American Sniper - Review

American Sniper

Review by Michael Bradley

American Sniper follows the American 

hero Chris Kyle, portrayed by Bradley Cooper, in the build up to his legendary status in which he is credited. However, the film has been critiqued on its attempt to recreate this journey due to the methods in which director Eastwood chose to present the character.I personally think American Sniper provides an enjoyable and gripping film, in which the ending does provide a sense of deep emotion throughout the cinema.

Reviews express the slight hatred to the film due to its over-glorification of the United States, and I agree. The exaggerated scenarios, such as the main confrontation between the two rifleman, and the overall excess of footage used to present the American army triumph at war, is in fact promoting the country on a rather bias level. But with the film being highly targeted at an audience of Americans, it makes sense to do so. The aim of a movie is to make money and that is what this film achieves. With a record breaking opening weekend, clearly the audience was not disappointed. Despite the patriotism, the film also presents an enjoyable narrative at most points, mostly due to the impressive performance by Cooper. He provides a character in which the audience could attach to emotionally and reflect the deceased veteran in a pleasant light.

It is fairly obvious the work is fictional, with moments like mentioned before, Eastwood has shaped the reality of this complex being to fit its cinematic prosperity. In which helps me understand why most critical responses were not happy with the film's overall take on the events. However for me the film provided a Hollywood war film that has subverted from the ordinary action conventions that are being forced down our throats along with our popcorn, in many blockbusters today. 

The film is almost presented as a documentary showing a reality to the situations at hand. First we meet the character and acknowledge his past and present making us emotionally invested in the protagonist early on in the film. Then after the setup of the film we are presented with the first bump in Chris Kyle’s journey. The dramatic sequence where Kyle faces the decision to shoot the young boy or hold fire, when he is thought to be a threat to the rest of infantry. This moment is controversial on and off screen. Through the use of this sensitive matter the film is further publicised through talk of the subject. The trailer consisted of this scene to create buzz and anticipation for the release of the film. This subject matter however is creditable as it conveys the realistic elements resembling actual war oppose to other film portrayals in this genre. The onscreen effect provides a flaw to this character in which the audience has been built to care for. Making the effect of this scene even more dramatic and fore me gain further respect for soldiers in general.

 

 The movie is great for the contribution to Actor Bradley Cooper’s career as it veers away him from his less serious roles, like the ‘Hangover’ trilogy and ‘the A-team’, and reflects his series career professionally like seen in ‘the Place Beyond the Pines’ and the very well-constructed ‘Limitless’. I mention his work as I enjoy the majority of Cooper’s appearances and he is partly the reason for my interest in this film But despite this I found the engaging storyline and emotional connection produced by the film, that the film was successful in its attempt to create a commemorative film for the great American hero and make money whilst doing so. 

The Descent - Review

The Descent
Review by Grace Britten

Edge of your seat horror finally ascends into the UK. Neil Marshall’s vision of six young females being ambushed in dark caves, that possess villainous crawlers, came to life in 2005’s The Descent. Similarly to Marshall’s film “Dog Soldiers”, a claustrophobic environment is created. However this tense atmosphere was detached by humour. Notwithstanding, The Descent takes an alternative path: in the way that they encounter vicious attacks from unexplained forces with no escape and no comedic one- liners to break the drama up. Marshall associates not only jump scares and unnerving makeup   effects to startle the audience, but also delves into people’s psyche and childhood fears of being scared of the monsters in the dark.

The first twenty minutes depict Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) languidly recovering the recent trauma of losing her daughter and husband by a fatal car accident. To put the catastrophe in the gruelling past, Sarah and her five friends- Beth (Alex Reid), Juno (Natalie Mendoza), Rebecca ( Saskia Mulder), Sam ( Myanna Buring) and Holly ( Nora- Jane Noone) venture off into an ill-lighted unknown desolated cave. Reunions soon turn into heated arguments about how Juno led them into such a treacherous and menacing underground, nonetheless something; much more sinister is lurking beneath the surface.

Natalie Mendoza’s portrayal of Juno was executed with extreme character depth. Throughout the first half of the film Juno is a typical leader – commanding, covert and confident. On the other hand as the realisation of the situation commences that they may be there possibly for eternity, Juno reveals her true self. Human instinct along with survival tactics kick in and soon she will discard anyone who dares to get in her way for Mendoza to completely innovate into different representations with such ease takes credible skill.  Additionally the “heroin” of the film (Sarah) dissociates from her characters grieving distress to become a fighter and defend to her death, both Mendoza and McDonald carry out accurate representations of fear that become so relatable that the audience can feel the suspense. 

The Horror genre has been criticised by the public due to regular clichés making an appearance in every single horror film. Such as, investigating the alarming noise in a haunted house or falling over at the most inconvenient of times. However just as original story lines were dying a death The Descent manages to break the chains from the genres restraints and creates original award worthy material.

Every movie has its flaws, yet it is burdensome to even fathom any, but if there was one aspect about the film that worked as a disadvantage it would be that the crawlers have no information or origination. How have they evolved into such disconcerting creatures? Were they a tribe? Or even a result of a nuclear radiation experiment gone astray.

Additionally Marshall varies his camera angles to accentuate the twisted and disorientated nature of the caves, which foreshadowed the events of the twisted crawlers that are out to get them. The aerial shots are shown continuously in the woodland area where the cave is; especially when the six characters are shown driving in Beth’s car, strolling along the road where all is safe and sound. The woods in this scene are shown as never endless therefore depicting the themes of isolation. There is intertextuality through this scene ; in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining ( 19800 there is an aerial shot of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) and his family driving to an empty, isolated hotel where the unexpected also lies.

