A Seperation (2011) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: http://muftah.org/a-separation-what-american-film-critics-seems-to-have-missed/#.VkPPs2SrS2w

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Screewriter: Asghar Farhadi 
Stars: Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Trailer link
IMDb page

A Master of the Domestic:

The modern Iranian family and the people they encounter in A Seperation, Asghar Farhadi's Oscar winning drama from 2011, is one of the most well constructed and many layered groups of movie characters I've ever seen on film. This director's understanding of mise-en-scène and his approach to natural storytelling is freakishly impressive to me, and the fact that he went on to write and direct The Past, which in my opinion is just as good as A Seperation, solidifies Farhardi as one of the most interesting filmmakers working today (at least in my book). Divorce and family fragmentation in general is a theme that often seems to make its way into his narratives, and as the title suggest, A Seperation is no different. 

A familiar story, or so you thought:
The film opens in a courtroom, where Nadar and Simin are in the middle of a heated argument. She wants to divorce him, he doesn't want to divorce her, and both of them want custody over their only child. Sounds familiar? Of cause it does, and that's exactly the point. For a while, A Seperation appears to be nothing more than what its title promises; yet another film in a long line of divorce dramas. But then something happens, and the film completely changes course. Yes, it's still essentially a movie about a family going through a tough breakup, but at the same time, it's so much more than that. It evolves into a poignant depiction of religion, pride, honesty, grief and forgiveness, and shows how those themes come into play in modern day Iran.

People Being People:  
To me, the best aspect of this film is the naturalistic way in which the director lets his story unfold. It is absolutely devoid of any kind of melodrama, yet still profoundly emotional when it needs to be. The way each character acts a tiny bit differently after each major and minor plot point, Farhadi's way of suggesting rather than showing, and his elegant use of reincorporation; All of this makes A Seperation a master class in natural, relatable storytelling, something I as a child of Scandinavian cinema am able to respect and admire. Most films are lucky to have just one or two real, flawed and genuinely human main characters, but in A Seperation, Farhadi has created at least five of those. In the end, the dilemmas these characters go through are so transcending and fundamentally human, that I often found myself forgetting that I was watching an Iranian film set in Iran, with Iranian actors and actresses. They were just people to me; real people in real situations. 

One Event, a Thousand Consequences:
As I explained previously, this film reaches a whole new level of depth as it gets going. By the time it reaches it's second hour and something unexpected happens, the layers of conflict, ethical chaos, doubt, anger and paranoia which the main characters find themselves plunged into, is so deep and multi colored that the drama and tension simply just soars. In particular, Peyman Moaadi's character and his struggles concerning his daughter, his feelings towards his soon-to-be ex wife and an inner battle between pride and honesty, shades him and his motives in a million different shades of gray. When the film is over and the credits start rolling, you're not only left wondering where this man will end up physically, but also how his relationships with the people around him will develop in the days and years to come. It might have come to a narrative end, yes, but A Seperation kept on rolling in my head, in the way that great films often do. 

Force Majeure (2014) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: http://www.brockpress.com/2015/02/bufs-preview-17-046/

Director: Ruben Östlund
Screenwriter: Ruben Östlund
Stars: Johannes Khunke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Kristofer Hivju, Fanni Metelius
Trailer link
IMDb page

More negativity to come, I promise:

So it turns out that being unemployed doesn't give you an unlimited amount of time to do whatever you feel like, and that job hunting actually requires almost as much work and dedication as a regular 9 to 5. Between interviews, watching movies, other film related writing and just life in general, I don't get to do a whole lot of blogging these days, which is something that has been bothering me a lot over the last few weeks. I want to get back into the habit of reviewing films from both sides of the quality spectrum, and stop popping online just to write a few lines abut my favourite films once in a while, like I've been doing for the last couple of months. That being said however, today's review will be a very positive one, so I guess I'm already starting to contradict myself. Sigh.

Skiing the pain away:

Force Majeure is a pitch black comedy set in and around a luxurious ski resort in the French Alps. We're introduced to a husband, his wife and their two children in an awkwardly funny and relatable opening scene, where an intruding photographer forces them to pose for his unforgiving camera. The family on the post-card-worthy photos seems pitch perfect at a glance, but within the first 10 minutes of the film, we discover that this isn't exactly the case. It turns out that Mama and Papa have a very hard time communicating with each other, and when their respective weaknesses and limits are exposed as a result of an extraordinary event, a family crisis unparallelled but anything you've ever seen before ensues.  

Naked vastness:
One of the best things about Force Majeure is it's uncanny sense of mood and atmosphere. Director Ruben Östlund treats his audience to magnificent shots of snowy mountaintops and brooding pine forests all throughout the film, and the wast loneliness and isolation of these vistas matches the tone of the film perfectly. Our main characters, Thomas and Ebba, traveled to this place in an attempt to salvage their damaged marriage, desperately hoping that a holiday in the idyllic Alps would tighten them as a family. What actually ends up happening is quite the opposite; the silence and emptiness of the place reveals how far apart from each other they've grown, and threatens to drive them even further apart. There's nothing but snow, emptiness and silence in this place, which forces the characters to look at each other and themselves in a new light, and Ruben Österlund uses the chilling surroundings to capture this this sense of chaos, clarity and emptiness extremely well.

You'll feel bad, but you'll laugh:
In my opinion, the biggest takeaway from this film is how absolutely hilarious it is. It isn't funny in a Seth Rogen dick-jokey kind of way, but in an understated, awkward and more insightful manner, which suits the overall theme of the film very well. Its best scenes leave you wondering whether you should be crying for or laughing at the main characters and their silly, egocentric behaviour, which is something I enjoyed immensely. This humour doesn't get in the way of the more thoughtful ideas that Östlund proposes in the film however, which Kristofer Hivju's character is a perfect example of; he successfully explores themes such as masculinity, hero complexes and self-contradiction  through this supporting character, but also manages to make him one of the funniest and most enjoyably cringeworthy film personas of 2014. 

