Film Review: Trance (15), (U.K. 2013) (Director: Danny Boyle), Thursday 28.03.2013 20:40, The Cameo Cinema, Screen One, Edinburgh

I'm not always curious enough to go to see Danny Boyle films. With this one it was the cast that drew me to want to see it. The film centres around a theft from an art auction. The one (James McAvoy) who has stolen the piece then develops amnesia so is unable to tell the gang (lead by Vincent Cassel) he was working with as to where the treasure is.

The plot then has James see a hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) to see if the information can be retrieved. It is after this point that the plot becomes convoluted and it becomes clear that the hypnotherapist has been involved for considerably longer than what was originally suggested....Not to say any more in case I spoil it for anyone.

The development of plot and twists was okay, though it did not feel to be anything particularly well done. I was aware of not caring as to who came out on top and who was trodden on in the process, which suggests weak character development. I was aware of there being odd camera angles used, without understanding as to why this was being done. The central actors appeared fine and worked well with what they had. I felt that Rosario's character in particular was underused, and the film could have benefited from greater exploration of her character.

I found the film to not be exciting and was rather disappointed by it. I was not personally a fan of Danny Boyle's last film but one 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008), though having said that, I found it a lot more exciting and better made than this. I would struggle to recommend.

Rating: 4/10.  

Live Performance Review: Peter Gregson & Gabriel Prokofiev, Saturday 23.03.2013, 20:00, The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

This was a presentation of the duo's album Cello Multitracks. Peter Gregson had recorded all nine Cello parts of these pieces with the assistance of Prokofiev, and live it is performed with Peter performing one of the more complex parts live while the other recordings are played from separate speakers. There was performances of the tracks from the album as well as remixes.

I preferred the non-remixed. Elements of the remixed were okay, though there were also elements that sounded like fairly conventional 'dance' sounds just being laid on top of the Cello recording without much thought for how well synchronised/lined-up the sounds were.

Overall I would say it was an interesting performance and one which I did enjoy. I would jsut have preferred more of the non-remixed work.

Rating: 7/10.

Film Review: Post Tenebras Lux (18) (Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany 2012) (Director: Carlos Reygadas) (Spanish, English & French with English Subtitles) Friday 22.03.2013 20:45 The Filmhouse Cinema Screen Three, Edinburgh 

I was curious about this film due to my conflicted response to one of the directors previous films: 'Battle In Heaven' (2005).

The film centres around a well-off white Mexican family and how they, and in particular the father of the family, interact with their community, blood relatives and the day-to-day family. The film is a portrayal of the masculine patriarch's need to compete, dominate and have a sense of superiority. The portrayal of this is at times quite subtle. It shows how this approach to life can lead to conflict and general unhappiness. There is then an accident and the patriarch is forced into a position where he has to cooperate, is able to be aware of and grateful for what he has got and for the first time in the film expresses joy. The film also goes broader in scope to say that this destructive masculine way of being is nurtured by the way boys are brought up. The film's story and what it is trying to convey is told in what appears initially to be disconnected snatches of the family's life over an indefinite period of time.

The film is in 'Academy' ratio and is beautifully shot. There is no fault I can see with the performances. The film uses minimal dialogue and there are lengthy periods where the focus is on the lush landscapes and it's sounds. I suspect some would find the film impenetrable. There are also awkward moments such as the couple's holiday trip to a 'sauna' where the husband unveils his wife for the enjoyment of others. There then comes a bizarre moment where his wife's head is in the lap of an older French buxom lady, while the wife is being sexually satisfied by another and the buxom one is repeatedly telling her how beautiful she is and that she should allow her self to experience pleasure. I felt awkward, which is going some.

I found the way the film was conveying what was being expressed to be refreshing. I think I found the way it was portraying the competitive male to be more captivating than the actual film. The film appears to keep a distance from the characters being portrayed and if felt hard to care for the central characters. There was both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. It feels hard to recommend this to others.   

Rating: 6/10.

Film Review: Side Effects (15) (U.S.A. 2013) (Director: Steven Soderbergh) Saturday 16.03.2013 18:00 The Filmhouse Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh 

This review should serve as a reminder to me, not to trust trailers. I used to consciously try to ignore trailers as know they are designed to mislead. I knew that the trailer for this had made me more curious and I should have reminded myself of my previous stance - which I intend to return to. Also its cast leaves a lot to be desired. Jude Law I have limited tolerance of, Catherine Zeta-Jones I have less tolerance of and Channing Tatum I rather see injured than appearing in a film I am watching. Only Rooney Mara escapes my ire and that is only because she has not had enough of a career yet to be scathing about.  

