Day 181: Tarzan

A baby is saved by a gorilla and raised as one of them. The leader of the gorilla family doesn’t want him there and makes it clear that he is not one of them. When humans arrive on the island, he has to decide whether he wants to stay with the family who have raised him, or go and live amongst the humans.

How have I not seen this before? Madness. The start is so sad. First you have Kala (Glenn Close), the gorilla who saved Tarzan (Tony Goldwyn), lose her baby. Then you have Tarzan’s parents killed by the same animal that killed Kala’s child. She heard Tarzan crying and immediately took off to save him, then she was determined to keep him regardless of what the leader said. I loved her strong maternal instinct.

My only problem would be with how quickly and how well Tarzan learned English. There have been cases where people have been found who have had no chance to learn a language as children and it is extremely difficult for them to learn it in adulthood. There’s an optimal period for language acquisition and Tarzan would’ve been well past it. He was good at mimicking noises, however, so it would make sense that he could copy the words he heard. But I can’t see how he would’ve been able to construct sentences at the level he did. Anyway, I know it’s a Disney film about talking apes and whatnot so I’ll not let this little thing get in the way of my rating of it.

8/10

Day 180: Confetti

In an attempt to win a house, three couples take part in a magazine competition that’s looking for the most original wedding. While working through their themes, each couple comes to understand their relationship in a new light.

For the wedding themes we had: Hollywood musicals, tennis, and naturist. The first and last sounded interesting but the second one was boring. Out of all the couples who auditioned (dinosaur couple, hello!), why oh why would you have picked the couple with the tennis theme? They are given the least attention by the wedding planners. That could’ve been because the theme was boring or because the couple were awful. Despite my issue with the theme, the actual wedding was kinda fun. I mean, I’d never have it myself but it wasn’t horrible. The naturist wedding was really sweet, and I’m so glad they stuck to their guns and were naked for it. The magazine bosses were completely against them being naked and it almost split the couple up but then they did what was right for them. The musical one sounded great in theory (I have a soft spot for musicals, I don’t know why) but the actual wedding just seemed far too much. If I was at a wedding that did this theme, I’d probably be cringing the entire way through.

The naturist couple, Joanna (Olivia Colman) and Michael (Robert Webb), had a difficult time in coming to an agreement on how the wedding should be. Michael had always been a naturist but Joanna was new to it, so she wasn’t entirely comfortable being naked in front of a lot of clothed strangers. He was completely inflexible about it, however, and just kept saying she was beautiful so should be fine with it. She did want to have a proper naturist wedding though and managed to find the confidence to go through with it.

The tennis couple, Isabelle (Meredith MacNeill) and Josef (Stephen Mangan), were just insufferable. If you knew people like them in real life, you’d never willingly associate with them. Obviously as tennis players they’re quite competitive but sadly they bring it into all aspects of their lives and don’t leave it on the court. He is quite insecure and he says in a counselling session that he’s worried she’ll realise that he’s not enough for her and can’t offer her anything. That does help to explain a lot of his behaviour but still didn’t convince me to root for them as a couple.

The musical couple, Sam (Jessica Hynes) and Matt (Martin Freeman), seemed to be the most secure couple. There were some stresses with Sam’s family but the couple stuck together through it. He helped her to find the confidence to stick up for herself and make the choices that she felt were right for the wedding, without giving in to pressure from her mum and sister. A musical theme seemed a bit out-there for them, considering neither of them could sing or dance. If I was to guess at their reason for picking it, it would probably have something to do with Sam always feeling like she’s in her sister’s shadow and her wedding day is a chance to do something big. And she did look like she really enjoyed it, so that was a good moment.

I wouldn’t watch the film again but it’s an easy film to watch if you’re looking to kill some time. There were some cute moments and the acting was alright.

6/10

Day 179: Sound of My Voice

A couple infiltrate a cult in order to expose them and potentially stop them from doing anything harmful to themselves or others. The leader, Maggie (Brit Marling), claims she is from the year 2054 and she offers peace and understanding to her followers.

Cults just seem fascinating. Strangers come together and share something so intimate with each other, all from a common belief. The depictions of cults that I’ve seen in fiction all seem to have quite close relationships between their members. They seem to offer that closeness that we can so often lack in our normal lives and it makes sense that people would be drawn to them. And it allows them to give up control. People claim to want freedom and to be in control of their own lives, but when it comes down to it, I’m pretty sure people would give up that control if it meant they’d be looked after. There is a freedom in having to make no choices and having absolutely no responsibilities. I’d argue that’s one of the main reasons children can enjoy themselves. They don’t have to plan ahead and sacrifice something they want for something they need. They have no control and they’re happier for it. I’m not saying we’d all be happy if we were completely restricted in everything we could do. We’d need the illusion of control otherwise we’d fight against it. In ‘The Fat Years’ (a book that explores China and its government), the author says that, given a choice, people will choose dictatorship over chaos. If our future is uncertain, we look for someone to help put it in order. We want to relinquish the demands placed upon us but at the same time we want to believe we chose that for ourselves. And I think that’s where cults shine.

