Review No.14: The Iron Lady

At the beginning of The Iron Lady you're guessing that this film is about a woman who is struggling to cope with old age as she is befuddled by the price of milk, has to have someone to cook her meals and still talks to her dead husband. Though this subject has been covered many times before if it does in an interesting way it makes for good subject matter for a film but unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months you'll know this film is about our only female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The majority of The Iron Lady is set in the present day as Thatcher's staff and family are worried that she still hasn't cleared out Dennis' belongings even though he died eight years previous. Thatcher is seemingly frustrated by most elements of her life apart from regular visits from Dennis' ghost something that she is comforted by and worried of in equal measure. These scenes are then combined with flashbacks of Thatcher's political career from her early story is told with the use of young actress Alexandra Roach as we see her change from a humble grocer's daughter to the MP for Finchley. When Meryl Streep takes over the role and Thatcher becomes prime minister we get a potted history, almost a highlight reel, of the major events of Thatcher's reign as our PM. So we get a little bit about the IRA bombings, small bit of the recession, some of the miner's strike with The Falklands conflict being awarded the most amount of time and still it gets less than a quarter of an hour. In fact there are about six years of her reign that simply get a six minute montage in which she is seen dancing with various world leaders. Obviously the end comes when her time as PM comes to an end and in the present day she finally learns to let go of Dennis' ghost.

It is interesting that the majority of time given to a story about one of Britain's most prolific figures is of a story that is somewhat imagined by screenwriter Abi Morgan and director Phyllida Lloyd rather than based on Maggie's time in charge of the country. It seems that Morgan, Lloyd and Streep want to tell the story of a once strong woman declining in her old age and trying to cling on to her memories as she looks at old photos and watches DVDs of family outings. Even though the film portrays Thatcher as a role model for other women, in one of the present days scenes an acquaitance describes her as an inspiration, the film shows that men are at the forefront of most of her decisions. It is made out that it is only through her marriage to Dennis that she is able to get her role as an MP, her advisers are the ones who think she'd make a good Prime Minister and even in her old age it is Dennis and son Mark she wants to see more than her daughter and female staff. I have to say The Iron Lady succeeds in telling a story of a woman in mourning for her husband and one who is out of step with modern da society but not so much  a story of a political leader who strongly divided public opinion. There are many more interesting biopics of Thatcher that have been made for TV such as Margaret starring Lindsay Duncan and The Long Road to Finchley with Andrea Riseborough in the lead role. The Iron Lady's strongest element is in its casting and I have to say, after being initially cynical of Meryl Streep taking the role, the lead actress does hell of a job. The biggest compliment I can give to her performance is that I never thought I was watching Streep giving an impression of Thatcher but rather I was watching an actress portray this lady in her own way. Olivia Colman is also fantastic as Carol Thatcher getting the body language and speech dead on while Jim Broadbent is also great as Dennis. I just felt The Iron Lady was quite muddled part social commentary, part biopic and even part ghost story this should've been a film that evoked strong emotions and instead was a gentle story about love, loss and getting on with things.

Verdict: Streep is great in the lead role and there are some good scenes in there but with such a heavy subject matter to work with this is an awfully light film that I can only award 6.5/10

Review No.13: Bill Cunningham New York

In my opinion a great documentary film needs to do two things tell you something about a subject you don't know about and present these facts in an entertaining way. Thankfully Bill Cunningham New York, which tells the story of the New York Times' most prolific photographer, does both of those things. I think that us Brits who aren't part of the fashion culture have probably never heard of Cunningham because I know I certainly haven't. Following Cunningham on the days leading up to his eightieth birthday he takes on our tour of the streets of New York for his more famous and aptly named column On the Street. Over almost forty years former milliner Cunningham has captured some of the fashion trends of the time and as Vogue editor Anna Wintour tells us everybody gets dressed for Bill and are upset if they don't get snapped. Bill is someone who is only interested in fashion and sees it as another form of art work using bright colours and styles to express yourself. Similarly when he photographs the socialite world, for his other column Evening hours, he doesn't focus on the celebrity instead just taking photographs of what these people are wearing often not even being aware of who they are.

