Several flix

I haven't blogged this year yet, but I've watched many a movie over the festive period.

First up, I watched The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky's latest outing. Starring Mickey Rourke and Evan Rachel Wood, The Wrestler is the story of an ex-'professional' wrestler who, twenty years after his popularity has waned, still performs at galas and demonstrations in school. He suffers a heart attack and is told he should no longer wrestle, and the film focusses on his attempts to lead a regular life.

Mickey Rourke is a mess, and this film is evident of that. His character, Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, is clearly a mirror into his own life of failing careers, depression but all covered with deep ambition to still be a star. This film is heavily emotional on Mickey Rourke's part, and was apparently hard to watch on set because watching Rourke breakdown in a scene was as hard as watching him breakdown in real life. It's a simple film, not much happens and there is no real overiding story to it beyond The Ram wanting to wrestle. The main emotion comes from Randy's relationship with his estranged daughter, and I hate to say it but Evan Rachel Wood's terrible acting ruins all the excellent acting Rourke throws at her.

Randy's story is paralleled by Cassidy's, an aging stripper who is heading towards retirement. Her situation opposes Randy's sense of feeling lost, as she has sorted her finances. Randy and Cassidy spark up a relationship in the oddest sense, it goes nowhere but you know they are there for one another, and despite what many people have said, I believed there was excellent chemistry between the pair of them.

Oscar nods and major hype is building up around this film, and rightly so. I'm not gonna throw the word masterpiece at it but it's a fantastic film.

The other film I watched and throughly enjoyed was The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. David Fincher, of Zodiac and Seven, has crafted this epic movie from a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald. It tells of Benjamin Button, a man who is born old and ages backwards.

Brad Pitt plays the eponymous character, and boy can that man act. This opportunity to act at all ages has blossomed him and given him the opportunity to really show off his skills in front of a camera. Supported by Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett, this film is wonderful. With lashings of Forrest Gump, this film is fantastic for everyone. A bit too much sex for the youngest audiences, maybe, is the only disappointing thing about the film, and I don't even have kids I want to show it too. This film deserves to be a staple viewing for anyone, in a 'You haven't seen The Goonies/Scarface?' kind of manner. (I'd like to point out I haven't seen Scarface. Or The Godfathers.)

I urge everyone to see this film, I'm not going to give you a synopsis as it's nigh on three hours long. He ages backwards, that's it. It's wonderful. If you can, take a lass or a bairn. It's romantic, it's funny, it's dramatic and it's just AWESOME. I love love love this film.

Eden Lake is a 2008 british horror movie and it is without a doubt on of the most shockingly fantastic horror movies I've ever seen. British horror is on the up again. Hammer ruled the screens but then we started churning out utter shit, handing the torch to the masters of horror in America, the Carpenters and Cravens, but we've recently been drilling it back. Creep and The Descent were fantastic shockfests, and arguably started a revolution in British horror and now we're riding high again.

Eden Lake is about a young couple who decide to go camping by a resevoir that is soon to be turned into an upmarket estate. They begin arguing with a gang of teenagers that are terrorising other local children but the argument turns bloody.

The horror that follows is some of the grittiest and most disturbing I've ever seen. The use of children as antagonists certainly causes this but the ruthlessness and fantastic acting that they boast is another major player in my enjoyment of this film. It ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to cliché but there is nothing wrong with that in horror, and it constantly remains scary. It blends classic 'chased by a bad guy' horror with the gorno of this century, with brutal scenes of torture.

If you like horror, watch Eden Lake, it's nasty.

Finally, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen's newest film. This film is famous as 'the film Scarlett Johannsen and Penelope Cruz get lesbian' in, but I feel it is, not a lot, more than that.

Over the last 10 or 15 years, Woody Allen has made some shit. Some REAL shit. Considering his past in crafting some absolute masterpieces, he has dropped in standard drastically. This film is a great offering, a rare great offering, from him. 2005's Match Point was probably his last good, but before that there was nothing. He's certainly on the rise, I hope.

It tells the story of two friends who travel to Spain for a break, but both spark relationships with a brooding painter who has a torrid past with a fellow artist. Not much beyond that, really. The film is made by Penelope Cruz, she plays Maria Elena, the ex-wife of Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem's artist), who has in the past tried to kill him. She is hilarious and aggresive at the same time, and puts in a magnificent performance. Scarlett Johannsen is her usual dry self as Cristina, not particulary good, but reasonable, and Rebecca Hall is Vicky, a neurotic bride-to-be who happens also to be in love with Juan.

The film is short and trundles along at an odd pace, holding you in one place long enough to get comfortable, but then bolting through time and shifting positions again. It's wonderful in it's presentation of the relationships between the 4 protagonists, but it's also sloppy in it's ability to stick to it's thoughts. The choppy feel makes it hard to care about the relationships, which is never good in a film about romance.