Turns out writing about every movie you watch can be a real hassle. Even when you're not watching a particularly extravangant amount, when they start building up a pile of three films can look seriously daunting. Combine with this with studying for finals and then a crazy 2 job work schedule and it's very easy to find yourself in my position.
Today I find myself with free time, and so I will play a little catch up of all the films I've seen in my silent month, in order of my least favorite to most.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (Samuel Bayer, 2010) - What a lazy, shitty movie. Jackie Earle Haley gives a charisma-less performance as the iconic Freddy Krueger. I don't want to think anymore about this criminal waste of time.
The Big Easy (Jim McBride, 1986) - Another lazy film. Police corruption in New Orleans is what drives this "thriller". It tries so hard to cool, sexy, and witty without an iota of success, and completely fails to deliver any sort of thrilling or coherent narrative. Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin in the leads roles also lack any chemistry.
Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) - Robert Downey, Jr. still rocks, Gwenyth Paltrow is the thinking man's sex symbol, and Sam Rockwell is fantastic as the anti-Tony Stark, Justin Hammer. It's too bad these great characters are in a long commercial for upcoming Marvel Studios films instead of a feature film with a strong narrative drive.
Bab'Aziz, The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul (Nacer Khemir, 2008) - I did not like this movie very much. An old, blind dervish and his grandaughter are travelling through the desert to a dervish convention of some kind. While travelling, he tells her stories of a prince who abandoned his kingdom to sit by a pool and contemplate. It's beautifully filmed and features a smart ending that adds a lot of weight to the sparse, yet confounding narrative that leads to it. I am in no way qualified to review this film. It features what I believe is probably a lot of religious symbols that go way over my head. If I every educate myself more in the subject of Islam, I might need to give this enigma another shot.
Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, 2010) - Great characters, fun action, believable adolescent emotions. Kick-Ass has all these mixed up with some instances of bad dialogue, pacing issues, and equally unrealistic adolescent emotional behavior. I still wish Vaughn had just made his own superhero movie. What really keeps me from embracing this film is that it can't completely shake that Mark Millar flavor. Vaughn cuts out so much of what makes Millar's comic a mysogynistic, racist, pointlessly brutal piece of shit, but I still get those Millar whiffs every once in a while.
The Good The Bad The Weird (Ji-Woon Kim, 2010) - Whoah. What a blast. Korean westerns should come around to these shores more often. This plot is a bit too complicated for me to recount easily, but the three title characters have conflicts. That's about all you need. And there's trains. The action sequences are stylish and exhilarating, and the film has a healthy sense of humor that runs throughout.
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (Tom Six, 2010) - LKJAHSLDKJAHLDAIUYVGROSS! A former Siamese twin separater becomes obsessed with connecting people into a centipede of sorts. He kidnaps unsuspecting foreigners and then the rest happens. I don't usually go for such gross-out fare, but Centipede is handled with unusual skill. Six knows when to dial back the gore and leave a more lasting psychological impression. This film is scarring, but it's also damn good.
The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman, 1943) - I just watched this classic for the first time today, and I found it a very quiet yet powerful western. It deserves its classic status. Its message of the dangers of group-think and mob mentality are as relevant today as ever, and though its message is never subtle, its execution is handled remarkably well.
I've recently started reading Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8. Damn, I'm cool.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Lisa, you are tearing me apart!!!
Last night I finished quite an entertaining 24 hours.
It all started with some late night Direct-to-DVD, Dolph Lundgren helmed action in the form of last year's Command Performance. Dolph Lundgren stars as Drummer Joe. I think that's all that matters. He's in a band, terrorists show up, and he saves the day. The story doesn't work too hard to make sense, which is fine, since it clearly is unimportant. I had fun, but I don't recommend it. 4.0
Shit got awesome later with Bong Joon-ho's latest Mother. It must be said. Joon-ho is flat out a fucking master of his film game. He is three for fucking three in my book, with previous films The Host and Memories of Murder (his segment in the compilation film Tokyo! is good also, best of the bunch in fact). His movies are all long, and they all waste absolutely zero seconds, frames, and even lines of dialogue. His stories always pay off in big ways due in part to this attention to detail and a narrative totally without any fat. He masterfully weaves extremely complex narratives while never straying away from the emotional centers that make stories truly great.
