Lev. Life. Style
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I’m fascinated by culture’s ability to shape thought and behaviour. I value creativity as a means of aiding wellbeing and growth. Film, analysis, travel and meaningful discussion, are personal passions that I’m grateful to share.
Lev
Stories (27)
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The Sadness Of The Nostalgic
I watched ‘Young Adult’ directed by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) and Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight in Paris’ over a Saturday evening. At surface value, the two films could not seem more different. Young Adult is a leisurely, brooding comedy, were Charlize Theron plays a semi-successful, thirty-something novelist, who returns to her home town aiming to rekindle a lost flame who is now happily married. Midnight in Paris is an archetypal Woody Allen picture, including his signature long-takes filled with quick wit and an endearing visual vibrancy. Yet for their respective settings and dissimilar delivery, the key theme of nostalgia ties the two films.
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Writers
Charming Classic - “The Revenant”
'Perish the universe, provided I have my revenge!' - Cyrano de Bergerac I haven't written a film review in over a year (written February, 2016). When asked why, I've explained that a lack of time is the key factor, but on reflection this has just been an excuse. The real truth, is that I've not been inspired enough by a single piece of cinema in some time. I love film for reasons beyond entertainment. For me it's escapism, an art-form that resonates and that I enjoy tackling from an analytical stance (hence this blog!). It's been some time however, since I've left a film screening that has stirred an emotional response within me. Nothing has impacted to the point where it shook me from my analytical hibernation and reignited a desire to share my filmic thoughts. That is until I experienced Alejandro González Iñárritu's, The Revenant.
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
Charming Classic - “Pulp Fiction”
“I’m trying Ringo. I’m trying real hard to be the shepherd.” - Jules At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino gave a press conference, in recognition of the 20th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, for which he won the Palm d'Or in '94. During the conference, Quentin was his usual candid and uniquely articulate self, directing a scathing attack on modern cinema. Specifically speaking about the practice of digital filmmaking, he stated; "cinema as I know it, has died." He was talking about the tragic abandonment of 35mm film cameras, which have historically been used to shoot movies, giving cinema a distinctive visual quality that differentiates it from other mediums. Quentin's view is that using digital cameras is a step back in the art of filmmaking and that having digital projection in cinemas, is like watching "television in public". Aside from his talent for directing, these types of unabashed opinions are partially what have led Quentin to be the force he is in Hollywood.
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
Charming Classic - “Interstellar”
"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads" - Dr. Emmett Brown Every Autumn, 'The Hollywood Reporter' begins its series of annual interviews with the most prestigious names in film and entertainment. They record a series of in-depth, group discussions that lead nicely to the awards season. These 'roundtables' are centered on the process of filmmaking, but with shared company of either actors, directors, writers, producers...you get the idea! The set-up is comparable to a glamourous, group therapy session, which makes for interesting viewing. Recently, I watched this year's (2014) 'The Writers' discussion. In it, Jonathan Nolan, co-writer of Interstellar and younger brother of Christopher, expressed his views on literature, screenwriting, and surprisingly, that he regards the time travel classic, Back to the Future, as a "perfect film".
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
Charming Classic - “12 Years A Slave”
"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds" - Bob Marley I was 5 years old when I first learnt of racialised, chattel slavery. I remember vividly a Saturday afternoon and my mum taking out our Roots, VHS box-set for me to watch. I remember seeing the box art of a man in chains and asking her if it was sad. She was honest enough to tell me it was, but lovingly explained that I needed to see it, "in order to know where your name comes from". I'm named after actor LeVar Burton who played the young slave, Kunta Kinte, in the Roots miniseries, as well as many roles in television and film (most notably Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation).
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
Charming Classic - “Lincoln”
"Things which are equal to the same thing, are equal to each other." - Euclid Daniel Day-Lewis sits comfortably on a small list of on screen talents that transcends the category of 'actor'. It would be more fitting to refer to him as a unique specialist of human embodiment. In 'Lincoln', Steven Spielberg's excellent biopic, he literally becomes America's 16th President, a man of whom we are all aware of, but up until now I actually knew so little about. 'Lincoln' isn't a movie. It doesn't follow the trends of mass, modern cinema by relying upon thrills and spills. It is more like a piece of specialist theatre that has been captured on film purely for our benefit. If I am speaking of this with a sense of astounded austerity, it's only because I was genuinely moved by this film and it's not often I'm moved by anything to this level. It is a film that is deserving of being deconstructed, based on my honest response to it.
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
Charming Classic - “Avatar”
"There comes a time in life where you have to wake up, and open your eyes" - Jake Sulley A unique and coherent mythology is never wasted on me. I believe that the creation of a fictitious World, history, people's and enduring message, is creative thinking at its most...creative! And if anything can be said of filmmaker James Cameron, it's that he is most definitely creative.
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
Modern Classic - “The Conjuring”
"There is something horrible happening in my house..." - Carolyn Perron The best horror films are the ones that put the emphasis on tension and atmospheric foreboding, over guts and gore. The Shining and El Orfanato are far scarier than Evil Dead, Hostel and the Saw films, for example. The latter films, including titles such as The Hills Have Eyes, have 'scary moments' in them, but exist more to make you squirm in disgust, rather than chill you to your core. The distinction is, the "gross-out/torture porn" titles may indeed scare you, but the more tension focused films will scare the shit out of you!
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
Charming Classic - “Inception”
“The dream fundamentally acts as the guardian of sleep" - Sigmund Freud If by a twist of fate, director Christopher Nolan turned out not to be a film maker, I have no doubt he'd have been a psychoanalyst. Or if not a psychoanalyst specifically, he'd in some way be working within a psychology related discipline. Not only did he direct the psychological thriller Memento, a film centered on the theme of a rare form of amnesia, but he single-handedly reclaimed the superhero film genre, by grappling with and mastering the most psychologically disturbed comic book 'hero' of them all, Batman. He did so by rejecting the camp aspects of Batman's mythology and accepting the fact that what makes him a great character, is not only his own unconscious demons, but the twisted psychological incentives of his enemies.
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
Charming Classic - “her”
"Lonely's the only other company, less you're the love no other love can be." - Maxwell Quite soon into Spike Jonze's her, you feel a genuine sadness for the world he's depicting, our own. The director presents us with a recognisable LA setting, but everyday technologies have advanced and computer intelligence in particular, has reached new heights. While this may seem exciting on the surface, the consequences of these advancements mean social interaction has lessened, and with it, human detachment has heightened.
By Lev. Life. Style 9 months ago in Critique
