Movies Seen:
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
A Woman is a Woman
Dallas Buyers Club
Paisan
Q Planes
Rabindranath Tagore
Le Cercle Rouge
Sade
Convoy
The Way, Way Back
Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011):
What is it about Mission Impossible movies? They keep
pumping them out, and none of them rise above mediocre. I am actually a big fan
of the first movie, although I can’t really explain why. Number 2 and number 3,
not so much. Ghost Protocol, in my opinion, has only one thing going for it
over the others and that is its sense of humor. I don’t know if that’s due to
the screen writers or Brad Bird’s directorial efforts. Either way, it works really
well compared to the droll super-serious 2nd and 3rd movies. Action is all well
and good in an action movie, but I can get that almost anywhere and in more
entertaining flavors than Ghost Protocol. No, once again, if you’re going to
sell me on a film, I have to like the characters. The characters are almost
blank slates in this movie, but the jokes make up for that big time.
A Woman is a Woman (1961):
Here is the Netflix description for A Woman is a Woman:
Striptease
artist Angela (Anna Karina) is desperate to have a child, but her boyfriend,
Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), isn't as anxious. Although he cares for Angela and
wants to keep their relationship going, he's not ready for that kind of
responsibility. Instead, he suggests that she get together with his buddy
Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo) -- a proposal Angela ultimately accepts, to Emile's
shock and dismay. Frenchman Jean-Luc Godard directs.
I just… I have a lot of problems with that description.
Basically, Sarah and I wanted to watch something French and we had been eyeballin’
this movie on our My List for a while. Jumping in feet first into a movie with
almost no prior knowledge has worked out pretty well in the past, with only a
few occasions where I was assaulted visually and mentally. I can’t say this
movie was offensive to me, but I sure
wish I had known a little more background on it before we watched it. What we
got here, is a French New Wave Comedy. Which means incoherent dialogue, musical
cues that abruptly start and stop, and references that are extremely timely to
the world in the 60’s. Or maybe that’s not what it means, that was what was
going on here though. I’ve seen a few French New Wave movies, and honestly the
only one that really got to me was 1 or 2 Things I Know about Her,
another Godard film. So maybe I’m just not a French New Wave guy? Back to A
Woman is a Woman. Entering this movie based solely on the Netflix
description was a bit of a mistake. Although the plot described does play out
for the most part, the movie is not about the plot. The movie seems to be about
how flighty people of a certain age and financial situation were in that time.
She wants to have a baby, he doesn’t, she threatens to sleep with another
person to have the baby, he challenges her to do so. In-between all that is a
lot of goofiness, which was enjoyable some of the time but mostly had me
scratching my head. This, I believe, is not the movies fault but my own for not
researching the movie beforehand. On the other hand, you shouldn’t have to do
that to enjoy a movie. It’s a flaw, it’s there, and it’s still a decent movie
as a window into the movement. I just wish we had had more fun watching it.
Dallas Buyers Club (2013):
This is my guess for Best picture Oscar for the 2014 ceremony.
It’s got all the Academy wants! Period piece? Check. Issue movie? Check. Strong
lead performance? Check-a-roonie! Obviously Matthew McConaughey is the best
part of the movie, with Jared Leto in a strong second. What we have here for
reals though, is straight up Oscar bait. The movie is just edgy enough to side
on the common sense issue of being, say, anti-AIDS, while touching on other
more controversial bits like homosexuality and transgender stuff without giving
a firmer judgment than tolerance. Insert some tragedy and some feel good
scenes, boom, send me the check. What we really need, is a buddy detective TV
show where McConaughey and Leto play the same characters, but sans AIDS and
solving mysteries! I’m writing the spec script right now. You know what the
real problem with this movie is? You put Steve Zahn in there, and you hardly
use him! Steve Zahn is a national treasure. In the detective TV show, he will
be the tough but fair chief, who occasionally has to go into the field to
assist his crew. Oh yeah, this thing practically writes its self.
