Author: Alton Williams

Life As We Know It **

Well, what do we have here? A romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl – that’s an original idea (says this critic sarcastically). Really, she doesn’t seem to do much else and, aside from the wonderful 27 Dresses, most of the romcoms she does do are greatly undeserving of her talents. Life As We Know It, however, has something that none of her other romcoms had – Greg Berlanti.
Having created such character based television shows as Everwood and Eli Stone, Berlanti has considerable experience in dealing with content that is based around characters, something which has seemingly made him quite popular in Hollywood with him having been given the job of writing several high profile blockbusters that are coming out in the next few years and certainly something that promises that this film may be more than just your run of the mill romantic comedy. For Life As We Know It, however, Berlanti is merely on directing duties with the job of writing having gone to writing duo Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson, for whom this is only their second writing job after co-writing 1999 TV movie Border Line, the fact that they haven’t done much since not exactly being an encouraging sign.

For Holly (Katherine Heigl) and Eric (Josh Duhamel), their first date should have been their last. Slobby Eric turns up an hour late and heads off early for another date! In fact, the only things the pair have in common are their dislike of each other and the fact that they’re both doting godparents to a toddler named Sophie – daughter of their mutual friends Alison (Christina Hendricks) and Peter (Hayes MacArthur). But when their friends are killed in a car accident and they suddenly become all that Sophie has in the world, Holly and Eric are forced to put their differences aside. Moving in together, they do their best to be proper parents to the adorable tot. Along the way they learn not to mind when Sophie’s poop gets everywhere, and they even begin to find a totally unexpected romance together…

Life As We Know It is a film with real romantic chemistry on display – between Christina Hendricks and Hayes MacArthur, that is, not so much between Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. When Hendricks and MacArthur are on screen together we really do get a vibe that their characters belong with each other, there simply being something natural about the way they act alongside each other and connect with one another. If they themselves were the focus of the film it might well make for a very charming romantic comedy but, alas, they are not. Rather the stars are Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel, actors who I have absolutely nothing against and who are even charismatic in their own rights here but who have clearly been typecast, Heigl playing the uptight single woman yet again – a role that is starting to become tiresome on her – while Duhamel plays the free-living rogue who changes as the story unfolds and whose mismatched chemistry just does not work, it never really being believable that they would end up together – although this is as much due to the way their characters have been written as their performances, the characters set up to completely loathe each other from the start (them actually convincing as two people who hate each other’s guts) – and there in fact being more chemistry between Heigl and Josh Lucas, who plays a paediatrician who forms a relationship with Holly during the run of the story. The lack of chemistry isn’t the film’s biggest failing though and what really lets it down is the humour. With the film essentially devolving into a typical baby comedy, the humour seemingly just ticks off boxes on a list of clichés that tend to appear in this kind of film – vomit gags, check; poo gags a plenty, check; baby falling over or being knocked over, check ; and so on – and, aside from a few rather funny moments – such as a slightly funny nursery rhyme and a mishap involving a motorcycle (not a baby related scene) – the film largely fails to actually be funny at all and even when it is it is more likely to raise little giggles than big LOLs. The humour is just too obvious and predictable, something that is just as true with the plot, everything unfolding like clockwork, exactly how you would expect a film like this to develop. Basically, the completely predictable storyline delivers nothing that you won’t have seen many times before; unless this is the very first romantic comedy you’ve ever seen in which case I pity you. In handling the tragedy element the film is considerably more successful and the one thing that is done right here is not to shy away from the tragic situation, not immediately at least, and the level of emotion portrayed really is heartbreaking, Heigl and Duhamel both being at their best in the more emotional scenes and their reactions to the unexpected and difficult situation seeming entirely realistic, in the beginning anyway. The tragedy is also made all the more effective by the adorableness of the baby, with this unaware victim of the tragedy being so cute as to make it hard to not want things to work out well, for her rather than for the main characters. This is the one area where Greg Berlanti really does seem to bring something to proceedings but sadly this is not enough to really steer the film away from being a romantic comedy that is more irritating than it is funny and that while occasionally proving quite sweet is lacking the charm necessary to make it anything more than a barely watchable feel good movie that is exactly like countless others before it. Were Greg Berlanti writing and not just directing, perhaps it would be different, but as it is, Life As We Know It is the romantic comedy exactly as we know it and not a particularly good one at that.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps ****

