Thursday 27 February 2014

William Hill Oscars Betting Podcast

I got invited by Lee Phelps from William Hill to take part in an Oscar odds podcast recently. I started to bet on the awards a few years ago just to make it a bit more fun and exciting. I keep tweeting about my betting on the Globes, the BAFTAs and the Oscars which is why I guess Lee asked me to take part and to give my opinion on all the Oscar odds this year.

It was very interesting to take part and seeing as I've got £20 riding on the Oscars in various categories, I'm hoping my predictions are actually right this year. Please have a listen below just by clicking the play button.









Here's my reviews of the Best Picture nominations so far. Not sure why I never got round to reviewing Gravity but I will be reviewing Her soon.

Best Picture nominees 2014:

American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years A Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

Wednesday 26 February 2014

New Game of Thrones Season 4 'Valar Morghulis' posters

With the premiere of Game of Thrones season 4 just over a month away, HBO have released some very sexy looking posters to celebrate. All emblazoned with the words 'Valar Morghulis' or to you and I, 'All Men Must Die', they are stunningly stark in black and white and every character has a thousand stories to tell simply with their eyes. The full set of character posters are below just to add a bit of aesthetic yumminess to this scruffy looking blog.

I've just finished watching season 3 and am about 300 pages through reading the second part of A Storm of Swords. I'm hoping to get it finished before the season starts on April 6th. I decided to read all the books so I could never have another moment spoiled for me by any naughty friends on Facebook. The Red Wedding was ruined for me but now I will never suffer like that again! As I'm now ahead of the TV show (just), I can't wait to see the first few episodes of season 4 which promise to shake things up even more after the events of the tragic red wedding.

When I first started watching the show, I made a Game of Thrones hit list of characters I wanted to see dead. Bonjour Tristesse and Sati from Cinematic Corner  warned me that there were worse characters to come. I've decided on another hit list which I will be posting shortly but I'm still sticking with those three from my previous list as well.

My one complaint about this set of posters... just where the hell is Hodor's?


















Monday 24 February 2014

A2 Film Studies Exam Practice: Spectatorship and Emotional Response

Creating the opportunity for emotional responses in popular films is simply to do with manipulating the audience: mainstream films don’t attempt to use emotional responses to make any more considered points.  From your experience would you agree with this?

Mainstream films have a reputation for often being shallow and involving clear-cut heroes and villains with no moral ambiguity.  Emotional response is key as audiences want diversion from everyday life and to be thrilled, happy, excited or saddened by the on-screen events.  However despite the manipulative techniques used by mainstream filmmakers to provoke responses from the audience, some films do deal with serious issues and try to raise serious points about subjects such as racism
Manipulation of the audience’s emotions can be subtle or blatantly obvious.   Sometimes this is just to make the audience feel something and to enjoy the piece of entertainment.  The films studied for this topic are all challenging and do provoke strong emotional responses in the audience.  ‘American History X’ (AHX), ‘This is England’ (TIE) and ‘United 93’ (U93) all deal with the issue of racism and conflict between races.  The films are constructed to manipulate the emotions of the viewers.  Each film is categorised in the drama genre and as expected ends with the viewer encouraged to feel sadness.  This is achieved through the narrative structure, the script, the performances of the actors and the construction of the film form (micro-elements).  The soundtracks of all the films mentioned are particularly manipulative.  The use of violins, a choir and piano music is designed to provoke strong feelings of sadness in the audience.  The end of AHX uses slow motion running, close ups of crying characters and strongly emotive music to generate a feeling of sadness in the audience when a main character dies.  Similarly the ending of U93 uses violin music and handheld cinematography to create a feeling of unbearable tension and sadness in the viewer and likewise, TIE has moments where the piano music is designed to evoke feelings of sympathy and sadness. 



However the films studied do not just use these manipulative techniques to create an emotional response.  The films use these emotional responses to make very well considered points and challenge expectations that viewers will have of characters.  In AHX, the protagonist Derek is a racist skinhead gang leader that kills a group of African Americans for attempting to steal his car.  The film encourages hatred of Derek and disgust at his actions but also gives him a platform to air his shocking and controversial but very articulate viewpoints.  The camera, the script and the narrative structure all identify Derek as the focus of the film but the viewer is encouraged to empathise most with his younger brother Danny.  The death of Danny at the end of the film makes the audience sympathise with Derek.  After he has been raped in prison by white inmates and helped to recovery and rehabilitation by his African-American school principal, Derek is changed and the viewer is challenged to change their feelings for him.  The film uses Derek as a symbol by revealing that even the most hateful characters can find redemption and deserve a second chance.  Similarly the killing of Danny by a young African American in the film suggests the never-ending cycle of hatred that is spawned from the actions of racist people.  

