Change Your Image
openteach
Reviews
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry (2004)
What I Didn't Learn in History Class
By the time we got to the Vietnam war in school it was always three days before summer vacation. My knowledge about the war is spotty at best, despite that my father's generation either fought in this war or figured out ways to avoid fighting in it. I am a Kerry supporter, but after seeing this film my opinion has changed from viewing him as merely an alternative to Bush to believing that this is a man with an intimate knowledge of the military and the convictions and experience to lead the country. I did not love Fahrenheit 9/11 (although "Bowling for Columbine" is great) because I felt that the vitriol was so obvious the film became ultimately unbelievable---so partisan I did not believe it could be entirely accurate. But when I was watching "Going Upriver" I continually found myself wondering what George Bush was doing during the time when John Kerry was fighting and then protesting. These questions have prompted me to find out more about George Bush. This film is not an "angry" film like F9/11. But I was shocked to see that while John Kerry was taken very seriously as a war hero in the 1970s by both the government and the media, it has been so easy for the Republicans to denigrate that image today. Not only is that wrong, but it seems sad that the American people care so little about truth and accept information so blindly.
Garden State (2004)
Not Representative of My Generation
As a film about some aimless individuals, two of whom find love, this is a great, funny, quirky film. The dialogue is clever. The film is visually beautiful. However, I really hate that so many reviewers are calling this film "The Graduate" of my generation and saying that it is representative of how people in their mid to late twenties feel. I too live in suburbia (though not NJ) and I know very few people who live such aimless lives without relationships, kids and/or decent jobs. Although I could relate to the emotions in the film, I could not relate to how completely, utterly out of it these characters were! Most people I know in their mid twenties have accepted the fact that they are growing up and care enough to do something with their lives. So, as a film about individuals....great film But please I hope I don't see the media calling my generation "the garden state" generation. Blech.
Ôdishon (1999)
Kind of Made Me Want to Throw Up
I love thrillers and have recently gotten more into Japanese films since seeing and adoring Battle Royale. However, I'm not sure WHAT I think of Audition. The beginning is slow, and had I not known that something shocking was supposed to happen at the end, I'm not sure I would have continued watching the film. About the ending...VAGUE SPOILERS AHEAD.....
I'm not a huge horror movie fan. I mean, I don't love gore. But I don't hate it either. I don't get grossed out very easily. I literally could not keep me eyes on the screen during the last 30 minutes of Audition. I pulled my shirt up over my eyes and tried to watch through the fabric. The ending of this movie is truly horrific. If you've got a phobia of needles (like I do), you'll want to throw up. That's not forgetting what's in the BAG!
Despite what I've read about this film being a meditation of guilt and some sort of statement about feminism, I think this movie is really about getting grossed out, disgusted and scared out of your seat....which is fine...as long as that's what you're looking for. Any serious point the film might have made was (in my opinion) overshadowing by the gore.
Memento (2000)
Will definitely screw with your mind!
I really liked this movie and my fiance and I had a good time discussing it afterwards. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! I had a lot of questions about the film, and I'm sure that others did, so this is going to be my attempt to puzzle things out. My major questions about the film revolved around one of Teddy's last conversations with Lenny, when he said that Sammy Jankis was really Lenny, and that Lenny's wife had died from an insulin overdose that he gave her. Then there are two memory short scenes showing first, Lenny giving his wife an insulin shot and second, pinching her on the thigh. This second short scene was also shown earlier in the film. Then towards the very very end we see Lenny in bed with his wife and he already has a tattoo-though it did not look to me like the tattoos he had in the rest of the film. These small scenes really confused me. I could not be sure if Teddy was telling the truth or lying to Lenny. I think that obviously the point of the film is that Lenny was lying to himself. We start off by thinking that he is very organized and really does rely on facts, and sadly, we discover throughout the course of the film that his `evidence' is completely based on intuition and emotion, and that he (and everyone else around him) is totally untrustworthy.
What I eventually decided was that those scenes don't matter. Teddy might very well be John G. He might not be. However, if Teddy is John G. it is not for the reasons that Lenny thinks he is-the license plate, the name, etc.My fiancé pointed out that Lenny said he did not know how long it had been since his wife's death. Since he has the police report, he should know this. This information should be printed on the police report. So, Lenny is obviously deluding himself about some things. As far as the truck and if Lenny really was an insurance investigator, since we don't know how long it's been since his wife's death, we don't know what he's been doing during that time. I checked out the website looking for some answers (It's really cool by the way) and on it they say that Lenny was in a mental hospital for a while. So who knows how long it's been and what he was doing during that time. It also show police reports about his wife's death, so we do know that's true, so I'll believe that Teddy was lying about Lenny being Sammy Jankis (why do I feel like Agatha Christie all of a sudden???).
Everyone was lying to Lenny and using him, but that doesn't make the premise untrue. John G. could be anyone or no one. I also wouldn't call the backwards-forwards format of the film a gimmick. It simply mirrors Lenny's confusion.