This film was really well done. I like that we don’t know if she is actually a fraud or if she’s from the future. It was interesting to see the change in the couple who infiltrated the cult. Peter (Christopher Denham) was determined to expose the leader as a fraud but he became mesmerised by her after a few sessions. She had a way of seeming to understand what her followers kept within themselves and she managed to bring it out of them so that they could be free of what was trapping them. After helping Peter to confront his childhood trauma, you can see the change in him. He now wants to go to the sessions, not necessarily to help expose the cult, but in order to learn from Maggie. His girlfriend, Lorna (Nicole Vicius), originally seems to believe that Maggie may be who she says she is but after it becomes clear that Peter has been sucked into their world, she doubts the group and helps to bring Maggie down. Sometimes when the group was meeting, it all seemed so peaceful and I kind of understood how someone could willingly spend their time there. It scares me how easy it would probably be for me to join a cult.

8/10

Day 178: Into the Wild

Unwilling to live in a society of hypocrites, Christopher takes off to live in the wild. He wants the simple pleasures of waking up in the open air, with the sunshine above him and the dirt below. Through his journey he meets some great people and comes to an understanding of life.

I know a lot of people have a problem with this because he dies and so they think there’s no point to it but I’m not convinced that it matters that he died, what matters is how he spent his time when he was alive. For the majority of the film, he is quite happy to spend his time alone in the wild but that seems to be only when he has the choice to spend his life that way. When he ends up trapped in the wild and moments from death, he writes that happiness is only real when it’s shared. He had a wonderful time and he saw some beautiful things but in the end, he would’ve liked to have shared that with someone. It’s a shame that he had to die in order to realise that but even so, he didn’t seem to regret how he spent the rest of his time. It just doesn’t seem to matter that he dies at the end because he still enjoyed his life leading up to that point.

The film is based on the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless. When people talk about him, they seem to be split into two camps; hero or fool. I can understand the points for both sides but I’m not sure I see him as either. He decided to make a radical change in his lifestyle and he has some amazing experiences that a lot of people just won’t have, and that’s pretty amazing. He renounced materialism and went back to nature. That’s impressive, definitely. I would love to be able to do that but I don’t think I’d survive a week. And yes, he bought a book about which plants he could eat and ultimately ended up reading it wrong and then died, which could be considered foolish, yes. I just think he was brave for escaping the world so many of us complain about and for doing what he wanted to do, even if he did die as a result.

9/10

Day 177: The Fall

In a hospital in 1920s Los Angeles, Roy (Lee Pace) tells Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) a fantastical story so that she’ll fetch him morphine so he can kill himself. Alexandria thinks of Roy as her father and she’s devastated that he’s killing everyone off in the story and begs him to stop.

Roy's depression adds a wonderful layer to the relationship between him and Alexandria. She just wants to listen to him and for him to be alright but he can't seem to see through his own pain. In exchange for more story, Roy asks Alexandria to fetch him some morphine. The plan is for him to kill himself and he uses their friendship to try to make it happen. She ends up only getting him three pills though, after confusing the 'e' in morphine with '3'. He then asks her to get the morphine pills from the cabinet of someone else staying in the hospital and he takes them all but when he wakes up he realises they're sugar pills. She wants to make him happy so in the middle of the night she sneaks off to get another bottle for him but when she's reaching for it, she falls and ends up badly hurt. He is devastated that she was hurt while trying to help him and he sinks even further into his depression. He continues on with the story but he kills off the majority of the characters and they're both crying because they know what's coming next and he's determined to kill himself in the story but she begs him not to. He sees how much the story has affected her and he realises he does care for her, and so he doesn't die in the story and he doesn't kill himself in real life.

Such a beautiful film. Almost every shot is absolutely stunning and it really is a pleasure to watch the film just for that alone. I love the story and that she understands his sadness through it.

10/10

Day 176: 8 Women

In a grand house in France a man is killed and 8 women are the suspects. They can't escape the house (phone line is cut, car won't start) and so interrogate each other and uncover clues as to what might have happened. Each woman has something to hide and they are all suspicious of each other.

Such a campy dramarama film, I loved it. Everyone is over the top and there's spontaneous singing throughout. I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but I personally loved it. The story is interesting and I liked that each woman had a story of their own. They all live together and they all manage to keep such amazing secrets. But at the same time, all their relationships are fraught and aggressive. They're all quick to point the finger.

8/10

Day 175: The Cave of the Yellow Dog

Nansal finds a dog inside a cave and takes him home with her. She is determined to keep him despite her parents telling her that she must take him back.

What a great film. The family are a real life family and their interactions seem genuine despite the artificial aspect of the filming. It is a slow film and nothing much happens in the way of drama (except, obviously, with the little boy) but it still managed to be interesting. I liked how the stories were told.

8/10

Day 174: The Rescuers

The Rescue Aid Society has been alerted to the plight of a little girl called Penny (Michelle Stacy) and so two mice set off to help her. Despite the constant danger, Bernard (Bob Newhart) and Bianca (Eva Gabor) are determined to rescue Penny.

I’m not entirely sure how I haven’t seen this film before. I guess I only watched the big Disney films as a kid, but I’m glad I finally got to watch it now. Penny isn’t entirely helpless; she sends off the note in the bottle, she keeps trying to escape, and she fought against her captors and the crocodiles. Obviously she’s sad but she’s still optimistic. She’s optimistic that she’ll be rescued and that she’ll be adopted. Because, of course, it’s not sad enough that a little girl has been kidnapped but she has to go and be an orphan too. Disney!

The mice never gave up, even though they were little and scared. They were just so focused on doing the right thing that their fear was pushed to the side. That’s a good message.

8/10

Day 173: Apollo 18

Footage is found of an unheard of space mission in the ‘70s. The astronauts thought they were delivering some sort of top secret payload to the Moon but there’s something they weren’t told; they’re not alone out there.

I know the film was trying to play the isolation/claustrophobia angle but it just didn’t work as well as it could have done. Rather than have the wee rock-crab-aliens show up every so often, it might’ve been better to have never seen them and to only be able to see the astronauts’ reactions to them. There weren’t many shots of them walking on the moon but it was still too many. It would’ve been more interesting if it was all shot on the one small ship rather than have some outside shots, too. And to top it all off, it was kind of boring.

How amazing would it be to be an astronaut? I’d love to have my own wee space station that I could hang out in and do whatever. Think how relaxing that would be? Well, obviously, so long as there aren’t any murderer-y aliens kicking about.

3/10

Day 172: When the Lights Went Out

A family move house but quickly find they’re not alone. Instead of getting the hell out of there, they decide to stick around and endanger themselves.

They all felt the ghost and saw it throwing things and yet they didn’t leave. I know they didn’t have that much money but come on, there’s a bloody ghost, you have to get out of there. It turns out there are actually two ghosts in the house; there’s a young girl who was killed and there’s the rapey monk who killed her and was later hung for his crimes. The young girl was trying to scare the family out of the house because she knew the monk was after Sally ( Tasha Connor) but obviously, they thought they could wait it out or something and so they stayed. They blackmail a priest to perform an exorcism and they think they’re finally free of it. But no, the ghost-monk tries to hang Sally and he’s about to consume her in his black smoke ghostliness (I guess? Who knows what the hell was going on, really) but the little ghost girl emits a bright light and he evaporates. She couldn’t have done that at the start? I really don’t understand.

I don't believe in an afterlife. When we die, we die. Nothing fancy happens, we're just gone. And yet. I believe in ghosts. I was hugged by a ghost once, it's pretty hard not to believe in them when you've had that happen. I'm not sure you could pay me enough to stay in a haunted house. I don't mind dying but I don't want to be terrified beforehand. Just let me die in peace, that's all I ask.

The special effects were pants. There’s no excuse for that, it was made in 2012, guys. The acting was alright though, I’ll give it that. I wouldn’t say the film was scary. It made me jump, sure, but it wasn’t properly scary. Also, the title is just awful.

4/10

Day 171: Breaking Upwards

A young couple have been together for 4 years and they’ve realised it’s just not working anymore. They love each other but they need some space, so they decide to take a couple of days off a week from their relationship. While they both need and want the space, they both have difficulties with it too.

The point of the days off is that they don’t talk to or see each other during that time, but both of them end up trying to talk to the other. For 4 years they’ve told each other the things that have happened throughout their day but now they can’t do it and it’s hard for them. It is difficult to go from talking a lot to not talking at all and so it makes sense that they’d be having trouble with it. Daryl (Daryl Wein) is keen to stick to the rules and although originally it seemed like he would have the most difficulty in this relationship deal, he ends up doing better out of it. Zoe (Zoe Lister Jones) misses him and tries to convince him that they should get back together properly. However, a few days (weeks? I don’t understand the passage of time in this film) earlier she slept with the co-worker that Daryl has always been jealous of and when she finds out Daryl slept with some women, she tells him about it to hurt him. It seems like it would’ve been less painful for them if they had just properly broken up at the start.

Man, what a drawn out break up. I know it was because they were reluctant not to be in each other’s lives but a quick break up is infinitely better than a long one. You’ve just got to do it and go. I know if you’ve been with someone for a long time then you obviously want to try and make it work but I just don’t think you should. If it’s not working and neither of you are happy then get out. And no staying friends afterwards. I just think that’s weird, you know? I mean, this is a person that you probably imagined a future with at some point and it didn’t work so you split up, but now you’re in each other’s lives in a lesser way? That just seems crazy to me. Although I’ve never tried it myself, so maybe it’s not actually that mad.

