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the-celluloid-correspondent · 2 years

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Halloween Spooktacular Part 3

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?

DIRECTED BY ROBERT ALDRICH

Whatever Happens to Baby Jane is a fascinating psychological horror and cautionary tale of child stardom and pitting siblings against one another. It is a masterpiece of storytelling, whose story starts as horror but ends in tragedy. The suspense is held entirely by two powerhouse actresses. Bette David, who earned her Oscar nomination, and Joan Crawford are outstanding. Overall, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane has stood the test of time and is still one of the best psychological horror films ever made.

Rating: A

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CRIMSON PEAK

DIRECTED BY GUILLERMO DEL TORO

From a visual perspective, Crimson Peak is a masterpiece. The costume and production design are outstanding and imaginative. The ghost designs are unique and horrifying. Guillermo is at his A-game here. However, the story is kinda a miss. It's predictable and a redundant story that has been done numerous times before. I was expecting more out of this story from Guillermo given all the effort he put into visuals. The acting for the most part is fine. Tom Hiddleston is the main stand-out but the performance from the lead, Mia Wasikowska is lacking depth. Overall, I am a little disappointed.

Rating: C+

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MANDY

DIRECTED BY PANOS COSMATOS

Mandy holds a special place in my heart because it is one of the films that got me into filmmaking. When I watched it for the first time, it was unlike anything that I'd ever seen before. I had no idea that film could be this artistically creative. Now, rewatching it a few years later, I love it even more. It's a classic revenge story with a psychedelic, metal-infused acid trip, with Nic Cage losing his shit masterfully. Because every once and a while we need to see the Cage Rage. Overall, a fantastic film with my only complaint being the beginning is a little slow. Thank you to everyone who worked on this movie, because you got me into filmmaking.

Rating: B+.

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scalpelgall · 3 years

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10 comfort movies for a night in :

1. Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Usually, when one reads a book and comes to love the story, watching the movie adaptation can be disheartening. Well I must exclude Joe Wright’s adaptation from this, the movie was conveyed beautifully and did justice to the original story, the acting was remarkable and clever with it’s own twist especially with Matthew MacFadyen’s way of portraying a manly and vulnerable Darcy making the whole audience swoon. This movie is a masterpiece just like the book.

2. Jane Eyre (2011)

I was moved as I’ve scarcely been before. This heart wrenching, captivating and stunningly mounted adaptation will make you wish it never ends. Both Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender played their roles brilliantly in a way to make you feel every bit of emotion the two characters are feeling. No matter the ending you’ll finish this movie with a heavy heart.

3. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

Alexandre Dumas’ classic tale of romance, adventure and revenge begins with friendships, betrayals and frustration all ingeniously played by the striking Jim Caviezel who did justice to both the innocence of Edmond Dantès and the shrewdness of the Count. I’ve watched this movie countless times and I can’t seem to get enough.

4. Little Women (2019)

Based on Alcott’s book about sisterhood, this adaptation will pierce you right in the heart. Beautifully acted and thoughtfully directed here is a movie as poetic as it is real, you’ll go from laughing to crying to laughing again while enjoying one of the most heartfelt and uplifting movie experiences of all time.

5. The Three Musketeers (2011)

An adventurous, daring and fun movie if you’re searching for something entertaining to watch. The action scenes are great and sometimes funny, I personally loved the chemistry between the characters and the movie themes vary between love, betrayal, friendship and duty.. Bonus point, Matthew MacFadyen portraying Athos is a blessing to the eyes!

6. Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Another Jane Austen masterpiece and one of my favorite movies ever. Touching, romantic, heart warming and brilliantly preformed by some of the greatest actors of all time, I recommend this adaptation especially for anyone going through a breakup.

7. Robin Hood (2010)

My favorite version of this story. The cinematics are amazing and the music and action scenes are outstanding. Loved the chemistry between Russel Crowe and Cate Blanchett, they are disarmingly fun to watch and absolutely moving at times. If you haven’t already watched this movie I highly recommend you to.

