Tag Archives: Philip Seymour Hoffman

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The Master (2012)

Review of the Master

Straight from the opening shot, a lingering view of Joaquin Phoenix’s character Freddie Quell, you have the feeling this film is going to be special. It might be because it was the first movie shot on 65mm film since 1996, but at the start of the film I was blown away by what I was seeing. Beautifully framed shots and a perfect recreation of a time period around the second world war. There is a moment in a photo studio where you’d swear you are seeing archival footage or pictures of that times brought to life through some digital trickery. Those first couple of minutes had me hooked and I was prepared to join Freddie Quell, a struggling alcoholic, on his journey. It’s a shame then that at the end of the 144 minute running time I was lost. Continue reading →

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Doubt (2008)

review

As you probably know I’m not a big fan of Meryl Streep, despite her being a good actress. It means I often skip movies she’s in and with that I also run the risk of missing a very good film. I hadn’t seen Doubt yet and wasn’t planning to until recently Viola Davis was added in the best actresses relay race and read that one of her best performances was in this movie. Seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman was also in this movie I just had to give it a spin. Continue reading →

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Mary and Max (2009)

Looking at the screenshot above you might not know what to think of this movie. I probably would not have giving this movie a chance if I hadn’t seen it in the IMDB top 250. It made me curious about it, but didn’t get around to ordering it (usually buy my movies online). As I strolled through town I saw it in the window of a small record store and immediately went in to buy it. So is it any good? Continue reading →

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Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

It’s not often that movies based on someone’s life are funny. I Love you Philip Morris is one example I can think of, but so is Charlie Wilson’s War, despite the serious subject of the tension that was brewing in Afghanistan between the local people and the invading Russian army.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a politician from Texas who lives a very luxurious life while he has his seat in the American Congress. He likes his women, booze and drugs and really has fun with it all. When he sees the situation in Afghanistan on TV something changes. He decides to do something about it and finds out that America is hardly spending any money on getting the Russians out of Afghanistan.

He’s helped by Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) who, although she’s not a politician, does know the right people to get things done. There is also help from CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who really doesn’t care what the people within the CIA think of him. Together they try to make some money available for Afghanistan. Continue reading →

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Synechdoche, New York (2008)

Charlie Kaufman is well-known for his unique screenplays. Examples of this are Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Synechdoche, New York kan can be added to this. For this movie Kaufman has stepped into the director’s chair.

The movie follows the life of Cayden Cotard (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Passage of time goes quickly, sometimes you are years into the future in just a couple of minutes. The movie also contains, although this is not unexpected, a lot of surrealistic elements that start to play a bigger part in the story as the movie progresses. This ends in a very dreamlike state. This isn’t annoying though, as i thought it made this film more exciting for it. If previous Kaufman stories fascinated you, than this one will also have that effect on you.

Score: 8