For the Love of Film

Stranger Than Paradise (1984) - ****

beisbol — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:50:00 -0400

To fully appreciate Jim Jarmusch’s first film, you must understand the context of when it was made. I have already seen Jarmusch’s second and third films, Down by Law and Mystery Train respectively, but this was my first viewing of Stranger Than Paradise. To those also viewing it for the first time, It may come off as the antithesis of indie filmmaking and thus some may overlook it’s merit, and the important fact that it was the first of it’s kind. We don’t look down on the concept of TOMS shoes just because BOBS come along; the same should go for innovative filmmaking. Stranger Than Paradise showed the kind of quality independent film that could be made by sheer will and desire as opposed to money, and Jarmusch’s style clearly influenced the works of other directors to come such as Gus Van Sant and Quentin Tarantino to name two. And yes, I just compared filmmaking to shoes.

Willie (John Lurie) is an NYC apartment dweller who is annoyed to have his Hungarian cousin Eva (Eszter Balint) stay with him for a week before she is to go to Cleveland where their Aunt Lotte lives. Willie is standoffish towards Eva while his best friend Eddie (Richard Edson) takes a liking to her. Willie begins to enjoy her company though and when she leaves for Cleveland he clearly has a void in his life.

A year later Willie and Eddie decide to visit Eva in Cleveland after winning some money in cards (completely on the up and up, of course). She is happy to see them though she finds it hard to balance spending time with both them and a “friend” of her’s, Billy. Plus Aunt Lotte doesn’t like her going out too much. Willie and Eddie discover what this video can tell you about Cleveland and they decide to head back to New York…until they start talking about Florida. So it’s back to pick up Eva and off to Florida!

The final act in Florida is where the crux of the story occurs, where the most amount of “stuff” actually occurs, but that is what the first two acts were building up to. Jarmusch allows plenty of room for the actors and scenes to play out but at only 89 minutes the film (originally conceived/shot in part as a student film) never feels unnecessarily slow. The three main actors were not traditional actors but rather musicians/artists, Edson was even the original drummer for Sonic Youth. His characterization of Eddie having an innocent crush on Eva is glorious in it’s simplicity and he effectively steals most scenes he is in as given Laurie’s character’s laconic nature.

In watching Stranger Than Paradise I couldn’t help be reminded of Kevin Smith’s Clerks, which came 10 years later. The black and white cinematography with little in the way of cuts, the slow pace and use of black screen and title card to convey passage of times/different scenes all match up. Stranger Than Paradise’s humor is much more low-key however, there is definitely no snowball discussion here. Instead just a film featuring TV dinners and the music of that wild man Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

Brazil (1985) - ****

beisbol — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:44:57 -0400

So I’ve done a pretty bad job at juggling my film major studies and my film blog but I’ve still been watching movies and I finally have some time to do a review. Hopefully there will be more to come.

Brazil is the story of Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), a man working in a small department in the British utopian society of the future. Of course this facist society isn’t quite as well organized as you may think and the smallest of small errors (The names Tuttle and Buttle are very similar, you see) leads to all sorts of headaches for everyone who works there. Sam is already unhappy but this error leads him to meet the girl he’s been dreaming about, a truck driver named Jill Layton (Pam Grier). The problem is that Jill has made herself quite a nuisance in the Buttle/Tuttle error as she wants the government to right their wrong and explain why her neighbor Mr. Buttle was harshly abducted instead of the man they were looking for, a rogue outlaw repairman named Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). But Sam is in love and takes a promotion he doesn’t even want just to learn more about Jill. His bosses tell him to mind his work but Sam’s too far gone: Jill is all the matters.

The thing I would point out about Brazil that my description doesn’t do justice is that it’s very, very funny. Certainly director and Monty Python alumni Terry Gilliam is no stranger to comedy and Brazil is full of great little gags and humor that doesn’t beat you over the head (well, except for Tuttle and Sam’s revenge on the workers who seize Sam’s apartment).

Pryce plays Sam well as an affable, average hero who starts to act out when his heart overpowers his head. Gilliam was supposedly unhappy with Grier’s performance as Jill but as a character she doesn’t speak a whole lot and she does a fine job at looking good. De Niro’s role as Tuttle is small but he steals nearly every scene he’s in. And a cast of smaller characters such as Katherine Helmond as Sam’s mother Ida all have some time to shine and add a lot to the odd world portrayed in Brazil.

Brazil has gained a reputation for being one of the strangest films ever and for being confusing, but I find neither of these descriptions to be the case. Admittedly it’s a bit strange but at it’s core it’s a love story set in Orwell’s 1984 future. It was probably stranger in 1985 but these days it’s pretty common fare. And having watched the 142 minute directors cut released by The Criterion Collection I didn’t find the film to be hard to follow at all. I found it witty, engaging, and to some extent, inspiring. In the face of adversity Gilliam ultimately made the film he wanted and it is a fine piece of art.

Brazil has nothing to do with the country of Brazil but everything to do with good filmmaking.

King of California (2007) - ***1/2

beisbol — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:26:54 -0400

Sundance films can be hit or miss depending on a lot of factors. King of California received generally good reviews but it was largely ignored in almost all facets of release. And that’s a real shame because it’s a really good film.

Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) is a 16 year old girl in Southern California who’s been working at McDonald’s for the last two years to keep up payments on her car and house. She has these things because her father Charlie (Michael Douglas) has been in a mental institution for these two years. But now he’s out and Miranda’s life is no longer that simple as he often acts impulsively, doing things like, say, hitting on a female cop. More specifically he is determined to discover buried treasure that he read about in many books, supposedly left in the vicinity of their town by the Spanish explorer Father Juan Florismarte Torres. There’s one problem: Charlie’s calculations determine that the treasure is buried under a Costco’s. But is it really that big of a problem?

King of California was written and directed by Mike Cahill who’s IMDB page shows only that he’s written an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast and a movie called Boxers and Ballerinas, and that he hasn’t worked on anything since King of California. This basically boggles my mind as King of California is a fantastic little film. It doesn’t set out to shock audiences or have over the top comedy, it just tells a really good story about a modern day search for treasure set in beautiful Southern California.

Michael Douglas turns in his usual great performance as the eccentric and instantly likable Charlie. Even a flashback of him trying to kill himself and some of his more selfish actions don’t take away from his charm. Evan Rachel Wood plays the straight character well and even though she sometimes comes off as a wet blanket to the well meaning Charlie she hits the emotional moments in the film really well and really made me forgot for a moment or two that she’s romantically linked to Marilyn Manson in real life (which I still find really odd).

I would really recommend to anyone looking for a movie to brighten your day a little bit that King reigns supreme.

Amarcord (1973) - ***

beisbol — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:19:40 -0400

Italian director Federico Fellini is considered one of the premiere filmmakers of the 20th century. I have yet to see much of his work beyond Amarcord and 8 1/2 and while Amarcord wasn’t exactly what I expected or pictured, I can see why Fellini has the reputation that preceeds him.

Amarcord is set in 1930’s facist Italy and introduces us to an entire village’s worth of character. The main story followed is that of Titta (Bruno Zanin), a typical teenager who likes to cause trouble with his friends and is very interested in girls. Or, in the case of the town beauty Gradisca (Magali Noël), women. Titta is also good at annoying his extremely short-tempered father Aurelio (Armando Brancia) while his mother Miranda (Pupella Maggio) is more patient, but only slightly. Aurelio isn’t quite into the whole Facism thing and has to deal with those consequences, as well of the consequences of taking his crazy brother out of the asylum for a day.

Amarcord surprised me because I was expecting something a bit more artsy or deep like 8 1/2 and instead there were numerous masturbation, sex, and fart jokes. That certainly doesn’t make the movie bad but it definitely caught me off guard.

That’s not to suggest that Amarcord isn’t art either as it features a number of beautiful shots and imagery. The acting is fine and nobody is out for an Oscar (well, except for Fellini) as the drama of living in facism is outweighed by the comedy in the film. The story of Gradisca probably could have carried a movie in itself as she is both very mysterious while very visible and lovely.

Amarcord is well worth a viewing and was a good choice for release by the Criterion Collection. I just wish Fellini could have given audio commentary for the scene where the boys masturbate in the car at the same time. That would have been interesting.

A Tumblr Tuesday recommendation pick for this blog in 'Film'

beisbol — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:01:02 -0400

would make you a winner in my eyes.

http://www.tumblr.com/directory/recommend

Whip It (2009) - **1/2

beisbol — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:50:00 -0400

One of my general rules is that I will watch anything if my favorite actors or actresses are in it. This rule applies to people such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christian Bale, Robert Downey Jr, Tina Fey and Natalie Portman. Another name on that list though is Ellen Page and while Whip It didn’t look bad per se, it didn’t look particularly good either. I just felt as though an actress as talented as Page could be working on better projects than a cookie cutter story about roller derby. And ultimately I still think that’s the case.

Page plays Bliss Cavendar, the kind of girl who, at the insistence of her friend Pash (Arrested Development star and real life Page friend Alia Shawkat) dyes her hair blue right before she’s set to take place in a beauty pageant her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) places her in. Bliss and Pash don’t seem to quite fit in in Bodeen, Texas. After Bliss meets women on a roller derby team called the Hurl Scouts like Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig) and Smashley Simpson (Drew Barrymore). Bliss and Pash attend a game between the Scouts and the Holly Rollers, who are led by the intimidating Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis). Maggie convinces Bliss to try roller derby and thus Babe Ruthless is born. Things go great for a while and Bliss even meets a rockstar boy she likes named Oliver but things suddenly come crashing down as all of her relationships spiral out of control. But at least there’s still roller derby. I guess.

Directed by Drew Barrymore Whip It is exactly what I thought it would be albeit at almost two hours, longer than what I expected. Page is adorable and later strong as Bliss but as a character we never learn much other then ‘oh, that girl just isn’t like everybody else’. Wiig and Barrymore aren’t particularly funny in their roles while Alia Shawkat is. Barrymore’s Fever Pitch co-star Jimmy Fallon steals most scenes he’s in as announcer Johnny Rocket who is obsessed with hot tubs. Andrew Wilson (the forgotten Wilson brother) and Daniel Stern are both entertaining as Bliss’s coach and father, respectively. Landon Pigg was an odd choice for a love interest and he doesn’t have much chemistry with Page.

