Iro's One Movie a Day Thread

#519 - Dead Leaves
Hiroyuki Imaishi, 2004



A pair of amnesiac criminals are arrested after committing a crime spree and sentenced to a maximum-security prison colony located in the remains of the moon.


It is clear from the outset that Dead Leaves is not remotely bound to the sort of slick, measured professionalism that frequently characterises animé at its best. From the outset, the roughness of character and prop designs becomes apparent when you can actually glimpse them amidst the extremely high-speed stream of cuts, comic-book frames, and visible sound effects cluttering the screen. This applies in terms of both style and substance, which quickly becomes clear when the film starts off by throwing the audience straight into a high-speed car chase featuring the leads trying to escape from the police. The story is also as thin as they come - after the chase ends, the two leads are captured and imprisoned in "Dead Leaves", a prison complex where inmates are restricted to being cocooned in full-body strait-jackets that only allow them to eat and excrete (both by force - don't ask). Eventually, the leads manage to orchestrate a prison break through methods that probably don't bear repeating for a number of reasons and before long they and the other inmates team up to riot against the insane warden and her super-powered lieutenants.

In addition to being an extremely quick and barely coherent action movie, Dead Leaves is also a blackly comic slice of science-fiction. Those expecting anything remotely tasteful are advised to look elsewhere; the fact that a supporting character's penis is actually a gigantic drill that's roughly the same size as the rest of his body should definitely be enough of a warning (and that's before you see it get used...) I can at least sort of respect the fact that the film goes all-out in making sure that every second of its relatively short running time (it clocks in at a mere 55 minutes) is throwing something shocking or thrilling at the screen. Despite the anarchic energy on display, it is very easy to get bored by Dead Leaves, perhaps more so than it is to get disgusted (and trust me, it is quite the disgusting movie). Even after taking into account the combination of the leads' amnesia and the rather unpleasant conditions of Dead Leaves, you barely feel any sympathy for the leads as they start fighting their way through the prison and start learning their true identities (thanks in no small part to the film stopping dead so that a doctor can deliver a massive dumping of exposition) and only remain sympathetic because the main trio of enemies are gratuitously sadistic monsters that are unquestionably worse (if not by much). The deliberately disorienting and weirdly creative visual style is a point in the film's favour that definitely makes it a somewhat memorable experience - however, the appeal is limited thanks to some of the more graphically offensive scenes on offer and how one eventually grows numb to the chaos unfolding on screen. If unadulterated high-speed cartoon hjinks sound like your thing, then go for it, otherwise I can't really see myself watching this more than once or seriously recommending it.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

#520 - Woman in the Dunes
Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964



A teacher goes on holiday to the beach and ends up being stranded in a ramshackle house.

I had generally liked The Face of Another and its unorthodox take on science-fiction, so of course I had some high expectations for viewing the film that seems to be widely considered Teshigahara's masterpiece, Woman in the Dunes. I managed to go in while knowing very little about it - it marked another collaboration with The Face of Another scribe Kobo Abe, was about two-and-a-half hours long, and was apparently about a woman...and some dunes. As a result, I'm not sure if I want to go into too much detail about the plot because it was genuinely such a consistently surprising film throughout its considerable running time. It's interesting considering the seemingly superficial premise - namely, that of a city-dwelling teacher (Eiji Okada) who is on leave and visiting a remote beach area to work on his bug-catching hobby. When he ends up missing the last bus of the day, the locals encourage him to bed down in a small hut that is occupied by a solitary woman (Kyoko Kishida) and is also surrounded on all sides by extremely steep dunes. Okada thinks nothing of this at first, but soon realises that he is effectively trapped in this sand pit and made to live and work alongside the woman in order to provide his captors with sand for an illegal cement-mixing operation. Of course, he plans to escape, but complications soon arise...

Due to not having gotten much sleep the night before, I frequently found myself in danger of falling asleep during Woman in the Dunes. This is not supposed to be a dig against the film, but you should definitely be prepared for a film that does take its time to expand upon its fairly simple premise. The external action naturally involves Okada trying to escape his situation by any means necessary, and while those sequences are fairly suspenseful to watch they don't exactly feel like the main focus of the film. Instead, the film focuses on not just his uneasy relationship to Kishida (who is morosely accepting of this incredibly cruel situation) but also how this bizarre imprisonment starts to warp him as more and more time wears on. The film-making style is subdued yet effective, with what little music there is being appropriately tense and atonal and the cinematography working to capture detail and nuance than vibrancy and flair. That being said, I did find it distracting how the area surrounding the house is framed in such a way that you could not actually see the other side of the area and initially made me wonder why Okada couldn't just swim away or try scaling the other side of the pit. That's a minor nit-pick within the greater context of this film (if not a subtle metaphor of its own that suggests a serious short-sightedness on Okada's part) as Woman in the Dunes crafts a reasonably compelling tale of imprisonment and the associated psychological trauma. Long stretches of introspection and solemn dialogues are punctuated by escape attempts and the occasional external development. Doesn't quite live up to the impossibly high reputation that it has, but it's still very good.

#521 - The Dead Zone
David Cronenberg, 1983



After a car accident puts him in a coma for five years, a teacher wakes up to find that he has psychic powers that work when he touches other people.

It says a lot about how twisted Cronenberg's prior films had been that it would take him adapting a Stephen King novel in order to become more accessible. The story finds an appropriately off-kilter lead in Christopher Walken, whose gaunt appearance and piercing stare makes him the ideal person to play a character who is troubled by psychic visions. He is definitely good enough to carry a film that doesn't quite seem sure about where it wants to go after the first act. It then ends up pursuing two very distinctive storylines - one involves a local sheriff (Tom Skerritt) asking him for help in catching a serial killer, while another involves Walken crossing paths with an extremely disagreeable politician (Martin Sheen) who has his eye on not just becoming a senator but eventually running for President. Amidst these rather episodic developments (which do go some way towards explaining why this was turned into a TV show so easily), he tries to rebuild his old life as best he can, whether by returning to teaching or by attempting to reconnect with an old girlfriend (Brooke Adams) who has since married someone else.

In addition to Walken's typically engaging screen presence, the cast is generally decent - Herbert Lom is good as the doctor who guides Walken through his paranormal development, while Sheen in particular delivers an interesting performance as a rising politician whose problematic politics and coarse mannerisms are a far cry from his iconic role as a more benevolent politician on The West Wing. Cronenberg's work behind the camera is naturally clinical in a way that does not distract from the erratic nature of King's story, showing lightning-quick flashes of the past and future without being disorienting in the process. It does tread into some interesting areas as Walken struggles with the responsibility that comes with his power, which is frequently challenged in situations both great and small. Even so, it does seem a little inconsistent in its treatment of Walken's power as he conveniently manages to avoid reading the futures of certain characters that he happens to touch. This being a combination of Cronenberg and King, it's no surprise that things get a little gory, occasionally in ways that come across as absurd (such as one character's rather...impractical method of committing suicide). I came to it after not only watching a couple of episodes of the Anthony Michael Hall-starring TV adaptation, but also after the Saturday Night Live parody starring Walken himself. Both of those are arguably factors that may have had a diminishing effect on this film; even so it's still a decent bit of work, if relatively lacking in creativity and shock value for a Cronenberg film.

#522 - Gangster No. 1
Paul McGuigan, 2000



An ageing London gangster reminisces about his rise to power in the late 1960s.

Genre pastiche is great when it's done right, but when it's not...results may vary. Gangster No. 1 definitely feels less like its own movie than a series of homages and references to many other crime movies, which is definitely a problem that was endemic to the genre following the release of Pulp Fiction. It starts off somewhat promisingly by introducing us to our nameless protagonist (Malcolm McDowell). McDowell, whose uniquely nasal delivery gave modern cinema one of its most iconic narrations in A Clockwork Orange, at least manages to bring a similar gravitas to this rather mediocre film as he snarls his way through the tale of his younger self (Paul Bettany) entering London's criminal underworld in 1968 under the tutelage of a renowned gangster (David Thewlis). What follows is a fairly standard gangster tale as the protagonist makes his rise to power that involves a lot of the usual tropes - twisted love triangle with the boss's girlfriend (Saffron Burrows), brewing turf war with a rival gangster (Jamie Foreman), increasingly brutal acts of violence that are for reasons both personal and business-related, etc.

