Shutter Island

When I first saw Shutter Island it absolutely blew me away. It was a film that I knew nothing about and I picked it up relatively cheap on the recommendation of a woman who I did not know. It was a complete unknown. However, skipping forward two and a half years and it is one of my favourite films. It is the film that cemented Leonardo Di Caprio as one of my favourite actors, and to this day whenever I watch it I pick up new things about the story.

Basically it’s about a guy called Teddy Daniels who is sent to investigate an escaped patient at a hospital for the criminally insane. Alongside his partner Chuck, he investigates her disappearance in the eerily creepy hospital. However, things start to get a little bit mysterious and scary. Added to Teddy’s flashbacks to his experiences in the war and his hallucinations of his dead wife, the audience is soon aware that something isn’t right. By the time the twist came around there was no way I saw it coming, and even at the end there is an ambiguity which leaves me pondering the outcome for hours after I see it.

Like Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed before it, Shutter Island is another collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Di Caprio. Of all the Di Caprio-Scorsese films I have seen (three out of five) this one is the one I enjoyed the most. While it is not Scorsese’s best film in terms of direction and impact and what not, I found it so fantastically enjoyable that I rank it up there with some of his best work (much to the dismay of many Scorsese purists I’m sure).

Leonardo Di Caprio is fantastic in the film. He plays a character who starts out angry, and by the end of the film, what with everything that has gone on, is positively fuming. If you haven’t seen the film before then skip over the next couple of sentences because there will be spoilers. Ready? Good. His acting is so convincing that even when Dr Cawley and Chuck were telling him the truth about his identity, I was fairly convinced that it was part of the plot to trap him there. This is a credit both to Di Caprio’s involvement in his character, and to the writers for making the story so absorbing. I have nothing but praise for Di Caprio in this film and, although it is not one of the best acting performances ever, it comes in a film that is so engaging and enjoyable that it is hard not to like his character, and feel for him at the end of the film.

Ben Kingsley is riveting as the enigmatic Dr Cawley. Throughout the film, largely due to the emerging plot around Ashecliffe, the audience is unsure whether he is trustworthy or not. Ben Kingsley, in the nicest possible way of course, has an appearance that breeds a certain ambiguity about his character. At the end of the film though (spoilers) he is revealed as an inherently caring man who always wants what is best for his patients. Although there is evidence of this throughout, it only becomes apparent when the audience is made aware of the twist.

Shutter Island is based on a book by the same name. The film does follow the book relatively closely. However, the ending of the film and the book are relatively different. While there are some parts of the book that the film would be unable to include (for obvious reasons of time) the film adds one line in at the end (“is it better to die as a good man or to live as a monster?”). This is the line which makes the ending so much of a mindblower. However, it isn’t in the book and creates a more pointed sense of ambiguity. The inclusion of this line points much more towards one direction of the sane-insane ending. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, and I fully trust Scorsese’s judgement on this one. Ultimately, he has directed more candidate films for the ‘best of all time’ than I have.

When you watch the film for a second time, with knowledge of how it is going to play out, it becomes much better as you are able to appreciate every little bit of information that points you in the direction of the conclusion. From the initial reactions of the guards when Teddy and Chuck arrive through to the fear that the patients have of the marshalls, the exchange between the Warden (Ted Levine) and Teddy, and the nature of Dr Naehring’s (Max von Sydow) conversations with Teddy. Everything becomes apparent the second time and this is why I enjoy the film so much, even now when I have seen it more times than I can remember. I pick up new bits of information every time I watch it, and it is a film with many different layers to it. That probably sounds weird, but it is a film with every last bit of Scorsese’s subtext as his other masterpieces. There is ambiguity over the positioning of the lighthouse and the angles from which it is viewed, as well as the flashbacks Teddy has.

Ultimately, Shutter Island is one of those films that you have to make your own mind up about. Personally, (spoilers) I think that he is sane but realises that he is too dangerous to risk relapsing again and sacrifices himself. I cannot recommend that you watch Shutter Island strongly enough, just so you can make your own mind up about what is going on. It is a fantastic film, very enjoyable, and captures your attention without difficulty. Unmissable in my opinion. 

Other films starring Leonardo Di Caprio
Django Unchained - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/django-unchained.htmlThe Great Gatsby - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-great-gatsby.html

Other films directed by Martin Scorsese
Casino - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/casino_28.htmlRaging Bull - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/raging-bull.html

Other Scorsese-Di Caprio films
The Departed - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-departed.html
The Aviator - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-aviator.html

The Aviator

The Aviator is a biopic about the aviation magnate and Hollywood director Howard Hughes. With Leonardo Di Caprio in the title role, Martin Scorsese directing it, and a supporting cast including Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Kate Beckinsale and John C. Reilly, I was really looking forward to watching it.

Howard Hughes starts out as a director, and produces a few very successful films. Early on we see that he is completely devoted to this, and has a really need to get every aspect of his production as perfect as possible. This manifests later as profound obsessive compulsive disorder, but the early signs are there once you watch it back. After a very successful directing career he marries a woman (Cate Blanchett), but his successful lifestyle soon begins to causes their marriage problems. Hughes starts to focus on aviation and buys a large share of an airline company. Breaking a number of airspeed records, and experiencing a number of horrific crashes, Howard Hughes soon becomes a massive influence on aviation but then the cracks start to appear. His life becomes thrust into the public eye more and he becomes paranoid and compulsive. He is then investigated by the Senate and manages to defend himself successfully. However at the end of the film his compulsions become worse and the film end with him repeated ‘the way of the future’ over and over.

Scorsese is an absolute genius in my opinion, and has directed some of my favourite ever films. While The Aviator does not quite make the list, it is a very good film, and is fantastically made. For example, all the aeroplane scenes were shot using scale models because of the criticism that Pearl Harbor received for using CGI. This makes the film more of a spectacle, and makes it seem a lot more realistic. Scorsese’s impressive attention to detail shines through as well. For example, he made Cate Blanchett watch all the film that her character Katharine Hepburn had starred in up to the point of filming so that she could perfect her mannerisms. Not being particularly knowledgeable about Hepburn’s films, I can’t say whether or not Blanchett does a good job, but the level of devotion to perfection that Scorsese has (and indeed that Hughes had), is a hallmark of the best directors.

Di Caprio is wonderful to watch as the main character Howard Hughes. I really like him as an actor, and as a person, and think that The Aviator marks another example of his impressive skills. His perfection of the obsessive compulsive mannerisms of Hughes is brilliant, and while I don’t know how true to Hughes they are, he is very convincing when he displays them. Di Caprio conveys the fill range of emotions that Hughes experiences in the film with immense precision. When he is directing the films there is a sense of tension when something hasn’t gone perfectly, and when Hell’s Angels premiere’s the anxiety Di Caprio shows in anticipation of the audience’s reaction permeated through the screen (although that might just be me getting weird). He seems completely comfortable in the cockpit of an aeroplane, and Di Caprio’s ability to turn this joy and elation into sheer panic so convincingly completes the tension of the crash scenes. Since 2002, Di Caprio has appeared in all but one of Scorsese’s films and, given time, this could become as iconic a pairing as De Niro and Scorsese. Di Caprio’s acting stock is definitely on the increase, and The Aviator is just one example of why.

Although, it is not a film that is completely made by Di Caprio, and the supporting cast add an awful lot to the impact of the film. Cate Blanchett is fantastic as Hughes’ first wife, and manages her accent perfectly throughout the film. Her relationship with Hughes is intriguing. Although they may grow apart, when she comes to visit him in his isolation there is a sense that the chemistry is still there. Alec Baldwin plays Hughes’ main rival Juan Trippe, the chairman of Pan Am airways. His determination to impede the progress of the protagonist makes him a dislikable character in the film, and this is only compounded by the influence he has over the politicians. No-one seems to want to help Hughes succeed except those who he employs. Even then Hughes is suspicious of nearly everyone around him. Alec Baldwin comes to represent the people plotting against Hughes and the eventual defeat of the Senate investigation is one of the best moments of the film. A quick mention must also go to John C. Reilly. When I reviewed Carnage I think I mentioned how strange it was not to see him in a comedy role, and once again in The Aviator it felt a bit odd. However, he does very well and seems to be forging himself a more serious acting career. All the evidence so far suggests that this can only be a good thing.

