It is a moving drama about Kylie (Seth Rogan) trying to help his friend Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) through his struggle with cancer.
Having said that, it is hilarious at points and there are funny moments throughout. But to call it a comedy is to imply a levity unfitting of the subject matter.
Screenwriter Will Reiser based it on his own experiences after being encouraged to write it by Rogan, the friend who helped him battle with cancer in his early 20s.
It’s masterfully done, handling itself with grace and humour.
Michael (Jason Patrick) moves with his mother (Dianne Wiest) and brother (Corey Haim) to a small coastal town in California which is plagued by biker gangs and mysterious deaths.
Kiefer Sutherland is mesmerising as David, leader of the gang, Edward Herrmann’s on top form, as usual, and what 80s film would be complete without Corey Feldman? Directed by Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever, Phone Booth), what’s not to love?
This film is huge amounts of fun, with a bit of gore, romance and horror thrown in for good measure.
Kat (Julia Stiles) Is a strong-minded teenager who refuses to conform to societal norms. When her father decrees that her younger sister cannot date unless she does, Kat is thrown back in to the dating world.
Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Allison Janney and Larisa Oleynik all co-star in screenwriting team Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah’s (Legally Blonde, She’s The Man) excellent film.
Despite being based on an arguably misogynist text about “taming” women, this adaptation is upbeat, empowering and down right hilarious. WATCH IT NOW!
Zia (Patrick Fugit) slits his wrists and wakes up in a grey and dreary world for people who commit suicide. When he discovers his ex-girlfriend has also killed herself, he knows he needs to find her.
Adapted from a novella by Israeli writer Etgar Keret by Croatian writer/director Goran Dukic, it definitely has a more multicultural feel than your average American indie.
Tom Waits, John Hawks, Will Arnett, Shannyn Sossamon, Leslie Bibb and Shea Whigham make up the marvellous supporting cast for this remarkable feature.
On the same day that Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) is fired from her job, she misses the tube by a split second. Her life splits into what could have happened had she caught the train, and what happened because she didn’t.
This is not a comedy. There are funny moments, but ultimately it’s a moving exploration of one woman’s life, and how she is affected by those around her. It’s a philosophical debate marketed as a romance, and it does both.
Starring Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, with cameos from Noel Coward, Tony Curtis and Marlene Dietrich, it plays like a romantic farce.
Gabrielle Simpson (Hepburn) is a typist sent to the hotel room of acclaimed screenwriter Richard Benson (Holden) to type up the pages of his latest masterpiece. The problem is that he hasn’t started writing it yet and only has three days to get it written and delivered to the producer.
George Axelrod (Breakfast At Tiffany’s, The Seven Year Itch, The Manchurian Candidate) penned the screenplay and it was directed by Richard Quine (Sex And The Single Girl, How To Murder Your Wife).
The key to understanding the genius of this film, comes with understanding the changes Hollywood was going through at the time. So here is a brief history of the Classical Hollywood era.
When Hollywood started making films, the rating system that we are all familiar with did not exist. There was censorship or sense of filtering audiences by a film’s content. By the end of the 1920s, Hollywood was getting a reputation as a hotbed of sin and debauchery. Extra-marital affairs were rife and well recorded in the national and international press and there were even a couple of high profile rapes and murders.
In an attempt to restore the at least the appearance of a moral code, the studios hired Presbyterian Elder William Hays who, in 1930, brought out the Motion Picture Production Code (MPPC also known as the Hays Code). The MPPC laid out a series of rule that filmmakers had to abide by, including banning the “use of profanity”, “ridicule of the clergy” and “sex relationships between white and black races”, and cautioning “special care” around “sympathy for criminals”, “men and women in bed together” and “the institution of marriage”. These rules applied to all American filmmaking until 1968 when the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system was put in place, however from the 1950s onwards American filmmakers pushed back against these restrictions.
By the end of 1950s a new style of filmmaking was coming out of Europe, christened French New Wave. Directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Agnes Varda took a free-form approach to filmmaking, seeing it as a form of artistic expression rather than commercial storytelling. This flew very much in the face of Hollywood’s ethos, which was (and still is) very much the movie “Business”.
