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508,420 | 453,068 | 44,386 | 8 | as conventional storytelling it's pretty standard , but as a Bunuel picture it's got plenty of subversion in store | In maybe his only time of giving into a commercial project , Luis Bunuel , deliciously notorious surrealist and satirist , took off his usual run of Mexican-produced films of the decade and adapted The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe . On the surface , if one weren't familiar with the director's works at all , it has the seeming quality of being an average B-movie adventure of a man in solitude who is saved by his man Friday and his own resourcefulness . The story of the cast away has ended up having better days , specifically in Zemeckis's Cast Away , as far as with how the actual details of the story unfurl . It boils down to this : Crusoe gets shipwrecked on an island , takes what he can from the ship ( some supplies , actually lots , a few animals ) , builds a camp , and little by little after the novelty of a deserted island wears off he goes near mad in loneliness . That is until the cannibals arrive , dropping off a man whom Robinson names Friday and quasi-domesticates as his servant-cum-friend . This is a story that even school-children know , and has even appeared as a goof on a Peabody & Sherman cartoon . But the fun in watching this rendition of Crusoe is for fans of the director to see what he does with the material . It's not a perfect affair , truth be told , as Bunuel isn't the greatest director of suspense , particularly in the climax . But what is essential for a film with as basic a plot as this to have is an understanding of what can be subverted , lightly and slightly twisted into personal expression . This is nothing new for many of today's famous filmmakers ala Spielberg or Scorsese , but for Bunuel he approaches it in ways that his best fans will be keen to look for and get in nice quantities . For example , as he is known more often than not as a director of dreams ( his best film , Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie , has dreams within dreams in savagely playful fashion ) , we see Crusoe having a dream early on where there's soft gel on the sides of the screen ( maybe to appease the producers , who knows ) , and in it Crusoe dreams of his father pouring sauce or other on a pig , and images of Crusoe in water , cut together and acted in truly classic style . It's probably even one of his better dream sequences , followed up by another later on that features a pretty funny image to boot . Actually , part of what makes Bunuel's Robinson Crusoe so enjoyable is spotting the references to past films - his palm covered with some bugs speaks right away cheerfully to Un Chien Andalou - as well as just mildly absurd usages of animals on screen ( how did the cat have kittens ? ) , and even Christian imagery in simply showing Crusoe with his huge beard , which Dan O'Hearlihy sports proudly for most of the film , and even carrying what looks like a cross ( ! ) but turns out to be the stand for a scarecrow . Then there's also the aspect to the bond between Crusoe and Friday , which is almost a pop-art form of one of Bunuel's own treatises on the division of the classes in many of his films ( i . e . Viridiana and Exterminating Angel ) . In a way it works just as well as a simple story anyway , because Bunuel is able to have his cake and eat it , by having a tale that as stilted it might be in its not-quite-high-or-low budget and form of writing / narration at times is fairly gripping in an ' old-school ' way , as well as enough room to bring out his flashes of brilliant imagery and jabs of surrealism , and even absurdism . |
507,855 | 453,068 | 59,817 | 8 | less like Olympia and a little closer , though not totally , to being like the Olympic answer to Woodstock | While I've yet to see all of what many consider to be THE document of 20th century Olympics in Riefensthal's Olympia ( it is , of course , a very long movie , and we only saw bits in a class ) , this document of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by Kon Ichikawa is quite the spectacle on its own . Ichikawa understands something that five years later Michael Wadleigh , director of Woodstock , would understand about filming an event ( though Woodstock will always be the better , more incredibly watchable film for me ) . And it is , simply put , to make it an EVENT - in bold letters - for people who may not even really usually watch the Olympics . The way he uses his many , many , many cameras an exhaustively large crew is staggering , and just in the first half hour or so , when the countries all line up and the audience fills in as the games kick off , it's done in a very dynamic style . He alternates interestingly between big wide shots of the crowds ( like Woodstock , seeming larger than it really is with everyone packed in thousands of masses ) , the stadium itself , and then to close-ups of individuals and bodies moving . It's this side of the film , the technical one , that is most worthwhile to see in the film . If it's less than perfect , it's because , frankly , it almost does become ' too much ' to see so many games that go on in the near three-hour running time . And the narration voice that pops up now and again sounds way too much like a narrator from old newsreels , trying to add emphasis where it's not really needed . It's too immense an event with too many goals vied for victory to add on extra words . But there are highlights though , such as the 100 meter dash , done in a slow-motion that might echo some of Ichikawa's other narrative films . And the Joe Frazier boxing match , while brief , is memorable . Sometimes Tokyo Olympiad comes off almost like an avant-garde film as much as it does just straight-on documentary , and it's here that I got drawn in . Of all major events involving sports and other games and activities and trials and such , the Olympics brings together all cultures for the sake of competing for a country's honor and respect , and Ichikawa has a very good balance between showing that and adding a distinct style to the numerous events . In fact , Ichikawa has what might be the best avant-garde sports documentary ever made , at least in the past forty or so years . |
510,983 | 453,068 | 385,880 | 8 | if you ever wondered what a Spielberg / Zemeckis-produced Goosebumps serial novel would look like , this would be it | Goosebumps , if not familiar , was a series of novels from the 90s which dealt with various spooky , unexplained , supernatural , and just plain weird stories meant for kids to take in in all its simplicity and imagination ( or re-imagination to put it another way ) . Monster House is kind of like one of the books never written put up on the screen with an extra dosage of some funny moments and lots of visual tricks up the animator's sleeves . It's directed by first-timer Gil Keenan and written by a group that seems like they're more into older-animation ( or at least not usually for the kiddies ) and other comedy by their career rosters . But probably the biggest reason I decided first to see the film was because of the exec producer credits belonging to Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg . I'm not sure what their input was on the film , but it feels like one of those 80s era horror film or adventure type works that they were attached to ( Poltergeist , the Goonies , and a few of Zemeckis's recent horror movie productions come to mind ) . It's a family horror comedy that actually has some characters for kids to connect and root for , with a little more development past the conventions , and a host of supporting characters that are actually as funny for adults and older teens as they might be for kids . And the creativity in the animation department is some of the best I've seen in non-Pixar computer animated films so far . The house itself , possessed by a dead fat woman named Constance ( Kathleen Turner surprisingly enough ) , is quite the marvel that really does make a good chunk of the enjoyment in the picture . The little twists and dark turns inside the house are like the best possible clichés of a haunted house turned inside out with added human-features ( including a good joke about a part of the anatomy at one point ) . When the film goes into its final act and the house then literally lifts off of its foundation after the kids , it really becomes an entertaining spectacle where cliffhanging moments are abound and there's always time for a grin . In fact , it's really something to see how the humor in the film is not overly juvenile or predicated on excrement jokes , but more on behavior and stuff kids relate to - being talked down to , boys clumsiness around girls , and fears of what may possibly be where they'd rather not look . And making up the characters is a very good voice roster including Steve Buscemi as the old man Nebbercracker , Fred Willard & Catherine O'Hara as the parents , a nice crop of talented kid actors ( Mitchell Musso , Sam Lerner and Spencer Locke ) , and others like Jason Lee , John Heder and Maggie Gyllenhaal . Like a good kid's horror book it delivers on some interesting bits involved in the mystery of the crux of the story , while as an animated feature it delivers on being engrossing ( and fun ) entertainment in its execution . It's also a blast , if you happen to get the chance , to see it in its limited run in 3-D . In short , I'm sure if I was younger I would've liked it even more , but as it is it's one of the more successful diversions in animated film this summer . |
509,820 | 453,068 | 90,633 | 8 | has a charm that is totally undeniable and appealing for ( most ) children | As a kid I watched this film many times , as it had four key things that it had ( and still has ) going for it : 1 ) a story that does not skim on really putting peril for the characters ( the separation sequence on the ship is absorbing , but also devastating if you're heavily invested in Fievel and his father ) ; 2 ) good songs that aren't too preachy , and with enough emotional tug to be Disney-like , but unusual or unexpected in some of the styles of ; 3 ) how the characters are animated - I love the variety given to the different mice and cats and how the humans are wisely left in the shadows or with just a hand or a foot ; and 4 ) the comedy in the film balances without a fault with the comedy . In terms of subject matter , there is a lot of historical background information that kids today may have no care for , but it doesn't matter ; Fievel and his family could be any immigrant mouse family , and really the core of the story ( the importance of family and love ) is what carries it through . And because of this balance between comedy and drama - there are allusions to the Pogroms in Russia , the struggles of the immigrant working life in 19th century America , and racism , but voices like Madeline Kahn and Dom DeLouise are featured in key roles - it may throw some in the audience off , or be too much on a first viewing . It may not even be a ' great ' film . Yet as expertly Don Bluth directed hand-drawn animation , with a big heart and a bright , and dark , story of mice versus cats , it has a wonderment about it that should be appealing almost twenty years down the line . It's certainly better than the sequel , which is all slapstick as opposed to being comic-tragic , which also has an appeal for some older kids and adults . |
510,260 | 453,068 | 149,460 | 8 | not as great as the Simpsons , but I'll watch it every now and again - certainly a very smart sci-fi comedy | The first Futurama episode was must-see for anyone who was already well affiliated with the world Matt Groening already established with the Simpsons . It was new and strange , as Fry ( voiced by the great Billy West ) gets frozen , and awakes a thousand years later to find all these crazy things ( hey , it IS the future after all ) start to happen right off the bat . And then it gets stranger and crazier as the episodes go on - and with some depth , surprisingly , between the principle three characters : Fry , Turanga Leela , with her one eye and powerful presence as a woman of action with her tender moments , and Bender , a robot version of the kind of dude you'd find at the racetrack , crude mouth , powered by booze and cigarettes , cynical but as robots like these can get quite likable . The adventures the characters get it , as I've noticed when watching the show , have that loose structure from episode to episode like something out of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , however with a sharper wit than Groening even gets on with the Simpsons . If it isn't as consistent with being uproarious or engaging , there's more than enough sight gags and in-jokes for connoisseurs of sci-fi lore to make up for it in usually big denominations ( albeit , like Simpsons , pop culture references are galore throughout the series , which is coming back I might add ) . It's fun stuff . |
510,433 | 453,068 | 734,600 | 9 | one of the great modern re-tellings of the boy who cried wolf , Twilight Zone style of course | Amazing to say , I had never seen the original Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20 , 000 Feet , even as it's one of the most notorious / popular episodes ( two sides of the same Rod Serling coin ) . Needless to say I already knew what was coming - it's a major credit to the episode that the episode spurred on many imitators and homages ( I saw it first redone on the Simpsons during one of the Treehouse of Terror segments ) . In its original form , with the " gremlin " that appears on the wing about as hokey as a third-rate Halloween costume ( albeit with a decent job with the face makeup ) . But it's sort of crucial for the period for it to be a very simple creature , as it may ( or may not ) all be in Bob Wilson's consciousness ( or subconsciousness ) . Today they would've done the episode in CGI , with an overly terrifying costume and makeup job , or at the least using an animatronic character . As goofy and at first unintentionally funny it is , it works really well as a springboard for Bob's visions . The real focus isn't the gremlin , anyway , but the reactions to the claim being made , and the mounting apprehension to it , and just outright ' what ? ' attitude to him . It's not to say that a lot of this is outright scary ; Shatner isn't the only one who over the passing of time has laughable facial expressions ( the wife , played by Christine Wilson , gives a few glances that inspire laughter more than complete terror ) . But there is always an underlying tension though , and supplied by Richard Matheson the buildup and climax does work to an intense effect . The line does straddle from displaying the paranoia and mind-set of this guy and being silly , and luckily directed by Richard Donner there's always a clear enough story with a few great images ( Shatner almost flung out of the plane , shooting the gun , is an indelible image ) . Sure , it's gone tame , sure it's got Shatner pre-Star Trek going through dialog like it's all his own to chew , and sure the conclusion is a given . But it's got a deft skill all the way . |
509,780 | 453,068 | 52,556 | 9 | a near masterpiece of the sadness and touching escape of love | Louis Malle had quite a running start in his mid-20's . Following the amazing noir feature Elevator at the Gallows - so hip and cool a film that Miles Davis himself did the score - Malle made The Lovers , a drama about a bored and unfulfilled housewife who has a one-night fling with a man she just met by the side of the road and decides to leave her husband and child for him . This is trivializing , of course , what is an incredibly potent and incredibly bittersweet tale that features a filmmaker so confident with his craft already that romance fills any scene that's required like a shotgun aimed directly at its target . When its at its best , The Lovers reminds us why we love watching people falling in love in the movies ( or what the characters think in a moment of passion , as does happen in French films since they are some of the best at it ) , and as a kicker Malle adds a catch , something that elevates it from something more cynical in tone . The main character Jeanne , played by Jeanne Moreau , is married to Henri , who works well enough that she lives pretty much as a bourgeois . She also has a man on the side , a polo sportsman , and sees him from time to time at sort of programmed-to-be-fun locations like an amusement park . She's obviously unhappy , and one might find this looking at it today to look a little dated , like " oh , she's unhappy , she'll go find someone , I've seen this before . " And , in fact , she does find someone else , or rather completely by accident or chance or whichever you'd be willing to pick . Her car breaks down on route to a dinner party with her husband and other friends , and a man , Bernard ( Bory ) , a relative of someone in the bourgeois circle but not one himself , picks her up and drives her there . He is invited to dinner and stay the night , and it's here where we see the two have an incredible and deep connection . I should stop now since I've given away whatever sort of " plot " there is here . The Lovers is foremost a character piece , and Malle knows this so he makes it an incredibly rich film of character . We're not seeing just the basics of people like an unfaithful wife or hard-working and bitter husband or sweet woman best-friend to Jeanne or a stuffy Polo guy or even a dashing man out of the blue . There's a lot more nuance to it than that , more that's tucked under and given clarity by the little moments that threaten to shake everything up , be it just a fly in the room or a bat flying in through the window during dinner , or a mention of a time at an amusement park . One can have an moral problem with what Jeanne does , which is leaving her husband and child for a man she just met . Logically , it's absurd and wrong and all that jazz . . . but when it's filmed and presented like this , it becomes like a hyper-realistic tale , something that should be fantasy but is too real for these characters to pass off . Part of this is how it's filmed and timed . Henri Decae does the cinematography , and with one or two exceptions ( in nit-pick fashion I spotted a boom mic in a couple of scenes that made me feel uneasy for such a highly regarded film , which of course passed ) , it's gorgeously filmed with light streaming in in that last third with Jeanne and Bernard in the garden and in the bedroom at night , given that hyper-realistic sensation that only happens in heightened romance in movies but made earthy and passionate because of the sincerity of the actors . The other part , I must mention , is Jeanne Moreau . She is one of the most captivating and desirable actresses in the past 50 years , but part of that is even as she is fairly young here ( late 20s or just turning 30 ) , something about her face looks older , more experienced in the world , weary . Maybe it's just for the character , but it's something about her that makes this and other parts she played in this star-making period so wonderful . Another actress might have made Jeanne look more unsympathetic . Moreau keeps us thinking about what her character may be thinking , disheartened by life and then rejuvenated by some possibility that terrifies her even more ( watch her in the last couple of scenes , it's staggering work in the subtlest of ways ) , or if something with her character has made her react or feel a way that is only possible because she is playing it a certain way . There's magnetism to her here , which goes a great to making the " hot " scenes with her and her partner so memorable . It's precisely un-pornographic , as if I need to point it out following the Supreme Court's ruling that it was not pornographic precisely because the Judge " saw it as such " , because of the filmmaker's connection and care for his characters even as they're doing possibly foolish and irreversible choices . It's liberating still 51 years later to see characters allowed to be this passionate and erotic on camera - whatever minor flaws , this has more love and lust going on than 2 dozen rom-coms in America as of late with usually not much regard to the way people actually react and think when thrown into romantic peril . At any rate , Happy Valentine's Day ! |
510,410 | 453,068 | 43,972 | 9 | maybe not the perfect film it's hailed as , but it is a classic tale of coming-of-age , the continuous loop of life , all in embracing Technicolor | The River is , understandably , very high on top of film-buffs ' lists of favorite Jean Renoir films . It's also a picture that needs a little patience on some more modern viewers ' parts - it's more meditative than it looks at first , and despite the narration from adult Harriet ( taken , I would guess , verbatim from Rumer Godden's original semi-autobiographic novel ) coming off every now and again as slightly padded to certain moments that should be without a word spoke , it takes the nature of the environment , the locations , the people , the culture , the spirituality , all at a simple subjective viewpoint . Which , in a way , makes it more powerful than it would be had it been put through some kind of filter of a native . Renoir knows that he's a foreigner , and that Godden was as well , so that it's at times almost anthropological in the side glances at the Indian life along the river . Through this perspective , and in the framework of a ' coming-of-age ' story , is a warm , mostly innocent film of love and life . It would be one thing to try and deconstruct the performances - it would take too long than is allotted on this site . Suffice to say Renoir does much with a cast that have either acted mostly in character-acting parts , or ( in the case of real life one-legged Captain John played by Thomas Breen ) not much at all . Even from an actress like Patricia Walters , who under a less careful attention to detail would seem as spoiled , or petty and intolerable , as a Veruca Salt , in Harriet there's a tenderness there when she has her heart broken over and over again as she watched John fall into the arms of Valerie . I especially liked how she stayed true to that sense of bewilderment , disillusionment that has to come at that age when concerning the passing of life ( the tragic death of her younger brother , the truest innocent in the film ) , and what it means to really love and love back . She might still seem all frustrated and confused in that final scene in the boat with John , but it works nonetheless at the emotional side . Other actors like Suprova Mukerjee ( her only significant performance in a film ) and Radha , with her sad eyes , also contribute heavily . Only Nora Swinburne feels like a ' conventional ' English matriarchal presence , though not as a ' bad ' thing to the story . What should likely be discussed more than anything are the visuals , the look , the style , the carefully ritualistic world that the people along the river contribute and take away from and how they're depicted . Renoir , as has been written , didn't want to put any of the usual Hollywood stereotypes of tigers and elephants and such in the picture - his reverence also contributes to the meditative quality , how there's at times documentary qualities to how the narration goes over the movements of the river scenes . And maybe the most daring scene being the unbroken take of the dance in Harriet's story , where the woman has to be in-line with the camera-work ( as Scorsese , major fan of the film , noted on the DVD , there's no dolly for Renoir ) , and never misses a step to the exquisite beat of the music . Any other director might go in for the close-up , or go back to a long-shot for a master , but here it's like a scene in Singin in the Rain : we're privy to every step , as the length of the shot becomes part of the dance , of ( not to sound pretentious ) the communication of it . I don't even listen to much Indian music or watch the dances , but it's spellbinding in the case of the River . And , along with The Wizard of Oz , some of Powell and Pressburger's late 40s work , and Johnny Guitar , it's one of the most superb Technicolor films of the period . As many a modern viewer will not take into account ( I wouldn't of had I not gone to an art museum lately ) , Renoir is the son of one of the great painters ( forget impressionist , just in general ) , and it's to this that one can see pitch , brightness , the depth and scope of a palette used to its fullest . It could be argued that The River isn't a masterpiece in terms of the story or characters , but I'd hate to be with the one who'd argue about how the color doesn't work or doesn't sit well . Aside from the painterly compositions , it's just a very pleasant film to look at , and it would be for this reason I would seek it out if it plays on a revival screen in New York City or other . |
510,759 | 453,068 | 879,843 | 9 | stripped of sentimentality , superb performances , unflinching direction | I should mention upfront , before this I had yet to see an Andrzej Wajda film , not without trying of course ( started to watch Ashes and Diamonds , didn't get through it , yet ) . His films aren't too well known outside of the art-house circles , but his name is always known to those who peek into the new-waves of the 50s and 60s in Europe , and Wajda was one of the front-runners of the wave in Poland right before Polanski . It's then with hopefully the utmost admiration that I can recommend his latest film , Katyn , as a good one to start with . It doesn't mean necessarily that it's much " fun " , but as far as films about the cover up of incredible atrocities go it is at the least fascinating and at best a stunning achievement of classical film-making used to present troubling events and the nature of the people who had to live with the atrocity . It's a film that has apparently already stirred up debate in its own country and abroad since it's not something new . The Katyn massacre of April 1940 - which also took the like of Wajda's father - was immense and horrific on a scale that is one of those top five unforgivable things Stalin OK'd , but it's the fact that it was the Russians and not the Germans , whom the Russians pin the blame on , that keeps it controversial . But in Katyn's hands there's reason for a fuse being lit ; this is not a work of someone wanting to sugarcoat or make something sentimental and easy . The film-making style may appeal to the masses - this is not something that is so arty that you couldn't take a reasonably open-minded average war-movie fan to - but it's the matter-of-factness of the plot details , the restraint and moving moments with the Polish actors , the precise lack of bad Hollywood influence , that imbues the story with such a passion and intensity . Basically , Wajda focuses on a few key people in the film , not the masterminds like Stalin or Hitler but those like the wife of Cavalry officer Andrzej , Anna , or his mother , or his fellow friend / Lieutenant Jerzy who was on the Katyn list of people to be executed but somehow got away from it , haunting him for the rest of his days , or a teacher who knows the truth but hides behind the Soviet motherland anyway . At first we see the events leading up to it from the soldier POV and of Anna from home , the simple nature of not knowing what's coming next or when someone will come home , and then when we know what is about to happen it skips over into the aftermath : the 1940s period , the immediate post-war and the late 1950s , how Poland was made occupied ( a character says at one point that Poland will never be a free nation ) and made to carry the burden of Katyn as something people talked about behind closed doors as one thing and out in public as another . Some scenes are given tremendous uplift by the acting . I've not seen any of these actors before but they're all wonderful . Watch the scene where Andrej's mother , who's husband professor was taken to a camp among other professors for supposedly damning the Nazis in speech , finds out that he has died while Anna reads the letter . So much is held back and yet we see so much in her eyes , how she holds her late husband's objects in her hands . Or the actor who plays Jerzy , Andrzej Chyra , who starts to crack while trying to put a face on what he knows happened at Katyn , in a big blow-up at a bar when he just explodes in front of everyone while an " official report " is read on the radio about Katyn . And basically any scene with the principal women characters , Anna , Rosa , they create these people in such raw terms as to support Wajda's need to strip away the melodrama . While Katyn here and there might have a rusty transition , or a couple of shots done in classic epic film style that don't quite work ( a few crane shots are nifty , like when a bunch of soldiers sing in a bunker , but some could have been trimmed to equate with how the rest of the picture is shot which is more formal ) , it is an old veteran / master's showcase . Like Clint Eastwood or Akira Kurosawa , Wajda is at an age where he knows his craft so well that certain shots and images are classic in and of themselves , and are assured in creating the dark and nearly horror-movie tone in some instances . For the most part we're given the framework of a cover-up story , and for this Wajda directs well scenes of people being hidden or someone being forced to sign something full of lies or running fast away from soldiers . But then it comes to the last five to ten minutes , when Anna is given the diary that Andrzej wrote right before he was executed . This is one of those endings that will likely kick the crap out of you emotionally whatever your durability with grisly images . And wisely , music is used by Wajda in these murders in a meaningful way ; what we hear is familiar , and it is since it's from the bathroom scene with the old woman from The Shining . It sends chills sharp and thick . And only at the end are we given a moment of release - a good long one over a black screen before the credits roll - with harrowing , emotional music . Katyn is made with the care of a superb filmmaker and of a soul who cares about how his country blunders miserably while doing something for his own lineage ; only The Pianist tops it for decade's most personal WW2 drama . |
510,530 | 453,068 | 101,258 | 9 | A tragic , supreme meditation on youth , with an impressionable cast | The only other film of Wong Kar-Wai's I have seen is Chungking Express , which asks a second viewing on account of not , like with a Godard film , being able to really soak up everything that he was putting forth with his characters . On the other hand , his second film I have seen , Days of Being Wild , kept me in tune from start to finish . His film is one of what I completely understand , and find emotionally fulfilling , as it deals with people and themes that are universal . At the core is the basic premise that in youth we don't know where we're going , we may feel like we're ' not all there ' , and being on our own scrambles us up . With his principals , Kar-Wai delivers a love story about what it means to be in love , or not , and how it affects the people around us . The late Leslie Cheung is our main protagonist , who at the start of the film woos a worker in a stadium , played by Maggie Cheung , and they start up a relationship that seems to go nowhere . Leslie Cheung's Yuddy is the usual kind of angry young man of the late 50's , early 60's , with violent tendencies and a level of detached mood from his counterparts . But he also has a sense of longing , for his parents he's never known ( his ' aunt ' is rather selfish ) and perhaps for something he never says outright . There is also a supporting story involving , and soon co-coinciding with Yuddy's , with a cop wanting to be a sailor ( Andy Lau as Tide ) , who has a sense of quiet longing after becoming interested in one of Yuddy's frustrated girlfriends ( Carina Lau as Leung Fung-Ying ) . By the time the last half hour kicks in , the main focus of the story comes in , at least for our two main heroes , and for the women in the story . Cheung and Cheung give many of the more powerful scenes in the picture , with dramatic tension and the kind of fun youth posses . But also , Lau is rather remarkable in his supporting role even when we are basically following him around , himself in his own thoughts we only hear occasionally in voice-over ( as with a couple of the other characters ) . More often than not , Kar-Wai wisely chooses to bring more mood to the story than actual plot contrivances or twists like in a common teen love story . While some passages are rather blunt in this respect ( i . e . the quote about the bird with no legs , a fitting , stark image ) , they seem to work . That there is not much violence as could be expected from a title like this is also a pleasant surprise . Adding to all of this , there is Christopher Doyle behind a camera that moves much like is was guided by a next-generation Raul Coutard . Some shots are impressive just by being elaborate ( like when we glide from the street up the stairs to a lunch-hall where Yuddy is at in the Philippines ) . Other are more subtle , with the emphasis of darkness and light a voracious method to bring out the kinds of moods in these characters . Early on in the film , as in midway as well , some of the close-ups ( like with two lovers in an intimate moment ) are of the highest quality in artistry . Doyle , who ended up working on Kar-Wai on most of his films , displays foremost a wandering , intuitive approach that bring Days of Being Wild somewhere special , if not perfect . Simply put , this film may be more directed to a specific kind of audience ( art-house / Hong-Kong film buffs ) than a mainstream romance / youth picture , but it doesn't compromise any of its integrity . |
510,963 | 453,068 | 390,336 | 9 | a documentary about fame , or lack thereof , in Hollywood , and more | I kept hearing about the Boondock Saints for a while before I saw Overnight . It was the kind of film that was always on the shelf at Blockbuster , with Willem Dafoe and several other indie actors on the cover , and several people on IMDb put it on their favorite films ever made . It is a cult film , but it's one of those that I found after watching got too much buzz even just from the people on the boards ; not a failure , but certainly not a good film , the kind of work that starts off making the viewer think its terrific , then goes downhill from there in a midst of conventions and over-wrought violence . I think if I had seen Overnight first before ever hearing of the Boondock Saints , I might know what I would be in for , but it would still serve as a curiosity . As it turns out , Overnight is far more fascinating and insightful than the film made by one-timer Troy Duffy . The documentary was made by Mark Brian Smith and Tony Montana , who were not only apart of Duffy's inner circle of sorts , but also " had to keep shooting " , and they say in an interview on the DVD , and are in the film themselves . Duffy , it seems , got a deal from Miramax films that in its own arena was unprecedented ; one may even think to compare to Orson Welles ' deal with RKO in 1939 , only this time Duffy literally came out of nowhere . He became a ' hot item ' for his script and for his band The Brood , which included his brother Taylor . Things seemed promising until , in what is described in the film ( appropriately ) as a ' turn-around ' , Harvey Weinstein shut Duffy out , and the film had to get made with less than half the budget after excruciating circumstances . But distributing the film , too , became a problem after the reception at Cannes . It ended up , as mentioned , gaining status on shelves , practically straight to video without any profit going to Duffy . Overnight does explore the rift that was between Weinstein and Duffy ( Harvey's only on camera for a moment , but is quoted by a reporter in the film saying " Was I right about him ? " ) . However the main focus of the film is on Duffy himself , and how his sort of awakening in Hollywood reflects the others around him , particularly his band who are above the film's priorities ( depending on the day ) . Candid scenes showing Duffy's arguments and feuds with the band ( and the filmmakers , who at the time were co-managers of the band ) would almost be funny if it wasn't so reality-based ; this is the kind of stuff that should be on reality TV , but is only fit for a documentary . One may also be tempted to become subjective about Duffy as this kind of emblem of what not to do upon a golden opportunity . But on the other hand , the film ends with the perfect quote , stating that Hollywood doesn't bring change to a person , it just brings out more truth ( ironically , in a town that is more often than not full of liars and ego-mongers ) . Duffy , like Welles , had ambitions , and even some level of talent with his band and his screenplay . But unlike Welles he didn't see the forest full of trees . The film brings to light what a mogul like Harvey Weinstein can do to a first-timer not prepared for what's to come , but it also brings to light in a subtle , profound way how character and attitude and personality affect the ones around you . By the time Duffy finished his film , most of those around him had enough , and in the end most of everyone didn't make it anywhere in either the film or music industry , most particular Duffy . Although the directors said in the same interview that they cut out a lot that would've been even more damaging to Duffy , what's present is enough for the viewer to decide . Like all good documentaries , it presents its case well of its subject , and interestingly Duffy never plays down anything in his head . The film shows him as a beer guzzling , chain-smoking , mouth-of-a-sailor with two of the biggest chances in his life , and if anything at times he plays up to the camera ( as many of us might ) , but it doesn't shy away the real situations . The extra bits where his fellow band-mates / friends comment on camera are also revealing , and it brings a full dimension , however bloated , to Duffy . In a sense I almost respect the film the Boondock saints after seeing inside his head , both carry similar qualities . In the end , Overnight is a must-see for film buffs and students alike , not just to see a success story gone bad , but to also get a sense of what to expect with opportunities . |
509,543 | 453,068 | 56,371 | 9 | an imperfect but vital film of poetic ideals in love and politics | On occasion while watching Bernardo Bertoulcci's Before the Revolution , which I have done about four times within the past year , I really felt like I was watching someone with a full love of cinema . Not just of how it can distort our perceptions of reality by how close or far or following the subjects are , but that there's a certain purity to it . When a filmmaker has this much bursting out of him at 22 , 23 years old , you're bound to find it coming out much like someone that age - still on the brink of life , full of ideas , and still treated in a couple of minor , even unintentional ways , as a kid . Bertolucci tapped into the vein of the changing of the guard in European cinema with vitality . Like in poetry , the moods and music in the language ( or , here , the grammar of film itself ) tends to move along with the expressions used to make it so personal you know no one else could have done it this way . Even when it might stumble the film almost seems to pick itself back up , plunging us right into the gut of its subject matter . At times only Last Tango in Paris , Bertolucci's masterpiece , came close with its honesty of what's going on in the world for these people . And , in truth , the film's structure would not work without some level of honesty to the viewer , or at the least saying with the random , seemingly sometimes mundane set of events ' it's got to be this way , at least for this character . ' How much of it is based from Bertolucci's life I'm not certain . But his lead character , Fabrizio ( Francesco Barilli , in a splendidly conflicted performance ) , is not necessarily a great young future leader of men or something . He's a bourgeois - the word is used quite a number of times in the film - and filled with ideals about a Marxist-style revolution , perhaps . For the most part though he wanders , thinks in quotes , and is close to his Aunt Gina ( Adriana Asti , perfect for the part ) . It is dealing with this relationship that the filmmaker has to find his stride most , and he does . It goes from quiet , to cute , to talkative , to confused , then to something more risqué - passionate . When the character's cross the line , one may want to suddenly find some of what proceeds as taboo . It's not the case . What turns Before the Revolution into something not as troubling as the subject matter might appear , Bertolucci utilizes a style that corresponds with the scatter-shot frame of mind in the character's story . The plot is ' linear ' , but there are times where the sort of Italian frame of romanticism comes into play as well . Because the poetry of the emotions helps make this not as potentially pretentious as some of these scenes could come across , it is not without notice that upon once or twice times the subject matter goes into confusing points . The scenes late in the film involving Puck , for example , become so into the realm of the literary that it goes beyond interesting and into the dangerous realm of the self-indulgent ( which is understandable given the filmmaker's talents ) . Though Italian to the bone , here and there I almost wondered if at times Truffaut and Godard , switching off like hitters in a batting cage , were in the back of Bertolucci's mind as he wrote the script or filmed a scene . It doesn't hurt at all , of course , that two great musicians contribute to the film . One is Ennio Morricone , who co-wrote the music and performed for the film , and though not mentioned on IMDb , the great Gato Barbieri is also credited in the music . It's not just them but also the whole backbone of the music in the film . It adds that kick that is in many an Italian romance / drama , and also touches of ironic humor , of the joyfulness of youth ( i . e . riding the bike early on ) , and songs used for effectiveness ahead of its time . By also entrusting much of his own vision into the hands and eyes of Aldo Scavarda , Bertolucci gets cinematography that makes it apparent how with many of his films his style is apparent in every one . That it starts off so rough , yet with delicacy , and combining it with a lot to contemplate in terms of what love is , what politics mean for the well off and the not-so well off , and an uneasy feeling of hopelessness . It's one of the more breathtaking visions to come from a director younger than 25 in the post-Italian new-wave . It's not too much of a wonder then Scorsese lists this as his primary influence to make Who's That Knocking at my Door . |
