This was last night.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Show and Tell
I really liked National Treasure because it made anybody with an eighth grade history education and a penchant for word puzzles feel like a genius [and feel like you could land Helen of Troy]. National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets takes it one step further, giving every piece of information three times so nobody gets lost. Don't believe me? Take our initial look at the J Edgar Hoover Building. We're shown the building, expertly framed so that the sign that says "J. Edgar Hoover Building" takes up the left side of the screen. Then, at the bottom, for the six people in the theater who didn't notice, a caption pops up reading [you guessed it] "J. Edgar Hoover Building". Cut to the inside, where Harvey Keitel and everyone else in the building wears clothing with FBI in huge letters! It's like the motto for this one was No Movie-Goer Left Behind. Did lots of people have trouble following the first one? I don't understand. The number of times everyone described what we were being shown was really distracting.
The good news is that if you have a blind friend that really wants to go to the movies, you can take them to National Treasure 2 and they'll follow it just fine.
Also I'm still looking for an archivist that looks like Diane Kruger.
The good news is that if you have a blind friend that really wants to go to the movies, you can take them to National Treasure 2 and they'll follow it just fine.
Also I'm still looking for an archivist that looks like Diane Kruger.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
#9 - Once Upon a Time in the West
Once upon a time an Italian made the greatest western of all time. The thing that Once Upon a Time in the West understands better than any other western is that there's no need for realism in the genre. Instead it takes all the elements of the western and blends them all together into the ultimate combination. You get all the familiar archetypes: the loner seeking revenge, the crazy bandit with a heart of gold, the dangerous villain, and the woman who brings them all together. Claudia Cardinale even gets to be two western archetypes at the same time, being both a widow and a whore. [if only she could be a schoolteacher as well, she'd have everything covered!] Now put these characters in a fast-paced story where alliances change at every turn, and a double-cross is around every corner.
Next add music. Oh, the music! Ennio Morricone's music for Leone's films have become legendary for good reason. Even if you haven't seen a western you probably can hum the theme to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Now, instead of making one great iconic theme he made four, one for each character, each one unforgettable. I think 'operatic' is used far to often to describe the relation between Leone's films and Morricone's music. In this film I think the most accurate comparison is to dance, in the relation between music and movement.
The other element that makes this western seem larger than anything you've seen before is the cinematography. Like Leone's other westerns extreme close-ups dominate. It makes these characters who are already larger than life seem like giants. The combination between these close-ups and the music are almost too much, like the film is bursting at the seams. But the thing Once Upon a Time in the West has that the earlier films do not is scale. The first time you hear Jill's theme the camera follows her into the train station and moves up over the roof and as the music swells you see this large bustling western town. It's one of my favorite moments in all of cinema, the perfect blend of image, movement, and music. Once Upon a Time in the West is full of moments like these, and that's why it made the list.
See also: My other fave westerns- The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, Fistful of Dollars, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, Deadwood, The Wild Bunch
Next add music. Oh, the music! Ennio Morricone's music for Leone's films have become legendary for good reason. Even if you haven't seen a western you probably can hum the theme to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Now, instead of making one great iconic theme he made four, one for each character, each one unforgettable. I think 'operatic' is used far to often to describe the relation between Leone's films and Morricone's music. In this film I think the most accurate comparison is to dance, in the relation between music and movement.
The other element that makes this western seem larger than anything you've seen before is the cinematography. Like Leone's other westerns extreme close-ups dominate. It makes these characters who are already larger than life seem like giants. The combination between these close-ups and the music are almost too much, like the film is bursting at the seams. But the thing Once Upon a Time in the West has that the earlier films do not is scale. The first time you hear Jill's theme the camera follows her into the train station and moves up over the roof and as the music swells you see this large bustling western town. It's one of my favorite moments in all of cinema, the perfect blend of image, movement, and music. Once Upon a Time in the West is full of moments like these, and that's why it made the list.
See also: My other fave westerns- The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, Fistful of Dollars, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, Deadwood, The Wild Bunch
Saturday, January 5, 2008
#10 - Vernon, Florida
I'm going to be going backwards through my top ten of all time, rewatching the films and giving a bit of detail about why I chose them. If you want to know what I've been watching lately I've added a movie diary list on the right hand side of the page. I hope to update it with all the films I see this year, but we'll see how well I stick to it.
I've set myself a hell of a task in describing Vernon, Florida, let alone explaining how a 55 minute collection of strange people in a small town talking into the camera is my favorite documentary of all time. Errol Morris wanted to make a documentary about Vernon because he got wind that people there were intentionally disfiguring themselves to collect insurance money. Unfortunately when he arrived he soon figured out that people aren't really comfortable recounting the details of how they defrauded insurance companies on film. Undeterred, he began to interview the locals and collected a group of strange interviews. The result is to me far more interesting than a documentary about insurance fraud. A turkey hunter tells us about his experiences on the hunt. A policeman tells the tale of how he was shot at one night. Three old men argue about the best way to shoot yourself with a shotgun. A couple shows off a mysterious jar of sand that they claim is expanding at an alarming rate. Faulkner couldn't make this stuff up.
Errol Morris is one of our most respected and acclaimed documentary filmmakers, and he is indisputably a master of the form. But an issue I have with him is the amount of control he imposes on his latest films. He always seems to find amazing stories, but he is obsessed currently with putting a subject in a room with his two-camera system [the interrotron] and having that person look you in the eye and tell you his/her story. And his most recent films are certainly powerful and entertaining, but I prefer the spontaneity of Vernon, Florida and his first film, Gates of Heaven. In Vernon we get to see these people in the context of the place where they live. There's a bit of the genius of Walker Evans' photography in this film. Evans realized that people will give you a great deal of information about themselves if you allow them to pose for a picture, and there's an element of that in the way we see these people 'performing' for the camera in the film.
There are also some lovely little contrasts in the film. My favorite consists of a pair of scenes where a man who is seemingly building his own church by hand tells a story of how God answers his prayers for very practical things, contrasted by the next scene where a pastor of a huge church gives a sermon about the amount of times Paul uses the word therefore in the book of Romans. It also has some absolutely gorgeous camerawork, capturing the strange beauty of a tiny town. The whole film seems like a beautiful, miraculous accident.
See also: My other favorite documentaries-- Anything else by Morris, The Sorrow and the Pity, The Last Waltz, Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Burden of Dreams, The Five Obstructions, Grizzly Man, Don't Look Back, and No Direction Home.
I've set myself a hell of a task in describing Vernon, Florida, let alone explaining how a 55 minute collection of strange people in a small town talking into the camera is my favorite documentary of all time. Errol Morris wanted to make a documentary about Vernon because he got wind that people there were intentionally disfiguring themselves to collect insurance money. Unfortunately when he arrived he soon figured out that people aren't really comfortable recounting the details of how they defrauded insurance companies on film. Undeterred, he began to interview the locals and collected a group of strange interviews. The result is to me far more interesting than a documentary about insurance fraud. A turkey hunter tells us about his experiences on the hunt. A policeman tells the tale of how he was shot at one night. Three old men argue about the best way to shoot yourself with a shotgun. A couple shows off a mysterious jar of sand that they claim is expanding at an alarming rate. Faulkner couldn't make this stuff up.
Errol Morris is one of our most respected and acclaimed documentary filmmakers, and he is indisputably a master of the form. But an issue I have with him is the amount of control he imposes on his latest films. He always seems to find amazing stories, but he is obsessed currently with putting a subject in a room with his two-camera system [the interrotron] and having that person look you in the eye and tell you his/her story. And his most recent films are certainly powerful and entertaining, but I prefer the spontaneity of Vernon, Florida and his first film, Gates of Heaven. In Vernon we get to see these people in the context of the place where they live. There's a bit of the genius of Walker Evans' photography in this film. Evans realized that people will give you a great deal of information about themselves if you allow them to pose for a picture, and there's an element of that in the way we see these people 'performing' for the camera in the film.
There are also some lovely little contrasts in the film. My favorite consists of a pair of scenes where a man who is seemingly building his own church by hand tells a story of how God answers his prayers for very practical things, contrasted by the next scene where a pastor of a huge church gives a sermon about the amount of times Paul uses the word therefore in the book of Romans. It also has some absolutely gorgeous camerawork, capturing the strange beauty of a tiny town. The whole film seems like a beautiful, miraculous accident.
See also: My other favorite documentaries-- Anything else by Morris, The Sorrow and the Pity, The Last Waltz, Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Burden of Dreams, The Five Obstructions, Grizzly Man, Don't Look Back, and No Direction Home.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Because I promised
1) Chungking Express
2) Magnolia
3) Chinatown
4) Solaris (1972)
5) Annie Hall
6) Seven Samurai
7) Bringing Up Baby
8) Viridiana
9) Once Upon a Time in the West
10) Vernon, Florida
2) Magnolia
3) Chinatown
4) Solaris (1972)
5) Annie Hall
6) Seven Samurai
7) Bringing Up Baby
8) Viridiana
9) Once Upon a Time in the West
10) Vernon, Florida
Monday, December 31, 2007
Top 10 of 2007
Wow, this was a lot more difficult than I expected. I flirted with the idea of doing a top 20 this year simply because there were so many very good films to choose from. The only real easy choices in the whole list are the top 2. Everything else has moved a lot in the last couple of days and would probably move again if I redid the list tomorrow. The two huge surprises this year are 1) everything's in english and 2) no documentaries made the list. That's genunely shocking, but rest assured it will be made up in the next post. Before we get started here are a few honorable mentions.
Films that I suspect would make the list had I actually seen them: I'm Not There, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Film that nobody liked that I probably will even though by all accounts it's awful but then again I didn't see it so who knows: Southland Tales
Films that I would have sworn 10 minutes after watching them that they would make the list but would probably make it in a different year and may increase in my estimation upon a second viewing: Darjeeling Limited, Control, Eastern Promises
OK here goes.
10) Bug – It was mismarketed as a horror film on it's release, but it is genuinely the scariest film of the year. It's a horror movie in the same way as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. If being in love is choosing to give up a part of yourself in order to see the world through someone else's eyes, what happens when the person you choose slowly goes off the rails? Michael Shannon is one of the creepiest actors I've ever seen, and it's amazing how much he dives into this strange character.
9) The Lookout – There's a lot going on in every Joseph Gordon-Levitt performance, and he helps elevate what could have been just another thriller into something a bit more substantial. It's well-crafted and hums along, but it makes the list for the performance. You can't take your eyes off of him.
8) The Bourne Ultimatum – I'm not one of those people who wants to turn this franchise into the new James Bond. I'll take three great films over 20 watered-down ones any day. I love the ways this film wraps up the series by reflecting shots from the first film. Oh and it's by far the best action film of the year, and would be just about any year. And he kicks a guys ass with a book.
7) Michael Clayton – An action movie with absolutely no action at all. It takes its cue from the great paranoid thrillers of the 1970s like Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View. Great performances by George Clooney, Tilda Swindon, and expecially Tom Wilkinson.
6) Juno – Orange Tic-Tacs, hamburger phones, and Mott the Hoople. “It's not like it was his idea.” Too bad the trailer gave away all the good Jason Bateman bits.
5) Once – I love the music and adore the ambiguous final shot. A “musical” where the music doesn't seem forced. Oh and they made it for like $75
4) Zodiac – The brilliant film this year that nobody seems to be talking about. it's probably because it came out so early in the year. The use of CGI to “build” 1970s San Francisco is seamless and adds a lot to my enjoyment of the film. To some degree it's the anti-Seven, focusing on procedures and frustrating loose ends instead of dead bodies.
3) Sweeney Todd – Blood, songs and pies. I really want to see this again.
2) No Country for Old Men – Every other film on the list moved around, but this was a solid number one until early on the 30th. In No Country the Coens finally toned down their ironic sense of humor and just told a great story. I've said it before, but the ending is perfect and finishes an unsettling film on a hopeful note.
1) There Will Be Blood – The single most anticipated film of the year for me delivered far beyond what I was expecting. It is difficult not to just write SEEITSEEITSEEITSEEITSEEIT! It's incredible the way Anderson tossed aside his usual bag of tricks [matching film to pop songs, show-offy camera movements] and created something totally new for him. He's my favorite American director, but I didn't believe he had this film in him. On one hand I don't want to overhype it, but on the other I don't thnk it's possible. I saw it at midnight, got out of the theater at 2:45, and instantly thought “How soon can I see it again?” There is no debate, Daniel Day-Lewis gives the performance of the year. His voice, his walk, the way his face scrunches up whenever God is mentioned, all perfect. The last scene builds and builds and gets crazier and crazier beyond anything you could have been anticipating, but I went with it. I am seriously wondering whether this or Magnolia is PTA's masterpiece.
I am finished
Happy New Year
Films that I suspect would make the list had I actually seen them: I'm Not There, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Film that nobody liked that I probably will even though by all accounts it's awful but then again I didn't see it so who knows: Southland Tales
Films that I would have sworn 10 minutes after watching them that they would make the list but would probably make it in a different year and may increase in my estimation upon a second viewing: Darjeeling Limited, Control, Eastern Promises
OK here goes.
10) Bug – It was mismarketed as a horror film on it's release, but it is genuinely the scariest film of the year. It's a horror movie in the same way as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. If being in love is choosing to give up a part of yourself in order to see the world through someone else's eyes, what happens when the person you choose slowly goes off the rails? Michael Shannon is one of the creepiest actors I've ever seen, and it's amazing how much he dives into this strange character.
9) The Lookout – There's a lot going on in every Joseph Gordon-Levitt performance, and he helps elevate what could have been just another thriller into something a bit more substantial. It's well-crafted and hums along, but it makes the list for the performance. You can't take your eyes off of him.
8) The Bourne Ultimatum – I'm not one of those people who wants to turn this franchise into the new James Bond. I'll take three great films over 20 watered-down ones any day. I love the ways this film wraps up the series by reflecting shots from the first film. Oh and it's by far the best action film of the year, and would be just about any year. And he kicks a guys ass with a book.
7) Michael Clayton – An action movie with absolutely no action at all. It takes its cue from the great paranoid thrillers of the 1970s like Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View. Great performances by George Clooney, Tilda Swindon, and expecially Tom Wilkinson.
6) Juno – Orange Tic-Tacs, hamburger phones, and Mott the Hoople. “It's not like it was his idea.” Too bad the trailer gave away all the good Jason Bateman bits.
5) Once – I love the music and adore the ambiguous final shot. A “musical” where the music doesn't seem forced. Oh and they made it for like $75
4) Zodiac – The brilliant film this year that nobody seems to be talking about. it's probably because it came out so early in the year. The use of CGI to “build” 1970s San Francisco is seamless and adds a lot to my enjoyment of the film. To some degree it's the anti-Seven, focusing on procedures and frustrating loose ends instead of dead bodies.
3) Sweeney Todd – Blood, songs and pies. I really want to see this again.
2) No Country for Old Men – Every other film on the list moved around, but this was a solid number one until early on the 30th. In No Country the Coens finally toned down their ironic sense of humor and just told a great story. I've said it before, but the ending is perfect and finishes an unsettling film on a hopeful note.
1) There Will Be Blood – The single most anticipated film of the year for me delivered far beyond what I was expecting. It is difficult not to just write SEEITSEEITSEEITSEEITSEEIT! It's incredible the way Anderson tossed aside his usual bag of tricks [matching film to pop songs, show-offy camera movements] and created something totally new for him. He's my favorite American director, but I didn't believe he had this film in him. On one hand I don't want to overhype it, but on the other I don't thnk it's possible. I saw it at midnight, got out of the theater at 2:45, and instantly thought “How soon can I see it again?” There is no debate, Daniel Day-Lewis gives the performance of the year. His voice, his walk, the way his face scrunches up whenever God is mentioned, all perfect. The last scene builds and builds and gets crazier and crazier beyond anything you could have been anticipating, but I went with it. I am seriously wondering whether this or Magnolia is PTA's masterpiece.
I am finished
Happy New Year
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Blood is Compulsory
They're hardly divisible, sir—well, I can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and I can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and I can do you all three concurrent or consecutive, but I can't do you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory—they're all blood, you see.
Yes, the Ballad of Sweeney Todd is missing, and Helena Bonham Carter isn't really a great singer, and occasionally the Lady Snowblood style afterial sprays are a bit much.
I'm here to tell you that it doesn't really matter. This is likely the best film version of Sweeney Todd we could have hoped for. It's incredibly intact: the excess, the striking pessimism, the comedy, it's all there.
I love films that openly laugh at our hopes for a happy ending for anyone. The way it mocks Ms. Lovett's delusional dreams of the sea, and the way the young lovers are given the most annoying songs add another layer of depth to the story. It's almost as if the film portrays Sweeney as the sanest character of all, a revenge machine who knows with absolute certainty what lies in wait for him after he achieves his goal.
This is not to say it's another Donny Downer movie. It's incredibly entertaining and funny. Ms. Lovett's song about the sea is maybe the biggest single laugh I've had at the movies all year [including Superbad, I know!] And Sacha Baron Cohen's Pirelli the barber is hilarious.
And then there's the red stuff. The blood. Geysers of it spray out of necks at an alarming rate. But I think it's the best example of Burton's craft coming to the forefront. His greatest skill as a director and a visualist is his knack for combining horror and comedy. I can think of no better example of this brilliant synthesis than the way he deals with the killings in the film. The first death is brutal. a savage beating, a blood soaked floor, and a sliced throat long after we think the job is done. But after that the film slides into a comic montage where the blood sprays ridiculously and the bodies crash down the chute with a comical crunch. Everyone relaxes and smiles. We can't help it. But we're being set up for the big finish. The deaths before the climactic scene with the judge are so quick they are almost an afterthought. But then the brutality returns with a vengeance [see what I did there?] and the film ends on a sudden, unsettling note that is very powerful.
Oh, and kudos to the first person who figures out the opening quote without googling.
Also Merry Christmas everybody.
Yes, the Ballad of Sweeney Todd is missing, and Helena Bonham Carter isn't really a great singer, and occasionally the Lady Snowblood style afterial sprays are a bit much.
I'm here to tell you that it doesn't really matter. This is likely the best film version of Sweeney Todd we could have hoped for. It's incredibly intact: the excess, the striking pessimism, the comedy, it's all there.
I love films that openly laugh at our hopes for a happy ending for anyone. The way it mocks Ms. Lovett's delusional dreams of the sea, and the way the young lovers are given the most annoying songs add another layer of depth to the story. It's almost as if the film portrays Sweeney as the sanest character of all, a revenge machine who knows with absolute certainty what lies in wait for him after he achieves his goal.
This is not to say it's another Donny Downer movie. It's incredibly entertaining and funny. Ms. Lovett's song about the sea is maybe the biggest single laugh I've had at the movies all year [including Superbad, I know!] And Sacha Baron Cohen's Pirelli the barber is hilarious.
And then there's the red stuff. The blood. Geysers of it spray out of necks at an alarming rate. But I think it's the best example of Burton's craft coming to the forefront. His greatest skill as a director and a visualist is his knack for combining horror and comedy. I can think of no better example of this brilliant synthesis than the way he deals with the killings in the film. The first death is brutal. a savage beating, a blood soaked floor, and a sliced throat long after we think the job is done. But after that the film slides into a comic montage where the blood sprays ridiculously and the bodies crash down the chute with a comical crunch. Everyone relaxes and smiles. We can't help it. But we're being set up for the big finish. The deaths before the climactic scene with the judge are so quick they are almost an afterthought. But then the brutality returns with a vengeance [see what I did there?] and the film ends on a sudden, unsettling note that is very powerful.
Oh, and kudos to the first person who figures out the opening quote without googling.
Also Merry Christmas everybody.
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