<i><b>Unknown Gems</b></i>

''It's not easy being an adult''
''It's not easy being you, is it?''


Set in contemporary London and follows the adventures of Poppy, a primary school teacher.

Sally Hawkins: Poppy

Happy-Go-Lucky wasn't anything at all what I expected. The beginning of the film I was worried if Mike Leigh's offering may not live up to my expectations, but by the end it exceeded them with the amount of relevant serious points yet simplicity within it's confines.

Poppy played by Sally Hawkins is seriously optimistic and at times completely annoying. Very eccentric behaviour and mannerisms. She ends up being likable and means well, generous and considerate to others.
Hawkins' character is not someone who is inclined to let life get her down, so it's just as well that she is surrounded by people with a somewhat more sardonic or downbeat take on reality.

Her flatmate Zoe played by Alexis Zegerman is a wonderfully dry and sardonic counter to Poppy's vitality, although the affection between them is palpable.
Poppy's younger sisters Suzy and Helen are also quite different.
Suzy turns out to be a law student who is more interested in clubbing, drinking and playing with her brother-in-law's PS2 than criminal justice, while Helen is heavily pregnant, obsessed with acquiring the glories of a respectable suburban life and unable to maintain the notion of how her older sister can be so happy living in a rented flat and not stepping onto the property ladder albeit a Mortgage and coining a pension.

The big surprise for me is that I had been led to believe that this is a more or less straightforward feel-good comedy. That isn't true.
Scott, Poppy's driving teacher played by Eddie Marsan is one of the most faceted and troubled characters.
Marsan's performance is one of the best things going in Happy-Go-Lucky. Scott has been afflicted with very bad teeth and although his inner anger and meanderings is applied for laughs in alot of the film, in the end it is allowed to result in an exploding unleashed scene where his angry delusions and troubles he has bottled up inside suddenly all come gushing out in an array of emotion, a tornado that has been set free.

What Happy-Go-Lucky offers us is an insight into someones life, in this instance Poppy's and capitalizes on it truthfully.
Be it a Dance class with passion and unexpected drama or an encounter with a homeless man which shows Poppy's braveness, or even the beginning of a relationship for her with a young Social Worker she meets at her work because of a troubled young boy in her Class. All of these things show a fraction of what Happy-Go-Lucky is, and that being said it ends up being not just a comedy, not just a feel good movie but an in-depth Study of a loving albeit eccentric woman and a journey of life with all it's many highs and lows.

Original, different and maintains something lacking from alot of films today. A story of young vibrant woman's life, Happy-Go-Lucky is worth watching.

''We had a lot going for us. We'd found the secret glue that held all things together. In a perfect place, where the noise did not intrude, our world was so very complete.''


A poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.

Abbie Cornish: Candy

Heath Ledger: Dan

Geoffrey Rush: Casper

Candy was recommended by my love, and boy has it lived up to what she told me. I love drug related films in general, Candy is one of the best ones I've ever seen.

It's not hollywood-ised compared to Requiem at times appears to be. This is a view into if you will of two people's lives, the harsh reality of it on display, like looking through a window into someone's home. There's some graphic scenes and some may be too much for some viewers of a squeamish disposition.

The desperation is there, the struggle and we see Candy and Dan hurtle through their turbulent lives entwined. A love triangle which the third party, a mind bending drug threatens their world.

Heath Ledger is phenomenal, acting wise he's faultless. He is missed.
Abbie Cornish beautifully real in her depiction.
Even Geoffrey Rush is typically class as always.

it's emotional, and charged tinged with romantic tragedy.

Two lives perfectly shown...

A masterpiece.

''Here is the deepest secret nobody knows. Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide. And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart... I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart.''

''I've always wanted to meet a painter.''

''Why?''

''I think it might have something to do with their ability to see beauty in everything.''


After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild.

Sean Biggerstaff: Ben Willis

Emilia Fox: Sharon Pintey

Cashback is an artistic film, like its main character Ben, that I have seen recently. It has qualities that blend together and result in unrivaled beauty and imagination.

The Director Sean Ellis usually delivers comedic romances, something which I'm relatively unphased by, but Cashback right from the off showed me something deeper, something bordering on a lesson in life, in love and the failed attempt only to be re-blossomed anew with a new chance. Sequences can be dreamy and surreal and as Ben suffers from insomnia from his heartbreak we see that in his new found job he can stop time to study one thing that he loves above all else. That thing in perspective being the female anatomy, not for it's lustful qualities to any typical man but for its proportionate shapely perfection form that is defined above all else.

Some useful flashback sequences of Ben as a boy help explain why he loves the female body so much, the scene when he sees the beautiful body of a Swedish Student naked on her way back to her room. Then as a curious mesmerized young boy would knocks on her door to return her left behind underwear, then he see's all, his view complete. The supple ripely formed breasts and perfect bottom effortlessly displayed that hell even makes me appreciate a goddess of a woman in all her splendor. To capture that on paper or in any sense, to possess that even, is nothing short of perfection.

Other things we get from Cashback is an array of characters doing some comical stuff in the work place, such as a salami BJ or a maddened race between Barry Brickman and Matt Stevens. Even the addition of a Kung fu Brian or the block headed manager was amusing. This really does make you feel like you're in Sainsburys.

Sean Biggerstaff who I recall in Philosophers Stone really shines as the lead being dreamy and suffering from insomnia.
Emilia Fox who works on the Checkouts, also impresses proving she does pick some very interesting choices in her films.
Michelle Ryan as the volatile Ex was very good also even though her part was a fine example of how obsessed we can be or how hard it is to let go after you have had a break up.

Ellis has crafted and created a film of such grandeur and creativeness that ends up being artistic, stylish and untouchable, the fact that he has made Cashback that is both perfect Art-House material and universal is a beacon to his talent and maturity funneled into vision.

Love is unpredictable like a snowflake and in this sense Cashback throws an unusual tale of love lost and love found again, that really does indeed show love does let you keep the change.

''Ok you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This... is my boomstick! The 12-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?''


A man is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., where he must battle an army of the dead and retrieve the Necronomicon so he can return home.

Bruce Campbell: Ash

Embeth Davidtz: Sheila

Funny horror, a sheer classic, Bruce Campbell cracks me up, watch again and again.

Sure it may be to some dated but see past this, and its a timeless epic black fantasy comedy horror. Bruce Campbell cracks me up with his witty tongue in cheek dialogue, ''GIMME ME SOME SUGAR BABY!'' plus the story and music is superb, put with the other Evil Dead's Sam Raimi has mastered his formula.

As a whole this trilogy is unbeatable, but this one shines through for me in the laugh stakes, love it.

''In to the pit with those sons of whores! ''

Are you game?

''Tell me that you love me first because I'm afraid that if I tell you first you'll think that i'm playing the game.''

A story of two best friends, Julien and Sophie who we see journey through life. Starts of in their childhood and their seemingly playful game in which they dare each other with a rustic tin. The game continues throughout their adult life and begins to spiral out of control, and a hidden love undeclared.

Marion Cotillard who plays Sophie, i last saw her in ''La Vie en Rose'' and this film also proves what a versatile actress she is.
Guillaume Canet who plays Julien is equally impressive and displays dazzling emotion and fiery temperance.
Thibault Verhaeghe and
Joséphine Lebas-Joly also deserve a mention who play Julien and Sophie as children.

Such vast imagination and an obssessive daring game. Wonderfully surreal and some of the scenes will shock. Watched this with Rachael and i thoroughly enjoyed it as i do with all films watched with my darling wife.

Visually it's shot excellently and some very clever effects jumbled together that tell the story well.

It's a long story and how far the two go to outdo each other is compelling. When you get to it's ultimate conclusion, ''The Dare of Dares'' the film cleverly let's your mind decide what conclusion to make.

A classic example of how dangerous a game can be and the complicated entanglement that is love.

'' Are you game? , well the answer has to be without a doubt YES!

''In this life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's their own stupidity that makes them act that way. That will keep you from responding to their meanness. There's nothing worse in this world than bitterness and revenge. Hold your head up and stay true to yourself.''


Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.

Chiara Mastroianni: Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi, as a teenager and a woman (voice)

Gabrielle Lopes: Marjane as a child (voice)

Persepolis is not only just an animated film or indeed a comic but one that captures one girl growing up. In the same vein as Grave of the Fireflies this film is not for children like it's cartoony looks would suggest.

What we get from Persepolis is Marjana Satrapi's vision of a life consisting of struggle, control and the freedom for women to do anything scarily non existent. Captivating that the 80s and 90s are depicted in Iran in such a way of death, of war and of propaganda and ideology that I felt that this world was so backward. Marjane's way of life felt like it was stuck in a bygone era like the early 1920s to 1940s. Her imagination and creativity are brought to life and cleverly Persepolis uses black and white to convey the immense desperation, the depressed state of society in Iran and the lack of free rights of suppressed, controlled women.

Animation has the advantage of permitting a pace that allows a lot to be included into a simply and honestly told story, particularly in early childhood and adolescence. Very thought inducing in seeing how atrocities and cruelties are perceived through little childrens eyes, particularly little kids growing up in an environment where these acts are a normal way of life.

As a teenager looking for punk music in the black market, Marjane walks through a throng of peddlers trying to sell her an assortment of trendy videos, including disguising Micheal Jackson as Jichael Mackson is genius.