Whip It is a decent flick to catch on a rainy day but not much more than that. I know you like Drew Barrymore, Ellen (the pictures of you kissing her indicate you like her a lot!), but you can do better.

Antichrist (2009) - **

beisbol — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:39:16 -0400

I wasn’t familar with the work of Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier before watching Antichrist. Apparently he and a number of other filmmakers have taken on a dogma, avant garde style called ‘Dogme 95’. Antichrist seems to fall into that category and after having watched it, I have no interest in seeing any more Dogme 95 films.

Told in four chapters with an epilouge and a prolouge, a man (Willem Dafoe) and woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are having sex when their young child Nick climbs out from his crib and falls out a window to his death. Overcome with grief the couple retreat to the woods where the man (who is a therapist) is hopeful he can help his spouse get over her depression and fears. A number of strange things start happening though, including ticks on the man’s arm and the woman constantly needing sex from the man, culminating with the man finding a fox disembowling itself and turning to him and saying “Chaos reigns”. The rest of the film is a bloody, physical battle between the man and woman as it becomes clear that there is something very wrong with her. The mutilate each other sexually and in the end, only one is walking out alive.

Antichrist sets up a really interesting story with a beautiful opening scene (although even that features a hardcore shot of penetration) of a couple retreating to the woods after the death of a child and then pisses it all away with gross-out horror scenes. And I feel like I can sit through almost anything, I even made a point of watching Cannibal Holocaust even though I never want to do that again. But Antichrist, featuring graphic scenes where a the man’s penis is stimulated to climax blood and the woman’s clitoris is cut off is far, far too much for me and my psyche. I give Dafoe and Gainsbourgh a lot of credit for giving the film a shot but neither should include any part of it on their all-time career reels.

Many have tried to determine what Von Trier is suggesting in the subtext of the film but to me it’s pretty clear he’s simply trying to shock the audience as no resolution or explanation is hinted at in any meaningful way. Antichrist is technically profecient enough to recieve two stars from me, but I can’t actually recommend this film.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) - ***

beisbol — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:14:24 -0400

I’m a big fan of the Criterion Collection and the films they release. Criterion’s critera (say that five times fast) for releasing films is that they look for “important classic and contemporary” films. 1964’s Robinson Crusoe on Mars may seem like an odd choice, one of dozens of Sci-Fi flicks made before we ever even landed on the moon. But it has a number of important characteristics that make it more then the kind of old movie you’d find in the $5 bin.

Colonel Dan McReady (Adam West, yes, that Adam West) and Christopher ‘Kit’ Draper (Paul Mantee) make up the crew on the Mars Gravity Probe 1 ship. Actually there is another member, a small money named Mona (played by a wooly monkey named Barney in a gender-bending role). The ship narrowly avoids a meteor but Draper and McReady are forced to evacuate. Draper makes it down to Mars but McReady is killed in the crash. Save for the company of a screeching Mona, Draper is now alone, a modern day Robinson Crusoe, on a strange planet. He finds that he can breathe the air for short periods of time and that there is water on the planet (hey, it was 1964, I’m giving them a break). To paraphrase The Killers Draper finds that when offered survival, it’s hard enough to life. In this case it’s the loneliness and realization that he will likely spend the rest of his life alone. That is, until he comes across a spaceship which he thinks will rescue him. It turns out the craft is alien and it is attempting to kill a number of slaves, one of whom (Victor Lundin) escapes with Draper’s help. Draper is no longer alone, but is he really better off?

Directed by Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds) Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a gorgeous film. The colors and sets on Mars are vivid and imaginative and the science was actually correct for a brief period where it was believed that there was breathable air and water on Mars. It is not only the look of the film that makes it notable but the script as well is well thought out and written, with John C. Higgins and Ib Melchoir sharing screenwriting credit. I’ve seen a number of bad 1950’s and 1960’s sci-fi films that attempted to do what Robinson Crusoe on Mars does and they don’t come half as close to the film’s ability to generate feelings of emotion. Paul Mantee carries the load in a one man show and is affable as Draper, who suddenly becomes overbearing when given a companion in Friday (his name for Lundin’s character). But that subsides as their friendship grows and the ending is genuine, if rushed. And Mona the monkey is adorable in her (his) little space outfit.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a fine film well worth a look to see how we used to imagine space and didn’t take it’s exploration and sheer vastness for granted. It’s also a good companion piece to the famous Tom Hanks movie Castaway as that film utilizes a number of concepts established in RCOM.

Star Trek (2009) - ***1/2

beisbol — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:27:00 -0400

Straight up: I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the original Star Trek. Oh sure, I know all about Kirk and Spock and ‘Beam me up Scotty’ and all that. My lack of viewing though is not out of a lack of interest or anything, it’s just something I’ve never gotten around to. And quite frankly I like enough ‘nerdy’ things without adding the top stereotype. With the interest of person’s like myself in mind, people who have never actually watched the show, the entire Star Trek television/film series was rebooted with Lost creator JJ Abrams 2009 film simply called ‘Star Trek’.

James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) is born in the year 2323 just as his father George orders his Federation starship the USS Kelvin to be evacuated as he collides it into the invading Romulan ship. Kirk is an underachiever as a teenager but after a bar fight he is recruited Captain Pike to join Starfleet. Kirk is the only one in Starfleet who is able to solve the test that Vulcan Spock (Zachary Quinto) programmed. Spock is convinced Kirk cheated but before they can get to the bottom of things the Vulcan planet is put under attack and the cadets must all be sent up to try and help. Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) sneaks Kirk on board. Also on board are crew members Uhara (Zoe Salanda), Sulu (John Cho), Chekov (Anton Yelchin), and later, Scotty (Simon Pegg). Spock and Kirk don’t like each other but they have to get along if they are to accomplish their mission. Easier said than done.

Abrams stuck with writers he’d previously worked with on Mission Impossible III in Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci (The Island, Transformers). Those credits for Kurtzman and Orci indicate they can put together a script filled with action but perhaps it was Abrams direction that grounded Star Trek into more of a character study then a giant blockbuster. That’s not to say there isn’t action in the film, there’s plenty of it. But all of the dialouge here actually matters and isn’t just a set-up to see robots punch each other.

The casting was dicey but worked out perfectly. Pine and Quinto were both relative unknowns in most circles before being cast as the young versions of characters that have been around longer then the actors themselves. Both delivered excellent performances though with Pine as the confident Kirk and Quinto as the reserved and brilliant Spock. And now the producers in an excellent situation to use their young actors for numerous potential sequels. The rest of the crew is well cast as Cho and Salenda both avoid being merely ‘there’ because their ethnicity matched those of the original actors by turning in good performances, Salenda in particular. Urban is impossible not to like as Bones and the same goes for Pegg as Scotty, who provides some comic relief. Eric Bana, under a plethora of make-up, play the evil Romulan leader and the lovely and underrated Winona Ryder rounds out the cast as Spock’s mother.

The Star Trek reboot could have been a disaster in the wrong hands, just look at the number of films/series that get made only to be remade a few years later because the first one failed to launch either financially or creatively. But J.J. Abrams cemented his ever expanding legacy by successfully transferring one of TV’s most famous shows to the big screen. Plus he claims to be a huge Twilight Zone fan, which only serves to make fellow huge fans like me more excited.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) - ***1/2

beisbol — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:58:49 -0400

Based on a graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a film that speaks to the sarcastic 20-something in all of us. What could be considered a nerdy comic book filled with pop culture references and hipster tendencies is now a 60 million dollar plus film. But does the beloved series lose it’s charm in it’s adapation to the big screen? Nah.

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a 22 year old living in Toronto hoping to find success with his band Sex Bob-omb and find love, not necessarily in that order. He’s dating 17 year old Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) but he still struggles with his break from current rock star Envy Adams (Brie Larson). All of this means something until he has a dream about a girl with pink hair and then he meets her at a party: Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Scott is obsessed with this girl. A slight problem is that Knives is still obsessed with Scott. But Scott drops Knives like a bad habit to be with his (literal) dream girl. An even bigger problem: Ramona has 7 evil ex’s who Scott must fight and defeat in order to be with her. The ex’s include a movie star (Chris Evans), a rock star (Brandon Routh), twins, and someone from when Ramona was experimenting. And at the top of the chain: Gideon (Jason Schwartzman). Can Scott Pilgrim defeat the 7 evil ex’s to win Ramona? Will Young Neil (Jason Simmons) ever stop being awkward? Will NFL star Pacman Jones consider changing his name to Puckman Jones? Will I never not appreciate a film that features both Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza? Will Arrested Development fans yell out “HER?” during a scene in the movie? Will consequences ever be the same?

Scott Pilgrim is one of the most original films you’ll see in quite some time. Granted that sounds a bit silly to say when it’s based on a comic series but it’s true, there are very few movies as creative and inventive as this. It feels like a live action comic but not in any way you’ve previously seen. The CGI works perfectly as opposed to your typical action flick where everything looks too good to possibly be true. Scott Pilgrim is an out and out fantasy without ever taking itself seriously.

Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) has a great track record with creativity and Scott Pilgrim is another notch in his belt. Everything is bright and fast paced and the jokes are laugh and minute stuff. The film is very well cast as Cera plays Pilgrim perfectly with deadpan reactions and childlike innocence. Winstead is charming as Ramona but she doesn’t have to do too much as Ramona herself is a mystery wrapped inside an enigma. The supporting cast is excellent though as Mark Webber is great as Sex Bob-bomb frontman Stephen Stills and Kieran Culkin steals nearly every scene he’s in as Scott’s gay roommate Wallace Wells. Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza both have small, funny roles as Scott’s sister and enemy, respectively.

The one flaw with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is that it has to cram so much story into one film and so not everything gets the amount of attention it deserves. Scott’s past relationships are brought up but not really expanded upon other then revealing that Scott isn’t exactly the perfect boyfriend. All of Ramona’s evil ex’s get a backstory and explanation but not enough to make them really stand out.

