Dallas Buyers Club

For a film that is far from being perfect, Dallas Buyers Club is an entertaining watch. Credit goes entirely to Mathew McConaughey who is brilliant as Ron Woodroof - who throws everything into his personal fight with AIDS, driven by the commercial opportunities of beating the system. The film however struggles to develop any kind of real chemistry between Woodroof and the supporting characters. Jennifer Garner is hopeless and drags everything around her down. Jared Leto plays a dreamy transgender woman, Rayon, but remains just that - dreamy in appearance with no real depth in character. A film that engages but leaves you wondering how different it could have been.

Rating: * * +

Philip Seymour Hoffman

 

Much has already been written over the past few days about the actor that he was. I think I saw him first in '25th Hour' and thought here was a discovery. Some one, with the right role, who would be the finest. Then as I watched more of him I realised he was the finest already. 

It all got personal some time in 2012, as I contemplated the arrival of junior, that I came across an interview of him where he talks about his experience as a father, parenting - past and present. The relevant bits starts after the 5th minute I reckon.

And now he is gone. As a friend put it, he was getting prepared to bat out a day with some 80 bags of heroin, but then fell in the first over. Sad. I want to understand more about the man - the genius that he was as an actor and a person who eventually succumbed to all kinds of internal strife.

In order to commemorate the man, I have decided I am going to hunt down every movie of his.

Rating: * * * *

Photo source: http://danbusta.tumblr.com/

 

I saw the Devil

How the South Korean cinema maintains this kind of consistency in the psycho thriller genre is a mystery to me. Yet again, here is a film that takes the age old genre and adds a slightly new twist to it. Kim Soo-hyeon is inconsolable as he finds his pregnant fiance brutally murdered. Unfortunately for the killer, Soon-hyeon is a top secret agent who takes matters in to his own hands. He tracks down Kyung-chul (Min-sik Choi), a human flesh crazy psychopath and starts to give him a taste of his own medicine. But like in the wild it does not take long for the hunter to become the prey. A film that is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Rating: * * *