Easy A - 18th March 2014

And here we are again, this week we are sitting down to view our 195th film! Not long now until the 200th, we'll have to have a Tuesday Night is Film Night anniversary party!

This week's film is back to the comedy, albeit with a romantic teen movie slant, but will it be top marks or bottom of the class for;

Easy A

We saw this one on the TV schedules and added it to the planner just a couple of days ago, so we only knew it's content from the brief synopsis on the EPG. However, we were pleasantly surprised.

Firstly lets take the obligatory spin around the cast. Easy A focuses on Olive Penderghast played by the absolutely lovely Emma Stone, you may know her from such films as; The House Bunny and Friends With Benefits. Olive's best friend is Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) who helps to start the story. Along the way Olive is aided and abetted by her parents; Rosemary and Dill Penderghast; Patricia Clarkson (Friends With Benefits and Lars and the Real Girl) and Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones and The Terminal) respectively, who manage to act everybody else off the screen and we enjoy some absolute fantastic interplay between Penderghast family.

Olive also, as you will see, has a number of male contemporaries, possible too numerous to list  here but please avail yourselves of the IMDB link below to get a full listing.

Lisa Kudrow also makes an appearance and although not a real favourite here at TNiFN Towers, we were delighted by her contribution and how funny she was playing the slightly wayward School Guidance Counsellor.

Right, enough of who was in it, what was it all about? Well, it follows the basic premise of how a lie, led to a small favour, which led to a big rumour which then perpetuated and snowballed into a huge heap of trouble for young Olive. It starts when Olive lies to her best friend Rhiannon to get out of a camping trip with Rhiannon and her parents. Olive says she has a date for the weekend. However, come Monday Rhiannon wants all the dirt about Olive's so called date and not content with just saying the date went well, Olive embellishes the story so much she admits to losing her virginity. Which of course is just not true, she actually spent the weekend painting her dog's toe nails as well as some other mundanities, but the damage is done, the lie hath been spoken.

So Olive has made her bed and she must lie on it, or not as the case maybe. Of course being in a High School the gossip spreads like wild fire or to use Olive's words; "The Accelerated Velocity of Terminological Inexactitude".

And at this point let us pause for a moment and consider the dialogue in the film, it is sublime, the writing and the narration is brilliant. Hats off to writer Bert V. Royal, some of the lines are just superlative, as mentioned previously the interplay with Olive and her parents is without doubt some very fine work, but also consider the story, it's fairly rudimentary in its content but it delivers a massive hook to pull you in. Fine work indeed.

Back to the plot, so after the lie comes the favour; gay friend of Olive; Brandon is privy to Olive's fabrication and he wants to play on Olive's notoriety to assist himself with the homophobic issues he is suffering at school. If Olive lie's about a "liaison" with Brandon, then Brandon will lose the gay tag and the subsequent beatings. Olive considers this and declines, until Brandon pours his heart out to her and all of a sudden the initial deceit turns into a double whammy of fiction and Olive's reputation takes a sleazy turn.

And there we have it Olive continues to perpetuate the myth and starts taking bribes and gratuities for not sleeping with other boys at the school, but just lying that she did. She clearly enjoyed helping boost the boys egos and the infamy it bought her and this roller coaster ride continued with Olive pretty much not sleeping with most of her peers, if you see what we mean, but as with all good things or in this case lies; it has to come to an end.

The last part of the film regales us with the reversal of Olive's deceit and how she unravels things so that she can return to a modicum of normality. How the story handles this is really pretty good and there is some fine work from Emma Stone as Olive, extrapolating her misdemeanors and turning the story around. Of course, we shall not be spoiling the plot by going through the minutiae detail here, needless to say; watch it and find out, you will not be disappointed.

If we were to point out some negatives, it would only be that the brilliant dialogue in the first half of the film tends to tail off in the second half and although it is still entertaining, some of the killer lines were not so evident. Also the ending could be accused of being a tad cheesy, but as this is eluded to in the narrative we will let them off.

Easy A is the kind of film we like here at TNiFN Towers, it's a feelgood film, it's funny, it's touching and it ends happily for most.

A good one.

TNiFN Rating 83%

IMDB Link

The Vow - 11th March 2014

Tuesday Night is Film Night is here yet again. Doesn't the time fly? It only seems like a week ago when we were watching the last film. Oh. It was a week ago.