So Mother is about a mother obsessed with finding the man who framed her mentally handicapped so for murder. Plot-wise, it's much closer to Memories of Murder intense crime procedural, but its obsessions with family and familial love reminded me at times of his monster/horror film The Host. This film also boasts another powerhouse female lead performance in Kim Hye-ja as Mother. 9.6
And how did I cap this 24 hour period off? The best way possible: The Room.
Wow holy fuck me, right? The Room and its director/writer/producer/star Tommy Wiseau have been written to hell, so I won't bother with doing it myself. Hilarious reviews are everywhere. I'll just keep it quick. It lives up to the hype. I want to give it a number rating, but Tommy has engineered his film to defy all grading systems, as well as logic and time continuity.
It all started with some late night Direct-to-DVD, Dolph Lundgren helmed action in the form of last year's Command Performance. Dolph Lundgren stars as Drummer Joe. I think that's all that matters. He's in a band, terrorists show up, and he saves the day. The story doesn't work too hard to make sense, which is fine, since it clearly is unimportant. I had fun, but I don't recommend it. 4.0
Shit got awesome later with Bong Joon-ho's latest Mother. It must be said. Joon-ho is flat out a fucking master of his film game. He is three for fucking three in my book, with previous films The Host and Memories of Murder (his segment in the compilation film Tokyo! is good also, best of the bunch in fact). His movies are all long, and they all waste absolutely zero seconds, frames, and even lines of dialogue. His stories always pay off in big ways due in part to this attention to detail and a narrative totally without any fat. He masterfully weaves extremely complex narratives while never straying away from the emotional centers that make stories truly great.
So Mother is about a mother obsessed with finding the man who framed her mentally handicapped so for murder. Plot-wise, it's much closer to Memories of Murder intense crime procedural, but its obsessions with family and familial love reminded me at times of his monster/horror film The Host. This film also boasts another powerhouse female lead performance in Kim Hye-ja as Mother. 9.6
And how did I cap this 24 hour period off? The best way possible: The Room.
Wow holy fuck me, right? The Room and its director/writer/producer/star Tommy Wiseau have been written to hell, so I won't bother with doing it myself. Hilarious reviews are everywhere. I'll just keep it quick. It lives up to the hype. I want to give it a number rating, but Tommy has engineered his film to defy all grading systems, as well as logic and time continuity.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Forgiveness Rock Record
More like Forgive This Boring Record. Sorry BSS. Forget about how your past two records were amazing achievements in the art of building huge walls of noise and infectious pop that coalesced into beautiful music. Changing the formula is fine by me. I encourage it. The real bummer here is that the new one fails to satisfy even a base level of enjoyment I need while listening to music. It just doesn't sound fun, barring a couple of tracks. I was bored listening to it.
