Film Review: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (2012).

"We are infinite." These three words sums up The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This coming-of-age comedy-drama film. An adaptation of the 1999 epistolary novel of the same name, written and directed by the novel's author, Stephen Chbosky. This is about 15-year-old Charlie, an endearing and naive outsider, coping with first love, the suicide of his best friend, and his own mental illness while struggling to find a group of people with whom he belongs. The introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who welcome him to the real world.

Originally John Hughes, who read the novel, attempted to write a screenplay after he got the rights from Chbosky. However, he never finished the screenplay. Hughes was going to use the project as a directorial comeback with a more dark comedy style with dramatic elements. While writing the screenplay, he had in mind Shia LaBeouf as Charlie; Kirsten Dunst as Sam; and Patrick Fugit as Patrick. Mr. Mudd Productions (Juno (2007)) became interested in the project and sought out Stephen Chbosky to adapt the film. The producers hired Chbosky to write the screenplay and to direct the film. In May 2010, actors Logan Lerman and Emma Watson were reported as in talks for the project and were confirmed the following year. In April 2011, Mae Whitman signed on as Mary Elizabeth and Nina Dobrev was cast as Candace. Paul Rudd was cast as Bill later that month. In May 2011, Kate Walsh announced that she was cast in the film as Charlie's mother. The film was shot in Chbosky's native home of Pittsburgh from May to June 2011. Initial filming began in Pittsburgh's South Hills, including South Park, Upper St. Clair, and Peters Township High School. The Rocky Horror Picture Show scenes were filmed at The Hollywood Theater in Dormant, where Chbosky had seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show there when he was younger. The film also has scenes within Pittsburgh city limits inside the Fort Pitt Tunnel, Fort Pitt Bridge on Interstate 376 and on Mount Washington.

The films stars Logan Lerman as Charlie, Emma Watson as Sam, Ezra Miller as Patrick, Mae Whitman as Mary Elizabeth, Paul Rudd as Mr. Anderson, Nina Dobrev as Candace Kelmeckis, Kate Walsh as Mrs. Kelmeckis, Dylan McDermott as Mr. Kelmeckis and Melanie Lynskey as Aunt Helen. The cast gave spectacular performances, especially the three leads. In an interview with LAYouth.com, author Chbosky said that he wrote the book for personal reasons, but realized that many people related to it while reading the book's customer reviews on Amazon.com. For the three leads, they did the best job in translating the characters from the page to the screen and were able to make us relate to them on the screen as much as we did on the page.

Unlike those shrill, hard-sell teen comedies on the other screens, The Perks of Being a Wallflower never becomes the kind of empty, defensive snark-fest that it targets. Chbosky and the three leads keep the organic pace of the novel, and its empathic exploration of painfully changing teen world. I wanted to hug this movie. It takes such a risky journey and never steps wrong. It creates specific, original, believable, lovable characters, and meanders with them through their inconsolable days, never losing its sense of humour.

Simon says The Perks of Being a Wallflower receives:

Film Review: "Rust and Bone" ("De rouille et d'os") (2012).

From the director of A Prophet (Un prophète) comes Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os). This French–Belgian romantic drama film directed by Jacques Audiard, adapted by Audiard and Thomas Bidegain, and based on Craig Davidson's short story collection Rust and Bone. The film follows Ali, a former boxer and single father, who meets Stephanie when he saves her from a brawl at the nightclub where he works as a bouncer. Their casual acquaintance develops into something much more after Stephanie, who trains killer whales at a marine park, suffers a horrible accident and loses both her legs above the knee. As Stephanie draws on Ali's physical strength, an unexpected courtship slowly comes to life.

By early October 2011, Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Corinne Masiero, Céline Sallette, and Bouli Lanners were cast in an adaptation of Davidson's Rust and Bone with Audiard to direct. Audiard stated that Cotillard was his first and only choice to play Stéphanie, he didn't want anyone else besides her for the role. In preparation for the role, Cotillard took swimming lessons and spent a week at Marineland to learn how to direct whales in preparation for the role. In addition, to bring to life the physical aspect of Stéphanie's disability, Cotillard started watching video footage of amputees so that she could figure out how to move. But she quickly decided it wasn't necessary because her character is still getting used to living as an amputee, using a wheelchair and, eventually, prosthetics. Initially, Audiard didn't want a professional actor to play Ali, so he started looking for possible candidates for the role at gyms and boxing clubs. After auditioning more than 200 candidates with no success, the casting director showed Bullhead (2011) to Audiard and he chose Schoenaerts based on that. Schoenaerts spent two months boxing, doing MMA training on a daily basis and also doing weightlifting and eating junk food like burgers, ice-cream and pizza in order to gain weight and a little belly, because Audiard wanted Ali to look strong but not fit, a bit unhealthy because the character is poor, so he doesn't have the means to feed himself properly. At the same time, with a budget of €15.4 million, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in late November. Filming took place in Antibes, Cannes, Belgium, Paris, northern France, and Brussels.

