It's time to see how well the ladies have done as we pit the Ladies' Night Season against all of our other pleasant seasons. 12. The Luc Besson Season = 2 (Average rating for the entire season)
(The Mark Dacascos Season is placed above The Buddy Movie Season due to it having five films in it, compared to The Buddy's three.) Mid-table obscurity beckons for our ladies with an average score of only 5.4. Nothing to challenge either The Fog Season at the top of the table or lovely Luc Besson who will surely be propping up the bottom of the table for the rest of time. Not sure what the next season is going to be yet but I've got a few ideas... evlkeith
(Alas, Doccortex's Ladies' Night Season draws to an end with this final review. As a treat lets have a bit of live Kool & the Gang. "C'mon fellas, let's salute the girls." - evlkeith)
To complete our Ladies’ Night season, it’s the scuzzy, splatter
filled charms of Alyce. If it wasn’t so grubby and unhygienic it could almost
be gritty, but sadly the hallmarks of the horror genre are always subtly
present (what do you mean, "sadly"?). It’s all very dark and grimy, like some 1980’s VHS stalwart from the
cobweb infested shelves of Creepy’s Video Emporium, with plenty of drug taking,
dodgy night clubs, gangsters and amateur prostitution. For more wholesome
amateur prostitution see Belle de Jour. But with all this grizzly unpleasantness,
is it actually any good?
Well surprisingly enough, it’s a little old school treat. The
first three quarters of the film deals with the fallout from our heroine,
Alyce, (Jade Dornfeld) ‘accidentally’ pushing her best friend from the roof of
a tall building. She descends into a decreasing spiral of mental illness, drug
use and general sleeziness and throughout this process, Dornfeld’s acting is
always believable, natural and suitably detached. In the last quarter the whole
thing explodes into a mini splatter fest, which is funny but borders on full
scale slapstick, which is certainly not to everyone’s taste.
It’s the atmosphere that elevates the film from oddity to
enjoyable oddity. There’s a real sense that the story is taking place in
society’s dark underbelly in the depraved eighties and the whole thing has
been made with the express purpose of being released straight to video. You
feel like you’re watching something from a bygone age, but in a really
good way.
I doubt it’s to everyone’s taste, but with a certain amount of low
expectations, it’s well worth a watch. Possibly best watched late at night on
your oldest TV set with a couple of Soda Stream orange squashes, over fizzed of course.
(To increase your enjoyment by a factor of 2.35 when reading this review have a listen to a lovely bit of Kool & the Gang - evlkeith.)
This is a low key German offering with the faint aroma of Groundhog
Day permeating its soul. Lola (Franka Potente) must run to save her dodgy
boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) from certain death, after gormlessly leaving
a gangster’s substantial wedge of drug money on the tube. Why she bothers to
save him I have no idea, because she could seriously do better, but she tries
anyway. Over three distinct episodes she tries, tries and tries again, each
time making subtle differences to each separate reality.
It’s well made and relatively enjoyable, but it leaves you
mysteriously unsatisfied. Obviously there’s lots of frantic running from Lola
as she dashes about breaking the laws of time and space. This is fine, but her
outfit is woefully inappropriate for the task and you really want her to get
changed into some gym kit for her subsequent outings. Sadly this never enters
her head and the horrible tattoo around her belly button doesn’t help matters. The
sub-plot of her father’s mysterious relationship is a welcome and interesting
embellishment, but it’s unfortunately only short respite from the breathless
pounding of those streets.
It’s cleverly plotted to an extent, but there’s little of the
time travelling wow factor of Timecrimes or even Harry Potter and Prisoner of
Azkaban. It’s a clinical but underwhelming experience, and this isn’t helped by
the superficial main characters who are neither likeable or particularly nasty.
In the end we are left ambivalent to their fate(s) as the film performs like a
mid table Bundesliga team; efficient yet without the creativity to climb the
table.
It’s not a terrible film, but it falls under the most damning of
categories; somewhere between faint praise and mildly annoying. Yes it’s
mediocre! It neither offends nor enlightens. Watch with limited expectations at
best.
3/10 Doccortex If you like this you could also try: Good Bye Lenin, The Lives of Others.
(Again seeing as though it's Ladies' Night feel free to play a bit of Kool & the Gang as you read this lovely review by Doccortex - evlkeith)
Catherine
Deneuve is the titular Belle de Jour and she has a whole range of marital
problems. At the top of the list is the fact that she keeps drifting off into a
Mills and Boone fantasy world with whips and chains thrown in for good measure
and the Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus in Furs’ playing in the background. Husband, Jean Sorel, although French, doesn’t look the most understanding of types.
Unlike most
bored married people in Britain, Séverine doesn’t go to bingo, take up darts or
go down to the allotments. Instead she takes up the unusual hobby of
prostitution. But sneakily, only in the daytime, so she can be there to cook
husband Pierre’s tea in the evening. This seems a tad extreme, but surprisingly,
it all goes swimmingly for a while as Severine gets all the seedy action she so
desires, but also gets paid into the bargain (a hell of a lot more than writing
an obscure film blog I might add.) Obviously it can’t last and things start to
get a little awkward in the second half of the film.
The film is
all about Deneuve and Bunuel’s infatuation with her, (and often her feet). She
is distant, aloof and it has to be said, wooden for most of the film. Only in
the latter conflict stages does she come to life and show any signs of life, let
alone passion. She is the epitome of French cool and I have no doubts it was
the director’s intention to portray her in this ethereal trance state, rather
than any slight on Deneuve’s acting. She’s iconic and beautiful, but is too
pampered and stylised by Bunuel to be anywhere near likeable or attractive.
