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Film Review: "Diana"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 08 November 2013 02:41; Written by Matt Oakes

"Diana"
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring Naomi Watts, Naveen Andrews, Douglas Hodge, Cas Anvar, Daniel Pirrie, Charles Edwards, Geraldine James
Biography, Drama, Romance
113 Mins
PG-13

A princess locked away in her castle has never been quite as dull as in Diana. Even her knight in shining armor is a touchy troglodyte, so petrified of being in the public eye that he'd sooner bury his passion under a callused doctoral turtle shell than mumble "I love you" one more time. Diana keeps telling us to root for this unlikely and spotted relationship and yet we see it clearly for how fickle and irrevocably broken it is, eviscerating all emotional attachment and leaving its audience with cold feet.

While Diana the woman was a visionary humanitarian, Diana the movie is blind to its own half-baked inconsequentiality - a relic of biography as bore that has no place in the rom-com market it nearly exists in. A shining example of the tail wagging the dog, Diana is tugged through the mud with its lackluster "universal love story" front and center, a mistakenly proud icon of this flunky biopic.

Rather than focusing on Princess Diana's chest of civil achievements, Oliver Hirschbiegel contends himself with this turkey of a love story. In doing so, he misses out on establishing historical interest and wholly makes us wonder why he choose to make a film about Diana at all since this lame love story could have belonged to pretty much anyone else.

Film Review: "Thor: The Dark World"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 08 November 2013 02:35; Written by Matt Oakes

"Thor: The Dark World"
Directed by Alan Taylor
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portland, Stellan Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Jaimie Alexander, Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Chris O'Dowd
Action, Adventure, Fantasy
112 Mins
PG-13

Between Chris Hemsworth's washboard abs and the FX razzle-dazzle signature of Marvel's brand, Thor: The Dark World uses blinding awesomeness to cast shade on its portended plotting. First and foremost a Marvel movie, this second (or third if you're counting The Avengers) outing for the God of Thunder rounds all of the superhero studio's likely bases, but a gilded touch from Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor helps bring an epic scope to the proceedings. Far exceeding the first film in terms of visual panache and high stakes action beats, the crowning gem of the Thor camp continues to be Tom Hiddleston's Loki. Deviant, seething, and locked away for treason, Loki may not be as much of a focal point as he was as the big baddie in The Avengers but he persists in being the most complex and unpredictable character in Marvel's stable.

This time around, Thor lacks the megalomaniacal egoism of the first installment, his (massively sized) head distracted by the clout of his lost love, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), waiting for him back on Earth two years after Thor's first departure. But a new evil stirs in the Dark Elves, a race that predates all living beings, warriors born of darkness (whatever that means) and intent on bringing all nine realms back under their control, demanding Thor and his (named) hammer's attention.

CD Review: Paul McCartney—New (Hear Music)

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 07 November 2013 20:26; Written by Kevin Filipski

Whenever Paul McCartney puts out a new album, the usual trolls come out of the woodwork to tell us that he’s done, he’s over the hill, he hasn’t done anything good since Band on the Run, he hasn’t done anything good since the Beatles broke up, he never did anything good, he should have stayed “dead.” Har har.

Of course, some of this nastiness is self-inflicted since McCartney is sometimes his own worst enemy: saccharine songs like “My Love,” “Ebony and Ivory” and “Freedom” are what detractors trot out when they try to knock him down. But for those listening closely to a half-century’s worth of music know better, and a new album, cheekily titled New, provides more ammunition.

For his first album of entirely original material in five years—his superb 2008 Fireman collaboration with producer Youth, Electric Arguments, was preceded by a solid 2007 solo album Memory Almost Full—McCartney sought out outside producers, deciding to keep it partly in the “family” by having Beatles producer George Martin’s son, Giles Martin, to be executive producer. Of the album’s 16 tracks—12 official songs and 4 extra tracks, depending on the configuration one gets—Martin produced 7, with Paul Epworth producing 4, Mark Ronson 2 and Ethan Johns 3.

But as always with McCartney, his own musical vision and personality add up to a wholly cohesive album despite the disparate musical personalities he worked with. When 1997’s Flaming Pie was produced by Jeff Lynne—who made a cottage industry of turning the likes of George Harrison, Tom Petty and the Travelling Wilburys into sound-alikes—I was worried that Paul too would become Lynne-lite. Instead, Flaming Pie is the only Jeff Lynne-produced album that happily retains its own character.

So New, while shot through with an aural eclecticism courtesy of his four collaborators, remains a McCartney record through and through. The opening “Save Us,” a straight-ahead riff rocker, and the bouncy “Queenie Eye,” a hummable piano-driven sing-along, were both helmed by Epworth, along with “Road,” a dramatic ballad that falls just short of bombast. Those are the only songs where McCartney takes a co-writing credit (with Epworth): apparently they were improvised in the studio by the two men.

The rest of New is a glorious mélange of styles and sounds that finds Paul at his most effortlessly melodic and adventurous. The title tune is a joyous love song harkens back to “Penny Lane”-era Beatles, “Hosanna” and “Looking at Her” marry naked emotions with sly arrangements, while the haunting piano ballad “Scared” (relegated to “hidden cut” status) shows Paul opening up in a way rare for him. On these songs—none of them in any sense “silly love songs”—Paul sings in the plaintive, cracking voice of a 71-year-old, which fits with their melancholic but hopeful optimism.

On “Alligator,” “Appreciate” and “Struggle,” Paul’s Avant-pop leanings show through in the intricately busy rhythms, but those who say that he’s trying to keep up with contemporary sounds hasn’t been listening to albums like McCartney II (“Temporary Secretary,” “Secret Friend” and “Check My Machine”), Press to Play (“Pretty Little Head”) and Flowers in the Dirt (“Ou Est le Soleil?”)—to just pick three from the decade of the ‘80s—where Paul mashes up rhythm tracks and tape loops with heavily processed vocals: it’s just Paul being Paul.

This wouldn’t be a McCartney album without an explicit nod to that other band he was in (no, not Wings): the earnest acoustic number “Early Days” harks back to when the Fab Four scrambled for gigs long before they were on top of the world. But on an album so consistently good, even filler like “Everybody Out There,” “I Can Bet” and “Get Me Out of Here” remains cheeky fun. On New, McCartney composes and performs with nothing to prove: he loves what he does, and he’ll keep doing it until the end.

Film Review: "Ender's Game"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 04 November 2013 18:30; Written by Matt Oakes

"Ender's Game"
Directed by Gavin Hood
Starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, Ben Kingsley, Moises Arias, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
114 Mins
PG-13

Ender, a natural born strategist, waxes philosophy like he's Sun Tzu. Taking "The Art of War" to its next logical step, Ender believes it's not enough to understand his enemy. For him, truly understanding your enemy comes hand-in-hand with loving them. When you know someone well enough to predict their moves militarily, you glimpse into their soul. All at once, this zen of inter-connectivity gives Ender an upper hand in battle but also puts him in a constantly state of moral dread. He knows he can be a mighty conqueror the likes of Caesar but doesn't know if he should be.

Reviews

Film Review: "Diana"

Film Review: "Thor: The Dark World"

CD Review: Paul McCartney—New (Hear Music)

Film Review: "Ender's Game"

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