- Directed by Martin Scorsese
- Starring Ben Kingsley, Sasha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield & Chloë Grace Moretz
- Runtime 126 minutes
- Classification: PG
IN the running for a Best Picture Oscar is Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, is a delightful adventure story of a wily and resourceful orphan boy whose quest is to unlock a secret left to him by his father. Hugo has been forced to live a precarious and secret life within the walls of a Paris railway station after his father’s death. Based on Brian Selznick’s award winning best selling novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. As Martin Scorsese’s first ever 3-D movie, it’s the best use of 3-D technology since the technology’s invention. Wether or not it will win the Best Picture Oscar, only time will tell, as the Oscars can be bugged by the politics of Hollywood and other variables.
Written by John Logan (The Aviator; Gladiator) and directed by Martin Scorsese who hasn’t lost his magical filmmaking and storytelling touch. Together with his Oscar winning crew who have worked with him before. People like two times Oscar winner cinematographer Robert Richardson who lights up the screen with the help of Paris, the city of lights. Two times Oscar winner Howard Shore’s musical score, which adds a magical atmosphere to the story. Two time Oscar winner Dante Ferretti’s production design which brings the magic and mystery of the story to life. And last but not least, three times Oscar winner editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who’s editing makes this 126 minute movie seems to end so quickly.
Scorsese will be remembered for not only telling a great story, but one with tells us so much about the early days of filmmaking before Hollywood and technology made filmmaking look so easy. How one man, a magician and his wife, an untrained actress, together with others, managed to make over 500 movies in a glasshouse, before the invention of electric powered stage lighting, and all the other gadgetry and technology. Not forgetting the hosts of professionally trained actors, and armies of crew readily available for filmmaking.
Young Hugo Cabret’s father (Jude Law) rescues discarded clockwork driven automata which was abandoned by its creator. As a clockmaker he works with his son Hugo (Asa Butterfield) to try and make it work. On his father’s death in a museum fire, Hugo is forced to live with his father’s brother Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone). Uncle Claude is in charge of the clocks at a Paris railway station, being a chronic heavy drinker, Uncle Claude finds a space in the station walls for Hugo to live, and then leaves him to see that the clocks are wound and showing the correct time, and then goes on a pub crawling bender, from which he never returns.
So as long as the clocks are wound and keep correct time, Hugo is safe from the station inspector (Sasha Baron Cohen) who is always on the look out for orphans who he sends to the orphanage. Having looked after the clocks, Hugo spends his stare time working on the automata, but the only way he can find parts for it, are by robbing parts from George Méliés’ (Ben Kingsley) little shop in the station. But when George catches him stealing, Hugo has to work off his crime by working for George in his shop.
One particular part that Hugo has yet to find is a heart shaped key. When he meets up with George’s young ward, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), another orphan, Hugo has found a friend like him. An inquisitive, excitement seeking young person. While George Méliés behaves like a grumpy old spoil sport, who and what is he really? Soon Hugo and Isabelle have the automata working, and what is it going to reveal to them?
Hugo is in cinemas now.
The Movie Hound’s Picks
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [MA15+] (Five Stars – in cinemas January 19)
Based on John le Carré’s the classic novel of the same name, this international thriller is set at the height of the Cold War years of the mid-20th Century. George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a disgraced British spy, is secretly hired by his government when they fear that the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6), has been compromised by a double agent working for the Soviets. Co-starring Colin Firth, John Hurt, Ciarán Hinds, Mark Strong and Tom Hardy, we follow Smiley’s careful and ponderous investigation of who is the mole. This darkly lit mystery about mysteries within mysteries, is a film which demands continuous audience attention to detail and guestures.
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [MA15+] (Four and a Half Stars – in cinemas now)
With a cast to die for, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara in the lead roles, and co-starring Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff and Robin Wright. This Hollywood English language version of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy, is written by Steven Zaillian (Gangs of New York; Schindler’s List), and directed by David Fincher (The Social Network; Seven). This is a murder mystery looking back 40 years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, the youngest heir of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families. Now all these years later her ageing uncle (Christopher Plummer) continues to seek the truth about her disappearance. Brought in to investigate is Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a crusading investigative journalist, aided by the pierced and tattooed punk computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). With its tighter script and a faster pace than the original, this should garner a wider audience than the Swedish version.
