Hindinwood Reviews

Damnation (1988)

Life on a dark planet

[8/10 · 3 April 2008]

Damnation was one of those rare instances when I felt both frustrated and fascinated by the film I was watching. Bela Tarr is SO adept at creating mood that the light sketches of plot began to feel superfluous, and I found myself wanting to brush them away and just float in this surreal sludge without trying to follow a 'story'. Tarr's use of sound design and music to create tension and a dream-like state come closer to David Lynch's than anything else I've seen. The original (I'm assuming) songs in the film also share that distinctive quality of mimicking a certain genre of familiar music, while having something that's a bit off about them - much like Badalamenti's scores. Interesting to note that Blue Velvet was released two years prior. The slowly gliding camera, which seems to have almost it's own agenda aside from the film ads to the purveying sensation of unease, and the exquisite lighting and black and white tones are breathtakingly stark. There are moments in the film when there is so much going on in the scene, and the shot is so lengthy, that the situation itself becomes real and transcends the fiction of the film. This is a very rare phenomenon in film, and was absolutely spellbinding - especially the dance scene. The middle of the film gets heavy with bleak philosophical exchanges, which would be better illustrated than told - especially with Tarr's incredible gift for mis en scene and sound design. Iconographic sequences like the slow pan past the miserable crowds waiting for the rain to stop, or the reoccurring pack of wild dogs speak volumes more of Tarr's theme than the most eloquent words. The characters are like automatons shuffling about in a purgatory from which there is no escape. It is as though the entire world was a flea-bag apartment building, a tattered old bar, and a vast field of mud and debris which one must traverse between the two.

Pippi on the Run (1970)

My Favorite Childhood Film

[10/10 · 16 May 2007]

Pippi on the Run certainly is the best of the series. It somehow manages to move even beyond the irreverent mischievous fun of the other films, and becomes a transcendent opus to the freedom and creativity of being a child. In essence, Pippi is doing we would all like to do, both as children and even more so as adults. She taunts authority, flouts convention, and lives life to the fullest by her own rules, as she takes her two best friends Tommy and Anika on a wild adventure through the Swedish countryside. Some of the scenes in the film are almost like Bergman for kids. In one particularly beautiful segment, Pippi and her friends take shelter in an old shack during a rain storm, where they encounter a forlorn old man with a long beard playing the saw. He turns out to be a salesman of a particularly potent type of super glue, with which he accidentally affixes his beard to the windowsill. As Pippi goes cavorting all over the ceiling, much to the delight of her companions, the old man is forced to part with his signature beard to release himself from the windowsill. Ingeniously the scene is somehow imbued with both sadness, loneliness, and wild humor. I haven't seen this movie in about 15 years, but that scene is still vivid in my mind as the day I first saw it. If that isn't a testament to it's influence I don't know what is. Pippi truly is the greatest and most inspiring heroine/hero for children. Every child should see this celebration of imagination and freedom.

The Long Goodbye (1973)

An Unlikely Success

[8/10 · 11 May 2007]

I probably can't think of two genres less suited to each other than Altman's laid-back auteur era verite, and Chandler's highly stylized noir narratives. As such, I was pleasantly surprised by A Long Goodbye, which successfully updated the genre without attempting to imitate it. If wise-cracking Humphrey Bogart in black and white was the Philipe Marlow of 1940's Hollywood, there is a strange logic in a rumpled, mumbling, chain-smoking Elliot Gould taking on the mantle in 1973. Wheres in the 30's and 40's Los Angeles was all about stark shadows and mysterious damsels made up in Max Factor's finest, the 70's aesthetic was embodied by sunshine, femmes au natural, and the general chaos of an era and city that was still holding onto the past, and at the same time moving fast into the uncertain future. Although I was initially dubious about it, I'm so glad that Altman didn't do a period piece with this story. By translating the characters and sceneries to the present time, he has indelibly shown that Raymond Chadler's vision of Los Angeles transcends era or epoch. In fact, it may just be THE definitive portrayal of the City of Angels.

