Bronson

2008 Clockwork Orange for the 21st Century

Rating: 17/20 (Kent: 16/20)

Plot: Based on the story of Michael Peterson, England's most notorious and violent prisoner. At nineteen, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for armed robbery, and because of violent behavior in prison, his way of "making a name for himself," he's spent more than thirty years in prisons and asylums, most of them in solitary confinement. He is not a good role model.

Watched this with good buddy and blog reader Kent about a month ago. I had to do a search for the cliche "tour de force" on my own blog to make sure I haven't overused that phrase. Using cliches is bad enough, but when you overuse them? Well, make no bones about it, I know there's more than one way to skin a cat (proverbially) and that it's a good rule of thumb not to use cliches as a writer, and I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but the day I start using cliches is the day pigs fly. I've used the words "tour de force" twice in the previous three-and-a-half years I've done this blog--once for Vincent Price in Theater of Blood and once to describe the performance of a camel. So although I don't really want to use the words again, I can't think of a performance where it's more appropriate than with Tom Hardy's here. Kent tells me that Hardy, for all you Nolan Batman movie fans, is going to be a Mexican wrestler in the next movie. I also noticed that he's going to be the titular character in a Mad Max movie that supposed to come out in 2012. I guess Mel Gibson is either too old, too crazy, too busy talking to a beaver puppet, or a combination of those. This Bronson performance is powerful stuff. He's witty, frightening, hilarious, completely unhinged, tragic, overly-theatrical, deeply human. For the most part, the script calls for a playfulness with this really violent persona, and Hardy plays him with just the right amount of bravado. It's that type of performance where you worry about the actor a little bit, wondering if he's every going to be able to come back down and be normal again. He's in (perhaps literally) every single second of this movie, and he hoists the production on his back and carries it like a fiend. Terrific stuff. The movie itself is flashy and gritty, and it really does remind me of A Clockwork Orange just like the quote on the poster says. You've got theatrics, classical music, ultra-violence, very dark comedy. And that aforementioned playfulness. This movie never takes the tragic tale of Peterson seriously while managing at the same time to say a little something serious about society and what we expect from our celebrities. There's even some animation thrown in. Bronson's also endlessly entertaining, one of those movies I felt like I could have immediately watched again. Probably not Kent though. He actually fell asleep. It was his third or fourth viewing of this monster though.

Shane-movies trivia: I think this movie might be responsible for a sebaceous cyst on my back exploding and leaking a smelly yellow pus all over the place. I can't prove it, but that is the type of movie this is.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil

2008 heavy metal documentary

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Lips and Robb Reiner (note the extra "b") have rocked as the founding members of heavy metal almost-wases Anvil since they met at fourteen. Now well into their fifties, they haven't given up the dream of becoming
rock 'n' roll gods. This documentary follows them on a disastrous European tour and the recording of their thirteenth album as they try to fulfill their dreams.

"Out in the schoolyard--
Little peaches play,
Rubbin' their beaves,
Got a lot to say."

At first, you just think you're watching some This Is Spinal Tap knock-off. Then, you realize it's not a mockumentary at all, that Anvil are real hosers who have been reaching for rock 'n' roll stars for about forty years. There are comic moments, including more than a few that recall Spinal Tap, but it's the very human moments that makes this one so special. You really grow to like Lips and Reiner, connect with their struggles, and root for them to taste at least a little bit of success. And I'll tell you without any shame, that I teared up quite a bit during one scene. It's likely going to be my favorite movie moment of the year, in fact. Sonically, Anvil's music isn't really my bag, but I was really impressed with Robb's drumming abilities. His stick work made it impossible for me not to hold up the devil horns. And I'll tell you what--I'd consider myself an artistic success if I had fans like Mad Dog and the guy who drank beer through his nose. A roller coaster of a documentary that juggles humorous moments, really sad scenes, and ultimately touching and beautiful footage this well should be seen by anybody regardless of how much they like bands that play their Flying-V's with a dildo.

Sir Kent recommended this little gem to me.

Waste Land

2010 documentary

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Popular Brazilian artist Vik Muniz befriends catadores who rummage through Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill and collaborates with them to use some of the recycled materials they save to make works of art.

