There Was No War in '72

After completing "There Was No War in '72" I think I've found a pattern or a theme that goes along with Israeli movies. I've watched a few recently, and the two heavily pushed points are as follows: Guilt, and people are normal.

The few Israeli movies Ive watched all seem to revolve around normal everyday people doing normal everyday things, and most of the story is under dramatized. This film, made in 1995, but looks like its from the 70's focuses on a kid shortly after the 6 Day War, who is basically a fuck up. He gets kicked out of school, runs away, bothers everyone in his family as they try to help him. His father is sick of him, but his mother is still trying to coax him out of it, they play good cop/ bad cop. None of it seems to work though. That is the story in a nutshell, and so it right away made me think of "The 400 Blows" even the ending shot seems to be taken from 400.

The cast does a fair job, and there is an interesting mix of English and Hebrew in it. Although as a foreign film I saw no significant cultural difference, it could have been in America or in most of Europe. They only mention Arabs a few times, most of the focus is on the family dynamic. They don't even mention the war in it. It was boring for the most part, and I chalk that up to the fact that it's not telling an extraordinary tale, its just life. "Yom Yom" another Israeli movie I watched a few months ago had some of the same cast, specifically Natali Atiya, who is gorgeous. There is just something about her face, she really made the movie a lot better even though she isn't in it a lot. I must not be alone on finding her attractive since they put her on the cover of the box for "Yom Yom" and she is by no means even close to being a central character.

Like I said earlier the movie was sort of boring, and I kept getting annoyed with the kid for not just manning up and taking some responsibility, then again he was only 14. He's like an emo kid, everything is everyone else's fault and he just wants to play his guitar. Although if you look at it from the perspective that perhaps he is stupid then his behavior makes sense, and he is just not going to function that well.

Overall it was good, but if you want to see something blow up, or aliens or a comedy this isn't going to be what you want to pop in. 6/10 stars.

Here is a picture of the girl I was talking about so you see what I mean by gorgeous.

Director: Davis Kreiner

Starring: Adam Abulafia, Tova Asher, Samuel Edelman

War, Inc.

So I checked out the movie "War, Inc." because based on the preview it looked funny and interesting. Certain parts of it definitely had that going for it, but for the most part it just falls flat on its face.

Not the first movie to have the main character be a sensitive hitman who wants to get out of the business....strike one (since it wasn't done well) They try to make fun of the corporization of war in other countries where we as Americans simply do it to make money (might be true, might not be) but my problem isn't with that message, I'm fine with that message, my problem with that is that its done so clumsily its like if someone tried to fit an elephant into a smartcar....strike two. Strike three comes in the form of its lead, John Cusak, I don't believe for more than a second that he is a killer and can fight at all.

John Cusak holding a gun, have you ever heard of something so ridiculous. Now aside from that the cast is actually decent, none of them do very well with the under written and franky ridiculous characters they are given, but they couldn't do much with them anyway. I liked Hillary Duff as a bimbo pop star who is hiding the fact that shes a real person. Marrissa Tomei does a fair job as well. It just seemed to jump all around way to much, never focusing enough on his shadowed past, or the current situation, it was very under written and foggy. And as a satire it isn't funny enough. There were a few parts that made me laugh, and more than a chuckle, but it wasn't the satire. It was watching Ben Kingsley in a wheel chair trying to charge John Cusak who simply just steps out of the way. A physical gag, that's fine, but if that's the only part I'm laughing at, then someone dropped the ball somewhere.

Towards the end the story just gets to the point of utter absurdity, and still manages to give us a family safe happy ending, although the movie is not family safe...why end it like that? It was to predictable, to simple, the twists come right when you know they will and you know it all from the start anyway. I'm not sure why any of these people signed on to make it, I know Cusak helped write it, so there's one answer, but maybe he should just stick to his High Fidelity characters and shlubby charm and not branch to far from that. Overall it was a waste of time, but wasn't something I was angry I had watched, it just needed a lot of work. 4/10 stars. If someone has rented this and suggests you watch it just say no....like D.A.R.E.

Director: Joshua Seftel

Starring: John Cusak, Marissa Tomei, Hillary Duff, Ben Kingsley

This is not a movie review, but read it if you want.

