Marco La Nave.

Martin Scorcese’s new film, Hugo is a very smart, awe-aspiring family film, which are really rare nowadays. A definite surprise coming from legendary director, Martin Scorcese, who’s known for movies with a lot of swears, violence, drugs and other adult-themed subjects. The film is exquisitely crafted. The cinematography and set design is superb. It’s a film lover’s dream movie. As with many of Scorsese’s films, it’s an inspired film history lesson along side of being a dreamlike children’s fable. A really unique combination that will work for the film enthusiasts and discerning family’s with kids. In many parts it reminds me Fellini.

Also, one of the best opening scenes in cinema. 8/10

I’ve watched this movie on a long flight to Toronto thinking it would be a comedy with some dramatic elements. There is very little to laugh about in this film. It is essentially a soap opera about the travails of rich family in Hawaii. 

The acting is well done, I enjoy George Clooney’s laconic Cary Grant shtick and the young woman who plays the teenage daughter. Some of the scenic shots were nice. The soundtrack, which was mostly Hawaiian music was great. A good movie overall. 6/10

Won Academy award for best screenplay 

“Brighton Rock” is a weird and not engaging remake of the 1947 film that is based on Graham Greene’s novel. I did not see the original or read the novel, but I did not like this version. There are inconsistencies in the plot regarding why the sociopath Pinkie does not kill Rosie and prefers to marry her. When he records a 45 rpm vinyl record and gives it to Rosie, it is clear that the hoodlum does not feel anything for Rosie but hate. In it’s attempt to be lavish, this production, up-dated to the 60s seemed at times too clean and shiny. On the other hand, at other times it was unrealistically grubby : Rose’s home - a 60s socail housing tower block, which would in reality have been spanking new, was dressed down to look disgustingly filthy and run down. These kinds of inconsitencies popped up not just in the design, but throughout the music, the camera-work and the diercting of the actors. The pacing of seemed to jump from set piece to set piece without a sense of flow or overall tone. The separate elements of the film didn’t gel. The conclusion with the record repeating “I love you” and the last scene showing the cross to indicate a miracle is awful. Disappointing. 5.5/10

Summer of 1983, an anonymous English town, marked by unemployment and lack of any social welfare, on the background the Falkland war: here, Shaun, a boy belonging to the working class, his father dead in that same war, always laughed at by his mates, one day meets a group of skinheads, who welcome him and become a sort of surrogate family for him. Things are at the beginning positive for the boy, until Combo, an ex member released from prison, arrives, leading what was a group of alternative but good boys, to encounter racist and violent attitudes and obliging everyone, Shaun included, to make a choice.

What stands out in the movie is the capability to render the deep needs stirring inside the young boy, a need for strength, for something and someone to identify with, with all the complexities and difficulties proper of the age, and worsened by a troubled social context. The boy interpreting Shaun offers a very intense and strong performance, we cannot but have tender feelings for him, we feel how difficult it is to grow up, and still there’s innocence in his eyes and there’s the beauty of growing up believing in something. In general, all the characters are well rounded, credible and well interpreted. The director has done a great job in capturing the mood, the look and the music of those years, and criticism of the evils of the period is softened by the need for some final hope. It’s certainly a committed movie, focusing on a specific moment of British history, but able to cross the boundary of a British audience. 7.5/10

BAFTA - BEST BRISH MOVIE AWARD 2008