Socrates is a powerfully written and directed Brazilian drama co-written, produced and acted by at-risk teenagers from local low-income communities, with the support of Unicef. Socrates (Christian Malheiros) suddenly has his life turned upside down when his mother dies. Being only fifteen years old, Socrates is suddenly thrust into the world of adulthood and realises that there is a lot ahead of him that he is unprepared to deal with. Socrates also finds out that the adult world is not prepared to deal with him either.
All Socrates needs is someone to help him through his complicated life, helping him find work, dealing with his absent father and getting through the grief for his mother, however he starts to realise that nobody will help him. Socrates is also dealing with his own emotions and finding out who he can trust when dealing with his own sexuality. Overall, Socrates has never been more alone.
Directed by award-winning short film director, Alexandre Moratto, Socrates is a tale of loss, grief, hopelessness and the struggle that children face when they suddenly have to cope with things that are difficult to deal with at such a young age. With help from teenagers from low-income Brazilian communities, Socrates paints a realistic picture of what could happen to any child at any time and perhaps anywhere in the world.
The events of the film and its tone are in no doubt inspired by the filmmakers’ own experiences, and whereas it may only skim the surface of what these children have to deal with, it still leaves a bitter taste in the audience’s mouths.
Being his first cinematic acting role, Malheiros is most
certainly thrown into the deep end with the role of Socrates. However, he is able
to keep his head above water and prove that he is just as capable as the rest
of the cast. Faced with many difficult scenes, both physically and emotionally,
Malheiros manages to keep his audience compelled by his story and even at the
worst of times he maintains the audience’s sympathies towards his situation,
which rapidly go from bad to worse. Malheiros is shown to be an actor with a
good range and I am sure will have success in his future career.
Socrates can be a difficult film to watch at times but I believe it to be an important one to view. Although partially supported by Unicef, the film never feels like a public service announcement about the dangers that children face when they are left with nothing.
Instead, the film feels like a realistic depiction of a young man whose life quickly spirals out of control with very little he can do about it, never forcibly pulling at its audience’s heartstrings to get its message across.
Socrates shows its audience how easy it can be when we as a society let down our children, treating them like a problem to be swept away rather than finding a solution that could be so easily handled.
Low is a short film written and directed by Daniel Bogran. When he learns that he is getting fired from his job, Jef (Vincent Cusimano) decides that he has no other option but to rob a local convenience store.
Jef gets to the store with a balaclava and a gun in his hand and goes through with the robbery. However, when something goes wrong, Jef is left to deal with the repercussions of his actions and starts to think about the full consequences that have come from his actions.
Given its short running time and strict time frame of barely
ten minutes, Daniel Bogran is able to tell a story and a complete arc which may
leave the audience with questions after it has run its course. The tight
editing helps to bring out the audience’s imagination, as they are never really
told what is running through Jef’s mind after the incident. However, with a few
words and carefully thought out shots, Bogran is able to put the audience in Jef’s
shoes and perhaps even make them think about what they would do if it were them.
Although Jef has been made redundant, he still remains well dressed and looks after his appearance so it is left up to the audience to decide whether Jef has any remorse for his actions or whether he feels anything at all. If Jef were not so well groomed then perhaps the audience may pass a harsher judgement on Jef and I believe that is what Bogran intended from his short story.
Leaving Cusimano with so little to say also leaves the audience wondering what he is thinking, leaving the ending open to interpretation. It could even be suggested that the audience would subconsciously feel a further need to project their own feelings on to Jef as they start to imagine how they would feel in his position.
Low is a story that can be open to many different points of view and I’m sure every person who watches it will have their own ideas of Jef’s feelings and what he may do next. Whatever the outcome of Jef’s actions, the film never judges him and lets the audience decide, and telling this kind of complex story in such a short time with so little dialogue shows that Bogran may have a bright future in storytelling.
How complicated Bogran’s stories are could always be left up to the audience to decide.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the top of his game by the mid Nineties. Established as one of the biggest names in the action genre, it looked like there was no stopping him after the huge success that was Terminator 2: Judgement Day. However, not long after there was a film that slightly derailed his winning streak; The Last Action Hero.
In his mid-Forties by this point, it could be said that Schwarzenegger was looking to capitalise on his success in films like Twins and Kindergarten Cop as a way to continue his career but without doing something that was completely out of character. Interested by the script which seemed to be tailor made for him, Schwarzenegger took up the project and the fourth wall breaking action comedy was released – and it bombed. However, Schwarzenegger’s next project would be something different and the mixture of action and comedy would be a much better fit. After all, Schwarzenegger would be once again working with the one director that made the best of him on the silver screen. James Cameron.
True Lies
Arnie plays Harry Tasker, a secret agent working for Omega Sector, a secret organisation that frequently helped save the world from the most dangerous people who were determined to ruin the lives of the American people. Along with his team, Albert Gibson (Tom Arnold) and Faisil (Grant Heslov), Harry travelled the world working to foil the most nefarious plans of the world’s terrorists. However, Harry has another life and one that is quite different than that of a super spy. Harry is happily married to Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) and they have a teenage daughter Dana (Eliza Dushku). Life is like any other suburban household – or at least that’s what Harry thinks.
