Delicacy

Delicacy is the latest film from Amelie star Audrey Tautou and is directed by David and Stéphane Foenkinos. Tatou plays Nathalie, a young woman who has recently married and then lost her husband François in a tragic accident. The film details the process in which Nathalie first grieves over her loss and then moves on with her life – throwing herself into her new job at a large firm and finding love and happiness all over again with a man very different to François.

The plot moves at a fast pace, moving from one event to the next in a clever and original fashion and the script contains many humorous moments that made me smile. The quirky editing and the score along with some picturesque shots of Paris give Delicacy charm, however there is still not much to differentiate this from any other romantic comedy.

The performances are good however what lets the film down is the characters, which are all very stereotypical. They all seem to live very wealthy and contented lives, which made it difficult to engage with them emotionally. Due to the sentimentality of the film it seems as if the makers want the audience to care a lot about these characters, but for me this aspect was too much.

A pleasant and pretty film, but essentially forgettable. 3/5

Interview with Jennifer Westfeldt and Jon Hamm courtesy of ArcLight:

We have another new interview with Jennifer Westfeldt and Jon Hamm for their new movie, Friends with Kids. They discuss the inspiration for their script, the independent filmmaking process and cast selection process (dinner and wine anyone?).

We Bought a Zoo

Released March 16th


We Bought a Zoo is the first film from director Cameron Crowe since 2005’s Elizabethtown. Based on a true story, Matt Damon plays Benjamin Mee, a father of two whose wife has not long passed away. Struggling to cope with life and looking after his two children, seven year old Rosie and fourteen year old Dylan, Benjamin makes the life changing decision to move out of the city and buys an old country house. The only problem is, the house comes with an old defunct zoo which is in need of repair and whose animals require medical attention. Though unsure to begin with, the family eventually take on the challenge of fixing up the zoo in preparation for its grand reopening, along with the help of the zoo’s staff (Scarlett Johansson, Elle Fanning) and Benjamin’s brother Duncan (Thomas Haden Church).

Definitely a family film, We Bought a Zoo has a far-fetched premise which suffers slightly from just being too overly sentimental and soppy at times. Benjamin’s grief over losing his wife is central to the plot, as well as the conflict he has with his son, who finds it hard to come to terms with their new life. These strands are slightly undermined by the light-hearted and extremely safe script, though also add a depth that would not exist otherwise.

At just over two hours long the film is never dull. The performances are good with likeable characters and it is well directed by Crowe. Although there are many painfully sugary moments, We Bought a Zoo has warmth and spirit that will make you smile.

3/5

Preview: "Django Unchained" (2012)

When asked what movie I’m most excited to see in 2012, several come to mind. However, one stands above the rest, and given my ambivalence concerning most of Tarantino's work, my choice surprises even myself. 

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained has a cast, a one-sentence plot summary, and a surprisingly hushed and rumored following that makes the film impossible to resist. How can it even be possible to keep this a secret? A Tarantino film starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Kurt Russell? And that’s just the highlight of the cast. Moreover, consider that Foxx is playing the hero, DiCaprio the villain.

And just listen to this plot line: ’With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.’ 

Maybe its my unceasing devotion to the South, but I think it’s more than that. Tarantino has made a living unabashedly rewriting history. And yet, he does it in such a way as to highlight the true subtext of that history. Yes, we all know that Inglourious Basterds has no historical footing, no factual leg to stand upon. But has anyone considered how honestly, albeit derisively, Tarantino exposes his audience to the true horror and violence of war (and the implied goal of war being ‘just killing’ - if there is such a thing)? Basterds may be a joke to historians, but to sociologists and literary theorists, Tarantino’s take on World War II is a brutally honest account of the nature of warfare. And as our good old post-colonialist friends would remind us, how reliable is history anyway? Written by the victors, isn’t it? 

So sure, Tarantino doesn’t worry himself over basing his stories in any true sense of the physical or historical world. They’re a bit detached from any reality we experience. Still, the subtext - the story beneath the story, the psychology beyond the facts - of his films are right on the money. 

