The Wrestler

Not the wrestler that he used to be.

It's sad to see Darren Aranofsky, after taking so much flak for The Fountain (which was a great movie but alas too convoluted for many) returning to a relatively safe venture. But safe does not equal boring nor does it equal dissapointing. The Wrestler delivers.

Mickey Rourke plays the lead character superbly, naturally and flawlessly. It is his performance that defines this movie. And ironically, this movie could very well be an allegory of his career as an actor. Here, he returns for one last hurrah.

The story follows him as as a wrestler in the twilight of his career. He is a man alone, desperately trying to establish a relationship with his estranged daughter with the help of a stripper. Nothing new here, and it's a shame that we see such expired devices retreaded in an otherwise compelling story. Regardless, it works, and we have such standouts as the wrestling scenes which are truly executed brilliantly; gruesome and painful to watch despite knowing that it's all acting.

If the ending does not satisfy you, then you obviously don't get the point. His story was over right when the movie began.

Revolutionary Road

A love story this is not.

Mendes is back at his depressing sub-urban family breakdown thing again, and while Revolutionary Road might not compare favorably to his breakthrough American Beauty, it still is a movie of great merit that demands at least a viewing; a chronicle of shattered dreams and "hopeless emptiness".

Of course, if you don't like melodrama this is one movie you will not enjoy sitting through. Lots of shouting, crying, cheating, screaming and what have you. Yet somehow the movie does not rely solely on theatrics and it is the simple moments that stand out the most. Although I have to say, DiCaprio and Winslet sure can argue with each other quite well.

Before '08 Ends

Will hopefully finish up on some stuff, not limited to:

• In-depth analysis/review of Werckmeister Harmonies. Perhaps the only movie so far I've ever bothered to write an analysis about. Will have to get and watch Tarr's other movie, Satan's Tango. But it's 7 hours long, so that may take a while.
• Most of the other "highly acclaimed" movies of 2008. Have yet to watch Doubt, The Reader, Benjamin Button, A Christmas Tale and others. Oh, and Synecdoche, New York. Have to get that one.
  
• Review of "Light in August". Quite clearly, Cormac McCarthy is more than just inspired by Faulkner.

So hopefully this blog's content will diversify. Because I don't just want movie reviews here, heh.

Slumdog Millionaire

From rags to riches. Destiny? Chance? Contrived plot devices?

Slumdog Millionaire, ah, so many people loved it. And why not? This is first class entertainment for the ADD MTV generation and indeed, it is a super-stylized movie with lots of tilted camera angles, quick cuts and chase scenes. Danny Boyle and co. ought to be commended for such unashamedly populist film making.

Certainly, this is a wonderful change from last year's There Will Be Blood & No Country For Old Men, and you can't blame AMPAS should it decide to shower lots of love on it.

But (and there's always a but) look harder past the glitzy filmmaking and you will discover a rather ordinary story spliced up and spiced up to make it look glamorous. I am not saying this film is hollow, but that there's only barely enough substance to back up it's wonderful style.

Comparions to City of God are fair, and indeed, some scenes look like they were transposed from the slums of Brazil to India. But no, it is one of the most original, energetic movies of the year, decade, whatever. It runs around and grabs your attention like a hyperactive kid.

Okay, enough of the adjectives. Let's talk about the actors, who are wonderfully cast. It does get awkward at moments, where the leads attempt to convey a melodramatic moment in English. It would have been so much better in Hindi, but at least it didn't do a Memoirs of a Geisha and have Chinese people playing Japanese speaking in English. Thankfully.

A.R. Rahman's pulsating score deserves mention and it could comfortably fit in a Bourne thriller. M.I.A. is in here, too. Which may (uh oh) disqualify it for Best Original Music come Oscar time but we all know good scores don't need to be altogether original.

