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Reviews
Black Irish (2007)
Understated drama with fine direction and performances
As anyone who has seen any of his work will know, Brendan Gleeson is one of the finest British actors working in the film industry today; likewise, one cannot help but feel that Michael Angarano and Emily VanCamp are two of cinema's brightest upcoming stars, and the rest of the cast equally solid. Although a great admirer of all these three actors and Gann's 'Invincible', I was put off from watching this for an undue length of time by the IMDb Plot description 'A teenage boy (Angarano) longs to win the attention of his emotionally distant father.' - this film is so much more than that.
This is not a film designed to showcase dramatic highs and lows - rather, it is a film about the cold, often bitter truths of life living on the fringes of society; and the angst involved in growing up given the expectations of both immediate - family - and wider society. One gets the impression that, rather like the tale of growing up in South Boston achieved by Damon and Affleck in Good Will Hunting, this tale, its characters and their mannerisms are all drawn from first-hand experience; an excerpt of that life.
It makes for difficult viewing, but not because of Gann's direction: the story is one of little laughs, long moments of reflection; little highs and big lows; and the audience cannot help but feel the helplessness of the film's characters. It is a credit to Gann, however, that he does not milk the dramatic value of the more powerful scenes to no purpose (take note, Hollywood). My greatest criticism - and not a great one at that - is that one gets the impression that Gleeson was not entirely comfortable with the South Boston accent, and one suspects that this might be a criticism levelled at him unfairly; a simple script re-write might have done wonders to solve this problem.
Certainly, anyone who knows any of the work of Gann, Gleeson or Angarano would do well to watch this, although few would likely add it to their list of favourites. That aside, this is good, solid work from Gann in the director's chair, and I for one look forward to more from him.
Into the Wild (2007)
Unpredictable, but on the money
When I spotted an advertisement for this film in a British newspaper, complete with rave reviews, my interest was piqued enough that I looked it up on IMDb, saw the 8+/10 rating and read a couple of the bits of trivia and thought "Fantastic." and pretty much ran down to the video library.
The initial comment I made to the friends with whom I watched the film was: "Hmm. That was a little different to what I was expecting." - and therein, I fear, lies the rub. The problem with having expectations built up about a slightly unusual sort of film is that they are, almost inevitably, confounded. I would point to the example of Napoleon Dynamite; a totally different sort of film that can be hugely enjoyable if one watches it with no expectations of any kind (as I did); or lame nonsense if the film has been raved about by your friends (as happened for one of my friends who disliked ND).
However I was curious as to what most of the negative reviews of this film said - almost without exception, they seem to have come from people who have little to no idea about how to critique a film of this kind, and while I am no professional critic I would point out the following.
The production values of this film are outstanding. There are any number of light touches of camera-work and editing that quietly assert the thought and effort that have gone into this film; so that to rate it anywhere below 7/10 is shameful. I need not go to any lengths to heap further praise on the soundtrack. Penn's casting and directing skills, likewise, cannot be questioned. The film felt so authentic that it was frequently more akin to watching a documentary than a screenplay; most of the bit-part characters (ie. the lesser roles; not the parts played by Hurt, Harden, Keener, Holbrook and Vaughn) felt so real that I wondered if they were professional actors at all - thinking that if so, they were outstanding. The decision to film exclusively on location, while perhaps obvious by film-making standards, is a brave one considering that filming in Canada, for example, would have sacrificed comparatively little in return for the financial savings.
The biggest problem in terms of reception, it seems, is in Penn's dialogue - the screenplay itself. Not having read Krakauer's book, I feel it is not something I can criticise fairly. A number of the adverse comments about the film posted on IMDb seem to rage against holding McCandless up as some kind of role model - sorry folks, you've missed the point. The art of cinema is one of STORY-TELLING. Penn is telling a story of a young man who lived by his ideals. Does anyone have the right to question the beliefs of another? Or to criticise an artistic portrayal of such a tale based on fact on the grounds of plot? Expect an engaging story, well-told, and enjoy Penn's direction and Hirsch's performance.
Merlin's Apprentice (2006)
Watch at your peril
Likely to be the worst sequel I have ever endured - and definitely worse than even such gems as Robocop 3.
Like others who have posted about this, I am a sucker for anything Arthurian, medieval or historical, and thus was interested to see what this could offer given the prestige established by the original miniseries to which this purported to be a sequel. I was sadly mistaken: the director - if it had one, and from the filming and acting of most of the scenes, one would probably assume that it did not - did a poor job with, admittedly, a dreadful script.
The plot is absurd, killing off a hugely important character very early in the film while, incredibly, failing to take advantage of an unmistakable dramatic opportunity in the pathos this could generate. Subsequently the story simply falls apart, with ludicrous 'revelations' being fed to the audience as plot devices and a deus ex machina ending that gives one the feeling that the writer had gotten to a point where he realised he was up to his eyeballs in excrement and just decided to pack it in and move on.
DO NOT WATCH, SLEEP IS BETTER.