"I'm Seven...But I Look a Lot Older" (Simon reviews THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON)

We didn't really plan it this way (perhaps I did subliminally), but Simon and I spent a lot of time during the podcast talking about THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON.

This is the Fincher film that seems to get wailed on the most these days. Truthfully I wasn't totally fussed about it when I first saw it either, but subsequent watches have led to me appreciating it an awful lot more.

Simon, on the other hand, remains unconvinced...

This is really quite a film. The special effects are flawless - and showing the range of ages of Benjamin and Daisy does look quite smooth and in no way affects the watching-of-the-film. Basically, these groundbreaking effects, do not interrupt the narrative. The narrative has enough problems...

Check out his entire review here.

"Without fear I'm capable of anything" (Simon reviews BAD EDUCATION)

This is my personal favourite film of Pedro's! I believe that when Almodovar is on fire is when he is tackling subject he has a close association to and understanding - in this case it is an understanding of cinema, relationships and experience of a Catholic school.

The film plays with what is fiction and what could be fact - the idea that you never fully understand a situation unless you are directly involved yourself. The attractive young male is very different to the drug-abusing transvestite ... and it changes your perception on the events. Hidden identity is at the core of the film - and how people hide behind masks to give the impression they are something they are not.

"everyone seems to be playing a role: Father Manola and his 'hidden side' abusing children, Juan pretending to be his brother, Ignacio himself, - as a transexual - in an excpetionally false feminine look. These multiple characters make the film irresitably intricate - multiple levels and understandings behind each characters - nobodys motives are clear."


Just look at the visual splendour it is steeped in - the picture I chose alone shows how incredibly talented Almodovar is. If you want to read more, just click here

"Ghosts don't cry" (Simon reviews VOLVER)

One film I feel we did not discuss enough was Volver and Broken Embraces. Broken Embraces specifically as it has a great duality alongside Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

At any rate, Volver is a great film and, akin to Talk to Her, it is a much more restrained Almodóvar. Rather than focussing on identity and sexuality, it focusses on death, mourning and explicit highlights the celebration of death according to Spanish custom. 

I wrote:

"As Almodóvar is dealing with such a sensitive subject, it is no suprised that the comedic and bizarre elements are not seen - and, other than Paco's brief perversions - there is no overt-sexual scenes or sexuality-issues raised. So, though restrained for Almodóvar the colours still reek of pastels and calmness. Nothing too bold and nothing too cold - pastelly-blue's and pinks all over the place"


To view much more of the post, just click here

"No horsing around on the airplane!" (Simon reviews DR STRANGELOVE)

As a very recent post on both the Classic Columb of Man I Love Films and, additionally, on my own blog this is the last Kubrick review before the scoreboard comes out...

I have recently gone through a James Bond phase and, I think, Stanley Kubrick clearly knew Ken Adams expansive sets and grand ideas suited his satirical comedy Dr Strangelove exceptionally well by choosing him to design, amongst other things, the board room. Which - if you watch X-Men: First Class very closely, you will see the same room again as the US military base... it seems Dr Strangelove and Dr No clearly represent the sixties exceptionally well...

"One thing which is brilliant about this film is the iconic image of the sixties it portrays. The film is shot entirely in black and white (except for A-bomb videos) giving the film a classical pseudo-importance. The comedy of the time is exemplified in casting Peter Sellers - an actor who, additionally in '63, had starred in iconic 60's film The Pink Panther opposite David Niven and Robert Wagner. Peter Sellers also manages to play multiple roles in the guise of Mandrake (the employee of General Ripper) the President of the United States and playing Dr Strangelove himself. These three roles - the creator (Strangelove), the decider (POTUS) and the everyday man (Mandrake) - present completely differeing opinions and feelings, with positions that are completely opposite to each other."

If you want to read more - click here!

"Sir, main level please." (Simon reviews 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

I know that this film divides people and I believe that the attitudes towards Tree of Life at the moment may be a good comparison. Both are primarily Art - 2001  is definately not the Transformers 3 of the time. Mister Hatter managed to watch a cinema screening and, alongside the British Film Critic Barry Norman, this is generally seen as the way to watch the film.


