#100 - Heathers (1988) Review

Heathers (1988), Michael Lehmann
3.5/5

This is a strange 80s teen movie focusing on Veronica (Winona Ryder) and her half hearted attempts to fit in with the "Heathers" the cool crowd. This film is darkly funny and absurd, but has some great one liners, if rather morbid. I can understand why it has a cult following. The story is at once cliche for the genre and also bizarre. Performances are good especially Christian Slater as the rebellious outsider J.D. There are some dark undertones and themes, which are contrasted by the lassez faire approach to the tone that the characters take, which is both absurd and realistic. Overall a very strange yet enjoyable black comedy.

#99 - North By Northwest (1959) Review

North By Northwest (1959), Alfred Hitchcock
3.5/5

This classic thriller from Hitchcock is really good, it's funny and interesting with good performances and cinematography. While some aspects may be predictable and the main character Roger (Cary Grant) a little too naive, it is still a good film. Overall it is a tad melodramatic, but still a great thriller although it is a bit long, it doesn't feel arduous.

#98 - No Impact Man: The Documentary (2009)

No Impact Man: The Documentary (2009), Laura Gabbert and Justine Schein
3.5/5

This is a really interesting documentary about one man (Colin) and his family's experiment living impact free for a year with his family. The film is fraught with conflict with his wife (Michelle) who is a self proclaimed "reality tv addict" and caffeine junkie. The film follows their family journey discovering how hard and how easy it can be to change to lessen our impact on the environment in our day to day lives. This film is idealistic and I agree with Colin in his endeavour, we need a little more idealism in this world and less realism. This film has inspired me to believe in individual change, but also some of the drastic changes the family make are more for the purposes of the experiment and demonstration, rather than realistic in the long term (e.g. no electricity). Overall a really interesting, informative film, that is enjoyable to watch. A great film for those interested in the environment and activism.


Check out Colin's "No Impact Man" Blog to find out what he's up to and easy tips that he learned during the experiment to reduce our impact on the environment.

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/

#97 - Tootsie (1982) Review

Tootsie (1982), Sydney Pollack
3/5

This is a really fun, cheesy and warm film. Well before Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Tootsie captures the changes in gender and sexism during the 1980s. It not only demonstrates the difficulties of being a woman in the post feminist era, but also the difficulty of men finding their own new roles. Dustin Hoffman gives a great performance and this follows his trend of his early work focusing on the changes to gender and family dynamics like Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). One fault that I would place is the notion that in order for a woman to be strong, the film portrays it as a masculine idea of aggression and strength. However this is a minor issue as Michael/ Dorothy depicts a more integrated idea of masculine and feminine traits over the course of the film. Overall this is a really funny film with some poignant moments and interesting gender, and sexuality issues.

#96 - Paris-Manhattan (2013) Review

Paris-Manhattan (2013), France, Sophie Lellouche
3.5/5

This is a really nice light hearted film focusing on Alice (Alice Taglioni, The Pink Panther) an odd young woman obsessed with Woody Allen. Alice is quirky and funny which compensates for the rather generic romantic comedy plot. Much of the film is a homage to Woody Allen and his films, even down to Alice's reflections talking to her poster of Woody Allen. Overall it's a sweet and funny film, not too serious or deep.

#95 - The Last Waltz (1978) Review

The Last Waltz (1978), Martin Scorsese
2.5/5

This part documentary part concert features some amazing live performances. Focusing on the final concert of The Band it features performances by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to name a few. However the "documentary" interviews are very boring and don't tell us either about the band nor any interesting anecdotes. Overall some great music, this film is best viewed as background music.

#94 - Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) Review

Faster, Pusscat! Kill! Kill! (1965), Russ Meyer
1/5

I was really looking forward to this classic exploitation film, and was sadly disappointed. The thin plot is uninteresting, and the characters are flat and generally unattractive in quality. The film is also humourless making it's sexism and undertones of violence frustrating as the film isn't in fact sexually or violently explicit. This creates a conundrum with no compensation for the gratuitous violence and sexism. The car chases aren't that exciting and the plot just seems to derail further and further. Unfortunately the female characters are flat sadistic archetypes of women. There seems to be little that redeems this feature. The real reason that this film falls under the Grindhouse category is it's amorality, lust for greed, the seemingly compassionless and motiveless sadism of the characters while at the same time it isn't visually explicit. Rather the film hints at darker violence and also lesbian themes between the characters. The soft violence are poorly and obviously choreographed with fight scenes that look more "rough and tumble" with the classic sound effects with the intention of being "erotic" but instead are just unrealistic. Unfortunately these aren't quite over-the-top to be comical, they're just terrible. I think the faults of the film could be forgiven if the film had been more fittingly melodramatic and over the top. Instead the sub par performances (atrocious acting), terrible script, lack of humour and bland cinematography make this an arduous watch. One interesting thing of note is the dinner table scene eating chicken reminded me of a similar scene in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Overall this film would be better explored as a study rather than a casual viewing experience, as it is quite dull to watch.

