21 posts tagged “movie of the day”

From imdb:

At night and on weekends, four men in a suburban garage have built a cottage industry of error-checking devices. But, they know that there is something more. There is some idea, some mechanism, some accidental side effect that is standing between them and a pure leap of innovation. And so, through trial and error they are building the device that is missing most. However, two of these men find the device and immediately realize that it is too valuable to market. The limit of their trust in each other is strained when they are faced with the question, If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything? Written by Sujit R. Varma

 

When El Mariachi originally came out no one believed that anyone could make a film for seven thousand dollars. It seemed insane. Then a couple of years later,  The Blair Witch Project comes out and doest the kind of box office business that Hollywood Films like Death to Smoochy wish they could have had. That witch changed EVERYthing.

There was a flood of movie made on no budgets at all and plenty of them got some attention. The problem was that a lot of them weren’t any good.

The problem with the “independent” film world is, that people max out their credit cards by trying to make films that look just as good as Hollywood movies, or have characters that have sellable character arcs. And redeemable social messages. Because when you make a movie in you’re early twenties you hope and pray that not only that someone will see, love and subsequently buy and distribute your movie. But that the people that do buy your movie at least have a reserved parking space at one of the major studios.

So,  to make a movie for seven thousand dollars, about a couple of engineers who build a time machine and become involved in a complex narrative cinematic riddle with no notable visual effects or recognizable actors) or for that matter actor’s with any previous experience), is just plain nutty.

This movie is as smart and as clever as anything that has come out of Hollywood for a long time. And it was made by an engineer who had no previous film experience. Who was literally self taught and who not only delivered a brilliant narrative film,  but also one that had a complete visual look and deceptively simple characters.

Primer is really a step into a direction of filmmaking that I think we should all embrace because aside from the production wonders. It is filled with amazing stuff. Usually when you watch sci-fi films there tends to be a lot of dumbing down of technical jargon. Primer embraces it. Because it doesn’t really matter what  the exact terms mean, because we are shown  those theories and put into practice. When we watch two mechanics work over a car and discuss the job to be done, it’s not so much what they’re saying  but what they’re doing. We tend to listen with half an ear.

Primer also deals with it’s audience in away that’s very different. When we first saw Remember The Matrix? That movie's ideas was hammered into our reads with scene after scene of exposition Because it’s really important for EVERYONE in the audience to stay with the movie in order for it to pay off at the end. It’s gotta be one of the first rules of screenwriting, don’t’ alienate you audience. But Primer doesn’t really seem to give a shit whether you’re with it or not. It’s on a path and it will not deviate from that path to explain theories of causality. For viewers that are unprepared that can be a very jarring experience. But it also results in a movie that is lean and free of the narrative fat that clogs up the pace of a lot of movies.

I think that Primer while not a date move definitely requires you to watch it with someone else if for no other reason than to see how they interpret the events in the movie.
I’ve shown the movie to a few people and their observations of the event seem to differ greatly.

By the end you’ll wonder if the Doc Brown really needed a DeLorean with a Flex Capacitor after all.

Primer official site

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From imdb:

In 1974, in Michigan, the lives of a group of teenage boys are affected by the suicide of five girls from the Lisbon family. Cecilia (13), Lux (14), Bonnie (15), Mary (16) and Therese (17) move with their Mathematics teacher father Mr. Lisbon and their possessive housewife mother Mrs. Lisbon to a calm suburb house. Their beauties attract the attention of a group of boys that meet in the house on the other side to watch the girls. When Cecilia commits suicide, the girls stay at home for a period, returning to school later. When the handsome football player Trip Fontaine seduces Lux and spends the night outside with her, Mrs. Lisbon locks the girls at home, leading them to commit massive suicide. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

After watching the new Spider-Man last week I found myself wondering, “How can anyone stand Kirsten Dunst?”

Don’t get me wrong there’s a handful of her work that I love. But it’s never her that draws me into the film it’s usually the director’s take on her.

