Movies I Watch: the thought-a-rama

Diary Of A Chambermaid (64)
This movie stars Jeanne Moreau (one foxy mama), as a maid from Paris, taking a job as a chambermaid in rural France for an old man, his daughter and her husband. The old man has a lethal shoe fetish, the daughter is a sexual ice-cube and her husband has a wandering eye. Soon men are fawning all over her(You can understand why, she's uber-sexy in the maid uniform, bucket of ice water this way please.) Anyway, halfway through the movie takes a serious bent into mystery. It's a stunningly shot B&W movie. The acting is strong, especially Moreau who is exquisite in her part. Her facial expressions, vocal rhythms and body movements are immaculate. Diary Of A Chambermaid offer a complex tale of comedy, drama and mystery. It's a movie of subtle joys and heartaches that connect effortlessly into a film that is well worth watching. (9)

That Obscure Object Of Desire
The film bristles with eroticism half the time and irritation the other half. Bunuel evokes a light touch to this film. It's a sexual farce in which the man is ever being shunned by his would be lover. These are the main attributes of a film involving a man waiting years for a woman get with the nookie. His torment as she advances and repels him build a seething tension. The female lead is played by two different women which adds to the confusion you feel watching. That confusion would be off-putting if the actors weren't so marvellous in this film. They play their parts with such enthusiasm you can't help but be sweapt along. That Obscure Object Of Desire is a very good movie. If you decide to brave these abstract waters, this movie is well worth seeing. (8.5)

Ringu
You've probably seen the story before in the average Americanized version called The Ring. Don't be diswayed, Ringu is far better. The camera work is georgeous, full of wonderfully arch angles and the colors pop off the screen. The score is excellent, punctuating but never overpowering the scene. And above all the direction is fabulous. The storytelling is sharp and very concise, excess flab is cut from the film adding a great ammount of propulsion. By the end of the movie (although I had seen the story before) I was on the edge of my seat. Ringu is a creepy, very entertaining horror movie for the brain. Bravo. (8.5)

The Magdalene Sisters
A stunning and powerful film about the girls who were sent to the magdalene laudries. Once inside the walls they were forced to wash clothing from morning till night, recieve beatings and harrassment from nuns and endure various forms of sexual advances. The sheer power of the performances (everyone is excellent) got to me on an emotional level. At times I felt angry or nauseous forgetting I was watching a film. This is a great movie, why on earth it wasn't released on DVD for 2 years astounds me.(9.5)

The Lady From Shanghai
A very entertaining, taughtly directed film. It's a murder mystery of sorts, a love-sick sailor lured into a boat trip by a beautiful woman and her husband. The convolutions pile upon one another eventually settling into a stunning climax. The cast is excellent but the true strength of this film is the direction and camerawork. Each scene is so visually exciting that the movie literally rushes by. When Welles' punchy script mixes with the visual acuity the results are pure magic. There are certain weak scenes scattered throughout the film, these scenes never hinder it. Lady From Shanghai is a stunning and mercurial thriller. Peter Bogdanovich gives a great commentary on the DVD. (9)

Topkapi
An ebulant, extremely entertaining movie about a group of jewel thieves. The script, actors (Peter Ustinov is hilarious) and direction (Dassin has a fun time reinvigorating the cliches) all combine to create a convoluted, crazy little movie. The only down side is the runnning time. it's about 20 minutes longer than it could have been. The scenes are fun but just reiterate what you already know.

Dirty Pretty Things
Stephen Frears returns to a much grittier tone of his earlier work. A story of two illegal immigrant seeking asylum in Britain. Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) works as a taxi driver and a hotel concierge, but remains on the edge of society. Senay (Audrey Tatou) works illegally at the same hotel while seeking a green card. One night Okwe, while repairing a toilet, finds the offending clog to be a human heart! As the story progresses the story spirals further in mystery and suspense. The film is endowed with a quiet tone in which textures and mundane events of the personal lives of illegal immigrants take on as much importance as the mystery that sends ripples into the placid surface. The film which began as a realistic slice of life slowly disolves into a noirish paranoid thriller complete with darker lighting and subtle red herrings. The villian is easily spotted and the diagram of the mystery is too cliched for me to be fooled, the real revelations come from the relationships. The movies saving grace is that the mystery is so well directed and acted that it's easy to just drift along towards the ending. It's actually the personal stories that make this movie so darn endearing. (8)

Shattered Glass
Stephen Glass(Hayden Christensen) was the star writer for The New Republic(a magazine that was a cultural monument of sorts) who managed to totally decieve the editors and writers of his magazine. He fabricated numerous bigger than life stories and was finally caught on the article Hack Heaven. The tight pacing and immaculately compressed scenes take a rather weird story of a bookish, lying brown-noser and makes it a stirring socio-political drama. The editing constantly astounds throughout the film, compressing scenes into dazzling visual montages. Christensen gives an insidious air to his performance that is rather creepy (Watch the DVD extra interview with the real Steve Glass if you want your skin to crawl), but the film belongs to Peter Sarsgaard who plays Chuck Lane. His performance is magnificent, truly one of the finest of 2003. Don't be scared off by the subject matter, this is a very fine movie. (The commentary is also worth watching) (8.5)