The film seemed a bit art student-y but on the whole it was alright.

6/10

Day 170: Retreat

A couple head back to a cottage on a remote island that they visited when they were younger and happier. Along comes a man who is covered in blood and he tells them there’s a contagious disease roaring through the world and they have to lock themselves inside. But they have difficulty believing him.

Even if nothing else happened in the film, the fact that they decided to go to a cottage on a remote island when they clearly find it difficult to be around each other was just not a good idea. There’s no escape from each other there. I’ve always thought that if you’re having difficulties in your relationship then you need a bit of space so you can think clearly. If you’re together all the time (and the only people for miles around) then you can’t work anything out because you’ll just keep running into the same problems. But that would’ve been peachy compared to what did happen. Kate (Thandie Newton) saw Jack (Jamie Bell) stumbling around outside and when she and Martin (Cillian Murphy) take off to help him, they see he is covered in blood so they drag him back to the cottage. When he wakes up he tells them about this highly infectious disease that is spreading through the world and he takes charge, saying they should lock themselves inside. While Kate and Martin are both reluctant to follow him, they’re scared of the possibility of catching this killer infection and so they relent. Their time locked up is fraught with tension and it eventually leads to them attacking Jack. It turns out that Jack is the carrier of the infection and he’s infected them, and he only told them there was one outside because he couldn’t let them go around infecting other people.

It was interesting to see their doubts and fear about what Jack told them. He’s aggressive and frightening so the two have difficulty believing he’s there to help them. I get that he had to be a bit of a bastard so that we thought he was some crazy murderer but if this was to have happened in real life, if he was just nice to them and not threatening them with guns and whatnot, it would’ve all gone a lot better. I mean, sure, Kate and Martin would’ve still died but they wouldn’t have been terrified beforehand.

6/10

Day 169: Il Mare

Two lonely people find comfort in the letters they send to each other and they become quite close. However, they live two years apart and so must communicate via a mailbox.

The fact that they are existing two years apart and yet can still talk to each other isn’t the main focus of the film and the characters themselves barely even mention it. The important thing is that these two people were brought together and didn’t feel quite so lonely anymore. They become close quite quickly and share intimate thoughts and feelings almost right away. It’s as if they’ve both been waiting for someone who they feel comfortable enough to have these kinds of conversations with. The fact they are so separate from each other perhaps helps them to feel more secure about sharing. It’s almost like it’s safe to discuss things because of the physical distance. When they decide to meet and they’re both looking forward to it, it doesn’t happen. It’s almost as if that’s not how it’s supposed to be, it’s like they’d only work with that distance.

I was really loving the film until the end. Such a bad ending and it just totally invalidates everything that came before it. I think I’ll just pretend the last couple of minutes didn’t happen. Also, who else didn’t know that The Lake House was a remake of this film? I’ve not seen the remake so I have no idea how it stands up to this but I’ll assume that it must lose some of the romantic subtlety of the original. 

7/10

Day 168: 30 Minutes or Less

Dwayne (Danny McBride) is the son of a rich ex-marine and he wants his inheritance to come a little quicker so he hires an assassin to kill his father. But the assassin needs £100,000 and so Dwayne kidnaps a pizza delivery guy and straps a bomb to his chest, saying that the only way he’ll survive will be if he can get that money. Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), the pizza guy, brings his best friend in on it and the two rob a bank.

Nick and Chet (Aziz Ansari) have to outrun the police after robbing the bank. Now I know they were being watched by Dwayne and Travis (Nick Swardson) and so they couldn’t physically go to the police but you know what they could’ve done? Phoned the police and told them what they were being made to do and then the police could’ve phoned the bank so that Nick could go in, get the (fake, probably?) money and then take it to the bad guys. I realise we then wouldn’t have had a film that went on ridiculously with car crashes, explosions and flamethrowers but maybe that just means we shouldn’t have had a film at all.

I don’t remember laughing at any point, despite this being a ‘comedy’. From what I understand, the funny bits were meant to be when the Dwayne character was swearing and talking about sex-related things? I don’t know, it was lost on me. I’m also not a fan of Jesse Eisenberg. People are always getting on at Kristen Stewart for her terrible acting but as far as I’m concerned, he is worse. Even when he was supposedly panicked after having a bomb strapped to his chest, he had the exact same expression on his face that he has in non-stressful situations. He’s just not interesting to watch on screen.

4/10

Day 167: Field of Dreams

After hearing a voice out in his cornfield, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) builds a baseball field and talks to ghosts.

