La La Land (2016) Movie Review

The spiritual sequel to Sing Street is pure movie magic

A romantic love affair plays out in this 1950’s style musical drama. Director Damien Chazelle helms the project which depicts characters Sebastian and Mia as aspiring artists looking to shine amidst obscurity. Sebastian ‘Seb’ is an ardent but struggling pianist who dreams of starting his own jazz club. Mia is a zealous but failing actress who dreams of making it big in Hollywood. The two meet and fall for one another and thus ensues a classic Hollywood love story.

This ode to classic Hollywood is bolstered by a versed cast consisting of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and features a small and ironic appearance by J.K Simmons who portrays a classical jazz hater, as opposed to his belligerent character, Fletcher, in Whiplash.

At the heart of La La Land lies the relationship between Seb (Gosling) and Mia (Stone). The visuals, songs, and dance numbers that the film boastfully displays will undoubtedly fall flat without on-screen chemistry between Seb and Mia. Fortunately, this film marks the third collaboration between Stone and Gosling, hence it is no surprise that the pair share excellent on-screen chemistry, sharp and witty dialogue by Chazelle helps too.

The real ‘love affair’ in La La Land, however, is not the relationship between leads, Seb and Mia, but the love and appreciation of their respective art forms, jazz, and acting. The film downright repudiates to romanticise the calamities of an aspiring artist, nor does it postulate the possibility of the ‘overnight success’ trope, but rather, La La Land highlights the near impossibility to keep a dream alive.

And yes, La La Land is a musical…

It is at this point where potential audience members might be turned off. La La Land is a film where characters express their feelings and emotions through song and dance but not in a cheesy, expositional manner. It is Chazelle’s clear-cut artistic direction and excellent dance choreography that the film manages to float above water. The film even begins with a huge opening number on top of an LA highway, immediately signaling to audiences, “Yes, this is that kind of a film”. Not since the aforementioned 1950’s, have audiences been treated to a film so classically unique and full of energy and yet is such a clear “love letter” to old Hollywood, an ode to classics like Singin’ In The Rain and The Sound Of Music. La La Land not only accomplishes what many deemed impossible – recapturing the sense of magical realism and hopefulness found so prominently in the early musical era, but roots its story in the modern setting and thus cementing its place in modern culture.

The cinematography of the film is visually stunning. The film is shot using CinemaScope, a lens coined in the 50’s which allowed movies to be shot in a widescreen aspect ratio. Colours are bright and vibrant which yet again adhere to bygone era of the 50s and add to the dreamlike quality of old Hollywood that the film strives towards. The film also features long and undoubtedly strenuous takes of song and dance numbers. Its goal is not to visually impress, which it does, but rather it seeks to pay respect to musicals from years past.

La La Land candidly examines the toll of following your dreams and affirms audience members that road to success – a life changing opportunity at that – will be paved with tribulations. One’s pursuit of dreams will demand sacrifice, in one form or another. The opulence these characters so desperately crave comes at a premium. But in the end, as the film connotes, it will all be worth it. Chazelle vindicates this sentiment through the love story between Seb and Mia and confronts it with a mature sensibility that a lesser director would not be able to.

La La Land is an exuberant, magical, and somewhat bittersweet celebration of art that will sweep audiences off their feet, trapping them in a whirlwind of emotion. La La Land is a film that will unequivocally win a multitude of awards come Oscar season. In a sea of great films this year, La La Land rises above them all. I can’t stop singing its praises. And hopefully, you will too. 10/10.

Director Trademark: Kubrick’s Gaze

“You don’t find reality only in your backyard, you know. In fact, sometimes that’s the last place you’ll find it.” -Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick has been widely regarded as one of the best directors of all time. He has directed such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange. Being the innovative director he is, Kubrick constantly breaks norms in film and employs unorthodox filming techniques.