510,301 | 453,068 | 112,819 | 9 | might be my favorite Hughes's brothers film ; gritty , hard-hitting , relevant | Dead Presidents has in its story a tale of desperation and sorrow for a period where young men were perpetually let down by those around them , and took the easy way out through crime . But somehow , just as much as Menace 2 Society in its own style , is relevant for today , or at least the period it was made in a dozen years ago . It's inarguable Vietnam made these guys the way they turned out , but it's not the sole catalyst . It's also the mood of where they grew up , the crime that was already inherent in the ghetto they were at . It's about the struggle of breaking out of a place and time that is all the more rotten for what the country they're in did to them by sending them off to unjust war . That's the " message " , anyway , but it's only once or twice hit home harshly . The rest of it is driven by tight , extremely talented film-making , a contender for best thriller of the year where there were many good ones ( not as ' fun ' as Desperado , but with a depth and sadness to the scenes of thrills ) . It's also great to see the actors in the film work so well , including Chris Tucker - given more to do here emotionally than any other film he's done - and a small part from Keith David , who's somewhat underrated in his time as a fantastic character actor . Then there's also the bank heist , which is in and of itself dynamite , and the main plot of the deterioration of the romance between the characters that gets frightening . Even the resolution , which seems very matter-of-fact and bleak ( watching Tucker on the couch ' watching ' the Al Green song is a sobering moment ) , works very well . Dead Presidents isn't truly great art or whatever , but it does showcase the talents of the Hughes brothers better - or at least with more articulation and determination - than any other they've made ( and all four they've done are well done , particularly From Hell and Menace 2 Society ) . |
509,043 | 453,068 | 65,143 | 9 | Argento's first film is his first Giallo , and one that is sharply crafted , amusing , chilling , and even eerily jazzy | Dario Argento's first dip into the directorial pool is a pot-boiler somewhere in the realm between Hitchcock and Jack the Ripper , classic noir and the " modern " cat-and-mouse serial killer picture . Argento's method's may still be in a slightly embryonic state ( i . e . his intense stylistic flourishes , which by the 80s would seem totally ridiculous in comparison to Crystal Plumage ) , but already on his first film as director - not on writer , however , as he penned all odds and sorts of spaghetti westerns and thrillers - he assumes control like it's second nature . Suspense sequences involving the coolly suited knife-wielding killer , with Argento trademark black gloves , and a long trench-coat and black hat , come off without a hitch , and not without the kind of excess gore that he and other Italian Giallo directors got branded with throughout the 70s and 80s . Damned if I'll say this , it's probably the one film by the director you can show unashamedly to your grandmother . Tony Musante , an actor I've never come across , impresses ( as far as a protagonist in an Argento film can such as this ) as an American with his girlfriend who are in Italy for some reason or another ( a writer it would seem , as we only are told in one or two scenes , which is just as well ) . He witnesses an attack on a woman inside an art gallery , the only witness in a string of what has already been vicious murders by butcher knife , all women , all unconnected . He just wants to leave , but he has to stick around to give more details . And then , lo and behold , he grows more and more intrigued and involved in the case till , of course , he and his girlfriend become a target by this sadistic killer ! All of this is handled by Argento as if they're not the conventions that we all know in this kind of thriller ; he approaches all of them with a fresh take , and adds in doses of unexpected humor to keep things interesting ( the painter behind the possible clue-painting with the killer in a field and his cats is incredibly funny ) . But it would be just one thing if Argento kept at making near-golden Hitchcockian ideals and the pulpy juices of a genre piece moving along . Argento is out to depict a sense of paranoia , growing and growing upon an aesthetic that is not quite the Master of Suspense , and not quite your common Dirty Harry thriller ( though Ennio Morricone's score sounds like a mix of his quintessential touch and some Lalo Schifrin thrown in for good measure ) . In a sense Vittorio Storaro's cinematography throws one off guard ; it's at times not so shot like your common thriller , but as something more ambitious , something that drills away through its premise to dig up any pure cinematic threat to the characters . This might sound a little pretentious , but just watch certain sequences , like when Sam is being trailed by the man in the yellow jacket , or when the second female victim is seen , point of view changing without a beat misses on either end . Thanks to Argento's backup of Storaro and Morricone , he has here a twisting tale of a psycho killer with an artistic edge . It's clear to see , even with the ending that yells out as bad Psycho exposition rip-off , that he was on his way to a solid career . |
508,545 | 453,068 | 416,044 | 9 | awesome blockbuster entertainment from , of all places , Kazakhstan about the notorious conquerer | Mongol could really be called " The Mighty Years of Genghis Khan Part 1 " , which might be a little helpful for some coming and expecting to see in the film what's known best about Khan - a murderous , wild conquerer of a good chunk of the world ( at least for the period ) . The filmmaker , Sergei Bondrov , decided to stop just before we get to the really meaty , juicy , notorious parts of his days . This isn't a flaw but the design of the story , and in this design to give us the rise to power of Khan ( here known as " Temudjin " , which was his real name ) delivers a story lush with the ferocity of a bloody , powerful epic that harkons back to Gladiator and Braveheart , only with a little more ' umph ' in dealing with the subject of the barbaric period . In the midst of what are described as being " nothing but murderers and thieves " , there's someone who has such a strong code of honor that he never leaves or forsakes his wife whom he chose at the age of nine . If one were to judge ( and I will for a bit ) , the Genghis Khan of this film is so honorable , in fact , that he doesn't mind that he's made a cuckold by his wife , and that he raises children that aren't even his ( at least one of them anyway ) . And he lives by such a code that is unspoken that his character as depicted here is among the most honorable and heroic of the classic epic-movie hero of this caliber . But taking apart this strange choice - Bondrov could have just made him a total pig - Mongol comes off braver , and helpful in realizing the epic scope of the project which , apparently , isn't finished yet . Thankfully not ; the choice of actor Asano Tadanobu is inspired and just right , as he's an actor who can portray Temudjin as likable but also appropriately savage and bad-ass where need be . He's a tru-blu warrior , and he fills the shoes wonderfully . As do many other cast members in their parts ( I don't remember many of the names , but the one who shaves his head and cruelly runs Mongolia is very good ) . What impresses most , and what should hopefully make Mongol something of a must-see on DVD when most Americans can watch it , is that it fulfills the quasi-genre requirements of a sweeping , heart-pounding big-name historical drama without relying too heavily on CGI ( the last battle sequence is the only one that uses it extensively ) , using the locations to put one in the place of the period to a T , summoning some eerie musical accompaniments , and the director , a promising professional , who isn't afraid to keep the pace of the time-line over the years with the story . For the most part , everything clicks , which is more than can be said of some of the recent historical action-dramas ( Troy and 300 , however extreme comparisons , as examples ) . Bottom line , can't wait for the sequel to get some serious carnage going on ! |
509,558 | 453,068 | 405,159 | 9 | boxers ' blues - one of the more notable points in Eastwood's career | Something a friend of mine talked with me about after he and I had seen the film was a good point about the film's dramatic structure ( which prompted me to see the film a second time , aside from knowing intrinsically it would get doused in Oscar liquid ) . It's like a darker , slightly harsher Aesop tale , with simplicity in its message ingrained into it , but with power none-the-less . I wouldn't say even after a second viewing that Million Dollar Baby , Clint Eastwood's latest film as one of the few remaining Hollywood auteurs , is one of his very best films ( I don't know if I may be one of only a few that found Mystic River more shattering on the whole ) . Still , I think that at the least with these two latest films , Eastwood has reached on his own level the heights of one of his great dramatic influences - director Vittorio De Sica . His films were filled with an intuitive touch of humanity , observing where heart lies within people , and where it doesn't . Aside from the darker themes that the film brings up , it's also at the core a simple tale of those who observe who has heart , kindness , and who doesn't . Eastwood is better than usual as Frankie , a trainer and owner of a boxing gym . His friend and observer of the film's details , Scrap ( Morgan Freeman , supreme in his understated performance ) , was once a boxer too , but with going too far with a fight , he became half-blind , but given a job and residence by a guilt-ridden Frankie ( who is so for that and a few other things , some kept perfectly ambiguous ) . When he loses his boxer for being ' over-protective ' , a woman , Maggie ( Hilary Swank , intuitive as always in her scenes ) , asks to be trained . After much convincing , Frankie takes her on , and little by little , he gets looser on his strict terms of not being questioned with his teachings . Then , as Maggie finally reaches the top , there comes what is called in screen writing as the second turning point , and the story turns its last act into the contemplative , the deep , and the tragic . One thing that grabbed me even more so on a second viewing was that the theme of what boxing does to the human spirit and psyche is a double-edged sword . On the one hand , as Scrap observes , it's " un-natural " , to be moving around getting right in the face of pain and not running away , and how it is not a very glamorous ' sport ' at all ( a theme that makes it more worthy than a lessor boxing movie would give ) . On the other hand , it also goes in hand with the theme of having heart ; the two supporting characters of Danger ( in a satisfactory performance by Baruchel ) and Shawrelle ( Mackie ) , who are a major contrast . I really liked how Eastwood and writer Paul Haggis ( from a book of short stories ) dealt with the sub-plot to go so well with the main plot of Frankie , Scrap and Maggie . Another exceptional scene that makes this point clearer - and more resonant as the final act unfolds - is when Maggie gets a treat on her 33rd birthday from Scrap , and he tells his story about how he lost sight in his eye . In this scene , both of the actors are brilliant in their tone and reactions , it makes for one of the more meaningful , and dramatically compelling , pieces of the story . I wouldn't say , as I said , that the film is entirely flawless ( which is arguable , I know ) . One problem I had both times I saw it , though not overall , was with Morgan Freeman's narration . For the most part it is insightful and narratively correct , but unlike Freeman's key narration role ( as the key observer in Shawshank Redemption ) , not every line seemed very crucial for the story . It is a simple story with simpler , sometimes philosophical notes of narration , but I sometimes wished that everything had to be outlined - one can sense things right in Eastwood's face and eyes while Freeman talks gruffly behind him . And , arguable still , the sheer simplicity of the film does leave it so that one can't figure out parts of the story for themselves . Never-the-less , the film is an extraordinary stroke of skill for Eastwood as a director . If one can't say that his performance is one of his very best , one could say that his direction , his use of the camera ( via DP Tom Stern ) , is at a peak . The way he uses his strokes of lighting and darkness , and with the way he can control the camera and not be ( un-appropriately ) flashy , makes it extremely professional . That he's been known to shoot scenes in one or two takes makes for such a sweetly spontaneous result , however totally controlled . Indeed , I agree whole-heartedly with one critic who said " to call this an old man's film is a sincere compliment " , especially on the craftsman side . |
510,593 | 453,068 | 112,740 | 9 | before Tony Scott lost his mind style-wise as a director ; great star / suspense appeal | Crimson Tide is a real ' guy ' kind of movie , and with a good foot set in the nuclear war debate . It's almost a throwback to those star-packed movies from the 60s , only now it's been given a better grip with the performances , the direction , and when it happens the action . But this is not really as much an action movie as it is a tension-overloaded tome of Naval officers in the heat of world-changing decisions . One might guess , of course , where the story may head , but it's still exciting getting there . It also is a big help to see actors who are always compelling on camera even when they're just standing at attention with stone-cold faces of stoic male command . Gene Hackman has the kind of role that allows him to have the danger of going overboard , of being the out-of-control Captain of the Alabama . But he always keeps the character in check of being both professional and a little too eager to pull the BIG trigger . It's a controlled , expert kind of performance that is a professional turn to counter another expert professional turn from Washington . Both men are not without small doses of humor ( Washington in particular , thanks to Tarantino's script touch ups , puts in some pop-culture references ) , but it's really the bulk of the film - what to do by protocol , loyalties in the crew , and wills , that draw the biggest suspense . So it's not even really as much driven by action as many of Scott / Bruckheimer's other movies . Scott doesn't hesitate , to be sure , to put his own stylistic stamp on the material ( lots of uses of colors and filters on his actors , etching up the claustrophobia , and of course a possibly over-used tilted camera ) . But it's the kind of movie that can appeal to fans younger ( i . e . 20s ) and older as a story of military men in crisis . The dialog is often as sharp as the craftsmanship , and the messages aren't overstated among the large-scale ( and faulty ) technology on the sub . In fact , as a submarine movie it's best when it knows what it is , and doesn't kid itself with pretense . It's slick , it's well-acted by stars and supporting players alike ( with a who's who including Viggo Mortensen , James Gandolfini and even Steve Zahn ) , and it ends on a note that is predictable , but not unwarranted . And among the films as of late Tony Scott has directed , it's a pleasure to watch him with his hands not scrambling all over the place , letting the story and characters do much of the work . |
509,191 | 453,068 | 52,698 | 9 | as solid as they come , and if you can find it on the big screen , go ! | The film Classe tous risques directed by Claude Sautet was not a film , to be honest , I had ever really heard of until the Film Forum in NYC said that they would have a 2-week screening of the film , with new English subtitles . When I also read that it was in the vein of the classic French crime films ala Jean Pierre Melville , I jumped at the chance to check it out ( at best it would rank up with his great works , and at worst I would get some good popcorn in a great theater ) . It was well worth the admission , as Classe tous risques is one of those kinds of French films that is just waiting to be re-discovered ( or discovered for the first time ) . With terrific , tense diligence , Sautet keeps the suspense at a tight pitch for the first forty minutes of the film , keeping a good ( if not great ) middle section , and then ending it up with what is always expected with these films , but with fascinating motivations by way of the characters . With a film in the vein of this sort , you know how it will end , but it's the cool , observant journey that counts . The film features a performance with some real truth and honesty , amid the " old-school " criminal's code , by Lino Ventura as Aldo , who at the start of the film ( one of the best beginnings to a film in this genre and country ) steals a hefty amount of money with his partner in crime ) . When there is a sudden , ugly twist of fate on a beach late one night , Aldo is again on the run with two little kids . He gets the aid of Eric Stark ( Jean-Paul Belmondo , a role in tune with Le Doulos only with a smidgen more humanity and charisma ) , who is also a thief and drives him into Paris . But there are some problems with some of Aldo's old business partner's , and one old score may be just the right ticket . A couple of times the plot may seem to be leisurely , but it isn't . Like Melville , Sautet doesn't allow any fat to his story , and it's a very tightly structured film , with some good doses of humor here and there ( I was sometimes grinning at the audacity of the criminals in the beginning chase sequence , and also with a particular woman who had a finicky thing with her cat and a fish ) . Along with a fine score by the great George Delerue , exceptional cinematography , and a mood that is seldom met let alone matched now adays , Classe tous risques is a reminder of that bridge between the real old-school film-noir , and the latter day crime films . Gangsters in these new sort of " thug-life " movies have a 1000th of the class and honor of the thieves in this film , and is a second banana to the works of Melville and Jules Dassin ( a compliment I assure you ) . That it has a good realistic , moral edge helps as well . |
509,432 | 453,068 | 65,152 | 9 | a contradiction in terms : Dostoyevsky by way of Bresson , but somehow it works , affectingly , a tale of doomed possession | Robert Bresson would be the last filmmaker I would think to adapt any story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky , a man who might be the greatest writer of melodrama - and melodrama as in gut-wrenching , emotional stuff , with a characters in , for example , Crime and Punishment having a big screaming or dramatic fit , all described in massive amounts of painstaking detail ( mostly so Dostoyevsky could get paid by the word , perhaps ) . Because Bresson was a filmmaker who was completely uncompromising for what his vision required : usually non-professionals , saying dialog with a passive , almost restrained quality , with emotion held back until the most necessary ( if at all ) moments . Bresson was even on record once saying he didn't like sets or actors for that matter . But with Dostoyevsky's story he crafts another work that is all his own while honoring the harsh view on the human heart that the author had . It's a story where one might be tempted to take the woman's side , or ( arguably ) that she even did the right thing for herself at the end ( or , as we at the start , at the beginning told backwards ) , but it's never that easy . A Gentle Woman leans more to searching for common sense where there is none : Elle is a simple girl in a family that doesn't treat her well ( we don't see this , we just hear it second-hand ) , and has a gentle quality ( or ' meek ' as Dostoyevsky's story was originally titled ) that somehow allures Luc , who works as a pawnbroker . He pursues her , even though she's not much interested in his advances ( " I told you not to follow me , " she says to him as he follows her up to his house , in a tone soft but firm ) . He marries her . They seem momentarily at peace , but this soon breaks : Luc is continually insecure with himself , in a sense , because he can never feel secure in his relationship . Unlike That Obscure Object of Desire , where there was a mind-game involving the sex in the possessive relationship , there's no question that they do go to bed . It's the whole factor of what's really there in terms of trust , love , redemption , and above all a connection between two people . A scene that could be in a silent film ( a form Bresson desperately would love to have tried ) , the couple are watching a film in a theater , and she is sitting next to a guy on her other side . Luc can't stand this , and almost on instinct he stands so the two can switch . A glance , or a couple of glances , speak a thousand ideas in a Bresson film . In fact it's Bresson's attempts , as in other films , to try and intellectualize an emotional downward spiral that gains interest . Because it's the opposite of your usual melodrama , where the characters get all excited and angry and yelling and lots of misunderstandings and so on , the style is stripped down , leading to what is a much more distressing relationship they're in . Neither one can give in , but Elle just can't seem to leave him or go through an affair . And Luc likewise can't seem to ever go to lengths of domestic violence or on the flip-side leaving him . It's all about him having her , not the other way around , and the moments that she tries and asks him about his past doings ( i . e . being fired from a bank teller job ) he hesitates . There's a mold in shape that he can't seem to break of her , and by the time he goes for it and says over and over " I love you " it's clear as day - she's already past that point saying " I thought you were going to leave me . " Enigmatic , maybe , it depends on the viewer . It might be understandable this is one of Bresson's least available selections ( no DVD yet , and a very paltry availability on the internet quarters of VHS sales ) , even though it shouldn't be . It's a fascinating experiment in dissecting character through narrative ( albeit Bresson cuts back and forth between Luc at Elle's dead body at the bed a wee bit much through good narration from him ) , and in revealing little things about the relationship for a modern audience . There's a subtext I liked that dealt with diversions , theater , television , films , that are like little respites for the two of them ( for Elle more-so , as we see with her interest in Hamlet ) . And , of course , the Catholic dimension of feeling - from Dostoyevsky carried over into Bresson - is felt more that almost any other of his films ; divorce , it seems , is never called into question . This makes it dangerously close to being behind-the-times with its ultimately tragic fate for the characters . But it also puts up an ultimatum of morality , not just for Luc but for Elle in hindsight : the film doesn't condone suicide , for all of the poetic splendor it's revealed in at the start and finish ( not to mention that amazing final shot of the coffin being nailed in ) . Many interpretations , existential , feminist , even Marxist to a smaller extent , could be taken into account . One thing is for certain : A Gentle Woman isn't an easy film to digest , but for those willing to give it a shot it offers some intriguing layers beneath the subdued manner . By the way , watch for the scene that finally comes up that was taken for the ( somewhat misleading ) video cover ; it's a total 180 , aside from the basic initial physical motion , of a similar scene in Goodfellas ! |
508,392 | 453,068 | 87,909 | 9 | Dario Argento is twisted and , in his own way predictable , but his film Phenomena is irresistible for connoisseurs of horror style over substance | Dario Argento is a macabre master of technique , and with Phenomena he reuses a previous premise ( many times has this plot happened with Argento with the young girl going to a boarding school of some sort with a murderer in the midsts after the main girl ) , but with startling , uproarious but effective results . We should find some of this as amusing - a chimpanzee as a companion / servant to Scottish wheelchair bound emptamologist Donald Pleasance , and Jennifer Connelly's character , Jennifer , who can communicate and bring the wrath of swarms of insects - and I'm sure Argento , knowing what he's doing , recognizes the finer points of the insanity in his work . But he also turns up the screws in terms of the ' creep ' factor ( hence it's American re-edit dubbed Creepers ) , with sequences that edge on the self-conscious and the sublimely terrifying . Simplistics of the plot , if there is one to speak : a young girl is sent to a boarding school while her famous father is off in the Phillipenes . She befriends a scientist who specializes in insects , and also in theories pertaining to a certain psychopath who may or may not be killing people in the dead of night - when young Jennifer is out sleepwalking ! She's deemed crazy and meant to be taken to a mental hospital , but she has other plans up her sleeve , or up swarming in the air . There's a confident , fresh Connelly in the lead , as well as Pleasance who's always dependable as the prophetic veteran of this ilk ( once or twice you wonder if he'll say " I shot him six times ! " ) But it's what Argento puts his young lady through that makes or breaks Phenomena for the viewer . As with other films of his " classic " era like Opera and Suspiria , he doesn't tether himself to logic ; it would only get in the way of his big ideas and abstractions , his visual of Jennifer looking down that white hallway , the little fly buzzing along with her , and of course the eventual lair of the killer . That lair , I should add , is the kind of place that , as Argento directs it , gets scarier as it goes along . Not the kind of scary where you always go BUMP in the night , but more where you suddenly get in a frame of mind , where the psychopath has the audience in a grip much like Jennifer . It's interesting to note a common stylistic trait we see here , which is a cliché to be sure , with the killer's POV as something characteristic of the material . It should be a big gag , but for Argento it's all part of the game he's weaving . While there aren't as many random things that happen as in Opera , and we don't get any kind of ' deep ' murder mystery as in Deep Red , it's never too misleading . By the time Argento plunges us into that pit with the maggots we're squirming in our seats , and feeling an edge of exhilaration to wonder how the hell she ( or another chap who happens to be in the room ) will get out alive . But as if to seal the deal on making this a near-classic horror film , Argento does a crazy double-twist , one that had me raising eyebrows , laughing uncontrollably , and with a feeling that , as twisted as it's become , justice has been served . Even with the ( cool ) metal music not in cue to the scenes most of the time when they pop up ( the Goblin music fares much better ) , and even with the lapses in judgment or the occasional poor acting turn , Phenomena should be something of a must-see for die-hards of Italian giallo , or just anyone wanting something a tinge ' different ' in their slasher movie . And what makes a difference more than insects ! |
509,895 | 453,068 | 87,932 | 9 | a near classic of modern film acting | Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke make an unforgettable pair in Stuart Rosenberg's film ( by way , in part I've read , of Michael Cimino ) , because they both take skills they've picked up as actors and applied them wonderfully to two roles that bring out their best . They play , essentially , a version of the Mean Streets characters ten years later : one wants to go straight in the Little Italy world they've grown up in , have a legitimate business like a restaurant , maybe start a family or settle down with his girl , and is a good guy - except , of course , for the ' black sheep ' in his cousin who's a waiter sometimes , and also has other schemes going on like owning part of a racing horse , and gets himself into some very deep , hot water with local gangsters . The story may sound familiar , but the performances make a very big difference ; in fact this is essential viewing for those intense male actors looking to break into theater or independent films . Some have criticized Eric Roberts for going over the top as Paulie , but he imbues this character with a complete and unnerving ( or just nerving ) sense of desperation . Paulie wants to be good too , and one can sense that , but being on the streets have messed with his head past the point of no return ; he isn't quite as " I-don't-give-a-bleep " like Johnny Boy in Scorsese's picture , but the same tendency to tick off the wrong people is right there . And watching Roberts go to town in some really big scenes , like when he comes back from losing his thumb or a more subtle and intense scene like when he's getting questioned by Burt Young's mob boss , he shows why for a short while he was a star ( maybe not his sister , but close enough ) . And yet one can't help but feel that for all of Roberts excellent work , for all of the superior supporting performances from Darryl Hannah and Geraldine Page ( the scene where she tells the cops to get out of her apartment , holy hell is that fantastic ) , Young , the actor playing the locksmith , it's Mickey Rourke's time to shine . He had that quiet voice that one could tell could just crack at any second , and here he makes his tough guy in Rumble Fish look like a wuss ; here one knows he could just erupt and go to town on someone , and does sometimes like on Paulie when the time comes ( which is relatively often ) , but Rourke's power is in what he holds back , or appears to be holding back . He came out of the same school of acting as De Niro and Pacino and it shows , as if he were ( or rather still is ) one of the most gifted of the pupils of the method , and even as he gives that smirk or has a deceptive twinkle in his eye you just know he's got this character so damn down . He could wrestle with Keitel ( no pun intended ) and it would be hard to say who would win for pure on-screen chops . The story , I should add , is also very good , one of those very tightly constructed morality plays in the guise of a film-noir that operates so strongly because it doesn't make anyone too black or white - even the detective , who meets his sad end down an elevator shaft by accident , has a whole history that is developed perfectly in just one scene with his mother , and so he's no more or less unsympathetic than Paulie . It also ends in a peculiar way : after the volcanic climax , which comes as something of a surprise , it just shows Paulie and Charlie walking down the street , and the camera rises on a note of uncertainty . It is not quite as open and shut as Mean Streets might be , but it has its own level of doom : these two guys probably wont be able to rid each other of one another unless there's death , or worse . Some slightly dated 80s music notwithstanding ( some of it weird synth Irish music ) , The Pope of Greenwich Village is exciting , occasionally funny , and gives all in the audience a taste of delicious New York style film acting . Everyone's on their A-game , and for a brief moment it looked as though the two stars could go anywhere with their careers . . . |
509,124 | 453,068 | 95,515 | 9 | even if the music doesn't strike you completely , the man and the methods of film-making are staggeringly intriguing | Bruce Weber's obscure documentary ( currently on two screens at New York's Film Forum ) on Chet Baker is the best possible way for those who aren't terribly familiar with his work or who he was - like myself - and I'm sure will more than please his avid fans out there . For the former , Baker is one of the " cool " west coast jazz pioneers , who defied some expectations while still being dismissed by many east coast ( NY ) jazz aficionados . Truth be told , Baker isn't entirely my cup of tea ( very talented , of course , though I won't be listening to him as frequently as Coltrane or Parker or even Armstrong ) . This out of the way , Baker the man is an endlessly fascinating individual , one of those artistic forces who made life a hell for those around him , but also was a real intuitive musician , who when not trying to fix his dental problem , or drug problem , or problem with the law in other countries , he could play his trumpet or sing his soft melodies any time , anywhere . It's a major credit to him that the quality of his performances of the period of the film's present tense ( 1987-88 ) is not too far from that of his prime in the 50s and 60s . But Weber isn't simply out to show him performing his songs . Like a jazzman himself , Weber is into improvisation with his choice in jagged but smooth angles with the camera . Aside from the intrigue that comes in showing Weber interviewing his past friends and fellow musicians ( some who have simple stories like " he could play much faster than me , etc etc " , and others that are darkly funny , like how he could have sex with a fellow musician's girlfriend in the dark without the other musician knowing after a five second lapse ) , ex-wives and female counterparts ( it runs the gamut - those who care deeply about him , but have been hurt , and even a singer who is a bit more than bitter , but wise , to Baker's ways ) , and even his kids , we see the man himself with no punches pulled . Baker , with a face as chiseled as Clint Eastwood's and with twice the number of stories to tell , and a slightly wavering way of talking where one's not sure if he might slip into sleep mid-exposition . We see him talk of his time in the army , where he disarmingly ( no pun intended ) got out of duty while on a close-call avoiding the nut-house . We see his tales of being busted in Europe and spending over a year in jail . He even talks in a bittersweet tone about his kids and about fallen musicians and friends of his . Most captivating , though , is the issue of his teeth , which becomes Weber's Rashomon tool of technique . It's not enough that Weber already slips so well into an aesthetic that I've rarely seen anywhere else in documentaries , where we get a plethora of images in several seconds without montage , and scenes of Baker with friends / kids / admirers ( Flea is one of them ) knocking around town at night that are real but close to feeling like it shouldn't be this real . Weber also throws in the crucial element of Baker as a multi-layered man with more than one persona to him , notably to his ex-wives . He tells the story of how he got his teeth knocked out , fighting with five black guys in a bad drug deal situation on the streets of LA . It sounds simple enough , as one of those wacky but dead-serious stories those in the jazz world , or just music in general , end up having when dependent on drugs ( in this case heroin ) . But one girlfriend / singer says something else , that it had to do with Baker being given a specific ' lesson ' , to " take away what's most important " , which was his mouth . But then even another says something completely different , at least I think so , and it's here that Weber makes Let's Get Lost such a complex peek ( just a peek ) into this man . To be sure , there are times questions are asked and the response is just " lets not go into that " , which is fair . Yet one comes away with Let's Get Lost with a pure impressing on who Chet Baker was , in a sense ; he's a legendary musician in some circles , but also spent years on welfare when he couldn't play ; he had one wife who was half Pakistani and half-Indian , who is rarely mentioned in the film ; the kids don't show up much into the film until the last section , with more time spent around the mother ( s ) than Chet himself . But it all adds up to a sense , which is all that Weber could really get . It's cool as a good drink , and all about a man I won't soon forget . |
510,064 | 453,068 | 405,094 | 9 | a strikingly human suspense-drama about the changes that can come in good people | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has here one of the better debut features I've seen in recent years , and until the last ten minutes has on his hands a tough , powerful gem out of Germany . His film brings memories of films like the Conversation , where a surveillance man got changed into a paranoid , The Trial , where the stark , bleak , disparaging mood strikes a chord in every facet of life , and even to a lesser degree the Pianist , where there can be some spark of goodness reached at men in the dead mess of bureaucracy through the power of art , and human expression . So much that we see the East German socialists do , the ones in the highest ranks of over-dominant power , is to make sure everyone is in check by means of fear and tactics of interrogation and surveillance , in The Lives of Others concerns why certain basic freedoms are important , especially in the arts , and that change is not only possible , but paramount for people in bad circumstances . Such is the case for Georg Dreyman ( Sebastian Koch ) and Christa-Maria Sieland ( Martina Gerdeck ) , who get put under suspicion for possible co-horting with undesirables ( i . e . those of the ' West ' , and conspirators against the state , not always thinking in the party-lines in short ) , and get put under constant audio surveillance by the State , specifically agent Weiseler ( Ulrich Muhe ) , who is so detached that he doesn't even have a grin at a joke at the expense of the head of state made by an underling . But as he listens more and more to these people , and their own personal struggles ( Christa's unfortunate liaisons with a slob of a minister played by Thomas Thieme ) , and to how they react to a good friend's suicide - by playing a touching Beethoven tune on the piano - he starts to question what he's doing . Can a man who really listens to this music be good , is asked rhetorically by Georg after playing it . This , plus the whole aspect of change , which is mentioned early in the film , becomes the emotional and suspenseful core of the picture ; Georg gets help in smuggling an article about suicide he's written - for which he can't put his own name - and Wiesler becomes an accomplice , but to him for what are the right reasons . So what starts out as a tale with possible intonations of espionage or whatever turns into a morality story , and where the personal and political meet at different levels but with similar significance . Can one's duty to one's country's methods and ideals be as crucial as expression in art , music , acting , writing ? Donnersmarck's thesis is that , more than anything , change , and the choice to change , is a part of this as well , not just for Wiesler , but for Georg , who decides to go out on a very dangerous limb and not only write the article on an illegal typewriter but to send it out with his friends to the West , but Christa as well with her priorities for ' getting by ' in this world . She might be a popular actress , but the price she pays is just as dear as he does , and as Georg witnesses a fellow writer go over the edge as part of the ' statistics ' , it becomes too much . It's a very potent point about the nature of people in this part of the world at that time that being an individual gains much more to the human spirit than rigidly following a set of rules . Whether or not this is based on a true story or not is irrelevant , because , usually , Donnersmarck gets truthful performances from his actors ( especially the subtle Muhe ) and is true to how it plays out in sort of a triangle fashion . Now , to say ' usually ' because his film isn't completely flawless . The last ten or so minutes , a denouement where everything is made tidy and neatly put together in a sort of contrived way , goes too long and feels out of place with the rest of the picture . Maybe there's much to say about what ambiguity can do , but that would have been more appropriate for what preceded it than the sweet ending that comes out where bittersweet would have done just fine ( i . e . ending it right when the Berlin wall falls ) . Yet , the catharsis , while not totally satisfying , doesn't make things completely cheapened for the experience , which overall is gripping and touching in the ways that matter . One feels for all of the characters , save for those in the high ranks of power like the Minister and Grubitz , especially when Wiesler reaches out for saving just a small piece of humanity in such an oppressive and hopeless civilization . In short , Donnersmarck is definitely a new filmmaker to watch . |
508,480 | 453,068 | 167,260 | 9 | Minor flaws aside , LOTR proves itself one of the most successful trilogies in modern film | In Return of the King - which follows the book ( that I have not read , though heard what is in it that is not in the film ) as close if not closer than the past two - co-writer / co-producer / director Peter Jackson brings Tolkien's grand tale of the quest to destroy the ring to an end . The story strands follow along the similar linear paths of the others , and it is done so with an equal worth in entertainment . Frodo , Sam and Gollum's path to Mordor unfolds as almost something of a love triangle for the ring ; Merry and Pippen follow their own tales towards the great battle ; Gandalf , Aragorn , Legolas , Gimli , and all the dwellers of middle earth prepare for the swarm of the terrors of Sauron . There is much praise that should be given to Jackson and his crew / cast on not just the worth of Return of the King , but to what is now the entire saga of the Lord of the Rings as a whole . Though the film does carry quite a load to it ( at three hours and twenty-one minutes it's the longest of the three in theatrical form , and it definitely does go on at least ten to fifteen minutes longer than it should ) , and expands and deflates on the details of some characters ( i . e . Saruman is nowhere in sight in this version , while Arwen gets more than what is from the original work ) , there are plenty of rousing scenes and sequences , terrific battles , and a grasp on the visual effects as a whole that don't let up . In all , ROTK is on the level with Fellowship and Two Towers , making the parts as good as the whole . This is something that only several other filmmakers can make a claim to , that one film does not bring on a let down from the expectations that preceded it . It's the kind of film I'll want to see again , however it would be very difficult to sit through it in one place . ( both as a picture in and of itself , and overall on the three epics combined ) |
509,667 | 453,068 | 78,295 | 9 | a couple of small flaws aside , this is a very good cat and mouse thriller | John Carpenter made this , probably unintentionally , as a kind of practice-run for Halloween , which he started shooting very soon after he finished this film ( though Halloween came out before Someone's Watching Me ) . We have the stalker and the victim , like in Halloween , but where Carpenter's classic film is a series of kills and cat-and-mouse chases , Someone's Watching Me is like traces of Halloween merged with Rear Window ; here Jimmy Stewart is using his knack of looking out a window as a pathological / deranged psycho in using his access as a maintenance man to stalk sexy women across his view . In this case it's Lauren Hutton , a TV director , who is at first sent strange letter about a ' vacation ' , and then given the obvious phone calls , not to mention the recording device plugged under the table in her apartment . No matter what she tries to beat him at his game - and the cops are of course no help sending an innocent man to Des Moines in exile - it comes down to him vs . her on a ledge . This could be a routine premise in other hands - as a matter of fact it was based on a true case and was handed to Carpenter as an assignment - but for Carpenter , in a ' paying-his-dues ' task , he makes it his own as a truly taut chiller . Now , it doesn't mean it's a really great piece ; Carpenter as composer is regrettably missing and placed with a ( decent ) TV-type track , and the performance from David Birney is only so-so . But for what Carpenter set out to do , he hit on all cylinders for something that's unexpected , slightly , from a director like him . The script is witty but realistic , the performances from Hutton and Barbeau are fantastic , and his attention to details by the particular usage of the camera is akin , again , to Hitchcock . Some scenes , however expectant they might be , are really gripping , no punches pulled . And for TV , it's probably something close to being Ace ( Duel would probably top it , but it goes without saying ) . Carpenter fans will rejoice that this is finally on DVD . |
508,791 | 453,068 | 765,429 | 9 | a big , intense American crime movie , led by stars and director in top form | American Gangster seems on the surface to be what has been dubbed by some critics as " the black Scarface . " As Ridley Scott's new film details , this isn't really the case aside from the point of ' rose up from nothing became something through crime ' , which could be said about almost every gangster film including the Godfather . Here Scott and screenwriter Steve Zaillian , without calling attention to it ala Paul Haggis , have made a film about class issues underneath the typical gangster-movie form . Even more than the Departed , one sees as the film goes on an environment of paradox : Frank Lucas was a low-life , a killer , a ruthless thug , and at the same time found time to take his mother to church every Sunday and gave out turkeys to folks in the neighborhood while providing them enough dope to die off in the process . In fact , Scarface has got nothing on Frank Lucas when it comes to moral complexity : here's a man who did rise up out of poverty , learned the stakes of gang life as a driver for the Harlem boss for fifteen years , and then after he died cut out the middle-man as an importer of the freshest product of heroin right out of Vietnam . Then through this there's a whole other level to American Gangster ; Scott and Zaillian could have made it simply a saga of betrayals and investigation via Richie Roberts . But the side that one saw in Serpico is amplified here - it becomes all the more engrossing to see how the crooked cops and " honest " gangster Lucas were linked together , which also leads to an ending that amps up the interest . Lucas didn't get out like Henry Hill , but a good man all the same ? Probably not ( he ended up in jail again , as the film doesn't point out ) . So there's a lot of story to explore , and Scott makes it one of the most invigorating , nostalgic ( ironically speaking ) New York crime films in years , as far as the storytelling goes . And like Heat , Scott gets a lot of mileage from his star power . Washington goes even deeper into the role of the villain than he did in Training Day - he plays him as classic family man , cold businessman , and charming man-of-the-community . He makes it so much his role that you can't imagine anyone else going down a Harlem street shooting a guy point blank in the head . And Crowe also adds some good subtlety to the piece , a flawed man with his family and someone who tries to keep his morality straight ( the million dollars given in to the station ) amidst total bully-crooks like Josh Brolin's " special " detective . By the time the two stars finally sit down for one scene , it's on par with De Niro and Pacino . Why not a or 4 stars ? It is , despite a rightfully fleshed out narrative , with some unnecessary bits ( Cuba Gooding Jr , what happened there ? ) on a two hour and forty minute picture . But Scott does make American Gangster gain momentum as it goes along and reaches a powerhouse climax that is first intense and bloody ( it IS Scott after all ) , followed by a striking human angle . And it holds nothing on Scarface , at the end of it all , as far as being legitimately dramatic without the ham , as the actors and director click for most part on material that just needs to be told without any pretension - and with that dose of significance of real urban crime in the 1970s in NYC . |
508,337 | 453,068 | 21,814 | 9 | Creatures of the night . . . what music they make | Tod Browning's Dracula suffers so many decades later for one simple reason , and a second one that's more subjective : first , we all know Dracula , like a quintessential Shakespeare or Jack and the Beanstalk , we all know what Dracula is about because the lore is given to us as kids and it's taken as it is , which leads to a lack of surprise at what will occur in this film ( lets face facts , some of us have even watched the Coppola Dracula before this one ) ; second , it is , sadly , dated in some aspects . Luckily , for the latter , what makes it dated doesn't really have a negative impact on enjoying the picture overall - when one sees the bat flying about - or , sorry , swiveling and nearly crashing and breaking against the scenery - it's cheesy and corny and all those things that show it was 1931 . But aside from these minor liabilities , Browning's film succeeds because of , to use the oft-repeated and tired description , atmosphere ( make no mistake , a chill will run up your spine as fog rolls in and Dracula appears to suck the blood of poor Renfield ) , and Lugosi's monolithic performance . Has any actor come close with just a deranged look in the eye and Hungarian / double-jointed curl of the fingers to acting this creepy ? While Max Schreck and Klaus Kinski , both playing / inhabiting Nosferatu in those film versions , could arguably be considered far more creepy , Lugosi has the aid of sound and a odd control of the English language that adds just that necessary edge on a scene . So many years later , it's the definitive performance of Lugosi's , for better or worse this turned out for him . Back to the atmosphere though , as the only other truly notable and crazy turn among the sturdy cast is Dwight Frye as spider-eating / schitzo Renfield . The sets , the lack thereof a score , and the mesmerizing lighting and gliding camera-work of Karl Freund ( who , apparently , directed some parts of the film ) , not to mention the moments of fog , make up much of the " classic " quality of the picture . This side , even so many eons later it seems , hasn't aged too badly , and practically all variations of Dracula or vampire movies only come a hair's edge close to imitating or emulating the Gothic stature of the technique presented here . Even when a scene of dialog might lack some density due to it being mostly pure exposition , it's impossible to take your eyes off what's going on or being less than absorbed in the action . No matter how familiar , Browning's Dracula deserves all its accolades and attention as the first " Hollywood " movie on the Count . Whether or not it's the greatest of all time I'm not sure . |
510,894 | 453,068 | 424,934 | 9 | not quite the level of unforgettable stories and jokes as the last one , still very funny | Killin ' Them Softly , what I consider to be Dave Chappelle's non-cinematic breakthrough ( the cinematic could be with Half Baked ) , was a very potent mix of comedy , dealing with some celebrity jokes and great humor involving the hood ( the ' baby ' bit is classic ) . With this special , Chappelle comes off from his hit TV show , and so some of his initial energy could be lacking . It isn't , but one doesn't see exactly the same brilliance here . I mean that though in just the overall sense , that there are a couple of bits that aren't totally consistently funny ( the ' Monkey ' bit , the bit on the 15 year old kidnapped girl ) . Throughout , however , there are bits that really do make it known why Chappelle is where he's at today . For example , his take on why he can't smoke weed with black people anymore ( and the pros and cons of smoking with white people ) is gut-busting , or his take on the Michael Jackson case ( last year this was filmed , by the way , which should be taken into perspective ) , or his lines on how he's dealing with his newfound fame ( and what he'll do with a certain part of his privates ) . He is on fire I'd say 80 percent of the time , and the other 20 percent he's still witty even when the punchlines don't connect . The Chappelle fans who love everything about his show will find much happiness with the DVD , and those who are just casual comedy stand-up fans will still see some of the low-key smarts and absurdities that launched Chappelle in the past half decade . |
508,350 | 453,068 | 38,991 | 9 | one of Welles's most audience-accessible films is also one of his most entertaining | Sure , the Stranger is one of the ' studio ' projects for filmmaker Orson Welles , and in the story one might think from the story description on this site it might not be his kind of territory ( Welles himself said this was his least favorite of his directed films ) . But it is in the directorial style , and in the performances ( Welles and Robinson most particularly ) that the film is given his ' stamp ' of sorts . And at the core the film is really just a solid thriller , and because of that it has immediate appeal for its story turns , the scenes where the truth and lies are bounced around , and in the exquisitely done climax on the clock tower ( maybe second only to Back to the Future in using a clock tower in a film ) . It is through such typically audience-powerful elements , as well as with a bit of immediately post WW2 espionage , that Welles is able to flow into it his own personality , with little bits of very dark humor and theatrical drama that is , above all else , compelling . In terms of looking at the acting , it's right here that right away Welles breaks from what could've been a good but fairly typical style with the script . Keeping in mind that from the moment he appears on screen the character of Dr . Rankin ( aka Frankz Kindler ) , there's quite an amount of guilt and suspicion he's trying to avoid , from himself less so from him wife and the Detective ( Edward G . Robinson ) . So , Welles is able to really play this for all it's worth ; the smallest glance and minute eye gesture is meant for dramatic effect , and as much as one might be tempted to chuckle how obvious it might be , it works . I did believe , at the least , the pure theatricality of Welles in the film , and he photographs himself and others in this similar way , however much with the film-noir style as well . And with sturdy character actors like Robinson - who is actually fairly more subtle and in a different way of interest than in , say , Key Largo - and Loretta Young , Welles is able to have his players in place . It's no doubt the material could be done by other filmmakers ( it's one of the few of Welles's films that was barely written by him ) . In this filmmaker's hands and eyes , however , it does get some different twists here and there . Through his cinematographer Russel Metty ( later responsible for the Oscar winning cinematography of Spartacus ) , Welles gets some angles and shots , sometimes really sweeping and telling of it being quite the movie-movie ( if one could say it that ) , that other filmmakers wouldn't think of . And I loved the musical score , by Bronislaw Kaper , adding the kind of tone that is often replicated , more or less , by composers of lesser musical scores of today's thrillers , with a nice touch of European in it for the subject matter . So , if you're looking for an Orson Welles / Edward G . Robinson fix and haven't come across the Stranger yet , you may come in for a really pleasant surprise . |
508,109 | 453,068 | 70,643 | 9 | unusual character study / road movie that could only be made in the 70s | Scarecrow is a low-key film that succeeds on all its ambitions , but not because it tries to aim low . That the tone at times doesn't feel as emotionally incredible or intense as some other films Gene Hackman and Al Pacino got their star-making turns in the 70s ( French Connection , Dog Day Afternoon , Serpico ) doesn't mean it's unsuccessful either . Jerry Schatzberg and his writer are out to capture a kind of outsider view of men trying to find their places in society , almost like how Michael Cimino would do ( to a more genre-oriented extent ) with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot . It's not a movie a lot of people would go out of their way to see , even with the star power involved . It's about two guys who've been released from confinement from the world around them , Max from six years in jail ( Hackman ) , Francis from five years out at sea in the Navy ( Pacino ) , and how the two meet up unintentionally while hitchhiking , unlikely pair up , and Hackman gets Pacino to go in with him on opening up a car wash in Pittsburgh . Why Pittsburgh ? Just one of the peculiarities of Max , mayhap ? More-so a thing of pride . There's characteristics to Max and Francis that make them compelling for the honesty in what they are : Max is a tough guy , tending to get drunk , get in fights , sex it up with women ( who knew Hackman had such , um , animal magnetism ) , and Francis ( also named Lion by Max ) is a clown , a little boy who somehow made the mistake of having a kid with a woman before he left the Navy , and has a present ready to give to the kid in Detroit - an androgynous lamp - despite not knowing entirely what to expect . It's an odd couple movie , but also one that has a more affecting view into a world of men on the fringe of society . These guys don't have big plans , and wouldn't want any anyway . It's refreshing to see that , and how it pans into the nature of them and their environment : the small towns , the local dives , the bad drunks , and , when things go bad after a big brawl during a drunken hoopla , the subtle horrors of prison for the both of them . Did I mention train-hopping ? A film like this , despite having on its side gorgeous cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond ( who , along with Badlands and , in its own way Mean Streets , captures a vision of Americana that is pure and unique to its time and place ) , needs strong acting . Who better than Hackman and Pacino ? They're playing big personalities , with Hackman doing great as always in a somewhat typical part of a guy who's aggressive and pig-headed but does have a hear . And Pacino doing a rare comedic turn as he gives some of his funniest ( genuine , not unintentional scene-stealing ) moments , like his ' diversion ' gone wrong in the clothing store , or his classic " teach me how to handle a drunk " bit at the bar . Sometimes its too much , but it leads to a bittersweet side to the story that turns even more bitter by the time Schatzberg reaches the emotional climax in Detroit . What's been alternately crude and crazy , sometimes in ways that remind one a little of Altman , turns towards what is a small but great tragedy for these characters . And doing the script one better , the actors are able to get subtle , crushing , telling moments in scenes that others wouldn't be able to grasp with a ten-foot pole . It's also a fun movie , with a feel that you could only get in one of the truly great years in all movies ( look at the year this came out , and realize how many films of its ilk were released , be they independent-like from Scorsese or Altman or Ashby or even Romero , or even Friedkin's Exorcist ) . Scarecrow is of its time , but it doesn't mean it can't be greatly liked in the present ; it's even a near classic of genre subversion , doing a service to drama and comedy by not paying lip-service to either form , but enriching what comes naturally out of life , which is both sometimes , harrowingly , at once . |
510,452 | 453,068 | 70,165 | 9 | Bakshi's most personal work is a completely outlandish , crude , overtly abstract New York satire | Heavy Traffic is , like many of Ralph Bakshi's films , a like it or hate it affair , but for those that respond to it , the film provides many a surprising attack on sensibility , decency , and what it means to get by in urban sprawl . It's almost too personal ; one can see Bakshi or friends of his having gone through some of the little things in the lower ranks of New York City's daily life ( particularly Brooklyn life ) as depicted here . But it's this connection to a personal reality - and then a TOTAL adherence to turning this reality on its head and making it as wild , violent , and sexually deviant as possible - that is the key to the success of Bakshi's film , the best of his I've seen so far . His main character , Michael , is probably loosely based on himself ; a young , would-be underground cartoonist who lives with insanely irate parents ( Italian father and Jewish mother ) , and interacts with the neighborhood he's in with a casual attitude and a little reluctance to join in the mayhem that goes on with such kooky cats . Enter in Carole , a black bartender who won't take s from anyone , who teams up as a business partner , more or less , with Michael to first get cartoons off the ground , then , so it goes , misadventures in prostitution . It all leads up to an ending that isn't expected , though a sort of double-piling of shock and pleasant surprise . Heavy Traffic outlays Bakshi's outlook on life in a skill that could be called animated exploitation film-making . However , it's through this overloading of characters meant to be unattractive , sexually piggish , wretchedly racist ( and , on the other side of the coin , sexist ) , and violent in the tradition of the Looney Tunes cartoons with the worst taste , that the film gets to the guts of the matter . It's a half-embrace , half-attack on a lack of values in a society , and as Baskhi relishes in his excess , he also is criticizing both himself for lapping it up and those in the neighborhood for being such eccentric mother-fers . And , as a satire should be , it's very funny , occasionally uproariously so . Scenes like Michael being pressured to get it on with the girl on the mattress on the roof , and the outcome as a sort of running gag ; the scene with the song Mabeline playing , as Baskhi puts out drawings that are without much color , and look incredible for the reason that there's seemingly little effort put into the animation with the random over-the-top sexual positions ; the little bits in the feuding with Michael's parents , the mother with her Jewish-star knife-holster and the father with his dedication to the " Godfather " , who eats little people in his pasta , over anything really with his family ; and when Michael presents " religious " cartoons to a dying old man , which to any prurient Christian taste is hilariously offensive and , well , cool . Bakshi is so personal at times , with his taste in color schemes , in over-lapping images with film clips , combining live-action and animation ( usually with dancing ladies on one side and a lurid little twerp gawking on the other ) , and even likely real family photos from his own family laid in , that it levels going too far . There's a tendency for self-indulgence , however not always the bad kind , if that makes sense , and one can see how the film can and has been vehemently criticized for what it is really trying to criticize in the film . But deep down , past the creative madman in Bakshi , is also a heart ; his film ends on a touching note , as abstraction turns real and a totally live scene reveals another level to Michael and Carol , as real outcasts who are both totally stubborn , and somehow meant for each other . Heavy Traffic is a one-of-a-kind affair , and the kind of under-the-radar act of an outrageous spectacle that it could only be done in the 70s . |
509,501 | 453,068 | 780,536 | 9 | melancholy drama-comedy of career criminals in moral jeopardy | Playwright McDonaugh's debut feature , In Bruges , works only up to a point as a crime comedy ( however considering up to what point is quite remarkable ) , featuring a supporting cast ranging from quirky Euro-trash and plain old jolly eccentrics . But as a moral drama , it's almost as top of the pops one could ask for . The trailer didn't make it seem as such , then again it is hard to express the kind of conundrum that the main characters get themselves into while also appealing to a base of fans that love quip-type one liners ( i . e . " You're a bunch of bleeping elephants ! " or " If I was retarded , or grew up on a farm , Bruges would impress me , but I didn't , so I'm not impressed . " ) When In Bruges is at its best - and until its self-consciously symbolic touches in the last five minutes it usually is at its " Best " whatever that means - it expresses what I love seeing in films about career criminals : the total inner turmoil of what was done coming back to haunt the person . If it's true that no good deed goes unpunished , the same would probably go for bad deeds in the world of In Bruges , where the atmosphere of the practically medieval city is , the character Ken observes , like " a fairytale " , and a sharp contrast to the dark side pervading Ken , Ray , and Harry . The basic thrust of the plot is that Ray ( half wise-ass womanizer and half half-suicidal played by Farrell ) did a job back in London , a murder , which went horribly wrong in just one misstep ( I won't reveal it here , though I should , except to say that it's one of those cardinal rules career criminals / hit men have to stick to ) , and so he and the older , less cynical Ken ( Gleeson , who seems to be one of the most honest looking types in the character actor world , a spot-on casting choice ) , are sent to Bruges to receive more instructions . But those instructions , sent by the easily angered Harry ( Ralph Fiennes , doing almost a hilarious imitation of Kingskey in Sexy Beast ) , aren't followed through , and then some manner of chaos ensues . Here and there McDonaugh takes what appears to be a lackadaisical attitude to the characters in this otherwise tense and uncertain fatalistic situation , as if an odd-matched comic duo are in a place one likes and one only can stand for mocking midgets ( scuse me , dwarfs ) in movie-making and hitting on the one hot girl in all of Bruges . But it's such a strange form that McDonaugh is working with here , with its mix of tones that it suddenly feels , in the context of the slightly bizarre and chilling circumstances , truthful . It goes without saying the cast helps give the material a boost , and that McDonaugh doesn't throw too many out-of-left-field curve balls with the plot . If he does , it's not of the sort we know we're usually hitting in this kind of crime story loaded with gallows humor and Catholic redemption mini-saga . In short , if I were a bloke in Britain or a fella in Dublin , or a dupe in Bruges , as a writer this is the kind of stuff I'd immediately try to go for . It's smart , serious , mature genre work that relies on just enough blood-shed and violence and trauma to haunt its audience proper , and do its duty to supply another batch of wonderfully off-kilter ' comedy ' scenes for fans of British gangster flicks . That this is nowhere near as shallow as a Ritchie pic goes without saying . |
509,738 | 453,068 | 368,653 | 9 | about as raw as rock concert / docs get , a magnificent time capsule | Metallica in 1986 got perpetually shattered when bassist Cliff Burton died one of the more tragic and unexpected deaths in rock history . In the interim of finding a new bass player , they compiled together this very rough , raw collection of performances , back stage footage , screwing around footage , drunken bits , and just random shots of them doing stuff . It's amateurishly shot , but in the very 80s metal way that Metallica was then it's a kind of charmingly amateurish way . Sometimes the quality ranges from song to song , with some stretches being a little better than others ( the first two songs are the rougher ones , with someone in the nose bleed section with one zoom in and out camera ) . Best is seeing the group play in Germany - where there are multiple cameras used - and songs like ' Fade to Black ' and ' Seek and Destroy ' get very good treatments to tremendous live performances of each . There are also memorable turns of ' Whiplash ' ( my personal favorite from Kill Em All with a much better than average bass solo by Cliff ) , and ' Creeping Death ' , and one of their very best ' Welcome ( Sanitarium ) ' , even with just one cam and deteriorating sound / picture quality it , for lack of a better term for this review , rules . The behind the scenes footage is also worth it for any collector or just casual fan , as you see more-than-rare TV interviews , and even the group in their pre-Kill ' Em All time with Dave Mustaine ( he also performs on Whiplash in another ultra rare appearance ) . It's sometimes funny , crude , f-off-ish , but they're always realer and far less stuck up and estranged as in the recent Some Kind of Monster . This is a band at the real peak of their powers , and the musicianship is tight as can be even as Hammet or Burton brash through their solos like their on their way to the electric chair . Sometimes the off-kilter quality of the filming does get in the way - especially when someone's head gets in the way of the camera - but it's not as often as might be expected . It's un-polished but very memorable , and should be apart of any serious fan of metal ; as it is there is quite the lot that have a dis-liking to Metallica of the post-Black album ( or even Black album on ) , to which this is like the perfect shot of Kill em All through Master of Puppets live memorabilia . As much a fitting tribute as it is a pretty good video in its own right . |
509,263 | 453,068 | 497,465 | 9 | Woody en Espanol | Vicki ( Rebecca Hall ) and Cristina ( Scarlet Johansson ) are the two main characters of Woody Allen's latest romantic comedy , but part of the ingenuity of the film is that the third name , Barcelona , is a character itself . Aside from the locales and hot-blooded , romantic atmosphere with Spanish guitars and wine in the night and gorgeous architecture during the day , which Allen and his DP capture wonderfully , the other characters Juan Antonio ( Javier Bardem ) and Maria Elena ( Penelope Cruz ) seem to spring out almost naturally out of this balmy city and country . It may be Allen's last international film for a while ( according to reports his next film will be back to New York ) , but it's maybe the best at evoking this effect of a place on the characters ( or , in spurts , its Jules and Jim inspiration ) . Vicki and Cristina , as we learn from the Barry Lyndon-esquire authoritative narrator , are on leave from New York City in Barcelona for the summer , Vicki for studying purposes and Cristina as her friend whose looking for something new creatively after a bad acting experience and an ex-boyfriend . Almost immediately after shacking up with friends Judy and Mark ( Patricia Clarkson and Kevin Dunn ) , Vicki and Cristina are approached one night by local painter Juan , who tempts them ( or rather Cristina ) with a week end in Obejo . Cristina falls for him immediately , but Vicki , already engaged to Doug ( Messina ) back in New York , is resistant to his charms - which , by the end of the week end , gives way to a passionate encounter . But after this , there's more complications , and not just with Vicki and Juan ( or the surprise arrival of Doug to Barcelona for an also surprise wedding ) and their suppressed affections . There's also Juan's ex-wife , Maria , who had a volcanic relationship and who comes back into Juan's life while Cristina is staying with him . To say much more would reveal and spoil a lot more of the fun and romance and questions Allen raises about monogamy and the complacency of marriage . Which , on the surface , might not sound like the 72 year old filmmaker is pursuing anything new to cover , as he's explored marriage , infidelity , and , as Maria Elena says at one point to Cristina , chronic dissatisfaction with lovers . And yet when it's at its best , and here's the surprising part , Vicki Cristina Barcelona is Allen's funniest , most intelligent and well-acted romantic comedy in many years , maybe even in this decade ( which maybe isn't saying a lot since this and Match Point are the closest he's reached to greatness since the 90s ) . It works because of the actors dedication to the material : Cruz is a total tornado of a presence here , with this and Volver her best performances to date ; Bardem , again , shows his layers in Juan as a man of romance and love and lust but also tenderness and humor and rage and all these things that show how great an actor he is ; Hall is very good in a part that some actresses might sleepwalk through if not coached and coaxed right ; Clarkson , for just one or two scenes where she reveals her own fractured marriage to Vicki , is great ; and Johansson , who as a given is stunning in her appearance , reveals again in the context of a Woody Allen movie how underrated she can be as an actress - when used right and not just as ho-hum window dressing . It also works because Allen knows how to write dialog and relationships so brilliantly , maybe better than anyone working in film today in terms of simple but all-too-complex revelations on the trapped nature of the human condition , the struggle of what love is and what it is to be an artist , or simply how to function with someone that you love , but don't " love " in that same way one meets a sweeping-off-your-feet romance in Barcelona like so . The scenes he writes here are so good , and are so cool in being a kind of Woody-version of a Spanish soap opera ( hysterical couple and three-way included , though not graphic ) , that he almost gets in the way of it with the narration . This last part is the only real significant flaw , as unlike in Husbands and Wives , where Allen used narration in a documentary style and to shorter bits of effect , here it takes some getting used to having a person talking as if reading excerpts from a trashy romance novel , and pops in giving those " and then she never felt the same way again " kind of notations to a character or scene that are just unnecessary . If you love classic Woody Allen romance comedy , and you also are interested in how he's starting to get a little riskier , a little more interested in the existential angles of his characters that he's touched on off-and-on for years and has only finally ( Match Point and Cassandra's Dream ) opened up in full bitter glory , this is the pick of the rest of the summer , maybe even of the year . Overall , you just don't get rom-coms this smart , or just plain funny and perfectly PG-13 outrageous , as Vicki Cristina Barcelona gets . |
510,316 | 453,068 | 87,755 | 9 | Enjoyable mostly on nostalgic terms , and great with an audience | Throughout this film , you might think this film is just for kids . Well , it is mainly pointed towards them , but it's also well-rounded enough with the jokes pointed also at the adults in the audience . This time around , the Muppet gang try to get on Broadway , with the dire straits keeping them from getting it produced , leading them to splitting up . But Kermit won't stop , and his determination keeps things moving along until after getting the deal together he gets hit by a car and sent into amnesia ! It's a send-up , in part , of those old starring vehicles from the 40s with musicals actually as the topic of a musical , only here there's the usual lot of zaniness and wonderful moments thrown into a pot of hysterically funny moments ( Lou Zealand's boomerang fish ; Gonzo's water-stunt display , the whisper campaign , among many others ) , but also with a lot of heart too . The Muppet writers aren't shy of the conventions , on the contrary , they embrace them to the point where it's almost refreshing to see such a ' lets put on a show ' story where through thick and think the characters will meet their dream . While not as totally original in scope as the Muppet Movie , it's got many catchy and memorable songs , excellent locations all over Manhattan , and even some intonations of inter-species dating ( and marriage ) ! Cameos include Liza Minneli ( " a frog ? " ) , Elliot Gould ( as the cop ) , Brooke Shields ( propositioned by a rat ) , Edward I . Koch , Gregory Hines and Joan Rivers . So get ready to sing-along , or just have a lot of big laughs and romantic ( yes romantic ) times with one of the best Muppet movies . |
509,323 | 453,068 | 74,084 | 9 | Bertolucci's most ambitious production , if not perfect then with the aspirations of great art | Here it is , finally after over thirty years of wait , 1900 ( Novecento ) is out on DVD for those who never got to see the full uncut version ( which were most Americans , particularly those who didn't see it on VHS years ago ) , and it's happy to report that the picture comes in a small variety of language / subtitle options . While one wouldn't want this to be simply a report on the condition of the DValbeit there's an interesting interview with Bernardo Bertolucci on the 2nd disc - it would be important to note how one might feel about switching back and forth and / or committing to watching the picture in a particular language . This isn't a Leone western , after all , where it's not too horrible to watch it in simple English all the way through for its crucial American stars . There's American actors , as well as a few others , who speak English , and then a host of hundreds of extras and supporting players speaking the native tongue . In short advice , stick mostly with English ( it is people like De Niro , Sutherland , Depardieu and Lancaster here after all ) , but for those little moments like with the children in the first quarter , try some of the Italian portions for realism sake . Because this is , indeed , such an ambitious work , such a passion project , such a work by a director running strong off the steam of his previous successes ( The Conformist , Last Tango in Paris ) , a work including people from all over Europe and the States , and according to the director with the original - and later admitted naive - intention of the picture being a " bridge " between the US and Russia , that it's easy to say it is a big waste . It is a huge film , covering a story that includes multiple human dimensions , character arcs , and a political canvas that is explicitly Marxist at the least in iconography if not in message . It got lauded in the US even at its abbreviated four hour running time , and has only recently been rediscovered . But then again it will either seem a success artistically or a mess , or maybe both depending on how much a viewer can take of Bertolucci's pirouetting camera movements and the occasional jarring scene transition . It covers , essentially , a tale of friendship , which to me is a strength in conventional wisdom : the two sides of the coin on a farm in the first half of the 20th century , as Alfredo ( as an adult De Niro ) and Olmo ( as an adult Depardieu ) become close friends after sharing the same birthday , but lead different paths as the former is the inheritor of the land turned quasi fascist and the latter is a worker-cum-socialist . Bertolucci enriches the saga with relationships with women , one severed with Olmo and the other a very jagged tale with Dominique Sanda as moody Ada , and with a vicious villain with the ultimate fascist Attilla ( get it ? ) played by Sutherland . For all of the pieces of the story that bulk up the picture to its current length , for the most part all of the sections are important in building up who our two ' sides ' are , and how certain personal events ( i . e . Lancaster and Haydens ' respective deaths , the theft of a gun , the pressures with violence and their unspoken destinies ) shape them as much if not more than the state of politics . It's so rich and alive and engrossing a story , with moments that intrigue and question and actually shock ( a certain scene with a cat and Sutherland had me cringe , and another with a boy had my mouth drop ) , that it's a shame to report it's not the pinnacle of Bertolucci's career . It is probably too long , by how much I can't definitively say ; it isn't acted all around greatly ( Sanda , for example , has no place being among the likes of De Niro and Sutherland and Depardieu who all deliver real top shelf work here , particularly De Niro as his mid-point between Corleone and Bickle ) ; and as mentioned some scenes transition a little suddenly , like with a key turning point scene at a wedding that goes on to a pig killing some undetermined time later . And yet all of these flaws are somewhat minuscule in the grandiosity of the film as a whole . It's full of tremendous cinematography by given virtuoso Vittorio Storaro , it's got that classic score by Ennio Morricone that reminds us he didn't just score gun fights , and its so frank in how it expresses its mix of sex , violence and politics that it blends the line between melodrama and realism to an unbelievable T . There's even a kind of double ( or even triple ) climax that goes from invigorating to bittersweet and finally really , really strange . It's ultimately the work of a filmmaker who actually used momentary carte blanche to his advantage and carved out his own piece of history . Whether or not it connected with everyone is another matter . |
