Movies about media is probably on of the most interesting topics to talk about from films like Network, Broadcast News, All President Men, Citizen Kane, Good Night and Good Luck, The Insider, Natural Born Killers, Shattered Glass, Zodiac and To Die For. Is most of this film talk about an specific event that media covers or perhaps stories in the news frontline.
Nightcrawler I would say is the first film to talk about the new Citizen Journalism trend. Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a thief who make a living taking part from construction sites. After stumble a film crew shooting a footage of an accident on the highway, Lou become inspired into do this job. After finally geared up, he approach to a morning news anchor Nina (Rene Russo) who offer him buy his footage. The main goal of Lou is to find violent incidents in neighborhoods because this attract viewers.
After a successful career covering the most violent incidents in Los Angeles. Lou hired an assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed) but also becomes highly obsessed on making the best work possible, to the point he will alter the crime scenes and also sabotage competitors in order to get more money even treat hen Nina to end their business relationship if she doesn't have sex with him.
Dan Gilroy director of Nightcrawler make a masterful job creating a dark Los Angeles. This is a very neo-noir crime thriller this is not the brightest and cooller time to see the Hollywood mecca, this is a city that breathe evilness and is it's dark and scary. The films reminds to "Drive", Collateral, To Live and Die in L.A. and other movies that shown a very obscure L.A.
This films question the role of citizen journalism, what is right or wrong, what sells as a piece of news and what's and what newscaster, reporters and news network personel are capable to do, to provide with what they consider the best news
Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic as Lou, you like him, you also hate him and scare of him. His mannerism and street talk make him a business charming man will to do what ever it takes to be the best. Cinematographer Robert Elswit and editor John Gilroy done a great job capturing the spirit of Los Angeles as well the darkness and tension of this seudo abandoned city.
Nightcrawler is a great achievement in filmmaking
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
The life of a artist, specially painters is surrounded by tragedies, unsatisfied loves, family conflicts but most of all great success. Hollywood had brought to the screen the life of so many talented painters. Fro Frida, Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Basquiat, Goya, Pollock to J.M.W. Turner.
Mr Turner is the story of this famous painter telling the story of a certain period of his life. Directed by Mike Leigh (Happy Go Lucky, Very Drake, Topsy Turvy) and masterfully acted my Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, The Last Samurai, The King Speech).
The film focus on his travels, his relationship with his father, as his servant as well his twisted relationship with his housekeeper. But also show J.M.W. Turner. techniques and methods of panting, from spitting over the finally work, with the idea of tweaking the painting and give more realism to the canvasses and also the exploration of several pigments in order to achieve real life like colors.
Spall represents Mr Turner strongly, with mannerism and nuances that leaves you amaze of how he was able to research a painter. The costume design by Jacqueline Durran is excellent as well the beautiful cinematography by Dick Pope.
Leigh style is slow and drives the film into a very intense and non dramatic movie, but music score by Gary Yershon set the tone to an intense ride where Spall take you from the country aristocracy, brothels and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Mr Turner is the story of this famous painter telling the story of a certain period of his life. Directed by Mike Leigh (Happy Go Lucky, Very Drake, Topsy Turvy) and masterfully acted my Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, The Last Samurai, The King Speech).
The film focus on his travels, his relationship with his father, as his servant as well his twisted relationship with his housekeeper. But also show J.M.W. Turner. techniques and methods of panting, from spitting over the finally work, with the idea of tweaking the painting and give more realism to the canvasses and also the exploration of several pigments in order to achieve real life like colors.
Spall represents Mr Turner strongly, with mannerism and nuances that leaves you amaze of how he was able to research a painter. The costume design by Jacqueline Durran is excellent as well the beautiful cinematography by Dick Pope.
Leigh style is slow and drives the film into a very intense and non dramatic movie, but music score by Gary Yershon set the tone to an intense ride where Spall take you from the country aristocracy, brothels and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Fighting war is about teamwork, you get all the talented people that you can get and then make them work together was one. In fact this one of the perfect metaphor when a group of soldiers are part of the crew on a tank.
This story is not new is been depicted on war film about flight crew (Memphis Belle) submarines (Das Boot and U571) and a tank too (Lebanon) but perhaps this last film is the perfect film to compare against David Ayery's "Fury" Don Wardaddy Collier (Brad Pitt) is the staff sergeant of the 66th Armored Regiment who commands a Sherman tank. His crew: Boyd "Bible" Swan (Shia Lebouf) Trini "Gordo" Garcia (Michael Peña) Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis (Jon Bernthal) and the newcomer Norman "Machine" Ellison (Logan Lerman).
Fury tells the story of this crew fighting the Germans in the mist of the end of war. Visiting several villages where still are traces of SS officers. For Norman this experience is new and scary, he never experienced war the way that Don and the rest of the crew has. Ayer's film shows a very rough side of war, sometimes extremely violent, who in a way is a vivid reflection of Norman virginity to war. From combat to killing he feels completely vulnerable to the situation, and the crew knows that, specially sergeant Don Collier, which in several ovations force him to face the roughness of the work that they do, like killing Germans, not because they are evil, is because are Americans enemy in this conflict. For Don the real meaning of war is war itself, is a interesting contrast for war strategy, they don't care about what plan they do, their job is kill Nazis: Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.
