La La Land - mini-review

So the film the whole world seems to be talking about at the moment is La La Land and I finally managed to see it this past weekend as a post-exam treat! (thanks for paying for my ticket mum and dad lol) No spoilers!!

Mini-review- first things first, this has to be one of the prettiest films I have ever seen in terms of direction and cinematography. Every scene was clearly so well thought out in terms of colour scheme, position of props etc etc. Visually, it was just stunning to look at - that goes for the costumes as well. The music was just lovely, recurring themes woven throughout them and City of Stars has quickly become a new favourite of mine.

Emma Stone was superb as per usual, she captured the character of Mia delightfully (I am slightly biased though as I love anything she does). Ryan Gosling was also very good as Sebastian, however I personally felt his character was slightly dull but that was not necessarily his fault.

I think my main issue with this film was the fact when you strip away the music, the pretty songs and scenery, the story is essentially kind of boring and definitely a story Hollywood has done before. Girl meets boy, blah blah blah. However, the callbacks to the old Hollywood musicals like Singing in the Rain, Casablanca etc were a lovely touch and making it a modern love story was interesting.

On the whole, I'd recommend it and I would say it is worthy of it's nominations in the award shows especially in the case of direction and cinematography as I am still thinking about how beautifully some of the scenes were shot.

Soz for the short length of this; I'm planning bigger and better posts to come.
Thanks for reading, Laura x

Film Review: The Imitation Game

This week, I saw 'The Imitation Game' starring Benedict Cumberbatch and directed by Morten Tyldum; The film tells the true story of Alan Turing, a man who deserves far more credit than he gets I personally think. Long story short, WW2 would have been about three years longer if it weren't for him and his code-breaking team working secretly on a machine that would crack 'Enigma', the encryption machine the Germans used throughout the war. Anyone could pick up these messages sent but no-one knew what they meant without cracking the code that changed every day at midnight.

While the film follows the story of the machine Turing built to crack the code, it also gives a great insight into his life. He was secretive, quiet man, extremely clever, bullied at school and sadly due to the treatment of the British government and society at the time, forced to hide the fact he was gay. Ever since I first read about Turing a few years ago, I thought he was fascinating and the film (or Cumberbatch) portrays him excellently, how he deserves to be remembered. It can't really be classed as a spoiler as it's a true story that we know the ending of but; Turing died a criminal, suicide by cyanide because he had been forced to take hormonal therapy to "cure his homosexuality" by the police service. It was only in 2013, that the Queen gave Turing a royal pardon and was remembered for the astonishing work he did during the war that was kept a secret for fifty years. But I digress. (Seriously do some research into the man, he's amazing)

Back to the film. The way they told the story was gripping, there were parts that made you happy, sad, angry, essentially all of the emotions. Every actor was perfect in their portrayal of their character. I will always sing Benedict Cumberbatch's praises but he really is outstanding in this film, very different to anything we have seen him in before but still fantastic. Keira Knightley plays Joan Clarke, the only woman on the Enigma team, extremely intelligent but made to work elsewhere on the project very secretly as she was not allowed to work with the men. She fitted the role perfectly and portrayed her with class, just as she should have been. Other actors involved include Matthew Goode, Mark Strong and Charles Dance who also played their roles incredibly.

In terms of setting, cinematography etc, I could find no fault in the direction, costumes, lighting etc. The whole film just worked together really well to tell an important story that people certainly do not know enough about. The only problem I had was that in the middle, it wavers slightly and I would have thought some people would lose interest in what was going on.

Overall, this film was amazing and I highly recommend you go see it, particularly if you are interested in History!
10/10

Laura x