Category Archives: Genre

The Departed (2006)

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2007 #74
Martin Scorsese | 145 mins | DVD | 18 / R

The DepartedAn all-star cast lead Scorsese’s Oscar-winning remake of Hong Kong action thriller Infernal Affairs. It’s an unusual yet striking mix of elements: cops vs. robbers thriller, gangster drama, relationships of those who protect/threaten us drama, and several more. It winds up with an unusual feel for structure and pace, though is never less than stylish.

Having not seen many of Scorsese’s earlier films it’s hard for me to say if this is up to standard, as many say it is; but I still believe Greengrass’ United 93 was more deserving of the Best Director nods. As I did earlier this year with The Prestige, my rating errs on the side of caution.

4 out of 5

Night Watch (2004)

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aka Nochnoy dozor / Nochnoi dozor

2007 #73
Timur Bekmambetov | 110 mins | DVD | 15 / R

Night WatchUrban action fantasy from Russia; the first part of a trilogy (though, apparently, film two wraps the plot up and film three will be made in the US, looking at a different part of the story).

It makes for a pretty entertaining tale, with a neat ending that both concludes this film’s plot and leaves everything wide open for what’s to come. It also has some very snazzy subtitles (sadly only available on the two-disc DVD; I won’t waste too much space ranting about how crap the one-disc is here).

If you don’t like Films With Subtitles, this one might surprise you.

4 out of 5

Brick (2005)

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2007 #72
Rian Johnson | 105 mins | TV | 15 / R

BrickThere’s a nagging sense that you’re watching a student short film for large chunks of Brick, especially at the start. This is accompanied by a niggling worry that it’s also been vastly overrated.

But it does, eventually, kick into gear — the incomprehensible plot becomes a bit clearer and the fantasy that these high school kids are in some film noir becomes less irritating and more quite fun.

It occasionally lapses back into its earlier problems but, all said, I’m glad I bothered to stick with it.

4 out of 5

Kinky Boots (2005)

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2007 #71
Julian Jarrold | 102 mins | DVD | 12 / PG-13

Kinky BootsA working class Britcom in the vein of films like The Full Monty.

It may take too long to get going properly, and even the most casual film viewer could jot down the key plot points from the start, but it nonetheless manages some laugh-out-loud moments, and it’s more often happy than groan-inducing when the ‘twists’ come off. If nothing else it’s worth seeing for Chiwetel Ejiofor (who you may recognise from films such as Serenity, Inside Man and Children of Men) as a drag queen.

My score may be a little generous, but all round I enjoyed watching it, so why not?

4 out of 5

Primer (2004)

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2007 #70
Shane Carruth | 74 mins | DVD | 12 / PG-13

PrimerAccording to many this is a real ‘love it or hate it’ film; in typically awkward fashion I’m going to place myself right in the middle.

The thing is, I can see both sides — there’s a great conceit here, with a decent plot built around it; but it drags the idea of treating your audience’s intelligence with respect too far into the realms of Simply Not Explaining Things Properly, including taking almost half the film for anything to become clear. Sadly this clarity only lasts a few minutes before things get muddled up again in the second half of the plot.

I’d like to be able to love Primer, but the things that make me want to hate it just pull it down.

3 out of 5

2007 | Week 31

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My quest to see 100 films I’ve never seen by the end of 2007 passes the three-quarters point this week, and we’re not even two-thirds of the way through the year!

This is the first single-week entry since week 14. As well as a concerted effort (such as three films on the Friday), it’s helped by a lessening in the amount of TV I’ve been watching — last entry’s list of 19 on-going programmes has shrunk to 13 by the end of this week. Some might say I watch too much TV…

Nonetheless, I’ve moved from about two films per week average over the last 16 weeks, to a total of eight films this week! Well well well.

As well as a Week Of More it’s a bit of a Week Of Quality. Three of this week’s films are ones I’ve been dying to see for ages, and the rest follow not too far behind (OK, maybe I wouldn’t’ve put the likes of Kinky Boots or Confetti on a list of films I was dying to see, but I did want to). There’s also a fair few awards and nominations, and no small amount of critical acclaim, across them.

One could also argue that it’s a Week Of Variety. To be honest, I suspect there’s always a fair bit of variety in my film choices, but this week it’s especially pronounced — straightforward British comedies stand by low-budget intellectual sci-fi; complex teenage faux-film noir sits next to epic trilogy-starting Russian fantasy/horror; American gangster thriller lies beside classic British romance… And, while most were made in the new millennium, there’s a spread of over 60 years between the oldest and the most recent. All within the space of seven days, too!

Perhaps because of all these reasons I’ve found choosing the final rating for every film here quite tricky; all of them have some malleability, either up or down.

#70 Primer

#71 Kinky Boots

#72 Brick

#73 Night Watch

#74 The Departed

#75 Confetti

#76 Brief Encounter

#77 Educating Rita

Mean Creek (2004)

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2007 #69
Jacob Aaron Estes | 86 mins | DVD | 15 / R

Mean CreekA group of teenagers concoct a plan for revenge on a bully in this drama from first-time writer/director Estes. Whilst the premise might sound straightforward and liable to be morally simplistic, the writing, acting and direction combine to make a film that is complex, tense, tragic and ultimately believable.

Some might argue it loses its way a little towards the end, almost struggling to find a suitable conclusion, but it doesn’t do so enough to make it anything less than an excellent film.

Highly recommended.

5 out of 5

Mean Creek placed 3rd on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2007, which can be read in full here.

Heat (1995)

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2007 #68
Michael Mann | 164 mins | DVD | 15 / R

HeatHeat will probably always be best remembered for two things: the excellent running shoot out on the streets of L.A., and De Niro and Pacino on screen together for the first (and, so far, last) time.

There’s a lot more to it than that, of course: ostensibly a cops-and-robbers crime drama, the film follows the personal lives of each side as well as the usual professional actions. The cop-with-failed-marriage / criminal-with-successful-relationship juxtaposition may already feel clichéd, but it works well enough here, and is well executed without distracting from the meat of the plot — which is, still, the crime and justice.

5 out of 5

Right at Your Door (2006)

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2007 #67
Chris Gorak | 91 mins | DVD | 15 / R

Right at Your DoorL.A. is hit by a series of ‘dirty bombs’ in this indie suspense thriller, that follows the story of what happens to one man in the suburbs, as well as the various people whose paths cross his.

Mainly based in one location (his home), the film is an effective and suspenseful account of what it’s like to be an ordinary person almost in the middle of such an attack. The frantic early pace does let up a little as the film goes on, but it remains gripping right up to the well-executed twist.

4 out of 5

Mystic River (2003)

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2007 #66
Clint Eastwood | 132 mins | DVD | 15 / R

Mystic RiverThe acting is the main draw of this Oscar-winning murder drama, in which three childhood friends who grew apart are brought back together when one of their daughters is murdered. Tim Robbins is particularly excellent, easily earning his Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Unfortunately most of the plot is not far above the standards of your average police procedural show, albeit fleshed out with more insight into the various characters and plot complexities — and, of course, with superior acting from all involved.

4 out of 5