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510,499 | 453,068 | 342,275 | 10 | As much as I loved this film-buff docu-delight , it's hard for me to give it a grade . . . | . . . and my reasons for which are simple - there are so many great films presented and discussed here ( most of them by their own directors and stars ) , so many clips of infamous moments in 70's movie history , and in fact a number of films I have yet to see , that it wouldn't be fair to grade this work . By this logic I shouldn't have given grades to other movie documentaries like Martin Scorsese's Personal Journey through American Movies and My Voyage to Italy . But while those films were on the basis of one man's view of cinema , narrating through most of the way , Richard LaGravanese and ( the late ) Ted Demmes ' A Decade Under the Influence lets the films and the creators speak entirely for themselves . What makes ' Decade ' worth at least one watch for film buffs , or just anyone who likes the films of the late 60's-70's in America , are the levels that it goes to , that in the uncut version ( three hours , not the theatrical version , which I have no comment on ) plenty of ground is covered . Interviews include the likes of Scorsese , Robert Altman , Sidney Lumet , Julie Christie , Jon Voight , Francis Ford Coppola , Paul Schrader , Pam Grier , Bruce Dern , Peter Bogdanovich , Roger Corman , Dennis Hopper , Robert Towne , etc , and there's a constant flow of insight from start to finish . The way the clips and directors / actors pop up , edited together in a flashy and quick style , is also fascinating . The one down comment I have on the documentary is that most of the information presented has been reported on in various books , like Easy Riders , Raging Bulls , and though I haven't seen the movie version of that book yet I'm sure it would have covered many of the films and directors and incidents as here ( in fact , the book of that is one of the best I've ever read . HOWEVER , this documentary serves as something special for film buffs and occasional movie goers of the future - they can look at this and learn not only about such well known pictures as Easy Rider , The Last Picture Show , Annie Hall , Coming Home , and lessor knowns like Scarecrow , Panic in Needle Park , The Landlord , Joe , They Shoot Horses Don't They . They can also learn about who influenced them ( new waves of Europe and Asia ) , who they served as influences for , and how the subject matter that created controversy after controversy still serves as intriguing and chancy material for the contemporary crowd . Seek this out ! |
509,865 | 453,068 | 38,913 | 10 | DeSica's first true mark on the world of neo-realism is a small ruby of its time and place | Sciuscia , or Shoeshine , tells a tragedy involving two boys , Pasquale and Giuseppe , both of whom try and make money from shining shoes , and also in dealing with black market goods . They hope to buy a horse one day ( a wonderful opening shot of a horse running fast gets this point across since this is at its core a film of adolescence ) , but complications involving Giuseppe's older brother and gang land the two boys in jail just as they have enough for the horse . The film then deals with the boys in the reformatory / prison , over-crowded with conniving , shady influences as cell-mates , as well as the people who run the prison . To tell anymore of the plot would ruin it for the viewer who would go out of his way to find this - it's near impossible to find , which is a shame since The Bicycle Thief and Umberto D . are readily available in most stores and rentals - and it's enough to say that much of the film relies more on character than story . Because the director's dealing with a group of near total unknowns , they come first . This film , by Vittorio De Sica , was made very soon after the War had decimated the country he lived in . He didn't just want to make this movie , he had to - these characters are as real as their backdrop , a country still in the aftermath of a fascist state of affairs , and since the film deals with children there's all the more emotion to it . The only , very minor liability in the film is that the drama in the material isn't as simple and everyday as DeSica's later , more famous efforts ; if it was under different direction it could've become a forgettable tearjerker . But the tragedies of these characters , Pasquale and Giuseppe , is splendid in the humanity that they feel , as it unfolds , and by the end it rings as true as any other given neo-realist effort of the late 40's and early 50's . Shoeshine is one of those rarities that may give a tear-jerker to someone who isn't expecting one , and I mean that as a compliment . Note , if you find this tape , it may be rather grainy and slightly shifty in frame , and the subtitles aren't complete - not to downplay the worth of the film in and of itself , however . |
510,799 | 453,068 | 61,418 | 10 | one of the very best films I've ever seen ? not sure , but it surely invites another viewing | Bonnie and Clyde is , to put it in most basic terms , what Warren Beatty said to Jack Warner when the lights came up after the screening for the late studio head after he asked Beatty , " What the f did I just watch ? " Beatty replied , " It's what the French would call an ' homage . ' " Warner's response : " Ok . . . What's an homage ? " He didn't get that this was something of a kickback to movies of old while also paving the way for the future . In fact , the film was originally meant for one of the Cashiers du Cinema directors ( either Truffaut or Godard , who both passed eventually ) , who specialized in homage . Whether or not Bonnie and Clyde is a bonafide classic - it is for critics and viewers , and not without some good reason even if I'm still a little unsure of how to place it - it does have a good chance of standing the tests of time , as people are still ranting and raving about it some forty years ( and a new DVD release ) later . Short of it is the ' same old story ' , boy meets girl , girl falls for boy , boy gets girl to rob banks , girl and boy go on the run , boy can't do well in bed with girl ( wink wink , nudge nudge , say no more ) , boy and girl team up time to time with others on the run , girl and boy get gunned down by hundreds of machine gun bullets . The long of it is that Penn , his DP and his wonderful editor Dede Allen , and his cast and crew made up a kind of lyricism to the pulp material , that in-between the goofy interludes of fast-speed chase scenes and banjo-picking music , there were sprinklings of poetry , and candid sexual material . For the poetic part we see some shots that elevate this into another realm , moving not always on a beat to plot but based on mood and the locales ( one shot I distinctly remember rises above a field of grass or grain as Bonnie goes after Clyde or other ) . For the sexual part , it's the first film in American history to address impotency , and a quasi-Freudian breakdown of ID manifested through the gun and crime and showmanship . And sure , some of that banjo-picking kind of dulls the thought going into Bonnie and Clyde that this will be the most cutting-edgiest of all the cutting edge late 60s movies . But Beatty and Dunaway , as the young lovers with " nothing better to do , " as well as Hackman and Parsons ( and a cool bit part with Gene Wilder ) , are terrific to look at as they get at some complexities in each other's push-and-pull relationship , giving their all to portray the ballsy attitude of 30s gangsters while revealing in the uncertainty and existential abandon of their generation . Without going into too many platitudes about what the film meant or what impact it had at the time ( as I didn't live at the time I can only speculate or go on past records ) , Bonnie and Clyde does break ground in one respect that would definitely resonate with the likes of Peckinpah , Coppola and Scorsese : violence isn't candy-coated anymore or done for an faded effect . Inspired by the likes of Kurosawa and Russian propaganda-style editing , audiences got catapulted to the kind of state of mind that meant to transport them into the danger and mayhem of the gangster life as well as , mayhap , Vietnam , particularly with the iconic climax . As pure film-making many of these scenes , especially for the latter for which Allen was snubbed a well-deserved Oscar nomination , are incredible . Emotionally it's brutal and verging on being too chaotic for its own good . Somehow Penn is able to merge the style with the emotional impact , however , which is a marker of why Bonnie and Clyde is such a success artistically . There have probably been better films to come from this , but it remains potent nevertheless . |
509,674 | 453,068 | 52,618 | 10 | still a gigantic achievement in epic film-making | What distinguishes Ben-Hur as a powerful film in epic scope is not simply that it is shot and stylized and acted and executed in action sequences to iconic effect ( though there is that to a degree ) , but that it's human dimensions stay intimate in scope . I was expecting what I had heard about with Ben-Hur , and got that - the vengeance plot , the chariot race , a story of redemption with Christ as a background figure and major presence - but I wasn't expecting such things revealed like the devastation left on a family by leprosy , and the disintegration of one's morality by the cloud of vengeance on one's mind . Even if you're not much of a Christian ( and even as a non-practicing Jew as I am ) , there are some deep chords that are struck with the material for an audience that is going in not expecting a lot of sermonizing . Only in the final reels , as we see first-hand the ' Christ ' as he is sent to die on the cross , does the film get overbearing with the symbolism and heavy weight of the circumstance of this being a " tale of the Christ . " This isn't to say also that with Judah Ben-Hur having the strife in coming to terms with his family being at first , he thinks , dead , and then later as made deformed thanks to the Roman's imprisonment , that this is all the film is . It's also grand spectacle , a film that takes you along on its epic ride with imagery that pierced the public consciousness so strongly that you've seen the scenes as parodies or referenced before you've even seen the film . Surely we have the chariot race to contend with , which has been so influential on modern action sequences and chases that Lucas copied most of the choreography for the pod race in Phantom Menace . And to give credit where it's due , you could show that same sequence in any theater today and it would unquestionably bring down the house , not just for its technical achievement but for the visceral impact ( i . e . the downfall of Ben-Hur's rival by his own undoing ) . But there's also other great images ; possibly my favorite are the scenes with Judah Ben-Hur as # 41 among the rowing slaves , all moving at the whim of the drum beat . That in and of itself would make Ben-Hur a must-see . But then there are more emotionally impactive places and settings , like the valley of the lepers , Judah's struggle across the desert ( and the tastefully done angle of Jesus ' back only ) , many others that would take too long to mention . It's all so massive a production that it's almost TOO big ( according to Charlton Heston the budget , at 14 million then as the most expensive film ever made , would today cost something like 250 million ) , and it's a credit to William Wyler that he never makes it too dull , even as supporting characters may verge on leaning to overacting . With only calling attention to it at certain moments ( and sometimes not at all with a more subtle effect ) , Wyler is a virtuoso here in corralling all aspects of the production under his firm handle . And then there's Heston , who gives one of the very best of his ( now late ) career . He's full of bravura and gusto , and seems like a guy - for those guys who crave action film stars - who can get things done in the right mindset . But he's also excellent at conveying the tragedy of this character , a very good man with high ideals who becomes corrupted by his need to get his respite . Underneath all of that machismo and the swagger that eventually became old hat for Heston , is a strong presence at the helm of Ben-Hur . Stephen Boyd , too , is also very good as the boyhood friend turned rival . In fact , most of the actors here are very good , from Hawkins to Hazareet to Jaffe to O'Donnel and so on , as they all contribute to the epic scope . It's massive and directly concerning the efforts of then Rabbi from Nazareth to bring peace and love to humanity . Despite it being not-too-thinly veiled religious fable ( and not without a couple of things noticeable as parody in Life of Brian ) , Ben-Hur is a great success for its time , surviving today in good , not-too-dated tact . |
509,261 | 453,068 | 65,234 | 10 | He is Alive ! | Z is one of top crop of the truly incisive , daring and most cinematically successful conspiracy / political thrillers . It is this because of its attention , lucidly surprisingly given its often non-linear structure , to its plot filled with many strands and possible loose ends , and because its director Costa-Gavras injects the story ( told " deliberately " on true events , apparently from recent Greek history ) with a taut , exciting and efficient post-modern aesthetic . There is very little time to breathe ; one wonders if we might cry at the end not simply because hope seems to be all but lost but because of its breathless attitude and pacing . There's life here , and it's being crushed bit by bit . And , contrary to some criticism , it is not just some piece for liberals or " socialist scum " as one IMDb reviewer wrote ( half ) jokingly . On the contrary the story - an investigation into the assassination of a prominent figure of peace , the Deputy as he's called played by Yves Montand , and how a prosecutor ( Perier ) and a photo-journalist are the only halfway decent and / or objective ones to sort out the bottom-to-top corruption - is essentially about speaking truth to power in an unjust society . What power , perhaps , is part of the conundrum in this case . Even the top brass attorney general doesn't buy the ultimate sum of the facts tallied by the prosecutor at the end , bringing to the bittersweet ( more-so on bitter ) end of the tale . Gavras ' film is loaded with dialog and inquiry , scenes of tense intimidation and harrowing and jerky inquiry , and the usual set-pieces of action and suspense for a work like this that relies on sometimes documentary approach . The latter of these isn't too frequent , but two prominent sequences ( a nasty fight in the back of a pivotal pick-up truck , and a chase by car after a witness ) are extraordinary in frenetic energy , cinematography and ( strange and cool ) music score . The acting is also spot on , from the poker-faced prosecutor to the stalwart General to the dedicated photo-journalist with sneaky tendencies ( we don't know for sure if he's legit at first sneaking on on Deputy's grieving widow ) , and all these fellows in between like a simple non-partisan soccer fan witness , not to mention the deputy's widow herself . Everything just about clicks in Z , and most frightening of all , there's still a feeling of relevancy nearly 40 years later . It's not simply the conspiracy-plot stuff , as we've seen that either in crazier modes ( Winter Kills ) or in more ambitious Hollywood skewering and prodding ( JFK ) . It's the direct-hit of how everything seems to seem fishy , from the government to the military to the police to just the common grocer or barber , and all having to do with one political siding or another or some gleaming on to power . It's in part a big product of its period - aside from being a true story cleverly without direct names and spoken in French instead of Greek it must have been really potent during the rallies and riots in America and elsewhere in Europe - and in part just purely amazing film-making that dazzles with its story and doesn't let up in keeping us attentive to the horrors at hand . |
508,150 | 453,068 | 91,209 | 10 | some kind of insane and intensely tense thriller that rarely comes around anymore | The Hitcher is guided to being such an awesome feat because it features a character and a performance that lift reality into hyper-reality , and it's frightening and fascinating to see how the character John Ryder becomes like a presence as alarming as just a state of mind than as an actual threat . It may be a super anti-kindness to an extent ( one could say that Jim Halsey is asking for it simply by picking up the man in coat and thumb out in the dead of night in the rainy desert ) , but once it takes off from its point of departure it doesn't stop . In that sense Robert Harman's film could make some comparison to Spielberg's Duel , only this case in place of a truck is , well , Rutger Hauer . It's a purely relentless cat-and-mouse game , as ambiguous about what lies behind the dark forces of life and death as No Country for Old Men ( if not quite as timeless as that film ) . It should be said , plain and simple , Hauer's performance here and maybe in Blade Runner are his definitive work as an actor . He's does sometimes so much with so little that even when he's not on screen or isn't in frame he gives the chills incredibly by his face , those eyes peering out . Him and Kinski have that affect , though with Hauer there's something about him that could , under other circumstances , look very kind and heartfelt . But between scenes like his " talk " with Jim at the diner to his mere ( more than usual ) startling re-appearance in the motel room lying next to Jennifer Jason Leigh , one can't help but feel his character and performance to a degree straddle the line of reality and the supernatural , as if it's all allegory while at the same time directed and acted with such a straight face . Considering the whole concept is based off of the Doors song " Riders on the Storm " I hope that comes as as sincere a compliment at possible . But Hauer isn't alone in delivering an uncommonly good performance in a thriller . Years before he became just another hack-actor looking for whatever work he could ( such as last year's War of the Worlds 2 and Day the Earth Stood Still ) , C . Thomas Howell was delivering the goods and this shows him in his own right as a fine counterpart to Hauer . At his older actor's level ? Probably not , but it's hard not to feel for him and see him go deeper into the insanity of the story as it unfolds . What will finally lead him up to killing this psychopath on his trail ? Will he have to take a cop or two with him ? The dilemma is further compounded by the immediate task to stay alive . In a more conventional neo-noir it might be simply that Ryder would set up Jim with these crimes or whatever on the road and that Jim would have to do heavy jail time without any witnesses or evidence of the existence of this " Mr Ryder " . But the writer of the script , Eric Red , is far more interested in the minute-to-minute danger present with Ryder's vendetta with Jim . What is it about death or murder that keeps this young guy from going for it ? I have to wonder if Christopher Nolan watched this film , and particularly studied the climax , for the Dark Knight ( one can see the ambiguity with his Joker and obsession against the Batman as a comparison to Jim and Ryder ) , since at the least the Hitcher delivers so strongly on counts of storytelling , acting , cinematography , even the somewhat dated 80s music sticks tough . And in case it needed it , the action is cool too ( maybe too cool in that way that sadly inspired Michael Bay to produce a remake ) . Not for the squeamish , and certainly not for budding Rutger Hauer fans to miss , the film is something of a minor mid-80s classic . |
509,751 | 453,068 | 35,160 | 10 | A daring debut , fusing melodrama , film-noir , and a realistic approach later to flourish after the war . . . | Ossessione , adapted loosely ( or if it is as loose or close to the version I saw of James M . Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange I can't be certain ) by first time director Luchino Visconti , is no less outstanding with usage of mis-en-scene , music ( both diegetic and non-diegetic ) , and the acting . I didn't know what to expect Visconti to do in his approach to the material , after seeing La Terra Trema and seeing how sometimes his political motivations snuck in a little bit . But this is a totally character and emotional based drama , bordering on melodrama ( however , without the conventions that bog down lesser ones ) , and with the style in the finest path of the budding film-noir movement , Visconti creates a debut that's as involving as any other neo-realist film . Neo-realism , by the way , could rightfully be claimed as this being a forefather ( along with De Sica's The Children Are Watching Us ) , which that would take shape after the war . Although love and romance is more in play here than in some of the more famous neo-realist efforts , it's dealt with in a bare-bones storytelling fashion , and it's laced with other familiar themes in neo-realism ( the lower-class , death , desperation ) . Aside from the story , which is simply as it is described on this site , the artistry with which Visconti captures the images , and then layers them with objects ( a shawl over Gino Costa's profile when in guilt ) , shadows and darkness that tend to overcome many of the later scenes in the film ( usually over Gian and Giovanna ) , and the feel of the Italian streets in many of the exterior scenes . Domenico Scala and Aldo Tonti ( who would lens some of Rossellini and Fellini's films ) help in envisioning the look of Ossessione , which is usually moving in on a character , then pausing to read as much emotion on their faces , their voices and mannerisms lovely and ugly , sad and dark and romantic . I think I've just scratched the surface on how effective it was that the film itself was moving me along , even as I was in fear of the futures of the two leads . The two leads ( Massimo Girotti and Clara Calamai ) portray all the compelling , truthful , and near-operatic emotions , and the key supporting actors are also without their attributes . It's a brilliant , crushing adaptation , and it points as a striking signpost of what was to come for Visconti in his career . |
510,040 | 453,068 | 365,190 | 10 | If you love diving into a character via roadhouse blues in France , you'll really like this movie , if not love it | The first thing to take note in Red Lights is that the story is not rushed : Antoine ( Jean-Pierre Darrousin ) is perhaps a passive-aggressive , or maybe just having a mid-life crisis . He and his wife Helene are planning for a trip to pick up the kids from summer camp . But the drive hits some things in the way - he has a beer and a whiskey before leaving ; a traffic jam gets to Antoine ; he drinks again at a roadside ; he and his wife bicker ; he drinks again ; she leaves , and once he realizes he can't catch up with her , he decides to have a night with a little more drinking ahead . While he says he doesn't drink too often ( " two , three times a year " , he says ) , this night is different . Especially with a fugitive somewhere out on the loose , as the radio says . Cedric Kahn is a skilled and trust-worthy director ( via France ) for a few reasons in dealing with his latest film Red Lights . He doesn't make the pace in the tenser scenes ( with a couple of juicy exceptions ) really quick cut like in a choppy Hollywood piece . He brings an interesting blend of visuals with the city and the roads , the cars , then as it grows darker outside , the lights outside become key . When Antoine awakes the next morning on the roadside , he's out in the country . As well , he has a great blend of music from Debusy , whom I may have heard before this film but never recognized . It's a fascinating element to add with the impending doom of the film's story . But the key thing that the director can do for a film is the right casting , and here's it's impeccable in dealing with the three leads . Jean-Pierre Darrousin is terrific at conveying the mind-set of this husband in a rocky relationship . Then in the second and third acts , despite what he's doing on the road , he keeps consistent in keeping as the film's reluctant hero . Credit should also be given to first-time actor Vincent Deniard , who is perfect at being the " quiet one you got to watch " . And Carole Bouquet is a fair counterpart to a Darrosin . Although the denouement starts to drag , for my money the film's main chunk doesn't . It would be one thing if Antoine just got drunk . But there's also a good interest in the talking points with the character , as he decides to blow his mind in the process . Red Lights is definitely an art-house film that won't please everyone ( the film ends rather realistically , without the kind of extra bit American audiences might want that's more intimate here ) , but it's still very compelling . |
510,509 | 453,068 | 118,694 | 10 | the quintessential romance of Wong Kar Wai | In the Mood for Love , a film shot in an improvisational style with the actors and , frankly , the most mature and least feverish lensed and edited work of Wong Kar Wai's career , is about two people who know exactly what is right and what is wrong , but have the feeling , the emotion , to possibly cross the line . Why shouldn't they , after all , when they both suspect that their respective spouses are having an affair ? But this , for Wong Kar Wai , is far too easy for the audience to expect . We want these two characters , Chow ( Tony Leung ) and Chan ( Maggie Cheung ) to be together not simply as friends , or even playing their ' game ' of acting out like they're married , but fully invested in each other's ever growing affection and companionship . That they want to , desire to be together , and cannot - or , in fact , will not - is part of the challenge . And it's quietly , subtly thrilling . It's always something special to see a filmmaker challenge the expectations of an audience saturated with the usual , and In the Mood for Love is certainly unusual in the respect of how it treats its characters which is with a frankness , naturalism that seems at first to be not out of any old 50s or 60s melodrama . It's because these two people , who live so close to one another and grow a bond as they do , that one thinks that they are bound to be made for each other . Whether they are or are not isn't the point , however , but how little by little the same things that go on for them , the routine of day to day life , gets splintered . The perception of their realities are broken down until all they have left is each other , and out of fear , apprehension , all the common fears of adultery , they don't go where they know their respective spouses have . It's almost more appealing to see their restraint , the passion buried right under the surface . But the director doesn't make this a detached experience . On the contrary , despite his ditching of the constant hand-held and strange lighting of the 90s , things move at a pace that is , simply , meditative on romance , the little details that can come up with repetition , the slow-motion , the violin music . Just a simple pan done across a dinner between Chow and Chan is extraordinary for what precisely is shown . Objects seem elegant , like Chan's dresses , which she wears just to go out for an errand , or even some things that at this point should be a cliché in movies : the look of cigarette smoke , and scenes with rain . He and Christopher Doyle bring one into , as it goes , another feeling within scenes that add drama , sorrow , and , of course , love , where otherwise it would be just mundane and kind of strange . Towards the end ( i . e . Cambodia ) it gets strange anyway , but for a while it's sublime . And lest not forget stars Leung and Cheung , both regulars of WKW's films , who inhabit these characters as opposed to playing specific parts ; they're people sort of stuck where they are in life , one at a printing press the other a secretary , and they both have possible dreams for themselves ( mostlty for Chow as a serial novelist ) . Together , they start acting out the roles of each others spouses , sort of filling in the spaces left behind , and the actors convey the sense of slight hope within this hopeless relationship that few I could imagine ever pulling off period , much less in this setting . It's all a combination of factors , between the subtle experimentation with the direction , the realistic edge of the actors , the music , the clothes , the direct lighting , all of it comes together better than in any other film I've seen from this HK romantic wildman . This might not mean it's for everyone , however ; it's the kind of film one gets tuned into , like some far-off radio station that's clear as day , but uncommon in a lot of ways , too . |
507,903 | 453,068 | 338,013 | 10 | an modern artistic triumph for all involved | Michel Gondry , credited as the director and co-writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , is only partly responsible for the success that the film achieves . He implements a awe-inspiring blend of style to a story that is perfectly non-linear . But then there is also the madman genius of the current screen writing plane - Charlie Kaufman - who has written three of the most ingenious , funny , and human of " little " Hollywood movies ( Being John Malkovich , Adaptation , Confessions of a Dangerous Mind ) . He understands , and perhaps likely experienced to a degree , what a relationship holds to - the truth , to understanding , and then when it ends , how out memory changes the relationship . Enter in the concept that makes ' Eternal Sunshine ' something of a un-official science fiction film - the Lacuna corporation , led by Tom Wilkinson's character , can erase just one person out of your memory , all of the experiences that you and the significant other had . So , when Joel ( Jim Carrey ) goes in to erase his memory of Clementine ( Kate Winslet ) after finding out she did just the same , he enters into a mind-warp . He goes through memories they had , happy ones , sad ones , some that are just what makes up what you have emotionally with the one you've loved . And sometimes , and to the behest of the assistants of Lacuna ( Kirsten Dunst , Elijah Wood , Mark Ruffalo ) , Joel doesn't want them all to be erased . As I mentioned , the plot is non-linear , which could've gone the wrong way if not done with skill . With a film like 21 Grams , which has a talented director and cast , the non-linear structure isn't necessary . But it's an asset that the story doesn't start from A to Z . To assist Gondry with this , he has the extraordinary Ellen Kuras as DP and Valdís Óskarsdóttir , an editor from Iceland . Their collaboration is crucial with Gondry and Kaufman ( and co-writer Pierre Bismuth ) , as they bring all of these un-real images a real quality . Quite simply , there isn't a finer example of surrealism crossbred with realism in any other American film so far this year . The usage of lights , cuts , and with the kinds of special effects not expected ( i . e . no CGI ) , add to the effect it has on a viewer . That the characters of Joel and Clementine are as enveloping as they are is also a credit to Kaufman . But then there's one more part that completes the success of the film - the acting . Jim Carrey , very simply , is at his very best . He finds a balance from certain scenes in being like people we see everyday , feeling low , not much of interest , inward . And then when the memory erases begin , we get to see him act funny , but not like the kind of humor he brought with Ace Ventura or Dumb and Dumber . This is Carrey knowing this character just well enough to play off his counterpart , played by Winslet . She , meanwhile , is perhaps at her best . Her character is eccentric , funny , insightful , and wanting . She pulls it off . As do the supporting actors . There's not much more I can say about this film , except to say that even after seeing it three times , I feel like I could watch it over and over and see a new shot , a new sequence , and new set of emotions tied to things . It's very likely one of the great romantic comedies of the decade . |
508,083 | 453,068 | 112,641 | 10 | One of the Best films of 1995 | Casino shows that even with a re-visited GoodFellas ( in Las Vegas ) can still be well done when a Duo suck as Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi does it right . With great performances by 3 time teamed up Robert De Niro and Joe pesci and also by Sharon Stone , this film is for people who are fans of mob films , Scorsese fans , or just plain old movie buffs . |
508,958 | 453,068 | 87,843 | 10 | A sprawling , deliberately paced , and generally a superbly crafted piece of work | It's been said that when one watches a " spaghetti " western ( one of the " Man with no name " films with Clint Eastwood ) filmmaker Sergio Leone's trademark cinema style and flair for clear storytelling is instantly recognizable . This is no truer than in his most ambitious effort , Once Upon a Time in America , in which his usage of close-ups , concise camera movement , sound transitions and syncs , and the sudden change in some scenes from tenderness to violence . And , he pulls it off without making the viewer feel dis-interested . Of course , it's hard to feel that way when watching the cast he has put together ; even the child actors ( one of which a young Jennifer Connelly as the young Deborah ) are believable . Robert De Niro projects his subtitles like a pro , with his occasional outburst in the right place ; James Woods gives one of his first great performances as Max ; Elizabeth McGovern is the heart of the film ; and Joe Pesci should've had more than just a one scene appearance , thought it's still good . It's a story of life-long friends , in the tradition of the Godfather movies with obvious differences , and the story cuts back and forth to Noodles ( De Niro ) in his old age returning from exile , looking back on his childhood in Brooklyn , his rise to power with his partners , and the twists come quite unexpectedly . The pace is slow , but not detrimental , and it gives the viewer time to let the emotions sink in . The story is also non-linear , and yet doesn't give away facts to the viewer - this is something that more than likely influenced Tarantino ( and many others ) in style . By the end , every detail that has mounted up makes the whole experience rather fulfilling , if not perfect . Finally , I'd like to point out the exceptional musical score . Ennio Morricone , as it says on this site , has scored over four hundred films in forty years , including Leone's movies . This would have to be , arguably , one of his ten best works - his score is equally lively , saddened , intense , and perhaps majestic for a gangster epic . Overall , it's filled with the same spirit Leone had in directing the picture , and it corresponds beautifully - there are some scenes in this film that would simply not work without the strings . |
509,771 | 453,068 | 854,678 | 10 | inspires the righteous outrage every American ( or just anyone period ) should have about torture " policies " | Taxi to the Dark Side accomplishes what a documentary , or just a concise analysis , regarding all of the facts in one of the many nightmares the United States ' involvement in the middle east should : to inspire the utmost disgust and condemnation of a system that has become as corrupt as it has ( or rather always has been with this bunch ) . It's uncontainable to think how all of this started , grew exponentially , and resulted ultimately in the horrors at Abu Gharyb and Guantanamo Bay , in that it is nestled in the twisted , criminal ( yes folks , criminal ) ' policies ' of the Bush administration . But Alex Gibney's approach isn't narrow-minded but multi-faceted : he's interested in what a complex , ugly organism torture has become , the psychological just as much as the physical , and he has a man at the center of it . Dilawar , an innocent taxi driver from a poor farm in Afghanistan , was swept up by three other Afghan soldiers and sent to Bagram prison , where along with other supposed terrorists or terrorist collaborators was tortured ( in his case especially in brutal fashion , as we learn in graphic description from those who participated first-hand ) , and died from the trauma . His death was a controversy , but not one that ever got the kind of attention it deserved ; until this documentary I never even heard of Dilawar or even much about Bagram prison . Yet it was at this prison , as well as the first biggie interrogation of the would-be 20th hijacker of the plane on to crash in Pennsylvania ( which , by false confession , led to an over-excited but false-rooted assumption that Al Quaeda had links to Baghdad ) , that led to Abu Gharyb , which revealed the horrors of soldiers in unyielding terror over their subjects but , more importantly , the virus that spread through the chain of command . Gibney's approach is approximate and expertly probing : it's not enough to just focus of Dilawar ( even as his story could make up a whole legitimate documentary alone ) , or on Abu Gharyb . As in his previous film , Enron : The Smartest Guys in the Room , it's essential to dissect this wretched beast from top to bottom , to see not simply the soldiers first-hand accounts , but straight from the horse's mouth the words from Cheney , Rumsfeld , Powell , and Bush himself . Because , in reality , there is something to feel sorry for with these soldiers . It can be argued , and not without just cause , that what the soldiers did at Bagram , Abu Gharyb , and to an extent even at GITMO , was wrong and rotten and they could have said no and so on and so forth . However , as with the ground war situation in Iraq , it's all about the chain of command , and the fact that no matter what the parties initially responsible are not held accountable for any of their actions . It's almost frightening to forget the amount of footage available with these men like Rumsfeld and Gonzalez and Cheney where they not only admit to being fine with torture tactics - and whether or not it's psychological torture or not is besides the point as ALL torture IS torture , albeit a facet that Gibney brilliantly chronicles in the history of the CIA to its ' logical ' extension in recent years - but set it up in legal wrangling so as to not get it any trouble for what they've done which is , of course , breaking Geneva conventions and whatnot . If I sound like I'm sounding bias with this , then you should leave this review right now . There is no bias when it comes to this issue ( or rather there SHOULD be no bias , as for a split second McCain showed until he relented recently that torture isn't as bad as he used to think ) . What one sees as the line between what is proper interrogation of a subject and outright abuse to get that " ticking time-bomb " is revealed by Kloogman from the FBI , who paraphrases how an interrogation would usually be done and lays it on the line that this form has actually had results - not pain and death or , at best , a bull court at GITMO where it's like a joke Kafka wouldn't write . Gibney presents all the information with the bluntness that's required , with testimony , footage from press conferences and commissions ( i . e . that cringe-inducing bit with Gonzalez where he has a horrible pause when trying to answer a simple question about whether or not to condone torture ) , and it's presented lucidly , edited for a cumulative effect and with the skill of a filmmaker in total trust with his subject ( s ) to take all of the pieces into a whole that shakes one to the core . And all of this would be powerful enough to make an impact , but with the recent explosion of news coverage on water-boarding - and that the CIA has admitted to torturing three subjects - Taxi to the Dark Side remains startlingly relevant . In fact , it's even more tragically relevant than last year's Sicko or even No End in Sight . From the tragedy of Dilawar to the tragedy of Abu Gharyb , which was like Salo turned into as shockingly real as could never be imaginable , the Bush administration has put the US into even more danger than ever before by resorting to the lowest form of humanity , condoning acts to the soldiers that sixty years ago would never be committed in the harshest of circumstances on our side . This , again , isn't some silly bias , this is just fact . It's enough to make one sick to one's stomach , and as long as a film such as this exists , the pain can't be brushed aside or dulled by diverting network news . |
