Category: Film

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Joker Review

5/5

Todd Phillips’ ‘Joker’ portrays the more human and less villainous backstory of the ‘Joker. With clear references to Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and seventies cinema, this takes on a whole new perspective of comic book cinema.

Philips portrays Joker as one of society’s ‘outcasts’ as clichéd and overused as the term may be, the audience really does see a whole new side of the Joker rather than the simplicity of the ‘bad guy’. Arthur Fleck lives with his mother within the chaos and increasing poverty of Gotham, trying his best to become a stand up comedian but is constantly beat down, sometimes literally, which is when things take a turn for the worse.

Arthur is not taken seriously by anyone in Gotham city, not by his employer, not by Murray Franklin, and certainly not by the people who fund social services.

‘All I have are negative thoughts. But you don’t listen.’ Joker, 2019 https://www.moviequotesandmore.com/joker-best-movie-quotes/

Arthur’s counselor tells him the city is cutting funding for social workers, a key moment emphasizing the rich taking what they want from the poor and characters like Thomas Wayne representing “a man of the people” despite taking away basic mental health resources hence making a clear statement that Arthur is not taking his medication.

I am aware that the film received criticism for romanticising or idealising psychotic behaviour or mental health issues. I would argue that this is definitely not the case as stated previously, Arthur was not taking his prescribed drugs due to funding cuts. This is the main theme of the film, a man deprived of prescription medication for his mental health condition because of the selfishness of the rich. I have linked Mark Kermode’s review explaining “woke culture”. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/06/joker-review-joaquin-phoenix-ace-turn

In no way does Joker romanticise mental illness or psychosis, nor does it justify his actions. Joker is a human story of a man beaten down by society. I really like the use of the title ‘Joker’ and not ‘The Joker’ as he is commonly referred to, this humanises him as the film does and simply tells his story through wonderful cinematography and the style of seventies film. This could perhaps redefine comic book cinema as more than just general comic book action. Joaquin phoenix gives an outstanding leading performance that deserves an Oscar nomination.

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Review: Puzzle

Edinburgh’s International Film Festival opened with Marc Turtletaub’s ‘Puzzle’.

A touching story about a stay at home mother who finds a hidden talent in puzzles. Throughout the film, Kelly Macdonald’s character ‘Agnes’ finds her own independence away from her closed off family life.

 

The character of Agnes is first introduced hosting a party, which the audience assumes is for her husband as she cleans up after everyone and brings her own cake in. Her life at first is contained within the house, looking after her husband and two sons. The first part of the film seems as if it is set in the 50’s or 60’s as the style of the house is very simplistic and old fashioned which could represent how Agnes has not fully lived her life as she is stuck in the past in the house she grew up in. There is a theme of repetition and order in Agnes’ life, foreshadowing her hidden talent for jigsaw puzzles.

 

Soon after taking an interest in puzzles, she ventures to New York and finds a ‘puzzle partner’ to take part in a puzzle competition. This brings a vast change in Agnes’ life as she begins to find what she enjoys but struggles to tell her family what she is doing. The film explores family relationships and new beginnings in an intriguing way.

 

Kelly MacDonald has an outstanding performance however some of the other characters lacked character development as the film was focused on the development of Agnes’ character. The plot was well developed and told a story of finding independence within yourself.

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Review: Brooklyn

A beautiful story of love and loss, Saoirse Ronan’s acting stands out boldly in the role of Eilis as an Irish immigrant looking for work in America to support her family. Through tragic ends and new beginnings, Eilis goes from a young, innocent daughter to a New York woman.

 

As Eilis is forced to find work in America in the early 50s, she struggles to leave behind her home in Ireland. Eilis struggles living in the big city of New York and suffers terribly with homesickness. As she slowly but surely settles into American dream, Eilis meets an Italian/American man who she soon marries and is ready to settle down with. Everything seems to be falling into place, along with her successful job, up until a tragic event forces her to return to her hometown in Ireland. Eilis is suddenly reminded of the comforts of home as she returns. Once again everything seems to fall into place back at home as she is given a job and is welcomed back with open arms by old friends and family.

 

Eilis has to choose between her home and everything she has missed for so long, or her new blossoming life in the big city of New York. A whole new perspective on a coming of age film.

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Review: Loveless

Director ‘Andrei Zvyagintsev’ creates a haunting and real portrayal of a deeply damaged and failing marriage in ‘Loveless’. A couple breaking up struggle to barely keep up a conversation about their divorce and act in almost childlike fashion, as they can’t even see how damaging it has become to their child.

 

The movie portrays the daily life of the adults who are so obsessed with their idea of a “perfect” life that they fail to pay attention to their own son. The twisted selfish nature of humans is explored through the couple as they try and find their missing son after he goes missing due to their ignorance. The mother continues to ignore her son, as she is constantly caring about only herself and her new relationship as she fails to face up to reality. The father only cares about his reputation and his work. The film maintains a constant tension as if something is about to happen throughout the film, even during the look into the parent’s lives.

 

There is an awkward and tense atmosphere when the audience sees what their lives are like. Their new relationships are what they aspire to have, and are portrayed in an atmosphere almost like a horror movie, putting the audience constantly on edge. The film focuses on the self-obsessive parents and their fake happiness.

 

This film is definitely worth seeing and deserves the Oscar nomination for best foreign film.

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Review: Star Wars ‘The Last Jedi’

Going from the greatness and awe of ‘The Force Awakens’ to the latest film of the Star Wars trilogy ‘The Last Jedi’ was a massive let-down. With predictable turns and a lack of plot, the new generation of Star Wars series have taken a turn for the worse.

I was looking forward to seeing ‘The Last Jedi’ after the excitement of the previous movie in the trilogy, however I was disappointed by the predictable plot and how the characters were clearly used as plot devices with little character development. I did enjoy the strong female lead of ‘Rey’ who did develop during the action of the film. The special effects were spectacular, however despite what 21st century technology can contribute to the Star Wars trilogy, the writing and directing of the movie did not balance it out.

There was a vast amount of diversity in the film which I really liked. However, the use of characters as plot devices was what really disappointed me about the movie. Luke was clearly used as a replacement for Han Solo in order for Kylo Ren to have someone to be angry at throughout the film, driving him to want to destroy the Resistance. Two characters that outshone the rest in ‘The Force Awakens’ were Poe and Finn, however I feel they had less importance and a lack of character development in ‘The Last Jedi’ which was extremely disappointing. There were also subtle hints of unnecessary romances developing between characters, which I disliked.

Overall, I think the plot was predictable, characters were clearly dismissed and badly written however the music and cinematography were beautiful and those who love a good movie soundtrack will not be disappointed.

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Review: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Jumanji - Welcome to the Jungle

 

I loved the original Jumanji movie however I didn’t think it needed a sequel but when I saw the video game transformation of the original movie I was in awe with the action, comedy and cinematography.

 

Four teens that would normally never talk are forced to hang out with each other in detention when they find a video game, and get trapped inside the video game version of Jumanji as the avatars they selected. Two friends who have drifted apart are brought back together and a romance is formed between the ‘nerd’ and the ‘introverted’ girl played by Dwayne Johnson and Karen Gillan. Kevin Hart’s portrayal of ‘Moose Finbar’ his avatar character of the zoologist was hilarious as he goes from a tall teenager to the small zoologist and his best friend goes from the smaller geeky friend to the tall and muscular ‘Dr Smolder Bravestone’ and of course the ‘self-obsessed’ popular girl choses the character of ‘Professor Shelly Oberon’ is amazingly portrayed by Jack Black who’s one liners are guaranteed to make you laugh out loud throughout the whole film.

 

The group struggle to get along at first but soon discover they have to work together in order to get back to their normal lives. Jack Black’s character helps guide Karen Gillan’s character through the basics of flirting to distract the guards so that the team can escape, this was my personal favourite scene when ‘Ruby Roundhouse’ uses one of her character’s skills of dance fighting to take out the guards. This movie is the perfect combination of action and comedy, and is completed with great character development where friendships are reborn and romances are formed.

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Review: Justice League

Justice League

 

Going to see Justice League with two fellow superhero fanatics, I did not have any expectations and had only seen a couple of short trailers for the film. I have never been the biggest fan of the DC movies; Justice League did not convince me to become a fan.

