Atom Egoyan's masterpiece, “The Sweet Hereafter”, is about a small town and is a must see for everyone. The story and the characters ring true in this film more than any other. It is hard to believe any aspect is created. This is good story telling at its best.
Egoyan's genius reveals itself in any number of scenes but most memorable are the reciting of the poem an the discussions with the grief-stricken parents. On the verge of melodramatic soap operatics the people respond in such human manners that we want to laugh and cry at the same time. We feel what they feel. This is not simply the writing and directing but the acting as well. You want to hear them speak. You want to relate. You want to feel. You want to live. You aren't alone in this.
A lawyer travels to a town to represent the anger of parents who used to have children. This lawyer is righteous. This lawyer is almost Abraham. The lawyer is a hardass who doesn't like people getting screwed around, who has a chip on his shoulder and believes there are no such things as accidents. The lawyer takes on the burden of moral responsibility. His motivation, however, is questionable.
He is on a crusade to punish anyone who does not do their job with integrity. His crusade is personal though. His own daughter is a drug addict whom he has disowned. Are we to consider it noble for him to launch a crusade against people who remind him of himself? He did his best with his daughter and failed.
This is what we do to ourselves though. We grow to hate and despise what we used to be. When we see something bad in another person it is usually something that we have been before, this is how we recognize it so well. It is human nature to do these things, as well a to harp on our failures ignoring our successes. No matter how large a success or how many we are haunted by failures and, more importantly, we haunt ourselves with our failures.
Should this lawyer's motivation be brought into question? If one is doing what is right, who really cares if it's personal? It is still very interesting to watch him try and purge his demons from other people.
The story includes a reading from Robert Browning's “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”, which is a wonderful poem. An analysis of that poem and this movie can go hand in hand. Retribution and punishment through the taking away of that which is most precious to people, the children. The future.
The future cannot exist when children are taken away from us. The future cannot last when the people have become the rats, when the infestation is within ourselves and the solution isn't as simple as piping them out and sending them off. The future cannot last when the idea of a community and helping one another involves weighing safety of children against insurance settlements. Were truth and money collide. The future does not last forever, and yet, it does, whether here or the sweet hereafter, it continues.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
A Good Story
When I say something is a good story I mean it. That is one of the highest compliments a story will ever receive from me. Into The Wild is one of those stories.
This is what a tragedy is. The story is about one young man bringing about his own absolute destruction. Driven by whatever it is within us that drives us to do what we do, this young man sets out on journeys we only hear of, read about, but never actually live.
There is something touching about a person who does what we do not have the courage or desire to, to think what is right. There is something touching about a young man whose dream comes true, only to realize that everything has a price. This something makes us happy and sad at the same time.
Our main character is in search of happiness. He is too intelligent for his own good. He gives up all that he knows to embark on a journey driven by the passion he can only share with literature. In his search for what human beings should be he enters into isolation. He pays the ultimate price for his lesson. This is a good story, this is what stories should be.
His lesson, his message to us, what he learned so we do not have to is this:
"Happiness only real when shared".
This is what a tragedy is. The story is about one young man bringing about his own absolute destruction. Driven by whatever it is within us that drives us to do what we do, this young man sets out on journeys we only hear of, read about, but never actually live.
There is something touching about a person who does what we do not have the courage or desire to, to think what is right. There is something touching about a young man whose dream comes true, only to realize that everything has a price. This something makes us happy and sad at the same time.
Our main character is in search of happiness. He is too intelligent for his own good. He gives up all that he knows to embark on a journey driven by the passion he can only share with literature. In his search for what human beings should be he enters into isolation. He pays the ultimate price for his lesson. This is a good story, this is what stories should be.
His lesson, his message to us, what he learned so we do not have to is this:
"Happiness only real when shared".
There Will Be Comedy and Genius
There Will be Blood is a wonderful experience. The main character Daniel is an absolute monster, an absolute genius, but most importantly, everything you need to be to survive. I was never around in the frontier days but I am certain that girly-mens never made it very far.
Our hero, our monster, is one the most ruthless businessmen you will ever meet and one of the most ruthless people you should hope never to meet. The movie is his journey to the top, the very top, and it catalogs every bloody detail of his adventure. He likes no one and uses everyone.
His response to what he deems insulting arrives in the form of a death-threat and he constantly reminds you what he's going to do to you, in case you forgot. The movie is tragicomedy. It is the middle to late life of one man and all that he does. Its sad and its ridiculously funny.
Watch this movie, maybe you'll learn something about life. Or at the very least you'll laugh, I hope.
Our hero, our monster, is one the most ruthless businessmen you will ever meet and one of the most ruthless people you should hope never to meet. The movie is his journey to the top, the very top, and it catalogs every bloody detail of his adventure. He likes no one and uses everyone.
His response to what he deems insulting arrives in the form of a death-threat and he constantly reminds you what he's going to do to you, in case you forgot. The movie is tragicomedy. It is the middle to late life of one man and all that he does. Its sad and its ridiculously funny.
Watch this movie, maybe you'll learn something about life. Or at the very least you'll laugh, I hope.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Dead Silence, or, The Creepy Dolls and the Creepy Old Lady whose Hand is up Their Asses
Dead Silence is nothing if not entertaining. I mean that. The movie is worth watching only if you enjoy bad movies.
The plot. A little old lady, who does not live in a shoe, has no children and only dolls. And then one day a boy makes fun of her because he can see her lips moving so the doll, a ventriloquist doll, must righteously prove its existence by throwing a temper tantrum, as little boys are wont to do. Then she calls the boy a dummy by asking a rhetorical question. Then the boy goes missing, then the fathers of the town freak out and they murder her and she's buried and now what, you may ask? After all this, what could come next? It follows logically that the old woman lives on through the dolls and whenever you see her and scream she rips your tongue out. Anyway, this is where the movie starts. And ends I guess because you've seen this kind of movie an hundred times.
What separates this movie from all the others is the creepy fascination with dolls and real life. I'm sure we could get into a discussion on, say, dolls mimicking life and humans trying to mimic the perfect little dolls, but I'm not Salman Rushide. If you've ever thought clowns were creepy and thought dolls also were creepy then this movie is for you to watch. Creepy, creepy, creepy.
The twist at the end is worth the wait. Its not that long a movie. Its passable the whole way. So go ahead and watch this movie on your light fantastic toe. Laugh at this movie, its clever.
The plot. A little old lady, who does not live in a shoe, has no children and only dolls. And then one day a boy makes fun of her because he can see her lips moving so the doll, a ventriloquist doll, must righteously prove its existence by throwing a temper tantrum, as little boys are wont to do. Then she calls the boy a dummy by asking a rhetorical question. Then the boy goes missing, then the fathers of the town freak out and they murder her and she's buried and now what, you may ask? After all this, what could come next? It follows logically that the old woman lives on through the dolls and whenever you see her and scream she rips your tongue out. Anyway, this is where the movie starts. And ends I guess because you've seen this kind of movie an hundred times.
What separates this movie from all the others is the creepy fascination with dolls and real life. I'm sure we could get into a discussion on, say, dolls mimicking life and humans trying to mimic the perfect little dolls, but I'm not Salman Rushide. If you've ever thought clowns were creepy and thought dolls also were creepy then this movie is for you to watch. Creepy, creepy, creepy.
The twist at the end is worth the wait. Its not that long a movie. Its passable the whole way. So go ahead and watch this movie on your light fantastic toe. Laugh at this movie, its clever.
Friday, April 4, 2008
An Orgy for the Ears and Eyes
Across the Universe is a great little story. There are flashy lights and wonderful songs. That's all you need to know. It is beautiful to see but the story-line felt like someone took a few dozen songs they really liked and tied them all together. What's wrong with this technique? Nothing. Check this out and if you know anyone who has acid maybe drop some right in the middle of the movie, it will probably help.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Lamberto Bava and One of the Shockers to Shock the 80's
A Blade in the Dark is a movie about making a movie. More specifically, it is a movie about composing music for a movie. Lamberto Bava is a gorgeous maniac and Bava really wants to share this maniacal vision with you. Art and Life are entangled and if you want to untangle this web you do so at your own risk.
Boys will be boys and sometimes its ok to be called a female, say, for instance, when you have to go down a dark flight of stairs to chase a baseball to prove the degree of male-itude you possess and all you hear is your own heart-rate pulsing as you slowly walk down the corridor.
I'd say that's a good time to throw in the cards and consider yourself a girl. Movies about movies can give us a different sort of appreciation for movies and movie-making. We as an audience have so much more we can think about when the movie we are watching is a thriller about making a thriller movie.
The director on-stage can come and tell us exactly what is about to happen and why, including what the genre-specific techniques are, and its justified. I guess this can be a sort of cop-out but if its done well then something about it is attractive. It become a movie that tells us what to expect and why, and then it still creeps the hell out of you.
The plot is simple but the movie is creepy. What we have here is a music-composer who needs to compose some music for an upcoming movie. He isolates himself in a large and creepy house, intentionally reminiscent of the movie which is being shot, and all sorts of fun and weird things start happening to him.
Is it the doing of the director, the character's boss who has approved of his isolated location, or is it the doing of the creepy grounds-keeper? Or is it worse? Or simply more amusing?
Watch this movie and laugh and enjoy it. Lamberto Bava takes you on a wild ride which would have been all the more wild in the 80's yet still holds merit today. One of the death's is the most artistic murder I've ever encountered, I'll let you guess which one.
Boys will be boys and sometimes its ok to be called a female, say, for instance, when you have to go down a dark flight of stairs to chase a baseball to prove the degree of male-itude you possess and all you hear is your own heart-rate pulsing as you slowly walk down the corridor.
I'd say that's a good time to throw in the cards and consider yourself a girl. Movies about movies can give us a different sort of appreciation for movies and movie-making. We as an audience have so much more we can think about when the movie we are watching is a thriller about making a thriller movie.
The director on-stage can come and tell us exactly what is about to happen and why, including what the genre-specific techniques are, and its justified. I guess this can be a sort of cop-out but if its done well then something about it is attractive. It become a movie that tells us what to expect and why, and then it still creeps the hell out of you.
The plot is simple but the movie is creepy. What we have here is a music-composer who needs to compose some music for an upcoming movie. He isolates himself in a large and creepy house, intentionally reminiscent of the movie which is being shot, and all sorts of fun and weird things start happening to him.
Is it the doing of the director, the character's boss who has approved of his isolated location, or is it the doing of the creepy grounds-keeper? Or is it worse? Or simply more amusing?
Watch this movie and laugh and enjoy it. Lamberto Bava takes you on a wild ride which would have been all the more wild in the 80's yet still holds merit today. One of the death's is the most artistic murder I've ever encountered, I'll let you guess which one.
A Little Bit of Space Can Go A Long Way, So Sayeth Mickey Rourke, and It Was Good
If you've ever thought you were cool and later found out that you weren't, you're probably part of an S. E. Hinton story, like Rumble Fish. If you've ever been fascinated or preoccupied with fish then you can compare yourself to Mickey Rourke. If you've ever been able to solve one of the many riddles of adolescence and (in)humanity with a trip to California then many visits to a pet store, you were probably looking at fighting fish.
This movie is a beautiful little gem. It is black and white except for the cute little fish, fish that kill each other, fish that kill themselves fighting their own reflections. The movie has a solid foundation on one simple idea: if the fish had enough room to live they would not fight.
Teenage angst meets smoking, drinking, sex and Dennis Hopper in this movie. Matt Dillon is the younger brother of the Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) who is struggling to be as cool as his older brother.
The younger brother is Rusty James. He smokes, sometimes stealing cigarettes from his girl-friend's mother, he drinks, like his father, played by Dennis Hopper, and he has sex with Diane Lane. Crazy kids. Being a teenager can seem tough when you're growing up. Being an adult is even tougher.
The only real difference? Learning to deal with it and mature. If not, you're just an aged teenager, which, sadly I know, doesn't work the same as cheese or wine.
This movie is a beautiful little gem. It is black and white except for the cute little fish, fish that kill each other, fish that kill themselves fighting their own reflections. The movie has a solid foundation on one simple idea: if the fish had enough room to live they would not fight.
Teenage angst meets smoking, drinking, sex and Dennis Hopper in this movie. Matt Dillon is the younger brother of the Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) who is struggling to be as cool as his older brother.
The younger brother is Rusty James. He smokes, sometimes stealing cigarettes from his girl-friend's mother, he drinks, like his father, played by Dennis Hopper, and he has sex with Diane Lane. Crazy kids. Being a teenager can seem tough when you're growing up. Being an adult is even tougher.
The only real difference? Learning to deal with it and mature. If not, you're just an aged teenager, which, sadly I know, doesn't work the same as cheese or wine.
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