Scott Pilgrim versus the World is a Canadian romantic comedy and musical based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's comic book.
Scott Pilgrim is a 22y.o teenage-looking insecure guy and guitarist who plays in a rock band called "Sex Bom-omb" going out with a high-school Chinese girl called Knives. He seems content with his life until he dreams about a girl, and she appears in his real world: Ramona, a funky American girl just moved to Toronto. Scott is over the moon, but he has to face his own personal demons, break up with sweet Knives and fight for Ramona's love against her seven exes.
Scott Pilgrim is one of the most refreshing teen-college movies produced in the last years, and one the best movies of 2010. The movie is cute, funny, entertaining, has great characters, a terrific soundtrack and stunning visuals. The story is presented as it was a video-game in which the main characters are the players, and their lives part of the game.
The movie focus on how difficult is to make a relationship work when you fall in love whit a girl with lots of emotional baggage and you are not an over-confident guy, while your dream girl is über-cool, and her exes were brilliant guys. Scott's fights against Ramona's exes are just a metaphoric way of putting it. The issues regarding
relationships are masqueraded by the video-game approach, but they have
depth. Unlike many other movies focusing on the emotional challenges of
very young people, sex is not the focus, although it is not avoided
either.The fights with the
exes are extremely funny and witty. I especially liked the fight with
the Vegan ex-boyfriend, which is hilarious. Also visually stunning is
the musical competition between Scott's rock band and the techno Asian
twins’ band.
All the actors are great in their roles: Michael Cera as Scott, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona, Ellen Wong as Knives; Kieran Culkin as Scott's confident gay Wallace, Anna Kendrick as the know-it-all Scott's sister Stacey, Jason Schwartzman as the revolting Gideon Graves, and Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons and Alison Pill as Scott's band members. However, Cera shines in this movie, in part because his physique really suits the personality of the character he plays.
The movie is lots of
fun and does not take itself seriously, has a terrific music, and stunning visuals; the camera's movement and video-game-ish use of the screen add to the freshness and originality of the film. The movie has freshness, soul and a special something that stays with you longer after you've seen it. That is entertainment!
Shop 115, Trinity Arcade
671 Hay St
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 2260 224
Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos
Grind Espresso is a small, functional, cheap and quiet café located in the ground level of Trinity Arcade.
Their coffee is good and their mug-sized glasses are huge, so that is always great. Go for them if you crave a big coffee fix. However, their standard cup is, well, standard size.
They have a selection of hot basic Asian dishes, western favourites, and sandwiches prepared on the spot, which are just OK.
The service is friendly and fast.
They have free Wi-Fi - Hooray!
The place attracts a various mix of quiet people, free-Wi-Fi-holics, professionals looking for an escape from the business of the surrounding cafés, and daughters and sons having a rendezvous with their mums or dads.
Grind Espresso would need to improve three things to attract more customers: 1/ The dim lights are a bit pub-ish, a feeling that is accentuated by the lack of natural light in the underground area the café is located, and by the dark furniture. A slight change in the lighting would certainly brighten up the place still keeping its cozy feeling. 2- A bit of soft music would also create ambience and dilute the sound of the conversations from the surrounding tables. 3- The selection of dishes is nice, but a bit of more care in their preparation takes little effort, and making them a bit tastier ditto.
The Machinist is a psychological thriller directed by Brad Anderson, based on a script by Scott Kosar, and produced and shot in Spain after most American production companies rejected the project as weird.
Trevor Reznik hasn't slept for a year. He barely eats, and has become a loner. He finds himself in trouble after a workmate loses his hand because of his negligence, and a plot against him unveils involving a mysterious cocky man called Ivan. His only comfort is the company of two very different women: beautiful single-mother and airport café waitress Marie, and sweet-and-sour prostitute Stevie. Who is Reznik? Who are the others? Most importantly, what are the answers to the hung-man post-its Reznik founds on his fridge every night?
Although this is a Suspense film, the plot succeeds more at questioning the idea of self-identity than at building a thriller. The movie is both an analysis on the need of sleep to have a healthy mind, and on the power of our subconscious to define, redefine or distort the way we see us, both physically and psychologically. In fact, Reznik's story is just a quest to respond to the question, Who am I? When the question is answered, all the pieces of the story come together in an emotional closing puzzle.
I did not notice that the movie was not shot in Los Angeles but in Barcelona until I saw the making of. However, and to be completely honest, there was something out of place or awkward about some scenes. For example, the smallness of the space related to the scene of the cross lights and Marie, or the atmosphere in the Police Station. Still, the atmosphere and lighting of the movie are fantastic and you will not notice anything specific unless you know.