Movie catch up:
Un Prophete, Jacques Audiard (2010)
A prison drama thinly disguising a mob epic. For the most part it works, except for when Audiard sometimes indulges these ridiculous visual flourishes. I felt this had a lot in common with last year's similarly cold mob film Gomorra. I'm finding that the cold, distant, impartial stance these films are taking is not drawing me in as much as I feel I should be. Un Prophete is definitely the better film, though. It offers a more centralized story with a strong main character. 7.4
Vincere, Marco Bellocchio (2010)
A stunning film about Benito Mussolini's secret mistress with whom he had a son. When he returned from war, a decorated hero with a new wife, he forced his former flame into an asylum. The asylum takes up most of the second half of the film, but the first half dazzles with vibrant colors and beautiful cinematography as Bellocchio tells a beautiful story of a young woman falling for a fiercely passionate and handsome young man. It really is too bad that the second half can't maintain the first's spirit, but the film is never less than good. And the all leads to a powerful ending. Giovanna Mezzogiorno gives a brutally intimate and revealing performance. 8.2
And a movie I've seen a billion times, Albert Moyle's 1995 classic Empire Records. I watched the Remix Super Fan Blah Blah Whatever edition for the first time. It adds 15 minutes to a 90 minute movie, while cutting about portions of subplots, adds more overwrought music cues, and obviously redubs a significant amount of dialogue. All the new audio is inserted with the care of a toaster, often having different background presence and being significantly louder than the original soundtrack. I know producers like money, but whatever superfans a movie like Empire Records could have would most likely have shelled out the 20 bucks for a new dvd edition without any "improvements". It's not like I have any real love for the movie, but my group of friends did throw it on all the time in high school and it holds a minor sentimental value to me. And i don't love for any decent/good movie to be worsened.
Movie catch up:
Un Prophete, Jacques Audiard (2010)
A prison drama thinly disguising a mob epic. For the most part it works, except for when Audiard sometimes indulges these ridiculous visual flourishes. I felt this had a lot in common with last year's similarly cold mob film Gomorra. I'm finding that the cold, distant, impartial stance these films are taking is not drawing me in as much as I feel I should be. Un Prophete is definitely the better film, though. It offers a more centralized story with a strong main character. 7.4
Vincere, Marco Bellocchio (2010)
A stunning film about Benito Mussolini's secret mistress with whom he had a son. When he returned from war, a decorated hero with a new wife, he forced his former flame into an asylum. The asylum takes up most of the second half of the film, but the first half dazzles with vibrant colors and beautiful cinematography as Bellocchio tells a beautiful story of a young woman falling for a fiercely passionate and handsome young man. It really is too bad that the second half can't maintain the first's spirit, but the film is never less than good. And the all leads to a powerful ending. Giovanna Mezzogiorno gives a brutally intimate and revealing performance. 8.2
And a movie I've seen a billion times, Albert Moyle's 1995 classic Empire Records. I watched the Remix Super Fan Blah Blah Whatever edition for the first time. It adds 15 minutes to a 90 minute movie, while cutting about portions of subplots, adds more overwrought music cues, and obviously redubs a significant amount of dialogue. All the new audio is inserted with the care of a toaster, often having different background presence and being significantly louder than the original soundtrack. I know producers like money, but whatever superfans a movie like Empire Records could have would most likely have shelled out the 20 bucks for a new dvd edition without any "improvements". It's not like I have any real love for the movie, but my group of friends did throw it on all the time in high school and it holds a minor sentimental value to me. And i don't love for any decent/good movie to be worsened.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Fuck a man's will
Don Argott's recent art doc The Art of the Steal tells an entertaining and infuriating story of corrupt politicians and lawyers out to to acquire one man's private treasure after his death. Argott starts off making you think you're watching a run of the mill, boring documentary about Albert Brooks, a massively rich private art collector. He does this intentionally to draw you into the crazy shenanigans that take place after his death.
Brooks left his art collection to a board of trustees with a huge chunk of money and a will that explicitly stated that the collection could only be used for educational purposes, could never be moved, and could never be sold. After a few peaceful years, the lawyers and politicians get involved in trying to get the art out of Barnes' home and into a venue where they can make some money.
The movie ends up playing like a heist thriller, focusing on how the bad guys ultimately got away with stealing the loop holes in the legal system. It's not the JFK of art documentaries, as I've read elsewhere, but it is very entertaining and thrilling, while keeping things mostly apolitical.
Argott does balance the picture nicely by emphasizing how great it would be for the general public to see all of this amazing art. Barnes' will initially allowed for his house to open to the public 2-3 days a week for free. While Argott condemns everyone trying to stomp on the will of a man, he recognizes that more than a couple dozen people a week need to see this art.
