Moonrise Kingdom Review

Release Date: 25th May 2012
Age Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 94 mins
Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Stars: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward and Bruce Willis

Wow! Another Wes Anderson film hits us again and definitely doesn't disappoint. I know the film came out in May but I unfortunately just got around to see it. I so wish I saw it in May, I missed so much.

Moonrise Kingdom is about a young boy and girl who run off together after sending letters to each other. This causes a local search party to fan out and find them. Both of the children both come from troublesome backgrounds which build their relationship. It’s such a simple concept but executed so well.

This film stars Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and the list goes on. It’s fantastic. This is one of the best films from last year; it’s unique, witty and funny. Now, I can’t review a Wes Anderson film without talking about the directing. The camera shots are the best I have seen all year, the camera just glides, it’s smooth to watch; it’s a pleasure to watch! His trademark shots, the simple ones are his best. The colours used in this film are also amazing, they are fantastically bright and beautiful, and they bring so much to the film.

Just wow! This is just how I can describe this film. It’s directing at his best! Every time I talk about this film it just makes me want to put the disk back in and watch it.  Along with the directing, the acting from the children in the film just take control of it, there performing is amazing. If I was that age and I was to take part in a film I would try and exaggerate every shot and try to get attention but these children just act.

In addition to all of the above the dialogue is fresh and funny; every scene has something to laugh at. I think it’s the fact that these children are acting like adults, it’s just so funny. Furthermore, each of the characters is given the right amount of background knowledge, you feel for them and it’s just character development at its best. Bruce Willis was also superb; it was like he was mimicking his big Hollywood hits, which was fantastic. It goes without saying Bill Murray was hilarious. “I’ll be out back. I’m gonna find a try to chop down.”

Pure perfection:

9.5/10

'What kind of bird are you?':

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Review

 

Release Date: 3rd October 2012

Age Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 102 mins

Director: Stephen Chbosky

Writers: Stephen Chbosky

Stars: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller

Stephen Chbosky brings us The Perks of Being a Wallflower; he has written the book and directed the film, which is pretty amazing if you ask me. This means we get a great perspective of how the author wanted the book to look. The Perks of being a Wallflower is about a boy named Charlie who doesn't have many friends at school for the first few months; when I say he doesn't have many friends he in fact has none. This all changes when he meets a boy called Patrick in one of his classes played by Ezra Miller. Patrick then introduces his step sister, Sam, played by Emma Watson to Charlie and there bond stands out from the very start. The rest of the film is about the remaining time together in high school. The Perks of Being a Wallflower makes the viewer feek all of the right emotions; it’s funny, intelligent and sometimes even very sad.

These kind of films can often fall flat on their faces, the characters can be flat and the punch lines don’t even tickle your funny bone. I am glad to say that this is not the case. I have not read the well loved book which I keep on hearing about, so I am just reviewing it as a film. I also hadn't read any reviews before I sat down to watch this film and I had no idea what to expect from it. The characters blossomed on the screen and they did not feel dry at all, I felt every one of their emotions with them. Logan Lerman and Emma Watson’s performances were good in this film, but the stand out performance came from Ezra Miller, you’ll just have to watch the film to know what I am talking about.

Like I said earlier this film is also very clever, some of the twists and turns you encounter on the way are very surprising. This is a surprise in its self because every time a film tries to add a twist into its plot you can see it coming from a mile off. Also, it is written in a way that you can see the story happening to somebody of that age; it’s not a million miles away of what actually happens in school life. The dialogue in this film is also very fresh and the film just has a great sense of innocence and it’s like the author climbed into a fifteen year old brain and took their thoughts from them, it was perfectly done.

There’s a great line in this film said by Paul Rudd, “We accept the love with think we deserve.” This drives Charlie to get closer to Sam which I found a really interesting part in the film. Along the story line of the film it gets very emotional about Charlie’s earlier life. I’m going to leave it there because I don’t want to spoil the film for you.

The only downside of this film is the ending, I felt it was a bit sloppy and they felt they were running out of time. It was just a bit heavy handed. This was the only fault I found with the film.

So therefore, I’m going to give The Perks of Being a Wallflower:

8.0/10

Trailer:

Argo Review

Release Date: 7th November 2012

Age Certificate: 15

Running Time: 120 mins
Director: Ben Affleck
Writers: Chris Terrio and Joshuah Bearman

Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and Alan Arkin

The film Argo is a dramatisation of the 1980 CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic prisoners out of revolutionary Iran. The way they try and carry out this mission is to make a fake film called Argo and pretend that these six people are the film crew. Ben Affleck's character comes up with this idea. Affleck directs Argo and obviously stars him. It’s a really intense dramatic thriller that was one of the best films from last year.   

You can tell that hey have put their research into the film this is because it has a great sense of realism. Ben Affleck is amazing. His first film was Gone Baby Gone, which was a fantastic film and then he came out with The Town, which in my opinion was not as good as Gone Baby Gone but still amazing. And now he has Argo which I believe is his best film. It’s fast and real. The 120 minutes of Argo seems to fly past far too quickly.

This is also one of Ben Affleck’s best performances, playing this American hero he has put himself as he may want to dramatise the role. But he is so toned down and makes the audience believe he is just a normal person with an idea that is so ridiculous it’s amazing. A good performance also comes from Bryan Cranston, which I’m kind of getting a little bit tired of saying, every time he comes on screen he takes on the role like it is himself. Alan Arkin and John Goodman's relationship is really funny, it's fantastic, you couldn't get two better people to work with each other. It always seems that Alan Arkin plays the same role in each film (the guy who swears a lot), which is still great to me.

Oh, and the mustaches will also keep you entertained.  

8.5/10

Argo trailer:

The Master Review

Release Date: 16th November 2012

Age Certificate: 15

Running Time: 144 mins

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writers: Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams

The Mater is directed by the genius Paul Thomas Anderson; it stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman (I don’t know why we have to say his middle name), Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams. It’s about a Naval veteran (Joaquin) who arrives home from war unsettled and is uncertain of his future – until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader.

Joaquin is out of his mind in this film, he has an unhealthy desire for women, you could say that he doesn’t really belong anywhere and every time he does go somewhere he starts a fight or gets kicked out. He is not someone you would be able to make the best of friends with. He then stumbles across this affluent man on a yacht (Phillip). He starts presenting these speeches; these speeches are so good that Joaquin gets sucked into the world of The Cause he is trying to get across. The two men start to develop a unique bond with one another.

The Master has the best acting in a film throughout the whole year of 2012, the screen seems to wrap around you, you start to believe that it isn't a film, you start to believe that it is happening right in front of you. That is one of the highest amounts a praise someone can give a film.

Joaquin Phoenix is nuts, he is not himself but deserves a definite Oscar, if he doesn't receive one I will be heartbroken. When Phillip and Joaquin have one on one conversations  with each other it is unbelievable, there is one scene (I won’t spoil too much) where Phillip is asking him questions about his life and it is one of the best scene I have seen all year, I would watch it over and over again, it was that good.

The film looks incredibly good, some of the shots used in this film most directors wouldn't even think of putting them in their film.

You should defiantly watch this if you love movies, like myself.

I’m going to give The Master:

9.4/10

Feast your eyes on this: