Normal

So I just finished watching "Normal" and have been letting the film just sort of mull around in my head. I liked it, a lot, so I'm trying my best to let it settle in. It takes very few risks, and I like it for that, believe it or not it works better following plot points Ive seen in other films than trying to forge a new path and most likely failing. There are of course the rare gems that do something new, and do something incredible (Pi, Memento, Reservoir Dogs, etc.) but I think for the most part movies that try and do something new have to push the limits and this alienates most of the audience. Those movies are usually the ones I gravitate towards because I don't want to watch the same movie over and over again with new actors.

With that said the story is very familiar, we follow several people in the after math of a car crash that killed a teen that everyone loved. Something I really loved that they did was the only way you ever see the mysterious teen is through two photographs, one being the newspaper article that the man who ran his car into the teens cant seem to throw away, and the other being the mothers photograph of her and her two sons, which we only see momentarily. Other than those two examples we know almost nothing about this person who the whole narrative centers itself on.

Another thing they did that was different and made it more enjoyable is that the crash didn't just happen, its been two years, they have just begun to move on, but are forever reminded of how life used to be. Like a scar that has healed, but still hurts our characters keep rubbing them as the familiar sting of an old would returns. We sympathize with all of them, although it gets hard to with the mother, played very well by Carrie Anne Moss. She had a hard role, of course you feel for her, but she is like an anchor on her family, pulling them down with her, and drowning their hopes of living a normal life. You start to resent her ability to do and say as she pleases with the excuse of mourning.

Most of the story surprisingly doesn't revolve around the teens death though, most of it is as they go on with their lives they are reminded that they are not the people they were before, and the guilt or regret of that is killing them, and making them do bad things. That's why I would say the movie is more about the mistakes we make, how we have to live with them, and how they change us. In this way it makes it different than other movies about people living with a terrible thing. Its the terrible thing that is leading them to do these other terrible things which is what we are focusing on.

The acting was great all around, I was able to recognize a few of the actors, but for the most part I was able to just accept them as these people and run with it. With Moss she had a tough role to play, one that you want to feel for her but the character makes it hard, and she does great with the role, she shows that she is more than just Trinity.

The way its shot isn't the usual gritty look that these type of movies go with, but its certainly not clean either. It is a healthy middle ground, it looks like real life. Its a Canadian movie so maybe that's why I had never heard of it till I found it on Netflix, even though it just came out in 2007. It should have gotten at least some press because it was a more than decent drama, and I think its because it never strays into melodrama. Nothing to me seemed over the top with it, in that way the roles might be considered underplayed, but I would say the opposite, they found the core of the emotions that would run these people and they played it like that instead of people howling and yelling to the heavens "Why me, curse the day he was born" sort of stuff. Certainly worth a look if you like indie dramas. 7/10 stars.

Genesis

The world is an infinity complex weave of life, death, starts and ends. It is to hard to attempt to categorize anything we see, the mesh is much to large for us to comprehend, but this film tries and does very well in explaining the universe. The story is told by an African storyteller named Sotigui Kouyate, and he adds a real grounding of the movie. Instead of a bunch of scientists talking about the big bang, and biologists talking about evolution you get him speaking about the origin of origins and how animals see grass greener on the other side, referring to when fish climbed out of the ocean.

He explains very clearly the world we see and understand, but doesn't over simplify anything. He states it as truth, and no scientist or religious person can really refute. He simply speaks about the way things are, and doesn't make any assumptions. He talks about the beginning and life, about love and death in ways that everyone agrees with, and if you don't then you must be delusional.

The photography of it is breath taking, his examples and the reenactments he does with smoke and water is stunning. As he explains we see some amazing footage of crashing waves, molten rock spewing from the earth, two parrots loving one another, a snake devouring an egg whole. All of which directly correspond to what he is explaining at the time, its not random. Its easy to get swept up in what he talks about, and like I said the images are captivating. I wish they had let him speak and not dubbed over him, I wanted to hear his real voice, and I can read so the subtitles shouldn't be a problem.

From aerial shots of streams and rivers converging to microscopic images of our own blood vessels it shows the sameness of the earth and us. A fiddler crab fighting off other males to get with the female is not far from the way we view love and sex. It saddens me that this wasn't more well known, it should be, if Disney can make a movie called "Earth" and gloss over the viciousness of life then this film as well should have its moment to show its point of view on the world.

Seeing the animals they show in ways you don't normally see them makes you think about what we as human beings have done in commercializing life for financial gain. Showing a chick still in its shell, growing, with its heart beating, next to images of a baby in the womb pushes home the idea that all life is sacred not just our own. As the storyteller puts it we are all one in the same, we are all in the tribe of life.

