Goodfellas - Robert De Niro's eyes

Don't know what got me thinking about this scene this morning, but I suddenly felt the need to remind myself what a great actor Robert De Niro is. In this 30 second clip from Goodfellas Jimmy (De Niro) observes his gang post-robbery and makes the decision to kill them all and keep the money for himself.



I'm not sure what direction Scorsese gave to De Niro for this scene - something like "appear evil while sitting at the bar" I guess. Whatever it was, De Niro somehow conveys the calculating mind of a criminal deciding to murder his associates in cold blood - all by moving his eyes and smoking. Legend.

And, of course, the music is awesome.

Avatar

I guess you all know this, but it snowed on Friday last week. This minor meteorological phenomenon persuaded me that I really couldn't be bothered going into work (imagine all that potential for falling off my bike) and that I should kick it back old school, relive the heady days of my PhD and head down to the cinema for a matinee showing of whatever the latest exciting release is.

Turns out that the big release of the week is Avatar, James Cameron's first film for ages, a 3D extravaganza, a film decades in the making - and a load of other jazz making it sound pretty bloody exciting. This was my first 3D film experience, so I paid my £9.60 (!), donned my special glasses when instructed by the disembodied voice and watched half an hour of adverts. 3D adverts, but HALF AN HOUR of adverts none-the-less. For £9.60 they should really be making enough money already, bloody Capitalism.

Anyway, the film is neatly divided into two parts. Not the film itself, rather my opinions of it. There's the graphics and the plot. Let's start with the good stuff, the graphics. This was one of the most visually stunning films I have ever seen. The level of detail in the computer-generated environments and sets was beyond anything I've encountered before. How much of this was a result of the 3D aspect of the film is unclear, if I had seen the 2D version I could well have been underwhelmed.

The impact of the 3D technology was significant though. I struggled to follow the opening 20 minutes of the story; such was my wonder at what I was seeing. I kept looking around the screen and focussing on different parts to the test this new technology out. When Sigourney Weaver first appeared on screen I got a momentary shock as I thought she had somehow arrived in the cinema in person. A favourite moment of mine was the 3D representation of a see-through computer screen - rendered in luscious detail. This alone was probably worth the price tag.

I mentioned the word 'plot' above. Since I had gone to the cinema rather than a 3D art gallery I was expecting some kind of plot. It is here that Avatar turns into something of a sham as its paper-thin morality tale about tree-huggers fighting the big bad corporation falls apart under even the slightest scrutiny. Zero-dimensional characters and extravagant plot contrivances do nothing to help the thought that much of the plot is in fact an expensive advert for toys and computer games based on the gadgets, monsters, vehicles and weapons of the film. There isn't enough time spent at the start of the film setting anything up, the main character is someone we don't care about, the natives and planet of Pandora is a place we are barely introduced to. For a film that is 160 minutes long that is totally unforgivable.

And don't even get me started on the mineral the evil corporation are meant to be mining - Unobtainium? For fuck's sake.

However; there are moments in cinema history when I think that certain lapses are forgivable. James Cameron has created a slice of cinema history here, Avatar could yet be looked back upon as the moment when 3D cinema came into its own as more than just a gimmick. Or of course 3D cinema could remain in the confines of big budget blockbusters that can afford to splash the cash. Whichever way it goes, Avatar is a visual masterpiece that you need to see in the cinema in 3D.

Films of the Decade

There are a lot of blogs and film sites doing this at the moment, so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring. I've decided to limit myself to one per year (and one special mention), so it has been really hard leaving stuff out. So without further faff, here are my films of the decade:

2000 - Memento
There were a bunch of films I wanted to put in this category, and was upset to discover that they came out in 1999. Turns out that both the Matrix and South Park the movie were both in the 90s, although I'm fairly convinced I didn't see them until after the millennium. Anyway, after a search through the annals of movie history there was only really one winner for me, 'Memento' tells a tale backwards - using the conceit that its main character is a man who has no long-term memory. Scenes are shown in reverse order, slowly revealing a twisting plot in which a man's disability is being used against him by those he trusts. It's a great idea and one that rewards re-watching.

Special mention - Amor Es Perros. A brutal and chilling film that launched the career of Gael Garcia Bernal.

2001 - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
There can only be one winner of the best film of 2001. Peter Jackson's epic, special-effects laden adaptation of the classic fantasy novel of the same name managed to retain the magic of the original without putting off mainstream cinema-goers. There was nothing more special than seeing the epic scale of this story on screen for the first time, from the wonderful sets of the opening scenes in Bagshot to the unbelievable scenery as the fellowship travel to Mordor, it's a visual feast.

Special Mention - Donnie Darko. A proper genre-bender of a science fiction film that rips up conventions.

2002 - 28 Days Later
Part-filmed at the place where I work, '28 Days Later' is a modern post-apocalyptic horror in which a biological experiment gone wrong has turned Britain into a nightmare land filled with flesh-eating super-fast zombies. Cillian Murphy - quality actor - is a man who wakes up from a coma while this happens and struggles to find his sanity in the brave new world. There's nothing more terrifying to me than the collapse of civilisation, the idea that humanity as we know it is about to disappear into the night as a result of our own pig-headed abuse of science. The film has a couple of distinct acts, each of which deals with the confusion, then terror and then false hope of the situation. Admittedly the story is very similar to the classic novel ‘Day of the Triffids’, but then you can’t complain too much as the source material is first class.

Special Mention - The Man Who Wasn't There. One of my favourite Coen Brothers films which is often overlooked by others. Also it is possible that this was released in 2001 (there is conflicting information on the internet).

2003 - Goodbye Lenin
As an unashamed leftie I was taken in by 'Goodbye Lenin!' almost from the moment I heard about it. It's a wonderfully touching film about a young man who lives through the fall of DDR and his mother's stroke at the same time, then feels the need to pretend that the Eastern block is still as 'strong' as ever to make her feel better in her final days. It's a funny film too, mainly about family but at the same time managing to make a few clever political points without ever getting in the way of the main story.

Special mention - Touching the Void. A re-enactment of a true story of daring, endeavour, disaster and humanity; as two ice climbers discuss how they nearly lost their lives on a remote mountain in South America.

2004 - Shaun of the Dead
Well it was about time that a comedy film got into my films of the decade. As a massive fan of the TV series Spaced I was shaking with excitement when I went to see 'Shaun of the Dead' at the cinema, I can still remember going on the London Underground and seeing the posters of Simon Pegg crammed into a tube train with a load of zombies (see the film poster left). Thankfully it didn't disappoint; the film dragged British comedy into a new age with its self-styled rom-zom-com formula, making stars of Pegg and Nick Frost on the way and proving that the horror genre doesn’t just have to be about blood, guts and monsters chasing people around.

Special mention - Vera Drake. This tough drama about the working class in East London had a big effect on me when I saw it. A superb performance from Immelda Staunton.

2005 - Hidden
A small French film that pits a middle class family man against an outside unknown person who is spying on him, 'Hidden' is a clever story that challenges the typical conventions of film thrillers. By setting up the premise - a man is anonymously sent tapes showing his everyday life filmed from afar - and following through to a realistic conclusion it makes you think about what might happen in real life if something disturbing and inexplicable happened to an ordinary person. How would that person react? How long would it be before the terrorised became the terroriser? This might sounds all a little artsy, and to be honest it is, but in a good way!

Special Mention - The Descent. My favourite horror film of the decade, by setting a monster movie in underground caves the horror is generated in equal parts by the claustrophobia of the rocky interior and the terror of monsters in the dark. The bit at the end where the heroine jumps out of a lake of blood and brains a monster - awesome.

2006 - United 93
Tough year, very tough year, so many good films, 'V for Vendetta', 'Red Road', 'Casino Royale', 'Notes on a Scandal', 'The Lives of Others', the list could go on. However, I have gone for the definitive film on 9-11. Directed by Paul Greengrass, 'United 93' captures the confusion, disorientation and horror that the world felt when the World Trade Centre was destroyed. By following the lives of people on the ground who lacked an overall picture of what was happening and relied on images from CNN to work out what they were involved in, the film recreates the feeling that the world had – that we were and are bit-part players in a political game that has claimed the lives of countless thousands on and since 9-11. I was utterly speechless when I left the cinema after watching it, and the power it has doesn't lessen on DVD either.

Special Mention - Children of Men. Possibly the best-directed film I have seen in a very long time, it has genuinely touching storyline that brings a tear to my eye at the end.

2007 - Eastern Promises
Vigo Mortgenssen been involved in a number of interesting and artistic project since the Lord of the Rings trilogy finished (what a difference from the tripe that Orlando Bloom has ended up in), Eastern Promises is one of these. It's a film about Russian gangsters in London, where Mortgenssen is a driver who struggles to stand by while they run all kinds of illegal criminal rings. Naomi Watts demonstrates having an awesome English accent as she plays a nurse who tries to save a girl involved unwillingly in the mob’s business. I love films about London and the dark underbelly that the city might hold, and I also think Mortgensen is a brilliant actor. Plus the film has a visceral naked fight scene between two wicked-tough gangsters - if you're into that sort of thing of course.

Special Mention - Juno. Ellen Page is a fantastic actress, she stars in 'Juno' - a witty and heart-warming film about growing up with supportive parents and making the right choices for the right reasons (it sounds so tacky - but it's really not).

2008 - In Bruges
In Bruges has a great combination of quality actors, good dialogue, funny moments and gangsters that make it into the kind of film that Guy Richie clearly wants to make but can't quite work out how. Brendon Gleeson and Colin Farrell are Irish gangsters who are sent to Bruges by their boss with orders to lay low. There their contrasting personalities provide entertainment while the reason they have been sent to lie low is hinted and then revealed. Their boss - played by a Ralph Fiennes who is clearly relishing the role - is a psychotic Cockney who eventually turns up to create a three-way stand-off. It’s funny and touching, just about the best film of 2008.

Special mention - There Will Be Blood. It's about oil, religion, money, power and pretty much everything in between. Daniel Day Lewis is peerless in his Oscar-winning performance - a landmark film.

2009?
Well, I'll have a run-down of my favourite films from this year next week...

Harry Brown

Michael Caine is Harry Brown - ex Marine who sees one too many of his friends and neighbours terrorised by local youths and hoodies, an ineffective police force and criminality on every street corner; so he decides to take justice to the streets.

This is a really strange but interesting film that is split into two distinct parts. In the first part we have a somewhat artsy film in which a picture is painted of a society falling apart. In the second part we get a revenge thriller in which Harry Brown dishes out helpings of whup-ass to the local scumbags. The transition between these two parts happens in a very long and dull scene in which Harry Brown goes to buy and gun off a drug dealer and instead watches them take drugs, act trippy, treat a woman badly and generally behave like complete arseholes. The film ends in a riot in which an army of hooded drug-crazed inner-city teenagers battle the police while - in a ridiculously unbelievable twist - one of Harry's friends turns against him.

The film is interesting as it has ignited debate in some quarters about the meaning of the film and how it reflects on Britain. Is it a reflection on - as David Cameron says - 'broken Britain'? Is the only justice that serves in times like this the sort of justice that Harry delivers? There are a number of reasons why I don't think this analysis makes sense.

Firstly I don't buy the premise upon which this analysis is based. There are scumbag drug dealers in Britain as there are anywhere in the world, but there
surely does not exist an army of riotous teenagers ready to create a bloodbath in their own community in the pursuit - as Harry puts it - of entertainment.

Secondly, even if we accept that there is a terrible problem in certain communities - martial justice is not the answer even in the context of the film. Heavy-handed policing is the spark that causes the violence at the end of the film; and the question is posed - albeit fleetingly - about where the violence will end if justice is based upon revenge.

Thirdly, the film is clear that the root cause of the problems in Harry's community are not simply the fact that there exist scumbag teenagers. We only see a few people actually buying drugs in the film (without people buying drugs the dealers would go and the problem would surely relent), one is a smack-head in a bar, the other is what appears to be a 'nice' middle class couple in the underpass. The message is that we as a society are all at fault for allowing problems like this to fester.

So the right wing can gush over Harry's 'justice' if they want. But the film's premise is not rooted in the real world, and they would harm us all should they use this film as a model for dealing with society's underclass.

Political ramblings aside though I do recommend this film, it has a number of good performances from the youngsters playing the hoodies and provides an interesting insight into how many on the social right view Britain's problems.