Superb Scenes With Seanc

I honestly can't imagine why anyone would think this film would be worth their money. Even if I was a kid and only going to make out with my g/f, I'd pick a different film.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I know but I had three people this week tell me I should see this movie. That is why I have to come to movie forums to talk about movies. Even if it means wading through all the Tarkovsky.

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Letterboxd

I hear ya. I am in the same boat.

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Fear and Loathing in MoFo... The Gunslinger 45's Top 50 Favorite Films

In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

Hey! Tarkovsky made some movies that are better than anything you have reviewed here (The Mirror and Stalker are slightly better than Seven Samurai, which is probably the best movie here). They may not be the most entertaining movies ever but the emotional impact they can have on the watcher is enormous.

Just horsing around Guap, I know we have different tastes. Glad to see your still hanging around my review thread.

Director: Woody Allen

So I am overall very mixed on Woody Allen. The dude can flat out write. His scripts are smart and witty. On the other hand the guy is a creepy creeperson. You may be thinking lots of artists are, and I am sure that is a correct statement. However few film makers make me feel as if I am watching their persona on screen as strongly as Woody Allen. So from the opening scene where his 42 year old character is on a date with a 17 year old high school student I am creeped out. I get past it however because like I said the dude can write. The sharp wit and pretentious New York haughtiness is on full display from the word action and never lets up for a second. There is something about watching very flawed people interact that appeals to me. Perhaps it makes me feel better about my miserable existence. Of course Allen and Keaton play off each other perfectly. It is both intriguing and humorous to watch despite the fact that I don't connect with nearly anything that the characters are experiencing.

The other aspect of Manhattan that bothered me is that the 17 year old seems to be the only character in the film that has any idea of how to be selfless towards another human being. Again this in and of itself would not bother me as much if it did not seem as though Allen is saying that she is the oddball. She is the naive one, the person in the film who has to grow up and face reality. Maybe I am misinterpreting Allen's intent but the ending is the only slight evidence to the contrary.

Like Annie Hall, Manhattan is a film that will stick with me and be worth a couple more viewings. There are few film makers who can effect how I feel about their work by script alone, Allen is definitely one of them.

Director: Robert Redford

Very ashamed to say that I had not even heard of this film until a couple of months ago. Ordinary People is a poignant look at how hard a loss can hit a family. What makes Redford's film so unique in my opinion is how it also unearths how that loss can bring other emotional baggage to the surface of our relationships. The film focuses on Conrad (Hutton) who was in a boating accident with his brother. His brother dies and he lives, as if this is not hard enough for a teenager to deal with it seems that his mother (Tyler Moore) has a certain resentment of him as well. As the layers of the story are peeled back we begin to understand that the unfounded resentment was perhaps always there and is the root of much of Conrad's problems. On the opposite end of the spectrum is his father (Sutherland) who always seems to be over compensating for his wife and running interference between the two of them.

The complexity of Conrad's relationships are the heart of the story and I felt like I could watch them unfold forever. Because of Conrad's state of mind after the accident he is having a very hard time readjusting socially. This dynamic makes for many of the more emotional scenes in the film. There is not a bad performance in this movie. I have not even mentioned Judd Hirsch who plays his psychologist and may be my favorite character in Ordinary People.

There are not many flaws in Ordinary People. I like this film a lot but I think what kept me from falling head over heels is that at times the situations felt a slight bit contrived. I am reluctant to say that because that probably gives the impression that the film did not feel authentic and it did. I think the difference is that the relationships felt authentic even if sometimes their conflict did not.

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

I am having a horrible summer at the movies and couldn't be more disappointed about that. It seems like each movie I go see is worse than the last, but in fairness I did like Pacific Rim slightly better than White House Down.


