Logan (2017) - A 'Wolverine' Finale

Logan (2017) is the final portrayal of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.

Hugh was the first wolverine in cinema and he kicked ass.

He created his own trilogy and this is the final installment of his trilogy.

Logan is the very definition of a Wolverine film. It is highly dark and violent with a more noir and western fusion.

Director James Mangold has said that Logan's influences included "Visual reference points" of cinema, citing Shane (1953), The Cowboys (1972), Paper moon (1973), The Gauntlet (1977), Little miss sunshine (2006) and The wrestler (2008). They are very clearly seen when you watch closely.

The conceptual niche's like "Old Man Logan" and "Post X-Men universe" is discussed in Logan.

Overall one of the best films of the X-men universe with reference to Wolverine.

Good bye... Hugh Jackman.... You'll be the best Wolverine ever.


Overall - 4/5

References

Images

·         Title: Logan (2017). Format: (Jpg.). Available at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/mediaviewer/rm2134061568   (Accessed date : 4/14/2017)

David Fincher and his masterpiece

David Fincher's (DF) masterpiece is Fight Club [FC] (1999).

DF who's one of the most innovative and considered a great film maker himself worked really hard on producing FC.

FC is an american film from 1999 based on the 1996 novel by Chuck Pulahnuik.

The plot of the film is basically in summary is.......

Edward Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, referred to as the narrator, who is discontented with his white-collar job. He forms a "Fight Club" with soap maker Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, and they are joined by men who also want to fight recreationally. The narrator becomes embroiled in a relationship with Durden and a dissolute woman, Marla Singer, played by Bonham Carter.

The director and the cast compared the film to Rebel without a cause (1955) and The Graduate (1967). They said its theme was the conflict between a generation of young people and the value system of advertising.

This film is a cinematic feast. As a Sri Lankan film fanatic that troubled rebellious men is a talked about factor and loved by film makers and fans alike.

Fight Club's got some hard hitting quotes for the audiences.

Tyler Durden : The things you own end up owning you.

Narrator : I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.

Tyler Durden : It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

Tyler Durden : Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

Narrator : This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.

Tyler Durden : You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking Khakis. You're the all singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

Tyler is like an annihilistic priest. His words are true but dangerous and if you blindly follow them it's chaos. And that is what you see in the film.

DF's approach and style in films are basically follows.

Fincher likes to map out camera movement with computer-generated imagery, commission intricate sets, gets heavily involved in post-production, and re-shoot footage after the principal photography has wrapped. He does not normally use hand-held cameras when he shoots a film, preferring cameras on a tripod, this most frequent use of a hand-held camera was for Se7en, in which five scenes were shot that way. Fincher likes to confuse audiences with his camerawork. Sometimes, it is difficult to determine whether a shot is human-controlled, motion-controlled or computer-generated imagery. Close ups are as little as possible. The interior of a refrigerator can be seen in a number of Fincher's films; this can be seen as part of character and story development.

All of these are in FC.

As a Sri Lankan many films like Machan (2008), Mille Soya[Buongiorno Italia] (2004) and Motor Cycle (2016) depicts the internal and external struggles of the youth and middle aged men of Sri Lanka.

And FC will be the one and only depiction of the American man's perspective in 1990's on consumerism.

References

Images

·         Title: Fight Club (2017). Format: (Jpg.). Available at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/mediaviewer/rm4182481152 

(Accessed date : 4/13/2017)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - A moment when the filmmaker peaks his tradition

The girl with the dragon tattoo (2011) film is based on Steig Larsson's swedish novel and this is the unforgettable adaptation by David Fincher.

Rather than studying the plot I would like to discuss the film makers tradition of film making.

In summary the film reflects journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Played by Daniel Craig) who is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker (Played by Rooney Mara). The film was nominated for five academy awards and won one academy award for best achievement in film editing.

The both acting performances of lead actors were considered amazing and Rooney Mara was nominated for an oscar for her performance as Lisbeth Salander, The Girl with the dragon tattoo.

