#58- Fargo

Quick recap: Based on a true story (not at all), the movie opens with Jerry Lundegaard in a lot of financial trouble. His solution is what most of us would think of in times of crisis: he hires a couple of criminals to kidnap his wealthy wife so that her father will put up ransom money of which he will get a share. Sounds fool proof, right? So, in the course of the kidnapping, 3 people are murdered. Marge, a small town cop, who also happens to be pregnant, takes the case.Much heartier than what she appears to be , Marge is determined to solve the mystery and save the day.

Fun (?) Fact: I’m sure that I could scrounge up an interesting fact or two, but instead I’m going to pass on what kept flooding my mind during the movie last night-Steve Buscemi’s eyes. There’s even a Tumblr devoted to photoshopping his eyes onto other people, which I say as if it were a surprise but really, there’s a Tumblr for everything.

For those of you who had already not planned on sleeping much tonight

My thoughts: I’m just going to get straight to the point here and say that I loved this movie. I’ve seen it before, many years ago, loved it then and I love it now. The only question that remains: Is it the best Coen brothers film?

I’ve always had an affinity for Raising Arizona because it was the first Coen brothers film I ever watched. That’s not to say that it isn’t enjoyable, but it has been my favorite by default. After rewatching Fargo,I don’t know what to think anymore. In the category of capturing a group of people perfectly, Fargo wins by a landslide. I could’ve watched two hours of various actors saying random things in a Minnesota accent and been just as satisfied. Especially since William H. Macy is involved. I have no idea if he is from the area, but I don’t care because he was spot on. Also, the scenes with Marge investigating the crime were some of my favorites. On the surface, she seems like she would be a pushover and so sweet, but that’s actually her advantage when it comes to getting information out of people. Even when she knows she is being lied to, she manages to keep her cool and continues the charade of being clueless. It just seems so…..Minnesotoan.

One of the trademarks I love about the Coen brothers is their attention to detail when it comes to telling a story. It might be something as simple as when Marge and Norm are in her office eating Arby’s or at the end of the movie when Gaear is eating his tv dinner and watching a soap opera. It all adds up to paint a picture of North Dakota that, if I ever visited, would most likely be disappointed that it isn’t like the movie.

I need this

So, back to the original question of ‘is it the best Coen brothers film’? The verdict is still out, sadly. I think it edges out my (now) former favorite, but I don’t think it would be fair to compare Fargo to a movie like No Country For Old Men. The point, I think, is that when you watch a Coen brothers film, you will be transported into a different world and so there is no point in comparing.

Final review: 5/5. A must see, most definitely. I would even go so far as to say that this is the movie you should start out with if you have never watched a Coen brothers film.

Up next: the Thin Red Line or Woman in the Dunes

#52- Alien

Quick recap: The crew of the Nostromo, a cargo spaceship, must investigate a signal coming from nearby. What is initially interpreted as an SOS signal, the crew finds out was actually a warning they were listening to. The alien brought on board the ship wreaks havoc and murders everyone except Sigourney Weaver, because she’s a cat person.

It comforts me know I could survive an alien attack

It comforts me to know I could survive an alien attack

Fun (?) Fact: From IMDB: According to Ridley Scott in the DVD commentary, he had envisioned a moment in the ending scenes of Ripley and the alien in the space shuttle in which the alien would be sexually aroused by Ripley. Scott says that in the scene, after Ripley hides in the closet, the alien would find her and would be staring at her through the glass door. The alien would then start touching itself as if comparing its body to Ripley’s. The idea was eventually scrapped.

My thoughts: Alien is one of those movies I should’ve seen a long time ago, but never got around to actually sitting down to watch. When I saw it at the Drafthouse a couple of days ago, the manager of the theater asked everyone to raise their hand if they had never seen Alien before. Only one person raised his hand, as he was apparently more brave than I am when it comes to being publicly humiliated.

