Never Let Me Go

Director: Mark Romanek
Writers: Alex Garland, Kazuo Ishiguro (author)
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Kiera Knightley, Andrew Garfield
Release Date: September 24, 2010
Length: 2 hours

Based on the disturbing 2005 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go stars Oscar nominee Carey Muligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. Premiering at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, the film tells the troubling story of students who have attended Hailsham, a private boarding school in England that teaches children that they will become full organ donors that will eventually kill them. Kathy (Mulligan), Ruth (Knightley) and Tommy (Garfield) were children who grew up in Hailsham together. The film takes place over three time periods, when the children are in school at the age of 12, when they are leaving at the age of 18, and then reuniting ten years later. This dark tale is told through the eyes of Kathy, a girl whose best friend stole the boy she loves at a very young age. This treacherous love triangle is the conflict set within the dystopian world that they live in. Director Mark Romanek of One Hour Photo beautifully drapes a very disturbing setting on this story. The horrible circumstances of the film are definitely prominent, however Romanek makes them seem so natural to the way the characters live, so that the film can focus more on the characters and plot. I surprisingly found myself getting used to everything this world demanded. The setting affected the story, but did not control it. Screenwriter Alex Garland somehow made the audience empathize for these far out of reach characters. Everything in the story didn’t make you feel sad or heartbroken, just depressed. That was an effect I didn’t completely enjoy about Never Let Me Go. While capturing the authenticity of this feeling exactly like a normal world, the film did not leave me with any intense feeling, nor did I think about it much after I left the theatre. One of the best aspects of this film was the cast. Never Let Me Go seems to be a comeback for Keira Knightley, another stepping stone for Carey Mulligan, and a boost for Andrew Garfield, who is claiming his fame right now. The word comeback should almost not be used for a twenty five year old actress, but it seems appropriate for Knightley, who has been in the public eye since she was 16, and has not been in a movie for two years. Her presence is always loved on screen and once again she performs spectacularly in Never Let Me Go. Oddly enough though, Knightley does not star, but takes a back seat to Carey Mulligan in this movie. Mulligan was wonderful as the film’s protaganist and beautifully carried the film. It was sad to watch her character observe her two friends in their relationship. Sometimes however, it was a bit annoying that nothing was happening to the main character. She was just watching interesting things occur. Also, as a personal fan of Mulligan, I surprisingly found that Knightley’s performance outshined Mulligan’s. The lead male actor of the film, Andrew Garfield is quickly making a name for himself with Never Let Me Go and the extremely successful The Social Network and he’s soon to star in the next Spider Man. Garfield also gives an incredible performance in this film, but no matter how great each actor was individually, it was their convincing friendship which was the believable affective aspect of the film. Even though I wasn’t blown away by this film, I definitely do not feel that I wasted my money or time. Never Let Me Go is surely not a must-see, but still a very good film to catch.

The Town

Director: Ben Affleck
Writers: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig, Aaron Stockard, Chuck Hogan (author)
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall
Release Date: September 17, 2010
Length: 2 hours 5 minutes

