Cloud Atlas

 Discarded by most as a simple overindulgence most will remember the adapted screenplay of Life Of Pi over the adaptation of Cloud Atlas, a book which is equally if not more audacious. After the dismal two predecessors to perhaps one of the action genres greatest assets, The Matrix, The Wachowski’s have certainly took upon an ambitious project hoping once again to reignite their cinematic flame. Seeking the help of ‘Run Lola Run’ director Tom Tykwer to aid in the production, Cloud Atlas follows the story arcs of several different people in several different time periods, exploring how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future. Pretentious as it may seem Cloud Atlas successfully manages to stimulate the audience with a story told with gentle hands, moulding the beautifully structured narrative to result in a cinematic spectacle just shy of perfection.

 Alike it’s lavish adapted counterpart of last year, Life of pi, Cloud Atlas’ most notable triumph is that of its fantastic storytelling and coinciding cinematography. To convert a seemingly ‘un-filmable’ book onto the big screen is a cumbersome task, especially whilst considering the novels multi-stranded narrative, yet none the less it’s a task which has been handled with such delicate care and evident attention to detail. Following a clone in an insidious utopian future one minute, then following a troubled  journalist in present day,  the narrative leaps and bounds across time and space quite literally and despite this frequent movement the film never proves to be tiresome constantly linking each narrative strand, carefully making sure it maintains the focus of the audience. On occasion some strands of the narrative show to be more or less interesting than another with the film sometimes being too wacky for its own good pushing the limits of your imagination a little too far tipping into laughable deliriousness as Hugo Weaving takes upon a feminine attire and plastic surgery to match; to bizarre comic effect.

Although some scenes are meant to supply comic relief, the humour did feel at times out of place especially with the stiff upper lip assumed as the narrative is carefully deciphered, and  this is made only more puzzling with the inclusion of a variety of interlinking actors. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent are only some of the many talented actors used lavishly throughout the film with each one of them recycled into each other’s ‘time lines’ using prosthetics that are sometimes jarring but frequently impressive throughout. Each performance ‘behind the mask’ is brilliant with a clear sense of passion and enjoyment radiating from each one of them, to almost exaggerated lengths.  Performances are aided in particular by the phenomenally poetic screenplay, as characters belt poignant lines from the book with notable vigour and enthusiasm.

 Despite its highly complex nature Cloud Atlas ultimately feels like a simply structured narrative as a result of its impeccable storytelling. Edited to perfection in order to deliver an intelligent and understandable story to the masses Cloud Atlas is a rare cinematic beauty that never ceases to amaze and inspire.

9/10- A cinematic achievement on a momentous scale.

Calum Russell

Russell Awards and Oscar Predictions

 On the whole 2012 was a pretty impressive year of film, despite it's dominance by the franchise's and constant sequels, reboots etc. Three films joined the box office elites in the top 10 highest grossing films of all time, Bond surpassed the age of 50, the avengers were finally brought together on screen and the dark knight rose  in amongst a year of many more achievements. 2012 also saw the momentary downfall of the comedy with nearly every one disappointing making the shine out star the hilarious but perhaps overrated 21 Jump Street, this however did make way for an influx in impressive action films and more surprisingly the release of some genuinely intelligent horror films. It could be forever disputed what the shine out film of the year is, but here are the results of the 1st Annual Russell Awards (the most trusted awards ceremony in recent history).

Starting off with Most Surprising Film of the year of which the nominees are...

The Avengers
Dredd 3D
The Grey
Magic Mike
The Perks of being a wallflower

and deservingly winning the award is...

The Avengers 

Winning by just one vote to Dredd 3D.

The next catagory is the award for the Best Villain the nominees are...

Andrew- Chronicle
Bane- The Dark Knight Rises
Silva- Skyall
Loki- The Avengers
Mad Dog- The Raid

and the landslide winner is Bane despite his underwhelming death

It takes great sadness in announcing the award for Worst Film  here are the nominees...

American pie : Reunion
Piranha 3DD
The Lorax
Taken 2

and the shameful winner is the abysmal Taken 2  winning by 1 vote to the equally awful Piranha 3DD

With a ton of original films released last year the nominees for Most Original Screenplay are...

The cabin in the woods
Django unchained
Looper
Moonrise kingdom
Sightseers

and the award goes to the best sci-fi in years, Looper

Into the acting categories, the nominees for Best Supporting Actress are...

Anne Hathaway- Les miserables
Judi Dench- Skyfall
Kara Hayward- Moonrise kingdom
Sally Field- Lincoln

and the rather 'obvious' winner is the awards snatching yet deserved winner Anne Hathaway

Onto best Supporting Actor nominations...

Alan Arkin- Argo
Dwight Henry- Beasts of the southern wild
Javier Bardem- Skyfall
Matthew McConaughey- Killer Joe
Matthias Schoenaerts- Rust and bone

and in another landslide victory Javier Bardem steals the award!

Onto the lead actress award which holds nominations for...

Jessica Chastain- Zero dark thirty
Jennifer Lawrence- Silver linings playbook
Marion Cotillard- Rust and bone
Michelle Williams- Take this waltz
Quvenzhane Wallis- Beasts of the southern wild

and whilst the film may be horribly overrated her performance is not at all, Jennifer Lawrence wins

For the big Best Actor award the nominees are...

Daniel Day-Lewis- Lincoln
Hugh Jackman- Les Miserables
John Hawkes- The sessions
Liam Neeson- The grey
Suraj Sharma- Life of pi

and with a fair majority vote, Hugh Jackman steals the victory

For Best Director the nominees are...

Ang Lee- Life of pi
Ben Affleck- Argo
Benh Zetlin- Beasts of the southern wild
Joss Whedon- The avengers
Sam Mendes- Skyfall

and clinching the win for the best Bond film for years, Sam Mendes  with Ben Affleck just one vote behind

and finally, the film to hit the big time, and win the award for Best Film  is one of these ten nominees...

Argo
The avengers
Beasts of the southern wild
Django unchained
The grey
Life of pi
Looper
Moonrise kingdom
The raid
Skyfall

and the winner is...the most surprising, most spectacular, highest grossing film of the year, it's The Avengers

and fair play to it too, it did exactly what it said on the tin and more to become the all time definitive 'blockbuster movie' and the film of the year.








As for the far worse American awards show they call 'The Oscars' the winners are likely to be a touch different due to their blind cinematic eyes. But none the less here's some Oscar predictions for the main categories of Best Actor, Actress, Director and Film.

Best Actor

Like much of this years Oscars many actors have been overlooked for this category due to the lack of money given to the board as a bribe and their simple ignorance. The most obscure nomination is perhaps that of Bradley Cooper who gave an above average performance in the otherwise boring Silver linings playbook, however nothing to constitute awards success. Denzel Washington's award for Flight is simply an acknowledgement of his terrific acing ability as a win for him would be slightly surprising due to this performance seeming no more than a routine. It would be great to see Joaquin Pheonix win for The master as his performance was more than impressive however his simple oppositional view against the Oscars is likely to result in family friendly Jackman or Day-Lewis to steal his deserved crown. This leaves the two to battle it out and on the night it will be a 50/50 call. Perhaps Day-Lewis has the upper hand playing the American icon, Abraham Lincoln to terrifying accuracy however the fact that Jackman has never won before is certainly appealing especially as his performance stood out firmly from the Les Miserable cast.

Winner- Day-Lewis/ Jackman?

Best Actress

The best actress category this year may be the best and most accurate for a long time showing performances from varying ages, backgrounds and genres. The most surprising of which is Emmanuelle Riva claiming a nomination for Amour. After her Bafta win, Riva could throw a spanner in the works and throw bookies favourite Lawrence out of the competition. Talking of Jennifer Lawrence it's most likely she'll win this category being 'Hollywoods sweetheart' and all, she was the only good thing about Silver linings playbook and is the staple in the new 'tween' franchise The hunger games, a win is all but assured for Lawrence. One of her most worthy opponents is Jessica Chastain showing to be a sturdy character in amongst a crowd of men in Zero dark thirty, she shone from the crowd but simply didn't do a considerable amount to fight her corner for the award. The dark horse here is Naomi Watts for The impossible, it's one of the only categories the film is nominated for and due to it's subject matter and her outstanding performance, a win here wouldn't be wholly surprising. What would be surprising however would be if 9 year-old Quvenzhane Wallis won the award for her fantastic performance in Beasts of the southern wild. With her career wide in front of her, a win would be a little unjust however no one can deny her tenacious performance is at the least worthy of wide recognition.

Winner- Jennifer Lawrence?

Best Director

Here's a question. Where's Ben Affleck? Where's Sam Mendes? Where's Rian Johnson? Where's Joss Wheadon? This is by far the most snubbed category of the whole awards show with a few nominations being heavily questionable. Before you begin yelling insults, chucking pizza at the screen and generally creating a mess, lets explain why. Michael Haneke's Amour was an excellent film, but wasn't particularly well executed in a directional standpoint with little to show in the small confines of the house in which the film is set. As for the wildly over-nominated Spielberg his nomination is only slightly deserved with Lincoln doing little to maintain interest in a film of heated debates. As for David O.Russell's poorly executed Silver linings playbook a nomination here is insulting for creating another piece of cliched, whimsical 'rom-comery'. The only two nominations worthy of the crown are that of Ang Lee and Benh Zeitlin. Zeitlin created something out of something complicated and arguably bland, the direction and coinciding cinematography is near-perfect in Beasts of the southern wild, a film that is as enticing as it is memorable. As for Ang Lee's direction in one of the years best films, Life of pi, a win here would be totally deserved as to transcribe the words of an 'unfilmable' book onto screen is an achievement in itself, the extent to which he achieved this is unbelievable.

