Capote review

 Number 891 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2005 biographical-drama Capote.

Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) was an American novelist who gained fame after the release of his 1961 book 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.' After the Clutter family are murdered in their Kansas home, Capote becomes fascinated with the case, so much so, he decides to make it the subject of his next book. Together, with his friend and confidante Harper Lee (Catherine Keener,) he begins interviewing the killers Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr) and Dick Hicock (Mark Pellegrino.)

As many of you will know by now, I don't care for biopics. I find them overly-long, vague, lacking in tension and bloated e.g The Aviator or Catch me if you Can. But Capote succeeded because instead of telling his life from start to finish, it narrowed in on a very specific part, and, arguably, the most interesting part.

From the off, we are thrust into murky territory as we see our hero Capote coming to form strong relationships with Perry Smith and Dick Hicock, the longer he gets to know them. He begins empathising with them. Although he claims that he just wants to document the facts, the more he investigates, the more there is the chance that he will discover something that could exonerate the pair. Or worse, he may deliberately sabotage the case, so the pair will go free. This conflict kept things moving on nicely. It stopped things from becoming too slow.

Philip Seymour Hoffman won the 2005 Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Truman Capote. It was well-deserved, as unlike his other roles it was wonderfully balanced. We saw many different sides of Capote: the flamboyant party animal, the duplicitous liar keeping the truth from Smith and Hicock, and the quiet, vulnerable man looking for support from his friend Harper Lee.

I have yet to see Hoffman in a role that I haven't liked. Many of the characters he has played have been very sleazy. There is nothing wrong with this; he plays the sleaze well, but I was wondering if he was becoming a one-trick pony. Capote proved this was far from the case.

Catherine Keener was also good as Harper Lee, often acting as Capote's conscience, telling him what he needs to hear, rather than what he wants to hear. Clifton Collins Jr was also good, but I think Mark Pellegrino was thoroughly under-used.

Nonetheless, this film pleasantly surprised me. Who knows? I might become a die-hard biopic fan?

The Talented Mr Ripley review

Number 985 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1999 psychological thriller 'The Talented Mr Ripley.'

Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is sent from New York to Italy to bring the spoiled playboy Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) back home. However, this seemingly simple task proves to be much more difficult than originally foretold, and soon takes a dark turn. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Greenleaf's girlfriend Marge Sherwood and Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Greenleaf's best friend Freddie Miles.

This was a very convincing thriller. It was tense, gripping and had high suspense throughout. But it was also marked by such a great subtext. Although it wasn't directly addressed, I wonder, in Ripley's attempts to convince Greenleaf to return home, he starts to fall in love with him. Greenleaf is your run-of-the-mill playboy - charismatic, playful, but incredibly spoiled. Jude Law brought a brilliant chaotic energy to the role. 

Matt Damon was equally good as Ripley. This film came out in '99, so this was before Damon had really made a name for himself. But you could see his potential. This subtext gave the film a completely different layer. Maybe I'm reading too much into it - I don't know whether this was intentional or not, but it really worked.

Damon played Ripley very well. I think it would be overly-simplistic to describe Ripley as a psychopathic serial killer. He is a far more nuanced character than that. And Damon brought this nuance to the fore. I don't think Ripley necessarily causes bad situations to happen, but, rather, he positions himself to best take advantage of these situations. And that's what made him such an interesting character.

I also very much enjoyed Philip Seymour Hoffman. He is good in everything he does, and this film was no exception. Freddie Miles absolutely despises Tom Ripley and Hoffman plays this contempt with aplomb. He is sleazy, arrogant and nasty. RIP Hoffman. He was an actor taken from us far too soon.

The Talented Mr Ripley was a great thriller with some convincing performances. Hoffman might have just been playing a supporting character, but he surely stole the show.

Mary and Max review

 Number 167 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2009 Australian stop-motion drama - Mary and Max, directed by Adam Eliot.

Mary (Toni Colette) and Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman) tells the story of the blossoming relationship of the two titular characters. Both social outcasts, they soon find connection when they become pen pals.

I watched this film with my dad and he said he hadn't watched a film quite like that before. Neither have I. It was abstract and surreal. Dark and creepy at some points, hilarious and uplifting in others. It was a film that I had never heard off before and, apparently it never received a wider theatrical release, although it did premier at the Sundance Film Festival.

Although, I am puzzled as to why it didn't receive a wide theatrical release, as it was a brilliant film. Perhaps because it dealt with some problematic themes and it has some off-beat, dark humour. But the way, it engaged with its troubling themes was sensitive and evocative. Mary is a little girl in Australian with an alcoholic and kleptomaniac mother and a father who is more interested in taxidermy than his daughter. She has a prominent birthmark on her forehead which leads to her being bullied at school. Upon recounting this in a letter to Max, she breaks down in tears. Considering 'Mary' was only a claymation sculpture and not a real person, this was very upsetting to watch.  Bethany Whitmore who played the young Mary did well to bring real humanity to the character.

Conversely Max is a morbidly obese, autistic man living in New York. Because of his autism, he finds it difficult to befriend anybody and he too is a loner. Despite this, he was an uplifting character who far from feeling sorry for himself is proud of being a self-proclaimed "aspie." It is a fundamental part of his identity and, despite what his therapist might say, is not something that needs curing. He may not understand human behaviour or why people throw away food while children starve in India, which only makes his connection with mary all the sweeter. 

His lifelong goal of making a friend, a goal he realises with Mary is all too relatable and powerful. He was a pitiful character, but a likeable one. And that is down to Adam Eliot's good writing and Hoffman's good portrayal. With autistic characters, there is always the danger of making them into a cariacture of themselves, but that didn't happen here.

If I were to describe this film to anybody, it would be as a real arthouse film, mostly because of its claymation style allowed Adam Eliot to tackle themes he might not have been able to do with more traditional film. Mary and Max's environments contrast so drastically. In sunny Australia, the lighting is bright, the locations spacious, but in New York, everything is dark, gloomy and cramped. Max is alone in a crowd of people. Mary is isolated in a close-knit community.

Even the colour schemes are different. Australia is brighter with an off-colour, soft yellow. Whereas New York is a dark grey-scale, almost monochrome, representing Max's confused viewpoint of the world. But when he begins corresponding with Mary, spots of colour begin appearing, like the orange pom pom that she knits for him. He attaches this to this skullcap, which he wears, not because of how he is Jewish, but because it keeps his brain warm.

The growing relationship between the two central characters climaxes in the worse possible way. In a misguided attempt to help Max, Mary enrols in university, to study mental disorders like autism, in the hopes of curing him. Using Max as her case study, she writers a book detailing the findings of her research.  But Max, believing she has exploited him and his condition, rips out the "M" key of his typewriter and mails it to her. This raises interesting ideas around "disorders" like autism. Is it really a disorder? Is it an illness that needs to be cured? What if the person is happy the way they are?

Upon realising how badly she has hurt her friend, Mary sinks into a deep depression, becoming a mirror image of her alcoholic mother. In the process, she loses her childhood sweetheart, Damian Popodopulous (Eric Bana) who leaves her for a sheep farmer in New Zealand. Her depression culminates in a suicide attempt which is set to a slowed-down version of "Que Sera Sera." This combined with the background scenery fading to black was the darkest, most haunting, but most powerful moment of the film. Mary is only saved by her neighbour who delivers a package from Max who has finally forgiven her.

Over a year later with Damien's child, Mary finally travels to New York to meet Max. Sadly, he had died earlier that morning, staring up at all of Mary's letters which he has stuck on his ceiling. One of many heart-warming moments in what is a very twisted, Grim Brothers-esque fairy tale. Amid all the surrealism and horror, there are valuable lessons to be gained about human connection. 

Mary and Max was definitely a film that took me by surprise. I don't know what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn't expecting a poignant, surreal, arthouse film about the importance of friendship and loving yourself.