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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 01 February 2011

Faster revolves around three nameless characters.  The first is the Driver (Johnson).  Ten years ago, he drove the getaway car in an armed robbery.  It looked like they’d all get away with the crime but they were brought down by a rival gang.  His brother was killed, the money was lost and he ended up spending a decade behind bars.  Having just been released, he has one goal in life – to get revenge.  He’ll stop at nothing to track down and kill those people that destroyed his life.

Two people are trying to stop him.  One of them is the Cop (Thornton).  The body count is piling up and the story is heading the nightly news.  He needs to work out who is next on the Driver’s hit list if he’s any chance of finding him.   His focus isn’t squarely on the case however.  He’s got many personal issues to deal with – most of them self inflicted.

The guy who seems most likely to end the carnage is the Killer (Jackson-Cohen).  He’s been hired by some unknown individual to assassinate the Driver before more people end up dead.  He is the epitome of “cool” but on the inside, he is very insecure.  He doesn’t know what he wants from life and whether he should marry his long time girlfriend (Grace). 

Directed by George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food, Men Of Honour), Faster is trying to be stylish, trying to be a little different.  Going against the mould of traditional action flicks, it makes an attempt to develop its characters.  Instead of just watching them in endless car chases and shoot outs, we learn about their background.  I particularly enjoyed the suave Oliver Jackson-Cohen as the Killer.  He’s like an English version of John Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank.

Whilst it may sound good on paper, I wasn’t sold on the film’s execution.  Its originality wears off in the later stages and it stumbles home with cheesy dialogue and a predictable ending.  I didn’t think much of Dwayne Johnson either.  I realise he’s playing a character hell-bent on revenge but it’s hard to get enthused about someone with such a lifeless personality.  The screenwriters should have centred the story around Jackson-Cohen’s character instead.  It would have made for a better film.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 18 January 2011

The Fighter is based on the true life story of Micky Ward (Whalberg).  The film opens in 1993 with Micky preparing for a fight in Las Vegas.  Coming off a string of losses, he sees it as a chance to get back on track.  He can use the cash to move into a bigger apartment and try to get custody of his young daughter (who is living with his ex wife).

Things didn’t go to plan.  Micky’s opponent withdrew prior to the fight due to illness and a last minute replacement was found.  Mike Mungin weighed a lot more than Micky but apparently he was some ex-con who had “just got off the couch”.  That was not the case.  Micky was slaughtered in the bout.  With a stitched up face and a wounded pride, he returned to his home in Massachusetts and starting looking for a new career path.

As we quickly learn, Micky’s problems aren’t due to a lack of talent.  It’s his family that are dragging him down.  The two people central to this destruction are his mother, Alice (Leo), and his older brother and coach, Dickie (Bale).

I can best describe Alice as a domineering matriarch.  She reminded me a little of Jackie Weaver’s character in Animal Kingdom.  Alice has everyone in the family on a string.  She’s been Micky’s manager since he started boxing and she seems to be more interested in her own reputation than that of her son.

Dickie was once a promising boxer himself but he’s now turned to a world of drugs.  A film crew are putting together a documentary on his addiction and his downward spiral.  I was puzzled as to why he would let them film him but I quickly realised that Dickie didn’t know what was going on around him.  He was a mess.

The spark that reignites Micky’s life is a feisty bartender named Charlene (Adams).  They fall in love and soon move in together.  Micky’s family resent Charlene and the way she’s “stolen” Micky from them but she’s not afraid to stand up for herself.  There are some very funny arguments between them and she easily was my favourite character in the film.

Yes, this is a film about boxing but it’s more about a person’s struggle to grow up and break away from an interfering family.  Micky wants to turn his back on his mother’s guilt-trips and his brother’s erratic behaviour but it’s difficult.  It’s an interesting paradox in that Micky can defend himself so valiantly in the boxing ring and yet he struggles to do so outside of it.

The film has received a string of nominations for its performances and with good reason.  Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo are all great.  I did smirk at the casting of the attractive Wahlberg alongside his “trailer trash” sisters.  It was hard to believe they all came out of the same womb.  At the preview screening I attended, the audience laughed every time the sisters appeared on screen.  They didn’t even have to say anything to be funny.

