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nickwatches · 11 years

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Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

Interstella 5555 is a 2003 film that is joint production between Daft Punk, the Toei Animation and Leiji Matsumoto. The film originates from the narrative that Daft Punk envisioned for their music in their album Discovery. The film was made in order to give a visual representation to the songs. It was released in France on May 28th of 2003.

The story in the film follows a band from a far planet. While they’re playing a concert masked commandos storm into the stage and attempt to forcibly take the band members. The crowd disperses in the chaos; the band uses this opportunity to escape.

Despite their remarkable resistance all of the members are captured and shipped to earth. Once they reach earth, there is a glimpse of the mastermind behind the kidnapping.

The man behind this put the alien band through what seems to be an assembly machine that recolors their skin and hair to make them look human. They also produce false memories for the band members to believe that they’re human.

Although unbeknownst to the kidnapper, Shep, a big fan of the band, and more remarkably, infatuated with the bass player, is alerted of the events that occurred during the concert. Shep decides to track and follow the kidnappers, but after an aerial confrontation between their ships, he’s shot down and his well-being is hidden to the audience until the film advances.

Shep is determined to save his dream lady.

Having new memories and with their human looks, the band only ever remembered being human and playing for the “record company agent”, who is actually the man between their kidnapping.

He uses the band to achieve fame for the band in order to acquire a golden disc that was given to the band as an award for the music they produced believing they were human.

Shep makes an apparition at this moment and clears away all the doubts the band began to have about their real stories. Although in his rescue attempt Shep is fatally injured.

Daft Punk makes a Cameo as themselves. The film is extremely colorful.

He gives his last moments to confess his love to the bass player and to provide them with a plan to return to their home planet.

They bury Shep under a tree, not without properly honoring his valiant rescue.

Finally the band confronts the mastermind for a last time. This man is actually been doing the process of kidnapping musicians all around the galaxy in order to provide himself with golden discs he needed to equip his machine to take over the universe. Upon their spoiling his machiavellic plan and the evil “music executive” is seemingly defeated, the population of learns about the alien’s real nature and in their empathy they provide them with a ship in order to leave Earth. It is a this moment that as the entered a wormhole the evil spirit of their kidnapper attacks their ship, only to be once again challenged by the last breath of Shep’s essence. As they safely get through their journey, the band is rediscovered by their planetary space control, finally returning to their respectful place.

The Band in their Human disguise.

As we studied through the book, animated films are not genres in themselves but just a method to deliver the story differently.

In this films particular case though, several of the most common elements are not present seen as the film almost exclusively provides all sounds from songs on the Discovery Album of Daft Punks. Although these could seem crippling, the film’s intent is to provide a visual narrative to complement the film.

The audience becomes more involved into looking for queues and hints to the implied, or nondiegetic elements of the film are subtly in the lyrics and mood of the soundtrack.

The mise-en-scène is crafted through the colorful animation, in this two different worlds, earth and the planet of the musicians. The contrast and predominance of the colors of each planet bring up a portrayal of cultural differences, but with the ultimate similarity of the enjoyment of music, which was perhaps the intent of the story that was told by the filmmakers.

#Daft Punk #Discovery #interstella 5555

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nickwatches · 11 years

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Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies is a 2013 film based on Isaac Marion's novel of the same name. Directed and written by Jonathan Levine, the film stars Nicholas Hoult (R), Teresa Palmer (Julie), Analeigh Tipton (Nora) and Rob Coddry (M). The film premiered on the 16th of January 2013 in Italy, Rome. The filming locations were in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The budget for the film approximately was $35,000,000, and the film made $116,959,959 in the box office.

The film begins with R (Nicholas Hoult) addressing the audience. He speaks about how he has no recollection of how he became a zombie, of his identity or of why he is at the airport. R is unusual, even for a zombie, as he is extremely self-aware, and is capable of complex thoughts. Although another big difference that sets him apart from the rest of the zombies is that he has transformed an abandoned airplane into a quasi-apartment.

Simultaneously Julie, a young adult is sent to the city with a group of people her age in order to scavenge supplies and pharmaceuticals that are needed in the survivor’s settlement they live in.

Julie’s group arrives to the pharmacy, which incidentally is the same place where R and his friend, M, who happen to be looking for food, i.e. human brains. After they get to the supplies they find themselves trapped in a room amongst a horde of zombies, including R and M. R takes notice on Julie but after a short glimpse he is shot by Julie’s boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco). R retaliates and ends up killing and eating Perry.

R encounters Julie's group.

This, as explained by R, makes him go through Perry’s memories. When a zombie eats a brain, the zombie relives some of the most important memories of the person. R is then smitten by Julie through Perry’s memories.