 

In the film, Batman has to form a team of superheroes (in a very similar style to The Avengers) to which some obviously refuse and then turn up “unexpectedly” mid-battle in order to be more dramatic. Of course Ezra Miller and Gal Gadot’s acting outshines the rest of the film and their characters individually are very charismatic in comparison to Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman. I am not implying that his acting was bad but I think that the writing did not reveal anything about his character as he spent half the film being sad and angry that Superman was dead and barely contributed to the plot. There was no character development for Batman at all in Justice League

 

The overall plot was predictable and had no originality or plot twists in comparison to other movies of the same genre. The villain ‘Steppenwolf’ had the very predictable plan of taking over earth with unearthly power without any empathy towards human life. The team soon realizes they do not have enough power alone to defeat the villain and have to resurrect Superman by using the dangerous power that the villain needs to take over earth. I think that this moment was the highlight of the movie as Superman added more character to the team.

 

This film wasn’t all bad, it definitely had good moments and introduced two new characters well; Aquaman and The Flash, however I think it lacked plot and a climactic ending and was instead very predictable and clichéd.

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Review: Me, Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

 

Another iconic and beautiful indie film, the small and simple moments in Me, Earl and the Dying Girl make the audience feel closer to the characters, which I think is a huge factor that many films miss out on, when they don’t let the audience build a relationship with the characters.

 

Greg, an awkward teen with one friend, Earl, whom he calls a ‘coworker’ is forced to befriend a girl with leukemia (Rachel) and they form an unlikely friendship over Greg and Earl’s film projects they’ve made together. Greg narrates the story through the movie, his self-doubt gets the best of him as he feels he doesn’t fit into any group in high school and is hesitant to apply to college. Rachel convinces him to apply to college and although the storyline sounds like a cliché high school romance movie, it is anything but cliché. There are witty captions, an 80’s themed colour pallet and no hint of romance between Greg and Rachel.

 

Throughout the movie we see Greg categorizing the school into groups, isolating himself from others and even refusing to acknowledge anyone as his friend. We see his character development as he begins to build a friendship with Rachel and despite setbacks from school and college deferrals, the audience sees him descend into maturity as he learns from life’s tough lessons. Rachel helps Greg overcome his self-doubt and fear of applying to college because of people not liking him.

 

With a beautiful soundtrack, dry humour and amazing camerawork, this is a real heartwarming tragedy.

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Review: Thor Rangnarok

Thor: Ragnarok

 

Director Taika Waititi takes on a whole new approach to the Marvel cinematic universe. With hilarious one-liners and references to previous movies, ‘Thor Ragnarok’ definitely tops the previous ‘Thor’ movies.

 

I love a good superhero movie but the witty comedy; amazing soundtrack, incredible special effects and enthralling action scenes really topped other Marvel films for me. Despite previous conflict between brothers Thor and Loki, the two work together in order to save Asgard from their rival and sister portrayed by Cate Blanchett. Loki continues to scheme against his brother despite agreeing to help him multiple times, their sibling rivalry is increasingly funny throughout the film.

 

I really enjoy how the Marvel films allow different directors to take a new approach to each movie, as it is incredibly interesting to see the different director’s approaches to each film. The first two films in the Marvel series of ‘Thor’ were deeply revolved around action and there was much less character development. I thought Thor had far better character development in ‘Thor Ragnarok’ in comparison to the previous movies as he deals with far more complex issues and is far less of an arrogant superior god, but instead a warrior and a leader.

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Review: Submarine

Submarine

 

‘Submarine’ directed by Richard Ayoade is a beautiful coming of age film about a socially awkward boy and his love interest a mysterious girl. This indie film gives off a Wes Anderson vibe with the incredible soundtrack performed by Alex Turner.

 

‘Submarine’ explored the awkward stage in-between adolescence and adulthood as two teenagers fall in love with each other as they are still trying to figure out who they are themselves. The witty dry humour of the film adds to the alternative genre of film making it immediately likable. The character of Oliver Tate hopelessly pines after the mysterious Jordana Bevan, and as their romance blossoms the film becomes increasingly intriguing. Jordana’s coolness contrasts with Oliver’s awkwardness and stunned facial expression but this makes their characters even more likable as if there is something hidden and secretive about both of them. Their wild contrast adds to the quirky lightheartedness of the film.

 

Tension is built well as Oliver’s relationship with Jordana starts to fall apart and he tries hopelessly to stop it from doing so. At the same time he is anxious that his parent’s marriage is also falling apart. Oliver’s way of speaking with far more knowledge than a 15-year-old boy makes the film more humorous. The use of dark humour adds more depth to the story. This new genre of British film is definitely something I would love to see more of.