Day 4: Greenberg (2010)

Greenberg
Director: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans

I kind of like movies with unlikeable protagonists...sometimes.  I guess I'm saying that it doesn't bother me if the movie is interesting enough.  Sometimes it just makes things unbearable.  Movies like Young Adult or even Rushmore are able to grab me as a viewer despite the fact that the main characters are constantly making terrible decisions that hurt themselves and others.  These movies succeed because you find yourself rooting for the main character to overcome their personal issues and take a step towards putting their lives in a better place.

Greenberg, like Baumbach's other films, doesn't really give the audience anybody to love.  We're presented with real people.  Damaged people.  The movie really could be called "Greenberg and Florence".  These are the two characters with serious issues with self-image and relationships.  This isn't really a fun movie at all because Florence and Roger are unable to develop any sort of conventional rapport to comfort the audience.

This movie wallows in awkwardness.  I'd call it a cringe comedy, except it really isn't all that funny.  I still prefer The Squid and the Whale to this film.  While this movie is about two lost people who are too insecure in themselves to reach out to anyone else in a substantial way, Squid was more grounded in the idea of a broken family.  This gave that film more room for comedy to fill the gaps between the messed up psychology.

I think I like Noah Baumbach as a director more than I should.  Aside from Squid (which is one of my favorite movies), I haven't really fallen in love with any of his films.  I'm pretty sure I love him so much because he reminds me of Wes Anderson, someone who has yet to make a film I don't like.  Both tackle the psychology of broken characters hurting each other, unable to express their honest feelings to others or themselves.  However, while Baumbach presents his character studies in sparse, quiet reality; Anderson coddles the viewer with a slightly fantastical setting, meticulous visuals, and whimsical soundtracks.  While Anderson's style is certainly more up my alley, Baumbach manages to keep me thinking about my own relationships and the odd characters in my own life.

Anyway, Greta Gerwig's performance was probably the best part of the movie.  This makes me excited to see Baumbach's new film Frances Ha in a few days (she stars and co-writes).

Lesson learned: Duran Duran is good heroin music.

Day 3: Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Star Trek Into Darkness
Director: JJ Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch

Confession time: I'm not much of a Star Trek fan.  I know, as a self proclaimed geek, this is shameful.  I chose Star Wars early in my life instead.  Aside from a few of the classic episodes of the original series and the occasional episode of Next Gen caught on cable as a kid, my experience with the Enterprise is limited.  However, I did watch Wrath of Khan as part of my original Daily Cinema project.

I loved JJ's first Star Trek movie.  It was fun, the characters were great, and the action effects were impressive.  I wasn't a major Star Trek fan, so the overall changes in tone didn't bug me at all.  This second foray into space is even better than the first.  The villain is better, the plot is more coherent, and the action DOES NOT STOP.  Seriously, this film doesn't take a breather or check in on side plots.  Instead, this is two hours of solid action propelling the entire film towards a single climax.  It worked beautifully.  The action was absolutely awesome.

The performances, though, grounded this space opera for the audience.  The main cast from the first film seemed to take a firmer grasp of their roles (especially my favorites, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg).  The addition of Benedict Cumberbatch was welcome.  My wife is obsessed with him and we both love Sherlock.  He crafted a villainous role here that stole every scene he was in.  He managed to by a psychologically complex antagonist, something totally missing from film one.  The movie managed to tackle moral and intellectual quandaries while blowing apart space ships.  Fun.  That's what it was.

I did have some gripes here, though.  Firstly, there was a major plot hole during the climax in which they supposedly needed to keep Khamberbatch alive despite having a room full of people with the same super blood on the ship.  Also, the callbacks to the old Star Trek II were a little heavy handed.  I would have liked to see them do some more original dramatic/emotional stuff rather than rehashing the thing that was so iconic before.  Yes, I understand that this is a tribute, but it sort of felt cheap playing on what worked in the past so directly.  Also, the major death was resolved too quickly without giving the audience time to grieve.

