For some people a good horror film involves something supernatural, things going bump in the night and a bit of demonic possession thrown in. For others there is nothing scarier than a dose of reality. Cherry Tree lane plants its flag firmly in this territory. It joins the tradition of films that attempt to put you in the characters shoes in a very believable setting. Christine (Rachael Blake) and Michael (Tom Butcher) are a middle aged couple sitting down to dinner like any normal people when the doorbell rings and starts a terrifying series of events. Their son Sebastian is out at football training while three lads come calling for him. Forcing entry and holding Christine at knife point, they bind the couple and settle down to wait for the son to return.
This really is no frills film making. The opening is shot in eerie silence, the camera slowly zooming in on their front door. This is the only shot of the outside world, the rest of the gut churning events all take place within the house. There are no distractions from the very simple story here. All attention is focused sharply on the characters reactions. I really liked the bravery of it. I did find it slow at times but no doubt this was the intention as the three young lads wait for their target to come home. The effect is a very tense waiting game interspersed with action.
The acting throughout is very believable, Christine and Michael wear their fear on their faces (they have to as they spend a lot of time gagged to be fair). Much of the action is shot in extreme close up, bringing the audience as close to facing their fears as possible. It really is one of those films that makes you think what if that was me? What would I do? The attackers are also very good, carrying on the tradition of British cinema taking raw youngsters straight from stage school to the big screen. Jumayn Hunter as the leader Rian is particularly chilling. He fills the screen with his brooding presence, lurching from cold and calculating to rampant anger.
I found my heart racing as the film reached its climax which is always a sign of a good horror in my opinion. Too many big budget horrors just seem to leave me cold, with a real sense of 'seen it all before'. There is an element of that here as I found myself thinking back to The Strangers, which was a fine example of this style of claustrophobic film making. Despite its limitations I still enjoyed this but would not recommend it to anyone with a short attention span or who prefers loud explosions to subtle acting.
6/10
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Whip It (2009)
For those of you that don't know (and why the hell would anyone know this!) a roller derby is a sport. Two teams of 5 skaters move around an oval track trying to get a designated skater past the finish line first. Oh and they can hit each other apparently. In Whip It the teams are all girls, dressed in scanty outfits with dodgy wrestler style names. Ellen Page plays Juno except Juno is not pregnant but is a reluctant beauty pageant competitor forced into makeup and posh frocks by her pushy mum. She is desperate to leave her small town life behind and find her identity. On a shopping trip to the big city of Austin, Texas she is captivated by a gang of girls on roller-skates, picks up a flyer for the derby and is soon sneaking off to watch with her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat).
This is Drew Barrymore's debut as a director and I think it is fair to say she decided to play it safe by sticking to some very established formulas. Not only do we have the cliché of a teenage coming of age drama, but we have all the regular clichés of a sport drama too! There is approximately 1 cliché every 5 minutes. Totally relentless. Juno works in a diner, is picked on by the jocks, is nagged by a pushy mum that only wants the best for her, meets a boy, falls for the boy, argues with the boy and makes up with the boy. Phew, but I'm just getting warmed up. Tries out for a team, gets in the team (worst in the league obviously!), is picked on by the best player in the league (Juliette Lewis dressed as a school girl called Iron Maven!), several musical montages later Juno is their best player (Babe Ruthless), the team of misfits come good, compete in 'nail biting' finale against the best team in the league and of course Juno has to battle with Juliette Lewis in order to win while maintaining her relationships with her parents and boyfriend.
That is just the tip of the ice-berg. I did wonder if Barrymore realised how clichéd the film was and thought, 'bollocks to it, in for a penny, in for a pound' and tried to break the Guinness world record for most clichés in a film. Her achievement should be applauded; she crams the combined clichés of 2 genres into one film while managing to include the Radiohead song 'No Surprises' on the soundtrack. To be fair I laughed my ass off when that song played. Touch of irony perhaps? I really hope so.