Julie finds herself left behind by the group as they assume she’s been eaten, as they had several casualties. After R regains consciousness her reaches out to Julie, how at first is terrified of R.

R makes efforts of communicating, which after struggling for a while, he was able to speak some words of English. Before this incident, he was only able to groan. Julie has sparked something in R’s heart.

After R’s has gained some of Julie’s confidence, she convinces him to help her return to the settlement. Halfway there, she learns about Perry, which damages their growing relationship.

R starts feeling, amongst his feelings cold, and warmness around Julie.

They finally reach the outskirts of the settlement, and they become separated. R seeks Julie, and finds himself in the middle of the city, about to find out that the settlers are planning to eradicate the zombie threat. Despite ever since R started having feelings for Julie made some of the zombies start to feel too, with a small of hint of a heartbeat, and color coming back to their skin.

H... Huuuu.... Huuuunnnngry.

As Julie has learned that the less decomposed zombies still retain some humanity in them, she struggles to make the armed group to focus on the zombies that are beyond ever regaining their heartbeat.

Towards the end the both groups realize they need each other in order to fend off the real threat. The “Bonies” the fully decomposed zombies.

R and Julie find themselves falling in an attempt to survive the bonies’s attacks, R takes the impact of the fall, thus saving Julie. They kiss, but Julie’s father the commander of the armed forces, still unconvinced of R’s innocence, shoots him in the chest, to which Julie responds with the fact that he has started bleeding, and the dead don’t bleed. R has came back to life alongside the zombies that fought of the bonies alongside M. M realizes his name is Marcus, although R, can’t remember his and prefers to stay R.

This film had an interesting approach with its marketing and with creating expectations for the film, with seemingly clichéd scenarios that take a twist and a spin. Mostly revolving around the fact the protagonist is undead.

The film takes on the ever-growing sub-genre of Zombie movies, and the so-called ZomRomCom (Zombie, Romance, Comedy), by refreshing approach. The love interest of the lead female in the film is a zombie. This, practically unheard of, lends itself for the innovation of the film to grow in ways that have not been explored previously in films like Zombieland or Shaun of The Dead.

The Bonies, scarier creatures that are just instinct and cruelty.

The narrative of the film is unleashed in intricate but sensible way. We are introduced by the character (as a narrator) to the character and setting where the story takes place. The décor in film convinces the viewer that the film is taking place in a dystopian US. And the filmmakers surprise the audience by using feelings of humanity to regain life for the zombies.

The film addresses most of its logic with elements seen on the screen and through the dialogue of the characters.

A link to the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07s-cNFffDM

#Warm Bodies

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nickwatches · 11 years

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Control

Control is a 2007 film by Anton Corbijn. The film is a biopic on Ian Curtis’s life, the lead singer of the late 70s, early 80s post-punk band, Joy Division. The film’s profile on Ian Curtis is guided by Deborah Curtis’s (Ian’s widow) biographic book on him. Featured stars in the film are Sam Riley (Ian Curtis), Samantha Morton (Debbie Curtis), Alexandra Maria Lara (Annik Honore). The film premiere was at Cannes Film Festival in France, on May 17th of 2007. The film budget was €4,500,000 approximately, and it made $8,159,508 at the box office. The filming locations were in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, UK and Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK.

A Young Ian and Debbie get married at the alarming 19 and 18 years of age, respectively.

The film starts with Ian’s fascination of the music scene during the 70s. An eager young adult, Ian disregards the social stigma and status quo and decides to marry in 1975 to Debbie Woodruff. Ian prefers to be in solitude and has a keenness for writing poetry on his own. Enthusiastic about the booming Sex Pistols playing in Manchester, he goes to their show where he meets his future band mates. Inspired by how tangible the Sex Pistols seemed to them they decided to start a band.

They form a band named Warsaw, and after a debut they rename themselves into Joy Division, based on a risqué play on words about a Nazi Germany brothel’s name.

Ian watches the Sex Pistols in the fateful Manchester show.

Ian working at an employment agency witnesses a seizure suffered by one of the patrons, which makes an impact on him and later comes to be the origin of one of Joy Division’s biggest songs.

After being mentioned in a television program by a celebrated host Tony Wilson, Ian demands that the band is featured in their program. After impressing the host, they’re signed alongside acquiring a new manager.

When Joy Division finally makes it to London, Ian suffers a seizure after their first gig in the city. He is then diagnosed with epilepsy. The medication that he was provided made him feel moody and drowsy. At this point he learns about the patron that he witnessed having a seizure died, and that brings up “She Lost Control”, where the title of the film originates. Soon after he started taking medication he becomes distant and starts to neglect Debbie. She later gives birth to their daughter Natalie in April of 1979.

Joy Division playing Love Will Tear Us Apart

Ian starts touring and leaves Debbie at home, taking care of the baby. After a few shows, during an interviewed, Ian talks to a Belgian journalist named Annik Honoré. He tells her that he is miserable and questions whether he made the wrong decision having gotten married. They start having an affair while Joy Division toured Europe during January of 1980. Upon returning home he is confronted by Debbie, and he tells her the affair is over, despite he continues to see Annik during recordings of their next album.

During a show Ian has a seizure half-way through a performance. With the stress of his feelings for Annik and Debbie, and the despair caused by the Epilepsy and its medication, he attempts suicide by taking an overdose of his medication. His state worsens as he becomes unable to go onstage, which makes the audience of a show riot. At this point Debbie demands a divorce from Ian as she learns he’s still seeing Annik. Despite his band members’ attempt to help, he leaves them to stay with his parents. He writes a letter to Annik confessing that he thinks his condition will ultimately kill him, and that he loved her.

Annik and Ian’s relationship had elements that his relationship with Debbie didn’t develop.

The film jumps then to the day of May 17 of 1980. Joy Division will begin a tour in America and the expectations are immense. Ian in an attempt to feel some security begs his wife to not get a divorce, but it her disagreement he orders her to leave. He spends the night drinking and writing a letter to Debbie, and later passes out after yet another seizure. Having woken up the next day he hangs himself from the clothes line in the kitchen. Later Debbie finds Ian’s body when she returns home, and she runs to the streets crying for help. The band is stunned and devastated and Tony attempts to console Annik. The lyrics to their song “24 hours” is read in Sam Riley’s voice and the film ends.

Interestingly enough the director, Corbijn was fan of the band from its early days. Having also directed a music video for Joy Division’s song “Atmosphere” 8 years after Curtis’s death, his decision to pursue making the biographic film is fascinating.

When a film is based on events as narrated by a person close to the individual biographic profile, personal interpretation of their actions is only to be expected. However, whilst watching the film one has to wonder how Corbijn used Deborah Curtis’s book and commentary.

One of the boldest decisions in the film was that despite the film was captured in color; it was printed in black and white. As the production commented they intended to “reflect the atmosphere of Joy Division, and the mood of the era”. Which to the viewer simply initially only seems like a visual stylistic choice, as the film develops the decision becomes ever more valuable as the lack of color transmits the unearthliness that surrounded the grief of Ian Curtis.

The Cast fooling around on set. Seemingly anachronistic camera is the only hint it's not an actual discarded shot.

The soundtrack provided by New Order, a band that formed from the remaining members of Joy Division, and Sam Riley singing in imitation of Ian Curtis’s voice, which in turn creates a very natural and impactful sound that helps to carry the intensity of certain scenes and provides more depth to their narrative.

The film brings a small reflector on the complexity of the psychological and physical health issues that Ian struggled with, which can be damaging to the ethical appeal of the film, but it becomes obvious that the primary approach the director took was focused on appealing to the emotions of the audience.

I find worth mentioning that the interpretation this film might receive from its viewers is highly affected by their preconceived notions on the topics addressed in the film. That’d been said, it’s one of the films where what you bring with you affects what you take with you as well.

Curtis strolls down the streets of Macclesfield with a lit cigarette in his mouth.

Although the film can be lacking in establishing credibility for the struggle that Curtis went through, it should be said that the seemingly flawless camera work makes up for it. Amongst some of the most valuable memories of the film there is a scene where there’s no dialogue and we follow Curtis walking down the road and realize he has the word “Hate” painted on his jacket. This actually happened, yet there is something ravishing about the way the scene is captured. It provides a small but wondrous snippet of who this complex character Ian Curtis was.

#Control #Joy Division #Ian Curtis #Touching From A Distance #Anthony Corbijn #Sam Riley #Samantha Morton #Alexandra Maria Lara #New Order

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nickwatches · 11 years

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Le petit Nicolas

Le petit Nicolas is a Fidélité Productions (Fidélité Films) 2009 film. Inspired and based on the children books of the same title by René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé. The film was directed by Laurent Tirard and it stars Maxime Godart (Nicolas), Kad Merad (Nicolas’s Father), Valérie Lemercier (Nicolas’s Mom) and Sandrine Kiberlain (The Teacher). The film was released on September 30th of 2009 In Belgium, France where it was filmed and produced, alongside with Switzerland.

The kids are being pop quizzed by an overly-strict professor, in line before entering the class room.

