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2007-06-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

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Daydreams (1922)

2007-06-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

director credits to Buster Keaton & Edward Cline

This short comedy film had a small handful of straight-faced Keatonesque gags:
1) the coordinated throw & catch of a bouquet,
2) the scores of policemen who suddenly but implausibly emerge from a tram, and
3) the shenanigans at the fire escape involving Buster & two policemen.

Otherwise, it was not very good. The protagonist's resolve to either succeed or opt for suicide by revolver is immoral (this implicates his lover & her father as well, who were willing participants).

I watched a 20 minute (approx.) version of "Daydreams" on a Divx file on a 15" laptop display/monitor without any audio. Image on top-right is from "Sherlock Holmes, Jr."

Blood Diamond (2006)

2007-06-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

A terrific work of fiction, in Gregory Currie's sense, "Blood Diamond" is one of those history-based adventure dramas that reminds you of a good old-Hollywood flick starring Humphrey Bogart as the hard-boiled & slightly crooked but ultimately moral character. This is not to say that I'm comparing the gifted Leonardo DiCaprio with Bogie the icon; merely that the film elicits a positive response via the traditional film-fiction-making of solid performances by A-list actors, compelling characters & a good structure. Jennifer Connelly is a case in point: a serious actor who plays up her sex appeal and exudes the charm of a self-confident woman in serving the screenplay as the protagonist's only link to the civilized world.

The narrative even has a memorable motto, "TIA," which resignedly stands for "This is Africa."

More importantly, I will not look at diamond jewelry the same way again. 15 minutes into the film, I begin to wonder if the diamond ring I purchased from the retailer Tiffany's is one tainted, metaphorically, with the blood of hostaged Africans during its mining. I am persuaded by the film's morality and, as a result, feel happily guilty.

The Fallen Idol (1948)

2007-06-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

Around the film's midpoint, an anticipatory cut occurs to reveal the close-up of our haggard villain from the point-of-view of our vulnerable child protagonist. Even though the cut was undoubtedly expected and, therefore, technically cannot be a surprise, the close-up still sent a shock-wave of intense dread down my back. After a day of thinking, I assert that this feeling is produced by fictioneers Carol Reed & Graham Greene engineering a 15-minute (or so) build-up of suspense preceeding this "shocking" cut. Throughout this build-up, only glimpses of a limb or the billow of clothing fabric belonging, presumably, to the villain is revealed onscreen. This technique is analogous to casually winding up a mechanical clock & then letting the alarm go off after many minutes have passed. There's something here not quite Hitchcockian that I have yet to identify.

I bet Ridley Scott was well-versed in Carol Reed films when he conceptualized the staging and cinematography of his suspense-horror "Alien" (1979). The makers of "Alien" seems to employ the same build-up for the lethal beasts before the actual creatures were sufficiently revealed onscreen. Of course, Ridley took it one step further (also due to budget constraints) by not revealing the entire beast in high key lighting. I'll have to listen up the next time I do a DVD commentary on a Scott Free film.

"The Fallen Idol" is predominantly a suspense film & one would not guess this from the uneventful first act; just imagine a "Shane"-like little boy running around large halls, being inquisitive (ala sticks and stones and puppy dog tails). What a wonderful discovery! An entertaining genre film and a discussion movie too; due to the problematic nature of truth when it involves multiple characters/spectators, the child protagonist quickly gets on the road to disillusionment.

I watched the Criterion Collection DVD release.

... Lame movies

2007-06-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

Night at the Museum (2006)
directed by Shawn Levy

The movie trailer looked fun, but the movie itself was a disappointment. NATM shows that there IS a formula for financial success in a bad movie. The film costs $110M & grossed $571M worldwide; $320 million outside the US (source: the-numbers.com). My viewing experience was similar to that of the energetic but empty Madagascar (2005). If I were Ben Stiller, I would take a month-long shower after all this (maybe he did). Parents should avoid this at all costs, unless their children are beyond treatment or have already left the nest.

Idiocracy (2006)
written & directed by Mike Judge

Despite its creative credits to Mike Judge, the creator of the charming & often poignant series King of the Hill, I cannot help but think that Idiocracy was made in the wrong format. Perhaps a 1-minute youtube.com video could better convey Judge's beer-induced thoughts about Western civilization. It has an unsophisticated message about a decaying nation damned to complacency and non-intelligence; even this interpretation is overreaching. Perhaps Judge's excuse for over-producing this narrative into feature-length could be made via gratuitous exercises in really bad taste. But that didn't happen. L-A-M-E.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

2007-05-31T23:36:00.000-07:00

This is an unusually sad film. I wonder if Mr. Aronofsky has given us a confessional of his severe outlook on life in the form of a downward spiraling narrative about broken dreamers; the fact that the characters are or became drug addicts seemed incidental. Still, despite being shown the horrific effects of drugs on individuals, the film seems to lack an edge that could only be achieved with an even grittier style.

The structure of this requiem resembles his earlier breakthrough film "Pi" where again the story starts at a low point for the lead characters & things go further downhill until the catharsis of a climax. "Requiem" is "Pi," with Freud, particularly between Jared Leto's character & his mother played by the bold & incomparable Ellen Burstyn. I liked that sequence where Harry (Jared Leto) visits his mother & they have tense dialogue exchanges at the dining table; the crescendo of the dialogue interaction (from giddy surprise visit to high tension) and the contrasting close-ups between Leto & Burstyn were memorable. This was a very good scene and one of the few parts of the film that seemed realistic to me.

Speaking of realistic, I think many students will be eager to apply this term incorrectly to describe this film's general presentation. There's too much editing for this film to be realistic. Sometimes, editing is replaced with a split screen, which I liked very much because it successfully conveyed a mood: the love scene between Leto & Connelly's characters towards the beginning that used split-screens created palpable sensuality (it's immediacy is something a novel cannot duplicate). Another split-screen involving the mother & her intimidating refrigerator was an interesting substitute to the shot/reverse shot that seems to follow the 180° Rule.

I guess I liked the first half of the film better than the second half. Despite the nastiness of bodily & moral decay depicted in the end of the third act, I still managed to hang on & finish the film; I think Aronofsky had a vision of this "service for the dead" & he pulled it off. If I were to watch it again, it would be to immerse myself in the rhythm of its editing. The editing, like "City of God" is this film's prominent feature. Warning: This is NOT a good idea for date movie.

Beyond The Rocks (1922)

2007-05-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

directed by Sam Wood
starring Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson

Valentino & Swanson are big names for film buffs proficient with movie history of the past 100 years; it's acting credits certainly caught my attention. The opening wide shot & subsequent long shots that establish setting gave me a good sense of place. Then again, having recently read about "picture theory" of the mind in cognitive psychology and philosophical inquiries into visual perception & imagination, establishing shots particularly from older movies have given me much food for thought; "traces" of the world abound in the most contrived of fiction films.

