The Piano Teacher

Benoit Magimel & Isabelle Huppert in a scene from the film

I saw this film two weeks ago but I have not known how to even begin reviewing this film. I have scribbled down so many observations and analysis' I made about it in my journal, but have just chosen to read over them again and again but never actually begin this post. So here I am starting this not knowing what will come next but will attempt to tackle it regardless.

The Piano Teacher comes from genius director Michael Haneke. I have been intrigued by this man since viewing a remake of his own film, Funny Games, (I have recently purchased the original so I can see how different they are, am very much looking forward to it!) which disturbed me but intrigued me so much and left me in awe. The Piano Teacher, managed to get a similar response from me.

The Piano Teacher tells the story of pianist, Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) who leads a life as a piano teacher and lives with her mother. Deep down Erika has a sick mind when it comes to sex and it's when she meets piano student, Walter Klemmer (Benoit Magimel - love that name by the way) who pursues her, that her sick fantasies are revealed. Huppert's character is sad and disturbing and as a viewer you don't know whether to feel sorry for her or judge her.

Haneke's disturbing themes are thought provoking rather than just being there for the sole purpose of disturbing you. It seems his main intentions aren't to confront and disturb you but to rather slap you in the face. It's as if he is saying; we always expect a happy resolution at the end of a film but instead we must be confronted with reality. Its disturbing themes are intelligent, it's as if Haneke has a well educated background and is intent on showing you the truth through ways we have never seen in other films.

There's no kidding though, some scenes are quite confronting and not at all for those who prefer Disney classics or a Steve Martin movie. I strongly recommend this to those of you who are fans of Harmony Korine or Larry Clark. It's a similar kind of vibe but dedicated to an older market perhaps...

Rating: 4/5

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

Just one of the many outfits from the film that are overwhelming for the eye

So firstly a bit of background information on how I came across this film. I am addicted to my 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, my head is always in it at least once a week. I came across this film called Happiness in it which stars the brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman & Lara Flynn Boyle (Twin Peaks). I was so intrigued by it's story and watched the trailer to it numerous times and then began reading up on the director Todd Solondz. This is how I discovered Welcome to the Dollhouse, as Solondz is the director. I have been scouring the shelves of dvd stores for months in the hope of coming across either of these films. It was just last week that I would casually step into JB Hi-Fi with the intention of purchasing nothing (always a fail) and just come across a copy of Welcome to the Dollhouse, simple as that! After watching it though, I am feeling rather unsure about my discovery.

The film follows loner, Dawn Wiener, who is both an outcast at school and at home. Constantly being called Wienerdog at school and ridiculed for not being as sweet and cute as her younger sister at home, Dawn leads a fairly miserable life as a result. What I didn't like about this film is the shit Heather Matarazzo's character, Dawn, has to go through. The taunting at school is one thing but to get so much crap from the mother at home is just frustratingly annoying. The shit Dawn has to go through was just overwhelming and quite ridiculous really to the point that it wasn't quite believable.

This all aside though, I can see the film's appeal. It's quite quirky and funnily enough, original despite the overused storyline of the loner who gets taunted all the time. I just can't make up my mind though whether this is enough to make me like the film. When the film was finished I felt rather disappointed but over the past few days I've been thinking more about it and I think I liked it. I think I'm going to have to give it more time though or another viewing before I can fully make up my mind about it. So for that reason I am not going to give it a rating. However, I'll still be hunting for a copy Happiness.

The Kids Are All Right

The family

I'm still trying to work out how I feel about this film. I appreciate it for its originality, incredible acting and all round terrific storyline but unfortunately there were unresolved parts that left me feeling a little disappointed.

The Kids Are All Right revolves around a modern day family; two children and their lesbian mums. When Joni & Laser decide to get in contact with the sperm donor who made their family possible, things begin to change and Nic, the head of the family, doesn't like it.

The film isn't all serious, there are moments where you find yourself laughing quite loud i.e. an interesting D.V.D. that the two mums have sex to, makes for some awkward yet hilarious moments. The acting is also remarkable, but what do you expect when you have a film starring Julianne Moore, Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo (I'm also a big fan of the Alice in Wonderland star now, Mia Wasikowska, an absolutely stunning yet quirky girl, I'm expecting big things!) Julianne Moore and Annette Bening are perfect as the lesbian mums, there's nothing stereotypical about their roles, they act them out perfectly and flawlessly.

