RECENT WATCH: THE NICE GUYS

Image Source: imdb.com

Set in 1970’s Los Angeles, Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe star as two private investigators who, after discovering links between suspicious cases, begin looking in to the apparent suicide of a fading porn star.

Ryan Gosling plays ‘Holland March’, a licensed private eye while Russell Crowe’s ‘Jackson Healy’ is much more of an enforcer, the man you call to scare of the person that is following you. Through different events the two cross paths and realise that they separate cases they’ve been hired for are linked. The two characters have different personalities, different backgrounds, different issues, but together are a cool, stylish and hilarious team. The Nice Guys is action packed but at its heart it is driven by the layered characters. We aren’t just shown two obviously mismatched characters a ’la Rush Hour because on the surface ‘Mr March’ and ‘Jackson Healy’ aren’t so different. It’s throughout the plot that past events and underlying baggage is revealed, displaying to the audience why the two make a mismatched but brilliant team.

Image Source: imdb.com

I love Ryan Gosling in comedy, ‘Mr March’ seems made for him as he shows of his perfect comedic timing. Its also refreshing to see Russell Crowe in a role like this, making a detour from the dramatic roles we’ve seen previously. While he may not be the main source of comic relief out of the two nice guys, he shines in the moments where he has some fun flexing his comedy muscles. Another stand out was Angourie Rice’s ‘Holly March’. Holland March’s thirteen year old daughter, she is a key player in the plot. It can be risky to throw a young character into such an adult setting but Holly is wise, quick-witted and relevant enough to be a truly useful element in the story.

Image Source: imdb.com

While the titular Nice Guys are the main selling point, the intriguing crime and mystery components should not be overlooked. They are rich, developed with conspiracy, clues and an equally cool ‘bad guy’ in the form of Matt Bomer’s ‘John Boy’. The writing and direction of Shane Black is smart and genuinely funny. It avoids predictable jokes and cheap punches.

The Nice Guys is a 70’s throwback that is bursting with originality. From the writing, performances and fully realised setting, it is deserving of a lot of attention this month. 

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MY ANTICIPATED FILM RELEASES: JUNE 2016

For the first time in a while I am very excited about the summer line-up at the cinema. Here are my top two picks for June. While much-anticipated ‘The Nice Guys’ is not mentioned on this list. As I write this I have actually already seen this comedy come mystery come crime thriller, so look out for a review coming soon.

Image Source: imdb.com

Me Before You

UK Release Date: 03/06/16

Based on Jojo Moyes’ best-selling novel, Me Before You is the story of Louisa Clark, A small-town girl who accepts a job as a carer to a recently-paralysed man, Will Traynor. I read the novel at the beginning of 2015 and absolutely loved it and in general I really love Moyes’ writing, however when I saw the first trailer I wasn’t at all excited by this adaptation. To me the first trailer revealed way too much of the plot and didn’t reflect the source material in the way I had imagined. Now, I’m on board with this film; Jojo Moyes is behind the screenplay, new glimpses show a faithful adaptation with a really great cast and most importantly the message of the book is present throughout. While it may break my heart, I’m very excited to see Me Before You. 

Watch the trailer here.

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Finding Dory

UK Release Date: 18/06/16

Finding Dory looks completely adorable, it’s a blast from the past, thirteen years after the huge success of ‘Finding Nemo’. Fun fact: the first DVD I ever owned was Finding Nemo… Pixar has a lot riding on this as they haven't had the best track record with sequels recently but I’m sure this tale of everyone’s favourite forgetful Blue Tang will change that record for the better.

Watch the trailer here.

What film are you most excited for this summer?

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THIS PAST MONTH: MAY 2016 + NEW NAME?

Something is different around here… That’s right; there’s been a name change. I have never been happy with my blog being called ‘Amie’s Space’, I never wanted to have my first name in my title and I also never felt like the title really resembled what the content for my blog was. I have wanted to change it for a while but it has taken me almost a year to think of something I wanted to change it to. I wanted a title that allowed me to write film and entertainment content but allowed room for me to write some more personal and lifestyle related posts. Last week I finally decided on a new name. For those wondering, a contemporary ‘B-Roll’ describes supplemental or secondary footage that helps tell a story, sometimes this includes behind the scenes and unedited footage. Obviously having a film related term fits perfectly when I post film related content. But this title leaves room for posts, such as this one, that are more personal, posts that are unedited and tell you more about me, the person behind the blog. So welcome to 'The B-Roll' I hope you like what you find. 