It takes a little while for the story to get going but the second half of the film is excellent.  The characters are fully developed and the boxing sequences are enthralling.  You’ve always got a ringside seat to the action.  I was unfamiliar with Micky Ward’s story prior to seeing the film and that only added to the suspense.

The Fighter is a story we’ve heard before.  An athlete hits rock bottom and is looking to give the sport away.  He then “rediscovers” himself and goes on to become a champion.  Don’t let the seemingly predictable nature of this tale perturb you interest however.  Who doesn’t enjoy a great underdog story?  The fact that it’s filled with such strong characters makes it even better.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 26 January 2011

The poster for Catfish is fairly simple.  It has a black background and a drawing of a red catfish.  There are no images and no names.  The only words are – “don’t let anyone tell you what it is.”  It’s designed to give almost nothing away about the movie.

The trailer goes into slightly more detail.  It’s a documentary centring on a 23-year-old photographer from New York named Nev Schulman. Through Facebook, he became friends with a family from Michigan who admired his work.  His brother and one of his good friends decided to chronicle Nev’s developing online relationship with this family.  Their footage is what you’ll see on screen.

That’s it folks.  There’s nothing more I can say about the plot.  We live in a world where movie studios are more conservative than ever.  If you see a poster or watch a trailer, you know almost everything about the movie.  The reason they do this is so that the audience will feel comfortable.  If they go into a theatre and don’t get what they’re expecting, many will have a negative reaction.

Such logic is frustrating for people like me.  I love being surprised and thrown off my guard when I see a film.  Apparently I’m in the minority.  Let me ask you the question then.  If I take you to the movies and give you a choice between two films – one that you think looked good from the advertisements and one that you know nothing about, which one will you pick?

I applaud the makers of Catfish for the way in which they’ve made and marketed their movie.  They’re selling it as something different… and that’s a big reason why I liked it.  If I knew all its secrets beforehand, would I like it as much?  The answer is definitely no.  So in that case, my positive review is a critique of the “experience” as much as the content of the film itself.  It’s fun to see a film that you know very little about.  It’s then fun to tell other people to see it (without giving anything away of course).

Since I have to be evasive in terms of plot details, I’ll use a metaphor to sum up my thoughts.  Watching Catfish is like going on a brand new rollercoaster for the first time.  You have a rough idea of what you’re in for.  There are only so many twists and turns that the coaster can take.  The catch is that you don’t always know which ones are going to happen and when they’re going to happen.  You can see a sharp bend ahead but what lies beyond?  In terms of this film, I hope you get the chance to find out for your self.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 January 2011

In the more than 20 years that I’ve been competing in golf tournaments, there’s one goal that I’m yet to achieve – to play a bogey-free round.  In my eyes, it’s the equivalent of perfection.  It’s a round of golf without a single mistake – where every hole is completed in par or better.  I’ve been close so many times and it’s been the cause of much angst and heartbreak.

This pursuit of perfection is at the heart of Darren Aronofsky’s (The Wrestler, Requiem For A Dream) new film, Black Swan.  For many years, Nina (Portman) has dedicated herself to being a renowned ballet dancer.  I must strong emphasise the word “dedicated”.  Nina has given up everything to follow this career path.  She has no friends, she rarely socialises and she’s never had a meaningful relationship.  She simply practices for hours every day, putting her lightweight body through an incredible level of stress.

Her hard work has paid off.  The studio’s artistic director, Thomas (Cassel), has cast Nina in the lead role of his new production.  She will play the Swan Queen in a fresh adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.  For those that don’t know the tale, it’s about a beautiful woman who is turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer.  She can only be returned to human form if a man pledges his love for her.  A handsome prince looks set to break the spell but he too is deceived by the sorcerer.  Realising that there’s only one way that they can be together, the prince and the swan make the ultimate sacrifice.

There are two parts to the role of the Swan Queen and Thomas knows that Nina would be perfect as the White Swan.  She’s beautiful, she’s virtuous and she’s precise.  His concerns are with the second half of the play and whether Nina can transform into the darker, seductive Black Swan.  It requires passion, flamboyance, spontaneity.  These not so perfect qualities can’t be learned from a textbook.  They come though life experience, an area lacking in Nina’s repertoire.