I loved every minute of this and would strongly recommend it to everyone, even if you don't learn anything new from it, its a fresh change of pace to look at the world as a beautiful place, instead of what we see it as usually. 8/10 stars.

Sukiyaki Western Django

Cowboy hats does not a Western make. Simply because you put all of the characters in cowboy clothes and in huts that look like they are in the old west doesn't mean that it becomes a western. Parts of this story seem deeply rooted in Japanese lore and legend, with small hints of the American Western sprinkled throughout. In a traditional western the fighting would be over money, and that is what they claim to be doing in this, but the two sides are different tribes of people giving them an added and much more prevalent sense of doing it for the honor of their kind, not the money.

The story involves two rival gangs: The Whites and The Reds. And they fight, a lot. At this point in the story they are both looking for a lost treasure and are at a sort of stalemate, each side stays in their respective buildings in town and don't come near one another. That is until a stranger comes to town that both sides want to enlist in their ranks because he is a very good sharp shooter. As a point of evidence that they aren't really fighting about the treasure, one side offers him all the treasure if he will fight for them, and take out the other side. He doesn't choose a side and instead goes off with one of the few remaining villagers where he learns the back story of the place.

There is a love story and tragic deaths all very familiar, and it doesn't seem to be trying very hard with the plot and instead uses its energy in the fight sequences which are much more reminiscent of a western than the rest (except for the samurai swords) There are a couple really cool shots and sequences that you can just sit back and enjoy. But for the most part you are waiting for some substance and all it is, is style. Tarantino plays a character in it, and man he can not act for the life of him, but it gives the film that little bit of camp. Their guns never seem to run out of bullets, how many rounds does a revolver hold, 20-30? I thought it was more like 6-8.

Many of the characters seem to fall flat, but perhaps that's because the international cut clocks in at 95 minutes, when it was originally 120 for the Japanese version. 25 minutes is a lot to cut out, maybe a lot more of it would have made sense if they had let it play out like it should have with out the butcher job I can only guess they did to it. It has a lot in common with "Once Upon a Time in the West" i.e. the stranger who has no reason to join the fight but does, the ruined woman who falls for him, at the end he leaves, just riding into the sunset, or in this case the snow.

Much of it felt like a transplant that wouldn't work, taking Westerns and putting it in Japan is like taking a cactus and putting in on the top of a mountain, it might survive but it wont flourish. Like that this just barely survives. The one thing that really truly bothered me is that its a foreign movie there they are trying to speak English the entire time. If its in Japan, speak Japanese, I can do subtitles, that's fine. But the thick accents, and the off timing of someone who is not speaking their native language made for a less enjoying experience. Seeing one of them call another a "Lilly liver" isn't funny, or even a put down, it just makes you grate your teeth and wish they would stick to talking normally.

But if you like Westerns and Kill Bill, and think if you mixed the two it would be a miracle then this would be a good thing to watch. 6/10 stars.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

So a few years ago I sat down and tried to watch this movie. So many people told me it was good and that I would like it. So I popped it in and sat down to...something unexpected. I got twenty minutes in and couldn't take anymore. It was all over the place, nothing seems to be making sense and I was getting bored.

Well a while ago I recorded it onto my cousins DVR, and today thought was a good time to watch it. The beginning twenty minutes are exactly as I remembered them. Around thirty five minutes in things start to come together if only barley, like trying to glue a ripped up blanket together. There seems to be no plot, just people taking drugs which just gave me flashbacks of Columbia student films, but obviously this is much better. I think the reason I didn't take to the movie was that there are no genuine moments in it, these are sick, and often depraved people who aren't themselves. You only know them as coked out, acid dropping, ether sniffing losers who cant do even the simplest of tasks.

There was one genuine moment, and it comes right at the end, the second to last shot is of Johnny Depp driving out of the city, the camera is on him the whole shot and he is smiling and only then did I see anything past the drug fueled paranoia. Now all that aside it is a very fun movie. Terry Gilliam knows how to make this kind of film and does very well with it, considering they wanted to originally have it as an animated film, and even Hunter S. Thompson agreed it would be more real as a cartoon. It still does better than other drug centered narratives. Since there is no seeming plot what you do get out of it is a very real depiction of the American Dream, the falling apart of the Hippie/Love movement and what Vegas represents. But the problem with that is that its difficult to work into this story, Depps voice over has to say those things to portray his opinions on the subjects.

The camera constantly moves and is almost always on a wide angle lens, which works amazingly. It gives the viewer a very immediate sensation of being on drugs and a certain discombobulation. This is no vanity project, it paints all the people in it to be bad people, or at least severely flawed.

The acting was great, Del Toro, and Depp do a great job with what I'm guessing must have been a very hard role to take on. There are several interesting cameos in it, pointless cameos, but most are. I enjoyed it and found it very interesting, would I want to watch it again? Ask me again in ten years. 8/10 stars.

