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XXXI: Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, 2008)
Sproutboy and her from
Sproutboy and her from
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<lj-cut text="XXXI: Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, 2008)"><B>XXXI: <I>Revolutionary Road</I> (Sam Mendes, 2008)</B>
Sproutboy and her from <I><Heavenly Creatures</I> reunited for the first time since the one with a boat. Based on one of those classic American novels that I'd never heard of, this is the story of a death of a marriage between alleged longshoreman Frank and wannabe April. They build the perfect life in the sticks, and her acting is held back by his (probably justified) criticism and her first two babies. In 1955 they hatch a plan to emigrate to Paris so he can find his dream and she can become a secretary, but unexpected work success for him and biology for her get in the way.
It's a peculiarly almost referenced film - it isn't quite <I>Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?</I>, and April is the cruellest month, and Sproutboy isn't Brando from <I>On the Waterfront</I>, and <I>The Petrified Forest</I> - the unidentified play at the start of the film, and performed on tv in 1955 - features a character who dreams of going to France. Meanwhile the stand out performance - in a film full of juicy cameos and at least one lead stretched to snapping point - is Michael Shannon as John Givings, a mathematician who has had a nervous breakdown and can see the truth before anyone else: "Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness" and "You want to play house you got to have a job. You want to play nice house, very sweet house, you got to have a job you don't like."
Very worthy.
</lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="XXXII: Franklyn (Gerald McMorrow, 2008)"><B>XXXII: <I>Franklyn</I> (Gerald McMorrow, 2008)</B>
I really wanted to like this, but alas... Partly it is set in the religion-dominated city of Meanwhile, where Jonathan Preest (Ryan Phillipe, looking decidedly gone to seed) is the only man not signed up for a belief system. When a young girl he has as a client, he swears vengeance on the One who caused her death. Meanwhile in the north Milo (Sam Riley, down from <I>Control</I>) is jilted at the rehearsal wedding and heads back to London to be all emo. And Emilia (Eva Green, who gets top billing I guess due to a BAFTA for a Bond movie) has read too much Sylvia Plath and is staging multiple suicide attempts as an art project, although she still works on Pal VHS. And Peter (Bernard Hill) is looking for his lost son David.
It has to be said that not of the characters have too much of a grip on reality, and until late on it's not exactly clear they are even in the same movie. Emilia needs to be slapped with a very wet fish, Milo ought to chill out and go fishing, and Jonathan needs to cut out the fish suppers. The imaginary city is beautiful and ought to have more of the courage of its convictions - it makes New Crobuzon look feasible. But the fight are some of the worst I've seen in a very long time (<I>Doctor Who</I> and <I>Star Trek</I> bad. In the end, when everything comes together, there is just the whiff of red herrings, and a sense of so what? A wasted opportunity - the film is far less than the sum of its parts.</lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="XXXIII: Alternative 3 (Christopher Miles, 1977)"><B> XXXIII: <I>Alternative 3</I> (Christopher Miles, 1977) </B>
Appropriate viewing for the day before April Fool's Day, although this was actually broadcast in June 1977, not April 1. Staged as a <I>Panorama</I>-style science documentary, it investigates the brain drain, and asks why so many scientists have disappeared or died, and wonders where they have gone. Of course the answer is implausible (by a decade) but it is ahead of its time in dealing with global warming.
Some people actual believe it is a documentary, and that this is the reason that it never got a repeat nor a US showing. Of course, these days no one would believe ITV would do a serious documentary in this format - they'd start with the tabloid not keep the audience in suspense.
</lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="XXXIV: Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973)"><B>XXXIV: Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973)</B>
Thematic precursor to <I>Jurassic Park</I> in which two friends visit the themepark divided into Rome, Medieval England and the Wild West as the robots start malfunctioning. Big bad Yul Brunner goes after them with a gun, and they must flee for their lives. A story about the fear of technology made using technology - there is realism (mostly numbers talk) strapped on, but mostly the situation bends to fit the plot so people can go in and out of danger.
