5-11June2011 :: This (Last) Week

16Jun2011 [weekly]

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This week was X-Men: First Class, Troll Hunter, Cults, Sleeping Beauty, and Tomboy.

• Watched X-Men: First Class (imdb); enjoyed it, and it feels like a return to form for the franchise after the last couple of disappointing movies, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with the prequel trilogy; it’s fun and adventurous and at times plain silly, with its 60s montage appearing out of left field and its Bond-style villain with a paper-thin goal and motivation and no real origin; its flaws have been explored in various ways, but I don’t care much for comic book canon, and I very much liked the Xavier/Magneto relationship and setup, with Xavier as a rich white guy content to do anything to remain anonymous while his privilege allows him to; though it’s unfortunate the good/bad teams end up split as privileged and Other, there’s a lot of potential for the teams to be not obviously good or bad; Fassbender and McAvoy are superb, Jennifer Lawrence shows promise, and the rest of the cast do an okay job with pretty thin material.
• Watched Troll Hunter (imdb); an interesting twist on a monster tale, with the eponymous troll hunter a government worker, sent in to clean up when the trolls leave their reservations; the film has a heart, it simmers with black humour, and it has some interesting comments on the interplay between bureaucracy and folklore, and by extension, between government and commoners.
• Bought Cults' self-titled debut album (iTunes/amazon); this is one I’ve been looking forward to for a few months, and it doesn’t disappoint; been happily looping through the entire album; it’s fun, happy rock, influenced by the 60s and with its sounds pushed to the limits of reality, with artificial harmonies and various electronic manipulations all serving to fuel the mood.
• Watched Sleeping Beauty (imdb); it can be difficult to watch, but it’s beautifully shot and designed, and Emily Browning is great; this one had me chewing it over for days; I wrote a review of it a couple of days ago, and I still feel sure I could give it another watch and unpack a great deal more.
• Watched Tomboy (imdb); cute French film about a 10-year-old girl who takes the opportunity when her family moves to introduce herself as a boy; it’s a tight story, focussing on the immediate characters and ramifications, perhaps too easily avoiding any long-term questions or impacts, but it’s in the coming-of-age genre, set over a single summer break, which tends to make such summers somewhat isolated and mythical; it tells its story with subtlety and a kind-hearted eye; the cast is great, with especially excellent performances from the few kids at the centre of the story.