Palo Alto: Movie Review

Palo Alto: Movie Review

Cast: James Franco, Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, Zoe Levin, Nat Wolff
Director: Gia Coppola

Written from a series of tales written by James Franco, Palo Alto is another take on the nihilistic teens in the American school system.

American Horror Story star Emma Roberts is April, the shy, sensitive girl who finds herself in the middle of the high school horrors of life. From parents who are distant and appear disinterested to a suitor whose unrequited crush is hard to handle, April's trying to negotiate her way through it all.

Further complicating things is a flirtation with James Franco's Mr B, a girl's soccer coach, for whom she babysits. Also part of the high school puzzle is stoner Teddy (played by newcomer Jack Kilmer) whose friendship with out of control Fred (Wolff) sees him on probation.

As the group spirals from one party to the next, and from one school day to another, their lives intersect and cross over in ways that are unimagined.

If you like your movies feeling a little aimless and without real consequence or closure, then Palo Alto is the film for you. Drifting from one sequence to the next, this series of vignettes will be polarising to many.

Sure, it's stylishly put together and seems very arthouse in its intentions, with some good solid performances - but it's never quite as engaging as perhaps it could be. Franco is a little goofy and dare I say it, creepy in his interactions with Emma Roberts' April, who captures the restlessness of the lost teen to a tee. Kilmer, whose dad appears in a brief hazy cameo, is the main revelation though, turning in a performance as Teddy, a teen who's trapped by his life and those around him. The interactions with the self-destructive Fred (Wolff) make for some of the best parts of the film as an all-too familiar story plays out its tragic tendencies in between all the talking rubbish, believing you're invincible and unstoppable. Equally, Fred's relationship with good girl gone bad Emily (Levin) rings true and aches with teens unable to find any form of identity.

A lack of resolution, meandering plots and stories may make for a good novella, but it makes for a divisive time at the movies, no matter how well shot and put together by Gia Coppola this may be. While the kids - and even the adults - assume no responsibility for any of their actions, making it hard for us to latch on to any of the cast.

Ultimately, Palo Alto paints a depressing picture of American youth, stuck in a perpetual haze of drink and drugs, lost in lust and desperately in search of an identity. It's pretty much a stylistically-shot universal tale of growing up, but the fecklessness may prove to be a trying cinematic experience for some.

Rating:

Labor Day: Blu Ray Review

Labor Day: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Entertainment

The director of Up In The Air returns for a masterful take on a Joyce Maynard novel.

It's 1987, small town America, and young teen Henry (Gattlin Griffith) is planning to spend Labor Day weekend, dreaming of life and getting ready to go back to school. But Henry's already grown up, having to care for his depressed mother Adele (a washed out Kate Winslet), who's never been the same since her husband Gerald (Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D's Clark Gregg) left. Unable to really live or even leave the house, Adele's prone to only occasional visits out, accompanied by Henry. However, one day, heading out to the shop for their monthly pilgrimage, Henry's approached by a man called Frank who is in dire need of help. Corralling Adele into helping as well, Frank, along with Henry, heads back to their home....it's here that they realise Frank is a criminal on the run.

Suddenly, the tension's palpable and Labor Day weekend is going to be a long weekend in more ways than one.

Labor Day is a gorgeously shot and utterly resonant piece of film-making from Up In The Air director Jason Reitman, who has, in one fell swoop, substantially upped his game (which was admittedly already pretty high).

Through beauteous tracking shots and occasionally portentous music, this surprising drama unfolds in a manner that's both engrossing and utterly compelling, forcing you to wallow in the story. There's a pensive, almost summer dream-like quality to the images as they fall from the screen; through gradual reveals and flashbacks, Reitman weaves together a cinematic tapestry that's subtle, nuanced and utterly hard to ignore. It's not revealing much to say that events and neighbours conspire against this Stockholm Syndrome story, but the main trio put in such quietly understated and impressive performances that you can't help but get captivated in this moody tale. All three are hoping for a dream outcome to what can -and must be- a doomed reality. Henry wants a father figure, Adele a release from years of not living and loving and Frank wants to atone for the past, regain what he lost and of course, be free.

