Film Review - Kumiko The Treasure Hunter

Sundance 2015 Review - Forbidden Room (2015)

Sundance 2015 Review - True Story (2015)

Sundance 2015 Review - Mississippi Grind (2015)

Blu-ray Review - Maps to the Stars (2014)

Blu-ray Review - Bad Timing (1980)

Genre:
Psychological Drama
Distributor:
Network
Release Date:
26th January 2015
Rating: 18
Director:
Nicolas Roeg
Cast: Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell, Harvey Keitel
Buy: Blu-ray - Bad Timing
Bad Timing is a film that marks the end of an extraordinary run of films by director Nicolas Roeg. He made his name being a cinematographer in the 1960s but through a series of films such as Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, and The Man Who Fell to Earth he became quite arguably the finest British director of the 1970s. The 1980s would become an extremely difficult time for Roeg, but Bad Timing is there among his best.

Art Garfunkel plays the extremely creepy psychoanalyst (but is there really a different kind?) Alex Linden, who is having a very complicated but passion love affair with Milena Flaherty (Theresa Russell) in Vienna. Milena has overdosed in an apparent suicide attempt and a local detective is trying to piece together what happened. The audience also tries to piece it together, as they discover the relationship between Alex and Milena though non-linear flashbacks. Alex is a suspect in some form of foul play and he is forced to come to terms with his motives.

The casting of Art Garfunkel is fascinating; Roeg is a master of getting strong performances out of musicians like David Bowie and Mick Jagger. Garfunkel certainly has an air of a creepy intellectual, which was what Roeg wanted - he was his first and only choice for the role. He also has a strange off-kilter smugness that is reminiscent of Jesse Eisenberg. Garfunkel only did a handful of films and it’s a shame cause he certainly had some ability as an actor.

This was the first major role of Theresa Russell and she brings a rare intensity to her portrayal of the troubled Milena. She would marry and divorce Nicolas Roeg and star in much of his work from Bad Timing onwards. Harvey Keitel also co-stars as the inspector on the case, and despite not even attempting to do an Austrian accent, it is strong early role of his that is not from a Martin Scorsese film.

Overall, Bad Timing is a fascinating, fractured psychosexual thriller which two strong leads. The cinematography by Anthony Richmond is quite gorgeous, it’s a shame he shoots terrible comedies now. The film was extremely controversial on release, with some branding it’s sexual content ‘tasteless’, however it has become a minor classic in the rich career of Nicolas Roeg. The disc contains an interview with Jeremy Thomas, one of the few film producers who continuously takes risks, along with the trailers and deleted scenes.

★★★★
Ian Schultz

Berlinale 2015 - Watch The Trailer For Opening Gala Nobody Wants The Night Starring Juliet Binoche

2015 Cinehouse And The People's Movies are hoping to spread our wings internationally and next week we will at Sundance Film Festival.In February we also hope to attend Berlin for the first time and today we get our first look at the trailer for the opening film Nobody Wants The Night.

Starring Juliette Binoche, Gabriel Byrne and Rinko Kukuchi, Nobody Wants The Night is set in 1908 a true story that accounts of an upper class womanJosephine (Binoche) who braves the dangerous Artic conditions. She is however the wife of celebrated adventurer Robert Peary however she's not only woman braving the elements Allaka (Kikuchi)  pregnant  to meet her lover and father of her child who happens to be same man Josephine is heading to. After an event  both women as they attempt to survive the most hospitable conditions on Earth.



It's refreshing to see Survival tales from a woman as epic adventures usually one taken by a man, it's also a slight unusual twist on romance too. Fantastic cast and certain to get a good festival run  then a UK distribution, which you could see someone like Artificial Eye, Soda Pictures, Studiocanal picking this film up.

Nobody Wants The Night is directed by Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet filmed in Norway and Tnerife, Spain.,Berlin Film Festival opens 5th February.

source:Twitch

Blu-ray Review - Two Faces Of January (2014)

Blu-Ray Review - Victim (1961)

Genre: Drama
Distributor: Network
BD Release Date: 28th July 2014 (UK)
Rating: 12
Running Time: 105
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Slyvia Syms, Dennis Price, Nigel Stock
Buy: Victim Blu-Ray

The year is 1961 and homosexuality in the UK is still a crime, this was also the year that filmVictim was released.  It became famous for being the first film in the English language to use the word “homosexual” and one of the first films with a sympathetic portrayal of a gay man. It is also widely believed to have played a role in the eventual overturning of the law banning homosexuality.

The police are after a young man named Jack Barrett who has stolen money from his employer and is on the run. He tries to get in contact with the barrister Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde) who is married but in reality is gay and had an affair with the young man. Barrett commits suicide after he is caught but Melville is blackmailed.