510,037 | 453,068 | 70,644 | 10 | One of Bergman's most interesting works as a director and one of Ullman / Josephson's very best | Scenes from a Marriage ( the TV version , even as the theatrical cut is still very good and worth the time if the only copy available ) is an intimate , naturalistic portrait of a couple , who at first are seemingly happy , then aren't , then try and find out where they go wrong . It's involving drama at its nexus , and for those who love the theater it's an absolute must see ( aside from the theme , no music , all talk ) . Johan and Marianne are two of Bergman's most interesting , true characters ( among his countless others ) that he's ever presented , and like many other film artists , you can tell he's lived through at least some if not most of the emotions and trials these characters have been through . Along with several supporting characters , two of the more notable ones played by Bibi Andersson and Malmjso are a perfect contrast in the first episode of the series . The conflicts that are established throughout the series never pay-off in a mis-fire . Craft-wise there is almost no style except for the minimal lighting by the great Sven Nykvist . And the dialog that goes on between the two leads goes from amusing to tragic , from romantic to bleak , and with all the emotions that I ( as one who's never been married ) can only guess can be as so . Bergman's script would be just that , a poignant , very profound lot of bits between two people more or less on paper , if not for Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson . They turn on the emotions intuitively , like they've been these people somewhere else at some other time . Or rather , the husband and wife don't have very complicated jobs or economic situation , but the problems lie on the emotional plane , and the intellect they try to put to it . Johan loves another woman , how does that affect Marianne ? Marianne asks for a divorce , how does that affect Johan ? What will they do to cope ? These are questions Bergman poses for his actors , among plenty of others , and they pull off the emotional cues off of each other like the most wonderful theatrical pros . It's hard to find anything wrong with their acting , cause they don't over-do it ( unless you're not into Marianne's changes in feeling in some scenes , which could be understandable ) , and the bottom line is that despite it being in Europe thirty years ago , it's highly possible these people could be in your house , or in your neighbor's house . Ullmann's Marianne is the 180 of her character from Persona , who could only let out emotions once or twice , mostly as an observer . Josephson's Johan is complex behind is usually sarcastic and simple demeanor - what drives him to do what he does in episode three , or in four ? What will the conclusion lead to ? Bergman creates a drama that is never boring , never diluted , and asks us to search for ideas about love and relationships we sometimes try and push away . It's a superb , concise treatise about the nature of falling in and out of love , how to differentiate what love is , and essentially what a marriage is . I can't wait to see the sequel , Saraband , which is Bergman's ( definite ) last film . |
508,479 | 453,068 | 61,395 | 10 | One of Bunuel's more well-known works ; an interesting morality story with Deneuve | Luis Bunuel , notorious for his use of simple , striking , yet un-cannily affecting surrealism in movies , keeps it down to a lower ( yet still imaginative ) key for Belle Du Jour . This works though because un-like a film like Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie where surrealism was like another character amidst the other character's dreams and nightmares , this one only keeps in surrealism for the sake of the lead character's inner demons poking up through the every-day malaise . This lead , Severine , is played in one of Catherine Deneuve's key career performances , that finds that two-sided-ness she feels while married to her husband Pierre . She loves him , but there's something that she's not getting out of the marriage that's leaving her empty , aimless , and her fantasies - however in the realm of ( dark ) fantasy - go to show she needs to do something during the day . She then finds out about a high-class brothel with only a couple of workers already employed . At first reluctant , she gives in to her temptations , serving the odder types of Paris looking for a good time , with one of them , Marcel ( Pierre Clementi ) falling head over heels for her . What seemed most intriguing about the film was how Bunuel dealt with the themes - the two crucial ones being morality and sexuality . His imagery is direct , maybe too direct , but it gets its points across with a realism that is alluring and far & away ( almost like a satire of such a life ) . She can't stop what she's started , and she doesn't really know how to end it unless she gets caught . Then with the sexuality , it's never over-emphasized ( i . e . no nudity , outside of a quick couple of shots of nudity ) , and no one is shown having sex on screen . What comes out is the emotional tally of Severine , the other girls , and the supporting characters that come in and out of the brothel . It may seem dated at moments , and the observatory notes go to making the film seem a tad longer than it is . But never-the-less , Belle de Jour is a worthwhile , memorable effort of the 1960's cinema . And , at times , it's quite funny . |
510,843 | 453,068 | 1,017,495 | 10 | one of the funniest new shows on prime-time ; it's charming and witty , and with enough ' quirk ' in dialog and style | Barry Sonnenfeld was the right director to helm the opening of Pushing Daisies , an original mystery / comedy yarn about a pie-maker named Ned ( Lee Pace ) who can bring a person back to life with a touch , but there's a catch , more than one , in scheme of things . It's also about a childhood friendship that went awry , and the mending of it years later as he redeems himself ( albeit , sadly , without the " emotional Heimlich maneuvers " let alone a kiss between the two , the girl ' Chuck ' played by Anna Friel ) . It's just the perfect kind of light and frothy texture , with visually vibrant exteriors and sets and production design ( the opening field reminds one of the field that Van Gogh painted once , to get all artsy ) . But at the same time it has a kind of stinging wit to it at times , where the actors know how silly this all is , but play it straight . It's not laugh-a-minute ala the Office or cynical like House , but it's got a ring to it that's just there . The " Umph " people talk about with certain projects is here right off the bat . Aside from the chemistry the stars have ( i . e . in the scene talking about the euphemism for hugs ) , as well as funny supporting work ( Chi McBride , who's always good for a ' what the hell ' look without straining himself , and Kristin Chenowith who's adorably odd ) , it's strangely fable-like even as it has its feet set firmly in the ground of the 21st century . And at the same time there's a structure set up to it : there will be crimes solved each week , as the dead ( hopefully in one minute's time ) will give their input on a certain huge decision in their lives , the end of such . It plays freely with the unexpected while set in a near storybook narrative ( Jim Dale's narrator veers into this being like some bedtime story spiked with existential mania ) . Now , it won't be for everyone ; it almost veers into being showy with its dialog , with the wit put on and on and the incidents so bizarre in their comedy ( i . e . ' there's a truck on fire , run gravediggers , come on out of that coffin honey ' ) . It's concept , to be sure , needs a big suspension of disbelief . Yet Pushing Daisies is one thing most network TV shows aren't : fresh in irony , strong in character , and extremely , unexpectedly funny . It also helps that , for a TV show , it's got terrific direction and visual POP to it . Can't wait for more episodes ! |
510,819 | 453,068 | 52,311 | 10 | the classic , deluxe film-noir by Orson Welles | Orson Welle's Touch of Evil is so good a film that I would probably place it right behind Citizen Kane ( or , at least , on par with the Trial ) . He brings to the screen a distinct sensibility to what would be just otherwise B-movie pulp entertainment . It is just that , entertaining , but it's one of the rare moments in film-noir that you can truly lose yourself in the camera-work ( that opening shot , or really shots , is a landmark ) , the moments of montage , and some of the surprise performances . It's a mesmerizing film of mystery , suspense , and a Mexican Chuck Heston . Here , Welles plays Hank Quinlan , a sleazy cop who gets tangled up with a narc ( Heston ) and his wife ( Janet Leigh ) in a small border town . Not a bit over-done with its grit and panache , with great make-up on an already heavy Welles . Russell Metty gives some of the best cinematography ever . It is , simply , one of the definitive film-noirs ( just as long as you stay away from the 96 minute version , which is akin to bad milk , and go for the original director's cut which is 112 minutes and is close to gold ) . |
509,583 | 453,068 | 30,341 | 10 | A merry-go-round of a Hitchcock mystery , bordering brilliantly on a yarn | Alfred Hitchcock's 2nd to last British based film in the thirties is this classic little tale of a little old lady ( played in such sweetness by Dame May Whitty ) who disapears on a train . What makes this such an interesting story to unfold in the Hitchcok tradition is that is starts off as almost a comedy of manners . Margaret Lockwood , staying in an inn , is disturbed by an odd music playing and a clumping from her ceiling . Above her the manager finds clarinet player Michael Redgrave playing to a trio dancing around in a circle . Seeing this I laughed out loud , not remembering until the first murder that I was about to see a good old Hitchcokian story unfold . Possibly one of his best mysteries , this is a pleasure for his fans to behold . |
509,063 | 453,068 | 83,946 | 10 | the most operatic documentary-style epic ever made - fearlessly unique | The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald , aka Fitzcarraldo , is as much the story of his magnanimous pie in the sky ideal to push a boat over a mountain as it is Werner Herzog's own mission to film it . More than a mission - as anyone who saw Burden of Dreams can report - an obsession that might cost a few lives , a good deal of money , and bring a lot of strange first-hand looks at the lives and mind-sets of the natives , but will still bring the greatest of wonders if it gets pulled off . The boat over the mountain is part metaphor , anyway , though not one that's easily pegged into a corner . Achieving something against the odds is something that has been covered in many great films , a quest through man's indelible need to make the impossible possible , be it in a David Lean picture ala Lawrence of Arabia , or in one of Cecil B . DeMille's pictures ( and , at times , I wondered if the spirit of one of those old time epic filmmakers came into his mind , if only in bits ) . All the while as Herzog is out to map the course of this man who just wants the purity of opera in the jungle , but through a style that is completely all his own , which means that it's not just about one man , but also about the ones around him , the methods to following such delusions of grandeur . Like Aguirre , there's a God complex working in Fitzcarraldo , only this time it's not in the total shroud of madness . There's room for irony , spouts of wild humor ( sometimes from Kinski , like when he tries to play an opera record for disinterested party-goers early on in the film ) , and an overwhelming fascination with what's all around Fitzcarraldo , the jungle , nature , the natives that dwell there and always stick to their indeterminable ways . Watching how Herzog maneuvers through his bulky story is ceaselessly compelling , even in the moments where he just lets the camera take everything in : the waves crashing all around , the boat set against the jungle-scape with the opera singer Caruso in the background , the many faces and poses of the natives and their moments of pure calm versus their unpredictable nature ( why do they put on face paint like they're about to go to war , and then nothing happens , don't ask me ) . And like in many of his best films , Herzog manages to get much more out of his actors / non-actors and his locations than it might have seemed on paper . Poetry gets set into motion with seemingly the greatest of ease , like a scene where a few natives on a small canoe look on , and Fitzcarraldo thinks about stopping , but they just go on as it's not even worth it , or when he and his first-mate and couple other regulars on the ship try to eat , only surrounded by the natives . Or the shocking moments when after victory seems to be achieved , all is in peril as the boat flaps about on the river and the recording still goes on and on , haunting as anything the jungle can compare to . Indeed , the jungle itself becomes another key part of Herzog's metaphor , even more so than in Aguirre , and it's perfectly exploited ( or rendered , depending on point of view ) for Herzog's own feelings about the jungle . It's an environment dangerous , alluring , and with the capacity to fear its awesome mass as well as beauty ( or , as Herzog said in ' Burden ' , it's lovable against better judgment ) , so it's not all taken in at a distance - there isn't so much a real sense of escapism via the hand-held shots unlike in the epics of the directors previously mentioned . Fitcarraldo's own quest then is against nature's own ways - nature is objective and always the same - as the simple notion of moving the boat , and then doing it , goes against nature's true nature , if that makes sense . In this sense it's a great film of the objective , to which Herzog goes to lengths to capture , and the fantastical and subjective , which comes through the operatic portions , and not be bound by nature's usual ways and common sense . Thus it makes perfect sense as well to have Kinski along for the ride , even if it's not his greatest achievement with his most frequent director . It's all in the eyes , practically every step of the way , that one believes this man even through all of the follies and naive flights of fancy , and it's the closest Kinski probably ever came to playing the romantic lead of an adventure picture . Some of the usual scenes of ' damn he's nuts ' come up , like his ringing of the town bell . It's another in the line of outcasts he played in Herzog's films , tormented and always in craving for something more , though this time not in a bleak manner . There is the problem that Kinski's presence would be undermined by the many " adequate " images Herzog loves to achieve . Luckily , he stands his ground , and even contributes to the poetry in times of just listening to the Caruso , and gazing on at his dream coming true on the mountainside . Fitzcarraldo isn't perfect by any means , as it ends up by way of the nature of Herzog's storytelling to almost tell of too much in his scenes . And the English language track I heard sometimes dilutes a few of the performances by feeling too dubbed and a little ridiculous in some instances . But these are just tiny mentions that get overlooked when looking at the success of what is done . Only a director as intelligently deranged and confident as Herzog could have dreamed up this film ( based on a true character ) and make it as real and alive as the greatest of epic adventures . |
508,034 | 453,068 | 108,755 | 10 | Smarmy , cynical , satirical - truly a cult of a cartoon comedy show | Duckman was a show that used to be on during the last hour or so before it was time to sleep about ten or so years ago . It was a contrast to a lot of the kid-type of animation I was watching at the time ; I was still a minor junkie for Disney and Looney Tunes stuff , and most Saturday morning cartoons were still on the run-off of the peak from the days of Ninja Turtles and Batman . But also around this time I began to recognize that the more raunchy , mature , surreal , obscene , and ( though I didn't know the term at the time ) satirical cartoon shows were more creative than the stuff I was used to . Around the time of Beavis and Butt-head , Ren and Stimpy , and even The Maxx were hitting TV sets via MTV , USA put out two shows - one of them was Weird Science , and the other was Duckman . I've always remembered a few key bits from the show , and some of the lines are very quotable to those who haven't forgotten it completely . Luckily , I found a tape recently with about six episodes I taped long ago , and the jokes stayed very fresh . And the delivery of the jokes are rapid-fire a lot of the time in the better episodes . In the voice department , the choices in talent are top notch for the story-lines , which are usually just an excuse for crude , fascinating parodies of pop-culture , politics , movies and TV shows , music , detective mysteries , and the dysfunctional family unit . Jason Alexander is a wonderful choice for Duckman , and his performance is a comedic 180 from his days on Seinfeld ( even if there might be some similar characteristics here and there ) . Also , the voices of Gregg Berger as the unmistakably monotoned and deadpan Cornfed , Dweezil Zappa as the hilariously inept Ajax , and Nancy Travis as the sex-starved , obnoxious Sister-in-Law Bernice , all contribute in a full amount . Along with some great writing - even when a joke isn't sure-fire , the wit behind it compensates - the animation style , while a far cry from some of the refurbished , computer-enhanced product of today , is inventive and often abstract . It has that home-made , gritty quality that Beavis and Butt-head or South Park would later have . And , like those shows , if you're a little kid , I mean little as in younger than I was watching the show , you may not understand most of the jokes ( i . e . there are enough stripper and VD references to fill two shows sometimes ) . But it's inventive to catch if it's on TV late at night , and it functions rather well in that time slot . One can only hope for a DVD box set . So , to no one who's barely or even never heard of this program , here's a general note : think of this show as if Dashiell Hammett met up with Walt Disney and decided to go to slum part of Vegas with a free mini-bar and make a collaboration in the vein of Luis Bunuel and The Simpsons combined . Not to mention , it's by the group that did Rugrats . ( strong ) |
509,987 | 453,068 | 412,019 | 10 | one of Jarmusch's ( and Murray's ) best | It would be hard for me to recommend this film to some people , even if as a particular film-goer as myself it kept me in my seat as it went by with its deliberate ( or slow as most would put it ) pace . For an actor like Bill Murray , this is a 180 turn from his classic comedy roles in Caddyshack and Ghostbusters ( both films I love for his style of quick witted , instantly quotable lines ) - this time , as I've read , he and writer / director Jim Jarmusch took the subtle , subdued approach of Buster Keaton , but done all Murray's way . He continues the sort of ' phase ' he's been in starting with Lost in Translation and going somewhat into The Life Acquatic - now his is reactions which make up the best parts , and the occasional zingers work well against the supporting cast . The reason one might consider Broken Flowers as Jarmusch's most ' mainstream ' film is because it is filmed a little more like one , very steady camera-work , and seeming a little more like a Hollywood type film with the cast ( Sharon Stone , Francis Conroy , Jessica Lange , Tilda Swinton , Chloe Sevigny , Jeffrey Wright among others ) . And the story seems like something one might find in a conventional romantic comedy - Murray plays Don Johnston ( not Johnson , as a running joke in the film ) , a fading Don Juan type who is very well off but also rather isolated with himself . Around the same time his current girlfriend leaves him , he finds a mysterious pink colored letter in a pink envelope . Wright , playing an amusing neighbor of Don's , sets him up to go on a search to find the long lost son the letter alludes to . He reluctantly goes on the search . What is interesting about a filmmaker like Jarmusch , with only a few others I can think of , is that his pace and style and way the film unfolds , my heartbeat never goes too fast or too slow with the rhythm , and it stays consistent . When the climax to the film comes , it's more contemplative than exciting . As Don visits the four women , who each give him something different to offer ( if not answering his questions for the ' mystery ' ) , the comedy kicks in , but as with the scenes with Wright's character Winston , it's not often ' laugh-out loud ' funny , but the wit is there . Some of it is surprising ( the daughter character , Lolita , brings a big laugh ) , and just strange ( Lange's job as an ' animal communicator ' ) , but it's often not so much about hitting for big punches as for more realistic ones . We get long ( some might say too long ) breaks as Don drives in his car , and then something more comes along . For me , at least , it was rather compelling in a minimalist way , which is what Jarmusch is a master of . Some have said that the ending was unfulfilled , that it didn't serve a purpose and left the film with unanswered questions . I found the ending to really be even more fulfilling , perhaps on an existential or some kind of unspeakable level , than something that would typically be cooked up in Hollywood . As Murray stand in the street , the camera moving around him and stopping on him , it had me thinking and finally feeling some emotional attachment to Don . Early in the film , he's almost too subdued , and has an upper-middle class status that brings a detachment like with a lead in an Antonioni film . He says he's content with being on his own doing whatever , but by the end he has come full circle . Murray plays these last couple of scenes wonderfully , bringing one to see that the film is not about the usual solving of a mystery of ' who is my son ' . It's about searching , and finding a connectedness to people . This , again , may sound off-putting to people who just want to be simply entertained , and it may be boring & / or pretentious to the core mainstream fans of Murray . But his performance , and Jarmusch's direction , makes its best way in a realm of its own , taking a simple premise and giving it an original take , and substance , and a specific rhythm . In other words , Jarmusch fans need not be frightened that it looks less ' artsy ' than a film like Dead Man or Mystery Train , and for those who loved Murray's work in Lost in Translation will find a similar wavelength to cling to . |
509,603 | 453,068 | 21,749 | 10 | Lady and the Tramp , before animation and at the start of talkies - one of the most wonderful films ever conceived and executed | If there is one Charlie Chaplin film to recommend , as others have pointed to in the past , City Lights is the one . Though Chaplin played his Tramp character superbly in other movies , like Modern Times and The Gold Rush , City Lights displays the Tramp at his funniest , his bravest , his most romantic , and his most sympathetic . It's tough for filmmakers in recent days to bring the audience so close emotionally with the characters , but it's pulled off . The film centers on three characters - the Tramp , the quintessential , funny homeless man who blends into the crowd , but gets caught in predicaments . He helps a drunken businessman ( Myers , a fine performance in his own right ) from suicide , and becomes his on and off again friend ( that is , when it suits him and doesn't notice his ' friend's ' state ) . The other person in the Tramp's life is the Blind Flower Girl ( Virginia Cherrill , one of the most absorbing , beautiful , and key female performances in silent film ) , who are quite fond of each other despite the lack of total perception . The emotional centerpiece comes in obtaining rent and eye surgery money , which leads to a ( how else can I put it ) magical boxing match where it's basically a 180 from the brutality and viscerality of a match in say Raging Bull . Though there is no dialog , the film achieves a timelessness - it's essentially a tale of two loners who find each other , lose each other , and find each other again ( the last scene , widely discussed by critics for decades , is moving if not tear-inducing ) . And it's never , ever boring - once you get along with the Tramp , you find the little things about him , the reaction shots , the little things he does after the usual big gag ( look to the ballroom scene for examples of this , or when he gets a bottle of wine poured down his pants without the other guy noticing ) . Truth be told , if this film makes you indifferent , never watch Chaplin again . But if you give yourself to the film , you may find it's one of the most charming from the era , or perhaps any era . |
510,031 | 453,068 | 1,157,605 | 10 | documentary and metal fans rejoice ! | Anvil : The Story of Anvil has got those absurd moments ala Spinal Tap , to be sure . Indeed at one point when the camera follows the band walking down a hallway about to go on stage I put a hand over my eyes thinking they were about to get lost . But it's also got the heart and some similarity to The Wrestler . This is a film that has a bittersweet tattoo on its hands , mostly bitter , a bit of sweet , and a whole lot of optimism with the chaser of stress and the very upfront possibility of failure . There's such a connection to these people that what was uproarious in Spinal Tap carries a whole other dimension . Anvil is the hardest working metal band that hasn't caught a break in years , but they play and play their heart and soul out for all it's worth even when nobody ( or five people in a 10 , 000 seat arena ) shows up . They've got big balls , maybe the biggest of them all , but can they get that record break even in their Canadian homeland ? At the same time that the lead singer Lips carries that determination and optimism , now in his 50's and playing in Anvil for over 30 years , there are some moments where he just breaks down . We see real hardcore screaming matches between himself and his friend Robb Reiner ( not that Reiner , oddly enough director of ' Tap ' ) , and it's not like what one saw in 2004's Some Kind of Monster where we saw a group of millionaires whining in argument over recording an album and going into group therapy . This is about real stakes , of friendship and what it means to stick together in something that may be a failure for the most part . It's so real and raw in presentation that you are on the edge of your seat wondering " can this be the end ? " The film follows Anvil , half with original members and half with new ones , as they first go on tour in Europe ( while on vacation from their actual pay jobs , which include for Lips driving grocery supplies - again , a supermarket job ala Randy The Ram Robinson and breaking concrete for Reiner ) , and after the initial high of going on tour in Metal havens like Sweden find that their manager is misguided and without proper English and they barely get paid for gigs they actually play . Then when they get back it sets in that they don't really play anywhere and are deteriorating away - until the initiative comes to Legs that an album must be made , and their only real big-time major produced record , produced by the guy behind many of Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy's records , tries to get them to do it . But there's money problems . There's internal strife . There's getting the record actually distributed . There's getting gigs . In scenes that are both weirdly , awkwardly funny and as sad as a burning orphan we see Lips on camera talking about how much this new record will be great even if it doesn't sell much at all , or how they've stuck together through thick and thin . If you never met the man you might think the band is a joke , but the brilliance of the filmmaker behind it - big-time Anvil fan Sascha Gervasi - is to get us as close to these people , with real families that have mixed feelings about their husband's or son's or brother's career choices ( or lack thereof ) as honestly as possible . There's even a couple of moments where mortality and longevity are given immediacy and depth , so much so I could only think of last year's Young @ Heart at topping it . Aside from it being gripping documentary work and a fine , dark and often slyly funny look at the triumph of the spirit of these guys ( we even get as the finale , as with Tap , a big quasi-comeback concert in Japan , only here with the potential to bring some in the audience to tears ) , it's a sensational metal movie . These guys are legends to other guys like Slash and Lemmy and Lars Ulrich for a reason - they are that greatest - metal - band - you - never - heard of , loaded with energy and craziness ( one of Lips trademarks was using a dildo to play his guitar on stage ) and the verve that at the least gets attention . If you're at all a metal fan or admirer and don't know them before seeing it , as was the case with myself , you'll want to track down their albums and see what they got to offer . They got the right stuff , and the movie is a testament to their gifts at being a fantastic " old-school " metal band and being the sort of tenacious human beings that get people rooting for them every step of the way . As the line goes from the Wrestler : the only place I get hurt is " out there " ( points to outside world ) . |
510,248 | 453,068 | 83,907 | 10 | The only horror movie , make that movie period , you will ever see a possessed tree limb act as a dildo . | While that first line might be a bit of a stretch , it gives a bit of mind about what to expect from Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead , a horror movie so vulgar , so gorish , so unexplicably twisted , that it's incredibly ingenuous until the last shot . Even for a low budget film noticably shot practically on a shoe string from a corpse , it's balsy . The story starts off , and in times steers towards , the area of horror cliches , and yet by the time ( s ) we see the demonic characters , and the blood that goes along with it , it's accepted with the territory . The Evil Dead is to me one of those horror pictures like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or or Night of the Living Dead that goes to show that within the muck of endless B horror films that those with little money to spend can concoct something that shows craft ( and good old chills ) triumphs over money every now and then . And if you happen to view this as a comedy , it goes for laughs in certain spots as well , albiet twisted to a crazed T . |
508,885 | 453,068 | 533,466 | 10 | definitely one of the high points from the series ; even better live ! | I'll be honest , I don't watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer regularly - not now or even really much when it was on more in syndication and in its original run - but I did watch it casually sometimes with friends , and did enjoy the occasionally corny fights and angsty teen drama thrown in ( plus , Anthony Stewart Head is quite the cool mentor ) . I had never seen this episode either , but had heard a lot about it from my girlfriend who is a much greater fan of the series than I . An incentive finally came to watch the episode here , where it's all practically singing and dancing with all of the usual characters coming into the swing of things ( by way of a spell of course ) , as the episode is now presented under the ' Buffy Sing-along ' in certain theaters across the country ( if it's not near your city or town , it might be soon , it just left NYC ) . I was expecting a jovial enough time with the audience participation , but nothing great . Needless to say I'm writing this comment mostly to covey how immensely entertained I was by the whole shebang . Joss Whedon , who wrote and directed the episode , alongside his musical collaborators , really ' get ' how to make the wonderful contrivances of musicals fitting for their own types in their show , and it's a feast for fans and still provides many great , up-beat , catchy , and funny songs all the way through . It also helps that the cast in this case is a knockout more often than not , even with Sarah Michelle Gellar not as the greatest singer out there ( she had to take singing lessons to prepare for the episode apparently ) . It would be hard for me to explain to much to such casual watchers of the show like myself , but if you know all the continuity of season five and six then it's no problem . Basically , a spell is cast somehow , and everyone breaks into songs and sometimes dances too , and moreover it brings out the emotions that the characters have been hiding ( i . e . Spike's love for Buffy , Giles reluctance with certain matters , Willow's own love - which is rather graphic when you put the lyrics into total context ) , and also conjures up some demons who have a leader who will make the spell-caster a Queen . The revelation of this , of course , is just another of the jokes . While I'm sure I would've still had a good time watching the episode at home , it's recommended to try and catch the live show just as much . The episode gives so much for an audience to chew up and have fun with , especially late at night ala Rocky Horror , and it makes for grand silliness even when things seem darkest in the storyline and psychologies . The music , meanwhile , is keen and tight and rhythmic without being corny ( I loved the Spike song , and even the power ballad from Giles was fun , plus the demon song & dance ) , and the lyrics strike up enough wit for three episodes . The dialog from Whedon is also top notch ( i . e . " So , Dawn's in trouble . . . must be Tuesday " ) . And the whole time , when I wasn't laughing from the totally unexpected bits and complete adherence to cheerful whimsy , I had a big stupid smile on my face ( if you see it live , by the way , feel more than free to sing-along with everyone else ) . While I wouldn't discredit that it has merit alongside the rest of the season , as a stand-alone episode it takes the cake , and even could compare with the likes of Singin in the Rain as a truly happiest musical time . |
509,555 | 453,068 | 77,914 | 10 | A dark family drama in the guise of a typical Romero horror-fest ; one of his best as writer / director | One of the two horror film sleepers of 1977 were not necessarily definable under the usual typecasts of the genre : David Lynch's Eraserhead , which drew itself more to a kind of surreal horror from paintings and animation ; and this film , George A . Romero's Martin , where the horror is not what is usually expected from the director . Indeed , before I saw this film I generally related Romero to the status of a horror-film maverick , where he brings out much of the violence and tension in his films that we as the audience wouldn't get on TV . His subversion's of the genre , however , can be sensed in his zombie satires , as he makes his characters and situations , for the most part , far more believable aside from the dark fantasy / graphic comic-book quality of the designs and look of the films . There's something to think about with his films , even as flesh and blood get tossed about . But this time , for Martin , he made a story that deals with the human relationships even more so than the creepy and supernatural elements of his other works . Martin is a vampire movie , and there are some key scenes that deliver the good for the fans ( and , again , going against expectations , as if Romero was a " new-wave " filmmaker from Europe ) , but also giving something for people who may not be expecting depth in the themes and situations with these people . The main characters of the film , aside from the protagonist Martin ( a twisted and very confused protagonist at that ) , are all developed very well , and aren't necessarily one-sided or even two-sided portraits of caricatures in other vampire movies . For example , the sort of ' Van Helsing ' character in this film is in the form of Martin's uncle Tada Cuda , played by Lincoln Maazel . He's the only one that knows , and is terrified of , Martin's secret life , and upon first bringing him into his home , Tada tries to use crosses and holy water on Martin . Martin can't be fooled , and so Tada resigns , for the moment . While Tada is the kind of typical , harsh old man that acts like something of an antagonist for him and Tada's daughter , he may not be entirely one-sided by the end of the film . The theme of Christianity , as shown in certain variables as the film cuts to black and white flashbacks , explores it in a very on-target way . Why do vampire movies have this kind of magical ability to wash everything with a cross and silver and garlic ? Martin seems to ask these same questions , when he calls up a radio show ( his only real output of his frustrations , though a media that still treats his despair as a joke ) . Martin himself , played in a peculiar , low-key way is John Amplas ( an actor who has his peak in this film , having only appeared in bit parts in other films , mostly Romero's ) . He is often observing , never sure what it is he'll say , and much to how his character is and evolves , has skills of a predator . He was perfect for the role , as he has a level of vulnerability and sincerity that can be connected to , while at the same time in a conflict about what to do with his craving for blood . That the other actors , all indie actors ( one of them , Christine , played by Romero's wife ) , are really quite good with the material , helps the feel and flow of the film . Some directors can't stand editing their own films ( John Ford once said he hated sitting in on it , as other have as well ) , and while they sit in with the editors and make notes , few actually go to the machines and do the work themselves . Romero is one of the few that seems to really enjoy the process , and has fun with it . In some ways his movement within the frame , and with the pacing of Martin's sense of reality and of the past , makes the film seem like it should almost belong in an art-house ( so to speak ) as opposed to at a midnight cult-horror theater . That's not to say he doesn't have it in him to give people their money's worth expecting to get the pants scared off their waists . In fact , there is one big sequence in the film ( where Martin stalks and attacks , needle in hand , a married woman who's having an affair ) that is one of Romero's most suspenseful and unusual . Not to mention there is an ending that wraps everything up rather terrifyingly - one knows something like this would be coming , but not from this direction . Simply this , Martin is smarter for it's regularly intended audience out for simple thrills and cheesy characters - it's a drama that involves searching for companionship , the significance of religion on people , and trying to fit in to one side or another . And it's also a low-budget 70's horror film with a few scenes that hit more on a visceral level than on cheap effects ( not to say there aren't a couple , ho-ho ) . To put it another way , I viewed the film for the first time on a video released in the 80's . Now I'll be on the look-out for the DVD a . s . a . p . |
508,717 | 453,068 | 1,010,048 | 10 | one of Danny Boyle's best ! | When film can uplift someone emotionally by having two characters who should be together , ( mostly ) want to be together , and who are as the cliché goes " made " for each other , and it's done without false sentimentality ( different from sentiment , which Slumdog has in spades ) , it can be one of the best things in movies . Danny Boyle's film is one of those and , like another masterful take on romance from this year ( WALL-E ) , it utilizes cinematic style , urgent and sometimes feverish and joyfully passionate turns with the camera and editing , to take us to incredible heights . In fact , this is very much a Capra-esqe picture , but in a manner that doesn't insult today's intelligence or betray any of the characters ' genuine emotional components . Boyle plunges us into the story of Jamal ( Dev Patel , as older Jamal , in an outstanding breakthrough performance ) , who lives a young life in the slums of Mumbai and Bombay and other places , with only his older , mischievous brother Salim , and a girl named Latika . They're the " Three Musketeers " of the story , but they go through a series of circumstances and events that pulls them apart , brings them together , and tears them away once more via gangster connections with Salim and Latika's basic imprisonment under the mob or whoever's control . Like in any strong love story , we got to have someone to root for , and Jamal is one that makes us root for him so much along the way ( not least of which when he is in the midst of his nail-biter of a shot on " Who Wants to Be a Millionaire " ) because he is a good person , a genuine one , so much so there may be one or two scenes we might wonder if Latika is " good enough " for Jamal's overwhelming desire to be with her , to take her away from all the terrible elements of slum life . But ultimately , they're a as pure souls as are , in their own rotten way , the criminals , and even the ( eventually ) conflicted brother Salim . A lot happens that I could go on more about in Slumdog Millionaire , but it's moot to try and go into the big plot points or even some of the surprising twists . This is just absolute , crystal-clear terrific storytelling by a director who trusts his actors to find the ripe nuggets of truth with the characters - what makes them basic and honest or dishonest - when faced with the various clichés or conventions or a story like this . And on top of having a great cast , and having such a wonderful and varied taste in music ( some Indian , some not ) , and of a deft attention to the plot as it skips from back and forth from the interrogation of Jamal to childhood and back in little flashes , it's also as dazzlingly filmed and executed via cinematography as anything from Boyle's cannon . He's never one to lack appropriate style or to push the envelope just a little further to make his stories so absorbing ( Trainspotting and 28 Days Later come to mind as prime examples ) , but rarely has one seen so much attention to the raw power of the characters and the actors as in here . Even with Millions , also dealing with mostly child actors , Slumdog Millionaire gives Boyle a showcase for his talents as a provocateur with the camera , as a constant experimenter , while making sure we don't lose sight of those he's got in his sights . It's more than just appropriate to use such force as a filmmaker for such a tender and tragic / hopeful story , it's almost required . Boyle reaches up to that and then some : some of the shots in this movie are hard to lose out of your mind ( that sudden vision of the blue Hindu child during the massacre is one , but there are countless others ) , and I for one can't wait to revisit them again . |