#93 - Monsters University (2013) Review

Monsters University (2013), Dan Scanlon
3/5

The sequel to Monsters Inc. (2001) is light hearted and funny. While it might not be as poignant and well conceived as Monsters Inc. this film still has enough laugh out loud moments and interesting characters to make it a good movie. Some of the new characters are hilarious and the monster designs are a testament to the great art design team at Pixar. The short at the beginning of the movie was well illustrated, but it lacked the humour or poignance of previous Pixar shorts. Overall this film is a lot of fun if not as good as the first film.

#92 - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) Review

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), John Madden
3/5

This is a surprisingly good film, it is light hearted and funny. The images used are beautiful and the cast is really strong. The subject matter is somewhat light and predictable, but the performances are good and overall this is an enjoyable film.

#91 - The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) Review

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Norman Jewison
3/5

This is a visually interesting film with great use of split screens. The film starts off dynamic and strong, but the action tapers off and the music becomes increasingly intrusive and out of place. It is an interesting story, but suffers through lack of exploration of character motives due to average performances and slow paced editing. Overall a good if somewhat slow film.

American Beauty (1999) Analysis

American Beauty (1999), Directed by Sam Mendes, Written by Alan Ball
4.5/5

***SPOILERS***

American Beauty is an amazing film with so much to enjoy and analyse that you find more upon each viewing and this is definitely a film that you will want to watch again and again. The film has a powerful cast including Kevin Spacey (Pay it Forward) as the depressed Lester going through a "mid-life crisis", Annette Bening (Running with Scissors) as his wife Carolyn who is an emotionally and sexually unavailable and ambitious real estate agent. And then there's his daughter Janey played by Thora Birch (Ghost World). On the surface the film depicts the perfect facade of this nuclear white suburban family. With their perfect house and manicured garden. The garden with the red roses and white picket fence is reminiscent of that in David Lynch's (Mullholand Drive, Lost Highway, Twin Peaks) film Blue Velvet (1986) which also explores the "dangers" of suburban life and the murkiness behind the facade of the "American dream".

 

Blue Velvet (1986), David Lynch

American Beauty (1999), Sam Mendes

The cinematography is just gorgeous, particularly the way in which colour is used in the film. Red and blues are almost constantly used in contrast to each other, but everything has an almost surreal vibrancy to the suburban areas and the costuming. In contrast Lester's office is dull with a muted colour scheme, almost clinical in it's sparseness. I think the use of blues and reds frequently represent the warring between the clinical facade of control and red that is lustful and passionate. Carolyn (Bening) dons a bright red suit later in the film once she has had an affair and feels powerful purchasing and using a gun, her character seems constantly to be warring at controlling her emotions and she is shown a number of times crying and getting angry at herself for losing control. Carolyn's emotional self mainly occurs away from Lester and when she is with him she is restrained and controlled and admonishes his sexual desires and chastises him like a child when she thinks he will make a mess. Her costuming seems to represent the mantra that she repeats throughout the film "I must portray an image of success" that her cool blue dresses and beige clothing hide the maroon red slip and later as her emotions show her wardrobe reflects this.

Lester in the office

Carolyn cleaning the house for sale in her red slip

Ricky looking at Jane through the window

One of the film's most obvious themes is sex; sexual lust, sexual repression, and homophobia. However the film deals with these in subtle and ambiguous ways. While the most obvious aspect is Lester's fantasising about Jane's friend Angela (Mena Suvari) with interesting use of dream and fantasy sequences with red rose petals. Angela is constantly boasting about her sexual conquests to Jane, but when Lester finally takes an opportunity to seduce Angela, she becomes vulnerable and admits that she is a virgin. In contrast Jane doesn't want to discuss sex with Angela and although it's implied that Jane and Ricky have sex it's not shown and when Angela presses her to discuss it with her she just replies "It's not like that".