Nicolas led a very simple life for a kid of his own age, with no care in the world. Happy with his loving parents, he simply relished in having mischievous adventures with his friends from school. Although a very normal life, the scenarios Nicolas finds himself in are somewhat absurd.

As Nicolas gets into a close knitted group of frolicsome children, he finds out that his mother is pregnant. To Nicolas’s horror, one of his friends tells him about how his own parents neglected him as soon as his little brother was born. Learning this Nicolas, in his naivety, gets his friends to help him device how to get rid of the baby brother threat.

Nicolas and his gang of “devilish” children.

With the kids crafting ridiculous inventions and coming up with the most ludicrous plans, they get it all sorts of shenanigans. Some of those include a car going downhill, almost out of control, with one of the kids on the wheel, and another attempting to spot for the driver while he has a “spaceman” helmet that’s clouded by his own breath.

Finally Nicolas’s sibling is born, and to all of the kids’ surprise Nicolas has now a sister, instead of what they had assumed all along would be a boy. Shortly after her birth Nicolas finally warms up to the idea of a sister, and decides to be a comedian when he grows up, as he finds himself to be found extremely funny by others, and he is keen on the idea of bringing happiness to others.

Nicolas and his "loving" mother, as he starts questioning her love.

Le Petit Nicolas is a visually captivating film that with its lovely cinematography and its colorful cast produces an extremely picturesque window into the child-like vision of life. The vivid colors throughout the film make the viewers appreciate how it is to see the world from Nicolas and his friends’ perspectives, paying attention to the details that adults already are desensitized to.

The setting of the film also provides the viewer with an imaginative nostalgic time and place that despite it could be extremely different to where they grew up, provides reassurance by it taking place France of 1956.

The director establishes from early in the film a sense of friendship with Nicolas, as we’re to empathize with his silliness, but still be able to laugh at the absurdity of the events his gets himself into. With a big cast of child actors in the film it is surprising how detailed the acting comes from the children, which immerses the viewer into the narrative of the film with more credibility.

To an adult the jealousy that Nicolas feels as soon as he learns about his future sibling would be worrisome if not shrugged upon, but in the way the director establishes Nicolas’ selfish motivation only exists because of the fact he is a naïve child. The viewer watches the effect of the crazy scenarios slip into Nicolas’ mind, which makes him grow as a character without taking from his childhood joyousness.

The cast and crew of the film at the film’s release.

As of the intention of the director, to show the amusing but valuable life lessons Goscinny wrote about in his books. The viewer whether a child or not, is reminded of the beauty of friendship and camaraderie, and the purity of love in a tight family as Nicolas’. With that been mentioned, it can be assumed that the target audience is primarily children, but the film works just as meaningful for children as it does for adults.

With jest and laughter Le petit Nicolas appeals to emotions with its clever use of Nicolas’ character depict its narrative and make it relatable to the audience.

A link to the film's trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZHNjPvLpNw

#Le petit Nicolas #René Goscinny #Jean-Jacques Sempé #Maxime Godart #Kad Merad #Valérie Lemercier #Sandrine Kimberlain #Fidélité Productions #Laurent Tirard #Little Nicholas

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nickwatches · 11 years

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Sleep Walk with Me

Sleep Walk with Me is a film distributed by IFC Films and produced by Ira Glass and Jacob Jaffke. Mike Birbiglia co-wrote, co-directed (with Seth Barrish) and acted on the film, as a character based on him. The film premiered on January 23 on 2012 for the Sundance Film Festival. The film primarily stars Mike Birbiglia (Matt Pandamiglio), Lauren Ambrose (Abby), James Rebhorn (Frank), Carol Kane (Linda), Sondra James (Colleen). The film made a gross total of $2,263,436 at the box office.

Matt's Dreams find him in ridiculous pajama-situations.

Based on Mike Birbiglia’s life story and struggle with relationships, career decision and personal health, previously told through his book and one-man Broadway show, we follow Matt Pandamiglio, an upcoming stand-up comedian that finds himself quite apathetic about his life and his slow rise to the names of comic speakers.

Matt speaks directly to the audience, commenting about what they’re about to see.

His sister is about to get married which raises a feeling of uneasiness amongst both Matt and Abby (Lauren Ambrose), seeing as they have been together for several years, yet the relationship does not seem to be heading in any particular direction.

Stranded between pursuing his stand-up career and earning his daily bread as a bartender, Matt has an uneasy stage presence and the crowd hardly is responsive to his humorous attempts. As his frustration increases because of not “making it” yet, and his relationship clutching at straws, Matt’s stressed body and mind starts playing with him as he starts having increasingly severe sleep-walking episodes. These episodes although highly comic, endanger him more than he realizes and he shrugs them off.