By the time it reaches the ending most of us will already be carried along on the ride, not really carrying how cheekily the story serves us contrivances after contrivances to reach the desired happy ending. On any other day, critics would call it cliched and unimaginative. But ah, who really cares in the end? It's just a wonderfully filmed story that comes by and sweeps you away;sophisticated escapist entertainment, if I may say.

One final note: Does this film mark the maturation of Bollywood? Unfortunately, I don't think so. This is quite clearly a Hollywood film that pays lip service to Indian culture. But somehow I feel bigoted for expecting Indians to imitate Americans (Even though everyone knows - or thinks - that to achieve global fame, one needs to learn and/or imitate from the latter).

Anyway, here's to a Bollywood film as interpreted by Hollywood!

Wendy & Lucy

A woman and her dog. How interesting.

Wendy & Lucy is a steoreotypical indie movie, and that's not quite a compliment. What we get is a dull, stolid 80 minutes (thank goodness) of indie fare where the dog is merely a quasi-MacGuffin to get our protagonist barreling straightforward into her misadventures.

It's not all that bad. Michelle "Heath Ledger's Wife" Williams sustains the film well, as well as the few other characters in the story. Yes, I called it dull and stolid, but the movie did make me feel a little. It has its moments.

But alas, one has to wade through the countless repetitive shots. I must complain about the unenergetic (dare I say lazy?) cinematography that does no favors to our attention span. Yes, yes, some movies are meant to be like that. But there is a thin line between the kind of stillness that commands our attention (from 2001 to No Country For Old Men) and the kind that sits there lifeless and asks to be seen and heard.

Let The Right One In

Another vampire romance movie? Yup. But forget that other vampire romance movie, this one takes the cake.

Oh yes, it's what you would call a "foreign language" film (it's Swedish) and as such would certainly command more credibility than any other horror movie done in English, nevermind if the same old elements are there (think The Orphanage, which would undoubtedly have gotten less acclaim had it not been in Spanish). Yes, sometimes this film feels like 30 Days of Night (the setting is somewhat similar) and while this is an exceptional horror movie, that doesn't say a lot.

So let me add that all important caveat to my reservations. While it does have moments that betray the fact that it's founded on an already cliched theme (cue scary music, although thankfully it's pretty much free from such most of the time) it is beautifully shot and stylized. That alone should distinguish it from the rest of the pack.

A queer romance. Oops...did I give away too much?

I have issues with its pacing. Nothing much happens; it's sometimes pretentious. But oh, this is supposed to be a foreign movie. My apologies. Okay, the leads are good, I have to grant that.

Could have been better, although I am at a loss for words as to how. It would be ambitious of me to state how one ought to improve the horror (and its subset, the vampire movie) genre. How indeed. All I can say is, who says Scandinavians don't know how to do a good horror (and gory) show? And I'm surprised that canes exist in Sweden, heh. Although apparently it is set 20 years ago, but I didn't know that until a certain "Brezhnev" was mentioned.

Oddly enough for a foreign, supposedly arthouse-ish movie, the brief epilogue is so Hollywood. Who, incidentally, is going to remake it next year. But of course.

The Visitor

Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a man of few words and somewhat disillusioned with his job, life and well, you get the idea. He goes to New York and finds out that somebody is living in his apartment. What follows is a poignant, tragic meditation on everything from relationships to illegal immigration.

Jenkins and others are to be commended for their subtle, perhaps flawless performances, seemingly at home in a low-key drama that will bore some people to death but for others capture their hearts and minds (I fell somewhere in between).

The story is a simple one, and while it does go out of its way to comment on some issues (especially immigration and living in - there's that word again - a post 9/11 world), Thomas McCarthy (writer and director) directs it so very well that the end result is a minimalist story that packs a whole lot of punch.

Man On Wire

Phillippe Petit is a man with a dream, and who was lucky enough to see it fulfilled even while he was a young man. The mission: to walk on a tightrope across the World Trade Center(s). He succeeded, and is sadly, the only one who ever has.

