13th

'13th,' released just this year (2016) is a Netflix original documentary which gives a very in depth insight to America's prison system and reveal's the nation's history of racial inequality.

It was directed by Ava DuVernay, who also co-wrote this documentary with Spencer Averick.

This doc highlights significant events and how they all link together and having an end result of racial inequality. The title of this film is based upon the 13th amendment, where it's illegal for the use of slaves unless it's a form of punishment from crime. This one law caused a spiral of events, which has most recently lead to the current state of America and the movement of 'Black Lives Matter'.

This doc is in the expository format due to the subject that is talked about. The use of talking heads is through out the film, as well as clips and images that weren't taken by the film makers themselves. This doc is definitely an eye opener and keeps you engrossed through out due to information that is now put in front of you and you would not have known about it unless you went searching for it.

Undefeated

-Released in 2011
-Directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin
-Sporting documentary and displayed many different themes ; friendship, team-work, family, love, football, violence, race, neglection, loss, triumph, coming of age.
-Was able to win an Oscar and 3 other awards

Undefeated is a sporting documentary based in Tennesse following Mannassas High School football team. Since the school opened 100 plus years ago the school had never won a play off game, and Bill Courtney a volunteering football coach had started to build a footballing platform at Mannassas over the 5 years he'd been there and now he had the greatest team the school had ever seen and was giving hope to young men that they may be able to beat the school's duck, but also that football will give them a better life. Whether that was it would help them with a scholarship or to help change their mentality that there were things out there bigger themselves.

This documentary can be seen as a drama due to the way it's set up and how the use of interviews is at a low considering the amount of distinctive figures through out the documentary but because it displays the theme of coming of age which is consistently involved with dramas, this provides even more reason that it can be mistaken for a drama.

What is a Documentary ?

Google defines a documentary to be;

1. consisting of or based on official documents.
2. using pictures or interviews with people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject

Both definitions are correct but do not desrcibe what a documentary really is. Yes everything is true or official that happens in them, nothing is staged, but a documentary is still a genre of film. Which means the film still has features that create meaning and help the audience to relate to the people that are involved in the documentary.

Documentary's will film/picture every minute of every day during a time period or until they have enough footage to achieve the goal, whether thats to tell a story through other people's lives or to show the audience the struggle and battles they have to go through on a day to day basis which in a way could also rest in a story from how they live. Usually documentaries have a certain effect on an audience, that they walk away feeling grateful for what they have or they feel sympathetic towards the lives they have just witnessed as they did not realise how bad some people had it until a film maker had to show them.

50 Shades of Black


-Released in 2016
-Production companies
     -IM Global
     -Wayans Alvarez Productions
-Directed by Michael Tiddes
-Produced by Marlon Wayans
-The certificate of this film is 18, it has a younger target audience due to it being a spoof and a lot of the jokes are stereotypes that of a younger audience are more likely to find amusing.


-Genre is a spoof comedy
-It has themes of sex, relationships, race, violence, family


-50 Shades of Black is spoof based film on 50 Shades of Grey, it constantly has references to the original film but by using a sarcastic tone to show the opinion on the original is very low. The original is about a college student who meets a very wealthy businessman but his sexual needs causes friction between the two, the storyline is the same throughout the film but looses track during various parts due to it's relaxed and jokey approach. Throughout the film there are constant racial stereotypes being used as in an amusement form, making fun of negative stereotypes that others may be offended by.

Winter's Bone

- Released in 2010
- Directed by Debra Granik and starred Jennifer Lawrence
- Drama with themes of family, violence, drugs, disobeying the law
- Was a well respected film as it was nominated for 4 Oscars but went on to win 63 other awards

Winter's bone is a independent drama set in Missouri, USA, and we witness the struggles of people who live in the harsh conditions in their area. The protagonist is a courageous young girl, whom is played by Jennifer Lawrence, and we watch as she carries out a journey in a search for her drug dealing father who is due in court. If he was to miss his court date their home and assets were to be taken away from her and her family.

This film helped Jennifer Lawrence plant a foot firmly at the top of the pecking order as her popularity instantly grew, she went on to do the likes of; Xmen, Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Very quickly she became a fan favourite.