May was the month where I fully finished my second year of university, all assignments were handed in and much celebration ensued. I also spent a week at home at the end of the month, heading home to dog-sit while my Mam and Dad were on holiday. Going home to see my family and friends from home was a welcome break. One of my favourite parts of May was my week of blogging every day. I finally got my blogging mojo back! I don’t mind admitting how much of a slacker I’ve been with my blog for the majority of this year, I’ve struggled to find the incentive to blog around university but setting myself the simple challenge of posting every day really helped me to come up with new ideas and stick to a schedule no matter what my other commitments were. I covered a few topics including my second year of PR and Media and film reviewing. I also reviewed X-Men: Apocalypse, you can read it here. I’m going to try my best to keep posts coming while I have a lot of free time.

Speaking of free time, I have caught up on a lot of my favourite shows. I have particularly loved ‘The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ and ‘Penny Dreadful’.  These two shows couldn’t be more different but they are the two that I loved the most in May. Kimmy Schmidt is a quirky and hilarious comedy written by Tina Fey and Penny Dreadful is a Victoria set Gothic Horror Drama featuring some of the most iconic of Gothic literature characters including Victor Frankenstein and Dorian Gray. I’m currently working on another list of my favourite binge-worthy TV shows; look out for a post coming soon.

So what does June look like? Marking the beginning of my placement year, I will be working on a project with a Sheffield based theatre. The project is mainly video based and I’m excited to start. I will be producing a short promotional film similar to ones I’ve worked on before with my friend Lucy. This will actually be the first time I film and edit the video independently which will be a little strange. I will also be moving out of my student house at the end of the month, honestly I can’t wait. Flash back to last July and I proclaimed how much I loved my new house but the novelty wore off fast once university started. Now I’m more than ready to leave this house and the unreliable letting agents behind.

What are your plans for June?

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CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2016: TOP PICKS

How I wish I could go to Cannes Film Festival, last week when the festival was in full swing I was so envious of the attendees at the glamorous event. Although I envy anyone getting sun right now, someone seriously needs to tell the North East England weather that it’s May. Anyway back to the festival. Between fashion, supermodels and charity galas there are some exciting previews of upcoming film releases. While we mere mortals will have to wait for cinema releases, I took a look at the films shown at Cannes this year and picked out two that sparked my interest. You can see the full official selection here.  

Image Source: imdb.com

The Nice Guys

In this neo-noir mystery come buddy-cop-comedy, Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling star as a pair of mismatched private eyes who are investigating the apparent suicide of a fading porn star in 1970’s LA. The Nice Guys is directed by ‘Iron Man 3’ director (and writer of 'Lethal Weapon'), Shane Black. The real pull of this mystery/comedy/crime film is the outlandish plot, quirky tone and 70’s setting. It will be released in the UK on the 3^rd of June.

Watch the trailer here.

Image Source: imdb.com

Loving 

Loving appeared in the official selection and was nominated for the prestigious Palm d’Or (the highest accolade awarded at Cannes). It is a true story about Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple in 1958 Virginia who were sentenced to prison for getting married. It stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, directed by Jeff Nichols.

Watch a clip here. 

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RECENT WATCH: X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

Image Source: comingsoon.net

As the first ever mutant re-emerges to extinguish modern civilisation, the X-Men must unite to defeat him and his followers.

The plot of this film takes place ten years after the events of Days of Future Past, at first such a large gap in the timeline surprised me but it worked really well. There was just the right amount of references back without letting past events get in the way of the present. This film is very ambitious and attempts to both establish beloved X-Men characters and ‘check-in’ with key players. The film manages to pull this off very smoothly; I specifically enjoyed the parts Jean Grey and Scott Summers aka ‘Cyclops’ played. Cyclops, a character I never paid much attention to in previous films, really got a chance to shine with a developed personality and layered character. The younger takes on ‘Storm’, ‘Nightcrawler’ and ‘Angel’ were also great. A problem often encountered by X-Men films is how to fit in so many powers within a story. The plot of this film manages to really make use of the powers of characters and the wide ranges of characters are naturally incorporated throughout. Again, Quicksilver was an absolute highlight of this film. Completely topping that show stealing sequence from ‘Days of Future Past’ and becoming a key player in the mutant team, dishing out comic relief and emotional investment in equal measure.

Image Source: chss.gmu.edu

The final third of this movie is probably the most action heavy of any previous X-Men film. The epic scale action is so well choreographed and thanks to the continued focus on character and emotion, is constantly interesting. However X-Men Apocalypse is not a perfect film, because of the scale and number of characters, old and new, the plot requires a long set up that left the first third feeling very long. But don’t tune out or judge Apocalypse prematurely because the set up completely pays off by the end and the plot comes together in a satisfying conclusion.

