The Victorian Era is generally limited to Queen Victoria’s reign of the British Isles from 1837 to 1899. Outwardly, it was a triumphant period as the monarchy presided over a number of territories abroad and proudly extolled the virtues of its ruling classes. Beneath the pomp and circumstance were the millions of sickly poor who …
The gateway movie to my full-blown film addiction was Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001). Kelly has yet to create a film that matches the mood or magnitude of his first success. This supernatural thriller has sparked a cult following behind its intense narrative and themes. Countless arguments have played out discussing it’s a representation of madness. Made in only 28 days it utilised a low budget of 4.5 million. This made it a poster-child for indie films.
Frank Written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan Directed by Lenny Abrahamson (as Leonard Abrahamson) UK/Ireland, 2014 Artistic personalities from all walks of life seem to dance to the beat of their own distinctive drums. The creative process and all its motivations and manipulations is what makes these dedicated artists strive for their performing juices. …
Frank Directed by Leonard Abrahamson United Kingdom, 2014 The pitch for Frank sounds like it might fall somewhere between Rubber and Kevin Smith’s upcoming Tusk: films that seem predicated on a dare, a bet, a drunken night. But Frank is a high concept film masquerading as low concept. Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) is a middle-class, IT-by-day, …
Frank steers away from almost-Almost Famous territory and into something familiar to anyone who’s seen The Devil and Daniel Johnston; director Abrahamson carries his deft balancing of tonal shifts from his 2012 film What Richard Did over to this effort.
Frank follows a post-internet age Billy Liar and asks, “What if he did follow his dream through, but his idol was a lunatic?” Jon (Domnhall Gleeson), a young middling English songwriter, gets invited to play keyboard for the aforementioned Frank (Michael Fassbender). Frank wears a giant fake head made of papier-mâché and refuses to take it off. Soon, Jon is invited to spend a year in Ireland with the band as they record their painstakingly overblown album, all the while secretly filming it and posting clips to YouTube.
Subtlety is a skill Roland Emmerich has not mastered. Subtlety is not, nor ever will be, in his repertoire; it is likely as alien a concept to him as opposable thumbs are to all non-human creatures. Most of the time, his thudding portentousness doesn’t serve him well as a director, with previous misfires like The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, and 2012 lining his filmography, movies that are big and loud enough to make money despite being massively, unpleasantly stupid.
Won’t Back Down Directed by Daniel Barnz Written by Brin Hill and Daniel Barnz USA, 2012 The modern educational system is full of corporate bureaucracy, personal frustrations, and district-, state-, and nationwide complications. In short, the system is labyrinthine at best, broken at worst. And as much as we try to think of education in …
Hysteria Directed by Tanya Wexler Written by Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer England, 2011 People love historical pieces, especially those which directly or sometimes indirectly relate to a major events in which shape the story of mankind. Films about the word wars, films about Margaret Thatcher, films about the waring states in ancient China, …