tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63537691612603733032023-06-20T08:45:55.113-04:00Film CrazyDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-83401676679817514422013-08-14T11:10:00.001-04:002013-08-14T11:10:35.527-04:00Pain & Gain (B+)Michael Bay's <b>Pain & Gain </b>is a dizzying, lunatic dissent into one of the most surreal and gleefully disturbing blue collar crimes to have ever been committed in the already morally desolate dystopia of 1990s-era Miami. The case involves a group of charismatic bodybuilders willing to break all taboos of American society to achieve their MTV warped perception of the American dream; aggressively abusing their pectoral wattage to torture an intensely unlikable Columbian entrepreneur into surrendering all assets and traces of former existence. It's depraved, violent, and relentlessly hyperactive popcorn entertainment drenched in sarcastic dark humor and lit by the inherently warm glow of the Florida sun. Bay has concocted a Molotov cocktail of dizzying sadism, and against all moral judgement, it's difficult not to get swept up in what is sincerely an absolute blast.<br />
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While performances by the central trio of Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie are rarely anything short of superb, what is most notable about the film is Michael Bay's defibrillator shock to the gullet direction. Rarely focusing on the moral consequences of the characters' depraved actions, Bay uses and abuses every tool in the director's arsenal. An eclectic variety of different ratio videocameras, allowing every character an opportunity for narration (a style which helps cement each individual's belief in the true American dream), and occasionally breaking the third wall to remind viewers we are watching a true story: It's ADHD filmmaking at its absolute finest. Although some might find the unique technique grating or possibly unbearable, it's certainly unlike anything committed to screen in recent memory. After a series of mostly mediocre <b>Transformers</b> blockbusters, it's a relief to find that Michael Bay has the potential to tweak his traditional bombastic style to fit a story which absolutely needs it. An undeniably unforgettable depraved, ADHD odyssey.<br />
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Grade: B+Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-70066720831080938182013-05-15T17:36:00.000-04:002013-07-06T17:36:31.888-04:00Bullet to the Head (C)<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By all accounts, Walter Hill's New Orleans set buddy-action flick, <span class="wz-italic">Bullet to the Head</span>,
is not a good movie. For the majority of its running time, it's poorly
directed, hopelessly clichéd beyond abandon, features a sleepwalking
Stallone as its protagonist, and an unintentionally annoying Sung Kang
as the cop accidentally brought into the generic conspiracy located at
the film's relentlessly conventional core. Even those interested in
trashy, old school thrills will come off disappointed by the sheer lack
of personality on display. These harsh critiques mostly apply to the
first 80 minutes: A crudely assembled pastiche of 80s and 90s hackneyed
plot points, and conversations which follow for of a Mad Libs type
structure compared to similar films of its ilk. For an R-rated Sylvester
Stallone vehicle directed by former champion of action Walter Hill,
including up-and-coming king of carnage Jason Momoa (<span class="wz-italic">Conan the Barbarian</span>),
the best aspect shouldn't be a cameo by Christian Slater as a
flamboyant and corrupt lawyer. This isn't meant as an insult toward
Slater, but not having the most memorable part of an action film named <span class="wz-italic">Bullet to the Head </span>be a bullet to any part of the anatomy should be a violation of one of the biggest unspoken laws of filmmaking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Let me stress this again: These harsh critiques only necessarily apply to the first 80 minutes. I say this because <span class="wz-italic">Bullet to the Head </span>contains
one of the best third act twists in recent memory. After spending
almost its entirety following the conventions of 80s and 90s action
flicks down to the tee, at the very last few moments Hill and
screenwriter Alessandro Camon tear us away from the formula for an
incredibly exciting climax. Set in an abandoned firehouse, it takes the
traditional trope of the "protagonist has important information/bad guys
have hostage who's family to the protagonist" featured in every other
action film, and then literally blasts it to smithereens. It's exciting,
exhilarating, and almost redeems the film for the monotony which came
before it. The dull 80 minutes which proceed this climax actually assist
its impact; had they been just as interesting and fun to watch as the
last 12, it wouldn't of had the same force. Although it may just be in
comparison to what came before it, Hill nearly successfully redeems
himself at the end, but there's little else to recommend other than
Christian Slater.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">He hasn't been in a theatrically released film since Uwe Boll's 2005 financial and critical disaster <span class="wz-italic">Alone in the Dark</span>,
and has been serving his exile in the direct-to-video bin ever since.
Despite Walter Hill not having made a film in over 10 years, and
Stallone not carrying a starring role in a wide release, non-franchise
film since 2001's <span class="wz-italic">Driven</span>, the person most in need of a comeback vehicle is Slater. Hill will always have <span class="wz-italic">48 Hours </span>and <span class="wz-italic">The Warriors</span>. Stallone will always have the <span class="wz-italic">Rambo </span>and <span class="wz-italic">Rocky </span>series, along with the continuing cash cow of <span class="wz-italic">The Expendables </span>franchise.
But, at the end of the day, it's Christian Slater who really needs the
return to the spotlight. He's a fun actor, and proves his comedic timing
and excellence in playing smarmy characters here in a tiny role. It's
nice to see Stallone carrying a film, even better to have Hill back
behind the camera, but putting Slater back on the big screen where he
belongs is a decision worth celebrating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Grade: C </span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-43183131538316338522013-05-11T14:22:00.000-04:002013-06-01T14:25:42.975-04:00Lords of Salem (B+)Rob Zombie's <i>The Lords of Salem </i>perfectly captures the feeling of being forcibly dragged into the darkest depths of hell. The film stars Sheri Moon Zombie as Heidi, a Salem-based DJ and former heroin addict who is sent a mysterious wooden box containing a vinyl record with connections to the town's dark and violent history. After listening to the record, she begins to have vivid hallucinations gradually increasing in scale and severity; commencing with visions of dismembered bodies dangling from the walls of her Georges Méliès-styled apartment, and later climaxing with an intensive audiovisual assault as the seven deadly sins encompass her mind in a mad flurry of horrific imagery. <i>Salem </i>is an exercise in slow building terror as Zombie steadily guides us through the mind of a woman loosing a spiritual battle against the devil and his Wiccan followers; with the odds of her survival dwindling with every passing minute until eventual possession and death seem inevitable.<br />
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This<i> </i>isn't a <i>"</i>scary" movie in the vain of most modern horror films. <i>The Lords of Salem </i>is pure, unfiltered atmospheric horror by a man who seemingly studied the filmmaking techniques used by Kubrick in <i>The Shining </i>for months on end; adding a much greater emphasis on steadily building dread over time rather than delivering moment-by-moment chills. While certainly frightening at times, Zombie uses gruesome surrealism and unnerving long takes to promote constant discomfort in his audience rather than relying on constant jump scares to provide momentary shocks. <i>The Lords of Salem </i>can't be recommended to the conventional horror fan; the person who watches the <i>Friday the 13th </i>and <i>Saw </i>series just to see nubile teens and grimy scumbags get ripped to shreds by machetes and elaborate death traps. For people seeking out Zombie's film for that reason, you'll be bored and disappointment. There's death and violence every 15 minutes leading up to the jaw-dropping insane climax, but it mostly stems from extended flashbacks to the Salem Witch Trials; wherein many women were burnt to death at the stake. Not particularly crowd pandering material for gore hounds, and it's frankly pretty spectacular that something this disturbingly independent managed to achieve such a wide release.<br />
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This is a horror movie for those who remember the slow burn, macabre exploitation films of the 1960s-1980s, or anyone who can appreciate artistry in shock-cinema. The level of effort and creativity which went into the film is astounding. For better or worse depending on your opinion of what constitutes "scary," Zombie delivers imagery and sequences which would've been impossible for another director to even comprehend bringing to the screen. A demonic possession executed by a fat, red, fetus-like creature, who grabs Sheri Moon Zombie's protagonist with appendages resembling electric tentacles and shakes her violently to implant himself inside her soul. A group of naked women trapped in metallic cages being graphically burned alive while their leader laughs maniacally and an insane priest shouts prayers at them. All of this is shot with beautiful cinematography from Brandon Trost, and Zombie's direction makes the film successfully work as both excellent horror and high camp. In terms of nightmarish visuals, Zombie gets his demonic cake and eats it too.<br />
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However, when people talk about the film, the conversation probably won't be about any of the topics listed above. As mentioned before, <i>The Lords of Salem </i>ends with an intense audiovisual assault of graphic, gruesome, and relentlessly unsettling illusions as the devil attempts to take complete hold of Heidi's mind and soul. The plot is completely dropped in favor of 15 minutes of Heidi's decent into the darkest depths of hell, and even classifying the sequence as representing that decent is a personal opinion. If the movie is considered to be slow burn horror, the final scene would be like if that burn transcended into a gleaming ball of fire which went on to obliterate the earth. Although it works as a fitting capper for a movie so invested in its protagonist's subconscious relationship with the devil, it almost feels like a cop out from Zombie. Instead of remaining consistent with the macabre psycho-drama of the rest of the film, Zombie retreats back into the motif of a black metal music video. In the words of comedian Jason Mantzoukas of such films as <i>The Dictator </i>and <i>Baby Mama</i>; " It's next level bonkers." But is it necessary?<br />
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While the final 15 minutes might detract somewhat from the whole, Zombie has directed what is easily the finest horror movie of the year, and a feature which should hopefully find its audience after a disappointing performance in theaters. This might not be the right film for the conventional horror fan, but for anyone who remembers the macabre exploitation films of years past or wants to see something a little more artistic, <i>The Lords of Salem</i> should do more than fine.<br />
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Grade: B+<br />
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<br />Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-43628920253228975382013-05-09T22:23:00.000-04:002013-06-01T13:11:46.213-04:00Movie 43 (D+)Read any review for the sketch comedy omnibus <span class="wz-italic">Movie 43</span>,
and you'll hear that it's one of the worst movies ever made: The
metaphorical equivalent to the apartheid, and a clear sign that humanity
has descented into the depths of hell for comedic entertainment. A
movie solely advertised for celebrities doing disgusting things for an
hour-and-half without any plot, with a couple of recognisable directors
thrown in for good measure to tarnish their names through helping to
make such garbage. It's been years since such a widely panned movie has
been released, and what makes the situation all the more compelling is
that seemingly half of Hollywood is involved. Actors include Dennis
Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Liev
Schreiber, Anna Faris, and Chris Pratt, and that's only within the first
20 minutes. Jammed to the brim with stars like the ultimate cheat for
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, it elevates <span class="wz-italic">Movie 43 </span>beyond
the point of traditional failure. This movie shouldn't have been dumped
in the dog days of January with a low theater count and a shoddy
marketing effort. With a cast like this, it should be a priority project
released on a good date in the middle of summer. Even with mediocre
material, it's possible to get a good audience to see the film, rather
than the low count which made up its abysmal $4,805,878 opening weekend.<br />
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wasn't until a sketch involving a man being asked by his fiance to poop
on her when I realised there wasn't even enough hilarity to include in a
trailer.<br />
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<span class="wz-italic">Movie 43 </span>certainly
isn't one of the worst movies ever made, but it's still fairly
terrible. We're not even working on a ratio of good to bad sketches. Out
of the 14 total sketches, only three manage to be consistently amusing;
as in a few solid chuckles. The best metaphor wouldn't be the
apartheid, but rather the aftermath of a post-apocalyptic scenario. The
entire film is a barren wasteland of morbid hopelessness, but there are
still a few small pleasures which you accept due to the sheer direness
of your situation. In any other feature, a parody commercial involving
children operating machines from the inside might be groanworthy, but
here it's the unopened bottle of Coke in an abandoned and raided
supermarket. A flat bottle of soda wouldn't be appreciated in our modern
day society, but after showering of nuclear explosions across the
country, it'd be a gem to lighten our fading spirits against the bleak
reality which dominates every aspect of life.<br />
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<span class="wz-italic">Movie 43 </span>contains
some moments of mild hilarity, but it's difficult to tell if the bits
are genuinely funny, or just decent in comparison to a cartoon cat
aggressively masturbating to a picture of his master in a spoof of a TV
show which doesn't exist. It deserves to die a quick death, as to not
further humiliate those involved, and should hopefully find a space on a
.99 cent DVD rack by at least July. For every piece of Shakespeare the
room full of monkeys churns out, there're a thousand pieces of trash.
