Stoker (2013) - Park Chan-wook's over-styled American debut revolts and bores in turns

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Half-faced Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman and an eerie, full-faced Mia Wasikowska seated for Chan-wook Park's Stoker

At a country residence which looks (just like the family that lives there) like something from a long-gone European past, a nervous and spiteful young girl and her selfish mother have an up until then unknown, self-satisfied uncle Charlie on visit after the family's patriarch's death in an accident.

Stoker is a horrible film, incredibly overrated (6.9 critic-average score on Rotten Tomatoes), and I think many critics carry their curious awe of its Korean director Chan-wook Park (Oldboy (2003)) on them like a lead jacket with regards to it and are afraid to see through the tiring, artsy jumble that is really served here.
The film has energetic photography (by Chung-hoon Chung (Thirst (2009)), but it's all (unfortunately) wasted on futile gimmicks. The characters are dilly-dallying around, while the protagonist (exciting young Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (In Treatment (2008), TV-series), who I like just as much as anybody) remains hateful and introverted, until she at last proves herself SPOILER just as callous and heinous as the rest of her family, as she starts killing at random.
Stoker also has disgusting, depraved scenes (SPOILER like when our anti-heroine masturbates to her murder fantasy) and an odd, extreme silence through its 3rd act.
Since seeing Oldboy, which didn't at all stun me like it did so many others, I haven't watched Park's films until now with Stoker, which is his first film in English. It is written by actor Wentworth Miller (Prison Break (2005-09)) and was a Blacklist [Internet screenplay database service] entry in 2010. 
In my opinion, it's a deadly boring show in hollow style, unnatural design, depravity and bad atmosphere. It is also, tragically, one of the last films produced by Tony Scott (Top Gun (1986)), (along with his brother Ridley Scott and 7 other producers), who, tragically, committed suicide in the Summer of 2012.

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Watch the trailer for this wrongly hailed 'Hitchcockian' film here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 12 mil. $
= Flop
[Stoker only made 1.7 mil. $ of its total gross in the States, which is disappointing, seeing as it is Park's first English-speaking film, shot in America, with big stars. It fared better abroad, although it is unreported where especially.]

What do you think of Stoker?
If you are familiar with more of Chan-wook Park's work, please share your knowledge and feelings in a comment

Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance

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+ Best Romcom of the Year

A hard-to-resist poster for Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight

Magic in the Moonlight is master filmmaker Woody Allen's (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) 49th (!) movie.

In 1920's Southern France, a nihilistic skeptic, who is famous for his own Chinese magic act, travels to debunk a young spiritual medium, who is enchanting a wealthy family there.

Allen makes it all seem so easy in a film like Moonlight: As usual, he uses 'new' (in his oevre), great actors, who elevate themselves or present new sides of their talent in his hands. Here, kudos must go to both leads: Colin Firth (The King's Speech (2010)) is perfectly dry, sarcastic and thick-headed and makes audiences laugh and chuckle over Allen's priceless lines time and time again. Emma Stone (The Help (2011)), - more fortunate than the already highly respected Firth to be 'found' by Allen, despite the often dubious films she acts in, (The House Bunny (2008), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Movie 43 (2013), Gangster Squad (2013) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) to name a few) is irresistible, and appears as if she was made of marble at times, seemingly glowing from within. She makes a charming and believable opponent to Firth.
Of the secondary players, Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom (2010)) is a sweet delight; SPOILER Simon McBurney (The Last King of Scotland (2006)) is good as Firth's real opponent; Eileen Atkins (The Hours (2002)) is tactful and funny as Firth's aunt Vanessa, and Hamish Linklater (The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014)) is funny as Stone's serenading dullard suitor.
Without spoiling much in the crisp plot, let me just say that Allen circles familiar territory in Magic in the Moonlight to say the least: Namely, whether life is abandoned of anything besides hard science; in other words, is there an afterlife and a God? Unable to answer these ever-present 'stones-in-the-shoe'-questions, Moonlight goes on to credibly indulge in the one pleasant thing that we can say for certain exists:
Romance.

Emma Stone and Colin Firth on another poster for Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight

Professionally filmed by Iranian cinematographer Darius Khondji (The Immigrant (2013)), Moonlight also pleases with its marvelous locations by the French Riviera and beautiful, very well-crafted period costumes (by Sonia Grande (Midnight in Paris (2011))) and cars.
This film is a gift with its stimulating, smartly devised story. One of the year's true wonders.

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2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] To Rome With Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy
Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart 
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship With Alvie Singer
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs 

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 26.7 mil. $ (and running)
= Uncertainty
[In all likeliness, although the cost of the film is not known, Moonlight has some way to go still before it breaks even, and therefore looks like a minor flop so far.]

What do you think of Magic in the Moonlight?

Silver Linings Playbook (2012) - Russell scores huge with heart-filled dysfuntion dramedy

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Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence stare you in the face to urge you to watch them in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook

Back out in the world after nine months in a mental hospital, our young hero struggles with aggression and his bi-polar diagnosis, his somewhat similar, superstitious father and a stubborn belief that his cheating wife, who has a restraining order against him, wants him back.

 
Silver Linings Playbook is written and directed by David O. Russell's (Three Kings (1999)), based on the novel by Matthew Quick. It is a terrifically well-told story of mental deficiency, brought to real-life troubles, and how meeting a similar soul may still hold real promises. There are star-making performances from Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, both charming gifts to the silver screen. They dance to Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's Girl From the North Country, after SPOILER Lawrence has told Cooper how her husband died. There is some truth to these, the best scenes of Playbook, which also builds up to a dance competition climax that is quite thrilling.

Robert De Niro (Casino (1997)) has one of his best turns in years as Cooper's bookmaking father, and no doubt part of the film's mass appeal is its clever usage of the sports mania/gambling plot line. Chris Tucker is amusing as a patient friend of Cooper's. Though he 'movies it up' at times here, he's also a master at getting us into the mindset of a bipolar person's experience, and he serves one of the most entertaining and lovable stories on-screen of the year in Silver Linings Playbook.

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 21 mil. $
Box office: 236.4 mil. $
= Huge hit

What do you think about Silver Linings Playbook?
And Jennifer Lawrence's Oscar-win?

Animal Kingdom (2010) - Ruthless Aussies in tight debut

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+ Best Australian Movie of the Year

Covered in shadows and ominous shades, a family portrait makes up the eye-catching poster for David Michôd's Animal Kingdom

J calls his grandmother, when his mother dies of a heroin overdose. But in his new, villainous family, their laws are the only that count.

 
The suspense builds up slowly in Animal Kingdom, the very impressive debut of Australian writer/director David Michôd (The King (2019)). The film is based on the true story of the Pettingill family of Melbourne, who in 1988 saw its Trevor Pettingill acquitted of a double police murder. 
The visual realism paired with an intense score by Antony Spartos (Upright (2019-20, miniseries)) makes the film a joy to the senses. As the cold-blooded matriarch Jacki Weaver (Reclaim (2014)) shines, and so do others such as Ben Mendelsohn (Darkest Hour (2017)) as a really nasty bugger.
Animal Kingdom is filled with abhorring characters and disillusioned atmosphere. It ends abruptly. It is a crime movie that, in spite of all the praise here, has found many bigger fans than I. Difficult to say why, perhaps it just doesn't fabulate enough for my taste. It's simply a bit too kitchen sink crude for me to get over-ecstatic about it.

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Hesher (2010) - Susser's immature, rebel-centered debut (co-writer) 

 

Check out the film's trailer here

Budget: 5 mil. A$, approximately 3.86 mil. $
Box office: 7.2 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.86 times its cost)

[Animal Kingdom premiered 22 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place in and around Melbourne, Australia. The film opened #41 to a 61k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #38 and in 61 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1 mil. $ (13.9 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was Australia with 4.3 mil. $ (59.7 %), then 2nd biggest North America and 3rd biggest was the UK with 785k $ (10.9 %). It was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Weaver), lost to Melissa Leo in The Fighter. It won 2 National Board of Review awards, a prize at Sundance, and many other honors. The film was remade as a US TV-series with the same title, which started in 2016 and is still running. Michôd returned with Enlightened (2013, TV-series) and theatrically with The Rover (2014). Joel Edgerton (Gringo (2018)) returned with a voice performance in Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), in The Thief (2011, short) and with a physical theatrical performance in Warrior (2011); Mendelsohn in Needle (2010); and Guy Pearce (Memento (2000)) in The King's Speech (2010). Animal Kingdom is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Animal Kingdom?