On the plus side this film is easy to look at. The girls are entertaining enough. Drew Barrymore casts herself as a particularly violent member of the team (Smashley Simpson), who gets herself thrown out of every game for pinning some poor wretch down and pummelling them. And despite my previous bitching I do enjoy a good sports montage set to music. Rocky IV this is not, but would you want to see Sylvester Stallone in hot pants and roller-skates? The soundtrack is decent too which adds to the feel that Juno is an 'alternative' girl in an Indie movie. But make no mistake, this is no independent film, just another formulated Hollywood movie tapping into the same audience it has successfully milked before.
5/10
This is Drew Barrymore's debut as a director and I think it is fair to say she decided to play it safe by sticking to some very established formulas. Not only do we have the cliché of a teenage coming of age drama, but we have all the regular clichés of a sport drama too! There is approximately 1 cliché every 5 minutes. Totally relentless. Juno works in a diner, is picked on by the jocks, is nagged by a pushy mum that only wants the best for her, meets a boy, falls for the boy, argues with the boy and makes up with the boy. Phew, but I'm just getting warmed up. Tries out for a team, gets in the team (worst in the league obviously!), is picked on by the best player in the league (Juliette Lewis dressed as a school girl called Iron Maven!), several musical montages later Juno is their best player (Babe Ruthless), the team of misfits come good, compete in 'nail biting' finale against the best team in the league and of course Juno has to battle with Juliette Lewis in order to win while maintaining her relationships with her parents and boyfriend.
That is just the tip of the ice-berg. I did wonder if Barrymore realised how clichéd the film was and thought, 'bollocks to it, in for a penny, in for a pound' and tried to break the Guinness world record for most clichés in a film. Her achievement should be applauded; she crams the combined clichés of 2 genres into one film while managing to include the Radiohead song 'No Surprises' on the soundtrack. To be fair I laughed my ass off when that song played. Touch of irony perhaps? I really hope so.
On the plus side this film is easy to look at. The girls are entertaining enough. Drew Barrymore casts herself as a particularly violent member of the team (Smashley Simpson), who gets herself thrown out of every game for pinning some poor wretch down and pummelling them. And despite my previous bitching I do enjoy a good sports montage set to music. Rocky IV this is not, but would you want to see Sylvester Stallone in hot pants and roller-skates? The soundtrack is decent too which adds to the feel that Juno is an 'alternative' girl in an Indie movie. But make no mistake, this is no independent film, just another formulated Hollywood movie tapping into the same audience it has successfully milked before.
5/10
Cry Baby (1990)
I said I was going to do it. I promised I would watch a musical and here it is! This film was handed to me by a very drunk Miss Jenkins, who then proceeded to bully me via the medium of Twitter until I watched it. Odd barely begins to cover this.
Any film that feels the need to erupt into song at any possible opportunity is usually enough to rile me. Why do it? Aren't words good enough? I love music in films (proper songs I mean) but I hate it when they fill every other scene with a Broadway like production of people singing average songs with smiles pinned to their smug faces! Arghh I'm getting angry just thinking about it. When one character feels the need to soil my eardrums with their bleating a whole host of random extras soon join them, full of stage school eagerness. I find myself searching for my shot gun, and then I remember I don't own one. I have seen perhaps two musicals in my life I could tolerate, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Little Shop of Horrors.
Thankfully Cry Baby follows these into a very exclusive club. A musical that didn't make me want to move to America and join the NRA! Johnny Depp stars as Wade 'Cry Baby' Walker, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, known in this crazy film world as a 'Drape'. He meets Allison (Amy Locane) who is the social opposite, a 'Square', so of course they want to be together despite the class divide. Sound familiar? This is very much a parody of Grease. It is set in the 50's, has two opposing gangs and even a drag race between hormonal teenagers.
