10s Movie Review - Song to Song

Director: Terrence Malick
Genre: Drama/ Romance
Runtime: 129 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Holly Hunter, Bérénice Marlohe, Val Kilmer, Lykke Li

Description: Two intersecting love triangles. Obsession and betrayal set against the music scene in Austin, Texas.

Review: Again a cinematographic meditation by director Terrence Malick, about love and life. He takes the audience on a poetic journey to finding the meaning of life. As always, Malick doesn’t work with a straight forward screenplay and the (amazing group of) actors improvise.
Malicks style is very recognizable. It’s more a chain of images, because there are no real scenes. He creates a series of situations and it’s clearly his intuition that make his montage choices. The randomness of these images make me think of perfume commercials on TV. And that’s really not a compliment here. “Song to Song” kind of feels like a commercial, but then with the length of a film. And I think we could take off an hour, without losing any important moments.
There is no focus, because we see so many characters. And we don’t get to understand them, there is barely any development and their motives are unclear. Hardly any communication between the characters. Whispering voice-overs tell us some philosophical things and a lot of existential questions are asked.
The camera work is a big plus though. No steady images, always moving. The camera is constantly with the characters and switches between warm close-ups and distant shots. And the camera looks for the little things in the surroundings.
I never really understood Terrence Malick and I really don’t get why so many actors want to work with him. He always gets such big names to work with him and all the performances are really good by the way. But “Song to Song” is just a lot of improvising. Maybe that’s it, that the actors can let go of the rules for once. But all that cuddling and stroking, after a half hour I’m done! “Song to Song” is just not for me I guess.

Rating: 2/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 117: Lion

Director: Garth Davis
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 118 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman, David Wenham

Description: A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia. 25 years later, he (Dev Patel) sets out to find his lost family.

Review: Image you’re a five year old kid and you get lost from home in India. A country with over a billion citizens and 400 languages. It happened to Saroo, who accidentally got onto the wrong train and ended up on the other side of the country. When he ends up in an orphanage, he is adopted by an Australian couple. Years later, Saroo is determined to find his lost family.
“Lion” is split up in two parts. In the first part, we meet five year old Saroo. Together with his older brother Guddu he steals stones from a train, so they can sell them to provide for their mother and sister. When Saroo is seperated from his family, we see that India isn’t the perfect place for kids on the street. The kids are simply ignored or scared away. And sometimes prey for people with wrong intentions.
In the second part of the film, we jump 20 years in tie and see adult Saroo, adopted by loving parents and leading a happy and fortunate life. Where the first half was about physical survival, the second part is more about the psychological effects of this all. Even though Saroo had a good life in Australia, but memories from his short time in India keep coming back. This leads him to an obsessive search for his biological family.
“Lion” could have easily become a melodramatic, based-on-a-true-story, Oscar material. But director Garth Davis made this movie with lots of integrity and nuance. Of course there is enough emotion involved and you probably will use some tissues here and there, but it’s not overly sentimental. The cast is really strong, especially leading man Dev Patel and his adoption mother played by Nicole Kidman.

Rating: 4/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 35: Kubo and the Two Strings

Director: Travis Knight
Genre: Animation/ Adventure, Fantasy
Runtime: 102 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, George Takei, Rooney Mara

Description: A young boy named Kubo (Art Parkinson) must locate a magical suit of armor worn by his late father in order to defeat a vengeful spirit from the past.

