Tuesday 28 December 2010

West is West

Sequel to East is East, which was set in Bradford. Om Puri reappears as the father of seven children, and decides to take his somewhat wayward teenage son Sajid to Pakistan to visit his first family, who he abandoned about thirty years ago. Linda Bassett stars again as the long suffering Bradford based wife. Funny but also at times poignant.

The first grader

Heart warming film about an 84 year old Kenyan man who turns up at a remote primary school in the Rift Valley asking to be educated, as the government had just introduced a policy of basic education for all. He struggles against local and national bureaucracy and politics, aided and abetted by the school teacher. There are some flashbacks to the period when he was a Mau-Mau revolutionary fighter, and the violent way in which that force was put down by the British army. It was based on a true story and the film was shot at a real school, and used the actual pupils rather than actors, which gave the film a genuinely warm feel. I saw the film at the London film festival.

Archipelago

I saw this film at the London film festival, and it was one of the most tedious films I have seen in many years. According to the write up for the festival it "makes astute and authoritative observations on the malaises of the middle classes". For me it was just a string of boring squabbles and arguments between various members of a dysfunctional family that I just didn't care about at all. Just about the only saving grace was that the film was shot on the Isles of Scilly, so there was some nice scenery. During the film I was so bored that I had both a good nap and went out and got myself a nice bucket of popcorn, and then proceeded to annoy all around me by munching my way through it.

Black Swan

Good thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky, director of the Wrestler. Features Natalie Portman as a lead ballet dancer whose mental and physical state is under extreme pressure from dancing the role of the Black Swan and White Swan in Swan Lake. I saw it at the London film festival at the end of October.

Monday 27 December 2010

Loose cannons

I am backtracking a bit here, to the London film festival in October. Probably my favourite film at the festival was an Italian film called Loose Cannons, directed by the Turkish - Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek, who also directed one of my other favourite films, Fate Ignoranti (Ignorant Fairies). This film is set in the lovely walled town of Lecce, making me want to go there on holiday. It is a story about two gay brothers wanting to come out to their pretty conservative pasta factory owning family. I particularly liked the fact that the film explored not just the two brothers, but also several of the other characters in the family. I think Ozpetek is a very sensitive and insightful director.

A very long engagement

I saw this at home using my Lovefilm subscription (which I have just upgraded so I can have a massive three films at home at any time!). It is a French film, set around the first world war, and five soldiers who are sentenced for desertion or self mutilation, and are sent over the top towards the german lines. The story is centred around the fiancee of one of the condemned, who attempts to learn more about his fate. The fiancee is played by Audrey Tatou, who appeared in Amelie. I enjoyed it, as a soft gentle film, despite the subject matter. It was also interesting to see a bit of the first world war from French eyes - not a single mention of any role played by the British!

The blind side

I watched this on my iPad whilst on holiday in Australia. It is a true story of a white American family in Memphis becoming the legal guardian of a 17 year old black boy who is homeless and a pupil at their childrens' school. He is a natural for an American football player, which is a game I don't follow. It is not a super heavyweight film, but I found it interesting and uplifting, if a bit sanitised at times. Sandra Bullock excels as the determined mother and Kathy Bates has a small part as a part time tutor.

Sunday 26 December 2010

Buried

I watched this film on a flight from Hong Kong to Sydney and found it pretty absorbing, but not one for those who suffer from claustrophobia. It is a one man show set entirely in a coffin somewhere in Iraq. The actor has been buried alive, but luckily was left with a mobile phone, so can phone all and sundry, to encourage them to come and find him and dig him out. He thinks of everyone short of the President.