Paisan (1946):
One of the most eye opening moments for me in my cinema
education was when I saw Umberto D in a film class. I had never seen
anything like it before, with its long unedited shots and brilliant acting,
showing simple tasks like opening all the windows in a room and through shear
cinematic magic making them fascinating. I later saw The Bicycle Thief
(or Bicycle Thieves, whatever) and got more of this glorious film style.
Italian Neo-realism, coming into vogue towards the end of the Second World War, showing
how life had become for the people of Italy. Really getting out there on the
streets and using non-professional actors for starring roles, BLOWING MY MIND. Paisan
is another one of these types of movies, with one problem compared to the others:
English speaking actors. I don’t speak Italian in the slightest, so perhaps the
Italian actors come off as crappy as the American actors (or ADR providers) do,
and I’m just not aware of it. It’s totally possible. Other than the first vignette
though, everything else about this movie is great. And you know what? The first
one is still great despite crappy English language acting. The movie takes
place during the American invasion of Italy, showing 6 different stories of tragedy,
that range from unrequited love to religious tolerance to fighting against the
Nazis. It is an amazing piece of cinema, and I am not fit to review it, but
there it is. I can’t wait to see more.
Q Planes (1939):
This was another little British gem like Obsession,
where a mystery is afoot and a humorous police officer must use his wit and
will to poke his nose into everyone’s business and get to the bottom of the
case! I wish there were a series of films featuring Major Hammond, working hard
to annoy everyone and still get his man, or men, or lady. Q Planes (or
Clouds Over Europe) is a mystery/comedy about disappearing experimental
planes and the man who loved them. Wait, no, Lawrence Olivier’s character is
just upset that his pals keep disappearing while taking these flights. Turns
out, there’s a ship with a special beam gun that can knock out a plane’s engine
from the ocean’s surface! I don’t know if they explained who the ship belonged
to or how they made that weapon, but you know what it doesn’t matter. This
movie was so much fun. Everyone was doing that fast 40’s style talking you hear
being made fun of on occasion, and usually I find that incredibly distracting,
but here it worked. The up-sped tempo kept the quips coming and the movie just
flew by (like a plane… I’ll just go now). Excellent movie, found in Hulu’s
Criterion collection.
Rabindranath Tagore (1961):
A nice little 60 minute docudrama about a man named
Rabindranath Tagore, someone I had never heard of. He was a poet and spiritual
leader a la Gandhi in India. In fact, he and Gandhi were pals! This was
obviously a passion project for the director, and it doesn’t concern its self
with being entertaining. It was rather entertaining to me, but I have become a
bit of a history buff in my old age. The movie features many reenacted scenes,
and they are just fine for that purpose. I learned a little about the man, and
now I want to learn more. Job done.
Le Cercle Rouge (1970):
This movie took me 4 days to watch. FOUR. FREAKING. DAYS. I
kept getting interrupted during this movie and only this movie, which is kind
of amazing because there were plenty of movies I got through just fine, sans
interruption. Sigh. In the end, I don’t think I got the pleasure out of the
movie I should have. Le Cercle Rouge is a slooooow burner. So I got to
see a man released from prison and another man escape from a train, and then I
had to wait a while. Then I saw these men meet up and the police officer start
to work, then I had to wait a while. You get the picture. The cinematography
amazing, gorgeous, and other adjectives that mean really good. I would love to
see the movie projected. And you know how much I love characters, so I am happy
to say that there are 4 different dudes with motivations, backstories (all inferred
masterfully), and scene stealing moments. One cop, one FORMER cop, and two
thieves all heisting around. Fantastic stuff. There is a scene where one of the
characters is going through the DTs, and giants insects and lizards are
appearing around the room. I mention this because I need to know what kind of
bugs those were, as they were TERRIFYING. I want to wax on poetic about the
cinematography and the strong straight lines scene throughout the film, but I
don’t have the words. I can’t help but think the director must have had the
obsessive nature of Kubrick to get some of the seamless shots seen throughout
the movie. I’m going to see more of the director’s work and then revisit Le
Cercle Rouge later.
Sada (1998):
I can’t even… the words are not here for what I witnessed.