This is England makes an explicit link between racism, nationalism, war and politics.  The use of real footage of Thatcher, the Falklands war and extreme right-wing rallies shows the context of the film and the real-life events that were occurring in the 80s when the film is set.  Shaun’s father has been killed in the war and Combo uses his anger to mould the young boy into a racist, hateful skinhead.  This makes a serious point about the dangers of sending men to war and training them to be racist in order that they can kill their ‘enemies’.  The idea of unification and the diversity of 80s Britain is emphasised through much of the reggae/ska soundtrack and is juxtaposed with the hijacking of skinhead culture by those raised to hate.  Thatcher is explicitly blamed by Combo for starting the war and much of Combo’s anger is directed at immigrants who he sees as the cause of Britain’s problems. 

United 93 is very manipulative of the audiences emotions using a recent real-life event and tear-jerking music to gain a response from viewers.  However there are some considered points in the film that are subtly put across to the audience.  For example, the film intercuts between the passengers of the plane praying for their lives and the terrorists also preying.  This subtle use of editing implies the similarities between the God-fearing, religious Muslims and Christians.  The titles on screen at the end of the film force home the message that this is a real-life event and that many real people lost their lives on September 11th 2001 and that the official story of what happened to United 93 is true and that rumours it was shot down are untrue.  However originally the titles were to say ‘the war on terror had begun’ implying that the people on board were the first to fight against terror in the ongoing war between America and its enemies.  This message was changed to avoid controversy however.

The films listed here are not as mainstream as Hollywood blockbusters but were all very popular with critics and audiences.  Their tackling of a serious issue like racial conflict suggests that they are going to make some serious and considered points.  However as they are mainstream narrative films, they do this with interesting characters and dramatic plot elements to encourage audiences to have strong emotional responses.  The films try to engage viewers by creating anger, sadness and even disgust but also give the viewers things to think about and a chance to challenge their own views and preconceptions, as well as extremist ideology.

Recent reviews: The Book Thief, Endless Love, I Declare War

In amidst trying to catch up with all the Oscar contenders and the many films I missed out on seeing in 2013, I have also been writing reviews for Filmoria and Starburst Magazine. Here are some recent ones I have written over the past fortnight:




‘The Book Thief’ Review
‘Phantom of the Paradise’ Blu-ray Review
‘Endless Love’ Review


Still not satisfied? Want more?

Recent Reviews: RoboCop, Filth Blu-ray, Grudge Match, Banshee Chapter DVD
Lone Survivor

Only Lovers Left Alive
The Wolf of Wall Street

Philomena
Dallas Buyers Club
Captain Phillips

Sunday 23 February 2014

Iconographic Genre Conventions in The Terminator



James Cameron’s film The Terminator is a hybrid of genres with action, science-fiction and horror being most notable. It contains many of the generic conventions of each of these three genres. Producers use genre to help sell their films, audiences use genre to help choose what films they will watch and even the creative people behind the films use genre to help script their films. Genres are about repetition and formula but they are also about creating expectations and often subverting those expectations. Genre films have to tread a fine line between being familiar enough to entice and audience but also being too repetitive and predictable.


The Terminator ensures it will appeal to a wide ranging audience by containing many conventions of different popular genres. This means there will be much that is familiar to audiences about it but there will also be a lot that is new to them as well. Generic conventions can be divided into iconography, narrative and thematic. I will focus on the iconography of The Terminator, analysing what conventions it uses to appeal to horror, action and sci-fi fans as well as how it updates, changes and subverts expectations that the audience might have.

Action movie iconography

Although early in his career, Arnold Schwarzenegger was already becoming typecast in American films by the time he starred in The Terminator in 1984. He was known for his huge muscles, a physique crafted from years of bodybuilding and for his Austrian accent. He has already starred in fantasy action films such as Conan the Barbarian and looked like the kind of alpha male hero Hollywood could feature in an action film. However Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast as the villain in The Terminator to help make the hero look like more of an underdog and therefore make the film more suspenseful and exciting.