The emotional impact of this caught me off guard, probably because I wasn't initially sure that I liked Vik Muniz's art or understood his motivations. The shots of the landfill and the catadores doing their jobs are pretty bleak, but you soon realize that this isn't about the location or a job that could easily be featured on one of those "Most Terrible Jobs Ever" television programs. At least it's not entirely about that. No, this is more about the individuals who work there, and the way this documentary (and Muniz) treats them as individuals is what makes this special. I enjoyed meeting these people, hearing about their pasts and problems and hopes and dreams, and most importantly, seeing the expressions on their faces that showed how much Muniz's work meant to them. More than any other documentary about art, you get to appreciate the impact that artwork can have on people, and that's a truly beautiful thing. This is a documentary that made me feel good.

My brother recommended this one.

Oprah Movie Club Selection for May: House (Hausu)

1977 Japanese coming-of-age story

Rating: 16/20 (Mark: 16/20)

Plot: Gorgeous isn't too happy about her father remarrying following the death of her mother. She writes a letter to her mom's sister and invites herself and some friends over to her house (the titular house) for the summer. On the way [Spoiler Alert!] they purchase a watermelon. Soon after their arrival, one of the girls disappears. More and more bizarre and possibly supernatural things start happening to the girls. A suspicious kitty lingers.

Some Hausu trivia: The Japanese studio Toho asked director Nobuhiko Obayashi to make a film like Jaws. As George W. Bush would say--"Mission accomplished!"

The second half of this film is likely exactly what Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel had in mind when they invented movies way back in 1929. It starts off like an after-school special though, albeit an artsy-fartsy after-school special directed by a guy who really wants to be an Artist with a capital A and isn't shy about using every stylistic trick in his bulging back of tricks. Before the manic free-for-all Evil Dead-like horror/comedy that everybody who watches this movie will remember (the part with homophagous pianos, demented kitties, killer chandeliers, disembodied heads, dancing skeletons, mouthy eye sockets, menstruation symbolism, inexplicable bananas, aunts retreating into refrigerators, etc.), you get a gaggingly-colored "dull" melodramatic coming-of-age story, but even with that, there's a sense of foreboding and enough wackiness that you know, even if you weren't warned beforehand, that somebody would be eaten by a piano later in the movie. The dvd special features told us that Obayashi started with commercials, and with Hausu, it seems like he wanted to regurgitate every single stylistic trick he'd learned, presumably because that's what American Steven Spielberg does. It reminds me of when I took Vernon to Palestine, Illinois, for their Labor Day weekend rodeo events and we decided to raid the cabinets and refrigerator and dump every ingredient we could find into a cup so that we could dare each other to drink it, probably because that's what we imagined our hero Steven Spielberg did during his spare time. We drank it, and it was disgusting. A majority of people partaking in Hausu might also think it's disgusting, mostly because the images, although the aforementioned tricks used to create those images are familiar, aren't anything the typical viewer is used to. This is weird even by Japanese standards, and you never have any idea what to expect next. I mean both of those as compliments, by the way.

I'm still wrapping my head around what it all means. You've got some pretty obvious symbolism throughout (ripe watermelons, blood, bananas [I guess?]), and the horror, even though it's too comically over-the-top to actually be horrifying, seems to represent the horrors in a young girl's life as she has to deal with changes. My theory: The girls (intellectual Prof, creative Melody, athletic Kung-Fu, hedonistic Mac, sweet Sweet, imaginative Fantasy, and pretty Gorgeous herself) are all chunks of the same young girl, a young girl who discards of various aspects of her personality as she blossoms into womanhood. So what do you think, Oprah Movie Clubbers?

My prediction, by the way: This will be a bit more devisive than Do the Right Thing.

The Saragossa Manuscript

1965 dream epic

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A collection of frames, stories within stories within stories that are within other stories. A soldier retreats into an abandoned house to keep from being blown to pieces. He finds a large book with some unusual pictures. An enemy soldier translates the book for him and discovers that it was written by his grandfather. The grandfather's story is all about him trying to discover the quickest route through the mountains to Madrid, a haunted voyage that involves sleeping with his own cousins, stalking crows, repetitious gallows, demon-possessed men, erect gypsies, and the Spanish Inquisition.

