I Was On The Radio, Talking About Movies!

Last night I appeared on Flat FM's 6.01pm show with Guy and Ben to talk about movies. It may even become a regular spot. This week we discuss #NZGoslingHunt, Project X, John Carter, My Week With Marilyn plus up and coming releases.

The Guy and Ben Show airs Tuesdays from 6-9pm.
87.9 fm Auckland
87.8 fm Whangarei
Online at flatfm.co.nz

My Week With Marilyn: Michelle Williams Transcends Impersonation

A popular criticism of My Week With Marilyn is that the film is "light" and "minor", but I disagree. If by light, you mean, light on content, then that's totally inaccurate, the film is packed with content. It is a complex, layered look at the film industry and the equally complex, layered star Marilyn Monroe. 

The film comes in the same year The Artist and Hugo dominated the awards race with its themes of nostalgia. The Artist is about the glory days of silent cinema. Hugo is about the need for film preservation. These films are about celebrating cinema as it faces an uncertain future, but in My Week With Marilyn we find the content missing in The Artist and the humanity missing in Hugo, this is a film with a jaded, conflicted attitude to a cinema that made (and destroyed) movie stars. To no surprise, the same film went home empty handed on Oscar night.

Michelle Williams & Eddie Redmayne | My Week With Marilyn

At the height of her stardom, prior to her making of Some Like It Hot, one of the most popular comedies of all time, Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) went to England to shoot The Princess and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh), who doubled on the film as its director. Under the enormous pressure of Olivier and the struggle to become a "real" actress, Monroe finds solace in the young Colin (Eddie Redmayne), who is working on the film as an assistant. It's through Colin's eyes that we see the "real" woman and share their brief romance.

In a performance that transcends imitation, Michelle Williams is superb. To say she "disappears into the role" would be an understatement. We fall in love with her in spite of the mess of contradictions. The success of Williams' performance is that she gives us all the Marilyns and confronts the unethical process of turning a troubled woman into a sex icon. It is riveting to watch.

For Williams to play the star is deeply personal, Williams herself lost her own long-time partner, Heath Ledger, to an accidental overdose. Using her own life experience, Williams taps into that the pain of losing a loved one with mental health issues to the medication that's designed to help them.

My Week with Marilyn is not just about Marilyn Monroe, but the power dynamics that surround the making of a film. If the young Colin wants to work with the film industry, he has to cope with the difficulty of working with people who are fiercely protective of their own jobs on a daily basis. In one telling scene, one union worker and one non-union worker squabble over who can bring Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench) a chair. It is indicative of the need to cling to whatever power that has been assigned to you, you must protect your job to have a job.

When an entire production could fall over if the right person doesn't agree to star, it creates a sense of palpable insecurity. On the issue of job security (or insecurity) the movie also depicts the questionable ethics of Marilyn's "people" who pacify the star with prescription pills out of fear of losing their "cash cow". In a touching moment, one that's wholly original and had to come out of the memoir, of which this film is based, Marilyn Monroe apologizes to the entire cast and crew for not being better, because she knows the industry and their jobs depend on her.

The film also depicts the drama of two competing schools of thought. It's actor versus star. Laurence Olivier, with his years of experience and craftsmanship versus Marilyn Monroe with nothing but instinct and natural charisma. It soon becomes apparent that both need each other to renew their public image. For Olivier, Monroe represents youth and vitality. For Monroe, Olivier represents the respect that comes with experience, and it's fascinating to watch the two fail.

One fault is when the film openly discusses the meaning of the movie in dialogue. You can hear the writer when Colin says to Monroe "It's agony because he (Olivier) is a great actor who wants to be a film star, and you're a film star who wants to be a great actress. This film won't help either of you," but the line is delivered by the 3rd assistant, the person who is meant to be seen and not heard, yet sees all. He makes the sharpest observation even if the line is a little glib.

Monroe insists that Stanislavski's method will earn her the respect she craves, she employs the help of Paula Strasberg (Zoe Wannamaker) a live-in acting coach. Together, they become an even greater threat to Olivier, who famously dismissed Dustin Hoffman's method on Marathon Man, "Try acting, Dustin, it's easier." In his eagerness to control her, he tells her to "do what you normally do, be sexy." There is some wisdom in his verbal barb as Monroe's command of the method is not the reason we love and remember her as a great actress still to this day.

