The structure is interesting even experimental but the plot is classic noir. Bogart and Bacall, a love born of difficult circumstances. The first 20 minutes or more of the movie is first person, you are the camera, your seeing things from the leads point of view. Bogart just escaped from prison (where he was serving time for a murder he didn't commit), only he's not Bogart yet, that's why no face. A creepy plastic surgeon gives him a new face, but he still must deal with suspicious cops, a small time crook who wants to blackmail him, and the person who really murdered his wife. Everything you could want from this kind of picture really, and in unusual packaging.
Grade: B
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Capitilism: A Love Story (2009)
I think Micheal Moore is largely right; capitalism is an often cruel inherently selfish system, the problem being that none of the proposed alternative systems have really worked either. It's good to point out the problems however and Moore does a good job of this. It's right up his ally, essentially a compilation of everything he's done into one movie. He trys to confront business men, he feels sorry for poor people, he uses clips from old educational film, he gives you a sort of one sided history of his chosen subject matter. But too me he didn't come of as craven as he sometimes does. Certainly this is a critique of the statues quo that many people would benefit from hearing.
Grade: B
Grade: B
Tangled (2010)
It feels like it was complied from elements of old Disney films, as well as from Shrek. A kind of paint by numbers Disney film taking no risks and offering no surprises, and yet I quite liked it. Mandy Moore and Zachery Levi are perfectly cast as the lead voices, and the songs good if not great, some sounding a little over broadwayesique, as if Disney already has plans for this on the Great White Way. Possessing of the old school Disney feel, as well as a little of that winking knowing quality one found in Enchanted. A minor success.
Grade: B
Grade: B
Friday, September 23, 2011
Any Which Way You Can (1980), 127 Hours (2010), Top Hat (1935)
Any Which Way You Can
Clint Eastwood, an organatange, an aspiring country singer, a neo-nazi biker gang, a bunch of millionaries, crooked fight promoters, fustrated cops, scared tourists, and for good measure Ruth Gordon. Somehow this whole thing works, a surprisngly enjoyable comedy. Wait a second, this was a sequel?! Netfilx que.
Grade: B
127 Hours
Danny Boyle tells the true story of Aron Ralston, an avid mountain climber who had to cut his own right arm off after being wedged in a mountain crevasse for 127 hours. James Franco gives an excellent performance as Ralston and proves that he is one of those actors capable of holding the screen pretty well by themselves. I liked Boyle's cinematic sense for this film, though at first I wasn't quite sure where he was going with it. Combining music with Ralstons memories and hallucinations the film is able to present a character study in a rather unconventional way, and on two fronts really. I hesitate to use the phrase, but rock solid.
Grade: B+
Top Hat
The most iconic of the Astair/Rodgers musicals, clips of this film are seen in such later works as The Purple Rose of Cairo and The Green Mile. The plot, not important (can you say mistaken identity), its all about the Irvin Berlin musical numbers, the stars chemistry, and the lite comedy provided by such character actors as Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore. Beautiful art deco sets.
Grade: B
Clint Eastwood, an organatange, an aspiring country singer, a neo-nazi biker gang, a bunch of millionaries, crooked fight promoters, fustrated cops, scared tourists, and for good measure Ruth Gordon. Somehow this whole thing works, a surprisngly enjoyable comedy. Wait a second, this was a sequel?! Netfilx que.
Grade: B
127 Hours
Danny Boyle tells the true story of Aron Ralston, an avid mountain climber who had to cut his own right arm off after being wedged in a mountain crevasse for 127 hours. James Franco gives an excellent performance as Ralston and proves that he is one of those actors capable of holding the screen pretty well by themselves. I liked Boyle's cinematic sense for this film, though at first I wasn't quite sure where he was going with it. Combining music with Ralstons memories and hallucinations the film is able to present a character study in a rather unconventional way, and on two fronts really. I hesitate to use the phrase, but rock solid.
Grade: B+
Top Hat
The most iconic of the Astair/Rodgers musicals, clips of this film are seen in such later works as The Purple Rose of Cairo and The Green Mile. The plot, not important (can you say mistaken identity), its all about the Irvin Berlin musical numbers, the stars chemistry, and the lite comedy provided by such character actors as Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore. Beautiful art deco sets.
Grade: B
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
The Tillman Story (2010), Metropolis Refound (2010), The End of Suburbia (2004), Red Belt (2008)
The Tillman Story
Pat Tillman, a safety for the Arizona Cardinals famously left a multi-million dollar football deal to join the U.S. army in the aftermath of 9/11. Tillman served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and it was while stationed in the latter country that he was killed in 2004. Originally reported to have died in combat it later came out that Corporal Tillman was killed by friendly fire and that this fact had been covered up. This documentary covers the efforts of Tillman's friends and family to bring the truth about his death to light.
Some have argued that this film is too political, but I'm not sure how it could not be. The nature of the cover up and the use of Tillman's image as a symbol and recruiting tool to be exploited by people Tillman apparently didn't much like, well...
