DJ Haza reflects on the highs and lows of 2010 with more “Frustrated Ramblings Of An Aspiring Filmmaker”…
As the final days of 2010 pass me by I’ve decided to reminisce and rant about the films that have flickered through my brown eyes over the last 12 months. Some have quite rightly amazed me. Others astounded me. Some were so damned disgusting that it led me to begin writing my series of articles named The Frustrated Ramblings Of An Aspiring Filmmaker. So here goes. I’ll keep it brief. Short and sweet. All killer and no filler. No waffle. Maybe a bit of waffle. No, I shouldn’t waffle. Shit. I’ve waffled!
Firstly, the good. There have been a few films this year that have truly amazed me, had me glued to my seat and fuelled my own ideas and ambitions of filmmaking. Some true masters of their craft have given us some cinematic masterpieces in 2010. And so…
My top 5 films of 2010 are… (drum role)…
1. Inception
2. Shutter Island
3. The Social Network
4. The Town
5. Tron: Legacy
Inception was exactly what I want from a visit to my local multiplex. It had me thinking whilst I was watching, talking about it when I left and I couldn’t settle until I had seen it again. It was visually stunning, deep and meaningful, ambiguous and was so well thought out and made by Christopher Nolan, who is fast becoming a cinematic heavyweight. From the opening titles to the closing credits I was glued to the screen. The film could have easily been another hour in length without me feeling bored, fidgeting or going to the toilet. I would have rather wet myself than miss a minute. Accompanying Nolan’s vision was Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance, which as always was stunning. Film of the year!
Close behind was Shutter Island. Again it had me thinking, second-guessing and talking afterwards about a film that had me glued to the screen. I watched Shutter Island in the cinema, on Sky Box Office and then on Blu-Ray and every time I watched it I got something else from it. When you know how it is going to end you can see the hints, tricks and tips that are cleverly incorporated into the story, the setting and the directing. Martin Scorsese’s directing was truly stunning at times when watched with the knowledge of the ending. The scene in which Teddy, played beautifully by DiCaprio, is interrogating the patients in the cafeteria had me grinning from ear to ear. When you know who Dr Sheehan is watch that scene back and see the clues left by Scorsese. Brilliant.
The Social Network, from first impressions, looked like a film that was going to bore the pants off me. One geek’s dream to create a social network and get some friends! Who cares? Then I found out David Fincher had directed. I was then interested. I watched. I laughed out (a rarity for me). I enjoyed. Immensely. Fincher took the story of a friendless uber-geek working tirelessly to make his new social networking website a success whilst alienating everyone around him and intercut it with two court room battles between the geek and those suing him. And he made it work. More than work. It at no point had me bored, checking my watch or feeling bogged down in various geeks babbling back and forth. On paper the film shouldn’t work. However, It’s definitely a film I’ll be watching again. And again.
Another surprise was The Town. Directed by Ben Affleck, I almost tried not to like it. I mean, more men have walked on the moon than the number of good films Affleck has been in. But I loved it! The story of a group of friends living in the bank robbing capital of the world, Boston, and drifting apart was emotive. Despite him being a bank robber I think a lot of men could empathise with the leading character, Doug, played suprisingly well by Affleck himself. The film worked on several levels and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tron: Legacy was a 3D cinematic experience that showed just how far cinema has come since the original Tron blazed a technological trail across Hollywood using computers with less power than a TV remote. The story was pretty basic; bloke gets stuck in a cyber world and has to battle to get out, just as expected. The visual feast that accompanied the film was worth going for and I didn’t even mind the fact that the characters talk non stop to each other so that we understand them, their stories and the cyber world they are stuck in.
I also loved The Wolfman, despite every filmmaker I know berating me for even considering it worth watching. It was a generic and clichéd werewolf movie, but it was enjoyable to watch. It didn’t try to be too clever or different and was a sort of homage to classic monster movies of the past that used a dark woods, unbelievably thick mist and simple village folk as story telling tools. I liked it and I don’t care what you think!
Over the course of 2010 I also saw a lot of films that were bad or just out right ugly. Some were poorly written, others poorly shot and some were just plain shite!
Edge of Darkness was okay, but not amazing. Whoop-de-doo that Mel Gibson brought his racist face back to cinema screens. Green Zone was Jason Bourne in Iraq. But boring. And no drama. And hardly any action. Kick-Ass definitely did not kick ass. The main character was boring and I didn’t care about him. From Paris With Love was just inexplicably violent and explosive to the point where I wondered what the hell the film was actually about. Iron Man 2 was a bit too cheesy for my liking. Robin Hood was a let down, but it was always doomed for comparison against Gladiator with Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe teaming up for a period epic. Prince of Persia was Pirates of the Caribbean in the desert. Mildly entertaining, but ultimately pointless. Get Him To The Greek saw Russell Brand under acting in order to play a wild, drug fuelled British rock star. I can’t help but think that the director missed a trick by not letting Brand just go to town with his character and light up the screen in his own twisted way.
However, my biggest disappointment of 2010 came with my long awaited trip to see Mr. Nice. I’d waited six years since having read the book from cover to cover in only a week whilst hanging on Howard Marks’ every word. I tried not to get overexcited when trotting down to the cinema with my mother in tow. I tried to keep my expectation from running away with me. But despite all this it still sucked. I understand the difficulties involved in adapting a book to film, but so much of Marks’ life was missing. It just felt like fragments of his life thrown together in order to tell a portion of his story as quickly as possible. And the decision to use stock footage and then green screen Rhys Ifans over the top had me tutting in my seat.
I was hoping for a British Blow, but it wasn’t. We weren’t privy to enough of Marks’ life in order to care for him in my opinion. Unlike George Jung in Blow I don’t feel people cared about Marks or empathized with why he did what he did. He just looked like a dope smuggler who was too bone idle or lazy to do anything meaningful with his Oxford education. I shed a tear at the end of Blow because it was such a great and tragic story, especially when he lost his daughter. I shed a tear at the end of Mr. Nice for completely other reasons.
Overall 2010 has been a year of ups and downs in cinema for me, but 2011 is set to kick off with a bang. 127 Hours, True Grit, The King’s Speech, Black Swan and The Green Hornet are all set for launch in the UK over January and I can’t wait. If the year continues with the same quality as January we could be in for a great year. However, knowing how cinema works I’m sure there will still be plenty of films to rant about in 2011. I’ll see you on the other side.
D.J. Haza
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