</lj-cut>
<B>Totals: 34 - Cinema: 10; DVD: 22; Television: 2</B>
131 Projected for the Year
Sproutboy and her from <I><Heavenly Creatures</I> reunited for the first time since the one with a boat. Based on one of those classic American novels that I'd never heard of, this is the story of a death of a marriage between alleged longshoreman Frank and wannabe April. They build the perfect life in the sticks, and her acting is held back by his (probably justified) criticism and her first two babies. In 1955 they hatch a plan to emigrate to Paris so he can find his dream and she can become a secretary, but unexpected work success for him and biology for her get in the way.
It's a peculiarly almost referenced film - it isn't quite <I>Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?</I>, and April is the cruellest month, and Sproutboy isn't Brando from <I>On the Waterfront</I>, and <I>The Petrified Forest</I> - the unidentified play at the start of the film, and performed on tv in 1955 - features a character who dreams of going to France. Meanwhile the stand out performance - in a film full of juicy cameos and at least one lead stretched to snapping point - is Michael Shannon as John Givings, a mathematician who has had a nervous breakdown and can see the truth before anyone else: "Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness" and "You want to play house you got to have a job. You want to play nice house, very sweet house, you got to have a job you don't like."
Very worthy.
</lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="XXXII: Franklyn (Gerald McMorrow, 2008)"><B>XXXII: <I>Franklyn</I> (Gerald McMorrow, 2008)</B>
I really wanted to like this, but alas... Partly it is set in the religion-dominated city of Meanwhile, where Jonathan Preest (Ryan Phillipe, looking decidedly gone to seed) is the only man not signed up for a belief system. When a young girl he has as a client, he swears vengeance on the One who caused her death. Meanwhile in the north Milo (Sam Riley, down from <I>Control</I>) is jilted at the rehearsal wedding and heads back to London to be all emo. And Emilia (Eva Green, who gets top billing I guess due to a BAFTA for a Bond movie) has read too much Sylvia Plath and is staging multiple suicide attempts as an art project, although she still works on Pal VHS. And Peter (Bernard Hill) is looking for his lost son David.
It has to be said that not of the characters have too much of a grip on reality, and until late on it's not exactly clear they are even in the same movie. Emilia needs to be slapped with a very wet fish, Milo ought to chill out and go fishing, and Jonathan needs to cut out the fish suppers. The imaginary city is beautiful and ought to have more of the courage of its convictions - it makes New Crobuzon look feasible. But the fight are some of the worst I've seen in a very long time (<I>Doctor Who</I> and <I>Star Trek</I> bad. In the end, when everything comes together, there is just the whiff of red herrings, and a sense of so what? A wasted opportunity - the film is far less than the sum of its parts.</lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="XXXIII: Alternative 3 (Christopher Miles, 1977)"><B> XXXIII: <I>Alternative 3</I> (Christopher Miles, 1977) </B>
Appropriate viewing for the day before April Fool's Day, although this was actually broadcast in June 1977, not April 1. Staged as a <I>Panorama</I>-style science documentary, it investigates the brain drain, and asks why so many scientists have disappeared or died, and wonders where they have gone. Of course the answer is implausible (by a decade) but it is ahead of its time in dealing with global warming.
Some people actual believe it is a documentary, and that this is the reason that it never got a repeat nor a US showing. Of course, these days no one would believe ITV would do a serious documentary in this format - they'd start with the tabloid not keep the audience in suspense.
</lj-cut>
<lj-cut text="XXXIV: Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973)"><B>XXXIV: Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973)</B>
Thematic precursor to <I>Jurassic Park</I> in which two friends visit the themepark divided into Rome, Medieval England and the Wild West as the robots start malfunctioning. Big bad Yul Brunner goes after them with a gun, and they must flee for their lives. A story about the fear of technology made using technology - there is realism (mostly numbers talk) strapped on, but mostly the situation bends to fit the plot so people can go in and out of danger.
</lj-cut>
<B>Totals: 34 - Cinema: 10; DVD: 22; Television: 2</B>
131 Projected for the Year
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