Memento, Reservoir Dogs and The Big Lebowski

I watched Memento, about a man who has no short term memory, and the story is told almost completely backwards. I thought it was great as it was the most interesting film I've seen in a while and the storytelling was very intriguing and unique.
I also watched Reservoir Dogs, which was also brilliant. It's about the aftermath of a failed bank robbery and as always with Tarantino, the script was great. It was excellently acted, especially by Tim Roth as the hysterical Mr. Orange and Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink.
Finally, I watched the Big Lebowski, a Coen brothers film starring Jeff Bridges as The Dude. This film contains some of my favourite characters of all time (especially Walter Sobchak, played by John Goodman), and has a great story involving Nihilists, "marmots" and White Russians.
I would strongly recommend all of them.

Hal Chavasse

The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man

I first saw the Wicker Man two or three years ago, and this was my first time watching it since then. I had enjoyed it the first time, and revisiting it was exactly the same. The film is based around a remote Scottish island called Summerisle where a girl has gone missing. A mainland policeman (Sgt. Howie) played by Edward Woodward is sent to the island to find her.
I think that the reason this film is so good is the general feeling of creepiness and wrongness that surrounds almost every scene in the film. Immediately after arriving on the island, everything is suspicious and you know as little as Sgt. Howie when he first arrives. The gradual reveal of the islands Pagan culture and history is great, and all of the supporting cast are great as the awkward and outsider-shy islanders.
The film is littered with creepy moments that make the island more unwelcoming and gradually reveal it to be a more and more unpleasant place, for example the schoolgirl who traps a beetle inside the missing girls school desk or the maypole scene. Christopher Lee plays the islands leader/occasional transvestite Lord Summerisle and is great as a seemingly amiable and complying character, but with something sinister about him, which is revealed as the film goes on.
The soundtrack is also a huge part of this film, with frequent interludes showing gatherings of islanders singing and dancing. All of the music is incredibly happy, which plays a huge part in adding to the unsettling feel of the film, and some of the songs are great standalone pieces of music.
The final moments are where the film really shines, with the tense procession around the island, which is incredibly creepy as the locals are dressed in animal masks and costumes which are all lifeless and imposing, especially the Punch costume which is easily the most unsettling of them all. The final scene is the best in the entire film and is quite horrible to watch, and is gives this already great film an ending which makes the overall experience even better.

Hal Chavasse

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist(Daniel Craig(DIWF)) has just lost a well-publicized court battle having been accused of publishing false information about a wealthy business man in his left wing newspaper: Millennium, (hence the Millennium saga name). The story is set in a modern, frozen Sweden, where we are supposed to believe that everyone has either a fluxuating, questionable or non-existent Swedish accent. This is a slick, gory, gritty political thriller, riddled with social innuendoes and questioning about the treatment and representation of women. This remake, the Swedish original and the Stieg Larsson novels (originally entitled ‘men who hate women’) are by all means in my opinion wonderfully 21^st century feminist films. 

Mikael and later Lisbeth(Mara Rooney), a troubled but gifted goth computer hacker, are enlisted by a retired wealthy industrialist tycoon to solve the unsolved mystery of the murder of his beautiful granddaughter 40 years ago. He suspects the murderer is one of the members of his cold and unpleasant family, who currently occupy an island in northern Sweden. As Mikael and Lisbeth begin to piece together the sinister and deeply unpleasant pieces of this unsolved jigsaw, they find themselves dangerously involved in what seems to be more than just one girl’s disappearance.   

As cliché as it sounds I think this is one of those defining tales of our era and I defiantly recommend this and the Swedish Original. 

The Machinist

This film was definitely a Physiological Thriller. By this I mean that not only did the clever filming and trickery reel the watcher in and keep them hooked, but because it was totally from the view point of someone who was turning slowly and undoubtedly insane, for once the viewer could not second-guess the plot or have their own feelings and opinions about the goings on, and instead had to completely immerse themselves in the film until you felt like you were the traumatised and dysfunctional leading character.

