film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Alton Williams

  • The Wrestler

    Director : Darren Aronofsky

    Writer : Robert D. Siegel

    Starring : Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.

    Mickey Rourke in an interview once expressed how upset he was that his role for Terence Malick in The Thin Red Line (1998) did not make the final cut because it was probably the best acting he had ever done. The controversial 56 year old Hollywood veteran earned his first Academy Award nomination for all to witness this time and has since said ;

    “When I read the story and then met Darren Aronofsky I knew he was going to make me go to some dark places and it would be painful emotionally and physically. But I’m so glad I did it because it is the best work I’ve done in the best film of my career.”

    The judges are unanimous as the evidence is irrefutable. Rourke fully immerses himself into the role as Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson – a legendary 1980’s wrestler who is now a washed up, beaten up, broke man decades past his prime. He works part time in a supermarket to cover his bills and gets in the ring on the weekends for a little extra cash – which by all accounts should be highly paid with some of the ‘arranged’ stunts / traumas wrestlers have to endure.

    Outside work and his love of the sport, he yearns to have a relationship with his beloved local stripper Cassidy (Tomei, utterly convincing) and tries to reconcile with his daughter (Wood, who is well cast and intense) but realises that wrestling and his fans are the only thing that will ever love him. This is epitomised near the end in a scene with Cassidy, who tries to stop him going back in the ring after a near fatal heart attack but Randy sums it up for her – “My heart ?… The only place I get hurt is out there. The world don’t give a shit about me.”

    Established Hollywood film maker Darren Aronofsky refuses to use the same style and techniques as each of his films are shot and edited differently. This time he opts for a low budget, raw and naturalistic approach, using real wrestlers and the use of a hand held camera. Does it work ? Does Aronofsky pull off the almost documentary film he is trying to make ? To a certain extent he does but his choices of where to place the camera throughout seem odd and are questionable. The wrestling scenes however are filmed with flair – in particular the second one, with a stylish flashback structure.

    The documentary Beyond The Mat (1999) is a huge inspiration in the making of this movie. There is also a nice touch with homage paid to Taxi Driver (1976), for one scene as we see Randy with one of those people who ‘can get you anything’ – but this time substituting guns for steroids before then being offered everything from prescription drugs to cocaine. Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) went through the same process in the Martin Scorsese cult hit.

    Essentially though it is the performance’s that glue this film together – take nothing away from Sean Penn but this year’s decision at the Oscars for best actor may go down in history as a ‘movie crime’.

    SUPERIOR SCENE : A sign of real talent in a male actor is one who can cry convincingly on screen. Whilst trying to make peace with his daughter, Randy talks from the heart and shows real emotion – with terrific dialogue – ending with a tear. Rourke did this to similar effect in a brief 3 minute scene in The Pledge (2001).

    QUALITY QUOTE : “If you live hard and play hard and you burn the candle at both ends, you pay the price for it. You know, in this life you can lose everything you love, everything that loves you.” Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson (Mickey Rourke).

    RATING : 3.5 / 5 stars.

    © BRWC 2010.

  • Watchmen: A Review

    Watchmen: A Review

    Review by Martyn Conterio.

    Zack Snyder is an interesting director. I don’t mean interesting in the same way that, say, Michael Winterbottom is an interesting director…or even David Fincher (perhaps Snyder’s older, cleverer, spiritual brother)…I mean interesting in a way that doesn’t quite add up.

    Zack Snyder first appeared on the film-scene a few years ago with a re-tooled Dawn Of The Dead, a film that was not a complete disaster…it was actually quite fun. He followed this with a mega-blockbuster called 300 a graphic-novel adaptation that was incredibly homo-erotic, daft and had critics frothing at the mouth, with what they saw as overtly political undertones.

    Snyder’s visuals are as slick as oil. Yet, unlike most graduates from Music Video-Land, he doesn’t seem obsessed with Eisensteinian montage theory (minus the theory). I’m not quite sure to this day why most modern film directors with commercial ambitions seem to think that flashing images amounts to kinetic cinema…it doesn’t. It just amounts to the audience wondering what the fuck they are seeing.

    I was greatly relieved when instead of making a pig’s ear of a personally beloved film (Dawn Of The Dead), Snyder, for all his blasphemy in taking on the endeavour in the first place, crafted an enjoyable popcorn movie that wisely chose to not even attempt to recreate Romero’s doomed world and social commentary.

