Review: Kabluey

With the huge success of films like Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, cute and quirky independent cinema is no longer a niche market. This has always been one of my favourite genres, so it’s nice that it’s becoming easier to see such films at the cinema, but I do sometimes wonder why certain examples get such huge praise while others, very similar and equally entertaining, go just as unnoticed as ever. Kabluey is an example of the latter. I’d be surprised if you’ve heard of it, but if cute and quirky is your cup of tea then you might just love it.

Kabluey mixes realism with surrealism – the main characters (played by Scott Prendergast, who also wrote and directed the film, and Lisa Kudrow) have ordinary, quite depressing lives, but the story is sweet and charming and there are many entertaining moments. Everything is a little bit funnier when one of the characters involved is dressed as a cute blue creature who always looks quite glum.  Look out especially for the moment which provokes the line, “Leslie, call the police, we’re being attacked… BY CHEEEESE!”

I think what’s great about Kabluey is its individuality. It does fit into a genre that’s currently popular, but it doesn’t particularly remind me of any other film I’ve seen. The fact that Scott (seen above, inside his blue costume) had complete creative control over the project means that it’s simply his vision and that doesn’t appear to be diluted by the need to please any industry bigwigs. It’s really nice to see someone left to their own devices and I think more creative types should be allowed to do this, as it has worked so well with Kabluey and also with Me and You and Everyone We Know. I’ll definitely be looking out for more of these artistic solo projects in the future.

Kabluey hasn’t actually been released in the UK, but someone has kindly risked a criminal conviction to put it online for our entertainment, here .

Review: Sunshine Cleaning

For their latest project, Little Miss Sunshine’s producers, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub, haven’t strayed too far from what they’re good at. Apart from the same word in their names, Sunshine Cleaning and Little Miss Sunshine also share one cast member, and the two films have a similar tone. Both focus on three generations of one family, including a cute kid and a grandad, who in both cases is played by Alan Arkin. There is even a van at the centre of both stories.

The two sisters who take the lead roles are played by Amy Adams, who I love, and Emily Blunt, who I’m not usually so keen on. Amy was as great as ever as Rose, the older sister whose life has been on a down-turn since her days of being the most popular girl at school, and even Emily created a likeable character as the younger girl, Nora, who lacks direction in her life and is still dealing with the death of her mother, who she can barely remember. Together they start a business cleaning up at crime scenes, which provides us with a few stomach churning sights, but they are balanced out with sweet and funny moments.

Just the other day I was thinking about how I hadn’t seen a really great film in ages (the last was either Milk or Nick and Norah), so I’m pleased to say that I finally found one. Anyone who enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine should definitely see it, as it fills the same function of being cheery but not meaningless. Both of the lead roles are very well performed and I now have much more admiration for Emily as an actress. My only criticism was that it could have been a bit longer as I would have liked to know a little more about what happened next in Rose’s love life.

Review: Empire Records

At this rate I’m going to run out of superlatives by the end of the week, because I’ve just discovered yet another favourite film. I can’t believe this film has existed for the last 12 years and no-one thought to make me watch it, when it is so clearly one of the best films of the 90s. I’m not sure anything can oust Clueless as my fave 90s comedy, but it’s definitely up with The Brady Bunch Movie.

I loved all of the characters in this film, especially Lucas, AJ, Eddie, Mark and Gina. Lucas was like Pacey from Dawson’s Creek with a little of Seth from The OC’s humour, so I wonder if either of those characters were inspired by him. AJ was adorably sweet and looked like Kavana did in the 90s, which was a good look (at the time!). Eddie and Mark reminded me extremely of some lovely friends of mine, and Eddie also made me want to watch White Oleander again because Patrick Fugit’s character looks just like him. Gina is played by Renée Zellweger, and while I’m ambivalent about Renée as an adult actress, as a teenage character (although she was actually 26 in 1995) she was exceedingly ace.

Not very much happens in this film – in fact, it’s all set within one day, but it’s the strength of characters and humour which make it brilliant. Personally I prefer films like this, because although a fast-moving, exciting film can be thoroughly enjoyable, I find that a film with great characters and a general good vibe will stick with me and be fun to watch again and again. If a film is just about the plot’s twists and turns, then once you’ve seen it once or twice it’s too predictable and holds no interest. A film like this will never run out, and I am off to buy my copy right away. If you haven’t seen it I suggest you do the same, or just search for it on YouTube because the whole movie is there!

