Drama

Modern cinematic heavyweights Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio team up for the fourth time in this eerie and brooding mystery thriller, based on a novel by Dennis Lehane.

Set in the fifties, Shutter Island sees Leo’s U.S. Marshall Edward ‘Teddy’ Daniels investigating the apparent disappearance of a mental patient from a totally locked and guarded room. The patient, Rachel Solando, is a resident at the Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, located on the otherwise desolate Shutter Island.

Daniels is accompanied by his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), as they attempt to solve the unusual case. Their hospital ‘guide’ is head psychiatrist Dr. John Cawley, portrayed by Sir Ben Kingsley, who makes no bones about coming across as rather sinister and creepy.

It does not take long to establish that there is a lot more going on that a crazy woman with a talent for matter displacement. Daniels believes from the offset that the island and its inhabitants, including Cawley, have some dark and desperate secrets buried within those not-so-solid hospital walls.

Secrets from Teddy’s own past, a few suspect twitches from various characters, a cameo from Max von Sydow, a visit to the ‘off-limits’ prison/hospital on the hill, a secluded and mysterious lighthouse and some weirdness on a cliff all help to create a bizarre, baffling and intriguing mystery shot by a master of cinema.

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In 2002, relatively unknown author Alice Sebold saw her first fiction novel, The Lovely Bones, become a bestseller, garnering almost universal critical acclaim from the literary world, and owing many of its sales to word of mouth.

Such surprise success would almost certainly result in talk of a film adaptation, and Peter Jackson, the man behind the glorious Lord of the Rings adaptations, was the man eventually handed director’s duties by producer Steven Spielberg.

The film adaptation of The Lovely Bones sees 14 year-old photographer-wannabe Susie Salmon lulled into an underground trap by a neighbour named George Harvey. It appears at first that, after a brief struggle, she manages to escape and run to freedom, but it quickly becomes clear that she has been murdered and is watching the subsequent events that occur after her death.

She watches from a heaven-like place; a world that is only limited by her own imagination, and one which serves as a precursor to her spirit’s final resting place. She remains in this limbo until such time that she chooses to move on; something which she is regularly encouraged to do by a mysterious little girl who accompanies her.

She observes her family and friends, and their respective responses to her untimely, grotesque demise. Her attempts to contact her loved ones have minimal success and only serve to aggravate the situation, as her father, Jack, starts to lose his mind in his relentless quest for justice. Meanwhile, her murderer attempts to cover up any evidence of his sickening act, although it is clear he has other secrets to hide.

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The last time that the Hughes Brothers ventured into moviemaking was 2001, when Johnny Depp played a cockney opium enthusiast in the underrated From Hell. They kept a low profile afterwards, until a script titled The Book of Eli showed up and attracted studio interest.

The twins were brought on board, and their ability to tackle the visual and the emotional would be key to the film’s successful transition from script to screen.

Denzel Washington plays Eli, a man heading west through a post-apocalyptic wasteland; he has nothing more than a backpack, a mysterious book and some Matrix-style combat skills. When a gang attempt to trap him, he dispatches them in an extraordinary fashion. One assailant is warned by Eli, “If that hand touches me again, you will lose it”. Needless to say the man calls Eli’s bluff, and does not fare too well.

Eli’s travels bring him to a town that is operating as a primitive society, with an aggressive but educated man called Carnegie (Gary Oldman) running the show. Eli’s dogged persistence to travel west with his book is matched by Carnegie’s desire to find the exact same item. Carnegie, unaware of Eli’s possession, bears witness to his incredible combat skills, and attempts to recruit him, offering a luxury lifestyle and constant clean water. But Eli is unflinching and resolute in his mission, and he declines, although agreeing to a single night’s stay.

Carnegie offers his step-daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) as a further temptation for the skilled fighter to remain in the town, but Eli is not forthcoming. However, during their meeting Eli reads from the book and Solara picks up a few words. The following day, she unwittingly recites them back in Carnegie’s presence and he realises that the book he seeks is in the town, and in the possession of Eli.

Aware of a potentially precarious situation, Eli escapes the town and continues his quest, with a hot-headed Carnegie on his trail.

