Transparent: A Tribute to a Sad Genius ｻﾄﾗﾚ

Dir: Katsuyuki Motohiro (Who?!)
Starring: Masanobu Ando, Kyoko Suzuki
Year: 2001

A guy who works at a pub and spends his time writing novellas on some rather disturbing themes (such as a baby who rules the earth) should never be trusted for film recommendations. How does Narry Borman, your guide to all that is good in the greasy world of graphic grahams (aka films), know this? Just such a person recommended Satorare (Japanese title) to me.

It's not bad, but Motohiro seems to try to cram way too much in to what is actually quite a lightweight film. The first half is kind of comedic, with some nice sci-fi/mystery touches. Annoyingly, the plot then goes overly dramatic; dying grand-mothers, raison d'etres, surgery, and tears. Lots and lots of tears. Plus an overly confident woman standing up for 'babes lib' or something.

In fact, the last ten minutes of the film are spent almost entirely in sweeping, panning shots of the main cast crying and hugging. Sickening. It kind of ruined what started out as an interesting flim.

You'll recognise the cast from (variously) Drive and A Cheerful Gang that Turns the Earth.

Average!

La Parfum De La Dame En Noir

Dir: Bruno Podalydès
Starring: Denis Podalydès
Year: 2005

Apparently this little known French film is based on a Gaston Leroux novel. While the story seems solid, it's let down by the fact that this film is a sequel - I haven't seen the first film, so the plot remained, to me at least, a real mystery.

It's really poorly edited. First time viewers are left unaware of the background to the characters, and many assumptions are made about the audience's knowledge.

Ignoring the gaping flaws in the plot, some of which are explained at the end, the settings are amazing. This is classic French scenery - wide open seascapes, craggy cliffs, and mysterious islands. Wine, food and philosophy is served in abundance.

Michale Lonsdale (you've seen him in Moonraker, if nothing else) steals the show as the professor who takes forever to start his painting, and precedes every major scene with an ominous prophecy ("The atmosphere is tense, isn't it!").

A shoddily produced work that has some minor merits.

Average!

Hot Fuzz

Dir: Edgar Wright

Starring: Simon Pegg, Martin Freeman

Narry Borman loves British films, and wants to see them succeed. But this is no good.

Hot Fuzz is aimed at 8-10 year olds who can repeat the lines in the school playground, which is bizarre considering it's constant cultural references are to things 8-10 year olds wouldn't understand. Sure, it’s tongue in cheek, but it’s still not funny.

The supposedly hilarious gratuitous violence is just awful - I don't want to see that.

There is some top class in here, though, especially Timothy Dalton and Jim Broadbent. The whole thing should have been about Tim’s supermarket – that would have been funny. Everyone seems so eager to reel off the next British star, too… ooh look, there’s Dame Edna. How about some humour instead!

Average!

Chinatown

Dir: Roman Polanskia
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

When the director is both Polish and French, you know the film is going to be on the serious side. Chinatown is just that. There's nothing light-hearted about it - only tragedy and a complicated story.

Some people thrive on this kind of bleak film. Not Narry Borman. He watches films for one of three reasons:

1. Entertainment
2. Art
3. Education

The bleak genre fits into none of those categories, so I don't like Chinatown too much.

It's very well made. The acting is top class. But it's all about people who are too serious and who are entangled in lies, sin and crime. Not my cup o' tea.

Rating: Average!