Moving on. This week it's feet up and eyes front for;

The Vow

Let's turn things around this week and start at the end of the film. At the start of the end credits, it states that The Vow was based on a true story. Now we didn't know this, so this adds an extra layer of realism to the story, which we have now spoiled by telling you! Whoops.

So The Vow is essentially a dramatic love story which starts with Leo and Paige meeting up and falling in love, which leads to their wedding where they exchange their own set of vows. (Nods to the title). Leo is played ridiculously well by Channing Tatum, ably assisted by the cute and delightfully talented actress; Rachel McAdams as Paige.

The scene setting and layout of the story is dealt with quickly and succinctly, which gave the filmmakers plenty of time to work on the real thread of this touching narrative, which is when Leo and Paige's happy life together is torn asunder when they are involved in a serious and well presented (nice special effects) car accident, which leaves Paige in an induced coma to aid recovery of her neurological trauma. When she comes round, she finds she has lost her recent memory, therefore the last four happy years mean nothing to Paige, but everything to Leo.

The Vow takes this scenario and plays with it and we see from all sides, not just Paige and Leo's, but through family and friends, how this devastating loss affects everybody. Friends are supportive to Leo, but alien to Paige, whereas this juxtaposes with Paige's old friends (prior to Leo) who are fresh in her mind, but alien to Leo. And it is this duality that feeds on through the story, where Paige is seemingly happier in a past life, whilst Leo is trying to bring her back to the current one.

Layered on top of this, we see how family and old friends can be helpful, caring, but also devious and we transpose from a simplex view of old and new, to uncovering what went on in Paige's past that made her turn away from her old friends and family. So the story steers you away from the stereotypical and formulaic standard of the romantic feelgood movie, to something with a bit more gravitas and follows this through to the end. Ideally, at the end things should be back to normal and all happy-ever-after. This is not necessarily the case with The Vow. Some may consider this as a let down, but in reality it's a breath of fresh air to get the unexpected in a film. That's not to say that the film ends badly, on the contrary the film ends well, just not perhaps what you would necessarily expect. Enough said, there's to be no spoilers here.

As for the other cast we should make note of the solid performance by Sam Neill playing Bill Thornton;  Paige's father, a perfect casting for this role, a strong forceful character, but with a dark secret. Alongside Neill we have Jessica Lange as Paige's mother; Rita, again another strong character, but with her own story to tell. Scott Speedman played Jeremy, an ex boyfriend from Paige's past, which ends up as her present, due to the memory loss, if you see what we mean? Jeremy was one of those characters that you love to hate and would want to punch squarely on the nose. Speedman displayed that trait so well and the animosity towards him grew. Luckily Leo does indeed punch him in the face, so all's well that ends well in that regard.

Overall The Vow is a great story and the film did not disappoint portraying it. The tension and emotion build, growing and growing, pulling you into the story and because you didn't know which way it would take you, it keeps you gripped right up until the end.

Nice film and so the scores will be somewhere between good and very good on the old TNiFN rate-ometer.

TNiFN Rating 80%

IMDB Link

Made in Dagenham - 4th March 2014

This week Tuesday Night is Film Night takes in a film from 2010, which transports us back to 1968, as we discover what was;

Made in Dagenham

We think that this will be an easy blog tonight, there are some films that you just know should be good and Made in Dagenham is certainly one of those. And of course a good film makes for an easy blog.

Set in the late swinging sixties, when hair was big and skirts were mini. Made in Dagenham dramatises the real life struggle made by the 187 female machinists based at the Ford car factory in Dagenham, after they are downgraded by the Ford management as non-skilled workers. Backed in part by the male workforce but shunned by some of their union representatives the women don their hot-pants and give their male union conveners the cold shoulder and take their fight to the picket line and beyond.

Based upon historic events, Made in Dagenham charts this struggle with realism, pathos, good humour and turns the three week strike into a gripping, often funny, but equally as often; sad drama. We at TNiFN are often accused of being too positive about even the most atrocious films, however Made in Dagenham is far from atrocious and in fact there is nothing to be negative at. Let us run down the list of superlatives now, dissecting the film into various parts.

