ISYS Movie Team

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

ARTICLES

Thursday, October 10, 2013

REVIEW: Young Adult

YOUNG ADULT

I first came across the story of Mavis Gray during year twelve as we were studying Hamlet, which if you study Hamlet is a character study of Hamlet and his world, which was interesting because what I saw straight away was that Young Adult is also a pure character study of Mavis Gray and a world, a past, she cannot move away from: her highs school years and blunders, when was famous. The main thing reviewers and other analysts will tell you about Young Adult is “they had to be brave” because this is not an easy movie to pull off. In music there are albums called “Concept Albums” when artists tell you this it generally means this is something “We don’t if anyone would like yet”, that they’re trying to experiment with new things so that they could possibly take the genre to a higher plane than it is in currently; in a way Young Adult is a “Concept Movie” as it tries to experiment with its script and overall production to express itself in a unique. And what Young Adult expresses is a character study that if you look closely enough asks you about change and how we really deal with it.

Young Adult is the second collaboration between Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Thank you for smoking) and Diablo Cody (United State of Tara) since the critically-acclaimed-smash-hit Juno (2007), which earned Cody the Oscar for best original screenplay. The story focuses on Mavis Gray, an interesting thing about her is that she expands an interesting concept that Juno played around with the character of Mark of the “forever child” a concept that very simply put defines a character/person inextricably stuck in the past and unable to move on in their life. That’s what Mavis is she’s on the wrong side of thirty, divorced and living out a mediocre career; Mavis live her best years in high-school and thus she is quite inextricably stuck in this high school world unable to move on in her life. The story follow Mavis as she confronts her life as it has been going and as it is and through her interactions with her old High School peers (Buddy Slade, Matt Freehauf) we learn about the flaws: that her alcoholism is crippling her, that she treats people terrible, we learn how terrible of a person she has become and eventually we feel that she does too. And when we almost thought everything is going to work out for Mavis and she’s going to change, the movie does its most important move, in a very thought provoking “kitchen scene” a conversation with a Matt Freehauf’s sister, a woman that has idealized her since high school idealized her for five minutes and undoes the progress that had taken the entire movie. In an outstanding and brave move Young Adult undoes the journey that we have become so invested to perhaps comment on how Holly Wood has made us expect in real life of how everything changes in real life and life gets better but in reality we watch a documentary on animal cruelty and be vegan for a week then quit.

The main character, Mavis Gray, is masterfully acted by Charlize Theron (Chocolat, Monster) and Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt) provides the perfect comedy relief. This is a movie that will give you a master class exhibition in acting and teach you something about change, making you laugh then make uncomfortable and think at the same time.

5 out of 5 stars

Rotten Tomatoes 80%

Metacritic 71%

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-- Ivan

Shot Down in Flames

2 Guns (2013)

Yet another story of 2 undercover cops trying to bring down a powerful drug-lord. If you one to focus solely on an action packed movie without a care for the actual story line, this is a movie for you. If however you enjoy something a bit more mind grabbing and mentally adequate this is probably not the movie you wish to be seen viewing.

Starring:

Mark Wahlberg (Stig)
Denzel Washington (Robert 'Bobby' Trench)
Paula Patton (Deb)

Director: Baltasar Kormakur

Writers

Blake Masters
Steven Grant

--Tom

Video Sourced From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wJ7rGiT0BU

Hunger Games 2

There was nothing quite like The Hunger Games....