And that’s why I adore the Virgin Suicides. Sophia Coppola is the one responsible for creating this whole illusion that Dunst was someone to pine over, to obsess, and want. Because whenever she comes on screen you just sigh. She’s lovely, girly and most of all she’s a dream.

In fact most of the film is a dream. A kind of curly handwritten dream film with dissolves from flowers to cute boys and ponies. The movie is a gorgeous little flower, thorns and all.  The Virgin Suicides looks and feels like old photographs and Polaroid’s from a youth that we remember happening but in actuality never really did.

It’s like if the kids from Stand by Me had grown up a little. The kids obsess and over the tiniest of details. Coppola follows these obsessions to the max. You can tell how much she loves the wallpaper of the house and whose nail polish is chipped.

These girls exist in their own universe. They are fairy tales who want desperately to be real people.

Something should also be said about the parents, James Woods especially gives a hilarious and heart-breakingly simple performance. He loves his family so much and doesn’t ever seem to have the words to protect his family from themselves. His character seems to want to be involved more in how the girls are raised. But, well, I don’t really know why he doesn’t get involved, it seems like it’s because of the times and it also feels like it’s because of the mother. Who seems to suffocate the girls with her fear.

The mother played by Kathleen Turner, who reminds me a lot of Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,  is understandable in her paranoia. After all the world is full of predators and a mother (especially one of a recent suicide) is there to protect, and the things she does seem to be good natured and by the book. But…Well they just break your heart.

These girls fate is set out for them. They are loved so much by everyone around them that they are not allowed bloom.

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Tomorrow's Movie of the Day Clue:

"Sleeping in a storage shed is the key to time travel"

 

From imdb:

In this bloody tale of loyalty and friendship, Chow Yun-Fat is Jeffrey, an assassin who wishes to leave the business so he can take care of Jennie, the beautiful lounge singer who he inadvertently blinded during a previous assignment. Danny Lee is the determined cop who will stop at nothing to bring him in, only he realizes that Jeffrey is no ordinary assassin, and wishes to help him in his quest. Only problem is that Jeffrey's employers refuse to pay him for his last job, money which is needed to restore Jennie's eyesight. Written by Vince at unigx.ubc.ca

Hey, remember when you used to watch action movies and laugh at the fact that the hero seemed to fire 30 shots without reloading? Tell the truth you kind of miss those days. (At least, a litte) Well that's where The Killer steps in to fill that hollow void in your life.

The movie that turned John Woo into an international sensation and subsequently developed his current household name status is the visual template for everything we know love about Woo. It's all here, the slow-motion, the ballet gunfights, the doves flying as our hero walks straight towards us, even the odd religious/spiritual undertones.

In fact the church scene in Face-Off (a masterpiece in a different way) plays out similarly to the one in The Killer. (Although the two lead's in Face-Off don't refer to each other playfully as Disney characters, that's no reason to shit on Face-Off.)

 But what makes The Killer a gem is it's made by a man shooting for the moon. This movie showed the promise of John Woo as the next...I dunno...brilliant action director. It's hard to think of someone to compare Woo to, because most of the immediate names that come to mind have been influenced by him. American action movies where ripping him off  before we even knew who he was.

What I loved about John Woo's films where that sure there was balls to the wall action. But it was action with a heart. As silly as that is. You can see that John Woo loves westerns. He loves film noir and he loves religious metaphor. His movies where a blend of Howard Hawks, Sam Peckinpah, and Martin Scorsese - with Chow Yun-Fat shooting  two .45's in slo-mo.

Now it seems that the Hollywood machine has crushed another artist in it's gigantic  machinations. John Woo has gone from making movies about honor, redemption, forgiveness,  to movies that star Ben Affleck. So until The Battle of Red Cliff comes out. Let's all sit reminisce about the good old days.

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from netflix 

This documentary, first broadcast on PBS in 1983, opened the world's eyes to the phenomenon taking over New York City. The urban landscape -- in particular, the ramshackle subway system -- had been transformed by graffiti artists who invented a new visual language to express themselves. Adding to the phenomenon, MCs, DJs and B-boys rocked the city with new sounds and moves, as street-corner break-dance battles turned into performance art.

