7 Days (2010, R)

This French film is about a man whose 8-year-old daughter goes missing on the way to school and is found later in the worst way.  He abducts the man who committed the crime (en route to jail/courthouse; it's pretty certain he did it though he has not been tried or sentenced yet) and decides to torture him to death over the course of (you guessed it) seven days and then turn himself in to the authorities.  Meanwhile the ranking police officer who worked the case of the man's daughter is trying to find him, as much or more so to save the father as the original perpetrator.

I was bracing myself for this movie to be "torture porn", a sub-category of movies that have amped-up gruesomeness and just enough plot to keep it going, but was happy that this time it would be cathartic in that the victim of the torture would be a horrible horrible person rather than an innocent abductee.  I was pleasantly surprised that the movie had a lot more depth and complexity than that.

Paper Man (2009, R)

This is a story about a writer played by Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber, 101 Dalmatians) with serious social anxiety issues trying to make progress on his new book.  Lisa Kudrow (the show Friends) plays his successful doctor wife is awkward and she works back near their normal residence during the week and visits him on weekends.  Their marriage is a bit awkward and/or strained due in no small part to his mental emotional issues and his imaginary friend, Captain Excellent, played by Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Green Lantern, The Nines) whose role is to keep Daniels from making dangerous decisions.  Daniels begins a strange and awkward interaction with a local high school girl played by Emma Stone (Zombieland, Superbad).

In addition to the aforementioned cast, Keiran Culken (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Igby Goes Down) plays Stone’s dark, depressed and hopelessly-stricken-with-unrequited-love lifelong friend.  The general concept of the movie sounded pretty cool to me, but the cast alone would make me watch it because I’m a pretty big fan of most of these actors (other than Kudrow, who I feel lukewarm about).

Pretty In Pink (1986, PG-13)

This John Huges film (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Beuler's Day Off) is about a high school senior girl (played by Molly Ringwald [The Breakfast Club, 16 Candles]) and her social/romantic interactions in an environment that has a strong divide between the wealthy and not-so-wealthy.  She's one of the have-nots.  Her best friend (your quintessential "friendzoned" guy) is played by Jon Cryer (Two And A Half Men.  James Spader (Wolf, Stargate) plays a douchebag rich kid who resents Ringwald for spurning his advances, and Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo's Fire, Weekend At Bernie's) plays his best friend who is miraculously a nice rich guy and has mutual interest in Ringwald.

Bad Leiutenant (1992, NC-17)

The title is a pretty accurate description.  It stars Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) as a scumbag dirty cop in New York.  This film didn't have much of a plot at all.  It's just an illustration of a dirty cop getting lower and lower.  He makes one bad decision after another and we see him spiral downward.  It not rated NC-17 for nothing, as we get to see several methods of drug use (including needles), some frontal (male) nudity, sexual violence against women (which I guess does leave a little to the imagination), and harsh language to children and adults.

Aparitions (TV, 2008)

STALE REVIEW.

By that, I mean that I did not watch this series just recently.  I actually watched it this last fall/winter when it was leaving Netflix, but I only finished watching it on the last night that it was available to stream so I didn't think it was fair to you guys to post about it just then.  But it's back now, and I really enjoyed it, so I'll hack out a blurb about it.  It's a television series about a Catholic priest/exorcist.  He's an older man with a white beard, and a badass to demons, but also a really gentle supportive man to humans.  I'm not particularly religious, but I found his character really likable, due in no small part to his comparatively liberal opinions (not casting people out because he doesn't agree with their beliefs/practices, just wants everyone to be happy and safe).  The powers that be in the Vatican don't like his attitude, and the demons in Hell don't like his success rate... and by the end, the story gets pretty big and heavy.  I tend to enjoy supernatural-type stories (video games such as Darksiders and Legacy of Kain; shows like Buffy, Angel and Supernatural; movies like City of Angels and The Deaths Of Ian Stone) so this is right up my alley.

Uncertainty (2009, NR)

This film starts with young lovers played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, 10 Things I Hate About You) and Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, John Carter) trying to decide how to spend their Fourth Of July, so they flip a coin and... we follow them through both options.  The film cuts back and forth between the two alternate versions of the day and we see where each option takes them and what other decisions arise as a result.  In one version, they go to Collins's family's barbecue and in the other version, they go to their friend's party.  An attempt to be a Good Samartian makes one version of their day more pleasant and the other into a nightmare.  The story is chock-full-of decisions.