509,799 | 453,068 | 342,172 | 9 | one of the most fascinating documentaries to come out of HBO films | It's been useful to watch Capturing the Friedmans a few times since first seeing it in the theater three years ago . It's a film that , much like in daily-life , deserves more than just one glance over with such devastating events . The film depicts not so much the facts or testimonies in the case of Arnold and Jessie Friedman and the pedophile charges that sent them both to prison ( though it does to a great extent ) , but really more so the rift in an already flawed family . But all of the joys and humor that a family tries to have even in the darkest moments is revealed as well , and its a kind of weird testament to how family should , and sometimes does not , stick together in the harshest , most nightmarish conditions . As a documentary , the viewer is given as many sides as possible , though perhaps more with the family's side ( some of those who testified or gave evidence on the prosecution side don't even reveal faces , which adds to the curious nature of what may or may not be true ) , and a very close , nearly voyeuristic look at the Friedmans through the video footage stored up . What Jarecki then culls together in the end is part Rashomon take on what happened , with a very psychological and skeleton-closet tide to it all through Arnold Friedman's past , with another part a detailing of the specifics of the case ( some of them kind of unbelievable in a couple of spots ) , and another part being like an all-too-true and harsh reality-TV type of area . These are people who are , warts and all , not too ashamed to put themselves on tape in order to capture ( hence the title ) what's going on . It's even shown how , towards the end , how destructive video-tapping can be , even as one gets the complete , subjective view as to why it was done . Also , as a kind of pure take on the dysfunctional family , the film is about as good as it gets , where the emotions and conflicts do not leave things as black and white . There are some very gray areas that are not looked over , and it all adds up to a point where the viewer is given more questions than definite answers . Did they really do what they were charged ? Who to believe ? This is a documentary , even through more staggering and uncomfortable parts , is really worth watching , as it stirs up conversation and talk about not just the facts in the case or about the people ( family and otherwise ) , but about how a family can or cannot stick together in crisis . |
510,657 | 453,068 | 405,496 | 9 | stop the channel and keep this on if you find this on TV , or on DV | For the movie buff in us all , whether casual or die-hard , the story of Jerry Harvey , who pioneered independent pay-TV services , is the story of the tragic hero , whom for the people who subscribed to his Z channel got the best of the best in international cinema , and then some . He started out booking films into theaters , usually obscure titles and films people should ( but don't ) seem to care about . Then he moved his ambitions to television , where he and a small office of support created the Z Channel , a kind of dark horse alongside the up and coming HBO and Showtime and Cinemax . All they showed were movies , mostly foreign films or westerns or crime films ( Harvey , we learn , was a great friend of Sam Peckinpah , as well as Michael Cimino ) , and were also profitable in showing the ' Night Owl ' films ( which today over-run Cinemax ) . He brought films like Once Upon a Time in America , Heaven's Gate , and the Leopard in their fully uncut , realized glory , helped usher in films that got over-looked , and for his time until the end of Z channel in 1989 , he had his own underground dominion . But the film doesn't shy away from personal details either , details I dare not go into here . He had a troubled childhood , which spread as we learn in the film into his adult years . In between his movie deals and such he had peaks and valleys of depression and anxiety and anger issues , finally coming to a head when he murdered his wife , then himself . Though the film doesn't sugar-coat the details , some more surprising than others , it doesn't make him out to be a bad person . More than anything , director " Xan " Cassavetes ( daughter of the director John ) gives a fully realized human dimension to this man , at times a little eccentric , but very intelligent , and at the core someone who sought his salvation , entertainment , and enlightenment in great cinema . As other filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch , Quentin Tarantino , and Alexander Payne recant their recollections of what the channel had to offer them , the memories of discovering movies for the first time thanks to Harvey and the channel , it brings to mind something crucial that is a part of cinema . In a way , Harvey , in his limited resources ( unfortunately , after Harvey's death Z channel went nowhere , never making it to the reputable , corporate heights of HBO and Showtime ) , did something that every movie buff needs - a friend to bring good , or great films to light , to recommend and turn people on to art that may not get shown on the Sunday afternoon movie . Through all of his flaws , mostly not of his fault to start with , he was a kind of independent pioneer in Pay-TV television , paving the way for a channel like IFC ( which premiered the film , by the way ) , and for a larger group , that films should be seen without studio's censors and scissors , that the director's vision is paramount for a film fan . This documentary brings to light that , and as an extra bonus shows numerous , beautiful , and strange clips from films . Only thing missing are some archival clips from the actual Z channel itself , or Harvey in a TV interview . |
509,922 | 453,068 | 70,215 | 9 | very likely the funniest spaghetti western ever made , or at least most kidding with the genre conventions | Sergio Leone picked a good director to helm his production of My Name is Nobody , as Tonino Valerii brings a sensibility that wouldn't of been the same had Leone taken the helm . It's not that Valerii steers too far away from certain trademarks of the quintessential spaghetti western director : expansive close-ups , beautiful master-shots showing the sprawling landscapes of the deserts and small towns of the old west , and of course Ennio Morricone . But this time there's a change of the guard in terms of homage - now it's not just going for an epic quality , but full-on comedy stylings . There's room to compare this to old westerns with Henry Fonda just as much as there's comparison to the Three Stooges . Or Buster Keaton . Because nothing is taken too seriously , it ends up having some strong underlying statements about gunslingers in the old west , the young catching up with the old , and the old ' times they are a changing ' logic that comes with the territory . The tone is light , though at the same time there's still that level of ultra-cool suspense that can be found in Leone's work . Valerii takes it up a notch in the direction of something a little less violent , however ( the film is technically rated PG , despite quite a few dozen deaths at one point ) . Terrence Hill is the title character , a guy who's strikingly handsome but perpetually goofy , who takes on as a big challenge Jack Bouregarde ( Fonda , his last western , a good one to go out on , if not as great as his previous role as Frank ) , who's a hero gunslinger . Nobody has fixed a ' Wild Bunch ' to come after him , and to what end ? Much of the film focuses on Nobody , until the second half when Nobody keeps prodding on Jack with his vague threats in the guise of ' fairy tales ' his grandfather used to tell him . And all the while it's consistently hilarious material , particularly if you know Leone's stuff well ( eg the gag from For a Few Dollars More where shooting a hat holds as much danger as comic timing ) , and tries at least to plug into the viewer who's in on the joke of not just an homaged western and homaged Leone western ( Morricone's score has tones from Once Upon a Time in the West , but comes close to sounding like a coffee commercial at times ) , but an homage to silent comedies and slapstick . Where else , for example , will you see a gunslinger such as Nobody fight off a potential assailant in a bar by just continually slapping him around as if Moe Howard possessed him for a full minute ? How about the gun being slung up at 16 frames-per-second ? Or a montage within an action sequence with Jack versus the ' Wild Bunch ' where freeze-frames of reactions from Nobody and pages from ' history ' showing Jack killing off the posse pop up ? And there's a fun-house / mirror scene that comes about as close to The Lady From Shanghai as the most memorable in all cinema . Some of it might just be all silly-by-proxy ; it's a big belly laugh to see Hill with a serious face hold a stick still in the air waiting for a bug to go underwater to catch a fish . In fact Hill is strangely enough a huge part to the success of the film by sticking to his two-dimensional profile with just the best bits of subversion : looking at his eyes one can't always tell whether he's being serious , crazy , or just plain joking around , like in the saloon . He wouldn't work as the typical bad-ass , stoic Leone anti-hero / villain , but Valerii understands how to handle his abilities . Same goes for Fonda , only he doesn't have to go too far to be effective : all he needs to do is to keep a silence going , a look that says everything that needs to be said ( albeit he lays it on heavy in the final letter , something that definitely would not be in a typical Leone film ) . And yet even with all of Valerii's kidding moments and high-spirits ( watch out little guy on stilts ! ) , there is some genuine artistry at work too , as when the Wild Bunch is seen coming ahead through the desert ( the wide-reaching over-head angle is the best shot in the film ) , and it reveals that there could be some worth in checking out other obscurer efforts of his . As it stands , I could watch it anytime it's on TV , if only as a pick-me-up if it's a soggy day . For fans of the western it is a must-see , if only for the fun of it all , and to get a pure in-joke regarding Sam Peckinpah . |
507,979 | 453,068 | 256,009 | 9 | a grisly ghost story , for its dedication to simplicity with characters , absorbing style and a bleak perspective | Guillermo del Toro is fascinated by characters who aren't apart of the battles during war , but at the same time he's also just as , if not more , compelled by the plight of children caught in the cross-hairs of good people and very bad people . It's also all the more an amazing view after seeing Pan's Labyrinth , the two films as sort of quasi-film cousins where it's the same universe ( del Toro has commented that he sees the characters of Carlos in this film and Ofelia in ' Labyrinth ' as two sides of a coin , or close to it , as characters with fantasy elements as something just as real as the brutal nature surrounding them with everyone else ) . Aside from the little things the stories share in common , like little details involving keys and doors and the uncanny persistence of both children and adults with their own large lots of problems , the Devil's Backbone has a real force pulling along the characters to an ending that gets progressively more bleak and bloody ( the body count is fairly high , some characters dying in big ways like in explosions and smaller , more affecting ways in chairs suffering from wounds ) . But all the while there is also the sense that del Toro is telling something that is half history book territory and half story-round-the-campfire material , handled with an assurance rare in contemporary films , especially from Mexico . Like in ' Labyrinth ' as well , del Toro casts his film well with faces that leave strong impressions not soon after we first see them , and get stronger in our minds as we see more looks to one another , exchanges that speak many words that are not always totally answered by ' how did this and this ' happen . Carlos ( Tielve ) is one of several orphans left at a slightly run-down and more than slightly spooky school out in almost the middle of nowhere . There's a doctor Caesares ( Luppi , who comes off like a cross between Fernando Rey - a del Toro influence is Bunuel - and Christopher Lee ) who has some unconventional practices , like holding onto fetuses kept in bottles with strange back deformities . There's also the conniving Jacinto ( Noriega , if not as impressionable and terrifying as Lopez's Vidal in Pan's Labyrinth still makes his mark as a slowly revealing presence of evil ) , who's having an affair with the head schoolteacher , who also has part of a leg missing . Then there's the younger Conchita ( Visedo ) , who will play a bigger part in the story as it goes along in its tale-spin later on . But the adults are one side of it only , as it's really the first of del Toro's films to deal with the staggering but not-too sentimental plights of children . Carlos , upon arrival at the orphanage , becomes the target of a seeming bully , Jaime ( Garces ) , and upon pulling a kind of water challenge one night , he sees what is to his eyes pure and simple - a ghost , a child ghost to be exact . One of the smart things is how del Toro establishes well the supernatural elements while also getting the child actors , all very good , to convey what should be typical story grounds : the push and pull of the stubborn oldest of the pack and the young new upstart with as good a soul as possible . As the more crushing dramatic turns come with Jacinto's betrayal - and destruction of the premises - it draws the kids inexorably into death and decay , but del Toro makes it on the one hand graphic enough to make the point that kids ' perspectives ( albeit boys , all the same open to loss of total innocence ) are changed by present and past views of violence . The whole facet of the ghost here could possibly be taken as less striking as the one involving the elderly doctor and the money-hungry Jacinto , but throughout , by use of stark contrasts in lighting , deft combinations of make-up and computer effects , the mystery of Santi , the boy lost to the darkest secret of the school , remains strong all the way to the harsh climax . This won't be the same exhilarating cinematic experience for some that Pan's Labyrinth was , and the possible argument that del Toro doesn't quite explore as completely his child-protagonist's own world with that of the world surrounding him outside of the shadows and dark corridors . Then again , del Toro conveys the shattered lives of children - and how there are more layers than might be expected - maturely , and as an always interesting counterpoint to the desperation , lust , love , loss and green of the adults . The Devil's Backbone , in the end , is blood-curdling as horror movie and historical piece , and even manages to squeeze in one or two moments of pitch-dark humor ( it is partly Bunuel influence after all , particularly Los Olvidados with the kids ) . |
509,111 | 453,068 | 70,242 | 9 | a man who could play the coolest blues , the most far-out rock , and a good man behind the ultimate tragedy | Jimi Hendrix chronicles the story of the man , the myth , the legend , the left-handed dude with a love of the blues and Bob Dylan , and who took rock and roll almost to another planet ( just listen to some of the tracks off Electric Ladyland and see how he goes into music like the equivalent of a crazy science fiction writer ) . He was also , as described by Eric Clapton , " guillible " , and susceptible to the leeches that lay around him that , by way of the drugs , led to his very sudden downfall . Had he lived there's no doubt he could have had an output that for his genre would be the equivalent of one of those great 18th century European composers or even 20th century Jazzmen . There's been so much written about him that he's been elevated to the status he's at today , so it's a welcome thing to see this documentary so soon after his death . Welcome , though also one can see the pain in some of the interviewees under the surface . Many on screen , his fellow ex-band-mates like Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell , and some of his own family and close friends , still have the memory of Jimi fresh in their minds , and so their recollections , both loving and even critical , comes at a time when there's still a lot to ponder . Through this and various concert clips ( some well known like Woodstock and Monterey Pop clips , some more obscure like Band of Gypsies and Isle of Wight ) , and a superb interview conducted by Dick Cavett , portray Hendrix as a smart guy who could play a guitar like , as Townsend describes , " an instrument . " In truth - and even for those who may just admire him as opposed to outright love and cherish his music - he was reaching into territory that was far surpassing anything done in the late 60s . He had the basics down for the best in blues ( maybe my favorite scene in the film , maybe exclusive just to this documentary , has him in a white room playing a ' Train ' type of blues song that is so invigorating to see what he comes up with , begging the cameras to keep rolling ) . He also was a kind of wild man about his imagination , and so didn't hold back with an audience . He appealed to white and black , rock and blues , soul and ( as might be the case years later ) heavy metal , and without ever making himself into a commodity - that was done after he was dead and buried . What A Film About Jimi Hendrix portrays is a confident man , at peace with himself , but as is described by those around him someone who had such extraordinary things about him that his few flaws made his undoing . And it is a near perfect treat for die-hard fans . |
508,497 | 453,068 | 39,224 | 9 | near classic prison noir / melodrama with excellent performances | Brute Force is hard-hitting and ultimately quite tragic because the director , Jules Dassin , and his screenwriter Richard Brooks don't go for a simple , self-righteous " bad guys always lose " policy that movies had at the time thanks to the Legion of Decency and the Hayes Code . By the end of Brute Force , without giving a whole lot away , our ' heroes ' in the prison cell R-17 don't get away scott-free , but there's a greater indictment called upon that makes the film ultimately a lot richer than it would be in other hands . The film examines a penitentiary that has a warden but is basically run by cold-blooded , tyrannical Munsey ( Hume Cronyn , perfect for this weasel who is a true-blue torturer ) , and the convicts in cell R-17 , including Burt Lancaster in an early role as Joe Collins , among a handful of men who have committed crimes but are portrayed in flashback as not being particularly ruthless or horrible in their acts or deeds . If anything , Dassin and Brooks set up a particular sympathy for the criminals that might have just skirted by the strict side of the Hayes Code ( I wonder if the last words of the film , however crushing in existential tone , were forced on the filmmakers by the Hayes people ) by making the situation not really black and white at all . On the contrary , Brute Force is an alive and harsh piece of film-noir with some searing scenes of melodrama because there's some gray territory ( i . e . if it was black and white the Warden , too , would be ruthless and corrupt , but he just wants to run an orderly prison that his inmates will respect , unlike Munsey ) . Many scenes have that edge of a thriller , those surprise scenes that keep you talking after the picture ends like the guy getting crushed under the gears of the machine , or the torturing of the ' reporter ' , or even those somewhat predictable but heart-rending flashbacks that the prisoners have to their sweethearts on the other side ( some , sadly , divorcing , others sick and need care ) . All the while the performances are top-notch , especially from Cronyn , Lancaster , Bickford and Levine as Louie Miller . Sometimes it's hard to pull off a really surprising prison-break-out flick , but Jules Dassin treats it with the same entertainment value , as well as general tragic pathos , that made films like Rififi so memorable . It's a tough " guy " flick that has a heart . |
509,856 | 453,068 | 21,577 | 9 | Like walking into Bunuel and Dalis ' brains and going through the doors they have wide open - plenty of unforgettable moments | Luis Bunuel was a filmmaker of great imagination and scathing wit , and Salvador Dali was a magnificent , albeit demented , artist and painter . Combined they made Un Chien Andalou ( The Andalousian Dog ) , a short-film that somehow made it through the decades to reach another generation after another . This is because surrealism , the field they were working in , was one that could be endlessly creative . Surrealists could and still can captivate , startle , amuse , primarily provoke and / or even delight an audience by the story elements and images that come right out of fantasy , both on the bright and dark / bleak side of things . L'Age D'Or was a chance for Bunuel to go further , and if his goal was to enlighten the audience as well as to stir the sstorm , he succeeded . In the first five to ten minutes of L'Age D'Or , I didn't know whether I knew exactly what was going on , or was totally boggled - the first images Bunuel puts forth are of scorpions ( insects were one of his fascinations ) , and how they're shaped and how ferocious they can be . Then he cuts to some men who have guns by their side , walking through deserted rocks . THEN , after this , he cuts to a ship docking by the coastline where the guys with the guns were walking , and he never goes back to them again . Instead he focuses on one of the bourgeoisie men who is raping a woman , and who is dragged off into the imperial city . If you look at this story structure it doesn't seem to make sense - what is it that Bunuel and Dali are trying to get at here ? It was when the rest of the story unfolded - with a particular bourgeoisie woman at a party who meets the man who was dragged off of the rocks - that I understood the logic I had first discovered in Un Chien Andalou and a later work of his , Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie . Bunuel doesn't just toss a bunch of ideas together and think that it'll all make sense . In the thought process of a dream - one with light-hearted moments with romance and wonderful music , as well as terrifying moments like a cow on a bed or a man shooting his son in broad daylight - L'Age D'Or works like a kind of clockwork . Though the last ten five minutes of the film did throw me off almost completely , by then I didn't care . I knew that , overall , Bunuel accomplished his goals of making a film that hypnotizes , repulses , opens the eyes a little wider , and almost gets one cross-eyed . With his attacks on whatever was considered decent , straightforward art in cinema , both political , sociological , psychological , and personal , there are many messages to be seen in the work . However , when it's looked at as a whole , this is simply a work of art , one that has to be interpreted by the individual . Like one of Dali's paintings , one could view the work as nonsense , the work of an amateur mentally masturbating for the viewer . One could even see it as being rather entertaining when looking at the human elements that come through from the actors and the actions that take place . And one could see it as meaning so much that it will take another couple of viewings to " get " what was being said . I turned off the movie feeling breathless , like being put through a washing machine of astonishing turns and emotions . At one point my jaw dropped , and then at the next point I smiled . To sum it up , I definitely want , and need , to see it again . . . one more note - this is a very , very hard film to find , one that has been kept out of circulation on video ( it was also kept out of circulation in movie theaters for decades due to its controversies at the time of its release ) , but to seek it out is to take a chance that could equally pay off or disturb a particular viewer . |
508,395 | 453,068 | 65,446 | 9 | an uncommonly sweet film from Peckinpah ; can't wait to see it again ! | The Ballad of Cable Hogue isn't exactly a " light " offering from Peckinpah , but then again what would be ? This is however not something almost unthinkable at the time like the Wild Bunch . If anything , after that film , Peckinpah decided to go onto something that would let him focus even more on just character , and on a story that took another look at the old west ( while , also , looking at the changing-of-the-tide sort of theme from the previous picture ) . Robards is terrific , and very funny , as the drifter who makes a buck after building up a way-station in the middle of the desert . Cable Hogue is a man of ideals that are just grand enough for him , as he stumbles upon a luck of a spring in the ground and makes it his own . Robards often has the good memory of his career of that as a character actor mostly , with memorable parts in Once Upon a Time in the West , All the Presidents Men , and lastly in Magnolia , among many many others . Here , in one of his leading roles , he gives full life to this character , and under Peckinpah's direction he's a man who's a little too complex to peg as just one thing with women , or one thing in dealing with a gunslinger or a prospector , and gives him a feature of respectability , or at least some interest , even when Hogue should be at his worst . Despite some of the darker undertones that come up from time to time , it might be Peckinpah's sweetest film , where a prostitute with a heart-of-gold like Hildy ( amusing Stella Stevens ) works just right , and the music by Jerry Goldsmith matches the mood every step of the way , notably in that opening scene with Hogue stumbling about and going into freeze-frame . Sometimes the humor even gets a little dirty ( how about that panty shot ! ) , but it doesn't ring untrue . In one of the few times in Peckinpah's career where the producers knew well enough to let him alone to make his movie , The Ballad of Cable Hogue turned out as one of his better films , a testament to one of his pet subjects without the notorious angle of violence with it . |
510,840 | 453,068 | 65,466 | 9 | on the contrary to a couple of reviewers , I LOVED the ending ; the rest is very good , if not great , exploitation film-making | By 1970 Russ Meyer had established himself as a ' like-him-or-not ' director , fiercely independent , with the kind of edge that set him apart from other burgeoning independent American directors ( he's certainly not Cassavetes ) as well as shlockmeisters and pornographers ( too experimental and in love with comic timing for that ) . With Beyond the Valley of the Dolls he and , yes folks , Roger Ebert , got in and , as Meyer described , the " lunatics took over the asylum . " Which isn't to say their movie didn't make money , or end up as a big cult smash that can play any time in the country to a packed house . But that they snuck in just the kind of subversion that is somewhere between Mad Magazine and Hustler . It's raunchy ( albeit , and maybe to somewhat disappointment , not as raunchy as some of Meyers smaller budgeted films ) , it's flashy , it's a rock and roll fantasy of campy and drugs and , in the end , lots of over the top violence . In fact , when ' Beyond ' is at its best , it's got the stuff of classic exploitation film-making , and with a bit more finesse and class beneath its subversion . Meyer was a self-trained cinematographer and editor , and it shows , though in different degrees . The film looks crisp and clear and without the spottiness of more to-the-point B and Z movie directors . But the editing shows his real knack at pushing the boundaries . It's strange to see how fast the movie does that , MOVE , with twice as many cuts per scene , but not with the kind of obviousness that seems to come around today ( albeit , as others have said , Meyer was ahead of his time ) . Comic-book like , but not quite , it's one of the things that sets him definitively when watching any of his work ; there are some scenes , like the " intro " to Los Angeles , the drug scene at Z-Man's pad with the Sorcerer's Apprentice music on , and all the ' fluffy ' scenes that are 100 % self-conscious , work in large part to Meyer's spectacular style at the movieola . Plot ? Um , does it matter ? Maybe a little - a three-piece rock group is lured out to Hollywood , and get sucked in , along with their manager , into the muck of ego and excess with multiple sexual partners , jealousy , scandal , etc etc . That's the basic of it . The more meaty explanation is that it's an amalgamation of a lot of differing clichés , all potent for the taking : sex farce , rock drama , infidelity crisis , drug tragedy . And the way it comes off , one is not sure whether it's sometimes meant to be intentionally stupid , or just is . It probably is , for purists , a " bad " movie , but in a sense Ebert and Meyer ask every step of the way : what is " bad " ? Can bad taste be forgiven if it's pulled off with dead-pan seriousness and a panache for parody ? It skims the line every so tautly , with Meyer's predilection for his busty gals ( all of them , actually , not bad as actresses either , at least in this context ) going up against the impression of Hollywood and rock and roll excess . Think Josie and the Pussycats in a fricassee of X-rated madness . Though I should say , contrary to a few critics of the film , if anything puts it into the stratosphere of being memorable so many years later - when it does , ironically , become dated - it's the climax involving Z-man ( ahem , Super Woman ) and Meyers's outrageous take on the Charles Manson massacre . It's totally ludicrous , including the chiming of the Fox studio theme during the beheading , all the way to the actual gun shots , and the narration right after it where every character is summed up with their flaws and the " message " with each . If anything this is where the filmmaker reaches his most inspired , and likely one of the great climaxes in any B-movie . Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a twisted warp of satire and sincerity , and it should be seen by any serious fan of cinema ( I mean that seriously , even if the reaction will be the farthest thing from old European masters or William Wyler ) . |
510,325 | 453,068 | 61,177 | 9 | not for all tastes , but if you're in the right crazy-comedy mode it could be one of Woody's funniest films | In its own nature , the film being made fun of within the film What's Up , Tiger Lily is inherently silly . It's a James Bond rip-off done to the Nth degree , where based on only a few films its Japanese B-movie counterpart does everything just in imagery alone to make it a ludicrous action-movie experience . Just in the opening moments , even before Woody Allen appears on the screen to explain the method to the madness in the film , is quite funny in a bad-movie sort of way . And I think that it's probably not too unexpected that it puts a divide in Woody Allen's audience . There's the group that's more into just his later style of wit and humor , and I can tell that for those it's not surprising to see some not really ' getting ' into this style of wacky , off-the-wall , cartoon humor . But after seeing a couple of more dramatic films recently , this one really did the trick . It's the film that was the most likely to spawn the underground Night of the Living Dead parody of 1991 , along with Kung Pow ( the former being better than the latter ) , but it also has a kin-ship , if not ascendancy , of the ZAZ comedies of the late 70s and 80s , and even a tinge of Mel Brooks . So , for me , this is actually one of my favorite Woody Allen comedies . Not really up as high in terms of cinematic ' quality ' ( in terms of craftsmanship , I mean ) as his 70s films , but with material like this , it's almost required not to carp . Woody and his team of writers and voice actors almost have it cut out for them . There's much to wonder , perhaps , in what the ' real ' plot of this Japanese spy film ( Kokusai himitsu keisatsu : Kagi no kagi , or International Secret Police : Key of Keys ) is almost as funny as what the writers come up with . Spies and assassins are on the look out for , get this , an Egg salad recipe ! But , of course , this is just as much a gimmick as is , well , much of the rest of what comes out of the actor's mouths . At times I wasn't even sure if it was all Woody Jokes , or which were ( twenty minutes , apparently , are not by Woody Allen's group but by someone else , though it's hard to tell which is a credit to most involved ) , but I didn't care . It's got the kind of jokes that , on a certain plain , can allow you to laugh like an idiot . Certain gags just come with the territory of the film itself , and are heightened by the added bits during fights . But much of the film is based on the wit Woody's known for , though here sometimes to equally ' bad-pun ' and juvenile terms , even featuring ( practically never in any of his other films ) rock and roll and cartoon-like voices ( my favorite the snake-obsessed henchman ) right out of Looney Tunes and Ren & Stimpy . So many lines strike up laughs to greater or lesser degrees it's hard to really spot them out , but it's suffice to say that by the time it's done - and through its end credits featuring an eye-exam - you'll know whether you'll want to watch it again like a ZAZ or Brooksfilm to memorize the quotable lines and bits , or put it in the lower , deeper-to-find section in your video collection . Things like a spy who bursts into an operatic love song during tense confrontation scenes , and with puns like " two Wong's don't make a right " , are what you can expect in this film , but there's more , and it will either ignite the anything-goes funny button , or just not do it for you . One thing's for sure , you'll never see the Lovin ' Spoonful the same way again . By the way , this review reflects the Woody Allen dub of the movie ( of what's there anyway ) , and it's available on the DVD ; recommended over the other dub that's been floating around too . |
508,620 | 453,068 | 66,534 | 9 | plenty of scabrous bits of Bunuel's Catholic - and faith-based - criticism and questioning ; the parts are much greater than the whole | I might be tempted to call the Milky Way a masterpiece , but for all of the excellent scenes that dance along on the edge of being silly , strange , dead-serious , and scathing in attack , Luis Bunuel doesn't make it quite an easy first viewing . It is , alongside Phantom of Liberty , though maybe more-so considering its picaresque flow , a difficult film to follow at times , as the folds go in and out of the two pilgrims on their way to Compostela as if in an ocean current . We see Jesus and his disciples . We see some 15th ( or 4th ) century sermons and heretic slayings and practices , sometimes seeming as mystical as something out of the Dark Crystal . And there's even a duel between two sides of the Catholic coin debating between specifics in the nature of god while fencing furiously . It's what could be defined , if one were looking for an easy label , true surrealism , pointed right at the edge of contradictions , of the daring of the random and of chances taken at the expense of all authority be damned , and at the same time it's a drama of fanaticism and faith in general . What is it to believe and actually buy into these guys , who at their most genial are storytellers and at their worst will burn you at the stake for not going for God in threes versus God as one ? Bunuel , at the least for his admirers , makes an attempt with his collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere , to raise questions in the midst of raucous entertainment . Although Bunuel can be even greater when being devilish and playful ( eg Discreet Charm ) , the Milky Way displays the filmmaker reveling in the history and nature of heresy in a construct that's maybe more daring . One truly can't expect what will come next , as one may see a scene with a priest flip-flopping about whether or not the Holy Ghost is in the communion wafer or not ( and soon thereafter taken back to the asylum ) , and then a scene with a rag-tag group of evangelicals in the woods who may or may not be paying heed to God , or to the Devil , or both , or a chef being questioned about how Jesus walked and then a cut-away to how Jesus really walked . As the two pilgrims go along their way , having their own delirious encounters - missing by a bit being struck by lightning , debating Christian free will , one hoping for a car to crash , which does , and then seeing some angel of death or other in the back-seat , and in their continuous streak of being turned away / kicked out by those who would take them in if not for essential hypocrisies - a pattern does start to form ( if one could call it that ) , or at least the essential pieces to Bunuel's puzzle . A lot of times one laughs at the subtlety and the outrageousness : should Jesus shave , do nuns crucify one another , how much can a priest pontificate about not having sex under any circumstances . But it's actually after the film ends that even more ideas start to come around . And yet Bunuel is so cunning , so deadpan with how he directs the actors - some part of his repertory , some not - that it skims into becoming straight drama , which in that case would make it almost dull ; the film actually faced some ( un-fair ) criticism when first released that Bunuel had suddenly made a film cherishing the things he used to damn . How curious , deranged , and honest even in this part of the appeal , the playing of both sides . While it is fairly well known that Bunuel became an atheist following a strict Catholic upbringing ( one quote of his , also the name of a documentary on the Criterion DVD , is " I'm an atheist , thank God " ) , it's never clear whether Bunuel will take one side or the other . There's things that are fed up about those who go without any question at all , like the little girls reciting verbatim on the stage , but also of what the man envisions of revolutionaries shooting the Pope in a firing line . Even for those who may consider themselves atheists , as Bunuel might have up to a point ( like Scorsese , no matter how much can be sort of dropped , there still remains chunks that stay as part of the auteur ) , and for those who are rigid believers , The Milky Way attempts to open up a discussion of dogma , heresies - many long forgotten before the writers dug them up in research - and why one should even believe if there is no definitive proof . For all of Bunuel's skewering of schizophrenic or quietly sex obsessed priests and moments of pure mystery like the man who first comes to the pilgrims , there is bits of reverence too , like for the Virgin Mary - who at times becomes part of the debate - and it's challenging and refreshing to see nothing left solidly as ' this is this for sure ' . If it may feel a little loose an imperfect on a first viewing it shouldn't detract from everything that can be taken away as pure food for Bunuelian thought . |
510,780 | 453,068 | 74,119 | 9 | a tight ball of a mystery movie , gets better with more viewings | The first time I saw All the President's Men I wasn't very impressed or , actually , that involved . But it was also also at a time when I wasn't paying much attention to what was on the screen ( school-time , middle of the day , that sort of thing ) . After seeing it a couple more times , and from reading more and more about the Watergate / Nixon involvement and impeachment , the film has a lot more importance for me , and it does work very well as mystery-movie entertainment . You have the investigators ( here also journalists ) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein , working for the Washington Post , on their own digging into the break-in at the Watergate Hotel in 1972 . But without much results over time they almost lose their case and story . Enter in ' Deep Throat ' , a special secretive informer for them , and some extra paranoia , and the case goes up a notch . This is quite a film to see in the 21st century to see how , like with today's Good Night and Good Luck , how determined , concrete investigative journalism stirred up the system and the content being relevant to the time it was created . At the time it was released , however , I wonder if the connection was even stronger to the very recent events of a scandal being uncovered leading to the impeachment of Nixon . But aside from the content , there's also how the film is put together , and its really , like GN & GL , good movie-making for a mature , thinking audience . Robert Redford is in one of his best turns ( even if one could say he's just being himself , which he often is anyway in films ) as Woodward , with his scenes with Deep Throat in the parking garage exquisitely intense . Dustin Hoffman is equally good as Bernstein , the sort of other head of what the editor-in-chief ( played very well by Jason Robards ) called ' Woodstein ' . The dialog in the script is dead-on , and the storytelling just piles on and piles on what works . If it doesn't grab attention right away it's not a crutch , but an incentive to stay along with the story and see it till it's end . |