Kubrick’s films are closer to documentaries exploring the human psyche rather than fictional narratives. He uses fictional stories as a way of reflecting real problems in real life. As a director, Kubrick’s trademark style is commonly referred to as ‘Kubrick’s Gaze’ This is where an actor has his head tilted down and looks up beneath his eyebrows, staring directly into the camera. The ominous stare is meant as a gateway between the fictional world of the film and the real world. People say the eyes are a window to one’s soul. ‘Kubrick’s gaze’ is the exactly that; a window connecting the audience to the psyche of his characters.

 

Film Review: Gone Girl (2014)

The film opens with the voice of Nick Dunne played by Ben Affleck speaking off screen. “The primal questions of marriage,” he continues, “What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other?” On screen we see a tight shot of the back of a blonde head, its body asleep, face down on a pillow. “I imagine cracking open her head,” he continues, “unspooling her brain, trying to get answers.” The blonde head swivels to reveal the face of Amy Dunne played by Rosamund Pike, and immediately the film shifts into a high-gear mystery.

The story is about the stages of the perfect relationship. The film starts in present day, the day Amy, played by Rosamund Pike, disappears. And there are flashbacks to when they first met at a party and then starting to date and then getting married. Back in the present, we immediately suspect Amy’s husband, Nick, played by Ben Affleck kidnapped or even killed Amy. Nick Dunne is a lazy, awkward Missouri boy and has a laid-back and easy-going attitude that renders the audience and in the film, ‘the media’ to suspect it was Nick, who kidnapped his wife. At the same time, Amy narrates her version of events with a chilling tone through her diary. Even now in the movie, we, the audience, do not know who to trust and root for, making the film thrilling as the book it was based off of.

David Fincher, the director, is a perfectionist. An example would be from the movie, Zodiac (2007), in which Jake Gyllenhaal’s character tosses a notebook onto a car seat and Fincher made him do it over and over again. So in the movie, Gone Girl (2014), he hires Ben Affleck to play Nick Dunne because Ben Affleck himself had experienced intense media coverage and a lot of public harassment in his entire life. Affleck plays the character well because he is very subdued. From the start of the movie, you try and solve the mystery before anyone else does. You pay close attention to all the characters and their movements and actions. But Affleck’s character gives you nothing. In one scene, you could be absolutely sure Affleck’s character killed his wife and in the next scene, you could doubt yourself. From the start to the revelation of the mystery, you keep asking yourself, ‘Is Nick just an awkward guy or is he a sociopath?’ Fincher had really outdone himself directing this movie. He drew the audience in and kept them guessing while at the same time, keeping the movie in sync structurally. In many movies when the ‘twist’ happens, the audience could probably pick out many consistencies because of the revelation. But the twist in Gone Girl was flawless and it fitted into the story perfectly and did not affect the structure of the story. I think this is attributed to what Fincher did in this movie.

The performances in the movie were all really great. Actors like Rosamund Pike and Tyler Perry have been in the movie business for quite some time. Pike had been a Bond Girl in Die Another Day (2002) and Perry in the Madea movies. This movie, Gone Girl, is probably the first time they had shined on screen, again I think it is attributed to Fincher. As stated before, Fincher is a perfectionist and that being said he brings out the best performances possible out of his actors.

One example of this would be Bautista and his  director, James Gunn in the movie, Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014). Bautista is a first-time actor who confesses that he is not a great actor. But in the movie, James Gunn hides all of Bautista’s bad qualities as an actor and brings out his good qualities. He would put him in scenes that would make him comfortable to act. That being said, Tyler Perry was great in the movie, he plays the lawyer who helps Affleck’s character. Seeing Tyler Perry in this kind of role did not bring you out of the scene like in Star Trek (2009). The introduction to his character was seamless and fluid. Pike’s performance was the highlight of the movie. It was truly her movie. Pike delivers an Oscar worthy performance. Fincher pulls her performance out of her and Pike nails the title role as Nick Dunne’s wife, Amy Dunne. She gives you all the color and the shades of psychotic, craziness. Another performance I would like to highlight is Affleck’s performance as the first half of the movie relies on his performance.