The acting is without question totally and utterly sublime. Of note are; the leading lady (if the militant members will excuse that feminist classification), Rita O'Grady played superbly by Sally Hawkins. Somehow Hawkins manages to convey with realism, tenderness and compassion this somewhat meek, mild mannered machinist, whilst she is hoisted by her strong beliefs; that what the male dominated society believes are privileges, are actually rights for women. And she carries this fight on, supported by her colleagues.

Ably assisting Rita (amongst others) are; Sandra, Connie and Albert, played by Jaime Winstone, Geraldine James and Bob Hoskins respectively. Jaime Winstone wears a pair of hot pants extremely well! Geraldine James is magnificent, but we would expect nothing less. Bob Hoskins is not one of the girls, but he is a union member who fully supports the strike action. We haven't seen much of Bob Hoskins here at TNiFN but we were mightily impressed by his performance here. Superb.

Other actors of note are; the late great Roger Lloyd-Pack who plays Connie's husband George. Lloyd-Pack shines through as the tortured war veteran, who plays a real pivotal role in this story. Miranda Richardson is also a beacon of talent as the fiery redhead; Barbara Castle, knocking John Sessions' Harold Wilson into second place in the race for the best portrayal of a politician. Also the supporting cast all play their part and fill in the gaps with such aplomb, it was a joy to watch.

As the film is set in the sixties, it is clearly necessary to portray that era and Nigel Cole (director) has clearly made this a priority, as the wardrobe, lighting, music, scenery and general feel transports you back to this era, so that you are immersed in the culture of the period. In tandem to this you can really sense what is was like to have to deal with the constant industrial action that suffused the sociopolitical arena back then, often forcing the bread winners to the breadline.

Interweaving through the story, there are smaller, minor threads, not all based on reality, that provide several alternate views and juxtapositions to the main plot, this is a very clever use of supplementary narratives, as instead of just following a linear story, you are forced to focus and refocus on events as you see contradictory views that offer up alternative frames of reference to consider.

All in all Made in Dagenham is just a great film. It seems to have everything; a decent believable story (OK, it's based on real events, so we cannot get away from the believable part!) It's tense, but funny. It's hard hitting, but entertaining. It portrays a downbeat society, but with uplifting results.

It is definitely one for the "view again" list. Plus it is going to be turned into a musical! Apparently. Not sure about that. We'll stick to the film.

TNiFN Rating 91%

IMDB Link

The Bling Ring - 25th February 2014

Tuesday Night is Film Night is taking a risk this week and branching off into unknown territory as we try to work out what this film choice is all about!

This week we watched;

The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring was a bit of an unknown quantity, apart from the casting of Emma Watson as one of the lead characters. The film is based not on a book, but on a Vanity Fair magazine article called; The Suspects Wore Louboutins, which details the brief infamy of a bunch of Californian kids who take upon themselves to steal from the homes of the rich and famous. What started out as a small adrenalin rush, quickly escalated into a $3,000,000 haul of money, accessories, shoes, jewellry and haute couture.

The film stars; Katie Chang as Rebecca, Israel Broussard as Marc, Emma Watson as Nicki, Claire Julien as Chloe, Taissa Farmiga as Sam and Georgia Rock as Emily. Chang and Broussard put in half decent performances as the leaders of the small gang. Emma Watson does pretty well as the slightly precocious and somewhat spoilt Nicki, although her attempt at an American accent was rather hit or miss.

Although the story is relatively interesting, there are no sub-plots or off topic threads and therefore this simplex approach makes for a slow, weak and linear plot. It is enhanced by some good editing, differing camera work and a hip-hop soundtrack, which aligns nicely with some of the action, although I use the word action very lightly.

The film starts with the end of the story and then does a flash back to a year ago to start the narration and concludes with inevitable capture of the gang. As an interesting aside; when did the word "burgularized" become acceptable within the English language? It is used several times within The Bling Ring. Clearly the Americans making up their owns words as they go along.

If we were to look more closely at the film and try to dissect some meaning from this needless desire to steal from another person, we could suggest that the film is dealing with the American fascination with celebrity, their constant desire to place these figures on pedestals, only to bring them toppling down again. Ally this with the kid's desire to dent the celebrity status of these Hollywood stars, by violating their property, security and sense of well-being. However, in doing so they they end up as minor celebrities themselves, lauded by their peers in a kind of modern day Bonnie & Clyde scenario. Thus perpetuating this obsession with status and celebrity.