The problem isn't just that Gangster No. 1 is derivative, it's that it's derivative in a fairly boring way. I generally don't mind picking up the similarities to earlier works, but I do mind if that's the only thing that defines the film. Goodfellas would be the most obvious influence upon this film with the bulk of the film being a narration-heavy '60s flashback; even more egregious are developments such as the boss-moll-soldier dynamic from Scarface, the inner monologue with a different voice from Mean Streets, and the entire third act suddenly turning the film into Once Upon a Time in America. This latter homage is especially distracting considering how every character is aged up by 30 years save for Bettany, who is replaced with McDowell instead. I guess the film-makers really wanted that voice-over. This doesn't automatically make the film completely bad, but it definitely feels too uninspired to be even remotely classic. It doesn't try anything particularly daring in terms of its execution and the story doesn't have a lot in the way of interesting twists. It's carried by some fairly decent actors even as they play some generally rote characters. Having the main character be a deliberately blank slate is quite the tightrope act and what few pieces of character development he receives only serve to leave him unbalanced. The occasional lapses into heavily stylised shots (especially in certain flash-forwards) do little to infuse the film with much energy. I remember when I first saw Gangster No. 1 on video store shelves many years ago and thought that it looked like quite the awesome movie. Now that I've finally gotten around to watching it, I'm sad to see that that's not the case.

#523 - Fist of Fury
Lo Wei, 1972



When a Chinese martial artist returns to Shanghai and finds his old teacher has died under suspicious circumstances, he swears revenge on the school of Japanese fighters that were responsible.

Given how much of your typical Bruce Lee film is built on the visual spectacle of seeing the man himself carry out all manner of effortless devastation upon his unfortunate enemies, it doesn't seem like they would hold up all that well to repeat viewings beyond the actual action. Fist of Fury does reasonably well by building a more slightly more complex tale than that of The Way of the Dragon. Here, Lee's typically tough-as-nails protagonist ends up in the midst of a more historical conflict in early 20th-century Shanghai, with the main enemies being the students at a Japanese dojo who exist merely to antagonise the staff and students of a Chinese school. A plot forms around Lee being the only person to truly recognise the depth of the Japanese characters' conspiracy, though his actions naturally form an extra conflict as his attempts to seek vengeance for his master cause serious consequences for the school's inhabitants, to say nothing of the increasing difficulty it poses for his intention to marry his fiancée.

While the plot of Fist of Fury does add a considerably solid subtext to the proceedings, it also serves as a decent excuse to see Lee use his skills on a whole other type of opponent. Having the bulk of his opponents be Japanese does make for interesting cross-cultural combat, especially when he has to fight off katana-wielding enemies using a pair of nun-chucks (and yes, that is as awesome as it sounds). It does add some moral complexity as his vengeful rampage causes considerable problems for the people he cares about (and it creates the odd good scene, such as his conflicted cemetery confrontation with his fiancée), but that's not why we're here. The action is pretty good, whether he's fighting a whole crowd of students or going one-on-one against a more formidable opponent. It's good enough to be worth a second viewing, so if you've never seen this before and are looking to check out more of Lee's work that isn't Enter the Dragon, this is as good a place to start as any. At the very least, its plot won't drag and make you cringe in the same way that The Way of the Dragon probably will.

#524 - Black Robe
Bruce Beresford, 1991



In 17th-century North America, a pair of French colonists - one a Jesuit priest, the other not - travel from one mission to another along with members of the Algonquin tribe.

Wait, the Iroquois are the bad guys in this? Zero popcorn boxes.

But seriously, Black Robe is a rather impressive follow-up to Beresford's renowned Oscar-winner Driving Miss Daisy that takes a very different tack to that rather average film. It offers an interesting take on the explorer narrative because it builds a story around the many differences between the various Native American tribes and the French settlers that colonised Quebec in the early-1600s. The plot of the film involves a simple supply run from one French outpost to another. To this end, members of the Algonquin tribe are employed to accompany the two Frenchmen assigned to carry out the mission. The two Frenchmen are completely different - one (Lothaire Bluteau) is a Jesuit priest who seeks to convert the Native population to Christianity, while the other (Aden Young) is a non-religious settler whose attitudes simultaneously endear him to the Natives while causing conflict with Bluteau. As a result, the Algonquin members of the mission have difficulty trusting Bluteau (who they refer to as "Blackrobe", hence the title) due to his pious nature ironically causing them to think of him as a demon, which causes trouble for them along the path.

