100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 99: Far From the Madding Crowd

Director: Thomas Vinterberg

Genre: Drama/ Romance

Runtime: 119 minutes

Year: 2015

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, Juno Temple, Jessica Barden

Description: In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan) attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak (Matthias Shoenaerts), a sheep farmer; Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), a reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a prosperous and mature bachelor.

Review: Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has made some great movies, like “Festen” and especially “Jagten”. Three years after the lather, Vinterberg takes a trip beyond the borders with “Far From the Madding Crowd”. He manages to create a good balance between classic and contemporary storytelling.

The movie, based on a novel by Thomas Hardy, centers young Bathsheba Everdene who constantly has doubts about her different lovers and her independence. In the very beginning of the film she is asked to marry to charming sheep farmer Gabriel Oak. He offers her a comfortable life, but decides to decline. Bathsheba doesn’t want to be anyone’s wife. Gabriel eventually loses his sheep and Bathsheba inherits a farm herself. When Gabriel helps Bathsheba to save her famr from a fire, she hires him. In the meantime Bathsheba gets the attention from the aristocratic widower Boldwood and the young soldier Francis Troy.

Although the plot sounds like your average soap opera, director Vinterberg and script writer David Nicholls do manage to make a good book to move adaptation. You see the differences between classes and the feministic character of Bathsheba. It’s great to see such a strong woman again in a costume drama, who chooses independence over the security of having a husband.

Vinterberg did make some big changes though. In Hardy’s book, he often lets certain situations be decided by faith. Like a wrongly send letter or missing a wedding. In the movie that’s not as present. And the crucial role of character Fanny Robin is also underused.

Even the small criticism make this a very good movie. The cinematography is good and also the acting by Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts and especially Michael Sheen are worth watching “Far From the Madding Crowd”.

Rating: 4/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 98: Gosford Park

Director: Robert Altman

Genre: Drama/ Romance/ Crime

Runtime: 137 minutes

Year: 2001

Starring: Kelly MacDonald, Clive Owen, Michael Gambon, Alan Bates, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Kristen Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Richard E. Grant, Stephen Fry, Bob Balaban, Eileen Atkins, Charles Dance, Emily Watson, Camilla Rutherford

Description: The lives of upstairs guest and downstairs servants at a party in 1932 in a country house in England as they investigate a murder involving one of them.

Review: The start of the film sets the tone. This is not an ordinary detective, but an analysis of the English society of the 1930s.

On a rainy day, made Mary and her lady Constance Trentham leave for a hunting weekend. The head of housekeeping, at the mansion they are visiting, is Mrs. Wilson. It’s soon clear that nobody is called by their name, but by the name of the people they are serving. The tone is set.

Meanwhile many different characters are introduced. Upstairs we meet actor and singer Ivor Novello and his movie producing American friend Morris Weissman; the casual Isobel and her sister Sylvia; crafty Freddie Nesbit and his plain wife Mabel. We see lots of married couples, bt everything is a lot more complicated. Downstairs we have servant Henry, an arrogant young man; Butlers George, Arthur and Probert; alcoholic head butler Jennings; Head of the kitchen Mrs. Croft. Upstairs people don’t talk that much about each other, but downstairs is where the gossip starts.

It’s a pretty complicated setting, lots of characters you meet and have to get to know. You have to pay attention to keep up and to discover all the intrigue. But during all this puzzling, you enjoy all the humor that is in this film. Good dialogues, great acting and fantastic actors.

Halfway through the film, someone is murdered, which also gives this movie a detective story touch. You could criticize this, but the context is much more important than the story. Because the context is brought to the surface, the characters come to life. And also the acting makes this happen, actually by all the actors. Both the bigger and the smaller roles are performed very well. It shows that “Gosford Park” has been made with a lot of love and enthusiasm.

“Gosford Park” is a classy, yet funny and surprising costume drama. I highly enjoyed it.

Rating: 4,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 97: The Maze Runner

Director: Wes Ball

Genre: Action/ Science Fiction/ Thriller

Runtime: 114 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Dexter Darden, Kaya Scodelario, Chris Sheffield, Joe Adler, Alexander Flores, Jacob Latimore, Randall D. Cunningham, Patricia Clarkson, Don McManus, Michael Bow, Jerry Clark, Michael Deville, Dylan Gaspard

Description: Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they're all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow "runners" for a shot at escape.