Grade: B+
Metropolis Refound
Story of how the only known copy of the complete version of Fritz Lang's 1927 silent German epic Metropolis was discovered in film archives in Argentina. Okay that's neat that they found the complete film, but we don't need a documentary about this. Even at 45 minutes this is too long.
Grade: D
The End of Suburbia (2004)
Works as a kind of companion piece to the superior Collapse. The idea of suburban living, now so entrenched in the American ethos is an unsustainable one. An inefficient use of space with neither the virtues of city or country living, the suburbs are too spread out and too removed from food production. In the aftermath of peak oil production the viability of the suburbs will plummet, and they may well become the slums of the future. A bleak outlook, but backed up by some knowledgeable sounding experts, and also by the fairly obvious fact that oil is not an unlimited resource. The film is low budget (also Canadian) and hurt a little bit by the fact that host/producer Barrie Zwicker is not a natural in front of the camera and that he is best known for his work involving 9/11 conspiracy theories. Most of the films Eisenhower era suburban footage is taken from the same Redbook Magazine promotional film.
Grade: C+
Red Belt (2008)
This really surprised me, but I should have known better its Mammet. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a former solder who now runs a Jiu-Jitsu studio and tries to live his life under a very strict code of ethics. After an accidental shooting at his studio and saving an over the hill action star from a fight at a club Chiwetel is caught up in a number of situations involving the movie star and his producer, his two brothers-in-law, a cop, a loan shark, a fight promoter, a women lawyer and rape victim, and a rigged tournament. It doesn't really sound all that good but it is, surprisingly subtle in that Mammet way. One of the most powerful closing scenes I have witnessed in some time.
Grade: A-
Pat Tillman, a safety for the Arizona Cardinals famously left a multi-million dollar football deal to join the U.S. army in the aftermath of 9/11. Tillman served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and it was while stationed in the latter country that he was killed in 2004. Originally reported to have died in combat it later came out that Corporal Tillman was killed by friendly fire and that this fact had been covered up. This documentary covers the efforts of Tillman's friends and family to bring the truth about his death to light.
Some have argued that this film is too political, but I'm not sure how it could not be. The nature of the cover up and the use of Tillman's image as a symbol and recruiting tool to be exploited by people Tillman apparently didn't much like, well...
Grade: B+
Metropolis Refound
Story of how the only known copy of the complete version of Fritz Lang's 1927 silent German epic Metropolis was discovered in film archives in Argentina. Okay that's neat that they found the complete film, but we don't need a documentary about this. Even at 45 minutes this is too long.
Grade: D
The End of Suburbia (2004)
Works as a kind of companion piece to the superior Collapse. The idea of suburban living, now so entrenched in the American ethos is an unsustainable one. An inefficient use of space with neither the virtues of city or country living, the suburbs are too spread out and too removed from food production. In the aftermath of peak oil production the viability of the suburbs will plummet, and they may well become the slums of the future. A bleak outlook, but backed up by some knowledgeable sounding experts, and also by the fairly obvious fact that oil is not an unlimited resource. The film is low budget (also Canadian) and hurt a little bit by the fact that host/producer Barrie Zwicker is not a natural in front of the camera and that he is best known for his work involving 9/11 conspiracy theories. Most of the films Eisenhower era suburban footage is taken from the same Redbook Magazine promotional film.
Grade: C+
Red Belt (2008)
This really surprised me, but I should have known better its Mammet. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a former solder who now runs a Jiu-Jitsu studio and tries to live his life under a very strict code of ethics. After an accidental shooting at his studio and saving an over the hill action star from a fight at a club Chiwetel is caught up in a number of situations involving the movie star and his producer, his two brothers-in-law, a cop, a loan shark, a fight promoter, a women lawyer and rape victim, and a rigged tournament. It doesn't really sound all that good but it is, surprisingly subtle in that Mammet way. One of the most powerful closing scenes I have witnessed in some time.
Grade: A-
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tamara Drew (2010), Contagion (2011), I Married a Witch (1942)
Tamara Drew
An 'ugly duckling' has a nose job and returns to her home town looking like Gemma Arterton. No longer having a beak like nose Tamara Drew is able to sleep with a couple of men including a rock star and a popular author of mystery novels, pushing off the reconciliation with her childhood sweetheart until the end. There are also subplots about the cheating mystery novelist's much put upon wife and a visiting American English professor, as well as two 15 year old girls and there efforts to meet Tamara's new rock star boyfriend. I've been trying to think of the word to describe the mood or pace of the movie, and I've hit on comfortable. The movie is one you can just be in, the plots not that important and you don't care if it just winds along slowly, though the resolution seemed a bit too quick.
Grade: B
Contagion
Straight forward story, we've seen it before, a mysterious new virus starts up in a remote land (rural China) and spreads around the world. The handling here though is more realistic seeming then most film viruses, the virus comes across as feasible, the symptoms not of an exaggerated nature, and while it kills off tens of millions of people it doesn't apocalypticly crash human civilization (though it does cause a good bit of damage). It's like the story of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic in a contemporary context, and focuses on the outbreaks victims, profiteers, and the doctors who fight it. Films large and good cast includes Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. Dr. Sanjay Gupta cameos.