Anatomy Of Hell (2004, NR)

I watched a couple of horror movies this week and a couple of French movies this week and all were horrifying.  This French-language film (Anatomie De L'Enfer in the original tongue) probably horrified me more than anything else I've seen recently.  I mean... it had some decent qualities, but it was very graphic in its depiction of the subject matter (which would generally be considered indecent qualities).  It starts with a straight woman shuffling through a gay bar, bumping into a man to get his attention and cutting her wrists in the bathroom (the scene and a brief conversation afterwards make it clear that this was a cry for attention rather than an actual attempt to die).  The man has a great disdain  for women but clearly does have some human compassion, as he took her to the hospital after she cut herself and he made sure she was OK afterwards.  The rest of the movie is the monologues/dialogues/interactions they have as she pays him to come over and "tell [her] what [he] see(s)" (the female form, etc).  I think the title refers to his idea of a woman's body.

Buried (2010, R)

Buried is the ultimate “closed-room movie”.  The entire story from start to finish takes place within a buried coffin in which the lead character played by Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Green Lantern, but don't hold that against him) finds himself.  And the movie is really tight!  He finds a cell phone (with the displays all written in Arabic as he is in Iraq, a language he does not understand) and he has a lighter and a flask.  With the few items at his disposal and the calls he makes and receives, we get a good idea of his character/situation (other than the obvious).  Tension is maintained the whole time, which is quite a feat for an hour and a half in a box.  His actions and concerns make a lot of sense for his situation.

I first saw Reynolds in Van Wilder and really liked it, and later he was one of the only things I liked about X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Much like with Robin Williams, I am much impressed with his dramatic roles (The Nines and this film).  Reynolds is the only actor shown in this film though there were a few voices (well scripted and acted) on his phone.

If you liked Phone Booth or The Devil, you’ll love this story.  It's got high-tension, but no humor (unless one comment from him makes you chuckle), so it's not like his more famous roles if that's what you're looking for.  For me the movie is 4.5 stars.

Cherry (2010, R)

Judging it by the cover and the title I expected this film to be a raunchy, goofy, lame comedy about a guy trying to loose his virginity.  I have never been so pleasantly surprised in my life.  Netflix lied to me: it's not a comedy.  It's a piece about a 17 year old intellectual named Aaron who graduates high school early and is starting his freshman year at an Ivy League university.  His mother is very controlling of his life and though he enjoys art and is good at it, she insists his course-load consist entirely of academic/engineering classes (his intention is not to avoid engineering and do solely art, but to include it).

I was most impressed by how accurate it was to the experience a lot of people have when first transitioning to college life.  While the specifics of his situation are mostly particular to him (though not unheard of for others), the generalities are pretty universal.  He's in an alien environment, mostly in charge of himself for the first time, along with other 18-year-old animals unleashed into their own pseudo-society.  He adapts to the continuously strange environment as best he can, meeting new people and experiencing new things.

Aaron is played by Kyle Gallner (The Haunting In Connecticut, A Nightmare On Elm Street [2010], Red State).  Through much of the film Gallner's face has the same grimace that leads me to believe that the actor is actually in chronic pain.  But that works for this movie because he was/is supposed to be uncomfortable or downtrodden in these scenes.  And there were a couple moments in which he demonstrated that he can form a nice smile as well.  Unlike his previous performances (which were not bad), this one got to show a little more range in his capabilities (quite possibly because he's the lead actor in a character piece).


"When I'm happy, my face goes like this."

Comparing this to other films I've reviewed, this film is most like The Four-Faced Liar and Shrink. 

If you liked Art School Confidential then you should love this movie.  For me, it's 5 stars.

Boy Wonder (2010, R)

This movie is a bit darker than I expected, though I should have known by the cover (I guess sometimes you can judge a book/film by its cover).  The main character is a high school boy whose mother was killed in front of him when he was a young child.  He's clearly broken inside at this point, but he's also really effective at what he does.  The title of the film is an obvious reference to Batman's partner Robin, who is a young crimefighter with tragic origins, though this guy doesn't have an adult role model (crazy nocturnal Bat-man or otherwise).  The movie Kick Ass is supposed to be a more real-world version of the costumed hero, and Boy Wonder is even more so.  He practices kick-boxing, studies various elective sciences, and hangs out at the local police station.