The technical skill on offer is solid and I do have to appreciate the respect to which it shows the Native tribes involved, though I do question how compelling it stays over the course of its narrative. The two leads of Bluteau and Young set up an interesting dichotomy in regards to the balance of personal faith against respect of the natives; this applies reasonably well to the plot where the Algonquin people have their doubts about Bluteau wish to abandon their mission (with the exception of August Schellenberg's leader and his relatives). It does ultimately feel like the inclusion of the Iroquois natives as unambiguously evil characters is an awfully convenient choice to propel the narrative along, even though it makes sense that some tribes would be more violently resistant to Western influence than others. That being said, it is enough to shake up a narrative that does start to feel a little thin after a while and there is enough resonance to its themes of faith to properly justify it. As a result, Black Robe is a decent enough historical drama that doesn't overstay its welcome and offers some interesting moments, as well as some beautiful location photography of the American wilderness.

#525 - Constantine
Francis Lawrence, 2005



A professional exorcist and demon hunter must team up with a detective who is investigating her twin sister's apparent suicide.

Constantine does have a bit of a troublesome reputation due to its translating the eponymous anti-hero from his native Britain to Los Angeles and having him be played by Keanu Reeves (who does play quite heavily towards the unfortunate stereotype of him being an extremely wooden action hero). The fact that I was willing to look past said reputation and watch the film anyway is probably a sign of how much faith I had in the source material; after all, I do like to give the odd paranormal action/horror film a chance. Constantine does manage to somewhat decent as it follows Reeves through his everyday missions to keep the minions of hell under control (complete with Shia LaBeouf of all people as his comic relief sidekick, who mainly exists to drive him places), and the main plot involving the mythical Spear of Destiny (the artifact used to kill Christ himself at his crucifixion). To this end, he joins forces with a detective (Rachel Weisz), whose twin sister has committed suicide in such a way that it ultimately ties into the potentially apocalyptic main plot.

I do give Constantine credit for some things. Reeves does look somewhat badass as he manages to dispatch hordes of supernatural assailants using all sorts of faith-based weapons. The acting is pretty woeful across the board - Reeves and LaBeouf play to their most unfortunate acting stereotypes, while Weisz does feel rather bland despite her character being the one who is supposed to carry the story. The blandness even spreads to more distinctive character actors like Tilda Swinton or Peter Stormare. For a mid-2000s comic book movie, the effects do alternate between the effective (such as Constantine fighting a swarm of hellish insects, which looks better than any killer bug fight has any right to) and the not-so-effective (such as most of the minions of hell, which feel like slightly less human versions of the monsters from Lawrence's follow-up film I Am Legend). They do help to carry a film that often feels incoherent and full of barely-connected plot threads. I'm not even sure I could even provide a detailed summary of the film's events without referring to the Wikipedia page. Whether that reflects more poorly upon the film or me is extremely debatable. In any case, Constantine does have fairly watchable action-horror sequences but it's still a pretty hollow and inconsequential film despite its rather inventive supernatural premise. It's got just enough good bits to save it from being a true object of scorn, but there's just too many flaws to make the whole thing worthwhile.

#526 - It's Such A Beautiful Day
Don Hertzfeldt, 2012



A compilation of three short films that all focus on Bill, a seemingly normal everyman whose typical malaise over the mundanity of everyday life is exacerbated when he has a serious health scare.

Review here.

i felt pretty much the same way about Spring Breakers. my ex wanted me to watch it with him because it was ohmahgawd sew amayzing but i was bored out of my mind and spent most of the film watching the clock.

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letterboxd

I like Constantine. Excellent portrayal of the Devil in my opinion.

Tell me about it. I had been hearing similar opinions from people who believed that it really was some sort of transcendent arthouse masterpiece that went beyond being something as tiresome and predictable as a straightforward satire, so of course I was at least somewhat intrigued. As I've noted elsewhere, I think having high expectations of this film ends up being even worse for it than low expectations as the whole thing really is a chore to sit through for the most part for reasons that are presumably intentional.

I don't dispute that, too bad he doesn't show up until the last 20 minutes or so.

#527 - Adaptation
Spike Jonze, 2002



A neurotic screenwriter struggles with his latest project, which is an adaptation of a non-fiction book about a rogue horticulturist.