The early scenes of the film feature a fight between The Terminator and some punk youths. This involves a knife which should be a terrifying weapon. However the Terminator is not frightened by the youths, their knife or hurt when he is stabbed. This sets him up as a dangerous villain that will be hard to kill. The film also features lots of chases, both on foot and in cars. These are fast paced and exciting for the audience and are shot, edited and scored to make them appear tense and thrilling with the sound of screeching tyres used to emphasise speed. Guns are often used and the sound of gunshots can be heard which also adds excitement as guns can be used to hurt people from a distance and they are a symbol of power and deadly force. The Terminator also features fire and explosions which are major signifiers of destruction and are caused by using weapons. The tension around an impending explosion is built through intercutting between shots of the fuse burning and then shots of the people who may be affected by the explosion as in the scene where Reese puts a bomb in the tanker that Sarah is being chased by.

Police cars and police uniforms also feature in The Terminator but they are not the heroes of the film, as is often typical with action films. The hero is a plain clothed soldier from the future and to further subvert expectations, the villain drives a police car at one point.


Science fiction iconography

The Terminator also has many iconic conventions of the science fiction film. It frequently uses special effects such as lasers that fly across the screens, representing the firepower of futuristic weaponry. The idea of a robot that looks human not something that has been invented yet and is therefore futuristic. The audience is made aware that Schwarzenegger’s Terminator is not human in a number of ways. There are point of view shots that have a red tint and written data scrolling on screen and this is accompanied by robotic noises so the viewer knows they are seeing what the robot sees. Eventually it is revealed that beneath the skin, The Terminator has a metal skeleton with bright red eyes. This signifies strength, anger and death and makes him appear to be from the future and also dangerous and almost impossible to kill.


There are also scenes set in 2029 when machines are hunting and killing humans. The future is bleak with destruction everywhere and humans living underground. The machinery looks unfamiliar to modern audiences and the world is unrecognisable. The connotations of machinery that flies through the sky shooting lasers while humans scurry around on the surface trying to fight back is that technology has taken over the planet and has become more powerful than humans. This is a typically dystopian vision of the future that is reminiscent of other science fiction films such as The Matrix and even Jurassic Park where technology allows people to re-create dinosaurs than then go on a rampage.

Horror iconography

The Terminator also has elements of the horror film in its iconography. James Cameron uses suspenseful music during chases to build the idea of threat. Most of the film takes place at night with low key lighting. The idea that only bad things happen at night and the poor visibility of night time adds to the excitement and suspense. There is blood and gore and a focus on injuries in some scenes. For example when The Terminator cuts his arm open or takes his eye out, there is the kind of graphic detail that might be expected in a horror film.


Though the killer uses a gun as his weapon of choice, he also hunts down women who appear weaker and more innocent than he is. This focus on female victims and also that we see from the killer’s point of view is similar to slasher film conventions. The fact the killer murders his defenceless victims in cold blood and never shows any remorse or emotion is also similar to slasher film villains like Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees. The Terminator is also occasionally shot from a low angle to make him look dominant and Schwarzenegger’s face never changes to show that he is robotic, inhuman and impossible to reason with... just like a slasher killer!

Nebraska Review



Modern black and white films like Nebraska are often stark and brutal, depressing right from start to finish. Schindler’s List, La Haine and Control all deal with sad subjects and the black and white photography give them a simultaneous sense of being in the past and also of the hopelessness of the characters’ situations.

Nebraska is an achingly sad semi-comedy starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte about a son and his aging father who travel across the country to collect a million dollar prize that the son knows certainly doesn’t exist. Dern is the booze-addled elderly father Woody Grant who believes everything he reads and won’t stop until he has collected his prize from the company in Lincoln who named him a ‘winner’. Forte (best known for gurning through MacGruber) is his son David who decides to drive him from Montana even though the winnings are an obvious scam. 


Along the way, the father and son bond like never before. David learns more and more about his father as they stop off in the areas where Woody grew up. They meet estranged family, old friends and old flames as they pass through forgotten towns of America, filled with vultures and phonies. Everyone is quick to be Woody’s best friend when they learn of his potential winnings and even quicker to dump him and dismiss him when they learn of the scam.

With typical detachment, director Alexander Payne creates incredibly genuine characters from Dern’s downtrodden Woody to his know-it-all nagging wife to David himself; a good son who could do with the escape as much as his father. It is a depressing trudge through a cast of characters who are all too believable. The main warmth comes from the central relationship between Woody and David and though they are joined briefly by David’s mother and brother on their journey, it all comes down to David’s determination to make his father happy, no matter how difficult that is.