Next door to the Burnham's is a gay couple Jim and Jim (Scott Bakula and Sam Robards) and their dog, they are the modern idea of the family who now have been incorporated into the American dream. In stark contrast are Ricky and his family who move in who are much more like the 1950s traditional family. Ricky's father Col. Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper) is in the Army and is overly concerned about discipline and rules and is violent towards Ricky and presumably his wife Barbara (Allison Janney) although that is only inferred from her almost catatonic depressed-like state. She seems so out of it perhaps from constant oppression by her husband and she cannot even react to her son being beaten just saying "Wear a rain coat." This is a prime example of how each character in this film cannot deal with the reality of something in their lives. While Barbara cannot face her husband's violence and perhaps his homosexuality, Frank cannot face his own homosexuality. Chris Cooper plays Frank beautifully especially in the car scene where he comments about gay people and Ricky makes a comment about them making him sick. While Frank seems placated, he is almost concerned as well displayed all just from his expression. More and more it seems that while it is evident that Ricky is not gay and is dating Jane, Frank takes out his own growing homosexual desire on Ricky.

Chris Cooper as Frank listening to Ricky talk about homosexuality

The soundtrack is also great, the score is beautiful and complements the slow moving and repetitive shots and is contrasted by great use of other songs which frequently mirror the themes. For example Lester is listening and singing along to "American Woman" which is about leaving a woman or emancipation from women in general which is precisely what Lester does throughout the film. It would be interesting to do an in depth analysis of the gender roles in this film in particular the depiction of women. This is most prominent in Lester's relationship or rather failed relationship with Carolyn and he rebels more and more like a teenager and refers to her as "Uh oh, Mom's here" and also when "caught" smoking pot with Ricky he mimics a childlike voice to say "I think I'm in trouble". This mirrors the lyrics in "American Woman" "American woman, stay away from me, American woman, mama let me be...".  Carolyn represents the idea of woman as mother who is the oppressor of freedom and sexual desire whereas Angela represents a fantasy of the sexual woman, this is the classic "Madonna whore complex" where the notion of a woman as both sexual and a caring mother cannot be incorporated and instead diverges.

Jane and Ricky watch the plastic bag dancing video

Another interesting use of imagery is Ricky's fascination with videoing everything. There are frequent shots of both the tv screen, the video camera and the object of the recording all in a single frame. Voyeurism is one aspect of this, but also it represents a major theme of the film which is beauty in the mundane and ordinary. The most obvious example of this is where Ricky shows Jane his favourite video of the plastic bag "dancing" in the wind and as the camera zooms in closer slowly on to the back of Jane and Ricky's head toward the tv screen there is a kind of hypnotic feel and tension when complimented with the score. This fascination with imagery of images themselves is also seen in the frequent use of mirrors and reflections. This plays into the notion of the character's conflicts with themselves and the idea that there is a superficiality to appearance throughout the film that begins to crumble.

Ricky looking in the mirror

Usually I dislike the use of voice over in films as it can be overly and unnecessarily used, but in this case it had a kind of poetic effect and mostly complimented the plot and visuals. The exception to this is some of the lines of Lester's narration at the close of the film which are over the top.

There is so much to discuss and analyse in this film I cannot discuss everything and can only touch upon the aspects that I find most interesting. Other interesting things like the focus on materialism and consumerism in the search for happiness and the notion of perpetual adolescence in today's society and the lack of parental discipline etc. Personally for me this film is ultimately about the facade of the pursuit of the American dream and that by attempting to create this perfection it is instead stifling and unsatisfying. That what ultimately matters are people and family. That beauty is subjective and can be found in the mundane and simplistic if you look for it and that there is beauty even in what seems ugly.

Lester looking at family photo

#90 - Take This Waltz (2011) Review

Take This Waltz (2011), Sarah Polley
4/5

This is a sweet and melancholy film, with a great cast, excellent writing and beautiful cinematography. While the story might seem on the surface rather simplistic the performances and subtlety and restraint of the writing create a delicious emotional ambiguity. But it is the cinematography that is the best part of the film, mainly it's gorgeous use of light and colour which give the film such a great visual style and emotional depth. The performances are subtle and hint at depths and emptiness, displaying a mingling of happiness and desire contrasted with a sort of languid boredom. The cast including Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Luke Kirby have great chemistry on screen. Ultimately this film is about desire and how the fulfilment of desire is the end of the pleasure of desire. Although at times it borders on the melodramatic and sappy, there is enough authenticity and beauty to make this film great.

#89 - Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)

Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011), Jay and Mark Duplass
2.5/5

This is a pretty average film by the Duplass brothers. The near constant moving camera is more distracting than artistic. The cast is strong, but the characters aren't that interesting or deep, a fault of the writing. The characters fall flat and are irritating and unlikeable. Also the moments that are supposed to feel poignant and meaningful fall short. The story is quirky, and cute, but rather light on content and plays to the melodramatic of themes about "fate" and the meaning of life. Overall a light film with not much intrigue or depth of interest, but good performances and some funny moments.

