Boy Review

10/10
Pros: An emotional, but uplifting film that’s well made and well directed.
Cons: If only it could have lasted longer…


Boy is a short-film funded by the British Airways Great Briton’s programme ahead of this year’s London 2012 Olympic games. It follows the tragic tale of carpenter (played by Timothy Spall) and his dealing with the exceptional grief of the loss of his son, whose talent for cycling showed promise and hope for the forthcoming games.

Spall’s job is maintaining the Velodrome track at London’s Olympic Park, which understandably provides many sad memories for the heartbroken father, as he struggles to come to terms with his son’s death.

Although an unusual storyline and tone for a short film set to celebrate the Olympics and its build-up, Boy is heartfelt, showcasing the dedication, devotion and spirit that go into the international and colossal ceremony. Spall as the grief-stricken father is excellent, convincingly playing a role involving heartache, triumph and closure.

Written by up and coming screenwriter Prasanna Puwanarajah - whose screenplay was selected by a panel of judges which included Richard E. Grant –, the nine-minute, word-free film is set to captivate internationally with its tear-inducing and heartfelt qualities as it’s screened on all British Airways long-haul flights until September.

A sad note to welcome the Olympics on, yes, but Boy is a beautiful tale, demonstrating the impact of sincere and dedicated acting, proving that words are often unnecessary accessories in dramatic filmmaking. Just remember to pack a tissue in your hand luggage.

Directed by: Justin Chadwick
Produced by: Barnaby Spurrier

With huge thanks to all at Cake Group for providing images and videos.

By Jennifer Tate
Twitter: @JennieTate

Titanic 3D Review

7/10
Pros: A boat trip down memory lane. But with turbo engines.
Cons: If it didn’t float your boat (sorry) first time around, there’s nothing new here for you.

Colossal. Herculean. Gargantuan. If you look up titanic in a thesaurus, you’ll discover larger-than-life adjectives. And that’s just what Titanic is: a monumental beast of a film. Could there be a better candidate for the 3D treatment?

But Cameron’s tackling a conversion job (because the film was shot in 2D). And we’ve seen it all before. The boat sinks. No danger of spoilers, then. So, the question is, could the $18 million dollar budget have been better spent on pioneering new scripts?

Probably. But this is the grande dame of cinema, and there’s a case for justifying her encore. The hailstones of ice and cascading water flourish with the effects. But the most heartfelt difference 3D makes is to the overall depth and scale.

The story does the same heart-wrenching job as before. Watching legendary scenes, like Leo sketching Kate in the nude, are reminiscently titillating. Rose tosses Jack a coin, and says that as a paying customer she expects to get what she wants. As paying customers ourselves, we too are expecting. And what we want is served up plentifully.

This re-release isn’t a lifejacket for the 3D industry, but a reminder that our relationship with cinema is founded on emotion, and not effects.

The older Rose is looking back nostalgically. And, as viewers of this 1997 stalwart, so are we. The audiences will come flooding back with as much gusto as the spanking new 3D torrents of water. In our world, Cal Hockley was right, ‘God himself could not sink this ship’.

Released: 6th April 2012

By Natasha Lunn
Twitter @natashalunn

Boy: A preview at Soho Hotel

This morning, at London’s Soho Hotel, actor and director Richard E. Grant unveiled the highly anticipated Boy, a nine-minute short written by up and coming British screenwriter Prasanna Puwanarajah.

London-born Prasanna was selected by hundreds of entries to be mentored by Grant on the production of this film, as part of the Great Briton’s programme, and the result is phenomenal with every vital second tugging at the heartstrings.

The Olympic-inspired story is a heartbreaking tale following a carpenter (played by Timothy Spall), who maintains the Velodrome track at London’s Olympic Park and who’s dealing with the loss of his son, a professional-cyclist, who had many Olympic hopes.

The film is set to be seen by as many as six million customers over the next coming months as it will be shown on all long-haul British Airways flights from April until September.

