Cinematic Duske

Arlington Road

2012-02-12T12:19:00.001-08:00

“Never wiser than when we're children. They say it and it's true. We'll never see things that clear again.”

Welcome to Arlington Road: an ordinary suburbia. Peaceful, quiet safe…but not for long. Because something is coming, a driven, determined force that threatens to destroy innocence in swathes.

Michael Faraday is a widowed college professor, an embittered man who lost his wife to the FBI’s call of order. But he has a duty, a duty to his son and to his community. Michael still believes in justice. That is until he begins to suspect that his new neighbors, particularly its patriarch Oliver, are harboring a secret: one so devious, so insidious that it will drive him to break boundaries, laws and promises in pursuit of the truth. Will he be ready when he finds it though?

Ehren Kruger’s script is like a thrilling page turner that changed mediums like nothing. It’s amazing that this is original material, uninspired by any other source. In turn, director Mark Pellington shows a deft flare for wildly stylish shots; this is a film where the cinematography and score work in tandem to drive up your pulse and get under your skin.

The real bread and butter of the film though are in the performances. Tim Robbins and Jeff Bridges square off wonderfully in emotionally demanding rules that would show cracks in lesser performers. Arlington Road shines as an underrated high point in both of their careers.

A film that has only become more effective in today’s paranoia-filled political climate, Arlington Road is a chilling thriller with a jaw-dropper of a finale.

Summer of Sam

2012-02-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

“Since when does your hairstyle determine whether or not you're a fuckin' killer?”

It’s a blistering hot summer in the South Bronx, and New York City is about to burn. Something’s in the air, and a terrible personification of the “me” decade is about to make himself known through six ringing echoes in the black of night. Sam says hello.

1977. The Brooklyn Dodgers are storming the playoffs, disco is still an inferno and the Son of Sam is firing a big .44 into the heart of America. Meanwhile Vinnie is cheating on his wife, Dionna, with anyone possessing tits, Ritchie returns to the old neighborhood as a British punk and Ruby is dumped by her boyfriend. Soon the personal lives of the aforementioned and the fearful panic rotting the big apple will boil over into violence and bloodshed—and no one’s going to walk away with clean hands.

Summer of Sam is one of Spike Lee’s most ambitious and uncompromising films to date. Its strength lies in its honest depiction of the flawed characters it follows through the chaos of ’77. Putting Lee’s usual racial-motivated subject matter on the back burner, this particular story focuses on prejudice of a different nature: the prowling, seething man who looks upon change personified and calls it the villain.

John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito and especially Adrian Brody give exceptional performances in the chief parts while a great soundtrack carries the scenes to grueling heights. Lee’s camerawork is spot-on and the interruptions provided by the killer gel perfectly with the stories that surround him.

Summer of Sam is a frightfully frank look at the mob mentality and the human mind under the guise of fear.

Gates of Heaven

2012-02-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

"There's your dog; your dog's dead. But where's the thing that made it move? It had to be something, didn't it?"

What is the basic value of a life? Does animal life have less value than human life? These are some of the questions explored in the debut documentary from filmmaker Errol Morris: Gates of Heaven.

Gates of Heaven concerns itself mainly with what happens when an animal dies. Morris examines burials, cremations and rendering plants as a way of dealing with this loss, and, in the process, opens the door to a passionate debate between those who inhabit both sides of the fence.

On paper, this can sound banal and tedious, or even sentimental. But Morris' approach to the documentary art form gives the film room to breathe, and develop, at its own pace. There's no narration, no exposition, and Morris himself never appears before the camera. What he does is record dozens of hours of footage (with everyone from mourners and insiders to businessmen) and then sift through them for the common threads that make up all of the layers in this surprisingly complex subject. His approach allows both the subjects and the issues to speaks for themselves, without any poking or prodding from the director.

Calling Gates of Heaven a film about dead animals is like calling Schindler's List a film about dead people: it doesn't even scratch the surface of what this film has to say. Provocative, touching, and inspiring, this film is a wonderful surprise, and one of the finest documentaries ever made.

Sleepy Hollow

2012-02-02T17:05:00.000-08:00

“The Horseman comes. And tonight he comes for you.”

In Tim Burton’s last truly great film, he applies his dark vision to a very old tale: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Now this old fable was always a chilling piece of fiction but here, under Burton’s watchful eye, it becomes much, much more.

Detective Ichabod Crane is a man of reason, a civic servant who subscribes to the belief that science can explain all manner of creature on this earth. His assertion is challenged though when he finds himself investigating a triple murder in the remote township of Sleepy Hollow. Here, in this gothic village, he will come face to face with the supernatural—and be forced to deal with the repercussions on his reason that follow.

Delightfully grim and bloody, Sleepy Hollow relishes in its horror and creates one scene after another, designed to push the squeamish viewer to his limit. As such, it’s as much fun to watch as it is disquieting. The black sense of humor and somewhat campy portrayals echo back to the old ages of cinema, while the film itself remaining fresh in presentation. Johnny Depp is at his charming best, Christina Ricci offers a purity rarely seen in her performances and Christopher Walken has a brief but effective cameo as the Hessian warrior who would eventually become the headless horseman.

A mystery of the highest (and bloodiest) order, Sleepy Hollow is best viewed on a dark, snowy night by the crackling warmth of a fire.

The Object as Character Argument

2012-01-29T08:21:00.000-08:00

What a silly and overwrought cliche this has become, this idea that the vehicle in which the main character drives, or the gun he uses, or his suitcase, or his home, or some other bloody thing, is a character of some sort.

How often have you heard this tripe tossed and bandied about in recent years? Far too often, I would conjecture, as once was more than enough. The most irritating part is how those who offer it as an observation speak of it as though it were some grand revelation or amazing statement about the cleverness of something, which they themselves are projecting onto the piece of art in question.

I mean, for one thing, the idea, in and of itself, is silly and juvenile. In fact it's one of the first abstract ideas that we, as children, come up with: that everything is alive and it has feelings, as though, were we to toss away an old toy, it would cry in the trash bag under feelings of rejection and worthlessness.

How can any object have thoughts or motivations? And if it doesn't, just how in the hell does it "become a character itself"? The answer is that it doesn't. This is a very foolish idea, and one that's seen play far too often in artistic and intellectual circles.

At best, it's an inarticulate way of expressing interest and favor on a macguffin or prop, and at worst, it's ostentatious crap wherein the one expressing the opinion is attempting to show a depth of understanding in the story that others have failed to grasp, by projecting characteristics onto an object which possesses none.

This is a tired, old cliche, and one that needs to be put to bed, or, better yet, out of it's misery, with great haste and savagery.

The Virgin Spring

2012-01-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

"You see it, God, you see it. The innocent child's death and my revenge. You allowed it. I don't understand you. Yet now I beg your forgiveness. I know no other way to be reconciled with my own hands. I know no other way to live.”

At what point is vengeance justified? Is it ever? This is the question pondered in Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning fable, The Virgin Spring. It is a bleak, disturbing tale of pain and anguish, one that uses its violence to explore themes of spirituality and justice.

On the dawn of a spellbinding morning, a bitter, young servant girl offers a prayer to Odin and uses a malicious gesture to cement her conviction. Her target is Karin, the spoiled daughter of rancher Tore and his wife Mareta but her vehemence has consequences that even she cannot predict. When pure, sweet Karin is raped and murdered by a trio of shepherds the family is left to wonder about the implications of their beliefs and how valid they may be.

Undoubtedly, The Virgin Spring is a very tough and troubling film. Its explicit and unforgiving nature makes for a difficult watch and dozens of possible interpretations. Questions of religion, order, philosophy and loyalty permeate the proceedings, while the different sides play a brutal chess game against one another.

Max von Sydow, in one of his earliest roles, offers the strength of levity to his role as Tor; the rest of the cast is equally ambitious under Bergman’s unflinching eyes. The stunning cinematography, the demanding script and Bergman’s vision merge into a tunnel vision of terror that never strays into pure horror...because that would be too easy (and it is, as we’ve seen in the dual remakes).

The Virgin Spring is ultimately very tough to pin down but the validity of its various interpretations is part of its power. Only a truly great film can even warrant this type of discussion, let alone justify it.
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Capturing the Friedmans

2012-01-23T16:05:00.001-08:00

“I still feel like I knew my father very well.”

The truth can be a fickle thing. Elusive, slippery and tough to pin down, it can divide legions and destroy families. Such is the case in Andrew Jarecki’s documentary: Capturing the Friedmans, an exploration of the connotations of a child pornography sting in a New York suburb.

The Friedmans are a tight-knit Jewish family who documented much of their lives during the 1970’s and 80’s with video cameras and recording devices, due mostly to one of their son’s obsession with such devices. However, when their otherwise ordinary life is wildly disrupted by accusations of child molestation and sexual abuse; these preceding videos and those that follow document the gradual disintegration of their bonds amid this loss of trust. As tensions rise and court dates near, surprising revelations come to roost but no clear version of the facts ever surfaces, leaving the viewer to form a conclusion for himself.

Though Jarecki had a fairly different objective when he began his career (and a pretty clear opinion on the matters to come), he never allows his personal bias to affect the final presentation. While the shocking subject matter that eventually reveals itself clenches any chance of innocence for the father and son, the extent of their guilt remains strangely murky by the film’s climax. This is to the documentary’s strength though, as it forces every person that watches to decide exactly where the truth lies and what its consequences should be.

The use of archival footage is interspersed with Jarecki’s interviews, allowing for a number of clashing “facts”, and ultimately an eerie series of events regardless of one’s views. Consider, for example, the footage of the three brothers horsing around on the courtroom steps as they await the results of a trial or a traumatized uncle’s blocked sexual repression amid a father’s confessions.

A disconcerting film with enough fodder to satisfy a debate team, Capturing the Friedmans is a tough and unabashedly thorough examination of a disturbing subject, from both sides of the fence.

Clerks

2012-01-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

“You know, there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work. Most of 'em just cheat on you.”

Kevin Smith’s debut film was a true labor of love. Paid for with money borrowed from relatives, maxed out credit cards and shot in stark black in white for less than $30,000; this is the Rocky of film productions: an underdog that went from a video clerk’s pipe dream to standing ovations at Sundance.

Dante and Randall are two slackers in the early 90’s working just enough to get by paycheck to paycheck. They interact with their customer base, deal with their personal problems and discuss everything from the rights of Star Wars’ trade workers to existentialist philosophy. Following them through their day we witness their reactions to the death of a former classmate, a street hockey game on the roof of their store and the various misadventures of their loitering buddies.

This was the kind of seminal film that the 90’s needed and Kevin Smith was just the man for the job. He’d lived it after all. His script dials into the level of frustration and hopelessness that most of the youth were (and to a certain extent still are) feeling at that time. Generation X and Y are having a seriously hard time trying to figure out where they fit into a corporately controlled, media saturated world that really only needs them as consumers.

There’s no pretension, no meandering cinematography, just a hip, youthful story with amateur actors. Primarily, that’s what makes it work so effectively. It’s very minimalist in its presentation and also extremely funny in its observations about the silliness of human nature.

As an introduction to Kevin Smith’s View-Askew-niverse, Clerks is a great piece of pop-culture and a pretty great film in general. Most of us around these parts have seen it but it bears mentioning if only because it’s so effective in its composition.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

2012-01-14T16:36:00.000-08:00

"People have prejudices, people have fears, people have hate. These things cloud our ability to reason."

"Free the West Memphis three!" For years it has been a call to arms for many people in North America and Europe. Those of us who were once considered to be "the weird kids" remember all too well the way one can be treated for being different from his or her peers. For over 17 years now, Damien Echolls, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelly have lived in one of the worst forms of this reality imaginable: false imprisonment. Detained in 1993, and convicted in 1994 for the gruesome child murders in Robin Hood Hills, the West Memphis three have had a long hard road for a good long time, but, have finally, at long last, been released.

The third documentary on this subject by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, Purgatory explores the long term repercussions of the events in West Memphis, nearly 19 years ago. The false imprisonment, accusations in every direction (from defendants to defenders, and back again), the media circus, the publicity blitz: this case has been a great big mess for a very long time. Now, with the release of the suspects, some measure of justice has been asserted at last, but at what price?

Unfortunately the only way the three could secure a guaranteed release was by entering a guilty plea to the state of Arkansas, wherein they would be released with "time served". Now, as is reiterated in the film, there is no way that the state of Arkansas would allow the release of the three men if they actually believed them to be guilty of such a well known and infamous crime. Therefore, the only viable assertion available here is that the state of Arkansas offered the option to avoid paying financial recompense to the defendants, and that the defendants took it only out of fear and desperation. It is a sad state of affairs to be sure, and one that will hopefully be appealed in the future. As it is however, these men, convicted as teenagers, are now free to live their adult lives for the first time, and that alone is something worth celebrating.

As balanced and honest as its two progenitors, Purgatory, once again, allows the people involved in all facets of this case to speak for themselves, and ultimately, for the audience to decide how they feel about what is seen and heard. Initially meant to be released earlier this year, it was recut after the West Memphis three were released in August, and fitted with an epilogue explaining the details of the case's end.

Paradise Lost 3 is a stirring and inspiring emotional journey, one that finally brings closure to the thousands and thousands of people who have supported the defendants for nearly two decades. As a documentary, it reminds us that this art form still has power. Like The Thin Blue Line before it, the Paradise Lost series will stand tall for years to come, as one of the only documentaries in history to ever have a profound effect on a legal proceeding. These are films that should be commended, and remembered, for as long as film is in existence.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man

2012-01-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

“Our love can put an end to this fucking world! Let's go get 'em!”

What a wild ride you’re in for when you strap yourself into the crazy machine called Tetsuo. Surrealist metallic violence and screaming fusions of steel and flesh will follow you into your nightmares as you attempt to interpret these disturbing sensations of rebirth and destruction.

The chief characters in this macabre factory of man and machine are simply called “the metal fetishist” and “the iron man.” One is the shattered remnants of man as destroyed by a vehicular collision and the other is the culprit who wishes only to cover up his crime. Together, though, they form a counter-point to one another as they face off in one duel after another in hopes of destroying each other indefinitely.

In Tetsuo, nothing is as it seems as nearly everything that appears on camera is analogous for something completely different. Sexuality, as represented by screaming females and spinning drills, show us our own rampant sexual desire in spades, while control is shown as a coming-to-grips with one’s mutations and the acceptance of the consequences. The soundtrack creates a style as though Aphex Twin met Nine Inch Nails and the astounding collaboration between sound and visual representation manufactures scenes that are like moving metal paintings before our eyes.

Tetsuo is a strange, affective and unyielding film about the clash of technology and humanism through the vehicle of the flesh.

The Darjeeling Limited

2012-01-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

“I wonder if the three of us would've been friends in real life. Not as brothers, but as people.”

In a touching and surprisingly mature project from Wes Anderson—The Darjeeling Limited allows his usual comedic hijinks to take somewhat of a back seat to themes like self-discovery, spirituality and the meanings of life and death.

As three brothers, Francis, Peter and Jack find themselves aboard the titular train, they have little grasp of the gravity to which their trek through India will affect their lives. While the story progress, it soon becomes clear that squabbling amongst themselves over the childish issues that have followed them since they were lads and overdosing on pharmaceuticals is only a smoke screen for the mutual pain that consumes them.

The subtlety with which such revelations come to roost is where the film finds its magic. Herein, Anderson may have penned his most concise script yet and it is endearing to watch him grow so much as an artist. Brody, Wilson and Schwartzman are great as the leads and they really sell you on their relationship as well as the parts they play in the family dynamic. As usual the soundtrack is fantastic and Anderson’s knack for great shots keeps the film fresh from start to finish.

One that even naysayers of Wes Anderson’s dry brand of comed-dramatics may come to appreciate, The Darjeeling Limited is a warming tale of family and understanding.

Shite Films: BTK Killer

2012-01-07T18:44:00.000-08:00

"Biiiiiind them! Torrrrrrture them! Kiiiiiillllllllllllllllll them!"

Welcome to another lesson in travesty film making folks. Today's entry is one of the absolute worst horror films I've ever seen. In fact, had I not been seeing a girl who had a penchant for true serial killer stories, I never, ever would have watched this movie. However, since I had to suffer through it, now, you too, must suffer.

BTK Killer focuses on the murder spree of Dennis Rader, from 1974-1991. Typically, it involves him sending taunting letters to the police and reading them in voiceover for creeeeeeeeeeepy effect. Cliche as this is, the real BTK killer did indeed taunt the police through letters, much like the Zodiac and Son of Sam killers. The difference here, is that those killers got excellent film adaptations (Spike Lee's Summer of Sam and David Fincher's Zodiac) whereas, our old pal BTK must suffer the humiliation of inspiring this tripe. Yes, he is the SARS of serial killers: once deadly, but very soon forgotten.

The first, and most glaring problem with BTK is its budget. The film looks like shit, sounds like shit and...well, it's shit okay. Where a good film maker can overcome budgetary restrictions through creativity and ingenuity (take Clerks, Reservoir Dogs or Tetsuo: The Iron Man for example), writer-director Ulli Lomel made a movie so bad that it looks worse than a college film. The angles are flat, the cinematography is boring, and every scene is shot the way a scientist might write a poem: the director appears to be apathetically saying "here it is, here's what's happening now" in a dry, Ben Stein voice.

All of the performances are abysmal, and we're talking porn level acting here. The lead, Gerard Griesbaum, is especially abysmal as your creepy and monotone uncle (see above picture). There are many scenes with this character that are supposed to illicit menace and danger but instead lead to confusion and laughter, due to his fumbling delivery. Add in the maniacally inept direction, on scenes where Griesbaum is doing his spy routine, looking through windows, for example, and you will find the opposite of fear: sad, ironic amusement.

Where previous entries like The Wicker Man, Resident Evil and The Forgotten at least had the sensibility to entertain you as they failed, BTK Killer simply falls flat, and goes off into the night unremembered, much like the BTK killer himself.

Evidence

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjM19uQmg4g

Melancholia

2012-01-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

"Life is only on Earth. And not for long."

Lars von Trier has established himself as a man who seeks to push the limits of his art form; to challenge audiences, and the way they perceive film, and what it can mean. With Dogville and Manderlay, he directed stage level pieces that pushed the performers and the viewers to bridge the gap using their imaginations. With Antichrist he made a psychological horror film that explored the repercussions of an infant death on its parents, and pitted them against the supernatural forces of a gothic forest, as well as, their own hearts and minds.

Now, with Melancholia, von Trier examines clinical depression amid an oncoming cataclysm, literally the end of the world. We meet Justine (a shockingly good Kirsten Dunst) on the evening of her wedding, an event that should have her beaming, but instead has her putting on a show for her friends and family, while attempting to conceal her true feelings of sadness and despondency. Meanwhile, her guests try to understand her, and offer their own conjecture on what the possibility of a planetary collision means to their existence.

As a film, Melancholia works as sort of a spiritual successor to the aforementioned Antichrist, in that it uses a character's mental affliction as a portal to examine the overwhelming circumstances in which they find themselves. In Antichrist it was anxiety, and in Melancholia it is depression. In both films, attempts are made to treat the characters clinically and medically, none of which are successful. Both characters surrender themselves to their circumstances, and to madness, and, as such, find a measure of peace, if only for a time.

Charlette Gainsbourg, the actress that set Cannes on fire in Antichrist (like Dunst with Melancholia, she took home the best actress award) plays Claire here, Justine's sister. Level-headed and logical, Claire understands Justine's condition but lacks the empathy that can help her to see what the condition truly does to her mental status. She does her best though, even as she slowly grows frustrated with Justine and her attitude. The skilled Gainsbourg lends the role much gravity, using her tone and body language to demonstrate Claire's feelings even before she utters them. In addition, Keifer Sutherland does excellent work in a surprisingly dramatic turn as Claire's wealthy and ostentatious husband.

Classical music, shocking sensuality, a doomsday plot, and mental illness: on paper, it sounds like a mess. And maybe, to some, it is. But, what a gorgeous and unflinching mess it is. Melancholia is a brutal and beautiful ride, right to the end.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

2012-01-06T23:22:00.001-08:00

“Bon appétit. It's French...”

Peter Greenaway’s vile black comedy The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover is a tall order for any film glutton. Containing gruesome beatings, sexual abuse, disgusting humiliations and a select few other delicacies of the cinema, this film would be a chore to get through if it wasn’t so deliciously brilliant.

A horrible ogre of a man, Albert Spica is the proprietor of a fine dining establishment that becomes his disturbing playground of earthly pleasures. His long suffering wife and his head chef, along with the majority of the film’s populace, detest him, but few are brave enough to stand up to his unbridled rage and childish indulgence. That is until his wife, Georgina, catches the eye of a quiet bookkeeper and decides to have a little fun of her own.

The seven deadly sins feature chiefly in Greenaway’s script with lust, gluttony and wrath taking the forefront. Beautiful symphonic requiems and operatic arias echo throughout the proceedings as the viewer bears witness to one excruciating display after another, forced to endure the wild horrors in hopes of some form of even mild retribution before the film’s conclusion. But worry not, for they get it.

Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon offer insanely ambitious portrayals as they carry their roles to the absolute peak of performance art. In the background are the subdued but effective Richard Bohringer, the nonchalantly witty Alan Howard and the thriving imitation of Tim Roth. The cast clashes and grinds like dirty cutlery with the only innocent member being, of course, the dishwasher.

The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover is a horrifying, terrible watch to be sure but rarely is one rewarded so justly for following a film into the red abyss of hell.

Little Children

2012-01-04T19:51:00.001-08:00

“It's not the cheating. It's the hunger--the hunger for an alternative and the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness.”

In Todd Field’s picture, Little Children, we are offered a glimpse into the domestic lives of several very different people that share one rudimentary trait: the inability to deal with their problems like assertive adults. In essence, this makes the film a profound one, as we watch these people’s lives topple like dominoes into an endless pit of suburban turmoil.

Sarah Pierce is a despondent house wife whose distant husband does nothing to satisfy her needs as a woman or as a person. Brad Adamson is a stay at home dad whose wife treats him like a child. When these two people meet, something ignites within them and for a brief time they fill a terrible void in each other’s lives. Deceit is never a permanent solution though, and as unpredictable pieces such as Brad’s wife, a recently released sex offender and an overzealous former cop join the fray; their game becomes more dangerous still.

The way Field intersperses the immaturity and incontinence of the actual children of the story with these same traits in the adults makes for some brilliant satire. Better still is that the satire is never so over-bearing that it takes away from the dramatic power of the film. Patrick Wilson, Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly provide the star power but Jackie Earle Haley is the real stand-out here, making the viewer sickened and sympathetic in equal turns.

Little Children is very tough on its characters, punishing them harshly and mercilessly for their sins. It is a brutal, unflinching look at a neighborhood whose residents are simply drops of water in the steaming pot and what happens when it finally boils over.

The Rules of Attraction

2011-12-31T12:54:00.000-08:00

"I no longer know who I am and I feel like the ghost of a total stranger."

It seems to me that our society has experienced a slow sexual re-emergence over the last half century, that after hundreds of years of puritanical guilt and obsessive secrecy people are really ready to be sexual animals and lustful beings again. The result of this reawakening though, is often a sort of ambivalence to sex itself that is becoming increasingly manifest in the actions of youths and twenty-somethings as they experiment with sexuality in ways that are breaking taboos and pushing boundaries at an increasingly frightful pace. The Rules of Attraction, based on the Ellis novel, explores these ideas and more.

Focusing on the exploits of the misanthropic, hyper-sexed and over-privileged students of Camden College, The Rules of Attraction follows emotionally void drug dealer Sean Bateman as he pursues the virginal and sexually unavailable Lauren, an art geek, who is, in turn, friends with Paul Denton: a bisexual boy who is seeking both of them, in different ways. Mixed in there somewhere is Lauren's wildly promiscuous roommate, a mystery girl obsessed with Sean and, wild party-boy, Victor.

These characters fuck and suck and chuck, and do all manner of terrible things to each other, some justified, others not, but it's the colossal mess of it all and the totally disgusting honesty with which it's presented that makes the whole thing meaningful and worthwhile. Much like Closer, anyone who's been through some really messy relationship drama will find a lot to relate to here, and for those that haven't, well...you'll be entertained, in any case. Entertained, enamored, and disturbed.

What makes this film work is just how well it captures the wildly frenetic pace of The Rules of Attraction, and Ellis' narrative style. It veers all over the road like a drunk driver, going backward and forward in its intertwining stories at a manic and fevered pitch. It may not succeed at quite the level that Mary Harron's American Psycho did, but is still well worth the trip, and the experience is like nothing else you've seen brought to the screen: love it or hate it, it is undefinably creative and totally original.

Alternatively hilarious and soul-crushing, glorious and grim, The Rules of Attraction is a soberly satirical slap in the face to the cookie-cutter romances that we've come to expect in film.

Way of the Gun

2011-12-30T14:04:00.000-08:00

“I think a plan is just a list of things that don't happen.”

So here we are folks: this one’s an all time personal favorite of mine. The pure bleakness of it all, the utter realism of a bunch of shitty people in a shitty situation; I mean I barely have to suspend my disbelief. It’s like coming home.

A couple of angry, young cynics; Parker and Longbaugh are what the modern media would refer to as ticking time bombs. Being petty drifters, they have a lot of anger to unleash at the world and nothing to lose should society choose to bite back. Together they hatch a plan to kidnap the surrogate mother of a very dangerous businessman’s child. In turn, they unknowingly pull the first spade out from a house of cards that has been long in the building. Now, as vicious mercenaries, old-school bagmen and the crooked authorities chase them down, they have to wonder just how far they’re willing to chase this fortune-and whether it’ll be worth the price.

You want a nihilistic script? Well this is your fucking dream come true. If you’re looking for a single person with honest motives in this movie, you might as well grab a Where’s Waldo. You’ll have better luck.

Ryan Phillipe, Benicio Del Toro, Taye Diggs, Nicky Katt, Geoffrey Lewis and James Caan are the players. Juliette Lewis, Scott Wilson and Dylan Kussman are the collateral damage. But no one is even close to innocent, for all of these wretched creatures share one common denominator: they will do anything to survive…and even more to come out ahead.

All of the performers are the essence of deadly serious. The sparse music matches them, rising only when the stakes are at their highest, and reaching its crescendo as the animals clash in a sandy pit of blood and bullets where it’s survival of the fittest.

Clever, deadpan and wildly original, Way of the Gun answers a question that no one ever dared to ask: what happens when you pit the scum of the earth against itself? “How come no one asked ?” You might wonder. It’s because the world is full of people like this, and like vampires, their reflection is poison.

Irrerversible

2011-12-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

“With a little money, we can help you get revenge. The assailant drew blood. Blood calls for revenge. Vengeance is a human right.”

A black, horrifying film: Gaspar Noe’s terrible tale of rape and murder is not for the faint of heart. Told in reverse, Irreversible explores the repercussions of a devastating, perverse crime on those most affected by it.

The film opens with Marcus and Pierre, both lovers of a woman named Alex, searching for the perpetrator of some heinous deed. They find their presumed culprit in a nasty sex club and just as things reach a dire peak, manage to destroy him in a brutal fashion as the other patrons look on. Back and back in time, in increments of only a few minutes at a time, we see what brought these seemingly ordinary men to such disturbed acts of violence. In the end we are left with the sweetness of love, the joy of desire and the happiness of contentment…but having viewed the story in its entirety, we must live with the knowledge of what’s to come.

The gorgeous Monica Bellucci and the talented Vincent Cassell headline as the lovers while Albert Dupontel plays Alex’s ex Pierre, still friends with the voluptuous beauty and yearning to be hers once again. The camera watches each heinous deed with a discouraging lack of bias, allowing each one to carry out as it would were there no one to stop them…which of course, there isn’t. It’s a very wild approach that some viewers find frustrating, while I simply view it as a realistic approach that is rarely shown in modern cinema.

Irreversible is unarguably a very challenging watch, but its unabashed honesty about the difficult subject matters it captures and its unflinching portrayal of the darkness of society and how it shatters our humanity is deserving of praise for its originality alone. It is a tough film to enjoy and an even tougher one to forget, but in the end it is worth the long, hard journey.

Minority Report

2011-12-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

“I like you chief…you’ve always been nice to me. I’ll give you two minutes before I hit the alarm.”

It is a world of paradox: a future where one is arrested and imprisoned for what one has yet to do. On the one hand, this saves the victim unnecessary bloodshed, her family the grief of loss. However, there is another side to this coin…for how can one be punished for a crime that has not yet been committed?

As a man who lost everything to murder, John Anderton is someone who understands the need for Pre-Crime more than anyone. He is chief commander of the initiative, using the visions of three precognitive telepaths to stop violent crimes from being committed by their perpetrators. John’s beliefs are shattered irrevocably though, when he finds himself party to the knowledge that he will be the next killer for his agency to track and detain. Now a frantic fugitive on the run from his own people, John will use every trick in the book to remain a free man in hopes of proving the prediction wrong, thus invalidating everything he stands for.

Based on the wonderfully imaginative ideas of a Philip K. Dick story, Minority Report opens a whole can of metaphorical worms when it comes to the ideas of justice and morality. Remaining as impartial as possible, the script forces the viewer to develop their own beliefs about the reality of a world where the repercussions of your wrong-doings are affecting you before you even commit them.

Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow and Neal McDonough play a straight line of poker face performances, remaining calm and impassive to the events before them on the surface and allowing the viewer to read into their expressions what they will. The special effects are convincing, if a little over the top for the year they take place (but then this has always been an issue with sci-fi and it is a small quibble). Finally, Spielberg resists the urge to sentimentalize and the film works much better because of it. This is due to the setting being a cold, mechanical future where our very fates are there for the perusal of indifferent authority figures that care not for our hearts and minds, only our actions.

Minority Report is one of those pictures that really only snowballs on you the more you consider it, simply because the notions it tackles and how it examines them are so effective; a truly awe-inspiring film.

The Ides of March

2011-12-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

"Get out, now. Or otherwise..."

What a fresh and inventive film maker George Clooney has become. Who would've ever guessed that a man with so much talent and charisma in front of the camera, could have an even more visceral impact when he controls the frame? Well, here it is: with The Ides of March, Clooney has stepped into his prime as a writer, a director and a performer.

While Clooney is an equal headliner with his central star, as presidential hopeful, Mike Morris, he actually spends most of the film off-camera, as more of an idealistic, and inspiring, force. Here, Ryan Gosling takes the forefront as Stephen Meyers, an extremely talented, and articulate, democrat working on Morris' campaign as a speechwriter and political adviser.

Meyers believes in his candidate with his whole heart: he preaches for him, pulls for him and fights for him. But, when he is approached by an agent of the competing candidate, his life and career begin to unravel in the aftermath.

Now, I won't give away the revelations and developments that occur to these characters from there, because to do so would be criminal. What I will tell you is that The Ides of March is, primarily, a film about disillusionment. In it's own way, it's even a coming-of-age story, if only, in the sense of maturity and one's grasp on reality in parallel to it's truth.

Is The Ides of March cynical? Well, that's debatable. Are politics cynical? Was Obama who you thought he would be, who you hoped he would be? Is anyone? These are the questions the film is asking, and they're well worth exploring.

Finally, attention must be drawn back to Gosling once more. What a ferocious young actor he has become. While he was quite good in his earlier work, with films like Stay, The United States of Leland and The Notebook, Gosling has really come into his own in 2011. Between this film, and the equally excellent Drive, from Nicholas Wending Refn, Gosling has cemented himself as an actor to watch for this generation. I give you my word that this man will have an Oscar within the next ten years.

Tethered by a stellar cast of supporters, including Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachael Wood and Jeffrey Wright, The Ides of March is a timely and introspective film that forces us to examine both our morals and our politics on an equally tenuous footing.

Eyes Wide Shut

2011-12-14T18:09:00.000-08:00

“If you men only knew...”

In Stanley Kubrick’s final film, the audience receives an eerie, cryptic look at the psychology of sex and lust. It is a compelling, mysterious film that opens many more doors than it closes-but then the same could be said for many of Kubrick’s masterpieces.

Meet Dr. Bill Harford and his wife Alice: young, wealthy, content and happily married. But all of this is thrown into question after an eventful night of temptation forces the lovers to speak a little more honestly with one another. This in turn sends a somewhat shattered Bill onto a journey of sexual odyssey in which he contemplates adultery, views disturbing representations of New York’s sexual underbelly and confronts his own changing views about lust and fidelity. By the time he’s decided where his loyalties lie though, it may be too late.

Eyes Wide Shut is an extremely daring film, not just for that devious auteur Kubrick but moreover for the stars (and extras) who bare all in explicit detail. Cruise and Kidman are never better than here, as Bill and Alice, each alternating between the acceptable sociological archetypes that they portray to the world and their more deviant counterparts. The intricate narrative that paints this portrait is unflinching in its conception and flawless in its execution. Lastly, a mention must be given to the sparse but effective score that turns single piano keys into knives in the dark.

Like its progenitors, Eyes Wide Shut met with a very uneven critical reception upon its initial release but great art is like a fine wine and so has it been with this film, growing only richer with each subsequent viewing.

The Sandlot

2011-12-11T18:52:00.000-08:00

"Let me tell you something kid; Everybody gets one chance to do something great. Most people never take the chance, either because they're too scared, or they don't recognize it when it spits on their shoes."

You know, it's a sad fact of growing up: that things which were once magical to you as a kid, often lose their luster. It's a part of maturing I guess; you get older, and your tastes age with you. That's why it's so rare to find something you enjoyed as a kid not only retain its value, but actually improve for you as an adult. The Sandlot is such a rare gem, a film like Stand By Me, Up or The Plague Dogs, a film that is truly enjoyable for people of all ages, if for different reasons.

The Sandlot mainly concerns Scotty Smalls, the narrator and protagonist of the story. Scotty has recently moved to a new town with his mom and step-dad, and, as such, he has no friends, and very little confidence in himself. This all changes, though, when he is taken under the wing of cool, self-assured Benny Rodriguez. Soon, he has a circle of friends that would do anything for each other...which is good, because Scotty's gonna need all the help he can get after he makes a fatally prideful mistake.

What makes The Sandlot special is that intrinsic, unquantifiable quality that speaks to the heart of the youth in us all. This is something that is easy to attempt but very hard to succeed at. Why? Well, because it's very hard for an adult to tap into the nostalgia of childhood with any sense of honesty or authenticity. To Kill a Mockingbird did it, Stand By Me did it, and, well, The Sandlot does it.

Through some strange combination of story-telling, acting, music, and truth, The Sandlot manages to remind you exactly what it was like to be a kid. The need for acceptance, the longing for approval, the sense of adventure, and the appetite for imagination: this was what it was like to be young, in all it's facets.

Summer, friends, and fun...isn't it amazing to think, that once, long ago, this was all there was to life?

Shite Films: The Wicker Man

2011-12-10T16:43:00.000-08:00

"How'd it get burned?"

It's very important to remember what makes a good film, and there's no easier to be reminded than with an atrociously bad one. Take The Wicker Man remake for example: this is a film that features Nicolas Cage running through the woods in a bear suit and punching women to save the day.

Yes, this film is that ridiculous. In fact, The Wicker Man enters a very special place of so-bad-it's-good cinema; it is a film so bad that it's worth watching simply for the great fun of enjoying it ironically.

So, the plot. Well Cagey is a police officer who watches a mother and child blow up in a car one day. That's not really important or anything, so much as it's kind of there at the beginning to make things interesting. In any case, after this he's whisked away to an island of Pagans where's he's to seek out the missing daughter of his ex-wife.

The investigation is more a series of weird events than any real stream of logic. Cagey finds a burned doll in a graveyard, gets evasive answers from townsfolk, sees the little girls name crossed off of a school registry, blah-blah-blah. Anyway, so after some silly antics like yelling at witnesses and knocking masks off of children, old Cage thinks he's got 'er cracked: the cult, a community that subsides on honey, wants to bring their honey back, by burning the young girl as a sacrifice to whatever gods they worship.

On paper this is a bit disturbing and could make for an interesting thriller (see: the 1974 original). However, any kind of suspense that might be possible, using the concept as a jumping point, is erased very quickly by the ham-fisted script and Cage's increasingly silly over-acting. Scenes like Cage yelling at everyone he meets, striking several different unarmed women, drawing his weapon so he can steal a bike, or getting bees poured on his head, might make for some fantastic absurdist comedy...if only the film weren't trying so hard to be taken seriously.