Dirk Bogarde was widely known to be gay but rarely spoke about his own sexuality even in his own autobiography. It took him astonishing courage to take up the part in Victim in 1961 and gives a wonderfully paranoid performance throughout the film. It was a game changer and an important film for Bogarde’s career and for cinematic history.

The cinematography has a slight noir tinge which suits the material very well; Otto Heller who photographed many of the finest British films ever made such as Peeping Tom, The Ladykillers and The Ipcress File shot it. Basil Dearden-who did some of the most unique films to come out of the 50s and 60s British industry, directed it.

Network has done a very impressive disc for such an important film. The transfer is clean and has the right amount of contrast and grain. The features include a half an hour interview with Bogarde shot during the release of Victim and it also includes publicity materials like the original trailer and stills.

★★★★
Ian Schultz

Blu-Ray Review - Rapture

Blu-ray Review - Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Blu-Ray Review - This Sporting Life (1963)

Masters Of Cinema Blu-ray Review - Boomerang! (1947)

Film Review - Stranger By The Lake (L'inconnu du lac)

Review - Nebraska

Genre:
Drama, Comedy
Distributor:
Paramount Pictures UK
Release Date:
6th December 2013 (UK)
Rating:
15
Director:
Alexander Payne
Cast:
Bruce Dern, Will Forte, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keech, June Squibb

Nebraska is the latest film by Alexander Payne and quite possibly his finest film to date. It stars the always wonderful Bruce Dern stars as Woody Grant who falls for the age old winning $1,000,000 letter scam and wants to go all the way to Lincoln, Nebraska to get the money. The role was originally intended for Jack Nicholson but turned it down and in many ways that’s a good thing cause it would have became a JACK movie.

Woody is an alcoholic grumpy old man with Alzheimer’s who realises he has wasted his life. The letter comes though the door and it’s one thing he can put some hope on even though he knows somewhere it’s all a scam. Woody annoys his long-suffering wife with the letter and other relatives. His son David (Will Forte) eventually agrees to drive him all the way to the return address on the letter. They meet relatives, old friends and grow closer on the way in a sentimental level but not in a sugary sweet way.

The film is in many ways similar to Payne’s previous films especially About Schmidt and to a lesser extent his last film The Descendants. Both films are about a man in the twilight years of their life and both films face morality. It however works a lot better than both of those films due to the surprise casting of the Bruce Dern in the kind of role he never gets. It’s also it’s just paced better than both of those films which has been a problem for Payne in the past especially About Schmidt.

The film full of great characters actors not just Bruce Dern in a rare starring role but Stacy Keech and everyone’s favourite Sleazy Lawyer Bob Odenkirk from Breaking Bad as Woody’s other son. Nebraska harkens back to the old days of character-based films of the 1970s, which is evident in the way the story is told as is the casting of Dern and Keach. It’s a one of the year’s finest films and it was one of the highlights of the Leeds film festival.

★★★★★

Ian Schultz

Blu-Ray Review - Heaven's Gate Restored Edition (1980)

Genre:
Western, Drama,
Distributor:
Second Sight
Rating:
15
BD/DVD Release Date:
25th November 2013 (UK)
Director:
Michael Cimino
Cast:
Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Isabelle Huppert, Sam Waterston
Buy Heaven's Gate 2 disc restored edition:
[Blu-ray] / [DVD]

Heaven’s Gate, in the last thirty years or so, has created a reputation for being one of the most notorious flops in the history of film. In the past thirty years since its initial lukewarm reception it has been considered a masterpiece by many critics, but it’s equally reviled as being one of the worst films ever made, albeit that viewpoint has increasingly dwindled in recent years.

The making of Heaven’s Gate is as infamous as the film itself; it went wildly over budget, there are confirmed stories that the director Michael Cimino would literally wait for exactly the right cloud in the sky, and there are unconfirmed reports that a sizeable amount of the budget went on cocaine for the cast and crew.There’s been a very famous book on the making of called Final Cut, which was later made into a TV documentary which is included on this disc. It has been cited as the single film that took the power from the director, which was very much a thing of the 70s to more studio-controlled films, which is still sadly the case.

The story of Heaven’s Gate is relatively simple it’s about Jim Averill (Kris Kristofferson) who is a marshal in Johnson County, Wyoming. Averill is from money but has rejected his classes’ rejected attitude to the poor immigrates of Johnson County. The immigrates sometimes steal the rich cattle barons’ stock for food and the cattle owners have decided to create a kill list and have hired men to do the job and have got political power from Washington to do so. The rest of film shows the people of Johnson County and the war they fight with the cattle barons.