A free-floating dream of demons, hanged men, kissing cousins, and skull chalices, The Saragossa Manuscript is a too-long masterpiece of visual brilliance, surreal mystery, and weaving narratives. It's so beautifully photographed in black 'n' white with terrific imagery, landscapes littered with bones, gnarled trees, ornate palaces, war-stricken towns with dilapidated buildings. This is the sort of movie that you can love to watch for its three hour length. Not necessarily completely understand, mind you, but feel with your eye buds and absorb. It's really got a similar, very organically weird, feel that those Parajenov movies I love have, movies that float. I also loved the musique concrete soundtrack that complimented the imagery. Those weaving narratives? It's too much to swallow in a single viewing as the viewer is forced to follow a story told by somebody telling a story within somebody else's story that is already a part of the original story, almost Inception-esquely. But they interconnect in pretty brilliant ways, constantly surprising while bewildering. The results are mysterious, romantic, and at times very very funny, my favorite bit of humor being the grunting of a possessed man. Possession slapstick! It's all an enormously entertaining and completely unique experience.

Apparently, this was the favorite film of Jerry Garcia, a maker of ties. Luis Bunuel, the "Spanish Allen Funt," also dug it.

The King's Speech

2010 best picture

Rating: 17/20 (Jen: 17/20)

Plot: In this hilarious remake of Harold Lloyd's Girl Shy, Harold is a future king of England who conquers his fear of public speaking (glossophobia, if you care) after driving a trolley ridiculously fast through New York City's busy streets and climbing a 12-story building. Thankfully, he lives to tell about both so that The Queen with Helen Mirren can happen sixty years later. I just don't know what I'd do if The Queen with Helen Mirren didn't exist. This also, I believe, rips off The Karate Kid. Not the original. No, the remake with Jackie Chan. I'm not sure how the Oscar people didn't catch that.

The only gripe I have here is the same gripe I have for any movie featuring a character who stutters: Mel Tillis of Cannonball Run and Cannonball Run II fame didn't get his chance to shine in a serious role. The King's Speech is that sophisticated sort of movie made so that people can throw awards at it. Not that they aren't deserved. Colin Firth's excellent as George VI. Realistic stuttering, I imagine, is difficult to pull off. I'm not a professional actor or anything although I do frequently act out scenes from my own screenplays while standing in front of a full-length mirror. And I've tried to pull off realistic stuttering, admittedly to practice in case I'm ever in a situation where I can make fun of people who stutter. Can't do it. So Colin Firth's ability to not only pull off a realistic stutter while simultaneously showing off the range of emotions that he does (quietly showing them off, I should note) is impressive. His isn't the only impressive performance--Geoffrey Rush matches Firth classy word for classy word while Helena Bonham Carter's really good as the queen. I like the way the movie is shot, too. Backgrounds are used to accentuate the characters' emotions, and there's a crispness to the picture that I really like. The movie's also not all stuttering all the time either. The natural development of the friendship between George and Lionel is just right, and there are some humorous moments in the dialogue, my favorite being during a dinner scene when somebody farts and both men point at each other before Guy Pearce's character pokes his head through a hole in the ceiling and reminds everybody that "the smeller's the feller" before blowing a raspberry, winking awkwardly, and disappearing to bugger a tart or something.

I'm starting a petition to get Colin Firth in either Cannonball Run III or a television remake of the 1970's sitcom Alice, by the way. Let me know if you're interested in signing it by leaving a comment below.

Edit: I had spelled Colin Firth's name incorrectly four times. Luckily, I fixed it before he saw it because that's the sort of thing that could ruin his year.

Ip Man

2008 Hong Kong Phooey

Rating: 17/20

Plot: The tale of Yip Man and why he lost his Y. Loosely (I imagine very loosely) based on a real-life tough guy in Foshan, a town packed with martial arts schools, who single-handedly-and-footedly beats up every single Japanese person and teaches China the art of Wing Chun. Bruce Lee, according to the poster, learned from him.

Not only is this an action-packed kung-fu film stuffed with lots and lots of images of guys getting kicked in the side of the face in slow motion (a modern kung-fu movie idea that will likely be beaten into the ground), it's a great movie. The cinematography is impressive, and the 1930s Foshan they've created is very realistic. The acting's good, especially the stoic Donnie Yen as the titular Yip, a guy whose got that gift of having such a presence even if he's not doing anything, reminiscent, I think, of the commanding screen presence that Bruce Lee had. And the scenes when he actually does do things on screen? Electric. The fight scenes are terrific--intensely exciting and often even emotional. There's a scene near the middle of the film where Yen fights Japanese soldiers for the first time, and from the moment he says, "I'm going to fight ten of you mo-fos" (that's my paraphrase) to the last strike, I was all goose-pimply. It's one of those fight scenes that, if you enjoy martial arts movies, you just have to rewind and watch again. You never really get the sense that Yen's character is in any danger at all though; in fact, I wondered if it was in his contract that he was not to be struck on screen or something. Still, regardless of whether or not there's any suspense about who is going to win any of the fight scenes, it's great fun watching Yen's quickness and fluid movement and there's nothing going on that makes it unrealistic or fantastical like some other modern kung-fu classics. With flying fists, swinging axes, dancing long poles, and busting bones, this has enough to please both old school kung-fu aficionados and fans of all those beautifully photographed, more mature martial arts dramas that have been made this century. I'm not sure about the historical accuracy. I'm also pretty sure that Ip Man is really a glossy action-oriented propaganda film. But who cares?