511,046 | 453,068 | 43,567 | 9 | a pick for best cinematic translation of Strindberg to screen | Alj Sjoberg's Miss Julie is superior film-making to the kinds of expected adaptations of iconoclastic plays one might usually see . This Miss Julie moves , when at its best , like a real MOTION PICTURE ( not to overstate it , just to put the words in bold ) , where Sjoberg's camera moves in fast and smooth , transfers between present and past with one simple sweep ( this part seems the most influential in future post-modern films ) , and combining music , lush outdoor locations ( it IS midsummer night after all ) and acting that's fit for the screen just as much as for the stage if not more-so . Reading the play years ago , I was struck by how it would be hard to translate this past the one-room setting , where Julie and Jean confront and have the wild possibility of leaving everything to chance and becoming lovers elsewhere . This was the case with the 1999 adaptation - a respectable but unremarkable turn - but in this much older case it's a sweeping saga of romance plagued by class distinctions and just plain old childhood problems still sticking their claws into present affairs . It's surprisingly fresh in its old-fashioned sense . At first it looks like Sjoberg could be deviating from the bulk of the tone of the Strindberg play and start to make a much livelier version of the material ( how that could really be done I can't say ) , with the horde of people dancing and rollicking in frivolity like it's the last days before the new century . But it's a very wise move of contrast : while all the townspeople and others among the Count's lot go into a delirious frenzy here there and everywhere , there's Julie and Jean all abound in their neuroses and dangers of new-found existential connection . While Sjoberg doesn't have much trouble in translating the tone of the basic material - of the difference between rich and poor struck away by the desire to just see these two talk like human beings , warts and all , without the confines of their set places and alignment with those they should be with ( Jean with Ingrid , Julie with Lord knows whom ) - the trick Sjoberg had was with his style and casting . On both fronts , as luck would have it , he has it made . Anita Bjork is an excellent Julie , and the actor playing Jean is also fantastic at displaying an apt trait of showing off as at times being sincere and not sincere , confusing and riling up poor dear Julie , taught from her youth to hate and be wary of men by her hateful mother . Even little parts that might have been left shorter run in the original play are given further depth , Luke Julie's father , who's seen as something of a conflicted character as a man in power who ends up being much more caring ( up to a specific point of incident ) than her mother . As for the style , as aforementioned , it's often breathtaking ; sequences like the young Jean running away from the lot of adults after him for stealing is shot , edited and composed like something not quite of the early 1950s . If it's a little dated here and there it should be expected , but Miss Julie is a delightful exercise in the unimaginable : an adaptation that lives up to the controversial and exciting spirit of the source . |
508,287 | 453,068 | 39,286 | 9 | a very keen mix of message and craftsmanship ; excellent performances | A film like Crossfire puts another film that spreads around its social consciousness - i . e . the recent film Crash - almost to shame . Not necessarily because either one puts forth its message of intolerance-is-rotten more significantly ( although I'd wager Crash throws the hammer down much more thickly in comparison with this ) , but because of how the storytelling and contrivances never get much in the way like with Crash . Maybe it's not really necessary to compare the two , as Crossfire is in its core all deep into the film-noir vein like its going out of style . It was interesting actually to see what the director Edward Dmytryk said on the DVD interview , where he mentioned that the budget for the photography was significantly lower ( on purpose ) so that more could be spent on the actors , and the schedule went through at a very brisk , quick pace . But then what comes off then as being incredible about the picture is that you would think looking at many of the lighting set-ups that it took a lot to do . Just for a small scene , like when Robert Mitchum's Keeely first goes in for questioning under the Captain Robert Young - the contrasts of shadows seamlessly in the room is exquisite . That there are many other lighting set-ups that go even further with so little marks this as something essential in the realm of just the look of the noir period . Just take a look at a shot of characters on a stairwell , the bars silhouetted against them , and see what I mean . But back to the substance part of the film - it's really a story that consists of a murder mystery , but one that we as the audience don't take long to figure on the answer . It's then more about something else then in the mind and soul of a killer that wouldn't be found in a common crime picture then , as there are really no ' criminals ' for the most part in the film . There's a very calculated risk with this then that characters could be too thin just to prop up the ( worthwhile ) message against anti-semitism . But Dmytryk's direction of his top-shelf cast , along with a really terrific script by John Paxton fleshes out the characters , least of which for what they should have to not seem too thin alongside the message . And what would a noir be then without some attitude to go along with it ? Mitchum helps that along , even in scenes like between him and Young where its very much based in the situation of the story's moment ( i . e . a detail in the plot ) , by injecting a little sly wit into some of the dialog . It may already be there in the lines , but he helps make the character with a good edge for his scenes . Then there's also Robert Ryan , who excels at Montgomery as a man who you know you don't like much at first , just through his b . s . demeanor , but you're not totally sure about either . Then once it starts to come clearer - ironically through a subjective view-point of the suspect Mitchell ( George Cooper ) at the apartment of the soon-to-be-deceased Samuels - his performance becomes a great balancing act of being full of crap and also rather frightening in his blind-way . It's a good performance when also countered with Cooper , who has actual personal issues that he faces and comes forward with regret and humility . It's really after the film ends that one thinks about a lot of this , however , and while you're watching the film it's more about getting into the dialog and the flow of the scenes , and in the sometimes stark , overpowering camera moves on the actors , so the message is in a way secondary . Not that it isn't an important one , especially for the time period ( coming right off of WW2 ) , but years later its seeing the actors , even the ones that don't get the big marquee status like Gloria Grahame as Ginny ( the femme fatale of the picture , if it could've had time for one which it doesn't ) and William Phipps as Leroy ( the " hick " ) , working off one another that sticks much strongly in the compacted screenplay . Dmytryk is also very wise in choosing to limit the musical score is powerful too , as for very long stretches we hear nothing , and mostly when it does come up it's incidental to the character's surroundings . He could've just as easily gone with added musical notes on some dramatic scenes for emphasis , most specifically the opening audience-grabber into the film . By sticking clear of that , and getting the right attitudes and nuance in camera and cast , it uplifts standards in genre material to a very fine , memorable level . My favorite scene would probably go to Finley's story about an Irish immigrant he tells to Leroy , where all such elements come into place well . It might not come in very high at the top of my favorite noirs - and I'd still throw-down Murder My Sweet as the director's masterpiece in this kind of picture - but it's assuredly higher in quality than something of the B-level too . |
508,942 | 453,068 | 765,120 | 9 | Wong strikes up sublime film-making again in familiar territory in foreign terrain | This is a wonderful work of romantic intuition . This goes without saying that My Blueberry Nights is the work of a true auteur , even if it's one nestled comfortably in the art-house mold , so that for pretty much his entire oeuvre he has been making the same film . One almost takes for granted his jazzy style of editing , and his use of the camera speed ( it looks like it should be all in the editing , but the choppy-ness of the slow-motion has me still wondering even after I've seen several of his films ) , which might make the fact that he uses this trademark technique every other minute in the film - sometimes more depending on the ' mood ' as it were - a little much . But on the other hand , if somehow this happens to be your first film from the Chinese director - his first in all English language with a mix of American and British actors - you'll probably " swoon " all the way down the aisle once its over . Truly credit must be given where it's due ; who has the guts to make a movie where two characters meet and connect and might fall in love in a late night coffee shop talking till dawn over baked goods ? Sometimes Wong paints unequivocally beautiful imagery ; most notable for me is when Elizabeth , played by Norah Jones in her first film role , falls asleep after having too much blueberry pie and ice cream , and her face is in full close-up , a little of the remnants around her mouth , and Jude Law's Jeremy goes in slowly for a kiss . It makes even a hardened not-much-romantic like myself smile . This doesn't mean Wong's contemplative three-part road-movie film is perfect , far from it ; the last third , where Norah Jones travels through the southwest and Las Vegas with Natalie Portman's southern belle is the least effective ( even if Portman makes it pretty interesting ) . And it's personal taste , but a lot of the music in the film , save for much of the Memphis stuff , doesn't strike my fancy ; it might for some , as Jones is a bonafide star in the music world , but it kind of doesn't sink up as well as other music of a similar mold in previous films of the director . And yet there's much in the movie to recommend , and a lot that many critics have snubbed . David Straitharn and Rachel Weisz , for one , are extraordinary , as they elevate the conventions of a short story to the level of small-scale tragic proportions as an estranged cop husband and sultry ex-wife who can't seem to live with , or without , each other . Straitharn proves that playing drunk CAN be a real challenge , and Weisz is about as sexy as she'll ever be . If for no other reason this middle chunk is by itself a masterpiece of the Memphis blues . And finally there's Jones and Jude Law . Both of them are great in chemistry terms , and somehow they spark up the screen where so many other romantic dramas or comedies try and try so hard . Why not just have simple thoughts about how pie is left behind or used , or use keys left behind at the café as a symbol of loss and not finding things ? Wong keeps things simple in that emotional sense , but complex in style , and it's this that makes My Blueberry Nights a special , imperfect work of art . You can relax with it , take in its avant-garde cinematography and scene-scapes of America , and tear up if you've ever loved blueberry pie . Very underrated . |
510,874 | 453,068 | 74,156 | 9 | on par with its inspiration ( s ) ; a must see Carpenter classic | Ackowledged by it's own creator on the DVD , Assault on Precinct 13 is a bit more of a hybrid than just a sheer homage to Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo . It has traces of that ( editing name , ho-ho ) , and of the Western specifics in bits of the storytelling devices and stereotypes . But it also has traces of the horror film , of the basic theme of demise by outside forces that not only rests in the best of zombie films but also in a lot of Carpenter's later work . What makes the film seem fresh today , even if it takes its time to get started in the first half hour , is how focused the action is around the story . Even with these basic characters - those with speaking parts closer to archetypes than not - it all works . It's a practically-perfect midnight movie . You've got your good guys , a mix of cops and criminals ( one of them , Darwin Joston's Napoleon Wilson , has enough style as an actor without even flinching at times ) . And you've got the ravenous gang ( achem , zombies ) out for blood after a gun down by a vengeful father . What surprising about how this very simple premise is set up , of a showdown in the worst pit of Los Angeles , is how it's all close to being just a pure exploitation film . But there's some thought or maybe just music to the film ( not the actual music , though that's cool in its way ) just as relentless as in Carpenter's other work , maybe even more in its rough way . It is a violent film , but the violence comes and goes leaving more room for talk than one might expect given it's by-a-thread rating . It's quite clear where the visual style would end up lending itself to in later years too ( i . e . Reservoir Dogs ) . When taking aside the occasional misstep , like an unneeded ( suggested ) sub-plot ( not that Joston or Laurie Zimmer are bad actors , but they lack chemistry ) , Assault on Precinct 13 comes out without many scratches at all . It's a lean film at 90 minutes , with enough tension for two more . When it is shocking it shocks , when it wants a cheap , solid laugh or ( more often ) grin it comes through , and it doesn't pull any punches in letting you know here and there this is nothing more than a genre exercise . That Carpenter is able to pull it off so un-pretentiously is a credit to his first inspiration , as well as to the spirit of the long boiled ingredients of older films . In short , the most cult you can find by the filmmaker without going to his previous effort Dark Star . |
510,609 | 453,068 | 65,528 | 9 | a seriously funny movie about insane reality | In 1970 , MASH and Catch-22 were the main contenders in the unofficial bout of military satire movies , and while MASH ended up making far more at the box office and keeping its acclaim so high that Robert Altman had a sweet career in the 70s ( and , arguably , made far greater films ) , I might be in that minority that prefers Mike Nichols ' funny but dark and pretty frightening adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel . I can't say with certainty if it reaches up to the reputation of Heller's work ( I would imagine it's probably better and with more detail and further wit ) , but director Nichols and screenwriter Buck Henry nail what is by now the obvious and continually horrifying fact that the nature of wartime brings on such an insane situation that the sanest one is the one who wants to prove to the nut-house that he's the loon . As in Dr . Strangelove , Catch-22 is populated by eccentrics and crackpots and just strange people , but there's a reality t it that keeps it from going too far into farce . The difference for Nichols , I think , was Vietnam . There's that underlying current of that war being even more maddening and pointless than WW2 , and there's many scenes where the humor just evaporates and we're left with Yosarrian ( Alan Arkin ) completely bewildered by a military command that is chaotic by design . When we see a character like Bob Newhart's " Captain " Major or Jon Voight's character's chocolate cotton ( not cotton candy , cotton ) or Perkins walking in on Martin Balsam on the toilet , it's funny or amusing or , as in Yosarrian's thing for acting ' weird ' and going nude for a medal or just for the hell of it , hilarious in that deadpan manner one expects from the director of the Graduate . But the tone shifts , not suddenly but with a good jolt , when the pilot shops the guy in half and then flies into the mountainside . Not to mention the whole final third of the picture , which becomes darker and more troubling ; the satire turns from nutty and sometimes dream-like ( i . e . recurring vision of ' saving ' the guy dying in the plane ) to tragic and ugly . In fact , this is no less an important depiction of the macabre nature of the beast that is war than Apocalypse Now . If it's not really a totally great film or a masterpiece , it's almost one . It starts a little shaky with its tone , I should note , as one has to adjust to some of the rhythm of the dialog like the first mess-hall scene with Martin Sheen and Art Garfunkel , or just the tone of the film-making which goes to creative lengths to make cinematic the tone of picture , sometimes in just one shot ( the best being when Voight and Balsam walk and talk , and the plane crashes down without the characters flinching ) . There's touches of real brilliance to the direction and the writing and certain set pieces like the medal awarding or the ending . But at the same time Nichols is also best as an actor's director , and he's assembled a host of familiar faces to film buffs , or just casual moviegoers : Arkin gives a genuine pathos to the protagonist Yosarrian ; Sheen and Voight and Charles Grodin and Bob Balaban and Anthony Perkins and Balsam fit great into their supporting roles , filling them with equal parts grounded reality and wackiness that verges on that line of serious and parody ; Orson Welles , for his two scenes , almost steals the show from the large cast . It's a mostly superb and underrated work by a director off and running early in his career , working from a highly regarded work of black comedy to as honest an extent as possible ( or , rather , it doesn't feel cheating to what would be an adaptation ) , and it puts you into a whole other perspective of that " Great " war , with foreshadowing to contractor-profiteers and fake missions on civilians and power-hungry brass with total immunity . Maybe nothing very new , sure , but it's rarely so entertaining and powerful . |
510,145 | 453,068 | 347,149 | 9 | loaded with enough imagination and sweet vibes for three movies ! | I can't say for certain , especially after only seeing the English-language dub of the film in the theater ( and seeing bits of it again on TV ) - that Howl's Moving Castle is one of the very best of the great Hayao Miyazaki's feature films . But I didn't leave it feeling un-happy in the slightest , and if anything I remember most the feeling of uplift , which is what the best fairy tales try to accomplish . It follows the strand left by Spirited Away ( though also trailing off from other Miyazaki films to be sure ) where a female character is the protagonist thrust into strange circumstances , really around a curse . Sophie ( voiced by Emily Mortimer and the great Jean Simmons in the English dub ) gets cursed by an evil witch , and then meets up at Howl's castle ( Howl , by the way , is a slightly melancholy and quirky wizard , voiced in a fun way by Christian Bale ) , and sets about to make herself useful , however to also keep order in the guide of her now old-lady persona ( and , more importantly , to free herself from the curse ) . She also has to contend with an overly cautious flame ( Billy Crystal , odd choice for a talking fire , but it works better than I expected ) , and a scarecrow who sometimes just can't sit still . Soon Sophie becomes the unwitting assistant to Howl , as she goes in partial disguise to help him be present instead of him before his former tutor , Madame Suliman . And , of course , in the meantime , a love story unfolds . Although I could argue that Howl's Moving Castle begins to stray a little from the completely satisfying world portrayed in Spirited Away or particularly in Princess Mononoke - and that the story is given way , frustrations and all , for the visual wonderment - it's still a delight from start to finish . While I wondered when I first saw it if the Japanese dialog would make a difference by much , seeing the American voices didn't detract much at all , and if anything the cast fulfills the story more than one could hope for . And , of course , those visual inventions are never to be taken for granted in Miyazaki's world ( more than likely attributable to the source from Diana Wynne Jones and leaning more to Western influence then the decidedly awesomely Eastern Mononoke ) . If anything individual moments , like when Howl almost melts away from not having certain powers , is really intriguing , or in just seeing the castle itself , with all of the little parts and spindles a marvel in and of itself ( Ebert's not far off from saying that it's one of the great unique places of the movies , and for me almost resides on the other industrial side of the cutesy wonderment of Totoro ) . I definitely need to watch it again , as Miyazaki's worlds usually do , but for now I do recommend it , even if you've never seen one of his films . Little girls too , I'd imagine , might get an extra kick out of the strong-willed female lead and the strong romantic interests in the storyline ( and having a handsome leading man voiced by Bale doesn't hurt either ) . |
508,317 | 453,068 | 60,675 | 9 | even through its moments of experimentation it's a fun , fully intriguing Godard flick | I saw Masculin Feminin in a class last year and like with most of Jean-Luc Godard's films I was taken aback by how much the film doesn't stick to anything expected for the audience . This is Godard at the peak of his powers as a director for what has become a line associated forever with Godard - the Marx and Coca-Cola generation of people ( or , those born in the 1940's ) . Like My Life to Live , the film is broken up into specific acts , but this time it isn't as discernible and even plays on when a new segment should start or end ( sometimes it changes quite quickly ) . And the spontaneous feel that goes with many of the better Godard films is in full swing here , as Godard ( according to the interviews on the DVD ) sometimes just feeds the actors lines , or just questions to get true , if more documentary-like , answers from the actor ( s ) . It's really one of the best films from the period that made Godard known all over the world ; anyone seeing his later , more obscured semantic essay films need only to see a film like this or Band of Outsiders to see the filmmaker dealing with real characters and convincing dialog . Jean-Pierre Leaud is actually just as good here as he is in the 400 Blows , only in a slightly different way . The youth of this actor is still ever present , but here it's changed to be a little more of a radical guy . The uncertainty of the character of Paul , his interest in the opposite sex , and having an intelligent but aimless walk of life , is very in tune with the other Truffaut creation . He becomes , along with his co-stars ( like the young , beautiful Chantal Goya as Madeline and Marlene Jobert as Elisabeth ) , if not really a direct representation of all the French youth at the time , something of a reflection of youth is like in general is present . These characters don't know what they want for their lives , but they do know that things like sex , rock and roll , protesting the oppression of governments , and keeping an interest in parts of life are what make up their day-to-day existences . What might seem very casual styling in following these characters , particularly Paul , is a bit more calculated than expected . Everything that unfolds goes from being very funny to philosophical to fly-on-the-wall to even the poetic . That the cinematography and visual style is more often than not exciting in where the camera may move or not , or where the length of the shot will hold . Individual moments make up some of the best that Godard's ever received , and from actors who being caught off-guard is not a negative . I loved the dialog between Paul and Madeline early in the film , as simple questions have some deeper contexts . Or when Paul is just walking along , a rock song starts , and a guy whips out a knife only to something very unexpected with a great , ironic payoff . Or the movie within the movie , a parody on Bergman's The Silence that isn't disrespectful and at the same time captures a cool attitude that these characters are looking at even if it's a bit above their own sexual attitude . But most striking both times I watched the film , even in its sort of un-reality and very ' movie ' kind of way is when Madeline says a very poetic bit of wording in bed in the dark . Even in the moments when Godard's off-kilter filming isn't as appealing as in other points , as one who is apart of this age group the characters are in , I got enveloped in their loose , tragic-comic conversations and observations ( not as preachy or didactic as in other works of the filmmaker ) . The ending , too , is perfectly shocking and puts a fine dramatic cap on what is really a bittersweet view of these people . And along with getting these characters right , this time and place , the places and people they encounter ( little poetic notes of their own , as on the subway or in the coffee shops ) add to its overall effect . One of the best films of 1966 . |
510,390 | 453,068 | 351,540 | 9 | before Machete , there was . . . Daniel Daniel ! | This is a fun , rough and buoyant example of homage from the guys who would later collaborate on Man Bites Dog . It's an extended " trailer " for a spy movie with the hero , Daniel Daniel , and his attempts to stop a bomb plot or other . What the plot really is I can't say exactly , but there are some horrible but hilarious jokes at the expense of a black-faced character whom gets crapped on by his hero until the moment of his tragic death ( " Say bonjour , bonjour ! " ) Then there's characters we barely see but get the grand cast roll-out in the final few moments , and big action set-pieces set around what must be entire scenes from the movie spliced together ( one I loved was Daniel Daniel coming to the rescue of a bunch of kids in a museum about to be toppled by a hanging dinosaur skeleton ) . It's tongue placed firmly in three cheeks , and in the method of precise parody ala Grindhouse there's a gas to be had even if it's hard to recognize that it's all a take-off on European trailers ( bad voice-over included , as is often the case in the US ) . Shot in glorious CINEMASCOPE , this is not to be missed if seeking out the Man Bites Dog Criterion DVD . |
508,099 | 453,068 | 69,945 | 9 | wouldn't we all want to be in Benson Arizona ? | Dark Star is one of the best student films I've ever seen - and I stress the term " student " here as it is more than anything the inklings of talent , the audacity on display for fellow film-making students and peers and ( of course ) the filmmaker's own professors to see what they can do . It's rough and crude science fiction film-making , as if a bunch of dudes in a dorm decided to remake 2001 with a beach ball , a frozen commander , and an existential talking bomb . But it's also very , very funny , the kind of humor that is intelligently sophomoric and also acutely satirical to what the genre produces . In fact , to give an idea of what it's like , Douglas Adams might have taken a look or two ( if it played in Britain that is ) and the inspiration for Hitchhiker's Guide might be seen . It goes without saying , of course , that it's John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon , who have had their own names attributed to various brands ( Halloween / Alien ) , without noticing that they're also excellent at delivering comedy through a filter of awkwardness , the bizarre , and even the bad-ass intent . On top of the humor , which never calls too much attention to itself . . . actually , scratch that , any movie with a beach ball as an alien and a rubber chicken used as a distraction during boredom will have to be considered a bit ' broad ' . What I mean to say is that there's a fine line that Carpenter and O'Bannon work at with the material ; the actors , of course , aren't the greatest at comic timing , and sometimes O'Bannon's Pinback sounds like he has just gotten out of a nerd convention with how he talks , most stilted of all ( with the biggest exception being his Diary entry scene , which is howlingly funny ) . Yet he and the other characters also serve a purpose for the story , however loose it is : there's an attitude of the 70s ( long hair , beards , a cluttered bedroom for the men covered in nudie pics ) that seeps in through the pores of Dark Star , a counter-cultural f-u to the establishment by proclaiming how preposterous it all is , and then having us laugh with it instead of at it ( albeit it's hard not to laugh at it once or twice , particularly with the little space-man models outside the ship in space ) . But if a comic sensibility , and a grasp of what it takes to subvert the genre just enough , is in reach , so is the technical aspect , to the degree it's allowed . The budget was a paltry 55 thousand , but given many other of its low-budget contemporaries ( i . e . actual B movies and not a student film ) it's fairly impressive . I loved seeing the layout of the asteroid field , as if from a doodle pad . Or the ship itself gliding over a planet , only a smidgen below a similar scene from 2001 . And how can one not dig the final shot , with an astronaut finding his salvation : a surf-board ! Counting in with this is the cinematography , fairly sophisticated for a student work , and the music ( from Carpenter , of course ) being a sweet mix of weird drum beats , a classical bit during the elevator scene , and a wacky theme that if otherwise used in any film would seem ridiculous . Given how lackadaisical , and nutty , and original the dialog and settings are in this great strange bird of a movie , the song fits right in . Both of its main creators would go on to greater things , to be certain , but Dark Star is a lot of fun , and surpasses any of its limitations of cost through ingenuity , deranged humor , and that spark of genius from time to time ( particularly with the climax ) that makes it builds up a cult crowd . |
510,415 | 453,068 | 245,429 | 9 | An anime treat | Spirited Away , the latest film from writer / director Hayao Miyazaki ( a genius to Disney animators , such as to Toy Story director Lasseter who executive produced the film for the US ) , is a wonderful family film , that works on numerous levels for kids , not the least being the creative storyline , and for older kids and adults there are lavish backdrops and characters right out of , well , an anime movie . The storyline , by the way , follows a girl and how she finds herself in a fantasy world where her parents have been transformed into pigs and spirits and other strange creatures prowl the landscape , and she has to everything she can to stay human and get a way back home , thought she'll need help along the way . A bit at times reminiscent of a Wizard of Oz or Alice In Wonderland in Japanese anime fashion ( perhaps building just on the fantasy elements as Miyazaki usually does ) doesn't disappoint for a moment as a marvel of imagination . Even those strident fans of maturer ( err extra violent ) anime pictures will want to look , maybe more than once . Works on many levels and I recommend it of course , if maybe a mild mark under Miyazaki's best work Princess Mononoke . ( or ) |
508,752 | 453,068 | 56,905 | 9 | a film that challenges audience's expectations to the conventions of a war film | One of Godard's better films from the 60's , which like a number of his films from his prime era is usually either liked a lot or detested to hell , is almost audience-dividing on purpose . His film is a black comedy that sometimes is ( successfully ) deceptively a bleak drama of corruption of the working man in times of War . Stylistically it is Godard all the way , though one can't disregard the likely significant contributions ( though it may be hard to detect since it IS Godard's mouth all over the pie so to speak ) of screenwriters Jean Gurault ( usually Truffaut's co-writer ) , and ( apparently ) Roberto Rossellini . Rossellini , who was one of Godard's big influences , is countered by what was also a big influence likely on this picture , Samuel Fuller , the king of B War pictures . So one could look at the quasi-split of ideals in the film , of Rossellini's documentary style of telling it like it is , crossed with Fuller's hard professionalism and no-holds-barred view of War . Whomever influence comes through stronger , this is really Godard's show , and has here something that is fairly usual in terms of his challenging styles and criticizing past films ( including Truffaut with his own comments on War depicted in film ) , but also is unique for how it is presented , and makes it a difficult , though rewarding experience . This is the French new-wave equivalent , to put it another way , to Sam Mendes's Jarhead ; you're not sure if this really should be classified as a typical ' war ' film , despite being in a league of other films already in place . One thing that is as fascinating as it is occasionally frustrating is Godard's main male actors , Albert Muross and Marino Mase , are not very expressive , and of course are not really ' actors ' in the traditional sense ( at least at the time they were close to un-professionals ) . But maybe that is what's needed , dumb farm boys who are propogandized into going to fight for their invading , nameless country ; the opening scenes of the list of things the men will get is equally funny and troubling . Then the boys go off to war , and there is a really astute episodic kind of storytelling used , which works considering the short time length . One scene that really stood out was when one of the soldiers goes to see his first film ever , and is almost like some kind of primate seeing a woman disrobing on a screen ( it's also arguably the funniest scene in the film ) . When the boys come home they are loaded with pictures , in a scene that is the one that almost had me questioning if it was either really good or really too long ; the length of the list of pictures is like a litmus test for moviegoers - can you take all of these images , done almost to make a point that's not too clear ? But what makes Les Carabiniers work for me is how it is so un-like other war films that it stands alone on its own terms , like a French new-wave Dr . Strangelove ( though maybe not a masterpiece like that one ) . At times I wasn't totally sure where the satire started or ended , and there is a certain distance that Godard places with his many long-shots getting in as much landscape as tanks and soldiers with their guns . What's surprising is how the tone is always assured , which is crucial considering this is a story told through the side of the invaders this time , men working under their elusive King for land and riches and wealth . One of the best scenes I may have seen in any Godard film is when they have a woman who is at first thought to be ' a friend ' of the soldiers , but then goes off on a Leninist rant . The men are about to shoot her , but can't for a few minutes , as the words she says strike some kind of chord in their primal mindsets . Amid montages of archive footage of planes flying and bombs dropping , there's a scene that would never ever be in any ' conventional ' war picture . There's a real thought process going on here , and even if it's got some of Godard's usual ' f you , it's my style , take it or leave it ' attitude , it's not totally un-accessible either . It's a slim volume of gritty anti-War pathos , and it's maybe a tad under-rated in the director's massive catalog . |
508,004 | 453,068 | 109,508 | 9 | the outsiders who make it and the ones that don't ; a documentary with true rhythm and honesty | Documentaries about artists can go one of two ways , either very insightful , with images that stick with you , as well as possibly entertaining , or very boring . This will often depend on the merit of the filmmaker , and how personally they connect with the artist and the work itself ( some of it is more made for films to show just to get kids to fall asleep in school ) . Terry Zwigoff , however , is a filmmaker very much in tune with his subjects ; his fictional films , the comic-book adaptation Ghost World is cynical ( or skeptical ) but with true heart , and Bad Santa is as dark as comedies can get . With his friend Robert Crumb he gets one of the most candid , and smooth , documentaries from the 90's . It may mean more to people who are from that period ; Crumb is still a legend in the underground comic-book / art scene , not quite breaking into a ' mainstream ' but still with his immense cult . But for one from the following generation , I was often mesmerized by his work . A good part of the film is just Zwigoff using his camera to get into the main mind-set of Crumb , not just necessarily with interviews with his family members or friends and co-workers ( though there is a lot of that ) , but also through the presentation of his work , often in medium close-ups , with awesome blues melodies and tunes in the background . Crumb's work is morbid , satirical , drug-inspired , occasionally racist ( for a purpose ) , ultra-sexual ( the Fritz the Cat adaptation film of his work was the first X-rated animated feature ) , and funny in most respects . One particular description by Crumb over a comic of a woman with a headless body being seductive for a main character is very fascinating , as it brings out several different reactions when reading it - laughter at the random-ness of the characters , romantic drama with the man's lusting for this headless woman , and pure odd-ness at what goes on here . You scratch your head in confusion , or maybe have to put it down in disgust , but if you have the stomach for it it's somehow rewarding . If nothing else , the actual form in the ink and use of colors is often miraculous . Then there are the interviews . With Bob Crumb himself he's always in a fairly good mood , very personable around those he loves and admires , and those around him - mostly the women whom have inspired , terrified , and amazed him over the years - and without any shame or shyness about his work . And when it comes to his family they too are just as candid ; it's a little depressing , to be sure , to see the state of his brothers ( Charles , in particular , who is actually an identifiable character for many outsiders in the world , only to an extreme ) , and the tales of his father . Some of this goes to explain some things about the psychology of the Crumb mentality , but the fact is Bob Crumb does let it all hang out in his comics , as he admits " usually instinctively " . There is something about the subject of the artist as a confessional , as someone who is so personal that he can't necessarily projects to a specific ' audience ' . It's appropriate , therefore , that a filmmaker like David Lynch produced the film ; the similarities are striking in how they both reflect their own desires and hates with the idealized Americana of the 50's . At times ' Crumb ' is a little un-settling , but never for the wrong reasons . It's not for the average comic-book fan , and for those who just love and respect artists in general will find much to admire in Crumb's style . |
510,755 | 453,068 | 1,091,722 | 9 | such false advertising ! and now on to the compliments . . . | The big label on top of the title of the poster of Adventureland says " from the director of Superbad " . This is a given since it's true , they have the same director , but from the look of the poster and by some of the ads it looks to be very much in the vein of the gross-out sex gags and super vulgar humor that populated much of Superbad : teens will sneak in thinking they'll get more of that only this time at an amusement park . This is not the case , that should be made very clear . . . and yet there is something of a similarity . However gross Superbad might have been , the connection to the characters was strong because Greg Motolla didn't put up false barriers or a sense that despite the outrageousness these weren't real teens who had real aspirations past getting drunk and having sex . And now , in his more personal outing Adventureland , he moves on to make something that strays even more towards romantic drama than Apatow-company-linked comedy . It's a little like Woody Allen goes to an 80s party . I should explain : this isn't the super funny Allen I refer to , but the one who could strike a deep chord in revealing things about people in relationships , their flaws made succinct but also to make what we can like about them so relatable . Adventureland features some of the most identifiable early 20-somethings I've seen in a Hollywood movie in a while , and at the same time Motolla side-swipes past the clichés that bog down romantic comedies or romance dramas . If there's some familiarity that's to be expected : there's been first-love stories since sound movies began , and there will be more . But you feel the awkwardness without it being too awkward or self-knowing or " hip " like so many movies are about young people in their crossroads , and you feel that there's some troubling things going on with people who are intelligent in the midst of one of those " that-summer-this-happened " stories . It's about James Brennan , who comes back from college to find his parents don't have the money for him to go to Europe for the summer before Grad school ( or even for Grad school for that matter ) and has to get a job without any real past job experience ( he's a romantic-lit major ) . So , Adventureland , a typical amusement park with the silly games and the giant pandas nobody wins and the inedible corn-dogs , is where he ends up , and finds a friend in nerdy Joel and a girlfriend in Em . Em , meanwhile , is having a fling with a married man several years older , the park mechanic Connell , who is supposed to be a big-shot for playing in a band that opened for Lou Reed . It's the " summer-this-happened " story , with plenty of idiosyncrasies that lead up to a lot by the end of it all . What I responded to on top of the characters , who are never less than three-dimensional ( this is about the highest praise imaginable , I would hope , for this type of young-romance story , since so many rarely have 2D ) , is the bittersweetness of what happens . You can feel the weight of scenes where Kristen Stewart , a wonderful actress , is straining to hide away her affair with Connel while trying to actually have fun with with James ( played by very good by Eisenberg , continuing his streak from Squid & the Whale ) AND balance that with the already crappy home-life she has with a deceased mother and by step-mother . The script doesn't take any easy routes , and it never really judges anyone too harshly - just enough to make sense of what it was like in retrospect . It is self-knowing , but in the best way from experience and a loving sense of time and place . And in case you're wondering since the IMDb genre is for the moment only listed as comedy , there are some good comedy scenes and moments , specifically from Bill Hader as the boss at Adventureland . There's both subtlety and over-the-top bits to his comedy , such as when he's looking at the deliberately sexy Lisa P and says " Nah , I'm a one man woman " or when he goes from zero to eleven by raging at a guy who's gunning after James over a spat - and then goes back to zero again . Adventureland is really the most realistic kind of dramedy one could hope for right now , and it reveals a filmmaker who will not shortchange his audience with his characters . It's a vibrant , touching little movie , absolutely perfect for the young date-movie crowd , with an amazing soundtrack to boot . |
