Seen at Nova, Gawler, South Australia
Bea says: Cecil was absent for this one, which I saw with my sister at the lovely Nova cinema in Gawler, South Australia. A glass of wine in the foyer beforehand and a bruschetta afterwards at the bustly Nova cafe rounded off the experience.
The film was silly and forgettable, but oh so funny, and a great tonic to the hard work and troubles of everyday life. Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley as Edina and Patsy are up to their usual tricks trying to get new PR clients when they accidentally "kill" Kate Moss (starring as herself). My favourite character from the original series, Julia Sawalha as Saffy, plays her usual great straight role and mayhem ensues until Kate turns up again. Lots of cameos to spot and all in all a great night out.
** 1/2
Saturday 20 August 2016
Our Kind of Traitor
Seen at the Roxy Cinema in Nowra on NSW South Coast
Bea says: We both like thrillers, and adaptations from John Le Carré's works are usually good and absorbing. This is both, the time sped past as the twists and turns of the plot unfolded, even if it's darkness did make it feel more of a Friday/Saturday night film, rather than a Sunday morning one (when we went to see it).
The film centres on a couple, Perry and Gail, (Ewan Mcgregor and Naomi Harris) who are trying to reconnect via a luxurious European break following an infidelity. This doesn't go particularly well, and after being left alone in a restaurant, Perry gets involved with a wealthy Russian and his family who are trying to leave behind their formerly criminal past and escape to the UK for safety and a new start. Rather unbelievably, Perry agrees to help him. Enter the secret service (Damien Lewis, playing Hector) and much action, adventure, internal politics and subterfuge as the secret service gets involved in smuggling the family to London. Despite being university professors, Perry and Gail prove to remarkably adept at hiding out from criminals in pursuit of the family, handling weapons and sharp shooting. But if all disbelief is suspended and you enjoy Bond/Jason Bourne style thrillers, you'll enjoy this one.
Diverting, somewhat unbelievable, but good performances all round. Good to see Saskia Reeves again as well.
***
Cecil says: I'm not a big fan of films that give you a sense of foreboding right from the start, and don't let that feeling lift right to the end. I guess it is the nature of the thriller genre, but as Bea says, not great for a sunny Sunday morning...
I also felt somewhat dubious of some of the likelihood of some of this plot really happening: would even a guilt-ridden professor really let himself get drawn into some dodgy drinking mob of Russians in a posh restaurant? (that was one thing I was so glad I managed to avoid on our own recent trip through Russia as men are supposed to drink heartily with any fellow humans or you risk a social slap in the face, and vodka is the order of the day).
But really, it was obvious this group of Russians were up to something and I don't believe Perry would really have gone along with it, or gone to the party, or got himself drawn aside from some young beauty at the party (and what happened to that sub-plot, too? she never reappeared later in the film).
As for the UK Secret Service allowing amateurs like Perry and Gail to get involved in some major saga of potential defections and capture of murderous drug barons, it is highly highly dubious.
So as Bea says, you need to suspend your belief in large chunks for this one.
Gail is a senior barrister, apparently. But it would be interesting to see what the Bechtel viewers would have made of the women characters in this one. She plays a minor role supporting Perry and you kind of feel her job title was a modern creation to make up for Le Carré's 1960s attitudes to women.
Anyway, the film was OK. I'd give it a ***, but don't go and see it if the weather is nice outside and you have better things to do.
Bea says: We both like thrillers, and adaptations from John Le Carré's works are usually good and absorbing. This is both, the time sped past as the twists and turns of the plot unfolded, even if it's darkness did make it feel more of a Friday/Saturday night film, rather than a Sunday morning one (when we went to see it).
The film centres on a couple, Perry and Gail, (Ewan Mcgregor and Naomi Harris) who are trying to reconnect via a luxurious European break following an infidelity. This doesn't go particularly well, and after being left alone in a restaurant, Perry gets involved with a wealthy Russian and his family who are trying to leave behind their formerly criminal past and escape to the UK for safety and a new start. Rather unbelievably, Perry agrees to help him. Enter the secret service (Damien Lewis, playing Hector) and much action, adventure, internal politics and subterfuge as the secret service gets involved in smuggling the family to London. Despite being university professors, Perry and Gail prove to remarkably adept at hiding out from criminals in pursuit of the family, handling weapons and sharp shooting. But if all disbelief is suspended and you enjoy Bond/Jason Bourne style thrillers, you'll enjoy this one.