510,527 | 453,068 | 83,922 | 10 | ( review of the 5-hour cut ) A total , un-abashed work of art that you'll love or hate . I loved it , and it's likely one of the great epics I'll ever see | As Ingmar Bergman's " swan song " ( which wasn't necessarily the case once After the Rehearsal and the recent Saraband were released ) , Fanny and Alexander was a film I saw many months ago , in its truncated , 3-hour version . I knew I had witnessed something special , something life-affirming , and above all a work that contained enough poetry , passion , and humanity for two movies . But I also felt as if there was something missing here and there . So , once the complete TV version was released , as with Scenes from a Marriage , I jumped at the opportunity to view it in its entirety . Broken up here into 5 Acts , Bergman takes another semi-autobiographical approach to his storytelling , and it's a sumptuous tale of a turn of the 20th Century family ( the Ekdahls , comprising of Oscar and Emilie , the parents , Fanny and Alexander , the kids - Alexander being mostly the driving force behind the story - and also the other relatives Carl and Gustov Adolf , brothers of Oscar , Helena , Alma , Lydia , and also the housemaid Maj ) who own a theater company . What makes Fanny and Alexander work as a major achievement , if anything else for my money is that all the elements seem balanced out over the acts , with story and characters , each sharply defined . The first act unfolds with attention to the little details and the more prevalent ones in a family gathering . A key speech made by Oscar is a haunting bit of foreshadowing before they set off for the family dinner . This scene , involving more or less two dozen people , is sometimes very funny , sometimes a little unnerving , and towards the end depressing . But scenes such as these reveal how wonderful and exciting Bergman can be with his material and actors - despite it taking place in 1907 , you can see these people in modern settings just as easily . There's also the scene involving Oscar with his children before they go to sleep , in which he tells them a story , which ranks as one of the more memorable , touching scenes of the film - from here , we can understand how this brings to Alexander ( Bertil Guve , in a performance that is touching by being so straightforward with the innocence of child-hood ) to the state he's in for much of the rest of the picture . Then the second and third acts come around , and the tragedy unfolds as penetrating as I've seen in any film , much less from Bergman . It wouldn't spoil it to say that Oscar succumbs to an illness , and passes away . From here , Emilie ( Ewa Fröling , a performance meant for Liv Ullman , which she fits just as well ) tries to go on as usual , and it just doesn't feel the same . She seeks counsel from the village bishop , Edvard Vergerus ( Jan Malmsjo , previously in Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage ) , and subsequently falls in love with him , or at least thinks she does . They get married , and the children are forced into leaving ( almost ) everything behind to live at his dreary , caged residence , a far cry from where they once lived , a place lush with colors and life in the rooms . Both of these assets are provided by an Oscar winning production design team , and the foundations of how these two , including as well the theater , display how period-perfect some of this can be . The last two acts are when things get rough , which is a standard Bergman is known for . This kind of standard , if I could call it such , includes his personal connection to the Christian church , in particular with his father being a Lutheran priest . I'm not guessing on how fact based Bishop Vergerus is to Bergman's life , and I really don't want to either . One of the things I loved about the film ( than some likely hated on it's original release - I know , for example , that my father was devastated after watching this film ) is how the good and the bad , or what could be seen as good and bad , are paired off , and how the middle-ground is just as clear or un-clear . Emilie is a good person , wanting the best for her children and for herself , but she doesn't know how to do that without someone to bring guidance when she cannot after grieving for her dead husband ( who appears sometimes to Alexander , which is another matter ) . Alexander , who is a child raised with all the enthusiasm to express himself as such by his uncles and particularly his theatrical father Oscar , is good but lending himself to not being too firm on what's real and what is not . The Bishop , on the other hand , is one who , as he says at one point " has only one mask " . His is a puritanical approach , who sees imagination in only one strict aspect , and has terms of love that are by his code of living and understanding of people . Veregus , along with his family that live in fear and suffering ( Harriet Andersson's character , and with the character of the heavy , ill aunt ) , know little is anything about how the Ekdahls have lived . What ends up happening , even from the get-go of the third act , in the fourth and fifth acts Bergman reveals Bishop Veregus to be an immense antagonist , one that allows just enough sympathy in one or two spots to not throw something at the TV , but with the kind of language that only the most terrifying of movie characters possess . Bottom line , this character , whether you like the film or not , is one of Bergman's greatest creations , and is pulled off by Malmjso with icy , disturbing perfection ; it's one of the most memorable of the kind in film I can think of , right up there with Nurse Ratched , HAL 9000 , and Darth Vader . But what torment and anguish the characters , as well as much of the audience , seem to endure in the fourth / fifth acts ; there also comes revelatory moments of sheer beauty and enchantment . A couple of scenes involving Alexander in the puppet shop , for example , display a level of artistry that goes between Bunuel and Disney . And a particular , long soliloquy by Isak ( Erland Josephsson , not under-used at all ) to the children is a poem unto itself that gives me an idea that Bergman had he not gone into theater and film , would've been one of the great poets of the 20th century . As the catharsis comes , it comes with a kind of justice that works in the only way it satisfyingly could have . With the fates of the Bishop , Emilie , and Alexander and Fanny brought to a close , as with the Grandmother , the uncles and aunts , and so on , it's all very symbolic , metaphorical , and real , and it gels together . One last note - Sven Nykvist , who one his second Oscar with Bergman for this film , creates the kinds of shots that some could only have in their dreams . When he visualizes something for Bergman with the forces of light and dark , with the subtlety and nuance , it's all the better . To put this all in another way , I could go on and on about this huge , heart-rendering work , but it all comes down to this - as an emotional , intellectual , and spiritual ( surprisingly for me , who sees religion as a kind of fantasy ) sort of film-viewing experience , Fanny and Alexander is one of the most profound I've ever had . Some may feel the same ; some may want to forget they ever experienced it . But one thing the film does is stick with you , if only for a little while , and that's really what a film can and should do . . . . by the way , the 5-hour version , at least in America , is only available on a high-priced special edition DVD pack from Criterion , but for the viewer who's already a fan of the film , it makes for a great holiday gift . |
510,114 | 453,068 | 56,663 | 10 | Godard has a great piece of Parisian character-fiction | ( minor spoilers ahead ) I've started to get a little more used to Godard , and now by My Life to Live I know I can expect anything from him , though it's sometimes a style that he presents frankly , stylishly , or in an experimentally real approach . Along with his masterful cinematographer Raoul Coutard , the mis en scene he creates in each episode is equally satisfying . And there is a terrific balance in how the camera may just stay for minutes at a time on a character before moving and how the camera may show off ( impressively ) for the viewer . For example , there's a moment when Nana ( played by Godard's wife Anna Karina ) is a café , and gun shots are heard outside , the camera seems to cut - or move - to the sounds and beats of shots being fired , tracking like this all the way across the bar to the window . It was stunning to see that being done , not just for the sake of the scene's twist to intensity , but it perfectly skims the line of stage-ness and reality - if you were positioned in that café , how would you see things as your head turns to look to the street ? Godard raises and answers some film-making questions that pay off in the best new-wave type fashion . His dialog , too , is fascinating , and a philosophical discussion between two characters gives me an indication as to what might have inspired Richard Linklater , perhaps . Then there's Anna Karina as Nana , a woman who leaves her husband and child ( you have to listen sharp to note when the child's mentioned ) and gets kicked out of her home by the concierge . She has a job in a record store , but doesn't keep it , wanders the streets , sees a movie ( very emotionally touching scene ) , and tries to get an acting job , or some money together . Then she gets drawn into , without an ounce of remorse , the prostitution ring-around , learning that there isn't nearly as much emphasis on lawbreaking in the business in Paris as there is with medical concerns . Karina , with a face , eyes , hair , and body that has a sweet level of ( distant ) attraction , plays Nana in a wonderful way - we get inklings that she can be happy ( dancing to music in a pool-hall is the highlight ) , though she's at best when she hides it under her demeanor . She smokes , she has a lot of sex , she has talks that sometimes don't go anywhere , but is the viewer ever let in to who she really is or what her motives are day to day ? This is a credit to her , as well as Godard , in creating this memorable figure in the early 60's New-wave of French cinema . Credit should also be given to Michael Legrand's theme ( though repetitive , has a sort of purpose for many scenes ) . |
510,061 | 453,068 | 52,330 | 10 | shows Tarkovsky's incredible control of direction for the most part ; surprisingly sharp Hemingway | Although I did like the 1946 adaptation of the Killers , I wasn't sure how a Russian , let alone someone who is usually much more into the visual prowess of things like Andrei Tarkovsky , would tackle Ernest Hemingway's brief , pulpy story of men on a mission and a man in hiding from those men . Turns out it's one of the best short films I've seen from a soon-to-be world renown European auteur , because of it's emphasis on the simplicity of suspense , of human action in desperate circumstances and how it's filmed with a mix of the noir style and with Tarkovsky's dependence on figures in curiously exciting compositions . He isn't alone on the film , however , as the middle scene at the apartment was directed by friend Alexander Gordon , with Tarkovsky directing the bigger chunks at the diner , and another guy Marika Beiku co-directing overall . Since the apartment scene is so short though , and accounts for just three shots , one being most elaborate as it goes in and out , tight and wide , on the morose Swede in hiding and his friend at the diner filling him in on what happened , it's mostly Tarkovsky's game here . Part of the skill , and curiosity , in how tense the long first scene at the diner is that music is completely absent , with the only tone coming from Tarkovsky himself as a whistling customer . Meanwhile , Tarkovsky uses Hemingway's dialog in a very realistic manner , even when he goes deliberate angles , like when George goes into the back with the sandwiches and we see his feet in the same tilted frame as an empty can on the floor , or with the usage of the mirror on the wall . There's also the suddenness of seeing a machine gun that strikes things up in the room , and just the general attitude of Al and Max , the hit men , as they keep calling George " bright boy " in a way that reminds me of the curious double-talk in a self-consciously bad-ass movie like Pulp Fiction ( not to mention the near casual usage of the ' N ' bomb ) . While it ends sort of on a screeching halt , the sense of ambiguity as to the fate of the Swede as well as everyone else in the diner who hid the secret is worthwhile for the material , as it's perfectly anti-climactic . It's not entirely a simple experiment , as it's too polished for that , but I couldn't see how it could be made any longer either . It's perfectly paced and acted nearly as well , and it's a fitting pre-cursor to the un-prolific but remarkable career of one of Russia's most important filmmakers . |
510,885 | 453,068 | 48,021 | 10 | a truly methodical , cool hybrid of old-school classy heist films with some extra element . . . | Rififi , directed by Jules Dassin , is in line with the Melville crime pictures ( particularly Bob le Flameur and to a point Le Cercle Rouge ) of being totally focused on story and character and making sure not a word is spoken that doesn't need , and was ahead of its time . Ionically , it still has a kind of professionalism among its characters , a kind of respect ( if not for selves than for others , a kind of duty ) that rings well in post-WW2 France . Its actors carry faces for these characters that say ' we know what these guys are about ' , and from there the story takes off . Maybe it's because I have a weak spot for heist pictures , particularly where we see just the nuts and bolts ( err , actual physical side ) of how a heist is pulled off . One of the problems with how the actual heist is filmed in today's movies is that it's all very fast ( i . e . Snatch ) , or done in ways we've seen too many times before . Dassin , like Melville years later , decided to create practically a silent film of a heist , sound effects included . The tension that builds up in this scene may not top what Melville had in ' Rouge ' , but on its own level it achieves its own greatness and momentum , and just as crucial originality to what's been done before . There are some kept close-ups , for example , as the safe is being cracked , that mark some of the best I've seen from France at that time . An added plus for the film , aside from the larval-stage new-wave touch to the film , which in the end makes it a little more modern , is that the story works so well and differently . It becomes completely about character at points , and then keeps up the thrills . The last ten to fifteen minutes are down-right miraculous ; like with another classic heist picture the Asphalt Jungle , it's not even the last stop that matters , but all about how much one will go past the call of duty , putting humanism over greed . You almost wonder in all the exhilaration of the camera flying by the trees at a high speed with the car that he might just make it . Dassin has here a very entertaining and intuitive film of its genre , with a nifty little musical number as well . |
508,144 | 453,068 | 35,015 | 10 | Fractured Magnificence ; one of the great tragedies of cinema ( not the film per say , but its history ) | It's almost common knowledge in the realm of the film world about the history of the Magnificent Ambersons , which leaves a minor problem when trying to criticize it . Orson Welles made the film's final running length at around two hours and fifteen minutes . While he was out of the country filming ' It's All True ! ' ( another doomed film in the Welles cannon ) , RKO pictures , the studio that had granted Welles total freedom for Citizen Kane and a few future projects , cut out fifty minutes ( mostly of the last fifty ) , put a happy ending , and released it on a double-bill with a B movie . Although it's attributable in retrospect to the War starting up ( after all , who wants a - downer - period piece ) and to the difficulty the studio had with Welles ' reputation , the fact that the 90 minute version that now exists is the only version available is a tragedy in and of itself . Unless if someone follows the wild rumor that a print was dumped by the studios into the ocean and pulls it up , this is all we can get . Still , incomplete Welles is more satisfying than no Welles , or most other studio product of the period . Welles takes Booth Tarkington's novel ( inspired in part by Welles himself as a child - George being Welles ' name ) and makes it into a sumptuous , striking , and altogether unique drama of the changing of the times , and how people cope with changes or go with them . The story is one of those involving the minds and hearts of the upper class . Joseph Cotten ( as usual charming & / or cool , dramatic ) is Eugene , the man who wanted Isabel Amberson's hand in marriage . She married another man , and their child George was early on a hard-head case ( these scenes are some of the best of the film , with deliberate staging of close-ups , medium shots , and basically setting up the technical style of the Wellesian cinema ) . As he grows up , he's still a little hard-headed ( played in one of the top , intense performances in any Welles film by Tim Holt ) , as he is against the changing of the times , in particular of Eugene's re-founded courtship of the mother following his father's death . There is also the character of his Aunt Fanny , in another perfect performance from Agnes Moorhead ( the mother from Citizen Kane ) . Alongside this examination of a family's downfall amid the changing of personal relations , and of George's own complex emotional problems , and of George's coming-of-age , there's also the examination of the transition from the horse and buggy to automobiles , to the heavier boost of the industrial age . Welles as a narrator is somber , observant of it all , and mostly leaves the film to his actors . There's some real thought put into the issues , and not just through the realistic ( though of course theatrical ) dialog , but more specifically through the style . ' Kane ' introduced audiences to Welles knack at long-takes , deep focus , unusual and expressionistic close-ups , heightening the drama that unfolds . ' Ambersons ' is no exception , and there are some very memorable scenes where the camera just stays on people , and then when it moves it makes the mis en scene more concentrated , direct . The use of light is also equally impressive at times - like in interior shots of a staircase when George and Fanny are in an argument , it's all encompassing , and not distracting enough from the story . The best consistency of any Welles film , even when it has some flaws , is the control that can be seen through much of it ( there's also a very spooky shot that stays with me towards the end , as the camera pans across the town's buildings , Welles ' mournful narration over it ) . But then we come to the ending , where things come to a screeching halt . I'm not against happy endings , they can be almost mandatory in certain formulas in films . However , it sort of takes an excellent film dealing with strong , novelistic issues to a bad place when things are resolved in the way this film does - George gets in an accident , he loses the use of his legs . But then a scene comes ( and one can tell the immediate change in the style from Welles to the studio's ) where loose ends get made , and without anything leaving curious for the viewer . I'm still not sure if anything else within the film was cut-out too , or if even I might have been fooled at another time by something not of Welles in the picture . It's depressing to be sure , but at least there is enough left to analyze and contemplate in the Welles ' oeuvre - in some ways it goes more ambitious than ' Kane ' , at least in its period realm , the questions it raises . The lessons the history behind the scenes gives for future filmmakers and studios should be remembered , even as mediocrity ( like RKO tried its best to make this film as ) continues today in Hollywood . |
508,613 | 453,068 | 70,212 | 10 | astonishing performances , absorbing play , direction that keeps things moving | It was a wise decision on the part of producer Ely Landau - one of the only wise ones , as seems to be the history of the flawed ambition of the American Theater Company's movie adaptation productions - to hire John Frankenheimer as director . He was known at the time in the movie industry for churning out high-charged action and adventure pictures ( i . e . The Train , Grand Prix ) , and the occasional dark classic ( The Manchurian Candidate ) , but he started as a television director , and with a play that ran like The Iceman Cometh there would be needed someone who could track the stinging , meaning-of-life-and-death dialog of O'Neill's play with the camera and not make it feel too ' stagey ' . This might be difficult to surmise that he made it fully cinematic in the sense of using more than one set or exteriors , as he didn't . Everything is confined to that set of Harry's bar . But within this precise , necessary limitation , Frankenheimer delivered one of his best projects . Then again , how could he not with the source material ? It's about some of the richest theater ever produced , least in the 20th century , and is considered by many to be O'Neill's epic masterpiece . It's a tale of a community , a quasi-family of bums and stragglers who're stuck more or less in a dive down in a seedy section of New York city in the early part of the century , awaiting the return of Hickey ( Lee Marvin ) , a big force of a man who works in advertising . This time things are a little different , however , and a new revelation leads the men ( and a couple of the women ) to wonder if he's flipped his lid . Around this premise of a dark secret or a certain feeling of " death " that Hickey has brought with him , O'Neill creates an ensemble that's unforgettable in its mix of light and dark , principled and sleazy , afraid and just downright kooky . There's a whole mix ; there's Larry the ex-anarchist who's slowly dying inside ( Robert Ryan ) ; there's the depressed-cum-demanding kid ( Jeff Bridges ) ; Harry ( March ) ; the bartender / pimp ; a black gambler ; the " Limey " ; the " Tarts " ; and a crazy , rambling European screaming about socialism from time to time . And despite what some may have said comparing it to the 1960's made-for-TV version directed by Lumet ( which I would love to see but is at the moment unavailable ) , I'd be hard-pressed to see a cast better than this . Just a reminder : Lee Marvin can act , amazingly , and here he puts his chops to such a test that he rolls on to his climactic , half hour quasi-confession like it's the performance of his life . Ditto for Ryan and March , and for them it was more-so ( Ryan knew he was dying , adding a poignancy to what was probably his best , most subtle work , and March is captivating as the stubborn old drunk owner ) . And Bridges , in a role which he said made him want to continue seriously being an actor , is hard to take one's eyes away from , even as his character wavers from being sympathetic to unlikeable in a single scene . And the bulk of the supporting cast are all wonderfully played and transposed , injecting life into a play that requires it to keep it going full throttle . It's not an easy thing to endure ; it's four hours long , and for the first hour here and there one has to go through some minor early morning drunkenness from the characters , which isn't the least effective portion of the play as well as the film . From there on out , if one is tuned into O'Neill's precisely harrowing story of the bums and drunkards and outcasts and all very flawed human beings , it will work wonders even in its sparsest moments . The ending , I might add , is about as perfectly bittersweet as I've seen this side of Woody Allen's Manhattan . Frankenheimer's work is a nearly forgotten gem . |
508,698 | 453,068 | 828,154 | 10 | Freud on brilliant parade with a mind-expanding look at the powers of cinema , and what makes up fantasy and / or reality | There's the danger with the critic / philosopher Slavoj Zizek with his film , directed by Sophie Fiennes , which takes together a wonderful amalgam of silent , horror , sci-fi , surreal and other contemporary thrillers together to make his points ofr Freudian comparisons to overload . But in the Pervert's Guide to Cinema he also makes even the more far-reaching points a point of departure from any other analysis I've seen on a collective section of films . While it doesn't cover the expansive territory Scorsese's movie documentaries cover , the same attachments are there , and Zizek has a definite love for all of these " perverse " examples and films , primarily the work of Hitchcock , Lynch , Chaplin and Tarkovsky . Yet one shouldn't go into seeing this - if you can find it that is , I got to see it almost by luck - thinking Zizek will just try and dissect all of the psycho-sexual parts or parts referring it in an obtuse , deranged manner . If anything he opens up one to points that might never be considered otherwise - would one think of three of the Marx brothers as representations of the Id , Super-Ego and Ego ( Harpo's example is most dead-on for me ) . He's not just one to take on the classics though , he also considers the food for thought in The Matrix and Fight Club - in representations of the split between fantasy and reality and if the matrix needs the energy as much as the energy needs the matrix for the former , and in the attachment of violence in dealing with one's own self as well as ones double in the latter . He even throws in a piece from the pivotal moment in Revenge of the Sith when Anakin becomes Darth Vader , and the implications of shunning away fatherhood under that back mask at the very moment his children's births happens elsewhere . The ideals of fatherhood , male sexuality , the male point of view in turning fantasy into reality ( at which point Zizek rightfully points to as the moment of a nightmare's creation ) , and female subjectivity , are explored perhaps most dead-on with Vertigo . This too goes for a scene that Zizek deconstructs as if it's the Zapruder film , where he dissects the three colliding points of psycho-sexual stance in the ' don't you look at me ' scene in Blue Velvet . Now it would be one thing if Zizek himself went about making these sincere , excited , and somehow plausible points just face on to the camera or mostly in voice-over as Scorsese does . But he goes a step further to accentuate his points of fantasy and reality , and how they overlap , intersect , become one and the same , or spread off more crucially into some netherworld or primordial feeling for some characters ( i . e . Lost Highway ) by putting himself IN the locations the films take place in . Funniest is first seeing him in the boat " heading " towards the same dock Tippi Hedren's boat heads to at the beginning of the Birds ; equally funny is as he waters the Blue Velvet lawn he goes on to explain the multi-faceted points of Frank Booth ; only one , when he's in Solaris-like territory , does it seem a little cheesy . But Zizek seems to be having a lot of fun with this set-up , and after a while one bypasses the potential crux of this gimmick and Zizek's words come through . There were some films I of course would've expected , chiefly from Hitchcock and Lynch , but a treat for movie buffs come from seeing two things - the movies that one would never think of seeing in a film about films titled the Pervert's Guide of Cinema ( top two for me would be the Disney Pluto cartoon and the exposition on Chaplin's films , albeit with a great note about the power and distinction of ' voice ' ) , and the ones that one hasn't seen yet ( i . e . the ventriloquist horror film , Dr . Mabuse , Stalker , among a few others ) that inspire immediate feelings of ' wow , I have to see that immediately , no questions asked . ' Zizek is a powerful writer with his work , and puts it forward with a clarity that reminds one why we watch movies in the first place , to be entertained , sure , but also to have that actual experience of sitting down and having something up there , as he put it , looking into a toilet . It's probably one of the greatest films about cinema , and in such a splendidly narrow analysis of how Freud works its way into films regarding desire , the Id / Super-Ego / Ego , and of the supernatural in fantasy , that you may never see . . . unless distribution finally kicks in , if only on the smallest levels . |
510,615 | 453,068 | 39,417 | 10 | Marvelous study of character and atmosphere , a neo-realistic triumph . . . | One of Roberto Rossellini's masterpieces , Germany Year Zero , suffers only from one minor liability , which is not totally the filmmaker's fault . The film was shot in German with the native language , but it was later shown around the world ( at least I think around the world ) in an Italian-dubbed print , which is also the version currently available on American DVD . True , Rossellini ( as far as I know ) didn't speak German , and he had it in Italian so he wouldn't have trouble getting the film distributed in his native land where he broke ground with Open City and Paisan . But it is a fair enough indication that not EVERYTHING in a film such as Germany Year Zero is based in total reality based on seeing this version . Once this is looked past though , one can get into the actual story and characters , which is what Rossellini is after - getting at least the emotional loss in this world perfectly clear . Germany Year Zero - the third in a so-called trilogy of films that began with his breakthrough Open City and continued with Paisan - was brilliantly executed , in the quasi-documentary cinematography by Robert Juillard , the appropriately sorrowful score by Renzo Rossellini , and in the performances by first timers like Edmund Moeschke as Edmund Koeler ( the main character ) , Ingetraude Hinze as Eva Koeler ( Edmund's desperate sister ) , and Erich Guhne as Herr Enning ( Edmund's ex-teacher who becomes a crucial supporting character ) . Edmund is a pre-teen who's lived through the devastation of the War , like his family , the families he lives with , and everyone else around him in the city , and he tries to get work despite his all-too-young age . Things seem bleak for his family , as his brother doesn't want to work for fear of being caught as a prisoner of the war , his elderly father can't work , and his sister goes out every night looking for things that only help herself . When Edmund runs into his once school-teacher ( Enning ) , who is part of the cold , evil remnants of the Nazi regime , and this leads into the last act of the film , with startling , heart-breaking results . While the story of Edmund - and of the line that scorches a kid's conscience between childhood innocence and the horrors of the real world - is a compelling and historically important one to tell , what Rossellini achieves here more than anything is the sense of dread in a desolate atmosphere . He achieved that in Open City too ( I have yet to see Paisan so I can't comment ) , but that film had the tendency to take a little too much time involving us in sub-plots . In Germany Year Zero , however , the images presented stay with the viewer long after the film has ended since they're akin to the kind of sensibility Polanski had with The Pianist , in a technical sense - we're following someone in his own personal struggle for survival in an environment that's in rubble , with many of the people around the character without much hope . There's also the theme of sacrifice , like in the other two films in Rossellini's trilogy , and that plus a theme of a sort of helpless hope in human spirit , stays true through the seventy minutes of this film . Highly recommended ( the language dubbing practically regardless ) . |
508,425 | 453,068 | 382,932 | 10 | truly devilish fun and mind-blowingly entertaining as classic cartoon style , but also very successful in storytelling - magnifique ! | It's pretty easy to make little rodents charming and fun characters ( just ask Disney himself , to a clichéd extent ) , but it's even harder to make them work in such a way that's original and exciting as comedy in conventional ways for today's audiences . But Brad Bird shouldn't be lumped into the group of today's CGI animators . He doesn't really think in those terms , but rather in how to make things look real , and yet at the same time keeping in full mind that it's a cartoon , not reality . This goes not simply for the rats themselves - the funniest , probably even funnier , that Disney's remotely had to market since the Great Mouse Detective - but the human characters too , who have their own distinct shapes and qualities based on personality and relevance to the story ( whether they're good or bad , or maybe even more complex too ) . He places the designs for the characters right up there with the rest of the atmosphere , and then also adds in just the right way to make that wonderfully formulaic Pixar storyline - you know a lot of what may unfold , though not everything , and you know that you're in excellent hands because of the levels of detail and nuance in the comedy chaos at times . It'll be hard to beat this ( to put it in a corny phrase ) ' gourmet selection ' as the best animated film of the year , and certainly the best that Pixar's done since , um , the last Brad Bird movie ! The story is the fish out of water , or in this case rat , where a little rodent named Remy , who is totally immersed in the style of Augustus Gusteau , a famous French chef who dies , and who's position is filled by a lowly garbageman named Linguini . He can't cook , of course , but somehow Remy , separated from his rat family , cooks something up on the spot as a not-quite accident , sending Linguini as the one who supposedly made it . On the fluke , he becomes the new chef at Gusteau's . . . only , the chef's a rat , literally , hilariously pulling Linguini's hair to make him a cooking puppet ( early on this makes for some of the best physical comedy of any Pixar movie ) . This fluke becomes the start of the usual ball of string unraveled bit by bit , involving an heir to Gusteau's fortune , a love interest in aggressive chef Colette , and Remy's reconnection and estrangement from his huge rat clan and his father . All the while Bird throws in such dangerous and downright devilish comedy for a G rated animated movie . And there's morales to be learned too , or sort of taken away , I guess , only this time in the true Disney form instead of Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket , it's Remy and the , well , illusion of Gusteau's ghost appearing to him as a quasi-conscious . What makes Ratatouille stand out of the pack from the fellow summer far of the moment , particularly 4th of July fare , is how there's such deft to Bird and his team navigating along the lines of making the comedy work to its excessive lengths while always keeping a firm grip on which turn the story will take next ( the moments I didn't quite expect - the whole heir angle involving Linguini , and the climactic scenes with the rats preparing the restaurant's dinners , all washed before going to work , and keeping ' under wraps ' the health inspector at the same time ! ) . I probably laughed just as much during this film as I would at something much raunchier like Knocked Up or Grindhouse , to give recent examples , but as mentioned there's a riskiness to Bird's style here . One scene I particularly loved is when Remy is training linguini to command the muscle-controlled hair pulling scheme at his home , and there's a build-up to what seems like a knife going to cut into his fingers while he's chopping vegetables ( up to this point he's been hopeless in his training ) , but at this very point where we should expect the worst , which is funny unto itself , it starts to level out and he's sort of under control . Sort of in that he'll still be naturally clumsy enough to spill the wine on his own head . Same goes for little things like the quite silhouetted bit Remy passes by with the lover about to shoot the other and then falling into full embrace , or the actual fellow employees at Gusteau's , one of who has the wildest thumb ever shown in a movie , least of all a ' family ' movie , that I can remember ( albeit Bird does come out of working on the Simpsons ) . So many masterstrokes of comedy go on that it's almost neglected to note how exciting a lot of the film is too , the run-around Remy has in the kitchen first time he comes in or the chase through Paris between the crooked head cook Skinner and Remy , and how seamless voice-work and the ( now highly expected ) advances in Pixar's technical innovations go together . It was a good guessing game who was the voice of Ego ( it's O'Toole , but then it could be any given old regal British person ) , and to pick out that it's Ian Holm or Garofolo voicing some of the other parts , but it's not something that is immediately meant to be stand-out like in other CGI movies where it's being sold mostly on celebrity voice talent . It's almost like a lot of this comes quite naturally to Bird and his team , and yet because it isn't it reverts to becoming all the more remarkable . Ratatouille is simply an exceptionally fun picture , loaded with sight gags and puns and slips of behavior , and never overbearing with any of the usual messages that come pre-packaged for kids in these movies , all the more remarkable as it comes nearer to Pixar reusing previous ones . |
510,356 | 453,068 | 118,276 | 10 | sometimes classic teen soap , sometimes classic wild comedy , always witty and kick-ass and heartfelt | This is Joss Whedon's baby , at least for most of the time ; towards the end of the series he wasn't quite as involved as he was at the start . Which sometimes happens , unfortunately for most viewers , towards the end . But for a very large majority of the run of the series , this was some of the most intelligent stuff being offered to the ( primarily ) teen-girl demographic in prime-time , and by far the best show on the old WB network . And after seeing the first two seasons back to back , sometimes half a season in a day , and seeing various episodes scattered about over the years , it definitely confirms Whedon as some kind of minor genius in this form of storytelling . It might not always be as funny as it thinks it is , or kick as much ( believable ) butt , but , another but , I'd never turn it down as a recommendation for anyone the least bit into vampires and romance and comedy . . . and watchers decked out in tweed and British accents . One line summary : Buffy Summers ( Sarah Michelle Gellar , displaying more range than 3 movies combined ) moves to Sunnydale , meets friends Willow and Xander ( Hannigan and Brendon ) , where she must take the role of Slayer - there can be only one with one or two exception-episodes - and also has to fend off love-cum-enemy interests like Angel ( piece-o-hunk Borenaz ) plus a solid ' master ' or other enemy every season . This is so condensed as to be used for pitiful soup ; the point of the show , or one of the points , is to posit the angst and trials and tribulations and occasional big-fun of high school teen years with the fantastical struggle of vampire wars . The mythology of vampires on the show is great , what comes up of it when need be , but like the X-Files there are also brilliant stand-alone episodes as well ( one of my favorites , Ted , happens to showcase the late John Ritter , or those that can be stand-alone but require plot schematics like Once More with Feeling that make for pure , outstanding entertainment in any genre ) . At the same time that we get some cool monsters and critters and demons and whatever , often acting out of good lore or just manifestations of the human condition ( to get all philosophical here ) , Whedon and his crew are often very good , sometimes with real emotional vigor , in getting us to really feel for all of the characters , even if it's in the worst ways for the villains ( albeit I find Spike to be as much of a wicked bad-ass as much as just wicked more often than not ) . It's not uncommon for Whedon to reel out the tears from his female viewer-ship - sometimes , as with my own wife to get personal here , more than once - and it's a sign of a writer and other writers tuned into the aesthetic of full-formed human people . It goes without saying ( most of ) the cast ( when not , see Michelle Trachtenberg ) is just as tapped into the nature of the characters , the rampant but carefully laid humor , sometimes laugh-out-loud funny , as well as the tenderness and harrowing moments of existential umph of living in Sunnydale and fighting vampires . So gather some friends , or board up the windows and doors at night , and get in on one of the underrated shows of the past 15 years . It's not just for your teen daughter : you can get in on the fun and drama and cool special effects and fights ( not so much cool CGI though ) . Notwithstandin its flaws , it gets a firm A verging on |
