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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 12 February 2011

Big time, I’m on my way I’m making it, big time, oh yes

Big time, I’ve got to make it show yeah, big time

Big time, so much larger than life

Big time, I’m gonna watch it growing, big time

  - Peter Gabriel (Big Time)

Inside Job is one of the most impressive documentaries that I’ve seen in recent years.  I realised this from the opening credits.  It’s a beautiful helicopter flyover of New York City to the tune of Peter Gabriel’s Big Time.  This extended sequence has been interlaced with images of those we’ll hear from during the film.  There are a lot of people who want to go on the record and offer their “two cents” about the recent global financial crisis.

Like any documentary filmmaker, Charles Ferguson has a point to make.  For several decades after World War II, the United States had a strong, robust banking sector.  It was tightly regulated.  Banks had to meet strict investment and liquidity guidelines to minimise their exposure.

That changed in the early 1980s as the U.S. began the gradual deregulation of the banking industry.  It allowed for the creation of riskier, unregulated investments such as derivatives.  We also saw banks lending money to just about anyone.  They didn’t care if you couldn’t repay.  Staff just wanted their short term bonuses.

It all came to an abrupt halt in September 2008 following the demise of Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in the United States.  A number of other banks were also close to bankruptcy.  With the world’s biggest economy on the verge of collapse, the government announced a $700 billion bailout package.  To put that into perspective, that’s about $2,300 for every living person in the United States.

When making a movie like this, the tricky part is working out how to sell the message.  How can you encapsulate the crisis into two hours?  How can you explain complex financial instruments to an ordinary person?  How can you illustrate the insatiable greed that exists within the industry?

Charles Ferguson has found a way to do it.  He speaks with everyone from the Prime Minister of Singapore to a highly paid escort.  He has taken these interviews and woven them into a compelling narrative – starting the story back in the 1980s and quickly working his way through to the current day.  The film has a great deal more content than Michael Moore’s attempt at the same subject matter, Capitalism: A Love Story (which was still decent).

Ferguson also does a good job of avoiding the “politics” associated with the topic.  He isn’t pointing the finger at any particular President or political party.  They all played a part in this mess and the current President, Barrack Obama, is no exception.  There has been little change to banking regulation since 2008 and some of Obama’s key staff appointments will leave you scratching your head.

A good friend summed up Inside Job best when he called it “the comedy of the year”.  It’s true.  You’ll be laughing at politicians, lobbyists, educators and highly paid financial executives.  How did they manage to get away with some of this stuff for so long?  How are some still getting away with it?

Nominated for best documentary at the upcoming Academy Awards and smartly narrated by Matt Damon, Inside Job is great cinema.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 03 February 2011

I know that not everyone is a fan but I really like Russell Crowe as an actor.  He’s got a knack for picking great scripts and he can change his look and his personality to suit any character.  I admit he’s made a few bad films (like any actor) but his resume would make most actors very jealous.  The guy is good.

Crowe has found himself another quality script with The Next Three Days.  Academy Award winning writer Paul Haggis (Crash, In The Valley Of Elah) has adapted it from a 2007 French film called Anything For Her.  I haven’t seen the original myself but it seems to be part a growing trend in Hollywood that is seeing notable directors remake foreign language films for English speaking audiences.  Examples which spring to mind include The Departed (Martin Scorsese), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher) and Let Me In (Matt Reeves).

The Next Three Days centres on a simple college teacher named John Brennan (Crowe).  Three years ago, his life was torn apart after his wife (Banks) was found guilty of killing her boss.  Despite pleading not guilty, the evidence was overwhelming.  She was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail.

John has tried hard to raise their young son on his own but things have been getting tough.  It gets even worse when he learns his wife tried to commit suicide whilst behind bars.  He’s at a breaking point… but the solution he comes up with to his problem might surprise you.  He starts putting together a plan to break his wife out of prison.

There are a few moments which seem a little too neat but on the whole, this is a tense thriller that doesn’t always choose the well-trodden path.  For starters, John isn’t the gutsy, brave hero that we often see in action-thrillers.  There’s one scene where he almost gets caught and the shock leaves him throwing up on the pavement.  He’s an intelligent guy but you’ll quickly get the sense that he’s in way over his head.

Also impressive is the way in which Haggis has captured the world around John and his activities.  We follow his parents who are concerned for his well-being.  We also follow the police who are investigating his suspicious activity.  There isn’t much time to develop these supporting players but Haggis uses them effectively to help build the tension.

The film could have used a little trimming (I notice the original is almost 30 minutes shorter) but The Next Three Days is definitely a film worth seeing at some point in the next three days.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 09 February 2011

Next Monday is Valentine’s Day.  If you buy into the occasion, it’s a chance to do something special with the person you love.  This may involve flowers, gifts and candlelit dinners.  For some, it may involve a trip to the cinema.  There’s always at least one movie studio who are trying to offer up a sweet romantic comedy for the occasion.  Over the past five years, we’ve had Valentine’s Day, He’s Just Not That Into You, Definitely Maybe, Music & Lyrics and Just Friends.

This year’s suggested fare is No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.  The title neatly sums up the crux of the story.  Emma and Adam are two people who keep bumping into each other.  She’s a doctor who works ridiculously long hours.  He’s an assistant on a popular television show.  Neither has time for a full blown relationship and so they decide to have one that based purely on sex.

