Film Of The Month – Rober Awards

In the midst of the Oscar madness, the film and month of the week honours go this week to the most controversial among this year’s crop of nominees, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’. Kathryn Bigelow has scooped five nominations for the Academy awards and another five for the Robers with this dense and gripping account of a passage of recent story that’s still on everybody’s mind, the search and killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Bigelow’s follows-up her Oscar winner ‘The Hurt Locker’ with what could easily be regarded as its twin companion. It maintains the same directorial style, unadorned but slick cinematography and a focus on the storytelling thanks to a brilliant screenplay written by her regular collaborator Mark Boal. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ inherits all the merits of its predecessor and takes them to new highs, adding a far more rapid pace; thorough research and the bonus interest of delving into those still little known era defining events.

With our weekly section on hold due to a holiday break followed by the LFF, we’re trying to catch up with all the best new releases that have hit the theatres during our absence with this packed-up October recap.

Three films stood out from an excellent crop of new releases and deservedly would have been granted film of the week honours: Sundance winner ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild ‘; Tim Burton’s black & white animation ‘Frankenweenie” and the best Bond film in ages ‘Skyfall’, the three of them are currently wowing audiences worldwide.

Our film of the month, and second five star review of 2012 is Behn Zeitlin’s acclaimed debut ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild’★★★★★, a lesson in magical realism showing the post-Katrina nightmare through the lively imagination of Hushpuppy, a 5 year-old girl who tries to make sense of the terrible events with a naive mix between reality and myt; in total contrast with his father’s fierce struggle to prevent their home, community and livelihood being wiped out by the catastrophe. Poetry and social commentary merge in one of the most visionary features of the year. Beasts is likely to obtain the push from most critics and indie awards’ in the Oscar race. Ouvenzhané Willis and Dwight Henry pack a strong onscreen emotional punch and despite being non-professional they should also count among the favourites for their correspondent acting categories.

The opening gala at this year’s London Film Festival marked Tim Burton’s return to his origins after a string of rather lacklustre big budget missteps, turning one of his first shorts into a full-length work. ‘Frankenweenie’ ★★★★ is a totally enjoyable stop-motion, black and white animation in 3D and a glorious tribute to the horror genre that sets Mary Shelley’s timeless creature in suburban America, where a lonely kid inspired by his science teacher finds the formula to bring back to life his dear pet dog. The procedure is discovered by other kids who promptly follow his steps, creating havoc with their resurrecting attempts. Full of references to both his own films and many other classics, US audiences have cruelly ignored it, probably due to a release after a number of similarly horror-influenced animated works that, despite being inferior, had already conquered the US box-office. However, the skill and endless inventiveness of Burton should be enough to earn him at least a nomination for best animated film as deserved reward.

Film Of The Month: Zero Dark Thirty ★★★★★

Beasts Of The Southern Wild; Frankenweenie & Skyfall: Films Of The Month