Fury (2014)

Fury (2014)

Director: David Ayer
Writer : David Ayer
Starring : Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal

Afternoon everybody, onto this week's film - Fury.

There's one big problem with Fury, I feel like it's a film I have seen before. It's your typical generic war film with possibly the biggest Hollywood star around. But it tackles war as it should be shown - brutally. From the outset it shows moments of ruthless bleakness. Like when the tanks, roll lethally and silently over yet another crumpled body. It is as if the soldiers relinquish their personal responsibilities and morality  to the machine. It shows us how utterly horrendous World War 2 was and indeed war  - period.

Set in April 1945, towards the end of the war, we follow 5 soldiers, led by Pitt, who make up the manpower behind the tank named Fury. David Ayer the director does a great job of conveying the chaotic state of Hitler's Germany by this point, as he threw the kitchen sink at the allies despite knowing defeat was inevitable. At one point a troop of enemy soldiers surrender to Fury and its accompanying tanks only to reveal that the troop are in fact children, boys and girls, no older than 12. This perfectly illustrates the desperate and futile attempts of a madman holding on to the phantom of power.

Fury's biggest success is it's ability to depict what became normality for war scarred soldiers like Don 'Wardaddy' Collier, Pitt's character. Pitt is at his most watchable when he isn't shouting, when he actually has time to think about his actions. Then he can reveal a touching and childlike vulnerability rather than the blind aggression and anger that comes with war. Each of the 5 heroes show us their profound anger accompanied by a range of raw expletives while fighting, yet given peace and quiet we see beyond the soldier concealed by war. It's so much more revealing to look into the deep emotion behind the eyes of the actor rather than be subsumed by their total rage.

One of my favourite scenes is when all five men are preparing the tank for what seems a certain death trap, yet despite the stress and terror they become incredibly polite all of a sudden, using their pleases and thank yous as they pass around guns and ammunition the size of a small child. It is as if they suddenly realise the futility of war and revert to behaving in a way that reminds them of home and family. You get to really understand the brotherly bond they experience when they imagine the worst. The moments they confront not just defeat but their death too.

Logan Lerman's character drags this film from the brutality of war into the realm of Hollywood endings and reminds us we are watching a blockbuster war flick. Lerman plays Norman Ellison, who has been educated in how to "type 60 words in a minute rather than shoot Nazi's". He is thrust into team Fury as the newbie of the group and finds coming to terms with killing another man virtualy impossible. Lerman is a perfectly adept actor and his puppy dog eyes are convincing but for me he symbolised the problems with this film. That's probably not his fault but it's a Hollywood interlude and it's just too easy to predict the path his character will take. I won't tell you what happens in the end but let's just say Lerman manages to overcome his original fears.

I did enjoy Fury as an action movie and the scenes in the final battle are the stand out moment visually. All the combat shots are wonderfully constructed and are what David Ayer is known for being brilliant at. However, a great tank battle isn't really enough of a springboard to jump Fury from a decent film to a film of real quality and meaning. For me there was too much of a sense of predictability to really pull on my emotional heartstrings. Fury is a good watch for someone who enjoys an action film but don’t expect it to leave you in a state of awe. 

Josef

For next weeks review I'm really can't decide between 'Nightcrawler' and 'Mr. Turner' so if you have a preference please message me on any form of social media. Also I'm planning to do something extra special in two weeks time but thats all a surprise for the moment....

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'71 - (2014)

'71 - (2014)

Director - Yann Demange 
Writer - Gregory Burke 
Starring - Jack O'Connell, Sam Reid, Sean Harris, Paul Anderson

Afternoon all,

I'm fit and healthy again which is wonderful as its time for this week's review.

'71 is a film that I came across by chance, I was on IMDB, flicking through the upcoming projects of the budding star that is Jack O'Connell and found this. A list of very promising actors with a director I had never heard of... I was intrigued. Fast forward a few weeks and '71 is getting rave reviews from basically everyone who has seen it, I watched the trailer and decided it would be perfect for this weeks blog.

'71 makes for a great comparison to 'Gone Girl' in that although they come from totally different stratospheres, in terms of budgets. 'Gone Girl cost $60million and '71 only $8million. But both films aim to grab the audience from the start and tighten their grip until the final moments. As 'Gone Girl' did, '71 succeeds in doing so too.

The story revolves around a group of trainee British solders thrust into Belfast to suppress the IRA riots of 1971. Jack O'Connell plays Gary Hook who becomes separated from the rest of his troop while trying to control a violent mob. O'Connell is probably recognised by most for his role as Cook in one of the later series of Skins. Like most of his Skins co-stars O'Connell drifted, but came back into the public eye a totally different man and actor three years later in 'Starred Up' which is fantastic incidentally. He is on a fast track to becoming a serious super star with a lead role in Angelina Jolie's directorial debut 'Unbroken' finishing off a great year for the 24 year old. O'Connell displays a great variety of emotions here, his most convincing moments come when he becomes vulnerable to the point where you can really see the fear hiding behind what seems an angry young soldier primed to fight.

The person who deserves the most credit here though is Yann Demange, the film's director. An unknown quantity to most, his talents with a camera are instantly recognisable. The film is technically brilliant. Demange manipulates light and colour in the manner of a Renaissance painter. Each shot is like a work of art, with some of the gory images of war reminding me of the intensity of a Goya painting. There's a majestic moment when our band of soldiers are huddled together on the transport truck only for a ray of light to shine through a hole in the canvas, perfectly highlighting the terror encasing every man. Its an image that has lodged in my mind.

