JACKIE

2016. Dir: Pablo Larraín.

A phenomenal performance by Natalie Portman playing Jackie Kennedy, as we’re taken through several moments surrounding her time as First Lady, including the immediate and brutal aftermath of the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy.

Chilean director Pablo Larrain, in his first English language film, delivers a really interesting, intimate biopic.  Its a very personal look at one of the most famous First Ladies in history, emphasised with the camera often focusing in on Jackie’s eyes. One scene in particular is incredibly powerful, as she tries to clean drops of blood from her face in her room aboard Air Force One.

Portman absolutely sells this film, her incredible performance, with voice and all the mannerisms nailed on, she manages to portray several “versions”  of Jackie through the film depending on if she’s alone, needing to get what she wants from someone, or having to put on a performance for the watching world.

The film is elevated by an incredible orchestral score by Mica Levi, that often gives it a strange, eery feel to the film as the strings rise and fall away. The effect works perfectly in tandem with Pormans excellent turn, to present the beauty and elegance of the Kennedy’s world, and the tragic events that surrounded them.

The interview scenes, where Jackie is talking with Theodore White (Billy Crudup) are sadly not as strong as the looks into her days following her husbands death, but Portman does well to convey Jackie as a strong, commanding presence who immediately states that she will be in control of this article. Overall though its kind of an unnecessary device to split up the events, and I don’t know if just presenting them in order, and perhaps dropping the interview angle, wouldn’t have worked just as well.

Visually the film is beautiful, presented with a slight graininess to it which I loved, the sets and costumes look perfect, and the recreation of Jackie’s famous televised tour of the White House is brilliantly done, flicking between black and white “broadcast footage”, and her nervous perspective, being helped along by her assistant Nancy (Greta Gerwig).

In the hands of a lesser director this film could’ve easily come off as blatant Oscar-bait for Portman to grab a second Academy Award (which she’d deserve), and although at times it does feel like its straying into that territory by showing off just how well its been made, I think JACKIE is a genuinely intriguing film and one that is definitely worth checking out.

[Fun fact: The Lego head used to make the poster at the top is actually a Natalie Portman minifigure, taken from her character Padme in STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES.]

New In The Frame: Pre Vizsla

Pre Vizsla, leader of the Mandalorian faction “Death Watch”, appearing in the STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS TV series.

Only ever released in one set, 9525-1 “Pre Vizsla’s Mandalorian Fighter” in 2012.

Features a blue pauldron cloth with the Death Watch’s sigil, along with the unique helmet design, a slightly different torso print to other Mandalorian minifigs, as well as leg printing.

Value: £20 – £30

 

LA LA LAND

 

I’ve seen precisely 3 musicals in my lifetime. MARY POPPINS as a child, GREASE, which is one of those films that just seems to have always been in your memory, and MOULIN ROUGE with my wife. Aside from the latter, I didn’t much care for them. It’s not that I hate them, they’re just not my thing. If it’s not an animated lion opining on overthrowing a monarchy and instilling his own reign of hyena backed tyranny, I’m not interested.

All of which, makes what I’m about to say regarding the 4th all the more unbelievable.

LA LA LAND, is a god damn masterpiece.

As I sat in my local cinema, I fell completely, head over heels in love with this gorgeous, outrageously charming film from Damien Chazelle. It is so utterly dripping with charisma and heart, so beautifully confident in its cheesiness and masterfully put together by Chazelle, cinematographer Linus Sandgren and Justin Hurwitz (good god, the songs) that I challenge you not to fall for it too.

A bright eyed Emma Stone plays Mia, a struggling actress trying to break into Hollywood, who meets frustrated jazz musician Seb, played by the naturally charming Ryan Gosling, and the pair strike up a romance. The simplicity of the story works to its advantage, allowing you to get swept away by the characters and the feeling of it all, the pair share so much chemistry it sucks you in, woos you till you cant remove the smile off your face. Filled with nostalgic imagery, its a story about dreams, but also about trying to remember and maybe recapture that spark of golden age Hollywood. The music is, as you’d expect, stunning. At times I wanted to close my eyes to just listen to it, but then I’d be missing out on the technicolour beauty of the film.

Midway through the second act there was a scene in an observatory that for some reason just hit me in the chest, its just a little moment but it was pure magic.

That’s what this film is. It’s magic. It’s pure gold-dust. A 2 hour shot of heart, fun and undiluted enjoyment. Even for someone as musically illiterate as myself, the enthusiasm and love and admiration for past musicals and Hollywood is clear as day, and just on a technical level this is yet another stunning piece of directing after the energetic and white knuckled WHIPLASH, the use of colour and lighting is phenomenal, allowing you to soak in its beauty during the many long takes. But for me, it’s just how this film makes you feel what makes this so special, you cant explain it, cant write a formula to recreate it, its lightning in a bottle.

I’ve had “City of Stars” stuck in my head since leaving the theatre, and am getting goosebumps all over again just listening to the soundtrack while writing this. There’s no doubt in my mind that I just watched a future classic.

LA LA LAND will melt even even the iciest of hearts, its so achingly enjoyable, funny and wonderful. Even if you aren’t in to musicals, go and see it.

“Here’s to the ones who dream.”

 

PASSENGERS

Who’s hot right now? Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. What seems to be the “in” thing? Space films. What always gets bums in seats around the holidays? A good love story. Smash it all together like the most obvious thing imaginable, and you’ve got a recipe for a very good blockbuster, right?

It all seems so simple. TITANIC, in space. I’d watch that, sounds great. Unfortunately Morten Tyldum, fresh off the success of THE IMITATION GAME, and writer John Spaights (PROMETHEUS) don’t serve that up. Instead, we are thrown a curveball that skews the entire film and then seems to leave it all in no mans land, unsure of what it wants to be. The “twist” has been widely reported on but if you missed it, or don’t want to know what happens, and just want to know if it’s worth seeing, I’m afraid its a no from me. I found it dull, a little cold and the story was both too safe, and at the same time overly daft like it had pretensions of being a complex tale. A few cool scenes dotted in, its not bad to look at and Lawrence and Pratt are watchable enough aside from some truly dreadful dialogue, but it falls apart completely after a promising opening act and never recovers. 2 Lego studs, maybe catch it on Netflix sometime if you want some really throwaway sci-fi stuff.

However, I do have a little more to say on this about what makes it so disappointing, and its all spoiler talk so if you’ve seen it, or aren’t bothered, here we go.

* *literally all the spoilers **

So my big issue is that the filmmakers either didn’t have the balls, or probably weren’t allowed, to really go deep into Jim’s decision to wake Aurora up (prize for laziest naming of a main character, 2016). Instead of exploring this really interesting idea, (what would you do in Jim’s situation?) they half-ass it and try to do a regular Hollywood love story, which means people coming for a romantic film are alienated by the creepiness of his stalking, and anyone here looking for some decent sci-fi feel cheated because they don’t ever go anywhere with it.

Its been covered more extensively elsewhere, but Jim’s decision is fucked up. Not only his choice, but the year long stalking of Aurora, having breakfast beside her while she sleeps, going through her videos, then playing pretend and acting like he’s a hero who is there to help her because he was woken up too. Its criminal that the end result of this, when Aurora finds out, after another year of banging in front of nebula filled vistas, is that it basically dissipates away because she has space Stockholm syndrome. She doesn’t so much forgive him, more the film just kinda needs to wrap it up and finish on its love story ending. Aside from one really dodgy scene of a voyeuristic Jim trying to confess as he watches her sprint round the ship, a physical demonstration of her unable to escape this creepy bastard, its never properly discussed or given the attention it deserves.

Until Lawrence Fishburne turns up. Oh yeah, he’s in this. As a walking exposition dump, who promptly dies after giving them enough information, and a login, for Jim to fix it. Fishburne’s character isn’t dumb, he quickly figures out that Jim screwed with Aurora’s pod and doomed her to life imprisoned among the ship, yet all we get from him is “still…damn.” That’s the extent of his reaction to this. Later, Aurora, exasperated at just how big a pair of dickheads shes stuck with, screams that what Jim did was tantamount to murder, with Fishburne all but becoming a shrugging emoticon.

There’s simple ways to fix this, even with the half-baked approach they went with (have Jim die, then Aurora is alone and has the same choice he did), but it would’ve been great to get a proper psychological thriller out of it. Perhaps we don’t see the twist, we wake up with Aurora and view the film through her eyes, we watch Jim get creepier and more twisted up until the reveal, making the entire thing more impactful. Perhaps she discovers hes done this before to other women he became obsessed with, finds their bodies and we get a white-knuckle fight for survival until she kills him, only to then suffer the same loneliness herself. You know, something actually engaging and interesting.

