The Apartment

The Apartment (1960)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Empire 500 (2008): #12
Empire 301 (2014): #104
Director: Billy Wilder
Screenwriters; Billy Wilder, I.A.L Diamond

It is rare to find perfection in a film, but The Apartment is as close to perfect as you will ever find. From the opening monologue to the final line, scarcely a shot feels wasted or unnecessary which in a 2 hour film is quite a feat. The screenplay is so masterfully constructed with so many perfectly designed setups and payoffs that it is little wonder that this film is still regarded as one of the finest comedies ever. To call it a comedy though would be simplifying it. It is a number of things, a romance, a drama and a tragedy with subject matter that would not be touched in mainstream cinema today. We follow C.C.Baxter (Jack Lemmon), one of 31,259 employees of an insurance company and looking to move as far up the ladder as he can in the corporate world. To do this however, he must give the use of his apartment to several of his bosses for their affairs. The concept is very solid and makes for an entertaining opening, as Baxter is woken up late at night and forced to wait outside for his boss. Soon however, a lift girl Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) catches his attention but their relationship is scuppered, as Baxter's boss is having an affair with her.

At the heart of it all, Jack Lemmon puts in an incredible performance, bursting with a manic energy that never lets up throughout the film to create a hugely sympathetic character, whether straining spaghetti through a tennis racket or shuffling and dealing cards. It is a magnificently physical performance. He is also supported by a great cast, with MacLaine and especially Fred MacMurray as Baxter's boss.

This film however, is more than just a comedy, and deals with subject matter such as depression, solitude and a harsh criticism of the American workplace culture. Set very tellingly around Christmas, the time of the year where everybody is happy and with friends and family, only serves to increase Baxter's sense of isolation from the real world, which is also shown in a number of subtle ways. While the ending seems in modern light a bit predictable, as it has been copied many times since, it doesn't really cheapen the journey. This really is a fantastic film.

5/5 Stars 

The Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
Director: Louis Leterrier
Screenwriter: Zak Penn

The Incredible Hulk is the second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I am probably alone in enjoying it much more than the first, Iron Man, mainly because the story was more natural and contained, and Edward's Norton's Hulk is a far more compelling and intriguing character than Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man. While in this film, we've also got a proper villain portrayed fantastically by Tim Roth, as a soldier who slowly loses his mind and control of his body after being injected with the Hulk's blood. Another origin story, this feels fresher and has a much more interesting character at its core, despite many similar problems to Iron Man. 

This film also makes itself pretty unique by starting in what is essentially the middle of the story, showing Bruce Banner's transformation into the Hulk and subsequent refuge from the U.S. military in one short credit sequence and then jumping straight into the meat of things. We follow Edward Norton as he seeks to find a cure for his affliction while being hunted by the military, as he also attempts to control his ability to transform. Enter "Mr. Blue", a mysterious scientist who tries to help him, but who as we find out has got slightly insane with the advancement of science that Hulk could give him. Kudos must also go to to the Marvel team for not making the incredibly obvious and predictable choice of choosing "Mr. Blue" as the main villain.

The film is also beautifully shot, especially during the opening scenes in Brazilian favelas. Battles do occupy too much of the film's running time, but are all enjoyable enough, while the final climax is silly but did get a laugh from me. The main problem I had with this film was its failure to delve into the paradox between Banner and his alter ego the Hulk, and it felt in places like it deliberately shied away from a "Jekyll and Hyde" relationship between the two, which is a shame.

All in all though, Hulk is an enjoyable film and it is a shame that Edward Norton didn't reprise his role for The Avengers.

3 ½/5 Stars

The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)

Rotten Tomatoes: 80%

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Screenwriter: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder

The Place Beyond the Pines is a breathtakingly original and daring film. Starring two of Hollywood's hottest actors, Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, this film aims for the sky in its attempt of a modern Greek tragedy, and falls just short, let down slightly by its second half. The opening credits sequence is a captivating piece of cinematic magic, as we follow Luke Glanton (Gosling), a motorbike stuntman as he threads his way through a fairground, and for the first half an hour the film is of such breathtaking intensity that it could have been really, really great. Gosling, the film's protagonist for the first half puts in a magnificently brooding performance as he resorts to robbing banks to pay for his newborn son. The end of this segment of the film is almost immediately obvious from the start, with the church music playing throughout giving it an increasingly ominous feel. 

Halfway through the film, we switch protagonists completely, a move almost never taken in mainstream cinema, and Bradley Cooper arrives on the scene as Avery Cross, a cop who suppresses his feelings of guilt at a shooting he made as he climbs higher and higher up the police ranks, betraying his friends in the service. This change doesn't quite come off as smoothly as the film would like it to, although there is a significant connection between the two characters that I won't reveal. After the intensity of the first half the second half feels oddly slack, and Cooper puts in a very solid performance, but pales in comparison to Gosling.

The film takes place across three segments, and the third one, wrapping the film up, is a fascinating end to an almost Shakespearean tragedy. We jump fifteen years into the future, to the two main characters children as teens, a daring concept and step that falters slightly in its execution. The focus of the audience is crucial for a film, and the film slightly lets it focus slip, while the characters at times feel like they represent concepts, making decisions because the plot requires them to, but not as real people. The supporting cast, especially Eva Mendes as the mother of Gosling's child are also fantastic, and although the film stumbles at times in its execution of the second half, it is still fascinating to watch and a dazzlingly inventive piece of cinema about greed and corruption.

4/5 Stars

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes 92%
Empire 301 (2014): #282
Director: Wes Anderson
Screenwriter: Wes Anderson

The Grand Budapest Hotel, like the icing cakes made in it, is exquisitely composed, beautiful to look at and has a delicious flavour to it. Wes Anderson has crafted a lovely piece and although it doesn't quite reach Moonrise Kingdom in scope and sincerity, it is still lovely to sample and to once again take a dip into the unique mind of Anderson. 

The ensemble and star-studded cast all turn in very solid performances, but Ralph Fiennes as Monsieur Gustave H, the enigmatic concierge holds the whole film together, with an exceptionally comical and exaggerated performance. As he and his understudy Zero (Tony Revolori) get dragged into a criminal underworld, he manages to maintain the farcical aspects of the film perfectly without going overboard. Willem Dafoe is also an exceptionally menacing and sinister presence as a cold-blooded assassin.

Told in the style of a dream the film peels back layer after layer of the story. A teenage girl reads a book by an elderly author (Tom Wilkinson) who describes the experience of his younger self (Jude Law) as he meets the mysterious owner of the hotel (F. Murray Abraham) and is told of his experiences. This gives the film a surreal quality, perpetuated by it's stunningly inventive and fresh cinematography that is unlike anything before. It also however, makes the film feel a little impersonal and it feels at times like the film aims to be admired but not loved.

That said, in places it is incredibly funny, with most of the comedy centering around Ralph Fiennes, despite the film's protagonist being Zero who is played by relatively inexperienced and young actor Tony Revolori, whose unremitting decency and willingness to go along with M. Gustave stops the film from descending into some kind of over the top parody.

4/5 Stars

12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Empire 301 (2014): #119
Director: Steve McQueen
Screenwriter: John Ridley

12 Years a Slave is an emotional powerhouse of a film. The film that swept up at the Oscars this year is for the most part a harrowing experience to sit through, as we follow the true story of Solomon Northup, a black freeman tricked into 12 years of slavery between 1841 and 1853. The film is supported by an exceptionally strong cast held together by the performance of a lifetime given by Chiwetel Ejiofor who in my opinion should have walked the Academy Award for best actor. The film is unflinching in its depiction of the systemic and organised racism and slavery of the time, and throughout the camera shots are crisp and occasionally disturbingly beautiful, as the beauty of the landscapes contrasts with the horrific acts taking place there.

