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

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Empire 500 (2008): #37
Empire 301 (2014): #54
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Screenwriter: Stanley Kubrick

So much has been written about this film, that it feels somehow churlish to give it a rating, as if it has transcended good or bad. Watching A Clockwork Orange is not an enjoyable experience, and Kubrick purposefully ups the level of violence and sexual imagery at almost every opportunity to shock the watcher. Following the ultra-violent Alex (Malcom McDowell) as he is forced to relinquish immoral actions and thoughts by the government, A Clockwork Orange attempts to ask several important questions about the nature of society, and partly succeeds.

Horrible yet compelling, Alex is a fantastic character, played to perfection by McDowell. Despite being a deeply violent and horrible person, it is very difficult not to feel some twinge of sympathy for him at some point in his journey, as society turns and experiments on him. There are also some fantastic shots here, that seize your attention, especially the opening scene, which is a work only of pure genius. The Reservoir Dogs style scene also feels just incredibly right, and makes you gasp in exactly the right way. The music is also judged perfectly in most places.

This is not however, a five star film. In my opinion, the movie slightly loses itself halfway through, following the novel despite not having the exact same themes as the novel. Even this movie could I suspect have benefited from losing five minutes at some point. The world that this film creates also doesn't quite work, and the fashions and decorations used don't come together to create a consistent picture. The different use of colour is clearly something to be noted in people's clothes but for me it never really worked.

Kubrick also differs from the novel being adapted by leaving out the final cathartic chapter, which provides at least a glimmer of hope to the film, as an older Alex loses his love for violence and wants to settle down. It feels therefore that one of the two key themes of the book has been left out, the idea of violence being a permanent, natural and timeless part of growing up and society, and this is only slightly addressed in a scene where Alex reads the Bible and imagines himself as a Roman crucifying Jesus. No reason at all is therefore offered for the root cause of Alex's violence, not even that it is just the way he is and a part of adolescence, as put forward by the novel

A masterpiece, but a confused one

4/5 stars

Ted

Ted (2012)
Rotten Tomatoes: 68%

Director: Seth MacFarlane

Screenwriters: Seth MacFarlane & Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild

Like Family Guy, also created by Seth MacFarlane, Ted is very funny in places. However, it's one and only mission, for which it pulls out all stops and sacrifices everything to achieve is to make you laugh. Oddly enough considering the type of film it is and it's creators, it feels very earnest in this mission, and it bombards you with all types and forms of humour. Subtlety is definitely not the strong point of this film. You will find some of these jokes funny, but unless you are the most ardent fan of Family Guy, some jokes will definitely miss the mark. For me, there were several mildly offensive racial slurs that crossed the line just a bit too much, while there was an extended fight scene that just made me wince a lot.

But that sounds a bit too harsh. Ted is still a film with a huge, joking sense of fun and its appeal is obvious. Headed by Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis who manage to steer on the right side of annoying. The concept is simple yet brilliant: a man's childhood teddy bear has grown up with him. This film covers the themes of maturity and growing up, all the while being startlingly immature. Watchers of Family Guy will also recognize MacFarlane's familiar brand of humour, and the film is full to the brim with pop culture references, and sheer randomness in places. Joel McHale is one of the standout performances as Kunis' boss and it is unfortunate that he is given so little screen time as he is all but left out in the second half. The film also feels self aware and self-deprecating, with especially enjoyable references of Ted sounding like members of Family Guy. Seth MacFarlane is also excellent as the voice of Ted. And the film manages to mix the blend of drama and comedy almost perfectly, despite an emotional conclusion that was perhaps a bit too overwrought with emotion.

Ted feels like a breath of fresh air, and superior to most recent stale comedies. 

3½/5

Before Sunset

Before Sunset (2004)
Empire 500 (2008): #110
Empire 301 (2014): Not Included
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenwriters: Richard Linklater & Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy

This is a rare and beautiful thing. A sequel that feels better than the original and entirely necessary, not a tacky, moneymaking add-on but something different and unique. The distance of 9 years between the films clearly helped, as did the obvious passion of the three main creative leads, Linklater, Hawke and Delpy, for the project. The film starts with a playful and funny reminder of the original film through the eyes of Jesse, who has published a book about it. Nine years later, the setting (Paris instead of Vienna), the format (lots and lots of conversation)  and the type of encounter remain similar, but Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) have moved on. Jesse is seemingly locked in an unhappy marriage, while Céline has been hurt numerous times in her love life, to the extent that she has given up trying. Nine years later, the characters feel wiser and more grown up than on their last outing, and the stakes and urgency feel much higher as both have made serious commitments.

