Downfall

I watched Downfall this afternoon. It is a German film about the last days of Hitler and the Third Reich. I'd been wanting to watch the movie for a number of years, and when I saw that it was on TV last night, I decided to tape it. I figured taping it was best, since it was three and a half hours on TV, and I just don't have that great an attention span. Since the movie was subtitled, paying attention was necessary.

Despite having it on tape, where I could fast forward through commercials, I still had difficulty paying attention. It's not because I disliked the film (in fact, I loved it!), but it was because of the subject matter. I'm a huge history nerd. In University, I took a number of European history courses, primarily because I love World War II history. I find it fascinating. The film uses actual footage from an interview with Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries, and a main character in the film. Of course, I had to look her up. I read a number of Wikipedia pages pertaining to historical figures from the film, and events that occurred within the film.

I was watching the movie upstairs, so I had to pause the movie and get my lap top when I realized that I just had to read about Bruno Ganz, who plays Hitler in the movie. Then I realized that reading Wikipedia while watching a subtitled movie just didn't work well. So I kept having to pause the movie. That's alright, because I learned a lot from Wikipedia, and I had nothing else to do this afternoon anyway, so I could take my time watching the movie.

Yes, the movie was a long one, but it didn't feel long. As I've emphasized, the subject matter is fascinating to me, and it is presented well. The acting is fantastic. I'd actually been reading about the film a few days before during a spare moment at school, so I'm really glad it was on TV this weekend. I'd actually planned on adding it to my list of 200 movies to watch, but I'm just as happy to have gotten the opportunity to watch it earlier. The only issue I had was with the number of characters. I had trouble keeping track of the names of most of them, so I had to identify them by their faces and actions. But that wasn't a big deal at all.

If you haven't seen Downfall yet, check it out. It's excellent.

Summertime in the Theatre

Okay, so it's not quite summer yet, but it sure feels like it. On Friday night, I met up with some friends to go see Kick-Ass. It was fairly quiet in the theatre, which was surprising, since I thought it'd be packed.

This semester, I haven't gone to see many movies. I've missed it. It was strange entering Silvercity Polo Park for the first time in at least three months. For one, I noticed that they'd raised the prices since I'd last been there. Secondly, they got rid of New York Fries, and replaced it with Pizza Pizza, and some other chain I'd never heard of. I wasn't impressed. I generally got a poutine and a drink, especially when I went to movies around dinner time. My joke was that without my weekly business, New York Fries went under. I'll need to make a note to see more movies.

Kick-Ass was an alright movie. It was quite hilarious at times, and often very shocking and disturbing. Chloe Moretz, who played Hit-Girl, really stole the show. Hard to believe she's only 13 years old with that kind of talent. She looks very young, however. I wouldn't have put her older than 10 or 11 in the movie.

I feel very out of the loop when it comes to the movies being released. I don't really know what's coming out this summer. I've been so busy that I haven't really had the time to keep on top of it. But now that school is over, I'll be able to really follow that, and hopefully I'll get out to see more movies!

Kids

Aggie was kind enough to lend me her copy of Kids, and I got around to watching it last night. I was particularly curious about it, because I recall a friend on a forum I post at writing about their hatred for this movie. I'd looked it up back then and it sounded interesting to me.

As I watched it, I braced myself for something tragic and depressing. And on one had, I did get that. The movie is shot documentary-style, and looks at the lives of the characters over the course of a single day in New York. The characters are all young teenagers, 15, 16, even 13 years old. They experiment with drugs, talk frankly about sex, and drink, among other things. I often have a difficult time relating to films where the young characters are so out of control. My teenage years were very different. They were by no means easy years (in fact, they were probably the hardest of my short life), but I never drank or did drugs or behaved the way these characters did in the film. So I wonder just how accurate the picture painted was. Do teenagers really act like this? Maybe because I was so innocent in that way, it just felt very over the top to me.