--Tom

Video sourced from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keT5CRhhy84

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Gravity by the concensus

GRAVITY (2013)

Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
Written by Alfonso Cuaron and Jonàs Cuaron
Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
Run time: 90 mins
Genre: Sci-fi, thriller

COLLATED RATINGS AND BY THE NUMBERS

Rotten Tomatoes 97%
Meta Critic 96%
Budget $80'000'000
Gross(so far) $96'862'000

COMMENTS
"Gravity, a weightless ballet and a cold-sweat nightmare, intimates mystery and profundity, with that mixture of beauty and terror that the Romantics called the sublime." - Liam Lacey 4/4, Globe and Mail,

"This is one of the most stunning visual treats of the year and one of the most unforgettable thrill rides in recent memory." Richard Roeper 3.5/4, Chicago Sun-Times,

"Gravity is not a film of ideas, like Kubrick's techno-mystical 2001, but it's an overwhelming physical experience -- a challenge to the senses that engages every kind of dread." David Denby, New Yorker

"If the film past is dead, Gravity shows us the glory of cinema's future. It thrills on so many levels. And because Cuar‪ón is a movie visionary of the highest order, you truly can't beat the view." Richard Corliss, Time Magazine

"In a little more than 90 minutes [it] rewrites the rules of cinema as we have known them." A.O Scott 5/5, New York Times

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REVIEW

-Ivan

Review: The Silver Linings Playbook

THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
I'm not usually a sucker for a romcom but when something as cheesey as a romcom is written, edited and acted to perfection as writer/director, David O. Russel, and, cast, Bradley Cooper(The Hangover, Limitless), Jennifer Lawrence(The Hunger Games, Winters Bone) and Robert De Niro(The Godfather II, Raging Bull, Meet the parents) provided then there is just no argument to it. From the perfect pitch perfect editing, to the pitch perfect writing and pitch perfect performances from the cast's three main stars there is no denying that this little gem of a summer-2012-blockbuster is very much deserving of its high critical acclaim, garnering an Oscar for best actress for Lawrence with 5 more nominations, four golden globe nominations, three BAFTAS nominations (Russell winning best adapted screen play).

Adapted from Mathew Quick's novel of the same name David O. Russel illuminates the screen with a well written dialogue-driven script that captures the adventures Pat Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper) dealing with his long suffering bipolar disorder that has been aggravated by the decay of his marriage. You would think losing his job, his marriage and being sent to a mental hospital would bring any man to his breaking point, no this is not true, not for Pat that is; Pat is determined for his search for his ultimate goal of a silver lining which he believes he can find if he could just get fit and get his ex-wife back or at least talk to him and with the help of the dysfunctional support network of his family which includes his obsessive compulsive sports fanatic father, Pat Solitano Senior (De Niro) and his closests friends which eventually includes the equally crazy, nymphomaniac, young widow Tiffany Maxwell (Lawrence) he might just as well succeed.

Again, Silver Linings Play books is beautifully written and acted. Lawrence captures the comedic character of Tiffany to perfection and often steels the show, you will have never seen De Niro play a character in such a way before and he does it to perfection and Bradley Cooper's Pat Solitano Junior will charm your socks off. This movie is a non-stop-barrel-of-laughs, that reaches that sweet spot between comedy and dysfunctional that bounds the aches of beauty. This is the perfect movie for a movie date, a family get together, lonely night alone and even the most extreme of romcom deviants.

5 stars out of 5
-Ivan

By the numbers
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 81%
Budget: $21'000'000
Gross: $236'412'453 --> more than 11 times its budget

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VIDEO REVIEW

The Intouchables (2011)

The Story follows the daily struggle of a French millionaire, Phillippe, who is paralysed from the neck down. Looking for a change Philippe hires a Senegalese man, Driss, from the rough areas of Paris who is out on parole as his carer. As the movie progresses the no-nonsense, no pity Driss sparks excitement back into Philippe’s life.

Although one of its main characters is a paraplegic the movie is filled with edge of your seat scenes starting dramatically with a car chase through the streets of Paris, and filled entirely throughout with clever wit and humour. The storyline is intriguing as it shows the deep relationship of a classy, ‘proper’ yet laid back millionaire with a straightforward criminal from the streets, as they are brought together over common issues such as relationships and love.

The film is created spectacularly with acting to match, the fact it is subtitle was an annoyance at first but slowly adds to French setting.

Rating: 8.5/10

--Tom

Video sourced from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g745j9fZEAY