My problem with the original film was despite the conversations and the characters, there felt like a lack of narrative, stakes or urgency. This film feels different and rectifies that, as it firstly is far more condensed, playing out in real time The conversations are also just a bit more personal and real, due I guess to the fact that Hawke and Delpy wrote the script themselves with Linklater. There is more tension and conflict between the two characters this time, while the central 'will they, won't they?' dilemma feels more pressing and interesting. We also know these characters already so the film has the liberty of being able to instantly go into the meat of things. For all these reasons, this film takes a dramatic step above Before Sunrise.

As the film races towards the end, another sequel feels inevitable and needed. I still haven't seen Before Midnight, but I will sometime soon, and I am looking forward to completing the Before trilogy a lot more now that I have seen this gem.

5/5 Stars

Before Sunrise

Before Sunrise (1995)
Empire 500 (2008): #200
Empire 301 (2014): #233
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenwriters: Richard Linklater & Kim Krizan

Richard Linklater is unquestionably one of my favourite directors, and Boyhood and Dazed and Confused are two of my favourite films ever, so I was looking forward hugely to tackling his Before trilogy. In Linklater's films there are never any forced stakes, the world is never saved and nobody dies. They tend to be gentle and meandering chronicles of a certain point or period in somebody's life. They delight in and relish the slowly unfolding pace at which they take place, and there is no forced meaning or point other than simply being there. The nature of these films also reflect the kind of people Linklater portrays, the laid back, Generation X 'slacker' or drifter of an artistic bend, and yet not quite sure of what they want to do with their life. I write this having only seen Before Sunrise which I liked, and Before Sunset, which I loved, trying to work out why Before Sunrise didn't quite capture me, in the same way that his other films have.

The premise of Before Sunrise is basic and timeless: two strangers meet and bond overnight in a strange city. Despite this, it is clearly not a conventional film, and it is arguably little more than an extended conversation, although that doesn't detract from it at all. Pretty much the only two characters, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) both have their own distinct and unique personalities and the developing romance between them has several touching moments, such as listening to a song in a record shop, each of them stealing glances at each other in turn but turning away quickly, not wanting to be caught. It is a touching film with a lovely ambiguous ending, but for me, it became just a bit too boring, for want of a better word by the end. I made the mistake of watching this film with my laptop and several times my desire to browse the Internet and google something overcame my desire to watch the film. I think the problem with this film, at least in my mind is that there is quite frankly nothing besides the slightly repetitive feeling musings of Jesse and Céline. The low stakes involved aren't necessarily a problem, as Linklater himself showed in Dazed and Confused and Boyhood, but in place of high stakes I feel there needs to be something to interest the watcher, to keep him fixated and for him or her to focus upon. In Dazed and Confused for instance there are a large number of enjoyably different characters in a large number of enjoyably different situations, while in Boyhood there is simply the pure unadulterated pleasure of watching Ellar Coltrane slowly develop from a boy to a man.

In Before Sunrise however, I don't feel there is enough to maintain our interest for the whole film. It serves as an enjoyable introduction to Before Sunset which I found more easily watchable and compelling due to our preexisting knowledge of Jesse and Céline and curiosity of who they have turned into nine years down the line, a more tight and contained time frame, more tension between the two and slightly higher stakes, which I will hopefully go into more detail on in another post soon.

3/5 Stars

Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire (1996)
Empire 500 (2008): #420
Empire 301 (2014): Left Out
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Director: Cameron Crowe
Screenwriter: Cameron Crowe

Before watching this film, I had only seen one Cameron Crowe film, the brilliant Almost Famous which remains one of my favourites. So my expectations as I pressed play were perhaps unfairly high. There are one or two fantastic moments in this film, and the cast are outstanding across the board, but ultimately it doesn't feel tight enough and at least for me, something doesn't quite hit the mark.