    300 was a massive $500 million dollar success that catapulted Snyder to the top of mainstream Hollywood. When it was announced that Snyder was taking on a seminal graphic novel of the 1980s, that many deemed ‘unfilmable’, I admired his determination to deliver it…and not to compromise on the material with Warner Bros. (the money behind the film)

    Although I am not personally familiar with Watchmen, I have read Alan Moore’s other graphic novels such as From Hell (a poor film) and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (an even poorer film). Judging from Hollywood’s treatment of Moore’s highly inventive stories, I could understand his utter indifference towards Watchmen…perhaps even die-hard fans too.

    What comic book geeks of the world need to realise is that cinema can do things that paintings and graphic novels cannot. Cinema can move its pictures. It can bring a dream-world to life. Cinema is as close to dreams as we have.

    Watchmen is a 2 hour and 40 minute psycho-drama masquerading as a super-hero movie. It also highlights superbly the po-faced nature of The Dark Knight and other ‘dark envisionings’ of cultural material. The Dark Knight is not ‘pyschologically real’ any more than 300 is.

    Watchmen offers an hilariously dysfunctional band of superheroes…who don’t even have any special powers (all except one!). Rorschach is basically a sociopath (and I would argue the real villian of the film); Nite Owl is a Batman spoof who is impotent and needs to beat up ‘bad guys’ before he can achieve an erection; The Comedian is a government assassin with incredibly loose morals (most unfitting for superhero status) and Ozymandias is a megalomaniacal pacifist.

    Dr. Manhattan is the film’s only superhero…and as a superhero he falls well short.

    The film opens with the murder of The Comedian then follows a wonderful opening credits sequence which shows the alternate history of America (the use of Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ is a lovely touch). The main narrative concerns a conspiracy theory developed by Rorschach that involves the removal of the Watchmen for rather complicated reasons. In between all this there are all kinds of subplots, where one would not even know where to begin in describing.

    My favourite part of the movie is without a doubt the segment exploring the origin of Dr. Manhattan. The sharp, well-paced editing, the music and astonishing visuals along with Billy Crudup’s haunting intonations remind the viewer that Zack Snyder is actually quite a talented filmmaker. The audience sees Dr. Manhattan’s terrible plight develop into a cold inhumanity. It is the standout moment of the entire film and leaves one dwelling upon the alienating aspects of superhero status…as if it would indeed make a character, a cold insouciant God-like figure.

    The film does have its action scenes – and they are rather standard. The ending is also rather anti-climatic despite the fighting and big bangs. There is a lot going on in this film, and the themes and ideas behind it could well fill a PhD thesis. It really is based on some excitingly clever material…and that credit goes to Alan Moore.

    As I write this, I notice the film has gone to number one in both the US and the UK. I am very happy it has made money because Zack Snyder crafted a really brilliant film that is exceedingly and rather amusingly violent, isn’t perfect, is occasionally genius and always entertaining.

    I’m sure the DVD director’s cut will offer more delights and perhaps a better pace.Watchmen is not the disaster that Alan Moore probably wished it would be…and the naysayers too. Snyder is a perfectly reasonable director clearly showing much passion for his film.

  • The International: Clive Owen Q&A

    The International: Clive Owen Q&A

    By Bex Vince.

    The Electric Palace is one of my favourite cinemas, I have been going to watch films there for as long as I can remember. The cinema used to be full, and on a number of occasions when I was growing up extra seats had to be provided to make sure everyone was catered for. Sadly the cinema fell on hard times and was in desperate need of expensive repair work. Clive Owen became patron of the cinema in 2006 and helped lunch the Electric Palace appeal to raise the much-needed £85,000 for repairs. This quote taken from the Electric Palace website shows Clive’s response to being patron. “I’m really proud to be asked to be Patron of this very special cinema,” he said. “This building is not only a beautiful and historic one, it is also a very important one. I got my film education going to all the old rep cinemas like this one.”

    The charity screening of The International raised just over £1,500 for The Electric Palace Trust, Clive Owen also persuaded Sony to let the cinema have a screening of it on the third day of it release. He then introduced the film by saying “So welcome everybody. It’s fantastic to see this place so full, I’m sure you will all know I am a huge fan of this cinema, and to see it completely full is really fantastic. I urge you if ever there is a choice to go see a film always choose this place, it really does need your support. I won’t say too much about the film because you’re about to see it so I don’t want to spoil anything. I’ve been running round for the last few weeks opening it literally all over the world, and I promise you this is my favourite cinema to screen it in. I will be back at the end of the film to answer any questions anybodys got about the making of the film, so please just enjoy it.”

