A Nutshell Review by daface

last SG · 2005-05-29T10:42:43+00:00

A Nutshell Review: I Hate Valentine’s DayI haven’t seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding from start to end, but from what I gathered from scenes, Nia Vardalos is qui...

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: April Bride

It’s easy to roll your eyes and dismiss this film as “yet another popular Japanese romance weepie”, but truth is it’s a dramatic interpretation and enactment of a real person’s last days, a youth who was given the short end of the stick by Fate. On one hand you’re tempted to frivolously park this under Clichés, but on the other, realizing that it’s based on a true story (with dramatized moments of course), your interest gets piqued in trying to understand the reasons behind the filmmakers decision to want to turn her story into a feature film, because there must be something in it that inspired them to do so.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/09/apr…

daface SG

An Interview with Blood Ties Director Chai Yee-wei

Chai Yee-wei is quite the prolific short-film maker in Singapore, having made a number of shorts that have won various awards both locally and abroad. He now joins the ranks of those from Singapore making the leap into feature filmmaking with his debut feature film Blood Ties, which was funded under the Singapore Film Commission’s New Feature Film Fund. Principal photography began on 1 March this year, and it made its World Premiere on 10 September. I have this opportunity to catch up with Yee Wei over a period of time to talk about the transition, and his film.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/09/int…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Fame

I had watched the original Fame movie when I was a kid, enough to know the theme song sung by Irene Cara, but little else. Fast forward to today, I’m pretty sure I still enjoyed the reworked theme song, but the film unfortunately is a disaster, with predictable storylines, cardboard characters, and while I’m quite OK that it may have tried to be more documentary like in its presentation, it just fell short on almost all accounts, save for some of the set musical pieces.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/09/fam…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Accident

You know how it is when you cry wolf too much, or are one of those pranksters who ultimately falls for a trick just because of you didn’t believe it can happen to you. Accident plays along similar lines, and director Soi Cheang’s latest film is an excellent atmospheric piece that adds to Milkyway’s repertoire of tautly crafted contemporary crime thrillers.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/09/acc…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: What’s Your Raashee?

I’ve been following the films made by Ashutosh Gowariker, who has helmed huge epics and worked with the biggest names in Bollywood today, such as Lagaan with Amir Khan, Swades with Shah Rukh Khan, and his previous film Jodhaa Akbar starring Hrithik Roshan and Ashwarya Rai Bachchan. And it’s a fact that his films have runtimes of about 3.5 hours, which goes by real quickly as he keeps the story engaging, and the production values for this films are nothing less than magnificent. So naturally my interest was piqued as the auteur has now turned his sights on a romantic comedy, and I wonder exactly how a filmmaker such as he would be able to tackle this mass-appeal genre.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/09/wha…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Paper Heart

How do you define love? Is it something that’s short lived and passionate, or a long drawn commitment? Is it that fleeting and can disappear on a whim, or something that you know for sure is permanent, consistent and wouldn’t change? For those who have been through a phase of having loved and being loved before, you’re likely to have developed your own philosophy – cynical, sentimental or pragmatic. For someone like Charlyne Yi who has never been in a romantic relationship before, the subject of love, and the dramatized account of her budding romance with Michael Cera, become the parallel stories in Paper Heart.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/09/pap…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Surrogates

What happens if your leading man is wrinkled and balding? Well, in the film world, the rage these days is to be able to do decades worth of flashbacks, or alternative fantasies using your mature actor, with computer graphics providing that painless, silkily smooth and flawless skin, complete with luscious and bouncy hair. Bruce Willis being in his prime, well, that indeed is a draw for the film Surrogates.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/sur…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Don’t watch this on an empty stomach, or in 3D if you’re hungry, otherwise you’re likely to find yourself reaching out at the screen to want to touch those food products that get constantly rained down from the screen. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is extremely delightful, and could give Pixar’s Up a run for its money in both the storyline and the visuals department. And given Sony Pictures Animation’s not too bloated filmography with memorable offerings such as Monster House, Open Season and Surf’s Up, this film proved that their formula is gaining traction, and we should be in for more treats in future.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/clo…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Darah

The first film to be released under the Singapore label Gorylah Pictures set up by Eric Khoo and Mike Wiluan, Darah (or Macabre as it is known internationally) is a one of a kind slasher film from this part of the region, written and directed by the Indonesian duo Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto, collectively known as The Mo Brothers, who actually had a short film version of this made back in 2007 which was simply called Dara, also starring actress Shareefa Daanish as the Mother of all Evil.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/dar…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Taking Woodstock

I always find a certain magnetism with the 60s being portrayed on screen, with the likes of the hippie movement, the space race, the Vietnam war, rock and roll, the list just goes on. It does seem like a definitive time on the loss of innocence, and Lee Ang’s movie Taking Woodstock takes a look at the formation of the Woodstock music festival, based upon the memoirs written by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte titled “Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life”.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/tak…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Funny People