One issue I did have with the film is the fact that I couldn't feel anything for any of the characters. It was very sad and shocking subject matter, but I didn't feel emotionally attached to a single character. It was very strange to watch a film so tragic, but feel nothing. At the end of it, I thought the feeling was similar to watching a car accident: you know it's terrible, but sometimes you have a hard time feeling anything, especially if you don't see anyone who is injured. But at the same time, you can't look away.

I thought it was an interesting film, though. I did like the documentary-style of it, and I like that it portrayed a single day in the life of all of the characters. Thanks Aggie!

"Yes, Yes...I'll Get to it One Day..."

This will be an entry full of confessions.

Confession #1: Before today, I had never seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

But I did watch it tonight, and I enjoyed it! I was in the mood for something light and fun, and I sat there the whole time with a big smile on my face. It was a really fun movie, and it has gotten me excited about the Chicago trip next month. I tend to have a bit of a preoccupation with tragic or serious films, so I've missed a lot of the more light-hearted films out there.

When it finished, it left me wondering..."why had I waited 20 years to watch this movie?"

This brings me to confession #2: This is the first John Hughes film I've seen.

I was going through his filmography just now, and I have seen a few that he'd produced and written, but none that he'd directed. I fully realize just how shameful this is. I never watched them as a kid. I saw a lot of movies in the theatre as a kid, and only seemed to want to watch "new" movies when we went to the video store. So as a result, I missed out on a lot of the classics. Even now, I tend to go to the theatre a whole lot, except I haven't been in several weeks. This is probably the longest I've ever gone without seeing a movie in the theatre.

But I've been wanting to check out several of John Hughes' films for a long time. I remember being 15 years old, and sitting in drama class with several of my classmates, who were all talking about The Breakfast Club. We were beginning to write the skit we'd perform on our drama night, and my classmates wanted to include references to it. Since I'd never seen it, I was rather quiet during that time (which was not hard for me, since I was known as the "shy, goody-goody girl" in that class). Even at 15, I knew it was terrible that I hadn't seen it. So why have I gone another five years without seeing it? My only explanation is that there have been so many movies I've wanted to see, that it just got put on the back burner, along with many others.

Another very notable one I haven't seen is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I just remembered this, because in the climax of that skit, we dance to The Time Warp. Yes, there is a tape somewhere of me dancing. I hope it never gets out, because it would be painful to watch. For this one, the timing has never seemed right. I guess it is a movie I'd want to watch with a group of people, or at least one other person, anyway.

So I guess this is where I ask: does anyone want to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show with me?

Julie & Julia

I finally got around to checking out Julie & Julia tonight. I'd done a lot of reading about the film, and Julie Powell's "story", but I hadn't actually seen it, and thought that should be remedied.

Julie & Julia is the story of two women: Julie Powell, who cooked all of the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Julia Child, the woman who wrote the cookbook. Julie Powell kept a blog of her experience, which eventually became a book, which eventually became a movie!

I was in the mood for something uplifting and happy, and I chose the perfect movie to watch. By the end of it, I was in such a good mood (it helped that I was already feeling great when I put it in), and felt like I could do anything in the world. It was inspiring.

It did make me wish I knew how to cook. The food shown in the film looked so delicious, and I found myself mourning my lack of cooking ability. As a kid, I actually wanted to be a chef, but I quickly realized that I was not cut out for it for a variety of reasons. I'm far too clumsy, and the fact that I'm STILL afraid of touching raw meat really disqualifies me from the profession. At this point, I'd just like to be able to cook delicious food for the people I care about, and be able to enjoy doing it. Right now all I'm able to do is cook sub-par food for myself.

I admired both Julia Child and Julie Powell. The film portrayed them as two strong women who were determined to reach their goals. That's something I respect a lot. They both had great husbands standing by their side as well. I enjoy it when Hollywood gives us strong female protagonists. I also enjoy it when husbands/boyfriends/life partners are not portrayed as jerks or obstacles, but as real, kind people who are supportive of their loved one. I wouldn't categorize this film as a romance, but the love shared between these women and their partners sure felt romantic to me, and definitely put a huge smile on my face.