Although an unusual storyline and tone for a short film set to celebrate the Olympics and its build-up, Boy is heartfelt, showcasing the dedication, devotion and spirit that go into the international and colossal ceremony. Spall as the grief-stricken father is excellent, convincingly playing a role involving heartache, triumph and closure.

Grant, Spall and Puwanarajah as well as director Justin Chadwick attended the screening this morning and as the lights came up, there wasn’t a dry eye in sight: Timothy’s wife Shane Spall advocated to the British Airways representative that they ought to hand out complimentary tissues on their flights due to the film’s tear-inducing qualities.

“The story itself is so beautiful” Spall said, “It was the first time I’ve watched it and it’s not nice seeing your face ten-feet tall but I was bawling my eyes out.” Due to his busy schedule, Spall took some convincing to star in the film, but the crew – eager to feature the revered actor - eventually persuaded him, agreeing to work and film around his hectic schedule. At the end of the film, Spall said how grateful and glad he was that he eventually took part in the inspiring project. “It’s amazing to have this inspiring film made in the middle of an economic shit-fight”, he added.

Richard E. Grant, who was on the judging panel, talked about the selection process and his attraction to Prasanna’s script: “I knew from the moment of reading it that it was the right one. It was far and away ahead of everyone else’s. A lot of the other scripts were about grandmother’s and 16-year-olds in council estates – they were too grim, but Boy, although it dealt with heartache and loss, went through all of the judges like an electric current.”

Prasanna, 31, is relatively new to the screenwriting process. As an Oxford medicine graduate, he gave up his career to pursue his dreams in screenwriting and acting. He has appeared in many theatre productions including Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Hamlet and is also being currently recognised for his playright ‘Nightwatchman’, which is currently showing at the National Theatre, London. On the incredible opportunity bestowed upon him, Prasanna – who wrote approximately ten drafts for the word-free short – explained: “Richard never let me dilute the original intention. It was such an incredible and unusual experience and opportunity”.

In the run up London’s 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, British Airways will also be launching an exclusive pop-up venue: Flight BA2012. It will feature a three-in-one art gallery, as well as a dining lounge and cinema – which will showcase Boy – along with other works of the BA Great Britons – on selected dates. To find out more visit: www.facebook.com/britishairways.

The trailer for Boy:




By Jennifer Tate
Twitter: @JennieTate

The Dangers of the New Girl: A Warning to High-School Cliques

Whit Stillman’s recent release of Damsels in Distress got me thinking about the new girl. You know the one: the new addition to the local high-school who looks sickly sweet and innocent upon her entrance but by the end of the film usually has her cemented co-stars in a tailspin (apt expression courtesy of Damsel in Distress’s Greta Gerwig).

The new girl to this day remains a classic and popular character of choice for filmmakers of Hollywood teen movies. In Damsels in Distress, it comes in the form of Lily (played by Analeigh Tipton), whose independence and lack of vocal fear rocks the boat of her new friendship clique, led by the narcissistic and elitist Violet (Greta Gerwig) and her devoted minions, Rose and Heather.

One of my favourite trouble-causing, cinematic new girls (although, she wasn’t actually new to the school, but to the clique) is Winona Ryder as the sassy and self-possessed Veronica Sawyer embedded in a trio of popular, but backstabbing girls in 1988’s cult-classic, Heathers. Ryder’s self-assured wit and reluctance to believe the school hype of the clique she has just joined placed next to her manufactured and nasty female peers is refreshing and alarmingly funny to watch, producing cult one-liners that remain implanted into my favourite film vocabulary lists of all time.


Ryder’s disapproval with the three Heather’s malicious acts of course, drastically shapes the filmic direction and results in radical new-girl consequences, being the murder of her ‘frenemies’ with the help from her rebel boyfriend Christian Slater, which they mask as suicides. Heathers is the model example of the extensive lengths that the new girl will go to and the dangerous effects of her burgeoning popularity.