As his relationship starts to take a turn for the worse, Matt starts to try to get more exposure for his act. He gets in contact with an agent named Colleen (Sondra James) who does seemingly not full-heartedly believe in her new client, but nonetheless finds small gigs for Matt.

Abby attempts to reignite their passion for each other with intimacy. Matt initially reciprocates, but his guilt gets the best of him.

After several times on stage, Matt starts to recognize he gets a more positive reaction of the crowd when he basis his act upon his own personal experience and relationships. People respond to his somewhat self-deprecating, yet comic view on his own life. While he is touring on his dad’s car, the constant separation and confrontations with Abby lead him to feel guilt. He realizes he is dragging the relationship past a point where they’re wasting time being together as neither of them is really sure about settling down for good, despite the years they’ve been together.

Uneasy Stage presence. Matt gets caught in a Lip Sync competition where he expected a stand-up gig.

At this point Matt’s sleep-walking is reaching a ridiculous factor. Amidst dreams he jumps off his hotel’s room second floor. Seeing as he injured himself, he finally listens to his father’s advice and takes action against his sleep-walking issues.

Matt dreams of escaping a missile, while his body jumps off a La Quinta Inn second Floor window.

It all comes up to a climax as Matt finds himself cheating on Abby, twice, despite the relationship was almost non-existent by this point, it still does not excuse Matt, and neither does he forgives himself for it. His career had finally jumpstarted and he ultimately decides his health and his chances as a stand-up comedian will only be possible if he ends the relationship with Abby.

They part ways and Matt ends up becoming substantially successful and Abby to find a man that she was sure of, whom she married and had children with later on.

Matt feels like he’s regained a source of purpose in his life and proceeds to give himself happily into his act.

Director Mike Birbiglia holding one of the awards he received for his film.

Birbiglia presents an interesting adaptation of his very successful life story in this film. Having performed on Broadway as one-man show and written a book about it, he decided to tackle the film approach.

Much like my previous entry, this is Birbiglia’s debut as a film director. Although it is his first film the production value of the film displays a polished guiding hand.

The film takes jump between the past, where the events are being narrated by Pandamiglio, with occasional flash-forwards to the present after the resolution of the obstacles in the film.

It is worthwhile mentioning that the film provides a narrative and imagery that takes its audience’s attention and constantly sparks details to retain their concentration. This serves the purpose of the film smoothly as some of the dialogue and extremely personal experiences could easily alienate the audience, yet the production team consciously throws small bones, throughout the film, with comic mischief from the characters dialogue.

The film’s length could’ve easily worked against itself if it weren’t for its smart use of time and narration jumps.

Interestingly enough, Birbiglia was invited to NPR’s program Fresh Air to talk about his film and his experiences, where he made ties from the small embellishments to the rawness of some of the scenes in the field, which would surprise even the best editors as the work done on the film feels as credible as a biography with a quirky narrator.

The film's website presents the trailer alongside with more information about it.

http://watch.sleepwalkmovie.com/

#Mike Birbiglia #Matt Pandamiglio #Sleep Walk With Me #NPR #Fresh Air #Lauren Ambrose

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nickwatches · 11 years

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Submarine

Submarine is a 2010 film written and directed by Richard Ayoade, based on the novel of the same title by Joe Dunthorne. It premiered September the 12th of 2010 for the Toronto International Film Festival. The film is Ayoade’s debut as a director, as he was mainly an actor before this venture. The film stars Craig Roberts (Oliver Tate), Yasmin Paige (Jordana Bevan), Sally Hawkins (Jill Tate), Noah Taylor (Lloyd Tate) and Paddy Considine (Graham Purvis). The locations in the film were captured in the surrounding areas of Swansea, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom.

Oliver is a somewhat eccentric fifteen-year-old seeking ways to assert his individuality by listening exclusively to French Crooners.

Oliver Tate, a fifteen-year-old boy from Swansea, Wales, is the protagonist of this coming of age film. It all starts with a monologue by Oliver, where he states how everyone seeks to have a claim of singularity, to be unique, and/or important.

In ways it could be said Oliver is a precocious teenager that takes a somewhat misguided social analyst view of his life and those that surround him. Oliver is smitten with Jordana Bevan a girl whom he finds fascinating as she stands out from the crowd of his school. He attributes certain characteristics to Jordana based on his “observations”. He comes up with bewildering guesses from her red coat, fascination for pyromania and pariah-like-behavior that she could be a Fabian, a socialist that believes in gradual changes.