Swedish cinema, ho!:

Force Majeure was Sweden's official submission to the best foreign language film category during this year's Oscars, but for some unexplainable reason, it wasn't even nominated. The pure wit and cleverness of Force is unparalleled by anything I saw in 2014, so much so that I often catch myself internally debating some of the questions director Ruben Östlund raises, about themes such as forgiveness, pride, trust and self redemption, in the same way that his characters do. He tells a thought-provoking and darkly funny story in a deeply engrossing and original manner, and in my opinion, Force Majeure is one of the very best films of 2014, and the second Swedish masterpiece to be grossly overlooked by the Oscars within the last decade. (You can read my Let the Right One In review here!)

Let the Right One In (2008) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: http://revoltdaily.org/let-the-right-one-in-review-2/

Director: Thomas Alfredson

Writer: John Ajvide Lindquist

Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson

Trailer link

IMDb page

On a cold, stormy night:

Let the Right One In is a Swedish horror film set in a cold and snowy Stockholm suburb. It centers around a couple of lonely and unwanted children; a 12-year-old boy and a female vampire, who despite being stranded in the middle of nowhere (both literally and figuratively), end up finding solace in each other's company. Oscar's parents are divorced, and when he isn't being bullied at school or yelled at by his mother, he spends his time hanging out on a cold concrete playground close to his apartment complex. This is where he meets Eli, a curious girl with black hair who walks barefooted in the dead of winter, seems wise beyond her years, and has some weird eating habits. Oscar immediately notices that something isn't quite right about this girl, but being a true 12-year-old, he happily accepts the impossible when faced with the opportunity to make a friend.

A genre facelift:

Most people associate the term "vampire movie" with sparkly, glaring and depressed supermodels with girlfriend problems, or old, haunted Eastern European mansion filled with bats and coffins. With Let the Right One In however, we get none of these clichés and worn out premises. It's a wholly original film, one that takes the vampire genre (and the horror genre as a whole) by its feet and turns it upside down, making for one of the most unique cinematic experiences I've had in my life. Let the Right One In is a sad, dark, frightening and at times also extremely tender and heartwarming film that has haunted me ever since I saw it, but for completely different reasons than horror film normally do. It is a film entirely devoid of garlic, crosses, silver bullets and other such vampire tropes, yet director Thomas Alfredson still has his feet solidly planted in a mythology that as of a few days ago didn't appeal to me in the slightest. 

The right amount of fiction:

In my opinion, the best thing about this film is the fact that its supernatural elements are used as tools to tell a story, rather than an excuse to put some guts and violence on a TV-screen. I was chocked when I first realized that Eli, the young vampire portrayed by Lina Leandersson, is one of the most believable and convincing characters I have ever come across not just in cinema, but in fiction as a whole. For some reason I just couldn't keep my heart from breaking every time a new side to this character was revealed, and the fact that the relationship she shares with Kåre Hedebrant's character touched me as profoundly as it did, despite this being a horror film, should tell you something about how much I adore it. As I explained earlier, Alfredson doesn't hit you over the head with the fact that there's a vampire in his movie, which lets us view the world he creates through Oscar's eyes. We accept the film's supernatural premise because Oscar does; because we can't help it. 

"Kill for me, baby.":

Horror movies generally don't have subdued messages and underlying currents woven into them anymore, and often leave their audiences with nothing to ponder over on their way home other than how gory that climactic chainsaw fight was. Let the Right One In breaks that mold. One of the main themes in the film is the blurred lines between good and evil, and whereas the American remake from 2010 uses mouthy and forced dialogue to try and achieve a similar effect, Alfredson and his cinematographer's subdued approach is infinitely more thought provoking and lingering. They manage to make me fall in love with a character who kills people on a regular basis, much in the same way that Oscar blindly accepts that this is how his new friend behaves. Let the Right One In is an alarmingly thought provoking and ethically challenging film in my opinion, and one that I'll be rewatching many many times in the future. 

To have seen it is to love it:

You're in for a surprise if you go into this film expecting something in the vein of Twilight, Nosferatu or Bram Stoker's Dracula, but depending on how open minded you are, it's likely to be one of the best surprises you'll ever be subjected to. Thomas Alfredson got his international breakthrough with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a phenomenal cold war thriller which I have reviewed in the past, but he would have never gotten the chance to direct a movie on the scale of Tinker Tailor had it not been for the success of Let the Right one In, which in my opinion is the better of the two films. I'm currently in the process of compiling a top 10 list of movies from 2014, but since this heartbreaking Swedish vampire movie came out in 2008, the very best film I saw this year won't be featured on the list.

Andrew Von Lawrence Presents: A Game of Porcelain Thrones

Lord of the flies:

Although clumsily edited and lacking in technical finesse, I'm pretty sure this is the best short I've made so far. Preparing the script and figuring out how to do slow motion and voice over convincingly set me back five days worth of spare time, the shoot itself and the editing process took just under 4 hours respectively, and as a result thereof, this video is also the most time consuming one I've done as of yet. Time enjoyed is time well spent!

An enjoyable process:

20+ hours for a short as unprofessional as this one might initially sound like a lot, but I personally couldn't be happier with the final result. Preparing as relatively extensively as I did for this short was very educational, entertaining and rewarding, as I got to experience a tiny bit of how much work making a real film actually is, and my friends and I had a really good time shooting the ridiculous action sequences together. 

