REVIEW - BEGINNERS (DIR. OL' DIRTY MIKE MILLS)

For those of you who don't know, Mike Mills is a fucking genius. He's pretty well versed in all art forms. From strumming away in an indie rock quartet in New York to making artwork for Ol' Dirty Bastard (Shimmy Shimmy Ya cover). You should read his blog about the film (http://www.filminfocus.com/profile/mike_mills), it's filled with inspiring, intelligent musings about art and stuff that I could never understand. So I read his thoughts and it makes me feel clever - cheers Mike. This is what Mr. Mills looks like:

Sweet hat.

This month saw the release of Mike's new project: Beginners. Which is a semi-auto-almost-biographical account following the character Oliver's (Ewan McGregor) dealings with first: his father's dramatic exit out of the closet (just four months after his mother dies). And second: his father's own death four years later. You'd think this would be quite a lot for 38 year old Oliver to cope with, as it happens: you're right! He finds a girl (Anna, played by Melanie Laurent), spirals into depression, and draws some sad sappy pictures (penned by Mills himself) that wouldn't look out of place on the front of an Elliott Smith LP.

Just be glad it wasn't Beth Ditto, Present.

The great thing about Beginners is that it's plain and simple: a Romance; however, it's one of those extremely subtle art house Romances that has enough sharp-exhale-through-the-nose comedy, intercut visual metaphors and harmonious backing tracks to keep the male viewer soppily smiling throughout. There are various comedic cues - my favourite being Oliver's Jack Russell, who candidly offers relationship advice throughout.

It doesn't.

Mills is clearly heavily influenced by French cinema, art and politics. He cites in his blog that the graffiti we see Oliver doing was inspired by the humorous graffiti that was part of the riots and general upheaval of the May 68 riots in Paris, which is really cool. Also, the film has an incredibly fresh French Nu-Wave feel to it, featuring existential themes - with questions and contradictions of reality and identity in different time periods of the USA. And there is a hot french chick:

mmmmmm...

The film is sequenced in flashbacks, with three relationships running in parallel to each other. Oliver attempts to put into practice what he learnt from his late father's final years, and avoid living like his estranged mother and father. It's an incredibly warming tale of liberation and learning after death that I strongly recommend you go and see right now. It's better than any of the current drivel about to be released.

You've been warned.

Mike Mills Blog - http://mikemillsweb.com/humans.html

Mike Mills Vidyah content - http://mikemillsweb.com/filmandvideo.html

Another Mike Mills Blog - http://www.filminfocus.com/profile/mike_mills

SPOTLIGHT NICOLAS CAGE

I was discussing the motion pictures with a few chums the other day over a few glasses of brandy when it came to my attention that a few people genuinely like Nicolas Cage. I was so shocked I almost sloshed Cognac over my smoking jacket.

Too good to be true.

Here are a few (entirely true) fun facts about Nicolas Cage:

- His son is called Kal-El, and hails from the planet Krypton but was sent to Earth inside a meteorite.

- Jim Carrey once said, and I quote: "Cage has elephant balls". The above picture might disprove that.

- He's the only person, other than the Presleys, to be inside Elvis's bedroom at Graceland.

I may have found a new way of dissin' bros

Nicolas has lived a life filled with excitement and excess (he bought 24 cars in 2007 alone), with Roger Ebert famously saying of the actor: "He has two speeds, intense and intenser. I'm going to have to agree with you there ol' silent Rodge. This is one of the most obvious examples of the latter speed:

JUST SCRAPE IT OFF YOU JACKASS.

Despite what this video might show, Nicolas is actually a half decent actor when he wants to be. I'm thinking of Adaptation (2002, Jonze), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009, Herzog) and Raising Arizona (1987, Coen Bros) primarily. There is one common point through these films: there were people far superior to Cage involved in the creative process. It seems to me that Cage thrives in an environment where he is surrounded by talent, and therefore no matter how hard he tries - he can very rarely screw things up. 

Credit where its due, he has won an Academy Award. However, I feel that Cage has almost become the joke of the movie industry - with his ridiculous nu-wave method acting style in which he turns every role into a raving maniac. In Bad Lieutenant, it seems Cage is instinctually aware of this fact, and turns his role into a joke of himself; almost pastiche. As this diagram perfectly demonstrates:

Nicolas Cage IS the Architect.