In terms of what he does and how he does it, he's kind of a cross between Robin and The Punisher (two characters that I really like), but somehow he doesn't seem to have the depth of character of either of them.  What I liked about the film was the various ways in which the main character prepares himself for his chosen... "hobby", I have to call it because it's not a profession unless he gets paid.  He's really effective and I like the brains and drive behind it.  Some of the details about the charachters' lives in the story are nice and subtly introduced, which I like because it gives us a chance to use our brains, but it also makes those details more clear later on in case you missed it the first time.  What I didn't like about the movie was how flat some of the characters came across.  I think it was a factor largely of the acting, because the writing of the story overall was pretty good, though the dialogue was kind of lacking as well.  It's a lot better when you can see from behind the main character's eyes (metaphorically)... even the book Lolita managed to do that, which was crazy hard on me once its main character started doing more reprehensible things, but good strong storytelling!

Honestly, if you liked Kick Ass, then you probably liked it for reasons other than the ones that this movie shares, so it's not a good comparison.  If you liked Falling Down, I think this film shares a lot of the same emotional tones (broken main character doing what he thinks is justice, and you may or may not agree).  I want to compare it to the 2004 Punisher movie, but that one had remarkably strong characters.  If you're an amateur crimefighter and you want some do's and don't's, then I guess this could have some pointers for you... I shouldn't be saying that.  I liked it in an academic sense, and parts of the story were really strong, but the characters left me wanting, so I couldn't love it.  I'd say it's about a 3.5 star movie for me, 4 if I'm feeling generous.

Chinatown (1974, R)

This is a solid private investigator story starring Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining) in probably his only non-crazy person role and Faye Dunaway (Mommy Dearest, Bonny And Clyde) as the femme fatale.  The film lacks the visual style of classic noir, but it is a good prototype of a 1950's style.  Nicholson plays a surprisingly successful PI (most detective stories I encounter tend to be down on their luck, stubbly and drinking cheap whiskey out of a coffee mug) who was hired to investigate potential unfaithfulness of a woman's wife, but the case grows into something much more as he finds out things aren't what they seem.  There's loads of secrets, lies, treachery, murder... the works.

Jesus Henry Christ (2012, PG-13)

This is a quirky comedy about a brilliant 10 year-old boy named Henry with a perfect memory.  He's raised by his single mother and his father was an anonymous sperm donor.  The title of the film (along with the lack of a tangible father) had lead me to presume that Henry would be an analogue for the historical Jesus or that his story/character arc would have strong similarities but that's not the case.  Several of the characters use "Jesus H. Christ" as an exclamation and one ponders what the H stands for.

Anyway, Henry is a really likable character, good natured and mature.  I suppose there are some similarities to Jesus, but also to Martin Luther and Martin Luther King as well.  Henry's mother is played by Toni Collette (The United States Of Tara series, Little Miss Sunshine), which is kind of fitting because I find that this movie seems to have similarities to Little Miss Sunshine (in which Collette also plays the mother of a quirky family) and Little Man Tate (which has Jodi Foster as the mother of a genius child).  Though the film has serious moments and social issues mentioned, it is also funny at times and far less depressing than Little Miss Sunshine.  Michael Sheen (Tron: Legacy, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) played a college professor who was my favorite character in the movie.  He is flawed, and one of his actions that he thought was for the best turned sour and he does what he can to make amends.  I just really connected with him and felt like I got him.  Henry's grandfather is another character that is quirky, charming and will be a favorite character for many viewers as well.

I don't think any of the moments in the movie made me laugh out loud, but I definitely smirked at moments, and I was very happy with some of the characters' personal triumphs.  I found it extremely charming and uplifting in many ways despite struggles for characters.  If you liked definitely Little Miss Sunshine and probably Little Man Tate, then you'll like this.  I also get kind of a Midnight In Paris feel from this movie, though I can't quite put my finger on why (it's doesn't involve literary or art history really).  For me the movie is 4.5 stars, or if I'm being generous, a 5.  I would definitely watch this one again, and probably will in order to have some of my friends see it.

