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Much like The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Sarah’s Key is based on a novel that sits in that uneasy place between fact and fiction. But in Sarah’s case, the premise of the book, and as such, the film, is the factual events of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup. Of course as with The Boy, Sarah’s Key is heartbreakingly honest, but essentially a tale of fiction.

The film jumps between the present day quest of an American journalist whose marriage to a Frenchman sees her living and working in Paris, where she is writing an investigative piece on the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, and the story of Sarah, a 10 year old Jewish girl rounded up by French Police to be shipped off to Auschwitz in 1942.

During her investigations, she discovers that the apartment her husband is renovating for them to live in, a house that has been in his family since 1942, when Sarah’s family were taken away and the apartment given to a ‘real’ French family.  Read the rest of this entry »

There’s probably a good vampire/werewolf/zombie film noir to be made, and given the recent market saturation of all things supernatural it’s surely only a matter of time. Unfortunately, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night is not that movie. Based on an obscure comic book, Dylan Dog follows New Orleans private investigator Dylan (Brandon Routh), a man with a secret past as the mortal broker of peace between the vampire and werewolf clans that live among us. Following an attack on his friend/partner Marcus (Sam Huntington), Dylan comes out of retirement to investigate the murder of a prominent businessman who may or may not be trying to reincarnate a powerful demon. If it sounds daft and convoluted, that’s because it is. Dylan Dog is a badly written, woefully miscast mess that plays like a third-rate Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode stretched to 100 minutes, and minus all of the Joss Whedon charm.  Read the rest of this entry »

I almost passed on seeing ‘Hugo’. Orphan boy lives in a train station in Paris. It sounded like another Hallmark feel good that they release at this time of he year. It also seemed like it could be one of those kids films, sprinkled with adult humour to keep the parents entertained. And seeing as I’m not a parent, why would I subject myself to such trickery? To add to this, the film is over two hours long.

But two words drew me in. “Scorsese” and “Depp”. The men attached to theses words should be Hollywood royalty. King Martin and Prince Johnny. And they should get to decide which films get made, and which should never see the light of a studio.

These monarchs have earned their titles with ‘Hugo’.

So the storyline is a bit more complex than orphan boy in Paris. Based on Brian Selznick novel-come-graphic-novel-come-picture-book ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’, ‘Hugo’, set in 1931, is the story of 12-year-old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who lives between the walls of a train station. First his mother dies and then his father (Jude Law) is killed in a fire, which means Hugo is taken in by his alcoholic uncle who teaches him to care for the train station’s clocks; then disappears. Hugo continues to maintain the clocks while working on a broken automaton, a mechanical man, he and his father were repairing before his death. He does this by stealing parts from a toy store owner (Ben Kingsley), who finally catches him and finds the automaton blueprints. He confiscates them and threatens to burn them, but Hugo convinces Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), the toy store owners goddaughter to stop him. They develop a friendship and Hugo takes her to see her first ever motion picture. Somehow this develops into a story about the history of film, and one of the early filmmakers, Georges Méliès, but I don’t want to give too much away, because in Scorsese style, you probably won’t figure out the storyline in the first five minutes.  Read the rest of this entry »

The past few years have seen an emergence of somewhat dark, subversive superhero films such as Kick Ass and Defendor, with the newest entry being writer-director James Gunn’s Super. Rainn Wilson plays Frank, who takes on the alter-ego of the Crimson Bolt following the departure of his heroin-addicted wife Sarah (Liv Tyler), donning his homemade costume and wielding a tyre iron to fight for justice against the evils of society. After generating some interest from the news media, Frank unwittingly attracts the attention of the young, foul-mouthed sidekick wannabe Libby (an excellent Ellen Page), and the duo begin to formulate a plan to ‘rescue’ the estranged Sarah from the clutches of small-time local drug dealer Jock (Kevin Bacon). Betraying Gunn’s z-grade beginnings working for Troma Entertainment (even featuring a blink and you’ll miss it cameo from Troma maestro Lloyd Kaufmann), Super is a micro-budget, violent, and darkly comic affair, putting a unique spin on the real-world superhero formula. Also of note for fanboys and girls is the presence of geek icons Nathan Fillion and Linda Cardellini in small but memorable roles, adding to Super’s charm and credibility.   Read the rest of this entry »

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What is it about romance, one of the most well-defined genres in film and literature, that seems so hard to get right? Each year, countless vapid love stories flood the cinema (or more often the DVD shelf), polluting our screens with their noxious, saccharine presence. In 2011, Something Borrowed is perhaps the most offensive example; a pointless, over-long mess populated with unlikable characters and underdeveloped plots.

Something Borrowed is a love triangle of sorts, beginning with our ‘heroine’ Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) sleeping with her best friend Darcy’s (Kate Hudson) husband-to-be Dex (Colin Egglesfield). Floating around in the background is old college pal Ethan (John Krasinski), the only decent person in the whole film, who unfortunately has no bearing on the plot and serves only as a shoddy bait-and-switch device, dropping out of the conclusion completely and with no explanation. Hudson, who seems to have the lame romantic comedy market sewn up at this point, is the worst offender, and Darcy is so wholly despicable that it’s almost impossible to believe that any of the surrounding characters would put up with her self-obsessed demeanour for as long as they have. At times it feels as if the filmmakers are attempting to shake up the formula a little, yet none of it comes together in anything resembling a satisfying conclusion, and ironically a more predictable climax to this story might have redeemed the film at least a little. None of the character arcs are believable or interesting, and at almost two hours, Something Borrowed outstays its welcome by at least 30 minutes.  Read the rest of this entry »

Telling a small story against a backdrop of massive world events, Precious Life is a touching documentary about one woman’s plight to save her newborn child against massive odds. After having already lost two children to an immune system deficiency, Palestinian mother Raida is forced to travel to an Israeli hospital in the hopes of securing funding for a bone marrow transplant for new son Muhammad, a journey that pits her faith and beliefs against the need to do anything to save her baby. Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar attempts to film the events with an objective eye, yet as the film goes on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict inevitably comes up, with often uncomfortable results. The opposing ideologies are personified by Raida and Eldar, and some of his more probing questions go much too far, well beyond journalistic courtesy. Raida’s stone-faced devotion to what seem like extreme ideas is unsettling, however given the amount of strain she is undoubtedly under coupled with the occasionally bullying tone from Eldar, neither viewpoint comes out as particularly sympathetic.  Read the rest of this entry »