★★★★--Joseph Gordon Levitt and Rian Johnson team up. Was crazy about it when it came out. Holds up. Love neo-noir with the hard-boiled dialogue, the seedy characters, the femme fatale. Especially into it when the person investigating is just a normal shmo. Also, if it’s high school. Those seem to have been super popular around that time. I feel it goes from being all right to pretty good to great by the end. My complaint is that it could be tighter.
Gist is two teenage sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, are obsessed with death and are kind of outcasts in their suburban high school. Ginger gets attacked by a werewolf and shit starts getting weird between them. You know, Ginger becomes more violent, both physically and behaviorally unrecognizable, and Brigitte searches for a way to reverse the werewoof curse. Clever title, ya dig? This all while navigating the dangers of adolescence, family dynamics, and such. Explores themes of puberty, identity, and the monstrous feminine, blending body horror with dark humor.
Emily Perkins as Brigitte and Katharine Isabelle as Ginger. Perkins I mostly think of as Bev Marsh from the 1990 It. Isabelle pops up here and there in mostly horror. She was the star in American Mary, played teen fodder in Freddy vs. Jason, and even appeared in a lesser Nolan film with Insomnia.
Others you may recognize include Kris Lemche as a drug dealing werewoof expert. He was in Final Destination 3, the one with the roller coaster, and shows up pretty frequently on the electric teevee machine.
Mimi Rogers plays the mom. She famously introduced Tom Cruise, her husband from 1987 through 1990, to Scientology, which she left after the divorce. Looks like her and David Miscavige fucking hate each other and she’s on the Scientology naughty list, considered a “suppressive person.” Good for her.
Jesse Moss plays a douche bro who gets turned. Was just writing the other day about Tucker & Dale vs Eviland saying haven’t seen him in anything else, though he plays a convincing prick. Of course, I randomly watch a movie with him in it the next day.
Directed by one John Fawcett. He’s worked steadily since the early 1990s, directing mostly episodes of TV, most notably a huge chunk of Orphan Black. Film-wise, he’s mostly known for this flick.
Something funny is that the sisters are doing some art project where they stage suicides and photograph it. My theme for AP Art Studio this same time was suicide. Still have a few of those pieces from high school. One is a self-immolation. Another is the old death by hanging with a belt. I wasn’t a particularly dark kid but have always wanted that to be an option for people.
Reminded me of sex ed from elementary school. How women have periods while dudes have nothing seemed infinitely unfair to me. “You mean women go through this traumatic experience every month for 30 to 40 years? Do men have anything like that. No. Crazy.”
Anywho, the flick wreaks of Canada. Canadian horror can be pretty fun. Pretty niche blend of psychological tension, atmospheric dread, and dark humor. There is the country's vast, often landscapes, lending itself to themes of isolation and identity. Emphasize slow-building tension, cerebral scares, social anxieties, fears of transformation/otherness. You get the idea. Usually can tell if a film is Canadian within a few minutes. There is an old joke, is this the United States 10 years ago, or Canada today?
Lot of dead dogs. Now I remember why I didn't like it as this is a great way to turn me off. Poor Baxter. Rest in peace, Norman. On the other hand, if you are going to keep a dog chained up, go fuck yourself. But, yeah, too much dead dog.
Directed by Sam Mendes. He also did American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Skyfall, Spectre, and 1917. A real talent, this guy. Have to be to get a pair of Bond films.
The film delves into the psychological study of a U.S. Marine sniper during the Gulf War dealing with existential issues with meaning, purpose, and boredom. Hones in on the isolation and monotony that the soldiers experienced in that mostly forgotten war. Adapted from Anthony Swofford's memoir of the same name.
The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford, who gives a great performance. Shows a lot of subdued range. Others in the ensemble include Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard, Lucas Black, Dennis Haysbert, and Chris Cooper, who are all at the top of their collective games.
Criticized for a lack of a strong emotional impact. I strongly disagreed with that assessment, as the movie hammers home the delayed psychological effects of traumatic experiences in a morally dubious war that started a fight with consequences for a generation that are still ever-present. A good introspective exploration of war. Definite recommend, even as one opposed to both this war and the next one.
Now, after some estimated 3,000 movies. Oh, it's shit.
Gist of it. Set in1957, the story follows archaeologist Indiana Jones, who is racing against Soviet KGB agents to locate a telepathic crystal skull hidden in Peru. To aid him in this perilous mission, Jones is joined by his former lover, Marion Ravenwood, and their son, Mutt Williams. The film's supporting cast includes Ray Winstone, John Hurt, and Jim Broadbent, adding depth and excitement to the cinematic journey.
