Short Reviews #48
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Spoiler Warning: If you haven’t read the book or seen the trailer, you are best to avoid reading below.
Fans of the book will no doubt be disappointed with Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Alice Sebold critically-acclaimed 2002 The Lovely Bones. He modifies a number of elements, removes various plots and chooses to ignore any mention of rape and dismemberment with the victims. That said, do those things need to be explicitly portrayed on screen? I don’t think so. Also, any filmmaker that has to realize the afterlife is always going to fight an uphill battle. For the most part, The Lovely Bones is all over the place. It’s terribly uneven at times, with performances ranging from the very good (Saoirse Ronan as Suzie Salmon and Stanley Tucci as George Harvey) to the very mediocre (Mark Wahlberg). If you are expecting a drama handled with the care and execution of say Jackson’s earlier work Heavenly Creatures, you will be disappointed. Some of the scenes feel overly clumsy where as others feel rather profound. Jackson’s realization of the afterlife is probably as good as can be expected from the viewpoint of a 14 year old girl (something that many reviewers had issues with and I think Jackson did a pretty good job in relation to the character). In the end however, the film never finds a constant footing and you can’t help but feel let down. Brian Eno did the score though and it’s amazing.
Zombieland (2009)
I wished I saw this in 2009 because it would have ranked in my Top 10 of the year for sure. Zombieland revels in that perfect cocktail of extreme, zombie madness and comedy. Edgar Wright did it back in 2004 with Shaun of the Dead and now Ruben Fleischer has done it, albeit with a definite American twang. What makes this work so well is the chemistry of the four cast members: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. They all seem to gel perfectly on screen. The script is also hilarious and kudos to first-time feature director Fleischer for knowing exactly what it takes to make a damn fun zombie movie. One minor quibble would be the scope as it feels quite restrained. I’m sure in the sequel they will open up the geography. And if zombies and comedy aren’t your thing (shame on you!) at least you can admire the excellent typography work in the film and the greatest cameo I have seen in a very long time (Don’t ruin the surprise if you don’t know who it is).
The Invention of Lying (2009)
The Invention of Lying suffers the same fate as The Lovely Bones: it’s all over the place. This is particularly unfortunate since Ricky Gervais co-wrote and co-directed this star vehicle. It’s no shock to anyone reading this that I’m a huge Gervais fan so it saddens the inner critic in me. The central premise of a man, who lives in a world where nobody can lie and one day discovers that he can, seems intriguing and has potential for comedy gold. However after a while, that premise wears thin. Gervais (a well-known atheist) certainly won’t make the religious crowds happy and you have to give him credit for portraying an alternative point of view about the world in a mainstream, Hollywood production. But leaving that aspect aside, the film goes from romantic-comedy, to drama, to deeper themes, back to comedy, etc… and as a whole, felt uneven. He rounded up a stellar comedy cast though including Jeffrey Tambor, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and Jennifer Garner (who was actually very good). I’m looking forward to Cementry Junction which is written and directed by Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Merchant’s input will hopefully compliment Gervais’s style more.
Samson and Delilah (2009)
I watched this incredible Australia film after all the hype had died down. After it won the Golden Camera award at Cannes and the AFI for Best Film. I’m glad I did because any preconceived notions about the film were removed and I sat back, consuming all that was delivered. In a society where it’s incredibly difficult to define what exactly is ‘Australian’, Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah is a film every Australian (and native) should see. It casts an eye over the Aboriginal youth community in modern Australia in such a frank and realistic fashion that there are no words needed to describe it. There are only a few words spoken in the film and that’s all that is essential. The performances from newcomers Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson as Samson and Delilah respectively, are phenomenal and achingly real. It saddens me when people tell me they didn’t like the film because it was “too slow” or “the characters weren’t likable”. Great films inspire reactions inside us, occasionally make us question the larger things in life and this is one of those films. In fact, I’d love to see this shown in every classroom across the country.