MAJOR WHINE TIME: I'm sick of big action movies being forced into 3D film making.  It is ruining cinematography.  I always choose to see the movies in 2D because I refuse to pay extra for a distracting gimmick, but these days it remains distracting even without the 3D.  Everything is unnecessarily zooming towards the camera for a sort of shocking 3D effect.  In the future, when the 3D fad is over and we're watching these movies at home later, we'll see this era as an odd time for wacky superfluous camera work.

Lesson learned: It's handy to have an older, alternate version of oneself around for advice in tough situations.

Day 2: Tampopo (1985)

Tampopo
Director: Juzo Itami
Starring: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ken Watanabe

I'm obsessed with ramen.  No, I'm not referring to the cheap instant noodles that college students "survive" on, I mean real ramen.  The noodle soup that is an obsession in Japan.  I didn't know much about it until Kay and I went to the Slurping Turtle in Chicago and had my first bowl of authentic ramen.  Since then I've become totally consumed by my quest to make the perfect bowl of ramen (something I'll likely be discussing in non-movie posts here this summer).  

I read about this movie when it was mentioned in David Chang's Momofuku Cookbook (the beginning of my homemade ramen education).  He said that this movie really made ramen more popular outside of Japan.  I can see why.  This film about a young woman's quest to open the best ramen shop in Japan is basically food porn.  I kept finding myself craving every steamy bowl shown in the film.  I wanted to taste the broth they were slurping so bad.  It also managed to be quite educational about ramen techniques and how a ramen restaurant works (owning one here in St. Louis is a distant dream of mine).  

The movie itself is really more quirky than laugh out loud funny.  I laughed the most at a pseudo dream sequence in which a rival ramen shop attacks hers because she and her mentor dissed their soup the previous day.  The structure of the movie is really quite experimental.  There is a slow moving main plot about a trucker who helps this girl with her ramen.  It has a sort of western/cowboy feel to it.  Interspersed within this main story are random scenes of an attractive young couple with a really messed up food fetish.  The strangest scene between these two involved them passing a raw egg yolk back and fourth with their mouths (with some really unsettling close-up camera work).

While the main plot is cute, the best part of the movie is an extended series of vignettes about people and food.  The film will pick a random character, follow their mini story, then switch focus to a background character in that scene and follow them for a while, then switching again.  I love when movies do this.  This was a really creative way to form a sort of collage of individuals and their humorous adventures in food.  My favorite included an old con man who pleaded with the cops to allow him to have one more bite of duck before hauling him away to the slammer.

 While I can't quite say that this is a movie I would really recommend to anyone, it was definitely an interesting experimental comedy with a lot of nice footage of people eating tasty noodle soup.

Lesson learned: People in Japan take noodles very seriously. 

 

Day 1: Iron Man 3 (2013)

Iron Man 3
Director: Shane Black
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley

Comic books have always been important to me.  I grew up collecting them before I ever really knew how to read.  To this day, they are a major passion of mine.  Aside from watching movies, reading comics is my favorite hobby.  When I was a kid, I always watched Batman and Spider-Man cartoons.  It was exciting to see my printed heroes break through the pages and make their way into actual moving pictures on my TV.  There were very few comic book movies that were worth watching, so animation was my destination for non-comic superhero media. This changed the summer after my 8th grade year when Bryan Singer's X-Men was released.  It was amazing to see superheroes taken seriously on the big screen.  Since then, the past 13 years have been jam packed with comic book movies that outdid anything attempted in superhero films before.  This all sort of built toward last summer's Avengers movie, arguably the grandest expression of comic book fandom ever shown at the cinema.

Iron Man 3 marks the first post-Avengers Marvel movie, part of their "phase three" building to an inevitable Avengers 2.  This movie, though, manages to transcend its connection with the wider Marvel universe to tell a solid story about Tony Stark the man rather than Iron Man the superhero.  It is better than the messy, over-packed Iron Man 2 (which was redeemed by Sam Rockwell) and is probably better than even the first Iron Man (which failed to present a compelling antagonist).

