January

Room

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“Room is a refreshing look at an incredible journey of discovery and re-birth.”

 

Room is based off of a book written by Emma Donoghue in 2010. She got the idea from the Elisabeth Fritzl case in Austria where she was held captive for 24 years in a basement by her father Josef. She had been sexually and physically abused resulting in the birth of seven children. (Jurgen Dahlkamp, 2008)

This adaptation of the story goes in-depth into the psyche of both the Mother and child. In the film Joy was taken seven years ago and kept locked away in a shed at the bottom of “Old Nick’s” garden. Old Nick is the name that Joy gives to her capturer as she does not know his real name. She was repeatedly raped and ended up pregnant giving birth to Jack. At the beginning of the story Jack is just turning five years old.

I was slightly worried about how it was going to work with having the majority of the story occurring in one room, but it was done in a remarkable way. The room does not actually feel that small at the beginning of the room as you see it through the eyes of Jack, who has never known anything bigger. It is not until after being freed Joy and Jack return to the room to say goodbye to that part of their lives. When they first walk in Jack does not even recognise it as room as it now appears dark and dingy. Before he didn’t know of the world outside, “what other side of the wall?” He has seen the light, (quite literally!) and sees how small room actually is. You can see this in comparison to the hospital room as the outside wall is just covered in floor to ceiling windows.

In the room there is only 1 source of light, a skylight in the ceiling. A lot of the time both Joy and Jack just sit and stare up at the sky looking for freedom. Jack doesn’t understand what is outside of the room and Joy cannot find a way to explain it so just plays along with the idea that outside the room is space and aliens, playing into the child’s world. The window is a symbol of being trapped and separated from the outside world. This is mirrored once they escape and Jack is in a police car screaming for his Mum, banging on the window and unable to do anything as he is effectively trapped yet again.

Danny Cohen, the cinematographer of the film loves to use windows for imagery and this works so well within the context of this film. I have already mentioned Cohen’s work in this blog as he was also the cinematographer in “The Danish Girl”. A similar idea is used in “The Danish Girl” as the darkness is hiding true life with the light being the discovery of the real world.

The light actually presents the opportunity to explore the health hazards that the characters experience. When he first escapes from the rolled up carpet it is almost as if he has been re-born and the POV handheld shots are all realistic to what he would be seeing and even down to the blurriness as he eyes have never been used to natural light before and he is literally seeing for the first time.

A repeating theme I noticed was the use of rituals throughout the film. In the room Joy can be seen trying to make things easier for Jack growing up. She makes sure he takes vitamins for his health and also maintains an exercise regime. Joy tried to give Jack as much as a normal life as possible, for example he still has to do chores and help with the cleaning. This behaviour even remains after they escape the room. Jack doesn’t understand what a shower is and while Joy is trying to explain it he states “bath before bed that’s the rule”. These rules Joy has implemented to help his development. For instance the ritual of Jack going to sleep in the wardrobe to be protected from Old Nick. Even when they return home and Joy has overdosed and he is separated from her he retreats to the wardrobe as that is the only place he knows how to be alone.

This film really makes you think about the psychological abuse they both suffer as well as the physical abuse. It is not just affecting Joy and Jack but also their family. Joy’s father cannot even look at Jack as he reminds him of the monster that took his only daughter. Although at first you think he is a horrible person for doing this you then see it as a coping mechanism, just like the rituals were in the room.  The final ritual you see is right at the end of the film when Jack wants to say goodbye to the room just like he did in the evenings.

I think this film will get a lot of awards and especially Brie Larson who gives a fantastic performance portraying both the vulnerability and strength at the same time. I give this 5/5!

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Works Cited

Jurgen Dahlkamp, M. K. (2008, June 5th). The Amstetten Horror House. Retrieved from Spiegel Online: http://m.spiegel.de/international/europe/a-551660.html

Director: Lenny Abrahamson

Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay

Crew: Emma Donoghue – Screenplay, Danny Cohen – Cinematography

Genre: Drama

Rating: 15

Awards: Golden Globe for Best Actress – Brie Larson

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards – Best Picture, Best actress, Best Directing and Best Adapted Screenplay

The Revenant

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Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Cast:  Leonardo DiCaprio , Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson.

Crew: Steve Golin – producer, Emmanuel Lubezki -Cinematographer

Genre: Epic Western Thriller

Rating: 12

Awards:  Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Actor –                        Drama,

12 Academy Award nominations, including the Best Picture and Best Director, as                     well as Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor

The Revenant has been at the forefront of the Award circuit this year and from seeing the film I can see why including 3 Golden Globes and 12 Academy Award nominations including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Director.

Not only does the film have such an amazing cast but you can see how in tune the cast and crew are. I am a big fan of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s work because of his process. Every film he does he insists on filming the scenes chronologically. Normally this doesn’t happen purely because it takes more time and needs a bigger budget. Iñárritu has said in interviews that “The emotions of the actors are better when they understand the chronological factors that are adding to the story.”  (Buder, 2015).

