MARKED MOVIES

Director: Sam Mendes.
Screenplay: Justin Haythe.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, Katherine Hahn, Dylan Baker, David Harbour, Jay O. Sanders, Richard Easton, Max Casella, Zoe Kazan, Ryan Simpkins, Ty Simpkins.

“Titanic” in 1997 was the last time Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet were in a film together. It was also the last time I literally chuckled my way through, what was supposed to be a serious film. “Revolutionary Road”, brings them together again and a chuckle was the last thing on my mind. This is a very serious and astute look at the breakdown of relationships from director Sam Mendes.

Frank and April Wheeler (DiCaprio & Winslet) are two young lovers who have aspirations to move to France and lead the exciting lives they always dreamed of. That is, until April becomes pregnant and they both decide to put their dreams on hold and move into a nice suburban home on Revolutionary Rd, to start their family. Years later, Frank is still working in a job he hates and April is the stay at home mother/wife that she never wanted to be. They both find that their lives have not worked out the way they planned and they have become the very people they hate. This causes obvious resentment and continuous arguments between them, which build to devestating and shattering results.

Mendes has covered this territory before with his Oscar winning look at the underbelly of white picket-fence suburbia in “American Beauty”. However, this time he chooses to cut out the moments of humour and moments of beauty from that film and goes straight for the jugular here.
DiCaprio and Winslet have rarely been better. Their performances are an absolute knockout, each giving as good as the other. Their scenes together when arguing are electric and entirely convincing with both spouting such venom toward each other. The whole look of the film is spot on with wonderful cinematography, perfectly capturing the 1950’s era in which it’s set.
This film was shamefully ignored come Oscar time, receiving only a couple of nominations but it’s worthy of so much more.

If you want real drama, forget the dire “Titanic” and watch this painful and savage look at the anatomy of a relationship.

Mark Walker

Director: John Dahl.
Screenplay: David Levien, Brian Koppelman.
Starring: Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Turturro, John Malkovich, Martin Landau, Gretchen Mol, Famke Janssen, Michael Rispoli, Josh Mostel, Tom Aldredge, Michael Lombard, Chris Messina, Goran Visnjic, David Zayas, Johnny Chan.

Director John Dahl done a couple of great modern noir films in the 90’s that shamefully went unrecognised (“Red Rock West” & “The Last Seduction”) but finally he got some attention with this film, helped by a fine cast.

Mike (Matt Damon) is a law student who happens to be more interested in playing poker. He has the skills but stupidly lost all his money to Russian gangster “Teddy KGB” (John Malkovich) and is now on the straight and narrow and has promised his girlfriend that he’s finished with that life. That is until his long time friend and poker partner “Worm” (Edward Norton) is released from prison. “Worm” owes money all over town and the ever loyal Mike is drawn back into the game and back into the life he doesn’t need or want.

The story is formulaic and has been covered many times before but what really makes the film worthwhile are some great performances. Damon is reliable as always with nice supporting roles for John Turturro and Martin Landau. However, the film tends to sag a little but really kicks back into gear whenever Edward Norton appears onscreen. He is absolutely superb as the aptly named “Worm”, a detestable slimeball of a character, who causes more hassle than he’s worth.

A flawed film that occasionally loses your interest but there’s still enough moments of quality to make it worthwhile.

Worth seeing for Norton’s performance alone.

Mark Walker

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson.
Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Heather Graham, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman, Alfred Molina, Thomas Jane, Philip Baker Hall, Robert Ridgely, Ricky Jay, Nicole Ari Parker, Joanna Gleason, Melora Walters, Jack Wallace, Jonathan Quint, John Doe, Robert Downey, Sr. Nina Hartley.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson made his debut in 1996 with “Hard Eight” but it was with this film, a year later, that he exploded onto the film scene and raised a few eyebrows with this daring and mainstream film about the californian porn industry.

Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) is a young kitchen porter working in a vibrant nightclub. He’s trying to escape his mundane life at home with his parents and make a better life for himself. It’s here that he meets Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), a succesful and well known director in the porn industry. Horner immediately sees the potential in Eddie and takes him under his wing. It is rumoured that Eddie has a “gift” which could make them all very rich indeed. The appeal and glamour of Horner and his cohorts – the sexy Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) and Rollergirl (Heather Graham) are too much for Eddie to resist, so he agrees to become involved. First, he needs a porn name, deciding on “Dirk Diggler” and it’s at this point that the glamourous and exhilarating adventure begins.

Set during the 70′s & 80′s, this captures the period brilliantly (with marvellously evocative cinematography by Robert Elswit) and is reminiscent of director Robert Altman’s “Nashville” or John Badham’s “Saturday Night Fever“. It shares the same elaborate structure of the former and the bold vibrancy of the latter. Being only 26 years old at the time, it was an ambitious project for such a young director at this point in his career to tackle. Anderson could easily have crumbled under the pressure but instead, pulls off (excuse the pun) an intricate and expertly structured film in the style of the aforementioned Altman, in handling numerous characters and narrative strands or Martin Scorsese, in his long and impressive tracking shots. Anderson’s talents are not only apparent in his writing or directing though. He also has an eye for performers and amasses a highly impressive ensemble of actors; Mark Wahlberg has never really convinced me over the years but here he is absolutely perfect (in a role originally offered to Leonardo DiCaprio) and shows fine range as the naive Eddie growing more confident as Dirk; John C. Reilly adds a nice comic role as his bumbling, endearing friend Reed Rothchild; Julianne Moore and Heather Graham excel in their roles as the female leads; William H. Macy as Little Bill is at his tragic best – knowing that his wife is having sex with every other man, except him; Philip Seymour Hoffman, no matter how small a role always manages to add depth and pathos as Scotty J, the homosexual cameraman who can’t resist his urges towards Dirk and Burt Reynolds has never been better as the patriarchal Horner. In fact, there are so many marvellous performances it’s difficult too mention them all here. It’s testament to Anderson’s skills that despite his large cast, he affords them all adequate time to become their characters and never judges them for their shortcomings.

An extraordinary and provocative film, with an abundance of talent throughout. It works both as an expose of the porn industry and a deeply involving character study that’s not without moments of intensity and well tuned humour.

Mark Walker