Author: Alton Williams

Eat Pray Love **

There was a time when Julia Roberts was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Yet, like many of tinsel town’s most successful actors her star has fallen since the beginning of the 21st century with her once loyal fans having moved onto pastures new and (aside from ensemble films such as the Ocean’s movies) her films no longer being either the box office draws they once were or, in some cases, even receiving the same level of critical prestige.
Like many stars before her, however, she now seems primed for a comeback with her latest film, Eat Pray Love, a film that has already found a pretty substantial audience on its release in the states, even if it is hardly the blockbuster hit that she used to appear in or even a critical success, the reviews from across the pond being largely lacklustre. Based on the bestselling 2006 memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert entitled Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia which chronicles the author’s travels around the world following her divorce and what she discovers along the way, the movie adaptation is clearly a film aimed at the mature chick flick audience, clearly being a rather sophisticated kind of movie a la Sex and the City, although the choice of director perhaps seems rather unlikely, with the man helming the film being Ryan Murphy, best known for his hit TV series Glee. Given his involvement, however, the film is not what you would expect it to be.

Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) has everything a modern woman is supposed to dream of having – a husband in form of the loyal and loving but unadventurous Stephen (Billy Crudup), a house and a successful career. And yet, like so many others, she feels lost and confused, unsure of what she really wants. When she finds herself newly divorced and at a crossroads in life, she finds herself immediately entering into another relationship with the younger and more spiritualistic David (James Franco) but this too leaves her unfulfilled. Unsure about who she is and what she wants from her life, Liz abruptly decides to step out of her comfort zone. Risking everything to change herself, she embarks on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery. First she travels to Italy where she discovers the true pleasure of nourishment by eating and indulging herself along with some new found friends in the form of fellow traveller Sofi (Tuva Novotny) and Italian teacher Giovanni (Luca Argentero). Then she heads to India to discover the power of prayer and meditation alongside Richard (Richard Jenkins), a fellow American who imparts his wisdom upon her and local girl Tulsi (Rushita Singh). Finally, she goes to Bali to learn from Ketut (Hadi Subiyanto), a medicine man she met many years earlier and who prophesised her return, and while there she unexpectedly discovers the inner peace and balance of true love with fellow divorcee Felipe (Javier Bardem).

One thing that is really striking when watching Eat Pray Love is the fact that the film’s central character is a well to do woman with everything and yet she finds herself unhappy and so she goes on the kind of adventure that only someone well off could possibly have and that the rest of us could only dream of (although this isn’t necessarily a failing on the part of the film – after all, who among us wouldn’t so something similar if we were given the opportunity?) Yet, as the protagonist, we are supposed to be able to relate to and empathise with her – a woman who seems inherently selfish, throwing away a perfectly good life and hurting no less than two men who have fallen deeply in love with her for her own selfish ends. Simply put, the film seems very pretentious and condescending in many ways and the lack of a central character who is even close to being relatable (if this is the way the real Liz Gilbert is then I feel sorry for any man whose involved with her) makes for a film with which we can form little to no emotional connection. In a drama based around a character on a journey of self discovery, this is obviously a very big problem, although it could likely be argued that this is simply reflective of the true story that serves as the film’s inspiration rather than a true criticism of the film itself. The real failing of the film is, in fact, Ryan Murphy. It’s rather strange that a director best known for creating a TV show as vibrant, lively, kinetic and energetic as Glee could direct a movie as a lifeless as this one and also rather ironic that a film based around embracing life could be so lifeless. Even with one year’s worth of events condensed into two hours ten minutes, the film still manages to be a drag, being far too longwinded and really failing to be engaging in the way it so clearly should be. Many of the ingredients are there – the film is often pretty funny, the romantic engagements are well handled and the locales are astonishingly beautiful – yet the film often seems more like a tourists guide to Italy, India and Bali than a movie and this, combined with the way Liz eating Italian food is shown with lingering close up shots – something that will make you hungry – is more likely to make you envious of this woman undergoing the experience of a lifetime than actually like her in any way. It’s a shame the film is so lacking as there are actually some pretty good performances from the film’s cast. Julia Roberts, while not at her very best, delivers a strong performance and does her best to make us like a character whose actions are sometimes inherently unlikable and her relationships with co-stars Billy Crudup, James Franco and Javier Bardem all come with believable chemistries that make the formations and/or break-ups of each truly convincing. Each of those performers themselves also performs well, even though the roles here are hardly among their very best. The real standout performer, however, is an entirely unrecognisable Richard Jenkins, who once again displays why he is one of Hollywood’s best actors with another terrific performance following in the footsteps on numerous other fantastic performances he has delivered recently. It’s just a shame that the films he is appearing aren’t more deserving of his acting abilities as Eat Pray Love is another film that his great acting cannot save from mediocrity. Not without its charms, this is a film that some will undoubtedly get enjoyment out of and that occasionally has moments that are pretty darn good but sadly these are not enough to make the film as a whole anything more than passable. Eat. Pray. Love? More like Eat. Pray. Like as a friend.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