The first scene acts as the definitive scene, one that the plot comes back to at the end which helps to finally answer all the mystery and dead ends. This was a clever ploy and one that truly set the film out to be memorable and very watchable.  There is no real way of summarising the plot without giving the story away, as on the one hand it can seem like a twisted and complicated story, but on the other hand once you understand all the points of the plot at the end, it seems so obvious and you wonder why you had not foreseen the huge twist in one of the final scenes. However, this is down to my earlier point, that the viewer starts thinking like the leading character who has not slept for over a year, so is clearly not think exactly clearly.

I think that Christian Bale played the character of Trevor Reznik, (a machinist who had been suffering with chronic insomnia for over a year and who was therefore slowly losing touch with reality,) outstandingly, and truly embodied the doomed character. Bale was painfully underweight for this film, making him at times very hard to look at, which is an example of the way the film cleverly used imagery to make the viewer part of the experience. Tense and gruelling scenes from the factory where he worked also added to the harshness of the viewing, and some of these shots were also almost unwatchable.  This shows that this film was a good physiological thriller, as the mixture of terrifying scenes mixed with clips that were disjointed and surreal, (such as clocks ticking backwards or confusing flashbacks,) stripped the viewer of normal and rational thoughts, and you became the troubled Reznik.

I love this kind of film because after watching such a powerful and clever array of images and stories, you feel as if you were part of the film, and the thoughts and emotions you felt won’t leave you for days.

Laura

Blue Valentine

I finally got round to watching Blue Valentine, directed by Derek Cianfrance. I thought the film looked really promising and I’d wanted to see it for a log time. The film didn’t exactly break any box office records, but it had won a small handful of awards at American independent film festivals. Anyhow, I didn’t see how I could go wrong with a romance starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle William, two of my favourite actors. The film included improvised dialogue from the actors during the film, which is just one of the current and contemporary things about the film.

Blue Valentine is a film about a couple called Cindy and Dean. The film cuts back and forth from the early days of their relationship to its painful breakdown years later. The film shows them meeting when Cindy is a student living with her unhappy parents and looking after her grandmother, and Dean is working for moving and storage company. The couple rush into a marriage after discovering Cindy is pregnant, even though they are not sure whether Dean is he father, or if it is Cindy’s previous boyfriend. There is a strong contrast between their life as a young couple, when they are beautiful and effervescent, to the future when Cindy and Dean are older and their exhaustion from their relationship is all too apparent.

 The film is incredibly sad and somehow completely unromantic. It’s a completely realistic and unflinching love story. It is basically about a relationship where once they were devoted, and now one of them just has nothing left to give. The performances were, of course, stunning, as was the whole production of the film. The film included an excellent use of music, and I can’t usually hack it when songs have been written especially for a film, but I thought it worked really well on this occasion.

Blue Valentine takes a very alternative and simple approach to the almost taboo subject of falling in then out of love. I couldn’t fully get my head around it and I think that’s why it will stay with me for a long time.

Me, You and Everyone We Know

Me, You and Everyone We Know

This film for me wasn’t terribly boring or exciting, it was average. Whilst some of the narrative was strange and confusing others were funny and smart, which was something I especially liked about this film. The quirky and slightly edgy humour in this film is again something that I liked, but at points I wasn’t sure whether I should have been laughing or not.

The narrative is loosely based on Miranda July’s character but more on the diverse and strange relationships that surround her. With the two best friends who are constantly competing with on another or the two brothers weird and lonely relationship with horny people on the internet. The film’s ending was quite unresolved and annoying; whilst the relationships carried on I felt the characters had not developed or changed enough for me to like how it finished. Although Miranda probably wanted an ongoing story; one which wasn’t defined by the ending. It left me feeling almost betrayed in not letting me know what to take from this film; was it a hilarious, unusual and terribly honest  take on modern relationships or a very pessimistic depressing view on how most if not all relationships are somehow based around sex. Or maybe I too misjudged the film entirely.

