After a successful KickStarter campaign to raise money for a short film, Nicole Albarelli managed to make a full feature on only 20k with To Dream. Gaining multiple awards and recognition state side, the film appears to be striking a chord!
Now after its festival run, To Dream is available on various online platforms with a lot of positive attention to help it’s viewer counts, I’m sure.
Abarelli is comparable to a millennial Andrea Arnold as she delivers a hard hitting drama that has indie-hipster all over it. With a cool 80’s synth soundtrack, use of natural light and a saturated colour grade, this film accomplishes the same tone and feel as a 100k plus American-Sundance favourite.
The film follows best friends Luke and Tommy from childhood to adulthood as they naively attempt money making quick-fixes to fund their dream trip to America. Set against the backdrop of a relentless London, the two friends deal with sexuality, domestic abuse and poverty.
The film is a simple tale, with looming zooms in and out to put a microscope under the character’s lives. The cast act their parts well and most of the elements lock in, yet there seems to be something missing which could have given the film a final varnish, which is a more interesting script.
There are plenty of films which have a very simple story, yet because their words are inherently individual to the characters and situations, the world becomes so much richer. Where as because this film is too realistic, it means that the character’s conversations sometimes become forgettable. Imagine Reservoir Dogs without the likes of the “I don’t tip” speech, for example. The characters just merge into one.
There are memorable motifs peppered in, like Luke’s father coming to life whenever his marital song comes on the radio, but yet most of the dialogue is just full of boring banter like “you alright bruv?”, “yeah bruv”, “It’s gonna be great”. One particular character which I felt could have been developed more was Easy, a drug dealer who the friends visit for a ‘fix’. He is as forgettable as any generic London-gangster character which lessens his threat. The friends main drive that they both want to escape their life to America is lost until the very end.
Despite this, this is a strong debut from Ababrell.
After a prolonged absence, Adrian (Cory Michael Smith) makes it back to his Texas hometown to spend Christmas with his family. His parents are Christian Conservatives struggling to reconcile with the wider world around them, while his younger brother cannot shake the fact that he feels separate from the church, his parents and other teenagers. Adrian must do what he can to reconnect with his loved ones for what may be the last time.
It seemed oddly fitting to be watching 1985 in the wake of George H.W. Bush’s funeral last week. A man whose inaction and hollow words are not warmly remembered by ACT UP activists and anyone whose lives were impacted by the AIDS pandemic. In recent years, we have been blessed with several emotionally resonant documentaries and feature films raising awareness of the disease. We Were Here (2011) and How to Survive a Plague (2012) illustrated in vivid detail, the lives lost and the pain felt. Here, director Yen Tan gives a fleeting glimpse into a family dynamic affected by a wealth of things unsaid. From the mother (Virginia Madsen) who harbours a differing political opinion to her spouse, the blue-collar father (Michael Chiklis) who doesn’t know how to connect with his sons, and brothers Adrian and Andrew (Aidan Langford), communicating as equals for the first time.
The performances are each equally brilliant. Adrian’s pilgrimage back to the family home is achingly real. Smith imbues the young man with a pained and haunting air. As someone who has already seen too much death and experienced a lifetime of heartache. Selling a lie to his family and friends, finally living the repercussions of his exile as he hears from the people he left behind. His visit during such a heightened time amplifies the love and the loss, generating an immense pressure for the young man to do or say something to clear the air with those he cherishes.
I very much appreciated by time with 1985. The black and white photography speaks of a life in greyscale. In shades between the contrast. This could represent how Adrian perceives his Texas hometown in comparison to his life in New York or even his life, overcome with illness. This is a film about gestures. About making the most of the time you have left. This film is a thorough recommend from me. I found it deeply affecting in a way that made me briefly pause and consider a world beyond my own sphere. I look forward to whatever project Yen Tan delivers next.
As child of the 80s I grew up with Transformers. I don’t mean in the sense that they raised me or anything but there was a time when my wallpaper, duvet cover, pyjamas and shoe laces were covered in Generation 1 figures. Jump ahead twenty years and I was sat opening week for Michael Bay’s 2007, live action Transformers movie… and it was an utter shit-show. A convoluted plot, ugly-ass robot design, bewildering action set pieces and a bum-numbing 2hrs 23minute runtime would be the franchise’s peak as Bay’s pentalogy lurched on. It didn’t matter that these films were garbage from floor to ceiling. Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction broke a billion at the box office in no small part due to China’s inexplicable adoration for Bay’s behemoths.
