Review: Predestination (2014)

Every now and again, I come across a film that is just too smart or artsy for me. The last time that happened to me was Taxi Driver, but it’s happened again now with Predestination. This was a recommendation by my Grampy who loves all things Sci-Fi, who convinced me to watch District 9 and Moon.

This is as much as I can tell you about the plot. Ethan Hawke plays a time-travelling Temporal Agent who is on the hunt for a criminal known as the Fizzle Bomber. Ethan has spent his life travelling through time stopping terrorist disasters before they’ve even happened. On his final assignment, Ethan goes back in time, disguised as a Barkeep, and strikes up a conversation with a man known as The Unmarried Mother (weird, I know), a writer of trashy magazine stories.

Honestly, that’s all I can tell you. Predestination is an incredibly difficult film to review, not only because of my own confusion but also the nature of the film itself. It’s so full of twists and turns, that you just have to witness it for yourself. If you enjoy time travel and the consequences of it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this. 

I understood Predestination, or at least the main plot line, and predicted the end before it happened, but it was just such a weird film I don’t know if I can truly say whether I enjoyed it or not. It was an experience, for sure.

If you’ve seen Predestination, you’ll understand this short post, and I’d love to know your thoughts on the film. If you haven’t seen it yet, I hope I haven’t put you off, and if you have a spare 90 minutes and an open mind, please, give it a go. It’s had great reviews, but it just wasn’t the film for me.

Review: Boyhood (2014)

Took me a while to see this one as in all honesty, I wasn't that interested in seeing it.  In my opinion, it looked a bit boring.

Boyhood was filmed once a year for 12 years with the same cast.  It focuses on Mason (Ellar Coltrane) and his family, his Mom (Patricia Arquette), Dad (Ethan Hawke) and his Sister Samantha (Lorelai Linklater).  It is basically a coming of age drama following Mason from the age of 5 to 18 and the trials and tribulations of growing up as well as abusive step-fathers, falling in love and getting heartbroken.

I was really surprised that I enjoyed this, it appeared like it would be boring but it was paced so well that although I was aware of how long it was, it never felt like it was dragging.  In fact, at more than one point I thought it was going to end and when it didn't I was pleasantly surprised.  It almost felt like numerous episodes of a TV series rather than a movie, which was so different to anything I've seen before.

Ellar Coltrane was really good as Mason and to be able to play this character over 12 years while still maintaining the little personality traits of the character over such a long period of time.  Personally, Ethan Hawke was the highlight of this, his development from absent father to committed family man and the ups and downs in between was one of my favourite parts of the film.  There are no big budget scenes, no major revelations but that's almost what makes it so good, its just normal life with normal people and how they change from one year to the next.

One of these highlights of this for me was the little cultural references to remind you that this was filmed over such a long span of time, various technology comes and goes, as well as popular moves, books and trends.  This small additions were something I found myself looking out for and enjoying the moment when I recognised something that meant we had moved forward a year!!

Really great movie that I'm sure will get the Best Picture Oscar on Sunday. <--- Scrap this as my post went out after the Oscars and it DIDN'T win Best Picture! Although, I'm kind of glad Birdman took it because no one expected it...