The Aviator is not a high powered, joy-filled, rollercoaster of a film. It does have its ups and its downs in terms of keeping the audience’s interest. However, as with any biopic, it is an opportunity to find out a little bit more about something new, and if you get into it, it is thoroughly enjoyable. It is very long (just short of three hours), but if you have the patience to sit down and engage with it, I think it will be well worth your time.

Other films starring Leonardo Di Caprio

Django Unchained - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/django-unchained.html

The Great Gatsby - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-great-gatsby.html

Other films directed by Martin Scorsese

Casino - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/casino_28.html

Raging Bull - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/raging-bull.html

Another Scorsese-Di Caprio film

The Departed - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-departed.html

The Great Gatsby

Having read The Great Gatsby in anticipation of the release of the film I found it to be quite a difficult read. I put this down to the time it was written it, yet it didn't spoil how much I enjoyed the story. Having watched the film now I realise how excellent the book is. The Great Gatsby adapts the book in a way that makes it much more engaging for a modern audience.

As the title suggests, the plot is about a man named Gatsby (Leonardo di Caprio). He is a bit of an enigma though as he throws massive parties at his house every week but no-one seems to know who he is or what he does. Many different stories exist about him but it turns out that he once loved a girl called Daisy (Carey Mulligan). She lives across the lake from him and his whole display of grandeur is an attempt to find her again. She is married to Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) though and so Gatsby enlists the help of his good friend and the narrator Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire).

The cast is fantastic, and Leonardo di Caprio, once again, shines in the leading role. His portrayal of Gatsby is so spot on to how I imagined him in the book. He exudes an air of confidence and power throughout the film, and yet maintains a sense of mystery throughout. I would be quite surprised if he isn't nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. He makes the character of Gatsby every bit as engaging as it should be and has firmly cemented him as one of my favourite actors at the moment. Equally impressive is Tobey Maguire. Having not seen anything he has been in since Spiderman 3 (and the less said about that the better) I was interested to see how he did in such a well promoted and highly anticipated film. I was pleasantly surprised and Maguire pulls off a portrayal of Nick Carraway that seems to be every bit the portrayal that the book describes. He starts of as a reserved and conscientious chap but evolves throughout the film to be a very interesting character. The onscreen chemistry between di Caprio and Maguire is wonderful, and is obviously a result of them being childhood friends.

Both di Caprio and Maguire are a pleasure to watch, as is Carey Mulligan, who plays the lovelorn Daisy Buchanan. I hadn't really seen Mulligan in anything before (except for one episode of Doctor Who in 2007) and so was quite sceptical about her casting. She did nothing but entertain me for the whole film. She engaged with both Maguire and di Caprio perfectly and delights in the role. She does a wonderful job of appearing head over heels in love with Gatsby and yet reflects the difficulty she has with leaving Tom perfectly. Additionally, the amount of impressive work from hair and make up means that she really looks the part as well.

There were a number of things about the direction that I particularly enjoyed. In the book, the green light at the end of the harbour is a particularly prominent theme, and I wasn't quite sure how Luhrmann would be able to pull this off. To my surprise though he did it absolutely fantastically. Even in the scenes where the house is slightly in the background, the flashing green light was ever present, and I love the message that this wove throughout the film. Every Baz Luhrmann film is very engaging, but there is something quite different about The Great Gatsby. Instead of holding your attention, there were some scenes where I felt that I wanted to be involved. For example, the party scenes were particularly engaging and enjoyable, to the point that I found myself wanting them to go on for a bit longer. This level of engagement is very rare in modern cinema and is exceptionally well managed by Luhrmann.

However, there were a couple of things that I took issue with, most prominently the soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fantastic soundtrack and I really enjoyed it, but I felt that it collided too much with the 1922 theme of the film. Party scenes set to a modern Jay-Z tune didn't sit perfectly comfortably with me. However, I enjoyed them nonetheless. Also, I thought the soundtrack was a bit Jay-Z heavy. For the first half of the film I am fairly confident that it was only Jay-Z songs. I know he was the executive producer for the film, but a touch of variety would have been nice early on. The only other thing I took issue with was that in some of the scenes it was painfully obvious that the words spoken by the characters were not what was coming out of the actor’s mouths. There is nothing worse than a mismatch between vocals and mouth movements, and given the budget and publicity surrounding this film I was disappointed to see it.

Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed The Great Gatsby. I think it is very entertaining and engaging, and fantastically adapts the book. The acting is exceptional (particularly Leonardo di Caprio), and the direction is wonderful. Most of all it captivates the audience, first with the mystery of Gatsby and then with the unfolding love story. I would recommend that you read the book before you see it, just to get an idea of the story and stuff and if you enjoy that, then watch the film. Be careful though old sport, because it’s not for everyone.

Other films starring Leonardo di Caprio:

Django Unchained - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/django-unchained.html

The Departed - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-departed.html

The Departed

Once again I find myself writing about a film I've been dying to see for ages and finally have. With an all star cast, a fantastic director and great reviews from nearly everyone I know who has seen it, Academy Award winning film The Departed promised to be a very well spent two and a half hours. And it didn't disappoint.

While it was quite hard to follow at times, the plot was fantastic. It was full of little twists and turns that made for a brilliant anticipation of the climax at the end. With Leonardo di Caprio working his way closer to finding out who the mole in the police was, and Matt Damon working his way closer to finding out who the mole in Frank Costello's crew was, the realisation of the identity of the two traitors was brilliant. The way they solved it was equally exciting, and just when you thought that everything was going to work out, something happened to throw that into doubt.

The cast of this film is incredible. Jack Nicholson is always fantastic, and I don't think I've ever not enjoyed watching him act. As the leader of the gang in this film he came across as an extremely powerful and dangerous man (which I guess was the point), but there were hints of his performance as The Joker as well. He came across as slightly unhinged at one point, but generally exuded the power of a man who will smash another man's cast and broken hand repeatedly just to make sure he's not a policeman.

Leonardo di Caprio is very strong once again. Although he was a policeman of sorts for the whole film, his integration into Costello's gang meant that he came across as a bad guy, and this was refreshing because I don't think I've ever seen him as a bad guy. Nevertheless he was very good and was perfectly cast in this role in my opinion. His ability to flick between 'member of the gang' and 'convincing undercover cop' was good to see and the whole resulting scenes from his discovery of the police mole were thrilling.

These scenes would not have been complete without Matt Damon. One reason that the film is so thrilling is because right from the start the audience knows that Matt Damon and Leonardo di Caprio are the two traitors, and so you find yourself willing them both to discover the other, and urging them to pick up on clues, and admiring the irony of the police putting Matt Damon in charge of the hunt for the police mole. Generally I can't make up my mind on what I think about Matt Damon as an actor, but with The Departed I think I may have found a starting point for my appreciation of him. His role in the conclusion is thrilling, as I mentioned before, and he plays his part to perfection.

Now those three names: Nicholson, di Caprio and Damon, aren't bad names to have as the first billed actors on any film. The amazing thing about The Departed though is that they're not the only stars. Mark Wahlberg is brilliant as the wronged police officer who seeks his vengeance on the man who replaced him. Martin Sheen is the initial chief of the police who gets a bit too close to one of his moles. The appearances of Alec Baldwin, Ray Winstone and Vera Farmiga were delightful, and the roles that each of them played helped make this film that little bit more memorable. Obviously Ray Winstone was a non nonsense enforcer with a bit of an accent and taste for violence as ever, but in The Departed this works so well with the rest of the storyline that it fits perfectly.

Martin Scorsese is a genius. He has directed far too many of my favourite films for me not to absolutely love him, and with The Departed he does not disappoint. One thing I noticed was that several characters who die in the film is warned of this with a little 'X' in the shot before they die. This little tip of the cap to the 1932 'Scarface' is fantastically applied in The Departed, and with so many people dying, this helps the audience keep up, but only if they notice it. This is widely considered by film critics to be Scorsese's finest work since Goodfellas. While I cannot argue that it is a fantastic film, there are others that I prefer more. However, anyone who likes a Scorsese film has to see The Departed.

The Departed is a action-packed thrill ride of guns, blood, twists, turns and terrific actors. Yes it's difficult to follow at times. Yes it's quite heavy to watch. Yes you should see it though. It won 'Best Picture' for a reason, and what that reason is does not take much working out. It's simply fantastic and I would strongly recommend giving it a watch.

