Review: Frank (2014)

I was given a rare opportunity over the weekend recently. My husband said he wanted to watch a movie with me and order take-out, and I could pick any movie I wanted. Normally I can only coerce him with an Action/Crime/Thriller, but I was given free reign. Straight away I brought up my watch list and picked a movie I’d been wanting to see for a while, Frank (2014). Pizza was ordered, the movie was set up, and my husband asked me what the movie was about. Erm. I explained it to him in the terms that came to my head straight away. It went something like this:

So, Magneto wears a giant head on his head and calls himself Frank. He makes weird music with a band whose name I can’t pronounce. They need a new band member so General Hux joins them but he’s kind of terrible.

Safe to say, if it weren’t for the fact that the movie was already set up, I was going to have to put Taken on just to make up for this. Thankfully, all it took was Domhnall Gleeson tweeting about an epic cheese and ham toastie to bring my fiance back round again. Man, I could kill for a cheese and ham toastie right now… #nomnomnomnom.

The movie follows the band as they record their new album, and eventually find fame online thanks to Jon (Gleeson) tweeting updates, filming progress and uploading it to YouTube. They eventually get invited to play at SXSW, a huge creative event which excited me as I’ve actually been there! That excitement died a little when I realised they didn’t actually film at the festival, but it was still a cool moment.

It’s the band’s arrival at SXSW where the movie takes a sharp turn and we learn more about Frank (Michael Fassbender) and his struggle with mental illness. The second half is much darker, but it was quite a jarring turn around.

Frank is one of those movies where I’ve had to take a few days to even put my thoughts down in writing. It is, without a doubt, one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen, but I really enjoyed the dark humour aspect of it all. Frank’s ‘Most Likeable Song Ever’ and Jon’s moment with Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in the hot tub were some of the funniest movie moments ever, and I doubt I’ll forget about them. Actually, any moment where Frank voiced his facial expression was equally hilarious!

I appreciated the ending, and noticed that it almost ended the way it began with a certain scene that I’d have normally missed, but I don’t know how satisfied I am with the closing scene. It made me a little sad. That was short lived though, as the song ‘I Love You All’ was beautiful, and I’m playing it right now whilst I type this.

On reflection, I think I was mad at Frank for making me feel some feelings I wasn’t comfortable with, but now I’ve pondered it for a while, I can appreciate it for what it is. A quirky yet beautiful movie.

Top 5 Domhnall Gleeson Roles

As if I needed an excuse to gush about my favourite people in the movie world, today is Domhnall Gleeson’s birthday! Pronounced ‘Doh-nuhl’ (in my accent anyway) which took me far too long to work out. I’d been calling him ‘Dom-un-all’ for ages, and then had a moment of crisis in our review of The Revenant. You can always trust the internet to help you, though!

He was only on my radar because of his ties to the Harry Potter series until last year, when he managed to land himself a role in 4 Oscar-Nominated movies in just 2015. What a star! I can’t wait to see more from him in the coming years, I find it fascinating how well he plays a hopeless romantic and a sneering douchebag, and comes across perfect in each!

Whilst I wait though, I thought I’d track down and watch the rest of his filmography like a crazy person make a little list of my top 5 favourite roles of his. Bill Weasley gets an honourable mention here, only because he’s my least favourite Weasley brother, and damnnnn 2015 was a brilliant year!

How amazing was Brooklyn? I only watched it because of its nominations, a romance movie like this is not something I’d normally enjoy, but I fell in love with it instantly. I think mainly due to the characters, who we just so loveable. Obviously I know how perfect Eilis and Tony were for each other, but when Eilis met Jim back in her hometown, he was so sweet and such a gentleman that a big part of me definitely wouldn’t have been mad if they ended up together.

I actually had no idea Domhnall Gleeson played General Hux until after I’d watched the movie for the first time, he’s just such a different character! Gone is gentle, kindhearted boy, he’s replaced with a slimy, sneering General thrust into an important military position at far too young of an age. We don’t actually get to see much of Hux in The Force Awakens, but I’m hoping for some more scenes of his with Kylo Ren in Episode VIII, as the two battle for Supreme Leader Snoke’s approval.

You can’t call him evil, but Jon is a bit of an annoying douchebag in Frank. I can forgive that though, because he shares my undying love for ham and cheese toasties, and shouts my favourite bad word at the top of his voice in the middle of a hot tub. Jon’s character transition from the bumbling guy in the background to the power behind the whole band (I can’t remember what it’s called now...it was so weird) is interesting to watch, as the whole thing comes round in a full circle. 