The film depicts a very difficult relationship between the crew itself and their tiredness of been secluded in that little space with each other. But also embrace the pleasure of doing the kind the job the do, by always using the line: "Best job I ever had" and also referring to Fury as their home.
Fury is a good film about war, but is not pretentious. Avery is not giving you inner meaning to the story is just raw story for the audience and they have to digest it right there on screen. Michael Peña and Shia Lebouf are excellent on their roles. Steven Price creates a very particular sound for the film with his score composition.
This story is not new is been depicted on war film about flight crew (Memphis Belle) submarines (Das Boot and U571) and a tank too (Lebanon) but perhaps this last film is the perfect film to compare against David Ayery's "Fury" Don Wardaddy Collier (Brad Pitt) is the staff sergeant of the 66th Armored Regiment who commands a Sherman tank. His crew: Boyd "Bible" Swan (Shia Lebouf) Trini "Gordo" Garcia (Michael Peña) Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis (Jon Bernthal) and the newcomer Norman "Machine" Ellison (Logan Lerman).
Fury tells the story of this crew fighting the Germans in the mist of the end of war. Visiting several villages where still are traces of SS officers. For Norman this experience is new and scary, he never experienced war the way that Don and the rest of the crew has. Ayer's film shows a very rough side of war, sometimes extremely violent, who in a way is a vivid reflection of Norman virginity to war. From combat to killing he feels completely vulnerable to the situation, and the crew knows that, specially sergeant Don Collier, which in several ovations force him to face the roughness of the work that they do, like killing Germans, not because they are evil, is because are Americans enemy in this conflict. For Don the real meaning of war is war itself, is a interesting contrast for war strategy, they don't care about what plan they do, their job is kill Nazis: Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.
The film depicts a very difficult relationship between the crew itself and their tiredness of been secluded in that little space with each other. But also embrace the pleasure of doing the kind the job the do, by always using the line: "Best job I ever had" and also referring to Fury as their home.
Fury is a good film about war, but is not pretentious. Avery is not giving you inner meaning to the story is just raw story for the audience and they have to digest it right there on screen. Michael Peña and Shia Lebouf are excellent on their roles. Steven Price creates a very particular sound for the film with his score composition.
Sometimes war were fought in a room filled with people instead of a war zone. Sometimes heroes are people who helped with strategy rather that the one who challenge the enemy until one of them just give up. This is the case of The Imitation Game a film by Morten Tydum (Buddy, Fallen Angels and Head Hunters) where Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) a mathematician, logician and pioneering of computer science his the key figure in cracking the Nazi German enigma code.
The films takes place in several years period where Turing is hired by MI6 to work with a team to crack the code. The story will have two different sets of flashbacks. one for Turing childhood and school time where he discovered his sexual orientation and also his early passion on cracking complex codes. the second flash back are the war time where the team and Turing work developing ways to analyze Nazi messages and the construction on the big computer who decipher the codes sent by the Germans.
Perhaps the problem with The Imitation Game is the film structure of those flashbacks. The film start in a specific time where Turing is talking to a police officer, then connect to the past, doing is back and forth scenes for a certain time. I assume that the idea of this scenes is connects the subsequent homosexuality charges with his work for MI6 and how people suspect about his behavior and how was consider a taboo for the British government and end up been his demise in late years.
On the other hand, the film won't disappoint. Is a inspiring film about a group of mathematicians and physics trying to win the war in a science lab and the early years of computers.
Benedict Cumberbatch is superb on this role, his performance is beyond extraordinary. Cumberbatch capture the essence of Turing. The rest of the cast is pretty good too, including Keira Knightley. The original score by Alexander Desplat is beautiful and the production design is well done.
The films takes place in several years period where Turing is hired by MI6 to work with a team to crack the code. The story will have two different sets of flashbacks. one for Turing childhood and school time where he discovered his sexual orientation and also his early passion on cracking complex codes. the second flash back are the war time where the team and Turing work developing ways to analyze Nazi messages and the construction on the big computer who decipher the codes sent by the Germans.
Perhaps the problem with The Imitation Game is the film structure of those flashbacks. The film start in a specific time where Turing is talking to a police officer, then connect to the past, doing is back and forth scenes for a certain time. I assume that the idea of this scenes is connects the subsequent homosexuality charges with his work for MI6 and how people suspect about his behavior and how was consider a taboo for the British government and end up been his demise in late years.
On the other hand, the film won't disappoint. Is a inspiring film about a group of mathematicians and physics trying to win the war in a science lab and the early years of computers.
Benedict Cumberbatch is superb on this role, his performance is beyond extraordinary. Cumberbatch capture the essence of Turing. The rest of the cast is pretty good too, including Keira Knightley. The original score by Alexander Desplat is beautiful and the production design is well done.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Vincent McKenna (Bill Murray) lives in Bay Ridge NY. Is an angry fellow, misunderstood, without money. But on the inside he have a will to live. After the arrival of Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) as Vincent new neighbor. Maggie is been forced due work related problems to have Oliver been take care by Vincent as nanny. The relationship turns into a special one. When Vincent teach Oliver how to fight, and bet on horse racing.