Considering all the actors and directors involved with the film, this is
one of them.<br />
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Grade: D+ Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-33382009101964451692013-05-07T22:22:00.000-04:002013-06-01T13:06:28.187-04:00John Dies at the End (B)1970s horror pioneer Don Coscarelli makes his long awaited return to filmmaking with John Dies at the End: A gory, half remembered nightmare visually recreated for the screen. It's an intentional mess of genres, loose ends, philosophical ramblings, and heavily warped dream logic; all put together by someone who had either just woken from a particularly bizarre dream, or had just consumed vast quantities of illicit substances. This is a movie with enough ideas and graphic violence for at least a trilogy, and it's all hyper edited into one manic collage of surreal madness. Coscarelli has made a film where literally anything can happen at any time, and that type of absolute freedom from conventional storytelling allows for multiple feverishly brilliant sequences, but also leads to unintentional consequences as well.<br />
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The opening prologue sets the tone of what's to follow perfectly. A monologue from the protagonist, a late-20s slacker named David Wong, explaining his two encounters with a possibly undead neo-Nazi. In both situations, he was able to defeat this unusual foe by decapitating him with the same small axe. However, in the time between, the handle and blade both had to be replaced, so when the zombified Nazi attacks the second time, is he really being defeated by the same axe? It's an unusual sequence, punctuated by zippy editing and dialogue (everything happens in less than two minutes), which features grotesque gore and a newly established philosophical question. While it does little to jumpstart the plot other than to introduce Wong in broad strokes and present the tone, it functions as the entire film in miniature. For those unsure of whether this type of horror flick would be a good rental, these first two minutes should serve as the best indicator. It's this type of fast paced, heady, violent scenes which make up the bulk of the runtime.<br />
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One of the main issues of John is that due to its stream-of-conscience style, there's not much in terms of plot. David Wong and his druggie, metalhead friend John, are paranormal detectives who gain their powers from a mysterious drug from another dimension called Soy Sauce. This drug allows them to read minds, connect with things beyond our plane of existence, see into the future, and levitate. After previously saving the universe with his buddy, he decides to relay the story to a jaded reporter played by Paul Giamatti, in hopes that they will receive some form of recognition for protecting humanity. I won't go into detail how the universe, because it's incredibly convoluted and would seem jumbled and nonsensical to whomever is reading. Below is a link to the Wikipedia plot summary for those who are interested:<br />
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dies_at_the_End_(film)<br />
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Instead of a cohesive plot, there're several vignettes; all of which loosely related to David and John's quest to save the world. Though some may work better than others (the alternate universe set conclusion doesn't particularly work, but at least remains entertaining), the biggest highlight stems from a simultaneously jokey and tense conversation between a pre-Soy Sauce addled David, and a psychic, dreadlocks wearing Jamaican coincidentally named Robert Marley. It may sound incredibly silly in theory, but in the context of the film, it works on a surprisingly brilliant level. The scene mostly consists of David cynically attempting to find cracks in Marley's all knowing, drug fueled charade, all while his mental opponent jokingly dissects and probes his questioner. It's funny and unexpectedly suspenseful, and is complimented by a subtly effective score by Brian Tyler.<br />
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John Dies at the End is a frenetic collage of half-assembled ideas and grotesque displays of violence; all of which taking place in a fractured dreamworld of surreal logic and intense weirdness. For those interested in conventional narrative and traditional scares, this may simply come off as a nutty mush of failed ambition, but for those willing to accept the blissfully insane stream-of-conscience stylings of Coscarelli's film, John is a wonderful and sometimes exhilarating experience. Though it's less of a cohesive hole than a pastiche of bizarre sequences, for those who read this review excited for what's to come, it definitely delivers everything promised from the prologue and title.<br />
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Grade: B Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-68801150643410045552013-05-04T19:44:00.002-04:002013-05-04T19:45:34.807-04:00Gangster Squad (B)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rarely is there a film whose title perfectly matches the end product as much as Ruben Fleischer's glamourous, pseudo-grindhouse flick </span></span><span class="wz-italic" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Gangster Squad</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">. Replete with corny lines, horribly miscast actors, slick editing and cinematography, clichéd plot points, and immensely entertaining performances, Fleischer blasts an ultra-violent path for his film; foregoing any of the period piece aesthetic one might expect from a late 1940s set winter release starring the Oscar friendly Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling. In its place is a gloriously dumb neo-noir/shoot 'em up hybrid: A run-of-the-mill gansgsplotation film on a Pixie Stick sugar high. An excuse for Josh Brolin to borrow the grizzled detective persona for a little under two hours, a rare opportunity for comedic actress Emma Stone to play a femme fatale, and a showcase for Penn to obliterate the scenery as one of the most over-the-top villains in recent memory. It's the defibrillator shock which sends you reeling back into consciousness in the middle of the January/February dumping ground. Not a great film in terms of traditional quality, but it makes up for it with an unrelenting devotion to the gangster genre and a general feeling of madcap joy from all involved.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The film takes place in Los Angeles, 1949. A ruthless mob king and former boxer named Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) rules the city with an iron fist and a penchant for psychopathic levels of violence. In an effort to take him down the city Chief of Police (Nick Nolte) requests for one of the few incorruptible cops on the local force (Josh Brolin) to create a secret crew of trustworthy officers to take down Cohen's criminal operation without the limitations of arrest warrants and such. By about the thirty minute mark, the "gangster squad" is assembled: The Leader (Brolin), the Pretty Boy (Ryan Gosling), the Street Smart Cop (Anthony Mackie), the Family Man (Giovanni Ribisi), the Kid (Michael Pina, which admittedly isn't great casting because he's actually older than Mackie, but I digress), and the Wild Card (Robert Patrick). The squad begins picking fights with Cohen, throw in a romantic subplot between Gosling and Stone, who plays Cohen's unofficial girlfriend, and you have yourself the movie. Screenwriter Will Beall makes it his ambition to have every aspect of the film predictable to the slightest lines of dialogue; an excessive homage to the "the gang saves the day" war films of the 1960s, almost to the point where it feels like the most generic plagiarism possible. Which further drives this point is how the characters constantly remind viewers that their fight is a form of guerrilla warfare. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What elevates Beall's script though, is the zippy direction from Fleischer and the zany acting choices from Penn. While some of the other performers have moments of scene-chewing glory as well, Penn both physically and orally obliterates everything in his path like a </span></span><span class="wz-italic" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Devil's Advocate</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">-era Al Pacino. Overacting to the extremes, it's an Oscar winner cutting loose in a villainous role unlike anything else we're likely to ever receive again. Especially after a string of more subdued performances such films as </span></span><span class="wz-italic" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This Must Be the Place</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> and </span></span><span class="wz-italic" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Tree of Life</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, it's great to see him with such a maniacal character. Also good is Michael Pina, playing the least developed member of the squad. Despite never necessarily being given the same amount of material as his costars, his general charisma as an actor makes him a scene stealer.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Though there might not be one individual moment memorable beyond the initial experience, </span></span><i style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Gangster Squad </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">is a goofily thrilling piece of whizz-bang popcorn entertainment. It certainly won't be considered a "great" film by traditional definition, but Fleischer provides a gleefully over-the-top and excessive period-piece/shoot 'em up.</span></span></div>
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Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-32349602284798650172013-05-04T19:39:00.000-04:002013-05-04T19:40:03.464-04:00Film Crazy is Back!I'm not great at introductions, let alone reintroductions, so hopefully this post goes kind of well.<br />
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I want to apologize for the abrupt break. It wasn't fair to readers to suddenly disappear for five months without explanation. There's no concrete reason as to why I completely shut down the site. School was getting more difficult, there was less time to watch movies, and my publicly mean-spirited review of the independent drama <b>Brilliant Mistakes</b> made me rethink my skills as a writer. It was a combination of factors which led me to reassess whether the site was worth operating, and it's now clear which side of the argument I chose.</div>
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Now, on what would've been the second anniversary of Film Crazy, I've realized that deciding to close the crazy was a terrible mistake. Writing reviews for this site was one of my favorite hobbies for two years, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I considered all the time and great features lost. Hopefully some former readers are surfing the internet and find this viral affirmation. This is a coming out statement for what will hopefully be the best year of Film Crazy yet.</div>
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I've prepared a couple of reviews for films released earlier in the year, but because of final exams, consistent reviews probably won't arrive until mid-June. This doesn't matter too much though: I'm just infinitely happy to be back.</div>
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Thank You For Your Support And Happy Anniversary!</div>
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David</div>
Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-33983961661004629412012-12-24T20:04:00.000-05:002013-01-02T11:45:56.171-05:002012 Catch Up: Frankenweenie (A-)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Without the presence of blockbuster filmmaker Tim Burton guiding its way through the Hollywood system, it's impossible to imagine any possible scenario in which </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Frankenweenie</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, or anything remotely similar to it, could get produced by a mainstream production company. A b/w, stop-motion animated horror movie for kids, with the majority of jokes consisting of homages to old school creature features, and containing the death of multiple beloved pets, this film defies all conventions for traditional kiddie cinema. The first third mostly consists of a child realistically mourning the death of his furry best friend, and the final is a chaotic monster melee, hectic enough to terrify those below 10. In between, Burton shows a mostly unlikable (from a child's perspective) supporting cast ruining the protagonist's chances of reanimating his dog without repercussions. Without Burton's name attached to the poster, a kid's movie like this would be lucky to find distribution at all, let alone play 3,000+ theaters and receive the 3D treatment. However, without Tim Burton, this movie couldn't exist at all.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In spite of plot points involving Godzilla sized turtles, and bad omens originating from feline fecal matter, this most likely is Burton's most personal film. Victor, the protagonist, is quiet and creative. To set the tone for this, Burton opens with a scene from one of Victor's homemade movies. The movie-within-a-movie begins with a small town populated by toys and figurines moving about through lovably shoddy stop-motion. Meanwhile, Victor and his parents are watching the proceedings on a couch. Victor seems incredibly proud of his accomplishment with the short feature, giddy with the enthusiasm of filmmaking. The parents seem like they are having an okay time watching their son's home movie, and seem half-heartedly excited for the inevitable appearance of the family dog; who is implied to be in every one of Victor's movies. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a triceratops bursts over Toy City's skyline. Then the army bursts in to quell the prehistoric problem; guns blazing to defeat the triceratops, who now possesses the ability to breath fire. Soon, after the appearance of a homemade silent film card, written in marker on cardboard, we learn that "Sparkysaurus" is coming to save the day. One smash cut later, a dog non-ironically dressed in birthday hats to give it the look of a dinosaur comes in and saves the day.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Creating fake movies to be featured in real films and television programs is almost an art form. For each ReDo (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Funny People</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), there are a dozen of The Wedding Bride (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">How I Met Your Mother</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">). To make a realistic fictional feature, it actually can't be fictional at all, but rather something taken from past experience. The opening homemade movie most likely wasn't a remake of something Burton did when he was younger, but it certainly sets up the metaphor that Victor represents a younger Tim Burton. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Frankenweenie </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is not only a b/w, 3D, stop-motion animated horror movie for kids, but is also partially a Graham Chapman-esque autobiography where the truth blends with multiple layers of fiction.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Subtext aside, what makes this such a great effort from Burton is the heightened realism in which the story presents itself. Despite the bizarre flourishes usually found in the director's films, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Frankenweenie </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">remains relatively tethered to reality in the best possible sense. No characters fall into the trappings of stereotypes or remain generic, and Burton never seems to go outside the realms of the plot to show the audience a type of unique visual. Also, the homages to various older horror films never feel pretentious or out of place. What's especially remarkable is how Burton goes for the melancholic tone of his 2005 animated </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Corpse Bride</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, rather than the bombastic and visually manic qualities of his more recent </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Dark Shadows </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Alice in Wonderland</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. Even during the anarchic final 15 minutes, where reanimated pets and animals obliterate a town fair in a similar manner to the opening fake film, everything feels restrained without ever coming across as lazy or laid back.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The film also offers further proof that CGI, despite its promises of endless creativity, has restricted the imagination of Tim Burton. Unlike the visually interesting, yet somewhat generic landscapes and characters of </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Alice in Wonderland</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, almost every aspect of his latest is memorable in at least some way. The character which first comes to mind is Martin Landau's Mr. Rzykruski; the Eastern European science teacher of Victor and his classmates. A man with an odd face and even odder personality, he is the type of visual creation which cannot be replicated with computer imagery, and flourishes when designed by the imperfections of stop-motion animation. An example of this is when, at certain points, the audio intentionally doesn't match the movement of the character's lips. This could be a subtle trick to show how different this foreigner is from the rock-flag-and-eagle citizens of New Holland, or simply a mistake by the sound editors. Because the recurring error is so blatant, I'm hopeful that the first option is correct. Using this intentional mistake to help subtly establish a character works with stop-motion, but had the same technique been done using CGI, it would've piqued little more than annoyed curiosity and confusion.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There's only one person who could get this movie though the Hollywood system, and by lack of coincidence, it's the only person with the creativity and imagination to direct the film in the first place: Tim Burton. Though it may miss the mark for its intended kiddie audience, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Frankenweenie </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is an absolute return to form for Burton thanks to its balance of unbounded ingenuity and melancholic simplicity, and a debatably autobiographic aspect involving the protagonist. It may not be perfect for those under 10, but it's worth catching up with for everyone above.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grade: A-</span></div>
Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-40626381223172454362012-12-23T17:18:00.000-05:002013-01-02T11:46:22.372-05:002012 Catch-Up: Cloud Atlas (A)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One of the most unique blockbusters in recent memory, Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski Sibling's 172-minute magnum opus was released on October 26 to shockingly little fanfare from both casual moviegoers and critics. With a worldwide gross of $65 million contrasted against its overwhelming $135 million budget, and a respectable, yet disappointing Rotten Tomatoes score of 63%, calling </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cloud Atlas </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a financial and critical flop would seem justified. However, in retrospect, this failure is slightly baffling. Tykwer and the Wachowski's had one of the most unanimously beloved actors of our time (Tom Hanks) as part of their ensemble cast, used an ambitious premise unlike anything previously shown on screen, and utilized the crowd-drawing presence of impressive special effects. Also working in their favor was a major studio buying the domestic distribution rights for their German outsourced feature, and choosing to release it in premium priced IMAX theaters. On top of this, there was no competition at the box office. All major movies were petering out before the release of </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Wreck-It Ralph </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Flight</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> on the next weekend, and there wasn't any reason for </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cloud Atlas</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> not to take first place in its first weekend. While there wasn't any possibility for it to recoup its massive budget, winning the box office crown as a modest dud was a realistic conclusion.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then, it bombed.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The once frontrunner for several prominent awards and financial competence immediately burst into flames upon entering theaters; ruining all chances of a mildly successful gross. Audiences rejected the film's epic nature like white blood cells react to the common cold, and it was ejected from cinemas without giving the common decency to allow people to acknowledge its very existence. Labeled John Carter Part Deux and quickly forgotten, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cloud Atlas</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> even failed to make an appearance on the Oscar shortlist for makeup; a category which was widely considered to be its one chance of winning a statuette. Though nominations for special effects and score may come to pass, a win seems impossible in such crowded categories. In most cases I wouldn't react too emotionally to an award snub such as this, but it's extremely disappointing to discover that almost no recognition is being given at all. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cloud Atlas </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is one of the most ambitious films ever made, and is one of my favorite of the year.</span></div>
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Tykwer and the Wachowski's have constructed a masterful collage of various genres, stories, characters, themes, and settings with their collaboration. Rather than use traditional narrative, the film consists of six loosely connected vignettes; each one with a different setting and genre. A costume drama set on an 1849 ocean voyage across the Pacific, a low-key love story about a bisexual composer being blackmailed by his older mentor set in 1936 Scotland, a stylized thriller involving corrupt gasoline companies and the one reporter who can expose their treachery in 1973 San Francisco, a caper-comedy set in an oppressive retirement home from present day England, a dystopian sci-fi adventure taking place in 2144 South Korea, and a post-apocalyptic epic at an unmentioned point in the future. The stories taking place in 1849, 2144, and the unnamed future are directed by the Wachowskis, while Tykwer took on all in between.</span><br />
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What keeps each short connected to the others, and allows the film to function as a cohesive whole, is that the cast remains identical throughout every vignette. This shows the audience that the people in the film aren't necessarily the main characters who we watch develop, but rather their immortal souls. For example, the first character we watch Tom Hanks play is a cowardly thief; slowly poisoning a member of his crew without aggressively doing anything drastic to end this person's life. As the years pass on, his soul becomes braver. In 1973, he goes against his corrupt employer to protect innocents in danger, and during the present day, his reckless bravery leads him to throw someone who offended him off a building. Later on, in the post-apocalyptic future, he defeats a clan of barbaric cannibals and overcomes the devil personified. The protagonist of the film isn't Tom Hanks as one of the people he portrays, but rather his soul; an otherworldly presence unable to visualize on screen. The entire ensemble is invisible, and the actors are just embodying the hosts over an extended period of time.</span><br />
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While these vast ambitions warrant the feature at least some recognition when standing alone, the most amazing feat of all is that all three directors have created a final product which stands par with their premise. It's the best edited movie I've seen in a long time; seamlessly shifting between the separate stories effortlessly, while still remaining entertaining and devoid of extreme pretension. It's 172-runtime passes by almost comically fast, making it one of the few nearly three hour movies which don't warrant excessive watch looking. Even for the casual moviegoer stumbling into the DVD rental through seeing A-list actors on the cover, this is an entertaining and engrossing experience unlike any other.</span><br />
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Another aspect which serves as a driving force for the film would be the dazzling cinematography by Frank Griebe and John Toll. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cloud Atlas </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">serves just as much as a factory for awe inducing moments as it does for a feature film. 2144 South Korea serves as a unique dystopian landscape, with the brief scenes within the Patasong fast food joint (where the protagonist of this segment is employed by force) containing some of the most memorable imagery of the year. Also included in the memorable imagery are the shots of Hugh Grant as Kona Chief; a brutalic and cannibalistic warlord in the post-apocalypse. Covered in red, white, and black warpaint from head to toe, it would be extremely easy to make this figure of barbaric anarchy seem like a silly Halloween costume with generally likable Hugh Grant playing the character. However, due to Griebe and Toll, not only does Grant appear to be a reasonable figure to exist within the segment, but also terrifying beyond belief. While credit should undoubtably be given to Grant for his excellent performance, it's because of the cinematographers that he can be taken seriously.</span><br />
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Returning to the mention of the warpaint featured in the previous paragraph, the makeup and practical effects designed by Heike Merker and her crew are astonishing beyond belief. Unbound by their own race and gender, the actors are cast into an eclectic set of roles without any limitations. Asian actor Doona Bae is able to convincingly portray a 1800s European housewife without any suspension of disbelief from the audience, Hugo Weaving can transform into a female Nurse Ratchet-like proprietor of a retirement home. The makeup also allows the actors to smoothly shift into roles beyond their age, most notably in Jim Broadbent's role in 1936 as a senile composer. For this particular character, the aging makeup not only allows Broadbent to have an appearance to match the character description, but gives added depth to the composer as well. As someone who never necessarily paid excessive attention to makeup and practical effects within films, this is an eyeopening detail which greatly benefits the film surrounding it.</span><br />
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Though there are admittedly some flaws (some of the child acting is noticeably flat), </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cloud Atlas </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is the unspoken blockbuster of 2012. With an ambitious premise unlike anything else put to screen, and directors able to match their promise of grandiose spectacle with some of the most visually stunning imagery in recent memory, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cloud Atlas </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">deserves to be known as something other than a box office disaster. It's one of my favorite films of the year, and will hopefully find an audience upon its inevitable release on DVD.</span><br />
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Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-33560094142585131812012-12-22T11:42:00.000-05:002013-01-02T11:44:56.611-05:002012 Catch Up: Argo (B)(I'm trying to catch up on as many Oscar-baiting movies and favorite films of the year as I can by the end of the end of the month, so some reviews might be somewhat abbreviated)<br />
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Everything I could've ever wanted from Ben Affleck's third directorial effort can be found in the opening scene: A perfectly directed and acted recreation of the Iranian militants and students storming the U.S embassy in Tehran at the beginning of the Iran Hostage Crisis of the late 1970s. Grounded firmly in reality while still technically a dramatization of the historical events, it's an impeccably crafted introductory sequence. Affleck directs with a visceral intensity; unwilling to sugarcoat and make light of the looming tragedy. Not once does he cut away from the embassy, and presents the situation almost in real time. The only way to further intensify the proceedings would be if it had all been done in a single take, which admittedly would be downright impossible with all of the supporting characters in play. There are workers hastily trying to shred all documents within the embassy, ordinary Americans swept up in the terrifying ordeal, armed guards who have to protect the building and all those inside, while realizing that firing a single shot could provoke war between the U.S and Iran. Meanwhile, a mob of angry Iranians are slowly swarming the embassy, and a peaceful conclusion is no longer possible. Something horrible is going to happen; this mob is doom for the inhabitants of the embassy, but no one really knows what the inevitable horrors will entail.<br />
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Around 15 minutes in length, this scene gives us a brief glimpse into an alternate future of cinema, like on the Doc's blackboard in <b>Back to the Future Part II</b>. This is a proxy reality in which Affleck continues the directorial winning streak found in the opening sequence throughout the rest of his film. Because of his sheer mastery of directing, Ben Affleck sweeps every award for filmmaking, and is proclaimed to be one of the greatest filmmakers alive today. He gets compared to a 1970s William Friedkin, or maybe modern day Martin Scorsese, or even an improved Thomas McCarthy because he not only understands the human condition, but can throw in a chase or two and still pull everything off. This is not hyperbole by any means: The recreation of the impromptu raid which led to the Iran Hostage Crisis is one of the best things put to screen in memory.<br />