Ray hears the voice telling him, “If you build it, he will come” and eventually he understands that he has to build a baseball field on his farm. His wife doesn’t hear the voice and she thinks he’s a little nuts but she supports him completely and helps him to build it. And even after they have no money left and they’re threatened with eviction, she still supports him and neither of them want to give up the field. I really loved their relationship. Even though she was sceptical she still supported him because she could see that it was something he had to do. Their daughter is great about it too and spends time with Ray listening to his stories about baseball. Their family life was great and it makes me smile to think about.

The main thing I got from the film was the idea that you shouldn’t put anything off because you don’t know when your time is up. It’s weird, I was having a conversation earlier and the guy I was talking to said that the furthest he plans into the future is two weeks because he doesn’t know what’s going to happen. We were talking about the end of the year and he said that anything could happen in that time and it makes no sense to plan that far ahead. In the film, Ray always wanted to tell his dad that he loved him and didn’t mean the awful thing he said but he died before he got the chance. There’s no point waiting around to do something because you really never know what’s going to happen. If you’re putting something off and waiting for ‘the right time’ then stop it. There is no right time and if you wait around for it then you’ll always be waiting. Do it now.

That sounded preachy, right? Anyway.

It’s Father’s Day and so I thought a dad film was necessary. I really wasn’t expecting to like this (I don’t know why?) but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was really great and not at all ridiculous like I thought it was going to be.

8/10

Day 166: To Live

Fugui (You Ge) is addicted to gambling and it all comes to a head when he loses his house and family because of it. His wife eventually comes back to him with their two children but he’s taken off to join the Nationalist army, and then the Communist army. Life is tremendously difficult for Fugui and his family and it seems they rarely have anything go well for them but they continue to bear it, somehow.

What a depressing film, my god. Jiazhen (Li Gong) leaves Fugui and takes their daughter because he cannot stop gambling. That same night he loses the family home, and shortly afterwards his father dies because of it. Jiazhen comes back after having their second child and helps to look after his sick mother. But then Fugui is carted off to the army and his mother dies while he’s gone. When he comes back he finds his daughter is now a mute and has difficulty hearing due to a fever she had. Not long later, his son is accidentally killed by his friend who was in the army with him. Once his daughter is grown, she marries a nice boy and is pregnant. But when she gives birth to her son there are complications and she dies. Just nothing goes right at all. And yet Fugui is convinced his grandson will have a better time and that things will always get better. The will to live is so strong, I just can’t imagine it at all. Despite all the heartache and difficult times they’ve had, he still has hope for the future.

The acting was brilliant. The devastation that Jiazhen and Fugui show when their children die just seemed so real. Neither of them seemed particularly interested in the Communism side of things, they just did whatever it took to carry on.

8/10

Day 165: Dirty Pretty Things

A look at the life of undocumented immigrants in England. Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofer) spends his days driving a taxi and his nights working at the front desk in a shady hotel. He finds a human heart in the toilet and tries to uncover what’s going on but it’s not safe for him or his friend, Senay (Audrey Tautou).

It turns out that the boss of the hotel takes kidneys (and other organs, presumably) from undocumented immigrants and gives them passports in return. What I don’t understand is how a heart ended up in the toilet. Unless I missed it, it was never explained. Were they taking the heart from someone and it ended up going wrong somehow and then they… put it down the toilet? I don’t get it. But that’s a small issue. The film as a whole is great. It was interesting and the story was well-paced. Oh, another issue would be the accents. If Okwe is meant to be from Nigeria and Senay is meant to be from Turkey, then why not use actors from those countries? Although I suppose it was to draw in fans of the actors used. Still, it would’ve been better if the characters were played by people actually from those countries.

7/10

Day 164: Haywire

After finding out she has been sold out by her handler, Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is focused on working out why.

The story was boring, I won’t lie to you. And yet I wasn’t bored at all. Sometimes it’s just good to watch a mindless fighting film, you know? The fighting itself was impressive and well directed, I’d say. I’m not sure whether or not I liked the lack of sound in those scenes though. Sometimes music was used, or all you could hear was far away grunting. It seemed odd but interesting at the same time, so I’ve yet to make up my mind with that. The acting was passable but nowhere near as good as would be expected, considering the cast. Gina Carano is a MMA fighter in real-life and she is a beauty to watch when she’s fighting in this film. It's worth watching it just to see her, really.

The picture up top is the moment after she strangles him with her thighs and before she shoots him in the face. Intense moment.

6/10

Day 163: The Art of Getting By

George believes that there exists no point in life and so thinks that completing homework is meaningless. The teachers all like George but can’t keep defending his lack of participation. He’s given an ultimatum; complete a year’s worth of assignments in 3 weeks while also attending classes and doing exams, or be expelled. His new friendship with a popular girl at school disrupts his life but perhaps not in the worst way.

A lot of homework assignments are actually meaningless, I think. I’d say that a large majority of homework is only given out to justify the education system. Giving homework for the sake of keeping everyone occupied just doesn’t seem like the best way to teach kids. I understand that it can be useful to get them practising what they’ve learned in class but so much of it is just repetitive and mind-numbing. Why not set general tasks and let the kids create something that is individual to them? Although, I suppose, that would be difficult to grade. But so what? It shouldn’t be about grades, it should be about engagement with learning.

