I know, I know. It has been a long time since I've written in my blog, and a lot has happened since my last post. (I have been writing, just not posting.) There are reasons, some good, some bad, but neither will change the fact that I haven't. So to quote a certain presidential campaign slogan, let's move forward!
In my many (or few) years, I have watched a lot of films--some good, some bad some good ones I've liked, some bad ones I've liked and vice versa. Recently the idea struck me, or creeped up from a memory actually, to keep a journal of all the films I've watched. I used to do this for a class in college and a friend told me about doing this too. So, this is my running journal, comments, analyses, and reviews of the films that I watch.
My goal: at least on average a film a day, so 365 films by next year on 11/11/13. I've got a head start. Wish me luck!
Here are the First 4 entries:
****WARNING**** There will be SPOILERS!!!
1.) Beginners (viewed 11/7/12)
Starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer (who won an Oscar for best supporting actor in this role), and gorgeous Mélanie Laurent (who was the blond in the cinema in Inglorious Bastards). Touch seemed to play a large role in the film, Anna (Laurent) hands on Oliver's (McGregor) face when they first kiss. The theme continues throughout between Oliver and his father (Plummer). The relationship between Oliver and Anna reminded me of the relationship that I wish that I could have, where Oliver and Anna don’t even speak the first time they meet, but they somehow say so much to each other. The film is about relationships and how we are all just beginners—we never know what to do, and no relationship is perfect, but in the end it turns out right (or maybe it just turns out the way it turns out). Oliver’s father and mother didn't know what they were doing, but in the end it was right even though Oliver’s father was gay; he was happy and loved his wife and came out at 75. Oliver makes mistakes with Anna, but they eventually stay together. They figure it out. "The history of sadness" that Oliver works on is sort of "the history of life." In the end, you can never get it “right,” there is always sadness, but it can work out, maybe not perfectly because we’re all just beginners at life, even at the end of our lives.
2.) The New World (viewed 11/7/12)
Directed by Terrence Malick, starring Colin Ferrall, Christian Bale, and also Christopher Plummer, and Q’orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas. One of my favorite directors and one of my favorite movies, this is not the first time that I have seen this film so I will try and be brief. The film builds up the inner turmoil in Pocahontas and in John Smith. There are their lives in the wild, untamed, natural, new world, and then there are their lives in the old world. They are in love in both lives, but each atmosphere and culture demands different expectations from each. The new world is innocent and pure—and so was Pocahontas when she was there. The old world is gray and unnatural—and muddy. When Pocahontas marries John Rolfe (Bale), it does not seem as natural as when she “courts” Smith (their relationship is like a symphony between each other, he follows her, they teach each other language. They communicate naturally.) Whereas her and Rolfe, and there life in England is for show, to the King and Queen specifically, and the trees and the courtyards are so artificial and structured. Just like Pocahontas’s dress. Natural animal skins in the new world, and tight, suffocating, and unrevealing in the old world. The film offers two versions of love: you expectations of love and society's expectation of love; but also how you perceive love and how society perceives it.
3. ) The Romantics (viewed 11/8/12)
Staring Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Elijah Wood, and the reason that I watched the film, the always lovely and gorgeous Anna Paquin. The performances were just about all that held this film up. Holmes was nice like she usually is, and Paquin, who is always smoking in my book, was so as a controlling and neurotic fiancée to Duhamel. The film, directed by no one of note (Galt Niederhoffer), was originally a novel, written by the director and was essentially a romantic gesture by him to Romanticism and romantics as per the name of the film—this allusion could not allude the audience. However, production value was very poor and inconsistent, especially in the final key scene at the altar, where from shot to shot, the image went from grainy to sharp; it looked like a high schooler just learning how to use their father’s digital camera was filming in underexposed lighting. And, the “ambiguous” ending failed to be ambiguous or poignant like it wanted to be. Maybe this worked in the novel?
4.) Death Wish (1974) (viewed 11/11/12)
Starring Charles Bronson. Directed by Michael Winner who did the first sequel of this film and The Sentinel. Well, the film wasn't more than I expected going in. Actually, it was much less I think. Bronson has developed this image as a perpetual badass, but after watching this, it seems the image is deformed. He is a bad actor, not a badass one. There is a moment in the film after he is nearly mugged and shoots a guy for it. He quivers over a glass of Whisky, quite pathetically so, and it is not a redeemable moment. Setting aside his acting (which I think is quite convincing in Once Upon a Time in the West), the film seemed incomplete. Bronson’s character Kersey abandons what seems at the beginning of the film to be his goal, which is catch those who killed his wife, but instead, he starts to take on every mugger in the city. Not only is it odd that every he steps foot outside his office with his new gun the muggers seem to be attracted to him like vampires to blood, but his conviction is emotionless and not fulfilling of his badass image, (although that may result as watching the film assuming that his reputation preceded him.) On a final note, it is interesting now living in New York how crime and the approach towards it in the city have changed since the seventies. Along with Serpico, Death Wish can be categorized as a film that either exploiting the high crime-rate or shedding light on it.
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