This post is not about movies, not in the strictest sense of the word. No, instead it focuses on the movie that is my life. I think I have been lucky enough to have a few, or more than a few moments in my life cinema worthy. I have the shots set up in my head, camera placement and all. The lines are delivered just as they should be and nothing is as it shouldn't, and the best part is that its all real life, my real life.

I took a trip to Maine and Washington D.C. a few days ago, from Sunday morning until Wednesday evening I was in the car for 40 hours and driving a considerable amount of it. I want to just focus and flesh out some of one of my turns behind the wheel. Radek, a friend who came with me had just finished up his shift as we pulled into a rest stop to use the bathroom and fill the gas tank. As we got out of the car we saw a young cat eating McDonald's fries from the cement, it was probably about 50 degrees out. When she saw us in the dim glow of the far over head lights she scampered off into a bush near the entrance to the rest stop. As we walked by the bush we heard the distinct sound of a kitten crying. After we had used the bathroom Radek stepped into the bush looking for the lonely mother and her kittens but was unable to locate them. We got back into the car and returned to the road.

It was at this point that my turn behind the wheel took on a very familiar feel, that made me sad, and happy. Angry and calm. I think its important to mention that when we switched drivers and it was my turn it was about 4 in the morning. I love to drive during road trips, something about the movement and the quiet. The way the road turns and curves and waits. And even more than that I love driving at night, especially alone, as long as I'm not to tired I find it a great time to reflect on things. Now I wasn't alone per say but I was alone enough. Radek had laid down in the back seat and slept since it was 4 in the morning. I got the car back on the road and continued to head south, we were between Boston and NYC.

Boston Ive been to, but never NYC, its like something out of a book, or a far away land. Ive seen it in movies, but never with my own eyes, which is actually incredibly sad. Well that changed, the GPS was telling me to drive right through it, and no problem there. As Radek laid in the back I allowed me mind to travel to a place I didn't really want to go to....the first time I drove to Lincoln Nebraska. It was on a night only slightly earlier in the summer, and four years ago. There was a lot of possibility in that trip a lot to look forward to and things happened I didn't actually expect. Since this trip is so linked in my mind to this stretch of drive I might as well explain it.

I was recently dumped (this is 4 years ago) I saw it coming, and I knew it would be bad and it was, although I guess me and the girl were never really going out, and she wanted to return to her high school sweet heart, how could I compete with that. So instead of visiting her for a few days in the summer like I had planned I took up another friends offer to come see her in NE, and she had just the girl for me. The day was long, and one that shaped who I am today, I could even feel it that day. I got up and went to class, I waited in the sun at the train station near the Columbia Film building, when I had gotten back to my parents place I had a classic dinner with my friend Brooke. Our deal was she would come over, we would watch a movie, eat Chinese food and then just hang out, and that is exactly what we did.

When the movie was over, and she was gone I went into my parents room to bid them a goodbye and then climbed behind the wheel of my brothers car and set out at around 11 at night. I had my Ipod set up in the car and I listened to "Rent" it meant something to me at that time beyond just the music and the play, it was something I shared with the girl who had just broken it off with me. As I drove I watched an electrical storm, every color lighting touched down in the corn fields near me silently. I called my best friend and left a message with her as well as the ex. But for the most part I was alone, me and the car on the road. I watched the sun rise, I took a pee by the side of the road with green mist surrounding me as I waved to people who passed by. It was fun, it felt like it was a next step. And I was excited, as I should have been because later that night I would meet someone very special. In those 8 hours of the drive a lot of things changed about me and I was remade into a better person, I couldn't have told you that then, but that's what seemed to have happened.

In that trip I stepped into another phase of my life, and I'm hoping this trip is like that one, something that will signal a change a new direction that my life will take. The tapestry's threads are changing color, hopefully.

Back to the trip I just took, as Radek was asleep in the back I turned on the satellite radio and sped off across Connecticut towards the New York City. The east coast is much different than the Midwest, their roads are akin to if I dropped a plate full of spaghetti on the floor and said "Road plans are done" I was surrounded by trucks and cars all trying to do 80 miles per hour heading towards the city. The sickly yellow glow of the street lights making a funny little rat race out of the whole thing. I have never seen so many cars trying to smash by one another at 530 in the morning to get to work. As the black velvety sky turned into deep blue swirls and eventually pale powder blue I broke into NY State. As I drove through one of the Burroughs I hoped at the last minute that an old friend from school would call me back since she lived in NYC I could see her and get a closer look. Before I had even realized it I was off of Manhattan and over the river on the Washington Bridge. The sun was just breaking the horizon and was lighting up the towers of buildings. They were far away and much smaller than I would have thought. This city, a favorite of someone I know, here it was, looking back at me.