This film gave me yet another reminder of Meryl Streep's amazing talent. I'm convinced she can play any character on this planet convincingly. She was great, and deserved the Oscar nomination she received for the role. And just as a note: if you haven't seen Kramer vs. Kramer, do check it out. She was amazing in it, and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Joanna Kramer.

Welcome to the Dollhouse

I watched Welcome to the Dollhouse tonight on Kenton's recommendation. It was really great--and very different in the sense that it deals with a pre-teen girls social "difficulties". Most films that tackle the story of the social outcast obviously use high school students. The comedy was very dark (just as I like it), and I laughed, and laughed.

I thought about why that is the case, and have come up with a few thoughts. The first thing that came to my mind is that if a film takes place in a high school, they can cast actors that are either already adults, or near adulthood. Heather Matarazzo, who played the protagonist, Dawn Wiener, would have been about 13 years old at the time of filming. That's really young to be tackling such a complex role, and many young actors would not be able to do such a part justice. Matarazzo was fantastic though, as was the entire young cast. If you're able to cast slightly older actors, and place them in a high school environment (where people are still known to be cruel).

Another thought that came to mind is the thought that most people are not comfortable with the idea of pre-teens rebelling, or experimenting in any sort of way. "Pre-teenhood" is tough in the sense that you're generally seen as a slightly older child (at least, that's how I was seen), and rebellion is not supposed to start occurring until high school. I remember when I was in 8th grade, a couple of my peers were caught smoking a cigarette on school property, though outside of school hours. The principal banned them from all the school dances (oh no!) as a result. Of course I'm not saying that kind of thing should be happening, but it does anyway. People just tend to like to plug their ears and ignore this fact. And since many stories like this one do involve some level of rebellion, filmmakers tend to keep it high school aged.

But I, for one, really appreciated the fact that Todd Solondz set it in a junior high school. Because as I said, it's not a perspective you often see. And it reminded me SO, so much of my middle school experience as the "unpopular girl" (a label that, unfortunately, stuck through high school, as I mentioned in my last post). Even Brandon (Brendan Sexton III) reminded me a little of several of the boys I went to school with way back then. Brandon's sympathetic portrayal made me really think about life back then. You can never really walk in another person's shoes, so you can't always know what causes someone to treat you the way they do. Maybe these boys had a difficult home life? I'll never know, and I don't need to know, but I hope that wherever they are, they're living in a way that allows them to sleep at night.

The dynamic of junior high, and high school is also completely different. I thought the character Mark Wiener (Matthew Faber) said it best: "High school's better than junior high. They'll call you names, but not as much to your face." I really couldn't have said it better myself.

Cinema Paradiso

Note, this entry will have spoilers for both versions of the movie: the original and extended cut.


****



I loved it. On Kenton's recommendation, I bought the original version of the film, which is slightly shorter. I found the relationship between Salvatore (Toto) and Alfredo to be incredibly moving, and I found myself in tears during the final scene. In the original cut, the final scene was rather simple: Alfredo created a montage of all of the love scenes he had to cut, because Toto wanted them as a child. I felt it served as a reminder of his childhood, and all that he had left behind when he left town to create a future for himself. This version felt like a coming of age story, and a story of two individuals who love each other like father and son.

I viewed the extended cut today, and it complicates the original cut considerably. It adds another element to the young love story shared by Toto and Elena, the woman he loved when he was young. In the original cut, she simply disappears, he leaves town, and never settles down. The extended cut brings them back together while Toto is in town for Alfredo's funeral. He sees a young woman that resembles Elena, and through this, manages to be reunited with his long lost love. She reveals that her parents forced her to leave town suddenly, but she went to the Paradiso to say goodbye to Toto, and give him a way to contact her. Alfredo is in the projector room, and convinces her to disappear, and never speak to him again. "Out of the fire of love comes ashes" is what he said. Toto is destined to become a great director, and to be with him will only hold him back. Elena agrees, and leaves, only to write a note that Toto never finds. They make love that night, but nothing more comes of it.

