Primal Fear

Edward Norton is an incredible actor. I really think RIchard Gere is overrated, and this was the first movie i've seen with edward norton in it, and he was GREAT. Terrifying, but great. I love law&order SVU, but i dont think i would have watched this movie unless Olivia demanded it as she did, but in the end, i'm glad this movie was picked to be viewed. Norton did a really good job of freaking me out. It's unfortunate that Frances McDormand's character sounded like she knew what she was talking about, so I trusted her professional opinon, but I really didn't expect for him to be as manipulative as he was. Who would expect this cute little stuttering southern boy to be insane, literally in more than one way, or in only one way...he's still freakinb me aout and cofusing me about it. That should serve as evidence enough of his great performance, I'm still flabbergasted by the duplicity in it. And in each scene, it was so natural for him to switch back and forth. It was great.

Easily My Favorite Movie.

Cinema Paradiso is great.

I'm a real sucker for beautiful stories. The kind that break your heart only to heal it with Toto and his life. Cinema Paradiso's storyline of a boy's love for film as a film is a)great for this class, and really really enjoy it and b)heartwarming and inspiring. Toto brought such life into the story, which begins ina post first world war setting, where the town's center of life is the film and the theater. People fall in love in Cinema Paradiso, they socialize, they cry, they learn, they play practical jokes, and they live. The priest watches all of the films to have the slightest bits of provocative behavior cut. Alfredo, the dear old projectionist initially sees Toto as a nuisance, but develops a really strong relationship with him as he realizes Toto's passion for films. Toto saves Alfredo from the fire, and takes Alfredo's place when he goes blind. As Toto grows up, he matures and grows with the town. He falls in love and spends time with the beautiful girl. Time takes them apart, and life goes on.

I love the manipulation of time in this film, also. The film starts with an older man getting into bed, withia message from the woman he's seeing that his mother called and a man named ALfredo had died. Knowing very little about the backstory, the audience wonders as this older man contemplates, and with the widnchime, flashes back to his chldhood and the Cinema paradiso. Alfredo's death causes this younger, man, who is Toto all grown up, to go back to his town after thirty years and see that the cinema has become run down, and that the town has changed drastically. As he returns home, he seesthe lives of the people who used to live in te htheater with him and how they've changed like his own. The beautiful thing abou tit all is that even with the extensive amount of time that has passed, none of them truly forgot how much they all loved film, and when the theater is demolished, it is like a part of the town died with them as well.

The most beautiful part of the film was the reel that Alfredo left Toto, as he promised, of the scraps of film that was edited out all of those years ago. It was one of thos emovies where the boy grows through film and his real life, and each serves as a kind of crutch for the other.

Side note: toto is actually the most adorable child in the entire world.

I loved love loved it. ALl of it.

The Searchers

Times have most certainly changed. I'd never actually seen a Western before this one, so it's good exposure, but I really couldn't take the acting. Everything was robotic and comical, even if it wasn't supposed to be. Marty's figity desire to constantly get up and go somewhere made him look ridiculous in my eyes. That's just an example. I'm sure that this was a quality film in it's time, but now, with it's "special" effects and dialogue, seems like it should be a parody. I'm kind of mean to films like this, and I want to be able to justify it by saying that but I'm not sure that i can. If I take into account that the 1950s had very differet acting styles,and that this genre became the most popular one for a long time, so creativity didn't come into play as much as modern day films do...wait...this really doesn't make sense. There is no real justification for not liking this film except for the fact that I thought it was boring. I guess because it wasn't fictional enough to be a real fantasy, but wasn't realistic enough for present day with the cowboys and indians, there was no relationship for me to have with the characters.

A Christmas Story

Sorry. I only saw the first day of the film. From what i did see, though, i thought it was silly. Cute, but silly. I did manage to catch my mom warning my younger sisters that they'd "poke their eye out" if they played with some sharp object in motion, and enjoyed the allusion, wh ether or not i actually made it up. It must be a real quality film, though, if TBS managed to play it 231654697896 times during Christmas. I guess I'll have to take their word for it.

Ruuuuun Lola Ruuuuuun!