Maelstrom
I watched this a second time cause it was on jgand's list and had the exact same reaction again. The fish narrator is the witty highlight of the film. Lady has an abortion. Lady hits an old fella with her car. Lady contemplates death a lot while losing her store and doing interviews. And on and on. Cinema from Quebec has a certain quality that can be intoxicating (Jesus Of Montreal) or just boring, long and overblown (this movie). (5)

Manon Of The Spring
A beautiful, lyrical, moving film that you have to watch if you haven't already seen. Rent it with Jean de Florette, sit back and let yourself drift away with these films. (8.5)

Kill Bill, Vol. 2
V.2 replaces the violence of the first film with insights into characters and compact, efficient action. It's a thrilling film to watch as the plot moves towards the inevitable showdown with Bill. V.2 isn't better than the V.1 (whose violent joyride of violence was brutally thrilling) but it's a different creation altogether, asundry twists and turns find the Bride battling much more wiley villains. I'm looking forward to seeing them together on when their put together on DVD. (9)

Lately I've spent a lot of time listening to music, and watching NBA playoffs (Go Pistons). But don't be dismayed my 1 avid reader I have watched several films and I do have an opinion.

Mustard & Coreander aka Master And Commander
The period piece is an unusually boring genre of film. Certain film historians care what kind of cannon people were shooting in the 1600's but it ain't me, shoot ray guns for all I care. Luckily Master gives us the historical info with a plethora of action, twittery acting and monumental set pieces. Russell Crowe gives another immersed performance that has power and charm. But Paul Bettany overshadows him as well as getting all the best lines. I dug every second of this manly epic even when it got all teary-eyed. One of my favorite of the year. (9.5)

Sahara
Humphry Bogart is the John Wayne of intillectuals, kicking butt for brainy losers everywhere. That said Sahara is a boring, cliched war movie that plays like Lifeboat on a tank. Every second of this film was painful in one way or the other, from the evil Nazi to the misunderstood, helpful Italian. The look of the film was palid and boring. Sahara is craptacular entertainment at its most impish. There's even a miracle at the end to remind us God loves idiotic bravery when it comes with a huge body count. Yay. (2)

Girl With A Pearl Earring
I approached this film with as much anticipation as a squirrel with a humongous nut. And I was partially let down by my experience. Let me explain, I love to see artists represented on film (Obviously my massive artist ego being satiated by seeing their trials) and Vermeer painted a select series of georgeous painting that I find as exquisite as anything in art. That unification was the reason for my anticipation. The movie itself starts with a series of beautiful, let me stress this, beautiful scenes that create an aura of pristiness that the rest of the film can't quite live up to. They flow together seemlessly for 45 minutes until the film lost it's hold on me and I slowly drifted away. I was dissapointed by the inability of the actors to give their characters any depth, and the inability of the film to create a linear storyline that I could sink into. I was enraptured with the visual side of the film and dissapointed with the simple plotting and generic dramatic contrivances. Scarlett Johansson is an magnificent beauty though and that certainly made the film much easier to watch. It is revealed in a DVD extra that the film was originally 3 hours and 16 minutes long. It's my guess, that cut would have had the weight the film needed to be great, sadly it's not the one I've seen. On a side note the score is excellent. (7)

The Fog Of War
Robert MacNamara is a brilliant raconteur, his ability to hold the interest of the viewer is astonishing, and therein lies the power of the film. He is probably the most venil man I have seen on film, a hideously contorted personality who can define his mistakes but is unable to confront or learn from them. He is also a man who understands the importance of human life and has in the past set himself against the forces of destruction. Fog Of War captures this polarity well and in that respect it is a wonderful piece of art, but I don't know whether I could possibly enjoy a film like this. I should explain. My father (whom I admired greatly) had a lot in common with this man, he could spin a story that would hypnotize the listener. It would be funny, effortless and informative but had no basis in the specific reality of the situations. The invention of facts and alterations of personal crisis would only be known to the people who had partaken in the situation. I can not watch this man and not help reading between the lines and seeing a person who has corrupted himself and his environment in an attempt to be moral without having any morality. People like this are dangerous to their loved-ones and I cannot seperate the movie from personal experiences. But I think my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt...it is an excellent piece of film-making and worthy of you making up your own mind. (?)

Elephant
A riveting film that feels both real and surreal at the same time. Elephant, both tense and horrific captures the strange feeling of life being interupted by horrifying circumstances.

Roger Doger
Campbell Scott delivers an exceptional performance as a hateful, scared egomaniac on the verge of meltdown. Somehow Scott manages to infuse his character with just enough humanity to make Roger bearable. When his nephew shows up to lose his virginity, certain inevitables are forced into motion. The movie maintains a viceral tone that constantly confronts the viewer. As they navigate through an inferno of sorts the film hints at trauma in Roger's youth that have created his personality. The fact that nothing concrete is revealed is one of the stronger parts of the film. Forced to confront Roger on his own terms I began to accept his difficult personality. The ending breaks apart the film with its attempt at a happy ending that is completely wrong. A very good movie let down by its last 10 minutes. (7.5)

In America
A technically vurtoistic film that is oddly unmoving at its most important scenes. Therefore the most interesting stuff happens when nothing is happening. A strange film I thought I would like much more. Beautiful visuals. (6.5)