Alien also has the distinction of being so ingrained in pop culture, that I feel like I have seen it a million times already. There weren’t any scenes that really shocked me, save for the one where the crew finds out Ash is a robot. I really enjoyed that twist, especially adding in the fact that it was the government who had known and wanted the alien all along.

The alien itself was perfectly terrifying. I still don’t really understand it’s reproductive and incubation methods, but whatever. The facehugging scene creeped me out, as Ash describes what the alien is doing to Kane’s body. And of course, the chest bursting scene was gross but I had seen it parodied so many times that it didn’t bother me. There were parts of the movie that made it really hard to comprehend that Alien had been made in 1979. It’s amazing to see what special effects had to do to portray certain things, without the aid of computers to just draw it in.

Overall, I can’t really say much about this movie that hasn’t been said a billion times, and for good reason. Alien is the very definition of a ‘classic’ film that will live on for many more years. Although I wasn’t scared at any point, I enjoyed myself immensely and being able to watch it on the big screen made the experience even more enjoyable.

I was so excited to come up with this observation, only to find out that people already beat me to it.

Final review: 5/5. A perfect movie from beginning to end.

Nightmares: none this time, which kind of surprised me. I had a huge fear of aliens back when I was a kid, thanks to that show, Sightings, that would air late at night. Living in a rural area, I truly believed I would be abducted at any second.

Up next: Horrorfest continues!

#38- Frenzy

Quick recap: A serial killer is loose in London, this time raping his victims and then strangling them with a necktie. It is revealed who the killer is early on so the movie becomes more of a mystery as to how the killer will get caught. Two men, Bob Rusk and Richard Blaney, are in the center of this series of murders- the killer and the man accused of all of the crimes, respectively.

Fun (?) Fact: Alfred Hitchcock had originally planned to do his cameo at the beginning of the movie as a dead body floating in the river, but it was later changed to a nude female because no one wants to see a naked Hitchcock.

Hitchcock and a koala

My thoughts: This was my second Hitchcock film, the first being North by Northwest. I was excited to see ‘Frenzy’ because it is the style he is so well known for. This would end up being one of Hitchcock’s last films and it is also one of his dirtiest, receiving an ‘X’ rating at the time of release. An example of the well earned ‘X’ comes from a joke at the beginning of the movie as a woman and man are discussing the murders and the woman mentions that the victims are raped before they are strangled. The man replies, ‘ There is a silver lining to every cloud’. Lovely. There’s also a surprising amount of nudity in this film, which doesn’t necessarily bother me except in the case that it is being used for shock value.

The plot itself is an interesting one and reminds me a bit of SPOILERS Gone Girl, because the main character acts so incriminating but is in fact innocent. There is a lot stacked against him seeing as how both his ex-wife and current girlfriend are murdered. The case seems like an open and shut one, except not really because the other 9 or so murders are never mentioned once Blaney is fingered as the serial killer. He looks guilty of murdering the two women but he must’ve certainly had an alibi or evidence in his favor for the the others. Rusk, the true murderer, came off as fake to me from the start but I don’t blame the police for not investigating him.

He also reminds me of Rex Manning, another jerk

The murders themselves are quite gruesome and made me feel extremely uncomfortable watching them. Like everyone else, I watched the body of the ex-wife and she was breathing SECONDS after he had just killed her. She could’ve at least practiced holding her breath while the camera was on her. It kind of ruined the moment for me. The most disturbing scene for me was when he took Babs, pictured above, up to his apartment to murder her. She of course has no clue what he will do and as he closes the door, all sound is cut off and there is a gorgeous long tracking shot as the camera leaves the door, goes down the stairs and into the busy market street. It was so much more unnerving knowing what he was doing and that no one would be able to jump in and save her. Apparently this is a trademark of Hitchcock’s to do a long tracking shot and I can see its effectiveness.

There are a few parts of the film that were humorous, like the subplot of the investigator’s wife serving him awful food because she was in culinary school. It was a nice contrast to all the grisly details the audience was having to see. Another oddly humorous scene comes when Rusk has just murdered Babs and puts her in a potato sack only to discover she died with a handful of incriminating evidence. The scene itself wasn’t funny, but the idea that the serial killer had managed to survive this long, only to get stopped by a sack of potatoes.

Final review: 3/5 Hitchcock knows the genre and practically invented it, but this wasn’t the best example of his work.

Where I watched it: Alamo Drafthouse!

Up next: The Best Years of our Lives

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#34- Metropolis

Quick recap: Metropolis is a future dystopian urban society where class issues abound. You’ve got the workers who keep the city flowing and alive and then there are the wealthy members who have helped create the city and now spend their time going to crazy parties and frolicking through the meadows. And as if you had a hard time understanding the difference, the workers live way, way underground and the wealthy people live way,way above ground. The story centers around Freder, the son of the man who rules the city and a woman named Maria who just sort of shows up in the catacombs underground. The two of them spend their time trying to bridge the gap between the increasingly impatient workers and the wealthy businessmen. There’s also a crazy inventor and machine man, for good measure.

turn that frown upside down, fellas!

Fun (?) fact: Although director Fritz Lang was Jewish, he was given a ‘pass’ from the Nazi party because they loved the film so much. Being a smart person, he fled Germany right after getting the pass.

My thoughts: I have been looking forward to this movie ever since I got started on this project. After watching so many American silent films, I had become bored by the same plot points and same actors. After watching The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I began to have a little more hope. Dr. Caligari was not a favorite movie of mine but I could appreciate a director choosing to do something so fantastical rather than everything Griffith was churning out. Although I am now watching movies out of order, I loved getting to go back to the silent film era for a bit and be completely impressed and in awe of what I was watching.

One of the most important elements of Metroplis is that the plot is complex. The film centers around the idea that the hands and the brain need the heart to mediate. Hands being the workers and brains being the industrialists and the heart being Freder. The characters, too, are as complex as the plot. I like that Maria’s origin is never discussed, just that she showed up one day, promising a mediator. I loved the scene where she is introduced. She brings all the workers’ children above ground to the garden so that they can meet ‘their brothers and sisters’. Considering that this movie was made in the 20s, it’s still a concept people have trouble with- that we are all human and all the same.

The message of the movie was a little muddled, but not in a negative way. Some people see it at face value, that it is nothing more than a sci-fi film. But there is also a bunch of religious imagery- the Tower of Babel, the apocalypse, the 7 deadly sins, Maria ,who brings a savior. There were parts that seemed more morality play than epic movie. Another thought is that the movie carries a rather heavy political message. The workers have been mistreated but they are integral to the city staying alive. At the same time, the industrialists are overbearing, heartless jerks but they too are necessary to the city. I saw many parallels in the movie with the political climate at the time in Germany. I’m not really sure who The Mediator is supposed to be, though. Is he government or is this a pro labor union film? The messages might not have been intentional, but it is interesting to look for them, nonetheless.

I think my favorite part of the movie was the machine man, or as I refer to her- Evil Maria. Rotwang, the inventor, captures Good Maria at some point and create a machine in her image that will turn the workers into a mob, intent on bringing the city down. Evil Maria was definitely bad but I loved her crazy expressions and Evil Dancing. It was also an interesting plot point to have the workers, who have been seen as helpless victims, turn into a destructive mob. They get so out of hand that they begin breaking machines and consequently flood their city where the children are.

How do you solve a problem like Evil Maria?

Final review: 4/5. I happened to watch the 148 minute version which was an unforgettable experience and yet not something I want to repeat anytime soon. I was completely riveted with all the details of the city of Metropolis as well as the machine man.

Where I watched it: Alamo Drafthouse. Watching a silent film on the big screen has been one of my favorite experiences of this list so far

Up next: Tsotsi

1001 Movie Nights

Tag Archives: Alamo drafthouse

#58- Fargo

#52- Alien

#38- Frenzy

#34- Metropolis

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