Age of Adaline

Age of Adaline 2015

 The 'Age of Adaline' leading lady being 'Gossip Girls' S Blake Lively. Adaline her character is born in 1908. In her late twenties she has a fatal car accident, in which her car runs off the road into a lake. She stops breathing and then is struck by lighting instantaneously stopping her ageing process and normal gene balance. She goes through her life watching her only daughter age and everyone around her dying including her many dogs all being cocker spaniels. 

Until one day she meets a man who falls in love with her instantly on New Years eve in 2014. He is in awe of her beauty and intelligence and she is too but wont allow her self to get to know him because she would hate to mourn him later in life. She lets herself fall in love with him and then meets his parents and his father is shocked by her canny resemblance to his first love Adaline and who he was once to marry. Adaline stood him up because she knew he would break her heart with her not ageing aside him. She leaves the family house and has another car crash again killing her instantly. The doctors use defibrillators which restarts her bodies genetic formulae back to what it once was allowing her to age normally again. She doesn't realise that until the last scene in which she notices a single white hair which brings tears of happiness in her eyes.

I first watched Blake Lively in 'Gossip Girl' I must admit but then once seeing her in 'Hick' I was blown away by her acting abilities and in this film she was spectacular. Such a beautiful performance the way her own tears filled her eyes and the capability to show her mourning her loved ones was incredibly raw and really one of the best portrayals of loss I've ever seen. The film was a very beautiful tale and like 'Benjamin Button' meets 'Tuck Everlasting'.

It also reminded me of the new Ethan Hawke film 'Predestination' which is also incredible. The costume department in this film though was spot on and Blake looked stunning through out and timelessly effortless. The soundtrack was really spine tingling also I think they used a track from 'American Beauty'.

Tore Tanzt 2013

'Tore Tanzt' 

Originally titled 'Nothing Bad Can Happen', which is actually a hilariously ironic title because anything bad that can happen during this film does. Its one disturbingly horrifying events after another. Ive watched many films over my eighteen years on earth and this film is for sure in my top five list and not for the faint hearted in more than one way. 

The plot key words on Imdb is: male on male rape, Jesus freak, inspired by true events and violence,  which pretty much summarises the whole film in a nut shell.

Tore is a young teenager who belonged basically to a punk rock heavily religious group called the 'Jesus Freaks' anti sex, drugs and everything else defying God. The cult like group becomes to disintegrate over time with members who start to drink take drugs and have sex and when Tore returns is lost the rules and everything he believes in his little universe is falling apart and he doesn't know what to believe or where to go.  Previously he had helped a family repair there car and they invite him to there home where he begins to live after leaving the cult. He moves into there small house in a allotment and unaware of the violence and abuse he is about to receive.  He is attracted to the mans step daughter and the wives daughter who is turning fifteen and already sexually active but Tore with his strong religious beliefs wont sleep with her staying a virgin. The step father sexually abuses the teenage girl and her mother is aware of this and is just as evil. He later takes Tore to a bar where he is repeatedly raped by various men and happens more than once. The daughter attempts to suffocate her stepfather but Tore and his religious ways after everything he has done to Tore he saves the mans life and in returned is beat, abused and murdered with his body dumped in a river near by.

The film is probably one of the most disturbing and traumatic story lines I have come across and some of the most disturbing scenes in the history of film and wouldn't recommend if you are disturbed by sexual violence and physical violence the scenes made me feel physically sick at times and the thought of it being based upon true events makes my stomach turn.

Belle Epine

'Belle Epine' 2010

 Belle Epine is a French drama the lead actress being the fabulous starlet Lea Seydoux of 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' and La Belle Person'. The films title refers to a french shopping mall which is where the two leading girls meet while being hold accused for shoplifting. It is set during the 70's 80's and reflects upon a girls diary a.k.a Prudence. Prudence is alone in France as her sister is off gallivanting and her father abroad working in Canada. The film surrounds her struggling to cope mourning her mothers death and how she uses drugs, partying and newly found love at an attempt to remove her mothers death from her memory.

She follows and observes the other girl held in the malls security room whilst also accused of shop-lifting and watches her join a group of boys on scooters and motorbikes who attend the racing circuit frequently in Rungis. Prudence offers the girl a place to sleep and to hang out and in return she wants her to introduce her into the world of motor racing. They do so and Prudence attempting to fill the missing pot hole that her mother left when she died. She's missing that love and hungry for someone to fulfil that in one way or another.

She meets a boy Franck who is a star of the racing track with his glimmering motorcycle and penetrating eyes she craves him and she approaches him when he attends her house party. She latches onto him and consumes him basically and toils with his emotions when she is unsure what she is doing being so young and vulnerable but he thinks she's playing games unaware of her mourning the loss of her mother.

I read a lot about this film online and how it came about and watched it. This was my first time watching it and I really enjoyed it Seydoux giving a fantastically awkward teenager persona and portraying Prudence with such eagerness for adolescent love she gave a great performance and was glad to find this movie and the sweet sad tale it told.

Beneath the Harvest sky

'Beneath the Harvest sky'-2013

Previously titled 'Blue Potato' an independent film directed by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly.  The film is a story about two boys friendship,  and their own American dream ideal of escaping their town. The two boys played by Emory Cohen ('Place Beyond the Pines', soon to be in 'Brooklyn') and Callan McAuliffe (who I first saw in 'Flipped'). They both gave gripping raw performances with such passion when when I watch both of these actors perform they don't seem like they are performing they are living the scenes and their interactions with one an other you would think they were childhood best friends. 

The seventeen year old teens go to college and work really hard on in their local potato harvest farm where they earn money to leave their town and travel to Boston. There dream is to go there and watch  their favourite team the Red Sox and live there with their new car they will buy.  The two  both earn money in different ways the majority of the time McAuliffe's character Dominic saves at the farm all summer and Cohen's character Casper works with his father played by the extremely loved Aiden Gillen doing petty drug theft and smuggling drugs across the border of Canada.

The film shows both of the boys love interests and struggles at home and how they both cope in different ways. Throughout the film the boys solitary and together have their own fun and peaceful time in a  derelict house in the woods of Maine and hide there savings under a floor board of the house in a big black bag. In amongst the unravelling events of the drug crime and the eager feeling they both feel to escape Maine, rouble follows and the derelict house is about to fall down in a storm. Both boys rush to get the money Dominic running in first and Casper a little behind, Casper screams Dominic's name many times and retreats from the house anxiously awaiting for Dominic to follow but the house comes tumbling down. Dominic's body is removed from the wreckage the next day and Casper and his dog escape the town in the car they saved up for.

When I first watched this film I watched it two days in a row and recently watched it again and fell back in love with it highly recommend this film 9/9