Tag Archives: 4/5

#182- Buffalo ’66

Quick recap: It sounds like a typical set up for a romantic comedy- a guy lies to his parents about having a girlfriend and must find someone at the last second to keep the deception alive. Except that the guy just got out of prison. Except that his parents are total nut jobs. Except that the way he finds a girl is to kidnap one from dance class. Except that the girl is a teenager. Ignore all that and you have a solid romantic comedy!

awww.

awww.

Fun (?) fact: Vincent Gallo wrote, directed, composed music for and starred in Buffalo ’66.

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My thoughts: Buffalo ’66 is an ‘indie’ movie, to be sure, but so much darker than anything Wes Anderson could have or would have dreamed up. On its surface, it seems like the perfect film for a community like Tumblr to latch on to (and believe me, many have). The characters are beyond nutty yet also really sad and they get together in the end which is always nice. Nice, that is, if you are into ex-cons hooking up with teenage girls they have kidnapped. I personally wouldn’t go around pasting pictures of the movie with the hashtag #relationshipgoals, but to each his own, I suppose.

Shady ethical questions aside, I really did love this movie. Vincent Gallo has been called a control freak (see above fun fact), but in this case, it worked out perfectly. He was able to put all the pieces together in a way that he might not have been able to do with a partner. It’s difficult to describe the character of Billy Brown (although the word ‘tragic’ comes to mind), and I can’t imagine anyone else playing him besides Gallo. Seeing as how Gallo wrote the screenplay, only he knows the true ins and outs of the character like no one else could’ve pulled off. He disparaged Christina Ricci (his costar) in interviews about the film, and although I think she did a fine job, I don’t think anyone could’ve met Gallo’s expectations for the character Layla. Except maybe Gallo. Maybe he should’ve just been a one man show and taken full control of everything.

The characters in Buffalo ’66 are equal parts cringe-worthy, tragic and unintentionally funny. Honestly, each character could have his/her own analysis but I am in no way qualified or interested to do so. Most people might gravitate towards Billy Brown or his mother, but for me it’s Layla who I think is the most complicated. She justifiably scared when she meets him but then is able to turn into a loving wife when she meets the parents. It’s not very believable, though, which is why I loved the scene so much. I wonder what her motivation was at the time, because it had to be more than just fear of Billy Brown. When she recounts the (fictional) story of how they met the whole thing turns into a young girl having a serious infatuation with someone out of her league. And yet he isn’t, which is why the two stick together. She tells him that she loves him in the end, but is it true love or simply a teenage girl not knowing what she really wants? And Billy Brown reacting to her advances only shows how immature he is emotionally, but I still wanted it to end well, no matter how twisted the ending was.

Final review: 4/5. Let me tell you, this was a complicated movie to review, much more complicated than I originally thought it might be.

Up next: Alphaville

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#181- The Ballad of Narayama

Quick recap: A rural village in 19th century has a strange tradition of taking old people to the top of a mountain and leaving them there to die.

There are many weird traditions.

There are many weird traditions.

Fun (?) fact: Second time in a row that I am devoid of facts. So instead, I’ll throw out one I personally learned while watching this movie: a ‘yakko’ is the second born son of a family and is not allowed to marry. A ‘yakko’ is also the first born Animaniac and so doesn’t really fit with the definition I learned.

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My thoughts: The first 5 minutes of Ballad of Narayama consist of beautiful shots of a mountain region. The music was woodwind heavy and it felt like I would be watching a nature documentary for the next two hours. Not that I minded, of course, since it would give me a break from some of the weirder things I have seen on this list. And then, two boys came out of their home to pee in the snow. I wasn’t shocked, but it threw off the nature vibe I had been feeling. Still, this seemed like a little serene movie about a village steeped in tradition. That is, until the dead baby showed up in a farmer’s paddy.

Dead babies usually signal some major plot point and I was surprised the movie ran with something so important so early on in the film. It is the yakko, Risuke, who finds the baby and runs around to his neighbors, trying to find who left it there. He seems more annoyed than anything and it wasn’t long before I figured out that in this village, dead babies are more of a joke than anything else. The movie continued on this way, with village life mixed in with graphic sex scenes and violence. It was animalistic the way these people behaved and it bothered me on some level, I suppose, because this felt realistic to the time period. One of the most shocking scenes involves the family Amaya, who have been stealing from other villagers. A crime for sure, but everyone decides that the only solution is to bury them alive, children and all. It made me physically ill to watch them die, but at the same time it also made sense, if you go back to thinking of these people as animals, doing what they can to survive.

Most of the film revolves around day to day life, but the main plot is that Orin, the family matriarch will be 70 soon. This means that her son will carry her to the top of a mountain, where the mountain god will welcome her and she will see everyone who has died before her. Of course there is no mountain god, but Orin refuses to think otherwise and gleefully looks forward to the journey. The last 20 minutes of the film consist of the trek and there are very few words spoken at this time. My feelings changed at this point because I was finally able to see that Tatsuhei, the son, was human. I could see it on his face, the struggle he was going through-not just physical, but mental as well, as he came to grips with the fact that this was the last time he would see his mother. The end of the journey was the most heartbreaking for me, watching Tatsuhei walk through all the bones of the people that had been left behind for the mountain god and faced with mortality in such a brutal way. It is almost impossible to let her go and yet, that is what she wants. Maybe she knew there was no mountain god or maybe she was näive to believe he would come soon, but Orin seemed completely at peace with everything. As Tatsuhei comes back down from the mountain and back to his life, he seems at peace, as well.

