Film Review: Rock Of Ages (2012)

"I sense that Xenu is near..."

Adapted from the hit show, Adam Shankman's Rock Of Ages sets itself out as a rowdy, debauched entry into that venerable cinematic tradition, the jukebox musical. Based largely at the the Bourbon Room, a dingy rock club which, despite apparently being the home of rock and roll within the universe of the film, is always on the verge of financial collapse. Over the course of a few days in 1987, the film follows the stories of people whose lives revolve in some way around the club; the girl fresh off the bus from Oklahoma (Julianne Hough) who dreams of making it as a singer; the bartender/aspiring rock star (Diego Boneta) who falls in love with her; the owner (Alec Baldwin) and his second-in-command (Russell Brand) who are trying to keep the club alive; and the puritanical busybody (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who wants to shut it down.

Film Review: Win Win (2011)

The films of writer-director, more often actor, Tom McCarthy tend to be defined by a low-key, downbeat style that allows him to explore situations which, on the surface, seem like they could make for the most precious, cliched pieces of quirky independent cinema. His first film, The Station Agent, could have very easily become a misguided issues films about the problems of dwarfs, but thanks to a subtly funny and charismatic performance from Peter Dinklage became a much more affecting story of recalcitrant people learning to connect with the people around them. His second, The Visitor, with its story of a college professor (Richard Jenkins) who forms an unlikely friendship with a pair of illegal immigrants through a shared love of Afrobeat, could have been even worse. Yet the quiet, unassuming way in which he decided to tell that story stopped it from being a piece of agitprop posturing, and turned it into a genuinely heartbreaking story of individuals coming together, only to be crushed by faceless organisations.