I feel like there is just nothing left to say about these summer blockbusters. My beef with them is becoming as monotonous as the movies themselves. There is no thought put into the characters, every single one is one dimensional. The dialogue is horrid full of lines like: "It's not obedience it's...respect", "Let's do this together", and "Today we are canceling the apocalypse". The acting is atrocious, I am sure plenty of women love Hunnam but he brings little to any character I have ever seen him play. I am a fan of Elba generally but he is horrible here. The script does him no favors, they are trying to make him Vince Lombardi, but he comes off more like Vince Vaughn which is not a compliment to a character in this world. Every single line of humor falls flat, I did not smile once but shook my head plenty. Day, Gorman, and Perlman are supposed to be our comic relief but like Elba are betrayed by no thought being put into the script.


What little credit I am giving to the movie is because Del Toro can create some cool looking robots and monsters. That is just not enough to sustain me for two hours.

Director: Lee Hirsch

Bully is an heart wrenching documentary as you would expect. It follows five children of varying ages and backgrounds. What they have in common is that they are all bullied to some extent. Two of them to the point where their voices are not even able to be heard in this film. There are few smiles to be had in this film, you will either be in tears or rage at virtually every moment. What surprised me and I suspect will surprise others is some of the people that you will become enraged at.

Bully effected me deeply, especially as a father. To see what they go through not only makes you hurt for them but also will make you fear for your own children. There is something that is keeping this from being a great documentary and I can not put my finger on what it is. I left the film feeling like something is missing that it is incomplete somehow. The more I reflect on it the more I think that may have been deliberate. I can't shake that feeling however. So I highly recommend Bully, I think it is an important film, but I did not fall in love with it.

Director: Chan-wook Park

In Stoker Park has given us a smart, straight forward thriller. What I love about Stoker is just because the narrative is straight forward doesn't mean Park isn't giving us things to think about. It also doesn't mean that he doesn't hold some things back, there are a few surprises in the last third if not twists. There are also plenty of themes to explore. Park is telling the story he wants to tell the way he wants to tell it and the audience benefits from it. I think what I appreciate about Park the most as a director is the way he integrates visuals into his storytelling. Visuals are a huge part of his technique but you never feel like they are the story. His films are character driven while the visuals enhance the worlds he builds and gives us insight into the characters psyche. Park does not waste a frame in Stoker. Every single movement, word, color, or object means something. It is there for a reason and this make Stoker an incredibly rich film.


Stoker centers around three main characters and we have a fourth whose presence is felt throughout. India (Wasikowska) and Uncle Charlie (Goode) are the most intriguing characters in the film. Their relationship creates most of the tension and conflict. India is an especially engaging character. While Uncle Charlies presence is the most unsettling, we always feel like we know where his arc is headed. India is the antithesis of this. Her arc is the most uncertain, while the tone does not give us much hope for a rosy ending, she is the character we feel has the best hope of breaking away from Charlies psychological hold. India's mother, Evelyn (Kidman), is the most baffling in the film in my opinion. Her motivations and intentions are never clear. She has a jealousy issue with India and her husbands relationship. While this is not unusual, the way it manifests itself in the film and ultimately the things that Evelyn allows to happen seem out of character. In the end I feel that Kidman's character was under developed and that makes her the weak link in a very strong story.


In my opinion Stoker is another strong showing for Park. The visuals he brings to a film never disappoint. Add that to his strong character development and you have a director whose work I will always look forward to.

Ordinary People to me just felt, well, ordinary It was a good movie but the direction and way it was made felt like Redford was just going through the motions. The acting was very good overall, and the story was good but we have to give credit to the novel it's based on for that. I can't believe this won Best Picture over Raging Bull, that may be the worst pick of all-time.

Raging Bull is better but I still think Ordinary People is well above average. To me it is better than Crash, Shakespeare, English Patient, and Argo. Just as good as a few others as well.

Director: David Chase

I was very excited when I heard that David Chase was making a feature film. Even more excited when I heard Gandolfini was in it. The fact that it was not gonna be a gangster film did not worry me in the least. Not Fade Away was on the top of my must see list last year. So I finally sat down to watch it and I was massively disappointed. Not Fade Away tells you exactly what it is in the beginning of the movie, a story about a band that doesn't make it. The sad part is I would not be interested in any of these characters if the band did make it. I will not remember a single one of these characters. Even sitting here now less than 24 hours after seeing the film I can not think of a single character name.

