24th Mar2018

Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (Film)

by timbaros
British designer Vivienne Westwood acknowledges the public at the end of Spring/Summer 2008 ready-to-wear collection show in Paris, 01 October 2007. AFP PHOTO PIERRE VERDY (Photo credit should read PIERRE VERDY/AFP/Getty Images)

British designer Vivienne Westwood acknowledges the public at the end of Spring/Summer 2008 ready-to-wear collection show in Paris, 01 October 2007. AFP PHOTO PIERRE VERDY (Photo credit should read PIERRE VERDY/AFP/Getty Images)

Clothing Designer Vivienne Westwood has denounced the new documentary about her saying that the film does not at all focus on her activism but instead is ‘made up of archive fashion footage.’

In the first few minutes of ‘Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist,’ Westwood tells the camera, and the interviewer, that she doesn’t want to talk about certain important bits of her life. And that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of this 83-minute documentary.

Filmmaker Lorna Tucker spent three years with the fashion designer trying to get Westwood to tell her life story, and the documentary could’ve been so much more, but we still are presented with a fascinating look at a fascinating woman who changed the course of British fashion with her non-conservative designs and her extreme personality.

‘Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist,’ glosses over her younger years, and spends more time in the present where she presides over a global empire that she still can’t believe it’s gotten as big as it has – she doesn’t even know what half her staff does. But that’s the job for Austrian Andreas Kronthaler, who was her former fashion student and is now her husband and creative director for the brand. The documentary shows Westwood in her day-to-day life; looking over models wearing her designs, attending store openings where she says she’s not quite convinced she likes them or not, and shows Westwood cycling around London on her bike when she really should be chauffeured about in a limousine. We see snapshots of her life before she became famous, and the ex-council flat in Clapham where she lived for 30 years until 2000, and her two sons speak at times not so glowingly about their famous mother. Less is mentioned about her time with Malcolm McLaren and the clothing shop where she made punk clothes in the 1970’s known as SEX which was controversial and radical for it’s time. Perhaps that’s a topic for another documentary.

But what’s most fascinating about ‘Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist’ is her clothes. Whether shown in the workshops or on the fashion runways all over the world, the clothes are really a work of beauty, unique in every sense of the word. And so is Vivienne Westwood – she truly is an icon, punk, activist and an inspiration to us all. Westwood called this documentary mediocre, but she is far from mediocre.

Category : Film
Tags : , , ,
Off
24th Mar2018

Unsane (Film)

by timbaros
Claire Voy stars as Sawyer Valentini

Claire Voy stars as Sawyer Valentini

Is Sawyer Valentini a bit crazy and imagining things or is it all in her head?

Claire Foy (The Crown) plays Valentini, a young successful career woman who had an issue with a stalker years ago. But it’s all behind her now. She’s focused on her career (though her creepy boss offers to take her out of town on a business trip), and just basically getting on with her life.

She goes to see a mental health counselor for a checkup but soon enough, strangely, she is committed against her will in a mental hospital, locked up with people who are all certifiably crazy, so surely why is she locked up with them when of course she is not crazy. She gets a hold of her mother who tries to get her out, but to no avail. Could this be a scam the hospital is involved in just to get her insurance money? But then Valentini recognizes one of the staff who was, or perhaps wasn’t, her stalker. ‘Unsane’ takes us through Valentini’s nightmare experience in the mental hospital and her quest to escape the unjustice, and possibly the stalker, that she is currently facing.

Director Steven Soderbergh in 2013 announced that he was retiring from filmmaking, but ‘Unsane’ marks his second go since then as director (last year’s successful ‘Logan Lucky’ was his ‘return’). ‘Unsane,’ which was shot on an iphone (just like the huge hit ’Tangerine’) is a strange choice for Soderbergh, as he made many successful and award-winning films early on in his career. While ‘Unsane’ won’t be winning any awards, and as the second half spirals a bit out of control relegating it to ‘B’ movie status, it’s still a scary pyschological thriller that will leave you on the edge of your sit with a nail-biting performance by Foy.

Category : Film
Tags : , ,
Off
18th Mar2018

The Florida Project (DVD)

by timbaros

The_Florida_Project-1It was always going to be for filmmaker Sean Baker to top 2015’s critically acclaimed film ‘Tangerine.’ But now he’s back with ‘The Florida Project,’ and it’s a winner!

‘Tangerine,’ which was shot on iPhones, told the story of two transvestite hookers surviving by any means possible in Hollywood. ‘The Florida Project,’ shot on 35mm, has a similar trajectory involving a single mother and her adorable 6-year old daughter surviving by any means and barely eking out a living in a rundown motel on the tacky fringes of DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida. It’s an area filled with cheap motels (with tacky names such as Futureland Inn) and even cheaper and tackier gift shops and fast food restaurants (Orange World). And like in ‘Tangerine,’ Baker uses non-professional actors in this film.