An important and commonly overlooked role in the film is the media. After the movie ends, it really makes you think about the way people would  at the media, about the way people see the news and we are able to make ourselves think something is factual about we read it on the internet or saw it in the news. It makes it so easy to take someone whom you have never met before and turn them into someone that they are not. This movie shows the ‘behind the scenes’ of how a person’s life (Nick Dunne) can crumble to the ground when put under the media’s spotlight, based off of a few lies

If Gone Girl (2014) taught me anything, it’s that our opinions are informed by where we stand and how we choose to interpret what we see. Gone Girl (2014) is deeply cynical, darkly funny, sometimes brutal, very powerful filmmaking that may make you a little queasy, but will almost certainly entertain you to no end. I rate this movie 9/10.

Film Review: Searching For Sugar Man (2012)

Searching for Sugar Man (2012) is a Swedish and British documentary film about the life story of Sixto Rodriguez, an American folk singer who had become a runaway hit in South Africa without his knowledge. Many years later, two South Africans set out to find out if the rumours of their musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n’ roller, Rodriguez’s death were true. The documentary runs for eighty-six minutes long and was directed and written by Malik Bendjelloul. On February 10 2013, the film won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary during the 66th British Academy Film Awards in London and also won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature during the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood. This essay will discuss and analyse the documentary and the use of it’s filming techniques.

The documentary is about the search, the impact of the artist, Rodriguez. He had been singing in a bar when two music producers found him and signed him. He then went on to record two albums with Sussex and A&R Records, ‘Cold Fact’ and ‘Coming From Reality’ which both did not sell at all in the US. His contract was dropped. That was the ‘end’ of his music career. Couple of years later, his albums would travel to Cape Town, South Africa where his songs were big hits. Bootleg copies were sold and interestingly, it became the the anthems of the anti-apartheid movement. The estimates of the number of copies sold were about 500,000 which was comparable to the Beatles or Elvis Presley in that country. Two fans of Rodriguez’s work, music store owner, Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman and music journalist Craig Bartholomew-Strydom, set out to find more details about their mysterious idol. Not much was known about him. There were rumours that he had died – a suicide, killing himself by shooting himself onstage in front of a live audience and some say he set himself on fire. Of course, there were no concrete evidence of his deaths or even these death theories. They were just theories. Segarman who was also referred to as ‘Sugarman’ named after the title of one of Rodriguez’s songs, was curious about his idol and henceforth, posted a web page about his search.

There are many different types of sub genres for documentaries including expository, poetic, essayistic, observational, participatory, performance, interview, dramatisation, animation and mixed. The writer believes that ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ is categorised into the ‘mixed’ sub genre for documentaries. This documentary has elements of the sub genres of interview and dramatisation and also performance. Interview because in the documentary are records of conversations, discussion and interviews. Dramatisation because actors were used to illustrate the interviewee’s memory bringing his memories to life. Performance, because in the film there are records of performances such as the concerts and recording, Rodriguez did.

The director, Malik Bendjelloul used Super 8 film to record the more stylised shots for the documentary. Shots like the scenes involving animation in the first and the last part of the film and a panning shot of a mountain in Cape Town to the record shop. But he ran out of money in the process of recording the final shots. He was threatened by the financial backers to finish filming. In the end, he used an iPhone app named, ‘8mm Vintage’ to complete the film. This documentary definitely had a very cinematic vibe to it. When watching the documentary, the story felt too good to be true. The documentary also had montages in which there is a scene of a city landscape and one of Rodriguez’s songs playing in the background. Linking back to the sound unit, the Rodriguez’s songs have an important role in the documentary. The song changes depending on the mood or feeling the scene is trying to evoke. The documentary also has no narrator narrating the film but instead, it has lots of scenes involving interviews, but the audience does not hear the voice of the interviewer but only the interviewee answering the questions. In some scenes, the director had used archival footage with narration from the interviewee in the background. This is used to lead up to the actual interview. An example of the archival footage was the part of the documentary when Segerman was explaining the impact of Rodriguez’s songs on the anti-apartheid movement and how they actually helped people there speak out. the archival footage had clips of people trying to mimic the style of Rodriguez and protests held during the anti-apartheid movement. 7/10

Film Review: Whiplash (2014)

“Are you one of those … single-tear people?” he barks at Andrew after a public dressing-down, as a solitary droplet trickles down the boy’s cheek. For Fletcher, toughness, manliness and perfection are indivisible, and accordingly, Andrew ends up practicing until his hands bleed. What they do isn’t just drumming; it’s phallic cymbalism.

