Kingsman: The Secret Service

(spoilers)

If you would have told me before I went to see Kingsman that I'll enjoy a movie made by Matthew Vaughn, I would have never believed it. I find his X Men to be really mediocre, his Layer Cake to be excruciatingly boring and almost criminally overpraised and Kick Ass is one of the worst things I've seen in my entire life and I do not mean just movies - things. But perhaps every director I loathe must have at least one movie I enjoy. Terrence Malick - Thin Red Line. Lars Von Trier - Melancholia. And now Vaughn and his amazingly fun and entertaining Kingsman.

Killer Joe

It takes a lot to disturb me. For such a horror movie geek like me, it's really difficult to feel genuinely uncomfortable while watching the movie. I've seen so much messed up stuff in films - mostly due to recent popularity of torture porn trend in horror movies - that I'm now almost completely numb to violence and disturbing scenes in movies. But Killer Joe is so superbly acted out and directed there where plenty of times when I felt genuinely uneasy about what I was watching. It's thanks to the story, based on Tracy Letts 1991's play of the same name that Killer Joe is as twisted and messed up as every review of the film says it is.

The King's Speech

(118 min, 2010)
Director: Tom Hooper
Writer: David Seidler (screenplay)
Stars: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter
 

Finding your voice.

“If I am King, where is my power? Can I declare war? Form a government? Levy a tax? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority because they think that when I speak, I speak for them.”

“The King's Speech” tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded stammer and considered unfit to be king, following his wife's (Helena Bonham Carter) advice Bertie (Colin Firth) engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country through war.

What does king do? He sits on a throne, one may answer. He rules the country, answers another. But the most correct answer is – he leads the nation. And how does he do that? By speaking to them. But what if the king couldn't express his words and his thoughts would never reach his people? What if the king's had an awful stammer, preventing him from speaking almost all the time?

That story actually happened and as seemingly little as the issue may be, the movie shows how serious it was in reality. England is declaring the war on Germany and it's King's duty to inform his people about it, with proper reassurance, comfort and plead for courage and strength. But first “Bertie”, shy and limited by his own skill to speak must find his own strength. The film focuses on how, gradually, Bertie, thanks to the support of his loving wife (Bonham Carter stars in a shockingly delicate and subtle role, comparing to her usual work that is) and his talented speech therapist, finds his own voice. The techniques Logue uses to diminish the stammer are often amusing and always creative and the collision of the Royal Highness and simple Australian man is thrilling to watch, mostly thanks to David Seidler's witty and smart dialogue.

“King's Speech” also portrays the monarchy as often strict, emotionless and highly honorable institution, but with exceptions – Bertie and his brother Edward are firstly human beings and only then royal sons.. The film shows what happens when one prince falls in love with someone who most certainly cannot become the Queen, what happens when the royal son disappoints his father and that even though those people have to be perfect and reserved in public's eye, they have very strong need for affection. I liked how it shows us the background of all the official meetings and ceremonies – Bertie's daughters greet him when he becomes the king with proper respect but he, as a very loving person and their father, responds by tenderly hugging them.

As with most British dramas about royalty, the movie is deliciously subtle. There are so many tender and beautiful moments – the one that got imprinted in my memory the most is when Bertie plays the record Logue gave him and he discovers, that indeed, when he didn't hear himself he read flawlessly. His wife hears it too and she just stands there quietly, right behind him, overwhelmed with happiness and being proud of her husband. We're observing the family life of Bertie and Logue – they both love their wives and their kids immensely, we see private family moments and we marvel at those ordinary man, who in one case were born into extraordinary situation and with another born with amazing skill to help people overcome their weaknesses.

Colin Firth delivered the best performance of the year in 2009 with his heartbreaking portrait of a man on the verge of suicide in “A Single Man” and he is best in 2010 as well. I didn't think he can act better than he did in Tom Ford's directorial debut, but to my surprise – he can. His stammer is incredibly realistic – very annoying and devastating at the same time. Firth manages to be both moving and funny, strong and weak, lost and determined throughout the movie. He shows incredible range of emotions and skills – his Bertie is a very proud man, very respectful of his duties but also capable of admitting to himself that he really doesn't want them. He has a bad temper and he often declines offers of help, but he is the man enough to admit he was wrong afterward. Far from flawless, but also such an astonishing person, who is able to learn from his mistakes and be brave enough to face his own fears.

Logue is played by Geoffrey Rush, who is perfect for the part. Funny, whimsical and sympathetic Logue respects his student, even though his world is completely unknown to him. Their friendship is very beautiful – it doesn't matter how their lives look and what their duties are, what matters is that they are good people and in the end they found mutual respect and admiration, that as we found out in the end of the film, in reality lasted between them their entire lives.

I was stunned at the beautiful cinematography in the film – it looks ordinary at first glance, apart from making the film stunning, but it's quite clever and creative – notice how insecure Bertie is often only in the corner of the frame, looking very small and helpless. The fog, the cold colors, the hostility of the world and situation – the impending war, the inability to speak, the loneliness and feeling misunderstood is mostly shown in “The king's speech” in the images we see. They help us feel what Bertie feels.

It's not the movie as good and shocking as “Black Swan” or as flawlessly executed as “The Social Network”. But “The King's Speech” has so much heart and warmth in it, it is very hard not to marvel at that.

93/100

The Kids Are All Right

(106 min, 2010)
Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Writers: Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
Stars: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo

 

Lovely mess.

Two children, Joni and Laser (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) conceived by artificial insemination bring their birth father (Mark Ruffalo) into their family life to their mothers' (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) disapproval. 

