Sunday, March 16, 2014

Movies Watched The Week of 3/9 - 3/15

Welcome back, all 24 of you, to the new installment of what movies I watched this week.  I'm still getting into the swing of things with this, so bear with me.  Also, the biggest event of the week was the finale of True Detective, so a post about that may be imminent.  But for now, lets get into the movies I jumped into this week.



The boys are back in town

Monty Python and The Holy Grail (March 9th, 2014)

Directors: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones
Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, and Terry Jones


I haven't watched this movie in many years, probably since high school.  I don't know why, as I remember laughing my ass off at it.  But I also somehow didn't remember much about it.  A few things, like the Black Knight or the taunting frenchman and the rabbit.  But watching it again now, it was like a new experience.  And it is still a very funny fucking movie.  The movie is very silly and is so damn meta, just making fun of damn near everything.  The whole idea of movies is cut down and put into a ridiculous movie.  Now I may be a bit controversial here, but as funny as it is I don't think it has aged very well.  There is a "narrative" but it really is just a sketch show strung together.  So there are bits that work like gang busters (the Black Knight) and things that just don't.  Coming from sketch comedy, it's not very surprising.  But it didn't hit as hard as I exactly remembered.  But despite being a bit rickety, it's still got classic bits and general sense of anarchy that makes it a must watch and a classic in it's own right.


"What, you've never lost an arm before?"

Rating: 8.5/10





Norton's arrival in Hollywood is superb

Primal Fear (March 10th, 2014)
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Starring: Richard Gere, Edward Norton, Laura Linney, and John Mahoney

This is a movie I've been looking to get to for a while now, as it is the movie that put Edward Norton on the map.  Hell, it's his first damn movie performance.  He wouldn't hit A list status until American History X a few years later, but this is the first inkling of the talent he would later display.  He gives a damn good performance, essentially playing two different roles and managing to make them completely different people.  It's a damn good performance in what is an otherwise typical, 90s legal drama.  An Archbishop gets killed in Chicago, and Norton is the only suspect.  Enter Richard Gere as a hotshot Defense Attorney, looking to defend Norton pro bono (for free, come on people) so he can get some free publicity.  But he starts to believe Norton is innocent.  So what is Gere to do when the District Attorney appears to have a slam dunk case?  The movie is a solid enough little picture, a slightly more polished TV movie.  It also has enough interesting twists in the story to keep everything surprising.  And the acting is solid all around.  I don't much care for Gere, but he isn't completely irritating here.  But there isn't much here besides the case.  Gere is just another in a line of Defense Attorneys on film that are cocky and great at their job, but god dammit they have a heart of gold.  Not many movies can give us one that's a little more than that logline, but the ones that have (Anatomy of A Murder, The Lincoln Lawyer) prove themselves to have more to them.  Linney is another young female who is just trying to prove herself in a mans field. And of course Gere and Linney fucked at some point in the past (obviously, because movies) and there's "tension" in the air. There's also no real technical aspects to flip out about.  It really does feel like a TV movie, coming from a man who directed alot of TV like NYPD Blue.  It's very bland in a way.  But really, the main thing here is Norton who just owns the movie.   For most others, this would be their best performance.  So the fact that it isn't just goes to show the immense talent the man displays.  So come for Norton, stay for a semi decent court case, and literally only remember Norton.


"Yes, I did the film Death To Smoochy of my own free will."

Rating: 7/10






An Inglorious farewell to their captors

The Inglorious Bastards (March 11th, 2014)
Director: Enzo Castellari
Starring: Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson

The movie which gave Quentin Tarantino his title for his WWII men on a mission movie, it is a very completely different animal that only shares a few surface level similarities.  This is the movie if Quentin made the whole of Inglourious Basterds about the titular Basterds as led by Brad Pitt. But instead of a group of Jews looking to scalp some Nazi bastards, it's about a group of US soldiers on the way to a court martial when they are attacked by Nazis and escape.  The survivors decide to make their way to Sweden so they can escape prison.  What follows is a simple yet decidedly fun movie about some, quite frankly, dickhead characters.  Like Tarantino characters, they are not good people but are so funny and watchable that you can't help but root for them.  It also doesn't hurt that they are fighting Nazis the whole time, so the disparity in levels of shittiness is weighted in favor of the Bastards.  The cast all shines, even though two of them look like Italian versions of Cole Hauser and Tom Savini.  In particular we get fun performances from Bo and Fred.  This is just simple, B movie fun.  Nothing particularly iconic and nothing to take away from it.  A great late night movie if I've ever seen one.