For my money Style Wars is one of the best documentaries on youth culture out there. Sure, it's about Graffiti, an New York City subway trains - But it's also about self expression and growing up in an environment where you have to struggle to be heard.

I always think of this film as a perfect companion to Dogtown and Z-boys. Although this was made during the heyday of Graffiti culture and Z-boys came around as reminder to all of the glory days. They both have an energy to them that says a lot about the people involved.

It's great to watch Style Wars and think that these kids influenced people all over the world to express themselves through street art. What's also amazing is how unique and individualistic each Graffiti Writer is, they all have their own philosophies about what they do. And they are brought together by their love of their chosen medium.

Whenever I watch them meet up at the writers bench I think about the Surrealists all hanging out in Paris struggling to figure out a way to prove their art form to the world. Maybe it's just me but I feel that the work of these kids is every bit as valid if not more so. But, I'm no art critic.

What i do know is that this movie stands out as a shining example of curious filmmakers (on assignment from PBS) who without prejudice discover a "subculture" and respectfully portray them in away that would make the subjects proud.

From imdb

In December of 1969, four months after Woodstock, the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane gave a free concert in Northern California, east of Oakland at Altamont Speedway. About 300,000 people came, and the organizers put Hell's Angels in charge of security around the stage. Armed with pool cues and knifes, Angels spent the concert beating up spectators, killing at least one. The film intercuts performances, violence, Grace Slick and Mick Jagger's attempts to cool things down, close-ups of young listeners (dancing, drugged, or suffering Angel shock), and a look at the Stones later as they watch concert footage and reflect on what happened.

There's a few Documentaries that amaze to no end, Gimme Shelter is one of them. Sure it's about the Rolling Stones and how great it to be in a Rock band (not to mention "The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World" as the Stones themselves proclaimed themselves) but it's also about america and it's also about the arrogance of youth the end of the peace and love era that was the sixties and into a scarier more violent 70's.

I used to sit and watch Gimme Shelter just for the amazing camera work. The sheer audacity of it, the fearlessness is inspiring. The scene in the recording studio where the band is playing back an early recording of Wild Horses always stands out to me as one of the greatest moments in Documentary film (bold statement, I know). In the scene Albert Maysles is zooming into the faces of the members of the band and stops on the face of Drummer Bill Wyman. Wyman stares into the camera coldly, a look that very clearly states "You do not belong here" and what does the Maysles do? He zooms in. He doesn't pan away he moves closer. It's a confrontation through cinema, it's the filmmakers stating "I belong here because I have this camera" It's fearless. I think that that scene confronts a lot the inherent problems in Docs. Does the subject behave differently around the camera? What does the presence of the camera do to the subjects? and What is ethical to record?

Gimme Shelter does something that I don't remember ever seeing before or since. A rough cut of the film is shown to the band and their reaction is filmed.Mick Jagger is questioned about what he meant at certain times. When something is confusing the film literally backs up and clarifies itself. It's a spectacular to watch

 it's perfect in every way, It's lyrical, and gorgeously photographed. Shot on film, the movie has a soft depth of field that docs rarely have anymore.

Gimme Shelter is truly a masterpiece of Documentary film making and a perfect concert film.

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From Netflix

Andy and Larry Wachowski made their directorial debut with this crime-thriller. Gina Gershon stars as a handywoman who crosses paths with a gangster's moll (Jennifer Tilly) and likes what she sees. Before you can say, "Unhook my brassiere," they decide to filch $2 million and hit the road together. But Tilly's beau (Joe Pantoliano) isn't keen on giving up his money or his girl.

Part exploitation movie and part crime noir,  I think that this is the most personal film we are likely to get from the elusive Wachowski Brothers. The S&M sexuality, the masculine female characters. It's the type of film that doesn't really surprise you when you know that these are the same guys behind the creation of Matrix.

