Sunday, May 31, 2009

Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko D: Richard Kelly



A brilliant story about a troubled teen who hallucinates and sees a giant rabbit that tells him to perform a series of strange and dangerous tasks. Don't expect an entirely relaxing, enjoyable experience, Donnie Darko is surreal and strange throughout. A seemingly normal story of a boy making his way through school, meeting a girl, hanging with his friends and sub plots concerning parents and school teachers is present but is cleverly juxtaposed with almost alternate reality, dream-like sequences concerning our main character, who frequently visits a psychiatrist and is finding hidden meanings and connections in his life.
It's perfectly well done and the story is written in such a way that it is satisfying and enjoyable even though you're not quite sure what's going on half the time. It then ends in a way that is both confusing and explanatory for the strange happenings that happen previously.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays the title character of the 18 year old going on 25. Seriously, he looks a little old for his role. Either way his performance is brilliant, he switches scene by scene from a fairly normal if troubled teenager to a deranged, disturbed one with a real freaky manic smile. Other notable performances include one of Donnie's school teachers played by Drew Barrymore, or as my mother put it, the little girl from ET. The rest of the cast are brilliant and do their part in creating believable characters in this surreal and seemingly unbelievable world.
My only main criticism is the use of Mad World by Gary Jules as the closing track. Of course this film relaunched the song back in 2001 but now... Well, that song is just annoying.

Overall
An enjoyable and, not necessarily thought provoking, but thought warping and disturbing, film. If your looking for a teen/horror/thriller with an edge this is for you.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Birds

The Birds D: Alfed Hitchcock



A classic Hitchcock suspense thriller. Although at points the stuffed birds did make me laugh I really enjoyed this film, and was happy that it lived up to my expectations of being a strange, tense experience right from the very start.
Despite the film starting slowly and seeming to go nowhere for the first 30 minutes it soon picked up pace and I found myself really on-edge waiting for the foreboding bird attacks. We follow of woman, Annie, on her journey up to Bodega Bay near San Francisco. After being attacked by a gul on her way across the town's lake herself and the locals becomes suspicious of the local bird population. What follows is a fun game of anticipation and excitement as we wait and wait and wait for the birds to begin their full on war with the human race...
The suspense is masterfully built with a mix of sometimes long shots, holding on something seemingly irrelevant, or quick cuts of birds whoosing through the air or of terrified faces. There is a distinct lack of music that really helps sell a desolate, unescapeablele locale and emphaises the terrifying (and electronically created by Bernard Hermann) sounds of the birds. Expect shocks,long, drawn out suspense scenes and character flailing around as birds peck them to death.
The Birds, I think, is nothing more or less than a film designed to scare, disturb and nerve it's audience. The characters are vivid, the reckless leading leading, sarcastic man, emotional mother and vulnerable sister. All very interesting, but what is great about the birds is the brilliant way in which Hitchcock builds tension and although it is undoubtedly present, we don't really see the birds attacking that much. We're just waiting. And making a film that's fun to watch were nothing much happens, but you'r waiting and waiting is hard to do. Of course, it Hitchcock can't do it no one can!

Overall
A suspense-filled enjoyable film with it's fair share or scary scenes, grusome deaths and narrow escapes. I only wish it ended better and then the huge ammount of suspense and tension built would have payed off in a better way. I wanted more bird attacks!


Spoiler Section
Why did they leave the school? Surely it would've been easier to stay inside and just not get chased and attacked by the crows. And why did Annie, flailing and screaming whilst being attacked by the birds in the attic, lean against the door she was trying to open. That was a bit stupid.
End Spoilers

Friday, May 29, 2009

Barton Fink

Hello anyone reading. I'm Rob Frost, amateur film-maker and wannabe film student attempting to review, or at least spew my thoughts about films I've seen recently.

Barton Fink
D: Joel Coen



The first Coen brother film I saw was The Big Lebowski. I enjoyed it. I then saw Fargo. There was something about that film, whether it be the bleak locations or those vivid characters, that made me start to realise how awesome the Coen brothers were at this film-making stuff. Barton Fink is the 4th Coen brother film I've seen, Burn After Reading being the 3rd, and those brothers films are one of the reasons I wanted to join Lovefilm.com-so I could see every last one of their flicks!

Barton Fink is really hard to fit into a specific genre. There's elements of comedy, but I would say it was a crime thriller. We follow a struggling writer who moves to LA to write for a big Hollywood studio. He's tasked with writing a wrestling film and throughout the story becomes friends with a man, Charlie, nextdoor in his hotel. What follows is a series of strange and unforeseeable events Barton has to solve whilst simultaneously trying to write his film. It's complicated and, to be honest, I don't quite understand it.

All I know is that it is most definitely an enjoyable and engaging film! Despite the main character coming across as bleak and boring at first, the story soon picks up pace and with it's undefinable genre a certain amount of suspense is built and curiosity created about the characters and plot.

Technically the film looked pretty cool. With Kubrick-esque hotel shots and some memorable 'cool' shots where the camera winds around the set, Barton Fink is interesting to look at. The colours are all quite bleak and, and I admit I don't actually know anything about this sort of thing, all the shots seemed to be in focus, which made everything seem important and meant your interest wasn't drawn to anything. In a way, the shots were boring, steady and clear. Probably to represent the dull, bleak and lonely life of a writer...?

Josh Turturro of course appears again as Dude Lebowski with the Coen brothers and, quite obviously in a Coen brothers film, my favourite actor Steve Buscemi makes a brief appearance. John Goodman, who basically play any fat guy in any film ever is also the main supporting actor. To be honest, I don't pay much attention to the acting itself but the fact that I don't notice the acting as being particularly good or bad is good for the film... right? Thinking about it I did enjoy the very funny performance of Michael Lerner as the studio boss and Tony Shalhoub who, throughout the whole film, I was wondering what I had seen him in before. Turns out it was Spy Kids... *shudder*

Overall
A strange but very enjoyable film. If you've seen other Coen films or enjoy surreal stories I think you'd like it.


Whilst writing I omitted lots of things because I thought they'd spoil the film. I might make a habit out of leaving the bottom paragraph as left over ramblings about the film, it's meaning, my thoughts etc.

Spoilers Section
Barton Fink, for me, can be summed up in three letters: WTF. Seriously, Joel and Ethan are some messed up guys! This film, along with all other Coen films I've seen, really succeeds in creating a slightly surreal, alternate reality that's both intriguing and disturbing. Although we follow Barton we never get inside his head, and we never truly discover his brilliant masterpiece of writing at the end of the film. So that means it's not really about writing then, does it? I'm not sure. It seems Barton's constant struggle to find a suitable story for the studio but also fulfill his own goals of writing something that will change the world of cinema and theatre is only a small piece of the film's plot as a whole. There's this business with the picture on the wall, Barton's only window on the world? the peeling wallpaper, a result of the temperature foreshadowing the hotel on fire at the end? and the pipes, highlighting the fact everyone can hear what goes on in the rooms. Also, there's Charlie the nextdoor neighbour. I think it's very clever the way this character's change is revealed and I love the way he gets frustrated with Barton for not listening, but ultimately is trying to save everyone. Very clever.
End Spoilers

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Anyway. Not quite sure how well the above paragraphs are as a review. I suppose a review is supposed to inform you about a film and give you an opinion as to it's quality. Hopefully I've done that, if not meticulously specifically perfectly well done, I hope this has at least made you think about watching it. Or watching it again.