Author: BRWC

Set in 1921 England The Awakening is a ghost story chiller starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton. The film opens to a seance filled with all the customary claptrap:  dark lighting, bizarre symbols, an overabundance of candles, a run down almost decaying room, and creepy looking characters wrapped in shawls that wouldn’t stand out in a crowd of zombies. Cue a little bit of ritual sacrifice and these supernatural pedlars have their show fully underway, summoning spirits from the ‘other side’, the tension builds as the ghost of a girl appears as a reflection and then bam it’s grabbed by Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) and revealed for the farcical charade that it is – designed to grotesquely manipulate the weak, grieving, post World War one public’s need for contact with those lost.

The Awakening’s protagonist, Cathcart, is a renowned disapprover of the spiritual and she spends her time using science and reason to reveal the shallow artifice of events such as the opening seance. To try and dethrone her from her carefully constructed seat of reason school master Robert Mallory (Dominic West) arrives to summon her to what is purported to be a ‘real’ ghost, haunting his boarding school. He regales her with a tale of frightened children and a persistent ghost child backed up by a set of class photographs each with an additional stereotypically blurred face, one that usually signifies that the individual has recently watched a certain ominous video tape. Not one to back down from a challenge and armed with an antiquated Ghostbuster kit she returns with Mallory to the boarding school determined to disprove his story, and naturally this is where all the darkly lit corridors, tense music, and eccentric ‘bump in the night’ sounds we would expect begin.

A good ghost story is usually one where very little happens (in an action sense) as it is in that expectation of something that tension and therefore fear happen. The Awakening, rather like the recent Woman in Black, is an attempt to return to this classical horror vehicle – as opposed to the blood and guts gore-fest approach that is more frequently employed these days. In someways it is successful, it slowly builds in tension with simple scenes that often isolate the main character in empty spaces or surround her with darkness. The scenes are carefully constructed with peculiar elements appearing in backgrounds or in the periphery to create worry or anxiety in the viewer. There’s a reference early on to a Caravaggio painting on the wall, and the movie clearly references the dramatic contrast of light that the artist so frequently used, with some scenes being lit entirely by Cathcart’s personal torch. This all works to create a very claustrophobic atmosphere and there are certainly a couple of moments that will make you jump – there is a particularly marvellous scene involving a dollhouse that was genuinely spooky, if not slightly distressing. It’s also nice that the chills aren’t confined to the dark of night with a great deal of the ghostly goings on taking place in the, usually safe, daylight.

But then, in counterbalance to the good, there’s a parade of the vapid cliches that are usually rife in ghost stories; like hands reaching out through water, shadows and reflections on glass, the closing of a door to reveal a figure stood behind it, and looking through a hole to be abruptly confronted with someone else watching back, that it all becomes a bit trite and predictable. Moreover there’s the ghost itself which works well when it’s lurking in the background or is otherwise disembodied but there are scenes where a tedious pale CGI ‘horror’ face (the aforementioned video tape face from The Ring) rushes into shot and it’s just a bit too obvious and at odds with the slow and simple build up elsewhere in the movie.

Also the story begins to get overly convoluted, rather like The Others, it starts to add a more complicated backstory involving Maud (Imelda Staunton) and whilst there’s something inherently creepy about both a primly dressed boarding school governess and Imelda Staunton as an actress, it all begins to detract from the tension and fear factor. The movie also muddies the water with a love story development between Cathcart and Mallory which given her characters troubled, slightly vulnerable nature seems more that a bit unnecessary. Cathcart, whilst having made a career from disproving ghosts and over worldly beings, we find out is really just searching for proof of their existence – she wants to believe. What starts out as a fairly subtle, well thought out movie becomes very heavy handed by the end, as we’re taken through Cathcart’s realisation of lost memories and her need to reconcile the past.

Unfortunately, the final scene ends with rather infuriating ambiguity as to the fate of the main character(s) and rather than being a twist calling into question our assumptions about the story it just comes across as being unfinished, or rather that the writers simply didn’t know how they wanted to end it. All in all The Awakening is by no means a terrible movie, it’s very deliberately and beautifully framed and for at least the first half it builds mystery and tension very well, but then it gets bogged down in a succession of overly complex or entirely superfluous ‘twisty’ plot strands. Watch it for Rebecca Hall’s well rounded portrayal of a person stuck between the scientific and spiritual worlds, but don’t expect too much from the ending.

