This week, pretty much every film I watched was excellent. Even those which don’t get film of the week are all worth a watch. As well as being a chance to escape, films can also give a voice to people, a chance to present issues and start discussions and some of my choices for films this week do reflect that.
I start this week’s ramble on a lighter by discussing a British classic Richard Curtis Rom-com. The one of choice was Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). Starring Hugh Grant (or as you should know him, that guy from Paddington 2), we see Charles and American Carrie meet and fall in love over the course of… four weddings and a funeral.
The whole thing is rather cliched with typical awkward british humour. Yet it has an endearing innocence about it which make it a slightly enjoyable venture. It’s a Richard Curtis movie, I don’t need to say anymore. I think it’s a three star average sort of film and its available on Amazon Prime.
Fun fact, in 4 Weddings and a Funeral, Hugh Grant says “Fuck” more than Leonardo Di Caprio does in Wolf of Wall Street.
Having re-watched Crazy World, this time with younger brother and sister, I decided to give another We Are One International Film Festival film ago. All of the festival films are free on Youtube for 7 days after first release and worth a look. One of these films is Sisterhood (2017).
Based in Macau, we see four co-working masseuses work together and gain this sister like bond. However, while being masseuses they also gain “tips” from performing sexual favours. There is a lot of time jumps as 19 mourns the death of former friend 18 and we look at how they met at the same time. The structure was a bit confusing at first, similarly to Little Women. However, as the film starts to go on, we gain this understanding of what’s happened.
The beautiful friendship starts when 18 finds she has become pregnant and 19 offers to help raise the child. From this point, they develop together and look after the child. The film has a real universality about it, with the freedom to interpret whether these two are very best friends or whether there is a love interest. Either way, there is something that people can link to in a very similar way to the film Tomboy.
While the film gets a lot right, I did wish it could be 15/20 minutes longer giving us more time to establish the characters early on, including 38 and 44 who were rather overlooked. The pacing did feel rushed at times, again a result of the 93 minute run time.
All in all, the film was charming. I gave it three stars. It wasn’t a bad effort and it’s free to watch on Youtube for the next few days.
Erin Brokovich (2000) was a fun Friday night film to watch. Featuring Julia Roberts Oscar winning performance and based on a true story, Erin is an unemployed twice divorced single mum of three young kids. She is bitter with the world and desperate. A loud, strong and personable character who seeks justice, she says what she is thinking. When she finds work at a small law firm, she finds a real estate pro bono case is much deeper than she thinks as PG&E energy firm had been polluting the local water. Suddenly her and the firm have one of the biggest lawsuits in America on their hands. She has to balance this with her family and new love interest George.
This whole film was so good for one reason. While the story was the sort you see in so many films, the acting and the characters were a cut above the rest. Albert Finney as Ed Marsy and Aaron Eckhart as George were both strong additions, however it was Julia Roberts who stole the show. Her cool exterior mixed with her subtle vulnerabilities give you a hero you can get behind and feels deeply human. The whole thing adds up well with her style in stark contrast to everyone elses. Thomas Newman’s jazz piano score felt like it was straight out of suits and helped match that tone perfectly.
I thought this film was really. I give it four stars and really think its worth a watch. You can watch it with your family and will have a great time. It’s available on Netflix.
This week marked the DVD release of Best Picture and Palme D’or winner Parasite. I won’t talk much about it as I’ve already written a review before and have harped on about it endlessly. The basic plot is that the poor Kim family infiltrate the Park family household taking all of the jobs in the house under false aliases.
The film is virtually perfect. The acting, the plot, the dialogue, the camera movement and the soundtrack. Each part of the film is meticulously put together with purpose and style. It has comedy and tension in abundance. Some of the scenes put together are some of the best in cinema, such as the scene with the peach and the ramdon scene.
It’s easily a 5 star movie, it’s available on DVD now and to buy on your usual streaming services. If that doesn’t convince you, Donald Trump hates it.
4 Weeks, 3 Months and 2 Days (2007) would be my film of the week most weeks. The Palme D’Or really is one of the best films I’ve seen and would sit in my top 50 were I to make it. It focuses on two friends in post-soviet Romania, one of whom is pregnant. As abortion is against the law, they pay for a hotel room and ask someone to carry it out for them illegally. The “doctor” in question is morally reprehensible and asks things of them in return that are unforgivable, before carrying out the abortion and leaving the two girls to deal with the process.
The film is dark and uncompromising. It shows the dark reality of the situation in places where abortions are illegal. You feel uncomfortable throughout this film, with a real fear for the safety of the girl in question.
With such a low budget ($600,000), this piece is understated and relies on long single take camera shots making you feel like you’re in the room. Each scene goes on for a long time giving you a perspective of the anxious waits. Arguably, the most tense scenes are the ones where the friend is not in the hotel room, sat there concerned about how her friend is.
The film is an incredibly difficult watch, but it’s one of the best films of the 21st Century. Anamaria Marinca gave one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen. It’s worthy of 5 stars and if you can find the DVD or buy it on your typical streaming services, it’s worth it.
Film Of The Week
Like most others, I have been angered by the events in America over the last couple of weeks. Racial injustice has plagued both the UK and the US for a long time. If Beale Street Could Talk (On Amazon Prime), Blindspotting and Fruitvale Station (Both on Netflix) provide a few examples of films which have faced this head on. The Hate U Give and Hidden Figures both also provide a window with which you can start to discuss these issues with younger family members.
However, a film which I feel best reflects the current situation with all of the anger which it needs is Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing (1989).
I had been meaning to re-watch this film, however current events pushed it to the top of the list.
The film focuses on a Brooklyn street where Mookie (Spike Lee) is a delivery boy for Sal’s Pizzeria, owned by Italian American Sal and his two sons, one of whom is blatantly racist and unhappy to be working a predominantly black neighbourhood. It’s a really hot day in this loud movie. Most of the dialogue is shouted as the tension ramps up throughout the film, with the focal point being between Sal, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), both of whom are unhappy about how Sal refuses to embrace their identities in different ways.
Each character feels alive in this organic community as it faces racism head on. The film relies on a harsh red and orange colour pallet as the unwavering heat comes through, each character sweating and becoming more angry, before we reach the climax in which Radio Raheem is murdered by the police.
The anger which permeates throughout this film is clear to see. Spike Lee wanted to use his voice to point out the racial injustice. Quite how much this film mirrors today, despite being released 31 years ago, is disturbing, from the event of Radio Raheem’s death to the police getting away with it to the Brooklyn Mayor releasing a statement which only condemned property damage.
The relevancy is so clear that Spike Lee released a short film with intercuts of his film and George Floyd’s death earlier this week. This film is a must watch film.
Look for it online as it’s such a powerful watch. It’s out of stock in CEX, Amazon and HMV, but should be available to buy/rent on most home streaming services.
The Film Ramble 