LOVELACE

The real Linda Lovelace

The story of 1970s porn icon Linda Lovelace has always fascinated me. At just 22 she became the face of the sexual revolution as her explicit pornographic film Deep Throat flew to the top of the mainstream box office and catapulted her to fame and celebrity status. However, 6 years later Linda Lovelace released her autobiography 'Ordeal', which revealed the far from liberated truth behind the scenes of her pornographic career, at the hands of her abusive and controlling husband Chuck Traynor.

Aesthetically, Lovelace is beautiful. Set in the 1970s there is a grainy feel to the film that gives a sense of authenticity and the bright colours, groovy soundtrack and classic retro fashion (I need to get me a pair of velvet dungarees!) made the film a joy to watch with a hint of old-time nostalgia. As the film starts it is clearly hellbent on representing Linda as your typical girl next door and it is really interesting to watch how her relationship with Chuck Traynor develops as she gradually transitions from her parent's darling girl to the star of the most popular pornographic film in history.

I was wary of how Linda's descent into the porn industry would be portrayed due to some of the cynicism that revolves around her tell-all book (which was proven true by polygraph tests). I was worried that the film would just portray her as a stupid little girl who was fully in control of her decision to be involved with the film, however, the representation of Lovelace throughout is compassionate, honest and above all sympathetic - showing her in the light that I feel she truly deserved to be shown in.

Amanda Seyfried is beautiful as Lovelace

I was also apprehensive of Amanda Seyfried taking the starring role as I am not the biggest fan of her previous films; she also hasn't really played such a complex or dark role before and I did have my doubts as to whether or not she would be able to pull it off. However, with her freshly dyed brunette hair and adorable freckles she simply dazzled as sweet, fresh-faced Linda Lovelace as she gave an out-of-this World performance that showcased every side of the character. The way she morphed from an electric, innocent but fun girl to the dead-behind-the-eyes, angst-ridden woman was incredible and there is one particular scene where hardly any words are spoken yet the audience are able to pinpoint the exact moment of Linda's utter resignation as she realises that there is no hope for her to be saved. This is a standout part of both the film and Seyfried's acting career so far for me as her performance of this particular, highly-poignant moment almost drew me to tears.

I heart Big.. I mean Chris Noth

The supporting cast is also incredibly strong; Peter Sarsgaad slips with frightening ease into the role of the horrific Chuck Traynor, James Franco has a  minor role as the young Hugh Hefner and The OC's Adam Brody plays Linda Lovelace's onscreen porn partner Harry Reems with an innocent charm. It was Chris Noth who stole the show for me though, as one of Deep Throat's producers Anthony Romano. I may be biased due to an excessive love of Sex and the City (of which Noth plays playboy lothario Big) but I just find Noth's onscreen presence overwhelming and even with little dialogue he effortlessly steals the scenes that he is in with a cool and comforting warmth.

Despite the stronger-than-expected performances and the great story of which the film's directors had to work with, the overall execution of the film was disappointing and a bit flat. Even though I admit i probably know more about the Lovelace story than many, the basic premise of the film that most people going to watch the film would know and is mentioned in every synopsis is the fact that she was abused and controlled by Traynor. However, the film itself only implies a minor form of abuse to start with before showing the full story in a kind of flashback format, I expect that this would be very hard-hitting and have a strong impact on those who didn't know anything about the story - for others it just slows down the pace and gave it a bit of a disjointed feel. Despite that some parts were still quite disturbing and uncomfortable to watch, it just didn't have as strong an impact as I expected.

I also feel like for an 18 certificate film about porn, abuse and violence it was relatively tame in what it showed. Most significantly with the level of violence; don't get me wrong, I was personally happy to not be shown anything more graphic than I was as I find this kind of abuse very unpleasant to watch and sometimes it is the more implicit hints that have the hardest impact. However, there isn't really anything that warrants the high certificate that it got and it is the certificate that I found misleading as it heightened expectations for the film and I was prepared for something the complete opposite of what I got. Ultimately, Lovelace is a film about a horribly disturbing true life experience but it has a kind of bubblegum, vanilla essence to it, as though the filmmakers were too scared to go all the way with a truly dark and gritty story that will do Linda's actual experiences justice.

