Author: Kate Larkindale

Review: ‘The Fault In Our Stars’

Posted by | Jun 12, 2014 |

Seeing the movie adaptation of a book I’ve loved is always a nerve-wracking experience. So often I walk out of the theatre angry or devastated by how spectacularly the filmmakers have failed to capture my vision of the story. The Fault In Our Stars is masterful in that it captures the book perfectly. At a time when films for young adults are flooding the cinemas, it’s refreshing to see one that doesn’t feature a dystopian world, or sinfully good looking vampires. Hazel Lancaster isn’t tasked with saving the world, she just has to try and live in it a little longer. Diagnosed with cancer at 13, Hazel made a miraculous recovery although she needs oxygen to keep her breathing. She is painfully smart and holds a cynical view of the world. When she meets Augustus at the cancer support group her mother forces her to go to, things begin to change. Gus has lost a leg to cancer, but hasn’t let that darken his outlook on life. He’s a charmer – cocky, a little arrogant, but so sweet you can forgive him that. It’s easy to see why Hazel is drawn to him. The love story between these two develops slowly and naturally. Hazel is terrified of falling in love, knowing she has a limited time in which to live. She isn’t worried about her own heart getting broken, but doesn’t want Gus to be hurt...

Read More

Review: ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’

Posted by | May 5, 2014 |

Jim Jarmusch epitomizes cool. And with his take on the vampire genre, even bloodsucking can be made hip for a new generation. Living apart for now, eternal lovers Adam and Eve drift through their separate nighttime worlds. Eve is in Tangiers, where she comes literature and collects blood to feed on from an ancient Christopher Marlowe (yes, that Christopher Marlowe). Meanwhile, Adam is hiding out in Detroit, where he makes music as he has done for centuries – at one stage mentioning he wrote an adagio for Schubert. Adam is growing weary of his immortality and commissions a wooden bullet to be made, hoping to leave the endless nights and a world populated by “zombies” (what he calls humans) behind. Eve is far more integrated into the modern world and so she heads to Detroit in order to pull Adam out of his funk. When the pair get together, their devotion to each other is clear. There is something deliciously poignant about the way they play out their version of eternal love. She’s the witty raconteur, while he’s the silent type who allows her words to bounce off him. But when Eve’s rather feckless sister shows up, things become strained and the pair find their bond tested for the first time. There isn’t much plot here. It’s almost as if we’ve been dropped into their lives and allowed to stay for a prescribed length...

Read More

Review: ‘Sunshine on Leith’

Posted by | May 3, 2014 |

Basing a movie musical on the songs of barely-remembered Scottish duo the Proclaimers feels like a shameless rip-off of Mama Mia. Yet Sunshine on Leith is actually kinda fun. The story centers around two soldiers returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. One has a long-term girlfriend, who he’s itching to get back to, while the other is on the market and soon falls for an English girl. The rest of the film follows the two lads as they tangle and untangle their love lives. Meanwhile, the dad of one of the lads is having romance problems of his own; discovering he has a daughter by another woman from a fling after he was married. Her appearance in his life sends shockwaves through his marriage, just as the couple are celebrating an important anniversary. If you know the songs, the film’s pretty predictable because the set-list provides the plot points. The city of Edinburgh is the true star of the piece. Landmarks feature prominently, and for the most part the city is shown in a fairly rosy light. There are moments when the camera shifts away from the magisterial beauty of the national Art Gallery and descend into the streets, where life for those living on the bones of their arse is nothing but a struggle, but the film doesn’t linger here. Sunshine on Leith won’t challenge you – except maybe to...

Read More

Review: ‘The Invisible Woman’

Posted by | Apr 23, 2014 |

Fiennes takes on double-duty, directing himself as Charles Dickens in this film that chronicles a love affair that lasted the last twelve years of the writer’s life. The woman on whom he lavishes his affections is much younger than the middle-aged Dickens, an actress called Nelly. The film is told in a series of flashbacks from Nelly’s perspective, who is now older and married to a man who knows little of her past. She recalls when she and Dickens first met: at a performance of a Wilkie Collins play in which Dickens played a lead role, with Nelly and her theatrical family playing smaller parts. She’s just eighteen at this time and Dickens is married with ten children who all adore him. To begin with the friendship between them is tentative and carried out in public, as was only proper at the time. Gradually though, Nelly becomes the writer’s muse and she finds it harder and harder to resist him. As played by Fiennes, Dickens oozes charm, humour and charisma. It’s no surprise the reserved and naïve Nelly comes under his spell. Jones manages to perfectly capture the confusion Nelly feels as she’s swept up by this larger-than-life personality…and out of the safe, quiet life she expected. Some of the film’s most poignant moments are the ones where Dickens is forced to deal with the wife he spurns for Nelly.  Catherine is...

Read More

Review: ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’

Posted by | Apr 16, 2014 |

Wes Anderson films always have a certain feel, a certain look, and an air of artificiality that makes any emotional resonance feel tongue in cheek. In The Grand Budpest Hotel, he perfects that art and makes the most “Wes Anderson film” that has ever been made. And it’s wonderful. No one else could make a WWII drama without ever mentioning WWII or Hitler. Yet it is still obvious that this film is set in the Nazi era, even if the country it’s set in is imaginary. There’s not much if a linear plot here. Instead there are three prologues, each setting up a different level of the film, and all leading back to where the story begins. It’s 1932, a young boy named Zero is starting a job as the lobby boy in The Grand Budapest. His direct superior is a famous concierge known as Monsieur Gustav. All the hotel’s inner workings comes under Gustav’s control and he take enormous pride in his work. Work that includes servicing the wealthy dowagers who press money upon him in exchange for services rendered. And it is one of these ladies who sets the film in motion. When the much coiffed Madam D. is found dead, her family is shocked that her latest Will leaves much of her fortune, including a valuable painting, to Gustav.  Her daughters and son go to great lengths to ensure that the...

Read More