509,498 | 453,068 | 100,828 | 9 | it's not Chinatown , Jake , but it is nearly classic throwback to detective fiction | To compare Chinatown and the Two Jakes , which would probably take more sufficiently a whole entire other article , one I wouldn't print here , it might be noteworthy on the surface to also make a co-comparison in terms of iconic films . The Godfather 2 and Chinatown both came out in 1974 , and then both saw their respective next ( and as we sit here likely final ) installments come out in 1990 . Both were hyped to one degree ore another , and neither one lived up to the majority of the expectations that were already steadfast in everybody's minds ( and , to be fair , criticisms on both sides aren't entirely invalid ) . But probably even more-so for Two Jakes than Godfather 3 , Jack Nicholson and Robert Towne did have a solid story to tell in continuing along the saga of Jake Gittes , whom Towne envisioned not simply in the context of his homage mold ( Chandler / Hammett ) , but in a larger context than the novelistic noirs of old . This was the second part of a supposed trilogy , all based , according to Towne , on natural goods ( first part water , second part earth , third , the part unproduced , would have been air and focused on pollution in the 50s ) . It's easy to say that the Two Jakes is nowhere near the status of Chinatown , but then again it's also hard to say that Jack Nicholson is really as great a director than Roman Polanski . He probably isn't , this in spite of the fact that this could arguably be the best of the three films he helmed ( the others underrated Drive , He Said , and Going ' South ) . The best service that he does to the material is to make something that is by itself enthralling as a movie unto itself , while tipping the hat to all of the various supporting characters that previously appeared ( from Escobar to the snotty hall-of-records nerd ) in Chinatown . Only when Nicholson starts to get obvious , like with the flashes back to brief bits from the original film , does it get a little much . What helps too to distinguish it is a slight change in pace with the structure of the story . Not so much in certain mechanics of the detective procedural , as Towne knows he can't mess with that too much . The chief difference , which probably split and continues to split many fans , is the use of voice-over . Polanski dropped it from his film , having the audience find things out as Gittes did . But for Nicholson , the narration is something else entirely . It's used a lot more like in proper detective fiction , not so much as to guide along the plot but to ruminate , almost like some sage of a weathered snoop , and even if it's used maybe once more than needed ( which bit I can't quite point out ) it's very effective in adding a mood to the piece , a tone that complements the convention of " we may be through with the past , but the past is not through with us . " In this case , Gittes , as continued to be played by Nicholson with that awesome balance of cool thinking and wit , gets into a case with " another " Jake ( Keitel , what's not to say about him ) , and infidelity in the mix . But there's a lot more in store , including an audio recording of a crime , and some details in it that stir up everybody's attention . Meanwhile , a woman named " Kitty " , Jake Berman's wife , has something she's hiding from Gittes and . . . you get the idea . If The Two Jakes isn't always great art - and it's not to say there aren't some thrilling moments of pure cinema , like the opening shot or those scenes driving out in the fields of California ( and speaking of nostalgia , orange groves ) , and the Green Parot club , not to mention a couple of other notable exceptions - it's excellent craftsmanship , where it's like a yarn from the late 40s with a couple of extra spikes of plot contrivance and luscious dames that give our Shamus a bit of a loop at times . It works on that level entirely , of still being playful throwback and serious crime drama , and while it doesn't break that many rules there are for those who want to give it a shot . As far as long-awaited sequels go , for me , it could've been a lot worse . |
510,978 | 453,068 | 74,285 | 9 | one of the more entertaining , chilling , and tragic stories ever about High school | Carrie is from a novel by Stephen King , and directed by Brian De Palma , and it can more than likely be found in any horror section of the video store . But to me the film may lend itself more to being a kind of weird , darkly satiric take on High school life that only really gets into the outright horror in the last twenty minutes . For the most part Carrie could just as well be a fable about the ugly duckling or some other kind of outcast . Nothing in the film or story is necessarily subtle , but it's hard for me to carp - all of the one to two dimensional characters are brilliantly played , and through such fantastical material there is a truth reached that might not be struck with a different cast or director . It's a unique blend of theatricality , style , and some very realistic , harsh notes about societal repression . That it's fun , and funny , at different times also puts it a notch above other genre material ( certainly above other King adaptations about the mawkish loner with special powers ) . Sissy Spacek is in a career-making performance as Carrie , the awkward girl that everybody in school ( at least all of the juvenile teen girls in gym class ) teases to no end , who's own paralyzed way of being among people works against her . The first big chunk of the film is really dramatically satisfying and heart-wrenching with , aside from the obvious ' trait ' Carrie possesses , could happen to any loner teen . After an accident in the girl's shower , to which taunting reaches a high peak , all of the girls ( including the likes of PJ Soles , Amy Irving , and the very sexy btch Chris played by Nancy Allen ) get detention under the only one who really cares for Carrie ( Betty Buckley ) , and so the girls plot revenge involving the senior prom and a bucket of pig's blood . Meanwhile , Carrie still gets her ultimate repression by her bible-thumping , very nuts mother ( Piper Laurie in the most successfully over-the-top performance of the film ) . As the prom nears , a near iconic line ' they're all gonna laugh at you ' pops up , and becomes the crux of the last grueling act of the film . De Palma has only a handful of films that come close to this one for his sheer love for over-stylized , prolonged scenes that almost start to comment on themselves . And there's a really wonderful element to some of it , it's almost akin to Sergio Leone's the Good the Bad and the Ugly in just trying to see how far he can take his style before it might implode or get to just the right height of suspense . Obvious enough are the Hitchcock lifts in parts of the style , most notably in the climax with the split-screens and very similar music cues ( all he's missing is Bernard Hermann ) . But his style works to making scenes already with a satirical tinge funnier as opposed for just shocking edginess . My favorite was the scene showing the gym teacher working the girls hard out on the field , this reaching almost a cartoonish side to it . And , of course , what would a 70s horror movie be without an amazingly explicit , slow-motion jump-cuts in the girl's locker room ? This style works best with King's material , adding an extra emphasis on the emotional manipulations and cruelty , and rigid , constricting structure , that school imposes . Sometimes , too , part of the enjoyment in seeing a film like this is not just the take on a telekinetic getting her vengeance on her teasers and pranksters , but how it all fits well into a psychology and general outlook on High school . Certain scenes with the supporting characters are good at this , like with a very amusing John Travolta and Allen in the car . This is the kind of take on high school life that likely inspired other films like Heathers and Donnie Darko , but Carrie has a kind of timeless quality to it too . On the other hand , if you are looking through the store and want Carrie to be a genuine horror film - once it truly transitions into that section , it's ( appropriately ) gory , lavish , and unexpected ; I had already seen this climactic scene somewhere before seeing the whole film , but it still kept me on my toes , particularly the final confrontation between mother and daughter . One of the best King adaptations and a very good turn from director and cast . |
510,215 | 453,068 | 56,884 | 9 | the first moral tale is decidedly one-sided , but full of the strengths of both Rohmer and the New Wave | Eric Rohmer's The Bakery Girl of Monceau isn't a very great film - the chief liability is Barbet Schroeder , the ' Young Man ' as he's called , who isn't expressive much at all , almost stilted when he has to say his lines outside of the narration which is when he does fine - but it's one that has some very solid ideas about attachment to one who is more of an unknown , and possibly unattainable . Unlike My Night at Maud's , however , Rohmer doesn't infuse a religious context , but rather that of the anxious and romantic youth , of a guy who has nothing else to do outside of his minor class work than to find a possible one-true-love walking along a particular street of Paris . He waits all the time for a woman he was at first shy to introduce himself to , and doesn't see her . His habit of getting a cookie or two from the local bakery leads him to the bakery girl , a wide-eyed girl of ( only ! ) 18 , who doesn't go out with boys but may make an exception for the charming young man . Meanwhile , Rohmer lays on the moral dilemma - or sort of a put-on of a moral dilemma , which actually makes it more interesting - of this character while making it a surprisingly cool film directorial-wise . As great as he can be with his dialog , until this I haven't taken Rohmer as too much on the scale of being AS great as a director ( not bad at all , to be sure , though a slight peg less than his old buddies Truffaut and Godard ) . But with this small-scale story and totally on-location scenes , he has some striking moments in just showing the young man walking on the street - jump cuts , quite amazing even in such rough form - and in the bakery , where the slightest bits of a close-up or an image of a cookie dropping mark as something significant . There's even a moment or two when the young man is with his friend early on where the camera speed seems to come close to looking like a silent film . At only 23 minutes long , this isn't a very complex little film , and it ends sort of at a ' that's that ' kind of way , but it sets a very good precedent for the rest of the ' Moral tales ' to follow . It's the kind of short I'd probably like to watch again if I have a half hour to kill in a random moment in the future . |
510,557 | 453,068 | 74,254 | 9 | another Altman de-mythological exploration mixed with show-biz satire , but it's very underrated with a great Newman performance | A lot of reviews on this site keep this down as something of a misfire from director Robert Altman , that it might have been too easy a target or that it's being too cynical . Can there be enough cynicism in looking at the history of Old-West Americans and American Indians ? After so many years of Westerns showing things as black and white - of John Wayne Vs . Tonto and the like - there needed to be a good dose of reality , but not just by any run of the mill filmmaker . Altman is able to sympathize with the Indians while at the same time adding a certain mystery to them ( how they cross the river , come back from the mountains ) . On top of this he makes a very strong , funny comment on celebrity and mythology in a somewhat typical de-mythological style . It's not entirely an anti-centennial statement ( his real centennial movie is Nashville ) , but one that criticizes things while still staying true as a semi-serious comedy . In fact , this has a few of the funniest scenes in any Altman picture . Take when Annie Oakley ( Geraldine Chaplin ) is performing her ' stunt ' with her partner , and throughout the picture it's been a dicey and tense act with it never being as clear-cut as it should be ; Annie is always talking to herself in mid-shot , asking to try it again if she misses . Then when it comes time to do the ' stunt ' in front of President Cleveland , she shoots her partner right through the shoulder , with it ( mostly ) being passed off like nothing happened . Little asides like this that build up - or , for example , a hatred for birds that inexplicably Bill has against the cheery German singer who owns it , leading up to a frantic shoot-em-up against the bird's cage until it escapes . Sometimes it's simply " funny ho-ho " humor , the kind that one might have a quick chuckle and then see back to what's going on . But it's brilliant " funny ho-ho " comedy , where manners are tested to the extremes in the face of Buffalo Bill's troupe and the unmovable Sitting Bull and his ' voice ' played by Chief from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . There is actually something of a firmer story for Altman than usual , though that goes without saying it's like a belt thrown on once in a while with a pair of pants . Buffalo Bill is riding on his reputation , and hosts a big-time show that is a good lot like the circus only real physical prowess and weirdness replaced usually by good-old-fashioned American storytelling , which is , basically , that Indians killed a lot of people and then Buffalo Bill struck back . When Sitting Bull actually comes to the act to be apart of it , he has some conditions to be in it , many conditions , some easy ( i . e . setting up camp across the river ) , some that test Bill's patience ( i . e . changing the whole story of Sitting Bull to show Bill killing masses of Indians ) . Meanwhile , President Cleveland is coming for a special visit , Bill's drinking gets bigger , and he loses the thread of his own presumed skills like when he can't bring back Sitting Bull and his group when the " escape " to the mountains . This all leads up to a conclusion that has a double-side to it . On the one hand the very end should feel kind of conventional , where Buffalo Bill faces off against Sitting Bull ( or rather another actor playing him ) , and ' wins ' in front of the cheering audience . On the other hand this is preceded by a tragic note , and a very strange , near perfect dream scene where Buffalo Bill confronts and constantly shifting-position Sitting Bull , confronting him as well as his own ego and reputation . At the end of it all , Altman isn't saying outright America is evil or anything ; it's that there are some serious wounds caused not simply by the obvious Americans vs Indians but by over a century of holding up icons to the sky without the slightest gray area or real humanization past superhero status . And in the midst of all this , in the work of Altman's usual good ensemble ( Keitel , Joel Grey , Chaplin are very good , Lancaster good if in a superfluous mouth-piece role ) , Paul Newmna shines incredibly in a role that requires him to be star-like but to also get into the shallowness and inner demons of the character . It might even be one of the best performances he gave in his career : he's magnetic in personality , naturally comic , and haunted to a degree . |
510,844 | 453,068 | 109,424 | 9 | I like to revisit this movie every now and then , like a quirky , quintessentially cool photo in a pineapple frame | One of Wong Kar Wai's most experimental features ( and this is even for old Wong folks ) is one of his earliest efforts , done while in a creative struggle making his epic Ashes of Time . Chungking Express is light and frothy , featuring funny monologues about the importance of pineapple preservation and a charming , aimless usage of Mama and the Papa's California Dreaming . It's about the search for romance in a city that is dark and dingy and full of holes someone could easily fall into . But what makes it so charming , and interesting ultimately in that European art-house way , is how Wong Kar Wai keeps a rhythm to his story that doesn't follow rules , but feels right in a sense like some off-beat song on an obscure album only your hip friend down the block has . I'm not sure who , in the end , I would recommend Chungking Express . Probably film buff friends who enjoy obsessions over pineapple and girls . There's also a very good performance turned in by actress Brigitte Lin , who before this was a ( enormously popular ) pop star , and is slightly used as opposed to cast by Kar Wai as a figurehead , like some flashy , self-conscious symbol of a mystery in and of itself ( blond wig , going about the crevices of town on some criminal mystery , the music playing in tight but sweet strings ) . It's also great to see Tony Leung in an early role that allows him some space for some little notes of emotion we haven't seen in future Wong Kar Wai movies where he's the super-serious or melancholy lover . Not that there aren't moments of the melancholy in Chungking Express , but they're presented like it's the most important thing to the characters , and to the audience is , well , just another piece to their puzzle as a whole character . Little by little we see that this isn't much as a crime film in focusing on these two cops and this odd woman in a blond wig . Or even Fayes character . It's a question of what makes up these characters , when romance throws caution into the wind . I've seen Chungking Express in bits and pieces over the years , and while I will eventually get down and watch it from start to finish , all the pieces together ( not to draw any sort of parallel in what I described and how I view the movie ) stay fresh in my mind . I love revisiting the gil dancing to her own beat to California Dreaming , as if we're in the room too . I also love how Kar Wai flashes so many techniques into his story , the flashes of colors , the combinations and segues of film speeds and a kind of impressionistic style that puts up noir into a more emotional plane . It's one of the director's best . |
510,792 | 453,068 | 260,776 | 9 | maybe the most light-hearted piece Cronenberg ever made , still with one or two creepy moments | Camera is a loving exercise to the magic of movie-making as the subjects are an aged man who became that way while watching a movie in a theater ( based a dream Cronenberg really had ) , and a bunch of kids who have a 35mm camera and sound equipment and are getting ready for a shot . " They just figured it out , " says the old man on how they're able to operate film equipment . It's a moment like that which puts a genuine smile on my face - Cronenberg does love cinema , and not simply for the reasons that could be taken from his most notorious work ( i . e . Videodrome , Naked Lunch , Crash ) . The only times when one feels the old Canadian maverick kicking in is when we see the video camera moving in on the man's face ( Leslie Carlson as the actor , who has a great , unique face for long , lingering hand-held close ups ) . This is contrasted with the straightforward , innocent shots of the kids setting up the equipment . And then that final shot , where it becomes like a moment out of the best theater , if only for a moment . It's a nifty little piece that is a good accessory to see as a Cronenberg fan - the big pyshcological dramatic points are lessened for the sake of an intro to a film festival . |
508,155 | 453,068 | 22,286 | 9 | Jimmy Cagney , of course , takes this to another level ; very good direction to boot , a near-classic | The Public Enemy is not the best that the 1930s gangster movie period had to offer - Hawks ' Scarface and Curtiz's Angels With Dirty Faces certainly top it in terms of overall quality and bravura performances - but it is still one you wouldn't want to miss to understand the force that was and remains so potent today of James Cagney . While he's not quite alone in giving off an amazing screen presence with Jean Harlow as the almost love-interest it's his show all the way . He takes on Tom Powers with a conviction that is never too earnest but never too subtle to get the point ( though it's arguable that even Cagney has his subtleties , which only adds to his power ) . He talks faster than anyone but never loses one in his verbal fury , and just his look on his face ( eyebrows , eyes , the occasional devilish smirk or look of " I don't give a flying f " ) or the way he carries himself in a room , makes it something of a mini-masterpiece within its 84 minute running time . Does this mean it's his best performance ? Not sure , but it should be a top tier one , especially considering it got him so much notice back in the 30s - it's not just historical precedence but a purely entertaining work of a small-man-to-big-man saga . The story of its kind has been told and told again ( indeed the whole aspect of two kids starting young and then one turning criminal and the other straight , in this case shown with Tom and his brother Mike , would be repeated to better effect in Dirty Faces ) , but what draws one in , aside from Cagney and Harlow in her few weirdly captivating scenes , is how William Wellmna keeps things focused . As Scorsese notes on the extras on the DVD , music is a huge factor : it's all source material , with the ' Blowing Bubbles ' tune repeated to wonderful effect , and the lack of a conventional score where other directors would have tacked one on for safe measure . Say what you will about some of the camera choices , and some of the pacing here and there that now almost 80 years later is a little creaky , but Wellman's work is powerful and sustained for impact based on what he doesn't show . Many still talk about the hyped ' Grapefruit ' scene , and it's a funny moment not for the misogyny but for the absurdity of the improvisation ( oddly enough from what I had heard I expected it to be more brutal ) , but I would contend that the scene at the horse stables where we see Tom's psychotic sense of revenge played out ( it's second only to the Godfather as the best horse-related scene in a gangster picture ) and the climax in the rain with Tom going up to the building to kill the other gangsters reveals a filmmaker with something to say . If anything it's worth seeing the picture just for these moments where sound films came into being so much so that they still work amazingly today . It has a few problems , but The Public Enemy is something of a real must-see . |
508,467 | 453,068 | 53,168 | 9 | simple is as simple does , which includes stealing and living an isolated life | Robert Bresson's Pickpocket has many great moments , even as it didn't quite do it for me on a first viewing as a ' masterpiece ( some have said to see it twice , perhaps I will ) . Bresson's use of the camera is often intoxicating in the most subdued of ways ; at times it does take on the prowess of literature . But my only minor nitpick with the film is that it leaves a sort of cold viewing on a viewer , with such simplicity and emotions stripped from the character ( s ) that it's hard to connect . And yet , this is really made up tenfold with the sort of style that can be likely called Bressonian ; straightforward angles , tense medium close-ups , serene editing , and little to no music . Whatever it sets up for this actor to do , it sets up well . Indeed , the actor who plays the protagonist here is actually very good , aside from the disconnection , and provides an excellent way for us to get along his side . He is a decent person , but there are certain things that get to him , which is why he feels he must steal . At times I almost had a grin as he made some successful grabs , by himself or his cohorts . Was I rooting for him , or just pleased by the pay-off of Bresson's suspense ? Maybe both ; there is definitely one truly virtuoso sequence in the film , when the pickpockets go on the train . Like A Man Escaped , the only other Bresson film I've seen , there is that sort of dissection , quietly and without really digging too deep , into what a man wants with his life , or doesn't want . While the hero has only one determination in Man Escaped , to get out , Pickpocket has a man who doesn't know what to do with himself , only coming to a genuine catharsis behind bars . I think I like Pickpocket a little more , but I may like it even more on another viewing . |
510,910 | 453,068 | 78,754 | 9 | a cheerfully ironic and devilishly self-indulgent plunge into the spirit of Bob Fosse | I should be inclined to say that All That Jazz is much too full of itself to really pull off as an entertaining comedy-musical . But then again , the whole tone of Fosse's " semi " autobiographical splurge , less so much a typical film , is to comment on self-indulgence in movies , while at the same time embracing it , going all out with crazy musical numbers involving rehearsed airline erotica and two Joe Gideons with one within-a-movie directing the other laid up on a hospital bed . But what does make it a deep work , as did Fellini's 8 , which Fosse obviously loves to the point of hiring the spectacular Giuseppe Rotuno to do the cinematography , is that it laments the end of life by celebrating the enjoyable mania and despair of its protagonist . Although Fosse can't totally compare to the penultimate film about the creative crisis of an artist ( the angel of death scenes are hit or miss , depending on the context , and unlike Mastroianni there seems to be too much forced on Scheider to be almost exactly like Fosse , at least in myth , with the cigarettes and pills and women ) , he does make it often exhilarating cinema , and hilarious cinema with the touch of someone who is cynical but not afraid of speaking the truth , about talent , creativity , love , and just plain living . Never has being and nothingness been portrayed with choreography so extravagant ( if that makes sense ) ! The premise is actually very simple , as most musicals should be : Gideon is preparing his latest musical of free-wheeling sex and luridly fun ( we're never too sure what it's " about " as he zones out completely during a script reading ) , and editing a film on the side , while also dealing with his many women on the side sometimes meeting one another in the bedroom , and his daughter , the one pure fountain of innocence who may be catching some of Gideon's attitude . But the stress , and pressure , of being on top of his game all the time knocks him out - on top of the usual barbiturates for fed up artists , leads him to the hospital with horrible heart problems , of which he doesn't take too seriously , even when he's on his last breath . Fosse turns tragedy into self-reflexive entertainment on a self-consciously buoyant scale ; I can only think of Singin ' in the Rain as another musical that is as explicitly fun - if not as dirty and outlandish - at portraying serious subject matter . Fosse aims maybe too high , if that's the only problem , particularly with a final musical number that is catchy as hell ( and how could it not , shuffling off the mortal coil ) , if maybe TOO catchy , if that's possible . However this isn't something that becomes a deterrent , on the contrary it's like watching some acrobat out of a dingy Bronx hell-hole who puts on quite a show on the high-wire . Certain musical numbers will forever remain my all-time favorites , chiefly the ' rehersal ' performance that Gideon puts on for the producers to see of a highly erotic number called " Take Off With Us " , proclaimed approximately by his ex-wife to be " the best thing you've ever done . . . you son of a b " . Then there's the hospital-bed number , where deep-rooted psychological angst not only gets some up-beat razzle dazzle , but even a wink and a nod to Fosse's directorial style , ( " you missed your line " ) . While the sub-plots put in place , namely with heel John Lithgow and the budget problems of the musical production , don't serve much of a purpose aside from slightly interesting fodder , leading only up to whatever great little moment , little weak or totally cool gesture Gideon may make , even when he's hooked up to a breathing machine . At the end of it all , what makes All That Jazz sensational movie-making is the combination of strong subject matter , of the flawed brilliance of a man such as Gideon - via Fosse himself - with a completely assured hand of style . The dancing is terrific , the camera movements are always apart of the action itself ( Rotuno gets the frame almost to dance with the others ) , and Scheider is particularly great . Following the lead from a certain TV ' critic ' , I give it three and a half out of four balloons ! |
508,369 | 453,068 | 65,794 | 9 | an exciting , bizarre-bravura turn of pushing-the-boundaries-of cinema | The Grandmother , like other surreal short films ( and , of course , like the rest of Lynch's work ) , is not that concerned with logic , at least in conventional terms . If there is anything at all conventional about the the film is that it has at its core that small statement on youth and innocence that can be interpreted a hundred ways to Sunday - if you're lonely and dejected you'll look for companionship . It's just that in this case the conventional wisdom of finding someone at the playground or at school is bypassed - here the boy , in isolation from his barking , mad parents , plants and grows a grandmother to spend time with . But is it all as it should be ? Lynch , much as he did with Eraserhead , leaves so much up to interpretation that on a first viewing it's almost not even necessary to find something coherent in what goes on . But in that sense , of course , many will likely be befuddled , disturbed , and maybe even offended at the lack of typical cohesion from start to finish . What it does provide , however , is a kind of cinema experience that has to be felt , seen , heard , taken in as cinema on the technical and artistic side of things always goes . Even when I didn't know what was " going on " with the boy and his grandmother and parents , I didn't mind as long as I knew Lynch was doing something with the camera or lighting or editing or music or animation or all of the above to make it a visceral experience . Yes , there are some tedious moments here and there ( which , even in being a 35 minute short film , are possibly more so than the ones in Eraserhead ) , yes the first two to three minutes takes some time to adjust to , and yes there ending is left about as ambiguous as can be . But it shook me up all the same , like the best parts of 90's music videos . Any time , for example , that Lynch used a sort of stop-motion technique during the live action I was thrilled in a way . The animated sequences have a crude quality that could only be matched by Gilliam's Python animations . And the actors ( or maybe just pieces ) in Lynch's macabre framing and set ups and pay off seem all perfect for the parts . If you're already a fan coming on to this DVD set of Lynch short films , this may or may not come as the most eccentric , wonderfully outrageous of the lot of them ; it could also be for some the most ' huh ' of all of the films as it is the longest and with the most density in the surrealism . It is the mark , interested in it or not , of an artist leaving something out for a good look and soak into what it is or could be or is lacking . |
509,013 | 453,068 | 910,936 | 9 | truly , insanely and shamelessly entertaining pot-movie spoof on action movies | It's a given that when you go to a Judd Apatow movie now ( and he's only directed two , but they're still ' movies ' anyway , despite the growing stable of directors ) you'll know what to expect more or less . After 40 Year Old Virgin , Knocked Up , Superbad , Walk Hard , and to a lesser extent Forgetting Sarah Marshall , there's an expectation - if you're tuned into the sensibility of off-the-wall , filthy but improvisational comedy - for it to be good , or even awesome in whatever ' fold ' of comedy its in . Pineapple Express , for the Apatow fan , is as awesome and dumb and illogical and purely enjoyable as comedies get this year , let alone for its ' fold ' , which in this case is the pot comedy cross-pollinated with ridiculous 80s action flick . It's awesome , for one thing , because the screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg ( also responsible for Superbad ) don't give a crap about making anything too , um . . . should I say realistic ? Maybe plausible is more the word in this case , as realism implies that there isn't spoof going on here , which there is , in the kind of subtle AND over the top craziness that one loves to see done right . In this case the movie starts out with an amazing opening scene set in " 1937 - The United States " , where a secret government test is being done on the effects of marijuana on a soldier ( which , oddly enough , make the soldier act and talk like someone in the 21st century , which makes it funnier ) , and there's a slight reefer madness tint to it . Then , after the initial set-up - where Dale ( Rogen ) , a subpoena deliverer and frequent pot smoker , gets in hot water for seeing a murder take place by a villainous drug dealer caught in a war with ' Asians ' , and then implicates his drug dealer Saul ( very uncharacteristic James Franco ) by leaving ' evidence ' behind of the film's title - the writers kick things off into a sly , really insane take off on 80s action thrillers . Make no mistake , they're true to the sources : this might be one of the most violent comedies ever made , a hard , capital R where the least violent bit was shown in the trailer with Franco badly , uproariously kicking his foot through the windshield during a high-speed chase . But one might ask , is the cartoonish violence enough to make it awesome ? Not quite - what really clicks for a viewer who wouldn't touch pot with a ten foot mouthpiece are the actors and how much serious fun they take the material . Rogen and Franco , the latter of which giving his best performance yet ( yes , best performance , see it and see what I mean compared to his so-so Spiderman parts ) , click instantly and work off one another in that great , somewhat predictable buddy-comedy mold . They bond , they argue , they separate for a bit , and then finally come back together for that show-stopping finale . To reveal what happens there , of course , would ruin all the fun , but everyone involved in the cast ( Danny McBride , Rosie Perez , Gary Cole , Ed Begley Jr , Kevin Corrigan , Craig Robinson , and all those Japanese or Chinese or Vietcong I can't remember ) pitch in for scene after scene that never fails to rise some laughs . In fact Pineapple Express is so funny , so relentlessly action packed and loaded with the kind of dialog that's brilliant for being so natural in its crude and stupidity ( again , an Apatow trademark ) , that it's incredible to think the director is David Gordon Green . This is almost akin to , though not to make a complete comparison , Terence Mallick or Darren Aronofsky helming a Mel Brooks production . What compelled him to take on a raucous pot-action comedy that continuously tops itself I can't totally say ( save for just wanting a change of pace in genre and control over material ) . But it's equally incredible that he manages to get in some moments of his own sensibility into the film in those little moments when Rogen and Goldberg don't have a lot going on , when the visual aspect can be emphasized . Not to mention , on top of this , he's able and ready to direct " genre " material without making it too serious . It's an artistic statement AND one of the most memorably brutal climaxes in recent movie history , and I loved nearly every " what-the-hell " minute of it . Where else will I get to see bullet-strewn drug dealers and ears partly chopped off treated with the reverence of the Daily Show ? |
509,064 | 453,068 | 206,634 | 9 | recommended for anyone interested in a ( rewardingly ) bleak futuristic thriller | Alfonso Cuaron , make no mistake , knows what he's doing with the style of Children of Men . Following from the same cues he started off with Y Tu Mama Tambein , his and Emmanual Lebiznaki's camera never stops to go onto a dolly or just to stand still , it's always hand-held and on edge with the characters and the dire situations they're set in 2029 Britain . Sometimes this allows for some really incredible long-takes implemented ( my favorite a very pivotal death / chase scene that occurs surprisingly early in the film ) , allowing Cuaron with complete subjective freedom of perspective . There's never a moment to relax in this world , as just setting a cup of coffee in the middle of the city square could have the next second arriving a bomb just next door . However , perhaps if only for me , the style called attention to itself sometimes , or to the fact that it's all ' just a movie ' . Not that there isn't some very gritty action and horrific bloody violence that comes out , notably in the climactic " uprising " as Clive Owen's Theo almost escapes being annihilated among the total chaos in an especially long take ( blood spats on the lens included ) . The whole set-up of the story of Children of Men is simple , and I ( unfortunately maybe ) knew most of it from the trailer . Owen works a dead-end job in the only country where there is some " stability " ( note the quotes ) at a time in the world where infertility is dead and the youngest man alive has just died . There's terrorists everywhere , no one can really rest easy , and the police state makes it very hard to get around on the roads , not to mention the immigration problem ( sound familiar ? ) . Enter in Julianne Moore's character , who was once lovers with Theo , and needs his help to get a foreigner across to safer grounds . But it becomes further complicated when the cat's out of the bag - she's pregnant , and needs to get to safety to have her child . So then the characters are off on the mission , however complicated further by the ( well laid ) twist that the group that were originally going to help get the woman to the " Human Project " - where she could be looked after with the best spark of hope - really just want the baby as collateral to propagate their uprising against the government . Meanwhile , the chaos continues and continues . In a sense , this is probably the bleakest futuristic " pro-life " movie ever made , however pro-life in relation to Children of Men is actually a necessity rather than a political or religious point . There seems to be no respite from civilization eating itself up at the thought that humanity will end if procreation becomes nothingness , and so part of the strength in Children of Men is seeing the conviction behind the main message in the film . In a time where there is practically a culture of death by way of a lack of governmental control and a burst of extremism , the only hope is new life , if only in a small dose . Populating around this message - which only becomes a little thicker by the end of the film - is a strong performance from Owen , who maybe doesn't have as much range as usual due to him being mostly a reactionary ( mostly with shock and conflict , and early on malaise ) at what's around him . Michael Caine also turns in the amusingly human supporting turn as a pot-smoking ex-political cartoonist . Even the woman who plays the most crucial one in the picture - who may or may not name her child Bazooka - is very good in the part . So why didn't I respond to it with overwhelming enthusiasm and with a place for it in my top 10 of the year ? Hard to say even hours after seeing it . Maybe there is almost a certain lack of momentum even as the clock ticks down on the pregnancy . The bleakness that carried over the picture is so thick and disparaging it's half a relief from seeing other futuristic pictures that don't deliver so much on the dread and decay of humanity gone to the dogs , and half a desire for it to not be as such . No doubt I recommend it to all who'd like a serious trip into an original Orwellian - nightmare - popcorn - thriller ( if that makes sense ) , though I don't think it's necessarily a full-blown masterpiece . . . AMENDMENT TO PREVIOUS REVIEW ( month & a half later ) : I rewatched the film , and I liked it even more ; it gets deeper , with its message more impactful and the staggering long-takes even more powerful - and it is one of the best directed films of the decade . |