In a lot of ways I think that this film is a lot better than the Matrix. What I love about the Matrix is it's ability to expand on a simple idea and flesh it out into a "philosophic" film about existence. But in Bound things are pulpier and by nature they have to hit certain plot points. That's something that the old film noirs and westerns did amazingly. They just told stories. Every once in a while there was some flashy stuff with cameras performance or lighting. But overall they just told stories.

And that's what I dig about Bound, because while it sometimes feels like the cheap "lesbo-tits" movie that you see on Showtime at two o'clock in the morning it tells one hell of a story and it's big set piece (The Paint cans and the Shootout) is amazing!

This is good B-Movie stuff!

So enjoy!

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You know, when I write these Movie of the Day things, a lot of the films are easy to like and I feel that I'm just pointing out the obvious. I try to pick films that I genuinely love and hope that you will too. Most of the time I think I'm just reminding folks of stuff they have always wanted to see which makes writing these things relatively easy.

See, I don't want to do reviews, it's easy to hate a movie or recommend something that's currently out. What I want to do is remind people or make them aware of stuff that is slightly off the beaten path. Nothing to wacky, although I will get to those, but stuff that I feel is challenging to the movies that people normally watch.

Which bring me to Punch-Drunk Love.

From netflix

In this quirky romantic comedy, Adam Sandler is Barry Egan, a melancholy loner who's spent life being dominated by his abusive sisters. But Barry's life takes an interesting turn when one of his sisters tries to set him up on a blind date with a sweet Englishwoman (Emily Watson), who ends up pursuing Barry relentlessly … and on top of that, Barry soon finds himself being chased by three thugs because he's not paying his phone-sex bills!

I adore this movie.

Everyone I know hates this movie.

But I LOVE this movie....With all my heart.

There's so much to love for me. Firstly it's the first "real": performance by Sandler. But one in which the real performing is done in the direction. Sandler's character is no different than any of the other losers he's played in the past; soft spoken, treated like shit, known to have fits of screaming and violence. But what's interesting is what happens when you take a cartoon and place it in the real world  (See "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" for more)  The reality is that a character like that is pretty fucking sad.

And that's where love come in. That dizzy, knots in the stomach, awkwardness of being madly in love. You see vibrant colors everywhere, the world is filled with music, and you just plain feel like dancing in the middle of a supermarket.

Punch-Drunk Love is PURE CINEMA. What does that mean? Well to me it means that it's free. Free from the constraints of novels or plays, or just music. The movie for the most part is a wacky colorful musical similar to Singin' in the Rain or West Side Story (at least color wise). The colors of Hawaii,  the lens flares,  the scopitones,  the harmonium, ....I can just keep going and going.

And then there's Barry's rage which is always funny, sad and just plain scary.

I love the constantly moving camera that whizzes past things or slowly creeps around corners, and runs down hallways.

I love this movie so much it's been hard for me to write about it...I almost wanted to keep it to myself and have considered doing an Audio Movie of the Day.

So go out and enjoy it.

But to be perfectly fair, It's a bit odd, and not for everyone, those who love it, love it, and those who don't...well, they really don't.

If you have seen this film or plan on seeing it, please let me know.

Sorry folks, computer problems-good news is that I get my Powerbook from the repair shop on Tuesday! Hooray!

Til then....

from imdb

Drama set in a repressed, deeply religious community in the north of Scotland, where a naive young woman named Bess McNeil (Emily Watson) meets and falls in love with Danish oil-rig worker Jan (Stellan Skarsgaard). Bess and Jan are deeply in love but, when Jan returns to his rig, Bess prays to God that he returns for good. Jan does return, his neck broken in an accident aboard the rig. Because of his condition, Jan and Bess are now unable to enjoy a sexual relationship and Jan urges Bess to take another lover and tell him the details. As Bess becomes more and more deviant in her sexual behavior, the more she comes to believe that her actions are guided by God and are helping Jan recover.

It's really hard to convey how hard to watch this movie is a times. It's emotionally devastating and exhausting. It feels like the worst of breakups. While I feel that the film is incredibly beautiful it's with great ambiguity, because I have a hard time with a lot of the scenes because of how raw emotionally they are.