All of these are doomed to failure as the bittersweet journey continues, but Reitman handles each with such deftness and directorial dexterity that we're captivated, swept up in the hopes and fears and ensconced in the story telling.

There are a couple of flaws in it though - a scene with Tobey Maguire seems surplus to requirements and some of the flashbacks seem a little unnecessarily dragged out and interspersed too randomly, but these are minor quibbles in a piece of film-making that luxuriates in the finer details of long lazy weekends.

All in all, Labor Day is a superior serving of drama that deserves your time.
Extras: Commentary; making of and deleted scenes

Rating:

Talking the NZIFF with festival director Bill Gosden

Talking the NZIFF with festival director Bill Gosden

The Auckland leg of the New Zealand International Film Festival may be over, but the Festival's rumbling on nationwide like a cinematic truck, packed full of delicious celluloid delights. Before the convoy left town, director Bill Gosden shared his thoughts on the event this year - and what lies ahead for both the regions - and 2015...

Hello, how are you?
The cold has entered the sinus phase.

We’re nearing the end of Auckland’s festival, how’s it been for you and the team?
Exhausting, of course, but very satisfying, give or take a couple of subtitle issues, the new trouble-spot of the DCP era.

What have been the highlights of the festival so far for you?
The Dark Horse, Housebound and Ross & Beth getting the love they deserve.

What’s been the one moment that impressed you most at the festival so far?
The collective sigh of disappointment from 500 children at our Civic school session when they realised that the animation programme had come to an end.

How have the crowds been – have you seen an improvement on numbers this year?
About 1,000 ahead of 2013.

There have been some highs too – major Hollywood stars at The Dark Horse premieres, Jarvis Cocker skyping in – what’s been your favourite reaction?
The pin-drop silence through the last act of The Dark Horse. The pandemonium of laughter and applause going into the opening credits of Wild Tales.

What’s been the most popular film so far?
Boyhood and Dior and I  played to huge houses one after the other – and seem to have met with universal praise.

Conversely, what’s been the one film that Aucklanders made a mistake in not embracing?
I expected people to flock to Salt of the Earth, the Sebastiao Salgado documentary, and was surprised when so few festival goers knew his work.

Which films have you actually snuck into and enjoyed? (We spotted you at It Follows…)
I felt particularly sneaky about seeing Force Majeure and The Lady from Shanghai so early in the piece. Having an office a few metres from the back row of the Civic stalls puts temptation permanently in my path.

The festival’s in full swing in Wellington now – how’s that going there?
Very well. As in Auckland, dismal weather has been on our side this year.

And it’s off around the regions – that must be exciting…
I’m especially looking forward to the South Island premiere of Housebound in Gore. Everyone tells me the St James Theatre there is fantastic. It’s time to find out for myself.

What’s the one film that you feel deserves a life beyond the festival and why?
Just one? NZIFF should be the first step in a long NZ career for any film we show.

How quickly do you think you’ll start looking at planning next year – and how do you think you can improve on this year’s festival?
The planning never stops. We’d love to see more international guests and more live music.

Just finally, if you had to sum this year’s festival up in just a few words, what would those words be?
It felt trimmer and more energetic this year – and I hope to be able to say the same thing about myself in a few weeks time...

For the full programme from around the regions, visit the New Zealand International Film Festival website at www.nziff.co.nz

And for a range of reviews from the 2014 New Zealand International Film Festival, just scroll back over the past few weeks on this very blog.

Assassins Creed Rogue Unveiled

Assassins Creed Rogue Unveiled

ALLEGIANCES CHANGE AND REVENGE RULES IN UBISOFT^®’S ASSASSIN’S CREED^®ROGUE

Sydney, Australia — August 6, 2014 — Today, Ubisoft announced that Assassin’s Creed Rogue, an exciting new installment in the franchise currently in development for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation^®3 computer entertainment system, will be available worldwide on November 11.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue is being developed by Ubisoft Sofia, in collaboration with Ubisoft’s Singapore, Montreal, Quebec, Chengdu, Milan and Bucharest studios. 