The message here seems to be that Bill is of the old New York as we see he is one of the last residents in the apartments at Carnegie Hall which are about to be torn down in favour of new call centres. One of the most fascinating stories of the film is about this Carnegie development and the fact that the new owners of the hall want to focus on making it more of a centre for the arts but at the same time some of the old studios are being torn down in favour of call centres. Cunningham's eccentric apartment and those of his quirky neighbours are being vanquished which is a shame as they add character to a city which is seemingly becoming more and more bland. Cunningham is a character and he also is also about capturing the characters some of whom serve as talking heads here remincising about when Bill first took their pictures and their relationships with him. The film tries to get to the heart of a very private man who doesn't reveal too much about his personal life until the final stages and even then he looks fairly awkward. As you can tell I really enjoyed this film I had a couple of minor quibbles in that I felt some parts of the film were repeating themselves and also the captions telling us who the talking heads were was too small so while these characters were all entertaining I didn't really know who they were. But overall this was a fascinating portrait of a man who shys away from the spotlight and likes to be the one taking the pictures and someone whom I had previously never heard of by someone who's work I will look into more thoroughly which is a sign that this film is a success.

Verdict: A great documentary film that explores a fascinating character I think I'll have to award it 8/10

Review No.12: X- Night of Vengeance

It's fair to say that 2011 was a bumper year for Australian film with Animal Kingdom and Snowtown both making my Top 25 list. I know it's a little early to start thinking about this year's list but I doubt that the Sydney-based X - Night of Vengeance will make it into that 25. Set in and around the seedy underbelly of the Australian city it concentrates on Holly a high-class escort who is about to escape her life to live her dream and move to Paris meanwhile teenage Shay leaves home when her mother dies so she also ends up having sex for money. When Holly's cab almost runs down Shay she recruits her for a threesome with a dodgy businessman which goes wrong when he is shot by a dirty cop and the two women have to go on the run. They then spend some of the film together and some of the film of part with revelations to both of their backgrounds and a fairly predictable end for one of the characters with the other being given an ambiguous conclusion.

I've been trying to think of why X - Night of Vengeance failed to make much of an impression on me and I feel that it just runs out of steam following the exciting incident. While the camerawork perfectly captures the seedy nature of the Sydney streets many of the characters and establishments we see have been seen a million times before and played by better actors. There were dirty cops, heroin addicts, violent pimps and greedy owners of overpriced hotels combined with laughable scenes such as the one in which Holly's fellow hooker falls over in the shower. Even with its running time of ninety minutes this felt stretched with a wafer thin plotline and also far too much incidental nudity and over-the-top violence. The plus points are the performances from the two lead actresses with Viva Bianca perfectly portraying a woman who wants to get out of a life of having sex for money and Hanna Mangan Lawrence giving us a lost, sympathetic character in Shay. There is also a lovely little romance between Shay and a cab driver who moonlights as an escape artist which might be her way out of the life she has just found herself in. But unfortunately these aren't enough to save a film which is showered in cliché and awful supporting performances so I'm afraid it isn't an auspicious start to the year for the Australian film industry.

Verdict: Unfortunately a couple of good performances aren't enough to save a film with needless violence, too much nudity and a shedload of stereotypes so it gets just 3.5/10

Review No.11: A Dangerous Method

It seems to have taken me a while to get to my eleventh film but finally I've managed to watch the next on the list which is David Cronenberg's film about the relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud which is also the director's third film with Viggo Mortensen. The film starts with Jung taking on a new patient in the Russian Sabin Spielrien someone who is initially afraid of Jung but he starts to encourage her own love of psychoanalysis and predictably the two begin a relationship after Jung is egged on by a barmy psychoanalyst played by the brilliant Vincent Cassell. Jung's feelings for Sabin threaten to affect his own marriage so he decides to knock things on the head and move away from the hospital. At the start of the film Jung views Freud as a mentor but as things go on he wonders how much he can trust him and the two fall out later on. Meanwhile Sabin herself starts to excel as an analyst in her own right and at the end of the film things start to come full circle.