If he approaches a historical tale about the Antebellum South with this same vision as a filmmaker, then I think there is more than sufficient reason to be excited. Southerners may be wary about it, and rightfully so. Don’t let anyone tell you the scars of slavery and the War have healed; not even close. And yet, if anyone can suspend our fact-based notion of our own history and expose us to the vulnerable, cathartic truths of our past, I think it might need to be someone irreverent, out-of-line, talented. I’m not a big Tarantino fan, but based on those three descriptions, he’s the first that comes to mind. 

So, between the cast and the plot summary, I’m excited enough. But in an era of extreme Hollywood marketing, forcing films to wait 12-14 months between completion and release simply in service of advertising, Django Unchained has somehow slipped under most of the radars (hasn’t it slipped under yours?). The IMDb page has very little information; not even a photograph. No trailer, no interviews. I realize it’s still 10 months off, but still, with that cast and that director and today’s market, how is that possible? The answer, I would wager, is relatively simple: it’s Tarantino. He’s just weird enough, counter-cultural enough, to fly the bird at the studios and backers, if he allowed their involvement in the first place. I mean, the guy’s weird (look at him biting Waltz’s ear inexplicably). 

For those three reasons, I think Django Unchained is the film I’m most excited to see in 2012. Again, I’m not a big Tarantino fan. Pulp Fiction is an incredible movie, but for me, is an exception in Tarantino’s catalogue. Maybe Django will be, as well.

And it’s worth mentioning: obviously the film title calls to mind the 1966 spaghetti western, Django. Originally filmed in Italian, dubbed in English, it is now tagged as “the movie that spawned a genre.” As per Tarantino’s normal approach, he has chosen a genre to engage, to inspire, to problematize even. A genre that celebrates violence, that is rooted in inflated hero-worshipping, and overly-simplistic notions of justice. Come on, tell me Tarantino won’t have a field day with this film - and this genre. 

Interesting that Django Unchained is due out the same day as Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby (also starring DiCaprio). Needless to say, it looks like a big year for DiCaprio (and Joseph Gordon-Levitt while we’re at it). Not only does Gordon-Levitt have several films lined up, he also just landed his first directing gig.

Perhaps after so many disappointments, you’d expect that I'd learn to be reserved and distant, like a good critic who never walks into a theatre with expectations. Never enters a year with excitement in his tone. But no, I think 2012 is going to be a great year, I feel it. So whether my optimism is ill-advised or not, it’s still there. I think we’re in for a good one.

Stay tuned. 

Aurora - Part 2

As I hit the switch to close the window cover, I realised nothing was ever going to be the same again. I looked at Paul, still looking out the window with a pale, emotionless face even though it was now closed. I span away from him “We cannot tell anyone one about this!”

“We can’t lie to our friends” he whispered.

I don’t know why but I was angry at him for saying that, it felt like a betrayal, though I have no idea why. I knew the right thing to do was to tell everyone the truth but I guess I thought I was protecting them, which is funny considering the pain I caused them in the end. I had to get out of that room. Try to pretend it was not real, just for a few minutes.

“I can’t lie to them Ben!”

“Don’t be naive Paul!” I yelled “We have to find out what happened first!”

“We know what happened, Ben, we’ve just seen it!”

I shook my head silently, this could not be happening. “I’m going to contact HQ…”

“You think HQ survived that?!”

I squared up to him “I’m going to contact HQ.” Paul nodded silently “Good.” I snarled, and turned to leave the room. “and what if they’re dead?” Paul sounded small, his voice echoing off the walls. I didn’t stop to answer.

The Control Room in Sector Two was the best place to get answers; it had everything you needed to contact the outside world. I sat at the computer trying to get a hold of somebody, anyone. I remember typing, but I just could not get the image of the storm from my head. It looked so beautiful and yet so destructive. Paul came rushing into the room to find me there, sitting at the computer. He grabbed my shoulder “We’re going to run out of power soon; the generator is only tanked for about 24hours!”

“Turn off everything non- essential” I stared at the screen.

“That’ll just scare people! Ben, we have to tell them first!”

I always liked Paul, but when it came to problems, he just never knew how to handle it. Now I like to think that I am calm and rational, but Paul is more like an exploding building taking everyone down with him.

“Just turn it off, Paul” I kept staring at the screen “I’ll handle everyone.”