Scott Pilgrim is a very fun film and one that will likely be more enjoyed with multiple viewings. And to those who don’t care for the film, I just have this to say. Meh.

An unprofessional confession: I missed the end of the fight with the 3rd evil (vegan) Ex as I had to quickly lower my pee bar. Also this film made me feel like my hair may be getting too shaggy. So I need a winter hat.

I Am Legend (2007) - **1/2

beisbol — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 10:33:00 -0400

Will Smith’s rise to the top of Hollywood has always sort of baffled me. He’s certainly a charismatic and charming personality who was funny on a sitcom but it just seems like he went from TV star to movie star overnight. He didn’t have one ‘breakout’ role, he just started starring in big budget blockbusters like Independence Day and Men In Black which were likely to do good business regardless of Smith’s involvement. This is not to say he’s not a good actor; he is. I just don’t get how he became what he is today. I Am Legend is another example of that.

The year is 2012, the place is New York City. One man scientist Robert Neville (Smith) is left all alone except for his dog Sam and manequin Frank. Oh and the mutants that come out at night that everybody turned into after Neville’s cure for cancer turned out to kill most and turn the rest into these Darkseekers. He lost his wife and daughter in an accident during the initial madness and it still haunts him. Neville is hopeful to find a cure and to find more humans still out there. The film’s lesson is: never try and cure cancer.

Based on the novel of the same name by original Twilight Zone writer Richard Matheson, I Am Legend had been adapted for the screen twice before in The Omega Man. Here director Francis Lawrence (Constantine) is almost deadly serious and at times it works and at others it falls flat. The film is primarily a one man show for Smith and his interactions with his dog, the manequin (goddamnit Fred!), and the darkseekers. Smith gives a good performance but not so good that it elevates the entire movie.

I Am Legend is a perfectly fine little movie but it doesn’t reach what it was going for and it falls short of the campy fun that is The Omega Man.

Fun fact: I went to see this movie when it came out with a friend. The film ended with a long shot followed by the directing crediting leaving some to groan in disapointment. But two guys didn’t just groan, they yelled. “BULLSHIT!” yelled out one voice, immediately followed by “WASTE OF MONEY!” It was amazing.

100 followers

beisbol — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:05:56 -0400

…may not seem like a big deal to a lot of people especially when there are plenty of blogs with more, but it’s a milestone that means a lot to me. It was a little over a month ago I decided on a whim to create a film review blog and now a few weeks later I have 100 sets of eyeballs looking at my humble opinion. I had a lot of work over the last week or two but I should get back into the swing of things with more reviews coming. Thank you to everybody who checks out For the Love of Film.

Zodiac (2007) - ****

beisbol — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:48:47 -0400

Director David Fincher has certainly carved out a name and niche for himself. He started with the blockbuster Alien 3 where he cut his teeth and then directed the very successful Se7en. After The Game he then directed the (in)famous Fight Club in 1999, which I have previously reviewed here on For the Love of Film. Fincher followed up Fight Club with the very underrated Panic Room in 2002 (which I would like to review at some point). And then five years went by before Fincher released his next, and best, film. And that’s saying something because I’ve listed some good movies and he even followed this one up with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (another one I’d like to review soon). But just as Tarantino considered Inglorious Basterds his masterpiece, I believe Zodiac is Fincher’s finest moment.

Zodiac is based on a true story. Right at the end of the 60’s a serial killer strikes in San Francisco and starts writing encrypted letters to the San Francsico Chronicle (as well as two other Bay Area newspapers), demanding that they be published or he will kill more people. The crime reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr) can’t figure out what to make of these letters but mild-mannered single parent Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) who works as a political cartoonist at the Chronicle is able to figure it out. He quickly takes a very strong interest in cracking the Zodiac code and helping to stop the murders. They don’t stop though and detectives Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) are put on the case. They quickly find though that, like Avery and Graysmith, there are a lot of dead ends. Pretty soon the murders seem to stop but the hunt continues and it starts to consume all of these men’s lives. Who is the Zodiac?

Robert Graysmith is an actual man who wrote books about the Zodiac Killer. His memories and recollections help shape the story and the screenplay by James Vanderbilt benefits from this as well as all the investigating done by Graysmith, Vanderbilt, and Fincher.

Gyllenhaal is perfectly cast as Graysmith, an upstanding man just trying to do the best he can for his son but with something lurking underneath. Why does the case mean so goddamn much to him? He’s a political cartoonist and has nothing to do with the police and crime section. Downey Jr is arrogant but likeable as Avery and Ruffalo’s character Toschi (complete with action sideburns) is impossible not to feel bad for as he is eaten alive by the case. Chloe Sevigny has a small turn as Graysmith’s blind date/spouse and the undersung John Carroll Lynch (Fargo, The Drew Carey Show) gives perhaps the best performance of the entire film as the entirely creepy Arthur Leigh Allen. Actually Phillip Baker Hall’s character who used to work with Allen may be even terrfying.

The amazing thing in Zodiac is how little in the way of ‘action’ there is during the entire second half of the film and yet because the first hour set up the story so well you don’t even realize it. The story is so engaging and intriguing guns and knives aren’t needed at all. And frankly it doesn’t even matter because this really isn’t a story about the Zodiac Killer, it’s a story about the people who tried to discover the Zodiac Killer’s identity. Despite the on-screen murders the scariest part of Zodiac occurs when nobody is even killed.

This is all a credit to Fincher who’s direction gives Zodiac an ominous (Northern California) feel while setting up all sorts of unsettling situations and events. There is an unmistakable feeling that something big is going on here. And it is.

Zodiac didn’t make much money at the box office or get much mainstream attention but make no mistake about it: Zodiac is a gripping two and a half hour ride that will tell you a real story you don’t already know.

yeahh what about I am legend,Rounders,Gladiator will like to see ur reviews on those films ur killing it good job

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:59:46 -0400

I can review I Am Legend soon and Rounders is a flick I’ve been meaning to watch for some time so I’ll try and get to that one too. And it’s been forever since I’ve seen Gladiator but I’d love to review it. Thanks for the suggestions and compliment!

Eraserhead (1976) - ***1/2

beisbol — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:34:33 -0400

It took 5 years for filmmaker David Lynch to shoot and put together his first feature-length film in 1976’s Eraserhead. This is somewhat odd considering the dialouge in the film is extremely sparse and the overall low-budget look of the movie. But Lynch was able to scrounge up enough money from friends to put together the film that quickly became a cultural phenomenon and very early on defined what kind of films he made.

Eraserhead tells the story of Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), a quiet man with black, fright-wig style hair. He lives alone in his little apartment and is currently on ‘vacation’. But he gets a call from his old girlfriend Mary (Charlotte Stewart) asking him to join her family for dinner. They have an akward dinner complete with squirting (don’t ask) chicken and Mary’s mother trying to seduce Henry before telling him that Mary is pregnant. So Jack, being the honorable man that he is, agrees to marry her. So they move into his apartment along with the ‘baby’. I use that term very loosely as the thing born is hardly human, is completely grotesque, and never stops making noise. Ever. Mary soon abandons them and Jack is left alone with this thing and suddenly starts seeing things like an ugly woman in the radiator, a man in a planet, and he even seemingly has a fling with an attractive neighbor. But the baby’s presence leads to him have weird dreams that involve his head and pencils. And suddenly Henry can take no more. It’s him or the baby. One walks (or crawls) out alive.

Right off the bat the dinner scene, the scenes with the baby, and Henry’s dream sequence will stand out as some of the most bizarre things you’ll ever see. I can only imagine what audiences in 1976 thought about them. Variety said that the film was a ”sickening bad-taste exercise” while other reviewers and publications felt it was ground-breaking. Because of all of this press it quickly became a hit as a cult midnight-movie in the vein of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Night of the Living Dead. Those are both fairly normal when compared to Eraserhead.

Eraserhead is a film that you can look for deep meaning in but it’s doubtful you’ll find one. It touches on child birth, isolation, and dreams but doesn’t exactly paint a clear picture of Lynch’s particular feelings on any of these things. Variety may have found it to be an excercise in bad-taste but it’s an exercise in surrealism more than anything. There’s only a story in the vaguest sense and the film is primarily comprised of odd imagery. You can’t take your eyes off of it and it’s quite funny at times.

Check out Eraserhead if you don’t want to be bogged down by the silliness of things like ’dialouge’ and if you want to ensure that you won’t be sleeping later that night.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) - ****

beisbol — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:38:00 -0400

There’s no set barometer for these things, but usually it’s about halfway through a really good movie is when I find myself thinking “I love this film”. Wes Anderson’s latest film, his first PG rated and (stop-motion) animated one, only needed a half hour to get me thinking it. And by the time the credits rolled I felt like I had watched my favorite animated film ever.

Mr. Fox (George Clooney) lives with his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) and awkward son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) in their home underground. He was a thief for a number of years, stealing chickens along with other items from farmers until he swore to Felicity that he would give it up. So he became a columnist. But he isn’t happy living underground so he decides the family, along with Ash’s cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson) who is staying with the family because his father is ill (and who is smart, athletic, good looking - everything that Ash isn’t), should purchase a home in a tree. Fox ignores the warnings of his lawyer Badger (Bill Murray) who tells him that it’s a bad idea to live near the three evil farmers Boggis, Bean, and Bunce. But Fox has a master plan: He has his friend Kylie Opossum (Wallace Wolodarsky) help him steal from all three farmers. But soon enough the famous farmers realize what is going on and set out to put an end to Fox, his family (featuring a mini-feud between Ash and easy going Kristofferson), and his friends once and for all.

What makes Fantastic Mr. Fox so fantastic? The stop-motion animation utilizes a number of puppets while still looking much more slick and realistic then, say, Nightmare Before Christmas. The Fox family in particular look amazing but all of the animal characters look great. The humans are portrayed as odd looking, particularly our three farmers, which fits the ‘wild animals’ theme.

The voiceover talent for the film is second to none. George Clooney is cagey, witty, and sly as Mr. Fox, a character who admits he wants to be loved and appreciated even if it means showing off or doing dumb things. Meryl Streep isn’t given a large number of lines but she brings an emotional core to the film that seperates it from your typical ‘cartoon’. A line she delivers in particular about her marriage is heavy stuff for a light family film.