The film’s initial reaction from New York Times critic Vincent Canby has went down in history as one of the most infamous bad reviews with the line “it fails so completely that you might suspect Mr. Cimino sold his soul to obtain the success of The Deer Hunter and the Devil has just come around to collect.” The truth of the matter is it’s actually a better film than the much-loved The Deer Hunter and a more interesting film; it doesn't have the tour de force of the legendary Russian roulette scenes. It’s a considerably slower film but Cimino’s intention was to transport you to experience the west, as it was not some romantic version, which is so often the case.

The cinematography of the film is some of the best ever committed to film so some initial reviews like saving “there are no redeeming features” is absurd. Vilmos Zsigmond who was the cinematographer of the 1970s shot it. The famous roller skating scene is spellbinding and there are shots in the film, which are literally just jaw dropping in their beauty.

The cast Cimino complied is simply outstanding including Kris Kristofferson in possibly his finest performance. Christopher Walken is great as usual as one of the hired killers. The film’s supporting cast is complied which like people as Jeff Bridges, John Hurt and a very young Mickey Rourke and if you watch carefully you can spot a young Willem Dafoe in the cockfighting scene. The one flaw in casting is Isabelle Huppert as madam of a whorehouse in Wyoming but even that works cause the film is almost dreamlike at times.

Heaven’s Gate seems to have become a modern classic for many and rightfully so, it’s a film that has became legendary for the both the right and wrong reasons. It deserves the 2nd chance it’s now receiving with the recent theatrical and Blu-ray reissues here and across the pond in the USA. It’s well worth the 3 hours and 40 minutes of your time.

★★★★★

Ian Schultz

This is a shared review with The People's Movies

Top American History Dramas (Parkland Feature)

PARKLAND is a historical drama recounting the chaotic events that occurred in the Parkland hospital and elsewhere in Dallas following John F. Kennedy’s assassination. In anticipation of the release of the new movie, we are taking a look at the top American historical drama films in cinema.

LINCOLN (2013)

Directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln is a historical drama that follows the final four months of Lincoln’s life, primarily focusing on his efforts to have the thirteenth amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the House of Representatives. The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards winning Best Achieving in Production Design and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.

Argo (2012)

This nail biting thriller follows a CIA agent as he instigates an undercover mission to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1980. The film is based on the CIA operative Tony Mendez’s book The Master of Disguise and The Great Escape by Joshuah Bearman. Argo received widespread acclaim and seven Academy Award nominations and won three, for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Picture. The film also won five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director.

The Patriot (2000)

The Patriot is an American historical war film depicting the story of an American, widowed, father of seven as he is swept into the American Revolutionary War when his family threatened by the British. The protagonist, Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), is a composite character based on four real American Revolutionary War heroes. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and became a classic American film.

Apollo 13 (1995)

The incredibly journey of Americas’ third Moon landing aboard Apollo 13 is portrayed through this docudrama film directed by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton. Surviving an on-board explosion which deprives the spacecraft of most of its oxygen supply and electric power, forcing an abort mission and struggling to get home, the film is packed with non-stop suspense. Apollo 13 received critical acclaim and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning two. The film grossed over $335 million worldwide during its theatrical release and is an American classic.

PARKLAND (2013)

One of the most shocking moments in TV history, and a major event in the history of the United States and the wider world, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy set in motion events that would change lives, and the world, forever. The new film Parkland retraces the actions of some of the lesser-known players on that fateful day in 1963 – the staff of the Parkland Hospital, some of the bystanders, and members of the FBI and Secret Service. A must-see, delving into the details of the people behind the scenes, Parkland is the latest film to show an important drama in US history.

PARKLAND is released in the UK on November 22nd.

Le Week End Review

Certificate:
15 (UK)
Release:
11th of October 2013
Distributor:
Curzon Film World
Director:
Roger Michell
Stars:
Lindsay Duncan, Jim Broadbent, Jeff Goldblum

Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan starring in a classy drama about the ever-changing relationship of two married sixty-somethings sounds like a must-see with more than a little allusion of Richard Linklater's Before... series. Whilst the lead performances are quite excellent, what exactly director Roger Michell has to say is never quite clear.

Le Week-End follows Nick (Broadbent) and Meg (Duncan) - a long-married British couple who travel to Paris for a weekend break. However, this is not plain sailing as the couple's relationship problems come to the forefront.

Nick and Meg are not likeable protagonists - which is by no means a bad thing, it simply results in a lack of compassion and engagement towards the pair. Both characters key attribute is their overwhelming sympathy for themselves - Meg feels unfulfilled (and has no issue about letting it be known) and Nick is a man plagued by demons of self-doubt and fear of abandonment. Both Broadbent and Duncan ensure that Le Week-Ending is watchable and strip back the veneer of faux-sentimentality that we traditionally see in the romantic drama. However, it is Michell's depiction of the couple's relationship that proved truly troubling to this reviewer.

