American Pastoral (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written November 11th, 2016*

"American Fruit Pastel?"

I'm a huge fan of Ewan McGregor, people even say I look like him for some weird reason, but I was interested to see how he would do directed. And he did a pretty okay job.

I'm just not entirely sure what the point of this was. It's not what I expected at all. While it's was engaging and really interesting at times, it was also fairly flat and lifeless at others.

After watching this and Big Fish, Ewan McGregor really needs to stop doing American accents. It's.... it's bad. It was great to see Dakota Fanning again though, this time playing a rebellious teenage daughter with a stutter. 

This was bleak and depressing as hell. It has some moments of genuine sweetness, although these moments are placed in flashback form at a moment of where it just makes you feel like shit for maximum manipulative effect.


As a director, McGregor has made a good looking film with an interesting look at politics, race and teenage rebellion in 1970's America, but in the end, the film just didn't have a lot to say and I'm not sure what it was trying to say.

6/10 Dans

American Pastoral is out now on DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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Eye of the Beholder (1999) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written May 29th, 2017*

Eye of the Beholder is a film have vivid memories of from my childhood. It's one of those films I watched bits and pieces of as a very young childhood on late night TV. I'd never watched the full thing, but 10 years(ish) later, I finally tracked down "That film where Ewan McGregor has a kid with him as he watches a woman murder people".

I feel like I wasted my time trying to see this film properly for the good part of a decade. It's a very '90s and messy thriller, and it's mostly just pretty shit. A muddled mess of sex and violence that ultimately leads to nothing, a completely pointless ending that made me wonder why I bothered.

The most fun I had with this was seeing a post-Trainspotting Ewan McGregor in a fairly high-budget thriller for it's time (It flopped. Badly). He does a pretty good job as surveillance expert slowly losing his mind as he stalks and falls in love with a serial killer played by Ashley Judd, who also gives a decent performance.

This film is all over the place. For its silly premise, it takes itself far too seriously. It's one of those sleazy thrillers of the '90s in line with Basic Instinct, but lacks the impact that Instinct had. It alls feels very tame for a film about a serial killer.

McGregors' character is a scattershot mess. He has visions of his estranged daughter being with him as he slowly loses his mind. They never really explore his mentally instability much and his actions go far beyond my ability of suspension of disbelief in the latter half of the film. I have to point out McGregor's camera he uses for surveillance. It's designed to look like a rifle with trigger to take pictues, but it makes no sense and would attract more attention that necessary, especially when he leaves it on display leaning out of a window in a public area for hours at a time.

My main takeaway from Eye of the Beholder is that it has a cool premise, but its direction is pretty mediocre and lacks any unique style apart from some remarkably shit '90s designs. The perfomances are fine for the most part, but the whole films overall is just a complete mess. Sometimes digging out films you saw bits of when you were far too young for them are not worth seeking out.

4/10 Dans

Eye of the Beholder is out now on DVD in the UK
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T2 Trainspotting (2017) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written January 27th, 2017*

I was really excited by the idea of a Trainspotting sequel, I'm a huge fan of the first and have come to really love the characters from rewatching the original many times. That said, this had a lot going against it. For one, the awful title, T2 Trainspotting. What the hell even is that? What was wrong with simply 'Trainspotting 2'? The next problem is the 20 year gap. The first trainspotting is a film of its time, a time capsule of the '90s Britpop era. So is Trainspotting even relevant anymore? In a way no.

Time's have changed and Danny Boyle has matured as a filmmaker delivering a far more meditative drama rather than the style fused energy of the first. While T2 is a change of pace from its predecessor, I still loved it nearly as much. If the first was a film about making the choices while you're young to change your future, T2 is about realizing you've hit your middle-ages and wasted your whole life and have nothing to show for it.

While it takes place 20 years after the first and everyone is now in their 40's, every character was still just great to see. Everyone slipped back into their roles effortlessly. Ewan McGregor was still great as Renton, even delivering another great "Choose Life" monologue, Johnny Lee Miller was the same Sickboy we know and love, Ewan Bremner is still the heart and moral compass of the group, providing some of the most heartbreaking scenes. Then we have Robert Carlyle as Begbie, who is still as dangerous and unhinged as ever.

Spud, Renton and Sick Boy

Being 30 minutes longer this time was very needed. The first act works as a catch-up with the characters and seeing where they all are. While the rest feels like a nostalgic trip down memory lane while paving way for the future. Some people will not be a huge fan of the amount of callbacks to the original film (There is a lot), but it all worked for me. Thanks to Boyle's direction, they managed to use a lot of creative ways to incorporate footage from the first mixed in with T2. They even answer a few lingering questions from the first and manage to add some stuff from the books too, which I appreciated.

