Guardians of the Galaxy.

It’s rare to experience a film that offers you pure entertainment from beginning to end as well as an exciting action packed story involving ‘out of this world characters’ that you can completely empathies with - including a raccoon!  Based on the 2008 relaunch of the Marvel comic, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is a live action movie directed by James Gunn, who also assisted Nicole Perlman with the screenplay. Perlman had been enrolled in Marvels screenwriting program in 2008 and it was her wish to bring this particular story to the screen.

 

Peter Quill 'Starlord'

Gamora.

Not as well known as some of the other members of the Avengers Assemble included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man or Captain America but these more galactic-based characters are nonetheless welcome. Firstly we have Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who we first see being abducted from earth by an alien spaceship when he was just a young boy in 1988. Taken under the wing of Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker), a space pirate and leader of the Ravagers, we meet Quill again 26 years later on the planet Morag where as Star Lord he is in the process of stealing an orb, an object of great power and very much in demand none more so than by Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) whose race, the Kree has just signed a peace treaty with Xandar, home of the Nova Corps Galactic Police Force. With the power of the orb Ronan can destroy Xandar along with its world peace treaty. Someone needs to stop him and to this end the space pirate Star Lord teams up with the genetically engineered raccoon Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and his bounty hunter partner Groot a tree like humanoid (voiced by Vin Diesel), powerful Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) a female assassin with special powers and adopted daughter of supervillian Thanos.

 

Rocket the Raccoon

I am Groot!

A great part of the ingenious soundtrack is provided by a collection of pop songs recorded before Peter Quills mother died of cancer and given to him on a cassette tape on her deathbed, which along with his beloved Walkman accompany him on his travels. Although full of great space battles and thrilling set pieces the best thing about this movie is the extremely well drawn and engaging characters and its humour. The cast may not be very well known but with a sequel due in the summer of 2017 this could change. Highly recommended for fans of the Marvel franchise, and even if your not it’s a good place to start.   

Drax the Destroyer.......

American Sniper.

This Clint Eastwood biographical war drama can be viewed from two different perspectives’. The first is obviously the politically incorrect standpoint and the second is as a gung-ho cowboy film, but this does depend on whether you can detach yourself from the dreadful reality of a story involving the deadliest legalised assassin in American military history.

 

Chris Kyle.

Texas born Chris Kyle was taught to shoot and kill animals by his father, to protect his younger brother from bullies and to hold America in reverence above everything else. In 2002 he married Taya Renae Kyle (played by British actress Sienna Miller) with whom he had two children.  Following the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers he volunteered for the military and was chosen for the USA’s special operations force known as the Navy Seals. In this rather unique force he became a legend as a sniper with a 160 confirmed kills with his actual tally probable nearer 255. During this period he served four tours in the Iraq War (2003 – 2011) being awarded several commendations for ‘acts of heroism and meritorious service in combat’ and receiving two Silver star medals, five Bronze Star medals, one Navy and marine Corps Commendation Medal, two navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals along with numerous other unit and personal awards.

America love their war hero’s and its no surprise that American Sniper (2014) is the highest grossing war film in the USA, its also Director Eastwood’s highest grossing film to date and received six Academy Awards nominations but only won Best Sound Editing. Kyle is played by Bradley Cooper (American Hustle 2013, The Place Beyond the Pines 2013, Silver Linings Playbook 2012) and received a nomination for Best Actor. The screenplay was written by Jason Hall, based on the book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History co-written in 2012 by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. 

 

Taya Kyle at the movie premier. 

This fact-based drama was shown as part of the new Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club season and was hosted by Rachel Findlay who did a good job of introducing a difficult subject matter. The discussion that followed the screening was quite intense, tackling such diverse topics as whether the film was pro or anti-war, and if the movie delved fully into the problems that soldiers encounted when they return from the battlefield and how they adjust back into civilian life. My own personnel view was that it was neither a pro nor an anti-war movie, but was certainly one that refused to give any legitimate reasons for the troops being there in the first place. This act of war that has since destabilised the complete Middle East, giving rise to the Islamic Brigades and ISIS. We also discussed how it appears that Americas liberal gun laws and constant reports of violent aggression has anesthetise the US public into excepting that this and many other theatres of war are not illegal when obviously they are and have been down throughout the ages. This is a film primarily about the glorifying of bloodshed, death and patriotism, and the misguided credence of ‘God, family and country’ and how men are so easily dehumanised. The United States of America must revise their gun laws.

American Hustle.

This weeks Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club screening has been rightly described as a watchable black comedy.[1] American Hustle (2013), shot using locations in an around Boston, Massachusetts, had been nominated for ten Academy Awards at the 2014 Oscar ceremony but it won none! Considering it had already won two BAFTA awards in February, one for Jennifer Lawrence[2] for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and another for Best Screenplay and three awards at this years Golden Globe’s including Best Picture, Best Actress for Amy Adams[3] and Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, this came as quite a surprise, considering the quality of acting from the two female leads.

 

A fantastic performance from both Jennifer Lawrence and ....