Director James Marsh paces his documentary like a thriller, with decent re-enactments interspersed with real footage and exuberant interviews with the main players who recall the event like it was just yesterday. The director takes Petit and co.'s word seriously: this was like a bank heist. For them, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Some people may shrug and ask what's so great about a man walking on a tightrope. Indeed, to some it my seem like a trivial, show-off act. And yet the romantics in us all - which this film truly appeals to - look at such an achievement and marvel at it. A success story that all of us love to hear, but not quite want to emulate.

"Don't look down" does not apply to him.

It is not just a recount about the particular WTC tightrope event, but also a biography about Petit's life, including his past achievements that now seem trivial compared to that.

Yet, listening to his story does make one wonder - what happens after you have done what you wish to do? I somehow dread the thought of having reached a peak and having nowhere to go but down. Petit seems satisfied with his achievement and so do his friends. His recount of the aftermath does live one thoughtful, however. What else to do? For him, it is finished.

I leave it to you, whether to come away inspired (I was) or shaking your head in bemusement at a man and his dream.

Encounters At The End of The World

Werner Herzog heads off to Antarctica to film this philosophical documentary that is less a treatise than a breezy, but compelling, summary of the Great Southern, Southern Land.

We meet people that are as strange and bizarre as the continent they live in and Herzog juxtaposes interviews with people sharing their life stories with barren, beautiful landscapes and a penguin who decides to explore the interior of Antarctica.

All is calm, all is white.

Note also the occasionally grating soundtrack, which nevertheless sometimes borders on beautiful. And the techno-esque cries of the seals are especially otherworldly and are the perfect national anthem to this cold continent.

It is filmed carefully and beautifully. Standouts include the underwater alien landscape that brought Herzog here in the first place. The interviews are merely the sideshows, kind of like footnotes that only some of us may be interested in, but it does add colour to the film when we meet a linguist on a continent with no languages and a philosopher who drives tractors and talks like a mystic.

Gran Torino

Guns are, and always will be, his friend.

Clint Eastwood movies tend to border on the homogeneous (although the ones he has directed are diverse enough). Most are violent, with tones of nihilism (I am reminded of Mystic River) while on the other hand are those sweet, simple feel-good movies. Gran Torino leans towards the latter end, but still, expect a fair bit of bloodshed.

It is a simple movie telling a simple story. A young Asian boy and a racist White man. Sort of a Karate Kid in reverse. The latter teaches the former about life, and the former revives the latter's flagging spirits.

One thing that will strike you when you see this show is stereotypes. Yup, almost every single African-American here are gang members and a fair bit of the Asians. But ah, it's that kind of neigbourhood, after all. It's quite easy to see that almost everything is being stereotyped here (I suspect intentionally) - from gangsters to Clint Eastwood himself.

Yes, the dialogue is a bit over the top and Clint Eastwood's character borders on self-parody, but the one thing that makes this movie likable is that we get to see people finding themselves and becoming, well, a better person. Cliched themes, but somehow always an attraction. And indeed, it is Eastwood's character which carries the show.

Bittersweet would be an appropriate word to describe both the ending and the movie itself. Bitter, because we are bombarded with stereotypes and cartoonish characters; sweet because it is a movie about things we can't dislike - hope, redemption and fulfillment.

If Juno was last year's feel-good movie (as many people labeled it such), I daresay Gran Torino deserves the title for this year. Except it's better described as the anti-Juno.

Resident Evil: Degeneration

Guy with gun: "Whose crappy idea was it to make another RE movie?"
Girl with gun: *Sighs*

This is a video game adaptation.

Frost/Nixon

Here comes another play to the big screen. Ron Howard directs with the same actors from the dramatization. And my, it's good. Michael Sheen and Frank Langella as Frost & Nixon respectively fit oh so nicely.

Howard goes for a realistic docudrama approach, featuring "interviews" with the main players in this movie. I think this is what makes it work - that this happened, and we would just love to see how it ended up like that. Despite the fact that this happened thirty years ago, there is an amount of tension and anticipation that is present in this movie that keeps you glued. And of course, the subtle verbal sparring of Frost and Nixon.