But of course there is the matter of unanswered questions. I'm not going to give the story away, but at the end you are kind of left asking but then what happens with so and so, why are we left with this part unresolved. I guess it's left to interpretation or just assumption, which I can accept, but you can't help but feel a little uneasy.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the film. It's not something I'd go out and rush to see again, but I'd recommend to those who are in the mood for something original and less Hollywood.

Rating: 3.5/5

Badlands, Carrie & Scott Pilgrim vs the World

Okay, so I'm going to do something kind of different today, rather than review one film I'm going to post a few films I have seen since watching New York, I Love You, with a little rant about what I thought of them and then a rating. I'm doing this firstly because I'm avoiding my assignment which involves me creating an animation in Flash (kill me), and also because I've been a bit slack and haven't posted anything for nearly a month.

Badlands (1973).

The dancing scene! So adorable. And goddamn, Martin Sheen was such a babe in his time.

I absolutely adored this film. Having found out about it from reading one of my favourite coffee table books, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I went out and purchased it straight away. Unfortunately, being as lazy as I am, I didn't get around to watching it 'til about two months after purchasing it (I still haven't watched Dr Strangelove either, which I purchased in early 2008). Martin Sheen & Sissy Spacek are perfect as the young couple on the run. A favourite part in the film of mine is when they live in their tree house home out in the middle of nowhere. There's an adorable moment when they're just dancing around to their portable radio, it's so sweet. This film has inspired me to check out Director, Malick's other stuff. The Thin Red Line is on the top of my list.

Rating: 4/5

Carrie (1976).

Oh no! Carrie got her period!

Having seen Badlands, I wanted to check out some more of Sissy Spacek's earlier stuff so decided to rent out the horror classic, Carrie. Yeah, I'm not going to lie, usually I love old horror films but Carrie has aged pretty badly. The film opens with a female changeroom at a highschool showing naked schoolgirls walking around. This was a very long opening, basically just filming breasts and bushes all in slow motion... I watched this with my friend Katie and we both just had to laugh because we didn't quite get what the point of it was and it was a little uncomfortable to watch. There's a lot of slapping of students by the gym teacher and just awkward scenes between Carrie and her mother. I enjoyed Sissy Spacek as the character Carrie but apart from that I was a little disappointed and didn't find the film all that frightening.

Rating: 2.5/5

Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

ahhhhmazing!

Yay! I have been long awaiting this film since discovering it on the Internet Movie Database about a year ago. I constantly stalk Michael Cera and Jason Schwartzman's imdb profiles to find out what upcoming films they'll be starring in and to discover they were to be in a film together just got me super antsy. This film definitely doesn't disappoint. Amazing characters (Wallace, a definite favourite played by Kieran Culkin), computer game styling, a band called Sex Bob-omb and amazing fighting scenes where Scott Pilgrim must defeat the seven evil ex's. I went to this one on my own and haven't regretted it. Sitting there and viewing this on my own was one of the best moments of my life. I was so so happy that day. I highly recommend all to see this and view it's glory!

Rating: 5/5

New York, I Love You

A scene from Natalie Portman's short film

Ok, I'm feeling a little hesitant about reviewing New York, I Love You because I see it as a bit of a challenge. So rather than bailing on it, I'm going to give it a shot (this could very much be my worst review, but I'm willing to take a risk).

What makes this so difficult is the fact that New York, I Love You is made up of a bunch of short films. For those of you who have seen Paris, Je T'aime, you will be familiar with the concept. Much like the short films set in Paris, France, New York, I Love You, does the same only in the city of New York (obviously). I loved Paris, Je T'aime, so eagerly awaited to see the same concept taken on in the city of New York. And surprisingly, it seems I prefer love stories told from New York. I actually enjoyed most of the love stories that were shown to me, particularly the ones directed by Brett Ratner, Natalie Portman, Faith Akin and Joshua Marston. Natalie Portman's short film was the one that stood out to me the most though. Her film felt like it was directed by the likes of Sofia Coppola. The shots are beautiful, focusing on the beauty of Central Park, through the eyes of a young girl and her father.

As a single girl, it is somewhat depressing to watch a film(s) like this because it only makes you long for what's on the screen. At the same time, however, I could only kind of laugh at how spontaneous and unbelievable a few of these characters were. So many of them easily approach the other character and talk so openly about sex and whatnot. I wasn't buying it all the time but still found it to be enjoyable viewing nonetheless. As someone who is travelling to New York at the end of the year it only made me want to leave even more, not to find someone, but rather for the beauty that is New York City. The actual city is something you can fall in love with and I think that was something that was portrayed in the film through the way the settings were shot. Natalie Portman's film is of course a huge example of this.

Don't be put off by the fact that the film is made up of a bunch of love stories, they are far from cliche so you won't be rolling your eyes too much...

Rating: 3.5/5

Zodiac

Jake Gyllenhaal & Chloe Sevigny in a scene from the film

I have literally just finished watching Zodiac and I am buzzing so much after it that I don't think I'll sleep at all tonight. Don't be put off by it's 2 and a half hour length, it moves so quickly you could have sworn you sat down to watch it for an hour.

I am a big fan of murder mysteries. My cousin Bree & I lived on documentaries and films on true murder mysteries when we were growing up and are still watching them now. Of course it scared us but we were so drawn in by it that we couldn't stop watching it. We followed stories such the Frankston murders case, the Cromwell St murders, the Ivan Milat murders and more. But I had never once heard of the Zodiac murders on which this film is based.

The Zodiac murders case spans over a number of years following a few killings made by this man who goes by the name of the Zodiac. He promotes himself by writing letters to the newspapers as well as ones in code which people must decipher to find out more about him. I really don't want to give anything away though and I recommend not doing any research before the film because it will only spoil it. Just do what I'm going to do, which is reading about it after! (Something which I do far too often i.e. after I saw Changeling, I was reading about those murders for a few weeks. It's just so damn interesting).

When you have a cast starring actors as brilliant as Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr and Chloe Sevigny it's highly unlikely you'll be left disappointed. One key thing that really drew me in was the Director being David Fincher who brought us other great films such as Fight Club and Se7en. The cast really don't disappoint, the performances are superb. There is also one scene which truly frightened me, I was hiding behind my pillow in parts, (this rarely happens with me).

I could not recommend this film anymore! Save it for a rainy day when you've got some spare time, or better yet go and hire it right now and watch it immediately! (I am writing this at 1am in the morning though, so am thinking of you readers who are reading this during video store hours).

Rating: 4.5/5

Note: My last 3 paragraphs ended in bracketed sentences, hmmm.

A Single Man

Stills from the film that show Tom Ford's use of experimentation with colour

What drew me into seeing this film was the unusual trailer that was playing on the loop DVD at my work. I think if my review isn't enough to make you want to see Tom Ford's film debut, at least check out the trailer and be amazed. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aypyJtHzC70

The film is just as hypnotic as its trailer. Ford's use of colour and camera angles/shots are absolutely mesmerizing! And being a fan of Mad Men now, I appreciated the setting being in 1960s America. Ah I just love the fashion, cars and furniture in this film. After seeing Julianne Moore apply eyeliner to her eyes the way she did, I am determined to try it out myself!

Aside from the beauty of the look of the film, the storyline is somewhat lacking. I did thoroughly enjoy the acting by all actors (and if you're not a fan of Colin Firth's usual 'Mr Darcy' role, you'll be quite pleased by this alternative role) and the story was rather intriguing throughout, until the end though. I felt like it was missing something but I just don't know what. A Single Man was originally based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood, so I don't know if it was him that gave up near the end or Ford with the screenplay. I am intrigued to find out if someone else agrees with me on this but unfortunately I don't know anyone else who has seen it. If you have, please let me know what you think!

Despite this though, the film has done very well for itself, receiving Oscar nominations and rave reviews. I should also mention, Nicholas Hoult, who you will recognise as Tony from Skins, makes for a very sexy gay man. I feel kind of weird for saying that, but I am just hoping he is a straight man in real life so it makes me look less strange.

Rating: 4/5