This breath-taking drama from young American director Damian Chazelle is not a story about how humiliation and underestimation lead to forging great artists. But it’s a story about the price of greatness. To chose between having a life or being one of the greats. To describe this movie, I would say it’s a mixture or Rocky and Full Metal Jacket. This movie is a psychological battle of wits between hardcore drumming teacher, Terence Fletcher, played J.K Simmons and an ambitious young drummer, Andrew Neiman, played by Miles Teller. Considering how the plot is actually so simple, it is surprising how sprightly an inventive it conspires to be. The director having directed a musical thriller before, Grand Piano, has really outdone himself with Whiplash. Damien Chazelle uses a similar theme in this movie, with the music becoming a matter of life and death. As a director, his strokes are clean and crispy, with cinematographer Sharone Meir’s energetic camera performing visual arpeggios as it sweeps around the rehearsal rooms. The director’s work coupled with the cinematographer Sharone Meir’s excellent camera work and the way the film is edited has the movie look dark and crisp.

 Without a doubt, one of the best performances of 2014 was J.K Simmons’s Fletcher. Fletcher is a conductor in the studio band and is the antagonist of the film. He unleashes hell for his students, one of which is Andrew, our main character. ‘Simmons is a sinewy symphony of physicality, his muscular arms and poised fingers waving the drama onward apace, his endlessly expressive eyes alert and ablaze, his razor-sharp mouth playing the paper-cut dialogue like a demonic fiddle.’ His performance was top-notch, his fierceness and ruthlessness allowed the character to be hated and yet relatable. You probably had a teacher or a boss in your life who acted this way. And you hated him. Maybe you got discouraged by him or encouraged. That is the point of the entire film. Fletcher’s lines in the movie are so vulgar and vile when he verbally devouring someone to nothing in front of their classmates. Then you think, ‘Am I a bad person for laughing?’ It should be noted that his performance as Fletcher in the film won him an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the 87th Academy Awards.

Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the film was its intenseness. Never have I bit my finger nails so much before. My arms wrapped around my body hoping for Andrew to succeed while Fletcher stares at him with his devilish eyes. I have seen Superheroes trying to save the world, people cutting wires to stop the world from exploding and never have I experienced anything like Whiplash. This is due to the fact that Whiplash is very real. Which is way you connect with his character, he is the underdog, he is underestimated and that is why you want him to succeed. Whiplash (2014) is darkly funny, very intense and a movie worth watching. I rate this movie 9/10.

Relationship Between Film Noir And Contemporary Cinema

Film Noir offers an inverted version of the classic Hollywood formula. The formula is for films to incorporate the themes of ‘home’ and ‘family’. Films like The Wizard of Oz (MGM, 1939) and It’s A Wonderful Life (RKO Pictures, 1946) did this and promoted a sense of community. These films were released in the 1930s and ‘40s during the war. When the war ended, Film Noir was born and it was a clear departure from the classic Hollywood formula. The protagonist is male; he is troubled, pessimistic and lonely. The antagonist is female; she is beautiful, seductive and determined. The good woman was also introduced. It is the opposite of the classic Hollywood formula. The genre has over seventy years of history. This essay will focus on the character aspects of Film Noir, how they have evolved and compare to modern cinema.

The hard-boiled hero is a quintessential element of Film Noir. When the audiences tired of the same old detective stories, the filmmakers wanted to do something new. Filmmakers decided to create new stories with a more sinister and cynical interpretation of crime. Therefore, they needed to reinvent the traditional detective hero.

