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Reviews
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
take a deep breath
I think dismissing this because it is a salvaged TV pilot is the first sign of a non- creative person. Anyone who works in any creative field has at one or another tried to rework an old unused story or drawing or song. It is a common part of the creative process. Sometimes you are able to revitalize an abandoned work, sometimes not. Using this process to judge Mulholland Dr is silly. By that
thinking,Twain's Puddinhead Wilson is invalid and suspect because it is a
salvage job of Those Extraordinary Twins.
The fact is Mulholland Dr doesn't tell us any greater truths - Lynch isn't and never has been Bergman or Tarkovsky. Or even Wilder, for that matter. Much of Lynch's work tells us about David Lynch. I don't find that necessarily a reason to dismiss the movie either. This seems to be an issue we take with movies that attempt to achieve something higher than a way to pass 2 hours.
As it stands, I think this is a fine way to pass 2 and a half hours. It's really little more than a cinematic brainteaser and I don't see anything wrong with that.
Sometimes, when a movie does not give you all the answers, that is the point of the movie. As Lynch points out, it's all prerecorded. It is an illusion. And either you enter into the spirit of the illusion and partake in some spirited brain work, or you just aren't interested enough to spend the time. No big deal. Why people have to be so angry about this stuff is beyond me. It's only a movie.
And I don't see why movies should always give you all the answers. Life so
seldom does. Well, there, I suppose I have answered my own concern. We are
so insistant that movies give us the answers for the same reason the ancients created their mythologies to answer all their questions. What in the world good is a pantheon that provides no direct guidance?
Joe Gould's Secret (2000)
Read the book
Warning, spoiler here . . .
I thought this was quite good - much better than I expected - but I think my
appreciation of it was based on the fact that it was a faithful and sincere
condensation of the book by Joseph Mitchell, which I had read several years
before. The fact is that the book is a non-fiction memoir written by one of the best news writers this country has ever seen and it is very hard to transfer
Mitchell's miraculous voice to film, though Tucci does an admirable job. The fact is, some people have said it has no ending, but I would argue that dooming a
man like Mitchell to a psychological prison where his written word - the only way he could truly express himself and chronicle the world around him - no longer comes out is a pretty eventful ending. As a writer, I see the loss of your craft and your voice as devastating. But this is a subtle, inner turmoil, and if you can't see it as valid as a dramatic ending, then you can't. I would urge everyone who has an interest to read the book. It will fill in the spaces that the movie does not answer and it will also serve as a springboard to more of Mitchell's work. He is one of the finest writers this country has seen, up there with Mark Twain, and he deserves some attention beyond the scope ot the literary world that adores him. Maybe this movie will at least afford him that.
Unbreakable (2000)
Villains are plot points
This one is quite diverting, despite the inherent corniness of the superhero subplot. It keeps you viewing and the ending is quite good - so obvious, that you don't really predict it. But, yeah, the last 20 seconds with the Dragnet style captions are not only unnecessary but infuriating. We felt so irritated and ripped off by them particularly because the rest of the movie had been so unexpectedly fascinating. All it needed was another 20 seconds showing him wandering around the train station again, or something . . . sitting at the breakfast table with his family . . . despite assertions to the contrary, the story is not about the villain - as with any good comic book story, particularly of the golden age this movie pulls from, the villain is usually the catalyst by which the hero shows his mettle - therefore it would've been nice to at least give some story closure to the decisions he needs to make in regard to being a hero, and in regard to his family . . . such a sloppy ending is really beneath the tidy filmmaking that unfolded before it.
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Exhausted and Needing a Nap
Or at least that's how Woody Allen seems to have felt when he made this. There's much good about the movie, most notably Sean Penn's performance, but the film ends suddenly and leaves me with feelings of what might have been had Allen shown some energy. The movie felt as though he wasn't up to the task of completing the damn thing. Similarly, only once did he make good use of the fact that a certain anecdote could be a mistruth by giving us multiple versions; the rest of the film, he has narrators remind us that the story might be unreliable, but doesn't use this great conceit in the actual narrative of the film. The abrupt ending to the movie makes me feel as though Allen didn't know where he wanted to take this. This should have been much better, given the great performances and the great conception.
Ski Party (1965)
aw come on
It's pretty funny, especially when you consider yodeling polar bear and the unusually-sweatered gender confused ski lodge manager and Annette as the haughty college professor for the very likely class `Fun Without Sex." Plus Frankie and Dwayne are pretty funny. Modern moviegoers are waaaaaaaaaay too uptight.
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
you know, whatever
I've been watching John Waters movies for about 20 years now, and have made a few awful versions of my own, and while I understand that he can amateurish, that his scripts are filled more with proclamations than dialogue, and his work has tamed a bit (as well as the fact that his alignment to the counter culture seems mildly dated, or at least from the point of view of an old man), I also make note that he and his movies have their charm, even Cry Baby. That said, this was the silliest movie I have ever sat through, but it made me laugh quite a bit. And the final moment with Melanie Griffith walking to the paddy wagon with the Liberace song playing was the most downright artful thing Mr. Waters has ever filmed. As his latterday work goes, this is no Pecker nor Hairspray, but, you know, it does have Kevin Nealon as Forrest Gump . . .
