One Spoiler Is Hidden For Wallflower. To Reveal It, Highlight the black box.

By the time you read this, I will have most likely gone to the cinema. I know this because I meant to write this piece on a Sunday and ran out of time and am due to go to the cinema on Monday. Quite an exciting experience, it should be a significant moment as we return to normality. Of course, I will let you know how my time in Odeon, Kingston went.

Anyhow, hopefully the film I see will be better than We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011). The basic premise of the film is that we see Kevin’s mum evaluate her life and wonder whether she’s responsible for her son carrying out a murderous rampage at the school and whether she could have stopped him. The quick answer is it wasn’t her fault because her kid was a bit of an arse all along.

I really wasn’t won over by this film. I had to take some time to work out whether I loved it or hated it. I thought about it a bit the next day before deciding it wasn’t my cup of tea. Compared to the much more chaotic “You Were Never Really Here”, this film was much more messy in its story writing. Lynne Ramsey went for artistic decisions instead of story ones. The film time shifted all over the place in an attempt to show contrast and leave you guessing what happened, although it was all rather predictable. The music was tonally dissonant and on the day I just didn’t feel the film. The primarily red colour scheme reminded me of the shining but I didn’t get it. Ezra Miller’s older Kevin seemed chilling when we first met him, but an hour later when we saw him again, he’d just lost the momentum, probably thanks to younger Kevin.

Credit where credit is due, as the mother Tilda Swinton was brilliant. This was probably the best role I’ve seen her in. Her pained character was really engaging as we saw a mother who didn’t love her child. Her interactions and quiet moments were both great and she made the film watchable.

Like I said, I wasn’t sure if I was feeling it or not. Maybe on another day, I would have given this film 4 stars, but based on how I felt watching it at the time, I give it 2 stars. It’s widely available to buy on many of the streaming services.

I’m not going to try and rate Who Killed Captain Alex? (2010). Made by Wakaliwood, this film was Uganda’s first ever action movie. It had a budget of $200 and was made at a time of civil unrest. The film centres on soldier Captain Alex being assasinated and Kung Fu Master Bruce U. It all goes crazy as the leader of the Tiger Mafia wants his brother back, oh and everyone in Uganda knows Kung Fu. It’s great this film found an audience. It’s only available in Low Resoloution as the director assumed nobody would watch the film outside of his town and he needed to delete it to make space for the new one.

It’s brilliant fun and I’m not even going to try and rate it. It’s free on Prime Video and the Wakaliwood Youtube channel.

Now on to some really high quality films this week, I was rather apprehensive when I watched Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) after watching Me and Earl and the Dying Girl a couple of weeks ago and despising it. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. The film follows Charlie’s (Logan Lerman) first year in high school. We know that his friend had recently comitted suicide and that he’s had some mental issues in the past. He isn’t looking forward to high school and plans to keep his head down. However his plans change when he meets step siblings Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson). Soon these three become close and we see Charlie’s highs and lows throughout the year.

At first the firm feels quite happy-sad in the same way that Sing Streets’ happy moments have a darker subtle tinge to them, however it soon feels more like Stand By Me as this group deal with their issues. From what I’ve seen from Letterboxd reviews (I don’t know how accurate they are), this is an accurate portrayal of young people’s mental health. Throughout the runtime, the film is intense. One bad moment can lead Charlie down a slippery slope in a world where everyone is dealing with their own problems.

The soundtrack was brilliant. I’m never going to complain about the use of Dexys Midnight Runners in a film and the tone of the songs matched what was going on crisply. The film was really well put together, however I had one or two issues. Firstly, I couldn’t get over it being Emma Watson playing Sam. It just felt like Emma Watson playing an Emma Watson character. Since Harry Potter, I feel like she’s never broken away from the role. She wasn’t awful, just I would have preferred a different actress.

My big issue is story related. At the end of the film is a form of twist as we find out that Charlie was assualted by his aunt as a child. With the film feeling honest, it was a shame this was hidden as some form of twist. The use of dramatic effect came at the detriment of understanding why Charlie acted the way he did in earlier scenes. The moment didn’t pay off at all, especially as it had been hinted at about 5 minutes earlier. It didn’t need to be a major part throughout the story, I just felt let down by the decision to keep it as a twist.

This didn’t stop me enjoying the film on the whole though. I thought it was a great character study which was well made and well acted. I gave it 4.5 stars and it’s available on Netflix AND Prime Video.

The weirdest film I watched this week was Anomalisa (2015). When you think stop motion, you think a man and his dog going to the moon to get some cheese. Change your perception now, as you watch a man become overwhelmed with depression and self-destructive tendencies. The film by Charlie Kauffman (Eternal Sunshine) looks at motivational speaker Michael Stone who goes to Cincinatti to give a talk. He’s obsessed with an ex, unhappy in his relationship and looking for something. For a while you hope it’s a new romance story otherwise it will be a sad story.

The whole thing is a black comedy. I don’t really enjoy comedies mostly, but the bleakness can be profound. Thematically, the story was put together well, showing these people as oddly human yet robotic from Michael’s perspective. The rich colours felt a sham compared to such dim lighting.

As great as it was, this film is likely to be divisive. It’s very odd and quite adult in its themes. Definitely not one to watch with the parents. The main character isn’t especially likable. It didn’t affect me too much but you don’t really end up with a character to root for, more one who has a story to tell.

Anomalisa was rather messed up, but I thought it was smartly put together and a brilliant, if awkward, watch. I give it 4.5 stars. It’s currently not free on any streaming services, although is on Film4 at 1am on one morning, so likely to be on All4 by the end of the week.

Film Of The Week

There are very few film makers as epic as Akiro Kurosawa, the samurai master. SO when you give him a big budget and a camera with colour, you know you could get something special. That is what you get with Ran (1985). Based on a mix of Shakespeare’s King Lear and samurai folklore, we see a samurai retire and split his kingdom into three between his sons. However, with this want for more power corruption starts to take over as they all want more, driving their father out and turning on one another.

The whole film is like a stage play, although with a much greater scale. The war scenes are all epic. The use of colour is vivid, allowing you to work out who is part of which army. Each character has their own psych as we learn in the end that the most loyal individual to their family will prosper. The costumes were all a joy to see and the make up on the father as he slowly loses his mind. His individual performance was a stand out as he looked back on his life and his mistakes in an attempt to find redemption in a Shakespearean manner. The sound track is also fantastic in a Kurosawa-esque way.

It was epic. At 2 hours 40, I had no problem watching it in one sitting. It felt like a cumulation of all of one of the all time great director’s work. It wasn’t my favourite of his, I prefer both Rashomon and Seven Samurai, but that says more about them being masterpieces than anything. Anyway Ran is a brilliant film, an essential watch of 4.5 star calibre, it’s on BFI Player.