Review: Paris, je t’aime

I have rarely been as excited about seeing a film as I was about this one, so it was a bit of a worry that I might be disappointed, but I’m very pleased to say with absolute certainty that there was not a thing disappointing about this brilliant film project. The idea is that a selection of the best film-makers in France and worldwide would make a short film each about Paris and love and the love of Paris. It is a treat for Francophiles and film buffs alike, as you can spot all the most wonderful Paris landmarks while keeping an eye out for your favourite film stars and directors.

Paris Je T’Aime is an independent/world cinema-lover’s dream. For me almost every section held some excitement, whether it was an actor from or director of one of my favourite films. Just to explain how exciting this was, let me list all the actors and directors I jumped for joy at the appearance of, and the reasons why: Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), Gus Van Sant (Elephant), Gaspard Ulliel (A Very Long Engagement), Elias McConnell (Elephant), Steve Buscemi (Ghost World), Juliette Binoche (Chocolat), Ludivine Sagnier (8 Femmes), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), Elijah Wood (Everything Is Illuminated), Emily Mortimer (Bright Young Things), Rufus Sewell (A Knight’s Tale), Alexander Payne (Election), Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and Natalie Portman (Garden State). Most of those films are in my top picks of all time, so if you are still reading this, can I ask why? If you’re not racing off to buy your cinema ticket or at least pre-order the DVD, this is really not the blog for you.

This film is really a summary of every reason that independent and world cinema is so many millions of times better than the commercial blockbusters. I can’t see why anyone would rather watch the latter when actors, actresses and film-makers like these ones exist. The film is mostly in French, even some of the sections with non-French directors and actors, giving it a properly French feel as opposed to packaging Frenchness for an outside audience. France is probably my favourite country for films (think Science of Sleep, L’auberge Espagnol, Amelie etc.) but it’s even better to have the special French touch mixed in with a variety of the most talented film-makers and actors in the whole world. It’s like a pick and mix of film brilliance, and I couldn’t have made it up better myself!

The unusual format of the film may prevent it from getting all the critical acclaim it deserves, but I hope everyone who even slightly enjoys foreign or independent films will see this, because it will open up a whole world of brilliant but often hidden talent that is so much more exciting than the endless series of remakes and sequels provided by the mainstream film outlets. As a taster, here are some of my favourite sections, which I have found on YouTube:

Faubourg Saint-Denis – beautiful and inspiring! Stars Natalie Portman, playing a similar character to Garden State.
Père-Lachaise – two lovely English actors show how British cinema could be just as great as French if we tried.
Tour Eiffel – I don’t normally like mime but this is hilarious and wonderful.

Bumper Film Review Post

I’ve seen quite a few films lately as it’s the summer and I’m not exactly bursting with busy-ness, but the holidays also have a tendency to make me immensely lazy so I haven’t gotten around to reviewing many of them. I will now rectify this by providing you with my thoughts ‘in briefs’ (and the films will indeed be marked out of briefs, because I couldn’t resist that highlarious pun) on some of the things I’ve seen in the past few weeks…

(NOTE: More briefs are good, not bad in the sense of the film being pants!)

A Good Year
I must admit it was the trailer that made me watch this, because it has Alizée’s gorgeous hit single Moi… Lolita as its soundtrack, and it also stars one of the loveliest actresses around, Marion Cotillard (Love Me If You Dare, Innocence etc.). A Good Year was not a terrible film but it was not a very exciting one either. It did improve towards the end but compared to actual French films (as opposed to this which is only set in France) it captured only the beauty of France and its people, not their spirit. And where was the hot young Frenchman that all French films absolutely have to have? Couldn’t they bring in Romain Duris or Gaspard Ulliel for a cameo, even Guillaume Canet would do!

Hairspray
Being a big fan of modern musicals, as I mentioned in my last post, it was no surprise I loved this film. It was interesting to see it just after Dreamgirls as it’s set at a similar time and covers some of the same issues (for example songs written by black artists being given to white ones) but from a different perspective, as the main characters are white. The music is great and the whole thing is very jolly in a High School Musical-ish way – if you enjoyed that you’ll definitely like Hairspray. My sister thought it was “too weird”, which we now know (since she disliked Dreamgirls) is a very positive sign!

Running With Scissors
I finally got to see the film version of the best book I’ve read this year, and luckily it didn’t live up to my cautiously low expectations. I didn’t expect it to be as good as the book but actually I think it captured Augusten’s unique perspective pretty well and did the book justice as much as possible. I even found myself not really hating Rachel Evan Wood, which was quite a shock, as you’ll agree if you read my review of Thirteen. I would definitely recommend this film, but I recommend the book even more.
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Review: Dreamgirls

My expectations for this film weren’t high as my sister had termed it “rubbish”, but it turns out her taste is even worse than I feared, because this film is excellent! It’s quite long, but needed to be if they were to include all the main songs from the original musical and still have a decent plot. Being a big fan of Motown music, I loved the songs and also enjoyed spotting all of the references to Motown stars such as Diana Ross and the Jackson 5. The characters and plot were good too, unlike many musicals where these aspects aren’t important, and I can understand now why the musical did so well.

