Directionless // Short Film from James Button on Vimeo.
Short – Directionless
Tag: Drama
Short – On Loop
On Loop from christine hooper on Vimeo.
100 Word Review – The Way Way Back (2013)
Written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (Community), I was always going to love this film.
Duncan (Liam James) is an awkward teenager on holiday with his mother (Toni Colette), over bearing step-father (Steve Carrell) and step-sister. Befriended by Owen (Sam Rockwell), an employee at a local water park, Duncan finds himself immersed in the easy-going world of Water Wizz.
Co-starring Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet, this is a wonderful feel good film about the joys of summer and finding the courage to choose your own path. It even has an excellent summer soundtrack.
100 Word Review – Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Susanna (Winona Ryder) is committed by her parents after combining pills and vodka in what they see as an attempted suicide. In Cleymore mental hospital she meets the other patients, including the rabble rousing sociopath Lisa (Angelina Jolie)
Adapted from Susanna Kaysen’s autobiographical account of her 18 month stay in a mental hospital in 1960s by the writers of Gorillas In The Mist and Walk The Line.
The fantastic cast includes Whoopi Goldberg, Vanessa Redgrave, Elisabeth Moss, Brittany Murphy, Clea DuVall and Jared Leto; and that\s not even mentioning Jolie’s Oscar winning performance. This film is dark, magnificent and truly unforgettable.
100 Word Review – Amélie (2001)
Romantic and whimsical in a quintessentially French fashion.
Amélie (Audrey Tautou) lives alone in Paris, working at a local cafe. The death of Princess Diana prompts her to find a hidden treasure in her flat. She starts doing good deeds and standing up for the less fortunate when she meets Nino (Matthieu Kassovitz).
Co-written and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement, The City of Lost Children), it is stylishly shot with a truly lovely soundtrack. Quirky, beautiful and funny, it was nominated for five Oscars, including Art Direction and Cinematography, and is currently number 75 on IMDb’s Top 250 films.
100 Word Review – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Based on the psychedelic ramblings of Hunter S. Thompson, this was never destined to be a comfortable film to watch.
Journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his psychotic “attorney” Dr Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) drive to Las Vegas to cover a car race. With a boot full of drugs, what could go wrong.
Having seen this film several times, I’m still not certain how it ends.
Directed by the king of weird, Terry Gilliam (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys) this film falls somewhere between a nightmare and a psychotic break. It is also remarkable and incredibly clever.
100 Word Review – Insomnia (2002)
Psychological crime thrillers don’t come much better than this.
Homocide detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) is sent with his partner (Martin Donovan) to investigate a murder in a small town in Alaska. Trapped in the perpetual daylight of an Alaskan summer and growing tensions, insomnia sets in…
Co-starring Hilary Swank and Robbin Williams and directed by the one and only Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception, Interstellar), this film is tense beyond belief. It’s exhausting in the best possible way, placing you squarely in Will Dormer’s shoes.
Pacino and Williams are mesmerising, Swank’s sublime and Nolan’s clearly doing what he does best.
100 Word Review – Benny & Joon (1993)
This might be my favourite Johnny Depp film.
Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson) is mentally unwell. Her father Benny (Aiden Quinn) struggles to protect her the way he feels he should. Then they meet Sam (Johnny Depp), an awkward man with an obsession for silent stars like Buster Keaton.
Masterson is wonderful as the emotionally delicate Joon who is fighting for whatever independence she can get.
This film is perfect. It takes a sensitive and dark subject matter and normalises it, adding in the quirks we would expect from any Rom Com. Look out for co-stars Oliver Platt and Julianne Moore.
100 Word Review – Bad Words (2013)
Who said spelling bees are just for children?
Guy (Jason Bateman), a somewhat obsessive adult, finds a loop hole allowing him to enter a spelling bee. Followed by reporter Jenny (Kathryn Hahn), his is determined to win by whatever means necessary.
The first screenplay by Andrew Dodge and directorial feature debut for Bateman, costars include the likes of Allison Janney and Philip Baker Hall. More sincere than the screwball comedy you might expect; while it manages to remain more grounded, Dodge and Bateman still play off the shock-value for laughs.
Rude, funny and relatable, it’s more intelligent than its cover.
100 Word Review – Dear White People (2014)
This should be compulsory viewing.
Set in an Ivy League college in the States, it follows four black students in the run up to an event described in the press as a “race riot”.
Debut feature from writer and director Justin Simien, it tackles racism in modern society as an insidious entity, and the effect of coping with discrimination as the underdog.
Stylishly put together, with a superb cast (Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Kyle Gallner, Tayonah Parris, Brandon P Bell); it’s entertaining, but terrifying when partnered with the knowledge that there are more than kernels of truth in it.
cinemescope 