I didn't know that this country could go from being beautiful one minute to being so ugly the next, as the bridge ended and Jersey began I saw the raw industry of the country, not that I'm not used to it coming out of Chicago, but we don't allow that to happen here. I was obscured the view of the city by monoliths and cranes, anything that could make the city look bad was put in Jersey. As the upset sunk in I was able to get another view of the city as the machines broke and parted further south. My mind was racing, and I let the thoughts spill out and over, filling me and the car with it. What did this mean? Why was I seeing this city now, today, this minute, right as the sun is rising?

As quickly as I head entered the city I had left it. There was a huge space missing at the lower end of the island from where the WTC was supposed to be. A certain emptiness. Waiting to see what would happen next I was reminded of someone telling me that as they approached where I was they felt a great anticipation as if something big was about to occur. And it did, but why did it turn into this. Saying I would never speak to her again is not something I ever thought I could, or would say, but I'm over that now. I gave many chances for wrongs to be righted, and neutralized. As there is a gap where the towers are missing in NYC there is a huge part of what made me who I was those last 4 years gone as well. Trying to see how to fill that hole has been the worst thing. I'm reminded of a lyric from a song "I don't want to be a soldier, who the captain of some sinking ship would stow far below. I took my love down to Violet Hill, there we sat in snow. All that time she was silent still" I remember her telling me not to play that song to often, she liked it and wanted to make sure she wouldn't get sick of it. My memory is bad, but I remember everything about her, why?

I washed my hands in the Atlantic while in Maine, I walked on a beach made of sea shells and I let the wind play on my face and relax me into forgetting something. I couldn't tell you what it was because...well I forgot it. I stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial when there was no one else in it, feet from the base of the statue looking up at it. How many millions of people had stood there before me, how many peoples lives changed because of this one man's life.

If this trip to Maine and Washington DC was meant to be something more, internally, then I'm waiting to see where its going to take me next. Waiting to see the next cinema moment I will have. I wrote a short story about the first trip to Lincoln, that I seemed to have lost, it all exists in my head, but I still want those words back that I had written when they were fresh, and untainted.

I was describing life to someone a little while ago as being a series of little deaths, he didn't know what I meant by that so i was forced to detail what I meant by that. Examples: When you break that last piece of childhood innocence off, something dies inside of you, and as death is definite you can never get it back. Having sex for the first time, something dies in you then, a change occurs that you cant counteract. Most of these little deaths are actually viewed as positive things, and I cant deny that, but that doesn't mean i have to like them.

I have blathered on long enough. I just wanted to get this out before it also left me and found a place to die. Life is................different, from day to day. So here goes another, and I can finish shedding off the last shreds of the last part of me that died.

Made in Britain

Even though this movie is relatively short, clocking in at 75 minutes it certainly packs a punch. Now by today's standards it might not seem edgy enough, and I guess it isn't that violent, and doesn't really scare you at any time, but its more about what makes a person become like this.

The story is very simple, there's a young neo Nazi in Great Britain, born out of the punk movement who thinks he knows what the world is about and how it works. The thing is is that he is wrong on almost all counts. You watch in awe as he burns every bridge he comes to, and it fits for him to do this since he is more an anarchist than a fascist. I wanted to just reach into the TV and grab him and say "Don't you get it, you aren't a Nazi!" He thinks that he shouldn't follow the worlds rules and that he should do what he wants, but he doesn't get that if he were a German during WWII doing that they would have marginalized him in one way or another. He is angry, and they never give a reason, he just is. He hates the blacks, but rooms with one and sort of becomes his friend, he doesn't even follow his own ideologies. As all these people try to help him he finds reasons to hate them, and they keep thinking he will change.

