Pick 'n' Mix Flix Movie Reviews

Take Shelter

16 Feb 2012 08:50:57 GMT

(8/10)

Multiple interpretations: So rare in movies today, with everything carefully explained for the lowest common denominator of moviegoers. Not so in the case of Take Shelter, the new movie from Jeff Nichols. Is it real or is it not? Is it a straight-up story or a parable for modern times? Are we doomed or are we not? Is the main character as mad as a box of frogs?

Chinese Take-Away (Un Cuento Chino)

21 Feb 2012 20:22:03 GMT

(2/10)

After starring in two fantastic films on the bounce, and with a history of quality that goes back over a decade, I was thrilled and excited when I had the chance to see star Argentinean actor Ricardo Darín’s new movie Chinese Take-Away. The premise looked good, too; a comedy about life’s absurdities and cross-national misunderstandings. Sadly, it’s an absolute disaster.

Resurrect Dead

19 Feb 2012 22:07:42 GMT

(7/10)

The tiles first appeared in Philadelphia in the early 80s. They soon spread: first through the city, then to Baltimore, New York City, as far west as Chicago, as far south as Argentina. They say the same thing.

‘TOYNBEE IDEA.
IN Kubrick’s 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER’

This much is true. Websites are dedicated to them, now they are known as Toynbee Tiles. So what’s the story?

Another Earth

16 Feb 2012 08:50:57 GMT

(8/10)

Just to the east of the North Star there is a blue spot, but not any ordinary blue spot. It is Earth 2, an exact replica of our planet, a cosmic mirror, if you like. Its continents are the same as ours, it has a moon identical to ours, and it surely can sustain life. It’s also getting closer. Soon, we’ll be able to travel there. What will we find?

Music Connection Quiz 8

12 Feb 2012 00:26:11 GMT

On to week 8, and the connections just keep on coming.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da)

16 Feb 2012 08:50:57 GMT

(4/10)

Sprawling over two and a half languid hours, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is not for the faint-hearted or the weak-bladdered. A character study, a travelogue, a rag-tag police procedural, a trial of one’s patience; it is all of these. Its director, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, is infamous on the European art-house circuit, and critics have labelled this his most accessible work. I suspect I’ll never find out for myself whether that’s true or not.

The Rum Diary

16 Feb 2012 08:50:57 GMT

(7/10)

Considering the copious amounts of alcohol involved, it’s probably appropriate that The Rum Diary is a bit fuzzy when it comes to the details. Johnny Depp’s second paean to Hunter S. Thompson is much more accessible than Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and, as second films often are, was rounded upon by critics. I’ll agree that it’s no classic, but there’s enough fun here for a decent two hour movie.

The Big Picture (l'Homme qui Voulait Vivre sa Vie)

16 Feb 2012 08:50:54 GMT

(3/10)

An improbable story told in a grandiose style when none was deserving, The Big Picture shows us what it’s like to completely change our lives. To dump everything and to start again with back-pocket cash in a country where you can’t speak the language sounds pretty difficult, does it not? Nah, it’s easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, if you believe this French drama.

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

12 Feb 2012 00:26:13 GMT

(10/10)

Back in the late nineties, going through to about 2007, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) were huge news. Eco-warriors one and all, they protested constantly throughout the Pacific Northwest and more, always ready to climb a tree or take a shot of pepper spray for the cause. Then they got serious. Screw that peaceful bullshit; let’s start torching things. And boy, did they ever. The FBI labelled them as America's top domestic terrorist group in 2001, a few months before a REAL terrorist group struck. One of the main ELF men was Daniel McGowan, and here he is now, looking at life plus 335 years in jail for terrorism.

Music Connection Quiz 7

12 Feb 2012 00:26:11 GMT

On to week 7, and the questions are a bit easier this week. Or maybe not. Just to mix things up a bit, question 3's a picture round.

The Names of Love (Le Nom des Gens)

12 Feb 2012 00:26:09 GMT

(8/10)

Yippee! A romantic comedy I actually enjoyed! And it’s French, too, which is a bit of a surprise seeing as their recent ones have been insulting to say the least. The Names of Love - a hideous title, by the way, and not even a literal translation from its French – has just about everything you’d need from a film. It’s funny, it has totally gratuitous nudity from a beautiful woman, it contemplates politics and France’s history, even her perception of non-Christian immigrants, and is proof that you can make a romantic comedy that doesn’t play by the rules.

Hell and Back Again

9 Feb 2012 16:00:40 GMT

(8/10)

Sergeant Nathan Harris saw many lives taken in his three tours of Afghanistan. One of them was very nearly his own. A day before he was due to return to his North Carolina home and the arms of his wife Ashley, Harris was shot in the ass. The bullet rattled around in there for a while, breaking his hip and the entire top of his leg. By some miracle, documentary filmmaker Danfung Dennis was filming Afghan War footage for a film that had no clear steer. Now it had one. The result, the Oscar-nominated Hell and Back Again, is a brutal, no-holds barred look at the effect war has on the modern-day soldier.

