ADVANCED STYLE (PG)
Having the wherewithal to wear it all, US, 72 minA delightful documentary about a vibrant fashion movement that has sprung up around a collection of trend-setting elderly women in New York City. At an average age of just under 80, this feisty fashionistas are blissfully oblivious to what the style gurus are hyping as the ‘in thing’ right now. To the Advanced Style gang - whose exploits are chronicled in a popular blog - the more ‘out there’ an outfit can be, the better. There is a inspirational spirit of rebellion at work here that has nothing to do with the manufactured impulses triggered by the global fashion industry. These sisters of a certain age are strictly doing it for themselves. Long may they go on doing so.
***1/2
Doll parts ... Annabelle is not the kind of toy Santa should be handing out.
Source: AP
ANNABELLE (MA15+)
Sometime evil will take its doll, US, 98 min
The breakout star of last year’s smash-hit chiller The Conjuring gets her own movie. If you are unfamiliar with her work, let’s just say Annabelle is a creepy-looking vintage doll that just happens to be a paranormally active trouble-magnet for anyone unlucky enough to own her. A basic origin-story premise winds back the clock to 1971, a period where Annabelle was yet to turn pro as a full-on freaker-outer of men, women and children. Especially children. After a slow start, the movie generates a respectable number of scares once the self-arranging furniture and self-slamming doors get going. The production overall only really disappoints when compared to the far-superior The Conjuring. It looks a darn sight cheaper - so much so that it sometime breaks the menacing mood at hand - and definitely lacks the shrewd scripting of its predecessor. **1/2
Growing up ... Ellar Coltrane on the set of Boyhood with director Richard Linklater.
Source: Supplied
BOYHOOD (M)
Growing, going, gone., US, 168 min
A coming-of-age movie? Been there, done that. A coming-of-life movie? Now that is something new. Background schematics are what puts this remarkable American production in a genre — and perhaps even a class — all its own. Beginning in 2002, prolific director Richard Linklater (School of Rock, Bernie) reconvened the same cast at the same time each year for a few days of shooting. When the project finally wrapped last October, Linklater had captured exactly what he was after: an achingly accurate chronicle of a child in the process of growing up. It should be emphasised that Boyhood is not a documentary. It is a wholly fictional take on the formative years of a typical Texas kid by the name of Mason Evans (Ellar Coltrane). We join Mason at the age of 6, and bid him goodbye at 18. Nothing much happens to the lad during this period. Aside from life itself. And as organically filmed by Linklater, that turns out to be really something. Co-stars Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette.
****1/2
Camp classic ... Luke Evans in Dracula Untold
Source: Supplied
DRACULA UNTOLD (M)
Look out! He’s stark raving Vlad!, US, 90 min
Most vampire movies are a little camp. By comparison, Dracula Untold is a tent city. This cheesy (and at a zippy running time of 90 minutes) relatively breezy affair reveals how a little-known 15th century Transylvanian prince became the biggest bloodsucker the world has ever seen. Vlad the Impaler (played by Welsh heart-throb Luke Evans) starts out proceedings as a right royal family man. He loves his wife (Sarah Gadon), his kid (Art Parkinson) and his homeland. So with all three under threat from marauding Turkish warlords, Vlad accepts an offer to temporarily become a vampire warrior to repel them. All Vlad has to do is avoid drinking human blood for 3 days. What could possibly go wrong with such a simple plan? If you don’t know the answer, you need to get out more often.
**1/2
Mature vengeance ... Denzel Washington tussles with Australia’s Nash Edgerton in The Equalizer.
Source: AP
THE EQUALIZER (MA15+)
Muscovites should never attack Washington, US, 132 min
Seems Liam Neeson no longer has the “mature vengeance” demographic all to himself. Denzel Washington wants his cut of the aged-aggression market, and he wants it now. In all honesty, The Equalizer is no better nor worse than the punishing pulp Neeson has been pounding out since the surprise blockbuster success of Taken in 2008. The same underlying principles apply here. Some bonkers badsters (Russians!) have irked our worldly, weary hero (Washington’s character works in the US equivalent of a Bunnings Warehouse!). So this old campaigner is quite within his rights to kill his way up the enemy’s chain of command until the movie ends. Very violent and very long, so best seen by hardline action fans, and best avoided by those who are not.
***
Cold psychological thriller ... Force Majeure.
Source: Supplied
FORCE MAJEURE (M)
Everything went white, then everything went wrong, Sweden 118 min
An icy cold psychological drama that will chill you to the bone. A family on holiday at an elite French ski resort is seated at a balcony restaurant table. A mini-avalanche strikes without warning. The mother stays with her children, and braces for the worst. The father grabs his phone and makes a run for it. The fallout from this incident is imperceptible at first, then amplifies in magnitude as those involved try and process what has happened. Driven by well-chosen words and random bursts of emotion, this gripping affair could function equally well as a stage play. However, the role that the setting takes in proceedings is unsettlingly cinematic. A challenging piece of work no-one will be forgetting in a hurry, try as they might.