A confession: I may have watched this only to prevent it from being Kairow's movie-of-the-month selection for March because it would mess up the movie I want to pick in a few months. He can have credit for the recommendation though.

The Right Stuff

1983 airplane and spaceship movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Traces the advances of flight and the U.S. space program from the time Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier to the training and travels of the Mercury 7 astronauts.

Der Stoff Aus Dem Die Helden Sind is a thoroughly engaging, light-hearted breath of fresh air. There were a lot of ways this material could have been approached. This movie almost fictionalizes the events and characters, and never steers away from an opportunity for a little humor. Instead of inflating the hero aspect, the script makes these pilots and astronauts very very human, and I really liked all the scenes with the bumbling politicians. Their scenes aren't far off from Abbott and Costello routines or an Ionesco play. The scenes with the flights are very realistic without being overly special-effecty, and even though anybody with even a rudimentary knowledge of this period of history knows what happens with the characters, they still manage to hold the tension. At six hours and forty-three minutes, this movie is very long, but it's never boring. The music was a bit much a lot of the time, and the sudden narration at the end is weird. Overall, I really enjoyed this very warm look at the Cold War, a movie that puts a human face on the wacky and wild world of space travel. If nothing else, this movie may have inspired me to incorporate horses into my sex life.

Cory always wanted to be an astronaut as a little boy. Or a shark. Watching movies about them was the next best thing. He recommended The Right Stuff.

Rome Open City

1945 slapstick comedy

Rating: 18/20

Plot: It's just like every skit that I ever saw on The Benny Hill show except with more Nazis and no "Yakety Sax" at all.

Stark, powerful look at the life of ordinary people and folks involving themselves in the Resistenza near the end of World War II, the "Not-So-Great" War. There aren't special effects or exterior sets needed. This was filmed right after the Germans were booted, and maybe better than any movie I can remember, it shows everything like it really was, even more than a documentary would. And definitely more than an Ernest movie would! The characters and their motivations are sketches, but I liked that. It made some of the twists in the story more twisty and helped lend a realism to everything that was going on. It never really felt like I was watching a movie. To be completely honest, it didn't always feel like I was watching a good movie. The lighting is bad in spots, and it looks cheaply produced at times. But when you take the film in context, it's impressive stuff and somehow seems to give the movie more ummph. It's really Open City's rough edges that make it the experience that it is. It's not the happiest movie you'll ever see, especially the devastating final fifteen minutes, but it's probably a movie you should see anyway.

A Face in the Crowd

1957 Andy Griffith movie

Rating: 17/20

Plot: This is all about the rise of Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, from a jailed hobo to a radio and television sensation to finally a political force to be reckoned with. But Lonesome's a human being and therefore flawed, and he finds that his new success isn't without its problems.

This movie's over fifty years old if my math is correct, but it hasn't lost a bit of its power. At the heart of things is a fireball of a performance by Andy Griffith, so full of energy that I feared he'd bust through my television screen and start spitting on me. He teeters on an edge, his performance always threatening to become just a bit too much, but it's a stunning 180 from the roles for which he's probably known. From the lovable bumpkin radio personality to the unhinged guy he eventually becomes, it's impressive stuff. Equally impressive is the work of the gorgeous Patricia Neal with a quiet and nuanced performance that works as a foil to Lonesome's character. And let's not forget Walter Matthau who gets some great thick lines to chew on here. This is very well written and directed, and both the writing and directing seem ahead of their time to me. Elia Kazan knows where to stick his camera, and he isn't afraid to experiment, most wonderfully in a Vitajex montage after Lonesome hypocritically becomes nothing more than a shill for the company. Long shots and close ups are used effectively to distance you from a lot of the public moments with Rhodes while drawing you in to feel the effect that his personal moments have on the characters who surround him. Kazan's also a director who knows exactly how much time to show baton twirling. Juicy and seductive baton twirling! Thematically timeless, this is a story that, if not always believable, is well told. One more note--after hearing the whistle-heavy song over the opening credits, I wondered if Griffith had something in his contract about how whistling needed to be involved in the theme songs to projects he was involved with. I always thought Griffith himself did the whistling, but I looked it up and it was some guy named Earl Hagen.