Both movies stars were very photo-charismatic and to watch this film is to gaze at them every time they appear onscreen or anticipate their appearance. The beginning of the final act saw an interesting turn in this melodrama. The story is of a young woman who falls for a man, but who didn't marry for love. There's footage missing near the end - in the final scene I think - so the ending did seem rather abrupt & not believable. Still, it's a good film to observe silent film acting: Swanson's eye lashes are expressive and Valentino seems to have naturally cinematic body language.

The copy I watched was a DVD transfer originally from a nitrate print found in an eccentric Dutch collector's stash. This story did remind me of how Dreyer's "Passion" was partially recovered from an asylum. The moral lesson: physical artifacts can be found anywhere irrespective of reason.

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)

2007-05-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Zhang Yimou's "artisan film" is back after several ventures in studio-blockbuster productions. Here are some topics I would like to comment on in the near future regarding this film:

1) Zhang's exceptional ability as a native Chinese artist to depict "Chineseness" with both compassion & a didactic "objectivity". This may be the essence of his auteurism.

2) His motifs and parallels in this film; the communication between persons (kinsmen) through a proxy (translator) in Chinese & Japanese cultures and the parallel of the China-story.

3) The depiction of a prison in China.

4) The depiction of Yang Yang's refusal to meet his father & the Chief's persistent verbal coercion; this is characteristic of the workings of a Chinese family.

Wild at Heart (1990)

2007-05-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

directed by David Lynch

David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" lives up to its name. At the center of the story is an undomesticated, nomadic twosome who exists surreally but blissfully, whenever their private bubble remains unsullied by external forces. Alas, even a surreal couple cannot dance & have ground-rumbling sex all day without breaking for food & water. Sailor Ripley's macho attitude & unique snake-skin jacket bring out the cool-rebel characterization, while slim goldilocks Lula Fortune in her conveniently scanty ensembles spells what Tarantino would call "regular fuck-machine."

The last time I saw this film was in college a decade ago; this time around, the love story between Sailor (Nicky Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern) comes forth as its prominent feature. I came to this conclusion when the film takes its final turn towards a very happy ending for our twosome. The "nice witch"-inspired twist of Sailor running along the gridlocked cars towards Lula was a relief, and then his rendition of Elvis's "Love Me Tender" completed the wild, & hard-fought romance between our two lead characters. I am considering putting this film in my list of top romance films of all time, which includes such movies as "Casablanca," and "The Road Home."

This film is surreal at a "higher volume" compared to Lynch's earlier "Blue Velvet" (1986). However, the themes of true romance between Sailor & Lula, like that of Jeffrey & Sandy, and the acknowledged strange-world they live in do persist in "Wild at Heart." This time, it is the mother - a wicked witch - who is inexplicably villainous; the story implies the mother's jealousy of the daughter, perhaps due to classic conflicts within father-husband relationships. I contend that the sex & violence in "Wild at Heart" is less shocking compared to "Blue Velvet", but
the frequency of Sailor & Lula's rather playful sex is weird indeed. They truly dig one another & in a Lynchian dream world this is how it manifests itself.

Hero (2004, US release)

2007-05-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

directed by Zhang Yimou

A CONTROVERSIAL CHINESE BLOCKBUSTER
Zhang Yimou’s first film of the martial arts genre is an imaginative and expressive interpretation of China’s ancient history; a Chinese poem in the way Beowulf is a medieval poem. Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978) also comes to mind. Zhang accomplishes a majestic work of fiction through highly-stylized cinematic technique and a narrative that is, in Gregory Currie’s sense, variously interpretable (Currie, 1995). Once its color-coded sequences and unreliable narration are interpreted, however, Hero stands as a visionary work of formal beauty and Chinese pride. As a result, these two key attributes have sparked controversy amongst Chinese audiences & American commentators who made such unreflective remarks about the film’s ideology as “redolent of fascinatin' fascism”(Hoberman, 2004). Therefore, two issues must be addressed: does Hero condone tyranny by “revising” China’s history and is it possible to critically evaluate this film within the landscape of Western political correctness? I intend to answer no, on both counts.

Click Here to read more (complete essay in a pdf file).

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

2007-03-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

In his review of Borat, I remembered David Edelstein saying the film made him cringe. I felt the same way. During its 85-minute running time, my emotional response was one of “disconnected embarrassment,” an oxymoron befitting the film’s contradictory approach to its material. The film caricatures the idea of “the foreigner” in the form of a low-brow, but mainstream narrative; it is designed to appeal to passive male adolescent movie-viewers. And the film fails, compared to the more consistent & better structured Talladega Nights featuring equally outrageous but more family-friendly performances by Cohen & Will Ferrell. At least this Nascar-culture caricature has a palatable touch of burlesque. Borat fails in tone, a cohesive structure and in its intentions.

(to read more, click here)

The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

2007-03-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

Meryl Streep plays, Francesca, a midwestern farmer's wife of Italian descent & plays it well.

I don't care for the shoddy contemporary story-frame, in this framed narrative, involving Francesca's children. It is likely an artifact of Waller's book that unfortunately remained in the screenplay adaptation.

This film is very similar to the story in David Lean's "Brief Encounter," and also brings to mind the general structure of Sydney Pollack's "Out of Africa."

What's most striking about the film: if one were to assume that illicit love letters & stories of forbidden romances could attain the status of art or artwork, the story of the love affair in TBOMC could be used to argue that certain artworks are indeed ahead of their time; for Francesca's family could not have reconciled her infidelity, no matter how moving her portrait of the romance, until some time has passed.

... Could Art be Infidelity plus Time?

A History of Violence (2005): a draft essay

2007-02-19T12:18:00.000-08:00

Cronenberg ventures into a Lynchian realm of the uncanny in A History of Violence, a stylish pseudo-thriller in disguise. What begins as a genre film that engages the voyeur turns against the audience and results in an intellectual complicity; when the good guys justifiably obliterate the bad men, the discerning viewer wonders if the defeated were merely replaced by something deadlier. In this dark film, trouble gravitates towards a peaceful family man & his small community when mobsters seek his attention after a publicized heroic act. Beneath the suspense & exhilaration of self-defense lurks the inelegant outcome of self-preservation. The "aw shucks" small town setting evokes Blue Velvet’s Lumberton; the evil man sports a grotesque facial disfigurement instead of a breathing mask that feeds a sewer of obscenity. However, after the thrill of the main action, the film does not conclude with the verdant landscape of sunshine on white picket fences, but a protagonist who returns an outsider from what Stephen Price would call “the wilderness” (Prince 260).

(to read more, click here)

List of... Easy-viewing Movies

2007-02-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Better known as "IKWIG."Romantic fable set in the Hebrides of Scotland. The Archers' Romantic comedy is charming & filled with memorably lines, such as "There ought to be a law about trees!"

Walkabout (1971)
Nic Roeg's enigmatic film transforms a severe turn of events into a trance-like rite of passage in the Australian desert. A non-Western where civilization & the wilderness seem to co-exist in a time capsule that is a thing of beauty to behold. If viewers can tolerate the abstract juxtaposition of images, the "transportive" music & visuals will sweep them into a temporal paradise with a strange momentum of its own.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Whenever a recent funny movie features a leopard or similarly untamed felines, this Howard Hawks screw-ball comedy comes to mind. Susan & David seem to be metaphors for the prototypical male & female in courtship mode, especially when one party is both consciously & subconsciously non-consenting. A screwy comedy that is just about as delightful as Cukor's The Philadelphia Story (1940).

The Searchers (1956)
The Classical Western. I wonder if the definition of "the western genre film" was greatly influenced by this well-studied, seminal film of the classical western style. Ethan's racism (protagonist) is sometimes argued as the film's fatal flaw, but these cententions are often taken out of context. There are plenty of other film characters that are walking contradictions, namely the self-destroying Jewish-Nazi Danny Balint (Henry Bean's The Believer); Ethan remains the outsider at the conclusion & with John Ford's classical frame/composition, we infer that our gunslinger remains condemned to the wilderness of Monument Valley.

Manhattan (1979)
This movie has been called Woody Allen's love poem to his "hometown" New York City. I share this thought.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Despite the fact that Dreyer's systematic use of the close-up dominates this one-tone film, the experience of seeing intense emotional suffering during the protagonist's act of martyrdom transcends schadenfreude. (Word of Caution: this is the least easy-viewing of the bunch)

Blue Velvet (1986)
I "Blue Velvet" for a good laugh at the cinema; to experience the state between waking dream & reckless laughter. Best experienced with a crowd, say in a college film class.

The Shop Around The Corner (1940)
Lubitsch is probably the master of the sex comedy in the mythical era sometimes called "The Golden Age of Hollywood." Remade as a Judy Garland/Van Johnson musical & Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks romantic comedy. A comfort film for those snow days.

Layer Cake (2004)

2007-01-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

Matthew Vaughn & J.J. Connolly's Layer Cake is undoubtedly a British gangster film. However, it is not by default a good film. Hodges’s Get Carter (1971) starring Michael Caine is a close comparison in terms of genre, its final shot & a preoccupation with close-ups of it’s leading man pondering ambiguously at the camera. I must admit that no English-made gangster film has been able to rival their American forebears in Hollywood films starring James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Al Pacino. London-born Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast (2000) does operate in this crime genre, but it’s salient cinematic quality rests in Ray Winstone’s likeable, sympathetic character and it’s generally character-driven story; it is also a much simpler plot with the “good” guys drawn contrastingly against the bad men. Layer Cake fails as a cohesive film because there’s an inconsistency between the tone of its exposition and the rest of the story. The narrative flows with an uneven rhythm, unintentionally.

For the moment, I am inclined to think that the British gangster film is certainly not to my taste & I wonder how much this owes to their heritage in this industry-driven art. I cannot help but think of Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts & Coronets (1949) when I contemplated the anti-climatic ending to Layer Cake. The former is a heavily-narrated black comedy whose final twist is wickedly funny & quintessentially English in it’s dead pan tenor. However, the impassive tone in the final moments of Layer Cake is nothing more than an inglorious conclusion. As a reading & film viewing public sensitive to moral social messages ranging from billboards to toilet-stall readers, the protagonist’s sudden, traumatic downturn is jarring but redundant. If you must fetishize over images of Daniel Craig again after
Casino Royale (2006), be informed.

L'enfant (2005)

2006-12-13T18:45:00.001-08:00

There is an anti-analytical, perhaps anti-intellectual, quality to Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne's cinematic slice of urban vagrancy in L'enfant. In avoidance of attaching the terms "realism" or "realistic" to this French film, which exhibits influences from early Godard & Truffaut, one could contend that it is devoid of any self-reflexivity or sociological agenda. So, what is the point of showing moviegoers glimpses of a day-in-the-life-of a vagabond who ponders the illegal sale of his newborn baby if not to make social commentary? Perhaps, the Dardennes are looking to update Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” with an ever more mobile & close-quarter camera eye, particularly via handheld close-up shots that pan & linger.

The unspoken spiritual kinship between Bruno, the lead character, & Sonia, the mother of his child, depicted through their child-like frolickings and hermetic “two-shot” moments remain memorable scenes seldom witnessed in cinema. For a film driven not by its plot, but by sustained & adjoining tension from scene to scene, it draws the discerning & willing viewer into the street life of an under-achieving petty thief. Those viewers who require more structure & plot points are forewarned. However, for those who enjoy vetting the cinematic frontiers of reconstructed & scrutinized reality, view on.

The Proposition (2005)

2006-11-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

It does not do this Australian film justice to praise it as a “must-see film,” or with some other superlative marketing remark; such comments are bound to skew audience expectation. Nonetheless, “The Proposition” is an unusual approach to the western genre as the lead characters are indeed outsiders who never fit in to a community and end up awash, riding into an open-ended terrain. Though I would consider Guy Pearce’s character the protagonist in the plot about liberating an innocent brother and Ray Winstone’s policeman as a major character, perhaps a counterpoint, the film stays at a Brechtian distance. This is not a character-driven western in a conventional sense; the characters' psychology is of little significance and the action remains always external. This also means that the entire film transcends the individual characters in favor of a metaphor for a place, a sweltering & viscerally brutal “fresh hell.” The real lead character here is a continent; the untamed impression of Australia.

The Inheritance (2003)

2006-11-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

Lucid Danish Realism, number two.

Many visual & cinematic references to the literature of Shakespeare, particularly Romeo & Juliet & As You Like It (see dir commentary). Directed by Per Fly (per-flee), this Scandinavian film has shades of Coppola's "The Godfather" in the lead character played by the emotional bottle rocket Ulrich Thomsen.

The White Countess (2005)

2006-10-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Finally published... on Offscreen.com

To view my essay on the final Merchant-Ivory Film, click on the link below:
http://www.offscreen.com/biblio/phile/essays/white_countess/

The website offscreen.com is an online film journal (ISSN #1712-9559) based in Canada & has ties with horchamp.com and Concordia University in Montreal Canada.