Communism is crushed, propaganda cast away and bloody fighting and martyrs frequently being produced. Marjane's life growing up as Persepolis shows us is a hard one full of strife. Yet for all its seriousness there is humour there also.
Throughout the movie a sense of humour that is at times very sarcastic, yet very amusing.
Be it sequences where she talks to God in his cloud or as a girl pestering her Uncle about his ideals and Communist past and life. Be it her making the transition from girl to woman in a very amusing sequence that shows all the joys of getting older. Sarcasm of my own there in case you failed to notice.

Persepolis ends with a beautiful rendition of her grandmother and her smelling of luscious flowers put into her bra area. This for me really does show a sense of how great life can be whatever trouble there is, good is always lurking somewhere, waiting to break free.
Whether it be Marjane's ill fated relationships or defiance of a teacher, or even men telling the women to cover up more and Marjane standing up to them, there are so many sides to this story Persepolis has to offer.
Thus becoming in my eyes a definite masterpiece of emotion, feeling and capturing the plight and suffering not just of one woman but also of a whole nation.

Simply breathtaking, Persepolis is nothing short of greatness and told in a medium bordering on simplicity yet emerging as genius.

''Sometimes I get so lonely I forget what day it is, and how to spell my name.''

A delusional young guy strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.

Ryan Gosling: Lars Lindstrom

Well where to start with Lars and the Real Girl is that what may start of as a comedy created for laughs to begin with, slowly evolves into a more serious and thought provoking study.
The study being in this case, of a man called Lars Lindstrom, subjecting himself to an isolated way of life by choice. Reasons for this choice are slowly explained as the movie takes it's time to play through the motions. Which are first making the majority of us laugh and secretly ridicule him like the townspeople do behind his back, then they all collaborate to help him and play along with his belief. That being said everyone begins to play a part with Lars and his newly acquired ''girlfriend''.

Whats clever about Lars is that it never feels rushed or over done. The characters all seem to be believable in their set performances of the material given. Craig Gillespie utilizes all this to give this town and it's people a breath of life. As the film progresses Lars slowly begins to decrease, with the town people's help, his activity and time with Bianca the Doll. His appointments with the doctor help us grasp gradually what Lars mindset is while Margo, a co-worker, provides a real alternative to the Bianca relationship Lars has and he slowly subconsciously begins to realize this.

Ryan Gosling's performance as Lars is really what this film is about. He not only changes his appearance but his mannerisms and disposition, his set ways and belief that consumes eventually the whole town to play along inside his delusional world, really has to be marveled.
Also his headaches and spiraling evolution towards removing Bianca from his life without admitting she isn't real is moving. For Bianca may be seen to audiences as being not a real person to us, to Lars he believes that without question that she is real to him, and that I believe, Ryan Gosling as Lars succeeds in making me believe.

Other performances I should mention are Patricia Clarkson as Dr Dagmar, who plays a psychiatrist accurately by showing that she has her share of problems also, everyone does. Emily Mortimer as Karin,Paul Schneider as Gus and Kelli Garner as Margo really all did very fine believable acting to flesh out their said characters with immense believability.
Even Bianca seems to emit a performance herself becoming a character among the cast and a part of the Town and it's people.

Lars and the Real Girl isn't one of those films which has fancy effects and non-stop action. It's not that kind of film, and even then, they are not required. What we get is something that transcends emotion and belief and breathes life into a genre that needs original and vibrant films such as Lars.

A masterpiece that is as close to perfect as heaven doth allow, Ryan Gosling's transformation and performance acts as the breath of life responsible for this miracle.

''We all have to fall in love from time to time... To feed our daughters, and our mothers. And sisters.''


Set in 1930s Shanghai, where a blind American diplomat develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee who works odd -- and sometimes illicit -- jobs to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family.

Ralph Fiennes: Todd Jackson

Natasha Richardson: Countess Sofia Belinskya

Countess may be very, very slow. but its wonderfully rich visuals and smashing English performances make it the perfect patient man's period film, As mentioned, you must have a lot of glorious patience to make it to that fulfilling conclusion.

Marveled at the cinematography, the great sets, the muted and beautiful fliar of colours.

This Ishiguro story is set in mid-to-late '30s in Shanghai. Ralph Fiennes plays a blind American, Todd Jackson, an ex-diplomat who wants to get away from politics and run the nightclub of his dreams. He has the whole place mapped out in his head. Natasha Richardson as Countess Sofia Belinskya is a high-class escort-service type woman working in a lower-class bar who unselfishly sacrifices her dignity to help support her unappreciative family.

Todd and Sofia meet one day in that bar, he is very impressed with her, and later hires her to run his new place, called The White Countess, hence the film's clever title. Along the way, Todd meets a Japanese man Mr. Matsuda, who we find out isn't the altogether nice guy we thought he was, as it's revealed trouble always follows him.