Perhaps as a younger viewer, Le Week-End is alienating in that the complexities of a twenty-five year plus-marriage are not something that tends to be thought about a lot. Apologies for using that old cliché, but is love not supposed to be a universal language - regardless of what age or stage it is at? Le Week-End as a representation of how relationships can yo-yo is a fine one, but an extreme one: Nick and Meg can go from the height of intense love to threatening each other with divorce in the space of one short scene. It is this extreme change in dynamic that means it is never easy to grasp what exactly Michell is trying to say - other than people and relationships change and are not simple.

This results in a watch that is not particularly compelling to the average viewer. Yes there will be occasions where we can all relate to the impromptu moments of fun, blood-minded arguments, self-doubt, and unhappiness - although in this high volume it feels somewhat erratic and ultimately draining. The introduction of Jeff Goldblum's character Morgan - Nick's old university pal - perks things up through a spirited performance that only he is capable of. However like Goldblum's character, it is hard not to think that Le Week-End is slightly full of itself and smug about its own complexities.

Fortunately, cinematography from Nathalie Durand, captures the blustery Autumn of Paris and fits the tone of Michell's bittersweet feature, often resulting in a picturesque watch.

It is the stellar performances from Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan that dominate bitterly complex, and often alienating Le Week-End which may prove more of a hit with older audiences.

★★½☆

Andrew McArthur

Spike Island Review

This one could not have come along at a better time. The Stone Roses' return to the music scene last year, followed up by gigs in London a little over a week ago, and Shane Meadows' eulogizing love letter-cum-documentary, has seen interest in the band at its highest in decades.

Not since they signed off with a Reading festival set so dire that it has since assumed the status of arguably the worst live performance of any Manchester band, have The Roses been so bloody prevalent. There's a palpable wave of goodwill for Spike Island to surf, which can only help its chance of finding an audience beyond devotes of the baggy quartet.

Mat Whitecross' tale of youthful abandon centres around The Roses' 1990 gig at Spike Island (near Widnes), a show which may even have attained an even greater mythical standing than the aforementioned palava, and a young band's desperate attempts to ensure they are involved in the fun and games.

Young Tits (Elliott Tittensor) and his bands mates, the venerable Shadowcastre, are having a right time of it kicking about their Manchester estate. School's a drag and life at home ain't much better for the gang, a preposterously named bunch of mononymous toe-rags, sporting monikers that wouldn't sound out of place amongst the well-thumbed pages of The Beano; Dodge is on rhythm guitar and Zippy the drums, leaving Penfold to assume the role of poor-man's Bez.

The boys idolise the The Stone Roses and will stop at nothing to crash their upcoming gig and make forge a reputation for themselves.

It's a coming-of-age, right-of-passage tale which certainly packs enough youthful energy to keep the show rolling along, even if it times it feels as if the script may have been cribbed from a copy of the Mancunian Book of Cliches.

The dialogue frequently descends into extended bursts of Manc patois but it's a good-as-gold tale of working class, northern ecentricity and music. Which in itself is no bad thing, but all this swaggering and floppy hair might not translate south of Crewe.

At times the the drudgery and domestic strife feels laboured and unwelcome, but at it's heart it's a film about the music; a story with a rock and roll sentiment, which should render it palatable for anyone with anything approaching an interest in great British music.

★★★☆☆

Chris Banks

Rating: 15
Release Date: 21st June 2013 (UK)
Director: Mat Whitecross
Cast:  Elliott Tittensor, Nico Mirallegro, Jordan Murphy, Emilia Clarke

Teen In Trouble For Tiff Winning Blackbird Trailer

Alot of films win awards at film festivals but when its one of the big Festivals such as Toronto you have to take notice. Jason Buxton's Blackbird was that film winning Best Canadian film at last year's festival a joint win with Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral and tonight before the film starts its tour of the American/Canadian cinemas a brand new trailer has been released.

Blackbird tells the story of an alienated teenager's online threat ignites fear in a small community, in this disturbing and perceptive look at how our media-fuelled, post-Columbine culture can transform typical teen angst into intimations of murder.

How ironic most of all relevant Blackbird plot line to whats happening with Social media right now  and the dangers that occur using it. Let's be honest we've all experienced teen angst in our lives some of us suppressed others let it out but no technology has evolved and so are the way frustrated souls let out their anger too.

No word on a UK release but Blackbird will be released in Canada 10th May 2013. The film also stars Connor Jessup, Alexia Fast, Michael Buie, and Alex Ozerov.


source:Thefilmstage