Great recommendation by Cory.

Sweet Smell of Success

1957 movie

Rating: 18/20

Plot: Sleasy weasel Sidney Falco's hit the big time, the sort of big time where you get your name taped on the door of your office/bedroom. He's a press agent, successful because of bigwig newspaper columnist J.J. Hunsecker, a shady but powerful man who can make or break a career with a few typewriter taps. Hunsecker wants a favor in exchange for helping Falco reach the top--the break-up of his sister Susie and her jazz guitarist boyfriend Steve. Falco shoves any existing morals aside in order to please J.J., but he may find out that success doesn't smell quite as sweet as he thought it would.

The dialogue, as crisp and cutting as you'll find, is nearly perfect in Sweet Smell of Success. It dates our story, sure, but it dates it in the same way that Shakespeare's plays date his stories. This is endlessly quotable, and the words that Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster's characters get to say add paint to the already colorful black and white urban setting and to these nocturnal creatures. I'm as cynical as the tone of this movie and therefore have my doubts that anybody has ever talked like the characters in this movie, but who cares? The words are funny and haunting, at times simultaneously, and the script shades the circumstances like the shadows and smoke in your typical film noir. This doesn't exactly fit in with that genre, but it's got similar ideals with almost every scene taking place at night and a hopeless hopeful character fumbling in this web of his own invention. 50's black and white cinematography doesn't look better than this, and I loved how the camera moves in this movie, simply but elegantly focusing on those characters but doing it without ignoring their surroundings. Lancaster's performance as Hunsecker has the perfect amounts of sinister and confident, and Curtis's Falco, a guy you just know isn't going to win in the end despite his unscrupulous craftiness, has this terrific loser frenzy. They could have almost added foaming at the mouth and made it seem appropriate. I liked the fringe characters, too, except Steve was pretty uninspiring. Most people named Steve are though. This is the type of movie that just feels completely right, and it's about perfect.

Speaking of terrific loser frenzy, Cory recommended this one, his way of saying thanks for my recommendation of Eraserhead.

Winter's Bone

2010 redneck Godfather

Rating: 16/20 (Jen: 16/20)

Plot: Seventeen year-old Dee Rolly (or maybe it's Ree Dolly) works hard to keep her dysfunctional family afloat while her meth-dealing father runs from the law and her mentally-troubled mother rocks in a rocking chair. She gets her younger siblings fed and off to school and completes more than her share of chores to make the family's poor property the happiest home it can possibly be. Unfortunately, the sheriff informs her that Daddy had used the property for collateral for his bail and that they'll lose it if he fails to show up for his court date. She starts investigating, desperately trying to get answers from family and neighbors. Her inquiries are met with animosity as the court date rapidly approaches. Won't somebody be able to lend her a hand?

There's really nothing complicated about this story except the motivations and behavior of Dee (or Ree's) uncles, grandfathers, cousins, ect. are so different from what most people would consider normal. The story starts in medias res, and the character development, aside from the heroine Ree (or Dee), comes in snippets. But you catch on quickly that the peripheral characters don't matter so much, even though her Uncle Teardrop is a very complex and interesting fellow. This is all about Dee (or Ree) and a kind of journey. She wanders nearly hopelessly through labyrinths of dead trees and frozen air, and the conflict isn't as much a Ree (Dee?) vs. other characters but Dee (Ree?) vs. prevailing moods. It doesn't take long for us to figure out that our protagonist is up against a wall of apathy and hostility. She's heroic in a lot of quiet ways. She goes about her busy stoically, stubbornly, and selflessly; there's no extrinsic value in anything she does. The story itself is just as quiet as her action. Even the high points are subdued, and you almost just want to shrug off the two worst things that happen to Dee (or is it Ree?) because that journey she's on just seems to demand that those things happen. I thought the acting was uneven, ranging from those whose performances felt a bit too polished to those who gave striking portrayals of hill folk that gave parts of this an almost documentary realism. With the latter, there's a lot boiling below the surface, all kinds of dashed dreams and troubles festering just below the surface of their skin. They've got great names, too. I wish I could go back in time and name my son Teardrop.