Now in this discussion on a film maker peaking his tradition in his 2011 film, The discussion on his films in a chronological order will give a more broader perspective on tradition.

David Fincher's debut film Alien 3 was supposed to be a great moment for him to establish himself in the industry. But unfortunately it didn't work out for him. I discuss these factors in my MovieFreak blog years back. (2012 - July)

But he then created one of his best films Se7en (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Panic Room (2002), Zodiac (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2011) and Gone Girl (2014).

Many or all of his films after Alien 3 are his own films that has a distinct iconic DF or David Fincher signature style.

His films in a sense of thematically most of them studies psychopathy and the dark nature of humanity and it's macro level impact to society.

His few films take a different approaches.

His "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)" was considered an amazing poetic and fantasy fused film with reference to the american history and culture with a perspective of a singular individual. Rather than dark themes and the dark atmosphere DF creates films with his unique technical competence which is editing and cinematography. Like "The Big Fish" (2003) where Tim Burton fuses his tradition while "Forrest Gump (1994)" by Robert Zemeckis this DF's singular fictional american story.

"The Social Network (2010)" is the story of "Facebook" may be his best film after his masterpiece "Fight Club (1999)" in my opinion.

Now this article is about TGWTDT(2011). This is a unique film on the darker aspects of human life with reference to the characters discussed in the summary. But like I said since many films of the director are based on the elements of human darkness and he specialises it through acting, editing and cinematography. The greatest technical competence of DF is his use of CGI and TGWTDT (2011) is his greatest film where you can't determine what is real and CGI because he made sure it to be that cool.

And also thematically film maker becomes more and more symphonic in his artwork and in his tradition through heartlessness. And darkness not with atmosphere but with characters and he has peaked it in this film is quite amazing. The filming tone, camera movement and music is bleak and it makes TGWTDT (2011) a peak moment of the filmmakers tradition.

References

Images

·         Title: The girl with the dragon tattoo (2017). Format: (Jpg.). Available at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568346/mediaviewer/rm2393881600 (Accessed date : 4/13/2017)

Split (2016) - Claustrophobia

When you watched The Sixth Sense (1999) and Unbreakable (2000), M. Night Shyamalan's best two films and avoid many because you heard them sucked and then watch 2 random films like The Happening (2008) and After Earth (2013) which happens to be worse you see a clear decline in a director's talent.

And then in 2016 he directs Split which is one of the greatest recoveries from earlier failures and how he expands his first cinematic universe from Unbreakable (2000) characters where he re-establishes the true M. Night Shyamalan film making style.

If you watch M. Night Shyamalan's film there is a unique way of approach of tapping the character's internal struggles and psychology.

After his two films Unbreakable (2000) and The Sixth Sense (1999) he failed to maintain this streak until Split, where the film making returns to a darker psychological aspects of a person who has split personality disorder. Kevin played by James Mcavoy plays a person with 24 distinct personality disorders living inside of him and the characters played by Mcavoy is a very strong depiction of a person having psychological problems.

The best thing on this film is it's dark and atmosphere nature giving a claustrophobic experience to the viewers through dark and cinematic style unique to M. Night where he failed earlier but succeeded in Split (2016).

So overall this is going to be a great M. Night Shyamalan film experience.

References

Images

·         Title: Split (2016). Format: (Jpg.). Available at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4972582/mediaviewer/rm2886535680   (Accessed date : 4/10/2017) 

Films that talk about films

Films that talk about films is something like you're an accountant and now rather than just entering the relevant entries you will pass and approve and also will involve in accounting decision making related to long run liquidity and profitability of the organization you work to. So basically watching films that talk about films is taking your fandom to films into another level.

Now to give a head start this article is going to be a personal experience and some things reflected in the article may be reflected in a manner in which may feel the reader alienated not knowing the facts which is inherent because it is going to be next level of experience cinema.

There are many films about films. Hugo is a film that reflects upon the silent film era. It is Martin Scorsese's first 3D film and a reflection of the silent films and the people's love for cinema. My week with Marilyn is depiction of Marilyn Monroe's life. Son of Rambow is a film on two little boys taking on the "Rambo : First Blood".

There are many other films that discusses about film making. King Kong (2005) the origin film of monster film making and it's last reboot in 2005 defined the genre of becoming a classic monster flick. The life aquatic with Steve Zissou is the world of Wes Anderson expanding into the wild life documentary making. The holiday is a comic approach to the lives of people who are involved in the hollywood film making.

There are many films about hollywood. Hollywood is now the epicenter of commercial filmmaking and if there are no films about hollywood that is going to be a big loophole. The Artist is a modern take on the silent films to films with sound transition. Singing in the rain gave a more technical and musical depiction of some artwork in a different manner when it was released in the 1960's. Sunset Boulevard is the first noir film about hollywood taking on the darker aspects of hollywood. Hail! Caesar!, Entourage, La La Land, Get Shorty and Maps to the Stars are also a dark and fun films on hollywood.

Films about film directors and producers are also a niche factor on films about films. Blair witch project and Blair Witch are two fantasy horror flicks on the documentary film making woven around the relevant filmmakers and they're terrifying experience related to it. This is considered a monumental filmmaking achievement due to it's low budget nature and revenue generation during the period. Films like Ed Wood, Hitchcock, Maestro,The Odyssey relates to real life film making of the world's greatest filmmakers and their art work.

The Player and Knight of Cups are considered as great cinematographic film making achievements on films on films.

Saving Mr. Banks is a unique take on the back story of Walt Disney and his production of Mary Poppins.

Nine is an amazing film that fuses musical style with modern filmmaking mix on the filmmaking of 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini, one of the greatest filmmakers of our time.

Hollywood ending is a Woody Allen film on his take on the Hollywood, directors and producers.

Vinnaithandi Varuvaya is a tamil film making and a tragedy related to it.

The list on actors and stunt performers are my personal favourite films. Being John Malkovich, The Congress, Life and Me and Orson Welles are considered one of the greatest fantasy fused films with realism on actors lives. FAN (2016) is Shah Rukh Khan's revelation of a hindi film in years.

Films like Ghost Rider, The Fall (2006) and The Drive (2011) are considered to be my personal favourites on stunt performers due to its creativity and uniqueness. They all discuss the factors of fusion of fantasy and reality.

Barton Fink, The Majestic and Midnight in Paris are films about screenwriters. These also discusses the factors of darkness and it's fusion on the struggle of reality and fantasy of the screen writer characters of the film.

And there is this filmmaking style which is self-reflexive films where the category deals with any metafictional (is a literary device used self-consciously and systematically to draw attention to a work's status as a work of imagination, (rather than reality). Films that are self-aware (is the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals), The fourth wall (is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience), or are centered on the creation of themselves.

Films like Adaptation, Annie Hall, Birdman, Inland Empire, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Seven Psychopaths, Stranger than fiction and Taste of a Cherry reflects on the self-reflexive films in a deep manner.

Porn is a negative side effect of Cinema. These are discussed in films like Boogie Nights, Don Jon, Lovelace and The Nice Guys discusses these factors.

Many of these films about films is a great revelation to film fans because it opens your eyes on cinema. So if you love films why not take it to another level.

References

Images

·         Title: Singin' in the rain (2017). Format: (Jpg.). Available at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045152/mediaviewer/rm2462632960  (Accessed date : 4/10/2017)    

Newspaper article found on a website

• ·        Article Title – The 10 best films about films (2015). Newspaper – The Guardian. [Online]. Available at : https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/may/01/the-10-best-films-about-films-fellini-cinema (Accessed date : 2017/03/12)

• ·         Article Title – Top 15 films about films (2017). Newspaper – The telegraph. [Online]. Available at : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9057376/Top-15-films-about-films.html?image=14  (Accessed date : 2017/03/12)