(2001, Dir. Wes Anderson)
In Short: The three washed-up, once-genius Tenenbaum children return home to their separated parents when their father announces he is terminally ill, and are forced to face their pasts, escape their presents, and prepare for their futures. There are a lot of main characters in this movie, and they are all extraordinarily complex--but they are each complex in a way that depends upon the others. The relationships are very complicated and intricate, and that's sort of the whole idea--all these people are very different and have lots of problems, but they're family, so they're connected. But not in a typical, mushy way. Despite the fact that Anderson creates a world that is, although similar to, irreconcilable with our own, there is something more real about the relationships portrayed in that reality than when they are portrayed in "the real world" in other films. The absurdity and extremeness of the characters, situations, and settings, while sometimes played for laughs, does more to make the emotions and conflicts more real to the viewer. (Spoilers below) It's no shock that I'm totally obsessed with this movie. I can't stop thinking about it! There are so many layers to it, but it's done so well that it doesn't feel cluttered. The actors' performances were stellar--it's quite the feat to get me to take Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller seriously. The writing and storytelling is fantastic, and it's hard to believe that all of that fit into so short a time so effectively. On top of that, it's just a flat-out gorgeous movie, and I'm crazy about the style that Wes Anderson gave this one. Visually, I especially loved the scene in the board game closet and Richie's suicide attempt scene is, you know, depressing, but it's also stunning and gorgeous and really affecting. The music is amazing too. I can hardly stop writing about this! I love it! 10/10 Dalmatian Mice.
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(2001, Dir. John Gray)
In short: The outgoing, wisecracking, white Brian Piccolo and the shy, serious, African-American Gayle Sayes are forced to learn to live with one another as they play football for the Chicago Bears. Eventually they become friends, but Brian falls seriously ill with cancer. The main idea here is that it's important to make the most of what you've got--whether it's a bad roommate assignment, being a benchwarmer, or even such a serious thing as having cancer. Brian learns to make the best of his situations and it shows. The strength in this movie is in the acting and the writing, not in the production (it is, I learned, a made-for-TV movie). The characters are very well-developed in a very short time, and they go through very impressive arcs. The writing is good, and is truthful in a way that's necessary for telling an inspired-by-real-life story well. There are a lot of good parallels and motifs happening (I especially enjoyed the conversations between Joy and Linda). And this film is pretty effective emotionally. It sets out to make you cry, and it sure has the ability, but it lacks any kind of closure. 6.5/10 piñatas. (1941, Dir. Eugene Forde)
In short: Private Investigator Michael Shayne tries to solve a double-homicide case so he can have enough money to marry his increasingly impatient fiancee. This is a very formulaic, studio movie. There's really no greater message being woven into the story--it's just entertainment for entertainment's sake. It does paint marriage as an inevitably bad and unhappy thing. The murders occur because of complicated marriages, and practically every character tries to dissuade Shayne from getting married--and in the end, he's not able to anyway. That's as close as it gets to there being any kind of moral to the story. This movie was so bad! It was a B-movie if I ever saw one, fulfilling every bad stereotype that exists for Old Hollywood--annoying detective jargon, nagging girlfriends, crazy actors, bumbling police, and not to mention several troubling racial stereotypes. The plot was trying to be clever, but didn't succeed. The cinematography was nice, and some of the jokes landed all right, but mostly I was just praying that it would end, the sooner the better. 3.5/10 Beppo the Dog Costumes. (1960, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
In short: Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) skips town after stealing $40,000 from her boss so she can marry her poor boyfriend. After a few run-ins with a highway patrolman who is suspicious of Marion’s nervous behavior, a rainstorm hits and Marion decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel. There, she meets Norman Bates, the motel’s seemingly rather quiet and friendly proprietor, and she overhears an argument between Norman and his mother. From there, things go famously badly for Marion. This is a movie that’s meant to be shocking. The first scene with Sam and Marion is pretty risqué for the time period. Psycho was the first American movie to show a toilet--they hadn’t been allowed before! And of course, there’s the infamous shower scene, shocking for both its violence and perceived nudity. Moreover, there’s something taboo about the psychological aspects of the plot. (SPOILERS, obviously.) Norman’s mental illness is scary and weird and in-your-face by the end of the movie. It’s messed up that he dresses up as his mother to kill the women he’s attracted to. It’s even stranger that he is unaware of any of it. (End spoiler zone.) Hitchcock’s film puts all the controversial topics of violence, mental illness, and sexuality front and center in a way that’s impossible to ignore, yet it’s not just shock for shock’s sake. It’s smart. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this film. This is the most famous horror movie of all time, I’d say, and I tend to not like horror movies. But Psycho is, obviously, fantastic. It’s smartly written, well-acted, brilliantly-directed, and just plain terrifying. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. It’s clear why everyone else does. 10/10 metaphorically resonant stuffed birds. (1939, Dir. Elliott Nugent)
In Short: The six remaining relatives of an eccentric millionaire meet on the tenth anniversary of his death for the reading of his will. Joyce (Paulette Goddard) is named the heir, but due to the family's history of insanity, a second heir will be named if Joyce goes crazy or is killed within a month of inheriting the family fortune. Danger and spooky hijinks ensue! This is a parody of horror films (in fact, it's a remake of a 1927 silent horror movie of the same name). It has all the tropes of a scary movie--an escaped serial killer, moving bookcases, flickering lights, a suspicious housekeeper, and hidden family treasure to name a few. These are all played for laughs, and Bob Hope's character, Wally, is an actor who often remarks that the events of the film's plot are just like those of plays and movies he's been in. The standard, predictable format of a horror movie is there, but for comedic purposes. This movie is tremendously funny. Bob Hope has fantastic comedic timing, and Nydia Westman is absolutely hilarious in her small role as Cousin Cicily. Paulette Goddard and Gale Sondergaard also give great performances. Elliott Nugent's directorial approach to the film creates frustrating levels of dramatic irony ("How are they not seeing that bookcase open???") that pay off big time for both comedic and dramatic beats. The plot is a bit lacking, however, and the twist at the end could have been more earned. Despite this, this film did what it set out to do: make fun of horror movies in a funny way. 8/10 sapphire and emerald necklaces. (1938, Dir. Frank Capra)
In short: Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur) is a stenographer who falls in love with the boss's son and VP of the company, Tony Kirby (James Stewart). Alice's eccentric family doesn't mix with Tony's high-class parents; meanwhile, Tony's father's company is trying to force Alice's grandfather to sell the family house. It's interesting to think of this film in the context of the Great Depression, though it doesn't seem to exist in the story. In the film, the big bank is trying to take away people's homes. In this era, this was a very real fear for many. The upper class is understandably portrayed as somewhat villainous, because so many people were struggling with money at the time. Everything about this movie is delightful, especially all the characters. Each character, especially the members of Alice's family, has such a distinct, eccentric, but still human personality. The story was really well-written (it helps that it was a Kauffman/Hart play before it was a movie) and all the elements of the story pay off really well. Some bits drag on a little, but not much, and it's still great nonetheless. Capra's directing style features prominently (it won him an Oscar!) and tells the story very effectively (I especially loved the running theme of the "Home Sweet Home" sign falling). All told, I absolutely loved it. 10/10 Russian Revolutions. (2011, Dir. JJ Abrams)
In short: It's 1979, some kids on bikes are filming a monster movie, and there's this massive train wreck. Things start going terribly wrong in their small Ohio town! Turns out, the government has been hiding an alien from everyone, etc. etc. etc. There's something so appealing to the Kids-on-Bikes-Solving-a-Mystery-in-a-Small-Town premise for anything. No matter when you grew up, it's a familiar concept. There's something so authentic about it, that no matter what crazy sci-fi you add to it, you're sitting there saying, "Yeah, all right, I used to do this." That comes across really well in Super 8. Despite the alien craziness, it feels rooted in reality. It also really speaks to the notion of the curiosity of children saving the day, and that's always a lot of fun, if not predictable. That's really what this movie was--familiar and fun, but predictable. I wanted this movie to be awesome, and it was just slightly better than fine. It was absolutely gorgeous, but lacking plot-wise. I found myself wanting the different story lines to intertwine in a more clever way, and they really didn't. It was a very standard action movie plot, and the ending, in standard action movie plot form, was lackluster. I found myself enjoying the "real" parts of this movie a lot more than the space alien parts. I wanted to see more kids on bikes and less explosions and tentacles. But it was a lot of fun, so I can hardly complain. 7/10 Model Trains. (1919, Dir. Robert Wiene)
