Subject: Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna's race to the top
Director: Asif Kapadia
Race car driving is a strange sport. On the one hand, a machine is absolutely essential to the competition - if your machine is not as good as the other drivers, it is not likely that your driving skill will compensate. This makes me think of it as less of a sport - the machine's doing a lot of the work. On the other hand, it's the one sport whose activity I routinely do, except on a much lower level and (presumably) non-competitively - I still drive a car. I just don't do it at 200 km/h.
Senna, with its tremendous racing footage, shows us a glimpse of what it would take, mentally, to drive a car competitively for a living. It doesn't look so hard, really, except that you don't just go once around the track, you go 70 times. It's an endurance competition - whoever blinks first falls behind or crashes. While it's easy to think of this repetitive action as blissful nothing - I think of the Repo Man quote that the more you drive, the dumber you are - Senna and this film help cast it as a spiritual moment. The car is merely the vessel by which he experiences the divine.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Dogtooth - 2009 - 4 Stars
Actors: Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley
Director: Giorgos Lanthimos
Sometimes art is intentionally shocking for its own sake, but other times, it uses a completely unrealistic and shocking situation to show us something about the way we live. I don't want to spoil any of what Dogtooth is about - it takes a bit to figure out what's going on, but once we do, it's a fascinating look at what might happen if this situation were ever to come about. The truths we know can be controlled, but that control has to go all the way.
Similarly, I'm impressed by movies that don't use a lot of space - this movie should've cost almost nothing to make, but its message is universal and powerful.
Director: Giorgos Lanthimos
Sometimes art is intentionally shocking for its own sake, but other times, it uses a completely unrealistic and shocking situation to show us something about the way we live. I don't want to spoil any of what Dogtooth is about - it takes a bit to figure out what's going on, but once we do, it's a fascinating look at what might happen if this situation were ever to come about. The truths we know can be controlled, but that control has to go all the way.
Similarly, I'm impressed by movies that don't use a lot of space - this movie should've cost almost nothing to make, but its message is universal and powerful.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
To Live And Die In L.A. - 1986 - 2½ Stars, 4 Stars
Actors: William Peterson, Willem Dafoe
Director: William Friedkin
To Live And Die in L.A. almost seems like an antidote to the big, dumb cop film like Commando and Cobra, where might makes right, revenge is a virtue, and body counts are envied instead of feared. Trouble is, it's just as asinine* as what it might be reacting against. Typically I'd forgive the director for such a film, but he co-wrote the script.
What is great about this film is the camera and location work - 'L.A.' in this film isn't Woody Allen's montage from Annie Hall, it's more focused on the unglamorous side of the city. Friedkin also knows how to shoot a car chase. Thus the two ratings - with a better and more thoughtful script, this could've been a darn good movie.
* The DVD skipped in two places so I missed about seven minutes of the movie - I may have missed some key exposition. But since almost all the exposition here was stupid, I doubt it.
Director: William Friedkin
To Live And Die in L.A. almost seems like an antidote to the big, dumb cop film like Commando and Cobra, where might makes right, revenge is a virtue, and body counts are envied instead of feared. Trouble is, it's just as asinine* as what it might be reacting against. Typically I'd forgive the director for such a film, but he co-wrote the script.
What is great about this film is the camera and location work - 'L.A.' in this film isn't Woody Allen's montage from Annie Hall, it's more focused on the unglamorous side of the city. Friedkin also knows how to shoot a car chase. Thus the two ratings - with a better and more thoughtful script, this could've been a darn good movie.
* The DVD skipped in two places so I missed about seven minutes of the movie - I may have missed some key exposition. But since almost all the exposition here was stupid, I doubt it.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Fela Kuti: Music Is The Weapon - 1982 - No Rating
Subject: Musician Fela Kuti and and his struggles with the Nigerian government
Directors: Jean Jaques Flori, Stephane Tchalgadjieff
There are people in history who, if they hadn't actually existed, we would've felt the need to invent them. Sure, their actions are singular in this world, but they happened to be in the right time and place to capitalize on it. In other possible worlds, their existence is unknown to us.
Fela Kuti is not historically necessary, which is what makes him so interesting. Defying the Nigerian government, he plays his music all night at a club while living in an ill-constructed compound with many wives. As talented a musician as he is, it would have been easy for him to merely play music that people liked, but he chose to sing about the wrongs that he and other Africans face on a daily basis.
The documentary gets some great behind-the-scenes stuff, but lags in places - thankfully it's only an hour long.
Directors: Jean Jaques Flori, Stephane Tchalgadjieff
There are people in history who, if they hadn't actually existed, we would've felt the need to invent them. Sure, their actions are singular in this world, but they happened to be in the right time and place to capitalize on it. In other possible worlds, their existence is unknown to us.
Fela Kuti is not historically necessary, which is what makes him so interesting. Defying the Nigerian government, he plays his music all night at a club while living in an ill-constructed compound with many wives. As talented a musician as he is, it would have been easy for him to merely play music that people liked, but he chose to sing about the wrongs that he and other Africans face on a daily basis.
The documentary gets some great behind-the-scenes stuff, but lags in places - thankfully it's only an hour long.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Palindromes - 2004 - 2½ Stars
Actors: Ellen Barkin, Richard Masur
Director: Todd Solondz
I mistrust Todd Solondz. I feel there's a class of director that has no sympathy for the characters they put on screen - they're private jokes, or strawmen to be knocked over. The director puts them through extremely unpleasant things and says to the audience 'This is what life is!' Von Trier's Dogville and Godard's Week-End are examples of this sort of film - films seemingly made in a misanthropic rage, and with the sole aim of alternately shocking and annoying the audience. Even directors that I like such as Werner Herzog, the Coen Brothers, and David Lynch are susceptible to making this kind of movie.
Palindromes is a confusing auteur mess - there's the elements for a good film here, but they simply didn't coalesce for me. There were funny scenes in the movie but I didn't laugh once. There's a point to all this, I think, but it's just grim and awkward and sad. Sometimes it's good to spend time in that place with art in order to be challenged, but I find this film entirely unchallenging to precisely the audience that would seek it out.
Director: Todd Solondz
I mistrust Todd Solondz. I feel there's a class of director that has no sympathy for the characters they put on screen - they're private jokes, or strawmen to be knocked over. The director puts them through extremely unpleasant things and says to the audience 'This is what life is!' Von Trier's Dogville and Godard's Week-End are examples of this sort of film - films seemingly made in a misanthropic rage, and with the sole aim of alternately shocking and annoying the audience. Even directors that I like such as Werner Herzog, the Coen Brothers, and David Lynch are susceptible to making this kind of movie.
Palindromes is a confusing auteur mess - there's the elements for a good film here, but they simply didn't coalesce for me. There were funny scenes in the movie but I didn't laugh once. There's a point to all this, I think, but it's just grim and awkward and sad. Sometimes it's good to spend time in that place with art in order to be challenged, but I find this film entirely unchallenging to precisely the audience that would seek it out.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Early Spring - 1956 - 4 Stars
Actors: Daisuke Kato, Haruko Sugimura
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
There will never be another Ozu. Early Spring details a young Japanese salaryman and his wife, his relationship to their friends, and possible marital troubles. It's stunningly banal in its treatment of its subjects - the men do office grunt work by day and indulge in rudimentary pastimes at night. They visit their relatives. They complain about commutes. No one's making a film like this - sure, there are directors who deal with these subjects, but not in the matter-of-fact way this movie does. And honestly, why would any Japanese salaryman or his wife want to watch this film? It's almost like it's for us in today's 'I-need-my-cellphone-and-TV' times - showing us the minutia of a way of life that no longer exists.
Ozu manages some brilliantly composed shots along the way - his plots seem to match up so well with his shooting style. The camera is unwavering (although there are actually several pan shots), but if you really look at some of the scenes, there's something incredible going on.
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
There will never be another Ozu. Early Spring details a young Japanese salaryman and his wife, his relationship to their friends, and possible marital troubles. It's stunningly banal in its treatment of its subjects - the men do office grunt work by day and indulge in rudimentary pastimes at night. They visit their relatives. They complain about commutes. No one's making a film like this - sure, there are directors who deal with these subjects, but not in the matter-of-fact way this movie does. And honestly, why would any Japanese salaryman or his wife want to watch this film? It's almost like it's for us in today's 'I-need-my-cellphone-and-TV' times - showing us the minutia of a way of life that no longer exists.
Ozu manages some brilliantly composed shots along the way - his plots seem to match up so well with his shooting style. The camera is unwavering (although there are actually several pan shots), but if you really look at some of the scenes, there's something incredible going on.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Kansas City Confidential - 1952 - 2½ Stars
Actors: John Payne, Coleen Gray
Director: Phil Karlson
Film noir is supposed to be low-budget. I think any fan of noir accepts how poorly staged and shot many noir films are - what's supposed to separate them from regular movies are plot and character. Kansas City Confidential begins with an interesting premise - man unwittingly framed for bank robbery seeks out his framers - but gets stuck wanting for tension in the middle. In fairness, I missed one of the major premises of the film that might've increased the tension, but even so, it runs long at 97 minutes and none of the characters are even sketched interestingly.
I love naming a B-picture something like 'Kansas City Confidential' - naturally within the first five minutes while we're supposedly in Kansas City, there's a shot with mountains in the background and we know we're in Los Angeles (as always).
