RE: Movies
03-28-2016, 05:05 AM
I've been watching a ton of movies recently so I'll just offer up some thumbnail reactions to some in no particular order:
Big — Tom Hanks is always charming, but one has to wonder why the filmmakers thought the world wanted to see a grown woman get hot for a 13-year-old boy in a man's body.
A Fish Called Wanda — Fails to graduate from "light-hearted caper movie" to an outright farce comedy until after the first 45 minutes, when John Cleese is finally fully roped into the action.
Bonnie And Clyde [1967] — Apparently a big deal for... some reason. The graphic violence (that's not that graphic)? The bevy of soon-to-be-movie-stars? People say that it's like the French New Wave finally hitting Hollywood once and for all, but then, I've never understood what was so different and special about the actual films of the French New Wave (as opposed to their contribution to criticism.) Maybe you just had to be there.
Gun Crazy — Now if you wanna see a movie about two lovers who rob banks, this is the one you want to go for. It's just peppered with A+ directorial work from that era when everyone was a child of Citizen Kane: lots of crane push-ins, depth staging with big-ass heads in the front, high-contrast black-and-white, even a "hey look at me" long take. Check it out if you're in the mood for a good noir.
Wall Street — Okay. In the third act, the movie switches to long takes on hand-held camera, moving from one-shot to one-shot, which is effective for the more harrowed atmosphere. The opening sequence is frustratingly vague, just establishing shots of New York City, but somewhat redeems itself by bookending at the finish. I like the soundtrack, but then, I would, wouldn't I?
Putney Swope — A woozy experience front-to-back, one that deliberately evades any sort of categorization, but with some indelible moments and tics, like how people in scenes repeat themselves with the exact same inflection over and over to underline how banal everything is.
Solaris — Disappointing Tarkovsky. Like a mid-grade original Star Trek episode, really, and its best moment (the car ride) has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie.
Yojimbo — Great. Not much I can really think of to say about it past that right now, which shouldn't be taken as a condemnation.
Man With A Movie Camera — Fucking holy shit, so good. I have this version with an anachronistic acid jazz soundtrack that makes this hoary old silent film come positively alive, like how it and its innovative editing techniques must have been received Back In The Day I imagine. Check it out.
A Man Escaped — An extremely systematic and logical film, almost to the point of minimalism, about a prison break. Good.
Animal House — Wow, literally all the college movie cliches come from here, huh? Dad's right though: Caddyshack's funnier. (I like when they lead the marching band into a dead-end alleyway at the end.)
Persona [1966] — Really gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, and fairly accessible for being a pretentious low-stakes philo-psychodrama about postmodern ennui that begins with a montage of thrilling, surreal nonsense.
Hard Boiled — Yeah, John Woo's magnum opus alright (I say, having seen this and The Killers.) I think I like the Die Hard model of slow-building suspense to an explosive action conclusion more still, though.
Lost In Translation — I also like this soundtrack, and though usually I'm a deep focus guy, I really go for this movie's use of shallow focus because it's pretty on the multicolored city lights and emphasizes the isolation well. By far the most strikingly human of the movies in this post, in terms of how the characters behave and talk and think and how this is all embodied by the actors — it's like it's unstylized, even after it spends minutes mocking the inherent artificiality of acting.
Bicycle Thieves — Critics say this is a really, really great movie, but I honestly think they have just confused something being really serious for being good.
Donnie Darko — It's up its own ass with angst and bullshit, but for some reason that didn't grate on me like it should have? I just wanted to know where it was headed the whole time instead. I don't know, maybe it's just my love of time travel.
The Public Enemy — The opening and closing title cards claim that the movie is not out to glorify gangsterdom, but just like for Scarface I'm gonna have to call bullshit. It might end badly for our protagonist, but Tom looks cool and loves his mother and makes money and is even a little charming the whole way through. It's fascinating to watch the seed of a whole genre like this one is, too, having seen its many offspring: I can even pick up whiffs of Sonatine (the "hold up and wait it out here" part, followed immediately by an off-screen climactic shootout.) It's just a shame how many shots are flat-out out-of-focus, though.
