Film: Selma

I'm really impressed with Odeon. You may have read me rave on about their latest movie initiative, Screen Unseen, before. It allows film fans to watch highly anticipated films before their general release dates, with one catch - you don't know what you'll be watching until the film starts. This month I was lucky enough to watch Selma, which is due for release in UK cinemas on 6th February.

Selma chronicles part of the shocking true story of Dr Martin Luther King's fight to secure equal voting rights for black men and women in the United States. It's based on a particular fight for the right to vote that began in Selma, Alabama - an area where black citizens were, due to prejudice, being illegally denied the right to cast votes, despite a previous change in legislation that should have allowed it. And the work carried out there by Dr Martin Luther King, and his supporters, culminated in the historically famous, and bloody, marches from Selma to Montgomery and eventually resulted in the then President of the United States amending legislation to enable black citizens to register to vote without harassment.

This is a big story. And really, I saw only a very tiny chapter of a hugely important plight. Although I, of course, knew about Dr Martin Luther King from school, and was all too aware of the conclusion to his story, it was really interesting to see a part of what he fought for in more depth. It certainly made me want to go home and read more about what happened in Selma, along with the work he, and his team, carried out before and afterwards.

I wouldn't describe Selma as entertaining. It more felt like a story that had to be told. It was certainly harrowing in parts, and incredibly moving throughout, but to have lessened the horror would have been a disservice to the many victims of hate and ignorance in America at that time. David Oyelowo was excellent as Dr Martin Luther King, and I also particularly liked Tom Wilkinson as President Johnson. Both men were able to brilliantly capture the frustration and vulnerability that comes with being in positions of power, and reverence. And their scenes together were very strong.

Selma isn't a huge blockbuster with lots of special effects and big bangs, it's a true story that is quietly filled with passion, and an overriding sense of pride for the bravery of some, to try and benefit many others. I might not have chosen to watch it at the cinema had it not been for Odeon's Screen Unseen, but I'm so glad I did.

Will you catch Selma when it comes out in cinemas? Seen any other good movies recently?

Film: Whiplash

If you've read my last film review you'll know that I have become a fast fan of Odeon's latest film experience Screen Unseen. The monthly event gives film fans the opportunity to see a much anticipated film before its general release date. There's only one catch: the audience has no idea what film they're going to see until the opening credits start rolling. I was really impressed with last month's film, and I think that Odeon have again picked something really special.

I hadn't heard of Whiplash before I went to Screen Unseen. When I first saw the title of the film I felt a bit dubious. Was it about a horse rider? Something sexy to compete with Fifty Shades of Grey? Or was it about a failed insurance scam? The answer? None of the above. In fact, Whiplash is about jazz. When I first realised it was a film about an aspiring jazz musician I felt even more dubious.I just wasn't sure it was going to be my thing. Especially when I realised the plot seemed focused around a super motivated student and his relationship with a much respected musician and conductor. But I really needn't have worried. Whiplash is really nothing like other will-they-or-won't-they-succeed feel good films. And it's brilliant.

Andrew (Miles Teller) is the super focused drummer hoping to win the approval, and a place in the jazz band, of industry superstar Fletcher (J. K. Simmons). Andrew has a focus and passion for jazz that is beyond what would be expected of someone of his age. His walls are covered in posters of jazz greats, he seems to rarely socialise with anyone near to his age, and the most extracurricular fun he has revolves around cinema trips with his dad. It is clear from the start that Andrew has a passion. But the depth of his passion is only revealed as the film progresses. When Fletcher picks up Andrew to initially be second chair drummer in his band, Andrew is thrilled. This is the break he's been waiting for. But it soon becomes clear that Fletcher has a very unique way of working. During Andrew's first rehearsal alone he has a chair flung at his head, is made to cry, and is generally humiliated, by Fletcher. But Andrew somehow responds to this extreme method and overhauls his life to focus on becoming a great in the jazz world. Cue seriously disturbing and somehow sensual scenes of bloodied hands, cymbals shimmering with sweat, and grimaces of genuine pain etching Andrew's face as he tries to learn Fletcher's music and match his tempo. The film is really a series of ups and downs as we see Andrew struggle to progress in his career. And the end is truly startling.

Whiplash does something I've never really seen in a film before, and the closest comparison I can make is to Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman as an ambitious ballet dancer. Both films, although different, are able to inject very real tension and grit into industries that are often portrayed as quite wholesome and mellow. I hadn't expected to feel so emotionally invested in a film about the world of jazz - a genre I've never listened to much. Andrew's lust for success is as sexy as it is harrowing. It is more thrilling than a high budget blockbuster and far scarier than most horrors I've seen. Andrew and Fletcher's relationship is fascinating and extremely hard to define. Simmons does a brilliant job as Fletcher, he is cruel, extreme and completely unreadable. I was never able to fully understand whether he truly believed in Andrew, or whether he even wanted him to succeed.  Teller is just as fantastic and plays a believably desperate student, who will stop at nothing to be the best - even with Fletcher clinging to his ankles.

Whiplash is really so much more than a film about a jazz band. It is about the human need to mean something, to achieve something, and the sometimes ugly nature of competition. More than that, it is a film that questions motivation and ponders an alternative way of nurturing talent. It is filled with beautiful, and often darkly humorous, dialogue and shows a side of the cut throat music industry that isn't often explored. Go and find it. It's out in cinemas early next year.