The themes of isolation and alienation are rampant in this film and occur on many levels. Sophia is shut off from her family and eventually abandoned because of her disgraceful job. Jackson is blind physically and mentally from the real world. They are strangers in a foreign country, a country whose sole foreign policy for the past several centuries has been isolationism, they built a wall to keep people out. These instances are not simply strewn about but are intricately woven into the plot to create a deeper, more meaningful story.

The White Countess explores devastation and new hope, heartbreak and new love, and shows us the hopelessness of walls and cages. We can always close our eyes but that doesn't mean everything around us will disappear.

In the end, this drama comes to life as the Japanese overrun the city and everyone flees for their life. Sofia's family tries to leave without her. The countess desperately goes after them because that family includes her precious young daughter. Fiennes realizes, at the last minute, he doesn't want to live life without Sofia and she he tries to find her among all the chaos. It's a very suspenseful, very positive ending.

White Countess is underrated, under-publicized and a beautifully executed piece. Reminded me of the beautiful Painted Veil.

''You call me beautiful at home, then you are ashamed to be seen with me in public. You are ashamed of beauty you recognize that no one else does. You are ashamed to love me!''

In the 1930s, penniless Arturo Bandini (Farrell) lodges in LA and tries to become an author, worrying that he?s too inexperienced to have anything to write about. He has a complex relationship with Camilla (Hayek), a Mexican waitress, which eventually inspires him to finish a novel.

Colin Farrell: Arturo Bandini

Salma Hayek: Camilla

Mesmerizing narration, acting and story, Ask The Dust shows the desperation of the times.
Colin Farrel and Salma Hayek have some good chemistry and some good narration and voice-overs. You become attached to Colin's character as he progresses through the story.

The upshot is a careful, deliberately old-fashioned picture which has many admirable qualities. Filmed in South Africa, it creates a distinctive vision of 30s LA that doesn't overlap too much with Towne's Fante-influenced script for Chinatown. It fills a hillside hotel with deadbeats and eccentrics (including Donald Sutherland) and springs several surprising forces of nature, from unexpectedly heavy waves that turn a nude midnight swim into a near-death experience, to an earthquake that tears up a pavement.

There's a startling supporting turn from Idina Menzel as a character so unusual the film comes to life when she barges in and finds it hard to not leave an impression.
In contrast, Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek (who both look way too healthy and buff) play characters who are frustratingly charismatic. Their affair dawdles in squabbles for an hour, before finally coming into focus in intimate flourishing scenes.

Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel's shots are each a marvel of painterly cinema, just the right brownish, noir-ish lighting and shadows to create a marginal world of dream and destitution where only love could create wealth. And what a love. These two leads are to the camera born, their dark good looks making them as much brother and sister as reluctant lovers. Farrell speaks almost as if he is narrating, which he does as well, his intonations are weighty, uncharacteristic of the more flamboyant characters he is used to playing. Hayek has lusty dignity with a spicy stubbornness that makes you believe she is worthy of marrying this man and living happily ever after.

End result a curiously irresistible drama, despite several strong elements,the most notable being newcomer Idina Menzel.

''New York is where everyone comes to be forgiven.''


A group of New Yorkers get caught up in their romantic-sexual milieu converge at an underground salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.

Sook-Yin Lee: Sofia

Paul Dawson: James

Lindsay Beamish: Severin

Shortbus isn't for everyone, and if your prudish about things of a sexual nature then it's best to pass up on this maybe. Parents should send the kids to bed.

It takes alot to shock me sexually personally, which to me is why Shortbus, i could see past the sex and see that this isn't what it's about. It's a small part of what SB truly is.

Whats that you may wonder...Well it's a film which gives us an insight into a colourful array of characters each with their own fundamental problems in their lives, each trying to find an answer best relating to those problems, those factors.

Sofia is a sex therapist who has never experienced an orgasm, which some women may take for granted but i guess there's a pleasure and sense missing without it. When shes under a Narnia-esque lamp post upon a bench. Its wonderful imagery, wonderful as Sofia tried to achieve that cosmic Pandora's Box implosion.

It's not just straight couples analyzed but in Shortbus every aspect is analyzed. Three men in a three way relationship, a Dominatrix who's never had a serious relationship and a guy who doesn't know what he wants.

Which brings me to what Shortbus is in short. It's a place where these people, many people go to find what their looking for inside themselves sexually as well as mentally. It's not just some excuse for a huge orgy which could be mistaken if your not watching carefully or immersing yourself in the interweaving story.

I'm afraid Shortbus for me went very quickly due to my enjoyment of it. I don't think it's one i would watch over and over but definitely once and a while the issues it raises are very important in life, just not alot of people like to talk about these things openly in public discussions which is fair enough. If you have an open mind and don't take it the wrong way then give Shortbus a go.

A character study, not just a sexual journey but one of awakening too.