Set in the middle of the 18^th century during the Seven Years War, Assassin’s Creed Rogue gives players new locations across North America to explore, including the frozen North Atlantic, the Appalachian River Valley and New York. In Assassin’s Creed Rogue, players experience the Assassin’s Creed universe through the eyes of a Templar. 

As Shay Patrick Cormac, players suffer the brotherhood’s betrayal and transform into an Assassin hunter.

 

The acclaimed naval components from previous Assassin’s Creed games have been enhanced in Assassin’s Creed Rogue. The game also gives players new weapons to use on both land and sea in pursuit of taking down the Assassins, including a new ship called the Morrigan.

“We know that there are many Assassin’s Creed fans with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles who want to get their hands on a new Assassin’s Creed game this year,” says Martin Capel, game director, Ubisoft Sofia. “Assassin’s Creed Rogue completes the North American saga started with Assassin’s Creed^® III and Assassin’s Creed^® IV Black Flag and gives previous-generation console owners an exclusive opportunity to experience fan-requested features, such as playing as a Templar.”

More information about Assassin’s Creed Rogue can be found:

·         on the ubiblog.com; and,

·         at assassinscreed.com/rogue, twitter.com/assassinscreed, and facebook.com/assassinscreed.

A collector’s edition of the game that includes an art-book, three lithographs, the original soundtrack, and with two additional single player missions is available now via Uplay shop.

The Last Of Us Remastered: PS4 Review

The Last Of Us Remastered: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Naughty Dog

The re-release of the multi award winning Game of the Year The Last Of Us on the PS4 is perhaps no real surprise.

The game was a smash hit last year as you joined the post-apocalyptic world of battered survivor Joel and his attempts to shepherd his young charge Ellie to a new life. While facing various threats from humans infected with a parasitic plant virus.

If you've already played The Last Of Us - and the chances are high that you have given how many awards this game took - you already know the story of survival is packed with high emotion and intense action sequences throughout.

Graphically, the PS4 version looks stunning and there's no denying that the higher frame rate and quality has paid off in spades. Characters now look hyper real and action sequences are more crystal clear and compelling than ever before.

But it's the story still of The Last Of Us which proves a big reason to play through; though, granted, if you've already played this game once, you'd have to be a pretty big fan to play through again because there appears to be no real difference in plot. Half of the original's push was its clever storyline, its shocks and surprises (none more so than an opening sequence that is the very definition of dark and harrowing) and its constant uncertainty of where it's going. So if you already know that, I have to admit some of the game feels like it's some of its edge.

However, if you've never played The Last Of Us before, this is a great point to join in and a good looking game to get into immediately. Along with the Factions multiplayer, and the Left Behind Ellie DLC which explores her past, the package also offers eight new multiplayer maps so there's a feeling that this is a complete collection for The Last Of Us game, which is great.

Overall, while it's fair to say some of the originality of the game has gone if you've already played, The Last of Us Remastered is a must have for the PS4 - it takes the very best of gaming and combines it with the very best of the technology to provide a thrilling experience all round.

Rating:

Nymphomaniac Volumes I and II: DVD Review

Nymphomaniac Volumes I and II: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

Cinema's enfant terrible returns to fire off another salvo of provocation and start up another round of taboo discussion.

This time round, following a series of O face posters, and a tease campaign that's been guaranteed to whip all and sundry into a frenzy, and over a more cinema friendly 4 hour, 2 volume cut (though he has worked on a 5-and-a-half-hour director's cut), he tells the tale of Joe (played in later years by Charlotte Gainsbourg and in younger form by newcomer Stacy Martin). After being discovered beaten in an alleyway by Skarsgaard's Seligman, Joe takes to telling him of her life and loves and how she came to be in said alleyway.

Nymph()maniac Volume 1 deals with Joe's more formative years, her relationship with her ailing father (played by Christian Slater) and her coming to terms with who she is.  Divvied up into five chapters in Volume I, it also looks at her relationship with her apparent love Jerome (played by Shia LaBeouf who delivers one of the worst English accents ever committed to celluloid). It's clearly aiming for the more inflammatory, as it shows a couple of young girls trawling a train for men to sleep with as a competition to one up each other and win a tub of candy. Yet, it's also incredibly playful in among the graphic moments. Seligman is to all intents and purposes a monk, who's chosen books to life and who draws various analogies with Joe's choices to fly fishing. It's hilarious at times how shoehorned in that becomes but it serves as a philosophical bent to the film as well - parallels between sex and sin are drawn, the Fibonacci numbers are mentioned in among Joe's apparent regrets as she rhapsodises over her life.