****
Believe nothing ... Ben Affleck in a scene from film Gone Girl.
Source: Supplied
GONE GIRL (MA15+)
A lady vanishes. The mysteries multiply., US, 149 min
Adapted from Gillian Flynn’s sensational 2012 best-seller, this malevolently mischievous movie is one of the best films that will be released in 2014. There is just one proviso to guarantee maximum impact : Gone Girl must be seen ‘cold’. Too much advance knowledge changes the game played here in the wrong way. Nick (Ben Affleck) has arrived home to discover that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has disappeared. The front door is ajar. A glass table in the living room is smashed to smithereens. Oddly, Nick doesn’t seem all that flustered. Nevertheless, he calls the cops. Nick’s measured responses to the ensuing investigation (and the finger-pointing fury of a baying US media) form one half of the narrative voice of Gone Girl. The other half comes from Amy herself, via a diary she had been keeping. Under the aggressively deceptive direction of David Fincher (The Social Network), Gone Girl is an entertainingly provocative film, bound to set tongues wagging and minds racing for some time to come.
****1/2
Solid courtroom drama ... Jeremy Strong, Robert Downey Jr and Vincent D’Onofrio in The Judge.
Source: Warner
THE JUDGE (M)
A life of sentencing comes to a full stop, US, 141min
There hasn’t been a good, meaty courtroom drama hit the big screen in many years. While The Judge is by no means a classic, it is still presents a solid, enjoyable and engrossing legal stoush that will please traditional devotees of the genre. The great Robert Duvall plays Joseph, a veteran small-town judge facing a murder charge in his own court after a tragic hit-run incident. Joseph cannot recall the accident, and his only chance of beating certain jail time is to reluctantly hand over his defence to his estranged son Hank (Robert Downey Jr.). Ethics are not the calling card of this hotshot Chicago lawyer, who has serious misgivings about both returning home and his father’s culpability. Though overly long, this old-fashioned affair exerts a strong grip thanks to worthy writing and performances. Duvall and Downey Jr. are actors of the highest calibre, and the manner in which they alternately widen and shorten the disconnect between their characters is tremendously involving.
***
Erractic ... Richard (Patrick Brammall) and Rowena (Kate Box) in The Little Death.
Source: Supplied
THE LITTLE DEATH (MA15+)
Don’t stare too deeply into demise, Australia, 95 min
The writing-directing debut of Australian actor Josh Lawson (Any Questions for Ben?) is an erratic episodic comedy about just how funny (and much more often, unfunny) a fetish can be. Among the saucy-seedy japes presented for your amusement are such thigh-slappers as mock sexual assault (Lawson himself plays a bloke whose partner keeps hassling him to rape her) and a husband who may or may not be interfering with his nagging wife after he drugs her asleep each evening. Isn’t that just lovely? Some sketchy interludes do have their moments, such as a beautifully performed vignette about a call-centre operator acting as interpreter between a dirty-minded deaf man and a distracted phone-sex practitioner. However, the film as a whole generally follows a line of humour where dysfunction, discomfort and sometimes, even distress, lead only to laughter-free dead ends.
*1/2
Throwaway trifle ... Emma Stone in Woody Allen's romantic drama Magic In The Moonlight.
Source: Supplied
MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT (PG)
Sleight difference between a cynic and a psychic, US, 96 min
One of Woody Allen’s finer light comedies of his ‘later’ years. While definitely a throwaway trifle when compared to the writer-director’s 2013 caustic classic Blue Jasmine, the film exudes a mannered, yet carefree charm that is a delight to experience. Colin Firth plays Stanley, a belligerent British magician called to the south of France to investigate a new clairvoyant sensation. Sophie (Emma Stone) seems blessed with a range of psychic powers that make Nostradamus look like a rank amateur. The abiding mystery of Sophie’s gift duels for our attention with Stanley’s slowly intensifying affection for her. While both plot strands border on inexplicable, a carefully controlled chemistry shared by Firth and Stone keeps us wondering in all the right ways.
***
Running man ... Dylan O'Brien in The Maze Runner.