Would you go to a Screen Unseen event? Do you like the sound of Whiplash?

Film: Nightcrawler

I was lucky enough to watch Nightcrawler almost two weeks before its general release thanks to ODEON's latest cinema experience, Screen Unseen - a new series of specially-priced advance screenings. ODEON promises to show film lovers the best new releases but with just one catch: you don't know what film you're watching until the movie starts. This really appealed to me as I love good films, and am always excited to try something a little bit different. I am usually awful with trying to find spoilers though, but managed to refrain from ruining the surprise this time. We were ushered into the cinema and waited expectantly for the normal adverts and trailers that accompany cinema releases. Instead the film just started and it wasn't until the opening credits betrayed the title of the film that we realised what we were going to be watching.

Nightcrawler is a film about Louis Bloom, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Louis, Lou, is an out-of-work and pretty desperate guy. He spends the night looking for things to steal and sell, he's an opportunist and always ready to make a quick buck. His criminal lifestyle seems pretty at odds with the young, and fairly naive, man who spends his days ironing his shirts, watering his plant, and watching old movies in his small apartment. He seems to spend little time with other people, and confesses to not liking other humans very much.

Lou's big break comes one night when he stumbles upon a serious car crash on a highway and is introduced to a freelance TV crew, who will seemingly go to any length to get a good shot of the carnage played out in the cold and the rain. Sensing an opportunity, Lou pawns a bike in exchange for some camera equipment and decides to set up his own business finding and shooting the most sensational films of real life tragedy. He starts patrolling the night, listening to police broadcasts, on the lookout for crimes, crashes and cataclysm. He is a nightcrawler.

Nightcrawler is a film that is both darkly humorous and shocking. It portrays the modern media in a pretty harsh light, as a black hole devouring the misery of others and regurgitating it as entertainment. From the start of the film, and Lou's humble beginnings as a sort of human magpie, it seems obvious that the character really has very little conscience. And Lou's lack of humanity was the thing that perhaps shocked me most. It was also the thing that made him so perfect for 'video journalism'. There is one moment of possible redemption in the film, when, at the scene of a car crash, you think he may be darting forward to offer support or assistance to an unconscious man in the road, but then he simply moves the body into better light for that perfect shot. This scene is harrowing, and really marks Lou's detachment from the rest of us. He truly becomes inhuman.

Gyllenhaal was superb in Nightcrawler. Lou was someone who seemed fake. He spouts pages from self-help books, and quotes text from online research. He is manipulative and unkind. He is simple but incredibly complex.Gyllenhaal played this multifaceted, incomprehensible character with believability and depth. Lou was often wooden and emotionless, but Gyllenhaal never was. And as much as I disliked Lou, I found him intriguing too.

This film will definitely make you question the modern media and the way news is procured. It will make you feel just a little bit guilty for every sensationalist news story you've followed with baited breath and it'll probably be the first time you see a film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and not fancy him, even the tiniest bit.

I won't give anything else about the plot away because I think that you should all immediately go and see it when it's released on October 31st. Definitely worth the price of a cinema ticket. My first ODEON Screen Unseen experience was great, and allowed me to watch something that I might have otherwise overlooked. I can't wait to discover another new film.

Would you go to see a mystery film? Do you think you'll watch Nightcrawler?

Film: Lucy

It is fairly common in the world of all things superhero to develop your powers through some outside source – whether it is an accident, assault or even a radioactive spider. And then we have Lucy. Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is a 25 year old student living in China who is somehow manipulated into becoming a drug mule for a particularly evil mob boss, played by Min-Sik Choi. The drug she is forced to carry internally is an extremely experimental synthetic creation designed to set the European party scene on fire. When the mysterious bag of blue crystals begins to leak inside Lucy she is quickly transformed into a kick-ass fighting machine with incredible logic and ability far beyond anything that has been seen in a human being before. We quickly find out that the drug has unlocked a level of brain capacity beyond which we are naturally capable of accessing, and as Lucy’s brain power increases, so too does the destruction in her wake.

Lucy is a film based on the idea that human beings only use 10 per cent of our brains. It is essentially an imagining of what might happen if more of our brain capacity was unlocked. While I believe the 10 per cent fact to be nothing more than myth, the film was still an entertaining 89 minutes that left me not only pretty satisfied, but also with the feeling that I may just have experienced some sort of group hallucination (in its stranger moments). If you can look past the slightly preposterous plot and accept that the film is what it is, you’ll find something that has some particularly thought-provoking dialogue and is stylishly filmed with, albeit some obvious, metaphorical imagery. Scarlett Johansson really pushes the action forward with some fantastic acting and Morgan Freeman (as a professor specialising in the brain) is likeable too – although we never really get to know him as much more than a kindly, intelligent man who tries to help Lucy as her brain power reaches breaking point. Lucy, in the end, wants nothing more than to pass on everything that she has come to understand through her arguably unfortunate experience and the idea that, despite being less (or maybe more) than human, her most primal instinct is still to help is a nice one.

While I wouldn’t rate Lucy up there as one of the best films of the year, the action/sci-fi/philosophical hybrid certainly held my attention, and is worthy of a cinema ticket.

Have you seen Lucy? What did you think of the idea behind the film?