The film stars Cotillard, Schoenaerts, Masiero, Sallette, and Lanners. Cotillard and Schoenaerts more than rise to the challenge of making Stéphanie and Ali utterly compelling throughout their journey. Cotillard manages to use her physical frailty to convey enormous threat in a way no English-speaking star of that generation would be willing to match.

Featuring an impressive tour de force by Cotillard and Schoenaerts, Rust and Bone is a French drama film filled with arresting, immediate emotions. A delectable and intriguing drama filled with surprises, the film is an original. This is a story of two misfits who don't stand a chance alone, but together they are magnificent.

Simon says Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os) receives:

Film Review: "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (2013).

"When all else fails, they don't." This is G.I. Joe: Retaliation. This military science fiction action film directed by Jon M. Chu, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and based on Hasbro's G.I. Joe action figures. It is a sequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, while also serving as a soft reboot of the franchise. The G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence.

In late 2009, after the financially successful release of The Rise of Cobra, Rob Moore, the studio vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, stated that a sequel was in development. In January 2011, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were hired to pen the sequel. In addition, Byung-hun Lee, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Arnold Vosloo, and Channing Tatum would return to reprise their roles. Originally, Stephen Sommers was going to return to direct the sequel. F. Gary Gray and Jaume Collet-Serra were considered to replace Sommers. Ultimately, in February 2011, Paramount Pictures announced that Chu would direct the sequel. In July 2011, the sequel's name was revealed to be G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Chu would later declare that Paramount wanted a reboot that also served as a sequel. By mid August, Dwayne Johnson, D. J. Cotrona, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Stevenson, Bruce Willis, Walton Goggins, Joseph Mazzello, and RZA rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in late November. Filming took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, Washington, District of Columbia, and British Columbia, Canada. The film was initially slated for a June 29, 2012 release date. In February 2012, Hasbro confirmed a new toyline. In May 2012, Paramount announced that the film's release was pushed to March 29, 2013. It was pushed forward to March 28, in order to convert the movie to 3D and boost interest in international markets. Despite the movie's release being moved from June 2012 to March 2013, the initial assortments of figures, vehicles, and role-play items were shipped to retailers, and appeared on store shelves in May 2012. Variety revealed that the already released figures had been pulled from the shelves and recalled by Hasbro, although the company's official statement indicated that existing product would be sold through. As late as December 2012, new product shipments were halted by Hasbro, but existing Retaliation figures were available in Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys R Us. In February 2013, the toyline was re-released in the United States.

The cast, and crew, got lost. They tried to get bigger. It's what happens to sequels. It's like, how do you top the first one? You've got to go bigger. Chu went so big that it became too big, and I think you lost the anchor of the movie. You lost a bit of the relationship. Unless you have those relationships, then the movie doesn't matter. Then it's just a bunch of soldiers fighting each other.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a noisy, underplotted, and overlong special effects extravaganza that lacks a human touch.

Simon says G.I. Joe: Retaliation receives:

Film Review: "No" (2012).

"This is the true story of a marketing campaign that sparked a revolution." This is No. This Chilean historical drama film directed by Pablo Larraín, written by Pedro Peirano, and based on the unpublished play El Plebiscito, written by Antonio Skármeta. In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote YES or NO to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the NO persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra, to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and under scrutiny by the despot's minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.

In the 1960s, Chile had one of the largest wealth gaps out of all the countries in Latin America. This led to the election of Salvador Allende, who became the first Marxist President to be democratically elected into office. The United States at the time, under the Nixon Administration, was afraid of the "falling dominos" theory that if one nation in the Americas shifted to the left, then the others will follows (the 1959 Cuban Revolution exacerbated this paranoia). On 11th September 1973, Augusto Pinochet assumed power in Chile following a United States-backed coup d'état that overthrew Allende's government and ended civilian rule. The support of the United States was crucial to the coup and the consolidation of power afterward. By December 1974, Pinochet was promoted to Commander-in-Chief and appointed Supreme Head of the nation. Following his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of up to thirty two hundred people, the internment of as many as eighty thousand people and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was three thousand and ninety five. On 5th October 1988, the 1988 Chilean national plebiscite, a national referendum, was held to determine whether Chile's de facto leader, Augusto Pinochet, should extend his rule for another eight years. The NO side won with nearly fifty-six percent of the vote, thus ending the General's sixteen and a half years in power. The fact the dictatorship respected the results is attributed to pressure from big business, the international community and unease with extended rule by Pinochet within the dictatorship. 