Fairly new director Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone), this time is also co-writing, starring and producing to bring Chuck Hogan’s novel about the true crime of Boston to life. The Town was at both this year’s Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, and stars the fantastic Jeremy Renner, the beautiful Rebecca Hall, and the handsome Jon Hamm. Doug McKay (Affleck) and Chris Coughlin (Renner) are two bank robbers living in Charlestown, a section of Boston. They’ve been best friends since childhood and on their latest robbery, they force bank manager, Claire (Hall) to open a safe, blind her, and leave her on a beach. While traumatized from this event, Claire is interviewed by FBI agent, Adam Frawley (Hamm). Frawley is in charge of finding the robbers and already begins to suspect Doug and James. James convinces Doug to find Claire and warn her about not talking to the FBI, but instead when Doug goes, he ends up talking to her and asking her on a date. As their romantic relationship grows, problems arise when James and Doug are planning their next heist and agent Frawley is on the verge of outing them. For the past decade, Ben Affleck has earned himself an outstanding reputation for being in bad movie after bad movie. For the longest time in my mind, I only ever knew him as the actor who appears in cheesy films, such as Daredevil, Paycheck and let’s not mention Gigli but because I am too young to have remembered his success for the phenomenal film Good Will Hunting. I could barely walk when he and Matt Damon won their Oscars in 1998. When I heard about that movie for the first time, it blew my mind that an actor who’s been in so many terrible films, could have won an Oscar. Now, I understand why and let me tell you, anyone who’s seen The Town will never make fun of him for Gigli again. He had a slight comeback back in 2007, with his directorial debut of Gone Baby Gone, but The Town defines the word “comeback” for Affleck. He unravels a dark intriguing story on screen with a prefect blend of action, romance, and even a bit of comedy. All of these traits that the movie presents lies on top of an incredibly serious undertone. The fact that a film can bring all those emotions out of you within two hours is incredible. Affleck, as a director, incorporates quite a lot of tremendous action that is necessary for the story. I felt on the edge of my seat because of the special effects, the writing, the acting, and even the score. This was refreshing compared to most action flicks you see nowadays that bombard you with special effects. Affleck was clearly fantastic as a writer, director, actor and producer, but he also chose a hell of a cast. British actress Rebecca Hall, best known for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, was captivating as Claire. Her simple performance was incredibly effective because her character was so real that the audience could relate to. It also helped that her and Affleck shared a wonderful chemistry. Jon Hamm just can’t do wrong with his career. While being on Mad Men for 4 seasons, this is his first movie since his big break, which came only a few years ago. He is taking his time with choosing great movies because it is already obvious to the world of what an amazing actor he is. He seems to always be so intense and again it works in The Town. Hamm’s powerful performance was perfect for the exciting theme of this movie. Blake Lively as an old flame of Doug’s was definitely an odd casting choice for the movie, but Lively was surprisingly quite good as Krista, James’ sister. Lively seems to be one of those actors that performs as well as their script commands of them. Maybe I misjudged Lively’s acting ability at first from only seeing her in Gossip Girl, but now I know that she does have talent, especially in a great film. However the most notable, exceptional performance from this movie came from the outstanding Jeremy Renner. Everyone knew after seeing The Hurt Locker, that Renner was a fantastic actor, but now after seeing The Town, I know he is an extraordinary character actor. From the accent to the way he walked, I had Renner pegged down as a stupid, violent Charlestown bank robber. I almost thought I was watching a completely different person on screen from when I saw The Hurt Locker. Renner’s performance was nothing short of magnetic to the audience. He was the cherry on top to this already spectacular film. I almost don’t want Affleck to make another movie because I can’t imagine him topping this one. If you haven’t already, go see The Town.

Catfish

Directors: Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost
Starring: Nev Schulman
Release Date: September 17, 2010
Length: 1 hour 26 minutes

One of the most shocking and original films of 2010, Catfish is a thrilling, creepy documentary about New Yorker, Yaniv “Nev” Schulman and his online relationship with a girl he has never met before. Although they may have suspected it, I doubt filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Nev’s brother) expected to make the spine-chilling film about the Internet that they ended up with. 24-year-old photographer, Nev is contacted through Facebook, by an 8-year-old girl named Abby. Abby tells Nev she loves his photos and makes paintings of them, which she shows to him on facebook. After a few weeks that their Facebook friendship has passed, Nev’s brother, Ariel and his friend Henry take an interest into Nev’s new development with Abby and begin to film and follow Nev. Soon, Nev meets Abby’s mom, Angela, her dad, Vince, and her older sister, Megan, all through the internet of course. Nev gives advice to Abby on her paintings and finally gets a chance to speak to her mom and dad on the phone. When Nev speaks to her older sister, Megan on the phone, the two begin to have a romantic relationship through phone and the computer. After a few months, things begin not to match up, Nev, Ariel and Henry take a road trip to Michigan, where these people supposedly live and find out whether this “facebook” family is what it leads itself on to be. People seem suspicious about whether this film is a hoax or not, but in my honest belief, this movie is real. This isn’t a Blair Witch Project kind of movie, partly because this is a bit more realistic than Blair Witch anyway. What is there to doubt about two filmmakers who take an interest in a friend’s story? Lucky for them that this story leads into something much more thought provoking then it started out to be and now they have probably made a lot of money from it. However, there’s no question that certain parts were played up and exaggerated to a certain degree, but nothing seemed false or deceiving. You certainly did not feel like you wasted your money, paying to see a sham. It’s hard to compliment or critique a film like this because this isn’t a fictionalized film, but this also isn’t a planned documentary. All I can say is that these guys did a marvelous job of being fortunately granted with this story and using their cameras to make it a movie. The credibility they do have is how they, as people, went about investigating this situation, so it made you feel like you were right there with them. Once again, this movie doesn’t feel real. It is real. There are some scenes that will make you cringe more than you could ever have watching any fictionalized horror movie. There is an aspect of this film that will make you sympathize and feel terrible for Nev. There are some scenes that will make you laugh because they are truly funny. Every emotion you could feel toward a film is multiplied 10 times because everything is real. This is just like any other suspense film, but it’s in documentary format. You can only imagine how that makes one feel watching it. This is a one of a kind film that doesn’t come around too often. Be sure to catch Catfish.