It really doesn't surprise me that Cronenberg is the one to direct an adaptation of Christopher Hampton's stage play The Talking Cure as it seems mainly to deal with crazy people and rough sex. That's a little unfair however in a film that has two great central performances from its lead actors with Michael Fassbender brilliantly encapsulating the morally torn Jung and Mortensen becoming a pipe-smoking, advice spouting Freud steals every scene that he is in. Like in X-Men: First Class it seems that Fassbender works better when exploring relationships by two male counterparts who have different views on the same subjects. The weak link in the chain is Keira Knightley who seems to be struggling with a Russian accent, she just about pulls it off, rather than giving us a compelling character. When Sabin has to act crazy in the opening scenes Knightley's performance is almost laughable rather than compelling and overall she is acted off the screen by her male companions. A Dangerous Method looks great every shot is filmed beautifully, the period detail is spot on and Cronenberg's sister has done a fine job with the costumes. My problem with the film was that I never really empathised with any of the characters and for the most part found A Dangerous Method cold and clinical rather than engaging. It was hard to feel sorry for Jung who was thwarted by having to have sex with Keira Knightley on a regular basis nor so for Freud who just came off as a hypocrite. The film is definitely interesting and I learnt some things about these famous figures that I didn't previously know but this is a drama rather a documentary and I never felt myself truly feel for any of the central protagonists.

Verdict: An interesting film that looks fantastic and boasts two great performances is let down by its clinical nature and its lead actress 6.5/10

Review No.10: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Occasionally you can spot a star-making performance in a film and that's what I feel Elizabeth Olsen delivers in drama Martha Marcy May Marlene. Olsen stars as Martha a young woman who we see escaping from a cult as the film begins we then see two stories run simultaneously as Martha tries to reconnect with her estranged sister and that of how Martha became cult member Marcy May and why she wanted to leave. The latter story sees the emotionally vulnerable Martha being manipulated by the charismatic cult leader Patrick who regularly rapes the new girls that come to his commune and then brainwashes them into believing this is the right thing. In the present day Martha struggles to adjust from her life away from Patrick in her sister's husband's holiday home she is haunted by visions of her past and is constantly nagged at by sister Lucy who wonders where she has been for the past two years. Things come to a head when we finally learn why Martha left the cult and the whole thing ends on an ambiguous note that I found very frustrating.

And that ending would be my biggest criticism of Martha Marcy May Marlene because the rest of it is absolutely captivating stuff. Olsen's turn reminds me of a young but more talented Scarlett Johansson as she lets her facial expressions do the talking for her which is the mark of a good actress. She is able to demonstrate a cavalcade of emotions from unsure to confident to disturbed throughout the film and I personally got the idea that Martha was trapped wherever she was. John Hawkes' Patrick is also a terrifying presence throughout the film he is on one hand very charming but on the other very sinister so even though he's not on screen as much as the actor deserves his small appearances are always met with trepidation. Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy also do a good job of playing the stable suburban couple who have been infiltrated by a troublesome relative who generally seems to be a hindrance to their plans of starting a family. The two stories running side by side works perfectly as we the audience aren't really sure what Martha is so terrified off until the final part of the film and we also get the feeling that Martha will never be completely free. While I do appreciate that an ambiguous ending works in some films I thought this should've had some definitive resolution one way or another and that did annoy me as did the off-key score which was overused a little too much for my liking.

Verdict: A strong psychological drama that sticks with you long after it finishes with a great breakout performance from Olsen and therefore deserving of a 8/10

Review No.9: The Descendants

Awards season fever hits again in the next film as we look at the movie that one best drama at last week's Golden Globes awards I'm talking about Alexander Payne's The Descendants. The film stars George Clooney as Matt King a lawyer and the sole trustee of 25,000 acres of land on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i which has been in his family for generations. Matt now has to sell the land as the trust expires in seven years and the main bidder is a native to the island who promises to keep the land for the Hawaiians. The opening scene also sees Matt's wife Elizabeth involved in a motorboat accident and fall into a coma meaning he has to look after their oddball ten year old daughter Scottie. Seeking help Matt travels to the mainland to find his older daughter Alex who is currently in an institution due to her reliance on drink, drugs and relationships with older men. Alex reveals to Matt that Elizabeth had been cheating on him and later on he finds out that she was about to leave him due to the fact he put work before his family. The rest of the film sees Matt trying to deal with looking after his two daughters as well as finding his wife's lover and selling his family's land.