This is the period of change that Axelrod was writing in, and that he tapped into when writing this clever little film. His characters write a screenplay that not only jumps from genre to genre but pushes and pulls at the MPPC as well as poking fun at French New Wave.
In a scene within the fictitious film that takes place in the bedroom, Benson comments on the risqué nature of the scene. Miss Simpson responds “You might take that view, but I believe they are playing Parcheesi”, gently prodding the MPPC’s allowances of insinuation. Also within the film within a film, Gaby gets caught up with a French New Wave actor (played by Tony Curtis) who’s involved in a fictitious film about Bastille Day called No Dancing In The Streets because “in this version it, like, rains”.
So watch this film, but when you do, look beyond the farcical romantic comedy and try to see the brilliantly executed satire that lies beneath.
Donna (Jenny Slate) is a stand-up comedian coping with a nasty break up when she meets Max (Jack Lacy) and has a one night stand that changes her life and forces her to confront adult life.
Written and directed by Gillian Robespierre, based on her short of the same name, there is a distinct voice running throughout that, while it may not be to everyone’s taste, I cannot wait to hear more from.
Jude (Jim Sturgess) moves from Liverpool to America where he meets and falls in love with Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). Set in the 1960s, the socio-political climate of the time makes for a dramatic background to this moving love story.
Director Julie Taymour (Frida, Titus) truly transports her audience. The film’s littered with references to the period, particularly within the music industry, but even if you only pick up the odd one it still makes for mesmerising viewing.
Nina (Juliet Stevenson) and Jamie (Alan Rickman) are in love, completely and utterly. When Jamie dies, Nina expects to be haunted by him, but perhaps not literally.
Written and directed by Oscar winning Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, The Talented Mr Ripley), this is one of those films that will stick with you. Minghella wrote the film specifically for Stevenson and there is no doubt without her and Rickman’s tremendous performances there would not be a film.
it is so refreshing to watch a film starring a transgender woman who is treated like a human, and not one who is mentally ill or comic relief.
When I first sat down to watch this I was expecting a soppy romance that I could have on in the background while I sorted through my emails; something with a couple of laughs, a misunderstanding, a “but they’re meant for each other” moment and most likely a chase sequence ending in a romantic embrace. In a way I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t expecting to be genuinely moved.
Boy Meets Girlfocuses around Ricky (Michelle Handley) who lives with her father and little brother Sam (Joseph Ricci). Best friends with Robbie (Michael Welch), the film opens with her working in a coffee shop, moaning to him about the lack of romantic interest in her life. But, as with all good Rom-Coms, that is all about to change.
The film, while focused on the present, dips in and out of the past with a YouTube video that Ricky made as a youngster, explaining and expanding an already complex and complete character.
Written and directed by Eric Schaeffer, it’s a well put together film with a cast that really holds its own. While it does play in to some of those Romantic Comedy cliches and has the feel of an independent, it embraces itself for what it is and encourages its audience to do the same.
I have asked myself whether if this was a heteronormative storyline whether I would have enjoyed it so much. Honestly I don’t think I would have. Much of its charm lies in the fact that it is tackling issues that are usually found in serious dramas or late night TV documentaries where they are handled with far less care. Far too often the end result is either that of freaks or clowns. This films brings transgender out of the circus and into the real world where it belongs.
Ricky is a strong confident woman, who knows who she is, who she wants to be and what she has to do to get from one to the other. She has a sharp tongue and a determination to match. She is flawed only in that she is human; no more so than the next person. While her gender and sexuality (two very different things) play central roles in the film, neither is something she is blamed for. She is never portrayed as indecisive, attention seeking, mentally ill or as someone to make fun of.
In an ideal world this would not be worthy of note, but I can honestly say this is the first film I have seen that manages this. Even TransAmerica (2005) found humour in Bree (Felicity Huffman). The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert(1994) came close with Terence Stamp as Bernadette, but that’s about it. Here’s hoping it will not be the last.
cinemescope 