Category Archive: Drama Film
Primer
(Dir. Shane Carruth) (2004) Two commercial engineers create a time machine by accident and start bumping into their other selves. Made on a shoe-string, incomprehensible, with confusing exposition and techno-chat designed to cover gaps in plot, this film is, nevertheless, engaging and different – nice, weird playing by director Carruth and Dave Sullivan as Aaron and Abe.
Continue Reading →Black Swan
(Dir. Darren Aronofsky) (2010) Natalie Portman is no Divine Zucchi as she samples various vices in an attempt to turn Odette into Odile. A heroic attempt by all concerned to synthesize the struggle and sacrifice of art looks and even feels impressive but, alas, is artless, a cliché, and ludicrous.
Continue Reading →The Imitation Game
(Dir. Morten Tyldum) (2014) There have been many books and indeed many films concerning Enigma and Ultra. All are unsatisfactory to varying degrees. The present effusion suffers from a common defect. It is hard to engage us, in cinematic terms, by presenting decryption, or its value in the war effort: one is visually dull, the other incalculable. One is left to stage moral dilemmas or descend to caricatures of hobbits in Bletchley huts, sledgehammering us with reminders that queer little folk can do great things. Turing and his colleagues in Hut 8 were crucial to the effort to break the…
Continue Reading →The Stunt Man
Swivel-eyed loon, Peter O'Toole
(with a Minority Report and a PS) (Director R. Rush) (1980) Tedious, unhinged and thin. Yes, that’s both The Stunt Man and its eyerolling star, the world’s worst actor, Peter O’Toole. Why is Charles Manson blond? Who COULD that old woman in the water be? There’s something about a bridge. O’Toole leers insanely from a helicopter. People’s legs are shot off, or not. Let’s all applaud for no reason. Barbara Hershey wanders about in a Barbara Hershey shaped mist. What the heck is going on? Who could care? MINORITY REPORT – PETER SAYS:- Yes, this film has problems. Yes, O’Toole invariably…
Continue Reading →Birdman
(Dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu) (2014) This is an interesting and well-made film that suffers from an empty space about its heart. The 1990s star of “Birdman 1, 2 and 3”, Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton – get it?) spurned Birdman # 4 when at the top of the Hollywood pile, and is now a penniless has-been with substance abuse issues and an uncertain relationship with reality, as evidenced by his schizoid exchanges with the alter-ego Birdman character, who comes and goes, alternately revving and razzing Thomson in a voice reminiscent of Frank in Donnie Darko. His comeback (or if you hate…
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