What I Watched Last Week (15th-21st April)

Silver Linings Playbook
One of my favourite films of last year with good reason. Whilst it was labelled as a rom-com in its advertising campaign, it's so much more than that - a romantic dramedy about mental illness may be a halfway decent way of describing it. The acting is where this film really excels, Bradley Cooper was a revelation as Pat (The Hangover may have been his breakout role but this is the role where he really proved himself as a serious, talented actor) and Jennifer Lawrence was magnificent, as ever. For some the slight turn to schmaltz in the last 30 mins may put them off but I think it was necessary for the romantic element of the film and shouldn't deter anyone from watching this heart-warming film.
5/5

Looper
This is a VERY different film from the one I was expecting. When I first heard about it I was expecting something along the lines of The Terminator but instead what we have here is a very talky B-movie which spends the whole first hour giving you just about every little detail before a brilliant last 45 minutes or so after Emily Blunt's character is introduced. Whilst I understand that in order to fully explain the whole time travel concept and flesh out back story, I felt like the first hour just dragged on a little bit until it got to the real action at the farm. The real surprise for me in this film was just how sinister the little boy is - from being a sweet little kid minute to (literally) exploding with rage the next - I found him to be genuinely terrifying! I also thought it was very slickly edited, flashing from one time to another with ease and sometimes redoing events without confusing the viewers. This film has a very good concept, if it was just a little bit less talky it would've been great... Maybe it will grow on me after a second viewing like other sci-fi films of this ilk have before.
3/5

Argo
I can definitely see what all the fuss was about at this year's awards season, I just can't believe it's taken me this long to get round to watching it! This film is gripping from start to finish, the tension ratcheted so high in the airport that I genuinely felt sick, mix that in with a little bit of humour from Alan Arkin's character and you have a near perfect drama. I like the way that they incorporated real footage from the actual events throughout - it gave the film a bit of a feeling like the actual events were unfolding on screen rather than a dramatic interpretation. Ben Affleck's really proven himself as a director here following his two other brilliant directorial features (Gone Baby Gone and The Town) and along with a talented cast and a fantastic script the story never plods.
5/5