The Man Who Cried (2000)

2006-06-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

My viewing of The Man Who Cried came naturally after the strong impression left by Sally Potter’s more recent Yes (2004). Ms. Potter has made a total of 4 feature films that I’m aware of, which includes The Tango Lesson (1997) and the acclaimed Orlando (1992). Her approach has been unconventional, particularly in screenplay structure and the provisions of plot points. Character action is not the primary driving force in her stories. Instead, her narrative comes from the rhythmic flow of her protagonists’ internal world: Joan Allen’s voiced-over inner dialogue in Yes and the implicitly observed turn-of-events in The Man Who Cried.

Her films are sensitive to emotions, those deeply felt by her characters; her screenplay characters are but vehicles for conveying contemplative thought and feelings. It’s as though her flawed characters are aware of their inability to verbalize or negotiate their own circumstances, usually social or cultural. Therefore, they resort to self-reflection and particularly in the case of The Man Who Cried, Suzie (Christina Ricci) watches the turbulent setting of her life unfold quietly, thoughtfully. Suzie seems aware that the magnitude of historical events she perceives is beyond her ability to process.

The plot traces Suzie’s search to reunite with her immigrant father in America and her passage is surreal. Her life appears to flash before her eyes as her introverted nature permits very few externalized reactions against the turns of her fortunes. The film begins with a surrealistic scene of our disoriented protagonist drowning in water, surrounded by fire. Her struggle to stay afloat seems urgent enough, but the tone of this scene is far from immediate & the expressionistic use of fire burning on water (without any reference to a physical event such as a shipwreck) suggests a dramatic, metaphorical scene: she struggles alone, she’s forsaken.

The film’s entire plot is Suzie’s surreal journey from childhood to early womanhood. Music & theatrics plays a prominent role here; in fact, the scenes at the opera and it’s rehearsals clearly blends living things (like a human figure or a horse) with stage props. Sometimes a translucent veil divides the real person, an actor in the foreground with the staged scenery in the background. The use of an opera stage here is surrealism at its most deliberate in The Man Who Cried.

Over the Hedge (2006)

2006-06-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

Over The Hedge opens with a tickling scenario: a resourceful rodent negotiates a vending machine with startling ingenuity, including the use of a dinosaur-headed grabber toy in chucklesome lime green. His name is RJ (voice of Bruce Willis), a savvy but morally flawed scavenger. Together with competitor Verne (voice of Garry Shandling), the fretful but ethical tortoise, they make up the two lead characters in this situational comedy of errors. RJ & Verne’s buddy-rival spin is arguably modeled after Buzz & Woody from another animated film, Pixar Animated Studio’s Toy Story. Despite the film’s laugh-out-loud humor, the gags come in intermittent bursts without any genuine craft in comedy & drama that usually arise from audience identification of character.

Besides their typical characterization as the likeable bad egg and the clumsy good guy, RJ & Verne’s central conflicts are overly simplistic. Briefly, the former is a victim of an extortionist, while the latter falls prey to a con-man. The con-man is none other than RJ and so the plot hinges on his character turn prior to Act 3 in order to enable a resolution. Therefore, I watched this film with a constant awareness of its flimsy construction without any emotional involvement.

The generally light-hearted tone of Over The Hedge complements the few successful gags, especially those I vaguely recall as involving a naked tortoise & his naturally molded garment, but the film could not sustain its humor within any given scene. I suspect that this deficiency is due to the screenplay’s characters. Over the Hedge substitutes believable characters for situation-based comedy and in this imbalance fails to match the surprising flair found in the writing of Dreamwork’s own tongue-in-cheek hit comedy, Shrek.

Vera Drake (2004)

2006-05-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

I have been a casual admirer of Mike Leigh since watching his exuberant Topsy Turvy (1999) and reading about his improvisational directorial style. Therefore, I watched with wonder as the first half of Vera Drake unfolded with assuredness and unmistakable form. The camera follows Mrs. Drake, steadily like its poised narrative, as she effortlessly fulfills her role as servant and, generally, the maternal figure of her surroundings while the editing weaves together the rigid social classes of post-war England in a formal posture. This form carries a message. In Leigh’s harsh ideology, one’s socio-economic status, either poor or rich, determines a fixed set of possible outcomes or paths; if one were rich but socially inept, suffering ensues, whereas if one were poor but morally absolute, the letter of the law punishes. Those wealthy and who employ Mrs. Drake were unaffected by her secret occupation.

Mrs. Drake performs illegal abortions outside hospitals. Her methodology is unproven but her convictions are pure. She is a saint, but with such virtue amongst mortals there is no hope for tolerance. From this standpoint, her story reminds me of the narrative of Joan of Arc; she is established as a god-sent, exposed for her earthly deeds and penalized by the law of her day.

Vera Drake is like two different films put together due to the discrete tone of its two halves. Part one, occupying approximately one hour, is the embodiment of harmonious existence, both for Mrs. Drake’s family and those she touches on a daily basis. In part two, she is crucified and her network of lives touched turns dissonant. Its midpoint, a jarring transition that launches our protagonist (& the audience) into an emotionally harrowing second half comes so swiftly it risks asphyxiating a sympathetic viewer.

The turning point of Mrs. Drake’s life does not come as a surprise in the narrative. However abrupt and traumatic its tonal shift, there is no concealing the fact that she had it coming. In the plot of the film, her story is not instigated by external forces. The cause for Mrs. Drake’s fall from grace is completely internal. She performs her occupation in secret meetings behind closed curtains and, upon her apprehension, admits fully to her lawbreaking. Therefore, the sympathy for the protagonist is singularly pinned on her unique sense of morality.

Mrs. Drake thought herself moral, her judges did not. The final judgment against her, in a verdict scene commanded with absoluteness by actor Jim Broadbent’s magistrate (whose severe baritone could induce a full confession from any partially-realized guilt), illustrates the exclusivity of moral viewpoint from the letter of the law. But it appears that Mrs. Drake’s suffering was greatest when her sense of right & wrong came under her family’s scrutiny, especially that of her disenchanted son.

It is truly heartbreaking at the narrative’s midpoint when the dramatic irony in a working-class family’s celebratory gathering, the peak of cumulative life-affirming events for the unsinkable Drakes, hangs their harmonious bubble by a thread and eventually crumbles with unfathomable quietness. Leigh’s Vera Drake is a memorable accomplishment in dramatic tension. Imelda Staunton, who played the shrill secondary character in Ang Lee’s Sense & Sensibility, gives a performance that will make her synonymous to the title character.