The hard-boiled hero was added in the 1940s, adding a whole new perspective to traditional detective mysteries. These heroes are often war veterans or detectives. They are troubled at heart, lonely and have tortured souls. They are strong-willed, determined and will stop at nothing in the pursuit of justice. They often walk the line between good and evil, making their actions questionable and this engages the audience. Characters in film that possess these attributes include Humphrey Bogart’s character in The Maltese Falcon (Warner Bros, 1941) and Charlton Heston’s character in Touch of Evil (Universal, 1958). In Touch of Evil, Vargas (Heston) a detective fighting corruption within the police department. It all starts when Vargas and his wife Susie (Janet Leigh) travel to the US/Mexico border when a car bomb explodes. After discovering his partner, Quinlan (Orson Welles) had planted evidence to frame an innocent man for the bombing, Vargas goes on a quest to free the innocent man and convict his former partner. Throughout this journey, Vargas is constantly attacked and tested. Yet he remains to relentless fighting for his cause. It is also noted in the film, that he is willing to sacrifice his career and life. This is how the hard-boiled hero was represented in the 1950s. 

The role of the hard-boiled hero is still relevant in contemporary cinema and is becoming increasing popular. Christian Bale’s portrayal of Batman in The Dark Knight Trilogy (Warner Bros, 2005-2012) is an excellent example of the hard-boiled hero in modern film. In the trilogy, Batman (Bale) is a detective and vigilante who unleashes his rage towards the mob who killed his parents. He is very insecure and has trust issues. He hates the criminal underworld and makes it his sole mission to destroy it. The villain of the story, The Joker, constantly taunts Batman and even kills the woman he loves and turns the city against him. Yet Batman persists and eventually defeats The Joker. This character not only brought back the hard-boiled hero but revitalized the Batman character, making its stance against the campy cartoon version in the 1960s. Although this film does not include a femme fatale, it does include many aspects of film noir. Heston’s Vargas and Bale’s Batman share many characteristics. They are both lonely, determined and introverted. “The biggest thing about noir is moral ambiguity, characters who are not easy to pin down – who is good, who is evil,” says “Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan, referring to the genre and his own film. “In the greatest film noir there is this continuing pressure being put on the character, and I was looking back to a film like ‘Double Indemnity.’ There is a spiraling sense of doom in these films, the characters are under pressure, and you see how they react.” Nolan used Film Noir films as an inspiration for The Dark Knight (Warner Bros, 2008). He feels the Film Noir genre best encapsulates the themes of the film, bridging the gap between Film Noir and modern cinema.

The femme fatale is also a quintessential element of Film Noir. After the war, women had risen to positions normally occupied by men. This prompted a conflict between men and women. Because Hollywood was mostly run by men, they decided to create a new type of villain, the femme fatale. The femme fatale is infamous for using her attractiveness to manipulate men to gain something, i.e. power, independence, money and etc. She rejects conventional roles of women such as the devoted wife and loving mother that society has prescribed. The femme fatale is dangerous, strong, independent, determined and most of all, irrational. Perhaps her destructive and carefree nature is what engages the audience long after the ending of the movie. Their destructive struggle for independence is a response to the restrictions that men had placed on them. Characters such as Gloria Swanson’s character in Sunset Blvd. (Paramount, 1950) or Barbara Stanwyck’s in Double Indemnity (Universal, 1944) are examples of the femme fatale. In Sunset Blvd, Swanson plays an ageing silent film queen refusing to believe her stardom has ended. Norma (Swanson) manipulates a young writer Joe Gillis (Holden) to write a script for her comeback movie. She manipulates the young, down on his luck writer. Norma Desmond is the ultimate femme fatale. She allures Joe with her vast fortune and superficial love. Even though she is extremely wealthy, she feels lonely and empty. She strives to make a comeback in Hollywood. Her world is a one filled with fantasy and yet emptiness. When Joe tries to leave her, she tries to kill herself which led Joe feeling obligated to stay with her. This is how the femme fatale was represented in the 1950s.

