Strangely polarising film by Doug Liman about the Valerie Plame affair in the first half of the last decade. Plame was a covert CIA agent 
who was outed by the White House as a consequence of her husband’s article stating that one of the key elements of the US claim that Iraq was producing nuclear weapons was false. As a way of deterring further declarations which would damage their cooked up story, the Vice President and his crew
leaked information which blew Plame’s cover and jepoardised various operations she was involved in. Political spite acting as an effective smokescreen but destroying families.
Eventually Congressional enquiries determined abuse of powers by the executive and some officials were punished as scapegoats only to have their punishments reduced by Presidential waiver.
The film is reasonable easy to follow. The first half is a well set-up and exciting thriller but the second half as the witchhunt of Plame gets underway loses a sense of tone and purpose, being little more than a recital of events and clichèd scenes.
Sean Penn does well as Wilson.
He is something of an over-actor but he does it very well contorting his face into myriad emotions. Naomi Watts plays Plame down-the-line – colder, less demonstrative, again a good performance. The rest are bit parts.
Fair Game is not a political/spy story classic by any means but it can hold its own as a piece of film making about a politically sensitive time in our recent history. Nor is it the complete disaster some critics suggest. It has an interesting story and screenplay with some different slants.
★★★ +
even when the cast is a classy one. Things pick up as the decibels are reduced and the second story, when two lovers meet again after many years is quite the best (Oscar Martinez 
and Julieta Diaz). The third, a sort of black comedic psychoanalysis session between Alfredo Casero and the capable Leticia Bredice 
starts well and declines into the same hysteria. I also quite liked the fourth story as Ana Maria Picchio reunites two lovers, one of whom has been abandoned in a sanatorium (Norma Aleandro – great but always too elegant and the tango singer Marilina Ross). The worst feature here is the very obvious script and the weak direction of Marcos Carnevale, who has always struck me as being able to convoke actors that are way beyond his directorial talents. There is a sort of epilogue at the end featuring the owners of the restaurant, Pepe Cibrian and Graciela Borges, 
whose observations have peppered the film throughout. The idea was perhaps a good one but in my opinion, this was not the right medium nor the right director for it. Seeing so many top Argentine actors was its main drawcard.
gets a meatier part as Gere tries to make him a partner in crime in his recreation of the relationship he had with Olivia’s parents.
Although Gere is reasonable enough
, the weak story and direction means this little puff pastry gets very flaky and runs out of steam before managing to convince us of its veracity. I know there are people like this but do we need a film about them?
and Pommie, a fellow cellmate who comes to visit. Pommie (excellent Sullivan Stapleton)
is a bad boy with a lot of pent up violence and a number of issues. Merv’s girlfriend Paula 
suspects that there is more to this friendship than meets the eye and she is right – the two men had a relationship inside. Pommie wants to return to the old ways and Merv is unable to resist, leading to a rampage of violence. 
The film builds slowly but once it gets going it is quite compelling. The effective recreation of the 70’s overcomes some plot holes and the overall product is a pretty satisfying one for director Tony Ayres and writer Blake Ayshford.
I liked Cornel Wilczek’s score.
There is a main story featuring Kolbeinn and Solveig that takes the length of the film to come to fruition. 
Then there are darker scenes with the vodka addicted Vernhardur who takes his horse out to a Russian trawler to buy bootleg vodka
, or the neighbourly fight between Grimur and Egill. Wry observations about human nature abound as the film flows effortlessly from one of these little moral (and practical) tales to another.
Benedikt Erlingsson does a very smooth job on both direction and scripting and even one of two quite strong scenes are handled well. I enjoyed this a lot and think that it shows that good pictures 
can include small rural films with quirky twists and down-to-earth messages.
Sure, Steve Jobs like Zuckerberg and others have changed our world but do we need to have all these premature biopics about them, usually showing them as lacking people skills and other intelligences despite their great creative capacities in other areas. 
This is the second Jobs film already and he is barely cold in the grave. Probably it is a much better one but I found it remarkably cold and unengaging. Despite some very positive features. The almost theatrical like structured screenplay by Aaron Sorkin is very good, if a little histrionic at times, which is why it would work better on stage. Nevertheless, it all ties in well by the end. Michael Fassbender does a clinically complete job on creating Steve Jobs.
Technically, his transitions are great but we don’t care much about him as a person. Kate Winslet as the ever-faithful secretary Joanna, is also a very well developed performance but does tend to peter out after she has had her big speech. 
And that is about it really. A few big speech moments, some clever scripting and two main stars eclipsing a lot of supporting geeks. I could not see why there have been so many raves for this smart but boring biopic.
Another era that the States should not be too proud of (McCarthyism) and the ridiculous but noxious effects of this anti-red policy is clearly laid out in the film. Again, the lead actor, Bryan Cranston clearly dominates here in a nuanced performance of a driven man.
Diane Lane as his quiet, supportive wife has a nice role for a change 
and John Goodman, Helen Mirren (as Gossip rat Hedda Hopper)
get to have fun as does a big cast many of whom get to play real people from Hollywood and the US at that time. Elle Fanning does some more good work as the daughter.
to a rich saleswoman and inventor just as Infomercials and Sales TV became big, this film shows the challenges Joy faced in getting her idea for a self-squeezing mop into something tangible and then out into the market. For a comedy I found it remarkably dark and full of the negative points of bad advice, deceiving business partners both inside and outside the family
and the whole opposition of many people you’d expect help from normally. The family are distinctly weird with father (Robert de Niro) and his girlfriend Trudy (Isabella Rossellini) often being more hindrance than help
, a soap-opera addicted mother (Virginia Madsen) and a Venezuelan singer of an ex-husband (Edgar Ramirez). Bradley Cooper plays a local hotshot at the cable TV channel but has a relatively small part.
All told it is a sort of cautionary tale. Now, what saves it from real failure is the great Jennifer Lawrence, who can seemingly turn herself to any role and she does a pretty good job here too. But that is about it. For me this was watchable but very overrated.
It was a tremendous international operation orchestrated by the Chilean government given the mining company’s complete inability to handle the disaster. The whole event is being regarded by one as a sign from God given the enormous odds against the men surviving. 
So, not surprisingly, books and films have been spawned from this and Mexico’s Patricia Riggen got the first and major bite at the cherry.
and not too much time is spent on any one issue. The treatment of the miners is respectful, especially considering the difficult transition they had from humble miners to world stars. It is clearly explained so the technical side can be understood. Good music (the late James Horner) and photography, a reasonable script which is one of its weaker features all the same, the main issue people have had is with the casting. It is pretty much a Latinopudding and that is obviously to sell the film as few Chileans are seen in any of the main roles. Antonio Banderas holds the film in the mine on his shoulders and has the ability and experience to lead this group well, though I did like Lou Diamond Phillips as the miners´ foreman. Above ground the Minister of Mines Golburne is leading the rescue especially in the face of those who claim it can’t be done. Rodrigo Santoro
is effective here and Gabriel Byrne as a mining engineer also shows his professionalism. Juliette Binoche as a local empanada seller probably could have been replaced by a local actress but I think she does a good job.
My only reservation is the hallucinatory last supper scene.
passionfilm 