Or indeed, you could just view it as a film about some miscreant kids, who get banged up for nicking stuff. With a cameo appearance from Paris Hilton.

At an hour and 30 minutes long, it's not an arduous slog to get through, but there are much better films out there. If you find nicking bling fascinating or you fancy a sneak peak into the Hollywood style homes then take a look at The Bling Ring, if not then avoid.

TNiFN Rating 51%

IMDB Link



PS - Thanks to all of you for reading the blog, we have now passed 6000 page views!

Ted - 18th February 2014

Tuesday Night is Film Night is here again and this week we cuddled up with;

Ted

Well, what can you say about a film that is about a boy and his talking teddy bear?

What? You didn't know Ted was about a talking teddy bear?

Whoops.

We start the film as the young John Bennett receives a teddy bear for Christmas, a teddy so lovely that John wished he could be real and that they would be friends forever. Well you know, dreams can come true. What makes the start even better, is the superb and extremely funny narration by Patrick Stewart, but anyway to the film.

So John Bennett has a bear that actually comes to life and Ted grows up with John and although Ted initially has some notoriety and indeed some celebrity, in time this fades and he just becomes a good buddy to John, hanging out, drinking beer, smoking dope, that kind of thing. The issue is that John really needs to grow up and spend more time with his girlfriend of four years; Lori Collins. Lori is played by the absolutely gorgeous Mila Kunis who, for the record, looks so damn cute in glasses.

Moving on.

The thing that makes the film Ted so good, apart from Mila Kunis of course, is that it is a successful genre cross-over movie. It's a lad movie, a buddy picture, a romantic comedy, a fantasy reality adventure and a feel good film too. However, it's not just that it successfully mixes the genres, each individual genre element of the film is portrayed so well. And this is due in no small part to the fantastic writing of Seth MacFarlane, who not only supplies the fantastic story, but also brings to the screen his vocal talents as the voice of Ted. (Who in no way sounds at all like Peter Griffin).

Saying that Ted crosses over the boundaries of genres is one thing, however the one genre that you shouldn't place it in is a kid's movie. That cute, cuddly teddy bear may have a heart of stuffing, but he also has a gutter mouth! Which is a key point to make, MacFarlane takes the juxtaposition between the cute and cuddly teddy and crosses that with the laddish, foul mouthed humour and scores a winner. There are so, so many elements to this film that are retold afterwards, by which I mean; fans of the movie will repeat word for word many scenes, which smacks of classic memorable comedy.

Alongside the comedy, there are also interweaving sub-plots which in a lesser film would be declared as pure filler, but in Ted, the sub-plots and minor characters inject an extra dimension to the film which lifts it to an even higher level. We really shouldn't over praise it, but it does do everything that it sets out to do, it will make you laugh, it will also tug at your heart strings, with it's sadder parts. The comedy is sublime, with hearty laugh out loud moments, but if there were to be a downside, some comedic references were lost on us, as perhaps they were too American, but this is a very minor gripe.

So, to summarise; great film, full of laughs, unique in it's format, brilliant writing and Mila Kunis to boot.

And news just in; the promise of Ted 2 in the future. Sequel anyone?

TNiFN Rating  83%

IMDB Link

Lars and the Real Girl - 11th February 2014

Tuesday Night is Film Night has rolled around yet again and this week for our potentially momentous magical movie moment, we have the strange looking story of;

Lars and the Real Girl

My word, what a strange film!

Ryan Gosling stars in this bittersweet, melancholic, romantic, strange tale of love and delusion. Gosling is Lars Lindstrom a young small town man, who lives in the garage of the house, which he half owns with his brother; Gus. Gus (Paul Schneider) lives in the house with his newly pregnant wife Karin (Emily Mortimer). Lars is a shy and retiring character, who seems to be retreating into his shell more and more, until he finds a girlfriend.

Unfortunately, Lars' new girlfriend is a plastic, mail-order "love doll".

Let us just take a moment to take that all in.

That is the premise of the story, Lars becomes a delusional individual who comes to terms with his life by inventing a girlfriend, although the invention is not in his mind, she is real, plastic and came delivered in a large crate.

Gus and Karin are clearly perturbed by this creation, as Lars is convinced that Bianca (for that is her name) is real. The only way to get Lars to see a doctor is to take Bianca as the patient and this triggers off the bizarre notion that to treat Lars' issue, the people around him need to believe as well, that Bianca is real. And so, that is what happens. The whole town starts to play along with the fact that Bianca is real, but they only do this for Lars and to help him.