"Say Max Schmelling again bitch"

Rating: 7.5/10






"This is a sad song about a Robin Hood movie"

Inside Llewyn Davis (March 11th, 2014)
Directors: The Coen Brothers
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman


The Coens are an interesting pair of film makers.  They have made a name for themselves for a long time with a string of great movies (some really shit though).  But aside from The Big Lebowski, I hadn't really loved any of them.  There were many really liked. But not many loves.  And while this may not have reached that height, it is the closest in a long time I've been on the verge. And the kind of movie this is, it may go up in status.  This is a movie that begs multiple viewings.  There is no real narrative to speak of.  It's just a week in the life of a struggling folk musician (Isaac) who just can't catch a break.  But it is, in true Coens fashion, not easily put into one category.  It can go from funny to heartbreaking.  It can be ridiculously realistic and human, then go the the typical Coen brothers oddball humor.  It's an almost Job esque level of beating that Llewyn takes throughout the movie.  And while one may need multiple viewings to get some of the messages hidden in the movie, I myself saw a little hope at the end.  Now being a Coen Brothers movie, this is a flawlessly made movie on a technical sense.  They just know what to do now.  Acting wise, the movie is stellar with Isaac leading the charge with a turn so good the Oscars couldn't nominate it.  But the real star is probably the music, as led by T Bone Burnett.  The movie just looks and feels like the 60s, and thanks to Burnett it also sounds like the 60s.  There isn't else much I can say about this movie with only one viewing but to say that it is one of the Coens best and I can't wait to revisit it.


A masterclass in facial hairs

Rating: 9/10







"Yes, even hands depress me"

Only God Forgives (March 12th, 2014)
Director: Nicholas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Vithaya Pansringarm, and Kristin Scott Thomas

Well, if this wasn't just an absolute piece of trash.  I didn't hear great things about it, but I dug Drive a bit and violent B movies are my thing.  But I realized halfway through this movie, I'm sick and tired of directors trying to be the new Tarantino and toss every pretentious thought in their head into a B movie that would be played in a grimy ass NYC movie theater and never be heard of again.  And oh boy, this is the biggest perp in that field.  Refn and Gosling really just took a big swing and a miss.  I've heard enough "oh, but it's a spit in the face of Drive".  To that I say, "Well, it still isn't a good movie".  Gosling barely acts as he just puts on his best GoslingMopeyFace and acts all conflicted and Oedipal.  Oh, yeah.  The movie is a big Oedipal fucking joke with one of the most on the nose attempts at symbolism since that fucking rat showed up at the end of The Departed.  Thomas shows up and tried to be the Albert Brooks of the movie, but can't even muster up a Christina Hendricks.  She is just a fucking cartoon and is an absolute waste of time.  Which could be said of the whole movie.  A big, fucking waste of time.  A thread bare "plot" is just an excuse for Refn to get all "deep" and bullshit.  It's the act 1 to a longer movie, but spread out over 90 minutes.  And the violence, while technically well achieved (kudos to the FX men), is just pornographic.   Could have been very well done and brutal and a shock to the system if the movie wasn't a slog and we at least had characters to know, instead of cardboard cutout criminal types.  But the lack of momentum even carries to that.  It takes the pacing style of Once Upon A Time In The West and just absolutely fails at what makes that movie and its pacing great. The only good things I can say about the movie is that it is well made on a technical sense.  Gorgeous cinematography and the like.  But it's all lost when the cop pulls a sword from literally out of nowhere.   I honestly don't even wanna talk about this movie anymore.  Just a joke and hopefully Gosling and Refn wake the fuck up.  If not and they wanna do more movies like this, fuck em both.


Looking wistfully at the past, when he did good movies
Rating: 4/10









In a different movie of his, this would be a bleaker scene

The Grand Budapest Hotel (March 14th, 2014)

Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Adrien Brody, and Willem Dafoe



Don't worry folks.  Wes Anderson hasn't changed.  If anything, he's gotten even more Wes Andersony.  Although this is a little different, as it's Anderson taking on a bit more of a violent story.  Not a crime story per se, but it involves some scummy characters.  But being as this is Wes, they are very whimsical and not very threatening.  The story being told is very good and very funny, a much bigger canvas than Anderson has dealt with before.  Having done this for a long time now, Wes knows how to make a movie so it's all very well done technically even if he has gotten a bit more cartoonish since his The Royal Tenenbaums days.  And all the actors are giving it their all.  Fiennes shows more range than he's shown probably since Schindlers List and Revolori is solid as the weird little refugee who Fiennes mentors.  Then theres a bunch of big names playing little parts that add a lot more to their roles than probably written, guys such as Jude Law and Edward Norton to name two.  But the two who run away with the movie are Adrien Brody as Snidley Whiplash and Willem Dafoe as Muttley.  Brody as gloriously over the top as the spoiled dirt bag out to destroy Fiennes and Dafoe is just his perfectly weird self as the henchman to Brody.  They get the two biggest laughs in the movie for me and I was a little more excited whenever they were on screen.  But while the movie kept me entertained and was very well made, there was something missing.  It's something that has been, in my eyes, slowly draining away from his movies since Tenenbaums.  There is a certain lack of heart, a distance that is very prevalent in this and kind of shows up a lot with him.  It's almost like he's a child still who doesn't understand the weight of some of the things he's portraying.  It worked in Moonrise Kingdom as it was told from the perspective of two kids.  But this is a movie where, while funny, has moments that should be shocking or heartbreaking and they just don't land.  They are kind of tossed off casually because it's in the script.  That and that the scope of the movie may have been to big for Anderson.  But I don't want to turn this into a hate screed.  This is a very entertaining movie that is in no way a bad movie, which puts it way above his worst movie The Life Aquatic (fuck that movie so much).  I just hope at some point, Wes can maybe grow a bit and open up.  Because the distance he projects may get old after a while.