Clearly the extended cut changes things. In this version, Alfredo is not portrayed as favourably, because he had a great hand in keeping Elena and Toto apart. One could argue that perhaps it was for the best, because he became a great director, and thus, a great success in life, but was it worth it for him...spending a life time waiting and wondering about the one woman he could ever truly love? The very ending itself is changed. Sure, what Alfredo created for Toto was still a sign of great love, but it felt almost like a taunt to me as well. I saw pain in Toto's (Jacques Perrin) eyes that I had not seen the day before. Watching scenes of true love on film, while knowing that the man who created this helped keep your true love from you...it just made the ending that much sadder.

Plus, finding out such a secret is a great way to tarnish the memory of the dead. It's a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that the man you thought of as a father convinced the woman you love to go away. I feel like the decision should have been Toto's, and that Alfredo shouldn't have meddled. So I suppose for that reason, I prefer the original version. It keeps the character untarnished. Plus it felt nicer just assuming that Elena was forced to leave by her parents and simply moved on, than knowing that they could have been together, but Alfredo meddled, and Toto never found her note. But at the same time, I really loved the more bittersweet tone that Alfredo's actions gave to the extended cut's ending.

All in all, excellent film!

The Road

For everyone on Twitter, I promised a review of The Road. I could quite easily do it in six words: Best movie I've seen all year....however I'll get much more in depth.

I love films that make you think. And I love film, literature, etc, that take place in a post-apocalyptic or dystopian society. The Road is post-apocalyptic, and really made me think, because even a day later I'm still mulling it over in my head. It's about two unnamed characters, the man (played by the amazing Viggo Mortensen), and the boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), travelling across the country to reach "the coast", because the man figures they won't survive another winter where they originally lived. This is roughly ten years after an unnamed event happened, that killed off most humans, animals and plants, so food is very scarce. On their journey, they must try to avoid the "bad guys". There are no more laws, and it's essentially every man for himself.

It's a shocking film, and often very tragic. How do you retain what keeps you human when there are so few humans left? How far do you go to keep yourself and your family alive? When is life still worth living? These questions are asked within the film, and I found myself thinking at length about them as well. Flashbacks to the boy's mother, and the Man's wife (Charlize Theron) help bring these questions to the forefront of the movie.

For the majority of the film, Mortensen and Smit-McPhee are the only characters on screen. They work off of each other very well. What I loved most about the film is how the characters, and your perception of them changed within the two hour time span. They were very convincing as Father and son. The man was so devoted to his son that he would do absolutely anything for him. I admired that dynamic, and was very moved by it. But at the same time, it is something that is very hard for me to imagine. I can't imagine having nothing in the world, but a son or a father. But I think being in such a situation, where you depend on each other so fully would make you extraordinarily close. The Road is being described by many as the "feel bad movie of the year", and I gotta say I agree with that statement. Expect to feel bad, to feel horrified, and to think when you watch it. It's very difficult to watch. I actually find it amusing that the release date is when it is, because this weekend was Thanksgiving in the States. Why would they release such a bleak film Thanksgiving weekend? Surely they could have released it next week. That being said, I hope word of mouth spreads and a lot of people see it. Mortensen definitely deserves an Oscar nomination for his role in the film, and I also think it should be a contender for Best Picture. I was also very impressed with Smit-McPhee. He was quite young when this film was made (and is still quite young). I can't imagine making such an emotionally heavy movie right now, as an adult, let alone when I was 11 years old! They found themselves a gem when he was cast.