By the end you truly understand his true nature. I wont say anymore about the story, but I got what he was by the end of it. Like "The Believer" its low budget dealing with someone who thinks they are a Nazi, but are far from understanding what it takes to be a Nazi. The role is played to a creepy T by Tim Roth as a very early role for him, and it makes sense after seeing this why he would get more work. His eyes are fierce and bothersome. His teeth look sharp enough to break skin, all without makeup or prostetics, just by the way he uses his face.

Ryan Gosling I'm sure must have watched this movie to better help him take on the role he did in "The Believer" The roles are very similar and very well played by both. I liked the way they shot most of it, there's a few great shots using silhouettes. Its dark and sharp, and unforgiving in its portrayal of this life style. I wish i could say more about it, but it needed to be longer, it still gets 7/10 stars from me because it was interesting, and true of human nature.

Director: Davis Leland

Starring: Tim Roth

The Lazarus Project

Ive seen a lot of movies with this sort of premise, but not done exactly like this. If I hadnt been in the mood for something like this today I might have said that I didnt like it, but I did, a lot. Its a real slow burner, they set stuff up and dont care to explain it, and I was fine with that.

The story begins like a drama, an ex-con who is trying to support his family but loses his job because of his past. He is propositioned by his brother who just got out of prison to do a job involving stealing something from a lab. He agrees so he can support his wife and child as well as his brother drops the bomb that if he doesn't get the money they are going to kill him because he owes them money from before he went to prison. It is all very straight forward, a good man who has made mistakes is forced back into his old ways because of circumstances, and its here that we take the first turn. When they go to do the robbery something goes wrong and three people are killed and he is the one they mark for it, even though he is innocent of the murders. Since he has a record and they want to blame someone for the deaths they put a needle in his arm, and give him a lethal injection. He dies.

The next thing he knows is he is walking by the side of the road in Oregon and is now the new grounds keeper at a mental asylum for the criminally insane. He is quiet, and bides his time trying to figure out how and why he got there, and why he's not 6 feet under. Its amazing how scary a person standing in the woods watching you walk can be, and it was. They leave tons of questions open and don't care to explain most of whats going on, but like I said before I'm fine with that. Is he dead, is he alive, who are these people and why is this happening?

The casting to me seemed spot on, even Paul Walker seemed to play a role where he is quiet most of the time very well. Bob Gunton as the "warden" of the place is great, very reminiscent of his role in "The Shawshank Redemption"

There were a few shots I absolutely loved, and they kept the movie nice and dark. It was moody and foreboding. There were certainly many cracks in the story and loose ends, it jumps and plays with the patience of the audience, but I was always on top of it. Its a real slow burner and very under stated. It was something that was not unexpected, but still had its moments that made me smile because they did something little that was unexpected.

Something I liked a lot was no one ever says the words "The Lazarus Project" No one really says much of anything. Its an odd mix of drama, mystery and suspense. Its green and gray and sad. It was something that I enjoyed more than I would have expected. If you liked "Memento" "Stay" or "The Jacket" then check this one out. 7/10 stars.

Director: John Glenn
Starring: Paul Walker, Piper Perabo, Bob Gunton

Lost and Delirious

I had to wait a few extra days for Netflix to send me this movie from California, why they wouldn't keep at least one copy in the Midwest escapes me, but I suppose that's okay. It was worth the wait, it had been a little while since I had seen a film like this.

We are thrown into the world of a girls boarding school, Ive seen plenty of movies revolving around the premise of kids in a boarding school, so nothing new there. All these movies tend to go the same, there is a different kid who doesn't fit in because they are a Jew (School Ties) or maybe a little to imaginative (A Little Princess) Whatever the thing that makes them different it always means they have to go head to head with either the administration or with their fellow students. This film makes it very clear that the teachers are with the main characters because maybe they are like them or they just understand how life is. Its the young girls at the school who cause the problems.

The story is simple, there are three girls living together in the dorms, the new girl who hates her father and misses her dead mother. Then there is the girl who has to make her parents happy, and then the one who doesn't think she has a family (shes adopted) who is very intense. Well the new girl quickly learns that her new roommates are lesbians, and that they are together. This isn't something that bothers her, she is just happy to be part of the group, that is until some of the younger girls discover them naked in bed. So of course they have to deny it, but the intense girl doesn't want to, and doesn't see why she should have to. There is no happy ending here, like every couple in every story that involves a wedge between the lovers its only a matter of time until one flips out and does something rash and desperate.