The movie is also an extremely important one, and tackles the cruelty of slavery far more directly than the majority of films, mainly by the immersive  positioning of the camera that allows us to view the brutal whippings and torture suffered from Solomon's point of view. It feels at times, like a personal affront on the watcher, and it is impossible not to boil over with rage at his captors. Besides Ejiofor, none of the cast are present for the whole movie, and it is very much Solomon's personal odyssey. Lupita Nyong'o, who won an Oscar for her performance as Patsey in her first feature film, first appears only halfway through the film, as does the main antagonist, Michael Fassbender playing an alcoholic slave owner who forces himself upon Patsey and then punishes her for it. Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch and Sarah Paulson also stand out in a star studded cast and give magnificent performances

The one slight criticism I have with this film, is the saviour figure of Brad Pitt, who is only introduced twenty minutes before the end and acts as a Deus Ex Machina figure responsible for Solomon's rescue. Pitt, who produced the film doesn't give a bad performance, but his character is so heroic that he feels slightly fake when contrasted with the people around him. The final half hour also feels slightly oddly paced, and Solomon's eventual redemption feels a tad rushed as the film reaches its end, especially when compared to a film with similar themes and setting, The Shawshank Redemption. There is no saviour figure  in the ending of that film. However, when we reach the end it is impossible not to be moved and as the hauntingly beautiful soundtrack plays, ending one of the best acting performances of all time by Ejiofor, who does more with his eyes than most actors can in an entire monlogue.

4 ½/5 

Iron Man

Iron Man (2008)

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

Empire 500 (2008): #406

Director: Jon Favreau

Screenwriters: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

Iron Man, is an efficient summer blockbuster, but feels slightly soulless, with none of the moral ambiguity or interesting themes of the Dark Knight trilogy. I went into this film with high expectations having never seen a film in the new Marvel Cinematic universe, and it  didn't offer anything, relying far too heavily on the charisma and presence of Robert Downey Jr. The plot feels devoid of anything at all new, interesting or experimental, trying to force oversimplified and slightly smug moral messages down the audience's throat, and the 'twist' midway through the film is also completely predictable. While the individual performances are fine this film just feels flat and boring. Once it gets going there are a few fun scenes, especially as Tony Stark discovers the capabilities of his new suit. But it is too little too late.

From the start, I found Tony Stark not the cool and funny playboy that the film tries to portray him as, but as annoying, and the film feels casually misogynistic and in light of recent events a bit casually racist and unimaginative to have standard Arabic terrorists as the main antagonists for the first two thirds of the film, capturing Tony Stark and forcing him to build his Iron Man suit. The scene where the white, rich American man acts as the saviour to the Arabic people also feels like the typical American attitude and arrogance that the film is trying to poke fun at. Jeff Bridges does his best to liven up the main villain, but he is just immensely dull, and we never learn anything about him or his motives, he is a villain simply because the film needs a villain.

There are some fun scenes, especially when Robert Downey Jr. has screen time, but the film feels uninspired. I generally quite like superhero films, and loved the Dark Knight trilogy, and how this film was critically acclaimed mystifies me slightly.

2/5 Stars

The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes: 60%
Director: Sofia Coppola
Screenwriter: Sofia Coppola

There is one fantastic moment midway through The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola's film about the infamous 'Bling Ring' group of teenagers who robbed the houses of various celebrities over several months. The 5 members of the group stride down a street, dressed like the Hollywood stars they aim to embody, as if nothing can touch them, while Kanye West's song 'Power' plays, perhaps the perfect song, reflecting on the fame and wealth that these teens are obsessed by. However, the film feels underwhelming in large parts, and never really delivers upon its potential.

The film follows a group of fascinatingly amoral teens, acted superbly by a bunch of relative unknowns and Emma Watson. Watson, Katie Chang and Israel Broussard are the three main leads and each of them give a very genuine and assured performance, as everything comes slowly crashing down for the group. What is also refreshing in this film is that the camera feels cold and nonjudgmental, allowing us to come to our own decisions, while the cinematography, headed by the late Harris Savides, to whom the film is dedicated, is fantastic. Which makes it even odder that the tone of the film is so often broken by computer images and videos, that although Coppola is clearly trying to tap into the social media spirit of the age, feel out of place.

However, the film has several problems that are quite frankly too big to be ignored. The first is that despite only being an hour and a half, the film feels overlong and the second act takes up far too much of the movie. There is simply not enough stuff going on, as the teens just break into house after house, while there are also no real attempts made at any kind of character development. The film also seems slightly confused about its lead role as the focus shifts unevenly between Broussard and Watson, and as a result of Coppola's standoffish approach, it is difficult to know who we are meant to be rooting for. 

The Bling Ring has potential and some great individual moments and theme, but it lets itself down in the middle.

3/5 Stars