With lines of escape in my mouth » philip seymour hoffman

The Savages

admin — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 06:17:18 +0000

This is quite a good dramedy. It’s mostly drama with some dark comic moment dealing with the morose subject of an eldery parent who is close to death. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman are great as the children who have to take care of their ailing father.

They hadn’t spoken to their father in 20 years and didn’t exactly get on with him previously. Each have their own personal problems in life to deal with as an indirect cause of this. Quite an affecting film overall and definitely worth seeing. 6 crumbs out of 10.

Charlie Wilson’s War

admin — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:22:14 +0000

When I read that Aaron Sorkin (of The West Wing etc.) had penned the screenplay for this, I was looking forward to a good political satire. I was a bit disappointed with the end result but overall it’s not too bad of a film.

Most of the comedic elements to the film just aren’t funny, barring of course the great Philip Seymour Hoffman as the disillusioned CIA agent who agrees to help out a US senator (Tom Hanks) in arming a group of Afghani freedom fighters to fight the Soviet invasion of ‘79.

The main point of the film is the allusion to modern events and foreign policy of the US government and it gets this across well without being too preachy. Worthy of 5 crumbs out of 10.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

admin — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:08:22 +0000

There’s nothing strikingly original about this film but it still manages to engage you for its duration. It’s a tightly crafted thriller about a jewellery store robbery gone wrong which results in the already fucked-up lives of the characters taking an almighty turn for the worse.

The cast is excellent here, including two of my favourites – Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. Director Sidney Lumet is most known for some of his excellent films of the 1970s like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network but he hasn’t done much of note in recent years. ‘Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead’ is a welcome change to that. The narrative technique involves showing the robbery from different points of view and it works well.

Marisa Tomei plays the wife of Hoffman’s character and they share the best opening scene to a film ever. You’ll know when you see it! 6 crumbs out of 10.