Jesus' Son (R) - Review
"WWDJD?"
The early 1970s American drug scene comes into fuzzy focus through FH and Michelle, a couple of love struck hop-heads skip through a fragmented narrative full of beauty and tragedy, until the inevitable rock is bottomed and the bottom of the barrel scraped. An early Billy Crudup plays lovable loser FH, who along with a stellar cast (including the likes of Jack Black, Dennis Leary, Dennis Hopper and Holly Hunter) they reel along the scuzzy streets arm in arm, tripping through surreal misadventures wearing thick beer goggles in dewy heroin-soaked sunrises.
Alison Maclean's direction of Denis Johnson's short story generates a film that is alive with humor and sorrow, lowering us to black out depths and back up to the highs of sobriety. FH's voice is prevalent throughout, struggling through the disjointed narrative as it jumps from thought to thought like a burned out synapse in Tim Leary's nervous system. The Love (inside the film and out) is palpable, complex and all too human.
9 Sacred Hearts out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Showing posts with label 1999. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1999. Show all posts
Fight Club (1999)
Fight Club (R) - Review
"I am Jack's grinning pleasure center"
Chuck Palahniuk's anarchistic realworld prose, David Fincher's exacting hand on the aesthetics, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton's mutually bipolar appeal and a revolutionary male-centric message filmed using still state of the art visual effects, story telling, electronic music and dynamite sound effects, Fight Club is THE penultimate movie to define the 90s (and subsequent decades') corporate culture, consumerism and politically correct male-bashing (literally)! It documents the breaking point of the American Male's psyche, an image so warped by its own repressed masculinity that's so crammed into pinching DKNY dress shoes 40 hours a week that anarchy might be a viable option.
Everyman Jack (Norton) has a boring job that allows him to travel, shops the Ikea catalogue while on the can, has no personal relationships beyond those with his boss and couch, and can't sleep. Jack has insomnia, which he seeks to cure by attending support groups in church basements, a tourist in cancer-town. His new found serenity is broken when Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) shows up and muscles in on his scene. When his condo is detonated while away, Jack calls newfound single serving friend Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) for a ride and ends up staying with him in a dilapidated house indefinitely. They forge a friendship (and an underground homoerotic-tinged boxing club) that soon blossoms into a antisocial cult that spirals out Jack's control, as does his love triangle with Tyler and Marla, and his own self identity.
David Fincher's anti-movie is the perfect translation of Chuck's book; like the chiseled bodies of its stars the story has been trimmed of all the fat, gone is the cookie dough confusion and fizzled twist reveal of the novel. Cut down to effective fighting weight, Fight Club rages off the screen with bloody knuckled repartee intact. Norton and Pitt's bromance is used to great effect, obfuscating a heavily anti-corporate message (heavily accented by a young post-advertising career Fincher) that even Jack blanches at in the end. Special effects used effectively to progress a mood or joke or style (unlike 1999s previously released sfx laden letdown Star Wars Episode I, ironically where Fight Club first advertised to the masses) and electronic soundscape of the Dust Brothers banging the surround stereo track, Club is a 15 course banquet dinner (without the soiled clam chowder).
10 Gallons of Nitro Glycerine out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"I am Jack's grinning pleasure center"
Chuck Palahniuk's anarchistic realworld prose, David Fincher's exacting hand on the aesthetics, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton's mutually bipolar appeal and a revolutionary male-centric message filmed using still state of the art visual effects, story telling, electronic music and dynamite sound effects, Fight Club is THE penultimate movie to define the 90s (and subsequent decades') corporate culture, consumerism and politically correct male-bashing (literally)! It documents the breaking point of the American Male's psyche, an image so warped by its own repressed masculinity that's so crammed into pinching DKNY dress shoes 40 hours a week that anarchy might be a viable option.
Everyman Jack (Norton) has a boring job that allows him to travel, shops the Ikea catalogue while on the can, has no personal relationships beyond those with his boss and couch, and can't sleep. Jack has insomnia, which he seeks to cure by attending support groups in church basements, a tourist in cancer-town. His new found serenity is broken when Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) shows up and muscles in on his scene. When his condo is detonated while away, Jack calls newfound single serving friend Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) for a ride and ends up staying with him in a dilapidated house indefinitely. They forge a friendship (and an underground homoerotic-tinged boxing club) that soon blossoms into a antisocial cult that spirals out Jack's control, as does his love triangle with Tyler and Marla, and his own self identity.
David Fincher's anti-movie is the perfect translation of Chuck's book; like the chiseled bodies of its stars the story has been trimmed of all the fat, gone is the cookie dough confusion and fizzled twist reveal of the novel. Cut down to effective fighting weight, Fight Club rages off the screen with bloody knuckled repartee intact. Norton and Pitt's bromance is used to great effect, obfuscating a heavily anti-corporate message (heavily accented by a young post-advertising career Fincher) that even Jack blanches at in the end. Special effects used effectively to progress a mood or joke or style (unlike 1999s previously released sfx laden letdown Star Wars Episode I, ironically where Fight Club first advertised to the masses) and electronic soundscape of the Dust Brothers banging the surround stereo track, Club is a 15 course banquet dinner (without the soiled clam chowder).
10 Gallons of Nitro Glycerine out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
The 13th Warrior (1999)
The 13th Warrior (R)
"PEU-Wulf"
A grim retelling of Beowulf by the director of Die Hard, what could go wrong? Welllll...
Based on Micheal.Crichton's book "Eaters of the Dead," the tale of a Musilm stranger in Nordic lands that are besieged by a horrific race of monsters has some meat to it. John McTeirnan does an admirable job with the acting but due to negative audience test screenings the film was taken away and a new ending shot by Crichton himself and blandly retitled and released a year later. The result is a movie without a clear sense of direction made from a book that did. Is it a "realistic" take on Beowulf or is it a Hollywood blockbuster star maker? Considering the size of the box office loss (especially considering all those expensive re-shoots and edits and an entire new composer and score to try and twist the interest for a more Americanized taste), it set back the careers of all involved. There are some cult fans screaming for the original director's cut to arise from Disney's vaults, but the reality is that the action is muddled, the message is unclear, and despite some good scenes and ideas you just can't fight those monstrous suits pulling the strings behind the scenes.
3 Vikings who apparently use Clorox on their Whites out of 10 (BAD)
"PEU-Wulf"
A grim retelling of Beowulf by the director of Die Hard, what could go wrong? Welllll...
Based on Micheal.Crichton's book "Eaters of the Dead," the tale of a Musilm stranger in Nordic lands that are besieged by a horrific race of monsters has some meat to it. John McTeirnan does an admirable job with the acting but due to negative audience test screenings the film was taken away and a new ending shot by Crichton himself and blandly retitled and released a year later. The result is a movie without a clear sense of direction made from a book that did. Is it a "realistic" take on Beowulf or is it a Hollywood blockbuster star maker? Considering the size of the box office loss (especially considering all those expensive re-shoots and edits and an entire new composer and score to try and twist the interest for a more Americanized taste), it set back the careers of all involved. There are some cult fans screaming for the original director's cut to arise from Disney's vaults, but the reality is that the action is muddled, the message is unclear, and despite some good scenes and ideas you just can't fight those monstrous suits pulling the strings behind the scenes.
3 Vikings who apparently use Clorox on their Whites out of 10 (BAD)
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About Me
- Kevin Gasaway via HardDrawn
- Turlock, California, United States
- Media and Reviews by Kevin Gasaway