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Final review: 4/5. Most of the film was shocking but the ending more than made up for it

Up next: Buffalo ’66

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#178- Shadow of a Doubt

Quick recap: Young Charlie (named before it was cool to call girls Charlie) loves her Uncle Charlie.That is, until she suspects he might be a serial killer. Which he totally is.

Just an uncle and his niece, embracing intimately

Just an uncle and his niece, embracing intimately

Fun (?) fact: The tune Young Charlie gets stuck in her head in the beginning of the film is the ‘Merry Widow Waltz’, a reference to her serial killer uncle. It’s supposed to have been a big clue as to whether or not Uncle Charlie is guilty, but as I’m not so up to date on my waltzes, I missed it.

Still Uncle Charlie and Young Charlie. Nothing weird going on at all.

Still Uncle Charlie and Young Charlie. Nothing weird going on at all.

My thoughts: Shadow of a Doubt was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a fact that at first surprised me and after watching, made perfect sense. Before starting this list, Hitchcock was synonymous with ‘horror’ to me, and I wasn’t entirely impressed by either Psycho or The Birds. But as I have since discovered through Frenzy and North by Northwest, he is also adept at thrillers and I have now learned, Film Noir. Hitchcock has said on several occasions that this was his favorite movie, and it’s pretty easy to see why.

For starters, I think the cast is what really makes this film so enjoyable. Joseph Cotten played the part of Uncle Charlie perfectly, making him a terrifying killer by the end of the movie. Young Charlie (played by Teresa Wright) was also wonderful, with her ability to be naive as well as the most wise in the family. My favorite characters, though, were Young Charlie’s dad and his friend, Herb. The two men had a hobby of coming up with ways to kill each other, which was as disturbing as it was comical.In one scene, Herb asks Charlie’s father if he tasted anything funny in the tea that was served earlier. The father admitted that it did taste funny, to which Herb replied that he had added soda, but it could’ve just as easily been poison. It almost seemed like something David Lynch might do, creating these characters who only talk of gruesome ways to murder the other and still manage to stay good friends.

The one drawback of the film is the actual mystery. It’s clear from the very beginning that Uncle Charlie is a murderer, so it really became more of a question of how he would be caught. The last quarter of the movie dealt with him trying to kill Young Charlie, since she knew too much, which became more comical than it should’ve been. Uncle Charlie was sinister and played his part well, but his constant attempts to murder his niece reminded me of Wil E. Coyote always trying to catch the Roadrunner and instead being outsmarted in some way.

Uncle Charlie giving his niece a ring, full of familial love

Uncle Charlie giving his niece a ring, full of familial love

Final review: 4/5. Depending on your perspective, Shadow of a Doubt is a near perfect satire about suburban life (the entire town falls in love with Uncle Charlie, never stopping to question all the weird stuff he does).

Up next: Diary of a Country Priest

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#170- Blue Velvet

Quick recap: Jeffrey Beaumont, played by Kyle MacLachlan, is home from college to help his father, who has been injured. He finds a severed ear in a field one day which leads him to all sorts of messed up stuff. ALL SORTS.

Like this!

Like this!

Fun (?) fact: ‘Actors considered for the role’ trivia is mostly dull and pointless. I mean, Ewan McGregor was considered for the role of my husband but in the end I went with someone else. I could literally say anyone else and no one could dispute me because I only considered them. But in this case,the trivia is interesting because SO many actors flat out turned down a role in Blue Velvet because they were so disturbed- Val Kilmer, Molly Ringwald, Helen Mirren. Even Roy Orbison initially turned down a chance for his song to play in the film but later came around and even made a music video for the movie.

And this!

And this!

My thoughts: I learned recently that apparently I have ‘ a thing’ for Kyle MacLachlan.  I first encountered him in Desperate Housewives where he largely remained unnoticed to me. And then he resurfaced on Portlandia as The Mayor, and became one of my favorite characters. It wasn’t until Twin Peaks, however, that I truly realized this crush and have embraced it ever since. David Lynch must feel the same way I do, since he has cast him in so many of his projects.

I think it's the mutual love of coffee and pie that drew me in

I think it’s the mutual love of coffee and pie that drew me in

It’s no surprise that I thought Kyle MacLachlan did a fine job as Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet, as well as Laura Dern, who played Sandy. The movie wasn’t really about them, and although they are central to the story, I have a feeling David Lynch knew his other characters would be so insane that he had to put in a couple of boring people to even it out a bit. And, oh man, are those other characters INSANE. Everyone always refers to Anthony Hopkins, who played Hannibal Lector, as the ultimate psychopath, but he is a kitten compared to Dennis Hopper, who plays Frank in this movie. Frank is evil manifested and I think I’m still traumatized by the rape scene. This might not be a popularly held sentiment, but Dean Stockwell as Ben is just as creepy, if not more so. He looked like a mix between French Stewart and the Master of Ceremonies from Cabaret.

The plot was a little slow moving for me with many scenes feeling like I was watching some sort of a dream, which I guess is Lynch’s trademark. The music is also very similar to Twin Peaks, and actually, so is the premise. I think it’s hilarious how many people were offended by Blue Velvet and then a few years later, decide to give Lynch his own tv show, which has some of the most insane scenes that I have ever sat through. America, as an offended mob, can be a rather fickle crowd. Blue Velvet is for a very particular set of people, meaning if you like Lynch, you’re going to like this and if you don’t, this certainly won’t win you over.

Final review: 4/5

Up next: Being There

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