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Reviews
Sleeping Beauty (2011)
not only a terrible film, it's not even original
I left the theater after seeing Sleeping Beauty shaking my head. Both my wife and I felt more than a little cheated. It really takes a special kind of bad to make a beautiful girl -- prostrated naked all over the screen for the better part of the movie -- boring and unappealing. And yet, this is precisely what we got from it. Why? The problem seems to be that much of the tension and drama hinges on empathizing with Emily Browning's character, a girl shallow and adrift, yet simultaneously cold to the world. Financial predicaments and dissatisfaction with life make her teen angst blossom into ugliness. The expression "bored people are boring" comes to mind.
I do not wish to recount plot details beyond what is outlined in the summary, in case you decide to see the film for yourself. However, tonight my wife discovered an earlier film from Germany, which shocked us, having seen Sleeping Beauty so recently. The film is called "House of the Sleeping Beauties", directed by Vadim Glowna in 2006, based on Yasunari Kawabata's much older novel. What's peculiar is that House of the Sleeping Beauties is so painfully close to Sleeping Beauty, it's not funny. Virtually every critical plot point is present in both films. And yet, House of the Sleeping Beauties is made from a completely different perspective and strikes a decidedly different tone. It's more nuanced, more three-dimensional, more mysterious. It's... just better. The night we saw Sleeping Beauty, my wife and I agreed that despite all the drawbacks, the premise held something and the film could have been good. House of the Sleeping Beauties is that better film.
I sincerely hope that Julia Leigh meant to reference the earlier German work and create an interplay between them. It's an interesting idea. Though, I'm a bit skeptical, seeing as there appears no mention of the other it anywhere in the credits, nor in marketing or writing around Sleeping Beauty itself.
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
story told with real footage
Seems like a lot of people are upset by this movie. It upset me too. But I'm not upset at Moore or the movie itself, I'm upset at the main characters in it. The story this film tells is deeply sad and infuriating at the same time.
I think a lot of people misunderstood Bowling For Columbine to be anti-gun. To me, it was not anti-gun. Rather it explored American sensibilities and asked questions about who we are as a nation and why we are so afraid. Those questions are present in F911 also. Only this time, we're also presented with the point of view that on top of being afraid, we've been manipulated and cheated. And we continue to be manipulated and cheated, especially those most in need.
Fact checking aside, I'm glad someone finally drove home the point that our army is not 100% volunteer based, as many folks recruited come from underprivileged backgrounds with no real choices in life. I don't know what the answer is, but hypocricy is certainly not. Telling the enemy to "bring it on" with no knowledge what it's like to serve himself is disgraceful at best. Wining and dining with your elite base while asking people for sacrifices is unconcounable. Making a buck on an unnecessary war is murder.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
a brilliant work of fiction
Reading a lot of comments that go along the lines of "it's bad because it's not close enough to the scriptures" is really odd to me. It's obviously a work of fiction and it makes no sense to me to test it exclusively for realism. Perhaps I don't have much vested interest in the scriptures themselves and am free to appreciate this film purely for its artistic and philosophical value. Perhaps a litmus test for being able to appreciate this type of art is one's take on "Master And Margarita" (the book).
The film is thoughtful, well acted, well directed, and overall complex. I tend to enjoy long features as they usually don't have the feel of a good work compromised to fit into too short a time frame. This film filled the long running time well. It's a character study more than anything else and the Jesus' character portrayed was definitely multifaceted and conflicted. I find those qualities to consistently make for interesting and thought provoking films (see "Mishima, A Life In Four Chapters", "A Simple Plan", "Pollack", "Sylvia", "About Schmidt" to name a few).
Peter Gabriel's score is brilliant. I actually heard it first and became a fan of it before I saw the film. I was appalled to find out Gabriel wasn't nominated for Oscar.
The Ninth Gate (1999)
from terrible to awesome in two days
When I first saw this movie, I thought it was the biggest piece of s--t I've seen in some time. Then somehow I kept thinking about it and it totally grew on me. It's got some of that nasty Hollywood feel, but not too much, and admittedly, the story line is excellent. Johnny Depp is great as always and at one point they even make fun of Dead Man (I wonder how many people picked up on that in the theater). Think I'm gonna go see it again now.
Lola rennt (1998)
A very interesting study of fate, love, and new ways to make a movie.
For some time now I'd been under the impression that Hollywood sent out some kind of creativity police that imprisoned everyone who had any little bit of intelligence and good ideas in them. Well, they must have missed the makers of this incredible film. Without giving away too much of the plot, this film has a rather unusual (not necessarily original) structure, which alone raises a lot of interesting questions to be pondered. Despite sparse but powerful dialog and the very fast pace, which is maintained throughout the entire film, the characters are revealed more and more until the very end. This film has a lot of subtlety and wit, which only add to the overall effect. My hat goes off to Franka Potente, who is absolutely perfect for this role. She manages to project so much raw emotion and drive that the character of Lola comes out so real and so fantastic at the same time. Saw the film twice and will probably rent it when it comes out on tape. But it definitely should be seen on the big screen first!