In fact, The Wicker Man is one of the worst scripts ever penned to paper, and the screen treatment is made even worse by the fact that they somehow got a competent director to take the helm...and he did nothing with it at all. What the hell happened to Neil Labute anyway? Did he lose a bet the producers or something?

I think only one biting quip can really hammer home just how bad this all is, and here it is: The Wicker Man is the worst film that Nicholas Cage has ever been in. Now why don't you roll on over to his IMDB page and let this sink in for a while.

Evidence:

Grizzly Punch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo_5ZKcYROw
Not the Bees!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Gad...eature=related
How'd It Get Burned!?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&fe...&v=nmLQ_Qh8INg

JFK

2011-12-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

“Who grieves for Lee Harvey Oswald? Buried in a cheap grave under the name "Oswald"? Nobody.”

In Oliver Stone’s magnum opus, he explores the question that has plagued the nation since the latter half of 1963: who killed Kennedy? Well, to this day, we still don’t have a concrete answer on the subject; just more questions and the bitter, stagnant smell of corruption.

On November 22nd 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed by a lone gunman. Enter New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison, a man who takes three years to wake up and see what he’d been blind to for all that time: that it’s all wrong, that it doesn’t make a lick of sense. So the odyssey begins, Garrison’s one man crusade for justice against all odds. The investigation, though, in the end, produces nothing but a long list of co-conspirators and yes-men; the truth is never revealed.

A lightning cast including Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Joe Pesci, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, Sissy Spacek, Donald Sutherland, Laurie Metcalf, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau storm the bastion of performance art…and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Stone seamlessly blends archived footage with old style camera technique to create a convincing look at the era of the Warren Commission.

JFK is one of the most ambitious, controversial films to fire out of the gates in the last twenty years. Regardless of your opinion on the assassination itself, there is no way you can look anyone in the face, in the eye, and tell them that you believe the official story. Why? Because BS has a certain odor that everyone can sense, because there are simply too many questions.

It’s more than likely that the whole truth will never come out, even when the secret files are finally released in the near future. Like so many events in our history, we will never know what really happened all those years ago, but brave films like JFK will postmark the event in stone for future generations. So that as long as the viewer lives, there will always be someone who asks the question: why?

Hanna

2011-12-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

"I just missed your heart."

In a sort of spiritual successor to Luc Besson's The Professional, director Joe Wright has brought to life the story of Hanna, a young girl trained since birth to be the ultimate tactical machine, killing, eliminating and adapting at will.

Much like The Professional, Hanna concerns a young girl with motive and ambition to strike down those who have made her life unbearable. The difference here is that Saorise Ronan's Hanna is a far more evolved creature than Natalie Portman's eerie, yet sweet, Mathilda. Where Mathilda existed in a world of fantasy and vengeance, Hanna has grown beyond these things, becoming almost machine-like in her intelligence, precision and cunning.

The talented and underused Eric Bana serves as her mentor, training her in a snowy, picturesque woodland, while every-woman Cate Blanchett nails the role of Marissa Viegler, the CIA agent charged with covering up the conspiracy which set these events in motion. The supporting cast also includes the wonderful Olivia Williams, an actress who evokes a young Tilda Swinton, and whom you may recall from Polanski's Ghost Writer and the Whedon vehicle, Dollhouse. In both, she was a terrific highlight.

What I really love about Hanna is how much respect it has for the audience. On the surface, many of it's concepts come across as old-hat and overdone (government experimentation, spy vs. spy, fighting the system) but screenwriters David Farr and Seth Lochhead show that the only problem with these concepts is lazy writing and lack of originality, and that both can be overcome with a solid script.

Take for instance the taboo nature with which Hanna's sexuality is explored. Here we have a budding young woman who has never even kissed or touched a boy, let alone become intimate with one. The way these issues are explored in the film are succinct and brimming with depth. Furthermore, the film has the courage to sexualize Hanna's desires without ever exploiting or sensationalizing them; no mean feat when dealing with an underage actress.

Featuring a groove-inducing soundtrack from the Chemical Brothers, and some stellar cinematography, Hanna is a gorgeous, well-acted revenge vehicle that is catapulted by it's performances.

Children of Men

2011-11-30T15:25:00.000-08:00

“A hundred years from now there won't be one sad fuck to look at any of this. What keeps you going?”

The great dystopia of our generation succeeds by giving us a world of shite and then providing us with just the tiniest glimmer of hope against unrelenting odds. Children of Men is this dystopia and where it succeeds is in its uncompromising view of the horror of our future. What happens in a world where innocence is dead? Try not to look away…

It is the year 2027 and the youngest person on the Earth has just passed in a violent altercation with his “fans.” Theo is a hopeless alcoholic who could care less about the state of affairs until he realizes that the love of his life is deeply involved in the battle against the wrongs of the last generation of human kind. Touched by his former lover’s passion, Theo is pulled into a world where the final vestige against the extinction of mankind falls directly into his hands, thus becoming the one thing worth holding onto.

Clive Owen, Michael Caine and Julianne Moore put in some of their finest work as the headliners of this grim, science fiction masterpiece. Starting with the notion of the merely relevant source material by P.D. James, visionary filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron catapults it into the stratosphere of greatness with touches of daring brilliance and subtle fingers pointing at the shadows of humanity with unyielding perception.

The documentary style of filming allows for a feeling of authenticity rare in modern cinema, and the talented cast resists the urge to overact, instead choosing the subdued route of a professional that puts more faith in the material at hand rather than the chance at a showbiz trophy. Gorgeously bleak cinematography steps the film up into a higher art still, leaving us with the most shockingly refreshing film of ’06.

Adaptation

2011-11-26T23:57:00.000-08:00

"That's the end of the book. I wanted to present it simply without big character arcs or sensationalizing the story. I wanted to show flowers as God's miracles. I wanted to show that Orlean never saw the blooming ghost orchid. It was about disappointment.”

I’d like to start by saying that Adaptation is one of the all time craziest scripts to ever make it to the silver screen. However, that seems dishonest of me in hindsight as it’s not even the craziest Kaufman script to make it into the cinema. But I digress, let me begin again.

So there’s this book by Susan Orlean called “The Orchid Thief” and Columbia Pictures bought the rights. Enter Charlie Kaufman, hot off the success of Being John Malcovich, and wowing the Columbia executive by talking nonsense and sweating profusely. However, this leaves him stuck adapting an un-writable script from a book that has no actual narrative. Finally Charlie throws caution to the wind and with the aid of his carefree brother Donald, writes a film wherein he masturbates profusely to the many women in his life and Chris Cooper has no front teeth. How about that?

I’m afraid it’s a tad more complex than that but idiosyncrasies be damned! I have a review to write. So, back to that crazy meta-script: think of it as a less surreal and more amusing version of Naked Lunch where we get not just the story but the actual creator’s inspiration for the story mashed together into a tangle of narratives. On top of that layer of madness, we have a wild group of actors like Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper playing completely against type. Supporters pepper the proceedings into a spicy dish with the likes of Brian Cox, Judy Greer and Tilda Swinton. Yum!

But excuse me folks, really. I have to get back to my writing. It’s important.

A History of Violence

2011-11-24T17:18:00.001-08:00

“This isn't a completely dead eye, it still works a bit. The problem is, the only thing I can see with it is Joey Cusack…and it can see right through him.”

That insatiable, egotistical, insufferable rage that is characterized by the intelligent animal: where does it come from, and where does it go? Is it in the heart, the mind or the blood? This is the question that A History of Violence attempts to answer.

Tom Stall becomes a local hero after a run-in with a couple of vicious criminals leaves him as the sole survivor of a bloody massacre in his diner. Unfortunately this draws undue attention in the form of some “old friends” from Philly. These former acquaintances demand a certain retribution and they want it from a fellow by the name of Joey Cusack-the name they call Tom Stall by. Is it a case of mistaken identity or does this small town family man have a secret life from over a decade’s past?

David Cronenberg and Josh Olson bring the graphic novel to the screen with a stylish flourish and an excellent cast. The chief roles of Viggo Mortensen as Tom, Maria Bello as his wife and Ed Harris and William Hurt as Philadelphia gangsters out for blood, each define the perfect subtlety of performance in this graphic thriller. Harris especially lays down the rules as a hard-as-nails hit man from back East, while Mortensen absolutely sells the innocent Stall while slowly cultivating an inner angst of dangerous connotation. Hurt is a brief but incinerating revelation as Richie and the supporting cast, in addition, is nothing to sneeze at.

What I love most about this film though is the grueling, graphic depiction of sex and violence; the utter realism on display is essential to the subject matter and refreshingly accurate in this world of one shot kills and sorrowful final speeches in wheezing voices. This is the real deal folks and that’s why it’s so hard to look at, yet so essential to the art.

The Untouchables

2011-11-19T16:19:00.001-08:00

“You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.”

What happens when you add a David Mamet script about prohibition-era Chicago, a stylish director like Brian de Palma and a cast that includes both Sean Connery and Robert De Niro? Magic, that’s what.

It’s the age of Capone, Luciano and other names that still live on in the annals of crime history. Going up against Capone (Robert De Niro) is treasury agent Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner in the role that put him on the map as a leading man) and his team of “untouchables”, so called because they’re the only clean cops in a dirty city. There’s hard edged Stone (Andy Garcia), jittery but good-hearted Wallace (Charles Martin Smith) and wizened old-schooler Malone (Sean Connery).

Apart from the cheesy melodrama at home with his wife (an early turn from Patricia Clarkson), the script is tight, suspenseful and mostly true to how things went down in the case (though certain characters are invented or fabricated). All the performances are stellar and though a little hammy at times (it kinda goes with the territory of adapting the 1950’s show) they rarely go over the top. Connery and De Niro are the obvious stand outs as they get the loudest, angriest performances but I particularly like Garcia as well.

One of the second tier gangster films, rarely compared to greats like Goodfellas, The Untouchables is still a very entertaining crime thriller that explores a tumultuous time in American history.

Pitch Black

2011-11-15T18:17:00.000-08:00

“You got it all wrong holy man; I absolutely believe in God…and I absolutely hate the fucker.”

Much in the same way as I love the Terminator saga but could only include one film of its ilk on my list, I also love the Riddick saga and must respond in kind. I personally believe that Richard B. Riddick is one of the great creations of modern cinema: a sociopath to rival Hannibal Lector and Patrick Bateman, a badass to rival John McLane and The Bride.

As a passenger ship struck by meteors crashes into a desolate, desert planet, the assistant captain (Radha Mitchell) makes a crushing decision to sacrifice every passenger on the vessel. But here fate intervenes and the lever malfunctions, forcing the captain to live with her actions amid the company she was so willing to destroy for her own cowardly purposes. Among them are soulless bounty hunter Johns (Cole Hauser), Muslim priest Iman (Keith David) and vicious killer Riddick (Vin Diesel).

In a cast of deeply flawed characters, Riddick becomes the obvious centerpiece but by no means the only one worthy of attention. Director David Twohy crafts a sci-fi/horror thriller of significant magnitude (especially considering the budget) and a memorable motley crue of clashing humans facing a heavy price for survival. The Wheat brothers get credit for the story while Graeme Revell is responsible for the excellent score that permeates the proceedings.

A cult classic that will surprise even the most jaded film-goers, Pitch Black is a daringly original piece of genre fair.

Network

2011-11-10T21:50:00.001-08:00

“The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.”

One of the greatest satires of all time comes in the form of Network. Sidney Lumet’s scathingly cynical look at the news industry and society as a whole is brutal in its judgment and legitimately dangerous in its connotations.

When newscaster Howard Beale finds out that he’s going to be sacked in two weeks he becomes angry, despondent and spiteful. In his torrent of negativity, he finds himself disclosing something terribly controversial on air, broadcasting to millions of people a vicious cocktail of reality’s cruelty: the truth. Initially UBS feels they have no choice but to can him prematurely but when they see the shares they pitch it into whatever they can, in hopes of riding it right through the recession.

Paddy Chayefsky’s script is the chief catalyst for this classic film’s power. Vietnam was over, Nixon’s Watergate scandal had completed and America was left with a sternly disdainful sense of rage at the constitution. Network was just the answer the people needed: a firm voice telling the world that everything from their jobs to their television were complete and utter bull****. It’s a wildly offensive message but one that simply needed to be said.

The performances are maniacally brilliant, especially from Peter Finch (the only man to ever win a posthumous Oscar until last year). However Faye Dunaway as a cold-blooded executive, William Holden as the one man of reason and ethics in a legion of lunacy and Robert Duvall as a corporate spitfire fuelling the show from behind the scenes, are equally effective. On top of this we have Ned Beatty and Cindy Glover providing minor portrayals of glorious rage.

If you haven’t seen Network yet, you need to rectify the situation as it’s a film that’s as relevant today as it was thirty years ago, if not more so.

From Dusk til Dawn

2011-11-06T17:07:00.000-08:00

“Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don’t give a fuck how crazy they are.”

Your average film of any enjoyable capacity is good for a variety of reasons such as good actors, great director, solid characters or well executed plot developments just to name a few. What does all this have to do with the film in question? Well, allow me to elaborate: you see ladies and gents, regardless of what anyone thinks of From Dusk til Dawn I think there is a chief strength it has in vast abundance that no one can deny-it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Cool as ice Seth and his psychotic brother Richie are on the run from the FBI, DEA and the Texas rangers with a big suitcase full of money and no shortage of hostages. Their latest victims are a family consisting of a faithless pastor, his boundary sensitive daughter and his Asian-American son. Though some adverse sparks cross ways between the group they succeed in the brother’s chief goal of crossing the Mexican border and reaching the rendezvous point they set up previously to get passage to the notorious El Ray. However, just as their victory seems complete a violent group of vampires lays siege to the bar and they’re forced to put aside their differences and band together for survival.

As I mentioned earlier, this film is a lot of fun. A wild barrage of one liners, great Spanish music soundtrack and classic script by Quentin Tarantino allow for a no holds barred attack on the senses. The ridiculously apt cast includes Tarantino himself, a fantastic George Clooney, an unusually subdued Harvey Keitel, the wild Juliette Lewis, the stunning Salma Hayek as well as great turns from iconics like Tom Savini, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin and (my personal favorite)Fred Williamson.

Additional credit must be given to this film as the first of many co-productions between Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Without From Dusk til Dawn there would be no Grindhouse, Sin City or perhaps even Kill Bill (at least as we received them) because their collaborations are as often behind the scenes as in full view.

From Dusk til Dawn is an all time favorite of mine and one of the films I’ve seen more than most on this list. Say what you will about the controversial twist but some of my most cherished film memories revolve around watching this movie with those unfamiliar with it and seeing their expressions as things take a bloody turn for the worse. Great film.

500 Days of Summer

2011-11-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

“Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do, doesn't mean she's your soul mate.”

Have I mentioned how much I love a good, honest, no BS love story yet? I’m sure I have but it bears a second notice. 500 Days of Summer is just about the perfect relationship film because it skips the sentimentality and gets right down to nitty-gritty of relationships, good and bad.

So we here we have Tom Hansen, hopeless romantic and fatalist. Add Summer Finn, the cynic who thinks love’s a joke and never wishes to be tied down. They have just enough in common to make it work but are just different enough to make it very difficult. In the end, things simply do not work out despite their chemistry and Tom is left going over the roughly 500 days he knew Summer Finn again and again as he obsesses over what went wrong.

First off, I must say how much I love the two young leads in just about everything they’ve done. The enchanting Zooey Deschanel and the amazingly astute Joseph Gordon Levitt are shaping up to be two of the finest performers of their generation. Clark Gregg, Patrick Gray Gubler, Geoffrey Arend and Chloe Moretz are really great supporters as well, turning their bit parts into memorable additions to an already excellent film.

Additional praise must be given to director Marc Webb, who takes the material supplied by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, making it light enough to remain un-sappy yet adding layers of depth in subtlety that enrich it beyond measure. A great little indie soundtrack that doesn’t try too hard and an offbeat tone put it over the edge. Mark my words folks, this one’s gonna be a classic in time, if only of the cult variety.

Finally, it would be unfair not to mention my bias as someone who has recently had my heart broken by a girl I thought was “the one”. I can relate all too well to Tom’s plight and its part of what made this film so special to me. And since I’ve never met the writers of this film, it goes a long way to show that others have been there and made it.

Collateral

2011-10-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

“Guy gets on the subway and dies. Think anybody will notice?”

Yet another compelling entry in the Mann filmography comes in the form of Collateral: a balls-to-the-wall thriller that holds nothing back in delivery while still remaining subtle enough to retain the mystery.

Max is a cabbie clocking his twelfth year on the job and no closer to his dream then the day he started. Vincent is a hired killer, an assassin that has no qualms about murder whatsoever and not a thing to hold him back in his day-to-day existence. Each the antithesis to the other, here they are paired together by a night of intense violence. Vincent wants Max to be his wheels; five stops, five hits and a whole hell of a lot in between.

Two career-making performances counter balance one another as Tom Cruise plays hard and Jamie Foxx plays soft. Cruise as the electric Vincent is the real star here but Jamie Foxx plays a great opposition as the straight man in this deal. Together they work a great chemistry with Michael Mann as their muse and a slick script by Stuart Beattie providing the guidelines. The cinematography is soft and acute, allowing for a fuzzy, documentary style look and the soundtrack is a soulful bliss that carries the proceedings to a delicate peak amidst the carnage.

Maybe Mann’s tightest since Heat, Collateral is a tour-de-force of the highest order. It’s a tight psychological thriller with a touch of sociological philosophy. Watch it and watch it again because it only gets better baby.

Let the Right One In

2011-10-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

“Do you like me?”

Of all the directions to go with a vampire movie, the path chosen by the makers of Let the Right One In is undoubtedly one of the bravest. Capitalizing upon the idea of a character like Claudia in Interview with the Vampire (which I’m guessing was the inspiration) and focusing the narrative implicitly on such a character allows for a masterstroke of modern horror and drama.