The Hole 3D ***
The Hole 2D **½

Director Joe Dante is not a director whose films easily attract moviegoers. Of his best known features (clearly so given that the studio marketing The Hole have opted to say “From the director of Gremlins” in the trailer), the supposedly family friendly (although blatantly not give the UK 15 rating for both) horror(esque) films Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch, only the first film was successful at the box office, with the second proving to be a pretty big miss, certainly not helped by a tendency towards in-jokes.
His 1998 film Small Soldiers also proved to be a big flop, on paper sounding like a film ideally targeted at kids yet with militaristic themes and a level of violence that made it blatantly unsuitably for the very demographic it seemed so perfectly aimed at. And his last Hollywood film, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, while seemingly aimed at younger viewers, was so packed full of references and in-jokes relating to classic Hollywood movies, that its target audience probably wouldn’t even have heard of let alone seen, that it struggled to find any sizable audience at all. Clearly Dante’s track record to date showcases a tendency towards making films that appeal to small niche audiences rather than finding mainstream success, most of the aforementioned films being closer to cult hits than box office smashes. Now, seven years since his last major Hollywood movie, Dante himself is back in action and making the move into the latest wave of 3D movies with The Hole, a film that aims to do the whole ‘Gremlins’ thing again in (supposedly) being a horror film aimed at a family audience (is such a thing even possible?) and a film that once again seems headed for cult rather than mainstream success. Having been shot in 3D rather than converted in post production, is this a 3D movie that truly gives you value for the extra cost of a 3D ticket or will you feel like you have just thrown your money down a bottomless pit with no hope of getting it back?

Life is throwing up big changes for 17-year-old Dane Thompson (Chris Massoglia) and his 10-year-old brother Lucas (Nathan Gamble). Together with their mother Susan (Teri Polo), the boys move from New York City to the sleepy little town of Bensonville. For Dane, the only exciting thing about this place is Julie (Haley Bennett), the smart, attractive and friendly girl next door. But things are about to get more interesting than Dane could ever have imagined! In the basement of the Thompson’s house, the trio find a locked trap door, beneath which is a sinister and seemingly-bottomless hole. And when the hole is exposed, an evil force is unleashed. With strange shadows now lurking around every corner and past nightmares coming to life, Dane, Lucas and Julie must face their darkest fears to battle the power of The Hole.