The truth is that Helen has been secretly talking to a man called Simon (Bill Paxton) who says that he is a secret agent. Naturally Helen is enthralled by the mysterious man and feels that she’s finally getting the excitement she craves in her life that her computer salesman husband can’t give her. How is it that the Taskers know so little about each other’s secret lives? Dana is also stealing money from her father and has a boyfriend who drives a motorcycle. Typical Teenager.
True Lies
After the box office failure that was The Last Action Hero, not many thought Schwarzenegger would try to lampoon his career once again so it goes to show that to get things right, it’s all about the execution. True Lies is the action movie parody that goes beyond parody and just turns out to be a great action movie. All the elements are just right and where the jokes in The Last Action Hero may have felt a little too self-aware, True Lies sets the scene and makes the audience laugh through its increasingly outlandish settings and the cast’s terrific performances. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comedy homage to the genre that made his career would be nothing without Tom Arnold’s frustrated sidekick, Art Malik’s comedy terrorist and Jamie Lee Curtis as his most unlikely on-screen partner. Bill Paxton also gives a near unrecognisable performance as the slimy Simon and Tia Carrere gets the best out of a role which could have been generic in any other spy thriller.
True Lies
What makes True Lies work so well is putting Schwarzenegger in his usual action role but giving it a spin. Instead of the sweaty, gun totting explosives expert that he usually portrays (however, that does come later), the audience sees Arnie in an entirely new way as a suave, tuxedo wearing man of mystery. The Austrian former bodybuilding champion sticks out like a sore thumb and is the last person any secret organisation would send on a covert operation and the movie is entirely aware of how unsuitable Schwarzenegger is for the role. Also, when it is revealed that Harry has a family in the suburbs, the audience finds this equally unbelievable and this helps set the tone for the film, further adding to the farcical nature of Arnie’s career where he’s played anything from a construction worker to a Kindergarten teacher.
True Lies felt like a turning point in his career and as much as the script sent out one joke after another, the escalating preposterousness of the action set pieces revealed the action genre’s increasingly silly nature. However, these days it seems the irony of an action movie that defies the laws of physics is all but lost on a modern audience. Giving Schwarzenegger the perfect send off from the action genre, True Lies couldn’t have been better as it reminded audiences that Arnie could be funny as well as a role model for the testosterone filled, adrenaline junkies that were his fanbase. Also, there were a couple of family friendly comedies (Junior and Jingle All the Way) on the horizon so for Schwarzenegger, the timing couldn’t be better.
However, it was never meant to be. Schwarzenegger’s career
ended up taking a steadily declining nosedive as both his comedy projects
barely made any money at the box office. Arnie’s career would never be the same
again and his attempts at rejuvenating his action career never came anywhere
close to the success he had before. Although for his final hurrah, at least
True Lies gave us the last and the best of the action hero.
They say life is what you make of it and that the things you do will have a profound effect on the people around you. This has never been truer when talking about Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is the Oscar winning movie that garnered Tom Hanks his first Academy Award that signalled a turning point in his career to become one of the most well loved and respected actors of his generation.
Over the years Forrest Gump has gathered a reputation for being the quintessential Oscar movie that delivered on its promise. The story of a seemingly simple man sitting on a bench talking to whoever would listen about his life has been the subject of parody, cliché and misremembering as the vast majority of the audience would have remembered Forrest Gump to be a saccharine story about a mentally challenged man, whose life story ran alongside the story of the latter part of 20th Century American history. However, after twenty-five years, a repeat viewing of Forrest Gump opens up a lot more about the history of cinema, gender bias and what drives audiences to see the movies that inspire them.
When Forrest Gump is growing up, he realises that he’s different and due to an unnamed condition (most likely polio) he wears leg braces in order to help him get around. He also has a difficulty in understanding things in the same way as other people, but his mother is always there to reassure him that he is just the same as everybody else. Right from the very start the audience gets introduced to a young Forrest and instantly they sympathise with him because of his disability, and that when he goes to school, nobody wants to know him and makes fun of him because of his differences.
The audience’s hearts are also warmed because there is one person who instantly takes to Forrest and doesn’t treat him any differently than anyone else. That person is Jenny. So, Forrest’s early life is a coming of age story about young love, friendship and finding what defines you as a person. Something that everybody can identify with. Often this format is used in cinema and the fulfilling ending where the introverted lead finds his place in the world speaks to the audience. The audience identifies with the lead and put themselves in their place hoping that their story either played out in the same way or that it will do soon.
Forrest Gump
However, as this is only the start of Forrest’s life then
the story is told in a more condensed way, so his revelation of individuality
into adulthood is quite literally shown when Forrest starts running and loses
his leg braces. When a protagonist overcomes their disability against all the
odds in a movie it works as a metaphor for self-realisation and often triumph. Director
Robert Zemeckis uses this as the first big feel good moment of the movie
because it’s something that the audience would recognise in films they’ve seen
before – and that’s not the last of these inspirational movie tropes.