Other notables include John Hurt (Alien 1984, Midnight Express, The Elephant Man, so forth) and Ray Winstone (mostly think of him as the lead in Sexy Beast and as Nickolson's right-hand man in The Departed that asks Leo if he is on his period when he orders a cranberry juice). Hurt plays a crazy rival of Dr. Jones who was with Ravenwood romantically but just lays down when Indiana comes back into the picture, which sure. Winstone is a triple agent, or some such shit. Basically a poor man's Belloq.
Not a whole lot to like here. Going to South America was cool. LaBeouf is solid. Feel his performance is the best part of this movie, but his storyline doesn't quite work. In the middle there when him and Indiana are walking around in the caverns is pretty decent, actually.
Now for the stuff I didn't like... Lot of age related jokes. “Get on, gramps,” “what are you like 80?”, so forth. Horrible exposition. The scene with Ford and Shia is awful. Followed up with really bad stunt doubles. It's also too long. A real slog to get through. The crystal skulls isn't a story we know like the best of the films. This MacGuffin is no Ark of the Covenant, for example. Also, there is a stupid/infuriating scene where Shia swings his way across the jungle like a monkey, like a human with no experience can suddenly just do something like this.
Finally, there are two parts I really, really hate. Opening is unbelievable and dumb and unwatchable. No way Russians would be able to organize and break in to a classified area with basically no problems in the 1950s. Then the government tests a nuke with all of this shit with the Russians going on. What is happening? This is the infamous “nuking the fridge” scene. More or less everything in that first 25 minutes is just painful.
Look for my rankings of the Indiana Jones films in the near future. Probably not going to come as much of a surprise, but I might have a couple of spicier takes.
Second installment of Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, co-written with his bro Jonathan. By far his most linear movie. Doesn't even have a flashback. Ensemble cast includes Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman, among other. Gyllenhaal is a vast improvement over Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Eckhart's ark is pretty interesting. Could be read as the fall of a great man, pushed to his limits. Or a man that wasn't that great to begin with, self-serving and power-hungry that was always capable of evil. What I think of as Dibo's, aka “Tiny” Zeus Lister, final decent role.
Gist of the film is Batman, police lieutenant James Gordon, and district attorney Harvey Dent, join forces to combat organized crime in Gotham City; but, their plans are thorted by the Joker, a chaotic mastermind intent on pushing Batman to his limits. Standard Batman stuff on paper. But this is way more than your standard superhero fare. It's probably the best superhero film ever made. Definitely is in my book.
Never gets than his conversation with Dent after killing his lady. Talks about “plans” and “schemes” and so forth. Then delivers the best monologue of the movie:
“Nobody panics when things go 'according to plan.' Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all 'part of the plan.' But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds. Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair.”
Fucking great. And accurate.
Another great and accurate quote comes from Dent at the end when he says, “You thought we could be decent men, in an indecent time! But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased, unprejudiced, fair.”
Harvey Dent being unable to recognize the Joker until he takes off his N95 is genuinely hilarious. Don't get a lot of unintentional comedy in Nolan movies, but this, and then pretty much every time Bane opens his mouth, are funny as shit.
The film's impact is obvious, especially with DC's grittier, crime-focused approach, probably to the detriment of film as a whole. It basically ushered in the great IP era of film when it comes to superhero movies.
The cast is fucking sick. Not only do you have Bale and Jackman, but you also have the ever-lovely Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, David Bowie (perfectly cast as Nikola Tesla), and Michael Cain (who's always bomb).
Ok. Fuck it. Huge spoiler. Dude gets a machine from Tesla that was supposed to teleport Jackman from one place to another. Instead, it clones whatever is in the device. So Jackman starts cloning himself for the trick. How does he deal with all these clones of himself? He kills them. Every night. Kills a clone. It isn't super clear, but he might be killing himself and letting the clone live. It's weird. Anyway, this eventually leads to him setting up Christian Bale for murder. Also, there are two Christian Bale's living one life. This movie is a huge mindfuck, and you can never be sure which version is which, but one of the Christian Bales, I'm pretty sure, is evil. All the Hugh Jackmans are evil, though. This movie is crazy and fucking genius. Also, seriously complex. If you want your mind seriously fucked, watch this and try to figure out which brother is which at different points in the movie.
Rewatching all of his flicks again, sort of in order. All of them are great. However, so far, this one is my second favorite, after Interstellar.
★★★★-When this came out, I thought it was the best Batman movie. Now, this being something like my fifth viewing, I've got it at third behind Burton's 1989 film and The Dark Knight. Have it just ahead of Batman Returns.Heavily influenced by two of the best Batman graphics, Year One and The Long Halloween, also Blade Runner. The look is all Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.
In the summer of 2005, when this was released, my expectations were pretty low even though I was already a Nolan fan, and was pretty much all in on Christian Bale. However, I didn't see this in the theater. It took some word of mouth convincing, which was right on. Sort of a bummer that this remains the only Nolan movie I didn't see on the big screen save for Following.
