Film Shapes

Title - Gone Girl . Director - David Fincher. Main cast -  Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike. Genre - maybe mystery, thriller (?). These raisins were pretty much all I knew about this going into the cinema. And that's the best way to see this fine film. With no background at all. So, even though I'll try to avoid spoilers, I'd suggest not reading any more of this until you've seen the film. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Okay. So.....For fuck AND fuck's brother's sake as well. What a satisfying 'big' film. Very much against type for a studio picture. The performances are nicely tuned to the bi-polar nature of the story. Pike is superbly icy and unhinged. Affleck plays a more aggressive version of The Affleck but it's positioned in the sweet spot, almost like a Tendulkar cover drive. The supporting cast fill in the cracks with farce or pathos or whatever is required at any given point. Uniformly sound. Fincher himse...

This will be a brief write-up as I have to admit to a bit of 'Middle Earth fatigue'. In short The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is okay, a bit better than An Unexpected Journey and not as good as The Desolation of Smaug. I'd actually like to see one film with the Bilbo/Gollum face-off of the first and the titular battle of this one wedged into the second film somehow. Instead, we'll get extended versions, director's cuts, anniversary editions, blur, blah, blamph....... There were some nice touches - the 'battles within the Battle' featuring Legolas (Elf) vs Bolg (Orc) and Thorin (Dwarf) vs Azog (also Orc), as well as some grotesque 'war beasts' (basically huge Orcs with battering rams for heads or catapults on their backs. Visually very Jackson-esque. On the clumsy side - The character of Alfred from Laketown was an annoying prick and really changed the mood of the film (as well as being used for the same 'gag' a fe...

I like so many things about Interstellar that I'm quite willing to ignore or disregard the missteps. I don't care if the physics are a bit unlikely or inaccurate. I'm satisfied with the dumbing-down of some of the dialogue. Shit, I was even happy with the occasional clichéd 'cowboy' attitude of McConaughey's character. None of this bothered me at all during the film, and it's only since reading some reviews that I've come across the criticisms. In fact, the only problem I had with Interstellar was the ear-splitting volume of some of the audio (possibly a cinema issue). So maybe I should go over some of the positives. To begin with, this film had a great feel to it. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe simply the cinematography of Hoyte Van Hoytema was key. Maybe because it recalled some old sci-fi that I'm partial to ( Star Trek , 2001 , Silent Running , Hitchhiker's Guide , etc). Maybe the throwback music of Hans Zimmer. Not many fil...