Monday 21 November 2016

Room - Phil's Five Words for Films

Room Directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Frank,2014) and based on the screenplay & 2010 book by Emma Donoghue, Room centres on a young boy, Jack, who has known nothing of the world other than the room in which he has been held captive. Together with his 'Ma', his world has to change quickly as they bid to escape from their captor, 'Old Nick'. The first half of the film is claustrophobic and personal and the second half is tragic yet hopeful. The naïve, first person tone of the book has been perfectly captured in the low level camera work and the focus on faces and simple relationships. Brie Larson won an Oscar in 2016 for her performance but, for me, it is the young wonder of Jack ( Jacob Tremblay ) that really steals the show. A wonderful film about parenthood, learning from life and growing through experience. Emma Donoghue was rightly nominated for an adapted screenplay Oscar.

8 out of 10
Cert 15 (UK)
118mins 2016

Bad Moms - Phil's Five Words for Films.

Bad Moms Utter, utter bilge. Offensive, sexist, unrealistic, completely devoid of anything that vaguely resembles comedy, this film is a complete waste of everyone's time. 'BadMoms' is full of characters that nobody could relate to and it has a plot that is as stupid as it is thin. A whinging 'Mom' ( who somehow lives in a massive house with 2 massive cars and 2 massively over-effected kids ) takes time out from her consumeristic lifestyle to have a 'breakdown' and run for the local PTA job. Loud montages replace plot development and crass, thinly veiled 'phobic' statements are supposed to pass as humour. The bar is set from the first few seconds of the film and it never manages to scrape itself off the floor. A poor attempt to cash in on and invert 'The Hangover' franchise, it is lacking in every department. With a wealth of talent on screen, (Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn amongst others) it is a disgraceful waste to produce such a nothing film. If you are the sort of person that finds this stuff entertaining, you really need to take a look at your life. Sorry. Save your time and don't encourage this sort of vacuous nonsense. 'BadMoms', bad people, bad idea, bad film.

1 out of 10.
Cert 15 (UK) 2016.
100mins