Kubo and the Two Strings (PG)
Often there are complaints that nothing original is being made in Hollywood. That animation is only used to cater to children in America and not adults, and that the craft and artistry must now be rendered in a computer to be relevant.
Kubo and the Two Strings proves all this wrong, and yet it's looming financial failure may prove them right.
Produced by stop-motion animation film studio Laika (Paranorman, The Box Trolls, Coraline) and first time director Travis Knight, Kubo tells a Japanese-like folk story of a young man who is being hunted by his own grandfather, and how only the spirits of his parents are able to protect him. Filled with stunning stop motion photography, top tier character studies (their faces alone achieve a humanity and expression range rarely seen in animation), fluid motion and action scenes to compare with most of Hollywood. This is not kids fare, in fact this show is aimed squarely at their parents, and some of the themes (death, memories of the departed, family in-fighting) might be a bit much for younger viewers. One could compare it favorably to Studio Ghibli breakout Princess Mononoke, at least in audacity and not talking down to it's audience. And yet unlike Mononoke, Kubo has to fit in that PG box (unlike it's brethren raunchy tube meet competition, Sausage Party (R) just a few weeks earlier) because that is what is assumed.
A talking monkey, a stag beetle samurai, a boat made out of leaves, a Giant skeleton with swords for hair, these are but a few of the inventive and wonderful adventures leading up to Kubo's confrontation with his grandfather. Not since Lord of the Rings was adapted has magic been depicted as real and not just some science trick of the silver screen. In Kubo the magic is story telling, folding ordinary paper into living origami, wearing your fathers armor and solving a puzzle. It is a burst of something new among the same old reboots and retellings, and on top of that it is about something that has been missing in our lives, about memories of loved ones and courage and music and art. It is pure fantasy without the science fiction.
However, there is a bit of a reservation surrounding the whole project. If it wasn't drawn by the hand of Hokusai, it is an imitation Hokusai, no matter how good it looks. Laika's last outing, The Boxtrolls, tried to be as British as possible for an American studio. The same goes here, what with George Takei lending a "OH MY" and various other Japanese voices. This appears to be a trend with them, and is a bit of a knock. Instead of adapting an existing Japanese folk tale, they have written their own and crammed as much Nippon-ish as their writers knew how, and therefore comes across as a little fake. Matthew McConaughey is great as the beetle warrior, his southern drawl has been repressed and represents alot of humor to the film. However he is an American actor, likewise Charlize Theron who plays the mother is a great dramatic credit to the film but is also not Japanese, even as she plays one. Perhaps an alternate fantasy setting would have been more appropriate, there are no cries about cultural appropriation from the elves.
These social shivers aside, just as entertainment Kubo is fantastic, filled to the brim with ideas, art, music and craftsmanship steeped in action fantasy, and deserves far greater than it will receive (a nomination at least!). However, for Kubo and for us, the memories may prove stronger than it ills. One hopes it will reach an ever larger audience in it's life, as those of us who seek out the hidden treasures of the world discover and share it.
9 Bowls of Whale Soup out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Showing posts with label OUTSTANDING. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OUTSTANDING. Show all posts
Anomalisa (2015)
Anomalisa (R)
"He who would pun would pick a pocket"
A married foreign-born writer on a speaking tour of the US for his new book finds himself falling in love with a complete stranger who's main appeal is that she sounds like no one else. Her name is Lisa and she is an anomaly, and they also happen to be stop-motion puppets in director Charlie Kaufman's adaptation of his own three person play, Anomolisa.
Kaufman's work often comes down to the nerve wracking realities of relationships. With Anomalisa, taking it from the starkness of a play to a film, Kaufman chose (brilliantly) to use stop-motion animation which is counter-intuitive medium for a film about adult situations. Meanwhile character actor David Thewlis (The Big Lebowski) brings Micheal's desperation for love to poignant life, he fills the role with pudgy exasperation. His counter part Lisa meanwhile is played against type by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and she is a bubbling self depreciating mess with a heart of gold.
Our time in Anomalisa is short, and at first we are bewildered, then scandalized, then reproachful, perhaps even a bit traumatized. By the film's end all the cards are laid onto the table and our own personal judgments are set, but much like tarot what we see in those cards is entirely subjective. And for these all too real relationships and bad choices and desperate people, to be just puppets on film with their dialog dubbed is itself a spectacular statement on our lives, and justifies the lengths the filmmaker's went to make it this way. Anomalisa is as real a statement on our romantic entanglements as any film made in decades. It is equal parts frenetic passion and loathing nightmare, perfectly embodied by these complex dolls who live a life filmed at a just few frames an day under their masters hand. The high artistry of the animation, it's complexity and characterized-humanity, mirror perfectly the script's ability to autopsy these characters to their earthen cores. Don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking and feeling about this film for years to come. Do be surprised if you feel your face shift just so.
9 Fregoli References out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"He who would pun would pick a pocket"
A married foreign-born writer on a speaking tour of the US for his new book finds himself falling in love with a complete stranger who's main appeal is that she sounds like no one else. Her name is Lisa and she is an anomaly, and they also happen to be stop-motion puppets in director Charlie Kaufman's adaptation of his own three person play, Anomolisa.
Kaufman's work often comes down to the nerve wracking realities of relationships. With Anomalisa, taking it from the starkness of a play to a film, Kaufman chose (brilliantly) to use stop-motion animation which is counter-intuitive medium for a film about adult situations. Meanwhile character actor David Thewlis (The Big Lebowski) brings Micheal's desperation for love to poignant life, he fills the role with pudgy exasperation. His counter part Lisa meanwhile is played against type by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and she is a bubbling self depreciating mess with a heart of gold.
Our time in Anomalisa is short, and at first we are bewildered, then scandalized, then reproachful, perhaps even a bit traumatized. By the film's end all the cards are laid onto the table and our own personal judgments are set, but much like tarot what we see in those cards is entirely subjective. And for these all too real relationships and bad choices and desperate people, to be just puppets on film with their dialog dubbed is itself a spectacular statement on our lives, and justifies the lengths the filmmaker's went to make it this way. Anomalisa is as real a statement on our romantic entanglements as any film made in decades. It is equal parts frenetic passion and loathing nightmare, perfectly embodied by these complex dolls who live a life filmed at a just few frames an day under their masters hand. The high artistry of the animation, it's complexity and characterized-humanity, mirror perfectly the script's ability to autopsy these characters to their earthen cores. Don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking and feeling about this film for years to come. Do be surprised if you feel your face shift just so.
9 Fregoli References out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Birdman (2014)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (R)
"What are we doing here? This place smells like balls..."
An actor famous for a Superhero film-series he abandoned decades ago is attempting to reclaim his artistry by staging a Broadway play he writes, directs and stars in. When the inevitable financial/personal/critical/midlife/familial crises hit(s), will his gravely blockbuster past help or hinder his efforts at an artistic reawakening? Or will the wings of fame and infamy be a drag on his endeavors (and mental stability) as he navigates a reality filled with unfulfillment and social-media, in director Alejandro Gonzalles Iñárritu's (Babel) dazzling masterpiece of technical skill and artistic identity.
Michael Keaton plays former Birdman star Riggan Thomson, a role both written for him and could-only-star him. The entire film is a mise en scène of Art-Reflecting-Life, as Keaton gets the role of a lifetime just as his character strives for the same on stage (on screen). Keaton is fantastic, reminding us just how funny and energetically charismatic he can be, even as he chews the scenery with new found beak of savagery. The voice of Batman, er, Birdman, echoes through Riggan's life as he tries to spread his wings and regain his self-worth. The other characters surrounding him fit naturally, sometimes dominating other times merely complimenting his story. His daughter just out of rehab is Emma Stone, his glory-hogging co-star is played by a very naked Ed Norton, his best friend and over-fawning producer Zack Galifnackis, his exwife, his current lover, his critic, his adoring fans, his stage hands, they form a wonderful small world on Broadway in the big world of New York that they live and breathe in.
