Review: Cloud Atlas

I was super excited to see this film but felt the need to wait a while before I wrote about it as it struck me as a piece of work that benefits from a good deal of reflection.

Niche sub-genres that have and haven't taken off

Cross posted from Yellow Bunting

Genre is a useful tool for classifying films and a good way to attract certain audiences to certain films. Sub-genres and Hybrid-genres are a way for directors and writers to come up with new ideas and unique pieces of work. Sometimes then they accidently kick off a (usually short lived) trend:

Cowboy-Ninja Films

What’s cool? Cowboys are cool. What else is cool? Ninja. Therefore cool squared is personified by films like Bunraku (Guy Moshe, 2010) and The Warrior’s Way (Sngmoo Lee, 2010). Both genres share similar themes such as honour, revenge, redemption etc and in both these cases at least, makes for some striking visuals with The Warrior’s Way evoking a steampunk-esque aesthetic while Bunraku favouring a comic book/puppet theatre inspired look.

Terminal Illness Rom Coms

The perfect valentine’s date movie. Or not. 2010 and 2011 saw the release of Love and Other Drugs  (Edward Zwick, 2010) and A Little Bit of Heaven (Nicole Kassel, 2011). One starred Anne Hathaway and the other Kate Hudson and each played a woman who was dying from an awful terminal illness but found love. So that was nice.

For painfully obvious reason neither film was terribly well received though A Little Bit of Heaven got it far worse. Possibly because of the absence of Anne Hathaway.

Victorian Department Store Melodramas

Oh how the big wigs at ITV must have been kicking themselves when BBC broadcast The Paradise last year. Their own series Mr Selfridge looked like a rip off in comparison. Despite the fact that The Paradise is derived from a novel from Emile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart (albeit with all of Zola’s ideas on Hereditary personality deficiencies within a screwed up French family, the very thing the series was written to demonstrate, removed) novels and Mr Selfridge is based on the establishment of (guess where?) Selfridges department store on Oxford Street  the two share a staggering number of characters and plot devices. Eccentric, brilliant owner whose ideas are scoffed at but eventually proved right? CHECK. Young naïve sales girl with hidden talents for retail? CHECK. Men throwing themselves at her from all directions? CHECK. Rich bitch in fabulous hats skulking around and manipulating everyone? CHECK. Swooshing skirts. CHECK.

NOTE: I am aware that being set in 1906, Mr Selfridge should properly be termed an Edwardian Department Store Melodrama, but that aside, all the other glaring similarities between the two still stand.

Films based on board games

Battleship I’m looking at you. But it may surprise you to learn that another classic family favourite, Cluedo, was turned into a film in the 1980s. Clue (Johnathan Lynn, 1985) stars Tim Curry as butler who brings together a group of eccentric and chromatically themed characters in a case of blackmail and murder. It is wonderfully tacky and gloriously cheesy and comes complete with three different endings, only one of which makes sense but don’t think too hard about that. It was poorly received but has become a cult classic.

Horrifyingly it is being remade by Gore Verbinski.

The Underwater Realm and the New Age of Film

Cross posted from Yellow Bunting

Filmmaking is an industry primarily driven by money. Of course it is artistic but primarily films get money poured into them because they are financially viable and will make a profit.

However, with the rise of the Internet and free content there as been a slight push away from this as content becomes more accessible.  Similarly resources and contacts also become more accessible and the process of making a film is there for the audience to see even before the final product is ready.  For example, Felicia Day’s series The Guild is available first through paid subscription and then in bite size episodes free to view on You Tube. It is low budget but has a huge fan base that extends to the creation of the Geek and Sundry channel on You Tube that has a host of daily low budget and high entertainment shows free to view. The Guild was even inspiration for Joss Whedon’s “show that broke the internet” Dr Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog.

A Rant of Sorts

I love film. That much should be evident. I love writing about film, reading about film, talking about film and obsessing over film but most of all I love watching film for without doing that I couldn't do any of those other things.

So what happens when I can't watch a film.

One of the films I have been dying to see this year is Cloud Atlas, released in the US in October 2012 and opening in the UK this Friday. On it's opening weekend it should be widely available right? Right!?

Picture from here

No. Firstly the shitty excuse for a cinema down the road isn't showing it at all. neither is the nearest large cinema, VUE, in Oxford. The VUE in Reading is only showing it at 3.00pm and 5.00pm during the week a tricky ask for people who are working all day.

Photo from here

This reflects how the film was marketed in the US too, little advertising and overall not pushed as much as the bigger budget Oscar contenders and it isn't unique to Cloud Atlas. Hollywood thrives on money and internal politics, often to the detriment of gorgeous pieces of work and this filters down to the audiences.

So don't expect a review of Cloud Atlas soon, it might take a while to find it.