Oliver “Progress over Principles” Tate.

He notices how Jordana enjoys bullying to an extent, so he decides that his “principles must not come in the way of progress” in order for him to get her to notice him. In hopes of gaining Jordana's attention, he bullies a girl with Jordana and his one of his other friends. Oliver utterly feels regret about what happened to the girl and her absence from school on the following day. He writes the bullied girl a pamphlet on how to break a victim cycle. However the pamphlet is intercepted by Jordana, which she uses to manipulate him into meeting her after school.

When they’ve met up under a train bridge, she takes pictures of them kissing and makes him write a journal entry in hopes to enrage her ex. Although as the news spread throughout the school Oliver gets beaten up by Jordana’s ex, mostly out of refusing to concede that Jordana was a “slut” and told him to fornicate himself. This turns out to bring Oliver and Jordana together much to Oliver’s happiness, until the second part of the film begins, with the focus of his new neighbors.

From Tate-Bevan Productions Super 8 film, Two Weeks of Lovemaking, by Oliver.

Oliver’s parents, Jill and Lloyd, have been going through a rough patch in their marriage. Lloyd has “submerged” into depression, attributed to him losing his previous job, and he has withdrawn himself from being attentive to his wife. This is when the neighbors enter the picture, seen as Graham Purvis, a “new-age guru” has moved next door, and he happens to be an ex-boyfriend of Jill’s.

Lloyd is not terribly fond about how friendly Graham has been ever since he moved, and Oliver, much to his established personality, is suspicious of Graham’s intentions. Oliver is aware that his father is letting his relationship with his mother sink, and he becomes desperate to somehow reignite it, just as he realizes that Graham is going to make this harder. Even though Graham moved in with a girlfriend, he soon breaks up with her and becomes far more involved in his “friendship” with Jill. Lloyd despite openly dislikes Graham, is far too taken by his condition to act upon his discomfort of Jill hanging out with Graham.

Jill shows Lloyd a video of Graham’s teachings in order to get him interested into a lecture Graham will be giving. Lloyd is not amused.

Contemporary with this, despite Oliver’s relationship with Jordana has brought him a lot of newfound happiness; he soon discovers that Jordana’s mother has a brain tumor that highly endangers her life. This seems to make Jordana into a “mushier” more in-touch with her feelings and he decides that she’s soon not going to be the person he loves. He puts himself fully into discovering his mother’s interest with Graham, and to find a way for his father to snap out and regain his wife’s passion.

When Oliver seeks to discover Graham and his mother having an affair he spots Jordana with another boy at the beach. He runs home, but on his way he sees Graham and his mother going to the beach together, which he feels outraged by and breaks into Graham’s house. Once in, he gets drunk and pees on Graham’s videos, pukes on his van and after having had several of his father’s antidepressants he passes out in Graham’s apartment. The next morning he wakes to find that Graham dropped him off at home and after they all had a talk, in which Lloyd finally sparked up, Graham will not be a worry to Oliver, or to his parents.

Oliver's industrial escapade. In this scene he morosely settles into an abandoned bathtub, deep in thought.

Even though Oliver withdrew himself out of Jordana’s life, he felt her loss and aside from his parent’s situation got better, he is still heartbroken from her loss. Much like his father’s depression, Oliver seems to dive in to where he father has been before, until one day he sees Jordana at the beach. He had tried to convince her before of taking him back with much ado and no results, but after they share a conversation she tells her she’s not with the boy he saw her with anymore, and the film ends with them walking along the sea smiling.

In which Oliver lists reasons for Jordana to sleep with him.

Much like my first blog entry, I have read the book the film is based on, but in this case I only got to read it after I had seen the film. The film has a different focus than the book itself and uses its story more loosely. However it takes what make the novel great and uses it to make a fascinating film. As mentioned in the film details, this is Richard Ayoade first time directing, seen as he mostly worked as an actor. Ayoade, famously known for his role as Moss on The IT Crowd, a comedy series, uses his experience with quirky, yet dark humor subtly in the dialog in the film.

The film addresses the topic of depression in a very interesting way. It compares the feeling of being depressed with being submerged underwater, as if one is only spectating and reacting in a minor fashion to what occurs to one. The first glimpse of this theme is portrayed subtly by Noah Taylor (Lloyd Tate), in his performance through his mannerism and speech one can imagine how morose this man is. At first it would seem to those without much knowledge about depression as if it’s just the way of being of Lloyd, but as the film carries on and the situations in the film get more overwhelming the character devolves, much to Craig Roberts’ character (Oliver).

Oliver's parents give him a "talking-to" after his "pissed" raid on Graham's house and property.