Ostensibly the film concerns a young woman/wife (Rooney Mara) who presents as being depressed and a psychiatrist (Jude Law) prescribing a drug that is not yet fully regulated. Sounds fairly straightforward, and would have been a better film had it stuck to being an exploration of the practice of large pharmaceutical companies and how they get drugs into use. Instead it descends into a trashy '1990's' style crime film where those responsible turn out to be those 'pesky lesbians'. Because as we all know, if you are a lesbian you are also automatically a deviant. - Lazy & Ignorant.  

Another '90's' convention I thought any respectable film maker had moved away from is having non-english dialogue being spoken without any subtitles - because you the audience don't need to hear all that is being said, only the parts that the makers wish to highlight to you as being important. This is highly patronising. There are odd camera angles used for what appears to be no reason at all - causing me as an audience member not to be sat there thinking 'oh that's an interesting way to look at that', though instead 'what the f***'. There are irresponsible statements made about real medication such as beta-blockers (Bisoprolol Hemifumarate), which to me is very hard to justify. The film also has people making stupid statements such as that made by Rooney Mara's character while supposedly feeling helpless (to paraphrase) 'when I felt helpless before, I found structure to really help'.  bla bla bla...

Previously I said it descends into a trashy...I feel it is actually only fair to go further to say the whole film is trashy. It felt so badly written that it was angering. I would say the film is bland, banal, poppy, redundant and without any redeeming quality. I was so angered I was taking notes during the film to ensure I captured my annoyance (usually any distraction during a film would annoy me). I stayed to the end just to see how bad the whole thing gets...and you cannot get much worse than this. The film was so utterly crap that not even Channing's character being killed gave any joy. This is without doubt one of the worst films I have ever seen. Soderbergh has said this is his last film, all I can say in response to this is GOOD. No one needs more unimaginative and insulting films like this.     

Rating: 0/10 (If it was possible to give less than zero, I would).     

Film Review: Beyond The Hills (12A) (Romania/France/Belgium 2012) (Director: Cristian Mungiu) (Romanian with English Subtitles) Saturday 16.03.2013 14:00 The Filmhouse Cinema Screen Two, Edinburgh 

This is director Cristian Mungiu's follow-up film to the exceptional 'Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days' (4M3W2D) (2007), which I would regard as faultless 10/10 film. His new film concerns two young adult women, who were  intimate childhood friends while living in a orphanage together. At the start of the film they are reunited when one of them travels from Germany to visit the other who is residing in an orthodox monastery. The returning friend clearly wishes for more intimacy than the one who has taken religious orders is able to give. 

Due to a wish to be close to the one who lives by religious structure, the returning friend comes to put up with the invasive requirement to confess 'sins' committed and also to accept the accompanying penance. As the young woman comes to display resistance to her treatment as well as the generally oppressive atmosphere, those from the order escalate the nature of the 'assistance' they give to the young lady to a point where it is difficult to see it as anything other than barbaric persecution. Those from the order do see it differently, due to being blinded by their fervered following of christianity, they see it as trying to assist her to rid herself of evil spirits who had taken hold of her. Needless to say it all ends tragically. 

The film is a very good portrayal of the difficulty of trying to have centuries old traditions living alongside and being able to accept more liberal aspects of modernity. The performances I find find very difficult to find any fault with. The pace is quite labored until it reaches the crushendo of the persecution from the order to the young visitor. This is very good film, though I did not think it was as good or as fascinating as 4M3W2D. 

Rating: 9/10.        

Film Review: Side By Side (15) (U.S.A. 2012) (Director: Christopher Kenneally) Friday 08.03.2013 20:45 The Filmhouse Cinema Screen Two, Edinburgh 

This is a documentary for cineists. It interviews various people professionally involved in the film industry. This includes renowned directors, cinematographers, editors, colorists, special effects workers & film and camera developers among others. It is looking at both sides of the divide between those who prefer photo-chemical film and those who have transferred affections to digital technology.

It goes far beyond just looking at the capturing of the image, to all aspects of film-making affected by the rise of the digital age, and then to the impact on projecting and then the afterthought of preservation. I felt the film was balanced and gave enough time to people presenting the views in favor of celluloid or digital, with very good use of extensive examples. The film had enough depth to be genuinely interesting without going so deep as to loose the layman such as myself.

I also greatly liked the aspect that prior to watching this, I was well aware that there were those passionate on both sides, though I did not really understand any of the arguments (I understood that celluloid became scratched over time and older film discolored, that was the extent of my knowledge). I feel as if I now have more understanding of both perspectives, though no greater sense as to whether one side of the argument is more right than the other, just that the whole process and affects of differing materials within this is very complex. It even has Keanu Reeves conducting the interviews without getting in the way - a film he has not made worse due to his participation...some feat.

Rating: 10/10 (For Cineists). 