As for John  Hawkes who also played a very key part in the film went on to do a big tent pole film called 'Everest,' but before Winter's bone he was already an established actor as he starred in the likes of 'lost' and 'CSI,' so Winter's Bone helped him jump from the small screen into the big screen.



 

An Auteur

An auteur is a director who influences their films so much they rank as an author

Spike Lee



Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983.

Spike Lee visualises to audiences the life he grew up around or visualises anyone from the black community and their struggle, perfect films that show this are "Jungle Fever" and "Do the Right Thing".

I'd label the director as an Auteur because of his consistent films that show the struggles of an African American whether it was past or present. 

La Haine




This film is a foreign language Social Realism Crime/Drama about the lives of three friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd. An argument can be made for which character is the protagonist since a pecking order can be deciphered through the films narrative and cinematography, although the film is most likely intended by the filmmakers to follow a multi-protagonist storyline in order to increase diversity amongst the plot. The three friends represent three minority areas of French society, African, Jewish and Arab, all are immigrant cultures that have made their way into society. This character design choice helps influence the audience’s thoughts towards the film as they can better relate with the ‘underdog’ complex that each of these characters has. The linear driven story progresses over the course of a single day, the filmmakers use time stamps throughout in order to show the passing of real time and how much chaos can occur in a single day. Rather than taking place over the course of multiple days, weeks or years, a single day gives a better frame of reference for the events that the film is alluding to. The film is based around the riots and police brutality that were very common at the time. This insight into the lives of three diverse young men is a way to provide French culture with knowledge of the effects that these riots and vicious events have. This film explores themes of police brutality, violence, poverty, hierarchy and power.

The origins of all three characters, the projects, is looked down upon by middle class society in France, therefore they face discrimination from those about and around them every single day. This is one of the conflicts in the film that they must overcome, this is where the ‘underdog complex’ comes in to play The audience are further attached to these characters because they have much more motivation for their actions since they are hanging on by a thread. We see the state in which they live, in very cramped small spaces. In Vinz’s case he lives with his sister, mother and grandmother and has to share a room with his sister. This already provides into his thirst for masculinity being surrounding by women at home but also boosts his state of mind, having to feel like he needs to prove himself and provide for his family.

The cinematography plays a massive part in the film as it is used to highlight power, poverty and the pecking order between the three main characters, it is a subtle technique but works very efficently. Constantly Vinz is questioned due to him being all 'talk,' and this is showed very disticntly on two occassions. The first being when him and Said get Hubert to speak to the girls for themselves as they lacked confidence, then the second was when he said he was going to shoot the skinhead but ended up bailing once again and almost throwing up.

Further into the film’s cinematography, we can see various out of body shots, creating a surreal situation by having the character’s look directly into the camera. This happens several times mainly with Vinz and Saïd, particularly at the very start of the film. This is used in order to connect the audience with the characters by removing the barrier of the screen, creating an effect as if the characters are in the room with the audience. Often in the film, objects and characters are pointed directly at the camera. One repetitious example is the gun, whether it is Vinz with his fingers or the actual gun, it is a symbol of power that is constantly played around with by accentuating its destructive features. Its action and sound is used twice as a scene transition in order to create a more fluid experience in the film.

London Film

The London film funded film I watched was a short called 'Chick or Treat,' it was part of the 2015 slate.

The main characters were played by the three lads who played 'Mandem on the wall' from 'Youngers' and they went on to create 'Wall of Comedy,' a sketch based group who made short videos that their target audience of young people from South London could relate to.

'Chick or Treat' is based on two lads friendship being at jeopardy as one is unsure whether to put his friend first or a girl, for his own pleasure. As Jay struggles to get into her block of flats due to a group of lads whom beat him up regularly he constructs a plan to use his friend. His friend wished to have one last halloween together before they were really too old and went their separate ways. But at first Jay turns down Percy for this girl but once he realises he needed him to see her, it's like he was replaced by a new friend called D.

Altogether this film is a comedy but also social realism as it touches realistic subjects in a comedic manor. Truly heart warming to see  this coming of age film come together.