Right from the opening scene this film started to surprise me with its irony. A school hall full of suspiciously old looking 'kids' queue up to get their immunisation jabs. The overacting is brilliant and is kept up throughout, really sending up the musical genre. The script is cheesy but always knowingly so. One hysterical scene sees Allison singing 'Teenage Dream' to a group of squares and imagining Cry Baby's head on all their bodies. All the typical musical conventions are mocked here, from the lusty beginnings of their relationship, to the inevitable fall out and a climax in which all their problems are solved through the power of song.
The film is full of crazy characters. Cry Baby's group of Drape friends includes a pre-diet Ricki Lake (who we see heavily pregnant and playing drums... I'm not even making this up!), porn star Traci Lords (who reacts in a horrified way when a sleazy bloke asks her to pose naked) and Hatchet-Face (a rubber faced girl with zombie eyes and a fondness for licking knives and terrifying squares). Cry Baby's family are an even stranger mix of hillbilly biker Goths. Everyone overacts as the story tumbles from one hectic scene to the next. Every shot seems full of people crashing and bumping into each other, which really adds to the sense of frenzy.
I still got a little bored with some of the songs dragging on, but that is my prejudice against musicals resurfacing and doesn’t change the fact that this made me laugh. There is a lot to take in as things rush along barely giving the viewer time to register the mental story or weirdness of some of the characters. If you doubt that Americans know what irony is then you could do a lot worse than watch this to debunk the myth.
7/10
Any film that feels the need to erupt into song at any possible opportunity is usually enough to rile me. Why do it? Aren't words good enough? I love music in films (proper songs I mean) but I hate it when they fill every other scene with a Broadway like production of people singing average songs with smiles pinned to their smug faces! Arghh I'm getting angry just thinking about it. When one character feels the need to soil my eardrums with their bleating a whole host of random extras soon join them, full of stage school eagerness. I find myself searching for my shot gun, and then I remember I don't own one. I have seen perhaps two musicals in my life I could tolerate, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Little Shop of Horrors.
Thankfully Cry Baby follows these into a very exclusive club. A musical that didn't make me want to move to America and join the NRA! Johnny Depp stars as Wade 'Cry Baby' Walker, a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, known in this crazy film world as a 'Drape'. He meets Allison (Amy Locane) who is the social opposite, a 'Square', so of course they want to be together despite the class divide. Sound familiar? This is very much a parody of Grease. It is set in the 50's, has two opposing gangs and even a drag race between hormonal teenagers.
Right from the opening scene this film started to surprise me with its irony. A school hall full of suspiciously old looking 'kids' queue up to get their immunisation jabs. The overacting is brilliant and is kept up throughout, really sending up the musical genre. The script is cheesy but always knowingly so. One hysterical scene sees Allison singing 'Teenage Dream' to a group of squares and imagining Cry Baby's head on all their bodies. All the typical musical conventions are mocked here, from the lusty beginnings of their relationship, to the inevitable fall out and a climax in which all their problems are solved through the power of song.
The film is full of crazy characters. Cry Baby's group of Drape friends includes a pre-diet Ricki Lake (who we see heavily pregnant and playing drums... I'm not even making this up!), porn star Traci Lords (who reacts in a horrified way when a sleazy bloke asks her to pose naked) and Hatchet-Face (a rubber faced girl with zombie eyes and a fondness for licking knives and terrifying squares). Cry Baby's family are an even stranger mix of hillbilly biker Goths. Everyone overacts as the story tumbles from one hectic scene to the next. Every shot seems full of people crashing and bumping into each other, which really adds to the sense of frenzy.
I still got a little bored with some of the songs dragging on, but that is my prejudice against musicals resurfacing and doesn’t change the fact that this made me laugh. There is a lot to take in as things rush along barely giving the viewer time to register the mental story or weirdness of some of the characters. If you doubt that Americans know what irony is then you could do a lot worse than watch this to debunk the myth.
7/10
Saturday, 10 September 2011
The Monster Squad (1987)
A little known fact about me is that as a child I was one of the founder members of the Monster Club. It was junior school; I had an imagination unblighted by social conformity and a group of friends (I hope they won't mind me saying!) equally as geeky. We would meet up in the playground and argue about who was the toughest monster, how we would kill them if they attacked and most importantly we made badges! Other kids might have thought they were cooler, playing football or kiss chase but we knew that our little club was the best thing in that playground.