Film Review: We Are Northern Lights (12A) (U.K. 2013) (Director: Nick Higgins) Wednesday 06.03.2013 20:20 The Filmhouse Cinema, Screen Three, Edinburgh 

This is the culmination of a project to capture the 'essence of Scotland' on 'film'. Members of the public were invited to submit their unique visions of what they saw as the essence of Scotland. This is essentially an edited down imagining culled from the 1,500 submissions that were received. There were clips that did appear to have very little to do with any sense of, or relation to Scotland or Scottishness.

There appears limited order to what is presented, and from the footage presented I thought this could have been achieved to a greater degree just from what the film contained. The film did appear to come to several natural endings and then would just carry on. This gave a sense of dragging on just due to the poor editing/ordering of the footage. The film landed up feeling significantly longer than it was. I don't think I could have held concentration if I was trying to watch this on T.V., which I feel is it's more natural home (or as an industry tourist video to show to foreign markets). - Something of this nature I would reckon to have very limited commercial appeal, and could only come about as a result of government funding, and therefore it is almost impossible for it to remain neutral, and sadly is almost artistically worthless, except in terms of historical propaganda interest in years to come.   

There were a couple of pro Scottish independence statements which I did not approve of as this was not balanced with anti statements. Though then I realised that this was funded by Creative Scotland, who ultimately answer to the Scottish government i.e. the (in my view dreaded and racist) S.N.P.. So it is easy to understand why there was a clear and ugly bias. There were also several scenes of either peoples joy at returning to Scotland from England or trepidation at the prospect of entering England, which just struck me as petty and shortsighted.

Now that the criticisms are out of the way...there are quite a few very funny passages in the film, and the footage of the Scottish countryside, particularly the highlands, which I found quite beautiful and reminded me of the beauty of where I come from (without showing you the narrowminded attitudes of many of those who live in these remote and beautiful places...don't want to put of those tourists now).

Rating:
(5/10 in terms of the enjoyment of some of the footage)
2/10 as a result of the politically unsubtle overtone. 

Film Review: Stoker (18), (U.K./U.S.A. 2013) (Director: Park Chan-Wook), Friday 01.03.2013 20:45 & Sunday 03.03.2013 15:40, The Cameo Cinema, Screen One, Edinburgh, & Monday 29.04.2013 20:30 Filmhouse Screen One

As soon as I heard of this film I was intrigued due to it having been made by Chan-Wook Park, the director behind the fantastic 'Old Boy' (2003), though I was also equally put of by it featuring Nicole Kidman, an actress I usually take every precaution to avoid. Having heard some positive crits, I decided to give it a go. 

There are big twists central to the story, so I'll to not say too much in regard to the plot, as to not risk giving away the twists. The film concerns corrosive family secrets, mental illness, sexual awakening and how people are always more than what we know of them. Nicole Kidman's character, the widow, appears pleasingly (in my eyes) dumb by the end. Matthew Goode (recently in BBC2's Dancing On The Edge) is very good as the cold sociopathic uncle Charlie, who the other family members know very little about. 

The central character, the daughter India, is played by Mia Wasikowska. Her performance is extremely impressive, displaying restraint around the judging family and greater extremes elsewhere as a balancing release, while at times appearing to be unsure as to who she sees herself to be. Her manner of holding herself, her movement and what she does with her eyes I found to be quite sharp yet vulnerable and sensual. There are scenes including where she brushes her mother's hair, where she subtly portrays the pleasure of awakening awareness of sex and sexuality, in a manner that I found to be quickening. There is also a 'piano duet' which is particularly well performed and which lingers on the difficulty of restraint when first becoming familiar with arousal.  

The film is stylish and beautiful throughout, with scenes that are surprising as to what is visually focused upon, while bringing out the striking in the mundane. The film has noir elements, there are aspects where it is not clear as to how aware some characters are as to what is going on and therefore how complicit they may be.  

While Old Boy left with a sense of the desperateness of revenge and the restorative power of acceptance, Stoker leaves with a sense of empowerment and chilling nihilistic dislocation.

There are elements such as the arousal created by someone coming to rescue that results in murder, that could be labeled grubby, perverse and that dreaded term 'dark'. I think it could equally been seen as having a refreshing lack of saccharine dusting, and as a legitimate addressing of emotional reactions that are all to possible in real life.

I experienced this as a very satisfying watch of which I could find no fault and which has left elements strongly lingering. I would recommend to others who don't need films to have nice sweet resolutions, though I am clear that this will not appeal to the masses. I was captivated enough that I went to see it twice in three days. Easily the best fictional film of the year to date. (Not even Ms. Kidman could ruin this this one.)

Upon seeing for a third time, I was struck by the plethora of subtleties, an attention to detail & the exquisite imagery and framing throughout; a masterpiece.   

Rating: 10/10.