Cafe

9 Feb 2012 16:00:38 GMT

(5/10)

Life’s biggest question. Why are we here? What’s our purpose? It’s a topic that has prompted many a discussion in bars, restaurants and cafés the world over. Here, in one particular café in Philadelphia, it’s more relevant than ever before because, for the first time, the answer is revealed.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

5 Feb 2012 10:30:41 GMT

(7/10)

Well, thank goodness I remember the miniseries. Had I not seen that, I’m not at all sure I would have been able to follow this ultra-condensed, yet still languid, two-hour movie version of John le Carré’s best-known novel. Boasting the best cast list in any British film of 2011, all of whom are on the top of their game, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has the components to be an epic...but isn’t, not quite.

The Other F Word

5 Feb 2012 10:30:30 GMT

(6/10)

Two things I never tire of: punk rock music and being a father. Therefore, The Other F Word, which combines the two, is the perfect documentary for me. Basically, a bunch of old-timey West Coast punks (Rancid, Blink 182, US Bombs, NOFX, The Vandals and Pennywise, amongst others) talk about what it’s like balancing their day jobs with parenthood. It’s one thing going up on stage singing ‘F**k the Kids’; it’s completely another when your pre-teen daughter calls her sister ‘turdface’.

Music Connection Quiz 6

5 Feb 2012 10:30:39 GMT

On to week 6, and the competition's hotting up. Three more connections for you, the third one's a doozy.

Dirty Girl

5 Feb 2012 10:30:37 GMT

(2/10)

All the boys love a dirty girl, least that’s what they say, and they don’t come dirtier that potty-mouthed teen strumpet Danielle. Dressing as you might guess, chewing gum provocatively, peering over her 80s sunglasses...the boys don’t stand a chance. Trouble is, her destructive behaviour’s put her all the way down to the bottom of her high school, down with the most academically challenged kids. There, on his own, at the back, sits chubby Clarke. He’s gay, but don’t let his father hear me saying that.

The Artist

2 Feb 2012 12:22:14 GMT

(7/10)

Wowing up a storm wherever it goes, The Artist has been written about in practically every place it’s possible to write. I barely have an original thought at the best of times, so asking me to come up with something new about such a popular topic is going to be tricky to say the least. Let’s see. The Artist is the best silent, black and white movie about the vintage Hollywood years that I’ve seen in 2011. I’m not at all certain that it’s anywhere near the best film I’ve seen in that period, however, but what it lacks in story and plot it almost makes up for in nostalgic yearning for days gone by.

People In the Sun (Mennesker i Solen)

2 Feb 2012 12:22:12 GMT

(6/10)

It’s the End of Days. God has grown tired of the Earth and we wretched, fallible human beings. His decision is made, and irrevocable. Thing is, he didn’t tell anyone it was going to happen today, Midsummer’s Day, at a Swedish beach. The blood rain’s gonna ruin the ham.

The Descendants

29 Jan 2012 15:27:13 GMT

(5/10)

If there’s one thing I can’t bear it’s a movie with a Message writ large. Major Hollywood studios love them, their hand-wringing a sign (to them) that the film is Important, and therefore released as near to the end of the year as possible. Funny, that. In The Descendants, Alexander Payne’s new movie, we learn that the land is for everyone and should not be bought or sold. Save the planet! Restore the family unit! Down with development!

Music Connection Quiz 5

29 Jan 2012 15:27:10 GMT

OK, we're picking up steam now. All three questions were correctly answered on the first day, and the leaders are below. For noobs, here's what you gotta do. Just find the link between three or more items - it could be song titles, band names, albums or band members.

Boy Wonder

29 Jan 2012 15:27:08 GMT

(4/10)

The phrase ‘due process’ is the key, I think. It’s repeated several times during Boy Wonder, a low-budget thriller from first time writer/director Michael Morrissey, each time intimating that the term is merely a misnomer. Nine-year old Sean Donovan saw his mother murdered in front of his eyes. Now nineteen, he’s dedicated his life to finding the killer, and taking out his angst on others who, one way or another, didn’t get what was coming to them.

Like Crazy

25 Jan 2012 22:20:24 GMT

(6/10)

Quite the smash at Sundance last year, Like Crazy gives us the story of two lovers separated by an ocean and a visa. An English girl falls for an American she met in a Los Angeles college, they fall in love, and she remains in the country while her student visa expires. She returns to England, only to then be denied entry back to the warm bosom of the United States and the hairless chest of her young lover.

Young Adult

18 Jan 2012 18:32:38 GMT

(8/10)

‘I have a lot of problems’, Mavis confides. Well, that much is obvious. Thirty-seven and divorced, overly reliant on booze, self-centred in the extreme, and soon to be finished in her current career, things couldn’t get any worse for her. But they could. Her old high-school sweetheart from back in small town Minnesota has just announced the birth of his first child. He couldn’t be happier. What a great time, then, to go back home and see if they can be reunited, don’t you think? No? Maybe not.