The directing debut of acting and Oscar winning screen-writing duo Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, The Way Way Back is a charming coming of age film perfectly timed for the American Summer Vacation. Duncan (Liam James) is an awkward teenage who is being taken on an awkward holiday with his mum Pam (Toni Collette) and her new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell). He would prefer to be with his dad, but he’s setting up a new life with his much younger new wife, so Duncan is instead being whisked off to the beach by sleazy Trent, where he tries to occupy himself for as long as possible during the daylight hours so as not to spend time at the family home. While in town one day he meets Owen (Sam Rockwell), the enigmatic owner of the local water park. Duncan decides to go and check the park out one day, and seeing that the boy is a little lost and in need of a friend, Owen hires him and takes him under his fatherly wing.
Meanwhile the girl next door (Anna Sophia Robb), also a child of divorce, takes an interest in the quiet, mysterious Duncan. There’s the usual family drama’s that occur throughout, and a lot of antics at the water park; this is a text book summer vacation movie, but with a difference. Carell is menacing as the creepy step dad, and his usual comical performance is replaced by something a little sinister. Sam Rockwell is brilliantly enigmatic as the inspiring, unassuming father figure who just wants to have a little fun, Allison Janney delivers her usual flare as the drunk next door neighbour and Psych regular Liam James, though he seems to take a while to warm into the role, delivers a nuanced performance as the awkward teenager on an epic journey of self-discovery.
Jim Rash gives a great cameo as the hypochondriac and morbidly depressed swimming supplies booth operator, and Nat Faxon is the cheeky slide operator Roddy. The Way, Way Back is a fun, light comedy, uniquely charming and thoroughly enjoyable. Go and see this film.
4 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Greetings From Tim Buckley (2012)
Hot off the heels of the big reveal on Gossip Girl, Penn Badgley stars as the troubled rocker Jeff Buckley in the biopic of his rise to fame. Focusing on his involvement in the 1991 tribute concert held for his estranged father, Greetings From Tim Buckley depicts the troubled relationship between the two, and the struggles of the younger to break free of the shackles of his infamous lothario father.
The film doesn’t sugar coat the fact that Jeff was abandoned by his father, but it also shows a young Tim Buckley (played tenderly and innocently by new-comer Ben Rosenfield) struggling to balance the limelight and the harsh light of day. Tim was an influential musician, people are constantly telling Jeff how much they loved his fathers music and how alike they look, but he also seemed to be a pretentious twat who met his son twice in his whole life.
The music of Tim Buckley is the major focus in the film, with flashbacks to Tim in his hey-day, and rehearsals for the concert happening throughout the film, the connection between the two is profound, and the tension it causes is paramount to the beauty and tragedy of both performers. Badgley handles himself amazingly, performing many of the numbers in the film, including the moving solo at the conclusion of the film. However, supporting roles were underdeveloped and under-used, such as the beautiful and mysterious love interest Allie (Imogen Poots), who helps Jeff a great deal in dealing with his emotions, but whose motivations are never really clear.
While the two performers at the centre of this film are legendary and their lives were both cut tragically short, the film feels pretentious and preaching the destructive rocker life-style a little hard. The performances are great, the music is wonderful, the subject matter is incredibly interesting but not handled with the greatest care, particularly one disturbing scene of Jeff crying alone in his hotel room at the end of the film which feels as if it has randomly been slapped in there for some underwhelming, unreferenced character development.
All in all Greetings From Tim Buckley is an interesting biopic about two interesting figures in musical history and weird connection between the veritable strangers.
3 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
The film doesn’t sugar coat the fact that Jeff was abandoned by his father, but it also shows a young Tim Buckley (played tenderly and innocently by new-comer Ben Rosenfield) struggling to balance the limelight and the harsh light of day. Tim was an influential musician, people are constantly telling Jeff how much they loved his fathers music and how alike they look, but he also seemed to be a pretentious twat who met his son twice in his whole life.
The music of Tim Buckley is the major focus in the film, with flashbacks to Tim in his hey-day, and rehearsals for the concert happening throughout the film, the connection between the two is profound, and the tension it causes is paramount to the beauty and tragedy of both performers. Badgley handles himself amazingly, performing many of the numbers in the film, including the moving solo at the conclusion of the film. However, supporting roles were underdeveloped and under-used, such as the beautiful and mysterious love interest Allie (Imogen Poots), who helps Jeff a great deal in dealing with his emotions, but whose motivations are never really clear.
