Be Kind Rewind

Odd little comedy from the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
and The Science of Sleep, Michel Gondry. The hallmarks are there, an odd little
film with a tenuous connection to reality.

You've probably heard the plot; an assistant in a video store (Mos Def)and his
idiot mate (Jack Black) inadvertently wipe all the tapes in the store. In a
panicky attempt to hide what they've done, they remake the movie that one of
the store's customers, who knows the owner, wants (Ghostbusters.) The tape gets
into the hands of her nephew, who thinks it's great, and insists that they make
more. A cottage industry of custom made remakes ensues.

Now, so far, and from what the trailers will tell you, this is a screwball
comedy in which Jack Black gets to ham it up something rotten. And it is, in
many ways, but there's a lot more to it than that. It's also an affectionate
piece which likens the demise independent cinema to the demise of small
neighbourhoods. Somehow, standard plot #12 (team of oddballs much raise cash to
fend off the bulldozers and save the school/shop/bar/whatever) gets involved,
and it all gets very It's A Wonderful Life by the end.

It's very entertaining, has a little message to deliver, which it does without
making too much of a big fuss about it, before going on its merry way. There's
nothing startlingly original here, but it does revisit quite a lot of familiar
ground in a fresh, offbeat way.

There Will Be Blood

My epic quest to see more movies continuums.

This is, in effect, a two and a half hour character study. Daniel Day Lewis
plays Daniel Plainview, a prospecter turned oil driller, and tells the tale of
his life and struggle to make it big in the oil business in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century. Starts in 1898 when he's a poor silver prospector,
and takes us up to about 1927.

Essentially, we're watching Daniel Day Lewis the whole time. Other characters
come and they go, but it's his show with no challengers. You could see it
working on stage as a one man show.

It's ambitious, it's long, it's weak in places because of this ambition, but
Daniel Day Lewis carries it through. It's him we're here to see, and he
delivers.

Cinematically, it reminds me a lot of Once Upon A Time In The West. There's a
lot of long, still shots, in which nothing much happens but the desert dust
blowing around. The thing has a hypnotic quality, and you can just sit back and
let it flow over you.

I usually feel that if a film's going to go over 120 minutes, it has to be
something special. This is. Recommended.

No Country For Old Men

This is one hell of a film. Premise: Man goes out hunting one day, and finds a
drug deal gone wrong. Two million dollars is just lying there, and the guy
takes it. He flees. The world's scariest man pursues. A sheriff close to
retirement follows the trail mopping up the bits.

So far, so "every film you've ever seen". It is, yes, a classic, some would say
done to death plot. The difference is the quality of the thing. Javier Bardem
has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Anton
Chighur, the world's scariest man, and if he doesn't win it, I am going to go
round and slap the life out of everyone in the Academy who didn't vote for him.

The directing, at times, just makes you pause and think "my god, this is a well
made film." Coen brothers at their very best. Suspense of the like that only
people like Hitchcock can produce. It is So Very Good.

The plot, other than the synopsis above, I will not go into, except to say that
it is all about how terribly cruel and unfair life and the world are. The end
will leave you sort of scratching your head and saying "huh?", and if you're
like me, you'll spend the next while thinking long and hard about what it
meant.

I didn't go to the cinema at all last year, and just recently made a late New
Year's Resolution to go to the cinema more, weekly if possible. This was the
first I went to see this year, and I'm partly very glad that I did, and partly
slightly frustrated knowing I'm not going to see a better one this year no
matter how many times I go.