Thursday 25 November 2010

The Kids are All Right

Saw this film at the Cineworld Shaftesbury Avenue, which must be a prime contender for the worst cinema in London - entrance is via an "entertainment" complex full of loud squawking machines.  Also, the cinema was very warm, and it was a late evening showing, so I didn't get off to a good start.  However, I enjoyed the film, albeit I though it was possiblty ten minutes too long.  Annette Bening and Julianne Moore were excellent as a California based lesbian couple with two teenage kids.  Mark Ruffalo plays their sperm donor Dad, who re-enters their lives.  The actors playing the kids were very good, and overall it was a very sensitive, and at times amusing, portrayal of the stresses and strains of a family.  According to Wikipedia, the film takes its title from the song and rockumentary by The Who, and is not to be confused with that other well known film, The Kids are Alright!

Wednesday 24 November 2010

The Social Network

I saw this film on the basis of the strong reviews it had in Time Out and in the papers generally, but both I and Mark, who came to the film with me, were pretty bored with it.  I just didn't find the whole subject of how Facebook came into being at all engaging - I had seen a TV interview with the producer who said that it was a human interest story, rather than a story abotu Facebook, but I would disagree. 

I thought the main actor, Jesse Eisenberg, playing Mark Zuckerburg, spoke far too fast, and often about techy things.  Also, there are a couple of scenes which are shot in bars or nightclubs, where I really struggled to even hear what the actors were saying.  Justin Timberlake is vaguely interesting as Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster, but I found the legal cases with the Winklevoss brothers and with Eduardo Saverin pretty tedious.

One saving grace of this film was that I saw it at the very nice Renoir cinema in London, and had a yummy ice cream to keep me happy during the boring bits.

Food of Love

This film is based on a David Leavitt book, the Page Turner (which I haven't read).  Supposedly the book was originally set in Rome, but the film has been transposed to Barcelona.  The director is Ventura Pons - supposedly quite a well known Catalan director, but not one I have come across.  The story is essentially a coming out one, set around an 18 year old aspiring pianist (Kevin Bishop), and his relationship with an internationally renowned concert pianist (Paul Rhys) and his manager.  Juliet Stevenson stars as Kevin Bishop's mother, with an American accent.

I enjoyed it - it's not an amazing film, but perfectly watchable, and I like most things shot in Spain / Catalunya.

Trailer is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTCwVAvatU8

Remember me

I thought this was a very good film, set in New York, about two twenty somethings (played by Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin) who are both dealing with personal loss in their lives.  Piers Brosnan is perfect as a self-obsessed workaholic father of one of them, whilst Ruby Jerins is great as a sensitive, funny ten year old sister.  Robert Pattinson manages to evoke a great deal of moody, tortured emotion.  There is a twist in the tale, which I didn't see coming, but based on some of the online reviews, others did.  Directed by Allen Coulter

Trailer is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Vg3fqIWGs