Another thing that really impressed me was the imagery. There is very little colour in the movie, most things are shades of grey, or other muted colours. They did a very good job creating a bleak and destroyed world. Everything, from what they wear, to the trees and buildings look the way one would imagine they'd look ten years after a world-ending event. Numerous close-ups are used to show how skinny and dirty the man and the boy are. I read somewhere that some of it was CGI edited to make the colours more muted and bleak, but a lot of it was simply excellent choice in filming locations. Kudos to the film makers.

I wish I'd had time to read the book, by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote No Country for Old Men, which was adapted into film. I've never read any of his books, but I think I'd start with The Road, because as much as I loved No Country, I liked The Road quite a bit better. Maybe over the summer I'll have more time to read it. I do recall reading the back of the book a few years ago, and thinking it sounded pretty interesting, but for whatever reason I didn't pick it up. I wish I had.

That being said, make sure you have something fun planned after you see the film. Had I just been going home afterwards I probably would have been a little depressed all night. It's emotionally exhausting.

Here's a link to the trailer.

Amreeka

On Monday I unexpectedly ended up seeing the film Amreeka at The Grant Park theatre. I had heard good things about it, and was not disappointed.

It's about a Palestinian woman, Muna, who wins the green card lottery, and takes her son, Fadi to Illinois to live with her sister, Raghda. In America, she struggles to find work, and both her, her son, and her extended family face racism in the face of the Iraq war. The film takes a generally light hearted approach to some very serious subject matter, and it is something I appreciated. I think Hollywood too often portrays Arab individuals as stereotypes, most often as terrorists or suicide bombers. The film makes fun of this stereotype quite often, as the main characters are often accused of being both--and of course they are neither. They are normal people who just moved to a new country and are trying to adjust to a new life. I think Hollywood stereotypes play a huge role in people's perceptions of individuals and we forget that the roles Arab people are given in film is definitely not the role they fit in society, 99.999% of the time. It's hard for Middle Eastern actors to get work as "normal" characters, instead of extremists.

That being said, I just want to give a heads-up to people. The film is in both Arabic and English (though mostly in Arabic). I knew it was a Canadian film, and I assumed that after the characters came to America, the film would switch to English. I am, of course, okay with subtitled films (I stated in a previous entry that I love listening to other languages and picking out English words), but I know not everyone is. But along with the heads up is a bit of a cool fact: the film was partially shot in Winnipeg! I had heard of this before I saw the film, but had forgotten about it until Kirk whispered to me that the high school used in the film was actually the high school he went to! I'm still at the point where I get excited when I see landmarks I recognize on film, so it was really cool to recognize parts of my city.

One thing I didn't like about the film was the ending. It was very abrupt, and when the screen went black, I felt slightly dissatisfied...almost as if it ended mid-sentence. A better ending would have been about two minutes before the actual ending, because it offered better and less awkward closure. However, that's a very minor quibble. I know how difficult it is to end stories, and often you want to get as much in as possible, so you can't decide where you stop the story.

Here's the trailer:




If you get the opportunity, check it out!

Dead Snow

I finally had an afternoon where I didn't have any homework to do, so I watched Dead Snow, on Kenton's recommendation. I had a great time with it, and am going to give a few thoughts.

It is a Norwegian film about a bunch of med students going off to a remote cabin (of course) over the Easter break. There, they run into a strange hitchhiker who tells them the history of the mountains, and warns them not to "wake up the evil within". Of course, our drunk med students laugh, and refuse to take the hitchhiker seriously. Then the zombies show up. What makes Dead Snow different from other zombie films is that these are not normal zombies. They're...NAZI ZOMBIES. Much better than the regular kind, I assure you.