Spartan (2004)

2006-05-21T09:49:00.001-07:00

I watched Spartan in two seatings as a result of careless consumption of antihistamine drugs intended to bolster my viewing attention. On the other hand, I sufficiently read the synopsis for well-known playwright David Mamet’s recent film to form expectations & found his genre film unpredictable & absorbing. Spartan is a political thriller where the lead character’s substance or flesh does not emerge in the exposition. In fact, the first 10 minutes or so introduces a tiny sub-branch of highly-trained military automatons (US Marines) who solve secret government problems with razor-sharp physical prowess. Next, the main premise is quickly tossed on an interrogation scene & expounded via Mamet’s signature fast & tough dialogue: the president’s daughter is missing. The film’s attention is on the talking heads, some belonging to the president’s political machine, others to the super-soldiers awaiting instructions from these executives. The unconventional manner with which the film unfolds, unless one is well-versed in Mamet-tongue, defines the tension between the narrative & the audience. Therefore, those expecting earlier audience identification with a protagonist may be disappointed.

A quick glance at critical reviews (say, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ ) reveal mixed responses. Some critics trashed its character logic, while others insist that Spartan is merely a Mamet facsimile from tried materials. However, James Berardinelli (http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/master.html) makes a good point by saying, “People in Mamet films don't talk the way they do in real life; their words, and the way they say them, are stylized”. Once you accept Mamet’s unique approach, his highly contrived plot and plain lack of realism become moot; the film is stripped down to engaging narrative conflicts and a contemporary political ideology.

Spartan is a message film in the same veins of Barry Levinson’s slant in Wag The Dog (1997). But it is not parody since the protagonist, Scott (Val Kilmer), pays a serious price before the drama concludes. The film's tone is equally grave. Mamet merely puts the eyes of a military man as a surrogate for his audiences’ in order to implicate the “uncheck-able” theatrics & cold-bloodedness of a political-survival mechanism as seen from the backstage. The film shows the backstage of the US presidency in a negative light, which I suppose can be applied to any complex political engine in the world. This comes as no surprise from a left-wing artist.

Birth (2004)

2006-05-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

A film about unresolved grief that's subversively life-affirming. Just remember the music & you will agree. This is a "Nicole Kidman, actor"-movie that needs at least one viewing experience. May bring to mind the close-ups used in Dreyer's "Passion", but with a lingering-shot technique.

I cannot review this film better than this righteous dude from a blog called "Culturespace".

Match Point (2005)

2006-05-03T19:39:00.000-07:00

The brilliance of Woody Allen's narrative about a social climber does not become apparent until the end of its second Act. The film opens with a thesis statement on how luck determines men’s fortunes though seldom acknowledged as so; over narration, the spare visuals show a tennis ball volleying back & forth, in slow motion, across a stationary net. Prior to the fade-out, the ball hits the top of the net and a freeze frame captures the event in mid-air as the narrator expounds on the two possible outcomes. In the middle of the final Act, an analog of this scene, now a ring as the projectile hitting a guard rail when the river was its intended goal, finds new meaning within the story, one that doesn’t appear to favor our amoral protagonist. With steady pacing and patient construction up to this high point, the film then fires successive plot points into a finale executed with the precision of the concluding movement of a classical symphony.

Match Point is a formal, classy flick. Many will no doubt identify it as a thriller even though such genre elements are mostly visible only in its last 30 minutes. I suppose most thrillers feature a plot that showcases the tense portions or “final-hour” of its story (Mann’s Collateral comes to mind), but Match Point is distinctive in that it is complete with most of its backstory and the build-up towards the final action. Andrew Sarris (in the New York Observer) drew a comparison between this film & Allen’s earlier Crimes & Misdemeanor, which is both more humorous and serious at the same time. Match Point is different, more stately and, perhaps, feels more cosily European than any of his other films. It’s more Chabrol than Hitchcock; philosophically speaking, it poses existentialist dilemmas instead of resolving conflicts with a conventional moral sensibility. This film ranks amongst Allen’s best films, a list that includes Annie Hall, Manhattan, Crimes & Misdemeanor, and Deconstructing Harry.

Doom (2005)

2006-04-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

It's bad, but not cruel & unusual punishment like Ever After and certainly far from "Van Helsing bad". If you willingly walk into traffic, you'll likely get it - just like the chicken. Five minutes into the exposition & about 30 seconds into live-action dialogue, the showman known as The Rock (in his perpetually brawny, pubescent-camp routine) calls rank amongst his marines & describes their imminent mission as "a game". So, the entire movie is low-brow voyeurism and eye-candy for would-be gamers. The film thrives in clichés but occasionally commits cardinal sins in movie screenwriting, such as when a character states ominously, "there's something in Dr. K's office" instead of actually generating that tension visually or with use of sound. Alexander MacKendrick would call this the “Look, Highland sheep!” slip up.

Doom is a shoot-em-up CG show that’s occasionally fun for the violence-desensitized youth, 40 & under. On the non-CG side, Rosamund Pike of Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice appears as a pretty face in poor imitation American accent. On the other hand, Karl Urban portrayed a character who looked like the moral center of the film that didn’t have a chance to materialize in the face of big monster-blasting guns. It's all quite unpretentiously phallic.

Prime (2005)

2006-04-12T17:19:00.002-07:00

The hook in the romantic comedy Prime is found in its use of dramatic irony during the scenes between the “Jewish mother” (Meryl Streep) and her young & beautiful patient (Uma Thurman). The movie trailers gave away the first act; a psychologist is unwittingly encouraging her recently divorced patient to have a committed relationship with her own son (Brian Greenberg). They are 14 years apart in age but the sex is GREAT!

I enjoyed director Ben Younger’s escapist first half. If he had sustained the light tone instead of delving into romantic drama territory towards the end of Act 2, I would have watched the film again. The epilogue is a reality check that I didn’t want to expect from what appeared to be a refreshing fluff piece. However, Uma looks just as lovely as she did in the Kill Bill series, without the uncharacteristic gore, of course.

Watch Giovanni Ribisi in Boiler Room instead. Younger’s talent for dialogue rhythm is put to better use there.

...In Dreams

2006-04-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

This morning, I awoke from a dreadful dream....

BACKSTORY: Last night, I bombarded my intro class with surreal images by Dali, Bunuel & David Lynch. In the span of 3.5 hours, my vict...students saw the dream sequence from Hitch's "Spellbound", Bunuel's "An Andalusian Dog" and Lynch's "Blue Velvet" (1986). I was in 7th heaven by end of class.

Gasps, both loud & muted, were heard when the images of the cutting razor collided with many sets of eyes in the audience; The class somnambulists woke up. "Blue Velvet" elicited a wider range of audible responses: laughter, "oh my god"-s, "don't go in there"-s, etc.