Winner- Ang Lee?

As for Best Film a through dissection must take place...

Amour- This film was impressive to say the least however this is most likely a nomination for recognition in order for more people to get involved with foreign film, to learn to be unphased by subtitles. A win would be justified but surprising.

Argo- Winner of the Golden Globe, Bafta and various other awards shows is arguably the front runner, climbing the ladder to lead the front of the cinematic pack. This however may be the case however Argo simply isn't an impressive enough film to win, it's not an 'Oscar winner' it doesn't have that weird sparkle all the winners seem to have. A win would be surprising.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild- This is perhaps the dark horse but also similar to Amour in the fact that this is nominated for recognition. The film is good enough and sparkly enough, but the big Hollywood names that the Oscars adore so much aren't present.

Django Unchained- Now this was good, but really? This good? It dealt with slavery in an interesting Tarantino-esque fashion with a no bar's held back manner, yet it did so with such gratuitous violence and swearing that simply wasn't necessary and then followed with a concluding hour of nonsense. This is too controversial to win.

Les Miserables- As much as this film was wildly liked, it wasn't wildly adored like an Oscar winner should be . The achievement is impressive,true, however this simply wasn't reviewed well enough to clinch the crown. Furthermore with the acting nominations secured for two of the leads and a win almost certified for Hathaway, Les Mis should scoop a fair few. Worthy, but is it loved enough to win?

Life Of Pi- This may be the most realistic winner on the list. The film may not be full of stars but Ang Lee, the director, is enough to make it appealing to all the starry eyed Oscar executives. Not only is Life of pi a masterpiece but it also appeals to mainstream audiences being the only film on the list displayed in 3-D, and with audiences claiming their voices aren't being heard, a win would be in no way surprising.

Lincoln- The front runner  Perhaps not, but certainly up there, this has enough star factor and is patriotic enough for it to win especially with 'Oscar darling' Spielberg at the Helm  However with many claiming Lincoln isn't all that impressive and with it failing to really connect with mainstream audiences, this one could come down to the wire. Never the less this would be no surprise.

Silver Linings Playbook- Why? Why is this nominated? Not only is this film an out and out bore to watch, but it's also a big cliched mess of film formula's. It's hardly new or refreshing and does little to show a new side to people with mental issues. This was made with as much heart as a happy meal with no toy. If this win's the Oscar's is officially bullshit.

Zero dark thirty- This is a tightly knit film, with some excellent performances and some excellent directing. So why will it probably not win? Three letters...the C..I..A. Lets be honest if the CIA is slamming it down it's not going to win, it's pretty much crippled it's Oscar chances but never the less it's deserved.

Thus concludes the Oscar predictions for this year, lets hope this year brings about as much brilliance as the last, unless Silver Linings Playbook wins, if so see you in 2015!

Calum Russell

Wreck-It Ralph

 Recently stuck in a small cinematic rut, Disney have found themselves unable to live up to their beloved name producing an inconsistent flow of sparkling garbage. Failing to connect with mainstream audiences Disney saw the it's animation competition get the better of them in recent years, especially with the influx of last years stop motion animation.  This is perhaps why Wreck-It Ralph is essentially  a recycled version of the universally successful Toy Story however this time around it's video game characters rather than physical toys.

 With the danger of being a Toy Story 'doppelganger' Wreck-It Ralph successfully differentiates itself from it's 90's counterpart, fundamentally providing a new-age version of the classic. The story follows Ralph, a hated video game 'bad guy' who seeks equality to his heroic rival, 'Fix it Felix Jr'. In search for this equality in the form of a gleaming medal he abandons his game, travelling to various others causing unintended havoc along the way. The true success of this film comes in it's wildly intelligent imagination. Similarly to other sized-down film perspectives, items of human use are implemented into Ralph's world and are used expertly in the set designs and general props. Many of the films jokes emerge from simply observing the sets and subsequent hidden jokes, resulting in your eyes darting round the screen in childish splendor admiring the lavishly decorated world. Leaving consistently unfunny pop culture references to R-rated 'raunchy' comedies, Wreck-It Ralph instead uses it's screwed on head to form some truly hilarious comedic moments whilst also giving intellectual nods to modern products from singing 'Oreo's' to 'Nesquik' quicksand. Every moment of dialogue is written excellently in order to provide not only for a hilarious narrative but also a heart warming one.