Image Source: comicbookmovie.com

Besides slight nit-picking with set up my only other problem with this X-Men was ‘Apocalypse’ himself. This mutant is thousands of years old, worshipped as a god and long believed to be the most powerful. It’s always interesting to see a villain that is a real test for the titular heroes but more than anything ‘Apocalypse’ needed development before, as an audience member, I really cared about his motives. It’s at this point that I can’t help but look at past villains for comparison. The greatest antagonist in the X-Men universe is ‘Magneto’. It’s the crucial mix of villainy and reasoning that makes an entertaining villain. While the look, sound and power of Apocalypse was menacing, I could never get on board with his character or understand his motives.

Image Source: comicbookmovie.com

X-Men: Apocalypse is another excellent X-Men instalment by Bryan Singer. Somehow it manages to feel fresh in a franchise of already six films. The faithful re-imaginings of much loved characters work in a plot that may take some lengthy set up but the pay-off is worth the wait. I’m looking forward to watching it again. 

MY SECOND YEAR AS A PR & MEDIA STUDENT

Another year of university over, time is going way too fast. On May 6^th I submitted my final assignment of my second year of my PR and Media course. As I’m taking a placement year, I won’t be in formal university until autumn of 2017. I guess it’s time to dip my toe in to the grown up world but first let’s look back at my second year.

There’s a lot of talk about how much harder second year is than the first. It tends to go along the lines of ‘it’s all downhill from here’ or ‘it’s not a jump, it’s a bloody leap of faith’… I was prepared for a tougher year but for me it was in things happening alongside my degree where I felt the pinch. In terms of work and assignments I didn’t feel too differently about the difficulty. While I only needed 40% to pass my first year I was never the person who was happy to scrape by on the minimum so working so hard on assignments this year wasn’t such a shock. The fun doesn’t end with first year either; I’d say the common ability of a student to balance eight hour library stints and nights out only improves…

I’m talked about it so much but a source of stress throughout my second year was searching for placements. As much as placement searching was tough it was the perfect opportunity to work on employability and really focus on how to sell myself to employers. I am in no position to give advice on finding placements but something I will say is to take advantage of university careers advisers and events. I met with the department’s careers adviser a few times to finely tune my CV and Cover Letter and now I’m more confident when sending it to organisations. Things I’ve worked on through my second year have also made me so much prouder of my CV, I actually feel like I have gained experience that you so desperately need for PR and Media industries. And opportunities come from unexpected places. For example, my friend and I made a promo video and improved the social media profiles of a singing group after we were approached on the street by the group’s leader while recording vox pops. This led us to begin setting up our own production company.

Something that is equal parts scary and exciting from this year is how much I now lean towards the Media side of my degree. My course isn’t a joint honours, it’s a Public Relations course with some media modules that provide knowledge that would aid PR practices. This year I was allowed to choose some modules and the two that I chose were media focussed. I now consider myself much more of a Media student with PR rather than a PR student with Media. I have absolutely loved studying TV news and working with cameras and editing, something I once avoided (I really don’t why). I still enjoy PR and will get practical experience in it very soon but across my two years I have enjoyed media modules more and achieved higher grades.

When I handed in my finished my second year I felt very nostalgic, I’ve had another good year at university. Not to say that the year was all smooth sailing; living in a student house presented many challenges (*resists urge to rant about wheelie bins and messy housemates*), building employability has a way of both building and destroying confidence and I was poorly a lot. That aside, this year still managed to be pretty great.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE OPINIONATED: MY STRUGGLES WITH WRITING REVIEWS

Reviews or my ‘Recent Watch’ posts are posts that I often struggle to write. From the beginning I knew I wanted to review films on this little space and have so far posted nine full film reviews. I’ll admit that the good old saying about practice making perfect does seem to be true, I feel more confident posting my honest thoughts and the writing process isn’t as tough as it once was, but there are three specific thoughts that go through my head when I talk about a recent watch.

What do I actually think?

There are good films, bad films and some that are just plain ‘meh’. Unfortunately you can’t write a review of just ‘it was meh’. It is easier to write a review when you know exactly whether you liked it or not, it’s those that fall in the middle that are tough. Picking apart what you liked and what you didn’t about a film you’ve seen once has its challenges and opinions have to be justified.

How do I write that?

So I know what I think, now how do I write that? How do I get my clearly get my opinion across and be entertaining? My process of writing blog posts, and specifically reviews, includes a lot of scribbling in various notebooks. I open a page and word-vomit everything I want to cover and as I write I use it as a check list. I aim to strike a balance between writing with personality but professionally. I don’t want reviews to sound like a sterile media essay.

Does it matter?

Probably the biggest struggle I have is when I begin to wonder whether anyone actually cares about what I think. There are countless reviewers of everything on and off the internet, does my opinion really matter? I combat this by reminding myself how much I enjoy creating content for my blog and that I care what goes on it. The beauty of the internet is that there’s room for everyone, here is a home for creativity and opinion.