The Delicate Art of the Rifle (1996)

Overlooked

[8/10 · 19 October 2006]

I can't figure out why this movie is still so obscure. No one I've ever asked has seen it, even in Austin, which is really strange considering that it's based on the Charles Whitman sniper shootings at UT. I saw it over four years ago, and still remember it strongly for it's dreamy surreal quality. The protagonist drifts through the day, encountering various campus characters with equal nonchalance. Even when he realizes that someone is putting holes in his soda with a high powered rifle he seems unfazed. It's definitely a very unique take on what was at the time (60's) one of the most violent and shocking episodes to occur at an American school. (The film actually takes place in the time which it was filmed, not the 60's).

The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005)

One of my favorite documentaries ever

[9/10 · 10 November 2005]

I had the opportunity to see this film several days ago while working at the American Film Market, and I have been telling everyone I know to see it. I'm not sure what the deal is with a wide release, but everyone who loves documentary should see this one when it comes out.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the title character, Daniel Johnston is a manic- depressive artist/musician who currently resides in Waller, Texas with his elderly parents. I had been a fan of his music for sometime, and also having lived in Austin, had been aware of his status as a local fixture, but there was so much fascinating information divulged in this film that I never knew about. The film spans the life (up to the present) of this incredibly complex person, who truly resides in a world of his own creation. It's clear that the filmmaker has a deep appreciation and love for Johnston's work, and his world is painstakingly brought to life through animation, recreation, and wonderfully edited home movies and audio cassette tapes. His friends and family also offer insight into the various events which were pivotal in Johnston's life.

The wealth of self-documentation that Johnston has created over his life, starting from childhood, is one of the things that makes this film truly magnificent. Over the years, we can literally see this person change before our eyes, as though gradually being claimed by a dark force. The "dark force" in this case is manic depression; metaphorically The Devil for Johnston, who is a devout Christian. Johnston's struggle to connect with people he loves through the fog of his illness is devastating. While this can be difficult to watch (at least for me), there is the powerful reward of the music and drawings that Johnston has produced throughout, both in spite of and as a direct result of this struggle. That something heartbreakingly beautiful in it's simplicity and honestly can come from such a terrible struggle, is what makes this story and this film remarkable.

The Amityville Horror (2005)

Entertaining Yet Ultimately Unremarkable

[6/10 · 3 May 2005]

It's unfortunate that every horror movie made in Hollywood right now has to be soooooo derivative. It started out promisingly enough, with an impressionistic depiction of the murders that took place in the house. This established an effective atmospheric tension which was supported by the excellent cast, as the next family moves into the house. The actors playing the three kids were particularly great, and neatly avoided that cheesy kid-in-a-horror movie acting. I have to admit I was pretty creeped out for the first hour, mainly just because I'm easily scared, and the mood was so dreary and oppressive.Of course the director did his best to blow it by resorting to tired genre clichés like creepy dead kids (think "The Grudge"), bathroom/bathtub scenes, and that effect where the character's head moves back and forth really fast (best used in Jacob's Ladder). The movie's ultimate downfall was simply over-doing it, and by "it" I mean everything. There's no restraint, no subtlety. What made a film like The Shining (which has obvious thematic parallels to this one) so scary is the slow pacing and attention to detail, which allows Kubrick to fully immerse you in the eeriness. I don't know why it is so hard for Hollywood directors in 2005 to do that. Even with all it's flaws, the movie would still wouldn't have been half bad, if not for the unnecessary insertion of the requisite historical background (complete with library micro-film session). It was so outlandish and unrelated to the DeFeo murders or the Lutz haunting that it completely blew the movie for me. It was just totally out of the blue, some priest torturing Indians in his basement, whaaaat? Not to mention that the whole sequence was unbelievably cheesy and looked like a Nine Inch Nails video. While the historical background aspect works in many horror films, it all depends on how you use it, and how far of a stretch the connection is to the events of the film. In The Shining, the backstory completely justified the current story-line, in that it was pretty much a strait repetition. Just as in Blair Witch, where the vagueness of the history worked to the film's advantage to create a general sense of an undefined dark force within the woods. Amityville really misses the boat here by not making the genuinely horrifying TRUE events of the DeFeo murders the root of George's homicidal possession. Instead, it presents us with a truly outlandish tale about a sadistic puritan 400 years prior, which is said to have brought on the DeFeo murders as well. It's unfortunate that Hollywood can take such potentially rich material and create an over-the-top far-fetched popcorn flick. But I guess that's the name of the game...