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Unfortunately, what comes after this masterfully executed sequence is little more than a slightly generic heist movie; albeit one in which the crew are also the target. The decline in quality is less of a Splash Mountain-esque experience than a steadily declining ramp. Gradually, <b>Argo </b>transforms from pure flawlessness into overly dramatized Hollywood fluff. While that may sound like a blasting critique against Affleck's feature, it's more like admitting your straight-A student started the year off incredibly well, but ended the final marking period with a high C. For an ordinary caper with a politically charged twist, Affleck succeeds in directing a tightly edited, fairly entertaining crowd pleaser, but never again reaches the heights promised from the embassy invasion.<br />
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Grade: BDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-73875072016759605512012-12-01T23:42:00.000-05:002013-01-02T11:46:56.196-05:00Holy Motors (B-)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When people settle arguments or make decisions using a coin flip, they always call heads or tails, but never the thin centerpiece which lies between the two. To place a bet on the middle portion would be absolutely ridiculous for any reasonable person, as the odds of success are practically nonexistent. For this reason entirely, it figures no prominence in the coin flip, and seemingly only exists to give the coin the bare minimum thickness for it not to be brittle enough to easily break. Experimental and fringe cinema generally works the same way. On one side of the cinematic coin, there're the minimalist and/or surreal mind puzzles which ultimately reward the viewer for paying constant attention, and provide a type of unique memorability which the majority of conventional films lack. The most recent example of this would be Rick Alverson's </span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-comedy-b.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Comedy</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, which provided an insightful character study outside the boundaries of traditional filmmaking. On the other side, there're the impenetrable indies which completely alienate their audience, and fail to serve any clear purpose other than to dispense pretension. Movies which quickly come to mind are Alain Cavalier's </span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/03/pater-d.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pater</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, one of the frontrunners for the worst of the year, and David Cronenberg's </span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/09/corporate-mastermind-in-peril-double.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cosmopolis</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> to a lesser extent. Alverson is on one side of the coin, and Cavalier and Cronenberg are on the other. However, director Leos Carax has broken the nonexistent odds to find the sweet spot right down the middle.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Denis Lavant stars as Monsieur Oscar, an actor working for a company whose specialty involves planting performance artists into real life situations. Whether the public is the one seeking out this company's services, or if the actors are delving into the authentic scenarios by their employer's own accord remains enigmatic, due to the varying reactions of bystanders as Oscar performs. Carax shows us a typical day in Oscar's life, as he travels throughout Paris to his various "appointments" in an upscale limousine decked with makeup and costumes. First he portrays an elderly beggar, then the main character of a bizarre and pornographic motion capture feature, and afterward an insane figure intent on acting as weird as possible. The strangeness of each vignette gradually decreases as the film progresses, as does the size of the crowd and pseudo audience. The final three involve Oscar only performing with another actor with no one outside the scene watching. Also included are brief snippets of an old film reel of a naked man, an opening scene involving a man using a key attached to his finger to move from his apartment to a movie theater, and a musical intermission with an orchestra comprised almost entirely with accordions.</span><br />
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Determining Carax's intended moral is almost like an old fashioned choose-your-own-adventure book, as one person could easily come to a completely different conclusion for the director's intentions than another. The original point I derived was that the public was beginning to reject movies for being too old fashioned, and wanted their entertainment to be more intimate and personal; like reality television performed live for them. I garnered this because of the final conversation featured, and due to how cinema is closely connected to the plot (as evidenced by the opening) but is rarely regarded. However, another theory which was explicitly mentioned was that because of the influx of new technologies allowing anyone to have their own camera, actors are now being filmed all of the time, and as result must perform all of the time. It's interesting commentary on modern technology on Carax's part, but had it not been referenced directly by Lavant's protagonist, it would've been difficult to determine as a possible message. A final moral could be how the public can confuse performance art for honesty and sincerity. While this is admittedly the least likely option, it brings back memories of the Joaquin Phoenix debacle, in which the majority of America believed this A-list actor's meltdown wholesale. However, in this scenario, the public would have no idea that actors are being planted throughout society, which contradicts the film itself.</span><br />
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Selling every moment is Denis Lavant, who gives an absolutely incredible performance as Monsieur Oscar. Having to alter is mannerisms, tics, and even physicality for each piece of Oscar's performance art, while still maintaining a general sense that Oscar is still acting out these fictional characters, Lavant excels in one of the most difficult performances imaginable. He's an actor playing an actor portraying various characters as part of various acts. On top that, in one of the appointments he plays an actor working in a motion capture suit: An actor playing an actor playing an actor acting. There're very few people who could pull the role off to any degree, let alone to the extent of Lavant. This is not hyperbole: Lavant gives the best performance of the year so far.</span><br />
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Despite interesting intentions and an incredible lead, why </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Holy Motors </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">remains in the middle of the experimental film coin is its constant and blatant use of weirdness for weirdness sake. As someone who regularly watches the surreal programming on Adult Swim, I personally have no issue with unusual humor and random comedy. Still, Carax continuously dips into the well of abnormality, but only to occasional success. Carax's best sequences occur when his feature is at its most subtle: A tense conversation between a shy girl and her disappointed dad; A heartfelt conversation between an emotional niece and her dying uncle. It's when Carax leaps headfirst into manic oddness that you begin to wonder whether that particular vignette was included as part of the message, or just because...well...just because. The only two cringeworthy scenes are when Oscar has leathery sex with a contortionist in a motion capture suit (even worse; the camera pulls back to show that they are both playing CGI dragon-like creatures), and when Eva Mendes sings a lullaby to a naked and fully erect man. It's this type of bizarre perversity which holds everything back, and even partially calls into question Carax's true intentions.</span><br />
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On the coin flip of experimental cinema, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Holy Motors</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> manages to land right on the tiny middle portion. It's a flawed film, albeit one replete with memorable scenes and an amazing performance by Denis Lavant. It's a situation in which the benefits match the flaws, but Lavant is reason enough to catch up with this French independent before it fades out of theaters.</span><br />
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Grade: B-</span><br />
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Note: Reviewing three consecutive experimental features in a row (</span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-fourth-dimension-various.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Fourth Dimension</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Comedy</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">) wasn't intentional, but I'll probably be back with more conventional choices over December.</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-13334627013606529962012-11-24T21:00:00.000-05:002013-01-02T11:48:08.484-05:00The Fourth Dimension (Various)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(</span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Fourth Dimension </span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is availible to be seen legally on Youtube. The link can be found </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=31WEBwFpULg&feature=mv_sr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">here)</span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What is the fourth dimension? Three of the leading figures in experimental cinema (Harmony Korine, Aleksei Fedorchenko, Jan Kwiecinski) have attempted to answer this question, each directing a short which is influenced by this enigmatic subject matter in some way. The result is 2/3s of an engaging anthology that raises more questions than it answers. However, for those with an interest in the avant garde, this might be your blockbuster experience of the year. Complete with gibberish rambings, carefully designed puzzle-like narratives, and enough contempation to out think The Thinker, this is a film unlike any other. The important thing is to understand what you're getting into before hitting "play."</span><br />
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Easily the strangest of the three odd shorts, Harmony Korine's contribution to the anthology is a surreal one man show with surprising wit. The short mostly consists of Val Kilmer, playing a bombastic false prophet, spewing nonsensical sermons to an audience of gullible working class disciples. Shot in a dingy roller rink, Kilmer monologues like an LSD tripping cult leader; passively referencing how "velvet killed Elvis," telling stories about seeing an alien mothership, and describing in bizarre detail a fourth dimension made entirely of cotton candy. Meanwhile, the disco balls from the rink keep spinning, and Kilmer's deeply captivated congregation respond with intensity to each new spout of gibberish like a stereotyped southern church. It's an atmosphere that's both absolutely ridiculous and subtly chilling. What makes the scenario even stranger is that Val Kilmer is playing himself.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In the brief cuts away from his theatrical lecture, Kilmer is shown riding on a tiny bicycle around suburbia at night, and casually hanging out with his much younger girlfriend. It is at this point when Korine's unique storytelling becomes clear, and the short's plot is revealed. Val Kilmer is a fun loving guy, who uses his acting skills to manipulate simple minded outsiders into believing anything he says. He's not insane in anyway, but merely playing an incredibly mean spirited prank on those gullible enough to believe him. It's an interesting reversal on what we'd expect of the plot from the opening five minutes of cultish silliness, and a clever narrative trick by Korine. Though the short grows somewhat monotonous over its 30 minute runtime, it's one of the smartest short films I've seen in a long time, and benefits from a memorably unhinged performance from Val Kilmer.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grade: B+</span><br />
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A sweet love story, crossed with a psychological examination of mourning, with some traditional sci-fi elements thrown in, Aleksei Fedorchenko uses the idea of a fourth dimension in a far more literal manner than his peers, and steps further outside the experimental cinema bubble as well. The plot is unusually simple for such an ambitious idea: A cranky scientist has just discovered how to take brief glimpses into the past using a homemade time machine, partially for the purpose of seeing his deceased wife. However, there is a neighbor in his apartment complex who is in love with him, but he fails to notice due to his increasing desire to look at his wife, and to perfect the machine. Will he accept his past, and be able to move on?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's far more conventional than Korine's and Kwiecinski's installments, but makes up for this in its sheer charm. Fedorchenko balances romance, drama, and sci-fi almost perfectly, and the lead actors are very good in their roles. An added bonus is a fresh use of time travel, one which only offers glimpses of the past through a television monitor rather than taking our protagonist to the event itself. This was my favorite of the anthology, and probably the only short I would recommend to any reader.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grade: A-</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Glacially paced and ultimately uneven, Jan Kwiecinski shows us an overlong, but admittedly insightful glimpse into how hipsters would realistically react to the apocalypse. Set in a newly abandoned Polish town, four hipsters break into houses and mess around, all while a biblical sized flood is set to inevitably annihilate the entire town and its inhabitants. The hipsters are seemingly the only townspeople who chose not to evacuate, and embrace their looming death sentence by acting upon all of their desires. They break into stores, hold impromptu concerts in the center of town, and walk in and out of forsaken homes. Up until the final few scenes, these nihilistic antics make up the short's entirety, forcing the audience to spend around 25 minutes watching somewhat self-loathing hipsters do practically nothing.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While Kamil Plocki's haunting cinematography of the desolate town is worth mentioning, Kwiecinski's effort has far too little substance, and grows increasingly monotonous. It's dull, dreary, and overall unpleasant. The extreme minimalism may be what sets this short apart from Korine and Fedorchenko, but it also makes the director's intentions incredibly vague. Kwiecinski also only mentions the fourth dimension in a sole throwoff line, as if to qualify his effort as part of the anthology in the laziest manner possible. Although there is some excellent cinematography, Kwiecinski sadly ends the film on a disappointing note.