Fantasical Potter Franchise
April 11, 2016
The first trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has dropped starring Eddie Redmayne directed by David Yates who was responsible for the last four Harry Potter films. Check it out!
Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them
Such a Pretty Picture
January 12, 2016
The Danish Girl (2016).
D: Tom Hooper. DP: Danny Cohen. W: Lucinda Coxon. Starring: Eddie Redmayne/Alicia Vikander/Matthias Schoenaerts/Ben Wishaw/Amber Heard/Sebastian Koch. (Based on the novel by David Ebershoff)
2015 was certainly the year of high profile transgender projects and media attention. With shows like Amazon’s Transparent and Netflix’s Orange is the New Black winning awards and the birth of Caitlyn Jenner before us on TV, transgender images are abound.
In the 2000s they were mostly relegated to the side lines as TV movies like Girl Like Me or Soldier’s Girl were, but we shouldn’t forget the 2005 film Transamerica starring Felicity Huffman. This saw a woman play the male into female part rather than the opposite, rare are the film that deal with the female to male transformation like 1999 Boys Don’t Cry. This is certainly not a new subject in cinema as the brilliant Lawrence Anyways from Canadian direct Xavier Dolan proved again in 2012, but what is new is its profile. Big budget films that are given award season roll out and (let’s hope) a greater consciousness of what these projects mean to their audience. The Danish Girl is the newest member of this tribe.
Loosely based on the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerta Wegener, the film is set in the mid 1920s in Copenhagen where the couple have already been married for six years. You don’t need to know much else, they paint and laugh and Einar (Eddie Redmayne) begins to express his desire to put on his wife’s clothes. His wife Gerta (Alicia Vikander) dresses him up one night as Lili and slowly through the next two hours Einar is abandoned and Lili takes over. Once again so much was revealed in the trailers there is little need to say much else.
Director Tom Hooper, responsible for The King’s Speech and the atrociously long Les Misérables, is at home with beautiful Copenhagen and working with his usual DP, Danny Cohen. Cohen shot the complicated Room (as well as The Program) and allows the landscape and city to really be seen. Yet it is the sort of film where everything is a bit too pretty and too clean. A devastatingly emotional journey for the two leads is enveloped in so much gorgeous costume drama that it starts to feel unreal. As a ballet fan though, the use of the ballet space is a delight, all those tutes strung up in the air.
The emotional center of the film is Vikander’s performance. Her loyalty to her husband and love and understanding of who he turns into traps her and gives Vikander the scenes to shine. Excellent in Ex Machina and Testament of Youth, she is partnered well with Oscar winning Redmayne. He will clearly need a vacation after such physically focused performances in this and Theory of Everything. Redmayne’s tall lithe androgyny makes him a great choice and he carries Lili excellently.
Ultimately, The Danish Girl also suffers because we get so little time with couple before this transformation begins. It’s all too ‘off to the races’ and we can’t catch up. Thankfully Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts does appear as Lili’s childhood friend and gives the couple a third party to weigh in on the drama. A calming powerful presence, Schoenaerts (who was excellent in Far from the Madding Crowd) provides balance through third act. Yet by the end everything is a bit too much and The Danish Girl turns a personal journey into a beautiful cold portrait.
Planetary Belly Laughs
March 2, 2015
Jupiter Ascending (2015).
D/W: The Wachowskis. DP: John Toll. Starring: Mila Kunis/Channing Tatum/Eddie Redmayne/Sean Bean/Douglas Booth/Tuppence Middleton/Maria Doyle Kennedy/Gugu Mbatha-Raw/Nikki Amuka-Bird.
First success is oftentimes like a hot air balloon. Full of performance and awe at the sendoff then you are just up in the sky waiting for the scenery to change. The Wachowskis brothers, now known as just The Wachowskis due to Laurence now living as a transgender woman named Lana, must have experienced this after the conclusion of their trilogy of Matrix films. Their new film Jupiter Ascending appears to be literally and figuratively chasing Neo and Morpheus down the rabbit hole.
Jupiter Ascending follows working class Russian immigrant Jupiter (Mila Kunis) who cleans toilet bowls with her mom all day and resolutely exclaims “I hate my life.” Yet frankly she never seems to do anything about changing it. Enter wolf human hybrid stud Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) to save her from near death and help her ponder the size of the universe. Apparently, Jupiter is the reincarnation of a dead ‘entitled’ queen whose children are now battling over their inheritances. Just some basic sci-fi Shakespeare for the masses. But what this leads to is long action sequences with a plot woven in that carries more humor than you would expect, frankly the whole film is a superb accidental comedy.