Preparations is key:

In my own opinion, the thing that sets this video apart from the other ones I've made so far, is the amount of varying shots and angles we managed to fit into the final version. If you look at the only real "live action" short I've done apart from this one, you'll notice that it's done entirely from one angle, with no variation in terms of closeups, wide shots and medium closeups. Having the time to plan ahead definitely came in handy here, and I feel as if I'm already a much better filmmaker than I was just four months ago, even though that still doesn't really say a lot. 

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: http://www.themoviejerk.co.uk/film-reviews/arthouse/

Director: Wes Anderson
Screenwriters: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
Stars: Jared Gilman, Kara Heyward, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton 
Trailer link
IMDb page

My first Anderson:

It has not been more than a year since I finally started exploring Wes Anderson's famous filmography, and Moonrise Kingdom was the first movie of his that I saw. I often think back to that day and remember how shocked I was that this guy had been making movies for two decades without me ever really knowing about it, and feeling as if I had just discovered an entirely new world of original content and endless cinematic possibilities that I had never had a clue even existed. After my initiation I tied myself to a chair and swallowed Anderson's entire back catalogue in a few days, just in time for the danish premiere of The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I sought out as soon as I possibly could. Never before and never since have I become as infatuated with a filmmaker in such a short amount of time as I did with Wes, and although Moonrise Kingdom is not my personal favourite film of his (Rushmore will always be my Rushmore), it holds a very special place in my heart as the movie that introduced me to one of my all time favourite filmmakers. 

Familiar on the surface, entirely original underneath:  

Moonrise Kingdom takes place in the 1960's on a fictitious island off the coast of New England, and centers around a pair of misfit teenagers and the adults who fail at making them feel welcome in this world. Sam is an orphaned khaki scout of the 55th battalion who has been in and out of foster homes for many years, and Suzy is a mildly depressed schoolgirl who would rather read books and listen to records than be around her dysfunctional family. The two of them decide to run away from home in search of a place in the woods where they can be together and not have to worry about all their troubles, but to their surprise, Suzy's Parents, Sam's scout leader and the island's only police officer actually care enough about them to launch a search party. This might sound like the synopsis of your typical teen-romance or Bunny and Clyde-inspired story of love and teen angst (you just don't understand me mom!), but luckily, Moonrise Kingdom is not like that at all.

Characters a la Wes Anderson: 

Beyond the trademark Anderson quirks, quips and bittersweet sense of melancholy, the main thing about this film that makes it substantially better than any other movie about young love that I have seen in my short life, is the fact that I entirely bough the fact that its main characters were, you know, in love. Whether this is thanks to the film's incredible young actors or Anderson's and Roman Coppola's Oscar nominated script I can not say, but I just can not keep myself from falling head-over-heels in love with both of Moonrise Kingdom's main characters every time I watch the film. Following these young human beings as they explore the world they live in while realizing how vise beyond their years they have had to become in order to cope with life is just downright enchanting to me, and by the time the film comes to an end, I feel as if I have been on a real journey with these characters and understand them in ways that no one else could. They feel like childhood friends to me, and in my experience, only very few filmmakers manage to reach the same level of character immersion as Wes Anderson does time and time again. 

There is a storm coming:

The more you watch and start picking up on some of the more supple themes in Moonrise Kingdom, the more you start realizing that this is a film with much more on its heart than it initially lets you to believe. We follow a meteorologist In a series of seemingly unnecessary scenes throughout the movie, and although it is later revealed that his weather forecasts play a big part in the climax of the film, there are a bunch of different ways to read these scenes and interpret the information that the character feeds us. I did not pick up on most of these subtle meanings on my first viewing of Moonrise Kingdom, and knowing Wes Anderson, I will probably find even more interesting stuff to explore the next time I rewatch one of his films. One of the most obvious themes in this particular movie is the way in which the characters played by Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis and Edward Norton still have yet to mature into adulthood, and as Willis' character truthfully reflects, we quickly realize that these people probably know less about life than the troubled teenagers who they are searching for.

Strong individual elements forming an even stronger unit:

If you are hesitant about taking on the world that is Wes Anderson's filmography, I know exactly how you feel. People may tell you that his distinct visual techniques, quirky set designs, trademark costumes and intimidatingly talented casts are what sets him apart from other filmmakers, but in my book, the thing that makes these movies stand out does not come down to any of those sweet and fascinating gimmicks. You can have as many bells and whistles in your movie as you want to, but if your characters do not work, your story is going to feel flat and unengaging. Luckily Wes Anderson's characters always work, all 20 of them, in every single movie he has ever made, and more than anything, they are what keeps me coming back to his films. Sam and Suzy and all the other imperfectly perfect personalities from Anderson's films will linger in your mind longer than most other filmmakers' characters will, and giving Moonrise Kingdom a chance back then is one of the best decisions I have ever made. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: http://cms.polimoli.com/images/1536/2014/04/11/t1-horz.jpg

Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Screenwriters: Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Evan Daugherty
Stars: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner
Trailer link
IMDb page

But first a bit of soul cleansing:

Yes, I, the person who named a three hour long french movie about two lesbians the best movie of 2013, went to the theater to watch a ninja turtles movie. I know, I almost can not believe it myself either. As far as excuses go, I have a pretty solid one: two of my less cinelitterate buddies wanted to go out for a burger and a movie, and this was the only one they wanted to see. It was two against one, so the choice was either Michael Bay and Megan Fox or nothing. They had me in a corner with my back against the wall. I simply could not help it, and I solemnly vov to watch at least five black/white movies per week for the next three months so that I may atone for my sins and continue down the path of the true film buff.