Oskar is a lonely, troubled boy. Bullied, friendless and increasingly dissatisfied with life, he drifts through the days fantasizing about revenge and retribution. All of this begins to change however when an odd girl named Eli moves in next door to him. Eli is intriguing, cute and worldly…oh and also, she’s a vampire. Their bond grows nonetheless though, and together they cultivate an endearing friendship that defies logic.

The uncompromising nature of the film is part of what makes it work so well. Daring to answer questions that have long plagued the vampire mythos and being unafraid to take it in bold new directions, Let the Right One In is a cunning experiment in modern film making. In turn, the sparse use of music and gradual ramping up of the stakes makes for wonderfully fluid story telling without abandoning the mystery. In short, it treats the viewers with the intellectual respect that they deserve.

One of the most original horror films of the decade (if not of all time), Let the Right One In is a film that only improves with each watch. This is a rare quality indeed and one to be cherished.

Raging Bull

2011-10-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

“I've done a lot of bad things, Joey. Maybe it's comin' back to me. Who knows? I'm a jinx maybe. Who the hell knows?”

In a career of classic films and momentous achievements, Martin Scorsese has created many good movies and a few great ones. Raging Bull falls into the latter category. It’s depiction of a fundamentally flawed and emotionally destructive man is near unparalleled in the medium and has gone down in history as an example of the perfect sports film.

Based on the real life of boxer Jake LaMotta and told through his own words, Raging Bull gives an unabashed, shockingly candid portrait of the fighter that would duel with greats like Sugar Ray Robinson and eventually be known by the moniker of “the raging bull.” But the battles continued outside of the ring as his tumultuous relationships with those closest to him were fraught with rage, madness and despair. Eventually his life would take on the form of near Shakespearian tragedy and his pain would echo even unto his later years, long after his boxing career had come to a halt.

De Niro gives arguably his all time greatest performance in a career of nothing but the best. In addition Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty and Frank Vincent provide some stellar supporting work, especially Pesci as Jake’s brother and oldest friend Joey. The cinematography is heart stopping and the framing of each black and white shot imparts the quality of a master film maker at the peak of his craft.

Raging Bull, like its subject, stands as an undisputed titan of the glories of the cinema and the powers that it can stir in the human heart.

Pulp Fiction

2011-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

“Zed? Spotter here, just caught myself a couple of flies.”

You can’t get much more essential when it comes to film than Pulp Fiction. You got Royale with Cheese, a five dollar shake and a country called “what?” Quirky dialogue, taut delivery and astounding execution make it one of the true classics of the medium.

In carefully weaving together three underworld vignettes, Pulp Fiction goes to great lengths in its presentation. The stories concern a gangster’s date with a mob boss’s wife, a double-crossing boxer’s quest for a very important watch and two hired guns with different takes on a very striking development. The final package is nothing short of cinematic perfection, one of the few films that can live up to nearly any bit of hype which is heaped upon it.

Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Walken, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, John Travolta and Harvey Keitel are only the beginning of a ridiculous cast of career-defining performances. It’s no wonder really when you consider the script they’d received was one of the defining works of modern cinema and possibly the most influential work of the 90’s. On top of this it ranks up there with American Beauty as one of the funniest non-comedy films ever made.

Absolutely essential viewing for anyone with a pulse, Pulp Fiction is without a doubt, one of the greats.

28 Weeks Later

2011-10-15T18:24:00.001-07:00

“It all makes sense. They're executing code red. Step 1: Kill the infected. Step 2: Containment. If containment fails, then Step 3: Extermination.”

Now this is how you do a horror sequel: no dull retreads, no recycling set pieces and no following the same actors through the same duly implausible scenarios. No. For 28 Weeks Later is a horse of a different color, the premise may be similar but the execution could not be any different.

After the events of the first film, England has been quarantined by the American military and with the threat of the infected lifted, Londoners gladly return home to rebuild their lives. When a pair of children wander out of the safe zone though, they set in motion a brutal chain reaction of violent bloodshed. As the dominoes fall, chaos reigns anew and everyone who wishes to survive will have to go to extreme lengths to do so.

I’ll begin by pointing out the obvious as to much praise can never be heaped upon the glorious opening sequence wherein the stakes are clearly shown. The political commentary is never overzealous and a string of brilliant actors light up the screen: Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Catherin McCormack, the stunning Imogen Poots and an always under-rated favorite of mine, Robert Carlyle. A great soundtrack holds onto only the main theme from the first film to ground it and the twist of having the story follow an infected person for the entirety of the proceedings is a stroke of storytelling mastery.

One of the few horror sequels that live up to the power of the original, 28 Weeks Later is arguably the equal of its progenitor.

Insomnia

2011-10-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

“You and I share a secret. We know how easy it is to kill someone.”

As time goes on, Christopher Nolan is developing into one of the best directors working today. His recent success with The Dark Knight cemented him as one of film’s greats and has served to stir up interest for movie-watchers the world over in past projects like Insomnia. One can only hope that they get as much out of it as I did on my first watch all those years ago.

When a too-clean murder brings a couple big time detectives to the small hamlet of Nightmute, AK, they have little doubt that they’ll be able to flush out the killer with little trouble or time. In this aspect, they are correct but this brush with their man puts one detective in a box and the other in dire straits. Now, with an accidental murder on his conscience and the killer he was chasing now blackmailing him, Detective Will Dormer has to play a dangerous chess game with a devious mind if he hopes to prevent any more bloodshed.

Whoever did the casting for Insomnia deserves a lot of credit because Pacino and Williams play brilliantly off one another, while Swank does a great job of turning a forgettable role into something special. The script is tighter then a nun’s you-know-what and Nolan’s direction back in aught two is as deftly dark as it is at present.

Anyone who’s enjoyed Nolan’s take on the Batman mythos owes it to themselves to check out the work that got him the job and Insomnia’s as good a place to start as any.

A Simple Plan

2011-10-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

“Nobody would ever believe that you'd be capable of doing what you've done.”

One of Sam Raimi’s more surprising (and refreshing) directorial efforts comes in the form of a crafty crime thriller called A Simple Plan (not to be confused with the terrible band of the same name). Neither a fantasy adventure nor a gory horror flick, A Simple Plan stands apart with For Love of the Game as one of Raimi’s few 100% straight efforts.

When two very different brothers and a hunting buddy stumble across a downed plane and a bag full of money, greed takes a heavy grip on them and they’re forced to decide what they really want and how far they’re willing to go to get it. As fear and mistrust fill their hearts they turn on each other like animals and quickly one thing becomes clear: not all of them will survive this brush with fate.

This is one of the best thrillers of the nineties hands down. With a shockingly original script and razor sharp delivery, A Simple Plan plays out like a sort of snowy mid-west No Country for Old Men. On top of this Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda and especially Billy Bob Thornton are at the top of their game. And who knew that Raimi was this good at simple genre work?

A Simple Plan is a highly overlooked gem that any lover of crime films will certainly appreciate.

Drive

2011-10-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

"If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what. I don't sit in while you're running it down; I don't carry a gun... I drive."

The above quote goes a long way in summarizing the central character of Drive, a nameless and enigmatic man known simply by his handle: Driver. He is a man who walks around in a distinctive scorpion jacket, one that tells you everything else you need to know about him...assuming you're familiar with the fable that is, that one about the frog and the scorpion.

The plot of the film follows the mysterious "Driver" through both his day job as a mechanic and stunt driver, and his much more illicit moonlighting gig as a wheelman for heists and robberies. But when his skills warrant the attention of a couple of local gangsters, it isn't long before the Driver's whimsical nature lands him on both sides of these sinister businessmen, working for and against them as he tries to survive the consequences of getting involved with a single mother and her ex-con husband.

Nicolas Wending Refn's latest effort is, not surprisingly, heavy on style (after all this is the man who brought us both Bronson and Valhalla Rising a couple of years back). As a somewhat standard revenge flick on paper, it's easy to see how this film might've come out of the tube as a somewhat mediocre, if unobtrusive, film under a less schooled hand or eye. Lucky for us all, that's not the case here. Refn's direction elevates the material to fantastic heights, almost from the get-go. The camera lingers on long back-and-forth stares, hovers ghost-like over the proceedings, and angles itself with stark precision through the film's entire runtime. Moreover, Refn is aided immeasurably by a glorious cast, lead by Ryan Gosling.

Gosling returns here to the grim, somewhat off-putting, performances that put him on the map in films like Murder By Numbers and The United States of Leland. Calm, quiet, understated: Gosling is forced to do almost all of his acting through his eyes and his face, the way he carries himself. And he succeeds admirably. Matching him across the table, is the sweetly enchanting Carey Mulligan, the girl who blew us away a couple of years back with her breakout role as a naive schoolgirl in An Education (see it if you haven't already). The cast is rounded out by two television pros in the form of Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks, as well as a grittier than ever Albert Brooks, playing decidedly against type as the villain of the story.

The music is also notable, lifting the scenes to flawless levels of nuance in a way that would make Scorsese blush. This is the way to do a soundtrack, a manner in which every choice of song enhances the scene it permeates but never distracts you from the goings-on therein.

Subtle to a tee and punctuated with highly stylized violence, Drive has set the bar as the film to beat in a rather lackluster year for film. Still, this is hardly a slight, as Drive is likely to be looked back on as one of the best films of the decade.

Antichrist

2011-09-30T18:30:00.001-07:00

“Nature is Satan’s church.”

The third Von Trier project to grace this list is also likely to be his most controversial to date (and that’s saying a lot). Graphic sexual violence and deeply disturbing subject matter ensure that despite one’s inclination on the film’s quality, it remains an impossible feat to simply watch passively.

After the death of their infant son, He and She (the characters are nameless with purpose) grieve in very different ways. While He attempts to accept the tragedy and move on, She descends into a paranoid madness that strains their already taut marriage into dangerous territory. They decide to head to a previous vacation spot in hopes of confronting her fears and obtaining a kind of catharsis on their loss. The forest though, has an agenda all its own and her grief-stricken anxiety is just the fuel that it requires.

If there was only one word I could use to describe this film it would be: atmospheric. The thick fog, the teeming life of the forest, the desolate sky…it all comes together into a sort of Silent Hill-esque haunted fable. The score is astounding, invoking The Shining and Opera in even measure. Lastly, I cannot neglect to mention the wildly evocative and stunningly brave performances of stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsborough. These are actors unafraid to pursue their craft to its utter depths and they should be respected if not admired for the lengths they are willing to go for Von Trier’s vision.

Rich in symbolism, intense in structure and punishing in execution; Antichrist is no easy watch but for horror junkies who feel they’ve seen it all and are seeking something new in the genre, look no further.

Legends of the Fall

2011-09-26T21:26:00.001-07:00

“It was a good death.”

Generally in a period piece such as this, the main story will simply concern itself with one or two characters. Choosing instead to follow an extended family of nearly a dozen for the entire course of their lives, Legends of the Fall is infinitely more ambitious than this. This ambition pays off gloriously as we witness over five decades of life in the Ludlow clan, beginning before the first world war and ending in the early 1960’s.

Col. Ludlow and his wife live a quiet life on their Dakota ranch with some hired help, an old Indian warrior and their three sons: wisely reasoned Alfred, wild-blooded Tristan and innocent, young Samuel. Their quaint existence is brought to a halt though when their sons decide to ride up to Canada for enlistment. Three sons leave, two return and from that point on chaos reigns in this family’s lives as one tragedy after another tests the strength of their bonds.

Director Edward Zwick has made a kind of career by now with films that tackle the idea of white guilt. While Legends of the Fall does contain elements of this penchant, it is his least preachy and his strongest effort for it. The acting from the three leads (Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn and Anthony Hopkins) encompasses easily some of their most convincing work to date and James Horner leaves us with one of his most gorgeous scores yet. Poetic cinematography and authentic elements of Indian culture spark further magic in this utterly enchanting story of love and loss.

Regardless of your opinion of Zwick, (it’s mine that his films have only dwindled in quality with time) you owe it to yourself to see Legends of the Fall. If you are like me, you may find a film that you can come back to again and again, always discovering something new to enjoy about it.

Vertigo

2011-09-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

“If I let you change me, will that do it? If I do what you tell me, will you love me?”

We all have our ideas of what reality entails, what is real and what is not. But what happens when the lines between truth and fantasy begin to blur, when even one’s own perceptions become suspect?

After a traumatic event leaves an otherwise normal detective (James Stewart) crippled by his fear of heights, he quits the force in shame and guilt. After his physical recovery, a former colleague offers him a chance to reignite his investigative talents in a personal cause: attempting to discern whether paranormal events are causing his wife’s mysterious disappearances or if something still more sinister is responsible. To find out though, he will be forced to not only conquer his fears; he must be willing to put his life and his very sanity on the line.

Directed with flourish and style by an unquestionable master, Vertigo moves like a lucid dream as it draws the viewer into its tangled web. The writing however is not to be overshadowed as the twists and turns of the script provide enough shock for even the jaded modern audiences of the cinema to dissect through subsequent viewings.

Arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s ultimate masterpiece, Vertigo is a cleverly deceptive red herring of a film where nothing is quite as it seems.

Red State

2011-09-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

"I fear God. You better believe I fear God."

One of the main criticisms that Kevin Smith's detractors have offered is that he's, mainly, a one trick pony. Juvenile comedies about immature males and their varied adventures, right? Not this time. In fact, Red State is about as heavy as it gets: religion, politics, prejudice, sexuality, this one hits all the notes...and it hits them hard.

The story begins with three horny teenagers that wouldn't be amiss in any of Smith's previous films. Their goal: to get laid. Their method: a sort of "Craig's List for people who wanna hook up." But when they arrive at the home of their supposedly sultry host, they get a lot more than they bargained for. Soon they've been abducted and become the playthings of a violent Fred Phelps-inspired group of religious lunatics, folks that are certain that they're carrying out the Lord's work. And it is dirty work.

So, that's the setup. I won't give anything else away because it would take away from the experience. The script is actually full of surprises, and with no clear protagonist, pretty much anyone can catch a bullet when you least expect it. Make no mistake; this is a violent film and by the end, the body count is high, but behind all the violence, this is a film that has a lot to say. In a way, it's like a more serious take on some of the issues that Smith has covered in the past: religious entitlement in Dogma for example or prejudicial judgment in Chasing Amy. As for commonalities, Red State may carry a few early anecdotes of snarky adoloescent humor early on, and there is no shortage of satire, but otherwise it is not to be confused with these earlier films.

From a directing standpoint, this is easily Smith's finest film. Considering direction is generally not why you see a Smith film, this may sound like small praise but I assure you, this is not the case. He's really brought his A-game to his first foray into horror. There are quick cuts, lingering shots and even use of an aerial cam toward the end.

Finally, the performances nail it to the wall. John Goodman carries a heavy load as a conflicted ATF agent, Michael Parks knocks it out of the park as Abin Cooper, the leader of the zealots, Kerry Bishe gives the film some necessary conflict as a somewhat likable member of the church, and Kyle Gallner, a young actor seen on the likes of Smallville and Veronica Mars, takes it home as a victim of the church.

Red State isn't without flaws, however. There are some issues of very obvious exposition that take you out of the film, especially at the film's outset, but these small gripes aside this is easily the horror film of the year, and one of 2011's best on top of it.

Hollywoodland

2011-09-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

“I can see the pieces. How they should fit. How I want them to fit."

With his film Hollywoodland, director Paul Coulter has given us a taut, well-crafted throwback to the noir era in grand style; mystery, intrigue and murder in a land of plastic dreams where nothing is as it seems.

Louis Simo is a low-end P.I. that’ll do anything for a buck. Scrounging jobs from desperate spouses and D-list celebs is a far cry from his glory days, but when he stumbles upon clues that The Man of Steel’s “suicide” may have been something else entirely, it re-ignites his passion for the game and offers him a chance to lend some credence to his languishing career. As Simo digs for the truth though, he will in turn discover a reflection of himself in his subject; a desperate, despondent mirror image that he may not be ready to see.

The amount of detail that goes into Hollywoodland’s production is what sets it apart from other noirish retreads of recent years. Much like Sin City, Hollywoodland positively nails the film noir vibe: seedy joints, dirty gents, dizzy dames and a whole lot of cigarette smoke. It’s not all atmosphere though, beneath the surface there is a legitimately intriguing mystery and a lot of interesting observations on the fragility of the human condition. Finally Ben Affleck puts in some of his best work and Adrien Brody applies a delicate touch to his sleazy P.I. that gets you rooting for him despite your conscience’s appeals to the contrary.

Part bio-pic, part thriller: Hollywoodland offers a thorough look at the life and death of the original Superman through the unbiased eyes of a curious passerby.

Amores Perros

2011-09-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

“You and your plans…You know what my grandmother used to say? If you want to make God laugh... tell Him your plans.”

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu began his career as a film maker with the first of a tragic trilogy of films, Amores Perros. Arguably the hardest hearted of the three, Amores Perros follows three distinct yet overlapping stories about desperate people and their dogs.

Octavio (Inarritu favorite Gael Garcia Bernal) is in love with his sister in law and takes to dog fighting with his Rottweiler in hopes of raising enough money that they might run away together. Daniel is a magazine publisher who leaves his wife for Valerie, a beautiful young model. Unfortunately Valerie breaks her leg and is wheelchair bound; when her dog gets lost under the floor boards of their apartment though, she stands to lose a whole lot more. Finally, El Chivo is a hit man who disguises himself as a wandering hobo caring for beleaguered strays. What links the three is a devastating car accident which holds dire consequences for all.

Though I slightly prefer the similar 21 Grams (Inarritu’s follow-up), Amores Perros works as the setup to the trilogy and is arguably the freshest of the three films (the other being Babel). The idea to use the characters’ relationships with their pets as a parable for psychological events going on beneath the surface is an especially brilliant touch and as usual, Innaritu strikes a delicate chord with his actors, streaming excellent performances from their very cores.

Amores Perros may be a tough, tense and disturbing watch but ultimately the ride is worth it for those who are willing to risk it.

The Dreamers

2011-09-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

“Why do we sit so close? Maybe it was because we wanted to receive the images first. When they were still new, still fresh. Before they cleared the hurdles of the rows behind us. Before they'd been relayed back from row to row, spectator to spectator; until worn out, secondhand, the size of a postage stamp, it returned to the projectionist's cabin.”