8.o
Brooks left his art collection to a board of trustees with a huge chunk of money and a will that explicitly stated that the collection could only be used for educational purposes, could never be moved, and could never be sold. After a few peaceful years, the lawyers and politicians get involved in trying to get the art out of Barnes' home and into a venue where they can make some money.
The movie ends up playing like a heist thriller, focusing on how the bad guys ultimately got away with stealing the loop holes in the legal system. It's not the JFK of art documentaries, as I've read elsewhere, but it is very entertaining and thrilling, while keeping things mostly apolitical.
Argott does balance the picture nicely by emphasizing how great it would be for the general public to see all of this amazing art. Barnes' will initially allowed for his house to open to the public 2-3 days a week for free. While Argott condemns everyone trying to stomp on the will of a man, he recognizes that more than a couple dozen people a week need to see this art.
8.o
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Stuck
The problem with writing something about every single film I watch is that I just don't have the time to give every film the lengthy and thoughtful write-ups they may deserve. Some films that I really like end up getting the short end, like The Eclipse, when I'm feeling tired or busy. Then there are films, regardless of whether I like them or not, that I just don't feel inspired to write much about.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is one of those uninspiring films. It's about a man who hits a "metal fetishist" with his car and is subsequently haunted by him when the fetishist starts a slow transformation of the man into scrap metal. That's pretty much it for story. It's certainly visually interesting and unique, and it was probably made for almost nothing, but it is the epitome of "Fucked up shit". People that say they like "fucked up shit" would like this movie. The kind of fucked up that is only surface weird. On some level it does present a disturbing perspective of a post-industrial society, but I thought it was only effective in the first 10 minutes or so of the film. Give me "Fucked up", but make it affect me psychologically, make it something I'm still thinking about later.
The man's penis becomes a huge power drill bit. I mean seriously. Oh yeah, directed by Shinya Tsukamoto and released in 1989. 1992 in the U.S. 4.0/10
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is one of those uninspiring films. It's about a man who hits a "metal fetishist" with his car and is subsequently haunted by him when the fetishist starts a slow transformation of the man into scrap metal. That's pretty much it for story. It's certainly visually interesting and unique, and it was probably made for almost nothing, but it is the epitome of "Fucked up shit". People that say they like "fucked up shit" would like this movie. The kind of fucked up that is only surface weird. On some level it does present a disturbing perspective of a post-industrial society, but I thought it was only effective in the first 10 minutes or so of the film. Give me "Fucked up", but make it affect me psychologically, make it something I'm still thinking about later.
The man's penis becomes a huge power drill bit. I mean seriously. Oh yeah, directed by Shinya Tsukamoto and released in 1989. 1992 in the U.S. 4.0/10
FU!!!
Last night I made an effort to watch something with some friends that I was sure would be stupid. I succeeded, and luckily it was also a perfectly enjoyable movie. Fired Up! is the kind of movie that tries to appeal to the horny 14-year-old in all us that for whatever reason feels like it needs to have some sort of narrative thread. These films usually end up disastrous because the boobs and plot are not very well balanced, but this one somehow came out on top.
Two highschool star football players/poon winners, played by Eric Christian Olsen (the clever one) and Nicholas D'Agosto (the one who gets an arc). They decide to ditch two weeks of masculine football camp in favor of winning more poon at the cheerleading camp with all those girls there and stuff. They go. Blah Blah. Shit happens. D'Agosto falls in love with the morally upstanding cheerleader (Sarah Roemer), Olsen gets hit on by gay dudes, everybody has copious amounts of high school sex, and then it ends.
At some point the movie is forced to make Olsen care about, and so they do. They achieve this simply by suddenly making him say as much. This is the kind plot development writer Freedom Jones has used to fill out his/her (I just can't tell from that name) story. There's also all kinds of flat humor, tasteless homophobia, and awesome Lou Bega karaoke. That's right. Freedom has created a wonderful character in Dr. Rick (David Walton), Roemer's douchebag college boyfriend. This guy really blew my mind with stupid douche jokes I could not stop laughing at.
