Lord of Leisure

I’m not a number, I’m a free man….. who apparently has never used a computer before in this film.

This is a rather strange situation to be in. I saw this along with countless others free thanks to ShowFilmFirst at the beginning of October, and yet it’s taken me all this time to actually want to sit down and write the mini meh about it to begin with. There’s a bloody good reason; this is one deeply depressing film. It’s also probably the reason why there were so many free screenings of I, Daniel Blake all around the UK not too long ago, as who the hell would have watched this otherwise? This certainly won’t go down well in the rest of the world either.

The director, Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty seem to have gone out of their way to highlight a real problem in the UK at present (as if there weren’t enough with the impending clusterf**k that the actual Brexit Process will bring, basically just judging from the MPs’ babbling meh or how much the Pound has tanked). The problem is how people who actually needs help from the government are treated badly and in essence, viewed as third class citizens.

And so the story is set for us to have a gander at one Mr. Daniel Blake, played by Dave Johns. He’s a 59-year-old joiner in the North-East of England who basically had a heart attack and has been informed that he can’t go back to work any time soon by his doctor. Off our lovely Daniel goes to the jobcentre, asking for sickness benefits. Continue reading →

and one not so little man…..

It’s been a while since we last went to the cinema to check out another opus from Hollywoodland, and this time, we’re going off the beaten path to look at a film that got its premiere at this year’s Sundance Festival and on the face of it from the trailer, just looked as if it had award bait written all over it. Directed by Ira Sachs, who has never come up on the radar before at all, and therefore I wasn’t sure what to expect either.

However, rather than be about men with small penises which the arts world would cry over, Little Men actually is about two boys, played by Theo Taplitz as Jake Jardine and Michael Barbieri as Tony Calvelli. it’s the first time seeing them on screen, and I couldn’t help but think that half the time, Theo Taplitz looked like the chap with the broken legs from Game of Thrones.

Anyway, the two likely lads became best friends when a death of Greg Kinnear’s father brings two families together, as one family takes ownership of a shop the other’s mother (played by Paulina Garcia) does business in. In essence, this film is about something which could happen in real life and how what happens gets dealt with along with the meh of going to school and pretending to give a s*it about other people in and out of the classroom. Even to the point of getting into a fight when someone thinks your best friend is gay. School and the people in it even as years have gone by, are still a**holes.

The two boys get on like a house on fire, despite clear differences in their attitudes on life and behaviour. But as mentioned, slowly we see life get in the way, as basically Greg Kinnear (playing Brian Jardine whose father passed away) and his sister find they need cash and therefore have to charge three times as much rent for the store as before. This causes Paulina to get hostile and basically make personal attacks at Greg, until finally notice is served for her to leave. Continue reading →