Lé Results

Released 27th February 1979, The Deer Hunter focuses on a group of friends torn apart after fighting in the Vietnam war. For a war film, the film decides to take its time before showing the characters’ time in Vietnam. A solid one hour of the three hour runtime is spent with the characters interacting in their industrial town within Pennsylvania. Christopher Walken & John Savage are great as Nick & Steven with Meryl Streep giving a youthful yet mature performance as Linda. However, in what is, in my opinion, Robert De Niro’s best performance put to screen we have the protagonist Michael. In his performance De Niro seamlessly sells every moment of arrogance, loftiness and maturity. Despite his character’s youth, De Niro plays a most often stoic man who is wise but also manages to convey so with conviction and tension. This film’s ability to establish tension is also something to be admired. Whilst there are only brief, mundane moments of tension in the first act, the second and third act establish extreme feelings of tension through its incorporation of ‘Russian roulette’. Suffice to say that scenes using such a horrific game established a grand sense of unease with the gritty atmosphere and sudden transition from Pennsylvania to Vietnam. By switching locations so quickly, it really sells the effect the war would have had on the soldiers when they realised what they were fighting; a merciless enemy to protect their greatly flawed nation. Amongst the war’s psychological themes there is also the idea of whether the war was worth it with several characters back home neglecting common sense and morals which were life or death to our central three. This is where the third act comes in; it is slower again, but the experience of the second act is dragged home by the characters as it interjects with Michael’s encounters with everyone. He is even more stoic and even less interactive with his peers, only really connecting with Linda and avoiding his friends. At this point in the film, we see the different effects on our central three who blissfully entered their destination of desolation; from PTSD, drug abuse, psychiatric aid, etc. To quote Mike Massie from GONE WITH THE TWINS: “The Deer Hunter goes in-depth to examine the liveliness of innocence and the tragic, shattering effects that war can impart. The physical toll, while damaging, is monstrously trumped by the mental catastrophes rendered.” The soundtrack is also strikingly poignant. John Williams performs his usual movie magic by providing graceful melodies for the friends in Pennsylvania; s much as they all but heads they have sincere care for one another. It is only more tragic when you realise that the melodies are heard less and less as they all grow further apart; ripped away from their social bliss. Above all other tracks I can only praise the piece Cavatina so much; it is so elegant yet so sorrowful. Its heavy reliance on strings makes you feel your own heart strings will snap under the pressures of what you are viewing. I feel that is a sufficient summary of the film; it is so beautiful and well crafted that you will almost suffocate at the weight being dropped upon you.

Released 12th June 2017, Loving Vincent is an ‘animated’ biopic detailing the final 6 weeks of Vincent van Gogh’s life. The most important thing to note with this film is its ‘animation’; achieved by 100+ artists utilising van Gogh’s post-impressionist art style to paint over filmed footage of the actors. These frames are then brought together, similar to stop-motion, to create fluid movements whilst retaining the oil painting aesthetic. The result of this aesthetic is a truly unique experience; from the use of Starry Nights and Wheat Fields in all applicable scenes to every torch & lamp being illustrated like a star from Starry Night Over the Rhone. Despite the paint-overs, there are a variety of actors who clearly brought the life to the characters that the art would imitate. As put by Robert Daniels of 812FILMREVIEWS: “The result is stunning, lively, and brilliant, as we watch painted subjects, long since gone, come to life to share their stories about the artist”. Jerome Flynn & Chris O’Dowd each bring a charm to Doctor Gachet & Roulin, respectively. However, Douglass Booth is fantastic as Armand Roulin by making a first unlikeable character have enough charisma to enable you to follow him through his journey of discovery. Robert Gulaczyk is also great as Vincent van Gogh himself, for what we see of him. This perhaps the greatest non-visual strength of the film, the film’s narrative takes place a year after the tragic death of van Gogh. Everything we learn of van Gogh’s final weeks is learnt through a frame narrative as Armand questions locals who knew Vincent. This strengthens the pacing phenomenally as the snippet-stories act as letters; they provide information, but the character’s biases also tell you about their personalities. As a result, the audience are never bogged down in a flashback or extensive periods in ‘present’ time. Overall, this is a refreshing film experience which I would recommend to any who are able to view it.

Releasing 16th April 1988, My Neighbour Totoro follows two girls who have moved into a house in rural Japan, a house neighbouring a vast forest inhabited by several mystical creatures. As the film that secured Studio Ghibli as an anime juggernaut, does it still hold up? To start with, Chika Sakamoto & Noriko Hidaka are fantastic as Mei & Satsuki respectively – they really sell the youth of their characters and the subsequent energy and innocence. Tanie Kitabayashi provides the necessary compassion and warmth towards the girls as Granny; my only real qualm with the cast is Shigesato Itoi as Tatsuo, the girls’ father. His delivery is very monotone regardless of the scenario and it sucks you out of the dramatic tension of the story. And its quite unfortunate because this film completely soars with emotion and atmosphere; Studio Ghibli is arguably the best when it comes to artistically driven, vibrant environments. With the exception of character integration into their environments, My Neighbour Totoro is perhaps the best example of this with the layered shots of the family’s house, extensive farms, Totoro’s tree and the subsequent forest. My thoughts of this are shared by James Berardinelli of REELVIEWS as stated in: “Visuals have always been one of the great strengths of Miyazaki’s films the look of Totoro – richly colored painted backgrounds and anime-inspired characters – is among the most distinct of the legendary director’s efforts. “ This is aided by the tranquil, hopeful soundtrack which enables you to find the headspace to enter the sceneries. The soundtrack also helps to elevate the emotional moments where the young characters become overwhelmed with their physical and social surroundings. Another impressive feat of the film is that there is no antagonist; there are only personal obstacles that we all face in life, including our youth. Overall My Neighbour Totoro is certainly a classic but there are a few petty obstacles which hold it back from being a masterpiece.

Released 18th October 2019, The Lighthouse is a film centred around two sailors isolated on a lighthouse island. Right out of the gate this film relies on only two actual characters; a decision which really enables the time to be spent of these complex characters. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are absolutely phenomenal in depicting differing forms of madness. Dafoe being a chaotic neutral sort of character; he’s crazy but he is better at composing himself and keeping his crazes subdued. Meanwhile Pattinson embodies a chaotic evil outlook with unforgiving and superiority, as the protagonist of the film, we see a more thorough insight into the different aspects of life he misses. At its core, the film is a depiction of madness and the sanity of humankind. We see Pattinson’s Thomas Howard struggle with lust, leisure, rest, rationing and rage at frequent points, constantly escalating through the narrative with grotesque imagery and discomforting scenarios. It is the soundtrack from Mark Korven and the sound mixing by Damian Volpe however that elevates the film from a gritty drama to a full-fledged horror. The penultimate scene is perhaps the most disturbing form of art I have ever bore witness to and it is burnt into my mind, in a good way. That’s the brilliance of this film, the writing doesn’t throw in cheap jump scares for horror, it utilises every aspect of the filmmaking process to craft a semantic field of purgatory. To quote Jon Kitlet of Discover the Horror: “it really creates different moods while listening to it. There are some tracks that sound like there are muffled voices or moans coming out of the speaker” The choice to utilise a classic 1.19:1 aspect ratio is also very inspired in establishing the story as an old one which could be better applied to other time periods where the colours in life are sucked out leaving just black and white. Overall, The Lighthouse is a simple story told with so many ideas, strong writing, stellar performances and technical prowess that it will be a film for the ages.