Ayoade sought to make this coming-of-age film to be as relatable as possible for different audiences; therefore he contacted Alex Turner, the front man of the successful band ‘Artic Monkeys’, to create a completely original soundtrack. What Turner and Ayoade accomplished with this was, despite having a sound reminiscent of soft, easy-going ballads from the late 80s, that being recently composed it wouldn’t be songs recognizable to the audience.

It is argued amongst critics and enthusiasts whether the film’s agelessness is due to Ayoade’s intent of having the film to be relevant to a wider audience, or whether it was because of the limited budget, which would difficult to deal with all anachronism and continuity details. Personally I believe despite a few elements exuded that mentioned 80s-90s “vibe”, I felt the film to be endearingly relatable and I couldn’t quite put my finger of when the film took place, until I read the book which coincides with the general setting that the film established visually.

Throughout the film it can be observed that the palette is leaning towards cold colors, with the exception of certain scenes where Ayoade wants to accentuate warmness, as in the bedroom scene and Oliver’s initial and failed attempt to woo Jordana. Also importantly as Oliver gets closer to Jordana, the color red, which primarily suggest Jordana, subtly slips into Oliver's palette.

Craig Roberts narrates throughout the film, giving a sense of intimate following of his train of thought, and as he descends into a similar depression as his father’s, the viewers can listen to the transition of his state of mind. With this decision Ayoade explored a captivating insight into Dunthorne’s original ideas on Oliver’s descent.

Oliver submerges himself fully-clothed into a pool out of frustration.

The film is extremely multi-layered and with every viewing different aspects come to life or to the front of the narrative to the viewer, as they captured the essence of an extremely re-watchable film.

Finally but not least important, films of a similar nature are starting to approach mainstream popularity slowly, which should be fulfilling for lovers of strong narrative and character development in cinematography.

I'm providing a link to one of my favorite songs by Alex Turner produced exclusively for the film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wp4oI0oS44

A link to the trailer as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-WCCdkVDr4

If you're not a big fan of Ben Stiller, don't let the fact he is in the production team discourage you from watching the film!

#Submarine #Richard Ayoade #Joe Dunthorne #Alex Turner #Craig Roberts #Yasmin Paige #Noah Taylor #Sally Hawkins #Paddy Considine #Wales #South Wales #Ben Stiller #Oliver Tate #Jordana Bevan

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nickwatches · 11 years

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About a Boy

About a Boy is a Universal Pictures film. It was co-directed by brothers Chris and Paul Weitz and based on the novel by Nick Hornby of the same title. The Screenplay was written by Peter Hedges. It was released the 26th of April 2002 in the United Kingdom, and premiered in the USA the 17th of May of the same year. The film stars Hugh Grant as Will Freeman, Nicholas Hoult as Marcus Brewer and Toni Collette as Fiona Brewer. The locations in the film are scattered around London, England, United Kingdom. The film’s budget was an estimate of $27,000,000 and made approximately $130,549,455 in the box office.

Nicholas Hoult and Hugh Grant stare into each other's soul.

The film follows a 12-year-old boy named Marcus, who leads a tumultuous life living with his depressed mother, who’s vegetarian and music therapist, and a 38-year-old man by the name of Will, perpetually stuck in a young adult sense of “coolness” and aloofness that begins to lose its appeal and sense of fulfillment.

Will is man that has always enjoyed the simple pleasures in life, simple relationships, television, pop culture and smoking. He has dignifiedly being content with swaying his way through life involving himself as little as he could in other people’s lives. The film begins with him refusing to be the godfather of his best friends’ child as he tells them he wouldn’t be the best person as he truly is “really shallow”. His friends are somewhat concerned that Will life is meaningless without him truly involving himself in other’s life, which Will shrugs it off.

Will "Really is that Shallow". Struggling to hold the baby.

Will finds himself involving himself with a single mother named Angie, which surprisingly he found more stimulating than his previous affairs. Deriving from this Will ideates a plan to meet more single mothers, whom he founds to be interesting and “easy prey”. He invents a two-year-old son named Ned, whom he takes care of because of his dysfunctional ex, and he takes this story to a single-parents group named SPAT (Single Parents Alone Together).

Through this single-parent group he meets Suzie, a single mother he becomes interested quickly for her good lucks and charming personality. After seeing each other a few times, and Will making excuses for Ned’s absence, Suzie takes Marcus as well her child. Marcus is Suzie’s bestfriend’s son, who she brought upon her friend’s request, Fiona.