As films to receive the sequel treatment go, Oliver Stone’s 1987 cult classic Wall Street never seemed like an obvious candidate. Yet now, twenty three years on (or this critic’s entire lifetime) – one of the longest gaps ever between a film and it sequel – the most unlikely of sequels is hitting cinema screens with an economic recession inflated bang.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (the title coming from something Gordon Gekko said in the first film) has become one of the most buzzed about movies of 2010, with early reviews being so positive that they prompted studio 20th Century Fox to push back the film from its previous April release date all the way to October so that they could premiere it at the Cannes Film Festival – quite a show of confidence. This, however, has since turned out to be a big mistake on their part as evidenced by the film’s disappointing box office numbers in the states and the fact that the once great buzz has dissipated, the fantastic early reviews being replaced by considerably less favourable ones leading up to the film’s release. Given that, following his diagnosis with throat cancer, this film could well boast Michael Douglas’ last ever screen performance, one could certainly have expected a stronger box office reception. There again, while the central theme of the film is timely and poignant (and, allegedly, may have been ever more so had Stone been allowed to go forward with his original idea for the film, an idea which was deemed too unrealistic only to then happen in real life), given the current state of the economy, a film about Wall Street bankers is hardly the kind of escapism that moviegoers are seeking is it. Coming off a series of films that were not only box office failures but critical ones as well, Oliver Stone is in desperate need of a hit but is Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps it?

Disgraced financial titan Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) emerges from prison two decades after his ’80s downfall. Apart from the clothes on his back, his possessions amount to a silk handkerchief, a watch, a gold money clip “with no money in it” and a clunky, antique mobile phone. The world has changed in the meantime – it isn’t his anymore, for a start. But the man who famously stated that “Greed is good” knows that greed is still the name of the game – and on a bigger scale than ever before. Gekko goes on to become a minor celebrity as a writer, producing a book based on his experiences in the world of investment banking. Seven years after his release, he is approached by Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), a young Wall Street trader who is planning to marry Gekko’s daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Jake’s interest in Gekko is far more than just personal though – Jake’s boss and mentor, aging Wall Street banker Louis Zabel (Frank Langella), has committed suicide following the collapse of his investment bank and the man responsible for that collapse is rival banker Bretton James (Josh Brolin), a man with whom Gekko has personal history. Out for revenge against James, Jake and Gekko form a sort of father-son relationship as Gekko helps Jake to enact revenge on James and also fulfil a financial promise he has made while in return Jake helps Gekko attempt to reconcile with his estranged daughter. But is Gekko really the changed man he seems to be or, as an economic disaster unlike any ever seen before looms, does he have an ulterior motive?

With Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Oliver Stone’s string of disappointments is finally at an end. This isn’t to say that the film is perfect as it still lacking much of the controversial edge that made many of Stone’s earlier movies so notorious and the ending is far too Hollywood, being soft rather than hard-hitting (the two things that stop this film from being as good as it could be), but by doing a follow-up to one of his most well remembered films he has made what is undoubtedly his best film in a long while. And, while there are some elements that will be meaningless to anyone who hasn’t seen the 1987 original – an excellent cameo appearance by Charlie Sheen reprising his role from the first film and a superb soundtrack mostly provided by Brian Eno and David Byrne of the Talking Heads, the same people who provided the music for the first film and whose song This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) features in both films, being the most prominent examples – this is largely a film that works just as well as a standalone movie as it does as a sequel, exactly what Stone intended. You probably wouldn’t expect a drama set around the world of investment banking to be a very engrossing one but you would be very wrong as this film delivers a storyline that proves truly compelling and, let down only by the all too happy closing scenes, entirely believable. The reason for this is the quality writing courtesy of Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff, with the two clearly having done lots of research and Loeb himself actually being a licensed stock broker in real life. It is clear that they really know what they are talking about as the plot not only rings almost entirely true to life – the fictional banks that feature are based on ones that really suffered during the recession, Zabel’s firm being based on Lehman Brothers while Churchill Schwartz is based on Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – but the dialogue does as well with characters spouting stockbroker lingo all over the place, something that makes everything seem all the more authentic and it is a testament to the strength of the writing that far from making it impossible for the average viewer to follow what is going on – in real life the lingo is seemingly designed to be confusing to anyone but those working in investment banking – we can actually follow what is going on with considerable ease and in a way that never makes the film feel as though it is pandering to us non-banker types in any way. The film portrays the complex world of investment banking exactly as it is in the real world, the hustle and bustle of the stock exchange being portrayed in every aspect, with entire scenes set in the busy interiors of the banks that feature so prominently throughout, sweeping shots of New York City (that make a real change to the generic shots of the city that we are used to seeing) creating a real sense of the power that Wall Street holds in the economic world, effective and heavily stylized editing adding to the effect of how fast moving and kinetic the investment banking business is and stylish animations delivering economic statistics in a way that make a degree of sense to those of us who don’t understand banking – i.e. most of us – and presenting them in a non boring way. The film shows you the side of the economy that you don’t normally get to see and it is pretty interesting stuff, the film not being an engaging drama but also a very topical and poignant one that has lots to the say about the state of the economy in real life – some major points being that we are all part of the very system portrayed in this film whether we like it or not and the villains always manage to be hailed as heroes, as evidenced by the way people view Gekko in this film. Not only that but the film also boasts plenty of great character moments. Regardless of whether you have seen the first film or not, you will find that the characters are all thoroughly developed and truly realistic, no one really being all good or all bad but rather shades of grey, just as it is in the real world. Excellent writing is a key factor in this but just as important, probably more so, is the performances and the entire cast is faultless. Despite not appearing as you might expect – after the opening scene of him getting out of prison, Gekko doesn’t feature for quite a while – Michael Douglas nonetheless steals the show as Gordon Gekko, with a performance that makes it hard to gauge whether he is really is a changed man or the same man we saw in the first film as he effortlessly shifts between slick, suave and cunning and emotionally damaged, convincing in all the guises his character pulls off. The result is a truly well rounded and multi layered character who we can both loathe and feel sympathy for at the same time. As uncertain as we are about Gekko, however, he is not the true villain this time – that title goes instead to Josh Brolin who, as the equally slick and infinitely more greedy Bretton James, makes a for a bad guy even more scheming than Gekko, although nowhere near as memorable, if only because he is painted as a bad man from the start, lacking the extra dimension that Gekko is awarded here. As for the ‘hero’ of the film, that title of course goes to Shia LaBeouf and anyone who has doubted his acting abilities before now should doubt no more. Here, LaBeouf shows that he really can act with an intense and believable performance and strong chemistry with all his co-stars, whether it is one of love for Winnie – Carey Mulligan, in her first Hollywood role after being nominated for an Oscar and winning a BAFTA for her role in An Education, is superb in her own right as well – loathing for Bretton James, both respect and disgust (at different points in the film) for Gordon Gekko, protégély admiration for Louis Zabel – Frank Langella’s role is relatively brief but very tragic, representing the human cost of economic collapse – or dutily support for his struggling real estate mother – played by an underused Susan Sarandon. There are lots of other great performances as well, in particular Eli Wallach as one of Bretton James’ fellow bankers. All in all, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps a very interesting and insightful drama that shows the inner workings of Wall Street is a manner that is coherent and engaging without ever being dull and while it has shortcomings that prevent it from being truly great, it nonetheless stands a major return to form for Oliver Stone, whose direction here is near perfect with the visuals being stylish and classy and the screenplay by Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff being just as much so. Not just an enjoyable piece of cinema but also a poignant one I will leave you by quoting Gekko: “I once said Greed is good. Now it seems it’s legal.” Never has the economy been described more effectively.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

Feelings of Girls and Women with Autism *****

I am a man living with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of Autism. And with this comes a range of difficulties, feelings and emotions. Yet, the nature of Autism is such that no two individuals diagnosed with it will ever be completely the same and thus I am unable to fully appreciate how the condition affects others who have it.
This is particularly true of the opposite sex. It has been established that females with the condition experience a very different set of problems resulting from it, problems that I am not fully able to understand, and also that many women can slip through the cracks, going completely undetected – hence a key reason why so many fewer women are diagnosed than men. After watching this short video, Feelings of Girls and Women with Autism, however, I am much closer to such an understanding than I was before.

“This video describes the feelings often faced by girls with Asperger Syndrome”
– Laura Paxton

Just like other short videos on Autism that I have reviewed, this film features a succession of still images – intercut with text segments – set to music and just like every one of the others it also manages to put across a unique (uniqueness is something that is very much synonymous with Autism) perspective and the manner in which it paints the struggle of girls and women with Autism proves very effective, the imagery (both photos and artwork that illustrate the points being made) used being both hauntingly beautiful and heartbreakingly sad at the same time, the words used to describe the feelings being very eloquent and poetic, and the musical accompaniment being suitably enchanting and appropriate to the mood the film is trying to create. While the film is very short it successfully says a lot about key feelings being experienced by females with Autism – the lack of understanding of social cues, the desire to have friends and fit in, the feeling of loneliness, the fantasy worlds that girls with the condition often lose themselves in, the “special interests” they comfort themselves with, the “social vortex” they get lost in, the way they imitate others in an effort to fit in, the fact that the condition can affect anyone regardless of culture and the stress and exhaustion that can result from the condition – and if you watch this beautifully made video you are sure to have a greatly improved understanding of the difficulties faced by girls and women with Autism with afterwards. I certainly did.

Feelings of Girls and Women with Autism can be viewed in full here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNFLe2FLKj4

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)