Why haven’t more people seen this movie? Why aren’t people singing its praises
from the rooftops? Sada is a movie about a real woman from Japan who
strangled her lover to death and then cut of his genitals and carried them
around in her bag until she was caught by the police. Wait, where are you going?
No, no, come back, I’m not done yet and you aren’t done either. This movie was
amazing. The story of Sada has been told many times apparently (there is a
famous movie also based on her story called In the Realm of the Senses)
and I imagine has reached an urban legend status in some circles. This movie
starts off like Romeo and Juliet with one of the characters introducing
the audience to the story, essentially tell us that before we judge we must
listen. Then it switches to a rather horrifying rape sequence, which I believe
was somehow supposed to be comical? I don’t know, it was comical, but the subject
of rape is not. EVER. That scene set a strange bar for the movie from then on.
It went through the genre of musical, art film, rom-com, sex farce, and
romance, not to mention a little kung-fu tossed in. I cannot possible represent
the glory of this crazy chain of genre shift with words, you have to watch it.
I watched this amusing farce of a movie, fascinated by all the changes and
camera movement, and acting of course, and then something I could never have
expected happened. Towards the end of the movie, Sada turns into one of the
most romantic films I’ve ever seen. It’s insane and wonderful. I think I have
typed myself into incoherence, I’m sorry if that comes out on the page here. So
FREAKING good.
Convoy (1978):
Kris Kristofferson is one of the coolest dudes to ever grace
the silver screen. His mere presence in a movie is enough to get me excited for
a viewing. He has a charisma that oozes off the screen, and that charisma
smells like diesel. Convoy is a road/action movie, consisting of a
ridiculous battle between cops and truckers. When the main cop is played by
Ernest Borgnine, you know you have some something special. I can’t say this is
a good movie, not even particularly exciting. What makes this special is that
old Joel T standby: Character. If you were to compare the roles in this movie
with any modern action movie, you would see the depth of Convoy’s characters.
I can’t tell you anything about Shia LeBouf’s character in any of the
Transformers movies, but I can tell you about the Rubber Duck’s ex-wife and
kids, his motivations for running, his devotion to friendships made on the
road, etc. That makes Convoy special, and everything else is at least
entertaining for the most part. Would I watch it again? No, probably not. Am I
glad I watched it? Totally.
The Way, Way Back (2013):
The Way, Way Back is an 80’s period piece
coming-of-age tale, about a young man who is being pummeled with too much
change, as all teenagers are at different points in their lives. What’s that?
What do you mean it’s not an 80’s movie? Well, yes, I know there was an iPod
and a cell phone at one point, but Pac-Man and REO Speedwagon and Station
Wagons? Come on. Ok, it turns out that the movie was originally intended to be a
period piece, but the budget wouldn’t allow for that, so they changed it to
take place in modern times, SLIGHTLY. I don’t usually like coming-of-age
movies, because Hollywood has a formula and they like to pump those suckers
out, but this movie is better than those even if it does fall into some of the
trappings. For the most part, unrealistic characters were left out of the
movie, usually inserted for comedy relief. Of course, watch the movie and you’ll
see Allison Janney and Jim Rash hamming it up, so it does not escape the troupe
completely. Sam Rockwell is amazing, but he usually is. The young actors are
not annoying, and that’s all I ask from young actors. The music is good, but it
falls into the problem where the queuing up certain tracks is used emphasize
certain scenes in the movie. Not just emphasize, but force the viewer into
feeling. A particular part that annoyed me was when young Duncan first comes
upon the water park, a song proclaims “Is this coincidence or connection?”
UNNECCESARY. You need to win the audience over with your script, not force
their emotions by pumping out the mood music. I got a lot of laughs out of the
film on the whole. It’s a first time film for directors Jim Rash and Nat Faxon,
so I am excited for further works from them. As a last note, Steve Carell plays
a total asshole in this movie, and he does a fantastic job.
I am tired. This was a pretty good week. I hope you liked what you read. If you have any movie suggestions or things you want me to talk about, please drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook, or right here on the blog. I will leave you with one finally bit. Thanks for reading!
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