It is fair to say that Alexander Payne specalises in films about sadsack men who are at a crossroads in their life whether that be Miles in Sideways or Warren in About Schmidt. Matt King is no different to these men a man who is forced to step up after years of being the back-up parent he has to deal with emotional issues and two difficult daughters. Key to the film is George Clooney who for once isn't playing the smooth charmer that we've seen in everything from Ocean's 11 to The Ides of March instead Matt is much more of an introvert constantly struggling to do the right thing whether that be at home or in his dealings with his family's land. Shailene Woodley also deserves a mention for playing the troubled Alex a character who initially seems like she'll be the stereotypical tearaway teen but becomes a lot more than that and I applaud an actress as young as Woodley to give such a multi-layered performance. I'd have to say that The Descendants is the first film that I've watched that's kept my attention from beginning to end thanks to the great direction, script, cast and even the Hawaiian location which offer both sunshine and harsh weather to reflect the mood of the characters. It was only after I'd finished that I'd started to pick holes in some of the characters and thought the ending really didn't solve a lot of the problems that Matt and his family had faced but then again life doesn't always just end perfectly and maybe that was Payne's point.

Verdict: For the film that kept me hooked from beginning to end and the one that will no doubt win Clooney his Oscar I'll give it 8.5/10

Review No.8: Rampart

A couple of year's ago I happened upon a film called The Messengers it didn't really do much box office here in the UK but it did get some awards buzz for Woody Harrelson who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. In Rampart Harrelson is reunited with director Oren Moverman as well as co-stars Ben Foster and Steve Buscemi to play Dave Brown a Los Angeles Police Officer who is described as the last renegade police officer. Brown is involved in the infamous Rampart scandal in which many officers were accused and tried of various crimes including unprovoked beatings and shootings both of which we see Brown engage in throughout the film. Brown's notoriety has come through his gunning down of a man accused of being a serial date rapist and as a result he has been given the name Date Rape Dave something his elder daughter revels in calling him. Throughout the film Dave beats up someone who rams into his car and later stages being attacked to take the heat off of him trying to take money during an illegal card game. As the story progresses Dave's lies and his life start to unravel as he isn't able to manipulate people the way he used to do.

The main problem with Rampart was that I never really warmed to the character of Dave who is someone that is constantly trying to get out of situations by bribing people or talking down to them and by his own admission doesn't like anybody. Harrelson was so great in The Messengers because he was part of a double act with Ben Foster but here Foster has a minor role and Woody is on the screen in almost every scene. He does a good job with what he's given but the script is riddled with stereotypes and tries to emulate the old noirish crime films of the 1970s but fails miserably. The moody lighting and mumbling characters only really works if the story is strong enough to back it up but I didn't really feel like that ever happened during Rampart. There are also some wildly miscast actors including Sigourney Weaver as Dave's police chief and Ice Cube as the man trying to bring him to justice. What I did like was Dave's relationship with his two daughters and I thought both Harrelson and the two young actresses were able to get across this complicated situation very well. But I never really warmed to Rampart because I found it slow-moving and very one dimensional which is a shame as I was really expecting to enjoy another film from the team behind The Messengers but this wasn't to be the case.

Verdict: Mainly down to Harrelson's performance this gets a 4/10

Review No.7: War Horse

For the first trip to my favourite independent cinema, Light House in Wolverhampton, me and my cinema-going companion decided to see Steven Spielberg's War Horse. The film starts off in the early 20th century when Peter Mullan's stubborn farmer sees something in a splendid horse and spends over the odds on it just to spite his lanlord. His son Albie then becomes attached to the horse he names Joey however due to trouble at the farm his father sells him to the army at the start of World War I and it is only then that the film really gets going. War Horse then becomes a road movie around the battleground of 1914-1918 France as Joey is renamed several times and comes into contact with a lot of different characters including plummy British officers, underage German soldiers, Thomas Buch from The Killing and a scenery-chewing Rutger Hauer. Obviously the film rockets, or perhaps gallops, to an inevitable ending where a now of age Albie goes to war in search of his beloved equine companion.

War Horse is certainly an improvement on Spielberg's last two films, the fourth Indiana Jones disaster and the unintentionally hilarious Tintin, and actually has some spectacular sequences. But for its first fourty minutes it is incredibly slow mainly due to a plethora of expositional dialogue and far too many ploughing montages with the only upside in these early scenes being the pairing of the excellent Emily Watson and Peter Mullan. When war is finally declared we get the better part of the film and the lion's share of the action as Joey's plight briefly brings together soldiers from both parts of the war. It is hard to single out one member of this cast as the stand-out as a lot of the time we have actors appearing for five minutes and leaving again including Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston and Eddie Marsan but for me Hauer does an excellent job and I enjoyed the scenes with him and his granddaughter living in a windmill. But this is definitely the horse's story and the animal actors definitely outshine their human counterparts. I'm definitely glad I saw War Horse as it was well-shot with great scenery and for the most part great acting although Jeremy Irvine as Albie was always a little annoying. A good word to describe War Horse would be long-winded as I felt it took well over two hours to tell a story that could've been condensed to just over 90 minutes.