For the creative team of director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, following up their highly acclaimed initial collaboration Being John Malkovich wasn't going to be easy. Fortunately, the struggle to produce something just as fresh and inventive as that bizarre little fantasy film ended up being the ideal inspiration for a follow-up film, though it is one that tests the audience's tolerance for suspension of disbelief and authorial self-indulgence. The film follows screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (played in-universe by Nicolas Cage) as he gets to work on his follow-up to Being John Malkovich, which is an adaptation of the non-fiction book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (played in-universe by Meryl Streep). The book covers Orlean's investigation of a white horticulturist (Chris Cooper) whose legal troubles over obtaining rare and environmentally protected orchids form the basis for Orlean's book as she follows him around and observes his process. The incredibly self-conscious Charlie hits writer's block as he works to figure out how to work Orlean's interesting but fairly straightforward and anti-climatic book into a captivating yet sufficiently unconventional screenplay. His difficult situation is only exacerbated by the presence of his happy-go-lucky twin brother Donald (Cage again), who is Charlie's opposite in just about everything except physical appearance. This is especially true of Donald's own forays into screenwriting, which are trite, nonsensical, and naturally received much more warmly than Charlie's more challenging and complex work.

Adaptation does feature a lot of the usual hand-biting humour that accompanies virtually every film associated with Hollywood culture, but that well-trod ground isn't given as much priority as Kaufman's own self-deprecating depiction of not only his writer's block but also his day-to-day existence. This extends to a very unflattering self-portrait where Charlie is constantly obsessing over his personal flaws and making virtually every instance of him talking to other people extremely awkward (especially when it comes to women that he finds attractive). Cage not only sells Charlie's nervousness very well, but he also manages to play the incredibly excitable and silly Donald to the hilt as well. This role could have been extremely annoying (which is arguably the intention, at least initially) but Cage channels his usual manic energy into this character and makes him oddly charming even as he spouts all kinds of tiresome think-positive platitudes, resulting in what might possibly be Cage's greatest performance. Streep brings a cultured dignity to her role as a New Yorker journalist, which makes for a great balance against Cooper's Oscar-winning turn as the colourful, fast-talking Orchid Thief himself. The rest of the film is peppered with some decent enough characters played by recognisable faces; the most memorable one is definitely Brian Cox as screenwriting lecturer Robert McKee, who manages to make the most of his brief amount of screen-time with an expletive-laden rant about the point of writing. (Side-note: I did a course on screenwriting several years ago - during one session, the lecturer actually screened the scene in question in a self-reflexive act that would definitely be in keeping with the film's tongue-in-cheek attitude.)

On a technical level, Jonze brings his usual quasi-experimental style to the proceedings in order to lend some impressive illumination to Charlie's muddled attempts at writing and also the story himself. Fast cuts, stock footage, and of course trick photography are all employed to not only tell the story of The Orchid Thief but also Charlie's own story, especially when the two divergent plots eventually start to intertwine as his writing process starts to seriously break down under mounting pressure. The third act...well, without giving too much away it is ultimately designed to break away from the standards set by the first two acts, but whether or not the conscious decision to do so actually benefits the film or damages it will probably vary from viewer to viewer. At the very least, while I can accept why it had to happen and the fact that even I can't think of how the film should have ended, there's still something about it that doesn't work all that well. Even so, that's a minor complaint against a very quirky little film that does a great job of illustrating the mind-bending problems that can come with translating one artwork into another. The performances are great and work off a good script, which is all shot through with a largely unobtrusive music-video style. I may be due for re-watches of Being John Malkovich and Where the Wild Things Are, but until then I'm more than happy to cite Adaptation as my favourite Jonze film. I'm not sure if it's my favourite Kaufman script (again, more re-watches are in order), but I like that it offers a fairly fresh spin on what could have been another tiresome Hollywood satire.

#528 - Her
Spike Jonze, 2013



A recently-separated man starts to bond with an artifically intelligent computer operating system with a female voice.

After having re-watched Adaptation, I then decided to make a little Spike Jonze double-bill by re-watching Her. This resulted in me going from watching an indie film about an extremely neurotic writer facing an existential crisis that was only exacerbated by his inability to relate to women to watching an indie film about an extremely neurotic wri-

Hey, wait a second...

But seriously, Her does have a somewhat interesting premise that intertwines science-fiction with romantic dramedy. In the not-too-distant future (Next Sunday A.D.), there's a guy named Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) who is not too different from you or me. He's got his own set of problems - he's recently separated from his wife (Rooney Mara), he's working a fundamentally creative yet uninspiring job where he is commissioned to write love letters between couples he's never met, and he constantly struggles to relieve his own loneliness (as evidenced by a blackly comical early scene where he has anonymous phone sex). Soon enough, he buys a brand-new computer operating system that features actual artificial intelligence. The A.I. (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) chooses the name Samantha, which eventually prompts Theodore to start thinking of the constantly-expanding relationship with Samantha as a romantic one, as does she.

