2006 cineblog
Submitted by dogssassgod on Mon, 01/09/2006 - 11:29
Tags:
January
- Central do Brasil (Walter Salles, Brazil, 1998) aka Central Station (USA) 3.5/5 stars Nominated for 2 Oscars, Fernanda Montenegro for Best Actress in a Leading Role and for Best Foreign Language Film in 1999, this film show cases the directing talents of Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)), Montenegro's acting ability, as well as beautiful cinematography by Walter Carvalho that gives us a look at the Brazilian landscape, and a moving musical score by Jacques Morelembaum and Antonio Pinto. The story itself is a bit sappy and predictable, yet it is still a touching film without being overly sentimental.
- Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996) 4/5 stars Emily Watson delivers an extraordinary performance as Bess in her screen debut which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Several other great acting performances are note worthy in this film as well. The film explores an interesting theme of faith, spirituality, and allegiance to God in a very original manner and employs several of the Dogme 95 film techniques consisting of hand-held camera use, lack of artificial lighting, frequent use of close-ups as opposed to the more orthodox establishing master shots, etc. This film was made before the Dogme manifesto was written, and is sort of an experimental hybrid. The film does require patience, as it is rather slow and lengthy, but is visually stunning. The photography throughout the film is amazing. My favorite moments are the transition shots between chapters when title screens are juxtaposed with beautiful scenery of the scottish country side and 1970s rock n' roll music.
- Happy Endings (Don Roos, 2005) 4/5 stars Much along the same lines as several other ensemble cast films such as Altman's Short Cuts, Magnolia, and more recently Crash, Happy Endings weaves several different characters and their plotlines throughout the narrative and loosely connects them in some way or another. Although these types of films are starting to become cliché, Happy Endings still maintains a sense of freshness with it's subtle blend of dark humor and more serious life issues such as abortion, sexuality, and illegal immigration.
- The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979) 3/5 stars Although it is easily construed as corny, the campiness, outdated hair styles, costuming, music, and slang is what makes this film a cult classic. There really isn't much to the story. The acting is subpar, the fight scenes are neither believable nor well choreographed, and we've all seen these familiar scenarios in films before. But despite all of it's shortcomings, this film provides fun and entertainment, memorable characters, quotable lines, and imagery that has stood the test of time for 25 years. The newly released directors cut includes transitions with scenes beginning and ending as illustrations from a comic book, which I happened to like, while others criticize the change. Yes, the film is cheesey, but who says cheesiness is always negative?
- Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo, 1998) 4/5 stars I was first introduced to Vincent Gallo, as a filmmaker when I watched the notoriously atrocious The Brown Bunny. So I was skeptical about this film, but impressed after watching it and honestly amazed that such a well done film, was written and directed by the same person as The Brown Bunny. Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci are excellent as the neurotic Billy and Layla and I especially enjoyed the portrayal of Billy's eccentric parents played by Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Huston. Buffalo '66 is a fine technical achievement in filmmaking as well. There is an amazing three-dimensional freeze scene towards the end of the movie where the camera pans around the still characters. I also found the overlaying flashback scenes to be a nice touch. This film is oddly depressing yet humorous at the same time and very original both narratively and stylistically.
