Darren Aronofsky, it has to be said, is something of a masochist. From the mathematicians headaches of Pi, the drug addicts cold turkey despair in Requiem For A Dream, to the self abuse double-bill of The Wrestler and Black Swan, the visualist seems intent on making his characters travel through Satan’s lair in a weaved carry all. Hell for them, perhaps, but cinematic heaven for us.
The recently released, first official photo of Andrew Garfield as a battered and bruised web-slinger has sent net buzz into overdrive well over a year before the film’s tentative release date.
As it’s been a while since I’ve geeked out in public and written something entirely speculative and unfounded I thought I’d indulge myself by attempting to answer the question; can the new Spider-man be better than the last?
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One of the more interesting angles you can take when putting together a film that is intended for a wider appeal is that of a hard-hitting family drama. ‘The Blind Side’, anyone? That’s right. We all remember the 2010 Best Picture nominee that took white people and black people, football and family, threw them all into a Sandra Bullock powered mixer and ended up raking in over a quarter of a billion dollars at the US box office. That staggering figure was based purely on a wide appeal. Susie Homemaker-mothers saw the trailer and instantly bundled their tough-guy, Coach Carter of a husband and four strapping quarterback sons into the Town & Country, and it was off to the multiplex. ‘This will be nice,’ she thought. I can only imagine the increasing moisture in the corner of her eye as Leigh Anne ‘intimidates’ some ghetto hoods by threatening that if they were to be threatening her son they would in turn be threatening her also. Realistically, following her emotionally charged street outburst we would have witnessed a nine pressed firmly against her forehead as she began to cry and beg pitifully for her life. Now THAT’S hard-hitting family drama.
Ok, it’s the start of another year and there seem to be a lot of these ‘what to watch in 2011’ lists banding about. So I thought everyone would appreciate another one. Picking my brains there seems to be a lot of disagreement between me and my inner child over which movies we’re going to spend our hard earned money and time watching over the coming 12 months.
The following list is the result of much debate, childish mudslinging & sanctimonious know-it-all rhetoric but thankfully we came to a hard fought compromise via a mutual loathing of Michael Bay.
With it being almost two years since Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up at the Academy Awards it is surely about time for the Danny Boyle backlash to begin. Sadly for those out there who love to hate, you are going to have to hang on at least two more years in the hopes that everyone’s favourite Mancunian Oscar winner fucks up the Olympic opening ceremony. The reason for this delay is of course Boyle’s latest film 127 Hours which, I’m pleased to say exceeded my already high expectations in every way.
Opening this weekend is the truly ruddy wonderful The King’s Speech. The truly ruddy wonderful Lewis Swift reviewed it on this here site, so take a peak around, read his critique then follow his advice; Go see it. There are a number of reasons why, great performances, a lovely central friendship, fantastic production, Guy Pearce brief spell ‘King-ing’ and the wee ickle girl from Outnumbered as a young Princess Margaret but its main pulling point; the power of words.
As the deeply irritating, helium voiced muppets, The Bee Gees sang “It’s only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away.” Whilst the end result of The King’s Speech is that he managed to get the words over his tongue, ultimately if he was just dictating a recipe for a cracking Toad in the Hole the film wouldn’t be worth a damn. Those words helped scared British residents feel a little less so.
As celluloid speeches go, however, it’s not quite up there with these humdingers. And no, there is no Braveheart.
As the holiday season draws to a close, the only phrase that has been echoing in my mind since the news of Pete Postlethwaite’s passing is ‘the gift that keeps on giving’. Over the course of a career spanning 40 years, hard-hitting professionalism was as invented as it was redefined. Steven Spielberg called him ‘the greatest actor in the world’, and most would ponder intensely before dismissing that claim.
Born in Lancashire in 1946 to Roman-Catholic parents, Postlethwaite trained as a teacher before briefly teaching drama in Manchester. He proceeded to train as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Anybody lucky enough to have witnessed Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant last year will have been reintroduced to a wonderful thing lacking on the silver screen of late. That thing is Ridiculous Cage. Not for a second would we disparage old Nic as just a foolish performing monkey, the guy certainly can act (see Leaving Las Vegas,Adaptation and many more), but he does have a penchant for picking faintly laughable roles and running with them. In doing so he can turn annoying tosh into enjoyable tosh at the flick of a eyebrow via some Brian Blessed worthy larynx gymnastics. That he doesn’t is just one reason why Season of the Witch could already go down as one of the worst films of 2011.
I should point out that for the purpose of this list I’m only including films with a 2010 UK release date as shown on the one and only Internet Movie Database.
10 The Social Network (15/10/10)
I will no doubt come in for some grief placing Fincher’s Facebook movie at the lowest possible point of my top ten but bare in my mind, I’ve watched a lot of films this year so tenth spot is by no means an indictment. Whilst I may not have been entirely on board the Social Network bandwagon I was not blind to its many qualities. Sorkin’s script is as fast paced and nuanced as his seminal tenure on The West Wing and his dialogue is expertly delivered by the likes of Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield. What prevented the film from creeping up my list was in its unnerving levels of hypocrisy. Facebook founder Zuckerberg is openly condemned for his plans to compare girls with farm animals yet apparently the entry requirements for Harvard girls of the nineties was ‘Must look good in pants’. Sorkin has himself issued an apology for the depiction of girls but sadly that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable viewing.