In a spiritual successor to his earlier erotic thriller: Last Tango in Paris (also on this list), Bernardo Bertolucci once again uses sexuality as a mirror into his character’s souls.

When Matthew strikes up a friendship at a legendary Paris theatre with a pair of hip siblings, he becomes the third part of their triumvirate and sets in motion a dangerous, passionate chain reaction. As the summer wears on and revolution sparks in the streets, Matthew, Isabelle and Theo are cocooned from the outside world, locked away in their sexual odyssey of self-destruction and self-discovery.

The protagonist performances by Michael Pitt, Eva Green and Louis Garrel are daringly stunning, allowing the camera the ability to see depths scarcely witnessed in film; both physically and emotionally. Bertolucci, as usual, is a master director who pushes the entire production to the edge, even going as far as to pepper the film with references to his own all time favorite films, something that would seem self-indulgent in most any other film but in one about cinephiles is wonderfully apt.

Really the only problem I have with the film is that Bertolucci decided to neglect the majority of the homosexual elements from the book as he said it was “too much”. This seems a bit double-standardish but I’m not one to nit-pick a mostly perfect film. Regardless of that one flaw, The Dreamers is definitely worth seeing, if only for the exploration of this tumultuous, semi-forgotten time in world history.

The Talented Mr. Ripley

2011-09-02T00:53:00.001-07:00

“You like everyone Marge…you-like everyone.”

In that blessed film year of 1999, Anthony Minghella delivered a somewhat overlooked gem in the form of The Talented Mr. Ripley, the story of an, intelligent, desperate and devious man’s journey into the luxuries of upper class society.

Tom Ripley is handed a lucky break on a silver platter after a twist of fate spins his way at a high end party in New York. Hired by a shipyard industrialist, Tom is whisked off to Italy where he meets Dickie Greenleaf and his beautiful girlfriend Marge. Tom though has eyes only for Dickie and when the young playboy gets tired of his advances Tom snaps like a rubber band. The identities merge and Mr. Ripley becomes Mr. Greenleaf, lies on top of lies, murder, obsession…it’s all part of the game.

Minghella wrote and directed this stunning period piece, adapting the book as it was and placing it in exactly the time in which it was written. Damon is perfect as creepy yet charmingly obsessive Tom and a knockout punch of supporters including Jude Law, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchette add considerable weight to an already gorgeous film.

The Talented Mr. Ripley is a chilling story of the lengths that loneliness can drive a disparate, troubled mind too.

Brick

2011-08-24T12:50:00.001-07:00

“Throw one at me if you want, hash head. I've got all five senses and I slept last night; that puts me six up on the lot of you.”

Mystery, intrigue; love and loss, death and deceit in the ultimate parallel where nothing is as it seems: high school. Remember all that fakeness, all of the drama? Well what if there was something terrible behind it? A secret so cold and dark that no measure of light could ever pierce it’s delicate, tremulous façade without exposing itself to a world of pain? What if?

Brendan Frye is an outsider, a loner who watches, observes, takes note but never risks…that is until it costs him the life of someone he loves. When Brendan discovers the lifeless body of his former love: Emily, all bets are off. Reneging into the world that he’d renounced, he makes it his personal duty to figure out the how and the why of his ex-lover’s demise. The price though for such recklessness may be even more than a seemingly cold, indifferent fellow like Brendan can handle.

Rian Johnson’s script is a revelation and his directing (as a first timer here) is excellence on par. Joseph Gordon Levitt is great as always while a supreme supporting cast of mostly unknowns backs him up perfectly (not the least of which is Norah Zehetner as gorgeous femme fatale, Laura).

Brick takes opposite genres and turns them on their head, fusing them into a penultimate noir tribute in the most unlikely of forms.

Annie Hall

2011-08-18T22:08:00.001-07:00

“A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.”

For anyone who’s never taken a trip down Woody Allen lane, I cannot recommend a better place to start than Annie Hall; a whimsical, semi-autobiographical tale of mid-life love and all the stupid human drama that comes with it.

Alvie Singer (Allen) is a neurotic comedian who, after two divorces, finds himself decidedly flustered with dating. That is until he meets ditzy, lovable Annie Hall (Diane Keaton); a woman who is in many ways his opposite but has just enough in common with him (and it helps that she’s adorable too) to spark. From here, the film veers back and forth in chronology as it explores this ultimately doomed love affair before, after and during its many levels.

Annie Hall is really a fantastically funny film. Writer/director Woody Allen positively nails the humorous idiosyncrasies of the dating game, as well as human nature itself, in such grand style that one can’t help but chuckle at the silliness of it all. Supporters like Christopher Walken, Shelly Duvall and Tony Roberts add even more flavor to the proceedings with witty cameos that smack of Allen’s flair for great satirical dialogue.

If you haven’t seen Annie Hall yet than you are really missing out; it’s no small wonder that it took home the Best Picture for 1977, mainly because it’s without question one of the funniest films in the history of the medium…and also one of the best.

Princess Mononoke

2011-08-15T15:16:00.000-07:00

“Watch closely everyone: I’m going to show you how to kill a god.”

Another of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated masterpieces comes in the form of Princess Mononoke, a gorgeously animated film that has both the whimsy of a childhood adventure as well as the depth of a high end dramatic piece.

After a horrifying battle with a pestilent demon, Prince Ashitaka is cursed to die and as such, is forced to leave his hidden tribe in hopes of finding a cure. He finds his hope in a sacred forest where gods and demons still make miracles with Mother Nature but a fateful encounter there with the forest girl Mononoke places him in the midst of an epic war. On the one side are the honest, hard working villagers of a local fortress town; on the other are Mononoke and the various denizens of the forest God. Torn, Ashitaka attempts to resolve the conflict, however as the violence and intensity of the conflict becomes too much to bear, will he be able to retain his indifference and survive?

Perhaps Miyazaki’s most beautiful and lyrical film, Princess Mononoke deals with an old hat concept for the auteur: the battle between the technology of industrialization and the beauty of nature. Never has this concept been better realized though than in this, his magnum opus and arguably his finest work to date. Wondrous animation, astute writing and spot on voice work make Princess Mononoke one of the greatest animated films of all time and certainly a great favorite for this fellow.

Natural Born Killers

2011-08-13T00:42:00.000-07:00

“It's fate, you know. Nobody can stop fate, nobody can.”

Well this is certainly a film with a storied past, one with as many detractors as admirers (not the least of which is its original screenwriter, Quentin Tarantino); I of course fall into the latter category or I wouldn’t be talking about this movie at all. Why do I enjoy Natural Born Killers? I’ll tell you: because it’s an adrenaline-fueled, psychedelic, ultra-violent media satire with a lot to say about the effects of violence in our society.

Mickey and Mallory are a couple of troubled youngsters who decide that they’re sick of this society. The solution? A cross country killing spree that makes them international counter-culture celebrities overnight. But as the police, the FBI and the media chase them all over the highways of America, they’re forced to face the fact that this “vacation” may come to an abrupt and brutal end.

Each performance here is really fantastic (if over the top) but special props go to Tom Sizemore and Robert Downey Jr, although Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones should not be overlooked. A destructive odyssey, Natural Born Killers is peopled with eerie events and surrealist touches of meta-reality that turn the film (and audience) on its head with little warning as the story gradually progresses. Don’t even get me started on the soundtrack: Leonard Cohen, Nine Inch Nails…this is great stuff.

If you’ve only seen NBK once then I can’t recommend enough that you re-watch it and if you haven’t seen it at all then what are you waiting for? This is some of Stone’s best stuff.

The Omen

2011-08-09T23:18:00.000-07:00

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is 666.”

Between 1970 and 1980, the hallmarks of paranormal horror would be established by three films: one (The Shining) has already appeared, another (The Exorcist) will not make an appearance…The Omen is the third. A film about a shockingly impossible taboo, The Omen is unafraid to delve unerringly in its dealings with such extreme subject matter as bestiality, suicide, demonic possession, grave robbery and of course, infanticide.

When Robert Thorn finds out that his child to be has died during birth he is given the choice to adopt a child in his stead or break the unbearable news to his fragile-minded wife. Thinking he’s done the right thing, Robert finds disturbing signs to the contrary as the child ages and increasingly eerie events seem to follow him about. It doesn’t stop there though, the stakes become even more horrifying when he is forced to face the terrible truth about the dark offspring that he’s accepted into his life.

Brutally chilling with a heavy gothic influence, The Omen is a truly innovative horror master stroke that had a massive influence on both the Satanic/apocalyptic and evil child subgenres of horror. The Omen is chief to some very engaging performances as well: Gregory Peck as the skeptical father, Lee Remick as his distraught wife, Billie Whitelaw as the devil’s servant and young Harvey Stephens as the malevolent Damien; a child of purely innocent appearance that belies something deeply sinister beneath this façade.

Finally, The Omen boasts some of the most creative death sequences and an effectively creepy atmosphere that would instill a sense of magnificent dread in even the most stout-hearted of individuals. The music, the effects; The Omen is just a great piece of art all around.

Oldboy

2011-08-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

“Even though I'm no more than a monster - don't I, too, have the right to live?”

In what is certainly the best of his vengeance trilogy, Park Chan Wook crafted the ultimate suspense thriller in Oldboy. From the film’s tagline alone (“15 years of imprisonment, 5 days of vengeance.”) you know that you’re in for one hell of a ride…and if this is your assertion upon discovering this extreme masterpiece, then you will not be disappointed.

Oh-Dae Sue is an ordinary businessman who disappears after a night of drunken buffoonery into a private prison that becomes his own personal hell. Madness, attempted suicide, aggressive training, television and solitude are his only activities for 15 years. Then, one day, he is spontaneously released and taunted by his former warden into discovering the truth for himself. Hardened and thirsty for blood, the new Dae Sue maims, tortures and kills his way to satisfaction in hopes of finding the reason behind it all, the cause that created the monster he has become.

Park Chan Wook’s playful direction and writing for the grim subject matter on display is part of what makes Oldboy so much fun. The abrupt shifting of gears puts the viewers at such ill ease that they never quite know what to expect. Add to this the fantastic performances of the three leads: Choi Min Sik as the mad protagonist, Ji-Tae Yu as the devious, secretive villain, and Hye-Jeong Kang as the adorable love interest with a secret even she doesn’t know.

Not for the faint of heart (or the weak of stomach for that matter), Oldboy is a very grueling watch emotionally as well as psychologically but none of that should deter you from giving it a chance as it’s one of the best thrillers since Hitchcock.

Grizzly Man

2011-08-03T13:29:00.001-07:00

“What haunts me, is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, and no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature.”

Perhaps it’s become a bit of a cliché by now, my affection for lost, disjointed people; folks like myself, who just don’t feel like they belong anywhere…wandering through life with an ill ease that the world just doesn’t understand them. Can’t help it though, just the way it is. Films like Grizzly Man however, especially in this case being that it’s a true story, help to remind me that I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Amidst the dangerous wilderness of Alaska, where foxes, wolves, coyotes and bears habituate, there once lived a man called Timothy Treadwell. Tired of the world at large, a cruelly judgmental world that spurned and injured him with equal disdain, Treadwell would go on to spend 3-6 months a year for 13 summers, living in isolation among nature and her creatures. On his final summer, he and his lover Amy were attacked, mauled and eaten by a grizzly: the very animal that Treadwell had come to love and protect. This is his tale, for the most part in his own words.

While the story is an extremely affecting and interesting one, what really makes this documentary so heartfelt and powerful is the hard work of director Werner Herzog. Sifting through dozens of hours of video tape, Herzog manages to get to the heart of Timothy’s crusade and discover the human being beneath all of the boasting, manic posturing.

The narration, interviews and ultimately the moral dilemma at the centre of it all form one of the most shockingly adept documentaries I’ve ever seen and one the finest as well. Grizzly Man is without question, one of Herzog’s greatest works.

Enter the Void

2011-08-01T01:21:00.000-07:00

"Do you remember that pact we made? We promised to never leave each other."

As anyone who's ever watched a film from French auteur Gaspar Noe should well know: this is not a man afraid to push the limits. No, much like his modern contemporary, Lars von Trier, Gaspar Noe makes his career from pushing the limits. Here, with Enter the Void, we have him pushing further than ever.

Shot almost entirely in first person, Enter the Void explores the relationship between estranged siblings Oscar and Linda. Orphaned from a very young age, Oscar and Linda shared a very special bond, but were separated when they were adopted by different families following the deaths of their parents. Years later, as adults, they are reunited in Tokyo but before they can explore their complicated bond, Oscar is violently killed.

Don't worry though, that's not a spoiler really. In fact, the majority of this 2.5 hour film takes place through Alex's ghostly perspective as, yes, his spirit lingers on. From here, his past, present, and future are all explored in a wild hodge-podge of visual sorcery that travels through time and space as easily and indiscriminately as Oscar's incorporeal form.

The sights that Noe shows us are gorgeously realized and truly a wonder to behold. The film shows us everything from the bloody deaths of Oscar and his parents, to the tender moments of his childhood, floating in a bathtub with his mother, to the eerie debauchery of watching his sister have sex with her boss. Everything is displayed with the same detached viewpoint, so the viewer is forced to decide what they think of Oscar's viewpoints and motivations for much of his "actions".

Between the musical flare, the stunning visuals and the subtle characterizations, a story slowly grows, and it is one that sparks a lot of interest and intrigue if you can stay with the film's maddeningly dream-like style.

Should you be of the right mind, Enter the Void will certainly resonate with you. Although this isn't a film for everyone, anyone with an artistic bone in their bodies should appreciate the audacity of Noe's crazy journey, and the bravery it took to even attempt it.

Watch this film people, I can assure you that you've never seen anything like it.

High Fidelity

2011-07-27T02:23:00.000-07:00

"I hired these guys for three days a week and they just started showing up every day. That was four years ago.”

One of those rare relationship films that skips over the sappy, romantic BS and simply tells a real story about real people, High Fidelity is shockingly authentic in terms of both the light and dark sides of love.

Rob is an immature, self-centered, compulsive music lover who decides, in the wake of a recent breakup, to re-examine his love life from top to bottom. In between narrative ruminations on the human condition and an endless list of top 5’s, Rob and his madly incompatible employees wander music clubs by night and organize records by day. The various misadventures that culminate between them make up the bulk of the plot while Rob contacts old flames in hopes of sorting out his broken relationships and arriving at some sort of catharsis.

John Cusack and Jack Black are comedic gold in this film, both giving some of their best performances yet. A strong supporting cast surrounds them while great music, both in terms of discussion and actual audio, is a great strength as well. A better adaptation of the novel by Nick Hornby could not be imagined by this young film scholar.

A perfect example of how to do comedy right, High Fidelity is witty, clever and skips the toilet humor in exchange for a colorful study concerning human interaction.

Evil Dead II

2011-07-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

“Let’s head on down to that cellar and carve ourselves a witch.”

Long before he was making top-grossing superhero flicks, Sam Raimi was just another crazy movie dork with a few ideas kicking around in his head. One of those ideas turned into the original Evil Dead: a film about five college friends who stumble upon the book of the dead and unwittingly awaken the dark forces around them. Evil Dead II is virtually the same film except that this time it’s done right.

After being forced to kill the demon infested remnants of all of his friends again and again, Ash is finally staring down his freedom as dawn approaches. However the darkness won’t let him go that easy, it attacks in a last ditch effort that costs him the rest of his daylight and forces him to make a last desperate stand against it. Meanwhile, as Ash battles his demons, relatives of the man who started this whole grim mess come out looking for him…what they find instead is hell on Earth.

By taking a step back from the horror elements to inject a little screwball comedy and finding the financing for a bigger budget, Raimi manages to make a great film as a successor to one that was merely good. Bruce Campbell is at his manic best and as the film that leads into the fantastic Army of Darkness (already on this list) one cannot help but love Evil Dead II all the more.

One liners and splattering body parts abound and really: what more could any horror fan ask for?

No Country For Old Men

2011-07-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

“At what point would you stop looking for your two million dollars?”

Quite possibly the finest film to come from the eclectic Coens in their long and storied career, No County for Old Men is one of the most perfect adaptations I’ve ever seen. Based upon the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, No Country is heavy thematically and still weightier in content; in short a film that demands multiple viewings.

When a good old boy by the name of Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles across a drug deal gone awry, he finds himself the sole possessor of a satchel of two million dollars. What he doesn’t realize is that some hard as nails Mexicans, a Texas businessman and hired killer Anton Chigurgh (Javier Bardem) are each intent on getting it back, no matter what the cost. Observing these events from a distance that decreases gradually as the events escalate is local Sheriff, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones): an old man that finds himself increasingly shocked by the violence and volatility of the country he resides in.

Wonderfully subdued performances abound from the three leads, especially peculiar for a genre which often thrives on it’s over the top nature. Bardem is the ultimate standout as the coldest killer this side of Angel Eyes but don’t let that distract you from the intricacy of Brolin and Jones work as it is easily some of their best. The relative absence of music amps up the suspense to a fever pitch and likewise offers even moments of melancholy during the film’s lighter moments (which are even in themselves very few.)

Death, God, life, love and money; No Country for Old Men has a lot to say and pulls it off grandly, never over-stepping itself and never treating the audience with intellectual disrespect.

Unbreakable

2011-07-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

“Now that we know who you are…I know who I am.”

Another all time favorite of mine comes in the form of the mysterious mind-bender: Unbreakable. What begins as an eerie thriller soon develops into a fantastical mystery in M. Night Shyamalan’s finest film.

As a transcontinental train crash leaves one survivor in the wake of 170 dead bodies, David Dunn is forced to examine the meaning of this freak occurrence to himself and to his family. Another level of interest is established in Elijah Price however; an obsessive comic collector and projectionist of fantastical theory, Elijah, a man scarred both mentally and physically far beyond measure, holds true to the hope that David might be his polar opposite…a solid counter balance to the perennially fragile Mr. Glass.

What Shyamalan has created here is the perfect synthesis between fantasy and reality. Indeed, as is often his strength, M. Night has once again excelled at taking the unbelievable and establishing it in fluid, day-to-day life. Willis is fantastic but Samuel L. Jackson is the real star here in his best work since Pulp Fiction. James Newton Howard’s score is one of the most soul bleeding soundtracks to ever grace the silver screen and the cinematography takes on a point of view ranging from quiet observer to intrusive voyeur as the film progresses.

