Naked (Mike Leigh) *** - This is
unlike any film of Mike Leigh's I've seen so far. It's dark and gritty.
It's about a man whose botched sexual encounter has him fleeing to his
old girlfriend's house. There are some darkly humorous moments. What
makes this film well-worth seeing though is the simply outstanding
performance by David Thewlis. It truly is incredible.
Life Is Sweet (Mike Leigh) *** -
This is a rather sweet (pun intended) film. A wonderful ensemble of
actors (aren't Mike Leigh films inhabited by great ensembles?) bring to
life a tale of a working-class family who have their own unique
problems. There are funny moments, sad moments and sometimes funny-sad
moments but they're endlessly fascinating. Not my favorite Mike Leigh
film though.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
(Peter Lord) *** - An amusing stop-motion animated feature about a
pirate who wants to get a huge booty so to speak. It's still a far-cry
from Aardman Studios' best works, namely the Wallace & Gromit
but this one has enough going for it to merit a recommendation. It also
features great voice work especially by Hugh Grant whose voice I barely
recognized as the Pirate Captain. There are quite a few good laughs and
the animation's fun to watch but what makes this movie is Mr. Bobo the
Chimp who is running a close second to Gromit as Aardman's best animated
character.
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2 comments:
Naked sounds like a seriously intriguing film to me, I've really never heard of a plot like it before, sounds good. Thanks for the round-up as usual man.
I actually didn't know The Pirates was an Aardman flick. It's nice to see actual animation is still going.
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