Another Cory recommendation.

Touching the Void

2003 documentary

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Two guys decide to get themselves involved in an old-fashioned Man vs. Nature conflict by attempting to climb a big snowy mountain in Peru. Then, they're surprised when Mother Nature kicks their asses. Oh no she didn't!

These might be the best reenactments I've ever seen. That doesn't exactly sound like high praise considering most reenactments you see are pretty crappy, but all the mountain climbing shots in this almost could have convinced me that it was actual footage from the boys' 1985 climb if I was a lot dumber. Harrowing stuff, and the actors/pro-climbers have to be given a ton of credit for being put into so many impossible situations. I like looking at mountains anyway (I'd rather look at 'em than climb 'em!), and there are some breathtaking shots all over this one. This is another great example of a story you already know the ending to since the climbers are both alive to share their story, but it still manages to be gripping. And there was a really good combination of the guys telling their own story with the reenactment stuff that helps you feel the dire, physically and mentally exhausting situations they find themselves in. This isn't just an action movie either. Sure the focus is on the ascent and the impossible survival, but there are parts of this where it almost threatens to turn into a psychological thriller or a philosophical treatise. My favorite part is when it almost turns into a Werner Herzog documentary near the end when Joe recalls not being able to get a vapid pop song out of his head. Cold and trippy.

This was recommended by Cory, amateur climber.

The Taming of the Shrew

1967 Shakespeare comedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Katharina is a shrew, and she needs tamed. Enter brazen Petruchio, money hungry and chauvinistic. He's also a snazzy dresser. He essentially bullies her into a marriage and a life as a homemaker in a shabby castle. Then, he's real mean to her and unfortunately, as far as I could tell, never gets to see her naked.

My only issue with this comedy is that I didn't buy or maybe even understand the transition from shrew to obedient wife, but I blame Shakespeare, universally known as a lousy playwright. The dialogue's juicy and randy, and both Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton know how to bounce lines off each other. I really liked the ever-changing settings and their abundance of colors. More than likely this has essentially ruined any future stage production of this that I might accidentally see, and I can't imagine these characters confined to a stage . There's some nifty period details, too, like the guy in a cage with the drunkard sign. This is lighthearted, as fluffy as one of Kate's dresses. I don't recall whether this is one of the bard's most acclaimed comedies, but I enjoyed its characters, its outdated and politically correct ideals, and all the dirty puns. A lively and delightful way to pass an afternoon.

Cory, obsessed with all things delightful, recommended this one. He's got a thing for Elizabeth Taylor, presently.

Manon of the Spring

1986 sequel

Rating: 18/20

Plot: Picks up ten years after the sad denouement of Jean de Florette with the hunchback's daughter, now a shepherdess who hunts and sells birds, getting her revenge on everybody who had a hand in her father's breakdown and ultimate demise.

Whereas Florette was all about breathtaking beauty, character, and tone, this one's more about the story and character. I wasn't as impressed with the cinematography here, but I was enamored with Emmanuelle Beart. She's lovely and replaces the beautiful images of the lush countryside. Or maybe the imagery was the same, and I was just distracted by Emmanuelle Beart. She gives her character this innocent rage that is just perfect. And I know I dug that harmonica solo. Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil, are terrific in both of these movies, the latter despite having too many vowels in his name. I loved them as despicable villains in the first movie, and I loved them as villains you almost feel sorry for while they get what they deserve in this one. I really liked what happened with the characters here, and there are some twists that I just didn't see coming. In fact, I thought the movie was over and started to go into my winding down process (putting my pants back on, bracing myself to help stop the internal vibration, a few deep-knee bends) before realizing that there were a few more surprises left. This isn't quite as good as Jean de Florette, but it's a great completion of that film's story. And together, they make a wonderful and moving experience.

Cory, a delightful guy, tried recommending this during my "man" streak, the most impressive achievement in human history, but that would have been cheating.

Jean de Florette

1986 moving painting

Rating: 18/20

Plot: The Soubeyran family once prospered, but times are tough in the French hills where Cesar and his nephew Ugolin struggle to keep their heads above water. Speaking of water, that's exactly what they really need. Ugolin's got an idea to grow roses and make a fortune, and the pair come up with an idea to buy the land adjacent to theirs and take advantage of a spring. A lot of things happen that will be more interesting to you if I don't tell you about them before a hunchback moves onto the adjacent land with his wife and daughter and ambitious dreams about raising bunnies and crops on soil that everybody else assumes is cursed. Cesar and Ugolin stop up the spring and work with nature against the titular hunchback.

I love that this movie gave me the chance to type the words titular hunchback. And I really loved every minute of this movie, the type of movie that has the ability to make a person breath better. Not to sound too pretentious, but most movies you get to see and hear. I'd almost swear my other senses were involved with Jean de Florette somehow. It's a film that absorbs the viewer from the opening shot and doesn't spit him back out until the closing credits. I doubt I'll ever see a movie where every single shot is perfect, but Jean de Florette comes awfully close. The lush French hills provide a setting where it might have been impossible to position a camera and not capture something gorgeous, a shot where it almost looks like my television oozes colorful foliage. But the cinematography is stunning from an opening shot with a moving car that has a weird orange glow to a whole bunch of "How the hell did they get this on film?" shots. Pause this movie at any point, and you've got a shot that was obviously meticulously constructed, artistic enough to almost get in the way of the storytelling. And there's a focus on the minute that really helps you connect to every fine detail of the story. Narratively and visually, It reminded me a lot of Days of Heaven, except in Jean de Florette, there's a lot more dialogue. The dialogue's good, too ("I don't shave anyone who is horizontal."), and the characters could almost be mistaken for comic ones if what was going on with them wasn't so dark or tragic. Take an early murder scene, for example. There's a goofy argument and an ensuing fight scene that is almost cartoonish. Jean de Florette definitely explores the lighter side of evil greed and tragic circumstance. Breathtakingly beautiful (one of my favorite scenes: a duet with harmonica and vocals) and overwhelmingly sad, this one is movie poetry and one of the best movies I've seen all year. That's despite an embarrassing hunchback.

Cory recommended this one, probably because parts of it could be described as delightful.

The Importance of Being Earnest

1952 movie

Rating: 17/20 (Jen: dozed off)

Plot: Two rakish pals, Jack and Algernon, decide to both be Earnest instead in attempts to win the hearts of their beloved. Things get wild, and that pun, ladies and gentlemen, is intended.

When folks discuss using CGI to adapt or update older films or make brand new films with computer-generated John Waynes and Humphrey Bogarts, I always get really excited. I think that sounds like a terrific idea! I mean, they inserted John Wayne into a Coors beer commercial years ago. That was a turning point in my life actually, the exact moment when I decided I was going to start drinking. And I've never looked back. Technology could do wonders with this movie. For example, there are characters I'd really enjoy seeing naked in this movie, most obviously Edith Evans, and I think we're at a technologically-enlightened time when computer graphics geniuses should be able to handle something like that. And speaking of Edith Evans, her delivery of the line "A handbag?" is probably the most perfectly-delivered line I've ever heard, and all 17 rating points (I debated giving it a 17 1/2, but we don't do fractions here at shane-movies) are because of that line. No, that's not true. I liked the performances, almost universally, even though they reminded me of the staginess of movies from the 1930s. I was surprised at how funny this movie actually was, mostly that sophisticated kind of comedy where you don't want to laugh as much as you want to golf clap or chuckle inwardly or say, "I say, that certainly was witty," and then cough delicately into a napkin but not delicately enough to keep your monocle from falling off. The writing is clever and randy. I find it impossible to believe anybody ever talked like these characters do which really makes this, in my mind, the 1950s equivalent of the second Matrix movie except with much less kicking and punching. Maybe the CGI gurus could add some kicking and punching when they update this. This movie benefits from its simplicity. The Victorian setting is a colorful one, and my television screen was stuffed with lots of pretty things to look at, but theres' nothing really flashy or frilly with the direction so that we're focused on what we should be focused upon--these pretty ridiculous characters and their ridiculous dialogue. Satirical , still fresh, shaded with irony, and as expected with something that Oscar Wilde penned, intelligently funny, like verbal slapstick for stuffy squares.

Reportedly, this is Ass Masterson's third favorite movie. I wonder if this really is a link between the dastardly villain and Cory, who recommended it to me, or if I'm just being paranoid again.