    Tom Tykwer directs The International, Clive Owen plays Interpol investigator Louis Salinger a man who is obsessed with linking the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC) with dealing in arms sales to third world countries. Salinger works along side Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts). They want to bring justice to the powerful bank the International Bank of Business and Credit, as they find this is the bank of choice for criminals and organised crime. They undercover illegal activities including money laundering and arms trading. Salinger and Whitman follow the trail left by the bank and travel around the world trying to bring it down.

    They only have a certain amount of time before their investigation is shut down and the bank is lost forever. The game is dangerous when the bank your playing with has a way of eliminating anything that may get in their way. The IBBC sends an assassin to kill the Italian Prime ministerial candidate, following a lead on the assassin Salinger heads to New York City and is involved in a shoot out in the Guggenheim Museum, this scene is dramatically cinematic and very well choreographed. Salinger tracks town the assassin’s handler who tells Salinger a way to bring down the IBBC.
    He tells Whitman she cannot protect the man, because they will get to him and if they cannot get to him they will get to her and her family he tells her to walk away. “Your walking away so I don’t have to”.Stalinger then heads to Istanbul where the IBBC are conducting an arms deal;Stalinger plans to record the conversation in order to bring the bank down. There is a dramatic show down on a rooftop in Istanbul, now I don’t want to give away the end of the film so I will stop now. I think Clive Owen brings depth to the role and is as watchable as ever as the damaged Interpol agent, the film is convincing and is very timely to the credit crunch and banking situation.

    Question and Answers with Clive Owen

    Clive Owen held a question and answer session after the screening of The International; these are some of the questions asked and direct quotes from Clive himself.

    Are you allowed an input in the film? “I work with directors that I think will collaborate with me, and that we have a very tight relationship with. It was a great collaboration with Tom; I really rate him very highly…. That collaboration with a director is very important.”

    Which director would you most like to work with that you haven’t had chance to yet? “This is the great thing about movies, is that there is such a huge amount of variety of brilliant directors, a director who I am particularly keen on at the moment I’m sure as a lot of people saw There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson, I think he’s a pretty rare special talent and I think he is pretty unique.”

    How did you feel when you knew you were cast in the role and that you were able to go in front of the camera and do that? “Every time you do a film your starting from scratch. It’s a very weird thing acting no matter how much experience you have got, no matter how much you do, every time you start filming there is the potential to be bad in it and to fall flat on you face. I tend to get very nervous at the beginning of every film, just until I am a few weeks in. It was very difficult in this movie because the first scene that we shot was that very last scene on top of the roofs in Istanbul. And we literally started the movie out there, so we did the very very end of the movie before we had shot anything. You always shoot movies out of sequence but it was particularly difficult in this movie, because its such a big journey that guy travels literally all over the world in pursuit of this guy and eventually they come together at the end…. In terms of feeling comfortable I spend a lot of time on the script before we started shooting, I will read it over and over again, I don’t know if ever you feel comfortable…everyday there is new challenges, new things that you have got to do. I just do as best I can.”

    Why do you do what you do? (Referring to why Clive is patron of the Electric Palace) “I’ve known this cinema for a very long time, I’ve got connections with this area and this cinema. I am literally kind of in love with this cinema. I think it is just an incredible and unique place, it’s run by a brilliant team of people and they are not only crazy about this cinema but they are crazy about cinema. I love the fact that the place is totally authentic, its not been made as trendy old cinema it feels really authentic and its my favourite place to come and watch movies. Cinemas like this one are becoming increasingly rare. Most people now go to huge multiplexes with 20 screens you sort of bombarded with every kind of soft drink and every kind of sweet. This place is holding onto something that I think is hugely important. I would just rather see a film in this cinema than I would any other cinema every time.”

    Would you ever do any directing? “I have thought about it, I have worked very closely with a lot of directors, it is something I sometimes think about. To be honest with you the rhythm of acting compared to directing is very different. It is a minimum of 2 years commitment to direct a movie, from the period of getting the script together, going and shooting it and then post production. I will do a film like this Tom has been preparing it for anything up to a year before I join. I shoot for a few months I go off I make 2 other movies, I come back and he’s still in the tunnel of The International editing it and finishing it off. For me to direct I would have to come up with something I felt so passionate about… I’ve never really come across anything I’m that crazy about, but it is defiantly something I would think about. I just need to find something I would want to stop the whole acting thing for a while.”