Then in 2017, Guy Ritchie and Michael Bay both arrived to the party with King Arthur movies (How embarrassing). One starred Charlie Humdrum and David Beckham while the other featured Transformers and a slightly bonkers Anthony Hopkins. While Transformer 5: The Last Knight was a commercial success it took home close to half of what the previous instalment managed and still less than Bay’s 2007 originator. There were rumblings of Hasbro and Bay turning the whole venture off and on again in order to reboot the Toysploitation franchise, but not before a prequel/ spin-off swansong that would be handled by Kubo and the Two Strings director, Travis Knight. Bumblebee couldn’t have been in safer hands.
Declaring Bumblebee the best Transformers movie isn’t really saying much. For the sixth entry into a franchise to be the strongest is a rare thing indeed (squints at the Blu-ray collection and notices Mission: Impossible – Fallout). Bumblebee is character-led, emotionally resonant and frequently funny. Aesthetically and sonically, Knight has delivered the most faithful realisation of the Generation 1 Transformers with the Cybertron scenes look as though they’ve been ripped from the 1980’s cartoon. Sadly, those scenes are fleeting and it pains me that Paramount doesn’t believe an audience could be invested in a whole Transformers movie without human characters.
The aesthetic, the sound design and the voice acting are mostly fantastic here with the exception of Dylan O’Brien who voices Bumblebee in the opening act. He sounds completely out of his depth in the few scenes he’s in, to the point where it’s distracting. John Cena and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. are solid and manage to convey the balance of menace and comedic side-kick admirably. Hailee Steinfeld is transcendent as Charlie. She’s the beating heart of the movie and her relationship with the titular Transformer is made all the more impressive by the fact that she’s basically talking to ping pong balls on the end of a stick, against a green screen. There’s a tangibility to her performance that made me forget the digital sleight of hand on screen.
Unfortunately, the family dynamic between Charlie, her mother, brother and step-father felt tired and clichéd. Their tone is lighter than the crassness of the Witwicky’s in Bay’s earlier instalments but their dilemma is nothing we haven’t seen before. Also, this movie manages to repeat the same, “protagonist on the ropes” beat at least three times. Will they make it? Will the movie abruptly end 45 minutes early due to their fatality? Who knows?! Honestly, the third time it happened I felt like I was living some kind of loud, industrial, Groundhog Day. In addition to this there’s a lovely organic ending to Bumblebee, but then the movie goes all Return of the King and doesn’t know when to leave the party.
Without giving too much away, I hate, hate, hated the way Bumblebee potentially connects to the Michael Bay monstrosities. This movie feels like a revitalised perspective. A reboot. A factory reset and all other things beginning with “re”. The 80’s setting is a natural fit for the narrative as there’s distance and time between this and Shia LeBeouf. There shouldn’t be a Wahlberg or a Huntington-Whitey within a million light years of this movie! This is a toned-down, big smashy robot movie with a lot of moxie and an electrifying soundtrack. There’s a moment when a Howard Jones song features prominently and I started grinning from ear to ear.
Bumblebee is a bog-standard but totally fine blockbuster. There are plenty of laughs here and genuine heart shown throughout. Travis Knight was a smart pick for director but this is no Kubo and the Two Strings. Fans of the G1 cartoon will finally have a Transformers movie to enjoy but will probably spend most the run time thinking, “where the hell was THIS movie in 2007”?!
I was aware of the running time being just shy of 4 hours, I was aware of the awards it won in its native country of China, and I was aware of the tragedy that surrounded the production. What I was not aware of was how profoundly depressing, moving and thought-provoking these 230 minutes would be.
Whilst we should always endeavour to be objective when it comes to cinema, it is extremely difficult to separate the artist from the art when it comes to AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL.
After filming finished in October of last year, writer/director/editor Hu Bo took his own life at the age of 29. It is a desperately sad end to a life which showed so much talent and promise, but because of his early death it forced me to watch his first, and now last, feature from a different perspective. Whilst all films are personal to the filmmaker in some way or another, this feels particularly true here where the pain and anguish of living seeps through every bleak and sorrowful moment on screen.
The film tells the story of one single suspenseful day, linking together the lives of a number of hopeless characters and along the way painting a portrait of a society marked by selfishness. In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing local bully Shuai down the stairs. Bu’s classmate Ling has run away from her alcoholic mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai’s older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally, along with many other characters whose fates are inextricably bound together, there’s Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him into a retirement home.
