'Ballerina' Review

When the trailer for 'Ballerina' came out, it instantly became the target of a lot of jokes between those I go to the cinema with and I. There seemed to be no hope for this film but after seeing it, I was pleasantly surprised.

In 1879, a young orphan named Felicie (Elle Fanning) dreams of becoming a ballerina but she lacks any type of training. Alongside her friend Victor (Dane DeHaan), the pair looks to escape and flee to Paris to make their dreams come true. After gaining tuition at the Paris Opers Ballet, Felicie must now put in the hard work to achieve her goals.

'Ballerina' is a French-Canadian 3D animated movie which brings a different animation style to what we're used to recently. Due to this, the style of some of the characters in this form of animation seemed to lack in quality compared to those in other animated films. This can be said for nearly all of the human characters within the film as they stand out from the settings very poorly. It's possible that it's just a different style to what I'm used to but the characters looked to have been designed for a film in the 90's or early 2000's. In saying that, the film's animators do an incredible job of designing Paris pre the Eiffel Tower being finished. The locations and settings all look magnificent throughout the entirety of the film which is part of the reason to why the characters don't look as good. For the designs of the city and designs of inside the buildings, it will be hard to find animation any better than in 'Ballerina'. 

Amongst this animated tale is actually a fairly well-executed story of a young girl achieving her dreams. We see her motives very clearly and the opening scene shows Felicie's willingness to achieve her goals. The film handles the story as if it were any other sports movie. The story is actually very reminiscent of 'The Karate Kid', with several moments mimicking the 1984 film such as the training seeming to be pointless at first. We see some common tropes within this but the film does execute it and adapts it to ballet very well. We see a progression throughout the film from our protagonist as she is not good at all when first starting. At times, her training and trials did seem slightly rushed as the story looked to progress. With the runtime being shorter than an hour and a half, they could have taken more time on this aspect of the film. However, the message of you training hard and persevering to reach your goals is still evident. The film does its job by showing what to do when training for something but also does a great job in showing how it can be wasted. There are ups and downs along the way within sports and 'Ballerina' does a good job at showing this, whilst keeping it entertaining and amusing enough for small children.

Elle Fanning brings the character of Felicie to life, bringing that sweet side of her character to the film. Fanning interacts very well with Dane DeHaan who plays Victor, a hopeful inventor who is in love with Felicie. DeHaan brings an excitement to the film as he delivers a great performance in this film. His character is indeed a fun one which allows DeHaan to do some great work. Maddie Ziegler also deserves credit as she is the main rival to Felicie, Camille. The character was very well written which again allowed the voice work to come in and do a great job. As the film is a kid's animated film, it is expected for there to be some characters who are over the top. Camille's mother Regine (Julie Khaner) is the perfect example of this. Regine is a classic over the top cartoon villain who does bring some laughs. Whether that was the intent is debatable. There are other characters dotted about who our protagonists interact with who are there for random outbursts that will entertain the little ones but not so much for the adults.

The films clearly targeted for younger viewers and this is most evident during the more dramatic and emotional scenes. There are moments where the film builds up for some powerful moments but the film brushes over this very quickly. This was disappointing as the potential was there to create something powerful but the film just solves it instantly. Maybe I'm expecting too much from a film like this but the tools were there so there was no reason for it to not have been executed. This would've improved the story as a whole and wouldn't have taken up too much extra time which wouldn't have hurt either.

Overall, 'Ballerina' was much better than I expected. An adequate children's animated sports movie with some good animation as well as writing and voice performances. However, there are many inconsistencies within this film including in all of those attributes I have just praised. This is not a bad movie by any way and is entertaining enough for a viewing.

Final Verdict = 

So have you seen 'Ballerina'? If so, what did you think of the film? I hope that this review was useful for if you were planning on seeing this film. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my review, it is much appreciated!