Enter The Void (2009, R)

Fair warning ahead of time: if you have epilepsy, then this movie intends to do you harm.  The title sequence is flashing the text so quickly that you would need to slow it down frame by frame in order to pick out more than a couple of the names in it, and it's more than a little disorienting.  But in its defense, it is artistically pretty cool.  It's like a gallery art show... only in flashing text of alternating colors and styles with fast music playing.  The story itself is about Oscar, an American drug dealer in Tokyo (I wonder if that could be a movie title...) taking drugs and kind of reflecting on his life.  It's a slow movie with more thought than snappy dialogue, so if you're not a patient person, you'll hate this movie.  By the way, this is an English-language French film.

When Oscar smokes some of his product early in the film, we get another kind of artsy sequence in some computer animated rendering of what he sees.  I wouldn't be qualified to attest to how accurate a representation this is (among other barriers, I'm not 100% sure what it was, but he often tried to score DMT in the film), but if any knowledgeable readers out there have seen this film and would care to post in the comments (heck, set up a dummy-account if you want to stay anonymous) I would be curious to hear how it compares to your experiences.  Anyway, much of the film is seen out of the main character's eyes (rather than an obvious [or steady] camera), so this scene in particular reminds me of much of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (which I once played a drinking game during, and very strongly caution you against trying), and the camera-motion style reminds me of Irreversible (which did not surprise me when I found out that Gaspar Noe wrote and directed both films).  One thing I didn't particularly like about the film was that much of the dialogue was pretty low/quiet and during the drug/disorientation sequences there was some voice in a low/echo-y tone that was almost impossible to make out.  That may have been the intention (not to know what was said), but I like to know what words are used when words are used.  I do like when some scenes flashed from "present tense" to a moment in the past as our first-person view character is reminded of that moment.  I thought it was clever and pretty seamlessly integrated.

After one point, the movie kind of changes gears to a reflection on Oscar's childhood and recent life, and here we get a broader picture of what's going on with him and some context for what we have seen so far.  We (the camera) also spends a lot of time drifting along the ceiling and across town observing different scenes and moving between them.  This is kind of disorienting but also kind of interesting as we're along for the ride (more so than with other films, in which I suppose this is also true).  There was some interesting juxtaposition of concepts by visual similarities between different scenes that have very different (in some respects) subject matter or emotional tones.  One such scene took me a moment to recognize what I was seeing, and when I did realize it, it was pretty disturbing (they make it clear shortly afterwards what it was, and while the reveal is also disturbing, it might be more merciful if you don't realize until that point).

If you like artier movies and/or enjoy recreational drug use, then I imagine you'll like this movie.  If you liked Irreversible, then you'll like this film.  If you're not a patient person, then this movie is not for you.  It was creative storytelling, so I liked it even though I can't really identify with any of the characters.   It's not something I think I'll watch a second time, and so with its value and caveats it scores 3 stars for me.  It's probably a "play silently in the background at a party" kind of movie (if you know the film and know your guests enough to know that they will appreciate and not hate the various images).

World's Greatest Dad (2009, R)

This stars Robin Williams (Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting) as a high school English teacher, aspiring author, and single father of a complete and utter douchebag son.  The son (among his numerous issues) is into auto-erotic asphyxiation, which means that he likes to choke himself (with a belt in this case) while he masturbates.  Now, I try not to be judgemental, but I don't like the kid to begin with, and he didn't take basic safety precautions (here's my public service announcement: if you're going to choke your neck while you choke your chicken, you should always do it with someone there to assist if you're in danger of actual death... kind of like a spotter for when you're lifting weights).  The son accidentally dies while doing this and the father makes it look like a suicide (rearranges the body, writes a note) to spare... well... everyone: the son, the father, and the community.  Then we get to see how this impacts the father, the school and the community/society.  It's actually pretty poignant, if difficult to watch.