Christian Bale is unbelievable as the insomniac paranoiac steel-worker Trevor Reznik, and one wonders why he wasn't nominated to the Oscars that year. The fact that he bothered to get so thin, a walking skeleton really, shows how committed (or crazy) he is about acting. The viewer has to be thankful, though, as his decayed physique helped his character and the movie immensely. Bale just doesn't act, he psychologically becomes Reznik - Method Acting taking to the core. Anything he does in this movie is believable, raw and authentic.
Bale's counterpart Ivan is played by John Sharian, who is cheekily disturbing in his performance. You hate him immediately, physically, the way the moves, the way he dresses, the way he smiles, still, there is something appealing and warm about him. I think his performance and his physique add even more interest to the theme of Raznik's quest for identity. Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Jennifer Jason Leigh are correct as Marie and Stevie, and the rest of the cast are all believable in their respective supporting roles.
The main flaw of the movie is its predictability in certain areas, so the suspense is weakened at times. The viewer immediately knows that Reznik has mental problems, so, at a certain level, you are pre-disposed to anything crazy or out of the ordinary to happen. The film s full of clues for the viewer to understand Reznik, but they are overly present sometimes. For example, the time on the clock at Marie's place is shown repeatedly, and with it, you start to suspect things before you should. However, the movie succeeds at not unveiling who Ivan is until almost the end, so the viewer gets what expects in a suspense film - mystery. I would have liked the same with regards to Marie.
This is a terrific movie, with a great atmosphere, a thought-provoking script, and a brilliant performance by Christian Bale. The Machinist is one of those multi-layered stories and movies from which you get new details each time you see it.
A modern classic with a few little flaws.
-- This review might contain spoilers --
An Argentinean film directed that tells the story of retired public lawyer BenjamÃn Esposito, who starts writing a novel about one of the most intriguing cases of his past: the rape and murder of young wife Liliana Coloto, and the investigation that led to the capture of her murderer.
The movie has a
wonderful warm retro mood and tones, a beautiful interior photography, a
simple unfulfilled romance story, an intriguing plot, a very
interesting ending, and good performances by Darin and Francella.
I do not mind flaws in a script if they are well integrated in the story, and if the movie compensates them with other positive elements. However, there are so many and evident flaws here that one cannot ignore them:
1/ The first one is the fact that the way a man looks a woman in a photo can lead to anyone to suspect he is a murderer; to be honest, if this is the case, Esposito could be a potential murderer, too, if we take into account the way he looked at his adored Irene in the photos taken in her pre-wedding party.
2/ When Esposito and Sandoval are at the house of Isidoro's mother, the old lady returns, her dog starts barking at them, but she does not suspects anythin; what is more, OMG! the back-door is completely open for them to escape free!
3/ We are told who is the murderer and that he loves a specific football team, so Esposito and Sandoval go to the next match, the stadium is fully packed, but they manage to find the murderer 10 feet away from them; not only that, the lawyers have convinced the Police -one assume Argentinean Police had much free time at hand at the time and would consider the proposal sane- to be there to capture the murderer.
4/ Most of the movie is set in the 1970s, when a military dictatorship was ruling Argentina, a system that allowed the Justice System to act in a certain way; but if you are not familiar with Argentinean History many of the events and attitudes in the movie will not make any sense to the foreign viewer.
5/ We know who the murderer is quite early, before he is even captured, a fact that kills the suspense very soon.
6/ One would expect that whoever sent the group of Mafiosi to Esposito's apartment would have provided them with a photo or at least an accurate description, so the question the Mafiosi make in the movie is completely redundant.
7/ The end of the murder case is good, but still, too delayed and lost amidst a mix of themes explored at the same time On the other hand, the end of the romance story is a bit unbelievable, "I solve the mystery and I overcome all of my securities with this woman" sort of thing.
This, and much more, makes impossible to call this movie a masterpiece, as many reviews have been doing, unless you are blind.
The acting is uneven,
poor sometimes, with the exception of Guillermo Francella who is
terrific as the drunkard but insightful lawyer Pablo Sandoval. Soledad
Villamil and Ricardo DarÃn have a great chemistry on camera, but not
much dramatic emotion can come from them as the script has the love
story as a background to the murder investigation, so their feelings are
mostly showed indirectly. She plays correctly Irene, a high-class
judge, a beautiful rich inaccessible girl. DarÃn shines in his portrait
of the lonely old retiree looking for clues in his life through
remembrance, more than in his portray of the young Esposito; however, he
portrays with constriction and sensitivity the soft looser that
Esposito is. The script tells us widower Ricardo Morales is an emotional
wreck after the death of his wife, a man still in deep love with her,
but Pablo Rago's performance rather shows emotional frigidity regarding
the death of his wife, his grieving, and the search and capture of the
murderer. I found Javier Godino's performance over the top as Isidoro
Gomez, although I think it is what the script requires from him; in that
regard, it is not his fault.