In conclusion my opinion on this film is unsure, whilst my age and interest in other genres might make me bias to hate this film I don’t; and so believe that this film is decent and at least 3 stars.

Joel Hooper

The Craft

The craft is a very unusual and intrepid take on a high school drama/ coming of age film, but although its fictionally based it still surprisingly manages to detain some familiarity with modern high school life, even with it being more then 10 years old.  Strangely I found the narrative of this film to be a lot like “Mean Girls” but obviously with a fictional subtext and a much darker ending. Retrospectively I found this film is very smart in the way it portrays different social groups with different characters and the way they react given the supernatural context. Obviously this familiarity doesn’t really apply to British high school life but might still have some relevance in American high school life, which not only says a lot about this film but a lot about high schools.

The story bases itself around Sarah; a newcomer to a Catholic High school who’s moved with her father to Los Angeles, but soon falls into the wrong crowd and when rumours about her start to stir Sarah decides to seek friendship in a strange group of girls. When Sarah realises they’re withes she decides to join them but they all underestimate Sarah’s power and soon after face fatal consequences for it.

I like this film for its originality in genre mix and narrative, although at points I felt disappointed with the narrative/character arks chosen for individuals but also felt that the narrative for some characters wasn’t in depth enough for the narrative to flow properly. But what they attempted to do with this film was incredibly smart and gutsy.

I would give this film 3.5 stars; for its originality, good narrative and interesting and smart interpretation of teenage life.

Joel Hooper

Wuthering Heights

I watched Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights recently and I rather enjoyed it. Everything about the direction was so different to what I had known to be conventional for classic stories. I felt that Arnold took a different approach to the story and for the first time I got to see a classic as I had never imagined before. Maybe my experience for classics isn’t vast but from the adaptions of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Great Expectations’, ‘Oliver Twist’ and indeed ‘Peter Rosminsky’s’ 1992 version of ‘Wuthering Heights’ with ‘Ralph Fiennes’ I know that what Arnold did with the timeless classic was certainly different to the films listed.

The film concentrated on the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff, leaving out the second half of the original book where Emily Brontë focusses on characters Nelly Dean and Lockwood. When Cathy and Heathcliff are both young, they share scenes of openness and happiness. Both Cathy and Heathcliff expressed a knowing innocence when they were alone. Although it was a romance, they never broke the boundaries of their fabricated sibling relationship. It was also a relationship that didn’t fit the period time love story. It was quite raw and unrehearsed. The unsteadiness of Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship was reflected in the cinematography, powerfully orchestrated by ‘Robbie Ryan’. The harsh, choppy, rough handling of the camera perfectly replicated the immeasurable emotions of pain, anger and love- Key themes in this story.

Arnold also justifies the use of weather and landscape in her adaption. It was as if the weather was the commander of fortune and most of the time it was merciless. The rain brought Heathcliff to the Earnshaw family which eventually became the root of his pain and suffering in many ways. The entwining branches reflected complication, the open moor allowed Cathy and Heathcliff to be together and happy , the darkness mirrored secrecy and the mist and fog appeared at times of confusion and ambiguousness. Now and again I noticed that the camera would emphasise the attention to an animal or a plant. Perhaps this was to remind the viewer of the original inspiration of the book and the importance of the setting. Or maybe it was to remind the viewer of natural beauty in unlikely things; after all, the focus on the setting was a sharp difference from some of the intensity of the acting. I did feel that the landscape and setting ran parallel alongside some characters; Cathy a bird, Heathcliff a venerable animal taken to slaughter and Hindley a loud dog.

Overall I really appreciated this film. Arnold’s ‘Fish Tank’ and ‘Red Road’ were superb and I felt she lived up to her expectations with this rendition of Wuthering Heights. This film was bleak, depressing and sad but I still loved it.

