In a French version of “Driving Miss Daisy”, audiences are introduced to a taxi driver named Charles, who picks up one of his fares. The patron happens to be an elderly woman named Madeleine, who weaves a series of tales of how she fell in love, lost her way and had tragedy befall her.
The film is simplistic in its execution, which almost reminds audiences of Forrest Gump in a taxi cab in some small way. This film has a certain beauty in its simple framing and writing, which proves that bigger is not always better.
While most of the film takes place in the taxi cab, audiences never feel claustrophobic when watching the film and still feel as if it’s a breath of fresh air when looking at the actors work. Given the charm and chemistry between the two leads, it’s not hard to see why this film makes for a winning formula in Christian Carion’s filmography.
Moreover, jumping back and forth from the present day to the 1940s/50s gives the movie a sense of nostalgia when watching the romance play out between Madeleine and her lover. It almost feels as if going back to a simpler time where there was still a little bit of magic to behold in the world and this film truly is magical.
Its inventive use of storytelling that should really be crediting Eric Roth for its screenplay is extremely noteworthy and almost impossible to ignore. It’s what filmmaking should be.
All in all, the film has a ubiquitous presence about it and stands firmly on its own two feet without heavily relying on other narrative features.
It’s very taboo to be talking about dating outside of your age range, but the film ‘Chaperone’ does all of that but luckily still manages to do a good job with a poignant and authentic look at growing up.
The film follows a young woman named Misha who is on the cusp of turning 30 and she meets an 18-year-old student and foolishly mistakes her for another student in his age range. Misha goes through the film making mistake after mistake and consistently messing up her life. There won’t be any need for me to spoil anything. I’ll leave that up to the imagination.
Director Zoe Eisenberg reenacts a beautiful and realistic film of trying to grow up and fixing your life. It’s hard to look away from the incredible work that the cast has put on screen. It’s almost like watching a raunchy 2000s movie made for young adults.
The cinematography is very well-put together, as well. It almost makes the audience feel as if they are actually watching a documentary of a 30-year-old woman stuck in arrested development with no course or direction in her life.
To be fair, the film may be somewhat thin and feel as if it has covered material that has already been seen because it has, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be engaging in its own right.
All in all, this movie has spunk, heart and isn’t afraid to tackle some big issues with whatever it decides to talk about. It’s not the greatest movie on Earth, but it’s still worth a good look for people.
How do you turn grown, intelligent and driven women into professional victims that want to believe the world is against them? You take all women who act like that and make a documentary about them.
The documentary sees a group of women and LGBTQ journalists creating their own non-profit news corporation to spread awareness to minorities and marginalized people, which shows character, grit and determination on their part. They made an organization for the betterment of other minorities which is admirable on their part, but things get taken too extreme fairly quickly.
Defaulting to “White Supremacy” or “Patriarchy” or “Toxic Masculinity” in your journalism work is a stock response that so many other people have talked about, addressed and tried to combat. There is racism, sexism and transphobia in the world, but harping on that and using it as a crutch only gives people like the women in the documentary more of an excuse as to why they feel they are being held back
Mind you, this documentary takes place in America; a first world country, where the only problems are toxic masculinity, racism and patriarchy. There are so many third world countries like India, countries in Africa and North Korea that would beg to have these women’s problems.
I remember reviewing this documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” where the people in the city were being attacked and bombed to holy hell after the Russian invasion. People lost body parts and loved ones. There were people that were holding onto dear life and then I watched “Breaking the News” and one of their problems is “I’m sad because I was misgendered”. Give me a break.
Moreover, this documentary does more harm than good as it seems to divide the American people than unite them because when you consistently highlight race, gender, sexual orientation and identity, it makes all of us in this country separate entities unto their own agenda rather than a unit of men, women and children that are trying to do the best that they can in the situation that they are in.
I enjoy watching Jason Statham growling and punching baddies in the face as much as the next guy. But I also enjoy competent scripts and strong direction. The Beekeeper drops the ball in those departments. It’s yet another recent Statham project where the actor rises to the occasion but the film as a whole is a letdown, much like last year’s Meg 2: The Trench and Expend4bles.
Written by Kurt Wimmer and directed by David Ayer, The Beekeeper finds Statham as Adam Clay, a former operative for an organization called “The Beekeepers” who hides out by pretending to be – wait for it – an actual beekeeper. After his elderly neighbor commits suicide after falling for a phishing scam, Clay sets out to kill everyone involved with the scam. The main FBI agent hunting Clay also happens to be the daughter of the elderly neighbor. I won’t spoil who the scam leader played by Josh Hutcherson is connected to, but it is also completely absurd.
The Beekeeper feels like a discount John Wick film on the surface. While the Keanu Reeves pictures developed a rich world involving The Continental, The Beekeeper feels muddled with its organization lore. Wimmer’s characters are all stock action players and the scenarios they are in are routine. The Beekeeper tries to be timely by taking down scam artists and politicians, but its points land with a thud.