    Obviously you have been on Stage, TV and Film, when you first graduated where did you see yourself being? “I got very into theatre I went to drama school and studied theatre when I first left drama school that’s where I went into, that’s kind of what I was about. There’s no question that I think every actor if they’re really honest would like to do movies. Even the biggest theatre actors you know who say they love the theatre and the theatre’s where its at deep deep down would like to be movie stars. I would never have dreamed of the opportunities that came to me.”

    Are you ever temped in the multitude of scripts that come your way to diverge sometimes and move into something completely different from what were used to seeing you do? “The last few years I feel I have done quite a wide range of different types of movies and different things. If there is a common thing amongst the parts I play I do tend to enjoy playing characters in some sort of conflict, characters that are sort of grappling with something I think Is more interesting doing that than it is playing very straight forward things. I feel much more comfortable if I feel a character has conflict going on. To me conflict means drama…. I try and keep it as varied a I can.”

    The scene is the market (in Istanbul) was it using extras? “That was us catching it on the sly really. What happened there was we went into the grand bazaar, there is no way you can control an area as big as that, with as many people as that. Pretty much I was sent in there the camera was quite a way away on a long lens. The two of us were sent in there, I was actually carrying a gun in my hand as well, a security guy was standing 10 feet away from me all the time in case there was any trouble. And then we just shot and marched into the grand bazaar…. That scene was very much we went in there and tried to catch it.”

    Do you think you will ever go back to theatre? “I trained in theatre and it was defiantly my first love, my first love is now movies, I prefer making movies, I do love theatre and I would go back if I was excited about the play. There is something to me about the collaboration of making a movie, the team effort the way all these brilliant people come together…. the thing about making movies is that collaboration and I love being part of that. I haven’t done a play for a long time but I’ve been offered some I just haven’t been excited enough to make me want to go back and do that.”

    I have heard there is an Inside Man 2? “There writing the script which is very close to being finished, they have been talking about doing Inside Man 2 for a while. They’re finally making a very concentrated effort at the moment and the script will be delivered very soon. Then it will just be whether Spike, myself, Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster, if we all agree to do it, and we all like it then we will do it. I mean Spike has become a very good friend, I had a great time on the first one and if the script is great I will defiantly be there. Its very hard making a sequel and a good sequel, we just have to hope that the script is good.”

    (photo of Clive Owen taken from www.electricpalace.com)

  • Up – The Full Trailer

    This looks wonderful….

    © BRWC 2010.

  • Trading Places 2; The Dukes Reloaded

    Trading Places 2; The Dukes Reloaded

    I love Trading Places.

    It’s a great little slice of 1980s comedy, which isn’t made anymore. And I think I would love to see a sequel. Now, I’ll be honest. I’m not a big fan of the sequel. About 90% of the time they’re made for nothing but financial reasons. The reason for this sequel would also be financial, but in a different way.

    I won’t bore you with the plot of the first film. You know what it’s about.

    In Trading Places 2 we could fast forward to late 2006. What with the current climate and all I’d be interested to see what has happened to “The OJ Four” of Valentine, Winthorpe, Ophelia and Coleman, and whether they could somehow sort out the financial crisis of 2007–present before it happened.

    Maybe Valentine and Winthrope could put their funds in the housing market. Maybe introduce two new characters into the sequel. An ex hooker, Fannie Mae (played by Tina Fey) and Freddie Mac (Romany Malco) who happens to be Valentine’s uncouth cousin.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjDbJQKDXCY

    Plotlines could tie up a couple of loose ends from the 1983 film. During the re-cap style intro/credit sequence maybe a quick explanation of orange cropped climactic scene would be nice. What happened to Beeks and that gorilla ? We see the slight return of fortune for the Dukes in Coming To America, so maybe their steady rise back to the top ?

    It would be a comedy made in 2009/2010. So Judd Apatow has to be involved and the chubby one from Superbad appears somewhere. And both Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd need the work.

    Above this bit of text is a deleted scene, removed due to its length/value. It’s the scene where Clarence Beeks (Paul Gleason), steals the crop report. This had been placed between the sequences where Valentine listens in secretly on his office line to the phone conversation between the Dukes and Beeks, then THIS scene – going into where Beeks carries the briefcase headed to board the train on New Year’s Eve.

    Many (at first) thought that this was edited out due to the producers not properly obtaining the copyright permission for using Sunset Boulevard. Some public/cable TV stations still air the film with this scene, but it was never shown in the original theatrical release.

    © BRWC 2010.