Silver Linings Playbook

"You have to do everything you can, you have to work your hardest, and if you do, if you stay positive, you have a shot at a silver lining."

Silver Linings Playbook is a film about obsession, love and the delusions of reality.   Pat (Bradley Cooper) is released to his parents from psychiatric care, after the violent discovery of his wife's lover.  He meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a beautiful but damaged young woman, and with her aid he is determined to win back the love of his wife.

The script delves into the tensions between optimism and negativity, and the implications that are produced both psychologically and physically.   Cooper and Lawrence's performances are perfect: portraying two strong and distinct leads who are constructed through their flaws.  Lawrence approaches Tiffany with sophistication; portraying her character with maturity and depth.  Cooper, meanwhile, perfectly captures the psychological turmoil of his character; the emotional extremes and the explosive tendencies of his fragile state of mind, as he clings blindly to the ghosts of his past.  Together they bring humour and humanity to their damaged characters; allowing the flaws of the human condition to be embraced.

Silver Linings Playbook balances upon the perfect edge between psychological drama and comedy, as it delves into the complexities of emotion.  This produces a film that, despite the underlying darkness, is at once greatly engaging and enjoyable.

Project X

The opening is a black screen with white titles, claiming that the following footage was real and never intended to be seen.  I love this authentic approach to film.  Perhaps that it the exact issue that I had with Project X - that while the film had this excellent framework, it failed to strike a sense of authenticity.

The camerawork felt too smooth and professional to truly be conducted by a mysteriously silent teenager in a trench coat.  This often led to the film feeling like an ordinary fictional film, rather than found-footage, which somewhat defeated the point.  The central trio of characters, clearly aimed at high-school boys, also felt like an uninspired repetition of The Inbetweeners.  There is the crude friend with over-ambitious ideas, the unpopular boy who falls victim to his friends antics and is besotted with a girl out of his league, and the overly smart-dressed nerd.  Instead, the true stars of the film had to be the two pint-sized security boys.  Approaching their security roles with absolute seriousness and devotion, they produced by far the best comedy in the film.

The film became increasingly identifiable as the party progressed, until it soared past all realistic possibility in spectacular style.  Interestingly, the film constantly redirected authority to the out of control teenagers, by presenting the adults within the film as either inept or approving of the younger generation's antics.  From a British perspective, given last summer's London riots, this felt like an interesting decision by the filmmakers.

The film lacked emotional weight, of course, but that's not to say that you won't be mesmerised with envy, and then utter despair, as the most epic party tears predictably into absolute havoc.