The full film is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bST9l6zsC8w

The Bourne Legacy 

Released in 2012 'The Bourne Legacy' was meant to be a spin off from the originals where Jason Bourne a brainwashed assassin. Jeremy Renner plays an assassin, known as Aaron Cross, who was part of the same programme Jason Bourne was a participant of. Starting in a multi linear structure we watch Aaron undergo a training programme and how the CIA deal with the world finding out their involvement with Jason Bourne before seeing how they react, their plan was to kill off every specimen and pause the programme but keep the data so that the world will never find out what they were really up to.

Tony Gilroy was the director and co-wrote this with Dan Gilroy, while Universal Pictures was the big production company 'The Bourne Legacy' received a budget of $125,000,000 and during it's highly anticipated opening weekend was able to produce $38,142,825.

Although this film won an ASCAP award for best box office film and it truly was a good film, I just couldn't see past the fact that in a Bourne film Matt Damon was not the main character even when it seemed his character was mentioned or had a part to play every 5 minutes. Yes Jeremy Renners performance was good , can't knock him for taking on such a big role and doing it well, but some performances cannot beat the original in my opinion.

The trailer link is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paVLyvA5S1g

Legend


Released in 2015 'Legend' is a biographical crime drama starring Tom Hardy. It was written and directed by Brian Hedgeland, but is based on the book written by John Pearson. The themes involved are violence, love, sexuality, gangs and the 1960's. Having Cross Creek Productions, Working Title Films and Anton Capital Entertainment being the production companies to back this film, 'Legend' received a $30,000,000 budget and brought in $86,836 on it's opening weekend.
Due to Tom Hardy's fantastic performance he was able to win a BFI award for best actor.


'Legend' is based in the 1960's as we follow the lives of the Kray twins, Reggie and Ronnie whom both are played by Tom Hardy. Two of the most notorious gangsters in British history and organised their gangster empire in the East end of London.


The link to the trailer is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI3v6KfR9Mw

Inglourious Basterds(2009) and Miracle at St Anna(2008)

These films have star studded casts, with the likes of Brad Pitt appearing in Inglourious Basterds and Derek Luke in Miracle at St Anna. With arguably two of the most successful directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee.

Both films being set during World War II so have a major similarity when it comes to genre, both being an action drama. The only difference with their genre is that Inglourios Basterds is partially adventure where as Miracle at St Anna is crime, as well Inglourious Basterds has a slight hint of comedy about it with a couple one liners.
     Themes are shared by these two films, each film includes violence, friendship, war, good vs bad, and I guess without being too controversial Nazism.

The budget of producing each of the films were high budgets. Inglourious Basterds was $75,000,000 and Miracle at St Anna was $45,000,000 . Each producing around £3,000,000 on it's opening weekend.

Inglourious Basterds was applauded at the Oscars, winning one award, where as Miracle at St Anna was not able to receive a prestigous awards like an Oscar.

The plot of Inglourious Basterds is that group of American Jewish soldiers plan to assassinate Nazi leaders
which coincides with a theatre owner's dream of getting vengeful plans which are the same.
   Her plans come about due to her being Jewish and having to watch her family slaughtered by Colonel Hans Landa, in which is a very key scene especially being the first. So it is very unclear who are protagonist is due to this multi linear narrative which all intertwines to be a grand narrative. It is however very obvious that our antagonist is Colonel Hans Landa, because of his position with the Nazis. It is very easy for the audience to follow each important character due to the others being killed off once they then become irrelevant to the film. As the film progresses it all leads to a massacre of dying Nazis which would end the war.

Miracle at St Anna has a slightly different approach to this World War II theme. We follow the story of four very brave black American soldiers which are involved with the disappearance of a priceless Italian artefact. The majority of the narrative is told through flashback as quickly into the film there is a vast difference in setting and time , from the 1980's to the 1940's. We follow the 'Buffalo soldiers,' whom have the objective of reuniting themselves with the rest of their squadron, but a German ambush causes them to hide in a small Italian village populated by civilians.

As said before, both films are so alike because of how they are set during World War II, but also aline due to the likes of having foreign languages in them. The difference of these films although is significant, Inglourious Basterds shows a comedic approach to make fun of each characters involvement and to stray away from the mainstream war films. By the end of the film each character has some part to play even if what happened wasn't to their plan, which highlights what war was like. Miracle at St Anna takes a much more serious approach and uses very little outside influence compared to Inglourious Basterds. Both films do show how people dealt with the Nazi occupation even with their different ways. Although these films can be seen very different to the eye once you look closer the similarities really do stand out.





