Film Shapes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes picks up about 10 years after the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes . Incidentally, I'd have thought a dawn would be before a rise , but there you go. There's quite a bit going on here. It opens with Caeser and his ape tribe (face paint and all) and stays with them for a good while before any pesky humans start stinking up the place. These pesky humans (Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, etc) don't compare very well to the apes, as far as holding the interest goes. They do compare in other ways, though, chiefly the fact that the human group mirrors the dynamics within the ape group. Without getting to technical, there's a liberal and a hawk on each 'team', and therein lies the drama. The performance capture technology is top drawer once again, but whereas in Rise it was gob-smackingly advanced, here in Dawn it might be taken for granted. In fairness, it's probably a little better and Andy Serkis d...

I've been thinking recently about some of the films that are hovering around the gate to my favourite films paddock. The top ten that sits to the right of this post shall remain sacrosanct (though some films have crept in or out over my lifetime) but I sometimes happen upon a great film that has the temerity to challenge them. Here are some of those crackers in no particular order: Tell No One ( Ne le dis à personne) This 2006 French thriller has so many attributes, it's hard to know where to start. From the word go we're gripped, due in no small part to the lead, Francois Cluzet. He's a bit like a middle-period Dustin Hoffman (think Tootsie or Rain Man ), in looks and intensity. Cluzet is the perfect piece of casting in a film with countless great performers - Kristin Scott Thomas, Jean Rochefort and Gilles Lellouche all shine in parts of varying length or importance. After an initial, important back-story, the pace doesn't let up with the different thread...

I saw the third part of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy a few days ago in Kobe and I was suitably gobsmacked. TDKR is, I think, better than its immediate predecessor, The Dark Knight  and just as good as Batman Begins, maybe even a touch superior (no Katie Holmes in this, for example). The plaudits should go primarily to Nolan himself. This guy could find a novel way to direct a film based on the instructions on how to open a bottle of Pocari Sweat. Probably. He makes a seemingly routine story sparkle and the odd thing is, I'm not sure how he does it. Some of the scenes would have been quite clunky without Nolan's sure hand. He is helped no end by Wally Pfister, the DOP and by the guy responsible for the gargantuan task of editing this web of character and plot. It doesn't seem rushed and yet it's probably the longest 'tight' film I've ever seen (at 2 hours 45 minutes). There's not a single superfluous, 'look at your watch' moment a...