Big Eyes

Year:  2014

Director:  Tim Burton

Screenplay:  Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

Starring:  Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jon Polito, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp

Running Time:  106 minutes

Genre:  Drama, comedy, biography

In 1958 aspiring artist Margaret Ulrich (Adams) leaves her husband and travels with her young daughter to San Francisco, where she meets unsuccessful but charismatic painter Walter Keane (Waltz), and they soon get married.  While Walter paints nondescript landscapes, Margaret specialises in pictures of waif-like children with oversized eyes.  As Walter continues to have no success with his own works, he begins to pass off Margaret's work as his own (she signs her paintings simply as "Keane").  The paintings become extremely successful, and Walter becomes something of a celebrity, but Margaret is increasingly dissatisfied at doing all of the work and getting none of the credit.

You may not be familiar with Margaret and Walter Keane and the slightly creepy paintings of sad children with huge eyes (which look now for all the world like the sinister Black Eyed Kids of modern urban legend).  However in the 1960s Walter Keane was a big celebrity, and the paintings were hugely popular.  It turned out of course that the paintings were all the work of his wife, Margaret.  It's a strange and interesting story, and this is an interesting film.  Director Tim Burton and screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski had previously explored the odd fringes of popular culture with Ed Wood (1994), and while this shares the often humorous take and appreciation of kitsch, Big Eyes is not as distinctive or impressive.  In fact it is a surprisingly conventional film from Tim Burton who made his name with bizarre, grotesque and slightly surreal films, the main stylistic element here is that everything seems overly bright and colourful.  Amy Adams gives a muted, nuanced performance as Margaret Keane, but Christoph Waltz goes completely over the top as the charismatic conman Walter Keane, who comes across as something between a gameshow host and a sleazy used car salesman, he constantly talks about his travels throughout France, and it turns out that he spent all of a week there, and when it come to art he has far more confidence than talent.   Together Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz seem to be making two completely different films.  Amy Adams, a drama about a woman trying to find her voice, and Christoph Waltz, a broad comedy about a lovable rogue.  The film is interesting and always entertaining, but it is quite conventional.  It's certainly worth your time, but probably won't linger very long after the end credits have rolled.  

Amy Adams in Big Eyes
   

Last Night in Soho

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Edgar Wright

Screenplay:  Edgar Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, from a story by Edgar Wright

Starring:  Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Michael Ajao, Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg

Running Time:  117 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Teenager Eloise Turner (McKenzie) moves from rural Cornwall to the bright lights of London to study fashion design.  Fascinated by the music and the style of the Swinging Sixties, Eloise moves to a bedsit in the Soho area of the city, and finds herself haunted by visions of Sandie (Taylor-Joy) an aspiring singer in the 1960s.  At first Eloise is delighted by these journeys back in time, and uses her experiences to fuel her creativity.  However, as Sandie's story becomes increasingly dark, Eloise's dreams quickly turn into horrific nightmares, which begin to bleed into her waking life.

Probably many people have visions of some fantasy "Golden Age" when everything was cool, wonderful and glamorous, even if it was a time long before they were born.  For modern day teenager Eloise it's the 1960s, but she soon comes to discover that despite the glamour, cool clothes and fantastic music, there is darkness and cruelty.  She comes to London to pursue her dreams of fashion design but almost as soon as she steps off the train, she has a disturbing experience with a creepy taxi driver, and is bullied by the fellow students in her halls of residence, causing her to move into a bedsit.  One of the hallmarks of Edgar Wright films is the visual inventiveness, and this is on full display here, particularly the sequence where Eloise has her first dream which is throughly intoxicating, as Sandie is revealed as her mirror images, and we see Anya Taylor-Joy, with Thomasin McKenzie as her reflection, and vice versa.  Thomasin McKenzie is heartbreaking as the romantic, tormented Eloise, haunted by the past in more ways than one, Anya Taylor-Joy is striking as Sandie, at first seeming the personification of sixties glamour, but who increasingly falls apart.  Former Doctor Who Matt Smith plays handsome, charismatic but dangerous Jack, and Smith is very effective in a throughly villainous role.  Michael Ajao plays Eloise's classmate John, pretty much the only sympathetic male character in the film, and he does invest what could be a very bland part with some real emotion.  There are slo appearances by several Sixties icons: Terence Stamp, Rita Tushingham and, in her final performance, Diana Rigg.  As with all of Edgar Wright's films, music is crucial here, with the stream of sixties classics almost another character.  The film does fall apart somewhat in the final third when it moves into more gruesome giallo horror territory, and at the end there are a few too many coincidences and shocking reveals, but for the most part it works very well, and the film is constantly intriguing, entertaining and sometimes genuinely shocking.  It's about the perils of nostalgia and "Golden Age" thinking, the dark side of glamour and most of all how men prey on women, which is the real horror in the film.

Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin Mackenzie in Last Night in Soho

The Adjustment Bureau

Year: 2011
Director: George Nolfi
Screenplay: George Nolfi, based on the short story "Adjustment Team" by Philip K. Dick
Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly, Terence Stamp
Running Time: 105 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, fantasy, romance, thriller

Summary: New York City, 2006: David Norris (Damon) is a charismatic US congressman who has just lost the race for the US Senate, and is a popular choice to win. Just before giving his concession speech he meets an English ballerina, Elise (Blunt), and the two are instantly attracted. The meeting inspires Norris to give a more honest speech than he had been intending. The speech wins him a lot of support and marks him as an early favourite to win the 2010 Senate race.
Some time later Norris meets Elise again. However it soon becomes apparent that there are people who are determined to keep them seperate. Norris discovers the existence of the "Adjustment Bureau", an organisation of beings who appear identical to humans, but in reality are not, who secretly control human lives and destiny, according to a pre-determined plan. Norris discovers that humans only have the illusion of free will and that most important decisions that affect people's lives are the result of manipulation by the Adjustment Bureau. However, Norris and Elise were never intended to meet and their romance is seriously affecting the Adjustment Bureau's plans. In order to be with Elise, Norris must pit himself against a seemingly all-powerful organisation, whose operatives can be anywhere, who can manipulate anyone around them, who can predict the future and who are determined to keep them apart.

Opinions: Given the marketing and the fact that this is a film based on a story by legendary science-fiction author Philip K. Dick (whose works also inspired Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990) and Minority Report (2002) among many others) audiences could be forgiven for thinking that this would be another action-packed science-fiction thriller, in fact it is at least as much if not more of a romance than it is science-fiction. In fact it's difficult to see exactly what audience it is mainly aimed at. Viewers expecting a science-fiction thriller could probably be put off by the romance elements, while viewers wanting a romantic film might be put off by the science-fiction thriller elements. However, it could work as a good "date" movie if one person wanted to watch a thriller and the other a romance then this film would make for a good compromise. To be fair to the film, there is enough in it to keep both romantiphobes and sf-haters interested.
The movie is only very loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 1954 short story which was much more science-fiction oriented, and also had a lot more humour and had no romance elements in it at all. The story the film tells is interesting, but never quite manages to successfully blend together the genres of romance, science-fiction and thriller. A lot of interesting ideas come up, but never quite get developed. For example the Adjustment Bureau themselves are never quite explored, although it is hinted that they might be angels. Also, despite being epicted at times as being near-omnipotent they seems to have a habit of making mistakes (the whole mess is set off when one of them falls asleep on the job), added to that the fact that sometimes they manage to turn up anywhere, and other times they are seen running after buses and taxis. Additionally, they constantly worry about the disruptions caused by Norris and Elise's romance, and yet they seem to cause far more disruption by trying to prevent it. The members of the Bureau are ultimately depicted as bureaucrats, guys in suits who are not basically bad or malicious, they just have a job to do and procedures to follow.
The film is very well acted. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt make for likeable and engaging leads and they have a lot of on-screen chemistry. Terence Stamp also impresses in a fairly small role as a sinister member of the Bureau.
The film does have it's share of good scenes and there are some good ideas in it, even if it never quite comes together. It might also have been more interesting if some of the themes of the Adjustment Bureau's manipulation of individual lives and human destiny were explored in a bit more detail. Still it's an entertaining enough film, even if it doesn't serve up everything you might expect or want from it.



Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau