Archive for the ‘film review’ Category
Film | 2012 (2009)
The Ancient Greek pantheon of gods was rife with tussles for preeminence between the immortals. And quite often the mere mortals were Sim-like pawns in these wars of might.
After watching 2012, I can’t help but think that God and Roland Emmerich are two such immortals pitched in a battle over who can play out the best disaster on the world stage. Emmerich’s thrown everything at it for his latest pitch.
For those who’ve escaped the epic promos, 2012 is a movie about the end of the world. It is the final year of the Mesoamerican calendar and, as legend has it, the final year of existence too. And this is the basic premise of the movie — surviving apocalypse.
In 2009, a group of scientists discover the world will indeed end in 2012. World leaders listen and act, collaboratively setting in motion plans for nothing less than the survival of the human species (remember, this is fiction). Of course, the citizenry are not informed, else anarchy break loose.
Film | 2012 (or, Three Years’ Away From Doom)
Forget Copenhagen and climate change, people, because the world is going to end in 2012. At least according to upcoming disaster flick 2012 from apocalypse obsessed director Roland Emmerich — who also brought us Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow.
The year 2012 is eschatologically significant — it’s the end of the Mesoamerican, or Mayan, calendar. More precisely, 21/23 December 2012 of our Gregorian calendar. Legend has it that 2012 is not just the end of the calendar, but of the world as well. And this is the basic premise of the movie — surviving apocalypse.
In the eye of the storm is a broken Curtis family – science-fiction writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) and their kids. Disaster movies classically involve a broken family that’s restored through the natural disaster (what else would get you back together with Tom Cruise other than human eating plants?). It’s the usually subtext in these movies.
Film | Moon (2009)
Ground Control to Major Tom … or in this case, Sam Bell. Moon is the Space Odyssey 2001 meets Philip K Dick film from director (and Bowie son) Duncan Jones.
It’s the not-too-distant future of a post-climate changed planet Earth. Us humans have discovered a new and seemingly sustainable source of energy — fusion power from the Moon. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell; Frost/Nixon) is stationed at a base that harvests the energy on the moon. For the duration of his 3-year contract, he’s pretty much alone. Well, all except for GERTY, an artificially intelligent computer modelled on Space Odyssey’s HAL9000 and with a penchant for using emoticons for expression. GERTY is voiced by Kevin Spacey.
Film | Elegy
Elegy is a brooding, poetic look into a man coming to terms with his autumn years and about to discover the fragility beneath his virility. The plot’s a little insubstantial, but the movie is redeemed by stellar performances from its leads — Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz.
David Kapeesh (Kingsley) is a 50-something cultural critic and academic who’s starting to reckon with getting old. He emancipated himself from marriage early on to lead an independent, epicurean life in a stunning New York apartment. Everything is as he wants; he’s playing it all very cool. That is until he catches the eye of his student, Conseula Castillo (Cruz).
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Fashion | Chanel Before “Coco Avant Chanel”
Dollish Amelie star Audrey Tautou is the new face for Chanel No 5, teaming up again with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet for the fragrance’s latest advertising campaign. It comes ahead of a mid-2009 release of Coco Avant Chanel in which Tautou plays the fragrance’s inventor, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.
Film | The Music Video That Changed History?
Film | The Bad Apple: Monsanto’s Dirt File
If sin was a government office building, then an entire floor would be devoted to the file on the world’s largest biotechnology company, Monsanto. At least if this documentary is anything to go by.
The World According To Monsanto (Le Monde Salon de Monsanto) is this file. It was first aired on French and German TV, and I believe is yet to be broadcast in America.
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Film | Would you let this vampire in?
If there are two things that up the creepy factor in a horror movie, it’s children and an uber clean and spartan, homely setting. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson added these two ingredients to his new vampire horror movie Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in).
It’s a combination of fellow Swede Lille Hallstrom’s My Life As a Dog and Takashi Shimizu’s The Grudge. There’s more than good horror to this movie — it’s also a coming-of-age and romance. Let the Right One In is based on a book of the same title by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who also wrote the screenplay).
Film | Talkin’ ‘Bout Their Generation
I dropped into the cinema today to see The Boat That Rocked. And, yes, it was the nostalgic sexagenarian trip down memory lane to the good ‘ole Swinging Sixties I was expecting. But, it was also a thoroughly enjoyable, vibrant and fun movie, aided a lot by a booming British pop soundtrack.
Directed by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill) and with an ensemble cast. The Boat That Rocked is a comedic tribute to the UK pirate radio stations of the 1960s that were pretty much the only radio stations playing pop music.
Film | Has Lars returned to The Kingdom?
It looks like Danish film director Lars von Trier is returning to the supernaturalism of his roots with his soon-to-be-released horror flick Antichrist.
A couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsborough) go to a cabin in the woods to mourn and get over the death of their son. But, rather than finding bucolic bliss they instead discover that nature is indeed “the devil’s church” and soon become extremely reluctant parishioners.