Although Damsels in Distress’s new girl doesn’t even touch Ryder’s antics in Heathers, it offers us a glimpse of the still existing attractiveness of the new girl character, and why she is such an essential ingredient to many of teen movies’ success stories.

So why do find ourselves attracted to the new girl? Maybe it’s the well-used use of her non-conventional attractiveness which is a welcome change to the excessively groomed blondes that she joins (think: a pre-plastic Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls) or maybe its the refreshing lack of self-awareness and confidence next to her confident sassy peers that makes us sit up (think: Brittany Murphy in Clueless).

Another revealing example of the new girl and her perilous effects is Robin Tunney as the San Franciscan Sarah in teen-witchy cult film, The Craft. Looking like the walking example of a Californian, innocent girl-next-door, Sarah arrives in a Los Angeles Catholic school and is sharply snapped up by a trio of self-styled outsiders (Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk and Rachel True), who have been eagerly awaiting a suitable fourth corner to join their supernatural coven.

But as Sarah joins the paranormal clique and the strength of their witchcraft summits, all naturally goes unwell. People are hurt. Friendships are tested. And it all comes back to Sarah, who having recognised the consequences of their revengeful spells, threatens to leave the circle when it’s at its strongest – a threat that doesn’t sit well with the original members, sending the plot into an irreversible turmoil.

The new girl is always an interesting character in teen movies. She’s the cause of laughter, excitement, jealousy, backstabbing and general problematic chaos. She might let you date her attractive older brother (Bring It On) but she might also steal your boyfriend (Mean Girls). Future cliques of teen movies: think twice before inviting the new girl into your circle. She might just land you in a tailspin.

By Jennifer Tate
Twitter: @JennieTate

Damsels in Distress is released in UK cinemas on April 27th 2012.

Damsels in Distress Review

8/10
Pros: An offbeat comedy that’s a welcome return for Whit Stillman.
Cons: If this isn’t your style of film, you might have some trouble warming to it.

Ending his thirteen-year directorial silence, Whit Stillman returns to filmmaking with Damsels in Distress, his first self-written and self-directed feature film since his cult classic, The Last Days of Disco.

This offbeat comedy follows Greta Gerwig as Violet, the dynamic leader and head supervisor of an East Coast College's teenage suicide prevention centre and her two devoted minions: the ditzy Heather (Carrie Maclemore) and the self-assured Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke).

The pastel-coloured trio dedicate themselves to the rescuing of their fellow pupils from the depression, grunge and general low-standards that they believe inflict their school by offering guidance and general support to their fellow pupils and dishing out complimentary scented soaps to the smelly culprits of the girls’ daily ‘nasal shocks’.

When new girl Lily (played by Analeigh Tipton) arrives on campus, spotting her a mile off, Violet takes her under her wing and into her clique, introducing her into their ‘urban haute bourgeoisie’ lifestyle - which Stillman has a knack for exposing, first demonstrated in his 1990 film, Metropolitan - that evolves around helping their community for the greater good and general teenage elitist problems involving potential suitors and self-identity.

The film is comical to watch, with most of the witty one-liners falling out of the mouth of Violet, who believes and justifies her decisions of handing out complimentary doughnuts to at-risk and depressive students and encouraging their tap-dancing as suitable therapies to promote their wellbeing.

From first glance, Damsels in Distress looks like your average run-of-the-mill high-school rom-com, but trust that it’s not. When the cracks begin to show in the girls’ seemingly sorted lives, we are presented with a quirky-style of filmmaking that has us sympathising with the girls and cheering them on, as they demonstrate the inward confidence and identity struggles that are masked by their self-asserted demeanours.

Told in a chaptered format, this film is a unique and pared-down narration of problems surrounding America’s teenage elite and although it might not suit everyone’s tastes, it’s a welcome return for Stillman – the voice of America’s independent cinema – who is now armed with another cult-classic under his belt.

Released: 27th April 2012.

By Jennifer Tate
Twitter @JennieTate

This Must Be The Place Review

7/10
Pros: Frances McDormand, Harry Dean Stanton and the soundtrack.
Cons: Penn’s childlike persona might prove annoying to some.


There’s a moment in This Must Be The Place where you feel deeply satisfied; as if the promise of two Academy-award winners in the cast (Sean Penn and Frances McDormand), the Talking Heads as the soundtrack (the trailer memorably shows lead singer David Byrne performing the title song to a crowd) and the completely baffled storyline (we’ll come to that in a second) delivers as pledged. However the first twenty minutes are actually the best of the film, bursting at the seams with comic value and apt songs, but then… it falls a bit flat.

Cheyenne (Penn) is a 50-year-old former rock-star. His oddball appearance of dyed black, Edward-Scissorhands-esque hair, gothic clothing and full face of slap makes him a laughing stock in his local supermarket. He lives off his royalties just outside of Dublin with his devoted wife and firefighter Jane (McDormand, who is brilliant as per) and spends his days hanging out at the mall with his teenage-goth friend Mary (Eve Hewson), whose suffering is alleviated by Cheyenne’s careful friendship and music recommendations.

One day, Cheyenne receives a call informing him that his father – whom he hasn’t spoken with in thirty years – is dead. Depressed, bored and now confused, Cheyenne must conquer his fear of flying and return to New York to face the music that he’s been avoiding for three decades. What comes next is an extended self-discovering road trip across America as Cheyenne seeks revenge on Aloise Lange (Heinz Lieven), the Nazi war criminal who humiliated his father back in Auschwitz.

The characters he meets along the way are welcome additions to the plot. There’s Rachel (played brilliantly by Kerry Kondon), a waitress and single mother, who to Cheyenne’s amazement is familiar with his work with Mick Jagger. There’s a touching part of the film where Rachel’s son encourages Cheyenne to reunite with his guitar as he sings the title song to the backdrop of Rachel sobbing.

But Cheyenne leaves Rachel and her son behind so quickly that we don’t get to know enough about Rachel and her story. There’s also Harry Dean Stanton, as Robert, who nudges Cheyenne in the right direction but like in many of his films, Stanton doesn’t garner enough screen-time.

In retrospect, this film is much more enjoyable looking back on it. The dull middle of the film aside, it’s an emotional story of self-discovery that proves a worthy way to spend two hours. No doubt Penn’s persona will divide opinion between annoying and endearing, but with its creditable supporting cast, don’t let that put you off.

Released: 6th April 2012.

Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino

By Jennifer Tate
Twitter: JennieTate

La Femme du Vème (The Woman in The Fifth) Review

4/10

American writer and college lecturer Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke) travels to Paris to reconcile with his estranged wife and be a part of his daughter’s life once again. Unfortunately things start badly for Tom and he finds himself in a run down hotel clutching only a dreadful French accent, his passport and a toy Giraffe. When the shady Algerian hotel owner Sezer offers him a room until he gets back on his feet and then subsequently a job, Tom sets about trying to win custody of his daughter.

Enter two women; Margit (Kristen Scott Thomas) a French/Romanian translator and seductress, educated in England and Widower to a little known Hungarian writer. And Ania (Joanna Kulig) a Polish waitress who just loves to serenade Tom to tears. Confused yet? You will be!

It becomes apparent from the opening scenes that Tom has done something rather unforgivable, quite what he has done is never explained along with a lot of other things. Who is Mr Monde? What happens in the ‘other room’? Why oh why is there a scene where he uses a translator when he shows an excellent grasp of the French language throughout the entire film!?

There are so many things that made this film disappointing but if I were pressed to name one it would have to be the relationship between Tom and Margit which doesn’t exist (ah the irony!). You would expect from the billing and trailer that this is essentially a love affair between Hawke and Scott Thomas. Well their screen time together cannot be more than 10-15 minutes throughout the entire film and it isn’t used wisely. They barely get going before she utters the words “I know you inside and out...” and “You have a voice I believe in you.”