   

Dirty Grandpa

Robert De Niro plays a retired man who has unfortunately just lost his wife to cancer who he was faithful to from the moment they were married. He wishes for one thing that his grandson ,played by Zac Efron, drives him down to Florida where he spent every year with his wife before her death.
Tricked into thinking it was a sentimental road trip, Jason kelly (the grandson) then finds out his grandfathers real motives, to sleep with as many women as possible.

Released in 2016, written by John Phillips and directed by Dan Mazer this comedy features themes like love,deception, coming of age, family, drugs, romance, violence and secrets. It produced $11,111,875 during it's opening weekend with only a budget of $11.5 million.

The production companies behind this film were Lionsgate, QED international and Josephson entertainment.

The trailer is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZSzMIFZT7Q

Two Faces of January

Two Faces of January released in 2014 while directed and written by Hossein Amini, is a thriller drama based in the 1960's centred on a con artist, his wife and a stranger who flee Athens after one of them is caught up in the death of a private detective.

Involving love, friendship, deception and mystery this thriller was able to $506,067 on it's opening weekend, with a budget only of $43,116.

This film had the likes of Oscar Isaac who has recently featured in the new Star Wars film, Viggo Mortensen who is renown for his work in Lord of the rings and Kirsten Dunst who played Mary Jane in the Spiderman movies which Toby Maguire featured in.

Backing this film were the likes of Timnick Films, Studiocanal and Working title films.

The trailer is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrRHmhIDfjg

Shattered Glass

Shattered Glass was released in 2003 with Billy Ray being the director but he also co-wrote the film with Buzz Bissinger.  The production companies that backed this film were Lions Gate Films, Cruise/Wagner Productions and Baumgarten Merims.

Shattered Glass is a historic drama, with key themes such as naivety, deception, fame and aspiration.

This film has key actors in it such as Hayden Christensen, who is most well known for playing Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. It also has the likes of Rosario Dawson, Ted Kotcheff and Steve Zahn.

Receiving an a budget of $6,000,000 which was estimated, it was only able to produce $77,540 during its opening weekend. But even with this factor it was still able to receive a Golden Globe nomination as well as winning 10 other awards.

This film is based on a young writer in his 20's who was writing for the magazine 'The Republic,' during 1995-1998. Where it seems that at least 27 of his published articles were completely or at least partially made up, he wanted a quick route to fame by taking shortcuts. He had glass concocted sources, quotes and even stories, but his deception did not go unnoticed. His naivety got the best of him and his world was to be crumble beneath him.

The trailer is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTeK1v6Qx_I

Inside out

Inside out was released in 2015 which was written but also directed by Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen. The production companies were Disney and Pixar.

Although this film is an animation film, so known of the actors could be seen, the key casts voices were Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith and Richard Kind. Inside Out is a drama, comedy, family, fantasy, adventure animation film. With key films such as family, emotions, memories, friends and coming of age.

With a massive budget of $175,000,000 this film produced $90,440,272 during its opening weekend.

Inside out had various nominations which was highlighted by a golden globe nomination but also won 27 other awards.

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley's mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school. By Pixar.

The trailer is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMwpP0yeu4

The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect was released in 2004, written and directed by both J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress. While produced by BenderSpink, FilmEngine and Katalyst Films.

The most well known actor in this film is Ashton Kutcher who plays Evan our main character. The Butterfly Effect is a sci fi thriller with themes of confusion, family, friendship, drugs, sex, violence as well as coming of age.

This film had a budget of $13,000,000 and produced $17,065,227 during it's opening weekend of released. It went on to be nominated for four awards, but only won one which was the Pegasus audience award.

It's about a young man who has a boy experienced black outs during significant moments of his life, not knowing at all what happened. But one day he finds out how to go back in time and change the end result of what happened during the black out he has gone back to. Although seems like a good idea at first, his actions during returning to his black outs cause major consequences.

The trailer is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_dgqfPXFg