510,653 | 453,068 | 29,850 | 9 | not perfect , but still a vital and truly virtuoso epic | Watching some of the sequences ( err , the entire of the film devoted to the battle on the ice ) in Alexander Nevsy , a film directed by the Russian legend Sergei M . Eisenstein ( co-directed by Dmitri Vasilyev in his only significant credit ) , made me realize how much must really go into directing , at least on a scale such as this . If I were a member of an awards group at the time of this film's release I probably would award Eisenstein with the director's award of the year , posthumously . It is such a mad stroke of cinematic genius to pull off some of things that are pulled off in the film , though for someone like this director after coming off of his best work - Battleship Potemkin and October - it could have been something he scoffed at at first . But amid a film that is sometimes a little frustrating with how little grays come in to the black and white subject matter , it's still a marvel of celluloid almost 70 years later . Lord of the Rings fans , meet the films ' grandfather , so to speak . To say that something is a propaganda piece already puts a connotation to it , and often a bad one . It is something that has a full-blown message to it , and a point of view . It's still a matter of hot debate ( see the swarms of argument over Moore's films for proof ) , about whether great art can come out of something that is point-blank meant to rouse the audience in a specific manner . In this particular case , the Russians against the Germans . At the time it was nearing WW2 and Russia once again faced the ' German invaders ' , and it's interesting to note that Eisenstein was actually commissioned to make this film , as a rallying call for the Russians to never forget a crucial piece of their history . The end result comes out as being something that is actually slightly common from seeing Battleship and October , however ; if nothing else comes through those films it's that Eisenstein is most concerned about how the image and the content can come together finitely for the viewer , that style can completely envelop the viewer without fail . On those terms Alexander Nevsky is fearless . But even with the whole idea of ' Russia great , Germans bad ' , there are some small moments where things are made a little less stringent , a little less strict to these ideals . For example , when we first see the Germans in Privka , they're not some faceless blob who are totally barbaric and have a blind conquering intent ( not that they aren't out to take whatever they can ) . They have their own national pride going too , that it would be nothing less for them to go forward with whatever their Christian-led masters tell them to . At the least , the evil of the picture has a face , however kept at a low minimum for the more prevalent side to kick in . There's also a brief scene , before the ice-scape battle , where the Russian troupe has a joke that's being told and laughed about , and it adds a little extra depth where else there might be precious little . Because more often than not in Alexander Nevsky , with its battle songs loaded with a pride in warfare , there aren't any complexities to characters , most notably Nevsky himself ( played in ultra-heroic fashion , only questioning near the start , by Nikolai Cherkasov ) who perhaps has to be this way in Eistenstein's intention of having him as the one infallible force to be reckoned with in the tale . After all , to be looking for naturalism in an Eisenstein film is like trying to find non-Kosher pig's feet at a deli . But the real reason to see the picture isn't the acting , anyhow , but for the look of the film , how it moves and takes in such an expansive environment that Eisenstein lays out . On the epic scale it's just as ambitious as his 20's films , with a number of extras not just in the main battle scenes but also in the scenes in the cities , of the hundreds of people rolling on through . In fact , I'd say that any director working in Hollywood or elsewhere thinking of doing some kind of huge epic , particularly war , would do very well to take a look at this film , even with just the sound off . It's even better if thought of as a silent film , with the visual strokes accentuated fantastically at times . One could spend a whole month analyzing the battle on the ice , how it starts with the German soldiers far away and then coming forward like bugs , and then how Eisenstein inter-cuts between close-ups of the actors fighting and then to wide-shots and with sped-up editing . And , of course , one can't discount the power of the music as well , Sergei Prokofiev delivering one of the great rousing scores of any epic work . All the while the director's editing keeps our eyes moving along with this frantic action at breakneck speed . If this was just a short film , it would surely rank with the greats , much like the Odessa Stairs sequence . If I did find it a little less than totally magnificent , it would be because of the faults that do come in from a director who is much more suited to the silent medium than for sound . While I have yet to see Ivan the Terrible , my one negative criticism would be of his direction of actors , which is really as broad as can be , with the melodrama at such a high-pitch its staggering ( the sub-plot of the two soldiers vying for the Olga is the best example I can think of ) . But even this considered , Alexander Nevsky overall is too extraordinary to ignore , and ratchets up an engagement in the action and the film-making to a level that puts a benchmark for films even today to try and live up to . |
510,711 | 453,068 | 109,228 | 9 | with the Beatles , Maysles style ! | It was madness , a frenzy , a pop-music explosion that still has barely been topped in the US for sheer virtuosity and awareness . After holding off on an official US mini-tour until they got some top 10 hits - and then suddenly getting THREE that were simultaneously number 1 - 72 million people , more or less depending on who's reporting , watched the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show when they finally played in New York city on his nightly program ( the filmmakers , Al and David Maysles , couldn't get permission to film in the CBS studio , so they just went across the street and found an apartment with a family watching it instead ) . In short , Hard Day's Night wasn't quite as zany fiction but a skewed documentary . For The First US Visit , on the fly and almost by total luck , the Maysles capture the Beatles in all their personal humor , affability , and knack with dealing with the press or the common fan ( or just a little girl at one down-to-earth moment ) . It was the start of their particular , wonderful style of " cinema truth " , where there are barely any interviews , the camera and sound is so technologically simple that they can film practically anywhere , and it verged on being a home movie . There are moments when it does become a home movie , which might be a flaw not really either the Beatles or the Maysles ' fault . The approach is so new that the Beatles themselves - according to Al on the extras on the DVwere utterly curious about how the equipment worked , and would sometimes , as would be the case during the first thrust of " Beatlemania " , be self-conscious and look at the camera . But the feeling for the most part is so natural and cool that we get to just see what the Beatles were like . . . which , of course , are the Beatles in all their fun , their minor moments of seriousness , their whole bewilderment at how MAMMOTH their coming to America had become . The Maysles can capture that and little details ( i . e . a woman in the background of a radio station playing a song and grooving along ) , which is great since the documentary is inter-cut with footage from the two Sullivan appearances ( NYC and Miami ) and a concert at Washington DC , shot live at times like a boxing match from afar . It's the ' early ' period , and it's loaded with the crying and screaming girls , and those wonderful hits " I Wanna Hold Your Hand " , " She Loves You " , " Twist and Shout . " It's all very sweet nostalgia and fun for the Beatles fan . |
510,687 | 453,068 | 95,967 | 9 | into the methods and mind and soul of Tarkovsky | It's of the utmost value for anyone interested in film-making - those who just love watching how they're made or want to be / are filmmakers - to see this documentary , which chronicles the making of Tarkovsky's last film , the Sacrifice , as well as peers into the personal dimensions of him as an artist . If only for one section is the film a must-see ; it's staggering to see the horror and triumph of the climactic house burning scene in the Sacrifice , how all the elements came together , crumbled , and then they went back and did it all over again . It's a moral lesson , in a sense , for the filmmaker , and a kind of primary example of what it is to dedicate oneself to the technical preference . If Tarkovsky had filmed the scene today he would've had the option of digital , without the possibility ( as it turns out here ) of the film jamming in the camera . But then this is only one piece of the concern over the sequence : all the elements , the special effects , the blaze of the fire , the movement of the camera , the actors hitting their marks precisely as if this were all on the theater stage , have to come together in one fell swoop . And being Tarkovsky , you know the intensity involved . But then this is just one part of what is already an impressive example of a director profile . We see his thoughts and philosophies expounded upon about making his cinema one of total and utter personal expression , about dealing with the actors , the scrupulous attention to detail which he pretty much all oversees from the color of dresses to the shape of a couch . And , after a while , we see why he's comparable himself to the filmmakers he mentions ( i . e . Bresson , Bergman , Bunuel , Kurosawa ) who all create their own kinds of ' worlds ' in the movies they make , as opposed to just imitating a reality . He almost appears to come too close to being in a personal realm of expression , like some painter or poet who can't get out of his own head-space with the thoughts he has , the dreams he remembers , and the visions that are brought on by certain feelings in memories . But then he also has it in him to strive for tapping into the audience without being very obvious . If there is manipulation to his art , it is in no way of conventional commercial means . Which means , of course , Tarkovsky isn't for everyone ( some of his long takes can last about the length of an infomercial ) . But if you're interested in knowing more about the iconoclast director behind Stalker and Solaris and the Sacrifice ( not to forget Andrei Rublev ) , then you're more than likely already a fan , or have some interest in a personal Russian cinema . And as we see with him on the set with the Sacrifice , and the control he has along with the method of concise collaboration , it's no wonder his sister ( I think it's his sister ) comments that he , at the time he was alive , had freedom than any other filmmaker from his native country . Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky is an insightful peek into this late , great film / poet / scholar / dreamer / et all . |
510,041 | 453,068 | 78,346 | 9 | Immensely entertaining start to a wonderful , exciting saga | Superman is not exactly a pinnacle in film history , but is a great film never-the-less . There is so much to like about this film it boggles the mind . First off , Marlon Brando playing Jor-el in the way only Brando could . Second , you got Gene Hackman as one of the major bad-asses of comic-book adaptations . Even parents ( who might be reluctant to watch anything with their kids ) will want to take a look-see at Brando , Hackman , and Christopher Reeve as the man of steel which many baby boomers remember to be their child hood hero . In fact , there are many who do consider this the best super-hero film ever made . Its way up there for me , as it is a well done , with some great action and good actors . |
507,854 | 453,068 | 113,568 | 9 | about as visually striking as futuristic / sci-fi anime can get ; possibly Oshii's finest achievement | This has been counted by some as one of the best anime films , particularly out of the Manga group , of the 90s , and even by some die-hard cultists as one of the all-time great science fiction films . I might argue that not to be so ; it's too short to really take its full-on effect , and at the moment my view on the film is slightly taken aback by having seen the dubbed version - about as talky , if not more so , than A Scanner Darkly and even more loaded with exposition . But nevertheless I do recognize for certain Ghost in a Shell's total strengths , which are combining the elements of traditional hand-drawn animation , computer effects , and some kind of extra futuristic element that perfectly corresponds with the story . All of the sights that go by in the city-scapes and big electronic machines and weaponry and so on and so forth are about as close to being the anime equivalent of Blade Runner . It's a triumph , in that sense , of production design and technical grandeur . Even the musical accompaniment , especially the fairly chilling opening theme , is quite keen . If sometimes the plot becomes convoluted , it's not too much to bear ; as long as you pay attention - not like the sci-fi that might whiz past you in its dumbed state - it's not much of a stretch . It does leave off on a sort of open-ended note ( see other running anime series and sequel for possible details ) , and one that puts a lot of philosophical contemplations to go alongside the techno-wizardry , violence , and cyborg-nudity . But as it stands , Ghost in the Shell is worth it to check out , even just regular casual observers of anime . It doesn't leave the immediate wallop of a classic like Fist of the North Star , but it also doesn't leave you disappointed either . It has me anticipating the original Japanese language version far greater now that I know the dubbed-version's limitations . |
508,426 | 453,068 | 64,855 | 9 | smart , sharp , cutting edge , and a big middle finger to the establishment , now as then | When someone refers to the independent cinema realm in the United States it's often inferred that it means the filmmaker or people behind the project had much more creative freedom and did what they wanted . This , today , is not really always the case unless someone is a solid " auteur " and creative freedom still comes with the caveat that one has to find distribution with one of the independent divisions of major studios or by getting picked up somehow for some kind of low-level deal at a worthwhile film festival . But Putney Swope , Robert Downey Sr's film about a tough-as-nails African-American accidentally promoted to head advertising guru at a production company , is independent cinema , the kind of work that went right along with the likes or Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Cassavetes Faces at the same time of getting no real typical studio distribution but causing waves , kicking ass and taking names in the cinema world . For all its moments that are rough and crude , it's unforgettable . It's also a film that is funny , very and excruciatingly funny . Sometimes the sense of humor is just so ridiculous it's nearly impossible not to laugh , from the mere appearance of the President Mimeo with his wife to lines of dialog from the advertisements Swope's team puts together like " I can't eat an air conditioner " in a real " soul " voice . It is as smart as the audience it is aiming at , which is anyone with two brain cells to put together who can see that this work isn't offensive or too shocking because it's meant to rattle the cage , and it does this pretty well in the first five minutes . Once that's past Downey Sr goes on his blitz of sorts as far as being a filmmaker with nothing to lose : his protagonist is part Fidel Castro , part Isaac Hayes circa 1972 ( and yes it's 1969 in the film ) and part hard-assed ad exec with a firing streak to make Mr . Spacely on the Jetsons look kind . And don't forget those side character , dear God . There's so many memorable lines and moments , from maybe the most hilarious botched assassination attempt in any movie to the one ad for " Face-Off " skin cream that includes lines that would give South Park a run for its dirty-mouth money , to just little asides with the one guy from Jack Hill's movies playing the Muslim who keeps giving lip to Swope and that one boy with the the nun who curses up a storm and impresses Swope in a swift stroke , that it's hard to keep track . It's a pretty direct message about media and advertising , but there's also a lot of powerful moments where it just hits the nail on the head about racism in America , sometimes without having to do more than a gesture and sometimes with doing something HUGE like having black panther types going this way and that around Swope's advertising regime . And for a low-budget production ( I mean super low , hence the comparison to Night of the Living Dead and Faces ) Downey got some really good actors , all non-union , and it's hard to imagine that some of them might have had their first time on camera here . It should be mentioned that Downey's style doesn't make it perfect : it is crude and sometimes too crazy and dated for its own good , and I'm sure I didn't get some of the underlying humor of a couple of the ads since I'm from a full generation after these ads were aired ( albeit the " Miss Redneck Jersey " was definitely not lost on me ) . In general though this is one of the finest of its time period , a satire that stings and a feature with a predominantly black cast that is all too knowing of what comes from an excess of power , regardless of skin color . It is , as someone might say , " good s . " |
510,663 | 453,068 | 69,704 | 9 | Fellini's I Vitelloni transposed to rock n roll , teens , cruisers , and good vibes | They're each on the crossroads of High School into real life , either still deciding ( Richard Dreyfuss ' character Curt ) , or more just in the moment of their lives on a specific night following graduation ( Ron Howard's Steve , Charles Martin Smith's ' Toad ' , Paul Le Mat's Milner ) . It's a night filled with riding in cars , meeting , wanting , or getting stuck with girls and women , racing , getting into mishaps , all the while having the unmistakable Wolfgang Jack on the radio playing the hits of the day . In fact , as the co-writer / director George Lucas has said , the film is more like a musical than a real drama / comedy , where the music informs the action . Scorsese was using this technique at the time as well , and it has become as heavily influential in the style of adolescent comedies and many other films as the special effects in Lucas following film , Star Wars . Sometimes the music makes a scene funnier , or more somber , or just adds that little bit of excitement , but more often than not it comments on the action , which helps far more than a musical score would've done for the material . If for nothing else , American Graffiti's musical compilation is a masterpiece unto itself . Lucas ' second feature , American Graffiti - to date his one non-sci / fi & / or action film - keeps a cool , sometimes odd , but magnetic energy to it , even through some scenes that don't play great compared to others . Like with Lucas ' inspiration for the film ( aside from his own personal experiences and his own self ) , Federico Fellini's I Vitelloni , there is an original feel to the material , and particularly spontaneous in some of its humor , as well as the improvisational freedom ( or at least feeling ) from the actors . The main four characters , one a cool-dude ( Milner ) , one a nerdy type ( Toad ) , one the popular prom king ( Steve ) , and another the average Joe of high school ( Curt ) , each go through their own cycles of discovery on this night , and Lucas cuts their stories together wonderfully , never keeping the interest far off from the last story . Sometimes the humor doesn't connect entirely - it is a film of its time and a lot more for the generation of its time - but it is on the money for most of it . The female performances , as well , are memorable , and bring out some of the best laughs aside from some of the more uncomfortable or surprising bits . A lot of it is sarcastic , witty , and wild in the humor , but there is also the tender , more emotional side to it all ( much as would be in the Star Wars films with the comic relief ) . It's a well-rounded effort , and a small classic in the realm of 70's breakthrough cinema . |
509,107 | 453,068 | 64,861 | 9 | The makings of Greek tragedy , but Chabrol has more up his sleeve in revenge flick | In taking a slight cue from Alfred Hitchcock ( one of Chabrol's heroes ) , but going another step further , This Man Must Die follows a logical turn of events for a single father who's son is run over in a hit and run by some cruel man in a fast car . In Hitchcock's hands this might be led by elegant stars , have even moments of scathing wit . But Chabrol's vision is a little darker , more that is seething under this surface , with the bourgeois as much of the commonplace as just the backdrop for the theater of revenge about to take place . But like the old master , Chabrol takes a twist with the material : as the father , Charles Thenier , going by an alias as a writer of children's books , gets more than acquainted with a woman who is the sister-in-law of the killer , gets to know the family more , and gets to know slimy , shrewd businessman and big-time garage owner Paul Decourt more , he's not really the only one out for his head . As Chabrol goes further , it becomes a tale of Greek tragedy , or some variation on it . Paul's son , Philippe ( a character as played by jean Yanne as if almost out of Bresson ) , hates his father with a passion , as his father has no respect for or tries to encourage his son with what he's got going on at school ( perhaps conventionally , every scene with the father and son is a tense and violent outburst from father towards innocent son ) . One might think a collaboration might happen between the secretive , diary-writing Charles and the kind but frustrated kid , but this too isn't that simple . Chabrol also takes a smart tactic with that diary of Charles's ; it could be just a narrative gimmick , and at times it feels as just that ( maybe one of the film's only drawbacks , if only only on ) , but it does start to probe into a mindset that is one-track , and not without some reason in the genre sense . We're pitted on Charles's side , as he sneaks his way into Helen's heart , and then through her sometimes nice and other times ( i . e . Paul's mother ) savage in their verbal brutality . But this same diary works as a something of a step-up from a psychological MacGuffin . Chabrol twists around with plot into motivation , and he pulls it off with his shooting and editing style , which applies just small , precise touches of the good old French New Wave into the proceedings ( the occasional jump-cut , as any filmmaker knows , can't hurt under the right circumstances ) . What Chabrol's brilliant achievement is to transcend the trappings of a revenge film and to explore what the nature of malevolence brings past a simple crime - certainly these bastards have families , if they have the capacity to clear up their crimes with such skill like an owner of a hugely profitable auto-body / garage - and at the same time put a human angle into a plot that requires it . The actors do what they can ( the man playing Charles , who I have not seen in other films , is very good in the lead , as is in his own right the man playing Paul Decourt , adding some layers to this rotten being ) , and despite some clunky scenes that do have to deal with the plot , there's some wit thrown in under the surface ( " It's not a needle in a haystack , more like a needle in a box of needles , " ) . If This Man Must Die isn't a great film , and I'm not sure it is , it is at least a very successful example of finding some of the cracks in a revenge mystery , of adding that superlative mix of character into plot , and seeing what makes things like a diary , or a slip off a cliff , or an ambiguous ending , tick . |
510,389 | 453,068 | 360,130 | 9 | a Terence Malick production of a David Gordon Green film . . . so you know the stakes | David Gordon Green explores the story in Undertow with an intention to tell the story , but there's also an intention to explore the spaces his actors inhabit , or run to , or from , and occasionally with the lyricism of a grungy street poet . This isn't to say the film is pretentious ; it can be enjoyed by those who just want a good , harrowing chase movie . Yet it asks a little more for an audience complacent with the norm in Hollywood , used to the conflict being simplistic with respect to the characterizations . Its presentation calls attention to a director attempting to find the thematic beats through what could otherwise be a conventional ride . It's also no mistake to make the connection to films of the 70s , or specifically Terence Malick's austere visual approach ; Malick is credited as producer , so it's bound to have some informal mark of his own somewhere . It's really a tragedy of the rural family , where a single father ( Mulroney ) raising two kids ( Bell and Alan ) , the older one something of a troublemaker , constantly brought in to the cops . When the father's brother ( a perfect antagonist in Lucas ) gets out of prison and comes to visit , it's more than a friendly family call ; greed and vengeance bring him there , and a horrible incident occurs that sends the two children running away , now with their uncle in tow . He's after some valuable old gold coins - family heirlooms or sacred Mexican lot , depending on what story is to be believed - and nothing will stop him . Meanwhile , the two kids ( the younger of the two pretty sick most often ) are left to their own devices , looking for work , hiding in junkyards , or with the help of fellow underworld travelers . Aside from that , which is the basic plot , a lot of Undertow sways between tense and taut drama and action , with a couple of really visceral fights and bits of violence , and an understated character study . There's the performances that feel right in the thick of it , with Bell giving it all in a breakout role . But it's just . . . hard to explain the sensibility that gives this an edge over other dramas out there . The setting is one thing , where for the most part ( with a few exceptions ) Green doesn't succumb to total clichés with these southern hobos and backwoods folk ( or , at the least , there's a humanism caught by having what would appear to be non-actors in roles like convenience store clerks and tow-truck drivers ) . And also it's the cinematography , which is clear and cool and hand-held for some subjective impact , plus the eerie , unusual score by Philip Glass . All of these punctuations on a story that is dark and compelling are abound , but it's also this bond between the two brothers , and the memories that they share and how memories in general work into the narrative , that score Green success . It's about mood as much as plot , about sorrow and anger and fear and all these things , and it's never something to scoff as too artsy-fartsy . It's just about right . |
510,982 | 453,068 | 369,339 | 9 | constantly re-watchable with entertaining storytelling , a good serious neo-noir | Michael Mann's skills as storyteller , stylist , and controller of mood and psychology of characters is in one of its finest forms in Collateral , a summer blockbuster that's with equal measure of excitement and thought , dark humor and tough moments of violence and suspense . It's also one of only a handful of times in Tom Cruise's career where taking a chance dramatically with a complex character pays off . It's a 100 million dollar + grossing movie , but its story could just as well be one set in the noirs of the 40s and 50s - a cabbie with some aspirations for his own business ( and for a girl he picks up at the start of the film ) gets taken over by a hit-man who's doing his rounds of murders all in one night . There's also cops on the trail , as well as FBI , but it's really more than anything about these two guys and the very stark , expected but still compelling climax . After the set-up gets underway , the film is as much character study as a typical crime thriller , and it's one of those splendid examples of style matching substance , where both contain some unconventional bits in what could have been a lesser film . Along with a good script by Stuart Beattie , and Mann's perfectly nuanced digital night-time photography ( more suitable and exacting for the mood than the recent Miami Vice ) , there's the acting . First , of course , are the stars with Cruise in a turn-around role as the antagonist , who spouts out little bits of Darwin and I-Ching , but for the most part is a stone-cold sociopath . Cruise , wonderfully uncharacteristic for what he usually does in his star vehicles , is more low-key , ominous , and at the end quite dangerous . Jamie Foxx , too , in his real deserved Oscar-nominated turn , is also unconventional here as a common guy who's put between a rock and a hard place . Maybe his best scene , or at least the one I would show as him being a much better actor than he sometimes gets credit for , is when he has to meet Felix ( Javier Bardem ) to get a new ' list ' of people for Vincent . That and a few other scenes are both tense and with an undercurrent of cynical , harsh humor that helps balance out the dark nature of the events . Collateral is also pretty re-watchable for a fan of this kind of picture , with a great score / soundtrack , great locations , and a couple of interesting ending images . |
511,008 | 453,068 | 902,272 | 9 | near great straight-to-video movie that celebrates the legacy of JL | I'll be honest - I've never read a Justice League comic book , or watched much of the show . All of the superheroes featured here in the ' origin ' story of the Justice League are , however , either more than well known to me ( Superman , Batman ) or marginally more-so ( Flash , Green Lantern , Wonder Woman , Aquaman ) . Only one , Martian Manhunter , is off my radar , and maybe rightfully so as it seems to be something that's suited for the premise of this story , originally crafted by comic artist Darwyn Cooke , which is steeped in the America of the 1950s . But as someone who can attest to it , it's a perfect introduction to the DC heroes at large , as it delivers not only a riveting story of heroes banding together to act as such in a moment of great peril but an individual origin story ( Hal Jordan / Green Lantern ) that works just as well . In fact , only a couple of liabilities keep this from being one of the best straight-to-video movies , animated or otherwise , I've seen in many years . The premise is both simple and complex , depending on the point of view of the viewer and familiarity with the DC stock of characters ; a villain called ' Centre ' ( voiced by the inimitable Keith David , even under loads of sound effect work ) , who is enigmatic for some of the time as to what the hell he or it is , until it's revealed that he / it is an entire island ! It sounds like a job for Superman , but it's not that easy , and the period of Cold-War era makes it a little difficult for some of the superheros to do what they do best ( at one point , oddly enough echoing the Watchmen , the Flash steps down on national TV ) . In the meantime , there's a strange martian fellow who can shape-shift , and Batman seems to be digging further for clues , all leading up to a showdown that has to call together pure , unadulterated teamwork . Maybe not much of a summary , but the story is only half the fun . What absorbs someone into Justice League is how the filmmakers are able to take Cooke's material and not water it down ; it straddles the line between being a rollicking , action-packed adventure for the kids and being actually quite violent and quasi-adult themed for the older ones looking for that PG-13 to stretch just a little bit further ( there's one killing scene , I won't say which , that seems quite bloodier than some would be used to Saturday mornings ) . And there's a load of intrigue that's cooked up , on top of the conflicts of the characters early on like Wonder Woman's tike spent in Korea , on the topic of Cold War paranoia and nuclear horror . One of the most thrilling and chilling moments of the movie is a planned trip to Mars that goes incredibly haywire barely after leaving Earth's atmosphere . So , the content is fantastic , as are the formations of the characters , and the dialog stays true to the spirit of DC comics fare at its most questioning and inspirational . The only minor tiffs I had were a corny ending involving Superman and Atlantis , and a uber-patriotic coda that feels a little less cathartic after the whole build-up of " there's no democrats or republicans , etc " before the climax . Aside from that , however , I could barely find a flaw , and it even earns some extra points by taking the tools used for so long on the animated TV series ' and using bits of cooler animation techniques to spruce things up . If you ever wanted to watch a JLA movie , here it is . And to already committed fans , it's a small slice of awesome cake . I know I can't wait to dive right in ! ( yes , corny as well , but why carp ) |
509,968 | 453,068 | 265,086 | 9 | One of Scott's best films , but not quite on my top 10 list for 2001 | Ridley Scott seems to have a knack for high intensity in movie-making ( Gladiator , Blade Runner , Hannibal and Thelma and Louise among others come to mind ) and Black Hawk Down , a war picture set in Somalia , is another prime example of his knack . Black Hawk Down is a war movie that does something I haven't seen much ( or dare I say haven't seen at all ) which is not going directly into the battle scenes , but instead keeping the audience in check with how the soldiers are reacting and feeling and never diverging much from the action . It is a daring move by Scott . In " Down " , a somewhat large group of soldiers are sent to the heart ( or mindless brain ) of Somalia to capture 2 lieutenants in regard to a civil war going on in the country that has taken 300 , 000 lives ( " it's not war , it's genocide " comments the major general played by Sam Shepard ) . At first notice it seems like they can get in and out of the mission in a few hours . . . but then everything goes wrong . The Somalians start a near unstoppable attack on the U . S . soldiers , shooting as many as they can and sneaking out from roofs and sides like cockroaches . It becomes a chaotic day and night for the soldiers as they try to stay alive while waiting for extra troops to come in to rescue them that could take time to get there . Outside of the couple of flaws in the film ( at the end it tells that 18 U . S . soldiers died in the attack but if you don't keep exact track it will seem more / the cinematography is alright however the editing cuts too much in the action and tension ) , Black Hawk Down is quite the war picture , one that will be memorable in years to come as the most accurate depiction of what went on with us in Somalia in 1993 . Kudos to Scott and the cast ; Ewan McGregor gets the highest praise from me if only for giving an amazing American accent . |
508,669 | 453,068 | 25,919 | 9 | not the all-time best Screwball-comedy , maybe not the funniest , but it has guts and energy and two giant performances | John Barrymore appears on screen under an ostensibly ego-centric persona . It's Oscar Jaffe's Oscar Jaffe by Oscar Jaffe in the Oscar Jaffe theater , so it's suffice to say he thinks highly of his craft . . . until he meets his match with Lily Garland ( once Mildred Plotka ) , a tender actress who just wants to act and shows passion in one moment of desperation that floors him . But Barrymore takes this character , and the subsequent ups and downs ( mostly eccentric and crazy downs ) he has with Carole Lombard and makes it something special . He claws his fingers and widens his eyes and curves and does maniacal things with his eyebrows , sometimes carrying a cane or a black cloak or at " the end of his rope " with a gun . He's like Count Dracula , Norma Desmond and a villain out of a comic-book all rolled into one devilishly clever and diabolical and wonderfully nutty package . This also means that Howard Hawks's film , a very good if not great comedy on the theater biz and BIG personalities that feed off one another whether they love it or despite it , gets a boost from Barrymore's performance . Make that a BIG boost , so much so that even Carole Lombard , who isn't any kind of slow-poke as far as whipping from one over-the-top emotion or another , can't keep up with how incredible a performance it is . It fills up the screen in every frame and almost threatens to come off the screen and take a few audience members as hostages . Oscar Jaffe is called everything from a phony and fake to a weasel and horror , more or less , and it's all deserved . But one thing he isn't is disingenuous , which makes him always compelling on screen . Some of his actions on the train of the movie's title goes almost TOO far , which is part of the point and some of Hawks's brilliance here . Trying to edge it back and it wouldn't work , and go any further ( which sometimes , like the argument scene with the kicking from Lombard ) and it goes into feverish melodrama . As it stands Hawks controls his stars just enough , and gets some inspired bits from supporting players like the guy compulsively posting stickers everywhere on the train and writing bad checks , and at worst it's maybe a bit stagy . At best it's inspired and genre-defining lunacy where all you can do at the end is roll your eyes at the characters ' shenanigans and know they deserve each other . Which works for us , since we wouldn't want it any other way . |
510,777 | 453,068 | 95,800 | 9 | one of my favorites from childhood ; leaves quite the impact | At a time when I was around 6-10 years old , give or take , I had an obsession with bears . Through nature documentaries , as well as the first inspiration being Winnie the Pooh , something about these creatures sparked my interest at that age . This film , in particular , had a very special place in my life at the time , and I saw it several times in that period . I saw it again recently and was struck by how it really is not the typical childhood movie . The humor in the story , where it's at , is fairly subtle at times or totally unexpected , and lacking in the usual pee-and-fart jokes now a given in most ' family ' films . It also has moments of true terror and suspense , some scenes of which did really keep me enthralled the first times I saw it . And , of course , there is relatively little dialog , being that the two or three male humans in the film don't strike up that much conversation anyway ( as hunters and all ) . So the film's story of the two bears is really based on bringing the viewer to be active in what goes on . If you're a parent reading this , and you're thinking of showing this to your kid , make sure he's not bouncing all over the place ( as I've seen happen in some movie theaters from time to time ) ; this is a film that should be taken in . In this tale of survival , companionship , and the odds of bears and men , the bear cub of the story loses his mother in a tragedy right at the start of the film leaving him orphaned . After this initial shock wears off , the bear meets another bear , a rather large , solitary Kodiak bear , by way of helping him after being shot . This compassion draws both ways as the two become an unlikely pair through certain usuals with bears ( hunting , fishing , mating , etc ) . But there are also the two hunters of the story , also in a father / son dynamic , who in the late 19th century have no endangered species acts against them . And while director Jean-Jacques Annaud , by keeping his story more with the bears ( mainly the cub ) as the focus of the film , the males of the story are not left completely one-dimensional . One of the most powerful scenes still in my memory is when the Kodiak is face to face with one of the hunters , who's been left armless ( gunless I mean ) , having to see the wrath of nature , and in tears because of it . Few films like these have been able to not only to get most of the truth of what its like for bears in the wild in a feature-film ( with one or two facts about bears changed for the sake of the story ) , but that it can appeal for children and not just some cult of a contingent interested in nature films . If a recent movie like Herzog's Grizzly Man paints the all-true picture of what its like for man to be with the bears , this little gem of the 1980's is a portrait of what it's like for the bears themselves . Another highlight - the frogs early in the film ( creepy , especially as a kid ) . |