Oh Michael Bay, how we've missed you:

The latest big screen adaptation of every 1990's kid's favourite team of ninjas is produced by Michael Bay, and it shows from the very beginning. Anyone familiar with his Transformers series will not be surprised to hear that this film has about as much story to tell as a 30 second shampoo commercial, and contains characters that are about as deep and interesting as the dirt under your fingernails. Megan Fox plays April O'Neal, the main human character in the ninja turtles universe, who in the animated series served as the main connection between fact and fiction and who allowed the turtles to feel relatable and somewhat believable. In this film however, she is more of a liability than anything else. After her character has served its purpose and the turtles and the main "conflict" has been set up, she is demoted to her typical "damsel in distress"-type of character who cries and screams all the time, has 2-3 lines of dialogue every 30 minutes, and who only exists so that the heroes have someone to rescue during the nauseating actions sequences. Hooray for Michael Bay!

Indecisive about its target audience: 

Yes, any film featuring 8 feet tall turtles who fight with katanas, live in the severs and eat pizza all day long is gonna feel unrealistic to anyone but children, and I realize that I might not be young enough to be of the target demographic anymore. This particular ninja turtles movie is rated PG-13 and is supposed to be a film for kids and young teenagers, but there is absolutely no way that I would let my thirteen-year-old watch it if I was a parent, because of how creepy and gratuitous it is at times, especially when it comes to Will Arnett's character. Going all out with the unrealistic stuff is completely fine as long as you stick to that recipe and always keep in mind that what you are making is a kid's movie, but this film does not do that. No movie with a title as ridiculous as this one should have the power to offend or outrage people, but based on its roots and its childish nature, some of the heavily suggestive dialogue and "revealing" shots in this film are just completely misjudged in my opinion.  

See no evil:
I personally think the TNMT universe fits quite well into the superhero genre, and the one thing that a superhero movie needs even more than a strong and believable protagonist(s), is a worthy and rememberable villain. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles does not have that, not by any stretch of the imagination. Shredder, one of the best and most menacing villains ever created in any cartoon, comic book, television series or movie, is a complete joke in this film, and basically serves as a glorified henchman whom you could not care less about. As someone who loved the animated series when he was a kid and experienced how brutal and frightening the Shredder character can be, this was the single biggest letdown of the entire film. William Fichtner plays the other main villain in this film, and even though he does a very good job based on the material he is given, his character falls so heavily into the "evil corporate hotshot who appears goodhearted on the outside"-cliché that I lost any and all respect for him within minutes. Based on its lack of prominent antagonists, you never get the feeling that anything is actually at stake while watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which in my opinion is its single biggest downfall. 

Credit where credit is due:
This review has been an absolute hammering so far, but before we cap it off, there are a few slightly positive things that I have to mention. The actual ninja turtles are in fact somewhat well characterized in my opinion and serve as the only source of laughter in the film, but by the time you start caring for them just a little bit, it is far too late to matter. The elevator scene near the end of the movie is the only sequence that reminded me of the entertaining nature and likable personalities of the masked tortoises who I know and love from the television series, but for a 101 minute movie, one 20 second sequence obviously does not cut it. The CGI-work which went into the film is another thing that deserves to be mentioned, and even though it sort of feels wasted on the chaotic and way too shaky action sequences that we have come to expect from Michael Bay movies, I do realize that a lot of very talented graphics people must have worked on this project for months. They are the real heroes of this otherwise extremely subpar movie, but in the end, not even their contribution manages to salvage much of anything. I like the universe, the characters and the idea of adapting the animated series into a movie, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is everything but "shellshocking". 

Andrew Von Lawrence Presents: Troels the Existential Dinosaur

A wild idea appeared!:

I do not watch a lot of cartoons or animated shows/movies anymore, but for some random reason, I recently wanted to try and make one myself. As with most ideas, the inspiration behind this one kind of came out of the blue, and as ever, the story ended up being completely different from what I had initially intended. This probably is the quote on quote "best" skit I have made to date though, seeing as I ended up investing way more time into making it than any other project so far. I just pray that putting a piece of copyrighted Hans Zimmer music in it will not motivate the NSA have to me executed or something. 

Andrew used editing!:

My guess would be that this 5 minute video took about 15 hours to create, the biggest time consumer by far being the editing process. For some reason it did not occur to me that taking still pictures would be the easiest way to go about making a stop motion cartoon such as this one, and as such, I ended up having around five hundred small clips that all had to be trimmed down and matched together. Even though this particular video only runs at four frames per second, creating just under a thousand 0,25 second clips was a major pain. 

It's not very effective...:

Apart from switching to still pictures, the next cartoon I make will be shot on a desk or a chair or something, and not on my goddamn bedroom floor. After three hours of sitting on the carpet rotating small paper stars and moving badly drawn dinosaur carcasses half a centimeter per frame, my spine and my ass were basically ready for amputation. It was hilarious. Seriously though, I did have a good time making this video, and stop motion is definitely a technique I will be working with again in the future. 

You can find this video as well as a few others on my Youtube channel.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: http://americanlivewire.com/2014-04-07-captain-america-the-winter-soldier-tops-weekend-box-office-continuing-marvels-streak/

Director: Anthony and Joe Russo

Writers: Christopher Marcus, Stephen McFeely

Stars: Chris Evens, Scarlet Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Anthony Mackie

Trailer link

IMDb page

Having a lot of making up to do:

I am just going to come right out and say it: I do not like the Marvel cinematic universe very much. I trashed Iron Man 3 to bits when I reviewed it a year ago, and since then, my opinion of these super hero movies have not changed a lot. The fiasco that was Thor 2: The Dark World did not exactly do the genre any favours, and with that in mind, I had very little to no hope that Cap 2 was gonna be any different, despite its stellar cast and overwhelming popularity. As it turns out however, Captain America: The Sinter Soldier is not just a good action movie in itself, but the best Marvel film since the first Iron Man. Who would have thought. 

Layers like ogres:

In my opinion, the second film about Steve Rogers and his spandex suit might be the deepest of the Marvel movies thus far. Themes such as freedom versus fear and surveillance versus trust are constantly brought up and discussed, and even though the film's huge amount of action sequences kind of muddies them a bit, these ethical dilemmas are constantly an issue that Cap and his buddies have to deal with. Unlike the first movie, the second Captain America film is successfully selfaware and reflective on behalf of America itself, and I think the writers did a good job of portraying the corruption that sometimes comes with great power, at least for a while. Several of these themes and other plot lines do begin to step on each others toes at some point however, but from a Marvel film, this should not come a huge surprise to anyone. 

So many A-list actors, what do we do?!:

In terms of believable characters, this film has more than enough. Marvel has always been successful at casting really great actors and actresses in their leading roles, and with Sam Jackson, Scarlet Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Robert Redford and Luke Evens himself, this films is not an exception. All of these guys did a good job at delivering their surprisingly smart and snappy dialogue all throughout the movie, and I was surprised by how much Johansson's and Jackson's characters in particular were allowed to grow. I am not going to name the actor who played the winter soldier himself in fear of spoiling one of the movie's main mysteries for the few people who have not figured it out himself, but I am going to discuss the character itself for a while. 

The winter soldier:

Ironically, this guy is both my favourite and least favourite part of the whole film. Someone must have been watching The Terminator when they came up with the characteristics of this villain, because for about 90 minutes, he was almost as menacing, mysterious, brutal and interesting as Arnold has ever been. Lore wise I knew who he was as soon as I heard the title of the movie, but the way in which he is thematically displayed and used as a link between the past and the present felt very convincing to me, and small things such as his costume and theme music made him one of the best Marvel characters, not just villains, that I have seen so far. He is also massively misused however, and when the movie's main revelation takes place and the big baddies finally step out of the shadows, the winter soldier as a character kind of falls in the background. He was the most interesting aspect of this film by far, and the fact that some ludicrous 70-year-conspiracy pushed him out of the lime light two thirds into the film made the character feel somewhat wasted. 

Lots of good, bits of bad:

As a whole, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a refreshingly enjoyable and interesting action movie, and it has successfully revived a good amount of my appreciation for the super hero genre. I for once never felt bored by the action sequences and found myself enjoying the spectacle and admiring the good aspects instead of brooding over the bad stuff, and for a good 90 to 100 minutes, I though Captain America was going to overthrow Iron Man and make this the best Marvel film to date. As previously mention however, I personally felt that the best element of the film was pushed aside to make room for a far less engaging and fathomable one, which is too bad considering how invested I had gotten in the story and its characters up until that point. Still, watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a very fun and rewarding experience, and it has firmly earned its status as the best sequel in the Marcel cinematic universe so far.

Atonement (2007) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: of http://gimmemorebananas.blogspot.dk/2010/08/atonement.html

Director: Joe Wright

Screenwriter: Christopher Hampton

Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan

Trailer link

IMDb page

Tough odds: 

Before watching Atonement, the only thing I knew about it was that it won the golden globe for best drama over There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men back in 2008. I had no idea what it was about, who the director was or how other people feel about it, and thus has no real idea of what to expect. It was one of those titles that only exist in the foggy outskirts of your mind, one you stumble across on IMDb once in a while, but ultimately does not catch your interest.  I was more than a little sceptical going in to the film however, since I had a very hard time believing that a film I had never heard anyone talk about could be better than NCFOM and TWBB.

A setup you can only dream of:

Apprehensive and trepidatious as I was, the first hour of Atonement completely swept me off my feet. This portion of the film takes place on an English holdfast in 1935, where a young girl who thinks she knows everything there is to know about love set off a chain reaction of equally sad and ironic events, which ends up shaping the lives of everyone around her for the worse. What we have here is not just a setup like any other, but a beautiful, shakespearian tragedy of greek proportions mixed with a heavy dose of innocent Coen brothers chaos and unforgiving randomness, where every second is utilized to its fullest potential and where every character has something important to do. On its own two feet, the first hour of Atonement is easily worth the price of admission, and I count it among some of the best introductions to a film that I have ever seen.  

In the wake of great things..:

It pains me to say that after a thrilling first half and a very convincing point of no return, it kind of feels as if the film looses its feet. The three main characters leave the holdfast and break the frame of what had previously been a small, enclosed environment where everyone knew each other, and we as an audience follow them as they try to live with and accept the event that split them apart. The themes of consequence, frustration, forgiveness and longing work perfectly well here, but the magic I felt during the introduction of the film never really reappeared. There are a few sequences which work very well and remind you of how great the earlier parts of the film were, but also several scenes which feel unnecessary and a bit contrived. Going second is always tough, and the looming shadow of Atonement's first hour ultimately overwrites much of its second, in spite of its comparatively high standard. 

Taking an idea and running with it:

The main thing I love about this film is sort of a double edged sword, in that it works incredibly well at times but serves as a negative in other cases. What I am talking about is the way in which the film in some instances sort of expects its audience to accept certain things about its main characters based on emotions rather than forced symbolism; a successful example of this being why two of the main characters love each, and an unsuccessful one being why fighting in a war is mentally degenerating. I understood why McAvoy's and Knightley's characters could not live without each other within seconds of being introduced to them and did not need 45 minutes of buildup to understand why splitting them apart would mean tragedy and suffering for all, which left so much more room for the establishment of other themes.  I do not need to see McAvoy's character stumble across the bodies of twenty dead school children in order to understand that war is bad however, and had the film stuck to its guns and remained confident in its ability to sell feelings and emotions throughout its entire runtime, my over all impression of it might have been better. 

To hate or appreciate, that is the question:

As an over all product, Atonement is a very solid piece of work that I am extremely happy that I chose give a shot. People who have already seen the film will know that I left out a lot of plot and character explanation in this review, which was an entirely conscious choice on my part, because of how important complete and utter unknowings was to my personal enjoyment of the film. Keira Knightley does a good job in the film and James McAvoy is even better, but none of these two established actors manage to rival the performance of Saorise Ronan, who was only 12-years-old when she was cast. She plays the young girl who sparks the fire underneath the lies and tragedies on which the entire film is build, and she is yet another reasons why the first half of the film is significantly better than the last. I loved 50% of this film, liked 45% a lot and sort of disliked about 5%, but as a whole, I found Atonement to be a hugely enjoyable film. 

Lawrence Uncut: My Most Anticipated Movies of the Upcoming Oscar Season

Summer and all its big comic book Blockbusters has come and gone, and it is finally time for film buffs such as myself to come out of hiding in preparation for this year's Oscar race. Now and again a good old CGI-heavy popcorn extravaganza can be really good fun, but for me personally, the last four months of the year is where the real action is at in terms of movies. With new films from directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher and  Alejandro González Iñárritu coming out, the fall of 2014 looks particularly promising, and thus I find it only fitting to take some time to write about some of my most anticipated films on this year's Oscar season. 

Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice

Currently, PTA is my favourite film director, and Joaquin Phoenix is one the most interesting actors working today. Alas, it should come as no surprise that their latest collaboration finds itself on the top of my own and hundreds of other film fans' lists of upcoming films to look out for. This one is a contender in all the main categories as far as I can tell, although its biggest potential probably lies in the leading actor's category (Phoenix) and possibly the adapted screenplay category as well (Anderson). We have not seen a trailer from this film as of yet, but the vibe I get from the posters and the interviews that I have been able to find is that of a smokey, weird, 1960's detective film noir, which seems to fit the Anderson/Phoenix combo perfectly. Saying that I am extremely excited for Inherent Vice is an understatement, but I will just leave it at that for now. Getting too hyped for a new movie can often spell its downfall, but I in this case, I simply just can't help it. 

Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler

Take a look at this poster, claim that you are not excited to watch Nightcrawler, and the world will know you for a liar. I had no idea who the director was or what he had done in the past when I first laid my eyes upon this visual feast of a poster, but I instantly knew that this was a movie I just had to watch. Call it successful marketing or visual manipulating if you want, but as someone who loves films such as Collateral, Taxi Driver and of cause Drive, this poster and the film's two trailers struck a nerve in my head that had me hooked form the very beginning. The fact that it happens to star Jake Gyllenhaal in the leading role does not hurt my anticipation in the slightest, as he happens to be one of those actors who overcame a somewhat rough start and has gone on to become one of the biggest talents in Hollywood, and one of my personal favourite actors. This film is a lock for the Oscar for best poster as far as I can tell, although I have to admit that I don't see it winning any main awards because of its indy-ish vibe. 

David Fincher's Gone Girl

Yes. Please. Ben Affleck has been proving everyone wrong over the past few years, both behind and in front of the camera, and based on the incredibly high standard of everything Fincher has been involved with over the last  two decades, I see no real reason to believe that Gone Girl is going to be anything but spectacular. My one reservation would be the fact that the film is an adaptation of a very popular novel written by Gillian Flynn, who interestingly enough wrote the adapted screenplay herself as well. Whether this is a good or bad thing is somewhat hard to say, seeing as successful authors don not always turn out to be good screenwriters, Cormac McCarthy. Finding a better director to take good care of said script would prove incredibly difficult however, and as far as I can tell, Gone Girl is a major contender in all the major categories come November 2015. This could very well be the year where Fincher takes home his first Oscar, and if that indeed happens, I would neither be surprised nor upset. 

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar

I am about to trespass on holy ground here, but please, stay with me for a moment. Yes, I agree that Chris Nolan is a very talented director, and yes, his Batman films were a lot of fun, but I do not think that he is the Messiah of movies in the same way that everyone else does. He has yet to make a better film than Memento in my opinion (which is an incredible movie), but who knows, Interstellar might be the one to top it. The film finds itself on this list mainly because of its spectacular cast and the success of its first teaser trailer, which given its ambiguous nature and sense of mysterious grandness remains the best trailer of the year so far, but I'm still not entirely convinced that the film is going to be as "epic" as most people would have you believe. Unlike a lot of people, I personally do not think that the academy has "robbed" Christopher Nolan of any awards in the past either, but I would not be mad at all if he ended up taking home an Oscar or two for Interstellar. Still, I do not see that actually happening. 

Final thoughts:

Although most of these films probably could be considered the "cream of the crop", they are in fact just a few of the many, many upcoming films that I am extremely eager watch. Titles such as Birdman, Foxcathcer, The Imitation Game and A Most Wanted Man are all very high on the list as well, along with a bunch of films from the earlier parts of 2014 which are not available in Denmark as of yet, such as Boyhood, Frank, Locke, Calvary and Snowpiercer. The next few months contain a lot to look forward to for a film nerd such as myself, and I solemnly vow to watch every single one of the previously named titles, in order to make as in depth and varied a top 10 list as possible once the season is over. Movies, ho!

Noah (2014) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: http://darrenschalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Noah-2014-Movie-Poster.jpeg

Director: Darren Aronofsky 

Screenwriter: Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel

Stars: Russel Crowe, Jennifer Connolly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson

Tailer link

IMDb page

Cinemaligious doubt:

When I first read that Darren Aronofsky was making a Noah biopic with Russel Crowe in the title role, I did not really know what to make of it. To be sure, Aronofsky is one of my all time favourite directors, but biblical movies are not exactly my cup of tea, the main reason being that the genre has a very limited pool of original stories to draw from. Almost everyone from the western world has heard the story of Noah's Arc on at least a few occasions, as is the case with any significant story from the bible. No matter how interesting or well told these stories might be, the fact that none of them ever really manage to surprise you more than once still remains, at least in my opinion. That being said though, the cast and crew that stood behind this adaption of the biblical tale easily warranted a viewing and a review of the film, predictable story or not. 

Teaching an old dog a few new tricks:

Seeing as the tale of Noah's arc is such a familiar one to most of us and because Aronofsky's film sticks to the "original material" pretty well, I will not delve too much into the plot of Noah. All the events that you would expect to take place in a film such as this do in fact take place (yes, the flood does come, and yes, Noah does manage to finish the Arc in time), and due to this element of predictability, Aronofsky had to tell his story in a way that would go beyond that which we already knew, and find something in the tale of Noa's Arc that we did not know we had missed. 

The director chose to focus on the inner struggle of his titular character in an attempt to find this element of originality, because as Russel Crowe said in an interview earlier this year, most people think of Noah as a wholly good and spiritual man, who had to have been a decent person simply because he saved the human race from extinction. However, this heavy focus on Noa's doubts and fierce devotion to his cause shows us that nothing in this world is that black and white, and the Noa we see instead is downright ruthless and intimidating at times. I personally enjoyed the direction that Aronofsky chose to take the story, and although a lot of religious people have whined and complained about the "factual inaccuracies" that this core element of the film causes, the movie would have been incredibly dull were it not for the fact that it tried to take its well known story in a somewhat unfamiliar direction.

A sufficient amount of sufficiency:

Noah does a pretty good job in terms of performances as well, although I do not think that any of them are outstanding as much as they are simply sufficient. Russel Crowe and Ray Winstone take turns at chewing up scenery and switching up their accents, Jennifer Connolly and Emma Watson cry most of the time in order to show us how hard it is to live on an arc, and Logan Lerman deals with a pretty severe case of "being trapped in an arc"-induced blue balls for most of the film. It is one of those cases where you can not really put a finger on anything and say that someone is doing a bad job, however you are still feeling as if there is something left to be desired. Jennifer Connolly just might be the standout performance of the film, but then again, she is not really given too much material to work with. She is very good a crying convincingly, but whether that is enough to elevate a performance from good to being great is hard for me to say.  

More money and less depth:

All in all, Noah was a pretty entertaining movie in my opinion, albeit a far less enthralling and emotionally punishing piece of work than most of Aronofsky's other films. He was given a much larger budget when making this movie than he has ever had before, and even though he did well with it and managed to make a grand movie with big action sequences and swooping shots of wast landscapes, his lower budget movies such as The Wrestler, Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream are far superior in my opinion. The most interesting element of the film is the character of Noah and the darkness that Aronofsky and Ari Handel allowed into to his otherwise predictable and sort of worn out story, which is pretty much how I feel about the film as a whole as well: predictable and kind of familiar, but with a few variations that makes it worth the watch .

Lawrence Uncut: Behind the Scenes of PTA's Magnolia

A true Paul Thomas Anderson fanboy:

As readers of my Magnolia film review will know (review here), Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my most cherished film directors at the moment. The fact that he wrote and directed three films before his 31th birthday, including such titles as Boogie Nights and the beforementioned Magnolia, is simultaneously the most scary and most inspiring thing in the world to me. Most directors would be more than happy to make just one film that is even half as important as either of those two movies, but PTA just keeps on creating one mesmerising masterpiece after the other, as if being the best filmmaker of his generation is no big deal at all. His upcoming film Inherent Vice starring Jauquin Phoenix has been my most anticipated movie of 2014 ever since it was announced, and although David Fincher's Gone Girl looks pretty great as well, I really hope that Inherent Vice ends up shining brighter than any other film come awards season.

That moment: 

Being my favourite film of his, I decided to look around for some Magnolia interviews and BTS clips last night, and came across the incredible documentary that you see above. I found that watching P.T Anderson doing his thing on set and at productions meetings was a very inspiring and entertaining experience, and the enthusiasm and emotion that he put into his work with his actors and his crew told the story of a man who truly loves his job and feels very passionate about his craft. I would highly recommend anyone who has not seen it yet to check out this documentary as soon as possible, because even if you do not love PTA's films as much as I do, it works brilliantly as a behind the scenes-look on how movies go from pre-production to shooting and editing before landing in out theaters. It also features a few hilarious and heartwarming conversations between Paul and Phillip Seymour Hoffmann, who was one of his favourite collaborators before his untimely death earlier this year. R.I.P. 

