FILM REVIEW: BLUE JASMINE

Hopscotch Films

Now Showing

Jasmine is feeling blue. Actually, she's a wreck. The New York high society wife (brought fully, and at times painfully to life by Cate Blanchett) has had her ivory tower and social status repossessed following her husband's imprisonment for illegal Wall Street wheelings and dealings, forcing her to flee west to San Francisco and the far more "homey" home of her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins).

Woody Allen's latest comedy (perhaps "dramedy" is more exact; it's not all laughs and even those there are skew dark) sees the veteran auteur return Stateside from another brief European sojourn (which produced the wonderful Midnight In Paris (2010) and the hit-and-miss To Rome With Love (2011)) to tell this tale of one woman's social and psychological undoing.

Blue Jasmine is as much about the global financial crisis as it is a reworking of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, and Blanchett's Jasmine (re: Blanche) is very much the centre of attention. A pill-popping, vodka-swilling ball of nerves, Jasmine clings desperately to the veneer of her New York sophistication even as she talks to herself, often in public, and lashes out at anyone who attempts to help or confront her.

It's a terrific character (whatever his faults, Woody gives good woman) and an equally terrific performance by Blanchett. The actress gets under Jasmine's Stoli-soaked skin, fully inhabiting this tragic yet abrasive heroine so much so that's is as painful to watch as it is enjoyable to behold. Even Brando's Stanley Kowalski would have been powerless in her presence (although Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Dice Clay, as Ginger's boyfriend and ex-husband, respectively, dare to brave the storm head-on.).

Indeed, if there's a complaint to be made against the film -- and, sacrilege, Blanchett -- it's that no other character registers as strongly. Hawkins' put upon sister (both were adopted from different families, hence the lack of familial resemblance) makes the most of her screen time but Alec Baldwin, as the wrongdoing husband, and Michael Stuhlbarg and Peter Sarsgaard, the strangers whose kindness Jasmine may or may not rely upon, are given little to work with.

Blue Jasmine is all about Cate Blanchett; playing a 1 per cent-er fallen on hard times, she gives it 110 per cent.

MOVIE TICKET GIVEAWAY: I'M SO EXCITED!

Legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Volver, Talk To Her) is back with a kitsch and outrageously funny comedy set mostly on a plane.

The comedy follows a mixed group of travellers who find themselves in a life-threatening situation on board a plane flying to Mexico City. Their defencelessness in the face of danger provokes colourful confessionals that become the best way to escape from the idea of death.

Thanks to Transmission Films, we have 5 double passes to I'm So Excited! to give away. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed (@TheLennoXFiles) for your chance to win. Note: tix valid in Australia only.

I'm So Excited! is in cinemas September 19.

MOVIE TICKET GIVEAWAY: PARANOIA

This high stakes thriller goes deep behind the scenes of global success to a deadly world of greed and deception. The two most powerful media billionaires in the world, played by HARRISON FORD and GARY OLDMAN, are bitter rivals who will stop at nothing to destroy each other. A young intern, Adam Cassidy, LIAM HEMSWORTH, is seduced by unlimited wealth and power, and becomes trapped in their twisting life-and-death game of corporate espionage.

Thanks to Icon Films, we have 5 double passes to Paranoia to be won. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed (@TheLennoXFiles) for your chance to wim. Note: Tickets valid in Australian only.

Only at the movies September 5.

YOU'RE NEXT: MOVIE TICKET GIVEAWAY

One of the smartest and most terrifying films in years, YOU’RE NEXT puts a fresh twist on the home-invasion horror. The Davison family who, while gathered at their secluded vacation home for a family reunion, find themselves the target of some creative and chillingly cruel killers.

Trapped and isolated, they must fight off a barrage of arrows, axes and machetes from both inside and outside the house as the masked killers work their way through the family members one by one. The hapless victims seem trapped... until an unlikely guest of the family proves to be the most talented killer of all.

Thanks to Icon Film Distribution, we have 5 double passes to YOU'RE NEXT to be won. Keep any eye out on our Twitter feed (@TheLennoXFiles) for your chance to go in the draw. Note: Only open to Australian residents.

Only at the movies August 29.