I went through everything I could to make contact. I just had to try. I had to try, before I went upstairs and delivered the news. But I found only what I had expected to, and it wasn’t good. I sat, staring, and I knew I couldn’t do it. I rubbed my eyes, searching for a solution but there was none.

I trudged up the stair to the Common Area, eyes to the ground and found Paul waiting for me. “Gather everybody up.” I mumbled. Paul nodded wordlessly and left me there to think of a way to tell everyone in the nicest possible manner that we’re all alone, and the world is ending. I wanted to go find Jason and Joan but I didn’t have time to explain to them.

 Mary was the first to arrive with many questions of her own already “Ben, why are my radio and TV not working?”

“We know Mary, we’re working on it”

“Bless you Paul” she smiled serenely.

Everyone gathered slowly in the Common Area, muttering to each other and glancing over at me nervously, waiting to hear what I had to say

I dragged my hand across my face and took a deep breath “So” I looked up at them “Earlier this morning, Paul and I noticed an increase in temperature outside from the computers.” I had no option but the truth “At first it looked like we suffered a massive electromagnetic disruption…but on closer inspection I am afraid it’s much worse than that.” The muttering started up again, louder and more urgent than before “I went through the system looking for anything unusual in the last twenty-four hours, and I found something. It looks like there was a geomagnetic storm which is a perfectly normal thing to happen and is usually only temporary, but” My throat dried up, I swallowed nervously “but this one was worse. A lot worse.” People were openly talking now, questions flying across the room, the same one repeated over and over again “How much worse?”

I raised my voice to compete with the crowd “There was a massive disturbance in the interplanetary medium. I know most of you understand what this means, but for those who do not, intense solar flares release very high energy particles that can cause radiation, poisoning, cancer and…” I paused for a breath“…and more likely death.” Panic erupted; I couldn’t make out individual voices, so I kept going, louder than before. “All communications are down and we are running on a backup generator for power.”

“What the hell are we going to do, Ben?” One voice dominated the others.

“I’m not entirely sure yet!”

“Are you sure this has happened?” Mary clutched at the crucifix around her neck.

I raised my voice as the volume in the room grew even louder and panicked “We have several receivers located in the southern hemisphere and they all detected exactly the same thing!” The noise slowly faded, until I was left with silent faces, all staring. “Myself and Paul both saw a massive aurora in the sky in the observation deck.”

“Oh my god, we’re all going to die!” Joan screamed, covering her face as if it would help.

“No!” I turned on her “We are not going to die!” She fell silent “We are still alive and we can find some help!”

“Do you think anyone survived?” asked Colm, eyes darting nervously around the room.

“Honestly?” I shrugged, the full weight of the situation on my shoulders “I can’t see how.” Murmuring began to circulate the room once more “but we did survive, so there is every possibility that there are others.” I turned to leave the room, meaning to go back to the Control Room and continue the fruitless search. Joan and Jason cut me off at the door.

“Ben! What are we going to do?”

I didn’t know what I was going to do. We were all alone and they knew it but they still looked to me for answers, answers I could not give them.

Colm rushed to my side, grabbing my arm. “My girlfriend works in Washington. Do you think it’s ok there?” he looked at me with such hope in his face, I hadn’t the heart to tell him no.

“I’m not sure yet, but we have had no communication with anyone outside since yesterday”

Before I knew what was happening, I was surrounded. A thousand panicked questions from all directions. “Listen!” I yelled “Right now we have a fifty per cent chance of surviving if we don’t go outside. After a week the radiation should be low enough that we will just be vomiting for a few days.” And the urgent muttering began once again.

It was heart breaking to watch those people break down like that. People I had spent many months with that I considered my friends, and of course my wife and son, who were so scared that nothing I could say could make them feel at ease. Deep down I knew we had a slim chance of being alive the next week, but I could not tell them that. I had to keep hope alive in the early stages. If we had any chance at all.

Paul found his voice once more, breaking through the crowd to confront me “Enough! Just be realistic, Ben, everyone is dead!”

“Paul, calm down! We do not know anything right now, stop scaring the others!” He met my eye with venom, and I took a step forward, ready for a fight, but at that moment Jason ran towards me and hugged my waist as hard as he could.