The fact that Nina can’t perfect the role won’t stop her from trying.  She realises that she must discover the “Black Swan” within.  She starts rebelling against her overbearing mother (Hershey).  She gives in to Thomas’s aggressive flirtations.  She goes out drinking with a rival dancer (Kunis) who knows how to have a good time.

This film is about a ballet dancer but it could just as easily be about any artist in pursuit of a dream.  Sometimes, we must lose ourselves before we can discover who we really are.  Darren Aronofsky illustrates this psychological quandary by blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.  Which of the scenes in this movie are real?  Which are an hallucination?  You’ll be trying to answer these questions long after you’ve left the cinema.  I don’t think multiple viewings will help either.

Be warned – Black Swan is a brutal film-going experience.  Aronofsky wants to put the audience through the wringer and give them something to remember.  He weaves moments of unexpected horror into the hazy storyline.  Some parts will leave you squirming in your seat.  Others will leave you with an increased heart rate.

Natalie Portman has been lauded for her performance as Nina and with good reason.  Just like her character, you can see that she’s thrown everything into the role.  She may be rewarded with a first Academy Award in a few weeks time.  I was equally impressed with Vincent Cassel at Thomas.  He’s such an intriguing guy – is he genuine or is he manipulating Nina for his own benefit?  On the flipside, I didn’t think too much of Mila Kunis as Nina’s rival.  I’m surprised by the numerous award nominations she’s already received this season.

I’m a long-time admirer of Darren Aronofsky but I’m not raving about Black Swan like many other critics.  The parallels between Nina’s story and the Swan Lake story seem almost too obvious.  I got the message early on and there weren’t any great revelations in the film’s finale.  I also had trouble believing in Nina’s “transformation”.  It felt rushed and the ending (which I also have concerns about) sneaks up too quickly.

So will I ever achieve my elusive bogey-free round?  Am I foolish to be aiming for perfection in an imperfect world?  Or will the pursuit of this almost unobtainable goal drive me to improve?  It’s a fine line and Black Swan left me thinking.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 18 January 2011

Mike Leigh is a wonderful filmmaker.  That statement will come as no surprise to those who have seen his previous works (Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky).  I always walk away feeling much love for his ordinary, everyday characters and the ordinary, everyday world they inhabit.  He certainly has a knack for capturing the “human condition”.

Another Year is more of the same.  It revolves around two sixty-somethings who have been happily married for many years.  Tom (Broadbent) is a geologist and Gerri (Sheen) is a medical counsellor.  They spend their spare time catching up with friends and tending to their vegetable garden.  They don’t mind a quiet drink either.

They may not seem like the most exciting couple but Tom and Gerri enjoy life.  I know I’d love to have them as friends.  I can best describe them as a subtler version of the bubbly Sally Hawkins character in Happy-Go-Lucky.  They have a great spirit and don’t let their worries get them down.   I wish more people were like them.

The film is spread over the course of a year and features lengthy, dialogue driven sequences where Tom and Gerri catch up with friends and family.  These friends don’t always share the same rosy outlook on life.  They’ve got problems and when given a little alcohol, everything comes out into the open.  It’s like watching a train wreck unfold.  You dare not look and yet you cannot turn away.

The screenplay is fantastic but I’ll always remember this film for the touching performance of Lesley Manville.  She plays Mary, a long-time friend of Gerri who has never been able to find the right guy.  She’s got a lot of love to give but her actions are often misguided.  I don’t know how but I was laughing at her whilst feeling sorry for her at the same time.  It’s a shame that Manville hasn’t picked up more attention during the recent awards season.

For those unfamiliar, Mike Leigh uses a rather unorthodox method when creating his movies.  He starts no script and only a rough idea about the characters.  Once the actors are hired, he lets them develop the roles on their own before bringing them all together in a room.  He can then watch them interact (whilst in character) and the dialogue creates itself.   It may sound strange but this film proves how effective the method can be.

With plenty to say about the value of life, love and friendship, Another Year is one of Mike Leigh’s best.  Beautiful stuff.