Film Review: The Diary Of A Teenage Girl

Posted on 11th September 2015 by 5WC in Film

I have noticed over the last few years that films classification appears to be getting tamer. Movies that I would expect to be an 18 arrive bearing a 15 instead. Whether society is just becoming numb, more accepting or blind is another debate, but it’s obvious that in the digital world we now live in where content of any desire is so easily accessible, what we are prepared to let people see at younger and younger ages is ever changing.

It is, therefore, surprising when the debate turns full circle. When the outcry isn’t that a film is available to an audience too young to understand it, but rather, that it’s been too harshly judged and as a result, completely shut out the exact people who should be viewing it. The Diary Of A Teenage Girl is in that exact situation. It’s been given an 18 certificate due to the prolonged and repetitive sexual and drug related nature of its story, but that’s it point. It is trying to talk to teenage girls about the pitfalls and dangers of sex and drugs and coming of age, but in doing so in such a graphic way it’s shut the door on them. Read more

Film Review: Mistress America

Posted on 10th September 2015 by 5WC in Film

I said in my review of American Ultra that I am naturally drawn to Jesse Eisenberg only to be constantly disappointed by the end result. The same is somewhat true with director Noah Baumbach. I will actively watch his films: The Squid & The Whale, Greenberg, While We’re Young, only to be left deflated by a story that doesn’t seem as quirky, or as interesting as I expected or believed it would be.

Even though they haven’t worked too much together, in my mind I view Greta Gerwig as Noah Baumbach’s muse. It’s a combination that instantly grabs my attention because together they created Frances Ha, a film about a character I hated but who left such a lasting impression on me I named it my third favourite film of 2014. So when I heard they were collaborating again on Mistress America, it was guaranteed I’d seek it out. Hoping, expecting, that together they’d again provide something to equal my memories of Frances Ha. Read more

Film Review: Effie Gray

Posted on 21st November 2014 by 5WC in Film

My friend saw this film and enjoyed it thoroughly. So, on this basis I booked tickets at my local cinema and prepared to be entertained. However, before the day arrived I heard that all the reviews had panned the film so I began to doubt the wisdom of purchasing my tickets. It was, therefore, with some trepidation that I wended my way to the cinema expecting a fairly boring evening and wishing I was staying at home.

As it turned out I was pleasantly surprised. The film, although slow in pace, as most costume dramas are, dealt with the years of Effie’s marriage to John Ruskin. She was nine years younger than him and had known him since her childhood. Ruskin senior encouraged the match but did not attend the wedding as it was at the home where his father had committed suicide. The newlyweds travelled back from Scotland to Ruskin’s parent’s house in London but even at this early stage it was clear that all would not be well with the marriage. Read more