There were numerous things that were dumb or cliched, but that was my biggest gripe. I cant even put it on the actors. While I understand the idea that a less naturally lovable actor than Pratt could’ve sold the creepiness of Jim better, actually having a leading man with that charm, and then playing off it and making the audience hate him against their instincts would be such a brilliant thing to watch.

Other than the entire story being poor, Aurora mashing all the buttons, including one saying “stem cells”, on a medical pod (and of course there’s only one med-pod) to magically revive Jim, who’s been dead a minimum of 15 minutes from oxygen deprivation deserves a special mention, as does the line Aurora gives Michael Sheen’s robot butler, Arthur, when discussing how Jim is a prick:

Arthur – “You know, I hear time heals all wounds.”

Aurora – “Broken hearts are aren’t quite that simple.”

Urrrggghhhhhhh.

Killed by its terrible writing, PASSENGERS is unfortunately a huge missed opportunity for anyone expecting either a good romance film, or an interesting sci-fi flick. Cool looking spaceship, though.

 

100 Films

Over 2017 in an attempt to fill in some major gaps in my movie viewing catalogue, I will be watching 100 new films. They range from all-time classics I’ve never got round to seeing like CITIZEN KANE, to recent films I missed (BIRDMAN) and others people have recommended to me (GOON). There’s also a few that I have seen before such as THE GODFATHER, but was a little too young or too dumb to appreciate fully (throw DR STRANGELOVE in that bracket too).

This obviously doesn’t include any films released over the next 12 months (or those that release overseas in 2016 but don’t get here until early January, LA LA LAND), and I will try to see as many of those as possible too.

The full list:

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. The Godfather Part II (1974)
3. 12 Angry Men (1957)
4. Melancholia (2011)
5. Panic Room (2002)
6. Argo (2012)
7. Birdman (2014)
8. Schindler’s List (1993)
9. Creed (2015)
10. Raging Bull (1980)
11. Ex Machina (2015)
12. Mulholland Drive (2001)
13. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
14. Goodfellas (1990)
15. Seven Samurai (1954)
16. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
17. The Social Network (2010)
18. Forrest Gump (1994)
19. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
20. True Grit (2010)
21. City of God (2002)
22. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
23. The Town (2010)
24. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
25. Gone Baby Gone (2007)
26. Troll Hunter (2010)
27. No Country For Old Men (2007)
28. Rear Window (1954)
29. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
30. Psycho (1960)
31. Léon: The Professional (1994)
32. Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013)
33. American History X (1998)
34. Apocalypse Now (1979)
35. Gran Torino (2008)
36. The Graduate (1967)
37. The Sixth Sense (1999)
38. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
39. (500) Days Of Summer (2009)
40. Good Will Hunting (1997)
41. Lincoln (2012)
42. Spirited Away (2001)
43. Platoon (1986)
44. North by Northwest (1959)
45. The Thing (1982)
46. Citizen Kane (1941)
47. Carol (2015)
48. Hanna (2011)
49. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
50. The Shining (1980)
51. Annie Hall (1977)
52. The Grey (2011)
53. Vertigo (1958)
54. American Beauty (1999)
55. The Hunt (2012)
56. Lolita (1962)
57. Taxi Driver (1976)
58. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
59. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
60. Barry Lyndon (1975)
61. The Wrestler (2008)
62. The Artist (2011)
63. Almost Famous (2000)
64. The Sting (1973)
65. Boy (2010)
66. The Breakfast Club (1985)
67. Jackie Brown (1997)
68. There Will Be Blood (2007)
69. Amélie (2001)
70. Goon (2011)
71. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
72. Your Name (2016)
73. Das Boot (1981)
74. Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)
75. Lost In Translation (2003)
76. Cast Away (2000)
77. Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
78. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
79. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
80. The Big Lebowski (1998)
81. Fargo (1996)
82. Scarface (1983)
83. Braveheart (1995)
84. L.A. Confidential (1997)
85. Oldboy (2003)
86. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
87. Bullitt (1968)
88. Chinatown (1974)
89. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
90. Phoenix (2014)
91. Zodiac (2007)
92. The Lobster (2015)
93. Bernie (2011)
94. Attack The Block (2011)
95. Unforgiven (1992)
96. The Apartment (1960)
97. Mean Streets (1973)
98. Rosmary’s Baby (1968)
99. Mud (2012)
100. Martha Mercy May Marlene (2011)