The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One (2014) - Film review by www.screenfantastique.com

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One is a compelling and sometimes thought-provoking film with director Francis Lawrence delivering the strongest entry into the series to date. Mockingjay Part One moves away from the ‘game’ format of the first two films in the franchise, allowing a broader story that confronts much larger themes such as genocide, media manipulation and corrupt political systems. It’s unexpected, but not unwelcome, as the story doesn’t linger for too long on any one point. The focal point remains Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen, the reluctant heroine whose motivating desire is to protect her family and loved ones at her own expense.

For viewers not familiar with the previous two films, the main character – Lawrence’s Katniss – volunteered to save her sister from competing in The Hunger Games, a death-match that pits young adults from their country’s twelve provinces against one another. Victorious in her efforts, Katniss is then drafted into a champion-of-champions version of the Games in the second film. The conclusion of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire sees Katniss fire the first demonstrative shot in the rebellion against Donald Sutherland’s sadistic President Snow. Mocking Jay: Part One opens with Katniss in a bad state, psychologically broken by the belief that she’s lost her beloved Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) at the end of the second film, having been taken in by the rebels of District 13. Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who has also defected to the rebels, tries to convince Katniss to help District 13’s President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) in her efforts to overthrow the Capitol. Katniss is reluctant at first but, upon seeing first-hand the destruction of her District 12 hometown and President Snow’s genocide, she agrees to embrace her symbolic status of revolution: the Mockingjay.

Mockingjay Part One has the unenviable task of framing the action that will unfold in the final film in late 2015. Fortunately, the film’s production team don’t over-reach, covering about two-fifths of Suzanne Collins’ novel in this segment. Unlike the previous two Hunger Games movies, Mockingjay Part One de-emphasises Katniss as events spiral beyond everyone’s control. Donald Sutherland’s President Snow has become pathologically determined to destroy everything Katniss stands for and wages war with no regard to casualties regardless of their innocence. Mere association with the Mockingjay symbol results in deadly retribution and, at one point, Snow orders the bombing of a hospital in one for the Districts that is full of injured women and children. This only serves to strengthen the resolve of the District 13 rebels and Katniss.

Supporting characters are given more to do this time around, as Katniss, at times, is protected for the sake of preserving the ever-increasing symbolism she represents to the rebellion. Liam Hemsworth as the always-pining Cale has some great scenes with Lawrence as the story dances around their sometimes-romantic interest with each other. The casting of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Hemsworth as Cale still stretches credibility as the believability in terms of the affection Katniss has for both. It’s hard to ignore Hemsworth’s looks and presence as Cale, while Hutcherson’s Peeta is short, a bit whiny and comes across as a bit pathetic. In this case, love is truly blind.

Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright and Phillip Seymour Hoffman all return in expanded roles as they take up the fight against the Capitol. Sadly, this will be the second last film audiences get to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman in and the producers dedicate Mockingjay Part One to the actor. Francis Lawrence has been faithful to Hoffman’s memory and has not used any digital trickery to cover scenes that had yet-to-be filmed when the actor died in early 2014. Stanley Tucci also returns as Caesar Flickerman, but is only seen as part of televised propaganda broadcasts designed to discredit Katniss and the District 13 rebels. Donald Sutherland delivers the film’s best supporting performance and, even at 79 years of age, portrays Snow as a quietly spoken monster prepared to use any means at his disposal to maintain order in Panem. Julianne Moore brings a different dimension as rebel President Alma Coin, who is just as quietly spoken as Snow and becomes determined to use Katniss in her efforts to bring down the Capitol.

The credit for the success of Mockingjay Part One must go to the collaboration between Suzanne Collins, screenplay writers Danny Strong & Peter Craig, as well as Francis Lawrence. Collins worked with the film’s writers to adapt the most important elements from the first part of her novel and has maintained the integrity of her novel. The point at which Part One finishes is well chosen, as it’s not a stop-dead cliff-hanger but leaves several important plot points hanging and a desire in the viewer for Part Two to get released as quickly as possible.

As should be expected from a film with a $150 million plus production budget, the technical execution of Mockingjay Part One is first-rate. Catching Fire cinematographer Jo Willems returns for follow-up duties and, as Mockingjay Part One & Part Two were filmed back-to-back, will also be back on board for the final installment of the franchise. Willems’ lighting and camera work captures the changing mood of the story, as scenes are generally darker and colours more muted than the first two films. Alan Edward Bell also returns as Editor and is joined by Mark Yoshikawa, both of whom are also working concurrently on Part Two. Other key carry-over personnel include Production Designer Philip Messina, Set Decorator Larry Diaz and the very talented composer James Newton Howard delivering another strong musical score.

TheHunger Games: Mockingjay Part One does a great job of creating a stand-alone film that entertains and never feels as if it’s a slave to what will come in its follow-up installment. This is no mean feat and a credit to the film’s producers. Fans of the series should feel extremely satisfied, while non-fans can sit and enjoy a well-crafted movie that provides another vehicle for Jennifer Lawrence to, once again, showcase her tremendous talent. It’s going to be a long twelve months waiting for the finale!

Interstellar (2014) - Film review by www.screenfantastique.com

Interstellar is an intriguing piece of film-making. It’s full of ideas and ambition, but is let down by parts of the film-making process that aren’t able to translate that ambition. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy & Inception) delivers a movie that makes people work for their entertainment, eschewing an effects-driven extravaganza in favour of characterisation set in a near-future world on the brink of agricultural collapse. It uses the structure of classic science fiction films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounter of the Third Kind to convey its message, which some viewers may find too on-the-nose. It’s a strong but compromised work of speculative science fiction that is a calculated risk by the director to deliver a cinema experience that doesn’t just spoon-feed the audience every narrative outcome.

Somewhere in the near future, humanity’s demand upon Earth’s resources has taken its toll. There is not enough food to feed the planet’s population and desperate agricultural practice have expelled too much nitrogen into the atmosphere. Climate change is taking a brutal toll, as dust storms become major weather events and crop blight is marginalising food production. Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a former NASA pilot & engineer who has become a corn farmer in order to do his bit to help humanity struggle on. The appearance of a strange phenomenon in his home lead Cooper and his 10 year old daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) to the covertly-operating NASA lead by Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway). Brand convinces Cooper to pilot a mission that will allow an intergalactic expedition to find humanity a new planet to call home.

Jessica Chastain's characater of Murph witnesses the devastation of crop blight first hand throughout the second half of the film as she returns home to the family farm in search of answers to questions of universal importance.

Interstellar was co-written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan. The pair certainly brushed up on the “great science fiction movies” before they sat down to write this film, as there are nods to the genre’s past great littered throughout the film. Cooper and Amelia are joined on their mission by Doyle (Wes Bentley) and Romilly (David Gyasi), along with TARS, a robot voiced by Bill Irwin. Whether it was intended or not, this segment of the movie feels like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nolan’s dedication to making sure that the space travel appears and feels to be scientifically accurate is similar to the same dedication paid by Kubrick when he was making his masterpiece back in the mid-1960s. Those who have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey will also find it hard not to draw comparison between TARS and HAL-9000.

The story also addresses the passage of time associated with space travel and cleverly uses it to link back to events on Earth, as an older Murph (Jessica Chastain) joins Professor Brand in a bid to solve a mathematical equation that will help NASA to defeat gravity itself and launch massive ships from the planet’s surface in order to save the planet’s population. Murph’s visit back to the family farm to her brother Tom (Casey Affleck) highlight the situation is more desperate than ever, as the dust storms are never-ending and the clogged atmosphere is suffocating people to their death. The Nolan brothers do not shy away from the question of mortality throughout the story, as a number of important characters do not make it to the end of the film. It’s an example of Nolan’s calculated risk that the audience will accept, in a story that spans several decades and has an interplanetary space mission central to its premise, that life will play out the same for his characters as it does for all humans.

The search for humanity's new home is complicated when the crew of the Endurance discover the secrets of previous missions.

At its core, Interstellar is a story about faith and love. Not the feel-good romantic comedy stuff; more the power of connection that two people can have between them that transcends all other matters in the universe. Cooper and Murph are the embodiment of this connection in the film. McConaughey is rock solid as Cooper. He’s both a superman and an everyman and the character is not an easy sell, but McConaughey’s passion when he talks about Cooper’s children’s future make him relatable as a parent and believable in his delivery. Jessica Chastain impresses again as the older Murph and her performance injects emotion into the story at a point where technicalities of the plot could have completely overwhelmed the story. Anne Hathaway as Amelia is miscast and lacks the dramatic punch to match it with McConaughey. Nolan’s acting talisman Michael Caine looks similarly out of his depth. The director has used the veteran actor in every film since he has made since Batman Begins and it’s unusual to see him turn in a performance that doesn’t hit the mark. John Lithgow, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace and David Oyelowo all appear in the film, but none have a great deal of screen time to do anything other than get through the lines and keep the story moving.

A lot of attention has been paid to the technical production of Interstellar, especially Nolan’s use of 35mm film and IMAX technology. A number of the scenes were filmed using IMAX cameras, but it ended up becoming quite distracting. The clarity of the 35mm footage on the bigger screen lacked resolution and Nolan’s selection of IMAX shots did nothing to improve the story. Hoyte Van Hoytema was Nolan’s cinematographer on Interstellar and the film looks different to the five films that Wally Pfister has done for the director. Given the poor box office result of Pfister’s directorial debut Transcendence, it would not be unreasonable to suggest you should never mess with a winning combination.

Director Christopher Nolan and Director of Photography Hoyte Van Hoytema filming with IMAX,

Another element that does not work for Interstellar is its musical score. Hans Zimmer is a wonderful film music composer and he has provided Nolan with great accompaniments to his previous movies. The score for Interstellar is not one of them. The signature theme – Our Destiny Lies Above Us – is a moving piece of music in itself, but the manner in which it is cut into the film becomes increasingly jarring the longer the film runs. It’s especially overwrought in scenes where the crew of the Endurance spacecraft are tested to their physical and mental limits. It’s but another example of the film-making process not quite matching the ambition of the story.

It’s easy to say that this is not Christopher Nolan’s best film, but it is a comparison borne of a body of work not matched by any other director over the last decade. Nolan sets very high standards. Interstellar is an extraordinary piece of film-making by comparison to the great majority of what makes its way onto cinema screens. Viewers need to be prepared to think to enjoy this film, but it doesn’t come with an in-built automatic satisfaction button that can be pushed at the end of the film to make sure it’s everything that’s wanted or desired.