While the two performers at the centre of this film are legendary and their lives were both cut tragically short, the film feels pretentious and preaching the destructive rocker life-style a little hard. The performances are great, the music is wonderful, the subject matter is incredibly interesting but not handled with the greatest care, particularly one disturbing scene of Jeff crying alone in his hotel room at the end of the film which feels as if it has randomly been slapped in there for some underwhelming, unreferenced character development.
All in all Greetings From Tim Buckley is an interesting biopic about two interesting figures in musical history and weird connection between the veritable strangers.
3 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
Sunday, July 21, 2013
The World's End (2013)
It has been more than 10 years since Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright teamed up to make Shaun Of The Dead, thus beginning the aptly named “Cornetto Trilogy”, and finally, the trilogy comes to a close with The World’s End. Sticking with the genre-spoof theme, The World’s End is an end of the world science-fiction film where a group of old school mates are coaxed back to their home town in order to finish a pub crawl they couldn’t quite complete in their teen years, but the locals are a bit weird.
There are some twists and turns and the plot thickens to a point, but it didn’t quite go far enough. The beautiful thing about the science-fiction genre is that you can take it anywhere you want it to go, and if you’re spoofing it, you can make up any old excuse for anything that happens, but unlike Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, the focus wasn’t on the genre stereotypes, but on the development of the characters. Simon Pegg plays Gary King, a perpetual teenager whose life did not get any better after high school. He’s a dick, basically, who never quite redeems himself, or makes up for the shit he’s done to his friends.
As representatives for Earth go, he wouldn’t be first choice, but he is in the right place at the right time to put in his two cents worth, and messing up everything. There are some stellar moments, such as identical twins who have been destroyed by Gary King only to come back to life with rotating legs for arms, but for the most part the films feels like it is perpetually ramping up to something exciting that never happens. There’s no ridiculous high speed car chase/shoot out, no major realisation in the pathetic main character who should have so much potential (besides chaos and alcoholism), it’s just a few awesome fight sequences, a little bit of dilly dallying about what to call the alien invaders, some reminiscing and a ridiculous ending that is way off centre and seemingly just slapped on the end like a final chapter that was never published with the original.
Pre-final sequence, the film is enjoyable, the supporting cast are on-key, Nick Frost is a bang-on lovable loon, Martin Freeman is a great up-tight loser who is constantly attached to his blue-tooth head piece, and there are notable guest appearances from Cornetto Trilogy regulars such as Bill Nighy and David Bradley. So grab a Cornetto, lower your expectations, and enjoy the finale of the trilogy.
3 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
There are some twists and turns and the plot thickens to a point, but it didn’t quite go far enough. The beautiful thing about the science-fiction genre is that you can take it anywhere you want it to go, and if you’re spoofing it, you can make up any old excuse for anything that happens, but unlike Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, the focus wasn’t on the genre stereotypes, but on the development of the characters. Simon Pegg plays Gary King, a perpetual teenager whose life did not get any better after high school. He’s a dick, basically, who never quite redeems himself, or makes up for the shit he’s done to his friends.
As representatives for Earth go, he wouldn’t be first choice, but he is in the right place at the right time to put in his two cents worth, and messing up everything. There are some stellar moments, such as identical twins who have been destroyed by Gary King only to come back to life with rotating legs for arms, but for the most part the films feels like it is perpetually ramping up to something exciting that never happens. There’s no ridiculous high speed car chase/shoot out, no major realisation in the pathetic main character who should have so much potential (besides chaos and alcoholism), it’s just a few awesome fight sequences, a little bit of dilly dallying about what to call the alien invaders, some reminiscing and a ridiculous ending that is way off centre and seemingly just slapped on the end like a final chapter that was never published with the original.
Pre-final sequence, the film is enjoyable, the supporting cast are on-key, Nick Frost is a bang-on lovable loon, Martin Freeman is a great up-tight loser who is constantly attached to his blue-tooth head piece, and there are notable guest appearances from Cornetto Trilogy regulars such as Bill Nighy and David Bradley. So grab a Cornetto, lower your expectations, and enjoy the finale of the trilogy.