Nobody Wants Your Film

...and nobody should. This is a documentary showing what goes into making an indie film and the trials and tribulations that come with it. It's 90 minutes, I got to minute marker 30 before I said enough and turned it off. It rambles, nothing happens. Ive seen better YouTube videos, and that's not a joke. Every edit was a dissolve into the next shot. When the moron who made it is actually interviewing people he repeats questions and doesn't seem to be paying attention at all. This is brought to his attention a few time, you shouldn't anger the person you are interviewing by not paying attention to them.

It doesn't even do a good job showing behind the scenes of an indie film. Stay away at all costs. 1/10 stars.

The Center of the World

So what is the center of the world? This film gives two different views on the subject. One being the Internet and the computer its on, since you are at the epicenter of everything, anything you want is just a click away. The other idea for what the center is, is the vagina, as claimed by the other main character in the story.

We start the movie with our two main characters, a man who can make money easily but seems to have trouble with meeting a woman, and the woman he's hired to spend a weekend in Las Vegas with. As we learn about them, we never really get a full view of who they are, just fractured pieces. He seems very nice, and her very distant, but it makes sense, she is simply there for him to have sex with. She has laid down ground rules, no kissing on the lips, and no actual penetration, but it seems all else is fair game. As we learn about them in flashback we catch glimpses of how they met and got to the point they are at in Vegas, but the flashbacks are clumsy and forced. As well as being almost completely monochromatic, an effect that sometimes works to denote the past, but in this it just didn't work. They shot on video, which mostly works against them, but there are a few very nicely composed shots, and for the most part the video look is easily ignored in this film.

It does get graphic at times, and was showing me things I didn't care to see, but I would rather be pushed to the edge and look over than to have a bland movie that does what all the others do. It is very well acted by Peter Sarsgaard, and Molly Parker, both very believable and natural.

When it comes to the title and what she says the center of the world is they don't stray away from that, he wants her and is falling in love, and she is letting him, and pretending. It's a story that happens a lot, the woman prostitute who pretends to care but really doesn't, and the guy who falls for it. They make a pretty strong case that all it is is money, and they push it hard. You want her to like him, and you want him to look at her for what she really is, instead of what he wants her to be. They both do terrible things to one another in the story, and you cant help but sort of despise both of them at different times but it fades.

The story is about loneliness and how looking for a fix to that in the wrong place will just compound the hurt. You don't go to a hooker for love, like you don't go to Disney World to see a real castle. Sarsgaards character learns this the hard way, and Parker learns the hard way what can happen when you play with peoples emotions and good will.

If you are bothered by sex, or the story that I've explained doesn't appeal to you on paper then it wont appeal to you as a film. Ive seen better in terms of what the story is trying to get across, but it was a good effort and certainly has its qualities, if a little depraved. 6/10 stars.

The One

So do you remember "The Matrix?" Yeah? Remember how cool it was? Okay, well what we are going to do is do what they did, except with much less plot and plausibility, and worse effects and hope that no one will notice. Oh, and now Neo is Asian...and fighting himself from another dimension. ..........What?

That is basically "The One" in a nut shell. The effects mild, the story, flat like paper, and the acting canned and phoned in. I caught a few minutes of it and it seemed okay, so I found it On Demand and checked it out. Not very good, it seemed more like a vehicle for lame rock songs from the early 2000's than it did as an actual movie.

There's not much more I can say, if there's nothing else on, might as well catch a few moments of it, but if you aren't feeling it, then turn the TV off and find something better to do, because you will get nothing from watching it. 4/10 stars.

Horns and Halos

So since I had no other plans tonight I thought I would indulge myself with another Documentary. This one was not what I expected it to be, it was called "Horns and Halos" It follows the story of a young publisher trying to bring a book back to life that had been literally burned because it made allegations about G.W. Bush and his coke habits in his earlier years. And the other person they follow is the author of the book.

The doc. focuses almost completely on them and ignores the more important message in my opinion. Instead of delving into the world of Bush we follow around the other two people, who don't get me wrong were certainly interesting. But my big complaint about both men that we follow is that they are so egotistical and personal agenda pushing it over shadows the message they originally trying to get people to swallow about Bush and how he is not to be trusted.

The young publisher is self serving and bigger in his own eyes than everyone else thinks, to the point that at a book expo he has a large mural painted of himself behind their booth. The author might be even worse because he plays down his ego, but shows that he thinks more of himself than he lets on. On top of that the author was convicted of attempted murder, and cant understand why that might over shadow his book. What happens to him I do feel bad about, and he ends up getting the very short end of the stick.

My main problem was with the people who made it, they ignored a real and important subject to focus on two men who pretended to care about this bigger issue, but at every turn served themselves. Here's a quote, "People keep wanting to talk about my criminal record, well I wont talk about it here, any questions about that for me?"