While billed as a ‘family friendly’ horror movie and marketed towards the family moviegoing audience (trailer for this film have appeared before numerous family movies this year), The Hole is in no way a family movie. Suffice to say, if you’re thinking about taking any young children to see this film, heed this warning – DON’T. While tame by grown up horror standards, the level of creepiness, number of jump scares and one particularly gruesome scene – it involves a person’s brain being exposed at the back of their head – ensure that any younger viewers who do see this will probably be having nightmares for some time. The film doesn’t just push against the boundary of its 12A rating but stands right on it, only barely managing to avoid the same 15 rating awarded to Gremlins with both the aforementioned gory scene and some rather inappropriate innuendos (although likely to be overlooked by some younger viewers who won’t understand the double entendres) that feature in the dialogue making it clear that this film wasn’t really made for kids. For slightly older viewers, i.e. teenagers, however, there is quite a bit to enjoy and any teens who like scares may well the find more frightening than some of the lame horror movies that Hollywood tends to churn out, even if adults may not see what the fuss is really about. There is an air of creepiness present from the very first moment we see the basement – it is a creepy enough place even without the bottomless pit beneath it – and the film goes to some pretty dark places, both literally and figuratively, much of what happens happening in minimal light (not so much that we can’t see what is happening though) and some of themes dealt with being surprisingly intense as the characters each face their inner demons. The film also boasts some wonderfully weird and bizarre set design which really adds to level of creepiness and it is in the scenes that these feature where the 3D works best, particularly the scene where Dane enters the dream-esque world that exists within The Hole, with the 3D really bringing the hyper-surreal environment to life. The 3D also proves effective in establishing The Hole as a bottomless pit, the extra dimension really making us believe that is bottomless and really creating a sense of how mysterious it is. In the more mundane, everyday scenes, however, the 3D is largely pointless. Aside from a gimmicky but irrelevant shot involving a baseball and a sequence set in around a swimming pool, the 3D doesn’t add a whole lot to proceedings, even though it is true 3D which makes objects truly appear three dimensional and adds real depth to the visuals. Unfortunately, this depth is lacking in other aspects of the film. The plot is only slight and occasionally borders on incoherence, with little actual insight given into what The Hole actually is, the dialogue is merely passable and the characters are rather bland, insufficient development being given to them, something which is problematic given that the characters’ pasts all come back to haunt them as they face their personal fears, pasts that are barely even alluded to elsewhere. Suffice to say, the writing isn’t up to much and, sadly, the same can also be said of the cast, which mostly consists of unknowns. The biggest name in the film, Teri Polo, is given very little of real consequence to do, while the young leads certainly scare convincingly but are too uncharismatic to really entertain. Consequently, The Hole proves to be watchable but little more, being far from Joe Dante’s best work and definitely not a classic to follow Gremlins. Overall, this is a film that will prove too scary for really young viewers and probably not scary enough for adults but has enough going for it to keep teenage viewers amused, just not overwhelmed.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

Aspie Eyes: The beautiful eyes of Asperger’s Syndrome *****

“Those of us with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism, often are accused of being “stoned”, or flirtatious, or are told our eyes are beautiful, innocent, or child-like. This video represents the eyes of Asperger’s syndrome, wonderful and beautiful. Such a depth to these eyes, and I believe these eyes are indicative of our inner selves. This is a project which I have taken somewhere around 6 months to complete.
After endless hours of collecting the photos, editing them, and working them into this video, the end result has surprised even me. I feel so close to all of you who contributed. Thanks so much to all of you who participated in this project and made it possible. After viewing this video, I think it is evident that there is “something about those aspie eyes”. You are all beautiful!”

– Mia Sansom

Aspie Eyes: The beautiful eyes of Asperger’s Syndrome is something rather different to the kind of stuff that I normally review but has a certain magical quality and relatability to me personally that I felt almost compelled to comment on it. The above quote by Mia Sansom, the woman who made the film, explains what her purpose was in making what is not so much a film but in some ways more an art project, albeit one that serves a greater purpose than that of art alone, coming with a message that many can learn from.

“The eyes in this video represent Asperger’s Syndrome or high-functioning Autism. Many say that these eyes have a certain innocence, beauty or magic about them. You decide…” These words start off this short video, which consists of images of the eyes of individuals with either Asperger’s Syndrome or high-functioning Autism accompanied by an enchanting piece of music – a piece of music that really does make this video seem magical. Again, I am not in a position to offer the most objective review of the film given that I have Asperger’s Syndrome myself but I am in a unique position to offer an Aspie perspective on this film and in this regard I must say that I found it to be absolutely delightful. You may wonder what purpose exactly could a film that is just four and a half minutes of photos of people’s eyes offer. Apparently, quite a lot, as these eyes convey more emotion and create a greater sense of magic than what you might find in a full length movie at times. People with Autism Spectrum Disorders are sometimes accused of being emotionless robots (for lack of a better term) and not having feelings but this is far from the truth and this film really helps to show this. Simply looking into the eyes shown in this film reveals a sense of loneliness and isolation but also a certain magic and wonder, something that many with an Autism Spectrum Disorder might be able to relate to and that I certainly can. Additionally, there is a perception that people with Asperger’s are all the same and this film also helps to disprove this as the eyes shown here are as diverse as you could ever expect to see. In reality, those people with Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism are probably the most unique individuals who you will ever encounter, there perhaps being far more diversity between different individuals with Autism than between neurotypical individuals in many cases. There is a real eloquence in which this video simply and effectively puts across the emotion, the uniqueness and the enchantment of Asperger’s Syndrome. Simply put, Aspie Eyes: The beautiful eyes of Asperger’s Syndrome is an enchanting video that really does feel quite magical and as well as being quite beautiful also has something to say about Asperger’s Syndrome, something that anyone with Asperger’s should be able to relate to and that anyone without could probably learn from. The video ends with the words “Aspie Eyes…Diversity is Beautiful.” I couldn’t put it better myself.