Well sorry but I don’t believe in you!

You get the feeling that this is one of those films that makes sense to those that have read the book. Everyone else is just confused or left reaching so far up their own arse to make sense of it that they run the risk of slipping a disk at the post cinema discussion.

Very disappointing.

Released: 17th February 2012

By Jake Raynor
Twitter @ThatBoyOntTelly

Babycall Review

5/10
Pros: Chilling Norweigan thriller with convincing acting
Cons: Slightly predictable with a hollow ending


Babycall is a Norwegian thriller that’s as chilling as it is humdrum. It tells the story of Anna (Noomi Rapace) and her eight-year-old son Anders (Vetle Qvenild Werring) who have both escaped the alleged violence and brutality of the boy’s father. They move into a faraway eerie apartment block, eager to start their lives afresh, free from the abuse that has brought on Anna’s evident extreme anxiety and paranoia.

Constantly fretting for her son’s safety, Anna lives her life in fear and doesn’t know what to do with the daily dragged-out hours that haunt her whilst Anders is at school. Wandering around town aimlessly, she goes to buy a baby monitor - which offers Anna brief solace to social workers’ requests to her to let Anders sleep in his own room - and befriends the salesman Helge (Kristoffer Joner), who with a dying mother, is facing some problems of his own.

One night, Anna is awoken to screams from the baby monitor and rushing to her son’s room to see him fast asleep, Anna begins to worry that the two are not alone. What follows next are a mixture of chilling and moving scenes: we are comforted and hopeful of Anna’s budding friendship with Helge, but unsettled by twists and turns that portray Anna’s paranoia as dangerous rather than protective.

Rapace’s convincing portrayal of Anna and her obsessive protectiveness over her son (“You know Mummy loves you and can’t live without you?” she says to him) is disturbing and riveting to watch, but director Pål Sletaune falls short of convincing us to care about the characters and unraveling plot as much as we feel we should and the final minutes portraying the twist are slightly disappointing, if not predictable.

Overall, the unsettling 96 minutes of this film is still worth a watch - but maybe one to avoid if you’ve recently purchased a baby monitor.

Released 30th March 2012

By Jennifer Tate
Twitter @JennieTate

Café De Flore Review

6/10
Pros: French magic and a pleasing soundtrack
Cons: Confusing with an anti-climax

Café de Flore is not for everyone. It portrays the stories of two different decades in parallel, expressing the heartbreak and obsession that takes place therein.

We first see Antoine (Kevin Parent), a DJ and a recent divorcee with two daughters in present-day Montreal. His new relationship with Rose has burdened him with ex-wife-rooted guilt and a misbehaving teenager who both resent his moving on.

Next we see Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis), a struggling single mother in 1969 Paris. Her devotion and unhealthy obsession to her seven-year-old son Laurent, born with Down’s syndrome, is tested when he develops a trouble-causing and obsessive friendship with a girl from his class.

Director Jean-Marc Vallée chips and chops through different decades, entertainingly portraying the assorted characters’ heartbreaks and struggles and Parent, in his first acting role, puts on a stirring performance.

However, the first half is very confusing to the viewer who wouldn’t be judged for struggling to understand who’s who and what’s what. We constantly wonder how the two stories connect: our first wonders being provoked when we learn of Laurent and Antoine’s mutual penchants for a piece of music called Café de Flore. But when we’re eventually rewarded the twist, it doesn’t tug as hard as we want it to.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable watch and is cushioned next to a pleasing soundtrack of Pink Floyd and Sigur Rós, but there’s a lacking and when the curtain closes, a sense of disappointment surfaces. Café de Flore is not as good as it want to be.

Released: 11th May 2012 (UK)

By Jennifer Tate
Twitter @JennieTate