As much as I would like to hate Nicolas Cage, the more research I did and the more I wrote about him, the more I found myself falling in love with him. He's actually hilarious. And so I am going to make it my mission to watch every Nicolas Cage film ever by the end of the year. Wish me luck, and by the end of it I'll probably think of him like this:

Nicolas Cage: Superstar

In Nolan we trust

If you were lucky enough to witness HARRY POTTER AND THE END OF A SHIT FRANCHISE then you will also have seen the teaser trailer for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES AND BEATS ALL POTTER'S BOX OFFICE RECORDS.

In case you missed it, here it is in all its glory:

What did Batman say to Robin before they got in the car? "Get in the car Robin."

Fairly stoked for this one. It should be mind blowing, and I intend to avoid all press releases about what Nolan may or may not be doing to end the Dark Knight series (killing off the Batman).

First things first:

HELLO EVERYONE. This is the first post of the first blog of the rest of your life.

Just to give you a run down on exactly what is happening before your eyes: I'm a film student/lover/aficionado (I GOT A 2:1 SO FAR MOTHERFUCKERS). I made this for someplace to write down inner thoughts about films you may or may not be interested in. There'll be mostly new ones sure, but what about films that you might have missed whilst you were giving your mother what's for? Before you ask: yes, an opening paragraph your mother line was necessary - start as you mean to continue and that. SO...

Well I suppose I saw Harry Potter the other day. That seems like a logical place to begin.

HARRY POTTER AND THE END OF A SHIT FRANCHISE

It was pretty crap though really. I mean it's all well and good to be dazzled as a 10 year old by a hat which talks, or Maggie Smith transforming from a cat to a pissed off Maggie Smith; but I'm now out of my teenage years and have no intention of seeing this twat on screen ever again:

Don't even ask what I had to type into google for this one.

I can't help but feel Rowling could have gone a different direction with the above picture; Harry would have at least been put in Hufflepuff, and boy would that have made things interesting. The franchise almost took the alternative path when he had the infamous almost kiss with that Chinese girl, but I would have given anything for Chris Colombus to have altered the novel and had Ron and Harry at it in the Chamber of Secrets whilst that pedophile Mr Filch taped it. Just me?

Sexual tension broken, onto the film. It was OK. There were enough fairly impressive special effects and  Wizarding battles to keep the viewer entertained, however nothing was jaw dropping. Nothing stuck with you after you left. There were no real hooks or moments of absolute awe that cinema should leave you with. The closest the film came to anything like that was a perplexing sequence with Gandalf in a "clean" Kings Cross station, when the Orc was underneath the bench; it just didn't fit in with the rest of the movie. It was more bewilderment than wonder.

Also, it seemed to be that Harry had to be on screen in every single shot or else the audience would think he was dead and the war was lost. All the plot twists are explained directly, and nothing is left up to interpretation or even independent thought. Show and tell is the name of the game, with Yates not giving the audience any credit, treating them like imbeciles throughout most of the film.

I feel like I could go on and bitch and moan more about the poor acting, the terrible colour matching schemes (at one point from light blue to almost yellow in a shot/reverse shot in Gringots), and the lack of Emma Watson screen time - but that would be unfair. The film broke box office records, it broke franchise records and it broke my faith in mankind. Video relevant:

His mum probably filmed this for him.

Sadly I was just never one for Harry Potter. Sure the fans will love it, alas I am a mere muggle. Honestly, I'm just glad it's over and no longer will my news feed on facebook be clogged with people liking these dud HP pages. I'm tired of seeing the likes of: "The awkward moment when you win the TriWizard cup and it's a portkey" and "Putting Harry Potter in the Non-Fiction Section where they belong" or even "I'm not trying to threaten you or anything, but I know Voldemort". WHOOP DE FUCKING DOO. Well now he's dead so there's no one to protect you from a beating with the hardback copy of Goblet of Fire that's collecting dust in the loft.

The best part was definitely Alan Rickman.

/opinions