Diverting, somewhat unbelievable, but good performances all round. Good to see Saskia Reeves again as well.
***
Cecil says: I'm not a big fan of films that give you a sense of foreboding right from the start, and don't let that feeling lift right to the end. I guess it is the nature of the thriller genre, but as Bea says, not great for a sunny Sunday morning...
I also felt somewhat dubious of some of the likelihood of some of this plot really happening: would even a guilt-ridden professor really let himself get drawn into some dodgy drinking mob of Russians in a posh restaurant? (that was one thing I was so glad I managed to avoid on our own recent trip through Russia as men are supposed to drink heartily with any fellow humans or you risk a social slap in the face, and vodka is the order of the day).
But really, it was obvious this group of Russians were up to something and I don't believe Perry would really have gone along with it, or gone to the party, or got himself drawn aside from some young beauty at the party (and what happened to that sub-plot, too? she never reappeared later in the film).
As for the UK Secret Service allowing amateurs like Perry and Gail to get involved in some major saga of potential defections and capture of murderous drug barons, it is highly highly dubious.
So as Bea says, you need to suspend your belief in large chunks for this one.
Gail is a senior barrister, apparently. But it would be interesting to see what the Bechtel viewers would have made of the women characters in this one. She plays a minor role supporting Perry and you kind of feel her job title was a modern creation to make up for Le Carré's 1960s attitudes to women.
Anyway, the film was OK. I'd give it a ***, but don't go and see it if the weather is nice outside and you have better things to do.
Florence Foster Jenkins
Seen at the wonderful cinema by the beach at Avoca Beach in NSW, Australia
Cecil says: We don't normally let such a long time lapse between watching a film and blogging but life and commitments got in the way of this blog big time in recent months.
We didn't really care what film we saw when we turned up at the beautiful little arthouse cinema in Avoca Beach. The idea was just to experience this lovely community cinema on a day outing along the NSW central coast.
Meryl Streep is always a great actress to watch, though I haven't enjoyed all of her films over the years and not being a great fan of operatic style singing, I wasn't too sure how I'd enjoy this depiction of a wealthy socialite in 1940s New York who can't sing but wants to appear as a diva on the main operatic stages of the East Coast.
Streep does a great job here; I gather she actually can sing, and I guess only a really talented singer would be able to mimic such bad singing so well. Otherwise they'd have had to cast someone as bad as Jenkins herself was in real life.
Actually the actor who stole this one - and got the most laughs out of me through the film - was Simon Helberg, who plays her wonderful accompanist. The guy knows it could ruin his career to be on the stage with someone who is so patently bad, but he sticks at it and takes the risk.
You get the sense that his motives were out of loyalty and - in part - affection for the lonely socialite Jenkins. Similarly, Hugh Grant, playing her partner/lover St Clair Bayfield, tries to the end to prevent her from going on stage, and then from seeing the media coverage of her performance to shelter her from the truth.
But the film, while giving a few good laughs for its comic storyline, is a melancholic tale too really. Surely, it would have been a lot easier and saved a lot of energy to tell the old fool how badly she sang early on, but then it would have both hurt her feelings terribly and deprived the boys in uniform of a thousand morale-boosting laughs at her expense.
I kind of enjoyed it, but it wasn't such a feel-good movie for a comedy.
***
Bea says:
Cecil and I are both choral singers, although neither of us really follow operatic style singing, but we were in the right place, right time to see this latest effort from Streep, and singing does interest us, so we gave it a go.
