I ordered hair clips for my mum to lessen the jungle adorning my head, but they aren't coming till May 14th which means if things go drastically wrong with my hair at the same time that lockdown is eased, a lot of people will see the mess.
Fri. 17th April: Apollo 13 (1995)
DVD.
Whilst this does technically count as the first re-watch, it has been so many years that it felt like I was watching it again with new eyes. Coincidentally, I watched this with my parents on the 50th anniversary of the astronauts landing back safely on Earth, making the viewing have that little extra oompf. Apollo 13 is a remarkable docu-drama; accurately recreating the true events without Hollywood-ising the story, but still amazingly following a lean three act structure. Director Ron Howard has crafted a suspenseful space film that stuns on both technical merit and the sheer brain power of humanity. The ability for the people on Earth to come up with solutions is a high point in the film; these top scientists working their socks off to bring three men home. We see some of the workers in sleeping bags in an office, showing the total hands on nature of their mission in that they cannot go home to sleep. As an added bonus, it never feels overly patriotic either.
Also check out : First Man (2018)
Sat. 18th : Ponyo (2008)
Netflix.
Okay, out of all the Studio Ghibli films watched thus far, Ponyo is far and away the outright weirdest. The title is the name of a 'goldfish' that becomes a little human girl. But the goldfish already has a human face and body, just no limbs. She moves through the water like jelly that hasn't fully set and is slightly bigger than all of her siblings. The halfway point between Ponyo's transformation into a person has her with chicken type legs and hands with three fingers, and once she comes ashore after spilling a magical substance in the water, she effectively drowns the world, plunging all but the tallest hills in a vast water world where prehistoric fish use the roads and clothes ripple on their aquatic washing lines. It is perplexingly odd and ridiculous, but its original and stunning to look like. The human Ponyo does become irritating after a while, but for films that make you want to go to the toiler, this is up there with Finding Nemo.
Also check out : Princess Mononoke (1997)
Sun. 19th : Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)
DVD.
Nicholas Cage and Angelina Jolie star in this overly orange saturated film that is basically the bastard child of Ocean's 11 and Fast and Furious, except it came out before both of them. It is a ridiculous plot about stealing 50 expensive cars for Christopher Eccleston to bail out Cage's brother. Weirdly, the title has no relevance to any part of the plot: not once is sixty seconds referred to or used as a timer. In fact that the only thing that was gone in sixty seconds was my memory of this shitshow.
Also check out : The Italian Job (2003)
Mon. 20th : Unbreakable (2000)
DVD.
Before superhero films took over the world (ironically), M. Night Shyamalan wrote and directed this original, ahead-of-its-time take on the popular genre. Reuniting Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis five years after Die Hard With a Vengeance, this picture sees David Dunn (Willis) become the sole survivor of a train accident. Elijah Price (Jackson) is a very frail comic fan with a birth defect who thinks Dunn has superpowers. Dissecting and subverting the genre before the genre had barely started, Unbreakable contains top notch performances and some genius camera work in the introductory scenes to the two characters: in Dunn's opening he is sitting on a train with the camera set in the seats before him, peering at Willis' weary face through the gap in the seats. The camera then slides along one to show the person he is talking to, and then back onto David. For Elijah Price's introduction, it is the brilliant usage of a mirror to shoot a conversation, instantly kick-starting this theme of opposites and alternates. One of those films that is just pleasantly surprising, and perhaps my film of the week.
Also check out : Split (2017), the stealth sequel
Tue. 21st : Vanilla Sky (2001)
DVD.
Director / writer Cameron Crowe worked wonders with Tom Cruise in 1996's Jerry Maguire, and they have another crack together with this odd experiment. Joined by the other famous Cruise, Penelope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz and Kurt Russell, the story is a multi-reality dream based film revolving around Cruise's David, the son of a news publisher who is charming, a little narcissistic and has everything in the world except someone to love. Enter Penelope Cruz, a mutual friend who spend one lovely evening together. But after a car crash, David's face and body is brutally disfigured, giving us the unique opportunity of seeing Tom Cruise's face reduced to scarring and grotesqueness. It is a long winded premise, and it really struggles to maintain interest in the non-romantic scenes. Cruise does not mine the disfigured David well enough to care for him and the third act is essentially a horribly overblown explanation of a twist that is the opposite of shocking nor unpredictable. Crowe runs his philosophies down your gullet ("the sweet isn't so sweet without the bitter" or something" and the only thing I thought was cool was the French New Wave film posters adorning the walls.
Also check out : Magnolia (1999)
Wed. 22nd : Black '47 (2018)
Netflix.
The 'Black '47' of the title refers to 1847, the worst year in the Irish Famine. Completely overlooked by the film industries of the world, the Irish Famine saw around 1/8 of the Irish population die, and 2 million flee to America, so if you think coronavirus is massive, it has yet to scratch the figures of an event like this famine. In this gritty tale, Hugo Weaving (who I have always championed as one of the underrated character actors in recent times) plays Hannah, an ex-soldier who, in order to evade a death sentence, is hired to track down his old comrade Feeney (James Frecheville in a glowering, stoic performance) who is avenging his family's death against the English and Protestant colonials. Shot in washed out grey and white, the stark grimness of the quiet countryside and barely surviving populace is not shied away from. Operating as an Irish proto-Western, the violence and bursts of action are engaging, especially due to the guns only containing one shot before that lengthy reload. This offers a new dynamic to the skirmishes as it means using the shot wisely and having a back up in the likely event of a misfire. It is not a long film, but it could afford to be if only to give Frecheville a bit more to say and emote, but its certainly boosted by its unique setting and effective ending.