Unlike Forrest, Jenny’s life starts in an abusive relationship with her father and so the abuse she suffered as a child colours the way the rest of her life unfolds. Whereas everything that happens to Forrest is down to chance, where all the good things happen to the titular character, every so often the movie turns to Jenny’s life, showing the tragedy of what her life has become.
This not only reflects society where men are the leaders and heroes of the world, whereas women have to work hard to be treated equally, but also reflects cinema. Even now, but particularly in the mid 90’s, a biopic of a woman who achieved something incredible is less likely to be made, purely because the protagonist is female. This is emphasised in Forrest Gump as the audience may wonder exactly how Jenny’s life turned out the way that it did and why there is not more about it.
Although the film does prefer to tell Forrest’s story, the implication is that Jenny’s life story is less interesting because it does not inspire as much hope. So, therefore Jenny is the love interest, mother and wife in what could have been a powerful and dramatic story where she is the protagonist.
Forrest Gump
Throughout the course of the film Forrest Gump becomes a war
hero, a champion sports star and even has a ‘rags to riches’ story where him
and Bubba make a success of their shrimp business along with Lieutenant Dan
(Gary Sinese). In fact, through Lieutenant Dan’s interactions with Forrest,
Lieutenant Dan comes to terms with his own disability which brings about yet
another inspiring movie trope and parallels Forrest’s own issues with
disability when he’s younger. All of these things put together give the
audience a warm and hopeful feeling as Forrest Gump is not only a movie in the
guise of a biopic, but also encompasses Forrest’s life as the epitome of the
all-American cinematic hero.
There are many things that can be read into Forrest Gump; the theory that Forrest is a metaphor for America in himself, the idea that Forrest’s passive inclusion in his own story means he’s more of an observer on life rather than a participant, and the theory that he’s an angel sent to look after Jenny (think of the feather). However, whatever you think of Forrest Gump, on multiple viewings there is always something new to find. The script is hilarious, heart-warming and heart-breaking all at the same time with many quotable lines beyond ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’.
The saccharine nature that the film is known for is not as prevalent as most may think if they saw it again. Despite Forrest’s intelligence, his sense of honour and chivalry come through in his character as he is as quick to defend Jenny’s honour as he is to save those who are in need of help on the battlefield.
This makes Forrest less of a simple, misguided protagonist and more of a strong willed, kind hearted hero who knows the repercussions of his actions.
However, if Hollywood questioned the image of the all-American hero with a fast punch and a unwavering sense of honour for the woman he loves, then maybe they could see it for the cliché it is and look further afield to find stories from all walks of life.
Seth (Adam Weppler) is down on his luck and looking to start a business. So, when he gets an invitation from somebody he doesn’t know, to go to a mansion he’s never been to before, he sees no reason not to go. This was his first mistake. When he gets there, Seth is greeted by Richard (Nicholas Tucci) who proudly tells him that he is his half-brother and welcomes him into his home.
Richard is a man with an obscene wealth and a very blunt, straightforward manner. So, when he tells Seth that he knows everything there is to know about him and wants to do what he can to make him feel comfortable, Seth unquestioningly settles down and looks forward to a relaxing weekend. The trouble is that Richard has a rather unsettling way about him, and when the mind games start and Seth meets Richard’s alluring girlfriend, Abby (Catherine Corcoran), his time with his long-lost brother is going to get a lot more complicated.
Long Lost is a psychological thriller in a compact setting,
with a small cast and an ambitious idea. Over the course of the weekend, Seth
is confronted by many things; his brother’s erratic behaviour, his growing
attraction to Abby and the sense that he has no idea what is going on as the
tensions heighten in the house. However, Seth isn’t the only one that doesn’t
know what’s going on, because along with a lack of structure and character
motivation (other than money) the audience may start to feel as confused and
frustrated as Seth.
The cast all do a fine job and as Seth’s position in the
household gets more complicated, Weppler manages to keep the level of anxiety in
a realistic space as the events of the film get more and more bizarre. However,
the best part undoubtedly goes to Tucci who revels in the role as the eccentric
millionaire who gives his character an intimidating, erratic and often hilarious
nature as his penchant for gambling and competing with his little half-brother
gets increasingly ridiculous.
Evoking Ex Machina, Long Lost had a promising start which for the most part is well thought out, giving the audience something to mull over while the somewhat slow pacing tells the audience that not everything may be as it seems. However, it’s a shame that it’s final twenty minutes are not quite as strong, and the big twist is revealed as to what is really going on with Richard, and how much danger Seth is really in.
Ultimately though, after all of the film’s good work setting the characters in place, the film leaves the audience feeling unsatisfied as it ends on a note that thinks it’s cleverer than it actually is. The intentions were clear and the script, its setting and the characters were all clearly showing potential of something much deeper, but in the end it’s sad to say that Long Lost must have got lost whilst trying to think of an ending that was both unique and well earned.