8. Becoming Jane (2007)

If you love Jane Austen and romantic historical movies as much as I do then this one’s for you. “Becoming Jane” is an imitation screen adaptation of an Austen-like novel that imagines the author's love life and how it affected her writing. Romantic, touching and heart breaking, I suggest you bring some tissues and start with watching the moving story of young Jane Austen’s love life.

9. Anna Karenina (2012)

From Leo Tolstoy’s bestseller straight to your screens, this is the emotional story of a passion that led two lovers to their fall. This modern, intoxicating and very much exciting adaptation explores the themes of jealousy, marriage, infidelity and society to make the viewer understand that sometimes sacrifices need to be made even if it costs one’s happiness.

10. Far From The Madding Crowd (2015)

Two worthy suitors and one scoundrel, guess which one Bathsheba Everdene picks in the end. This adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel not only empowers women, but also paints beautiful landscapes and deeply romantic scenes to make you swoon. I guarantee you that this movie’s gonna make you wish you were born in Britain 1870.

(by @scalpelgall )

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smokeybrand · 4 years

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Smokey brand Movie Reviews: The Devil is in the Details

I’ve been seeing a lot of chatter abut this Netflix movie, The Devil All the Time. It’s been getting mixed reviews but they skew mostly positive. What is really surprising is all of the buzz this thing has been getting. The word-of-mouth for this flick is mad profound. No less than six people that i know personally, have told me I'd love it. This thing was definitely on my list, Netflix has stepped their cinema game up considerably, but i have been distracted by other shows like The Boys, Raised By Wolves, and Ratched. The former two are weekly releases but i wanted to finish the latter completely before i took in any more new fare. Plus, Marebito is gnawing at me for a viewing. Still, i did finish Ratched and Marebito is an older title so i figure i might as check out this Netflix produced, Tom Holland vehicle for myself and see if the best Peter Parker can really step outside the MCU and impress, like his costar, Zendaya, does. Shout out to Zendaya on that Emmy win.

The Good

I love the direction of this film. It’s very controlled, very deliberate. This film started as a gook so there is already a story to be told, the trick is telling that story but in a way that not only represents the feel visually, but staying true to the tone of those pages. I’ve read this book years ago and never expected that it would get a film adaption but this one is pretty good at that. I credit this clearly to the deft touch of Antonia Gampos. He knows this story and he tells it well. Surprisingly, this is only his fifth directorial outing. Dude should be getting much more work after this though.

This is easily one of the most f*cked up stories ever captured on film. It feels like Silence of the Lambs in that sense but far more brutal and far less controlled. I remember the book being a great deal to finish, it’s just so goddamn cruel, and seeing that translated on film is just as brutal. I love it. I love when film challenges you like this one does. I love when there is real brutality displayed because humans can be brutal. I’m a card-carrying misanthrope so this narrative is par for the course for me.

This film is violently visceral. I mean there is gore galore but it’s never gratuitous. It’s almost always in service to the plot to prove how goddamn cruel the world within this narrative truly is. It can be shocking, it can be grotesque, it is definitely off-putting, but it’s never just for the sake of shock. I always respect when films show restraint with this kind of stuff. The gore is to accentuate not the other way around.

This cast is straight up lousy with talent. Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Eliza Scanlen, Pokey LaFarge, Harry Meiling, and Haley Bennett, all turn in decent performances. It was dope seeing Mia Wasikowska in something new and Riley Keough can surprise when she has a role to chew on. They even incorporated the author of the original book, Donald Ray Pollock, as the narrator. I appreciate that nod.

Tom Holland didn’t disappoint. This dude is a real talent and seeing him in something completely different than the role that made him a star, Peter Parker, is f*cking jarring. It speaks to his range and a ridiculously bright future in this business ahead of him. His turn as Arvin Eugene Russell was staggeringly emotional. This performance, alone, should devastate any talk of type casting because kid can do it all. Seriously, there is level of barbaric malice that just infects the entirety of this the younger Russell’s life and Holland captures that underlying malice perfectly

Robert Pattinson keeps showing me why he’s one of the best in the business. The more he keeps turning in performances like Connie Nikas and Young, the more he distances himself from f*cking Edward. Reverend Preston Teagard is another one of those showings that proves Pattinson is a real actor and not some pretty face or, in the case of The Batman, a jaw for a cowl. It’s wild seeing BatPats as a fat-ass, sleazy ass, southern preacher with a disgustingly accurate drawl.

