At The Pictures: Greenberg

So last night I saw Greenberg, the latest film from Noah Baumbech or whatever he’s called. It stars Ben Stiller as the titular Roger Greenberg who retuns to his native LA following an exile in New York, and some kind of unspecified psychological breakdown inducing hospital stay. He hangs out with his brother’s PA, and meets up with his old band mate. All three central performances are pretty great, some of the best work I’ve seen from Stiller and Rhys Ifans. I’d not seen the girl in anything else but she was also great. Like a less hot less annoying Zoeey Deschanel. They’ve all got various issues and problems, and the plot doesn’t really go anywhere – the pet dog’s ongoing illness is the only narrative arc really, but it’s still engaging throughout and occasionally funny. I particularly enjoyed Greenberg’s ranty letters. The Mayor of New York, the airline company, a taxi firm, and Pakistan all fall foul of his poison pen. It’s not really a comedy though, just East Coast anxieties moved to sunny LA.

Books What I Done Been Reading

On the bus this morning I finally finished reading Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress Of Solitude, which I’d been given as a birthday gift back in March.

The book is essentially about New York, and Brooklyn in particular. It takes a panorama of themes equal to The Wire in scope. Race relations, gentrification, the end of hippy ideologies, music, drugs, graffiti, and some other bits and bobs are all touched upon as we follow the lives of 2 character growing up from the 70s to the present-ish day. There’s also a vein of the fantastic running through the book’s core, which intertwines with the characters’ love of comic books.

The whole thing’s pretty ambitious basically, and the writing style is a bit dense at first – it took a while for it to grip me, but I’m really glad I stuck with it.

At The Pictures: The Killer Inside Me and The Brothers Bloom

I went to the cinema twice in 2 days. Crazy.

First I saw Michael Winterbottom's The Killer Inside Me, which came shrink wrapped in controversy. It wasn't that bad reeeeeeeally. The violent scenes were pretty grim, but there was no implication that the women were enjoying it - which is a criticism I've read in some reviews. The film deals with the old literary staple of The Unreliable Narrator, but to me it didn't quite work. There's also a really bad CGI scene at one point. If you don't have the budget for a decent effects shot, then don't bother. I can't decide if I actually liked it or not. File under 'hmmm, interesting' I suppose.

The Brothers Bloom is Rian Johnson's follow up the opinion splitting Brick. For some reason it's taken about 2 years for it to reach UK cinemas. I really liked it, but I can see that it's not for everyone. Like Brick, it makes no allusions to being set in the 'real' world, which grates on some for reasons I don't get. It's a bit 'indie film by numbers' at times. A little Coen Bros, a bit of Wes Anderson, etcetera etcetera, but I don't mind a bit of that. All the locations they filmed at were stunning, and the trio of central performers were great. Plot wise I don't think it quite manages to do everything it was trying to, but it's a fun ride. Hope his next film gets here sooner rather than later.

At The Pictures round-up

Hello Blog! Seen some films, forgot to blog about them. Let's see if I can remember them all.

The Ghost - Not very good. Silly pot-boiler of a thriller that didn't really work. The whole thing hinged on some hidden evidence that really would have been found within about 5 minutes if the baddies had done a proper search for it. Ludicrous twist at the end as well. Oh dear. I've never seen my girlfriend hate anything as much as she did this film (except for the drug dealer guy who used to park in our car park in the old flat, and the Evil Ninja Cat from down the road).

4 Lions - This broke my run of 'going to see underwhelming films'. Hurrah! A great film from Chris Morris of Brasseye etc fame. A nice companion film to In The Loop in a way, both exploring different aspects of The War On Terror blahdiblahblah. The phrase 'rubber dinghy rapids' still has me chuckling. Gets very dark in places, as expected, but it's hilarious for about 99% of the time.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans - Werner Herzog's bonkers 'remake' is pretty much the best film I've seen this year. The only word I find that can do it justice is 'wild'. It's also hilarious. Even the old couple sat in front of me (who started out saying "I didn't think it was going to be like this" during one of the earlier scenes) were howling with laughter at the iguana scene. Another fantastic Nic Cage performance following Kick Ass.

Next up I might go and see The Killer Inside Me, though I'm going to look like a right stealth-perv going to watch it on my own :-(

At The Pictures: A Single Man & Iron Man 2

Had 2 slightly underwhelming trips to the pictures last week, let's hope whatever I see next restores my faith in cinema.

First up was A Single Man, the lauded debut from fashion man Tom Ford. The direction was a bit OTT for my tastes, lots of slow lingering arty shots. It was a bit like those perfume adverts you get at Christmas time, only a bit depressing. The performances were great though, Tony From Skins did particularly well to overcome his weird mega-tan and the worst jumper ever created. Ultimately it felt empty though, and the ending was a bit of cop-out.

