"fishiiiinnng......with John...." is the hypnotic opening track from each of John Lurie's episodes. It's a neat collection of what I'd consider vacation videos with friends...not your usual friends of course, as they include Tom Waits, Jim Jarmusch, Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, and Dennis Hopper. The casual talk is fun to listen to and using a "National Geographic"-like narrator (Rob Webb) makes it even more amusing (and funny).
Just listening to how Philip Seymour Hoffman's Father Flynn delivers his sermons reminds me how messages can never come through to people unless they are brought down by someone who can articulate them well. The "Gossip" sermon was particularly entertaining. Meryl Streep was great, but in this movie Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman shined much brighter.
Stephen Daldry and the cast did a magnificent job keeping afloat the underlying emotions in this film. Once you realize that you're seeking past the obvious stimuli such as eroticism and wartime historical references, you know someone has found a way to keep you in pain....or guilt....or hope.
I admire filmmakers who are able to approach a common theme and find another way to express it. Let The Right One In is one such film taken out of the vampire genre. Stripping the concept to its bare blood-thirsty, light-sensitive core and projecting it through the eyes of two young chracters gave this film a depth that I hardly want to consider this a horror film at all.
It just wouldn't be right to have entered 2009 this far without looking back to 2008.
28 movies in 2008. It looks like a drop, but only because it does not count the Battlestar Galactica series discs in between. Of the 2008 films, notable notes:
The Hunger - sometimes you just have to have more of em...so with Ellen Page, after Juno (and for me, after Hard Candy, really) the hunger was to see her again in The Tracey Fragments and An American Crime. Same goes for Cate Blanchett in Charlotte Gray and I'm Not There, Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace and The Hottest State, and Paul Dano in Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood.
The Sparrow - Edith Piaf's life story through La Vie En Rose really brought a lot of attention to Marion Cotillard and I really admired her performance in the film. It felt rewarding to see her win the Oscar for the part.
Grace is Gone - It was a great turn for John Cusack to show he does have range.
The Jodie Factor - when Jodie Foster gets pushed in the corner, she turns into a banshee...its pretty much what surprises you when entering The Brave One with low expectations. Never underestimate someone whose good friend happens to be a guy named Hannibal.
Le Honor Roll
131 Melvin Goes to Dinner - I really didn't see it coming but after watching so many Progressive Insurance commercials I found myself getting really fond of Flo (a.k.a. Stephanie Courtney) and so I just had to see if she's done work outside of these commercials and sure enough I found this one. It's a really good independent film that follows a group of.....well friends and acquaintances in their conversations at a restaurant. It was also a pleasant surprise to see some guest actors making appearances, like Melora Walters, Maura Tierney, and David Cross.
That punch John Malkovich inflicted on Brad Pitt was as crisp as the one Tommy Lee Jones smacked on Will Smith (in MIB 2) and was the personal highlight for me. It's quite a cast with John and Brad, plus Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, and JK Simmons! And the Coens are probably one of the few who could assemble these folks and make them portray these middle-aged clowns in a story that can never be serious because there's a stupid turn at every corner and you just find yourself shaking your head in laughter.
126 - Tropic Thunder
123 - Hard Eight
It's disturbing to watch this with the awareness that it was based on actual events or a case in the 60's. Cathy Keener plays the part well, but the story I think lacks depth in exposing more of what was behind that misdirection or insanity (or maybe I just don't fully understand the misguided ways religion has been used or what struggling single mothers really go through....). For those who've always though of Ellen Page as this waifishly annoying brat, this will give you something different to look at.....
116 - The Tracey Fragments - I could have enjoyed this film had it been edited straight-up. The split screens or "fragmentation", usually 5 or more, was really distracting and exhausting to the eyes. Still, the story and characters and delivery of Ellen Page were compelling enough that I was able to finish it.