Snidely and Muttley get the live action treatment

Rating: 8/10









The beginning of a saga...

Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight (March 13th - 15th, 2014)
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy


Richard Linklater is the best film maker at making his movies feel like real life.  No over the top bullshit, no soap opera-y nonsense.  Between Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and Bernie he probably would have taken that title.  But he solidifies not only the title for current directors, but of all time with this accidental trilogy charting the lives of these two lovers every 9 years.  With Sunrise, we get the meet cute.  And since this was never planned as anything beyond one movie, Sunrise plays like a very good indie flick about fleeting love.  American Jesse (Hawke) meets French Celine (Delpy) on a train to Vienna.  They strike up a conversation and decide to spend the day together getting to know one another before Jesses flight home.  It's cute with two very good leads in Hawke and Delpy that is just them talking.  For around 1.5 hours, we just watch these two talk and get to know one another and fall in love.  And it works incredibly well.  The dialogue is written and delivered perfectly. You believe these two as they fall for one another.  But the movie ends with them having to part ways and making a plan to meet up in the same spot in 6 months.   But since this wasn't planned as anything more, no one thought much more of it.  You either think they met up or they didn't, depending on the level of cynical dickhead lies in your soul.  But then something interesting happened.  9 years later, and we meet Jesse and Celine again.  Sunset takes place, just like real life, 9 years later.  Jesse is now a successful writer, having written a that is essentially about that one night 9 years prior.  He's on the last stop of a book tour in Paris, when who shows up but Celine herself.  They start reminiscing and we find out what happened on the day they planned to meet up and they're lives since.  Jesse is married with a kid and Celine is working as a Environmentalist.  And in real time, they catch up and we find out that not everything is as it seems with their lives.  Just another stunning look into the realistic portrayal of love and what could be, Hawke and Delpy slide right back into the roles that helped launch their careers.  With Linklaters meticulous direction, and a script written by Linklater and the actors, the movie just moves.  You can't really believe you just watched a movie about two people talking about life.  It's very funny but at points turns on a dime and becomes heart wrenching. And with an ending that was basically begging for a sequel, Linklater and company surprised everyone when they revealed they secretly filmed it in two weeks last year.  With Midnight, another 9 years have passed.  Jesse and Celine have been together ever since, living in Paris and they have two children.  They aren't married but they might as well be.  On vacation in Greece with his son Hank from his last relationship, we spend another day with Jesse and Celine.  Another wonderfully written day with Jesse and Celine, with them talking about life and how things are different than they were.  Sometimes it's said out right, but the beauty is some of these things aren't on the nose.  Since we've known them for 18 years essentially, we see the changes and the things that are the same.  And while it's fun to see them again, things aren't necessarily ok with the couple.  With a fight that threatens to tear them apart, we are just witnesses and can't help but sit in despair as the couple we saw grow up may lose it all.  I can't heap praise on this series enough.  They manage to be experimental without being emotionless or distant.  They manage to be just talking, yet its enthralling.  The power of these movies really comes from the other movies.  Sunrise is good and sets itself apart from the pack.  But it's better now that we know there's life down the line.  Just like Sunset is better knowing these two from Sunrise, and knowing that a decision is made that leads to Midnight.  And midnight is the capper, all the history boiling up to hit you hard.  But with this series, we know things probably aren't over.  And even if we didn't, it ends with some hope.  We saw the storm clouds roll over this couple.  But maybe, the storm cleared up.  Either way, I can't wait for the inevitable release in 2022 that catches us up on their lives at 50.  Just a masterclass, and makes the wait for Linklaters even more ambitious take on the toll time takes on us, Boyhood, even more painful.


...and hopefully not the end of it

Rating: 9.5/10



- Tom Lorenzo

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