For Your Consideration

Cross posted from Yellow Bunting

Awards season is upon us and as every film geek knows it is a grand celebration of all the achievements made in Western (okay mostly American) film over the past twelve months. Saying that, it’s also a chance for every aforementioned film geek plus critics and casual observers to gripe and whine about the various “snubs” and omissions and for the nausea inducing, sycophantic interviews that forms half all of the multi channel coverage, the other half being those horrific “let’s rip into these otherwise successful and beautiful women by making offensive comments about their appearance” shows.

I have a love/hate relationship with awards shows. On the one hand gets everyone talking about films and I have to own up to enjoying my fair share of glitz and glamour. On the other hand it gets people whinging about films and the complaints over who has been omitted can overshadow the glory of those who win.

The best example of this is how the word “snub” becomes the buzzword on everybody’s lips as soon as the first batch of nominations are out.

There is always outrage that XYZ didn’t make it in or if Film A was nominated why wasn’t the guy who directed it? This year for example, Skyfall didn’t receive any Oscar nominations for its lead actor or director and wasn’t nominated for best picture.  Even at our own BAFTAs Skyfall is trailing behind Lincoln (which hasn’t even been released in the UK yet, much to the consternation of many British film goers) which got 10 nominations. Director Steven Spielberg has been “snubbed” by both BAFTA and the Academy who have both left him out of the lists for Best Director. Add into the mix the same arguments about animation and foreign film that come back year after year and you start to wonder why anyone bothers. Of course money plays a huge part as does ego and the fact that many awards and nominations are politically motivated but there is also the fact that these are good films.

It isn’t helpful to dwell on the negatives and flinging the word “snub” around just diminishes the achievements made by those who did make it in to the nominations. So I for one resolve this year to approach awards season with an open mind and view it as a way to be introduced to new films and discovered new, thoroughly deserving, talent.

Full list of Academy Award nominees here

Full list of BAFTA nominees here

Review: Les Miserables

A film that may just be longer than the French Revolution itself, Tom Hooper's adaptation of the hit musical is tipped for every award going. Spoilers ahead (but come on the book is over a century old people...)

Poster from here

7 Films to watch out for in 2013

Over at Yellow Bunting I posted a list of my top seven films for 2013 enjoy!

Homeland article at Culturefly

I've had an article on US series Homeland posted over at Culturefly! Go on and take a look.

Picture from here

Review: Hugo

I love films about films, heck I'm a huge fan of films being self referential in general but this gem of a movie was especially good.

Picture from here

Game of Thrones most illegally downloaded show of 2012

According to BBC Entertainment's article the amount of people downloading a single episode of the series was higher than it's US audience. The top ten list is as follows:


Most pirated TV shows of 2012
1. Game of Thrones
2. Dexter
3. The Big Bang Theory
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. Breaking Bad
6. The Walking Dead
7. Homeland
8. House
9. Fringe
10. Revolution

Source: Torrentfreak

Review: The Hobbit (Spoilers)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy were the defining films of my childhood. It was the first time that I was aware that movies were actually made rather than just being there. It also later introduced me (via the extensive DVD extras) to the nuances of film making and probably sent me down the path I'm on today.

So you can imagine my reaction to the news that they were going to film The Hobbit. On Sunday I finally got my chance to go and see it! Warning: There be spoilers ahead.

Poster from here

YB: Perks of being a Wallflower Podcast

Listen to three charming ladies chat about the recently released adaptation of Perks of Being a Wallflower over at Yellow Bunting.

Things to read and look at

• Now that the original script for Prometheus has been leaked, Film School rejects compiles a list of the worst parts of the film that actually make sense in original script here.

Picture from here

• Amethyst Marie of Thalia's Musings on my web series of the moment The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, specifically issues of representation in the series.

• Daisy has penned an article rating the Bond themes over at Yellow Bunting!

Officially Published!

Here it is! My first Yellow Bunting article. Leave a comment!

I would have loved to go into even more detail and bring up some counter points (namely the Drew Barrymore film Ever After) but the whole area of adaptations and fairytales is huge and I needed to whittle it down.

100% Spoiler Free The Dark Knight Rises Top Ten

An award for the longest post title so far me thinks. Well, it is the end of an era as Christopher Nolan wraps up his gritty, dark trilogy.

Poster from IMDB

Marvel Unveils Next Round Of Movies!

I adore a good superhero flick and Marvel seem to be at the top of their game in terms of this. The Avengers was an unprecedented crossover of epic proportions and Marvel are getting ready for phase two which will lead up to The Avengers 2.  Over at Total Film, the titles of the next few instalments have been released along with some posters and concept art!

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

I have quite a short attention span and a low tolerance for things that bore me. This may be why I am such a fan of web series. A short ten minute video isn't as time consuming as a 90min+ movie and you can cram in a whole series (or two) in an afternoon.

Trailer Blaze

Some people spend their bank holidays at the beach, visiting culturally significant areas, having picnics or visiting relatives. My family went and saw two films in a row at the cinema which may go some way to explaining how I am the way I am. The two films were Prometheus (see yesterday's top ten) and Snow White and the Huntsman (I want to do some special blog posts on fairytale films soon).

It's a running joke in my family that my favourite part of the cinema is the trailers which is secretly partly true.