There's plenty to make one warm to Her. There's the aesthetically pleasing pastel-soaked visuals that are captured through some charmingly down-to-earth cinematography. There's the well-realised world-building full of sufficiently believable technological advances that definitely take on a life of their own - who can forget the scene where Theodore plays a hologram videogame and encounters a foul-mouthed cartoon alien? There's also some good actors in the mix - Phoenix is always a stand-out even in this somewhat difficult-to-like role (even if we do empathise with Theodore's desperate yearning to truly connect with someone, this does result in him having a rather toxic worldview that is reflected ever-so-slightly in his encounters with women) and Johansson's performance definitely shows enough range and energy to compensate for a literal lack of screen presence. That's without mentioning Amy Adams as Phoenix's best friend, who is always a pleasure to watch even in a relatively small role like the one she plays here (this also applies to Mara as she only gets a handful of scenes but makes the most of them as a person who manages to challenge Theodore - both for better and worse). I also like the background score, which is co-written by Arcade Fire's Win Butler and may contribute to the film being derided as hipster-baiting garbage but I don't mind it.

That being said, there's plenty about Her that is also difficult to work around. Even though it inhabits a rather intriguing setting and sets up some interesting concepts as part of its technologically conscious premise, such concepts are only really applied when it's convenient to the generally straightforward plot. As a result, the film does find itself reiterating a lot of tropes that are associated with the somewhat unfortunate "manic pixie dream girl" archetype. Now, I grant that this doesn't automatically ruin a film. I still consider Harold and Maude a minor favourite despite the fact that its main twist involves the MPDG being a septuagenarian. Her does offer a somewhat inventive variation on the theme due to Samantha's status as an advanced computer rather than a flesh-and-blood being, but that only makes the instances in which it sticks to playbook developments feel even more underwhelming (especially on a second viewing, which makes the film feel like even more of a chore). While I did enjoy Her quite a bit the first time around, nowadays I think the main appeal comes from the weird world-building more so than the plot and characterisation (especially considering how flimsy the latter factors end up being). It's not enough to totally scupper the film, but it definitely means that I don't think of it as a modern classic just because it manages to supplant its bare-bones romantic narrative with sci-fi influences and off-beat comedy.

#529 - G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Stephen Sommers, 2009



A pair of soldiers join forces with an elite commando unit that must recover an extremely dangerous weapon from a megalomaniac arms dealer.

Considering the contempt that sufficiently cultured film buffs have for overly expensive and fundamentally lightweight blockbusters, I do kind of wonder why Stephen Sommers doesn't get dragged into the firing line as often as more notorious contemporaries like Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich do. I guess it's because his blockbusters tend to be relatively inoffensive in comparison to the former's constantly-escalating obnoxiousness or the latter's trite sense of sentimentality. That doesn't automatically redeem G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which is yet another attempt to turn a popular toy into a flashy 21st-century live-action extravaganza. The G.I. Joe brand provides only the slightest window-dressing to an otherwise generic action blockbuster that sets up a conflict involving a set of high-powered warheads filled with matter-destorying nanomachines and the two sides - one bad, one good - fighting to get a hold of them whether for purposes of saving the world or holding it to ransom.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra may seem rather tolerable as far as contemporary CGI-heavy blockbusters go, but it's still prey to a lot of the usual faults that plague other films of its ilk. The plotting is fairly uninspired and haphazard (especially when it flashes back to various characters' back-stories) and isn't given much fleshing out by the actors involved. The film does need a viewpoint character or two around whom to build its fantastic world and logic, but making said characters be a combination of Channing Tatum's angst-ridden protagonist and Marlon Wayans' wacky comic relief is a decision that does have some promise but is executed rather poorly. The rest of the cast is thinly defined at best (case in point - the rest of the Joes) and badly defined at worst. I'd say there's an issue with the casting when the early presence of a certain recognisable actor ends up foreshadowing a sadly predictable reveal, and that's without getting into Christopher Eccleston's villain speaking in a high-pitched Scottish accent. Not even the conflict that arises from a hero and villain having been former lovers provides a satisfactory pay-off (nor do the multiple flashbacks that develop the complicated history between both sides' token ninja characters).