After becoming friends with Sally, George seems to find his motivation in life. Which is nice and everything, but we saw none of what caused that change. Apparently she’s amazing and he loves her but all she does is talk to him a bit and introduce him to her friends? And then she fucks the artist guy that George was learning from. I just don’t get how this helped him. That’s a failing on the film’s part though, I think. There was no chemistry between them and it seemed almost like it wouldn’t have mattered who the girl was, all that mattered was that someone took an interest in him. Obviously it helped him and that’s great but I just don’t think that’s a good way to go about it.

6/10

Day 162: The Ventriloquist

A ventriloquist doubts his abilities and finds it difficult to interact in social situations. His dummy is obnoxious but does try to help him to put himself out there. The dummy ups and leaves and the ventriloquist is finally free.

Really liked it. The pacing seemed spot on and it was an interesting story.

7/10

Day 161: Fish Tank

With little money and a difficult family life, Mia (Katie Jarvis) is not having the best time. She’s 15, doesn’t seem to have any friends, and she has been kicked out of school for her aggressive tendencies. Her mum is a bit of a party girl and she resents Mia for reminding her that she’s not the young thing she used to be. There seems to be nothing going for Mia, that is until her mum brings home her new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender). He is friendly and makes an effort with Mia and her younger sister, and he encourages Mia with her dancing. She falls for him and with his support, she focuses on dancing and ends up with an audition. But the good times can’t last forever and it all goes downhill pretty quickly after a drunken night.

Despite her aggressive personality, I’m not convinced she’d be like that if her circumstances were different. We see her headbutt a girl in the street and just walk off like she doesn’t care, but later she tries to free a horse that she thinks is being mistreated. She is gentle with the horse and is careful not to spook it and she seems to have little concern for the danger she’s in, she’s just focused on helping the horse. Everyone she comes across is met with a scowl and a harsh word, but she’s different with Connor. He isn’t patronising or hurtful towards her, and he does just seem genuinely friendly. The stony persona she puts on to the world is softened when she’s around him. He catches her dancing and is complimentary, which seems to give her the confidence to pursue it. He comes back to the house and is quite drunk and the two have sex. Immediately after, he comes to his senses and the next morning he takes off.

Mia is obviously hurt that he would run off after sleeping with her and she goes in search of him. She finds his house over in a fancy estate and she discovers that he has a family. This does not go down well. She sees his daughter and convinces her to come away with her to get ice cream. The little girl gets more and more frightened as Mia gets more angry, and eventually the two end up struggling next to the river. The girl falls in and for a minute it seems like Mia is going to leave her to drown but she saves her and takes her back to her house. Connor is furious and drives after her but all he does is slap her and walk off. Perhaps he realises he was partly responsible for the injuries his daughter suffered and that he took advantage of Mia, so he couldn’t hurt her anymore.

We see all of this from Mia’s perspective and I think the film could’ve been better if they’d had a stronger actress play that role. Katie Jarvis was good, don’t get me wrong, but not strong enough to really hold interest consistently. It might’ve been interesting to see more of her mother, too. Overall, the film was good but could’ve done with a few tweaks.

7/10

Day 160: Room 8

A new prisoner is brought into a cell in a Russian prison where he finds a man and a box. The man isn’t all too friendly but the box offers him a chance to escape.

At only just over 6 minutes long and with maybe less than 100 words spoken, it managed to be instantly fascinating. Inside the box is a smaller version of the room the two men are now in but it’s not just a replica, the smaller versions of them are real and do exactly what they do. The new prisoner is, of course, amazed. But very quickly he realises that if he opens the box then he can jump out and escape the prison. When he does, however, the man in the room traps the now smaller version of the prisoner in a matchbox and throws him in a drawer with lots of other people trapped in matchboxes. Clearly this has been done numerous times and it all seems to end the same; the prisoner tries to escape and is captured. The man seems almost disappointed that it has happened again, like he wanted the prisoner to react differently. Presumably the prisoners involved were imprisoned because they had broken the law, but all of them want to escape rather than face their punishment. Even if someone knows they’ve done wrong, if they’re given an opportunity to avoid punishment, would they take it?

Very interesting. I’d recommend watching it, you can find it on youtube.

8/10

Day 159: The Sword in the Stone

Merlin (Karl Swenson) gets a premonition about a boy he has to help and once meeting Arthur (Rickie Sorensen), he sets about educating him so that he understands there’s more to life than brawn.

I must’ve seen this film before but I don’t remember it at all. I quite like the story and magic is always fun. There should’ve been more of Archimedes (Junius Matthews) though. He seemed like he’d have been an interesting character. I did like how he helped Arthur even though he wasn’t too pleased about what Merlin was up to.