The true story of Linda Lovelace has been screaming out to cinema for years and the premise alone was already the making of an incredible, hard-hitting and powerful film. Sadly, it fell into the wrong hands and even a strong and talented cast were not enough to revive the film's potential - leaving us with a good albeit underwhelming watch that I will probably have forgotten about by tomorrow.

All in all I award Lovelace with ★★★☆☆

Stay tuned for more reviews and follow me on twitter if you like!

Love,

THIS IS THE END

I’m not always the biggest fan of Judd Apatow-esque comedy so going into This Is The End I didn’t actually know a majority of the cast/ cameos! Obviously there is Seth Rogan (who I have liked ever since 50/50) and James Franco (who I’ve liked ever since I saw his face – I’m only human!) but Jay Baruchel? Danny McBride? Craig Robinson? I know Jonah Hill as a name but am not the biggest fan of his films. When I first watched the trailer I thought that it looked funny and the concept of actors playing themselves really appealed to me, however, as I didn’t know half of the main cast I was doubtful over whether or not I would enjoy it as I thought the jokes might be mostly ‘in-jokes’ that non-fans of their films wouldn’t understand… It took a couple of weeks of reading nothing but good reviews for me to decide to just give it a chance and hope for the best!

This Is The End tells the story of a group of famous actors who are having a party at James Franco’s house when the apocalypse begins. Having witnessed the grisly death of fellow party-goers, Rogan, Franco, Baruchel, McBride, Hill and Robinson find themselves standard together in Franco’s house with limited food and water, fighting for survival.

It took a while for me to develop any faith in this movie, the pre-apocalypse scenes felt a bit awkward and clumsy; making it obvious that much of the script had been improvised. The party scenes were very much just a game of Spot The Celebrity and, as Seth Rogan’s films tend to go, the comedy was mostly coming from weed references and sex jokes, which isn’t my kind of humour to say the least. However, once the erm, apocalypse began and the film got into the swing of things the laughs came thick and fast; the half a dozen actors who make up the main cast have a fantastic rapport and work really naturally together, and that is what made the film so funny. Without the fuss of the party and fitting in as many celebrity cameos as possible the central cast had a chance to flourish and although it was never going to be the most integral or witty film of the year, it does exactly what it says on the tin – simple, silly but very enjoyable.

The Holy Trinity

As you may have guessed from my previous reviews, comedy films have to work the hardest to impress me. I’m not naturally drawn to comedy films and there are few that I find laugh-out-loud funny, especially new releases. But This Is The End had me and the rest of the cinema laughing out loud constantly, the script (improvised or not) was so strong for a film of this standing and a lot of the time I found it to be the small moments that made the film. The muttered-under-the-breath comments, the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them moments, the holy trinity being compared to Neapolitan ice cream – the humour came in a variety of ways and almost all of them were spot on for me.  In fact, I saw this film last night and have since found myself giggling at the memory of particular quips and comments (the ‘elephant in the room’ comment has been getting to me the most I have to admit) - That’s when you know that you have seen a good film!

The cast had great chemistry

As well as the humour, the storyline was strong – it kept my attention and had me wondering what would happen next. However, towards the end it became a little bit repetitive and very predictable, if the film were to have gone on for even ten minutes longer I think that it would have been ruined so I am glad that it finished when it did, although a post-credit scene showing the fate of the other characters wouldn't have gone amiss! The cast worked flawlessly together, obviously they are all friends in real life but this really translated to the big screen and the natural chemistry that the actors all have with eachother is what made This Is The End so believable to watch (not the apocalypse part, obviously, but the way that the cast reacted to the apocalypse and to eachother was very realistic) and there were some very welcome references to classic horror movies such as The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, that film fans will appreciate but unfortunately appeared to go over most of the audience's head!

In short, this is a fun, enjoyable and hilarious film that delivers 100%. I feel that there is a bit of pretention against it with people criticizing and passing the film off as nothing more than a group of self-righteous actors getting together, fooling around and cashing in…. And do you know what? That is exactly what This Is The End is, but when the end result is so strong what on Earth is the problem with that?!

All in all I award This Is The End with ★★★★☆



Stay tuned for more reviews and follow me on twitter if you fancy it :)

Love,

P.S. I do kind of wish Neil Patrick Harris had a cameo :(