At the end of class, I remarked that Jeffrey's Aunt, the very sweet secondary character, who provided the last line of dialogue, "I could never eat an ant" (or something to that effect) seemed like a clean-cut package that would reveal a can of worms... I immediately associate her line with Norman Bates's final "I wouldn't hurt a fly."

THE DREAM: I was back in my old engineering office & was chatting with the presumably diabolical but tentatively forthcoming CFO of the company. I then drifted around the warehouse undetected & everything appears as I left it two years ago. I had to go to the bathroom, which has a 3/4 wall that reveals one physically from fore-arm upwards. My former German boss walks by, I bowed my head to further disguise my face with the baseball cap I was wearing. Via peripheral vision, I knew he identified me. As I go to leave, a call halted my step. I looked to the left into an office & saw my briefcase & personal effects that I'd need to bring with me, out of reach. I was trapped. I turned around to face my former boss. He turned out to be my eldest aunt on my father's side, an established adversary against my mother's side of the family. I was very scared now & pathetically negotiated for my personal effects. She wanted something from me before she'd even consider letting me go. All I tried to do was to look away from a close-up of her face (my dream, of course, was cinematic too).

Then, I woke up with great gladness. I think the entire dream contains elements from "Blue Velvet", its general mood & feeling of dread.

Brothers (2005)

2005-12-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

Lucid Danish realism.

Raising Victor Vargas (2002)

2005-10-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

This episodic screenplay is a fairly well-constructed "Sundance" favourite. Its realist style in the first 15 minutes is the most impressive part of the film; the public swimming pool scene brings to mind the lighter moments in Cathy Moriarty's first scene in "Raging Bull" (1980). The film relies on close-up shots as a primary technique to achieve character intimacy & a realist mood. The characters in the film are mostly very charming, particularly the "frizzy haired" Vargas boys.

Overall, it lacks the city-dweller edge in its narrative particularly after some uneasy questions were brought forth, particularly in the scenes involving the tyrranical head of family at the juveline delinquent center. There's also some commentary on Latino male machismo through the lead character, Vic, but it doesn't seem contribute to his character development.

Set in New York, the Lower East Side of Manhattan I believe, the general lighting scenes and mise en scene are bright, high key & natural outdoor lighting and, in a word, clean.

The final shot is upwards in tone but open-ended. This film is written & directed by Peter Sollett.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0316188/

Crash (2004)

2005-10-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

I was less impressed than most. “Crash” makes social observations regarding racial discords in the American poetic realism style. The scenes involving Thandie Newton & Matt Dillon’s characters were too overtly “poetic” for my taste. I do like Terrence Howard & his very believable characterization of the passive man under tremendous pressure. The scene where he faced off with policemen in his Lincoln Navigator carrying TNT in his pants was well-executed.

This film holds a tie with Amores Perros (2000), but never exceeded my expectations as did Soderbergh’s “Traffic” (2000) and Anderson’s “Magnolia” (1999).
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/

In The Cut (2003)

2005-09-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

"FILMED 100% IN NEW YORK CITY". I really liked the often drifting handheld photography in this urban thriller directed by Jane Champion (of 1993's The Piano). Although the film’s general structure fits the thriller genre, it’s strongest impressions were made by the lead character’s melancholia; Frannie’s stream of consciousness is the central mystery. Therefore, it is also a character film, one that references Virginia Woolfe on several occasions: Frannie’s fruitless effort to teach the novel “The Lighthouse” & Frannie’s intimate relationship with her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason-Leigh). The on-location Manhattan settings, the subdued lighting & prevalent use of shadows, the narrow focal depth of long lenses, and the floating camera eye provides a unique voyage into Frannie’s state of being and family history.

Meg Ryan plays the protagonist as if in a state of sustained hallucination; an impressively subdued performance.

It struck me that the tattooed-forearm “film device” is not explicitly acknowledged by other characters besides the lead until 45 minutes into the film; another sign of how the thriller structure is incidental. This film will appeal to women more than men despite its overt sensuality & the graphic sex scenes. It does not follow a “female structure”, but the climax is more cathartic than explosive.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0199626/

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

2005-09-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

An unexpected coming-of-age buddy film with two memorable characters of cinema, Ratso (Dustin Hoffman) & Joe Buck (Jon Voight), "Midnight Cowboy" collides small-town innocence with city drudgery. But is Joe Buck really innocent after having experienced the betrayal revealed in the fragmented flashbacks? Perhaps his charms and optimism seem untainted.

"Midnight Cowboy" is the street-smart version of "The Graduate" (1967). It is a testament to the dispossessed.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0064665/

The Bride Wore Red (1937)

2005-09-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

Despite missing the first 18 minutes of the film, I am still able to piece together the set-up of this engaging Joan Crawford vehicle & appreciate its typical "Hollywood ending". Crawford plays an ambitious working class girl who impersonates a fictional socialite in order to catch a rich husband at a resort. Crawford’s Anni is introduced as a performer, maybe a dancer, at a club where opportunity came around in the form of a well-dressed older gentleman who probably burns Benjamins to light his cigars. This minor character is only the first of many to portray class distinction in “The Bride Wore Red”, a narrative about the pursuit of social class in a blissful community consisting of working peasants and wealthy guests. Perhaps, this is the Switzerland that Hollywood knew at the time.

The characters in the film, such as Giulio (Franchot Tone) and Rudi Pal (Robert Young of the “Canterville Ghost”) acknowledge the difference in social class at every turn; they do so with a smile. Crawford, fully in command of her allure, goes through a series of wardrobe changes that reflect her character’s social climbing progress, and also foretell her character’s turn at the conclusion with her charming and unabashedly low-cut, regional frock. The glimmering dress that screams “classy ‘ho” at the climax certainly lives up to the film’s title, even in monochrome. The height of her achievement in elevating her class status and deepening her self-hate, is represented by the flamboyant but cheap material tightly wrapped around her body.

The theme of the determined working girl marrying into riches reminded me of “I Know Where I’m Going” (1945), but the similarity ends there. “The Bride Wore Red” is neither comedic nor romantic; the lead character, the bride, schemes against a rich man and, above all, denies herself happiness in order to satisfy her prejudice against the have-nots. Being poor and not having money are two distinct situations, but Anni doesn’t quite figure this out. At the plot’s conclusion, Anni was shaped by circumstances, not her own mind. Crawford became a more active participant of her fate in “Mildred Pierce” (1945), a later film also about a working class woman, but her character was ultimately put in her own specific place in the social order.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0028661/

Out of Sight (1998)

2005-09-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

I'll write more extensively about this film in the future. I had just lost some comments I've written from forgetting to hit "Save".

