Friday 17 February 2012

Film Friday

I've had lots of film watching time recently which has resulted in two cinema trips and a few nights in. At the cinema I saw Chronicle and The Descendants and at home I watched Submarine. My favourite of the three was definitely Submarine but I'll come to that in a bit.

Chronicle
Directed by 26 year old Josh Trank and with a 12A certificate, I wasn't expecting such a dark film. I walked into the cinema knowing that we would be watching a film involving teenage superheroes and that then led me to assume that it would inevitablly feature some kind of moral struggle, an outcast and plenty of action. I wasn't wrong. The film is pretty formulaic but it was different enough to keep my interest. There are some pretty violent and shocking scenes so I was surprised that it was a 12A but I guess film certification is different nowadays! The first person point of view is what sets this film apart from others of this genre. The main character, Andrew decides to film his life with a camera which he is soon able to control through his superpowers. This results in us viewing the film in an almost documentary style. It begins with the typical shaky camera control but that soon settles down and you get used to the way it has been shot. There are some parts of the film where the presence of a camera makes no sense whatsoever but overall I really enjoyed watching it and felt very tense during the final scenes of non-stop action. I actually left the cinema wondering what had happened and how I was supposed to relax after such a frenzy!

Submarine
Produced in 2010 and directed by Richard Ayoade (of IT Crowd/Garth Marenghi's Darkplace fame) I can safely say that Submarine has now been added to my list of favourite films. It's a dark comedy which takes place in Wales during the 1980s and follows the story of Oliver Tate, an emotional and vulnerable boy, who struggles to fit in and understand the motivations of others. I genuinely don't think I can do justice to the film with just a few words but here are a few things I loved about it: the complicated emotions shared between Oliver and Jordanna; the sequence involving fireworks and lights; Graham the spiritual ninja; some incredibly touching moments surrounding family issues; the half dimmer switch and the fact that I didn't know how to feel throughout the entire film. Just as I felt tears welling up, I was distracted with some ironic happening or comic turn. As I've said before, I'm not a film reviewer, I'm just giving my humble opinion but I think that this is definitely a must-see.

The Descendants
So this was an Orange Wednesday watch and admittedly we didn't go with the intention of watching this particular film. But who am I to try and turn down George Clooney? So The Descendants is a story about Matt King (Clooney) who owns a large amount of land in Hawaii and is in the process of selling it off for development when his wife has an accident and is left in a coma. With two daughters to look after, King tries his best to keep it together until Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) tells him that her mum was cheating on him. This leads to the search for the man she was involved with, questions about family and difficult decisions over the land that the family own, all while the mother is still in hospital. I actually found the film too predictable and overly sentimental but I did find parts of it funny and was particularly impressed with the young actress, Shailene Woodley. Most people who have seen this will probably say I have a heart of stone if I wasn't feeling emotional all the way through but it just wasn't for me. It's definitely not a bad film though. I was probably too blown away by watching Submarine that nothing else could beat it. 

And that's my film watching for the week. I need some new films to rent/buy on dvd. Any recommendations?

Pictures taken from The Guardian website.
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