I managed to watch it for the first time a while back and, keeping it contemporary, I managed to link the film with ... Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...


"Strangely enough, having watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull only recently, it is a similar theme: we can search and crave for all the knowledge in the world; we could know everything. But it is the journey in finding, bit by bit, this knowledge that is the beauty of being human. This constant question-asking is important - the answers not-so-much."


If you think this is crazy talk, then you need to read the rest so - if you want to finish the review - click here

"... the first and the last word out of your filthy sewers will be "Sir" Simon reviews FULL METAL JACKET)

The one genre Kubrick has dabbled in a couple of times is the 'war' genre - with both Full Metal Jacket and Paths of Glory. You could argue that Spartacus has a war-like element to it. The thing is with Full Metal Jacket is how it also delves into the psychology of war too.

Many moons ago, I wrote a little review about the film writing:

"On his head is a symbol or peace and, next to it, the words "born to kill". This complete conflict, two polar-opposite attitudes to war, is what roots itself in the themes of this film  - these two stances are what makes men so conflicting in their stance towards war and violence. They can make a man go mad."


Its an incredible film, and the full write-up goes into much more depth - so if you want to read more - click here

"Oh You Betcha Yah..." (Simon Reviews FARGO)

What is the best Coen Brothers film? One could make a case for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN...certainly MILLER'S CROSSING is up for discussion...some might even suggest THE BIG LEBOWSKI (though I wouldn't).

For my money, I think it's hard to top FARGO - even though, as I mentioned in the show, I didn't like it at first go. Simon reviewed it for Screen Insight a while back, here's a taste of what he thought...


Frances McDormand's 'Marge' is such a force that as soon as we see her and 'Norm' wake up to the call of a homicide, it is she who is the centre of the story. Everything else turns to dust. Her idiosyncrasies and mannerisms, "yah" simply make every sequence amazing to watch. She notes on the documentary that she can only do 'Madge' when in the wig - which doesn't surprise me. Something so fluid can't be turned on and off - you have to physically become the character...

The full post can be found here.

FROM START TO FINISH: (Simon covers The Coen's Back Catalogue)

The Coen's, for me, marked a success in how I chose to watch their entire back-catalogue and succeeded - whilst my ongoing attempts at watching the back-catalogue's of Woody Allen (so-o-o many films!) and Steven Spielberg (damn you Always!) continue.

It was due to this success that I chronicled the Coen's collection on my blog, analysing each and every film I watched and commenting on them. It was broken into four parts - and preceded True Grit and delves a little deeper into what reoccurs in their films - and what is unique about each one.

As a taste:

"Blood Simple brings together a simple story set in Texas about infidelity and murder. Influenced by genre cinema - namely Film Noir and, to some extent, Horror. Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld even worked on the film - to go on to direct features such as Get Shorty and Men in Black. Even the awkward murder-gone-wrong, a huge centre-point to the story, is something that became a recurring theme - though clearly inspired by Hitchcock, whereby it was always a nightmare to dispose of bodies and even commit the murder itself in classics such as Rope and Frenzy."

And here are the links to each post -

The Complete Collection: The Coen Brothers (Part 1) - Blood Simple and Raising Arizona

The Complete Collection: The Coen Brothers (Part 2) - Miller's Crossing through to The Big Lebowski

The Complete Collection: The Coen Brothers (Part 3) - O Brother Where Art Thou through to The Ladykiller's

The Complete Collection: The Coen Brothers (Part 4) - No Country for Old Men to True Grit

The Film Locker #4: Joel and Ethan Coen and 'No Country for Old Men'

Having spent two weeks covering film directors who may be a little off the beaten track, we regain the road by moving to younger and hipper folk in Joel and Ethan Coen. Having both watched both back-catalogues, Hatter and I argue it out with our favourites and not-so-favourite films with an in-depth analysis of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

We go through our top-of-the-shelf choices and choose two films that reflect the diversity of the Coen's style with a nice little musical treat tp finish the episode!

