Once my views go beyond movies, my mind is bewildered, my eyes dazzled, my limbs misplaced and my mouth shut. So let's just talk movie.
RocknRolla is a good make that will give you brainwaves at least at my very first glance. Drugs, music, sex, violence, bribery, plus the famous cockney speak that swallows each initial H sound. I won't take to hide my love for this movie in order to single my self out. Or I must say, I am not that type who have exceptional tastes for fine, interesting moving pictures.
One of the core magics of the modern movies is a chain of accelerated changes of scenes like another dish is served before you finish the previous one in a restaurant, or fast forwards or rewinds of the film as if you were manipulating a real time machine. However, it is important that each scene change would come together and make a meaningful whole, and that the time machine would land you at the designated point. And fortunately RocknRolla is among the ones that succeeded in those.
A modern movie won't do without sex. A movie without sex won't be nominated for the Academy Awards. And a movie without sex is like a dinner without wine, or martini. You got to dip your head into the alcohol in order to get a clearer view of what the world is like in your mind. And sex means the same. It touches our more real egos. Had Bobski not had sex with the lawyer, Lenny would've survived. Had Stella not had sex with One Two, she would've survived, and Uri's lucky painting would not have gone all a long way back to Johnny boy.
And a gangsta in modern movies smokes. He would flip the cigarette pack open and light one of the slim, white, little devils in a go that catches your eyes. Johnny boy didn't do that, but made verses with piano accompaniment in favor of his beloved king-size. One of the trends of our movie making aesthetics is a blend of classical art forms with common things in our daily lives. Obviously inventions are more difficult while recombination would somehow spark our inspiration.
As for music, since it's a rock and roll movie, it does not have room for pop music. In my geeky opinion, long time exposures to pop music kill your brain cells. People with advanced flavors love rock and roll, jazz, blues etc. And exceptional elites listen to Mozart, Bach, Chopin , Rakhmaninov etc. For the wild bunch in the movie, and Johnny boy, the world is a masterpiece, classical, with up and downs, beginnings and endings, plenty of key notes that rock, and finally a highlighted conclusion.
So, what is a real rocknrolla? I don't know, because I don't want a fucking lot. What I want is just talk movie, as was said in my first paragraph. Don't expect more from a movie, it is just a movie.