Director: Phil Karlson
Film noir is supposed to be low-budget. I think any fan of noir accepts how poorly staged and shot many noir films are - what's supposed to separate them from regular movies are plot and character. Kansas City Confidential begins with an interesting premise - man unwittingly framed for bank robbery seeks out his framers - but gets stuck wanting for tension in the middle. In fairness, I missed one of the major premises of the film that might've increased the tension, but even so, it runs long at 97 minutes and none of the characters are even sketched interestingly.
I love naming a B-picture something like 'Kansas City Confidential' - naturally within the first five minutes while we're supposedly in Kansas City, there's a shot with mountains in the background and we know we're in Los Angeles (as always).
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Rescue Dawn - 2006 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn
Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog has gone all over the world making movies, but even so, his films tend to have a very similar protagonist and pattern: they're about a solitary man, with a dream or goal, being confronted by forces of chaos which oppose his goal, both from within his own heart, but especially from the natural world. It's hard not to read the director's heart into his protagonist - his crazed leading men have dreams seemingly beyond grasp, but so too must the director, making movies in the harshest environments in the world. Yet again in Rescue Dawn, we're in an inhospitable jungle, and it's an environment Herzog knows how to shoot well.
Herzog had already made a film about this incident, a documentary called Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which I haven't seen, but even so, he infuses the movie with characteristic weirdness that a regular Hollywood director would've exorcised. The narrative suffers, but who cares - Rescue Dawn is a stock film plot regardless. It should be watched for the extra touches.
Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog has gone all over the world making movies, but even so, his films tend to have a very similar protagonist and pattern: they're about a solitary man, with a dream or goal, being confronted by forces of chaos which oppose his goal, both from within his own heart, but especially from the natural world. It's hard not to read the director's heart into his protagonist - his crazed leading men have dreams seemingly beyond grasp, but so too must the director, making movies in the harshest environments in the world. Yet again in Rescue Dawn, we're in an inhospitable jungle, and it's an environment Herzog knows how to shoot well.
Herzog had already made a film about this incident, a documentary called Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which I haven't seen, but even so, he infuses the movie with characteristic weirdness that a regular Hollywood director would've exorcised. The narrative suffers, but who cares - Rescue Dawn is a stock film plot regardless. It should be watched for the extra touches.
Monday, July 9, 2012
This Film Is Not Yet Rated - 2006 - No Rating
Subject: The whims and secrecy of the MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America
Director: Kirby Dick
Ever wonder who rates movies G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17? The director of This Film Is Not Yet Rated wondered, and this film is the result. MPAA members names are not disclosed publicly, and so there's some surveillance and research to track down the men and women who decide what the public can and cannot see. Furthermore, it shows just how important a rating can be - many theaters refuse to show NC-17 films, meaning that movies that straddle the line between R and NC-17 can be significantly impacted by the MPAA's decision.
Ultimately the topic is slight - it's only of interest if one gets one's self into high dudgeon about Art and Society and the like. Still, it makes for a good story even if the result isn't that important.
Director: Kirby Dick
Ever wonder who rates movies G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17? The director of This Film Is Not Yet Rated wondered, and this film is the result. MPAA members names are not disclosed publicly, and so there's some surveillance and research to track down the men and women who decide what the public can and cannot see. Furthermore, it shows just how important a rating can be - many theaters refuse to show NC-17 films, meaning that movies that straddle the line between R and NC-17 can be significantly impacted by the MPAA's decision.
Ultimately the topic is slight - it's only of interest if one gets one's self into high dudgeon about Art and Society and the like. Still, it makes for a good story even if the result isn't that important.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Melvin Goes To Dinner - 2003 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Michael Blieden, Matt Price
Director: Bob Odenkirk
Melvin Goes To Dinner is what I call a low-stakes/high-stakes film - low-stakes, in that it doesn't involve car chases, terminally ill people's lists, or the end of the world, but high-stakes in that it asks questions about love, career, and family that tend to be the most momentous decisions First Worlders make. Adapted from a play (and it's pretty obvious that it must've first existed in this form), it goes overboard on cinema verite techniques, but there are still a lot of good choices. The best thing about the film is that all four main characters appear to have actual lives, not Hollywood or Woody Allen/Noah Baumbach-y lives - everything that happens in the story feels like it actually happened to someone we might know.
Director: Bob Odenkirk
Melvin Goes To Dinner is what I call a low-stakes/high-stakes film - low-stakes, in that it doesn't involve car chases, terminally ill people's lists, or the end of the world, but high-stakes in that it asks questions about love, career, and family that tend to be the most momentous decisions First Worlders make. Adapted from a play (and it's pretty obvious that it must've first existed in this form), it goes overboard on cinema verite techniques, but there are still a lot of good choices. The best thing about the film is that all four main characters appear to have actual lives, not Hollywood or Woody Allen/Noah Baumbach-y lives - everything that happens in the story feels like it actually happened to someone we might know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)