Ugh, I love this movie so much. It’s another romance I didn’t expect to love so much, but this one has much more comedy than Brooklyn. It also has my favourite wedding scene ever in it. If it’s going to rain on my wedding day this month, let it be like this! I don’t do anything by halves. It’s such a delight watching Tim grow as this goofy guy looking for love, into the fully fledged, doting husband he becomes. Swoon!

There’s definitely a running theme here, because I was practically forced to watch Ex Machina last year. The trailer didn’t sell it to me at all, but it became one of my favourites of the entire year. There’s something about Caleb’s character that just oozes nerves, excitement and terror at the same time. The movie itself takes a turn into dark territory and Caleb is forced right into the centre of it all. 

What do you think? Are there any roles you would have included in your top 5 that aren't listed here? I'd love to know if there's a great movie I haven't seen yet.

Review: About Time (2013)

I’ve been watching a lot of heavy movies recently, trying to catch up on a lot of the Oscar nominations. It’s exhausting! That’s how I found myself on a Sunday night looking for something light and fluffy that I could chill out with. After previously looking up Domhnall Gleeson’s filmography (for blog research purposes, of course) I remembered spotting a movie I’d been curious about for a while, About Time! How its taken you this long to watch this I do not know!!!!  Also, I think the real question here is how I have watched this film countless times and never reviewed it?!

Written by Richard Curtis (also responsible for Love Actually and Notting Hill), About Time is the story of Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), and his search for love after discovering at the age of 21 that the men in his family have the ability of time travel. It’s a premise I laughed about 3 years ago when I saw a trailer, but I have a much more open mind now. If you’re a huge sci-fi fan and love time travel theories, you’re going to need to switch off a little, but there’s enough to make the movie stand out from other romances without making itself look silly. Admittedly, the first time I watched this I did overthink the time travel stuff and tried to make it work in my head but once I gave up it was so much better!

All Tim needs to do to activate his powers is hide in a closet, clench his fists, and think hard about the specific time in his life that he wants to go back to. Whereas his Dad (Bill Nighy) used his power to read an inhuman number of books, shy Tim simply wants a girlfriend. He falls in love with his sister’s friend Charlotte (Margot Robbie) who is staying for 2 months, and finally professes his love on her last night with the family. When she tells him he waited too long and should have told her sooner, he does exactly that, only to be told to see how things go and come to her on her last night. Doh. Sorry men, us ladies can be annoying like that sometimes.  Oooh I really didn't like Charlotte, who wouldn't love Tim and his bumbling charm, foolish girl!!

This is what makes Tim leave his parent’s home in Cornwall and move to London to live with his Dad’s friend and pursue his career in Law. Only, the world of Law is male dominated, and Tim finds himself constantly stuck with his annoying colleague Rory (Joshua McGuire). A night out at a blind date in the dark restaurant changes everything when Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), although Tim very quickly realises the problems with the butterfly effect when he travels back in time.

The first time I watched this, I felt the butterfly effect coming on and I was panicking, I really wanted him and Mary to get together.  I was convinced the whole time however that time travel was going to have a much bigger part in the film.  One of my favourite tag lines for the film was "A new funny film about love. With a bit of time travel." 

I won’t go any further into the story because it’s so much fun to watch it all unfold. I thought the 2 hour runtime would be far too long, but it moved along at such a fast pace I was actually a bit gutted when the credits rolled! I wouldn’t class About Time as a comedy as such, but there’s one scene in particular that had me laughing out loud so hard I cried. It was the combination of typical British weather on a majorly important day, and the dramatic, Italian music playing that was just pure comedic genius! Agreed, loved that scene! My favourite, had to be the repeated bedroom scene!

I still watch this over and over again, i still laugh, cry and fell completely gutted when its over.  Domnhall Gleeson provides perfect geeky charm, while Rachel McAdams is her usual lovable self.  Everything about it is just perfect.

This could have been such a cliche movie, but it’s like nothing I’ve ever watched before, and tugged on my heartstrings in ways I didn’t know was possible. It didn’t end the way I was expecting at all, and really made me re-evaluate how to find happiness.

Review: Brooklyn (2015)

The countdown to the Oscars is on and so is the annual tradition (not technically a tradition yet as its only the second year for me) of racing to watch all of the big hitters before the big day.  Brooklyn was one I was looking forward to anyway so it was a good one to kick off with.

