Archive for June, 2015

San Andreas

Director: Brad Peyton

Cast: Dwight Johnson, Carla Gugino, Paul Giamatti, Archie Panjabi, Hugh Johnstone-Burt, Will Yun Lee, Alexandra Daddario, Colton Haynes, Kylie Minogue, Ioan Gruffudd

Canadian director Brad Peyton’s homage to American patriotism is brilliantly captured in the Hollywood blockbuster San Andreas starring Dwight Johnson (Hercules), Paul Giamatti (12 Years a Slave) and Carla Gugino (Sucker Punch, American Gangster, Sin City).

California literally splits in two in San Andreas as the fault line which separates Nevada and California erupts and causes a mammoth series of earthquakes along the entire San Andreas fault from the Hoover Dam in Nevada right to Los Angeles and up to San Francisco, where the film echoes the devastating 1906 earthquake which rocked the Bay area.

Audiences should not expect any intelligent dialogue, with possibly the best lines being spoken by seismologist Lawrence played by Paul Giamatti (Sideways) and tough News reporter Serena played by The Good Wife star Archie Panjabi.

San Andreas focuses on a broken nuclear familiar whose own personal fault lines mirrors that of those which occur naturally. Dwight Johnson and Carla Gugino play a couple, Ray and Emma on the verge of divorce and she has met a shady smooth talking property developer Daniel Riddick played by Ioan Gruffudd (Amazing Grace, The Fantastic Four).

The San Andreas fault brings epic chaos to the entire state of California and like most natural occurrences which bring a family together, this film is a familial drama set within a broader context of a national American tragedy played out on the big screen with spectacular visual effects.

Whist the storyline and plot are certainly contrived, San Andreas relies heavily on stunning visual effects as all the characters play second fiddle to the earth erupting around them and complete obliteration of some of California’s most iconic landmarks including the Hollywood sign above Los Angeles and The Golden Gate Bridge.

This is a disaster film with a massive budget and audiences will certainly not be bored by the fantastic aerial shots of the San Francisco bay area rippling under the weight of a massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami. San Andreas is the 21^st century answer to The Towering Inferno.

Watch out for a doomed cameo by Australian pop diva Kylie Minogue who plays a bitchy L. A. blonde, Susan Riddick. Australian actor Hugh Johnstone-Burt and Alexandra Daddario play the young beautiful couple Ben and Blake who manage to survive all sorts of treacherous earthquake related events including being trapped in a newly built skyscraper known as The Gate, situated in San Francisco’s posh Nob Hill suburb.

San Andreas is a spectacular show and is recommended for audiences that enjoyed films like Poseidon, although at times it’s a bit too heavy on its American patriotism, especially when everything will still be peachy despite too major cities being completely obliterated. The main thing is that all the wholesome characters survive the earth shattering ordeal relatively unscathed.

5 to 7

Director: Victor Levin

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Berenice Marlohe, Glenn Close, Frank Langella, Olivia Thirlby

Written and directed by Victor Levin, 5 to 7 is a charming romantic drama set in New York in spring time. Anton Yelchin plays lonely and struggling writer Brian Bloom who one Friday casually offers a beautiful woman a light for a cigarette outside a swish Manhattan restaurant. The lady in question is the gorgeous former Bond girl, French actress Berenice Marlohe (Skyfall), who plays a diplomats young wife, Arielle.

Soon Bloom is captivated by Arielle and she informs him that they can only see each other between 5 to 7pm in the evening. Surprisingly, Arielle’s husband Valery is played by Lambert Wilson and he even acknowledges his wife’s much younger lover. As the relationship develops so does their cultural exploration of each other’s different background, with Levin frequently comparing the best of French culture with the worst of American culture.

Apparently in French society extramarital affairs are the norm as long as the respective mistresses and lovers obey the rules laid down before them. In Bloom and Arielle’s case this is a 2hour gap mainly in which they take in some of New York’s most beautiful sites including the Guggenheim Museum and Central Park along with some elegant Manhattan hotels including The St Regis and The Carlyle.