Bria Vinaite is excellent as Hailey, a single young mother who struggles to find money to pay the weekly rent and to care for her very adorable six-year-old daughter Moonee (an excellent and natural Brooklynn Prince). Moonee has made friends with all of the little children at their motel complex (appropriately called The Magic Castle) in an area where Disney did not sprinkle magic dust on. The children spend their days getting up to no good, causing mayhem whereever they go, much to the annoyance of the motel manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe – in an award worthy performance). Hailey’s downstairs neighbor Ashley (Mela Murder) works at the nearby Waffle House and gives them free food, but after an incident that involves her son and Moonee, she forbids her son to hang out with Moonee, and severs her friendship with Hailey. One thing leads to another and slowly the magic seeps out of The Magic Castle.

‘The Florida Project’ is just fantastic. While it doesn’t quite come close to ‘Tangerine’ with it’s sarcastic and biting humor, it nonetheless is a cute and charming movie of childhood through a little girl’s eyes and the hard truths that reality will eventually rear it’s ugly head. And the cast are just superb. Baker, who co-wrote the script with Chris Bergoch, has another winner on his hands.  ‘The Florida Project’ is the best film of 2017.

Category : DVD
Tags : , ,
Off
17th Mar2018

Wonder Wheel (Film)

by timbaros

image.php-224Has Woody Allen lost his touch?

Wonder Wheel, his 50th ish film, just released in cinemas, is, to put it bluntly, not very good. While there are some elements to the film that are good, overall Wonder Wheel is a sign that perhaps Allen should just hang up his directors hat and call it a career.

In Wonder Wheel (a reference to the giant Ferris Wheel in Coney Island), Kate Winslet plays Ginny, a still beautiful yet a bit over-the-hill former aspiring actress and now living in an apartment smack dab overlooking Brooklyn’s famous Coney Island. She’s married to the schlub Humpty (geez, what a name – played admirably by Jim Belushi), who runs the merry-go-round, and they have a young son who happens to enjoy lighting fires.

Ginny, happens, one day, to notice lifeguard Mickey (an overreaching Justin Timberlake). She takes a fancy to him, and he takes a fancy to her, and before you know it they are having an affair. But Ginny is very insecure, and the minute Mickey even looks at another woman, Ginny can’t handle it. Worse yet, Humpty’s beautiful, and young, daughter Carolina (Juno Temple) comes to stay with them (she also has the mafia on her tale – but it’s a subplot to distract from there ever being a good plot), and, yes you guessed it, somehow Mickey and Carolina meet and Ginny’s fantasies of escaping her humdrum life are over.

Winslet is pulling out all stops as an actress and ends up being a bit too much. Her Ginny is both extremely insecure and perhaps a bit crazy, and Winslet can’t quite stop overacting. And while Belushi and Temple are both fine in their roles, it’s the overall arc of the story and the not very believable locating setting that will make you not believe what you’ve seen. Allen, who wrote and directed this film, desperately needs to rethink his next movie. He’s already shot A Rainy Day in New York and it stars hot young Oscar nominated Timothée Chalamet. Don’t hold your breathe.

Category : Film
Tags : , , ,
Off
11th Mar2018

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (DVD)

by timbaros

The-Killing-of-a-Sacred-DeerDr. Steven Murphy, played by Colin Farrell, is a surgeon in a nameless U.S. city. He’s got, at least it seems, a picture perfect life. He’s married to the beautiful Anna (Nicole Kidman), who plays dead to satisfy his sexual desires, and two amazing children – teenage Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and younger son Bob (Sunny Suljic). But one day a young man by the name of Martin (played to perfection by Barry Keoghan) starts showing up at Steven’s hospital. Martin takes an interest in his work, but then starts showing up even when Steven isn’t there. One day Steven invites Martin over to his home for dinner, where Kim is immediately smitten with him and Bob wants to be his best friend. Barry is that easy to get along with, very friendly, wouldn’t hurt a fly, or so it seems. But Barry has other intentions, not good ones, that will grossly effect Steven’s family. It turns out that Barry’s father died on the operating table at the hands of Dr. Murphy, so he wants to get revenge. He does something to Kim and Bob to make them deathly sick (frustratingly it’s not clear exactly what he does to them), but Bob and Kim wind up in the same room at Steven’s hospital, and test after test after test doesn’t reveal the true cause of their illness. Dr. Murphy starts getting desperate and kidnaps Barry to try to get him to confess to what he did, but it might be too late as Steven’s perfect family and his good reputation as an excellent doctor could all come crashing down, not to mention he could potentially lose his children.

