Reviews

2012: "Inflation of scale is coupled with deflation of ambition: Emmerich’s career has been a prolonged exercise in lowering our expectations so that we accept what he dishes up without question. It works to a point."

Dogs in Space, We're Livin' on Dog Food, and He Died With a Felafel in His Hand: "Lowenstein doesn’t go for a low budget approach to this low budget lifestyle. Instead he and his cinematographer, Andrew de Groot, use a widescreen format and slick, gliding camerawork to make the house and its inhabitants look like a million misspent dollars."

Moon: "Moon is a puzzle movie, where we follow the hero as he tries to work out what is going on. It plays that puzzle out without cheating, never using Bell’s hallucinations as an excuse for the film to simply not make sense. And while some of its predecessors were the filmic equivalents of chess nerds – brainy but dull –  Moon is engrossing throughout."

Mary and Max: "That Elliot could get a feature length stop-motion film made in Australia is quite an achievement, given there aren’t many made anywhere. That he could make the film so moving is even more impressive. Elliot is dealing with characters that are bewildered by life and socially isolated, and there are tragic turns along the way. Yet he avoids the film becoming maudlin or sentimental, and at its conclusion it is tear-jerking in the best way."

Star Trek: "Abrams recognises that the sheer weight of all those movies and TV shows had made approaching the franchise almost a chore, and neatly rules a line under it all, rendering it irrelevant. Importantly, unlike many other recent reboots (such as the new Bond and Batman films), the new Star Trek doesn’t try to be darker or grittier. It just wants to be better."

W. "A biopic such as this needs a simple structuring idea like this to impose narrative order on the chaotic events of a real life, and such approaches usually risk appearing too glib. Here, though, Stone benefits from the remarkable symmetry presented to him by real life."

Australia: "Luhrmann has mixed up elements of the Australian western (The Man From Snow River), effects-laden war film (Pearl Harbour), epic love story / melodrama (Gone With the Wind), leftist social drama (Rabbit Proof Fence), and more old-fashioned attempts to negotiate Australia’s relationship with its indigenous inhabitants (Jedda), and filtered these disparate influences though the heightened style familiar from Luhrmann’s previous work. Try something like that without it being a little bit of a muddle and you’ve made a bona fide classic. As it is, you do feel the gears change, occasionally gratingly, but what’s surprising is how often it does come together."

Frost / Nixon: "Ron Howard will never outlive the legacy of his populist filmography, child-star origins, and the sheer mediocrity of so many of his acting projects (notably most of the run of Happy Days), but he has become a very good director."

Quantum of Solace: "The new Bond film, Quantum of Solace, is a strange beast indeed. It aggressively imitates the rival Jason Bourne spy franchise; and yet despite that derivativeness, it somehow manages to impart a sense of renewal and vigour to the Bond series. In that sense it continues the work started by Casino Royale admirably. And while it doesn’t always feel like a Bond film, it does feels like those at the helm are actually concentrating."

Wall-E: "The science fiction aspects of the film push both plot and tone in directions we do not usually see from Hollywood films. In its first half, particularly, the film has a melancholy atmosphere and muted colour palette that is a long way from the ultra-colourful norm in Hollywood’s animated films. It is here that the film most recalls the feel of 60s and 70s science fiction."

Tropic Thunder: "The character is evidence of the old maxim that the best comic performances are those that take the comic premise as a given and then perform it straight; Downey Jr has taken this absurd role – playing an Australian playing an African American playing a soldier – as a serious acting challenge, and he nails it."

Persepolis: "You really feel for Marjane, who goes from a precocious and dangerously irrepressible child to a shattered, almost broken young adult. It’s quite a journey, and Satrapi manages to take you along it seamlessly, while weaving in plenty of humour and the story of the fluctuating fortunes of a troubled nation."

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "It’s not actually that bad, although I don’t want to over-praise it either (and the slightest hint of a positive adjective risks doing so)."

Not Quite Hollywood: "The clips and behind the scenes anecdotes are good enough to make it essential viewing simply as entertainment, and as a straightforward catalogue of the main works it’s also valuable. Those hankering for a really serious documentary, rather than a simple tribute / celebration / highlight reel, might be left a little disappointed, though."

Other recent additions: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, The Dark Knight, Kung Fu Panda, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Horton Hears a Who, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Cloverfield, The Darjeeling Limited, Enchanted, Rescue Dawn, Bee Movie, Eagle vs Shark. Or see the full list.

Published

You can read my essay "False L.A.: Blade Runner & The Nightmare City" in Will Brooker's anthology The Blade Runner Experience. For more information about my contribution to this book, click here.

For a list of my published writing, click here.

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