Big — Tom Hanks is always charming, but one has to wonder why the filmmakers thought the world wanted to see a grown woman get hot for a 13-year-old boy in a man's body.
A Fish Called Wanda — Fails to graduate from "light-hearted caper movie" to an outright farce comedy until after the first 45 minutes, when John Cleese is finally fully roped into the action.
Bonnie And Clyde [1967] — Apparently a big deal for... some reason. The graphic violence (that's not that graphic)? The bevy of soon-to-be-movie-stars? People say that it's like the French New Wave finally hitting Hollywood once and for all, but then, I've never understood what was so different and special about the actual films of the French New Wave (as opposed to their contribution to criticism.) Maybe you just had to be there.
Gun Crazy — Now if you wanna see a movie about two lovers who rob banks, this is the one you want to go for. It's just peppered with A+ directorial work from that era when everyone was a child of Citizen Kane: lots of crane push-ins, depth staging with big-ass heads in the front, high-contrast black-and-white, even a "hey look at me" long take. Check it out if you're in the mood for a good noir.
Wall Street — Okay. In the third act, the movie switches to long takes on hand-held camera, moving from one-shot to one-shot, which is effective for the more harrowed atmosphere. The opening sequence is frustratingly vague, just establishing shots of New York City, but somewhat redeems itself by bookending at the finish. I like the soundtrack, but then, I would, wouldn't I?
Putney Swope — A woozy experience front-to-back, one that deliberately evades any sort of categorization, but with some indelible moments and tics, like how people in scenes repeat themselves with the exact same inflection over and over to underline how banal everything is.
Solaris — Disappointing Tarkovsky. Like a mid-grade original Star Trek episode, really, and its best moment (the car ride) has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie.
Yojimbo — Great. Not much I can really think of to say about it past that right now, which shouldn't be taken as a condemnation.
Man With A Movie Camera — Fucking holy shit, so good. I have this version with an anachronistic acid jazz soundtrack that makes this hoary old silent film come positively alive, like how it and its innovative editing techniques must have been received Back In The Day I imagine. Check it out.
A Man Escaped — An extremely systematic and logical film, almost to the point of minimalism, about a prison break. Good.
Animal House — Wow, literally all the college movie cliches come from here, huh? Dad's right though: Caddyshack's funnier. (I like when they lead the marching band into a dead-end alleyway at the end.)
Persona [1966] — Really gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, and fairly accessible for being a pretentious low-stakes philo-psychodrama about postmodern ennui that begins with a montage of thrilling, surreal nonsense.
Hard Boiled — Yeah, John Woo's magnum opus alright (I say, having seen this and The Killers.) I think I like the Die Hard model of slow-building suspense to an explosive action conclusion more still, though.
Lost In Translation — I also like this soundtrack, and though usually I'm a deep focus guy, I really go for this movie's use of shallow focus because it's pretty on the multicolored city lights and emphasizes the isolation well. By far the most strikingly human of the movies in this post, in terms of how the characters behave and talk and think and how this is all embodied by the actors — it's like it's unstylized, even after it spends minutes mocking the inherent artificiality of acting.
Bicycle Thieves — Critics say this is a really, really great movie, but I honestly think they have just confused something being really serious for being good.
Donnie Darko — It's up its own ass with angst and bullshit, but for some reason that didn't grate on me like it should have? I just wanted to know where it was headed the whole time instead. I don't know, maybe it's just my love of time travel.
The Public Enemy — The opening and closing title cards claim that the movie is not out to glorify gangsterdom, but just like for Scarface I'm gonna have to call bullshit. It might end badly for our protagonist, but Tom looks cool and loves his mother and makes money and is even a little charming the whole way through. It's fascinating to watch the seed of a whole genre like this one is, too, having seen its many offspring: I can even pick up whiffs of Sonatine (the "hold up and wait it out here" part, followed immediately by an off-screen climactic shootout.) It's just a shame how many shots are flat-out out-of-focus, though.