Feed for ClydeUmney.net, personal webpage of Josh Mauthe. You can read book and movie reviews, get my infrequent thoughts, or browse picture galleries. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0726a Sunday, 26 Jul 2010 :: CDT A very loose sort of trilogy, Nicolas Winding Refn's Pusher series concerns itself with the ins and outs of criminal life in Denmark, with each film following a different (but connected) main character. Despite the pounding, intense introduction to each film, the Pusher series is refreshingly down-to-earth, with a minimum of flair or stylistic touches (which is especially surprising, given the hyper-stylized Bronson, which Refn later made), instead choosing to recreate the seedy life of drug dealers, kingpins, and car thieves in as realistic a way as possible. All three films have a similar trajectory, with the main character already being established, even successful in the life, before having things go wrong through events not entirely in their own control. Even so, it's fascinating to watch Refn play with different ideas here, with the original film perhaps being the most straightforward crime movie, focusing on a drug dealer who finds himself in a run of bad luck and owing a lot of money to very bad men. Pusher II focuses on a young man fresh out of prison grappling with an unloving and hateful father and the discovery that he may have a son of his own, while Pusher III focuses on the drug lord who has been overseeing the last two movies, creating a fascinating sort of sympathy for a character we didn't expect to have such feelings for. Like the Red Riding Trilogy, the series manages to be a little more than the sum of its parts, creating a complex and fascinating underworld driven by genuine people, not figureheads. This isn't The Wire - Refn isn't interested in social commentary or ideology. Rather, this is a look at people in the criminal world and what drives them, getting into their heads and under their skins, and the result is pretty compelling stuff. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0725a Monday, 26 Jul 2010 20:26:32 CDT What is there really left to say about Seven Samurai that hasn't been said better elsewhere? It's my second time seeing a print of this on the big screen, and I hope it's not my last. If you've never seen it, don't let the length intimidate you - there's not a minute wasted in all 207, and by the time you're at the intermission, the only concept you have about how long it's been is sadness that you have so little left. Iconic performances by everyone abound, but how wonderful is Mifune's swagger, or Shimura's quiet humor and leadership? How much fun is it to watch Kurosawa pace himself through the simple story, allowing all of the characters time to breathe and be people, first and foremost, and allow them to be neither heroes nor villains, but something more complex? How exhilarating are the action sequences, told simply yet effectively? And how flawless is the ending, and that beautiful final shot? It's easy to take Seven Samurai for granted, but every watch reminds me not only what a magnificent film it is, but also what an enjoyable one - how much joy and fun it packs into its running time. What a perfect film, and what a treat to see. It's a reminder of why I love film so much in the first place. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0723c Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 12:13:14 CDT You can probably raise this rating by one star if you're a big fan of Prince, as his music is about the only thing worth watching in the movie. Me, I could give or take his music, so I'm left watching this movie wander into overly long musical performances that are badly filmed, ridiculous efforts at acting that wouldn't pass muster in a first year acting class, a contrived and melodramatic story that never rises above the level of "laughable", and characters who would kill to have a full one-dimension among them. Purple Rain is, simply put, pretty awful. I can't deny that Morris Day and Jerome are clearly having fun, but I can't tell if they're having fun at the expense of the awful material or simply awful and making the material funnier as a result. If you're a Prince fan, I guess you'll like it. But as a movie, it's hard to come up with anything interesting or good in the entire running time, except as unintentional parody of how incredible Prince thinks he is. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0723b Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 12:08:04 CDT I really enjoyed the Polish brothers' first movie, Twin Falls Idaho, and I do have to say that Northfork maintains that same beautiful, rich look and gorgeous cinematography. Unfortunately, it's wasted on a pretentious, overly "quirky" story that's more about surreal moments than actual characters or people. Northfork is the story of a small town which is about to be washed away by the construction of a new dam, and the efforts to clear out the town by a few groups of men who travel house to house in an effort to clear the town. The movie's cast is incredible but largely wasted, and in the end the movie is more interested in being odd and offbeat than good. I'll be honest - I had largely tuned out by the halfway point, even as I watched it as I worked. It's all still beautiful, but it descends into arty junk by the end. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0723a Saturday, 24 Jul 2010 10:28:18 CDT I watched this based off of Scott Tobias's write-up for the AV Club's New Cult Canon, expecting an odd curiosity; what I got was something wholly better - and stranger - than I expected. It's as though they handed the film off to the team responsible for Delicatessen and let Roald Dahl have a crack at writing it, and the results are gleefully dark, yet with all of the big heart and sweet optimism of the original nonetheless present. It's no surprise to me that this failed - it's fairly offbeat, and the film feels so much darker and less hopeful than the original. Yet, at the same time, I'm not surprised to find the film having a devoted following. Its look, feel, and humor aren't like much else out there, and there's no denying that it's a work with its own unique tone to it. I'm telling you, if you're a fan of the offbeat - there's a lot of Gilliam here, as well as Jeunet - you owe it to yourself to give this a shot. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0722b Friday, 23 Jul 2010 13:15:17 CDT Sure, The Stepfather suffers from lot of the usual problems with '80s slasher flicks - a dull, "unstoppable killer" climax, some cheesy synth music, a couple of needless digressions - but in this case, it's more than made up for by the ideas that the movie's playing with, as well as the great performance by Terry O'Quinn as the titular parent figure. O'Quinn is a serial murderer - he marries a family, lives with them, kills them, and moves on. But what makes him so fascinating is his motivation - he is driven by and obsessed with the "perfect family" - the 50s, Father Knows Best, suburbia, the whole nine yards. And when things don't fit his perfect picture - a daughter who resents school and gets in fights, a wife who questions her husband's wishes - he flips out. As a dark satire of life under Reagan, The Stepfather has a nasty sense of humor to it, but even as just a slasher film, the way it toys with our American ideals is a lot of fun. And really, I can't say enough great about O'Quinn here, who really plays all the layers of his deranged Daddy perfectly. It's a lot of fun, and packed with great ideas that really make it stand out. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0722a Friday, 23 Jul 2010 13:14:15 CDT A quiet knockout of a film, This is England tells the story of a young British boy still reeling from the recent death of his father in the Falkland War and coping with bullies every day. One day, he meets an outgoing young skinhead who takes pity on him, finally giving the boy the chance to belong somewhere, and the film goes from there. Unlike, say. American History X, This is England is far less plot-driven, letting the interactions between the characters drive the story, and frequently just losing itself in quiet moments as people talk and goof around. The result is a movie that has lots to say - taking on Thatcher's politics, the appeal of skinheads and cults, the importance of family, and more - but one that never gets preachy or didactic. Even the most outspoken and virulent among the skinheads is given depth and humanity, and its this respect for the characters that gives This is England its power. Between the outstanding performances and the pitch-perfect re-creation of the era, This is England is a fantastic piece of work, one that not only grapples with strong ideas but one that also leaves a genuine impact on the viewer and creates characters that linger after the movie ends. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0721b Wednesday, 21 Jul 2010 19:13:06 CDT After the emotional gutpunch of Deliver Us From Evil, I needed something a little lighter. And man, was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls ever the right choice. It blows my mind that some people don't realize that this is a satire; without giving away the details of the completely batshit nuts third act, the use of the 20th Century Fox fanfare as soundtrack during a particularly memorable moment has to be a tipoff, doesn't it? Written by a couple of guys (including Roger Ebert!) who openly admitted knowing nothing about the scene they were depicting; directed by a man known for sexploitation; and filled with goofy dialogue, rampant nudity, lots of drug use, and a truly bizarre plot that plays out like some insane mixture of Reefer Madness, Josie and the Pussycats, and Helter Skelter, Beyond the Valley is an absolutely gleeful piece of insanity on film, and I loved it. I'll concede that it drags a little bit in the second act, but it's all made up for by the third, which shifts into absolute crazy territory that Ebert admits they made up as they went. It's pure 70s trash, but it's rare to find trash this awesome and enjoyable. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0721a Wednesday, 21 Jul 2010 19:07:12 CDT A harrowing, devastating documentary about Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest and pedophile who molested children in parish after parish as the church moved him around. Deliver Us From Evil pulls no punches, interviewing the victims and their parents at length and clearly, methodically laying out a case that proves without a doubt the church's culpability in these crimes. That alone would make the movie hard to handle. But Evil takes it all one step further, featuring frank interviews with the very open, very unreticent O'Grady, whose bizarre distance from his crimes (at one point, he writes his victims a letter with an apology for his crimes and an offer to sit down and have lunch sometime, saying that he hopes they can move on now) makes him all the more disturbing and unnerving. As a documentary, Deliver Us From Evil has some problems - it ends with a Michael Moore-esque presentation at the Vatican, and has some overbearing score at some points. But none of that negates the impact of the whole thing, which left me a shattered husk by the time it was finished; between O'Grady's unsettling banal recitation of his crimes and the seeming apathy (ignorance? idiocy?) of the church elders, it's a devastating indictment of the system, and one that should be seen by everyone involved in the debate. http://www.clydeumney.net/booklog.htm#0721a Wednesday, 21 Jul 2010 18:53:07 CDT Another early Wilson book, and this one is in many ways the exact inverse of Healer - it has an intriguing story and an interesting world, but characters so thin they're barely present. Wheels Within Wheels is the middle book of Wilson's very loose LaNague trilogy, so it has the advantage of a world already constructed to play around in. And its labyrinthine plotting - which involves an effort to bring down the federation, a long-dead father who may have been murdered, a strange alien world, and lots and lots of libertarian thinking - makes for an intriguing story, but it's hard to care all that much when the characters have almost no personality whatsoever. Still, it's worth remembering that this is an early work for Wilson, and you can see him trying out different ideas here and experimenting. In the end, though, it's only really interesting for fans; new readers should definitely start elsewhere.