The weakness of the plot and characterisation does offer a silver lining of sorts; it does divert one's attention to the fact that the CGI on offer isn't bad enough to warrant heavily negative comments. There's something to be said for the relatively decent quality of it, especially when much of the screen ends up splashed with it in the form of elaborate backdrops (such as the underwater lair that only serves to remind me of Rapture from BioShock) or simple expository holograms. Even so, that still doesn't excuse the poorly structured action sequences that often depend on something as simple as the ninja characters' physical prowess to forcibly inject scenes with excitement and compensate for both physically and logically ridiculous developments. Said developments aren't even ridiculous in a fun way, such as Wayans' character frequently getting put through painful situations for very little reason at all other than humour - seriously, what is up with random vehicles in movies speeding towards characters and honking their horns without making any attempt to slow down or swerve out of the way? That's too distracting to even make its application work within its intended comical context. As a result, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is an acceptable way to pass time when you have nothing better to do and need some sort of distraction but there's nothing here that makes it worth seeking out voluntarily. Just because it looks fairly slick is no excuse for its many other shortcomings.

Seeing how you have recently watched and enjoyed a couple of 60's Japanese movies, I recommend to you Samurai Rebellion.

#530 - Cure
Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997



A detective investigates a series of ritualistic murders that are being committed by random people under the influence of hypnotic suggestion.

Another film where I've gone in knowing next to nothing about it other than it is considerably acclaimed and something of a cult film, it's very easy to apply one's own frames of reference to Cure in order to make sufficient sense of it. The plot involves a detective (Koji Yakusho) investigating a bizarre type of serial killing - namely, that random and seemingly unconnected individuals are committing vicious murders that are distinguished by carving an X into the victims' necks post-mortem. These murderers and victims are being discovered around the same time that an amnesiac wanderer (Masato Hagiwara) is creating new ones out of various people he runs across as he stumbles from place to place. The inherent weirdness of the case leads to Yakusho having his own gradual breakdown, which is only exacerbated when his wife's own mental problems escalate in severity and cause the stress of both his work life and home life to collide in all sorts of unexpected manners.

I can pick apart what types of psychological crime thrillers seem to have had an influence on Cure, especially those types that go beyond their simple cat-and-mouse narratives to ask deeper questions about why the "cat" chases the "mouse" (or whether or not the "mouse" is ever so easily caught). Fortunately, Cure has a sufficiently interesting concept that makes its seemingly derivative nature come across as less of a copycat and more of a film whose own inventiveness inspires comparisons to similarly creative takes on the thriller. The hypnosis angle is revealed at a relatively early juncture in the narrative and information is parceled out slowly as Hagiwara convinces multiple sane individuals to commit gruesome acts of murder against the unlikeliest of targets. Plenty of tension is wrought out of that side of the narrative as one watches Hagiwara go through his routine. He establishes an effective psychological tactic constant asking of questions and apparent inability to retain any answers he might receive, which leads to him asking the same questions over and over again (much to the frustration of his "victims" and, to a lesser extent, the audience). The careful exposition as to how he gained this mysterious power is also developed slowly yet effectively as Yakusho and his co-workers conduct their investigation, but this is not a film that is all that concerned with solving the mystery so much as the effect it will have on those that solve it.

Cure is intermittently graphic without coming across as gratuitous, while the interplay between protagonist and antagonist does end up becoming a solid backbone for the film as a whole (which is only improved by certain scenes, such as one where a confrontation between the two leads takes place over the course of one especially lengthy take). While the film is pretty unremarkable when it comes to visual style (save for the occasional instance of deliberately and effectively disorienting editing), the sound design stands out in a way that can probably best be described as Lynchian due to its emphasis on discomforting drones sounding as the narrative demands. Though it does drag in places and could have used just a little tightening, for the most part it's an effectively enigmatic thriller and remains so up to and even past its final scenes. The way in which the film ends manages the impressive feat of making me question why Cure has not been given a Western remake while also understanding perfectly why that should be the case. As a sufficiently strange and unpredictable little psychological thriller, it definitely deserves more recognition.

#531 - Pretty in Pink
Howard Deutch, 1986



A working-class high-school student finds herself becoming attracted to an upper-class classmate while also dealing with her friend's unrequited crush on her.

