Time Well Spent...

TIME WELL SPENT - 10 DAYS 00 HOURS 11 MINUTES
Showing posts with label Steven Soderbergh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steven Soderbergh. Show all posts

Thursday, 11 April 2013

Depression is the inability to construct a future.

Date: Wednesday 13th March
Film: Side Effects (2013)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Rooney MaraJude LawCatherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum
Running Time: 01 hour, 46 minutes
Rating: 9/10

Side Effects starts out innocently enough, as a film about the effects of mental health and the medication used to treat mental illness, but as the film progresses it becomes so much more than that.

As he has done many times before, Steven Soderbergh, has created a film on many levels. Just like Magic Mike is about more than strippers, Side Effects is about more than mental health and it's effects.

Essentially, this is a film about greed, about what people will do to get exactly what they want. It is a slow building, tense, talky drama. The cast excel, particularly Rooney Mara as the mentally exhausted Emily and Jude Law as her psychiatrist.

Side Effects does go a bit off track in the final act, becoming a little soap opera-y, but that doesn't take away from the excellent, tension building opening.

Worth seeing, if you get a chance.

Challenge day: 169
Challenge time: 10 days, 14 hours, 32 minutes
Challenge film total: 131

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

You are the husband they never had! You are that dreamboat guy that never came along!

Date: Friday 8th February
Film: Magic Mike (2012)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing TatumAlex PettyferMatthew McConaughey and Cody Horn
Running Time: 01 hour, 50 minutes
Rating: 8.5/10

After almost getting stuck in Barnes, The Luce and I finally made it home and planned to follow up Gangster Squad with a little more Gosling. Then The Luce got a glimpse at the post-Christmas updates to my movie collection and, somehow, I was introducing her to Magic Mike.

I know what you're thinking, we are perverts that want to watch Channing Tatum dance around with no pants on. That couldn't be further from the truth. I want to watch Joe Manganiello dance around with no pants on.

The reality of it is this, Magic Mike is much more than a film about strippers. In fact, the dance scenes make me cringe, a lot. The beauty of Magic Mike is in the story, it has a heart. You believe in the characters and their attempts to make a life for themselves.

This film makes fun of itself, it mixes the drama with comedy and ultimately is a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Don't write this off as a stripping film

Challenge day: 136
Challenge time: 08 days, 19 hours, 02 minutes
Challenge film total: 108