Young Adults heroine is Mavis Gary, portrayed with bravura by Charlize Theron, a young adult fiction writer living an empty and depressed post-divorce existence in Minneapolis. Mavis is experiencing some creative blocks while ghost writing the latest installment in a teen book series, until, out of the blue, she receives an email from her high school sweetheart, showcasing his new baby. This sends Mavis on a frenzy of packing and preparation: shes set on a mission to rescue Buddy (Patrick Wilson) from his hum drum existence in the small town of Mercury. After all they were meant to be together.
Charlize Theron as Mavis eying her prey, Buddy (Patrick Wilson) in Young Adult
As she hatches her devious and nutsy plan, Mavis finds a reluctant sidekick in the form of Matt (Patton Oswalt), a local bar manager, also stuck in the high school drama of being a bullying victim which resulted in his crippled physical condition. He spends his days painting and assembling action figures as well as brewing liquor in his garage.
Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt dysfunctionally team up in Young Adult (2011)
Mavis is blunt, unlikeable and firmly stuck in her high school prom queen mode, trying desperately to maintain the small town girl made who made good in the big city front for as long as possible before the inevitable psychotic blow up finally happens.
While it masquerades as a comic satire delving into the theme of high school inflicted trauma and arrested development, in Young Adult director Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking) also offers Mavis a twisted healing journey, as the heroine regresses to what she considers the prime period of her life. She also gets to revisit painful memories, confront her parents and the community, and acknowledge her problems. Will she choose redemption or go back into her dysfunctional patterns?
Painfully unfunny and fraught with an air of condescension, but nevertheless astute, snappily written by Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifers Body) and well acted, Young Adult definitely drags some s*** up to the surface, with ironic gusto of course. Will those that peaked at high school watch it? Somehow, that seems rather doubtful.
Is there any hope for Mavis to grow up? You decide. If youre brave enough to face all the cringing thats freely included in the price of the ticket, that is.
This warts-and-all valentine to 70s rock scene was produced by the band's driven creator Joan Jett, which gives the film some gritty indie credibility. Directed by Floria Sigismondi, who decided to move on from music videos, the film is loosely based on "Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story," a 1989 memoir by Cherie Currie (portrayed by Dakota Fanning in the film), the doe-eyed, troubled lead singer of the very first American all-girl teenage punk rock band, The Runaways, that experienced a meteoric rise to fame and an equally fast downward spiral in the second half of the 1970s.
In an attempt to effectively evoke its punk subject matter The Runaways boldly opens with a shot of menstrual blood dripping down the leg of Cherie, who just then hits puberty, while trying to hitch a ride home with her sister Marie (Riley Keough, the striking granddaughter of Elvis Presley himself). This is however as provocative as it gets in terms of pushing the envelope.
It is 1972 and 15-year-old Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart, sans vampire hangers-on) is already lovin rock and roll as a street smart tom boy, restlessly searching for a creative outlet in the LA club scene. One night she bumps into the legendary producer Kim Fowley, portrayed with creepy abandon by Michael Shannon (who made a splash with Revolutionary Road in 2008) to the extent to which the script lets him Kims antics were allegedly much more exploitative and abusive than portrayed. Fowley is receptive to Joans idea of an all girl rock band and introduces her to drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve). The wheels of punk rock history spin into motion when Joan and Kim find the face of the band Cherie, a precocious 15-year old Blondie lookalike who channels Bowie with her style and sexuality focused presence.
A whirlwind of budding polymorphous sexuality, inevitable traps of fame and notoriety, pill-popping, roller blading, dog-poo throwing, pissing on guitars and general debauchery follows, only hinting at the real goings-on described in Curries book, however the two leads manage to bring a ring of emotional rawness into their portrayals and sing convincingly too. The meticulous attempt at evoking 70s décor and atmosphere also impresses as does the soundtrack, including Bowie, T-Rex, The Stooges, Susie Quatro and The Sex Pistols, however The Runaways best known songs Cherry Bomb and Queens of Noise are performed by Stewart and Fanning.
The band eventually splits as Cherie enters her own Leaving Las Vegas storyline, and Joan wallows in self-pity before forming Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and hitting the rockn roll G-spot for good this time. All in all the film is a cool ride down punk rock memory lane. The Runaways were the (cherry) bomb.
