Dancer in the Dark review

 Number 310 on the top 1000 films of all time is Lars von Trier's musical psychological tragedy 'Dancer in the Dark.'

Selma Jezkova (Bjork) is a Czechian immigrant living in the US. Suffering from a degenerative eye condition, that she has passed onto her son, she ekes out a meagre living from her factory job. She is saving up all her money to pay for an operation that will save her son's eyesight. Catherine Deneuve co-stars as Selma's friend Kathy. Peter Stormare plays Selma's love interest Jeff. David Morse and Stellen Skarsgard also star. 

*Spoilers to follow*

I have written a few listicles detailing the films too traumatic to watch again. Dancer in the Dark would be one such film. It is a soul-crushing, gut-wrenching thoroughly depressing film. Part of that was down to tis realism. Trier shot is like a documentary with low-quality cameras and plenty of close-up shots. Trier pioneered a cinematic style called Dogma 95, and even though Dancer in the dark isn't true Dogma 95, it still retains that some authenticity and intimacy.

The performances were also great. I've seen Bjork act before, and probably never will say again, due to the horrific time she had shooting Dancer in the Dark - to say the least, there was no love lost between her and Trier - but she was brilliant in the lead role.

Granted, she was also difficult to work with - often going AWOL, but she brought the tragic Selma to life - a character who despite the best of intentions is treated awfully in life. Like many of the best people in life, she is given an absolute rotten hand.

Nowhere is this more apparent than with David Morse who plays a policeman and Selma's landlord. Having his own money problems, he asks Selma for a loan. When she refuses, he steals the money she ahs been saving for her son's operation. After she finds out a struggle ensues where she accidentally shoots and kills him. Selma is tried and sentenced tod eath.

It is no surprise that she was given the death sentence, because she was given an awful lawyer who made no effort to defend her from a prosecutor played by Zeljko Ivanuk. As a quick sidenote, I have seen Ivanuk play a few roles as a slimy authority figure. He always plays the part well.

But I found it strange how Selma's lawyer never objected to the prosecutor's evisceration of her client. Especially when Kathy and Jeff get Selma's case reopened with an actual competent lawyer who tears apart his predecessor. It was like Trier was openly admitting and criticising his own mistake.

However, Kathy and Jeff's efforts go to waste as Selma refuses to take the lawyer's help when she realises that his fee will be paid out of the money that she was saving for her son's operation. It all seemed like a pointless, unnecessary way to inject conflict.

Speaking of her son, Gene, despite his importance to the plot, he was never anything more than just a plot device.

I also didn't like the musical numbers. Selma loves musicals and even acts in a Sound of Music production. Of course, you can't have Bjork starring in your film without having her sing, but these songs seemed rather strenuous to the plot. Jeff declares that he doesn't like musicals because he finds it strange when people spontaneously break into song and dance. That's what happened here and I agreed it was weird.

Nevertheless, this was still a powerful if heart-breaking film. It's definitely not one I will be watching again in a hurry. Too sad for that.

Heathers review

 Number 932 on the top 1000 films of all time is the teen black-comedy 'Heathers.'

Veronika (Winona Ryder) is part of a high-school clique consisting of three girls all called Heather: Heather Duke (Shannon Doherty,) Heather McNamara (Lisanne Falk) and Heather Chandler (Kim Walker.) The same time she realises that her friends are ruthless bullies, she falls in love with the mysterious outsider JD (Christian Slater0 who has a plot to kill all the popular kids in school.

How to describe this film? Natural Born Killers set in a high school. But instead of the psychopathic Mickey and Mallory Knox, we have JD and the naive Veronika who he manipulates into being his unwitting accomplice.

In creating this film, director Michael Lehmann wanted to portray a darker side to high-school by turning the standard coming-of-age drama on its head. He certainly succeeded there. JD is a long way from Ferris Bueller. He is a damn sight creepier too although I'm not sure whether that was the character or Christian Slater. Seriously. JD is what I would imagine Klebold or Harris being like...

Although I think a more accurate comparison could be the Moors Murderers or Paul Bernado and Karla Homolka. However, the key difference is that Veronika quickly wisens up to JD's true agenda and decides to confront him.

In Heathers, Winona Rider was urr riding her success in Beetlejuice - a wave she continued riding throughout the nineties. She was good as Veronika who was perhaps the most self-aware character and perhaps the only character who wasn't some distorted stereotype. Christian Slater leaned too heavily into the moody outsider while the football players were overly-simplistic as well as the group of nerds they bullied. Yet, the Heathers knew exactly what they were doing, but they still weren't much more than your standard mean girls.

