FOR ONE NIGHT (in Winchester) ONLY

GOMORRAH (directed by Matteo Garrone)

24^th February

20:45

Winchester Screen

Gomorrah is an acute example of the importance, power and necessity of cinema in contemporary society. Its representation of the various different facets of life in the world of organised crime in Naples, Italy is bleak, realistic and unsympathetic. This naturally makes for difficult viewing but it is precisely for this reason that Gomorrah is so admirable and essential viewing for anyone with an interest in film beyond mindless escapism. Such subject matter should make for uncomfortable watching because the corruption, murder and exploitation depicted in the film is really happening today. Indeed the author of the ‘based upon novel’ is now in hiding because a contract has been put out for his life due his uncompromised highlighting of such issues.

Comparisons have been made to City of God in the way the glamorous image of the gangster is de-romanticised and brought down to street level. However the absence of heavily stylistic movie conventions and characters to ‘root-for’ elevates Gomorrah above the former; by giving an added level of sincerity which the subject matter surely deserves.

Not a date-movie but there are few films nobler to devote a few pounds toward and which will inspire such raw admiration of cinema.

5/5

See this if you liked: La Haine, City of God.

the curios case of bejamin button

curios meaning less than interesting?

i love (the director) david fincher - 'fight club' was a good crack whilst 'se7en' and 'zodiac' are some of my ABSOLUTE recent favourites - but benjamin was actually a bit shit.

in a nutshell - it's a smug 'forrest gump' but not as enjoyably ludicrous.

it suffers from:

1. Brad pitt grows younger > big frickin' deal! it doesn't really affect the story in any meaniful way.
   
2. the characters have no depth > fair enough! but if your gunna have shallow characters you might as well have your lead character fighting in the vietnam war, playing ping pong in china, becoming a shrimp boat captain and then run across america a few times.
3. cate blanchett's character > snoooooooooorrrrrre! the love story is so empty
   

however:

1. there are some cool scenes when benjamin is out at sea which are almost worth the admission price.
2. it has a good joke in it but then they milk it for all its worth.
3. it does all look quite nice and Tilda Swinton's character is a nice little aside.

there's a whole flasback device going on aswell which seems clunky, as is the likening benjamin to a humming bird.

- before seeing this film i was looking forward to reading the short story on which it is based by f.scott fitzgerald. after seeing it i opted to read a french book about extreme sexual fetishes instead and i think i made the right choice.

2 1/2 out of 5