7/10

Day 158: I Give It A Year

A couple realise that married life isn’t the fairytale they were quite expecting but they agree to try and wait a year to see if that’s what they need.

If you’ve both realised that there’s a problem and you know you’re not right for each other then why wait a year? Just bloody end it now and you can stop making each other miserable. Nat (Rose Byrne) was getting annoyed at Josh (Rafe Spall) for always being in the house and not taking the bin out/putting the toilet seat down, but surely they lived together before they were married so she would’ve known all this before now? I mean, it was never said if they did live together or not beforehand but who gets married without living together first nowadays? I just don’t believe that they wouldn’t have been aware of their incompatibility long before now.

There were some laughs but overall, it was a bit boring. I didn’t really care what was happening and the ending seemed a bit implausible.

5/10

Day 157: Hero

A warrior known as Nameless (Jet Li) wants to stop the Qin Emperor (Daoming Chen) before he kills anymore people in his attempt to unite the kingdoms of China. He uses the three best assassins of the time in order to get close to the Emperor but when he does, the situation is not as black and white as he first thought.

Nameless has the Emperor believe that he killed Sky (Donnie Yen), Broken Sword (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and in doing this, the Emperor invites him to the palace in order to explain his success. This was Nameless’ plan all along as he needed to get past the guards and be within 10 paces of the Emperor in order to be able to kill him. As he tells the story of how he defeated the three assassins, it is obvious to the Emperor that it can’t have taken place like how he is told. Nameless says that he managed to defeat Broken Sword and Flying Snow through jealousy, saying that Flying Snow had slept with Sky. The Emperor knows Broken Sword and Flying Snow to be honourable and so this pettiness would not have taken place. It’s revealed that the assassins were not killed by Nameless but instead two offered to help him. Broken Sword, however, told Nameless that the Emperor could not be killed because he would unite the kingdoms and it would result in peace. Even if there had to be war and great loss of life to get there, it would still be preferable to separate kingdoms. Nameless takes this on board and decides to still get within 10 paces of the Emperor but when his opportunity comes, he decides against killing him. As a result, he must be executed but is given a hero’s burial.

The film is visually stunning. The colours used throughout are so striking and it makes the film memorable for those alone. That’s not all though, the story is also very interesting and how it’s told is done wonderfully. The fighting scenes between the three assassins, Nameless, and Moon (Ziyi Zhang) are beautiful to watch and seem more like dancing than fighting. When Flying Snow kills Broken Sword and then herself, it seems to cement their love and make sense for their relationship. Their swords were always together as they were always together in life, and so they must be in death. It managed to be sad and lovely at the same time, which is rare.

8/10

Day 156: Into the Night

Ed (Jeff Goldblum) can’t sleep and after he catches his wife cheating on him, he can’t be in the house either. He heads off to the airport in the middle of the night and his dreary life is changed forever. Diane (Michelle Pfieffer) comes crashing onto the hood of his car and the two try to escape the men chasing her.

According to the BBC, we spend half our waking hours daydreaming. I thought it was more than that but perhaps the rest of you have interesting jobs and whatnot so you don’t have to be daydreaming quite so much. Anyway, a very common feature of my daydreams is a spontaneous adventure. Along the same lines of the film, I’d love for a stranger to come into my life and for us to have to do something exciting and perhaps even a bit dangerous. Maybe this opportunity has shown itself before but I missed it. I want an adventure.

The film was alright but nothing special. I wouldn’t watch it again but that’s not to say I didn’t like it. I did laugh a couple of times and some scenes were good. On the whole I'd say you're not missing anything if you never watch this film.

6/10

Day 155: This Girl's Life

A porn star takes us through her life at work and at home. As well as taking part in porn films and be a part of an internet porn house, she also cares for her father who has Parkinson’s.

Moon (Juliette Marquis) is comfortable and content in her work and she says that rather than get paid doing something that makes you miserable, why not do something you love? She and the other women we meet all seem to enjoy what they do for whatever reason they do it. That is, to begin with. As the film progresses, Moon questions the way she's living her life. After being asked by a friend to check to see if her boyfriend would cheat on her, Moon decides that this is something she wants to do all the time. She was dissatisfied with the lack of women involved in the behind-the-scenes aspects of porn and she thinks that if she starts up a sex investigator business then she’ll be calling the shots. She is very enthusiastic about it and has a lot of clients but after a frightening encounter with one of the men she was meant to deceive, she questions what she’s doing and whether she’s causing damage to families. Moon seems to come to the decision that the sex investigator business is bad news and around the same time she decides not to renew her contract at the porn company she had been working for. She doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life but she knows it’s got to be something different.

If you don’t like films where the character(s) talk to the camera, then I’d give this one a miss. The idea was good but I didn’t like the way it was shot in a sort of documentary style. Interesting but could’ve been better executed.