Heathers is also clever in its dissection of contemporary society - particularly with the romanticisation of suicide. Suicide is a recurring theme and we see how it affects different people in different ways. In some ways, Lehmann satirises this dark theme through his comical approach to it. But despite this satire, it is still treated with the respect it deserves.

Heathers was certainly an effective way to deconstruct the coming-of-age films that directors like Justin James Hughes made famous. It's just a shame that Christian Slater was so damn creepy.

Death at a Funeral review

 Number 915 on the top 1000 films of all time is the British black-comedy drama 'Death at a Funeral.'

Daniel (Matthew Mcfayden) and Robert (Rupert Graves) are two squabbling brothers attending their father's funeral. They are part of a larger dysfunctional family who have to settle their differences. Peter Dinklage, Ewen Bremner, Alan Tudyk, Peter Vaughn and Keeley Hawes all co-star.

This is an entertaining or not outstanding comedy that encapsulates the pitch-black humour that the UK is so well-known for. It certainly elicited a number of chuckles but it isn't laughing-in-the-aisles funny. Much of the humour comes from the dysfunctional nature of the family - in particularly Uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughn.) He is a wheel-chair bound OAP with a foul mouth.

The vulgar, crude pensioner who doesn't care what anybody thinks is a cliched character, but it's still entertaining to watch. That is especially true when you have Peter Vaughn in the role. There was some proper gross-out humour that would not fly in a Hollywood production.

What you would see in an American film is Alan Tudyk's character of Simon. Granted, Simon is English with Alan Tudyk doing a passable English accent, but he very much seemed to be based on the over-the-top American comedy that the Yanks seem to love so much. To help calm his nerves about the funeral, his fiancee, and Daniel's cousin, Martha (Daisy Donovan) gives him a valium. Except it isn't a valium, but an experimental hallucinogen.

In his drug-altered state, he knocks open the coffin spilling the family's dead patriarch onto the floor. But, worse, he later strips naked and climbs onto the roof of the building. It was all very over-exaggerated - I think the writers were playing up the hallucinogenic symptoms for comedy purposes, but it all became quite silly.

Yet the film also possessed a lot of heart with the character of Daniel who is struggling to step out of his more successful brother's shadow. Matthew Mcfayden did well bringing some much-needed gravitas to the more farcical proceedings. We definitely needed this sobering contrast especially when Frank (Peter Dinklage) reveals a dark secret about he and Daniel's father. This all culminates when Daniel gives a spontaneous, but heart-felt eulogy about his father.

Death at a Funeral was certainly not the funniest film I've ever seen, but it was definitely charming enough to earn its place on this list.

Dark City (1998) review

 Number 514 on the top 1000 films of all time is the neo-noir science-fiction film 'Dark City.'

Dark City is set in a dystopic future where the Earth is being secretly controlled by an alien race called the Strangers, who have telekinetic powers. It follows an amnesiac John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) being framed for a murder he can't remember committing. Nor can he remember being married to his wife - nightclub singer Emma (Jennifer Connelly.) Murdoch must figure out the truth while he is being pursued by police-inspector Frank Bumstead (William Hurt.)

Dark City fell victim of one of the classic traps of science-fiction, and noir for that matter, - overly-clever writers who in their rush to show off how clever they are by writing a complicated and convoluted script that they forget to include memorable characters. When writing this review, I had to look up the character's names, as I struggled to remember any of them. I only remember how weird and confusing the film was.

It's entirely possible that I just wasn't smart enough to understand the film. Studio executives were afraid that "stupid" viewers like myself wouldn't get the film, so they insisted that an expository voice-over was added to the beginning. That helped me find my feet, but I soon lost them again.

It didn't help that I had no characters to ground me. William Hurt was bland as the police detective and Kiefer Sutherland was over-the-top as the "mad scientist," Dr Schreber. I say OTT, he was positively camp. Even the future Oscar-winning Jennifer Connelly brought little to the screen. Rufus Sewell was positively fine as John Murdoch, but nothing more than that.

Reportedly, Dark City was one of the Wachowksi sisters' biggest inspirations when it came to making the Matrix - another film that isn't for the stupid like me. But that isn't where the comparisons stop. Both films share the cyber-punk, techno-dystopia housing people who are unknowingly living a lie. Like Neo, John Murdoch becomes the one and escapes the Matrix. Oh my God. I can actually remember the film's plot.

I'm sure there are fans who loved Dark City. It probably has a cult following somewhere or another. But it won't be a cult I will be joining anytime soon.

Zero Dark Thirty review

 Number 865 on the top 1000 films of all time is Kathryn Bigelow's 2012 historical-drama-thriller film Zero Dark Thirty.

