So nearly 5 years ago, I had a movie journal that I kept where I essentially wrote little mini-reviews or impressions about whatever I had just watched. It was a kind of private blog stored in a word doc. I recently uncovered it and thought 'hey, why not throw it on here? People like to pry into private writings on the internet!' So I'll be throwing on sections of it periodically until I either reach the end or lose interest.
So here's about half of September for those with any interest. Feel free to post comments if you have any interest to see more. In particular, I kinda would like to post the section where I essentially took on the challenge of watching a horror movie for every day of October in the spirit of Halloween. If anyone cares enough, I'll post it after September.
Collateral
I’m not incredibly familiar with Michael Mann’s work. I have seen Manhunter, and thought it was decided unsuspenseful for a suspense thriller about a serial killer. Perhaps because it was primarily shot in daylight, it never worked for me. Collateral on the other hand, is almost entirely filmed at night, and it works very well. First of all, I want to mention how surprised I was by Jamie Foxx’s acting. Before this, he usually just played morons or playas. He actually felt like a real person in this one. Even Tom Cruise isn’t as grating as he once was. Perhaps his worst days are behind him. The movie had a strong sense of atmosphere, like a quiet cool with intense violence simmering just beneath the surface. The scene in the jazz club is a great example of this.
Stepford Wives
This was an entertaining way to spend an hour and a half. Frank Oz, the director, has decided to play this one for laughs instead of attempting to drum up any kind of suspense as the book and the first film did. I’m pretty certain this choice was made based on the fact that the ending was hardly a surprise to most people by this point. The very term ‘Stepford wife’ has a very specific meaning for most people and the phrase has literally entered the general lexicon. Basically, I was prepared for a few good laughs and some modest entertainment, and that’s exact what I got. It did throw in a good batch of social commentary to make the film more relevant, but the signals became a little mixed (so is being a high-powered, stressed out female a good or bad thing?). The only other problem I had was the gaping plot hole the film provided. It couldn’t seem to decide whether the Stepford wives were robots or just brainwashed via microchips in their brains.
‘It’
I picked this up in a sale, completely as a blind buy since I knew little to nothing about Clara Bow other than she was a film star in the silent era. After watching ‘It’, it’s very apparent why she was a star. She had a nature charisma that carried the film. The plot of the film was a fairly common one by today’s standards (girl pretends to like one guy so she can get close to his friend), but in its day, ‘It’ was a fairly revelatory film. Clara Bow actively sought and manipulated men with a sex appeal that no one had seen in a film star at that point. The best thing that can be said about a silent film is that when you watch it, you forget that its silent and you know only that you are watching a movie. That’s precisely how I felt with ‘It’. At a brisk 75 minutes, the action and charm flies by at a breakneck pace. By the end, you feel a general happiness for no apparent reason. That’s right; it’s a “feel-good” movie. And I enjoyed it.
Touching the Void
I was pretty certain I never wanted to go mountain climbing. This movie only cements that fact further. It was a very fascinating film about survival. It did seem less suspenseful since the people being represented in the narrative were obviously healthy and safely telling the story themselves. You knew how it was going to end. Nonetheless, it was still a very intriguing journey. I just have to wonder at the sheer determination it took for Joe to keep going on. I also thought it was bizarre toward the end when the film took on a more drug-induced air with jump cuts, odd camera angles and all sorts of other camera trickery. The effect of the song getting stuck in his head was particularly singular in how odd it was.
The Prowler
I found this to be a very workman-like, competent effort into the slasher genre with some very good gore effects courtesy of Tom Savini. Little touches like the opening with the newsreel and letter in black and white struck and giving it a little more appeal than most generic slasher films like The Burning. Another thing I liked about it was the identity of the killer and the way it didn’t really explain to the characters his motivation for doing it. Most of these sorts of films feel an obligation to throw in some aggrandizing speech wherein the villain explains the mental anguish he had gone through and why he must kill. This one doesn’t. I just wonder if this was a conscious decision on the part of the filmmakers or if they were just too lazy to throw in such a scene.
Comic Book Confidential
This was an interesting and entertaining documentary on comic books. I would by no means recommend it as an all-encompassing history of comic books, (mainstream comics are all but abandoned by the 60’s portion) but it is an immensely enjoyable film. It essentially splits the film into two sections. The first half of the movie is involved primarily with an early history of comics, mainstream companies like DC and Marvel, and the eventual creation of the comic code in the wake of William Gaines deliciously demented EC Comics line. The second half of the film is mostly concerned with the evolution of independent comics, giving ample screen time to figures such as R. Crumb and Harvey Pekar. The end tries half heartedly to mention the darkening of mainstream comics with titles like The Dark Knight Returns, but it seems more tacked on than anything. It may be just a result of the fact that the film was released in 1989, so the new dark, gritty movement was just getting going. The best thing I liked about this film was the way in which they semi-animated the comics into sort of slideshows, adding sound effects and having the artists read them. I thought it was a great way to bring the comics into film without full blown animation that may have possibly created an awkward experience.
Bubba Ho-Tep
I saw this when it came to the Galleria 10 theater in
Hotel Room
Originally conceived as the pilot of a new television series for David Lynch, the networks didn’t like what they saw, so the three episodes filmed were compiled into one movie in an anthology format. The first and last vignettes were both directed by David Lynch and are definitely less mundane than the middle vignette. The first story concerning Harry Dean Stanton, a prostitute, and an old, fat guy named Lou is probably the most entertaining of the bunch. It features just the right amount of Lynchian weirdness that his fans have come to expect without going on too long. The third vignette, with Crispin Glover as a husband and Alicia Witt as a wife making conversation while in a blackout, is at times very bizarre as well due to the wife’s mental illness caused by the death of her son, but it seems to suffer from being too long-winded for its own good. This one goes on for nearly an hour and at times you really start to feel each minute tick by due to the fact that it really is almost entirely just one conversation between two individuals. The second vignette was modestly entertaining and involves a woman discussing with her two friends about how she plans to dump her boyfriend, played by Griffin Dunne, because of his lack of commitment and his philandering ways. But she is caught off guard when he arrives early and dumps her before she can dump him. Naturally it ends in violence. One final odd touch I thought I would mention is the fact that each vignette takes place in a different time period in the same room, 603, but the bellboy and maid are played by the same actor and actress in all three. It really helps to add to the ageless feel of the hotel.