3 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
The Big Lebowski Second Annual Bash at The Astor
The Big Lebowski is a classic piece of black comedy from iconic filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, it’s been around for 15 years and has built up quite a fan base in that time. The film inspires dress ups and avid participation from audiences at special screenings, several of which have happened around the world since the inaugural event last year at the Astor theatre in St Kilda. There were White Russian’s aplenty and excitement was building as we were called into the cinema to begin proceedings.
First came a bit of trivia about the film with small prizes, a costume competition, the men’s category of which was won by Neville, a man who had come all the way from Perth for the event, for his 70th birthday, who’s sons came dressed as the band Autobahn. All this made no sense to a first timer who saved their first viewing of the film for a special occasion, and I was ready for the film to begin.
“The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is mistaken for the millionaire Lebowski by a couple of thugs looking for a debt to be settled. The Dude decides to go see his counterpart for compensation after the thugs urinate on his rug and finds himself running money to some shady characters on the millionaire Lebowski’s behalf. What should have been a one off job with a big payout turns into much more trouble when The Dude’s buddy Walter (John Goodman) gets involved.
Endlessly quotable, over the top and ridiculous, The Big Lebowski is simply put, a comedy classic, and the event is a must for lovers of the film to dress up, drink milk kahlua and vodka, and have a good old time with some fellow nuts. Jeff Bridges is classic as The Dude, effortlessly cool, and amazingly chill in a multitude of ridiculous situations, Julianne Moore is incredibly sexy as the bohemian, jilted daughter of the millionaire Lebowski and Steve Buscemi is so cute as a young, clueless Donnie – The Dude and Walters bowling buddy. John Turturro makes a classic cameo as Jesus the weird, offensive bowling creep who likes to clean his balls.
Lactose intolerant people may not need to worry about getting involved in the White Russian action next year as I went to a convenience store and bought my own soy, that’s how great this event is, you just want to get involved. Plus after the film you can get a burger from the in n out burger downstairs. It’s probably not the best way to see the film for the first time, but it certainly makes it memorable.
Film: 4.5 stars, Event: 5 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
First came a bit of trivia about the film with small prizes, a costume competition, the men’s category of which was won by Neville, a man who had come all the way from Perth for the event, for his 70th birthday, who’s sons came dressed as the band Autobahn. All this made no sense to a first timer who saved their first viewing of the film for a special occasion, and I was ready for the film to begin.
“The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is mistaken for the millionaire Lebowski by a couple of thugs looking for a debt to be settled. The Dude decides to go see his counterpart for compensation after the thugs urinate on his rug and finds himself running money to some shady characters on the millionaire Lebowski’s behalf. What should have been a one off job with a big payout turns into much more trouble when The Dude’s buddy Walter (John Goodman) gets involved.
Endlessly quotable, over the top and ridiculous, The Big Lebowski is simply put, a comedy classic, and the event is a must for lovers of the film to dress up, drink milk kahlua and vodka, and have a good old time with some fellow nuts. Jeff Bridges is classic as The Dude, effortlessly cool, and amazingly chill in a multitude of ridiculous situations, Julianne Moore is incredibly sexy as the bohemian, jilted daughter of the millionaire Lebowski and Steve Buscemi is so cute as a young, clueless Donnie – The Dude and Walters bowling buddy. John Turturro makes a classic cameo as Jesus the weird, offensive bowling creep who likes to clean his balls.
Lactose intolerant people may not need to worry about getting involved in the White Russian action next year as I went to a convenience store and bought my own soy, that’s how great this event is, you just want to get involved. Plus after the film you can get a burger from the in n out burger downstairs. It’s probably not the best way to see the film for the first time, but it certainly makes it memorable.
Film: 4.5 stars, Event: 5 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Pacific Rim (2013)
Beginning with voice over narration explaining who the big aliens (Kaiju) are, where they came from, what they did to the Earth and why the human race had to build giant robots (Jaeger) to fight them, Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim is set up for the lowest common denominator. But the action of the film does not occur in the details of the intergalactic war, or the effects it’s having on the human race (like a good sci-fi would), but instead in the relationships of the people who program the Jaeger’s and the team who are planning an attack on the portal that is bringing the alien menace to our shores, located somewhere below the Pacific Ocean.