This is a hard and punishing watch in so many ways. Whilst I believe at its heart this film is a plea for more kindness and humanity in the world, not a single spark of hope ever really comes up. This is everyday life at its worst! No matter if you’re at home, at school, or on the street, all we see is poverty, violence, toxicity and constant danger. There seems to be no safe place to go and everything in this world seems designed to eat at you and push you away. The film’s duration seems purposefully intimidating as well. We see this world through impressively long takes where the camera floats around our main subjects and lingers long before and after the supposed action takes place. A lot of the action actually happens in the background or off-camera, with the lens entirely focused in a closeup on the protagonist through the scenes. It is an ingenious way to interpret the psychological volatility of these souls and it helps the audience develop an intimacy with them as we spend longer and longer with them in such close proximity. It is certainly a style of filmmaking that seems awkward at first but becomes more and more powerful as it sinks in.
Whilst I am well aware I am making the experience of watching this film sound traumatic, I must also add how incredible and important this experience was for me as well. The nihilist in me saw Hu Bo’s vision of chaos and senselessness as painfully real but the optimist in me believes there are reasons for everything and strength really does come from within. Two conflicting ideas that struggle inside me every day and not many films make me confront these feelings so directly but this incredible piece of cinema made me ponder life in a very different way and I think at the end of the day all we can hope for is connection. A connection with people who have the same goal, even if that goal is to travel to see an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world.
Hu Bo definitely left us too soon, but he left us one hell of a powerful film that showcased his tremendous talent and compassion. AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL is a confident and deeply personal debut the likes of which I have never seen before and whilst I am sure some people will not have the patience for its length or its depth, it will be a film I will always remember and a legacy for the late Hu Bo that will live on forever.
An old man walks into a bank and asks to open an account. When asked what kind of account he would like to open, he shows the manager his weapon. All those who have come into contact with the titular Old Man agree he is a gentleman, and none can say for sure whether he actually carried a gun. Reportedly Robert Redford’s final performance before he retires from acting, The Old Man and the Gun follows the life of professional bank robber and escape artist Forrest Tucker. After an audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70, Tucker balances a love life and a love for a life of crime, robbing a slew of banks and evading police for years.
It is a part that seems made for Redford, a culmination of his career simply by paying tribute to the type of characters he has been playing for years. Tucker is the loveable rogue, the charming antihero seen most famously in Redford’s portrayal of the Sundance Kid. But also within him is the romantic lead Redford played in the 80’s, and the everyman American hero of films like The Natural and Brubaker. It is remarkably easy to identify with and believe in Forrest,helped to no end by a script packed with wise romanticisms and humanity. Taking any single quotation at random, it would seem lyrical without a hint of condescension.
If there was any danger of Redford’s performance stealing the film, however, it evaporates with the introduction of Jewel, played with unparalleled sympathy by Sissy Spacek. More than a simple love interest, Jewel and Forrest’s relationship grows from beautifully sweet into something pure; Spacek matches every one of Redford’s eye twinkles with a wry smile. It is a credit to writer/director David Lowery to have created a relationship that feels so real,when another filmmaker may have chosen a more action-fuelled route for this story. There are few scenes that approach sequences one might expect from a crime film, and those few are hardly a visual spectacle. But the tension is there,because Lowery takes the time to build his characters, and to build a connection. It is this connection that imbues Forrest’s every success with joy,his every moment of uncertainty with despair.
Secondhand insight into Tucker’s life comes from the ongoing investigation by Casey Affleck’s police detective John Hunt. Quietly determined, Hunt provides a route to perspective reminiscent of films like Catch Me if You Can – whether or not this is a script cliche, it is fully justified in time. From a respectful point of view, Hunt’s obsession is fuelled by a curiosity that is hard not to share in, and Affleck plays the role with an appropriate calculated calmness. The pay-off, perhaps inevitably, is a Heat-esque scene allowing for a pivotal face off between two incredibly talented actors. Mirroring Hunt’s relaxed intrigue, Joe Anderson’s cinematography paints a beautiful, if slightly grainy, world, while Daniel Hart’s score eases the film into low, consistently cheerful, gear.
With a gorgeous aesthetic and astounding performances from the three central actors, Lowery has crafted an impressive piece. It is a film that harks back to a genre forgotten in the age of fast paced action and screen dominating CGI. The Old Man and the Gun is an easy adventure, complete with the 80’s values of Indiana Jones or The Goonies. And in a satisfying circular sense, it is a spiritual sequel to 1973’s The Sting – a Sunday afternoon film if there ever was one.Redford’s only Oscar nomination for acting was awarded for his performance as Johnny Hooker, but with a Golden Globe nomination secured this week, perhaps Tucker is the path to a second, 45 years later.
