This Is Where I Leave You (November 2014)

Official Australian release date: 23/10/14. Viewed: 12/11/14.

Director: Shawn Levy

Actors: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Jane Fonda, Rose Byrne

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Rating: M

‘This Is Where I Leave You’ is a good mix of funny moments and dramatic moments of reflection. It’s basically the story of four siblings – Judd (Bateman), Wendy (Fey), Phillip (Driver) & Paul (Stoll) – and how they, along with their mum (Fonda), deal with their father’s death. There’s lots of squabbling and jibes, but also some nice scenes with some emotional depth.

This film is slightly better than ‘Date Night’, Levy’s similar film from a few years ago with Fey. It’s not too long, is quite well paced and has a good soundtrack. My main gripe is that – since I can relate! – there wasn’t a more fleshed-out character for Paul, the big brother. I think Phillip comes off being the most interesting, but it’s enjoyable seeing how they all interact with each other & their sibling’s partners. No real conclusion, but there is a few unnecessary spanners thrown in the works at the end.

The best bits are when they all deal with the loss with some levity, especially aided by “Boner” the Rabbi (Schwartz), some of Fey’s quips and the toilet-training kid. Byrne’s good as Bateman’s love interest, but since there’s so many cast members, doesn’t get enough screen time, along with Fonda.

Overall: Solid family-based comedy/drama.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Interstellar (November 2014)

Official Australian release date: 6/11/14. Viewed: 6/11/14.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, David Gyasi, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon
Genre: Sci-Fi / Drama / Action
Rating: M

‘Interstellar’ was a film I’d been waiting to see all year, and it certainly is a huge sci-fi film – $165 million budget – from one of the best filmmakers going round. Basically, we spend 40min on Earth in the not-too-distant-future, where all the crops are failing and Homo sapiens are about to be wiped from the planet. Cooper (McConaughey), Romilly (Gyasi) & Dr Brand (Hathaway) are then sent to another galaxy – via a wormhole – as a last grasp attempt to find another habitable planet.

The film does really well of asking those big picture themes – what’s more important, family of the entire species, love or exploration, why do we matter? However, as a sci-fi/action film, it sometimes lets itself down – the characters aren’t that well developed, beside Cooper & his two kids (Chastain & Affleck when they’re older) and there’s too much maths/physics/relativity and not enough excitement and wonder.

Sure, the special effects you do get to see of the black hole and the planets they visit are great, but there’s just not enough of them – it’s a lot of them in a space suit/ship with an overbearing Hans Zimmer’s score making it hard to hear actual dialogue. It’s probably slightly longer than necessary also – 2 hours 50min, with the last 30min being a less-than-ideal conclusion to the film. Hopefully Damon playing an astronaut prepares him for next year’s ‘The Martian’, which should be more exciting than ‘Interstellar’.

Nolan – who will arguably one day go down as a directorial legend like Kubrick – owes a lot to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and essentially ‘Interstellar’ doesn’t do anything better than that film 46 years ago. But it’s not all bad – I think my expectations were too high, especially after ‘Gravity’ last year – with Caine & Lithgow being solid on Earth and the robots, TARS & CASE (very similar voices/roles to HAL in ‘2001’ & GERTY in ‘Moon’) providing some humour (and a very unique form/function!).

Overall: A good sci-fi drama, but needed more action and adventure!

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Pride (November 2014)

Official Australian release date: 30/10/14. Viewed: 5/11/14.

Director: Matthew Warchus

Actors: Ben Schnetzer, George McKay, Paddy Considine, Imelda Staunton, Bill Nighy

Genre: Drama / Comedy

Rating: M

‘Pride’ is a simple British film that manages to be about lots of things all at once, all while being charming and quaint, as only the Poms can do! It’s set in London (and Wales) in 1984 and follows a small group of gay & lesbian activists who decide to do stand up to the Thatcher government – not for gay rights, but for the rights of the striking miners! It’s all handled quite well and doesn’t become a full on drama, or a full on comedy – or even a full on “political” or “gay” movie.

Sure, there’s definitely lots of political messages being explored – and you would like to think the world, in general, is a more tolerant place 30 years later – but the film’s really about this group of six friends banding together and supporting another put-upon group, a small mining community in Wales. This is where a lot of the humour comes from – the old Welsh ladies having fun with “their gays” and “their lesbians”!

The cast is superb – even though Nighy is probably under-utilised – with Mark (Schnetzer) & Joe (McKay) particularly captivating. The soundtrack/score is also great, although there’s obviously some disco! Well-paced and with a great ending, this is a very enjoyable film.

Overall: Fun, moving true story.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.