It is still a very good film, expertly acted by everyone, especially the supporting roles of Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger) who provides the film with some much needed emotional depth and Rod Tidwell, (for which Cuba Gooding Jr. won an Academy Award) as the football player who sticks with Jerry Maguire when seemingly everything is lost for him, and the emotional payoff at the end of the film for all three of them is genuinely stirring. As we follow Jerry Maguire, who gets sacked from his high-paying job as a sports agent for the sin of writing a mission statement about the lack of honesty or respect in his business, losing everything besides his one client and one assistant, we become personally attached to him, due in no small part to the effort of Tom Cruise, who stays on just the right side of smarmy and know-it-all to be sympathetic. The film also avoids an easy cliché, shown especially in the romance between Jerry and Dorothy.

However, the film feels at times a bit too flabby and contain some meaningless characters. Chief among them is the babysitter of Dorothy's son who despite being completely meaningless to the advancement of the plot is given a lot of screen time, and doesn't add anything at all to the overall experience of the film. The long film also occasionally meanders a bit too much at certain points. A very good film, but in my opinion not quite as good as Almost Famous, which is a great movie.

4/5 Stars

Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Empire 500 (2008): #433

Empire 301 (2014): #117
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%

Director: Gus Van Sant

Screenwriters: Ben Affleck & Matt Damon (Oscar Winners)

Good Will Hunting is a film about friendship, loyalty, genius and figuring out who you want to be. It aims to move, and it does. Starring and written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, it is easy to forget they were not the major Hollywood stars of present and the gamble it must have taken for them to be cast in the lead roles by a studio. Both give fantastic performances, as the struggling genius and his most loyal friend, but the cast is extremely strong all around. Robin Williams (who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor) as the psychiatrist provides the emotional heart of the film and gives it depth, while Stellan Skarsgård, as the college professor that pulls Will Hunting out of his slump. Both provide some fantastic moments of drama and their broken relationship also serves as an interesting subplot, while Minnie Driver as Skylar is Will’s emotional core and is the synthesis of his past and present and his wants and needs, having fun with Will’s buddies and also being rich enough to be able to pay for her own college education. Crucially, all the characters feel ‘real’, and flawed but relatable, and there is no standard villain, just Will Hunting battling with his own ethics and conscience and attempting to avoid being shaped by those around him.

In that respect, Good Will Hunting feels very similar to Boyhood. Growing up, Mason is struggling to work out who and what he wants to be, while avoiding the attempts of others to shape him into a projection of themselves, and a similar theme runs through Good Will Hunting through the power struggle of Lambeau (Skarsgård) who is absolutely determined that Will seizes his potential for the sake of his own ego, and Maguire (Williams) who Will shares a background and upbringing with and sees him as projection of himself. This conflict proves to be the core part of the film, and (spoiler alert) in the ending in which Will drives off to California to try and reconcile with Skylar shows he has uprooted himself and moved on from his past, while simultaneously refusing to be shaped or changed by anyone else but himself, as he drives off into the distance for his own personal reasons, which have nothing to do with Lambeau or Maguire.

It would have been so easy for this film to have become overly dramatic or overblown and to have been a clichéd mess, but the performances, the directing and the screenplay all manage to avoid this, and pull it together to equal something emotional, profound and greater than the sum of its parts. The standout scene is suitably enough between the two screenwriters, Damon and Affleck as Affleck tells Will how lucky he is to have his ability, encouraging him to embrace his future, acting as the turning point for Will’s emotional state, and releasing all the emotion that has been steadily and masterfully built up in the audience. A lovely film

4½/5 Stars

My Top 10

This list is very liable to constant change as I update my taste, watch new films and reevaluate old ones, but this will be my top 10 films at the present moment, which should serve as an idea of my taste in films generally. You can probably tell that I like coming of age films. And Richard Linklater.

10. Memento
9. Minority Report
8. Moonrise Kingdom
7. Pulp Fiction
6. Boyhood
5. The Godfather
4. Almost Famous
3. Trainspotting
2. Dazed and Confused
1. The Shawshank Redemption

My Goal

Hello Internet,
I am a 15 year old, living in London who has had a lifelong fascination with creative media, and in the past year or so, films. I have found myself in a unique position of having watched very few of the 'classics' of cinema's past, and so I am hoping that this blog will motivate me to watch as many films as possible and to provide a fresh insight and record my thoughts on a film while they are still fresh. I don't particularly have any rules but will be using certain lists, such as the 'Empire 500' as a rough guideline as to which films I watch, as well as any more recent films I see, and will mostly be using my Amazon Instant account to watch the films.
Thanks, Nicholas