I had concluded a minute ago, prior to losing my material in digital limbo, that "Out of Sight" contains Jennifer Lopez's best role in a film. It made me want to watch more films with her playing lead. The Jennifer Lopez from the late 90s was slightly different: she was less skinny & more "realistic"-looking. Either in full lipstick & eye makeup or looking like she had truly just woken up from normal-person slumber (as opposed to movie-sleeping in makeup), Karen Sisco (Lopez) is stunning. Further, Karen exudes an undeniable, working-girl sexuality that has seldom graced the big screen, at least not lately.

After 3 to 4 viewings, I still find striking the scene of the first-meeting between Karen & Jack Foley (Clooney). In spite of memories of stardust & the two actors' on-screen chemistry, the success of this scene is mostly due to the mise en scene: the blinking red light (from the car breaking), the enclosed space (trunk of a car) & physical intimacy of the two actors, and Jack's hand casually placed on Karen's hip. It is an effective play on a relatively hostile situation (experienced by one party at least & the awful smell by both) in a romantic setting (lights & physical nearness).

I will have to comment on the amusing & descriptive DVD video commentary by Soderbergh & Frank (screenwriter) in future postings. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120780/

Heaven Can Wait (1943)

2005-09-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

"Lubitsch in Technicolor", thought I, as the credits began. Not only is this his first color film, but also a first in which Lubitsch shows his sentimental side. The first half features his classic touch in sophisticated comedy (timing & dialogue), and sexual undercurrents (detectable by the discerning audience). The second half blossoms into a seasoned &, at times, nostalgic outlook at mortality.

I need a second viewing to fully appreciate this film because the "old man looking back" sentimentality of the second half really caught me by surprise & stands out as an unexpected narrative turn. In short, I don't know what to think of it. One thing's for sure: the film's portrait of a married couple, in it's essense, is undeniably realistic for a formalistic studio picture (Fox) from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

The theme in "Heaven Can Wait" is marriage. I feel that if my own marriage were to reflect some of the elements in the relationship between Martha (Gene Tierney) and Henry (Don Ameche), I'd be set for life. Truly laugh-out-loud funny & endearing too.

The DVD video release by The Criterion Collection is a gem. Gene Tierney is lovely in either color or monochrome (as audiences would witness that following year in Preminger's noir picture "Laura"). Don Ameche (ah-mee-chee) is a stand-out leading man & Chuck Coburn is perfect in his angelic matchmaker & elderly do-gooder (ala "The More The Merrier") persona. The most outstanding item on the DVD is the commentary about & by Samson Rafaelson, Lubitsch's close collaborator for almost a dozen films. Samson has some insightful recollections & inspiring advise for the budding screenwriter or filmmaker. Samson's screenwriting credit is an awesome list, plus his wrote the perfect romantic comedy "The Shop Around The Corner" (1940). "Note to self: procure this film immediately!" http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0035979/

Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

2005-09-03T05:50:00.000-07:00

A delightful screwball comedy. Irene Dunne's performance as Theodora rivals Hepburn's screwy turns in Hawks's "Bringing Up Baby", arguably one of the best comedy films ever made. Melvyn Douglas co-stars & plays his fancy-free screen persona with the ocassional crack in his voice.

The film's structure is a 2-Act; an exercise in character reciprocity. In the first half, the man teaches the woman how to live & be true to one's self. In the longer second half, the woman returns the favour when she discovers the man's double life. Melvyn's character is not intensely hypocritical, just resigned & dispossessed, that is until Theodora came along & swept him off his feet! http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0028355/

Cradle 2 The Grave (2003)

2005-08-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

Straight to the grave
A poor excuse for a movie. Not only did famed martial artist & movie star Jet Li take a backseat in the screenplay, despite having first billing (or at least 'left' billing on the movie poster), but the tone of the movie was lethargic. I blame the casting and performance of a Earl Simmons, also known as Dark Man X or the abbreviation DMX. His acting ability as a small-time crook & doting father, Fait, falls short in substance & credibility. Had he persuaded the audience with an angry bark here & an expressive growl there, and had the filmmakers made a final cut with a sense of humour, "Cradle 2 The Grave" would have amused. If this warning of imminent sleep-inducement proves inadequate, do read on.

The plot: Fait, a fellow henchman, a stripper (Gabrille Union), and a semi-getaway man (Anthony Anderson) attempt a diamond heist &, in the process, lifted a bag of black stones that look like really expensive licorice candy. The dark gems spell trouble & our team of supposedly likeable robbers get caught in a triangle of made-in-Taiwan predicament; a Chinese supercop, Su (Jet Li) deployed on search & retrieve, a former Chinese guy (literally, since he looks rather half-Caucasian), Ling (Mark Dacascos), who's bumped into Su in the past, with black-market auction in mind, & a kingpin-like mobster are all after the stones in this contrived, over-cooked noodle plot. Eventually, the supercop teams up with Fait & his band of "mean-streeters" and together they battle dogs, men in cages, expendable crewmen and attempt to rip-off selected members of the underworld. A subplot involves a rather cheesy & sugary relationship between Fait & his pre-teen daughter who vexes her kidnappers with stereotypical "rugrats" antics. Further, Tom Arnold was used as a character actor who manufactures stale jokes using his fumbling sidekick persona so effectively employed in Cameron's "True Lies".

To sum up, "Cradle 2 The Grave" is a disappointing Jet Li actioner that doesn't live up to the promise of hip-hop intensity suggested in the title. 2 bad. Anthony Anderson did steal the show with his on-the-job comical turns as a team member who goes to over-the-top lengths as a professional con-man. He should have been the lead character "buddy" to Jet Li's stoic Su.
DMX's protagonist of Fait is more minimal than minimalist; the filmmakers allowed him to get away with acting & mumbling like the average heroic fellow. Kelly Hu's catty female sidekick to the villain has the appropriate mean, razor-sharp looks, but, unfortunately, the screenplay eventually furnishes her character with dialogue. Jet Li still delivers some entertaining moves, particularly his signature "offensive blocks" where he would strike an enemy's blow, either punch or kick, with its equivalent. Ultimately, the film that takes itself seriously, could have been saved had the director made it into a very marketable comedy action flick like the Tucker-Chan "Rush Hour" series. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0306685/

Who's That Knocking At My Door? (1967)

2005-08-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

Marty from NYU
Martin Scorsese's debut film is a black & white portrait of a young city dweller named J.R. (Keitel). The project started out as a graduate student film. With gradual funding & piecing together of scenes shot & edited years apart, Marty created the story of a flawed character defined by his religion & social circle. There are two striking scenes in the picture, both involving the actors Harvey Keitel & Zina Bethune. In the first scene, the two met & J.R. spoke passionately about westerns as though Scorsese were expounding through Keitel on a favourite subject of his, John Ford. In the later scene, a complex argument takes place between a man & a woman whose mutual love could not overcome the stigma of the woman's sexual trauma.