 As the story progresses and characters are introduced the film leads us to the world of 'Sugar Rush' and   one of it's adorable inhabitants and audience magnets, Vanellope, voiced by the undeniably irritating Sarah Silverman. Here the majority of the plot plays out, racing round Sugar Rush with only the hilarity of modern day food products to keep us visually awed, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, only something that proved to be slightly disappointing  for with the wide universe of video-games at your fingertips why only delve into the worlds of a few. With a small quantity of the jokes appearing from real video game references  further references to video game culture could've been made to increase narrative strands and humour, instead the film feels restricted to a tight corner too scared to venture out of it's comfort zone. As a result of this the narrative feels a little bland and at times as thin as Ralph's 2-D in game representation, which considering this is a children's film however isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 From beginning to end Wreck-It Ralph is a joy to watch, admire and appreciate .The effort inserted in order to create this visual spectacle is evident with clear attention to detail making it all the more enjoyable. A gaming knowledge isn't entirely necessary for one to watch this film although it would enhance the experience with frequent sight gags to look out for. On the whole Wreck-It Ralph does show to be dusty in a few corners, however it mostly gleams from the competitive crowd pushing all the right buttons providing a 'new game' for Disney to profit from.

8.5/10- Disney at their best, witty, charming and very intelligent.

Calum Russell

Lincoln

 Already depicted once this year in Django Unchained with blood, gore and gratuitous style, 19th century America is a time period with a plethora of contrasting events and iconic characters. With the slave trade tackled already this year by Tarantino it fell to the hands of Spielberg to provide some necessary background politics and transition Americas greatest president to the silver screen and who better to fill these presidential shoes than Daniel Day-Lewis, perhaps one of the greatest actors of all time. With the potential to create cinematic magic and almost inevitable Oscar stardom, Lincoln delivers magnificently in it's authenticity and vigor however does feel slightly cumbersome in it's pacing.

 For a film titled after it's lead protagonist Lincoln proves to have little significance especially during the concluding hour of the film. He evidently plays a large role in the narrative of this film however oddly enough the film fails to directly address his efforts, making it seem more as a result of the efforts of his party and fortunate outside influences to pass the historic 13th amendment. This narrative conclusion comes as a result of clear extensive political efforts instead of confrontational warfare that is seen too often from films of a similar genre. To see the crucial background work that brought about the end of the American civil war is a story rarely told to such a refreshing and accurate degree, showing that once again a film can be a thriller even with a lack of death and gunshots. This leads to a conclusion that beholds an odd amount of intensity and vigor, despite the films ultimate ending being known by every spectator.

 For a film by the notoriously impressive yet undeniably whimsical Steven Spielberg, it was invigorating to see a lack of forcefully sentimental moments and instead witness Spielberg provide his magical sparkle with the aid of John Williams score; which is used sparingly and to good effect. The overall vibe of this dramatic period piece puts the audience right in the position of a person of the time, created excellently by the underlying production of set design and makeup giving a realistic tint to the already perfect portrayal of 19th century America. Implementing this accuracy is the incredibly impressive cast led by Daniel Day-Lewis who overshadows most cast members with his dominating performance, all however except for Tommy Lee Jones who acts as Lincoln's 'right hand man' as we find ourselves experiencing our concluding happiness more with him rather than the protagonist. This isn't to say his Day-Lewis' performance is bad, in fact it's quite perfect, the problem lies in the fact that the majority of his miswritten dialogue is less than rousing containing convoluted political jargon attempting to make the film seem more sophisticated than it actually is. This makes his screen presence occasionally seem tiresome, despite being undoubtedly enjoyable.

 To say Lincoln is an achievement is of course an understatement however there remains a case of expectancy around Spielberg and although this delivers it wasn't at all surprising or in fact inventive, it was just a very good, clean-cut picture. With Lincoln being the greatest of patriotic cinematic experiences, it immediately becomes a significant contender for the 85th Academy Awards and rightly so with acting performances outweighing any film of the past few years let alone this years acting contenders  Showing to be too slow and structurally thin however a best film win would be unjustified.

8/10- A fantastic bio-pic of one of Americas greatest presidents, finished with recognisable Spielberg gleam.

Calum Russell

1st Annual Russell Awards- Nomanees

 A year has passed. Batman rose. The Avengers assembled. And The Hobbit Journeyed. It's been a goodun. And it comes with great pride and responsibility to announce the 1st Annual Russell Awards to be held on this very page. Below is a link to the voting page, where all your 2012 film delights can be found in 10 neat categories. Please vote so that this can happen! Thank you

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XJ79CSY