#88 - Lincoln (2012)

Lincoln (2012), Steven Spielberg
3.5/5

This is an interesting film that strikes a great balance between a biopic and a historical drama. Daniel Day-Lewis is superb in his portrayal of Lincoln and the surrounding cast are also excellent. The politics can be confusing at times, but the film works well at complimenting the emotional and personal elements of Lincoln and his family's life with the wider political agenda of the abolition of slavery and the end of the civil war. Overall a good film on an interesting time in history, if at times somewhat idealistic, the performances are the stand out feature of the film.

#87 - From Beyond (1986) Review

From Beyond (1986), Stuart Gordon
2/5

From the director of Re-Animator comes another adaptation of a H.P. Lovecraft story. No where near as deliciously gory and hilarious as Re-Animator this inferior film is sexist and gratuitous, but without much of the over the top cheesiness. The psychology and scientific elements that are the focus of the story are loosely based on fact at the most. There are some interesting and strange elements, but the effects are pretty bad and the plot doesn't make much sense. Overall a disappointing film.

#86 - After Earth (2013) Review

After Earth (2013), M. Night Shyamalan
3/5

This is a surprisingly good science fiction film by M. Night Shyamalan. While it seems to diverge from Shyamalan's recent interest in the horror genre (Devil, The Village) it does hold true to his monster elements which he contrasts with human journeys. The performances are great and Will Smith (playing Cypher Raige) and his real life son Jaden Smith (playing Cypher's son Kitai Raige) work great together both giving emotive and convincing performances. The story focuses mainly on these two characters and the strength of their performances together carry the plot well. For me, that is the strongest aspect of the plot focusing on the father-son relationship and their respective emotional and physical journeys in the film.

After Earth (2013) - Ursa

Starship Troopers (1997) - Alien

The futuristic elements leave something to be desired and feel somewhere between an episode of Star Trek and Starship Troopers (1997) especially in some of the shots of the "bug-like" monsters aka the "Ursa" attacking them. While the futuristic society does have some interesting elements, it also some silly elements that lack imaginative design like the futuristic cutlery which is basically a three stick chop-stick and the use of hammocks for beds. Usually science fiction films and stories set in the future tend to balance elements that are imaginative with things that are recognisable, but After Earth tends towards the later more often than not, unfortunately.

There are some interesting themes in the story, which are one of the films strong points, focusing on concepts of courage, fear, loss and death. The aspects about controlling fear reminded me both of mindfulness techniques and also from literature Frank Herbert's Dune novels (adapted into film by David Lynch) which centres around a race of desert people and characters that must learn to control their fear and bodies in order to control the giant "worms" and use the frequent saying "fear is the mind killer".

Dune (1984), David Lynch

In After Earth it is interesting that the ursa creatures feed directly off humans fear in order to hunt them, this is based on flimsy scientific assumptions at best i.e. "pheromones" or the smell of fear. The film also has many plot holes and logical problems and inconsistencies like the notion that Earth in the distant future would still have many animals similar to current (e.g. baboon like primates and large cats etc), which would really have evolved far beyond our current imaginations. The visual and CGI effects are pretty good especially of the animals and there are definitely some cool designs including the costuming, especially Kitai's chameleon like suit. Also the weapon design of the cutlass is brilliant with it's multi-purpose and changeable blades, a staff with two blades retractable and changeable blades. It's always nice to see a change from guns and lasers which are so overused in futuristic, scifi and action films, and this type of weapon is both technologically advanced and practical which makes sense for the close quarters combat with the ursa.

After Earth (2013) - Suit

After Earth (2013) - Suit

After Earth (2013) - Weapon: Cutlass

Another literary reference made explicit in the film is the reference to Moby Dick (novel by Herman Melville) and this lends to the film's heavy handed themes about the effects of climate change and environmental destruction. While thematically interesting, the message is a bit too obvious and tired, with the focus on humanity's desire to conquer and destroy nature and this is a weak point for the film. Furthermore the depiction of futuristic Earth is more fantasy than science fiction as it depicts it as an utopia devoid of humanity. Rather than evolving the fauna and flaura instead function as wish fulfilment for the audience, depicting a return to a past state of Earth's environment rather than a futuristic one. Overall a good Hollywood science fiction film, with solid performances, great character development and some interesting ideas and concepts, but not without it's flaws.

True Blood (2013), Season 6, Episode 3 Review

True Blood (2013), Episode 6.03
"You're no good", June 30th, 2013

***SPOILERS***

I really enjoyed this episode, despite the fact it wasn't as action packed as some of the other episodes. In this episode Eric has succeeded in kidnapping the Governor's daughter, who appears to be willing to help them, but I suspect there might be a twist coming up later on with her character, whether she is playing them or whether he father will sacrifice her I'm not sure. 