Unbreakable is a film that I have come back to time and time again throughout my tenure as a passionate observer of the cinematic art form. It is astutely subdued, intricately developed and as such, shines as one of the finest media clashes of the modern age. Seamlessly fusing majestic mythology with deeply characteristic human drama, Unbreakable declares itself as that rare film that dances across genres with the slight touch of a ballerina, leaving only the slightest imprint of experience to show the world that it was ever there.

Inglourious Basterds

2011-07-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

"Donny? Got us a German that wants to die for his country. Oblige him."

So after all the hype and anticipation, Tarantino's latest is ultimately still a few steps down from his best. With films like Kill Bill, Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction under his belt though, this is far from a bad thing.

Taking place during the final stretch of WWII, Inglourious Basterds concerns both the efforts of the Nazi party to finish their extermination and the counter measures set forth by British and American soldiers to spread fear among their ranks. As a young Jewish girl named Shoshanna (the last survivor of a massacred family), and a band of trained killers called "the Basterds" seek vengeance on the Third Reich, their paths begin to wind dangerously close to one another; meanwhile a vicious Colonel known as the "Jew hunter" is on the trail of both groups in hopes of stamping their plans out for good. This game of cat and mouse becomes still more dangerous as each groups ignorance of one another threatens to destroy them all.

While the majority of performances in Basterds range from good to great, by and far the standout is Austrian born newcomer Cristoph Waltz as the devious Colonel Landa. Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth and Melanie Laurent are among those who also turn in some excellent performances. As expected, the usual Tarantino style of whip-snap dialogue and snide customary winks are still on display, albeit a little more toned down than usual. What he offers instead is a new kind of film, quite different from what we're used to from him. The direction and cinematography are so well planned, that the time and detail that QT put into this project really shines. The only small gripe I have with Basterds would be the re-use of a few of the same classic Morricone themes from Kill Bill, which while noticeable is far from detrimental to one's enjoyment of the film.

In a final consensus, this clever fusion of propaganda-fueled action and slow burn thriller, while not Quentin's finest work as a film maker may in fact be his most accomplished as a director. As a man that, fate-willing, has another forty years of movie-making under his belt, I eagerly await what he will bring us next.

Stalker

2011-07-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

“The Zone wants to be respected. Otherwise it will punish.”

This wondrous little gem is an all time favorite of mine. What Andrei Tarkovsky has created here is one of the deepest, most intriguingly intricate pieces of art I have ever come across. Maddeningly vague, hauntingly powerful; Stalker is a film that every true cinema fan must experience at least once.

The story begins with Stalker, a man who works illegally as a guide to support his family. The Zone, a sinister land of toxic mystery with the potential to fulfill your innermost desires, is his territory. His clients for this journey are the Writer and the Professor, the former hoping to renew his vanished inspiration and the latter coveting a Nobel Prize. As their journey progresses, each of the man’s inclinations as well as their true motives become clear through the quiet conversations they share and the moments of silence that follow. Soon the question becomes: by the time they reach The Room, will any of them have the courage required to enter?

Dabbling in metaphysics, religion, technology and philosophy, Stalker is a heavy watch to be sure. Elaborate symbolism and a cast of utterly nameless characters only add to the eerie sense of mystery that permeates the film. The surreal dream sequences especially offer a myriad of possibilities, as does the unclear ending where it is ultimately left up to the viewer to decide what really happened; what is real and what is not.

Even aside from all of the above though, Stalker is a shockingly gorgeous film. Filled with stark, bleak imagery and dilapidated habitats, it still manages to find a quiet beauty among these unlikely subjects.

As a starting point for this young man into the world of Tarkovsky, I have a stronger still appreciation for Stalker. This is truly a great film, one that leaves me to wonder fervently of the other stories this astounding film maker has to tell me.

The Village

2011-07-09T22:35:00.000-07:00

“Ivy…Do your very best not to scream.”

Yet another film that will divide the users of RT, the fourth film from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan is a tricky watch, a film fraught with deceit and closing with a triumvirate of twists. For me however, it is one of two films made by Night that I have come back to on a number of occasions, the other will show up later on in this list.

Ivy (a jaw-dropping Bryce Dallas Howard) is a young blind girl living in a rural, woodland village. The woods that surround it are filled with grotesque creatures that the village elders have struck up an uneasy truce with. After the boundaries are breached on both sides however and Ivy’s lover Lucius is gravely wounded, she decides to risk everything on a journey through the woods in hopes of finding help in the nearby towns.

Aside from Howard’s wonderful debut, we are also given gracious, subtle performances from William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Adrien Brody, Joaquin Pheonix, Brendan Gleason and Michael Pitt. The set work is astutely convincing and as always, the cinematography is like a collection of still life paintings in its intricacy. Topping off the package is a gorgeous violin soundtrack that positively brims with emotional fluidity.

The Village is not a film for everyone but over the years it has found a special place in this viewer’s heart. What makes it endure for me is that it is so very different from your average thriller in that it has real heart amid all of the darkness and mystery.

Rachel Getting Married

2011-07-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

"I just wanted to share that and say congratulations that God makes you look up, I'm so happy for you, but if he doesn't, come here. That's all. Thank you."

There's a certain survival mechanism in us that helps us to move on and forgive ourselves for our past mistakes, but for some people this process is far more difficult than others.

Kym, a former drug addict and sister to the title character, has just been released from her current stint at rehab to attend her sister's wedding. To complicate matters further, she is dragging a lot of baggage behind her, and as the skeletons of her past begin to emerge, tensions rise and her family must deal with the threat she poses to the event in question.

Now, Kym is not always a sympathetic character. Far from it. But where Anne Hathaway's performance shines is in making her human. There are times when she grates with her dramatic posturing and her quest for attention, times where her obvious hiding and lying make her the opposite of likable but through all of this she is still real, and never comes across as a cliche or a caricature.

Credit must be given also to screenwriter Jenny Lumet (daughter of Sydney) who nails the authenticity that sells the script. The frustration and anger of Kym's family (especially her sister) is palpable and builds to many tense and awkward moments, moments that feed the understandable resentment which people feel toward Kym, even while they still care for her.

The supporting cast is fantastic and Jonathan Demme's direction is great as always. Add in a memorable soundtrack and you get a family drama with a flavor all it's own, and one that is not afraid to go to some very dark places in new and interesting ways.

Rachel Getting Married is a film which is worth seeing for Anne Hathaway's performances alone, but, luckily for us, there's a lot more to love in this film than that.

Rushmore

2011-07-05T02:08:00.000-07:00

“Maybe I'm spending too much of my time starting up clubs and putting on plays. I should probably be trying harder to score chicks.”

An absolute master of sarcasm and satire, Wes Anderson first made a real mark on the cinematic world with Rushmore: the story of an eternally school-bound student who will do anything to avoid growing up and taking responsibility for the progression of his life.

Our young protagonist Max Fischer has decided that Rushmore Academy is the place he wants to stay indefinitely. Making his mark in a ridiculous amount of extracurricular activities, Max’s grades are left to pay the price. At first he finds this substantial but as a newly widowed teacher arrives, he finds himself smitten and intends to woo her. Where he fails, his new friend, industrious millionaire Herman Blume, succeeds (much to Max’s chagrin). From here a bitter feud between the two former friends begins over the hand of Mrs. Cross who, while thrown off by their boyish behavior, will in the end choose either one or the other.

Drier then unsalted crackers with a side of white bread, Rushmore’s humor will not appeal to everyone but even those turned off by its offhand puns and witty remarks will likely find something to like in this coming of age tale. Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray put in some of their all time best work as the at-odds suitors and Olivia Williams does a wonderful job as their esteemed prize, Mrs. Cross.

This is a film that started a big trend in the industry of dry indie comedramas and it’s easy to see why: there are several notes of comedic genius on display here that are reminiscent of Seinfeld in their clever intricacy. Rushmore is quite literally a must-see film, especially for prospective screenwriters.

The Machinist

2011-07-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

“A little guilt goes a long way.”

A startling neo-noir with a surrealist plot and deceptive characters that would make David Lynch jealous, Scott Kosar’s devious script floated around for years due to one simple fact: there was no actor that could portray the emaciated title character with any note of authenticity. Enter Christian Bale…

The Machinist follows industrial worker Trevor Reznik (any film with a NIN influence gets points automatically) as he drifts in and out of consciousness. Insomniac, anorexic and teetering on the brink of sanity, Trevor is about as far from healthy as any living human can get. Things go from bad to worse though as a mysterious apparition begins to speak only to him and dangerous events seem to occur around him at random. Soon even reality is relative and Trevor is forced to look within for the answers that will either save or damn him.

Christian Bale is a revelation here. Say what you will about him being oversaturated of late but this is a man with serious dedication to his craft; a living skeleton folks, this is what Bale was willing to become for this project. Now that’s dedication. As for the script, at first it comes across as a Fight Club wannabe with its insomniac lead and non-existent supporter…but that’s all established within the first half hour and from there, it goes places you would never expect. Finally Brad Anderson does a wonderful job of weaving this dark world together for the camera, truly excellent work.

This film is absolute must see material, if only for Bale. Him aside though, The Machinist is a fantastic picture that embraces the darkness of the human heart with a complete absence of fear.

28 Days Later

2011-06-26T01:04:00.000-07:00

“The end is extremely fucking nigh.”

A few years back, filmmaker Danny Boyle decided he'd had enough of shuffling, braindead zombies and effectively turned the entire sub-genre upside down with his horror experiment: 28 Days Later.

Imagine for a moment that the apocalypse happened while you were in a coma. Doesn't sound like a terribly endearing experience does it? These however are exactly the circumstances that our young protagonist Jim finds himself in. He awakens nude and stubbly in an abandoned hospital, a mere 28 days after a type of infectious psychosis not unlike rabies has spread across the planet. At first the streets are hauntingly silent but the quiet doesn't last long as the infected soon give chase at a speed that far surpasses the shuffling gait which zombie aficionados have become accustomed to. Soon he bands together with a few other survivors as they attempt to make their way out of London to a military safe haven. Unfortunately they find themselves reminded more then once that the traits of the infected have merely been activated; in essence there is a monster inside all of us and it doesn't always take a virus to bring it out.

The film's raw intensity and one of my all time favorite soundtracks don't even begin to explore what is so great about 28 Days Later. The script is miles beyond your average horror film and Cillian Murphy plays the role that put him on the map with deft honesty, a perfect note between desperate survivalism and sincere humanity. The soft digital film, the quiet sense of unease and a plague decimated London are just a hint at how convincing the set design is and in a world without electricity even the dark of an abandoned gas station can bring on a tremor in your heart or flutter in your stomach.

28 Days Later is hands down one of the best horror films ever made and for once the sequel is worth your time as well, check them both out if you haven't already.

Cache

2011-06-21T04:29:00.000-07:00

“I wondered how it feels, a man's life on your conscience.”

A taut, tense thriller from Austrian auteur Michael Haneke, Cache is an extremely challenging film (as most of his works are) that refuses to offer any easy answers. To be sure, the entire premise of the film revolves around a mystery that is outlined within the film's opening minutes and arguably still unresolved at its conclusion. Still though, the journey is more than worth it as a marriage and family begin to dissolve amid the secrets and suspicions brought on by an eerie videotape.

Georges and Anne are a reasonably happy middle aged couple; they have very successful careers and a high quality of life that appears untouchable until a small package appears on their doorstep. It contains a videotape taken from outside their home of nothing in particular. The tape lasts for hours and remains steady, static and progressively unnerving. Initially writing it off as a prank, they attempt to go back to their day to day existence until another package arrives, and then still another...each more intimate than the last. Slowly but surely, hidden secrets, veiled emotions and dangerous resentments begin to bubble to the surface, each threatening to destroy their family and all that they hold sacred.
　
Haneki is wonderfully adept at weaving suspense out of seemingly standard experiences and Cache is no exception. In fact the first comparison to come to mind is that of Hitchcock himself and if that isn't a steadfast recommendation I don't know what is. Binoche and Auteuil are convincing in their frightful, desperate portrayals while the sudden introduction of the Benichou character is pulled off perfectly (so perfectly that when the meek man does do something erratic toward the film's conclusion you will be positively floored.

It's very rare in this age of quick thrills and easy payoffs to run into a thriller of this high caliber, a film unafraid to take it's time building tension and suspense. For this reason alone Cache is worth a watch.

Midnight Cowboy

2011-06-18T00:04:00.000-07:00

"It just so happens in my own place my name ain’t Ratso.”

Jonathan Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy is another film that has earned a special place in my heart over the years. As you may have noticed by now, I have a certain affinity for films that deal with loneliness, disillusionment and alienation in our society. For this type of film, Midnight Cowboy is right up there with Taxi Driver as one of the greats.

An upstart young cowboy ("I’m not a for-real cowboy but I sure am a stud!") ditches his dishwashing job in a rural town to make his fortune in New York City as a hustler. Before his first day has even elapsed however, he’s already been hustled out of nearly everything to his name, mainly due to his “partnership” with a slick character by the name of Ratso Rizzo. Though at first their relationship is tremulous and filled with mistrust, they soon cultivate a special bond that transcends traditional friendship and becomes something so much more, even amid the ugliness and filth through which they traverse.

Both of these actors are at the top of their game here, especially Hoffman and while his is the better performance I feel that Voight is often overlooked because of this. Criminal really as neither would work without the other to balance him out. The score is a fantastic mix of country, folk and blues which shines especially with the opening theme “Talkin’ at Me” and the eponymous harmonica theme that follows our troubled protagonists through the dank alleyways and filthy hovels they call home.

One of the years that the Academy got it dead to rights, Midnight Cowboy may not be the type of film you expect to win Best Picture but I’m happy as hell that it did.

Shite Films: Hannibal Rising

2011-06-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

"Good evening, Herr Kolnas. You drink better wine that you serve."

Well, there's more than one way to ruin a franchise but I have to say that this one pretty much hits all the necessary notes in the process. None of the original cast? Check. Shoddy creative team involved? Check. All around inexperienced team? Check. This film is completely unnecessary and there's only one man to blame for it: producer, Dino De Laurentiis.

You see, Dino wanted some extra money so he went to Fred Flint...err, Thomas Harris I mean, for a bone. He told Mr. Harris as much: "Tommy, we need another Hannibal movie, and do it on the cheap." To which Mr. Harris replied: "Well gee, Dino, I'd love to help you out but I'm pretty much done with that story." Well, Dino was having none of that so he leveled the equation quite simply: "Thomas, I own the rights to this franchise. So kindly get your ass on that typewriter and throw something together or I will pay someone else to do it."

And so Thomas Harris acquiesced and phoned in one of the worst scripts of 2007, along with a worthless novel that serves better as toilet paper than fiction: it is double-spaced, padded with two blank pages at each chapter change, and still less than 250 pages long. It's clear from the start that Harris' heart is not in this no matter what the medium but the dollar wins again and here we are anyway.

So, on to the film. The basic story is that Hannibal had a sister in war-torn Europe, and they were orphaned together after their parents were killed in WWII. Soon though, things grow even worse as some EVIL NAZIS show up to take over their estate and eat his sister for num-nums after a harsh winter sets in.

And so, just like that, he becomes Hannibal Lecter. There's no more mystery. Now we can all celebrate right? No, wrong. For the film further devolves from there into a mixture of ham-fisted love story with Hannibal falling in love with his Asian aunt, and revenge plot as he tracks down and murders the men who made mutton of his beloved sister.

Now, what's really interesting is that we basically learned the same inept lesson twice in one year from two different films. The film in question, Hannibal Rising is the first. The second is Rob Zombie's Halloween remake. And what mistake did both films make? They both took characters which are terrifying because of their mystery and utterly demystified them using contrived and violent scenarios. Worse still, they victimized and justified these characters, which is the worst possible thing you can do for screen monsters, for not only are they no longer frightening but you actually feel sorry for them of all things. I mean, Jesus, way to ruin the characters guys. Really, nice work.

So anyway, if you look really closely through the shit stained Rorschach on the screen, you'll see Gaspar Ulliel doing his best Anthony Hopkins impression for an hour or so, and a terribly contrived plot that wouldn't even be remotely interesting without Hannibal Lecter attached to it (and still fails despite him).

Yes, yes, there's lots of scowling witticisms and gruesome butchering to be had but there's no charm to it and none of the whip-snap dialogue that made Hannibal such an endearing monster in the first place. Instead the film simply plays out like a messy fan-fiction. It's a complete waste of time. But with originality on hold as it were, I'm sure we can expect many more like it to come.

I for one am eagerly awaiting the film that explains the sad beginnings of Jaws, as he watched his poor shark family butchered by evil gypsy pirates. I always knew there was more to that fish than meets the eye.

High Tension

2011-06-11T01:48:00.000-07:00

“I won’t let anyone come between us anymore.”

In one of the most grotesque and intense efforts of the extreme horror movement, gore aficionado Alexandre Aja gives us Haute Tension, a gorgeously shot terror set in the picturesque country side of rural France.

Obstinately promiscuous Alex and closet lesbian Marie head out for Alex’s parent’s cottage to study over break but as a seedy old truck approaches their meek vacation turns into a brutal fight for survival. Madness, murder and mayhem are the order of the day as Alex is abducted and Marie finds a violent resilience within that will go to whatever lengths necessary to save her secret love.

Even though Aja would go on to make this film twice more with The Hills Have Eyes and P2, this is without question the finest of the three. The carnage culminates in two bloody showdowns: the first featuring a wooden post wrapped in barb wire and the second showcasing the now infamous buzz saw sequence.

The only real problem I had on my first viewing was the seemingly last minute ending but upon further re-watches the hints become much more clear and the twist comes to chide rather well with the rest of the film. Just try not to flinch at that last shot, I dare you.

Dark City

2011-06-07T21:59:00.001-07:00

“First there was darkness, then came the strangers.”

This is the perfect example of a film that took quite some time to come into its own both critically and financially. Like The Shawshank Redemption or The Big Lebowski, Dark City received mixed reviews and performed weakly at the box office during its initial run but has since been cited by such big names as Roger Ebert as a science fiction masterpiece.