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Cormac McCarthy is one of the finest writers in modern literature; he has produced instant classics with Blood Meridian and All The Pretty Horses, not to mention a certain novel titled No Country For Old Men.

The latter is a truly brilliant and breathtaking book, and many who did not appreciate the film would have done well to check out the source material first, in order to gain a better understanding of the story, its purpose and the reasons behind the opinion-splitting ending.

McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with The Road, a literary work that is magnificent beyond words. It is the story of a man and his son as they attempt to survive an arduous journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The film version, directed by The Proposition helmer John Hillcoat, faithfully adapts the book into a stark, vivid and harrowing piece of cinema.

The two embark on an emotionally and physically draining quest to stay alive in a barren, cold and savage environment where vicious cannibals are a constant threat, and thieves would not think twice about stealing a blanket from a sleeping child.

Man and boy are heading south, out of hope more than anything else. We do not know their names, we do not know what happened to the world and we certainly do not know if they can survive this bleak, unforgiving hell.

A moment of weakness and fatigue sees them investigate a house where they find something truly horrifying in the basement, whilst the man’s own savage survival instincts cause him to defy his son’s desperate request of leniency towards a thief they hold at gunpoint.

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Earlier this year, Paranormal Activity became the most profitable film in history by making over $200 million on a budget of $15,000. Around the same time, a movie with a budget that actually eclipses Paranormal Activity’s total gross went on to become the highest grossing film of all time, raking in over $2 billion.

Whilst Paranormal Activity provides a potent reminder of how much a film can make with little or no financing, the enormous team behind James Cameron’s Avatar will have no concerns about being shown up thanks to a return on their movie that is enough to fund the purchase of an island.

Avatar is driven by a tried and tested story which has been unrelentingly rehashed beat-for-beat. However, it is likely that master storyteller Cameron has shamelessly and purposefully sought out a classically standard story framework, so as to avoid detracting from the main focal point - his groundbreaking visual extravaganza; an aesthetic masterpiece that he has been planning since he sunk the Titanic.

Paraplegic ex-marine Jake Sully is given the opportunity to live vicariously through a bio-engineered alien body, whilst learning to live with a secretive forest-dwelling race known as the Na’vi. With a minimum amount of arm-twisting, he takes up the offer and works undercover, acting as a hired gun to protect the exploring scientists from the variety of colourful surprises offered up by planet Pandora’s lush eco-system. He is also acting as an informant for trigger-happy nutcase Colonel Quaritch, a soldier who wants to flatten the locals and their glorious surroundings.

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It’s been almost a decade since a frantic John Lithgow and his alien family left Earth, bringing about the end of hit US sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. Since then, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who played Tommy, has made his name on the indie film circuit by appearing in some truly excellent, offbeat films.

His brave turn in Mysterious Skin and brilliant performance in modern noir Brick were clear signs that Gordon-Levitt is very talented actor, with a good eye for a great role.

In (500) Days of Summer, Gordon-Levitt plays Tom Hansen, an ex-architecture student who now works as a writer for a greeting card company. His generally nonchalant disposition is radically altered when Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) enters his life. Summer does not believe in true love, but finds Tom interesting enough to start dating him.

She makes it clear that she has no intention of becoming involved in a relationship; this spells disaster because Tom does believe in true love and thinks he has found it.

At the beginning, it is revealed that the couple break-up, and the nonlinear format of the narrative serves to show us sporadic moments of their time together. The relationship is deconstructed, and various days numbered between 1 and 500 are used to bookmark the film’s events.

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The Mesoamerican civilization of the Mayans, those crazy chaps from Apocalypto, used a non-repeating calendar to measure and record time. This basically means that they viewed the world exclusively in separate, differing cycles. Brushing past the details of the complicated and ingenious system these guys used, the most relevant piece of information is that the Mayans ‘may’ have thought that 2012 would bring about a new cycle.

A global Chinese whisper ensued, rendering 2012 as a potential doomsday date, something akin to January 1st, 2000. The media, and people in general, love a good panic, as was demonstrated so succinctly by the Y2K bug that didn’t happen…

There we were, horribly inebriated on New Year’s Eve and counting down (or up, depending on alcoholic consumption); patiently waiting for the nearest cash machine to suddenly liberate itself from the brick and mortar confines of a bank wall, and demonstrate its newfound status as head species by beating us and ironically stabbing us in the face with our own credit cards.