Written & directed by Canadian Rubba Nadda, this old-fashioned, thoughtful romantic drama offers a distinctly female sensibility and a loving take on the ancient city of Cairo.
Veteran indie actress Patricia Clarkson (Lars and the Real Girl, Good Night and Good Luck, Vicky Cristina Barcelona) portrays Juliette, a busy editor at a glossy magazine, who has come to visit her husband Mark (Tom McCamus) and doesnt really get to see him, as he has the challenging job of setting up refugee camps in Gaza for United Nations. Because Mark cannot get away, he sends an ex-work associate Tareq (Alexander Siddig, Clash of the Titans, Syriana, Deep Space Nine) to help his wife settle in. Although originally from Sudan and not Egypt, Siddig has a whiff of old-world Omar Sharif kind of charm about him, and the role of Tareq (meaning he who pounds at the door in Arabic) was written specifically for him.
The two protagonists are not novices experiencing the blush of first love. They are mature individuals, somewhat set in their ways and perhaps even resigned to their lots in life. Juliette is lonely, lost, confused and therefore vulnerable. Her distracted, silly faux pas, one after the other, would irritate the hell out of most people. But not the infinitely patient and polite - to the point of martyrdom - Tareq. Eastern sensuality and direct manner as exhibited by Tareqs previous flame Yasmeen (Ameena Annabi) are disconcerting to Juliette. Her cluelessness about local realities, values and customs constitute a veiled critique of Western privilege and entitlement, which Juliette transcends through her heartfelt connections with local people and her willingness to learn about and embrace a foreign, and often confronting, culture with grace and charm.
Juliette and Tareqs cross-cultural romance is like glamorous, courtly throwback to 1950s Hollywood, a retro-imagining, akin to Todd Haynes Far From Heaven or Wong Kar Wais In the Mood For Love, but largely sans the melodrama. It is about a passion unfulfilled, a road not taken, and yet it is quietly satisfying in its lyricism. Cairo Time is a rare treat in that it takes its time to trace and savour the subtle vacillations in the emerging feelings its two protagonists unexpectedly develop for one another, whilst delicately balancing this theme with social commentary in the background. The pairs connection is at a deeper, soul level, with overtones of longing and nostalgia. Ultimately they are like the pyramids they climb together, amorously facing one another, yet some distance apart.
This line has become a cliché in film criticism, but here it is unavoidable: the real star of Cairo Time is Cairo itself. Shot with such tenderness and care, that some critics have dismissed the film as a travelogue, to those that have fallen in love with a city before its role in the film is abundantly clear. It becomes akin to the Rome of Roman Vacation and Fellinis Roma, the Paris of Amelie or Breathless. According to Nadda, it is the trip that she has taken to Cairo as a teenager that has inspired her to become a filmmaker and it shows, in the shots of Cairo bustling with heat and life, in the desolately sublime desert landscapes, and in local colour minutiae closely observed in stunning detail.
Cairo Time won the Best Canadian Feature Film Award at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.
Duncan Jones' directorial debut is a successful indie tribute to sci-fi cinematic greats of 1970s and 80s, with a somber - and sobering - twist. That David Bowie really has some super creative genes. And he passed them to his son Zowie, better known as Duncan Jones. Duncan studied philosophy and it shows. He also worked in advertising which probably helped develop the visual discipline and effective simplicity he uses to convey meaning in this restrained first feature.
Hollywood might consider instituting a fund, where studios are required to pay a penalty for each scarily vacuous piece of high-concept junk released every year, say in the amount of USD 5 million the budget of this film, as a contribution towards the higher purpose of the medium, currently sorely underused. Trudie Styler might not be available to produce all of them, but that way a newcomer can at least put his or her dream in motion and offer audiences something to contemplate, for a change
I have been a zombie, a vampire and a squid, which not many people can claim, says the delightful Bill Nighy (Underworld, Pirates of the Caribbean), best remembered as the naughty singer of carols in Love Actually, who stars in this black-cum-romantic comedy as Victor Maynard, an anally retentive middle-aged professional assassin. In his spare time, Victor learns French and glues his piles of money back together his employers clearly have a wry sense of humour and tend to take 'half now, half later' a little too literally...