Aspie Eyes: The beautiful eyes of Asperger’s Syndrome can be viewed in full here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqGhDPhaRrc

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

Taste on Autism *****

Taste on Autism is an 8 minute animated short film by Ben Htoo that was created for his individual Major Project for Raffles Design Institute in December 2009. It tells the story of an Autistic boy and a neurotypical girl who first meet as children. The girl immediately takes a liking to the boy but when she tries to get his attention by touching him, unaware that he is Autistic, he responds angrily, prompting her to run off. Many years later, they encounter each other again. He is a customer at a burger restaurant and she is a waitress there.
Another incident prompts another angry response. When she learns that he is Autistic, however, she develops a whole new understanding of him and gets him a job working at the restaurant. Still, he seems to be a very sad individual and only when she asks him to go with her to a special learning centre for Autistic people do things change. He learns to cope with his Autism in ways he never could before and a romance begins between the two, him being truly happy for the first time in his life as a result of their relationship, the new found friendships with others around him and a whole new confidence that was missing in his life before. Eventually, he becomes truly independent although the ending is also tinged with sadness.

As an individual with Autism myself I am perhaps not best qualified to provide a truly objective review of Taste on Autism. What I can do, however, is provide an Autistic perspective on the film. While the film occasionally perpetuates the image of Autistic people as being angry and dismissive, it also offers some insight into why this is the case, making clear the fact that certain things that many take for granted, such as unwanted physical contact, can be very upsetting for individuals with Autism and that a negative reaction that many result is not reflective of the individual being angry or unpleasant, rather just a misunderstanding of the rules of social interaction that most take for granted. Ben Htoo seems to have some understanding of Autism as the film is very respectful and honest in the way it portrays its central character and his difficulties. The man is not unpleasant, he is just lonely and all it takes for him to feel happy is acceptance and understanding of who he is and what makes him special. The story is both inspirational and sweet, being the very kind of thing that really could happen and for me it really did inspire feelings of happiness and even a tinge of sadness at the end, and I am sure it will for you too, whether you have Autism yourself or not.

There is an almost magical quality to the film with the music, provided courtesy of Associated Production Music and Walt Disney Records (you may well have heard it before elsewhere), having a very enchanting essence, capturing the mood perfectly and emphasising the emotion that is being portrayed quite effectively through the visuals. The animation is simplistic but quite beautiful and works well with the story that is being told and the decision to portray much of what is going on visually rather than through dialogue – there is no dialogue at all – is an inspired one, with the images being utilized portraying what is going on in a simplistic yet effective way that individuals with Autism should easily understand and relate to, bypassing the awkward aspects of interaction that those with Autism find so hard to understand. This is a particularly good touch. Simply put, Taste on Autism is a perfect representation of Autism. It shows that those of us with Autism are people with feelings and that all we really want is to be accepted by the world that seems so alien to us. A truly magical and enchanting short film, this not only portrays Autism in a positive light but is also a very well made piece of animation and a very enjoyable one to watch, whether you are Autistic yourself or not. At a short running time of only 8 minutes, it won’t take up much of your time to watch and you may just feel a bit more enlightened about Autism for doing so.

Taste on Autism can be viewed in full here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n80_S1Gn7UM

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)