An Attempt At Structure - Hope is Just Round that Infinite Corner
This was, by far, the quickest
a week has gone by since I got to London, I'm in the thick of it in terms of
work I need to do so a lot of my week is being trapped in my tiny University Accommodation
room squinting at my computer as I desperately try to finish everything I have
to do for the week. However, with this heavy workload comes monotony and repetition,
by now the quick cycle routine of work makes these days feel indistinguishable
and in a pre-covid world my studies would feel much more purposeful and fulfilling.
One of the major things that I am missing out on is the weekly screenings,
three times a week the entire year of film studies would pile into a private
cinema and watch whatever film was being studied for the week but that isn’t possible
now and instead I choose when to watch a terrible digital rip of the film. I
really miss cinemas, hell I really miss having a TV, something about sitting
down at my desk on my tiny little laptop watching a film in 240p doesn’t quite
have the same power as that beautiful cinema experience. Being locked in a
cinema room, lights down, immersive sound, no distractions, just you and the
film is an experience that makes the act of watching a film extremely special.
A lot of the films we study are slow burners, annoyingly we keep revisiting the
'realism' genre that is just slow depictions of people living their lives. Without
much exciting directorial decisions or particularly adventurous filmmaking, I
find myself not able to appreciate or really delve into the films I'm studying,
perhaps it is the films themselves or perhaps it is just my terrible attention
span, either way I just can't seem to connect with the majority of films I'm
forced to sit through.
We are just about at the
halfway point of Lockdown Two and too be honest it hasn’t been great, but it
could have been a lot worse. Aimlessness is a frustrating luxury, having an
hour free to get some fresh air and exercise is nice but I often find myself
frustrated with the lack of direction. I have always like doing and planning
things, organising a big day out or a party and letting it payoff is a feeling
I appreciate but every day just seems to tick onwards. There's that
glimpse of good news from vaccine updates every now and then but after a year
like this optimism isn’t exactly my main focus, if it is ready by the end of November
as predicted, then we might be back to normal by next summer. Which is still 6
months away. Speculation is pointless and probably does more harm than good at
this point. I'm still here, I'm still extremely lucky and I've got one hell of
a party too look forward to once this is over. Anyway, here is what I watched
this week:
Get Out
A film I knew I loved was a
refreshing change of pace in my studies this week. I hadn’t actually revisited
Peele's debut since it came out and although I loved it then, I adored it this
time round. It is a hard film to talk about without spoiling, but it is a
political satire disguised as an insane horror film with a concise and witty
plot. I love a film with a clear idea and intention, I like a project that has
a specific voice and point that it wants to get across in a clear way and 'Get
Out' is one of the best examples of this. Peele has clearly wanted to tell this
story for a while and one of my favourite things about the film is how concise
it is, not a single scene is unnecessary or outstays its welcome, Peele clearly
worked hard to perfect the pacing and structure to a tee. Of course, the best
part of the film is a revolutionary front performance from Daniel Kaluuya, an extraordinary
actor whose performance here is just stunning and unbelievably controlled. A
delight to come back to.
The World
Nothing hurts more than when
you get excited about a film and it lets you down, I was super on board with
the concept of Jia Zhangke's 'The World' but the final product just didn’t
land. A pseudo-documentary perspective on the workers in a Beijing amusement
park designed to recreate attractions from across the world. It sounded like a
perfect analogy movie, using metaphors about globalisation to create a
fascinating deconstruction of the lives of these people. But instead it really
felt like a kind of unfocused and aimless film, Zhangke's intentions are clear
and unambiguous with this film, squandering a fantastic idea with a bizarre
focus on soap opera-esque characters and writing. It is a slow burn, 2 hours,
and 40 minutes of basically nothing but people having conversations and so I
kind of became detached from these characters, instead they came off as caricatures
in a surprisingly quiet film. I don’t know, maybe I need to revisit and give it
more time, but I was solely disappointed by this one.
No Country for Old Men
So, I mentioned earlier how I
struggle to concentrate and appreciate new films when watching them in terrible
quality from a laptop. As a result, the three spare nights I had this week were
spent watching films I already loved. Watching a film for the first time is a
special experience, there are a lot of films I wish I could watch again for the
first time, so I really worry about squandering that opportunity. Anyway, this
is simply one of the best films ever made. I adore the Coen Brothers, in fact
they are quickly becoming some of my favourite filmmakers ever (check out my
other Coen reviews here)
and NCFOM might be one of the best things they have ever done. An excruciating,
slow methodical western homage masterpiece, following a simple premise in an
unfathomable and confusing world. The Coen's signature enigmatic nature works
brilliant in a plot like this, a cat and mouse tale without anything satisfying
or tangible. I adore this so much.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
I have already written an
entire review about this film and anybody that knows me will already know just
how much I adore Taika Waititi on a personal level. He is a filmmaker who just
appeals to me, his thought process and filmmaking style is something I really
connect with and appreciate. Before he was swallowed up into Disney's gullet,
he made an unofficial trilogy of New Zealand set Comedy-Drama coming of age
masterpieces. 'Eagle Vs Shark', 'Boy' and this all share a devotion to growing
up and finding yourself in a very personal setting of New Zealand, often
touching on parts of Waititi's own life and experiences and the final results
are just outstanding, Although I prefer the rougher and kind of unpolished
feeling of the first two, this is still an absolute favourite of mine. A
hilarious adventure film about identity, lost souls and companionship, imagine
'Up' meets 'Moonrise Kingdom' that is somehow better than both of those films.
Check out my review and please give it a watch.
In the Loop
And on almost the complete
opposite end from the rest is 'In the Loop' the feature length sort of spin-off
from 'The Thick of It' that is a biting and hilarious political satire. I
consider Iannucci an undeniable genius, his work in comedy is fluent and
refreshing, satirical in nature but never afraid to get silly. Translating the
original show into a feature length setting is something I didn’t think
would work, especially with the idea of crossing the pond for the
majority of it, but Iannucci uses this to make a fascinating deconstruction of
the pathetic nature of British and American politics. He portrays American
Political Officials as more outrightly evil than the British, who are often
laughably incompetent in this universe. The perfect casting of Tom Hollander as
the one-off bumbling minister is downright wonderful, I love Hollander in everything,
and he gets to really flex comedically here. Capaldi and Addison return and are
brilliant as always, seeing Tucker go head to head with American politicians is
a wonderful refreshing step for this universe. Personally, the highlight of the
entire thing is the late great James Gandolfini who steals every scene with his
surprising comedic talents. A brilliant watch for fans of the show and British
comedy.
And that about does it! A week
of comfort films for sure. As always thanks for reading, the pictures are from
the wonderful Rosella Turner and I'll see you next week!