Grade: B+
I Married a Witch
Pro-generator to Bewitched. After having father and daughter witch's burned at the stake, a 17th century puritan is cursed with having all of his descendants end up unhappy in love. Fast forward 270 years and one such descendant (Fredrick March) is running for governor of an unspecified New England state. The tree that the two witch's spirits were trapped in is hit by lighting and they escape the night before candidate March's arranged marriage with the daughter of a newspaper magnate. Witch Jennifer incarnates herself as Veronica Lake (then at the height of her popularity) to tempt March and ruin his wedding, she accidentally drinks her own love potion and becomes devoted to him, much to the chagrin of her father Cecil Kellaway. Hijinks's ensue, 'true love' (though it was induced by a magic potion rendering the whole thing... odd) triumphs. Movie enhanced by the presence of Robert Benchley.
Grade: B-
An 'ugly duckling' has a nose job and returns to her home town looking like Gemma Arterton. No longer having a beak like nose Tamara Drew is able to sleep with a couple of men including a rock star and a popular author of mystery novels, pushing off the reconciliation with her childhood sweetheart until the end. There are also subplots about the cheating mystery novelist's much put upon wife and a visiting American English professor, as well as two 15 year old girls and there efforts to meet Tamara's new rock star boyfriend. I've been trying to think of the word to describe the mood or pace of the movie, and I've hit on comfortable. The movie is one you can just be in, the plots not that important and you don't care if it just winds along slowly, though the resolution seemed a bit too quick.
Grade: B
Contagion
Straight forward story, we've seen it before, a mysterious new virus starts up in a remote land (rural China) and spreads around the world. The handling here though is more realistic seeming then most film viruses, the virus comes across as feasible, the symptoms not of an exaggerated nature, and while it kills off tens of millions of people it doesn't apocalypticly crash human civilization (though it does cause a good bit of damage). It's like the story of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic in a contemporary context, and focuses on the outbreaks victims, profiteers, and the doctors who fight it. Films large and good cast includes Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. Dr. Sanjay Gupta cameos.
Grade: B+
I Married a Witch
Pro-generator to Bewitched. After having father and daughter witch's burned at the stake, a 17th century puritan is cursed with having all of his descendants end up unhappy in love. Fast forward 270 years and one such descendant (Fredrick March) is running for governor of an unspecified New England state. The tree that the two witch's spirits were trapped in is hit by lighting and they escape the night before candidate March's arranged marriage with the daughter of a newspaper magnate. Witch Jennifer incarnates herself as Veronica Lake (then at the height of her popularity) to tempt March and ruin his wedding, she accidentally drinks her own love potion and becomes devoted to him, much to the chagrin of her father Cecil Kellaway. Hijinks's ensue, 'true love' (though it was induced by a magic potion rendering the whole thing... odd) triumphs. Movie enhanced by the presence of Robert Benchley.
Grade: B-
Monday, September 12, 2011
Mon Oncle (1958)
Jacques Tati's second Monsieur Hulot film and winner of the best foreign film Oscar. This is a charming film focusing on the relationship between Hulot and his roughly six year old nephew. It is also a satire on 'modern' (1950's) French life. In the first shots of the film we see a pack of small dogs make there way form a warm, lived in, and slightly dilapidated old neighbourhood into a modernistic one, sterile, empty, artificial.
Hulot lives in the old neighborhood, a friendly place with vegetable carts, open air cafes and children playing in the streets. His nephew lives with his family in the new neighbourhood, one that is fastley encroaching on the old. The nephews family live in an ultra modernistic, uncomfortable seeming house. Even the yard is complicatedly laid out and overly manicured, the setting for the funniest dinner party scene I can think off.
Hulot's sister and brother-in-law desire to make him respectable, meaning part of their social circle. They try to set him up with a neighbour and get him a job in a rubber house factory, suffice it to say none of these things turn out as they hopped. The scenes with the little boy and his friends are also pretty funny, the games they play on the adults, such as whistling while hiding in a small bluff, and wagering on whether the whistle will cause a pedestrian to walk into a light post (this happens about 50% of the time). Again, warm, light hearted, sentimental in its way and quite obviously reminiscent of Chaplin's 'modern' satire City Lights.
Grade A-
Hulot lives in the old neighborhood, a friendly place with vegetable carts, open air cafes and children playing in the streets. His nephew lives with his family in the new neighbourhood, one that is fastley encroaching on the old. The nephews family live in an ultra modernistic, uncomfortable seeming house. Even the yard is complicatedly laid out and overly manicured, the setting for the funniest dinner party scene I can think off.
Hulot's sister and brother-in-law desire to make him respectable, meaning part of their social circle. They try to set him up with a neighbour and get him a job in a rubber house factory, suffice it to say none of these things turn out as they hopped. The scenes with the little boy and his friends are also pretty funny, the games they play on the adults, such as whistling while hiding in a small bluff, and wagering on whether the whistle will cause a pedestrian to walk into a light post (this happens about 50% of the time). Again, warm, light hearted, sentimental in its way and quite obviously reminiscent of Chaplin's 'modern' satire City Lights.
Grade A-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)