Iron Man 3 gets so much right.  It focuses on telling a human story while still delivering great action.  Robert Downey Jr. is so charismatic as Tony Stark that I think I'd watch a whole movie just about him running Stark Industries and hanging out around the house.  I feel like this movie really took advantage of its own continuity.  By having all the necessary back story already taken care of, this film was able to just jump into the action immediately.  This is the benefit of Marvel building its universe.  It will trust its fans to pay attention enough that each new generation of films will delve deeper and deeper into the Marvel mythos and tell more interesting non-origin stories.

Anyway, this is getting ramble-y (can you tell that I'm out of practice with movie criticism?)  Overall, this was an excellent action movie that kicked off what looks to be a pretty great summer movie season (which I much prefer to awards-y season later in the year).

Lesson learned: Fighting aliens can really mess a guy up mentally.

PS- I'm doing some backlogged posts for movies I've watched in the last week or so.  I get out of school next week so regular real time posting won't start really until then.

Round 2

So my life has been crazy the past 4 years since the summer that I watched 70-something movies.  I got married, moved twice, and my wife opened her own business.  I am working on a MA in medieval history, teach high school students full time, and spend the rest of my time helping out in my lady's bakery.  I have sacrificed much of my personal life and often feel like I spend the precious personal time I have doing nothing worthwhile, wasting away every precious minute in a pointless internet loop (damn you, Reddit!).

Summer is almost here and I'm not working or taking a class.  Sure, most of my time will be spent helping my Mrs. in the bakery.  However I'll need something to do in the evenings when I'm not reading comics or hanging out with friends. 

I have been feeling the need to take on a personal project for a while.  This fall I'll be taking a grad seminar on the crusades, teaching, AND doing bakery work.  If I'm going to have a project, it'll have to bee this summer. 

This summer, I will reignite my movie a day project.  I'll continue to fill in the gaps of my pop culture knowledge with missed classics, recent critical darlings, current summer blockbusters, and total geeky pleasures.  Not only do I get to enjoy the flicks, but I also get to work on my critical writing. 

Will I get as much reading done as I should?  Will I work on next year's lesson plans?  Probably not.

Anyway, feel free to read along!  I promise not to review as many kung fu movies this year...

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Inglourious Basterds
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent

I would call myself a Tarantino fan. Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite movies and I really enjoyed Kill Bill. This movie is definitely more on the Kill Bill side of things. It was a stylized revenge flick. The violence was ridiculous and he blatantly ripped various genres, including spaghetti westerns. This was unlike any war movie I have ever seen. This was more like a comic book than a film.

This is not the movie that the previews made it out to be. This was not all about Brad Pitt and his men running around, slaughtering Nazis. This was maybe 1/4 of the movie, and I was glad of this. I actually found Pitt's "Basterds" to be the least interesting story arc of the film. In true Tarantino style, the movie was broken into chapters that told 3 different stories that all slowly blended together. One story was about a young French movie theater owner whose parents were killed by Nazis. She is involuntarily befriended by a Nazi war hero who wants to throw a big movie premier at her theater. The second story is about the Basterds, a crew of American Jews who are out to terrorize and scalp the Nazis. The third story focuses on a British mission to rendezvous with a German movie star double agent and take out Hitler. This all culminates into one vengeful bloodbath (with a historically inaccurate ending).

The acting was superb. Everyone was great (except for the awful Eli Roth) but were outshined by Christoph Waltz's performance as the Nazi "Jew Hunter". This guy was oozing with charisma and delivered his lines flawlessly. He was menacing, powerful, playful, and tricky all at once. He was the perfect villain. Amazing. Expect to see his name a lot at awards shows this year.

I loved that language played a big role in this movie. Nazis spoke German. French people spoke French. This may seem obvious, but almost no other war movie has taken language into account as much as this film did. Also, Tarantino has proven again that he is a great dialogue writer. The three best scenes of the movie all involve long conversations that built tension. The audience knew that someone was about to die and, in true Leone fashion, Tarantino keeps us on the edge of our seats until we are surprised when the inevitable killing takes place.

