2004 was a helluva year for films. Week after week it seemed like there was another gem on offer either at Vue or The Belmont that I could trot on down to see. This also coincided with when I took up smoking, so what better way to please the nicotine demon and film geeks on my shoulders? Timing is everything.
Fast forward to the last 2 years, and my cinema trips have vastly depleted. Some of this was to do with Uni work and watching certain films over and over again, so when I needed a break from that I would read or come online or something else that cost no money. The other side of the equation is the standard and draw of a lot of films. Don't get me wrong, I've seen many trailers where I initially thought, "Yeh, gonna have to go and see that when it comes out," but then by the time it comes out I'm already tired of it due to the constant ads on TV or online that come out of NOWHERE and mess up the audio of the song I'm listening to on YouTube. Well done distributors, you've pop-upped yourself out of a customer.
So anyway, the past 10 days have been like a return to my 2004 form, except I haven't been going to get out of the house to smoke... and my student card runs out in 5 days. Timing is everything.
Film 1 - A Lonely Place to Die
I am a Melissa George fan. There, I said it. Probably wont be the last time I say it either, the girl is starting to become the queen of the horror/thriller genre due to her work in The Amityville Horror (a college favourite), wAz, 30 Days of Night and the very under-rated Triangle. Seeing she was in this and that it was set in Scotland was all the convincing I needed.
It starts off in a straight-forward enough fashion; she is an American climber who is with a small group planning on a several day hiking/climbing extravaganza. One thing I really liked in the opening 15 minutes or so was a reference (I think) to a German film called North Face which should really be seen by more people. North Face is the true story about 2 German mountaineers in the 1930s who are asked to climb a treacherous mountain in a propaganda exercise to demonstrate the German spirit by overcoming this impossible mountain. From seeing their reference to this, I wondered if they would take a similar path with ALPTD, to which the answer is no.
The group discover a child in a box underground and so the group abandons their original plan to get the child to safety. Cue some Deliverance and Wicker Man-esque moments, along with the addition of an overly complicated and convoluted sub-plot, and you have a well-shot film that just ends feeling very muddled. Part of the muddled feel comes from the mix of accents; American, English (North and South), Scottish (North and South), Croatian and another East European one which I can't recall.
Aside from that, it was a good film. Not ground-breaking in any sense (aside from when they free the girl of course) but a well-made film with some inspired touches and stunning photography.
Film 2 - Warrior
The first of 2 Tom Hardy films I saw, Warrior is a film I'm still not that sure how much I liked. I did like it, but I've also seen The Fighter, which was a superior film. (Just)
The key difference between Warrior and The Fighter, is the family involved in each film. In The Fighter, the family dynamic was focussed on driving Wahlberg to get the most money from his appearances without much care for the man himself. Bale was awesome as the crack addicted brother who managed to infuriate and win back members of the family at will. (The scene where his mother catches him jumping out of a crack house then singing to her in the car for example.) In Warrior, the tensions in the family are kept as a hazy memory between all involved, with each having their own skewed view of what happened which does further fuel the idea of this being a story based upon a Greek tragedy of some kind; 2 fighting brothers who have been estranged from each other for a long time, a father who is trying to make up for his past that in some ways caused the estrangement, the 3 men unable to get along due to their collective past.
The MMA aspect over the boxing seen in The Fighter does allow the 2 brothers to carry on the narrative of their characters within the ring; Tom Hardy's 'Tommy' is an unstoppable force of rage and quick beatings, whereas Joel Edgerton's 'Brendan' is a calculated methodical fighter who recalls his experience from UFC outings.
I will avoid spoiling the end even though you may guess how it goes, but it's a shame that it came out while The Fighter is still so fresh in the mind.
Film 3 - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
My 2nd Tom Hardy film, and one in which he probably has more lines as a supporting actor than he did as a main actor in Warrior. However Gary Oldman in TTSS is also a leading man who benefits from minimal dialogue here, as he communicates a lot with just a look, and this demeanor tends to bring out more dialogue from the supporting cast.
The second half of the film rattled by as more and more secrets are unraveled and a larger picture is revealed, but the first hour does plod on a bit too slowly. The director also took the reigns for Let The Right One In, another film where speed is replaced with story-telling, going with a steady constant pace until the right moment to put his foot on the gas rather than trying to keep up a frenetic pace. At points in TTSS the mind may start to drift, but it wont take long before something comes along to catch your attention again.
It is a very British spy film, complete with tweed suits filled by middle aged men enjoying pipes, but the British already gave the world Bond, so seeing a film that concentrates on prolonged tension and revealing mysteries at just the right time may not be as exciting as the Bond world, but it's as impressive all the same.
Film 4 - Drive
What a film.
The trailer was somewhat deceptive. I went in thinking this would be a fast-paced adventure with lots of cool driving, like Deathproof but without all the inane chatter. What it was instead was a stripped down and confident film, that said as much about the director as it did for Ryan Gosling.
At the start, Gosling's coolness is established by his certainty and confidence in his own driving and planning abilities; the getaway car is the most common model in California, he knows how/where to hide and how to evade capture without going too fast or getting too furious. He is a composed professional who says very little with his mouth, but a whole hell of a lot with his body language.
As the film goes on, the placidity of the opening half-hour is soon disturbed by the driver's neighbour's (Carey Mulligan) husband getting out of jail and being in debt to bad folks. There is one shot in the lead-up to the driver discovering said hubby having been beaten up which encapsulates what the driver is all about; he cruises slowly past 2 thugs in the car park of the apartment building keeping his eyes fixed on them the whole time as he slides into a space, never once looking ahead of him.
...and that's about as much as I'm willing to say before I give anything away. I will say it was very hard at one point NEAR the end not to let out a cheer.
Whilst it didn't overtake Deathproof driving wise, Drive's soundtrack is at least on a par with Deathproof's as it favours a myriad of synth-pop numbers that add an almost dreamlike element to the film when the music blends with the slow-motion camerawork. The first and final song that plays during the film, is my gift to your ears.
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