Source: AP
THE MAZE RUNNER (M)
One way in, no way out US, 117 min
Imagine, if you can, a latter-day Lord of the Flies fused with a discarded plotline from TV’s Lost. Like the sound of that? Then this is bound to get you in. There will be no escape, either. Not at least until all four entries in author James Dashner’s hit series of young-adult novels are in the can. This punchy first instalment does not waste any time putting its easy-to-follow premise through some serious paces. A tribe of a teenage boys is trapped inside a walled field. Outside is a complex maze that changes configuration every day, and hosts a collection of vicious creatures every night. This is a fascinating set-up that lives up to most of the potential promised. Upon the arrival of the newcomer Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), the entrenched tribal laws are challenged for the first time. While the filmmakers delay any deep exploration of the maze and its sinister, shape-shifting properties, the wait is indeed worth it.
***1/2
Solid local crime flick ... Brendan (Ewan McGregor) and JR (Brenton Thwaites) in Son of a Gun.
Source: Supplied
SON OF A GUN (MA15+)
A muffled bang for your buck, Australia 109 min
Best on-screen Australian prison escape ever? There are worse legacies a local movie can leave behind in 2014. While there is more to Son of a Gun than just an audacious breakout sequence - young rising star Brenton Thwaites certainly proves he is an actor going places - it never quite scales the same peak of adrenalised excitement again. Thwaites plays a young crim co-opted by his thuggish prison protector (Ewan McGregor) to repay his debt once he returns to the outside world. After a very striking start, the movie loses its pinpoint aim and begins spraying willy-nilly at some easy and familiar targets. The scripting here isn’t clever enough (Russian mobsters yet again, really?) to keep us caring who might be holding the upper hand as the white lies and black eyes just keep on coming. Co-stars Alicia Vikander.
**1/2
Low joke ratio ... Susan Sarandon and Melissa McCarthy in Tammy.
Source: Warner
TAMMY (MA15+)
Laid on thick, spread too thin, US 97 min
A winning support effort in the 2011 smash hit Bridesmaids was the perfect showcase for Melissa McCarthy’s innate ability to appall as she amuses. However, when at the wheel of her own star vehicles (The Heat, Identity Thief), McCarthy seems incapable of finding a way to the funny. If only they made GPS systems for senses of humour. The title role has McCarthy taking her alcoholic granny (Susan Sarandon) on a reckless road trip, where jet-skis will be crashed, livers will be trashed and a father-and-son farmer duo (Gary Cole and Mark Duplass) will be pashed. The joke-to-laugh ratio is low at best, and a flat zero during some ill-advised scenes. *1/2
He is the walrus ... Justin Long Kevin Smith’s bizarre film Tusk
Source: Supplied
TUSK (MA15+)
The old man and the sea creature, US, 102 min
Veteran American indie filmmaker Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Clerks) tries his hand at semi-sinister horror with Tusk, a so-so offering where cleverness is often cancelled out by laziness. Justin Long stars as Wallace, a popular US podcaster being held against his will in a shack in rural Canada. His captor is Howard (Michael Parks), a creepy elderly gent who wishes to turn Wallace into a walrus. That is not a misprint. A walrus. Wallace’s slow and agonising transformation from smartass to sea creature is every bit as gross as you might be imagining. Smith attempts to smooth this bumpy, bloody ride by applying his trademark style of wordy, wisenheimer humour. Unfortunately, the jokes are wildly hit and miss.
**1/2
Hard man ... Liam Neeson in A Walk Among the Tombstones
Source: Supplied
A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (MA15+)
Fifty shades of grave, US 114 min
Though hard-boiled crime author Lawrence Block has penned a stack of well-received books, the movies are yet to properly make his acquaintance. This disconnect may finally end witha gritty, greyed-out film noir featuring Block’s most enduring creation, lone-wolf New York private eye Matthew Scudder. At this point, it should be mentioned the role of Scudder, a lifelong alcoholic perpetually hovering between recovery and relapse, is played by Liam Neeson. This could be a deal breaker for many potential viewers. For many years, Neeson has been flooding the market with formulaic fare that has positioned him as a mature-age Mr Vengeance. No need to worry here : this very strong thriller is the best thing Neeson has been involved with for ages.
***1/2
Best film of the year so far ... J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller in Whiplash.
Source: Supplied
WHIPLASH (MA15+)
The beat goes on. The beaten are forgotten., US, 106 min
Name any movie where a hot talent and a burning ambition are yet to combust. The same question will invariably be asked of the protagonist. Do you have what it takes? This astonishing make-it-or-break-it drama isn’t having any of that. The question it will ask is far more interesting. Do you want back what it took? By the time you get to the extraordinary answer, you will already have experienced one of the best films of this year. A basic plot synopsis does not make Whiplash seem all that inviting. A promising drummer, Andrew (Miles Teller), gains entry to an exclusive music conservatory. His main instructor, Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) immediately takes an active interest in Andrew’s development, while also displaying a blatant dislike of the young hopeful. So far, so familiar, huh? Well, Whiplash will soon give you pause to reconsider that position, by virtue of the incisive way it drills down into the cores of these two very different, very motivated characters.