What works in Jupiter Ascending are some the action sequences, as laughable as the gadgets may seem. Wise’s hovering surfing boots are a charming way to allow Tatum to move wherever he pleases. The first Chicago action sequence is shot remarkably well, but by the time we get to the third long sequence it feels like a bore. Especially when Kunis is involved as there is a straight from video game moment where she must attempt to escape a burning planet. She doesn’t know where to go so the building tells her, oops not that way there’s flames and so on.
The lead couple’s chemistry leaves a lot to be desired and it’s sadly thrust to the forefront of the film towards act three. Kunis is rather wooden and resolute for the majority of the film until a few scenes where she turns it up a notch. At least she gets the humor right, especially with some moments with grunting Tatum whose physique seems to be his only tool here. A tool better served in Magic Mike. Tatum is a bit better alongside Sean Bean whose clear purpose is to provide back story for Caine Wise (could his name be more obvious). This is no Ned Stark however, be warned.
Eddie Redmayne has the unfortunate luck that this is the film that follows his Oscar winning performance in The Theory of Everything despite it being filmed over two years ago. His Balem Abrasax whispers commands and yells like a petulant child as he seems to have crept into this film from a failed gender swap production of King Lear. By the end he is practically begging reincarnated Mummy to tell him how much she really loved him, inheritance and all. Maybe it could have worked in a different film where his siblings, played by Douglas Booth and Tuppence Middleton, had more scenes with him.
Jupiter Ascending despite all its flaws addresses complex issues of consumption, greed, and the obsession with youth and time. The parallels between these themes and modern culture today are admirable. It shows the strength in the Wachowski’s core writing that was unable to deliver in the dialogue here. Sadly all the effects swallowed this project whole, but it is good for laughs.
When the Stars Align
January 10, 2015
The Theory of Everything (2014).
D: James Marsh. W: Anthony McCarten. DP: Benoît Delhomme. Starring: Eddie Redmayne/Felicity Jones/Charlie Cox/David Thewlis/Emily Watson/Maxine Peake/Harry Lloyd/Simon McBurney. (based on Jane Hawking’s book, Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen)
This winter film season is flush with dealing with the dueling biopics. The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game follow two great British minds who not only broke mathematical boundaries, but experienced incredibly challenges in their personal lives. The irony being that Benedict Cumberbatch already played Hawking, in a 2004 BBC television movie simply entitled Hawking. It is hard not to compare the two now, but in future years they are surely to develop singularity.
The Theory of Everything is adapted from Jane Hawking’s own book about her life with famous physicist Stephen Hawking. A biopic yes, but one that is structured around a relationship that would define and contribute to Hawking’s work. Crippled by ALS or Lou Ghehrig’s disease while a Cambridge PHD student, Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) is given two years to live. Regardless his work and relationship with Jane (Felicity Jones) continues to much success, though not with out painful challenges.
Redmayne, known mostly for 2012’s Les Miserables and 2011’s My Week With Marilyn, is unforgettable here. The manipulation and control of his body is impressive, but his sense of grace and humor allows the character to feel alive and three dimensional. His large eyes and mouth are advantageous here so that Stephen does not seem lost behind glasses or gadgets. Redmayne’s chemistry with Jane played by Felicity Jones (2013’s The Invisible Woman, 2011’s Like Crazy) draws the emotional palette of the film. Jones’ carries her character with poise that travels through the years of Jane’s life well. The duo is supported well by a nice turns by Charlie Cox as their friend Jonathan and Harry Lloyd as Hawking’s Cambridge chum.
Throughout the film director James Marsh and cinematographer Benoît Delhomme use a liberal amount of close ups. The inflections of Redmayne’s face are charted and gives the narrative an intensely intimate quality to it. A few times a sepia tone or filter is used giving some sequences the look of a home video, which is a unique touch. However, the sort of rehash or film in sixty seconds montage at the end is silly and reductive. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score is incredibly beautiful, but maybe used a bit too heavily in some scenes.
The Theory of Everything is not about science or brilliance or perseverance or love, but rather that combination that generates hope. Although there is not anything game changing about the film as a whole, it’s certainly an engaging and moving story that is well acted.