After having some naughty fun with gamer zombies and deranged masons in Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007) respectively, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were probably wondering what the natural progression for their next project would be, and then eureka: a monolith dropped aliens! Wasnt there a little TV series you might have heard of in the 90s called The X-Files? I bet Simon really just wanted to be Scully. So voila, the idea for Paul (2011) was birthed. Superbad's Greg Mottola was thoughtfully brought in to deliver this Encounters of the Third Kind spoof-themed baby, with Seth Rogen (who else?) providing lip service to the ET-style CG muppet.
This time around, the British dynamic duo is enjoying themselves - and boasting lots of head hair as an added bonus - in the roles of Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost), avid comic book fans on a pilgrimage from the UK to the mecca of both comic cons and UFO encounters Area 51 & Roswell, New Mexico. After a few cheap shots at geeky gatherings (think Easter Show focused on comics) and some inept social faux pas that frankly dont do much for pom-redneck relations, what looks like a black government car crashes in front of their RV. Graeme and Clive think the wise thing might be to call it in, but a deep voice from the surrounding darkness begs to differ
An updated version of a well-known Brothers Grimm fairytale, Red Riding Hood was directed by none other than Catherine Hardwicke, of Twilight fame. Hardwicke certainly does have some affinity for the dark woods, mysterious mists and monsters hiding in the shadows as well as romantic virginal panting. To heighten the déjà vu effect she also invited some of Twilights cast along for the ride, like Billy Burke (better known as Bellas dad). Actually, the cast is rather impressive and features Gary Oldman (Dracula, Harry Potter movies) and Lukas Haas (Witness, Brick, Inception) as a couple of priests (this alone is worth the admission price in my view), Virginia Madsen (Sideways, Dune) as Reds mother and Julie Christie (Dont Look Now, Finding Neverland, Away From Her) as Grandma who wouldnt want to have her as their grandmother? All these good genes!
Billy Burke, Virginia Madsen and Julie Christie in Red Riding Hood
Peter Weir has had a long break since 2003s Master and Commander, the swashbuckling, seafaring adventure starring Russell Crowe. With The Way Back he continues in the vein of recreating history, but on a different scale altogether. The film was inspired by a World War II memoir, The Long Walk by Slawomir Rawicz, as well as extensive research into the period and interviews with Russian gulag survivors. While the book itself generated controversy, as there are implications that the author might not exactly have been describing his own experiences, the events portrayed did actually take place. Delving into a time in history shrouded in disgrace and not much discussed, The Way Back depicts the awe-inspiring 4000 miles-long journey of a handful ex-gulag prisoners from Siberia all the way to India, in an effort to escape the sweeping onslaught of the communist regime for which they are marked men.
Polish army officer Janusz (Jim Sturgess) is falsely accused of spying for the enemy and sent to a gulag in Siberia. There he meets a random assortment of characters raging from petty criminals to foreigners who found themselves at the wrong spot at the wrong time. Knowing he faces certain death working in inhumane conditions in the forest and at the mines while enduring the lashings of taiga weather and malnutrition, he is bent on organising an escape against all odds. A mutinous band soon assembles, including an American engineer Mr Smith (the always arresting Ed Harris), a street criminal Valka (a scruffy Colin Farrell, who manages to disappear into his character), a tormented priest, an artist, an accountant and a boy suffering from snow blindness. They miraculously manage to make a run for it one night, disappearing into a snow storm
Black Swan is a confrontational and intense psychodrama about a rather prim ballerina portrayed by Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta, The Other Boleyn Girl), all set on a journey to discover her dark side as she dives head first into her spotlight performance. Pressured to embody perfection under the steady gaze of her control-freak of a mother (a fabulous Barbara Hershey, Lantana, Beaches) who keeps her in a suffocating pre-pubescent bubble, Nina auditions for the doubly challenging role of both white and black swan in a new version of Swan Lake being put on by her dance company.
Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel in Black Swan (2010)
A romantic comedy with a spy twist, The Tourist is a piece of Hollywood tinsel with a splash of old world charm, making for a palatable holiday aperitif. And it does go down quite smoothly, too. Directed and co-written by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Life of Others, 2006), the film has a distinctly light-hearted, yet elegant European sensibility, with more emphasis on sensual eye contact than action between the two heavyweight leads, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, an unlikely but fun screen pair-off.
Strangers on a train: Angelina Jolie mesmerizes Johnny Depp in The Tourist (2010)
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