Verdict: A well made family film with some memorable moments but one that drags far too much so far that reason I will give it 7.5/10

Review No.6: Like Crazy

It is hard to make a believable romantic drama these days especially with two established film stars trying to make the audience believe that they are in love and are truly a couple. And I think that is where the next film on my list, Like Crazy, succeeds as its two leads Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones don't look like film stars and are believable in their roles. Yelchin's Jacob and Jones' Anna first meet at university in L.A. and in the first scene you see their eyes meet and soon they are dating after Anna leaves a note on Jacob's car. Through a series of montages we see the intensity of their love as Jacob, a furniture designer, makes her a chair and so when they are to be separated due to the expiration of her student visa they decide that she should ignore this and stay in the country without a visa. This decision is one that comes back to haunt them as Anna is denied entry back into America and when the two try a long distance relationship it doesn't survive. The film then follows them through a number of years as they try to fight Anna's ban to re-enter America and they both fall into other more convenient but less fulfilling relationships. However the two leads convey the fact that they belong together throughout the film leaving the audience in no doubt of the conclusion.

As I said at the start of this review Yelchin and Jones' chemistry is what makes this film and the script rightly has them on screen together for the most part of the opening twenty minutes. Lots of the time there is no dialogue accompanying theses scenes and that's one of the beauties of this film however I do feel there is an over abundance of montage sequences. Director and co-writer Drake Doremus really makes us feel the significance of this relationship and the strength of it so much so that when the couple separate you are willing them to get back together. There is also some brilliant dialogue in Like Crazy especially in the opening stages of the relationship with the stilted conversation that comes between two people who don't really know each other and trying to assess if they want to spend more time together. There are also some beautiful shots here and a lot that linger on the facial expressions of Jacob and Anna as they react to their various situations as well as capturing the beauty of some of the settings that the film takes the pair too. One of my only criticisms is the waste of the brilliant Jennifer Lawrence who plays Jacob's temporary love interest Sam while she tries her best in the role she is presented as nothing more than a distraction and I feel that an actress who is less well known would've been more fitting for this part. Like Crazy can be most compared to Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset films as they both follow a relationship between two real people over several years and this manages to capture the ups and downs of a relationship hampered by a transatlantic barrier but one that ultimately will stand the test of time.

Verdict: A believable romantic film that doesn't outstay its welcomes and makes the most of its two talented leads I have to say this is the best film I have seen so far so it gets 8/10

Review No.5: Carnage

The awards film continue now with one that has already seen its two lead actresses pick up Golden Globe nominations in the comedy character even though there aren't a lot of big laughs in Carnage. The story sees a boy named Zachary hit another boy Ethan with a stick knocking out two of his teeth and bringing together their two sets of parents for a meeting. The film then explores suburban politeness and moral responsibility as Ethan's parents Michael and Penelope, played by John C Reilly and Jodie Foster, invite Zachary's parents Nancy and Alan who are played by Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz around to sort out the situation. At first everybody is all smiles with coffee and cake being passed around but soon things get heated after Nancy suffers a migraine and vomits all over Penelope's priceless art books. The humour arises from little recurring sequences such as Alan constantly recieving phone-calls about a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company that he represents and a drug that Michael's mother just happens to be on. The final scenes are the most hilarious as both couples start to get drunk we see the resentment between the women and their partners and finally we see the massive blow-up followed by the ultimate scene involving the two boys.

Carnage is an odd film partly because it is directed by Roman Polanski not someone particularly known for his comic output and also because of its awkward nature. I feel I didn't find it as funny as other people who were watching it although towards the end I did find myself start to giggle as the social barriers finally got broken down due to the excessive amount of alcohol that was being consumed. It definitely explores some interesting themes but at the end of the day there's no getting away from the fact that it started life as a play and for the most part is just four very accomplished actors sitting in a room discussing African culture and Cobbler recipes. The film's biggest strength is the four actors who all give it their all, Reilly was a brilliant choice as he's someone who excels at both comedy and drama while Carnage also sees Waltz's least sinister role yet and he also displays a very dry wit. Kate Winslet seems to be continuing the theme of being the ill one after her role in Contagion however it is Jodie Foster who is the standout here as I feel its been ages since I've seen her in a film that isn't a thriller and Penelope is possibly the most multi-layered of the four characters. This definitely had its moments and the final build-up was excellent even if what had come before wasn't always spectacular.