Released 18th December 1998, The Prince of Egypt was released amidst several attempts by DreamWorks in the late 1990s through the early 2000s to combat Disney’s own success with 2D animation. The plot is that of Moses and the Exodus of the Hebrews from the bible – being told I the medium of animation. A platform for children right? Maybe nowadays but good lord this is a masterpiece. The voice acting of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, etc is stellar with no-one seeming out of place and everyone fitting their roles greatly. Most notably would be Ralph Fiennes as Rameses II; a historically wicked and cruel Pharaoh is made severely vulnerable and empathetic whilst still holding onto the attributes we already know. This film also has vocal performances from Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Martin, Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart and Danny Glover. Indeed, it could be argued as an easy job given the universal awareness of the Exodus story – true. And yet this film retells the story with such finesse and suitable creative license – creative license which only further enhances the tale into new leagues of realism. To quote Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post; “The movie's proudest accomplishment is that it revises our version of Moses toward something more immediate and believable, more humanly knowable.” There’s still more, however. The soundtrack echoes in your mind for weeks to come – maintaining a constant religious aesthetic of gospel but also R&B – commonly holding connotations of freedom under oppression. The opening song, ‘Deliver Us’ is perhaps one of the most enthralling musical pieces ever put to film: as thrilling as it is slow – as beautiful as it is poignant. The Prince of Egypt is perhaps one of the most visually striking 2D animated films with the rich textures it presents. Whether it be blood, mud or dry sand – you are grasped into every scene. It also makes use of Egyptian wall painting in several sequences; thus, resulting in unique sequences. Overall, The Prince of Egypt is perhaps THE most underrated animated film of all time; delivering us with a fresh yet familiar retelling of the Exodus whilst also making you understand and sympathise with every character and setting you meet on screen.

On 26th August 2020, TENET released as the first blockbuster in cinemas since the Coronavirus pandemic shut cinemas down in March. As the next film in Christopher Nolan’s filmography, it was expected that the film was going to attempt to break our minds – and that is absolutely true. The premise of stopping WW3 sounds simple enough; it soon gets far more complicated when the audience learn that time is being inverted and playing out backwards at random (Or so you think). Whilst nothing Oscar worthy, the performances of the film are all great and extremely well cast. John David Washington gives a fantastic performance as the simply named Protagonist and is very much as confused as the audience at all of the shenanigans occurring. Robert Pattinson is also great and his chemistry with Washington really sells the film – although you always feel he knows more than he lets on. Elizabeth Debicki is great but for what is (More or less) a glorified spy movie; she is little more than a typical damsel in distress to the phenomenal Kenneth Branagh villain. Now I will say right now that this is probably Nolan’s most confusing film put to screen so far – even more so than Inception. In this regard however I believe Robbie Collin of The Telegraph put it best; “don’t try to understand it – just rewind and enjoy the ride.” Whilst the second half really takes this in its stride, the first half relies rather heavily on exposition to explain itself which drags itself down overall. The really limited VFX and music score are absolutely flawless and make the film soar. The only complaint in this regard is that watching the film in IMAX results in the musical score overshadowing the dialogue in volume which makes the audience miss out dialogue which is essential to the audience understanding in the first half. Overall whilst not Nolan’s most well-made film; TENET still challenges the boundaries of filmmaking and the different ways of structuring stories.

Released 9th September 2009 (09/09/09), 9 was directed by Shane Acker and produced by Tim Burton, known for Nightmare Before Christmas and Batman 1989. The film was expected to be a captivating yet creepy film. The plot centres around a life-infused ragdoll waking up in a post-apocalyptic war brought about by a machine uprising. The voice cast are fine overall. Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly do a fine job however John C Reilly easily gives the best vocal performance out of everyone with his usual charisma. Parallel to this the characters are very much of the same: 9 [Wood] is your stereotypical hero who makes a mistake and must correct it to save the world. 7 (Connelly] is your battle-hardened female in the wake of an apocalypse who still needs saving by the protagonist. Once again John C Reilly’s character 5 is a standout who manages to be likeable, courageous, timid and tragic. As for the villain; ‘The Machine’ is the same evil robot we’ve been getting since The Terminator in 1984 and that goes for the plot too. It’s a typical defeat the machine to restore the Earth story which, yet again, we’ve been getting since The Terminator in 1984. To its credit it seems to attempt a message against fascism, which would have been intriguing, but it unfortunately gets lost amidst everything else. Much like the plot, the soundtrack is nothing special and fails to leave any fresh impacts. The only saving grace for the apocalyptic setting is the unique designs of the characters (Google ‘9 movie Seamstress’) although even in this regard the animation falters at times. As Tom Huddlestone from Time Out puts it; “This film will surely be remembered as an intriguing failure”. The ideas were there, and Burton’s creative horrors were present; just without any subversive takes on what even in 2009 was a dying genre.