Will find Marcus to be a really eccentric kid and after an incident where Marcus accidently kills a duck with a loaf of hard bread, Will gets him out of trouble. Marcus sees in Will a cool, modern, up-beat man that could date his mother, who has been depressed ever since her divorce with Marcus’s father.

Surprising even to himself, Will is wonderful with kids.

After the picnic is over and Suzie and Will are dropping of Marcus, they find Fiona with a bottle of pills and vomit on the couch. After Fiona makes it out of the hospital, Marcus find himself not wanting to be around her being afraid that he might intensify her depression. He finds himself following Will home, where he deduces that his façade and manipulates him into spending time with him and her mother, in his attempts to prevent her from “offing” herself again. However as Marcus’s plan leads to no improvement, he starts sharing time with him in Will’s apartment.

Will initially wasn’t amused by Marcus’s insistence to hang around his apartment but he sees himself pushed into getting involved in Marcus’s life as he realizes he has absolutely no father figure that teaches him how to function socially, prevent being targeted by bullies, and what music to listen to in order to go under the radar (mainly hip hop).

As Will and Marcus’s relationship becomes equally significant for both of them, Will meets a single mother named Rachel, who he is absolutely convinced is in-love with. Will again returns to his old-self in an attempt to gather her interested by pretending he has a twelve-year-old son, seeing as she is a children book author. Nonetheless after seeing her a few times he comes clean to her, and their relationship becomes the most meaningful relationship Will has had with a woman, and from it, realizes how truly important his relationship with Marcus has been.

Will and Marcus watch a countless amount of Game Shows after he sneaks to his place after school.

After Will bewildered Fiona, when she finds out that Marcus has been hanging out with Will after school, and that he lied about being a single-father, she prohibits Will from being near his son, until Marcus leashes out at her for putting so much pressure in a twelve-year-old. In this shocking moment for Fiona she realizes that as much as she’s tried Will is indeed a positive figure in Marcus’s life and she warms up to him as a friend.

Although everything seemed to be sailing smoothly for a while, Fiona’s depression starts taking another turn for the worst, and Marcus in a desperate attempt decides to sing in front of the school for his mother to watch him and feel proud. He chose “Killing Me Softly” which he knew was an important song for his mother, seen as she had sang it before previously on the film. When Will finds out about this he becomes extremely concerned as he knows that if Marcus follows through with this, the entire improvement they’ve worked on him having an easier time in school will be undone as kids will find it as a reason to bully him.

Will speeds his way to school with Fiona, and runs to stop Marcus from embarrassing himself, but as he gets there, Marcus has already started, and to his horror it is going as he expected. At this moment Will improvises and bribes a kid to lend him his electric guitar, which he uses to join in with Marcus, to make the performance “cooler”. To Marcus’s surprise Will’s appearance saves his day and he receives an ovation from the crowd.

Having read the novel previous to watching the film, this adaptation of a novel stays true to the sentiment of the book. Despite it changes details like the music that Will introduces to Marcus, I believe this choice by the producers brings a slightly more contemporary feeling to the movie, seeing as in the book originally Marcus had gotten into Nirvana, and the events take place between 1993-1994.

Marcus manipulated Will into taken them for lunch to a posh restaurant.

The length of the film is precisely as long as it should’ve been, in face I kept hoping throughout the film that I still had more than half the film to go, I wanted to have more to watch.

Aside from the film maintaining the message the novel portrayed, it stands as a entertaining, hilarious yet dark and thought-provoking film. The film being RomComDrama expertly fulfills all genres equally without leaving one more addressed than the others.

Being familiar with other works of the cast, it was surprising to learn than this was Nicholas Hoult (Marcus) role to shoot him up in his acting career, which started when he was only seven. When it comes to child actors, Nicholas Hoult falls in the category of selling his character to you the same way an adult actor would, which is endearing seeing as in this film he plays a kid that for the most part has been forced to grow up faster than his peers. All around the acting in the film does not feel like acting at all, it doesn’t come up as forced and you spend yourself getting involved in the story and caring for the characters deeply. Hugh Grant becomes the epithet of what used to be called arrested development, he seems to be stuck in a transitional period of a young adult that does not want jump into having a life that includes other people.

The film addresses the issue of depression in a raw, spot on nature that then soothes the audience with the slow but heart-warming resolution.

The only objectively hideous thing about the film is the American Trailer for the film; it markets it like your average Hollywood film which painfully undersells its quality.

Here’s a link to the American Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-apwoGTpi7E

And the Original Trailer:

http://www.virginmedia.com/movies/find/about-a-boy/trailers/about-a-boy-trailer/86311067001

#About A Boy #Film Class #Film Review #Nicholas Hoult #Hugh Grant #Toni Collett #Nick Hornby

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