House of Sand and Fog review

 Number 656 on the top 1000 films of all time is Vadim Perelman's psychological thriller 'House of Sand and Fog.'

Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly) is a recovering addict who is evicted from her San Fransisco house by the country office. She maintains the county has made a mistake, but her home is repossessed nonetheless. Moving are the Iranian Behrani family led by patriarch former Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley.) Kathy is determined to get her home back by any means necessary.

This was an intense, psychological thriller that doesn't let up for a minute. It is taut and gripping with a whole host of morally dubious characters. I enjoyed the deep characterisations. No character was simply black or white - they are all complicated with their own troubled pasts. But these complexities are what made them so fascinating to watch.

Kathy is adamant to regain her house and deliberately disobeys her lawyer to directly confront the Behranis. She is a deeply troubled woman whose drug-addled past has estranged her from her family and husband. Her house is the only thing she has left. Conversely, rather than sticking to the past, Massoud Behrani is determined to make a fresh start for his family in the US. He is a proud man who refuses to show any weakness in front of his wife and son.

Ben Kingsley is brilliant in the role taking us through the journey of a broken man trying to start again. having once commanded considerable respect, he is forced to work menial jobs to make ends meet. Kingsley's star was so bright that he even blotted out Jennifer Connelly. This is no disrespect to Connelly, but I don't think her writing was anywhere as compelling as Kingsley's.

She lacked the same agency as Massoud had - much of her battles are fought by her self-styled knight in shining armour - sheriff's deputy Lestor Burden (Ron Eldard.) As the narrative momentum built, Kingsley's story took over. This culminated with Connelly being all but absent in the final act. A failed suicide attempt sees her lose consciousness and, instead, the final confrontation takes place between Massoud and Lester. Jennifer Connelly receives star billing and Kathy is the protagonist, but she is somewhat relegated to a side character.

Also a quick shoutout to Eldard. He was great as the sheriff's deputy Lestor Burnham. You could argue his over-protective nature of Kathy was a little over-the-top - he even leaves his family to start an affair with her. But when everything goes wrong at the end, he is more than happy to pay the price for his crimes. This did help him go through a redemption arc of sorts.

This is a tragic, but a thrilling film. It was a great watch with a masterful performance of Ben Kingsley. it's just a shame that Connelly wasn't afforded the same chance to shine.

Blood Diamond Review

 Number 300 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2006 thriller, and one of many Leonardo Dicaprio's acting nominations, Blood Diamond.

Set in civil-war ravaged Sierra Leone, Blood Diamond brings together mercenary Danny Archer (Dicaprio,) fisherman Solomon Vandy (Dijumon Hounsou) and journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) as they all try to bring some good into the world.

I bought my a girlfriend a diamond necklace for our one year anniversary. Having seen this film I don't think I'm ever going to buy another diamond again. Sorry Sam. But this film is a damning indictment of the diamond industry and a damning indictment of colonialism in general. In 2022, the horrors of colonialism are nothing new but this film still lays them bare.

The RUF brutally chops off the hands of the Sierra Leoneans who may otherwise vote against them, but they only learned this violence from their colonial oppressors. Chopping off limbs, as is pointed out in the film, is something that started with the Belgians in the Congo. And anybody who knows their colonial history knows about the atrocities that the Belgians committed.

And right from the start, we see this savagery in the evil Captain Poison (David Harewood.) He leads a division of the RUF who massacres Solomon's village and sends him to a diamond mine. Here he find a huge diamond, but he has to quickly bury it when the army come and send him to jail. Enter Leonardo Dicaprio as Danny and also where the film misses its mark a little.

Danny Archer has debts to pay and so agrees to reunite Solomon with his family in exchange for the diamond. But with the help of Maddy Bowen, he realises that he cares about more than money. While Leo was great in his role, I would argue that the character itself was cliched. How many times we seen a reluctant hero/lovable rogue overcome their morally questionable qualities to become a bonified hero? And this is usually with the help of an attractive female lead such as Jennifer Connelly. 

And So, I think the film focussed too much on the wrong character. Because Archer is a mercenary, he is used to fighting in a warzone whereas Solomon was not. Solomon was only a fisherman desperate to get back to his family. And I think that would have made him a far more interesting character to focus upon. He would have been a true fish out of water.

And maybe that's why the film didn't quite land for me. I could see it trying to make me angry or break my heart, but while I was sad, I certainly didn't shed any tears. For what it was, this was a powerful film with great performances by Dicaprio, Connelly and especially Hounsou, there was something holding it back true greatness.

A Beautiful Mind review

 Number 191 on the top 1000 films of all time is Ron Howard's 2001 Life is Beautiful. I'm going slightly out of order, as I had the chance to watch this on Netflix.

Based on the true story, John Nash is a brilliant mathematician and student at Princeton. However, his life begins to unravel when he starts suffering from schizophrenic episodes and hallucinations. Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Anthony Rapp, Adam Goldberg and Christopher Plummer all co-start.

I have to admit that I'm very conflicted about this film. I can see why it was so popular, with John Nash very much fulfilling the 'Overcoming the Monster' storyline. He is the likable if awkward nerd who beats his own demons to become a success, but the film wasn't for me. And maybe that's because John Nash isn't as likable as you might think. Not at first anyway. And that's down to Akiva Goldman's writing and Ron Howard's direction.

In the first act, we're introduced to John Nash and his intellectual chums as they engage in petty games to prove who's the cleverest. However, all this did was portray them as the prototypical, arrogant nerds. While there is some truth behind the stereotype, it doesn't serve to make the characters anymore likable.

This set-up consumes a good portion of the film and, by the time, we've reached the meat and bones of the film, I had almost lost interest. And if I had I would have missed a very intense second act. Nash is recruited into MIT where he is made to do trivial work that is beneath his huge intelligence. This is when William Parcher (Ed Harris) recruits him to do top-secret research for the Ministry of Defence. But, plot twist, Parcher as well as Nash's best friend and ex-roommate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany) are only hallucinations. Here we see Nash undergo severe psychiatric treatment such as ECT (how this was ever a thing, I'll never understand) until he finally accepts the reality of his situation.

This is where we see Nash at his most human rather than as the archetypal, arrogant nerd. Jennifer Connelly was great as Nash's wife, Alicia. She suffered mentally and physically all due to Nash's hallucinations. I wish the film spent more on the middle section, but as it spent too long on the set-up, it had to rush through the rest of the film.

Also, is it me or as Russell Crowe bad at doing accent? Whether it's as Robin Hood or John Nash, his accents are less than convincing.

This could have been a very powerful film, but it was let down by poor pacing and a bad structure. But what do I know? Perhaps I'm just another of these self-confessed geniuses criticising something that I don't fully understand.