50/50 is a ‘dramedy’, along the lines of recent awkward, character focused comedies from the likes of Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, etc. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam a man who at 27 years old is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, the reaction of his family and friends along with the bizarrely naive musings of his assigned councillor provide a black comedic tone. This is a movie where the laughs largely come from an appreciation of the irony, or the laughable tragedy, of life. If it sounds like this is less obviously funny than say Superbad or Knocked Up that’s because it is, but it’s a more rewarding comedy for it.

Gordon-Levitt continues his stellar rise, one that started long ago on Third Rock from the Sun and most recently saw him appearing in the brilliant Inception and (500) Days of Summer, to provide a really genuine performance of someone having to deal with a mountain of shit. Seth Rogen as Adam’s horny, crass, best friend Kyle provides his typical, and at this point expected, performance as the same character he is in everything (i.e. himself). Adam’s girlfriend Rachel, played Bryce Dallas Howard, is an instantly hate-able, selfish and constantly grating character somewhat similar to her turn as pure evil in The Help. Whilst Seth Rogan’s character is somewhat funny the real laughs are generated by Anjelica Houston as Adam’s needy mum Diane, and Anna Kendrick as Katherine the councillor who is still working on her Doctorate. Katherine is hilariously underprepared to be able to provide a stable system of support and there are some wonderfully awkward attempts at empathy, and Kendrick really nails it in a performance that is funny and sweet with some truly cringe-worthy moments.

Given the gravity of potentially life threatening illness the movie plays it fast and loose with the idea of comedy, it doesn’t shy away from the pure unrelenting reality of the situation – in fact it does just the opposite and focus’s on how awful it is to deal with this type of situation. What is funny is how people simply don’t know how to act around Adam when they find out, some of the things people say to him are so ridiculous that he often ends up comforting them; it’s almost always about how other people react to his cancer and how it effects them rather than Adam, again highlighting a dramatic irony. There are moments that you have to laugh at them or you’ll cry from their shear awfulness. It’s honest, and in that it is hilarious.

Will Reiser’s script is sharp and witty, and given that it’s based on the true story of him dealing with cancer (apparently with Seth Rogan fulfilling the same role he did in real life) he really knows how to astutely write for this situation to highlight the myriad of emotions and tensions, trying to pick out the ludicrous black comedy that life can sometimes be. Gordon-Levitt steals the show, he embodies the character so well that we laugh with him and feel for him at the same time. Graceful and heartfelt, this is definitely one to watch if you get the chance.

I know what you’re thinking, I basically just watched some soft core porn and reviewed it. But alas no! It’s a proper film with legitimate (and sometimes serious) storylines. I can honestly say it wasn’t what I was expecting and I was glad of it.

This film is set on a summers afternoon in Hamstead Heath, London and follows the minutiae of seven seperate couples. I won’t delve into the specifics but I will say that some of the topics brought up are handled very well.

These kind of films are the films that the British Film Industry do well. It’s low budget but of a high quality and features topics that we can all relate to. It’s funny, quirky and features an A-list cast without becoming too commercial.

And the most important thing of all? It made me smile! I watched it after a bit of a rubbish day at work and it cheered me up no end. It put things into perspective and it made me laugh, which I was truely thankful for.

If you’ve got a spare 90 minutes, watch it. I can’t guarantee you’ll fall in love with it but I can guarantee you’ll see a bit of Tom Hardy’s derrière and lets be honest that’s amazing as it is.

The Hunger Games, based on the trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins, is the latest instalment in this years run of blockbuster movies, indeed the big Hollywood Marketron 5000 has been ramped up to full power with a complete carpet bombing of promotion in the run up to it’s release with hundreds of thousands of tween’s and young adults frothing at the mouth to unconditionally lavish it with a level of adoration that would make even Lady Gaga blush.

Set in the future dystopia of Panam, whose socio-political landscape has been completely remapped by apocalyptic-style war, the Capitol choose one boy and one girl from each of its 12 subservient districts (facsimile’s of labour camps) to have the dubious honour of fighting to the death in an annual ritual from which the movie takes its name. Pitted against each other in a game of survival watched by the entire populous, replete with a vast array of weaponry, only one can survive and be crowned the victor. If this all sounds a bit familiar that’s because it’s also the premise of Battle Royale and there’s been a lot of internet chatter regarding this, with some media outlets describing The Hunger Games as “Battle Royale for the Twilight generation”. I’d like to take a second to deconstruct and disprove that nonsense before moving on: firstly to compare this movie, which is very good, to Twilight, a set of books and movie’s so insipid and overblown that I’d rather remove my own skin with a blunt knife than turn to them for entertainment, is an irritating marketing gimmick whose sole goal is to capitalise on the aforementioned frothing teen’s who are currently lacking a focus for their obsessive, asinine, internet trolling whilst they wait for the release of the next teaser trailer for the teaser trailer of Breaking Dawn: Part 2. What gets marketeers so wet between the thighs is the fact that they don’t have to do anything with this type of demographic as they’re perfectly capable of whipping up a storm of rabid, and frankly alarming, frenzy of neurosis all on their own at the mere sight of a possible love story, in effect it’s lazy marketing to appeal to this audience – and of course it works.

But, I digress, whilst The Hunger Games does indeed share a remarkable resemblance to the seminal Japanese classic Battle Royale Suzanne Collins, if she’s to be believed, had apparently never heard of either the book or movie before turning in the manuscript for The Hunger Games (it should be noted she had previously heavily borrowed from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland so there’s precedent to simply take her as a plagiaristic liar). However, for as many similarities as there are between the two works there exists almost an equal amount of differences – at least on the fundamental narrative level. Battle Royale is a short, well contained, brutal story and if anything The Hunger Games represents an expansion on a similar theme rather than a rip off. As a trilogy of books there is a lot more going on here and the ideas are actually more developed, it’s more focused on the future dystopian world that predicates the barbaric return to colosseum style games as well as being focussed specifically on the character development of the two district 12 tributes. This is not to say that The Hunger Games is better than Battle Royale by any means, merely that the comparison is unnecessary as both films stand up as independently great without pedantic squabbles over originality – two sets of physicist’s independently discovered equations that would become integral to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, why then can’t these two movies be simultaneously great?

Love them or hate them (and I suspect there’ll be equal camps) the two main stars are Jennifer Lawrence, as Katniss Everdeen, and Josh Hutcherson, as Peeta Mellark, and they do a remarkable job of bringing the story to life. Two teenagers from the bottom of the rung, the poor coal mining district 12, catapulted into the flashy, decadent world of the Capitol to perform for the perverse pleasure of the cultural elite in a brutal killing game. The characters come across as quite likeable as they struggle to work out what to do, how to act, and ultimately what sort of game they will play in order to try and stay alive. Jennifer Lawrence in particular shines with a strong performance that builds on her success in X-Men: First Class. The closest the Twilight metaphor comes to being a reality is the love story forced on the two (or at least on Katniss, for it seems Peeta has conveniently felt this way for some time) in order to manipulate the pretentious, effete audience for sponsorship. But even as it develops this relationship is far removed from the kind of sickly pseudo-emotion on display in Twilight as Katniss is a strong, conflicted character who is handy with a bow and arrow rather than the weeping open wound that is Bella. Both Katniss and Peeta are down to earth, tangible characters and even though this is science fiction there’s no ludicrous supernatural element. Here love is used as a marketing tool, rather than the kitschy, all consuming, monotonous tedium of Twilight, and whether it is ultimately real is I suspect going to be a topic for the sequels.

Stylistically The Hunger Games is very well thought out, it’s design is eclectic but constant, it has a futurism without being too flashy – although it has a laughably gaudy sense of fashion for the upper classes, this serves to highlight their shallow painted nature. It’s very considered in it’s camera work and framing with scenes often highly detailed with subtle matching colour themes. The violence, and there’s quite a bit of it considering the 12a rating, is well done although it’s lacks the balls to go too far with it. What’s far more barbaric is the mindset of the people who watch, cheer, and revel in the sadism of forcing people to battle to the death. The true vulgarity comes out in the reality TV style coverage and the ghastly audience reaction, all of which is mirrored in the tawdry get up of the decadent elite.

Stanley Tucci is marvellous as Ceasar Flickerman the host of this brutal Big Brother reality show, he’s a mix between Davina McCall and The Joker, with electric blue hair and a smile that goes far beyond disturbing he provides commentary and interviews with fervent revelry in the death and destruction. I loved Elizabeth Bank’s Effie Trinket with her eccentric couture outfits she channelled a ghoulish Simon Cowell figure overseeing the tribute selections. Much like Charlie Brooker’s recent second episode of Black Mirror, there’s a real condemnation of the reality TV culture that we’ve engendered, the reduction of the value of human worth to a tradable marketing commodity, and a palpable (albeit exaggerated) social commentary as an analogous satire of existing western culture. The games are ultimately a form of control, a way for the feudal autocracy of Panam to control the hope of the masses in order to prevent a future uprising and a repeat of the all out war that decimated the world.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it’s one of the only real flaws that I can come up with (except the frankly awful chariot visual effects sequence, and the needless inclusion of CGI hounds) and yet even that isn’t bad. People who’ve seen the movie or are unconcerned can highlight the text hidden below, those wanting to avoid spoilers can skip over it:

With this being a trilogy of books it’s not surprising that the two main characters survive, and lets face it this is Hollywood, but I can’t help feeling that the movie would have been more satisfying if one of the two had killed the other at the end, it would have been more brutal and powerful. There were hints that Peeta had been playing her all along and I would have found that a more real and harsh ending, similarly if Katniss had been forced to kill Peeta it would have led to some serious emotional tension. But maybe that’s just me, being cynical and seeking a more unharmonious ending. 

The Hunger Games surprised me, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. It’s brutal, well thought out, entertaining, and given the levels of shallow drivel that get thrown out by the movie machine it’s refreshing to watch something that is a little bit more than the average candy coated twaddle. Even if you don’t think it will be your thing I’d recommend seeing it. If you’re a Battle Royale fan go and see it but try not to sit there picking apart how it’s not as good – it is a different movie, and it’s a good one to boot. Get used to hearing about it as this is the latest book-to-film franchise that will be with us for some years yet.

It’s usually fun to watch a movie that you have no idea what it could be about. When I started up Red Light Revolution, within the first minute it was made perfectly clear what the focus of the movie was. Sex. Or, at least, how people need sex. Directed and written by Sam Voutas, Red Light Revolution is a lighthearted comedy and an easy going indie film that can be pretty enjoyable, even for those who aren’t too into independent films. It may be in Mandarin, but it’s got a very western feel to it and as long as you don’t mind subtitles, it’s a pleasure to watch.

The film starts out with the main character Shunzi, played by Jun Zhao, explaining that sex is a primal instinct that everyone wants and needs whether they want to admit it or not. The story then begins with Shunzi’s life heading for the gutter. He loses his job as a cab driver, finds out his wife has been cheating on him, and gets kicked out of his own home. He eventually gets a pretty degrading job as an energy drink seller where he meets Lili, played by Vivid Wang, a girl down on her luck and fed up of office work. Thanks to an old friend of Shunzi, he’s given the opportunity to open up a shop and start making money. The only problem is that the shop is for selling sex toys, and the investor wants money within a week, or Shunzi is going to have plenty more problems to deal with.

Shunzi’s character is a very relatable one. At heart, he’s a nice guy who has just fallen on hard times. He can be a bit brash, but he tries his best with what he has. With Lili, we have someone playing it straight, but also understands what Shunzi is going through. She’s sympathetic to Shunzi, but at the same time she knows when to snap him back to reality and get him working again. Jun and Vivid both had good chemistry on screen and it helped these two main characters be fun and interesting.

The side characters in the film are also fun to watch. While they may not be focused on too much, they’ve all got personalities of their own. Some are simple and realistic, like Shunzi’s parents. They let Shunzi stay while he’s looking for a job, and he soon (uncomfortably) discovers that his parents’ love life is still quite active. Then there are the customers of the sex shop. You’d expect them to be all sorts of weird, but in this film they’re just common people. Maybe a bit quirky, but still realistic. Then there is the villain of the film, Iggy. He’s the man who supplied Shunzi with the stock, and expects profits within a week. Iggy is the typical eccentric, and while sometimes he seems like he can be a fun person to hang out with, on the inside you know he’s a wacko.

As I stated before, the film definitely has a western feel. It makes the story feel universal, as if it can be a story that can happen in any city. If this were made in a US setting, I can imagine it as a pilot for an interesting TV series, but I like it better the way it is. The only think I didn’t enjoy too much was the music. It didn’t blend well with the film. As best as I could describe it, it was a bit of ska music, and maybe some light rock. For a film like this, I think the type of music you would hear in the show Curb Your Enthusiasm, or the Italian film Johnny Stecchino would have made this film perfect. That sort of music that works with a mild goofy and clumsy character. Other than that one miss, the rest of the film works well. The cinematography is alright for an indie film, and the story didn’t require settings other than what it had. There may have been a few clichés that have been done before, but luckily it avoided some major ones that I was expecting to happen.

I do wish I could keep seeing more of Shunzi and Lili, two great characters that worked perfectly together. If you don’t have a problem with subtitles (or you understand Mandarin) then go watch Red Light Revolution. It’s easy to get into and it doesn’t get boring. There are a few good laughs but I like to think that this film was more about the characters, and that’s what I enjoyed most of all.