In films such as Jaws, The Omen, and The Exorcist, soundtracks play a major role, because without that low humming of noise in films the dialogue can lack magnitude and intensity. The Descent soundtrack emphasizes the claustrophobia brooding but loud eccentric tones and pitch changes add copiously to the terror experienced when the characters are confronted by the crawlers. Diegetic sound is regularly used due to the fact that the crawlers can only communicate by harsh high-pitched screeching screams, therefore there is a galore of sound that can only be heard by the characters.

Overall The Descent makes for an eminent viewing experience which will have you anticipating every trepidation. Paranoia, claustrophobia, hallucination, disorientation, fear and isolation are all themes from the film however Marshall’s energetic directing creates such an accurate and realistic portrayal that makes viewers actually involved with the script.

Whiplash - Review

Whiplash                                            

Review by Jack Howard

Whiplash is a 2014 American drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle based on his experiences in the Princeton High School Studio Band. Starring Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons, the film depicts the relationship between an ambitious jazz student (Teller) and an abusive instructor (Simmons). Paul Reiser and Melissa Benoist co-star as the student's father and love interest respectively. The film opened in limited release domestically in the US and Canada on October 10, 2014, gradually expanding to over 500 screens and finally closing after 24 weeks on March 26, 2015. Over this time the film grossed $33.1 million against a production budget of $3.3 million.

In Whiplash we see Andrew Neiman, an aspiring young drummer with dreams to be a great within the music industry and his experiences at a prestigious music school with a brazen and cruel teacher and conductor. We see Andrew tortured psychologically, verbally and actually physically bullied by his conductor Terence Fletcher (J.K Simmons). As well as the great tension between characters along with the well thought out storyline, the musicians featured are amazing, all virtuosic jazz musicians.

Whiplash has been called the ‘rocky’ of music based films and was nominated or the best picture award. It began as a 17 Minute short film by Chazelle and was previewed at the Sundance film festival where Sony snapped up the film, it is a hugely accredited film and loved by many: J.K Simmons won exactly 47 awards for his role as Terence Fletcher. There are a number of interesting facts about the film. One of the most interesting is that the vast majority of the intense, quick and virtuosic drumming is actually played by Miles Teller and not only did he actually experience the drumming, he experienced the pain brought on by Fletcher along with Fletcher’s actor J.K Simmons actually breaking two ribs when Teller (Neiman) tackled him to the ground in anger. The most interesting fact for me personally was that the film was shot over 19 days, I find this amazing as not only would this fairly independent film have to struggle with cinematography and any issues that arose during production, the music played by big bands of musicians had to be perfect every time, not only did the acting have to be efficient but the musicians and their form had to be perfect too.

I am very fond of this film and have watched it a number of times since its release, not only am I incredibly enthused and impressed by the musicians but I find the relationship between Andrew Neiman and Terence Fletcher very interesting and their encounters exciting. 

Neiman’s love interest and relationship within the film is also very interesting and compliments the storyline very well and highlights important parts of the film. There is never a dull moment in the film and although it may not be everyone’s taste in film, it is certainly a good film that would be enjoyed by many. My favourite scene is the final scene where after being exiled from the music conservatory and having Fletcher fired from his position we see Fletcher conducting for a band including Neiman at a big jazz festival. Fletcher steals his drum charts and Neiman is left to improvise his playing. In this scene we see Neiman outlandishly playing solo parts and leading the band in an epic finale to the film where his playing skills are breath-taking. We also see the onstage reactions from fellow musicians as well as the conflict between Fletcher and Neiman whilst on stage.

I enjoy Whiplash, I believe it is a great film and a film that I would not usually be too interested in as although I enjoy music profusely and have watched countless music based films and documentaries, I do not usually watch dramas. I would recommend watching Whiplash to anyone, you do not have to be a musician to appreciate the film as it holds a very strong, accessible and interesting storyline.

Pitch Perfect 2 - Review

Pitch Perfect 2
Review by Ellesse Harrigan

Pitch Perfect 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to thesmash hit comedy Pitch Perfect.Pitch Perfect 2 continues the musical theme with the over use of stage performances which highly overshadowed and almost made you forget about the actual storyline.Executive music producers Julianne Jordan and Julia Michels have ensured that every performance is note perfect and album ready, which rather detracts from any sense of realism: it's highly unlikely for groups to sing this in sync spontaneously. Pitch Perfect 2 tries to cover the original but ends up flat. The original Pitch Perfect was a shock to how much success it received which was justified by how funny, original, and witty it was where as Pitch Perfect 2 focused on the music and ridiculous humour.

The film follows the Bardon Bellas victory at the acapella worlds following a wardrobe malfunction by Fat Amy played by Rebel Wilson as they get kicked out of the choral academy.Even though,the storyline was not highly amusing,the performance from Rebel Wilson was exiting and hysterical.Wilson being the main feature of the film for having a comedic humour. Becca’s presence in the film has decreased. In fact, she spends much of her senior year guiltily sneaking off to an internship at a recording studio to pursue her dream of being a music producer instead of devoting herself to boosting her fellow Bellas. Hailee Steinfield has been added to the line up where ironically she added absolutely nothing to the film except from her ex-Bella of a mother.

In my opinion,the music was a disappointment in comparison to the original apart from the exception of Flashlight by Jessie J which seemed to be the song in the movie that brought everyone together and led the Bardon Bellas to victory.

Even though I found the sequel did not match up to the original,I still enjoyed the film due to Rebel Wilson's highly comedic performance which was the main attribute to the sequal.I would award the film 3 stars out of 5 purely for the comedy element.