Year two for me, too! I think the tradition for me is more of an 'UGH I don't even want to watch half of these movies Jenna why are you making me'!

Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) is young girl growing up in Enniscorthy, Ireland who feels like her life is going no where.  Her sister, Rose (Fiona Glascott) sorts her a job and place to live in Brooklyn, New York.  After suffering with homesickness she finally starts to feel at home and in love when tragedy brings her back to Ireland.  The prospect of another life and love makes Eilis question where her heart lies.

I've only seen Saoirse Ronan in a handful of movies and I only really liked her in The Grand Budapest Hotel (I knew she looked familiar!) so I was a little bit concerned that I might not like her in the lead but really wanted to watch the film.  I couldn't have been more wrong, she was incredible and absolutely stole the show, I don't think this would have been the same with any other actress.   Throw in Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and Domnhall Gleeson (Is it me or is he in absolutely everything at the minute?! He is, and I'm LOVING it) and what's not to love?

Safe to say I couldn't convince the fiance to watch this one with me ("but it has General Hux in, it's practically Star Wars!") so I watched this alone. I'm not one for romance movies without a hefty dollop of comedy thrown in, but I was weirdly kind of hooked within the first 10 minutes.

I was completely taken with the film, I didn't move once, no fidgets, no toilet visits, not even a sip of drink - I had chronic dry mouth by the time it was over but it was worth it.  For me it was like a grown up version of the teen romances films I loved as a teenager, I grinned when she fell for loveable Tony (Emory Cohen) and wanted to shout at her when she considered a different life with Jim (Domhnall Gleeson). Tony's little brother was one of the cutest movie kids ever! Just no filter on what comes out his mouth. Love it.

I felt like the worst person in the world for wanting Eilis to stay with Jim. He was such a sweetheart though! Domhnall Gleeson just owned 2015. Like, this time last year he was just a Weasley brother to me, and not even one of my favourites, and now he's just BAM. In every movie I've watched last year. Or at least it felt that way.

It was really clever how they made subtle changes to Eilis's wardrobe, hair and make up throughout the film to show how she grows and changes as a person.  When she heads back to Ireland, you can see the distinct differences between the way she dresses and holds herself and the way her friends do, and how she used to be.  It's just another reminder of how good Ronan is in this role.

I thought that, too! She starts off so quiet and sheepish at the start of the movie, and the changes in her are so subtle. It wasn't until the final scene that you can really compare just how much she's grown.

Ronan is utterly engaging throughout, no need to be a hopeless romantic you'll love it anyway.

Review: The Revenant (2016)

Managed to get an advanced screening for this so I was dead excited thinking I was going to see a big Oscar movie way before everyone else, until I realised my big preview was the day before the general release date.  I gained a whole day.....

Whereas I convinced myself that an Odeon Secret Screening was something else, and missed a chance to see it 2 whole weeks before release date! Doh!

The Revenant is based on the true events of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) who, while out with a group of hunters, is mauled by a bear and left for dead by his own team.  Amazingly, Glass manages to fight for survival to find the men who deserted him and take is revenge.

I have no idea how to explain my thoughts on this film, I really did enjoy it and the first 40 minutes I was so engrossed I let my ice cream melt while sat with my jaw dropped.  It was all pretty graphic and there were a few moments where I actually covered my eyes to avoid my ice cream going in reverse.  Before I even saw the film I was willing for DiCaprio to get his Oscar because I felt like he deserved it for all his amazing roles but no I've seen this he needs to win in solely for this movie.  He barely says a word in the whole movie but he completely owns it.

Seeing this at the cinema reminded me just how much fun the cinema experience is. During the opening scene when the main group is attacked by the natives, there were gasps and cries left right and centre as the slaughter happened on screen. I heard one woman utter a pained 'I felt that one' and even grown men cringe! The bear attack got an even bigger reaction. That was a really tough scene to watch, actually, and major kudos to the technical teams for all their work on that.

Tom Hardy is at his best as Hugh's main target for revenge, John Fitzgerald and his scenes with Will Poulter were amazing.  Although, as good as Poulter was, I couldn't get his character from We're the Millers out of my head which kind of ruined some of the scenes for me. You're so mean! I loved him in this, I thought it showed how he can do so much more than comedy, but I have got Chasing Waterfalls stuck in my head, so thanks for that. This just highlights for me how good DiCaprio, Hardy and Domhnall Gleeson are because I've seen them in countless films over the years but I never relate one to the next.  I even forgot both brothers were Hardy in Legend. 