As much as I wanted the intense girl to stop what she was doing in trying to get her lover back and just move on, I really wanted her not to give up. You can see her ex-lover is dying inside because she has to deny who she really is. As much of a fool she makes of herself in trying to win back her lovers affections its the right thing to do, as childish as it is she is experiencing emotions fully head on and unapologetically. People might view "Romeo and Juliette" as being a great romance, but the characters are simply stupid, and running on hormones, but, and this is a big but, what they are feeling is real, to them, in that moment. They still like the characters in this movie make the wrong choices but they aren't doing it to suit their parents, or to fit into society, they do what they do out of love.

There are moments that the dialogue made me cringe, and seemed somewhat trite and over written, but I liked the message and the way it was done, and how it was unforgiving. The acting was different from what I would expect from those actors, including Piper Perabo and Mischa Barton. The way it was shot was nothing special, very straight forward, in that was I wish they had taken some risks. It wasn't anything new or grand, but it made its point and then walked away, or flew away. It seems that sometimes certain people cant live with the pain of the world and they do foolish things. This movie is an example of that, and about how people look for acceptance but most often cant find it. Like "Brokeback Mountain" I wouldn't call this Gay/Lesb. interest, its simply a love story gone wrong. Two people pulled apart by the circumstances of the world. Sad, and true. 7/10 stars.

The Hurt Locker

So I saw this a few days ago and thus have had time to let it settle in, on first viewing it I really enjoyed it, and nothing has changed since then. I had heard that it was good, one of the best war movies of the past few years and I would have to agree. We've all seen the take on war as being something that people fear and loathe (not in Las Vegas) and when we follow the characters in the wars of the movies for the most part they are scared and don't want to be there. This is where this movie to me differed the most as compared to other war movies. The main focus and character of the movie is a bomb diffuser who seems to just love what he does.

We start the movie seeing what it takes to defuse a bomb in Iraq and how quickly things can go wrong and how deadly it is. When someone's running from a bomb and it blows up there is no slow motion fly into the air that they just walk away from. They go down and they stay down. The story quickly moves on and introduces us to the center mystery and enigma of the story, out of the three characters that we get to know you wonder and are amazed the most by the guy in their little unit who actually is going and diffusing the bombs. The other two people we get and we see their motivation or lack there of in certain ways, and here comes in this cowboy who is basically looking for the best way to die, and is obsessed with it.

Scene after scene is just building on how much the audience can be on edge and tense, I don't usually gasp while watching a movie, but I did several times with this. And the scares and tension don't come from some boogey man, or killer with a knife, its in the sheer terror of the spilt second from when the bomb maker hits the switch and the bomb does what it was made to do. It might seem that the movie would just become a broken record, I mean how many times can you watch someone diffuse a bomb? Well apparently its a lot because I never got bored with it.

The way its shot is very simple, its digital, and dirty and quick, it makes tons of "mistakes" but it helps in establishing this is not a film or movie but reality, which I was quick to want to believe. The lack of big stars at least after the first few minutes help with that. I recognized all of the players, but not in the same way I would if it were say....Brad Pitt. The camera shakes and shows everything in the manner I wanted it to. There is one great shot in particular from inside the Hummer when we see someone get blown up and we see and not see everything we should, great shot. There are a few unexpected cameos, that made it that much more enjoyable, its nice to see a big actor come in and play a role you wouldn't expect of them.

The film plays with the heads of the characters we well as the audience, I looked around the theatre during some of the more interesting parts and saw the strangest looks on peoples faces because the movie is utter insanity, as i guess most war is. From the line that is shown on the screen before the movies starts which simply states that War is like a drug we do understand the one crazy character in the film, we get that he's addicted, but why? Why do people do this to themselves, walking the tight rope between life and death. What is it about man that makes us want to destroy ourselves? It was a great movie, not the best war movie Ive ever seen, but definitely gives a new view point on war, and the war in Iraq. Its a great counter statement to "Jarhead" another great war movie about the middle east which is very "clean" and "calculated" while "The Hurt Locker" is bloody, manically laughing with a match in one hand and dynamite in the other. Definitely worth a look by everyone. 8/10 stars.