In a special series of films which looks to examine the justice and legal system, Belfast’s High Court will host screenings of four classic courtroom dramas as part of the 13th annual Belfast Film Festival later this month. But what makes a good Courtroom Drama? Filmplicity indentifies 5 key ingredients and the films which showcase [...]

We take a salivatory glance ahead to Ridley Scott’s ferociously anticipated Alien prequel Prometheus, out on June 1st.

Lifelong comic-book geek and Avengers fan ccbaxter valantly attempts to wrest his fanboy subjectivity into submission (for a while) and produce a review that is both enthusiastic and even-handed. Mostly.

Talent: Gary Ross (Dir.), Suzanne Collins (Writer), Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz Tagline: “The World will be watching”. Worldwide box-office: $155,000,000 (25/03/12)

As The Hunger Games are finally declared open in cinemas across the UK, it’s clear that the world will indeed be watching. Filmplicity asks why it should bother. After an agonising wait for the fans of Suzanne Collin’s New York Times Best Selling book and some carefully orchestrated anticipation by the studio hype-mongers over at [...]

Release date: April 11th Talent: Peter Berg, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Liam Neeson, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna *Warning: May contain traces of limp, nautical humour. Considering it’s based on a 1960s board game, there’s more to say than you might think about Battleship the movie. For a start, if you can get on board with the [...]

Thanks to Ruth over at Flixchatter for kindly inviting Filmplicity to take part in a mini blogothon she has come up with in honour of the impending Oscars. Only a few short days away now. The idea is that you pick a decade from the 50s to the 90s and then any film from that [...]

‘A victory for no nonsense performances in a situation comedy for people who don’t like situation comedies’.

Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s Toni award-winning play ‘The god of carnage’ tells the story of two middle class couples meeting in an apartment in an affluent New York suburb after their sons get into a fight. Things begin pleasantly enough: coffee, cake, pretentious art, more cake. But when carefully maintained personas are allowed to slip, civilised sensibilities give way to brute instinct. Let the mind games begin!

A scuffle in the park and a stick in the face means broken teeth and a comedy of domestic terrors that makes the Cuban missile crisis look like a civilised sit down over a nice cup of tea. The afternoon begins with well intentioned politeness and ends with alcohol fuelled verbal pyrotechnics as both couples criticise each other’s parenting prowess while refusing to admit any fault or accept any blame themselves. What happens in between is the result of a volatile combination of unrealistic expectations, false smiles and uncomfortable home-truths.

As the characters rub up against each other’s prejudices, sparks fly as they recognise in one another the disappointments and failings in their own lives. Beneath the sniping and thinly veiled insults are revealed the hopes and fears of a generation of baby boomers struggling to grow up. Polanski directs a powerhouse cast and produces a victory for no nonsense performances in a situation comedy for people who don’t like situation comedies.

Jodie Foster is Penelope Longstreet. Conscientious and terminally high strung, an art lover who feels responsible for the situation in Darfur while oblivious to the civil war brewing under her own roof. ‘It’s a comedy of people’s manners’, says Foster, ‘and how they lose those manners.’ Kate Winslet plays Nancy Cowan, a working mother whose sophisticated veneer of cold professionalism is eventually abandoned as she struggles with her perpetually pre-occupied husband, played with impish irreverence by Christophe Waltz, concerned more about a relationship with his Blackberry than with his family.

‘You can take the man out of the cave but you can’t take the cave out of the man’

John C. Reilly plays Penelope’s husband Michael who seems desperate to keep the peace and to whistle to his tightly wound wife’s tune. The couple’s united fronts are clearly forced and help to create an amusingly uncomfortable atmosphere which is strongly felt and becomes more pronounced as the situation develops. Polanski cranks up the tension with tight close ups and unflattering camera angles, unwilling to let even a single back-handed syllable drop to the floor unnoticed. Each awkwardly restrained action has its own equal and opposite reaction, at first repressed but eventually indulged with appropriately satisfying theatricality.

It may be disappointing that the Academy sees fit to decorate films that the critics aren’t quite sold on. But it’s hardly surprising. Hugo for example, was a commercial smash and as an ode to the Silent era of Hollywood cinema it makes sense for the Academy to fawn over it.

OSCAR showed similar appreciation for The Artist. Another homage to a bygone era. So they got that right at least. The Artist has been widely acknowledged as the outstanding film of the year by critics and industry insiders alike.

Cast: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly. Tagline: ‘A new comedy of no manners’. ‘Makes the Cuban Missile Crisis look like a civilised sit down over a nice cup of tea’.