510,229 | 453,068 | 841,046 | 10 | beat for beat , second for second , the funniest parody I've seen in years | . . . and remember it doesn't say Cox , unless I say it tastes like Cox . This is an example of prime send-up , a parody that lovingly references everything in rock-music-bio-pics , from ( the obvious centerpiece ) Walk the Line , Ray , Don't Look Back , Elvis flicks , The Doors , and countless others , including a mention to Yellow Submarine and the eras of Motown , rockabilly , even punk ( yes , more than a decade before there is punk a version of Walk Hard is played ) . Kasdan and Apatow get what it is to do a send up , which is to be knowing of all the conventions , clichés , and formulas that end up coming out of what are , actually , real-life stories already put into a simple context . It follows the tradition of the ZAZ team ( Airplane and Naked Gun ) by delivering a joke or gag or just something weird every other second , and it builds up into one of the funniest movies in years . A friend of mine said recently that it takes someone to actually really like and admire what they're spoofing in order for it to be pulled off . This helps , of course , as one can tell that Mel Brooks had a love for the theater and musicals for The Producers and horror movies with Frankenstein , and more recently Edgar Wright with action flicks and Hot Fuzz . But there's another component , I think , that separates a film like Walk Hard from the recent slew of " Movies " ( Date , Epic , the upcoming Meet the Spartans ) is that the people working on Walk Hard are some of the funniest people working in Hollywood today , and knowing what makes fresh , vulgar send-up work . It's not simply about mashing up pop-culture references to make them stick , there has to be just something that clicks through the writing and acting . Walk Hard has that in spades - from the opening jokes ( yes jokes , and they're running ones ) about Dewey slicing his brother in half with a machete ( with the brother still giving words of advice cut in half , and leading up to the also running gag " The wrong kid died ! " line ) , going into playing the blues as a little white kid , to being 14 ( and played by Reilly , of course ) marrying a 12 year old fan , to the sudden bolts of inspiration for songs in the middle of a scene - not to mention the lyrics - it's already apparent this will be good stuff . But then there's more : Hasidim music agents with names like Kvetch L'Chaim ; drug scenes out of Ray " You don't want to do this ! " ; the ups and downs and the meetings with other famous stars ( " Hey , George Harrison " ) . I could go on and on about the little details as well , some of which are probably too much to even mention in this review . Suffice to say Reilly pops out of a shell that he's been in over the past decade or so . One of the superb character actors of his generation ( yes , I'm sounding like a pompously sounding critic for now ) , he's fantastic as Dewey Cox , giving him a sensibility that goes past simple parody - we actually end up feeling for this drug-addicted adulterer who goes in and out of rehab and finally settles in with his few dozen children of various mixed ethnicities ( the catching montage , by the way , is priceless ) . He gives the character that ' umph ' that even makes him more human than Leslie Nielson's Frank Drebin , and he creates so many absurd moments that it's easy to miss some of his subtle charms and dramatic touches . Just seeing him talk to a ghost Jonah Hill as " older ghost " brother Nate reveals his multi-faceted gifts . And like A Mighty Wind , Kasdan and Apatow and composer Michael Andrews make the songs legitimately good numbers amid some of the crudest innuendo in movie history ( songs go between ' innocent ' sexual acts to midgets and then to a huge orchestral number including countless tribes-people ) . Reilly also has the backup , acting-wise , of people from SNL ( Meadows and Parnell ) , The Office ( Fischer and Ed Helms ) and of course past Apatow works ( Rudd , Black , Long and Schwartzman give a movie-stealing scene as the Beatles in India ) . In the end , it's everything I love in a go-for-broke comedy that still sticks to the numerous predecessors it's imitating . And , if anything , it one-ups those movies as well as legitimate entertainment . So Walk Hard . . . Hard . . . to the movie theater ! |
507,844 | 453,068 | 74,028 | 10 | easily my favorite ' variety ' show of the 1970s ; so many memories , laughs , songs , and strange creatures and friends | I used to watch the Muppet Show a lot when they re-ran old episodes on Nickelodeon in the 90s , and saw a large variety of episodes , some that they released on DVD in patches a few years ago . It made me very , very happy though when I got my hands on the season 1 DVD set ( albeit with some cuts made due to song rights and whatnot , which is a little disappointing but nevertheless a collector's item ) and could get into the predictable - which is part of the fun - and great oddities and regulars on the show . Maybe I might be partly biased , as I've always loved the Muppets , particularly the movies and other little diddies they've done . But the show could be either a superb show for the whole family , or a little hit or miss depending on the audiences of today . For kids - as the original ' pitch ' on the DVD says - there are a lot of quirky , odd , and assuredly original creations aside from the common muppets ( Kermit , Fozzie , Gonzo , Ms . Piggy , Rowlf , Stanter & Waldorf , etc ) , but there's also some really , really weird moments on the show , such as dancing slinkies and a character like Crazy Harry who's only function is to make things explode with a Peter Lorre-esquire expression . For adults and older teens , such bizarre things and the assorted lot of memorable guests ranging from musicians ( Elton John , Alice Cooper , Paul Williams , etc etc ) comedians ( John Cleese , Harvey Korman , Peter Sellers ) , and many other surprise types like Vincent Price and Harry Belafonte , are appealing , but what about the really goofy gags and infinite lot of bad puns ? For me though , everything about the show is terrific in its sort of low-budgeted TV 70s way . It's very nutty , but it's alive in a way that makes shows of today pale in comparison . In the first season it establishes itself as a wild lampooning of variety shows of the period in general , with the guests almost as a given being apart of the jokes , and with running gags , a quasi central ' storyline ' going on backstage , and like on any variety show giving full-time for jokes , musical numbers sometimes with upside down chins making faces , and just very unexpected bits with the Muppet creatures and puppets that you will never see again . And the wit that goes through the entire series , from episode to episode , sometimes varies , but is always with a great wink and a nod to how silly it is , but at the same time it's also very smart-being-stupid humor too . An example of this would be when CLeese was on , and having to help Gonzo fix his long-arm problem after catching a cannonball . It's at equal turns overall cartoonish , exciting , whimsical , and it usually attempts to work best for young and old alike . |
508,586 | 453,068 | 412,142 | 10 | certainly the most entertaining , riveting , and wholly satisfying medical show on TV , at least now | When one gets a little tired of there being too much about the doctors and not enough about the patients - or at least that so many overlapping characters and plot lines get thrown together - on ER , there's the temptation to go elsewhere . For fans that is ; I was always more of a casual admirer of the show , but couldn't really get into medical dramas in general . House MD , however , is not so much about your typical medical drama , even if it does appear to be . Watching it for a few minutes it will look like a standard : doctors try and figure out what's wrong with a patient , with it being more like a scientific process then one might expect , and it's not always 100 % guess right . The difference is , we get a wonderful mix of doctor characters who are given just the right moments of development and exposition and strong and captivating medical cases varying from episode to episode . It's structure then , in a sense , is like Law & Order , only with the predictability factor eschewed by the fact that the character of House , and his staff ( which may come under some change in season 4 if it comes ) , are not kept as simple expository units for the plot . It is , even with its cynicism level sometimes quite high due to its main character , probably closer to life than we might think watching the high melodrama on ER . And , of course , it's Hugh Laurie that will either draw a viewer in or just make him / her think ' he's what all the hoopla is about ? ' Laurie , who's already won an Emmy & / or Golden Globe for his performance , is like a consummate professional only with the level of sarcasm one would expect from Garfield the cat , only if he weren't a cat but a , well , Vicodin popping screwball in his early 40s . He's always got a remark around the corner , or maybe two in thirty seconds depending on the situation or who's in the room , and Laurie makes House never into a caricature , and even makes him compelling when the drama has to get sky high ( i . e . getting off Vicodin , a major crisis with a patient , a crisis with one of his fellow staff like Foreman's viral infection ) . He's like one of those cool detective heroes on those mystery shows from the 60s and 70s , only more acidic with his tone and , in his strange way , more sympathetic then one might expect . At the same time Laurie is surrounded by supporting players up for the task , and handles guest stars just as well . Overall , it's not just another simple medical drama but more of a tragic-comedy where the errors spell big problems , and the two sides of saving someone's life and making quick quips about things whether the mood is light ( House to Wilson about his change in a tie ) , or dark ( will they figure out what the hell is wrong before death comes around ? ) , is all part of what's fun and truly compelling about the material . It's also one of the few shows on right now , especially for prime-time network TV , to work as well with character with story . |
510,858 | 453,068 | 56,801 | 10 | one of the first foreign films I saw is still in my top 10 of all time | Federico Fellini is a genius of cinema , which many would attribute to this , La Dolce Vita , and many of his films of the 1950s . At the time I first saw this , I knew I was seeing something special , almost not of this planet , but I was also too young and not familiar with films in general to really appreciate it . After seeing it a few more times over the years , 8 remains one of those great films that I really experience more than watch , as the scenes and characters and outrageous humor and cool pathos and philosophy is all up for grabs for the senses . It's the kind of film , ironically from its subject matter , that inspires me to create once its over . Fellini tries his best here to get the audience in love with the language of cinema , if nothing else , and people will either go with it , find it amusing , or dismiss it altogether as pretensious , self-indulgent rubbish . It's got Marcello Mastroianni in one of his milestone performances as the perpetual artist / filmmaker in a creative , spiritual , and just overall crisis of wills . What will come of his next science fiction film , if it is eve one ? What about his past and how that may or may not affect not just the film or his life ? And the women , oh Lord the women ( the scene where he's surrounded by them in a dream-state is one of my very favorite scenes ever created with the chaos in fantasy and reality combined ) . True , it might be a little confusing at first , matter of fact sometimes things might just fly right by , hence not totally getting into it on the first time . But even on the first time that moment in the car , leading to him flying in the air , is about as indelible in the world of cinema as two fingers meet in a giant painted ceiling . Sometimes melodramatic ( or operatic , or carnival-like , or just bewildering and beautiful in equal measure ) , sometimes ludicrous , though always true to itself , it challenges its audience with something many people can relate to , not just creative people or artists or filmmakers even ( though for the latter it's definitely the landmark of movies about movies ) . I want to give this film a hug . . . actually , I'd rather whip it into submission while brandishing a cape and black hat to Wagner music . |
508,833 | 453,068 | 568,048 | 10 | watched it mostly cause it's a QT episode , his trademarks included , but still quite sharp and dramatic for regular fans | I must confess , I'm not an avid , or even really regular , viewer of ER . A few episodes sometimes stick out that I have seen , a few really indelible images ( i . e . there's one episode , which I can't totally recall , that has a woman with a bug in her ear that creeped me out intensely ) . But as with CSI , another show I'm not very keen on , I decided to check out a specific episode based most of all on a credited director - Quentin Tarantino in this case . Amid the big frenzy over Pulp Fiction , he got offers all over the place , and this was one of them that he took on , as he " put on the scrubs " QT himself called them , and also in a very rare case took the helm as director and not ( also ) as writer of the episode . This episode starts off quite intensely with , what else , a woman on the verge of delivery of her child . Right away some of that Tarantino edge comes in with the hand-held style , and while it obviously isn't there , one could guess if this weren't a network show it would be cursing galore . The episode then unfolds with some of the character drama unfolding , but for the most part it's really focused on two things - a big helping of some head-rushing , manic hospital work on some wheeled-in-right-away patients , and on pregnancy and giving birth and such . There's even a bit of tenderness towards the latter part of the episode , which might come to be expected with the title . But those who , like me , will seek out the episode for likely QT trademarks wont be too disappointed . He does stick with the main form of the show , and if one didn't know he directed it it might be seen as usual - though above average usual - ground being covered . The hindsight does trigger some grins during the episode at the recognition of certain things , like the shots that track along ( I remember there's one scene where the camera goes from one conversation to another , almost no cuts really between the two ) . And the aforementioned big ER scenes are a bit bloody and almost veering to the over the top . It didn't surprise me it made it on TV , but the intensity of the cuts and the action kept things going along quite well . In short , an obscure little treat for fans of QT , and for fans of the show it provides equal doses of regular-character drama and pathos on mothering and delivery-room semantics . |
509,868 | 453,068 | 105,236 | 10 | Practically tailor-made for a film buff ( as well as for a viewer who watches occasionally ) , ' Dogs ' is a picture loaded to the brim with terrific visceral energy | Whenever the name Quentin Tarantino is mentioned nowadays , people treat him with the same reverence as Scorsese , De Palma , and other directors as such who have fiddled around with the crime / gangster genre to create personal , heavy-duty masterworks . However , at the time this film was first released , as was with his still best picture ' Pulp ' , he was regarded as a filmmaker who makes violent movies , filled with violence , chock full of violence , " too violent " ( if there ever could or should be such a thing in movies ) , etc . This is unfair . True , Tarantino writes and works his actors to such an intensity that the feelings that go with violent acts and violent tension is there , and true he shows the blood , he lets us hear the cries of agony and despair , and indeed there are times that bullets fired into people are shown as such right in frame . Yet he never exactly displays any truly violent acts ( he decided to leave the shot of Masden slicing the ear on the editing floor , unlike a director like David Lynch who gets right inside the matter ) - his technique is to evoke and strive for all of the emotions one would feel in such asituation , movie or in real life , to the most honest , near heart-wrenching limits , and thus to someone who may have even not even seen the film the images that appear in a trailer or on a video box bring the notion of this being an overly violent movie immediately . That the images we see throughout the film , bloody or not , stay with us long after the credits roll , is a testament to his dedication , and obvious trust , to his craft being as it is . The plot , while lifted from a Chow-Yun Fat film from the mid-eighties , is the first one to include his trademark non-linear storytelling design . Sure , this is not uncommon in most films , but since each scene has a meaty quality to it , with line after line of ( purposeful , to story as well as character ) dialog is spoken , you really don't know what to expect . A crime boss ( Lawrence Tierny ) assembles different criminals of different backgrounds , removes them of their given Christian names , and gives them pseudonym colors as the heist comes up . The robbery itself has a big hitch - cops are alerted sooner than thought , shoot-outs occur , some colors are wiped away , and the remaining assemble in the rendezvous to sort out what went wrong and who's to blame . For most films with such an ambitious and grounded script , nearly every performance is a crucial asset to the film's success , and Tarantino knows this in his bones , as well as in the casting of the right parts ( i . e . Steve Buscemi auditioned for Mr . White but got Mr . Pink , makes sense doesn't it ) : Keitel and Tierny are like old pros merely portraying old pros ; Roth has a true breakout performance as Orange ; Busemi himself proves why he's needed in film today ; Chris Penn makes for a fine supporting role ; Masden is one of the most convincing of the 90's psychos ; even Tarantino makes a perfect monologue for himself in the opener . Right away these actors give off the only impression they should - these are people that we can care about , despise , or watch in a lack of judgment as they float away in a flash - they've got to be human all the way . So , is Reservoir Dogs for everyone ? Not necessarily - children under the age of nine or ten , I'd suggest , should stay away even if they can understand and take the violence since it's really an film for maturer mindsets . But , for the passionate movie-goer , or for thrill seeking screen nuts , it's worth the ride . For one thing , I'll never think of " Stuck in the Middle With You " , or Steven Wright for that matter , the same way again . My opinion - Tarantino's 3rd best effort behind Pulp Fiction and From Dusk Till Dawn , and nearly superior over Jackie Brown . |
508,212 | 453,068 | 368,794 | 10 | strangely insightful , feverish trip into the consciousness of Bob Dylan - public as well as mythic and personal - and great tunes ! | It's not quite as the ads have said - there aren't six people specifically playing Bob Dylan . It's fragments , pieces , all making up a tableau regarding the myth , history , pop-mania , arrogance , self-deprecation , strange humor , and undeniably powerful musical ability of Bob Dylan . It's Todd Haynes working wonderfully without a net on what isn't a film that will be for everyone , much like Dylan himself . It shuffles around the six perspectives - albeit never in a manner that is confusing or too startling in terms of the storytelling relating to each other - and it does depend a lot on how much one knows about their Dylan history ( Woody Guthrie , Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid , horrible husband , erratic rock star , folk legend-cum-born again , and the enigma always hiding that wound up more contradictions than a pretzel smothered in ice cream ) . Godard would approve . For those that admire Dylan , or at least can understand how hype and fame can merge with the possibility of Dylan as an outsider in the 1960s of all times , and knows at least a little bit ( the " hey , it's Alan Ginsberg ! " gag , as he rides up alongside Dylan's limo , played by David Cross , is one of the funniest things I've seen in years ) , and can respect how the filmmaker pays respect while ultimately adulating the whole ideal of a iconoclastic figure , the film serves up many moments of " pure " enjoyment . Others , who know him as writing Blowin ' in the Wind and All Along the Watchtower , and know him as the guy on that album cover with the girl on the New York street , might be a little more perplexed - actually more-so than a little . Haynes's film can be argued on the flip side of the coin as pretentious doodling and meandering with Felliniesque aspirations and grandeur Americana . On the other hand , at least for the former , the same can go for Mr . Dylan . Does he care what he says ? Who's to say ? If for nothing else , aside from the brilliant editing and mind-blowing camera-work , edging on the sublime , see it for the songs , of course ( including a mixture of classic Dylan material , some of which is not new to my ears , some is , and very well done covers ) , and for the performances . Cate Blanchett is a marvel , totally deserved of another Oscar nomination , as she digs deep into the most well-known period of Dylan's height of glory ( and the tipping-point , as we see , prior to his real-life motorcycle accident ) , with the bushy hair and the kooky manner of speaking and almost shy demeanor , Blanchett makes it all her own . But lest not forget Christian Bale and Heath Ledger , who may actually fare a lot better here than in the upcoming Dark Knight ( who's to say , of course ) , as Bale especially takes on the persona of the young and reinvigorated Dylan , looking exactly like the ' Times They Are-a-Changing ' form , and Ledger as the devilish , mean womanizer side . And the little black kid and Richard Gere are OK too - actually , the black Kid , Carl Franklin , is more than OK . The point is , I'm Not There is exhilarating for the open-minded , revelatory in spurts , and with that kind of rush that a story , fable , history , and musical mixed together can bring only so often in cinema . And like Dylan , it's post-modern to the point of at one moment scratching your head and another moment wanting to clap your hands like hell . It makes Across the Universe , frankly , look like Child's Play in comparison . The Beatles , I might add , appear in the most blatant ( and uproarious ) cameo of the year . |
509,018 | 453,068 | 70,290 | 10 | They don't seem to make movies like this anymore , do they ? | While the question is a bit rhetorical , I do mean it - you don't see that many movies made anymore like this , The Last Detail by Hal Ashby ( Being There ) and Robert Towne ( later to write another Nicholson gem , Chinatown ) , where the story is just a baseline to the characters studied in subtle and not so subtle ways . It even grows on the viewer if seen multiple times , where what seems to be dragging on is loaded with nuance . There's a level of existentialism to it : how free are Buddusky and Mulhall , or their choices ? Probably not much at all , at least not any more or less than the doomed Meadows . But this is not the only method of Ashby on the material , there are also superlative performances from Jack Nicholson , Otis Young , and a newcomer at the time , Randy Quaid . Nicholson and Young play Buddusky ( Bad-ass ) , and Mulhouse ( Mule ) , who are assigned " chicken-s detail " , to transport petty thief Quaid , sent up for eight years in a naval brig . On the way up the Eastern seaboard , the three stop in Washington , New York , and Boston , and the two try to show the youngster a good time before imprisonment . Probably one of the most under-looked pictures of the 1970's , though one of the more note-worthy , especially for it's attitude delivered ten-fold by Nicholson's Cannes winning Buddusky , and Towne script . A scene in a bar in Washington and a scene at a Nichiren Shosu meeting steal the lot , though there's plenty to look for . It's one of my favorite tragic-comic sleepers , and one of Ashby's best . |
510,712 | 453,068 | 66,491 | 10 | melodrama lifted up into perverse tragedy as only Bunuel can do | It might appear to the uninitiated that Luis Bunuel is making with Tristana at first a good but very predictable melodrama that turns somewhere in the second half mark into a strange power-play of desire turned on its head . But in reality , when looking at it after seeing a couple of his films , Bunuel's work with Tristana is somehow kind of touching . He cares about all of his characters - none of whom what they seem or dumbed down to Lifetime movie levels - and in this stuck-in-its-ways society there are boundaries that are crossed in tragic means . Usually one might expect some dark or subtle comedy of manners or satire on society , but here it's stripped away , as it was for some of Viridiana , and all that's left is a spare , tense and expertly manipulated tale where the tables are turned once or twice on the couple of Don Lope ( Fernando Rey ) and Tristana ( Catherine Deneauve , maybe her most physically demanding of her two Bunuel roles ) . One thing that's extraordinary about how Bunuel directs and allows for his actors to play the scenes is that the emotions are only heightened to a certain level , and never with the aid of things like music or tears . It is what it is : Don Lope has taken care of Tristana as her guardian since her mother died , and now has inserted himself as her father / husband figure , with his servant Saturna ( stern-faced but understanding Lola Gaos ) a kind of unofficial confessional . Tristana wants some freedom , just to go out and walk around , and feels caught by Don Lope even when not doing anything . . . until she meets Franco Nero's Don Horacio , a painter who could promise a new life . This goes without saying that one should take it for granted that Tristana isn't that young and could take care of herself without Lope , but maybe this is part of the point of the slight absurdity - and eventual tragedy - of this struggle . Two years go by after she leaves Lope for Horacio , with a tumor in her leg . She's now a cripple , and now once again a kind of mental prisoner in Lope's home ; the complexity of old man Lope as being duplicitous is seen right after he finds out she's sick and Horacio asks for Lope to help keep her home , and he nearly skips home saying " she'll never leave again ! " All of this , leading up to a final twist that is very satisfying if extending the tragic dimension of Lope and Tristana , would be soapy and tawdry and , possibly , very standard in other hands . For Bunuel , there's a lot of personal ground here ; I wonder at times if Rey is a little like one of those actors a director of Bunuel's auteur-stature uses as a means of expressing himself through an actor , or if it's just because he's so good at playing wicked AND sympathetic bourgeois . And the mixture of ideas , if not really themes , covering what's love and over-control , religion , deformity , a free will are potent and exciting even in such subtle and ( as Maltin said ) serenely filmed territory . It's also a minor triumph for Deneuve , who between this and Belle de jour did some of her best work as an actress for the notorious surrealist . Her character's continual dream of Lope's beheaded top dangling from a church tower is the closest we see to a classic surrealist scene , though it's reminiscent of Los Olvidados as brilliantly expressing one character's mind-set . Deneuve is up for the challenge of putting up a tough interior and exterior presence ; she gets paler towards the end ( if this was for real or just a bad print I couldn't tell ) , and there's a lot of pain in her eyes and expression throughout . It's great work for one of the director's most subtly demanding works - beneath its conventional framework of a love-triangle story is sorrow and horror at the human condition . |
510,315 | 453,068 | 83,791 | 10 | The beginning of the new and improved Muppets ; one of Henson-and-company's best | This sprawling , part-homage-part-totally original fantasy brings us Jen , the last of a group of near extinct creatures who is the only one who can save all existence by bringing a crystal shard back into the balance of the dark crystal , in order to save the world from the evil Skekses . This is quite an enthralling film , and like with the other full-on Muppet films this works on different levels for kids and for adults . Kids may be both scared and enthralled by the scope and details , not to mention the graphic nature of the darker elements portrayed ( as a kid I cringed a bit when the ' vital essence ' scenes came up ) . And for adults there's a lot of great craftsmanship that goes into the story , which is with all of the effects and over-the-top creations very well told by directors Henson and Oz . Without the massive usage of CGI or the more controlled visuals from the past fifteen or so years , the mix of the production design ( maybe some of the best ever in any fantasy film ) and the inventiveness put into the set-pieces and character-creations , is a knockout even by today's standards . It's almost a shame looking back on how a film like this that employs so many people and such time is now spent clicking away on a computer to get it all done . As it is , the Dark Crystal is one of those few examples in post-modern cinema that it does seem something like a sci-fi novel come to life . |
508,901 | 453,068 | 70,334 | 10 | One of my favorite Altman films , though it goes without saying . . . | I've seen this film on TV several times now , and it is one of the best treatments of a Raymond Chandler novel to date . Mostly because of its filmmaker , the unconventional-by-necessity Robert Altman , who brings a much more spontaneous feeling to Chandler's trademark wit and cynical character Philip Marlowe . Like with MASH or some of his other key 70's films , Altman breaks through expectations , making Marlowe in present day of the time , and in a way it works better this way . There is an anti-establishment feel to Marlowe , this gum-shoe who is more of a law unto himself . Elliot Gould , who plays him sometimes as a little aloof but really on the ball most of the time ( and with a sarcasm that out-ranks other actors who have played Marlowe ) , is terrific in the role . Sterling Hayden , who has a supporting role as the Ernest Hemingway-type novelist connected with the investigation Marlowe's in , and it's definitely his most unconventional performance ( not the same manly tough guy of Asphalt Jungle and the Killing ) , with some more emotion and substance . In a way it's a very quirky kind of treatment of Chandler at times , and also still very funny , which is what it needs ( like the neighboring pot-head girls of Marlowe's , whom I'm sure was an addition on Altman's part ) . So with this combination - Altman , Chandler , Gould , and the great writer Leigh Brackett - it's hard to not at least like it a little , if not a lot . It also has a topper of an ending , almost applause worthy . |
510,354 | 453,068 | 100,873 | 10 | a vibrant , strange , and completely absorbing look at the strife and creation of two brothers | Robert Altman makes one of the great films about artistic expression , the utter and complete frustration with it , the dregs of having to go through the motions in a capitalistic society where taste is so subjective that it combs over the fact that an artist needs some recognition . We never see Vincent Van Gogh , via equally frustrated ( though nowhere near as insane ) brother Theo , sell any of his work , and it doesn't help things that as things get more and more desperate , and funds dry up and mental disintegration kicks in , Vincent just starts to snap or look like he'll snap any minute . It's a powerful film not because so much of the full-on drive of the plot , as Altman is infamous for making that the secondary characteristic ( if at all ) of his films , but for the camaraderie of two brothers , of the very intense push-and-pull between the two of them . It also helps that Altman has three very crucial and , ultimately , exquisitely successful assets . First are his two main actors , Tim Roth and Paul Rhys . Both actors make up the brothers as having a similar temperament : anxiety brushed over by a quiet , isolated mind-set . But as brothers , the two of them act them as two far reaching personalities that somehow come back to the other through some form of need . That , in a way , is a subtext to much of what happens to either brother , of a need of acceptance never reached , either through financial gain or reputation , or just through some semblance of sanity or reason for being with the opposite sex . Rhys is perfect as an uptight , shy , but also very conflicted - sexually and sort of existentially - about what to do with his life , and with his poor brother . He has that look in his eyes like he's a solid individual , but seething underneath is rage and discontent , despite his best efforts . He pulls off this emotive being quite well , even if dipping a little into over-acting at times ( he might seem to yell every other scene ) . Roth , meanwhile , gives one of his crowning achievements as an actor , worthy of Pacino . When he's not going totally ape-s in throwing stuff on the ground or painting his or another's face or doing the token ear cutting scene ( it's only a lobe , by the way , sorry to disappoint ) , he seems to be perfectly still with a calm voice , but eyes darting much of the time around . Roth makes Van Gogh less a caricature and more a full-bodied being , as far as can be in an Altman film this understanding of the nature of an artist of the period . You're never sure when he might suddenly snap back , and its equally tense and compelling to see Roth in the scenes of Van Gogh painting , in a field of flowers giving up or when he's transfixed in the act of creating when drawing the prostitute when she's not paying attention . This leads to the second asset , which is Stephen Altman's production design , where nothing is left to the imagination . This , in a way , allows for an almost surreal feeling underneath the veneer of the straightforward . It looks all as if it's shot on location ; even the paintings look like they were on loan from the big galleries of the world . And the third asset is Altman himself , though more over his trust in the material . One might wonder what Altman made his own of the script or what was already there . But it seems very much a move from the director to see how the film opens , which is odd and interesting , as footage from an auction where a Van Gogh fetches tens of millions of dollars goes on , with the audio transposed as if it were on some radio somewhere that doesn't exist in the background during the first scene with the brothers where they argue about money and painting and going to Paris . Throughout Altman is always assured with the lens , allowing his actors total freedom , and in this he evens gets creative as his main subject : watch the scene with Van Gogh in the field of dandelions , as his camera starts to do the small zooms and pans with the surroundings , as opposed to just the actor ( this also goes for when Vincent and his first lady are in the gallery with the long landscape portrait that at first looks like a shot out of Antonioni ) . And Altman never goes for easy or cheesy stylizations when it comes to Vincent going off the deep end - we're given a look at it all as if it's so very simple , which makes it even more effective for his intents and purposes . A tale that acts as a slight cautionary tale for aspiring artists , while also probing a mind so delirious and brilliant that it acts as a tale that offers up many interpretations psychologically and historically , Vincent & Theo is ultimately worthwhile for its collection of superlative scenes , of passion running through even in the smaller moments between characters . And the musical score is affecting as well - think a baroque duet with one side a punk rocker . |
507,904 | 453,068 | 299,478 | 10 | One of the very best films of the year ; Bergman's last cinematic out-pouring is sublime | With Saraband , writer / filmmaker Ingmar Bergman closes the book , so to speak , on his life's work . It's a sequel , which could have been thwarting ( why go back and do the same thing over again , one could ask ) . But it is the kind of sequel that bears significance . Bergman brings back two actors / friends he's worked with numerous times , Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson , and uses their characters from his film / TV series Scenes from a Marriage for a higher purpose than to rake in the bucks . He's out to bring some closure to their relationship , however not entirely based on nostalgia . This time two other characters in the film , new ones , become the centerpiece of the story . As with the majority of his works , he finds two key assets that work to his advantage behind his own personal attachment to the project - the camera / lighting , and the cast . It may be too easy to compare and contrast this film and the series . But it is of interest if only for curiosity sake . There is something of note that revealed to one how the actual cinematography can evolve properly or at least in a fashion that is not off-putting . This time around ( unlike Sven Nykvist's perfect work on ' Marriage ' , a kind of pre-Dogma 95 style to use the camera with the story ) , Bergman decided to make the film for television ( his on occasion work aside from theatre for the past twenty years since Fanny and Alexander ) and also decided to implement digital photography . There are five cinematographers , and it's too tedious to pick out if which one did what properly or who lit this right and so on . But that in Saraband , however , doesn't suffer by way of the digital perspective . If anything , it serves its purpose fully by keeping the naturalistic mood . Some scenes are seen with as clear an eye as ever for Bergman . Others that may be a little more obscured by darkness are affecting psychologically in a way . Bergman's preference is to look at faces and expressions , without much to obscure the actors . What is of surprise is that Bergman injects two things that he intentionally kept out of ' Scenes ' - inner visions ( actually shown , not just spoken and felt by the actors ) , and music . In at least a couple of scenes , to add an intensity and a sense of the surreal , we see what Karina sees in some key moments . She describes an ugly incident with her father . She runs through the woods . When something very ugly occurs , it happens off screen , with a pause given in-between one scream . Needless to say it was tremendously moving . The other involved an enormous , involving fantasy . She's just been told information by her grandfather Johan that is crucial for her decision towards the end . When she sits on the stairs , the camera suddenly cuts to pull back on her on a chair , against a white background , and the camera pulls back further and further at a quick pace . This kind of technique I could feel as if I've seen in maybe a dozen films . When Bergman does this , after such a hopeful scene for Karina , it is a useful technique . Whatever the intention , it's far greater a grab then in a standard action film . Those are the two kinds of scenes / images that are very emotional and immediate on a first viewing . Ullmann and Josephson , who portrayed Marianne and Johan thirty years ago , never lose their ability to play off each other as actors . The focal point this time is with Henrik and Karina though , so the performances by Ahlstedt and especially Dufvenius for Bergman had to be even more affecting than those of the observers . Ahlstedt's Henrik is a tricky sort to empathize with perhaps : can an audience be with him when the drama unfolds with his daughter ? Turns out he brings the humanity in all its darkness and seemingly complex inner-damnation as one of Bergman's most memorable characters . His conflicts with his father and daughter stem from a number of elements , but the key one is very identifiable - death of the one you've loved the most . How can change occur ? This is a question posed as well for Karina , and in Ahlstedt playing her she already shows enough talent and gusto to take on stronger roles in the future . At first sight , I thought she might have been over-hitting her mark , or that Bergman was over-directing . This was not the case , and in the subtle moments she revealed herself on the level of one of Bergman's ' ladies ' ( i . e . Ullmann , Bibi Andersson , and Harriet Anderson ) . As the closure , what does Bergman do ? He does something rather wise to weave the story of the father and daughter together with the continuing story of Johan and Marianne with an equal resonance and emotional weight . The younger two find their own ends to the means , and I would not dare reveal how and why . But for Marianne Bergman answers a question that was asked if not out-right then with all of the action and tension and buildups and payoffs in ' Marriage ' . Does a person know what emotion is , or what it feels like ? In the final scene ( to put it mildly ) , he and Ullmann answer it in an approach that practically had me in tears . This would not mark the first time this has happened while viewing a Bergman film , yet the fact that this is the last gave me a cleansing feeling , of the greatest cathartic release with a thoughtful film . If it's one of the key objectives for a filmmaker in drama and tragedy to reveal it as truthfully as possible , and bring us with the character ( s ) full-circle , Ingmar Bergman's pulled it off wonderfully . Saraband is one of the crucial swan songs in film history ( for my money , and will soon find its way to American theaters ( digital projectors more or less likely ) . |