 You can completely understand this framework of thinking as from the actor’s point of view it is difficult to jump in and out of a plot line and filming it chronologically helps the performance of the characters and I think that is why Iñárritu gets such amazing performances from his actors. Although it may push the budget and time frame way up, you cannot disagree with the result.

In 2011 Javier Bardem became the first all-Spanish-language Best Actor nominee ever at the Oscars for his part in Iñárritu’s Biutiful.  Once again with shooting chronologically this helped to enhance his performance and Bardem even commented that it was a “gift” (Smith, 2010). I will be very surprised if DiCaprio misses out on the Oscar this year. The pure commitment he gave to the role. During the 11 month filming DiCaprio was sleeping rough, spending hours in the freezing cold Alaskan water and even ate raw Bison liver to ensure he gave a true impression. (Miller, 2015)

Mentioning about the feeling of truth this  is something that I really look for in a good film. If I can spot errors it is something that takes me out of the story and makes me realise that I am in fact watching a film. Considering the film is all about the hunter / prey dynamic you can really sense the planning of a hunter. Even small things such as walking the water to avoid making tracks in the snow. This is a typical hunter’s method and obviously works very well. Considering the film is set in 1823 those were brutal times and this is a theme throughout the film. You can see the dissolution of the characters back to their animalistic state. A good example of this is the contrast between the bear attack and the final showdown between Glass and Fitzgerald.

With the bear attack you cannot see any blood or anything initially as the ground is muddy and dark, very natural. I love the idea of Glass taking the bear’s pelt it is literally the metaphor of What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Whereas during the showdown they fight takes place on pure snow making the blood appear vibrant. It actually reminded me of the scene after a polar bear attacked a seal and left the bloody devastation.

Polar(Palmer, 2014).

Even the fighting you can see the animalistic tendencies coming out as they both lose their guns and result to hand to hand combat, including biting.

You cannot speak about a film such as this and not take in the awe of the cinematography. Emmanuel Lubezki is an award winning cinematographer for films such as Gravity and another of Iñárritu’s film Birdman. The use of light is something that still haunts me today even though I saw the film 3 days ago. The light used is so natural but also gives a lot of emotion. In the scenes where Fitzgerald is fleeing it is very murky light as there is the foreboding feeling while in Glass’s scenes where he is hunting Fitzgerald the light it bright  and determined.

Lastly I can’t review this film without mentioning the main theme of Revenge. The brutal times of the early 1800s can be seen from the first scene where there is the fight for pelts. Everyone wants to get the pelts to help their families. The Americans want the money to feed their families and the Native Americans want to get the pelts to trade with the French for guns in order to protect their families. The entire reason that Glass goes after FitzGerald is revenge for his son’s murder, but everyone is suffering. Even the Captain mentions that he would have hunted down FitzGerald in order to revenge his family.

But the idea that “Revenge is in the Creator’s hand” takes the film to another level as it isn’t just about the bloodlust it is about Glass’s journey to coping with his loss. At the very beginning he literally curls up with his son and waits for death, stage one. Stage two is the revenge stage and stage three is the acceptance that nothing will bring him back.  There is something beautiful about that journey in my opinion.

The best way I would describe this film as a whole would be Beautifully Brutal as I think it sums up the film in its entirety. I tip this film for a lot more awards and hopefully Leo is long awaited Oscar! Congratulations Iñárritu you have taken my first full marks of the year!

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 Works Cited

Buder, E. (2015, October 30). Indiewire. Retrieved from 10 Crazy Things We Learned from Alejandro González Iñárritu About Shooting ‘The Revenant’: http://www.indiewire.com/article/10-crazy-things-we-learned-from-alejandro-gonzalez-inarritu-about-shooting-the-revenant-20151030

Miller, J. (2015, December 17). Leonardo DiCaprio Explains Why He Ate Actual Raw Bison Liver for The Revenant. Retrieved from Vanity Fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/12/leonardo-dicaprio-the-revenant-raw-bison-liver

Palmer, J. (2014, November 5). Can Polar Bears be saved? Retrieved from BBC Earth: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141107-can-polar-bears-be-saved

Smith, N. M. (2010, December 27). HONOR ROLL 2010 | “Biutiful” Actor Javier Bardem. Retrieved from Indiewire: http://www.indiewire.com/article/honor_roll_2010_biutiful_actor_javier_bardem

Joy

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Director: David O Russell

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper

Genre: Drama

Rating: 12A

Joy is the uplifting story of a women who changes her destiny and takes control of her life in the mid 1990s. Maybe as a single girl I am slightly biased to the strong female lead which Jennifer Lawrence plays beautifully. I think the fact that it is based on a real person and a real story only adds to the compelling nature of the film. This film is based loosely on Joy Mangano and her story from single mother to self-made millionaire.

The first thing I noticed about the film was the colour tone. At the beginning of the film the majority of the locations used are Joy’s local hotspots: her house, her work, her father’s garage. All these places have a very muted colour scheme, a lot of beige and soft yellow.