How do you even pronounce Domhnall Gleeson's name?! He was on Radio 1 with Will Poulter the other day promoting this movie and I swear they were pronouncing it 'Dome-hull'. I thought it was more 'Dom-nall' with a silent 'h'? This is what I tend to think about late at night while I try to sleep. Can we just call him General Hux? Anyway! Hasn't he had an amazing year in 2015?! Seriously, it's like Ex-Machina all over again....

Edit: I've done more resarch into this than one would consider healthy, but it hasn't helped, it's just added a third pronounciation to the ring, 'Doh-nall'! Argh!

I don't think anyone can argue with how beautiful The Revenant is. In fact, last year during the Oscars season I tried to learn what Cinematography actually meant with very little luck, but whilst watching this, I realised. This is Cinematography! At it's finest, too. It's something I don't normally notice, but there were so many seemingly small technical bits (sorry for the lame terminology here) that really stood out. Things like character's breath fogging up the screen during close ups, I noticed and appreciated it all.  I need to watch it again to see these bits, I spent a lot of the film with my hands over my eyes for fear something was going to jump out!

Which brings me on to my only real complaint about The Revenant. It has a decent runtime anyway, but the middle section moves by so slowly, it felt at least an hour longer than it was. Also, whilst watching Glass' struggle for survival was a harrowing affair, there's only so much despair I can take until it all becomes too much, and turns sadistically funny instead. The moment Glass and his horse ride straight off the cliff face? Hilarious! I felt awful for laughing, but my heart had frozen about half an hour prior to that scene.  Oh dear god, in the cinema I was in, that made everyone gasp, I think I even let out a little yelp and you laughed?! That poor horse...

There were a few moments in the middle where I got a little bit bored but I was still interested to see where the film went so it didn't ruin anything for me.

This is firmly in the list of amazing movies I never want to see again. I wish it was shorter, but there are a good few categories in the Oscars I'll be wanting to see The Revenant win in. Technically, it's a 10/10, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

I’ve been in hiding for nearly a week now, avoiding Star Wars spoilers, but last night I finally got to experience The Force Awakens. I use the word experience because that’s truly what it was! I won’t discuss any major plot points here, but if you haven’t seen the movie yet I strongly recommend you don’t read my post (or anyone else's!) before you have, because it’s so much better walking in blind.

Have you ever tried staying away from the internet, your blog, and all social media for 5 days? It’s awful to admit, but it was so difficult! By last night though, I had to remind myself to actually bring my phone with me. It was kind of redundant at that point!

If you read my post last week, you'll know that around this time last month I started watching the Star Wars series for the first time. I’ve always been that person who grunts ‘ugh’ whenever the subject is brought up, and when my family decided that The Force Awakens had to be our Christmas movie this year, I reluctantly decided I should probably watch the movies so I at least had an idea of what was going on. What I didn’t expect was to be so sucked in by it all, or to be stood in the cinema lobby literally shaking with excitement!

Speaking of the cinema lobby...I want to publicly thank the Cineworld in Broad Street for their incredible hospitality. 4 days after the opening night I wasn’t expecting anything, but as we came up the escalator to the IMAX lobby, we were met with staff handing out posters, and 2 stormtroopers on guard duty of every door, posing for everyone and taking photos. It was incredible, and I felt like a kid again. Here are some of our photos!

Life doesn't get much better than getting a selfie with a stormtrooper...I'm just ashamed that I was so giddily happy I just grinned like an idiot!

So, let’s not talk plot, but all the things I loved about The Force Awakens. Firstly, after far too many adverts and trailers, that screen with ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’ following by the deafening ‘Baa, badaba, ba...etc etc’ got the whole audience giddy with excitement. Everyone in that room was either being elbowed by their companion, or they were the ones lashing out with their elbows. I was one of the victims. Ouch.

Stormtroopers! Sadly, the First Order didn’t have a budget to provide them with better armour, or provide them with target practice, but they have never been cooler, and one in particular was amazing in hand to hand combat! The stormtroopers are my absolute favourites in the entire series (I tend to favour the underdogs) so I was so excited to see them again.

BB8 is the cutest little droid I’ve ever seen. I want one! Everyone should have their own little BB8. It’s quite amazing how much of a personality he has, expressed solely through beeps and the movement of his head. It was almost like a Baymax moment when he gave Finn the thumbs up!

Force powers. I felt a little worried for the smaller children when Kylo Ren used the force as a torture device, I think a 12 year old me would have a few nightmares after that. Nonetheless, my favourite moment of the whole movie might just be Rey attempting a ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ moment. It was brilliant!

Ugh, honestly I could carry on gushing, but you’ve seen it for yourself, so you know what I’m going to say. My only gripe was the fact that I left the cinema with more questions than I went in with, but all that’s really done is made me more hyped for the next movie! I’ve got over a year now of debating with anyone who will listen who Rey’s parents are.

I really don't even want to score this movie right now! I hate giving out 10s, I like to think that there's always room for improvement...but my judgement is so clouded right now. Consider this a placeholder score!

Mini Reviews: Saving Mr Banks (2013), Cake (2014) & Ex Machina (2015)

I can’t quite believe Saving Mr Banks is 2 years old now, it feels like I’ve been putting off watching it for a couple of months, not years! I remember little of the Mary Poppins story, in fact I can only recall a couple of the songs, and maybe that’s why I put this film off for so long. I’m glad I gave it a shot though, as this was a beautiful story.

Emma Thompson does a fantastic job at portraying this frustrating character who you struggle to warm to at first, but by the credits roll I had tears in my eyes. The whole cast made this a wonderful film to watch, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I’m a huge fan of Jennifer Aniston and films that tackle depression have always interested me, which I realise sounds quite morbid! Therefore, I thought Cake would be a film I would really enjoy. Cake is a dark story of a woman who becomes obsessed with the suicide of a friend in her support group for chronic pain, who also tries to deals with her own severe issues.

Maybe watching this in chunks throughout my lunch breaks didn’t help, but I found the story so hard to understand, I had to read half on an IMDB synopsis to work out what was going on. Once I worked it out it was more enjoyable, but still fell flat for me.

When the posters and trailers came out for Ex Machina came out, I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. I didn’t even notice it come and go from my local cinema. However, anyone I knew who went to see it or watched the DVD said how brilliant it was, and the got my curiosity. It’s hard to even explain the plot of Ex Machina without ruining the experience, but I would recommend it to anyone.

It starts of as a family friendly, futuristic film and out of nowhere, takes a very dark turn, and rapidly turns into adult-only territory. I haven’t seen anything like it, and although I don’t think a re-watch will give the same impact, it was a brilliant experience first-time.

Review: Ex Machina (2015)

I knew I wanted to see this movie from the trailer and I thought I knew what it was about, I didn't.  This was not at all the film I was expecting to see....

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) a mild-mannered programmer at one of the biggest tech firms in history (from what I can tell) wins a competition to visit the company owner (Oscar Issac) at his private estate and be a part of a test involving an Artificial Intelligence robot, Ava (Alicia Vikander).  Caleb is tasked to meet with Ava and perform a Turing Test - i.e. assess Ava's humanity.

First I want to say that I loved this film, I was gripped from beginning to end and it wasn't at all predictable (to me at least!) and it was nothing like I expected it to be (I was thinking more Chappie less Frankenstein) but I am struggling to review it.  I can't really explain why I liked it or my favourite parts (they include spoilers) so how do I review it?!

Ok first the actors, I love Domhnall Gleeson, I have loved him since About Time, he has this nervous energy that is perfect for this type of role (is anyone concerned about typecasting for him, I think he needs to do something now that no one would expect!).  He plays the excitable, nervous, terrified and quietly confident Caleb to a tee, contrasting Oscar Issac's terrifyingly intelligent and reclusive Nathan faultlessly. I have seen Issac in a few movies but he's never really stood out to me, until now.  His performance had me on the edge of my seat in suspense, I didn't know what he was thinking or planning and the whole film had this edge that something about him wasn't quite right.

The story was really interesting and different and more scary than anything because this could be happening right now, there is technology in the world that could develop an Ava, this literally could be tomorrow.  The majority of the movie is set in Nathan's underground 'lair' with no windows and locks on every door, it gives a real feel if claustrophobia (not sure it helped that I was sat on a plane feeling very real claustrophobia!!) even though there was a huge wide open space outside the lounge window.  I think the idea that Caleb came in by chopper and there was no way for him to get out unless it was arranged added to this uneasy setting.

Personally, I would say this is one of those films that cannot be done justice in a review, you just have to see it for yourself.  I appear to be giving out a lot of 10's recently, I'm not sure if its just because I happen to be really enjoying films lately or if I'm going soft in my old age!! :-/