The Jaeger are very complicated pieces of machinery whose psychological interfaces cannot be handled by a single human brain. So the pilots of these mega-structures are instead a team of two, who surf the drift (head space and memories of two beings basically sharing one brain space), each operating a hemisphere of the robot. It’s all sci-fi mumbo jumbo that basically means the pilots need chemistry and are usually related. Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) and Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff) are brothers, pilots, and rock-stars. They have no marketable skills in the real world, but in post apocalyptic aliens vs giant robots world, their ability to hold their own in a fight makes them super human rock-stars.
But when Yancy is killed and the Kaiju start to predict the movements and fighting methods of the Jaeger, Raleigh is pulled off construction of the giant wall he is building, join with a new partner, and join the plot to blow up the portal between the two worlds. There’s some mushy love story crap and a mysterious back-story thrown in, and Charlie Hunnam (known to me as hot British Lloyd from Undeclared) is pretty buff without his shirt on, so I see the appeal. But the real stars of the show are Charlie Day as Dr Newton the Kaiju groupie and Burn Gorman as Gottlieb, the numbers man. The chemistry between the two and their little side story is hilarious. Ron Perlman makes a pretty awesome cameo as well.
If you like action films where you don’t have to think about anything, sci-fi where every little anomaly of story is explained with some sci-fi bull-shit, actors trying to work with accents they clearly can’t pull off (British pretending to be American, American pretending to be Australian) and the ridiculous notion that the human race has the technology to build giant robots that can compete with mega-aliens in hand to hand combat, but can’t build a huge gun that can destroy them without crushing the Sydney Opera house, then this film is for you. The visuals are spectacular, if a little disorienting in 3D, the choreography of the fight scenes is masterful, and the film is just damned hilarious. A thrill ride that will take your mind off things for over 2 hours.
3 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
The Jaeger are very complicated pieces of machinery whose psychological interfaces cannot be handled by a single human brain. So the pilots of these mega-structures are instead a team of two, who surf the drift (head space and memories of two beings basically sharing one brain space), each operating a hemisphere of the robot. It’s all sci-fi mumbo jumbo that basically means the pilots need chemistry and are usually related. Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) and Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff) are brothers, pilots, and rock-stars. They have no marketable skills in the real world, but in post apocalyptic aliens vs giant robots world, their ability to hold their own in a fight makes them super human rock-stars.
But when Yancy is killed and the Kaiju start to predict the movements and fighting methods of the Jaeger, Raleigh is pulled off construction of the giant wall he is building, join with a new partner, and join the plot to blow up the portal between the two worlds. There’s some mushy love story crap and a mysterious back-story thrown in, and Charlie Hunnam (known to me as hot British Lloyd from Undeclared) is pretty buff without his shirt on, so I see the appeal. But the real stars of the show are Charlie Day as Dr Newton the Kaiju groupie and Burn Gorman as Gottlieb, the numbers man. The chemistry between the two and their little side story is hilarious. Ron Perlman makes a pretty awesome cameo as well.
If you like action films where you don’t have to think about anything, sci-fi where every little anomaly of story is explained with some sci-fi bull-shit, actors trying to work with accents they clearly can’t pull off (British pretending to be American, American pretending to be Australian) and the ridiculous notion that the human race has the technology to build giant robots that can compete with mega-aliens in hand to hand combat, but can’t build a huge gun that can destroy them without crushing the Sydney Opera house, then this film is for you. The visuals are spectacular, if a little disorienting in 3D, the choreography of the fight scenes is masterful, and the film is just damned hilarious. A thrill ride that will take your mind off things for over 2 hours.
3 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
The Lone Ranger (2013)
For a producer, Jerry Bruckheimer sure does leave his mark on pictures. The Lone Ranger is a classic wild west tale, much as the Pirates of the Caribbean series is a classic pirates-on-the-high-seas franchise, and it has all the action, and violence, you would expect from a wild west, with a little humour thrown in for good measure.