Also check out : Brimstone (2016)
Thu. 23rd : Eden Lake (2008)
DVD.
A chilling British horror thriller, Eden Lake sees a couple (Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender) travel to a remote quarry and lake, where they are tormented by hoodlums led by a young Jack O'Connell. Rare in that most of it is daylight set, its chases in the woods feel like Apocalypto (2006) and The Blair Witch Project (1996) but the presence of a working class teenage gang lends it a frightening realism designed to tap into middle class fears. Of course, looking at it politically it suggests working class and middle class cannot peacefully coexist, but to the general audience it is a fairly believable situation pushed to the extremes. It does have a cheap jump scare and the couple are ridiculously stupid, like shouting at my telly stupid. So much could have been averted had the couple done things more tactfully, but I guess when in Rome do as the Romans do. The horror genre largely gets its tension from overly inquisitive characters and dumb blunders. There is nasty violence and a shocking ending that left me feeling both nothing and everything: a numbness from the previous ninety minutes of frustration and an anger towards the people in the final few minutes. It is a tough watch, but stick with it.
Also check out : This is England (2006)
TV Roundup:
Devs (mini-series, 8 episodes)
BBC.
Two of the best words in science fiction right now are Alex and Garland. With Ex Machina and Annihilation (2015, 2018), Garland established his brand of thought provoking, visually intense and borderline Kubrickian mix of science fiction with horror. Devs is the third installment in what I'm calling the Garland Sci-Fi Universe and it is just as rich in premise and ideas. Devs is a technology company that contains the ability to both look backwards in time and forwards. The first episode sees a chap called Sergei promoted to working on this machine, but after trying to steal data, he is executed and his death treated like a suicide. His girlfriend, Lily, grows suspicious and tries to investigate the anomalies. It is a refreshingly small cast, and looking back it does appear that the story could be efficiently told in a 2 and a bit hour film, but because of Garland's style of long, drawn out shots, minimal dialogue and building a dreading atmosphere, a series also works well. There is a pleasure in watching something that hurts to think about; much like my reaction to Annihilation, when the show ended I thought 'I don't quite know what I watched, but I really liked it'. The last two episodes push new boundaries in the free will vs determinism concept and there is a great Nick Offerman performance and a terrifically cast antagonist named Kenton, but its the freshness of the show that sticks the most.
Westworld, Season 3, Episode 6
Sky Atlantic.
Another solid episode in the show. The standout sequence is Ed Harris' William aka The Man in White, in a group therapy session with himself: there is a child William, young William from season one, older William as the wealthy business owner and William as the violent Man in Black. The discussion is riveting, throwing shade at the whole 'videogames make people violent' argument and leading to what is hopefully an exceptional redemption arc for the show's best character. Meanwhile Maeve meets with a Dolores and Charlotte/Dolores is exposed, leading to a shootout and car bombing. If the bad guys are still struggling to hit people with their advanced weapons, the story is now building to a hopefully sensational final two episodes (even though the announcement of a fourth season does interfere with the safety of some characters).
Devs (mini-series, 8 episodes)
BBC.
Two of the best words in science fiction right now are Alex and Garland. With Ex Machina and Annihilation (2015, 2018), Garland established his brand of thought provoking, visually intense and borderline Kubrickian mix of science fiction with horror. Devs is the third installment in what I'm calling the Garland Sci-Fi Universe and it is just as rich in premise and ideas. Devs is a technology company that contains the ability to both look backwards in time and forwards. The first episode sees a chap called Sergei promoted to working on this machine, but after trying to steal data, he is executed and his death treated like a suicide. His girlfriend, Lily, grows suspicious and tries to investigate the anomalies. It is a refreshingly small cast, and looking back it does appear that the story could be efficiently told in a 2 and a bit hour film, but because of Garland's style of long, drawn out shots, minimal dialogue and building a dreading atmosphere, a series also works well. There is a pleasure in watching something that hurts to think about; much like my reaction to Annihilation, when the show ended I thought 'I don't quite know what I watched, but I really liked it'. The last two episodes push new boundaries in the free will vs determinism concept and there is a great Nick Offerman performance and a terrifically cast antagonist named Kenton, but its the freshness of the show that sticks the most.
Westworld, Season 3, Episode 6
Sky Atlantic.
Another solid episode in the show. The standout sequence is Ed Harris' William aka The Man in White, in a group therapy session with himself: there is a child William, young William from season one, older William as the wealthy business owner and William as the violent Man in Black. The discussion is riveting, throwing shade at the whole 'videogames make people violent' argument and leading to what is hopefully an exceptional redemption arc for the show's best character. Meanwhile Maeve meets with a Dolores and Charlotte/Dolores is exposed, leading to a shootout and car bombing. If the bad guys are still struggling to hit people with their advanced weapons, the story is now building to a hopefully sensational final two episodes (even though the announcement of a fourth season does interfere with the safety of some characters).
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