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The Twilight Saga: New Moon sees vampire wannabe Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) return for a second bite of the Twilight cherry, as ever-thoughtful-looking Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) decides to do a runner in the interests of her safety.

Bella hits 18, and becomes increasingly concerned about the potential age gap that will inevitably exist between her and Edward. He is Bella’s eternally youthful lover and saviour from Twilight, and a morally-astute vampire, with an equally ethical vampiric family (aside from the odd moment of human-bloodlust). Bella repeatedly requests a good chomp on the neck from Edward, so that she can become part of his undead, flying, fang-family.

Naturally, Edward is opposed; he believes that the life of a vampire is a curse, and cannot bring himself to turn Bella, no matter how intensely she desires the twisted transformation. On Bella’s 18th birthday, a slight paper cut to her tender human skin ignites the fire in Edward’s brother, resulting in a minor scrap, and some Matrix-style jumping around.

Whilst Bella is essentially unharmed, Edward believes that their relationship is a danger to her safety. Cue a break-up in a forest (how, er, romantic?), and one devastated teenager. After all the hullaballoo in the first film, Edward bizarrely calls it a day and his family disappear with him to an unknown destination.

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A man sporting a horrible disfigurement turns up at your door with an offer. He tells you that your money worries could be over; you can have one million dollars in cash, but you have to press a button that will initiate the death of someone that you do not know. What would you do?

The Box introduces us to happily married couple Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur (James Marsden) Lewis living their lives in a quiet suburban area in the late 70s. Arthur works for NASA and is awaiting approval to enter the astronaut program, whilst Norma is a school teacher.

She has a disfigurement relating to her foot that hinders her ability to walk, but her loving husband is secretly working on some technology that could permanently fix this. Their touching relationship is magnified by the presence of their bright and happy young son, Walter.

Norma’s school tells her that the staff discount she receives for her own son’s tuition is to be scrapped. This is coupled with further bad news; Arthur is turned down for the astronaut program despite his absolute confidence that he strolled through every test without any problems.

The couple turn to each other, vowing to soldier on in the face of adversity. But a peculiar box, containing a red button within a locked dome, is delivered to their door in the early hours, and an accompanying note states that Arlington Stewart (Frank Langella) will be visiting the next day at 5pm. True to the words of the note, burn-victim Arlington Stewart knocks at the door and presents his bizarre and morally questionable offer. Norma and Arthur can use the key to open the dome and press the red button, leaving themselves one million dollars richer. But someone, somewhere, whom they do not know, will die. They have 24 hours to decide, and once that time has elapsed Arlington Stewart will return and reclaim the box.

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Vampires are everywhere in mainstream cinema these days. Once upon a time they were relegated to the catacombs of Hammer Horror land, but they’ve since spread from the vaults to nearly all corners of the world.

The vampire movie is no longer a subsidiary of horror cinema; it is now a genre unto itself, with countless subdivisions appealing to a wide demographic including those uninterested in pointy canines.

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels, and their subsequent cinematic counterparts, have developed vampirism for the emo generation, heavily romanticising the characters whilst holding back on any neck-biting that doesn’t take place in the bedroom.

From Dusk Till Dawn and Near Dark developed the idea of road-movie bloodsucking, and Blade gave us the futuristic, sword-wielding vampire that fights on our side as he tries to battle his own bloodlust.

Recent Ethan Hawke vehicle Daybreakers has a crack at the vampire-apocalypse; a world populated by vampires, where the number of humans, and therefore the supply of blood, is drastically dwindling. The new rulers of the world find themselves in a desperate search for a blood substitute.

As vampire films are produced at a bloodcurdling rate, filmmakers are constantly searching for innovative ways to tell an interesting and exciting new story that is not just a retread of old ground/flight paths.

With his first taste of Western financing, Park Chan-wook has tried his hand at the task.  Those familiar with Park Chan-wook will have seen his critically acclaimed ‘revenge’ trilogy, which includes the brilliant and brutal Oldboy. His most recent effort is similar in its blunt exploration of love and violence; the twisting and contorting lives lead by everyday people who find themselves faced with intense questions of morality.

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