I would be remiss if i didn’t mention Bill Skarsgard as Willard Russell. Dude has been one of my favorite actors since his stint on Hemlock Grove, another Netflix property, and he’s been excellent in everything I've seen him since then. Mark in Assassination Nation, Pennywise in IT, Markel in Atomic Blonde; Dude was even part of the ill-fated X-Force in Deadpool, too, as Zeitgeist. Bill is riddled all over sh*t i enjoy and his take on the elder Russell is just another reason why.

The Bad

This thing kind of jumps all over the place with the narrative. You have to pay close attention because it does take place between two generations and several families. Everyone is interconnected, which lends itself to a novel but can be quite the burden to properly display on film. It can be a little much to keep up with everything but, if you can, if you take the time, it rewards you with an incredibly well constructed relationship tree.

It feels like a lot of this cast was wasted. There re so many great actors in this thing that only get a few minutes, a few scenes, to shine and it's a little bit of a waste. I'm not saying what they gave us wasn't excellent, i was just left wanting, just left longing for more. Seemed like a missed opportunity to me.

This thing is kind of a slog. It’s a little over two hours long and, while you watch it at your leisure, in your home, it’s still a rather large committed to demand from the common viewer, especially when there isn’t any real action to be had. I’m built for slow burn movies. I love atmosphere and purposeful film making like Alien, Blade Runner 2049, or The VVitch so this is right up my alley. Those films, however, are acquired tastes that not so many people in the general public have acquired.

As much as i can praise the overall narrative and how unapologetically adapted it’s been to film, this sh*t is not an easy watch. It is truly f*cked up and a real hard story to witness. While i, personally, believe the utter barbarism on display is riveting, I've sat through Irreversible and Raw a few times so my tolerance is pretty high to the horrid, i can see how people could be turned off by all of this f*cked up. This is a story of awful people caught in even worse circumstances. Every one who is even remotely decent, dies. There are no happy endings to be had here. This movie is an exercise in the worst of humanity so if you’re looking for a light-hearted romp to get your mind off the state of the world, this ain’t, bud.

The Verdict

I loved this film. It is an absolutely excellent picture from start to finish. The way it’s shot, the vision on hand, the adherence to the time period - all of it is masterfully guiding by the expert direction from Campos. Tom Holland turns in a brutally forceful performance that carries this film filled with one of the best casts I've seen in years. Seriously, this movie has an embarrassment of riches on hand and they use them to full effect, mostly. I enjoyed every second of this movie but i can honestly say, it ain’t for everyone. This is not a fun tale. This not a good time. This is one of those movies that leaves you disgusted with humanity and that might be way too much to ask of people, especially during this, the f*cking apocalypse in real life. If 2020 were a film, it would be The Devil All the Time. Sh*t’s that bleak and it asks a lot of your time to slum it in this sordid, bloodied, world. The performances and visuals are absolutely outstanding and the way the film has been crafted makes for great cinema but, f*ck, is it a monstrous watch. If you can stomach it, i give it the highest of recommendations but this thing can be excruciating to see.

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rosalyn51 · 5 years

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Matthew Goode on Portraying Such an Evil Character in ‘Stoker’

by The Ultimate Rabbit

Matthew Goode’s performance as the enigmatic Uncle Charlie in “Stoker” brings to mind the one Joseph Cotton gave as Charlie Oakley in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Shadow of a Doubt.” Both men show a pleasant and courteous exterior, but there’s something in their eyes which tells you they are really twisted. Goode has delivered many strong performances in movies like “Match Point,” “Watchmen” and “A Single Man,” but it’s going to be impossible to forget him after seeing him playing a very frightening sociopath in this one.