Consequently, we have no sympathy for her demise and are left with tired apathy.
And I had a little chuckle to myself when it all went pear shaped too.
It’s
supposedly a classic, and to be fair it’s never less than enjoyable, but if it
were made today it would be shown on the Movies for Men channel on Sky. And
although that sounds a bit racy, I can assure you it isn’t. If odd, French
melodramas are your thing, then this will be perfect, the rest of us may be more
circumspect however.
4/10 Doccortex If you like this you could also try: Viridiana, That Obscure Object of Desire.
(Again seeing as though it's Ladies' Night feel free to play a bit of Kool & the Gang as you read this lovely review by Doccortex - evlkeith)
The cover
looks impressive in an urban, gritty, glamorous kind of way. 4 girls, 3 days, 2
cities,1 chance. Sounds intriguing enough. It’s billed as 2010’s best British
film from a BAFTA award winning director. What could possibly go wrong?
Let’s get all
the negatives out of the way first shall we? It turns out that the
writer/director is that guy out of Doctor Who. He was annoying as the Doctor’s
sidekick and he manages to make an equally annoying film. The fake urban-ness
is almost too much to take and the street gangster types come across like the
opening five minutes of Attack the Block, but with no like-ability factor. Do
people actually talk like this? In South Yorkshire we all have the same accent,
which admittedly makes us sound like the unintelligent cousin of the Dingles
from Emmerdale, but it’s got to be better than that fake urban street talk
innit?
Another
problem is that although the film represents the four lead characters as
strong, positive female role models, the whole thing descends into cartoony
sub-Spice Girl power. Women can be strong in other ways than being able to beat
up guys with limited kung fu skills. The recurring nightmare who is Michelle
Ryan returns to spoil proceedings with some more wooden, annoying,
stereotypical strong cockney woman acting, but this time with some obligatory
limited Kung Fu moves.
The plot is
so preposterous that a five year old would probably despair at the diamond
heist tomfoolery and the general stupidity of the characters, let alone a safe
in a super market cereal aisle!
It’s looking
like we’re headed for a 0/10, but fear not! Somehow Clarke and Davis manage to
snatch a victory from the gaping jaws of Luc Besson.
The film is
told in four equal segments with one of the girls taking the lead in each
section. We follow their personal story through the three days and each story
is relatively engaging, but the clever part is how the full story is revealed
bit by bit as each act is played out. As we view events from each individual
point of view things start to mesh together and events that puzzled us earlier
are explained. It’s intelligent and clever film making, and despite all the
annoyances at the periphery, the film comes over as something really original
even if you possibly have to be a teenager to enjoy it to its fullest effect.
The four
leads all put in a decent acting shift with Shanika Warren-Markland (Kerrys)
annoying but tough, and Tamsin Egerton (Cassandra) annoying and posh. Emma
Roberts (Joanne) (Wild Child again!) is surprisingly believable as the gutsy
American, but best of all is the depressed graffiti artist Shannon, played by Ophelia
Lovibond. She’s introverted, vulnerable and is the only reason I watched for
the first half hour.
It’s a mixed
bag, but it’s well intended, entertaining and original. I’d watch it again just
for all those little subtleties. Surprisingly positive and not bad for 99p.
6/10 Doccortex If you like this you could also try: Adulthood, Kidulthood, Life and Lyrics.
(After the runaway success of the Motivational Growth review with its own chiptune soundtrack, Doccortex has decided to base a whole season on a song. So feel free to listen to this lovely song as you read - evlkeith)
In our Ladies' Night Season we examine a selection of films with strong female leads. Surely it can't be any worse than The Luc Besson Season (It'd have to be going some - evlkeith). We kick off with the highly enjoyable Volver...
Occasionally
a film brings to life a location with such vividness and realism that you feel
absorbed into the setting. Volver’s representation of the superstitious little
village of Alcanfor de
las Infantas and surrounding area is one of those moments. You want to return
and live there long after the film has finished, such is the warmth, emotion
and detail that is generated. And although not situated in the village, you
want to share a meal at Raimunda’s restaurant and listen her sing.
It’s also
one of those films when not much happens. Okay, there’s death, illness and people
return from the dead, but ultimately the film is about the characters and how
they celebrate all the intricacies of life. The line between the living and the
dead is blurred in an intelligent way and although the themes are melancholy
the film somehow manages to produce a joyous festival of what it means to be alive.
I’d never
really noticed Penelope Cruz before apart from her supporting role in Vicky
Christina Barcelona. In Volver however, she is incredible, and the best way to
describe her performance has already been used in the IMDb review by Rene; she
is ‘a force of nature.’ She’s strong, beautiful, passionate and believable, as
the suddenly widowed Raimunda.
The rest of
the all female leads are equally natural, with Carmen Maura’s ‘Irene’ and Lola
Duenas’ ‘Sole’ both worthy of special note. Only Blanca Portillo breaks the
illusion of real life with a slightly over the top performance as the spooky ‘returning’
mother, who looks crazed and disturbed in equal measure.
It’s great
fun and a quality film, and it somehow manages to avoid classification in any
of the tired old genre slots. If you fancy a trip to rural Spain, avoid all the
heat and the hassle, just watch Volver instead.
8/10 Doccortex If you like this you could also try: All About my Mother, The Sea Inside, Open Your Eyes.