The film is meant to be a slow burn, mostly centering around one character who after joining the band becomes its most talented member and then by default its leader. You have known many of the band members throughout your life. They are the guys that want to party and play music once in a while. Of course they feel like they should become famous by default not by hard work. There music is art after all and they should be paid for it and not expected to earn it. That's it, if you get more out of the story than that, more power to you. If all this is not bad enough, Not Fade Away has probably one of the worst endings in the history of main stream films. Just really bad.

There are two reasons to watch this movie. The music is really good and there is lots of it. Gandolfini is great as the father. He is the only actor doing good work and he kills every scene he is in. Unfortunately he is not in most of the film, so we don't get nearly enough of the energy he brings. Not Fade Away is just a bad film.

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

When you make a movie like Drive that most people respond so positively too your next movie will be judged against it whether its fair or not. When that film is as stylized as Drive the comparisons will be even more intense. That has certainly been the case with Only God Forgives. I don't think this film lives up to the lofty standards set by Drive. I do think the comparisons are fair however because I feel Refn is trying to hit many of the same beats with Only God Forgives.


The story centers around Julian (Gosling) whose brother has been brutally murdered. Julian's mother (Thomas) comes to Bangkok to make sure that Julian seeks out revenge on those responsible. Julian seems reluctant but mostly does as his mother asks. Theirs is the most interesting relationship in the film. If this relationship had been explored with any effectiveness at all I think I would have had a much more positive response to this film. Instead we are left with hollow characters and little reason to care what their ultimate outcome will be. Every character in this film except for Thomas is given absolutely nothing to do. We see way too many shots of Gosling and Pansringarm just staring into the camera for extended takes. Due to the fact that we don't care about these characters these takes have no emotional effect. In my opinion that is the major difference between this film and Drive. In Drive we cared about the characters so the brooding was mysterious, in Only God Forgives we don't so the brooding is cheesy and badly executed.


What Refn does just as well as he did in Drive, if not better, is in the visuals. I have not seen a more atmospheric film thus far in 2013. This movie looks amazing. What I like the most about Refn's visuals is how he uses the frames to build tension and keep us guessing. Many characters in danger are framed in a way that we literally don't know what is around the corner. Simple, effective, and beautiful. I love this directors style and that makes me wish that this was a better film.


See Only God Forgives for the visuals not for the story arc or characters. If you happen to be a fan of lifeless karaoke or insane mothers that can put a psycho-sexual hold on you, you may love this film more than me.

Director: Cate Shortland

[/b][/size] Lore follows five siblings in post war Germany as they travel from their home to their grandmothers after their parents arrests. Many obstacles stand in the way of their journey but are alleviated slightly when a concentration camp survivor takes an interest in Lore and her siblings and begins to help. The boy is adept at getting food and also has traveling papers. Both of these items are invaluable to Lore but she is conflicted because of the way she has been raised by her Nazi parents. Lore tries her hardest to maintain control of the situation but is obviously smitten by this would be savior.


Shortland has created a very emotional film. I really feel that Lore is at its most poignant when the characters that surround the main cast are discussing the aftermath of the war. To hear the way that many of the Germans felt about Jews and even Hitler himself is quite chilling and emotional. Shortland certainly uses this to her advantage and the film is better for it. I also enjoy the way that Shortland uses the infant as a device in the story. At many points in the story Lore and her siblings are discarded, to a person everyone offers to take the infant however. It is a nice picture of the rebirth and innocence that you know Germans would have been longing for at this time. I also enjoy the sense of place that Shortland creates in Lore. The war torn country side may not be beautiful to look at but it immerses us in the harsh reality that these children must endure.


Lore is certainly weak in some areas. For such a ponderous film all the themes remain at surface level which make for some pretty long stretches of very little going on. Though emotional most of the story feels quite contrived as well. There is also a twist at the end which was very unexpected. I can't decide whether I like it or whether it was unnecessary. In any case it kind of makes me want to watch the film again through different eyes. This at the end of the day was the point I believe. If Lore had known the truth throughout her journey things would certainly have been different and I think the same can be said for the viewer.