Meanwhile, the camera and soundtrack cannot be ignored as the windowless entry into this world. The lens itself is very subjective, the film is mostly strung-out to appear as one long continuous shot. While this isn't a new idea, the amount of digital compositing and the amount of movement involved is to tremendous effect. As the camera swoops around, through and in the space with the actors as their long takes roll on, it builds a visual pattern that you fall in love with immediately,even as they break it to great effect. Unlike the film cameras used in Orson Welle's day as in Touch Of Evil's historic opening long take, digital can run on longer than the 8 minutes or so a reel of physical film does. And while it might be a tiny bit distracting looking for those long-intervaled seams (and they do exist), the technical know-how and skill to pull it off is astonishing and drives the play-like quality of the film. As is the jazzy beatnick score; it has been a long time since a musical soundtrack both complimented dialogue and driven emotional impact of scenes this flawlessly. Switching between a bebop staccato drum beat and pieces of classical loveliness, the sounds intertwine with the floating camera to create a hiphop-hypnotic effect that Birdman will long be famous for.
The entire film is showpiece after showpiece. While showcasing dynamic acting with heart-felt performances from all the principles actors on stage and onscreen, it is simultaneously showcasing camera technique and CG integration to an ungodly level, directed with sincerity and obtaining greatness. Technology complimenting art, Art imitating life, This is Life on the wing of Birdman,
9.5 Curtain Calls out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"What are we doing here? This place smells like balls..."
An actor famous for a Superhero film-series he abandoned decades ago is attempting to reclaim his artistry by staging a Broadway play he writes, directs and stars in. When the inevitable financial/personal/critical/midlife/familial crises hit(s), will his gravely blockbuster past help or hinder his efforts at an artistic reawakening? Or will the wings of fame and infamy be a drag on his endeavors (and mental stability) as he navigates a reality filled with unfulfillment and social-media, in director Alejandro Gonzalles Iñárritu's (Babel) dazzling masterpiece of technical skill and artistic identity.
Michael Keaton plays former Birdman star Riggan Thomson, a role both written for him and could-only-star him. The entire film is a mise en scène of Art-Reflecting-Life, as Keaton gets the role of a lifetime just as his character strives for the same on stage (on screen). Keaton is fantastic, reminding us just how funny and energetically charismatic he can be, even as he chews the scenery with new found beak of savagery. The voice of Batman, er, Birdman, echoes through Riggan's life as he tries to spread his wings and regain his self-worth. The other characters surrounding him fit naturally, sometimes dominating other times merely complimenting his story. His daughter just out of rehab is Emma Stone, his glory-hogging co-star is played by a very naked Ed Norton, his best friend and over-fawning producer Zack Galifnackis, his exwife, his current lover, his critic, his adoring fans, his stage hands, they form a wonderful small world on Broadway in the big world of New York that they live and breathe in.
Meanwhile, the camera and soundtrack cannot be ignored as the windowless entry into this world. The lens itself is very subjective, the film is mostly strung-out to appear as one long continuous shot. While this isn't a new idea, the amount of digital compositing and the amount of movement involved is to tremendous effect. As the camera swoops around, through and in the space with the actors as their long takes roll on, it builds a visual pattern that you fall in love with immediately,even as they break it to great effect. Unlike the film cameras used in Orson Welle's day as in Touch Of Evil's historic opening long take, digital can run on longer than the 8 minutes or so a reel of physical film does. And while it might be a tiny bit distracting looking for those long-intervaled seams (and they do exist), the technical know-how and skill to pull it off is astonishing and drives the play-like quality of the film. As is the jazzy beatnick score; it has been a long time since a musical soundtrack both complimented dialogue and driven emotional impact of scenes this flawlessly. Switching between a bebop staccato drum beat and pieces of classical loveliness, the sounds intertwine with the floating camera to create a hiphop-hypnotic effect that Birdman will long be famous for.
The entire film is showpiece after showpiece. While showcasing dynamic acting with heart-felt performances from all the principles actors on stage and onscreen, it is simultaneously showcasing camera technique and CG integration to an ungodly level, directed with sincerity and obtaining greatness. Technology complimenting art, Art imitating life, This is Life on the wing of Birdman,
9.5 Curtain Calls out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
The Raid 2 (2014)
The Raid 2 (R) - Review
"Kung Fu Napoleon Complex X100"
When the film The Raid: Redemption hit US shores in 2011, many felt that Hollywood would have to "sit up and take notice", for here was a director, here was a star, here was a movie that finally showed the industry what people want in an action movie. Just pure, non-stop bloody-white-knuckle action. Now, 3 years later and the industry certainly hadn't noticed (they still believe in the older mummified action stars will lead the way back to genre gold), so here comes Welsh Director Gareth Evans and his stunt/fighting troupe of Malaysian daredevil martial artists to again put the record straight. Evans and Co. even provide an overly complex script along with a more refined cinematic technique and beautifully boiled down fighting aesthetic to make up for the first film's short comings (and subsequent critical backlashes).
Rookie Supercop Rama just survived The Raid, and now is immediately drawn into a world of higher stakes and bigger criminals. He goes deep undercover to a local prison to infiltrate the organization that had corrupted his brother and climb the ladder to the bigger bosses. There he will rise from street level crime to find a rich corruption and thick grey area between law and justice and enough opponents and plot points to fill three Hollywood blockbusters, without the phony wire work that mars so many Asian epics.
The Raid 2 is first and foremost a sequel done correctly (according to Evans this was the movie he would have made first if the budget could have been scraped together). It has elements and ideas taken from the first, expanded and improved. It just doesn't do the same things over yet BIGGER, add more explosions and call it a day. No, the fights here are less numerous (a testament to the first's enormous amount of combat not this one's lack), and yet more significant due to the precise build up. In fact the first half hour is almost entirely a buildup of tension without release, and when it starts to finally let off steam it does so carefully. They add in a spectacular car chase, subplots galore and new villains that aren't just paper-thin caricatures waiting to get kick-punched.
Some of it may be a bit excessive (the squeamish for one will choke on their popcorn at the amount of realistic ultraviolence and gore). Hollywood producers would have likely cut out the entire subplot of the Hobo Assassin for he plays almost no part in the main characters lives (and is basically a footnote to the overall plot). Therein lies the problem with films now, the Hobo is introduced suddenly and without explanation as an incredibly dangerous and efficient killer, then has a long dinner scene with his estranged wife where they discuss their son, and just as suddenly is used as a pawn to ignite the gangs to war. It makes little sense conventionally and that dinner scene almost feels like it belongs in a different film, and yet this is what Hollywood should be paying attention to. The Hobo (played by Yayan Ruhian) is director Evan's fight coordinator for both films, and the dangerous look in his eye pairs with the sadness on his face solidifies the ennui of the entire film: most of us are the pawns who are pushed and sacrificed around the board as the Kings sit back and gloat. This small, fragile part of a rock-hard action movie structure is indicative of the intelligence behind Raid 2 and spotlights the leaps and bounds it has made beyond the first entry, succeeding in showing up everything Hollywood has done in the past 10 years. As our hero Rama battles foe after foe, goes through revelations and meets various martial arts archetypes and plot twists while giving up his young family in the name of justice, the fights get better and better and more frequent and more poignant with each knuckle crack. Add to that a superb cinematic scope with slick photography, fight choreography that never feels rushed or unpolished (which was a problem in the first Raid), and you have a genuine Martial Arts Masterpiece starring a troupe of sincere Malaysian men with huge amounts of talents and guts all pulled together by a Welsh action fan.
The Raid 2 is a brutal truth, for it delivers quality AND quantity, and it's going to make it awful hard to sit through the average pap coming out at the corner Cineplex.
9 Aluminum Baseball Bats vs Hammers out of 10 (OUTSTANDING).
"Kung Fu Napoleon Complex X100"
When the film The Raid: Redemption hit US shores in 2011, many felt that Hollywood would have to "sit up and take notice", for here was a director, here was a star, here was a movie that finally showed the industry what people want in an action movie. Just pure, non-stop bloody-white-knuckle action. Now, 3 years later and the industry certainly hadn't noticed (they still believe in the older mummified action stars will lead the way back to genre gold), so here comes Welsh Director Gareth Evans and his stunt/fighting troupe of Malaysian daredevil martial artists to again put the record straight. Evans and Co. even provide an overly complex script along with a more refined cinematic technique and beautifully boiled down fighting aesthetic to make up for the first film's short comings (and subsequent critical backlashes).