510,536 | 453,068 | 841,119 | 10 | the best documentary you probably didn't see in 2007 | In Lake of Fire , a film that Tony Kaye - director behind American History X ( which he wanted to be named under the pseudonym ' Humpty Dumpty ' following a loss of final cut ) - has been shooting footage for over fifteen years , is about all you need to see to know the fundamentalist and existentialist ramifications on the abortion-in-America issue . It covers all of the pro-life advocates , the murders of doctors and bombings of clinics , footage of actual abortions , and even an interview with the real-life ' Roe ' from Roe v . Wade . It covers about as much ground , in interviews and footage of those at rallies and on the street and so on and so forth , that can be covered in two and a half hours . But what builds up Kaye's film to such a potent focus is that Kaye doesn't let out necessarily what his stance is on the issue . I think this was the way to go , and not necessarily because it would be insensitive one way or the other - in order to take as objective a stance as possible ( which , in this case , is so next to impossible because of the subjective point for a woman when it comes time to decide on the pregnancy ) , it works best to let the sides speak for themselves . As it turns out , he doesn't let the pro-choice crowd be the only voices of reason either ; one actually sees , when there isn't total crazy Bible-thumping rhetoric , some sound arguments against abortion . And why not ? It's one of the murkiest of all issues in the annals of history , not just American . And as we learn painfully in Lake of Fire , no matter what the most savage and hypocritical of the maniacs who try and stop abortion practices and doctors ( in the old Malcolm X ' by any means necessary ' mold ) , women will always get abortions if it comes down to it . Kaye's scope is large and all encompassing , with interviews from the likes of pragmatic minded Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershwitz ( the latter's parable about the Rabbi hits it the nail on the head , if there could be a nail in this ) , to intelligent pro-lifer Nat Hentoff , to Roe ( real name Norma McCorvey ) who got converted to being pro-life after setting the stage for all of this in the 70s , to the clean-cut psycho Paul Hill . Then there's everyone in-between , from radio show hosts to priests and pastors ( one of which , an uproarious ' Lamb ' protector ) , and then to doctors and professors . Not one word is wasted , which is staggering unto itself for over two and a half hours . What one sees is the issue of choice in general , but also the nature of zealousness . To be sure , the pro-choice crowd are far less zealous than those who use the bible ( or the Pope or just any thoughts about heaven or hell in general and who they think will go to where or not ) as a blanket of protection . And Kaye's style for this is like that of mourning for lack of disagreeing to agree , and vice-versa and in-between . His cinematography shoots things in a stark , gray tone , while Anne Dudley's music - very akin to American History X - is that of the utmost tragedy . There are many beautifully shot scenes , from close-ups to cut-aways , but one that strikes me the most is during the Q & A at a doctor's office with a woman who is about to get an abortion . As far as the issue itself and how viewers will take to it . . . It's not cut and dry . It won't reveal to you anything that might change your opinion , if it's already steadfast , about the issue . What Kaye does do , and it's a brave feat , is to not candy-coat a thing , to be provocative but not to a point of no return , to make clear what is at stake in what it means for a human being to take a life , any life , and how we approach that . As a man I will never have to make that choice of ' do I or don't I ' in the first trimester . But as Lake of Fire makes perfectly clear , it's a civil rights issue through and through . It also makes for some fantastic cinema through someone as meticulous and exemplary a filmmaker as the ( unprolific ) Kaye . |
510,891 | 453,068 | 39,192 | 10 | a melodrama that crackles with vitality decades on | Perhaps embarrassing to say , I've finally come to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger , the writer / director duo behind classics like this , Tales of Hoffman , the Red Shoes , and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ( this despite knowing for a few years already that they were a primary influence on Scorsese , one of my favorites ) . This film , which I picked up almost by accident at the library , exceeded my expectations , if only as a ' period piece ' In all , Black Narcissus , about a group of nuns who go to a secluded Parish in the Himilayas , each Nun experiencing , for better or worse , the startling , picturesque , and affecting atmosphere of these people , is a film that could only be made by these filmmakers , who have such a control over the style and characters that it often flows like music . Even if you don't go for the performances ( and I do mean melodrama in the ' old-school ' sense , not to sell short the term melodrama as something less than regular drama ) , the visual aspect of the film is worth it . Jack Cardiff , who was one of the early British experimenters with Technicolor , provides Powell and Pressberger a plethora of painting with lighting , and with textures . This is the day before the real visual delights were all up to the cinematographers and the director , and here there are examples with colors on the clothes of characters , on the sets ( yes , they are all sets ) , and especially in the enclosed rooms made of brimstone ( there is one scene where the use of yellows and oranges and different types of hues is enough to want to hang it next to impressionist paintings ) . Cardiff , in ever deserved for it , won his Oscar for his work here , and if you love just simply the ( right ) usage of the early Technicolor process , this is for you subject matter otherwise . But in terms of acting , going back to that , it helps that the performances are convincing enough , and sometimes even haunting . Deborah Kerr is a strong presence as the head Nun Sister Clodaugh , who wants to see her mission through to its strongest point , for these people to survive rightfully within the realm of the Lord . There are also other effective supporting performances , but none more everlasting than Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth . She , to me , is a character that is a little more for the audience to identify with in a way ; the one who had her faith beside her at the start , and yet found herself in a downward spiral with her faith . In the last twenty or so minutes of the film , I really got the most interest out of the film subject-matter wise ; her turn makes what could've been cheesy and over-the-top into something special . The make-up , and her expressions and movement and reactions to those around her , practically qualify her for this to be her best performance ( and I say this having seen little if any of her other work ) . It's always something to see the character of good turn to doubt then to evil , and this is something indeed . In short , whether your catholic or not , if you love cinema , Black Narcissus deserves one chance . It may be ' dated ' for some , which is fine , and maybe the subscribed melodrama may not be everyone's cup of tea . But if you give yourself to the film , to let Cardiff and Powell and Pressberger show you what they got , it may also be very rewarding . |
508,879 | 453,068 | 145,046 | 10 | you almost can't believe a man like Dieter existed , but here he is , in brilliant Herzogian detail | We see at the beginning of Little Dieter Needs to Fly Dieter Dengler , the subject of the film , an obsessive-compulsive . Or at least that's what he seems to be by way of constantly opening / closing doors and with his large stock-pile of food in the cellar . In a way director Werner Herzog sets up a central question , in a manner of speaking , to why Dieter is like this . Well , in fact , he's not necessarily obsessive-compulsive as he is just , well , prepared . And why shouldn't he be after the life he's lived ? Aside from the juiciest , most dark and exhilarating and frightening and just downright haunting story of survival that's the core of the picture , the back-story to Dieter is fascinating too . Dieter's own childhood , for example , was already a slog from the start , being in post-war Germnay , poor in a family without much food or prospects , eating wallpaper for " the blue in the walls " . But enter in a passion , an un-yielding desire ( which , of course , is part of Herzog's bread & butter and love of man in his films ) , which is flying , and for Dieter there was nothing else but to fulfill this . What it ends up leading to , after becoming an American citizen , is more than he could've bargained for . Dieter is one of Herzog's most compelling , quirky , and compassionately observed figures in his whole career , a man who's memory is scarred by brutal memories of his time being a Vietnam POW , though at the least it provides for some of the most compelling storytelling in any documentary of the last 20 years . Ironically , the storytelling comes through - unlike in The Wild Blue Yonder - mostly in lots and lots of exposition from Dieter on some of the most minute details of his time in the different prison camps ( the torture tactics , the bugs , the brutal , wretched violence and threats like with the wedding ring tale ) , and leading into the most interesting and sad portions with his best friend Duane . They escaped the prisons together , but found that their journey to reach Cambodia would not be so easy . Now , through most of this , the talking does something that is enthralling , which is that as Dieter goes through his stories and occasionally does re-enactments ( in fashion Herzog could only do , with Dieter already middle-aged being led in handcuffs et all through the jungle ) , one can picture all of this in the mind . It all becomes even more vivid to try and get these little details and the intensity of it all together into a form of reality . That Herzog keeps these portions simple , and knows when to hold Dieter back in his answers , makes him all the more a key figure of interest . He's not ever totally ' normal ' , but unlike a Timothy Treadwell , you wont think ever really about laughing at him either . So , along with his hero ( whether of war or not is hard to say , as Dieter disputes that claim as saying the ones who died were the real heroes , typical but perhaps quite true ) , Herzog stylizes his film with a mix of old stock footage when detailing Dieter's early life ( the period footage of WW2 scenes and post German rubble is always a captivating sight , and with Herzog gets up a notch in his timing and assemblage with music ) , and in capturing the footage of Vietnam in aerial viewings of jungles and fields . Herzog is also very wise at not injecting politics much at all into the proceedings , there's no ' I was used by the Americans ' or whatever thrown into the mix . There's even a sense that Dieter doesn't hold too much of a grudge with everything that happened to him , that it's just what happens in time of war ( and , of course , he WAS dropping bombs on people from his plane ) . Now , through much of these harrowing - and even in the smaller bits involving what went on in prisons , bathrooms and the scraps of food it's always harrowing - luckily Herzog keeps a level of humor in check as well . One of my very favorite scenes in the film , where Herzog breaks away for a moment from Dieter , is when he shows a ' trainee ' film used for American soldiers meant to show what should happen in case they get abandoned in the jungle alone . . . with all of the gear that they could possibly have including a knife , a flare gun , and a very fast helicopter to come around ( and this is put to hilariously dead-pan voice-over work ) . Yet even the moments where one laughs only brings to mind the moments of absurdity in a time of absolute crisis , and how one can't ever really imagine what it's like to be alone in a foreign territory surrounded by people who will do anything to keep said person as a form of collateral in war-time . Dieter , aside from knowing that flying and airplanes are the only way of life he would ever want to have ( and Herzog ends the film on a wonderfully somber , elegiac note where he flies over a large field of airplanes ) , knows what it is to have to survive at all costs . But yet , as well , as in many of Herzog's protagonist driven films , there's the near unalterable spirit that will keep on enduring if one's strong enough , even through horrid moments ( the fate of Dunae ) and problems all the way up to the rescue by the helicopter ( is he American , or a spy , they ask on the chopper ) . Dieter is such a man with a spirit , and he's given via Herzog a fantastic , tragic , creative , well-shot , albeit maybe too short , tribute to his life . And , of course , it pumps me up even more for the upcoming dramatization Rescue Dawn . |
508,206 | 453,068 | 74,235 | 10 | the stuff of legends , as they try not to be , as Woody Guthrie personifies the quest and struggle of the working man | Bound for Glory breaks the trends of the usual bio-pics on musicians because Woody Guthrie , unlike most , sincerely wasn't out for fame in the usual sense . He liked recognition from time to time , and to be able to get his voice out to as many people as he could . But - and this is from the looks of the film and from what else has come up about Guthrie - he never sold out . He wasn't a political figure , but his songs had that driving force of politics , of something inspirational , that couldn't be reached through typical rhetoric . When Guthrie goes through the fields of workers picking artichokes or workers at a factory and he goes on and on singing his protest songs until the bosses beat him up and wreck his guitar , it's about as close as a political act as one has ever seen a singer / musician in a based-on-a-true-story picture . But at the same time Hal Ashby isn't out to make an entirely explicit ' message ' heavy movie , even if there is , of course , messages to be taken to heart . It's about the man himself , and the times and circumstances that drove Woody Guthrie on his own , apart from his family , in mid 1930s depression era America . One could look at the film as an examination of a man caught in such dire times , of a country where the line between rich and poor was so significant there was barely any middle ground . But one can also look at it as the story of a wanderer , someone who - as his protégée Bob Dylan would later make as his proclamation in Like a Rolling Stone " with no direction home " - always felt a little restless . His journey is what really counts and shapes his music and outlook . It almost comes close to what it must be to have faith ; if you want to sing , just sing , as Guthrie tells a bunch of kids ( a little simplistic but with a kernel of truth ) , no matter what it's about . To suddenly find more meaning in the songs from the circumstances becomes part of the narrative , of a man who could be a hero in the historical sense while not being the kind of man who would be entirely one to aspire to be . He's happy to just walk down a road and sing his songs for anyone who will hear , as his family leaves him behind and any chance of conventional success floats by the wayside . It's hard not to make messages in a film where its character in real life once had the ultimate f-you to the establishment right on his guitar case ( " This machine kills fascists " ) . But it's the high skill of film-making , and the performance at the lead , that enrich what is already potent , awesome material . Haskell Wexler , the late-great cinematographer behind Cuckoo's Nest and Medium Cool , puts his stamp significantly as a work of Americana of the traditionalist sense : a dust-storm is like something both alien and beautiful , while the train scenes are exciting , lush with vibrancy with dirt all around . Ashby , too , has a mark here from his editing days ; there's not one transition from scene to scene that doesn't have a fade , making it a step removed from the usual lot of films at the time ( even Ashby's ) where just a straight cut-to or a jump-cut would suffice . He could've made this film , in the technical sense , twenty years before and it wouldn't of made much of a difference . And finally , David Carradine . If Kill Bill is the guiltiest pleasure of his career , Bound for Glory is his serious triumph as an actor . He's got that quality , which may or may not have been like the real Guthrie , that sucks a viewer in even when the character does something or says something that shouldn't feel like it's the thing to do as the protagonist of the story . He's a character led solely by his convictions , and Carradine enriches that through the performances of the songs , and his own self-confidence radiating just walking down a road or going to do something out of the goodness of his soul . From every moment he's on screen , as if in some kind of folk-rhythm mode out of Kung-fu , he's mesmerizing , in a performance that should've been nominated along with De Niro , Finch and Giannini in the best actor race ( albeit more low-key than the others ) . Bound for Glory is a blissful epic of conscience , and a kind of eccentric story a man who lacked any cynicism in his being . Plus , of course , the songs are great , as they're played on the spot without any over-dubbing . |
508,577 | 453,068 | 56,736 | 10 | Like a personal blend of quasi-bourgeois drama filmed in a meticulous , documentary-implied style | While The Eclipse is one of the most superbly directed films I may have ever seen , on a first impression it was ( obviously ) a lot to take in all at once . As with his other films , L'Eclisse isn't for everyone . But Antonioni distinguishes himself here as a great artist of the medium by not only creating the kinds of compositions ( lensed by Gianni De Venanzo , who worked with Antonioni on Il Grido and La Notte as well as the WW2 documentary Days of Glory and Fellini's 8 ) no one could ever justifiably imitate correctly , but creating a depth to the substance . On one hand one aspect of L'Eclisse that's appealing is how it balances out the style and substance ( though the style is arguably the more distinguishable and greater than the two ) . On the other another aspect is that it could put off viewers not terribly familiar with Antonioni's psychology ( which , like Scorsese for example , is at least consistent and engaging with the rest of the director's catalog of work ) . How intently he gets inside Vittoria's head , and at the same time maintains a detachment despite the varying emotional contexts , is extraordinary , if highly personal . Like Vittoria , Antonioni does something that's fascinating throughout the film - though one doesn't know what it is exactly that holds Vittoria , and for that matter Piero , in their respective attitudes , one doesn't feel quite left out of anything heart-stopping for the story / character's sake . The film lets us in just enough as to no keep us curious , and it also doesn't keep itself in a depressive tone , as it is realistic to how the people in this city exist . In fact , there's another facet to L'Eclisse which especially worked for me - the poetry that slips itself in small doses amid the visual sweep . Whether it be one of the long takes , an elongated view on a building or street-light , or on Vitty as Vittoria , it's in the observation that subtext forms . This is the kind of motion picture that a shot-by-shot analysis would serve like would a Picasso or Chagal . And as a plus to the film's success are the actors turns - Monica Vitti is the only actress from that period and country I can think of who could've pulled off what Antonioni wanted in Vittoria . Her face , after being in front of us minute after minute , becomes familiar despite her inner-angst . She knows what Vittoria's fears and loss of vitality means for the story . She's not a person without a laugh or smile ever , yet those emotions arrive only after the known mood is peeled away like a layer of skin . " To love I think one shouldn't know the other , " she says , almost arbitrarily . " But then , maybe one shouldn't love at all . " Is this Antonioni hitting the hammer on the head , or is it just one of those kinds of comments a woman like her would make ? As in L'Avventura , there is the mystery around the female lead . Is love beyond her reach we might wonder , or has the idea of it vanished under false pretense ? Alain Deleon also deserves credit for his Piero , as he counters her quiet , more fogged demeanor as a stockbroker in Rome . That under current to the story - the major bustle and noise of the gamblers in the stockbroker's hall - is also part of the contrast , to the stretches with minimal dialog and sound . The last act , which regards Vittoria's relationship to Piero ( a time after he empty break-up with her past lover Rodrigo ) culminates in an astonishing feat of storytelling and film-art . As it becomes all the more evident neither one will arrive at a certain ( usually ) desolate cross-road corner to meet up , the idea of an eclipse over these people and places is hypnotic , unique . For its time it must've been quite a stroke by a director , and forty or so years later the whole sequence leaves its effect in due . Haunting formations beneath and surrounded by the sky and clouds , and it's a bit intellectually loaded . There can be any interpretation for this climax ( or as one could claim an anti-climax ) that isn't manipulated by Antonioni . The sequence , as with the rest of the film , asks only to see the world based on how one would think it can , or will , be seen . And it fits memorably , like bedroom slippers , into the prime of Antonioni's career as an auteur . Among the three films in Antonioni's films from this period of his career ( 1960-1962 ) , this is the one I'd recommend the highest . The Eclipse is also the kind that's nearly mandatory to see more than once if sincerely interested in checking out at all ( in other words , don't watch it with pre-conceived notions of this being a dramatic love story with solid conventions to it ) . |
510,520 | 453,068 | 70,359 | 10 | In Paris , lovers have their own strange ways . | In what could have been seen as a coup towards the sexual " revolution " ( purposefully I use quotations for that word ) , Jean Eustache wrote and directed The Mother and the Whore as a poetic , damning critique of those who can't seem to get enough love . If there is a message to this film - and I'd hope that the message would come only after the fact of what else this Ben-Hur length feature has to offer - it's that in order to love , honestly , there has to be some level of happiness , of real truth . Is it possible to have two lovers ? Some can try , but what is the outcome if no one can really have what they really want , or feel they can even express to say what they want ? What is the truth in the relationships that Alexandre ( Jean-Pierre Leaud ) has with the women around him ? He's a twenty-something pseudo-intellectual , not with any seeming job and he lives off of a woman , Marie ( Bernadette Lafont ) slightly older than him and is usually , if not always , his lover , his last possible love-of-his-life left him , and then right away he picks up a woman he sees on the street , Veronika ( Françoise Lebrun ) , who perhaps reminds him of her . Soon what unfolds is the most subtly torrid love triangle ever put on film , where the psychological strings are pulled with the cruelest words and the slightest of gestures . At first we think it might be all about what will happen to Alexandre , but we're mistaken . The women are so essential to this question of love and sex that they have to be around , talking on and on , for something to sink in . We're told that part of the sexual revolution , in theory if not entirely in practice ( perhaps it was , I can't say having not been alive in the period to see it first-hand ) , was that freedom led to a lack of inhibitions . But Eustache's point , if not entirely message , is that it's practically impossible to have it both ways : you can't have people love you and expect to get the satisfaction of ultimate companionship that arrives with " fing " , as the characters refer over and over again . The Mother and the Whore's strengths as far as having the theme is expressing this dread beneath the promiscuity , the lack of monogamy , while also stimulating the intellect in the talkiest talk you've ever seen in a movie . At the same time we see a character like Alexandre , who probably loves to hear himself talk whether it's about some movie he saw or something bad from his past , Eustache makes it so that the film itself isn't pretentious - though it could appear to be - but that it's about pretentiousness , what lies beneath those who are covering up for their internal flaws , what they need to use when they're ultimately alone in the morning . If you thought films like Before Sunrise / Sunset were talky relationship flicks , you haven't met this . But as Eustache revels in the dialogs these characters have , sometimes trivial , or ' deep ' , or sexual , or frank , or occasionally extremely ( or in a subdued manner ) emotional , it's never , ever uninteresting or boring . On the contrary , for those who can't get enough of a good talky film , it's exceptional . While his style doesn't call out to the audaciousness that came with his forerunners in the nouvelle vague a dozen years beforehand , Eustache's new-wave touch is with the characters , and then reverberating on them . This is realism with a spike of attitude , with things at time scathing and sarcastic , crude and without shame in expression . All three of the actors are so glued to their characters that we can't ever perceive them as ' faking ' an emotion or going at all into melodrama . It's almost TOO good in naturalistic / realism terms , but for Eustache's material there is no other way around it . Luckily Leaud delivers the crowning chip of his career of the period , and both ladies , particularly Labrun as the " whore " Veronika ( a claim she staggeringly refutes in the film's climax of sorts in one unbroken shot ) . And , as another touch , every so often , the director will dip into a quiet moment of thought , of a character sitting by themselves , listening to a record , and in contemplation or quiet agony . This is probably the biggest influence on Jim Jarmusch , who dedicated his film Broken Flowers to Eustache and has one scene in particular that is lifted completely ( and lovingly ) in approach from the late Parisian . Sad to say , before I saw Broken Flowers , I never heard of Eustache or this film , and procuring it has become quite a challenge ( not available on US DVD , and on VHS so rare it took many months of tracking at various libraries ) . Not a minute of that time was wasted ; the Mother and the Whore is truly beautiful work , one of the best of French relationship dramas , maybe even just one of the most staggeringly lucid I've seen from the country in general . It's complex , it's sweet , it's cold , it's absorbing , and it's very long , perhaps too long . It's also satisfying on the kind of level that I'd compare to Scenes from a Marriage ; true revelations about the human condition continue to arise 35 years after each film's release . |
510,941 | 453,068 | 47,892 | 10 | For me this rivals Breathless as the first great French new-wave crime film - a character study with a great character | Bob Le Flambeur ( the gambler ) is played by Roger Duchesne in a performance that is as cool , concentrated , and amusingly intense as Jean-Pierre Melville's direction is . This is a film that's about a heist , but it's not primarily so . Bob is the main guy , " a legend of a recent past " , who makes it his pleasure ( and perhaps curse ) to use whatever money he has at the tables and at the track . He even has a slot machine in his closet . And as the aging Bob , he also keeps an eye here and there over the young Paolo ( Daniel Couchy , in a subtly amateurish but impressive performance ) and the beautiful Anne ( Isabelle Corey ) as a sub-plot between them unfolds . Bob , meanwhile , in the midst of his danger of losing all he owns , gambles a big one - to knock over 800 million in the Deauville casino using the ( old ) professionals from before gangsters changed in France . What unfolds from there is no less than remarkable storytelling and style with pinache . On a budget that must've been ultra-low for the times ( perhaps not El Mariachi low but perhaps more or less Clerks ' budget ) , Melville , along with his cameramen Henri Decae and Maurice Blettery , the shots and images are magnificent . Even when shooting on streets there's an American feel that Melville is fusing into his own French-Parisian rhythm , and it never crosses into the dangerous realm of parody or ( worse ) of a low-grade B-movie . The sense of suspense is kept just right , the humor that does pop up ( the kind of slick humor one would see in a Bogart movie ) is timed to not over-stay , and the pace is tight while some scenes move slow , but in the kind of slow pace that doesn't meander a bit ( like , say , in Breathless ) . When the climax comes , we don't know whether to root for Bob one way or the other , but one thing is certain , Bob will be remembered . Classic |
509,199 | 453,068 | 52,357 | 10 | Favorite Hitchcock and likely one of the most challenging , harrowing great films ever | Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is probably his most discussed film , and I believe that since it is so controversial - and yet living up to such hype by having a level of mystery , daring and true human interest that is open to interpretation - it gets better with every passing year . It deserves more credit than it gets ( like most of Hitchcock's films ) and though it is well credited with it's intrigue , I think that Psycho ( not that it is a bad film ) gets more credit than this film should get . There are at least a few reasons for this , arguably of course . One , the acting is spectacular including James Stewart in one of his very best turns as the weary , emotionally perplexed and obsessed cop with a slight fear of heights and a ' thing ' for a certain ' dead ' woman . Hitchcock's leading lady here Kim Novak , is equally interesting and ambiguous as the leading lady ( or ladies ) . Two , the atmosphere Hicthcock invokes in this film is just right for the psychological tailspin that Stewart gets into , with the usage of lighting , real San Fransisco locations , and particularly the color green all to perfect , eerie effect . And three , there's Bernard Herrmann's score , on par with the Psycho score though maybe even better as a straight piece of classical music in the guise of tense , haunting movie music . It's also the kind of picture that is a MUST if you've already seen it , or even if not , and it comes around town on the big screen as all the images and dark scenes come into great view . Not one of the more outright ' fun ' Hitchcock films , with the few chuckles plain comic relief , and maybe his best serious work . |
508,442 | 453,068 | 180,093 | 10 | A unique look at addiction by Aronofsky / Selby ; it's the best DARE movie never made ( or would be made ) | Mr . Aronofsky's Requiem for a dream definitely is unique - no other film I have seen on heroin and / or speed addiction has been filmed or acted like this . And it helps that I saw it again , because on a first viewing I looked more for the performances , and liked it , but didn't really regard the actual cinematic technique for it with as much un-equaled regard as many others have ( at the time I considered it more of an MTV-styled take on a very powerful topic ) . But now watching it years later ( 2006 I mean , despite what the date of this comment says ) I watch it , having gone through lots of other film-viewing experience , and I like it a lot more . In a way what's really mesmerizing and heartbreaking about the picture is that the contrivances are not based in the actual script or story - not that there isn't one or two that might be hard to not have in there - but rather a sort of fashioning of continuous cinematic contrivance . In other words , Aronofsky pushes the bounds of everything that can be done with the camera and editing in terms of subjective-viewpoints , ideas through montage , and the power of abstractions in the realm of the main theme of the film - unattainable escapism . One might be tempted to compare to Eisenstein with the montage , but unlike him Arnonofsky isn't putting forward a political message , but a societal one . While the cinematography by Matthew Libatique and the editing by Jay Rambinowitz give the viewer the whole subjective , jarring view of what it feels like in the first person to do these dangerous drugs , some of the time , all this being says , it almost goes by too quickly ( if you blink you'll miss the characters actually intaking the drugs , which are done in half second cuts ) . Not that that's a bad thing , and in fact the techniques used here , which include fast-motion , camera - strapped - on - the - front - of - a - person shots , odd high-angle placements , and wild array of things done that I still wonder how one could think them up , are quite ingenious . Only one scene on a repeat viewing - when Sarah Goldfarb ( Burtyn ) is going totally off the deep-end in her apartment with the TV show spiraling around her - doesn't totally work for me . Also , it will be difficult for some people to view the characters in their dissension to demise . Bustyn , ( who , if you still believe the Oscars to really be a mark of merit for true achievements , proves this to be false via her loss to the much less warranted Julia Robert ) plays an old , lonely woman who dreams of getting on a game-show that she doesn't realize might not be real and decides her favorite red dress is all that matters for the show to the show . It's too small , so she goes to the doctor to get pills ( uppers ) and they do indeed work , but then she starts taking too , too many and ends up hallucinating that her refrigerator is moving ( the first film to use a refrigerator puppeteer by the way ) and then things start to spiral . This also goes for her entranged son Harry ( Jared Leto ) who is slipping into a descent into smack with his girlfriend Marion ( Jennifer Connelly ) who sleeps with other men and then some in order to get stuff when Harry can , and his best friend Tyrone ( Marlon Wayans in his best performance to date ) who is also descending , but might seem to have it not as bad as the others by the time the film ends . But like I said , it is hard to view these characters falling deeper and deeper into insanity and desperation and all since it is also difficult to sympathize with these people . Yet , by the end of the film I almost felt like I was going to burst into tears not because I felt sad for the characters but more because of how powerful there journey led then to their destination . Like it or not though , this film begs for multiple viewings - and some extra years of looking at other films , which was the case with me . There is almost no room for true catharsis at the end , and nothing will ever be the same for anyone , especially as they're alive and lacking redemption ( though if I had to place who's story is most compelling , and performance-wise as well , it would be Burstyn's ) . |
509,462 | 453,068 | 52,354 | 10 | might be Fuller's most underrated ( and one of his most under-seen ) films ; a great work merging pulp post-war drama and documentary | Samuel Fuller knows war , and is one of the only directors in American movie history who could accurately portray the horrific experiences of it in a form like the motion picture . His pessimism and idealism , if that sounds a little odd to mix together , work for him as a storyteller , and at the same time he's always out to tell the truth , however brutal ( or put into melodramatic constructs ) it can get . Verboten , however , deals with the post-war experience , as we only get in the opening scenes the big boom of WAR - in bold for a point . The opening shot is like one big exclamation point that seems to continue on into the rest of the scenes : a dead soldier on the ground , the camera pans up , we see another soldier shot down in war-torn terrain . Simple , direct language . Then Fuller punctuates the intensity with something interesting : the title song played over the opening credits as both irony and sincerity , and then Beethoven music over a shoot-out between Americans and the Nazis . Sgt David Brent ( James Best ) is shot , the battle goes on , and then it transitions to him being treated for his wounds . It might lead one to believe that this will be a somewhat conventional WW2 flick ( somewhat in that one usually wouldn't find Beethoven and , later on to an extent , Wagner put into these images ) , but this isn't the case . Instead , Fuller makes this a ' Coming Home ' kind of movie , though not at all in the sense that ' this soldier comes home injured and so on and so on ' . Instead of really going home , Brent stays on in Germany , as he's fallen head over heels for the woman , Helga ( Susan Cummings , pretty good at pulling off the German accent ) , and wants to work in a smaller capacity in the military so he can marry her . What he doesn't realize is that a ) she wants him more for money so she can get food for herself and brother , however this gets complex emotionally at the point of revelation to the slightly naive but heartfelt Brent , and b ) there's an underground Hitler youth sect called the Werewolves , who want to pick right up off where Hitler ended - starting small , despite argument within the group - by attacking the very government that's now embedded in Germany to give them , as Brent describes , a " blood transfusion . " With this , plus footage from the Nuremburg trials , and ( as narrated , I think , by Fuller himself ) a quick , no-punches-pulled history of the Nazi war crimes piece by piece , we get a multi-faceted look at a society in the dire straits of an immediate post-war environment . While Rossellini handled it his own way with Germany Year Zero , Fuller tackles it with layers : first there's the love story , or what is the tragic downfall of a man who can't see anything past what he thinks should be reasonable , that it's his wife and a child on the way that he can't leave , until the revelation that he's ( partly ) been swindled . Baker and Cummings , along with Harold Daye as Helga's young , confused brother , perform at with the utmost detail to emotions ; these aren't very easy B-movie parts , though they could've been that . Then another layer is the political one , the struggle of a society to come to grips with being conquered , and a mentality which is made sensationalized , to be sure , by Fuller , in respect to making the Nazi's a total no-gray-area thing : they're evil , particularly when they cancel out reason to meet their ends . And finally there's the layer of style , which is strangely absorbing . This is probably one of Fuller's ' talkiest ' films , which isn't a bad thing considering it's one of his best written scripts , as the characters don't talk simply or in too many platitudes ( with the exception of a small scene where two characters talk about the Hitler youth as juvenile delinquents , which is actually , according to Fuller's autobiography , probably another layer to consider in the subtext and the 50s period of movies ) . And Fuller shoots this almost in a real European style , when he's not going for fight scenes or battles , as the editing isn't always very fast , and sometimes a cut won't happen for a full minute , or longer . There's an odd tension that grows out of this , especially when there's something said by a character that gets another one wild-eyed or suspicious ; Fuller could easily go for a big close-up , but there's a more sinister , cold quality to not moving away from two people in a conversation without a simple over-the-shoulder deal . But when it requires it , like the big brawl outside the American military office , or the Nuremburg footage spliced into Franz's memories of the Werewolves , Fuller can be as stunning stylist as ever . Very hard to find , but extremely worth it if you'r either a fan of the director's or of WW2 movies set in Germany - or even just a history-buff - Verboten ! is an intellectual experience and a strong emotional one , with a cast that is better than expected from a B-movie , and an attitude towards the ' other ' that is equally damning and thought provoking . |
509,672 | 453,068 | 95,327 | 10 | a combination of Rome Open City and Wiesel's Night ( and like both , an extreme , personally felt story ) | In 1988 Grave of the Fireflies was placed on a double-bill alongside My Neighbor Totoro . Two of the most endearing films ever created - animated of otherwise - were paired alongside one another , more than likely to balance each other out ; after being submersed in a pure tale of innocence and delight like Miyazaki's great film , there could be accepted such a bleak , heartbreaking story of survival . And both films , incidentally , were based on true experiences , and while Miyazaki's story wasn't without some sadness in real life ( his mother was really sick with TB in the hospital ) , Akiyuki Nosaka's story is one drenched in the worst horrors imaginable for a child . It's basically about two siblings , an older brother and younger sister , who are left practically orphans in a Japan completely devastated by the constant barrage of bombs falling all around , and with very little hope in sight . This lays the groundwork for their relationship , a bond very fragile and incredibly endearing . Not since Rossellini and De Sica had a filmmaker , in this case Isao Takahata , touched a nerve so deeply etched out in deconstructing the horrors of wartime . By leaving us with these two characters , who piece by piece are stripped of their innocence in just the simple task of fending for themselves in a shelter ( they at first stay with an aunt who considers them freeloaders ) and scrounging for food any way possible , we're left with nothing else but their struggle , essentially . The backdrop itself almost becomes abstract , something so huge that we don't even know that it's Americans dropping the bombs , as it's already too much to grasp that a child's parent is no longer with them . Like Elie Wiesel's book Night , the backdrop and horror is used to pit these people in an untenable situation , and it can only end , honestly , without compromise . So , indeed , Grave of the Fireflies is bleak as hell , but compelling because it doesn't stray from its path with these characters , and that in many scenes we're connected to them without the overbearing heart-tugs of a common Disney feature ( though , ironically , as Ebert points out on an interview with the DVD , the big eyes in most anime is based upon those in early Disney films ) . The animation is exceptionally refined without being excessive in violence ; images are visceral for just what is briefly revealed , without the extraneous shots that one might see in a work not meant in a G-rated film ( i . e . when Seita sees her mother , dead and wrapped in bandages with the maggots and bugs crawling all over ) , and at the same time there's a sense of wonderment as the two children watch the fireflies in the shelter . The voice-work , too , doesn't strain credulity - these sound like , if it were a regular live-action feature , the kids who would play these parts ( and , speaking of neo-realism , the two credited for Seita and Setsuko never worked before or again ) . Most often , the film is heart-rending because of how things build with the situation . It's tragic enough to see the loss of the mother on the son , but then to hide it from the little girl becomes a greater challenge . Each time a layer of emotional defense is peeled back , it becomes harder not to connect strongly with these characters , such as when Seiko casually says she knows her mother is dead as she buries the fireflies and Seita finally cries out for the first time , or when Seita is left broken and humiliated after being beat up by the farmer for stealing food for sick Setsuko . And , finally , there's the last ten or so minutes , which I won't mention here . Suffice to say it's one of those times in movies where the opening of the film - Seiko dying homeless and famished - is explained to a perfect degree by film's end . It's a harrowing experience , and one of the very best animated films . |