Released 27th October 1954, the very first Godzilla film came to Japanese cinemas – a film which would begin a (Currently) 66-year legacy still going strong. The plot revolves around Japan trying to tackle the threat of Gojira – a prehistoric monster awoken by nuclear power which is unstoppable. So, for a 66-year old film how does it hold up? Surprisingly well actually: whilst the cast isn’t spectacular, it isn’t awful either – to be honest the humans aren’t particularly important. Whilst this lacking importance of the humans can make the pacing of the film rather jagged at times, the film is still enjoyable; especially once the film summons Godzilla himself. From his atomic breath to his head’s resemblance to a mushroom cloud; this nuclear powerhouse instils fear in and out of screen – even more so in the end when Japan concludes the only way to stop atomic power is to engineer a more threatening, destructive weapon. As Budd Wilkins put it for Slant Magazine; “Rarely has the open wound of widespread devastation been transposed to celluloid with greater visceral impact.” Godzilla is the atom bomb and his effects in Japan remind you of this right until the credits roll. Whilst far from the best soundtrack, Godzilla’s is instantly recognisable to those who have heard it and is able to convey the dread and unstoppable nature of the monster. The special effects are fairly dated by modern standards, they are not awful and some shots still hold surprisingly well – again, this film was released in 1954 and yet it still looks more real than almost every other Godzilla (Except from 2014 onwards) –a result of ‘suit-mation’. This technique is simply someone inside of a large suit who either stomps on model-sets or is composited via green screen. Overall whilst dated by modern standards, Godzilla 1954 stands strong as an icon of cinema through its extremely mature themes and its horrifying monster.

Released 19th December 2019, Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker was ‘supposedly’ the finale of the Skywalker Saga spanning from Episode 1: The Phantom Menace to the aforementioned Episode 9: Rise Of Skywalker. The plot revolves around the Rebellion attempting to thwart the cataclysmic plans The First Order are conceiving to bring an end to the galaxy once and for all. So how is this executed? Well, the vast cast give mixed performances throughout. Starting with the best; Adam Driver once again provides a spectacular performance for Kylo Ren – easily the standout of the cast. Everyone else is fine. Daisy Ridley is fine. John Boyega is fine. And it pains me to say it; but Ian McDearmid leaves no lasting impact in his return as Emperor Palpatine; a character who was an easy standout within the Prequel trilogy. It feels the main problem for these actors is that the characters’ developments / arcs feel rushed hence making the audience less invested with the characters – that and the writing. To quote Rhys Tarling of Isolated Nation: “Characters operate on one or two wildly unsophisticated levels: shouting plot details at one another or shouting reheated platitudes at one another.” Whilst Star Wars is not known for its ravishing scripts (Just watch the Prequels), at least previous instalments had laughably bad writing; this is just bad. Well worst-case scenario the music will be spectacular still… right? Unfortunately, new music is completely forgettable, and the usage of previous music is inconsistent with what it previously represented. This is all the more unfortunate as this was John Williams’ final Star Wars composition. Fortunately, I can report that the visuals are astounding as always with some imagery being rather haunting if I do say so. In conclusion; whilst I have been quite harsh on this film, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is still a film with moderate enjoyment value. However, as the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga: it should have been so much more…