Film Review: Nebraska (15) (U.S.A. 2013) (Director: Alexander Payne),  The Cameo Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Saturday 07.12.2013, 20:00

This is film is by the same director who made 'About Schmidt' (2002), 'Sideways' (2004) & 'The Descendants' (2012). Of these I greatly enjoyed About Schmidt, though I do have soft spot for Jack Nicholson, I found Sideways annoying and The Descendants I was not attracted to as it has 'Gorgeous' George Clooney in it. I was attracted to see this one due to the main character being played by Bruce Dern.

The film centres around an older coot of a gentleman Woody Grant, played by Bruce Dern, who believes one of these pieces of junk mail that tells him he has won $1,000,000. He is no longer allowed to drive and at the beginning of the film we see him walking along busy roads on-route across two states to collect his winnings. This then becomes a means to have him and family (as well as wider acquaintances) to come together to reminisce on days past. With others believing him to come into a substantial sum of money, old scores get aired along with requests/demands for money. Towards the end of the film, the son who has tried to assist Woody throughout the film, becomes very generous towards him, in a way I found to be a bit of a stretch.

The film is gently paced and it has a couple of fine performances from Bruce Dern as the bull-headed full-hardy old codger, though even greater for comic relief is June Squibb as his long suffering wife. She has some fantastically funny moments and her character is an absolute joy.The film may have been a lot more difficult without her as relief to Woody's doggedly confused state.      

Rating: 07/10.

Film Review: Jeunne & Jolie (18) (France 2013) (Director: Francois Ozon) (French with English Subtitles),  The Cameo Cinema Screen Three, Edinburgh, Monday 02.12.2013, 21:00

The film title, I believe translates as 'Young & Beautiful'. The film centres upon a seventeen year old girl called Isabelle played by Marine Vacth. I understand that Marine is known as a model in France and that this is her first acting role. Isabelle comes from a well educated and reasonably well off middle class family in Paris. After her first sexual encounter she decides to become a prostitute. When her family find out as they inevitably do, they are perplexed as Isabelle is underage and her background does not help to engender understanding.

The film was slammed by critics for being solely surface with no depth. I would disagree, I feel that the film in the second half goes on to explore grief and how Isabelle having done this for a period may have it come to flavour potentially all subsequent intimate relations. I would say that the film also quite gently addresses differing reasoning and behaviour of 'punters' towards prostitutes.

The film never does fully resolve why Isabelle started to do this. I think it is not beyond the realms of possibility that she knows she is beautiful, sex can be fun and exciting (particularly when you are in the early stages of exploration), and it is a way of earning a fairly substantial sum of money: autonomy. I also think it is quite probable that in such a situation, setting out to do this work that someone is unlikely to think of the possible negative outcomes, otherwise why would they begin.

Marine Vacth was impressive and quite able to express emotion with rawness. She was also quite beautiful, like a younger Vanessa Paradis, though without the gap in the teeth. The film also had a great soundtrack with the likes of Crystal Castles and Francoise Hardy on it, and towards the end there is a great Cameo by Charlotte Rampling just for good measure. A perfectly engaging, enjoyable film.

Rating: 08/10.      

Film Review: Blue Is The Warmest Colour (18) (France 2013) (Director: Abdellatif Kechiche) (French with English Subtitles), The Filmhouse Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Saturday 30.11.2013, 17:20

This is the film that won the Palme d'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival. The film winning was deemed controversial and I'm not clear why. Usually this is awarded to the director of the film, though it was presented to the director and the two lead actresses.

The film follows Adele played by Adele Exarchopoulos for the duration of the film, starting when she is fifteen and still at school. Adele along with others of her age is beginning a process/period of sexual exploration. She starts with boys, though then an older girl, Emma, an art student, catches her eye and she finds her affections growing towards this girl and in turn they develop an intense relationship.

The film is three hours long, though never feels as though dragging, which to me is always a sign of a well made and edited film. The performance by Adele Exarchopoulos is of particular note, in this film it appeared as though nothing was beyond expression for her. At time she appeared particularly raw and vulnerable.

The actress playing Emma, Lea Seydoux, is the more established actress, though her performance struck me as having a coldness which made it hard to warm to her character. Sadly I felt the film was tokenistic in how it brought in some other elements of the characters lives, such as their families.

Now is time for me to be possibly controversial. This film was raved about by critics and lauded with prestigious award, yet I would say that the film although centering upon a lesbian couple, does not inform regarding the nature of intimate relationships with any greater or differing depth than other films I have seen that centre upon heterosexual relationships. (Possibly this is the point, that ultimately intimate relations of any kind can have similar issues such as subservience and imbalance of focus/attention.) It is due to this that I struggle to understand why this film was lauded to the degree it was. The film may be well acted and edited, though its story is sadly lacking. This has also lead me to wonder whether the overwhelming positive attention it received was due to it centering upon a lesbian relationship, so that those responding/commenting can appear 'politically correct', if this were the case this would be just as disappointing due to also being tokenistic. - Though I do also feel I have to express that I think it is great that a film centering around a 'gay' relationship has had as much attention as this has got, it is just a shame it is not a better film.      

If you wish to see a recent great film by this director, I recommend watching 'Cous Cous' (2007), and if you wish to see a recent great film about a gay relationship, I would recommend watching 'Weekend' (2011). Though Adele Exarchopoulos is an actress to look our for in the future.

Rating: 06/10.