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Reviews
Zendegi va digar hich (1992)
More than meets the eye
Life and Nothing More (1992, dir. Abbas Kiarostami) What is so unusual about Kiarostami's films? They seem to to inhabit a world that is so ordinary, mundane even, and yet they are lent a sense of wonder as well. The simplicity of action and story is undermined by circumstances that reveal the courage that it takes just in order to live. Here a man and his son are driving to Koker, a town which has been devastated by the Iranian earthquake. Along the way they come across people who are carrying their belongings, food supplies, heaters, etc. after having lost everything. They stop to ask for directions. One woman can't help them, breaks out in tears, "I've lost 16 people" The man can only say, "May god grant you forbearance." There is no easy sentimentalism. Here life goes on for those that survive in spite of it all. There is still the need to fill ones life with love and joy and momentary pleasure. One man talks of his plan to get married in his hometown, despite the disaster. The son talks to his friend about watching a soccer game. He becomes terrifically excited by the building of an antenna at one of the nearby villages which will allow him to watch the game. You see none of the horrific footage of mangled bodies and uncontrollably hysterical victims that we usually associate with natural disasters. You only see people who have experienced tragedy, but continue to live and endure.
The Lineup (1958)
Great underrated crime drama
For all those who are Tarantino fans or like classic crime dramas like Kubrick's The Killing, this film is a rarely seen gem. It's not available on tape so if it happens to be playing anyway make a point of seeing it.
It starts out like a Dragnet-style policer, but when the focus shifts to the criminal activities of two small-time hoods (Eli Wallach & Robert Keith) it really starts to pay off.
Being John Malkovich (1999)
see this movie
To describe my experience seeing this film you would have to imagine an amusement park ride that is simultaneously physically exhilarating and profoundly moving. The genius of Spike Jonze's first feature is located not in a brilliantly inventive idea well-executed, but in a sensibility that is expansive enough to take in a world beyond that idea. Characters and situations (the tortured performance artist puppeteer, the office located on the 7 ½ floor, the chimp with unresolved childhood trauma) are both absurd and completely believable. While the absurd aspects of this story have gotten it attention, the themes of lost self-identity, unrequited love, success & failure are what ultimately make this film.
Kurpe (1998)
Slow, but visually rewarding
The setting for this German-made film is a desolate town, off the Baltic sea in the former Soviet Union, during the height of the Cold War. A regiment of border guards come upon a woman's shoe that has washed up on the shore and immediately decide that it is evidence of infiltration. Three soldiers are dispatched to search for the owner of the shoe and presumably arrest and interrogate them. As the soldiers make their way about town, the film takes on the tone of a comic Bicycle Thief. It also reminded me visually of some of Jim Jarmusch's films. The shots are mostly very long takes which linger long after any activity has ceased, giving the viewer a sense of place. Particularly moving are tracking shots across a schoolroom and in a meatpacking factory.
Be forewarned, the pacing of this film is deliberate and not plot-driven. The resolution is charming in its own quiet way.
American Beauty (1999)
Not all that it claims to be
This film is admirable in what it attempts. There is a great hunger for art that reflects the despair people feel when confronted by the emptiness of their own lives. The best thing about it is Kevin Spacey's performance. The direction is imaginative and energetic.Many of the other characters are very poorly drawn and weak. Just because the film takes Spacey's point of view there is no excuse to make a shrewish caricature out of Annette Bening as his wife.
The script was often hackneyed, esp. when Spacey starts pontificating about materialism ("these are just things",etc.)
Isn't it possible for the medium to communicate anger and rebellion against one's life with a subtler touch. The highly praised climax was so wrought with contrivances that it left me cold and wondering why it happened. I realize that this is a minority view but someone's got to say it.