510,993 | 453,068 | 294,097 | 9 | at best , 15 minute mini-masterpieces of parody , at worst . . . it's still funny | This is a series that , as with Robot Chicken and Metalocalypse and other Cartoon Network programs , never overstays its welcome . Even when not all of its silly jokes connect there's still a charm to the program , not as crude as ' Chicken ' but with a similar aim : make it quick and fast and try and fill up the time with gags that are for anyone who has watched Hannah Barbera or Superfriends or any given number of 60s - 70s cartoons . Harvey Birdman is a cool kind of attorney who doesn't sweat the big case or challenge , even if it's Yogi Bear's Boo-Boo as the Unabomber ( or " Unaboo-boo " , ho-ho , really ) or a divorce between . . . two " partner " characters ? We get characters quite familiar ( Scooby Doo ) and kind of not well known ( that " Huge " Indian is a great big genital joke if we've ever seen one , and it works ) . It also has some creative voice work to go with the animation ( Stephen Colbert is fantastic as Birdman's boss for one ) , and we get some classic moments of awkward tension broken with the over-extended laughing by the characters or some totally zany shenanigans . In short , watch it in its present state , which is an episode or two in-between longer programs , and you'll get some way better than average filler . Or , if you want that slightly twist on the repetitiveness of Law & Order , check out the warped and not-quite kid friendly spoofing going on with the resident Birdman . |
508,874 | 453,068 | 420,251 | 9 | Dumplings : ; Cut : ; Box : ; overall a very nifty , varied set of Asian horror | While not one of the three films in the collection of shorts put under the name " Three Extremes " will ever shock to the point of no return , they represent some of the sharpest wit , guts ( literally and figuratively ) , and psychological insight into what really creeps out , entertains and sticks with us as viewers . The first is Fruit Chan's Dumplings . This one had me intrigued on the outset because I had never seen a work of Chan's before - he's won many awards but is not as well-known a cult director as the his other contemporaries here - and by film's end he had me for quite a loop . It's surely the most depraved and intentionally " oh-my-God " type of short horror films one's likely to see in the years to come , mainly because it takes on a very basic and over-done topic , vanity , and is cooked up ( no pun intended ) with human beings ' attachment to new life . Mainly because , as Bai Ling's character demonstrates , it's so useful a old-age-prevention to eat aborted fetuses in dumpling form , as the main character , a former TV star who's worried about being appealing to her husband . This probably has the least depth , emotionally and psychologically , of the three films , mainly because Chan is far more interested in getting the audience repulsed by what's going on . It will certainly set the alarms going off for pro-lifers , but just about anyone will wonder how it can end like it does , with a twist that is just meant to add one more devilishly wretched twist on top of the baby-plate . Next up is Cut , a film by South Korea's newest sensation Park Chanwook . While overall his film is the most wholly satisfying and entertaining , it's not without a heap of ' hip ' shots , like the one that pulls back ( via computers of course , though very cleverly ) across the set of a movie being shot , or in some of those angles that one saw as being one-of-a-kind in Park's Oldboy . This time a similar thread emerges : a true-blue psychopath , an extra with a grudge , makes psychological mind-games with a director with maybe too much humility to him , as his wife is tied up intricately with her fingers getting chopped off one by one . There's a lot of real guilty-pleasure type laughs to be had here , with the black comedy reaching higher points than one would've expected even from Oldboy territory , where conscience gets thrown out the window and all that's left are raw human emotions and the dark side of circumstance . It helps that the extra , played by Won Hie Lim , is great at the part because there's no real sense of humor to him , but he still ends up being funny , like when he dances to that song from one of the Director's films . The final five minutes of the short ratchets up the terror that's been building up , and those looking for the same knock-out violent climax won't be disappointed . But it's the little moments too that Park gets right , as character , primarily the Director's , is never a very certain thing . Takashi Miike's Box is definitely , for my money , the best directed of the lot , or at least with the most measured for the characters in the story . This time the outrageousness of the previous shorts is replaced by a grim horror of complexes going back to childhood , of entrapment in the mind to memories that are too horrible to contemplate . An author seems to be revisiting things that happened as a child - the death of her sister by her own very strange accidental hands - and how a box figures its way into it all , on top of a very sick man - the girls ' father - with a half-white face . Atmosphere this time trumps perversity , though it still applies that Miike's film is a work that will be probably more haunting because of the complexities to how Kyoko faces what's happened to her sister Soko . I won't reveal what the final twist is , which is pure classic Miike , but the rest of the Box , which has very little dialog and many shots that linger longer than one might expect , is haunting and deliberately gut-wrenching . A circus atmosphere , of the sort here anyway , is no more or less realistic than the other scenarios portrayed in Three Extremes , but Box also has the upper-hand of reality blending with nightmares , and what nightmarish qualities always come up from them . What does the box mean ? It's not necessarily a MacGuffin , put it that way . So , if you make sure not to eat anything during the proceedings , and maybe have someone's arm to clutch during some of the bloodier and gleefully sick moments , Three Extremes should make for a cool night of viewing . The directors on hand are in their A-game forms , and it has an appeal that might reach the more hard-bitten veterans of Asian cult films due to the ingenuity of key moments as well as newcomers to Asian horror that might draw them in ever more than before . |
510,523 | 453,068 | 83,325 | 9 | how to act and love , by Demme and Vonnegut , starring Walken and Sarandon , what more could you want ? | To answer that question : that it was longer . Then again to counter that own point , maybe this was a film that was very close to Vonnegut's original story , thus not extending it to feature length or making it an actual theatrical release . As it is it should be just a trifle , but it's more than that . Director Jonathan Demme adds a light air of circumstance to the proceedings , and plants some of his trademarks ( notably the precise positioning of the camera on faces , as we all know from most of his films ) while letting the actors have at it . And it's quite an amazing piece for those who love theater , and how an actor's mind meets with heart . At the same time it's not sentimental ; this story of a woman ( Sarandon ) who keeps moving from town to town and never settling anywhere or meeting anyone , and a man ( Walken ) who is an introvert who lets himself out through incredible community theatre productions , who meet on the set of Streetcar Named Desire and fall for each other in the oddest way is about as charming as one could imagine . Aside from the power of seeing Walken take on iconic parts ( i . e . Cyrano , Stanley Kowalski ) , he's fantastic at being incredibly subtle and at underplaying his meek clerk-turned-star . If you want to see him outside of being the Continental or giving gold watch speeches , come here . And Sarandon is excellent too , in a role that requires her to be compassionate and kind and understanding and blah blah and she does it without flinching in a step . It's short , and sadly not longer ( though I'd love to see the 95 minute cut from Argentina ! ) , but it's one of Demme's better efforts of the 90s , a true small-town chamber piece of love . |
510,703 | 453,068 | 104,706 | 9 | not quite science fiction , not quite documentary - science-reality ? | While Werner Herzog has stated that he looks at his 1992 film Lessons of Darkness as a work of science fiction , it shouldn't be discounted as a documentary either . But unlike the recent Wild Blue Yonder , where Herzog made a true science fiction documentary , this time the line is further blurred by making everything involving humans ambiguous as to their connections with their surroundings . Despite the locations being discernible as to where it's at , and the two interviews being indicative of where the people are possibly from , he keeps his 54 minute plunge into the Kuwait oil fields a primarily visual trip . It sometimes even felt like someone had decided to do a documentary on some civilization in the future in some obscure sci-fi novel ( or , for a moment , like some wayward planet in the Dune universe ) . It's best then , as Herzog suggests , to take one out of context of the period , even if seeing the green-screen images ( however brief ) of the war conjures up immediate associations . If looking at this without the associations of the Iraq war part 1 or the Kuwait connection in it all with oil however ( as with Wild Blue Yonder not associating that its ' just ' NASA and underwater photography ) , it fills one with an immense wonder at what can be captured by a lens not bound by conventions . But amid the freedom that Herzog decides to use with his resources , he ends up striking his most visually compelling treatise on destruction to date . It's like he decided to take certain cues from Kubrick via 2001 , and from just general nature documentaries , in order to capture the sort of alien aspect to this all . Because the act of setting these oil fields , which were left in a state of disrepair following said " fictional " war , is like facing nature off on a course against nature ( fire on oil , then water on fire ) . There's also the element of industry that finds this way in this mix , especially because of the presence of human beings in this mix . Herzog , in avant-garde fashion ( ala Dieter and Yonder ) sections off the scenes with Roman numerals , and in theme and tone it does work ( e . g . a part meant for showing the machines trudging around is labeled as being part of ' dinosaurs ' , or when the people set the oil on fire and the others are " mad " in coming in on it ) . And eventually what starts out as just simple , yet spatially complex , aerial takes on the tattered fields , turns into an act of seeing ruin and something that would seem incredible in an objective frame of reference . But that doesn't mean Herzog limits it completely to total dialog-less landscapes ( which , as Herzog has said in the past , he likes to think in grandiose terms he " directs " ) of fire and obtuse figures fanning and producing the flames . He also gets two interviews with women who were around when the war was there - one who is given no words for what she says except that her husband was killed , another who had a child with her and who is now traumatized - and somehow this too works even out of context . I'm sure that if Herzog had wanted to , even in limited time and circumstances he was in , he could be able to work some political stance in the proceedings . His decision to keep politics or anything of the immediate recognizable in concrete terms is a wise one . Not that there isn't something concrete to seeing destruction of this magnitude . But there's an abstract quality to all of this after a while that makes it all the more real in nature , while still keeping to a control of the subject matter into something that looks out of this world , ethereal , and somehow unnatural while still being about nature all the same ( hence science-reality ) . It's almost too arty for its own good in a small way , with Herzog's inter-titles and ultra-somber voice-over becoming like gravestones marking the sections of one set of madness to another . But there's also a daring here that is totally unshakable too , and from a point of view of cinematography it actually goes on par ( if not occasionally seems to top ) what Kubrick did in 2001 or what Lynch could've done in Dune , which is that a filmmaker uses places and objects that are of this world , but then taking the audience to a place that is also assuredly not so . It adds a level of mental discomfort , but then that's likely a big part of the point - seeing the oil burned by order of a government that's been on the news we watch every night is one thing ( or rather was ) , but it's another to suddenly take it in another light , where in the realm of science-fiction it asks the viewer to raise questions via abstractions one might forget when taking it as complete truth . It's a hybrid film that you'd never see this in a cineplex next to the big-bang sci-fi action fare , but then most probably wouldn't want to . |
510,975 | 453,068 | 92,007 | 9 | the crew of the enterprise saves the whales , visits San Fran , other follies , very entertaining | This is probably one of the best examples of Star Trek being able to reach past its main fan-base . It's got some action out in space , but for the most part the story takes place all on Earth , particularly in San Francisco , and out in the ocean . It also boasts a very good supporting turn from Child's Play / 7th Heaven star Catherine Hicks as the unintentional tag-along on the Enterprise's mission . This mission involves an alien presence threatening to wipe out the oceans , and all life perhaps , with the only solution to move a Humpback whale to safer waters . But the film isn't really about the story , per-say , which could have been a problem as Star Trek is more than anything all based on story with characterization that grows in bits and pieces . By the fourth film in the franchise , however , after overly dramatic turns in parts 2 and 3 in which the main cast had been given enough time for the audience to know and connect with them , there's some fun that can be had . So the Voyage Home is more entertaining and thematically engaging - immensely so - about life in 1986 Earth . In a sense it's linked to another 1986 film Crocodile Dundee about a guy from out of town in the big city . But this time it's also a change of centuries and cultures , and such little scenes involving some of the oddities and quirks in the city , with Spock's analytic observations dead-pan enough to be funnier than by those of most regular comics . In any case this is also a kind of strange guilty pleasure for Trekkies , as it has the Enterprise crew doing something they almost never do - contacting with other humans on Earth . The scenes with Hicks primarily add some charm and interest , like when Kirk has to ask her out on a date . In general her role isn't necessarily the ' best ' in the film , but it doesn't hurt at all either . The scenes of action are ' safe ' enough for all ages , the main villains aren't flogged with make-up and over-acting , and the climax of the mission is enthralling like science fiction rarely can get without explosions or tragic feats of strength . Star Trek The Voyage Home is often really goofy , harmless , and playing to a pathos that speaks to not just Trekkies but also non-Star Trek fans , particularly , well , environmentalists . It's probably one of the best of its franchise - it knows what it is and it's got laughs for its audience and thrills for young and old alike ( and yes , it's a cliché that isn't how it really is here ) . |
510,643 | 453,068 | 87,089 | 9 | Coppola's gangsters and dancers saga that succeeds on its ambitions , if just by a hair | The Cotton Club has a reputation , in the movie world as well as in the history books , as being a notorious heaven / hell for most involved . Desptie it being over-budget and under-whelming at the box-office , what remains is probably one of the director's most provocative turns , with so much thrust into it that one ends up admiring the whole so much that it can be forgiven that it veers into the bulky side of things . It's near-classic pulp melodrama fused with the grace and intelligence of the Hollywood musicals and crime pictures of the period that would come shortly after the events in this film . It's also at times utterly pleasurable as conventional fare that knows what it is , as well as visually flourishing in cinematography and editing to go a little further with the material . It's risky stuff not because of the story in and of itself , but because of the chances Coppola takes with putting so much together . Unlike one of his contemporaries , Scorsese , and his film New York , New York , the Cotton Club even in its most dragging or trickiest points in the narrative reigns high as an original hybrid by giving something captivating on every side of the coin . Acting-wise , Coppola goes for the big ensemble once again ( a trademark of his films in the 80s ) , with the key ones allowing for the director to put a lot into each smaller group . The stars as the drenched-in-formula good looking ' musician-cum-actor ( Richard Gere ) and the girl on the side for one of the big mob bosses in New York City ( Diane Lane ) . the gangsters , all with specific characteristics that gain momentum as the story goes , like Dutch Schultz ( James Remar ) as the possessive paranoid killer , Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne ( what a combo ) as certain ' business interests ' entwined with the rest of the mob , and Nicolas Cage as Gere's younger brother , a hot-head racist who wants to take over ; the black actors , singers , dancers , all right out of Harlem and with its own stars ( Gregory Hines , in one of his very best performances / roles ) , and criminals ( Fishburne as a key part of this group ) . And the club itself is something of a character - as principle location - unto itself , as some surreal bastion of escapist glee ( if your part of the audience ) and gangland violence and bad race vibes ( if not ) . Coppola also has the occasional side character , like the MC at the club played by Tom Waits ( made believable all by a cigar ) , to not make either side too top-heavy . Whether one side bests the other or not is arguable . It's hard to say that there aren't some noteworthy scenes in practically every turn , even if they tend to go over-the-top ( like Remar with Schultz ) or almost too much on young charisma ( Lane and sometimes Gere ) . It's a credit to Coppola , at least on that front , that he corrals moments - like the break-up / reuniting with Sandman and Clay Williams , or between the two main stars when they're literally between white sheets backstage at the club - that add up to a lot in the grand scheme of things . His other main concerns , however , are music and the subtle presence of the camera . There's rarely a dull moment with the former , as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway are presented , if only for fans , as legends unto themselves that even get fleeting glances on screen ( the Calloway number " Minnie the Moocher " is a hight-light ) . And Coppola's tie-in with Stephen Goldblatt and his editors is crucial , albeit using each to their fullest extent depending on the mood . The film moves pretty fast , narratively quicker than the Godfather films , but he only uses montage for pivotal cross-cutting moments , showing the rise and fall of the gangsters with that of the club gaining prestige ( the fall , in the big climax , is as magnificent as it can get in cinema ) , and the technical prowess is skillful and inventive . And all the same , it shouldn't all work entirely , because so much feels like it's about to explode at any moment , and nearly to a point where it edges on the point of being the same thing that Coppola is striving to homage ( shallow , escapist sensationalism ) . There's parallels between the struggles of musicians , criminals , and the others on the sidelines in show-business , and are exploited quite well . All the same it ends up not exactly a ' great ' movie , because the underlying ideas for something much deeper only work up to a point . Still , after a first viewing , and like with most other films from the director ( and , damned if I say it , the producer too ) , I wouldn't pass it up again on a viewing late at night ; it's one of the more shamelessly entertaining pictures of the mid 80s . |
508,798 | 453,068 | 152,183 | 9 | Suck Satan's c ! crazy , amazingly funny stand-up | How did it take me so long to come to Bill Hicks ? I'd heard about him for years , but only until a DVD was released with a few of his specials , and suddenly his lucid , spot-on sarcastic observations grew on me almost immediately . He goes from JFK to Terminator 2 stunts done by cripples to ' happy LSD trips ' to fundamentalists running the country , and there's rarely a bit where one doesn't just let out a whole lot of laughs . His delivery is a big part of it ; he sometimes is in on the joke so much so that he has no other way than to make a goofy face after saying something that we know is ridiculous about something . He also shows himself to be totally , wondrously ruthless when it comes to any lack of intelligence in a group of people - or just individuals , can't hurt - and in entire ways of living , like people in advertising ( " No joke , just kill yourselves . " ) But he's also just got a quick tongue , varying his voice and mannerisms , to fit the joke at the unexpected places . Even a bit that might run a little long , like his Goat-boy impersonation , has sparks of genius that are far greater than middling comics best stuff . I'm not entirely sure yet if he was a total genius or one of the 5 best comics ever like some have purported him to be . But on the evidence of Revelations and Relentless ( and , even more-so , his half-hour One Night Stand appearance on HBO in 1990 ) , he was a genuine talent , able to tackle all the big topics of the day and just in general , which makes the bulk of it last years on . |
509,925 | 453,068 | 497,116 | 9 | might be the greatest power-point presentation put on film this decade | And I say that opening summary line in saying that , perhaps , this isn't a perfect film . Al Gore , the would-be SHOULD be president ( political views aside for now aside from that bit ) , tells some bits from his own stories here and there in the film as cut-aways from his slide-show presentation to his audience , and the bits are almost very interesting . Here and there these bits are even heartbreaking ( seeing the replay of the 00 election , but also the story around his son's hospitalization ) . That they detract from the main trajectory of what the film is about is , I guess , just a way for the director to make it feel like a full movie . But that observation , if not outright criticism , aside this is one of those must-see movies if you care about , well , life really . While the film is not without putting some background on Gore and moments of his politics , 99 % of the time he is really just a person relaying what is lacking in not just films and television but from other media sources - empirically backed facts that can only help and provide a basically ' scholarly ' foundation for this case . And this case is not , of course , a bi-partisan kind of effort in spite of what some politicians and sadly uninformed skeptics would try to say . For those who may follow and believe already that , for example , the world is only 6000 years old and there were dinosaurs alongside us like in the Flintstones might be harder to convince on the outset anyway . But because the problem goes across party lines , and oceans , and mountains and glaciers , even over the poles , it does deserve attention on this medium . The main thrust behind Gore's global warming argument is presented in what would be basically just a power-point presentation , one of those where a click sends up the next image to get some contextualization . But the actual presentation itself is brilliantly put together to flow very well . It even starts with something very amusing with a cartoon from the Matt Groening world ( whether its from Simpsons or Futurama I can't say ) . The context is mainly based on how global warming affects Co2 , the oceans , the countless glaciers in the world , and how hurricanes , tornadoes and typhoons are all apart of this big ecological f-up that could send the civilization to a stand-still within 100 years . I knew at least some things about what Gore was presenting , but the amount of facts that keeps piling as staggering as this is what sells the content completely . Sure , Gore is a politician , and who is to trust him any more than the average shlub ? It's more than what he might stand for , even as he does present himself as well as he ever has on screen . The information here is bigger than he and us as viewers really are . And for anyone walking around in the Northern hemisphere surrounded by at least one of the catastrophes mentioned linked to global warming An Inconvinient Truth is a big zap of what could have come just as well from a scientist , and has , many times over ( i . e . one big fact that interested me was that out of over 900 studies on the issue not one says that it is not from a human cause ) . Along with some of this shock of reality Gore does try to provide some hope with what can be done by people to stop at least some of what is going on . In a sense the real strength of the film is like in the strength of an academic research paper - an extraordinary one - where what can be proved is just as important if not more so than the results . That the film-making style that corresponds this is good in this corresponding slide-show way ( and inventive here and there within a documentary aspect ) is impressive . So run , don't drive ( heh ) , to see this movie . |
510,429 | 453,068 | 92,020 | 9 | a contender for my favorite Quay brothers film | I like the Brothers Quay work in small doses , and all at once with one film coming after another it becomes too staggering an experience to handle . But seeing Street of Crocodiles really made it for me in terms of connecting it to other Quay brothers work , in terms of how their surreal representations and obsessions and neuroses come into their work , and how it pulled off so well this time . A lot of time their avant-garde impulses almost get the better of them , and many a fantastic image and sound is presented but without much context , leaving it almost impenetrable . I didn't get that this time around with this film - which happened to make Terry Gilliam's top 10 favorite animated films of all time - as it presents its ideas a little more coherently , and unlike other Quay work it ends not on a sudden beat but on one that actually makes sense , in its own non-sensical form . It's really just one of the most pure visualizations of a nightmare world envisaged , as a puppeteer opens up a box and looks in at a figure moving around in this run down slum of a city , where screws continually keep unscrewing from their places and deformed dolls go about as they please performing grisly tasks . This animated figure ( who really is anything but animated , as the character doesn't move around too much , except to continually look at things that perhaps he shouldn't , or doesn't understand at first ) gets embroiled in the dolls ' plans , which may or may not involve unscrewing his own head as well . At times it seemed like the Quays could go off again into the wormholes of their own visions , but they resist the temptation to go completely with the narrative - whatever there is of it anyway . Disorder and decay were words that kept floating in my mind , and all amid an atmosphere of not necessarily despair , but one that lacked much hope for any of its minions . Featuring some of the most inventive production design I've seen in any stop-motion film , and cinematography that still stuns me hours after watching it , it's a real little marvel of what can come out of the darkest corners of the mind , put to light and molded with the utmost care . |
509,123 | 453,068 | 113,409 | 9 | Carpenter at his most surreal , most sickening , and , in his own devilish way , most self-deprecating | I think In the Mouth of Madness falls into that column of John Carpenter films that fans of his will either like a lot or wont , and I could understand the points made for the latter . It is a little hard to get into , at first , as being a very strong film based on the sharply timed shocks and paranoia of Carpenter's horror as a director as well as the ideas presented by the writer , and it does veer into going into the same wild level of deliriousness that soon enough becomes the lead character . But it's a work as well where Carpenter is testing himself , and succeeding in a carefree but controlled way , where he goes for having his cake and eating it too . He gets to throw up on the screen some grisly ( and , as a possible tip of the hat to the groundbreaking effects from the Thing , a sometimes funny knock-off ) special creature effects and with some masterful displays in editing through the images of abstractions into the character's subconscious , while questioning what he's doing all the time , or at least the genre he and others ( notably Stephen King ) make their bread and butter . It's a sort of slightly smarter pulp sci-fi / horror piece , not quite at the insane brilliance of They Live though perhaps in its more deliberate fashion a little creepier , as investigator John Trent ( Sam Neill ) is investigating the disappearance of a severely popular horror novelist , who's books sometimes make people go a little nuts . Trent sees this first-hand from novelist Sutter Cane's agent , who comes at him wielding an axe ( it's one of those pure points in the film that mixed the macabre and satire , something Craven didn't quite get at with New Nightmare ) . He thinks it's a hoax , and soon discovers that he may be in a ( fictional ? ) town called Hobbs End in New Hampshire . What he finds , in typical Carpenter fashion , is describable as being a psychological flip-flopper , where Trent goes from thinking it's all a gag with it being very elaborate , to it suddenly not being , at all . Creatures ( supplied wonderfully by KNB ) start popping out , disgusting ones that aren't much human , and it even gets to Trett's female companion / literary liaison on the trip . Soon Cane is found in some dank cellar ( Jurgen Purchnow , one of Carpenter's most chilling villains in how subtle he is ) , and he has a new book ready for Trett to bring to the world . . . This isn't quite where the film gets weird , though it's probably a little before or a little after this point , and the kind of weirdness I had been hoping to build up . Although it does get close for writer De Luca to being shaky with balancing really dark humor - however in small doses , and depending on how seriously one takes the more overt horror elements - and at the plight of Trent's mind-set in the midst of total Armageddon , Carpenter levels the playing field without missing too many beats . I kept having my mouth hang open either in a ' what the hell ' mode or just in sort of plain shock . But it's an entertaining mix and match all the way for a genre fan , and Sam Neill is definitely up for the challenge of playing as well level-headed and rational Trett for the first half , then slowly but surely descending into his own subconscious state of peril - or , perhaps , Trent losing sight on what is perceived as reality or not . Only Neill could go between serious dramatic roles to films like this and Jurassic Park , where his characters ' confidence as the practical pragmatist starts to waver as a descent into disaster goes further and further . What Carpenter ends on in the last section of his " apocalypse " trilogy isn't necessarily a closed-and-shut ending either ; I sense that he wants things to be a little closer to the Thing's end , where it's all doom and gloom but there's a wink to the protagonist's state of mind . Trett's last minutes wandering the streets and going into the movie theater watching himself doesn't really spell anything conclusive , I think , which adds all the more to the fun and intrigue . He could just be still in his hospital room , still in the world that dismisses Cane as pulp-sensationalist trash , albeit successful pulp-sensationalist trash ( a little relevant today , eg Dan Brown ) , and not among the total bat-s mess that the world has become while locked in his padded room . It's a question left to the viewer , and a smart one to put up in a film that has by this point thrived mostly on its own sensationalism as well , tongue-in-cheek in the guise of crazy small-town break-out scenario . As a Carpenter fan , I say , bring it on . |
509,921 | 453,068 | 43,048 | 9 | to the joy of Bergman and combining drama and music | Ingmar Bergman's seventh film , To Joy , is actually a fairly bitter film , more often than not , in looking at the destructiveness of a marriage between two people who somehow got stuck with each other to fall in love . And yet there are some moments that are quite joyful , or at least in the terms that Bergman will allow from time to time , and they help ring this as less a total work of despair than an examination of ' average ' people who can't stand not having more . Stig ( Stig Olin ) and Marta ( Maj-Britt Nilsson ) meet as they're both musicians in an orchestra conducted by Sönderby ( Victor Sjostrom ) . She's the only woman in the orchestra , but it's not exactly that they have love at first sight in the slightest . Their connection grows following a party where Stig gets drunk and makes a depressing grandstanding fool of himself in front of friends , and somehow his downbeat manner is charming to Marta . Soon they grow closer , even fall in love perhaps , though their future marriage is complicated by Marta becoming pregnant . This scene , when she reveals it three months on to Stig , is the first real crack in the relationship . It only cracks more , with the occasional patch-up , and the question stands more or less - as Stig is looking back on the relationship following his wife and one of his child's deaths - is what could have come from all of this ? Bergman deals with his characters , at this stage in his career , in trying to just find the simple and really not very simple truths of what Stig and Marta are together and separate . For the first half it almost looks like Stig is a bit too two-dimensional , particularly for a Bergman film ( and Olin doesn't play him extremely well , even if he does deliver the beats fairly well , perhaps in line with his own character's inadequacies ) . He can't seem to enjoy anything that he does because he always wants more , to be a supreme soloist , than to have what he already has gotten . Marta , on the other hand , after having several potential men before going with Stig , tries her best to cope with having two kids that she probably wasn't totally thrilled to have in the first place . There's a great little scene where Sanderby recounts walking in on Stig and Marta after having some kind of odd tender moment ( as well as later on after having a quarrel ) , without them noticing Sanderby walk in , and the expression still underneath their faces when he formally walks in . In typical Bergman fashion we see the disintegration of a relationship ( quite a brutal argument in bed really , more of emotional violence than physical ) , even if the sort of ' patching-up ' period towards the end is a little weaker than what's come before . So on the one hand there is this aspect , the drama of two people having a constant push-and-pull tie that binds them through Stig's delusions of grandeur and self-pity and fear manifesting in other forms ( notably into the arms of another woman ) and Marta's own semi-helplessness , which is very good , if imperfect , as classic Bergman storytelling . On the other hand it's also one of the best examples of classical music being used as incidental music : there's not exact musical score like if we hear music accompanying the characters giving the emotional cues during an argument scene or when Sanderby offers advice or gets irritated at Stig , but rather the music of Sanderby's orchestra ( and Sjostrom , I might add , is pitch-perfect in the role of the weathered and brilliant second-banana conductor ) fills in the spaces at times of the emotional context . Probably the most successful , and joyful , scene is when Stig finds out Marta has the baby , by running out quick during a rehearsal , the music going along as he's on the phone , then continuing as he sits back down , and as Sanderby asks quietly of one musician who asks another to another to Stig what happened , as the music plays on . This , plus the second greatest cinematic interpretation of Beethoven's 9th symphony 4th movement in a climax ( the first being Clockwork Orange ) , make To Joy worth seeing all by itself , if only for Beethoven fans . As one of the several films included on the recently released Eclipse DVD series , To Joy will appeal to fans of Bergman's knack at telling of characters in shattered , honest romance , and to those looking for some classical music bliss and have seen The Magic Flute or Autumn Sonata too many times . |
510,067 | 453,068 | 245,574 | 9 | Another prime example of film-making from Mexico | Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Bien is one of the better films of the year ( not quite best , but still highly recommendable ) . Cuaron , who scripted with his brother Carlos , tells a story with such a level of stark and touching realism that the audience will not only feel for the three main characters , but will feel like their along the ride with them . In this story , Tenoch and Julio are two friends whose girlfriends go away to Italy for a little while and are left with not much to do ( outside of partying and masturbation ) until they get an idea to go to a secluded beach called Heaven's Mouth and ask the married and 10 years older Luisa to come along . She agrees after discovering her husband cheated on her more than she could stand and this takes the movie onto a road trip with dialog and actions that , despite having the be read on the bottom of the screen in subtitle format , is much better than most teen movies that go for sex related dialog ( however , Cuaron had to go back to Mexico to make this type of movie so that the MPAA wouldn't s on it and make him re-edit it to a NC-17 ) and action . The only flaws keeping Cuaron's latest work from being a great coming of age tale is that the narration , while keeping in some good insight along the way , becomes heavy handed at times and gives information that is either humorist news along the area the characters are traveling or about the characters themselves which isn't a bad thing until it digs into things that don't have much relevance to the rest of the picture or even to the characters when you think about what is really up on the screen . Plus , the very last scene is too conventional to be placed as where the film leads up to ( he should've ended it when Luisa goes into the ocean the last time ) . But still , these squabbles shouldn't stop people from seeing this movie , overall it delivers splendidly in it's uninhibited and mature ways . Props also go to the performances by the three leads and to the cinematography . |
508,614 | 453,068 | 104,779 | 9 | a hot and heavy tale of romance gone bad , by Roman Polanski | I'd have to wonder how much hotter the book that Bitter Moon is based on is . I'm not sure if I would ever read it , but it definitely wouldn't be boring . Neither is the movie ; if anything , Polanski goes to such dark depths here that it's almost neglectful not to say that there's something old-fashioned stirring in the narrative . A British couple on their way via cruise to India run into a wheelchair bound would-be writer and his wife , who is a knock-out , and the husband hears from the now crippled man the story of his relationship . There's something wholesome that is ripped apart in the story here , and it's at its core a tale of passionate love and desire that becomes like a mind-game . Polanski's flashback narrative works well , and despite some corny bits early on in Oscar's ( Peter Cotoye ) tale of Mimi ( Emmanuele Signer ) , but this is contrasted with scenes that sizzle with great sexuality , the likes of which only so-much seen in 90s cinema . Then it transitions into the ' naughtier ' chapter , then going into the section that's most captivating : the ' can't - live - with - em - can't - live - without - em ' logic of their relationship , and how it then relates to Hugh Grant's Nigel and his flawed marriage to Fiona ( Thomas ) . Will he sleep with Mimi ? This question would be the shallow one ; Polanski's achievement here is expressing a savage bond that is like a slow-working poison , ready to affect anyone that grows closer to their very human tragedy . Sometimes seeing their past is disturbing , other times even darkly funny . But it's pure , unadulterated Polanski through and through . And special note should be given to Coyote : here's a character actor everybody sees from time to time , be it ET or Sphere or Femme Fatale , and this time he's put to a test that any actor would love . He goes through every emotion , sometimes put on and sometimes very raw and wretched bit from his soul , and it's an imperfect but powerful tour-de-force . Everyone else , Grant , Seigner , Thomas , are put in roles that their fit well into ( Grant especially as an up-tight yuppie sexually awakened / confused ) , but Polanski still uses them wisely from scene to scene . His wife , Seigner , is also sometimes a revelation in a role that should - and is - a possible one-note trap . There's complexity that she finds in her needy-cum-sociopathic mindset , and is sexy as all hell . It's overall and underrated work of minor genius , and may please those looking for a crazy tale of love and revenge . |
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