Like that Nolan anchors this universe in something resembling reality. The dark aspect of it is one of its major strengths. Now, all DC movies are like this. On a related note, I'm so fucking over comic book movies...
Storyline is pretty much perfect. Get an origin story that was actually good which then segues into his training, followed by his return to Gotham where there is a plot to throw the city into complete chaos. Mixed in there, I liked the way Wayne is portrayed as a bratty billionaire, as a persona, not actually the man he is.
Casting is perfect. The villains are great. Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul and Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow are stellar. Also dig Tom Wilkinson as a realistic Carmine Falcone. Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, all great. Only weak spot, in my opinion, is Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. She was pretty meh, milquetoast, a total soup sandwich, but it's not like she had a lot to work with. When she is replaced in the second movie, it's barely a blip on the radar.
Oveall, a great flick. Nolan immerses us in this bleak world and makes it real, giving Gotham City a soul. It's edgy with solid effects that aged well. In the hands of Nolan, it's no wonder that the film transcends the superhero summer blockbuster genre.
★★★-“A good cop can't sleep because he's missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him.” Yeah, not really my cup of tea. Saw this when it came out, dug that it was set in Alaska and liked the ambiance. However, wasn’t crazy about either Al Pacino or Robin Williams. Liked both of them more this time around, especially Williams, but it feels like an outlier for Christopher Nolan. It’s fine, but not genius like Memento.
Gist of the movie is that a pair of homicide detectives from Los Angeles go to Alaska, for some reason, to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. The sun doesn’t set and the cop played by Al Pacino, who’s a bastard, can’t sleep. While chasing the suspect, played by Robin Williams, he ends of shooting his partner, probably by accident, but covers it up because his partner was feeding information to internal affairs back home. Williams’s character sees all this, and holds it over Pacino’s head so as to try to help him frame the dead chick’s boyfriend. So, you know, a real uplifting type of flick.
MVP is Hilary Swank who plays local detective Ellie Burr, who is a fangirl of Dormer (Pacino’s character). He is apparently something of a famous investigator. She is really solid in this as a up-and-coming detective who is wrestling with her hero being an asshole/bastard cop. Williams, who I remember not liking, was actually pretty stellar, too. Sort of like his Oliver Sacks from Awakens that fucking kills young girls.
The film is told through two sequences. The ones in color tell the story backwards in little chunklets. Basically, the audience sees shit the way he does, in these short increments with no idea how we got here until we get to the next chunk of time. The black-and-white scenes show what is happening chronologically. These sequences meet at the end of the film, producing the complete narrative. It is clever as fuck.
Stars Guy Pearce as Lenny, the guy with the condition. I bought a shit ton of Guy Pearce stock after LA Confidential. Really paid off here. Some really good that guys in this film--you get Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) and Lieutenant Dangle (Thomas Lennon). Plus, total that guy Mark Boone Junior (most memorable part, for me, is as the pizza stealing FBI guy in Se7en). Jorja Fox, whom you might recognize from ER or CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, plays Lenny's wife.
The only substantive female role is that of Carrie-Anne Moss's character. A lot going on with her. For a while, I thought she was just getting revenge on the guy that killed her person. She says some genuinely awful shit to Lenny and calls him a "retard." Even steals his pens so he can't write anything down before she tells him she is going to fuck him over (and fuck him) and that she will enjoy it more knowing that he's too stupid to remember. Ouch. But she ends up helping him. She might have figured out that the death of her dude was more the result of this other guy, played by Joe Pantoliano (the true villain of the movie), which is probably somewhat accurate. Still, I think she sees Lenny as a victim too, which is why she helps him. Her whole look and vibe are exactly like this girl I dated in 2002, who I watched this with. She thought that Lenny was the real villain, which I still think is insane.
Nolan is the obvious MVP of the movie. Pearce is perfect but goddamn. It's hard to get over how great this film is or what it was like watching it for the first time. I've seen it roughly five times and like it more after every viewing. I still don't 100% get it, but I get closer with every watch. Multiple viewings are definitely a requirement. Crazy good.
This is basically two mockumentaries in one movie. The documentary film crew is following Werner Herzog, talking about his films. While they are filming, he is making another film about the Loch Ness monster. Things get weird with the writer/producer Zac Penn trying to stage some bullshit, hiring a softcore porn actress as their sonar expert, and just some actor as the cryptozoologist. Werner stays levelheaded though his integrity is being compromised.
The cryptozoologist guy is way too over-the-top. Takes you out of the movie. Also, people Zack is constantly saying “stop filming me” and “get that camera out of my face.”
We do get some of those great Werner monologues though:
“It's one of those films that didn't want to be made. To me, it seemed to be like a stillborn child that just didn't want to come to life.”
