Thought I'd do a 'new' movie for you guys since I don't think I do enough 'current' movies on this blog, enjoy!
I'm not going to lie, I hate films about cancer. As much as I say I'm okay with my Mum's death, I just generally pretend I'm okay until I actually believe I am. I don't believe pain like that ever heals or stops, you just have to look the other way, pretend it isn't there and get through your day. I think Supernatural said it best 'Frank: Decide to be fine 'til the end of the week. Make yourself smile because you're alive and that's your job. And do it again the next week. Dean: So fake it? Frank: I call it being professional. Do it right. With a smile. Or don't do it.'. But normally films about cancer make me think about cancer, memories come back and those feelings I've been suppressing get dragged right out through my eyeballs. That also being said I honestly think Joseph Gordon-Levitt is easily one of the greatest actors of our time, so I almost had to see the film for him alone. Pathetic, I know...
The film is extremely powerful and moving, even if you haven't had to deal with cancer in your life in some shape (and this sadly seems to becoming rarer and rarer) having to follow Levitt over his cancer battle is just really well... emotional. I know it's been done before and all that, but I don't know, I guess for once 'based on a true story' is actually helping the piece because it feels natural, fluid... real. Almost like your best friend just told you they have cancer.
Despite the fact this film actually caused me to break down in tears as you follow a man who quickly feels like a friend on his journey with cancer this film is really fucking funny too. And it manages to do it without being offensive, cancer is never trivialised or laughed at, well not in an insulting way anyway. I think this is a fantastic way to deal with a film featuring such a heavy issue. And I mean even more than that, this isn't a drama and also a comedy, it's a dramady. By that I mean the two genres, despite their opposite nature are melded together for this film, so it isn't like you're getting two movies, you get one, fluid piece. Pure brilliance.
The film also has a real dream like quality to it, I guess this is to represent the shock of Levitt's news and in places it really works, like the sequence when he gets high or when he first finds out but other times they seem to try represent this shock by having scenes sharply cut and jump around and I ended up myself feeling as confused as Adam did to the point where I had no idea where I was in the diegesis of the film. I guess this is also trying to represent how out of place he feels, trying not to mix cancer and his life together so it works on that level but in terms of spectatorship, I found this effect irritating, it kept pulling me out of the film.
Even worse, this film is branded with the awesome 'based on a true story' tagline bollocks. How many films have you seen that manage to both stick to the actual events that happened and be good? If you can think of more than five, you are lying.
The other lead actor is Seth Rogen who I really don't like very much. I mean he is okay, but I don't find him as funny as the rest of the world seems too and he seems to play the same character in absolutely everything. That is fine if you like that character, but I don't really like his... that being said, he is an incredibly good friend in this film and I actually really enjoyed him.
The other lead actor is Seth Rogen who I really don't like very much. I mean he is okay, but I don't find him as funny as the rest of the world seems too and he seems to play the same character in absolutely everything. That is fine if you like that character, but I don't really like his... that being said, he is an incredibly good friend in this film and I actually really enjoyed him. The film has a bloody great cast all round though anyway. I'd name drop a few names, but that'd involve me naming most of the cast, although there aren't a lot of 'big actors' as such - there is heaps of talent to be found here. Although what's with all the Twilight ladies?
It helps too that the cast just seem to have such great chemistry. Rogen and Levitt seem like genuinely best friends and I thought Levitt and Kendrick were so cute together.
Levitt plays a bit of a nerdy guy who works for a local radio station. You can see massive similarities between his character Adam in this movie and characters he's played in other movies. I guess that'd be a complaint if you didn't like that character, but I do, so... He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink and he recycles. Despite this fact he gets spinal cancer from a rare genetic disease. It's a scary idea. And despite being a drama, it has elements of a buddy movie - lots of great comedy and it eventually starts to shape into a bit of indie romance too.