There is no sentimental, melodramatic button pushing. The film simply hobbles along at the pace of Woody’s mumbling and stumbling. Forte is an incredibly welcome presence, both as respite from all the doddery old timers but also as the only thing that can come between Woody and his opportunistic family and old friends. Stacy Keach is particularly memorable as a man determined to get some money out of Woody and the closest thing the film has to a villain. Close behind in the asshole stakes are brothers Bart and Cole (Tim Driscoll and Devin Ratray) who would be hilarious if they weren’t so depressingly despicable.

Nebraska is a film that seems fed up with the world. Woody is a washed up old fool who had a hard life and was once a good man. There are hints at what turned him to alcoholism but this is left under explored. While we get odd glimpses of humanity with some pleasant characters littering the film, they are mostly lost beneath the sad scumbags who try to swindle old Woody. It is fortunate then that the character of David is unerringly good; a very welcome respite from the bleak outlook of the rest of the film. With a melancholy score from Mark Orton, stark cinematography from Phedon Papamichael and some heartbreaking performances, Nebraska is a winner; even if Woody isn’t.


More reviews from I Love That Film:

Lone Survivor

Only Lovers Left Alive

The Wolf of Wall Street

Out of the Furnace

Philomena

Dallas Buyers Club

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Lone Survivor Review



Lone Survivor is a true story that starts with real footage, ends with genuine photos of the real life participants and in the middle has one of the most realistic, brutal and harrowing shoot outs in cinema history. Like Saving Private Ryan’s D-Day opening or Black Hawk Down’s visceral carnage filled last hour, Lone Survivor puts you right in the firing line and rarely lets up.


The title and the opening scene might be spoilers but both give the film and unbearable tension as we watch four soldiers fight for their lives on a mountain in Afghanistan. Mark Wahlberg plays the titular lone survivor Marcus Luttrell who along with his three buddies and fellow Navy SEALS sets out to capture or kill Taliban commander Ahmad Shah in the ill-fated Operation Redwing. When Marcus, Mike (Taylor Kitsch), Dietz (Emile Hirsch) and Matt (Ben Foster) stumble across some goat herders in the mountains, they are left with the tricky decision; to let them go and face the possibility of them telling the Taliban their whereabouts or to kill them and complete the mission.

If you can forget the politics for a second, Lone Survivor is blistering, thrilling, gut-wrenching stuff. Forget whether you think the Americans should have been messing around in Afghanistan in the first place. Forget the fact the Americans are given back stories with sweethearts back at home whereas the Afghans are virtually all nameless, faceless, beheading psychopaths. Director Peter Berg intercuts the ‘rules of engagement’ with the beheading of an Afghan who is accused of helping the Americans, eagerly pointing out the difference between the two sides in this war. He also savours the sight of American military might gliding gloriously over the barren Afghan mountains. The weaponry, the helicopters, the training montage from the start of the film, the gear they carry; it’s almost impossible to envisage the Americans becoming the underdog at any point in this story.


But underdogs they become. After debating the ethics of killing or cutting loose their Afghan captives, the shit really hits the fan and at a very high speed making a real bloody mess. The fact the soldiers have to argue over what to do with the goat herders shows some of their complete lack of respect for Afghan life. Luckily their consciences (or the fear of getting caught and ending up on CNN) get the better of them and they release the Afghans. Of course with the threat of beheading hanging over their heads (and possibly a bit of understandable hatred for the Americans), one immediately runs and tells the Taliban and all hell breaks loose. 

The fire fight that ensues is absolutely brutal. Though their superior weapons with fancy scopes may help, they are hampered by poor communication and inferior numbers. The Taliban are everywhere and they know the mountains. They are fearless and ruthless. Bullets fly and injuries are sustained quickly. These superheroes are outnumbered and outflanked and can survive bone shattering falls and bullet holes for only so long. Even if you have little sympathy for Americans invading Afghanistan, it is still horrific and heart breaking to see what they go through. To top it all off, the end of the story shows the bravery, selflessness and incredible spirit of some ordinary Afghan villagers who help Marcus when he is the lone survivor.

It is an incredible true story; powerfully acted and viscerally directed. I only hope that people will realise who the real heroes of the story are.

More reviews from I Love That Film:

Only Lovers Left Alive

The Wolf of Wall Street

Out of the Furnace

Philomena

Dallas Buyers Club

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

All is Lost

Captain Phillips