I definitely recommend that people see Lore. It is a unique movie. I have not seen a WWII film through these eyes before. It is a heart breaking journey but one worth taking.

Director: Tony Kaye

Detachment is the story of a substitute teacher (Brody) in an inner city neighborhood. He wants to make a difference but at the same time is dealing with some inner demons of his own. When he lands at a school where the faculty is as disillusioned as the students, things begin to unravel at an alarming pace.


Detachment is trying very hard to be the antithesis of films such as Lean On Me and Dangerous Minds. It succeeds on every level but I am not sure if that is such a good thing. In trying to be so dire and so grounded in reality much of the film becomes unbelievable. Detachment introduces us to so many relationships and story threads it is hard to attach yourself emotionally. I feel Detachment would be a better film if it narrowed its focus on just a couple of the many threads that it is juggling. There are a couple of story lines that feel authentic and I feel this would be a much better film if it had developed them more instead of throwing more and more ugliness at us.


Detachment is not a bad film but it is a frustrating one because it feels like it is on the cusp of being great. The film has an outstanding cast and each and everyone is doing good work. This movie also looks amazing. Kaye makes plenty of visually artistic decisions and they all worked for me. The static shots of empty school halls are especially memorable. The closing shot of this film is also poignant and well conceived. Detachment is also unflinching in its view, the problem becomes that its view loses credibility with how it concludes some of the characters stories.


Detachment wants you to know that our education system is broken in many ways, got it. Detachment wants you to know that our family unit is broken in many ways, got it. Detachment wants you to know that if we don't fix these issues this dangerous cycle will continue, got it. The problem is as ambitious as this film is I will not think about this film or any of its characters when pondering these things because Detachment fell short of making me connect with those themes.

I gave Detachment a 9/10 although I do agree with some of your criticisms. For me I just felt that Brody's performance was so good that it made up for some of those issues.

I need to watch more Woody Allen films. So many great directors, so little time

Stanwyck was robbed of an Oscar for this one.

Director: Neil Blomkamp

I just knew Elysium was going to bring me out of my summer blockbuster blues. This has been the film I have been most looking forward to. One of my favorite actors and actresses, when she decides to actually be in a film. An up and coming sci-fi director whose debut was one of the better sci-fi films of the last decade. It might be a case of me being too hyped up but while not being a belly flop Elysium was certainly my definition of a mixed bag. As expected this film looks brilliant. From the slums of a 2154 LA to the super perfect gleaming Elysium, the world is pitch perfect. The androids look awesome and feel real. The vehicles are super cool. Although I think there were a couple too many action sequences they all looked amazing and were easy to follow despite the sometimes distracting shaky cam.


I was all in the first twenty minutes of the movie. Blomkamp sets up the world and characters very well. We get a strong sense of place and where the characters are coming from. I felt like I would be invested in where our story was headed but Blomkamp could not sustain the momentum. The film becomes bogged down in political rhetoric that is not at all conveyed in a realistic way. On top of that it becomes an ultra violent spectacle. I long for the day when directors learn that less is more when it comes to action and more is better when it comes to character development. Blomkamp goes the opposite way in Elysium and it is to the films detriment as would be expected. I was also devastated at the way Foster was used. She is given nothing to do and we learn absolutely nothing about her except for the fact that she is super powerful. She is really just a plot device as are the medical bays which figure prominently into the story but we are given no information for. How hard are they to produce? How many are there? How expensive are they to run? Answers to these questions would go a long way into helping Blomkamp's story and his political stance but we are given no answers. We are to just accept what is laid before us.


Blomkamp has a message he is trying to convey and is not an unimportant theme. However instead of conveying and exploring these themes in a meaningful way he just wants us to jump on board to his way of thinking and enjoy some visceral eye candy along the way. I had a foot on and a foot off while watching Elysium. Unfortunately instead of leaving me satisfied it just left me thinking about how great it could have been.