Review: Since the “Harry Potter” movies, the adaptations of the “Twilight” films and the movies of “The Hunger Games” series, the young adult films have become a new subgenre. Themes as friendship, love and the fight between good and bad are illustrated. I didn’t like the book that this movie, “The Maze Runner”, is based on. I was skeptical about it, but it was better than I thought it would be.

In the opening of the film, the audience is right in the middle of all the action. After a ride in a dark elevator, protagonist Thomas ends up in a strange place surrounded by walls. A group of boys his age are looking at him. Nobody knows why they are there. The walls they are surrounded by form a maze. A select group of boys, called runners, is allowed to enter that maze. Maybe they find clues or even a way out, but no one has found out anything important yet. And at night the search is even harder because of the grievers, robotic insect like creatures. Everything becomes even more complicated when another new victim arrives, the first girl.

“The Maze Runner” follows a different structure than most young adult films. Not just a story that goes from A to B. The maze adds a lot of mystery to it all and you feel involved in the puzzle the boys are trying to solve. The movie isn’t all that predictable.

The problem I have with the movie, that I also had with the book, are the characters. The story has no memorable characters, like for instance Harry Potter or Katniss Everdeen are. If you ask me to name five, I think I won’t manage.

“The Maze Runner” is better than I expected it to be. I didn’t like the book and didn’t want to read any of the sequels. I actually do want to see the second film.

Rating: 3/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (200)

Here are this weeks trailers.

The Hateful Eight

Description: In post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty hunters try to find shelter during a blizzard but get involved in a plot of betrayal and deception. Will they survive?

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Zoë Bell, Bruce Dern, Channing Tatum, Walton Goggins

Trailer: Trailer "The Hateful Eight"

Comment: I've been waiting for this! I love Tarantino and I can't wait to see his 8th film!

Burnt

Description: Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) is a Chef who destroyed his career with drugs and diva behavior. He cleans up and returns to London, determined to redeem himself by spearheading a top restaurant that can gain three Michelin stars.

Director: John Wells

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Daniel Brühl, Emma Thompson, Uma Thurman, Matthew Rhys

Trailer: Trailer "Burnt"

Comment: I love movies about cooking!

Goodnight Mommy

Description: In the heat of the summer, a lonesome house in the countryside between woods and corn fields, lives nine-year-old twin brothers who are waiting for their mother. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before. The children start to doubt that this woman is actually their mother. It emerges an existential struggle for identity and fundamental trust.

Director: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz

Starring: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz

Trailer: Trailer "Goodnight Mommy"

Comment: This trailer freaked me out!

By the Sea

Description: Set in France during the mid-1970s, Vanessa (Angeline Jolie), a former dancer, and her husband Roland (Brad Pitt), an American writer, travel the country together. They seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper and a hotel owner.

Director: Angelina Jolie

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent

Trailer: Trailer "By the Sea"

Comment: Pitt and Jolie rule!!

The Keeping Room

Description: Left without men in the dying days of the American Civil War, three Southern women - two sisters and one African-American slave - must fight to defend their home and themselves from two rogue soldiers who have broken off from the fast-approaching Union Army.

Director: Daniel Barber

Starring: Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Sam Worthington

Trailer: Trailer "The Keeping Room"

Comment: A feminist western.... it's about time.

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 96: Shaun the Sheep Movie

Director: Mark Burton, Richard Starzack

Genre: Animation/ Family/ Adventure

Runtime: 85 minutes

Year: 2015

Starring: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Omid Djalili, Richard Webber, Kate Harbour, Tim Hands, Simon Greenall, Emma Tate, Henry Burton, Dhimant Vyas, Sophie Laughton, Nia Medi James, Nick Park, Andy Nyman, Stanley Unwin

Description: When Shaun decides to take the day off and have some fun, he gets a little more action than he bargained for. A mix up with the Farmer, a caravan and a very steep hill lead them all to the Big City and it's up to Shaun and the flock to return everyone safely to the green grass of home.