Arielle is taken to meet Bloom’s doting parents expertly played by Glenn Close (Dangerous Liaisons, Meeting Venus) and Frank Langella (Frost/ Nixon, Grace of Monaco) who are slightly exasperated by their son’s romantic entanglement. Bloom, wonderfully played by Anton Yelchin even seeks the advice of Valery’s American mistress Jane played with tenacity by Olivia Thirlby (Juno, Dredd and No Strings Attached).

As this romance runs its course, Bloom soon matures into an established writer after one of his short stories is selected for the prestigious literary magazine The New Yorker.

Arielle naturally becomes Bloom’s writing muse and once the relationship starts to fade, he is forced to move on with a sort of nostalgic complicity which forces him to write his great novel, entitled The Mermaid.

5 to 7 is a charming Audrey Hepburn style romance seldom seen onscreen these days and more significantly is a sophisticated cinematic tribute to New York itself, which as a city has been the setting for many great romances including Autumn in New York and One Fine Day. Highly recommended viewing, intelligently written and beautifully acted. A rare cinematic treat to be cherished as much as the delights of the Big Apple itself.

Spy

Director: Paul Feig

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Alison Janney, Miranda Hart, Morena Baccarin

There is a confession to be made. I am not a huge Melissa McCarthy fan having missed most of her films which have made her famous including Bridesmaids, The Heat and Tammy. So it was with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity that I went to see director Paul Feig’s comedy thriller Spy mainly because I am a huge Jude Law fan. So I thought it would be interesting to see whether such a diverse cast such as Melissa McCarthy, Oscar Nominee Jude Law (The Talented Mr Ripley, Sherlock Holmes), action star Jason Statham (The Expendibles 3, Transporter Trilogy), Bobby Cannavale (Blue Jasmine, Danny Collins) and Rose Byrne (Annie, Marie Antoinette) could elevate such a film as Spy.

Despite its exotic locations from Varna in Bulgaria, to Paris, Rome and Budapest, Spy is a second rate thriller which attempts with some hilarious if not crude consequences attempts to feminize the espionage genre, and more specifically rip off the ultimate Spy films, The James Bond Franchise.

The 007 franchise have nothing to worry about as Spy is so second rate and middle of the road, even the predictable narrative could not have threatened the Bond films as a serious competitor.

Let’s face it. Spy is really a comedy especially with the likes of Melissa McCarthy, British comedian Miranda Hart and Bridesmaids co-star Rose Byrne thrown in. But Jude Law? Seriously after making appearances in such exceptional films as The Talented Mr Ripley, Hugo, Sherlock Holmes and Anna Karenina, I wondered what he was doing in such a ridiculous film.

Spy is a fun filled and crass comedy which should appeal to all Melissa McCarthy fans however I would have thought that writer and director Paul Feig could have been more inventive when ripping off the James Bond franchise. The storyline is predictable, vaguely funny and even the villains Sergio de Luca and Rayna Boyanov played by Cannavale and Byrne are not seriously menacing but come off as clichés of the more heinous megalomaniacs

Even Alison Janney (The Way Way Back, The Hours) as CIA director Elaine Crocker does not save this film. Although Jason Statham is suitably funny as the rogue spy Rick Ford who is constantly threatened by females in his line of duty. Audiences should watch Spy on a Saturday afternoon as it’s certainly not the most taxing film to watch but enjoyable in its own lazy and crude style. Look out for a cameo by Curtis Jackson also known as 50c

The Riot Club

Director: Lone Scherfig

Cast: Max Irons, Douglas Booth, Matthew Beard, Sam Claflin, Freddie Fox, Holliday Grainger, Natalie Dormer, Samuel West, Tom Hollander, Tony Way, Julian Wadham

Based on Laura Wade’s play Posh and with the skillful direction of Danish film maker Lone Scherfig (An Education), The Riot Club assembles a cast of the next generation of British thespians from Oscar winner Jeremy Iron’s son Max Irons as well as Edward Fox’s son Freddie Fox along with the dashing Douglas Booth (Romeo and Juliet), Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Huntsman) and Holliday Grainger (Great Expectations) in a truly brilliant diatribe about the hidden debauchery of the aristocracy.

What makes The Riot Club even more brilliant is Scherfig’s superb use of tension in the film as the second half really does raise debauchery and menace to an art form, with horrific consequences.

The Riot Club focuses on a privileged group of Oxford freshman who form a secret society, a sort of uninhabited Lord of the Flies style gathering in which the ten member group have to outdo each other in decadence, bravado and more significantly stamina, something most young men are extremely competitive about.

With the taglines of Filthy, Rich, Spoilt, Rotten, The Riot Club truly does show the terrible side of young and obnoxious men behaving extremely badly from trashing University dorm rooms to the disgusting initiation procedures a young man will go through to belong to this elite and secretive club.

This is hazing at its worst along with the cunning and knowing ability which shines through especially in the second half of this film, that no matter how disgusting or debauched their activities get, The Riot Club will manage to get away with it, relatively unscathed. In this privileged aristocratic circle, money truly does buy them everything except in this case decency and consideration for their fellow man.

The Riot Club is disturbing at the best of times, captivating and utterly debauched and aptly directed by Scherfig who as a female director superbly shows how the pack mentality in men can lead to the most heinous of acts. Audiences should watch out for cameo’s from rising Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer as a high class escort as well as an excellent performance by Holliday Grainger as Miles Richards’s (Max Irons) girlfriend Lauren who does not come from the aristocracy and whose merchant background is used as a weapon to humiliate her when she is mistakenly called to the raucous dinner at an old English pub outside Oxford, where literally all hell breaks out.

It’s at this dinner, making up the exceptional second half of the film, that the Riot Club really live up to their horrendous reputation with copious amounts of heavy drinking and drug taking which fuels these aristocrats libido and aggression.

The Riot Club shows off the menacing side of the posh British upper classes and also the exclusivity of the landed gentry who think that despite their actions they are continually above the law because of the vast wealth. Highly recommended viewing but not for those easily offended.

Lost in the White City

Directors: Tanner King Barklow and Gil Kofman

Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Bob Morley, Noni Geffen, Tawfeek Barhom

Co-directed by Tanner King Barklow (The Invisible War) and Israeli Gil Kofman, Lost in the White City is a fascinating film about a couple’s relationship which disintegrates during a Mediterranean summer in the capital of Tel Aviv. Lost in the White City had its South African premiere at the 5th Durban Gay and Lesbian Film Festival DGLFF

Lost in the White City stars rising Indie actor Thomas Dekker as the hard drinking self-obsessed experimental film maker Kyle and Haley Bennett (The Equalizer) as the gorgeous aspiring writer Eva, who as the film opens, it is evident that their relationship is compromised.

Soon Kyle and Eva are swept into a precarious and intriguing Israeli environment where menace, seduction and danger are interlaced with a sultry awareness of each other’s more preferred sexual choices. Kyle’s sexual awakening comes in the form of the gorgeous and gregarious ex-soldier Avi ironically played by Australian actor Bob Morley.

There is a superb scene where Avi leads Kyle to a bombed out nightclub on the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Kyle shoots Avi naked in a semi-erotic pose for his Avant-Garde film, liking their coupling to that of German independent director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski.

In this significant scene, the sexual tension between Kyle and Avi is palpable onscreen, something which is often masked by aggression and heavy drinking, as the boys hit the Tel Aviv nightclub scene.

Eva while browsing through a suburban bookshop meets Israeli-American writer Liam, played by Nony Geffen, who is the complete antithesis of the reckless, almost unfettered Kyle. Liam introduces Eva to a more sophisticated world of the intelligentsia and is invited to book launches and parties on yachts.

However, the film makers cleverly underscore both Kyle and Eva’s journeys of self-discovery and their own relationship crumbling with a disturbing sense of danger as with Tel Aviv there is always a massive security risk with an omniscient violence along with the continual threat of suicide bombings.

Lost in the White City follows the blooming of the sexual relationship between Kyle and Avi after a completely wild night partying, spliced with gorgeous shots of them on the beach in Tel Aviv as well as aerial shots of the “white city” in the heat of a Mediterranean summer.

Israeli cinematography Shahar Reznik paints Tel Aviv in a sumptuous glare of sunlight contrasting with the night sequences which are expertly filled with glamour, drugs and decadence, giving the audience a sense of the city being constantly under threat while its citizens dance the night away in complete hedonistic abandonment.

Watching Lost in the White City, the audience is reminded of a similarly intriguing film about obsession framed by sinister intentions with director Paul Schrader’s The Comfort of Strangers set in Venice starring Rupert Everett and Helen Mirren.

