Films I Watched - August, 2007
Submitted by lbangs on Thu, 08/09/2007 - 03:40
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- 8/3 - Hairspray - The critics and I often come to blows over contemporary musicals. Too often, they either seem to grade on effort alone or are clueless about music, which makes a bit of sense since they aren’t music critics, and movie musicals are rare enough to leave most reviewers rather rusty. For easy examples, Dreamgirls was a crushing disappointment, and Chicago surely didn’t deserve a Best Picture Oscar. As a result, even as I read the positive notices for this movie, I really wasn’t expecting much out of Hairspray. Most modern Broadway musicals are incredibly weak spectacles thrown up on stage for people wanting little more that flash and sizzle and play poorly on the big screen, and it didn’t help that the opening number, Good Morning, Baltimore, is the weakest production in the picture. I was quite surprised, then, when the whole affair rocketed up from that point. The cast has a blast, the songs bounce with energy, the sets and direction zing about with zesty zip, and Nikki Blonsky owns the show despite high-profile competition. There are flaws galore along the way, but this racing cannonball barrels downhill with so much fun force, it rolls right over them all. *** 1/2
- 8/7 - To Live - You’re not really shocked to hear how much I love Zhang Yimou’s films, are you? This one is quite the keeper, following a couple through the shocking jolts jostling about China during the twentieth century. The husband and wife, like most folks, have no desire to shape government or embrace ideology; they merely wish, er, to live and to exist in peace. This is an understandable if idiotic and morally suspect goal, but the director is extremely sympathetic with his creations, and Ge You and the divine Gong Li put the emotions into the souls of the characters so convincingly that viewers have no choice but to care. As the world collapses about them, they keep their heads down and trudge along. You cannot help but get caught up in this film’s weave of world events and personal struggles. The result is another great movie from the finest year for films in recent memory.*** 1/2
- 8/12 - Crazy Love - We toss about the first half of this title so much that it almost doesn’t seem extreme enough to cover the subject of this documentary, and the last half does not seem apt at all. The relationship between Linda Riss and Burt Pugach just gets more and more warped over the years, even as related matter-of-factly by both in interviews. Dan Klores does a fine job shuffling between enhanced photos, newspaper articles, and talking heads to get at this strange story. You learn nearly every detail, even if you only begin to approach understanding any of this mess by the time the credits roll. Maybe that insight is stunted by the sheer shocks that prove tough to swallow, even when the viewer knows it is all true. Real life tabloid stories are rarely so riveting. ***
I'm rating the films on a zero to **** basis. ** 1/2 is average.