This movie left me angry because it made me care for the characters and left things in a very cruel way. But it is only a sign of how amazing the film is – it actually made me mad, made me think and surprised me in many ways. The film portrays unconventional family – Nic (Bening) is a doctor and has very controlling personality, Jules (Julianne Moore) is her life long partner, who is more of a careless person, constantly changing job and feeling insecure about herself. They have been together for many years, yet they still love each other and raise two kids – Joni and Laser. Joni is about to leave home for college and Laser is eager to find out who was the sperm donor for their moms, when the opportunity arises.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

(103 min, 2005)
Director: Shane Black
Writers: Brett Halliday (novel) (in part), Shane Black (screen story)
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan

 

Harmony in chaos.

A petty thief posing as an actor (Robert Downey Jr.) is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation along with his high school dream girl (Michelle Monaghan) and a detective (Val Kilmer) who's been training him for his upcoming role

It's almost impossible to label this one. Crime? Comedy? Black comedy? This is the movie were Robert Downey Jr. hangs from the bridge, holding on to dead guy's hand sticking out of the coffin, tiny dog swallows severed fingers, Val Kilmer plays gay detective and Laurence Fishborne provides voice for bear in the commercial and the movie ends with song sung by Downey Jr. himself, which feels very out of place and that's the whole point. It's insane, fast and very memorable. And also – it's a great film.

“No, she's just resting her eyes for a minute. Of course she's fucking dead, her neck's broken.”

The story is complex, filled with twists and turns and everything is here – aspiring, adorable actress, charming thief and loser in life being hopelessly in love, hilarious detective, city of sin, crazy Russian roulette scene and insane amount of quotable dialogues. It's difficult not to get lost in that labyrinth of plots and jokes, intrigues and lies, but if you pay close attention you will be rewarded in the end with thank you message from Robert and Val themselves. How often does this happen in movies?

Kinsey

(118 min, 2004)
Director: Bill Condon
Writer: Bill Condon
Stars: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Chris O'Donnell

Love is the answer, isn't it? But, sex raises a lot of very interesting questions...

"Sex is as important as eating or drinking and we ought to allow the one appetite to be satisfied with as little restraint or false modesty as the other."
-Marquis de Sade

Sex.

I've been told, many times, that along with money, it's what rules this world. “Kinsey” follows the story of the researcher Alfred Kinsey, a pioneer in the area of human sexuality research, whose 1948 publication "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was one of the first recorded works that saw science address sexual behavior.

He intends to help people, as at the beginning of his marriage to one of the students Mac (Academy Award nomination for Laura Linney). After that Kinsey and Mac's marriage started to benefit a lot from sex, but what I liked about their relationship was how close and respectful they were for each other without it. They had incredibly strong bond, one that reminded me of Russel Crowe and Jennifer Connelly in “A Beautiful Mind” (“Kinsey” is by the way, infinitely better movie), except for the fact Mac was far more understanding and calm. Here is the marriage based on utter honesty. No wonder it worked out well.

Kinsey is portraited as quiet but humorous man who at first was a biologist and did a meticulous study about wasps, in which no one was interested in. He is shown as ordinary man, but a man with great passion and the quest of telling the society the truth. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way he cannot see that there is too much resistance from the others and too much pride in him. Although he didn't succeed in his farther publications, the movie features amazing scene where a woman tells him that after reading his book she decided to tell her friend she loved her and now they live together happily. Because of Kinsey some things changed. But even now, as I type these words, 62 years after publication of his book, there is still so much intolerance in the world. And people still show unhealthy and dangerous interest in something very intimate – who is sleeping with whom and how they do it?

The movie is quite courageous at the beginning and has a lot of great lines (“Everybody's sin is nobody's sin, and everybody's crime is no crime at all. “), it doesn't show Kinsey in crystal clear light – for his research he interviewed pedophiles and didn't report them to the police. There is a lot of talking about sex, most of which I'm sure all of you already heard and known. But to see the people who were unaware of this and now find out about, it's especially impressive, because those are adults, engaged couples, middle aged people.

Kinsey has entire team that helps him - Clyde( Peter Sarsgaard ), who will end up in the bed of both Mr and Mrs Kinsey and Wardell (Chirs O'Donnell) among others. As the studies progress the more extreme it gets – Kinsey films sexual intercourse between the team members and other people. The movie doesn't give you any hints as to what your opinion should be. It's up to you – how much can we sacrifice for the research? Where is the line?

This is one of the best performances given by Liam Neeson, who never gave bad performance. I'm shocked, that quite bland Linney got the nomination and he didn't. He is one of those actors who deserve highest honors in the movie world. He makes Kinsey both pleasant and interesting and at the same time the viewer questions whether what he does is good or not. It's not easy – Kinsey does mistakes, ambition blinds him a little. But thanks to Neeson even during the interview with pedophile Kinsey remains incredibly human and professional as a researcher.

That movie actually frightened me. To know there were people, so many people, unaware of so many things concerning sex is horrifying. At one point of the movie the woman actually asks “Will I be infertile from wearing high heels?”. I'm well aware that there are still people out there, who are either too uneducated or too scared or maybe just shy to discover that aspect of their life and to understand it. Because once you understand it and in case of sex the more you know, the less frustrated you are. But don't worry - the film is not heavy, it has a lot of funny moments.

The movie's third act apart from previously mentioned touching scene is quite weak. The director clearly didn't know what to do next and from thought provoking movie the film turns into formulaic biographical movie. But in the end, it redeems itself. I heard opinion some people are unable to watch entire film because of all the sex talk. I'm surprised by that, after all it's the movie about sex researcher what did you expect? It's definitely worth watching for fans of good biographical films and Liam Neeson.

74/100