“Finding the monster was never my intention. And so filming it was strangely unfulfilling and it left me questioning not only this experience, but many things I've done before. It made me wonder what I've been after. All this drama and pain to capture a few moments of light on a strip of celluloid. The truth did not seem ecstatic. It seemed vulgar and pointless.”
Overall, liked the supplemental material on the DVD more than the actual movie. Lots of fun cameos with people like Jeff Goldblum, Crispin Glover, and other Hollywood folk hanging out with Werner at the beginning of the movie. I’m sure they had fun making it.
This Jordan-esque Interpretation was how I saw it this time. “I have a competition in me. I want no one
else to succeed… I look at people and I see nothing worth liking.” Once his son becomes his competitor, he takes that shit personally. Never has there been a more complicated father-son relationship on screen. So good.
We get glimpses of Plainview losing control several times up to the end when he completely fucking loses it in the greatest meltdown of all time. I have a little of that competition in me on my worst days. This isn’t comforting.
Less complicated is what’s going on with Daniel and Eli. These absolutely hate each other. Daniel treats Eli like an idiot who he has no respect for the beginning. Then he goes to that sermon, immediately realizes he’s full of shit, but also that he’s the one he’s gonna have to deal with. “And if I have no teeth I will gum you!”
If you don’t watch this masterpiece at least three times, you can’t even have a discussion about it. There is so much to take in through every second of the film. I love it. Truly. It is my favorite movie of all time maybe.
Phenomenal soundtrack. When the music plays, it is on. It’s chilling. I listen to it often. The cinematography is crazy too. We are mostly distant and when we get closeups, it’s uncomfortable and ambiguous.
Jesus fucking Christ. I rewatch it whenever I hear anyone mention it. Plainview goes through hell and he ends up a reflection of that. Absolutely profound. A goddamned masterpiece.
Weird to see a Rock movie where he is the fourth banana. Also, him and Terry Crews teaming up together is cray.
Lot of suspension of disbelief. Steve Carrell goes from paper-pusher to superhero as soon as he is promoted to field agent. Anne Hathaway, my queen, was looking fine though.
Gist of the movie is that a bunch of college kids go to through the Deep South on their way spring break but get caught up this town Pleasant Valley, which, as I sure you know, is not. Things start fine as the mayor, played by Robert Englund, convinces them to stay for the town’s annual barbecue, but then the townsfolk start to killin’ them. Yee-Hah. Fucking die.
The maniacs are these uneducated hill jacks with fucked up politics obsessed with the South rising again who are stuck in the past. Some racial motivated killings. General northern hate. Pasttimes include pussy strangling and incest. Stars and Bars everywhere. Cannibalism. Typical trip to the South, I’d say.
Not a good movie. Mostly Robert Englund playing hero all. Bob Shaye’s sister Lin is it. Since Freddy and Lin Shaye are more or less the leads, I assumed it was a New Line movie, but it is Lion’s Gate. Also got a glimpse Kane Hodder. He is the guy that most people think of as Jason Vorhees since he really leaned into the role. Played Jason in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, and Jason X. No else I recognize.
I see it's a remake of a Criterion movie, the 1964 film Two Thousand Maniacs! written and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.. Shan’t be watching that one.
Rotten Tomato Consensus: Christopher Nolan skillfully guides the audience through Memento's fractured narrative, seeping his film in existential dread.
Memento, a neo-noir psychological thriller, released in 2000, written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Gist is a dude with anterograde amnesia (the inability to form new memories), can't remember anything short-term after 15 minutes. He got this way from an injury resulting from an attack on him/his wife, who was raped and murdered. Having developed a system where he uses Polaroids and tattoos to track information, he is tracking down his wife's killer.
The film is told through two sequences. The ones in color tell the story backwards in little chunklets. Basically, the audience sees shit the way he does, in these short increments with no idea how we got here until we get to the next chunk of time. The black-and-white scenes show what is happening chronologically. These sequences meet at the end of the film, producing the complete narrative. It is clever as fuck.
Stars Guy Pearce as Lenny, the guy with the condition. I bought a shit ton of Guy Pearce stock after LA Confidential. Really paid off here. Some really good that guys in this film--you get Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) and Lieutenant Dangle (Thomas Lennon). Plus, total that guy Mark Boone Junior (most memorable part, for me, is as the pizza stealing FBI guy in Se7en). Jorja Fox, whom you might recognize from ER or CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, plays Lenny's wife.
Nolan is the obvious MVP of the movie. Pearce is perfect but goddamn. It's hard to get over how great this film is or what it was like watching it for the first time. I've seen it roughly five times and like it more after every viewing. I still don't 100% get it, but I get closer with every watch. Multiple viewings are definitely a requirement. Crazy good.
