film review – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

Hanna (***)

Interesting film about a your girl who lives with her father in the deepest tundra. Hanna is a trained by her father in preparation for when she goes back into the real world and is likely to be tracked down by a CIA agent who started a program to genetically modify human embryos to breed stronger humans for military purpose. The CIA person wants all traces of the program eliminated to cover up her mistakes of the past.

Hanna returns to civilisation and the action starts, as she travels from Africa across Europe with baddies after her. The film is very artistically filmed and there are some great scenery shots.

Submarine (***)

Thanks to C&A we got an invite to see a film at The Rex, the film is called Submarine. It centres around a young lad who is awkward and unpopular at school, he fantasizes about his own death and other things. He thinks that is dad is depressed and his mother is having an affair with a hippy and old flame who lives next door. He embarks on a misguided campaign to bring the family back together while attempting to impress a classmate , a straight-talking, eczema-suffering pyromaniac who “hates any place that could be termed romantic.

Filmed entirely almost entirely on Barry island it is a funny film but not that funny hence only 3 out of 5.

A Single Man (**)

This film is takes place on a single day some time around the Cuban missile crisis. George Falconer (Colin Firth) is trying to overcome the grief of losing his long term partner, over the course of the day he has various encounters, and we are treated to lots of flash backs and day dreams. The film is visually stunning but with too much symbolism for my tastes hence only two stars.

Exit via the gift shop (****)

This is Banksy’s first film, about a French man living in California who somehow gets involved in documenting street artists and their art.

It is filmed as a documentary with plenty of intervieww of the french man and Banksy. The french man essentially gets his camera turned back on him by Banksy.

This is a hard to explain film but well work wathcing.

Black Swan (***)

Film about a ballerina (Natalie Portman) who gets to play the part of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake. Natalie Portman was the young girl in Jean Reno’s film Leon many years. The film tries to show the pressures, rivalry, politics and egos of the ballet world. Portman who lives with her mother who never beyond the corps de ballet, and treats her daughter like she was twelve, becomes more a more delusional and starts t imagine and dream some terrible thoughts about her rivals, but it all seems to be part of the preparation to play the part of the black swan.

Three stars not as good as I hoped it might be, and a bit confusing.

Sunshine Cleaning (****)

A family. Rose and Norah, in Albuquerque, lost their mother when they were young. Rose is responsible – a housecleaner, raising her seven-year-old son Oscar. She’s also having an affair with Mac, a married cop, her high-school sweetheart. Norah can’t hold a job. Their dad, Joe, is quirky. When Oscar is expelled for odd behavior, Rose wants to earn enough to send him to private school. Mac suggests she clean up after crime scenes, suicides, and deaths that go undiscovered for awhile. Rose enlists Norah, and Sunshine Cleaners is born. Norah bonds with the dead, Rose finds out that it’s a regulated business, and complications arise. Can a family marked by tragedy sort things out?

I really enjoyed this film and would recommend it.