My Favourite Films of 2009

List Created Using Letterboxd

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Antichrist
4. District 9
5. Up in the Air
6. Where the Wild Things Are
7. Dogtooth
8. A Serious Man
9. Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" By Sapphire
10. Fantastic Mr. Fox
11. Humpday
12. The Girlfriend Experience
13. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
14. We Live in Public
15. Drag Me To Hell

The John Carter of Flops

A week ago, John Carter seemed doomed to fail. With reports of endless reshoots, bad marketing, its troubled journey to the big screen is well documented. "For a $250 million movie to be tracking near a $25 million opening is shocking" said film industry journalist Anne Thompson. Women, in particular, were showing a complete lack of interest in the film. As a result, Disney lobbed the "of Mars" off the title so it may appeal to a broader audience. What a disaster! Losing Mars, the part of the title likely to draw in sci-fi fans. According to rumours, the widly overblown $250 million budget was integral in the decision for Disney chairman Dick Cook to resign. He who apparently didn't just give John Carter the greenlight, but the colossal flop Mars Needs Moms too.

When the film opens here in New Zealand tomorrow on 8th March, it will have to survive the bad press, rely on the Disney marketing machine and recoup whatever losses it can so it doesn't join Heaven's Gate in the pantheon of big studio write offs. Now that Disney have lifted the embargo on critics, reviews have started to appear. They are not as bad as the negative buzz would have one believe, so, is John Carter "Of Mars Needs Moms" a good movie?

Taylor Kitsch | John Carter "Of Mars"

The answer is "no". John Carter is not a good movie. No studio executive in their right mind should have ever greenlit the film. It has no commercial appeal whatsoever. It transports you to a world where you don't want to spend any time. Avatar's Pandora looks like Disneyworld in comparison. The movie is characters referencing a mythology we do not yet understand unless we have read the novels, of which "of Mars" is based, we are left ogling the dusty images in confusion.

From what I understand, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a Civil War soldier, who is transported to Mars after a kerfuffle with an alien monk (Mark Strong). Upon his landing on the inhospitable planet, he soon learns that gravity enables him to leap high into the air without assistance. He ends up being imprisoned by savage green martian men, falls in love with a princess (Lynn Collins) and must stop the alien monks from destroying everything. That about right, guys?

In one instance, John Carter does indeed register a emotional beat likely to resonate with die hard sci-fi fans, but its unfortunate this happens as the film nears its closing credits. I felt his longing to return and live on Mars, to escape his war torn home and return to Mars where he can leap high into the air. It does hit on the sci-fi fans' need for confirmation that their is life beyond our own, but its the density of its plot exposition and mythology that left me bored throughout It could in fact polarize film fans, who may find its refusal to create a Disneyworld on the red planet endearing.

There's a great moment in The Lion King when Simba is reunited with his old friend Nala after his father Mufasa's death and he was estranged from his own pride. Upon their meeting, Simba and Nala immediately discuss plot details and characters that are unbeknown to other characters in the same scene, Timon and Pumbaa. Timon, who has absolutely no idea what they're talking about, screams "Would somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?"

John Carter made me *this close* to screaming the same line during.

Warrior: Ensemble Cast Excel in Male Melodrama

Far superior to the wildly overpraised The Fighter, which unsuccessfully blended family drama with sports movie cliche, but failed because it never reconciled its broad, caricatures with the bravura of Christian Bale, Warrior excels for wonderful performances across the board. Every actor in this ensemble knows exactly what movie they're in. 

Tom Hardy (Left) & Joel Edgerton (Right)

The ensemble shine in a male melodrama that happens to be a good sports movie too. It tells the story of two feuding brothers, Brendan (Joel Edgerton) and Tommy (Tom Hardy), harbor lifelong grudges against their alcoholic father Paddy (Nick Nolte) and each other. Fate brings them all together in a Mixed Martial Arts tournament that awards a $5 million dollar prize and the possibility of redemption.

Warrior won't win prizes for originality, but it asks us if originality is the key to a good movie? It seeks to be a familiar story well told, and succeeds. Simply because the actors elevate the material with their honesty. Not a single moment in Warrior rings false. Don't be fooled by the poster; the actors brings as much sensitivity to the movie as they do muscles. In fact, the challenge for them is to hint at the mess of emotions underneath their tough exterior. Who truly shines though, is Nick Nolte. Worthy of all the acclaim. He is terrific as the bad Dad come good Dad.

My Dad is a man's man. He saw this movie three times on a flight home. I can imagine he was lured by the sports aspect, but ultimately moved. Therein lies what I love about the film; it's not really about sports. The MMA tournament gives the brothers to opportunity to duke it out, but its secondary. It only brings to the surface what was inside them all along; the capacity to truly forgive, but then there's enough sports movie cliche to perpetuate the male fantasy that good old fashioned competition can settle any matters of the heart. It keeps Dads happy.

The movie is long, but that's not an observation not a criticism. The way it builds (and builds) recalls The Karate Kid. This is a movie that whats you to live-in the movie. We all know where its headed, but after investing so deeply in the characters the outcome of the final fight is riveting even if we have to turn away from the screen wincing from the sight of dislocated shoulders.