On a sidenote, results for Episode 3 will be released soon so - don't let this stop you from entering this weeks competition!

And, as usual, it is already up on itunes and can be found easily on podomatic - so, please do try and write reviews and support us if you can! We have the ol' RSS feed and 2.0 RSS and, if you link in different ways, we also have it on Google and Yahoo

The Film Locker #3: David Cronenberg and 'The Fly'

So, much love to our new listeners who have entered the competition and the writer-inners (email us!) and with two in the bag - a Woody Allen and a Martin Scorsese episode, we now move onto more obscene and obscure directors with David Cronenberg.

Our choice of film is The Fly. Hatter mentioned how, prior to our Woody Allen show, he had not seen Hannah and her Sisters, and the same is true of The Fly for me. In fact, in preparation I watched three Cronenberg films: The Fly, eXistenZ and Dead Ringers for the first time!

And, as usual, it is already up on itunes and can be found easily on podomatic - so, please do try and write reviews and support us if you can! We have the ol' RSS feed and 2.0 RSS and, if you link in different ways, we also have it on Google and Yahoo

"I'm a World Renowned Claustrophobic" (Simon reviews MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY)

I know I said it before, but with 41 films, it's going to take me a while to get through all (or even most) of Woody Allen's body of work. Something I've also said before, is that I'm happy I can defer to Simon when trying to settle on where to start.

Take MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY.

With a title like that, one might think it's complete farce, but according to my Brit friend, it's quite celever (if flawed). Here's a snippet of his take on the film...

Apparently, originally this Murder Mystery was squeezed into Annie Hall but, thank God, the Marshall Brickman/Woody Allen script for Annie Hall has no murder element whatsoever. But, Allen does team up with Marshall Brickman to complete this script so it does remain as chirpy as Annie Hall but without the heart. I think it was Madonna who said that "there are all the songs about people breaking-up and getting together - but none about staying together". This film has a great strong central theme in how couples can stay together...

The full post can be found here.

"Fucking Men!" (Simon Reviews HUSBANDS AND WIVES)

In a lot of ways I need to thank Simon for picking Woody Allen for the podcast as it pushed me to chase down more of his films. This of course led to many wonderful hours with my blu-ray player as I got to experience films like SWEET & LOWDOWN and this week's feature film, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS for the first time.

One such film was HUSBANDS AND WIVES, which Simon has a great review of over at Screen Insight...


Now I know that I have had this coming for a while. A Woody Allen fan who has not been disappointed … it was inevitable really. There are films which are weaker, granted, but more often than not, an awesome cast approaching a high-concept comedy-drama will always have merits. Fact of the matter is, Husbands and Wives simply doesn’t have enough scope in its concept and the characters – notably Mia Farrow and Judy Davis – are simply not likeable or relatable for us, as an audience, to enjoy their company for a hundred minutes...

Guess I liked it more than he did, eh?
The full post can be found here.

"Thank God For the Rain To Wash the Trash Off the Sidewalk..." (Simon reviews TAXI DRIVER)

One film we danced around during the episode and only mentioned sparingly is Scorsese's classic TAXI DRIVER: A film Simon called one of the three essential Marty movies.

The Ballad of Travis Bickle is a film that almost demands repeat viewings, something Simon mentions in this post on Screen Insight. Here's a taste...



Because the whole film cuts so close to the bone, it has the edge of fear and horror. The eyes lingering in the car mirror and the sense throughout the film about what Travis will do - when will he crack?

His not-so-subtle racism is also a part of this which is so difficult to watch also. In a world that has become so diverse - whereby, in my opinion, racism has become hidden as opposed to being openly condoned. Travis drives through the streets rarely conversing with people - but we know his thoughts and his attitude to the African-American characters in his head. The real fear and horror is the possible parallels this might have with people in society today - violent, dangerous racist sociopaths who will inevitably crack at some point...

If you want to read more, the full review can be found here.