The rest of the cast is compromised primarily of Anderson regulars: Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, and Willem DaFoe. All do a good job with their roles even though Wilson’s probably could have been cut and not changed the film. Schwartzman shines as Ash who is just different. And he gets jealous easily. But Schwartzman keeps him likeable. Two other Anderson regulars who aren’t actually regular actors provide the voices for Kristofferson and Opossum. Eric Anderson is Wes’s brother and does a good job as the humble Kristofferson and former Simpsons writer and Anderson friend Wally Wolodarsky is hilarious as Opossum.

Based on a novel by the famous children’s author Ronald Dahl, the screenplay by Anderson and Noah Baumbach is filled with great running gags like Opossum’s stare and the use of the word ‘cuss’. And the reaction by Bean to a song by Jarvis Cocker (playing a character named Petey) is classic. The film uses a playground song about Boggis, Bean, and Bunce in a number of different ways and it never grows tiresome as it becomes a mantra of sorts.

In short the soundtrack is catchy (even featuring my favorite Beach Boys song!), the writing is sharp, the voice acting is great, and the story is just incredibly fun. This was just a cussing great movie.

Smokin' Aces (2007) - **1/2

beisbol — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 03:40:21 -0400

Released in early 2007 Smokin’ Aces was labeled a Quentin Tarantino knockoff and was met with generally negative critical reviews despite grossing a decent amount of money and gaining a bit of a following. A sequel (or prequel) was even released last year directly to DVD although it was met with even more, justifiable, criticism. But what of the original film itself?

Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven) is about to make a deal with the feds ratting out everybody he’s been involved with in organized crime, specifically longtime mob boss Primo Sparazza. FBI Detectives Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) are assigned by Assistant Director Locke (Andy Garcia) to get to Israel and take him into protective custody before he winds up in a body bag for being a snitch. Two former cops join Las Vegas bounty hunter Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck), who was hired by attorney Rip Reed (Jason Bateman), to keep Israel safe and make sure he doesn’t skip bail. But there a whole lot more people who want Israel dead and all sorts of assassians intend to collect the reward for killing Israel as well as ‘taking his heart’. There’s Georgia (Alicia Keys) and Sharice (Taraji P. Henson), with Georgia being more laid back while Sharice is a high-strung femanist who seems to really love Georgia as more than a friend. There’s the Tremor Brothers (Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, Maury Sterling) who are just these heavy metal redneck Neo-Nazi types who are like characters out of The Road Warrior only cranked up about 100 notches. There’s Pasquale “The Plague” Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) who once chewed off his own fingertips completely to escape identification. And lastly there’s Lazlo Soot, a man the other assassians barely know anything about because of his extraordinary talent at disguise. He is specifically hired by Sparazza to take out Israel.

The characters in Smokin’ Aces are painted with broad strokes. Writer and Director Joe Carnahan sets up our characters motivation (either wanting to save or kill Israel) and proceeds to delve into action. The action itself is slick, fast-paced and very, very violent. And as in most shoot ‘em up movies, almost nobody dies from just one bullet. There’s a nice Psycho-like misdirection early on in the film that I enjoyed and leads to the film’s funniest moment where one of the Tremor brothers performs an impromptu ventriloquist act.

Because the characters are fairly one dimensional ‘good’ acting isn’t required. That’s not to say there are bad performances because most are fine/good, but there were a number of characters and scenes that ultimately could have easily have been cut (strange karate kid and grandma, I’m looking at you) and still told the story perfectly well. Liotta and Reynolds are likeable as dedicated agents and Jeremy Piven plays the mentally checked-out asshole (quite a stretch for him) role well. And Alicia Keys certainly doesn’t embarrass herself in her film debut, giving a solid performance and looking absolutely stunning as well.

Smokin’ Aces sets up an interesting story but doesn’t quite deliver on the payoff it seems to have been building to. I feel like Carnahan tried to be too clever for his own good and it likely left more then a few viewers baffled. To me it felt very much like a SAW film type of ending and it felt a bit out of place in this environment.

Smokin’ Aces won’t ever play in an arthouse nor will it be shown in film school as a brilliant character study of original ideas but it’s a fairly fun movie to kick back and watch and think “Well this is completely ridiculous…but kinda cool”.

If you haven't used your pick Tumblr Tuesday...

beisbol — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:32:21 -0400

Any recommendations for me in the Film category would be GREATLY appreciated. I just gained a whole bunch of followers though and that already made my day. I promise Tuesday(s) will be the only day where I’ll bother you with non-review material.

A Scanner Darkly (2006) - ***

beisbol — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 19:40:00 -0400

A Scanner Darkly is one of those films where you watch it and your first reaction is “Wait…what?” But afterwards I sat down and thought about it and I realized that I liked it a lot.