Pi (1998)
You Can Tell This Guy Went to Film School
This would have made a fairly interesting 45 min school film, but the problem is that while Aronofsky (sp?) has a great premise, he has no idea how to follow up on it. Far too much time is spent wowing the audience with "that great shot" - which any film school professor will tell you is an obstructive sin - and vapid, rollercoaster editing. And the ending, were Max gives himself a lobotomy, is such a copout and an obvious slip, revealing to everyone that he has no idea how to end this movie. Not awful, but certainly needlessly pretentious.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949)
Glib Adaptation
Mark Twain's amazing work of dark satire is transformed into . . . this??? Read the book. Please. I'm sick of Hollywood taking great books - this, Grapes of Wrath, The Egg and I, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, etc - and transforming them into watered-down versions of the novels, which take hold of the public imagination and supplant the originals for apparently all eternity. When will this end???
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Not the Real Thing
This is a really good Hollywood movie - movie being the important term. It really comes nowhere close to the original novel's scope or poetry. It never really captures the unearthly quality to the earthly characters' struggle and journey. It never really gets across the grayest qualities to the novel's characters. And it replaces the dark, apocalyptic ending with a tacked-on, feel-good bit of piffle. This is no replacement for one of the most beautiful and important American novels of all time. You might as well see a Huckleberry Finn movie adaptation and think you know that as well.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
Too Little, Too Much
While likeable, this movie treads most of the same territory as previous Jarmusch films - particularly Mystery Train and Dead Man. It offers the same sparse characterization and storyline as any previous Jarmusch film, but seems like it's begging for a little more in the story department and about 45 minutes less. It was just waaaaay too long for what was actually in the movie. And some of the music was kinda bad (I thought rappers were supposed to be rapping WITH the rythmic beat, not against it). Hell of alot better than Night on Earth, though.
Tian yu (1998)
Wish Chen Had Made A Worthy Second Film
Something nice needs to be said about this film so I'm going to say it. Joan Chen shows both patience and intensity in her debut film as a director, lingering on beautiful haunting images and cutting these with ugly and uncomfortable moments. While it's not an absolutely perfect film, it is an extremely promising one, and it's a shame that she went on to do that dreadful Winona Ryder disease movie. The leads are also wonderful and play their doomed roles with a quiet dignity. The film begins with an unsettling feelgood attitude that seems misplaced, but soon makes sense once the delicacy of the main character shatters, and Chen is blunt in presenting a young desperate woman, swirling in a void of deceit, and convincing herself that her actions will eventually help her escape her hell. The fact is, though, she has been forced to create her own hell, while a man who secretly loves her is forced to watch and protect. This is a very powerful story of how a government affects a single life, how oppression is a collection of individual sorrows. I would normally say that Chen is someone to keep an eye on, but we all know now that that is unfortunately not the case.
Twin Peaks (1990)
Coasting On Its Reputation
I used to love Twin Peaks and have recently had the misfortune of seeing it again. There is so much superfluous garbage littered throughout - for instance Ben Horn's descent into the Civil War and James' film noir adventure with the blonde, Piper Laurie dressing up like an Asian man, Nadine losing her memory, Peggy Lipton's family problems - which overtakes the meat of the story (which is the only interesting part of the show) and sends the series swirling into stupidity - wasting some good performances and a few good ideas. It seems to me it's coasted on reputation more than actual content. If you want to see Twin Peaks done right, with some grace and mystery, and with some actual insight to real rural people, it might be worth checking out The Sweet Hereafter. Granted, it hasn't got Hot Cigarette Smoking Babes In Saddle Shoes, but it's got substance, so I suppose that's part of the give and take.
Lost Highway (1997)
Shallow Low Point
Lynch used to make movies about the beauty in ugliness, but since Twin Peaks, that has all changed. He pretends to do the same, but he casts his movies with Hot Young Things who sashay around in Neon Lighting - the ugliness in beauty, perhaps. The characters show no life inside their skulls and as metaphors, they only qualify as Hot Young Things, but Lynch tries to use lighting and technique to divert the audience from this. The movie works on a narrative conceit that is so boring it is hardly worth the effort - yeah yeah yeah, so Robert Blake stands in for the artist who is manipulating the characters. Whatever. Kurt Vonnegut did this better in his novels. Thankfully, Lynch made The Straight Story next and perhaps will put this shallow piece of pandering behind him.
Careful (1992)
Look past the style
Madden makes skillful use of wacky surrealism and absurdity and then mixes them with an undeniably Bergmanesque preoccupation with secrets and taboos to create something very akin to a Grimm Fairy Tale - albeit, the original, non-sanitized versions. What's really remarkable about Madden isn't his stylization, but the fact that amidst all the design lies tight and absorbing screenwriting, wrought with emotion.
Oxygen (1999)
Looks Good
Shepard does things Shepard's way, as usual . . . did you know this guy used to be in a punk band in NYC in the early 80's called Yeast Infection? I saw them once. They were pretty raw. I guess he's gotten his life together and now can make good lookin' pictures like this! I wouldn't call it a sellout.