0912 December 2009

What's the rumpus?

A Japanese film even more psychedelic than Attack of the Mushroom People! Seriously mind-bending. Not just in its visuals, but in its off-balance use of sound and bizarre filmic techniques. Not sure exactly what happened at the end, but I'd be willing to watch it again to find out.

There is one reason to watch this film: The Taffy Pit sequence.

What is it about Richard Kelly? He takes multi-layered speculative fiction plots that would feel fine in paperback format, then forces them into films. In a culture where most movies follow a recognizable formula, I find myself scratching my head over The Box.

First, I'm surprised it got made. It doesn't have crowd pleasing pay-offs. I'm not saying that's bad, just that the left turns in the story would probably turn off those looking for traditional horror movie thrills. I went in expecting a scary movie. The Box has suspense, but it's more of a sci-fi fable.

As a work of art, it's definitely interesting. Not entirely likeable, but maybe that's the point. Maybe I'm not supposed to like every minute of the film, but instead react to its ideas.

A good introduction to the history of film criticism. It tries for balance, but I found the film leaned towards the naive view that criticism is threatened by the populist new media -- film blogs and such. Certainly the print-related jobs of the old guard are threatened, but good writing will always have a place, whether on the internet or elsewhere.

Criticism does not exist on its own. It is a by-product of film, the beginning of a discussion. Without film critiques and reporting, it would be harder to track down important films, but that's a service film writing provides -- just as you can't have criticism without the primary source, there needs to be a response and continuation of the criticism by the masses. It can't exist in a vacuum.

Great, sympathetic performances. I like the ambiguity of evil: is it within a person, or is it brought upon by a bad place... But did there have to be so much genital destruction?

An amazing character study. Wonderfully shot and told, with a bold performance by Tom Hardy. (Holy cow, I just found out he's the young Picard from Star Trek Nemesis! Whaaa?)

I feel like the movie needs third act... or maybe I just want to spend more time with Bronson in general.

While the photography and effects in this horror story are wonderful, the story is a bit limp. The set-up is fine: after a yacht is shipwrecked, the passengers and crew fight amongst themselves when food becomes scarce. The story's main thrust is about class struggle magnified under such pressure, but I was more interested in the mushroom plot. Unfortunately, the mystery and sci-fi elements are never tackled head-on. We're left with vague assumptions about what's really going on with the Mushroom People.

Still, worth watching for some good performances and creepy scenes. And the Mushroom People, of course.

For a true blue Tarantino fan, Basterds doesn't disappoint. The amount of suspense wrung from dialogue scenes is tremendous. Like all of QT's work, it's a movie ABOUT other movies. Here's a case where he managed to work film history into the plot -- brilliant! There are moments of violence that are squirm inducing and some that are ludicrously funny. Christoph Waltz is mesmerizing as Colonel Landa. After his best actor win at Cannes, it will be interesting to see if he gets an Oscar nomination.

Wes Anderson continues to work with troublesome family dynamics and quirky characters, no matter that they're foxes, opossums, and badgers. Fantastic indeed.

I've really disliked Mad Max 3 in the past. It's episodic (like a comic book, really) and seems to be lacking strong character moments. Last night, however, it really came together for me in the last few minutes. Maybe we're distanced from Max because it's a story being told by the girl narrator... Her hopeful tone and pocaclypsical turns of phrase won me over in the end.