509,475 | 453,068 | 70,379 | 10 | The Breakthrough | To say that this film isn't good and original is to insult film-buffs everywhere ( or unless you are the average film person ) . This was a amazing ( and original ) breakthrough for stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro ( who knew they could look so young ) and co-writer / director Martin Scorsese . Before this he made small films that didn't pull in that much ( except for Woodstock ) , but this was a big leap that depicted what he knew best , the street life . Great drama , great direction and great scene ( and violence ) depiction make this a great film to see for all film buffs and especially Scorsese fans . |
508,114 | 453,068 | 61,132 | 10 | the most irreverent Italian satire you've never seen , this is one of Pasolini's very best | How I love a film that taps into the absurd while staying true to the symbolism , and in the process mocking it and then creating symbolism again . It's a very tricky thing - Bunuel was one of the masters at it - and Pier Paolo Pasolini , in one of his rare outright comedies , does just that . The Hawks and the Sparrows is simple enough to explain , in its central conceit : an older man ( Toto ) and a younger man ( Ninetto ) are walking along on some not-totally-clear journey ( Toto might have some debts to fix or something , and he has apparently eighteen children ) , and they meet a talking crow , who talks and talks a lot . Then they get into some strange happenings , all comical . But it's the kind of comedy then that Pasolini uses like some deranged poetic waxing on about silent comedy and theories on God and faith and love and politics and , uh , stomach cramps I guess . It's completely off the wall , at times like a roadrunner cartoon ( or , for that matter , the best Buster Keaton ) , and it's told with a dedication to the comic situation . It's masterful . At times it doesn't seem that way though . It could , in less concerted hands , be more scatter-shot , with some scenes working better than others , and with the one sure bet being the crow ( voiced by a great Francesco Leonetti ) . But from the start , Paoslini is completely confident with the material , from the opening titles that are sung ( heh ) , with the throw-away scene with the kids dancing at the restaurant ( with an amazing Ennio Morricone rock song that pops in and out of the film ) , to the sudden inter-titles ala Monty Python ( " the crow is a " left-wing intellectual " ) , and then onward with the little stories within the framework of the ' road movie ' . The biggest chunk Pasolini shows us is the story of two monks - also played by Toto and Davoli - who are instructed by their head monk to talk to the hawks and sparrows and teach them about God . And they do , in bird speak ( which is also subtitled in case it's needed ) , and then go through an allegorical tale of the ins and outs of faith . It takes some wicked subversion to make these scenes work , but they work hilariously , to the point where I laughed almost every minute of the sequence ( as well as with other ones , the exception being the archival clips late in the film of the protest marches ) . Pasolini once said he was " as unbeliever who has a nostalgia for belief " , imbues the story of the monks with a sense of charm to it - you like Toto and Davoli in the parts , not even so much that they're good in the roles , which they are very much so , but because there's some bedrock that the satire can spring from so easily . He , via the exceptional Tonino Delli Colli , films the Hawks and the Sparrows as strong in sumptuous black and white as any of his other early-mid 60s films . But there's a lot more going on within the comedy ; it's like he skims a line that he could make it as , like with some of his other work ( unfortunately ala Teorema ) pretentious and annoyingly trite in its intellectual points . But as he goes to lengths to put a spin on it , it turns into pitch-black comedy , revealing him as an even deeper artist because of it . Take the birth scene , where the weird theater-type troupe who drive around in a car have to pause in their play on " How the Romans Ruined the Earth " , and it suddenly becomes a sly farce unto itself . Something that should be sacred is given the air of playfulness , as though everyone is told " yes , it's alright to be in on the joke " , where Toto covers Ninetto's eyes , other actors in the group pray , and then walla , there's a baby , clean as day . Morricone's score , I might add , brings a lot to this air of fun and playfulness , even when ( and rightfully so ) it goes to the more typical strings and orchestral sounds than the rockabilly , which sounds more like unused bits from Pulp Fiction . And finally , there's the crow itself , which unto itself - had Pasolini not made it mockable - would be funny anyway , as it's a frigging talking crow who for some reason follows the men anywhere they go . It's already allegorical of a sort of guide or voice of reason on their journey , which is fine . But including the ending especially , Pasolini allows for the joke to flip over itself . With the Hawks and the Sparrows , we get the absurd and the surreal , placed wonderfully in social constructs , and it reveals a filmmaker who can , unlike but like his controversial reputation presents , open up a whole other perspective with a strange twist that mixes classic Italian film style and scathing subject matter . |
509,158 | 453,068 | 56,732 | 10 | still one of the top comedies about utter frustration | The Exterminating Angel , what a movie - I've seen it twice now and each time it went against ( in the best possible way ) my better logic . It's a work that's the product of a kind of madman place , and it stays impressive forty plus years later due to its humor . Like Dr . Strangelove , or maybe more so akin to a Kafka work submerged in Catholic plague , the film subverts expectations . At the start of the film , Luis Bunuel makes it clear as day that his only explanation is that its nonsense . If one were wanting to dig on a pure comedy level it would work because the dialog is so strange and out of place ( if taken seriously ) but consistently so , and the timing of the sort of downward spiral that plunges into the denouement ( if there is one ) . If one were wanting to look at it for more of the technical reasons , its peerless - Bunuel has a steady , carefully controlled camera , quite tradition at times . But then at others he reveals his revealing , awesome flashes of symbolism , which may or may not fly over some viewers heads . And then , if one were to go so far , on an existential level it goes into the realm of nothingness , a kind of study of how a nonsensical existence , trapped for reasons not made clear to the viewer ( barely to the rich cast of bourgeois , a running gag almost ) , which also calls in the Kafka aspect . By the hand of a surrealist comes a deadpan satire , and it almost becomes a dark fable ( the Catholic aspect to the film ) by the end . It's a rather shocking film on the first try , which is why it probably had some controversy when it first opened . Giving it another chance , the film works better , on a more sensory level almost . This is the kind of film where you're either scratching your head and turning it off midway through , or laughing ( while in the grips of cringing perhaps ) and in a weird awe . One of Bunuel's very best Mexican films . |
510,109 | 453,068 | 65,531 | 10 | One of my new favorite heist pictures : a smooth success for Melville and his cast | Jean-Pierre Melville is a director I've only recently gotten acquainted with ( I need to see Bob le Flambeur and Le Samourai again to fully grasp them ) , but in watching Le Cercle Rouge ( The Red Circle , supposedly based on a saying in Buddhism ) I realized I was watching as skillful and absorbing a crime film as I had seen in a quite some time . Though his film has dialog , it is mainly to keep the film's scenes rolling along , adherent to the plot . What kept me on the alert , even in seemingly mundane scenes / sequences , was the emphasis on the characters ' movements , or behavior patterns . Melville has his story laid out , and he is careful to take his time to tell it ( this could seem boring to some , but it does seem to work since he puts a little more emphasis on the weight of the characters / environments over plot ) . Yet look at each of the four main players : Alain Deleon as Corey ( just released from prison , scheming a new heist ) , Gian Maria Volonte as Vogel ( escaping & on the lam from hand-cuffed custody , meets Corey by luck ) , Yves Montand as Jansen ( an aged pro with many years of experience with weapons , a friend of Vogel ) , and Andre Bourvil as Mattei ( an experienced investigator , who is on the look-out for Vogel , and on his toes with internal affairs ) . Each of these actors plays their parts with precision , detachment , and they each have their own kinds of moments that indicate to the audience what their personalities might be besides as criminals and cops . The heist sequence gives little hints , for example , like how Vogel cops-a-feel off a female statue while passing down the halls , or how Jansen takes out a flask and merely has a whiff of the contents ( and what a dream this guy creates ) . Even Corey's movements involving a photograph of a woman arouse interest . As absorbing and cool the story becomes , and as great the skills were to make it happen ( via cinematographer Henri Decae , the editing , and the musical score by Eric Demarsan ) , it's the people on the screen that gain fascination , in how they stay true to their natures and ideals . Not a film to be missed by French new-wave enthusiasts , and modern-day crime movie buffs might want to take the 140 minutes to soak up the atmosphere of Melville's work . A suave piece of film-making that still ranks as one of my all-time favorites . |
508,275 | 453,068 | 405,296 | 10 | one of the more imaginative , thoughtful , complex possible ' cult ' films of the decade | It's not very often that Phillip K . Dick's writings get adapted well on to the screen . Films like Paycheck and Impostor might have there moments , but there is much lacking where high-tech action scenes and dreary direction replaces more of the thought in his work . Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly , however , could be part of that handful of films ( the others Scott's Blade Runner and Spielberg's Minority Report ) that do justice to his sensibilities as both a science-fiction spinner and social satirist . The technique he uses to add some imagination is , at first assumption , interesting but a little outdated . Rotoscoping the live action with animation has been done since the late 70's , and Linklater himself used it for maybe his most philosophically complex film Waking Life . Here though the same technique he used before is put into a narrative that , compared to Waking Life , is non-linear to the point that it is very faithful to Dick's work . But there's more than meets the eye , literally , to what Linklater is doing with his technique . It really does fit the mood of the film , one where to abscond is almost second nature , but the control over thought and the similarly powerful self-destruction comes at high prices for decent people . To discuss the story would have to involve much explanation of the characters , who they may ( or may not as case is ) be , and how drugs make up the integral , damned environment . Keanu Reeves is in one of his best performances , arguably , as Bob Arcter , apart of dealing what is called Substance-D , a very detrimental narcotic that sooner or later starts to play serious tricks on a person's mind ( left brain vs . right brain is in many scenes ) . But Reeves is also Officer Fred , who has been assigned to infiltrate a group of addicts who might lead him and his police force into the higher networks of drug distribution . Those around him in his " undercover " state are James Barris ( Robert Downey Jr ) , Ernie Luckman ( Woody Harrelson ) , Charles Freck ( Rory Chochrane ) , and in one of the most crucial parts to the story Donna ( Winona Ryder , quite a good comeback part ) . The theme of dehumanization around such technologies as a scanner in this film , where Fred / Arctor takes footage from the dingy home he usually hangs out in , are also akin to other pieces of Dick's work . I'm reminded of the tragedy in Minority Report of the cop who gets hooked on an illegal drug , and for what purpose in that story is made quite clear . In A Scanner Darkly , however , the lines of morality are never totally clear , and the ambiguity goes along as little pieces start to fit together . While I might hold it as being one of the great Philip K . Dick adaptations , it's not to say that it is quite different from the others ; this is not too far removed from what Linklater's style of dialog . To be sure to not please all in the sci-fi crowd , it's actually closer to being another of Linklater's ' in-the-now ' stories of characters who talk , and talk some more , and it forces one to pay attention as opposed to having the dialog go light for more action . Downey Jr . , who delivers one of the best supporting turns of the year , maybe has the most words to speak , as he's a character with few real morals but almost too much on his mind . And him along with Harrelson's character help define some of the pressing facts that go into looking at drugs in a movie . There's real paranoia , real mis-trust , a shifting of cognizance that becomes startling . One scene in particular , when Reeves is in bed with a woman and can't figure on if she is really SHE or not , and then goes over in in video , is an excellent take on the depths to which Substance-fictional for the film's sake but related to many real substances - and how the style connects very much so to the substance ( no pun intended ) in the film . The style itself , provided by the animation directors , gives some immediate fascinations for the viewer . The whole idea of a character putting on a suit and being able to shift around faces and clothing at a second a clip provides such catching beats each time . The variations in certain scenes work very much as well . And there are more than a few instances where the style of rotoscoping itself , which makes the film seem immediately like a ' take drugs and watch this movie ' , is called into question . One might then ask before going into A Scanner Darkly , where the control of products that act as controls & / or inhibitors , is anti-drug or pro-drug . That I cannot quite , completely answer , though I might lean more to the former . Linklater , not just Dick , has several potent questions among others that may fizzle that are posed into the film , especially towards the last ten minutes . And what is even more surprising , and closer to being a relief , is that the film isn't even too preachy either . In fact , I was laughing through scenes in the middle bulk of the film , as Downey and Harrelson's characters made for some very sharp , witty lines and odd actions . In short , it's got a different , ' quirky ' artistry that combines some very good cinematography with so much that is tested with colors and shading and tones on the actors and settings that I will have to watch it again to take it all in . And the actors , more often than not , are completely fit in their roles , even when they suddenly reveal that all is not as it seems ( I loved some of the twists that pop up ) . A cool premise and a superb use of abstractions as reality in the midst of the darkest satire of the year . |
509,514 | 453,068 | 166,924 | 10 | Life is But A Dream ( after a reviewing ) | David Lynch's Mulholland Drive brings him in the territory of Twin Peaks , Eraserhead , but more-so a highly-charged form of surrealist thinking singular only to Lynch regarding Hollywood to make the best films of the year , and of his career . The film is a twisting , meticulously crafted and acted cinema piece about many a lot of things . At FIRST , the basic plot : a woman ( Laura Elean Haring ) survives a car crash and stumbles down the hill next to Mulholland drive and walks into a woman's house she has never met before . She also has amnesia , and when the woman ( Naomi Watts ) , an actress , who is currently occupying the place lets her stay for a few days to get her memories together , the plot unfolds . Other side stories are interestingly blended into the rest of the movie involving a troubled director ( Justin Theroux ) who is forced into things he didn't intend on , the woman living in the house who tries and goes for auditions , etc . But the plot ( even the part involving Haring ) isn't even the big part of the movie . Lynch , like he did in Eraserhead , exposes the audience to logical and realistic ( er , in Lynch's sense ) scenes and then sidesteps into a surreal and dreamlike world . . . or what one might THINK is the dreamworld . Yet it's really about dreaming , one might think , as reality and fantasy become part of the pieces of Lynch's method . What is it to have a dream , anyway , Lynch may be essentially asking the audience ? And what is it to have things both idealized and ugly in equal measure , reflected in the subconscious , and drifted back during sleep like some kind of wavelength that is personal but psychologically sound , more or less ? And , most importantly , why do we need fantasy ? Well , there needs to be a divide , Lynch may be supposing , between fantasy and reality , but at the same time , for the sake of art and cinema , the line needs to be blurred as well to reach underlying truths about what it is to create , what it is to act , what it is to be controlled in the measures of creation and reinterpretation . These might be pretentious points presented by another filmmaker , but Lynch , for all of his abandoning of conventions ( albeit with a firm , knowing embracing of the intent in conventions , archetypes and clichés from Hollywood films ) , is nevertheless a superlatively entertaining writer / director / sound editor , who makes some of the most profound and everlasting statements ever about Hollywood and the illusions created from reality ( whether manufactured ala 50s singers in a booth then put on film , or in some capacity regarding a dirty dude behind the Winkies ) while never losing the power to make it one hell of a ride . And by ' ride ' I mean the ride of a filmmaker overwhelmingly yet carefully confident in what he wants to convey : of the corny light and contorted ideals that comes out of the darkness of Diane's dreams ( I'll relent and say that it makes the most sense , even though I'd love it just as much if it didn't go so easily for sense ) , and that , of course , it's all about emotional response . In short , it's one of the must-see films from the 2000s , not just for Lynch fans but for those who might never think of going near a Lynch film : it's funny , it's tragic , it's mysterious , and it's both dense and simple in equal measure . Like music , it'll either rock your boat or leave you dry and for me it still rocks my boat to this day . |
510,440 | 453,068 | 100,758 | 10 | A Great Film | Ninja Turtles . Anyone born in the 1980's remembers the phenomenon that swept the country during the late 80's and early 90's . And this movie proves what was once a big icon fad that was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . This movie is well made for a kids movie , and it is my favorite of the series of films . I even like this more than the TV show . It has more drama and action than the other parts . And it's dark , I like that in a kids movie . |
508,867 | 453,068 | 35,753 | 10 | a chilling mystery where psychology and sociological perspectives are a little more of the dramatic juice than the outcome | Henri-Georges Clouzot's Le Corbeau is at once a story loaded with the kind of tension and thrills and dramatic questions that keep an audience guessing like any good mystery , and as well an indictment of the crueler , more paranoid and darker sides to all people . At the time it was looked upon as being quite controversial , namely because it was released at the height of the Nazi occupation in France . The film does have that immense level of accusation ( one sometimes thinks of the simple French phrase ' J'accuse ! ' when watching it ) that evil can happen not simply in the realm of fascism and dictatorial agendas of mass murder and control , but in seemingly ordinary folk in towns and villages where an unkind word can spark the worst intentions . Not only does one think of the Nazi occupation in this context , but also the Salem Witch trials , or any time when it's not even about the end result but about getting the task done at hand , to rule out seeming evil by the power of fear and corruption . There's even one of the great sequences showing in clear view how emotions can boil over so high where mob-rule becomes demonstrative of a form of sociological ills . We see a funeral taking place - a character from early in the story received a letter from the notorious ' Raven ' , an anonymous madman who has been spreading gossip about many in town , specifically a doctor Germain , but when this man receives it it drives him to suicide . During this , a letter falls out of the buggy carrying the hearse . First we get a very important set of shots showing how everyone who walks behind the buggy never stops but always glances at the letter addressed in bold to the townspeople . Suddenly one reads it , and an uproar occurs against Mary Corbin . She runs in a frantic pace and mind-set ; even as she runs away from what is stirring into a mob out for the simple satisfaction of getting someone in , be they truly guilty or not , and Clouzot never shows us the mob running after her , but keeps the sound rising even higher and higher of people gaining in their angry calls against her . Then a moment when she finds solace in an empty , shattered room , there are still words scribbled on the walls , and finally they catch up to her . It's such a rich sequence in technical-cinematic terms , yet there's also a lot to think about in terms of the nature of the people , of the society at hand - or , as the opening line suggest , any town . Le Corbeau is incisive and questioning of what it means to have not just trust in a town , or a respect for confidence , or really what it means ( probably more than anything ) of the innocent revealing the guilty where they might be ( i . e . the scene where Vorzet and Germain quarter the adults in town to see if their writing styles match the Raven ) , but also what is compassion or forgiveness or love or any of that which is not really evil . It even does , albeit through a lot of talk - through the old Vorzet played by the great Pierre Larquey - try to examine how the personal intermingles with the professional , and what might seem crazy or stupid gossip is really just as evil as murder . The premise is simple : a doctor ( Pierre Fresnay , best known from Grand Illusion ) starts getting letters , saying very key words like ' abortionist ' and ' liar and fraud ' . Of course , once the first part gets out , things start to go haywire in the town , though not until others in the town , including those as high up as the mayor , receive similar terms of " this is what you do in your secret spare-time " . It sets off a chain reaction , which also includes Germain having to reveal finally his true dark past - one that reminds the audience that what is hidden should stay that way - but that the women in his life , Laura ( the elderly Michel's young husband ) and Denise , his on-off love-interest - and a break in Germain's character as at first a shrewd bourgeois and later a man of more emotional depth . But there's more than just Germain's fate and reputation at stake in Le Corbeau , and what gets pointed out about how good people can go ugly , or the power of what SHOULD be chaos and hysteria that can be bought into , or that the old phrase " judge not and ye shall not be judged " could never be more pertinent . This all said , Clouzot's film is not actually as preachy as one might expect from this description . Here and there Vorzet does go on and on , with his manner of speech all too uncanny , but beneath the deep scope of more intellectual and even political agendas there's an engrossing whodunit here as well . At the same time one may be thinking about how this relates to the period and geography of what it was made , it's really just a supremely timed and fascinatingly shot picture meant to appeal to mystery and thriller fans up for something different ; only the process is a little more skewed . I'm even a little reminded of the recent film version of the Zodiac story , where the medium of communication from unknown outsider to the mass public and the consequences are far more stronger and with more possibilities realized than the end-result . It's also surely one of the true classics made in France during WW2 . |
510,972 | 453,068 | 87,544 | 10 | a tale pure goodness , and the inanities of greed , in human beings , set in Miyazaki's amazing world | Before Princess Mononoke , which is still for me Hayao Miyazaki's greatest work , he made this film , Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind , which like that other later film addressed issues that are paramount for the filmmaker : the environment , and the Earth , and how human beings can have highs and lows in attention to it . On the one hand Miyazaki gives us who is perhaps one of the purest heroes in any animated film , Japanese or otherwise , with Nausicaa as a woman who doesn't want killing on any side , and knows that there can be some peace with the environment of the world . Her greatest strengths end up coming out in various ways , like when she goes to stop the Ohm , the big beetle-insects that are the largest " threat " ( threat in quotes because it depends on the reaction of the two sides - the Tolmekian and the Pejite - and how either one inflames the reaction of the Ohm ) - and in her general attitude to killing and violence . It's a fragile world , and she's perhaps one of only a few , and the only one willing to ' go the distance ' , to understand how what remains underground , what can't be seen , can make a difference . She's like a big action hero for preservationists and pacifists , but it's such a strongly defined character that the basic qualities come out wonderfully , like when she has to contend with her obvious emotional reaction to her father being slain ( almost a Star Wars ' force ' moment if you ask me ) . So as she represents the good , there is the other side , which is represented by not necessarily the outright evil , even if the Tolmekian find the only way to combat anything is through warrior actions , but by ignorance and greed . It's not always as simple as that , and one could see a little dimension to the princess Kushuna , but even there the essentials get burned down to not just Miyazaki's points , but what works for the structure of classic fantasy . It might be tricky for Miyazaki to balance out his message of peace and understanding with what should be a sensational entertainment of a world 1000 years from now following an apocalypse ; it treads the line , as Mononoke did , of becoming incoherent with the message and the manipulation of the audience . But Miyazaki happens to be intelligent enough to trust the audience on the front of the message , and so he puts up his film in his usual thrust of indelible , one-of-a-kind images and exciting action . I especially liked seeing the Ohm themselves , one by one looking like even more detailed , nuanced versions of the Garthem in the Dark Crystal . Or in the sky-flying scenes , where the clouds are like unique formations that can't really be of the world we're in , but are in this world nonetheless that Miyazaki forges from classic mythology , reinterpretations of forests and insects , and post-apocalyptic technology out of a high-powered junk-yard . And on top of this , as a word of note , this grandiose ( in a good way ) kind of epic work is supplanted with a better than expected voice cast - for the English language dub on the new DVD . They help back up the pieces of Miyazaki's world where there is some science fiction , but not in a fully compiled sense ( if anything it's sort of like a ' used ' science fiction world like Blade Runner , in part I mean ) . There's also some moments in the classical style , of a hero coming into her own that might seem too reminiscent of other movies . But Nausicaa is backed up by several cool supporting characters , like the equally heroic Lord Yuru , and the conflicted Pejite Asbel who has to choose the greater good ( and common sense , in the Miyazaki form ) over his tribe's priorities . By the end , it actually left me like Totoro did with a huge , well-earned smile on my face , due to it being one of those happy endings that is so unlikely , yet is done as if there could be no other way in Miyazaki's universe . It's fresh and sublime anime , and the master of Studio Ghibli at one of his best . |
508,404 | 453,068 | 53,115 | 10 | one of the great ( anti ) war movies ever , certainly the pinnacle from Japan | The Human Condition isn't an easy trilogy ; it offers up tons of questions that even today have extreme relevance , particularly about man's duty to himself , to love and family , to country , to affiliation by an Emperor or Dictator , and what it is that's so insane about men in the staggering pit of hell known as war . As one can see in the second installment , The Road to Eternity , even what should be simple in a conventional war movie is turned just a bit to see the ugliness underneath . The first half of the film is Kaji , the trilogy's protagonist , in basic training and witness to more brutality towards the weak Obara ( very well cast Kunie Tanaka ) who commits suicide following a string of humiliations that are like Private Pyle squared Japan WW2 , and how Kaji comes to grips with being a very good , disciplined soldier - the likes of which the army wants to control as they promote him - and , crucially , his last night spent with his wife Machiko ( very tender performance from Aratama ) . The second half is Kaji off on the front lines , leading up to a big , climactic battle between Soviet and Japanese forces , which is a total horror . Although Kobayashi only goes so far to make these battle scenes dynamic ( that is compared to today's battle scenes , which have far more money and just a smidgen more gore to work with ) , it's overall another incredible accomplishment , as story and character matter always more-so than grandiose visuals or pomposity . We see Kaji going through another level of change , as he's stripped of his " exemption " status and is now just another grunt in this rigidly regimented military , and where , as is expected but no less mortifying , the Japanese see no sign of victory despite all signs pointing otherwise . As in the first film , Kobayashi delivers moments of beauty , almost at times without trying . I absolutely was floored when the prairie fire scene turned into a desperate chase between Kaji and an escaping Shinjo , where what could have been a basic chase incorporated the fire and smoke and mud-piles into something else entirely . Or , indeed , little moments that suddenly make one's mouth agape , such as the freak-out from a soldier in the midst of the battle foaming at the mouth . If a few scenes might appear to be of the conventional sort ( at least as much as Kobayashi would ever allow in this iconoclast approach ) , they're off-set by the wonderful performances , not least of which by Nakadai . Again he gives it his all , and matures just a little more , and displays a kind of bridge that Kaji is on between the kind-hearted but firm ways of No Greater Love and the , dare I say it , near bad-ass persona in Soldier's Prayer . It's another great entry in an impeccable trilogy , if maybe not quite as awe-inspiring as the final film . |
508,405 | 453,068 | 53,114 | 10 | catching the humanism train . . . | Masaki Kobayashi's dream project was the Human Condition adaptation , and he pulled it off as a brilliantly told and filmed epic that tells of a man trying to cling to his humanity in inhuman circumstances . All three films have wonders in various supporting performances and set-pieces that astound with their moments of poetic realism , and the sum of it all makes Lord of the Rings look like kid's stuff . In the case of the first feature on the trilogy , No Greater Love , we're introduced to and see the young , idealistic and essentially good-hearted Kaji ( Tatsuya Nakadai ) as he gets a job as a labor supervisor at a POW camp in Manchuria following an impressive paper presentation . He wants to do his best , but the ' powers-that-be ' , which include the stalwart boss and particularly the fascistic Kempeitai ( army personnel on site ) , keep things always on edge with tension , and as new Chinese POW's roll in and he finds himself torn : how to keep production up of the ore while also not becoming a monster just like the other " Japanese devils " to the POW's . While the story has an immediate appeal ( or rather connection-to ) the Japanese public as a piece of modern history - the occupation / decimation of Manchuria and its people - none of its dramatic or emotional power is lost on me . Kobayashi is personally tied to the material very much ( he himself fought in the war and immediately bought the rights to the 6-volume series when first released ) , but he doesn't ever get in the way of the story . Matter of fact , he's a truly amazing storyteller first and foremost ; dazzlingly he interweaves the conflicts of the prisoners ( i . e . Chen , the prostitutes , Kao ) with Kaji's first big hurdle of conscience at the labor camp as he sees prisoners treated in horrible conditions , beaten , abused , and eventually brought to senseless deaths thanks to Furyua and his ilk , and finds himself brought to an ultimate question : can he be a human being , as opposed to another mindless monster ? Kobayashi creates scenes and moments that are in the grand and epic tradition of movies , sometimes in beautiful effect and other times showing for the sake of the horrors of wartime ( for example , there will never be as harrowing an exodus from a half-dozen cattle cars as seen when the Chinese POW's exit from there to the food sacks ) , and is able with his wonderful DP to make intimately acted scenes in the midst of wide scapes like the outside ore mines and the cramped living quarters or caves . And damn it all if we don't get one of the great scenes in the history of movies , which is when the six " escapees " are put to execution with the prisoners , and horrified Kaji , watching in stark , gruesome detail . Everything about that one scene is just about perfect . But as the anchor of the piece ( and unlike the other two films , he's not even in every scene of this part ) , Tatsuya Nakadai delivers on his breakthrough performance . Kobayashi needed a bridge between pre and post-war Japan , and Nakadai is that kind of presence . But aside from being an appealing star - the kind you don't want to avert your eyes from - he's mind-blowingly talented be it in subtle bits of business or when he has to go to town in explosive emotional scenes ( or , also , just a twitch under his eye in a super-tense exchange ) . This goes without saying other actors right alongside him - Aratama , Yamamura , Manbara - are perfectly cast as supervisor , prisoner , prostitute , wife alike to Kaji . And yet , for all the praise worth giving to the film , one that gets even better in its second half than its first , this is only the first part ! |
508,141 | 453,068 | 69,895 | 10 | a classic of the 70s exploitation / drive-in era | The Crazies may not be ' high-art , but it shows what George A . Romero could do on such low-budget terms in making it seem epic in scope and design . The budget , it seems , was that of almost a Roger Corman film , just enough for the film , some dingy sets , to get no-name actors with big personalities , and cheap effects . Never-the-less , classics have come out of low-budgets , and this ( albeit with a couple of flaws ) is one of them from the period . Another thing to note is that Romero is doing triple duty , as he did with many of his films up to Dawn of the Dead - he is also the editor , which is crucial for a film like this . A lot of times , there might be some continuity errors on the set , or there might be a shadow of a boom mike or other sort of goof . Luckily for the audience , Romero happens to be as superb an editor as he is at subversive , genre film-making , and many scenes come together - and become tenser - by his trademark style . Sometimes , to fit the quasi anti-war and notably science fiction elements of the story , Romero has to get creative . Take example for a scene where in the midst of rapid-fire arguments between government officials and officers and doctors , someone offers the suggestion of dropping a bomb or calling the higher-ups for results . There are a couple of split-second montages of pilots manning the planes , flying up , targeting , etc . This is highly effective visually for a film without much of a budget - it's almost reminiscent of what Stanley Kubrick did ( though he did it in a slower , more deliberate-paced fashion ) in Dr . Srangelove . In this whole sequence of officials bickering , half realism half satire , one gets the sense psychologically of what is to come . That's not to say The Crazies is all talk and no action , quite the opposite . In a sense this is almost like an un-official ' living-dead ' picture , only this time Romero shows the whole thing from start to finish , how it starts , how it spreads , how the people start to change , and how a group of survivors try to stay on the run . Only this time , in a way , it's even more terrifying , as a ' Crazy ' is more unpredictable than a crude , instinct-driven zombie . Take the opening as a prime example , where there is just a pure shock as kids watch their father going completely nuts , and seeing two more tragedies quickly unfold . It sets up the rapid-fire set-pieces , some of which fairly disturbing ( if a little cheesy , one of the film's flaws ) . Another scene involving a priest is just as disturbing as the other , more of a sequence of images than a real ' action ' scene . There's a sense of terror in seeing how real everything is ( and it is , it's practically all location-shot ) , even as it does go a little , well , crazy after a while . There is also a dependable cast , as I mentioned , who are either very good or too over-the-top . Three actors in particular are very good among some so-so performances from the heroes : Lynn Lowry ( who had a sort of minor cult-career in her day ) is genuinely creepy , especially during her downfall ; Richard Liberty , who hammed it up in Day of the Dead , fills in a good gap as a worried father ; Richard France , who made a memorable appearance in ' Dawn ' , plays it all for show as a level-headed , frustrated doctor . Most of these are un-professionals , of course , so what you see is what you get - many of them work , some of them don't ( the wife character , played by Lane Carroll , was mis-cast ) . But in the end , Romero puts together what he set out to do : it's another work of apocalyptic experimenting , where the bio-hazard suit-men are likely to be as , if not more , dangerous than the infected , and curiosity for the sci-fi driven subject matter goes along with the suspense and shock-value . It's certainly not for everyone , but for the drive-in fan in us all , it's bound to keep you in your seat - and it gets better on repeat viewings . |