- Young Adult [MA15+] (Four and a Half Stars – in cinemas January 19)
Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron), a writer of young adult novels who writes under a pseudonym, returns to her small hometown to relive her glory days. Her specific the intention is to reclaim the affections of her now happily married high school sweetheart Buddy (Patrick Wilson). When returning home proves more difficult than she first thought, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a former classmate Matt (Patton Oswalt), another who hasn’t got over his high school experience. Written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and directed by Jason Reitman (Up in the Air; Juno; Thank You For Smoking; Dave) the performaces are outstanding, especially Charlize Theron’s. This combination of Cody and Reitman’s brashness demands we not only laugh at, but also feel sympathstic to those who display the ugly side of humanity.
- A Few Best Men [MA15+] (Three and a Half Stars – in cinemas January 26)
When Daphne (Rebel Wilson) meets David (Xavier Samuel) on holiday on a South Pacific island, they fall in love and decide to get married. Because David is an orphan living in London and Daphne lives in Australia, it’s decided to hold the wedding at the Daphne’s family home in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. David’s three London mates, Graham (Kevin Bishop), Tom (Kris Marshall) and Luke (Tim Draxl) have been his only family since he became orphaned. When the four of them land in Australia Tom decides to buy some drugs from ferocious dealer Ray (Perth’s own Steve Le Marquand). When things go wrong and the four leave his caravan with many more drugs than they paid for Ray dresses for the wedding and comes after them. Written by Dean Craig (Death at a Funeral) and directed by Stephan Elliott (Easy Virtue; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert). This rude, crude comedy is an embarrassingly guilty pleasure of fun and laughter. Jonathan Biggins as the bride’s father is a conniving politician, and Oliva Newton John as the bride’s mother is hilarious when high on cocaine.
- Weekend [MA15+] (Three and a Half Stars – in cinemas January 26)
After an alcohol fuelled evening house party with his straight mates, Russell (Tom Cullen) heads for a gay bar. Just before closing time he picks up Glen (Chris New), but what’s expected to be a one night stand becomes something else, something special, something with a longer life. There’s sadness, romance, sex and a desire for it to last longer, but Glen is due to fly out to live in America on Monday, so how will Russell cope? This boy meets boy love story has something to say to both gay and straight audiences about windows of opportunity in our lives.
Lotterywest (PIAF) Film Festival
A Separation [TBC]
- Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi
- Starring Peyman Moadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shabat Hosseini & Sarina Farhadi
- Runtime 120 minutes
- Four and a Half Stars
HUSBAND and wife Nader (Peyman Moadi) Simin (Leila Hatami) want a divorce, so Simin can take up the offer of an overseas job, but Nader wants to stay and in Iran and look after his ageing father, who is chronically senile with Alzheimer’s. Putting their case for judgement the judge learns that they have two daughters, one a baby and the other eleven-year-old Termeh (Sarina Farhadi), both which Simin wants to take with her. When the judges rules that Termeh must stay with her father, Simin moves into her mother’s house to await her departure.
Nader has management job and hires Razieh (Sareh Bayat) the wife of Hodjat (Shabat Hosseini) an employee where Nader works. Nader’s father is a major problem to look after and Nader is a skinflint when it comes to paying people to look after the old man. When Nader’s meanness causes Razieh to neglect her duties, she has a miscarriage (who knew she was pregnant), and Nader finds himself on a murder charge, and wanting to be pay blood money to Hodjat.
Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi (About Elly: Dancing in the Dust) has already won a host of international awards for his 2011 film, which he rightfully deserves. While it’s a deceptive mystery with carefully laid clues, in which every character is morally compromised, it’s also a complex philosophical fable about a theocratic society.
A Separation screens at the Somerville, January 30- February 5, and at Joondalup Pines, February 7-12.
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