The crowning moment of Nymph()maniac Volume 1  comes from Uma Thurman's appearance as a slighted woman who brings her children to Joe's house so that they can see the "whoring bed". It's a shocking scene as it teeters on extremely uncomfortable, pathetically sad and something more volatile.
Nymph()maniac Volume 1 ends on an almost unoriginal note - before images of plenty of sex are thrown in as a trailer for Nymph()maniac Volume II. It's touches like this that leave you unsure whether von Trier's playing with you and your expectations or the marketers have decided the most provocative moments will make you feel something. But the thing is, Nymphomaniac is not actually as button-pushing or as controversial as it purports to be. It's almost as if von Trier's lost some of his bite in among the playful narrative moments and close ups of phalluses; you roll your eyes in almost boredom rather than in anger. It's the most stunning part of Nymphomaniac - that a once notorious auteur has had to rely more on the marketing than the celluloid content to shock.

Nymph()maniac Volume II disappoints as it runs out of steam - it goes more for graphic rather than the philosophical debate and while Gainsbourg commands the screen, the final moments, just when you think von Trier's done more to combat accusations of misogyny and that sex is art, he throws in a moment that makes you throw up your hands in frustration as the screen goes to black.

All in all, Nymph()maniac is nowhere as bad or as notorious as you'd expect - it's certainly not titillating or erotic, merely functional in parts. You may actually be more surprised by what you see, but if you're a Von Trier connoisseur, you'll definitely feel the controversial auteur isn't as bad as he could be and that's perhaps the biggest shock of the film.

Rating:

NZIFF Review - The Congress and When Animals Dream

NZIFF Review - The Congress and When Animals Dream

Sci-fi and satire are the order of the day of The Congress, from the director of Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman.

Starring Robin Wright, and inspired by Stanislaw Lem's novel The Futurlogical Congress, it's the story of the actress Robin Wright, considered washed up by the Miramount studio. Unable to secure work for years, due to demands and concerns over looking after her son, Robin's offered one last contract by the studios to hand over her digital image so they can do what they want with her.

The only condition is she can never act again...

The Congress is a surrealist piece of cinema, that dances the line between head-scratching and reality with ease. But in among the animated weirdness, there's also a satire that hits at Hollywood and current pre-occupations with digital rights and intellectual property. Half animated, the film waltzes a line between Yellow Submarine with some truly gorgeous animation that is psychedelic and intoxicating to look at, as it mixes the line between sending up characters you know from Hollywood via classic WB animation with a dash of Ren and Stimpy.  It's the visual style which soars here initially before you immediately become accustomed to it.

And once you do, you realise that The Congress is quite a sad piece and potentially a warning to Hollywood over where it's going - there's no way that Folman's not constructed a piece which fires a shot over their bows telling them that the extremes they've painted in this picture could signal an interesting debate somewhere down the line. Pre-occupations with Hollywood fads, women in movies, ownership of properties - it's all up here for the discussion. There's a lot to debate and think on after this film - and towards the end of the NZIFF, that's no bad thing.

Elsewhere, When Animals Dream may at first glance appear to be that horror trope we've seen before - girl's awakening sexually brings out the animal in her (Ginger Snaps, anyone?).

But in this restrained Danish thriller, newcomer Sonia Suhl is our heroine Marie, who begins working at the local fish factory but comes to realise her family is harbouring a terrible secret.

Mixing atmospherics among the shots of moody coastline, director Jonas Alexander Arnby has brought a piece that's dark in tone and rich in subtext, while also proffering a few scares here and there. However, it's Suhl's piece as she channels the uncertainty and awkwardness of the age while probing into her family's secret background. As Marie's world changes, the film moves to the more stock standard werewolf tropes and horrified reactions, but it loses none of its impact and subtleties throughout.