509,141 | 453,068 | 217,505 | 10 | An American Epic . . . | . . . Gangs of New York is indeed an American epic , telling not only a tale of revenge , but also a tale of a time capsule , A New York not many know about , with the Civil War always looming over . There will be many a filmgoer that will consider Mr . Scorsese's work in Gangs of New York as rubbish , and true everyone can have their opinion on the landscape of 1963 , but one must remember that the director , like in all of his films , has crafted such to as real and extent as can be shown in a 100 million dollar picture such as this . As much as Scorsese took cues from avant garde and Italian filmmakers for much of his films , he also took cues from epics and Westerns , and to my view has crafted the best motion picture of the year , incorportating a saga of the city he came from and his themes from his previous pictures , most notably his references to Christianity ( and for instance , his theme of destruction such as seen in Raging Bull , can be identified with many scenes , not least of which the climax ) . The seeds for the revenge take place in 1846 , when a battle is fought against the Irish and the " Native " Americans over the five points ( parts of the slums of Manhattan ) , where in which William " Bill the Butcher " Cutting ( Daniel Day-Lewis in one of his very best roles ) slays Priest Vallon , whose son , Amsterdam Vallon ( played as an adult by DiCaprio ) is then taken to an orphanage until he is set out in 1863 , which is when the plot unfolds . Along with the skills of Scorsese he has his actors all in great shape , Day-Lewis especially , Diaz somewhat redeeming herself after The Sweetest Thing from this year , and DiCaprio shows that every now and then he can act . Some may also criticize the way the history is represented , that the facts were skewed to tell a Hollywood story and isn't really credible to the story of the draft riots and the gangs of downtown . I think that they may be missing the point , though I do defend the factuality - facts are always going to be skewed for a big budget picture just as this , the key is to look past that and see it as how they did in the sense of pure dramatization and if it doesn't come off as clownish or inane , and this is not the case for Gangs . For those looking for something insightful , daring , maybe even exhilarating , or just want to be entertained by more action after Two Towers , this is a definite pick for the holiday season . Salud ! |
508,227 | 453,068 | 65,571 | 10 | One of the best films of 1970 | It's a fascinating blend of tense character study , torn love story , and a background loaded with subtext and history that writer / director Bernardo Bertolucci brings with The Conformist . But through the entire length of the film , even if you're not totally vested in interest in the main character ( who , indeed , is meant by design not to be a ' likeable ' protagonist ) , the look of the film , its sweep and style and what most great movies do - sucking you in on the side of composition , mood , and music - is worth recommending . The film stars Jean-Louis Trintignant , an actor with a cool exterior but something very uneasy underneath the surface in almost all of his scenes ( which perfectly suits the character he plays ) . Based on Alberto Moravia's novel of the same name , Marcello Clerici is a fascist , or at least part of the fascist ' clique ' of sorts in late 1930's Italy . He's a secret officer who gets assignments to track people down and either kill , or collaborate as it were . He has some skeletons in his closet , to be sure , and in one of the most striking and powerful scenes of the film , he recalls a particular incident in his youth that stayed with him , if only in the back of his mind ( I won't reveal it , but it comes as something of a shock , not so much in its outcome , but how Bertolucci approaches directing the scene with the Chauffeur and the kid ) . Going along with this sort of ' clique ' that Marcello sticks in , he has a young wife , who loves him but is not really his equal on any sort of intellectual or even emotional basis . The actress playing her , Stefania Sandrelli , conveys this mostly ' ignorance is bliss ' attitude that helps the film allow some lighter-than-air moments ( i . e . the ' Dance of the Blind ' sequence , a masterstroke to be sure ) . For some reason or another , which does become more obvious as the story goes along ( and ties into this non-linear structure Bertolucci works with intelligently ) , Marcello seeks out and visits his old Professor , an anti-fascist , and his beauty of a wife , whom he becomes somehow smitten with ( the two character actors in the parts , Enzo Tarascio and Dominique Sanda respectively , hit all the right notes , even with the subtext of scenes ) . After the sort of climax to all this , we move ahead several years later , when Mussollini is gone from power , and there is one last scene with Marcello that really made me sit up and take notice . I'm sure Bertolucci was fairly faithful to the original text ( having not read it I can't say for certain ) , but he keeps a challenging ending for the audience - a lessor filmmaker might have Marcello come to some kind of clean-cut catharsis in the wake of the end of fascism . Bertolucci doesn't have that , and he and Trintignant keep it true to the character and his personality , which sort of brings to a head not so much a story resolution , but just one of something simpler about society - what does this sort of upper-class conditioning do to a person after a while , especially if there is this certain level of detachment that Marcello has . In the end , he's truer to the film's title than anything of his own real ' beliefs ' . But going aside from the solid philosophical & / or political debate that could go on from the themes raised in the film , going back to the pure film-making aspect of The Conformist , one can sort of sense this as being like a ' test-run ' of sorts for Bertolucci to work solely with the masterful Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro ( of Apocalypse Now fame ) for their following masterpiece , Last Tango in Paris . In some small ways , at least for Storaro , The Conformist paints even richer details and strokes of light and dark and shadow than in Last Tango . And the two have a sense of not sticking directly to one set way of filming either , which is very good . There will be a scene like when Marcello and the Professor are talking in the Professor's office , and Marcello pulls the shades down completely on one window and leaving the other open . This creates a stark , almost baroque contrast between the two of them that works well just for mood if nothing else . Then there is also the factor of how Bertolucci gets his camera moving , often in urges that would seem unnecessary or too ' artsy ' for other filmmakers - the dance scene , for example , brings a viewer to move with the dancers , but ever so slightly , and then the frame is filled with these moving bodies and it's a truly virtuoso sequence . Even a scene that might be fairly standard for say an action film director , when the chase through the snow covered forest happens , the use of the hand-held camera isn't going too cheesy - if anything it really heightens all the tension that has been building since the start of the film ( most of the time the camera's on dolly tracks or some other form , then it switches and it adds a different sort of intensity to the proceedings ) . Although Bertolucci and Storaro won awards from the National Society of Film Critics , I see it as a fairly big snub on the Academy's part to not have given Storaro a nomination . On top of that , there's other factors that add to the collaborative effort of Bertolucci's success : there's the emotionally excellent Georges Delerue score , and Ferdinando Scarfiotti's cool production design ( later also a production designer on Last Tango ) . In the end , along with the technical side , it's also the story , and the character ( s ) , that add to the appeal of the Conformist . It's a lot to take in on a first viewing , but it doesn't disappoint for the fan expecting good things from the young Bertolucci . |
508,261 | 453,068 | 360,717 | 10 | quite simply the most ambitious , brawny , throw-in-everything remake in quite some time , definitely of the year | Peter Jackson should be proud of this movie . But this is , of course , a popcorn movie first and foremost ( and the original was that much more enjoyable as almost the first ' blockbuster ' of it's kind ) , and on that level is really where this film strikes the goods . I heard much hype around it , and knew that at the least it would be a BIG movie ( and I say that after the fact complimentary ) . First off , you have a director being paid the highest up-front salary in history straight off his last film winning 11 Oscars ( him winning three , at least two ) and getting to paint his ' canvas ' with a new treatment of what started him off to direct in the first place . So , in short , there is some level of major passion going on in the outset . But , of course , that also leaves room for potential disappointment . For me , aside from maybe one factor I'll get to in a bit , it really wasn't . In keeping with Ebert's sort of take on the film , Jackson does take on all of the potential possibilities and runs with them with a pack of steroids on his back ( another point meant as a compliment ) . With a story that is , at the core , very simple ( a lot of Beauty and the Beast aspects , of course , though also packing in the tale of ego driven to the ground , with plenty of action and comedy to fill in the gaps ) , this is a ' remake ' that does go to the limits , and then passes them , and then tries to take the audience along for the ride . Jackson and his Wingnut films people and visual effects people at WETA ( if that's what it's called ) fill up all of the dark , wild , almost over-the-top things that can be done . And , like George Lucas ( when he's at his best ) , he uses computer animation , immense visions , pushing-the-envelope action sequences , and utter suspense to drive the excitement into the film . Even if you dis-like the movie , it's hard to say that this is JUST another ' dumb action clunker ' . Part of that , in the end , is also attributable to the substance of the picture , how Jackson balances out between the outrageous set-ups and pay-offs with what is a tender love story , and story of people's attitude towards what is unknown . The contrast in the three leads also breathe some good life by way of the actors - Jack Black as the driven , sometimes insatiable movie-maker out to get it all come hell or mad dinosaur ; Naomi Watts turns in some fine , even touching work as the charming , curious actress Ann Darrow ; Adrien Brody as the writer makes it all the more believable as he is just naturally fit for this survivor / do-whatever-it-takes / got heart kind of guy . Indeed , there isn't an incredible amount of dimension , of course , but maybe there doesn't need to be . If the film itself is akin to all those stories of man vs . monster , with all that goes with it ( King Kong itself has become apart of the pop-culture landscape , for decades now ) , so are the characters , and even to the ' types ' the leads and supporting players play to . I keep on mentioning Jackson though because it really , despite all of the back-breaking ( and finger-clicking ) work of the huge crew and visual effects people , is almost all coming from him , and it is where he brings out for me with this film - which might be my favorite of his so far ( not to put down LOTR too much of course ) - what I love about these kinds of movies , and what sometimes can get on me about them . My main example of this duality is the back-to-back sequences while on the island . There is this brilliantly paced , no-holds-barred fight between Kong and two dinosaurs , which even continues into a space loaded with vines . It almost becomes over-kill , and then finishes just wonderfully ( albeit quite violently - not a lot of blood , parents , but little kids might be freaked ) . Then comes a whole sequence after that , rather gruesome , of some of our heroes getting devoured and covered by over-large insects . It's here where though I still praise Jackson , I feel a little of the excess of the picture as well . Which , in a way , I guess might be inevitable for some . I know there will be some , as well , who would not be interested in seeing the film , and if you know who you are then maybe just wait for it on TV ( if that ) . However , for this time of the season ( if not of the season then at least this week ) there's no movie I would recommend more for wide / big-screen , action packed , and very storytelling-successful film-making than this . When I can almost forget how a movie is moving along , that it just flows like this ( for better or worse ) , is pretty incredible . |
510,219 | 453,068 | 64,612 | 10 | an excellent look at morality in relationships , or what is perceived as morality | My Night at Maud's is a " talky " film , though like the main character of Jean-Louis in going after the woman to marry this actually is a perception that is on face-value a little demeaning . This is such a rich screenplay because it takes its characters seriously and honestly , and there's nothing cheating in dealing with characters who have problems in confronting how to approach emotional contact , of using religion as a guise , or trying to follow a ' code of conduct ' ( as one French critic called it on the Criterion DVD of the film ) that leads into a complex and troubling end . Even more-so than Love in the Afternoon , this is a work where the male perspective must have the counterpoint of a woman who is much more vibrant and life-affirming by not being connected to a kind of constricting religious ideology that can't really lead to anywhere aside from compromise . Jean-Louis is such a man who sees blonde Francoise ( Stardust Memories ' Barrault ) riding on a motorcycle and decides right then that she will be the one he will marry . His is an idealized love where despite saying that he's been in love and relationships before he has not had to really make a leap into a consequential decision . The philosophical arguments involved with Jean-Louis , Francoise and even with Maud , of whom Jean-Louis has a pensive and indecisive fling over the course of 24 hours , can last for quite a while after film's end , which is a major credit to Rohmer in making these characters real within the specific contexts . They may be bourgeois , or close to it , but the concerns of the characters are universal : How does one make a leap from emotional experience to belief . Or on the flip-side how does one who probably doesn't have any belief either way ( watch Francoise's eyes when she goes with Jean-Louis to church , it's an exceptionally subtly acted scene ) and has to fall into a kind of false love , where because she already knows of the image that Jean-Louis already has of her before she says a word that she has to continue it , marry him , have a child , and live with his own moral insecurities ? The ending may seem clean-cut , but it's a lot more complex as a sort of continuing cycle . Marriages are formed and bonds made between people all the time when there is no love , but what might be a reason ? This isn't Rohmer's central point perhaps , but it's an intelligent posit that is right there in Rohmer's character study . And all the while , through Rohmer's simple direction - the only big stylistic choice , perhaps important in the Bergman sense , is the use of the landscape of winter and the mainstream conformity of Christmas - he gets great performances from his actors , as if in a play all working towards the cores of the character in order that all of the at-times heavy dialog comes off in a fairly approachable light . Rarely will you get Pascal and romance thrown together into a conversation , but it works in this case , and for someone who's only known Pascal from a triangle it's enlightening to see how moral choice , of probability and chance , come out in ways that leap from one place to another but always coherently in the scenes at Maud's apartment . There's a good deal under the surface that comes out little by little , and if one can give in to the rhythm of Rohmer's characters the rewards are just as satisfying as with other more flamboyant works by Rohmer's contemporaries . It may not be Jules and Jim , but in its own disquieting way it's just as powerful in the implications drawn from the characters , particularly long after the film ends . |
508,608 | 453,068 | 39,631 | 10 | a black comedy of manners ; stunning performance from Chaplin | It would be hard to imagine anyone else playing Monsieur Verdoux ; Charlie Chaplin was the only one who could pull it off in any form or style or way that wouldn't make the character as just an unlikeable killer of women . As it's written on the page the character , if played by someone with less charisma or charm or comic timing , would just be another character actor playing a villain . But Chaplin taking the part is inspired on his part , and it's a good thing too ( and I never thought I'd say this ) that he didn't let Orson Welles direct . With Welles it obviously would have been a visually awesome picture , but would the comedy be the same ? Or the emphasis on the social message blending in with the ultimate sanctimonious attitude of the character ? It would be interesting to see Welles script , if it exists , but as it stands he's mostly a footnote in his tale , if a thankful one . Under Chaplin's direction and writing Monsieur Verdoux is timed with finesse and glee and with a repetitive transition of the train going by quickly with Chaplin's piano key strokes , and it's often devilish fun to hear how Chaplin's Verdoux gets around and about ( or sometimes not ) killing and robbing his victims . And yet , I'm inclined to say that it's above all else a triumph for Chaplin as an actor , a performer who's iconic appeal , even past the Tramp character , makes us ( or at least me ) almost cheer him on or feel awkward or cringing during a scene leading up to a murder , or , as does happen once or twice , not . He knows how to put on an air that's genuine , even as it's the most blatant con , and he does it with a gentleman's manner hiding his desperate - times - call - for - desperate - measures ex-bank clerk . While I wouldn't go as far as James Agee in calling it the greatest male performance ever , it might just be my favorite Chaplin performance , full of ranging subtleties and over-the-top expressions and just lingering looks of contempt and malaise and sorrow and outright lying and etc that are just a knockout . Monsier Verdoux is a peculiar character , as his crimes are meant to be for the good of his wife and child who , of course , have no idea of what he's really doing ( in an acidic touch , his wife is also crippled ) . Is it wrong what he's doing ? In the legal sense , of course . But Chaplin sets up a moral code for this character that makes things trickier , a little warped in thinking . If the woman has lots of wealth stored away - and maybe , as with the one who keeps getting away via wine glass and fishing trip , almost deserving in the perception of the character - why carp ? But then there's the woman who's just out of prison , her husband's gone , nothing to her name , and . . . he just can't bear to do her in ( especially , as should be noted , as a " test " run for another victim ) . It becomes curious to see her later on , sort of as the not-quite Chaplin heroine of the story , and how saving the right one for Verdoux is what counts , despite forgetting her until she reappears . So there's this twisted logic , but in the set-pieces that Chaplin sets up are some of the finest , most brilliantly timed comic moments of his career , filmed for a dark suspense tinged with a near sweetness that we know and love from him . It's satire on a level that is no more or less sophisticated than Chaplin's major silent works , and yet it's just a little sharper , more pointed at the ills of man in turmoil than a simple psychopath , all in the realm of delightful crimes in the upper class . While the end may seem derivative of the Great Dictator with a speech and message chocked forward like spray-paint on a wall , it's a mixed reaction one might have ; the sanctimonious attitude , of being accepting and pointing the finger back on society , is haunting and obvious and also , importantly , speaks to the nature of the character . Would a man somewhat comfortable in his own mortality face the end any other way ? |
509,992 | 453,068 | 96,219 | 10 | Still one of Oliver Stone's directorial triumphs ; Bogosian is captivating | In one of the more under-seen films of the late 1980's , at a time when Oliver Stone was riding high with Platoon and Wall Street ( and before his opus Born on the Fourth of July ) , he co-scripted and directed this look at the world of radio , specifically one radio host in the middle of Texas . This man is Barry Champlain , in a once-in-a-career turn from Eric Bogosian , who wrote the original play and also co-wrote the script . Barry is like a mix of Howard Stern and one of those pundits you hear on the radio stations many of us might turn off . He's got ideas on his mind , opinions , and he's not only un-afraid to speak them , but also to stand up against the phone callers . The callers , indeed , are the driving force in the film , as Barry has to combat against the mindless , the obscene , the racist , and the purely absent-minded . As this goes on , he also has to contend with his boss ( Alec Baldwin ) and a hit or miss deal to go nationwide , outside the confines of the Southern way station he's in . While after seeing the film I felt curious as to see how it would've been done on stage ( I'd imagine it was a one-man show , as Bogosian has had several on the side ) , the direction of the film is phenomenal . Stone has been known , almost typecast , as a director who loves quick cuts , the limitless effects of montage , and effects with the styles of camera-work and other little tricks , that give his films in the 90's a distinctive , almost auteur look . But in the 80's he had this energy and feverish quality to the look of the film , and wasn't as frenzied as the other films . In order to add the proper intensity that is within the studio and head-space of Barry Champlain , he and DP Robert Richardson make the space seem claustrophobic at times , gritty , un-sure , and definitely on edge . The scenes in the middle of the film , when Barry isn't in the studio , are fairly standard , but the style along with the substance in the radio scenes is among the best I've seen from the Stone / Richardson combination . And one cannot miscalculate the performance of Bogosian , who can be obnoxious , offensive , angered , passive , and everything that we love and hate in radio show hosts . There is also a funny , near distracting supporting role for Michael Wincott as Kent / Michael / Joe , who prank calls him one night , and the next gets invited to the studio . These scenes are a little uncomfortable for a viewer , but it does get very much into the subculture head-space of the 80's that Barry is as intrigued as he is critical of . The stoner may not ' get it ' , but as he says to him " it's your show " . Indeed , it's hard to cover everything that goes on within the talk , and there is a lot of it . But it's never boring , and like Champlain himself , it's not easy to ignore . And when Bogosian goes into his climactic tirade on air , with the background panning around in a continuous 360 spin , it becomes intoxicating , and a reason why freedom of speech is so powerful . Stone has been synonymous as a filmmaker of hot-button issues , who takes on subjects that were or still are controversial , and gives them a life-force that isn't always great , but is all his own . Here his skills and ambitions don't get in the way of Bogosian's - it's boosted , if anything , making an extremely skilled vision of what is essentially a near one-man show , which in and of itself is already well-written . |
510,134 | 453,068 | 364,569 | 10 | a revenge picture that isn't very pretty , and loves it that way | Oldboy was a film I saw twice in the theater , in New York City ( the second time not totally intentional , just the only thing playing worth seeing ) , and saw again recently . I'm still struck on how balls-to-the-wall director Chanwook Park goes with his story . It's actually not a bad story , but it needs a certain push and originality in drive to make it work . For some this will be overkill , and it's not without an argument . The film is violent , though perhaps not on the level of Fukasaku or Miike's films . It's disturbing , but in a way that hits deep by way of raw emotions that can only come out of East Asian cinema . And it has a level of drama that's staggering , maybe for some a little far-fetched . But it's also a good lot of the time a bitingly funny film , loaded with attitude to match its style , but with a heart as well . The small low-down on the story : Oh Dae-su ( Choi Min-Sik in a towering performance worthy of Charles Bronson or Harvey Keitel or both ) is nabbed un-wittingly and thrown into a prison . We follow him along in his long stint , seeming forever , until he suddenly gets ' released ' into the open . Now it's time for revenge , but is the question of the truth , of the why , even more crucial than actually getting payback ? This becomes the main dramatic pull of Oldboy , but it's not just a kind of ultra-violent fight and action filled epic saga . It's also a love story , so to speak , and a film about the mistakes of youth . The antagonist of the story , Lee Woo-Jin ( Yu Ji-Tae in what is one of the most absorbing and calmly demented performances in recent memory ) , becomes a very threatening , dark presence in the film , omnipresent a lot of the time , like a devil watching over it's subject . And when it comes to the climax , there is a level of Greek tragedy that's so strong , it had a good few in the theater I saw the film clinging tenaciously to their seats . The story , admittedly , is relatively thin when one thinks about it , and if a director wanted to pull a Howard Hawks and cut past all of the modern aesthetic the film would be a third less in length . But the twisted pleasure of watching a film like Oldboy unfold is in the manipulation of the style , how Park and his director of photography Jeong Jeong-hung give the film an indie wham-bang zeal while at the same time following no rules . This is demonstrated in many tense scenes , but the memorable ones include at least a few key moments in Oh Dae-Su's prison cell , and particularly the infamous long-shot as the fight breaks out in the prison hallway . Seeing a scene like this may or may not draw some viewers down the line right away ; how much can you take seeing a scene lasting 3 or 4 or more minutes of just brutal beating , choreographed to a full intensity ? As with the film in general , it's a not-too guilty pleasure for genre fans , and for others they might watch it and think ' eh ' . But it is also in the people , in the characters that creates a heightened pitch in Oldboy . It's like a filmed graphic novel in some ways , but dealing with characters who ( possible exceptions being Lee Woo Jin and some of his ' posse ' ) are not part of a criminal underworld , and our main hero is turned inside out , into what he calls as himself a ' monster ' ( watch for the reference to Frankenstein on TV , by the way ) . So , when it comes time for this harsh , piercing revelation scene in the high tower Lee occupies , it leads to some devastating stuff . Like the darkest bits out of Sophocles , Park's characters are practically doomed by fate , and it's not much of a picnic for them getting there . But for the audience , it's created as a post-modern stew . Oldboy is rough , taut , and in spurts quite visionary . |
510,294 | 453,068 | 65,649 | 10 | obscure and underrated ; it's another of Kurosawa's dramas on the lower class , this time bleaker , a little more abstract , still a masterpiece | If there was anything Akira Kurosawa did wrong in making Dodes'ka-den , it was making it with the partnership he formed with the " four knights " ( the other three being Kobayaski , Ichikawa , and Konishita ) . They wanted a big blockbuster hit to kick off their partnership , and instead Kurosawa , arguably the head cheese of the group , delivered an abstract , humanist art film with characters living in a decimated slum that had many of its characters face dark tragedies . Had he made it on a more independent basis or went to another studio who knows , but it was because of this , among some other financial and creative woes , that also contributed to his suicide attempt in 1971 . And yet , at the end of the day , as an artist Kurosawa didn't stop delivering what he's infamous for with his dramas : the strengths of the human spirit in the face of adversity . That its backdrop is a little more unusual than most shouldn't be ignored , but it's not at all a fault of Kurosawa's . The material in Dodes'ka-den is absorbing , but not in ways that one usually finds from the director , and mostly because it is driven by character instead of plot . There's things that happen to these people , and Kurosawa's challenge here is to interweave them into a cohesive whole . The character who starts off in the picture , oddly enough ( though thankfully as there's not much room for him to grow ) , is Rokkuchan , a brain damaged man-child who goes around all day making train sounds ( the ' clickety-clack ' of the title ) , only sometimes stopping to pray for his mother . But then we branch off : there's the father and son , the latter who scrounges restaurants for food and the former who goes on and on with site-specific descriptions of his dream house ; an older man has the look of death to him , and we learn later on he's lost a lot more than he'll tell most people , including a woman who has a past with him ; a shy , quiet woman who works in servitude to her adoptive father ( or uncle , I'm not sure ) , who rapes her ; and a meek guy in a suit who has a constant facial tick and a big mean wife - to those who are social around . There are also little markers of people around these characters , like two drunks who keep stumbling around every night , like clockwork , putting big demands on their spouses , sometimes ( unintentionally ) swapping them ! And there's the kind sake salesman on the bike who has a sweet but strange connection with the shy quiet woman . And of course there's a group of gossiping ladies who squat around a watering hole in the middle of the slum , not having anything too nice to say about anyone unless it's about something erotic with a guy . First to note with all of this is how Kurosawa sets the picture ; it's a little post-apocalyptic , looking not of any particular time or place ( that is until in a couple of shots we see modern cars and streets ) . It's a marginalized society , but the concerns of these people are , however in tragic scope , meant to be deconstructed through dramatic force . Like Bergman , Kurosawa is out to dissect the shattered emotions of people , with one scene in particular when the deathly-looking man who has hollow , sorrowful eyes , sits ripping cloth in silence as a woman goes along with it . Sometimes there's charm , and even some laughs , to be had with these people . I even enjoyed , maybe ironically , the little moments with Rokkuchan ( specifically with Kurosawa's cameo as a painter in the street ) , or the awkward silences with the man with the facial tics . But while Kurosawa allows his actors some room to improvise , his camera movements still remain as they've always been - patient but alert , with wide compositions and claustrophobic shots , painterly visions and faces sometimes with the stylization of a silent drama meant as a weeper . Amid these sometimes bizarre and touching stories , with some of them ( i . e . the father and son in the car ) especially sad , Kurosawa lights his film and designs the color scheme as his first one in Eastmancolor like it's one of his paintings . Lush , sprawling , spilling at times over the seams but always with some control , this place is not necessarily " lighter " ; it's like the abstract has come full-throttle into the scene , where things look vibrant but are much darker underneath . It's a brilliant , tricky double-edged sword that allows for the dream-like intonations with such heavy duty drama . With a sweet ' movie ' score Toru Takemitsu ( also responsible for Ran ) , and some excellent performances from the actors , and a few indelible scenes in a whole fantastic career , Dodes'ka-den is in its own way a minor work from the director , but nonetheless near perfect on its own terms , which as with many Kurosawa dramas like Ikiru and Red Beard holds hard truths on the human condition without too much sentimentality . |
510,441 | 453,068 | 109,445 | 10 | One of the Best Independent Pictures Ever ! | Kevin Smith's Clerks is a very good piece of cinema and comedy . It was made for no more than $27 , 000 and it is one of the best films of the decade . It introduced us to the Clerks . Their lifes , their loves and tribulations . And of course , who can forget the only two people in every Smith film , the dimatic duo Jay and Silet Bob ( played by Jason Mewes and Smith ) . But whats so creative aboutr this movie is that it's simplistic enough to enjoy and admire . It could almost be a play on broadway and it probably is the way Smith wrote it out . A flat out masterpiece and one of the best films of 1994 . |
508,872 | 453,068 | 56,869 | 10 | both absurd and completely terrifying , a film of massive intelligence and enthrallment | What a repeat viewing will bring : The Birds is Alfred Hitchcock's blockbuster entertainment that somehow can appeal to the " art-house " movie-goers as well . Meaning that even more than with Psycho , and certainly on a much grander and ambitious palette than North by Northwest , we have Hitchcock the grand ol ' Master of Suspense for his mainstream fans , and at the same time gives an appeal to those who might consider themselves too high-minded to be considered part of the ' mainstream ' . Meaning if you're in a coffee shop and on one end there's a group of teenagers and on the other end a couple of middle-aged psycho-therapists with numerous degrees , they could both be talking with similar depth & / or enthusiasm over the Birds . It's a work where the story gets set up very well : Tippi Hedren as the daughter of a high-ranking official ( maybe a few brain cells and style-wise above Paris Hilton ) in San Francisco who wants to get to know better a man , Mitch , who's from an island off the coast . She follows him down to the island only to be confronted by Mitch's mother ( Jessica Tandy ) as well as his sister . It's a little uncomfortable a situation in the sort of mother-son dynamic she rattles . . . but that's not all her presence seems to be incurring . What unravels from there is sheer Hitchcock exploitation film-making - exploiting the audience's wildest fears - always with the most assured and inventiveness that one would expect . Several shots stick in one's memory , perhaps the greatest being the from-the-sky view of the fire that breaks out in the city , and then the seagulls that come into the foreground ( point of view is put into question here , and it's a shot that works on both levels as mentioned before ) . As for the average horror fan , The Birds may work even more effectively than Psycho , despite its age shown in the bird attack scenes - which are nevertheless extraordinary in the usage of composite shots - because after the initial shock of the middle chunk of the film Hitchcock gets into something of a near zombie movie in the last third of the picture . Mitch barricades his mother , sister and Melanie in the house , only to have the rancor-loaded birds crashing head on to get at the house . Getting at what , who's to say ? There's explanations that can be given , to be sure , but it may not even be necessary , it just is ( one gets this amusingly from Hitchcock via the scene in the restaurant / bar with the town locals giving their drunken / angered / well-informed viewpoints ) . When it comes down to it , The Birds is not entirely as emotionally disturbing or complex as Vertigo , and one might be reluctant to say that it is art because of its appeal on a commercial level . But art it is , conjured out of a premise that seems ridiculous yet made all the more prescient and startling through Hitchcock's ever-careful style , and specifically the lack of a traditional Herrmann musical score ( albeit with his contribution as a sound-designer with the birds notwithstanding ) . By the last scene , one sees how what might have been a cheesy , trashy work by a lesser filmmaker out for cheap scares , becomes something of a bizarre , discomforting statement on nature versus human beings , or at least what can be capable of those we all take for granted . It's also a hell of a lot of fun for the whole family , more or less ; watch for the school-yard singing as the birds swarm around the playground , later parodied wonderfully in High Anxiety . |
508,343 | 453,068 | 303,461 | 10 | You can't take the sky from me | Intrigued by the film Serentiy , which I saw before Firefly , as well as a lot of the work Joss Whedon has put out , I checked out the entire series ( which , sadly , is only 14 episodes including the original pilot ) , and it is everything positive that I've heard about it , and then some . What Whedon does best here is work on characters . And there's story , of course , and there's at least a few stand-outs ( i . e . Our Mrs . Reynolds , Jaynestown , the series finale episode ) , but it's most of all getting into a loving ( or loving to hate ) all these people about the Serenity ship . Even with River's character , who for a good portion of the series is kind of annoying and / or useless to whatever's going on ( and , oddly enough , she and her doctor brother Simon are mostly awol for one particularly great episode ) , starts to grow on the viewer and by the end - i . e . the final episode - she's totally intriguing and worthwhile to develop . Running it down , there's the Captain , who's strong and courageous and all that but also can take incredible pain ( i . e . torture in that one episode ) and has a great knack for sarcasm that works off of everyone else really well ; Zoe , the second-in-command , who fought with Reynolds in the war years back and is now married to the smart , lovable but also sarcastic and down-to-earth pilot Walsh , whom we first see playing with dinosaurs in the pliot and only gets better from there ; Simon and River , who I mentioned , are self-explanatory as brother / sister who are fugitives aboard the Serenity but with Simon as a more interesting character in his sensitivity and quasi-nerdiness ; Jayne , part bad-ass part dummy , is lovable in an odder way , and his centerpiece episode , Jaynestown , is a riot ; the Shepherd is really cool as a wise sage , but also has some tricks up his sleeve when the time comes ( who is he really , could be his trademark ) ; smarmy , hot and emotionally wearisome Inara , who's on as a prostitute going along for the ride in her own separate bunker and usually comes to the rescue ; and the mechanic Kaylee , who's sweet and adorable but also a hard nut for Simon to crack as a romantic couple . Sound like a lot ? Not really ; one of the big joys in Firefly is to fall in with the characters from episode one , and from there little by little we learn and know about all of the characters , be they in flashbacks or revelations from another character , or if it's through a test of will . Adding to this the acting is , for a sci-fi TV show , superlative , with every actor ( even Summer Glau as the figity and , again , annoying River ) filling in their roles to a T , and then some as with Adam Baldwin and Nathan Fillion . There's a pleasing combination of convoluted romantic entanglements and action throughout the series , sometimes to extremes with the latter - as to how much Fox can show per episode with people getting shot or killed or maimed or stabbed , etc - that seems to fit in with Whedon's aesthetic . And , finally , there's the surprising sophistication with mixing cultures and tastes on the show . Aside from the dialog , which is a weird mix of English ( 90 % of the time of course ) and Chinese ( the rest of the time , cleverly for stuff that's throwaway lines ) , we get the " Old West " , we get the futuristic gadgets and special effects and ( for a one-season TV show eye-popping ) CGI , and it all feels organic to what the writers and directors are going for . This is where no man has gone before , only rougher , tougher , and with some extra heart and big sense of humor . I loved the hell out of this show , and I only wish it ran for longer than it did . |
509,760 | 453,068 | 43,338 | 10 | a cynical and absorbing look at the relevance of a hard-boiled journalism and humanity | Ace in the Hole's main character , Chuck Tatum ( a classic turn from Kirk Douglas ) , creates all his own problems for a glory that , as for any addict , is practically unattainable . This is because for all of his pontificating about the greatness of ' human interest ' stories , if it'll suit him the story can go on for much longer than it needs to for the people in it . There's a very strong current throughout the picture about what the value of life is , not just for Tatum but for everyone involved , from the practical journalists on both sides ( the honest Albaquerque press-man who hates what Tatum is doing in delaying it , to the other press people who hate that Tatum is trying to take all the credit ) , to the hordes of bystanders who turn the outside of the cave where trapped Leo Minosa ( Richard Benedict ) is on his last breath into an amusement park , to even his own conflicted wife ( Sterling ) , who isn'ty sure if she even loves him anymore . By the end , it becomes a desperate twist of fate for Tatum , and it ends up all boiling down to something that is very ( and frighteningly ) relevant for today . Billy Wilder makes this such an unflinching tale of greed and the now given " media circus " , and he does an excellent job in not making Tatum much at all sympathetic . This is important because it allows Douglas the room to make his interpretation so full-bodied and red-blooded that he almost resembles the doomed lead in an Aesop fable . He's a 2nd-level writer who's been kicked out of one major newspaper after another , landing in a little blip on the map like Albaquerque , driving along with his young co-reporter to a Rattlesnake convention or other . Then he comes upon poor Minosa , stuck in a mine with little air and no supplies . He jumps on the chance to make it not only a big news story , but his news story . Douglas takes Tatum on for all he's worth , in a performance that marks him as something quite different from the character he would play in Paths of Glory - self-interested and with so much pride and confidence - edging - and - over - arrogance , and even makes him true to form as he goes back and forth on trying to do the right thing ( bring the man a priest , why not ) , and to save his own hide . Probably one of Wilder's best chances to take was Douglas in the role - a role that is established in a perfect opening shot of Tatum in the driver side of his car , being towed right up to the newspaper office . But it's not the only bright spot for Wilder . He's got a strong sense of how to capture all of the scenes , particularly the claustrophobic mine scenes with Minosa - sometimes with the trapped man huffing away as the most honest character in the film - and the shots showing the expansiveness of the ' circus ' , with the small rest-stop loaded with people all into the hype and riding the ferris wheel . Wilder isn't necessarily doing a full-on film-noir like Double Indemnity or Sunset Boulevard ( also very dark and bleak in view of humanity at large and small scopes ) , but it has that feeling in many scenes , of an atmosphere of mounting dread , corruptible law ( the Sheriff , played by Ray Teal , is a personification of the truly despicable and dumbest officer ) and without much of a happy ending . It's even been considered to be Wilder's bleakest and least commercial film , and it's not an unfair consideration . But it's also drama of the highest caliber , where a lesson that's made isn't crammed down the viewer's head but is surrounded by characters that could just as easily be around in today's media environment . It's almost prophetic in detailing the tediousness and lack of real human connectivity in such " human interest " stories , particularly those lacking a happy ending . One of the best , and most underrated of all , films of 1951 . |