My opinion of John Hughes as a creator of entertainment are rather mixed, to say the least. I used to love Ferris Bueller's Day Off when I was younger but I'd be hard-pressed to say that I hold that opinion now, while The Breakfast Club definitely has its flaws but I like it well enough on its own terms to consider it a third-tier favourite. I haven't seen Planes, Trains, and Automobiles all the way through (though I do want to). However, I thought Sixteen Candles was poor enough in quality that I stuck it on my "worst 100" list. Though Pretty in Pink promised to be very much of the same ilk as Sixteen Candles in that it focused on Molly Ringwald's teenage protagonist as she had to navigate various romantic problems, I figured I'd still give it a chance. Credit where credit's due, it definitely improves on the incredibly thin Sixteen Candles by offering a slightly more complex dilemma for Ringwald's character as she not only has to handle the social stigma associated with living in a lower-class house with her unemployed single father (Harry Dean Stanton) but also how it promises to affect her romantic chances with a handsome upper-class boy (Andrew McCarthy). Meanwhile, other complicating elements include McCarthy's supremely snobby friend (James Spader) trying to keep the two apart and Ringwald's own friend (Jon Cryer), who carries his own torch for the unsuspecting Ringwald.

Though Pretty in Pink is still something of a step up from Sixteen Candles, that doesn't stop it from being a fundamentally boring film. Hughes (who wrote this but did not direct) has had detractors that have criticised his high-school films for depending on stereotypes while also managing to provide extra definition in regards to what makes them so stereotypical in the first place. Though that criticism arguably applies to The Breakfast Club (where the whole plot revolved around five completely opposed teen stereotypes spending a whole movie stuck together against their will), at least that film managed to provide some fairly interesting and humourous takes on seemingly trite characters. Pretty in Pink offers no such respite underneath the '80s hell that includes clashing clothes patterns and New Order on the soundtrack. Breakfast Club worked because everyone involved in the cast had their own small arc that intertwined with one another to make for a constantly interesting film, while Ferris Bueller at least provided a compelling blend of cool wish fulfillment, sadistic slapstick, and a fairly resonant emotional core about an especially neurotic introvert. The stigma against Ringwald due to her poor background is a decent enough arc, and it's a credit to both her and legendary character actor Stanton that they can sell this particular conflict well. Even so, that still gets steamrollered by the love triangle that erupts between Ringwald, Cryer, and McCarthy. Neither option, whether it's the emotionally fragile goofball or the blandly affable prep, seems like an especially desirable choice (even though Ringwald seems to gravitate towards McCarthy out of a sort of gold-digging pragmatism as much as genuine romantic attraction). As a result, the main plot loses what little momentum it has as we are treated to scene after scene that plods towards a conclusion that doesn't seem to have all that much at stake.

Even so, Pretty in Pink has some decent moments. The soundtrack is rife with extremely period-appropriate slices of popular and not-so-popular music that can definitely be picked out and picked apart (of course Cryer's character listens to the Smiths while at home by himself), but at least the film fully commits to capturing the ephemeral nature of mid-1980s America. The largely flat cast of characters may not be all that endearing, but the actors involved at least do their best to infuse said characters with some small degree of charm - I've already mentioned Stanton bringing his usual drawling that-guy charisma to his role as Ringwald's dad, but I think Cryer and Spader don't do all that badly in some otherwise unfortunate roles (to say nothing of Annie Potts as the owner-operator of the record store where Ringwald works). It's a shame that Ringwald and McCarthy, ostensibly the characters at the heart of the film, feel rather underwhelming in comparison. As a result, I still find it difficult to really care one way or the other about Pretty in Pink. It's not terrible in the same way that Sixteen Candles was, but there's very little here that serves to make it stand out in any favourable way. I guess the next time I feel like getting a Hughes fix I'll either throw on Breakfast Club again or maybe finish Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

I think that Imaishi is a genius. His best work is not this, which was sort of a prototype for his over the top style, his best stuff are the series Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill. Gurren Lagann was also released as a movie duology, though I think they cut out too many important elements, but it still is among my favorite animated films of all time. Imaishi's stuff is like the speed metal of cinema: using the art form of animation to be fast and over the top without limit.

I've had Gurren Lagann on my Netflix watchlist for a while now, but I did not know it was created by the same person who did Dead Leaves. Though I didn't give this film the most favourable rating, I still reckon I'd like to give it a chance. Not so sure about Kill La Kill, though.

I think Her is close to a masterpiece. Great love story interweaved with social commentary and satire. Love the view on technology and the future world, as well as the human mind and the understanding of the surroundings in a disconnected world, which provokes lonliness and the loss of real emotion. The sense of presence seems distant and the world colorless, but the contrast to a vivid world is great. But yeah, I love it. Even better on a second watch for me, since the rythm of the film is off-beat and a little weird. But that's what makes it great.