Film Review: Interstellar (2014)

When Eames (Tom Hardy) said "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling" in Christopher Nolan's Inception, it may have seemed like little more than a throwaway quip, but that no longer seems to be the case. Nolan seems to have adopted it as a personal credo, since that sentiment is all over his latest project, Interstellar. Nolan returns to science fiction with a story that leaves dreams, Gotham and the Earth itself behind for the far reaches of space. It sends a small group of scientists, and audiences, on a journey that involves intergalactic travel, wormholes and a crisis that threatens to destroy all of humanity. It's epic filmmaking on a galactic scale, full of wonder and ambition, but the bigger canvas brings Nolan's flaws into sharper relief.

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 69 - Comebacks

In light of the news that Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell have signed on to star in the second season of HBO's True Detective, and considering how that show played into the apotheosis of Matthew McConaughey's career resurgence, Joe and I decided to spend this episode of Shot/Reverse Shot talking about comebacks. We talk about comebacks that led to long, successful careers, comebacks that fizzled out almost instantly, and artists who we think deserve at least one more shot at greatness. We also reveal our plan to get hooked on heroin next year, so sorry for spoiling the surprise.

As always, you can stream the podcast using the link below, or preferably (from our point of view) you can subscribe using iTunes. If you choose the later, please rate it and leave a review because it helps us to get more listeners, and also gives us something to obsess over. Speaking of which, you can also Like us on Facebook, assuming that you do.

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 51 - True Detective

Artist's Impression of Joe Gastineau (left) and me.

Following on from our 2014 Preview, in which we singled it out as a show we were very much intrigued by, this week finds Joe and myself poring over the first season of HBO's True Detective, the finale of which aired last Sunday. In addition to wondering just how Dion Dublin fits into the broader mythology of the show, we discuss the aesthetic choices of director Cary Fukanaga, the influence that Weird Fiction had on the tone of the show, and address some of the criticisms of the show, in particular accusations that it is sexist and misogynist, rather than an exploration of sexism and misogyny. (Claims that I think have some considerable merit.) We go into a bit of detail about the resolution of the show, so please do not listen if you haven't seen the whole season.

We also find time to talk about where we think the show will go in the future given that creator Nic Pizzolatto has said that each year will focus on different characters. If HBO want to draw from their stable of past performers, and if the rumours that the next season will focus on female detectives turn out to be true, then I'd like to start the campaign for Melissa Leo and Amy Ryan to headline season two. I mean, I'm not going to start a petition or anything, but I'd just like to throw the suggestion out there and hope that finds purchase.

As always, you can stream the podcast using the link below, or preferably (from our point of view) you can subscribe using iTunes. If you choose the later, please rate it and leave a review because it helps us to get more listeners, and also gives us something to obsess over. Speaking of which, you can also Like us on Facebook, assuming that you do.

Film Review: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a man of many passions and interests, chief amongst them being sex, doing enough drugs to incapacitate the population of Manhattan, and money. So much money; hire midgets so you can throw them at a giant bullseye money. As a stock broker who loses his job at a reputable (by Wall Street standards) firm, gets filthy rich by conning people into buying super cheap shares on which he gets a high commission, then sets up shop with his business partner (Jonah Hill), he is able to live a lifestyle of cartoonish excess. But as profits soar and parties get ever more extravagant, Belfort starts to attract the attention of an FBI agent (Kyle Chandler) who doggedly pursues him and his associates. But when you're obscenely rich, what does it matter if you're breaking the law?

Film Review: Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Given its constituent parts - based on a true story that centres around a main character struggling with AIDS and featuring an actor who loses a huge amount of weight for the role - it's all too easy to imagine a version of Dallas Buyers Club which is prime awards fodder. In the wrong hands, it could have been maudlin, self-important and capital-I Important. Not merely a film about a Serious subject, but one intensely aware of its own Seriousness, and determined to remind the audience just how very Serious it all is. Everything would seem to be in place to create the epitome of middlebrow Oscar bait.

Film Review: Mud (2012)

Few directors capture the Midwest as beautifully and poignantly as Jeff Nichols, and almost none of them do so with the same subtlety. His films are about a great many things - the bonds of family, the difficulty of surviving on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder, what it means to be a man - but he weaves these themes into stories that are so compelling that they never feel laboured or complex for complexity's sake. His films are densely layered, yet they also feel guileless. This is especially true of his third film, Mud, which might seem minor in comparison to the apocalyptic menace of his previous film, Take Shelter, but is no less powerful for its smaller scale.

Film Review: Killer Joe (2011)

William Friedkin’s latest is a deeply unpleasant film about deeply unpleasant people. A tale of betrayal amongst trailers, it deals with the sort of people whose baseness comes less from a place of evil than a kind of banality bred from living somewhere where nothing ever happens. It’s a sleazy and scuzzy slice of misanthropy that sees a group of grotesques get in over their heads, and then suffer the horrific consequences of their actions. In short, it’s a Hell of a lot of fun.

Rethinking Matthew McConaughey

I feel bad for using this ridiculous image as the main one for the article, but if he's going to continue to make artistically interesting choices, then I might no longer get to make fun of him anymore, DAMMIT!

If you're anything like me - and why wouldn't you want to be? I'm grrrrrreat. And a cartoon tiger, apparently - then you probably don't think all that much of Matthew McConaughey, if you think of him at all. For the best part of the last twenty years, he's been a blandly charming presence in a succession of slightly rubbish dramas and extremely rubbish romantic comedies, most of which, if their posters are to be believed, seem to revolve around him leaning on things:

I choose to believe that the level of commitment he brings to any given role can be determined by the angle at which he leans and how few clothes he is wearing on the poster. So we see that he is putting a lot of effort into Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, could give a shit about Failure to Launch, and is super-committed to his work in Surfer, Dude.