Easy A

Director: Will Gluck
Writer: Burt Royal
Starring: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley
Release Date: September 17, 2010
Length: 1 hour 32 minutes

If you want your social life to have a reputation in high school, become a slut. If you want your movie to have a good reputation in Hollywood, hire Emma Stone to star in it. Stone has yet again struck out in a hilarious movie that suits her dry humor perfectly. Director Will Gluck has Stone playing a modern day Hester Prin in an original clever teen comedy Easy A. In Ojai, California, teenage girl, Olive (Stone) feels like an outcast in her high school. When she lies to her best friend, Riannon (Aly Michalka) about losing her virginity, the story spreads around her school quickly causing her innocent status to go down the drain. Soon after, Olive adds to her repertoire by helping out her gay friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd), when he and her pretend to have sex at a party, where everyone in her high school is. Gradually, as she helps out more virgin losers that want a reputation, Olive’s sweet life turns in on her, as she loses her friends, her ethics and her dignity. With this movie, Emma Stone has fully completed her non-scandalous reputation as Hollywood’s favourite funny girl. There are tons of hilarious women working in the business, like Tina Fey or Kristen Wiig, but Stone is so surprising because of her age. I can love a girl teen comedy as a guilty pleasure usually, but I have yet to enjoy a teen comedy, starring a girl, where I have laughed as much as I did during Easy A. Whether it’s her beauty or her awkwardness or her wit, Emma Stone commands the screen. Emma Stone has a deadpan humor that no other teen film starlet has ever possessed, which attracts both young people and adults. I think of Amanda Bynes, who was cute and funny, but her audiences were only ever 10-15 year old girls. Bynes coincidentally is in Easy A as well. Bynes plays bitchy, Christian girl Marianne who enjoys seeing Olive suffer. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stand Bynes’ fake, caricature performance, which is so sad because she used to sit in the chair that Stone now sits in. Disney star Aly Michalka makes a glorious leap from kids comedy to more adult comedy playing Olive’s outspoken, crude best friend Rihannon. She deserves to stay in good adult comedy because I respect her so much more now when she’s in such a funny movie. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson also give funny performances as Olive’s weird parents. The writing of this film was pretty amazing, but I will never know if I would have enjoyed it if Emma Stone were not in it. Screenwriter Burt Royal however did create such an inventive story, with the most absurd scenes, including a montage of Olive’s uneventful weekend, listening to the same song in her room, the whole time, achieving absolutely nothing. The lines were quick and surprising, making me laugh way more than I expected to. Of course in every teen comedy (let alone teen movie), there needs to be at least a little romance and Easy A perfectly had the right amount of it between Emma Stone and Penn Badgley, who plays Olive’s childhood friend Tood. There wasn’t too much romance to overshadow the comedy or storyline. There was just enough to make you go “Aww”. This is one of those movies that is smart enough for adults to enjoy, but sweet enough for teenage girls to obsess over.It also doesn’t hurt that this movie has a lot of John Hughes references, who is one my favourite directors. Easy A is by far, one of the best teenage romantic comedies that has come out in a long time.