’The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ is all very dark and disturbing and moves at a snails pace along with the tension and drama, all to amazing dramatic effect. Directed by Yorges Lanthimos, who brought us the dark ’The Lobster,’ is able to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat as the tension keeps getting ramped up higher and higher. Farrell is at the top of his game here as the tormented father who can only stand back and watch his two children slowly get sicker and sicker. Kidman is good as the mother who is helpless, but Keoghan tops them both as a sinister kid with only one thing on his mind – revenge. ’The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ is a must see.

Category : DVD
Tags : , ,
Off
11th Mar2018

Call Me By Your Name (DVD)

by timbaros

timothee-chalamet-call-me-by-your-name-sony.jpg.640x346_q100
There is a gay-themed film that has just been released that is getting rave and five star reviews. And while it is very good, it’s also not your typical gay relationship film.

‘Call Me By Your Name’ tells the story about an adult who has an affair with a younger man. The adult in question is the actor Armie Hammer (who in real life happens to be 31, but looks older, and in this film he is playing a 24-year old) who is playing is Oliver. The young man in question is Elio, played by Timothée Chalamet (who happens to 21 in real life but plays a 17-year old in the film but looks a lot younger). The story, based on the 2007 book of the same name by André Aciman, is about a sexual relationship between Oliver and Elio. Oliver, you see, has been hired by Elio’s parents, wealthy couple the Perlmans (Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar), to help Mr. Perlman with his archeological work. But what happens is that the closeted Elio (who is wooed by the local girls who vie for his attention) becomes enamoured with, and by, Oliver. Oliver, who is a man’s man, with a chest full of hair, is a very confident man who can practically have anyone he wants. He, however, enters into a relationship with Elio. It’s really hard to believe that a man of the world like Oliver could be sexually attracted to Elio. And while Elio is a good-looking young man, he’s still quite young for someone whom Oliver could fancy. So it’s a bit inappropriate for a man like Oliver to be sexually attracted, and to sexually satisfy Elio, in various locations, including having interludes in the Perlman family home where they conveniently have adjoining rooms which allow for lots of loving glances across their rooms. Elio’s parents do realise what’s happening and turn a blind eye to the relationship and let nature take it’s course.

‘Call Me By Your Name’ is a beautiful and lush film, directed with care by Italian director Luca Guadagnino. It lovingly highlights the Italian countryside and the small cityscapes of Lombardy; the film has beautiful camerawork and the acting by all involved is top notch. Chalamet is a real find – his Elio commands the screen. Chalamet looks very very comfortable in front of the camera, clothes on or off (there is absolutely no full frontal nudity in this film, though some of the sex scenes look all too real). Hammer is also very good in this role – a role that is not a typical role for him to play. And there is scene, which you must have heard about by now, that involves a peach. Yes, a peach, which Elio uses, and which involves Oliver, that was a bit too much for me. But it’s the scene where the credits roll up at the end of the film where you can’t leave your seat or avert your eyes – it’s these few minutes where Chamalet as Elio will mesmerize, and seduce you. So it’s at this point that you think that perhaps you can’t blame Oliver for falling for him because it’s at this point you will do the same as well.timothee-chalamet-call-me-by-your-name-sony.jpg.640x346_q100

Category : Film
Tags : , ,
Off
06th Mar2018

Mary Poppins Returns Teaser Trailer (Film)

by timbaros

image002-1

“Mary Poppins Returns” stars: Emily Blunt as the practically-perfect nanny with unique magical skills who can turn any task into an unforgettable, fantastic adventure; Lin-Manuel Miranda as her friend Jack, an optimistic street lamplighter who helps bring light—and life—to the streets of London; Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks; Emily Mortimer as Jane Banks; and Julie Walters as the Banks’ housekeeper Ellen; with Colin Firth as Fidelity Fiduciary Bank’s William Weatherall Wilkins; and Meryl Streep as Mary’s eccentric cousin, Topsy. The film also introduces three new Banks’ children played by Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and newcomer Joel Dawson. Angela Lansbury appears as the Balloon Lady, a treasured character from the PL Travers books and Dick Van Dyke is Mr. Dawes Jr., the retired chairman of the bank now run by Firth’s character.

The film is directed by Rob Marshall from a screenplay by David Magee and screen story by Magee & Marshall & John DeLuca based upon The Mary Poppins Stories by PL Travers. The producers are Marshall, DeLuca and Marc Platt with Callum McDougall serving as executive producer and the music is by Marc Shaiman with songs by Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

MARY POPPINS RETURNS IS IN UK CINEMAS DECEMBER 2018

Category : Film
Off
04th Mar2018

Breathe (DVD)

by timbaros

BREATHE_hug-2Actor Andy Serkis and his producing partner Jonathan Cavendish set up Imaginarium Productions to make their own films. They were looking for stories and realized that right under their noses was a remarkable and true story that was original and heartfelt. It was the story of Cavendish’s parents.