There are some more layers to story, which fill in some detail and background, but the basic story is just that; Lars and his "real girl".

I believe there are two sides to this story, or certainly two ways to look at the plot. You either go along with it or you simply dismiss totally as complete and utter drivel. It very much depends on how you dissect the story, if you are very matter of fact about it, then you can discard it as a whimsical tale with no real credibility. If however, you look at it as a way of examining mental illness, then there is a whole new aspect to it.

You can very easily dismiss mental illness as just that; an illness and not accept or understand the delusions that the person, in this case Lars, displays, but what if everybody accepted that although this is clearly not what we would class as the norm, it is normal for Lars, so let us be sympathetic to his problems and go along with it. How would that make him feel, how would he react, how would he cope, if what is clearly an inanimate object, is suddenly accepted as reality?

And this is what happens, although Bianca cannot walk or talk, she is included in the community and through Lars she lives her normal existence.

It is a totally bizarre film. It is funny, purely for the basic premise of trying to bring to life a plastic doll. However, it is also sad, as you see how the relationships between Lars and Bianca and Lars and his family change. You get this strange juxtaposition between reality and fantasy. For what is reality for Lars, is a fantasy for others, but this story turns that notion around. It certainly makes you think.

However unique though it is and although Ryan Gosling, Paul Schneider and Emily Mortimer are superb acting their individual roles, it is a film you will either love or ignore. Taking it at base level, it is a dire film based on a bizarre notion. If you read into it a lot more you can get sucked into the different perceptions and try to psychoanalyse the plot and the characters and how sympathetic handling of an unfortunate illness can pay dividends in the long run.

The jury is out on this one.

TNiFN Rating: 43%

IMDB Link

The Hangover Part II - 4th February 2014

Good grief Penfold! It's February already. And what better way to celebrate, than to suffer (hopefully not);

The Hangover Part II

So after watching The Hangover (Part I) sometime last year, not as a Tuesday Night is Film Night film I hasten to add, we chance our arm with the second iteration of the story. The characters are the same and the premise of the story is just the same as well. For those of you who don't know or just need a reminding, here's a brief synopsis of the characters.

Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug

(Justin Bartha) are four friends who first suffered the consequences of The Hangover (2009) when they hit Las Vegas for Doug's stag party. A couple of years on and it is Stu's turn to get married. Stu is to marry  his fiance Lauren (Jamie Chung) in a quiet family ceremony in Thailand. However Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, followed by a quiet wedding goes seriously awry.

The film starts with the scene setting, re-establishing the characters and placing them within the current setting. Thus providing a springboard into the action. What essentially happens is that we fast forward to the aftermath, discover that they are totally wrecked and cannot remember a thing, then we wind back time and discover how they got there.

It's not an easy story to quantify without giving too much away. The premise is easy to follow, but it is how they get where they did that is the clincher. There is such a lot of detail that goes into the guys reverse engineering their hungover state, which takes them into the realms of the criminal underworld and the night life of Bangkok, which includes drug running monkeys and dalliances with Lady-boys!

Definitely a lads movie this one and a great deal of fun. As with the first movie Zach Galifianakis is fantastically funny as the idiotic Alan, who manages to get his Wolfpack buddies into trouble. Phil, is the cool character who tries to keep everyone together and Stu is the cry baby who seems to be ruining everything, especially his wedding. Doug doesn't seem to enter into the film at all, only as the sober one back at the wedding venue and as such didn't really add anything.

Mention must also go to the returning character of Mr Chow (Ken Jeong) who is also very funny and seems to add fuel to the lad's wild night. Another returning cameo appearance comes from boxing legend; Mike Tyson at the end of the movie and seems to be a bit superfluous and adds nothing to the film in itself, moreover it seems to be a blatant celebrity placement to endorse the movie. It only went to prove that Mike Tyson cannot sing.

That aside, the film is a great laugh. Even though it is a sequel the idea is still fresh and had sufficient fuel to carry it off, not so sure that Part III will do the same, watch this space. Also, it is one for multiple viewings as there will be jokes and visual gags that would be missed first time around.

To summarise; good film, lots of laughs, will watch again.

TNiFN Rating 73%

IMDB Link