I'm really looking forward to Gone, Baby, Gone. The book was absolutely fantastic w/some nice twists and a fascinating moral dilemma for the detectives when they solve the mystery. Harold
I know what you mean but on the flip side you have to laugh at yourself for keeping hope that something will happen soon. So the end is most satifying in a weird way.
If anyone has seen No Country for Old Men, I am very curious to hear how it was. I can't find a local theater that is playing it. I really enjoy the Coen brother's movies too, so I'm bummed that I haven't had the chance to view it.
Saw it last night and I'm still trying to recover. I think it was very, very well done. A must see if you can handle blood, guts and amazing amounts of pure riveting suspense... I don't recall seeing a more intense movie. Definitely not for the faint of heart!
continue with animal theme Black Sheep is pretty good, plenty of sheep humor and a welcome break from people killing people genre. Next, Wicked Little Things - (After Dark Horror fest colections) is a notch above Children of the Corn, with good acting by a cute little actress.
Gone Baby Gone ***SPOILERS*** Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, GBG is one of the best film adaptations of recent years. Much more than just your standard detective thriller, it's gritty, realistic, and uncompromising, tackling serious social issues w/o being preachy or offering pat solutions. A little girl goes missing, but instead of a straightforward mystery that is resolved when the girl is found, the good guys experience a profound moral dilemma as to whether or not the child should be returned to her home, since her mother is a junkie who abuses her through neglect, while the kidnappers are actually better parents and provide a loving environment for the child that she has never known. The two private detectives, Patrick and Angie, played by Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan, are also lovers who live together, and at the climax they become at odds over whether or not the child should be returned to her mother. This scene is done simply, w/o histrionics, as they wrestle with each other over what is the right thing to do. That their differing views will also affect their relationship adds yet another, personal layer, to their quandary. Observing the little girl in her new home, Angie's argument is simple: "She's happy." Patrick, however, is appalled, that she's asking him to condone and cover-up a kidnapping, to be complicit in something he considers a horrible crime. His decision and the ultimate resolution is disturbing, one that leaves the question open as to whether or not Patrick really makes the right moral choice. The plot is full of genuine surprises throughout, it's a fine mystery w/lots of twists, and one is never quite sure just who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. The character's motivations are complex - sometimes selfish, sometimes selfless, sometimes a bit of both. And always, moral ambiguity; when Patrick murders a child murderer in a moment of extreme anguish, he later expresses regret and guilt, while the cop hearing his confession assures him he did the right thing. Affleck is superb, he puts a spin on the traditional P.I., about as far from the standard tough-puy persona as can be imagined. Confused, scared a lot of the time, in over his head, he plays the character as both weak in some respects and brave and uncompromising in others, when it really counts. Monaghan, in a quiet role, mostly in the background, has the perfect look for her character - tough, pretty but not glamorous, she ultimately shows herself as resolute in her beliefs as her lover. Amy Ryan, as the unlikable mother, is quite brilliant and courageous in a performance that elicits both disdain and pity for her character. Ben Affleck's direction is straightforward, no flourishes, in modern film-noir style. He lets the wonderful script and fine acting carry the day, his direction never gets in the way, he just tells a good story. A fine debut. Harold
Grindhouse: Planet Terror ***SPOILERS*** Brilliant! They can put the zombie-parody genre to rest now, because no one is ever going to top this little masterpiece. Writer/director Robert Rodriguez goes way beyond just the mocking tone of the story and characters that usually mark these kinds of films, he takes it to a whole new level; this movie is saturated in camp. The film is presented as a poorly-shot, hurriedly-edited, amateurishly-directed cheapie 1950-ish B-movie, and it seems to be to be just about perfect in every way. The "film stock" is as mangled as the horrific zombies that populate it, w/holes and burns and spots and even a missing reel! The dialog is purposely cheesy, hilarious, as when early on Skip, the manager of a strip club scolds the dancer Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan, who should become a star from this flick) for crying while onstage. Stripping is supposed to be fun, he tells her, in his clumsy manner: "It's go-go, not... cry-cry." (That dum-dum line is repeated later to great effect, except of course brave heroine McGowan is the one saying it to whining Skip as she prepares to take on the zombies.) The poor film quality is used consistently throughout, it feels real. In an early scene in the diner's kitchen the film stutters and shakes in a unique way and then in a later scene in that same locale it does the same thing again, as indeed it should since that's the way films are shot, by locale. In several of the most intense sequences at the height of the action the film breaks down and there are awkward jump cuts; one can imagine the theater audience groaning in frustration as an action sequence is cut-off mid-explosion. There's also a sublime parody of every seedy sex scene ever shot: Cherry, Our Heroine, has had her infected right leg amputated and she sticks an old wooden table leg into the stump (McGowan's silly-walk w/the leg is priceless) and as she and Our Hero, El Wray, have sex, there are all kinds of the usual angles until at one point we get the classic shot of Cherry throwing her legs up in the air w/El Wray atop her, except of course one limb is that old table leg! (This is where the "missing reel" comes in, complete w/an apology title from the theater showing the film!) The performances are uniformly perfect. It's a cliche that comedy is more difficult to act than drama, but surely this must be one the most difficult kinds of humor to play. The actors have to strike just the right balance, to be "earnest" and "dramatic" while taking-off on same. They overact but they're still believable. Besides McGowan, the standout for me was, of all people, Jeff Fahey, playing the grizzled diner owner, J.T. I laughed at almost everything he did, it's a great comic supporting performance. The purposely grainy, sleazy cinematography is a big, big part of the movie, it sets the tone for everything and gives it that 50's B-movie feel. At some points it's strikingly, weirdly beautiful, as during some of the explosions and other action scenes. And near the end there is a stunningly gorgeous shot from the dying hero's pov as Cherry is lifted to a helicopter by rope up, up, and away to safety. The movie wouldn't work if it was all style, the ridiculous plot and numerous sub-plots are fun and interesting. Rodriguez pulls out every hokey soap-opera cliche there is, but he puts a wicked twist on them all w/his wonderful black humor. This film is tight, it works in every way it intends - as parody, as actioner, as soap opera, and as the gory zombie flick to end all gory zombie flicks. Harold
Aeon Flux AF has the distinction of being one of those rare mainstream movies where I didn't make it more than 5 mins into the film before it was rejected, ejected, and objected to. Based on the MTV animated series (a dubious beginning) it stars Charlize Theron as some kind of super-spy of the future in, guess what, a totalitarian society, this one apparently run by a corporation. After some trite exposition the film gets started w/the following scene: Ultra-Secret Resistance Fighter Theron walks thru a public square dressed in a bizarre black leather outfit w/a hood and some kind of veil-screeny thing over her face. Everyone around her is dressed quite normally. Soooo, she doesn't exactly "blend". We then see Adam Ant, I mean Stuart Townsend (equally punk-attired), walking toward her from the opposite direction. They meet and immediately start kissing w/o saying a word or even acknowledging each other. In a really gross closeup we see their tongues grubbing and they exchange a tiny pill from his mouth to hers, this is how they pass secret info. They then break the kiss and, again w/o even a word or nod or even recognition in their eyes, they go their separate ways. Obviously this little piece of subterfuge is intended to be a variation of the classic sly exchange of info from one spy to another, where they pass on the street and one slips a slip of paper into the other's hand, or they sit at a bench and exchange briefcases, etc. Unfortunately the filmmakers forgot the part about it NOT BEING SUSPICIOUS. But I will give AF 1 1/2 stars for Theron's hot outfit. Harold