6/10

Day 154: Carnage

Following a fight, the parents of the two children involved meet to discuss what happened and how best to go about resolving it. They start off as overly polite and attempt to remain adult about things but it soon descends into chaos after being stuck together in the same room for a while.

Having never been in a fight, I’ve never had to experience the sheer awkwardness of parents attempting to be sensible about dealing with it. There’s a part of them that’s obviously furious that it would happen and that their child is hurt, but there’s also a part that realises that it was the children who did it and the adults have to behave in a polite way. Penelope (Jodie Foster) is clearly furious that her son was beaten up but she also tries to rise above it and see things in a more impartial way. Her attempts at being the bigger person, however, fail right off the bat due to her inability to stop making little remarks at every available opportunity. It’s clear that she doesn’t have the support of her husband and that she forced him into the meeting; he starts off doing exactly what she wants but in the end, he doesn’t actually care about any of it. The other mother, Nancy (Kate Winslet), tries to be accommodating to Penelope and Michael (John C Reilly) because she knows her son has done wrong but she doesn’t care about resolving it in a healthy way, she just wants it over with. After continual provocation from Penelope, she lashes out and tries to lessen her son’s responsibility in the incident. Her husband, Alan (Christoph Waltz), couldn’t care less about any of this as he is completely preoccupied by his work. During the time they spend together, he continually answers his phone in the middle of everybody talking and as the film progresses everyone becomes more irritated by it. In the end, nothing is resolved and everybody has said and done things that they will no doubt later regret.

I kept comparing this film to ‘Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ despite them not having similar storylines. The set-up is similar in that there are 4 people and they are mainly confined to one place and they all get progressively drunker and more aggressive. Carnage is the poorer of the two, so I’d suggest watching the other if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s not that it was bad, but it was all done too quickly. I understand that they were all on the edge anyway and that it certainly wouldn’t have taken them long to topple into anger but I would’ve preferred if it had been drawn out. The film itself is only 76 minutes long and it does do well in that short amount of time but it might’ve benefitted from taking some time to build the tension.

7/10

Day 153: 50/50

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) doesn’t smoke, drink or drive because they’re all dangerous and so when he gets cancer, it puts the danger of those into perspective. His best friend is there for him in ways particular to friends (trying to get him laid, using the cancer to hit on cute women, etc.) and he considers his relationship with his parents from a different angle, which seems to lessen the tension.

I’ve never had anyone close to me be seriously ill so I have no idea what that must feel like. It seems like it would be such a difficult thing to deal with. Kyle (Seth Rogen), Adam’s best friend, is his normal self around Adam and he doesn’t let the whole cancer thing affect what they get up to. Adam is eventually frustrated because he thinks Kyle isn’t taking it seriously but he learns that Kyle has been reading up on how to be there for him and he understands. Kyle has probably found it so difficult to deal with the fact that his friend could die very soon but he knew that what he’s feeling can’t get in the way of the friendship because it’s not about him, it’s about Adam. I liked Kyle and his unapologetically way of being honest. He seemed like a genuine person.

The balance between humour and sadness is well done here. The lighter aspects don’t seem forced and so it helps to feel the darker parts in a stronger way. I liked the film. Good and sad, what more could you want?

8/10

Day 152: Oldboy

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) is freed and he wants vengeance. His captor wants Dae-su to understand why he wanted to keep him locked up for 15 years. Perhaps it would’ve been better to have just left Korea because what he finds out is devastating. Spoilers!

We follow Dae-su as he recounts his ‘story’, which consists of being kidnapped, drugged, imprisoned for 15 years and having his wife’s murder pinned on him. After he is freed, he meets Mi-do (Hye-jeong Kang) and the two become close very quickly. She helps him to find out where he was being held and she tends his various injuries. His captor, Woo-jin (Ji-tae Yu), says that unless Dae-su can work out why he was imprisoned, he’ll kill Mi-do. Dae-su races to work out what could possibly be the reason but he does eventually remember; when they were all at school, Dae-su saw Woo-jin getting intimate with his own sister and then rumours began to spread which made her life hell and eventually led to her suicide. Woo-jin hypnotised Dae-su and Mi-do in order for them to come together and fall in love, but it’s revealed that Mi-do is actually Dae-su’s daughter. Dae-su is obviously horrified (they had a lot of sex) and he begs Woo-jin not to tell Mi-do. He agrees and then goes off and kills himself, his work now complete.

I find incest such an interesting subject. It seems so alien to me that you could develop feelings for a relative, especially one you were raised with. But then, people usually end up developing feelings for the people they spend a lot of time around and have shared experiences with, which sounds like the relationship you’d have with a close relative, no? I don’t know, it’s so interesting. I wonder how many people are in relationships with someone they’re related to and I wonder how they cope with the stigma surrounding it.

Thiiiiis fiiiiiilm. I can’t believe I’ve not watched it until just now. It is excellent and you should all be watching it right this second.

9/10