Our inspiration came from my friend’s parent’s easy going attitude to allowing us to rent any film we wanted from the local video shop. Invariably they would be horror films. The Monster Squad was one of my absolute favourites. It acted a bit like a gateway drug, as cannabis might lead to heroin, this light film led us to Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street and anything else we could scare ourselves with.
Our Monster Club was ripped straight out of this film. The story revolves around a group of friends who meet up in a tree house, the door is brilliantly marked 'no girls allowed', to discuss all things monstrous. I loved the script, even on rewatching this many years later, the cast of kids do a top job of arguing with all seriousness about monster's powers. Then Dracula begins to gather a dream team including Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy and Wolfman in order to take over the world. Of course the job of stopping them falls to the unlikely heroes and a strange old German bloke from down the street. Why this takes place in suburban America I'm not sure but let's not let this little detail spoil the magic. The film is like a who’s-who of men in Holloween costumes! All very kitsch and very 80's.
It is this kitschness that adds real charm. Some people might find it ridiculous to see the strings on Dracula's bats as they bob up and down, or mock the zip wire just visible as he is sucked into a dodgy looking vortex. But you would be wrong to do this! Before CGI and mega budgets a film had to rely on any effects available to tell the story and needed a script capable of keeping your attention. While the story is tenuous at best the film is packed with enough nice touches (keep an eye out for the homage to the original Frankenstein film as Frankie meets the little girl) and the kids bring enough charm and likeability here to make up for the faults.
The Monster squad doesn't have quite enough charm to make it a classic but it works brilliantly as a light hearted kid’s movie. Never a rival to The Goonies or Stand by Me in the 'kids having a big adventure' film tradition, it still made me smile despite all the cynical years that have passed since I first fell in love with this. Oh and check out the rap which plays over the end credits courtesy of some genius on Youtube!
6/10
Our inspiration came from my friend’s parent’s easy going attitude to allowing us to rent any film we wanted from the local video shop. Invariably they would be horror films. The Monster Squad was one of my absolute favourites. It acted a bit like a gateway drug, as cannabis might lead to heroin, this light film led us to Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street and anything else we could scare ourselves with.
Our Monster Club was ripped straight out of this film. The story revolves around a group of friends who meet up in a tree house, the door is brilliantly marked 'no girls allowed', to discuss all things monstrous. I loved the script, even on rewatching this many years later, the cast of kids do a top job of arguing with all seriousness about monster's powers. Then Dracula begins to gather a dream team including Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy and Wolfman in order to take over the world. Of course the job of stopping them falls to the unlikely heroes and a strange old German bloke from down the street. Why this takes place in suburban America I'm not sure but let's not let this little detail spoil the magic. The film is like a who’s-who of men in Holloween costumes! All very kitsch and very 80's.
It is this kitschness that adds real charm. Some people might find it ridiculous to see the strings on Dracula's bats as they bob up and down, or mock the zip wire just visible as he is sucked into a dodgy looking vortex. But you would be wrong to do this! Before CGI and mega budgets a film had to rely on any effects available to tell the story and needed a script capable of keeping your attention. While the story is tenuous at best the film is packed with enough nice touches (keep an eye out for the homage to the original Frankenstein film as Frankie meets the little girl) and the kids bring enough charm and likeability here to make up for the faults.
The Monster squad doesn't have quite enough charm to make it a classic but it works brilliantly as a light hearted kid’s movie. Never a rival to The Goonies or Stand by Me in the 'kids having a big adventure' film tradition, it still made me smile despite all the cynical years that have passed since I first fell in love with this. Oh and check out the rap which plays over the end credits courtesy of some genius on Youtube!