The film stars Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Luis Gnecco, Antonia Zegers, Néstor Cantillana, and Jaime Vadell. The cast gave terrifically low-key performances that conveyed Chile's downward spiral. Larrain and the cast craft the film as a slow, quiet character study, narrowing in on René Saavedra and the nation around him.

No is an eerie portrait of a disturbing time with disturbingly unconventional framings, expressively washed-out colour tones and mysterious low-key performances that bring together human drama and historical tragedy to unique, and surprisingly emotional, effect. The achievement of the film is to take rigorous and unsentimental measure of the unpleasantness.

Simon says No receives:

Film Review: "Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai" ("一命") (2011).

"Love. Honour. Revenge" comes Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (一命). This Japanese 3D drama film directed by Takashi Miike, adapted by Yasuhiko Takiguchi and Kikumi Yamagishi, and it is is a 3D remake of Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 film Harakiri (切腹). The film centres on a samurai who asks permission to commit ritual suicide in the courtyard of a prominent feudal lord and hears the gruesome tale of what happened to a comrade who made a similar request several months earlier.

The film stars Ichikawa Ebizō XI, Eita, Hikari Mitsushima, Naoto Takenaka, Munetaka Aoki, Hirofumi Arai, Kazuki Namioka, and Kōji Yakusho. Brilliant performances were given by the cast, with Ichikawa Ebizō XI, like Tatsuya Nakadai, gave a Mifune-like performance.

It being gory is not the best way to deplore wanton bloodshed, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai still looks splendid with its measured tracking shots, its slow zooms, its reflective overhead shots of the courtyard, and its frequent poised immobility. Miike does superb things with architectural compositions, moving forms and occasionally turbulent gyrations of struggling figures in the 3D format. He achieves a sort of visual mesmerization that is suitable to the curious nightmare mood. The beauty of it seems largely due to Miike’s underlying firmness of conception and prevailing spirit, by an unevasive concern for cinematic values. It avoids the sentimentality of some of his earlier films, such as 13 Assassins (2010) through a new emphasis on visual-auditory aesthetics with the cold formality of compositions and Ryuichi Sakamoto's score. But none of Kobayashi's social protests is diminished in the film's construction--it's Mizoguchi-like circularity bitterly denies any hope for human progress. Samurai films, like westerns, need not be familiar genre stories. They can expand to contain stories of ethical challenges and human tragedy. It, one of the best of them, is about an older wandering samurai who takes his time to create an unanswerable dilemma for the elder of a powerful clan. By playing strictly within the rules of Bushido Code which governs the conduct of all samurai, he lures the powerful leader into a situation where sheer naked logic leaves him humiliated before his retainers. It would be wrong for me to reveal the details of the story Tsugumo tells. What I can say is that it is heartbreaking. Both a thrilling character piece and a scathing take down of authority, the film is a tour-de-force and a compelling look into the facade of institutions. It is a masterful chess game, filled with many carefully constructed moves, each arranged to fit in a particular place. It's glorious to behold. It has a steady, hypnotic momentum; Miike wrings as much drama out of facial twitches as he does out of sword fights. The 3D remake uses ploys of the written word in picturing the past and/or far away to criticize the present. Even if Miike's third samurai film is an exemplary tale speaking as much to our own times as to Japan's feudal era, it is also a ripping yarn, keeping the viewer gripped with its jigsaw structure and intense performances.

Simon says Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (一命) receives:

Film Review: "Mama" (2013).

"A mother's love is forever." This is Mama. This supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Andy Muschietti and based on his 2008 Argentine short film Mamá. The film deals with the story of two young girls abandoned in a forest cabin, fostered by an unknown entity that they fondly call "Mama", which eventually follows them to their new suburban home after their uncle retrieves them.