On the ninth of September 2001, America bore witness to its worst terrorist attack in history. And so started the war on terror as well as the man-hunt for the leader of Al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden. Jessica Chastain stars as Maya, a CIA intelligence analyst who is in charge of the operation to bring OBL to justice. The huge ensemble cast includes Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Mark Strong, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt, Harold Perrineau and John Barrowman.

In creating this film, Bigelow and writer Marc Boal wanted to highlight the efforts that women played in the catching of OBL. Maya was reportedly a composite of several female CIA analysts who spear-headed the operation. Of course the CIA have never formally acknowledged the existence of these analysts out of fears for their safety. But, either way, Bigelow and Boal did these women justice. It was a great way to showcase female representation on the screen especially because of all the obstacles Maya faces. I'm not even talking about Al Qaeda, but her male superiors constantly undermining her ideas.

Jessica Chastain received an Oscar nod for her performance. It was well-earned. She played the role of Maya with a quiet confidence. And she was very convincing. I think it was a powerful portrayal of a character who despite being constantly set back never loses faith in herself, her abilities or her mission. As for the rest of the cast, I may argue it was bloated. There were a lot of characters that blended into each other. I don't think there was need for all of them. And, unfortunately, that led to some brilliant actors being absolutely squandered e.g Mark Strong, John Barrowman or James Gandolfini. The cast could have definitely be trimmed.

Zero Dark Thirty did receive some criticism for glorifying the use of torture as an interrogation method. This refers to the opening sequence where CIA officer Dan Fuller (Jason Clarke) waterboards and otherwise brutally tortures a terrorist. Torture not being an effective method to gain information aside, I would not agree that this sequence was glorified at all. Granted, it makes for unpleasant viewing, but you can see that Dan is not a sadist. He doesn't enjoy doing what he's doing, but he has a job to do. Later on, he laments on his actions.

But I think Bigelow's direction excelled in the final half-hour of the film where we see a Navy Seal team infiltrate OBL's compound. This was a brilliantly-directed sequence that always kept the tension high. It was gripping to watch. A lesser director may have added on a cheesy and grandiose score, but Bigelow made the excellent decision to not have an incidental music at all. And that was a great way to keep me on the edge of my seat.

Yes, Zero Dark Thirty has a bloated cast - Maya was a composite of many characters, why couldn't they have done that for the other characters - but Chastain gave an Oscar-worthy performance and the final sequence was fantastic film-making.

Donnie Darko review

 Number 209 on the top 1000 films of all time is Richard Kelly's science-fiction, psychological thriller 'Donnie Darko.'

Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a schizophrenic high schooler who also sleepwalks. He is haunted by an apparition of a man in a bunny mask who warns him about the coming end of the world. Meanwhile, Donnie also becomes fascinated by the notion of time travel and starts researching into spaceships and portals.

This was a weird, surreal film. A film that you think has to mean something. But maybe it doesn't mean anything and maybe that's the point. Nihilism is a central theme of this film. Donnie might be mentally unstable, but he is also very intelligent. His English teacher Karen Pomeroy (Drew Barrymore) thinks so when he gives an astute interpretation of Graham Greene's short story 'the Destructors.' His physics teacher notices Donnie's interest in time travel and gives him a book called 'the Philosophy of Time Travel,' written by once famed scientist Roberta Sparrow, now a senile old woman living on the edge of town. But Donnie also not afraid to challenge authority and to take the meaning that's so important to adults and reducing it to nothing.

His gym teacher Kitty Farmer (Beth Grant) plays self-help tapes by self-help guru Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze) as part of her class. Donnie openly criticises these trapes. When Cunningham visits the school, Donnie publicly challenges his ideas. A meaning that holds so much value so so many is scattered into the wind.

And, of course, lots of meaning has been attributed to Donnie's hallucination of the man in the bunny mash. As well as providing ominous warnings, it also acts as the devil on Donnie's shoulder - pushing him into delinquent acts like flooding his school or burning down Cunningham's house. Perhaps the rabbit represents our unconscious desire to cause or mayhem or to challenge the system. it's always waiting in the background ready to strike, only leashed by our own vague senses of morality. A fluid morality that can change on the drop of the hat. 

The time travel aspect links in nicely to a key theme of the film - you have to find happiness wherever you can. As the film progresses, Donnie's nihilism slowly dissolves as he starts to finding meaning, partially due to his new girlfriend Gretchen (Jena Malone.) Once he has found his meaning and his happiness, he enters a wormhole sending him twenty-eight days back in time.

Having said all of that, considering the film's nihilism, a lot of my review is completely meaningless as well. So, I'll end on an unobjectionable point. Gary Jules' cover of Mad World by Tears for Fears, is the perfect way to conclude this film, as well as one of the best covers of all time.