“I don’t want to die, Dad!” He sobbed

“I will not let anything happen to you son, don’t you worry” I whispered, patting his head. I took another deep breath and addressed the crowd again. “We need to start thinking about supplies and power; if we’re going to survive we have to think logically”

“Use as little electricity as possible because we have to stay inside for a least one week before we can go outside”

“If it is god’s will for us to die then who are we to deny that?” Mary screeched, lifting her arms in to the air as if expecting the Lord to come down and pick her up from heaven. I sighed, there’s always one.

“Mary, that sort of thinking is not helping; we have to think logically to survive.”

“We must not turn on our Lord in this time of devastation” Mary sounded affronted, clutching her crucifix in her fist.

I was never a religious man, I always thought of the world as an act of science rather than an act of God, but when people think they are going to die, even if they were not religious before, well they will surprise you.

“What if she’s right, Ben?” Paul whispered, keeping his distance behind me.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I turned and allowed him a withering glance.

“Who are we to question His judgement?” He shrugged nervously.

Questions like that put doubt in people’s minds, doubts that can kill people in a situation like that. When you see accidents happen on TV or in movies it’s always easy to say “Stick Together” but when people are pushed against a wall, they turn on one another and will do whatever it takes to survive. It’s not a strong point in human nature but it is instinct. Once questions about living or dying by God are brought into the conversation then everyone starts to doubt the point of trying to survive, and I could not let that happen

“Listen up! Have you all gone mad? We need to stick together now more than ever! If we all turn on one another then we are all going to die alone! Is it not worth trying to survive?” Mary opened her mouth to argue, but I kept going, I couldn’t let her raise anymore doubts. “Maybe it is God’s will but we can’t prove that, all we know is that we’re in this situation and it’s in our nature to survive because we might just be the last humans remaining!”

Colm took a step forward, wringing his hands “Is there anything I can do, Ben?”

“I can help to Ben” Alan stepped forward to join him

I gave them what I hoped was a grateful look “Yeah, you two get food supplies and bring it all into the kitchen. Find out how long it will all last while I look for candles or flashlights or…I don’t know, anything that can be useful”

“What about me?” Paul came around to join the small team forming in front of me.

“Paul, I need you to keep trying to get communication, can you do that for me?”

“Of course” he nodded glumly.

We stood in silence for a moment, contemplating the situation we were in, when a quiet voice crept up on me.

“Don’t you worry, Ben, God has a plan for you”

“I’m not doubting He does, Mary” I turned away from her and left the room in as calm a manner as I could

“I just hope it’s the same as mine.”

I went to my room to see what useful supplies I had; Joan followed me, crying so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. “Ben, what’s really going on?” she wept, tears streaming from her eyes and down to her chin. I couldn’t look at her. “We’re on our own, Joan.”

If I knew where I would end up it would have been easier to kill everyone right there and then. The pain I had caused these people, my friends and my family. I only wish I had killed them when I had the chance.

by JAMES SMITH

DVD Review: Game of Thrones Season 1

Released on March 5th

Adapted from George R. R. Martin’s best-selling novels A Song of Fire and Ice, Game of Thrones is the latest in a long line of successful shows from praised television network HBO.

Set in the mythical Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and having a time span of several years over the duration of ten episodes, season one details the lives of the Stark and Lannister families – their relationships, lust, lies, betrayal and treachery as they both struggle for power. Elsewhere Drogo, horse lord of the Dothraki and his new bride Daenerys set out to reclaim her title as heiress to the throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

Game of Thrones easily matches and possibly surpasses the quality of a Hollywood film, containing mesmerizing landscape shots (the series was filmed on location in Northern Ireland), fantastic costumes and wonderful cinematography.

Although definitely a fantasy series, these elements are only hinted at. We know that there are mythical forces at work under the surfaces of what the viewer is shown, and this adds a sense of mystery subtlety that makes the saga all the more compelling. This also allows for a greater focus on the characters, performed wonderfully by Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Aidan Gillen to name but a few.

What makes this show special is that it isn’t afraid of any subject matter, there are no boundaries in this made-up world. Brutal, sexy, saddening and fantastical; Game of Thrones season 1 is ten hours of pure escapism, and will leave you eagerly anticipating the release of season 2.

Extra Features:

Making of Game of Thrones featurette

Character profiles

Inside the Night's Watch

Creating the Dothraki Language
From the Book to the Screen

Creating the Show
episode commentaries

5/5

What the Oscars Actually Mean

The Academy Awards are a strange, cultural anomaly. In almost all realms of art, it is understand that recognition - while welcome - correlates only loosely to quality and importance. Whether pretentious or not, most people differentiate between works of “serious” art and works of “popular” art. Twilight Breaking Dawn was not nominated for the Pulitzer or the Nobel, and as far as I know, there were no grievances filed. 

And yet, few art forms are more mutually dependent upon cultural reception than film. The Academy may be mostly 60 year-old, white males; however, their opinion is only the last voice in a chain reaction of critical reception increasingly determined by the assessment of the modern laymen. Rottentomatoes.com has entire sections of critical response dedicated to non-mainstream publications and/or writers. And in the advent of the blog and the vast array of independent publishing options, the public perception of films has never been more influential - on both the box office and the Oscars.

Take Bridesmaids and Melissa McCarthy’s Oscar nod. Regardless of how you felt about that movie, a raw comedy receiving that kind of attention is unique. Other comedies have earned Oscar favor, gotten nods and even wins. Still, in 9 out of 10 cases, the comedies that receive attention are a different breed, straddling the fence between comedy and drama (the proverbial ‘dramedy’). And often, they’re only selected to bring a false sense of balance to the judging process. This year, the vibe was simply different. The Academy may consist of the same Hollywood dinosaurs that have served as the puppeteers for the last two decades of the Awards, but a turning is taking place. The audience determines more than a film’s financial success: they have a say - and rightfully so - on a film’s artistic caliber. 

In other ways, the Oscars are sheer politics. The Help was a meaningful film, a good film even. It was not a great film. The Oscars wins it received were earned; many of the nominations, including Best Picture, were not. But the film captured a certain cultural moment, was received with a certain cultural deference. Yet again, the theatre patrons had a voice in the vote; but, in this case, it was a misleading voice.

So, yes, the Oscars can be a very manufactured affair. It, like the films it celebrates, is a performance. That’s what makes it different than the Pulitzer or the Nobel; it is more distilled and weakened than walking through the Tate and seeing staggering art silently working, speaking in its subtle way that asks for no hosts or red carpets. Needs no golden statue to define its intangible contribution to the world of art and culture. The Oscars are the reality television of the art world. 

This is the Academy’s destiny: to continually struggle to speak for both the critic and the viewer, a distinction becoming blurred in contemporary cinema and criticism. The Academy seeks to garner attention for film. Above all, they seek to earn money. It’s a political, economic affair; it’s Hollywood on parade. 

The Oscars don’t “mean” anything - the same way all awards and recognitions are meaningless to some extent. Art is measured in intangibles; it’s a game of centimeters. The Room may have actually changed someone’s life in a meaningful way, Twilight may have been a turning point in some young girl’s troubled life; it is not for any single person - or any single Academy - to determine the ultimate worth of a single work. But, a person or Academy can make a functional judgment, which amounts to little more than a drunkard’s wager, about the influence, caliber, and lasting value of some piece. 

So, next time someone (maybe yourself) gets worked up about how the Oscars are a sell-out, remember that the Academy is fighting a losing battle. Making bold claims and handing out big awards earns viewers, but it’s not the Word of God. Who’s really qualified to be a judge? Think of it as a recommendation show - as a more jazzy version of “At the Movies” with Siskel and Ebert. When a book wins the Nobel Prize: sure, it’s probably very good. But don’t be surprised if you find a book written that year that you think is vastly better. So it is with movies.

I’ll continue to watch the Oscars, not because their voice represents the paragons of artistic judgment. No, I’ll continue watching because I love the movies, sometimes even the bad ones. Sometimes especially the bad ones. And there’s no use crying about it because even if you vehemently disagree, at least it helps you to find your own opinion and your own voice. Your own Best Picture is ultimately all that matters. 

So be at peace with the Oscars' meaninglessness. It doesn’t mean art and life is meaningless. Just accept it at face value, and try not to get too mad…

Like me. I’m so furious about how Drive got overlooked. But I’ll get over it.

Someday.