The plot concerns an amnesiac serial killer by the name of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) attempting to sort out his memories in hopes of discovering who he is and why he would possibly commit the string of ritualistic murders that he seems to be responsible for. His confusion is only compounded by a mysterious doctor (an astounding Kiefer Sutherland as you've never seen him before) and eerie supernatural creatures known only as The Strangers. As he attempts to assess exactly what is happening in this city of perpetual night, a place where minds and buildings alike are molded at the stroke of midnight, he must battle his own demons while eluding both the police and the Strangers.

Of all the films that Proyas has helmed, Dark City is undoubtedly his strongest effort as well as his most ambitious. The scope is epic and despite the relatively low budget, Proyas pulls off all of the "tuning" effects extremely well. In addition Jennifer Connely and William Hurt provide adamant supporting work, completing the noirish influence as sultry night club singer Emma and persistent detective Bumstead.

Parallels between Dark City and The Matrix (released only a year later) have long abounded and to anyone who might be looking for a more subtle version of the type of story portrayed in the Wachowski's odyssey would do well to check out Dark City.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

2011-06-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

“I believe in God, and I certainly believe in the devil. There’s certainly a devil, and he knows my name.”

Most of us know by now that with any kind of genius usually comes some sort of handicap. Einstein, Lovecraft, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Beethoven, Hughes…the list goes on and on. A clear display of this is the case of Daniel Johnston: a troubled man who over the course of two decades created some of the most creative and influential music of his time, using only his guitar and a tape recorder.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston traces the life of this individual through all of his success and failure; pain, angst, misery and ultimately a modicum of controlled happiness. Even as a child Daniel loved to create and had a wondrous imagination but as he grows his mind begins to fester and dark thoughts about the nature of evil and an imagined relationship with certain denizens of hell force him in and out of asylums and even get him in trouble with the law.

Through it all however, we are treated to a brutally honest look at the life of a mentally ill individual through all of its ups and downs. We meet his friends, family and even some celebrities who have found a certain affinity for his art, including the late Kurt Cobain who saw something of a kindred spirit in this terminally unstable folk rocker.

No matter what you think of my description, whether you’ve heard of Johnston or not, this is a touching and somewhat troubling documentary that you really should give a chance. I promise you’ll take something away from it even if you don’t quite understand what it was.

The Big Kahuna

2011-06-02T19:19:00.001-07:00

“This world is full of clocks, clocks and mirrors.”

Roger Rueff brought his play Hospitality Suite to the big screen with assistance from director John Swanbeck and though the medium has changed, everything that makes it work so beautifully survives wonderfully intact.

Larry, Phil and Bob are three salesmen whisked off to Wichita, Kansas for an industrial convention in hopes that they can land the ultimate sale from a major wheel known only as “the big kahuna”. However as he proves to be more elusive than they had hoped, they find one another immersed in a collection of conversations that display the fundamental differences between them as human beings. Through this thought-provoking and intense three-way character study we are allowed to witness the utter essence of humanity bared wide open in a mere portent of collective vignettes.

The production work is just fine but that has nothing to do with what makes this film so intriguing; what we are witnessing here is the absolute height of talent from two different people. The first is Kevin Spacey in one of the most dynamite rolls of his entire career; the second is from screenwriter/playwright Roger Rueff who delivers some of the most riveting, whip-snap dialogue you’ve ever read, seen or heard. In addition we have Danny Devito and Peter Facinelli providing some wonderful supporting work and the shocking fact that these three men, simply talking, can hold your undivided attention for 90 minutes.

Ye who hope to have your film or play ever performed professionally, gentle folk who seek acclaim in the arena of the cinema, turn your intrepid gaze in this direction and look upon complete and utter genius. This is Clerks, this is Reservoir Dogs: in short, this is the power of a man who doesn’t need flashy effects or massive set pieces to command your attention, only a tiny snippet of what the English language has to offer.

Bringing Out the Dead

2011-05-30T03:27:00.000-07:00

“You wonder if you've become immortal, as if you've saved your own life as well. God has passed through you. Why deny it, that for a moment there, God was you?”

In what appears to be a sort of spiritual successor to his earlier masterpiece Taxi Driver, Scorsese once again frames a film around a lonely, disenchanted, insomniac driver whose life is slowly spinning out of control. Though Bringing Out the Dead isn’t quite as good as the aforementioned film it is, like most of Scorsese’s works, certainly worthy of your attention.

Frank Pierce (an incredibly subdued Nic Cage) is an EMT working the night shift in the worst areas of New York City. Every day he makes life or death choices and now they’re starting to take their toll on his conscience. In the grip of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder we follow Frank through three eventful days on the job with three different partners (John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore…all stellar) as his life becomes increasingly hectic and dangerous. Drugs, suicide, breakdowns, break ups and murder: Frank sees it all and we see it all with him.

Watching Bringing Out the Dead is like going through a rough acid trip cinematically; the shots are stark and off kilter, the cinematography shaky and triptych. Another of Marty’s classic soundtracks fills the film with nostalgia and paranoia alternatively until the viewer becomes just as edgy as Frank.

A highly underrated effort from America’s greatest living film maker, Brining Out the Dead is one of those movies that gets better and better with each successive viewing.

Lake of Fire

2011-05-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

"You are not going to get the answers from holy texts. You are not going to get the answers from biologists. These are matters of human concern that have to be discussed seriously."

Abortion is easily one of the most divisive, polarizing and controversial moral quandaries of our time, for question of where and when life begins in the human reproductive system is a touchy one to be sure. In Lake of Fire, this question, and all of the loaded ideas that come with it, are closely examined by filmmaker Tony Kaye.

A surprisingly even-handed documentary, Lake of Fire is not content to merely comment and narrate the issue over an hour or so. No, this is a sprawling film that takes feedback from both sides of the debate on every relevant point. It explores the religious and spiritual aspects, the political connotations, the medical opinion and even the full on physicality of the operations themselves.

Delving deeper than almost anyone ever has on the subject, Kaye even gets into the social and personal aspects that push people to choose abortion. Family, finance, morality--no stone is left unturned. Finally, he explores the string-pulling and manipulation of abortion as an emotionally-charged, hot-button issue for theocratic republican puppeteers, up to and including the endorsement of murder.

Violence, unfortunately, has become a part of this debate as many zealots have shown in the decades since the legalization of abortion. Murder, arson, assault--all are part of the game now. We have doctors and nurses wearing bulletproof vests and often that isn't even enough to protect them. Sadly, it doesn't look like things are likely to change anytime soon.

Shockingly honest and unflinchingly graphic, Lake of Fire is a documentary I encourage everyone to see.

Psycho

2011-05-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

“She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes.”

In what would become one of the prime archetypes of modern horror, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho begins as an unassuming crime film before morphing, in a few watery moments of terror, into pure horror.

Marion Crane is a fluttery young secretary that stumbles upon a chance to make good with $40,000 in stolen funds and gives in to the temptation. She doesn’t make it any further then the Bates Motel however, where Norman Bates and his invalid mother have other plans for her. After her disappearance, her sister, lover and a private detective hired by her former employer all struggle to unravel the truth behind her disappearance. Each in turn will make their way to the Bates Motel but not all of them will return.

The adaptation here is a very solid script but what really makes the film work is the subtlety with which Hitchcock, ever the master of suspense, tugs us along by the smallest of increments into a sense of safety and assurance before pulling the rug out from under us. As for the original twist ending, again only the tiniest hints are dropped: a sway in Norman’s hips as he climbs the stairs or the sudden change in mannerisms during his speech are the only clues that there is more going on than meets the eye.

All of the performances are fine here as Hitchcock would never settle for less but Anthony Perkins as the sinister Norman is the kind of thing that comes along with extreme rarity; indeed, Perkins is a revelation of talent in the role that he would always be remembered for. A film that changed the way mystery, thriller and horror pictures were made forever after, Psycho is a true masterpiece of the cinema.

Almost Famous

2011-05-23T23:58:00.000-07:00

"One day, you will be cool."

In a semi-autobiographical tale from writer/director Cameron Crowe, his own coming of age experiences are interspersed onto the film's young narrator William in his seminal film, Almost Famous. Meanwhile bands like Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers which Crowe actually toured with are replaced by stand-in fictitious band: Stillwater (a group which features a prodigious mix of the bands he travelled with in his adolescence).

The product of an over-bearing mother (Frances McDormand), absentee father and free-spirit sister (Zooey Deschanel), young William (Patrick Fugit) has a hard go at high school life. Teased and ridiculed for being skipped multiple grades, Will finds solace in his passion for music and journalism; which leads him into the path of Creem magazine writer Leslie Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Bangs gives him a crash course in rock journalism and his first assignment at a local Black Sabbath concert. Fate intervenes however and he finds himself whisked away by Stillwater and a group of "Band-Aides" led by the charismatic Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).

An astoundingly honest story is portrayed here, displaying this incorruptible 15 year old as he falls in love, makes his first real friends and learns a whole about human nature. As usual, Crowe's love for music is what takes center stage here with a fantastic soundtrack that permeates nearly every scene. All of the above mentioned actors turn in fantastic performances, especially Hudson who has never since reached the heights of talent she portrayed here. Additional support work is provided by Jason Lee and Billy Crudup as the star members of Stillwater.

A wonderful, timeless folk tale of the passion and power of art on a susceptible mind, Almost Famous is a film that will surely find a place in your heart amid the dreamer that's hopefully still alive within you.

Taxi Driver

2011-05-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

“All the animals come out at night – whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, and junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.”

Martin Scorsese’s angry, cynical odyssey of angst, melancholy, loneliness and desperation is an astute and polarizing film; one that perfectly captures the feelings of utter hopelessness that were so prevalent in the mid-70’s. Working together with screenwriter Paul Schraeder, composer Bernard Herrman and star Robert De Niro, Scorsese managed to create the ultimate piece of art: a perfect film.

Travis Bickle is tired: tired of the corruption, the conformity of the teeming masses, of the rage and sorrow that builds within him on a daily basis. He’s so tired that he can’t even sleep anymore. So in the twilight hours amid the realm of dusk he drives his big yellow machine through the dirtiest, filthiest parts of New York and observes. For you see, within Travis a terrible force is building, an insurgence of hot, white fury that will find its target when it reaches the boiling point and cleanse it with blood.

Taxi Driver is just one of those films; like Casablanca or Citizen Kane or The Shining: one of those films that you positively need to see. As the flip side to a film like Rocky it holds even more weight, each showing a different facet and a different solution to the general dissidence of the population at the time. Network, also from that same year is yet another example of this. It was a truly tumultuous time in our history and this is shown quite clearly by the sheer quality of product produced during this era of indulgence.

Even putting all of that aside however, Taxi Driver works at its core because it was about lonely, disillusioned, isolated people and how they are hurt and confused by their fortunes. They feel worthy but are told again and again that they are not until they finally refuse to take it any longer. Sadly this has been the cause of many a tragedy and will continue to go on as such; hopefully the authenticity of art like this though will let some people know that they’re not alone, that others have been there…and that they survived and even triumphed in the aftermath of their
pain.

Naked Lunch

2011-05-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

“Exterminate all rational thought. That is the conclusion I have come to.”

An excellent examination of the dark, deep recesses of the human mind and the horror of being an artist, the absurd terror of your creations; David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch is yet another of the auteur’s disturbing exercises in the psychology of violence and sexuality.

After exterminator and aspiring writer Bill Lee begins to experiment with his insecticide for recreational purposes he meets with a giant insect that opens up the twisted world of “the Interzone” to him. Shortly after this he kills his wife inadvertently and flees to the Interzone for protection (as you might have already guessed the film is heavily symbolic). This strange and eerie realm is home to all manner of societal refugees from talking, genitalia leaden typewriters to monstrous inter-dimensional travelers. As a conspiracy begins to unfold before him, Bill is compelled ever further into the heart of the Interzone.

Now this is easily one of the all time weirdest films I’ve ever come across. Creepy, surreal and unsettling are three adjectives that come to mind immediately but it’s also a real piece of genius. Like some bastard brain child from an orgy of disjointed minds, this is an ugly and perverse thing but it comes so close to the utter truth of the terror and frustration of creating art that one cannot help being compelled by it.

Peter Wells is great as the noirish Lee and he wanders the Interzone as an oddly dispossessed yet strangely calm and unshakable guide for the viewer. Like 2001 however or Inland Empire, Naked Lunch is not a film that can really be conveyed in words, this one you have to experience for yourself. You may not get it and you may not like it but rest assured that you’ve never come across anything quite like it.

Black Death

2011-05-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

"I am death, vengeance is mine."

In Christopher Smith's brutal new film, Black Death, the limits to which religious conviction, and the subsequent moral righteousness to which it is inevitably attached, will break a desperate humanity, are first tested, than pushed, and finally shattered. The results? Well, let me just say they are less than pleasant.

A crusading adventure tale, Black Death begins in 1348 as Europe is being ravaged by the bubonic plague. The story follows pious knight, Ulric (Sean Bean invoking some serious Boromir nostalgia), his vicious band of mercenaries, and the conflicted young monk chosen to guide them. Their destination: a remote village that is said to be untouched by the plague. When they finally do reach this fabled place, however, they will be confronted by a malice of such crushing evil as to dwarf even the pestilence itself.

While reaching the village might seem like the archetypical finale, it is scarcely the halfway point for this story. From here, the film's surviving characters are divided, and dwindle subsequently, as they are forced to test the truth of their beliefs against a fate that may be crueler still than death itself. Here is where the film finds its ultimate strength, evoking Bergman and Von Trier in it's unflinching journey to the lowest pits of what is called "the soul".

The surprises are many in Dario Poloni's script, while the flourish of Christopher Smith's direction fills every scene with a sense of coming dread which is nearly overwhelming in its ability to unnerve the viewer. This mental tug o' war stresses the mind between expectation of horror and its eventual arrival into an ebb and flow that carries this tale to its tumultuously polarizing conclusion.

Thematically, the ever-flexible human concept of morality, and the still more malleable concepts of good and evil are all ripe for the plucking. Consequently it is made very clear that what fruits are left unpicked will rot away just the same.

Grim to the core but with a lot to say, Black Death is a wildly unorthodox and deeply disturbing look at the lengths man will go to preserve his survival.

Carlito's Way

2011-05-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

“I've been with made people, connected people. Who've you been with? Chain snatching, jive-ass, maricon motherfuckers. Why don't you get out of here and go snatch a purse.”

Another case of a film that fairly trumps its source material, Brian de Palma’s Carlito’s Way is a stellar, inspired adaptation of After Hours by Edwin Torres. Although it’s based on the latter half of that series it is named for the first half to avoid confusion with Scorsese’s mid-80’s film of the same name. Trivial details aside however, it would be a rockin’ gangster epic by any name.

After a good, long stay in the New York pen, Carlito Brigante finds himself released on a technicality and hoping to make it legit this time around. It isn’t long though before his past starts to catch up with him for ill and for well. The nice parts come from an old flame named Gail who’s with him all the way while the threats come from old cohorts and fair-weather friends looking to collect on his celebrity as one of the old school, all time gangsters. Carlito just wants to make a little cash and get out but can one man walk the line between the two sides of the streets and get out clean? That’s the question.

Al Pacino puts in his best work since the 70’s as the titular Carlito, a groovy Cuban gangster with a style of living all his own. Meanwhile, a near unrecognizable Sean Penn expertly portrays the corruptible Dave Kleinfeld, a coke-snorting attorney who’s slowly sinking down to the level of the criminals he defends.

De Palma’s direction is hard edged with just enough nostalgia to give the film some heart; this is especially clear from the old hat soundtrack, containing an even share of heartbreakers and booty shakers from the late seventies. Lastly, I cannot go out without a mention of the jaw-dropping train station finale or the gripping, sorrowful monologue that closes the film. Brilliant stuff.

A Shameless Plug (If you will)

2011-05-12T00:23:00.000-07:00

Well folks, today I am going to take a somewhat shady leap of faith--I'm going to assume you enjoy my writing (I know, I know--the ego on this guy).

Next, I'm going to carry that assumption one step further, and guess that if this is the case, you may want to check out some of my other writing. Bit of a stretch, I know, but bare with me here.

Why? Because unbeknownst to most of you, I've also written a novel. It's a sort of dark fantasy saga, told through one book instead of seven. And the best part about it is...it's free!

Anyway, if that's not really your thing than feel free to carry on and ignore this post. If, on the other hand, you're feeling a tad adventurous, than click the link below and give it a look-see. No tricks, promise.

http://theduskatnightsend.blogspot.com/

Much obliged friendos, take care.

Bridges of Madison County

2011-05-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

"The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out, but I'm glad I had 'em."

In yet another of his subtly nuanced directorial efforts, Clint Eastwood gifted us with his adaptation one of the most wonderful, endearing and honest romances of our modern era; indeed not since the classics of the genre has there been such a timeless, powerful love story as this.

It's an ordinary summer's day when National Geographic photographer, Robert Kincaid shows up on the doorstep of a lonely, disenchanted housewife asking for directions. They get to talking, enjoy each other's company immensely, clash idealistically...and ultimately fall in love. In a mere four days, their affair will be over forever and it'll only be through posthumous journal entries that anyone (her children included) will ever know of this bittersweet affection; a maddening pulse of attraction that stirred, shook and broke two hearts in their twilight years.

The subdued work by Eastwood both in front and behind the camera is really a testament to what the man is capable of an artist and Streep is right there with him in terms of talent in her role as the tortured, conflicted Francesca. The mood of the film is quiet, thoughtful and poetic; an aria of melancholy seems to hover about the entire proceedings as all involved (the viewer included) know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this flittering affair is but a spark between shadows of life. Even so, like a fading sunset, it is beautiful while it lasts.

The Matrix: Reloaded

2011-05-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

“What if tomorrow this war could be over? Isn’t that worth fighting for…isn’t that worth dying for?”

What do I love about Reloaded? It’s basically everything that made The Matrix awesome amped up tenfold. The action, the intensity and the stakes are all upped to the boiling point…almost to the point of ridiculousness but hey this is the anomaly; this is The One.

As the Osiris’ final transmission signal is revealed to be a shocking distress signal, the free people of Zion must prepare for the advent of an all out war with the machines. While time ticks away, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity make a desperate last foray into the matrix in hopes of avoiding the oncoming conflict. As Smith returns with an agenda all his own, Agents are upgraded and even the gods and monsters of the system are employed into the struggle, a set of dominoes are set into play; pieces who’s results may never be undone.