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grade: C-</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-39559611615530130522012-11-12T22:11:00.002-05:002013-01-02T11:48:27.514-05:00The Comedy (B+)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If a director sets out to provoke and torment his audience, and achieves this proposed goal with overwhelming triumph, do you praise him for his successful effort, or scathe his feature with unbridled hatred for being obligated to endure it? Despite an extremely small theatrical release mostly limited to VOD, Rick Alverson's </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Comedy </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">has already gained a notorious reputation for being one of the most polarizing films of the year. It's a heavily improvised, glacially paced piece of experimental cinema; with a plot mostly consisting of a wealthy and sociopathic hipster messing with innocent civilians for no discernible reason. Occasionally disturbing, sometimes unbearable, frequently painful, and almost always uncomfortable, Alverson has directed the equivalent of torture porn for the overly empathetic. This is the very definition of a one-time-only film: It's very well constructed and acted, but I couldn't be bribed to watch it again.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One of the first scenes involves our antihero, fearlessly played by Tim Heidecker of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Tim and Eric Awesome Show</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> fame, sitting by the bedside of his comatose father, while a male caretaker checks the unconscious man's condition. It's the early morning, and while Heidecker is clearly hungover from the previous night's spree of booze fueled merriment, he's already moved onto his first glass of bourbon of the day. He slowly begins a conversation with the caretaker; making small talk over what jobs are entailed in the caretaker's line of work. Then, out of nowhere, Heidecker dramatically shifts the tone of their discussion by asking whether the caretaker has ever dealt with a prolapsed anus. The flow of their encounter no longer resembles ordinary conversation, but rather an improv sketch where only one of the performers understands they're in a bit. The caretaker is too shocked and disgusted to respond to the question, and Heidecker uses the silence as an opportunity to push the discomfort level forward. He then goes on to describe prolapsed anuses in graphic detail, and cracks a double entendre about what it'd be like to fix a prolapsed anus with a female doctor. Remaining silent as Heidecker monologues about this damaged part of the anatomy, the caretaker is in an implied state of infuriated shock as he finishes the procedure, and then storms out upon his completion.</span><br />
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Almost every other scene in the film plays similar to the one summarized above: Heidecker puts himself into a situation where he's positive those around him will not leave, and attempts to push the target to their absolute breaking point. This format is repeated multiple times almost exactly; with the encounters gradually increasing in extreme awkwardness and possible consequences. Making these scenes even more emotionally intense is Alverson's direction. Though I wasn't on set, it's difficult to imagine Alverson saying "cut" more than a couple times throughout the film's production. He lets the camera linger, almost like a fly on-the-wall, witnessing every conversation in its entirety. This is not a man who will sugar coat anything, or give his antihero an unjustified shot at redemption. Alverson understands that Heidecker is playing a sociopathic and self-loathing manchild, and revels in the inherent misery of that idea. The repetition of the same scene becomes dull at times, but this is necessary to drive the main point of Heidecker's character home: This is an almost soulless manchild, who's seemingly sole purpose in life is to make those around him as miserable as he is. And while he occasionally attempts to leave his self-deprecating existence, he finds ordinary life too difficult to inhabit.</span><br />
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It's impossible to underrate Tim Heidecker's performance; an uncompromising, masterful example of how constant improvisation can be used effectively in a dramatic film. It'd be simple to write him off as a far more realistic and depression variation of a Sasha Baron Cohen creation, based off the way he interacts with people, but the performance is far too layered for such a generalization. Take, for example, in which he attempts to seduce an epileptic woman who he may have developed feelings for. For a few brief moments, Heidecker shows a brief bit of humanity while innocently flirting with her in a comedic striptease (as opposed to a scene where he attempts to pick up a girl by defending Hitler). Then, as he begins to make a move on her, she jumps into a fierce epileptic fit. Rather than help his one possible chance at redemption, he does nothing. Displaying no emotion whatsoever, he sips on a glass of bourbon while waiting for the seizure to end. He's not concerned or distressed at all; simply bored. There's a solid minute and a half of Heidecker just sitting, drinking his bourbon, and passively waiting. It's the most disturbing moment of the film by a significant margin, mostly stemming from Heidecker's ability to sell this character in a way that we can actively despise him, but still find him to be compelling.</span><br />
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Another aspect of the film which works incredibly well is its soundtrack. While this could be more opinionated based of my own personal taste, music supervisor Chris Swanson has arranged one of the best mixtapes for lo-fi rock I've ever seen. It also helped that the music is used creatively in a way that helps the occasionally disjointed flow of the film; especially a Central Park softball game set to a section of "The Disintegration Loops" by composer William Basinski. Though the hour long, musical epic will likely never leave the specter of 9/11 that it will forever be related to, this imaginative use of the track may be as close as it will ever get. Soon after watching the film, I picked up the soundtrack on iTunes. Even for those who may have little to no interest in the feature itself, its soundtrack definitely deserves a listen, or maybe two.</span><br />
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Rick Alverson's the comedy is undoubtably one of the most polarizing features to be released this year, even with its very limited release. Because of a fascinating lead performance by Tim Heidecker, along with multiple scenes of well executed discomfort, I thought it was very well done, but it would be incredibly easy to determine why someone would hate this movie. It's hostile, experimental, glacially paced, and repetitious, with an almost soulless sociopath for a protagonist. Unless you're absolutely positive you can sit through 95 minutes of an emotional endurance test, it'd be a terrible idea to watch this movie. To answer my thesis question at the beginning of the review, if a director sets out to provoke and torment his audience, and achieves this goal with overwhelming triumph, you appreciate his film deeply for what it is, but you refuse to recommend it to anyone who may not be prepared to take on the challenge.</span><br />
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Grade: B+</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-63489604774174184102012-11-09T21:22:00.000-05:002013-01-02T11:50:06.426-05:00Nature Calls (C)<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(It is impossible to write a review for this film without mentioning the ending, so a spoiler alert is in place)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This has been a particularly difficult review to write, because frankly, I have no real idea how to address this movie. It's completely enigmatic, in that it's never clear whether director Todd Rohal intended his feature to be a pitch black, played straight parody of the 70's styled slob-com, or a horribly misguided attempt to recreate this sub-genre for a present day audience. The plot involves a 40 year old man who remains obsessed with Boy Scouts (Patton Oswalt), who abducts a group of children from a sleepover hosted by his egocentric brother (Johnny Knoxville), and takes them camping in a restricted forest with his dying mute grandfather. Once they arrive at the camp site, he forces the kids to stay with him, and learn about the wilderness and manhood, because no one other than him knows the way home. However, Oswalt is a horrible scout leader; he curses in front of the kids, refuses to acknowledge their requests, and gives them cigarettes on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, Knoxville and two of his somewhat psychotic friends (Rob Riggle and Patrice O'Neal) hope to track down the group for almost the sole purpose of brutally attacking Oswalt in retribution for his crimes. Laughing yet?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While there are admittedly some shoehorned moments of sweetness throughout, upon first glance, it would still be simple to write the feature off as a dispiriting throwback to 70's slob-coms. However, it's the ending is what makes the film such an enigma: The conclusion is so radiantly jubilant and optimistic that to call it a "happy ending" wouldn't do it the least bit of justice. It goes beyond the mere realms of a happy ending into such a blissful state of joyfulness and pleasantness that it can only be compared to the culmination sequence of Martin Scorsese's 1983 classic </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The King of Comedy</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. After getting a glimpses into the feature's heart of darkness over the course of its 79 minute runtime, most notably in a tone altering brutal fight between Oswalt and Knoxville, it's beyond bizarre that Rohal would conclude in such a treacly and saccharine manner. This leaves me with three theories about the ending:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1. Oswalt is an unreliable narrator. Because the final moments of the film are described by Oswalt's narration, it could be possible that they are entirely fictional, and only exist within his own disturbed mind. Discovering that you've essentially been abducted by a possible madman could potentially traumatize any child, so the likelihood that the trip impacted their lives for the better seems incredibly miniscule. Also, the thought that the parents would allow him to ride off into the sunset without facing any form of consequence is downright impossible to imagine. If this theory is correct, it would imply that Rohl failed to set up the unreliable narrator well enough within the story.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2. Rohl had no idea what he was doing the entire time. This seems like the least viable option of the three, mostly because of the general acclaim he received for previous films </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Catechism Cataclysm </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Guatemalan Handshake</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. Though I admittedly haven't seen either, both are award winning independents which have gained a minor cult following since their initial release. It's difficult to believe someone with experience, who has also already made two well regarded features, would end a film like this on accident.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">3. Rohl was making some sort of meta statement about how movies of this ilk typically end, but the message became muddled due to shoddy editing. In my opinion, this is most likely the correct theory. The change from a somewhat syrupy middle section to brief spout of violent insanity, and then quickly returning to an even sweeter pile of goo has to mean something. However, the purpose of the sugary ending became obscured due to a strange desire to cut the film down to a bare bones 79 minutes.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's difficult to grade a film I'm not even completely sure I fully understand, but despite some gaping flaws, I'll go with a C. For what some may consider to be a hackneyed riff of the 70s comedies of old, it was surprisingly thought provoking; despite not being mentally stimulating in the way the director probably intended. It's not particularly funny or engaging, but it's an interesting enigma.</span></div>
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Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-77498632362508861092012-11-06T17:25:00.000-05:002013-01-02T12:11:36.831-05:00Universal Solder: Day of Reckoning (B-)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Replete with plot points involving cloning, mind control, false memories, superhuman soldiers, shady government dealings, screwdriver lobotomies, underground brotherhoods, and regenerating limbs, it's an accomplished feat that John Hyams' fourth sequel to the unlikely "Universal Soldier" franchise doesn't come off as a hastily assembled, ludicrous jumble of insanity. A series packed with as much visceral energy and intensity as offbeat sci-fi elements, this installment pushes usual protagonist Luc Deveraux (most commonly portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme) off to the sidelines, and chooses to focus on a new recruit to the Universal Solder program, played by Scott Adkins. Also returning is Dolph Lundgren as St. Andrew Scott, the initial antagonist of the original film. With the two reigning champions of direct-to-video action flicks reuniting for an over-the-top, testosterone infused, gore extravaganza, all director Hyans essentially needs to do is shoot a couple of well choreographed fight scenes, and call it quits to deliver the grindhouse masterpiece college frat boys will inevitably be able to quote verbatim. And while the film doesn't necessarily reach such great heights when compared to ordinary Hollywood action pictures, it certainly crosses this low bar with flying colors.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The greatest triumph of the movie surprisingly isn't its grandiose, gore splattered action sequences, but rather the screenplay of John Hyams, Doug Magnuson, and John Greenhalgh. While admittedly some elements of the film are clichéd and corny beyond belief, for every one generic writing choice, there're at least five narrative curveballs to make up for it. Juggling all of the ideas listed in the opening sentence while still allowing time for multiple fight scenes is pretty incredible, and can be considered an even greater accomplishment when realizing that exposition needs to be filled in for newcomers, and even more time must be set aside for character development. Besides a small writing credit for Hyams, and a sole TV writing credit for Magnuson, none of the writers had any official experience writing screenplays before now. If a reunion was put into place for Hyams' next picture, hopefully this team would be able to soar to even greater heights than the already lofty ones featured here.</span><br />
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When regarding the action sequences, it's difficult to think of another film as bipolar with its visual style and fight choreography. It opens with its, by far, most memorable scene: An unbroken take of a home invasion with gruesome consequences, shot entirely in the first person perspective. It's a brutally realistic, unrelentingly dark, slap-in-the-face way to start the film; seemingly a direct statement from the director that this installment will be the "Christopher Nolan-ification"of the franchise. Out with the old 90's style dumb action, and in with the new hyper realism technique of modern action filmmaking. However, after this opening sequence, the new style is slowly dropped in favor of a vision far closer to Zack Snyder. The violence gradually becomes more stylized as the film progresses, until the final fight, which more closely resembles a Boss Battle from a video game than anything else. It's ADHD directing and editing: Quickly growing tired of one filmmaking style, and then moving on to another.</span><br />
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The acting isn't all together very noticeable, other than a memorably loony performance from Lundgren as one of the leaders of an underground legion of Unisols. Though he only has around 15 minutes of screentime, he gives one of the most berserk acting jobs I've ever seen. Also, despite his huge presence on the film's cover Van Damme is only on screen for approximately 10 minutes, but probably less. Deveraux is seen only in brief flashbacks, and a final scene toward the conclusion.</span><br />
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While the action flick doesn't necessarily deliver anymore than it would based off its title, a more than solid script and some memorable action sequences make it more than worth anyone's time. Though I doubt it will have very much success in its brief theatrical run, it should provide solid entertainment for those who inevitably stumble across it when on DVD.</span><br />
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Grade: B-</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-16929266293086637652012-11-05T14:14:00.000-05:002013-01-02T12:11:56.156-05:00Footnote (A+)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">With a masterful script, incredible acting, exhilarating direction, and an impeccable ability to blend hilarity with heartbreaking drama with the slightest of ease, I've already come to terms that director Joseph Cedar's study on the relationship between a passive aggressive talmudic professor and his competitive and egotistical father will most likely be my favorite film of the year. Having originally seen the feature back in early June, I have attempted to review it multiple times, only to give up, not believing that I had given a strong enough recommendation for those who would read it. Since then, I have re-watched the movie twice, and each time was able to pick up more insights, and further the reasoning as to why I have become so infatuated with the film. Upon my third viewing, I came to a conclusion: This gets closer to cinematic perfection than almost any other movie I've ever seen. It's the closest thing to a transcendent masterpiece to be released into theaters in years; and I honestly cannot remember another feature I've enjoyed, and had this much appreciation for, in a very long time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The man who deserves the most credit for the creation of this dexterous experience is Israeli director and writer Joseph Cedar, who served as both director and screenwriter. Shot in a dynamic style to prove that this conflict between father and son is more of an earth shattering, destructive war of minds, than ordinary squabbling, Cedar uses intense music, visual cutaways, and dramatic cinematography to relay the viewpoints of his characters. He also excels in utilizing composer Amit Poznansky's zippy score to maximum effect: Knowing exactly when for it to be implemented into the background or foreground of a scene, and when to let the tension between characters dictate the mood. Another aspect of the film which Cedar does an excellent job with, is the blending of realism and surrealism. A perfect example of this, would be a scene in which the son (Lior Ashkenazi) meets with the Israel Prize Committee, led by a realistically unlikable Micah Lewensohn. However, rather than meet inside a typical office or boardroom, to keep the conversation as secret as possible, they resolve to talk in a comically tiny closet. It's a scene that not only embodies Cedar's ability to blend the surreal with the realistic, but also serves as an encapsulation of the film itself. In this approximately 10 minute scene, comedy combines with drama, in a way that's both oddly surreal, yet still believable. Last year at Cannes, this won the Award for Best Screenplay, and when remembering this scene, it's not at all difficult to determine why.</span><br />
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Another reason why this film is so successful, is because of the acting. While the ensemble is very good overall (especially Alisa Rosen as the father's long suffering spouse), Shlomo Bar Aba and Lior Ashkenazi are both incredible as the father and son respectively. Both play off each other perfectly; Bar Aba as an egotistical authoritative figure, and Ashkenazi as the passive aggressive pushover who only wants his long suffering father to have a small taste of happiness. It's an interesting dynamic that gradually changes as the film progresses, with Ashkenazi gaining more power over his father, but still choosing not to use it. These are two esteemed actors who were willing to put just as much effort into the feature as their director: Bar Aba made his triumphant return to acting after a 20 year retirement to focus on his standup career, and studied his character for six entire months. Meanwhile, Ashkenazi took Talmudic classes at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to gain a better understanding of his character, and let his beard grow for eight months; even before he was given the part for the film. These actors made a huge effort to allow themselves to give better performances, as they were now equipped to understand their characters on a deeper level, and ended up giving two of the best performances seen on the screen this year.</span><br />
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</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Footnote</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> is a masterful exploration of the competitive and crumbling relationship between a father and son who work in the same limited field (talmudic studies). With skillful direction from Israeli director Joseph Cedar, combined with incredible acting from its two leads, this is, undoubtably, one of the best films of the year so far.</span><br />
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Grade: A+</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-11900152286799034092012-10-29T23:12:00.000-04:002013-01-02T12:12:44.198-05:00The Hole (C-)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(Sorry for the month long hiatus; after the incident involving my review of the independent drama Brilliant Mistakes, I felt that I needed to take a small break from writing. Hopefully I'll be back to getting out four or more reviews per month starting in November.)<br /><br />Some movies are based off novels, others inspired by real life events, but rarely is there a feature whose premise stems from a mere quotation. Seemingly based on FDR's iconic quote about fear, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Hole</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> is an Australian horror feature whose villain is the very essence of fear itself: A bottomless hole leading to an alternate dimension where your nightmares transform into physical form. It's an odd, but engaging premise; one which allows for endless creativity when conjuring up potential creatures and demons to terrify the audience. Without the confinements of a constant evildoer, the director and art department have the opportunity to create as many creepy monstrosities as they desire, while also showing the audience terrors they may've previously imagined, but have never witnessed onscreen. Though the relatively low-budget put some limitations on complexity (12M), it isn't difficult to imagine someone like Guillermo del Toro, or more recently Panos Cosmatos, directing a visually fascinating version of the premise; replete with nightmarish designs unlike anything else we've seen before. Unfortunately, while director Joe Dante has already proven his knack for monsters with his 1984 classic Gremlins, his latest is far too generic and melodramatic to live up to its full potential.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">With an almost endless supply of wealth and political power, it's easy to despise the selective, authoritative citizens who belong to the 0.0001%: The protectors of unadulterated capitalism, and almighty masters of the universe. Because of well known greedy figureheads such as Donald Trump and the Koch Brothers, the public perception of the billionaire has gradually morphed into one of general aversion; even wealthy philanthropists such as Bill Gates are often criticized by a domestic population now cynical of anyone with an annual income over 1 million. Now, getting off my political soapbox, it has always been difficult by screenwriters, directors, and most importantly actors, to portray the ultra-affluent in a sympathetic light because of the almost unanimous negative bias against their kind. Many filmmakers have tried, but few have actually succeeded.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">By random coincidence, over the last few days I have watched two movies which tie into this subject matter, but both take a different approach to the very similar material. On one side, we have Nicholas Jarecki's </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Arbitrage</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, which attempts to humanize the scheming and manipulative head of a failing international trade empire. Using the always reliable Richard Gere as his lead, Jarecki hopes to understand the internal logic these prosperous men use when conducting their entirely self-beneficial operations, and the personal consequences involved. On the other, there's David Cronenberg's latest trip to the big screen, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cosmopolis</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, which instead depicts the egotism and slight insanity that can stem from an overabundance of money. Two separate examinations of tragedy in the same social class? It must be time for a Corporate Mastermind In Peril Double Feature!</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Arbritage</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In his feature length directorial debut, newcomer Nicholas Jarecki has constructed a compelling corporate thriller, replete with unexpected twists and turns, and an intentional indecisiveness toward the differences between right and wrong. It also serves as a superb reminder of lead actor Richard Gere's dramatic range and skill; as he has largely been absent from the big screen since at least 2006. Still desperately trying to manipulate the world around him, even when fully realizing he no longer has the power and authority to do so, Gere gives a powerhouse performance as Robert Miller; the reckless corporate mastermind of miniature trading empire amid an illegally hidden financial collapse. For years, he has concealed multiple affairs from his seemingly loving spouse (Susan Sarandon) and trusting children through little white lies, and has hid his corporation's impending bankruptcy from unsuspicious stockholders by tinkering with the income records. However, after inadvertently killing his younger mistress in a car accident and fleeing the scene, the house of lies he has been gradually building his entire life begins to tumble down in less than one tumultuous week.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The film can be best described as a gradual crescendo in intensity, with brief accent marks in between to keep the audience completely engaged. Beginning with an intentionally languid opening act to introduce us to the characters, and Miller's generally mundane life. After the titular accident, Jarecki slowly ratchets the tension to full force. From then on, the viewing experience is similar to playing Jenga with tower with only a few blocks left before its inevitable collapse. Through gradually intensifying interactions between Gere and the rest of the ensemble, and adding consequence upon consequence for his misdeeds, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Arbritage </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">gradually documents the inevitable political and social demise of this all important figure. It's a complex, well acted first feature, and I'm very interested as to what Nicholas Jarecki does next.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grade: B+</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cosmopolis</span></b></div>