By Angus McGregor

'The Neon Demon' Review

So far this year, I have seen 65 movies. 'The Neon Demon' isn't quite the best. It certainly isn't the worst. It is most definitely the most weird film I have had the pleasure of seeing this year.

Jesse (Elle Fanning) is a 16 year old aspiring model who moves to LA in hopes to gain success. As soon as she gets there, she is tipped for the top much to the anger of many others who start to despise her and her natural good looks. Jesse also has to deal with a dodgy motel owner as well as photographers as she progresses as a model. She is now competition to the other dangerous models and has to look to overcome them.

This is no ordinary film. There isn't much out there that is exactly like this movie. The way it's filmed, the way it tells it's story and also just the route the story takes. The film is most definitely odd, but good odd. Well that is subjective as two couples walked out of the movie- and that was before the film reached complete madness. This won't be for everyone, some will think it's awful, some will think it's a masterpiece.

Nicolas Winding Refn has a reputation for his movies having little dialogue throughout them. For some this isn't enjoyable and might not work really that well. However Refn handles this phenomenally as he more than makes up for it with the visuals. The visuals progress the story so yu don't actually need lines to actually tell what people are feeling or thinking. The film is stunning to look at and everything is just beautiful to look at. Every shot is lined up perfectly and Refn clearly shows that he knows what he is doing. A true talent.

There are some moments in his filmmaking though that do linger for too long. Some scenes last far too long and you may be sitting there wanting it to move on just that bit quicker. This happens a few times throughout the film which does hurt the film. Sure what you are looking is very well crafted but in a film you'd like it to move on when needed to do so.

One of the other highlights of the film comes from the musical score. The music fits the style perfectly and really adds to the film. Some of it is repeated but it does an excellent job of creating a mysterious tone. With there being little dialogue, the sound has to be made up otherwise and the music from Cliff Martinez does an incredible job who was also used for Refn's previous work like 'Drive' and 'Only God Forgives'.

Huge credit must also go to the actresses and actors involved. Despite not being given a whole load of dialogue, they perform very highly and carry the story incredibly well. Fresh faced Elle Fanning is the protagonist who impressed me in the film as she captured everything that the character was meant to be and delivered it very well. Jena Malone also does very well in the film as sort of a helping hand until she is pushed too far by Fanning's character Jesse's new attitude and displeasure to her actions. Abbey Lee Kershaw and Bella Heathcoate play the two other main models in the film and deliver very well as well. You can see that the pair instantly don't like Jesse and can see this progress to give them quite a hunger to stop her. Some very good work from the talent involved. 

Keanu Reeves is also in this film and despite what many say about his abilities, he is one of my favourite actors to watch. Now this may just be my personal opinion and bias to him as an actor but I feel that the film certainly did not do enough with his character. There were many routes they could've taken with his character however they seemed to just have completely dropped the ball on his character. He disappears throughout a lot of the film and I feel his character could've had more meaning and use within the film.

The last third of this movie is really when all the craziness starts to flourish. After leaving the cinema, some of it felt quite abrupt and shocking as if coming out of nowhere. After taking time to think over it, I remembered some clever signposting from earlier in the film that may lead the audience to expect this to happen but maybe not quite as brutal as they thought. It does seem a bit strange but once you reflect, it surprisingly makes sense and doesn't seem as unexpected.

I really liked the way how this film handled the competition between the different models in this movie as well. Jesse is a natural when it comes to modelling side of things and as a fresh, new bright talent, she clearly ticks off some of the other models who have been there for longer. Although Jesse is just doing her thing, the others grow to detest her which is quite realistic. In quite a competitive market you can imagine it being like this. Just not as cynical as it leads to become fortunately.

Final Verdict =

The highlight of the summer so far me, a great film. Not your film that won't cater to all audiences but well worth your time. Unsual but great.

So have you seen 'The Neon Demon'? If so what did you think of it? I hope this review was useful for if you were planning on seeing the movie. I hope you give this one a shot especially if you are looking for something unique. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my review, it is much appreciated!

By Angus McGregor