This was s fun movie, but was ver episodic. I think the parts here are greater than the whole. Is it accurate? No. Are the Nazis treated as human beings? No. Was it fun? Yes. Hitler was a supervillain. Nazis were his evil henchmen. This was a WWII exploitation film unlike any other war film.

Lesson learned: Germans count with their thumb.

Gosford Park (2001)

Gosford Park
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: a ton of people

I have seen two other Robert Altman movies, Nashville and MASH. Though this is limited exposure, I feel the movies gave me a pretty good idea about Altman's general style. Though this movie was made almost 30 years later, it shared many key characteristics. Huge ensemble cast, loose plot, strong characters, and a very slow pace. Altman likes to throw a ton of characters into a flick, each with their own story, and just watch what happens. Who needs a narrative story when you have 20 people with their own agendas.

What happens when you get a dozen or so British aristocrats and their wives and servants in a country house for a shooting party? Somebody gets killed and everybody gossips.

This murder mystery was not what I was expecting. This was not a "who dunnit?". I'm actually not sure who it was who did the actual killing. The real fun of this movie was the divide between the hired help and their employers. The story played out almost like a bedroom farce, but without all the slapstick gags. Doors are opened and closed. People try to avoid each other in a house. People hook up, emotional outbursts occur. Watching the characters slowly unfold on the screen was great (and something Altman does best).

The best part of the movie was watching the enormous, ridiculously talented cast work together. Some favorites included: Maggie Smith's scene stealing countess, Emily Watson's conflicted servant, and Clive Owen's mysterious valet. I also really enjoyed the subtle, charming performances from Claudie Blakely and Tom Hollander (who is fantastic in everything I've seen him in). The real joy, though, was Jeremy Northam. He played British actor and singer Ivor Novello, who has made it big in Hollywood. The scenes in which he plays piano were my favorites in the movie. I was as enchanted as the maids in the background. He really pulled off the charm and gusto of old Hollywood.

I liked this movie a lot. Sure, it dragged a lot. I was expecting that. This was just a rediculously talented cast to watch. I didn't even get to mention Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, or Helen Mirren. Check it out.

Lesson learned: Americans seems silly in a house full of British people.

I have a new blog. I'll still post here whenever I watch movies, but THIS is where I will be focusing my energy.

Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Sunset Blvd.
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim

A classic that I had never seen before. I should have known as soon as I saw Wilder's name that it would be great. The guy has made a ton of movies that are entertaining and artistic. They are just as interesting and satisfying as anything made today (actually, way better than most).

This is an iconic movie that I think I saw a parody of on Tiny Toons once (this happens with a lot of films though: Citizen Kane, Rear Window, etc). A struggling young writer randomly finds himself on the doorstep of a washed up silent movie era starlett. She is planning her big comeback (I'm sorry, "return") to the movies and wants him to fix up her script. Of course, he takes the job. There's a ton of money to be taken from this old broad. Things go sour when she falls in love with him and wont let him leave the house. Also, she kills him (this is not big spoiler, they tell us at the beginning).

From the opening shots, I was already impressed with the camera angles and atmosphere. This movie has style. It's got all the characteristics that make film noir great. We have deadpan voiceover narration, black and white cinematography, and a moody soundtrack. The strongest piece of the puzzle, though, was the screenplay. The dialogue is so witty and perfect. Holden read the narration like a man who was helplessly away of his tragic fate.

The real joy of the movie, though, was the twisted performance of Swanson as Norma Desmond. She played her part just like a silent movie queen would, with raging facial expressions and piercing eyes. I was on edge every time she was on the screen. So creepy, pathetic, and dangerous. She was a shell of her former self. It sort of reminded me of Grey Gardens. A lot actually. She had lost all sense of reality and lived in the past.

Sometimes, I think classic movies are overrated. This is not one of those times. The final scene on the staircase gave me chills. Everything was so well done. See this movie!

Lesson learned: A car is not worth losing your life.