Rookie Supercop Rama just survived The Raid, and now is immediately drawn into a world of higher stakes and bigger criminals. He goes deep undercover to a local prison to infiltrate the organization that had corrupted his brother and climb the ladder to the bigger bosses. There he will rise from street level crime to find a rich corruption and thick grey area between law and justice and enough opponents and plot points to fill three Hollywood blockbusters, without the phony wire work that mars so many Asian epics.
The Raid 2 is first and foremost a sequel done correctly (according to Evans this was the movie he would have made first if the budget could have been scraped together). It has elements and ideas taken from the first, expanded and improved. It just doesn't do the same things over yet BIGGER, add more explosions and call it a day. No, the fights here are less numerous (a testament to the first's enormous amount of combat not this one's lack), and yet more significant due to the precise build up. In fact the first half hour is almost entirely a buildup of tension without release, and when it starts to finally let off steam it does so carefully. They add in a spectacular car chase, subplots galore and new villains that aren't just paper-thin caricatures waiting to get kick-punched.
Some of it may be a bit excessive (the squeamish for one will choke on their popcorn at the amount of realistic ultraviolence and gore). Hollywood producers would have likely cut out the entire subplot of the Hobo Assassin for he plays almost no part in the main characters lives (and is basically a footnote to the overall plot). Therein lies the problem with films now, the Hobo is introduced suddenly and without explanation as an incredibly dangerous and efficient killer, then has a long dinner scene with his estranged wife where they discuss their son, and just as suddenly is used as a pawn to ignite the gangs to war. It makes little sense conventionally and that dinner scene almost feels like it belongs in a different film, and yet this is what Hollywood should be paying attention to. The Hobo (played by Yayan Ruhian) is director Evan's fight coordinator for both films, and the dangerous look in his eye pairs with the sadness on his face solidifies the ennui of the entire film: most of us are the pawns who are pushed and sacrificed around the board as the Kings sit back and gloat. This small, fragile part of a rock-hard action movie structure is indicative of the intelligence behind Raid 2 and spotlights the leaps and bounds it has made beyond the first entry, succeeding in showing up everything Hollywood has done in the past 10 years. As our hero Rama battles foe after foe, goes through revelations and meets various martial arts archetypes and plot twists while giving up his young family in the name of justice, the fights get better and better and more frequent and more poignant with each knuckle crack. Add to that a superb cinematic scope with slick photography, fight choreography that never feels rushed or unpolished (which was a problem in the first Raid), and you have a genuine Martial Arts Masterpiece starring a troupe of sincere Malaysian men with huge amounts of talents and guts all pulled together by a Welsh action fan.
The Raid 2 is a brutal truth, for it delivers quality AND quantity, and it's going to make it awful hard to sit through the average pap coming out at the corner Cineplex.
9 Aluminum Baseball Bats vs Hammers out of 10 (OUTSTANDING).
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street (R) - Review
"Through the Eye of the Needle"
The Wolf is the life and times of stock maven Jordan Belfort, a tale of capricious sex, scandalous excess, and constant drug abuse. Belfort reigned during the Wall Street years of the early 90s, forming a cadre of loyal sales men and nere'do'wells willing to screw anything to make a dollar, all they need is a pennicillin shot every couple of weeks to keep them going. WOWS is another collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan and helmed by the cinematic genius of the one and only Martin Scorsese.
The raging parties in WOWS would make Caligula blush, and the coke-fueled pace runs full tilt for most of its 3 hour run time. Leo's Jordan is much more believable than his Gatsby, he uses his money to buy power, friends and women with a kind of fun-loving innocence that is hard to fault. This is the frenetic fun last third of Goodfellas played out over hour upon hour, never letting up and never showing a wink to the audience. This is where Wolf may confuse some audiences yet is simply brilliant, for it never need apologize, money is its own excuse. Jordan NEVER believes he has done anything wrong, never buys into the system of right and wrong on the stock market. He is surrounded by laughing frat boys of his own employ, most conspicuous of the lot is Jonah Hill's grinning Donny, a best friend with a penchant for trouble making and pill popping. The movie also never fully delves into the scams and legality of his firm, Jordan assures us into the camera that this is all boring chit chat better left unsaid, he'd rather concentrate on the amounts of money he is making because of it. Hooked on 'ludes and cocaine, on the rush of the selling floor and the weekly morale parties he lavishly throws, once Jordan hears he is being investigated by the FBI he can't help but foolishly stick his powdered nose right in, leading to an eventual downfall that plays our more like the last angriest hours of a farewell party, the wildest and most dangerous ones.
Don't think Leo and Jonah do it alone, this is an amazingly talented ensemble cast too long to list but each one contributing some essential joke or sentiment that is a construction of huge structurally cinematic magnificence that will be longtime editor Thelma Schoolmaker's masterpiece. There is no flotsam or unneeded exposition, it's lengthy runtime is somehow needed and exactly scalped. Scene after scene of beauty/power/emotion zip by at a roaring Lamborghini's pace, so much so that it's easy to overlook the scope and skill of the camera work and editing, but do not blink or you'll miss more than just enough skin to make Hugh Hefner blanch. The lack of downtime is astonishing, the amount of planning and energy to pull it off astounding, all accomplished by our elder film masters makes it simply incredible. The hilarious frathouse humor is onpar with the best modern comedies and needs to be since it constitutes the majority of the dialogue. Once things get hairy and wives get as pissed as the Fed, only then does some self control become needed but cannot be attained. Living in a world of money begging to be taken and coke holidays in Venice, how can one down shift back to NA Beer and vacations to Disney World? Jordan and his crew cannot back down, they are as hooked on the cash as they are the pills and hookers. Unfortunately for us Americans, unlike the world of mafia and blue collar crime that Marty usually inhabits, this world of white collar crime certainly does pay and in spades without all the ice picks and hallow points and lengthy jail sentences.
The true genius of Scorsese and Co.'s Wolf of Wall Street is that the criminality of it all is only a few shades from grey. This is an indictment, pure and simple, of a financial system that allows 90% of what is occurring as legal, of money conjured from nowhere in IPOs and stacks of pennies that fall between the cracks in huge multinational transactions. It hints the bubbles that burst, the banks that fail, the men that get rich and the families ruined, it shows it all without actually showing it, focusing instead on those grinning bastards that are on the other side of the phone sell sell selling, all through the energetic rose colored lens and unyeilding optimism of one of the market's greatest champions, Jordan Belfort DWI extraordinaire. The final shot holds that coke flaked mirror up to us, the audience, a multi-ethnic majority watching from our conference room chairs... observing and accepting the way things are instead of asking why it has to be this way, wishing instead on the magic numbers and looking for our own slice of the pie.
9 Leo's Backside Candles out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Through the Eye of the Needle"
The Wolf is the life and times of stock maven Jordan Belfort, a tale of capricious sex, scandalous excess, and constant drug abuse. Belfort reigned during the Wall Street years of the early 90s, forming a cadre of loyal sales men and nere'do'wells willing to screw anything to make a dollar, all they need is a pennicillin shot every couple of weeks to keep them going. WOWS is another collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan and helmed by the cinematic genius of the one and only Martin Scorsese.
The raging parties in WOWS would make Caligula blush, and the coke-fueled pace runs full tilt for most of its 3 hour run time. Leo's Jordan is much more believable than his Gatsby, he uses his money to buy power, friends and women with a kind of fun-loving innocence that is hard to fault. This is the frenetic fun last third of Goodfellas played out over hour upon hour, never letting up and never showing a wink to the audience. This is where Wolf may confuse some audiences yet is simply brilliant, for it never need apologize, money is its own excuse. Jordan NEVER believes he has done anything wrong, never buys into the system of right and wrong on the stock market. He is surrounded by laughing frat boys of his own employ, most conspicuous of the lot is Jonah Hill's grinning Donny, a best friend with a penchant for trouble making and pill popping. The movie also never fully delves into the scams and legality of his firm, Jordan assures us into the camera that this is all boring chit chat better left unsaid, he'd rather concentrate on the amounts of money he is making because of it. Hooked on 'ludes and cocaine, on the rush of the selling floor and the weekly morale parties he lavishly throws, once Jordan hears he is being investigated by the FBI he can't help but foolishly stick his powdered nose right in, leading to an eventual downfall that plays our more like the last angriest hours of a farewell party, the wildest and most dangerous ones.