Femme fatales proved women can be strong-willed, determined and independent. This role has re-shaped the perception of women. Long after the dispute between men and women, Hollywood decided to change the femme fatale role, creating strong female characters These characters are not necessarily the villains of the story. Characters like Emily Blunt’s character in Edge of Tomorrow (Warner Bros, 2014), Linda Hamilton’s character in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (TriStar Studios, 1991) or Sigourney Weaver’s character in Alien (Fox, 1979).

The femme fatale role was the launchpad for all these iconic female characters. Not to say the femme fatale character has died out, characters like Rosamund Pike’s in Gone Girl (Fox, 2014) and Eva Green’s character in Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For (Lions Gate, 2014) still exist and prove there are still femme fatales in modern cinema. The femme fatale role has transcended beyond the villainous role and has become something entirely different.

The good woman is often the most understated role in Film Noir, yet the character is present in many films. As mentioned earlier, Hollywood decided to make a new type of villain played by women as a spike against them. The role of the good woman is to show

how the men thought women should have behaved. The good woman is the opposite of the femme fatale. She is the protagonist’s love interest. Unlike the femme fatale, she is kind, sweet and loving. She is often associated with home, nature or rehabilitation. Characters that inhabit these characteristics include Nancy Olson’s character in Sunset Blvd, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character in The Dark Knight (Warner Bros, 2008). The role of the good woman has not changed over the years and appears in other, non-film noir films. The importance of the character is she offers an escape with the protagonist, prompting the protagonist to make difficult choices. In Sunset Blvd,  Gillis (William Holden) finally chooses money over his love interest, Schaefer (Olson). In The Dark Knight, Batman (Bale) has to make a choice between saving the district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and his lover, Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal). In the end, he chooses to save Dent. The good woman loves the protagonist and often asks the protagonist to run away with her. The protagonist also loves her but is often forced to make a decision that would split them apart, apparent in Sunset Blvd (a noir classic) and The Dark Knight (a contemporary film). The role of the good woman has become a mainstay in films prompting characters to make difficult decisions.

This piece covers how the characters of Film Noir have changed and evolved over the years and how it compares to contemporary cinema. The conception of Film Noir has changed the way films are made. Film Noir created the hard-boiled and tough hero with internal conflicts, not only created the femme fatale role but has evolved it to become strong female roles and it also was the birth of the role of the good woman. These characters not only engage the audience but create depth and layers to characters. Many ideas and visions have gone in and out of style in Hollywood films. None have had such a lasting impact on characters than Film Noir has brilliantly done.

Indie Spotlight: Sing Street (2016)

Setting a new standard for coming of age films

Set in 1985 Dublin, the film chronicles the story of 14-year old Conor Lawlor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) as he navigates through a troubling family life, bullies and school. He starts a band to impress the mysterious Raphina (Lucy Boynton). This ‘happy-sad’ drama hearkens films like School of Rock and The Perks of Being a Wallflower and is tonally closer to Back to the Future. The film masterfully tackles subjects like family, school, and relationships. The performances of the film are excellent, especially coming from first-time actors, although some characters lacked character development. The pacing of the film is also superb, sequencing itself between quirky comedy and hard-hitting drama. The film makes you laugh almost as fast as it makes you cry. The best thing about the film is the relationship between the leads, Conor and Raphina. This is achieved through realistic dialogue that never feels written by a 40-year old screenwriter. The characters feel natural and act like their age.

The film also offers an excellent soundtrack with hits from the 80s such as Rio by Duran Duran and Inbetween Days by The Cure and original songs performed by the band. But what makes Sing Street stands out the most as opposed to other ‘coming of age’ films is how director John Carney rides the line between realism and musical fantasy that gives the film it’s emotional core.

Sing Street is a well-crafted, uplifting tale about growing up and one that should strike a chord with its audience members. This is by far the best film I’ve seen all year. 10/10