Review: When you think of animation, you think of Disney or Pixar. Maybe also Dreamworks, but probably not LAIKA Entertainment. It’s a smaller company that started in 2005 and is specialized in stop-motion animation. It did make some successful movies: “Coraline”, “ParaNorman” and “The Boxtrolls”. Smaller films that have atmosphere, are artistic and cost hundreds of hours of work. Why “Kubo and the Two Strings” didn’t win the Academy Award for best animation is beyond me.
Together with his mother, the one-eyed boy Kubo lives in a cave nearby a small village. His mother fleed for her father, Kubo’s grandfather, the evil Moon Kind who killed Kubo’s father Hanzo. Kubo’s mother lives in a catatonic state ever since Hanzo died, so Kubo needs to take care of the both of them. He is known for his storytelling. Every day he tells stories about his late father, with his guitar. It’s a magical instrument which makes paper move and turn into origami art and form the most beautiful images for his stories. When Kubo’s hiding place is discovered, he has to step into his father’s footsteps. He gets the help of a strict white monkey and a heroic beetle.
The film looks amazing, perfect to every detail. Everything created by hand, so much love and hard work has been put in to this film. Stop-motion always fascinates me, it amazes me, it blows my mind. The movements of all the characters are so fluent. It’s an extraordinary film.
The story has all the ingredients of a classic adventure story: a young hero taken under the wing by a mentor, looking for a magical weapon and discovering powers to help him beat the enemy. But this classic adventure story has some adult themes: grieving, forgiveness, keeping memories alive by telling stories. None of these themes are forced, just like the moral of the story.
“Kubo and the Two Strings” is an animation every kid should see. Imagination, adventure, emotion, deeper layers. And the film looks amazing. It’s a piece of art.

Rating: 5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 89: Carol

Director: Todd Haynes
Genre: Drama/ Romance
Runtime: 118 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Sarah Paulson

Description: An aspiring photographer (Rooney Mara) develops an intimate relationship with an older woman (Cate Blanchett).

Review: When adapting a book to film that is a little older, the question is often raised if the story in the movie should be set in the same time period as the book. Is the story universal enough to be situated in this era? For “Carol” they stayed true to that and it was the perfect choice.
“Carol” is about a relationship between two women. Not that special you would say, but it’s set in the fifties. The young Therese is a store clerk and an aspiring photographer. She meets Carol, an older and classy woman. They befriend each other, but the two also start feeling more than just friendship.
Cate Blanchett plays the title role of Carol. She is such a versatile actress. Blanchett convinces as the bored wife with a broken marriage and the need for something new. But also as loving mother. Rooney Mara plays Therese, who is perfect for the wallflower role. Two very different people. That is shown in the scene where the two have their first lunch together. Carol knows immediately what she wants to order, when Therese has no idea and just follows Carol’s lead.
“Carol” is a very solid film, beautifully made and very strong acting.

Rating: 4/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 128: A Nightmare On Elm Street (Remake)

Director: Samuel Bayer

Genre: Horror/ Thriller

Runtime: 98 minutes

Year: 2010

Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Katie Cassidy, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Clancy Brown, Connie Britton

Description: The spectre of a dead child rapist haunts the children of the parents who murdered him, stalking and killing them in their dreams.

Review: In 1984 an icon was born. That’s when sadistic murderer Freddy Krueger started haunting dreams and killing his victims. There were a lot of sequels and spin-offs. So in 2010 it was time for a remake, because we didn’t have that yet. And I really wished we never had.

A remake, it doesn’t sound as fun as it is. Especially not when you know Michael Bay produced it.

First the casting. They are hardly credible, because they are supposed to be sixteen and look much older. And their performance is very bland as well. It’s just very uninteresting to watch them for one and a half hour. It even appears that actress Rooney Mara hated to be in this movie so much, she almost decided to quit acting.

In this film, Jackie Earle Haley plays the role of Freddy Krueger. His performance is okay. The strong point of the original was that we never completely saw Freddy, just parts and shades. Now we see him in full glory, already very early in the film. And where the first Freddy looked like an actual burned man, this one is clearly wearing make-up. With that, Wes Craven’s film was scary because of the suspense and the sinister atmosphere. Bayer doesn’t manage that at all, because he shows us too much of Freddy and even Freddy’s past. No mystery left for us. And the jump scares only come from loud sound effects, not the actual events in the film.

If you expected anything new, don’t. Some scenes were actually literally recycled. “A Nightmare On Elm Street” doesn’t add anything, a good example of an unnecessary remake.

