The Paperboy

Director: Lee Daniels

Writers: Peter Dexter and Lee Daniels

Stars: Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman and John Cusack

When I first heard about 'The Paperboy' it sounded awful. I had heard it was to be based on the game of the same name from the 80's and to star Zac Efron. I couldn't imagine how they'd base a film on someone delivering papers especially as that someone would be the star of Disney's High School Musical. When I finally saw a trailer it became glaringly obvious that this wasn't a video game inspired movie, Efron was still staring but it looked good. Surprisingly so. Turn out that 'The Paperboy' is actually based on the 1995 novel by Peter Dexter (who co-wrote the screenplay along with director Lee Daniels).

Set in late 60's Florida, The story revolves around a prisoner, Hilary van Wetter (Cusack) convicted for the murder of the small town sheriff. His pen-pal girlfriend, Charlotte Bliss (Kidman) insists that he is innocent and that an injustice was carried out in jailing him. She writes to Miami based, former local boy, journalist Ward Jansen (McConaughey) and he investigates to find out the truth with the help of Charlotte, Colleague Yardley Acheman (David Oyewolo) and his younger brother Jack Jansen (Efron).

Matthew McConaughey is now a powerhouse of a star and he has been going from strength to strength for the last few years and he is fantastic here too. His character, Ward is the moral justice of the story, striving to find out the truth while burying his own demons inside. Nicole Kidman is great too and shows her range as Charlotte is very unlike many of her normal type of characters. Efron surprised me, admittedly I was a bit obnoxious and jumped to the conclusion he'd be awful in everything as per my opinion of him in '17 Again' and the 'High School Musical' films (although I really shouldn't enjoy them as they aren't aimed at me and I shouldn't form an opinion considering I have only seen bits, but we all do that from time to time) but he was great. He shines as the lead character, the slightly flawed and naive Jack. He keeps the film feeling grounded and is the most relatable of the characters, his performance is strong and he showed that he is willing to move his image away from that of Mickey Mouse's nephew which is probably a wise move for the longevity of his career. My favourite performance though is that of John Cusack. He is brilliantly creepy and terrifying as hillbilly Hilary van Wetten, the swamp originating convict. Cusack should definitely play more bad guy roles as he is a great antagonist.

There are some negatives, the weird non-contact prison sex scene between Kidman and Cusack while the other 3 aforementioned characters look on is over done and had me shifting awkwardly in my seat. It felt overplayed and slightly out of place for me and could have been hinted at or even left out altogether. The film maybe suffers from being rushed at the very end although the last twenty minutes are great and tense, the final two minutes just seem oddly quicker.

Overall though 'The Paperboy' is fantastic and definitely underrated probably having suffered from obnoxious opinions like mine previous to watching about Efron being in it (imdb particularly is full of that). The setting is beautiful and the swamplands are a character all in themselves. A quick mention also to Macy Gray who is very good in probably her biggest role to date as home help Anita. Her character is also the narrator and the narration definitely helps to keep everything stitched together seamlessly.

If you enjoy dark mysterious thrillers then it's definitely worth a watch, and the performances are brilliant too.

4/5.

EFF's Shorts Spotlight - Vol.3

Every Monday here on EFF's blogspot we are looking at short films from around the web and here we are in our third week! This week we have got Action from Intelligent Artists, Comedy from Back2Back Productions and a classic drama from Argos Films that was an inspiration for one of Terry Gilliam's Blockbusters.

If you would like us to watch and consider including your short film then leave a link in the comments below or alternatively hit us up on our twitter page +eightyfivefilms. I would recommend that you watch each of the shorts before reading the review as there may be spoilers. All films may include bad language, violence etc. so be prepared and watch at your own discretion.

I'm not going to go to deep into reviewing this week due to lack of time but hopefully you will still get the jist of my thoughts.

First Impressions (2013)
Directed by: Leo Kei Angelos
Written by: George Ruiz and Leo Kei Angelos
Starring: Hailey Bright, Chester See and Doug Jones
View on YouTube

A great superhero fan film, First Impressions impresses. The fighting is very well choreographed and look great, the acting performances are fantastic and it's well directed. I defy anyone with even the remotest interest in the superhero universe to not get a shiver down their spine when the camera gives a glance of the crown of Wonder Woman in her bag.

As first dates go this was pretty good! 4/5.

