Tag Archives: 4/5

#79- American Beauty

Quick recap: Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey, starts a midlife crisis when he finds himself attracted to his daughter’s teenage friend. I suppose I should introduce the main characters  but instead I’ll just summarize that everyone is messed up. Everyone. Especially that stupid plastic bag.

It's hard to stay mad when there is so much beauty in the world

It’s hard to stay mad when there is so much beauty in the world

Fun (?) fact: Thora Birch, who played Jane, was only 17 at the time of filming so her parents had to watch and approve her nude scene.

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My thoughts: I’m just going to cut to the chase for once and admit that I have no idea how I feel about this film. I usually try to write a review after I have had time to sort through my thoughts, but in this case, I don’t think another day would’ve helped. After 79 posts, I finally have to answer ‘what makes for a good movie?’

I really did enjoy American Beauty. At no point did I feel bored or wish for the ending to hurry up. In a way, the movie was like one long episode of Desperate Housewives, except much darker. When I attempt to break down the movie into different parts, I find that I was most impressed by the acting. Every single performance was flawless and I’ll even go out on a limb to say that it is one of the best examples of a strong ensemble cast. And to add to that, Kevin Spacey gives one of the best performances as Lester Burnham I have seen since starting this project. He lived that role.

Now, as for the confusion- If I were to just qualify this movie by its acting, it would get a near perfect score from me. But director Sam Mendes was going for so much more than that, and this is the part where it starts to unravel. After the movie finished, I sat for the longest time and tried to put my finger on the main theme. Was it sexuality? the evils of suburbia? teen angst? imprisonment? I couldn’t figure it out. I finally threw my hands up in the air and went to the Wikipedia page, where SURPRISE, no one else knows either. Not even the director. So, now I’m stuck with the question, does a movie have to have one theme? Can a movie still be good if it doesn’t resonate? I didn’t give much thought to American Beauty today, except if a particular scene popped in my head. In the end, I think this is just going to be one of those films I enjoyed and would recommend to others, although I don’t know why. I think Mendes was going for something profound, but couldn’t decide on what he wanted, so he just threw in everything. I wouldn’t call this movie ‘overrated’, like some have, but I do think it is best enjoyed at a surface level. Any deeper and we get into Pretentious Territory.

f8fcead04c1a5b6e082c3e0dabfab241c8c4061f976e1c918269237a0c383ff7Final review:  4/5. Let’s just go with that.

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Up next: Shane

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#74- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Quick recap: After a distant uncle leaves him millions, Longfellow Deeds moves from an idyllic small town to the big city. Once there, he is  taken advantage of and laughed at for such shocking things as giving donuts to a horse and playing the tuba. To make matters worse, the girl he falls in love with turns out to be an undercover reporter who has been writing all the sensational stories about him in the newspaper.

Fun (?) fact: The verb ‘doodle’ originated from this movie as well as the term ‘pixelated’, which was a popular word for a few years and then died out.

My thoughts: There is nothing I enjoy more than an American classic movie, provided I see the following: a spinning newspaper montage, a fainting lady, a climactic courtroom scene, and a random musical number. And boy howdy, did this movie deliver. After the 4th or so spinning newspaper montage, I realized that I had reached American classic movie heaven.

courtroom scene!

courtroom scene!

Seeing as how Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is labeled as a ‘screwball comedy’, I knew there wouldn’t be much thinking involved. I was disappointed with the first 10 or so minutes of the film because I couldn’t understand a word anyone said because they talked so fast. After I turned on the subtitles, however, I really started to enjoy myself. This movie is about as predictable as they come, and that’s okay sometimes. It was relaxing to find myself laughing over the sillier parts and rolling my eyes through the mushier ones. I think I was most surprised by the amount of heart this film had. Gary Cooper as Longfellow Deeds was the perfect fit. He was adorably naive, and yet was sometimes the sanest person around. I genuinely felt for him when the writers made fun of his poetry and my heart broke when he realized the woman he was in love with had secretly been making fun of him the entire time. Plus, Gary Cooper has a strong resemblance to Bill Nye that endeared him to me even more.

bow ties are cool

bow ties are cool

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is adequately entertaining, but for me, really shines in a historical context. The way the small town is described is not what was really going on, but instead what Americans expected in the Great American Dream. In many ways, this movie sparked that idea of quintessential small town values trumping anything the big city has to offer. The tie in to the Depression was also an apt one. As Deeds tries to do good by not becoming a cynical fat cat, he ends up falling short of his own expectations when he realizes all the farmers he could be helping with his fortune. The scene were the farmer barges in on Deeds and points a gun at him was a little schmaltzy, but the movie’s heart was in the right place.

I felt the courtroom scene went on too long and all loose ends were tied up a little too neatly. As more and more witnesses came forward with their shocking tales of Deeds, I wondered how he could possibly explain away every person’s complaint, but somehow he did . I knew from the first few minutes of the film that I would get a happy ending, but I suppose I was hoping for a little more substance than what I got. Then again, this is an American classic, and a courtroom scene is a necessary trope.

Final review: 4/5. I’d watch again just for Gary Cooper.

Up next:The Bride of Frankenstein 

 

 

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#73- Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Quick recap: Jeanne Dielman is a single mother who spends her days meticulously cleaning the house,cooking, shopping, and prostituting herself out as a source of income. That’s the entire movie. All 3 hours and 21 minutes.

On the edge of my seat, wondering if she would peel the potatoes in time for dinner!

On the edge of my seat, wondering if she would peel the potatoes in time for dinner!

Fun (?) fact: The director, Chantal Akerman, used a female only crew to make the film. She later said that it didn’t work out as well as she had hoped it would, because she was not in charge of which woman would be hired.

I think the was the point in the film when I started to go insane, watching her mold the meatloaf 10 billion times.

I think the was the point in the film when I started to go insane, watching her mold the meatloaf 10 billion times.

My thoughts: It’s an understatement to say that I dreaded watching this movie. For one, it’s FRENCH. Secondly, it’s labeled under the genre ‘art house’, and finally, it was 3 hours and 21 minutes long. And for 3 hours and 15 minutes, I had to sit through watching a woman clean her house and cook food. FOR 3 HOURS AND 15 MINUTES, YOU GUYS.

The movie opens with Jeanne Dielman letting a client into her home so they can have sex. My hopes were high at this point, that this would be more interesting than I had hoped. Dielman leads the man down the hall, closes the door, and……..that’s it. No sounds, nothing. The two emerge after it has gotten dark. The man pays Dielman and tells her that she will see him next week. Dielman then goes back to her routine of cleaning and cooking until her son comes home. Once again, my hopes were raised as the two of them sat down for dinner, but nobody said a word. Instead, I was treated to 15 minutes of people eating soup and then eating potatoes with stew. It didn’t take long for me to catch on that this was how the whole movie would play out.

Jeanne Dielman also taught me that I eat soup the wrong way

Jeanne Dielman also taught me that I eat soup the wrong way

In all fairness, I actually started to enjoy the film. As grating as it was to watch chores being played out in real time, I could fathom even less having to do that EVERY DAY. And as annoying as it was to sit through 3 hours and 15 minutes of this woman’s routine, it was necessary to understand her oppression. It just wouldn’t have worked to have a montage of Dielman doing her daily chores and looking mournfully at the screen while some sad song played. The only way to understand was to live it. It also made the scene where her routine starts unraveling (she drops a spoon) more noticeable. I appreciate that the director didn’t have to spell it out for the audience, but trusted that after sitting through 3 hours and 21 minutes of this woman’s life, we would figure it out.

The last 10 or so minutes of the film account for the only action to take place. SPOILER ALERT( not that you are going to run out and watch this, but just in case), during a session with a client, Dielman orgasms. After a conversation with her son earlier in the movie, I gather that this might have been the first ever for her. I suppose it empowers her or something because as she is putting her clothes on and the man is lying on the bed, she calmly goes over to him and stabs him to death with a pair of scissors. The last scene in the film is of her sitting in the darkened dining room, with blood on her shirt and hands and I think she is smiling.

Jeanne Dielmann

This film is considered to be one of the best feminist films out there, and I suppose I agree, although I don’t have much knowledge on the subject. Halfway through the movie, I started to become genuinely concerned for Dielman. I wondered what legacy she will have left, years from now. Will she only be seen as a caring mother? Probably. For me, the bleakest scenes came on the last day, as she sat quietly with nothing to do. It was as if her routine was her entire life: her enjoyment, her hobbies, and her passion. So if she didn’t have these routines, she was nothing. I’m not sure what to take from that, but at least I understood the feminist movement in the 70’s a little better.

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Final review: 4/5. This was a hard one to pin down because there is no way in hell that you could pay me to sit through this again, yet I still enjoyed the movie.

Up nextM:r. Deeds Goes to Town

 

 

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#67- Kiss Me Deadly

Quick recap: Mike Hammer is a private eye, known for working divorce cases. One night while driving, he helps a young woman, Christina, escape from her nameless attackers. They eventually catch up to the two, making Hammer crash the car. When he finally wakes up, he is in the hospital and Christina is dead. Instead of letting things go, he decides to pursue who Christina was and who was out to get her.

The title sequence was run backward for some reason and confused me more than it should have

The title sequence was run backward for some reason and confused me more than it should have

Fun (?) fact: A federal unit whose job it was to investigate what corrupted youth in the 50’s, named this movie the number one menace to teens.

A terrifying picture of corrupted teens

A terrifying picture of corrupted teens

My thoughts: Psycho not living up to my expectations made me even less excited to enjoy this movie. I joke a lot about how easily audiences were influenced back then and maybe that’s why movies seem so tame, but then something like this comes along and changes my perception.I would argue  Kiss Me Deadly has parts that are just as violent as what I’m used to seeing nowadays. It was refreshing to know that stuff like this existed, but it also made me wonder why people glorify directors like Hitchcock being the master of horror and thrillers. I’m beginning to think he might be a little overrated.

One of the aspects I loved about this movie was that no one was particularly a good person. Mike Hammer is the protagonist, which typically pegs him as the square, but he is far from it. For one thing, his job in divorce proceedings is to get as much dirt as he can on both partners and then screw them out of money. he is also heavily involved with his secretary, but doesn’t make it official and throughout the movie he has no issues making out with any woman who will have him. And he’s definitely not what the bad guys were expecting him to be. In an early scene, Hammer finds out that he is being followed by someone. Instead of running away, he fights the guy and then bashes his head against the wall repeatedly. Later on, while interrogating an old man, Hammer gleefully breaks a rare vinyl record that the man loves. It made me more intrigued with the mystery since I wasn’t invested in the characters as much.

There was A LOT of kissing. So much kissing.

There was A LOT of kissing. So much kissing.

The mystery itself was sub par. It was exciting to see the next clue and what would happen next, but I got confused several times trying to figure out what Hammer was looking for. Even now, I’m still not sure what Christina, the girl from the beginning of the movie, had to do with all of this. On the other hand, I don’t really care. There were so many twists that I gave up trying to keep up and just enjoyed what I was watching. With all of the action going on, I was reminded of my favorite television show, Lost. I won’t spoil anything, but as each season went by, I became more and more intrigued by the mystery. By the last few episodes, I realized that the reveal, whatever it was, wouldn’t satisfy me. And that’s precisely what happened here. When Hammer finally finds the box Christina has been hiding and opens it up, it really doesn’t matter what’s inside because it has been a hell of a journey so far. And I guess the director felt the same because the contents of the box are never revealed. An homage to this can be seen in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. The final scene of the box being opened and starting a nuclear explosion was a nice surprise and matched with all the Cold War drama going on in real life. kiss-me-deadly-1

Final review: 4/5. I wouldn’t call this required viewing, but it was a lot of fun to watch and gave me hope for similar classic films

Up next: Onibaba

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