Month: April 2014

BLUE JASMINE (2013)

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Cate Blanchett is very good. She clearly is an actress of depth and intelligence.

However, if the character she is playing is an absolute nut case, do I want to spend 90 minutes or so with her? Not really.

Woody Allen has been hit/miss since 1994 with Bullets over Broadway.
There have been some exceptional films in the meantime but also a bunch of duds.
This has been lauded by critics and commercialists alike. I don’t get it.
It lacks charm, which the Woodster usually serves up in droves.

Everybody is great in it, always a pleasure to see Bobby Cannavale as well as Peter Sarsgaard, and Sally Hawkins is lovely as Jasmine’s sister. Being an actor who gets to be in a Woody Allen film is probably one of the highlights of your career, so most would jump at the chance.

I didn’t emotionally connect with any of the characters, but maybe this was the point.

Maybe the Woodster is making a comment on the vapidity and vacuity that is so prevalent in today’s society. “This is where you’re heading, materialistic and obsessed with wild superficial imaginings” and if so there is a redemptive quality about the film.
But if that is the case then this is one of his bleaker films.

Cate Blanchett’s Jasmine is just plain unhappily; looking for salvation in all the wrong places. Misguided and mentally programmed to love the ‘stuff’ and ‘status’ of life and feeling that she is a failure without it.

Critics are hailing it a great film and I just don’t get it.
I like Woody Allen but I will wait for the next decent one to come out.

3/5

BUY THE BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE

BRUNA SURFISTINHA (2011)

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Based on the book The Scorpion’s Sweet Poison by Raquel Pacheco, this Brazilian film directed by Marcus Baldini and starring Deborah Secco is the true story of a prostitute in Brazil who started writing a blog about her exploits and became a bestselling author because of it.

She takes on her working name, Bruna and then calls herself Bruna Surfistinha (Bruna, Surfer Girl) and creates this persona that allows her to be adulated.

Ultimately, it’s about a young girl who is desperate to be loved, noticed and dependant on no-one.

Deborah Secco takes herself and us through the gamut of experience and emotional drainage of being a prostitute and she really commits to it, but I don’t think I liked or empathize with the character enough to really care.

I was vaguely interested. The storytelling wasn’t that inspired or innovative, quite what you might expect of a story of this subject matter. It takes us through the highs and lows of her experience but one always feels like an outsider as opposed to being right there feeling the pain with her.

I had higher hopes, it being Brazilian for a start but all in all an average flick.

2.5/5

BUY THE BOOK THAT THE FILM WAS BASED ON HERE