Change Your Image
love_platipus
Anyhoo, I've pissed you off, I'm sorry. (Probably just good to say that on principal. This is the internets, after all.)
Reviews
My Name Is Lisa (2007)
Carlie Nettles
Don't miss this one. Well written, efficiently shot and well directed. I'm trying to think of something I would have changed... nothing.
So congratulations to the Sheltons, but the reason you absolutely should see this movie isn't their smooth and wholly inoffensive style. Its their casting.
The reason you absolutely should see it is Miss Carlie Nettles; the amazingly talented young actress who starred in this and one other of the Shelton's short films. Her performance is smart, prickly and wrenching. She's painfully honest and most importantly, she doesn't hide in any of the tidy places the movies usually shove young actors. You don't like her, you love her. Watch her.
Arizona Dream (1993)
Like Watching Someone Else's Dream
This movie is kind of like across between watching a foreign film, one made in a culture completely alien to your own, and watching someone else's dreams.
It is such an bizarre film that I doubt some people would even be able to get through it. I myself had to take it in two parts. But many parts of it are strangely beautiful, and there are a few moments in the latter half of the film of astonishing power.
Further more, Kusturica's imagery is absolutely stunning. From a shot of Axel in a red rain coat looking out over the sea near the beginning to one of him lying down with a litter of abandoned puppies in a empty shop at the end, these will stay with you.
And of course Kusturica couldn't have a better subject than Depp. He was going on thirty when this came out, but he's has never seemed more innocent. To be honest, its a flawless performance. I don't hand that out a lot, but, in a deeply flawed movie, he's perfect. He never once lets us out of Axel's dreamy, strange world. There's no "winking at the camera" no matter how much it may love him. He gives the movie an emotional center.
Its a film that some people will hate, a few will love, and most will simply be perplexed by. Personally, I think you should watch it, not necessarily because you'll like it, but to have an opinion on it.
Raging Bull (1980)
Beautiful, but Nonetheless Unpleasant
You can't fault the quality of Raging Bull. As a work of art, its stunning. The editing, not just of the fight scenes, but of the whole movie, is some of the best I've ever seen.
Watching this movie, you can't doubt that its a success. You always feel as though the film knows where it wants to go and is headed there. Whether you want to go there as well is another question. There isn't anything really pleasant about Raging Bull. Its lyrical, but only in its use of the beauty of sheer force and blind power.
I think the move could still be interesting just on the sensational amount of frustrated rage and energy that De Niro brings to it, and his absolutely flawless and slightly scary performance, but Pesci and Moriarty are every bit as good.
Again, you can't really say that Raging Bull is anything but a beautifully executed movie. But its hard to love its characters, however deeply you understand them.
Wag the Dog (1997)
Acid, dark satire
First off let me say: this is dark, black, black humor in this movie. But its very, very funny, I'll give it that. And its fun while its running, mostly due to Dustin Hoffman's performance.
Its a performance dripping with irony and laced with bitterness to its core, and yet its somehow till fun to watch, not to mention hilarious. The De Niro/Hoffman pairing is definitely somewhat thankless for De Niro, but, surprisingly, he's a solid straight man.
Wag the Dog is an extremely amusing movie. It suffers when Hoffman is off screen, and sometimes the plot holes gape. None the less, its thought provoking to say the least, and wickedly entertaining. On the other hand, I can't remember the last time I came out of a movie feeling worse. So go figure.
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
A small masterpiece
The problem with a lot of modern movies is that have a message, is they tend to really whack you over the head with it. Either that or they are hopelessly obscure.
No such problems with Dog Day Afternoon. It doesn't even have a "message" necessarily, but its still one of the most thought provoking movies ever made. It's also probably one of the saddest, and the funniest.
I could give endless praise to everyone involved ( except for Chris Saradon sort of struck a wrong note with me ), I could say how brilliant John Cazale is (RIP), and Charles Durning and every one of the hostages. But I really can't think of anything I could say to give everyone their due. They are portraying individual people, but they are all also saying something about people in general and how we operate and communicate with each other. They are perfect.