A Scanner Darkly tells the story of Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) who is an undercover agent for the police/state/government. You see in the future A Scanner Darkly tells we have lost the war on drugs, specifically to the dangerous Substance D. So Arctor lives, undercover, with addicts Ernie (Woody Harrelson) and James Barris (Robert Downey Jr) hoping to find out where the D is coming from and how to shut it down. Also the extremely paranoid/burned out Freck (Rory Cochrane) hangs around just to up the general insanity factor that the trio already has going on. The only problem with this undercover job is that Arctor himself is actually addicted to Substance D. Actually there’s another problem as well: The whole sting operation is completely secretive to the point where agents like Arctor don’t know who other agents are and they don’t know who he is. They wear these suits that are constantly changing and go by code names when speaking to each other, never revealing their true identity. Due to his addiction to Substance D Arctor is finding more and more difficult to carry out his job or even remember that he has one. And then there’s his relationship with fellow addict Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder) which only serves to drive a wedge between Arctor and Barris, the latter of which is revealed to be someone who would sell Arctor or any of his other ‘friends’ up the river in a heartbeat. Arctor’s world and grasp on sanity seem to be slipping with each passing minute, can he finish this job?

Based on a novel by Philip K. Dick (a famous science fiction writer who seemed to live in his own science fiction world), Richard Linklater wrote and directed A Scanner Darkly. In adapting it he kept the basic story structure and the number of twists and turns that I won’t spoil here. These are what confused me initially before I figured it out, partially thanks to the help of wikipedia. At a certain point the final ‘twist’ seems to be a little tacked on but it doesn’t detract from the film or it’s themes.

The film has no shortage of talented actors as Reeves, Harreslon, Downey Jr, Cochrane, and Ryder are all playing interesting, and complex, characters. Harrelson and Cochrane both provide some comic relief in a very dark and strange film while Reeves provides drama and Downey’s character just seems to have something lurking undernearth his exterior. And I’ve <3’d Wynona Ryder ever since I first saw Beetle Juice when I was younger. Oh and insane political activist Alex Jones even has a brief part.

A Scanner Darkly is presented in ‘rotoscope’, a type of realistic animation where-in the film is shot and then each layer is colored or ‘rotoshopped’ over. As reported by the Toronto Star ” Each minute of animation required 350 hours of work with 50 animators working full-time every day”. This basically blows my mind. There are a lot of stories and rumors indicating that Linklater basically left after only a few weeks of production, leaving everything to the overworked animators.

Whether those rumors are true or not the film’s animators and production staff should be proud of their pain-staking work as the film looks great. Treat yourselves to some Substance D fellas.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) - ***1/2

beisbol — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:50:00 -0400

Wes Anderson is certainly a polarizing figure in filmmaking. His movies are beloved by some (yes, including hipsters) who praise them as witty and engaging and then when the general public watches them there seems to be a backlash of “…That’s it?” That was pretty much my parents after they watched The Royal Tenenbaums. I don’t think they’ve given ol’ Wes another chance. I’m a fan though albeit one who thinks his films (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore,The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox) can be hit or miss but I think they’re all worth watching at least once. The Life Aqautic is one of Anderson’s best.

Our titular character, Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), is a 52 year old oceanographer who was once the toast of the nautical entertainment world with his documentaries but now finds his career on the decline. “I know I haven’t been at my best this last decade…” is how Zissou puts it. But after his latest film is met with critical failure and he loses his oldest friend Esteban, Zissou decides to go after the ‘Jaguar Shark’ that ate Esteban and make a great film. He is with his usual crew, with his second in command now being the surprisingly sensitive german Klaus (Willem DaFoe), but Kentucky boy Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson) comes along as to help finance and make the film as he and Steve believe they may very well be father and son. Also on the trip is pregnant writer Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett) who annoys Steve with her honest assessments but is attracted to Ned. The trip turns out to be something else though as they encounter pirates, and Zissou’s fellow oceanographer (who was once married to Zissou’s wife) Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum). Along the way Steve makes sure cameraman Vikram (Waris Ahluwalia) films everything. Everything. Oh and there is a corporate stooge and stuent interns along for the trip as well. And dolphins. Lousy dolphins.

Anderson directed The Life Aquatic and co-wrote it with fellow filmmaker Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg). The Life Aquatic succeeds in creating this weird little universe of red caps, speedos, and underwater adventure. The humor is subtle and quotable, but even though only a few lines stand out as actual ‘jokes’ there’s rarely a dull moment in The Life Aquatic.

Anderson wrote the part of Zissou specifically for Murray (who he’d worked with on Rushmore) and it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing the part. As Zissou puts it he comes off as kind of a showboat and a prick but he’s okay with that, and so are we. His scenes with Wilson are tough not to enjoy as Zissou is obviously a complicated man who can’t bring himself to let Ned call him ‘dad’, opting instead of ‘Stevesy’. He’ll settle for Papa Steve though. But it’s not the same for Ned who longs to be close with his father. Blanchett as ‘cubbie’ wasn’t exactly a well written character but her acting is fine and the character doesn’t bring the movie down. The ending of The Life Aquatic isn’t necessarily happy and makes you wish for something wacky to happen but it makes sense in telling the story and purposely leaves one loose end. The majority of the soundtrack is comprised of a member of Zissou’s crew, Pelé (Seu Jorge), singing David Bowie songs in Portuguese.

If you’re new to Wes Anderson I would suggest you watch Bottle Rocket first and The Darjeeling Limited last. In between, I would suggest The Life Aquatic.