UPDATE Finished Review

IMPROVED Review

Faces were pulled when production group JAI announced they were releasing a film with them theme of social realism. Ken Loach successfully produced ‘Catchy Come Home’ with a similar aspect of homelessness but will JAI be able to compare? Their latest, The Magazine, even manages to evoke a sense of extreme desperation through – the grass and debris of Burgess Hill. JAI doesn’t just film actors speaking lines, or chose to develop stories in conventional ways. They are about perspectives, about where to place the camera in order to heighten, explore and complicate the viewing experience.

Louise Martin Gaff takes on the role of Louise, a character which pushes all of her acting qualities and after her role in Cabaret- The Film, big things are expected from her which she succeeds to do so in ‘The Magazine’. She manages to represent all 3 different notions of class in one film. It’s not only her kindness to strangers or how she is oblivious to her surroundings its her ability to transform herself into 3 different people. The 3 different personalities don’t quite match DiCaprio’s feature in Shutter Island but creates the sensitive person every audience member will fall in love with. It sadly foreshadows her downfall, which makes it even more tragic at the ending.

The film doesn’t start off so promisingly. There are long pauses and sloppy acting which does not begin to set the audience up for anything special but as the film moves along, the pace starts to builds up and it gets better.  Combining the genres of thriller and social realism always creates an interesting film as it’s like a mix between Psycho and Fishtank with the use of kidnapping and guns to the theme of homelessness. Combining the two with the aspect of flash backs really make it work. It contrasts Jason Eisener’s work by toning down the violence whilst creating an atmosphere even more chilling due to using a younger actor which sets the message of social realism that it can happen to anybody.

JAI’s use of plot twists confuses, captivates and controls the audience’s minds by making the whole film become either an illusion or a dream due to the way it is interpreted by the audience and the way they craft their shots transforming it into a mystery. The dramatic ending is unexpected due to its mediocre pace and its worry for the ending to be too predictable but they managed to turn around all expectations and save the film.

Overall JAI delivers a good film; their plot fulfils the purpose of shocking and making the audience think about how easy it is to get homelessness so praise must be given for raising awareness of homelessness but there will always be a better film or way to raise awareness about this topic.

Evaluating a review

  I evaluated 'Take This Waltz' a film directed by Sarah Polley.

First Draft of Review

Faces were pulled when production group JAI announced they were releasing a film with them theme of social realism. Ken Loach successfully produced ‘Catchy Come Home’ with a similar aspect of homelessness but will JAI be able to compare. Playing on audience’s heart strings, JAI has craftily set their film in Brighton where a strategy is set out to target homelessness making sure no one will be homeless by 2020 but there is currently over 700 people sleeping rough. Will JAI’s audiences be able to handle the truth of homelessness, which is right on their doorstep?

Louise Martin Gaff takes on a role, which pushes all of her acting qualities and after her role in Cabaret, big things are expected from her which she succeeds to do so in ‘The Magazine’ by managing to represent all 3 different genres of class in one film. It’s not only her kindness to strangers or how she is oblivious to her surroundings it’s her ability to transform herself into 3 different people. The 3 different personalities don’t quite match DiCaprio’s feature in Shutter Island but creates the sensitive person every audience member will fall in love with but it sadly foreshadows her downfall, which makes it even more tragic.

The film doesn’t start off so promising. The long cuts and sloppy acting does not begin to set the audience up for anything special but as the film moves along, the decrescendo builds up it gets better.  Combining the genre of thriller and social realism always creates an interesting film so the use of kidnapping and guns to being homeless really captivates the diverse world we live in and despite it being tricky to combine the two, the aspect of flash backs really make it work. It contrasts Jason Eisener’s work by toning down the violence but creates the atmosphere even more chilling due to using a younger actor which sets the message of social realism that it can happen to anybody.

JAI’s muse of plot twists confuses, captivates and controls the audience’s minds by making the whole film become either an illusion or a dream. Throughout the whole film the dramatic ending is unexpected due to it’s mediocre pace and it’s worry for the ending to be too predictable but they managed to turn around all expectations and save the film.

Overall JAI delivers a good film, their plot fulfils the purpose of shocking and making the audience aware of homelessness but there are other ways of doing that, maybe a poster.

Planning Review

On the 4th of December, Alex and I did a rough plan for our review.

As the writing isn't very clear I shall type it out.

Paragraph 1

• Director, Actors
• The messages of social realisation "playing on heartstrings"
• Element of context- homelessness (find statistics in Brighton

Paragraph 2

• Scene 1
• Link to the genre (hint)
• Introducing the protagonist 
• Representation of class.

 
Paragraph 3

• Genre
• Issues
• Plot 

Paragraph 4

• Plot Twist 

Paragraph 5

• Conclusion

We decided to start the first paragraph with the directors and actors so we could set the picture of who was going to be in and also combining in with the message of social realism and the context it allows the readers of the magazine to understand what is in store for them and hopefully encourage to watch the film as it might have aspects which is ideal for them.


Paragraph 2 is all about introducing the audience into the film with information about the protagonist and a summary of scene 1. This can help make the readers decide whether it sounds good to them. By hinting to the genre it allows us to reveal the rest of it later in the review.


Paragraph 3 hits the key parts of the film. This is the reveal of how we as film makers managed to target these isssues within our plot and how it fits into the genre. By describing the plot we won't reveal the whole storyline as the plot twist is a key moment.


In paragraph 4 the plot twist is talked about but not explained thoroughly. This will encourage the audience to watch the film due to hyping up the plot twist.


Conclusion will reveal the overall thoughts of the film.