And there is nothing I can really say about Al Pacino here. All I can give you is that this is probably one of the greatest performances of all time. Thats going to sound funny to those who have seen it because its not that kind of performance. Its almost a small performance, actually. Sonny's just not that kind of person. He doesn't draw attention to himself, but you can't take your eyes off him. He is a small spark of manic energy and constant movement. He lights up the screen, but he doesn't fill it up. This isn't something Marlon Brando or Jack Nicholsen or somebody like that could have done in a million years. The extent to which he makes Sonny exist, that he shares his nerve endings, as I like to say, is simply extraordinary. People always love to say ,"you can't see them acting". Here it's really true.
Pacino and his costars also seems to share with the screenwriter a mischievous appreciation of the absurd and an understanding of the overwhelming pathos, joy and humor of normal, unimportant little things. And its precisely those little things that make the movie.
It did have its big-scale effect though. Besides laying out a pattern for most bank heist movies today, it also gave Pacino his first opportunity to exercise his vocal chords on camera. American cinema would never be the same.
Dog Day Afternoon is certainly one of the best movies of the seventies. its as good in its way as some of the most beloved movies ever made. But while most great movies seem to share a certain sweeping, epic feeling, Dog Day afternoon feels personal, real and unpolished and thats what makes it so fascinating and wildly entertaining.
The Kiss (1896)
Historical Landmark
Hearing what a scandal this caused, you have to wonder what the 1890-oids would think of what goes into movies today. But considering its only about 10 seconds long, you really have got to see this movie. Its a historical landmark. First romance ever filmed people, are you really going to miss that??
Imagine if kissing on screen was still a social taboo? Imagine every romance movie ever made ( Casablanca, Titanic, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Romeo and Juliet, etc. ) minus any physical affection whatsoever. it would be a lot more weird and a lot less fun. Think of what we owe to this film. I think we kind of owe these guys aprox. 10 seconds of our time.
It's Pat: The Movie (1994)
Some movies are just so bad they're good, you know? This isn't one of them.
I'm actually impressed. The MPAA has rated this PG-13 for " Bizarre Gender related humor." Thus far, this is the only time I've ever seen the MPAA in all its infinite wisdom ( my infinite sarcasm, there ) use an adjective in a movie rating.
I saw this with an utterly open mind. My friend just brought it over and we decided to watch it, and I promise you, I tried really hard to find something to like about this movie, but it was just to damn weird.
and weird can be good in a film. In fact, it often is. I love weird and irreverent and all that good stuff in a movie. In my personal experience, films based on an idea this bizarre tend to worry less about offending someone, and are therefore better. Not the case here, I'm afraid. Believe me, you do not want to sit all the way through this. Its just badly made, not interesting and not funny. I'm actually sorry that fragments of this movie are floating around my subconscious.
If it gets worse than this I don't want to know about it.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Nice- But not the best movie of the year
Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoyed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Its an interesting idea. And it has little funny moments, and others of true poignancy.
( VERY minor spoiler in the paragraph ahead ) Some of it feels like dead air, but the movie is interspersed with occasional strokes of genius-- The scene of little insignificant events that led to Daisy's accident, the "struck by lightening seven times" parts and Benjamin's letter to his daughter are all nothing short of perfection.
But the film, on a whole, was less than perfect. The characters lacked complexity and some subplots seemed unresolved. It simply failed to move me, or make an impression. I felt like the special effects and cinematography, while they were great, were running away with the picture, dragging the actors and director behind them.
I recommend The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But it is not the best film of the year, and its not even the best work of Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchette, Eric Roth or David Fincher.
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Interesting and Entertaining with a brilliant turn from Emma Thompson
I can't say that this film is flawless or that is will change your life or redefine your standards of film. It is however, a wonderful way to spend 2 hours.
The screenplay is witty and hilarious. Its throws you the kind of line you can't help but chuckle despite its stupidity at one minute and the kind of joke it takes you several moments to get the next.
Plus, the film almost entirely cliché-free. You have never watched a movie that was " like this." The performances are not Oscar caliber, but they are great. Will Ferrel plays again type here and does well, playing everything decidedly straight. Dustin Hoffmann is perfect and has one of my favorite movie lines ever, involving pancakes. Maggie Gyllenhaal is lovely and underrated as always.
But the real performance that makes the movie is from Emma Thompson. She is one of these actress's that is hardly recognizable from role to role, and she disappears effortlessly into Karen Eiffel's skin. I just loved this character. And Queen Latifah makes the perfect straight-man for her.
All and all, Emma Thompson and a great screenplay make this one i would watch over and over again.