 

Me and you and everyone we know

‘Me and you and everyone we know’ written and directed by Miranda July, received mixed reactions across the board. Some hailing it as ‘a quiet masterpiece’, others appeared to frankly detest the whole film. I have to say, I found watching the film not exactly a pleasant experience. As I did when watching Terence Malick’s ‘the Tree of Life’, I felt as though I was being excluded by the film by the fact that, ‘I didn’t really get it’. I often enjoy alternative films, but I just couldn’t see the emperor’s new clothes here.

The plot, a word I’m playing a bit fast and loose with here, focuses around Christine (Miranda July), a cab driver and video artist, trying to get her work displayed at her local gallery and Richard (John Hawkes), a shoe salesman and recently single dad. The two of them eventually end up together, after what seemed like a lifetime of their mishaps and struggles. It was enough to make me want me yell at them through the television screen to ‘get a grip’. The film included a whole other variety of characters though. There was Richard’s neighbour, a little girl who collects kitchen appliances for her ‘dowry’. A rather bleak sentiment, I felt. There was an art gallery curator who liked send dirty messages to whom she hadn’t realised was Richard’s young son (creepy). The was also Richard’s colleague at the shoe shop, a man who leaves sexual messages for two teenage girls to see, about what he’d ‘do to them’ (creepier). The art gallery served nicely as a metaphor for the film whole pretentiousness. Like the scene where an artist puts a hamburger wrapper on the ground and calls it art, they apparently filmed some weirdo’s stumbling around and called it a film.

Overall, I feel the film had an effect of indie blandness, the jokes weren’t funny and the characters had no likeability. I didn’t understand why the characters acted in such a bizarre acted way. For example, there was a scene in which Richard sets is hand on fire, this apparently an act to represent his turmoil into despair and his struggle to stay afloat, but wasn’t it just an incredibly stupid and irresponsible thing to do? The film especially awful, it just didn’t do it for me. It made me realise why I love socially realistic films, because they’re about real people, with real problems, and these are dealt with. However, this film won awards at the Cannes and the Sundance film festivals, so what do I know.

The Life Aquatic

Wes Anderson creates a bizarre, cerulean world in which the characters are as unrealistic as the film itself. After losing his best friend, Esteban du Plantier, to an unidentified creature conned as a "Jaguar Shark", Steve Zissou is adamant to see to the creatures destruction. Bill Murray plays the part of Steve Zissou to be two-dimensional, yet at the same time essentric, often showing him to be contraversial, or even crazy as he requests for dynamite to aid in the annihilation of the Jaguar Shark. 

It is interesting to see the characters develop through the film as Ned Plimpton, later on referred to as Kingsley (Ned) Zissou, is under the impression that Steve is his biological father and offers to finance the new film with his inheritance. This leads to Klaus Daimler, another member of the crew portrayed by Willem Dafoe having a rather humorous dispute with the said Ned Plimpton which is perhaps the only time I cracked a smile at this film. 

The plot thickens and becomes more intense after the first part and the playful nature of the film is abolished in order for the emotional and complex themes to be shown. From the perspective of someone who is perhaps younger than the target demographic for this film I thought it was too unrealistic to captivate me and for me to relate to the characters. 

House of Flying Daggers

I watched the film House of Flying Daggers not long ago and to my surprise I rather enjoyed it. I’m not sure if it was the vivid colours and patterns involved in the costumes and setting, the cleverly orchestrated fight scenes which looked like synchronised dance routines or simply the exploration into a different type of film.

This film had an air about it, right from the beginning. I felt immediately transferred to imperial China- Zhang Yimou did a great job in staging all the scenes. I was also transfixed on Mei played by Zhang Ziyi, as many others within the film were too. She took on the role a canny woman who seemed to be able to do just about anything, if she wasn’t singing like a song bird she would be effortlessly walking in mid-air or gracefully slaughtering mere enemies. I loved her character from the start however my affection for her grew thin as I saw her slowly turning into the conventional female protagonist that falls at the hands of a relationship and a happy ending. Luckily not all is what is seems and everything works out in the end, in context maybe not quite the happy ending that was hoped and indeed not the ending a viewer would predict early on in the film but for me and purely on principle it was satisfying. I thought that I could predict the ending of the film quite early on but it proved me wrong. It took a different trajectory and for that I am grateful as it allowed me to be overcome by someone else’s imagination and not just rely on mine.

Whilst watching this film I couldn’t help but to compare it with ‘The Hunger Games’. Both stories have the themes of survival, oppression, dishonesty, and combat. These similarities became more prevalent as ‘The House of Flying Daggers’ progressed and Jin played by Takeshi Kaneshiro said ‘you and me are just pawns on a chest board- no one cares if we die’ ‘part of their games’ as said by Peeta in ‘The Hunger Games’. We all know how two films can be so opposing yet, at heart; hold the same feeling and moral thought. It takes a ground breaking film to offer us something new, to spark inspiration, to tap into an undiscovered emotion and although, as far as concepts go, this film wasn’t a jump into the void of originality, I certainly enjoyed it.

The Craft

The craft is a dark, supernatural teen drama. Sound familiar? Well unless you've been living in a secure transmission/Signal or media of kind proof compound for the last 5 years, you will know that in the years since The Craft was released in 1996 the whole vampire/supernatural genre has been over done, and over done some more thanks to the likes of (need I say) Twilight.

This perhaps tainted my enjoyment of to what 90s viewers would have been more fresh and original viewing.

On the plus side, unlike twilight the female leads are interesting and dynamic. The film centres around troubled Sarah, who moves to LA and falls in with a group of girls who practise witchcraft. Despite warnings, things begin to fall apart when they start to use their power for revenge. Unfortunately I found the plot basic and lacking dept, and didn't seem to flow as well towards the end as in the beginning. Despite this it tackled delicate issues such as racism, rape and domestic violence intelligently and in a way that enriched the plot. Overall the film was enjoyable, far more thoughtful than its modern successors and worth a watch.

The Machinist

A quirky horror/psychological thriller, was my first thought of this film from my glance at the front cover of the box.  I may have been slightly right in my prediction but still very wrong. I wouldn’t really classify this film to any sort of hybrid genre but it is definitely psychological, whether its horror or thriller depends on the viewer. Although there are scenes of gore and slight jump scares the feel of the film has a more unknown genre basis, one which I myself am still unsure about.

Christen Bales body if anything the biggest indicator that it might be more of a horror film, no CGI just a very disturbingly grotesque skeletal form which at any topless scene will make you feel very unsettled and slightly sick. For this film Christen actually lost more than 60 pounds (27kg), and it really does show.

The narrative bases on a man called Trevor Reznik who suffers from insomnia, the slightly unrealistic idea is that he hasn’t slept in a year and is still able to work, talk and have a lot sex with a prostitute. And even though most of the other characters in the film think he’s on drugs, no one seems to think to call a Doctor. Although this film does have a massive plot whole in the basis of its storyline, you have to ignore it because as the film goes on the narrative starts to patch it up (slightly). As it gives the reason for why he can’t sleep.

The further the film goes on the more paranoid and deluded Reznik becomes, this changes the mood of the film dramatically.

Unlike other films which have a dream prospect to them; this film actually does it surprisingly well as you aren’t really ever sure of if Trevor is dreaming or not. Although it is slightly daunting as you worry about the whole film being one big disappointing dream/nightmare, ruining so many other good films and programmes previously. Spoiler alert; it isn’t. And the ending for me was really good ; it gave reason to most of the plot wholes, answered questions that had confused me but mostly the ending unusually surprised me and after watching will probably surprise you too.

I would say this film is suspense driven, depressingly horrific and conclusively magnificent. Although I wasn’t too sure about the director choice over the camera sometimes and Christine Bales acting was not quite up to scratch in my opinion; it is still a very good watch (but do expect some gore as well as spinal chords and rib cages becoming pressed out against pale skin).

