The Life Aquatic

The life aquatic is possibly my favourite Bill Murray movie, with a brilliant performance from him, and another scene stealer from Jeff Goldblum. Bill Murray's trademark deadpan attitude works so well in this film, and contrasts nicely with the quirkiness of the visuals, which I find myself unable to describe, it needs to be seen to understand properly, but quirky is the best word. The film is beautiful, and the team zissou typeface as can be seen on the movie poster above, is very well chosen, it has a very specific feel that really fits in with the mood. The editing is also very well done, with some hilarious shots, my favourite being during the raid on the hotel where Seu Jorge, the black crew member wears his diving headpiece like a ridiculous hat, that had me laughing uncontrollably.
The film skews between humour and tragedy, similarly to Withnail & I, and has an extremely touching ending. The last shot is actually a parody of reality, where Sofia Coppola's father carried her on his shoulders down a red carpet. As Steve Zissou boards his boat once again, having won respect once more, he is haunted by his losses; his dead adopted son stands atop the boat smoking a pipe, looking out to see, appearing for a curtain call.

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation is a film by Sofia Coppola, and stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. The film is set in Tokyo and focuses on two people who begin to question why they’re in the situation they’re in. the film deals with the concepts of loneliness alienation and dealing with a completely different culture.
Lost in translation is just a wonderful film. It just makes you feel good. There’s something reassuring about knowing you aren’t the only person who doesn’t know why or how their lives have ended up the way they have. Its also reassuring to know that you aren’t the only person who finds themselves doing nothing day in and day out because they feel lost in the world they’ve found themselves in. lost in translation makes you feel cosy. Nothing really happens in it, and it’s not hero-centric or tacky like a lot of films. Its just a film about two people getting on with their lives as best as they can in a place they don’t understand, and the way the film is shot illustrates this. There is never one specific palette or shot style, but the different techniques flow well into each other, and create different moods. The beauty of the film is in it's representation of Tokyo, and the shiny veneer it consists of. Lost in Translation is about looking for meaning, and the only place you can find that is within yourself or in other people. The fullness yet emptiness of the place encourages reflection, and the scene where Scarlett's character visits Kyoto (which the brilliant band Air did a great song for) is affecting in it's beauty, where she witnesses many things of value to others, but she feels nothing because she is so detached.

Withnail & I

Withnail & I is widely regarded as one of the best British films ever made. Made by Handmade films, a name that everyone should respect as a maker of incredible cult movies, Withnail & I is made great by the performances of Paul McGann and Richard E Grant as two unemployed actors, and especially by the script. Originally intended as a novel, it becomes clear when you read the script that Withnail & I was so sharply written as to be perfectly suited toward almost any audience, while being incredibly clever, debauched and genuinely saddening come the final scenes.

The End-
In the rain, Withnail accompanies Marwood to the train station, swinging a bottle of '53 Margeux and conflicted and upset. He puts a face on it and says goodbye to Marwood, who is leaving to lead in a play. Turning around hopeless, Withnail walks to the fence of London zoo, wolves padding around beneath the trees on the other side, and begins to recite the speech from Hamlet act 2 scene 2. It is soon apparent that Withnail is an incredibly talented actor. The wolves don't care. Finishing, defeated, Withnail turns away and walks across the park, a victim of his own destructive nature.

Brick

Brick is a fantastic film. It is a high school drama where you never see the inside of a classroom, the main character speaks rarely and a murder is solved entirely unsatisfactorily.
This film is so unconventional, but still so good, partially because of it's nothingness, the way that the main character purposefully goes from place to place doing what needs to be done, but his ex girlfriend is dead, he can't bring her back. The film is just the slow unfolding of events culminating in the final epiphany. In the end, nothing is really acheived.
The noirish setting is offset by all the colourful supporting characters, but the main character is stoic, speaking only to say something scathing and clever. Humour also plays apart, sometimes physical, often through some masterful editing. Timing is everything in this film.
It is stylishly shot also, with some beautifully framed scenes and cleverly placed cameras, making shots most people wouldn't have really thought of.

Hellboy (film)

Guillermo Del Toro has become pretty famous now, with almost everyone having seen Pan's Labyrinth and raved about it. Hellboy is Del Toro's second most well known title (Third once 'the Hobbit' is released) and is an interesting comic book adaptation. Most comic book films seek to become iconic, and really get to the core of what the character/team is about. However, this approach is often faulty, and apart from the recent Batman films, it often misses the point completely (making spider-man whiny, not funny, or making wolverine not 'the best at what he does' and almost completely ruining the character)
The Hellboy films seek not to become the new canon face of the character, but true to the throwaway pulp influences of the comic, to just be fun and engaging. This isn't to say Hellboy is without style, as especially in the second film, an exaggerated cartoonish look has been adopted that along with the high contrast footage makes it an interesting sight. A few glaring errors in physics do jar, and it is obvious that the production company had a little too much say in what happened- focus grouping seems to be the only possible reason they would introduce a young sidekick character.
To my mind, the film's merit is in it's eccentric aspects, and in the way that it doesn't try to do anything really new. It's just fun and flashy, and sometimes that is what I want from a film.