Science of Sleep

Daily Mail 1/5
Daily Telegraph 4/5
Independent 2/5
The Guardian 4/5
The Times 3/5
The Sun 2.5/5
The Mirror 4/5
Financial Times 2/5
A good indication of how the Science of Sleep is splitting the critics right down the middle! its the second feature film from Michael Gondry, and has almost as much heart and beauty as his first 'eternal sunshine of the spotless mind'.
I was wary of his new effort, as it was almost impossible to do better than his first in my mind. Its a perfect 'break up' movie, and captures that traumatic time with great realism even withint the strange world he creates and sees it for what it is. The Hollywood ending does remove some of the charm, but its one of the few films i've sat in meeting house square in the rain to watch. Guess that makes me a big girl!
His new movie treads similar territory with a disfunctional love affair. It is seen through the eyes of a young man who's mother describes as 'always having difficulty defining dream from reality'. This allows Gondry an open pallet to create a complex world that makes sense within itself. It relies heavily on stop motion animation, another thing that has never lost its charm, and is clearly owes a debt to jan svankmajer. The best parts of the movie are in the dreams themselves, where no rules of normal world confine and Gondry's imagination can run wild.
Go see it. It'll give you the warm fuzzies, if you have half a heart at all. Honest!
4/5

Steam Boy

This one passed me by for some reason! its the second feature by the man who brought us Akira. Its also the most expensive Manga movie ever made, so i suppose it is surprising that it did!

Set in an alternative 19th century, where steam power has advanced beyond anything realised in our own world. This allows the makers to show their creativity in relation to the amazing new creations that could have happened. Including a steam powered tank, and a variety of flying machines!

It doesn't bother too much with a plot, which is slightly surprising as Akira is one of the better written sci-fi or manga genre movies of recent years. Suffice to say that one side has the steam ball (a device of great power) and the other side want it!

The animation is amazing in places, and some of the ideas and concepts within are dazzling. Worth checking out, if its your sort of thing. It definitely is mine!

Babel

Babel is the three stories, vaguely linked together on a vaguely similar theme!

I had read a number of reviews of the movie, that were not very excited by it, but still i felt that i would be different, and that i would really like it! i've seen the director's other work, and while not being blown away by them, i've always enjoyed them.

This was by far his worst work to date. two of the three stories were dull in the extreme. Brad Pitt seemed to be cast for his ability to run around and look confused! He cried on the phone to his son, and acted kranky with most everyone else!

The second story to the mexican woman who got lost in the desert... i mean really, scenes of her looking exhausted, wandering, kicking a bottle to see it there was water in it. One cliche after another! Second awful story.

The third story was the saving grace of the three. A well written piece about a mute girl in Japan who is coming to terms with the death of her mother. If they had kept it as just this one segment, i could have been in and out of the cinema in under and hour, and i'd have been much the happier for it!

Not the worst thing you'll see at the cinema this year, but certainly not the best! Probably one of those movies to leave for a went night on dvd!

I'm off to the bookies to put the house on Martin Scorsese winning best director! Amazing he hasn't won it up until now.

There's talk of him doing all three of the infernal affair movies that 'the departed' is based on. I haven't seen the originals, but if they are as tightly written as the first, they should be interesting. It is a bit sad to see one of the more original film makers in America's history doing remakes though.

Happy and sad to see 'Little Miss Sunshine' doing as well as it has. Does it really deserve the hype? I much preferred Junebug, the Squid and the Whale and Little children, which are similar enough movies. Still, good to see something that's a little off centre get a nod.

Oscar Junk

Best Film: Babel; The Departed; Letters From Iwo Jima; Little Miss Sunshine; The Queen.

Best Supporting Actress: Rinko Kikuchi (Babel); Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Sandal); Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine); Jennifer Hudson (Dream Girls); Adriana Barraza (Babel)

Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine); Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children); Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond); Eddie Murphy (Dream Girls); Mark Wahlberg (The Departed).

Best Actress: Penelope Cruz (Volver); Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal); Helen Mirren (The Queen); Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada); Kate Winslet (Little Children).

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond); Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson); Peter O'Toole (Venus); Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness); Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland).

Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel); Martin Scorsese (The Departed); Clint Eastwood (Letters From Iwo Jima); Steven Frears (The Queen); Paul Greengrass (United 93).

Best Original Screenplay: Babel; Letters From Iwo Jima; Little Miss Sunshine; Pan's Labyrinth; The Queen.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Borat; Children of Men; The Departed; Little Children; Notes on a Scandal

Best Animated Film: Cars; Happy Feet; Monster House

Best Foreign Language Film Of The Year: After The Wedding; Days Of Glory (Indigenes); The Lives of Others; Pan's Labyrinth; Water.