St Elmo’s Fire (1985)
Okay well this film is pretty bad BUT in terms of 80’s style, this is a classic. It’s a slightly older version of a teen John Hughes movie except it was a Joel Schumacher film. Schumacher was the go-to director for when the John Hughes generation reached their twenties. He wasn’t quite as successful with his scripts but there is something to admire about the comrade of the cast. Looking back on the film now, sure it’s aged and Rob Lowe still cracks me up making love with his saxophone but you can’t deny there’s a chemistry between the cast that works. Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Mare Winningham, Andie MacDowell and Rob Lowe. These were the Brat Pack and the biggest young cast back in the day and surely this was hugely influential for the creators of the TV series Friends. And yes believe it or not but they are making a TV series based on this film to capture the Friends market. Why am I not surprised? Side note: Emilio Estevez’s character Kirby probably should have been locked up at the end because I’m pretty sure that what he does constitutes ‘crazy stalker’ many, many, many times.
Short Reviews #47
Avatar (3D) (2009)
It’s been 12 years since we’ve had a James Cameron feature and with over $500 million spent on his return to Hollywood, does he maintain the crown of ‘King of the World?’ You bet he does! Cameron is back and delivers exactly what he always does – reinvents epic Hollywood filmmaking, gives the audience a huge sense of awe and gives us cliché after cliché of dialogue. But despite the screenplay being clumsy and at times laughable, he gives us a vision we’ve never seen on screen before. He borrows story elements from Dances with Wolves and even his own films such as Aliens sure but it’s his abilities as a filmmaker and knowing how to deliver to an audience that adrenaline rush that makes Avatar such an accomplishment. His use of 3D IS revolutionary from the little subtleties such as the leaves in the forest or the insanely realistic close-ups of the Na’vi. When you enter Pandora, you are there and the border between live-action and CGI is inching ever so close. Cameron has blended it so well, you never feel like you are watching CGI characters moving across screen. The human characters are typical Cameron fodder and using Sigourney is a nice touch. Worthington does a good enough job although he falls in and out of accent a fair bit. Stephen Lang plays the one dimensional Colonel as good as any army character in Cameron’s Aliens. However it’s the character of Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana, that is so life-like and expressive. She steal the show and rightly so. Cameron again uses the uber strong female archetype to give us a truly great lead character. In the end though, Avatar misses the mark in terms of cinematic classic status due to the script and I just wish he’d fleshed out the characters a little more and given us a more compelling script. In terms of a business decision and selling a film to a wide audience, I know WHY he delivered the script the way he did but yeah. Enough of the review already – just go see it in 3D, preferably in IMAX and sit back and be swept away.
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Just like Cameron, you have to give director Spike Jonze credit for realizing his vision on the big screen and no-one else’s. Sure Jonze based his on the classic Maurice Sendak book, but he has made this his own and given us perhaps the best cinematic representation of the book one could hope for. The Wild Things themselves are wonderfully realized, an excellent blend of Jim Henson’s creature shop design and CGI. He also cast Max Records as Max who could have easily slipped into cheese and emotional manipulation but never falters. My main problem with the film and perhaps the book is there isn’t much that happens. Max is crying for attention within his family, sets sail to the magical world of Where the Wild Things Are and essentially plays with them for the rest of the movie until he has to go back home. There isn’t really a huge range of cinematic ‘moments’ that take place. I’m not sure if really young kids will have the patience with this one either. It probably runs 20 or so minutes long. However, despite the film outstaying its welcome ever so slightly, Jonze gives us perhaps one of the best cinematic representations of what is it to be a lonely child. The isolation, the anger you feel when you want to connect with the world but people think you’re being silly or stupid. Oh and the soundtrack by Karen O and the Kids works fine but compared to the trailers with Arcade Fire, it never gave me goosebumps.
The Hurt Locker (2008)
There is no film this year that has kept me on edge as much as Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. Easily her best film (she gave us Point Break and Near Dark by the way), her examination of an American bomb squad unit in Iraq is so gripping, you will find it very hard to look away despite biting all of your finger nails down to the very nub. There are a few notable actors appearing in the film including Guy Pierce, Ralph Fiennes and David Morse but they only turn in extended cameos really. The real stars are the central three bomb squad members – Jeremy Renner as the fearless bomb disposal leader, and Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty offering cover. Watching this reminded me of HBO’s Generation Kill, another excellent piece of work on the effects of the Iraq war on soldiers. However The Hurt Locker doesn’t offer any political messages. It’s just two hours of raw nerve filmmaking at its very best. There is a side plot in the film which feels a little unnecessary but this is still one of the best war films made this decade.
Extract (2009)
It’s easy to embrace Mike Judge comedies since he gave us the now classic Office Space and the under-appreciated Idiocracy. Extract isn’t the return to Office Space form as much as I had hoped but it’s still one of the better comedies of the year. Jason Bateman again plays the straight man, Mila Kunis his object of desire (although she is rather underused), Kristen Wiig is his wife (playing it straighter than normal) and J.K Simmons as his business partner. That cast alone and Mike Judge would assume hilarity from beginning to end but it doesn’t quite get there. The biggest surprise is Ben Affleck as the mellow bartender friend of Bateman’s. He’s actually very funny and probably shares the funniest scenes in the movie. The film also reminded me of Burn After Reading in a sense but isn’t as successful or clever as a whole. As with all Judge films though, this may improve with age and probably become a cult favourite with Judge fans.
Halloween II (2009)
Oh man. Well, if you want to know the worst film of the year or in fact of all time, then look no further than Rob Zombie’s uber disaster Halloween II. This is a complete train wreck of a film that Zombie wrote and directed himself. I wasn’t a fan at all of his ‘reimagining’ of Carpenter’s original classic but compared to his, that 2007 film looks like a modern masterpiece. This time, Zombie wanted to separate from the existing universe completely and he does succeed in that. However, why not make a completely separate film rather than using the Halloween name? I would hope Zombie didn’t want to make this film at all and as a result, decided to just make a complete pile of dog turd to piss off the producers so he would never have to make another Halloween film again. I mean, the film doesn’t have the signature music theme at all, Michael’s white trash (ugh!) mum turns up as a ghostly figure with a white horse (seriously wtf) informing him to kill everyone and if you thought the dialogue for Avatar was terrible, then just watch five minutes of this and re-assess your thoughts. Scout Taylor-Compton is truly awful, Michael walks around like a hobo for the entire film and there isn’t one single, likeable character to be found anywhere. Zombie gives us the worst of all Halloween films (and that is saying A LOT!). I know this franchise will never die but please producers, let Zombie go and hire someone who at least loses the hillbilly, Manson hard-on styling’s of Zombie’s work and give us a protagonist who is likeable and keep Michael a mystery!
Short Reviews #46
Moon (2009)
I have so much praise for this sci-fi flick, I can hardly contain my excitement. Whether it be the excellent performance from Sam Rockwell, the visuals, the set design, the direction, the score and an overwhelming sense of abandonment and loneliness you feel in every frame make this easily one of the year’s best films. The simple premise finds Sam Rockwell positioned on the moon, along with GERTY, a computer (similar to HAL from 2001) to send back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems. He’s been there three years and strange things start to happen. Directed by Duncan Jones (who is actually David Bowie’s son!), Moon is an ambitious film yet shot on extremely low-budget (around US$5 million). However it looks more expensive than it is and Jones throws around grand thematic content that any serious sci-fi film fan will embrace with open arms. Clearly inspired by 2001 both visually and in tone, the themes are different for the most part however and it will stay with you long after the credits roll, much like 2001. Although Star Trek made all the money this year at the sci-fi box-office, Moon is certainly the more fascinating of the two.
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Hooverdust is a pop culture blog designed and developed by James Sann. I cover a range of topics such as Film, Music, TV, Photography, Design and teh internets.
Based in Melbourne and Bendigo, Australia, in my professional life, I am a freelance multimedia designer, photographer and a part-time University lecturer & tutor.
- says:
I only saw St Elmo’s fire for the first time a few months ago and... - says:
James, saw them in Sydney the last two nights and was absolutely blown away. Great... - says:
Yeah I heard Watchmen: Director’s Cut is the one to see. Definitely on my rental... - says:
I haven’t seen Samson and Delilah. Will check it out for sure. Watchmen looks incredible... - says:
Good lists mate. I completely forgot about Doubt and The Wrestler. Despite being great films,... - More Sidedust »
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