The film is extremely powerful and moving, even if you haven't had to deal with cancer in your life in some shape (and this sadly seems to becoming rarer and rarer) having to follow Levitt over his cancer battle is just really well... emotional. I know it's been done before and all that, but I don't know, I guess for once 'based on a true story' is actually helping the piece because it feels natural, fluid... real. Almost like your best friend just told you they have cancer. So you better be prepared for some fucking gut punches along the way, because they are coming. If you manage to last the entire two hours without shedding a tear, you have no soul. The kind of emotional attachment this film induces is incredibly hard to achieve and for this alone, I can't really call the film anything less than brilliant. I know this is probably going to sound really ridiculous but this film effected me so much emotionally as it came up towards Levitt's operation, I actually felt extremely naseous, I was so tense I felt like I was going to be sick then as he panicked and gripped onto his mother I had to pause the film because I had broken into a heap of tears. It's ridiculous right, I was scared for a fictional characters life and more than that, this is a Hollywood movie, obviously he is going to be okay. Right? - this is just testament to 50/50's fantastic storytelling.
Despite the fact this film actually caused me to break down in tears as you follow a man who quickly feels like a friend on his journey with cancer this film is really fucking funny too. And it manages to do it without being offensive, cancer is never trivialised or laughed at, well not in an insulting way anyway. I think this is a fantastic way to deal with a film featuring such a heavy issue. And I mean even more than that, this isn't a drama and also a comedy, it's a dramady. By that I mean the two genres, despite their opposite nature are melded together for this film, so it isn't like you're getting two movies, you get one, fluid piece. Pure brilliance.Possibly the greatest example of this are Mitch and Allen, they are both on chemotherapy like Adam is and it'd be easy to make some huge dramatic scene about how these are two old men and Adam is so young and the horrors of what chemotherapy does etc etc. Instead they break conventions, they get high off weed macaroons and swear a lot. They are as charming as they are funny, it never belittles chemotherapy or downgrades it - I'm just glad it chooses to not lay the melodrama on too thick - one of them eventually does die, it's an incredible scene.
Similarly with the way it breaks conventions it does it in the other direction too. When Adam and Kyle decide to try and use Adam's cancer to pick up chicks, he eventually does get a girl back to his place, it all seems set up for a really happy scene after we found out his girlfriend was cheating on him in the last one. Only the scene ends on a sad tone as his spinal cancer is so painful he isn't able to have sex with her.
This film could have easily gone extremely wrong because there is a fine line when you take such a heavy issue and try to make it a comedy. It also doesn't help that the film can go off on tangents or use pop culture references. But I tell you, despite all the odds, it all works and it works brilliantly. It probably helps that this film is loosely based on Reiser's own experiences with cancer and he wrote the screenplay.
The film also has a real dream like quality to it, I guess this is to represent the shock of Levitt's news and in places it really works, like the sequence when he gets high or when he first finds out but other times they seem to try represent this shock by having scenes sharply cut and jump around and I ended up myself feeling as confused as Adam did to the point where I had no idea where I was in the diegesis of the film. I guess this is also trying to represent how out of place he feels, trying not to mix cancer and his life together so it works on that level but in terms of spectatorship, I found this effect irritating, it kept pulling me out of the film.Man that head shaving sequence sure was ambitious, if they fucked it up, would they have to do like special effects hair shaving? Or is it special effects anyway? I know I'm a film student but I find it very hard to work out what is real and what isn't with these sort of things. Like obviously violence isn't real, the actors won't really be hurting each other much like actors aren't really having sex unless it's a porn. But then at the same time when actors kiss, why do they screen kiss? Why can't they do like simulated kissing, the sex always looks real? Or is it simulated anyway? Holy shit what a tangent...
Do I recommend this? I'd honestly argue that 50/50 is easily one of the best films I have ever seen and pretty much as close to perfect as physically possible. If I had seen this in 2011, I'd probably have put this at the top of my top ten list. This gets the Think About It! 'Fucking Masterpiece' stamp of approval.
Think About It!
-Locke
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