Wait until Dark

1967 Helen Keller biopic

Rating: 13/20 (Jen: 12/20)

Plot: The Three Stooges look for a doll stuffed with packets of heroin in a blind woman's apartment.
They concoct a really complex plan

Other than a couple nifty suspense scenes, including a suffocating and intense climax which has the second best use of a refrigerator I've seen in a movie during the last couple weeks, there's not much to see here. The story's ludicrous, that aforementioned plan involving numerous telephone calls, costumes (seriously, why are costumes necessary to fool a blind woman?), signals, and a van making no sense for a criminal who apparently doesn't have problems resorting to brute violence. And why do they need to mess with the blinds in the apartment to signal to their cohorts in the van? Wouldn't a flick of the lights (you know, since the woman is blind) work well enough? Plot holes galore, plot holes big enough that Audrey Hepburn's blind character could probably see them. Speaking of Audrey, I really didn't think she was right for this role. The cutesiness didn't seem to fit her right here, and she was really awkward when interacting with the terrible child actor. Alan Arkin's character is more interesting, but there's just something unnatural about the performance, like he's working too hard at being cold and calculating. There's entertainment value here, but most of what happens here is stuff that can only happen in a movie, like it had it's very own Wait until Dark logic. It really hurt my chances to completely enjoy the movie although the suspenseful moments were really well done.

Recommended by Cory.

No End in Sight

2007 horror movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A documentary about how our elected officials and the people they work closely with are sometimes really silly.

Quick confession: This documentary was so scary that I eventually decided to mute my television. Watching the antics of Dubya, Dick "The Man with One Face" Cheney, Booty Rice, and Donald Duck without the sound wasn't any less scary, so I ended up playing "Yakety Sax" over and over again as a soundtrack to the film. Then, I watched the documentary at twice the normal speed so that it looked more like outtakes from Benny Hill's show. It turned out to be hilarious that way! I typically avoid politics, and I didn't really need to be reminded about the goings-on of what will undoubtedly later be thought of as a Mt. Rushmore of ruination and American embarrassment. I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed this, and I'm not sure I really know enough to figure out if I'm being duped by a deluge of propaganda. I'm also not sure how much of this is new information or how much is just a rehash of stuff I would already know if I paid attention to the always-reliable American media. I did think a lot of this--image juxtaposition, the repeated "declined to be interviewed for this film" line, one-sided narration--was a little too obvious; the statistics and interviews of the people involved were effective by themselves. This is shocking, jaw-droppingly so, like a horror movie where you already know the ending but are stuck on the edge of your seat anyway. I'd love to watch this with a Bush supporter to find out how he'd justify any of this. God, I wish this was a mockumentary.

The hippie half of Cory recommended this documentary.

The Caine Mutiny

1954 boat movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Rub a dub dub, a bunch of men in a tub. Mother-fixated horndog Ensign Keith hops on board the titular rickety ship. The first guy in charge (Lt. Capt. Sergeant Commander) is replaced by a new guy who looks and acts suspiciously like Humphrey Bogart. It doesn't take long for the rest of the crew to figure out that this guy is not only a stubborn and unfair disciplinarian, but probably batshit insane and a little yellow. After a series of questionable decisions, the titular mutiny occurs during a storm. Then, there's a court martial.

Here's an action drama with the rawness and depth you'd expect from a Disney production. Maybe that's just because of Mickey Mouse's pal Fred MacMurray, but more than likely it's something else. Stuffed to the gills with big, big music and images of actors almost looking like they're actually on a boat, this sounds and looks like an enthralling dramatic adventure story, but it's really pretty flat. The characters are types, and the acting, including with Bogart's Queeg but especially with Robert Francis's Keith, is just ho-hum, exactly what you'd expect instead of being challenging or creating characters with depth. The story's fine, but it just seems like nothing fits right with this movie, like a Japanese man singing the blues. My favorite scene:

(Keith and his special lady friend are standing outside saying romantic things to each other, things that were apparently written by somebody who has never heard real people talk and gets his inspiration from romantic movies from the 1930s. Keith kisses his special lady friend on the forehead.)
Special lady friend: Keith! There are people.
Keith: I don't care. Let them look!
(More forehead kissing ensues.)
Special lady friend: It's getting late.
(Scene fades. And the next shot is a waterfall the following morning. It's symbolic.)

That kind of seems sexually explicit and borderline offensive because of how the rest of this movie feels. And that's really the main problem with this movie. It's ok. It's butterscotch pudding. If you really want to eat some pudding, butterscotch pudding is fine. But it's a boring pudding that nobody really wants. If you have to watch The Caine Mutiny, it's fine, but I don't see anything here that makes it seem like something that anybody really wants.

Yet another Cory recommendation! He's apparently a big fan of butterscotch pudding.