Don't think Leo and Jonah do it alone, this is an amazingly talented ensemble cast too long to list but each one contributing some essential joke or sentiment that is a construction of huge structurally cinematic magnificence that will be longtime editor Thelma Schoolmaker's masterpiece. There is no flotsam or unneeded exposition, it's lengthy runtime is somehow needed and exactly scalped. Scene after scene of beauty/power/emotion zip by at a roaring Lamborghini's pace, so much so that it's easy to overlook the scope and skill of the camera work and editing, but do not blink or you'll miss more than just enough skin to make Hugh Hefner blanch. The lack of downtime is astonishing, the amount of planning and energy to pull it off astounding, all accomplished by our elder film masters makes it simply incredible. The hilarious frathouse humor is onpar with the best modern comedies and needs to be since it constitutes the majority of the dialogue. Once things get hairy and wives get as pissed as the Fed, only then does some self control become needed but cannot be attained. Living in a world of money begging to be taken and coke holidays in Venice, how can one down shift back to NA Beer and vacations to Disney World? Jordan and his crew cannot back down, they are as hooked on the cash as they are the pills and hookers. Unfortunately for us Americans, unlike the world of mafia and blue collar crime that Marty usually inhabits, this world of white collar crime certainly does pay and in spades without all the ice picks and hallow points and lengthy jail sentences.
The true genius of Scorsese and Co.'s Wolf of Wall Street is that the criminality of it all is only a few shades from grey. This is an indictment, pure and simple, of a financial system that allows 90% of what is occurring as legal, of money conjured from nowhere in IPOs and stacks of pennies that fall between the cracks in huge multinational transactions. It hints the bubbles that burst, the banks that fail, the men that get rich and the families ruined, it shows it all without actually showing it, focusing instead on those grinning bastards that are on the other side of the phone sell sell selling, all through the energetic rose colored lens and unyeilding optimism of one of the market's greatest champions, Jordan Belfort DWI extraordinaire. The final shot holds that coke flaked mirror up to us, the audience, a multi-ethnic majority watching from our conference room chairs... observing and accepting the way things are instead of asking why it has to be this way, wishing instead on the magic numbers and looking for our own slice of the pie.
9 Leo's Backside Candles out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Inside Llewyn Davis (R)
"Assholes are like Elbows"
A textured look into the lives on the folk-singing scene of 1960's Greenwich village told as only the Coen Brothers can. Llewyn is a talented, unsuccessful singer song writer couch surfing his way through obscurity. He bums rides, beds, cigarettes and spotlights from his fellow New Yorkers, brushing elbows (and greatness) with the likes of Bob Dylan. He is an insufferable fellow, unpleasant and narrowly selfish, a true starving artist who makes those around him also suffer the pangs.
Llewyn Davis is sometimes an over-the-top loathsome person, seemingly rude and uncaring. His lovers despise him and curse his name, those that take him into their homes are rewarded with lost family pets and tirades at the dinner table. Inspired by the autobiography of singer Van Ronk (one of Dylan's inspirations and fellow Village player), the movie is not a recreation but an artistic allegory about the soul of the universal struggling artist. He plays beautifully but without his deceased singing partner no one listens. His record producer is a skinflint with a guilty face, a roadtrip to Chicago to audition for the greats is a gloomy forboding affair, his attempts to quit the musical life are a fruitless endeavor. Llewyn is fated to go unrecognized and unloved, forever trekking through the slush and snow in hole-filled shoes lugging his records and guitar from couch to couch.
Masterfully envisioned and executed by the Coen Brothers (Fargo, No Country), this is one of their perfect films if you have the right ears to hear its dulcet tones. Their most invisibly surreal and foreboding film since Barton Fink (which also includes the great John Goodman, here as the music scene's Jazz conscience come to pass judgement), Llewyn is cloaked in a mantle of self-loathing that is thick with artistic unfulfillment (which only the curmudgeonly Coens can pull off while still being critical and box office darlings). The visuals are their strongest yet most subtle, the film sticks with you. The music is wonderfully rich and period specific, with a full range of Folk covered (from sell out comedy to protest impotency). Seriously cemented in the Coen's underground oeuvre of self depreciation, Llewyn Davis hits some notes sour with a purpose, tweaks the strings of anti-sentimentalism, blows hard and stomps its feet yet performs no encores, all told through the perceptions of a man fated to repeat himself endlessly, chasing the suppers he can sing for.
9 Orange Tabby Cats out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Assholes are like Elbows"
A textured look into the lives on the folk-singing scene of 1960's Greenwich village told as only the Coen Brothers can. Llewyn is a talented, unsuccessful singer song writer couch surfing his way through obscurity. He bums rides, beds, cigarettes and spotlights from his fellow New Yorkers, brushing elbows (and greatness) with the likes of Bob Dylan. He is an insufferable fellow, unpleasant and narrowly selfish, a true starving artist who makes those around him also suffer the pangs.
Llewyn Davis is sometimes an over-the-top loathsome person, seemingly rude and uncaring. His lovers despise him and curse his name, those that take him into their homes are rewarded with lost family pets and tirades at the dinner table. Inspired by the autobiography of singer Van Ronk (one of Dylan's inspirations and fellow Village player), the movie is not a recreation but an artistic allegory about the soul of the universal struggling artist. He plays beautifully but without his deceased singing partner no one listens. His record producer is a skinflint with a guilty face, a roadtrip to Chicago to audition for the greats is a gloomy forboding affair, his attempts to quit the musical life are a fruitless endeavor. Llewyn is fated to go unrecognized and unloved, forever trekking through the slush and snow in hole-filled shoes lugging his records and guitar from couch to couch.
Masterfully envisioned and executed by the Coen Brothers (Fargo, No Country), this is one of their perfect films if you have the right ears to hear its dulcet tones. Their most invisibly surreal and foreboding film since Barton Fink (which also includes the great John Goodman, here as the music scene's Jazz conscience come to pass judgement), Llewyn is cloaked in a mantle of self-loathing that is thick with artistic unfulfillment (which only the curmudgeonly Coens can pull off while still being critical and box office darlings). The visuals are their strongest yet most subtle, the film sticks with you. The music is wonderfully rich and period specific, with a full range of Folk covered (from sell out comedy to protest impotency). Seriously cemented in the Coen's underground oeuvre of self depreciation, Llewyn Davis hits some notes sour with a purpose, tweaks the strings of anti-sentimentalism, blows hard and stomps its feet yet performs no encores, all told through the perceptions of a man fated to repeat himself endlessly, chasing the suppers he can sing for.
9 Orange Tabby Cats out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Moonrise Kingdom (PG-13)
"The Magic Kingdom"
Wes Anderson's quirky little films haven't come a long
way, and thank goodness for that. If you haven't enjoyed his previous
entries (Rushmore, Royal Tennebaums), then perhaps this isn't for you,
but if you have then Moonrise is a joyful nostalgic about being a child
in the 1960s, told around a love story between two kids who feel
socially outcast. Call it Sid & Nancy
Jr.
or Romeo and Juliet for the younger set, except instead of all that
angsty tragedy there is a large helping of whimsy with the blood and
violence and sex all being real but fun-sized. Anderson's motifs this
time around are more focused on younger childhood pursuits; Scouting,
Preteen Fantasy Novels, Parental Divorce, playing Parcheesi and portable
record players on a rainy day. We are led through the story by a
Historical Narrator who is more likely to tell us the barometric
pressure at any given moment than the characters motives and indeed it
is the adults here who really shine. I can't remember the last time I
enjoyed Bruce Willis this much, he plays a slightly sad small town
Police chief with a quiet reserve that is remarkable. Ed Norton's
prissy woodsman Scout Master frets and whimpers orders and Tilda Swinton
nearly rides in on a broom as Social Services, here to take our hero
Sam away to an Orphanage (or worse). Suzy is Sam's new girlfriend, and
together they run off into the woods in the name of love while his
scout mates and her parents (played wonderfully by Bill Murray and the
its-so-great-to-see-her-again Frances Mcdormand) search hi and low on
the island for the wayward youths. Kids will be kids though (mercurial
and their tempers quick), Adults will be adults (depressed and trying to
keep it all under control), so a great many adventures are had in a
1960s that never actually existed, except through the rose tinted
glasses of our memories.
