THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU - film

This film has a killer cast so I went in with pretty high expectations. Sadly the film didn’t live up to them. 

It's about a family of grown up children who are reunited in the town in which they grew up following the death of their father. Mum is played by Jane Fonda and the kids are played by Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Adam Driver and Corey Stoll. Rose Byrne also makes an appearance along with familiar faces Dax Shepard, Kathryn Hahn and Connie Britton.

It was pleasant enough, not bad or anything, but just never really fired from ‘ok’ to ‘great’ territory. Goes to show that even a great cast can’t make magic out of a middle-of-the-road script.

When I read this review in The Guardian after I saw the film I said ‘yes!’ to myself a number of times – have a read if you’d like to know more. 

Trailer here. 

SON OF A GUN - film

I found this Australian film starring Scottish Ewan McGregor patchy. It follows JR (young Aussie, Brenton Thwaites) who winds up in the clink after a relatively minor crime. In there he meets career crim, Brendan Lynch (McGregor) who provides him with protection from fellow prisoners but at a price - JR's gotta help him out when they escape.

There was moments where I was caught up in the drama and thought, 'this is great!' ie. when they're in a high speed chase with actor/stunt guy Nash Edgerton at the wheel. And then there was moments where I though 'seriously?!' ie. when they try to build a dramatic moment around a romance for JR... the music builds to a crescendo that just isn't met by the actual action - the 'love story' really let this film down in my view.

There's plenty to like but this is definitely one you could leave for DVD viewing some time.

Trailer here.

GONE GIRL - film

This film is getting pretty universally positive reviews and I certainly think it's a great one, worth seeing if you don't get to the movies very often.

One thing I would say, though, is that it's a thriller based on a book (and fairly true to the book, I gather) so if you have read the book, it does become a tad less, well, thrilling, because you know how it ends! I've seen it twice and I enjoyed it a lot more the first time round when I had no idea what was going to happen with each twist and turn.

It stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as a rather complex couple - he winds up under intense scrutiny when she goes missing. I will say no more as I think the less you know, the more you'll enjoy this.

Leigh Paatsch's 4.5 star review here if you'd like to read more and trailer here.

THE LITTLE DEATH - film

Gosh I loved this.

Made in Sydney by Australian actor and now director, Josh Lawson, this film is charming, funny, poignant and unpredictable.

It follows a bunch of couples in suburbia whose stories are largely independent though they do intertwine a little. For those unaware, 'the little death' is a euphemism for orgasm, so the film does declare it's hand in the sense that the stories do all carry a sexual element. For example one couple, unbeknownst to the bloke, deal with the woman's case of dacryphilia  - being aroused by her partner's crying. The lengths she goes to to facilitate this are quite extraordinary! This couple is played by Kate Box and Patrick Brammall who you may recognise as Cleaver Greene's assistant from Rake and loveable Leo from Offspring respectively. The whole thing is full of familiar faces from Australian TV and film productions though, such as Lawson himself, Lisa McCune, Kim Gyngell, Bojana Novakovic and Damon Herriman who is a favourite of mine since his fantastic performance in the TV series Laid.

One of the stories featured towards the end of the film, almost completely isolated from the others, is positively delightful. Monica works for a video call translation service and Sam calls, wanting her to translate a a call from him to a phone sex line. All you need to know is that it's funny, romantic and the two actors knock it out of the ball park.

Regular readers might know that I don't dig it when films are too long so I'm also very happy to report that this is a very disciplined 97 minutes. Didn't think to look at my watch once!

Definitely recommend this. Go and see it!

Trailer here.

THE BOXTROLLS - film

I took my 11 and nine year old nieces to see this animated kids' film figuring that as the target market, what they think of it is more important than what I think of it.

It's based on a children's book called Here Be Monsters! and the Boxtrolls themselves are, well, trolls who wear boxes. Yeah, it's a bit odd but I guess similar to Shrek in that regard.

To summarize, they both said (after being urged to be honest) they liked it and both said they found it funny. Miss nine gave special mention to the guy who dressed up and sang like a woman for bringing the lolz. From what I observed, for both my nieces and every other kid in the cinema, the funniest part was actually when someone plummeted to the ground and face-planted. Kids do love their slapstick humor!

From my adult-watching-kids-film perspective, I thought it was perfectly pleasant but not likely to take off like, say, Frozen or Toy Story did.

This 3.5 star review in the Daily Telegraph will give you a bit more on the plot etc.

Trailer here.

Opens this Thursday 18 September.

STEP UP ALL IN - film

I was especially keen to include a picture with this blog as I think it tells a good portion of the story all by itself.Think, hot babes dancing and not much more.

The fifth film in the 'Step Up' franchise, the director of this one is best known for directing music videos. Like the picture, that tells you a lot. 

In keeping with the 'Step Up' flicks before it I gather, this is all about dancing. Forget about the plot - it's as flimsy as Joe Hockey's understanding of how poor people live. If you want a strong script and solid plot and character development, this is definitely not for you. 

But the makers of this film know who their audience is and have appealed to them beautifully. At the preview I attended with a surprisingly eclectic crowd, a handful of people event clapped at the end. If you don't care too much about plot and are just happy to watch amazingly talented dancers strut their stuff, then I reckon you'll love this.  

I think three stars is probably more generous than I'd be but I agree with what this critic from The Independent in the UK has to say about this film otherwise.

Trailer here. In cinemas from Thursday 11 September.

BOYHOOD - film

This film is unique, that's for sure. It tracks the life of a boy called Mason from age 6 to 18 and rather than aging him with makeup or CGI or using multiple actors, this movie was filmed over 12 years for 3 or 4 days at a time capturing multiple moments in his life. It's a 'coming of age' story but not like any I've seen before. His parents are played by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke and they are both fantastic in this.

It also felt unusual to me in the sense that there's no crescendo to the story, no big drama that it's all been building to. It's just a bunch of moments, some of which do feel more significant than others, that in total make a charming story but for me, not an amazing one.

That said, I do need to tell you that this film has had many four and five star reviews. For example, four stars here from theguardian.com and five stars here from the New York Times.

Fairfax reviewer Sandra Hall gave it three stars which is more in keeping with my personal opinion of the film. There's a lot to love - it's unique, Arquette and Hawke shine beautifully and there's something compelling about the rawness of the story. As an average (unsophisticated & boganic, some might argue) viewer though, for me it didn't live up to the expectations that came with the knock-out reviews. And at 2 hours and 45 minutes, it was just too damn long. (Or as Leigh Paatsch from News Ltd said in an otherwise positive review "At a running time of close to 3 hours, Boyhood can be messy, unfocussed and too tedious for words. Just like life.")

If you see this one, please do let me know what you think of it! And if any of you are super keen to read more about the film and the discussion around the amazing reviews it's been getting, this piece from The Independent UK is interesting: 'Boyhood gets perfect score on Metacritic but is it really the perfect movie?'

Trailer here.


* Pic at top courtesy of a clever artist at Palace Westgarth