Film Reviews......

The Hurt Locker (15)


The Hurt Locker is a powerful look at the United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, a freelance journalist who spent time with a US bomb squad in Iraq in 2004. It won two Oscars this year, setting two firsts, it is the lowest-grossing film to win Best Picture and Bigelow is the first female to win Best Director.

Tension filled and poignant this film shows one units tour of duty and the threats they have to encounter everyday, from defusing bombs to insurgency. At times it feels as if you are watching a documentary as everything in the film is so organic, it was filmed in Jordan as close to the Iraqi border as they could get, and the actors are relatively unknown bringing a new dimension to their powerful performances. All three of the soldiers show a different side to the soldier persona, Sergeant First William James (Jeremy Renner) loves what he does and cannot see himself anywhere else, Sergeant J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) insists on doing everything by the book and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) is the youngest and suffers mental anguish, always in fear that he might be next to die. A fantastic insight in to a world many of us will never see.

 
Waltz with Bashir (18)


Written and directed by Ari Folman, Waltz with Bashir is an Israeli animated documentary film. The story depicts Folman’s search for his lost memories from the 1982 Lebanon War, providing a fasinating look at one mans view of the war and the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The animation format makes the film more engaging, than the usual question and answer documentary style, this style also lets the director show more than if it was a live action film. In 2008 it won the Golden Globe for best Foreign Lanuage Film, the first animation to do so. Like most Israeli films, it was banned in most Arab countries and received harsh criticsim in Lebanon, as it depicts a vague and violent time in Lebanon’s history. A thought provoking film about a war we don’t know much about.


Sex & Drugs &Rock & Roll (15)


Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is a biopic follows Ian Dury’s rise to fame and documents his battle with polio. The film shows how his debilitating disease, contracted during his child hood, affected his relationships and his rock and roll lifestyle. Starring Andy Serkis as Ian Dury, Serkis was nominated for a BAFTA for his portrayal of Dury. He prepared for the role over several years, nearly crippling himself by wearing the type of leg calliper Dury was forced to wear. Dury was seen as the founder of the punk-rock scene in Britian in the 1970s, entitled after one of Ian Dury and the Blockheads songs Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is set to become one of the defining examples of rock bio-pics.


Exit through the Gift Shop (15)


Born out of an obsession with street art, Thierry Guetta; a French immigrant living in Los Angeles, tries to uncover the infamous British street artist Banksy. Well known for being unknown, Banksy fiercely guards his anonymity to avoid prosecution. The film looks at street art in LA and the artists behind it. Half way through the film changes focus, with Banksy becoming film-maker, and Guetta becoming a street artist. Banksy is featured on camera, however you never see his face and his voice is distorted, further adding to the mystery of who he really is. The film premiered at the Sundance Film festival, and media speculation is that the film is a ‘prankumentary’ (think Borat) rather than a documentary.


Nowhere boy (15)


Written by Matthew Greenhalgh (who wrote Ian Curtis biopic Control) and based on Jili Baird’s Imagine This: Growing up with my brother John Lennon, this bio-pic covers five years of Lennon’s (Aaron Johnson) teenage years and the start of his journey to become a successful musician. Starring alongside Johnson is Kristin Scott-Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff, who play the warring women in his life, the prim aunt who he lives with and his free spirited mother who gave him up. Yearning for a normal family, Lennon finds solitude in art and rock music, which leads to him forming his band The Quarrymen with kindred spirit; Paul McCartney.