5+ Films To Look Forward To In January 2014

This one will include slightly more than 5 films what with it being award season and all...

1) Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

The story of the great Nelson Mandela with incredible performances from all involved.

2) Her

A comedy about a man who falls in love with an operating system. It sounds strange but the story is oddly moving and relevant.

3) The Wolf Of Wall Street

This new Scorsese and DiCaprio film examines greed and corruption within the New York Stock Exchange.

4) August: Osage County

Based on a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tracy Letts, this star studded cast brilliantly portrays this incredibly dysfunctional family.

5) 12 Years A Slave

This film seems to be a sure bet for the awards this season, with Chiwotel Ejiofor giving the performance of a lifetime.

6) Inside Llewyn Davis

It's a Coen brothers film so it's going to be good.

7) Out Of The Furnace

Christian Bale plays a soldier who has returned from Iraq only to become part of the criminal underworld.

8) The Book Thief 

Based on the critically acclaimed book, this follows a little girl in Nazi Germany and the courage shown by her and her family.

So a few more films than usual but they all look pretty good. Anyway, have a happy and safe new year, and see you in 2014!!

Drinking Buddies (2013)

 As I've said before, I quite like it when a small indie movie pops up and I decide to watch it even though no one else I know has ever heard of or seen it before. This is one of those examples where, after hearing about it from a couple of movie festivals (and most recently the British Film Festival) I decided to give it a go. It seemed to have a good cast and a good storyline so why not?

 The film centres on Kate (Olivia Wilde) who works at a brewery with her best friend Luke (Jake Johnson) and follows their relationship and feelings for each. While it is obvious to all who witness them together that they like each other, the problem comes from the fact that they are both in relationships. Kate's boyfriend Chris (Ron Livingston) and Luke's girlfriend Jill (Anna Kendrick) cause problems for the two friends who must also deal with the complex feelings they have for each other and how this will affect their friendship and those around them.

 I genuinely went into this film with pretty high expectations. It has a great cast full of talented people that I have liked in their other projects and, in my opinion, I thought that this story could be a good basis for a nice little movie with a sweet story and message.

 Boy was I wrong.

 I found this film incredibly boring and lacking in any real drive or focus. This a problem that I imagine probably derives from the lack of script. Apparently this film is almost completely improvised during the filming process and this was pretty obvious throughout. I'm not saying that the dialogue is stinted or unnatural, more that its natural to the point of actually demonstrating how horrifically plain most normal conversations are.

 I was also expecting more drama and events taking place. However the majority of the film is people getting drunk and not really doing anything, or contains scenes that are full of the classic awkward 'I kind of like you but I can't do anything about it' scenes that you get in the majority of romantic story lines. The whole thing is just slow and uneventful.

The only redeeming factor is that the actors are actually pretty good. They all give good performances, it's just a shame that they can't use any of their talents towards a decent focus and just perform each scene as it is, without being able to properly link the story or have a good conclusion to aim for.

Overall, there may well be a reason why this movie hasn't really made any impact and I wouldn't make any special attempt to go and see it.