Wimmer attempts to inject tongue-in-cheek dialogue with endless puns, analogies, etc. about bees, but this clashes with Ayer’s serious direction (the closest Ayer comes to being in on the joke is lighting a lot of the scenes with shades of yellow). The silly dialogue might have worked if the film were retooled as an action comedy. As is though, the bee-related wordplay comes across as hilariously inept. Such gems include “Who the fuck are you, Winnie-the-Pooh?” and “To be or not to be.”
Though it is mostly dumb and trashy, The Beekeeper has its moments. Hutcherson and the great Jeremy Irons have some fun with their villain roles; Irons is an ex-CIA head named Wallace who is protecting Hutcherson’s bratty Derek Danforth. There are a couple of solid action scenes, with one involving an elevator trap and another involving a knife fight in a tight hallway. And again, Statham is always enjoyable to watch in these macho roles. The hand-to-hand fighting here from him is pretty good and offers reprieves from the dialogue exchanges.
The Beekeeper alternates between being dull and so bad that it’s good. The script by Wimmer is terrible and Ayer’s direction is perfunctory. Statham, Hutcherson, and Irons occasionally give the film some buzz though.
Few films have captured the essence of jazz as energetically as Blue Giant. Based on the popular manga of the same name, the story is that of Dai Miyamoto (Yuki Yamada), an eighteen-year-old former high school basketball player. After one day discovering jazz and picking up a saxophone, the infatuated teen finds his calling. As all the most revered titans begin, he practises his newfound love daily, fuelled by raw ambition and the drive to one day join the likes of Coltrane, Getz, and Parker.
After leaving his native Sendai for the neon-soaked backstreets of Tokyo, he’s immediately enticed by the inviting warmth of the Take Two jazz bar. The owner, an apparent aficionado (and who quickly becomes one of the most important figures in his life), briefly bonds with him over a Sonny Stitt record and she suggests that Dai visit the Jazzspot club, where he soon finds himself in the company of cocky pianist Yukinori (Shôtarô Mamiya). After convincing his friend Shunji (Amane Okayama) to pick up the sticks and learn how to play drums from scratch, they form a jazz trio, appropriately naming themselves Jass.
As the trio start to hit the small stages of Tokyo’s scene, they develop a collective goal: to play the prestigious So Blue jazz club -the best in Japan, no less- whilst they’re still teenagers – all of them being eighteen, they’re hardly left with a year to accomplish their dream. Jass’ performances are nothing short of incredible, which is due in no small part to the wonderful Hiromi Uehara’s mind-blowing score. Exciting though musical manga is to read, one natural shortcoming is that you can’t hear the music – with this adaptation, the problem is solved. And its answer is simply marvellous.
This is a film that proudly wears its influences on its sleeve, and this will likely please most jazz fans. The Coltrane influences in particular are obvious, perhaps most overtly in the source material’s very name, an amalgamation of Blue Train and Giant Steps, arguably two of the greatest albums of all time. Reminiscent of Sonny Rollins’ musical sabbaticals spent on the walkway of the Williamsburg Bridge, Dai often practises by bridges at the banks of the Sumida river, blaring his soulful sax tunes into the void. The influence soaks right through to Uehara’s score, the effervescent hard bop pulse powering its way across all of Jass’ compositions.
Each performance is animated with the ferocity and adrenaline of a battle, the varying vibrant hues of gold giving each frame a feverish heat. Each finger stroke over a key, breath into the mouthpiece, stroke of a stick, is drawn with the greatest care conceivable, signs of scuffs and wear and tear proudly unhidden. As each piece reaches its crescendo, so increases its visual intensity, oftentimes transcending into the fantastical, with rainbows and inverted colours dashing gleefully across the screen.
Any instrument is difficult to animate, but perhaps few are as difficult as drums because of the sheer physicality and precision they demand – yet the animators did an astonishing job of bringing Shunji’s sweat-soaked Evans kit to life, something that will impress every drummer watching, this very reviewer included. Musicians can easily pick apart a live-action actor’s performance if it’s clear they have no idea how to play their respective instrument, but it’s clear that true love went into animating each and every instrument present in this picture.
Blue Giant is a marvel, it is a joy, it is a spectacle. Helmed by director Yuzuru Tachikawa (of Mob Psycho 100 fame), it marks itself as a feat not only of animation, but also of cinematic scoring. Comparisons to other jazz films will invariably be raised, and it finds itself absent of the toxicity of Whiplash and plentiful of the heart of Soul. Rather than being a story incidentally broaching the genre, it is a film about jazz first and foremost. It is a story of passion, of self-expression, of determination, and it is art in its finest form. Blue Giant opens in UK cinemas on Wednesday 31st January.
