Small rant on 'The Dark Knight Rises'

Knowing the comics well I really don't think Bane is a strong enough villain to support the film and I do like Nolan but he seems to be removing what should define this film. It's ment to be a Batman film and thats what appeals to me but if you take away the loose approximations of the characters from the comics then I don't see any real similarity to the stories I love. This is why I took issue with The Dark Knight and the most recent Bond film, Quantum of Solace, you need thematic relevance to the subject matter. The Dark Knight was far more like Heat than it was a Batman film and being an unashamed fanboy that did make me like the film a tad less. With The Dark Knight Rises I will reserve judgement untill I see it but Bane is no Joker and I really see this being the crime epic that the last film was leading towards than the Batman epic I am longing for.

Nicolas Winding Refn has mastered his craft and 'Drive' is the evidence.

Nicolas Winding Refn, son of Lars von Trier's editor, Anders Refn, is the star of Drive. Not Ryan Gosling's captivating, muted portrayal of our borderline sociopathic hero, comparable to Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, nor is it the twinkling, Hollywood city scape, such as with Heat's L.A., nor is it the automotive fetishism one may assume from the title as with Vanishing Point. No, Drive is the film where the 1990's most promising new director truly flourishes.

    From the opening sequence one may be forgiven for thinking the film to be a more polished, stylised and current version of 1978's The Driver as the character's profession and rules are very similar. However, Drive is far more comparable to films of definitive moral ambitions such as Shane, which, though a clear Western, grew out of the Film Noir sensibilities of the 40's. And it is these Film Noir sensibilities that encase Refn's neon streaked colour pallet. Despite the film's modern setting and clear 80's vibe the film comes across as timeless and, while you are swept up in the tale, quite unidentifiable. This means the audience focus on the beautiful and brutal plot.

    The film consists of explosions of violence, reminiscent of Gaspar Noe's Irreversible, but it is at some of these points one can see just how in control of his own film Refn is. It is the choice of what he allows the audience to see which is so relevant. This is encapsulated in one of the film's final scenes in which, instead of being confronted with an all-out knife struggle, the audience are presented with a stunning shot of two silhouettes cast by the low hanging sun, licking the concrete in a serene and bewildering brawl.  Drive is an amalgamation of skills and lessons learnt from Refn's past films, of atmosphere, depth, patience, impact and effect. Nicolas Winding Refn was awarded the best director award at Cannes. Rightly so, as he has made the best film of the year and despite a uniformly superb supporting cast, brilliant editing and a soundtrack to die for, that praise fall firmly on him.

Cronenberg's 'Crash' course in effect

Crash (1996) envelopes its audience with a dangerous sensuality that brilliantly and disturbingly transcends the line between watching and experiencing a film. It is this involvement that you feel while watching the film that makes it so important, powerful and bewildering. The audience, like the protagonist James, becomes seduced by the forbidden pleasures that lie between beauty and destruction embodied by Elias Koteas' character Vaughan. Vaughan even directly refers the experience of a car crash to that of sex, "the car crash is a fertilising rather than a destructive event". This pursuit of masochistic expression is what drives the narrative, though Cronenberg manages to keep it from the perverse and instead it comes across as an honest reflection of the characters. Before James' initial crash he shares a hollow and unfulfilled sex life with his wife. As they both become entwined in the violent, sensual thrill of the crash, it becomes deeper and darker. This dynamic creates some of the most complex physiological profiles ever committed to celluloid. In this way it is comparable in depth and humanity to Bergman's Persona and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. Forget any notion of this film being 'controversial', 'fetishist' or 'erotic'. It defies a label. It is instead a film that cements David Cronenberg's position as one of the finest directors working today, or indeed, ever.