In the middle of the film, the narrative suddenly pauses, after J.R. began talking about women as "broads", to include a footnote on J.R.'s thoughts about what he would generally consider as loose women. This side reference about sex turns out to be a 5 minute stylized sequence of him rolling around a small bed in the middle of a studio apartment with the type of women he would not consider "marriage-material". According to an interview with Mardik Martin, an early Scorsese collaborator, this sequence was insisted upon by an investor & the sex scenes were filmed in Europe; Holland, I believe. Marty uses frequent cuts, pans, flash transitions & circling movements to imply snippets of memory over gratuitous sex sequence.

All in all, the film has Scorsese's signature written on it, particularly the observation of the imperfect character who lives, stumbles, cries & hurts those who care for him. He did nail the complexities of a heterosexual relationship in a sequence where the couple argues in harsh tones, unable to reconcile their social & personal biases. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0063803/

Red Eye (2005)

2005-08-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

I wish Wes Craven would make more pure-thrillers like "Red Eye". Perhaps the credit should be given to the screenwriter, Carl Ellsworth, who constructed an efficient script that, in the first two acts, brought forth relentless character/action and incisive dialogue that translated a psychological hijacking of great intensity onto the screen. A simple three act structure governs a plot of which Syd Field would approve. Two major plot points catapult the main action - a male professional killer mastermind (or manager as he likes to call himself) coerces a female hotel manager to assist him in the assasination of a political figure who frequents her hotel - into and out of Act 2 where most of the action takes place.

The following discussion will contain spoilers, so do watch the film before reading on.

The film's set-up is quick & involved much expositional editing. Editing is made frequently to depict Lisa (Rachel McAdams), her work, shots of her childhood photographs, her retired father (Brian Cox), and shots of expendable crewmen noisily opening crates of fish containing mysterious boxes. At the speed in which these bits of information are edited into a sequence, one may conclude the following: Lisa is a professional, a workaholic (problem solving via cellphone), a former victim (father's frequent phone calls & references to sel-help books), and those mystery boxes aren't leftover freebies from a tradeshow...

best sequence: the momentary fugitive escapes from the plane.

least effective: the final act dominated by a competently edited but cliched genre action sequence.

A good example of the standard screenplay structure for the novice student of film.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0421239/

RAM #001

2005-08-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sirk; melodrama. I like melodrama. I; like melodrama.

I now live in constant fear that my life emulates a Douglas Sirk Technicolor film. Example: a friend's friend has a cat that misbehaves, causing tempers to flare, heightened senses, followed by a dramatic delivery & declaration of principles against the feline population.

film idea #001

2005-08-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

A new screenplay based on the "short-term memory" device from Nolan's "Memento" (2000); the thriller plot is expanded into a historical narrative that comments on the cyclical inevitability of mortality and with it the wisdom of a "thinking singularity". Perhaps one of the main theme could be evolution & adaptation. Its protagonist could be the analog of a historian.

The thought came to me after listening to a radio analysis of Britain's former colonization of Iraq through the 1950s. History, as we know it from secondary school, is the re-learning of temporal events prior to one's memory on the basis of tangible (mostly physically) evidence. If time were compressed & the process of re-learning repeated, one would have the gimmick to Nolan's film. The new film would be the "Doctor Zhivago" (1965)-version of "Memento".

Wag The Dog (1997)

2005-08-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Brainstorm an old shoe
Barry Levinson's political satire is an incisive observation of improvization and brainstorming. In the beginning of what I believe to be Act 3 of the screenplay, the hot-shot movie producer (Dustin Hoffman) orders his "I'm going to get drunk" songwriter (Willie Nelson) to write an advertisement jingle, a tune that refers to an old shoe. After a few indignant mumblings, the songwriter picks up a guitar, a fellow musician & begins to jam out a new anthem. Playing off of one another the two musicians gradually construct the melody to the theme song of the movie producer's next device - his follow up to the fake war engineered for TV & propagated via the US media - that will continue the theatrical wool pulled over the eyes of the American public. This scene of music composition summarizes the main theme in "Wag The Dog".

"Wag The Dog" was released during my sojourn of undergraduate college, but my first viewing occured 8 years later in a time history will remember as the post Cold War & post Berlin Wall age of terrorism & the politics of fear. The film, however intuitive or serendipitous depending on one's viewpoint of the filmmakers' insight or luck, is still relevant to news headlines today and its humor, very much alive. The plot revolves around a high-level US government problem solver (Robert De Niro) who hires a movie producer to create fake footage of a foreign conflict that will, with the coordinated assistance of the US press secretary and spokespersons, distract the American viewing public from the President's apparent indiscretion with a young female performer. According to the production notes on the DVD, the film's release virtually coincided with the publication of the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal that mirrors the film's over-arching plot. So, with the help of these skillful spin-doctors, the government declared war on alleged Albanian terrorists forcing yesterday's news headlines into the obscurity of page 21 or so.

The film does not expose the American public as media fetishists, but instead focuses on the adept organization and creativity of a political machine. De Niro & Hoffman play the multimedia equivalent of the "Taylor machine" from Capra's "Mr Smith Goes to Washington". Whereas Capra shows both sides of the political arena, via James Stewart's righteous rookie doing battle with crooked conspirators sustained by Claude Rains' dishonest senator, Levinson's cynical behind-the-scenes spoof has no boyscout in sight. There are no external forces capable of stopping these 21st Century media manipulators, except themselves.

Though the film is an undisguised contrivance with a resolution that is consistent with the screenplay's narrative structure, the quick ending will probably keep the film from it's potential for greatness along the same veins of Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove". Without revealing the plot, it is sufficient to say that our morally uninhibited twosome ends quite suddenly in self-destruction. Still, its humour & wit is undeniably sharp in a film that often boils down to a dynamic 2-character play; the narrative does not take off until the initial interview upon De Niro's "Connie" arriving at the tanning-bed wing in the mansion-palace of Hoffman's Stanley Motss. The twosome had an agreeable exchange that went something like this: "a movie producer... it's like a plumber: if you do it OK, nobody notices, if you fuck up, it gets full of shit". The most alluring aspect of "Wag The Dog" lies not in its realistic portrait of a political back-room, but in the realism of logical conclusions made as a result of intelligent problem-solving.
IMBD Link - http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/