Tonto (Johnny Depp) is a very, very old man when we first meet him in a display at a carnival that’s just been set up on the banks of the San Francisco Bay, an impossibly old man, an a legend of the great wild west. Mistaking a young boy in a cowboy get up for his buddy The Lone Ranger, Tonto begins to recount the story of how he met and teamed up with the masked outlaw. Though the story is told to a small child and is produced by Disney, this is by no means a picture fit for children, unless your children enjoy a bit of throat slitting or human heart eating.
John Reid (Armie Hammer) is a law man, returning to his home town in the wild west after nine years in the city learning law. An honourable man, John has been away from the harsh countryside for too long, and feels uncomfortable with a gun in his hand, a fact not lost on the trigger happy bandits that run rife in the old west. Fearing he has become a little soft around the edges, he joins his brother on a trek into the desert to track down notorious Indian killer Butch Cavendish (William Fitchner). They are betrayed by their tracker and all shot down, but when Tonto tries to burry John a spirit horse (easily the best character in the film) appears to bring him back from the great beyond, and so begins the adventures of Tonto and The Lone Ranger.
Depp exudes his usual quirkiness as the Comanche with a lot of strange rules and habits, and it works well with Hammer’s uptight, do-no-wrong Texas ranger. Though in the beginning Hammer feels uncomfortable in a comical role, he soon warms into it, and a fine, dashing, honourable outlaw he makes too.
The star of the show is really the spirit horse who appears whenever, and where ever they need him. Plus the big, grand finale action sequence-train-chase-shoot-out scene set to Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” is superb, action packed, funny, grandiose, I can’t express how much of a thrill ride this film was.
Director Gore Verbinski’s classic piece of rollicking good times wild west action adventure makes for a pretty decent day out, coming in a just over two and half hours, you will not regret seeing this film.
3.5 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
Tonto (Johnny Depp) is a very, very old man when we first meet him in a display at a carnival that’s just been set up on the banks of the San Francisco Bay, an impossibly old man, an a legend of the great wild west. Mistaking a young boy in a cowboy get up for his buddy The Lone Ranger, Tonto begins to recount the story of how he met and teamed up with the masked outlaw. Though the story is told to a small child and is produced by Disney, this is by no means a picture fit for children, unless your children enjoy a bit of throat slitting or human heart eating.
John Reid (Armie Hammer) is a law man, returning to his home town in the wild west after nine years in the city learning law. An honourable man, John has been away from the harsh countryside for too long, and feels uncomfortable with a gun in his hand, a fact not lost on the trigger happy bandits that run rife in the old west. Fearing he has become a little soft around the edges, he joins his brother on a trek into the desert to track down notorious Indian killer Butch Cavendish (William Fitchner). They are betrayed by their tracker and all shot down, but when Tonto tries to burry John a spirit horse (easily the best character in the film) appears to bring him back from the great beyond, and so begins the adventures of Tonto and The Lone Ranger.
Depp exudes his usual quirkiness as the Comanche with a lot of strange rules and habits, and it works well with Hammer’s uptight, do-no-wrong Texas ranger. Though in the beginning Hammer feels uncomfortable in a comical role, he soon warms into it, and a fine, dashing, honourable outlaw he makes too.
The star of the show is really the spirit horse who appears whenever, and where ever they need him. Plus the big, grand finale action sequence-train-chase-shoot-out scene set to Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” is superb, action packed, funny, grandiose, I can’t express how much of a thrill ride this film was.
Director Gore Verbinski’s classic piece of rollicking good times wild west action adventure makes for a pretty decent day out, coming in a just over two and half hours, you will not regret seeing this film.
3.5 stars
An edited version of this review was originally published at FilmBlerg
Trying to start fresh
So I finally bought a mac, OMG!!! I'm so happy right now. I got it super cheap because my discount card finally came at work, and apple's were on sale, and I had $220 worth of gift cards that I got for signing up to the store credit card, which I shall soon cancel now that I have a computer. Long story short, I love my computer and won't HATE turning my computer on and will therefore start blogging again.
So, what's changed. I'm a bra fitter by day, film reviewer by night. I get free tickets to films now, so I'm going to post my reviews here as well (as I see many more films than I review officially). Let's begin with the most recent shall we...
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