Culture Vulture is delighted to be working in partnership with this year’s Mediafish Leeds Young People’s Film Festival and we can’t wait to keep you up to date with all the fabulous family film watching opportunities!
In the meantime we have a very special opportunity for all you budding young film critics out there. The Culture Vulture has managed to secure one coveted place on each of the Leeds Young People’s Film Festival juries this year! The juries are split by age group into up to 14 year olds and 15 to 19 year olds. So what happens on these juries we hear you ask! Well this is your chance to watch the films in competition at this years Film Festival, and decide which one is going to win the prestigious jury award! You will get a t shirt and a special VIP ticket to watch all the films in the Film Festival and the opportunity to share your decision with the audience at the Closing Gala screening of the Film Festival as well as meeting up with fellow film fans.
And that’s not all! To help you along the way to becoming the next Mark Kermode or Emma Cochrane, each of the winners will also get the chance to attend a Film Journalism Workshop on Friday 2nd April, led by award winning film critic Laurence Boyce, (yes, he writes for us here at Culture Vulture, as well as Little White Lies, Hotdog and was previously Film Editor at The Leeds Guide!). The workshop will include an introduction to the history of film criticism, a discussion about film publications and different styles of writing. You will also get the opportunity to hone your own writing skills by reviewing a short film screened during the workshop . You will receive critical feedback on your review and the very best one will receive a special prize courtesy of us here at The Culture Vulture.
Finally each of the winners will also be asked to write a piece about their experience on the jury which will be published right here on Culture Vulture too. So what are you waiting for…
In order to be in with a chance of winning this fabulous opportunity we would like you to submit a short review (max 200 words) of your favourite film in the comment box below. Don’t forget to tell us which age category you fall into (up to 14 years old or 15 – 19 years old). All entrant MUST have parental/carer consent to enter this competition – no consent = no prize, sorry! The winning entries will be picked by Laurence. Closing date: 19th March 2010
Additional Terms & Conditions: All winners will be required have a parent/carer sign the LYPFF Jury consent form. Additional forms will need to be completed to confirm the winners places on the Film Journalism Workshop on 2nd April 2010. Winners will need to commit to watching approximately 5 films as part of their jury work and attend the festival closing gala – full details will be provided as soon as the festival programme is finalised.
Additional places on the Film Journalism workshop will be available to the general public, alongside the full programme of workshop activity during LYPFF. Full details will be available on the LYPFF website as well as in the hardcopy brochure.
COMPETITION NOW CLOSED
Tokyo has a population of over 12 million, but for a foreigner this metropolis, with it’s climbing buildings and hypnotic neon’s, can seem a cold and lonely place. This is evident in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Lost In Translation’. Where, to fragile main characters Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), Tokyo can feel like the monstrous Godzilla, which first threatened it back in 1954.
Bob is a middle aged Hollywood actor, but one can’t help but feel the roles and the demand are drying up. He finds himself in the Far East, away from his wife and children, begrudgingly shooting whisky advertisements. The unfulfillment of what his career has become, the distance of his family and this unusual culture leaves him feeling empty and confused.
Just as empty and confused is Charlotte, a twenty-something wife of a photographer, who has tagged along to her husband’s assignment to shoot a rock band. A Philosophy graduate she is struggling to find her place in life and being left alone in this city isn’t helping.
The story follows these kindred spirits finding each other and the brief time they spend building a glorious friendship. It is sad and touching, yet comic and warm.
(15-19 age category)
Sherlock Holmes is an action packed movie, with an interesting approach to the detectives’ work. Aside from keeping the viewer thoroughly engaged, you hear the thoughts of the great detective, and you see him going through the plan in his head, before he carries it out. At some points there is a moderate level of violence, but this is forgotten when the humorous parts arrive. You find yourself trying to work out how things happen.
Lord Blackwood is the Criminal in this film and is played by Mark Strong. He certainly gives a strong performance of the bad guy, but Sherlock Holmes, played by Robert Downey Jr gives an even stronger one. Other Stars include Rachel McAdams, Hans Matheson and Eddie Marsan. Music is used to create an atmosphere, and this helps you get absorbed into the movie , and the film’s ending leaves a possibility for a sequel, which, once you’ve seen the film, is very appealing.
(Up to 14 Years old)
New Moon(2009) is the latest vamp movie following its predecessor Twilight as part of the Twilight saga. This film explores the seduction and romance between a fellow mortal and a blood-lusting vampire. New Moon engages the audience taking them on an emotional rollercoaster full of adolescent thrill, delving into the supernatural fantasies of a younger child and reaching an eternal romantic connection with the mature audience, now known as the ‘Twilight mums’.
New moon offers an exclusive journey of escapism into the land of ‘Forkes’, where the socially out casted Bella continues her romance with long-term boyfriend Edward.Unfortunately, things aren’t as happy as we can expect and we are taken through the protagonist’s emotional breakdown, which has teenage girls all over the country grasping their tissues tightly.
