Raising Victor Vargas (2002)

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)

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)

"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)

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)

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/