Lawn Dogs - Hal

Lawn Dogs

When I first saw the box of Lawn Dogs, the film did not appeal to me. The blurb did not particularly draw me in either – “22 year old Trent Burns is a “Lawn Dog”...10 year old Devon Stockard decides to make him her best friend”. It sounded dull, and did not seem the sort of film that would appeal to me (although that was the case with one of my all-time favourite films). The film centres around a new girl on a rich housing estate and the man that mows their lawn, two outsiders that become friends, a relationship that to the other residents of the estate seems to be more than just simple friendship.
There is also a fairy-tale view to the film, with Devon’s frequent voiceovers based around the witch Baba Yaga, and for me these generally worked, but I felt the ending of the film was damaged by over-use of the idea. The film starts fairly slowly, and becomes more enjoyable as the characters are developed. Despite this, I enjoyed the film far more than I thought I would at first glance.
I don’t like using this word, but some parts of the film were so genuinely nice that I couldn’t help but like the film, for example the scene where Devon and Trent stand on top of Trent's car dancing and shouting at the local police was one of my favourites in the film. The film was also a lot funnier than I expected it to be; Devon’s mums’ affair was a personal highlight. The sub plots and main characters also really added to the film, making the housing estate community seem more believable, and also adding many of the more entertaining parts of the film.
The characters become so well defined and likeable (or in some cases, intensely dislikeable, such as Devon’s father) that towards the end of film, you start to worry for the fates of the characters, which makes the actual ending of the film more powerful, although I thought it was damaged by the aforementioned fantasy side to the film.
Overall, I would say that Lawn Dogs was definitely a pleasant surprise and despite its flaws I think it is a film that would be hard not to enjoy.

Hal Chavasse 

Grade

Pig

Graded by:
Mr. Horner

Il Postino by Laura

I did notreally know what to expect from this film. I wasn’t sure if I was going toenjoy it or not, I do not usually go for dated films but everyone I had spokento about it had only good things to say. It is one of my Mum’s favourite filmsof all time, and after watching it I can definitely see why. Not only was itfull of tantalisingly delightful imagery and sound, it was also full of deepemotion that all viewers could connect with. It was a story that truly moved meand was a complete joy to watch.

  I think that there were many layers to IlPostino; some parts made me think of all that is good in film and the world,other parts were desperately sad and some aspects were simply benignlyordinary. The basic idea of the film is simple: a poor, plain Mediterraneanfisherman’s son called Mario, (played by Massimo Troisi,) wants a more adventurousand rewarding life. He finds solace in the postcards he receives from friendstravelling to begin with, and eventually falls for the magic of poetry thanksto the communist poet Pablo Neruda, who was exiled from Chile due to hisoutspoken beliefs. Pablo Neruda was a real Chillan activist and poet, and soamidst the engaging and visionary film, Neruda’s poems are dotted about,sometimes with amusing consequences.

   Not only is this story about a man wantingto better his life, it is also a love story. Beatrice, the barmaid he instantlyfalls for, is broody and beautiful. The scene showing the lowly postman and thefeisty barmaid’s first encounter is heart warming and funny, although somewhatimprobable.  But that is one thing thatthis film manages to achieve so well; making the improbable seem easilyachievable. I love that Mario managed to win Beatrice’s heart with themetaphors Pablo taught him, and that the unlikely friendship between a humblepostman and a passionate communist poet became so strong, leading to Mariosuddenly seeing the beauty of his surrounding and also the beauty of words, andto Pablo becoming kinder and letting the situation he was put in instead ofhindering him, making him stronger and more loving.

    Of course the film isn’t all smiles andhappy endings, as although the setting and story is not one that many can fullyrelate to, it is still true to the pattern of real life, and I found myselfreally connecting with the characters, which shows it wasn’t totallyunrealistic. I have to admit that at the final scenes of the film I did shed afew tears, and felt like I’d been on a complete journey. Perhaps there wereweak points to this film but I definitely don’t want to be critical of IlPostino just yet. I will definitely be watching this magnificent film again.

