Natasha's New Film Blog

'Another Day of Sun' opening number in 'La La Land'. Today I finally saw 'La La Land' ( Chazelle,  2016 ). I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I am not saying it is a bad movie - in fact it is very good, but I did not feel it lived up to the hype. I got goose bumps at the opening 'Another Day of Sun' number, due to the spectical of it, but probably because I had seen the trailer about a thousand times before today as it looked so perfect and musicals are my favourite film genre without a doubt. I was expecting a modern day 'Singin' in the Rain' (Donen, Kelly, 1952), one of my all time films, and this was not what we got. I did love this catchy opening number though and I did have to try and stop myself singing along to it (no one in the cinema would have wanted to hear that). Plus the very strong reference to the start of  'Falling Down' (Shumacher, 1993) . I enjoyed the clever 'Wizard of Oz' (1939) technicolor open...

Promotional poster for 'A Monster Calls'  This film is dark. Do not be fooled by the fact it looks like it is aimed at children and stars a child. It deals with death and what happens after, for both the person who death is impending for and the family and how they are affected.  I went to see this film about a month ago (had a rush of deadlines so it took me a while to get round to writing this, even though its short) for my friends 21st Birthday. She wanted to see this as she had read the book, which I am glad she had as otherwise it would have been a case of tears on her birthday (her last birthday we saw 'The Danish Girl' (Hooper, 2016), I think she just wants us to be upset on her birthday. 'A Monster Calls' (Bayona, 2017) stars  Lewis MacDougall  as Conor  O'Malley  and is about a pre- teen boy trying to cope with the fact his mother is seriously ill and he is being bullied at school, his only sanctuary is in art. MacDougall's performance rea...