The Boat that Rocked (15)
Written by the same people who brought us Love Actually, I can't say I actually expected to think this film was incredible. It's had some mixed reviews, so perhaps it's not just me who thinks this too though.
The film has an all star cast including Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans and Nick Frost, who all work well as an ensemble and make you actually believe they had a lot of fun making this film-I'm sure they did. They form the crew of a rock and roll pirate radio station that transmits from a massive ship in the ocean, much to the British Goverments anger. Through in some swearing, drinking, debauchery, mini skirts and classic tunes and you have The Boat that Rocked. The plot is pretty thin on the ground, and has a rather strange ending where after the dramatic, knock-off titanic disaster at the end, the main characters are all saved, and a short montage about how brilliant radio is (complete with a presentation with top albums of the last few years), kind of made me think if it was sponsored by a well known radio station...
If you're a fan of the music, go and see it. If you're not, I'd give it a miss.
Sunshine Cleaning (12)
Struggling single mom Rose (Amy Adams) begins a new business in crime scene clean-up with her slacker of a sister Norah (a superb Emily Blunt).
Don't get me wrong, I did mainly want to see this film because Amy Adams (of JuneBug, Enchanted, Doubt) was in it. And she is mainly the saving grace of this film. It's engaging enough, it's sweet enough (and has a weepy moment) but lacks just that extra substance. Differing to a lot of these bigger-budget quirky films (Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Squid & the Whale, etc.) Sunshine Cleaning doesn't have the simiar comedic edge, great soundtrack and instead deals with some dark subjects exploring grief and loss. The various subplots did seem a little unfinished and un-thought out but that might've added to the intruige and lasting memory of this film.
It's yet to come out in the UK so it'll be interesting to see how they market it, and even more interesting to see how well it does.