The melange of loving nostalgia,
outdated gadgets and eccentric childhood attitudes that Wes Anderson has
always been obsessed with are used to their greatest effect here, the
mix feels genuine and true and the visuals like some beautiful old Bob
Ross paintings come to life. It is a period piece of youthful
imagination, told as only Wes can; a campfire story lovingly embellished
by an adoring parent around a summer campfire, the embers slowly dying
and the crickets beginning to sing as you lay in your sleeping bag
wondering about what it'd be like to live on the moon.
It's simply one of his best films, and the best I've seen this year.
9.5 Campfire Hot Dogs out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
The melange of loving nostalgia, outdated gadgets and eccentric childhood attitudes that Wes Anderson has always been obsessed with are used to their greatest effect here, the mix feels genuine and true and the visuals like some beautiful old Bob Ross paintings come to life. It is a period piece of youthful imagination, told as only Wes can; a campfire story lovingly embellished by an adoring parent around a summer campfire, the embers slowly dying and the crickets beginning to sing as you lay in your sleeping bag wondering about what it'd be like to live on the moon.
It's simply one of his best films, and the best I've seen this year.
9.5 Campfire Hot Dogs out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
The Artist (2011)
The
Artist (PG-13)
"Title Card Here"
When a movie generates 10 Oscar nominations and most
people haven't heard of it, you have to be a little skeptical. When you
go see it, and its a love story during and about the Golden Age of
filmmaking, and is itself a fantastic piece of cinema with almost no
faults, I have to agree that it is totally worth the acclaim. The
Artist is essentially a silent film, with a fabulous
jazzy musical score and the actors portraying emotions the only way
they can, through body movements and expressions. It works as an homage
to a lost art form, a sliver of history and its own piece of self
contained art, seamlessly being both modern and old fashioned.
Everything just falls into place, and you can watch the movie unroll
without overpaced editing, without glaring special effects, and yet with
a cleverness that you will not expect.. An incredible film, and easily
one of the best this year. I loved every minute of it, technically and
artistically.
10 Canine Companions out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Title Card Here"
When a movie generates 10 Oscar nominations and most people haven't heard of it, you have to be a little skeptical. When you go see it, and its a love story during and about the Golden Age of filmmaking, and is itself a fantastic piece of cinema with almost no faults, I have to agree that it is totally worth the acclaim. The Artist is essentially a silent film, with a fabulous jazzy musical score and the actors portraying emotions the only way they can, through body movements and expressions. It works as an homage to a lost art form, a sliver of history and its own piece of self contained art, seamlessly being both modern and old fashioned. Everything just falls into place, and you can watch the movie unroll without overpaced editing, without glaring special effects, and yet with a cleverness that you will not expect.. An incredible film, and easily one of the best this year. I loved every minute of it, technically and artistically.
Away We Go (2009)
Away We Go (R) Review
"Home is where the heart is"
This amazingly funny and touching movie has to be Sam Mendes' (American Beauty) best to date. A beautiful story about an unmarried couple looking for a home to raise their baby, John Krasinski (The Office (US)) and Maya Rudolph (SNL) jet about the country meeting with friends and family (and the drama that comes with them), reaffirming their modern relationship and their wants and dreams for their future. Gorgeously photographed, humorously written and performed with love, this movie is about growing up, growing old and growing a child without losing who you are and who you can be and where you came from while maintaining a level of humor that rarely works in Hollywood. Us grown up folks can have fun too, even in adult life situations.
9.5 Strollers out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Home is where the heart is"
This amazingly funny and touching movie has to be Sam Mendes' (American Beauty) best to date. A beautiful story about an unmarried couple looking for a home to raise their baby, John Krasinski (The Office (US)) and Maya Rudolph (SNL) jet about the country meeting with friends and family (and the drama that comes with them), reaffirming their modern relationship and their wants and dreams for their future. Gorgeously photographed, humorously written and performed with love, this movie is about growing up, growing old and growing a child without losing who you are and who you can be and where you came from while maintaining a level of humor that rarely works in Hollywood. Us grown up folks can have fun too, even in adult life situations.
9.5 Strollers out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Jesus' Son (1999)
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)
"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)
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)
Shine (1996)
Shine (PG-13)
"Hugs for everyone!"
Australian actor Geoffery Rush (and his butt) made his big breakthrough in this biopic of a fellow Australian and unique virtuoso David Helfgott who, due to a domineering father, rapidly descends into mental illness and obscurity. Many years later he is found playing improvisational music on a piano in a bar, escaped from his sanitarium. Soon he meets his future wife and starts once again to play to larger and larger audiences.
The film would be much degraded without Rush's David, a nonstop chitterchatter and hug machine full of mannerisms who is stumbling through life with a hidden intelligence until the right woman comes along to excavate him and his talent. Rush is magnificent, and Shine is definitely his signature role and includes many of his eccentric hallmarks. Surprisingly much of the run time is spent on the pathos of his youth and relationship with his father, handled by a younger actors who do an admirable job. In a way Shine feels like a cleaner, less disturbing "Bad Boy Bubby," an Australian cult film from a few years prior. However this film is differentiated by its mainstream appeal and heartfelt humanity. It's a shiny ticket to the Geoffery Rush show, front row and center.
9 Coke Bottle Glasses and Cigarettes out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Hugs for everyone!"
Australian actor Geoffery Rush (and his butt) made his big breakthrough in this biopic of a fellow Australian and unique virtuoso David Helfgott who, due to a domineering father, rapidly descends into mental illness and obscurity. Many years later he is found playing improvisational music on a piano in a bar, escaped from his sanitarium. Soon he meets his future wife and starts once again to play to larger and larger audiences.
The film would be much degraded without Rush's David, a nonstop chitterchatter and hug machine full of mannerisms who is stumbling through life with a hidden intelligence until the right woman comes along to excavate him and his talent. Rush is magnificent, and Shine is definitely his signature role and includes many of his eccentric hallmarks. Surprisingly much of the run time is spent on the pathos of his youth and relationship with his father, handled by a younger actors who do an admirable job. In a way Shine feels like a cleaner, less disturbing "Bad Boy Bubby," an Australian cult film from a few years prior. However this film is differentiated by its mainstream appeal and heartfelt humanity. It's a shiny ticket to the Geoffery Rush show, front row and center.
9 Coke Bottle Glasses and Cigarettes out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Miracle Mile (1988)
Miracle Mile (R)
"Forget everything you just heard, and go back to sleep"
A young man suddenly finds the love of his life in the Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits museum. His perfect day turns into nightmarish night as he oversleeps his alarm and misses their first date. It goes from bad to worse (and leaves stereotypical story telling behind) as he answers an incessantly ringing Telephone outside a midnight diner in writer/director Steven De Jamatt's pre-apocalyptic film Miracle Mile.
This is not your usual new romance in danger film. Playing off the decades Atomic annihilation hysteria that gripped the United States since the 50s, Miracle Mile pulls of a miraculous feat of low budget enrapture. The visuals are brightly stunning neon at night, the scripting is highly literate and the acting is wonderful characterization. The leads Anthony Edwards (Top Gun) and Mare Winningham (St. Elmos Fire) have a dynamically palpable chemistry, and their LA late night co-stars are an ensemble casting wetdream of top-tier character actors and soon-to-be stars. The twists and turns of the story follow a twisting dream logic that leads you down nightmarish tunnels while holding your hand with a warm, friendly hopefulness. All the while featuring an under-your-skin soundtrack by Tangerine Dream, Miracle Mile is a film that encapsulates that final fearful decade of the Cold War. The obvious love and attention on a shoestring budget makes the film more than just an admirable yet forgotten cult classic, but instead something to be studied and revered. And where it homages other LA psychedelic jaw droppers like Day of the Locust, it's immense influence on more modern day LA epics like Drive, Magnolia or Crash are unmistakable.
Miracle Mile lives up to its name and reputation with its own optimistic nerdy charm in the face of the utter bleakness of humanities fate.
It is uniquely of the 1980s, by the 1980s, and simply one of the best of the 1980s.
9.5 Goose with a Trombone, Coals into Diamonds out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Forget everything you just heard, and go back to sleep"
A young man suddenly finds the love of his life in the Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits museum. His perfect day turns into nightmarish night as he oversleeps his alarm and misses their first date. It goes from bad to worse (and leaves stereotypical story telling behind) as he answers an incessantly ringing Telephone outside a midnight diner in writer/director Steven De Jamatt's pre-apocalyptic film Miracle Mile.
This is not your usual new romance in danger film. Playing off the decades Atomic annihilation hysteria that gripped the United States since the 50s, Miracle Mile pulls of a miraculous feat of low budget enrapture. The visuals are brightly stunning neon at night, the scripting is highly literate and the acting is wonderful characterization. The leads Anthony Edwards (Top Gun) and Mare Winningham (St. Elmos Fire) have a dynamically palpable chemistry, and their LA late night co-stars are an ensemble casting wetdream of top-tier character actors and soon-to-be stars. The twists and turns of the story follow a twisting dream logic that leads you down nightmarish tunnels while holding your hand with a warm, friendly hopefulness. All the while featuring an under-your-skin soundtrack by Tangerine Dream, Miracle Mile is a film that encapsulates that final fearful decade of the Cold War. The obvious love and attention on a shoestring budget makes the film more than just an admirable yet forgotten cult classic, but instead something to be studied and revered. And where it homages other LA psychedelic jaw droppers like Day of the Locust, it's immense influence on more modern day LA epics like Drive, Magnolia or Crash are unmistakable.
Miracle Mile lives up to its name and reputation with its own optimistic nerdy charm in the face of the utter bleakness of humanities fate.
It is uniquely of the 1980s, by the 1980s, and simply one of the best of the 1980s.
9.5 Goose with a Trombone, Coals into Diamonds out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Empire of the Sun (PG) - Review
"Cadillac of the Skies!"
A spoiled young British lad, grown up in 1940s Shanghai, soon experiences the loss of affluence and innocence as the Japanese enter the city limits at the start of World War Two.
Jamie, the role nailed by a preteen Christian Bale (Batman Begins), must cope with the loss of his home and family, living on the mean streets with fellow waifs and mercenaries (one by John Malkovich at his slimiest). They are soon all rounded up and sent to Japanese POW camps, where Jim is adopted by disparate families: the starving yet stiff-upper-lipped British are his mother while the wiley and stubborn American GIs are the father he idolizes. Striving and scheming against their severe Jap captors, Jim must take the brunt of human compassion and treachery of wartime China.
Steven Spielberg's (Indiana Jones) best and most overlooked film, Empire of the Sun is a fantastic period piece, War record and historical work (based on the semi-autobiographical work by its author). Combining his love of WW2 societies and technology (particularly fighter planes), Empire doesn't get bogged down in politics or finger pointing yet remains honest and true to the circumstances, all shown with an effortlessly gorgeous scope that sees the snotty angelic Jim transform to a world weary young man older than his years. Empire is a complete picture of the world before, during and after the Second Great War, especially its effect on the young generation of all nationalities that lived through it.
10 Flashes in the Sky out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Cadillac of the Skies!"
A spoiled young British lad, grown up in 1940s Shanghai, soon experiences the loss of affluence and innocence as the Japanese enter the city limits at the start of World War Two.
Jamie, the role nailed by a preteen Christian Bale (Batman Begins), must cope with the loss of his home and family, living on the mean streets with fellow waifs and mercenaries (one by John Malkovich at his slimiest). They are soon all rounded up and sent to Japanese POW camps, where Jim is adopted by disparate families: the starving yet stiff-upper-lipped British are his mother while the wiley and stubborn American GIs are the father he idolizes. Striving and scheming against their severe Jap captors, Jim must take the brunt of human compassion and treachery of wartime China.
Steven Spielberg's (Indiana Jones) best and most overlooked film, Empire of the Sun is a fantastic period piece, War record and historical work (based on the semi-autobiographical work by its author). Combining his love of WW2 societies and technology (particularly fighter planes), Empire doesn't get bogged down in politics or finger pointing yet remains honest and true to the circumstances, all shown with an effortlessly gorgeous scope that sees the snotty angelic Jim transform to a world weary young man older than his years. Empire is a complete picture of the world before, during and after the Second Great War, especially its effect on the young generation of all nationalities that lived through it.
10 Flashes in the Sky out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Paris, Texas (1984)
Paris,
Texas (R)
"Been through the Desert..."
Sometime in the past, in a class or in a text book or on the internet, I had heard of this film. At some point whose memory is dark and cloudy it had ended up in my watch que and finally ended its journey at my home, on my television. Such was the fate of Paris, Texas, and I couldn't be more satisfied that it did. The performances, the colors, the mood, the emotions, the
10 good ole Chevys out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Been through the Desert..."
Sometime in the past, in a class or in a text book or on the internet, I had heard of this film. At some point whose memory is dark and cloudy it had ended up in my watch que and finally ended its journey at my home, on my television. Such was the fate of Paris, Texas, and I couldn't be more satisfied that it did. The performances, the colors, the mood, the emotions, the
direction.
A German sensibility of design and efficiency, a European point of
view on the American family and society, a completely human tale bereft
of action or excitement so riveting and captivating I could hardly take
it, a movie that lives and breathes forever. A literal work of art, the
dusky hushed landscapes of the plains settled by our fore bearers, where
we were conceived and where we now live. That is Paris, Texas. I only
wish I had seen it in a small theater with the projector whirring
softly below the sharp acoustic guitar soundtrack as this film in its
dust colored boots meandered slowly by off to parts unknown on roads
well worn.
I have rarely seen, and perhaps will never see, it's like again.
I have rarely seen, and perhaps will never see, it's like again.
10 good ole Chevys out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Thief (1981)
Thief (R)
"Honor among Films"
Before electrifying 80s television with the cinematic crime series "Miami Vice" that catapulted him to fame, Director Micheal Mann wrote and directed this superb noir starring James Caan as a safecracker trying to do one more heist and go straight for his new found love and life.
Mann brings such a hard edge and slick sense of style to the film it's pulse is palpable. Caan's thief is a palpable antihero, an ultimate professional who has pulled himself by his bootstraps above street crime to profitability and self-righteous dignity. Unfortunately those he works among are missed the notice about honor among thieves, and through a disconnected series of events makes his last play at love, life and respectability while his new bosses try to suck him farther and farther into a new career of crime. One of Caan's most powerful roles, he is trapped between the need for wealth, need for love and the need for legitimacy. He is an uneducated, brutal bleeding heart whose only fear is a return to prison.
The rough edges of character and directly balanced out by Mann's best visuals and style. Thief crackles with energy, even in the shadows, and the final shootout brings a neon-lit Peckinpah vibe to the violence. His most visually striking film is also his first, and his best written characterization on screen until the release of Heat, Thief steals the show for both Mann and Caan.
9 Blue Jeans and Windbreakers with a .45 out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Honor among Films"
Before electrifying 80s television with the cinematic crime series "Miami Vice" that catapulted him to fame, Director Micheal Mann wrote and directed this superb noir starring James Caan as a safecracker trying to do one more heist and go straight for his new found love and life.
Mann brings such a hard edge and slick sense of style to the film it's pulse is palpable. Caan's thief is a palpable antihero, an ultimate professional who has pulled himself by his bootstraps above street crime to profitability and self-righteous dignity. Unfortunately those he works among are missed the notice about honor among thieves, and through a disconnected series of events makes his last play at love, life and respectability while his new bosses try to suck him farther and farther into a new career of crime. One of Caan's most powerful roles, he is trapped between the need for wealth, need for love and the need for legitimacy. He is an uneducated, brutal bleeding heart whose only fear is a return to prison.
The rough edges of character and directly balanced out by Mann's best visuals and style. Thief crackles with energy, even in the shadows, and the final shootout brings a neon-lit Peckinpah vibe to the violence. His most visually striking film is also his first, and his best written characterization on screen until the release of Heat, Thief steals the show for both Mann and Caan.
9 Blue Jeans and Windbreakers with a .45 out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Papillon (1973)
Papillon (PG) - Review
"Jailhouse gets empty"
The true life account of 1930s French thief and accused murderer Henri "Papillon" Charriere (played with absolute perfection by action star Steve McQueen) who is sentenced to imprisonment on the infamous Penal Colony "Devil's Island". On the way there by boat he befriends and protects fellow convict Louis Degas (Dustin Hoffman in one of his more unique and fantastic roles), a rich banker who has been caught swindling the entire country and is now a lamb among wolves. The conditions on the island are bleak, the situations the characters slog through are inhuman but the spirit of freedom and justice carry Papillon through escape attempt after escape attempt, recapture after recapture. Themes of loyalty, friendship and hardship are palpable, the solitary confinement scene is riveting, McQueen's performance impeccable (we expect great things which are often exceeded by Hoffman, and his role in this movie is equal parts important and amazing). The guards attempt to break the prisoners, the prison attempts to extinquish them and their lust for life and survival trumps them all. Written by the late great Dalton Trumbo the movie is thematically strong and yet unpreachy. Viewers are allowed to experience the hell of severe confinement and feel the brief joy of freedom along with the characters. The controversies surrounding the Penal Colony, the authenticity of the autobiography and the discrepancies in the life of the real Henri Charriere cannot tarnish this pristine piece of movie fiction and it's statements about willpower and the flight of the human soul.
10 Butterfly Tattoos out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Jailhouse gets empty"
The true life account of 1930s French thief and accused murderer Henri "Papillon" Charriere (played with absolute perfection by action star Steve McQueen) who is sentenced to imprisonment on the infamous Penal Colony "Devil's Island". On the way there by boat he befriends and protects fellow convict Louis Degas (Dustin Hoffman in one of his more unique and fantastic roles), a rich banker who has been caught swindling the entire country and is now a lamb among wolves. The conditions on the island are bleak, the situations the characters slog through are inhuman but the spirit of freedom and justice carry Papillon through escape attempt after escape attempt, recapture after recapture. Themes of loyalty, friendship and hardship are palpable, the solitary confinement scene is riveting, McQueen's performance impeccable (we expect great things which are often exceeded by Hoffman, and his role in this movie is equal parts important and amazing). The guards attempt to break the prisoners, the prison attempts to extinquish them and their lust for life and survival trumps them all. Written by the late great Dalton Trumbo the movie is thematically strong and yet unpreachy. Viewers are allowed to experience the hell of severe confinement and feel the brief joy of freedom along with the characters. The controversies surrounding the Penal Colony, the authenticity of the autobiography and the discrepancies in the life of the real Henri Charriere cannot tarnish this pristine piece of movie fiction and it's statements about willpower and the flight of the human soul.
10 Butterfly Tattoos out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
Chimes At Midnight (1965)
Chimes At Midnight (UR)
"For whom the bell tolls..."
Cobbled together from several of Shakespeare's plays, Chimes At Midnight is visionary Director Orson Welles' (Touch of Evil) showcase of his favorite character to play, the slovenly, cowardly drunkard Lord Falstaff, and never was a man born more suited to play the part nor organize his story for the screen.
How Orson's films were deplorably mistreated (in perhaps response to his first masterpiece Citizen Kane), how his films were thoroughly and completely ignored by the US public and critics, these are the context we must be put in to fully view Chimes. Here he is attempting something new and daring, with complete artistic control, without the purse strings being clutched by Studio heads or scissors held in blackmail to his negative. Here is Orson in his later years, heavy in body and wrinkles and experience, shunned by Hollywood for years, striving to envision one more great role, one more great film in the hillsides of Spain without sturdy financial backing and without the proper technical equipment it could pay for. And yet he succeeds, he again creates a great piece of cinema with wide ranging appeal and artistic merit and yet, as was his burden at the time, the film is utterly ignored once again and is virtually lost to American audiences for almost 50 years. Now finally in some moldering vault has been found a pristine copy of Chimes At Midnight, has been projected to audiences, finally appreciated at large by his fans, and disseminated by the Criterion Collection to the masses, and let us all thank god for that! Long live the King!
The script is pieced together coherently from many of William Shakespear's plays (Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V to name a few), mostly focusing on recurring characters John Flastaff and his princely companion Hal wallowing at the Boars Head Pub. Flastaff's persona on screen was a life long ambition of Welles' to inhabit and project, and the role fits him like a glove. The corpulent braggart will never be played better, visualized more successfully, nor brought to screen more successfully than Welle's own Flastaff. His beard, his cheeks, his petulant gaze and jolly scrabbling wit, it is all perfect and goes to show how well the artist and his role were suited for each other. Just the thought of the waddling fat man in his beetle-like armored carapace on the battlefield hiding behind a tree from danger shows the joys that Chimes provides. The look of it, the sounds, the ideas, the humor and the pathos.
And what a battle it is. It wouldn't be until multiple decades later that medieval combat would be so realistic, harrowing and violent (Excalibur and Braveheart have much to owe to Welles for his visionary scenes of Knightly combat). Removed from the romanticized Hollywood standard of tin men dueling daintily on horses, the battle becomes a disorderly, mud strewn brawl as King, Prince and Peon struggle to stay alive. Even today it would be a standout, but in 1966 it should have been revolutionary! Going quickly from strict order to epic chaos, both being intercut exceedingly well and scored masterfully, the battle scenes of Chimes at Midnight once again prove Orson's genius and just how far ahead of everyone he truly was at film.
With limited budget (he scammed and rused financiers to scrounge up enough cash flow), Welles' is somehow able to provide Castle vistas, epic battlefields of carnage, humanizing emotion of great depths, great acting, fantastic visuals and scenes that stick with you long after. But it does come at a price. That cheapness, thank goodness, doesn't impact the visual strengths of the film. The sets are wonderful in their austerity and still impose a great sense of scale and grandeur despite their obviously non ostentatious (and inexpensive) nature. The movie looks every bit as good as Touch of Evil or Kane, astonishing for the hardships Orson must have endured to finance it. The audio, however, does not fare as well and has a few severe flaws. Some problems with the overdubbing is obvious to even the most lay-viewer, some scenes are off synch or hard to hear (though sometimes this seems intentional for the sake of realism?), But these kind of problems are easily forgivable, standard even of non-stateside releases and doesn't explain the outright hostility in the American press to Welles' newest masterpiece (perhaps the ghost of Hearst was still kicking him around).
Perhaps it was the French cinema influences, the New Wave style of 60s editing, the overlapping dialog, the terse violence of that singular battle or just the pretensions of it's mysterious directory himself that kept art critics and studios and viewers from embracing Chimes at Midnight. Well now, here is your chance to embrace the burly man in a huge beer stained hug, kiss his cheeks and let him know just how much you appreciate him, warted nose and all.
10 Uneasy heads that wears a crown will never be so relevant out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"For whom the bell tolls..."
Cobbled together from several of Shakespeare's plays, Chimes At Midnight is visionary Director Orson Welles' (Touch of Evil) showcase of his favorite character to play, the slovenly, cowardly drunkard Lord Falstaff, and never was a man born more suited to play the part nor organize his story for the screen.
How Orson's films were deplorably mistreated (in perhaps response to his first masterpiece Citizen Kane), how his films were thoroughly and completely ignored by the US public and critics, these are the context we must be put in to fully view Chimes. Here he is attempting something new and daring, with complete artistic control, without the purse strings being clutched by Studio heads or scissors held in blackmail to his negative. Here is Orson in his later years, heavy in body and wrinkles and experience, shunned by Hollywood for years, striving to envision one more great role, one more great film in the hillsides of Spain without sturdy financial backing and without the proper technical equipment it could pay for. And yet he succeeds, he again creates a great piece of cinema with wide ranging appeal and artistic merit and yet, as was his burden at the time, the film is utterly ignored once again and is virtually lost to American audiences for almost 50 years. Now finally in some moldering vault has been found a pristine copy of Chimes At Midnight, has been projected to audiences, finally appreciated at large by his fans, and disseminated by the Criterion Collection to the masses, and let us all thank god for that! Long live the King!
The script is pieced together coherently from many of William Shakespear's plays (Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V to name a few), mostly focusing on recurring characters John Flastaff and his princely companion Hal wallowing at the Boars Head Pub. Flastaff's persona on screen was a life long ambition of Welles' to inhabit and project, and the role fits him like a glove. The corpulent braggart will never be played better, visualized more successfully, nor brought to screen more successfully than Welle's own Flastaff. His beard, his cheeks, his petulant gaze and jolly scrabbling wit, it is all perfect and goes to show how well the artist and his role were suited for each other. Just the thought of the waddling fat man in his beetle-like armored carapace on the battlefield hiding behind a tree from danger shows the joys that Chimes provides. The look of it, the sounds, the ideas, the humor and the pathos.
And what a battle it is. It wouldn't be until multiple decades later that medieval combat would be so realistic, harrowing and violent (Excalibur and Braveheart have much to owe to Welles for his visionary scenes of Knightly combat). Removed from the romanticized Hollywood standard of tin men dueling daintily on horses, the battle becomes a disorderly, mud strewn brawl as King, Prince and Peon struggle to stay alive. Even today it would be a standout, but in 1966 it should have been revolutionary! Going quickly from strict order to epic chaos, both being intercut exceedingly well and scored masterfully, the battle scenes of Chimes at Midnight once again prove Orson's genius and just how far ahead of everyone he truly was at film.
With limited budget (he scammed and rused financiers to scrounge up enough cash flow), Welles' is somehow able to provide Castle vistas, epic battlefields of carnage, humanizing emotion of great depths, great acting, fantastic visuals and scenes that stick with you long after. But it does come at a price. That cheapness, thank goodness, doesn't impact the visual strengths of the film. The sets are wonderful in their austerity and still impose a great sense of scale and grandeur despite their obviously non ostentatious (and inexpensive) nature. The movie looks every bit as good as Touch of Evil or Kane, astonishing for the hardships Orson must have endured to finance it. The audio, however, does not fare as well and has a few severe flaws. Some problems with the overdubbing is obvious to even the most lay-viewer, some scenes are off synch or hard to hear (though sometimes this seems intentional for the sake of realism?), But these kind of problems are easily forgivable, standard even of non-stateside releases and doesn't explain the outright hostility in the American press to Welles' newest masterpiece (perhaps the ghost of Hearst was still kicking him around).
Perhaps it was the French cinema influences, the New Wave style of 60s editing, the overlapping dialog, the terse violence of that singular battle or just the pretensions of it's mysterious directory himself that kept art critics and studios and viewers from embracing Chimes at Midnight. Well now, here is your chance to embrace the burly man in a huge beer stained hug, kiss his cheeks and let him know just how much you appreciate him, warted nose and all.
10 Uneasy heads that wears a crown will never be so relevant out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (G)
"Daisy, Daisy, tell me your answer due...I am crazy all for the love of you..."
Before any actual human set foot on the moon, master Director Stanley Kubrick was creating a possible future for mankind out there in the void, as still being penned by SciFi great Arthur C. Clark. In it it tells the epic story of a mysterious force in the universe that empowers the human race from cowering knuckle dragger of the Savannah to intrepid Space explorers seeking out the answers to existence. Told in a purposefully robotic fashion, filled with genius camera takes and tricks and gorgeous cinematography, ahead of it's time understanding of space and AI, and a mind-bending conclusion that had hippies, cinephiles and sci-fi freaks alike flooding the cinemas in the late 60s.
The movie is broken up into 4 separate but equal parts, shedding characters and intentions and time periods as needed. The opening often alienates the most viewers, what with its sociological pre-historic depictions of proto-humans, but without it the most famous film cut in film history wouldn't exist, that between the bone-weapon being flung and the space station being ballet-docking with a shuttle while orbiting Earth. Everything happens for a reason in 2K1ASO, and the more you watch the more it becomes apparent. The Cold War political intrigue of the Russian vs. America space may seem dated but still is relevant in today's headlines, HAL9000s malevolence and the human's reliance on him for their survival is incredibly timely in this day and age of Internet and technology overtake. The further leap into the super unknown is just the icing on the cake, and is a wonderful conclusion to a film that is not only about the future evolution of mankind, but the melding of art and science into one of the all time film masterpieces.
Now for those in the wrong, those who think 2001 as a slow plodding chore, consider the following. At 148 minutes in length, 2001 is shorter than most of the Bay Transformers and about 1000x more intelligent. Those CGI gonzo monstrosities have nothing on the sleek, beautifully groundbreaking model work found therein, nor the quick cutting explosion laden free for all. 2001 is a methodical step through the mindsets of greats. Great acting, great scenes, great writing, great ideas, great sets, great special effects, great music, great directing, great purpose, great art.
We can and must forgive the men in monkey suits, the PANAM antiquity, the video phone charges. Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is not something to be watched, its a sensory experience that is like submerging into the black subconscious of the mind of man. Deep into that cold void where math meets color, ambition meets creation, and the survival instinct of the fittest in the deadliest of places. The beauty of staring into the abyss and the abyss stares back at you? When it looks this good it's a pleasure to stare.
10 Rectangular Microwaved Astronaut Food Receptacles out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Daisy, Daisy, tell me your answer due...I am crazy all for the love of you..."
Before any actual human set foot on the moon, master Director Stanley Kubrick was creating a possible future for mankind out there in the void, as still being penned by SciFi great Arthur C. Clark. In it it tells the epic story of a mysterious force in the universe that empowers the human race from cowering knuckle dragger of the Savannah to intrepid Space explorers seeking out the answers to existence. Told in a purposefully robotic fashion, filled with genius camera takes and tricks and gorgeous cinematography, ahead of it's time understanding of space and AI, and a mind-bending conclusion that had hippies, cinephiles and sci-fi freaks alike flooding the cinemas in the late 60s.
The movie is broken up into 4 separate but equal parts, shedding characters and intentions and time periods as needed. The opening often alienates the most viewers, what with its sociological pre-historic depictions of proto-humans, but without it the most famous film cut in film history wouldn't exist, that between the bone-weapon being flung and the space station being ballet-docking with a shuttle while orbiting Earth. Everything happens for a reason in 2K1ASO, and the more you watch the more it becomes apparent. The Cold War political intrigue of the Russian vs. America space may seem dated but still is relevant in today's headlines, HAL9000s malevolence and the human's reliance on him for their survival is incredibly timely in this day and age of Internet and technology overtake. The further leap into the super unknown is just the icing on the cake, and is a wonderful conclusion to a film that is not only about the future evolution of mankind, but the melding of art and science into one of the all time film masterpieces.
Now for those in the wrong, those who think 2001 as a slow plodding chore, consider the following. At 148 minutes in length, 2001 is shorter than most of the Bay Transformers and about 1000x more intelligent. Those CGI gonzo monstrosities have nothing on the sleek, beautifully groundbreaking model work found therein, nor the quick cutting explosion laden free for all. 2001 is a methodical step through the mindsets of greats. Great acting, great scenes, great writing, great ideas, great sets, great special effects, great music, great directing, great purpose, great art.
We can and must forgive the men in monkey suits, the PANAM antiquity, the video phone charges. Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is not something to be watched, its a sensory experience that is like submerging into the black subconscious of the mind of man. Deep into that cold void where math meets color, ambition meets creation, and the survival instinct of the fittest in the deadliest of places. The beauty of staring into the abyss and the abyss stares back at you? When it looks this good it's a pleasure to stare.
10 Rectangular Microwaved Astronaut Food Receptacles out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Angry Men (NR)
"Deliberate deliberations"
Sidney Lumet's riveting back-of-court drama finds Henry Fonda in top form as he tries to sway his fellow juror's to the supposed innocence of the accused. Filmed in Black and White with limited sets, the film follows the humanisitic back and forth as opinions are made and broken in a sweaty juror room where a conscensus must be made. What looks boring on paper is lit up on screen by fantastic performances and direction that is more experienced that watched, featuring an all star cast of the days best character actors slugging it out with words and logic, debating such heavy subjects as race, the death penalty and the age gap.. 12 Angry Men will leave you no reasonable doubt in it's greatness.
9 Switchblades Experts out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
"Deliberate deliberations"
Sidney Lumet's riveting back-of-court drama finds Henry Fonda in top form as he tries to sway his fellow juror's to the supposed innocence of the accused. Filmed in Black and White with limited sets, the film follows the humanisitic back and forth as opinions are made and broken in a sweaty juror room where a conscensus must be made. What looks boring on paper is lit up on screen by fantastic performances and direction that is more experienced that watched, featuring an all star cast of the days best character actors slugging it out with words and logic, debating such heavy subjects as race, the death penalty and the age gap.. 12 Angry Men will leave you no reasonable doubt in it's greatness.
9 Switchblades Experts out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)
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About Me
- Kevin Gasaway via HardDrawn
- Turlock, California, United States
- Media and Reviews by Kevin Gasaway