That girl just kept running. Initially, I couldn't focus on the cinematic part of the film, just the fact that ALL this girl did was run in the same place. once I got over that part, though, i began to appreciate the film (sort of) for it's manipulation of space and time. I really couldn't stand her screaming or the animation that just felt too much like it was from a Lizzie McGuire episode. So i guess i couldn't focus on teh cinematic part of the film at all, then. There was just too much running. Although I thought theh concept was interesting, it lacked a certain lack-of-excessive-repetition for my liking.

Not all of it was terrible. I did love (when she wasn't running) when Lola and Manny are talking in bed about their lives or whatever it was they were discussing and how beautiful the lighting was. There was a romantic feeling about it all, and under the adventure of Lola's quest for all of the money was a romance. Interestingly enough, though, I found that the couple never trulye xpressed howo they felt openly in th elovey-dovey way Americans see in American movies. It's very blunt and subtle at the same time, and I enjoy it, because their love is understated verbally, but clearly emphasised in their actions, or Lola would never have helped manny the way that she did.

Also, I did like, in the manipulation of time, the snapshots of the people that Lola bumps into on her way down teh streets. They are bizarre and quick, but they say so much about the actual passage of time in each circumstance. I have never seen that in a film before, and thought it was really interesting to see such novel ways to depict life in film in modern times.

American Beauty

Before this class, I had heard so much about American Beauty. The thing about it is that until I actually saw the film, I had absolutely no clue about the actual plot or characters, just that there was something about roses. Turns out, I thought this film was really good. Kevin Spacey's portrayal of a man who narrates the last year of hisl ife with a neurotic real estate wife, daughter who hates him, a dead-end job, and seemingly nowhere to go. Rich, the new neighbor, creepily videotapes Thora Birch's character's every move. THere's something "beautiful" in everything that she does. THat relationship freaks me out initially, but there was something in their awkwardness that complimented the bizarreness of their relationship and almost forced the viewer to enjoy their work. The characterization of all of the characters, from the mother to the ex-Marine father (Rich's), complimented and contrasted with Spacey's character to create an opportunity for Spacey's character to split farther away from the unlikeable traits of the rest of the characters.
I think that the most powerful portrayal of any character in the film wasn't Spacey's with his newfound love of life and freespiritedness, but the Marine's revelation when he assumes the relationship between Spacey's character and Rich's. All of his hatred for gay people was really directed toward himself, and that moment was really a pivotal point in the film for all of the characters, and i loved the power in that. Next to the marine's character, Mena Suvari's role as the self-proclaimed slutty yet prude friend showed to be equally as twisted and away from teh truth.

Vacation Movies!

Over break I had the chance to see Sweeney Todd, Charlie Wilson's War, and Juno.
They were all great.

Sweeney Todd was completely in the style one would expect of Tim Burton, but it also seems that the concept of Sweeney Todd could have been directly from the mind of the director. I loved the lighting and the way Burton really played off of the characters through makeup and design. I was really surprised that Todd (Johnny Depp) can sing. His voice suited the film. It wasn't very powerful, but it was strong in the way that evoked emotion. TOBY WAS AMAZING. I've never heard a little boy sing so well. I was also amused that Alan Rickman and the guy who plays Wormtail in the Harry Potter movies were together in it. I really hate blood and gore, especially of the throat-cutting kind, but this movie was so well done and as dark was it was, there was such humor in it, especially in the way Mrs. Lovett (Burton's wife, whatever her name is) had quick, snide remarks that were there to contrast Todd's irrationality.

Charlie Wilson's War was also great. I love Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and I thougth that it was great to see Amy Adams shy away from a role like the one she played in Enchanted. I really didn't know much about Charlie Wilson, and though it was probably dramatized to the max, it was really enjoyable to see the versatility of the actors.

Juno was by far my favorite of the three, though. Ellen Page, although considerably older than the sixteen-year-old character she plays, beautifully portrays Juno, a quick witted, sarcastic,almost angsty and very pregnant teenager. She explains her name in the film as Zeus' wife, beautiful but mean. She is realistic and true to herself and her pregnancy almost serves as a backdrop to the rest of her coming-of-age story. The soundtrack was also INCREDIBLE.