Breaking the Waves just plain hurts to watch, it really is absolutely heart wrenching to watch the Emily Watson's performance which screams agony and sympathy. Love is incredibly difficult emotion to explain and even harder to describe in a film. And Emily Watson manages to express it in a fevered manic form that teeters between fear and desire for good.

To watch someone spiral down into the depths of hell and depravity in the name of love is fascinating to watch. And a testament to the beauty and the inherent selflessness of being in love. Breaking the Waves is tough, but that's what love is: and sometimes you have to just go out, and get your heart broken.

From imdb

Two teenage girls go to the city for a concert and are kidnapped by two men and a woman. They take them to the an area in the country that is only 100 feet from one of the girls' house. The kidnappers rape and murder the two girls and then go to that house not knowing that one of their victims lived there. The victims' parents found out that they murdered their daughter, get them drunk, and murder them in strange yet painful ways.

When I was I kid I loved Wes Craven, mind you I'd only seen the Elm Street movies but I guess it was their cartoonin-y-ness that I was into. Nevertheless I didn't get to see any of Craven earlier work until later in life. While I do like The Hills Have Eyes I feel that it is by no means a great movie. In fact I'd go as far as to say that the only moment in the movie that's worth it's admission price is the scene with Michael Berryman and the bird and maybe the scene with the dog.

But I digress, Last House is one angry movie. It's that rare gem of a movie, one that hates everyone and everything in it. There is so much anger in this film that it becomes really oppressive and delivers the horror of violence portrayed in the film.

While it takes a little while for the movie to wind up it's pitch of fury, it pays off. If you need the type of film where evil is truly angry and brutal the Last House is for you! Because where else will you get a bunch of thugs forcing girls to undress in the woods, then forcing them to urinate themselves. That's just plain old fashioned fucked up.

I think it may be awhile before this Wes Craven classic gets remade...It may take about a year I guess. It has to much grit, at least the original does. But I'm sure Michael Bay or someone else will produce a remake that will make fans of original cringe more than the movie ever did.Until then horror fans can rest easy knowing that they're masterpiece is still as grisly, and mean as ever.

If you have seen this film or are going to see it, please let me know.

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Sorry 'bout the delay folks....

from netflix

Legendary director François Truffaut crafted this interpretation of William Irish's suspense-filled novel. Julie Kohler (Jeanne Moreau) is a woman whose revenge skills are tested when her fiancé is brutally murdered by five men. Stoic and focused, Julie decides to track down all five culprits and engineer their demise. Truffaut's Golden Globe-nominated thriller is accompanied by composer Bernard Herrmann's menacing musical score.

I miss Truffaut. When I first got into the New Wave, I first heard of Godard and he led me to Truffaut. I have to say that I love Truffaut's films more than I could ever love the work of Godard. And while I feel that Godard has created his fair share of experimental cinematic masterpieces I feel that Truffaut's extreme love of character and narrative makes him my favorite.

Anyway,

The Bride Wore Black is a film that is very much in debt to Truffaut's hero, Alfred Hitchcock (who incidentally, loved the film) the film would also inspire the work of Quentin Tarantino and others. What I love about the movie is how it seems to dance; it takes two steps toward empathy with the murdering main character. And then she'll say or do something that repels you. But it's no plot gimmick-you're just getting to know who she is. And by the end, when the whole story is revealed, you look at her with empathy for her pain and how lost she is.

Then there's the score, Bernard Hermann was truly one of the greats. Taxi Driver, Psycho, Rear Window, Citizen Kane, here's a man who could write immensely intense scores that managed to hit both cinematic chords as well as emotional ones. The Bride's score has it's problems but it does what Hermann did best: develop tight rope suspense.

The Bride Wore Black is about revenge, but it's more about love, and loss, and there have been few actresses to grace the screen with the power Jeanne Moreau who breaks your heart with her steely determination to "make things right".

If you have seen this film or plan on seeing it, please let me know.

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