Iron Man 2 is the imaginatively titled sequel to Iron Man, the surprise hit of whenever it was that it first came out. Like A Single Man, it has some cracking performances - Downey Jr is perfect in the lead roll, but it's Sam Rockwell that steals the thunder with his fantastic turn as a business rival desperate to cash in on the Iron Man arms race. Unfortunately the film really does fall apart around them. The plot is really unengaging and doesn't really do anything beyond moving us from point A to point B. Mickey Rourke has a great intro but isn't really given much to do after that. Scarlett Johansen is utterly pointless. Samuel Jackon turns up for a confusing cameo that probably means nothing to non 'fanboy' types, and the director Jon Favreau vainly inserts himself into as many scenes as possible. On top of this you've also got Gwyneth Paltrow in a will-they-won't-they roll that's hard to get excited about, and Don Cheadle gets to be War Machine for a bit. Even though there's already way too much going on, they then shoe horn in a load of 'world building' stuff to supposedly wet our appetites for the other Marvel films in production - Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers. It's not a bad film in any way, but it's not a good film either. It's a bit of a shame really.

The Pizza Slice: Cafe Citta

Cafe Citta's biggest boast is that they have Cardiff's only wood burning pizza oven, countering the claims made by the gas burning 0 Degrees and Prezzo. So obviously I've been itching to go since I noticed it opening a few months ago. I wasn't sat close enough to the oven to see it exactly, but there was definitely wood smoke in the air as I ordered a ham and mushroom. Unfortunately it wasn't a stone oven, but some kind of metal one, so the oven can't sustain the fierce 400 degree heat of a proper pizza oven - no 90 second pizzas here, but it was still one of the best pizzas I've had in Cardiff. Nice base, slightly charred (though not blistered), and crisp at the edge. What really sang though was the quality of the ham. Not sure exactly what sort of pig it came from, but it was really tasty. The service was a bit slow as the oven isn't big enough to cope with the demand of a full restaurant in which everyone wants pizza. Which was a shame, but the pizza we were presented with was worth the wait I suppose. The side salad that came with it wasn't particularly great, and I've had better coffee as well, but I'd still be happy to return.

At The Pictures: Hurt Locker and Kick Ass

Haven't had much time for blogging for various boring reasons so I'm a bit behind.

The Hurt Locker - finally got round to seeing this a few weeks ago in Chapter's Cinema 2 (the tiny one that's all red with stars). If I could, I'd see every film in the world in that little room. Mind you, it did get really warm what with it being completely full of people - including 2 brilliant old ladies sat behind me who went "gosh!" and "no!" and talked about mints in that brilliant way that only old ladies can. DIGRESSION! Sorry, the film itself was pretty good but I didn't really take anything away from it. Definitely not the best film of the last year, but good enough. It goes downhill a bit towards the end, but the tension is (for the majority) held throughout and the main character's recklessness is engaging. It just loses it at the end. I really didn't like the last scene at all, wrong choice of music more than anything. Anyway, nerd face on - I really want Katheryn Bigelow to direct The Avengers. She's built her career making films about men being manly, and if you just swap the 2 leads from Hurt Locker with Captain America (the straigh-laced 'by the book' character) and Iron Man as the reckless one and you've pretty much nailed the dynamic. Oh well, she/they won't do it and The Avengers is going to be a horrible mess of a turd.

Kick Ass - when I studied for my A Level in Film we did this bit about genres, and how there's 3 stages to a genre's developement. Kick Ass shows the superhero/comic book genre (restarted by X Men about 10 years ago) moving into the 3rd and final phase, what we called The Decadent Phase. Basically what this means is that it gets a bit postmodern and dicks about with the genre conventions and the viewer's expectations. Kick Ass does it brilliantly as well, from that opening shot of the crazy guy attempting to fly and onwards, it's basically made the whole genre redundant - Mark Webb's Spider-Man reboot feels especially irrelevent now (though I'll keep an open mind 'till I see some footage obvs). Nic Cage channelling Adam West is one of the greatest things I've seen on screen. The only thing I didn't like was the use of music from other films. It's fine when it's done in a pop cultural way, the Banana Splits theme soundtracking Hit Girl's first massacre is brilliant, but when it just cuts into straight 'film music' from 28 Days Later and Sunshine it really jarred me out of the moment (especially with the Sunshine one, as I couldn't remember what film I'd heard it in before and it was bugging me). But all in all it's a cracking little film and well worth watching.

Side note re: Kick Ass - Where the hell was my Scott Pilgrim trailer Cineworld? I'd been avoiding it online all week so I could catch it on the big screen! Boo-urns. I've watched it online now anyway. Looks like Edgar Wright has really nailed the feel of it and the visuals, but I'm still unconvinced on Michael Cera as Pilgrim. Wait & See innit.