Octavia Spencer

FRUITVALE STATION (2013)

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What is the job of the street police?
Who do they really work for?
Isn’t it meant to be the community?
To protect and serve.
Who?
If they are only protecting certain citizen’s rights and massively neglecting others, how can we let it continue?
It is a big issue, of course, but when things like this happen, questions must be asked.

Films like this need to be seen. We should learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. Art is a way of showing us our shortcomings and through the experience of it, hopefully we grow and learn.
This is why art is so important, nay imperative. It is a reflection, a mirror in which we can truly see ourselves.

Michael B Jordan plays Oscar Grant, a 22 year old man who is trying to walk his path straight for his girlfriend and daughter, who he loves very much. Wrong place, wrong time and tragedy can occur.

It is understandable that, for the most part, the viewing public avoid films like this.
After all, it is not mindless, there are no transforming hunks of metal destroying things, no crass comedy or superheroes saving planet earth to fill your brain with hot air.
It takes courage and strength to watch films like these.
One makes a choice, to educate and inform oneself as well as being told a great story or blindly go where everyone’s gone before.

Ryan Coogler writes and directs his first feature with confidence and it is produced by Forest Whitaker.
All involved clearly have a reverence for this true story, wanting to do it justice and succeeding.

Jordan is a star in the making, having breathed life into a complex, conflicted character in Wallace in season 1 of The Wire to playing one of three high school friends who make a discovery that gives them superpowers in the brilliantly inventive Chronicle.
With Fruitvale Station he has made his mark and we will definitely be seeing a lot more of this talented young man.

The film carries an undercurrent of fore-boding danger.
We know what is going to happen, but as you get to know Oscar throughout this fateful day, you spend time with a young man, flawed, human but deeply caring. It is with joy that we get to see this man living his life, whether it is spending time with his girlfriend and daughter, a family birthday or just kicking it with his friends.

The supporting cast bring their real to the table adding to the feeling that you could be watching a documentary, which makes the journey all the more devastating.
Melonie Diaz is layered and believable as Oscar’s girlfriend/baby mother and even Octavia Spencer was ok, which was a surprise.

Not an easy watch but an important one.
Art has the ability to change minds and that is no easy thing.

3.8/5

BUY THE BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE

 

 

SNOWPIERCER (2012)

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There’s a lot to be said about seeing a film that you know little or nothing about story wise.

South Korea’s Bong Joon ho’s first English language film has been greatly anticipated.
No expectations apart from the fact that it’s bound to be pretty interesting and definitely worth a watch.

Having said that, this film set in a future where the world is too cold to live in and all that’s left of humanity exists on a train designed to keep them all alive. The usual tropes are all here (Alphas/Epsilons/ the power and the people) and it’s amazing how relevant this is in society today.

Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder, The Host and Mother) has been directing some incredible Korean films over the last 20 years. He is an artist with some experience of repute.  Critically, he is revered.

So, it is interesting to find out that this film was released in South Korea in August 2012 and still hasn’t been released worldwide.

The reason-Harvey Scissorhands.

He picked up the rights to release the film everywhere else-ish and felt that it couldn’t be a big success without some sort of hair-cut, Joon-ho disagreed and the crux of the sitch is that Harvey Weinstein will release the director’s cut in a few selected cinemas instead of giving it the full treatment publicity and exposure wise.

The film already made its money back within the first week of its release in Korea, over a million people went to see it in the first two days alone.

There are big, established and upcoming, stars in this film, Chris Evans taking a break from Steve Rogers to play the lead here along with John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer (who does not have the chops people thought she had and really lets the side down), Ewen Bremner, Luke Pasqualino, Alison Pill and Tilda Swinton giving her best Margaret Thatcher as a northerner but the true star of the film is, one of my favourite actors of the moment Song Kang-ho.

Every scene he is in is a joy to watch. His instinct for interesting, naturally/unnatural choices is sharp and always surprising in a beautifully subtle way. Here he acts in his own language getting his own subtitles and more than standing his own ground but making a bold statement with his presence.

Playing his daughter is Ko Ah-sung who also played his daughter in the director’s earlier, classic monster piece The Host. She also brings an interesting element to the table. The fact that they both speak Korean seems natural and unforced and fits in wonderfully to this English language film.

The effects are sometimes inferior due to lack of big budget but that is such a minor criticism when you think of the magnitude of the film.

If you’re a fan of dystopian sci-fi check this out.

It isn’t perfect but it’s way up there.

3.8/5

BUY IT ON BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE