Review: I Give It a Year (2013)

★★★☆☆

Director: Dan Mazer

Starring: Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall, Anna Faris, Simon Baker

❝ IF YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE IT WORK, YOU COULD TRY FOCUSING ON MAKING IT TO A YEAR. ❞

Synopsis: Josh (Rafe Spall) and Nat (Rose Byrne) have just gotten married after seven months of dating. Both immediately begin to struggle with their marriage and are advised that if they can stay together for at least a year, then they will be able to overcome their problems.

Oh dear. This was painful to watch at times. Unfortunately, the characters had a world of potential with regards to their complexities and emotional depth, but none of these were realised. They ended up coming off dull and shallow. This was not because of the performances, which were good enough but because of the script itself. Mazer gave the characters nothing worth connecting to, thus making it hard to even care what would happen to this couple in the end. Apart from Josh's best friend, the creepy and perverted Danny (Stephen Merchant), the film attempted to showcase different types of marriages that exist but ultimately failed in it's execution due to the lack of detail and possibly the lack of backstory that these characters had. The frustrating thing about this film was how great it could have been, had there been more focus on going deeper into each character's true emotional state. Alas, it tried so hard to be funny and expected emotional investment from the audience because we knew they were struggling, and it just didn't work. Anna Faris was the highlight of this for me and the only person who did make me laugh out loud for the right reasons. This was a nice attempt but overall not a film worth recommending and a film that really didn't need to be made when there are similar films that do it better.

Review: Dead Poets Society (1989)

★★★★★

Director: Peter Weir

Starring: Robin Williams, Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Josh Charles

❝ THIS IS A BATTLE, A WAR, AND THE CASUALTIES COULD BE YOUR HEARTS AND SOULS. ❞

Synopsis: John Keating (Robin Williams) is made the new English teacher at the Welton Academy for Boys. His unorthodox teaching methods and inspires and changes the lives of several of his students.

Wonderfully poignant and deeply moving, Dead Poets Society is one of those films that stays with you and has you questioning how you are living your life. Regardless of these boys ages (which is so often pointed out by the shrewd headmaster, Gale Nolan (Norman Lloyd)), they learn to embrace life and rather than live under the rules of their parents, choose to pave their own road. However, this doesn't come without it's struggles. Welton Academy is a comically proud school, which takes pride in it's reputation as being one of the finest preparatory schools in the country - so when a group of boys are trying to express themselves in a more casual and honest manner, and enjoy themselves whilst they're young, it's frowned upon by the administration and even punishable. Freethinkers aren't allowed, so John Keating's presence shakes up the foundation of the boy's beliefs. Keating is only ever intellectually challenged by another teacher, who whilst holds a degree of respect for Keating and is very similar in his way of thinking, is not as radical with his methods of teaching. This suggests that without a certain level of surpression, there is no way to continue with a career at Welton and thus no way to help these sheltered boys learn as much about themselves as they possibly can. There was no way to fault the performances in this either. Every single actor put their heart and soul into this and delivered. This film is without a doubt, a timeless cinematic classic. 

The Anticipation: Don Jon (2013)

Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza

Synopsis: Don Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) only cares about a few things in life: his body, house, family, car, church, friends, ladies and, of course, his porn. That is until he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), a beautiful blonde who believes that her love life should be exactly like the romantic movies she loves to watch. Clashing with Don's belief that his love life should be like that of a porn film, both struggle to overcome their unrealistic expectations of romance.

When Levitt announced he was working on his directorial debut, I imagined wonderful things. This may have not been what I expected - but after watching the trailer, I am so damn excited to see if he can pull this off. Levitt has already intrigued me (and a lot of others) with the synopsis: two people who become romantically involved with deluded expectations of love from entirely different ends of the spectrum. It's a risqué and bold move for a debut from such a well known actor, but it has to be praised. It opens the doors for discussion about the stereotypes that both men and women are often placed in, especially concerning relationships. Hopefully Levitt will address these issues in the film and at least create a positive solution for an ongoing problem, but I can see that others will antagonise the film for it's portrayal of gender stereotypes based solely on the trailer. This seems deliberate when we think about the kind of person Levitt usually is and this seems more satirical than anything when we see the way the trailer is put together. I'm definitely going to go into this with an open mind but I am still ridiculously excited to see how Levitt is behind the camera.

Check out the full trailer below.