Recently, my wonderful girlfriend and I went to see the film Submarine. Which is a film about a young boy who struggles between his love of his girlfriend and his desire to prevent his parents from splitting. This eventually leads to the choice he must make of attempting to save his parents marriage or being there for the girl he loves. Now... You may be thinking, "oh god, this sounds like such a fucking lame and generic love story, this is just gonna be terrible!". Well my fine feathered friends, you are WRONG!! The movie is a wonderful piece of indie cinema and a lot more than just a lame recycled story. Submarine is executed very cleverly from it's dry, quirky, dead pan humor to it's odd and intriguing characters.
Oliver Tate alone is a wonderful character full of odd humor, he is the center of a cast of brilliant and unique characters that make up the Wales of Submarine. For starters, Oliver is 15 and much too concerned in the sensual "goings on" of his parents because he is so consumed by their possible splitting, next, he's equally concerned about his own loss of virginity. He eventually wants to become a good boyfriend with the girl he falls in love with but ultimately abandons this for his concern for his parents. In spite of this fact, he also refers to his relationship in terms of the sex (example, him saying that he might as well tell his girlfriend things because they had sex). Another character in the film is Jordana, who is Oliver's eventual girlfriend. She begins the film as a misunderstood and slightly sadistic outcast that has no intention of falling for Oliver. Their relationship starts as a revenge plot but, upon the sweet things Oliver does, ends up deepening to mutual admiration. Jordana even abandons her more questionable tendencies (such as burning Oliver's leg hair off) for a more sincere need to be comforted over her family problems. Another quirky character in the film is Oliver's father, who is a severely depressed marine biologist. Oliver's father adds a very very dry level of humor to the film (and the repeated line that the ocean is 6 feet deep), his depression comes off very humorous and you can't help but sympathize and overlook his many flaws. Oliver's mother is another character, a woman who appears to relish her previous life, she eventually befriends one of her ex-lovers. The final odd character is Oliver's Mom's ex-lover Graham (who Oliver repeatedly calls a "ninja" and a "mystic"). Graham is a motivational speaker who talks about light and color and has many many odd habits (his character is similar to Patrick Swayze's character in Donnie Darko). Overall the film had a great and unique cast of characters that filled the odd world.
The film is very genuine, very sincere and on top of all of the absurdity and odd humor, it has a lot of heart. It's great coming-of-age story with the twist of Oliver attempting to save his parent's marriage. Really the film is delightful and one of the better movies I've seen recently, I think you should go see it if you like how it sounds.
Now for my recommendations, first off, for my album I'm choosing Vision Creation Newsun by Boredoms, it's a great piece of Japanese noise music that branches into absent, drone, minimalism and tribal drumming. On top of that, all of the song titles are symbols (which I personally enjoy). For my film recommendation, I'll say Persepolis, it's an animated film about a young Iraqi girl who gets sent to France due to the civil war in Iraq, and the struggles she faces fitting in, don't let the plot fool you, it's a great film.
Lastly, a bit of personl stuff. I mentioned how I was going to go to Lincoln for college, well due to budget restraints, that's not going to happen now. I won't be attending college for a whole year now and when I do finally go back, I may end up at Iowa. Anyway, that's a little about where I am right now, have a good one.
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Thirty-eighth House-- So People Like This...: A Review
Hello all, it's been a very questionable time for cinema recently in my opinion. You have a new super hero movie coming out every week and the biggest redeeming piece of cinema coming out soon is the new Harry Potter flick, dismal indeed. What do we having coming out of the art scene though? What kind of groundbreaking film will save us from all of this? According to Cannes, it's The Tree of Life, which won the Palme d'Or this year. Well I saw this film and let me ask this question, the art scene likes this?
The answer to that question is, of course the art scene likes this, the art scene likes everything that isn't popular, but let me explain how I see/feel about the movie real quick.
Let me start by saying that this film was visually breathtaking, there were a ton of awesome shots, artistic camera angles and sweet ass visuals, AND I think there may have been a plot in there somewhere! (but I'm not sure). Really, this is a director/DP's wet dream, it's got incredible shots and just amazing scenes. On the other hand, it's a storyteller's nightmare. There is almost no coherent plot in this film. The first half of the film hints to a possible story line of a family dealing with the death of a child, however, it quickly falls to images from a Planet Earth documentary, an unexplained and unnecessary tangent about dinosaurs (which are very poorly animated) and a load of space photography with extremely cryptic voice overs. It then goes into the story of three young boys in the 50s or 60s and their demanding father. This COULD have been a real plot, however, instead of really developing into one, it focuses more on the abstract depiction of the eldest son's inner turmoil and many shots of him sneaking around looking devious. After all of this semi-story it skips to Sean Penn as one of the sons grown up and shows him walking around an unexplained desert surrounded by other people from his life.
The space shots were amazing and beautiful, however, I must say, if I wanted to see this I would watch a documentary. The whole film could have been decent if the plot were more coherent. It had a good idea and a good story but it focused way too much on the artistic and not enough on making the movie something watchable. By the end you're wondering how much longer before it's over.
Was the film horrible? No, is it worth watching? I my opinion no, but do what you like, if it sounds like your kind of thing, go for it. I guess I'm just not artsy enough for this film.
ANYWAY, now that I've said what I've said...
My recommendations are these... Freaks (1932) by Tod Browning is my movie recommendation. I may have mentioned this film before but I love it, it's charming, it's adorable, it's disturbing. It's the story of handicapped people being mistreated in a traveling circus and eventually exacting their revenge. It's a great film. My album recommendation is Organix by The Roots. This is the first album from the Philadelphia hip hop band and is a hidden gem. It's not the most well known album from the band, but it's really good still.
There you go!
The answer to that question is, of course the art scene likes this, the art scene likes everything that isn't popular, but let me explain how I see/feel about the movie real quick.
Let me start by saying that this film was visually breathtaking, there were a ton of awesome shots, artistic camera angles and sweet ass visuals, AND I think there may have been a plot in there somewhere! (but I'm not sure). Really, this is a director/DP's wet dream, it's got incredible shots and just amazing scenes. On the other hand, it's a storyteller's nightmare. There is almost no coherent plot in this film. The first half of the film hints to a possible story line of a family dealing with the death of a child, however, it quickly falls to images from a Planet Earth documentary, an unexplained and unnecessary tangent about dinosaurs (which are very poorly animated) and a load of space photography with extremely cryptic voice overs. It then goes into the story of three young boys in the 50s or 60s and their demanding father. This COULD have been a real plot, however, instead of really developing into one, it focuses more on the abstract depiction of the eldest son's inner turmoil and many shots of him sneaking around looking devious. After all of this semi-story it skips to Sean Penn as one of the sons grown up and shows him walking around an unexplained desert surrounded by other people from his life.
The space shots were amazing and beautiful, however, I must say, if I wanted to see this I would watch a documentary. The whole film could have been decent if the plot were more coherent. It had a good idea and a good story but it focused way too much on the artistic and not enough on making the movie something watchable. By the end you're wondering how much longer before it's over.
Was the film horrible? No, is it worth watching? I my opinion no, but do what you like, if it sounds like your kind of thing, go for it. I guess I'm just not artsy enough for this film.
ANYWAY, now that I've said what I've said...
My recommendations are these... Freaks (1932) by Tod Browning is my movie recommendation. I may have mentioned this film before but I love it, it's charming, it's adorable, it's disturbing. It's the story of handicapped people being mistreated in a traveling circus and eventually exacting their revenge. It's a great film. My album recommendation is Organix by The Roots. This is the first album from the Philadelphia hip hop band and is a hidden gem. It's not the most well known album from the band, but it's really good still.
There you go!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
The Thirty-seventh Lamp-- That's Just Horrible: A Review
Hello one and all, feeling like it's been a slow point recently for movies? Wondering what to go see in these months of superheroes, pirates, and giant robots? Well you are not alone! I also am discouraged with the cinematic output as of late, however, there is one film that I have seen recently that has reached my level of acceptable and that is Horrible Bosses.
This film tells the story of three men who work for very bad people, their ultimate goal to free themselves from their bastard bosses is to get them killed. The catch in this wonderful tale is the fact that they have to kill EACH OTHERS bosses, which leads to all of the zany antics in the film.
Now that you have the gist, on to the rest. I actually thought that this movie was funny, it is actually packed with laughs, some of them lowbrow and some not, but ultimately it's an enjoyable film. Some of the repeated jokes get old, such as Jamie Foxx's character whose name is "Motherfucker" Jones, a joke that they take advantage of but attempting to fit it everywhere in the dialogue. Another example of lowbrow humor in the film is a particular sight gag where Jennifer Aniston's character is shown in a bra and panties eating three phallic foods in succession. What saves this scene is the fast and clever dialogue between the three leads.
What makes this film redeemable and keeps it from being just another horrible comedy like so many these days is the talent of the three male leads, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day. All three are very good at what they do, but in very different ways. Their characters compliment one another by having the characteristics the others lack but sharing the same smart and quick sarcasm that makes the film acceptable. Charlie Day especially stands out and is one of the reasons I considered seeing this film. I love his role on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and in this film he is able to pull off the same outrageous but clever character as he does there. He adds a large majority of the blatant humor to the film such as Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover. The other two are more serious, with Jason Bateman taking the role of the sarcastic straight man, a role that is excellently executed and adds quite a lot of comedy to the film, and Jason Sudeikis as the ladies man who lacks sense.
The bosses, on the other hand, aren't as enjoyable. Kevin Spacey is great as usual but really only plays the role of a psychotic villain, Collin Farrell's character is totally unimportant other than to tie the story together and offer a few lame jokes and Jennifer Aniston doesn't totally fit into the story and is only used to add sex jokes and inappropriate lines.
Overall the movie could have been as awful as the average modern comedy, but due to the talents of the leads and the clever writing in this film, it ends up being an enjoyable movie, however, the ending kinda kills it, but at least it ends happy. I'd would say to go see it, I'm giving this film a 7.5 out of 10.
For my recommendations, I'm going to go with The Departed by Martin Scorsese. This film tells the story of a cop infiltrating the mob while a member of the mob is infiltrating the police force. The movie is excellent like a lot of Scorsese films and has an ending that is fairly unexpected. For my album recommendation, I'll say Headless Heroes of The Apocalypse by Eugene McDaniels who is a singer songwriter from the '60s and '70s who wrote about social issues and was actually blacklisted by the Vice President at the time, Spiro Agnew.
So there it is, have fun with it, bye bye for now!
This film tells the story of three men who work for very bad people, their ultimate goal to free themselves from their bastard bosses is to get them killed. The catch in this wonderful tale is the fact that they have to kill EACH OTHERS bosses, which leads to all of the zany antics in the film.
Now that you have the gist, on to the rest. I actually thought that this movie was funny, it is actually packed with laughs, some of them lowbrow and some not, but ultimately it's an enjoyable film. Some of the repeated jokes get old, such as Jamie Foxx's character whose name is "Motherfucker" Jones, a joke that they take advantage of but attempting to fit it everywhere in the dialogue. Another example of lowbrow humor in the film is a particular sight gag where Jennifer Aniston's character is shown in a bra and panties eating three phallic foods in succession. What saves this scene is the fast and clever dialogue between the three leads.
What makes this film redeemable and keeps it from being just another horrible comedy like so many these days is the talent of the three male leads, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day. All three are very good at what they do, but in very different ways. Their characters compliment one another by having the characteristics the others lack but sharing the same smart and quick sarcasm that makes the film acceptable. Charlie Day especially stands out and is one of the reasons I considered seeing this film. I love his role on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and in this film he is able to pull off the same outrageous but clever character as he does there. He adds a large majority of the blatant humor to the film such as Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover. The other two are more serious, with Jason Bateman taking the role of the sarcastic straight man, a role that is excellently executed and adds quite a lot of comedy to the film, and Jason Sudeikis as the ladies man who lacks sense.
The bosses, on the other hand, aren't as enjoyable. Kevin Spacey is great as usual but really only plays the role of a psychotic villain, Collin Farrell's character is totally unimportant other than to tie the story together and offer a few lame jokes and Jennifer Aniston doesn't totally fit into the story and is only used to add sex jokes and inappropriate lines.
Overall the movie could have been as awful as the average modern comedy, but due to the talents of the leads and the clever writing in this film, it ends up being an enjoyable movie, however, the ending kinda kills it, but at least it ends happy. I'd would say to go see it, I'm giving this film a 7.5 out of 10.
For my recommendations, I'm going to go with The Departed by Martin Scorsese. This film tells the story of a cop infiltrating the mob while a member of the mob is infiltrating the police force. The movie is excellent like a lot of Scorsese films and has an ending that is fairly unexpected. For my album recommendation, I'll say Headless Heroes of The Apocalypse by Eugene McDaniels who is a singer songwriter from the '60s and '70s who wrote about social issues and was actually blacklisted by the Vice President at the time, Spiro Agnew.
So there it is, have fun with it, bye bye for now!
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