Highlights of the episode were a "reunion" between Reverend Newlin and Sarah which was fun to see and a strong female moment of the episode (the women dominated this episode). It also appears that Jason is having a bad "concussion" or migraines and confesses he's been hallucinating to Sookie. I'm kind of hoping that these "concussions" might have more of a supernatural element, as most of the characters in the show eventually end up with some sort of supernatural power. 

Bill seems to have become a sort of vampire religion devotee and believes he can survive the sun (which he can't) and also attempts to force Sookie to give him some of her blood in an attempt to synthesise it like true blood. It is good to see Sookie is finally standing up for herself, she is no longer fearful (as she tells Niall how she is constantly facing danger) and doesn't let Bill inside. Although while Sookie finally seems to have no love for him anymore the power protecting a house from vampires appears not to work on Bill anymore. Just one more of his strange newly acquired powers after he drank Lilith's blood. This scene plays out like a domestic violence scene whereby Sookie refuses to let Bill in, but he overpowers her time and time again and seems to no longer have any regard for her except only to use her, which I kind of think was his motive all along, despite whether he loved her or not. 

Niall continues to try to find out what Warlow's been doing finding the destroyed the Fairy club and meets Ben and tells him he's trying to recruit an army against Warlow. Sam makes an attempt to rescue Emma from the werewolves, while they face discovery from police and Nicole's group who get attacked by the wolves. Meanwhile Andy receives some new anti-vampire weapons at the station, tries to reconnect with Holly by teaching her to shoot and has his hands full looking after his fairy daughters. 

Bill has sent Jessica to seduce and capture the professor responsible for synthesising true blood and hopefully we'll soon see whether he can synthesise halfling or fairy blood as a new source of food for vampires. The episode ends with a confrontation between Andy and Bill where Andy tells Bill about the vampire curfew, and it seems Bill has decided to use Andy's daughters to harvest blood. 

Throughout there is mention of the experiments taking place on vampires in order to create better weapons against them. This has a sort of Nazi experiment/ torture tone to it and it will be really interesting to see where they take the storyline throughout the series. It looks like there are probably more powerful and sinister weapons humans have developed that we haven't seen yet and it will be cool if Bill manages to make a new True Blood so in the upcoming war it will be really interesting to see what happens. Also Sookie who finally seems to have moved on, is looking to Ben the new love interest as they are both halfling telepaths. Overall some interesting threads being developed in this episode. 

#85 - Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Review

Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Stanley Kubrick
4/5

This is brilliant and strange film, the last film made by Stanley Kubrick before his death. It's slow pacing and length of nearly 2 and a half hours might be arduous to contemporary audiences who are used to fast paced Hollywood drama, but instead it's slow pacing give this film an even more mysterious and darker edge. The cinematography is great with lots of slow tracking shots complemented with horror style piano scoring (music by Jocelyn Pook, but also featured a number of classical pieces), which give the film a eerie quality. Threaded throughout the plot events of 24 hours are themes and events about sex, infidelity, relationships and death. The performances are good overall and Cruise is particularly good giving a subtle performance, but Kidman gives an average performance. The costuming, set design and lighting all lend to the strange quality of the plot events playing beautifully between the line of propriety and fear. For me personally, this film is about the temptations and compromises of long term relationships in a very real way, but there is a darker and more sinister edge explored to the characters motives which is really interesting. Despite the explicit sexual content it is not gratuitous. Instead the erotic is the primary subjectmatter used to further the plot, build tension, and reveal much about the characters motivations and emotions. Overall a fascinating film with great characters, cinematography and many twists and turns to this psychological thriller that are very emotive and effective.

#84 - Feed (2005) Review

Feed (2005), Brett Leonard
0.5/5

This Australian production focusing on feederism and cannibalism fetishes is not only a terrible horror film, but perhaps one of the worst films I've ever seen. Whether it's the terrible hollow acting, the nonsensical and illogical plot that just seems to get worse or the gratuitous sex and grotesque imagery of feeder porn, it is just really bad. It doesn't seem to have any redeemable features, as the cinematography is mostly terrible with strange angles that perhaps were meant to be "artistic" and are instead just distracting. The only exceptions are there are some interesting ideas and subjectmatter focusing on society's obsessions with thinness and narcissism. Also Alex O'Loughlin (who plays Michael) gives a good creepy performance and is the stand out of this poor film. There are some interesting elements to this film, but sadly the writing and acting is so bad it fails to bring any of them to fruition, instead floundering in mediocre gross out and almost television style "drama". Overall a terrible film and painful to watch.