Before the screening began there was a short introduction about what are the ingredients of a good film? I have always said it’s down to a good story that’s well told, but that’s probable an over simplification, and to be honest there’s a lot more to it. Hollywood mainstream movies tend to have guaranteed star-pulling power and American Hustle is no exception, therefore it would not have been a problem raising the budget to make it, unlike lets say British independent movies which always have problems raising even a small budget and at times have to go abroad to raise the cash. This weeks movie is said to have cost between $40 and $50 million dollars to make, but up to the 6^th February 2014 box office receipts were said to be in the region of $187 million dollars and that was before the BAFTA’s and of course would of greatly increased if it had won some prominent awards at the Oscars.

 

....and Amy Adams....

But even if you have got the stars and the money you still need a good story. The narrative is loosely based an a FBI sting operation that took place in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and began its life as a screenplay entitled American Bullshit (I’m not surprised they changed the name!) written by Eric Warren Singer, and rewritten by David O Russell who replaced the characters with caricatures of their respective real-life figures, Christian Bale[4] revealed in an interview that the majority of his character interactions were improvised in multiple takes in which he questioned David O. Russell about the plot. Russell responded that what he had wanted was to focus on the characters, rather than the plot.

 

....whose characters can't quite bond....

Next we need a director of some standing to turn lots of money and a screenplay into something that people will pay to watch. For this production we have the aforementioned David O Russell who, based on his last two feature films is the right man for the job. In 2010 Russell made the award winning biographical sports drama The Fighter, the story of welterweight boxer Mickey Ward and starred Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams. He followed this with another award winning film Silver Linings Playbook, which won Jennifer Lawrence a Best Actress Award. It’s a film with which Russell manages to walk a thin line between romance, comedy and a dark psychological drama. As well as Lawrence it stared Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro and the wonderful Jackie Weaver.

 

....mainly due to an FBI officer and a con man!

You will have noticed that the star power I mentioned involves some of the actresses and actors I have spoken about in connection with Russell’s previous work. They include Christian Bale[5], Bradley Cooper[6], Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence with the addition of Jeremy Renner[7], and in an uncredited part Robert De Niro. That just leaves us to acknowledge the technicians and crew without whom this, or any other film could have not been made.

 

A Hollywood movie with style.

Basically a full house at the RBC went home entertained by a film that after it got into its stride was very funny and impeccably cast especially as I said previously, the two female leads. With the best scene in the film featuring Jennifer Lawrence in yellow marigolds singing Live and Let Die (see link below). It’s a film with oodles of style and looks so good up on the big screen made even better by the choice of soundtrack (any film that starts with America singing A Horse with No Name is never going to disappoint). And yes the director was right to concentrate on the characters. Film critic Mark Kermode asked the question “Is this film anything more than a brilliantly window dressed period piece with a ring-a-ding performances from an all star cast remains to be seen” my answer to this would be yes, it’s a film that’s great fun and one I can’t wait to see again.

http://youtu.be/20sc40RDRP4

---

[1] Peter Bradshaw The Guardian 20/12/2013

[2] Lawrence's lead role in Debra Granik's Winter's Bone, which won best picture at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010, is often cited as a breakout performance for her. She portrays Ree Dolly, a seventeen-year-old in the Ozark Mountains who cares for her mentally ill mother and her younger brother and sister.

[3] Junebug (2005), Charlie Wilsons War (2007) Doubt (2008) The Muppets (2011) The Master (2012) On the Road (2012)

[4] To prepare for the role, Christian Bale gained 50 pounds.

[5] Bale, famous for his radical physical transformations on screen, received great commercial recognition for his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the three Bateman films (2005,2008 and 2012).

[6] The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)

[7] Best known for his roles in The Hurt Locker (2008) for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor,

The Place Beyond the Pines.

When I first saw Blue Valentine (2010) I was not sure if I liked it, no so with Derek Cianfrance third feature film The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), which again features Ryan Gosling, who seems to get better ever time I see him. This new film is American film noir at its very best, a movie any serious cineaste should make every effort to see. Everything is right about it, from the wonderfully convincing acting to the feel of British born Sean Bobbitt’s cinematography, who was also responsible for another film noir The Killer Inside Me (2010) .  But its backbone is its brilliant narrative that could have been written by Denis Lahane instead of Cianfrance and his co-writers Ben Coccio and Darius Marder. Totally compelling, a story in three acts about the unbreakable bond between fathers and their sons. A film full of surprises, with just the right amount of sentimentality.

A story of fathers and their sons.

New York cop Avery Cross.

This totally captivating movie is set in the upstate New York town of Schenectady, which incidentally is where the title of the film comes from it’s a Mohawk word meaning ‘place beyond the pine plains’. The first of the two fathers that dominate our story is Luke Glanton (Gosling) who scrapes a living as part of a travelling carnival show where he performs a wall of death stunt act. Passing through Schenectady he decides to look up an old flame Romina, played by Eva Mendes who I last saw in Leos Corax’s Holy Motors. On visiting her family home he discovers he has a six-month-old son called Jason. Luke decides to give up his nomadic life style and look after his newly found family. He obtains a badly paid job as a mechanic in a rural car repair shop. His employer, the wonderfully expressive Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn, spots the former stunt mans potential and the pair carry out a string of lucrative bank robberies which places Luke Glanton within the radar of the second of our two fathers the ambitious New York cop Avery Cross, another breakthrough role for Silver Linings Playback Bradley Cooper.