www.iamlovemovie.com
Magnolia Pictures
I have been hiding in a box, trying to ignore the crappy, tragic mess of production that gets farted out daily. If you too are bored by predictable, trite and dull cinema as I have been recently you will love this cinematic Italian family drama. Sure you will have to read some subtitles, but Christ, people can still read can’t they? I Am Love begins at the house of the Recchi’s, an important wealthy Milanese family, in which we discover Russian-born Emma, has married into. She plays the stylish, cold, intelligent housewife to her detached and distant husband Tancredi, who is always working away. The extravagant parties she throws leave her as a bystander, and she departs early or finds ways to slink off alone. That is until she meets her son Edo’s friend and business partner Antonio, a young and brilliant chef. In one of the most engaging and heady scenes Emma is taken to Antonio’s restaurant with her mother and law and ‘soon-to-be’ daughter in law. In a spectacular scene, Emma eats a dish Antonio has made, and it’s exciting, lush and incredibly sensual. She is engaged in an illicit affair with a prawn dish, while her mother and daughter in law discuss bland formalities. This obviously leads on to a deep, intense full blown physical affair. With Antonio, not the prawn.
Everything seems to change for Emma when she discovers her daughter Betta is not only gay, but also in a happy relationship. She lovingly accepts and sympathises with her grown children. There is a beautiful scene when Betta gives her grandfather a new piece of art she has done, (usually in the form of painting or drawing), only this time it’s a photograph, of which he doesn’t really enjoy or understand. Emma soothes and reassures Betta, they are affectionate and intimate, and it’s then Betta confides in her mother, requesting she doesn’t tell her father or grandfather, as they wouldn’t understand. Later Edo realises that his mother has been unfaithful to his father, and in turn, him and takes it a bit too far outside by the pool. The following events show Emma being released from her wealthy, respectable cage to the freedom she’s always given her children, in a touching and pulse racing crescendo. John Adams masterfully showers the film in a strange, operatic and eerie soundtrack, which perfectly complements the style of the film.
I Am Love is simple and elegant, rich and powerful but equally beautiful and delicate. It’s an incredibly arresting and almost theatrical portrayal of love, family, passion and the cocoon that wealth and desire bring. The story, technique and style are pleasing to watch, but it’s the acting and soundtrack that keep you drawn in throughout. Admittedly, if you’re not really in the right frame of mind for this it will appear trivial and maybe just too visually over-the-top. But even if this is the case, the luscious and picturesque surroundings, phenomenally stylised outfits (Jil Sander and Fendi), will not only make you want to go to Milan, but will leave you feeling lustful and cultured, even if you really, really hated reading the subtitles.
Emily Paget
Jim Thompson’s ‘The Killer Inside Me‘ is widely regarded as one of the seminal works of first-person-narrated-serial-killer type book, written with such harrowing inside knowledge and conviction you fear the author may actually be a psychopath themselves. Once very living, now rather dead legend Stanley Kubrick, for better or worse, described it as the most chilling and believable first person account of a criminally warped mind he’d ever read. Indeed, the novel still resonates with a deeply unsettling clarity even now, some fifty years since its initial publication. Barring Burt Kennedy’s 1976 version, no one has successfully managed to put this work of psycho sexual noir on to the screen. Hello, 2010, Hello, Michael Winterbottom.
Over the past 15 years Disney Pixar has taken animated film to realms few could possibly have predicted. No longer can we use the word “children’s film” to describe animation, as Pixar have created worlds and characters that get to the heart of complex human emotions, irrespective of age. Pixar appreciates the power of a child’s imagination and it’s this that makes their films perfect for kids, yet they also reignite the child in us “grownups”.
From Sir Ridley Scott, the Director of Alien and Hannibal comes the much-anticipated Robin Hood, based on the legend of the heroic outlaw.
Even though the Werner Herzog film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans, appears to borrow from Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film Bad Lieutenant, it is in no way related to it; the only connection apart from the name being a drug addicted crooked cop.
Even though the new comedy flick Hot Tub Time Machine has such as silly and unbelievably ridiculous plot, there is something about it that works and it concludes as a comical story. The year begins as 2010 but not for long when three friends escape their terrible city lives of Los Angels and head for Kodiak Valley Ski Resort. After a crazy night of drinking and relaxing in a hot tub, the guys wake up during Winterfest ‘86. At first, they set out on a path to act out the same events of that night fourteen years ago, but decide this may be their only opportunity to put right the things in their lives that went wrong, change their destinies and make the futures they had always wanted.
There have been many remakes or revisions as they have come to be called over recent years and the producers of the new A Nightmare on Elm Street have been responsible for a few of them; The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (2003), The Amityville Horror (2005) and Friday the 13th (2009). Unfortunately, where these three all seemed to work well with the adapted story and characters introduced, this is not the case for A Nightmare on Elm Street.
The new supernatural horror-thriller Shelter looks set to become one of the most endearing films to be released of 2010 so far. It will startle you, make you squirm and most importantly, keep you intrigued and guessing right until the end….and beyond.
What do you want from a horror movie? For many lovers of the genre we want shocking, things that that will make you squirm in your seat, gore, blood and something so terrifying your mouth will drop and your heart beat twice as fast as it usual. If this were the sort of thing you would expect to see then The House of the Devil is going to be a huge disappointment. If on the other hand you are looking for something set in the 1980’s (although filmed in 2009) with less gore and more waiting around, then it may be up your alley.
This 2010 remake of The Crazies builds on the story of a small town whose water supply is contaminated by an unknown poison. The original 1973 flick had two subplots, one following the civilians and the other involving the political and military leaders trying to contain the epidemic. The remake has both of these elements but focuses on the efforts the inhabitants of the small town take; how they discover the water supply is contaminated, how they go about resolving the issue, their reaction to the military involvement and their willpower to save loved ones from the containment massacre.