Mama is the twisted creation of Muschietti and his writing & producing partner/sister, Barbara. The 2008 short film caught the attention of executive producer Guillermo del Toro, who immediately wanted to help Muschietti turn it into a feature-length film. Jessica Chastain was the first and only choice for the role of Annabel. After Chastain was officially cast, she took guitar lessons since her character was a bass player. For the title role, Javier Botet was cast due to possessing a genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome. The symptoms of the disease is what gives him his slender body and long fingers. For the make-up process, it took 4 hours every day to get Botet into make-up, and another 2 to remove it. The character of Mama required very little CGI. Botet was able to provide the disturbing and unsettling movements physically, since he possessed well-above-average range of motion in his joints. CGI was only applied to Mama's hair. Mama's appearance was inspired by a painting by Amedeo Modigliani, owned by the director. Production on the film began in October 2011, in Toronto, Ontario at the Pinewood Toronto Studios, and ended in December 2011. Parts of the film were also shot in Quebec City, Quebec. The film was initially scheduled for release in October 2012, but was later rescheduled for January 2013 to avoid competing with Paranormal Activity 4. Its success at that later date has, among with other dump months horror films, convinced studios to start opening horror movies year-round.

The film stars Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nélisse, Daniel Kash, Jane Moffat, and Javier Botet. The performances given by the cast were confidently portrayed. With Chastain giving an unusual performance that completely works amongst her performances in her body of work.

Andy Muschietti's Mama is a really cool ghost story with an extraordinary human and fairy-tale dimension. Muschietti's elegant pacing and gothic touches imbue the proceedings with a cool mystery. The film augments its abundant creepiness with an equally powerful poignancy. An entertaining and atmospheric love story. What Muschietti provides is the recognition that love exists beyond the most routine of circumstances. That a mother's love is as old as humanity's belief in the fantastic, and just as powerful. Although spooky and poignant, the film becomes weighed down by perhaps one too many cliqué tropes of the genre. But you may find that images from this movie clamber back into your memory weeks after you see it, and give your spine a chill. It's a horror fantasy flick, and a creepily good one, that also functions as an allegory for motherly love.

Simon says Mama (2013) receives:

Film Review: "Oz the Great and Powerful" (2013).

One of the taglines of the film is "The land you know. The story you don't." Which is what Oz the Great and Powerful is all about. This fantasy adventure film directed by Sam Raimi. When a tornado transports magician Oscar "Oz" Diggs from Kansas to the Land of Oz, he is identified as the prophesied "Wizard of Oz" by three witches, Glinda, Evanora and Theodora, who attempt to persuade Oscar to restore order in Oz from a power-hungry Wicked Witch. The film is a spiritual prequel to L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

The first signs of life began after the successful release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Walt Disney planned to produce an animated film based on the first of L. Frank Baum's Oz books. In 1954, when the film rights to Baum's remaining thirteen Oz books were made available, Walt Disney Productions acquired them for use in Walt Disney's television series Disneyland and the live-action film Rainbow Road to Oz (1957), which was abandoned and never completed. Disney's history with the Oz series continued with Return to Oz (1985), which was presented as an unofficial sequel to, or variant of, the 1939 film. The film was both a critically and commercially failure, but since developed a cult status. The Walt Disney Studios first commissioned Oz the Great and Powerful in 2009 under the tenure of then studio chairman Dick Cook, who was succeeded by Rich Ross and later Alan Horn, a unique trait for a major studio release. Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire were hired to write the screenplay and Joe Roth serving as producer. Roth initially sought out Robert Downey Jr. for the titular role of the Wizard in April 2010. By summer of that year, Sam Raimi was hired to direct the film. In January 2011, Raimi attempted to revive discussions with Downey, but became aware that the actor was uninterested. The film was without a lead until February when James Franco entered final negotiations to star in the film, only five months before filming was scheduled to begin. Franco and Raimi had previously worked together on the Spider-Man trilogy (2002-7). Because Warner Bros. (via Turner Entertainment) owns the rights to iconic elements of the 1939 MGM film, including the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland, Disney was unable to use them nor any character likenesses from that particular film.

The film stars James Franco as Oscar Diggs, Mila Kunis as Theodora, Rachel Weisz as Evanora and Michelle Williams as Glinda. Franco gave a great performance, Franco in particular hams it up and is often playing to the balcony. Mila Kunis gets a thumbs up for her performance as she demonstrated excellence in the art of bewitchery and emotional drama. Weisz gave a riveting performance. Lastly, Williams gave an amazing performance.

Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful sacrifices Baum's fantastical spirit and much of its heart. But it's an undeniable visual treat.

Simon says Oz the Great and Powerful receives: