Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
David O. Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert D’Niro. Every year seems to bring us a new collaboration from this particular foursome and this one is no different as Joy comes along right on time. While last year’s American Hustle was a great example of style over substance, this story dedicated to ‘daring women everywhere’ will be looking to capture the public’s imagination.
When Disney purchased the rights to Star Wars there was, well, a shitload of emotion. From those loudly proclaiming Star Wars was crap anyway to fans who were terrified that the big mouse was going to ruin the films that they held so dear. In among all that chaos, one thing became certain. It was back and was in the process of setting up a film universe to rival Marvel’s current behemoth (another Disney franchise).
Going up against Star Wars is a pretty brave move and even if Sisters is opening several days before its rather larger competition, it is probably a safe bet to say it is a fight it is unlikely to win. However, the inevitable box office defeat to that particular behemoth doesn’t necessarily spell doom for the first film to feature both Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in seven years.
Road trip movies are both a rich seam of comedy history and a horrifying one. For every classic, there are ten frat boy comedies with as much originality as a joke about airplane food. In other hands, Grandma may well have ended up with a title like Bad Grandma and ended up heading down that route. In the hands of writer-director Paul Weitz, this story of a woman trying to help her granddaughter raise money for an abortion is a touching and real piece of cinema.
The story of Frankenstein has been told many times before. From Boris Karloff, whose work still stand up today, to last year’s I Frankenstein, which didn’t even stand up then. To do something different with the story is hard, but that is what Paul McGuigan’s Victor Frankenstein is attempting to do.
Christmas films, much like Christmas music, have a rather poor success rate. For every It’s a Wonderful Life there are ten Home Alone 2s. Standing out among the crap is hard. One surefire way to not get ignored is to base your film around an evil Santa Claus, Krampus.
While in a perfect world you want to enter every cinema free of expectations and ready to be wowed, there are times when you know what to expect. No one goes into the latest churned out Paranormal Activity film expecting greatness. While walking into a Steven Spielberg directed, Coen brothers‘ scripted and Tom Hanks‘ starring film is more like slipping into a hot bath. You kind of know you are in safe hands.
Following Inside Out was always going to be tough for Pixar. It is arguably one of their best, which is no short order in a filmography as strong as theirs. The decision to release another film in the same year was just asking for comparisons to be made.
Oscar season tends to see us being served up a lot of crap. Overly emotional films stuffed with showy performances designed to catch the eye of the Academy. For every work of art, there is ten that just outright stink. However, every now and then one comes along that blows everything else out the water. A film that nails real emotion on the big screen. Carol is one of those rare breeds.
The Dressmaker is a mess of a film. It wildly dives from comedy to melodrama back to comedy (but this time with a darker tinge) and perches all of that on top of a classic Western revenge story. Yes, it as mental as that sounds. So why the hell do I love it?
Ramblings About Wrestling 