The Long Goodbye (1973, R)

This is a film about the iconic private detective Phillip Marlow.  It's rated R, but a pretty soft one.  In most aspects I would peg it as more of a PG-13: some language but not very often, a couple scenes with violence but very little blood and very short in duration, but there were quite a few boobies (Marlowe's neighbors are hippie chicks and are one of the lighthearted humor aspects of the film).  Marlowe is played by Elliot Gould (MASH, Ocean's Eleven [and 12 and 13], American History X), who I still think of as the dad from The Big Hit.  Also, a young Arnold Schwarzenegger has a short appearance as mob muscle (you can identify him because he looks like he just ate two other wiseguys), and Henry Gibson (the head Chicago Neo-Nazi from The Blues Brothers) plays a doctor at a clinic.

This Is Not A Movie (2011, NR)

That's a lie!  It is a movie, but it is not rated.  Though it's a foreign film (Mexico), it takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada (US) and all of the dialogue is in English.  The title caught my attention, because is strikes a resonance withe the Rene Magritte painting, The Treachery Of Images, which shows an image of a tobacco pipe with the words below "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("this is not a pipe")... because it is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe.  Cool concept.  After watching the film, I'm not so sure that is the reference in the title.  Anyway, the story is about a man sitting in his Las Vegas hotel room waiting for the world to end (it's presumed in the story that the entire population of the planet knows that the end is coming and at what exact time, though there is very little contact with the world outside the hotel room) and talking to himself trying to figure out who he is.

Bruiser (2000, R)

The movie is strangely sort of a cross between Falling Down and Office Space.  It's directed by George Romero (Day Of The Dead) and the title of this film comes from the name of the fashion magazine that the main characters work for.  The main character works for Bruiser magazine and makes a good deal of money but still gets stepped on a lot.  One morning (after his status quo is established), he wakes up with a blank white mask where his face should be.  It's a flexible mask (likely latex for the filming), so it moves with his mouth/etc, but it's still eerie and the eyes are pinprick holes in stead of larger eye-shaped openings.  That messes with his head enough that he snaps and gets back at some of the people that have been taking advantage of him.

The Red Violin (1998, R)

This is a Canadian film originally entitled Le Violon Rouge.  This film begins with a brief scene as Samuel L. Jackson entering a Montreal auction house that is selling fine antique musical instruments.  After that, it moves to a series of vignettes around the several-century history of the famed (in the world of the film) Red Violin, separated by the auction house scene being retold from the point of view of different prospective buyers.  The framing sequence is in English and the other stories are spoken in (and subtitled from, when applicable) Italian, German, French, English and Mandarin depending on the setting of the stories.  This format could easily be boring, as I don't find the history of a musical instrument to be particularly entrancing, but each of the stories is quite different from the others and each is a quite good short story on its own.  They have character and they have heart.  It would take a sharper ear than mine to hear the differences between one violin and another when the same musician is playing the same musical piece, but the title instrument is said to be "the perfect acoustic machine", and some characters in the stories can tell this immediately.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975, R)

This film, based on a true story, is about a bank robbery gone FUBAR that turned into a hostage situation.  The whole film is from the point of view of the main robber, Sonny Wortzik, played by Al Pacino (The Devil's Advocate, Scent Of A Woman, Scarface).  The movie is not a comedy, but I definitely chuckled a few times early in the film as various things go wrong and various characters prove that they don't know what they're doing (Ocean's 11, they are not!).  Sonny is clearly a first-time bank robber, and when they arrive I wonder if the police on the scene are first-time cops.  The detective in charge is played by Charles Durning (Tootsie, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas).

Kissed (1996 , R)

This film is not for everyone, let me just say that from the start.  It's about a girl played by Molly Parker (from several tv series such as Deadwood, Shattered, Dexter) who has a fascination/obsession with death.  She doesn't wear black (ever, I think) and she doesn't write mopey poetry, but she has this... "reverence" is probably the best word for it... for the dead.  It's somehow less creepy than it should be (a little less creepy) because she seems to have a genuine love for the departed rather than a morbid curiosity.  The movie starts with her as a child as she caresses a dead bird she found and rubs it on her neck before "enshrouding" it in toilet paper and planting it in a grave in the woods behind her house.  And it goes on from there.  She grows up and the film follows her obsession through each phase of her life.  Ultimately with her taking night classes in college and working full time in a funeral parlor (her dream job) during the day.  The childhood scenes seem to take place in the early 1960's and the young adulthood scenes in the '70's.