September Films

This September has been the dumping ground for the films that studios have either rejected as not good enough for the Oscars or not big enough to compete in blockbuster season.
District 9: this is the film not big enough to compete against Transformers 2 in the Summer or Avatar at Christmas but is still a big special effects film. The story is of an alien spacecraft that mysteriously stops over Johannesburg and the aliens inside are unable to restart it and live in their own ghetto called District 9 just outside the city. The man charged with relocating the aliens to a concentration camp (see the parallels) away from populated areas accidentally ingests a liquid that gradually turns him into an alien. The evil arms company experiment on him to try and exploit the alien technology that they have been unable to use. Enough explaining the plot. District 9 is a good film, it has its flaws, it is not as original as it thinks it is, it is very intense, a joke or a moment where the main character isn't in excruciating pain would have helped. Those elements aside the acting, from a virtually unknown cast, is very good, the effects are good and the plot is well told, 7/10.
Julie and Julia: a film put here as the end product is not considered Oscar potential. The film is 2 stories, one of the American chef Julia Child (Meryl Streep) who moves to France in the late 1940s as her husband is an embassy worker and is bored so takes cookery lessons. She proceeds to be so successful that she co writes a cook book that she then struggles to publish. At the same time although actually in 2002 Julie (Amy Adams) moves into a house that she dislikes, does a job she dislikes and she decides her outlet is to cook all 420 (I think) recipes from Julia Child's cook book in a year and she writes a blog about this. The acting in this film as you would expect from Streep, Adams and Tucci (playing Julia Child's husband) is sensational, Streep playing the more comic role while Adams is more serious. The film is very charming and light hearted but makes you run the full gamut of emotions; it makes you laugh and makes you cry. There are 2 flaws with the film, the first it tells you neither time period at the start of the film which is confusing and takes time to work out although it is actually quite important to know and secondly the ending is a bit drab and there is no climax. Being based on a true story the film doesn't have the Hollywood ending but the ending does feel slightly anticlimactic. The film I think was considered too nice to win awards but for me will take some beating this Oscar season, 9/10.
The Soloist: another film that missed out on an Oscar pick. This film is another true story that of a journalist in LA who specialises in human interest stories meets a man who is homeless but an accomplished cellist and attempts to get him somewhere to live. I haven't been the biggest Joe Wright fan after a poor pride and prejudice and a mediocre Atonement he has come to less literary and more American material. The acting is good but the film is harrowing and ultimately there is not much actual progression in the situation of the cellist from beginning to end and one wonders whether the story which is neither uplifting or ultimately of success if necessarily film worthy especially when compared to its 90s predecessor "Shine" where the main character ultimately becomes a successful pianist again, 6/10.
Dorian Gray, another attempt by the British film industry to hit the mainstream. The problem with independent British cinema is that it tries to be too clever, their previous film to try and hit the mainstream, Franklyn, was too clever and not enjoyable enough to break despite having all the potential. Dorian Gray has a good cast, Colin Firth being especially good, and is well put together. It captures the Gothic feel well and makes its moral point. However, in a search for thrills and excitement goes somewhat over the top at times, the picture going uuurrrgggghhhhh was at times more humorous than scary. The film also had little to enjoy about it at times making less enjoyable to watch and ultimately making me give it a lower rating than it necessarily deserves, 6/10.