The Station Agent

When I first heard abut ‘the Station Agent’, directed by Tom McCarthy, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. The whole unconventional friendship genre, is one I feel a type of film that is often overdone, and just a basic plotline for directors, that end up being movies, that are often generic, laced with artificial sweeteners, fake sentiment, or worse, the main characters sleeping with each other at the end, as an apparently suitable conclusion to a story. I was concerned that I might find the whole film a little twee, definitely not suiting to my tastes. However I was a bit more than pleasantly surprised.
The film revolves around Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage), a dwarf who works in a toy trains store, his only real enthusiasm being for trains. Fin is withdrawn from society, wanting to avoid being scrutinised for his differences. His only real friend is the man who runs the store where he works, who, when he dies suddenly, leaves Fin an abandoned train depot, in the middle of nowhere, New Jersey. There, Fin meets Joe (Bobby Cannnavale), a Cuban American who runs his Dad’s refreshment van, and, despite Fin’s obvious desire to be left alone, is very talkative and relentless in his attempt to make friends. We also meet Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), a hapless artist, trying to cope with the loss of her son and the breakdown of her marriage. All three characters have their struggles, Fin’s difficulty to be seen as just a normal person by society, Joe’s life being blighted by his Dad’s illness and Olivia’s immense loss and grief. However, only when they come together do Fin and Olivia learn that instead of pushing people away, they can have a friendship that brings them joy for the first time in a long time.
Extremely rarely do you find a film with three such likeable main characters, which is what makes this a remarkable film. Fin’s stoicism is peculiarly endearing, though even better when he lets his hard exterior crack, and he gives in to Joe’s puppy like insistence on bonding, and the pair go for walks along the tracks together. Patricia Clarkson, as Olivia plays such a real and troubled portrayal of a woman devastated by loss its heartbreaking. For me, though, my favourite character had to be Joe, his attempts to befriend the other, making his own loneliness more apparent, which really tugged at my heartstrings, as well as his willingness to treat Fin like any normal person, regardless., makes Joe especially loveable. 
I think that this was a film about loneliness, and outsiders coming together. Only when Fin meets the others, does he discover that to be forever alone isn’t what he really wants. This was demonstrated in particular part of the film, where Fin waits outside Olivia’s house, just to see her when she won’t return his calls, unimaginable at the beginning of the film, and completely touching. This film really spoke to me, as I think it would to anyone who ever feels like an outsider, or sometimes chooses to be lonely over the strains of social interaction. ‘The Station Agent’ was such a simple film, yet was absolutely wonderful. Although it didn’t get itself caught in all the hidden meanings, it still spoke really loudly.

Lizzie

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2

In the days leading up to the day I went to see breaking dawn part 2 I found myself increasingly excited in anticipation of the conclusion of one of my favourite franchises , and then within 30 minutes of entering the cinema increasing perplexed at what the 13 year old version of myself had found so enthralling about this saga. I had considered the films a cinematic masterpiece. At the same time it was still enjoyable and worth my £3.75(orange Wednesdays). I wouldn’t say it was a letdown; just a realisation that Twilight isn’t actually literary gold-it spawned 50 shades of grey for god’s sake!

Despite this, it was actually rather amusing. My personal highlight was the ridiculously unconvincing, and downright creepy, CGI baby. Apart from Kirsten Steward’s still moody teenager like acting some of the acting was actually quite decent, well maybe for the wrong reasons. Michael Sheen, who I still can’t stop thinking of as the Leeds United manger in ‘The damned United’, portrayed the head Volturi in a hilariously camp fashion, which quite undermined the serious mood of the film. The multicultural vampire gathering was also quite spectacular; some sort of most stereotypical accents in one film record must have been broken. The lets rip everyone’s heads off seen was also great, although as usual Bella did next to nothing but stand there looking distressed.

All in all, it was alright. What I still find so alluring about twilight, even with its seriousness undermined, is that it’s never dull. Over the top, but never dull.   

Eva.