One scene that really stands out to me is when Joy is reading to her daughter a book on Cicadas. For those of you that don’t know Cicadas are basically noisy flying cockroaches. We don’t have them in the UK much the only place they are is in the New Forest (random little factoid for you there!). In this book Joy learns that cicadas hibernates for 17 years. This causes her to revaluate her life and she has vivid dreams. This for me is the turning point in the film as the colours suddenly come to life. You start to notice in every this hue of yellow getting brighter in each scene. Take the car for instance, it is not until Joy is with her daughter in the parking lot of Kmart trying to sell her product you notice how bright the car is and how it is giving her an opportunity to pursue her talent.

Once she is in the studio and on the stage promoting her produce the yellows are now intense and vibrant reflecting her personality. From being beaten down at every opportunity this makes it seem like a twisted Cinderella story. The costume even reflect this as in the beginning she always has stains on her white shirts but on stage her shirt is crisp and bright white representing a new part of her life. Although my favourite piece of costume has to be the badass black leather jacket which she wears when she is making a power play and just not taking shit from anyone. This image is shown on all the posters and really brings this awesome connection with Jennifer Lawrence’s performance. I think there are more award hopes for Lawrence for this performance just maybe not the film itself.

The characterisation of the family also supports this idea as Joy is forced to look after not only her two children but her divorced parents and her ex-husband. Her house is falling apart literally and no one is there to help her. Even in the flashbacks we can see the difference in attitude between the family members, especially between her and her half – sister.

The family context maybe complex to say the least but the relationship between Joy and her daughter is beautiful. Two quotes that I loved were “No I don’t need a prince “and “No shame in hard work”. These are such wonderful lessons for her children to learn and just nice sentiment which really sticks with the audience.

But come on, this is a David O Russell film so it is not just a straight forward drama there are many pops of humour surrounding the family and really balances out the film.  I really enjoyed this film it had a great mix of drama and comedy and the relatable characters which I think is very important to maintain a film.

The only issue I have with this film is that it might be style over substance as although it is beautifully made it didn’t have as much content to fill the space. I think it is helped with the timing of the release as January is a New Year New You, getting everyone to fulfil their potential but still think there are some problems with the story and that is why Joy gets 4/5 from me.

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The Danish Girl

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Director: Tom Hooper

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander

Crew: Danny Cohen (Cinematographer), Alexandre Desplat (Music)

Genre: Pseudo-biographical Drama

Rating: 15

Set in Copenhagan in 1926, The Danish Girl, tells the story of Einer Wegener as the first person to undergo a sex change to become Lilli Elbe. I was really excited to see how this is dealt with considering when the idea was developed back in 2004, the social platform on the subject has changed so drastically in recent years, with it being more socially acceptable with celebrities such as Chaz Bono and recently Caitlyn Jenner sharing their stories with the World.

The first thing I noticed about the film was the amazing cast. Eddie Redmayne as Lilli is mesmerising. He uses such little details which really draws you into the character. The use of his hands was something I noticed from the very start. When you first see him with his wife Gerda, you see the admiration not just for her but for her femininity such as when he is touching her clothes and fixing her make up. It also gives a nice symmetry to when Gerda is helping to transform Einer into Lilli. Redmayne’s pairing with Vikander makes me think that Best Actor and Best Actress nominations are definitely in the picture. They are able to carry the film based on the majority of the film just being them alone in a room which can be difficult to carry off.

As to the scenery there are three main locations in the film, Copenhagen, Paris and Dresden. Each location has a different feeling which reflects the stage of transition. For instance Copenhagan is very dark, lots of shadows, which reflects Einer trying to hide his real identity, whereas Dresden, where he has his operation is a lot brighter and colourful considering Lilli is finally becoming true self. This was well done.

As well as the locations representing the transition so do the costumes. At the beginning of the film the clothes are very dark and plain but as Einer becomes Lilli her clothing becomes more vivid and more intricate the more comfortable and confident Lilli becomes.

Danny Cohen, the cinematographer, beautifully styles the film just as he did in 2012 with Les Misérables. Cohen and Tom Hooper the director pairs eye contact and the use of reflections as a window to your true self.

A similar idea is used with the lighting. I can see how they were trying to compare the darkness of hiding true identity with the light of discovery, but this is great in theory and works well using the colour but in my opinion it was a little overdone and sometime minimalism is best.

As well as visually beautiful, the storytelling is strong and really compelling. I think the film has been dealt with very well and has come out at a great time and will have a better reaction than if it had been released back in 2004/2005.  I would give this film 4/5 and recommend to you all.

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Hello!

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Welcome to my first blog post!

I am excited to finally be set up and I have already got my ticket booked for my first review.

The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe, the first person to under go a sex change. I am really excited to see how this is dealt with considering when the idea was developed back in 2004, the social platform on the subject has changed so drastically in recent years, with it being more socially acceptable with celebrities such as Chaz Bono and recently Caitlyn Jenner sharing their stories with the World.

It has already been nominated for 3 Golden Globes and 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards including:

Best Actor – Eddie Redmayne

Best Actress – Alicia Vikander

Best Original Score – Alexandre Desplat

Looks like it’s going to be a good year for Redmayne and Vikander!

I will report back tomorrow with my views.

Claire

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