The Lobster Review and Trailer (Cannes 2015)

Being single might be a nightmare for some, but spare a thought for poor Colin Farrell, who in The Lobster plays a man running out of time to find a mate, or else he will be turned into the titular sea creature. The Lobster takes the viewer to an odd alternate reality where the social pressure to escape a solitary existence is exaggerated by the powers that be, who keep strict controls on the single population.

David (Colin Farrell) is the paunchy, unlucky-in-love man whose previous relationship lasted almost twelve years, but is now booked in to a hotel where singles are forced to either pair up for life, or they will be transformed into an animal of their choice. David chooses to become a lobster but on arrival at the hotel, is given matching suits with the other male members, and 45 days to find a female partner. Accompanied by his brother, who was unsuccessful in his quest for love and so is now a dog, David meets fellow single men Robert (John C. Reilly) and John (Ben Whishaw) and begins the search for his perfect match. The singles are kept segregated from those that have formed into blossoming couples and are attempting to make a go of relationships. If the stress of finding a lover wasn’t enough, the singles are forced to hunt for ‘loners’ who have opted out of ordinary society and now live a wild existence in nearby woods. Catch one of these socially unacceptable loners and the singletons buy themselves extra days to stay in the hotel.

Loved this film! Read the rest of my review of The Lobster from Cannes 2015 over at Tastic Film.  

Watch the trailer below:

Saving Mr. Banks Review

Is it supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or will it take more than a spoonful of sugar to make this medicine go down? Saving Mr. Banks tells the impossibly boring sounding story of Walt Disney's attempts to get author P.L. Travers to relinquish the rights to her beloved Mary Poppins so that he can make an all singing, all dancing Disney adaptation of the book. Travers is a miserable, jaded and stuck up Emma Thompson and Disney is nice guy Tom Hanks. What a surprise; Saving Mr. Banks is produced by none other than Disney.

Saving Mr. Banks is not a bad film. Thompson peels away the layers until we start to see the sympathetic soul beneath the icy exterior of Travers while the supporting cast of Paul Giamatti and Colin Farrel are superb. When Travers gets lured to Hollywood due to financial problems, Disney attempts to woo her with Sherman brothers songs, delicious sugary treats, a tour of Disneyland and even her own personal driver. Travers hates all the confectionery, the rooms full of Disney merchandise and the sugar coated songs but most of all she hates animation.

With flashbacks to her childhood in Australia humanising this hard to like figure and a developing relationship between (most poignantly) her and her driver played by Giamatti, Disney's film wins you over in the end, much like Disney himself ends up winning Travers over. That is all well and good; a nice little yarn about a woman learning to loosen up and forgive her self and at the same time a sweet, if slightly dubious, message about the power of movies to bring joy to people's lives.

I went home wondering if all this was true or how much the writers made up. So I did some exhaustive and extensive research (well I looked on Wikipedia) and found out that Travers was indeed an adviser to the production for two weeks and one of the real Sherman brothers who got the pleasure of working with her insists she was even worse than how she is portrayed in the film. 'She disapproved of the dilution of the harsher aspects of Mary Poppins' character, felt ambivalent about the music, and so hated the use of animation that she ruled out any further adaptations of the later Mary Poppins novels.'

In Saving Mr. Banks she does not get invited to the premiere but requests a ticket from Disney herself. This is true but instead of crying and tapping her feet and Disney and her parting ways on fond terms, this is what apparently really happened: 'she reportedly approached Disney and told him that the animated sequence had to go. Disney responded by walking away, saying as he did, "Pamela, the ship has sailed."' Whatever happened, she never agreed to let Disney adapt any more of her novels again.

I get the feeling that Travers would have hated Saving Mr. Banks for its sugar coating of her story and I doubt much that Disney would have approved much of the way it softens her. It's a sweet movie with solid performances but forget a spoonful of sugar, take it with a pinch of salt.

More reviews at I Love That Film:

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Don Jon

Machete Kills, The Conspiracy, Snitch and more

Ender's Game

Sunshine on Leith

How I Live Now

Filth

The Call

Rush

The Lone Ranger

Epic Trailer and The Art of Epic Book Review

Some tunes are just made for trailers. They sound epic enough to market any grandiose piece of blockbusting entertainment. Guardian at the Gates is one of those tunes and features very briefly at the start of the trailer for the new animated film from Blue Sky Studios, Epic. This is the studio that brought us Ice Age and Rio but don't hold any of that against them, Epic looks like their most ambitious and... yes... epic films to date.

Starring a wonderful voice cast including Christoph Waltz on villain duties and Colin Farrell and Josh Hutcherson as the heroes but also the likes of Steve Tyler and Beyonce on supporting vocals, it could be an animated adventure that will appeal to all ages.

It's all about a bunch of tree dwelling little people. No not dwarves but really really little people that live in the leaves and talk to slugs and ride hummingbirds and stuff. It could be a tree hugging epic on the scale of Avatar and no doubt that was a little bit of the reason for using the epic sounding Guardian at the Gates which I last heard used in the Avater trailer. As soon as I heard it, it certainly brought back memories of my agonising wait to see that film and the countless times I watched the trailer in preparation.

Anyway the main reason I'm talking about Epic is that as part of my continuing writing for Starburst magazine, I managed to pick up a copy of The Art of Epic, one of those gorgeous, big coffee table books that features loads of pictures including stills from the film, storyboards and rough sketches. Here is my review of The Art of Epic. Check out the trailer for Epic below:



What do you think? Epic or epic fail?