Highly recommended viewing, gorgeously shot and definitely aimed at a more open-minded audience, Lost in the White City sensually explores the dangers of summer romances, sexuality and unrequited dreams.

The Age of Adaline

Director: Lee Toland Krieger

Cast: Blake Lively, Harrison Ford, Michiel Huisman, Kathy Baker, Ellen Burstyn, Amanda Crew, Mark Ghanime, Peter J. Gray

Set in San Francisco, The Age of Adaline gives Blake Lively a chance to play her hand at romance after being seen in Oliver Stone’s film Savages. It’s also the first major commercial film for rising Dutch star Michiel Huisman who has become famous for his sexy appearances in HBO’s Game of Thrones and Nashville.

Huisman and Lively make a beautiful couple onscreen even if there is no real tangible chemistry between them. It also does not help that The Age of Adaline is trying to emulate David Fincher’s Oscar nominated film about aging The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which while beautifully shot was really a homage to New Orleans.

In this rather sepia light, director Lee Toland Krieger’s romantic drama The Age of Adaline is a homage to probably the most romantic city in America, San Francisco, as the film beautifully captures some wonderful aerial shots of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. Early on in the film due to a unique scientific accident, the heroine Adaline Bowman discovers quite extraordinarily that she is immune to the ravages of time.

The ageless Adaline due to her gorgeous appearance is forced to change her identity every ten years which is going swimmingly well until she meets a tall dark handsome stranger Ellis Jones, sensitively played by Huisman, who let’s face it, like Lively, looks stunning onscreen.

The determined Ellis Jones encourages Adaline to come home with him one weekend to meet his parents and celebrate their 40^th wedding anniversary. In an entirely contrived and almost implausible Danielle Steele sort of way, upon their arrival at the upstate home of Ellis’s parents, his father suitably played by Harrison Ford (Regarding Henry, Star Wars) recognizes Adaline as the girl he once fell in love with back in the early 1960’s in England.

In the hands of a more skilled director, The Age of Adaline would have become a very intriguing romantic drama, but unfortunately the central contrivance of the entire narrative is so glaringly obvious that only for the sake of vanity could this film conclude with a happy ending. Vanity and memory are two themes that the film explores in depth.

Nevertheless, despite the plot shortages on both sides of the San Francisco Bay, The Age of Adaline is a stunning film to watch and will appeal to all lovers of romance and those that enjoyed such films as the quirky Richard Curtis comedy About Time and of course The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Unfortunately, such talented actresses as Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Requiem for a Dream) and Kathy Baker (Jacknife, The Cider House Rules, Saving Mr Banks) are wasted in this foggy romantic drama, which is as vague as the sighting of a comet near earth in the distant future.

The Age of Adaline had two gorgeous stars, plus an A-List megastar like Ford but unfortunately while beautiful to watch, lacked a firmer direction, which is a pity since the film did not fulfill its complete potential.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Director: George Miller

Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Riley Keough, Josh Helman

The much anticipated fourth instalment of the Mad Max series synonymous with industrial chic and post-apocalyptic desert car chase sequences arrives with a vengeance without Mel Gibson.

Thirty years from the last film, George Miller directs Mad Max: Fury Road with British actor Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) impressively taking over the role of Mad Max along with South African born Oscar Winner Charlize Theron (Monster) as the shaven head Imperator Furiosa, a determined woman who escapes the clutches of an evil desert war lord, Immortan Joe played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, who ruthlessly guards the scarce resources of the planet’s water and food for his own anarchic empire, aptly titled the Citadel.

Mad Max: Fury Road is a brilliant energetic and subversive film, an allegorical road trip highlighting the scarcity of the earth’s resources including oil and water, but more significantly, the action and stunt sequences are truly phenomenal. As the diabolical Immortan Joe and his crazed band of war boys, white-faced and vicious chase Imperator across what is dubbed Valhalla’s Highway, a vast epic journey into the end of eternity.

Shot in Namibia that beautiful desert African country, Mad Max: Fury Road does not disappoint especially with suitably savage and believable performances by Theron and Hardy, both whom have the enormous talent to make this film utterly believable, when even at times the stunts are so unbelievable.