What a lot of people remember the first for is its soundtrack. T2s' soundtrack isn't as strong as the first, but there is a ton of great tracks. The Wolf Alice song 'Silk' is used beautifully for the end, there's some Queen, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Clash. What really surprised me though was a gorgeous slow remix of 'Born Slippy' from T1, which was used effectively in the more reflective and emotional moments.

One of the things that disappointed me a little was just how much story there was. The first Trainspotting was low on plot and was just more of a hangout film with a lot of kinetic style, which I loved, but T2 feels like much more of a drama. There's a lot going on with each character. Renton comes back to Scotland after 20 years and goes into business with Sickboy, Spud is borderline suicidal and trying to kick his addiction and Begbie has broken out of prison and tries to get revenge of Renton for the events of the first.

Begbie goes bananas

The Renton and Begbie reunion was the stuff that excited me the most going into it, and that doesn't really happen till the last act, but when it does, it is fantastic. The scene where they see eachother for the first time again is so wonderfully done. As was all the character moments. That's one of the reasons T2 really worked for me, every emotional beat hit for me, these are characters I've enjoyed for years now and everything felt earned and honest. This doesn't feel like a cash-in. You can tell Danny Boyle really cares about these characters and wanted to tell more of this story.

Returning as the director. Danny Boyle directs the holy fucking shit out of T2. Not a single frame is spared where he can try and get some style in. It's beautifully shot, using an absurd variety of camera shots. It's not as fast paced and aggresive as the first, but damn, Boyle still has it. From what I've seen, Trance is the only blip on his filmography for me.

T2 Trainspotting is everything I possibly could have hoped for a sequel to a 20 year old film. Fan-pleasing, emotional, nostalgic and beautifully shot. Could go up to a 10 on rewatches. I need more films like this.

9/10 Dans

T2 Trainspotting is out June 5th on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Beauty and the Beast (2017) - Film Review

Review:

Since I don't have the same attachment to the original Disney film most people have (I only saw it for the first time a few days ago), I was much more open to this new live-action adaptation. I've found Disney's live-action reboots pretty succesful for the most part, The Jungle Book in particuarly being spectacular.

I didn't have much hope for Beauty and the Beast, but to my surprise, I ended up loving it far more than I possibly imagined. While it might not be as strong as the 1991 version, this holds up on its own as a beautiful, heartfelt and funny romance that mostly hits all the right notes.

Dan Stevens and Emma Watson as The Beast and Belle

What struck me first is just how beautiful and elaborate everything is, from set-design to costumes to special effects, everything on display is a feast for your eyes. It's a bring, colour and vibrant film. It was hard to take everything in on a first watch, but it was wonderful. My only fault with the designs had to be the Cogsworth and Lumiere, whose designs look a bit weird to say the least and the lack the simplistic charm of the original Disney film.

In terms of performances, everyone was pretty great. Dan Stevens was fantastic as the Beast, jumping from anger, sadness and genuine warmth and giving a compelling performance even under all that CGI. Emma Watson was decent as Belle, her singing may have been a bit autotuned, but she did a good job overall. Their relationship is touching and genuinely worth investing in, making for a some emotionally resonate moments I had no idea would reach me the way it did. It was really funny too, a scene with a snowball came out of nowhere and nearly killed me.

Luke Evans stole the show as Gaston, who played it much less disgusting and rapey than the previous version. His inherent narscissism and self-obsession led to some of the films funniest moments. As did his assistant, LeFou, Disney's first openely gay live-action character. He might not have been "openely" gay as what I'd heard, but it was fine and I'm glad Disney are adding equality and diversity to the film. I'm hoping they go a step further in future films.

Josh Gad and Luke Evans as LeFou and Gaston

I may have criticised the design of Cogsworth and Lumiere, but Ian McKellen and Ewan McGregor both do scene-stealing jobs. I had my worries about McGregor's French accent (His career has a fair few misguided accents), but he pulled it off extremely well. Ian McKellen may have given me the biggest laugh of the whole film one of his final scenes.

 

Lumiere and Cogsworth voiced by Ewan McGregor and Ian McKellen

Despite my apprehension towards musicals, I was pretty won over by most of the songs. A fair few of them I quite liked. A lot of them were lifted directly from the original animation, but even some of the new ones were good in their own right. My biggest problem with last years Jungle Book film was how out of the place the musical numbers were within the film, luckily Beauty and the Beast did not suffer from the same problem.

Beauty and the Beast was a pleasant surprise, a visually astonishing, funny, heartfelt and worthy remake that stands its own ground against an already fantastic film. More of this, Disney.

9/10 Dans

Beauty and the Beast is out now in theaters in the UK
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