Review: Lots of people have been enjoying the adventures of Shaun the Sheep for a while. This animated character, who first appeared in “Wallace and Gromit”, got his own show in 2007. The British production company Aardman decided to make a full length film.

The local farm animals try to change their daily routine, but get into a lot of trouble. It sounds a lot like the plot to “Chicken Run”, also made by Aardman. But it’s still very original and extremely entertaining. And the movie has no narration or dialogue, whatsoever.

“Shaun the Sheep” is a very optimistic movie. Although the sheep are in big trouble, they are having the adventure of their life. It always amazes me, stop motion and Claymation. As a creative mind myself it fascinates me how dedicated you have to be to create such a movie. There is so much detail and the characters all look amazing.

“Shaun the Sheep” is not as good as “Wallace and Gromit”, maybe also because it’s targeting a younger audience. But the film succeeds in entertaining the audience and it’s just a lot of fun.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015- # 95: Still Alice

Director: Richard Glatzer
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 101 minutes
Year: 2014
Starring: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, Kristen Stewart, Hunter Parrish, Shane McRea, Seth Gilliam, Stephen Kunken, Daniel Gerroll, Erin Drake, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Maxine Prescott, Orlagh Cassidy, Rosa Arredondo, Zillah Glory, Caridad Montanez, Caleb Freundlich, Charlotte Robson

Description: A linguistics professor (Julianne Moore) and her family find their bonds tested when she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

Review: How it can change your life, when your memory suddenly starts to fail, is something Alice discovers. This intelligent woman is confronted with the Alzheimer ‘s Disease.
Alice Howland really needs her brain. She is a very spirited linguistics professor at a university, like her husband John. Together with him, their two daughters and son they celebrate her 50th birthday. Alice is enjoying her evening, but realizes that sometimes she doesn’t find the right words to say. She knows them, but can’t find a way to produce them.
No one seems to notice, but Alice is smart enough to mask it. John claims it’s her busy job, but Alice doesn’t trust it. When she goes jogging, she suddenly forgets where she it. This is reason enough for her to visit the doctor. The neurologist tells her she has a rare form of Alzheimer’s and it’s genetic, so her kids could have it as well.
It all sounds like one of those bitter sweet stories about a successful woman fighting a disease till the end. “Still Alice” has so much more to offer and all thanks to the brilliant acting by Julianne Moore.
She accepts her faith, but is also frustrates her. Although she is strong, her fear never goes away. It’s very touching to see how Alice’s disease is slowly getting worse. Julianne Moore received an Oscar for her performance, and it’s well deserved.

Rating: 4/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 94: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Genre: Drama/ Thriller/ Comedy

Runtime: 90 minutes

Year: 1964

Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, Keenan Wynn, Tracey Reed, Peter Bull, James Earl Jones, Jack Creley, Frank Berry, Robert O’Neil, Glenn Beck, Roy Stephens, Shane Rimmer, Hal Galili

Description: An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.

Review: “Dr. Strangelove” is a direct movie, with a fairly simple story and it’s pretty light. It’s also a bit weird, thanks to actor Peter Sellers. It’s a comedy, the only comedy director Stanley Kubrick ever made. The movie wasn’t meant to be a comedy though, but Kubrick thought the satire would give this film more power and he was right.

The humor and the message of the film are stronger because of it. The humor works so well, that the conspiracy theories of general Ripper are extra amusing. But it’s not the kind of humor that will makes you role on the ground of laughter. It’s satire, with drama lurking around the corner. It’s sometimes even disturbing to laugh out loud when our reality isn’t that different. Pure comedy, but the truth is scary.

The movie is carried by its characters. Peter Sellers plays three roles: the American president, English RAF soldier Mandrake and off course title character Dr. Strangelove. That last one is the most memorable, especially in that scene where he is trying to hide his “sieg heil” gesture. Seller improvised a lot of his dialogue, which gave us some hilarious and very memorable scenes.

It’s been on my watch list for way too long, but now that I finally saw it there is only one thing I can say: Watch this film!

Rating: 4,5/ 5