Winners of 2009: Sci-Fi and Actresses opinion
Sci-fi was the big winner of the year. Avatar and its nutso-budget is getting all of the attention as the year draws to a close but Moon and Timecrimes, at the other, distant, end of the budget spectrum, were the more powerful, clever examples of the genre. Having said that, Star Trek, with its big budget, was a great, thrilling surprise. The likes of Watchmen and District 9 were icing on the cake.
This was also the year of the actress. Last year was the actors’ turn with Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, and Michael Fassbender in Hunger delivering very special performances. But this year it is was Kate Winslet in both Revolutionary Road and The Reader, Carey Mulligan in An Education, Melissa Leo in Frozen River and Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married who stood out, were all absolutely superb and, with the possible exception of Winslet, an absolute surprise.
31st Dec 2009 | Comment
Best Films of 2009 opinion
Right, here we go; Talking Animal’s pick of the best of the year. Moon’s a favourite but, as unoriginal as it is to go for the big Oscar winner, Slumdog was sheer quality.
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Moon
- Gran Torino
- Timecrimes
- Star Trek
- A Serious Man
- Up
- Revolutionary Road
- Away We Go
- Let The Right One In
Where The Wild Things Are, The Good, The Bad, The Weird, Rachel Getting Married, The Reader, and Frozen River narrowly miss the list. More, everso-slightly, less vague “winners” and “losers” of the year thoughts to come.
31st Dec 2009 | 2 Comments
Avatar review
Powerful white man threatens to destroy primitive blue man but white man then saves blue man who in turn saves white man, y’know, spiritually. It’s a vaguely patronising but classical concept. The not-all-too-original, basic, largely predictable story isn’t bad, though, and is, in fact, more coherent than many.
The world of Avatar is both impressive and ridiculous. Whereas there are plenty of credible, even complex sci-fi elements (like the abundant bioluminescence and detailed common physical traits of animals) there is also a large dose of utter fantasy (floating mountains, cross-species USB ports). However frustratingly inconsistent this is, everything, from characters to story to effects, is clearly very carefully calculated and, although it’s instinctive to abominate such lack of soul, the formula for mindless entertainment undoubtedly works.
Switching off is the key to enjoyment and interest intensifies when the pace picks up and the action really kicks off in the second half of the overly-long film. It’s another example of a director with too much power but this is James Cameron’s big spectacle and it certainly is spectacular — the visuals are the undisputed highlight and are reason enough to see the film.
21st Dec 2009 | Comment | Official site | On IMDb
Departures review
It’s taken a while for this year’s surprise winner of Best Foreign Language Oscar to hit UK screens but, as it turns out, the real surprise is that the win was well deserved, even up against the likes of Waltz With Bashir and Cannes’ Golden Palm winner The Class.
Not being overly-familiar with Japanese film, it at least appears that Western audiences are responding well to tales of difficulties with some Japanese cultural traditions, with Tokyo Sonata being another well made film reaching this side of the world and gaining some attention this year. The insight Departures gives in to attitudes to death and dealing with death are fascinating but it is the deeper, more general tale of the human condition that makes the film such a success.
The themes of life and death are deep but unpretentious and the characters are well defined and even quirky. Although the subject of the film can be quite dark there is plenty of humour and the story, containing strong, interesting subplots, is captivating and very moving.
20th Dec 2009 | Comment | Official site | On IMDb
Where The Wild Things Are review
With the help of writer Charlie Kaufman, director Spike Jonze has conjured two of the strongest, most memorable films of the past 10 years in Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. But was their quality primarily down to Kaufman’s genius? And how would Jonze cope in the studio system with a big budget and the very different source material of Maurice Sendak’s children’s classic?
A slow start and few action scenes make Where The Wild Things Are an atypical kid’s movie with subtle themes providing more appeal to adults. The story is a little bit messy but the exploration of childhood emotions and resulting confusion is a brave, difficult undertaking well executed. The pure escapism is a joy with an uncomplicated almost monochromatic landscape and The Wild Things themselves are convincingly brought to life with CGI merely aiding refreshingly real, tangible Jim Hensonry.
But the film’s most enlightening accomplishment is the demonstration of Spike Jonze’s real talent. Stepping out Charlie Kaufman’s shadow, Jonze demonstrates that he is a feature-length film force to be reckoned with in his own right with a confident, distinctive voice.
20th Dec 2009 | Comment | Official site | On IMDb
