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Reviews
American Wedding (2003)
Amateur Night for a Big Franchise
You know the cliche about porn films: "hello, I'm Ramon the Gardener," 3 minutes of inane dialogue and then !bam! right to the sex. Lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseum. Well, as is the case with most low-budget porn, so it is with American Wedding: miniscule shreds of a story taped together to form a spastically shot, shoddily written, poorly edited, forgettable piece of trash that serves only to connect a series of otherwise unrelated sight gags and comical misunderstandings, each more ridiculously grotesque than the last.
This should be shown in every film school as an example of what NOT to do in filmmaking. From a purely technical standpoint, it's hard to believe this was released by a major studio at all; I've seen a better sense of pacing and visual communication in freshman student films. But over and above that, the script reeks of firstdraftitis, abandoning any sort of scene establishment at the outset and glossing over character details that could have made the players more than just stick figures made to out-gross one another.
In a few short sentences, we're given the premise and a quick summary of what the boys have been doing since the last film and then off they go to engage in wacky antics. Am I supposed to care about the marriage of characters I hardly know? There are more than one of the major players here that could have been completely removed from the film without any effect at all.
Every single element that made the original film charming and endearing is forgotten; there is no story here, just filler between stunts. Levy and Scott and a few of the more clever setups save the film from the trash heap. But Stifler wears out his welcome by the end (it's clear the producers know he is the most interesting character of the ensemble and thus use him TO DEATH) and more often than not, the film just grates one's nerves with amateurish inanity.
As I walked out of the theater, I heard a pre-teen boy squawk "best movie ever" as he gleefully began quoting Stiflerisms. This made me realize that American Wedding will most likely be number one at the box office this weekend, thereby provoking the creation of yet another unnecessary sequel. God help us all.
The Ring (2002)
As good as the original, and better than most
I'm just as much a fan of gory, splatterhouse exploitation films as the next sicko, but when it comes to generating a chill down the spine, there is something to be said for being as terse as possible with onscreen imagery. This is one of the chief reasons why The Ring--a film with a PG-13 rating--is so successful in its ability to leave an audience with goosebumps and nightmares.
The film is a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ringu, itself widely considered a terrifying piece of cinema, and aside from a subplot about horses, the American version is very faithful to the original.
Now, being that The Ring is a remake, one may be tempted to dismiss the power of the story and script as unoriginal. But as other films have demonstrated time and time again, a remake, no matter how good the source material, can just as easily fall flat on its face ("The Haunting", "Psycho", etc.). So it's a joy to see that this remake stands out as one of the better films of the year despite emerging from the shadow of a great and recent original.
The Ring follows journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) as she investigates the mysterious death of her niece (revealed in the gripping opening sequence). At the wake for her niece, she overhears some friends discussing the videotape that the niece and her boyfriend watched the week before their death. Given their cryptic description of the tape and the fact that the boyfriend died across town at the same time as the niece, Keller decides to track down the tape for herself and watch it for clues.
She then begins to experience a number of strange coincidences, as she sees objects from the video appear in her every day life. When her friend and son watch the video as well and begin to see similar objects, she begins to realize that the stories about the tape may be real. She is then led to a small island off the coast to search for an answer on where the tape came from and why it has the effect that it does.
Whomever it was that composed the actual videotape for this film (and the audience does get to see the whole thing) clearly did a great deal of research on disturbing imagery. It's grainy, monochromatic and at times bordering on silly, but by the time it is shown you have become immersed in the story and it works; the images truly get under your skin.
For fans of subtle, atmospheric and extremely creepy movies, especially around this time of year, The Ring is a dead-on success. The brilliantly understated story moves swiftly, is told beautifully, and enough questions are left unanswered to maximize the mystery of it all, yet not so many that the plot is left full of holes. The music is sparse and atmospheric, and the images are beautifully shot and edited, with great use of filters and composites to give the appropriate washed out looks where necessary. The effects, used minimally, are flawless and very creepy without seeming garish or overbearing.
As with classics like The Changeling and 1963's The Haunting, The Ring is a perfect example of how you can still muster a scare from a jaded populace without resorting to cheap jolts and gore. More Blair Witch Project than Sleepaway Camp, and thus far more impressive than most recent attempts at terror. Now if I could just stop hiding from my television...
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
PTA's 'Jackie Brown': simple by design
Frenetic, mesmerizing, dreamlike, invigorating, choatic, beautiful. I know someone else said it before, but PT Anderson meets Truffaut.
With all the expectation over the past year or so, it's hard not to be disappointed, but I was disappointed, if only in comparison to PTA's other stuff:
1) Magnolia, 2) Boogie Nights, 3) Punch-Drunk Love, 4) Hard Eight, 41) 99% of all other movies made in the last 20 years.
The film has from the outset been depicted as a simpler, more streamlined story for PTA. It has nowhere NEAR the complexity that Magnolia or Boogie Nights do, and it's to the picture's credit.
With the way the story unfolds, there are a lot of questions left unanswered: where did the harmonium come from? why are Barry's sisters such psychotic bitches? why is Barry's business so successful? What's the significance of all the colors? Why the car crash at the beginning (brilliantly jarring, by the way)? Why the omnipresent blue suit (even Barry doesn't know)?
These questions are left unanswered for a reason, because the only thing that makes sense in the film's universe is the clumsy attraction between Barry and Lena. Their genuine awkwardness, their obvious excitement are building toward a future together, and even the most violent elements of their chaotic surroundings have no effect on their world. It perfectly captures what it's like to fall in love (or at least become infatuated), and for that, a simpler story just makes sense.
Personally, I'm glad he chose to do this; a more restrained PTA is at the helm here, and this is clearly his Jackie Brown. Bravo.