Movie Review x3

 Whilst the cinemas have been closed there hasn't been much chance to watch any blockbusters other than on the screen and no one has been allowed to queue around the block to our house to watch a film due to social distancing so you could argue there have been no blockbusters at all, but here's three films we've watched on the iplayer recently

Love And Mercy

Flitting between 1968-69 and the mid 80s this tells the story of Brian Wilson, genius songwriter of The Beach Boys, at two very different points in life: Paul Dano plays the young Brian at the peak of his powers as he pulls out of live performances to concentrate on the studio work for what will become Pet Sounds and John Cusak plays 80s Brian - a man who is clearly not in charge of his own life.  Both eras are well played out - the scenes in the studio creating Good Vibrations are a particularly high point and there's just enough eerieness in the 80s scenes to make you aware there's something horribly wrong.  Paul Dano is excellent and John Cusak gives good levels of John Cusak angst - if you're at all interested in music and popular music history then I think you'll like this

Sylvia

Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig star as Sylvia Plaith and Ted Hughes in the story of their tempetous relationship as Plaith struggles with depression and feeling outshone by her husband to create her works.  Not a cheerful film this but an interesting character study - although I did feel that the film was very much geared towards showing Plaith's instability to the point where (not being previously aware of the story) I wasn't sure if Hughes's philandering was all in her head.  I think that having read up on the two since I'd like to have seen something more balanced and that got under the skin a bit more but in general it was a good film

Rush

Daniel Bruhl and Chris Hemsworth play rival racing drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt respectively in the story of the twos rivaly in Formula 1 in 1976.  Again - not being a big fan of sport I wasn't familiar with the story - but I did meet the real-life James Hunt (he presented me with a camera as a prize when I was a kid) and was aware of his playboy image so I was interested to find out more.

The film is well directed and as it progresses you become aware that the two drivers had a lot of respect for each other despite their distances - the race scenes are exciting enough for someone with no interest in F1 to be drawn in (Herself really enjoyed it as well and neither of us are sports fans) - definately worth a watch.

What have you been watching?