St Vincent is a funny story of the relationship of a kid and Vicent a sort of scoundrel trying to survive several circumstances like the pregnancy of his friend Daka (Naomi Watts) and the money debt with Zucko (Terrence Howard)
Bill Murray is amazing on this role as well Jaeden Lieberheras Oliver. The film is witty and funny.
St Vincent is a funny story of the relationship of a kid and Vicent a sort of scoundrel trying to survive several circumstances like the pregnancy of his friend Daka (Naomi Watts) and the money debt with Zucko (Terrence Howard)
Bill Murray is amazing on this role as well Jaeden Lieberheras Oliver. The film is witty and funny.
A dystopian world where humans are facing extinction, by loosing there main resources under extreme conditions. A retired pilot Copper (Matthew McConaughey) lives with his kids Murph and Tom. Later he discovered a secret mission that will guide space travelers to search a way to help humanity surviving in another planet.
Interstellar is the visual stunning and groundbreaking film from Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight Trilogy, Memento and Inception) This film is about love, sacrifice, space travel, time, wormholes and the fifth dimension.
Nolan takes space travel to a whole different level, with a glimpse of images similar to 2001 Space Odyssey, The Right Stuff, Alien and Gravity. He used as many elements possible to take you to a trip to the unknown, achieving a masterful cinematic experience.
Interstellar is a film about space exploration focusing on saving the civilization, not necessary saving the actual one, but helping to make a new civilization in a different planet. Besides the complexity of the story about wormholes, black holes, time, space and relativity. Interstellar metaphorically speaking is about dying tradition of analog technologies that are loosing the battle with new technologies.
A handful of elements, such as books, analog watches and black boards are present in the film only used by the actors. For Christopher Nolan artifacts are necessary in our lives, make us feel that the world is have a sense of unpredictability. The only computers available are TARS and CASE which are the state of the art robots who facilitate space travelers in driving the ship, working on the mission with a intensive database.
Code morse is perhaps one of the most groundbreaking element of communication in the film. Matthew McConaughey watch given to his daughter in the past turns out the key of communication with a message for a better future.
But the real connection between booth universe is held in the oldest carrier of information, books. Coopers home library contain the missing link and the reveal is gorgeous.
Hans Zimmer developed a singular score that simply skip his traditional sound, by creating one more human, less electronic with a nuances of Kubrick 2001.
Interstellar is the visual stunning and groundbreaking film from Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight Trilogy, Memento and Inception) This film is about love, sacrifice, space travel, time, wormholes and the fifth dimension.
Nolan takes space travel to a whole different level, with a glimpse of images similar to 2001 Space Odyssey, The Right Stuff, Alien and Gravity. He used as many elements possible to take you to a trip to the unknown, achieving a masterful cinematic experience.
Interstellar is a film about space exploration focusing on saving the civilization, not necessary saving the actual one, but helping to make a new civilization in a different planet. Besides the complexity of the story about wormholes, black holes, time, space and relativity. Interstellar metaphorically speaking is about dying tradition of analog technologies that are loosing the battle with new technologies.
A handful of elements, such as books, analog watches and black boards are present in the film only used by the actors. For Christopher Nolan artifacts are necessary in our lives, make us feel that the world is have a sense of unpredictability. The only computers available are TARS and CASE which are the state of the art robots who facilitate space travelers in driving the ship, working on the mission with a intensive database.
Code morse is perhaps one of the most groundbreaking element of communication in the film. Matthew McConaughey watch given to his daughter in the past turns out the key of communication with a message for a better future.
But the real connection between booth universe is held in the oldest carrier of information, books. Coopers home library contain the missing link and the reveal is gorgeous.
Hans Zimmer developed a singular score that simply skip his traditional sound, by creating one more human, less electronic with a nuances of Kubrick 2001.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Luc Besson director of (Leon, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element) bring back his stylized hit man look for the film Lucy. Scarlett Johanson and Morgan Freeman starring in this movie which seems to be like mind blowing adventure from drug trafficking to revenge. This science fiction thriller tales the story of Lucy a 25 year student living in Taipei, been forced to be a drug mule of a new synthetic drug, one of the bags breaks by accident inside Lucy's belly, the consequences Lucy acquired increasingly enhanced physical and mental capabilities, such as telepathy, telekinesis, mental time travel, and can choose not to feel pain or other discomforts, in addition to other abilities.
Lucy will continue her adventures to find a solution to the problem by contacting professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman)
Luc Besson bring the best of his action packed style adding interesting sci fi elements. The movie is complex, visually stunning and impressive. Probably Lucy will turn into a cult film in the future.
Lucy will continue her adventures to find a solution to the problem by contacting professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman)
Luc Besson bring the best of his action packed style adding interesting sci fi elements. The movie is complex, visually stunning and impressive. Probably Lucy will turn into a cult film in the future.
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