Verdict: A well made adaptation of a play with four sparkling performances but one which relies purely on a script and not a lot else so it gets 7/10

Review No.4: Albert Nobbs

At this time of year the majority of the films being released in the UK are seen as awards contenders and that is true of Albert Nobbs the second film I've reviewed to be directed by Rodrigo Garcia. It seems that Albert Nobbs was in fact a pet project of Glenn Close who starred in the stage version of the story and has since been trying to get it made as a film. Obviously Close is in the lead role of Nobbs a butler working in 19th Century Ireland. However Albert is not all he seems and is in fact a woman posing as a man in order to get a more prestigious job in various houses and hotels in the country. Albert's secret is discovered by Hubert Page a person in Albert's situation but a woman posing as a man who has found a wife. Hubert gives Albert the confidence to pursue Mia Wasikowska's young maid Helen to be his wife and work alongside him at the tobacconists shop that he wishes to run but Helen's head is already turned by Aaron Johnson's roguish Joe who wants to use Albert's affections for his own gain. Things get in the way of Albert's plans including disease, unwanted pregnancies and death but it would be spoiling it to reveal any more than that.

One thing I can say about Albert Nobbs is that it looks lovely and everything about the period detail has been carefully researched. Fans of Downton Abbey will love the look of the hotel, the Irish streets and the upstairs-downstairs feel this has. Close is the main attraction here and is likely to be the biggest threat to Meryl Streep's Oscar win as she is doing both an accent and a gender-swap if only Nobbs was based on a true story she'd have it in the bag. However it is Janet McTeer who gives the best performance as Hubert Page someone who, to me at least, is more convincing as a man and is the most multi-layered character here. The main problem for me was the story which never was sure what it wanted to be and ended up being over-cluttered with the sub-plot involving Joe and Helen seeming incredibly clichéd and I also thought their was an over-abundance of characters with Jonathan Rhys Meyers coming off the worst with his dashing cad only appearing briefly. Though this film looks great for me I thought there was some sloppy storytelling which is surprising seeing as this was on the stage first but then again not all theatre work translates well to the screen.

Verdict: A sumptuous cinematic treat is slightly tarnished with a crowded cast and uneven script so I will give it a very respectable 6.5/10

Review No.3: The Sitter

So after two fairly heavy dramas I thought I'd relax with a lightweight comedy starring the anything but lightweight Jonah Hill as Noah a layabout who agrees to babysit three kids with hilarious consequences. Obviously the babysitting comedy has been done to death from Kindergarten Cop to The Pacifier to Are We There Yet? but this time there doesn't seem to be anything particularly in it for Noah apart from letting his mother have a night out. That might make Noah sound more decent than he actually is but there aren't really any decent adult characters here as he basically decides to take these kids to a drug dealer to by some cocaine for his psycho would-be girlfriend so she'd have sex with him. Along the way he gets accused of being a paedophile, steals thousands of pounds from a teenage girl and steals his dad's car apparent revenge for years of neglect. We are meant to feel sorry for Noah as he's treated badly by his dad and the girlfriend but really Noah doesn't know how to behave like a normal person and why his sweet former college classmate Roxanne constantly pursues him is anyone's guess. The kids are fairly stereotypical there's the neurotic Slater, the wannabe celebrity Blithe and the frankly weird Latino adopted sibling Rodrigo.

All these stereotypes, racism and homophobia would be fine if The Sitter were funny but I found it hard to stifle more than a titter but if you find waiters slipping over urine funny then you're in for a treat. Obviously life lessons are learnt along the way but they are so obvious from the get-go that there are really no surprises to be had here. I'm honestly not sure why Jonah Hill did this after being my favourite thing about Moneyball he seems to have taken a step backwards playing the same goofy loser he did in Superbad. Sam Rockwell is the only other name here but his crazy drug-dealer character has been seen in dozens have films and has been done much better in what is generally a waste of Rockwell's talents. If I were to pick the best actor it would have to be Max Records, best known for Where the Wild Things Are, as older brother Slater he actually manages to create a realistic character from the mess of a script and you do care more about him than the rest of the bunch. David Gordon Green's career also seems to be on a downward trajectory and I thought Your Highness was bad but this is even worse maybe he should just stick to making the sublime Eastbound and Down and forget about films for a while if The Sitter is anything to go by.

