ignore: its what's inside that counts. This is definitely a kid's film made for adults. Its not fun, there's not many laughs, but it is a great representation of the loneliness of childhood. I remember Maurice Sendak's book as if it was a dream, (it was my mum that reminded me I actually had it), and it had a deep effect on me as an introverted boy. Spike Jonze's film is a sad, nostalgic, piece that had me reflecting on the lonely moments of early youth. 


However, when the film focuses on the injustice of childhood (no food for misbehaving) it can't help but reflect Truffuat's The 500 Blows, the definitive cinematic statement on the subject. All that Where the Wild Things Are adds to it is that injustices can happen to advantaged American boys as well as French disadvantaged boys. Whatever else it tries to reveal just comes off like a bad episode of Big Brother; all character flaws and joylessness from the protagonists. The Wild Things come to represent psychological conditions, and all but happiness is included. I think its because of this that I found the film so disappointing. Max's world is full of darkness and the kind of aggression that is unique to young boys, but with Jonze, it also has the seriousness unique to pretentious young men. He steadfastly keeps to his own hand held sun set look, rather than succumb to a more typical kids film style, and for that it has to be congratulated as a brave film. Otherwise, it came up frustratingly lacking the substance which would have made it a classic.

3:10 to Yuma

My aspirations of reviewing every film i've seen this year are starting to crumble. Before the pressure takes its toll, this is a catch up of the month of January. 


First up is 3:10 to Yuma, the perfect antidote to the excesses of giggly girliness seen in Sex and the City. The Western genre can be split into two types of films. There is the Western: a psychological drama where the desolate landscape reveals character as much as the characters do, and the Cowboy: which is entertaining and relentlessly violent. James Mangold divides his film between the two, and to great effect. The beginning is definitely of the former, and the last half is firmly rooted in the latter. Its very much a buddy movie, a mix of Pat Garret and Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Before the modern trend of Bromance, there was the buddy movie.


Before I go on, I read a review by Nick Hornby of Blockbuster, written by Tom Shone, which has the thesis that Spielberg, Lucas et al elevated cinema with their invention of the cinematic 'blockbuster'. He's not thinking of Transformers though, and believes that the likes of Jaws combined art house character studies with the mainstream. 3:10 to Yuma is in this mould. It may become slightly silly towards the end, but it still maintains a huge level of characterisation that makes this acceptable. (Worth noting, however, that my sister watched this film and just did not get the change in dynamic between Crowe and Bale. Maybe its just cause she's a girl.) 


I firmly believe that these are the types of films that audiences want to be engaged with, and while they may not take the medium forward, they are undeniably well crafted, intelligent, pictures that i'd like to make. 

Sex and the City

I've been skipping a lot of reviews for the last month or so. Sherlock Holmes has been missed. So has Good Night and Good Luck, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and a few others. I'm stopping the slide with Sex and the City, the first film I’ve seen in 2010. 

I got to thinking... That for all the television series feminist pretences, the film is comfortable highlighting -but not in any way critical of- socially acceptable sexism. Carrie is about to get married at 40, so Vogue runs an article about how profound it is that a woman of that age actually can marry. Any older is instantly dismissed by the Vogue editor. When Samantha gains a barely detectable bit of weight, (I thought all the gasping was over a boob job), she is derided over it by all her friends. 

In many ways it’s a strange film. Amongst Carrie's break - up angst, Charlotte shits herself. A 'token' black woman materialises as if out of an 80's movie (Ghostbusters sprang to mind); her dialogue seems like a middle aged white man's impression of how young black women in New York speak. This is all mixed in with the bouts of soft porn that made it essential viewing for teenage boys. 

Not all women subscribe to the stereotypes on offer, women who are slaves to materialism, designer labels and trendy restaurants. I find it mildly insulting to women, but then again most male orientated cinema treats men as idiots, and I like a lot of those films. It is meant to be fun: a fantasy for women in a male dominated market. We should see more of these - just to an improved standard. Sex and the City 2 is coming soon.