6/10
Thursday, 8 September 2011
The Scouting Book for Boys (2009)
Emily (Holly Grainger) and David (Thomas Turgoose) seem like two of the luckiest kids in the world. They live in a caravan park in Norfolk, free to run riot as their parents are caught up in their own lives. Following a run of glossy American films, this came as a nice change for me during my one year mission to watch a film every day. This starts off as a feel good British film, a beautiful opening scene shows off the excellent camera work that continues throughout (thanks to director Tom Harper). The young pair leap across caravan roofs, silhouettes against the sunset. It captures the innocence and mischievousness of youth delightfully. Noah and The Whales song '5 Years Time' plays to compliment the images of cartwheels on the beach, kite flying and ice-cream cones. It really made me reminisce to those glorious summer holidays at the seaside.
David and Emily have an oddly touching relationship that really drives the story. He is clearly besotted with his slightly older and reckless friend. They constantly jostle and tease each other, their playful banter adds to the charm. Grainger and Turgoose are fantastic as two friends treading the fine line between innocence and adulthood. The real world intrudes on their happy bubble as Emily is told she needs to leave their world to go and live with her father. She hatches a plot to hide in a small cave on the seafront while things settle down. David, ever the love struck boy enables the deception by lying to her mother, the police and the older man she seems to be having a fling with.
I love how British films never allow themselves to get too sugary sweet as it would have been all too easy to do here. Infact this film goes down a very different path. The main characters have an air of tragedy about them from the start and from these hints the film soon begins to twist in some very strange ways. The huge emotions they deal with as their innocence slips away delivered some very surprising and shocking moments. As Emily's disappearance drags on we see David begin to crack under the strain of keeping up the deception. His feelings for Emily also come to a head as she comes to rely on him more and more.
This film contained more truthful emotion than any Hollywood film I have seen in a long time. From a distraught mum turning to drink to cope with her daughter’s disappearance, to David realising how much his friend means to him as he speaks at a police press conference, there are some very convincing observations made. Big emotions are explained in simple words, plain speaking tongues explore their problems as they leave youthful innocence behind and begin to tread dark paths.
Several pretty big twists do keep you guessing as to where this story will end up. Proving to me again that you have to leave the mainstream of film making to find something capable of surprising you. Whether you will enjoy this journey is hard to say as the charm of the early scenes subsides as things begin to turn serious. Its ability to captivate does diminish but there is still a lot here to keep you interested until the very end.
7/10
David and Emily have an oddly touching relationship that really drives the story. He is clearly besotted with his slightly older and reckless friend. They constantly jostle and tease each other, their playful banter adds to the charm. Grainger and Turgoose are fantastic as two friends treading the fine line between innocence and adulthood. The real world intrudes on their happy bubble as Emily is told she needs to leave their world to go and live with her father. She hatches a plot to hide in a small cave on the seafront while things settle down. David, ever the love struck boy enables the deception by lying to her mother, the police and the older man she seems to be having a fling with.
I love how British films never allow themselves to get too sugary sweet as it would have been all too easy to do here. Infact this film goes down a very different path. The main characters have an air of tragedy about them from the start and from these hints the film soon begins to twist in some very strange ways. The huge emotions they deal with as their innocence slips away delivered some very surprising and shocking moments. As Emily's disappearance drags on we see David begin to crack under the strain of keeping up the deception. His feelings for Emily also come to a head as she comes to rely on him more and more.
This film contained more truthful emotion than any Hollywood film I have seen in a long time. From a distraught mum turning to drink to cope with her daughter’s disappearance, to David realising how much his friend means to him as he speaks at a police press conference, there are some very convincing observations made. Big emotions are explained in simple words, plain speaking tongues explore their problems as they leave youthful innocence behind and begin to tread dark paths.
Several pretty big twists do keep you guessing as to where this story will end up. Proving to me again that you have to leave the mainstream of film making to find something capable of surprising you. Whether you will enjoy this journey is hard to say as the charm of the early scenes subsides as things begin to turn serious. Its ability to captivate does diminish but there is still a lot here to keep you interested until the very end.
7/10
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