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Alienating and pretentious in equal measure, with added emphasis placed on heady philosophical ideas, director David Cronenberg's adaptation of Don Delilo's 2003 novel of the same name is an offbeat enigma of moderate proportions. Giving very little exposition into the characteristics of cyber capitalism, one of the few prominent elements of the feature, Cronenberg essentially pushes the audience off the high dive into a deep swimming pool, and not only assumes we can swim, but can perform a 50m freestyle in record time. Though I generally support directors and screenwriters with desires to push the boundries of cinema using unique and creative storytelling, a fine line must be drawn once originality gradually fades into the incomprehensible. Cronenberg has a clear vision in </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cosmopolis</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, but even when reflecting on the film days later, I'm still not completely sure what it is.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">However, despite a convoluted script, the acting is overall very good. Robert Pattinson surprises as the egotistical billionaire playboy slowly coming to grips with his own overprivileged existence, as does Sarah Gadon as his equally detached, intentionally robotic spouse. Besides these two constant players, the other characters work themselves into the story similar to guests on a late night talk show. Because the majority of the film takes place inside Pattinson's luxurious limousine, the supporting cast gradually enters than leaves the stretched car after a conversation lasting anywhere from 2-10 minutes. Actors included here are: Abdul Ayoola, Juliette Binoche, Samantha Norton, and Jay Baruchel. Baruchel and Binoche leave the greatest impact, but the performances are overall very good.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Despite some fine acting from a game cast, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cosmopolis </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is simply too cryptic and convoluted to fully enjoy and appreciate. Maybe if someone who fully understood the feature explained it to me, my opinion might change, but until then, this is one limo ride you may want to turn down.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grade: C</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-3061076156165792242012-09-09T15:28:00.004-04:002013-01-02T12:13:19.505-05:00Branded (C-)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Rather than begin this review like normal, by immediately introducing the name of the film and its director, I would like to open with a quote from Cameron Crowe's 2005 flop, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Elizabethtown</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">:</span><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"As somebody once said; there's a difference between a failure and a fiasco. A failure is simply the non-presence of success: Any fool can accomplish failure. But a fiasco...A fiasco is a disaster of mythic proportions. A fiasco is a folktale told to others that makes other people feel more alive because it didn't happen to them."</span></span><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Fiascos are almost legendary in their combination of ambition and ineptitude; gorgeous trainwrecks that are both marvelous and repellent in equal measure. They're endlessly fascinating debacles; infinite research studies in attempting to discover where perfection stumbled into decay, and for what reasons. Was it excessive pretension from the director, countless rewrites from the writers, a prima donna actor demanding their supporting role be expanded, or Hollywood executives demanding the editors make last-second changes to fit the whims of an appalling test audience? Crowe examines the enigmatic subject of the fiasco by almost anthropomorphizing it in his film, but no picture embodies its characteristics more than Jamie Bradshaw's anti-corporate sci-fi allegory </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Branded</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">: An absolute fiasco by almost every sense of the word.</span></span><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Even after giving myself a day to recover after viewing the feature, I'm still struggling to successfully comprehend it. Others who have seen the film may have an alternate interpretation of the plot. Mostly taking place in a bizarre alternate version of modern day Moscow, Bradshaw and his co-director Aleksandr Dulerayn attempt to show the audience the cutthroat world of advertising, and how far extremely wealthy companies are willing to go for their products to be successful. However, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Branded</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> certainly isn't a corporate thriller, but rather an allegorical mind-bender clearly inspired by </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Matrix</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. The film's main twist is, rather than the humans controlling their brands, it's actually the brands who have complete dominance over mankind; personified by large CGI parasite-like creatures who latch onto human hosts. The conspiracy is that these gigantic monsters freely roam around Moscow, latching onto unsuspecting citizens at will, and only two marketing geniuses know of their existence: A former corporate advertiser turned American spy played by Ed Stoppard, and a wealthy mastermind who gained his marketing powers through divine intervention played by a gloriously hammy Max von Sydow.</span></span><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While almost immediately it'</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">s understood what you're watching will probably be a failure, it takes a few scenes to fully comprehend that Bradshaw and Dulerayn have concocted an almost masterful fiasco; a feature with endless ambition and barely a clue how to fulfill it. With the occasional striking image or memorable scene, it's not hard to imagine an alternate cut in which everything comes together. Also, many of the film's negative aspects can surely be blamed on the distributor Roadside Attractions, such as grating, unnecessary narration, and a ludicrous final twist which reveals the identity of this narrator. It's an undoubtably strange, uncompromising vision these directors have, which is deeply appreciated in a world filled with constant Hollywood dribble. However, due to poor editing, and possible studio interference, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Branded </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">slides from an ambitious possible sleeper hit, to an almost incomprehensible collage of compelling imagery and bizarre plot points. It has its moments, but can definitely be considered a fiasco.</span></span><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Grade: C-</span></span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-55564916524343811622012-09-08T21:11:00.003-04:002013-01-02T12:13:50.523-05:00Apologizes for my "Brilliant Mistakes" Review<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's come to my attention that many people were offended by my review of the film </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Brilliant Mistakes</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, and after re-reading it, I can completely understand where they were coming from. What I said about the film came out mean and needlessly cruel, and I am deeply sorry for what I wrote. I've permanently taken the review off the site, and will sincerely try to have this situation never happen again. Also, please don't think I'm an internet troll, slamming movies without a reason; though my writing may have a couple flaws, I'm never intentionally trying to hurt a film.</span><br />
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Thank you for calling me out on my mean spirited review,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">David</span><br />
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Note: I am also deleting my review of </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Funeral Kings</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> for the same reason.</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-19931244273518757572012-09-03T15:08:00.000-04:002013-01-02T12:14:15.983-05:00The Good Doctor (C+)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A routine medical thriller with a superb closing act, Lance Daly's </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Good Doctor </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">stars the typically typecast swashbuckler Orlando Bloom as a pious and insecure doctor in his first year of residency, whose low self esteem inevitably causes him to develop an obsession with an appreciative teenaged female patient. It's a premise that could possibly work better under the format of an episode of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Alfred Hitchcock Presents</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, where compelling suspenseful ideas could be told in full in a limited period without needing to pad the runtime, but with the excellent supporting cast of Taraji P. Henson, Michael Pena, Riley Keough, and a surprisingly uncredited J.K Simmons, coupled with a tense screenplay from </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Party Down </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">scribe John Enbom, I was relatively optimistic that the setup could work just as well as a feature film. Though my optimism was justified with the supporting cast, I was met with sincere disappointment in most other aspects of the film. Due to pedestrian direction, a generally dull script, and a mediocre lead, up until the final 20 minutes I frequently found myself bored and disengaged with the story.</span><br />
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The problems begin almost immediately with Orlando Bloom as Dr. Martin Blake; not necessarily because of his performance, but as result of the poorly written character he plays. Blake has little substance to his persona, and even less personality; a generic weirdo in scrubs who fails to be an interesting enough person to base an entire feature around. Despite essentially spending 90 straight minutes with him, we fail to sympathize, or even understand this figure by the conclusion. Also severely undeveloped is his obsession with Riley Keough as the high schooled subject of his infatuation. Though she certainly gives him the respect he so craves as an under appreciated doctor, why he so suddenly snaps, forcing her to remain under his treatment indefinitely, is never necessarily explained other than in general implications. Keough does a fine enough job with her role, but nothing in Enbom's script does anything to convince us of the powerful effect she has on Bloom. Daly also shares some of the blame for this as well, because it feels as though much of the material which would help connect the dots winded up on the cutting room floor.</span><br />
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Unsurprisingly, the most engaging parts of the film involve the ensemble of workers at the hospital. Michael Pina is excellent as Jimmy, a passive aggressive orderly who eventually discovers Blake's obsession, and uses it to blackmail him for Oxycotton. It's the final act where his character becomes a more crucial element of the broad story, and the film benefits a great deal from it. Also great is Taraji P. Henson, who while near wasted in a brief role as a questioning nurse, brings an emotional center from an outside perspective to Daly's warped love story. Though J.K Simmons only appears for a single scene as a police detective near the conclusion, it brings a tensity that everything before it lacked. While the main plot between Bloom and Keough was a bit of a mess, the background players seem already fleshed out and well developed before the film even begins.</span><br />
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Though there're some major problems at the core, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Good Doctor </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">is somewhat saved by a tense, compelling final third. However, everything before that point was too dreary, dull, and occasionally random to recommend it. If you're a fan of Bloom, it may be nice to find a starring role where he's not welding a sword or bow, but other than that, you might want to skip this...can't think of a pun, sorry.</span><br />
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Grade: C+</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-7822072815035671882012-09-01T16:28:00.001-04:002013-01-02T12:14:59.829-05:00Summer of Scares: Compliance (A) and "Summer of Scares" Awards Ceremony<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">After two downright atrocities (</span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/06/summer-of-scares-piranha-3dd-d.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Piranha 3DD</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> and </span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/05/30-second-reviews-we-have-pope-c.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Last Screening</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), one nonsensical mess (</span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/06/keyhole-c.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Keyhole</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), an intensely deranged Australian exploitation flick (</span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/06/summer-of-scares-loved-ones-b.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Loved Ones</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), and a visually dazzling sci-fi nightmare (</span><a href="http://thepersonwhowatchesmovies.blogspot.com/2012/07/summer-of-scares-beyond-black-rainbow-b.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Beyond the Black Rainbow</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">), Film Crazy's Summer of Scares is ending on a mesmerizingly terrifying note with Craig Zobel's straight-from-the-headlines psychological thriller </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Compliance</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">; a feature that not only wins the scariest movie of summer by a mile, but is also, without a doubt, one of the best films of the year. </span><br />
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The story is taken directly from a series of police reports dating back to 2005, in which an ordinary businessman would call fast food restaurants, supermarkets, and smaller department stores while pretending to be a police officer, and force employees to commit sadomasochistic acts upon each other in the name of the "law". These already sadistic prank calls gone haywire usually ended in forced acts of sexual abuse, extreme humiliation, psychological scarring, and occasionally rape, all for the caller's twisted amusement as to how easy to was to control the workers. Rather than use these real life horror stories as a springboard to move into a more heightened, fictional reality, Zobel completely sticks to the reports themselves, allowing the feature to be a realtime reenactment of the Mount Washington, Kentucky incident. In this sickening scam, a teenaged McDonalds employee was forced to be strip searched by her fellow employees, and later put through disturbing sexual depravity by a caller only known to her as Officer Scott, in an exercise to see how far he could push the workers to bend to his perverted whims.</span><br />
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The acting featured in the film is, for the most part, downright flawless. Ann Dowd gives an award worthy performance as Sandra, the manager of the fast food joint being targeted by the fake officer. Emoting the combination of uncertainty and light cautiousness as Officer Daniels (renamed for the film) orders her to break each emotional and social taboo, even when her character is hardly in the frame. Also pitch perfect is Dreama Walker as Becky, the employee forced to become Daniels' test subject as he begins to push her fellow worker's morals as to how far they are willing to go to obey authority. Doe eyed and innocent, her downfall to the depths of somewhat self-inflicted perversity and brutality is heartbreakingly captured by Walker from the very first frame to the very last. Pat Healy, playing against type as the passive aggressive false authority figure Officer Daniels, manages to reach great heights with his performance as well. Up until the way end, where his demands gradually spiral out of control, Daniels remains a calm and cool person, a man you want to put your trust in no matter the outlandish demands and lack of proof. All three of these roles will under serious consideration for best performances of the year come December.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />Just as flawless as the acting is Zobel's well tuned Hitchcockian direction. Making the wise choice not to include the most horrific acts of sexual abuse as part of the film, as not to make the acts of sadomasochistic brutality the film's main emphasis, Zobel knows when cutting back from the terrors is the most terrifying, but also when it is necessary to give the audience a front row seat to the depravity. Also, other than</span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> a well deserved concluding coda at the end which documents Officer Daniels arrest, and how the victims have readjusted, or lack thereof, to regular life after the ordeal, the camera remains almost entirely inside the restaurant, never giving a respite from the horrors taking place. It may of been conceived as a script which could work just as well as a play to the same level as a feature, but Zobel's confident direction renders the premise impossible to imagine in any other format.</span><br />