508,232 | 453,068 | 53,221 | 10 | not one of my top five favorite westerns , but it is a damn entertaining classic western | There's almost a kind of bridge between the westerns of old and the sort of last legs of the western in this film - it has the good ol ' sensibilities of the classics ( loyalty , honor , the power of the sheriff , the quirkiness and durability of the ones around him , shoot-outs ) , while also giving some room for some more modern ones ( Dean Martin as ' Dude ' , Angie Dickinson as ' feathers ' , and the overall excitement ) . It has a song at one point ( obviously for one its stars , the late Ricky Nelson , a popular singer at the time ) . It has the crotchety , funny old man ( Walter Brennan as Stumpy , one of his best roles ) . And , of course , the ' Duke ' John Wayne , who has his usual swagger and qualities that make him a prime figure of the ' male ' in films . This time though , he does have some of his tough exterior shed away a little , maybe . Howard Hawks , if nothing else , is most powerful as a storyteller , doing almost nothing with the style of his camera to be creative except to shoot these people , going through the motions . The story , which later was used as a basis for John Carpeneter's Assault on Precinct 13 , has Wayne as the Sheriff and Dean Martin as his on and off again drunken deputy ' Dude ' , who have to look after a criminal in their jail , as he has a brother with a gang who are plotting to break him out . As the Sheriff , or Chance as he's called , has to deal with this , he also has the woman , and the old man , and Dude ( Martin is great in the film , maybe the best male performance of the lot ) , not to mention the hot-to-trot young gunslinger played by Nelson . In all , it's the kind of genre film that should be taken seriously on one hand , but on the other , its meant to be a rollicking good time through the less tense and exciting parts ( and there are quite a few from a director who once said that ' there's no action without danger ) . It lacks a kind of urgency that some of Hawks ' other films have , and occasionally Wayne is a little too much " The Duke " to see if he's really giving a well-rounded performance as the sheriff . But besides that , it makes for some very memorable moments , a slick ending , and some endearing performances . It's also a film that takes its characters to heart as much as its story ; a credit to screenwriters Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett ( the later one of my favorites of the period ) . Not quite a masterpiece , but its definitely worth watching at least once if you're getting into the genre . |
509,277 | 453,068 | 78,788 | 10 | In my top five favorite films ever made | Apocalypse Now is not only my personal favorite work by Francis Ford Coppolla , it's also one of the great visions ever put onto cinema . It makes what was horrific , strange , and ironically exciting and mysterious about the Vietnam War into this mad tale of obsession , death , loss , and the dark side of humanity . While the stories behind the production of the film made it notorious and rather risky back in 1979 , it works on its own terms and represents not just Coppola's genius but others in the Zoetrope team as well . It also paints a sometimes lurid , ultra-violent , bleak and curious view of what war does to people , both in the lower ranks , the big-guns , and those who go too far " up the river " . Many have also been perplexed by Marlon Brando's performance in the film , but it's actually one of his very best turns on screen , albeit improvised and close to running off the rails . His few moments on screen ( even in the somewhat unnecessary scene plopped into the Redux version ) there's enough conviction in what he's saying - and what perhaps isn't said - that makes the trip down the river worthwhile on an intellectual and poetic level . And making up the bulk of the film are delirious turns by Robert Duvall ( a Oscar nominated turn he should've won ) , Martin Sheen as the Captain with almost too much to ponder in an ever increasing state of everything but him being insane ; character actors like Sam Bottoms , Frederic Forrest and 14 year-old Laurence Fishburne have some of the best work they've ever done . And it goes without saying that Dennis Hopper comes close to stealing any scene he's in , for better or worse , with the most to say in rambling , yet coherent words . Every time I watch this film ( and mostly the original version which is what first drew me in completely as opposed to the very good if muddled Redux version ) I am astounded with how operatic everything is , and how the variations on the madness and chaos of Vietnam is put together . Of course one can give adulation to Coppola for this as he completed it without totally going off the deep end or possibly dying , and his talents are pulled to their richest peaks here as a storyteller and director of actors . But it can't be said enough how much I can't get enough of Vittorio Storaro's cinematography , which has in part come close to perfect for this kind of epic film . The music is perfectly eerie and insidious , with the Doors song used for one of my favorite iconic scenes in the movies ( both of them ) . Walter Murch's editing - which apparently was what saved the film from being a four-hour disaster - makes the action move when it needs to and for individual shots to get their due . And even the production design is remarkable and , to the extent it goes to , original in its partial translation of both Conrad's fiction and the unfortunate realities of life on the river . If you haven't seen it yet , in short , get off your ass and get a copy ; it might cause a kind of shell-shock for a viewer after first taking it all in , but it has some of the purest , most rewarding bits of cinema ever to come out of that all-too-brief American new-wave of the 1970's . |
510,319 | 453,068 | 74,486 | 10 | still likely the Strangest film I Have Ever Seen | David Lynch's Eraserhead makes Being John Malkovich , Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Lost Highway ( another Lynch flick ) combined look like they are chicken feed . And years later , having immersed myself in all of Lynch's work ( minus Twin Peaks ) , going through numerous other " cult " and nightmarish films , and even recognizing the slower bits in the film , it still holds up for me as one of the filmmaker's masterpieces . Believe me , you will rarely see a stranger and more terrifying film in your lifetime until you see this . The plot ( which if you can find you win a prize in your mind I think ) has a weird zombie-like man ( with a Al Sharpton like hair-do ) who accidentally gets his spastic girlfriend pregnant and what comes out is a creature that is probably the unwanted child of an alien and a gasoline can . For most of the film though are images and scenes of macabre and fright that are authentic in their own way ; abstractions that sometimes are humorous ( the best being the highly uncomfortable and classic scene at dinner with the chickens ) and sometimes purely out-of-this world . Lynch , while artistically might be by this work as mentally balanced as The Monster in Frankenstein , can make a film so weird , evil-feeling , yet compelling as all hell , that it boggles the mind . Very low budget , this is definitely one of the top 10 best debut films ever . |
509,301 | 453,068 | 113,247 | 10 | best film of its year ; pure urban horror filmed in unflinching and poetic eyes | Matthieu Kassovitz shot out a wad , so to speak , of the kind of " issue " movie that had brawn and balls and didn't back down from showing the truth on all sides , and how it's all ultimately ugly and screams for change to happen . How much the film might have changed things in the ghettos of Paris I'm not sure , and possibly it didn't do much . But as an act of cinematic awareness to a grim situation with bravura drama and humor and in the guise of a " youth " movie , it's completely captivating . What's strong about it is not just that Kassovitz wont turn away from the cyclical nature of violence between the young citizens brutalized and the cops ' battling ' them back causing the ensuing riots , but that nobody is shown as being really right or wrong . . . Maybe that's not entirely true ; La Haine was made for a purpose , through visionary direction and outstanding performances , which is to shed light on something that without any awareness would go on unabated . It's basically like Mean Streets meets Battle of Algiers , if that makes sense . Maybe the latter of those examples is a little extreme an example since it's a wider framework of history and terrorism , whereas this is a work about the little horrors with those who cross the wrong path with the wrong cops in heightened racial and ethnic tension , and is intense on a slightly different level . But it also is relentless in its pursuit of truth at the matter , or rather the filmmaker's heightened and suspenseful level of truth , and it hits the viewer like a gun across the cheeks . While at the same time this societal statement is made there's a real story going on about three young friends ( Vincent Cassell , Hubert Kounde , Said Taghmaoui , all named with their characters ) , one of which carrying a gun he ' found ' from one cop who lost it during a riot , and their travels and adventures over a day trying to get money , drugs , or just getting by the haze of bewilderment over their friend dying in a hospital from cops beating and Vinz's demand for revenge if he dies . La Haine is an impression of just a part of a city , as much as one can grab in a day's length of time in ' movie-time ' , but as well as comparisons to Mean Streets may lie there's also one perhaps for Do the Right Thing . Kassovitz isn't afraid to take a current event and turn it into the stuff of rousing character-driven drama with some semblance of plot ( in this case the old ' if the gun is used in act then one act five ' logic ) , but like Lee or Scorsese his black and white cinematography that follows these guys around with the verve to keep on a tracking shot or a specific close-up ( in a half-ironic close-up Cassel talks to the mirror ala Travis Bickle , a little inspired through a whole other perspective ) that speaks so much . And sometimes he'll put a strange but perfect detour in the structure , like the old man telling the story in the bathroom , or the sudden break for break dancing , or that one shot flying across the air from the window of the DJ . Sometimes it's docu-realistic , but then Kassovitz will throw that stylistic curve-ball reminding us this is in-your-face and with an attitude that would make the Clash raise an eyebrow or two . And along with Kassovitz hitting it way out of the park intellectually and emotionally as a filmmaker , his actors are all lock-in-step wonderful for their characters : Taghmaoui , who you might remember from Three Kings or Traitor , as the uppity and bad-joke telling Arab who has attitude to spare but is like a rough puppy at best ; Kounde as the one with probably the most common sense as a guy who lost his gym to the riot and gets by smoking hash and trying to get ( or talk ) Cassel out of trouble ; Cassel as the hot-head with something to prove to himself , or so he thinks , carrying the gun and not really knowing its implications . The three of them are not really very bad kids , but they're from the streets and know it well and know what they need to do to act right and behave around amid what is at points squalor ( i . e . the subway bit with one after another homeless folks going by ) and just rough gang stuff . They're even sensitive performances to a degree , which is important since La Haine , for all its toughness and rigor and occasional blasts of harsh violence , is a beautiful work of a Frenchman who knows what he's doing . It's made by the young and for the young , but it's also made for anyone looking for an example of what is both important and entertaining art after the French new-wave has come and gone . And , as with any great post-modern film , seeing it once isn't enough . |
509,560 | 453,068 | 60,827 | 10 | The most ambiguous , inviting , surreal , whatever-you-can-think philosophical experiment by Bergman | Writing from a hospital bed ( as he did with Wild Strawberries , two of these being films strung out from anguish ) , Ingmar Bergman put down almost anything that was in his head to start with ( the first five minutes - some of the most startling and thoroughly symbolic minutes he's ever directed ) , then transposed into a story of two women , or one . This was one of the landmark ' art-films ' of the 1960's , with hints of the horrors of war ( in one memorable scene , Elisabeth looks at a television screen at images of death ) , introspection regarding sex and identity , existentialism , and what it means to be an actor . Some of the more famous directors in history have a kind of ' notorious ' film , by which many people who may not know the bulk of their works know them by one particular work ( with Hitchcock it could be Psycho , Lucas it's with Star Wars , Bunuel with The Andalousian Dog , Godard with Breathless ) . This could , arguably , be the one for Bergman , despite a couple of others likely also holding claim to that title . In other words , this could be a good place to start with the director if you're not familiar with his films , or it might not be . But keep this in mind - it's one of his most unique departures as a filmmaker . Two of his leading ladies ( and , ahem , loves ) , Bibi Andersson and 25 year-old Liv Ullmann , star was a nurse and an actress , who for the bulk of the film are at a Doctor's cottage as the nurse tries to help and likely cure Elisabeth of her ailment ( froze on stage , silent but incredibly observant ) . In the meantime , Alma the nurse , in a role that gives Andersson more talking-points than any other film she's been in , goes through some hurtful parts of her past , and just tries to understand her counter-part . At one point , a vein of existentialism is ruptured thoughtfully , when Alma gets Elisabeth to say " No , don't " , when she threatens her . When I first saw this film , I knew this scene would come after reading Roger Ebert's review . But I had no idea it would hit me like it did . There is such a great , compelling tension between these two that Andersson and Ullmann convey that it is what makes the film work . Any lessor actresses might fumble up the whole lot of it . While it isn't my favorite Bergman film ( though it is unfair to pick favorites sometimes when it comes to someone as huge in the cine-consciousness as him ) , there are many things that had me come back to it after being a little awe-struck on my first viewing last year . For one thing , there's Sven Nykvist , with one of the strongest , most varying eyes in all of European cinema . In the first five minutes , of course , there is some fascinating stuff , but even in the scenes of long dialog and monologue ( i . e . the unforgettable speech about being on the beach from Alma ) , where the lighting is so delicate and sharp with the shadows that you really feel like the weight of this situation is closing in on the characters . Or , of course , when the two actresses ' faces are super-imposed , which can be interpreted in more ways than one ( either as a grand statement , or as pretension , or something else ) . I was also very moved by the pace of the film , how it fills each minute ( it's not a long movie ) in ways that some movies just float minutes by . Now , this is the kind of Bergman film that can't be turned on any time ( not to make it sound un-watchable , it certainly isn't ) . But it does ask to be viewed when in a certain frame of mind - if you're looking for a movie to show off to your friends , like it's the Euro / avant-garde version of Fight Club minus the violence , look away . It poses a good many questions for a viewer , especially one who knows of Bergman's themes he's explored before and after this film's release . How do we feel , or know we're feeling ? What keeps us closed in ? Why do we hurt ? And are we only one person at a time ? It's all the more puzzling that Bergman's climax isn't a very easy one ( not as doomed as with Seventh Seal but not as cheerful as Fanny and Alexander ) , as Alma has another monologue with Elisabeth , about her son she hasn't seen in a long while - this famously seen from two different angles , one after the other . Furthermore , it is arguably Bergman's most self-conscious film to date ( the commentary on the DVD carries it well ) , however it may not be as off-putting as with some of Godard's films . To put it another way , there are two sides to the subject matter , the film , the director , and the audience . |
509,478 | 453,068 | 53,198 | 10 | The Best Truffaut film to see | I thought this was not only the best Truffaut film , but also one of the best crime films ever . Truffaut depicts a boy who is rejected ( in his mind ) from his parents , so he goes to a life of crime . Great drama , especially in the eyes of Truffaut and in black and white no less . Look for Francois as a man in the funfair . |
510,362 | 453,068 | 1,020,990 | 10 | great even if you've barely ever watched regular Robot Chicken ! | This was fantastic , crazy , immature and joyfully stupid / joyously witty parody on all things Star Wars . What's great is that you don't need to be a Robot Chicken fan ( though I'm sure it helps ) or even have watched it very much to decide either way . If you like your parodies quick and skit-like and random and sometimes just dumb as hell , Robot Chicken : Star Wars is something of a minor masterpiece in the form . Seth Green's collage of classic bits from the movie redone , and then lampooned from all corners ( there ' " Dr . Ball " featuring the big black orb that tortured Princess Leia , there's Admiral Ackbar cereal , there's George W . Bush thinking he's a Jedi and pitting his " mind-trick " on a WMD question , there's even a running " gag " involving Jar-Jar becoming a " ghost " torturing Darth Vader ) . There's barely a moment when I didn't laugh out loud , or find something actually really funny and creative in its wit and , as a fan of the saga , obscure bits that only people who've seen the film 10 or 20 times would get ( i . e . that blue guy playing the piano at Jabba's palace pushing an album wit songs like " I'm not an elephant ! " ) , or just obvious gags that only come on late at night ( i . e . Luke and Leia in bed , " This is so . . . wrong . " ) Granted , it may take a certain sense of humor or just familiarity with the Star Wars films to get some of the gags - those who aren't keen on the prequels may not remember what midiclorians ( sic ) are let alone how the jokes lock in step in the show - but for those that get it , it's priceless . Only minor personal geek-type liability : no Yoda ! |
510,920 | 453,068 | 65,724 | 10 | Easy in Bold letters | Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces is as decent and interesting as movies get , with great characterizations ( Nicholson is excellent as always , but the supporting performances from Black and others contribute also to the feel ) and some music that borderlines from fine to overdone . Many memorable scenes included , one of them Nicholson's famous chicken-salad speech , plus a challenging ending . |
510,688 | 453,068 | 91,670 | 10 | the soul of the artist / poet with his profound ' swan song ' , an elegy to life and death and the soul | It is perhaps too blunt a notion that Andrei Tarkovsky's the Sacrifice bears some comparison with Ingmar Bergman's films . More than a notion , it's right up there on the screen : Erland Josephsson , one of Bergman's great collaborators , as well as Sven Nykvist ( probably the best ) , as well as certain allusions in some of the shots ( i . e . the kid in the bed in black and white seems right out of Persona ) . But it's also the themes being dealt with , the tone in the monologues from the characters ( albeit from Josephsson and usually dealing with his faith and memories ) , and the sense of grief and bewilderment ala Shame . At the same time , with these allusions as well as others to the likes of Nietzche and Dostoyevsky , it's through and through the work of a filmmaker so in touch with his soul as an artist , with so much to pour into a work that has relatively little plot ( not that it doesn't have a story ) , that it floors one . And , in a sense , it's close to being , despite its darker intonations and its ambiguous , staggering ending of madness and hope , the director's quintessential work . While Stalker will probably stay as the artistic pinnacle of his career , the Sacrifice brings to a head many of the director's chief concerns while not possibly making them too patched together to make sense ( i . e . The Mirror , which is nevertheless also great ) , as well as in a style that is meditative , calm , harsh , surreal , and always with the heart and mind of what leans toward the poetic . Once we get into the premise of the picture , which takes a little while itself to set up - an old man , Alexander , ( Josephsson ) and his family are at his home to celebrate his birthday when elsewhere a catastrophic war is going on , with the family left to their own devices out in the middle of the countryside - Tarkovsky explores the spaces that are there to see in the consciousness of men ( and , to a degree , women ) in a crisis of faith . In reality , there isn't a whole lot that " happens " in the usual plot-driven sense of the Sacrifice , but within the realm of the scenes depicted and acted , there's a lot more than any other filmmaker would meet at . A visit to Maria , a " witch " in a church nearby , takes up a fairly significant chunk out of the picture , but in it is a story told by Alexander about a garden and his mother , and around this and in this scene are the details that Tarkovsky builds with . It goes without saying his genius also lies with whom he works with , and Nykvist creates such a mood for each particular scene ( sometimes the light or look of a scene will fade just a little , and everything will change , however subtly , for an instant ) , and such a delicate , brooding nature with the camera as it tracks along in Tarkovsky's carefully lined long takes , that it ranks up there with his very best pieces with Bergman . But at the same time , as the director mixes in black and white footage , slow-motion of a character running down a hall , a tilt up some mud and nature , a sense of time and place and horror is depicted , honestly , without the problems with usually pretentious visionaries . And as it was that Tarkovsky knew that he was dying - unlike other filmmakers who fade out after their last picture or die unexpectedly - there's a sense of self-reflection , as it comes out with Alexander and in those around him , that is sad but ultimately poignant to the highest order . Questions are raised that can hardly be answered , but one of the chief ones has the ring of naiveté until it's known that it's this particular instance it's raised : is there no hope for the spirit ? What about the boy , however , might also be another sort of question , as we see the final shot starting on the boy and raising up ever so gently up the tree with the music playing on . All these and more can be raised from the Sacrifice ( not to mention , of course , what does it mean to really sacrifice oneself ) , but it's besides all of that just a truly rich cinematic experience , one that's so rich that it's hard to take it all in all at once . It has the sustainability of its artistic force to not have the danger of growing ' dated ' ; to make a more leap with some grandeur perhaps , as with a poem or some renaissance painting ( not far off from the Leonardo featured in the film ) , the Sacrifice asks to be revisited , to have the experience of the thoughts and ideas poised , and for the amazing performances and technical work . It's one of the true masterpieces of the 1980s . |
509,547 | 453,068 | 78,841 | 10 | a biting black comedy of a detached character in a particular state of mind | Being There will get you thinking about what it means to be taken in by television , as well as the government , and the better ( or lesser ) intentions of people in power , and works on more than one level . It's a pure slice of oddball life , the story of a man who got more than likely tucked away into some kind of perfunctory manner by the only things in life with any significance being television and gardening . No more or less . How does one end up living out in the world , however , if this is all there is for the span of a long life ? Jerzy Kosinski's idea is to place this fragmented , polite but assuredly clueless fellow where double standards rule the day . He meets a businessman after a limo accident , and by his outward appearance seeming to fit a certain mold he takes him in . The man is connected in his dealings , all the way up to the president , as an adviser . All Chance ( Peter Sellers ) can do is say what he knows - not only does he not know lies or how to lie , he's been sort of conditioned , in a way , to not fully comprehend good and evil either . But his words carry meaning , somehow , and he becomes a celebrity all the while not really connected to what's going on . Rarely before has detachment and the subtleties of the human condition been this engaging . There are three major factors for this , which is the control of wit and truth in the screenplay by Kosinski , who won't go for the cheapest laughs or too mocking in satirical form , but in the moments of dead-pan exchange and the bluntness of Chance's character . Sellers , of course , is at the very top of his game , and that's a first factor , along with the rest of the excellent cast ( MacClaine is maybe at her best , as I've not seen too much that wowed me until now ; Douglass gives a compassionate performance that speaks to the issue of illness and the end of existence ; Warden is surprisingly adept at playing a flabbergasted , weak-willed president ) . He leads it as if going for something that seems like it shouldn't be interesting . It's a guy who doesn't really have much expression , aside from some bits of joy , like meeting the president , or in becoming ( somewhat ) part of MacClaine's character's love-life , or in seeing someone die . But even then it's a muted , half-way expression , and the repression that Sellers makes real here is staggering . The term ' comfortably numb ' popped in my head once or twice regarding Chance the gardener , and Sellers makes this as real as possible , and sometimes as funny as possible , but for the most part it's his most mature work where there isn't any cheating - what you see , with his mind transmogrified by TV forever - is what you get . Ashby , meanwhile , makes this a very successfully directed film by putting a tone to the picture that is not really like the Chance character because you want to see where he goes next . He'll put in a sequence that is hysterically funny , like when Chance is in the limo watching the Cheech and Chong bit Basketball Jones , or in Chance's reaction to pure sexual advances from MacClaine , or in several little things . But he also makes it on a bedrock of a level of plausibility , at least in some part . It's doubtful if a man would have this sort of effect on a mass public , once appearing in public anyway , and have his words 100 % to heart , because there would be over-analysis and eventually a crack in the whole character's intent that gardening tactics are universal . And yet it's even more plausible , however , to see what effect words do have when taken out of context AS the context , and how perceptions in America create more than what one might bargain for , and eventually become a mantra of sorts . That Chance also is quite a dim fellow - not a dimwit exactly , he's not necessarily stupid - brings some extra resonance in the political swamp of today . Ashby times all of this as though he were certain when to just let the everyday come in as something more . He puts in great musical choices , and a few very memorable images ( I loved the shot of Chance walking on the middle-road to the Capital building ) , and crowns it with a screenplay that doesn't , unlike TV for Chance , take things too simple . Not that there isn't almost a silent-film whimsy to this all , but there's so much to Being There that it will stick with you for many days afterwords . |
509,828 | 453,068 | 29,957 | 10 | La Bete Humaine is a a mix of beautiful , naturalistic melodrama and the early inklings of film noir | I have yet to read any of the works of Zola , but I am familiar with what he wrote about in his time in a modern drama class I took - he was part of a naturalistic movement in literature and theater that tried to take relationship stories to another area , or at least to one that might have been frowned upon with some of the overt sensuality and questioning of the roles of men and women . But for Jean Renoir , he takes the basic elements that were in Zola's work and gives the film a great spirit , a tale of falling in love , murder , heartbreak , among the working class . Although it is more-so a melodrama at times , the acting isn't over-wrought or ' bad ' in the slightest - Jean Gabin is perfect in his role of Jacques Lantier , an engineer working on the trains who has a problem sometimes from his family's alcoholic history . Simone Simon is a good choice for Simone Simon , a woman with a troubled past , and with love almost improbable at times . And Fernand Ledoux is a fine antagonist Roubaud , husband to Simone and with some problems of his own . The power of the story comes through the use of the image , of the seeming simplicity of Renoir's style . Above anything else , in the three films of his I have seen from his late 30's period ( Grand Illusion , this film , and The Rules of the Game ) , I can tell that Renoir is first and foremost a master at storytelling , and probably improving on a story . Coinciding with Zola , the dialog he uses for the characters is very real , even transcending the time period for today . One could imagine this story in any time period , which also links up to the film-noir element , or more appropriately the sort of ' romantic ' film-noir that one might find in the work of James M . Cain . It's a crime story that involves really no ' criminals ' , but working people who have hit some bad , personal times . But along with Renoir being more than able to tell the story , many of the images are memorable , even indelible at times . The way he opens the film , with a kind of montage of trains , is sensational . And towards the climax , as Lantier faces a dire internal conflict on the train , Renoir rushes past in a straightforward POV shot as the train chugs ahead . And specific shots too make the point very clear , even in a bad print like the one I saw it in - for example , when Lantier and Simone first have their push and pull romantic moment , it leads to the first signs of Lantier's mental instability , and I wouldn't reveal anything else except to say that it's quite emotional ( it arises again at a point I won't say either ) . Certain conventions end up working their way into the film , and the ending may seem to be a little too much . But overall , I was extremely pleased with this film , the directions it took and the emotional reach it had on me . It's a story of people who need love , and can never seem to get a grasp of it in a world of deception and strife . |
509,188 | 453,068 | 104,466 | 10 | One of my top five favorite Woody flicks | On a recent documentary I saw on Woody Allen's career , with him being interviewed , he said of this film that it was one of only a small number of times in his career he felt he carried over what he wanted on the page to the screen . Though I've never read the actual shooting script to Husbands and Wives , I can see what he means . I've seen the film several times , if not all the way through then usually when it is on TV , and it always strikes my attention the frankness of it all , how it follows almost no rules . It shares a kinship with another Woody masterpiece , Deconstructing Harry , also about a neurotic writer and the relationship problems around him . Here he focuses not only on himself , but also on another married couple , played by Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis ( the later of which one of Woody's best in his quasi stock company ) , and what he calls the " discombobulated " characters . It is funny here and there , but in reality this is a great film of dramatic sincerity and occasional intensity . Woody himself is in his final collaboration with his ex-wife Mia Farrow , who themselves in the film play a married couple working through some issues . There is also the sensitive , passionate man between the two couples played by Liam Neeson , who acts as a good mediator between the two intertwining story lines . And Juliette Lewis is surprisingly good as a young would-be author who befriends the author / professor Woody plays in the film . What works to make all of these relationships , with warts and all , is that the dialog is always totally , without a doubt , believable . One can see people like this around the New York city upper-middle class landscape , with the neuroses as intriguing as they are frank and even a little disturbing . While the film shares a kinship with some of the dark , brooding themes of Interiors , and quintessentially European ( in a good way ) attitude towards editing and composition to Deconstructing Harry , it also has ( also ' Harry's ' DP ) the eye of Carlo Di Palma . Di Palma , who also worked with Antonioni on Red Desert and Blowup , works with great ease with the aesthetics of the scenes . This time the camera-work is practically all hand-held , lit with nearly ( seemingly ) no artificial lights , and with a kind of intensity that is sometimes lacking in other Woody films . In wrong , amateur hands this style could falter , but with the material given , the constant interest and conviction in the performances , and Allen directing , it works . Having Di Palma as a cinematographer is as good a bet as having ( a mentally-all-together ) Marlon Brando as your star , and because of the documentary realism involved it always remains interesting . I could watch this movie , at least most scenes , just as easily as I could with films like Manhattan or ' Harry ' , because it is one of those special times in the filmmaker's career where everything comes together , however how raw it may be . |
509,656 | 453,068 | 814,187 | 10 | another scathing , amazingly laugh-plenty special from Mr . Black | While this time around Lewis Black , coming live from his hometown , takes some time in some of his ' bits ' . There's lots of story that he needs to cover , or at least the great pauses and inflections that come with them , chiefly his account of his staggering experience at the White House correspondent's dinner ( the President has ' handlers ' is priceless ) . But for the most part , Black delivers many of his biggest laughs sometimes by not even delivering the typical punchlines . In Red , White and Screwed , as in Black on Broadway , his approach is to give a punchline - or one that might look like one - and pepper it with a vocal style and slight physical mannerisms that are the most ingenious I see today in stand-up comedy . What might be my favorite section of the special involves this style - or attack - on Dick Cheney going duck hunting , and its metaphor for the middle east . There are other great bits and one liners too , a good deal of which has also been recorded on Black's Carnegie Hall performance CD . If you're coming to this guy fresh not knowing who he is ( which is a little surprising after so many years in stand-up and on the Daily Show ) , it might be hit or miss as he is not for everyone to be sure . But for fans it's quite the new eruption of topical bile with a heap of sardonic wit and perfectly timed pauses , expressions , and anger that isn't thrown at us but is likely the kind we might share ( and laugh at ) ourselves . |
510,376 | 453,068 | 43,274 | 10 | one of only several films from Disney that work very well for totally different crowds | Alice in Wonderland is , as well as what the one-line summary suggests , is one of the more abstracted kind of animated films the Disney studio has ever released . And it needs this edge for what the material requires . Here is a film that means different times throughout a life , for some people . As a kid it's a wondrous , madcap adventure with as much sincerity and polite little moments with Alice as it contains vision after vision where varied forms of caricatured anarchy and odd transformations guised as fables . As an older teen , it comes off more as seeming like a ' drug ' movie , and of course Carroll's original story has become not just a phrase for ' through the looking glass ' in society , but as part of metaphors for the drug community ( " White Rabbit " is one of those classic , strange 60's songs that still works today ) . With various allusions to such substances like the big-and-small pills , the caterpillar with the pipe , the hare and hatter with their ' tea ' , and the Cheshire Cat going in through the out door , it's not too hard to picture it as being a precursor to the 60s . But , of course , there is also that very innocent approach that the Disney films had of that early period . Alice is as innocent and day-dreaming as Snow White , though with a little more interest due to her having to be a formidable enough guide through this imaginative world . And there are little , surreal fables that are laced in that , again , capture the absurd poetic tone of Carroll's work . The segment with the Walrus and the Carpenter is a very good example of this , and is one of the funniest segments not only of the film but maybe of any Disney feature of the period . And stretching out after going into taking the ideas and images from the book into animated form , the abstractions become rather incredible for their time . As a kid as well as now I loved seeing the large Alice start to cry to the point of creating a dangerous sea of it right by the snobbish doorknob . The Cheshire Cat is one of those insane concoctions that is delightful in its unhinged abandon . The Queen of Hearts sequences towards the end are , for me , the only ones that are more closer to the ' traditional ' Disney films where the looser , crazier nature that went on before with the March Hare and Mad Hatter took place ( one of my all-time favorite Disney scenes by the way - that little mouse deserved some sort of prize ) . Overall , this is quite a treat to revisit years later - yes , even in a non-induced kind of state - with cheerful songs , and a neat balance of delirious humor and silly imagination . In short , a film like this probably couldn't be made today , at least by Disney . |
509,938 | 453,068 | 82,971 | 10 | Classic B film revitalized ; was worth seeing again after so many years | I hadn't seen Steven Spielberg / George Lucas's first collaboration , Raiders of the Lost ark , since I was quite young . When I saw it again today , I got a bit of a different perspective , in that I've now come to watch it again after seeing film after film after film that has been either inspired by it , or just plain ripped it off . Though it's not to say that this film doesn't borrow from every cliffhanger , matinée serial ever created . It's got Harrison Ford in the role that's made him an icon - perhaps even further than Han Solo for some - as the hard-as-nails archaeologist with only one or two minor ( so to speak ) fears . The story is there , but it's really the clothes hanger for Spielberg to race along Jones on his quest for the Lost Ark of the title , where Nazi's get in the way , as well as every ' trick in the book ' of the action / adventure genre . One could argue , and it has been , that it's almost too much , and that the sequels are improvements . But this still retains the power of Spielberg's best work , not to mention Lucas at his most amusing and terrifying . At the least , it was worth it to watch again to get a big laugh out of the dancing-then-one-shot scene ( you know which one I mean ) . |
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