Ok, we all know where this story is going and how it will end.  You can’t expect much more from a rom-com.  However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun along the way… and that’s exactly what I did when I saw this for the first time.  There are a few laugh-out-loud lines (the best involving a “crime scene”) and funny supporting cast including the likes of Kevin Kline, Greta Gerwig and Ludacris.

Perhaps the real reason I liked it was because it features two of my favourite actors.  Natalie Portman is wonderful as always.  She portrays Emma as a bouncy, happy-go-lucky character but with serious self-confidence issues bubbling below the surface.  Some might wonder why Portman would take on a role in a predictable rom-com but I think it’s an apt choice after her chilling performance in Black Swan.  It highlights her range as an actress and it’s also nice to see her laughing and smiling.  

I realise most won’t rank Ashton Kutcher as highly on their list of favourite actors but I like him.  I was curious to see how they’d deal with the height difference between himself and Portman.  He’s 6’3” and she’s just 5’3”.  Director Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) could have done the “Hollywood thing” and reduced the gap with creative camera angles but instead, he weaves it into the story with humorous effect.

Less than two months ago, we saw the release of Love And The Other Drugs with Jake Gyllenhaal with Anne Hathaway.  Both films are similar in that (1) they’re a little more explicit than you might expect and (2) they both involve a couple getting together only for sex.  So why did I like No Strings Attached and yet dislike Love And Other Drugs?  I don’t know.  I guess love really does move in mysterious ways.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 01 February 2011

Faster revolves around three nameless characters.  The first is the Driver (Johnson).  Ten years ago, he drove the getaway car in an armed robbery.  It looked like they’d all get away with the crime but they were brought down by a rival gang.  His brother was killed, the money was lost and he ended up spending a decade behind bars.  Having just been released, he has one goal in life – to get revenge.  He’ll stop at nothing to track down and kill those people that destroyed his life.

Two people are trying to stop him.  One of them is the Cop (Thornton).  The body count is piling up and the story is heading the nightly news.  He needs to work out who is next on the Driver’s hit list if he’s any chance of finding him.   His focus isn’t squarely on the case however.  He’s got many personal issues to deal with – most of them self inflicted.

The guy who seems most likely to end the carnage is the Killer (Jackson-Cohen).  He’s been hired by some unknown individual to assassinate the Driver before more people end up dead.  He is the epitome of “cool” but on the inside, he is very insecure.  He doesn’t know what he wants from life and whether he should marry his long time girlfriend (Grace). 

Directed by George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food, Men Of Honour), Faster is trying to be stylish, trying to be a little different.  Going against the mould of traditional action flicks, it makes an attempt to develop its characters.  Instead of just watching them in endless car chases and shoot outs, we learn about their background.  I particularly enjoyed the suave Oliver Jackson-Cohen as the Killer.  He’s like an English version of John Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank.

Whilst it may sound good on paper, I wasn’t sold on the film’s execution.  Its originality wears off in the later stages and it stumbles home with cheesy dialogue and a predictable ending.  I didn’t think much of Dwayne Johnson either.  I realise he’s playing a character hell-bent on revenge but it’s hard to get enthused about someone with such a lifeless personality.  The screenwriters should have centred the story around Jackson-Cohen’s character instead.  It would have made for a better film.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 06 February 2011

When I first heard that Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) was bringing the real life tale of Aron Ralston to the screen, I was sceptical.  Most of us know the story.  A guy goes hiking in Utah and gets him arm stuck under boulder.  After being trapped for more than 5 days, he made the decision to cut off his arm with a knife.  He lived to tell the tale and published his story in a book aptly entitled “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”.

The reason for my early doubts was that I couldn’t fathom how Boyle could drag this out into a full length feature film.  Wouldn’t everyone just be waiting for the scene where he cuts his arm off?  Given the film centres on just one actor in one small location, what could you include in the first hour to keep the audience’s attention?

I should have had faith in Danny Boyle because now having seen 127 Hours, I can say it’s one of the most interesting films of the year.  It gives you an amazingly intimate look at what Ralston went through, both physically and mentally.  It wasn’t like he was just sitting there and hoping to be rescued.  A lot happened during those 5 days.

I don’t want to say too much more regarding the plot because otherwise I’d be spoiling the movie for you.  I’d rather spend my time praising the gutsy performance of James Franco.  I’ve been thinking about it since I saw the film but I can’t picture any other actor in the role.  Franco is amazingly good and deserves what is his first Academy Award nomination.

When we first meet Aron, we see him as a light-hearted, adventurous guy.  Aron tries to stay upbeat whilst trapped under the boulder but as the days pass, the realisation starts to sink in.  You can see it in Franco’s eyes and you hear it in his depleting voice.

You might also notice the weight loss.  Aron shed close to 20 kilograms during his ordeal due to a lack of food and water.  Franco lost a lot of weight himself in preparation for the role.  The only reason his face looks healthier, more rounded in the early scenes is due to the work of the film’s talented make up artists.

Despite picking up at Oscar nomination for best picture, 127 Hours has been struggling at the box-office.  The general consensus is that people are avoiding the film because of “that” scene – the moment where Aron has to cut his arm off.  If you have similar concerns, please let me allay your fears.  It’s tastefully done and not drawn out.  A friend of mine summed it up best when he said “I've never been so happy to see someone cut his arm off.”  I felt the same way.  By that point of the film, you’ll be willing him to do it.