I hated Jennifer Hudson on American Idol, finding her truly unlikeable as a person, but she somehow makes a very engaging character of Effie White and her vocals certainly outshine Beyoncé, although that may just be because we’re used to Beyoncé already – I’ve seen her sing live and you could not say her voice was anything but brilliant. The first half of the film is very much from Effie’s perspective but Deena (Beyoncé’s character) takes the lead both in the group and the film in the second half, which was the second act in the stage musical.

This has got me in the musical mood now and I’m off to add all the ones I haven’t seen to my online rental list. Any recommendations would be great. There haven’t been many musical films out in the 2000s that I haven’t loved (The Phantom of the Opera is the only one I can think of that I saw and disliked), so I’ve compiled a top 10 of my favourites:

1. Moulin Rouge
2. High School Musical
3. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
4. Dreamgirls
5. Get Over It
6. Camp
7. Happiness of the Katakuris
8. Save The Last Dance
9. Chicago
10. Bride & Prejudice

Narrowly missing the list were Honey and 8 Femmes, among others. Tomorrow I’m off to see Hairspray so I look forward to seeing how it will rank.

Jessica Goes Mainstream: A Daring Experiment

I was in the need for new films to watch, so I hit alluc and skimmed the pages for something worth seeing. Where was the foreign film section? Or the independent releases? There was nothing of the sort, but desperate times call for depserate measures, so I decided to take a brave sojourn into a realm I, perhaps snobbishly, haven’t frequented for many years now: films that actually played in the big cineplex in every local town, that got advertised on bus stops, that were reviewed in Heat magazine. I was going mainstream! And here are the results, with suitably unoriginal popcorns out of 5…

Stranger Than Fiction
This had the pull of lovely Brit Emma Thompson and quirky-mainstream Maggie Gyllenhaal, but the presence of Will Ferrell didn’t put me at ease – Anchorman has to be one of the most over-rated cult hits, although it’s not quite as horrendous as Napoleon Dynamite. I liked the tone of Stranger Than Fiction, and the idea of the plot was good, although they didn’t even attempt to explain how Emma Thompson’s character’s character had come to life. We were meant to just accept that it had happened, as was she, clearly, as her disturbance about this event only seemed to last a few minutes of exclaiming “your nose! your jumper!” etc. There was also a bit of a leap of faith with the idea that Maggie’s character would fall for Harold Crick. I did enjoy the film, though, and recommend it as long as you don’t want to dissect it too deeply!

Zodiac
The other Gyllenhaal takes the lead role in this extremely lengthy crime drama, and it’s probably his most mature role yet – I remember him as the cute teenager in The Day After Tomorrow, and here he is with children of his own. I can’t say I’ve watched many crime films before, so I enjoyed this as a new experience, even if a friend had already told me the ending (and it is a true story so I guess quite a lot of viewers would know it already). There were a few disgusting moments, as the crime being investigated was a serial killer, but the plot remained interesting (complicated but still easy enough to understand) and only on a few occasions did I find myself drifting off.

Failure To Launch
I was intrigued by this because I’ve wanted to see the original French version for a while and haven’t yet had chance, so I suppose this is second best. I was dubious at the beginning but I did get into it more as I went along. It’s a very simple romantic comedy in a strange situation – think Along Came Polly, Two Weeks Notice, or most similar of all, How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days, which also starred Matthew McConaughey and a blonde lady trying to trick him and trying not to fall in love with him. I won’t tell you whether Sarah Jessica Parker succeeds in either of those tasks, but you can probably guess most of the film without seeing it. Still, the predictability is quite comforting and while this film didn’t make my brain whir even once, this was quite a good thing after a week of exams.

I have to say this ‘going mainstream’ has been quite enjoyable overall, although this may be because I skipped past so many films I couldn’t even bear to attempt to watch before settling on these slightly more appealing options. It was fun, though, and I’ll probably do it again some time soon.

Review: Volver

This was only the second Almodovar film I’ve seen, but already I understand the great appreciation he receives as a director. This is a clever and unusual film, but still accessible and easy to understand. The plot was dramatic and surprising, and typically Almodovar is its combination of shocking circumstances with ordinary domestic life. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, because its charm is how it reveals itself, but let’s just say there’s a lot of death and incest! Yet as shocking as that sounds, the film isn’t about shocking its viewer, but instead endearing us to the wonderful characters.

The five female characters who lead the film are not perfect but all very likeable. They span three generations – Raimunda (played by Penelopé Cruz), her sister Soledad and their friend Agustina, plus Raimunda’s daughter, Paula, and Raimunda and Soledad’s mother, Irene. These women are strong and funny and inspiring throughout. The only men in the film are peripheral characters, and none of the women end the film being swept off their feet by some handsome bloke. This is really a film about the power of strong women when they work together, not against each other as they often do in films.

Volver is just as impressive visually as its dialogue and plot. The style is simple but so colourful, which gives it a vibrancy to match its characters personalities. Penelopé Cruz looks amazing in every scene, which does make it rather hard to believe that her character is just a poor working woman, but her acting seems good so she deserves the part. This film has a real feel-good charm, and it’s the kind that even people who wouldn’t normally watch arty or foreign films would still enjoy, as its dramatic storyline and engaging characters transcend language barriers.

Review: The Science Of Sleep

I’ve been waiting to see this since I posted the trailer in September last year, so I was very excited to finally get the chance this evening at our wonderful local independent cinema. While one of my trusted friends had said it was “just OK” and I wasn’t the hugest fan of Eternal Sunshine (this has the same director, Michel Gondry), after seeing the trailer I refused to believe that this wouldn’t be a brilliant film, and my intuition was correct. It was superbly sweet and often hilarious, in the best way – kind of silly yet never too surreal or stupid.

I was expecting to love Gael Garcia Bernal’s character, Stéphane, but it’s Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of Serge) who is the new subject of my admiration – she’s so quirky and ace! Why are people like Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz mega-stars when there are women like Charlotte available to be in movies? Of course she would never do Charlie’s Angels or Tomb Raider, so perhaps her integrity is the better for it.

Visually this film is an absolute treat, and the dialogue is also fantastic. It moves between French and English, although Stéphane can speak neither well (leading to some very amusing moments), and is full of hilarious jokes which would seem like nonsense if you tried to retell them – “you just had to be there!”, you’ll say. Not everyone would love this film, as it is really super-sweet and twee at times, but it’s never over-sentimental and I would definitely say it’s one of the best romantic comedies I’ve ever seen, not that it’s at all typical of that genre.

I recommend The Science of Sleep very highly, and I plan to get hold of the DVD as soon as I can (apparently it’s been out ages in France, but if I buy from there all the English bits will be subtitled and not the French) in order to make it my new Test DVD i.e. the one I play to all potential new pals to find out if they are worthy of being my friend. If they like it, they are worthy, but if they don’t I’ll have to put them on probation until they change their minds!

Review: Thirteen

Having enjoyed Show Me Love and My Summer of Love, the next logical step was a viewing of probably the best known of these films about rebellious teenage girls, Thirteen, and luckily it’s all on YouTube! As with the other two films I mentioned, Thirteen is mainly about two teenage girls who become friends despite one being far more cool and popular than the other, and although in this case there is no romantic love between them (although of course there is a bit of girl-snogging, just to get the punters in), they have a kind of obsessive friendship, both getting something from the other that is lacking in their own lives.

In Thirteen, Evie (played by Nikki Reed – Sadie in The OC!) is the experienced, sassy, popular girl while Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) is the tomboy who in fact is equally fierce and manipulates her way into the cool gang, dropping her nice normal pals (including Vanessa Hudgens, who is even more adorable than in High School Musical!) in an instant to join in with Evie’s life of thievery, drugs and sex. There are so many films where teenagers get into these sorts of situations, but thirteen really is very young and the girls do look like children rather than young women – it is inescapable that they are children and that is pretty scary. Two years older and we’d think little of it, just another rebellious teen movie, but their skinny arms and cuddly toy-filled bedrooms make their antics quite disturbing.

The girls’ acting is very impressive for their age (either that or Evan Rachel Wood is genuinely very very annoying) and the film does have a great realism to it, but neither of the two main characters are at all likeable, in great contrast to My Summer of Love, which has the supremely endearing Mona, and Show Me Love where both the main girls are pretty ace (although I may be biased cos they like Robyn). However, it is a very interesting and thought-provoking film, certainly more of a social statement than the other two, which seem to function more as works of art, but all three strike a chord with me, being a teenage girl myself, and I think they will with many others. It just seems that Thirteen is a film about girls, and not really for us, while the others both really mean something to me and personally I would recommend them first to anyone, teenage girl or otherwise.