In a clever plot twist, there are a bunch of supermodels and actresses cast in Mad Max: Fury Road including Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough along with Zoe Kravitz along with a frenetic Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man) cast as Nux a renegade warboy who is desperate to break free from the tyranny, but gets consumed by the mayhem.

The sets, sound editing and stunts are truly amazing and should definitely be seen on the big screen especially the final chase sequence involving the war rig, a huge menacing oil tanker deftly driven by Imperator with the help of Mad Max as they desperately try to elude the menacing attempts at capture by Immortan Joe and his vicious gang of thugs.

The script is not particularly enlightening but then again this is Mad Max, but the construction of the film is impressive, like a desert opera in three acts, with each act more savage and gripping than the last, a crazed action chase film in a post-apocalyptic setting with no hints of redemption or salvation.

Director George Miller does a fascinating job at re-imagining the Mad Max tropes for the 21^st century audience, placing more emphasis on the value of scarce resources and on the fact that girls can also kick ass too, especially the formidable collective known as The Wives (Huntington-Whiteley, Kravitz and the gorgeous gang) subverting the traditional male orientated chase film and producing a more explicit and frenetic action film that will appeal to all audiences who enjoyed the original Mad Max trilogy.

Incidentally Valhalla in Viking mythology was where warriors go to die after fighting bravely in battle, in this case the chaotic Valhalla highway is paved with destructive intentions, cruelty, action and anarchy. See it to believe it! Highly recommended viewing for lovers of films like The Book of Eli and Max Payne.

A Little Chaos

Director: Alan Rickman

Cast: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Ehle, Helen McCrory, Steven Waddington, Rupert Penry-Jones

There is a growing trend for actors to get behind the camera and direct. Alan Rickman, the English actor who first appeared in Die Hard and then in The Harry Potter films, stars in and directs A Little Chaos, a charming and delightful tale about the ambitious construction of the Gardens of Versailles in the late 17^th Century by King Louis XIV, wonderfully played by Rickman.

Oscar winner Kate Winslet (The Reader) stars a reluctant landscape gardener Sabine de Barra hired by the chief landscape architect Andre played by rising Belgian star Mathias Schoenaerts (Far From the Madding Crowd) who needs a suitable distraction away from his scheming wife  Madame Le Notre wonderfully played by Helen McCrory (Skyfall). Stanley Tucci as the Duc of Orleans (The Devil Wears Prada) and Jennifer Ehle (Possession, Contagion) as Madame de Montespan make brief appearances as the French king’s brother and mistress respectively.

A Little Chaos is a wonderful, if at times slow moving tale of how one woman recovers from a horrible tragedy to reinvent herself as one of the chief designers of the intricate water features which comprise the huge and illustrious Gardens of Versailles, which ultimately elevated landscape gardens to unimaginable heights.

There is a superb scene between Winslet and Rickman in a Pear Orchard where she comes across the French king mistaking him for a fruit expert and they soon bare their souls to each other and give very resonant reasons for wanting to embark on building such an elaborate project.

King Louis XIV’s pivotal decision to move the French court outside of Paris to Versailles was more a way of deepening  the chasm which separated the nobility from the peasantry. As the Duc of Orleans so comically puts it, Court is like a whole bunch of mice trapped in a castle, for none of the eligible nobility could leave the Palace without the King’s gracious permission.

Naturally this divide was to become France’s ultimate toppling of the royalty a hundred years later as beautifully told in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.

A Little Chaos is more about the machinations at court, the humble rise of a prominent and creative woman, who chose to take on a task in a man’s world, riddled with jealousy, doubt and deception. Kate Winslet adds a serenity to the role of de Barra  while Schoenaerts ‘s role as Andre le Notre is unfortunately underwritten to the film’s detriment, making their onscreen coupling less believable than it should be.

As a film, A Little Chaos, could have had a firmer more visionary director, yet its very genteel subject matter that of gardening and love make up for the slightly inert narrative. As cinema goes, this film is no match for the brilliant Stephen Frears’s Oscar winning masterpiece Dangerous Liaisons but while it is less sophisticated and complex, A Little Chaos is pleasant and beautiful to watch.

Recommended viewing for those that love historical dramas without too much angst, yet appreciate the fascinating story behind the origins of the sumptuous Gardens of Versailles.