I watched this movie by myself in a very dark room in the middle of the night. Do not watch this movie by yourself in a very dark room in the middle of the night. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari follows the story of a man named Franzis who had a few bad run-ins with a somnambulist named Cesare and said somnambulist's "master" a while back, ultimately ending with the somnambulist's master putting Franzis in an insane asylum. Or at least, I think that was the plot of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. To be honest, I was pretty confused. But I think you were supposed to be. Caligari is a disorienting film, by nature. The spooky, mysterious characters, with their bizarre makeup, are hard to read. The expressionist-style, fanciful sets add an extra layer to decode in every scene. And the story plays out as a mystery, but not one that is ever completely solved. When I read "The End", my head was still spinning. And I do think that was by design. When this film came out, WWI had just ended, and Germany was in total disarray. The sense of confusion created in Caligari reflects the state of the country at the time. I can't tell if I liked this movie. It weirded me out. But I know it was good, and it was important. The sets and costumes were magnificent. The actor's performances were chilling. The camera techniques engaged me and terrified me (I can't remember exactly when, but I almost jumped out of my seat at one point). So, 8.5/10 Books about Dr. Caligari (who was he really, anyway?). This is a documentary about a shot-for-shot remake 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark as begun by 11-year-old boys, and it is exactly as fun as it sounds, which is to say, very. The main story of the documentary revolves around the group (Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos, and Jayson Lamb) reuniting to film the last scene needed to complete their adaptation, with bits of background and side stories woven throughout as they become relevant. The non-linear quality is well-executed and makes this documentary a lot of fun to watch. I very much enjoyed seeing the story unfold piece by piece, delving deeper into the lives of the creators and the details of the production. The clips shown from the adaptation were chosen very well to reflect the creativity and dedication that went into it, and was a great parallel to the hard work that they were doing to complete the final scene. Interviews with Zala, Strompolos, and Lamb are supplemented well with interviews with friends and family members that give a well-rounded sense of the community that endeavored to do something as fanciful as to recreate an Indiana Jones movie as accurately as possible. This movie was so much fun to watch and I enjoyed it immensely. 9/10 plane explosions.
(1949, Dir. Buster Keaton, Robert Z. Leonard)
Give me every variation on The Parfumerie, and give it to me now! This sort-of-musical romantic comedy follows the same basic anonymous-penpals-real-life-rivals-turned-lovers plot as the play The Parfumerie, the Broadway musical She Loves Me, and films The Shop Around the Corner and You've Got Mail. Yet In the Good Old Summertime wasn't boring. Garland and Johnson's chemistry kept me very entertained, despite already knowing almost every turn the story was going to take. The ensemble cast of the music store employees (S.Z. Sakall, Spring Byington, Clinton Sundberg, and Buster Keaton) played very well as a fun, watchable unit. Lillian Bronson was charming as Aunt Addie, and Marcia Van Dyke was sweet and clueless as Louise Bronson. The movie had its low points too: the violin subplot could have been interesting, but fell a little flat, and the musical interludes, while very well-done and enjoyable, did nothing to move the plot along and sometimes went on longer than they should've. But this movie was simply a lot of fun. The physical comedy bits landed well, the dramatic-irony-filled plot bounced along well, and all the romantic buildup paid off wonderfully in the end. Was this movie predictable? Yes. But it was a great time nonetheless. 8/10 Amboy Harps. |
AuthorEileen here, writing reviews for film class. Archives
April 2018
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