Movies I’ve seen #4

Movie time! I went and watched some movies, but not lately. The past year I haven’t watched many movies at all, but I managed to squeeze in a few and I took notes as I went along. So in today’s post I’ll say a bit about the 7 movies that I’ve watched since June.

The Rover

This unsettling and incredibly sad movie stars Guy Pearce as Eric: a lonely man in Australia just after a gigantic economic collapse. The county has become a safe haven for criminals and anyone trying to make a buck. On one fatal day his car gets stolen with his last valuable object hidden in the trunk. He does everything to get it back. When he goes after it, he meets a man who happens to be the thieves’ little brother. Rey (by Robert Pattinson) is a bit of a dimwit, trying to find his way in a harsh world. And despite Eric’s initial goal of using him to get his car back, Eric ends up liking Rey, despite his limitations.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

A movie that had been on my to watch list for ages and last summer I finally got around to watching. While watching it, it felt familiar as if I had seen it all before, which in the course of the story is quite ironic as that is exactly what the movie is about. The movie revolves around the process of removing memories one would rather forget. Joel (Jim Carrey) meets Clementine (Kate Winslett) and everything is fine and dandy for a while. Then they break up and she erases her memories of him. So he decides to do the same. But as the process is on its way Joel decides he doesn’t want to lose those memories after all. A sweet and sad story that is smartly concocted and held together by some great acting.

Kill Your Darlings

If there is one group in history that I find fascinating it’s the Beats. This movie focuses on their beginnings when Alan Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) meets Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) when he goes to college. A strange murder brings the group closer together in the end which is what this movie leads up to but it lacks focus. The story idea itself is interesting and provides more information about the Beat generation which is why I thought this was still a great movie. However, the story hops all over the place: it starts of promising but ends up being about something completely different.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Slapsticky, funny and bizarre movie that is hilarious and strange all at the same time. I enjoyed the who-is-who type movie this is, filled with famous names. The colors, decors, costumes and deliberately bad make up artistry (Adrian Brody’s nose?) were the finishing touches on a story that lacked in sense but packed a punch. A rethinking of the feel good movie?

On the Road

Let’s stick to the Beats shall we? Because this indie flick focuses on one of the greatest modern classics which happens to have been written by none other than Jack Kerouac. I loved the book, but disliked the movie unfortunately. Mainly because it doesn’t do the book any justice. Where in the book there is a clear division of the different trips the group of friends take across America and into Mexico, in the movie it just chops up the narrative into a long-winded road trip in which you never really know where they are going, why they’re going or who they’re going with. People pop up out of nowhere and where that is a strength of the book, is misses substance as a visual as it creates confusion and disruption in the storyline.

50 Shades of Grey

Yes, I went and saw this. I also read the book AND the Twilight fanfic this was originally based on. Like the book, the movie takes on some abominable language in its dialogues, which makes the movie laughable and seem like it is trying too hard. The chemistry between the two lead actors Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan is minimal at best and the latter doesn’t give off a believable performance until the last half of the movie. The story dragged towards the end and then suddenly… it was over. The story was badly paced and the relationship between Christian and Anastasia is not as interesting as you’re not as much in Ana’s head as you are in the book. If you like the look of Jamie Dornan though, I can highly recommend Irish/ English TV series The Fall in which he portrays Paul Spector: lovable Dad and grief counselor by day, serial killer of pretty women by night.

The Imitation Game

The last movie I watched was The Imitation Game. It tells the story of how Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) placed a significant role in the breaking of the Enigma Code during WWII. At the same time Alan is the most socially awkward person to have been accepted into the programme and to make matters worse, he is also gay. A lifestyle not only frowned upon by the British government, but something for which he would later be convicted and chemically castrated as a punishment. 50 years his endeavors were top secret and while he not only cracked codes but is also responsible for the modern computer, he was a man who was far ahead of his time and terribly misunderstood.

What movies did you watch?