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Incredibly well acted, beautifully constructed, and one of the most terrifying films I've seen in a long time due to a commitment to realism, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Compliance</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> is not only the best feature in the Summer of Scares mini-festival, but also one of my favorite films of the year. It's a masterful exercise in terror that needs to be seen and experienced, if only to see some of the year's greatest performances, and a warning as to what can happen if authority runs amok. A near masterpiece.</span><br />
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Grade: A</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Level of Terror: Terrifying</span><br />
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<u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Summer of Scares Mini-Awards</span></u></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Best Actor:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Pat Healy: Compliance</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Best Actress:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ann Dowd: Compliance</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Scariest Scene:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Elena's Powers Revealed: Beyond the Black Rainbow</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Full Frontal Lobotomy with Screwdriver: The Loved Ones (tie)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Weirdest Moment:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Bloodied Human/Worm Creature: Beyond the Black Rainbow (tie)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ending: Piranha 3DD</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Bloodiest Film:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Trippiest Film:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Beyond the Black Rainbow</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Scariest Film:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Compliance</span></div>
Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-5040215421067414522012-09-01T14:51:00.001-04:002013-01-02T12:15:18.587-05:00Sleepwalk with Me (C+)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Comedian and professional storyteller Mike Birbiglia's semi-autobiographical directorial debut, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sleepwalk with Me</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, combines traditional staples of the mumblecore movement with occasional bursts of surrealist humor, to analyze the life of a naive, self proclaimed comic. Directed, written, and starring Birbiglia, the film is a passion project of sorts. Though based off his off-broadway show, and best selling book, I first heard Birbiglia's story in a segment around two years ago on the Ira Glass hosted radio show </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This American Life </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(Glass would later produce, and help write the script for the film. He also appears briefly as a wedding photographer in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo). In the segment, Birbiglia monologues about his personal life while beginning a career in comedy; stressing over an 8 year romantic relationship moving toward marriage, doubt from parents that this type of sporadic employment will provide steady income, and low self-esteem that his material is any good to begin with. At the same time, all of these internal and external pressures may be causing him to develop RSD, a sleeping disorder which causes him to subconsciously reenact his dreams in reality. It's an occasionally hilarious, melancholic story, but developing it into a movie may not of been the best choice.</span><br />
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While Birbiglia is certainly a charismatic lead, the film itself fails to sustain the comic momentum featured in the audible re-telling. Though it only runs an anemic 77 minutes, credits not included, the whole experience feels padded so that the comedy would be long enough to be qualified for "feature length" status. The editing is overall very sloppy in a way that more detracts from the experience, rather than add a certain scruffy charm. An example of this is an early scene in which a cameoing David Wain, and an actress who I cannot find the name of, briefly appear as happily married friends of Birbiglia and his girlfriend. The purpose of this encounter seems to be how the girlfriend wants to have a child and marriage similar to this couple, but the audience already knows about this desire based off several earlier scenes which give the same conclusion about this character. In the eyes of most directors, this would serve no substantial purpose, and be immediately cut, but it is startlingly left in the final version. My opinion of this example holds precedent in many other scenes with repeated plot points, morals, etc...</span><br />
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In a movie whose main subject is standup comedy, I was also deeply surprised how bland the jokes were in the film. While the brief segments of Birbiglia's assumedly real life routine were hilarious, the writing team behind the feature seem to have transformed the currently existing, "real life", characters into generic stereotypes at every turn. The parents are nothing more than judgmental two-dimensional figurines, the girlfriend seems straight cut from the Jennifer Aniston mold. The only actor who walks away unscathed from their blanketed portrayal is professional podcaster and fellow comedian Marc Maron, who in his five minutes of screentime, brings the much needed pathos as an older comic who gives Birbiglia career advice. Other than excerpts from the routine itself, along with the occasional successful dream sequence, the film mostly meanders along, seemingly waiting to end.</span><br />
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Though the story its based on may be charming and entertaining, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sleepwalk with Me</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> sadly proves that Birbiglia may be a more talented actor and storyteller than filmmaker. Though it's not without its moments, it's simply too dull and shockingly generic to recommend.</span><br />
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Grade: C+</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-78880228681333064072012-08-24T17:29:00.001-04:002012-11-02T17:48:27.836-04:0030 Second Reviews: The Three Stooges (B+), Step Up Revolution (C+), Peace Love and Misunderstanding (D+), and To Rome With Love (B)<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Three Stooges</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In, by far, one of the biggest surprises of the year, the Farrelly brothers have challenged the generally mediocre "modern day update of a classic" mold with their hilarious revival of the classic comedy troupe, The Three Stooges. Capturing the magic of what made the original shorts work so well, Sean Hays, Chris Diamantopoulos, and especially former MMA fighter Will Sasso as Curley, give almost pitch perfect performances by not only replicating the stooges' slapstick mannerisms, and in many cases building upon them. The plot is relatively simple: When Moe, Larry, and Curley's childhood orphanage goes under foreclosure, the gang must go to the big city to find the funds to pay the bank back. We already know the ending in advance, but the lack of suspense doesn't dilute the enjoyment in the least. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Three Stooges</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> is by far one of the funniest, most entertaining movies of the year so far, with enough nynucks for a lifetime: It's the rare example of a seemingly unnecessary remake done right.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Grade: B+</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Step Up Revolution</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As someone who had never seen any film in the Step Up series due to general cynicism toward an entire trilogy based solely on hip-hop dancing, I was at times blown away by the mesmerizing spectacle of Chuck Maldonado's visually dazzling choreography coupled with freshman director Scott Speer's hyperactive editing; pulling the audience into the stunningly complex flash mob styled performances. With more spectacle and pizzaz than most of the Hollywood blockbusters to be released this summer, Speer and Maldonado execute a few truly memorable sequences; most notably a jaw dropping scene set in a luxurious office building. The film has visual flair to spare, which is why it's a disappointment just how mundane and clichéd the storyline is. Future plot points and be seen coming from miles away, and the generally mediocre acting doesn't help a bit. However, the hyperkinetic dance routines are enough to recommend the film, even with some caution.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Grade: C+</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There seems to be a recurring theme of immediately predictable conclusions in this month's set of 30 Second Reviews, but no film fares worse as result of this than Academy Award nominated director Bruce Beresford's inexcusably dull, pseudo Hallmark movie-of-the-week. Playing off every one note stoner/hippie stereotype in the book, Joseph Musznski and Christina Menger's literally groan inducing script utilizes every possible convention or cliché regularly abused in this type of film, to the point where the lazy screenwriting rubs off onto the viewer; turning them into a dreary mess of the person they were before watching the film. Even lazier are the casting choices, with each actor essentially playing blander versions of their previous characters. It's a hopelessly boring flick with little redeeming value; 96 minutes you'll never get back.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Grade: D+</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To Rome With Love</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Benefiting from the beautifully captured cinematography of its namesake city, generally excellent acting, and frequent bursts of absolute hilarity, Woody Allen's latest on this European adventure, while not nearly as ambitious as his journey to Paris, is still an all around entertaining ensemble romantic comedy. As four, and at one point five, separated stories play out around the city of love, we get the talents of Jessie Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Allison Pill, and the triumphant return of the long seemingly forgotten Italian actor Roberto Benigni, all acting at the top of their game. While some stories may not work as well as others (while Benigni gives the script his all, the premise of his vignette eventually wears thin), the end result is a memorable European pitstop in a master's long career.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Grade: B</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6353769161260373303.post-41099933231301575772012-08-23T15:40:00.000-04:002012-11-02T17:48:50.865-04:00360 (B-)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">More of a visualized connect-the-dots puzzle than a conventional linear feature film, director Fernando Meirelles (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">City of God</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) and writer Peter Morgan's (</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Last King of Scotland</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) globe trotting drama examines the consequences and repercussions love has on our personal lives, and in ways we'd never expect in the lives of others. Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Foster are part of a wide ranging eclectic cast, with each character vaguely connected to the other in a series of vignettes of how one person's love in one story influences another character's life in the next. As the film progresses, and we move from short story to short story, Meirelles and Morgan eventually bring the narrative full circle; tying the later players back to those featured in the beginning. It's a risky endeavor to compose any feature as ambitious as this, but most involved seem up for the challenge. However, being willing to fully commit to such a possibly burdensome project, and the ability to execute it with success is a different ballpark all together.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Despite its grandiose aspirations, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">360 </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ends up being a somewhat pretentious mess, but a mess with an occasional spark of absolute genius. The dramatic sketches only last around five or six minutes apiece, so there's almost no time for character development. In large part, the scene lives or dies based off the actor's ability to set up their portrayal in the short amount of time provided. While actors such as Anthony Hopkins and Ben Foster, as an older British man going to Phoenix to check a morgue for his long since disappeared daughter, and a reformed sex offender respectively, are able to quickly establish their character with ease, the majority of the cast is less fortunate. Especially during the first half, there's nothing necessarily on display other than mundane melodrama played out by a seemingly bored Jude Law and Rachel Weisz, both seemingly phoning it in on a project that needs excellent acting to keep the audience interested. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At around the halfway point, for around 20 minutes Meirelles and Morgan's dull fiasco catapults into the high stakes, powerful romantic drama promised by the premise. Starting with a charming plane conversation between Hopkins and newcomer Maria Flor, ending with a beautifully written monologue in a AA meeting in Phoenix stunningly delivered by Hopkins, with a tense, masterfully shot encounter between Flor and Foster in an airport hotel room in the middle, it's a stroke of genius in an otherwise ambitious failure. It shows, given the strength of the actors, what the project could've been in a perfect world. Unless 2012 ends on a abnormally fantastic note, Hopkins and Foster are now two of my leading candidates for best supporting performances of the year.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While, in general, it's a disappointment considering the talent involved, and the project's ambition, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">360</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">'s all too brief spurt of genius is able to redeem the majority of flaws. It's definitely mess, but there's at least enough good to recommend it, if only for its suburb middle section.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Grade: B-</span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13697153242855707890noreply@blogger.com2