Kirsten Stewart lives up to expectations and embraces Bella’s vulnerability with her heart and soul. The ever so popular Rob Pattinson gives a strong performance as always and even if we do see him less than us fans are used to, from a girls point of view, that little bit of R.P flesh at the end is all worth it. New Moon offers so much appeal and is one film I would truly recommend.
(15-19 age category)
When I was summons to watch Alice in Wonderland my initial thoughts were I cant believe I have to watch a little girls film!! How wrong. This totally awesome adaptation of the Lewis Caroll novel was both entertaining and exciting from the word Go. We chose to watch the film in 3D and I fully recommend anyone wanting to see the movie to do the same. Jonny Deppe plays a fantastic Mad Hatter and though in parts the film was a little scary for the younger members of the group all in all it made for a gripping afternoon of modern techology twinned with old fashioned family entertainment.
I loved the film and would highly recommend it for any age group
Add to the usual Dream Team of Burton-Carter-Depp the fabulist Lewis Carroll and you get a foursome simply made for the big, 3D screen in ‘Alice and Wonderland’. Visually exquisite, the popping world of ‘Underland’ has been long forgotten by Alice, and she must be persuaded that she is the ‘right Alice’ so that she can slay the Red Queen and save the day. This is a Disney re-vamp of the original tale; Alice is now 19, and the film acts like more of a sequel to ‘Through the Looking Glass’. The script has, in places, been sacrificed for visual splendour – with a battle between baddies and beasties taking place on a giant chess board, and Alice somewhat surprisingly not taking to battle until she realises she is not in a dream, and that she could actually die. With delightful cameos from British barnstormers Matt Lucas (as both bumbling Tweedles) and Stephen Fry (as the evanescent Cheshire Cat), the film has many fun features. Be prepared to suspend disbelief: as long as you make sure to follow a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and talking like Michael Sheen into the cinema, you’re certain to be in for a treat.
Add to the usual Dream Team of Burton-Carter-Depp the fabulist Lewis Carroll and you get a foursome simply made for the big, 3D screen in ‘Alice and Wonderland’. Visually exquisite, the popping world of ‘Underland’ has been long forgotten by Alice, and she must be persuaded that she is the ‘right Alice’ so that she can slay the Red Queen and save the day. This is a Disney re-vamp of the original tale; Alice is now 19, and the film acts like more of a sequel to ‘Through the Looking Glass’. The script has, in places, been sacrificed for visual splendour – with a battle between baddies and beasties taking place on a giant chess board, and Alice somewhat surprisingly not taking to battle until she realises she is not in a dream, and that she could actually die. With delightful cameos from British barnstormers Matt Lucas (as both bumbling Tweedles) and Stephen Fry (as the evanescent Cheshire Cat), the film has many fun features. Be prepared to suspend disbelief: as long as you make sure to follow a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and talking like Michael Sheen into the cinema, you’re certain to be in for a treat.
AGE 15-19.
‘Scent of a Woman’ is a drama in which Al Pacino plays Frank Slade, a retired, benevolent, middle-aged military man who’s lost touch with his family and his former self. Embittered by his blindness, he enlists a young student named Charlie (Chris O’ Donnell) to help him visit New York over a thanksgiving break, and live life to its fullest for one day. However there is a secret reason as to why he is going on this trip, one that will but him and Charlie at odds.
Al Pacino crafts Slade into a complex creature who hides more beneath his rantings than simple anger, Pacino doesn’t merely emote, he inhabits Slade and makes both his physical and emotional blindness truly heart wrenching.
The screenplay is top notch, unfolding its intentions and plotting with finesse that helps vault the film into another league. For every genuinely funny moment, there’s a scene when you’re hushed to silence because the pressure of its circumstances are so palpable. It becomes clear that each scene is leading somewhere as the film barrels toward its tense and dramatic final act.
‘Scent of a Woman’ is a shockingly introspective film that you’ll be able to revisit again and again.
(15-19 age category)
Though the name leaves nothing to be imagined, Chuck Palahniuk’s ‘Fight Club’ has astonished millions, and with director David Filcher’s input, the pair has produced a work of optically genius and acidly humorous proportions.
The thirty-something and nameless narrator (Edward Norton) is tired. His mundane desk job and obsession with Swedish furniture has nothing left to offer, and so he emotionally invests in a not-so-squeaky-clean soap salesman, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), in a last chance to bid goodbye to the humdrum. With his intense desperation and Tyler’s anarchic genius, they devote themselves to a new, less consumerist form of therapy; underground fight clubs. The word spreads, and eventually these anti-establishment clubhouses grow to every town, attracting hundreds of white collars who fight barehanded and barefoot for any reason or no reason. But with the pleasure comes the pain, and as our protagonist finds the anarchy a little too much to handle, he is faced with a discovery that sends his world spiralling into oblivion.
With an A-List cast, spectacularly dystopian settings and a clear whistle blow for a revolution waiting to happen, ‘Fight Club’ sends us on a stunningly unpleasant voyage that should make even the most optimistic of viewers question the purpose of today’s society.
(15-19 age category)