Monday 24 November 2014

The Imitation Game 2014

Wow.

Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a pitch-perfect performance.
Good, tight script (admittedly with some convenient twists, that are not entirely factual).
Excellent direction and editing.

The story of a genius man, set against his most spectacular achievements, and ending on the injustices of society.

Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, the father of computer science, and the man responsible for breaking German ciphers that eventually led to the Allies winning WW2. The same man was persecuted for being gay and was eventually offered the 'solution' of chemical castration to avoid jail time. The greatest tragedy is actually that he received a 'royal pardon' for his illegal sexual preferences as late as 2013, 59 years after his suicide. How could it take the government this long to recognise Turing's work? And even worse, isn't a pardon more of an insult to his memory, rather than an acknowledgement of the atrocities committed against him in the 1950s?

Still, as a film, The Imitation Game is strong, interesting and very well-made with brilliant performances by all the actors. A must-watch!

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Interstellar 2014

What an utter load of B***OCKS!

There are few films I hate with this much passion...Prometheus (2012) was one and now Interstellar joins the ranks.

The trailer wasn't half convincing, but Matthew McConnaughey (lately) and Christopher Nolan (for ever) don't make mistakes. So, I thought, at the very least this will be an entertaining film. WRONG!

The first hour is interesting, well-scripted, with good character build-up. It's the future and a former NASA pilot agrees to lead a mission to find a habitable planet, now that life on the "post-blight" Earth is less and less sustainable.

The second hour is infuriating, clichéd and full of terrible sermons about love. Basically Michael Caine's and Anne Hathaway's characters appear and spout the most inane lines for the next hour. Characters marked 'X' die, characters marked 'Y' turn out to be evil.

The third hour, besides being an hour too many, pretends that scientific theory can save the film by confusing the audience. All it does is get awfully boring and dull. By this time the audience is past caring and no number of beautifully crafted planets can save the contorted plot and the useless script. As the film nears completion, logic is flung out the window and ridiculous becomes insane.

Bad, bad, bad film!

Saturday 1 November 2014

Nightcrawler 2014

Penned and directed by Dan Gilroy, who wrote The Bourne Legacy (2012) before this, Nightcrawler stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed. It's a story about a man down on his luck, who discovers an unusual way to make money through LA's crime journalism network. The entire film rests on Gyllenhaal's shoulders and this is one of his better performances. From his eagerness, to his obsession, from his need to please, to his need to control, he stays unpredictable and interesting through the film's twists and turns.

Despite the strong acting, and the engaging subject matter, Nightcrawler lacks something. As it draws to a close, you realise that the best part of it was the build-up and the film peaked too soon. After that, it has less and less to offer, even as it tries hard to expose us to the amoral society we are a part of.