Off Road (2010)
Directed and written by: Martijn Smits, Erwin van der Eshof
Starring: Barbara Klaaysen and Kenan Raven
View on YouTube

Off Road is a Dutch comedy/drama (in English) about a a man being talked out of doing something possibly bad by his SatNav. It's very well shot, has great performances from its two human actors and is very funny. I really like the small twist at the end and enjoyed watching.

Off road but on route. 4/5

La Jetée (1962)
Directed and Written by: Chris Marker
Starring: Jean Négroni, Étienne Becker and Hélène Chatelain
View on Vimeo

"La jetée" by Chris Marker from Steele on Vimeo.

I tried in vain to find the French spoken version with English subtitles but did manage to find the English narration version; not as great as the original language track but still pretty good. Anyway, La Jetee is simply a classic, it's outstanding. It's amazing how a series of still photos can still work as a film and credit has to go to the sound design for really making that happen. I found it almost hypnotic listening along with the images and I almost forgot I wasn't watching a 'motion picture'.

As you may or may not have noticed La Jetee was a major inspiration for Terry Gilliam's 1995 film 'Twelve Monkeys' and itself drew inspiration from 'Vertigo'.

Incredible and timeless - 5/5.

What did you think of this weeks shorts? Let us know in the comment section below.

Only God Forgives (2013)

Only God Forgives (2013)
Director:  Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm
Runtime: 90mins

After Nicolas Winding Refn's previous film 'Drive' I was expecting a lot from Only God Forgives. I expected another good performance from Ryan Gosling, another good score from composer Cliff Martinez and more of the beautiful cinematography and I got that. Gosling gives a solid performance, quiet and brooding like the Driver but this character is slightly unhinged as shown in a scene where he tells his 'girlfriend' to give him the dress he gave her back.

This is my mad face.

Kristen Scott Thomas is also fantastic as the despicable mother of Gosling's character as she gives a performance that really made me despise her with her harsh words and worse actions. Vithaya Pansringarm, who only got into acting in 2008 after meeting a cameraman at a party, also gives a strong performance. He plays a policeman who takes justice into his own hands. It may be that his character believes himself to be the film's titular God, passing judgement on the citizens of Bangkok, while blurring the lines of whether he is good or bad.

Vithaya Pansringarm and his backscratcher.

The score from Martinez, as earlier noted, is again fantastic. I'm a big fan of films that use music as an extra layer to the narrative, Drive did it fantastically, Tarantino and his collaborators are obviously brilliant at it, Donnie Darko was another film where the music added to its feel. The music in Only God Forgives, traditionally Thai in places, really compliments its abstract look which is beautiful. Again, as in Drive the cinematography was masterful. There's a real contrast of colour in different shots, with red against blue and black against white both dominant. This may reflect the stark contrast of good and bad in (most of) the main characters, and the bad does seem to almost always happen with a red glow to it. Gosling's brother's (played by Tom Burke) most violent action and demise takes place in blood red light as does the confrontation between Gosling and Pansringarm. Another use of Red and Blue is in Thai Boxing, with each colour adorning the fighters in the opposing corners and with the sport being a part of the film this again reflects in the opposite of the two colours.

I'm blue, da-ba-de.

Yet with all of my pre-expectations of good acting, cinematography and sound for Only God Forgives being met, I just did not like it. I was left feeling very underwhelmed, disappointed and to be honest, I was even bored. The film is slow paced which isn't normally something I complain about, but it's almost as if Refn was aiming for a release in art galleries rather than cinemas. If the long, moody, staring into distance scenes were cut out then Only God Forgives would only be 20 minutes long and while that's an obvious exaggeration it puts my point across, not a lot seems to happen. Yes there is a good fight scene, there's the hit attempt and the fallout from that but it's the filler moments that let Refn down. There are also scenes that, to me, didn't make much sense. There are scenes that I presume to be dream sequences that just don't really fit. Now I'm not someone who has to have the plot all explained, I enjoy a film that leaves me pondering but unfortunately here it felt like Refn was being confusing just for the sake of it.

That it, stare moodily, keep doing that. For 90 minutes.

I'm not going to write Refn off after one film that I didn't particularly enjoy as he has produced some great work and Only God Forgives certainly has it's plus points. It has stunning visuals, great acting and a wonderful sound but unfortunately it just feels a little flat.

Only God Forgives scores 2 out of 5.

Let us know in the comments whether you agree or disagree.