Overall I understand the doc. is about these two men and not Bush, but the men don't seem to deserve the exposure, but then again a lot of people in docs don't deserve the exposure. 5/10 stars.

We Feed the World

The documentary of the title "We Feed the World" is a mixed bag. It is graphic at parts, and very upsetting, but I think they drop the ball overall in editing and who they interview.

It's about how the world has changed to be more industrialized in food and agriculture. How the little guy is being forced out and the big bad corporation is coming in, under selling everyone and making a worse product. All of which is true. But they waste time and energy talking in several sections how what the corporations produce have less flavor and taste because of the things they do to the animals and crops. Fine, I will agree that that is a bad thing, but on the larger scale who really cares if my tomato isn't as flavorful as it could be when there are 100,000 people dying everyday of starvation, as they say in the doc.

They waste time waxing and waining about the little picture and not stepping back often enough to discuss what this means for the world and for us as human beings. They don't even go into all that they are injecting in our food that's making us sick and change how our bodies function, but then again it clocks in at 90 minutes, if they tried to broaden their scope they would just end up being "The Corporation" an excellent documentary, one of the best I've ever seen, but is easily 3 hours.

They touch on farming, and on the fishing industry but by far the most awing is when they turn the camera on a chicken "farm" Its strange to see eggs being handled by machines with live chicks inside them. Never being touched by the hen or a human hand until its hatched, which even then they are thrown and dropped into machines like they were grain. There are long stretches in the film where no one speaks, you just watch as the industry unfolds in front of you, sometimes with aw, but mostly with disgust and anger.

The best part, or at least the part of the film that struck me the hardest was when they were interviewing the CEO of Nestle. He's a cold calculating man who someone should put in his place, one way or another. He demonizes people who say that water is a free right, anyone should be able to have water, where he thinks it should be privatized. Which to me begs the question, yes his company makes many products, the 24th largest company in the world, and I understand that if I want to buy some of their products I have to pay for them, so my question is, does he think that his company makes water? If so then I would say, sure bottle it and sell it. But what he refers to is sick, he wants to go into somewhere where there is a river, set up a bottling plant and start stealing the water out of the river and selling it. Without paying to do so, since water is free, but yet he turns around and sells it like its now his property. He wants both sides of the coin, for water to be free for him to take, but privatized for him to sell. If this disgusting show of whats wrong with the world interests you watch another doc. that deals with water exclusively called "Flow: For Love of Water"

Overall it was a good film, but needed tighter editing and a stronger message, it was to middle of the road to have a positive polarizing effect of getting someone to stand up and say I'm going to do something, this is enough. 6/10 stars.

Quarantine

I found "Quarantine" on On Demand today and decided to give it a shot. I had heard while at the theater last year that it was good, but then again most of that was coming out of the mouths of jabbering teens and tweens who were also seeing "Disaster Movie"

We had shown the trailer before it came out at work, so I knew what they were going for in it, riding the wave of Cloverfield but a little bit smaller, and well maintained i.e. instead of a large city (NYC) almost all the action takes place within one apartment building.

The beginning starts slow, but smart with a woman doing a late night show where they go around to different places in the night that are open and interview the people. Like the show "Insomniac" but with a cute girl instead of Dave Attel. After building some romantic notions between the two central characters the girl interviewer and a fire fighter they get crackin' on the actual plot. The call comes in, they head out and go to where the zombies are.

Now this is where I thought it was going to turn and be...bad. But I was surprised to find a slow build, a tension at the bottom of my stomach over where the first scare was going to come from, and it comes slowly, and not overblown. As they try to get a handle on the situation people, very slowly start to die, they spend the majority of their time arguing amongst them selves and trying to find a way out of the now quarantined building. In this sense it seemed much more realistic to me than I thought it would be. There is no leader, they argue and when someone is attacked the other people don't run over to help, they run for their lives.

Towards the end it goes right where you knew it was going to go the whole time, and the plot plays out and unfolds like all the other ones, but not to a fault. It has a great last shot, I just wish they hadn't used that same shot in the trailer.

Now about the way it was shot, they are smart with what they show and even more so what they don't. The camera becomes a tool for them, less to capture whats happening, but more so because it has an on-board light, and they don't have much light in the building. I would say hit a light switch, but there goes all the usable and exploitable darkness and mystery. They use the camera for its night vision and as a sentry to look into the attic to see if anything is there instead of their heads. Make up looked good, and I was impressed.

Over all is it something you need to see, was I scared at any point...no. But I still smiled and wrung my hands waiting for the next turn. I give it 7/10 stars on the horror scale, over all as just a movie it falls to a 6/10. If you like horror movies its one of the better ones Ive seen recently, but still lacking in respects.