Review: The BFG

Eric here, with thoughts on the new Steven Spielberg release, The BFG.   

Spielberg lends his patented magical touch to this film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s story The BFG.  It’s the tale of little orphan Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), who meets a friendly elderly giant (Mark Rylance) who instills dreams into children.  They go off together to Giant Country, where we meet other giants who eat children, and Dream Country, where The BFG shows her how he harvests dreams.  Then they enroll the Queen of England in an attack on the bad giants.

The first third of the picture establishes the meet-cute of our two leads, and it’s standard fantasy fare, albeit with a sleek look that blends the live action and CGI material quite successfully into one neat universe.  It’s all a little sparkly and cute, and pitched as most kids’ movies are to generate response for twinkly endearment.  At the end of this act, when we meet the bad giants, the film gets its first jolt of real gas... 

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The Big Not-So-Friendly Author

The full trailer for The BFG has dropped, and we’ve already looked at the teaser here which left us tingling with magic anticipation. Now that we’ve got more footage, including that of the big man himself we can feel as cosy and content Sophie under a big blanket reading a book that we’re in good hands. Spielberg was infamously interested in directing the first Harry Potter film, and perhaps this is the next best thing for him which has that splash of family friendly fantasy mixed with classic E.T. kids-on-an-adventure feel. That moment when the BFG is hiding in the shadows, obscuring the street light with his hand already feels classic.

It’s encouraging to see that Spielberg is taking the content seriously, and hasn’t resorted to making The BFG as a character a comedy act, which would have been the easy route for a kid’s film. Rylance seems to bring the soulfulness that makes the source material so rich. What is yet to be seen is whether Spielberg embraces the sneaky and dark side of notoriously prickly Roald Dahl’s writing which so many filmmakers have struggled with in the past. Dahls balance of the sinister and the joyously fantastic is what makes his legacy so beloved. Spielberg has a propensity for the earnest and sickly sweet side of cinema, so this may be a shiner version of the tale. Other filmmakers have had ranging success in capturing his style.

Previous Roald Dahl on screen after the jump…

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What next for our Oscar winners?

From Anne Hathaway in Bride Wars, Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux, Jamie Foxx in Stealth, to Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending, Oscar winners always ride the momentum of their award glory to the next prestige film. 

So what's next for our Oscar winners?

Leo finally won so he can crawl back into the bear (supermodel) cave (mansion) and never work again right? Unlikely, although he has absolutely nothing on his slate at the moment except for staring at his Oscar muttering "the way of the future... the way of the future....". I would genuinely love to see Leo in a movie where he plays a unlucky in love animal services employee who keeps stealing Kathryn Heigl's dog so he can give it back to her and appear the hero, that gets 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. Lighten UP Leo! There are rumours of another Scorcese collaboration about a serial killer. Just the light material we're looking for.

Brie, Alicia, and Mark after the jump...

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The BFG Teaser Trailer

Manuel here. While we wait on baited breath to see if the “handsomely shot” Bridge of Spies breaks through with AMPAS next month—they do love themselves some Spielberg, who has helmed three Best Picture nominees in the last ten years, earning directing nods for two of them—Disney already wants us to look ahead at the director’s next release.

The film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG will be the director’s first family-aimed live-action project since 1991’s Hook. We finally got a first look at the film in the teaser below, and as always, Spielberg’s regulars seem to be in top form, from John Williams (perhaps too closely echoing another beloved Brit property he scored recently?), to Janusz Kaminski and Rick Carter. It also sadly marks the final film of screenwriter Melissa Mathison (of E.T. fame) whom we lost just last month.

“... And that is how our story begins.”

We get the tiniest look at recent double SAG Award nominee, Mark Rylance, as the titular character but it wouldn’t be a true teaser without leaving something to the imagination. The film comes out July 1st, 2016; does the teaser show enough promise to think the warm-hearted Spielberg will be a good fit the Dahl's more darker sensibility you think?

RIP: Melissa Mathison (1950 - 2015)

Melissa Mathison, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of E.T., has passed away at 65. 

She gave us the film's iconic "E.T. phone home," but what connects each viewing is her rich understanding of the hearts and minds of children. She got to the part deep within all of us that was afraid of growing up and change, of trying to hold tightly to what would only be taken away from us. Adding this insight with natural and efficient dialogue, she turned uncomplex phrases like "Be good" and "I'll be right here" into primal moments loaded with childhood longing.

A mother of two herself, her grasp of the young mindset was also at play in her adaptations of The Black Stallion and The Indian in the Cupboard, and provided unique insight into the Dalai Lama for Kundun.

A natural fit to the fascinations of Spielberg, her gifts will be greatly missed. Coming in the year ahead, we will luckily have one last collaboration from the pair: the Roald Dahl motion-capture adaptation of The BFG. Material perfectly suited to her skills, it's a chance to celebrate her again.

RIP Melissa Mathison