The film was billed as a horror/comedy, but for the first hour or so, there was relatively little humour. It was actually quite scary...or I thought so, but I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to movies like this. All the lights were on, and I was watching it on a fairly small screen, but I was still squealing during all the "jump scenes". It is also very gory. It's more cartoon gore, meaning that it is not "realistic" gore, but still disgusting nonetheless. After the first hour, the film seems to switch directions, and it becomes slightly more comical. It actually turns into almost a parody of other zombie/horror movies. Unfortunately, it's a fairly short movie, so this change of tone only lasts for about twenty minutes. I found that a lot of the humour comes from the ridiculousness of the situation these young people were in. They weren't just zombies...but they were zombies in Nazi costumes. Something about that makes it funny. But at the same time, it puts other horror movies into perspective: how likely is it that dead people are going to rise up from the ground? So maybe next time I sit through a horror movie, despite how scary it is, maybe I'll be able to find some humour in it.

I also want to say that I was quite impressed with the make up job on the zombies. It looked very good, and very creepy. The filmmakers must have known that their movie was going to be cliche, but instead of trying to hide that fact, they embraced it. I liked the movie a lot, so anyone who is into horror and can handle really gory stuff should check it out! Though if you're a wimp like I am...you'll probably end up sleeping with the light on. I'm fully expecting nightmares tonight, but that's part of the fun of these movies. I can't watch really scary horror movies very often, but when I do, I generally end up having a good time. And this film was a good time, for sure.

Just a little note: The film is subtitled, as it is in Norwegian. I love watching foreign films so that was not a problem for me at all. I actually really love listening to other languages, especially hearing how similar (or dissimilar) they are to English. Norwegian is actually pretty close to English, because there were several words I was able to pick up, because they sounded just like their English counterpart.

Weekend Movie Thoughts

I was sick most of the weekend, so I ended up seeing two "new" movies...one being in theatres (shh).

Be Kind, Rewind

To say I was disappointed with this film would be an understatement. I really wanted to see it in theatres, but I was rather busy when it came out and I ended up missing it. I went with my Dad to rent movies, and I was in the mood for something funny (I thought about getting Waltz With Bashir, but I was sick and sore and didn't want to watch something about war that would bring me down), so I recalled this film and decided to rent it, thinking my parents would like it. We also got I Love You, Man, which I'd saw in theatres, and loved. My parents loved it at well.

Anyways, I think Be Kind, Rewind was poorly marketed. I thought it would be a light hearted movie about two guys filming their own versions of famous movies, and to an extent it was, but it also had some very sad aspects to it. These two aspects did not mesh well together, nor was the film as funny as I'd thought it would be. I hate to say it, but it was actually rather boring. I'm not a big Jack Black fan either, which didn't help things either. Luckily, on Sunday I saw a movie I really enjoyed....

9

Let me start out by saying that I really enjoy animation, particularly computer animation. If you talk film with me long enough, I will most likely mention that I adore Pixar and have seen every single Pixar film in theatres (I saw Toy Story in theatres when I was five years old!), and intend to continue that trend as long as possible. Now, 9 isn't Pixar, it was done by Relativity Media, and Starz Animation and released by Focus Features.

What I really enjoyed about the film was just how beautiful it looked. The animation was impressed, the post-apocalyptic setting was both sad and very haunting. I was impressed at the detail put into the characters, it looked like they were actual fabric. Just take a look at this image:




(Originally from theflickcast)

I also liked that it was essentially a story about human nature, and how people function in groups and when exposed to danger. But the characters weren't human, they were "stitchpunks" (according to director, Shane Acker) , or dolls as I refer to them. It was very dark, which is something that is a little unusual in animation, at least in North America. The voice cast impressed me, especially since the actors were not playing themselves in animated form. Elijah Wood was particularly good as the protagonist, "9". A big pet peeve of mine is when actors do an animated film, and are essentially playing versions of themselves, which is common in Dreamworks animated films. Take a look at Kung Fu Panda for example, Jack Black is playing himself. Though admittedly, I am biased, as I stated earlier that I do not like Jack Black much. Shark Tale is another example, where all of the actors are playing characters that look like themselves (albeit, themselves as fish), and act like themselves, or caricatures of characters they often play. In 9, the actors were actually acting, and they did it very well.

So please go see 9 in theatres, the spectacular animation lends itself very well to the big screen.