Rating: 1,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 157: Her

Director: Spike Jonze

Genre: Drama/ Comedy/ Romance/ Science Fiction

Runtime: 120 minutes

Year: 2013

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Chris Pratt, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde

Description: Lonely writer Theordore (Joaquin Phoenix) develops an unlikely relationship with his newly purchased operating system (Scarlett Johansson) that's designed to meet his every need.

Review: Digital love, it seems like something impossible even in the far away future. Especially because it seems impossible for a computer to develop real feelings and thoughts. Director Spike Jonze manages to make it believable and realistic in the fantastic movie “Her”. In the futuristic Los Angeles, an endearing Joaquin Phoenix and the sexy voice of Scarlet Johansson tell a confronting and distressing love story.

Theodore is a writer of love letters, that are send by him in someone else’s name. His life is structured by an operating system, that he places in his ear, that he’s only disconnected from when he’s asleep. Theodore buys a new intelligent operating system. Her name is Samantha, but she doesn’t just feel like an operating system.

Because Scarlett Johansson lend her voice to Samantha, it feels familiar. You believe the connection between her and Theodore, even though it sounds so strange and disturbing. There is not a moment you think of Samantha as just an operating system.

The complete atmosphere in “Her” feels so real. The décor, costumes and everything around them looks perfect. This in combination with the great acting performance by Joaquin Phoenix make “Her” an absolute joy to watch.

Rating: 4,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 65: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Director: David Fincher

Genre: Thriller/ Drama

Runtime: 156 minutes

Year: 2011

Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, Embeth Davidtz, Joely Richardson, Christopher Plummer

Description: Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a young computer hacker.

Review: The choice for David Fincher as director for the first American part of the Millennium trilogy is surprising. Not alone was there an excellent Swedish version of the book, but with a huge project like this Fincher could easily be upstaged. “The Girl with the Dragon tattoo” is a good Fincher film: loyal to the book, the well known dark tones, controversy and memorable lead performances by Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig.

The film is long, but the pacing is very high. Praise goes to cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, who often works with Fincher. But like the book, the story goes on a bit too long, which makes you lose focus at the end. The connection between Lisbeth and Mikael is strong, thanks to fantastic performances by Daniel Craig and especially Roony Mara. It’s a tough role to play, but she does it perfectly.

With minor critics, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is a very good thriller.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 26: Side Effects

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Genre: Drama/ Thriller/ Crime
Runtime: 106 minutes
Year: 2013
Starring: Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum, Catherine Zeta-Jones

Description: Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) becomes severely depressed with emotional episodes and suicide attempts. Her psychiatrist, Jonathan Banks (Jude Law), after conferring with her previous doctor, eventually prescribes an experimental new medication called Ablixa. This medicine has some strange side effects, which will change Emily’s life.

Review: Soderbergh has a great variety of genres and themes. “Side Effects” is a psychological thriller full of complots, deceit and twists.
The movie starts as a drama, when 28-year old Emily welcomes home husband Martin after him being in prison for four years. When things should get better, Emily’s depression gets worse and she even tries to commit suicide. She comes in contact with Dr. Jonathan Banks, who prescribes her Ablixa, a medicine that isn’t on the market yet. Emily starts to experience some side effects, which lead to her doing something that can never be undone. From there on the movie takes a different turn and it leaves the viewers gasping for air.
Like I said in the beginning, “Side Effects” starts as a drama but makes a switch to a psychological thriller halfway through. The unexpected plot twists are what make this film exciting and unpredictable. You can not see it coming. Although some of the storylines are a bit absurd and especially towards the end it feels a bit improbable, it doesn’t take the tension and surprise element away.
Soderbergh decided to stop making films, but this is a good movie to end off a series of movies he made in the last 24 years. He gave the audience a worthy goodbye, because “Side Effect” is a movie that surprises and shocks you. It’s definitely more than meets the eye.

Rating: 3,5/ 5