Review- Blue Valentine (dvd)

Directed by Derek Cianfrance
A stolen glance, a passionate embrace, a music set montage of playful dates. These are all the 'hallmark' moments of the traditional Hollywood romance. But these moments are redefined, stripped back and then crushed in a subtle anguish in Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star as the flourishing/decaying couple Dean and Cindy whom meet, fall in love and then fall out of love, but what sets this apart from many other cookie cutter, run of the mill romances is the honesty, often brutally bleak and unflinching portrayal of human emotions.
Like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which showed the end of the relationship at the beginning and the beginning of the relationship at the end, Blue Valentine starts with the fleeting hours of the couple, all the nasty elements that come from years of resentment and disappointment and then alters through a series of flashbacks to the first blooms of their romance, the sparks that fly through their first encounter. The film begin a rhythm of shifting from one time period to another, juxtaposing the sour present with the bittersweet past as the pair make a last ditch attempt at their fledging romance with a night in a motel, staying in the 'future room' (a symbol of their relationship and also the disillusion of what advance society would be). In one climatic scene we see Dean and Cindy in a final embrace, intertwined with the couple getting married, making the film all the more heartbreaking as we long for the past to be present again.
Ryan Gosling has been treading through indie waters for some time after the over sentimental swooning of The Notebook, shows why he is the go to guy for the thinking person's leading man, showing an impulsive sporadic nature, yet all the while maintaining a delicate tenderness. Michell Williams meanwhile has shown she can depict downtrodden yet spirited with uncanny astuteness in films such as Brokeback Mountain and Wendy and Lucy, she is at home in the independent film where she excels with vulnerable, raw, passionate performances.

Shot through with an accurate eye that still retains a dreamy aesthetic, without being overly mawkish, Derek Cianfrance creates a wholly believable picture of the fragility of love, his direction infringing on awkward angles and uncomfortable close ups, that the camera shows his two leads sometimes in uncomfortable lights should be praised for the realistic nature that it constructs and the authenticity that Gosling and Williams bring to their roles.

Blue Valentine may be a thorny watch to bear, but it is one that reminds us that beyond the Hollywood gleam, love stories, even those with moments of beauty and grace, do not always have happy endings. We must remember that love is a many splintered thing and can only hope that we can weather the storm and keep it alive.

Tree of Life

Could it be Malick?
The latest directorial output from Terrence Malick arrives in a flurry of film column inches, dividing viewers by winning the Palme D'Or at Cannes, but in turn also receiving just as many deflated scowls at the ceremony.

If you are the kind of film viewer that only sees cinema as a means of narrative entertainment then stop reading now, this really isn't the film for you and you will probably find this article pretentious in some way. That includes you Dad, I love you to bits but Con Air this ain't.

To even use the word film seems almost redundant in many ways as Malick has reached new heights in creating a experience so singular and unique that it defies and rewrites the concept of conventional film making. There is no easy way to explain the plot of Tree of Life that would either make sense or do justice to the experience, (this is what it feels like more than a film-an experience). It does however, concern a family in rural Texas in the 1950s, taking in on the way, ideas of creation, evolution, life and death. The themes of our existence in the world and the loss of innocence by the eldest boy in the family are the main contributors of the film, but this my reaction to the film, I believe that each viewer will take away something different from the Tree of Life. The key is to give in to its power (and it does yield a power that becomes apparent when leaving the cinema), to immerse yourself in the vast, consuming landscapes, the intimate portrayal of family life, so simple yet so tender, the nostalgic hue of the beautifully recreated 50s backdrop and the notions of the creation of the world we live in.

Malick's camera lives every inch and detail of the everyday nuances of life, whether its gliding through the rooms of the family house, an extreme close up of a newborn baby, and in turn the vengeful elder siblings reaction to the new addition, or the realisation that life is not all about riding your bike or climbing trees, that childhood has to end. It is a journey that, once succumbed to, reaps rewards in a once in a lifetime cinematic episode. There are elements to the Tree of Life which will be familiar with viewers of Malick's previous films, with its existential mood and use of melancholy voice over. The film also recalls images usually reserved for documentaries such as Planet Earth and comparisons can be made in some of the scene's style to the film Koyaanisqatsi, which used visual images and haunting music to create a scenario of the creation of the world and the landscapes around us.
However Tree of Life still feels completely unique, the term 'like nothing you have ever seen before' is saddled around a lot in Cinema, but in this case, it resonates profoundly. That this film ever saw the light of day in the realms of contemporary Hollywood, must be attributed to Malicks clout as a director and the star wattage that Brad Pitt brings to any project. That it shares cinema listings with the latest Transformers film is absurd but also empowering.
Terrance Malick has only made five films in the past forty years but with Tree of Life, he has left an enriching encounter that will last in the memory and mind for a long time.

Disappointing dvds

Recent viewings have been disappointing to say the least as follows

Paul (Directed by Greg Mottola)


When does a movie go from paying homage to its favourite sci fi films to just ripping them off every five minutes? The answer is Paul.

Paul is the bloated, self indulgent offspring of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, a film about two sci fi geeks who encounter an alien on their way across America's outback of Paranormal hotspots. There is no denying Pegg and Frosts love for the films of Spielberg, Lucas et all and their in joke tributes to them have worked well in the past in the series Spaced. However over the course of an entire film it feels lazy, unfunny and unoriginal (apart from a Star Wars bar reference which is a doozy). The script is predictable and not up to the standard of previous efforts and one cant help wonder that perhaps the duo's secret ingredient is really Edgar Wright who is absence on directing duties, after Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The lovely Kristen Wiig is wasted in a role that does not play to her strengths and Jason Bateman is well Jason Bateman. It seems left to their own devices, the boys don't know when to reign it in, Paul at times feels like a film just made for themselves. Wish they had included the audience a little more.

Best left assigned to a galaxy far far away......

The Adjustment Bureau (directed by Gregg Nolfi)

Grrr, this film makes me a little mad. It could have been so much better. It had the pedigree for pity's sake. Based on a Phillip K Dick story, starring the reliable Matt Damon, it has Mad Men's Roger Stirling! (ok so it's John Slattery but he will always be Roger Stirling to me) and an intriguing premise of how we are not in control of our destiny and everything is in fact pre ordained by a shady organisation The Adjustment Bureau.
What emerges from this sci fi thriller is a very bland, dull pointless film. The plot revolves around Matt Damons politician and Emily Blunts dancer falling for each other and then being kept apart by the forces on high, as they were not supposed to be for one another and for some inexplicable reason, the Bureau is intent on keeping them apart. Cue clever plot devices, involving romance and edge of your seat tension, guess again. Instead it's a series of meandering scenes, silly code breakers (Hats, really is that all it takes and a few twists of a doorknob?) and half hearted relationships entwined in a narrative that might as well not bothered. Damon is wasted paired with the comatose Blunt who looks like she is falling asleep in every scene (that she is a dancer is laughable given her languid performance). The fact that she doesn't even seem interested in Damon for three quarters of the film means that you care little that this pair even get together which leaves the film at a loss with the audience and you almost wish that Damon is caught and lobotomised (Blunt looks like she already has been).

Ladies and Gentlemen please adjust your sets.