Change Your Image
virgilx
Reviews
Cidade de Deus (2002)
Rio fun
The movie was pretty close to mainstream fare if not for the foreign language, sort of Pulp Fiction (elliptical structure) meets Goodfellas (gang life story). Lots of interesting and flashy visual stylings that work well within the context of the story. The movie breezes along, despite the many subplots and characters.
The cast of non professional did an amazing job. I agree with my friend Shel in being amazed with the acting of these kids, especially the children.
Plus the portrait of Brazil, or Rio de Janeiro specificly, is fascinating. This is my first Brazilian movie and seeing this completely new culture is very refreshing - the slums, the jungle, the beach, the different social groups, the gang factions, the dark and light skins Brazilians, the parties. There is a lot to look at.
Morvern Callar (2002)
Samantha, you have such lovely eyes!
Morvern Callar stars one of my current favorite actress, Samantha Morton. It's pretty good.
The pacing is very deliberate and unhurried, but not exactly slow. The director, Lynne Ramsay, takes her time but it is to show you exactly what she wants to show, revealing these incredible creations of images, sound, and music. Visually, it's like looking at art. And that is my one small criticism, sometimes it's so much art in terms of photography or painting and not enough art in terms of filmmaking/storytelling. But it's a small criticism.
Samantha Morton has a really beautiful expressive face and eyes. And she lends a soulfulness and profundity to her role and the movie. She's a little chubby so I half wondered what the movie would be like with a cute Japanese school girl (ala Harmful Insect or All About Lily Chou Chou). Maybe for Samantha's best friend, except that girl was pretty cute already. Still, whatever I like about Morvern Callar is due to Samantha's presence and performance. You can just sense she's going to do something that will amaze you.
Le temps retrouvé, d'après l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust (1999)
i am a poster for this wonderful film.
nothing could take the place of proust's terrific words, but i felt exhilaration through the whole film. like the comedy in proust's voluminous in search of lost time (as in his writing is so good you have to be joyous), the surrealism, images, direction, and overall focus of the film are great fun - the scene in the brothel where marcel searches for a chair to stand on is precious, as is the slippery audience of the violin and piano recital scene.
a couple of other comments without negating the masterpieceness of the film: acting wise, mazzarella looks like proust and doesn't say much, malkovich steals scenes, and deneuve, beart, perez, and the rest don't act as much as model seriously. except pascal's saint loup's discourse while devouring his dinner, another hoot.
secondly, this is a hell of a challenging film (i'm not fronting like i read proust extensively, i'm only up to within a budding grove). i didn't know what was going on and who was who thanks to time jumps, surrealism, subtitles, and the slew of characters. i enjoyed the film as wonderful filmmaking and comedy. repeated viewings might make things a little clearer. regardless, it's difficult and memorable.
one love to you all, thanks.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
woof woof, jarmusch
ghost dog as entertainment stands up and engages as art too. jarmusch is in control and knows his business.
randomly: i didn't think much of the quotes. de bankole was immensely charming. i love wu and hip hop. neat camera work. all the action of the film seems ridiculously unnecessary - i can't shake how little of the plot is served. plus, whitaker deserves more star role.
a nice film. thanks for reading.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
yay dunst!!!!
virgin suicides confirmed kirsten dunst as a fantastic actress. you can't blame coppola for focusing on wonderful dunst/lux. the rest of the cast's acting was strong as well.
i also enjoyed the fresh, dreamy images under coppola's direction. i give her much credit for the good photography and cinematography.
the story and direction were passable (if underdeveloped). the dialogue was okay. i mean, the open-endedness or lack of easy explanations were owed to coppola's lack of auteurship/mastery more than the strength of her artistic statement.
ultimately, turning the sprinkler on in cecilia's death or having trip expressly end up at a rehab group were not just overdone and tacky but basely cruel. these sort of little touches turned coppola's potentially effective shots/scenes to apathetic jokes.
a briefer summary: virgin suicides is an amateurish effort (first film of first novel, and it shows) with some imaginative pictures and a super kirsten dunst; likable.