Its a really thrilling film, one that brought genuine gasps from some of the audience at certain moments. That being said there are some quite obvious plot holes that for me held the film back from being really classy. I think that can always be a slight problem when a thriller film mainly focus's on just one character. I always have in the back of my mind they will probably make it through the whole film in one piece. I don't want to include any spoilers but let's just say that a lot of things seem to fall a little too perfectly into place for Gary Hook. I think this made me slightly drift back into the real world and not stay inside the story as I would have liked to.

Despite its setting '71 does well to stay away from making a massive political statement regarding the troubles that occurred in Northern Ireland at this time, instead it gives its main focus to the look and feel of the film and for that I credit all involved. Gregory Burke, the writer, couldn't completely resist from giving his view on war with one character summing it up as "posh c*nts telling thick c*nts to kill poor c*nts". Its a pretty shocking line, but its not something the film dwells on so neither will I.

Even with a few plot holes '71 is a really intense thrill ride that gives a real sense of the horrific state of Belfast at the time with burning cars in the road being a common sight. It's a film that I would highly recommend going to see even just for its visual quality. Its a film that most of you probably won't have heard of and it doesn't have a hollywood a-list hook but it represents the start of something very special for both O'Connell and Demange.

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Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl (2014)

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Carrie Coon.
Director: David Fincher
Writer: Gillian Flynn (Novel and Screenplay)

Hello all, 

Its been far far too long. I apologise for the lack of post last week, I was really ill and had to go to hospital so the doctors put me under house arrest until yesterday. Thankfully I was able to drag myself out of the house on Sunday to go and see Gone Girl and I am so glad I did. 

Since 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' in 2011 David Fincher has been fairly quiet, he brilliantly directed the opening episode of House of Cards but that was about it. Has it been worth the wait? Yes, 100%. This film oozes the classiness that Fincher has brought to all his previous projects with a wonderfully adept cast and a film that plays your emotional strings. 

The film follows the story of Nick Dunne, played by Ben Affleck, whose world begins to fall apart following the dissapearance of his wife Amy Dunne, Rosamund Pike. What makes this film special is it's ability to constantly play with the mood and draw out invisible tensions and deceits. From the first minute we see Nick taking out the bins, a dark atmosphere hovers that puts the audience on the edge of their seats waiting for something dark to be revealed. Fincher develops this mood throughout the film and leaves you gasping for air at the end, quite literally.

Affleck himself said what attracted him about playing the part of Nick is that "its like having a character role inside a lead". Nick is not your normal male lead, he is complex and Affleck plays the role so wonderfully that you really question whether to empathise with him, something rare for a male lead in a big budget film. At first Affleck pushes you in the direction of believing he is completely guilty, his actions being so mysterious and disturbing that you want to get out of your seat, grab him by the scruff of his neck and shout at him to stop being so obvious. Affleck's wry smile when being photographed with a poster of his missing wife sends shudders down your spine, as well as when he swallows before his interview with a national news station. These two magical details add to what is a very well polished performance from Affleck as he continues to make great strides in the world of cinema.

It's not just Affleck who deserves credit, the whole cast is great but Rosamund Pike is the other stand out performer, possibly outdoing Affleck. Pike brilliantly captures Amy's creepy and distorted persona, her facial expressions do all the work for her, as she maps out the torturous plot she has concocted. When writing my notes during this film, I wrote Rosamund Pike down 4 times, each at different points and each with more and more exclamation marks.

I have spoken in previous blogs about the curse of beauty and how it can conceal real talent but here Pike cleverly manipulates her beauty as a veil to conceal her dastardly deeds. It is a practically faultless performance. I've had the pleasure of meeting Pike once and the fact that she was so talkative and unpretentious only adds to her liveability as an actor. There is one scene towards the end that is so hypnotic it left me with my mouth totally agasp, but I will save if it for you to see yourself.

A special mention also goes to Tyler Perry as Nick's lawyer, I love it when an actor delivers a performance that makes you completely change your perception of them. Perry really does that here, bringing a touch of dark comedy to proceedings. 

What Gone Girl makes terrifying real, as in the best espionage stories, is the existential truth that however well you think you know someone, you can never really know what they are thinking. In the context of a relationship or in this particular case a marriage that is a disturbing thought. Nick and Amy know each other so well that the real twists and turns come as they constantly read one another's behaviour, this makes for a wonderful physiological thriller.

Gone Girl is what going to the cinema is all about, I didn't want it to end and I certainly didn't to go back to reality. I urge you to go and see Gone Girl in the cinema, don't wait for it to come out on DVD because it becomes less real. I don't have anything against watching films at home or on DVD but Gone Girl is a film that deserves the atmosphere of a cinema and for the viewer to be taken out of their comfort zone in order to really be drawn in by the story. The father in law of Gillian Flynn, who wrote the novel on which the film is based, had some advice for his son when he read the book, "always sleep with one eye open”, you might well do the same after seeing Gone Girl.

As always feel free to like, comment and share with your friends on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or even just showing the link to your family. There was a really fantastic response to the last blog so let’s keep it going!

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Josef