Verdict: An unfunny and offensive comedy only saved by a couple of good performances so I will give it 2 out of 10 and that's being generous.

Review No.2: Margin Call

So how do you follow a solid drama? With an even more solid drama although in the notes Margin Call is described as a thriller the majority of the film features men talking in rooms. When the opening scene sees Stanley Tucci's Eric being laid off from that investment bank in which he works I thought this would be another film about redundancy such as Up in the Air and The Company Men. Luckily Margin Call veers off into another direction when Eric hands Zachary Quinto's Peter something he had been working which turns out to have dramatic consequences for the company and the economy as a whole. Peter's discovery soon brings in the higher-ups from his boss Paul Bettany to the company's CEO Jeremy Irons as they try to solve the dilemma in which they have found themselves in.

Margin Call is a very intelligent film almost to its detriment as I found myself struggling to keep up with all the financial jargon and the reasons for the economic crash. But at the same time it is a fascinating film looking at the current global crisis from the point of view of the people who handle our money. For example Bettany's attitude is that we've laid our bed and know we've got to lie in it while Kevin Spacey's Sam is a decent man torn about what he's got to do. It also demonstrates that we are a culture obsessed with status and money as is evidenced by people's reactions to their firings and by the youngest team member Seth constantly questioning what everybody earns. The fact the film's timeline is no more than two days means that the sense of drama is heightened which is a good thing as is the lack of a score with most of the scenes simply featuring dialogue. It is hard to single out one person from this fantastic ensemble cast that also features Demi Moore, Simon Baker and Penn Badgely however Bettany's character is possibly the most interesting. This is certainly a great dramatization of the banking crisis my only criticism being that it doesn't always feel like a film more a HBO Made for TV movie but then that's not a bad thing.

Verdict: A well-scripted and well-acted piece which never really grabbed me but never attempts to patronise its audience so it gets an above average 7

Review No.1: Mother and Child

So here we are the first review of a film released in the UK in 2012. And it is one that originally appeared in the US in 2009. Mother and Child is directed by Rodrigo Garcia, whose other film Albert Nobbs is being reviewed very soon, but more importantly produced by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu director of Babel and 21 Grams. Like those films Mother and Child features various stories that link together as the story goes on with all three stories featuring themes of motherhood. Annette Bening stars as Karen a woman who gave up her baby when she was a teenager with this child now being a thirty-something lawyer named Elizabeth played by Naomi Watts. We follow the story of both of these women who have been affected by the adoption with Karen being very cold towards most people and Elizabeth being very matter-of-fact and throwing herself into her work as a lawyer. The third story follows Kerry Washington's Lucy trying to adopt a child with mixed results and as you would expect this story interlinks with the others before the film's end.

Mother and Child definitely has its moments and most of that comes from the performances, Watts especially shines in a role which is quite hard to sympathise with but she is able to convey a woman who has gone through emotional hardships and as a result of this has become cold. Annette Bening is also great although Karen is a character that is hard work she eventually softens when she forms a relationship with her co-worker played by Jimmy Smits. And I would be amiss if I didn't mention Samuel L Jackson as Elizabeth's worthy boss he puts in a turn that is very understated something you don't see from Jackson very often. Mother and Child's main problem is that it outstays its welcome and everything seemed to be drawn out so that the final scene would have more significance but for me I felt that there was at least some parts that could've been cut and some characters who weren't afforded much time to develop. Overall Mother and Child is a solid drama with some strong performances but there's nothing that marks this film out than more than that.

Verdict: For a solid drama a solid 5.5 out of 10 should do the trick.

Films of 2012: The Legend Begins

OK so here we are at the beginning of another year and I did start last year with the intention of watching as many films as possible however that didn't turn out to be the case and ended up with a disappointing total of 116 films out of a mark that must've been somewhere in the 400s. So this year I'm going to try my hardest to get up to at least 200 films which averages out at about 17 films per month which is extremely do-able.

Along the way I'm going to write a mini-review of everything I've watched so you the readers can know what I thought of everything and of course as always you can leave your own comments below. So with that said let's get started.