Cecil is right - it has a melancholic turn, with the themes tackling dreams (and what happens if they are unrealistic), loneliness, the isolation of wealth, illness, marriage, loyalty and - for want of a better way of expressing it - being a good person. Sometimes, I felt the film struggled to hold onto these higher level themes, and had to work to keep out of the realm of laughing at Jenkins - who absolutely did not deserve to be laughed at. It had to walk a line between presenting Jenkins as an old fool, and presenting her as a flawed human being, like every one of us, who has a dream that we are a bit afraid of, but would love to do, and who has flawed people in our lives that we love.
Luckily, the film starred Streep who did the best she could in walking that line; Grant, who also did a fantastic job at portraying his character in more than a two dimensional way. It was great to see Helberg move out of sitcom territory, and also show his skill at portraying the light and shade of life, as the impoverished accompanist afraid of the implications on his career, but committed to seeing it through.
I was also intrigued by the footnote at the end of the film - that Jenkins' recordings are the most borrowed from the sound archive of New York. So she did achieve some kind of success, however we measure that, and whatever the reason for their frequent borrowing. I left the film full of admiration for Jenkins, but it left a bittersweet taste. A great antidote to reality TV talent shows. Watch this, instead of them.
***
Cecil says: We don't normally let such a long time lapse between watching a film and blogging but life and commitments got in the way of this blog big time in recent months.
We didn't really care what film we saw when we turned up at the beautiful little arthouse cinema in Avoca Beach. The idea was just to experience this lovely community cinema on a day outing along the NSW central coast.
Meryl Streep is always a great actress to watch, though I haven't enjoyed all of her films over the years and not being a great fan of operatic style singing, I wasn't too sure how I'd enjoy this depiction of a wealthy socialite in 1940s New York who can't sing but wants to appear as a diva on the main operatic stages of the East Coast.
Streep does a great job here; I gather she actually can sing, and I guess only a really talented singer would be able to mimic such bad singing so well. Otherwise they'd have had to cast someone as bad as Jenkins herself was in real life.
Actually the actor who stole this one - and got the most laughs out of me through the film - was Simon Helberg, who plays her wonderful accompanist. The guy knows it could ruin his career to be on the stage with someone who is so patently bad, but he sticks at it and takes the risk.
You get the sense that his motives were out of loyalty and - in part - affection for the lonely socialite Jenkins. Similarly, Hugh Grant, playing her partner/lover St Clair Bayfield, tries to the end to prevent her from going on stage, and then from seeing the media coverage of her performance to shelter her from the truth.
But the film, while giving a few good laughs for its comic storyline, is a melancholic tale too really. Surely, it would have been a lot easier and saved a lot of energy to tell the old fool how badly she sang early on, but then it would have both hurt her feelings terribly and deprived the boys in uniform of a thousand morale-boosting laughs at her expense.
I kind of enjoyed it, but it wasn't such a feel-good movie for a comedy.
***
Bea says:
Cecil and I are both choral singers, although neither of us really follow operatic style singing, but we were in the right place, right time to see this latest effort from Streep, and singing does interest us, so we gave it a go.
Cecil is right - it has a melancholic turn, with the themes tackling dreams (and what happens if they are unrealistic), loneliness, the isolation of wealth, illness, marriage, loyalty and - for want of a better way of expressing it - being a good person. Sometimes, I felt the film struggled to hold onto these higher level themes, and had to work to keep out of the realm of laughing at Jenkins - who absolutely did not deserve to be laughed at. It had to walk a line between presenting Jenkins as an old fool, and presenting her as a flawed human being, like every one of us, who has a dream that we are a bit afraid of, but would love to do, and who has flawed people in our lives that we love.
Luckily, the film starred Streep who did the best she could in walking that line; Grant, who also did a fantastic job at portraying his character in more than a two dimensional way. It was great to see Helberg move out of sitcom territory, and also show his skill at portraying the light and shade of life, as the impoverished accompanist afraid of the implications on his career, but committed to seeing it through.
I was also intrigued by the footnote at the end of the film - that Jenkins' recordings are the most borrowed from the sound archive of New York. So she did achieve some kind of success, however we measure that, and whatever the reason for their frequent borrowing. I left the film full of admiration for Jenkins, but it left a bittersweet taste. A great antidote to reality TV talent shows. Watch this, instead of them.
***
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