From the gripping highway chase sequence to the mansion and Smith battles, this is the ultimate action film. Thrilling to an unbelievable extent and moving at a breakneck pace, Reloaded rocks in a way that few others can.

The Matrix

2011-05-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

“I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.”

A mind-bending, sci-fi epic of the highest order; The Matrix is the penultimate science fiction film of the modern age. The Wachowski Brothers action film to end all action films comes to you in the form of The Matrix, a devious alternate reality where nothing is as it seems.

Neo is just another office drone, he lives a dual life but always he is alone for he is one of the few that knows something is amiss. When a group of eerie men in black begin to pursue him and strange underground rebels offer him salvation, only then does he begin to see the truth. Now pulled into the matrix (and out of it simultaneously), Neo must decide if he can live up to the expectations laid upon him…whether he is truly “the one” who can topple an empire.

One of the first films of the digital age to show us what CG is really capable of, The Matrix melds a compelling futuristic script, clever nuanced characters and the most thrilling action set pieces this side of T2 into a film unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. The music is composed flawlessly and sets the mood with succinct precision while the majority of the performances are taut and thoroughly effective (especially Hugo Weaving as the sinister Agent Smith).

Pure cool at a mile a minute, The Matrix is an absolute must-see.

Lazy Film Titling

2011-05-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Now here's something that has gotten more and more irritating as Hollywood runs the very last fumes of originality from the tank: it is this terribly unambitious idea of naming something in the least imaginative way possible. Not as a reference to something, not as a meaningful dialogue nod but as the most obvious tap to a plot-inciter that can possibly spring to mind.

I'm talking about films like Lottery Ticket, Let's Go to Prison and the endless Wayans parody films on the one hand and movies like Charlie Bartlett and Happy Gilmore on the other. The first of these is guilty of naming the film as a woefully easy answer to what the film is about. For example, what's Lottery Ticket about? A lottery ticket of course. Now if people somehow haven't heard of the movie, they can still subject themselves to this shit film because it's ridiculously clear what the plot concerns.

But wait, this rant is far from finished because there is still the second part of the spectrum to cover, where movies use character names as titles...even when there's nothing even remotely new or interesting or exciting about these characters. Again, we have lazy executives and lazy writers sitting around trying to think of meaningful titles for their work and then just taking the easy route. What's the name of the main character? Awesome, that's the name of the movie.

Now granted the films in question, and their highly populous ilk, are far from what one would call high art, or even half-art really. But this is a matter of scruples and one must be clear here to articulate exactly what it comes down to: if you're putting so little thought into the title of your artistic piece, than how much meaning could it possibly have to you, the artist? And if it means so little to the person who made it, than why should it mean anything to anyone else?

I think the answer should be pretty clear.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

2011-05-02T00:56:00.000-07:00

"You say that you can't begin to understand how I feel. Well try! ...try."

The modern relationship is a fickle thing to be sure. The communication gaps, the mental tug 'o wars and all the bullshit that comes with the package. Some would argue that it's hardly worth it and yet here we are.

A young anthropology student, Sarah Quinn, finds herself disparate, empty and drained by her academic studies as well as the lack of anything else of meaning in her life. And so, she combines her lonely existence with her work, creating a study on the difference between men and women, the breakdown of the modern relationship and the unholy mess of it all that pulls us back, time and time again.

A highly experimental film, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a brave adaptation of a series of short stories by David Foster Wallace. It is surreal, overdrawn and at times even a bit messy but there is a charm in it, even in it's flaws. The charm lies in its purity, its soul, its utter and complete honesty.

Take for example a brilliant monologue where a black man describes, in detail, the complicated way in which he views his father's attitude toward serving rich white men for a living. On the surface it almost seems to be in the film for no reason but underneath it all one realizes that there is nothing here without purpose, that this film has been painfully juxtaposed in perfect synchronicity to exact its effects with easy patience upon the viewer.

A complex film of gender conflict, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a splitter that will either push you one way or the other: that it pushes at all is worth merit alone.

The Shawshank Redemption

2011-04-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

"Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."

A gripping study of institutionalization, incarceration and the human condition amid the utter hopelessness of a lifetime sentence in hell; The Shawshank Redemption is ultimately a passionate tale of the resilience that forces one to survive or be broken by the set of interminable circumstance that places him in such a terrible place without justification.

After a drunken spat with his wife and her secret lover, Andy (a subdued and extremely effective Robbins) is the prime suspect when the two turn up murdered the next morning. Despite mounting his best defense, he finds himself shipped off to Shawshank Prison for life, with no hope for parole. Rape, murder and corruption are the order of the day in these walls of stone but through the tiny spark of humanity Andy retains and a consummate friendship with the jail's resident wise guy, Red (the very best of all of Freeman's wizened narration parts and the one which set the precedent for this recurring role) Andy may yet find a way to endure and even triumph above the adversity that threatens to destroy him.

This is a film that has developed a relatively large fan base in recent years and the reasoning behind this is clear; in its time, amid the shifting cinematic landscape brought on by Pulp Fiction and the new renegade era of film-making, it was easy to overlook a quiet, introspective film like Shawshank. As time passed however, it has only grown in acclaim and as evidenced by its standing on IMDB, The Shawshank Redemption has since become one of the most beloved motion pictures of all time.

An honest film but never a cruel one, Shawshank is the ultimate prison story and as the first in the thrice-linked King/Darabont triumvirate, it is also the best.

Gone Baby Gone

2011-04-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

"Men live their whole lives without getting this chance. You walk away from it; you may not regret it when you get home. You may not regret it for a year, but when you get to where I am, I promise you, you will. I'll be dead, you'll be old."

In a stunning directorial debut from actor Ben Affleck, he teamed with his brother Casey and fellow screenwriter Aaron Stockard to bring Dennis Lehane's mystery novel of the same name to the screen. Like Affleck's earlier screenplay, Good Will Hunting, Gone Baby Gone is pure Boston; from the accents to the residents to the streets, this film is as much about Boston as the characters that reside there.

When a young girl goes missing inexplicably, two young detectives (who are also lovers) are enlisted to help with the shadier sides of the case. Joined by a couple of cooperative officers from Boston Metro, they wade through the seediest parts of the city's underworld in an effort to unwind the conspiracy that has sprung up around the missing girl and find her before its too late. Whether they're ready to pay the price to succeed in this task however is another question altogether.

Like The Assassination of Jesse James (also from '07), Gone Baby Gone really puts Casey Affleck on the map as an up and coming actor of stalwart talent. He's joined by Michelle Monaghan and screen vets Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman. The cinematography is gorgeous, even as it explores some of the uglier sides of Boston while the narrative techniques are unabashedly honest and never pretentious; in short, this is a very contemplative script and one that doesn't let you off very lightly.

Though it was a little over-shadowed during the storm of great films that surrounded it in 2007, Gone Baby Gone deserves to be remembered as the highest quality mystery film to appear in a long time.

Freaks

2011-04-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

"They're going to make you one of them, my peacock!"

The disabled and disfigured make their screen debut in Tod Browning's 1932 horror classic, Freaks: a wildly unorthodox and starkly disturbing look into the sideshow life that has long disappeared from American culture.

The freaks of a traveling circus are deformed physically but find solace in their common fellowship until the trapeze artist and the strongman infiltrate their group in hopes of murdering one of it's members for his long-standing fortune. What they don't realize though is what the freaks are capable when trifled with and how far they'll go to protect one of their own.

In the early 1930's, Tod Browning took a very brave step by making this film and an even braver one by casting actual "freaks" as the titular characters. Although it would cost him his career, Browning's film would eventually be rediscovered and given its due as the fantastic horror gem that it is.

Unfortunately the film as it was originally shot was far too shocking for the audiences of the time, and what was cut has been ultimately lost in the annals of time. However, what does remain is a creepy classic of the horror genre, and a film that was decades ahead of its time.

Deliver Us from Evil

2011-04-25T08:11:00.001-07:00

"I made up my mind. There is no God. I do not believe in a God, all right? All these rules, everything... they're made up by man, you know?"

This is the story of the real axis of evil folks, the authentic terrorist group that sleeps right under our noses. Good, honest people provide their income, completely unaware that they are giving their money to an organization that is not above murder, kidnapping or rape. It is a group that deals implicitly with the mafia, mercenaries and ruthless dictators like Adolf Hitler to provide a gorgeous veil for the grotesquerie that stirs beneath. This is what the Catholic Church is really about, since the age of the theocracy and state of the church right up to the present: this is evil.

Though Amy Berg's documentary focuses mostly on the sexual indiscretions of the church, it also goes a long way to show the levels of corruption amid the house of God and just how deeply rooted it is. We are shown from the perspectives of the deniers who represent the church, the victims and the victim's families, then finally Oliver O' Grady himself; a convicted pedophile and former priest who honestly and quite explicitly explains the intricacies of the cover up that allowed him to molest hundreds of children and continue operating as a registered priest under the church's protection for years.

The facts on display here are told with a complete lack of bias and only by those who experienced or dealt with these events on personal and legal levels. The inane madness of the situation is enough to fill one's gut with roiling, red hot fury: to think that this sort of thing is going on right under our noses and that a headlining figure in the buy-outs, settlements and cover ups is now the Pope himself, Benedict XVI, the fiendish king at the height of the throne.

A grueling, emotionally draining but ultimately necessary look at the corruption that power instills into the common man, Deliver us From Evil is sure to affect you whether you like it or not.

Enduring Love

2011-04-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

“We imagine that love is meaningful but, could it in fact be...meaningless?”

In a taut and suspenseful thriller based on the Ian McEwan novel of the same name, Enduring Love explores how post traumatic stress disorder affects two very different men in the aftermath of a horrific accident.

On a calm summer’s day, two men’s fates are interwoven inextricably by an unexpected event that bounds them for life. In the cold, grim melancholy that follows Joe simply wishes he could get over it; Jed however feels that they shared something powerful and forms a dark obsession about the event and its meaning. He begins to haunt Joe’s steps with ceaseless attempts at affection and connection, invading his private life with his increasingly dangerous behavior until they find themselves locked onto a deadly collision course which threatens to destroy them both.

Daniel Craig and Rhys Ifans are each stunning in their respective roles here, Craig as a cynical college professor and Ifans as a mentally disturbed loner. Enduring Love also possesses some of the most subtle musical direction I’ve ever witnessed in a motion picture, while the camera takes a level of cold detachment to explore the events that follow these men.

If you’re looking for something fresh and intriguing in the thriller department than look no further; this is your film.

Last Tango in Paris

2011-04-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

“Beauty of mine, sit before me. Let me peruse you and remember you... always like this.”

Last Tango in Paris is one of those films that is so shockingly original that you really have to let it settle before you can even begin to digest it. Frankly sexual in a way that few films before it dared to be, it bears a hard, cynical edge about life and love that in no way diminishes the passion it so flagrantly displays.

Paul is a grief-stricken widower whose wife has committed suicide and Jeanne is a sexually repressed young woman, engaged to another man. Yet when they meet unexpectedly in a Paris apartment, something violent and sexual takes hold of them, something that will never yield or let go completely for the rest of their lives. As they delve deeper and deeper into a deviously sexual relationship, their minds darken, drawing them into a place where society’s rules no longer apply, where nothing is either safe or sacred.

Amid the cool jazz score, we are gifted with Bernardo Bertollucci’s direction and in this picture it is unwavering, unflinching and ultimately one of the bravest artistic explorations about sex to ever be created. His stars, Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, both share his frank honesty as if possessed on screen by some malignant creature of lust and death (each would eventually and inexplicably call this film the mistake of their career).

Despite the controversy and scandal that permeated the film’s release, nothing can tarnish its raw sensuality or the brutal irony that make it nothing short of a master work.

The 25th Hour

2011-04-19T00:16:00.001-07:00

“Every man, woman and child alive should see the desert one time before they die. Nothing at all for miles around, nothing but sand and rocks and cactus and blue sky. Not a soul in sight. No sirens, no car alarms, nobody honking at you, no madman cursing or pissing on the streets. You find the silence out there. You find the peace. You can find God.”

In a stunning and stirring departure from the racially-fuelled films that first put him on the map, here Spike Lee adapts David Benioff’s novel The 25th Hour into startling portrait of post-9/11 New York City and those who inhabit it.

Monty Brogan is one long day away from a seven year prison stay at one of the most vile, over-crowded institutions in the United States. A former heroin pusher, we first come across a despondent and melancholy Monty on a park bench watching the tide as he begins his day. Today will be the day he says goodbye to his friends, his lover and his father, while attempting to put to rest the fears and suspicions he has of those in his life, as well as the seedy underworld ties that never seem to want to let go.

The amazing ensemble includes Edward Norton (in perhaps his finest moment), Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Brian Cox and Anna Paquin. The music is soul-crushingly, heart achingly beautiful (especially the main theme) while the scenes they coalesce are tinted and dimmed with a sad sort of nostalgia that infects every shot. The script is packed with hip, edgy dialogue and taut suspense, and finally interspersed with a raw flavor of real human emotion that is rarely found in the modern world of film.

This is a very special film and one of my all time favorites; if you haven’t seen it yet then I really can’t recommend it enough. Do yourself a favor.

Revolutionary Road

2011-04-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

“No one forgets the truth Frank; they just get better at lying.”

A hard and grueling tour-de-force into the dangerous business of growing up and letting go of our dreams, Revolutionary Road is a return to form that echoes the rash intensity of love for a young couple that American Beauty did for its middle-aged counter-part.

The Wheelers are a disenchanted, suburbanite couple who find their lives slowly losing the passion and zest that they once had. Frank is a faithless office slave who struggles to make believe that he’s happy in his existence whereas April is a dreamer on life support, hoping against hope that a fresh start will reignite their hopes and aspirations to become what they’ve always wanted to be. Both are delusional in their own way and therein lay the seed that sprouts over time into their tumultuous downfall.

As usual, Sam Mendes stunning direction (each shot could hang in a gallery for the effortless beauty of it all) is carried emotionally by Thomas Newman’s spot-on score of subtle orchestral work. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio continue to grow from their Titanic roots, giving some of their finest performances to date in this fantastic reunion of talent. Lastly, a significant nod must be given to Michael Shannon, whose supporting work (amounting to little more than ten minutes on screen) adds an honest weight of insanity to the veiled madness of killing our love for the greater good.

Reminiscent of the Fitzgerald masterpiece, Tender is the Night, Revolutionary Road is a hard film but ultimately an exceptional one as well.

Stay

2011-04-10T21:13:00.001-07:00

“If this is a dream, the whole world’s inside of it.”

A twisted, disturbing, ethereal odyssey is woven through the lives of two distinct men and their devastating journeys through what may be the final moments of their lives.

A psychiatrist and his suicidal patient are pulled dualistically out of the reality of their existence and further…further down the rabbit hole into a nether realm, wherein resides the horrors, the wonders of life or death or something else altogether. Eerie coincidence, the boundaries of space-time and the eternal question of the great beyond are the fuels that run this infernal machine.

All the performances are like raging spit-fires, burning passionately amid the cruel darkness of life’s struggles; Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and especially Ryan Gosling are engrossing and engaging as the main characters of this nocturnal tapestry, while Bob Hoskins and Janeane Garofalo fill out the cast with some excellent supporting work. The direction is some of the most introspective and psychological camera work that I’ve ever seen, melding wonderfully with a script that evokes Silent Hill and David Lynch in equal measure.

A film that begs multiple watches, Stay is an enduring, original experience that reminds us all why David Benioff is one of the finest screenwriters working today.

Cabin Fever

2011-04-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

“Party’s over Winston.”

This is another on the list that may have its fair share of detractors but I’m inclined to agree with the likes of Peter Jackson and Quentin Tarantino, who amid their first introduction to the likes of Eli Roth found a fine experiment in horror film-making with the young writer-director’s debut feature: Cabin Fever.

A story that builds impressively upon the fear and panic of a devious domino effect, Cabin Fever follows five college friends out to a woodsy retreat where a single mistake threatens to be the undoing of them all. The accidental murder of a grimly ill hermit sets the stage for a little comeuppance in the form of a flesh eating disease that infects both their bodies and their minds through the local reservoir where their victim expired. Turning on each other like a pack of hyenas, they slowly draw a local township into their bloody struggle for survival and soon the ugliest parts of their humanity begin to rear their dire visages.

A sly dark humor plays amid these gruesome circumstances, as Roth mixes in satire and homage to the classics of the genre that he so loves. Rider Strong puts in a surprisingly adept performances and ads himself to a long list of mine (including Wes Bentley and Robert Carlyle) of maddeningly under-used actors. Finally the score is conducted by loyal David Lynch scribe: Angelo Baldamenti, providing a rich and creepy atmosphere for this tale of escalating fear and paranoia to play out upon.

One of my all time horror favorites, Cabin Fever is one of the best horror films of the modern era.

Catch Me If You Can

2011-04-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

"You know why the Yankees always win, Frank?"

There seems to be a glaring rule of tradition in most crime films, whether true-to-life or not, and it's this: crime doesn't pay. I think what makes Catch Me If You Can so enjoyable and fun is that it reverses this almost right from the get-go; crime doesn't just pay, it pays very well and very quickly.

Telling the real-life story of con artist Frank Abagnale, Catch Me If You Can starts on a similar note to Blow and Goodfellas, with a poor kid who turns to crime as a way of achieving financial security. Over the years, Frank will go on to steal millions of dollars from airlines, hospitals and governments around the world simply by being a very charming and convincing liar.

Dicaprio shines in the main role of the daring con artist, having more fun here than most of his previous roles combined. Often so deadly serious, with those piercing blue eyes of his, Leo takes it a little easier here.

Wrapping up the serious side of things is the FBI man on his trail, portrayed by an amusingly no-nonsense Tom Hanks. When asked to make a joke at one point he offers: "Knock-knock?" (Who's there?) "...Go fuck yourselves."

Martin Sheen, Amy Adams, Jennifer Garner and a straighter-than-usual Christopher Walken fill out the cast wonderfully, and director Steven Spielberg shines by doing what he does best: injecting fun into the movie whenever possible.

A wryly amusing and surprisingly touching story, Catch Me If You Can is an enjoyably fascinating ride of a film.