And to be completely honest, this film is adequately put together by Will Gluck's simple direction. I've certainly seen worse. I'm glad there are some movies made to be nothing but stupid entertainment for virginal middle schoolers that can actually deliver on the promise.
Fired Up! : 6.2
I also watched they early Emily Blunt film My Summer of Love. Pawel Pawlikowski's film of young lesbian love failed on almost every level to hold my interest. This is probably not fair, given that last night might qualify for one of my strangest double features, but it's telling that the highest compliment either I or my friends could muster was, "Well, there were pretty colors in the beginning."
And that's all I got for that one. 5.8
Two highschool star football players/poon winners, played by Eric Christian Olsen (the clever one) and Nicholas D'Agosto (the one who gets an arc). They decide to ditch two weeks of masculine football camp in favor of winning more poon at the cheerleading camp with all those girls there and stuff. They go. Blah Blah. Shit happens. D'Agosto falls in love with the morally upstanding cheerleader (Sarah Roemer), Olsen gets hit on by gay dudes, everybody has copious amounts of high school sex, and then it ends.
At some point the movie is forced to make Olsen care about, and so they do. They achieve this simply by suddenly making him say as much. This is the kind plot development writer Freedom Jones has used to fill out his/her (I just can't tell from that name) story. There's also all kinds of flat humor, tasteless homophobia, and awesome Lou Bega karaoke. That's right. Freedom has created a wonderful character in Dr. Rick (David Walton), Roemer's douchebag college boyfriend. This guy really blew my mind with stupid douche jokes I could not stop laughing at.
And to be completely honest, this film is adequately put together by Will Gluck's simple direction. I've certainly seen worse. I'm glad there are some movies made to be nothing but stupid entertainment for virginal middle schoolers that can actually deliver on the promise.
Fired Up! : 6.2
I also watched they early Emily Blunt film My Summer of Love. Pawel Pawlikowski's film of young lesbian love failed on almost every level to hold my interest. This is probably not fair, given that last night might qualify for one of my strangest double features, but it's telling that the highest compliment either I or my friends could muster was, "Well, there were pretty colors in the beginning."
And that's all I got for that one. 5.8
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Magnolia On Demand Capsules
Conor McPherson's new genre hybrid The Eclipse balances tones exceptionally well, subtly melding its romantic aspects with its more supernatural ones. It features some of the most beautiful cinematography I've seen recently, and also sports a fantastic lead performance from Ciaran Hinds, a strong character actor with supporting roles in more than a few great films. I need to go to Ireland. 8.4
The new to America Jet Li vehicle The Warlords is quite a bit more morally ambiguous than your average big budget Asian historical war film, but not necessarily better. Jet Li enlists two bandits and an army on a crusade to free all of China, but the quest is more personal vendetta than selfless. The best action comes too early in the film, and the plot twists and drama in the second half can't keep the film afloat. 6.6
I'm tired, thus me writing barely anything.
The Tallest Man on Earth is finally releasing a new album on Tuesday. The Wild Hunt doesn't change up his folky formula much, but his songwriting has clearly improved. He does venture off the path for the final track "Kids on the Run." It's a 70s style piano ballad, and it's fucking beautiful. Shit. download this album.
The new to America Jet Li vehicle The Warlords is quite a bit more morally ambiguous than your average big budget Asian historical war film, but not necessarily better. Jet Li enlists two bandits and an army on a crusade to free all of China, but the quest is more personal vendetta than selfless. The best action comes too early in the film, and the plot twists and drama in the second half can't keep the film afloat. 6.6
I'm tired, thus me writing barely anything.
The Tallest Man on Earth is finally releasing a new album on Tuesday. The Wild Hunt doesn't change up his folky formula much, but his songwriting has clearly improved. He does venture off the path for the final track "Kids on the Run." It's a 70s style piano ballad, and it's fucking beautiful. Shit. download this album.
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