It's based on the Frost/Nixon interviews and indeed, some bits of dialogue in this movie (and the play, I would imagine) are lifted verbatim from them. So some of you would come to this movie familiar with the details. The film, though, gives you some context (never mind that some parts are fictional) about the interviews, so you come in with a better appreciation.

There can only be one.

Still, as tight as this movie is, there are some parts that are clearly disjointed like a scene where a drunken Nixon calls Frost. This didn't actually happen and it's quite clear that its inclusion was to add dimension and a touch of tragedy to both characters. But the end result, I felt, was something that did not fit with the Nixon we (or at least, I )knew. The Nixon we know is the Nixon of the history books, television, papers. Anything more, and you're introducing us to someone we do not know. Which may work, but since the movie strives for realism, it ends up alienating us.

This movie is a drama, but also a thriller of sorts. It is also a sad show that highlights the aftermath of a sad fall. To this end Langella is superb as a fading Nixon. And this movie is about that - a scandal that led to the fall of a president, and the people who so badly want a confession nevermind that they knew that he was guilty all along.

A Note of Introduction

This blog is an offshoot of sorts from my previous "main" blog.

I found myself somehow fond of writing reviews - about anything that I felt needed a writing about. This held through especially for movies (and to a lesser extent, books and music) which I, uh, watch a lot. As such, come "Oscar season", I find myself watching lots of good movies that I especially want to write about. So, this blog would serve as a useful outlet to prevent the clutter of reviews from clogging up my other blog.

Anyway.

Reviews, for many people, are things that one read to make an informed decision. At least, I hope that they are used for that purpose. Of course, one gets jollies from reviews that poke fun at terrible movies but I suppose the main reason we read reviews is to find out the opinion of others. Is it worth watching? Although, of course, tastes differ and often do not overlap. So take reviews with a pinch of salt. Unless, of course, you have a movie with a 1% rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, (indicating universal infamy) then maybe it will be wise to reconsider.

I find that some reviews tend to be too clinical, bordering on essay like while others circle around, telling us everything but what we want to know - is it a good movie or not? As for me, I merely note by thoughts of the movie. I am serious about serious movies, and frivolous about frivolous movies - whatever they may claim to be.

Ultimately reviews are subjective, as objective as they try to be. I do not try to change people's minds, only to let them know what I think. As such, "impressions", be they good or bad serve to aid people to understand something better. And maybe to decide whether that $10 is worth shelling out.

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For those who don't know, I'm Daniel. My other blog is here. And I like to write. =)

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Oh hai. Big giant sphere like Ozma lands in Central Park (because there's no place like New York) and an alien comes out. Is it tense? Does the story leave us wondering? Yes. Even if we haven't seen the good old classic that nobody except your grandpa has.

This is a remake, but no, let's call it more like a synthesis of the usual contrivances. As such no originality is offered here but like I said, the first half hour or so is interesting. Then hey, something starts telling us, "Haven't we seen this before?"

Not quite Independance Day, not quite your friendly neighborhood alien. Not quite like Prison Break too, even though that guy is in there. Jennifer Connelly and Jaden Smith (you know, Will Smith's son) is in here, which suggests that this is a movie where our tear-ducts ought to start working. But then we also have Keanu Reeves, which we all know means that this is going to be a movie with lots of action and where plot - uh, what plot?

Mr. Reeves is all too comfortable in his chair, subtle allegory for the fact that he is all too comfortable in his role as a wooden alien

You should already know what happens in the end halfway through. It's just fun to see how it gets there. I like that big robot that comes out. They intentionally made it look cheesy. How nice. Reeves as the alien is a suitable choice; he is the next deliverer of stilted dialogue after Hayden Christensen.

Still, poor ending. Endings are important. I'm waiting to see a decent, recent movie where aliens truly obliterate the entire human race. And Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy doesn't count.