The film it truly overrated, still enjoyable.
Two young biologists, Clive (Adrien Brody) and his girlfriend Elsa (Sarah Polley) are leading a research project specialised in splicing and combining the DNA of different animals to create new creatures to be used for pharmacological and medicinal purposes. The problem starts when they decide to introduce human DNA in the experiment, and a new creature, Dren, is born.
Vincenzo Natali always has great and original ideas regarding the near future and humans' relation and interaction with modern technical and scientific advances. He has shown in his previous low-budget films that an idea is worth more than the means to carry it out. Unfortunately, Splice exemplifies the contrary as this is Natali's biggest budget movie and the most messed up of them all.
The best thing about the film is the concept - His questioning on the convenience and ethics of genetic experimentation from a familiar, personal and emotional point of view. Are we ready to deal with the nasty consequences of silly experimentation in our daily lives? Is experimentation justified per se? Is a Frankenstein-sort-of-genetic monster guilty of its actions? The interesting questions are washed away by a poor over-pretentious script that wants to be a psychological thriller, a horror movie, and a sci-fic movie at the same time.
The script should have focused on building up the characters, so we understand why they act in a certain way. The script forgets to explain, and just hints, Elsa's troubled childhood, which would have served to understand better why Elsa acts how she does, and why she is so ready to nurture a freak child. We do not know why Clive would do some of the foolish things he does, when, at the beginning of the story, he seems to be a very sensible scientist and guy. Only the supporting characters seem to make sense and have an internal logic in their behaviour.
The script gets distracted by the thriller/horror approach, which is destined to fail from the very beginning. The mood and tempo are not right for a thriller, even less for a horror film, and if you don't get that right, the rest does not make any sense. On the other hand, the predictability of the film makes the suspense "suspensefulnessless". After the confrontation between Ginger and Fred the viewer knows what is coming; in fact, any non-scientist would have known immediately what was going to happen to Dren, so I considered a lack of respect towards any scientist to think that they would have acted in such a naive way as the two characters act.
Regarding the acting, Sarah Polley is always very natural in front of the camera, and she is fresh and warm as scientist and Dren's putative mother Elsa. On the contrary, I did not believe for a second Adrian Brody in his role of scientist and forced parent, probably because he did not believe it either. Delphine Chaneac's physique has a mix of beauty, vulnerability, awkwardness and harshness that is perfect to portray the freak nature of mute Dren, so she does well in doing what she was asked for. Finally, we find one of Natali's staple actors - his friend David Hewlett, who convincingly plays the very serious and sensible lab director William Barlow. The rest of the cast are OK in their respective roles.
I was very disappointed with the movie, perhaps because I have always loved Natali's movies and ideas and expected more from this. The worst thing of all is that the movie is pretentious and preposterous at times, so one does not feel sorry rating it low.
700 Hay Street
Piccadilly Arcade
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9322 3577
http://www.piccadillycinemas.com/
Hours:
Mon-Sun 10:00 - 23:00
Let us rejoice - Perth only cinema left in the city centre is also Perth only heritage listed Art-Deco Cinema. Cinema one is really splendid, and will remind you of the Astor and Paradiso. The cinema is in the heart of the city and has the advantage of his discounted priced on special days.
In the last few five years, the Piccadilly has tried to revamp itself by changing their pricing policies and the selection of titles they show, to make the cinema more popular and profitable, but, by doing so, the magic of the Piccadilly has been progressively vanishing.
The movies shown nowadays are mostly average Hollywood blockbusters (bland romances, action movies, animation and popular comedies) and rarely good titles. It used to be the contrary, the occasional blockbuster was a rarity among mostly good films (the same as those shown at the Luna cinemas) although screened one or two weeks after they premiered elsewhere - which explained the super-duper prices at the time.
The increase in prices has not had a reflection in the managing and repairing of the cinema beyond what is strictly necessary. I just want to pinpoint a few issues that the cinema needs to address, as they are charging us full price for the movies at present. Here are some of the Piccadilly's peccadilloes:
1/ Most of the cinema rooms have their seats and/or upholstery in different state of decay, but, instead of fixing or replacing them, soft red cushions have been placed over the seats; still, the cracks in the upper part of some seats are clearly visible.
2/ The space between rows in cinema room 2 (what I call the steep room) is ridiculously small even for my tiny legs, so you can imagine how uncomfortable can be for a normal guy.
3/ The smallest cinema room seems to be in a better shape, however, their seats are flat on the ground, without any considerable gradation, so if somebody seats in front of you, you won't see anything, unless you are really tall. On the other hand, the first row is too close to the screen to watch a movie comfortably from there.
4/ Their toilets have been in need of an overhaul since ever, with some of their doors' locks being broken for months without being repaired - Piccadillian bottoms, rebel! The same can be said of their rusty rattling lift, which you feel is going to stop working right there right now; the only improvement has been the change in colour of the doors from an ugly tone of pink to an ugly tone of red.
5/ For many years the Piccadilly's website has been ugly-looking and badly designed - completely amateur and unfit for any cinema. Fortunately, they have relaunched it lately, and its design and aesthetics are decent. However, underneath the showing times they have added: "No responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information". It is ridiculous and disgraceful. Then, why are they bothering to display them?
6/No EFPTOS. Yes, you are hearing well. Only cash.
Their bar is OK, but has one of those high counters I hate, too short for me and for part of the staff behind it. The staff, on the other hand, vary in their level of friendliness, some of them are really friendly and easy going, while others seem to be a bit nosey.
If you are a movie lover, you will visit the Piccadilly rarely, for some isolated animated films and comedies you fancy. However, if you like just entertainment movies, Piccadilly will be your personal paradise in the city. Despite everything, I always enjoy visiting the cinema, per se, as I like the feeling of watching a movie like people do in the movies - in cinemas that are old and beautiful!
Let's stop rejoicing for a minute and let's hope that the much needed refurbishment and overhaul of the Piccadilly will bring us the splendour of the old cinema, and also a better selection of movies.
MIND
You can now buy tickets online via their website or just following this link. You can pay with credit card and Paypal, which is great.
MONEY TIPS
* There is a NAB cash machine by Target, in case of emergency.
* They have reduced prices all day long on Tuesdays.
* They have just started a Backpackers Monday special of 8 bucks all day long for 2D movies. The backpackers will need to show their International passport or student card. It is unclear if YHA, Nomad and other backpackers cards are accepted as their website doesn't mention anything about the most popular backpacker cards...
UPDATE 7/12/2013
Unfortunately, this Perth icon has closed down its door. The website is no longer working, and it a sad farewell. The place needed of a refurbishment and more care and enthusiasm, but it was lovely. There was some incidents with roofs falling down and asbestos scare mid this year, and I wonder if that is related to the closing down.
it is very sad. Big sigh.
The only cinema left in the city at present is Paradiso.
James Blake
Universal, 2011
http://jamesblakemusic.com/
"James Blake" is the acclaimed debut album by English electronic musician and song-writer James Blake. The album has been listed in most compilations of album of the year for 2011, and has excellent reviews. That was, precisely, what made me get it.
If I had to define the album in three words I would say: Chaos is beautiful. Indeed, the sound that Blake has created is a blissful retro-futuristic chaos, like a cohesive mix of the electronic experimentation of the 1980s, modern jazz improvisation, classic blues, and contemporary Indie sounds. Blake's sound sounds like the music of the humans of the 22nd century or the sound that mermaids and mermen listen to when dancing in their oceanic realms - enveloping, intimate, and wonderfully odd. It is not just the music. Blake's voice is very colourful and textured, very intimate, broken and masculine. An explosive mix.
Unfortunately, ignoring the lyrics of the album would be unfair in a review, as a song is, well, both music and lyrics. Simple, no? Read or listen to the lyrics of "Unlock", "The Wilhelms Scream", or "I Never Learnt To Share" (lyrics: "My brother and my sister don't speak to me, But I don't blame them" that is all), just to give you three examples. Can you ignore them when hearing the album? I cannot. In a way they help you to keep in trance. Blake has turned himself into a modern chanteur for disco-dance dervishes that need little wordiness and the melody to keep them dancing around entranced. He could have brought us there by just using his music and voice and emitting guttural lah-lah-lahs or oh-oh-ohs. It is the sound and colour of his voice what will captivate you, not his lyrics, as they lack not just in words, but also in emotion. In other words, Blake's wonderful sound doesn't transcend itself. In a way, it is a bit
narcissistic and even onanistic (with all my respects!), deeply beautiful, empty at times, with glimpses of a depth and lyricism that I would have liked developed and dug in.
Still this is a very good album that sets a foundation-stone for modern musicians and sound-makers. The sort of music that the future is waiting for.