I guess in our current era Team Apatow has been defining the way comedies are done on film, where filthy toilet jokes are staple while casting not-so-good looking nerdy actors (re: charismatic of course) in lead roles consisting of everyday characters with issues we can identify with in broad strokes. With his hands in a lot of pies, bringing along his chums for a ride, it’s somewhat of a surprise actually that this is only the third film to be directed by Judd Apatow.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/fun…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Message

For those anticipating Lu Chuan’s epic Nanking movie City of Life and Death which will premiere this week, you might also want to check out The Message, now playing in cinemas and also set during the turbulent days of the Sino-Japanese war in China in the early 40s. While Lu Chuan’s film tried to portray history through an objective lens, lending to it a documentary-like feel, The Message showed how Chinese cinema has grown to tap upon those dark days to create what would be an extremely well made tale of espionage, with insurgent and spies working effortlessly to bring misery to their Japanese occupiers.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/mes…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Invitation Only

Heralded as Taiwan’s first slasher movie, you wonder what took it so long (really?). Director Kevin Ko knows the ingredients to make it work though, with copious amounts of thick, crimson blood and the numerous shots of hot female bods in slinky dresses grooving to the beat right from the start for that cursory first kill as an appetizer before the main course. Heck, I think the casting of Japanese AV star Maria Ozawa was a shrewd move as well, for what it’s worth, at least to get her fan boys into the theatre for this.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/inv…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: (500) Days of Summer

It’s either pretty uncanny that the story of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) in this film would have paralleled a personal experience cutting in too close for comfort, or that the story by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber would cover such common ground that a disclaimer in the beginning was appropriate. Either way, this is not your typical romantic film meant for dates, but rather more of a therapy session for those still suffering from severe heartache. So allow me to indulge a little, and forgive me if I tend to ramble on, with spoiler alerts on.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/500…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Haeundae: The Deadly Tsunami

I suppose most are now acutely aware of how increasingly devastating natural disasters have been in recent years, starting from the 2004 Asian Tsunami which swallowed thousands of unfortunate souls. Then there are the recent destruction caused by typhoons and earthquakes, the latter which we’re more acquainted with given the tremors which we feel as a result of neighbouring incidents, a phenomenon not experienced until the last few years.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/hae…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Julie & Julia

Watching this film made me want to pick up proper cooking, in whipping up some gastronomical delights to satisfy tastebuds, and what better way to bond with friends than over a delicious meal? Of course this wasn’t the ambition of Julie Powell (Amy Adams) or Julia Child (Meryl Streep), two real life characters in which this film adopted from, where their passion stemmed from, well, boredom and the desire to occupy their time with something.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/jul…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: Talentime

I’m sure a Talentime contest is something that folks from my generation would have grown up with in school, and of course the more commercial version of the same would be akin to those television idol series with plenty of pomp which send cash registers ringing. There isn’t an outright winner here though, since it’s a performance by individuals carefully selected and rehearsed for the big day, and drawing from a multi-racial, multi-talented pool of students, it goes to show how when everyone is in concert together and contributing to their strengths, there’s going to be some fireworks on display with a force to be reckoned with.

More at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/tif…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Blue Mansion

It’s been an extremely long pause between Forever Fever (retitiled That’s The Way I Like It in the USA) and his latest film The Blue Mansion, some 11 years where he had too many other projects to be listed that were accomplished between these two films, but it was a wait well worth it. Just ask the Japanese fans, who were equally thrilled that they could savour his latest offering just after its world premiere at the Pusan International Film Festival, I’ve always felt that Forever Fever, which also starred Adrian Pang, was ahead of its time in terms of how a Singapore mass appeal film could be made, without relying on cheap gimmicks, but instead possessed a strong story and an all round excellent delivery from its ensemble cast. The same continues in The Blue Mansion.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/blu…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: The Hurt Locker

There are enough films out there made by the West over the years on the current theatre of war in the Middle East, either indirect political thrillers like Syriana or Lions for Lambs, or action based ones such as The Kingdom, or Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, which is a superb, microscopic examination of the state of confusion, fear and desperation for survival seen from the eyes of a small, three man detachment from the Explosive Ordinance Unit, who basically risk their lives on a daily operational basis to disarm bombs and improvised explosives so as to save countless more of civilians and fellow soldiers alike.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/hur…

daface SG

A Nutshell Review: This Is It

And you cannot get better ringside seats than what this film has to offer. Culled from various rehearsals sometimes of the same song, it allows you to see how MJ finetunes and experiments with various ideas, especially for his dance. His stage performances were always a spectacle, and the sheer amount of effort in pyrotechnics and special effects, would make you wonder how awesome the actual London performance would have been, which sadly will never materialize beyond the ideas tossed up in this documentary.

Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/thi…

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