Now playing a character as evil as Uncle Charlie has got to be a lot of fun for actors, but at the same time they really can’t judge a character like this too much. Once they do, they fail to portray them in a truthful way and their performance eventually rings false. Goode, in an interview with Nigel M. Smith of Indiewire, however, made it clear he was not about to fall into the same trap.

“I’m not a method actor; I think that would be rather exhausting on this sort of a project. But I don’t judge the character; I think that’s safe to say,” Goode told Smith. “You’re conning yourself between action and take. I don’t think about it too much, I just do what you have to do. You know there’s a camera in your face, and there are times when you can just get completely lost in it and the take is over. Then sometimes it’s very choreographed and you have to get your head in there to match with someone’s eye line, and I love that. I love the technique.”

“So with a darker character like this, it’s quite fun,” Goode continued. “It’s something that’s very different to who I am. I’m not a sociopath and I don’t go around strangling people. It’s just like kids playing. That’s really what our job is. We haven’t grown up.”

The other important thing to remember with a role like this is not to play it as evil. Yes, Uncle Charlie is evil as can be, but to portray just that one side of him would make for a very boring performance. You have to look at this character like you would any other and examine their wants, needs and motivations. In doing so, you will give yourself different areas to explore, and your performance will be all the better for it. In talking with Katie Calautti of Spinoff Online, Goode explained how he went about preparing to play Uncle Charlie.

“You can’t just play bad,” Goode told Calautti. “I wouldn’t even know how to start playing bad, or what that even means – it’s so two-dimensional. So you have to find some sense, despite his despicable acts, some kind of psychological truth of why. And director Park (Chan-wook) talked about bad blood and the idea that there was a predisposition within the family bloodline to want or need to commit these acts, and where does evil come from, is it nature or nurture? And for me they’re all very lonely, isolated characters. So I felt like, as much as this is a coming-of-age story for Mia (Wasikowska’s) character, Charlie’s kind of trapped in the past.”

The best scene in “Stoker” comes when Goode joins Wasikowska on the piano, and the two engage in a duet which can be best described as beautifully intense. Watching these two actors duel with one another while pounding away at those black and white keys was exhilarating, and it was the one scene from this film I wanted to know the most about. Karen Benardello of We Got This Covered was at the film’s press conference and asked Goode what it was like shooting this particular scene.

“It became liberating in the end,” Goode said. “I hadn’t played the piano in 20-odd years. So coming back into the fold of the piano, it was unbelievably daunting. Luckily, I don’t have a bad-sized hand, so I didn’t have to leap or anything like that. But it was hard work, but it was great working with Mia. We learned about three quarters of it, because some of it was just too hard, and too much going on with both hands. But we were able to fake some of that, and he was able to shoot the whole thing from whatever angle he wanted. We kind of recognized that in the vocabulary of filmmaking. When someone starts playing, you think, is he actually playing that? (laughs) He was able to dip down, and you go, they are! It’s not a trick on the audience, so it was nice.”

Hopefully Matthew Goode’s performance in “Stoker” will help burn his name into our collective consciousness because every moment he is onscreen is filled with a rising tension which never lets up. While he doesn’t let you in on all his character’s secrets, you know he is like a snake waiting to strike. He has already worked with a number of well-known directors such as Woody Allen, Tom Ford and Zack Snyder, but Goode makes it clear how a lot of the opportunities which have come his way so far have been the result of sheer luck.

“I’m not the person who’s able to pick and choose their roles,” Goode said. “But I know that Nicole [Kidman], for example, has said that she’s interested now – there might be a film in the studio system, but she loves independent film and she thinks that’s much more where her desires are, and the films she kind of likes. And so I think she is able to say to herself, ‘I like to choose projects not only based on the material but also the filmmaker,’ which is wonderful for her. And I think I just happen to have been quite lucky in the fact that the material that I gravitate towards or the people that have thought I am going to be better suited to it – because it’s not my choice, they’ve picked me. I’ve been lucky as hell, and the parts have been quite varied.”