Top 10

Well, now that the project is over, it's time to pick the cream of the crop. Which movies did I like the most? Which will stick with me for a while? Which DVDs will I put on my Christmas list this year? Here they are: the top 10 of the summer (in order):


10. Lady Snowblood (1973)

Have you ever watched a movie and thought "that movie would have been way cooler if..."? I couldn't say that after Lady Snowblood. It was the sort of movie I've always wanted to see. A Kurosawa film, but with more action. A sword fighting movie, but with more story. An action movie, but with originality and style. This was just a fun revenge flick with great characters, costumes, and fight scenes. I'm surprised Tarantino was the first to rip it off. This is as close as it gets to live action manga.

What will always stick with me: The opening bloodbath in the snow.


9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

I watched some classic silent films this summer, including comedies by Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. The best of these, though, was a serious drama about Joan of Arc. This movie really blew me away with its intense emotion and revolutionary camera work. Probably 90% of the film in this movie was made up of quick cuts of facial closeups. What made this work, though, was the performance of Maria Falconetti.

What will always stick with me: Falconetti's crazy eyes.


8. Paper Moon (1973)

I really didn't know what to expect from this movie. Every synopsis and trailer I saw made it look sort of bland. This con man movie turned out to be anything but! It was funny and had some beautiful black and white cinematography. The was outstanding, father/daughter combo in the lead roles. This was an old fashioned good time that showed what it may really be like to be a con man.

What will always stick with me: A little girl smoking a cigarette while listening to the radio.


7. Gangs of New York (2002)

I watched 3 Scorsese pictures this summer and this was my favorite. Sure, the two classics were probably more artsy and real, but this movie was more up my alley. It was easier to watch, had a superb ensemble cast, and had some of the best sets and costumes I've ever seen (which really appealed to the history teacher in me). I could just watch Billy the Butcher all day!

What will always stick with me: Daniel Day Lewis's big climactic scene at the theater.


6. Run Lola Run (1998)

This little German movie didn't have much in the way of plot or acting. The reason it made my list is because it was so different. The 81 minute run time feels like 15. The same 20 minute story is told three times, with slight variations making all the difference. This is the film equivalent to listening to techno. My heart is pumping just thinking about it!

What will always stick with me: Lola running through the street over and over again.


5. 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)

You all probably got tired of reading boring kung fu reviews. I decided to pick the best one to put on my list. This was hard, but I ended up going with this beauty because it simply has the best fight scenes ever (and isn't that how this genre should really be judged anyway?). The story was barely coherent and the acting was over the top, but that's all part of the charm. From the first few minutes of the film to the very end, the action doesn't stop. Gordon Liu's pole fighting is really something that I can't describe. He's just the best and that's what set this movie apart from the others this chop socky summer.

What will always stick with me: The jaw dropping final fight scene involving coffins and defanging.


4. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

I guess this was the summer of martial arts and Woody Allen (an unlikely combination). Again, I wanted to pick my favorite for this list and ended up going for one that Allen didn't even act in. This movie was magic. It explored the wonder of film in a whimsical fairy tale that ended with a smack if bittersweet reality. Movies like this are why Woody is probably my favorite filmmaker of all time.

What will always stick with me: Jeff Daniels talking to Mia Farrow from a movie screen.


3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

I wasn't expecting to like this movie as much as I did. Kay had been bugging me about seeing this for a while, so I threw it on the Netflix queue. What I got was the best musical I have ever seen (and it wasn't even in my language). What do you get when you mix wonderful music, eye candy visuals, and real world emotions? A classic movie.

What will always stick with me: The painfully real closing scene.


2. Harold and Maude (1971)

If I hadn't heard that this was a major influence on Wes Anderson, I probably would have never watched this movie. I'm glad I got past the disturbing plot synopsis and checked this out. This had everything I love about indie comedies today: quirky characters, hilarious gags, tear jerking moments, interesting camera work, and a killer soundtrack.

What will always stick with me: Cat Stevens music being put to good use.


1. Before Sunrise (1995)

I recommend this movie to everyone who hasn't seen it. This is a classic romance in every way. Linklater has created something so real with this movie. Even though it is made up entirely of long cuts of straight dialogue, I couldn't look away. Simply a beautiful piece of cinema that has become a personal favorite.

What will always stick with me: The hard goodbye.