New Year's Day Special - Films of the Decade

This top 5 is based as much on the cinematic experience of watching the film as it is on its filmmaking merits. I know if i've seen an excellent film when I leave the cinema. I walk out and I feel different than when I came in. I feel that my worldview has been altered in an intangible way, and I resist leaving the universe the film created. 


Cinema has the ability to immerse the audience into an intense, revelatory experience of someone's worldview. For a couple of hours the viewer surrenders to an other's way of looking at the world. Having the ability to craft that kind of experience is my ultimate aim in filmmaking. It can happen with the most mainstream of films, with people returning to the cinema just to be in the atmosphere created by the film. Titanic was a huge success partly because of teenage girls going 4 or 5 times. 


When I was researching my top 5 I realised how many films I haven't seen, and not only that, how many films I have on DVD that I still haven't watched. Some notable potential list breakers: The Hurt Locker, Oldboy, Lives of Others and the Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford which should be on the list purely on the merits of its title. 


See and Write Films top 5 films of the decade.


1 - Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008)
2 - Happy - Go - Lucky (Mike Leigh, 2008)
3 - The Departed (Martin Scorcese, 2006)
4 - Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)
5 - Batman Begins / The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2006, 2008)


Here are some I desperately wanted to be on the list: Team America: World Police (Trey Parker, Matt Stone 2004), Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003) American Splendor (Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, 2003) City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund, 2002)  History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005). 


And the best scene of the decade has to be the silent film in Talk to Her ( Pedro Almodovar, 2002), in which a shrunken man declares his love for a woman by climbing into her vagina, never to return.

New Fanboy Cinema

Ever watched Lord of the Rings and thought, I could have done with more, and left the cinema unsatisfied? If so, then you're bum must have a high pain threshold, and you vowed to continue the series by yourself. A group of people did just that last year, and the sequel (to their own fanboy movie), 'Born of Hope' is released tonight (http://www.bornofhope.com). The production values are remarkable considering the budget, and its a real testament to what can be achieved with a dedicated group of people working at the weekend for nothing. 

With the cheapness of camera equipment today, fanboy films are sprouting up faster on youtube than even the cinnamon teaspoon challenge. The films typically take place in the 'universe' that the film has created. 'The Rage', a fanboy mini-series on youtube was made for a thousand pounds, shot on DV, and exists in the universe of '28 Days Later'. Despite its meagre budget, it still manages to have a helicopter flying in troops at the beginning. 

The makers of these films must have an agenda other than homage, and this is surely to fulfill their dream of making these genre films on a big, hollywood, stage. The most notable example of this happening is from another trend: fanboy films of video games. Two brothers made a film called 'Escape from City 17', based on the 'Half-Life 2' game. The makers, UbiSoft, flew the brothers to their studios prior to its release. One of the creators has said "(he) would have trusted the brothers to make a 'Half-Life' movie way before I would have trusted somebody down in LA to do it." Praise indeed. 

Despite their success, I can't help but feel fanboys energy and money could be better spent making an original film. I would cite the examples of Christopher Nolan, who spent £17,000 on his feature 'Following', which catapulted him into the Hollywood machine. His latest film was 'The Dark Night'. Darren Aronofsky spent even less on 'Pi', and has just knocked back directing a 'Robocop' remake. Sam Raimi made the 'Evil Dead' for very little, and he directed the Spiderman trilogy. Fanboys forget that their favourite genre pictures were, at the time, wholly original. Aronofsky and Nolan are given hundred million budgets because their capable of summoning something out of nothing. 

The closest i've got to a fanboy film was in primary 6, when I wrote a story heavily influenced  by my favourite films 'Aliens' and 'The Terminator'. It was relatively successful. The teacher read it out in class to rave reviews from classmates, apart from one prick who shouted out 'that's aliens!' That's something I remember when I see yet another fanboy homage to films and video games that have gave them so much joy.