Cavendish’s father, Robin, was paralyzed from the neck down by polio at the age of 28. And his wife, Diana, took it upon herself to take care of him for the rest of his life. And from this we get the movie ‘Breathe.’ Directed by Serkis with a script written by William Nicholson, it was in 1956 when Robin (played by Andrew Garfield) met and married Diana (Claire Foy). But two years later Robin was struck down by polio, right in the prime of his life. A successful tea-broking businessman, his diagnosis, which included an inability to breathe on his own, was only three months. It was a diagnosis that would, of course, dramatically change his and his wife’s life.
Bed bound in the hospital, hooked up to a breathing machine, Diana had the choice to leave him there for the rest of his expected short life, or to take him home and care for him there. She took him home. So ‘Breathe’ is the story of the love and care that Diana had for Robin, through their many years of life, happily as a couple, which produced a son (Jonathan, in 1959). ‘Breathe’ also highlights Robin’s tenacity and ambitiousness to invent, along with Teddy Hall (Hugh Bonneville), a wheelchair with a built-in respirator that would be used for other people in his condition as well.
It may seem like a bit of deja vu watching this film as it’s a bit similar in storyline to ‘The Theory of Everything’ – the film that won Eddie Redmayne an Academy Award for portraying Stephen Hawking, who was also (and still is) confined to a wheelchair for most of his adult life. But ‘Beathe’ doesn’t really have a lot more to offer than ‘Theory,’ and while it’s a beautiful and romantic story abut a man who overcame severe health hurdles to live up until the age of 64 (he died in 1994), it’s a bit on the bland and unexciting side. Garfield is very good as Robin, though he doesn’t really have a whole lot to do except to lie down or sit on a wheelchair (Redmayne did it so much better), and Foy, as Diana, is too much of a knight is shining armour whose character comes across as too chirpy and happy and smiling in a role that would make Florence Nightingale blush – it’s a bit hard to believe that she didn’t suffer somewhat from her giving up her life to take care of Robin (and it’s also very noticeable that Foy’s Diana doesn’t age much in the film, could be it be because the real Diana is very much alive and Jonathan didn’t want to portray her as getting older?). The tagline for this film is ‘With her Love he Lived,’ and while this is very true, it’s a film that holds it’s breathe a bit too long and hard.
Category : DVD
Tags : , , , ,
Off
04th Mar2018

A Fantastic Woman (Film)

by timbaros

1_2-1Daniela Vega gives an award-worthy performance in the Chilean film ‘A Fantastic Woman’.

Who give three cents about Frances McDormand’s performance in the much awful ‘Three Billboards Outside Epping Missouri,’ it’s Vega’s performance as a woman who, after the death of her lover, is rejected and scorned by his family that is superb. You see, Vega is transgendered, and her character Marina Vidal, who happens to be an aspiring singer, is also, of course, transgendered. Her and her lover Orlando (Francisco Reyes) had a normal relationship, but his ex-wife and son never truly accepted her nor her relationship with Francesco. But after a birthday celebration where they shared a romantic dinner, a sexy dance in a club, and a night of passion at home, Francisco starts having problems breathing, and after a tense drive to the hospital, Francesco dies, and in panic and a state of confusion, Marina walks away from the hospital. But after a police car picks her up and takes her back to the hospital, she realises that she’s being treated as a suspect in Francesco’s death and not as a grieving partner. To make matter much much worse, Francesco’s grown up son wants her out of Francesco’s apartment, and his ex-wife wants his car and explicitly tells Marina, to her face, that their relationship was perverted and not normal. It’s too much for anyone to take, but Marina is strong, and she will do anything to attend Francesco’s funeral, even when Francesco’s family tries to keep her way. Marina loved Francesco and wants to say a final goodbye.

There’s no doubt about Vega’s performance. We feel her pain, and her anger, and her confusion over the series of events that have happened in her life in a short period of time. Vega is a revelation, and she should’ve been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, nevertheless she’s been nominated for a slew of other awards, and has won Best Actress at the Palm Spring International Film Festival, while the film, written and directed by Sebastiån Lelio, won the prestigious Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. ‘A Fantastic Woman’ is really fantastic, one of the best films of the year, and Vega’s performance will most definitely move you.

‘A Fantastic Woman’ is now in cinemas.

 

Category : Film
Tags : ,
Off