113 - New Rose Hotel - I was dissapointed at how this film didn't have the same punch as Abel's King of New York. It felt like one long drunken binge and hangover all at once. I think Walken, Dafoe, and Argento could have done more given the right environment.
To help feed my BG craving, I got disc 2 (after watching a used disc 1). Like the first disc, it's good stuff. And Richard Hatch returns! (well......as an exiled radicalist) I really like the haunting and drum-heavy soundtrack.
Trying to decipher Bob Dylan was probably an impossible task, but this was a good effort to try and give people somewhere to start (or not). Personally, I think this made me realize that he really didn't want to represent or be represented. Dylan bounced off ideas or expressed what was there...he couldn't care less what it meant or how it could be absorbed by the listener.
Daniel Plainview is a cold-blooded bastard :)
I rarely watch musicals and Ithink the last one I really liked was......All that Jazz? But with Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, and Helena Bonham Carter coming together for Sweeney Todd, I guess it was worth watching.....and I did like it. I was most impressed by Ed Sanders (who portrayed Toby). And to consider that none of the actors were really singers by trade, I think the whole cast did a great job.
"Wild" being the location here really isn't confined to the great outdoors (or great outdoors probably doesn't necessarily mean mountains and forests), but everywhere else, including cities, towns, and middle-of-nowhere's. I couldn't help but thinking that this film is really more about life as a floater more than this strong principle of non-materialism and nature love. Emile Hirsch did give the role a good shot, but I think he was overshadowed by the cinematography and Eddie Vedder (you could probably remove all the sound and just play the movie with Eddie's soundtrack and you'd still be able to appreciate this film).
This can't be my 100th entry. It's really sad that it is...anyway...
I think Stellan Skarsgard did a great job and I enjoyed watching him portray Francisco Goya. Even more interesting was how they showed the old process of print-press (of lineart?). I'm not sure what made them choose Randy Quaid and that really felt odd. Natalie Portman I think, despite an admirable performance in the first part (as Ines), was miscast. She does not deliver the same effect Scarlett Johansson had in Girl with a Pearl Earing (funny how they finally found their way together now in The Other Boleyn Girl...wonder who will have more of an effect over the other...)
In a way, I'm really glad that Adrienne Shelley was able to complete this film before her death. The film was a personal statement and beautifully written with so many great messages.
It certainly did feel like Salvador was the first attempt for Oliver Stone before Platoon, but it certainly has its merits. For one, James Woods maintains the persistent, manipulative, and foul-mouthed character that he easily brings to a lot of his characters. John Savage also makes a more courageous turn as a seasoned war photographer (and Bob Capa fan :) ).
I remember Jim mentioning in one of his documentaries how he watches foreign movies with no subtitles and from there be able to discover how good the film has been made. That was the case for how I watched the first segment of Mystery Train. Just watch the facial expressions of Masatoshi Nagase and Youki Kudoh and you can't miss the emotion or context of what they were saying, despite the language barrier. In it's own weird way, it felt like watching R2D2 and C-3PO :)
With a cast that included Steve Buscemi, Natalie Portman, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Emily Mortimer, I definitley wanted to try this "buffet" :)
Ok ok...back to the Jim Jarmusch track. This movie has the same feel as Stranger Than Paradise...but in color....and like STP, you just can't help but enjoy the "stills" possible with the scenes Jim created for this story. John Lurie only has a small part and I have to admit I've gotten really used to him that I wished he had a bigger role somehow.
I just can't seem to find the uniqueness in this film. You can certainly do a lot to expose the lives of drug addicts and everything around them, like Requiem for a Dream or Permanent Midnight, but it does not seem to work for me in this one. The only actor who seemed to be able to carry his character was Mickey Rourke....everyone else looked as if they were playing a fantasy.....I mean, unless you can run with the craziness like Benicio Del Toro and Johnny Depp did in Fearing and Loathing in Las Vegas or Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting, you're not really depicting a drug addict (I think). Even all the mixed elements felt stolen (addict spins, animation, 70s cops...)