Django Unchained

There was quite a lot of anticipation for the latest film from Quentin Tarantino. With some already excellent films behind him, Django Unchained was always going to be successful. However, its released was surrounded by a number of articles damning Tarantino for his comic use of violence and how he doesn't take serious issues such as slavery or the Holocaust seriously. I find that the best solution to this is as follows. If you don’t like the look of a film, don’t go and watch it. If you think it’s too violent, don’t go and watch it. If you think you might get offended because the film has slaves or Nazis in it, don’t go and watch it. It’s simple really.

The plot of Django Unchained is very enjoyable, and there’s no doubt that it’s an edge of your seat thriller, if you like Tarantino’s movies. However, there are some very similar plot lines to in his other movies, such as Kill Bill or Inglorious Basterds, where there’s a main character who has a grudge to settle and kills a lot of people in settling that grudge. A man is freed from slavery, joins with a bounty hunter, kills people, and then tries to free his wife from slavery. The difference with Django is that it happens in a completely different setting. Imagine a Western which Tarantino would walk into and stamp his mark all over. Despite parallels to other films, Django Unchained is a different film, and it is a very good way to spend a couple of hours.

Having seen Jamie Foxx in ‘Ray’ and absolutely loving him, I was very interested to see how he would do in a Tarantino movie. He is very good, and has a very sinister air to his character. When the audience can almost ‘feel’ the character getting angry, and is anxiously waiting to see what happens, you can tell that the actor is doing something right. He delivers some of Tarantino’s one-liners perfectly. However, I did find the development of his character a little bit unrealistic. However, I then realised that it was Tarantino, the guy who can have a girl shot from one direction and have her fly off in a completely different direction. I found myself (unsurprisingly) rooting for Foxx, and overall liked the character he played.

I loved Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds, and in Django Unchained he was every little bit as wonderful. His character, the bounty hunter, was quick-tongue, witty, sly, and determined. The scene where Django finally sees his wife again and she faints in shock is absolutely made by Waltz’s delivery of his punchline. I thought his character was very interesting too. The scene where he is making the deal with Candie just shows how principled his character is. I’m not sure he deserves his Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor though. Either way I don’t think he’ll win it, and I’m not trying to deny that he was fantastic in this film. It’s almost worth going to see just for him, which is saying something.

Leonardo di Caprio is one of my all-time favourites. Not because I think he’s an amazing actor, but because I just enjoy his films and his characters. He shows incredible versatility, and Django Unchained is no exception. As the wealthy Francophile owner of a vast number of slaves, he is very confident and arrogant. He hates to be made a fool of and seems to be very different to the historical view of slave owners, treating many of his slaves as his friends. However, there are some scenes which are just grim. He doesn’t bat an eyelid at one man being torn apart by dogs, and is more than happy to let two men fight to the death to see who is the better fighter. His acting is fantastic, but his character is better, and once again I found myself enjoying the time he spent on screen. He’s definitely one of Tarantino’s more interesting characters, and parallels can be drawn to Hans Landa in the way that he doesn’t show the typical historical attitude to the people Tarantino poses his character against.

Can anyone say a bad word about Samuel L Jackson? He is once again, absolutely incredible in Django Unchained, and the audience is left a little bit unsure as to what his role is in Candie’s life. He raised him, and also runs his house, but Candie seems to respect his opinion over and above many of the white men he employs. Jackson is as funny as Waltz in this film, and his sheer shock at seeing Django on a horse (and the following exchange between him and Candie) had me in stitches. However, his character is much more serious than that, and represents a major influence in the life of a white man, which at the time would have been largely unthinkable.  I largely agree with this article (http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/01/08/samuel_l_jackson_in_django_unchained_deserves_an_oscar_as_stephen_quentin.html) which promotes Jackson for the Supporting Actor nomination over Waltz, purely because he shows off his acting skills to the fullest in Django.

In terms of other Tarantino films, Django will never be considered as one of the best. That title will always, in my eyes, go to Pulp Fiction, with Reservoir Dogs a close second. I also don’t think it is as good as Inglorious Basterds, but I think it could give Kill Bill a decent run for its money. Having not yet seen Jackie Brown, I can’t comment on this, but Django Unchained will definitely be considered a classic Tarantino movie, and it’s definitely worth a watch. If you liked his other movies you will like Django, but if you don’t like violence, comic or otherwise, I’d steer clear.