Bonus: My 100 % subjective ranking of PTA's currently released films: 

6: Punch Drunk Love

5: Sydney 

4: There Will Be Blood

3: The Master (review here)

2: Boogie Nights

1: Magnolia (review here)

Andrew Von Lawrence Presents: Benjamin har en drøm

A bunch of firsts:

"Benjamin har en drøm", or "Benjamin Has a Dream" in English, is a small skit I made with a friend of mine a couple of months ago. It was my first time working with "actors" on a "set" as well, so in a way, the filming of this video was my first outing as a "real" film director. The skit itself turned out to be pretty awful, which didn't come as a surprise to either me or Lasse, who is the friend I made it with. I didn't really care about the quality of the skit as much as practicing the process of writing, preparing, shooting and editing a scene, and even though it turned out to be a much lengthier process than I'd though, the challenge of making it all come together was very fun and rewarding in the end. 

You can find this video as well as a few others on my Youtube channel.

Andrew Von Lawrence Presents: An Inner Fruit Salad

A fruit salad buried deep within:

You see kids, this is what happens when you watch too many Terrence Malick movies. All that mumbly existential voiceover you heard while watching The Thin Red Line? It has forever changed your way of thinking about war stories and film in general, and you will probably have to go through a pseudo-philosophic period in your own filmmaking process, in order to "exercise" the Malick-demons from your brain. The last shot in this video specifically shows how one should go about separating flesh and consciousness from each other, creating an infinite loop in time and space, allowing you to see past the materialistic and superficial standards of postmodern society. This ability will come in very handy when trying to differentiate between right and wrong in tough ethical dilemmas, because if the passing of time has taught us anything, it is that nothing is so bad that it is not good for anything. Barf!

T. Malick and his teachings: 

All joking aside though, I threw this small video together in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee, strictly because I wanted to try out my new voice recording software (The program is called Audacity, in case you are interested). As you probably have guessed already, I have been watching a lot of Terrence Malick films as of late (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Tree of Life and The Thin Red Line), and having been very impressed by almost all of them, it felt very natural to try and rip off some of his narration techniques. I really dig the way in which he combines his poetic visual style with good old fashioned storytelling, and even though this is more apparent in his earlier work than in films such as The Tree of Life and To the Wonder, I still feel that these films can teach me a lot about visual storytelling and narrative structure as a whole. 

You can find this video as well as a few others on my Youtube channel.

La Haine (1995) - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

Source: http://www.bonjourtristesse.net/2011/10/la-haine-1995.html

Director: Maihieu Kassovitz

Screenwriter: Maihieu Kassovitz

Stars: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui
Traile link
IMDb page

Trapped on the bottom:

La Haine, or "Hate" as it is called in English, is a French movie about three rebellious teenagers from the Parisian slums, who find themselves caught in the middle of a violent struggle between the police and an angry mob of young, hopeless working class outcasts. The film is shot in black and white in order to capture the bleak and colorless reality that these individuals face on a daily basis, and as we follow Vinz, Hubert and Saïd while they work their way through the tough-as-concrete slums that they call "home", we begin to understand why they are as restless and as resentful towards authorities as they are. 

Old men in new clothes:

In terms of narrative structure and story arch , La Haine is not a very innovative or groundbreaking film. We have all heard the stories about social outcast and bad working class neighborhoods told many times before, but in my opinion, none of them manages to capture the harsh realities of life in the slums and everything that comes with it quite as accurately as La Haine. The tediousness and repetitiveness that the main characters in this film experience is so well visualized and executed that predictable endings and worn out plot devices go completely out of the window, and the way in which the movie takes old clichés and reinvents them is quite extraordinary in my opinion. Director Maihieu Kassovitz, who grew up in the projects himself, does a very good job of making his audience feel as if they are a part of actual events that are taking place right now, giving the film a strong sense of reality and authenticity, which ultimately is the film's most powerful attribute.  

Simmering anger:

The Italian film Gomorra from 2008 is another film that manages to tell a familiar story abut life in the slums in a very riveting and convincing fashion, and just like in La Haine, the anger and the hopelessness that boils just beneath the concrete roofs of the packed apartment complexes is strangely fascinating and scary at the same time. Both films manage to turn the tediousness and bleakness of their characters' situations into a powerful dramatic attribute, and in case of La Haine, the bad decisions and irrational behavior of the main characters becomes even more tragic and relatable as direct result thereof. 

Restlessness personified: 

Especially the character of Vinz, who is portrayed fantastically by Vincent Cassel, has a lot of built up frustration and anger that he has no idea what to do with. This restlessness is depicted by the way in which he keeps threatening to kill a cop with the gun he finds early on in the movie, a gun which he has no idea how to handle or where to keep on his body. He knows that he is angry and he knows that he wants to do something to improve his situation, but in spite of his numerous boats and his cocky attitude, he has absolutely no idea how to handle the situation or his newly found weapon. His conflicted mind and the journey he goes on was very interesting to me, and when he speaks the line "I feel like an ant floating around in an endless multiverse", we see just how lonely and lost he actually feels, in spite of his tough physical appearance. 

A haze of hate:

Whether you see it as a a piece of social commentary or simply as a work of cinematic entertainment, La Haine has a lot to offer in my opinion, and its depiction of frustration and hate is very impressive and likely one of the most powerful and convincing ones I have seen. At one point in the movie, Vinz ask Hubert how he can tell the difference between right and wrong so easily. Hubert answers by saying that "hate breeds hate", and in a way, this simple statement is the key to understanding everything the movie tries to say about society and its flaws. Just as there are good cops and bad cops in the city, the slums contain violent and hateful people as well as goodhearted, honest and well meaning people, who want nothing more than to escape the hell that they are living in. Sometimes when we are not able to differentiate between good and bad due to the prejudice that comes with social gaps and ethnical differences, all we have left is a boiling grey blur of erupting hate, violence and anger, which I am sure is exactly what Maihieu Kassovitz wanted to say with this film. La Haine is a good, though provoking and very well made movie, and as time goes by, I find myself falling more and more in love with it.