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Rosalyn51 note: Matthew Goode was nominated for Emmy Outstanding Guest Actor Drama in 2018. He stars in A Discovery of Wtiches TV series, and new films incl. Downton Abbey 9/20, The King’s Man 2/14/2020, and Official Secrets 8/30!

Intoxicating vampire, Matthew Clairmont, in A Discovery of Witches season 1

#matthew goode #matthew clairmont #a discovery of witches #stoker #henry talbot

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blogllostsoull-blog · 7 years

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7 travel movies to feed your Nomad Spirit

by Luiz Hanfilaque

I am a travel movie junkie and when a new announcement happens I can't hold myself to watch the drama. A good movie never gets old or makes us tired of watching several times, it magically can take us to the set among the actors and actresses sharing those moments. Therefore, below I listed 7 of my favorite travel movies, those that still "feed" my nomad spirit and make me scratch my hands of desire to pack my stuff to hit the road, get ready for high levels of wanderlust;)

Into the Wild is a must for every traveler or movie enthusiast, it is just impossible to leave McCandless' story apart from this list. The movie is based on the true story of Christopher Mccandless, after being a top student in his University and finally graduated, he starts to realize how bad and unfair the society was, pissed off he decides to give his savings to charity and go hitchhiking to Alaska for an unleashed and free life in the wilderness. Along the way he meets all kinds of people that teach him all types of lessons, filling him with great adventures. McCandless showed us that the life is not just about money and possessions, it is about living with passion always, sharing good or bad moments. I watched it before taking my bicycle and hit the road from the east to the northwest of Ireland, it was a great kick for an unforgettable adventure, sometimes we need a bit more of motivation coming from a great story, watch mindfully and get inspired.

Do you need a push to visit Paris? Well, this movie will help and provide you enough inspiration for your next adventure. Gil Pender who is a creative screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back in time every day when he goes for a simple walk, more exactly to the 1920s, where Paris used to host a great scene with outstanding artists and writers. The funniest thing is that after having watched the movie I wished to go and explore the city of lights, well, two weeks later I was over there having my own Midnight in Paris, it was incredible to feel the same atmosphere, I just didn't go back in time but worthed to be in Paris living an unexpectable and marvelous present.

I'm sure you've already heard about the notorious Che Guevara, so now it is the time to know more about one of the most famous adventures of him before he became the iconic revolutionary. Guevara and his friend Alberto "Mial" Granado for months and months travel from Argentina to Venezuela seeking adventures and looking to discover a real continent. Dr. Granado in 2004 when the movie was launched said, "The film shows what we were, which was two young men - boys, really - who went looking for adventure and found the truth and tragedy of our homeland." It's indescribable the feeling of watching Guevara and Granado traveling through the places that I've been traveling as well. Both passed away already, but their legacy will live forever.

This movie is wonderful, I've watched it several times already and it's impossible not to get amazed by the courage and story of Mia Wasikowska. Based on a true story, in the '70s a young woman decides to do something completely out of reality, a 1,700-mile trek across the breathtaking Australian deserts with four camels and one dog, the unfolding of the story is surprising.

Let's go back in time and see a Leonardo Dicaprio 17 years younger, shirtless and very adventurous. The drama tells the story of Richard, a North American who travels to Thailand for some excitement and adrenaline, Bangkok catches him right at the beginning and finds himself with great chances to live the best moment of his life. After The Beach, I got pretty excited to take a flight and explore this magical part of the world, I am sure Thailand is reserving to me my own version of the movie.

The Way is one of those movies which makes us excited about what is coming next. After the American doctor Tom receives the news that his son was killed in a storm in the Pyrenees, he decides to head to Europe for more information and take the remains of his son's body. This movie awakened me the desire to visit the famous Camino de Santiago also known as St. James's Way and join the hundreds of people who try its routes.

I need to say that this movie pushed me to the greatest trip of my life in South America. After the news that he would be fired from his job in a magazine, Walter decides to make his dreams reality and leave to a global journey that after some time turns into something unimaginable. I really like this story because in some way Walter and I are pretty much the same, sometimes I get lost in my thoughts and I found out how to live great adventures with extraordinary people.

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